Saturday, January 09, 2010

I tend to agree

3. I believe that whenever a person says “I am offended and my right to be un-offended trumps your right to speak” he is, in effect, throwing a temper tantrum. This is most certainly the case when he likens constitutionally protected free speech to a “phobia” simply because he cannot muster the courage to offer a calm and intelligent rebuttal.

A commenter makes a good point: if this clown can be censured

over and over, but he keeps the black robe and power, what the hell is the 'punishment'?

Judges who do things like this should be disbarred and forbidden from ever again acting as a judge.

Somehow I just knew something like this was going to come up...

As you might imagine, it really has nothing to do with the troops per se. They can be loaded up quite quickly and flown into Afghanistan. But, as the old saying goes, “amateurs discuss tactics, professionals discuss logistics”. And the amateurs in the White House apparently don’t understand the impact the addition of 30,000 more troops in theater have on an already strained logistics system:
Ah, yes, logistics; the problem of getting not only troops, but food and ammo and spares and medical stuff and vehicles and fuel and so on where it all will be needed, which in this case is the back end of Wherethehellarewe Province of Afghanistan. I'll let the pro say it:
So why wasn’t the logistics system already prepared to take the surge? Well, until the decision was made, no one in the logistics channel knew there was actually going to be a surge, or how large it would be if there was one. Unlike the claim made by the president, every day he delayed that decision was another day the logistics piece remained unplanned and unresourced. And that’s on top of the problems that LTG Rodriguez has pointed out.
And every day he dithered and pretended to 'study' was another day they had to put off shipping stuff because they couldn't finalize what to send until they knew who/where/when; you don't send winter stuff for a unit that's getting there in late spring, or summer stuff for someone arriving in friggin' December(that stuff comes later, first you send what they'll need NOW and for the near future).

"This decision has delayed nothing" my cold-chapped ass.

Hey, did you know that if you disagree with what a blogger says,

you're a troll? I have to admit I'd never heard that before. And it's coming from somone who makes snotty comments about 'teabaggers', so he must be an expert, right?

If you're wondering what this is about,
Blogger is upset(rightly) by some idiot illegally and idiotically carrying and having horrible accident,
Blogger gets very nasty toward anyone who carries without her fully- approved background,
Commenters question and argue,
Blogger and husband edit comments, insult, and- in hubby's case- threaten,
Various bloggers call attention to this,
And hey! they're ALL 'radical pro-gun "trolls" '!

If you're interested, part 1, part 2, general roundabout on this, and check the comments on Tam's post.

Oh, and it seems the hubby making threats to 'conservative assholes' bragging about 'splitting skulls and breaking noses' is a politician. In TN.

Some wonderful people on the left, huh?

"There seemed to be so much desperation to forget she had died,"

McLeod said recently.

Gee, I wonder why...


Pointed to by Five Feet

I have come to the conclusion that Mark Steyn is a treasure

For two weeks, the government of the United States has made itself a global laughingstock. Don't worry, "the system worked," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Incompetano. Don't worry, he was an "isolated extremist," said the president. Don't worry, we're banning bathroom breaks for the last hour of the flight, said the TSA. Don't worry, "U.S. border security officials" told the Los Angeles Times, we knew he was on the plane, and we "had decided to question him when he landed." Don't worry, Obama's counterterrorism chief, John Brennan, assured the Sunday talk shows, sure, we read him his rights, and he's lawyered up but he'll soon see that "there is advantage to talking to us in terms of plea agreements."

Oh, that's grand. Try to kill hundreds of people in an act of war, and it's the starting point for a plea deal. In his Cairo speech, the president bragged that the United States would "punish" those in America who would "deny" the "right of women and girls to wear the hijab." If he's so keen on it, maybe he should consider putting the entire federal government into full-body burkas and zipping up the eye slit so that, henceforth, every public utterance by John Brennan will be entirely inaudible. Americans should be ashamed by this all-fools' fortnight.

By the way, exactly why is my money being extorted by the gummint

to pay for NPR?

Because I could use that to pay sales taxes on bread or something the gummint and NPR considers wasteful, I guess.

By the way, about that "Snow will be rare and drought will be common"

forecast from the Met:
Just how often has the entirety of Britain been snow-covered at one time?

Friday, January 08, 2010

So the 'dating secret' of European and Canadian women is the nanny state

When we talk about dating or the possibility of having family, with a man or on our own or with—gasp!—a coven of like-minded women (why not?), the conversation is framed entirely by the fact that we can count on our native countries to look after us should we—for whatever reason—not be able to make ends meet stateside.
Aww, isn't that cute? They're so independent and skilled and learned and it doesn't matter if they blow it because the Nanny State will take money away from other people and use it to take care of them. And they think women here should demand the same.

One of the more annoying things about this(aside from, if it's so damn wonderful back in the EU and Canada, why are they here?) is this:
We have Ivy League degrees, speak multiple languages, are savvy and entrepreneurial.
To borrow from Indigo, I do not think that word means what you think it means.

I ask you, does this not look

like a somewhat prettied-up Nazgul? But prettied-up or not,
Women who wear Islamic veils in public in France face a £700 fine under strict new laws being proposed.

The amount could be doubled for Muslim men who force female members of their family to cover their faces.
Yeah, that's gonna go over well with the disaffected north-African youths.

And the circus has begun at the Obama-Holder Terrorists Are Just Like Muggers trials.
A federal judge has tossed out most of the government's evidence against a tarrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also said the government failed to establish that 23 statements the detainee made to interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were untainted by the earlier coerced statements made while he was held under harsh conditions in Afghanistan
.

MIT professor Jonathan Gruber is a corrupt little liberal

MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, one of the leading academic defenders of health care reform, is taking heat for failing to disclose consistently that he was under contract with the Department of Health and Human Services while he was touting the Democrats’ health proposals in the media.

Gruber, according to federal government documents, is under a $297,600 contract until next month to provide “technical assistance” in evaluating health care reform proposals. He was under a $95,000 HHS contract before that
.
Another corrupt liberal in the Most Ethical Administration EVAH!!!

The Book of DC

Friend sent this, and it's actually titled 'The Book of Corporate Life', but I think it covers DC very well.

Today's reading is from the Book of Corporate Life, Chapter 1, verses 1-15.

In the beginning was the Plan.

And then came the Assumptions.

And the Assumptions were without form.

And the Plan was without Substance.

And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.

And the Workers spoke among themselves saying, "It is a crock of s**t and
It stinks!"

And the Workers went unto their Supervisors and said, "It is a crock of
S**t and we cannot live with the smell."

And the Supervisors went unto their Managers saying, "It is a container of
Organic waste, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it."

And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying, "It is a vessel of
Fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."

And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another, "It
Contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong."

And the directors went to the Secretary, saying unto him, "It promotes
Growth, and it is very powerful."

And the Secretary went to the President, saying unto him, "It has very
Powerful effects."

And the President looked upon the Plan and saw that it was good.

And the Plan became Policy
.

And that is how s**t happens
.

It has been entirely too cold for too long

when you go out to take care of some stuff, and it's 20F, and it's almost comfortable...

About the enviroweenie boat sinking in the Antarctic seas,

Tim Blair has a lot on it(Random had some the other day), and all of it, the actual video and such, says
A: the Sea Shepherd weenies are insane,
B: they either can't handle the damn boat, or are suicidal
C: are liars
D: Combination of the above(my choice).
Among other things, the escort ship that hit them weighs 491 tons and has a top speed of 12 knots; but we're supposed to believe it managed a 'sudden course change and dash' and caught a 13-ton boat that can hit a max 45 knots...

Yeah, I've noticed that odd definition of

'weapon of mass destruction' too.

About those wind farms Britain is planning to build,

I forgot to mention, what do you do when you depend on windmills and the wind doesn't blow?

And it's cold outside?

You think maybe the people somewhere else are going to be happy about having the power they need to keep warm diverted to you?

