Guy took this at Possum Kingdom lake, by the dam,

in central Texas

That is one big damn catfish

Earplug report

Which is part of a range report, but the rest I'll get to later.

Spent several hours at the outdoor range the other day(busy out there this time of year), with the do-it-yourself custom-mold Radians earplugs in.  Pluses:
They stayed in place the whole time.  No adjusting or reseating needed.
Worked as well as any earplugs I've used.
Comfortable under the earmuffs.

Negatives:
I can't think of any.

I'm sold on the things.  And at ten-eleven bucks(plus shipping, depending) they're equal to or less pricy than most of the good earplugs I've used. 

One thing about the earmuff matter: on an AR, when I'm wearing muffs I have to lift the right-side muff about halfway up my ear to get my cheek on the stock(another reason to wear plugs as well); when means that on some earplugs, it gets damn uncomfortable after a few minutes.  Not really a problem with these.   Were a couple of times could have used a bit more muffling, but when the second bench down has a 7mm Magnum, and the one a couple down from that a .338 Lapua(with recoil-reducing-blow-the-hat-off-the-poor-bastards-on-either-side muzzle device), it's a bit loud no matter what you're wearing.

"Sending your kids to public school is child abuse" is a line Insty uses;

far too many cases, he's right.
As this was conducted by school officials, rather than law enforcement, it would appear that it didn’t implicate a duty to have a parent present for questioning, but then the school officials took their actions to an unexpected place:

They went on to say students were warned not to talk about the meeting or the line of questioning and that if they did, they were told they could be expelled.

That is utter bullshit.  That is some control freaks worried that parents might object and threatening the kids if they tell them.  Kind of like abusers trying to keep the kids shut up.


Yeah, this sounds like the kind of thing this backstabber would do:
According to those sources, outgoing House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) agreed that her Democratic caucus would join Boehner along with a handful of Boehner loyalists and moderate establishment Republicans to continue Planned Parenthood funding, along with a few other budget items President Obama says were must-haves, in order to avoid a Government shutdown.

Boehner resigned because he knew that after he cut that deal, conservatives in his own party would be so furious with him that it would make challenges to his Speakership a certainty, sources say. Even if he survived those challenges, his remaining year and three months in office would be contentious and personally uncomfortable for him.
I'd figured he decided he'd rather 'retire rather than become a distraction and harm the Party' than lose a vote on staying Speaker.  If true, this means he committed one final serious act of betrayal as his "Screw you people for not kissing my ass" on his way out.


Lie after lie after lie...
A newly uncovered document shows that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton personally signed off on a questionable employment decision she previously claimed she was not involved with.
It would be easier to list where she's told the truth than where she's lied.


At this point, screw pretty words: that bastard in the White House is a traitor to this country.
How much does President Obama still want the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison shuttered? He just released the man trained to be the 20th hijacker for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.


Rule you keep hearing is "Don't talk to cops.  If you have to, have an attorney."  Because of crap like this.  Which may well get them something, but also gets them a reputation as bastards not to be trusted.
Third, law enforcement agents may be questioning you not to investigate and discover evidence, but to trap you. It is routine now — particularly with federal law enforcement — for agents to approach a suspect at the close of their investigation, not at the start of it, in hopes of piling more charges onto the prospective defendant. Federal agents will approach a suspect, ask them if they did something, and if they say “no,” add a charge of making a false statement onto whatever charges they were already seeking.

And yes, it is now time

to return to our somewhat-scheduled educational programming.

Also known as 'study the data'

And John Effing Kerry just doesn't understand...

Meanwhile, Kerry complains that “Assad has refused to have a serious discussion and Russia has refused to help bring him to the table in order to do that. So that’s why we are where we are.”
No, we're where we are because Obama gets so pissy when his demands aren't met, that he goes golfing and bitches about it.  Because actually doing anything, well, why should he soil His image with that?

So Syria- and everyone else- knows all they'll get is more words, so the Russians have stepped in to get their renewed client-state situation shored up.  While Kerry bloviates and Obama demands.


Well, NYPD, how's it feel to be treated like one of the commoners?

This push for women in combat despite all the evidence

also fits the weird modern determination to have sex everywhere but gender nowhere, to resent everything and see nothing when it comes to masculinity and femininity. But it’s not just an academic game.
...
So yes, the debate is closed. Until reality reopens it at a really bad time.
But the assholes responsible won't have THEIR precious ass on the line when it happens.  And they'll blame the troops, or the CO actually there, or anyone except themselves.


Kim duToit had a piece once that said simply "Let Africa Sink".  Appears that at least some parts of it are taking care of that, and it's a damn good thing he got out.


