You want a contrast between leaders?

While Obama & Co. are causing crap like this:
BOWMAN: Well, they felt comfortable. They had all the indicators that these guys were insurgents planting a bomb. So they thought about using a machine gun to shoot these guys. There was another combat outpost not too far away. The problem was there was a compound of houses between where the Marines were with their machine gun and the guys planting the bomb.

So then they decided to bring in the helicopters and use the machines guns and the helicopters to shoot these guys. As the helicopters came in, these guys look up in the air and start walking away. One of the guys was carrying a yellow jug - and that's become the icon of the roadside bomb. They mix fertilizer and diesel fuel in this, and that becomes a part of the bomb. And then we saw one of these guys throw this jug into a haystack.

Unidentified Man #2: And hiding the jug into the hay pile right now, and then are walking near the open field, so just wait until�

BOWMAN: And they were gone. It was all over. They could no longer shoot at them.

MONTAGNE: So why didn't they shoot at them?

BOWMAN: Well, they thought that they were still too close to this compound of houses to allow these helicopters to use their machine guns to shoot, so they decided against it.

MONTAGNE: So, in being very, very careful about shooting at what they absolutely believed to be insurgents, they ended up, in effect, losing these guys. How did that make them feel?

BOWMAN: Well, they weren't happy at all. And some of them stormed out of this command center. And we talked with one of them afterwards. This is Lieutenant James Wendy(ph).

Lieutenant JAMES WENDY (U.S. Marines): There's no way that anyone other than the enemy would've been injured.

BOWMAN: So, why weren't you allowed to shoot?

Lt. WENDY: Honestly, I don't know. I'd like to say I wish we could play by the big boy rules, you know, but, you know, it's just the way it is. And if I had known how frustrating it'd be and was able to better prepare myself for that mentally, I think that maybe I would've been better off.
with the guy in charge over there saying things like this
General STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL (U.S. Commander, Afghanistan): I've been at this a long time now, since 9/11, and there were a tremendous number of times when I've seen activities done, which, on the surface of what was seen, looks exactly one way, looks completely convincing. And then in the aftermath, what you saw was incomplete. In fact, what we find is civilian casualties who are unarmed civilians.

I think when we err on the side of maturity and caution, there is a cost. And I know that we're asking an extraordinary amount from them to operate with such restraint and self-discipline, but I think it's how we win the war.
Sounds very nice. Except for the troops who'll wind up bleeding, crippled and dead because of those rules letting the bad guys get away; they're the ones having that cost taken out of them, General. "Maturity", huh? I hope you actually think it's worth it; I doubt the casualties and their friends, officers and family do.


And, on the other side, we have this:

FRENCH JOURNALIST: ...Don't you think that by trying to eradicate terrorism in Chechnya you are going to eradicate the civilian population of Chechnya?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: If you want to become an Islamic fundamentalist and be circumcised, come to Moscow. We are multiconfessional. We have very good specialists. I can recommend one for the operation. He'll make sure nothing grows back.

So we have our troops handicapped on a level that's getting them killed and crippled, a President who's so busy being PC and progressive and lawyerly he doesn't even want to call a terrorist attack what it is, and on the other side you have someone who's brutal and wants to bring back the Soviet Union, but has the brains and nerve to know there's a war on. And wants to win it.
I don't agree with much of Putin's imperial attitude and policies but after watching this video, it is frightening to think how much he must dominate Obama in private negotiations. And what must Putin think about Americans reading Miranda rights to apprehended terrorists?

The Idaho gents pick for Quote of the Day

Why is it that when the gun prohibitionist lobby invites gun owners to sit down and negotiate, they never bring anything to the table other than expectations that gun owners will give up some of their rights?
In the full bit,
Fascitelli is the guy who proposed, back in April 2006 that gun owners come to the table and allow him to “put in writing the right of law-abiding citizens to own handguns and nonmilitary hunting rifles.” That translates to giving up their existing right to own semiautomatic sport-utility rifles, which are used by tens of thousands of Evergreen State residents for competitive target shooting, predator control and hunting, varmint hunting, recreational shooting and home defense.

Besides, gun owners know they have the right to own handguns and rifles, and it is constitutionally protected by Article 1, Section 24 of the state constitution. Of what possible use would it be to write that down again? Washington CeaseFire has no authority to negotiate civil rights.

Why is it that when the gun prohibitionist lobby invites gun owners to sit down and negotiate, they never bring anything to the table other than expectations that gun owners will give up some of their rights?
Because the GFW liberals believe THEY are the only ones who really care; therefore, you should be willing to unconditionally surrender to what they demand.

Which just reminds me of how much that 'Democrats CARE' bumper sticker pisses me off.

It's official: The Obama Administration is staffed by idiots

Demented, appeasement-minded fools who don't care about the lives of our troops. Or anyone else, it would seem, except themselves.
Back in the early summer, I wrote about how, even as the Iranian regime continued killing American troops, the Obama administration had engaged in shameful negotiations with an Iran-backed terror network (the League of the Righteous) in Iraq — negotiations that resulted in the release of Laith Qazali, one of the terrorists responsible for the murders of five American soldiers in Karbala, in exchange for the remains of two British hostages.
Remember that? I do.
Shortly thereafter, the Obama administration released the "Irbil Five," commanders from the Iranian IRGC's elite "Quds Force" who had been captured by our military after coordinating terrorist attacks in Iraq that have killed hundreds of American soldiers and Marines.
I remember that crap, too; got to be nice with the mullahs who murder our troops and murder their own people who dare speak up.
...the administration has now released Qais Qazali, Laith's brother, who is the head of the Iran-backed terror network, in addition to a hundred other terrorists. In violation of the long-standing, commonsense policy against capitulating to kidnappers and terrorists because it just encourages more hostage-taking and murder, the terrorists were released in exchange for a British hostage and the remains of his three contract guards (whom the terrorists had murdered).

Want to make this shit even better?
On December 26, two days after Nigerian Omar Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to use underwear packed with plastic explosives to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight he was on, and as it became clear internally that the Administration had suffered perhaps its most embarrassing failure in the area of national security, senior Obama White House aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new White House counsel Robert Bauer, ordered staff to begin researching similar breakdowns -- if any -- from the Bush Administration.

"The idea was that we'd show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could," says a staffer in the counsel's office. "We were told that classified material involving anything related to al Qaeda operating in Yemen or Nigeria was fair game and that we'd declassify it if necessary."
Got that? These bastards will declassify materials if they think it'll make Obama & Co. screwing up look less bad. Great priorities, what?
"This White House doesn't view the Northwest [Airlines] failure as one of national security, it's a political issue," says the White House source. "That's why Axelrod and Emanuel are driving the issue."
Just effing wonderful. These bastards care solely about how this might hurt their image, and screw what damage they have to do to security to try to excuse their actions and inactions.

I'd say something about 'hurting their honor', but they've made it plain they don't have any.

The sun's shining, the birds have emptied the feeder, and Houston PD says

nothing to worry about:
A woman called police on Monday and said a man was forcing his way into her apartment in the 5300 block of Elm Street.

When officers went inside, they found something that made them concerned enough to call the bomb squad.

They found an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. It can shoot a missile nearly 1,000 feet through buildings and tanks.
...
According to court documents, officers also found Jihadist writings that allegedly belonged to Yansane. The woman didn't want to talk to KPRC Local 2 about that, either.
Very likely it was an expended launcher; even then, in connection with 'jihadist writings' it's not a nice thing to find. Although you do then run into "What do they mean by 'jihadist'?"

