Saturday, December 03, 2011

Gen. Napier, Britain needs you now

More than 2,800 so-called honour attacks - punishments for bringing shame on the family - were recorded by Britain's police last year, according to figures released yesterday.

At least 2,823 incidents of "honour-based" violence took place, with the highest number recorded in London, the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO) found.

The figures were compiled from 39 out of the 52 British police forces. The others were unwilling or unable to provide data. Eight areas recorded at least 100 incidents, the figures showed.

The attacks included murder, mutilation, beatings, abduction and acid attacks.

Compared with 2009 figures released by 12 police forces, there was a 47 per cent rise in incidents
.
And what horrible acts could be seen as justification for this?
Things considered dishonourable include having a boyfriend, being a rape victim, refusing an arranged marriage, being gay and in some cases wearing make-up or inappropriate dress.
Fucking wonderful people, aren't they? If somebody raped my daughter I'd be looking to hang the bastard, not blame her.

Oh, and take note of the delicate wording:
Honour crimes mostly happen in South Asian, eastern European and Middle Eastern communities, she said.
Because saying "This mostly happens in muslim communities" isn't allowed; insensitive and all, y'know...

(if you're not familiar with Napier,
A story for which Napier is often noted involved Hindu priests complaining to him about the prohibition of Sati by British authorities. This was the custom of burning a widow alive on the funeral pyre of her husband. As first recounted by his brother William, he replied:

"Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.")

And, connected with the previous Holder post,

even NPR is getting in on Gunwalker now(here's the direct NPR link).
Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole sent nearly 1,400 pages of emails and other documents to Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon that lay bare the raw and sometimes cringe-worthy process by which the letter was drafted. The materials contain clues into how misleading information about the botched gun trafficking operation made it into a Feb. 4, 2011 letter to Congress that department leaders have since acknowledged was false. . .

Here are a few of the new disclosures contained in the documents:

— The basis for the inaccurate statements in the letter appears to have originated among people in the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona and among ATF officials earlier this year, according to the new letter to Congress. Notes taken by a Justice Department legislative affairs person who helped prepare a response to Congress include statements that found their way into the faulty Feb. 4 letter, including: "ATF doesn't let guns walk" and "we always try to interdict weapons purchased illegally." Also at the meeting were the ATF's top congressional liaison and a high level deputy named Billy Hoover. At other times, the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona passed along inaccurate information about the length of the gun trafficking operation and the timing of when guns were purchased.
...
...Weinstein, who had served as a highly regarded prosecutor in Baltimore and New York for a decade before taking a political appointment at the Justice Department, already had come under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers. They say he had approved the use of wiretaps in the Obama administration's Fast and Furious operation and he should have dug deeper. The department has acknowledged that the operation sent as many as 2,000 weapons into Mexico but failed to follow them. Many of those guns later ended up at crime scenes on both sides of the border, including near the body of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

Justice officials say Weinstein relied on the ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office in drafting the letter.
(anybody else see a "It's Newell & Co. at fault, don't blame US!" theme?)
...
Former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, who resigned in August as the gun trafficking scandal intensified, repeatedly urged Justice officials in Washington to "push back" against "categorical falsehoods" coming from whistleblowers inside the ATF and from members of Congress. Burke also had some choice words for Sen. Grassley's staff, which he said were "acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby" and "lobbing this reckless despicable accusation" about ATF. In another message, he tells a colleague that the congressional accusations are "among the lowest acts I have ever seen in politics." Burke may have been relying on aides in his office, who more closely supervised the day to day activities of the ATF in the gun trafficking operation.

"Dennis Burke is a standup guy. He provided what he believed to be accurate information to the Department of Justice, as he always does," said Chuck Rosenberg, an attorney for Burke
.(Ok, we have the Evil Gun Lobby controlling things plus "Blame the aides! They didn't get him all the information!!" I wonder if that's also going to be the excuse somehow for Burke attacking a whistleblower?)
...
And, of course,
“Weinstein has expressed to me that, in hindsight, he wishes he had not relied on those assertions and that, because he did rely so heavily on them, he viewed, incorrectly, the misguided tactics used in Operation Wide Receiver — which resulted in the ATF losing control of guns that then crossed the border into Mexico — as having no relation to the allegations that were being made about Operation Fast and Furious,” Breuer said today in a written statement to Congressional investigators.
"BUSH STARTED IT!!!"
Reading some of this, some of these clowns(Weinstein, possibly) weren't aware of all of the crap; but most of them damn sure were; they KNEW, and they lied, and they're still lying and breaking other laws.

If you can go to Sipsey, he's got links interspersed with the post that cover other media reports and blog posts on this mess overall and some of the people involved.

I tend to forget about Holder's part in another coverup

of an apparent crime committed by federal personnel:
In the letter, Trentadue told the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee the following:

You need to know that Eric Holder, now nominated to become Attorney General, played a key role in covering up the torture-murder of my brother, Kenneth Michael Trentadue. You also need to know that Mr. Holder did this while serving as Deputy Attorney General and Acting Attorney General from 1997-2001.This is not just my shocking opinion. It is also the opinion of many Americans. More importantly, it is supported by the Justice Department’s records and actions that came to light as a result of my family’s efforts to obtain a certain measure of justice for my brother’s murder.