They're just determined to rule, aren't they?
She said: "I really believe that meat should be treated in exactly the same way as tobacco, with public campaigns to stop people eating it.

"Progress on animal welfare is being made at EU level... but in the end it comes down to not eating meat or dairy.
Note that 'at EU level'; I strongly suspect that boils down to "If I can't cause this here, I'll bet the EU will help me do it!"
"I have my own personal views on what I choose to eat, but I accept that we have a livestock industry in this country. What I want is for the industry to have the best welfare standards possible, to be sustainable as well as economically viable."
Considering she's leftist enough to make that nutcase choose her a minister, if you believe that's the whole truth, you're a fool.

And she makes me want to dig up a pipe and light up..

"There is more than one way to burn a book"

In the 50th anniversary edition, Bradbury includes a short afterword where he gives his thoughts on current culture. Almost as if he is speaking directly about the events above, he wrote: “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running around with lit matches.”

There’s that saying: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. When it comes to censorship, one might say that the road to thought and speech control is paved by people trying to protect other people’s feelings.

Well, from what son told me, training and readiness are in the toilet

and that doesn't exactly raise morale and confidence levels; so this isn't a surprise:
Released last December, the numbers were brutal. In response to the statement, “The senior military leadership has my best interests at heart,” only 27% agreed, down from 53% in a previous survey conducted in 2009. As for, “Overall officers in the military are good or excellent,” only 49% agreed, down from 78% in the 2009 survey. Agreement with, “Overall my quality of life is good or excellent,” dropped from 91% agreement in 2009 to 56% in 2014, and President Obama’s personal approval rating was an eye-catching 15%.
Hey, when you know the CinC is a clown who doesn't give a damn about you, and- in the event of conflict- doesn't actually want to win, what do they expect?
Carter is no doubt happy about the appointment because Fanning is, as the Washington Post puts it, a “Carter ally.” The White House is pleased because the appointment of a gay man represents an important advance in the progress of social justice. And the troops?
Well, really, who cares what they think?


"I have this condition, but racism is making it worse, so you white people need to pay for my therapy!"

When PC and lying is the Army rule

Even as the U.S. military denies reports that American troops were told to ignore Afghan child abusers, an 11-year Green Beret who was ordered discharged after he confronted an alleged rapist was informed Tuesday that the Army has denied his appeal.
"We have never done that(but if you do interfere with an Afghan child molester, your career is over)!"
I am so damned glad son is out from under the control of these assholes.

"Is necessary for collective good, comrade, so

hand over your medical records."
Because being a "It's for the overall good" control freak means never taking no for an answer.


And one more 'disaster' linked to nuclear power isn't.
Anybody surprised?
No one has been killed or sickened by the radiation — a point confirmed last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Even among Fukushima workers, the number of additional cancer cases in coming years is expected to be so low as to be undetectable, a blip impossible to discern against the statistical background noise. 

But about 1,600 people died from the stress of the evacuation — one that some scientists believe was not justified by the relatively moderate radiation levels at the Japanese nuclear plant.

Tab clearing

Why Do Muslims Get to Ignore the Same Laws Used to Prosecute Christian Businesses?
Because double-standards, and muslims are a protected species.


Why a lot of leftists seem to have a soft spot for pedophiles.  And they do.


Well, if a lot of intelligence people weren't pissed, that would surprise me.  And I love the 'orange jumpsuit' line.


Using Twitter to hold up signs — it’s exasperating precisely because the one “Red Line” that actually seems to still exist is the one forbidding the media from holding the one guy who can do anything about these foreign policy meltdowns and humanitarian crises responsible. 

Our media collectively demands accountability for these conflicts from every single person…except the one person who has any real power to stop or mitigate it. This has always been the anecdote in Obama’s foreign policy: 1) show up 2) demand the world follow him 3) world leaders balk at his demands 4) he shrugs his shoulders and goes and plays with his selfie stick somewhere.


The leftists really want this country to have been based on slavery, don't they?


Piece on why people(including scientists) fall for bogus research.  Big part:
This "publication bias" means that journals are basically selecting for outliers. In other words, they are in the business of publishing papers that, for no failure of method but simply from sheer dumb luck, happened to get an unusual sample. They are going to select for those papers more than they should -- especially in fields that study humans, who are expensive and reluctant to sit still for your experiment, rather than something like bacteria, which can be studied in numbers ending in lots of zeroes.


