I feel like a roundup,

having been running 'round in circles too much to do anything noteworthy of my own.

Q and O notes a slight problem with the Goreacle's "The ice caps are MELTING!!!" line:
Satellite data shows that concerns over the levels of sea ice may have been premature.

It was feared that the polar caps were vanishing because of the effects of global warming.

But figures from the respected US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that almost all the “lost” ice has come back.

Ice levels which had shrunk from 13million sq km in January 2007 to just four million in October, are almost back to their original levels.

Figures show that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than is usual for the time of year.
Etc. Gee, you'd think the climate does what it does without any concern for us humans. Not even the Enlightened Onces who say they know what it'll do.

Q&O also notes another slight difficulty in the marvelous British National Health System:
Seriously ill patients are being kept in ambulances outside hospitals for hours so NHS trusts do not miss Government targets.

Thousands of people a year are having to wait outside accident and emergency departments because trusts will not let them in until they can treat them within four hours, in line with a Labour pledge.

The hold-ups mean ambulances are not available to answer fresh 999 calls.

Doctors warned last night that the practice of "patient-stacking" was putting patients' health at risk.
Gee, you think maybe? But, of course, it'll all magically work once they try it here. They keep telling us.

If you haven't heard about castro 'retiring', you're even more out of the loop than I am. Babalu Blog dug up this from CNN about how the talking heads should speak of castro:
Some points on Castro – for adding to our anchor reads/reporting:

* Please say in our reporting that Castro stepped down in a letter he wrote to Granma (the communist party daily), as opposed to in a letter attributed to Fidel Castro. We have no reason to doubt he wrote his resignation letter, he has penned numerous articles over the past year and a half.

* Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration. in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech.

* Also the Cuban government blames a lot of Cuba’s economic problems on the US embargo, and while that has caused some difficulties, (far less so than the collapse of the Soviet Union) the bulk of Cuba’s economic problems are due to Cuba’s failed economic polices. Some analysts would say the US embargo was a benefit to Castro politically – something to blame problems on, by what the Cubans call “the imperialist,” meddling in their affairs.

* While despised by some, he is seen as a revolutionary hero, especially with leftist in Latin America, for standing up to the United States.

Any questions, please call the international desk.
Considering what I've read of how black Cubans are treated by the government, the 'racial integration' crap is amazing; but this is CNN, after all. What's really surprising to me in this is the accurate note of the SU collapse and castro's own policies being what really screwed up the economy; kind of amazing they'd actually make note of that, considering all the past slobbering over him and blaming of the US for all problems. They never seemed before to note that since, as they kept noting 'the rest of the world trades with Cuba', how can our embargo be the cause of all the damn trouble?

Next, Mark Steyn has a question: what would it take to alarm you?
The question then arises: fair enough, guys, what would it take to alarm you? The other day, in a characteristically clotted speech followed by a rather more careless BBC interview, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that it was dangerous to have one law for everyone and that the introduction of sharia — Islamic law — to the United Kingdom was "inevitable." No alarm bells going off yet? Can't say I blame you. After all, de facto creeping sharia is well established in the Western world. Last week, the British and Ontario governments confirmed within days of each other that thousands of polygamous men in their jurisdictions receive welfare payments for each of their wives. Still no alarm bells? I see female Muslim medical students in British hospitals are refusing to comply with hygiene procedures on the grounds that scrubbing requires them to bare their arms, which is un-Islamic. Would it be alarmist to bring that up — say, the day before your operation?
and
The other night at dinner, I found myself sitting next to a Middle Eastern Muslim lady of a certain age. And the conversation went as it often does when you're with Muslim women who were at college in the sixties, seventies or eighties. In this case, my dining companion had just been at a conference on "women's issues," of which there are many in the Muslim world, and she was struck by the phrase used by the "moderate Muslim" chair of the meeting: "authentic women" — by which she meant women wearing hijabs. And my friend pointed out that when she and her unveiled pals had been in their 20s they were the "authentic women": the covering routine was for old village biddies, the Islamic equivalent of gnarled Russian babushkas. It would never have occurred to her that the assumptions of her generation would prove to be off by 180 degrees — that in middle age she would see young Muslim women wearing a garb largely alien to their tradition not just in the Middle East but in Brussels and London and Montreal. If you had said to her in 1968 that Westernized Muslim women working in British hospitals in the early 21st century would reject modern hygiene because it required them to bare their arms, she would have scoffed with the certainty of one who assumes that history moves in only one direction.

Michelle Malkin notes the Iranian and Palistinian version of multiculturalism:
“We, representatives of the honorable Iranian nation, condemn this devil measure. We ask the president … to seriously review Iran’s political and trade ties with these countries,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

In the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, a leader of a militants’ umbrella group called on Muslim faithful to attack Danish embassies and diplomats.

“Blow up the Danish embassies and kill the ambassadors,” Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), said at an open-air news conference in a Gaza square, where PRC members burnt a Danish flag.

“We urge (Islamist fighters) to track down those who printed the cartoons, those who drew them and those who published them and slaughter them immediately,” he said.

Danish police arrested two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan descent last Tuesday, accusing them of planning to kill a cartoonist who drew one of the images.
Multi-culti in these places meaning "Kill anyone who says or writes or does anything that upsets up. And be sure to say it makes us a victim!"

The EU decides "Fireworks bad. Unless we control everything, of course."
Firework displays from the largest Guy Fawkes Night spectacle to the smallest back-garden show are under threat from European legislation.

A directive already approved by MEPs and EU ministers will force Britain and other member nations to tear up their own safety standards and adopt new regulations by 2010.

Health and safety bureaucrats in Brussels also want to make manufacturers pay for the retesting of tens of thousands of fireworks already considered safe in Britain.

The Line is Here notes PSH stupidity and the return fire here.
Uncle and others have noted the projection of these people, the "I can't be trusted and neither can you!" attitude. Fully in evidence here.

Speaking of Uncle, he notes a goblin-whacking with a happy ending:
Ingram, carrying a .40-caliber handgun, ran to the house and found Fleming attacking the other woman, officials said.

When Fleming tried to attack Ingram, Dunavant said Ingram shot Fleming once.

Tipton County Sheriff’s deputies and Brighton Police officers found Fleming dead on the front porch of the home.

Also noted by Unc is the usual level of 'do it again, but harder!' GFW activity:
After joining the mayor for his annual gun control news conference at police headquarters, State Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) acknowledged that none of the bills would have prevented Steve Kazmierczak from opening fire on Valentine’s Day afternoon in a crowded NIU lecture hall.

Different point, there's generally only so much crap someone can stand having fall on their head day after day before they either get nasty themselves or give up. Take a look at this example of what Michelle Malkin gets:
subject Bitch, you’re retarded and your thoughts on Madame President Obama doesn’t count
...
Look at what you job is : “MAKING STUPID RACIST COMMENTS ABOUT A WOMAN OF COLOR, WHEN YOU CLAIM YOU’RE A WOMAN OF COLOR.”
Those are about the most 'presentable' parts of this mess, the rest is WAY worse. And she has to put up with garbage like this coming in all the time. Damn, she's got a tolerance for hatred and stupidity.

Ok, roundup done for now.