Kenneth was killed in Oklahoma City in August of 1995. My family has spent over 13 years investigating my brother’s gruesome murder, including bringing a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court in 1997. In that case, the Justice Department hid and destroyed evidence that would have exposed my brother’s murders, and we believe that Mr. Holder was directly involved in those acts of obstruction of justice.
...
The paper trail on Mr. Holder’s actions is scant. However, e-mails and handwritten notes by those working under Mr. Holder in the Justice Department have surfaced. These documents paint a clear picture of a wide-ranging and cynical scheme, run directly by Mr. Holder, to quash my family’s efforts to have my brother’s murder investigated, and to deflect congressional oversight and media attention from the shocking circumstances of his death.

According to these documents, a significant part of this plan involved Mr. Holder convincing Congress not to inquire into my brother’s murder. The plan called for Mr. Holder to meet with Senator Hatch on October 9, 1997, just prior to the Justice Department’s issuance of a Press Release announcing that the federal grand jury supposedly “investigating” my brother’s murder had failed to charge anyone with this crime.

The stated purpose of this meeting between Mr. Holder and Senator Hatch was to defuse Judiciary Committee oversight and media inquiry into the circumstances of my brother’s death. In fact, one e-mail states that “we ain’t looking for press on this. Hill takes priority.”

But that meeting apparently did not go as planned by Mr. Holder, because the next day, October 10, 1997, Senator Hatch gave an exclusive interview to Fox News in which he spoke out against the results of the grand jury and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.

Video at the link

Let's see, TSA idiocy and bad behavior or one of Obama's appointees blaming Jews:

Which to start with... Ok, I'll go with the Fast Food Rejects with Police Powers:
When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator.

She said she normally gets patted down. But this time, she says that two female agents escorted her to a private room and began to remove her clothes.

“I was outraged,” said Zimmerman, a retired receptionist.

As she tried to lift a lightweight walker off her lap, she says, the metal bars banged against her leg and blood trickled from a gash.

“My sock was soaked with blood,” she said. “I was bleeding like a pig.”
But the TSA assures us that Procedures Were Followed, We Care For Your Dignity, etc.


You want further reason why Israel doesn't trust Obama? And why some liberal Jews here are getting fed up?
“A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” Gutman reportedly said, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “He also argued that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism.”

According to the account in the Israeli paper, “The legal experts at the event were visibly stunned by Gutman’s words, and the next speaker offered a scathing rebuttal to the envoy’s remarks.”

Gutman was a major fundraiser for President Obama’s 2008 election campaign. He bundled $500,000 for Obama, according to OpenSecrets.org, personally giving at least $2,300 to the campaign
.
And Obama made him ambassador to Belgium, where he can say crap like this.
Added:
Earlier, Gutman also presented participants with a short video clip showing him received with warm applause at a Muslim school in Brussels. While he did not mention what prompted the warm reception, his message was that this is the kind of welcome given to a Jew who supports President Obama’s policy of openness to Islam.

Approached by Yedioth Ahronoth, the US envoy was asked whether Obama’s policy did not cause America to lose its influence in the region. Gutman responded by saying that the Arab world appreciates Obama following his speech in Cairo, referring to an address delivered by the president in 2009.

Friday, December 02, 2011

If you're thinking of acquiring a Crimson Trace for your piece,

they've got a discount right now.

If you're not familiar with revolvers, a pretty good 'Do this/don't do THAT!' on the subject.

First found at Uncle, second here

When a piece of 'gun nuts' whining hits the second paragraph

like this:
Though he had said nothing about gun control in the campaign*, Obama, to a certain kind of person, appeared to be a grave threat to the Second Amendment. He was urban — Chicago, not the kind of place where a man could shoot a coyote with a laser-sighted Ruger while on his daily jog, as Gov. Rick Perry claims to have done. He was professorial, with scholastic braising at that home of confiscatory consensus, Harvard. And he’d made that statement about rural people clinging to guns and religion.
you pretty much know exactly what's coming. It's as if his pre-White House 'Ban this, license that, restrict everything else' record doesn't exist. Oh, and Gunwalker started under BOOOOSH!, and this was done the same way but we let BOOOOSH! get away with it, and it really was just a flawed LE action, and... etc.



*My note: he also seems to have forgotten that "Even if I wanted to take your guns away, I don't have the votes!" line; we haven't. Nor what it means.

Ah, a Friday afternoon Gunwalker document dump!

Just found these links at Drudge, haven't had time to read them yet:
The Justice Department on Friday provided Congress with documents detailing how department officials gave inaccurate information (as in LIED)to a U.S. senator in the controversy surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the flawed law enforcement initiative aimed at dismantling major arms trafficking networks on the Southwest border.


The Justice Department released documents today detailing how officials prepared a Feb. 4 letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that Attorney General Eric Holder has since admitted contained false information about Operation Fast and Furious, a botched gun operation under investigation by Congress.


In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not sanctioned the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser and that the agency makes every effort to intercept weapons that have been purchased illegally. In connection with Operation Fast and Furious, both statements have turned out to be incorrect.

Anybody else get the feeling there's a bunch of "Ok, so we lied, but we're confessing in weasel-words now so you can't do anything to us!" ass-covering going on?

Once again: Holder & Napolitano lied under oath

And they're still lying. Along with a bunch of other ATF and FBI and DEA and DHS people, all of whom should be prosecuted for perjury.


And let it not be forgotten: Codrea and Vanderboegh are the ones who made sure this mess didn't fall down the DC memory hole.

