I may be mistaken, but after all the "We will now fund

fetal stem cell research of all kinds" noise in the speech, doesn't this pretty much leave things just like the order Bush signed? If not more strict?
On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”
The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.

The amendment says, in part: “None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for—(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”

...it also mandates that the government use an all-inclusive definition of “human embryo” that encompasses any nascent human life from the moment that life comes into being, even if created in a laboratory through cloning, in vitro fertilization or any other means.
Which means either the "We don't have time for you to read all this!" push caused this to get through without notice, or Obama knew it was there and just used the "I'm signing" press moment to showboat, knowing this was going to keep anything from really changing.

As examples of how companies like Adidas are run by moral cretins

and fools, I would have pointed to the products Liberty Girl pointed out with which Adidas urged people to show their love for the former USSR and for Cuba.

........

It just takes a minute to wrap your head around the idiocy involved in that crap. Said crap apparently pissed off enough people who then expressed their opinion to the company, because both products show 'temporarily out of stock'. Kind of like the supply of brains at that company.

Just because I enjoyed it,

something to start the day:
Mr. Adams: You're [sic] columns are among the most insensitive I have ever read. George Will and other true conservatives must be embarrased [sic] by your rants. Have you given no thought to the needs os [sic] the many young boys who are experiencing gender identity crises?

Lauren


Hi Lauren. I agree with you that young boys experiencing gender identity confusion have special needs. I have given the matter considerable thought. I think a young boy who thinks he's a girl needs a serious ass whipping. Parents who hear a child whining that he feels like a girl trapped in a boy's body should attend to his needs by whipping his ass immediately.

As you can see, Lauren, I've given serious thought to this matter. Is there any other subject about which you wish to survey my thoughts or feelings?

Mike Adams

and

yo, wtf do you have a gun in your hand for? it's in the pic on your fromt [sic] page. I was surfing the web and found your site, having no idea what it's about I would love to know why fire arms are on your front page.

oban cameron

Dear Oban:

I have a firearm on my home page for essentially the same reason a dog licks his genitals: Because he can and he enjoys it.

Like the dog, it is best to leave me alone to enjoy doing what I enjoy doing. I hope you understand. Your opinion means a lot to me.

Mike S. Adams

Dinner's over, my sinuses are cleared

and the last of the chili's gone. You see, the other day somebody pointed to this at Brigid's place, which reminded me of how long it's been since I made fry bread, so... Fresh fry bread with chili ladled over, grated cheese thrown on and some chopped lettuce on top. I'm stuffed, and chili took care of my somewhat stopped-up nose.

By the way, tear off a bit from a piece of the still-warm bread and drip some honey on it. I dare you to not eat that whole piece.

Sigivald thought a comment had not gone through,

but it may just have been the moderation delay. A few days ago some moron started posting garbage in comments, so I enabled moderation to stop it. Hopefully can take it back off in a while.

Sigivald had a couple of things to say, one of them
Firstly, I think your interpretation is a bit flawed; an '03 or Krag is a bolt-action and thus not affected by a "semi-automatic rifle" regulation of any sort, stupid as these proposed bans are. Likewise, the "detachable magazine outside the pistol grip" referred in the previous AWB to the location of the magazine, not its length - and I see no reason why the language presented would apply to long magazines and their extension rather than location.

I'm basing the '03 and such on "there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any law enforcement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes,"; give an AG like Holder the ability to add something to a ban at will and that line spells "Ban it all!" to me. Same for the magazine 'outside the pistol grip' line; it meant one thing in the original AWB, but if they did try to shove a new through, I have no doubt that would be used to ban any semi-auto handgun that has every had a extended mag made to fit. For that matter, the extreme gun bigots would argue that since the magazine of any pistol could be extended...

You may be right that I'm misinterpreting those parts, but I don't trust them. At all.