Well, this'll take care of part of the tax refund

Electrical problem at the house, and it's beyond my 'I can change a switch or outlet' ability to figure out. Electrician coming tomorrow.

Put breakables out of reach

Then read this:
Coroners blame soldiers' deaths on an acute lack of equipment

Shortages of equipment were blamed yesterday for the deaths of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as two coroners in separate inquests made withering attacks on the Ministry of Defence.

One coroner attacked the MoD’s “unforgivable” failure to supply basic equipment, and accused it of a breach of trust. Both inquests showed that an acute lack of equipment had played a part in the deaths of a young officer in Afghanistan and two soldiers in Iraq.

I'm not excerpting anything else, read the whole damn thing. Then, if your eyes haven't crossed or been covered by a red haze, read this:
A SENIOR defence official has warned that the armed forces are heading for a “train crash” because the government is starving them of funds for vital equipment.

In a confidential presentation to colleagues at a meeting in the Ministry of Defence to discuss budget cuts, he said defence spending had been so severely pruned that vitally needed equipment was simply unaffordable. He also warned that the government risked “mortgaging the future” of national defence.

The official, a senior defence equipment capability manager, resorted to black humour, portraying the Treasury as an axeman who has cut off the arms of his MoD victim and is saying: “Stop whingeing . . . at least you have got your legs.” The meeting, one of a series to try to work out how to pay for all the equipment the forces need to meet their commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, was also told that the Treasury has exaggerated the increase in the military budget.

Pardon my language, but God damn Tony Blair, who really started this mess, and Brown who's making it worse. Damn good soldiers being crippled and killed because these socialist bastards wanted to use the money for their little socialist schemes.

It comes but once a year,

but for the most part I don't look forward to birthdays anymore.

Yeah, it's mine. As to the count, I will simply say that I was buying some ammo not long ago and the clerk looked at the 'check age' note that popped up on the register and asked "Are you over 21?"; I said "By a disgusting margin."

Let's leave it at that.

If the Israelis didn't do it,

then somebody else did it, and we owe them a case of good whiskey. Or beer. Or whatever they'd like.

Somebody stop me

Tax refund(the real one). Brownell's. Midway. SOG sale flyer, AIM... AAAAHHHHHHHHH!

I declare this Mohammed Cartoon Day,

as it was two years ago(reminded of this by Michelle Malkin) that that BS started. Marked, as it were, by "the arrests this week of five jihadists accused of plotting to murder one of the Danish cartoonists," so we need to take note of the time.















She's got the rest of the cartoons, too.

We need to come up with a better name than

'honor killings' or 'honor violence' for this kind of garbage:
Up to 17,000 women in Britain are being subjected to "honour" related violence, including murder, every year, according to police chiefs.

And official figures on forced marriages are thetip of the iceberg, says the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

It warns that the number of girls falling victim to forced marriages, kidnappings, sexual assaults, beatings and even murder by relatives intent on upholding the "honour" of their family is up to 35 times higher than official figures suggest.
...
Commander Steve Allen, head of ACPO's honour-based violence unit, says the true toll of people falling victim to brutal ancient customs is "massively unreported" and far worse than is traditionally accepted. "We work on a figure which suggests it is about 500 cases shared between us and the Forced Marriage Unit per year," he said: "If the generally accepted statistic is that a victim will suffer 35 experiences of domestic violence before they report, then I suspect if you multiplied our reporting by 35 times you may be somewhere near where people's experience is at." His disturbing assessment, made to a committee of MPs last week, comes amid a series of gruesome murders and attacks on British women at the hands of their relatives.

This is bad enough they have special units to deal with it? Ain't multiculturalism and tolerance grand in what it leads to?

I also ran across this article on the idiocy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who's apparently- finally- been given the idea that people are not real happy about his looking forward to sharia law:
By proposing to concede a permanent role to extralegal violence in the political life of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury pushed his phlegmatic countrymen over the edge. No one is better than the British at pretending that problems really aren't there, but once their spiritual leader admits to an alien source of coercion and proposes to legitimize it, they understand that a limit has been reached.

Williams' exercise in what might be termed the Higher Hypocrisy shows how deeply Europe has descended into the Dar al-Harb, or the "House of War" in the Muslim terms for all that lies outside the "house of submission", or Dar al-Islam. Europe's governments refuse to rule, that is, refuse to enforce their own laws because they fear violence on the part of Muslim immigrant communities who refuse to accept these laws. "No-go" zones proliferate that non-Muslims dare not enter. In the United Kingdom, according to evidence presented by respected journalists and public-interest organizations, Muslim community organizations, Muslim police officers and medical personnel collaborate to stop women from escaping domestic violence.

And where might Williams get his 'understanding' of sharia?
...His authority in matters of sharia is Ramadan, whom the Department of Homeland Security prevented from accepting an American university appointment. Ramadan set off a scandal In 2003 when he refused to condemn violence against women (calling instead for a "moratorium," that is, a temporary cessation) precisely because Islamic law sanctions such violence. The Westernized Ramadan will twist himself into a pretzel rather than disagree with Islamic jurisprudence.
This is an excerpt from the 'moratorium' debate, with my bold:
Ramadan: No, no, wait ... What does a moratorium mean? A moratorium would mean that we absolutely end the application of all of those penalties, in order to have a true debate. And my position is that if we arrive at a consensus among Muslims, it will necessarily end. But you cannot, you know, when you are in a community ... Today on television, I can please the French people who are watching by saying, "Me, my own position." But my own position doesn't count. What matters is to bring about an evolution in Muslim mentalities, Mr Sarkozy. It's necessary that you understand ...

At this point, I think the Brits- and we, for that matter- ought to go back to Napier's method*. Especially in light of this from the first article:
The 19-year-old fled, but less than a month after making the grainy video on a mobile phone, Banaz was dead. Her naked body was found buried in a yard in Birmingham in 2006, more than 100 miles from her London home. She had been raped and tortured by men hired by her uncle to kill her. Mahmood's father, uncle and one of her killers were sentenced to a total of 60 years in jail for the murder.

And the fatal potential of honour disputes was laid bare last month when a coroner said he was convinced that a Muslim teenager who feared she was being forced into an arranged marriage by her parents had suffered a "vile murder." Ian Smith said the concept of an arranged marriage was "central" to the circumstances leading up to the death of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed, whose decomposed body was discovered on the banks of the River Kent at Sedgwick, Cumbria, four years ago. After running away from home in February 2003, Shafilea told housing officers: "My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there." The tragic story of the bright teenager who wanted to go to university and study law is far from the only example of the anguish suffered by British teenagers in recent years.


*In case you haven't heard of it, when faced with the custom of suttee:
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.

Have I mentioned just how much Sen. Reid(Bleeper-NV)

sucks?
Well, Harry Reid managed to stymie movement on DeMint’s measure. He used a rare maneuver to delay the vote until later today–giving the council a chance to backtrack and giving cover to the Dems. A Senate staffer told me: “It’s truly incredible that they went to such great lengths to avoid having to deal with this.”
...
“The only reason to recess is to block something, and the thing that got blocked by Reid’s stall tactic was the Semper Fi Act,” said spokesman Wesley Denton, referring to the bill introduced by his boss, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

“Democrats have chosen not to defend the Marine Corps, but to pander to anti-war protesters and Berkeley officials that are actively trying to impede military recruitment.”