Ilario Pantano cleared: and every sonofabitch in the Marine Corps and NCIS

involved in screwing this man over ought to be canned.
At the Dover morgue a year later, Mr. Rodriguez was troubled by all the murmuring of “guilty” he heard from investigators as he began to scrutinize the skeletons of Ali Hamaady Kareem and Tahah Ahmead Hanjil.

He also wondered why the Marine Corps lodged premeditated murder charges against Lt. Pantano without benefit of an autopsy of the two dead men — the chore he was now performing after the officer endured a grueling pretrial hearing.

“I think there was a rush to judgment,” Mr. Rodriguez, who retired last month, told The Washington Times.

“In a case like this, if I was charged with something, I would insist that the forensic evidence be looked at before I would be found guilty. They were looking at really going after him, making an example of him.

“People were kind of second-guessing the soldier in the field in a wartime situation. That to me, personally, upset me for people try to second-guess a soldier who’s in the field facing danger every day, not knowing who is their friend or foe.”
...
“When the remains arrived, I didn’t expect the large crowds of people to [be] present at the mortuary,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “Most were NCIS agents and various representatives of the Marines.

“Prior to the exams, there was much discussion concerning the case, talk of court-martial, prosecution and being guilty. The image that came to my mind … was that of a lynch mob: ‘Let’s make an example of him.’

Charles Gittins, the civilian lawyer who represented Mr. Pantano, said it is unusual for a military medical examiner to take on the high command.

“The medical examiner’s letter underscores the fact that [the] government proceeded to murder charges and the hearing without doing their homework,” he said. “For the medical examiner to contact Ilario Pantano demonstrates a concern the doctor had for the political ramifications for the case.”
...
On May 12, 2005, a Marine hearing officer recommended that the Corps drop the murder charges. He said Mr. Pantano’s chief accuser was disgruntled over being demoted within the platoon and repeatedly changed his story.

No autopsy reports were submitted into evidence. Mr. Gittins said he was told that it was too dangerous for Navy investigators to try to exhume the bodies.

After the hearing verdict jolted and embarrassed the high command, things changed. The military won approval from the wives and village elders and dug up the remains.
And found the accuser lied. Repeatedly, and under oath. Which, if this so-called 'investigators' had done their friggin' jobs, would have been known a long time ago. Of course, that would have required the lawyers and politicians in uniform to be more concerned with FINDING THE FACTS instead of doing what they thought would make them popular with the 'right' people...

This kind of shit puts a really nasty stain on the Corps.

Dallas Democratic State Representative Roberto Alonzo: you're full of crap

Brinsdon said she stood her ground by staying seated when first-year Spanish 3 teacher Reyna Santos assigned her class to stand and recite Mexico's pledge of allegiance.

Students stood with right arms straight out and palms down, which is how the school district says Mexicans say their pledge.
is NOT 'learning an aspect of what is Texas'. Unless you think reciting the Mexican pledge, while standing at attention, is; being a modern effing Democrat, you might well.


Speaking of modern Democrats,
“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
When politicians start referring to the police as 'my own army', that's a definite warning sign.
And I don't care that he changed his letter to 'R', he's still the nanny-state NSD he's always been.


"Every single thing that we care about is at stake in the next election," he told one donor group. "The very core of what this country stands for is on the line."
Yes, it is, you socialist bastard, just not in the way you mean.


I wonder: is there any limit to the idiocy of the Federalized Professionals of the TSA?

Probably not.
TSA isn't budging on the handbag, arguing the phony gun could be considered a "replica weapon." The TSA says "replica weapons have prohibited since 2002."

It's a rule that Vanessa feels can't be applied to a purse.

"Common sense," she said. "It's a purse, not a weapon."
'Common sense'? From the TSA?


Google: "Don't be evil. Unless it benefits us."


And from Tam, on the idea of government having a monopoly on force:
Central governments have managed to turn murder from a hobby pursued at home by individual craftsmen into a wholesale industry churning out slipshod and substandard corpses in numbers that can’t be read without sounding like Carl Sagan.
Even the worst serial killer has to operate at a retail level; you need uniforms and flags and stylish logos to go truly wholesale.

More 'We're Winning' and Sad Panda news

Gun dealers flooded the FBI with background check requests for prospective buyers last Friday, smashing the single-day, all-time high by 32%, according to bureau records.

Deputy Assistant FBI Director Jerry Pender said the checks, required by federal law, surged to 129,166 during the day, far surpassing the previous high of 97,848 on Black Friday of 2008.

The actual number of firearms sold last Friday is likely higher because multiple firearms can be included in a transaction by a single buyer. And the FBI does not track actual gun sales.
And what will make the pandas even sadder?
Some gun industry analysts attributed the unusual surge to a convergence of factors, including an increasing number of first-time buyers seeking firearms for protection and women who are being drawn to sport shooting and hunting.

Awww, hear the sad panda:
Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said he was "skeptical" of the Black Friday gun surge.
"I think there may be no real signifcance at all," Henigan said. "It's possible that gun companies are just catching on to creating a Black Friday frenzy for themselves."
Yeah, because everyone knows how the Triangle Of Death manipulates numbers before the FBI puts them out.