The Evil Party gun ban list

Friend relayed this to me, I'm just going to excerpt part of it:
The Democrats current gun-ban-list proposal (final list will be worse):
Rifles (or copies or duplicates):
M1 Carbine,
Sturm Ruger Mini-14,
AR-15,
Bushmaster XM15,
Armalite M15,
AR-10,
Thompson 1927,
Thompson M1;
AK,
AKM,
AKS,
AK-47,
AK-74,
ARM,
MAK90,
NHM 90,
NHM 91,
SA 85,
SA 93,
VEPR;
Olympic Arms PCR;
AR70,
Calico Liberty ,
Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle or Dragunov SVU,
Fabrique National FN/FAL,
FN/LAR, or FNC,
Hi-Point20Carbine,
HK-91,
HK-93,
HK-94,
HK-PSG-1,
Thompson 1927 Commando,
Kel-Tec Sub Rifle;
Saiga,
SAR-8,
SAR-4800,
SKS with detachable magazine,
SLG 95,
SLR 95 or 96,
Steyr AU,
Tavor,
Uzi,
Galil and Uzi Sporter,
Galil Sporter, or Galil Sniper Rifle ( Galatz ).
Pistols (or copies or duplicates):
Calico M-110,
MAC-10,
MAC-11, or MPA3,
Olympic Arms OA,
TEC-9,
TEC-DC9,
TEC-22 Scorpion, or AB-10,
Uzi.
Shotguns (or copies or duplicates):
Armscor 30 BG,
SPAS 12 or LAW 12,
Striker 12,
Streetsweeper. Catch-all category (for anything missed or new designs):
A semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and has:
(i) a folding or telescoping stock,
(ii) a threaded barrel,
(iii) a pistol grip (which includes ANYTHING that can serve as a grip, see
below),
(iv) a forward grip; or a barrel shroud.
Any semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine that can accept more than
10 rounds (except tubular magazine .22 rim fire rifles)..
A semiautomatic pistol that has the ability to accept a
detachable magazine, and has:
(i) a second pistol grip,
(ii) a threaded barrel,
(iii) a barrel shroud or
(iv) can accept a detachable magazine outside of the pistol grip, and
(v) a semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10
rounds. Note that the
A semiautomatic shotgun with:
(i) a folding or telescoping stock,
(ii) a pistol grip (see definition below),
(iii) the ability to accept a detachable magazine or a fixed magazine capacity
of more than 5 rounds, and
(iv) a shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
Frames or receivers for the above are included, along with conversion kits.


Attorney General gets carte blanche to ban guns at will: Under the proposal, the U.S. Attorney General can add any "semiautomatic rifle or shotgun originally designed for military or law enforcement use, or a firearm based on the design of such a firearm, that is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General."
Note that Obama's pick for this office, Eric Holder, wrote a brief in the Heller case supporting the position that you have no right to have a working firearm in your own home. In making this determination, the bill says, "there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any law enforcement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, and a shall not be determined to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes solely because the firearm is suitable for use in a sporting event." In plain English this means that ANY firearm ever obtained by federal officers or the military is not suitable for the public.
The last part is particularly clever, stating that a firearm doesn't have a sporting purpose just because it can be used for sporting purpose -- is that devious or what? And of course, "sporting purpose" is a rights infringement with no constitutional or historical support whatsoever, invented by domestic enemies of the right to keep and bear arms to further their cause of disarming the innocent.

It's a real shopping list, isn't it? The pistol 'can accept a detachable magazine outside of the pistol grip' will mean if it can hold a mag that extends beyond the grip, the pistol is banned; which means banning EVERY semi-auto pistol. Your rifle is threaded for a compensator? Banned. Pistol has a threaded barrel, or someone every made one for that model? Banned. Your old 1903 Springfield? M1 Garand? Krag? Banned. Every 1911 variant in existence? Banned. And since lots of pistols of all types have been use in military service? Banned. Because the AG decides that they don't have a 'proper sporting purpose'.