Sir Robert's Principles just don't seem to get around enough

to the people wearing badges. In particular #7. Here's the offending passage:
One local police chief went against the grain of his fellow panel members and said

"you have to remember that this is a law enforcement matter and it is for the Police to respond to. I know you all want to carry a gun, but let me say this as a Chief of Police I don't even let my wife carry pepper spray nor do my teenage children. Any so called self-defense weapon can be taken from you and used against you and they simply aren't worth the risk."

It was an arrogant and disgusting statement.

In more than one way, and it's in direct violation of #7:
7) Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

The post at Straight pointed to by James

I haven't been around any Episcopal churches,

but I have been around a Unitarian church here, and the number of notices on the boards about 'social justice' this and 'economic justice' that has made it certain that it's not a place I could enjoy being for services(if they're allowed to call them that*).
I was pleased to find an Episcopal church whose website focused on religion, not ObamaCare. I left a message for the priest that I was looking for a church that didn't press a political agenda because I wasn't a liberal.

I received an icy reply from the priest, the Reverend Lucy, who said with barely-contained disgust, "I don't think you should check us out."

Her response left me shaken and angry. I understand that leftists despise conservatives. I have seen that creepy look of pure hatred when I naïvely told a leftist friend about my political conversion.

But an Episcopal priest rejecting me during the holiest time of year? Isn't anything or anyone sacred?
Not to these people. They're like the priests and nuns in Central & South America preaching that there has to be a communist(they prefer to say 'socialist') revolution before Christ can return, so-called liberation theology: if you don't fall into line with the preferred concept, you're an Enemy of the People and deserve to be treated as such.


*The folk dance group I've mentioned meets there; once said something about God and received a lecture from one of the church(?) members about how I shouldn't say that because "Some people don't believe in God." "I can't say 'God' in a church?" "No." Pause. "How 'bout 'goddess' or 'deity'?" "That's ok."

I need one of the nice, rainbow Celebrate Diversity! shirts, if I can find the link. Though there's always solid colors, and this one's nice too. Any of those ought to make some heads explode.

So if getting money from Big Oil means your research is biased and crap,

then the CRU & Co. research is just a big steaming pile:

... The CRU was founded in 1971 with funding from sources including Shell and British Petroleum. At that time the supposed menace to the planet and to mankind was global cooling, a source of interest to oil companies for obvious reasons.

Coolers transmuted into warmers in the early 80s and the CRU became one of the climate modeling grant mills supplying the tainted data from which the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC ) has concocted its reports which have been since their inception – particularly the executive summaries -- carefully contrived political initiatives disguised as objective science. Soon persuaded of the potential of AGW theories for their bottom line, the energy giants effortlessly recalibrated their stance, and as of 2008 the CRU included among its financial supporters Shell and BP, also the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and UK Nirex Ltd, a company in the nuclear waste business.

You will also note that James Hansen, one of the cheer leaders for global warming, was at one time funded by Enron.
No, I'm not sending this to that friend; she'd either blow a gasket, or throw back some kind of "But their funding is GOOD funding!" crap.

Eeeeasaaargh...

which is about how I sound right now, having woke up with a throat that feels like I'd been gargling gravel.

Dammit, I'd been planning on listening to Boru's Ghost at the New Year's stuff downtown, and then hitting one place or the other to see the Aalim dancers after that.

Anybody know if Ibrahim is a Finnish name?

Keith sent me this story:
Finnish police said they have found a body that they believe to be that of 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli, the man suspected to have killed five people in the city of Espoo today.

Shkupolli apparently shot dead his ex-wife in an apartment before heading to the Sello shopping mall in Espoo dressed all in black.
Yes, it's easy to jump to conclusions; it just makes me wonder.

And, of course, Politicians, social workers and religious leaders have all urged tighter gun laws, more vigilance of internet sites, and more social bonding in a country known for its high suicide rates, heavy drinking and domestic violence.
According to this list from WHO, Finland is 15th on the list; way below a bunch of countries with near- or actual bans on ownership of arms(hey, we're #43! I thought all those nasty guns meant it was worse here...) I know there's a WHO list of violent crime rates, but can't find it right now for some reason; did find this on homicide, and it looks like both the US and Finland have a LOT of countries above us on the list. And I think- it's been pointed to before- these figures are skewed by how things are reported: for instance, in the US if you shoot someone in self-defense(or whack them with a bat or whatever) and they die, that's counted in the 'homicide' numbers(Justifiable Homicide as I recall).

Not that any of that matters to the 'politicians, social workers and religious leaders' who want everyone except minions of the government disarmed.

The same thing holds true with firearms, but-

just like at airports- it's so much nicer and more sensitive to blame objects rather than people. And you get to screw everyone around instead of actually looking for bad guys:
Of course the Israelis check for bombs and weapons too, but always with the understanding that things don't hijack planes, terrorists do -- and that the best way to detect terrorists is to focus on intercepting not bad things, but bad people. To a much greater degree than in the United States, security at El Al and Ben Gurion depends on intelligence and intuition -- what Rafi Ron, the former director of security at Ben Gurion, calls the human factor.
Bold mine.

We KNOW what works and what doesn't in airline security, but we're largely doing Security Theater instead of what works; we've got people who get annoyed and dare to speak being threatened and sometimes arrested on bullcrap charges instead of screening as we should. Kind of like Nanny Bloomberg and Mayors Against All Guns trying to ban guns instead of actually worrying about the people who are the threat; it's so much more politically correct.
Illustration thanks to BH

One of the wonders of the 'Law Enforcement Model of Dealing With Terrorism'

Abdulmutallab remains in a Detroit area prison and, after initial debriefings by the FBI, has restricted his cooperation since securing a defense attorney, according to federal officials. Authorities are holding out hope that he will change his mind and cooperate with the probe, the officials said.
Snort. Heh.. HAHAHAHAHAHA, they're HOPING he'll 'cooperate'!

Somebody done overdosed on that there Hopey-Changey.

And I wonder how many people might wind up dead because of this idiocy?

TSA=Theater, Security Activities

What else would you call this?

Yes, there is a way you could say this is actually 'security related'; but it also has the whiff of "Screw around with anyone who we think makes us look bad."

Finally found something I'd been searching for from Jeff Cooper

This story had stuck in my mind, and I just located it among Cooper's Commentaries; the particular post is here, it's on the subject of 'safety' rules that don't make much sense:
"I met our main body yesterday. They all arrived from the aerial port of delivery (APOD) in (of course) Condition Three. The first thing our unit S-4 (a VMI graduate no less) asked me, `Sir, where is the armory? These Marines have loaded weapons, and we need to turn them in before they have a negligent discharge.'

"I looked at him indignantly and replied, `I'm sorry, Major. I've obviously been misinformed. I thought you were a man of honor, integrity, a fearless warrior, ready and eager to defend our country. I see instead that you are pitiable and afraid of our own guns! No. The Marines will keep their weapons in Condition Three.' Not a word was said in reply, but they all slept with their weapons last night, and there were no NDs. Imagine that!

"Anyway, I wish officers who were afraid of Marines carrying loaded weapons would find another line of work, preferably in the UK. I, for one, wear my (Condition One) pistol constantly. After only one day of being screwed with, my Captains all do likewise. We're slowly spreading the sunshine here!"