This time last year we were remarking on a not uncommon phenomenon in the UK – an almost total lack of wind. And here we are again, with the temperatures struggling to get above freezing and we have, effectively, a zero wind state - see below right.

The effect of this on the electricity generation system is evident from the latest status report (see above) which shows a predominant reliance on gas, which accounted for nearly half of total production in the last 24 hours, followed by coal at nearly thirty percent and nuclear at just under twenty percent.

Wind, in all its glory, managed to deliver a risible 0.4 percent – which is hardly even a rounding error and amounts to an insignificant contribution to the national electricity supply. Producing a mere 163 MW at around midnight last night, against an installed capacity of just over 4 GW, that represents a load factor of four percent
.

I think this is a very important point ref the Climaquiddick e-mails

"Not entirely the “death of global warming” as many have claimed – what happened with Climategate is much more nuanced and exponentially more interesting than the headlines convey. What was triggered at this blog was the death of unconditional trust in the scientific peer review process, and the maturing of a new movement – that of peer-to-peer review."

Gawker and Gillian Reagan untrustworthy,

whoda thunk it?

If you need tattoos like these

you need to change your dating procedures.

Currently it 7 degrees outside; the wind is down


but it's still nasty. Security Staff came out to take one look around, grab a munchie, get a drink and run hide. So I'm not taking a walk this morning, either. Thanks to Theo for the pic.

Good question, why IS the State Department getting a pass on their screwups in the most recent terrorist attack?


Texas spends less on education but gets much better results than Californicated; anybody surprised?


As Pakistani security forces take over more Taliban facilities in South Waziristan, they are horrified to find religious schools that specialize in convincing poor, rural teenagers to be suicide bombers. It only works on a few percent of the students, which is why there were so many of these schools. Captured suicide bombers in Afghanistan had freely discussed these schools, but this is the first time Pakistani officials have been able to examine them closely. The Taliban have developed a curriculum that combines religion and Islamic radical preaching, and the promise of sex and luxury living, to produce suicide bombers. Lurid details of all this are being widely reported in the media, fueling even more enthusiasm for continued efforts against the Taliban. In the last three months, Taliban terror attacks have killed over 600 people, most of them ordinary civilians.

In Pakistani Kashmir, a suicide bomber attacked an army base near the Indian border, killing three people. This is a rare and disturbing event. The Pakistani army in Kashmir has long supported Islamic terrorists training there, then crossing the border to fight Indian troops and kill non-Moslem civilians. Pakistani troops often fire on their Indian counterparts, to make it easier for the Islamic militants to sneak across the frontier. But in the last few years, troops have also been ordered to close some terrorist camps (those suspected of being responsible for attacks against Pakistani officials, or Indian cities.) Some Islamic militants have decided to escalate, and use terror to intimidate the army. Some mainstream Pakistanis blame these bombings on Indian agents, intent on causing discord between Islamic militants and the Pakistani army
.
Yeah, it MUST be someone else's fault, right?


Wow, a bunch of party insiders are mad at someone who's A: popular with lots of people and B: won't kiss the ass of the insiders; and we care why? Especially since so many of us would like to see the insiders bouncing out the door on their ass?


My one problem with Ray's video

is I'm strongly tempted that a lot of these people don't need to wait 'till the next election: they need to be treated with tar & feathers NOW.



It is staggering to try to grasp the naïveté of the Obama Administration in leading us down this path. The only thing that makes it comprehensible is their staggering naïveté in going to Copenhagen for the Climate Conference. Obama and the gang -- let's face it -- live on the myth that they are poor little college graduates armed only with their law degrees, taking on the big bad businesses that are worth millions and billions and zillions of dollars. All they have to do is make a convincing case to the general public and they can start redistributing all that wealth.

What never occurs to them is that, in the eyes of most of the world, they're the undeserving rich. Obama went to Copenhagen and found himself facing representatives of millions and billions of people saying, "Give us money, too." And of course Obama & Co. all too ready to cough up some loose change out of America's pockets -- although the taxpayers are not likely to agree with them.

Now Obama and his administration are going to get a lesson in what it means to try to extend the niceties of the American criminal justice system to a world full of potential terrorists
.


Hmmm, why would these terrorists be in New York City, I wonder?


I'll say the same thing I said after hearing about some of the failures that helped lead to 9/11: there are people in the FBI and intelligence agencies and the Justice Department who should be fired. And some of them, I wish there was a way to prosecute them. Criminal stupidity or something would be fitting.


Let's see, they'll have to build a 'supergrid' to spread the electricity around, and special setups to supply the building and maintenance of the windmills; I wonder what the plans are for when storms cause them to be shut down, or ice closes or damages big areas of them?


And an Iranian opposition leader survives someone trying to whack him. Good news, that.

And wow! Louisiana isn't waiting for the next election!
A petition to recall Corruptocrat Senator Mary Landrieu has been accepted for filing by the Louisiana Secretary of State. It was reported this week that Landrieu took Obamacare bribes from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bargain for national democratic support for her brother’s mayoral campaign. She also was accused of taking a $300 million bribe for her Obamacare vote.

The other day I posted that I thought the unions

might not be too happy with the 'Cadillac health-plan' tax, because most of them have such plans. The response from a couple of folks was that the Democrats would try to exempt the unions from it; I doubt it.

I don't doubt they'd like to, but if they do
A: They lose too much of other people's money that they're wanting to spend, and
B: They know what the reaction would be. You want to talk about people being pissed...

Then today, Insty pointed to this article:
Local unions are waging war against President Obama's proposed "Cadillac tax" on higher-cost health-care plans -- with one leader warning New York Democrats who approve the levy to watch out at the polls this year.

"The proposed tax is both terrible politics and bad policy, and it's going to seriously undermine good health-care coverage for literally tens of millions of middle-class workers," fumed Bob Master, legislative and political director for Communication Workers of America's Northeast chapter.
...
George Boncoraglio, regional president of the Civil Service Employees Association, the state's largest public union, railed against the proposed tax.

"The president is out of his mind for attempting to tax health benefits that labor unions fought to get for their working members," said Boncoraglio, whose union represents 300,000 workers in medical facilities and agencies.

"For all the support we gave Obama, he's really sticking it to the members of labor unions."

The translation of that last is "Dammit, we sold you our support and this is how you pay us back? You're just supposed to screw everyone else!"

It says Obama is going to meet with union bosses to 'assuage their worries', which with Obama means "Hey, I'm a progressive! I work with unions! Stop causing me troubles and I'll take care of you!" And if they trust that, they're not only union clowns, they're stupid. Obama knows he can't really afford to dump on the unions the way he'd like(for the common good, of course), but he also knows that if he exempts the union plans from this, that alone will further infuriate people; add to that that the tax on health plans would have to be raised to make up for what they'd not get from looting union members...


Oh, and at the bottom there's this on Sen. "I'm a whore but I'm not cheap" Nelson(Dirtbag-NB):
* Sen. Ben Nelson reportedly said the administration shouldn't have handled health care now, given how bad the economy remains.

He also advocated extending the juicy Medicaid subsidies he won for his home state of Nebraska -- after being the lone Democratic holdout on the president's top domestic priority for months -- to the entire nation.

"I've been in serious discussions with Senate leaders and others to secure changes in the bill to treat all states equally. At the end of the day, whatever Nebraska gets will apply to all states," Nelson said, according to Politico.com reported
.
So, having caught lots of heat for his sellout, he now proposes to make it all better by saying the feds should take all our money away from us and use it to bribe us. Which is exactly what he's talking about BECAUSE ALL THAT MONEY COMES FROM US IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE. The question is, does Nelson not realize that or does he think we won't understand it?

The country is in the very best of hands, as Dr. Reynolds says

I don’t see how one can decide what we should do without first understanding what happened in this case. And some of what little is in the summary about the event seemed obscure or potentially misleading. For example, after stating that Abdulmutallab’s explosive device “did not explode, but instead ignited,” the summary states:

The flight crew restrained Mr. Abdulmutallab and the plane safely landed.