This sure-hell is NOT the 'D' party my parents and I once belonged to.

Reid, you suck like a Hoover on turbo.

I guess if Obama is really the Obamessiah,

then it's understandable who his followers would choose as saints:















In response, I might suggest a shirt from this gentleman:















Found through Insty

Parents, check out the university you're sending the kids to;

you never know what that money is being spent on:
So, some might be surprised to learn that on this year's Super Bowl Sunday, Duke University played host to a group of strippers, prostitutes, phone-sex operators, and others in a "Sex Workers Art Show" to display their "creativity and genius." The university spent $3,500 from student fees and various programs to pay the performers and cover expenses.

And the show was just FULL of artsy things like
"A transvestite, naked except for some strategically placed tape, with the words 'F___ Bush' painted on his chest, kneeled on all fours and lit a sparkler protruding out of his rectum with 'America the Beautiful' playing...

"A stripper, in the guise of a U.S. flag-draped Lady Justice, ... yanked a string of dollar bills out of her posterior as the sound system played Dolly Parton's version of 'God Bless the U.S.A.' She ended her act by saluting and holding up her middle finger to the crowd. The announcer referred to the performance as her 'Infamous Patriot Act.' Her most private area was kept covered by a small American flag...

"A dominatrix donned a large 'strap-on' male sex organ, and pretended to masturbate while the crowd was urged to shout 'faster, faster,' in Chinese."

So just think: that money you and your kids worked to save for their further education, and the loans they're signing years of their life away for, may be going to educational activities like this. And if you object to this, you can get a "Shut up, you don't question US, you Philistine!"explanation like this:
"There is an obvious difference," Lange responded, "between strippers performing at a private party and a group of artists touring university campuses across the country to present a show with political discussion, musical theater, and displays of sexuality."

Ah yes, 'artists', they do so much to enrich our lives, don't they?

Maybe someone needs to put sparklers in some of the officials and professors at Duke; if these idiots are going to screw students over, at least they could look somewhat decorative while doing it.

If they'd take a little advise, I'd suggest a 12-bore

and suitable shot:
The number of violent attacks on fire crews in England and Wales is going up despite government claims to the contrary, the Fire Brigades Union says.

Assaults rose from 1,300 in 2006 to 1,500 in 2007, the union said. Official figures fell from 1,300 to 400.

It said such attacks had become a "recreational activity" with crews facing a daily threat of being ambushed, shot at, stabbed and abused.

The government said it was not complacent about the issue.

Yeah, they're very damn concerned, you bet.

The FBU is calling for fire crews to receive training on dealing with violent attacks, and for more money to be invested in decent protection and catching attackers.
Shotguns, I tell you! Not too expensive and get the point across the first time! And much easier to catch the bastards when they leave a blood trail.

In Tyne and Wear, crews have been given "spit kits" so attackers' DNA can be collected, and in Greater Manchester engines have been fitted with CCTV cameras.

The union's figures, collated from fire services in England and Wales, painted a more accurate picture of the problem than the government's statistics, Mr Wrack said.

He urged the government to take a lead "rather than sitting on the sidelines ignoring the problem as it is doing in England".

They're not 'ignoring' it: they're practicing "Say fierce things(for us, anyway) and hope the problem goes away."

Or something like that.

Whenever someone starts that "Things are better in Britain"

about crime & guns & etc., I remember things like this:
In the intricately planned raid, armed officers, acting on information that guns were being stored at a Pinehurst address, arrived at The Circle in convoy and immediately sealed off the area.

A second wave of officers from the north Swindon neighbourhood policing teams then sealed the outer edges of The Circle, to make sure members of the public did not stray into the line of fire.

A police negotiator spoke to the occupant of the house, before it was thoroughly searched.

During the search, two air rifles and two replica guns were surrendered to police.

Chief Inspector Simon Dicks, leading the operation, said that, although the weapons are not illegal while kept inside the man's home, the raid had helped to make Swindon's streets safer.
The current definition of 'good law enforcement' in Britain: on the word of an 'informant'(sound familiar?) launch a heavily-armed raid on a house, seize two legal airguns and two legal replicas, then declare the 'streets safer'. Oh joy, how do they do it?

"This was absolutely not a waste of time," said Ch Insp Dicks.

"If we have got four firearms less in circulation then I can sleep happier at night.

"These guns look very real, and could cause people to be genuinely scared, and if this man's house was burgled then they could be out on the street.

Uh, dumbass? It WAS a waste of time, they WEREN'T firearms and when you start treating people like this because 'they might be burgled', then you're ALL screwed.

And for the ultimate in GFW wet dreams:
"We will seize any firearms in Swindon, unless there is a lawful purpose for people to have them."
Just wonderful.
"In this case it transpired that the guns were, in fact, lawfully possessed weapons rather than firearms.
Then why did they have to be 'surrendered to police', you sorry excuse for a cop?
"But of course air weapons and BB guns are capable of looking like real fire arms and there is a real risk if people carry them or display them in public."
Oh God, have mercy on the people of Britain, if this is considered Good Police Work.
The occupant of the house was not arrested in the operation.
Gee, how very nice of you to not arrest the poor bastard for having LEGAL objects LEGALLY in his possession. I repeat, you sorry excuse for a cop.

To refresh our memory of the ideals set out by Robert Peel for police officers, let us review:

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.


2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.


3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.


4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.


5. Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.


6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.


7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.


8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.


9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

I added the bold in #7, to emphasize the problem with the "We're cops and you're a lousy civilian" attitude we're dealing with ourselves. We've fallen a long damn way over here, too.

How do I despise Pelosi?

Here's one of the ways:
Pelosi: Iraq 'is a failure' -- surge was bust...

al-Qaeda in Iraq in 'total collapse', say seized letters...

Those are two headlines at Drudge, one right above the other. That vile politician Pelosi is still pushing this crap, still trying to tell us how we've failed, but note this:
“The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They have not done that.”

The speaker hastened to add: “The troops have succeeded, God bless them.”

Vile, sorry bleep. Trying to play that game, still. "We hate the mission, but we love the troops, homicidal maniacs that they are." Of course, with things coming out like this:
Al-Qaeda in Iraq faces an “extraordinary crisis”. Last year's mass defection of ordinary Sunnis from al-Qaeda to the US military “created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight”. The terrorist group's security structure suffered “total collapse”.

These are the words not of al-Qaeda's enemies but of one of its own leaders in Anbar province — once the group's stronghold. They were set down last summer in a 39-page letter seized during a US raid on an al-Qaeda base near Samarra in November.

The US military released extracts from that letter yesterday along with a second seized in another November raid that is almost as startling.

That second document is a bitter 16-page testament written last October by a local al-Qaeda leader near Balad, north of Baghdad. “I am Abu-Tariq, emir of the al-Layin and al-Mashahdah sector,” the author begins. He goes on to describe how his force of 600 shrank to fewer than 20.
it's harder for the bleeps like Pelosi and Reid to sell the "WE'VE LOST!" idea. Especially when results have been so good that even the 'help us lose' media have to cover it, or not speak of the war entirely if they can avoid it.

