over here, which caused me to look around and find this; among his other bits of wisdom:
4. Give you the remote control during the game.
This one is inherently stupid because it implies that all guys like to watch "the game." Since I'd rather be shot in the chest with projectile diarrhea than watch "the game," I'll assume the author meant something worthy of watching, such as Ren & Stimpy, in which case you need to put the bitch down if she touches your remote.
and
7. His hands always find yours.
This is one of those things women read and say "AWW HOW ROMANTIC." I have news for you: holding hands is stupid. Women don't know the first thing about being romantic. Only lesbians hold hands anyway; allow me to explain. The only time it's acceptable to hold hands with anyone is if you're at a peace vigil. Guys don't go to peace vigils, period. If you do, you have to surrender your balls and get a sex transplant because you're a bitch; in either case, you're a woman, and when two women hold hands it can only lead to one thing as far as I'm concerned.
Oh yes, there's more
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
And the "Rampaging youths" continue to rampage
Noted this the other day, found some followup here and here, among other places. Among other things to note:
Police investigators and several eyewitnesses corroborate the patrolmen’s version of the accident. The police car was going at a normal speed, no sirens, no hot pursuit. The mini-motorcycle came down a side street at high speed and made a left turn, crashing directly into the police car. The police remained on the scene for approximately twenty to thirty minutes until the fire department ambulance arrived.
...
Twenty-five policemen injured, dozens of cars burned, shops destroyed, individuals assaulted. Blind with rage, the rampaging mob found time to steal before smashing and burning. For the brother of Mushin, one of the victims, “it’s not violence, it’s an expression of rage.”
Please take special note of that: "...one of the victims,". 'Victims' means someone did it to them, they were wronged and therefore "We have a right to do this because(in chorus now) We're Victims!"
And take special note of this from a blogger in Paris:
The French Intifada never ended; it simply leveled off at a jaw-dropping 14 police officers injured per day (that's 2,500 annually) the last I saw it mentioned in any news source.
Fourteen officers injured PER DAY, EVERY DAY. Just amazing.
From the Pajama's Media report: Villiers le Bel is in the administrative district of Sarcelles / Garges-les-Gonesses about 20 km north of Paris. Not so long ago Sarcelles was the home sweet home of Jewish refugees from North Africa; today it is their nightmare. They endure constant attacks and harassment from the permanently enraged African-Arab-Muslim residents who live cheek by jowl with their still neat clean streets.
'Permanently enraged' do indeed seem to describe these people.
Gateway Pundit has this report, and some earlier ones you can scroll down to.
Sarkozy will have his hands full dealing with this mess. Let's hope he can actually do something about it.
Police investigators and several eyewitnesses corroborate the patrolmen’s version of the accident. The police car was going at a normal speed, no sirens, no hot pursuit. The mini-motorcycle came down a side street at high speed and made a left turn, crashing directly into the police car. The police remained on the scene for approximately twenty to thirty minutes until the fire department ambulance arrived.
...
Twenty-five policemen injured, dozens of cars burned, shops destroyed, individuals assaulted. Blind with rage, the rampaging mob found time to steal before smashing and burning. For the brother of Mushin, one of the victims, “it’s not violence, it’s an expression of rage.”
Please take special note of that: "...one of the victims,". 'Victims' means someone did it to them, they were wronged and therefore "We have a right to do this because(in chorus now) We're Victims!"
And take special note of this from a blogger in Paris:
The French Intifada never ended; it simply leveled off at a jaw-dropping 14 police officers injured per day (that's 2,500 annually) the last I saw it mentioned in any news source.
Fourteen officers injured PER DAY, EVERY DAY. Just amazing.
From the Pajama's Media report: Villiers le Bel is in the administrative district of Sarcelles / Garges-les-Gonesses about 20 km north of Paris. Not so long ago Sarcelles was the home sweet home of Jewish refugees from North Africa; today it is their nightmare. They endure constant attacks and harassment from the permanently enraged African-Arab-Muslim residents who live cheek by jowl with their still neat clean streets.
'Permanently enraged' do indeed seem to describe these people.
Gateway Pundit has this report, and some earlier ones you can scroll down to.
Sarkozy will have his hands full dealing with this mess. Let's hope he can actually do something about it.
I wonder if Obama is trying to pull a Clinton-style triangulation
with this. Gives the impression he's trying to
A: Make 'country people' happy by saying "I'll allow you to have guns", and appease 2nd Amendment voters by saying "See? I don't want to ban all guns!"
B: Make 'city people' happy by saying "You people don't need guns."
C: Make the ban-gun-ownership people happy by saying "I have to allow for some exceptions for people owning guns to keep the right-wing nuts happy."
You know he's full of crap, I know he's full of crap, and his supporters either know it and will accept it because "He's Obama!", or don't know he's full of crap, and will use this to say "See, he does NOT want to ban your guns, you disgusting hatemongers!"
All boils down to "He ain't our friend." No matter what word games he plays.
A: Make 'country people' happy by saying "I'll allow you to have guns", and appease 2nd Amendment voters by saying "See? I don't want to ban all guns!"
B: Make 'city people' happy by saying "You people don't need guns."
C: Make the ban-gun-ownership people happy by saying "I have to allow for some exceptions for people owning guns to keep the right-wing nuts happy."
You know he's full of crap, I know he's full of crap, and his supporters either know it and will accept it because "He's Obama!", or don't know he's full of crap, and will use this to say "See, he does NOT want to ban your guns, you disgusting hatemongers!"
All boils down to "He ain't our friend." No matter what word games he plays.
My contribution to Ammo Day this year
wasn't big, a 525-round box of Remington .22's. Due to circumstances, that was it. Wish I could count some stuff a month earlier(ran across a deal), but I'll respect the rules here.
Right now I'm looking at a house that definitely needs some neatening and rearranging. No, not just from cases of ammo(I wish), just the general stuff that gets spread around in the course of time. And since there's things I'd much rather do than the picking up & rearranging...
Right now I'm looking at a house that definitely needs some neatening and rearranging. No, not just from cases of ammo(I wish), just the general stuff that gets spread around in the course of time. And since there's things I'd much rather do than the picking up & rearranging...
Monday, November 26, 2007
Some followup on the Kathryn Johnston case in Atlanta
Found this at High Road:
On April 26, 2007 one of the police officers--Gregg Junnier--pleaded guilty in state court to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation and making false statements. A second police officer--Jason Smith--also pleaded guilty
On November 27, 2006, newspapers reported that the FBI and Georgia state authorities were investigating the case. Atlanta's police chief Richard Pennington placed eight narcotics officers involved in the "no-knock" raid on paid leave. Chief Pennington professed to be puzzled by conflicting versions of the incident, promised to cooperate with the investigators, and "said his department was reviewing its use of 'no-knock' raids after the shootout. The warrants are common in narcotics cases when officers fear suspects may try to dispose of drugs or evidence in the time it takes authorities to gain access to the home.
Yesterday, November 21, 2007, Kathryn Johnston's family filed civil suit against the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Police Department, the police officers involved, and their supervisors. "The suit charges the corrupt practices of the Police Department led to violations of the U.S. Constitution and state law."
Two articles are here and here.
On April 26, 2007 one of the police officers--Gregg Junnier--pleaded guilty in state court to manslaughter, violation of oath, criminal solicitation and making false statements. A second police officer--Jason Smith--also pleaded guilty
On November 27, 2006, newspapers reported that the FBI and Georgia state authorities were investigating the case. Atlanta's police chief Richard Pennington placed eight narcotics officers involved in the "no-knock" raid on paid leave. Chief Pennington professed to be puzzled by conflicting versions of the incident, promised to cooperate with the investigators, and "said his department was reviewing its use of 'no-knock' raids after the shootout. The warrants are common in narcotics cases when officers fear suspects may try to dispose of drugs or evidence in the time it takes authorities to gain access to the home.
Yesterday, November 21, 2007, Kathryn Johnston's family filed civil suit against the City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Police Department, the police officers involved, and their supervisors. "The suit charges the corrupt practices of the Police Department led to violations of the U.S. Constitution and state law."
Two articles are here and here.
Why I don't want to vote for Giuliani or Romney,
let alone Clinton:
Fred:The Second Amendment does more than guarantee to all Americans an unalienable right to defend one’s self. William Blackstone, the 18th century English legal commentator whose works were well-read and relied on by the Framers of our Constitution, observed that the right to keep and bear firearms arises from “the natural right of resistance and self-preservation.” This view, reflected in the Second Amendment, promotes both self-defense and liberty. It is not surprising then that the generation that had thrown off the yoke of British tyranny less than a decade earlier included the Second Amendment in the Constitution and meant for it to enable the people to protect themselves and their liberties.
vs.
Rudy Giuliani’s version of the 2nd Amendment:
"A well-armed celebrity population being necessary for the well-being of a mayoral candidate’s campaign coffers (and for getting invited to all the cool parties), the right of the rich and famous to keep and bear arms in New York City shall not be infringed."
Mitt Romney’s version:
"The right of the people to own bolt-action hunting rifles and pump-action shotguns (provided they can afford to make it though the licensing procedure) shall not be infringed."
Hillary Clinton’s version:
[expunged by Presidential decree]
Thank you, Bruce
Fred:The Second Amendment does more than guarantee to all Americans an unalienable right to defend one’s self. William Blackstone, the 18th century English legal commentator whose works were well-read and relied on by the Framers of our Constitution, observed that the right to keep and bear firearms arises from “the natural right of resistance and self-preservation.” This view, reflected in the Second Amendment, promotes both self-defense and liberty. It is not surprising then that the generation that had thrown off the yoke of British tyranny less than a decade earlier included the Second Amendment in the Constitution and meant for it to enable the people to protect themselves and their liberties.
vs.
Rudy Giuliani’s version of the 2nd Amendment:
"A well-armed celebrity population being necessary for the well-being of a mayoral candidate’s campaign coffers (and for getting invited to all the cool parties), the right of the rich and famous to keep and bear arms in New York City shall not be infringed."
Mitt Romney’s version:
"The right of the people to own bolt-action hunting rifles and pump-action shotguns (provided they can afford to make it though the licensing procedure) shall not be infringed."
Hillary Clinton’s version:
[expunged by Presidential decree]
Thank you, Bruce
Let us remember just how good the UN is at
digging up the facts and making them public. Now why wouldn't you want them in charge of your life?
Continuing the theme of 'Saudi Arabia: The Enemy or
Simply Disgusting?'
"...now it seems her attorney will lose his law license for handling her defense too aggressively."
More here:
Lahem is accused by the prosecutor general of "belligerent behavior, talking to the media for the purpose of perturbing the judiciary, and hurting the country's image," according to an official letter he received Monday.
Since he started practicing law almost five years ago, Lahem has defended clients whom other lawyers refused, including a school administrator suspended for criticizing the religious establishment, a man convicted of promoting homosexuality for saying it was genetic, three political reformists seeking a constitutional monarchy, and the first Saudis suing the country's powerful religious police.
Lahem said that losing his license would be a blow to the country's budding human rights movement.
"If I am banned from practicing law, nobody will dare go up against the judiciary again," said Lahem, a slight man with a limp from a childhood accident. "If I win, it will open a new chapter for human rights in Saudi Arabia."
Ever notice how many muslim/predominantly muslim countries have laws that'll put you in prison for 'hurting the country's image'? Which can consist of saying "Your Honor, you are a poopy-head." Kind of sensitive, aren't they?
Except when it comes to ordering lashes for rape victims, of course.
"...now it seems her attorney will lose his law license for handling her defense too aggressively."
More here:
Lahem is accused by the prosecutor general of "belligerent behavior, talking to the media for the purpose of perturbing the judiciary, and hurting the country's image," according to an official letter he received Monday.
Since he started practicing law almost five years ago, Lahem has defended clients whom other lawyers refused, including a school administrator suspended for criticizing the religious establishment, a man convicted of promoting homosexuality for saying it was genetic, three political reformists seeking a constitutional monarchy, and the first Saudis suing the country's powerful religious police.
Lahem said that losing his license would be a blow to the country's budding human rights movement.
"If I am banned from practicing law, nobody will dare go up against the judiciary again," said Lahem, a slight man with a limp from a childhood accident. "If I win, it will open a new chapter for human rights in Saudi Arabia."
Ever notice how many muslim/predominantly muslim countries have laws that'll put you in prison for 'hurting the country's image'? Which can consist of saying "Your Honor, you are a poopy-head." Kind of sensitive, aren't they?
Except when it comes to ordering lashes for rape victims, of course.
Once more, a couple of idiots are killed in an accident
and Paris starts smoking.
Fires are raging in the banlieue tonight. Two boys aged 15 and 16 riding on a mini-motorcycle (prohibited on the road) hit a police car this afternoon in Villiers-le-Bel. The boys, who weren’t wearing helmets, were killed. Hundreds of enraged men and boys are tearing up the neighborhood.
Let's see, two teenagers, check. Illegal for street use, check. No helmets, check. Crash and are killed, check. Adherents of the Religion of Submission rioting and burning, check. And it couldn't possibly be the fault of the kids, check:
Interviewed by Le Parisien, the uncle of Moushin Souhhali, one of the victims, says he understands the rage; it’s terrible to lose a 15 year-old boy. His body, claims the uncle, was dumped at the fire station with no respect. The police who, in his opinion, caused the accident were nowhere to be seen. He heard they were speeding. His nephew was a good boy, not a delinquent.
It's usually terrible when some dumbass kid dies for being a dumbass: it's worse when it's used as an excuse to riot and burn. The last time, two tried to hide in a power substation when running from police, got into the equipment and were electrocuted(fault of the cops, of course). This account doesn't say if the cops were chasing the kids or if this was a straightforward accident, and it doesn't really matter. Because these clowns were going to use any incident as an excuse for the next riot. "...claims the uncle..." "...in his opinion..." "He heard..." And the inevitable "...was a good boy, not a delinquent."