In case somebody misunderstands, firearms safety is a very important subject, but it's well-covered by the Four Rules; that there are brass hats out there who don't trust their own troops to keep their arms handy in a friggin' combat zone...

Also from Watts Up,

Yeesh; glad I've got blankets:
Cold event setups in atmospheric circulation patterns are aligning. Two days ago I brought to your attention that there was a strong downspike in the Arctic Oscillation Index and that the North Atlantic Oscillation Index was also negative. See The Arctic Oscillation Index goes strongly negative

Yesterday, Senior AccuWeather meteorologist Joe Bastardi let loose with this stunning prediction on the AccuWeather premium web site via Brett Anderson’s Global warming blog:

What is facing the major population centers of the northern hemisphere is unlike anything that we have seen since the global warming debate got to the absurd level it is now, which essentially has been there is no doubt about all this. For cold of a variety not seen in over 25 years in a large scale is about to engulf the major energy consuming areas of the northern Hemisphere. The first 15 days of the opening of the New Year will be the coldest, population weighted, north of 30 north world wide in over 25 years in my opinion.

Damn. Somebody take Al Gore out and shoot him or lock him up or something; this could be nasty.


Second,
From The Independent on 20 March 2000 we got the headline: “Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past”. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
'Rare and exciting', yeah

This is interesting

How can a glacier be a source of the organic carbon? His curiosity peeked [sic], in spring 2009, Hood’s Ph.D. student, Jason Fellman, collected samples from 11 watersheds along the Gulf of Alaska from Juneau to the Kenai Peninsula. The samples were analyzed to determine the age, source, and biodegradability of organic matter derived from glacier inputs.

“We found that the more glacier there is in the watershed, the more carbon is bioavailable. And the higher the percentage of glacier coverage, the older the organic material is – up to 4,000 years old,” said Scott.

Hood and Scott hypothesize that forests that lived along the Gulf of Alaska between 2,500 to 7,000 years ago were covered by glaciers, and this organic matter is now coming out. “The organic matter in heavily glaciated watersheds is labile, like sugar. Microorganisms appear to be metabolizing ancient carbon and as the microorganisms die and decompose, biodegradable dissolved organic carbon is being flushed out with the glacier melt,” said Scott.

How much? “Our findings suggest that runoff from glaciers may be a quantitatively important source of bioavailable organic carbon for coastal ecosystems in the Gulf of Alaska and, as a result, future changes in glacier extent may impact the food webs in this region that support some of the most productive fisheries in the United States,” said Hood.
Bold mine. Now, it would seem that it had to have been warmer at some point for those forests to have grown, then it cooled and the glaciers came down, and now some glaciers are melting; why, it almost sounds like some kind of natural cycle!

Hey, cold sufferers, get ready for some more Hopey-Changey!

The reason: You’re too stupid to figure out how to use Nyquil and other cold and flu relief products.

The drugs that could be pulled off shelves are combination medications, such as Procter & Gamble’s NyQuil or Novartis’ Theraflu, which mix acetaminophen with other ingredients that treat cough and runny nose.

The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, though it usually does. The panel vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Here’s the real reason for the potential Nyquil ban.

Manufacturers could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in sales if combination drugs are pulled from the market. Total sales of all acetaminophen drugs reached $2.6 billion last year, with 80 percent of the market comprised of over-the-counter products.

I tend to think he's right about 'why':
It’s all about crippling the drug companies so that their only source of revenue is from the eventual government-run health care system. When the bulk of your income comes from one source, it’s pretty hard to publicly oppose that source. With over-the-counter remedies removed, drug companies will become more reliant on income from prescription drugs. And the biggest customer for prescription drugs will be the US Government, paying off the tabs of the patients in the government-run option.

Pointed out by Rodger

Over in Iran, a couple of things

in this report: first, note this:
* Hospitals throughout Iran filled with wounded. There are also reports by hospital staff and specifically the Imam Khomeini hospital in Tehran that corpses are being removed by order of the public prosecutor’s office. Staff have been threatened that any report of such incidents would lead be met with severity.
Fairly standard with these people, they've done it before to hide the number of casualties.

Now, down in the 'official' casualties list, note these two:

1. Name unknown, 31 (the regimes security forces claimed that this individual was killed due to knife wounds from plain clothes agents and his name is as of yet unknown!)
2. Unknown woman, 43 (this woman was tossed over a bridge by plain clothes agents of the regime)

Nice people working for the Iranian regime, aren't they?
You know, if things do flat blow, there's going to be a LOT of payback going on.


Found this, too:
Iranian regime-run news agency Fars reports: Gholam-Hossein Elham, official spokesman of the Iranian government announced that during the period of privatization, the Basij militia should do everything to take over factories and the industry sector in Iran. ...at a time like this, we must prevent our capital and trade from falling into the hands of monopolists and financial captains.
Well, 'privatization' by government thugs to keep actual business people from running businesses; no wonder Obama is soft on these clowns, he likes some of their ideas.

Speaking of Obama...

Would somebody please tell these 'officials'

(preferably with a boot in the ass, maybe a club to the head) that it's a bad idea to tell the bad guys what you're doing?

Question: are these morons flapping their lips to show how 'in the circle' they are, because they want to warn the bad guys, or because they're just friggin' stupid?

I hadn't really noticed that AG Holder hadn't been making statements;

but it does seem odd. And maybe this IS why:
There is an additional and intriguing angle involving Yemen, creating a confluence between, that country, Ft. Hood and the Obama administration, in that U.S. AG Holder's former law firm, Covington & Burling, represented a number of Yemeni detainees who are/were being held in GITMO.

It was meddling by committed lefty attorneys which made military prosecution of the GITMO detainees so difficult. Relentless pressure applied by these advocates is what ultimately led to the Hamden decision [Hamden vs. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557, 2006] in which the military tribunal system established by the Bush administration - relying upon long historical precedent - was overturned on a 5-3 Supreme Court decision, which for the first time in American history applied principles codified in the Geneva Accords to terrorists to which Geneva was long understood not to apply.

Added: take note of this:
Al Nashiri [born in Saudi Arabia] is part of a group of 15 Yemeni GITMO detainees who are represented by David Remes a member - until he was either booted or saw the handwriting on the wall and "resigned" on July 18, 2008 - of Attorney General Eric Holder's law firm, Covington & Burling,

"Remes, who represents 15 Yemeni detainees, announced his resignation on July 18, saying that he plans to devote himself exclusively to human rights litigation...My departure is the inevitable outcome of my human rights work at the firm in the past four years, which became a consuming passion," Remes said in a statement."
and combine it with this I just saw at Sondra's place:
David Remes, an attorney who represents Guantanamo detainees, said he fears concerns about the terror threat will block the repatration of any inmates to Yemen, including those already cleared for release.

“In theory, what’s going on in Yemen should have nothing to do with whether these men are transferred,” he said. “The politics of the situation may turn out to be prohibitive, at least in the short run, and that would be a tragedy.”
Wonder of Holder is still communicating with this clown? Be interesting to find out.

Well, we find John Yoo knows where he is

I see various groups are protesting a decision by a California government lawyer to teach a course with you that starts on Jan. 12, claiming he is legitimizing your unethical behavior.
At Berkeley, protesting is an everyday activity. I am used to it. I remind myself of West Berlin — West Berlin surrounded by East Germany during the Cold War.

