Dammit, another couple of places to keep track of

A comment on the butthead reporter led to Plains Feeder, which led to People You'll See In Hell.

Warning: looking at the latter may cause side effects on the order of breaking things, boosted blood pressure and acknowledging what that comedian said some years back: "Some people just look better dead."

'Reporter and accomplice hoisted on own petard:

complains of great discomfort. Updated!

Thanks to Unix-Jedi who pointed Kevin to the previous article, we find this:
Reporter goes to another state with accomplice and intent to violate federal firearms law.
Reporter and accomplice violate law.
Reporter brags about it in column, brags about offending 'loony gun lobby'.
Reporter and accomplice get visit from ATF.
Reporter now whining This is how it works. Intimidation is the stock in trade of the National Rifle Association and all the NRA knock-offs out there. Dare to say we need fewer, not more guns in this country, dare to say we need a uniform system for monitoring gun sales in this country and you become a target to be hunted down. Democrats and Republicans have allowed themselves to be cowed by this one-issue bloc for too long.

Boo-freakin'-hoo, jackass. You deliberately broke the law, bragged about it, and now you're getting the treatment that's been given to lots of gun owners who made an honest mistake. Except, you being in the media, are being treated a lot nicer by ATF.

Update
Uncle has more, and it appears reporter is either lying now, or was lying then, and may be going through a bit of major pucker-factor ass-covering.

And our friend who escaped from MA has a look at the skewed method of looking at numbers this clown uses

"...as illegal as firing a sub-machine gun"

No, not shooting somebody. Bloody pepper spray. In Formerly-Great Britain.

Under the Firearms Act, it is ranked alongside rocket launchers in that using it carries a 10-year prison sentence.

This is what happens when God-cursed socialist nanny-state politicians and their little 'progressive' buttmonkeys get do decide your life. And the Brady/Violence Policy Center/Gun-Ban At Any Cost clowns here want things to be just the same.

At times I think I may have to stop reading Kevin; he's bad for my blood pressure.

Well, they're back to their bases

Put son & new daughter-in-law on their respective planes yesterday. Son had the much longer flight, getting there this morning; DIL was back just a few hours after leaving.

Kind of odd being a father-in-law. And I like her, so can't be too obnoxious about things(she married him, that ought to be punishment enough for a few decades).

In any case, back to long-distance contact as son will be going to a hot & sandy place in a month.

Yeah, government-run health care will work

just as well as the tax system.
A missing property tax bill for $1.63 has given Kermit and Dolores Atwood "seven years of emotional hell" in a fight to keep their home.

The bill was sent to a defunct address in 1996 and returned undelivered to the St. Tammany Parish sheriff's office. The Atwoods weren't looking for it since they had owned the four-bedroom house mortgage-free since 1968 and had been exempt from the state tax.

Which does bring up the question of, since their home was exempt, why was any bill sent? And why no further attempt? Of course, that would be calling into question the efficiency of the agency involved...

Instead, the Atwoods' home was sold at a sheriff's auction in 1997 to American Land Investments because of the delinquent bill. The couple have won several court challenges since then and hope to withstand one more appeal over the property.

The State Tax Commission eventually nullified the 1997 sale, but when the Atwoods tried to sell the house in 2002, they discovered that American Land Investments had sold the property rights to Jamie Land Co., which then sued the Atwoods.

James A. Lindsay II, the company's president, said his rights were violated when the tax commission didn't inform him of its decision.

And so on.

This kind of crap happens fairly regularly. And how many cases have been noted where the IRS made an error and screwed someone's life over? How many people have been advised to 'pay whatever they demand, because you'll go broke fighting it'?

Yeah, government-run health care will be just wonderful!

Ammo testing

James had a post a few days back on one of his 'working guns', a Star Super B. Specific note is made that this pistol "...won't feed any hollowpoint ammo at all, or at least any that I have bothered to try."

This is something I(and just about every other gunblogger) has stressed before: NEVER trust ammo for self-defense that you have not fired through your sidearm! Revolvers are much simpler here, as they'll generally digest damn near anything without problem, but a lot of semi-auto pistols can be downright finicky about what they'll digest.

