Saturday, February 12, 2011

In what used to be Great Britain,

"Don't put wire screen over your shed windows; if the thieves hurt themselves on it, you're in trouble!"
This is so freakin' pathetic you can't laugh at it. Especially the advise from the police:
Pc John Lee, a crime reduction officer for Tandridge, said: “We are constantly advising home owners to protect their property and the contents of their shed or garage, however, a commonsense approach needs to be taken.

“To properly secure your sheds, Surrey Police strongly advises people to invest in items such as good-quality locks and bolts, and not to resort to homemade devices, as this could cause injury.”
So. It's ok for the thieves to break or cut locks and such, but if you put some screen over the windows and the thieves get hurt WHILE BREAKING IN, their injury is your fault and you're liable. Wonderful.

Here's a thought on Obama & Biden's high-speed rail proposal:

President Obama, not surprisingly, wants to spend, excuse me, invest, 53 billion tax dollars—that's money you and I have earned through very hard work—in high-speed rail.

Not surprising because liberals-socialists-progressives-statists have always had a love affair with trains. It's a great way of maintaining control over unruly, freedom loving citizens.

Railroads are a perfect expression of the utopian collective favored by the left. This, in contrast to the individual who prefers making his own way, in his own vehicle, by his own route.

The ultimate expression of a state's love affair with the railroad was, of course, the cattle cars used by the Nazis, The National Socialist Party, to ship millions of Jews to death camps.

Relax, I'm not saying that Obama is a Nazi.

I am pointing out that there is a pronounced tendency among big government advocates to favor railroads as a natural extention of their power.

Take away a citizen's car and you make him dependant on the state for his mobility.

Uncle has a piece on situational awareness

and the lack thereof some people have. Two stories I'll throw in:
First, few years back brother-in-law was on his way to work one fine morning and got centerpunched at an intersection. The dumbass who hit him
Never saw the stop sign,
Never saw the guy on the full-dress Harley cruiser,
Never got off the phone, and
Had no idea what she'd hit. She got out of the car was looking at the front of her car- still talking- when she finally noticed him laying in the street, looked at him kind of oddly and asked if he was hurt.*


Second story is from tonight. I was on the bike, on my way home. Yes, the bike is black; it also has effing bright headlights, and running lights, and was on a well-lit street. Dumbass in grocery store parking lot pulls out into the street in front of me. It was one of those "Oh hell, I KNOW he's going to-" and started braking. Dumbass then notices me and stops- blocking two lanes of traffic- and sits there, probably wondering "Where did you come from?"


*My first thought on hearing that story was
"Are you hurt?"
Bang.
"Yes, but I'm feeling better now."

Travelers Insurance: the insurance company of gun bigots

and general jerks. The company reaction to a policy holder owning a AR15:
Through my insurance broker, Travelers Insurance Company informed me that the rifle was “illegal” and, as such was uninsurable. After lengthy communication with my broker who pointed out that the firearm in question is perfectly legal, and in fact, one of the most commonly owned rifles in the US, Travelers then modified their position, stating that this firearm was “undesirable” and that unless I sold or otherwise relinquished my ownership of this firearm, they would decline to continue BOTH my homeowners policy AND my umbrella coverage.
So if you own firearms and have any policy with Travelers, you ought to check for another company; if they'll do this, no telling what else they might do.

Giving credit where due

on that .45acp load with plated bullets I mentioned a few days ago:
In the comments Kevin mentioned his load using Ranier bullets, basically identical to mine. Which tripped a (stuck) relay, which reminded me I'd read a review of the Ranier bullets at Midway by a guy named Kevin(surprise!) which made me decide to try the Berry's in a full-house load, which led to the post. So it's all his fault.

Added: if you've never looked there, check out T.J. Conevera; they carry both Berry's and X-Treme plated bullets, and sometimes have the best price, including the shipping.

On an entirely unrelated matter, friend sent me pictures of some custom helmets; couple of them I don't think I'd wear.



Something thought I'd mention after the bike fired right up

Last time the Vulcan needed a battery I wound up getting one of the absorbed glass mat(AGM) batteries; maintenance-free, didn't cost much more than a conventional and worked very well; held a charge better even in nasty conditions. So when decided the VFR needed a new battery, got one of them. After sitting for more than two weeks in the cold garage it fired right up. I'll mention that son got one of these for his bike, and after it sat out in the weather(covered up, of course) for almost three weeks it lit off with not problems, too.

He got his here; looks like a good place for such.

This is going to stir some things up

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has announced the state will sue the federal government for its failure to secure the border and enforce immigration laws.

Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne held a news conference Thursday to announce their fight in the face of a federal judge’s ruling that parts of SB1070, the state’s controversial immigration law, are unconstitutional
.
Well, if the feds had been enforcing these laws, there wouldn't have been any need for 1070, so why not?


What? Hezbollah committed nasty crimes to raise money, and a Lebanese bank helped? Such a surprise, right?


Looks like that next-generation grenade launcher is working pretty well. Which means Obama & Co. will probably want to drop funding for it.


You might remember Algore jumping up and happily proclaiming the nasty winters are proof of globular warmering, and... increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming,”, etc. Slight problem:
Unfortunately for Gore and others who have claimed that the snow this winter is a global warming byproduct, their own authorities have said climate change will result in less snow.

Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have predicted warmer, less snowy winters.