Never forget the kind of crap Bill Clinton and Hillary thought was a good idea:
What he wanted was quite a bit more serious. Disturbing even. The administration supported frivolous lawsuits against gun makers and sellers in hopes of either bankrupting them or effectively nationalizing them to be run as the government saw fit. In 2000 Smith and Wesson, then under British ownership conceded to the Clintons and agreed to most of their demands. The resultant boycott reduced the value of the company to about 10% of its original value.

The stuff that S&W agreed to would only have been the beginning. Found at Arms and the Law, is a link to a pdf (6 pages) from the Clinton library detailing what Bill and Co. had in mind for the firearms industry. The first link is a summary and makes for easy reading. The pdf goes into detail with legal jargon. If you can get past the legalese, the details are horrendous. All this was to be put into effect as a result of lawsuits rather than legislation which Bill recognized he could never get passed.


Here's an idea: just get rid of DHS instead of trying to 'improve' it.

Can you spell 'set-up'?

Irving Texas Mayor Beth Van Duyne “later noted that the president had tweeted about the case and invited Ahmed to the White House before the pictures of the clock were even publicly available. Obama made no attempt to contact her office before making public comments in support of the Muslim teen.”
and
Mayor Van Duyne revealed that the family of Ahmed Mohammed has not only repeatedly refused to meet with city officials but refused to sign a school release form that would explain the school and police’s side of the story.

Instead, the family held a press conference in their front yard flanked by CAIR lawyers.
So, we now appear to have a combination: a set-up, and by(possibly) acting unnecessarily harshly the school and cops helped it work.  'possibly' because, at this point, I'm not sure they did a damn thing wrong, and I'm sure the family and their CAIR friends worked for this outcome.

I'm kind of sick of the news, so it's Isaac Shelby, and why

it's a really bad idea to threaten some people.

Mr. Clooney, couple of things to say:

First, until you hypocritical assholes get rid of
gleaming grey Lexus and a black Porsche Carrera as well as a tiny two seater electric Tango 600 plus various motorbikes.

But it’s a fair bet the family ‘Vette has pride of place in his heart.
and start getting around in one of the electrified roller skates you claim to be so fond of, I don't believe you actually believe the crap you spout about 'evil oil' and 'globular warmering/climate change/humans suck'.

Second, a note for you: 'mandatory volunteer service' would actually have one of two proper names: either 'indentured servitude' or 'slavery'.  You first, dirtbag.

A: must've been a real welcoming committe in Valhalla when he arrived

B: Screw the Geneva Convention, he should've been awarded the Medal at the time.
"We had been walking through piles of dead men when the general gave a sudden start, and then stepped over to the figure of a man who was bent over the barrel of a heavy machine gun. Very quickly, almost before I saw what he was doing, the general took out a knife and cut the Red Cross brassard from Ben Salomon's arm. Then he straightened up and looked around. There were ninety-eight Japanese bodies piled up in front of that gun position. Salomon had killed so many men that he had been forced to move the gun four different times in order to get a clear field of fire. There was something else that we noted, too. There were seventy-six bullet holes in Salomon's body. When we called a doctor over to examine him, we were told that twenty-four of the wounds had been suffered before Salomon died. There were no witnesses, but it wasn't hard to put the story together. One could easily visualize Ben Salomon, wounded and bleeding, trying to drag that gun a few more feet so that he would have a new field of fire. The blood was on the ground, and the marks plainly indicated how hard it must have been for him, especially in that last move," Love wrote.

...changing the reports in order to appeal to what they perceived as the Obama administration’s official line

that the anti-ISIS campaign was making progress and would eventually end with the group’s destruction.
Gee, I wonder why they might've done that?

If this is true, then there are some brass that need to be looking for new jobs.


Our allies.  What's being done to our troops to support our allies in Afghanistan.

General Napier had the right idea.  Screw 'their culture', they want our help they need to stop this crap.


Mark Steyn on the current "Mr. Trump, why didn't you correct what that man said!" crap:
1) Unlike Hillary Clinton's under-attended "rallies", a voter doesn't have to undergo a background check or sign a piece of paper pledging to support her in the election before being permitted into a Republican candidate's presence. So at our campaign events there are all kinds of people with all kinds of views - and it goes without saying I won't agree with them all. If you find that odd, maybe you've been covering Hillary too long.

2) Why does one Republican candidate's "scandal" get hung around the neck of every other guy's? I'll answer your question to me about Donald Trump's 'gaffe' after you ask Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Joe Biden about Hillary Clinton's server and how she handled Benghazi. Till then, get lost.
Oh yes, there's more.