Are you saying the citizens of Berkeley are Communists, reminiscent of those on the dark side of the Iron Curtain?
There are probably more Communists in Berkeley than any other town in America, but I think of them more as lovers of Birkenstocks than Marx.

I think he's downplaying the number of actual Marx Believers, but otherwise...

Pointed to by Volokh

And San Francisco progressives find out that 'fighting global warmering'

has costs. Isn't that amazing?

Never been there, have talked to a lot of people who've traveled through and lived there, and the cost of living in SF is bloody unbelievable. Few years back a lady(ballet dancer) who occasionally came to folk dance was offered a place in a company in SF. Couple of months later I asked about her and the lady she'd corresponded with said "Oh, she loves it! She and her parents flew out and finally found her an efficiency apartment to stay in, but it's kind of expensive." "How expensive?" "$1400 a month, and they were lucky to find it." "!!!>!!?!" That's about three times more per month- for a tiny little efficiency- than I'm paying for my house here in OK. From what I've read SF discouraged new buildings- apartments and such- and the consequence of that is very high costs and people living outside the city and having to commute. Now, due to playing "We must Stop Globular Warmering even if it's not real!", Californicated- and cities like SF in particular- are going to, if anything, make the problem worse. Nice going, morons.

If every school started stomping on this 'acting white' bullcrap

the students- ALL of them- would be a lot better off.

Tam takes note of a "You don't need spare ammo"

Only One; let's say she's not impressed.

You know why I carry a spare mag? Because I'm scared to death that if a situation goes completely to hell and I don't have a spare, I'll either get a jam and not have the fastest way to clear it or turn out to need a few rounds more and not have them.

About five months ago I watched a lady try out a Springfield 1911 in 9mm she'd borrowed from the rangemaster; pistol and mag both almost new. She loaded it, fired once and then stood there looking at the live round stovepiped in the ejection port. Cleared it(new shooter, did it slowly and carefully with her trainer), tried again, and when the slide cycled the next round in the mag shot up vertically and left her with an empty chamber; once it shot the first round up after the empty and the second stovepiped. The RM swore he'd shot the thing a few days before with no problems, but that mag was well and truly screwed now.

Lawdog writes on the subject here, including
One of the more disappointing, yet amusing, experiences in my little life was slapping a USA Inc magazine into a Smith and Wesson 5900-series and getting this gorgeous brass fountain out through the ejection port before I could hit the slide release.

*sigh*
And if that'd happened in a serious situation...

A spare magazine. Always. If you carry a revolver, a speedloader or speed strip or something.

Things are heating up more in (fG)Britain

We didn't start it. They started it. And as I have no reason to believe our governments or security services have learned a damned thing, it looks all too likely to get ugly.

The gathering is remarkable, as on a match day these men would be fighting each other. But it is politics that has drawn them together. They are headed for Manchester to support a march by the burgeoning English Defence League.

The police are here in force, too. 'Take that mask off,' barks a sergeant to one young man. He does so immediately but protests: 'Why are they allowed to wear burkas in public but we're not allowed to cover our faces?'

'Just do what you're told,' the policeman snaps back.

'It's always the same these days. One rule for them and another for us. I'm sick of this country,' a man standing next to me says in a West Country accent.

From the sound of this, you've got a bunch of people who've decided that since they're going to be called- and treated as- racists no matter what they do or say, they're doing to meet with/work with/talk to various groups they wouldn't have in the past.

Ghost of a Flea's post here.

Couple of things about the Daily Mail article:
In the headline it has This is England: Masked like terrorists, members of Britain's newest and fastest -growing protest group intimidate a Muslim woman on a train en route to a violent demo, with a picture of a woman in hijab below, part of the caption ...while a woman dressed in a black hijab appears intimidated. Then, in the article,
'We had joy, we had fun, we had Muslims on the run,' he starts up. Nobody joins in and a couple of his mates tell him to 'shut up' as they point to a woman dressed in a black hijab sitting at a table.

A man standing close to her is masked and holds a placard. It has a picture of a Muslim woman crying with red blood streaming down her face. 'Sharia law oppresses women!' the slogan reads.
Sounds like a mix of people, some of whom- probably a good many- believe what this EDL leader said:
'For more than a decade now there's been tension in Luton between Muslim youths and whites. We all get on fine - black, white, Indian, Chinese... Everyone does, in fact, apart from these Muslim youths who've become extremely radicalised since the first Gulf War. This is because preachers of hate live in Luton and have been recruiting for radical Islamist groups for years. Our Government does nothing about them so we decided that we'd start protesting.'

It's liable to get real interesting over there. What happens when there's some terrorist attack or open threat to kill people and the government throws some words around and does nothing? And then threatens anyone who speaks out? And people start saying "Screw you! You don't like it, come and get us!"?

So this is progressive thought...

RNS pointed to(Uncle who pointed to) this piece of absolute, steaming, disgusting bullshit. RNS has a very fine take on it which you should read: I'll just quote the way this effing dirtbag ended his article:
But as a progressive, I would sooner lay my child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime.
Doug van Gorder, you are a fucking disgrace to the human race.


Added: I had to come back to this. I mean, it's so bloody damned disgusting. That this vile being would rather see his own kid dead than use a firearm to protect him? That he'd rather see more kids dead in a school attack than see someone who's faster thinking or running get clear?

There are just no damned words.

This does seem to sum up the Napolitano mindset

rather well:
From the same Fox report above, what her Sunday statement actually reveals is her attitude toward Homeland Security. To Napolitano, it’s the bureaucratic shuffling that takes place after an incident that matters most. Unfortunately, that jibes with the policing, or criminal law, approach also advocated by Obama. Fighting terrorism is not a proactive military quest with this group, it is a reactive policing affair. What that doesn’t do is put America’s security first in our global battle with radical religious terrorists who seek to do America and Americans great harm and cause a large number of our deaths:

I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have. … We trained for this. We planned for this.

That someone who thinks this way is in charge at DHS is disgusting. And scary. I'm considering 'terrifying', too.

Well, if UC-San Diego has so much free cash they can do

this, then obviously there's some money to be saved by cutting their budget; I mean, if this money was needed for actual school costs that's how they'd spend it, right?

Yeah, 'Media in bed with Administration' is a good way

to put this.
You just never know which story will peak your interest or where the story will lead. Such is the case when I saw this simple wedding announcement between Peter Orszag, the president's budget director, and ABC financial reporter, Bianna Golodryga. So of course I wanted to find out a little bit about the couple. What I was most interested in was the angle that we finally had some proof of the administration literally being in bed with the media.
I'd suggest reading it; some insight into someone working for Obama, and the reporter he married.

It's getting really nasty in Iran,

worse than before:
The evil Khamenei regime thugs are running over freedom protesters in trucks.

Then Insty pointed to this:
Security forces reportedly opened fire against demonstrators and even killed the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi – and they did it during Ashura. There are few things “supreme guide” Ali Khamenei could have done to enrage religious conservatives and harden them against his regime more than this. As one demonstrator put it, “killing Muslims on Ashura is like crucifying Christians on Christmas.”

“The clock began to tick for Ayatollah Khamenei’s fall from today,” said one of Iran’s few former female members of parliament Fatemeh Haghighatjou. “Killing people on Ashura shows how far Mr. Khamenei is willing to go to suppress the protests. People are comparing him more with Yazid because they consider him responsible for the order to use violence against people.”