I wrote a while back about trying out a Star BM (if that link doesn't work, try here and here)9mm. That little pistol was fired with CCI Blazer ball, some other brand of ball, two different bullet weights in Gold Dot hollowpoints, Remington hollowpoints and some Winchester hollowpoints as I recall and it ate all of them without a bobble; excellent performance from that beast. I've also fired some high-grade semi-autos that flat would NOT reliably cycle some particular brand of ammo. No reason we could figure, it just wouldn't.

My carry piece is a Kimber Compact, their version of the Officer's Model 1911. The only thing I've fired that it wouldn't feed well was some semi-wadcutter target ammo(a common problem for almost all 1911 pistols that don't have a barrel throated for this bullet). But I've read of other people whose Kimber was very damn picky about what it would work with.

What makes really testing ammo properly a problem is the price that premium self-defense ammo sells for (especially now); for instance, last time I looked Federal Hydra-Shok in .45acp was selling for $15-16. For a box of twenty. That kind of cost really hurts a lot of people. But the plain fact is you cannot short on this: you HAVE to shoot enough of the stuff you choose to make sure it will function reliably in your gun. No ifs, ands or buts.

And here's another kick in the ass for Murtha

Only metaphorically, unfortunately.
Yet another Marine has won a court victory in the investigation of the battle at Haditha – adding more doubts to the claims of a massacre. In this case, the officer conducting an Article 32 hearing (equivalent to a grand jury hearing in civilian courts) has ruled that charges should be dropped. In essence, the claims of a massacre at Haditha are now looking false.

There has GOT to be some kind of payback to both the bastards like Murtha in Congress and the equally disgusting bastards in the media who went way, WAY out of their way to railroad these Marines.

"Don't give them what they want"

Damn good information from Anarchangel

One of my favorite fictional characters(mentioned previously) is Matt Helm. A time or two he explained his actions- on and off-duty- very simply: "If someone opens the door to violence, they've got no room to complain if more than they were expecting walks through". Which pretty much matches with what Chris puts forth: if you have to act, do not stop until the fight is over. No matter what it takes.

Remember the recent Righteous Shooting report from Kim about the old man in the fast-food place? The article(link not good anymore) noted that the reformed criminal deceased dirtbag was upset the man wouldn't comply with an order to pick up his wallet and was trying to force him into the ladies room; the man knew what that meant and acted.

So according to these idiots our troops are both murderers

and can't shoot. So how come so many of the bad guys have assumed ambient temperature?

Now, I know you're thinking the same as Sebastian, "Haven't these clowns heard of 'training'?" But of course! In the original article we have this note on that concept:
Pointing out that officials say many of these bullets have been used for training purposes, he said: "What are you training for? To kill insurgents."

So ammo expended in training is the same as that actually used in combat, and our troops aren't very good shots, the Israel is controlling everything... And thus we end this episode of 'Lifestyles of the Ignorant and Bigoted'.

(Damn those eeville JOOOS; they're responsible for EVERYTHING, aren't they?)

'Cheap Red-Dot Dies:

Surprise expressed by none'

About a year ago I picked up one of the on-sale cheap 30mm red-dots Sportsman's Guide was selling, just to try out on the M1 Carbine with the forward mount I'd put together. Worked really well.

Well, I went to the range today and first fired a couple of rounds at 50 yards just to check zero; about 2" high I thought, but centered on windage. So I moved the target to 100 and fired three. None of which even came close to the paper. Fired a shot at a clay pigeon on the backstop and saw dust jump about three bloody feet low. Not good.

Just to see if it could be adjusted I wasted about 20 rounds on it. Not only would it not hold zero, the adjustments would work and then not work. POI kept shifting all over the bloody place, by feet from one shot to the next, although one time it did put two damn close on the target, then went off to God-knows-where again.

I pulled the sight and fired a group with the iron sights, and it was hitting exactly where it should(as I'd expected), so I'll take the battery out of the sight and trash it*.

Considering the thing cost the grand total of $20, a year on the carbine isn't bad. So down the road a bit(bills right now, you know) I'll find a better-quality sight for it.

Oh, the $15 red-dot I stuck on the .22 pistol? It's still working fine; I'm guessing the greater recoil of the rifle had a definite part in this.