And let's take that sporting purpose crap; it means that they want to completely trash the 2nd Amendment, AND consider self-defense to be not worthy of consideration as reason for owning a firearm. After all, self-defense isn't a 'sporting purpose', now is it?

This is what they'd like to do. And, since they've proven they have no consideration for the Constitution beyond using it as toilet paper, we have to keep reminding them of the price for trying to do this.

A nice comment from somebody on the "Make wounded vets pay

for their treatment" idea:
Let’s see. The same administration that wants to give tens of billions of dollars to GM, Citigroup, AIG, and a host of other banks and manufacturers wants men and women injured in service to their country to pay for the medical care that arises from these injuries? In what universe does Shinseki and the Obama administration live, anyway?
Really, I still have no words about this. Like I said, it tells us a lot about what kind of general Shinseki was, that he'd go along with this crap.

A Russian expert is warning that we need to take the threat from Iran seriously:
Russia and the West would be making a big mistake if they ignored or underestimated the potential missile and nuclear threat coming from Iran, a Russian military expert said on Thursday.

"Iran is actively working on a missile development program. I won't say the Iranians will be able to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles in the near future, but they will most likely be able to threaten the whole of Europe," said [retired] Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic Nuclear Forces....

"Iran has long abandoned outdated missile technologies and is capable of producing sophisticated missile systems," Dvorkin said at a news conference in RIA Novosti
Considering their own troubles with islamist types, no, I don't think the Russians like the idea of Iran having both long-range missiles and nukes; not at all. And if the EUnuchs have a brain in their heads, they'll be seriously worried about it.

Congress once again promises not to make itself vote to give itself a raise; they'd rather hide behind automatic raises.

Massachusetts proves itself a bastion of free speech as long as the speech agrees with what the nutcases think; otherwise, they don't want you to be heard.

The Most Ethical Congress EVAH!
“Note that OneUnited is the same bank whose relationship with Barney Frank raised some eyebrows back in January. After receiving $12 million in bailout funds with Frank’s help, the FDIC issued a cease-and-desist order against the bank, in part related to the fact that the bank was paying for the CEO’s beach house and Porsche.”

Ace pointed out this article on just how standard-politics Mr. Hopey-Changeypants is; as he says, Not a lot you haven't read before, but a worthy effort in showing Barack Obama for what he is.

I won't go into the latest Obama appointee resignations/raids/arrests/whatever; just too many.

I read this piece from Paglia the other day, and had about the same reaction:"So everyone in the administration except Obama is screwing up, and Obama's only real sin is in not picking the right people?" An awful lot of people have a lot of personal feelings invested in "Obama is wonderful!", and they're willing to overlook an awful lot to keep that feeling; gonna be really nasty when reality crashes down on them.

And, just to make things fun as Pres. Obama is reaching out to Tehran,
An American fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone as it was flying over Iraq, U.S. military sources in Baghdad tell Danger Room.

Details of the previously-unreported shoot-down, which occurred last month, are still sketchy. But we do know that American commanders have long accused Tehran of supplying weapons and training to all sorts of Iraqi militant groups. Shi'ite militias fired Iranian rockets at U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the American military; Sunni militias allegedly used Iranian armor-piercing bombs to reduce U.S. vehicles to ribbons.
Just wonderful, isn't it?

Back to this country, how's this for a blunt theat from Pelosi's office?
“Could you send me a hard copy of the DOD budget documents on the fy 08 request and the fy07 supplemental request?” wrote Pelosi staffer Mike Sheehy in a February 5, 2007 email to the DOD, in direct response to having the speaker’s request for a bigger, nicer plane that could take her from San Francisco to DC without having to refuel rebuffed. This was an implicit budgetary threat issued to a department Pelosi and her staff wanted something from.
So when she says
“I have never asked for any larger plane….We’ve never asked for a larger plane, this is a myth that they are talking about on the floor,” she said. “No we haven’t asked for any larger plane. …this is not my request, it is a request of the Sergeant-at-Arms…
she's lying to us. Again.