Uncle, maybe someone there said it, but there's nothing in the articles I've seen calling him one. And it doesn't matter. He did the kind of thing that regularly gets teenagers all over the world killed. It doesn't necessarily make him a delinquent, it just means that he was one of those for whom doing something dumb came with the death penalty. Unless there's something nasty that nobody is talking about, for you to 'understand the rage' and excuse the rioting based on that is disgusting. You're either unhinged with grief, or using this as an excuse for illegal acts. One is regrettable; the other is cold and disgusting.
Fires are raging in the banlieue tonight. Two boys aged 15 and 16 riding on a mini-motorcycle (prohibited on the road) hit a police car this afternoon in Villiers-le-Bel. The boys, who weren’t wearing helmets, were killed. Hundreds of enraged men and boys are tearing up the neighborhood.
Let's see, two teenagers, check. Illegal for street use, check. No helmets, check. Crash and are killed, check. Adherents of the Religion of Submission rioting and burning, check. And it couldn't possibly be the fault of the kids, check:
Interviewed by Le Parisien, the uncle of Moushin Souhhali, one of the victims, says he understands the rage; it’s terrible to lose a 15 year-old boy. His body, claims the uncle, was dumped at the fire station with no respect. The police who, in his opinion, caused the accident were nowhere to be seen. He heard they were speeding. His nephew was a good boy, not a delinquent.
It's usually terrible when some dumbass kid dies for being a dumbass: it's worse when it's used as an excuse to riot and burn. The last time, two tried to hide in a power substation when running from police, got into the equipment and were electrocuted(fault of the cops, of course). This account doesn't say if the cops were chasing the kids or if this was a straightforward accident, and it doesn't really matter. Because these clowns were going to use any incident as an excuse for the next riot. "...claims the uncle..." "...in his opinion..." "He heard..." And the inevitable "...was a good boy, not a delinquent."
Uncle, maybe someone there said it, but there's nothing in the articles I've seen calling him one. And it doesn't matter. He did the kind of thing that regularly gets teenagers all over the world killed. It doesn't necessarily make him a delinquent, it just means that he was one of those for whom doing something dumb came with the death penalty. Unless there's something nasty that nobody is talking about, for you to 'understand the rage' and excuse the rioting based on that is disgusting. You're either unhinged with grief, or using this as an excuse for illegal acts. One is regrettable; the other is cold and disgusting.
And on the subject of the Archbishop calling us the problem,
one of his little 'examples' was "It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that's what the British Empire did - in India, for example." Has he ever actually read anything about that time? It hasn't been a specific area of study for me, but I do recall a few things.
For instance, for some years after the British moved in, the Brit army in the area was the armed forces of John Company, the British East India Company. And their concern wasn't 'administering and normalizing it', it was ensuring things stayed calm so the Company could make money. Lots of it. I'm sure some weenie will jump up and say "We're in Iraq to make money for Halliburton!", etc. Horsecrap. We could have had Iraqi oil, and a lot else, simply by making deals with Saddam, without all the expense and trouble of using the military.
There's a lot more. My level of respect for Williams has never been what you would call 'high'; now it's pretty mucn nonexistent.
Added: just ran across this from Victor Davis Hanson on the subject.
For instance, for some years after the British moved in, the Brit army in the area was the armed forces of John Company, the British East India Company. And their concern wasn't 'administering and normalizing it', it was ensuring things stayed calm so the Company could make money. Lots of it. I'm sure some weenie will jump up and say "We're in Iraq to make money for Halliburton!", etc. Horsecrap. We could have had Iraqi oil, and a lot else, simply by making deals with Saddam, without all the expense and trouble of using the military.
There's a lot more. My level of respect for Williams has never been what you would call 'high'; now it's pretty mucn nonexistent.
Added: just ran across this from Victor Davis Hanson on the subject.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Reason #whatever not to vote for Romney
Last week he was on Glenn Beck's show, and one of the questions was about that horrible 'health care' scheme he signed just before leaving office. He went on & on about it being 'a proper free-market solution' to health-care problems. Bullshit. As evidenced by this note at Wizbang:
This program was touted as the way to save money for everybody (well, except for those greedy doctors and insurance companies), and was to be a model for a national plan.
Well, guess what? It turns out to be costing a lot more than the backers predicted -- about $150 million more. (To mention that this is precisely what the detractors predicted is, of course, utterly irrelevant and borderline seditious in the Free People's Democratic Republic of Massachusetts.)
So, what's the Globe's solution? Any of you not saying "raise taxes!," stay after class for detention.
And so forth. They also take note of another murder turned loose for 'good behavior' and subsequently murdering again. In a state where, if you have a gun for protection from such life forms but don't have proper state permission, you go to jail. As Bruce put it when he lived in that state, "Live Free orDieHere" seems to be the state motto.
This program was touted as the way to save money for everybody (well, except for those greedy doctors and insurance companies), and was to be a model for a national plan.
Well, guess what? It turns out to be costing a lot more than the backers predicted -- about $150 million more. (To mention that this is precisely what the detractors predicted is, of course, utterly irrelevant and borderline seditious in the Free People's Democratic Republic of Massachusetts.)
So, what's the Globe's solution? Any of you not saying "raise taxes!," stay after class for detention.
And so forth. They also take note of another murder turned loose for 'good behavior' and subsequently murdering again. In a state where, if you have a gun for protection from such life forms but don't have proper state permission, you go to jail. As Bruce put it when he lived in that state, "Live Free or
May I invite the Archbishop of Canterbury
to kiss my ass?
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.
Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by “clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action” had led to “the worst of all worlds”.
In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.
I'd suggest you read the whole thing, just to get the full flavor of his disdain for us. I will note a couple of things:
He urged it to launch a “generous and intelligent programme of aid directed to the societies that have been ravaged; a check on the economic exploitation of defeated territories; a demilitarisation of their presence”.
Well, let's see, you mean like helping the Afghans and Iraqis rebuild their nations, after stomping the people who were dominating and murdering them, you pompous twit? And what 'economic exploitation'? If we were 'exploiting' the Iraqis, we'd be shipping their oil over here at about $45/barrel. And it is our aim to 'demilitarize' them of our armed presence as soon as possible. So, I repeat, kiss my ass.
And of COURSE we're worse by far than those slightly troublesome moslem countries:
In the interview in Emel, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, Williams makes only mild criticisms of the Islamic world. He said the Muslim world must acknowledge that its “political solutions were not the most impressive”.
He commends the Muslim practice of praying five times a day, which he says allows the remembrance of God to be “built in deeply in their daily rhythm”. I guess by their 'daily rhythm" he means things like this:
A woman in Saudi Arabia sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang raped has confessed to adultery, the justice ministry said as it tried to fend off mounting criticism. So very Godlike of them, isn't it?
Arrogant, pompous, accomodationist fool.
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.
Rowan Williams claimed that America’s attempt to intervene overseas by “clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action” had led to “the worst of all worlds”.
In a wide-ranging interview with a British Muslim magazine, the Anglican leader linked criticism of the United States to one of his most pessimistic declarations about the state of western civilisation.
I'd suggest you read the whole thing, just to get the full flavor of his disdain for us. I will note a couple of things:
He urged it to launch a “generous and intelligent programme of aid directed to the societies that have been ravaged; a check on the economic exploitation of defeated territories; a demilitarisation of their presence”.
Well, let's see, you mean like helping the Afghans and Iraqis rebuild their nations, after stomping the people who were dominating and murdering them, you pompous twit? And what 'economic exploitation'? If we were 'exploiting' the Iraqis, we'd be shipping their oil over here at about $45/barrel. And it is our aim to 'demilitarize' them of our armed presence as soon as possible. So, I repeat, kiss my ass.
And of COURSE we're worse by far than those slightly troublesome moslem countries:
In the interview in Emel, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, Williams makes only mild criticisms of the Islamic world. He said the Muslim world must acknowledge that its “political solutions were not the most impressive”.
He commends the Muslim practice of praying five times a day, which he says allows the remembrance of God to be “built in deeply in their daily rhythm”. I guess by their 'daily rhythm" he means things like this:
A woman in Saudi Arabia sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gang raped has confessed to adultery, the justice ministry said as it tried to fend off mounting criticism. So very Godlike of them, isn't it?
Arrogant, pompous, accomodationist fool.
Waking up with a throat that feels
half like you've been gargling abrasive is bad enough: then I started looking at some of the news.
NPR is _____. You fill in the blank.
Edelstein knew some people hated the exploitative display of Iraqi corpses at the film's end, noting that De Palma thinks rubbing Americans' faces with the collateral damage will get us out of Iraq: "I think most Americans are immune to those techniques, but I respect his impulse. 'Redacted' is a crude piece of work but it's the kind of outright agitprop that rarely makes it to the big screen."
And they LIKE it.
Britain(I know, recurring theme), formerly Great Britain, where a revolver in the pocket was simply a tool kept handy*, may be well and truly screwed:
GUN laws should be tightened and BB guns banned from shops, says a Greenock sheriff.
The demand came as a 16-year-old Port Glasgow youth pleaded guilty to having a plastic gun and pellets as ammunition in the street.
Please not he hadn't done anything, he just had it. Can't allow that, you know.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said from 1 October anyone selling air weapons had to be a registered firearms dealer. The age to purchase such items also raised to 18.
She added that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill had written to the UK secretary of state for justice about Scotland getting powers to legislate on firearms.
Which will probably involve banning anything that somebody might decide could be seen as a weapon by someone. I've rarely been so happy that various of my ancestors got the hell out when they did and came here.
I do have to note that some good things are going on, aside from the troops, ours and Iraqi, kicking the ass off AQI and JAM. For instance, Pimple Bloomberg of NYFC had his imperial demand booted: the courts just denied Bloomberg's motion to dismiss and ordered him to sit for a deposition. ("What do you MEAN I can't say whatever I want about somebody and violate the law? What's thw world coming to?" Hopefully you having your ass sued off, and preferably prosecuted.)
And we have the words of Mark Steyn on the coming election:
You want an anti-war Republican? A pro-abortion Republican? An anti-gun Republican? A pro-illegal immigration Republican? You got 'em! Short of drafting Fidel Castro and Mullah Omar, it's hard to see how the tent could get much bigger. As the new GOP bumper sticker says, "Celebrate Diversity."
Over on the Democratic side, meanwhile, they've got a woman, a black, a Hispanic, a preening metrosexual with an angled nape – and they all think exactly the same.
Overall, I'm still leaning way over toward Fred Thompson.
In Philadelphia, someone slaps the editorial writers on the idiocy of their stands. Using their own words to do it.
And Mr. & Mrs. Kim have safely made the beachhead for their invasion. So things kind of balance out.
Added: Aw, crap, there's just no damned excuse for this:
An 82-year-old hero from World War II died in Glasgow, Scotland because of rules prohibiting dispatchers from notifying an ambulance crew that was 500-yards away. The Daily Record reports former British soldier Ernie Rutkiewicz choked to death as his daughter frantically begged for help.
An ambulance crew was on meal break nearby, but government rules prohibit them from being disturbed and in fact they do not even show up as available on the dispatchers' computers. So it took 22 minutes for help to arrive and by then it was too late.
And I just ran across this Steyn article, which includes this:
But that doesn't entirely explain it, does it? Earlier this year, Channel 4 in London broadcast a documentary called Undercover Mosque in which various imams up and down the land were caught on tape urging men to beat their wives and toss homosexuals off cliffs. Viewers reported some of the statements to the local constabulary. The West Midlands police then decided to investigate not the fire-breathing clerics but the TV producers. As the coppers saw it, insofar as any "hate crime" had been perpetrated, it lay not in the urgings and injunctions of the imams but in a TV production so culturally insensitive as to reveal the imams' views to the general public. As The Spectator's James Forsyth put it, "The reaction of West Midlands police revealed a mindset that views the exposure of a problem as more of a problem than the problem itself."
and
Professor Rosner, Daniel Silva's fictional murder victim, would have understood. At the scene of his ritual slaughter there are no protesters, just piles of tulips and the banner "ONE AMSTERDAM, ONE PEOPLE" — one mass delusion. It's not just that you'll get your throat cut. But that you'll get it cut and they'll still string the same sappy happy-face multiculti banner over the crime scene.
*One of the money quotes from the article:
We are so self-congratulatory about our officially disarmed society, and so dismissive of colonial rednecks, that we have forgotten that within living memory British citizens could buy any gun – rifle, pistol, or machinegun – without any licence. When Dr Watson walked the streets of London with a revolver in his pocket, he was a perfectly ordinary Victorian or Edwardian. Charlotte Brontë recalled that her curate father fastened his watch and pocketed his pistol every morning when he got dressed; Beatrix Potter remarked on a Yorkshire country hotel where only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver; in 1909, policemen in Tottenham borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by (and were joined by other armed citizens) when they set off in pursuit of two anarchists unwise enough to attempt an armed robbery. We now are shocked that so many ordinary people should have been carrying guns in the street; the Edwardians were shocked rather by the idea of an armed robbery.
NPR is _____. You fill in the blank.
Edelstein knew some people hated the exploitative display of Iraqi corpses at the film's end, noting that De Palma thinks rubbing Americans' faces with the collateral damage will get us out of Iraq: "I think most Americans are immune to those techniques, but I respect his impulse. 'Redacted' is a crude piece of work but it's the kind of outright agitprop that rarely makes it to the big screen."
And they LIKE it.
Britain(I know, recurring theme), formerly Great Britain, where a revolver in the pocket was simply a tool kept handy*, may be well and truly screwed:
GUN laws should be tightened and BB guns banned from shops, says a Greenock sheriff.
The demand came as a 16-year-old Port Glasgow youth pleaded guilty to having a plastic gun and pellets as ammunition in the street.
Please not he hadn't done anything, he just had it. Can't allow that, you know.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said from 1 October anyone selling air weapons had to be a registered firearms dealer. The age to purchase such items also raised to 18.