A sampling:
  • “Snow season length and snow depth are very likely to decrease in most of North America … except in the northernmost part of Canada where maximum snow depth is likely to increase (Christensen et al., 2007).” (EPA)
  • “Decreases in snowcover and increases in winter rain on bare soil will likely lengthen the erosion season and enhance erosion intensity.” (EPA)
  • “Rising temperatures have generally resulted in rain rather than snow in locations and seasons where climatological average temperatures for 1961 to 1990 were close to freezing (0 °C).” (EPA)
  • “As temperatures rise, the likelihood of precipitation falling as rain rather than snow increases, especially in autumn and spring at the beginning and end of the snow season, and in areas where temperatures are near freezing. Such changes are observed in many places, especially over land in middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, leading to increased rains but reduced snowpacks.” (IPCC)

Algore, you're so full of crap you should be rented out to stand in the fields to fertilize them.


Ah, the fierceness of the Hope! and Change!!
The Obama administration's Justice Department has asserted that the FBI can obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process or court oversight, according to a document obtained by McClatchy.

That assertion was revealed — perhaps inadvertently — by the department in its response to a McClatchy request for a copy of a secret Justice Department memo
.
Kind of like how Gitmo is closed and all those civil trials for terrorists and illegal combatants and- oh, wait...


Heard about this the other day, I guess New York doesn't want people owning vacation homes and cabins in their lousy state:
A New York court ruled last month that all income earned by a New Canaan, Conn., couple is subject to New York state taxes because they own a summer home on Long Island they used only a few times a year. They have been hit with an additional tax bill of $1.06 million. [In re Barker, No. 822324 (NY Tax App. Jan. 13, 2011).] ....
...
[The judge] ruled that the couple's Long Island vacation home qualifies under the law as a permanent abode because it was suitable for living year-round—whether or not the couple actually stayed in the home wasn't relevant. Under the ruling, if an owner doesn't spend a single a day in a home it could still count toward a permanent residence
.
Way to go, NY; I wonder how many people called a realtor to sell their property when they heard of this? And how many are doing it now?


On the Mexican Gun Lie, here's some information to use in dealing with anyone who brings it up. One of the key- maybe THE key- points:
This means that the 87 percent figure relates to the number of weapons submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF that could be successfully traced and not from the total number of weapons seized by Mexican authorities or even from the total number of weapons submitted to the ATF for tracing. In fact, the 3,480 guns positively traced to the United States equals less than 12 percent of the total arms seized in Mexico in 2008 and less than 48 percent of all those submitted by the Mexican government to the ATF for tracing. This means that almost 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexico in 2008 were not traced back to the United States.
Wonder how Japete will decide to spin this?


A take on the upset at Glenn Beck for daring to slander Piven by actually(gasp!) reading her words on the air:
This controversy might in principle have remained in the popular press, but it has in fact rather quickly become a topic of academic debate too. The Chronicle reported this week that Cary Nelson, president of the AAUP, issued a statement saying that Piven is the victim of “what nearly amounts to an American Fatwa,” from Beck’s “virulent attacks.” Nelson says, “Amid these relentless tirades, Professor Piven has herself begun to receive threats of violence.” And he concludes by calling for—what else?—civility: “We join others in strongly urging those who are critical of Professor Piven’s writings to advance their positions in ways that foster responsible criticism and debate.”

“Responsible criticism and debate.” These are the cynosures of academic discourse. Who would be opposed?

Actually, it would seem, quite a few, perhaps beginning with Cary Nelson himself, who, by invoking the idea of “an American Fatwa,” indulged in the kind of rhetoric that can hardly be called responsible or conducive to debate. If you imply that someone is seeking to kill his opponents, you have pretty much ruled out the grounds for a respectful airing of differences of opinion.
...
Higher education has no special immunity from the angri-culture. On the contrary, it is a privileged haunt for those who delight in scorn, derision, and wrathful dislike of mainstream American culture. We cite academic freedom as guaranteeing our right to be vitriolic.

I don’t know of any simple remedy for that, but I do think it comes across to most Americans as hypocrisy. To claim academic freedom as a protection of one’s own diatribes while crying “no fair” when someone aims a diatribe back at you requires a clownish degree of self-regard. Unfortunately, what most Americans will take from this affair is that higher education has an abundance of that particular quality
.
No kidding.


Oh my. It's 55 outside, the third day after the last blizzard. And most of the snow is gone, and the bike wants exercise. I'm going to get the stuff 'round the house done and ride a bit. Without it being a trip to the intersection of Frostbite & Hypothermia.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Why is it that a bunch of the people always calling for an 'end to racism', etc.,

work so damn hard to keep the racial bullshit going? And make excuses for it?

If some white guy who could be labeled 'conservative' or 'Republican' said crap like this, the clown would blow gaskets; but when he's defending an idiot celebritute, it's all good.


Then we have another example of why we should stop giving money to the UN.


Add to that the sub-Jimmy Carter-level of skill the administration is demonstrating in their actions toward Egypt...

Thursday, February 10, 2011

I'll note I just heard that in Medford

this morning the wind chill hit -47.

I lived there at one time, but never saw it that bad.

Ref Project Gunwalker, if I'm not mistaken this letter

boils down to a very polite way of saying "Don't hand me any more of this crap, don't expect me to go away, and do not tell me not to talk to people." For instance,
Unfortunately, the reaction to my request has, so far, been little more than delay and denial. I finally received a letter at close of business on Friday, February 4, in response to my request. It came not from the ATF, but from the Justice Department. In that letter, the Department categorically denied that the ATF “knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser….” The Department said the ATF makes “every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico.”

