Saturday, October 30, 2010

Ok, one more thing I just can't pass up

You know the rally John Stewart headed up? They one about 'restoring sanity'? Well, apparently Stewart & Co. consider banning photography(can't let the peasants know exactly what's going on, can they?) and hanging out with people who approve the death penalty for insulting the islamic prophet(bees pee upon him):
At least at the moment, Wikipedia has a pretty good page on how the interview went:

On February 21, 1989, Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston University in London about his conversion to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie’s execution. He replied, “He must be killed. The Qur’an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet, then he must die.” [5]

Newspapers quickly denounced what was seen as Yusuf Islam’s support for the assassination of Rushdie and the next day Yusuf released a statement saying that he was not personally encouraging anybody to be a vigilante,[1] and that he was only stating that blasphemy is a capital offense according to the Qur’an.

However on March 8, 1989, while speaking in London’s Regents Park Mosque, Yusuf Islam was asked by a Christian Science Monitor reporter how he would “cope with the idea of killing a writer for writing a book.” He is reported to have replied:

In Islam there is a line between let’s say freedom and the line which is then transgressed into immorality and irresponsibility and I think as far as this writer is concerned, unfortunately, he has been irresponsible with his freedom of speech. Salman Rushdie or indeed any writer who abuses the prophet, or indeed any prophet, under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. It’s got to be seen as a deterrent, so that other people should not commit the same mistake again.

Well, Yusuf- may I call you Yusuf?-fuck you. And your prophet. You have have performed submission, but the rest of us haven't, and we still believe in that real Freedom of Speech thing. So fuck you and every sharia-loving asshole out there. You call for murder of someone for their words, and then whine that he was 'irresponsible' with his freedom of speech? You, sir, are a inflamed boil on the anus of humanity. So take your 'submit to sharia' shit, eat it and die.

Hey, we can say "It would be seen as a deterrent", couldn't we?

Dinner with daughter, and now I'm full. Which, added to my messed-up

sleep schedule, means I'm going to leave you with a pre-flight Halloween shot

And remember, it's Zombie Week


at Whiteboard

Halloween safety advice

1. If someone tells you that you are the Chosen One and must save whoever or whatever, kill them and change your name.
2. Same bloody well goes for any harbinger of any "prophesy". If possible, resurrect them and kill them a second time.
3. If a mysterious and beautiful woman appears out of nowhere and is interested in you, run.
4. If you see a lone young child in the middle of nowhere and is uncommonly cheerful and/or giggling, run like you heard banjos.
5. Black cats, not so bad. Black dog that watches you without ever blinking? Don't run. Slowly back away.
...
12. For the love of the gods, if you are driving at night, fill the tank when you're between a quarter and half tank.
...
15. Little known fact, vampires are allergic to magnesium. When ignited and shoved down their throat.

Get the rest at Jay's place.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Dammit, I missed it till now: Project Valour-IT is on

over at Soldier's Angels. You can go with Team Army, Air FarForce, Navy or Marines; right now Army's in the lead.

Got a few bucks to spare? Here's a damn good place to send it.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

If any one statement could sum up how screwed-up our tax system is,

it's this:
"I don't even do my tax returns anymore," he said. "I don't know any tax lawyer who does their own tax returns. The forms are Greek even to us."
When the specialists can't figure this crap out, then at least half of it needs to be thrown out. Preferably 3/4.

For a start, anyway.

So Anschutz is clearly off the menu of things I'll buy.

Since they're so willing to throw us to the socialists and gun bigots, they can damn well do without any of my money.

Lasers instead of actual firearms for the biathlon, for 'safety' of course...
During the ISSF World Cup have in sport shooting in 2010 in Munich we and the company Armatix a biathlon rifle model with these Technology are presented. In this context, it was a lot of positive Feedback, especially on the part of various officials association at national and international level.
That would be some of the people who want the UN to control all small arms ownership and use? Whose idea of 'control' is to ban them entirely if they can?

To put it crudely, fuck Anschutz. And the pony they rode in on.

Now here's an interesting case

ATF agent shoots a guy in the Virgin Islands when the agent gets involved in a domestic dispute; feds give him an 'attaboy, back to work' but the VI plans to prosecute him. And the feds, including some politicians, are having fits.

Go take a look. Two interesting bits here: one,
"William Clark is a federal ATF agent who does not have peace officer status under Virgin Islands law and therefore had no authority to enforce law including the domestic violence statutes," said Sara Lezama, a spokeswoman for the Virgin Islands Department of Justice.