So can this miserable bastard in a black robe

actually get some punishment? Probably not:
Blackwood said he was unaware of the extent of Baumgartner's criminal activity when, in March, he opted to place Baumgartner on judicial diversion for a single count of felony official misconduct. That decision not only allowed Baumgartner to avoid jail but to keep his pension.
Oh, of COURSE the clown in a black robe got this kind of consideration from another clown in a black robe. Nice to be connected, isn't it?

Thursday, December 01, 2011

To anyone familiar with Meprolight tritium sights

Friend had an idea: take a Meprolight tritium shotgun sight, like this one, and mount it on a semi-auto pistol to replace the original tiny blade. Seems like it should work; my question is, anyone know if the shock of being on a slide instead of a barrel would be a problem for it?

So the story was that Brian Terry was killed in a 'chance encounter';

then it may have been cartel killers looking for Border Patrol people; now, something else comes to light:
Sources now tell PJ Media that neither version of events is accurate: the rip crew was not waiting for a chance encounter with other illegals, nor did the members intend to engage American law enforcement agents.

The rip crew was in Peck Canyon that evening with the intention of stealing money and drugs from a specific shipment of which they had prior knowledge.

Sources claim the Department of Justice has been trying for almost a year to hide the key information — how the rip crew knew the shipment was coming through that night.
...
The rip crew knew to be in Peck Canyon that December evening becauLinkse a CI working for the FBI found out about a smuggling run — from the FBI.

It is not clear if the information was provided intentionally, but a possible motivation for the FBI to provide the information is known to exist: the CI had previously lost a shipment of drugs, and wanted to regain the trust of the cartel with an offering of drugs or money. The other possibility is that the FBI mistakenly allowed the CI to discover the information.

The CI used this information to organize an ambush of the drug convoy. A source tells PJM that the FBI knew from wiretaps that the CI was using their information to set up an ambush.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) — through its own CIs and communications intercepts — was also aware of the planned assault.

Neither the DEA nor FBI warned Border Patrol about the expected criminal activity.
And isn't THAT just a fucking wonderful thing to find out? Gets even more thrilling:
...The existence of a third recovered gun, an SKS carbine, has been disputed by the FBI despite the fact it had been talked about openly in the beginning of the investigation among federal agents.

Multiple sources tell PJM that this third weapon “disappeared” because it was the weapon carried by the FBI CI who ran the rip crew. When it was recovered near the scene of the murder and subsequently traced by the ATF, it traced back to the FBI CI via the gun shop in Texas where it was purchased.
Not Phoenix, not even Arizona: TEXAS.
In this case, the FBI and DEA failed to deconflict. Neither agency bothered to warn Border Patrol to keep their BORTAC teams out of Peck Canyon that evening. As a direct result of this FBI and DEA failure — combined with Homeland Security forcing BORTAC units to carry less-lethal beanbag rounds in some of their primary weapons — Brian Terry’s under-armed four-man unit walked into an ambush against a heavily armed rip crew, at least five of whom were carrying rifles.

Brian Terry’s murder was entirely preventable. The incompetence of the DEA and FBI let his Border Patrol unit walk into an ambush. After the ambush, it appears the FBI tampered with evidence to cover up that one of their informants was involved with the murder of a federal agent.
God damn these people. They KNEW. And bloody Holder and Napolitano and Mueller and Obama ALL KNEW. And some of them have lied under oath about it, and continue to lie. And literally God only knows how many people are dead because of their plans.

Tales from a couple of gunsmiths

The shotgun the owner had added some weight to the butt of to help deal with recoil. He put shot in the stock bolt hole. Mixed with glue.

The Colt Model M with the funny-looking recoil spring plug. It was funny-looking because someone had used a lead bullet, apparently after losing the original.

The Glock that fell out of an officer's holster during a chase and fight with a guy. Couldn't find it in the field that night, so came back the next day. And found the pistol with a well-gnawed grip, all the way around("It almost looked textured it was so even.")

The lady who brought in a rifle & shotgun, well-rusted from sitting next to the water heater for a long time. Cleaned up and parkerized, returned to her with the advice that they needed to be kept in a dry place. She came back about two months later with both rusty, demanding they be redone.
"Where did you keep them?"
"Same as before, in the closet with the water heater."
"Did you not hear or understand when I told you they had to be kept in a DRY place?"
She did not leave happy.

And the recoil reducer he found in a shotgun stock: thin-wall pipe, a steel slug of about a pound, and a spring. Whoever it was had rolled one end so a washer would close the end, put in the weight and spring, then another washer compressing the spring a bit, then rolled that end enough to hold. He didn't test-fire it with that in place, unfortunately; I'm still wondering how well it worked.

And the pistol that came in for refinishing: a few small pits that should clean up nicely. Except as he worked the slide to smooth it, the pits never went away. Turned out someone in the past had filled in some fairly nasty pitting with something(he never did figure out what) and blued it; the stuff had taken the color well enough that it just looked like a few small pits. The smith wound up parkerizing it for the guy.

Couple of things here:

If this information is correct, BAE Systems needs its ass kicked. Hard


And a month ago I linked to a story about a Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council member, Mohamed Elibiary, who seemed to have stolen records from a sensitive database of state and local intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of those materials to a media outlet for political purposes. Napolitano reaction:
Admittedly, I’m not alone in failing to get answers about the matter. When Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
questioned Napolitano about Elibiary when she was before the House Judiciary Committee the day my initial report appeared, Napolitano feigned ignorance (we know her senior aides had been briefed by TX DPS the night before):

Gohmert: Secretary, were you aware that a week ago today, from his home computer, he accessed the SLIC database, got information off and has been shopping a story to national media on islamophobia … [inaudible] … at the Governor of Texas and the security folks in Texas. Were you aware of that?