She added that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill had written to the UK secretary of state for justice about Scotland getting powers to legislate on firearms.
Which will probably involve banning anything that somebody might decide could be seen as a weapon by someone. I've rarely been so happy that various of my ancestors got the hell out when they did and came here.
I do have to note that some good things are going on, aside from the troops, ours and Iraqi, kicking the ass off AQI and JAM. For instance, Pimple Bloomberg of NYFC had his imperial demand booted: the courts just denied Bloomberg's motion to dismiss and ordered him to sit for a deposition. ("What do you MEAN I can't say whatever I want about somebody and violate the law? What's thw world coming to?" Hopefully you having your ass sued off, and preferably prosecuted.)
And we have the words of Mark Steyn on the coming election:
You want an anti-war Republican? A pro-abortion Republican? An anti-gun Republican? A pro-illegal immigration Republican? You got 'em! Short of drafting Fidel Castro and Mullah Omar, it's hard to see how the tent could get much bigger. As the new GOP bumper sticker says, "Celebrate Diversity."
Over on the Democratic side, meanwhile, they've got a woman, a black, a Hispanic, a preening metrosexual with an angled nape – and they all think exactly the same.
Overall, I'm still leaning way over toward Fred Thompson.
In Philadelphia, someone slaps the editorial writers on the idiocy of their stands. Using their own words to do it.
And Mr. & Mrs. Kim have safely made the beachhead for their invasion. So things kind of balance out.
Added: Aw, crap, there's just no damned excuse for this:
An 82-year-old hero from World War II died in Glasgow, Scotland because of rules prohibiting dispatchers from notifying an ambulance crew that was 500-yards away. The Daily Record reports former British soldier Ernie Rutkiewicz choked to death as his daughter frantically begged for help.
An ambulance crew was on meal break nearby, but government rules prohibit them from being disturbed and in fact they do not even show up as available on the dispatchers' computers. So it took 22 minutes for help to arrive and by then it was too late.
And I just ran across this Steyn article, which includes this:
But that doesn't entirely explain it, does it? Earlier this year, Channel 4 in London broadcast a documentary called Undercover Mosque in which various imams up and down the land were caught on tape urging men to beat their wives and toss homosexuals off cliffs. Viewers reported some of the statements to the local constabulary. The West Midlands police then decided to investigate not the fire-breathing clerics but the TV producers. As the coppers saw it, insofar as any "hate crime" had been perpetrated, it lay not in the urgings and injunctions of the imams but in a TV production so culturally insensitive as to reveal the imams' views to the general public. As The Spectator's James Forsyth put it, "The reaction of West Midlands police revealed a mindset that views the exposure of a problem as more of a problem than the problem itself."
and
Professor Rosner, Daniel Silva's fictional murder victim, would have understood. At the scene of his ritual slaughter there are no protesters, just piles of tulips and the banner "ONE AMSTERDAM, ONE PEOPLE" — one mass delusion. It's not just that you'll get your throat cut. But that you'll get it cut and they'll still string the same sappy happy-face multiculti banner over the crime scene.
*One of the money quotes from the article:
We are so self-congratulatory about our officially disarmed society, and so dismissive of colonial rednecks, that we have forgotten that within living memory British citizens could buy any gun – rifle, pistol, or machinegun – without any licence. When Dr Watson walked the streets of London with a revolver in his pocket, he was a perfectly ordinary Victorian or Edwardian. Charlotte Brontë recalled that her curate father fastened his watch and pocketed his pistol every morning when he got dressed; Beatrix Potter remarked on a Yorkshire country hotel where only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver; in 1909, policemen in Tottenham borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by (and were joined by other armed citizens) when they set off in pursuit of two anarchists unwise enough to attempt an armed robbery. We now are shocked that so many ordinary people should have been carrying guns in the street; the Edwardians were shocked rather by the idea of an armed robbery.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
I have to take note of two things before bed
First, any 'religeon' in which large numbers of people consider killing their own children to be a wonderful act is a diseased culture for which I have little hope. Whether these idiots believe it or not, murdering your own child as part of a political assassination attempt does NOT make it any better. You sorry degenerates.
Second, this is what you get with PC government commissions and 'hate crime' laws:
"And, he says, when he had a conversation with a Commission employee, mediator Bob Fagan, about the specifics of the allegation, he was astonished at what he heard.
"'I told him that it seemed to be an abuse of the Human Rights Act for someone to try and use it as an instrument of censorship. And when I said that, on the phone, there was a pause and then he said, in a somewhat astonished tone: "But the Human Rights Act is about censorship." Then it was my turn to be silent on my end, because I found that breath-taking. For the Human Rights Commission's own mediator to acknowledge that censorship was the purpose of their Act."
'Human Rights Commission' my ass.
Second, this is what you get with PC government commissions and 'hate crime' laws:
"And, he says, when he had a conversation with a Commission employee, mediator Bob Fagan, about the specifics of the allegation, he was astonished at what he heard.
"'I told him that it seemed to be an abuse of the Human Rights Act for someone to try and use it as an instrument of censorship. And when I said that, on the phone, there was a pause and then he said, in a somewhat astonished tone: "But the Human Rights Act is about censorship." Then it was my turn to be silent on my end, because I found that breath-taking. For the Human Rights Commission's own mediator to acknowledge that censorship was the purpose of their Act."
'Human Rights Commission' my ass.
I WAS in a good mood,
until Sondra pointed to this piece of idiocy:
The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.
The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.
One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid.
It's about as infuriating a piece of bullshit as you will read.
And the proper response to the bitch mentioned above- besides a swift kick in her fat ass- would be "Madam, they HAVE paid; far, far more than you'd ever have the guts to risk."
The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.
The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.
One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid.
It's about as infuriating a piece of bullshit as you will read.
And the proper response to the bitch mentioned above- besides a swift kick in her fat ass- would be "Madam, they HAVE paid; far, far more than you'd ever have the guts to risk."
The aftermath
includes feeling stuffed, tired and entirely unwilling to consider that I have to go back to work in a day.
I spent Thanksgiving at my parents', and my daughter came along. It was nice. And as a good ending, shortly before I had to leave my son called from Iraq. Summarized,
It's cold now. 'Cold' being defined as lows in the 40's. Compared to what they were a month ago...
Lots of turkey & other proper edibles for Thanksgiving.
New vehicles, MRAPs(various links here), coming in.
They've got some really neat equipment on the vehicles for A: indicating direction of incoming small arms fire and B: preventing remotely-triggered IEDs from detonating.
And so far, the only thing he's had to fire at anyone is a paintball gun. Apparently, when delinquent types throw rocks or vehicles won't move out of the way, that's what they use to adjust attitudes. Or get their attention. Or whatever.
Overall, so far he reminds me of something David Drake wrote about his time in Vietnam: so far as he knew he didn't kill anybody, nobody shot at him and he wasn't seriously injured. I certainly hope it continues so.
Times like this, I realize how lucky I am in some things. Both parents are still kicking(read some of Og's posts about missing his father, it'll make you appreciate yours), kids are ok, I know one is and so far as I know the other ex is getting along, and none of my body parts have either refused to function or fallen off.
Son greatly appreciates the good thoughts so many of you have given. He's planning on sending some pictures back soon, I'll post some when they arrive.
It was a good Thanksgiving.
I spent Thanksgiving at my parents', and my daughter came along. It was nice. And as a good ending, shortly before I had to leave my son called from Iraq. Summarized,
It's cold now. 'Cold' being defined as lows in the 40's. Compared to what they were a month ago...
Lots of turkey & other proper edibles for Thanksgiving.
New vehicles, MRAPs(various links here), coming in.
They've got some really neat equipment on the vehicles for A: indicating direction of incoming small arms fire and B: preventing remotely-triggered IEDs from detonating.
And so far, the only thing he's had to fire at anyone is a paintball gun. Apparently, when delinquent types throw rocks or vehicles won't move out of the way, that's what they use to adjust attitudes. Or get their attention. Or whatever.
Overall, so far he reminds me of something David Drake wrote about his time in Vietnam: so far as he knew he didn't kill anybody, nobody shot at him and he wasn't seriously injured. I certainly hope it continues so.
Times like this, I realize how lucky I am in some things. Both parents are still kicking(read some of Og's posts about missing his father, it'll make you appreciate yours), kids are ok, I know one is and so far as I know the other ex is getting along, and none of my body parts have either refused to function or fallen off.
Son greatly appreciates the good thoughts so many of you have given. He's planning on sending some pictures back soon, I'll post some when they arrive.
It was a good Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
First off, Happy Thanksgiving
to all who read my little yelling on this soapbox.
Second, I want to take note of some things. Have to do it now, because I'm about to go visit family andstuff myself, the parents have been cookingspend a day or so relaxing. And I'm liable to forget where some of this was.
First off, the lies, damn lies and statistics are picking up since SCOTUS decided to decide. Nobody is surprised.
Second, as a lot of us have thought for some time, an awful lot of these 'fearless attackers of fascism'(i.e., churches, western governments, etc.) are a bunch of friggin' cowards:
“I’ve censored myself,” Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. “The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.”
Uh huh. As someone said, "If you really believed Bush, or the Brit government, was kidnapping anyone who criticized them, and you were actually in fear for your life, you wouldn't be on the street calling them names. You'd be like the protesters in Soviet Russia, fearing any knock in the night or stranger on the street." But where these 'fearless artists' actually DO see a threat, they roll over and offer their belly. "Nice dhimmi, keep behaving and you get to live."
And last, I hadn't heard this about our attorney general:
Carpenter started the TABOR petition drive in 2005, assisted by Jacob and Johnson in an effort that ultimately produced more than 300,000 signatures, nearly a third more than was required to put the issue before voters. But even in a deeply red state like Oklahoma, Big Government has backers — mainly teachers and labor unions — and they persuaded a state court to throw the petition out because nonresidents allegedly helped solicit signatures. The trio now faces up to 10 years in prison if they are convicted on Edmondson’s charges. All three pleaded not guilty and claim they were advised by state officials on how to comply with the law in all respects during the petition drive.
What makes this even more disgusting is this:
State Rep. Mike Reynolds said today that Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who recently admitted receiving illegal campaign contributions, has yet to correct all the “mistakes” his campaign finance reports show.
“Several months ago I questioned whether Attorney General Edmondson truly cared about Ethics laws in Oklahoma. I don’t know if he asked the State Auditor to help him clean up his errors, but it appears that he has many additional mistakes that have not been corrected,” said Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City.
Just friggin' wonderful.
And with that, I'm gone. I'd suggest you follow my lead. And stop eating short of the point at which you'd need a dolly and assistant to move.
Second, I want to take note of some things. Have to do it now, because I'm about to go visit family and
First off, the lies, damn lies and statistics are picking up since SCOTUS decided to decide. Nobody is surprised.
Second, as a lot of us have thought for some time, an awful lot of these 'fearless attackers of fascism'(i.e., churches, western governments, etc.) are a bunch of friggin' cowards:
“I’ve censored myself,” Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. “The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.”
Uh huh. As someone said, "If you really believed Bush, or the Brit government, was kidnapping anyone who criticized them, and you were actually in fear for your life, you wouldn't be on the street calling them names. You'd be like the protesters in Soviet Russia, fearing any knock in the night or stranger on the street." But where these 'fearless artists' actually DO see a threat, they roll over and offer their belly. "Nice dhimmi, keep behaving and you get to live."
And last, I hadn't heard this about our attorney general:
Carpenter started the TABOR petition drive in 2005, assisted by Jacob and Johnson in an effort that ultimately produced more than 300,000 signatures, nearly a third more than was required to put the issue before voters. But even in a deeply red state like Oklahoma, Big Government has backers — mainly teachers and labor unions — and they persuaded a state court to throw the petition out because nonresidents allegedly helped solicit signatures. The trio now faces up to 10 years in prison if they are convicted on Edmondson’s charges. All three pleaded not guilty and claim they were advised by state officials on how to comply with the law in all respects during the petition drive.
What makes this even more disgusting is this:
State Rep. Mike Reynolds said today that Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who recently admitted receiving illegal campaign contributions, has yet to correct all the “mistakes” his campaign finance reports show.
“Several months ago I questioned whether Attorney General Edmondson truly cared about Ethics laws in Oklahoma. I don’t know if he asked the State Auditor to help him clean up his errors, but it appears that he has many additional mistakes that have not been corrected,” said Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City.
Just friggin' wonderful.
And with that, I'm gone. I'd suggest you follow my lead. And stop eating short of the point at which you'd need a dolly and assistant to move.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The Saudis are not only not our friends,
their government is a running sore on the ass of mankind.
This headline brought to you thanks to Keith. I'd heard something about this yesterday, and in a comment he provided the link.
An unnamed Saudi 19-year old woman -- let us call her Fatima -- has been sentenced to 200 lashes, after being gang-raped 14 times by a group of seven Sunni men in the town of Qatif. Not merely did they repeatedly rape her, but they also raped the male friend they found her with.
Her attackers received sentences of between 10 months and five years. The man she was found with in the car -- we'll call him Abdul-- was sentenced to 90 lashes.
Why were Abdul and Fatima, both of them rape victims, sentenced to anything? Because they were alone in a car, and it is a criminal offence in Saudi Arabia for unrelated men and women to be in one another's company.
So criminal, indeed, that even after being repeatedly raped, the two offenders were considered worthy of further punishment: 90 lashes each, which was increased to 200 lashes for Fatima after she had the temerity to appeal and to speak to the Saudi press about the horror which had befallen her.
There are simply no words to describe the foulness of a government- and people- who consider such a thing to be 'proper'.