However, as I explained in my initial letter to Acting Director Melson, the allegations I received are supported by documentation. It is already public record that federal agents arrested Jaime Avila on December 15, 2010—the very same day that CBP Agent Terry died. The ATF had been tracking Avila’s firearms purchases because Avila was a suspected trafficker since at least November 2009.1 According to the whistleblowers, at least one gun dealer wanted to stop participating in sales like those to Avila sometime around October 2009. However, the ATF allegedly encouraged the dealer to continue selling to suspected traffickers and asked the dealer to forward information about the sales to the Bureau
.
I think that pretty much breaks down to "Don't lie to me again."

Further down,
After the shooting of CBP Agent Terry, law enforcement officials recovered from the scene two assault rifles.9 On December 16, 2010, ATF’s trace results confirmed that serial numbers 1983AH3977 and 1971CZ3755 match two of the three rifles purchased by Avila and tracked by the ATF nearly a year earlier.10 In addition to these specific weapons, the indictment of Avila and others references approximately 769 firearms. Of those, the indictment refers to the recovery of only about 103 weapons. So, where are the other approximately 666 weapons referenced in the indictment? Why did the ATF not seize them?
"We already KNOW about this, and you lie to us about it? You actually think I'll just let this pass by?"

And one of my favorite parts:
The Justice Department’s reply asked that Committee staff stop speaking to law enforcement personnel about these matters. However, if not for the bravery and patriotism of law enforcement personnel who were willing to put their careers on the line, this Committee would have been forced to rely on nothing more than rumors in the blogosphere and a Justice Department denial to resolve these allegations. We need more than that. To be an effective check on Executive Branch power, we need cold, hard facts. We will seek them from whatever source is necessary.
"You do NOT tell me who I can and cannot talk to; and if I find you screwing with somebody for speaking to me, you'll regret it."

I could be mistaken, but I do think this letter boils down to "I know you lied to us, and I don't like it; I don't like you trying to tell me I can't speak to law enforcement personnel; and I damn well do not like being blown off." We'll see what happens next. Can just about guarantee there are people in BATFE, FBI and the Justice Department having nightmares about being put under oath and asked questions about this: "Do I try to cover up my part in this and wind up facing perjury charges?" In particular the BATFE people(sorry excuses for lawmen that they are) who were involved in this

'Vajazzling'?

And they're blaming GUYS for this?

Damn.

Damndamndamn. Brand-new #4 Enfields, in various cartridges and model variations.

I hate to think what they'll probably cost, but.. I want to see one.

Gee, lawyers in Illinois subvert the law;

anybody surprised?
A workers’ compensation arbitrator assigned to hear the case of an Illinois state trooper involved in a high-speed crash that killed two teenage sisters sought to keep a public hearing on the case secret.
...
Arbitrator Jennifer Teague wanted to keep the public hearing on his claim secret, according to e-mails obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat through the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

“We are going to do it on the sly with no press,” Teague wrote in an e-mail to her court reporter.

Mitchell’s hearing, originally was scheduled for Dec. 20 in Belleville, was pushed up to Dec. 17 and relocated to a Collinsville office without public notification. A decision on compensation has yet to be made
.

“There is nothing I can do to keep them (reporters) out of a public hearing, but will be more than willing to do a special setting and an unknown place and time!” Teague wrote to Mitchell’s lawyer, Kerry O’Sullivan, on Oct. 18.

O’Sullivan, in a November reply to Teague with a copy to assistant attorney general Bill Schneider, suggested an “off-docket trial of this matter to prevent or reduce media attention.”
Well, isn't that just wonderful?

According to Spillane, Schneider, who no longer works for the attorney general, did not notify his superiors of any effort to keep the hearing private.
Really? Or is this a "You can't prove he did" thing?*
Although neither Schneider nor O’Sullivan could be reached for comment, Geri Dreiling, a spokesman for O’Sullivan’s St. Louis law firm, Brown & Crouppen, said a lawyer is obligated to obtain a fair hearing for his client.
Uh, getting a fair hearing is not supposed to include subverting the law, you slimy bastard.
Spillane told the News-Democrat the attorney general’s office took the matter to its ethics officer and will decide whether to report the incident to the executive inspector general and the state Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
Maybe it's just that I don't understand the legal crap, but is there actually any legitimate reason this should not have read "...reported the incident to the ..." instead of 'will decide'?

Quick note on the weather:

it hit -28 in Bartlesville last night.

Since I'm allergic to frostbite and hypothermia

I'm inside looking at news. Like, speaking of the newest Amtrack theft of our money spending proposals,
In June 2009, longtime veteran Amtrak inspector general Fred Weiderhold was abruptly “retired” — just as the government-subsidized rail service faced mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes. He had blown the whistle on overzealous intrusion by the agency’s Law Department into his investigations of $1.3 billion in rail stimulus money and exposed how Amtrak’s legal counsel had usurped the watchdog’s $5 million portion of federal stimulus dollars to hamstring his probes. Even more threatening to the Democratic attorneys’ cabal, Weiderhold discovered that the federal rail bureaucracy was retaining outside law firms beyond the independent watchdog’s reach and obstructing subpoenas issued to an outside financial adviser.
And a bit more on VP Biden's connections,
Compounding matters now, cronyism runs rampant in the federal rail bureaucracy. >Biden’s lobbyist son, Hunter, sits on the Amtrak board of directors. Amtrak Vice President Eleanor Acheson is a close pal of — you guessed it — Joe Biden. She oversees the very Law Department accused of interfering repeatedly with the taxpayer advocates in the inspector general’s office. Acheson hired Biden’s former Senate staffer Jonathan Meyer as her deputy general counsel. Meyer called it a “happy coincidence.”
Maybe happy for YOU, you crooked bastard.


