Data

New.  Study time.

More on theft under color of law by cops

"Between 1989 and 2010, U.S. attorneys seized an estimated $12.6 billion in asset forfeiture cases. The growth rate during that time averaged +19.4% annually.

In 2010 alone, the value of assets seized grew by +52.8% from 2009 and was six times greater than the total for 1989.

Then by 2014, that number had ballooned to roughly $4.5 billion for the year, making this 35% of the entire number of assets collected from 1989 to 2010 in a single year.

Now, according to the FBI, the total amount of goods stolen by criminals in 2014 burglary offenses suffered an estimated $3.9 billion in property losses. This means that the police are now taking more assets than the criminals."
But we can trust them.  It's for a good cause.  Or something.


There was a bunch of stuff from British climate scientists and media a few years back that seems to have disappeared from this website:
From the Independent’s most cited article: Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past by Charles Onians:

However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.

It seems however, that after over 15 years, the Independent has removed that article, and the URL now comes up like this:


Which is especially interesting after some hard winters, and this:
Parts of the UK have seen a flurry of snow as Britain prepares for a "bitterly cold" weekend.

Snow started to fall as far south as Eastbourne, East Sussex, with downland at Beachy Head seeing a light dusting on Saturday morning. Parts of Kent, including Tunbridge Wells, and Essex have also seen snowfall.

Snowy showers were also reported in parts of Scotland, Wales, northern England and the Midlands as the Met Office confirmed that a band of rain, sleet and snow had worked its way south across many parts of the UK.
'Climate Change'.

Belgium is at max warning level, (updated)

expecting an attack.

I've been reminded recently of just why my reaction to a lot of stuff from the left has become "Fuck you"; my give-a-damn's not just broke, it's been dismantled.

If I say "We shouldn't let a lot of these 'refugees' in until we can be sure they're not connected with the bad guys", I'm a racist.

If I point out that "Calling people names and threatening them in a campus library doesn't exactly help your cause", I hate black people and want them to die.

Criticize damn-near ANYTHING Obama does or says, no matter how fact-based your criticism is, "You hate him because he's black!"

Say that pushing more gun laws in the US isn't going to do anything to stop terrorists or general bad guys, "You want more children to DIE, don't you?"  Usually accompanied with 'Racist!' for- well, for something.

Tell someone that the 'free' stuff they expect Sanders or Clinton to provide isn't free, that whether you're actually writing a check for it or not, you'll damn well be paying for it, you get some combination of "You don't care about other people/you want women(or blacks, or whatever) kept down/you've got yours and don't want anybody else to/", hell, just think of some raving attempt to shut people up and it'll be in there somewhere.

Point out that their socialist savior has long connections with Wall Street, and gets a shitload of money from corporations and banks and whatever, well, that's proof you care more about rich capitalists than poor people.  Point out that these places working hand-in-glove with politicians to get special deals and screw everyone else is not exactly capitalism, that's just more proof that you don't care about little people, etc.

And let us not forget education: call a teacher pulling crap like this the idiot she is, and "So you don't care about the girls in  class?"
"How the hell is this supposedly helping the girls?"
You go through the 'empowerment' bullshit, and it winds up with "It's all about the BOYS, isn't it?"
Well, an idiot posing as a teacher is teaching the boys that they can be crapped on and lied to at will, to advance the SJW bullshit of the 'teacher', which doesn't do squat for anyone except her feelings of "I'm DOING something!", yeah, they're taking the primary damage from this.  But bringing attention to it means "You hate girls getting an education and fair treatment!"

Most leftists seem to care more about shutting you up than actually arguing a point.  So screw 'em, I'm sick of it.

Every so often I look at the Occupy Democrats page on Facebook, and it's kind of amazing; the tolerant left basically states "If you don't agree with us, we hate you and want you destroyed because you're a hater."  This includes(especially includes) their poster claiming "Gas prices were horrible under Bush, but look how good they are under Obama!"  They don't care that prices were WAY the hell higher under Obama, for years, that Obama did everything he could to stop exploration and drilling, tried to stop fracking, has flatly SAID he wants higher energy prices; that doesn't matter, that the price of oil is down despite what he's done(unless you include 'trashing the economy for years') is an occasion for "All Hail Obama!"  Point out some inconvenient facts like these, and you'll get every bit of the hatred and loathing they can throw out.

And the 2nd Amendment.  They want it destroyed, and if you argue that it means you're a racist/misogynist/lackey of the arms industry(where's my wheelbarrow of cash, then, dammit?)/don't care about the CHILLDDREEEENNNNN!, etc.  Because disagreeing with them doesn't mean you disagree, it means you hate and don't care, and should be ruined.