Napolitano: No.

Gohmert: I’m telling you, it happened. Do we need to appoint somebody or will you have that investigated yourself, and if so, by whom?

Napolitano: Well, since I don’t know the facts, I’ll have to look into that.

In the video, Napolitano seemed unfazed that one of her top advisers was being accused of leaking sensitive intelligence for partisan political purposes, with corroborating evidence being given by the director of one of the top state homeland security agencies in the country. Was she lying about not knowing? If she wasn’t, it doesn’t speak well of her staff that they failed to inform her. Perhaps that’s something for Congress to take a look at as well.
Well, DHS is still stonewalling people.
As I’ll report later this week, there may be substantial reasons why Napolitano and DHS want absolutely no investigation into Elibiary. As one source told me a few weeks ago:

For them to even ask whether Elibiary was a bad actor who has penetrated our highest and most sensitive intelligence and homeland security agencies has the potential for such catastrophic consequences … they don’t even want the question asked. The likelihood that there will be an actual investigation can be calculated between zero and none no matter how overwhelming the evidence.

The only way that Napolitano can succeed is if Congress refuses to act. In the coming days we will give them more reasons why they may want to look into this matter, and Elibiary’s involvement with other government agencies, much more closely.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

"What happens after Atlas shrugs?"

Of course I have a lot of mail on Climategate 2.0 but this came just as I was thinking about incentives for Atlas not merely to shrug but to get his gun. What happens after Atlas Shrugged? Anyway, that’s one reason why this place is just a bit sparse lately. Thanks to all of you who subscribed, and particularly my Patrons and Platinum Club members, I can take a day off to think about what stories Niven and I can tell.

Suppose the Ice is coming back, or there is credible evidence of it; and suppose that can be prevented, but it’s a long term project, not something you can do overnight. You’ll need – well, that’s part of the story. But what happens after Atlas shrugs?
It gets real nasty, real fast.

Somehow, I got on the Environmental Defense Fund list,

and I've been reading of the doom heading our way. Climate change has begun to take an unprecedented toll on our environment, on human lives and on budgets around the world...
...while some in Congress are engaged in an all-out assault on our air and water.
(Really?)
It's about parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles who don't want their loved ones to be exposed to dangerous toxins in their toys and furnishings(so don't buy shit from China).
It's about everyone who wants to achieve solutions to global warming, so that polar bears... and human communities... can survive(does that include Algore's latest estate purchase on the coast?).

And The Word from some of their Senior Scientists:
"If we don't change the things we're doing, the weather of the future will bring devastating, life-threatening heat."
"Today your child has a better chance of becoming a Major League Baseball player than a chemical has of being regulated by the EPA. Now there's a statistic!" Well, if the EPA wasn't screwing with trying to regulate dust from farming and ranching, maybe some of your Saviors of Humanity there would have more time to fuck things up in the ways you say you prefer, hmmm?

Here's a good one: " Why can't you and I read a product label and know whether it may include chemicals that are harmful to our health?" Let's see... you can't buy something with brass parts without reading that THIS CONTAINS SUBSTANCES KNOWN BY THE STATE OF CALIFORNICATED TO CAUSE CANCER!!! for one. So his "Why can't we find that out(yes, it's really worded this way) how many chemicals are produced in the U.S. and how they're used?" makes me wonder how the hell he can ask that with a straight face(assuming he did); I don't think you can make ANYTHING without every substance involved being listed and tested and taxed and whatever...

Oh, and- of course- "The 1980's were the hottest decade on record, until the 1990's came along. The 90's held the crown only briefly until the 2000s. And on it goes. THE SCIENCE IS CLEAR!!!"(I may have added the caps and exclamations).

I should return the envelope with a printout of this instead of money

BATFEIEIO and the Obama/Hold Department of (?)Justice:

Help them break the law, you're golden: do something about the lawbreaking, they screw you.
Hey, they're already breaking laws and getting people killed, why would they worry about breaking law to screw over whistleblowers?

"WE'RE ON STRIKE!" "Oh, that's ok,

we're not really missing you."
Heathrow has never been more efficient! Passengers' glee as border agency strike SPEEDS UP passport control
LinkSo, this should allow them to decide which of these clowns they can do without permanently.

From what I understand, this whole mess is because the strikers don't want to have to pay some percentage in on their pensions. Fuck 'em.

Holder and Napolitano and Gunwalker,

Oh My!
The Ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley has been dissecting Holder’s Nov. 8 testimony before that panel in a series of articles published on his website. In Monday’s installment, Grassley notes:

According to emails produced by the Justice Department, Nathan Gray, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Field Division, was at the press conference held that day to announce the death of Agent Terry, and was telling individuals there about the connection to Operation Fast and Furious. Thus, by the time Secretary Napolitano visited Arizona a few days later, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office were clearly aware of the connection.

It is clear, however, that multiple officials from multiple agencies knew almost immediately of the connection between Fast and Furious and Agent Terry’s death, including Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler. The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have failed to adequately explain why Attorney General Holder and Secretary Napolitano allegedly remained ignorant of that connection.