In the questioning of the clown from EPA the other day,
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., went the furthest, arguing that limiting the EPA would empower Al-Qaida by keeping the U.S. dependent on foreign oil.

“The Republicans have offered us a unilateral disarmament policy that Al-Qaida and other groups around the world will be able to exploit,” he said.
So if we prevent the EPA from shutting down coal mining and other industries in a idiotic quest to save us from carbon dioxide, it helps the enemy? Really, Markey?
That, and the Democrats’ softball questions for Jackson, prompted Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., to jokingly mimic their questioning style.

“Thank you, madam administrator. Do you like puppies?” he asked Jackson.

“Do I like puppies? Yes, so long as somebody trains them other than me,” she replied.

“I felt like joining Mr. Waxman and Mr. Markey in asking you questions,” Terry explained
.



While back, while having dinner with the daughter, I looked around the place and said "You know, we've actually made food so cheap that poor people can get fat, and liberals want to help the fat people by making food too expensive for them to 'eat too much'; these people are idiots. At best." Which leads me to the current efforts of the First Lady to interfere in what people eat and how much, and this quote:
Finally, our powerful corporation -- Wal-Mart -- whose alliance with Michelle Obama looks pretty good, at least at first. We are promised more affordable produce, which undoubtedly means that Wal-Mart will beat the living daylights out of produce suppliers, crushing a few thousand more small farmers. (In fact, what we need is higher-quality and probably more expensive produce, that which is less damaging to the environment, laborers, and consumers, but that gets into the "how do we afford it?" argument, which must wait for another day. Let's leave it that we like Wal-Mart's goal of selling more produce.)
I'll pass for the moment on the rant about 'None of your damned business what I eat' and get to the 'probably more expensive' part. Right now food prices are going up, it's hurting people, and this clown wants to interfere even more in the process because Wally World offends him by carrying non-pc-type fruits and veggies.

Right now we can get fresh veggies and such all year long because of the transportation network and getting stuff from all over the world. Literally. But since- especially this time of year- you can't get it from local/small farmers, I'd like to know just how he plans to force everybody to only eat what veggies(produced ONLY in the right way) he approves of? Etc.. Enough, not in the mood to bitch about this right now.


Well, after Obama bowed to him, what would he expect to hear from the King?
In a testy personal telephone call on January 29, King Abdullah told President Obama not to humiliate Mr Mubarak and warned that he would step in to bankroll Egypt if the US withdrew its aid programme, worth $1.5 billion annually. America’s closest ally in the Gulf made clear that the Egyptian President must be allowed to stay on to oversee the transition towards peaceful democracy and then leave with dignity.
This is after, to borrow from Gateway,
On Tuesday the Obama Administration asked Hosni Mubarak to step aside.
On Wednesday they said that transitioning power “now means yesterday.”
On Saturday morning the Obama Administration said Mubarak must stay.
On Saturday evening the Obama Administration said Mubarak should step aside.
On Sunday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Mubarak must stay in power.
On Tuesday the Obama Administration said that political reform will be a gradual process.

After days of conflicting reports the Obama Administration insisted today that their message has been consistent
.


Over in Multi-Culti Britain,
Up to 5,000 pupils attending weekend schools across Britain are being exposed to textbooks claiming that some Jews were transformed into pigs and apes, and that some offences could be punished with stoning. One book for six year-olds warns that those who do not believe in Islam will be condemned to “hellfire” in death.

Another text for 15 year-olds teaches that thieves who break Sharia law should have their hands cut off for a first offence and their feet amputated for a subsequent crime. Teenagers are presented with diagrams showing where the cuts should be made
.
...
For acts of sodomy, children are told that the penalty is death. A textbook says there are different views on whether this should be done by stoning, or burning with fire, or throwing over a cliff. Textbooks for 15 year-olds revive the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” which teach that Jews want world domination.
From the Saudi Embassy,
In a statement, the Saudi embassy said: “Any tutoring activities that may have taken place among any other group of Muslims in the United Kingdom are absolutely individual to that group and not affiliated to or endorsed by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.” The Saudi Ambassador told the BBC it was “dangerously deceptive and misleading” to discuss some of the texts outside of context.
Which probably means "We don't want you to talk about this, unbelievers! Stop it!"


Rep. DickheadWeiner(Hysterical Democrat-NY) wants to lecture Justice Thomas about conflicts of interest. But you'd better ignore his own, of course.
Of course Weiner is not one to talk about conflict of interest. In the 2009 spending bill Congressman Weiner sponsored $18.3 million in earmarks for 22 groups and projects, over $500,000 of those earmarks went to campaign contributors.

An earmark of $238,000 for the Sephardic Addiction and Family Education (SAFE) foundation, which may or may not be an organization deserving of tax payer dollars. Of course the fact that the organization’s board of directors have contributed more than $160,000 to Weiner’s various campaigns, may make it a bit more worthy in Weiner's eyes. Weiner also sponsored a $300,000 earmark for Brooklyn’s Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, whose director, David Mandel, personally contributed $6,240 to Weiner’s political campaigns.


You can set your 10-22 up to shoot arrows? Damn.


On the mess with TJIC:
"The irony almost unbearable. The man cheers on the shooting of a Congresswoman because he thinks the government is taking away fundamental rights and is becoming tyrannical. The gov't response? The police unilaterally violates his first amendment and second amendment rights.... no due process , no trial , no jury of his peers just some summary action by the executive branch of a municipality that doesn't even have jurisdiction over the internet! If that isn't proof of the tyranny this man fears I don't know what is."