Crap like this is one more reason I hope fervently that various energy alternatives advance/are discovered in the near future. Despite a couple of comments in the past, I'm all for such. Nuclear to generate electricity, for instance. At the least, drill in our own territory for all the oil we have available and build/expand refineries to take care of it. Unpleasant fact is we NEED oil for some time to come, and the less of it we need from other places the better off we are. But when the advances come, it will give me a great deal of satisfaction to see the oil ticks once again become the lords of the world's biggest litterbox.
This headline brought to you thanks to Keith. I'd heard something about this yesterday, and in a comment he provided the link.
An unnamed Saudi 19-year old woman -- let us call her Fatima -- has been sentenced to 200 lashes, after being gang-raped 14 times by a group of seven Sunni men in the town of Qatif. Not merely did they repeatedly rape her, but they also raped the male friend they found her with.
Her attackers received sentences of between 10 months and five years. The man she was found with in the car -- we'll call him Abdul-- was sentenced to 90 lashes.
Why were Abdul and Fatima, both of them rape victims, sentenced to anything? Because they were alone in a car, and it is a criminal offence in Saudi Arabia for unrelated men and women to be in one another's company.
So criminal, indeed, that even after being repeatedly raped, the two offenders were considered worthy of further punishment: 90 lashes each, which was increased to 200 lashes for Fatima after she had the temerity to appeal and to speak to the Saudi press about the horror which had befallen her.
There are simply no words to describe the foulness of a government- and people- who consider such a thing to be 'proper'.
Crap like this is one more reason I hope fervently that various energy alternatives advance/are discovered in the near future. Despite a couple of comments in the past, I'm all for such. Nuclear to generate electricity, for instance. At the least, drill in our own territory for all the oil we have available and build/expand refineries to take care of it. Unpleasant fact is we NEED oil for some time to come, and the less of it we need from other places the better off we are. But when the advances come, it will give me a great deal of satisfaction to see the oil ticks once again become the lords of the world's biggest litterbox.
So the Supremes decided to take the case
and lots and lots of commentary is running around. Hit Instapundit and just scroll down a ways, lots of links. Legal commentary, lots at Volokh, again just scroll down. Check around the innernets and you'll see doom & gloom, excitement, hysteria and 'what if'.
I'm half-surprised. The arguments that they'd refuse to review were pretty good; the perils to both sides if they accepted gone over by all. I guess it hit the point they didn't think they could keep ignoring it.
If I had to guess, I'd tend to agree with Bill Quick:
My first take (I have to admit I’m shaking in my boots at the negative possibilities here, given that I thought the SCOTUS would dodge this one) is that the Court will find an individual right, but do so in such a way that almost no gun control laws currently in place are much disturbed, although pestholes like Chicago and San Francisco may be encouraged to permit their citizens to defend themselves once again. The whole issue of incorporation will be much discussed beyond the court as well, I expect.
But I have been wrong before.
One reason I don't expect them to say "Right of the states, all you peasants stop bothering us"? Some of them are arrogant statists, but I don't think anyone on the court is actually stupid; if they thought they got bad press for bringing 'international law' into Constitutional discussions before, they've got to know what would happen here. Etc.
We'll see.
I'm half-surprised. The arguments that they'd refuse to review were pretty good; the perils to both sides if they accepted gone over by all. I guess it hit the point they didn't think they could keep ignoring it.
If I had to guess, I'd tend to agree with Bill Quick:
My first take (I have to admit I’m shaking in my boots at the negative possibilities here, given that I thought the SCOTUS would dodge this one) is that the Court will find an individual right, but do so in such a way that almost no gun control laws currently in place are much disturbed, although pestholes like Chicago and San Francisco may be encouraged to permit their citizens to defend themselves once again. The whole issue of incorporation will be much discussed beyond the court as well, I expect.
But I have been wrong before.
One reason I don't expect them to say "Right of the states, all you peasants stop bothering us"? Some of them are arrogant statists, but I don't think anyone on the court is actually stupid; if they thought they got bad press for bringing 'international law' into Constitutional discussions before, they've got to know what would happen here. Etc.
We'll see.
Monday, November 19, 2007
In more ways than one, Pelosi is on
the other side.
It's been less than a week since New York's Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Eliot Spitzer had to climb down from their support of driver's licenses for illegal aliens. Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has moved to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. Among the employers targeted by such lawsuits: the Salvation Army.
Just freakin' wonderful.
It's been less than a week since New York's Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Eliot Spitzer had to climb down from their support of driver's licenses for illegal aliens. Now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has moved to kill an amendment that would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English. Among the employers targeted by such lawsuits: the Salvation Army.
Just freakin' wonderful.
Once a kidnapping terrorist,
always one
THE kidnappers of five British hostages seized in Baghdad last May have said they could be held for years if demands for the release of an Iranian-backed militia leader are not met.
THE kidnappers of five British hostages seized in Baghdad last May have said they could be held for years if demands for the release of an Iranian-backed militia leader are not met.
The warning came as the first detailed information emerged about the plight of the hostages, who enter their 174th day in captivity today.
The people in blue helmets and their political masters
are not your friend.
For months now, Ugandan army troops have been garrisoned in the northeast part of the country under orders to disarm the local populace—pastoral, cattle-herding tribes known as the Karamojong. The army is attempting, and failing, to quash an uprising which was caused by a prior attempt to disarm the same tribes.
But in its effort to "disarm," the Ugandan army, supported by tanks and helicopter gunships, is burning down villages, sexually torturing men, raping women, and plundering what few possessions the tribespeople own. Tens of thousands of victims have been turned into refugees. Human rights scholar Ben Knighton has used the term “ethnocide” to describe the army's campaign.
And what has the UN to do with this?
This time, the pretext for the "disarmament" of the Karamojong is United Nations gun control. The Ugandan military is trying to round up every last firearm in Karamoja, supposedly for the Karamojong's own good.
The procedure is euphemistically called “forcible disarmament.” It works something like this: The misnamed Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) will torture and rape Karamajong, after which some Karamojong might then disclose the location of some hidden guns. Or the army will burn down a village, after which it might find some guns in the ash left behind.
But the UN wouldn't stand for such abuses, would it? Oh, yes, they would:
Last summer, the Ugandan army's atrocities led the United Nations Development Programme to cut off its disarmament aid to Uganda. But the outrage didn't last long. This year, the aid was restored. Although the United Nations does not fund the Ugandan army, the UN does provide a public relations sanction for the disarmament. In November, Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated: “The actions of the UPDF do not comply with international human rights law and domestic law.” But, she also stipulated, “the decision of the Government to undertake renewed efforts to eradicate illegal weapons in Karamoja is essential….” Never mind that the disarmament campaign also eradicates people.
I have a question for you: do you really think the UN would have any more objection than this if the same thing were happening here? After all, we have more guns than the poor bastards being tortured and raped and murdered in Uganda. And the UN has already been trying to force ourbeing turned into serfsdisarmament.
I think the UN would speak some platitude just like the above and excuse anything, because our being disarmed feeds into their desires for control.
Any argument?
For months now, Ugandan army troops have been garrisoned in the northeast part of the country under orders to disarm the local populace—pastoral, cattle-herding tribes known as the Karamojong. The army is attempting, and failing, to quash an uprising which was caused by a prior attempt to disarm the same tribes.
But in its effort to "disarm," the Ugandan army, supported by tanks and helicopter gunships, is burning down villages, sexually torturing men, raping women, and plundering what few possessions the tribespeople own. Tens of thousands of victims have been turned into refugees. Human rights scholar Ben Knighton has used the term “ethnocide” to describe the army's campaign.
And what has the UN to do with this?
This time, the pretext for the "disarmament" of the Karamojong is United Nations gun control. The Ugandan military is trying to round up every last firearm in Karamoja, supposedly for the Karamojong's own good.
The procedure is euphemistically called “forcible disarmament.” It works something like this: The misnamed Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) will torture and rape Karamajong, after which some Karamojong might then disclose the location of some hidden guns. Or the army will burn down a village, after which it might find some guns in the ash left behind.
But the UN wouldn't stand for such abuses, would it? Oh, yes, they would:
Last summer, the Ugandan army's atrocities led the United Nations Development Programme to cut off its disarmament aid to Uganda. But the outrage didn't last long. This year, the aid was restored. Although the United Nations does not fund the Ugandan army, the UN does provide a public relations sanction for the disarmament. In November, Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated: “The actions of the UPDF do not comply with international human rights law and domestic law.” But, she also stipulated, “the decision of the Government to undertake renewed efforts to eradicate illegal weapons in Karamoja is essential….” Never mind that the disarmament campaign also eradicates people.
I have a question for you: do you really think the UN would have any more objection than this if the same thing were happening here? After all, we have more guns than the poor bastards being tortured and raped and murdered in Uganda. And the UN has already been trying to force our
I think the UN would speak some platitude just like the above and excuse anything, because our being disarmed feeds into their desires for control.
Any argument?
Further thoughts on the "legal lynching" and the childhood friends
I've been thinking about the case of goblin-whacking I posted on here, and the idiotic reaction to it. The excusing, the blaming of the one attacked instead of telling the attacker "You're a dirtbag, and you deserve jail."
I reminded me of something, so I dug around in John Ross' site and found this post of his. He was talking to a man about the opposition in much of the black community to the idea of 'shall-issue' concealed carry permits. Considering how people in that community tended to be more often the victims of crimes and would in many cases be the people with more need of the freedom to carry for self-defense, why would they oppose it so strongly?
"When discussing this matter, people inevitably bring up Missouri's 1999 ballot referendum on Right-To-Carry, which was narrowly defeated (with a dismal 30% voter turnout, I might add.) The fact is that the measure passed in almost every county in the state. The defeat came from the fact that two very large urban precincts in St. Louis and Kansas City were over 90% opposed. At the time, I thought this was vote fraud (and to be honest, I still think that was a factor).
A black businessman (who was one of the handful of St. Louis city residents who voted for the referendum) and I were discussing the recent passage of RTC. I brought up the referendum results, and said I could not understand why blacks had been so uniformly against the measure. The proposal was a "shall issue" one, where if you satisfied the requirements (training, fingerprints, no criminal record, no mental illness, etc.) you couldn't be denied the permit just because the sheriff didn't like the idea of people besides the police having guns. The businessman stared at me.
"I thought you were good at math," he said. I allowed as to how I felt that I was. "Then you must never have taken Statistics and Probability." I told him I had done this also, and that it had been one of the most rewarding math classes I had ever taken (and incidentally was taught by Amherst's professor Denton, who is black.) "Then you must be cowed enough by political correctness to never think of applying statistics and probability to anything involving race." Finally I admitted that this last accusation might be true.
"Then I am going to ask you two true-or-false questions. One: Do blacks in the city of St. Louis have large extended families?" I answered in the affirmative. "Two: Is it true that in St. Louis, over 40% of the black males between the ages of 17 and 25 have criminal records?" I told him that was also true, unfortunately.
"So here is the important question: What are the chances of a black person of voting age in St. Louis having at least one relative with a criminal record? Assume we define 'relative' broadly, to include the young men who father the children of our female relatives, whether married to them or not." He sat there waiting for my answer.
"Are we talking fathers, stepfathers, uncles, brothers, stepbrothers, male cousins, sons, stepsons, nephews, mothers' boyfriends, aunts' boyfriends, sisters' boyfriends, daughters' boyfriends, stepdaughters' boyfriends, female cousins' boyfriends, nieces' boyfriends, as well as anyone actually married to a female relative?" I asked. He nodded. "Then I'd say there's nearly 100% probability that at least one relative would have a criminal record." He smiled at me like a teacher who has just gotten the right answer from one of his slower students.
"So," I said, "I'm to believe that the black sentiment in St. Louis was "I wish young Tyrone would stop robbing people, but I don�t want one of the people he robs to shoot him dead." Is that it?" I asked.
"You've got it exactly," he told me.
"But why? I mean, honestly, if some guy was married to my cousin and mugged people for a living, I'd figure he was making his own choices and could damn well take the chance of being blasted. I wouldn't vote away my rights to help his sorry ass."
"What if it wasn't just your one cousin's husband, but 40% of all your male relatives between the ages of 18 and 25? What if that was, oh, I don�t know, a dozen people?" Suddenly I didn't know what to say.
"You don't feel that way," I said finally.
"I�m an Uncle Tom. I've recently come to realize that I now have very few black friends."
Seems to fit in nicely with the crap the other day. Here we're not talking about some deceased/imprisoned criminal's family protesting "He's a good boy, he just made some mistakes, he hung around with some bad people" or "She's not a bad girl, she was pushed into doing this." Here we've got the whole damn grievance industry coming out in full cry. "Racism! They shot those boys because they were black! They just wanted to buy some grass!" and so on. It's like there's a standard script: "The victims(ALWAYS the 'victims') were black/latino/whatever, so they CANNOT BE AT FAULT! Therefore the one who shot/whatever them is the criminal. No matter what." So we have, in this case, three men broke into a home at 4 A.M., beat people severely, and when they get shot, THEY become the 'victims'. The survivor is a 'victim of racism'. Never mind what they did- and let's not be fooled here, chances of this being the first time they did something like this are just about zero-, never mind the one they beat who'll need care for the rest of his life, the deceased goblins and the survivor are the 'victims'.
I've been reading a book called When She Was Bad, Violent omen and the Myth of Innocence by Patricia Pearson. A big part of the book is on the fact that in domestic violence it's been built up that women are ALWAYS the victim. Doesn't matter what happened, doesn't matter that the husband/boyfriend pushed her or hit her because she was swinging at him- sometimes with a knife or heavy object- because HE is the one with the 'power', so she is ALWAYS the victim. Which means if he calls the police for help, chances are he'll wind up in jail. Hell, it's in law in some places that if the police show up on a domestic violence call, they have to arrest him. Even if he's the one bleeding. Scholars have censored their own work to prevent it being shown that women are aggressors as often as men, that the men in the relationship are often the victims, because it doesn't fit the social picture they want to reinforce.