As a private citizen, Clark was authorized to carry a gun and use reasonable force to defend himself and others, Lezama said. But Sukow "did not inflict bodily harm on anyone the morning he was shot," she said
.
I took a quick look around and found this on VI firearms law:
"A license is required to possess, transport, or carry a firearm. A purchase coupon is issued to a license applicant when the application is approved. The weapon purchased is brought in to the firearms unit of the Virgin Islands Police Department. Information about the weapon is recorded and listed on the license issued to the applicant."
The statement would indicate that Clark had gotten a permit to carry; but if he was a federal agent working in his area he wouldn't need one, would he? Which means he was carrying and acting as a private citizen, as Lezama says. Which would throw out the argument from one of our favorite statists, Sen. Schumer:
"It is well recognized that federal law enforcement officers are immune from state criminal liability for actions that are taken within the scope of their employment as federal officers," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, wrote in a letter to Gov. de Jongh. "That principle... applies with equal force in United States territories."

The Clark prosecution "has the potential to create a chilling effect on the operation of federal law enforcement throughout the United States' territories," Schumer wrote
.
Can't have it both ways, Chucky;if he was there on duty he wouldn't need a locally-issued permit to carry, and if he wasn't then he should have no more immunity for his actions than any other citizen. For that matter, the 'immune from state criminal liability' is the kind of bullshit that's helped create the "We are FEDERAL Only Ones" attitude that causes such problems, and a lot of us are heartily sick of it(Horiuchi, etc.). If this guy being prosecuted causes federal agents to pay more attention to local law, I don't really see that as a bad thing.

Be interesting to see how this pans out.

Thanks to RNS for pointing to this.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

And we have the line of at LEAST the day:

Pulling my stuff out of the tray, I looked back at the guard and asked, as sweetly as possible, “So, where do I go vote... for whoever's gonna fire you?”

I would damn well hope not

The 31-year old housewife who shot and killed one teenage intruder and wounded another last week in Midwest City will not face any charges.
And it's related to the post at De Coster's place the other day:
That's because Oklahoma County district attorney David Prater thinks the actions taken by Amanda Walworth were justified---she had every right to open fire on the two teenage boys after they kicked in the back door to her home
.

I find that actually getting a full eight hours sleep does wonders

for the attitude. And aches. Unfortunately the shift is still going on, so it won't last long. In the meantime,
Among the reasons I despise Rep. Nancy Pelosi(NSD-CA)
By the end of 2008, Pelosi had been speaker for nearly two years. But the military was about to confront another controversy regarding her use of the Speaker Shuttle. According to a Dec. 9, 2008 military email, the Speaker Shuttle was at San Francisco International Airport as usual, waiting to take her back to Washington D.C. The email said that Pelosi wanted the jet to be moved, or "repositioned," just 51 miles away to Travis Air Force Base, closer to her Napa Valley home but far outside of her district.

"(T)he jet will not reposition to Travis," says a military official, "Jet will depart from SFO."

"(W)hy can't the jet reposition to Travis?" asks another military official. "You know this is a firestorm waiting to happen."

"We can't reposition the airplane such a short distance. It is not a judicial use of the asset. It is too expensive to operate the jet when there is truly no need to do so."
...
"We have never done this in the past. The deal is from (the Office of the Secretary of Defense and) the White House that the Speaker shuttle is from DC to SFO and back. We will not resposition. We do not reposition for convenience, even for the SECDEF (Secretary of Defense). It is not too far of a drive from Travis to SFO. Did the (Air Force) escort suggest to the Speaker that this is ok? If so, I hope you guys correct them immediately. If you agree with me that I am correct, then you need to stay strong and present the facts to the Speaker's office."

"She lives about 1.5 hours from SFO and much closer to Travis... From our point of view, it is difficult to tell the speaker that we can't support her when the whole reason we have a jet is to support her. Whether it is the best use of assets is not the question, but instead is it worth upsetting the speaker due to what really amounts to a rather minor point?"

Translation: "Pelosi will rip us all she can if we dare to 'inconvenience'her."
If you'll recall, she demanded a bigger plane than any other Speaker has ever had and her use of it has cost us a bloody fortune(according to Ace about $30k per trip, and I think that's each way), and then crap like this on top of it.


And yeah, this does smell of desperation: insult the Catholic church while trying to insult a Protestant who's running for office.