By the way, is there a rule somewhere that if you go to the range on a hot day that the wind will disappear the moment you set up? If I hadn't gotten there early I'd not have made it long, and even drinking like a camel after the road trip I damn near overheated.


*Yes, I HAVE to trash it, otherwise I'll keep fooling with the damn thing.

Yeah, that handgun ban and 'easy on the crooks'

is really working well:
Violent crime and muggings have risen sharply in the past 12 months, despite Government pledges to crack down on the problem and increase the number of front line police officers, figures will show this week. In some rural areas, robbery offences have risen by almost 25 per cent while crimes of violence against the person have risen by almost a fifth.

They also note "The figures are expected to show that sex attacks fell by eight per cent and domestic burglary by three per cent, leading to an overall fall in crime by three per cent.", but I have to wonder if that's actually true; as The Englishman notes, "And anecdotally the rate of non reporting of crime is rising even faster, there is just no bloody point unless you need a crime number for an insurance claim," which ties in with some articles not long ago about how the crime numbers were being figured in ways that cut down on the totals.

They're also on the 'knife amnesty' kick("Bad knife! No whetstone for you! Now toddle off to bed without your oil!"), which hasn't exactly been a roaring success:
A report from the centre for crime and justice studies at King's College London accused the Government of presiding over an incoherent strategy to tackle the problem. It was also sceptical about the merits of amnesties. Although the last one produced 90,000 knives, that represented just 0.0041 per cent of the total available.

This kind of action never works, but that hasn't stopped the magical-thinking clowns over here from wanting to do the same:
“We’re going to have to take this one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily - given the political realities - going to be very modest. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal - total control of all guns - is going to take time…..The final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition - except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs and licensed gun collectors - totally illegal.”

Because it's not really about crime control: it's about control.

The good side of the recent rains

was the lower-than-usual temps for this time of year and things being greener(though a few inches less of the wet stuff would have been just fine). The downsides include:
Now that temps are up at average, the humidity is bloody awful. It feels like the damn mosquitoes could almost lay eggs in the air.
Since it's about the only thing that usually bothers me, it must be the mold that's way, way up.
And it dews so heavy the grass doesn't dry out until afternoon. When it's hottest.

I just finished mowing about an hour ago. If I'd waited until it was mostly dry it'd have been evening, and I plan on taking son & wife to dinner. So another session of 'mow a strip, beat the caked grass out, repeat' was done. Only this time it was hot and humid enough I lost buckets of sweat- which in this humidity won't evaporate as you go- and, courtesy of the mold, had to keep blowing my nose to keep it from running down my face. Yuck, to say the least.

Going by past experience, if no rain for about a week things should dry enough to get back to 'normal' humidity for this month. Which means hot, but not 'drown in your own sweat' conditions.

Ah, normalcy.

Update on Haditha

Or, as I should say, the Haditha railroad some troops for fun and profit travesty of justice. I wrote about this a couple of times, the last here. The other day I found something which led to Blackfive(here and here), to Pundit Review(here), to Let Freedom Ring(here) and to Michelle Malkin(here).

Short version, as PR put it, "Murtha’s guilty verdict in Haditha case overturned by actual evidence". The case(such as it was) seems to have pretty much fallen apart, leaving a lot of people with questions for that slimy little politician Murtha(Pond Scum/PA). And the little bastard ducking and hiding.

I don't know if it's possible for the Marines he called murderers to take him to court for it; I hope they can. Because with Pelosi in charge of the house, the chances of the censure he deserves(at a minimum) are just about zero.

As to that personal business,

my son was home on leave, and took care of some business while here. Meet the daughter-in-law























and son in his dress uniform.

Nice ceremony, family & friends from around the state and a sister(she has several) from out of state.

I've got one more thing to post tonight, then I'm done. It's been a busy day.

Been a bit busy

with a personal matter, so not much to write the past while. Should have something to put up either later today or tomorrow, but for now:
Dumbass union people, sucking up to Hillary Clinton.

Traitor convicted for trying to get al Qaeda help to attack this country. Wasn't convicted of treason, unfortunately, though what he was doing damn well qualifies as such.