...A 1978 survey conducted by the Kentucky Commission on Violence Against Women uncovered that 38 percent of the assaults in the state were committed by women, but that finding wasn't included when the survey was released. (The information was discovered some years later by scholars.) In Detroit, a tally of emergency medical admissions due to to domestic violence was widely reported by activists as evidence of injuries to women. No one told the media that 38 percent of the admissions were men. In Canada, the federal government allotted $250,000 to a research project on comparative rates of violence in dating relationships. The lead researcher, Carleton University sociologist Walter DeKeseredy, released his data on women, generating a wave of violence agains women headlines and conveying the impression that Canadian college campuses were bastions of violent misogyny. DeKeseredy didn't mention in his report that he had collected evidence of dating violence against men....
and so on.
You read much of this, there's a remarkable similarity between minority groups and womens groups in making excuses for why they cannot be the bad guys. "Because of past racism/because of the patriarchy, they have no power" and so on. There's always a reason why someone cannot/should not be held responsible for, or even capable of doing bad things.
A lot of people more qualified than I have pointed this nonsense out before. If you claim 'victimhood' as a mantle that protects you from being held responsible for what you do, you have renounced any claim to being an intelligent, capable being and basically said "You can't hold me to the same standards you do others: I'm special." And then you bitch and whine when people don't look on you the same as they do others who don't claim victimhood as an excuse for whatever the current problem is. Much like the 'Jena Six' garbage, if someone is a member of your group it's considered a given that they couldn't have actually done wrong, they must have been the 'victim'. Never mind evidence, never mind a group beating an individual unconscious, that group was black so THEY are the 'victims'.
Hell, look at a lot of media reporting. If someone gets shot breaking into a home or attacking someone, attempting a rape, whatever, if the goblin is a member of a minority group there's a very good chance the reporting will be that they were the 'victim' of a shooting. The fact that they were shot by the actual victim, the one they were attacking, is glossed over. They get a twofer here: deflect blame from the criminal and condemn guns and people who own them.
Solution? More people like Bill Cosby saying "Knock off the crap, tell your kids to pull their pants up and stay in school. And stop letting them feed on the image of gangsters as someone to be like." They'd better have very thick skins like him, too, because they'll get the full ration of crap the RWPPs & Co. threw at him.
I reminded me of something, so I dug around in John Ross' site and found this post of his. He was talking to a man about the opposition in much of the black community to the idea of 'shall-issue' concealed carry permits. Considering how people in that community tended to be more often the victims of crimes and would in many cases be the people with more need of the freedom to carry for self-defense, why would they oppose it so strongly?
"When discussing this matter, people inevitably bring up Missouri's 1999 ballot referendum on Right-To-Carry, which was narrowly defeated (with a dismal 30% voter turnout, I might add.) The fact is that the measure passed in almost every county in the state. The defeat came from the fact that two very large urban precincts in St. Louis and Kansas City were over 90% opposed. At the time, I thought this was vote fraud (and to be honest, I still think that was a factor).
A black businessman (who was one of the handful of St. Louis city residents who voted for the referendum) and I were discussing the recent passage of RTC. I brought up the referendum results, and said I could not understand why blacks had been so uniformly against the measure. The proposal was a "shall issue" one, where if you satisfied the requirements (training, fingerprints, no criminal record, no mental illness, etc.) you couldn't be denied the permit just because the sheriff didn't like the idea of people besides the police having guns. The businessman stared at me.
"I thought you were good at math," he said. I allowed as to how I felt that I was. "Then you must never have taken Statistics and Probability." I told him I had done this also, and that it had been one of the most rewarding math classes I had ever taken (and incidentally was taught by Amherst's professor Denton, who is black.) "Then you must be cowed enough by political correctness to never think of applying statistics and probability to anything involving race." Finally I admitted that this last accusation might be true.
"Then I am going to ask you two true-or-false questions. One: Do blacks in the city of St. Louis have large extended families?" I answered in the affirmative. "Two: Is it true that in St. Louis, over 40% of the black males between the ages of 17 and 25 have criminal records?" I told him that was also true, unfortunately.
"So here is the important question: What are the chances of a black person of voting age in St. Louis having at least one relative with a criminal record? Assume we define 'relative' broadly, to include the young men who father the children of our female relatives, whether married to them or not." He sat there waiting for my answer.
"Are we talking fathers, stepfathers, uncles, brothers, stepbrothers, male cousins, sons, stepsons, nephews, mothers' boyfriends, aunts' boyfriends, sisters' boyfriends, daughters' boyfriends, stepdaughters' boyfriends, female cousins' boyfriends, nieces' boyfriends, as well as anyone actually married to a female relative?" I asked. He nodded. "Then I'd say there's nearly 100% probability that at least one relative would have a criminal record." He smiled at me like a teacher who has just gotten the right answer from one of his slower students.
"So," I said, "I'm to believe that the black sentiment in St. Louis was "I wish young Tyrone would stop robbing people, but I don�t want one of the people he robs to shoot him dead." Is that it?" I asked.
"You've got it exactly," he told me.
"But why? I mean, honestly, if some guy was married to my cousin and mugged people for a living, I'd figure he was making his own choices and could damn well take the chance of being blasted. I wouldn't vote away my rights to help his sorry ass."
"What if it wasn't just your one cousin's husband, but 40% of all your male relatives between the ages of 18 and 25? What if that was, oh, I don�t know, a dozen people?" Suddenly I didn't know what to say.
"You don't feel that way," I said finally.
"I�m an Uncle Tom. I've recently come to realize that I now have very few black friends."
Seems to fit in nicely with the crap the other day. Here we're not talking about some deceased/imprisoned criminal's family protesting "He's a good boy, he just made some mistakes, he hung around with some bad people" or "She's not a bad girl, she was pushed into doing this." Here we've got the whole damn grievance industry coming out in full cry. "Racism! They shot those boys because they were black! They just wanted to buy some grass!" and so on. It's like there's a standard script: "The victims(ALWAYS the 'victims') were black/latino/whatever, so they CANNOT BE AT FAULT! Therefore the one who shot/whatever them is the criminal. No matter what." So we have, in this case, three men broke into a home at 4 A.M., beat people severely, and when they get shot, THEY become the 'victims'. The survivor is a 'victim of racism'. Never mind what they did- and let's not be fooled here, chances of this being the first time they did something like this are just about zero-, never mind the one they beat who'll need care for the rest of his life, the deceased goblins and the survivor are the 'victims'.
I've been reading a book called When She Was Bad, Violent omen and the Myth of Innocence by Patricia Pearson. A big part of the book is on the fact that in domestic violence it's been built up that women are ALWAYS the victim. Doesn't matter what happened, doesn't matter that the husband/boyfriend pushed her or hit her because she was swinging at him- sometimes with a knife or heavy object- because HE is the one with the 'power', so she is ALWAYS the victim. Which means if he calls the police for help, chances are he'll wind up in jail. Hell, it's in law in some places that if the police show up on a domestic violence call, they have to arrest him. Even if he's the one bleeding. Scholars have censored their own work to prevent it being shown that women are aggressors as often as men, that the men in the relationship are often the victims, because it doesn't fit the social picture they want to reinforce.
...A 1978 survey conducted by the Kentucky Commission on Violence Against Women uncovered that 38 percent of the assaults in the state were committed by women, but that finding wasn't included when the survey was released. (The information was discovered some years later by scholars.) In Detroit, a tally of emergency medical admissions due to to domestic violence was widely reported by activists as evidence of injuries to women. No one told the media that 38 percent of the admissions were men. In Canada, the federal government allotted $250,000 to a research project on comparative rates of violence in dating relationships. The lead researcher, Carleton University sociologist Walter DeKeseredy, released his data on women, generating a wave of violence agains women headlines and conveying the impression that Canadian college campuses were bastions of violent misogyny. DeKeseredy didn't mention in his report that he had collected evidence of dating violence against men....
and so on.
You read much of this, there's a remarkable similarity between minority groups and womens groups in making excuses for why they cannot be the bad guys. "Because of past racism/because of the patriarchy, they have no power" and so on. There's always a reason why someone cannot/should not be held responsible for, or even capable of doing bad things.
A lot of people more qualified than I have pointed this nonsense out before. If you claim 'victimhood' as a mantle that protects you from being held responsible for what you do, you have renounced any claim to being an intelligent, capable being and basically said "You can't hold me to the same standards you do others: I'm special." And then you bitch and whine when people don't look on you the same as they do others who don't claim victimhood as an excuse for whatever the current problem is. Much like the 'Jena Six' garbage, if someone is a member of your group it's considered a given that they couldn't have actually done wrong, they must have been the 'victim'. Never mind evidence, never mind a group beating an individual unconscious, that group was black so THEY are the 'victims'.
Hell, look at a lot of media reporting. If someone gets shot breaking into a home or attacking someone, attempting a rape, whatever, if the goblin is a member of a minority group there's a very good chance the reporting will be that they were the 'victim' of a shooting. The fact that they were shot by the actual victim, the one they were attacking, is glossed over. They get a twofer here: deflect blame from the criminal and condemn guns and people who own them.
Solution? More people like Bill Cosby saying "Knock off the crap, tell your kids to pull their pants up and stay in school. And stop letting them feed on the image of gangsters as someone to be like." They'd better have very thick skins like him, too, because they'll get the full ration of crap the RWPPs & Co. threw at him.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
So Boston has decided to follow the English pattern:
"Constitution? WE don't see a problem here."
Saw this at Instapundit, and then saw that MArooned had already taken note of it.
In the next two weeks, Boston police officers who are assigned to schools will begin going to homes where they believe teenagers might have guns. The officers will travel in groups of three, dress in plainclothes to avoid attracting negative attention, and ask the teenager's parent or legal guardian for permission to search. If the parents say no, police said, the officers will leave.(bold mine)
Oh, of COURSE they will. They'd NEVER think of pressuring the parents to let them in. Would they?
"Ma'am, you know if you don't let us look and something happens, you might be seen as responsible?"
"Is there some reason you don't want us to come in?"
Hell yes, they will. If not at first, soon.
I guess Boston liked Clinton's idea: that if you lived in public housing the authorities ought to be able to search for drugs or guns anytime, day or night, with no warrant. So they're working up to it slowly.
You know, this kind of crap pretty much clinches it: if somebody offered me a job in MA at big pay, I'd say "Hell no!" Having your rights and life trashed by a bunch of socialist politicians and their minions cannot be compensated for by money.
Saw this at Instapundit, and then saw that MArooned had already taken note of it.
In the next two weeks, Boston police officers who are assigned to schools will begin going to homes where they believe teenagers might have guns. The officers will travel in groups of three, dress in plainclothes to avoid attracting negative attention, and ask the teenager's parent or legal guardian for permission to search. If the parents say no, police said, the officers will leave.(bold mine)
Oh, of COURSE they will. They'd NEVER think of pressuring the parents to let them in. Would they?
"Ma'am, you know if you don't let us look and something happens, you might be seen as responsible?"
"Is there some reason you don't want us to come in?"
Hell yes, they will. If not at first, soon.
I guess Boston liked Clinton's idea: that if you lived in public housing the authorities ought to be able to search for drugs or guns anytime, day or night, with no warrant. So they're working up to it slowly.
You know, this kind of crap pretty much clinches it: if somebody offered me a job in MA at big pay, I'd say "Hell no!" Having your rights and life trashed by a bunch of socialist politicians and their minions cannot be compensated for by money.
Range day, project pistol tryout
Did indeed make it out today, and put about 65 rounds through it. The polishing on the feed ramp worked, it digested 185-grain Gold Dots, both factory and handload, without a burp. The only problem in shooting was one failure to go into battery, and that was with a 200-grain flatnose load. I don't blame the pistol, I blame the magazine: this was the original, which is rather, ah, 'well-used' would be a polite term. Somehow the body has spread out a touch, you have to push harder to seat it and pull it all the way out of the mag well. Using a couple of Metalform 7-round mags for all the other shooting, no malfunctions at all.
I did notice one thing: if you didn't have the grip safety depressed ALL the way, you could feel the trigger bow dragging on it a touch at times. Why I didn't notice it before, I don't know. Did a small amount of file work and polishing on it, and that seems to be gone.
Overall, it worked as well as I could have hoped for. I am going to flare the bottom of the mag well a bit, and do a full trigger job. This being the first time I'd worked on the fire control group of one of these, when I followed the 'Poor Man's Trigger Job' instructions I went very lightly; it did indeed smooth things out and lighten them a bit, but now I need to hit it again and all the way, should make a big difference.
I just realized I forgot to take a picture of it before breaking it down, and right now it's on the table in pieces. I promise I'll remember in the near future.
Dead goblins and whining RWPP* clowns
This kind of crap, and these idiots, are why we have the racial problems we do.
Short version: three goblins break into a home at 4a.m. and attack the people there, beating one so badly he'll be in a rehab center for the rest of his life. Homeowner opens fire and kills two, the third got away(dammit).
Third is caught and charged, and since he's black and the people the goblins attacked are white, why, it's "Racism!" behind his being charged.
This from the surviving goblins female parent sums up the bullshit:
Hughes' mother, San Francisco schoolteacher Judy Hughes, said she believes the group didn't intend to rob the family, just buy marijuana. She called the case against her son a "legal lynching."
"Only God knows what happened in that house," she said. "But this I know: My son did not murder his childhood friends."
This is why the public education system is so far in the toilet: idiot teachers like this one. Oh no, they just wanted to buy some grass. So they broke in and attacked people and damn near beat one to death. Yeah, sounds like customers looking for service, all right. Effing idiot.
Mrs. Hughes, your son and his 'childhood friends' decided that what someone else owned was worth more than those peoples' lives: when they acted on that, they opened themselves up to whatever was necessary to stop them. And they- and damn sure not you and your whining associates- have no right whatever to bitch because they were hit with more resistance than they expected. Your son and his friends are('were' in the case of the friends) vile, disgusting predators, and the sheepdog nailed them. You need to deal with the facts of what your son is, and what he's been doing, and stop blaming other people.