Grassley provides documentation to support his observations. Though redacted in some places, these documents suggest that people knew almost immediately that two guns recovered at the Terry crime scene were directly linked to the Fast and Furious investigation. But in the aftermath, Holder has insisted, he was not one of them. And this leaves Grassley scratching his head in disbelief.
...

Grassley’s Tuesday follow-up looks at that comment. The senator has perhaps redefined how to ask, “How stupid is that?”

Regardless, by using the word ‘directly,’ Holder seems to be echoing the statement of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer: “The tragic truth is that if those criminals who killed Agent Terry had not gotten the guns from this one source, they would have gotten the gun from another source.” That is hardly an excuse for federal law enforcement to watch criminals collect more than a thousand firearms without acting to stop them.

Grassley’s string of commentaries, discussed by this column here, here and here, is beginning to look like a roadmap to Holder’s collision with Issa and what the California congressman knows about the operation that no longer appears to have been “botched” by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, but now seems to have gone almost as it was planned, except for one small inconvenience – the death of a Border Patrol agent – and one other little problem: people found out about the connection.
Again: the operation went down just the way they wanted; it's the coverup that's a failed/botched operation.

Miley Cyrus proves herself another dumbass celebritute

once again. If you care as much about this twit as I do, you can skip this, though it is a nice marker of stupidity.


Unrelated to news, that parkerized pistol I tried the restore treatment on? Just to see how it'd work I used the Lubriplate SFL-0 grease. After wiping off the excess it doesn't seem to be bleeding any off; either the Lubriplate grabs in to the the parking better than petroleum jelly, or the parking was worn enough to not hold enough for it to happen.


No, the only defensive gun uses aren't the ones that make the news; often they're important because of what didn't happen.


Ever messed with a sling? The old-fashioned kind? Interesting weapons. I need to get that shirt made: a sling appropriately draped across the front with the logo "David cheated!"


My, my, my, the administration REALLY doesn't want people reading more about the facts behind the Terry murder, do they?
We know this only because Washington D.C.’s conservative newspaper got ahold of the court documents before the government suddenly made them off limits. The now-sealed federal grand jury indictment tells the frightening story of how Terry was gunned down by Mexican drug smugglers patrolling the rugged desert with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents.

You can see why the administration wants to keep this information from the public and the media, considering the smugglers were essentially armed by the U.S. government. Truth is, no one will know the reason for the confiscation of public court records in this case because the judge’s decision to seal it was also sealed, according to the news story. That means the public or media won’t have access to any new or old evidence, filings, rulings or arguments.
I will also say that this only being reported by 'the conservative newspaper' is a sorry comment on 'journalism'; a story like this ought to be bigtime news for ANY newspaper that actually cares about reporting news.


If you trained police dog can't tell the difference between someone it's been commanded to attack and a kid running in a yard, then the damned dog isn't well trained or is not controllable. Or both.
Campbell Police Sgt. John Rusnak said a police dog can’t differentiate between a playing boy and a crime suspect.
Then why was it off the fucking LEASH in a public area?


“Read the column the UK's Daily Mail pulled for being too dangerous”
.

Because even writing about evil firearms and the right of self-defense is now too awful and PSH-inducing for British news.


And now I shall go make some tortillas to have with lunch. Since today I don't have to be ready to run off to work, etc.

Eric Holder says "Stop saying people want me to resign!

You're the ones doing this!"
All we need now is a Holder "I am not a crook!" cartoon.
Holder stepped towards the exit, then turned around, stepped back toward the reporter, and sternly said, “You guys need to — you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it.”

Holder then walked offstage without answering TheDC’s request for comment about calls for his resignation.
I'd say someone is feeling a bit nervous. And, of course, Obama's still got lots of room under that bus.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Problem is, a moat only works if you have the balls

to raise the bridges. Just like the flamethrowers only work if you have the balls and concern for defending your soil to actually use them.


Speaking of Sarah Brady Paradise,
'Gun-free streets' my ass.
And while they're playing that PR game, other violent crimes just keep rolling along...


When confiscation isn't. At least according to gun bigot logic.


Among the reasons Fudds are a threat to all gun owners.


Oh, this is comforting as hell:
With Italy sinking rapidly into financial chaos, the eurozone's 17 finance ministers scrambled Tuesday to find enough money to give their rescue fund a veneer of credibility and world markets some reason to believe their embattled currency won't break up.

Italy's borrowing rates shot up above 7 percent Tuesday, an unsustainable level that already has forced three smaller EU nations to seek bailouts. Markets rose for the second day on hopes that the enormous pressures on the ministers would produce some results.

The finance ministers were discussing ideas that until recently would have been taboo: countries ceding additional budgetary sovereignty to a central authority — EU headquarters in Brussels.
Oh, yeah, that'll make everyone feel REALLY good, won't it? And work more of the same wonders the EUnuchs are known for... Add it to this:
British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain. As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible. Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis. The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.

All things considered, this kind of fits right here


Playing with a virus this way... all kinds of nasty possibilities. But if they don't dig into them, they might not find a better way to fight them.
Related, year or so ago ran across this book on smallpox; I recommend it. Touches on this subject, too.


Well, this is gonna get complicated. If she did save sperm, and had herself inseminated without his consent, then he shouldn't be on the hook for child support.


And now go play nice.