Extracts from letters

Abu-Tariq, al-Qaeda leader

“There were almost 600 fighters in our sector before the tribes changed course 360 degrees . . . Many of our fighters quit and some of them joined the deserters . . . As a result of that the number of fighters dropped down to 20 or less.”

“We were mistreated, cheated and betrayed by some of our brothers who used to be part of the Jihadi movement, therefore we must not have mercy on those traitors until they come back to the right side or get eliminated completely.”

Unnamed emir, Anbar province

“The Islamic State of Iraq [al-Qaeda] is faced with an extraordinary crisis, especially in al-Anbar province. Al-Qaeda’s expulsion from Anbar created weakness and psychological defeat. This also created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight.

“The morale of the fighters went down and they wanted to be transferred to administrative positions rather than be fighters. There was a total collapse in the security structure of the organisation.”

I can honestly say I don't hate Pelosi & Reid & Surrender Monkeys Inc.; I despise them. They suck so bad Hoover would like to discover their secret. And never forget: because they think it'll be good for them and their party, they want us to lose.

We're supposed to trust the feds WHY? Part II

A while back I wrote about this mess that Balko dug up. Couple of excerpts:
Last week, a federal judge excoriated the FBI for not only hiding exculpatory evidence that would have exonerated four innocent men who served more than thirty years in prison, but for rewarding those who did the hiding and covering up with bonuses and promotions. For this crime against American citizens, American taxpayers will now shell out more than $100 million. Thus far, none of the government agents actually responsible for this crime have been held accountable. Only rewarded.
...
The context: Lundgren and Delahunt have cited incidents in the past in which the FBI has covered up evidence that its confidential drug informants have committed violent crimes (including murder) in order to protect their identities, so that they could continue providing the bureau with information. They’ve cited other incidents, including the case above, in which the FBI has hidden exculpatory evidence, and allowed innocent people to go to prison. Lundgren and Delahunt want Murphy to assure them that the FBI has instituted policies to ensure that these sorts of incidents won’t happen again–that murderers won’t be protected and innocent people sent to prison in order to preserve drug investigations.

Remarkably, Murphy refuses to make such assurances.

Now look at this Insty pointed out:
CLEVELAND (AP) - Wes Ballard is trying to put his life back together after serving 10 months in jail because of lies told by an informant who was handled by a federal agent now facing multiple investigations himself.

Ballard and 25 other people were arrested in a sting meant to clean up the drug trade in Mansfield, about halfway between Cleveland and Columbus. Many of those arrested were convicted.

Now, though, prosecutors are asking a federal judge to dismiss charges including conspiracy and cocaine trafficking against most of the defendants, even some who pleaded guilty.

Why, you may ask?
The sting was based on a tips from Jerrell Bray, a small-time operator who was supervised by Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Lee Lucas.

The 34-year-old Bray, enlisted as an informant in 2005, has admitted concocting a fabric of lies to polish his informant credentials and keep suspects flowing through the court system. He's serving 15 years for perjury and civil rights violations against the individuals targeted in his role as an informant.
...
While police sometimes must rely on informants, "It is very disturbing that they simply accepted this person's claim against so many defendants," Katz said.

Katz said prosecutors sometimes fail to assess an informant's reliability in their zeal to lock up criminals.

"Once they get in the competitive atmosphere of a prosecution, unfortunately too many prosecutors fail to second-guess their own evidence," Katz said.

Where have we heard crap like this before? Why, in stories about SWAT teams kicking in doors of innocent people on the word of an informant, apparently without bothering to investigate before they load up the ram and head for the door. And, just like usually happens in those cases,
U.S. Attorney Greg White, whose staff of 75 federal prosecutors in northern Ohio prosecuted the tainted drug cases, said he was satisfied that his staff had acted in good faith.

Once wrongdoing was disclosed, prosecutors asked the judge last month to undo the charges. "Our feeling was, as a matter of fundamental fairness we needed to do this and we did," White said.
Translation: "Once we got caught having screwed up, we tried to make it go away. And of COURSE none of us did anything wrong! How could you even think that?" Apparently the concept of, oh, INVESTIGATING to make sure the informant wasn't full of crap just didn't occur to them. And I'll bet that they'll do any- and everything to keep the people they screwed over from getting compensation; and they'll damn sure try to keep themselves from facing any real penalty over this. Any takers?

White, the federal prosecutor, cautioned against concluding that "everyone was wrongfully charged," but he would not detail how many of the 13 who pleaded guilty were innocent.

"This is not the finest hour of the justice system for sure. However, I think we've done our best to make that right," White said.
Oh, that just give me such a warm feeling, that you think you've 'done your best'. You miserable lawyer.

But we're supposed to trust these people.

You find the nicest things

at Theo's.

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Good Luck, Tech Support

Last of the Few

Does anyone else find this as creepy as I do?

Volunteers told to share personal conversion stories with voters - not policy views.

There's been a lot of this crap lately, but this is just plain weird.
"He looked at me, and the look in his eyes was worth 1,000 words," said Mack, now a regional field organizer. Obama hugged her and whispered something in her ear – she was so thrilled she doesn't remember what it was.

Then Mack brought home the point of her story for the crowd of 100 or so eager volunteers, sipping coffee and watching a PowerPoint presentation in the Obama campaign office on a recent Saturday.

"Did that make more impact on you than if I had talked about his health care plan or his stance on the environment?" she asked.
...
...Mack wanted to drill home one of the campaign's key strategies: telling potential voters personal stories of political conversion.
...
She urged volunteers to hone their own stories of how they came to Obama...
...
She told the volunteers that potential voters would no doubt confront them with policy questions. Mack's direction: Don't go there. Refer them to Obama's Web site, which includes enough material to sate any wonk.

The idea behind the personal narratives is to reclaim "values" politics from the Republican Party, said Marshall Ganz, a one-time labor organizer for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers who developed "Camp Obama" training sessions for volunteers.

This is just plain freaky. These people are talking about what amounts to a religious conversion, finding their messiah. You usually hear this kind of crap from one of two groups:
People who have an actual religious experience, and
People taken over by a cult.
This mess is not "values" politics, this is a damned personality cult. As Sondra says,
No, Dearie. Values are concepts. Ideas. Ideals.

Feelings are just that—feeeeelings. They are by-products of perceptions which mix with Values to become thoughts which are then translatable into actions. That’s what makes things run.

Actions based on feeeelings alone are just blind flailing.
Which, granted, can be powerful. Powerfully destructive as well as accidentally constructive.

Not so efficient, ya see.

I'll make a bet with you: many of these people, if they hear someone talk about finding Jesus or returning to their faith or whatever, roll their eyes and gag. And start talking about 'separation of church and state'.

'Coming to Obama', jeez.

Ok, roundup time

Let's start with the city of Toledo hating the Marines. I guess Mayor Fink wants to make it Berkeley East. There are links to the Mayor and City Council websites, I think we should let them know what we think of them.

More on the Idiot Archbishop of Canterbury, including this from Belmont:
The really scary thing about Rowan Williams is not that he is deviant but actually representative of a certain type of soft-left individual who believes in Global Warming, organic food, and the "inevitability" of certain kinds of social engineering. How much better informed are the supporters of certain US Presidential candidates than Rowan Williams, for example? And its better than even odds that despite the intellectual bankruptcy of Williams ideas that these will presently become the conventional wisdom.