Ever consider that always blaming someone else may have something to do with what happened, by the way?
*Race Warlord Poverty Pimp. Borrowed that from Denny.
Short version: three goblins break into a home at 4a.m. and attack the people there, beating one so badly he'll be in a rehab center for the rest of his life. Homeowner opens fire and kills two, the third got away(dammit).
Third is caught and charged, and since he's black and the people the goblins attacked are white, why, it's "Racism!" behind his being charged.
This from the surviving goblins female parent sums up the bullshit:
Hughes' mother, San Francisco schoolteacher Judy Hughes, said she believes the group didn't intend to rob the family, just buy marijuana. She called the case against her son a "legal lynching."
"Only God knows what happened in that house," she said. "But this I know: My son did not murder his childhood friends."
This is why the public education system is so far in the toilet: idiot teachers like this one. Oh no, they just wanted to buy some grass. So they broke in and attacked people and damn near beat one to death. Yeah, sounds like customers looking for service, all right. Effing idiot.
Mrs. Hughes, your son and his 'childhood friends' decided that what someone else owned was worth more than those peoples' lives: when they acted on that, they opened themselves up to whatever was necessary to stop them. And they- and damn sure not you and your whining associates- have no right whatever to bitch because they were hit with more resistance than they expected. Your son and his friends are('were' in the case of the friends) vile, disgusting predators, and the sheepdog nailed them. You need to deal with the facts of what your son is, and what he's been doing, and stop blaming other people.
Ever consider that always blaming someone else may have something to do with what happened, by the way?
*Race Warlord Poverty Pimp. Borrowed that from Denny.
Friday, November 16, 2007
1911 Project Gun
Some months ago I picked up a Sistema Model 1927, one of the Argentine 1911A1 pistols. This one had the usual badly worn bore and finish, and had one other 'feature': the numbers on the frame and slide did not match. The shop where I bought it had received a bunch(probably one of the last lots we'll ever see) and, of course, there were some with problems. So he'd taken the good slides and frames and put them together. They were checked thoroughly- I trust the people on this- for fit and operation. And, since it's mismatched, which kind of ruins any collector value, I'm using it for a project gun.
First thing was to detail-strip it and check everything. I will be replacing all the springs, for now just the sear/safety spring as I had one available. Next, strip off the old finish. Such as it was. That was done with 220-grit wet/dry paper, used wet with a backing piece. Cleaned and smoothed things out considerably. I'm going to leave it at this until everything is done, then I'll either blue it or parkerize it. Although, as it seems to be holding up quite well on my Kimber, I could use the moly-resin.
Down the road I'll probably have a dovetail cut in the slide for a new front sight, for now I decided to try making a new front using the original hole(gee, thanks for that idea, Og). If you're not familiar with this, in the original 1911 design there's a slot cut lengthwise in the top of the slide, deep enough for the base of the sight to sit in. Then there's a hole cut through the bottom of the slide. The sight fits into this and the tenon on the bottom sticks through the hole into the inside of the slide. The sight is braced, and a special chisel is used to spread out the tenon, riveting the sight into place. I needed a thicker front sight(getting old sucks), so, after taking off the original front and theannoyance and frustration ofmaking of a new one that fit(someday, I really want a small mill) and making a chisel to rivet it, I got it fitted. A little too tall, which is no problem, as I'd rather file it down a touch to adjust the point of impact than have it too short.
The rear sight was easy: widen the slot a touch with a file to match the wider front, and- since the corners were pretty beat up(what the hell did the Argentines do with these?!?) they were rounded. Again, later on I'll get a front & rear set and mount them.
Speaking of things in the slide, I'll be getting one of the EGW oversize firing pin stops and fitting it. I was holding off an order to Midway for some things hoping to get it from them, but they're ALWAYS out of stock on the damn things, so I'll probably go ahead and get it from Brownell's.
While back a friend had picked up a GI-spec barrel for me, and it dropped in. Seems to fit and function properly, though it won’t give the same accuracy as one fitted to the frame & slide. Down the road, I'll pick up a suitable replacement. Probably one that comes with a bushing.
Last weekend there was a small gun show in town and one of the dealers had 1911 parts. I picked up an STI extended thumb safety, a grip safety and a long trigger(with the overtravel adjustment screw). First time I’ve ever tried fitting any of these pieces.
The trigger was no problem; tweak the bow just a touch and it slid right in. I may need to do a touch of polishing on the outsides, but that's it. The grip safety seems to need no work. The thumb safety, on the other hand...
As I say, I've never fitted one of these before, and it did need fitting. So I pulled up some 'how-to's from M1911.org, studied things, and began, very carefully, to work. Took a while, but finally had it fitting nicely and working as it should. With me sweating over every stroke of file or stone.
Then I fitted everything together and shazam! It works! Except for one thing... cock the hammer and pull the trigger and ease the hammer down, and it caught at the half-cock position. Disassemble, examine, try, no change. Finally, after a while of trying, and some language practice, I had a thought. When I'd put the screw into the trigger so I wouldn't lose it I'd run it quite a ways in. Did you know if you have the thing too far in it messes with things? If it's WAY too far in you can't pull the trigger back enough to trip the sear. If it's not quite that far in, it can cause this problem, not letting the trigger move the sear all the way out of the way of the hammer notches. Backed it out a bit extra and no more problem. I'm going to loctite the damn thing in place.
Got everything cleaned and assembled and tested multiple times, and all's well. I'd fired this pistol with ball and it worked well. So, just to check, I stuck a Gold Dot hollowpoint in the magazine and cycled the slide, and it jammed solid.
Not in the barrel throat*, the edge of the hollow was hanging on the feed ramp. Tried again, then tried with two other magazines with the same result. A close look with a good light and magnifier showed why: machine marks left in the ramp. Not horrible deep ones, but just deep enough.
So, I needed to polish the ramp. VERY carefully. Take a look here and here at High Road and Tuner will demonstrate why he tends to cringe when he reads "Get your dremel". I'd read that before, so I knew the risks of getting careless or a bit too enthusiastic; you can screw up the feed ramp to the point that the only fix is to have a ramped barrel fitted. Or the frame machined to accept a new ramp. So I started off with a suitable dowel wrapped with 1000-grit wet/dry paper**. Colored the ramp with marker, then started with light strokes. As the marker rubs off it shows exactly where you're cutting so you can keep the angle correct: you don't want to change the angle or cut too deep. So I took that only far enough to remove the lighter marks completely. Once that was done, I took a dremel with a felt polishing bob loaded with fine polishing compound and polished the surface smooth. With steel it's hard to cut too much unless you're using a coarser cutting compound, BUT it can be done. Especially if enthusiasm gets the best of you and you use high speed and a lot of pressure. Polishing is actually cutting away some of the surface, same as a grinding compound but on a much finer level, so I used the marker again, recoloring the ramp several times. I stopped when the ramp was nice and shiny and slick; the deepest marks were still there but were now smaller and had smoothed edges. Cleaned off all the abrasive and polish traces, reassembled and tried it, and now the bullet slides perfectly up the ramp. Final proof will be shooting it next time I can get to the range.
So far, so good. The slide/frame fit is a little loose, down the road may try my hand at tightening it up. Definitely to come is a better barrel fitted to the slide and frame. And new sights, maybe something with a fiber-optic front. I think I'll wind up with a very good shooter,and a lot more understanding of how this thing works.
I just realized I have no pictures of this, I'll take a couple and add them in soon as I can.
*A lot of standard barrels will not feed hollowpoints reliably, some not at all. The barrel can be often be ‘throated’ to take care of that, or the original can be replaced with a suitable one. My Kimber has happily eaten everything I’ve fed it with one exception: semi-wadcutters. Almost all 1911’s have to be throated for them, or have a target barrel installed, to feed them reliably.
**1000-grit was the finest I had, the next coarser was 220. I decided I'd rather use the very fine stuff and cut very slowly. I will say that with that fine a paper, 'very slowly' is the only way you can cut by hand. Which was just fine with me.
On the original barrel, I did find that, even with the worn bore, it shot very well with jacketed bullets, though lead bullets fouled the bore badly.
First thing was to detail-strip it and check everything. I will be replacing all the springs, for now just the sear/safety spring as I had one available. Next, strip off the old finish. Such as it was. That was done with 220-grit wet/dry paper, used wet with a backing piece. Cleaned and smoothed things out considerably. I'm going to leave it at this until everything is done, then I'll either blue it or parkerize it. Although, as it seems to be holding up quite well on my Kimber, I could use the moly-resin.
Down the road I'll probably have a dovetail cut in the slide for a new front sight, for now I decided to try making a new front using the original hole(gee, thanks for that idea, Og). If you're not familiar with this, in the original 1911 design there's a slot cut lengthwise in the top of the slide, deep enough for the base of the sight to sit in. Then there's a hole cut through the bottom of the slide. The sight fits into this and the tenon on the bottom sticks through the hole into the inside of the slide. The sight is braced, and a special chisel is used to spread out the tenon, riveting the sight into place. I needed a thicker front sight(getting old sucks), so, after taking off the original front and the
The rear sight was easy: widen the slot a touch with a file to match the wider front, and- since the corners were pretty beat up(what the hell did the Argentines do with these?!?) they were rounded. Again, later on I'll get a front & rear set and mount them.
Speaking of things in the slide, I'll be getting one of the EGW oversize firing pin stops and fitting it. I was holding off an order to Midway for some things hoping to get it from them, but they're ALWAYS out of stock on the damn things, so I'll probably go ahead and get it from Brownell's.
While back a friend had picked up a GI-spec barrel for me, and it dropped in. Seems to fit and function properly, though it won’t give the same accuracy as one fitted to the frame & slide. Down the road, I'll pick up a suitable replacement. Probably one that comes with a bushing.
Last weekend there was a small gun show in town and one of the dealers had 1911 parts. I picked up an STI extended thumb safety, a grip safety and a long trigger(with the overtravel adjustment screw). First time I’ve ever tried fitting any of these pieces.
The trigger was no problem; tweak the bow just a touch and it slid right in. I may need to do a touch of polishing on the outsides, but that's it. The grip safety seems to need no work. The thumb safety, on the other hand...
As I say, I've never fitted one of these before, and it did need fitting. So I pulled up some 'how-to's from M1911.org, studied things, and began, very carefully, to work. Took a while, but finally had it fitting nicely and working as it should. With me sweating over every stroke of file or stone.
Then I fitted everything together and shazam! It works! Except for one thing... cock the hammer and pull the trigger and ease the hammer down, and it caught at the half-cock position. Disassemble, examine, try, no change. Finally, after a while of trying, and some language practice, I had a thought. When I'd put the screw into the trigger so I wouldn't lose it I'd run it quite a ways in. Did you know if you have the thing too far in it messes with things? If it's WAY too far in you can't pull the trigger back enough to trip the sear. If it's not quite that far in, it can cause this problem, not letting the trigger move the sear all the way out of the way of the hammer notches. Backed it out a bit extra and no more problem. I'm going to loctite the damn thing in place.
Got everything cleaned and assembled and tested multiple times, and all's well. I'd fired this pistol with ball and it worked well. So, just to check, I stuck a Gold Dot hollowpoint in the magazine and cycled the slide, and it jammed solid.
Not in the barrel throat*, the edge of the hollow was hanging on the feed ramp. Tried again, then tried with two other magazines with the same result. A close look with a good light and magnifier showed why: machine marks left in the ramp. Not horrible deep ones, but just deep enough.
So, I needed to polish the ramp. VERY carefully. Take a look here and here at High Road and Tuner will demonstrate why he tends to cringe when he reads "Get your dremel". I'd read that before, so I knew the risks of getting careless or a bit too enthusiastic; you can screw up the feed ramp to the point that the only fix is to have a ramped barrel fitted. Or the frame machined to accept a new ramp. So I started off with a suitable dowel wrapped with 1000-grit wet/dry paper**. Colored the ramp with marker, then started with light strokes. As the marker rubs off it shows exactly where you're cutting so you can keep the angle correct: you don't want to change the angle or cut too deep. So I took that only far enough to remove the lighter marks completely. Once that was done, I took a dremel with a felt polishing bob loaded with fine polishing compound and polished the surface smooth. With steel it's hard to cut too much unless you're using a coarser cutting compound, BUT it can be done. Especially if enthusiasm gets the best of you and you use high speed and a lot of pressure. Polishing is actually cutting away some of the surface, same as a grinding compound but on a much finer level, so I used the marker again, recoloring the ramp several times. I stopped when the ramp was nice and shiny and slick; the deepest marks were still there but were now smaller and had smoothed edges. Cleaned off all the abrasive and polish traces, reassembled and tried it, and now the bullet slides perfectly up the ramp. Final proof will be shooting it next time I can get to the range.
So far, so good. The slide/frame fit is a little loose, down the road may try my hand at tightening it up. Definitely to come is a better barrel fitted to the slide and frame. And new sights, maybe something with a fiber-optic front. I think I'll wind up with a very good shooter,and a lot more understanding of how this thing works.
I just realized I have no pictures of this, I'll take a couple and add them in soon as I can.
*A lot of standard barrels will not feed hollowpoints reliably, some not at all. The barrel can be often be ‘throated’ to take care of that, or the original can be replaced with a suitable one. My Kimber has happily eaten everything I’ve fed it with one exception: semi-wadcutters. Almost all 1911’s have to be throated for them, or have a target barrel installed, to feed them reliably.
**1000-grit was the finest I had, the next coarser was 220. I decided I'd rather use the very fine stuff and cut very slowly. I will say that with that fine a paper, 'very slowly' is the only way you can cut by hand. Which was just fine with me.
On the original barrel, I did find that, even with the worn bore, it shot very well with jacketed bullets, though lead bullets fouled the bore badly.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
"Don't actually describe the criminal!
That's racist!"