Am I to conclude that the accounts of passenger heroics are not true? Or is it just the reluctance of the administration or the intelligence community to give proper credit to anyone who is not paid to protect us?

Some accounts suggest that one or more passengers not only subdued the bomber, but prevented detonation. On the other hand, I seem to recall reading other (at least superficially persuasive) accounts suggesting that the bomb would not have exploded, just burned, because to be effective the components would have to be under pressure (which they weren’t). The summary is silent on this score, but I was hoping to learn the truth: Would the bomb have exploded without intervention?

I missed that part of the speech, but it fits right in with some of the other criticisms I've heard.

And that's a good question: Are they saying that the passengers, including the one who was reported to have climbed over seats and so forth, didn't actually do those things? Or is it another case of "They weren't experts and professionals, so anything they did doesn't count" from the bureaucrats? And if the latter, why the hell would the President so denigrate the actions of the passengers by ignoring them this way?

Add to that mess, this idiocy:
Over the past couple of weeks, the PA leadership has
repeatedly lauded Fatah terrorists and their acts of murder. Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad have personally engaged in the celebrations. This finally provoked the Israeli PM’s office to protest to the Americans that

the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are engaging in incitement by honoring a woman responsible for the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history, and calling the men who killed Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai last month martyrs. …

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s policy director, Ron Dermer, said in response that “those Palestinian terrorists are murderers, not martyrs. We expect the PA to prepare the Palestinian people to live in peace with Israel and not glorify killers and name public squares after them.”

What was Mitchell’s reaction? Could he muster the kind of moral outrage that the Obama administration routinely reserves, say, for Jewish housing construction in Jerusalem? Well, no. He went on the Charlie Rose show and lauded Fayyad as an “impressive leader” and declared that the Fayyad-Abbas team represents “strong and effective leadership for the Palestinian people.” This will not end well.
Yeah, 'strong and effective leaders' for people who like murdering Jews and hate us. Friggin' wonderful.

And, just to pile it on, read this over at Ace on "Dots? What dots? What connections?"

And, once again, AP shows it's not exactly a 'Give you the unbiased information'

media outlet; couple of long excerpts:
Take an in-depth analysis of Climategate provided by the Associated Press. The piece appeared in hundreds of publications, with many newspapers carrying it on the front page of their Sunday December 13th edition under the headline, “Science not faked, but not pretty.” The five AP-reporters interviewed three scientists about the emails, and concluded: “no evidence of falsification or fabrication of data, although concerns could be raised about some instances of very ‘generous interpretations,’” as the AP quoted Dr. Mark Frankel, director of scientific freedom, responsibility and law at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The AP had provided him a copy of the emails, without any other important documents.

But we spoke with Dr. Frankel about his interview with the AP, and it appears that AP portrayed him as not too concerned about Climategate. Asked whether it was possible for him to conclude from the emails whether there was “no evidence of falsification or fabrication of data” based on the emails, Dr. Frankel replied:

No, you can’t do that on the emails alone, you can’t do it on the emails or the program. You know, you owe it to people to interview and get their responses, and you owe it to people to ask people within the discipline, other scientists within that discipline, you know what are the expected practices, forms, etcetera in your field. And that takes a little bit of time, I mean that’s why these investigations often take a long time and that you involve experts who know that scientific field.

When pushed further, “Just trying to clarify that you couldn’t make an answer as to whether there was evidence of falsification or fabrication of data,” Dr. Frankel said:

No, I couldn’t make it on the basis of what I’ve seen, and I consider myself to pretty much be an expert in areas of research misconduct. However, I’m not in the area of climate change, so clearly whoever was doing the investigation would have to be sufficiently… have sufficient expertise as resources in order to carry out this investigation.

He also supported the investigations that had been started at Penn State University and the University of East Anglia, though he suggested that those outside the universities should themselves closely study the investigations:
...
There is a big difference between saying that there isn’t sufficient evidence to determine if falsification of data occurred, and that there should be an investigation, and concluding, as the AP did: “Science not faked.”
Why yes, there is!

About the words of Prof. Dan Sarewitz:
The AP quotes him as saying: “This is normal science politics, but on the extreme end, though still within bounds.” It uses the quote to minimize worries. But our interview suggests his quote was hardly a defense of what transpired, but rather a warning that politics infecting science is all too common and that non-scientists have a too idealized a view of science. “All I’ll say is that you know based on what I’ve seen of the emails it sounds like nasty science politics. And it’s not uncommon in science,” he said. Dr. Sarewitz indicated that these biases undoubtedly affected both sides of the debate and that it is proper for reporters to ask scientists in these controversial areas about their political affiliations, and noted for the record that he is a liberal Democrat.

Further along,
There were other concerns with the piece. As for Professor Mann’s and others’ attempts to punish academic journals that published skeptical research seems defended by the AP: “That skeptical study turned out to be partly funded by the American Petroleum Institute.” However, the AP fails to bring up that Mann and others who were pushing global warming similarly received funding from organizations that support claims about man-made global warming.
Just like they don't like mentioning the CRU gets funding from Shell and British Petroleum...

And finally, on one of the reporters giving us this article:
Finally, one of the reporters, Seth Borenstein, the AP science reporter who writes on global warming and the lead author on the piece being discussed here, is part of the Climategate story itself. There is a question about whether he should have rescued himself from investigating the story. The last sentence of the 1,800 word AP piece acknowledges: “The archive also includes a request from an AP reporter, one of the writers of this story, for reaction to a study, a standard step for journalists seeking quotes for their stories.” But Borenstein’s email is hardly a neutral “standard step for journalists.” Borenstein criticizes Marc Morano, a critic of man-made global warming claims, of “hyping wildly” the study that Borenstein was asking for comments on. The email looks as if Borenstein was working with others involved in Climategate to discredit critics of man-made global warming.

Yeah, that's the media we've come to distrust and- all too often- despise.

Sums it up nicely,

what we're facing

Seems appropriate right now

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Oh, if you've got good insurance through your job, Obama wants to tax you

for it. Because there's not enough 'rich' people to tax to death to pay for Obamacare.

Hey, union members, how's that HopeyChangey working for you? Since the union is using your dues to support these bastards, and you're now going to be taxed for your insurance on top of that.

It got all the way up to 21 degrees today,

and it's 15 now, on the way down to 5 or so.

I know most of you are aware of what temperatures like this mean, but just for anyone who doesn't:

It kills.

More years ago than I care to think about my family lived in a little town in northern Oklahoma surrounded by farms and ranches, and at times in winter you'd swear there was nothing between you and the North Pole but a few stray buffalo and elk. I(very happily) never worked on one of them in a situation where I had to take care of the livestock, but you learn in a place like that that the weather isn't just good or bad to be out in. You pay attention to it. In summer storms can come rolling over the plains faster than seemed possible; high winds, lightning, tornadoes, hail, heavy rain. That's where I learned(secondhand, I'm happy to say) that 12-18" of fast-flowing water over a road can wash a car or truck into the creek.

Winter gives ice and cold and wind. 30F isn't too cold, but every mph of wind takes the wind chill down. People have died of exposure in temps around 50F; often after getting wet, but also just from pushing too far and getting too tired, not having enough energy left to stay warm and not realizing until too late they had to warm up, or else. They just keep pushing on until "I need to rest a minute", they close their eyes and never open them. Happens every year.

At 30, a 20mph wind makes it feel like 17F. Drop the temp to 20, that same wind gives you 4. Drop the temp to 10, that same wind makes it feel like 9 below zero. You can get frostbite fast, and your body is using a lot of energy to maintain temperature; spend a while out in the cold working(shoveling snow, cutting wood, clearing a road, whatever) and as you warm up after you'll be starving, your system needing calories to replace what it burned keeping you warm.