And, just as a general finish, a piece on one of the biggest diamond thefts ever. Including the idiot-level mistake that blew the whole thing.

One last thing: Tam makes reference to the ads

with pretty ladies about to fall out of their BDU pants and expose something through the open front of their vest if they turn a little, displaying whatever New Tacticaler! thing is being sold. Which reminded me...

One of my various gripes over the years has been the people who draw the covers of sci-fi and fantasy novels. In particular, the ones with the Heroine In The Mail Bikini or something similar and/or the Hero In The Breechclout chasing/being chased through the woods. No objection whatever to pretty females in scanty attire, but DAMN, people, have some sense! The way I once expressed this, in my usual quite tones, was along the lines of "I'd like to take the jerk who drew this, dress him up this way, and run his ass through the woods for a while; then we'll see if he thinks it's a good idea. And we'll send his girlfriend along, too!" The kids, having some experience with what you run into in the Oklahoma woods, laughed like hell. Yeah, think about running into greenbriar or blackberry vines with nothing between them and your tender hide; and that's not counting the bugs and the general stickers and things. There was a reason the Indians wore leggings and long shirts, people.

Since I'm- once again- on the subject of dirtbag politicians, this time the UN

has done it again.
CAPITOL HILL, March 12 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning, ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen emerged and told the Press that Ban "used the word deadbeat when it came to describing the United States... unbelievable."

Minutes later, Ban stopped and spoke to the three reporters present, including Inner City Press, all three of whom had tape recorders running. He was asked, did you use the word 'deadbeat'? Inner City Press asked, "Ros-Lehtinen seemed to say you did."

"Yes I did, I did," Ban replied, and then smiled impishly. His spokesperson, who also tape recorded the exchange, then said Ban had to go. He rushed away down the hallway surrounded by aides.
Ah, but he has an explanation, you see:
At least two stories were written. Then, past midnight, Ban's Spokesperson's office issued a midnight "clarification" --

Subj: To clarify any misunderstanding about the Secretary General
From: unspokesperson-donotreply@un.org
To: Inner City Press [et al.]
Sent: 3/12/2009 12:19:10 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time

The Secretary-General said: "The United States generously supports the work of the UN , both in assessed and voluntary contributions".

The Secretary-General also added that while the United States is the most generous contributor to the United Nations, it is also the largest debtor, with more than one billion dollars of arrears owed to the organization. Etc.
So, let's see; we put more money into that conglomeration of tyrants and leeches than any other country, we're not giving them ENOUGH, so we're deadbeats.
........
Mr. Secretary-General, there's already an awful lot of us sick to bloody death of paying you clowns to screw people- sometimes literally, considering the number of UN people involved in running brothels and child porn and other abuses- the world over. We're tired of(at the tsunami zone, for instance) being either first or among the first there, working our asses off, contributing billions, and having your delicate little flowers show up and try to take over and claim credit for everything done, and then insulting us.

And you call us deadbeats because we don't give you enough of what we work for. So you can use it to prop up more dictators, and insult us more, and abuse more people, and insist people being murdered and enslaved should just sit and take it until the Holy UN comes in(probably after they're all dead) and does something.

Screw you, Mr. Secretary-General, and every deadbeat, thieving little socialist jackass under you. We ought to stop funding your organization AT ALL and tell you to move the hell out of our country. You're so fond of dictators, go to Cuba; I'm sure the Castro regime would love to have you there.

And if I hear anything about how wonderful unions are,

I'll think of this:
...In this release, Teamster president Hoffa praised the House and Senate sponsors of card check and asked, “Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?”

Well, gee, you worthless, corrupt piece of crap, for quite a long damned time. And that you can say such a thing tells me all I need to know about you and what you're pushing. And the dirtbags in Congress pushing it for you.

I wonder, what did their integrity cost? Probably went pretty cheap, I'd guess.

I would not have believed I would have to say Pres. Obama is worse

than I'd thought and feared; but this miserable canker on the ass of this country is.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.
...
No official proposal to create such a program has been announced publicly, but veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama voicing their opposition to the idea after hearing the plan was under consideration.