A while back there was the letter from the Iranian Army to the government basically saying "There are limits"; now this. In comments at Gateway is this: The regime is going to make the Iranian people so mad, they will resort to the bomb of choice in the Middle East….the ‘IED’. And it wouldn't surprise me.

Vote Fraud:

it's the Democrat way.

Also from the trailer guy,

Brady Bunch Logic:
This truly shows their desparation and just how low they'll stoop.

1. The immunity law still allows lawsuits for defective firearms, as it should.
2. The Brady Center is now forced into taking the ridiculous position that a loaded gun that fires when the safety is off and the trigger is pulled is defective.
3. This implies that a loaded gun which does not fire with the safety off and the trigger pulled is functioning properly.

So much for common sense.

And let due note be taken of what Governor Arnold helped bring about

From the Brady Bunch:

AB 962 was the Brady Campaign’s top priority bill in this year’s legislature.

"Reasonable, Common-sense" gun laws in action.

From Cheaper Than Dirt:

As of January, 2011 we will no longer sell or ship ammunition to residents of California.

Does anything else need to be said?

Sebastian dug up more on the crap Nanny Bloomberg wants

to shove down our throats, including

• Require REAL ID compliant identification for all gun purchasers. Those in non-complying states, which are many, will no longer be permitted to buy firearms.
• Recommends a ban on the importation of all “non-sporting” firearms and ammunition, and specifically calls for banning the FN Five-Seven. Kiss cheap imported rounds of military caliber goodbye. Maybe kiss Glock’s goodbye too. MAIG isn’t all that specific on what would be sporting or non sporting. Also note that MAIG can no longer claim they do not advocate banning guns. They do.
• Calls for keeping records for people who get a NICS default proceed, which means your background check has not “cleared” but you went through the required three day waiting period. These records can be kept for up to 20 years, in the case of someone who’s name matches someone on the “terror watch” list and six months ordinarily. Default proceeds can happen if NICS has incomplete records, or the system is down for a protracted period of time.
• Calls for more enforcement of gun shows using the Richmond model. The techniques used at the Richmond gun shows were bad enough that Congress held hearings about the methods, and demanding ATF put a stop to them. They actually recommend rescinding a number of the changes made to prevent these abuses.
• Recommends ways for the administration to exploit loopholes in Tiahrt to publish information on “problematic” gun dealers (so they can be sued by New York City, no doubt). As we’ve pointed out on this blog before, having a lot of traces doesn’t necessarily mean a dealer is breaking the law.

They know they can't get this crap through the House and Senate, so they want to play 'procedure' games. As Sebastian says,
It this document doesn’t convince you that MAIG is a significantly more serious threat than any other gun control organization out there, nothing will. Whoever wrote this knows ATF very well, and understands federal gun laws well enough to know how to effectively make changes using only administrative and regulatory changes, which do not require action from the US Congress. While some of the 40 recommendations are not objectionable, quite a number of them are.
Which means the Feds have to know that if they start playing these games, lots and lots of Reps and Senators are going to get phone calls and e-mails and visits yelling about it. And will come down on said Feds("If the FBI/ATF has so much free time on their hands, has all actual crime so under control that they have time and money for this, the obviously we need to review how much money they're getting" would be guaranteed to get their attention).

If you hadn't heard of the Richmond bullcrap before, I'm going to borrow this:

• Went to people’s addresses and asked questions of neighbors, family members, about gun purchases, and asking them what they were doing at the gun show.
• Stopped several people with no probable cause, in some cases seized their weapons, and handed them a form indicating they were suspected of committing federal crimes. BATF claimed the letter was meaningless, but only a fool wouldn’t hire a lawyer after getting a letter like that.
• Unlawfully pulled 4473s from dealers without a connection to a specific criminal investigation.
• Detained several people for questioning who were legitimately selling firearms privately.

Took the 15-22 to the range,

and it seems to be functioning properly. Only problems I had were all with some Federal bulk-pack hollowpoints. Partly a few of them not feeding from the mag properly(maybe ammo, maybe mag) and the rest...

Has anyone else noticed how damned variable the things have been lately? All out of one box, in each magazine you'd get some that seemed to have barely enough oomph to fully cycle the bolt, and others that cracked like they were charged a touch on the heavy side. Not real good for either smooth function or accuracy.

By the way, when I sent it back for repair I'd removed the scope and put the original sights back on. After having been removed for a while, then replaced, they were still dead-on when put back on; so was the scope when I took the irons off and replaced it. That's the way it should be.

Hmmm, let's start this morning with Google Being Evil

In the ongoing fight over proposed rules that would institute net neutrality, a major proponent of the policy is taking fresh heat from critics. Google, arguably the world’s biggest name in tech, a major source of campaign donations to President Barack Obama, and one of the most prominent advocates of an “open internet,” is taking heat for alleged hypocrisy and rent seeking.
Well, Google cooperated with the PRC to find bloggers who weren't properly knocking head to the government, and other such things; why should this be a surprise?


The NYEffin' Times: screwing up its own situation. Again.


Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.
Yeah, got to make the Saudis and the leftists happy. Even when it means people are going to die because of it.


Remember the 'shock' of the journalist discovering 'the frightening side of Obama'? This from Thomas Sowell on the 'health care' bill and arrogance:
In short, this is not about improving the health of the American people. It is about passing something-- anything-- to keep the Obama administration from ending up with egg on its face by being unable to pass a bill, after so much hype and hoopla. Politically, looking impotent is a formula for disaster at election time. Far better to pass even bad legislation that will not actually go into effect until after the 2012 presidential election, so that the public will not know whether it makes medical care better or worse until it is too late for the voters to hold the administration accountable.
...
The only rational explanation for such haste to pass a bill that will be slow to go into effect is to prevent the public from knowing what is in this massive legislation that even members of Congress are unlikely to have read. That is also the only reason that makes sense for postponing the time when Obamacare goes into action after the next presidential election.
...
Legislation is not the only sign of this administration's contempt for the intelligence of the public and for the safeguards of democratic government.

The appointment of White House "czars" to make policy across a wide spectrum of issues-- unknown people who get around the Constitution's requirement of Senate confirmation for Cabinet members-- is yet another sign of the mindset that sees the fundamental laws and values of this country as just something to get around, in order to impose the will of an arrogant elite.


Well, if I were a mother I wouldn't want a 'father' like Levi Johnston near the kid if I could avoid it, either. Same as if I were the father of a baby and the mother was doing the kind of crap Johnston has, after leaving the kid in my hands(has he ever actually gone to visit and spend time with the kid?), I'd want sole custody.


I really have to wonder what's behind the 'pay ransom, no matter how much, rather than put defenders on the ships' crap. Are the people in charge under pressure from governments not to defend, are they just so EUnuch-ified they can't conceive of doing so, or what? These ships are in the same situation as someone living in a less-than-nice neighborhood: it doesn't matter how professional and conscientious the cops are, they can't be right there when the bad guys come through a window or kick in the door; and barring luck the various navies can't be right there when the pirates attack. And, like the old saying puts it, when you pay the Danegeld you never get rid of the Dane, so when you keep paying ransom... Hell, one attack I read of was stopped by some security people with pistols, so a company with some trained people with sidearms and rifles, or maybe a M240...


There are some cases where I'll give someone a pass for misspeaking on something; Napolitano has long since passed being given any slack. How the HELL did she think saying "The System Worked" was going to pass after such a blatant failure? And why does it take Dear Leader DAYS after an attack to actually say or do anything himself?