Earlier today I decided I needed to take a walk. I did dress for it*, but it wound up being a short walk; the air was almost painful to breathe, and so dry...

What brought all this to mind was reading this:
Volunteers have reported that ‘a large number’ of elderly customers are snapping up hardbacks as cheap fuel for their fires and stoves.

Temperatures this week are forecast to plummet as low as -13ºC in the Scottish Highlands, with the mercury falling to -6ºC in London, -5ºC in Birmingham and -7ºC in Manchester as one of the coldest winters in years continues to bite.

Workers at one charity shop in Swansea, in south Wales, described how the most vulnerable shoppers were seeking out thick books such as encyclopaedias for a few pence because they were cheaper than coal.

One assistant said: ‘Book burning seems terribly wrong but we have to get rid of unsold stock for pennies and some of the pensioners say the books make ideal slow-burning fuel for fires and stoves.

A lot of them buy up large hardback volumes so they can stick them in the fire to last all night.’

Just wonderful, isn't it?

And with Obama's minions playing games to make it harder to drill for oil & gas here, and dead-set against nuke plants, we may wind up there. And I don't have a damned fireplace.


*About fifteen years back Dad somehow wound up with a Army Arctic Parka. It was a bit small for him so he gave it to me; that thing has been wonderful a number of times.

Tam found a real nice piece of video

to go with March of Cambreadth, and I'm stealing it.



Without a moments regret

And please note: the Battle of Vienna took place in 1683 after the Ottoman Empire had laid seige to Vienna for two bloody months. And that was the second time the Ottomans made it that far; the first was in 1529:
The Ottoman failure to capture Vienna in 1529 turned the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe, which had previously claimed Southeastern Hungary as a vassal state in the wake of the Battle of Mohács. According to Toynbee, "The failure of the first [siege of Vienna] brought to a standstill the tide of Ottoman conquest which had been flooding up the Danube Valley for a century past."
And the video fits the song very well:
The battle marked the turning point in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, the 300-year struggle between the forces of the Central European kingdoms and the Ottoman Empire. Over the sixteen years following the battle, the Habsburgs of Austria gradually occupied and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania, which had been largely cleared of the Turkish forces. The battle is also notable for including the largest cavalry charge in history with some 20,000 Polish and Austrian-German cavalry involved.

"Winter" a poem


.............................Dammit, it's COLD!...................................

Yeah, THIS will really help Chicago PD

The Chicago Police Department is seriously considering scrapping the police entrance exam, sources tell Fran Spielman.

Dropping the exam would bolster minority hiring and avert legal battles, according to one source, while others confirm that the exam could be scrapped to open the process to as many people as possible.
Reminds me of the idiot statement from the head of the Army after Fort Hood: 'Diversity is far more important than protecting troops from jihadis/fighting the enemy/showing some good sense.'

Why various bureaucrats need to be added to the

"How many lampposts in DC?" list:
The nation's green eyeshades are now destined to come under the regulatory rule of the Internal Revenue Service as part of the Obama Administration's latest revenue grab.

Under the plan, which would begin with the 2011 tax season, anyone who takes money to help people with their taxes will have to register with the IRS, and eventually pass competency tests and sign up for continuing education. So having made tax filing so complicated that most Americans need help with their forms, Washington now wants to raise the price of such counsel by regulating advisers in a way that may reduce their supply.

Defending the decision, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman declared that regulating tax preparers was reasonable because "In most states you need a license to cut someone's hair." Yes, the cosmetology guild does like to raise the barriers to entry for competitors
.

And back to our wonderful media

I’ll have more details as I get them, but I just heard from a source that the local paper here in Indy actually threated State Representative Mike Murphy in an email. Rep. Murphy is the sponsor of one of the bills that would limit access to the concealed carry database to LE only.

Details are thin right now, but from what I understand, the senior editor of the Star sent a series of emails to Rep. Murphy blasting him for the bill, and then telling Rep. Murphy that the Star would not run any positive stories about the bill. Oddly enough, the editor also apparently accused NRA of leaving poop on his doorstep.

In the discussion of the other reason- currently- to tell Arnold

to kiss our collective ass, is the latest mess he signed to screw over honest gun owners:
The way the bill is worded, they could be liable if ANY ammo related products, including speed loaders, magazines or stripper clips, are shipped to ‘prohibited persons’. This is beyond sending them a fax copy of your FOID card since you don’t need a license to own or purchase any of those things.

What kind of database would be required? What kind of evidence would the CA courts accept as ‘reasonable’? What is the burden of proof? How much would CTD have to spend in legal fees?

This is exactly what this law is designed to do. CTD and other ammo companies really have no other choice if they pay attention at all. CTD is going above and beyond by not selling to agencies as well.
I'd like to see every ammo company and every firearm manufacturer tell California "No ammo for you; not the PDs, not the SOs, not CHP. No pistols, no rifles, no shotguns. You don't want us to sell there, well, then we won't sell them to YOU, either."

Two missile defense bits

Sondra points to the Israeli Iron Dome intercept system; Closing Velocity has more here.

Also from CV, it does make me wonder if, when Obama proposed the idea, he actually had any idea how many of these ships we have? Or what it will cost to make more, and how long?

This is exactly why the animal rights weenies wouldn't do it,

but I wish they'd try.

Since I'm staying out of the globular warmering outside,

it being just a touch cool for tanning(wind chill zero or below) outside, it's a good thing there's so much idiocy and crookedness out there to write about.

A TSA agent was arrested on January 3rd in Terminal One at LAX, a source told NBCLA. He had just gotten off duty and was behaving erratically, saying, "I am god, I’m in charge." The agent was arrested.

Meanwhile, a TSA Internal Affairs investigation turned up evidence of LAX TSA agents using drugs at an after-hours party.

TSA officials say a videotape of the party was of poor quality and the employees were not in uniform, but 4 employees were tentatively identified.

All 4 were tested for drugs. One came back positive and that employee was fired
.
Hey, remember the one reported on a couple of months ago yelling at somebody "I have the power!" when they dared to ask a question? Only a matter of time till they moved up to deity.
Added: how the tape was found,
The investigation began late last year when a TSA Agent was arrested for allegedly counterfeiting parking passes here at the employee parking lot. In his house, police found a videotape. On it was an afterhours party where other TSA agents were allegedly using drugs.


The outgoing Republican governor, stopped by term limits from seeking reelection in November, called for tax reform, protection for higher education spending -- and more money from the federal government.
I repeat, Screw you, Arnold; I don't want my neighbors and my kids looted because you morons couldn't stop spending.


Hey, a little more on our tax-dodging Treasury Secretary:
Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer’s payments to banks during the depths of the financial crisis, e-mails between the company and its regulator show.

AIG said in a draft of a regulatory filing that the insurer paid banks, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Societe Generale SA, 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm. The New York Fed crossed out the reference, according to the e-mails, and AIG excluded the language when the filing was made public on Dec. 24, 2008. The e-mails were obtained by Representative Darrell Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
.
Yeah, Dodd would fit right in, one tax-cheat and crooked politician taking over from another.


The ice was melting and the seals were disappearing(STARVING POLAR BEARS!)! In 1922.
Apparently it cooled back down or something...


Yeah, that global warming is so brutal, the friggin' polar bears may move south. Maybe we should feed Al Gore to them?(I know, but it would be fitting)


Did you know the Lockerbie mass-murderer the Scot government released 'so he could die with his family' is still walking around?
“We are quite interested in how the Libyans, and indeed the Scots who released Megrahi, are going to spin the fact that he is still alive and kicking after he was supposed to have gone to his eternal judgment day,” said aviation security expert Frank Duggan, president of Victims of Pan Am 103 Inc., which represents the families of the 190 Americans killed in the Boeing 747’s explosion over Scotland. “We never believed he was as ill as they maintained, since they had been saying he had one foot in the grave for over a year.”
I repeat what I said before: Scotland and England, you can kiss my ass, you miserable suckups to Libya.
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has demanded that Megrahi be returned forthwith to prison in Scotland. And Rep. Eliot Engel, another New York Democrat, has taken an interest in the case as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “It was ludicrous to release the Lockerbie Bomber, absolutely ludicrous,” Engel told me. “It’s even more outrageous now in light of what has happened with this Nigerian guy. There are many terrorists out there.”
Awww, isn't that cute? Schumer wants Gitmo closed and seems to have had no problem with Catch & Release, but THIS he's pissed about! And hey, Engel, where was that attitude before, you bastard?