So I'm often not nearly as polite as I used to be when arguing points.  I've been through this crap over and over, I can usually tell just what they'll say/claim/lie about next.  And since any disagreement with them is trumpeted as proof that you hate/racist/don't care/fill in the blank, might as well tell them they're a damned liar, or a fool, because it'll make absolutely no difference.  People actually arguing a point can be reasoned with; these clowns cannot.

So now that that's off my chest, I think I'll window-shop some parts, and otherwise do things a lot more fun that being called names.

I now have concrete proof

of how much fun cold fronts are going to be this winter.

I cannot properly express how joyful I am at this knowledge

At this point the evening ache has set in,

so I'll leave you to the data.  I've got an appointment with some aspirin and a heating pad.

In which some Australians demonstrate the kind of idiocy

Obama & Co. would love to bring here: the GFWs are crapping their pants over a shotgun with Civil War-era technology.

And they wonder why Obama talking approvingly of 'the Australian and British solution' pisses us off.


Also from Miguel, the EUnuch response to the Paris attacks: "We must make it harder for honest citizens to own arms!  And put more restrictions on which ones they're allowed, and ammunition!"


Possibly another fake hate crime. 


No, all 'real' scientists do NOT go along with the 'settled science'.


Meanwhile, the media have treated the budding partnership between the ascendant Black Lives Matter and the perennially frustrated gun control movement as if it were the most natural thing in the world — probably because both efforts lean left. That alliance, however, is truly unlikely, even nonsensical. Historically, civil rights and gun control have been at odds. The blunt fact is that one side seeks to rein in law enforcement, while the other wishes to give it more power.


This from Sweden is insane:
Interestingly, between 1995-2006, the Swedish government tracked gang rapes, identifying a drastically increasing trend.  Unbelievably, after discovering the problem, it then adopted an ostrich-like “head in the sand” approach, terminating any further studies on them . Apparently the government’s fear of being labeled Islamophobic proved greater than its concerns about warning Swedish women about the threat. While no studies on gang rape have been conducted since 2006, one can assume these numbers have continued to rise.
And we have people just as bloody stupid here:
After his rampage, Mohammad was found to have an image of the ISIS flag, a handwritten manifesto with instructions on how to behead someone, and reminders to pray to Allah, but the campus community appears to largely agree with authorities and university officials who insist his motives were grounded in revenge for being kicked out of a study group.
...
But the UC Merced student told The Fix he and some of his peers are frustrated by the response of campus leaders.

“People were quick to sympathize with the attacker and assume anyone who thought this was related to radical Islam was a xenophobic racist,” he noted. “One of the most disturbing things I saw on Facebook was that a student made a RIP Mohammad post that received nearly 800 Likes.”

At least two Facebook post tributes to Mohammad were done in “UC Merced Classifieds,” a closed Facebook group within the campus community used as a message board.

Yes, the 'Affordable Care Act' was a scam;

if you're one of those who wanted it, deal with it.  And think about all the people being screwed by it.
Now, as The New York Times reported this weekend, even the words “affordable” and “care” have turned out to be untrue as well. The sharp rise in premiums has garnered the most headlines in the first three open-enrollment seasons of Obamacare, but equally if not more pernicious has been the increase in deductibles. As Eric Pianin explained for The Fiscal Times on Monday, deductibles have increased an average of 11 percent on Bronze level plans for 2016, intended to be the most affordable of all options, and now average over $5700. For Silver level, deductibles rose 6 percent and now average over $3100.


That teacher who wouldn't let boys play with Legos?  My, how the story changes when the heat starts.  And the school is playing damage control:
Blakely Elementary Principal Reese Ande said the school does not "promote access or opportunity through any forms of exclusion" and that Keller is "a passionate teacher who cares deeply for each and every one of her students."
Maybe the school doesn't, Ande, but at least one of your teachers does.  And Keller seems to care mostly for girls, and her SJW agenda.  From a comment:
“When you have an axe to grind with 5yr old boys, maybe you shouldn’t teach kindergarten.”

Oh, and let's consider the future result of her lying to and discriminating against the male students, shall we?


But NOAA insists the e-mails involved are private, and Congress reading them could be damaging to Science.  Right.


And crap like this is why the proper response to a hate-crime report should be "Is this another fake one?"


Oh, but ignore the violations of law and ethics that they almost always get away with, we can trust the DoJ prosecutors!  And shouldn't say bad things about them.


Because we can trust AGs like Holder and Lynch to never, never let politics be involved in their decisions, and they're so wise they'd never make mistakes...