The groups also cited an increase in "third-party collections" estimated in the 2010 budget proposal -- something they said could be achieved only if the Veterans Administration started billing for service-related injuries.

Asked about the proposal, Shinseki said it was under "consideration."

"A final decision hasn't been made yet," he said.

I have no words. There's just no proper way to describe this shit. And that Shinseki, who used to be a general, is part of it...

Miserable, chickenshit, cowardly, disgusting...

Thanks to Sondra for helping get word of this atrocity around

Helmke, of the Brady Group To Ban Guns, is a flat-out

damned liar:

McLendon fired more than 200 rounds from his military-style semiautomatic assault weapons....Assault weapons were banned under federal law until four years ago....

"This man needed the firepower of assault weapons to execute his plan of mass carnage. Alabama, and our nation, must take action to make it harder for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign.

I'll pass on the other bullcrap; the simple fact is these firearms were not banned 'until four years ago'. Which means, once again, the Brady Group To Ban Guns either doesn't know what it's talking about, or is a bunch of damned liars.

On the subject of the care and feeding of the Garand

Rustmeister noted in comments Modern 30.06 loads are hotter than what the Garand was designed for and can damage your baby. Which is something to consider.

Remember a while back I wrote on pressure, and when it comes in, and why military arms are generally designed specifically around a cartridge? That's very much in my mind, and I plan to be careful about it. Generally, jacketed bullets from 150 to 170 grains weight can be safely used when loaded to pressures that will both give accuracy and cycle the action properly; heavier bullets, no. Lighter jacketed often no, because the powder type and charge that works best for them often does not play well with the operating system of the Garand.

Cast bullets as heavy as 200 grains, sometimes with a slower-burning powder than IMR4895, have been used successfully in the Garand due to the fact that a cast or cast and gas-checked bullet has a lot less friction in the bore than a jacketed bullet with that hard copper-alloy coat; but you do have to watch pressures to make sure you stay in the range.

I've been told the Federal American Eagle .30-06 with 150-grain FMJ bullet matches up to military M2 ball specs, but haven't checked that out for myself; I do know that one local range that regularly runs service rifle shoots sells that ammo for the matches with that as the reason.

Speaking of the Garand, after shooting it to check it out, when time allows I'll use some stuff to clean the old oil and grease(happily, doesn't look like much) out of the wood and refinish it carefully(so as not to damage the stock markings). Right now it's 30-something and damp outside, and I ain't gonna do it. I did a few years back in similar weather, because the rifle in question was really greasy and I just couldn't wait, but I about froze doing it. My hands get stiffer in the cold than they used to, so I'll wait for things to warm up a bit.

Ok, you people who voted Hopey-Changey to end the war

and bring the troops home? In case you haven't figured it out yet, President Hopey-Changey lied to you, too.
President Obama, apparently seeking to keep the anti-war left firmly under his spell, announced that he was drawing down American forces in Iraq, and was instead diverting forces who had trained specifically for an Iraqi deployment to Afghanistan.

Less than a month later, another unit's scheduled deployment to Iraq is sped up, in order to keep the same number of Stryker brigades in Iraq as there would have been if he hadn't shipped the other unit to Afghanistan.

The President ordered a unit that had trained for ten months specifically for the Iraqi mission to another part of the world that speaks a different language and has entirely different cultures. There is no easy way to determine on a Sunday night how many tens of millions of training dollars and man-hours Obama wasted by shifting this Stryker brigade, but if the Iraqi theater really didn't need them, it at least could have been understandable.

But the Iraqi theater clearly did need a Stryker brigade, and he planned on sending one all along.