Well, you want to see an effect on Europe's weather, wait'll this thing blows:
Scientists in Iceland are warning that another volcano on the island looks set to erupt, threatening to spew-out a blanket of dust that would dwarf last year's eruption.

Geologists detected the high risk of a new eruption after noticing an increased swarm of earthquakes around the island's second largest volcano Bárdarbunga.

Pall Einarsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, says the area around Bárdarbunga is showing signs of increased activity, which provides 'good reason to worry'.
...
The last recorded eruption of Bárdarbunga was in 1910, although vulcanologists believe its last major eruption occurred in 1477 when it produced a huge plume of ash and pumice and the largest known lava flow during the past 10,000 years on Earth.

It is the second largest volcano on Iceland and is directly above the mantle of molten rock.



That's it! We must do something about the attack jet/Ebay loophole!


And last, why we're winning: changing minds.

Combine -5 and the bit of melting that happened yesterday afternoon

and you find things like this outside. New record low for this date, by 9 freakin' degrees.

I figured it out; Gore is not only a crapweasel, he's Mab's tool, she's using him to freeze us.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

It's big, and it's loud,

and I want one.

Makes me wonder just how much input

Sheriff Joe Biden had in this.
In June 2009, longtime veteran Amtrak inspector general Fred Weiderhold was abruptly “retired” — just as the government-subsidized rail service faced mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes. Weiderhold had blown the whistle on overzealous intrusions by the agency’s law department into his investigations of $1.3 billion in rail stimulus money and exposed how Amtrak’s legal counsel had usurped the watchdog’s $5 million portion of federal stimulus dollars to hamstring his probes. Even more threatening to the Democratic attorneys’ cabal, Weiderhold discovered that the federal rail bureaucracy was retaining outside law firms beyond the independent watchdog’s reach and obstructing subpoenas issued to an outside financial adviser.

Hmmm. So Halle Berry is something of a racist and

a fool, or else playing the race card.
Berry, 44, is the daughter of a white mother, who was a psychiatric nurse, and a black father, who was a hospital attendant in the same ward. Aubry is French-Canadian and white.

The couple is in the middle of a bitter custody battle over their 2-year-old girl, Nahla.

"I feel she's black. I'm black and I'm her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory," Berry said in an interview with Ebony magazine
.
That she'll actually say this crap in public makes me wonder what she tells the kid about the father.

So Richard Daley the Turd

is not only a nasty bastard, Chicago PD officers had no problem abusing people for him. Just wonderful.
When the audience started yelling questions, I raised my hand in an attempt to get called on. At that point a woman walked over to me and asked me if I was John Lott from the University of Chicago. I said that I was, and she informed me that I was not allowed to ask any questions -- no additional explanation was offered.

This appeared awfully strange, and it bothered me that someone would be singled out in the entire crowd. So after about 10 minutes, I decided to raise my hand again to ask a question. The same woman reappeared, this time signaling to two plainclothes men to come up behind me where I was seated. The woman stated that only the press were allowed to ask questions and that I would have to leave. While she was speaking to me, one of the men gave me a couple of solid hits in my back and then pushed me hard on my shoulder, almost knocking me out of my chair. I told her that I wasn't leaving, but that I wouldn't raise my hand again.

Some in the audience noticed. A reporter from the Baltimore Sun (Joe Mathews) had been seated next to me and gave me his card, stating that he thought the whole thing looked surprising.

Ma'am Boxer(Socialist Gun Bigot-CA)

has a bill for the feds to decide how states should allow CCW. Among her brilliant ideas,
`(2) at a minimum, require that an applicant for a permit to carry a concealed firearm--

`(A) be a legal resident of the United States;

`(B) be not less than 21 years of age;

`(C) demonstrate good cause for requesting a concealed firearm permit; and

`(D) demonstrate that the applicant is worthy of the public trust to carry a concealed firearm in public.

Ignore everything else and purely on (C) and (D), Ma'am Boxer is invited to kiss my ass; those give anti-gun politicians and police brass a hole big enough to drive a semi through to deny virtually anyone and everyone a permit.

And let's not forget the question, just why the hell does she want the federal government deciding how states should be allowed to set up CCW laws?
Yeah, I know, silly question.

I wish I'd had this a couple of years back

when I was arguing with someone about the 1968 Gun Control Act.
Another one from my archives. The following reprint of an article from the May 1993 issue of Gun & Ammo came in a packet from JPFO with a postmark date of April 22, 1996. I don’t know when I purchased the book, ”Gun Control” Gateway to Tyranny, but it was probably about the same time. A scan of the cover of my copy follows the article reprint.
He's got four pages that deal with the resemblances of the GCA to Nazi weapons law. I'm going to borrow one of the pages; click to embiggen:

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

At this point there's roughly 4" on the ground

and still coming down, but I don't think it'll be nearly what the weather weenies were breathlessly predicting the other day. I don't expect them to know exactly how much'll come down, but when they ALWAYS get that look on their face and push toward the worst case, it doesn't help their credibility. It IS damn cold out there.

Speaking of weather stuff, last night I ran across this(cannot remember who linked to it) on the magnetic poles shifting, and claiming it's causing all the heavy storms of all kinds. Grist for the mill certainly; some of the predictions, I call BS, along with some of the 'reporting'. This about the flooding in Australia for instance:
...Shocked authorities now numbly concede that much of the water may never dissipate and have wearily resigned themselves to the possibility that region will now contain a new inland sea.
Well, I hadn't heard anything about that(the hurricane permanently blocked up all the drainage?), and apparently the locals hadn't either: - um... I live in Australia, and haven't heard anything like this at all... in fact the floods that were in brisbane have gone, and I see no evidence of an "inland sea" did you even bother to look for sources before writing this crap? Apparently not.