If a person of Hispanic origin rapes a woman and, in an attempt to catch this violent criminal, police publish a description identifying the suspect's general racial makeup, is that a "racist" thing to do? Apparently the folks at KMYL (1190 AM) in the metro Phoenix, Arizona area think it is. It appears that we cannot even discuss the basic appearance of a wanted criminal now without being "racist" about it all.
Tim Blair has had a bunch of posts noting cases in which police put out descriptions of robbers, rapists, etc. that included descriptions but made no mention of the race. Specifically, when suspects were of, say, 'south Asian' appearance(or whatever the current PC term is for people from Pakistan or wherever) not one word about their physical appearance. Clothing, yes: people, no.
I'm not surprised some idiots here would do the same thing, I'm just amazed it took this long for it to happen and get publicity.
If a person of Hispanic origin rapes a woman and, in an attempt to catch this violent criminal, police publish a description identifying the suspect's general racial makeup, is that a "racist" thing to do? Apparently the folks at KMYL (1190 AM) in the metro Phoenix, Arizona area think it is. It appears that we cannot even discuss the basic appearance of a wanted criminal now without being "racist" about it all.
Tim Blair has had a bunch of posts noting cases in which police put out descriptions of robbers, rapists, etc. that included descriptions but made no mention of the race. Specifically, when suspects were of, say, 'south Asian' appearance(or whatever the current PC term is for people from Pakistan or wherever) not one word about their physical appearance. Clothing, yes: people, no.
I'm not surprised some idiots here would do the same thing, I'm just amazed it took this long for it to happen and get publicity.
I think France 2 TV
is in a bit of trouble.
Charles Enderlin came to court personally today to defend the images shot by his trusted cameraman Talal Abu Rahma at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000. The cameraman had declared under oath that he filmed 27 minutes of the ordeal of Mohamed al Dura and his father Jamal, pinned down by Israeli gunfire. France 2 turned over to the court a CDRom certified as an authentic copy of the raw footage, of a total duration of 18 minutes. Despite those statements the pertinent al Dura scenes contained in the rushes lasted one short minute. Nothing more.(bold mine)
and
The remaining footage, 17 minutes, was consistent with what was already known about that day at the Junction: staged battle scenes—out of range of the Israeli position—with instant ambulance evacuations, alternating with images of men and boys attacking the Israeli position with stones, firebombs, and burning tires.
If you take out the flowery words and BS denials, this translates to "We not only used staged images to put out a fake story, and swore it was true, we're not going to give you all the actual footage you ordered."
I've got a pretty good idea what would happen to an executive who did that in most U.S. courts, we'll see what happens in this French court. I tend to think most judges most places don't like being gamed this way.
Charles Enderlin came to court personally today to defend the images shot by his trusted cameraman Talal Abu Rahma at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000. The cameraman had declared under oath that he filmed 27 minutes of the ordeal of Mohamed al Dura and his father Jamal, pinned down by Israeli gunfire. France 2 turned over to the court a CDRom certified as an authentic copy of the raw footage, of a total duration of 18 minutes. Despite those statements the pertinent al Dura scenes contained in the rushes lasted one short minute. Nothing more.(bold mine)
and
The remaining footage, 17 minutes, was consistent with what was already known about that day at the Junction: staged battle scenes—out of range of the Israeli position—with instant ambulance evacuations, alternating with images of men and boys attacking the Israeli position with stones, firebombs, and burning tires.
If you take out the flowery words and BS denials, this translates to "We not only used staged images to put out a fake story, and swore it was true, we're not going to give you all the actual footage you ordered."
I've got a pretty good idea what would happen to an executive who did that in most U.S. courts, we'll see what happens in this French court. I tend to think most judges most places don't like being gamed this way.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
This is just downright cool!
A laser IED and dud ordnance killer:
Late last month, Boeing conducted a series of tests at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama with a 1-kw laser mounted on the back of a converted anti-aircraft Humvee. Shooting an invisible beam just a few centimeters in diameter and 20 times hotter than an electric stovetop, the laser burned a hole through the casing of artillery and mortar rounds, detonating them more or less instantly. (As for bystanders, all bets are off.)
Damn, I hope this pans out as working equipment.
This is starting to look more like equipment from David Drake's Hammer's Slammers stories. Powerguns, anyone?
Late last month, Boeing conducted a series of tests at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama with a 1-kw laser mounted on the back of a converted anti-aircraft Humvee. Shooting an invisible beam just a few centimeters in diameter and 20 times hotter than an electric stovetop, the laser burned a hole through the casing of artillery and mortar rounds, detonating them more or less instantly. (As for bystanders, all bets are off.)
Damn, I hope this pans out as working equipment.
This is starting to look more like equipment from David Drake's Hammer's Slammers stories. Powerguns, anyone?
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Do not forget
to pick some up. Remember, when you buy ammo Dianne Feinstein chokes up.
And when you buy eeeevillle hollowpoints or anything 'armor piercing', Chucky Schumer and Ted Kennedy get a hemorrhoid.
Monday, November 12, 2007
"Operation Holiday Homecoming"
It's a good cause, check it out here and send a few dollars if you can.
Joined by state military and veterans affairs leaders at a Capitol news conference, Henry urged Oklahomans to donate to an American Legion of Oklahoma fund that will enable members of the 45th Infantry Brigade to be home from Dec. 23 to Jan 2.
.....
To ensure transportation for the estimated 2,600 troops, "Operation Holiday Homecoming" needs to raise approximately $600,000 to cover the use of 60 buses. Already, three Oklahoma-based Native American tribes and several corporations have come forward with major contributions. The Choctaw Nation is supplying 14 buses and the Chickasaws are supplying two buses. The Cherokee Nation has donated $35,000.
...
Members of the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade are currently training at Fort Bliss, Texas, and will have 10 days of leave before deploying to Iraq in January, 2008. Nevertheless, U.S. Department of Defense regulations preclude the Army from paying for the soldiers' trip home while on leave. The expense of getting home therefore falls on the responsibility of each individual soldier, many of whom might not have funds to pay for the trip to Oklahoma.
...
Donations to bring the members of the Oklahoma National Guard home for Christmas can be made at any BancFirst Branch to the Operation Holiday Homecoming account or, to The American Legion of Oklahoma, Operation Holiday Homecoming, P.O. Box 53037, Oklahoma City OK, 73152.
Joined by state military and veterans affairs leaders at a Capitol news conference, Henry urged Oklahomans to donate to an American Legion of Oklahoma fund that will enable members of the 45th Infantry Brigade to be home from Dec. 23 to Jan 2.
.....
To ensure transportation for the estimated 2,600 troops, "Operation Holiday Homecoming" needs to raise approximately $600,000 to cover the use of 60 buses. Already, three Oklahoma-based Native American tribes and several corporations have come forward with major contributions. The Choctaw Nation is supplying 14 buses and the Chickasaws are supplying two buses. The Cherokee Nation has donated $35,000.
...
Members of the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade are currently training at Fort Bliss, Texas, and will have 10 days of leave before deploying to Iraq in January, 2008. Nevertheless, U.S. Department of Defense regulations preclude the Army from paying for the soldiers' trip home while on leave. The expense of getting home therefore falls on the responsibility of each individual soldier, many of whom might not have funds to pay for the trip to Oklahoma.
...
Donations to bring the members of the Oklahoma National Guard home for Christmas can be made at any BancFirst Branch to the Operation Holiday Homecoming account or, to The American Legion of Oklahoma, Operation Holiday Homecoming, P.O. Box 53037, Oklahoma City OK, 73152.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Unfortunately, some of the people in the military are
lawyers and politicians(and assholes, but I repeat myself) in uniform:
For three months after the non-incident, none of his superiors in his chain of command suspected a law of war violation, and it seems from his fitness report that his command style and his ability was something the Marine Corps could use more of.
Then, out of nowhere, some gutless punk up the chain of command panicked when the Time article came out and decided that this guy needed to take the fall for this "incident" so that their backside could be protected and their career could be guaranteed at the expense of this man because prior to this, Lt Col. Chessani was, according to his superiors, "a superb leader, who knows his men, knows the enemy, knows his business."
Proof that, despite the efforts of the good people in the forces, slime does manage to sneak in.
For three months after the non-incident, none of his superiors in his chain of command suspected a law of war violation, and it seems from his fitness report that his command style and his ability was something the Marine Corps could use more of.
Then, out of nowhere, some gutless punk up the chain of command panicked when the Time article came out and decided that this guy needed to take the fall for this "incident" so that their backside could be protected and their career could be guaranteed at the expense of this man because prior to this, Lt Col. Chessani was, according to his superiors, "a superb leader, who knows his men, knows the enemy, knows his business."
Proof that, despite the efforts of the good people in the forces, slime does manage to sneak in.
Veteran's Day
QandO has a very good piece on who all it covers: ALL the people who get the job done so those at the point of the spear can defeat the enemy.
And, I realize I'm a day late, but Happy Birthday, Marine Corps.
This Vet's Day is a bit unusual for me. Last year at this time son was in AIT; today he's at a camp in Iraq getting the job done, alongside a whole lot of other sons and daughters. Hot, dusty, carrying a huge weight of armor and weapons and responsibility, and getting the job done.
Every once in a while I catch myself in that parent thing, the image of him with a lapful of kitten almost as big as he is or dog bigger than he is, or receiving a kick in the butt when caught at something gets overlaid with the image of him now. Time do go on.
Added: I occurs to me there's a lot on the line in the families: son's wife is at a base stateside, and her brother is Airborne, over in Iraq for, I believe, the third time.
And, I realize I'm a day late, but Happy Birthday, Marine Corps.
This Vet's Day is a bit unusual for me. Last year at this time son was in AIT; today he's at a camp in Iraq getting the job done, alongside a whole lot of other sons and daughters. Hot, dusty, carrying a huge weight of armor and weapons and responsibility, and getting the job done.
Every once in a while I catch myself in that parent thing, the image of him with a lapful of kitten almost as big as he is or dog bigger than he is, or receiving a kick in the butt when caught at something gets overlaid with the image of him now. Time do go on.
Added: I occurs to me there's a lot on the line in the families: son's wife is at a base stateside, and her brother is Airborne, over in Iraq for, I believe, the third time.
It's November, we've had a few days of really nice weather,
the birds are singing outside, and Iraqis are whacking tangos with great glee:
UPDATE #5, 11/11/07 -- Some commenters say that these anti-American films may be produced for foreign rather than domestic U.S. consumption. First, I don't buy it, since such a huge chunk of the money each movie makes comes from American box office and U.S. DVD sales and rentals. Even if that were so, however, and money were the primary motive behind these "blame America first" films, what would that tell you about the moral character of the Hollywood whores who are producing this crap?
It tells us a lot, it do. And an additional take on the matter:
They will flop because the human psyche, especially the American variety, prefers real heroes--like the original hero of the Valley of Elah, a young shepherd named David who killed Goliath then cut off the giant's head.
In the latest round of war movies the heroes are not the Soldiers and Marines who every day fight and defeat a vicious and barbaric enemy--the heroes are reporters, lawyers and activists.
And since every story requires a villain, the real enemy--Mohammedan Jihadists--are replaced by neo-cons, politicians, Soldiers and Marines.
This substitution of the traditional mono-myth away from a hero who faces physical danger and conquers an enemy is a result of cowardice of the modern story tellers.
And, to add to the general happiness, the Clinton's are getting caught in the act:
For the second time in as many days, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has had to deal with accusations of planting questions during public appearances.
In a telephone interview Saturday with Fox News, Geoffrey Mitchell, 32, said he was approached by Clinton campaign worker Chris Hayler to ask a question about how she was standing up to President Bush on the question on funding the Iraq war and a troop withdrawal timeline.
And America-hating 'anti-war' movies are tanking at the box office. And please take note of this observation of Hollywood:BAGHDAD: Former Sunni insurgents asked the U.S. to stay away, then ambushed members of al-Qaida in Iraq, killing 18 in a battle that raged for hours north of Baghdad, an ex-insurgent leader and Iraqi police said Saturday.
Fighters of the Islamic Army in Iraq staged the surprise attack Friday afternoon near Samarra — sending advance word to Iraqi police and requesting that U.S. helicopters stay away, since the fighters had no uniforms and were indistinguishable from al-Qaida.
A top Islamic Army leader known as Abu Ibrahim told The Associated Press that his fighters attacked al-Qaida southeast of Samarra, a mostly Sunni city about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
"We found out that al-Qaida intended to attack us, so we ambushed them at 3 p.m. on Friday," Abu Ibrahim said.
UPDATE #5, 11/11/07 -- Some commenters say that these anti-American films may be produced for foreign rather than domestic U.S. consumption. First, I don't buy it, since such a huge chunk of the money each movie makes comes from American box office and U.S. DVD sales and rentals. Even if that were so, however, and money were the primary motive behind these "blame America first" films, what would that tell you about the moral character of the Hollywood whores who are producing this crap?
It tells us a lot, it do. And an additional take on the matter:
They will flop because the human psyche, especially the American variety, prefers real heroes--like the original hero of the Valley of Elah, a young shepherd named David who killed Goliath then cut off the giant's head.
In the latest round of war movies the heroes are not the Soldiers and Marines who every day fight and defeat a vicious and barbaric enemy--the heroes are reporters, lawyers and activists.
And since every story requires a villain, the real enemy--Mohammedan Jihadists--are replaced by neo-cons, politicians, Soldiers and Marines.
This substitution of the traditional mono-myth away from a hero who faces physical danger and conquers an enemy is a result of cowardice of the modern story tellers.
And, to add to the general happiness, the Clinton's are getting caught in the act:
For the second time in as many days, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has had to deal with accusations of planting questions during public appearances.
In a telephone interview Saturday with Fox News, Geoffrey Mitchell, 32, said he was approached by Clinton campaign worker Chris Hayler to ask a question about how she was standing up to President Bush on the question on funding the Iraq war and a troop withdrawal timeline.