Snort. When the news is bad and lives are on the line, I want my government to give it to me straight. Instead I've got a head of DHS who's impersonating Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House.
Well, I guess when she's busy on the next report that probably says returning veterans and 2nd Amendment activists and such are the REAL threats...


Sen. Dodd(Corrupticrat-CT): "I'll pay you back, no matter where the money has to come from."


Nanny Bloomberg & Co.: Trying to screw you out of your rights without going through that messy legislative process. Big surprise, huh?


Blah. I need to get some bread & such before the next round of snow- which should be much lighter- comes in.

Ah, the holidays

Spent the weekend with the folks- which would have happened Thursday except for the damned blizzard- so nothing the last couple of days.

So now I'm home, and I need to catch up with a bunch of stuff. And put stuff away; ever noticed that a mom will figure that you'll starve if she doesn't send some stuff back with you?

There will be an atttempt at returning to my normal bitching and whiningblogging tomorrow.

Have you noticed how many of the 'Vets Against The War'

people not only weren't in combat positions(the ones who actually were in the military), but seem to think that the best way to do something is to crap on the troops they're supposedly concerned for?

An awful lot of their "It's TERRIBLE!" stuff is based on the troops being
Stupid
Aggressive toward each other
Undisciplined
And otherwise- well, following the lefty attitude that "They're people who were too stupid to get a real job."

Great way to show your 'concern', isn't it?

Ah yes, the Congress that really cares about the troops

Now that the Defense Finance and Accounting Services have paid out to 1700 service members who were stop/lossed the $500/month they were owed, the Army and Air Force tell us that the rules were changed by Congress so that many soldiers and airmen are no longer eligible for the payments. From the Stars & Stripes;

The bill makes clear that troops who re-enlisted or extended their contract and collected a bonus while being held under stop-loss do not qualify for the compensation.

The temporary halt will last until the Army gets a list of soldiers who received a re-enlistment or retention bonus while being stop-lossed, said Army spokeswoman Jill Mueller.

“The services didn’t decide this,” Mueller said on Wednesday. “This was decided by the legislature and we are executing their will.”

Al Franken, the Stolen Election Senator from MN,

is a miserable little bully, isn't he?

Franken, you're a corrupt little thug. And claiming the job title 'Senator' doesn't change what you are.

Something we damn well need to remember

A Christmas Poem for All Americans

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree, I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!"
"Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light,
Then he sighed and he said, "It's really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam,
And now it's my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile."

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white and blue. . . an American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home,
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother
who stand at the front against any and all,
to ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.
So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son"
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone.
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled
is payment enough, and with that we will trust.
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Michael Marks
December 7, 2000

It's been around a while; I borrowed this from Kevin. Read carefully that last bit; a lot of us can't be at the pointy end, we have to work here. So when these people come home, when their kids grow up, we don't have to say "I couldn't be bothered" when they ask "How the HELL did this crap happen?"

Some more on the attempt to down the aircraft

yesterday; go to Riehl World and scroll down, bunch of links.

I'll argue one thing: I've been seeing some 'attempted terrorist attack' wording, and that's flat wrong; it WAS a terrorist attack, happily an unsuccessful one as far as downing the plane.

Well, during the primaries and election a lot of people pointed out

that Obama is a thin-skinned egotist who demands to have his way. And sat at the feet of and is advised by terrorists and racists and America-haters. And more people are finally realizing that he really is.

How's that Hopey-Changey working out for you guys?

Can you hear us NOW?

Security Theater At Work

A man suspected of planning to blow up a Delta Air Lines flight in Detroit could face charges as soon as Saturday according to an official familiar with the case.

The suspect is a Nigerian national who claims to have ties to al-Qaida.
is followed later in the story by
The man was apparently already on the government's no-fly list of suspected terrorists, ABC News said a senior intelligence official told them.

So AG Holder wants to make anyone placed on the list unable to buy firearms- despite all the holes and bullcrap of putting someone on it- but they can't keep someone on the- or 'a' according to this story- list off a damned airplane. Which he then tries to blow up.

Maybe they believed the corrupt backstabber Murtha was right?

Apparently the Shining Beneficence of Obama isn't calming the troubled terrorists after all.

I will note that on this Christmas day

I have
Cleared a double-wide driveway of global warming residue,
Helped get three cars unstuck(and if I see one of them again I may shoot him),
Cleared part of another driveway,
Changed a flat tire,
And discovered that my battery is almost shot; so tomorrow-after all's open- I have to put in a new one.

And got a short call from the son, in northern Iraq. Where's it's 50-something and dry, the bastard.

I now ache in most of the joints of my body.

Dinner. Booze. Rest.

Merry Christmas.

There will be a short break from our normal Christmas cheer

You! Bitch in the dark blue minivan on NW 36th! Yes, YOU! If you're so damn scared of ice that you can't drive through freakin' SLUSH at more than 5mph, GET THE EFFING PHONE OUT OF YOUR EAR AND USE BOTH HANDS.

And to the two morons driving Toyotas in front of me: stay off your damned brakes when you START UP A SLOPE!

And to the fucktard in the old Mercury who decided he just had to pass three cars. On an uphill. And upon seeing the oncoming car just kept shoving ahead, fishtailing all over: when you wind up in the morgue, I just hope you don't take someone else with you, you Darwin-Award-Waiting-To-Happen.

We now return to your normally-scheduled goodwill toward men.

I know it's really not the day, but this crap ticks me off

too much to pass over. Remember the "Executives should not get big pay or bonuses" crap from The Obama & Co.?
The top U.S. housing regulator said on Thursday it approved 2009 pay packages of up to $6 million each for the chief executives of government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The approvals were part of a wider decision by the Federal Housing Finance Agency on executive salaries at both firms. FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco said, on average, executive pay at the companies had dropped 40 percent from where it stood before the government seized them last year.
...

To continue playing that role in the U.S. mortgage market, Fannie and Freddie must “attract and retain the talent needed to accomplish these objectives,” DeMarco said.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after the Obama administration’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, approved millions of dollars in pay for top executives at GM and GMAC. Feinberg oversees compensation plans at firms receiving money from the government’s $700 billion financial rescue fund.

Because giving big pay and bonuses to people at GM & Co. and the corrupt clowns at Fannie and Freddie is a whole different thing from a company not full of union clowns and Obama friends getting big pay.

Missouri, land of the Union Thugs and Corrupt 'Justice' officials

[Kenneth Gladney’s brother, Keith,] was fired on December 23rd, less than 48 hours before Christmas Day.
[K]enneth Gladney ... was assaulted by leaders of the St. Louis SEIU outside of Rep. Russ Carnahan’s Town Hall for Health Care on August 6, 2009.
Could it be that [Keith] Gladney was outspoken in his support for his brother [Kenneth]?
That he called on the County Prosecuting Attorney to bring justice to his family for the assault that had been captured on video and detailed in a 23-page police report?
Is it a coincidence that the same Prosecuting Attorney that Keith called out in his statement is also one of the highest ranking officials in the government structure that Keith worked for?
Is it surprising to learn that the Department of Health (the department that oversees the operations of Keith’s agency) works very closely with SEIU Local 1 on County Health related issues and policies? ...
Is it a coincidence that this happens hours after the Senate finally got Pres. Obama’s Health Care Scheme passed through the Senate cloture vote and on its way to final ratification?
Could it be that the power structure in the county was waiting for the cloture vote so as to act from a position of political safety with no potential negative repercussions?