It's discovered that if you look around you can find all kinds of useful things right on the shelf. And if you tell people "We need this", they can build it. Without spending a few billion on committees and so forth.

Kucinich proves he's a friggin' idiot(as if further proof was needed) by trusting Edwards.

Drug gangs threaten journalists. But of COURSE these people will be stopped by a 'virtual' fence.

The Brits just can't seem to help themselves about flushing their country down the toilet.

Speaking of flushing, demonstration of why Kim calls Republicans the 'Stupid Party'.

Tim Blair notes some things about Globular Warmering:
But climate change is like Michael Moore's tracksuit - it can fit anyone. In 2005, Greenpeace rep Steven Guilbeault helpfully explained: "Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with."

What we're dealing with, apparently, is weather.

Ah, but what weather it is!

If you remember the Los Angeles riot in 1992,

you'll be familiar with a lot of the crap that happened. If you're not, you especially need to read these three posts about My Hollywood Gun:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

And to those who say 'the police can/will protect you', I suggest you point them to this line in Part 3:
We have learned that the Los Angeles Police Department has been "pulled back for their own safety."

It notes the point made time after time: it doesn't matter how good your local LE agency is, or how hard they work, it's just not possible for them to be there all the time to protect you. Which means, especially when things go completely to hell like in LA, you're on your own.

It's not a fun thing, but it's fact.

Canada's gun registry is both expensive

and a flop.
Canada's homicide rate and number of
gang-related murders has increased since the federal government's firearms
registry and licensing program was implemented, an indication that the program has failed to improve public safety, according to Hubris in the North, The Canadian Firearms Registry, a new report from independent research organization The Fraser Institute.

Gee, ya think?

"In 1995, the government promised Canadians that the gun registry would reduce total criminal violence, suicide and domestic abuse, not just gun violence," said Gary Mauser, author of the report, senior fellow with The Fraser Institute, and a professor at Simon Fraser University. "But the legislation has failed to do that, primarily because it relies upon public-health research to justify a moralistic approach to firearms that exaggerates the danger of citizens owning firearms through pseudoscientific research methods."

Tell me more!

The gun registry and its supporting legislation were introduced in 1995 by the Liberal government. Justice Minister Allan Rock said at the time that registering guns and licensing their owners would save lives by reducing criminal violence, domestic violence, suicide, and firearm accidents.

But Mauser's analysis shows that public safety has not improved. He finds that overall criminal violence and suicide rates have continued their long-term decline with the violent crime rate falling by about four per cent. Yet the homicide rate has actually increased by nine per cent since the registry was implemented. No persuasive link could be found between the firearm registry and these changes.(bold mine)

Doesn't look good for the program.

"I don't think you can credit the gun registry for the decline in criminal violence because the data indicate the drop began well before firearms registration was introduced," Mauser said. "Moreover, homicide and criminal violence in general have fallen more in the United States during the same time period than in Canada, so it's hard to imagine the gun registry having a measurable impact in this environment."(bold mine)

No! Do tell!

One of the most striking findings is that gang-related homicides and homicides involving handguns have increased substantially.

"Gang violence typically involves handguns and although handguns have been registered since the 1930s, this has not reduced the level of their criminal misuse," Mauser said. "The gun registry had no effect on homicide rates and was particularly ineffective against gang activity."

Hmmm, gangs don't obey the law... Whoda thunk it? Which brings up, just how did this piece of expensive crap get passed? Pay attention now:
The report suggests that the rational for the registry program is based on faulty research.

"The government's approach to public safety relied on an analysis of firearms and violence that greatly exaggerated the dangers of firearm ownership," Mauser said.

"This misrepresentation stemmed from public-health researchers who ignored basic scientific principles in favour of advocacy. These activists drew conclusions that were not supported by their research studies and they compounded their errors by recommending legislative solutions that fell outside the boundaries of their research. Such studies are not properly
scientific but use the scientific trappings of research to prove claims rather than testing hypotheses."

Invalid conclusions, junk science, done by advocates instead of researchers. As Jamie says on Mythbusters, "Well, THERE'S your problem!"