So if the Brits have a bad winter, their grid may partially collapse; yay windmills!


And this shit is why I have grave doubts about US troops being sent in: this bastard would have them under ROE that would get lots of them crippled and killed, and would PREVENT them from winning.
“This has been an absurdity from the beginning,” Keane said in response to questions from Royce. “The president personally made a statement that has driven air power from the inception.”

“When we agreed we were going to do airpower and the military said, this is how it would work, he [Obama] said, ‘No, I do not want any civilian casualties,’” Keane explained. “And the response was, ‘But there’s always some civilian casualties. We have the best capability in the world to protect from civilians casualties.’”

However, Obama’s response was, “No, you don’t understand. I want no civilian casualties. Zero,’” Keane continued. “So that has driven our so-called rules of engagement to a degree we have never had in any previous air campaign from desert storm to the present.”
There is no possible way to do that.  IF you actually want to destroy the enemy.  What does that tell you?

A nights sleep with only one interruption,

and that I got back to sleep from; it was wonderful.

PT, at least at this point, not bad;

muscle soreness related to sling use and it trying to compensate, still sucks.


Authorities in Honduras say they have arrested five Syrian nationals who were attempting to travel to the United States using stolen Greek passports, according to Reuters.


Meanwhile, in Germany,
Nordic cross in German colors ... wait ... I know that flag ... and then it hit me.

That is the flag of two of my heroes; Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.

That is the Josef Wirmer flag. The flag of the German resistance in 1944.
Something tells me Merkel really doesn't like this.


From President I'm Smarter Than Everyone Else,
Wednesday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show,” veteran journalist Sharyl Attkisson said her sources have told her that President Barack Obama does not want and will not read intelligence reports on groups “he does not consider terrorists,” despite being on a U.S. list of designated terrorists.


Must be nice to be an Only One: break both law and regulations, and maybe get some days off.  Bastards.
The director also outlined steps the agency has taken since the revelation that employees potentially violated the law and agency policy. Clancy said “several dozen” employees have been administered disciplinary proposals and “more are on the way.” Later, Clancy said around 42 employees will be issued disciplinary actions ranging from three to 12 days of suspension.
Must be nice to know you can break the laws you enforce on the peasants, huh?

The Only Ones...

An NBC Bay Area investigation into the loss and theft of police firearms uncovered more than 500 weapons have gone missing from eight different law enforcement agencies, including the California Highway Patrol, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and six local departments since 2010.
...
NBC Bay Area’s investigation uncovered hundreds of guns missing from Bay Area law enforcement agencies, stolen from officers’ homes or vehicles, or simply unaccounted for. The BLM, the agency responsible for the gun that killed Steinle, did not respond to NBC Bay Area’s open records requests submitted in July, shortly after the shooting, and the question of how many firearms that federal agency can’t account for remains open.
...
...In the Bay Area alone, six local law enforcement agencies can’t account for at least 379 firearms since 2010 because of loss or theft. The weapons unaccounted for include military grade assault rifles such as AR-15s and M16s, sniper rifles, shotguns, a gas grenade launcher and hundreds of handguns. The vast majority of those weapons have never been recovered.


"How dare you make light of The Empress!"

16 bad ways to respond to the Paris attacks

I don't know if they're the worst, but they're bad.  Especially #6:
One of the Paris attackers was supposedly found with a Syrian passport—leading Republican governors here in America to vow to block Syrian refugees from entering their states.
But that passport was a fake, French officials told The Wall Street Journal, which means the governors’ freakout over refugees was likely based on a lie.
Etc. Response:

I don’t know how this isn’t obvious to the folks at the Daily Beast, but the fact that ISIS appears to have intentionally and successfully exploited the refugee system to bust an agent into enemy territory only helps the arguments of those concerned about security and refugees. It’s not like the fakeness of the passport means that the terrorist is fake. He was all too real. And it doesn’t mean he didn’t come into enemy territory by claiming to be a refugee. He still did that. And even that Abott specifically scarequoted ‘refugee’ to point out that the terrorists wasn’t an actual refugee but one posing as such means that he didn’t fall for a “ruse.” This is really stupid analysis, in fact.

If people spent a bit of time understanding the arguments of their opponents, they’d understand that the concern isn’t that refugees are all terrorists waiting to attack but that terrorists could pose as refugees. As happened, apparently, in Paris.

John Effing Kerry, our Secretary of State...

There's a modification of that saying for Britain and France:

When seconds count, the police are minutes away.  And not armed.
The ranks of police marksmen must be reinforced to meet Islamic State’s ‘theatre of war’ tactics, a top officer said last night.
...
He suggested dozens may be dead by the time special forces and other armed officers were able to confront attackers.