Anyway, the part that really got me was this:
"There is, however, a growing body of evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is about to disappear, at least for a while. The geological record shows that it flips from time to time, with the south pole becoming the north, and vice versa. On average, such reversals take place every 500,000 years, but there is no discernible pattern. Flips have happened as close together as 50,000 years, though the last one was 780,000 years ago. But, as discussed at the Greenland Space Science Symposium, held in Kangerlussuaq this week, the signs are that another flip is coming soon."
Ok, we know- have known for a long time- about the poles shifting; what's this 'disappear, at least for a while' crap? I don't remember a lot of my past geology classes, but I do remember that a big factor in generating the field is the movement of the core and surrounding layers, so unless they stopped moving there's no physical way for the field to 'disappear'. At all. Move around, sure; go away? Sounds like that BS in Gore's favorite movie about "The Gulf Stream just stopped!"


Speaking of Gore reminded me of one of those idiot Facebook things, I made the error of pointing to Howard Dean's comments and using a link to The Blaze for the video; this led to "Beck is a Liar!" commentary, with the 'proof' of his lies being a link to media Matters calling him names. Please. A: Media Matters doesn't exactly class as a unbiased information source, and B: Calling names and yelling "LIAR!" doesn't prove information false. And since the link was to a video showing Dean SAYING THE WORDS, I'm not sure how calling Beck a liar came into it at all.


My first thought about this was "If the information is correct, there are a bunch of people in alphabet agencies who need to be fired", but considering past history I don't have much doubt.


Yeah, the left really care about that freedom of speech thing, don't they?
Planned disturbances by Arabs and leftists have forced former U.S. President George W. Bush to cancel a speech to the United Israel Appeal (UIA) in Switzerland due to concerns for his security.

The calls to demonstrate were sliding into dangerous terrain, Robert Equey, a lawyer for the UIA, told the Swiss daily newspaper Tribune de Genève.

Bush was to launch the UIA’s annual fundraising campaign. The organization’s Geneva director, Nati Metuki, said that Bush’s appearance was called off after intelligence officials said that Arabs, anarchists and anti-Israel leftists planned to cause disturbances at the event.


Joe Biden's very enthusiastic about wasting billions of dollars of other peoples money on fast trains.


The Brady & Co. Wish List.
Other salient and recurring gun control issues that have generated past congressional interest include (1) screening firearms background check applicants against terrorist watch lists; (2) reforming the regulation of federally licensed gun dealers; (3) requiring background checks for private firearms transfers at gun shows; (4) more-strictly regulating certain firearms previously defined in statute as “semiautomatic assault weapons”; and (5) banning or requiring the registration of certain long-range .50 caliber rifles, which are commonly referred to as “sniper” rifles.


Was just announced that Bartlesville, up in northeast OK, has had 20" of snow so far. That's on top of the 20+ they got a week ago. Damn.


This should read "Which GOP candidate would the Democrats who read CNN.com like to see nominated?"


Breda had this a couple of days ago, should have posted it sooner:

Why Red, what big teeth you've grown!


Over at Sipsey Street, five questions for the Justice Department, BATFE and anyone else called in to be asked under oath.


And on that note, I think I need an early lunch.

My Dresden attire

at the party may have been too good: the birthday girl has posted a bunch of pictures on her Facebook page and guess which is the only one out of focus?

TSA chief John Pistole doesn't like private companies

that make his molesters look bad.
"If airports chose this route, we are going to work with them to do it," a TSA spokesman said in late December.

But on Friday, the TSA denied an application by Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri to privatize its checkpoint workforce, and in a statement, Pistole indicated other applications likewise will be denied.

"I examined the contractor screening program and decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports as I do not see any clear or substantial advantage to do so at this time," Pistole said
.
Translation: "These private companies are threatening my power and authority, and I won't stand for it."

I know for way up north this isn't that much,

but down here this just flat sucks:
...WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST
WEDNESDAY...

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST
WEDNESDAY.

* MAIN IMPACT: HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW.
HAZARDOUS TRAVEL DUE TO SNOW-PACKED ROADS AND LOW VISIBILITY.

* ACCUMULATIONS: 6 TO 10 INCHES. MUCH HIGHER DRIFTS ARE LIKELY.

* OTHER IMPACTS: DANGEROUS COLD. MINIMUM WIND CHILL -5 TO -15.
SOME RAIN AND SLEET IS POSSIBLE BEFORE A TRANSITION TO ALL
SNOW. AS TEMPERATURES FALL OVERNIGHT...THIS COULD LEAD TO A
THIN LAYER OF ICE UNDER THE SNOW...MAKING ROADS AND SIDEWALKS
EVEN MORE HAZARDOUS.
This covers most of the state, with- once again- central & northeast currently looking to get the most of this white stuff.