Couple of years back I read some stuff at John Ross' site; if you're interested go here and look at
21, 22, 23 and 26. It covers a lot of the lying and backstabbing from people in Missouri state government who were desperate to keep a 'shall issue' law from being passed. Apparently crookedness goes deeper in Missouri.

Merry Christmas 'n all that

Right now it's cloudless and the sun shining down, and up to 21F. Which is a big improvement over thiswhich is how it looked at the worst. Out on the highways and open areas where the wind had full sweep visibility just about wasn't; the NWS site showed .06 mile at that time.

The official total out at the airport was 11" last I heard, but as I noted yesterday it was spotty; several areas of really heavy with surrounding areas anywhere from 3 to 6". Hell of a snowfall for this state at this time of year in any case. At one point not only was the H.E. Bailey turnpike closed from Oklahoma City clear to the TX state line, but Fort Sill was sending out vehicles to rescue people stuck on it. Just checked, the Bailey pike is still closed and so are the interstates in Central OK; as much as anything so they can get stuck/crashed/abandoned vehicles off the roadways.

Out in the front yard this morning, I've got this
If you look on the left center, see that bit barely sticking out? That's one of the mini rosebushes I pruned back a week or so ago. It's about 8-10" high. Mind you, the front had wind swirling over/around the house and drifting stuff in. But in the back yard, fairly open space in the middle, it's about 8-10" deep, up to just over the tops of my boots. Security Staff, on patrol while I shoveled,
left tracks around the perimeter in back, but there was not a track anywhere else. Considering that it's up to her belly, I'm not surprised.

It's supposed to get into the upper 20's today, that and sun will do a lot to improve the roads.

One good thing: last year I'd have been at the Department wondering if I was going to be able to get home. Or back to work today, likely. That's one reason I had absolutely no sympathy for those effing politicians whining about "I want to be home for Christmas!" Well, clowns, there's been a bunch of them I had to work; so shut the hell up.

I think I'm going to make some hot chocolate. And put some feed out for the birds.

It's tapering off now

According to what I can find, central OK received anywhere from 3" to more than 10", depending on just where you were.

I'm going to make one more trip out to sweep/shovel a bit, and that's it for tonight; I'll deal with more in the morning.

And Merry Christmas to all except the slimy corrupt little bastards in the Senate(my feelings of forgiveness, comfort and joy are very limited in some areas); you- and they- know who they are. Coal in their stockings my ass, they need a big nasty chunk- ah, let it go.

For now

Did DeMint whack the socialized medicine bill?

God, I hope so. And no, I'm not saying that lightly.

After all, if it does kill it it might save the disruption and smell of lots of politicians dancing a Tyburn jig from DC lampposts and trees.

Oh boy, the Globular Warming True Believers strike again,

and it makes the whole mess even worse:
The UK Met Office has released a large tranche of station data, together with code.

Only last summer, the Met Office had turned down my FOI request for station data, saying that the provision of station data to me would threaten the course of UK international relations. Apparently, these excuses have somehow ceased to apply.
Here's part of their statement:
The Met Office received the data information from Professor Jones at the University of East Anglia on the strict understanding by the data providers that this station data must not be publicly released. If any of this information were released, scientists could be reluctant to share information and participate in scientific projects with the public sector organisations based in the UK in future. It would also damage the trust that scientists have in those scientists who happen to be employed in the public sector and could show the Met Office ignored the confidentiality in which the data information was provided.
Ok, the obvious question is that if this is simply temperature data, why were they so damn scared of the idea of it being released? As I've bitched about before, one of the basics of the scientific method is that data and methods and so forth MUST be made available so it can be reviewed, and studied, checked for errors and argued about; but here are a bunch of scientists scared to death of the idea of this data getting out. WHY?

Three guesses.

And from a early review,
Meanwhile, even this extremely limited attempt at openness is not all it seems to be. John G-C has been looking at the code and running it against the data he has. What he has found is that prior to 1855 there was no southern hemisphere data and that when you run the Met Office's newly released code, this shows up as a gap in the graph of the average. But there is no such gap in the actual CRUTEM index. John's conclusion is that what we're looking at is not the actual code used in CRUTEM, but something written especially for public consumption. In light of the scorn that many programmers have been pouring on the quality of the coding standards at CRU, this might suggest that the original code was just too awful to make available for public inspection.
At one time the idea that an organization like this would be part of such garbage, I'd have laughed at. Not any more.

Talk about spotty,

they just said the 'official' total at Will Rogers Airport is 10". But you go a bit west to Mustang, 4".

The official amount thus far for Oklahoma City is 3"

of small, dry flakes that are blowing all over the place. Thus causing all interstates in the OKC area to be closed for now.

Seems like the biggest problem is visibility due to the stuff travelling horizontally; out in the open you can't see worth a damn. Oh boy, they just announced 'a huge 50-car pileup involving at least two patrol cars and an ambulance on I-40', but they didn't say WHERE on I-40. Wonderful.

If you've had to mess around in the stuff, you know that small, dry flakes don't shovel worth a damn, so I've concentrated on sweeping- and a little shoveling- to clear the front and back porch and the walk to the driveway. I'll try to do more later after the wind drops.

And that completes our update on the weather. Although if I run into that clown from Channel 4 who was loudly stating "At least 8 to ten inches of snow in the area, and there will be drifts EIGHT FEET DEEP!" for most of the morning, I may shoot him.

It's Christmas Eve, but since the Senate has seen fit to take a dump on us

this day, I'm going to make sure this quote the Idaho gent found gets around:
The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.

A government of laws and not of men.

John Adams
(1735-1826)
Second President of the United States

Yes, this probably assures my place on some DHS or FBI list of subversives who quote those radicals of the past.

Seeing as how the words of the founders of this nation would have Napolitano wetting her pants, and her agency has already labeled military vets as people to be watched, I'll be in good company.

The Saga of the M&P15-22

I just heard a knock on the door and found a UPS guy with a box.

So it arrived on the 17th and it's back on the 24th; figure four-five days in transit back and they got to it and made the fix in a week, not bad.

Annoyance: "Repaired: Updated to latest spec."

Aaargh, that's the same thing they said before! So I think I'll write to them and ask just what the hell that means.

But they did throw in two new magazines, so that's to the good. But it'll be a few days before I can take it to the range; I don't care how much Tam likes realistic practice, I'm not going out shooting in this.

By the way, whichever of you bastards let Al Gore into the state,

I'm going to find you.

Some more on President Who Haven't I Bowed To? Obama

giving INTERPOL diplomatic immunity for damn near everything:

Actually, that last argument overreaches. American law does not consider people as “assets.” It does mean, though, that Interpol officers would have diplomatic immunity for any lawbreaking conducted in the US at a time when Interpol nations (like Italy) have attempted to try American intelligence agents for their work in the war on terror, a rather interesting double standard.
...
Interpol’s property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable. This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.

Interpol works closely with international tribunals (such as the International Criminal Court — which the United States has refused to join because of its sovereignty surrendering provisions, though top Obama officials want us in it). It also works closely with foreign courts and law-enforcement authorities (such as those in Europe that are investigating former Bush administration officials for purported war crimes — i.e., for actions taken in America’s defense).

Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize?