And a key bit that relates to firearms and a whole lot of other things:
"We lose much of our inherited democratic freedoms if we treat mature citizens as if they were helpless patients rather than responsible adults," Mauser said.
And that's a key to the problem with a lot of the nanny-state crap we're putting up with.

Their final conclusion:
Despite its estimated $2 billion cost to date, the firearms registry remains notably incomplete and has an error rate that remains embarrassingly high. As a result of its many failures, particularly its failure to reduce gang violence or stop senseless killings such as the recent occurrences at Dawson College and Mayerthorpe, Alberta, the firearms registry has not been
able to win the trust of either the public or the police.

Mauser pointed out that Auditor General Sheila Fraser complained that she could not get all of the necessary financial information during an audit of the registry and summarized her review of the books by saying the registry had one of the largest cost overruns her office had ever seen.

"Clearly, the evidence shows that the registry has failed Canadians. It has failed to reduce gang violence or stop senseless killings. So why then, should we trust it, and why should we continue to fund it?" Mauser said.

Why indeed? Directly relating to the efforts by the GFW gun banners here("This database will be complete, accurate and secure", etc.) are the bits about being 'notably incomplete' and 'an error rate that remains embarrassingly high. Also note that the freakin' Auditor General was not able to get all the costs information from the people running this mess(can you say 'bureaucrats hiding their mess/incompetence/corruption?') Which would be exactly what would happen here. Uncle has noted in the past that the NFA database is horribly incomplete and inaccurate, and that's on guns and other pieces that you have to go through a background check and pay transfer tax, etc., before you can take possession, run by a federal agency that's not exactly been shy of support and money. The only way these people can actually believe that any system in the future would be wonderful would be the 'magical thinking' Kevin writes of. Which is not exactly something you should base a government on.

Article found at RNS

It's hard to believe we actually have these clowns in our government

People like Sen. Reid(SurrenderMonkey/NV) who say things like
























Problem being, the 'intended result' for him and his buttmonkeys is us losing. Whereas the surge appears to be having real effect.

I guess I'm still a bit naive about this crap, because it's really hard to understand why someone in our own government would want us to LOSE a war. Pretty damned disgusting, it is.

Picture stolenborrowed from Hugh Hewitt

"Change your ways, filthy peasants, and save Mother Gaia! Ignore the hypocritical boobspeople behind the curtain! Get rid of your car and motorcycle, burn the neighbor's truck! And live like we tell you to, not like we doin the proper way!"

Pretty much seems to cover the attitude of the arrogant, self-righteous boobs in the political and entertainment industries. Not all of them, of course:
Matt Bellamy, front man of the rock band Muse, has dubbed it 'private jets for climate change'.
Which is hugely outweighed balanced by:
A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the planet, the extravaganza will generate a huge fuel bill, acres of garbage, thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions, and a mileage total equal to the movement of an army.

The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be far higher.

The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who specialises in such calculations.

But they will take care of such niggling little matters by buying indulgencescarbon credits by the friggin' railcar-load:
John Rego, the environmental director of Live Earth, says he expects to purchase at least 3,000 tonnes of carbon credits to off-set the event. It is believed the organisers will spend in excess of £1million on carbon offsetting to counter criticism.

Rego explains: "All the events are carbon neutral. We have chosen a reforestation and reagricultural project in Mozambique. It is a credible certifiable carbon-diffused project. We are in the process of purchasing a carbon offset."

"See! We are doing a PC and Socially-Approved Thing, so shut up about us using private planes and big cars and motorcycles, you bloody peasants! Do what you're told! And don't eat meat, either!"

Just as a side point, ignoring the diet deficiencies vegans and 'no animal product' vegetarians tend to suffer, have these clowns ever checked the numbers on how much land would have to be put under the plow to feed everyone if they could force us to go vegan? I know the bastards want to kill off most of the human race, but since they can't pull that off I'd think they'd be willing to trade people eating meat for a bleepload of square miles of forest and prarie and mosquito and leech-infested swamp wetlands. But apparently not.

If I had time, I think I'd take both the muzzloaders to the range and proceed to create clouds of stinkyaromatic, carbon-laden smoke.

After all, it's the thought that counts.

Two more things for this day

First, a damn good essay from Kim.

And found through Kim, a video on citizen preparedness