Naw, no media bias at all, is there? Note this comment:
I live in Kirkwood - yes, that Kirkwood - and I can tell you that I have heard precisely zero about new gun control laws, even here. Cookie Thornton, to my knowledge, did not have a CCW permit and our City Hall proudly sports a sticker on the front door that indicates that concealed weapons are not permitted within even if you do. So Thornton was able to precisely pick out who the threats were (two policemen died, ambushed by the killer) secure in the knowledge the rest of his victims were sitting ducks.

Hogboy loves his new 1911.

That's it for now

Yeah, that about covers it

Found thanks to Theo

Berkeley is both chicken and chickenshit

I'm sorry, there's just no other way to put it.
At their Tuesday council meeting, leaders will discuss scrapping a letter that might be perceived as targeting the center or the Marines.

Gee, why might people think that?

The letter said that the recruiting center was not welcome on Shattuck Avenue and that the Marines were uninvited and unwelcome intruders.
Yeah, that might do it.

"That letter will probably be pulled back and maybe more moderate language will be put in place which is appropriate I think," said Berkeley mayor Tom Bates.
So they'll call the troops "the president's own gangsters" and "trained killers" who are known for "death and destruction and maiming." Yeah, that'll be MUCH better.

"Subtly stated in the resolution is perhaps an impugning of the soldiers fighting for us in Iraq and other places," Berkeley City Councilman Laurie Capitelli. "And that was never the intention but that really needs to be cleared up. As I walked to my car that night I realized I regretted it and I had made a mistake."
"Subtly stated,", hmmm? Like the mayor offering to 'help the Marines evacuate'?
Bates said the city didn't mean to offend anyone in the armed forces and the focus should have been on the war not the troops.

Chickenshit. The mayor and all his flunkies.

"There's really no correlation between federal funds for schools, water ferries and police communications systems and the council's actions, for God's sake," said Bates, a retired U.S. Army captain. "We apologize for any offense to any families of anyone who may serve in Iraq. We want them to come home and be safe at home."
Translation: "Leave our pork alone! We want that money!"

Last week the council passed resolutions giving Code Pink a place to park out front. Some have said that meant the city giving was giving the group a place to continuously protest the Marines.
"What we're doing is we're announcing a bill that we intend to get on the floor to strip transportation from the city of Berkeley," said East Bay Republican Assemblyman Guy Houston. "What they have done in Berkeley is they have set aside a parking spot and in my opinion a public right of way, a public transportation corridor, specifically for a private organization -- in this case Code Pink -- to harass and annoy the United States Marine Corps and their recruiting efforts. We think that playing around and having an agenda with the public right of way is subject to ramifications. There is $2.3 million in proposition 1B transportation dollars. We think that should be in jeopardy."
Sounds good to me.

And Code Pinko takes the opportunity to point out, once again, they don't understand the concept of "Free Speech":
"I was under the impression that we have the right of free speech," said Xanne Joi of Code Pink. "To me, I thought free speech meant you get to say what you want without recrimination."
Joi, just on the off-chance you see this, let me explain it to you as I did to my kids a long time ago: Free speech has to include people you don't like and ideas you don't agree with, or it's not; I have to respect your right to your beliefs and your right to speak of them, but I DO NOT have to respect your beliefs or refrain from criticism of them. There, isn't that simple?

Oh, and we have the obligatory "It's for the CHILDREENNN!!!" moment:
Ann Cooper with the Berkeley Unified School District wants both sides to play nice.

"Senators sitting 3,000 miles away are trying to take food away from the children of Berkeley," said Cooper. "Why? Because the Marines and the city aren't playing nice -- and that's just not OK."
Oh, doesn't that just ooze condescension? Doesn't that just drip contempt and calls for pity? What was that about 'taking food away from children'? Why, One earmark provides gourmet organic lunches to schools in the Berkeley School District. While our Marines are making due with MREs of Sloppy Joe and Chili with Beans, the organization Chez Panisse is getting federal tax dollars to design meals that promote “environmental harmony.” Chez Panisse’s menu features “Comté cheese soufflé with mâche salad,” “Meyer lemon éclairs with huckleberry coulis” and “Chicory salad with creamy anchovy vinaigrette and olive toast.”
You can just hear the moonbats screaming "The CHILDREENNN will STARVE!! without their Gaia-friendly soufflé!!!"

Berkeley: The most rancid city in granola country.

Taking note of Mark Steyn's problems up in

Canuckistan, I recommend to you this from three years ago:
"In a Europe grounded in peace and freedom there should be no place for Nazi symbols," declared Markus Soeder, general secretary of the Christian Socialist Union party. "They should be banned throughout Europe, as they are with good reason in Germany."

Personally, I found the sight of the Prince of Wales climbing into the full Highgrove hejab for dinner with that bin Laden brother a week after the 9/11 slaughter far more disquieting: it seemed a rather more conscious act of identification than his son's party get-up. But a good indication of societal decadence is when it prefers to obsess over fictional offences rather than real ones... If Adolf Hitler were to return from wherever he is right now, what would he be most steamed about? That in some countries there are laws banning Nazi symbols and making Holocaust denial a crime? No, that wouldn't bother him: that would testify to the force and endurance of his ideas - that 60 years on they're still so potent the state has to suppress them.

What would bug him the most is that on Broadway and in the West End Mel Brooks is peddling Nazi shtick in The Producers and audiences are howling with laughter...

Alas, tyranny doesn't always come with a self-evidently hilarious dress code. And the soft, supple, creeping totalitarian inclinations of our present-day rulers are sometimes harder to resist. If I had to pick the single most revolting remark from this bogus Reichsfuror, it would be this: "I think it might be appropriate for him to tell us himself just how contrite he now is."

That's Michael Howard, the leader of the supposed Conservative Party. What's conservative about demanding people submit to public self-abasement? Wasn't it the Commies who used to insist you recant on TV and then disappear into re-education camp? A conservative party ought to be a refuge from the sanctimonious nannytollahs of the age...
and this from a few days ago:
Attention, Canadians! Look out your window. It's quiet out there. Too quiet. But don't be deceived. The Nazis are out there, and they're heading your way! The excitable CBC headline reader says so. The Globe And Mail says so. The Belleville Intelligencer says so. Top political strategist Warren Kinsella says so. And so does Richard Warman, the country's leading human rights activist and a man committed to hunting down every Nazi website poster in Canada except himself.

What do these Nazis look like? Knuckle-dragging skinheads with swastikas? Not always. Using the same shape-shifting techniques as the giant space lizards of the House of Windsor, the new Nazis are now headed by a sinister figure known only as "The Brown Guy", leader of an army of "Brownshirts" estimated to be in the million billion trillion bazillions. And all that stands between them and the express lane of the 401 are brave men like Mr Warman, bestsuing author of How To Use Words Like N**ger And C*nt For Fun And Profit. From yesterday's CBC "World Report":

ALISON CRAWFORD (REPORTER):

Richard Warman is an Ottawa lawyer who has won more than ten human rights cases against people who preach hate against mostly gay, Jewish, black and aboriginal people.

RICHARD WARMAN (HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER):

There are, you know, many regimes set up to control conduct in our society administratively, whether they're labour laws or whether they're environmental laws that don't necessarily cross in criminal threshold, that they're still there to regulate normal conduct.