Hee, I think this would be something to give the bad guys nightmares:
More here; thanks to Theo for the pointer



debkafile's military and counter-terror sources confirm the WikiLeaks revelation that Iran developed camera-equipped suicide vests for al Qaeda's attacks on US troops under the instruction of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Center in Tehran.


Go over to Whiteboard for the rest


Among the reasons I despise Obama & Co.:
“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,’ if they don’t see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it’s gonna be harder and that’s why I think it’s so important that people focus on voting on November 2.”
Hey, Mr. President: you call people the 'enemy', they're going to start acting like The Enemy; you really sure you want to turn that dial?


And last, another update on the Erik Scott murder/manslaughter, and the apparently continuing harassment of Samantha Sterner. Aren't there ANY supervisors in LVPD with the brains to put a stop to this?

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Ok, I was wrong: I went by Two-Four and ran across these

The kind of crap that causes people to not like or trust the police.

What idiot actually believes THIS is how you're supposed to act? Are you supposed to kiss their shoe while they're cuffing you, too? Bleeping Jesus on a pogo stick.

And last, as he says, you make the shot count and put the threat down. Period. Someone makes grownup threats to your life, they have to live by the grownup rules. And, in such a case, die by them.

I need to stop looking at his place this late; some of that crap pisses me off enough that my already messed-up sleep cycle may be even worse, now.

Let's just say that shift work is once again kicking my ass

Reminds me of why I retired in the first place. So not much tonight, just concentrating on two pieces of BS from New York, both from NYEffingC and Bloomberg & Co. First, what these nanny-state clowns think should prevent you from being allowed to exercise a constitutional right:
§ 3–03 Grounds for Denial of Permit. An application for a rifle/shotgun permit may be denied [if] for lack of good moral character or other good cause, pursuant to section 10–303 of the Administrative Code, based on the following reasons:
(a) The applicant has been arrested, indicted or convicted for [any] a crime or violation except minor traffic violations, in any [jurisdiction,] federal, state or local jurisdiction....
(g) The applicant has a history of one or more incidents of domestic violence [note that this doesn’t require a conviction or even a finding by a court by a preponderance of the evidence, just presumably the administrative officials’ own evaluation –EV].
(h) The applicant has a poor driving history, has multiple driver license suspensions or has been declared a scofflaw by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
...
Please note that this is not to deny a carry permit, this is to deny owning a long gun at all.
Further, catch that 'arrested, indicted or convicted for' part? If you've ever been arrested for ANYTHING, indicted for ANYTHING, even if you were never convicted or it was a bad arrest or whatever, THAT is something they think should trash your 2nd Amendment rights forever. Same on the 'domestic violence' crap; 'incidents of' can mean just about anything they want it to.
And POOR DRIVING HISTORY for Deity's sake?
And that's just part of it; go read the rest.

And from SiH,
“There’s no way I could vote on this. Since I’ve been in the council, we’ve voted on numerous bills where fees and fines were increased and it would send a strange message to New Yorkers that the one fine we look to reduce is the fee and fine to permit a gun,” Councilman Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn), who did not attend the caucus, said.
So pay a FINE to get a gun permit? Oh, that's just so full of Fail it's amazing.


Unrelated to NYE'C, I was thinking: my first job was at a motorcycle shop, my second an assistant janitor, the third cleanup and delivery at a blood bank and then into dispatch and my later career; the dispatch and beyond had shift work- 29 years of it- and the blood bank I was on call every other week for getting blood to hospitals when an emergency happened or they ran short. So except for two part-time jobs I've done shift work my whole adult life. Damn.

Among the reasons I despise politicians

But the bottom line remains that this story was a desperation measure by partisan Republicans, who have stooped to slinging mud about junior staffers to score points in the waning days of her campaign.”
Yeah, perjury and violation of immigration laws, let's see, “an uncharged coconspirator in the crime of perjury, filing false immigration documents, the crime of sham marriage.” is all a 'desperation messure', 'slinging mud', etc.

Manley, you're nothing more than a standard-issue canker on the national ass.
The highest level of management inside the Department of Homeland Security was aware that she worked for Reid, multiple sources confirmed, and following protocol, the majority leader should have been informed of the investigation through those channels, as well.