Mr. Rosenman, unless you're an absolute fool the answer

is YES.
As the movement to eliminate tenure takes hold, it’s worth asking advocates for dismissal of incompetent teachers whether they think that teachers are the only underperforming public-sector workers. Do they also favor more dismissals of subpar police officers and firefighters?
No, dumbass, I really WANT incompetent cops and firefighters on the job; what's a few extra crooks running loose or innocents in prison or buildings burned down and people dead compared to keeping the clowns employed?
Evaluating job performance objectively and assessing accountability for results driven by many factors beyond the individual teacher’s control are genuinely difficult. As a public school parent, I favor getting rid of incompetent teachers. But until we are ready to define and consistently apply fair standards for individual accountability for all kinds of public-sector outcomes, teachers will have some reason to feel they are being singled out for political purposes.
Hey, clown, we WANT incompetent teachers AND cops AND public employees out of that job; they should not be there if they can't do the job properly and well. And whether you want to admit it or not, it's quite possible to define fair standards for all those groups; in the case of teachers it's been primarily the unions and 'education' bureaucrats keeping it from happening.

Howard Dean: socialist crapweasel

of the first order:
Redistributing wealth is “what governments do,” former chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and one-time presidential hopeful Howard Dean told MSNBC‘s Lawrence O’Donnell Monday evening. “The argument is not whether they should redistribute or not, the question is how much we should redistribute,” he added.

Likewise, O’Donnell went after Obama for denying that it was his plan to redistribute wealth and for failing to scold members of the Chamber of Commerce Monday into paying their “fair-er” share of taxes. Without the redistribution of wealth, Dean and O’Donnell agreed, the country wouldn’t have Social Security, Medicare or… paved roads
:
So, if there was any doubt, Howard Dean thinks the government should be allowed to take all of what you work for and 'distribute it properly'; I mean, all you did was earn it, why should you be allowed to keep it?

And this is why I use Kim's term for the D party: the Evil Party

Monday, February 07, 2011

While waiting for the next snowfall,

predicted to arrive Tuesday night, I got all the pruned branches stacked out front for the big trash pickup; I know it won't be on time(Wednesday), but they'll do a makeup day a few days later, so got them out now.

Ok, looking around, Rep. Waxman(Socialist Jackass-CA) doesn't like the idea of oversight when it means looking at Obamacare:
"I am a strong supporter of congressional oversight, and I respect and support the Committee's right to seek information about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. But I do not believe your oversight powers justify going on fishing expeditions or making extensive requests for internal e-mails and other communications where there is no evidence of waste, fraud, or abuse of any kind."
Response:
...As Upton noted in his response, the latest figures from HHS indicate that more than 700 such waivers have been issued. "Thus, HHS has apparently granted more than three times as many waivers as you cite in your letter," Upton said. "This fact alone underscores the dire need for oversight of the health care law, its effects, and its implementation by this Administration."



If this pans out, it'll be wonderful:
Scientists at Oxford University have successfully tested a universal flu vaccine that could work against all known strains of the illness, taking a significant step in the fight against a disease that affects billions of people each year.

The treatment – using a new technique and tested for the first time on humans infected with flu – targets a different part of the flu virus to traditional vaccines, meaning it does not need expensive reformulation every year to match the most prevalent virus that is circulating the world
.
Of course, the idiots will be screaming because fewer people will be dying.


Want to have an idea why education in this state has been so effed up? The state Board of Education:
Among other things, the board voted to divert $18 million from the teachers’ retirement system last summer, violating an executive order from then-Governor Brad Henry. The board did not reverse course until former Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson issued a formal opinion declaring the fund shift illegal; violated guidelines over the use of federal stimulus funds and, after redirecting the funds for purposes authorized by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, failed to provide correct reporting guidelines to schools using the money; and failed to approve a budget work program that complies with former Henry’s executive order 2010-26, issued last June.
Please note that crap like that first item, in the past, is a big part of how the teacher's retirement system got so badly screwed up, too.


In the investigation by Trentadue into the death of his brother after the April 19 OKC bombing, all kinds of things keep turning up:
The federal government attempted in 2005 to reach a deal with bomber Terry Nichols to take the death penalty off the table in his Oklahoma murder trial if he admitted to making a warning phone call to the FBI the day before the 1995 bombing, according to new documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
...
They also corroborate Nichols' claims that the government tried to get him to admit to making an April 18, 1995 phone call to the FBI warning of the bombing. Nichols claimed he knew nothing of the call.
"What that indicates to me, there is a record somewhere of that phone call and the FBI needs to explain it," said Trentadue in an interview with KTOK News. "If the call was from one of their informants with McVeigh, clearly, they had knowledge of the bombing and didn't stop it."

I doubt we'll ever find out everything about this mess; too many people in Federal agencies have too much tied up in keeping things out of the public view. And some of it appears to be evidence of incompetence:
The explosives were discovered in 2005 in the crawl space of the Herington, Kansas home where Nichols had lived. The discovery came 10 years after Nichols' arrest and following a search of his home by federal agents in 1995. The explosives were not destroyed until 2008 by the FBI.


Well, isn't this just wonderful?
At the heart of the concern is intelligence indicating that Egypt has quietly carried out research and development on weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology.

The research and development has continued virtually without pause over the past three decades, according to interviews with U.S. officials and a review of intelligence and other government documents by NBC News
.
And with the administration making kissy-faces with the Muslim Brotherhood, this is just extra-special wonderful.


Well, well, well, remember Holthouse? Guy who said he'd gotten a gun and silencer and planned a murder? Guess what else he's done?
Experienced readers of Sipsey Street will recall that I have dealt with the subject of this serial libeler before here: "Meet David Holthouse, premier paid liar at the Southern Preposterous Lie Center."

That article mentioned that Holthouse and SPLC were being sued for libel by historian Guenter Lewy.

Well, lo and behold, SPLC and Holthouse apologized to Lewy and paid him some money to go away
.
Such a wonderful source for information...