And something I'd not heard before:
Mr Chesterman added that police had considered using automatic weapons, but the risk of killing bystanders was too high.

Many officers are still wielding the Heckler and Koch MP5 – designed more than 50 years ago.

And all weapons available to police fire only a single shot for every trigger pull, as this is more accurate and they must justify every bullet.
As a general thing, not a bad idea: police are SUPPOSED to justify every round fired, and unless there's a lot of training and practice involved, automatic fire tends to be rather messy.  Better a few aimed shots that actually hit, than bursts that mostly don't.

In any case, the main problem is "We don't know when and where the bad guys will strike, and having to wait for an armed officer to show up could lead to a lot more dead bodies."  Much like when those slimeballs murdered a British troop, and the first-responding cops sat around until an armed officer could get there.

"He doesn't want to take your guns!"

Nooooo....

Second point here: Major terrorist attack, they're promising more, they can't/won't even keep track of the refugees already here, but he wants gun control to be the dominant theme of his final year.  The man is absolutely bloody nuts.

The long trip to the range has been made

Among the results:
Driving a standard with left-arm only still sucks.
Dry-fire has definitely helped.
Even with the healing arm in a sling, it drags on you; surgery just takes a lot out of you.
Getting back to the range, even for a short time, is a Good Thing.

A fine illustration of why I've come to despise this man

“What I’m not interested in doing is posing or pursuing some notion of American leadership or America winning or whatever other slogans they come up with that has no relationship to what is actually going to work to protect the American people and to protect the people in the region who are getting killed and to protect our allies and people like France,” Obama said. “I’m too busy for that.”
Think about that, and despair that this America-hating clown is in charge.

'Leading from behind'.  'Smart diplomacy'.
Given that the oil-stealing business is the terrorist group’s financial lifeblood, why has it taken until now to hit the Islamic State’s oil transport capability in a significant way?

The answer, apparently, is that Obama was worried about civilian casualties. What if even one civilian driving an Islamic State truck, or near a truck, was killed in a U.S. attack? That concern, apparently, was enough to stop American forces from attacking a critical part of the Islamic State’s support system.
'Strategy'.
...“Our air campaign, since it began, has been the most restrictive in terms of rules of engagement that we have ever entered into in the last 25 years,” said Jack Keane, a retired Army four-star general who now chairs the Institute for the Study of War. “This has been largely due to the White House’s insistence that there be zero civilian casualties, at the behest of the president of the United States.”

In Abu Kamal, U.S. planes dropped leaflets before the attack, warning people — Islamic State, non-Islamic State, whoever — to leave before the assault began. After waiting for an hour, the U.S. planes struck.
Etc.  Either Obama and his minions are so freaking stupid that they think this is 'degrading and destroying ISIS', or they do not want us to win.

I guarantee, if a US plane goes down and the pilot is captured, this bastard would rather see him murdered in horrible fashion than actually do what's necessary, because 'there might be collateral damage'.  And also because he probably doesn't give a damn: "He's in the military, he's expendable, big deal."

Among the things learned from the current repair job

Once things are healing nicely and the stitches out, don't have to wear the sling all the time; BUT if I don't wear it enough(and that's a variable) I wind up with a deep-down ache that's not pleasant.

This may leave me with another weather-prediction-capable joint.  I devoutly hope not, but maybe.

I found out, at the time the stitches were removed, that they'd also done some arthritis repair on the collarbone, which means "We cut off the very end.  You'll never know it once it's healed."  Again, I devoutly hope so.  And it means no rifle larger than a .22 fired right-handed for a while(once I can fire one).

Tomorrow I may make the trip to the range for the first time since, for some left-handed practice.  Probably revolver, because reloading it will be easier(much) than trying to reload a magazine right now.

I'd really like a better left-handed holster, but with the costs of the surgery and the PT to come, that'll have to wait.  Especially for something I might have to use at some point in the future if the right side takes some kind of damage again.

The bike... well, it's going to be at least a month, I'd guess, before I can ride.  I tanked up and added StaBil just before put it in the garage, and made sure to ride enough to get it through the system.  And the battery tender connection was already on, so can just plug it in(with some difficult) occasionally to take care of that.

Speaking of shooting:
I'd kind of started a AR project before all this happened.  No rush, just collecting parts as could find them on sale or clearance(whenever possible).  Right now the big things needed are a BCG and a handguard.  And it seems like everybody and their uncle makes handguards, in every length and many shapes.  While I'd like to get a Diamondhead like I used on the .338(love the shape), that's not going to happen for quite a while.  I'd prefer a free-float design, 10-12 inches, not a tactical cheese grater.  Anyone have any suggestions?