Meanwhile, south of the border,

“The army took away our high-powered weapons such as AK-47’s and AR-15 and left us with only shotguns, we can’t go up against grenades with our limited weaponry. We are on the brink of extinction; we are being killed with the complicity of the government.” Josefa Contreras, autodefensa leader in the area, denounced.
The Mexican government has had this policy for a long time: "We may not be able(or want to) stop the cartels, but we can deal with you uppity peasants!  Better you raped/beaten/robbed/tortured/murdered than we allow you to have sufficient arms to protect yourselves!"  And a lot of people seem to be pretty sick of it.

This keeps going, at some point there's going to be a serious blowup between citizens trying to stay alive and the government.  And it'll get nasty.  Think what the border will be like then...

Will they charge Mark Steyn again, or find another heretic

to try to take to the stake?
Bill 59 assigns new powers to the Quebec Human Rights Commission (QHRC) to combat hate speech, as well as a variety of other provisions meant to protect against extremism, by censoring speech that promotes “fear of the other.” Ominously, the bill would allow the QHRC to pursue websites that in its estimation describe and denounce Islamism.

The bill takes its inspiration from recommendations made public by the QHRC in November 2014. Jacques Frémont, the commission’s president, explained that he planned to use the requested powers to sue those critical of certain ideas, “people who would write against … the Islamic religion … on a website or on a Facebook page.”
"Of course you have free speech!  As long as we agree with what you wish to say."
The details of Bill 59 are chilling. Article 6 would “give the QHRC the power to initiate legal proceedings before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal without having to wait for complaints from the public.” Article 3 allows members of an identifiable group as well as people outside the group to make complaints triggering suits for hate speech before the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal.
Wonder if, at some point, they'll just start calling it 'heresy'?


On the subject, College of du Page: "You can't do that without a permit(and we'll make it damn hard for you to get one)!"


There're reasons Kim du Toit used to call it 'New York Fucking City'.
The family of a college student murdered at her East Harlem housing project doesn’t deserve a dime from the city — because she should have known the “risks” of being on the dangerous grounds, city lawyers claim in court papers.


Over in EU land, as the consequences of "Come on in!" are coming home,
Orbán and the leaders of Poland and Slovakia announced themselves unwilling to take extra migrants, adding that they preferred that the ones they took be Christian. 

European leaders have generally mocked Orbán for his provincialism, then denounced him for his immorality, and then pursued his policies to the letter:

In Austria, the Social Democratic premier Werner Faymann likened Orbán to the Nazis. Faymann leads a coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, who joined forces two years ago to keep the hardline anti-immigrant Freedom party (FPÖ) out of power. Now the FPÖ appears to have a shot at winning the municipal elections in Vienna in early October, and Faymann has imposed his own border controls.

Snork...
likewise, Christians are the most backward, misogynist, racist ppl in America, and how dare you suggest Obama isn't one.


This is the first I'd heard of this case.  Besides the "So 'Child Protective Services' did it again?" problem, there's this:
Those closest to Bond displayed no such forbearance. The father of Bella departed upon hearing of Rachelle Bond’s prostitution activities.
But you left your kid with her?


Well,  wonder what that might feed into...
Young people taking antidepressants like Prozac are far more likely to commit violent crimes and doctors should warn of the dangers when prescribing, scientists at Oxford University have said.

A study of more than 850,000 people in Sweden found that those aged between 15 and 24 were 43 per cent more likely to be convicted of crimes like assault.
At some point, some parent faced with a school/child 'protective' regime insisting their kid be put on some drug "or you'll lose custody!" is going to get a lawyer who digs up all the 'Here are the effects common from this medication' information and goes after the school/cpr for trying to kill the kid. 

What happens when they stop being scientists

and become politicians:
You have signed the death warrant for science.
What stirred this up?
In February, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., attempted a McCarthyite witch hunt against climate scientists he found disagreeable. And Sheldon Whitehouse is sitting U.S. Senator. He’s now publicly encouraging legal persecution of people who conduct scientific research and/or those that have opinions about it he disagrees with.
And twenty climate scientists signed a letter to Obama and his AG asking them to do this...

Part of Prof. Currys' response:
What you have done with your letter is the worst kind of irresponsible advocacy, which is to attempt to silence scientists that disagree with you by invoking RICO.  It is bad enough that politicians such as Whitehouse and Grijalvi are playing this sort of political game with science and scientists, but I regard it as highly unethical for scientists to support defeating scientists with whom you disagree by such methods.   Since I was one of the scientists called out in Grijalvi’s witch hunts, I can only infer that I am one of the scientists you are seeking to silence.

Peter Webster did not exaggerate when he wrote:
You have signed the death warrant for science.