That's right, folks. If we don't let the government "regulate normal conduct", Canadians risk losing their ancient time-hallowed liberties dating all the way back to the days of King Pierre the Rightsgiver (or, in German, der Rightsfuhrer). And once the government regulation of "normal conduct" has been swept away, the new Nazi regime will impose horrible Nazi policies, like opposition to the Iraq war.

How can Canadians avoid the fate of waking up in a Nazi tyranny in which invading Iraq is illegal? Well, one way is to make sure you get your "normal conduct" regularly regulated. You can do this by making an appointment with your doctor. There's a two-year waiting list, but they'll get to you eventually. A quicker way to stand up to the Nazi thugs is to buy Warren Kinsella's new all-star fundraising CD, featuring Warren, Richard Warman, Lucy Warman, Richard Warman, Richard Pieman, Richard Warman, the Warman Sisters and the Warman Tabernacle Choir:

Springtime for Hitler and Canada
Nazis are happy and gay
This land will be a downer place
This time they've got a browner face...

Would the CBC and The Belleville Intelligencer lie to you?

He has regular updates on the state of the Politically Correct/Nanny-State Idiocy at his site. Well worth looking at.

Got a call from the son Sunday Updated

First in about a month. Very busy, tired and dirty, but sound. I saw some news today that gives me a pretty good idea where he's been and what he's been up to, but- though it probably doesn't matter- I haven't been comfortable with saying where and what: I'm not the NY Effin' Times, I worry about security. Let's just say good work being done.

Update: Here's what gave me the idea. All things considered, no reason not to note it, with pride. Any parent worries if they did the job of teaching their kids some important things. I spent the evening at the range with my daughter, then dinner and talking. I'm proud of both of them.

As a side note, the next time someone bitches that we didn't go in with enough troops, etc., I'm going to find out if they're one of those who spent the last years trying to close every base in sight(except those in their district, of course) and trying to chop funds for the military; if they are, I'm going to kick them somewhere appropriate and tell them to shut their effin' mouth. They're generally the assholes who STILL don't want to pay the funds for more troops and the bases to train them in.

It'll be a while yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing him again. Not as much as his wife, but still.

First an idiot enviroweenie, then an idiot churchman revisited

First, the enviroweenie:
Toward the end of his speech, Dr. Suzuki said that "we can no longer tolerate what's going on in Ottawa and Edmonton" and then encouraged attendees to hold politicians to a greater green standard.

"What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there's a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they're doing is a criminal act," said Dr. Suzuki, a former board member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

A little further on:
When asked for further comment, Dan Maceluch, a spokesman for Dr. Suzuki, said that he did not mean the statement to be taken literally.

"He's not advocating locking people up, but he is pulling his hair out."

My ass he's not, you're just worried about people finding out how serious he is.

Then, we revisit the Archbishop of Canterbury, who's reinforcing my point:
The adoption of some aspects of Islamic Sharia law in Britain "seems unavoidable", the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Dr Rowan Williams said other religions enjoyed tolerance of their own laws, and called for "constructive accommodation" with Muslim practice in areas such as marital disputes.

But he stressed that it could never be allowed to take precedence over an individual's rights as a citizen.

Let's see, a line of belief that requires total submission, but it won't 'take precedence'. It damn sure will, especially with people like the Archbishop helping it along.
Further thoughts on this over at Samizdata.

"CSI: BS" isn't bad enough, take a look at this

excerpt from a book I just finished; how many inaccuracies and just plain bullcrap can you spot?

I reply that a high-velocity rifle shooting soft-nosed bullets made the wounds found on the body of the Brinks security guard, Peter Paige.

A high-velocity bullet travels at speeds of 1,200 to 3,000 feet per second. At maximum this means that a high-velocity missile crosses the length of ten football fields in a single second. Examples of such weapons include automatic pistols and service rifles. Bullets shot from low-velocity firearms, on the other hand, such as a revolver, travel from muzzle to target at around 600 feet per second.

High-velocity attack weapons, it is interesting to note, work by means of a spring mechanism that pops cartridges into an empty breech, then ejects the used cartridges after each shot. Forensically, there is an important distinction to be made here, since casings from an automatic firearm are often left at the scene of a crime, either because the shooters do not have the time or presence of mind to gather them up, or because they simply don’t care, as in the case of the Brinks robbers.

On the other hand, the casings from cartridges fired out of a revolver are not ejected, but remain in the drum of the gun until someone empties them by hand. For someone who ‘intends’ to commit a shooting, the fact that a revolver automatically avoids leaving a trail of casings behind makes it, in a sense, a lower-risk weapon than an automatic.

As I told the court, the ammunition fired by the high-velocity weapons used in the Brinks robbery is of a special kind, a type that comes enclosed in a very soft casing.

The DA asks about the significance of such a casing.

I explain that most bullets are enclosed in a hard copper casing. When fired into a human being, such bullets pass straight through the body without causing a great deal of internal shredding or ripping.

A soft-nosed bullet, on the other hand, is not enclosed in a copper jacket, and when fired by a high-velocity automatic weapon is moving extraordinarily fast. When such a projectiles strikes a thin, soft object, such as a piece of clothing worn over human skin, it passes through the material neatly, making a hole no larger than the bullet itself. But once a soft-nosed projectile enters a person’s body and strikes hard tissue or a piece of bone, it instantly and quite voluminously explodes, producing what we call a “star-burst” pattern, splitting into hundreds of fragments, ripping a gaping crater directly under the skin, and often virtually blowing apart a person’s insides.

In a preplanned criminal attack, I add, assailants intending to do as much damage as possible often use attack weapons that fire such bullets.

The DA asks me to explain further.

I continue: Even if the victim of a soft-nosed bullet is not struck directly in the chest, say, or in the neck, the internal wreckage inflicted by soft ordnance is so devastating and encompassing that a single high-velocity missile hitting the thigh can destroy the entire leg.

It is this type of high-velocity, soft, exploding bullet, I tell the DA, that created the gaping wounds on the undersurfaces of Peter Paige’s body, and that practically tore the left arm off Joe Trombino.


Done? This is from the book Dissecting Death by Frederick Zugibe, M.D., Ph.D., and David L. Carroll. It's on pages 123 & 124, and he notes that at the time of this case he'd performed or assisted in about 10K autopsies, and is a Board Certified Forensic Pathologist.

We've got people like this writing crap like this; no wonder so many people believe the garbage on tv.

Even after all the years of Tony Blair,

it's hard to see how the Brits could let their forces get into this shape:
British troops “desperately” need 400 of the jumbo 0.5in calibre heavy machine guns – the weapon most acutely missed.

The Army has also run out of the 7.62mm GPMG and Minimis.
...
The crisis is having a crippling effect on training in the UK – with all available spares being rushed to war zones.

Almost HALF the Minimi Light Machine Guns used at Catterick and Brecon are also out of commission.

The report adds: “The original spares package was inadequate and usage has been far above that expected. As a result stocks are very fragile.”

Tory MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer said last night: “Thank God the Army have still got their bayonets – it looks like they may be all they’ll have left. This could have been dealt with months ago.

And the response is very bullshitheartening:
Last night an MoD spokeswoman insisted: “We have enough guns for operations.