It's irritated me for a long time when our ancestors were referred to

as 'ignorant' and 'savages' and such. Ignorant of, say, metallurgy? Sure. Physics? Yeah. But they tend to mean ignorant as 'stupid'. And if they'd been stupid, A: we wouldn't be here and B: we wouldn't find things like this:
An archaeologist from The Australian National University has uncovered the world’s oldest evidence of deep sea fishing for big fish, showing that 42,000 years ago our regional ancestors had mastered one of our nation’s favourite pastimes.

Professor Sue O’Connor of the College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU, also found the world’s earliest recorded fish hook in her excavations at a site in East Timor. The results of this work are published in the latest issue of Science.

The finds from the Jerimalai cave site demonstrate that 42,000 years ago our regional ancestors had high-level maritime skills, and by implication the technology needed to make the ocean crossings to reach Australia.
...
“It’s not clear what method the occupants of Jerimalai used to capture the pelagic fish or even the shallow water species. But tuna can be caught in purse seines or leader nets, or by using hooks and trolling. Simple fish aggregating devices such as tethered logs can also be used to attract them. So they may have been caught using hooks or nets. Either way it seems certain that these people were using quite sophisticated technology and watercraft to fish offshore,” said Professor O’Connor
.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Soldiers Angels

Go, spend some money if you can

Sen. Feinstein: did you KNOW you were participating in an illegal act,

or not? And who leaked the trace data to you?" That's a damn good pair of questions.
  • It was Main Justice, not ATF, who leaked the trace data to Feinstein. I am told ATF “was blindsided” by it.
  • The trace data did not include any Tiahrt nondisclosure warnings.
  • The information was leaked to provide selective "statistics" that Feinstein could use to promote her views on gun trafficking—no criminal intelligence interpretation was provided, and the way this was done was intentional, with cognizance that the data were going to be misused.

Yeah, I think we're winning

After hitting the range I went by Harbor Freight, as they had their pack of funnels on sale and Security Staff Jr. chewed up my big one a while back. Had on my Gunwalker t-shirt, and the 19-20 yoa, very pretty checkout lady, as she handed me my change, said "I like your shirt!"

The Guerena murder has made international news,

in the Mail. Fairly balanced account, overall.

I think the Guerena family attorney is going to have fun in discovery. And I'm guessing he's probably going to wind up having a judge tell some people "You WILL supply this information or you're going to jail for contempt" to get some of it.

"Oh no, we didn't want to exclude skeptics, we wanted

wider debate! Yeah, that's what we wanted!"
Britain’s leading green activist research centre spent £15,000 on seminars for top BBC executives in an apparent bid to block climate change sceptics from the airwaves, a vast new cache of leaked ‘Climategate’ emails has revealed.
...
They show that University staff vetted BBC scripts, used their contacts at the Corporation to stop sceptics being interviewed and were consulted about how the broadcaster should alter its programme output.
...
BBC insiders say the close links between the Corporation and the UEA’s two climate science departments, the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research, have had a significant impact on its coverage.

‘Following their lead has meant the whole thrust and tone of BBC reporting has been that the science is settled, and that there is no need for debate,’ one journalist said. ‘If you disagree, you’re branded a loony.’

In 2007, the BBC issued a formal editorial policy document, stating that ‘the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus’ – the view that the world faces catastrophe because of man-made carbon dioxide emissions.

As to that 'we want wider debate' crap,
This was not the only time there was talk of sceptics being shut out. On December 7, 2004, the BBC’s then-environment correspondent Alex Kirby wrote to Prof Jones.

He had, he said, succeeded in blocking one sceptic from the BBC, claiming his work was ‘pure stream of consciousness rubbish’. But to his regret, he had been unable to stop a group of scientists who said there were flaws in the hockey-stick graph being featured.
Note that about the hockey stick; it's important.
‘I can well understand your unhappiness at our running the other piece,’ he wrote.

‘But we are constantly being savaged by the loonies for not giving them any coverage at all... and being the objective impartial (ho ho) BBC that we are, there is an expectation in some quarters that we will every now and then let them say something. I hope though that the weight of our coverage makes it clear that we think they are talking through their hats.’
And yet, despite the 'settled science',
For example, Professor Phil Jones, the head of the CRU, admitted there was no evidence that the snows of Kilimanjaro were melting because of climate change, and he and his colleagues agreed there were serious problems with the famous ‘hockey stick’ graph – the depiction of global temperatures that suggests they were broadly level for 1,000 years until they started to rise with industrialisation.
You know, the hockey stick graph that Prof Hulme says is perfect?
But although there is now more scientific debate than ever about influences on climate other than CO2, prompted by the fact that the world has not warmed for 15 years, a report from the BBC Trust this year compared climate change sceptics to the conspiracy theorists who blame America for 9/11, and said Britain’s main sceptic think-tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, should be given no air time.
'Balance reporting'. 'Professional journalists' at work.

More on that 'more debate' lie:
On February 25, 2002, the climate change sceptic Philip Stott, a London University professor, debated the subject with John Houghton of the Met Office on the Today programme.

This prompted an angry email to colleagues from Prof Hulme. ‘Did anyone hear Stott vs Houghton on Today, Radio 4, this morning?’ he wrote.

‘Woeful stuff really. This is one reason why Tyndall is sponsoring the Cambridge Media Environment Programme, to starve this type of reporting at source.’