A current result of 'higher' education

and cowards running the place:
Protesters at Dartmouth University disrupted students studying in the library, reportedly directing profanity towards white students and physically pushing others.

In a critical editorial, the conservative Dartmouth Review listed some of the epithets hurled by the protesters: “Fuck you, you filthy white fucks!” “Fuck you and your comfort!” “Fuck you, you racist shits!”

In addition, the Review reports that some of protesters became physically violent: “Men and women alike were pushed and shoved by the group. ‘If we can’t have it, shut it down!’ they cried. Another woman was pinned to a wall by protesters who unleashed their insults, shouting ‘filthy white bitch!’ in her face.”
Ok, Dartmouth, two things here:
One, we're talking about actual physical assaults; actual CRIMES.
Two, you're all concerned about racism and hate crimes?  Here you have the real things; now what're you gonna do about it?

Anyone actually think the cowards running most universities will have the police in?  Find the criminals and prosecute them?  Throw them out?  Fat chance; these are 'people of colour', therefore theirs is politically-correct racism, and in the progressive world they're entitled to get away with just about anything.  Which means next time they'll put someone in the hospital.  Sooner or later, they'll kill someone.  And part of the fault will be on the heads of said cowards.


Lastly, I’m certainly not the first, and won’t be the last, to comment on the fact that these little bits of campus fluff believe that the safe feelings only flow one way — to them. As you’ve noticed, the hysterical abuse the visit upon others is eerily reminiscent of the old Rage Boy posters from early in the Iraq War. America’s “Feelings Fascists” believe that, when it comes to dealing the meanies who hurt their feelings and scare them, the Feelings Fascists have no obligation to lead by example.


On France,
The original September 14 headline: “Refugees: the fantasy of terrorist infiltration.” The new headline, on a story still datelined September 14, now asks: “Terrorists among the migrants?”
So, when it's demonstrated you're an idiot, try to change the past.  How very Soviet of them.

If more academics had the integrity and balls of this lady,

universities would be much better places.  Instead, we've got these slugs.


And these, to whom censorship in the name of 'settled science' is a fine thing.


Oh, THOSE non-existent no-go zones...

They think they know the guy who set up the Paris operation,

and guess what?
French officials have named Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian linked to a Brussels-based terror cell, as the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks. He remains at large and is believed to be in Syria.

Abaaoud was also linked by French officials to the thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train in August and a foiled plot to attack a church in Paris in April. The French newspaper Libération also linked Abaaoud to Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a French student charged with murder, attempted murder and terror offences.
...
According to Belgian media reports earlier this year, Abaaoud spent time fighting alongside Islamic State in Syria. He was known to security forces after appearing in an Isis video at the wheel of a car transporting mutilated bodies to a mass grave.
So a Belgian citizen, who went to Syria to help ISIL.  How many people like that, from Britain and France and others?

We know that two of the bastards came into Europe with other 'refugees'.  How many more, now in Germany or Sweden or wherever?


It would be harder to imagine a clearer foe, yet we still have difficulty making policy in the light of the threat. After seven years in the White House, President Obama still cannot bear so much as to mention its religious aspect. He sees it all as a distressing misunderstanding arising from colonial wrongs and the fact that George Bush was President before him.

Speaking of President Hopey-Changeypants, 'The light of my presence will calm all', he took the attacks to be a fine occasion to turn more bad guys loose.  Two things come to mind:
Does he realize just how this comes across, and just not care?
Or is he actually dumb enough to not know?

My shoulder aches like hell this morning,

and the fucking idiocy I'm reading from the Democrat debate last night isn't helping.  Hillary says "Women and 9/11 mean me getting lots of money from Wall Street is no problem!"  Sanders saying "Global Warmening is a bigger threat than the terrorists!"  AND "We need to let a lot of refugees in!  Moral purpose!"  Etc. ad Bullshit.

And let us not leave out "Syria would've been GREAT if Obama had listened to me!" from Mrs. I Don't Have To Obey The Law Unless It suits Me.

O'Malley's just as bad as those two.

And CNN has decided that 'Geraldo telling the Iraqis where the unit is and what they're doing' is a model to emulate.  Fucking idiots.


'the pervasive cult of meritocracy'.  Yeah, because hiring someone due to competence is FAR less important than checking all the proper SJW boxes...


By the way, an article from a few years back that "Children will not know what snow is!" has been disappeared from the source.  Happily, The Internets Is Forever.