Hey, remember in the UK the Met office said "Snow is going to be a rare thing" in the future? Well, Ma Nature didn't agree.
Blizzards that yesterday crippled the North spread South overnight — and left most of the nation floundering in the white stuff.

The Army was called in to rescue 1,000 stranded motorists last night
A six-year-old was left in a critical condition after falling into an icy garden pond
A woman killed on the A1 in North Yorkshire this morning took the death toll to six
Councils warned they have little more than a day's road grit left
Shoppers began panic-buying thermal underwear, food and wellies
And forecasters predict more snow is still to come

And it turns out those nasty coal-fired power plants are kind of handy:
The UK stores a maximum 4.3billion cubic metres of gas, enough for 15 days. Extra has been imported and a crisis has been averted by suppliers switching to coal-fired generators.


Speaking of things you don't expect to read about,
Add a new reason for delayed flights at Tampa International Airport - ice.

Seven flights were delayed early today and three flights were delayed on Wednesday morning due to ice formation on planes, according to airport officials
.


As Uncle notes, a jihadi sneaks a bomb onto a plane in the Netherlands, and gun owners in this country can't be trusted at the airport? It IS bullshit, and a demonstration of how the hoplophobes will use anything as an excuse for disarming us.


Thirdpower notes the idiocy coming from a bunch of people who're panicking over the idea of Chicago and other cities having to recognize all of the Constitution.


Google sucks. And cooperates with the PRC while saying 'Don't be evil'. And is a bunch of cowards, apparently.
Noted by Uncle.


Every time I see a reference to this, I think of Achmed: "New guy... tried to practice."


JayG tries out a Laserlyte.

That's about enough for now. I made a pot of ham & beans yesterday, and I think it's time to heat it up. And the cornbread.

I don't often write about the mental cripple Andrew Sullivan has become,

but this is just, wonderful!
My own view is moving toward supporting a direct American military imposition of a two-state solution, with NATO troops on the borders of the new states of Palestine and Israel. I'm sick of having a great power like the US being dictated to in the conduct of its own foreign policy by an ally that provides almost no real benefit to the US, and more and more costs.
As they say over at Ace,
Aside from the sheer lunacy of imposing borders on a sovereign democracy, which also happens to be a close ally, what in Sullivan's increasingly deranged mind makes him think the prospect of US soldiers fighting to keep Hamas, Hezbollah and the rest from attacking Israel is going to work? Does he really think these groups are just going to turn over their weapons to us or let us confiscate them without a fight?
But for some reason this is supposed to be a Good Idea...

So a tax cheat was no problem for Treasury Secretary once,

so why would Dodd be? I mean, he only
* In 2003, Dodd -- already a high-ranking member of the Banking Committee -- scored two cut-rate refinancing deals on personal mortgages worth nearly $800,000 from subprime-mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial.

The deals arose from Dodd's being designated as a "Friend of Angelo" -- Countrywide co-founder Angelo Mozilo.

* In another questionable real-estate transaction, Dodd in 1994 acquired a one-third share of an Irish vacation home. The other two-thirds were purchased by William Kessinger, business associate of one Edward Downe, who pleaded guilty to insider trading.

Seven years later, Dodd successfully lobbied then-President Bill Clinton, on his way out of the White House, to pardon Downe. Shortly thereafter, Dodd took full ownership of the Irish property -- at a mere fraction of the appraised value.

* Last February, an amendment to the stimulus package from now-Chairman Dodd guaranteed that executives from firms receiving government bailouts -- including insurance giant AIG -- remained eligible for bonuses.
along with we have no idea what all else. I realize for the Obama Administration this is all no big deal, as corrupt officials fit right in, but for the rest of us?

For the rest of us, tar and feathers and rails come to mind.

Yes, Obamacare will be good for you

As long as you can afford it. Wait, afford it?
WASHINGTON -- Some married couples would pay thousands of dollars more for the same health insurance coverage as unmarried people living together, under the health insurance overhaul plan pending in Congress.

The built-in "marriage penalty" in both House and Senate healthcare bills has received scant attention. But for scores of low-income and middle-income couples, it could mean a hike of $2,000 or more in annual insurance premiums the moment they say "I do."

The disparity comes about in part because subsidies for purchasing health insurance under the plan from congressional Democrats are pegged to federal poverty guidelines. That has the effect of limiting subsidies for married couples with a combined income, compared to if the individuals are single
.

Wow, Nanny-State Minnesota takes a step forward, Comrades,

For Your Own Good!
...the state will now know when any of us get prescribed Vicodin, Oxycontin, or any other potentially addictive medicines. Minnesota will require pharmacies to report every customer who fills such a prescription to the Minnesota Prescription Monitoring Program, starting next Monday. The state says this will allow doctors to know whether their patients are abusing prescription medication by seeing more than one doctor, but they won’t be the only ones:

Starting this week, Minnesota residents who fill prescriptions for addictive drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin are going into a new state database.

The aim is to stop drug abusers and dealers from shopping around for prescriptions.

Pharmacies were required to start reporting to the Minnesota Prescription Monitoring Program on Monday. By March, doctors, dentists and pharmacists can use the system to identify patients who get too many habit-forming medicines.

So the state will have a list of everyone who has prescribed painkillers. What could possibly go wrong?
Yeah, what problems could possibly follow along with this? Ignoring, of course, the basic one of the government stepping deeper into your life.

So Bill Ritter decided not to run for re-election

as Colorado Governor 'for his kids'; but...
...Two of his college-age children no longer live at home. The others are teenagers who’ll be leaving the nest in short order. Ritter choked up when he said he hadn’t made his family a priority and called the step-down an “intensely personal decision.” That’s a carefully-chosen phrase which signals to the press: Back off. Don’t ask any more questions. But if he isn’t really stepping down over neglect of his children, who was he referring to when he spoke of failing to make family his priority?
...
Quick refresher: Villafuerte is entangled in the railroading of Denver ICE agent Cory Voorhis — whom federal prosecutors tried to punish after he blew the whistle on sweetheart deals for criminal illegal aliens during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. A jury acquitted Voorhis of all federal charges. He’s trying to get his job back. At least one of his supervisors (whom Hayden asked Ritter about yesterday) has admitted lying. Villafuerte served on Democrat gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter’s campaign team while on leave from the Denver D.A.’s office and from all local news accounts was deeply involved in the witchhunt against agent Voorhis. Last month, Villafuerte withdrew from her nomination as U.S. Attorney in Denver amid growing questions about her role in the Voorhis railroading and the accessing of federal criminal databases for political purposes.

Villafuerte remains Ritter’s deputy chief of staff
. But she was noticeably absent from the press conference yesterday.

The local buzz about a rumored affair involving Ritter and Villafuerte hasn’t died down. Her absence and Ritter’s sudden and bizarre withdrawal aren’t likely to quell the rumors
.
Gee, maybe another Evil Party politician worried about being caught in the act? And another bunch of reporters who won't do their jobs and ask questions? Hmmm.....

I would almost have given my left testicle to have been there

As the Gore party started walking out of the room, my colleague called out, "Hey, Al, how's all that global warming working out for you?" Gore turned around and stared at us with a completely dumbfounded look on his face. He was speechless. With a smile, my colleague repeated the question, again to a hapless look of dismay.