Last night Prof Hulme denied he was trying to deny space to sceptics, saying: ‘What I wanted to “starve” at source was “this type of reporting” – in which the important and complex issues raised by climate change are reduced to an argument between two voices representing different positions on climate science, as though there is one right and one wrong answer to climate change.’
Isn't that a wonderfully weasel-worded way defending himself? Boils down to "I don't want two people arguing, each on one side; I want the deniers kept from speaking as much as possible. But it's for the best of reasons!"

As a final note, it's not even questioned anymore when they call someone 'climate change skeptics'; the proper term would be 'AGW skeptics', or 'scientists who actually question things', but that wouldn't brand them, would it?

I had to run to the store yesterday and noticed a couple of things

First, in years past on this weekend, it could be a problem getting into Penn Square Mall; from what I saw driving by, while you might spend a couple of minutes finding a place to park, you would find one. Might have to walk a bit to the entrance, but you could've parked.

Got to Wally World(closest place; I try to avoid the place, but it's difficult) and had no problem parking close to the doors. The place was average Sunday busy, no more.

Doesn't seem much like a 'recovery' going on, at least locally.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Climaquiddick: the gift that keeps on giving

tales of corruption, and skanky scientists, and media corruption too. This is the Watts Up post I linked to a couple of days ago, which has a LOT of updates.

Scary thing: I know some people who're going to dismiss all this as 'nothing here disproves AGW, it's just deniers making trouble" and will show absolutely no concern for the violations of ethics, and the scientific method. For that matter they'll forgive- overlook, really- the corrupt actions of the media involved because, after all, 'they're trying to save us from the deniers', etc.

About that ban on Korea sending Garands and Carbines back,

"It's a very select core of old-school ATF narcissists who have just become too powerful and too arrogant," the source reported.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of State explained to WND when the re-importation ban initially was announced that the permission had been granted for the rifles to be shipped to the U.S., then it was rescinded.

The decision, explained Karl Duckworth, was prompted because of "concerns that such large numbers" of weapons would be brought into the U.S. and they could be "exploited for illicit purposes."

However, he said he could not elaborate on who expressed the concerns.

Codrea has described the classification as a "beachhead" for gun control.

"This is the grave threat to the republic?" Codrea asked. "This is nothing less than legislation by unaccountable bureaucrats with an agenda that has nothing to do with legitimate delegated authority."

Yeah, it's WND; it's still information on this crap. As to who 'expressed concern', I think we can make some pretty good guesses:
for three. Add in a SecState Clinton for four...

'Twilight' is porn for women?

Makes sense. And fits right in with two posters:




This has nothing to do with sparkly bitch vampires, I just like it



Idiot says he wants to reclaim the hammer & sickle as a 'symbol for the working man'; since it was created by one of the three most murderous regimes in modern history, I wonder just what he's 'reclaiming' it from?



Yeah, them polar bears in real trouble

Click on the bears for the full effect

I've added a couple of links on the sidebar

for blacksmithing tools & equipment.
Centaur Forge is pretty much a 'has it all' place: forges, blowers, tools, books, videos, materials. Including horseshoes and shoe stock.

Enco is an industrial supply place; lots of tools, but the main reason I included it is the steel and brass stock. Lots and lots of it in different alloys, shapes and sizes.

As I recall other places I'll add them to the list.

Assuming the Stupid Party doesn't eff it up- again- yeah, Jeremiah Wright

and domestic terrorist and Obama friend Bill Ayers and all the rest of this needs to be brought up in the election. Loud and long.

Problem is with the last line:
Second, and most important, this was nothing more than a pre-emptive Democratic attempt to make it toxic for anyone to bring up Obama’s long association with Wright by making charges of racism even when Wright is not mentioned. That shows you how much the Democrats fear a true investigation of Obama’s background and his ridiculously incredible claims that he did not know that his pastor and mentor was a race-baiting flame thrower.

Tad Devine occupies a special place in the Saturday Night Card Game as having fired the first preemptive race card shot of the 2012 election.

So too does The Hill blogger David Di Martino who took Devine’s accusations and ran with them in a blog post:

Even though Romney apparently approved of the message in the ad, it is unlikely he’s very comfortable with this strategy. The ad, with its intentional misrepresentations and stealth nod to racism, betrays Romney’s squeaky-clean image that he has spent decades grooming.

Memo to Tad Devine and David Di Martino: If a rock from 1984 and a dinner from 1997 are on the table, so too are Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and the vast emptiness of Obama’s narrative.

Your attempt to suppress legitimate political expression through false accusations of racism will not work this time, unlike in 2008.
Unless someone in the Stupid Party develops some balls, then- at least for the upper ranks- it WILL work again.

To every politician who refuses to actually defend our borders:

Screw you, you miserable little pandering bastards. I don't care what party you belong to or what excuses you make: Screw You.
And, as to this bullshit
Democratic congressmen and some local officials say that conclusion is unfair. Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino was recently quoted by the Houston Chronicle as saying, "The border is not in chaos.” And the newspaper quoted Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Democrat representing El Paso, as calling the claims "political rhetoric" meant to embarrass the Obama administration.
Fuck you, you pandering shits. People were yelling about this when Bush was President, when Clinton was... We've been yelling about this for freaking DECADES, so we know "It's not our fault" bullshit when we hear it.

And while this is happening, the Border Patrol agents know that if some illegal complains that they were 'mean' the agent can wind up in jail; and BATFE and the DoJ and DHS were helping smuggle guns into Mexico(and, truly, only God knows how many people are dead in that mess); and the politicians play games.