“We recognised a need to increase overall supply and took steps to address this.”
Yeah. Right.

Added to this crap:
Under plans being considered by the Army, some newly-enlisted soldiers would spend just 14 weeks on a combat infantry course instead of the normal 26-28 weeks, according to a national newspaper.

The move has been proposed because all of the battalions due to replace 52 Brigade in Afghanistan next year are currently at least 100 soldiers below required strength, the paper said.
...
The Ministry of Defence would not comment in detail on the report last night, although it admitted training had been “adapted”.

An MoD spokesman said: “There is no question of training being compromised.

“We have adapted our training in terms of our operational requirement and we are taking action in terms of the manning challenges.”
Which statement should be greeted by a hearty chorus of "Bullshit!" You can't cut training by that much and say it's been 'adapted'; you're gutting it. And troops will die because of it.
An influential group of MPs warned on Monday that the huge strains on Britain’s armed services were driving out experienced personnel and undermining morale.

The Defence Select Committee said the forces’ performance was “deteriorating” after five years of running at full stretch in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It warned that recruitment continued to be a problem for the military, with neither the army nor the RAF likely to meet their target strengths this year.

Gee, you short people on equipment and supplies, work them into the ground, treat them like crap and you can't meet recruiting goals? Gee, I wonder why.

Kim once(hell, several times) noted that it's kind of sickening watching what's happening in Britain; that's an understatement.

The trailer-dwelling gentleman also pointed out

a quote to remember:
Just to bring us back to the original article, does anyone hear the not so subtle undercurrent of "once we are in control we won't have to listen to you and your complaining, soon to be too small to care about minority"?

If you read posting from the likes of Dr. Alex T. Riley of Ceasefire-PA, you see that if that day ever comes, all of the "we just want to make everyone safe" BS is over and the "we really want to repeal the Second Amendment" reality will show through.

We should not forget that behind the daffy kumbaya and windchimes silliness of anti-gun liberalism (with apologies to the pro-gun progressive and the four others like him in existence) there is an authoritarian core that longs to have guys in black armor with yellow 3-letter stenciling on the back with guns aimed at us under their control.

As further proof that 'hunting rifles' and ammo are not safe

from the GFWs, take a look:
Therefore, a useful strategy for effective control may lie in civil litigation, a strategy that would be enhanced if states passed legislation clearly establishing strict liability for damages resulting from the use or misuse of such weapons. Such litigation could impose tort liability, including punitive damages, for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, importers, retailers, and any others who participate in bringing to the civilian market any sniper rifle (in any caliber) or associated gear (such as ammunition or optics) that is used to kill or injure a human being or to damage property.

People with VPC and the Brady Group To Ban Firearms Ownership have been calling scoped hunting or target rifles 'sniper rifles' for years. So anything they figure they can link to 'military use' will be officially a 'sniper rifle'. And please note the 'any caliber' part; gee, doesn't that cover a lot of territory? And 'ammunition or optics'. Match ammo like the Federal Gold Medal that's been used by US snipers? Gone. Those match bullets that you can use to load your own? Bye-bye. And just what all could 'associated gear' be used to cover? Hmmmm?

The existing ban on armor-piercing ammunition should be updated and expanded to cover all AP and API ammunition. This would most effectively be accomplished through the promulgation of a performance standard in which ammunition is tested for its ability to penetrate bullet-resistant vests, ballistic glass, and armor, as opposed to the existing standard based on the bullet's content.

As the gentleman points out, most 'bullet-resistant' armor is designed to stop handgun bullets, not rifle: so just about every bullet used in medium- and high-power rifles for any purpose would be banned. Including, I'll bet, a lot of cast bullets.

Think about it next time Obama mentions 'not taking guns away from hunters'. Or any other of the GFWs says they don't want to take away 'hunting and sporting guns'.

Ref H.R. 1955 (S. 1959)

the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, written about here and here. I'd written to Sen. Coburn about this, and got a response a couple of days ago. I'll excerpt a couple of bits:
...However, I do have a few concerns with the bill that I would like to share. First, it provides for the creation of a National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Ideological Based Violence. This may be well-intentioned but it also is duplicative of several other functions of the government to combat domestic terror and the spread of violent ideologies. For example, the FBI and the national intelligence community already have units dedicated to the same function this bill seeks to perform.

This legislation also would establish a Center for Excellence for the Study of Violent Radicalization and Home-Grown Terrorism in the United States. This also is a well-intentioned but duplicative task given to the Department of Homeland Security. The bill calls for this Center of Excellence to survey plans of other countries and to learn from how they built their domestic radicalization programs. Quite frankly, I don't feel comfortable with our country adapting our domestic terror policies to emulate other countries around the world, as most have performed terribly in preventing the radicalization of their populace. The current struggle between secular old Europe and radical new Europe - dominated by restless Muslim immigrants and their children - is not a situation we want to duplicate here.
...
...This bill aims to scrutinize people engaging in behavior and sympathies that could eventually lead to violence instead of persons actually engaging in acts of violence. This is a nebulous and vague power that we should be very hesitant to hand to the federal government. The only real check this bill provides to protect the constitutional rights of Americans is an "audit" mandate, which would conceivably only uncover abuses of civil liberties long after they had happened. In my view, that is too late.

This is one of the reasons I'm glad I voted for him.

As I headed out to vote this morning,

I realized that, in all the Presidential and Congressional elections I've every voted in, this is the first time there's NOBODY I actually like. Or support.

Oh, I've had to hold my nose a bit; our current occupant of the Oval Office wasn't exactly ideal, for instance. But I've never before looked at the current candidates and wished ALL of them in BOTH parties were on the same damn airliner that disappeared into a fold in space/time.

As Quint said in Jaws, it's enough to piss off the Good Humor man.

As proven by Senate candidate Andrew Rice,

Oklahoma has a full share of nutcase-level liberals:
A posh New York City club and a long list of liberals highlight Senate candidate Andrew Rice's latest fundraising effort.

Rice, who seeks the Democratic nomination to oppose incumbent Republican Jim Inhofe this year, doesn't list the event on his official website, but it is being mentioned in other, out-of-state places.(bold mine)
...
HOST COMMITTEE: Edward Norton, Janeane Garofalo, and Doug Liman, etc. MORE INFO: Oklahoma State Senator Andrew Rice is an anti-war Democrat with a good chance of winning the vulnerable Republican seat held by Senator James Inhofe, the most anti-environment member of the US Senate and the man best known for calling global warming the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” Andrew Rice re-dedicated his life to social justice work after the death of his brother David in the 9/11 attacks in the WTC. He helped push for the creation of the 9/11 Commission and has been an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq.

When a politician running for office in Oklahoma goes to NYeffin'C to raise funds with a group like this, and conveniently doesn't put notice of it on his website, you know that:
A: he knows a lot of people here will draw the appropriate conclusions and
B: won't like it.
And he's right on both points. Among other things, note the 're-dedicated his life to social justice work' bit, which generally works out to "The government needs to take care of you. Whether you like it or not. Which will involve taking your money(since you can't spend it right) and doing Good Things with it. Again, whether you like it or not."