In comments on this post Sigivald says it's nothing; INTERPOL can't really do anything. Problem is,
A: As noted, their office in the US in in the Justice Department, AG Holder in charge
B: Holder has shown every willingness to do what his progressive master wants, and screw the law
C: Suppose INTERPOL agents working with the ICC do arrest someone in this country; then what? Does anyone believe Holder & Obama won't try to work a 'compromise' of some sort that'll screw the citizen involved? When it'll gain them credit with their EUnuch friends?

What is boils down to is very simple: I do not trust anyone involved in this. Not Obama, not Holder, not the ICC weenies and EUnuchs who want to be able to drag people from here to there to be tried.

Ho, ho, freakin'

ho

A possibly venomous raptor

found in China; that'd screw up your day in the woods.

I think shotgun, #2 birdshot or #4 buck.

So we're supposed to be lenient to the terrorists;

yeah, THAT'S a good idea.
“Charging them and throwing them in jail is not the solution,” said Nihad Awad, national head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which approached the FBI on behalf of the families. “The government has to show some appreciation for the actions of the parents and the community. That will encourage other families to come forward.”
Bull Shit. I am sick to death of these clowns demanding we be 'understanding' and 'consider the community' when some dirtbags like these are captured.

And by the way,
Nawar Shora, legal director for the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee — who, with a representative from a Muslim group presented the award to Persichini — said the Arab and Muslim communities will accept any charges against the men arrested in Pakistan as long as they are treated fairly.

Yet he indicated that tensions could flare, depending how the government approaches a case. “If the FBI and the prosecutors say these were five Muslims and they were trying to commit jihad, and they throw out all of these incendiary religious terms, that’s different,” Shora said.
Fuck you, Shora. They are muslims, they are terrorists and it doesn't matter if you 'accept' the charges or not. Odd thing about the law here: it's supposed to disregard your feelings and 'acceptance' of the charges and go by the facts. So screw you.

'Tis the Season, ho, ho,

hoThe sleet has now changed to snow. How much? Make a guess; you're as likely to be right as the weather weenies. They've changed the forecast every little bit; one local weenie is declaring "A blizzard, arecord-breaking event, deep drifts, this snow will be with us for WEEKS!", etc. Weather Service is now saying 4-8 inches possible this area. In any case the streets and highways are getting bad.

Yuck.

Hey, Canada, if this is accurate, then you need to start heating

the tar yourselves; you've got your own Fast Food Rejects With Police Powers to deal with.

Well, instead of the blizzard the weenies screamed about for days

we're getting rain and sleet. Which, with the temp drop, means the roads are turning to glass.

But they can tell us the climate in 50 to 100 years, sure, uh huh.

I think the Foreman grill and more bacon is in order.

Gee, you think maybe Arnold was starting his bick suckup

when he gave The One an 'A'?
Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and appeal to Washington for billions of dollars in federal help, according to state officials and lobbyists familiar with the plan.

I'm going to put this bluntly: Fuck you, Arnold and fuck California. You got yourselves into that hole, and I'm not going to give you my money so you can keep digging it deeper. In fact, I'm adding a new category for you clowns: California Idiocy. Or maybe California Stoned. What's the best description of these fools?

After all, my expenses for some commodities are going up. And I haven't gotten to the tar yet.

And we can't forget the Safe Schools Czar that Obama stuck us with

Just what every 7th grader needs to know…
Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s organization held teen conferences where not only did they talk about fisting and hand out fisting kits but they distributed needle handling instructions:

And to all of you who voted for our Guantanamo-closing President,

how's that hopey-changey working out for you?

I mentioned the Senate, but don't worry;

we'll get to the House, too. We'll just need a lot more supplies.

I repeat, every one of the corrupt socialist bastards in the Senate

should be dragged out of that taxpayer-supplied office and hanged by the short & curlies.

Hell, some of them should be hanged, period.

Those not hanged, tar and feathers, and a permanent trip home. Assuming where they came from will have the slimy little boils on the ass of our country.


Added: this is why Reid supposedly gave 'concessions' to McConnell:
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): “I See No Reason To Punish Everybody This Weekend.” “I had one senator come to me and said that she hadn’t been home now in two or three weeks and it was not a good situation. … I see no reason to punish everybody this weekend.” (Sen. Reid, Floor Remarks, 12/09/09)
Awww, the poor little Senators were actually having to stay in DC instead of going home to party, isn't that just AWFUL?
Miserable, whiny, corrupt little bastards. Ropes. Lampposts.

Where Great Britain used to be,*

there's now all this.

And, as she points out, New York Effing City- with Nanny Bloomberg in the lead- working to follow (fG)Britain down the drain.

Now where was I?

Oh yeah, backstabbing politicians who won't stand behind people. Including people who gave away whatever honor they had left to try and shove The One's socialized medicine scheme down our throats. And speaking of honorless whores,
DeMint asked for the Senate to suspend its rules to consider his amendment, which would prohibit such deals in the future.

Ben Nelson voted against Jim DeMint’s amendment, but when he realized the Democrats already had the votes to kill it, he raced back up to the clerk and changed his vote so the final record shows Nelson sided with DeMint.

Unfortunately for Ben Nelson, I have obtained the actual factual roll call sheet.
Give it up, Nelson; we don't believe your "I didn't ask for all that money Reid left on the nightstand" and we won't buy this.


Back to The (Lying) One,
"Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill." [...]

He said the Senate legislation accomplishes "95 percent" of what he called for during his 2008 presidential campaign and in his September speech to a joint session of Congress on the need for health-care reform. [...]

Obama said the public option "has become a source of ideological contention between the left and right." But, he added, "I didn't campaign on the public option."

OK, kids, let's go look for what he said on the campaign about health care reform! Here's a good one:
Following is a whole list of "I'm lying now about what I said then." And on the Washington Post failing to, oh, check any of this? in the comments we have He doesn't expect the Post to check. They didn't. And if any of them had tried, they'd have been fired.


Insty also pointed to a very strange partnership:
Dear Attorney General Holder:

We write to demand an immediate investigation into the activities of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. We believe there is an abundant public record which establishes that the actions of the White House have blocked any investigation into his activities while on the board of Freddie Mac from 2000-2001, and facilitated the cover up of potentially malfeasance until the 10-year statute of limitations has run out....

Sincerely,

Jane Hamsher
Firedoglake.com

Grover Norquist
Americans for Tax Reform
As he put it, Cats and dogs living together?


Where they came from and what we've got:
What Are We Left With?

The most blatant cynicism in recent American political history—a man who ran as a bipartisan who is the most partisan we’ve seen, a healer whose even flippant comments are designed to offend, a statist who assumes that the sheared sheep cannot stampede somewhere else, a reformer who trusts his honey-laced rhetoric can disguise Daley style-corruption.


This clown doesn't even rate as a RINO, with this kind of past; why the hell is she running in the Stupid Party?
Today, Linda McMahon has a new problem. From the Rust Belt has learned that, under McMahon’s leadership, the WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote project brought McMahon’s business into direct partnership with liberal youth organizations that got out the vote for Barack Obama and Democrats nationwide. These same organizations are now working to advance big government initiatives like ObamaCare and Cap and Tax, and one of them — Rock the Vote — has recently released a web ad encouraging teenagers and young adults to use their sexuality as a political tool to pressure others into supporting socialized medicine.


Just wonderful what winds up on the tree nowadays.


I'm not sure what to make of this, other than the VA system has some real problems. .


And why would anybody trust anything coming out of Jimmy Carter's mouth? Especially when there's a family member and an election involved?


Jeez. Such a load of crap for this close to Christmas.