Back to federal- well, do you call it incompetence? Idiocy? Self-service dirtbags acting without care for the harm they do as long as it makes them look good? And(they hope) gives them more money to play with?
Well the word from Phoenix is that the SAIC Newell wanted to be able to track where these guns were going in Mexico. As such, the analysts have made pretty charts with lines showing where these guns have turned up. I am not sure how that stems the flow of guns South, especially considering these guns usually get recovered alongside dead bodies.

Fox News about a year ago did a good report to disprove the myth that most of the crime guns recovered in Mexico came from the US. This report was based upon evidence they obtained in part from ATF trace reports. However, with the recent flooding of guns being “walked” to Mexico by ATF (intended to be future crime guns) there is statistical evidence to demonstrate an escalated flow of guns going South from the US. The solution…….(Part I) take “data” to Congress to get more money, Agents and stuff to battle the flow of guns to Mexico….but actually spend it “wherever”
.

Further, at the conclusion of this post:
“Rio Rico 2”. What happened in Rio Rico where 2 firearms were recovered?

________________________

Mike Vanderboegh answers: The murder of Brian Terry. Note that the origins of the scandal begin at least back in 2009. Note also the Justice Department approval of wiretaps. Do you recall what Senator Grassley wrote in his first letter of 27 January to Acting Director Melson about if the ATF had prior contact with straw purchasers that it would raise a number of serious questions? The fact is that coupled with the decision (by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer) to get rid of Attache Gil and keep the Mexicans in the dark, this is where the cover-up began. It explains why the FBI has been mum on the murder investigation. They CAN'T give us details without the whole sordid tale coming out.

And the latest from Codrea on this mess.


On a more local level, the Camden PD is apparently run by fascist clowns who don't care about that pesky oath involving the Constitution:
In the federal lawsuit filed last week, Davila claims officers are required to approach random residents and ask for personal information and, in some cases, take photographs of the individual or even run a warrant check without probable cause.

Officers are required to document the encounters and are then evaluated on how many reports they take during a shift, the lawsuit alleges.

Believing the practice to be a violation of citizens' rights, Davila objected to the initiative in a March 2009 roll call after Deputy Chief Michael Lynch allegedly stated "no resident of the City of Camden should be able to come out of their home and not expect to be engaged by a Camden Police Officer," the lawsuit claims
.
One of the things that pops to mind: did the PD run these randomly-stopped people through the Interstate Identification Index as well as a general warrant search? If so, they violated both NCIC police and federal privacy law as well as the other violations you can think of in crap like this.


Yeek!
Over the past 10 years, city cops fired 4,702 bullets, accidentally pulled the trigger 323 times, and missed 78 percent of their intended targets, according to data The Post culled from a decade's worth of NYPD annual firearm-discharge reports.
Which connects right back to Tam's post:
NYPD's Emergency Services Unit (which, among other functions, serves as their SWAT team) has managed to rack up three NDs in the past three months, including a rooftop sniper sending one flying while pulling security at a Madison Square Garden event and a cop on a raid in the Bronx shooting the suspect's father in the stomach.
Sounds like they need a training upgrade in NYC. Badly.


Let's see, a corporation is made up of stockholders, runs businesses where people are employed and thus get a paycheck, and now Obama says “Corporate Profits “Have To Be Shared By American Workers”? Uh, no, they don't, you socialist clown; they have to pay their employees the wages and benefits that have been agreed upon, nothing more.


NC Gun Blog looks at the problems with 'safe storage' laws.


And finally, when the Justice Department can't even deal with bogus domestic violence information, why should we expect them to deal well with anything else?

Tried something at the range today

I've been carrying Gold Dots for my defense ammo. I try to fire a magazine of them as the first ones so as to keep in practice with the amount of recoil and muzzle blast, but even handloading them Gold Dot bullets ain't cheap. Or even inexpensive. So did some digging around. I've got a bunch of 200-grain Berry's .45 hollowpoint plated bullets for loading practice ammo; they say to stick with mid-range loads but I decided to try them with a load comparable to the factory GD loads for that weight/type bullet.

I put 25 rounds of them downrange with no problems at all, and I didn't notice any more fouling in the bore than had after firing them with lighter loads. I'm going to have to make up some more and do some further trials, including shooting them over a chronograph to see if the velocity is coming up to what it should be, but so far it looks good.

From a comment on The decline of

male space:
...Of course, not only is the outdoors not designed or designed for men, but it is also being overran by asshole suburbanites who think it all ought to be made handicapped accessible and that wild animals shouldn't be allowed to kill morons.

Looks like both the Sheriff and the prosecutor in Pima County

need to become unemployed:
We are trying to hold a tea party on April 30th in Tucson. Already the blowback from some in leadership since January 8th has been to try and shut us down.

We were having a town hall/forum on mental health on Feb 18th and one by one the County Prosecutor and Sheriff have spoken to our speakers and intimidated them to the point where they will no longer speak. This really can’t happen.

We need help and want to make sure conservatives in our town don’t feel scared to speak out on issues they feel need their voice.

Apparently Sheriff Dupnik isn't only a dirtbag excuse for a lawman, that oath he took about upholding the Constitution doesn't mean squat to him. Same for that prosecutor.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Just bleepin' effing wonderful; another visit from the

North Pole in a couple of days. They just announced 6-12" possible over the northern half of the state.

I went to a literary-theme birthday party last night(hey, the lady is a librarian; she and her hubby were Arrol and Cordelia Vorkosigan) as Harry Dresden; at the moment I want to know who pissed Mab off, because I sure didn't do it.