We know this because just as soon as the Obama White House sold the drawdown story to the media and the anti-war left, he immediately and quietly ordered that another Stryker brigade—one that is no doubt capable, but one that didn't have the specific, intensive training of the unit diverted to Afghanistan— rushed to Iraq months ahead of schedule in order to keep the same number of Stryker brigades (two) as there has been the entire time.
So what President B. Cartman Obama really meant was "I will bring the troops home(while I send others over there, but don't pay attention to that part)!"

People taken away from their families prematurely, without the training that would really help, so Obama could play at keeping a campaign promise. Just effing wonderful.

True, true...

Thanks to RNC for the toon

The Sportsman's Warehouse here is closing

Just heard about it today. There goes one of the places I got reloading stuff locally.

I went up to take a look around, not expecting much. When a shipment of ammo, powder, primers or bullets came in, unless you happened to come by within two days it was all gone, so, as I expected, not much on the shelves. Did have some powder, shotgun primers and some bullets in stock, very little in the way of ammo. Not just handgun or whatever; if you counted up everything, maybe two cases on the shelves, and that was going away.

They have a wall behind the gun counter that has most of the handguns on it, with some of the more special stuff in the counter; it would've been easier to list what was there than what wasn't, by far. A fair number of bolt rifles and shotguns left, but they're going, too.

I'll miss the place.

A couple of pieces on the major media trying to avoid noticing

the tax protests.
If a revolution happens and no reporters cover it, will it make a sound? That's a good question because an anti-tax revolution as American as they come is under way, and the country's top newsmen could care less.

Anti-tax protests have been sprouting like spring flowers from sea to shining sea the past couple of weeks. Inspired by the "Chicago Tea Party" rant of CNBC business analyst Rick Santelli, taxpayers have rallied in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, among other locales. A national "Tax Day Tea Party" of coordinated rallies is planned for April 15.

But if you only get your news from the mainstream media, you probably wouldn't know the protests ever happened. Most major news outlets have provided zero coverage of any of the individual events or the grassroots movement as a whole. The conservative-leaning Internet startup Pajamas TV is the only outlet consistently covering the protests, which totaled nearly 30 by PJTV's count after last weekend.

and
DOES THE L.A. TIMES COVER RALLIES? YOU BET IT DOES! And they don’t have to have 15,000 people, either — as long as the issue is one near and dear to the hearts of Times editors.
Again, the major media shows hellish bias, would rather die than admit it and try to fix it, and then bitches about their markets going down the toilet.

"But THESE earmarks are IMPORTANT; and they

put the Kennedy name on more things."

Sick to death of arrogant politicians who want to spend more of other peoples money so they can polish their own image, sick to death of politicians who claim something is important but don't want to be bothered with actually arguing their point and trying to legitimately get funding; oh no, much easier to do this.

I guess the Kennedy family wants to be like Byrd in WV; they think their name ought to be on every damn thing around.

So these are the wonderful people running the

whole damn mess:
Bryan described himself as an Obama supporter who derived “intellectual satisfaction” from the president’s healthcare, education and climate proposals. But he questioned whether most people connected such complicated issues to the plunging values of their retirement accounts or to soaring unemployment.

Pervasive voter uncertainty means Obama needs to emphasize short-term measures to fix the economy, Bryan said. “If there’s not a sense that we’ve reached bottom and there’s a sense of uncertainty, I think the president’s support will erode fairly rapidly,” he added.
Yeah, we're too unintellectual to connect Obama wanting to trash the coal industry and prevent drilling and shove cap & trade down our throats and warning us that electricity costs will 'skyrocket' to the economy. Uh huh. Or maybe we just don't have Mr. Bryan's 'intellectual satisfaction' in Pres. B. Cartman Obama wanting to 'remake the country' in an Alinsky image.

The whole piece is interesting, with it seeming to boil down to this: doesn't seem to matter to these clowns if things actually improve, what matters is if they can make voters think things are better so they can hold onto majorities.

It may not be Tam's preferred

flying predator, but it's a fine example of a stealth attack craft saying "TURN OFF THAT LIGHT! I'M TRYING TO HUNT!!"

Have you ever seen the claws on those birds?