Finally, Gore mumbled under his breath, "Wow, you sound awfully angry." I responded with a thank you, explaining to him that we were actually extremely amused. The encounter concluded with Gore's friend mouthing a very animated "f--- you" at us, and they skulked away. My only regret is that no one at the table asked Gore, "What's the matter? The polar bear's got your tongue?"

You take a kid fishing or to the range or hunting and the PC weenies scream;

the jihadi-minded muslims teach their children to hate and to kill, and those same people don't want to talk about it. Or have anyone else mention it. These miserable bastards have mothers telling other mothers to sacrifice their children for jihad, and our media ignores it. But they'll publish stuff that actually damages the war effort and gets our troops killed, why, that's fine!


Looking over all the videos at Memri TV, something struck me. Remember the scene in 300 where Leonidas is speaking with Xerxes? The emperor says he would kill half his army just to defeat the Spartans; Leonidas says "I would die for any of mine." The palistinians and jihadis are following the old Persian model, it would seem.

Our 'Most Ethical and Transparent 'Justice' Department

This week, a federal district court in Kansas imposed sanctions on the same Civil Rights Division (CRD) officials who spiked the Panthers case, Loretta King and Steve Rosenbaum, for their refusals to provide information in another case.... What is clear from reading the order is that, as usual, the CRD made broad accusations of discriminatory conduct when it filed its complaint, but when it was asked to provide specific examples or actual evidence of such discrimination, it failed to do so.
Translation: "You cannot come into this court and say "Rule as we wish, because we say you should!" And you cannot lie about what someone did."
Actually, considering what prosecutors think they should get away with, why shouldn't these clowns think they can lie and get away with it?

One of the interesting things:It is noteworthy that these two lawyers — the ones who directly superimposed their own legal judgment in the New Black Panther Party case — are now the subject of the court’s order, which as the report notes is unusual, in that it is “directed at individual lawyers that specifically says their employer is not responsible for paying the costs.” To boot, King is a multiple-sanctions recipient. During the Clinton administration, she was one of the Justice Department attorneys who was responsible for a fine of more than half a million dollars.
So this court wanted to make the two JD lawyers, Loretta King and Steve Rosenbaum, pay the fine themselves, as in out of their own pockets. Which sounds like "Dammit, you can't come into my court and pull crap like this and expect me to let you slide!" Be nice if it happened but, as the article notes, the 'Justice' Department will most likely wind up giving them the money, which means they're reaching into our pockets to keep these two lawyers from having to actually pay for their conduct.

The damndest description of a trigger I've ever heard

from comments on the Erma Carbine, speaking of a Erma Luger in .22:
Cons: The trigger is like dragging a piano across a gravel driveway with your forefinger in a loop of string, then up onto a high curb. But not in the good way.
Gerry, that's downright poetic, it is

I think the media spoken of in this DO know they're not doing their job;

they either don't care(because it would be reporting on The Obama and the socialists), or are actively not doing their job(because it would mean actually reporting on The Obama and the Evil Party/Socialists).

The Mayor of London has a message about taxes

that the dictatorial little bozos in DC would do well to listen to. They won't, for the same reason he lists for Brown & Co., Socialist Fools:
It is nothing to do with the needs of the economy, of course. It is all about politics. This Government has spectacularly mismanaged the public finances. It has overseen an explosion in the wage bill of the state, to the point where the average public-sector worker now earns £74 more per week than a private-sector employee, as well as having much better pension and other entitlements.

In the next few months there must be a bloody reckoning, and as the cuts fall, Labour wants to be able to console its suffering public-sector vote bank. You may be hurting, they will say, but the rich are hurting, too.

In other words the 50p tax is not far, in its political motive, from Stalin's assault on the kulaks. Above all, Labour wants to portray any opponent of the new tax as a thoughtless defender of the rich. We are not. The truly rich will get a smarter accountant or buzz off to Zug. What we want to protect is the spirit of enterprise that has been so vital in reviving this country in the past 25 years, a revival that has helped all sectors of society
.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

From the look of this, the Finns are screwed

When they start cooperating with "We need more laws even when they won't stop the bad guys" crap, they're losing. Or lost.

The Obama really doesn't want to discuss, or be reminded,

of his broken promise, does he?

Further on the case of the SEALs charged with thumping a terrorist

Info here, thanks to Blackfive for pointing to it.

It should be noted that a lot of the Obama supporters

are just flat friggin' nuts
Now, the inquiry, the questions are being raised as to whether or not this is not a deliberate attempt to embarrass... ah, that's not quite a strong enough word, but let's start there, embarrass the Obama Administration - that there are forces at work in this country, and I believe this as surely as I put on my right shoe before my left - that there are forces alive who are very active, very wealthy in this country, at work in this country that want Obama to fail no matter what and the idea of killing 200 to 300 people on a jetliner in order to make the point is nothing. It means nothing.
Mike Malloy, kool-aid drinker and muffin-snarfer of Olympic level.

“There has never been a more open process for any legislation,”

said Pelosi, thus demonstrating that she's either
A liar of incredible dirtbagginess, or
So deluded she shouldn't be allowed in public without a keeper to prevent her running into traffic.

Erma M1 Carbine, .22LR

Every once in a while you'll run across one of these. At first glance you'd think it was a M1 Carbine*; closer examination says 'no'. I found this page on the history, which says they were originally made as training rifles for the German authorities after WWII, when they were using a lot of Carbines; later they were made for export. There was even a version made in .22 Magnum. The history includes this:
One of their larger markets was France, but they also exported these two models to the Far East (Thailand, Pakistan, and others) and South America (Brazil, Ecuador, and others). One customer was a South American country whose military issued the ESG 22 to their troops that worked in dense jungle areas and called the rifle a "jungle carbine". The Wischo director indicated that all of Erma-Werke's rifles were manufactured at Erma's facility in Dachau, and the stocks for the various E M1 based models were supplied by Sile of Italy.
Hmmm. For pest control and such I can see, but issued as a 'jungle carbine'?

The rear sight is plastic, and looks remarkably like the M1 Carbine Type III adjustable sight. The receiver is grooved for a standard .22 scope mount, and the sight slides on and is locked on by a screw. I'm told that a lot of the rear sights were lost over time, and you can find posts at forums like Rimfire Central asking "Where can I get one?" Usually the answer is "You can't."

The one I've fired was picked up used, and had a very light, clean trigger(almost too light). It had a problem: when the bolt started forward to chamber the next round, it would strip that cartridge from the mag and then seemed to drag on the next cartridge, causing it to not quite chamber the round. The owner didn't want to fiddle with magazine lips(his first thought was the next round was sticking up a touch too high, but mags are about as impossible to find as a rear sight so if you mess up the lips...) and couldn't figure out what was causing it. The problem was finally tracked down when he noticed the bolt felt like it was dragging slightly in the first part of travel back from the closed position, same for the last bit of travel before closing. We disassembled it(instructions here) and found that the machining on the bottom of the bolt was rough; hadn't been finished well at all. A few minutes with a fine stone to clean it up and then a few strokes with a hard Arkansas to polish and it slid much more smoothly; lubed and reassembled, you could really tell the difference. The next day he tested it and went through about a hundred rounds of three or four brands with no problems.

It was a fun rifle to shoot. As I noted, the trigger is almost too light, more like something on a match rifle than a plinking and small-game gun. The safety is a lever in the right-front of the trigger guard like the later M1 Carbine version. Shooting offhand it was easy to keep shots in a nice, tight group at 25 yards. Too bad it's not still in production, or something like it; I think it'd sell quite well(a M1 Carbine lookalike that uses .22 ammo? C'mon, there's a market there!)

I'll note, if you do find one, do stop at the basic stripping for cleaning; the insides of the thing are, ah, interesting. The trigger, for instance:
Don't know about you, but I'd rather not have to fit that all back together if I don't have to.