Why the major media is not to be trusted
Reason #568: we now return to our previous griping
Go here and read. This is specifically on the Al Dura case, but has big ramifications to all reporting, in this case specifically in the mid-east and on stuff touching on Islam.
Here the evidence provided by the Al Dura affair suggests that, in some sense, journalists are “in” on the public secret. When representatives of France2 were confronted with the pervasive evidence of staging in Talal’s footage, they both responded the same way. “Oh, they always do that, it’s a cultural thing,” said Enderlin to me in Jerusalem. “Yes Monsieur, but, you know, it’s always like that,” said Didier Eppelbaum to Denis Jeambar, Daniel Leconte, and Luc Rosenzweig in Paris.
As an echo of this astonishing private complacency, Clément Weill-Raynal of France3 made a comment to a journalist that he meant as a criticism of Karsenty: “Karsenty is so shocked that fake images were used and edited in Gaza, but this happens all the time everywhere on television and no TV journalist in the field or a film editor would be shocked.”
That last is supposed to be a cricism of Karsenty. It's a criticism to say "It's dumb for him to be shocked that we slant and fake the news!"
"An incident at Ramallah, however, suggests that Western journalists have systematically submitted to Palestinian demands that they practice Palestinian journalism. On October 12, 2000, to cries of “Revenge for the blood of Muhammad al Dura,” Palestinian men tore to pieces the bodies of two Israeli reservists. Aware of the potential damage, Palestinians attacked any journalist taking pictures. And yet, one Italian crew working for a private news station, at great risk to their lives, smuggled out the footage. Eager to avoid being blamed, the representative of Italy’s “official television station RAI” wrote to the PA that his station would never do such a thing,
Translation: "We will show the news the way you want us to; who cares if it's factual or true?"
And we're supposed to trust these people to tell us what's going on?
And it can actually get worse. There's this near the end:
More ominously, just as Al Dura represents a “higher truth” for Muslims — a justification for hatred, a call to revenge — so does it carry symbolic freight with Europeans. Catherine Nay, a respected news anchor for Europe1, welcomed the image:lessful idiot.
Rope, lamppost, journalist...
Go here and read. This is specifically on the Al Dura case, but has big ramifications to all reporting, in this case specifically in the mid-east and on stuff touching on Islam.
And yet, one of the major differences between Western journalism and self-styled “Islamic media men” emerges on just this issue of the permissibility of staging the news and attitudes towards what constitutes honest information. According to the Islamic Mass Media Charter (Jakarta, 1980), the sacred task of Muslim media men [sic], is on the one hand to protect the Umma from “imminent dangers,” indeed to “censor all materials,” towards that end, and on the other, “To combat Zionism and its colonialist policy of creating settlements as well as its ruthless suppression of the Palestinian people.”
So when asked why he had inserted unconnected footage of an Israeli soldier firing a rifle into the Al Dura sequence in order to make it look like the Israelis had killed the boy in cold blood, an official of PA TV responded:
These are forms of artistic expression, but all of this serves to convey the truth… We never forget our higher journalistic principles to which we are committed of relating the truth and nothing but the truth.This is from a Palestinian media weenie, so not unexpected: to these people 'the Truth' is what puts out the message they like, not what actually happened. But crap like this is not supposed to come from western journalists:
Here the evidence provided by the Al Dura affair suggests that, in some sense, journalists are “in” on the public secret. When representatives of France2 were confronted with the pervasive evidence of staging in Talal’s footage, they both responded the same way. “Oh, they always do that, it’s a cultural thing,” said Enderlin to me in Jerusalem. “Yes Monsieur, but, you know, it’s always like that,” said Didier Eppelbaum to Denis Jeambar, Daniel Leconte, and Luc Rosenzweig in Paris.
As an echo of this astonishing private complacency, Clément Weill-Raynal of France3 made a comment to a journalist that he meant as a criticism of Karsenty: “Karsenty is so shocked that fake images were used and edited in Gaza, but this happens all the time everywhere on television and no TV journalist in the field or a film editor would be shocked.”
That last is supposed to be a cricism of Karsenty. It's a criticism to say "It's dumb for him to be shocked that we slant and fake the news!"
"An incident at Ramallah, however, suggests that Western journalists have systematically submitted to Palestinian demands that they practice Palestinian journalism. On October 12, 2000, to cries of “Revenge for the blood of Muhammad al Dura,” Palestinian men tore to pieces the bodies of two Israeli reservists. Aware of the potential damage, Palestinians attacked any journalist taking pictures. And yet, one Italian crew working for a private news station, at great risk to their lives, smuggled out the footage. Eager to avoid being blamed, the representative of Italy’s “official television station RAI” wrote to the PA that his station would never do such a thing,
…because we always respect (will continue to respect) the journalistic procedures with the Palestinian Authority for (journalistic) work in Palestine…
Translation: "We will show the news the way you want us to; who cares if it's factual or true?"
And we're supposed to trust these people to tell us what's going on?
And it can actually get worse. There's this near the end:
More ominously, just as Al Dura represents a “higher truth” for Muslims — a justification for hatred, a call to revenge — so does it carry symbolic freight with Europeans. Catherine Nay, a respected news anchor for Europe1, welcomed the image:
The Death of Muhammad cancels out, erases that of the Jewish child, his hands in the air from the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto.This is from a 'respected news anchor' in Europe. Saying that. I do not have the words to express the contempt I feel for this use
Rope, lamppost, journalist...
In which I return to the fray,
having been otherwise busy the last couple of days. Got several things to scream about, but currently I'll mention my range trip Friday. Had a couple of loads to test, and wanted to do some 'just because' shooting.
The testing was a load for .30-06, tried out in the M1 Garand. I'd wanted a good soft-point load that could be used for hunting and, er, 'social purposes' if needed, and decided to try the 150-grain Seirra Game King bullet over a load of IMR4895. This is about typical of the groups it gave:
I tend to think the horizontal spread was due to me. For a semi-auto not set up for targets, not bad groups at all. Next time I'll take the 1903 to try it in. So the testing part of the day was successful.
The 'just because' part was trying out some M1 Carbine magazines I'd worked on, and- mostly- hauling the Martini 12/15 out to shoot. Been a while since it'd had an outing, and I'd wanted to try some new ammo in it. But mostly, just wanted to shoot the thing. It's one of those rifles that makes it easy to shoot well.
I'd picked up a box of Eley Practice ammo the week before. It's a mid-grade practice ammo, between the rabbit & squirrel thumpers on the low end and the Tenex match grade at the top. I started out with stuff I knew the performance of, the Eley Sport(ten-shot groups with all):
This stuff is about $1.50/box last time I bought, probably closer to $2/box now. I'd class it as practice & critter-thumper ammo, quite consistent.
Then I tried the Eley Practice(please ignore the larger caliber holes):
Very close to the Sport in performance, maybe a touch more consistent. It runs $3/box where I got it.
Then, since I had plenty with me, the Federal Champion, now $1.20/box since prices have gone up:
Well, hell, if I want to try for something really better I'm going to have to pony up for some of the actual match grade. Which I've held off on, beingcheapfiscally conservative: that stuff runs $12-14/box now. Still, I'll probably pick up a box of Tenex or Lapua Midas one of these days, just to see how much of a difference I can get with it. Of course, if you're shooting matches you get what shoots the very best in your firearm, with as little concern for cost as possible. But for fun shooting, I've been fairly amazed at how consistent and accurate this Federal is in a variety of firearms.
Oh, to add to why I like shooting the Martini so much: all groups were shot at 100 yards from a rest with iron sights. Did I mention I love shooting that rifle?
The testing was a load for .30-06, tried out in the M1 Garand. I'd wanted a good soft-point load that could be used for hunting and, er, 'social purposes' if needed, and decided to try the 150-grain Seirra Game King bullet over a load of IMR4895. This is about typical of the groups it gave:
I tend to think the horizontal spread was due to me. For a semi-auto not set up for targets, not bad groups at all. Next time I'll take the 1903 to try it in. So the testing part of the day was successful.
The 'just because' part was trying out some M1 Carbine magazines I'd worked on, and- mostly- hauling the Martini 12/15 out to shoot. Been a while since it'd had an outing, and I'd wanted to try some new ammo in it. But mostly, just wanted to shoot the thing. It's one of those rifles that makes it easy to shoot well.
I'd picked up a box of Eley Practice ammo the week before. It's a mid-grade practice ammo, between the rabbit & squirrel thumpers on the low end and the Tenex match grade at the top. I started out with stuff I knew the performance of, the Eley Sport(ten-shot groups with all):
This stuff is about $1.50/box last time I bought, probably closer to $2/box now. I'd class it as practice & critter-thumper ammo, quite consistent.
Then I tried the Eley Practice(please ignore the larger caliber holes):
Very close to the Sport in performance, maybe a touch more consistent. It runs $3/box where I got it.
Then, since I had plenty with me, the Federal Champion, now $1.20/box since prices have gone up:
Well, hell, if I want to try for something really better I'm going to have to pony up for some of the actual match grade. Which I've held off on, being
Oh, to add to why I like shooting the Martini so much: all groups were shot at 100 yards from a rest with iron sights. Did I mention I love shooting that rifle?
Friday, November 09, 2007
Had the chance to see Glenn Beck's show last night,
which was entirely about conditions on the border with Mexico. Bloody disgusting, including the fact that a lot of this crap the major medial flat will not cover.
One of the worst was a U.S. Representative from Texas who was talking about how we can trust the president of Mexico and we NEED to give them more than a billion dollars in money and equipment- including surveillance equipment- so they can deal with things on the border, because- among other things- 'there will never be troops sent to the border'. I just found this on the transcript at Beck's site:
SHERIFF: I want to ask the congressman who is he representing, President Calderon or his district here in Laredo, Texas where we haven't received any resources at the local level to be able to combat the problems on the border.
CONGRESSMAN CUELLAR: Well, first of all, let me say this, Mr. Sheriff. What we're looking at is you have got more money than you've ever gotten in the past and we've got to keep in mind that the border will be patrolled by the border patrol and by the federal agencies. We will work with the local law enforcement and we represent, but your job is to be a county sheriff, not a U.S. congressman, which is a big difference. My job is to look at the big picture. Your job is to look at the smaller picture, and I will do my job as long as you do your job.
You'd have to have heard the tone of voice and attitude of the Congressman to understand just how bad this was. I listened to it, and I was so pissed I couldn't even remember the bastards name. Absolutely infuriating. And, it seems, typical of far too many of those clowns in DC.
Either the Emperor's "Lamppost, rope, politician: some assembly required" or my gift box idea. We've got to get the attention of these idiots somehow
One of the worst was a U.S. Representative from Texas who was talking about how we can trust the president of Mexico and we NEED to give them more than a billion dollars in money and equipment- including surveillance equipment- so they can deal with things on the border, because- among other things- 'there will never be troops sent to the border'. I just found this on the transcript at Beck's site:
SHERIFF: I want to ask the congressman who is he representing, President Calderon or his district here in Laredo, Texas where we haven't received any resources at the local level to be able to combat the problems on the border.
CONGRESSMAN CUELLAR: Well, first of all, let me say this, Mr. Sheriff. What we're looking at is you have got more money than you've ever gotten in the past and we've got to keep in mind that the border will be patrolled by the border patrol and by the federal agencies. We will work with the local law enforcement and we represent, but your job is to be a county sheriff, not a U.S. congressman, which is a big difference. My job is to look at the big picture. Your job is to look at the smaller picture, and I will do my job as long as you do your job.
You'd have to have heard the tone of voice and attitude of the Congressman to understand just how bad this was. I listened to it, and I was so pissed I couldn't even remember the bastards name. Absolutely infuriating. And, it seems, typical of far too many of those clowns in DC.
Either the Emperor's "Lamppost, rope, politician: some assembly required" or my gift box idea. We've got to get the attention of these idiots somehow
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Maybe someplace like San Francisco
these clowns would get something like the French response, but most other cities? I don't think so.
If we are not careful, we may see something similar coming from the estimated 13 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanic, who are increasingly vilified in the media, forced further into the underground by spineless politicians and not given any chance to legalize their status by a pusillanimous U.S. Congress.
A couple of things here. In a few places, like OK, the politicians are doing something; just not what you want. And an awful lot of that 'pusillanimous' Congress tried to kiss up to the illegals; that didn't work because the people back home basically said "You pass this and your ass is on the street." I repeat, in some places that play the 'sanctuary city' game you might get away with the 'intifada' bullshit, but most other places your rock-throwers and arsonists will be in jail. Assuming the people whose cars are being burned don't shoot them.
And if you think people are being nasty and unkind and vilify the illegals now, what the hell do you think will happen if the illegals start rioting and throwing rocks and burning?
Friggin' idiot.
If we are not careful, we may see something similar coming from the estimated 13 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanic, who are increasingly vilified in the media, forced further into the underground by spineless politicians and not given any chance to legalize their status by a pusillanimous U.S. Congress.
A couple of things here. In a few places, like OK, the politicians are doing something; just not what you want. And an awful lot of that 'pusillanimous' Congress tried to kiss up to the illegals; that didn't work because the people back home basically said "You pass this and your ass is on the street." I repeat, in some places that play the 'sanctuary city' game you might get away with the 'intifada' bullshit, but most other places your rock-throwers and arsonists will be in jail. Assuming the people whose cars are being burned don't shoot them.
And if you think people are being nasty and unkind and vilify the illegals now, what the hell do you think will happen if the illegals start rioting and throwing rocks and burning?
Friggin' idiot.
Jimmy Carter:
The gift that keeps on giving
Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it. It was crouched, as usual, under one of our bird feeders & I fired from some distance with bird shot.
There're just too many possibilities, the mind boggles...
Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it. It was crouched, as usual, under one of our bird feeders & I fired from some distance with bird shot.
There're just too many possibilities, the mind boggles...
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