But in July 2009, when an ICE agent testifying at Tarhini’s preliminary deportation hearing was asked specifically about Tejada’s employer, the agent did not say it was the U.S. Senate.
ICE Special Agent Rebecca Perkins: “Currently she is employed with the — a Hispanic center organization.”
Tarhini's Defense Counsel, Jeffrey Byers: “Is that La Raza? Does that sound familiar?"
Perkins: “I don’t know.”
Byers: “It’s a — it’s a — it's something that is a public service group for the Hispanic community. Is that a fair statement, or something to that degree?”
Perkins: “Yes”
Translation: "She works for Senator Reid, but we're not supposed to say that."

Bleep.

Monday, October 25, 2010

For the moment let's ignore the DOJ not doing its job;

there's at least one full level of politicians in IL who should be in jail. At the least.

Now back to DOJ: Every bureaucrat involved in helping IL keep this crap going should be immediately fired. And have to return their pay for about, oh, the last six months or so; if they weren't doing the damned job, they shouldn't profit by it.

This is promising

The massive movement of intelligence gathering and analyzing forces from Iraq to Afghanistan in the last two years is paying off by cutting Taliban supplies of weapons, and money. More and more captured (often from dead Taliban) weapons and ammunition is of poor quality. Explosives, even the stuff made from ammonium nitrate fertilizer, is harder to get, and often used in smaller quantities in order to make more roadside bombs. That, in turn, is just getting more Taliban killed, including many more leaders. ...These are increasingly more dangerous because the Americans have more UAVs, along with camera towers and aerostats (tethered blimps) that can see for long distances, day or night and in any weather. It's not just that the cameras can pick up some guys planting a bomb (and call in an air strike), but can detect suspicious movement of any kind. The terrorists are creatures of habit, and the intelligence software can detect habits.

Google can take that 'Don't be evil' crap and shove it

Earlier this year the California-based firm admitted that the cars' antennae had also scanned for wireless networks, including home wi-fi, which connect millions of personal computers to the internet.

Google registered the location, name and identification code of millions of networks and entered them into a database to help it sell adverts.

The firm - which uses the slogan 'Don't be evil' - was able to record the location of every wireless router and network without alerting households because wi-fi signals are 'visible' to other internet devices, including the cars' antennae.

Google played down the significance of the wi-fi mapping and insisted it had not collected or stored data from personal computers.

It then backtracked and said its software had 'inadvertently' collected fragments of data (remember that phrase)which were being transmitted as the cars criss-crossed Britain.

The cars' antennae skipped networks five times a second, it said, meaning each network was only accessed for one-fifth of a second.

But it has now emerged that entire emails, web pages and passwords were copied and stored during that split-second.
And Google is oh, so upset! that this happened. And it was all an accident, etc. Reason I have a hard time trusting this?
In the past year alone he has:

* Addressed criticisms of Google’s stance on privacy by saying, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
* Claimed people want Google to “tell them what they should be doing next.”
* Said of Google, “We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”
* Said this: “One day we had a conversation where we figured we could just try to predict the stock market. And then we decided it was illegal. So we stopped doing that.”
* Suggested name changes to protect adults from the Web’s record of their youthful indiscretions.
* Said this: “What we’re really doing is building an augmented version of humanity, building computers to help humans do the things they don’t do well better.”
...
And Schmidt’s far from done. Appearing on CNN’s “Parker Spitzer” program last week, he said that people who don’t like Google’s Street View cars taking pictures of their homes and businesses “can just move” afterward to protect their privacy. Ironically, he said this on the very day that Google admitted those cars captured more than just fragments of personal payload data.
Add this to Google sucking up to the PRC and selling out bloggers, and there's no good reason to believe them, or trust them to completely delete the information they 'accidentally' sucked up.
“We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and I would like to apologize again for the fact that we collected it in the first place,” wrote Alan Eustace, a senior vice president of engineering and research.
"We WANT to"... Not "We WILL", but "WANT to". I've been listening to politicians too long to trust that 'WANT' to mean they WILL.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Two things to note this evening: one standard leftist idiocy,

the other sufficient to call for various politicians to be removed from office. For even proposing it.

First, the tea parties are full of racists and lynch mob mentality; it's the ONLY explanation, of course.

Second, a bunch of brainless fools have apparently decided it's just too hard to expect people here legally to become citizens; so they should be allowed to vote anyway.

I'm tired, and achy, so I'll leave it to you to generate words of outrage.

This is not an election on November 2.

This is a restraining order. Power has been trapped, abused and exploited by Democrats. Go to the ballot box and put an end to this abusive relationship. And let’s not hear any nonsense about letting the Democrats off if they promise to get counseling.
That first two sentences has to be the Lines Of The Week. At least.