*I've read there were two versions: one had a magazine that looked just like the M1 mag, the other, more common, is angled, slimmer and longer, obviously for .22. The latter came in 5, 10 and 15-round versions.

Just in case you're new here, or haven't heard of it,

when you have a chance you should to over to the Box o' Truth and look around; all kinds of neat stuff, like what a rifled barrel does to buckshot loads, and penetration tests. And lots of pictures of water jugs blowing up.

A fine demonstration of why people have lost faith in the Justice System

in this country; from one of the two links in the post,
Hrvol and Richter contend that prosecutorial immunity gives government officials the right to coerce witnesses to lie, withhold evidence pointing to a suspect's innocence, and work with police to manufacture false evidence of guilt, then use that evidence to win false convictions that send two men to prison for 25 years. Their motivation for making this argument is obvious; they'd rather not pay for their misconduct. But they're supported in amicus briefs filed by the U.S. Solicitor General, the National District Attorneys Association, and the attorneys general of 27 states and the District of Columbia. Notably, Cook County, Illinois, home to a number of wrongful convictions, also filed its own brief in support of the prosecutors.
Think about that; the Nation District Attorneys Assoc. says that a prosecutor who lies, fakes evidence, pushes people to commit perjury and KNOWINGLY put innocent people in jail should have complete immunity from being sued. That's just flat fucking disgusting. These bastards are supposed to care about finding the facts, the TRUTH of the matter, but they think they should be immune from punishment when they lie and cheat and...

From the other link:
Solicitor General Katyal and the attorney for the prosecutors in Powattattamie both made the absurd argument that the actual injury in Powattattamie occured when the defendants were wrongly convicted and jailed, not when the evidence against them was manufactured. Therefore, because the prosecutors were acting in their role as triers of the case when the injury occurred, they should be immune to lawsuit, even though they were acting as investigators when they conjured up the perjured testimony in the first place. Had they passed the evidence off to another prosecutor for trial, they could still be sued. This led Justice Anthony Kennedy to ask, "so the law is the more deeply you're involved in the wrong, the more likely you are to be immune? That's a strange proposition."

It certainly is. Katyal went so far as to argue that even police officers who manufacture evidence used to convict an innocent person may not be liable, so long as they tell the prosecutor ahead of time that the evidence has been faked—again because the actual injury occurs at the time of conviction, and at the time of conviction the state actor inflicting the damage is the prosecutor acting in his role as prosecutor, at which point he has immunity. Kennedy reiterated the problem: "Again, the more aggravated the tort, the greater the immunity."

If a prosecutor found out someone on the defense side manufactured evidence, they'd want them in jail; but the prosecutors think they should be free to do so...

Yeah, that video was right: don't talk to the police. At all. OR the prosecutors. Get a lawyer before you say anything other than "I want a lawyer." Because, according to the Justice Department, the police and prosecutors can lie and cheat and frame you and should face no penalty for doing so.

Global warming and the ice is all melting

my ass.
Winter Could Be Worst in 25 Years for USA...
CHILL MAP...
Britain's big snow shuts cities...
GAS SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT IN UK...
Elderly burn books for warmth?
Army drafted to rescue 1,000 snow stranded motorists...
Vermont sets 'all-time record for one snowstorm'...
Iowa temps 'a solid 30 degrees below normal'...
Seoul buried in heaviest snowfall in 70 years...
3 die in fire at Detroit home; power was cut...
Midwest Sees Near-Record Lows, Snow By The Foot...
Miami shivers from coldest weather in decade; Florida Gov Signs Emergency Order ...
Cold snap spurs power rationing in China...
This is the list at the top of Drudge today. Much like yesterdays and the day before and tomorrow...

I have to note that I walked into Wal-Mart the other day

for the first time in a long time. Except for a few things that, for some reason, nobody else carries, I've stayed out since the Wal-Mart weenies made their deal with Nanny Bloomberg's Mayors Who Want To Ban Guns group.

Well, while out getting groceries and such yesterday, there was a Super Center along the way and I stopped in. Generally speaking, mistake.

The place has gone downhill. Lots of stuff with prices not marked, only a few price scanners scattered around and not well marked, different brands mixed together(eggs, in this case) so you couldn't tell what the price was for sure without hunting down one of the scanners... Damn.

I used to shop there a LOT.

I do have to note that I went through sporting goods just to check, and they did have the bulk packs of Remington .22 ammo in, so I bought one. Just about the only thing that hasn't gone downhill is that when they do have ammo, it's at the usual price.

I don't know if they backed out on the deal, or if the 'We'll snitch on our customers for you' deal was only for certain places, but no videotaping or logging of ammo sales here.

"It is ALL Bush's fault!

Everything! I'm responsible for NOTHING!"
“Make no mistake, we will close Guantanamo prison, which has damaged our national security interests and become a tremendous recruiting tool for al-Qaeda,” he said.

In fact, that was an explicit rationale for the formation of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula first came to prominence in Saudi Arabia in May 2003. There is absolutely no proof that Gitmo had anything to do with the group’s formation. The first operational leader of AQAP was killed in June 2003.

One of these days somebody in the press corp is going to remember they're supposed to be an actual reporter and nail Gibbs or The One himself to the wall on this crap. It'll be fun to watch.

Sure enough, Arnold is getting around to asking the feds to pick your pocket

to save Californicated from the price for its own idiocy.

Screw that.

Few months back somebody pointed out Rep. Barney Frank("I slept with somebody on the board but that's no problem!" Corrupt-MA) was already starting the "We should do this" crap because MA is in similar state, just not quite as bad, and he wanted a precedent of the feds robbing the country when time to save the PROM from having to deal with its own idiocy and crookedness.

Screw that.

This is another one of those "Anybody who votes for such should be dragged out of that office and hanged by the short & curlies" matters.

And Gov. Arnold? Screw you.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

One last thing before bed: a followup on the TSA screwing around Updated

with people's lives:
At this point the TSA officials escorted Yon to a designated screening area where they examined the contents of his bag. “Then they asked me how much money I make,” Yon said. Yon suggested to the TSA officials that the question was inappropriate and unrelated to transportation security. The award-winning blogger noted another TSA officer approached Yon: “he asked who do I work for.” ”I did not answer the question which clearly was upsetting to the TSA officers.”

Yon was escorted to a room elsewhere in the airport where he said he remained silent during much of the questioning. According to Yon, “they handcuffed me for failing to cooperate. They said I was impeding their ability to do their job.”

Yon described the TSA officials as noticeably frustrated by his refusal to answer their questions: “I always assume everything is being recorded. I was trying to be professional.”

Yon continued, “They said I wasn’t under arrest, but I’m handcuffed. In any other country, that qualifies as an arrest.”

This is a marvelous example of clowns with too much authority over people abusing that authority. It's none of their damned business how much money he makes. Or who he works for, for that matter. But they just couldn't stand that someone would dare to not answer their questions, so he winds up handcuffed.

Makes me think: remember the video about "Never talk to the police", it being pointed out that no matter what you say, it can and will be used against you, even if you're innocent? Makes me wonder if TSA uses this to fish for SOMETHING they can misuse to screw somebody around so they can pad their "We did a good job" numbers. Or, there is the other possibility: they knew who he was and for some reason(orders from somebody?) were looking for something to use against him.

Either way, they suck.
Update: Yon now has on his Facebook page that it was Customs who handcuffed him

So, according to this guy, there's a burrito gene only found

in illegal aliens. From Mexico.

Well, if that's the case, we need to remove them from our gene pool, because who knows what other oddity might be running 'round in their DNA?

The things that happen when you're out buying stuff Updated

Over at Insty, among other things, we find a really cool killer drone(a little bitty one);

And we have a link to this critique of a piece of bullcrap from David Brooks. Insty says the Brooks piece doesn't seem that bad, that it might be Brooks trying to explain this stuff to the Upper West Side crowd; problem is, Brooks also crapped all over Palin at every opportunity, etc; he's explaining this by saying "Those cretins in flyover country aren't as smart or as well-educated as you, and so they oppose everything the Educated Class stands for." As Ace says,
Did you catch that? The public doesn't like the educated class, so -- because of that -- they childishly, petulantly take the position opposite that class.

Rather than: The majority of the public disagrees with this self-declared technocratic soft-socialistic urban would-be elite on most issues, so -- because of that -- their estimation of this small but extraordinarily noisy cohort necessarily diminishes
.
And adds
We disagree with you because we disagree with you; and we think you are arrogant, effete, entitled douchemongers because you are arrogant, effete, entitled douchemongers.
Update: I now have to add this link to Claire; go read.

Oh, wow, the Educated Class mental titans at the White House have decided it wouldn't be a good idea to send a bunch of terrorists to Yemen after all.
Tough call. Super-tough. I mean, it's just that a dozen Yemeni terrorists whom we released into Yemen's "custody" (and who then "escaped" -- whoopsie!) have rejoined Al Qaeda and are trying to kill us. Including blowing up planes over Detroit.

You know, it's a fundamental, unshakable premise on the left that these Gitmo detainees are innocent-as-lambs dudes who were just "scooped up" by our stupid, non-educated-class military.

It's kind of hard to make that claim when they all keep rejoining Al Qaeda, isn't it?



Oh, crap. If the fast food rejects with police powers known as TSA really wanted to demonstrate that a lot of their personnal are friggin' idiots, they picked a good way.
Got arrested at the Seattle airport for refusing to say how much money I make. (The uniformed ones say I was not "arrested", but they definitely handcuffed me.) Their videos and audios should show that I was polite, but simply refused questions that had nothing to do with national security. Port authority police eve...ntually came -- they were professionals -- and rescued me from the border bullies.
If this is indeed what happened, why the HELL were these clowns demanding to know that? Damn.
Also update: Play-Doh

It should be noted: Michael Steele is a jackass.


And someone who really was a communist bigshot warns of what the Democrat Party is trying to do to this country. Y'know, maybe some of the clowns in Congress should remember what happened in Romania when people finally blew up.


Stuff to do, guns to clean from the range trip. See you later

Couple of quick things this morning

First, somebody screwed the pooch bigtime, letting this guy in unscreened. And it cost.


Another case of our media failing in their job, foreign media doing that job. And, secondarily, that moron Johnson blowing another gasket.


If you can't stop the wind farm with honest argument, use PC bullcrap. Especially in federal bureaucracies and in the People's Republic of MA, that usually works. Enviroweenie mantra: "Go Green!(except we don't really want you to have any energy so don't really do it)


At the back end of the process, after foreign terrorists have been interrogated, It is a serious mistake and something of a travesty to try them in federal court (Padilla is not a foreigner, though). But it is close to criminal, at the front end, to give foreign terrorists rights enjoyed by ordinary defendants that make it more difficult for us to obtain information from them that might well prevent future attacks and save lives.

In the most telling moment of his interview with Wallace, Brennan was unable to deny that this is what the adminstration has done in this case.

WALLACE: But wait, wait. Let me ask you specifically. After Abdulmutallab got lawyered up, did he stop cooperating with authorities? Did he stop talking?

BRENNAN: I'm not going to address exactly what he did before or after he was -- talked with his lawyer. We got information. We continue to have opportunities to do that.

But it lets the administration play "We are the Ones" again, so they seem to think it's worth it. No matter how many American lives it costs in the long run.


Nearly the entire eastern half of the United States is enduring bitterly cold temperatures not experienced since 1985. Even Florida, which has been hovering around freezing levels overnight recently, is also feeling the almost-nationwide chill.

"It'll be like the great winters of the '60s and '70s," said AccuWeather.com Chief Meteorologist and Expert Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi.

The last time a large swath of severely low temperatures struck the nation was in January 1985. That historic arctic outbreak had below-zero temperatures Fahrenheit stretching from Chicago eastward to New York City, and all the way south to Macon, Ga
.
Global warming my ass. Go to Drudge and look at the top of the page; that whole string of 'record cold, record snow' stories.


And last, I wonder if Holder will treat this guy like earlier Border Patrol people involved in shootings?

I didn't hear Hume's comments,

but I'm tempted to conclude they were a good idea if only for the way they cause all the right people to wet their pants in outrage.

"The Most Ethical Congress EVAH!!!" Part Whatever

According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are “almost certain” to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps–not least among them, a series of special motions in the Senate, each requiring a vote with full debate–that Republicans could use to stall deliberations, just as they did in November and December.

“There will almost certainly be full negotiations but no formal conference,” the House staffer says. “There are too many procedural hurdles to go the formal conference route in the Senate.”

Translation: "To hell with procedure, we want to shove this through no matter how we screw the country doing it."

That idea of dragging people out of offices to the tar trailer is sounding better and better.

Monday, January 04, 2010

Snork. Hehehe

Because of the uber-leftist and showy multi-culture-chic nature of Portland, Oregon, the city housing authority scores brownie points and tax dollars by collecting more needy immigrants than Angelina Jolie.
More over at Sovereign Slacker

Ref the post about Dr. Helen and the book on young men

and violence, GuardDuck was kind enough to find the book I couldn't remember

For your friends/acquaintances who think "All the REAL scientists

who aren't bought off by Big Oil believe in AGW", pass this on:
But who are the skeptics? A few examples reveal that they are numerous and well-qualified. Several years ago two scientists at the University of Oregon became so concerned about the overemphasis on man-made global warming that they put a statement on their Web site and asked for people's endorsement; 32,000 have signed the petition, including more than 9,000 Ph.Ds. More than 700 scientists have endorsed a 231-page Senate minority report that questions man-made global warming. The Heartland Institute has recently sponsored three international meetings for skeptics. More than 800 scientists heard 80 presentations in March. They endorsed an 881-page document, created by 40 authors with outstanding academic credentials, that challenges the most recent publication by the IPCC. The IPCC panel's report strongly concludes that man is causing global warming through the release of carbon dioxide.

Last year 60 German scientists sent a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel urging her to “strongly reconsider” her position supporting man-made global warming. Sixty scientists in Canada took similar action. Recently, when the American Physical Society published its support for man-made global warming, 200 of its members objected and demanded that the membership be polled to determine the APS' true position
.
And who wrote this?
Neil Frank, who holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University in meteorology, was director of the National Hurricane Center (1974–87) and chief meteorologist at KHOU (Channel 11) until his retirement in 2008.

.22 snap caps

You can get .22 rimfire dummies, but they're action proving dummies(check feeding & such) and specifically say "Do not use as snap caps". Thinking about it, no mystery why: with centerfire cartridges the cap can use either a polymer pad or spring-loaded brass pad or something to cushion the firing pin; with a rimfire, can't really do that. I'd guess not economically in the case of the polymer or they'd be out there(think the whole rim area being polymer, which might be too thin for the job).
DISCLAIMER: this is just an idea I tried, and I'm letting you know about it. I'm not telling you this is the best way to make something of the sort, just that it works for me. Also, see WARNING at the end.

Here's what I came up with, using some 3/16" dowel and fired .22 cases
Cut a section of dowel. This is a tiny fraction over .8" long
Chuck it in the drill
Use the drill to spin it against some sandpaper to get a rounded point
You can glue it in, but what I did here was a couple of wraps of scotch tape to make it a tight fit in the case
and it's done. Here's one next to one in a 15-22 magazine
I've just finished half a dozen, and after several tries they seem to cycle just fine from magazine to chamber, and eject as they should; if need be you can adjust the length and profile. You could make them with .22 Short or Long cases for that matter. For dry-firing they're good for a half-dozen or so uses, then you'll need to put the wood into a new(once used?) case.

WARNING: If you make any of these up, you'd damn well better mark them- color the cases or something- AND keep them separate from any live ammo; with the shiny brass it'd be easy to get them mixed together with loud and bad result.