I just looked at his site, and sure enough, while there are several fundraisers listed, all of them are in-state. Let's see, looking at the 'why I'm running' link, among other things I find this:
This past year, five of Rice's proposals -- including Norman Democrat Bill Nations' bill requiring helmets for drivers of all terrain vehicles -- made it to the governor's desk; an A-grade accomplishment for the new, 34-year-old lawmaker.
Definite indication of a nanny-state politician there. There's also this:
"We're under no illusions about how hard Inhofe will be," he said. "But I'm confident in my ability to build coalitions and do good work for the state. I think Oklahomans want their officials to be bipartisan. I think they're unhappy with Washington."

Uh, guy, got two things for you :
First, I've become convinced 'bipartisan' is often a bad thing; I don't want someone who represents me getting all bipartisan and forgetting why I voted for him.
Second, yeah, a lot of us ARE unhappy with Washington, but I don't think for the same reasons you are.

He's not running in my district, so I can't vote against him. But I can see if my little soapbox here lets people know about some things. And personally, the fact that Garofalo and her little friends are so excited about him really puts my guard up.


Found at Mr. McCarville's place.

I had a thought about the .30 Carbine load results

About the time I woke up I remembered the test Box o' Truth did on some British Mark VII ball ammo, in particular that with a wood insert in the nose. Looked it back up, and there's a definite similarity there.

Looking at the Sierra bullets, the design puts a lot of weight toward the back with a big empty space in front of the core, much like the wood insert moves a lot of the weight back in the ball ammo. So I think the Sierra acted much like the ball: instead of expanding(at this velocity, at least) it went unstable very quickly and deformed badly. Which, if I'm correct, would give a good result in the event of needing to use it in self-defense.

More thought needed.

M1 Carbine load test

Results, interesting

Today being one of those nice days we get this time of year, and having enough jugs to make three, maybe four test shots(I thought) to try out the .30 Carbine load I worked up, I loaded up and headed for the range. Few days ago I'd put together my own 'Box o' Truth', displayed below on the dolly.


















Sheetrock slightly the worse for wear. The dolly because I had no desire to carry a minimum of three gallon jugs of water and the box 50 yards for the first shots, then 100 for the next.

Set it up first at 50, aligned by eyeball with the bench, then made two shots on paper to make sure no gremlins had messed with the sight since the last outing for the Carbine. I'd stuck a black bullseye low on the first jug, and- since the box would hold five jugs- I'd filled it, figuring it'd save carrying one or two out for the next shot. The jugs are 6" square, and I put the aiming point low to make sure I'd get the full width.

Having nobody available to shoot pictures I have no dramatic 'jug exploding' pics. There was a very nice splash, and when I walked down to check found
jugs 1 and 2 pretty well torn apart,
jug 3 split on one side, hole on the other,
jug 4 with a hole on each side,
jug 5 with a hole on one side and the spent bullet in the bottom, looking like this:






















Interesting. It penetrated right at 24" of water; the hollow point didn't upset at all that I can tell, but the jacket split down one side and the core is loose inside(something I did not expect from this bullet).

I now had only enough jugs for one more shot. And the wind was picking up so I decided to make another at 50, and try 100 later when I had more jugs and the wind wasn't gusting so strong. The visual was the same, and the number of jugs penetrated and their condition duplicated the first shot, again the bullet in the bottom of #5:





















This bullet deformed worse than the first, the jacket ripped open and the core almost falling out. And again, you can see that hollow point looking unchanged(except for pointing sideways).

This is not the result I expected. I'd figured, this bullet at this velocity, I'd get one of three:
Bullet expanded somewhat or
bullet deformed somewhat or
bullet looking much like unfired.
I've had several people say the bullet, at just under 2000 feet per second, would not expand or deform at all. Well, that was wrong. But it didn't expand anything like I'd hoped for/expected, either. And it gave more penetration than I'd expected(note to self, in future try this with ball to check penetration).

At 50 yards, probably a realistic distance for shots in many SHTF situations, I think this load would do the job: that bullet would leave a mark. At 100? Guesswork until I can get more jugs together. This bullet should hold velocity fairly well, so might get similar results, but...

We'll see.

Note: reason for the jugs of water instead of ballistic gel? Have you ever looked up how much that stuff costs?

The Archbishop of Canterbury is either a friggin' moron, Updated

or actively working for the other side.
The Bishop of Rochester is under police protection after receiving death threats following his claims that parts of Britain are 'no-go areas' for non-Muslims.
Remember, Religeon of Peace. Believe it, or they'll keel you.
The Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali accused Islamic extremists of making it harder for those who are not Muslims to live or work in some areas of the country.
And they proceeded to prove him right.
...
His comments earlier this month infuriated Islamic groups, who accused him of whipping up hatred against Muslims.
"You can't criticize us! You're a bigot!! A racist!!! We KEEL YOU!!!!

And where does the Archbishop of Stupidity come in? Why, right here:
Speaking earlier this week, Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said Christian Muslim relations in Britain are currently in a "very good place".
His definition of 'very good place' being "Us dhimmi will be silent and tolerant of death threats, because any other action is bigoted."
Asked if Dr Nazir-Ali's comments on no-go areas were helpful, he said his statement "gives a very unfortunate impression".
"Never mind that he's right in his facts, you shouldn't let nasty things like facts get in the way of properly bowing down to your masters."
He added: "I think because it was taken in a very, very negative sense it had a difficult impact in lots of urban settings."

'Negative sense'. 'DIFFICULT IMPACT', he says. How the hell can 'If you're not muslim you don't dare go to parts of Britain' NOT be negative, you accommodationist fool?

The head of the Church of England, presented in all his glory. God help you, Britain.

Update: Oh, for God's sake, why the hell are you people putting up with this crap?
Muslim medical students are refusing to obey hygiene rules brought in to stop the spread of deadly superbugs, because they say it is against their religion.

Women training in several hospitals in England have raised objections to removing their arm coverings in theatre and to rolling up their sleeves when washing their hands, because it is regarded as immodest in Islam.

Universities and NHS trusts fear many more will refuse to co-operate with new Department of Health guidance, introduced this month, which stipulates that all doctors must be "bare below the elbow".

The measure is deemed necessary to stop the spread of infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile, which have killed hundreds.

Minutes of a clinical academics' meeting at Liverpool University revealed that female Muslim students at Alder Hey children's hospital had objected to rolling up their sleeves to wear gowns.

Similar concerns have been raised at Leicester University. Minutes from a medical school committee said that "a number of Muslim females had difficulty in complying with the procedures to roll up sleeves to the elbow for appropriate handwashing".

Sheffield University also reported a case of a Muslim medic who refused to "scrub" as this left her forearms exposed.

Refused to scrub?!? "Inshallah, if the patient dies it was his time; it is not the fault of the brainless fanatic bint who refused to wash."

But the Islamic Medical Association insisted that covering all the body in public, except the face and hands, was a basic tenet of Islam.

"No practising Muslim woman - doctor, medical student, nurse or patient - should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow," it said.

Dr Majid Katme, the association spokesman, said: "Exposed arms can pick up germs and there is a lot of evidence to suggest skin is safer to the patient if covered. One idea might be to produce long, sterile, disposable gloves which go up to the elbows."

But of course, there MUST be accomodation for the idiot offspring of whatever the hell they came out of. There needs to be some doctor or administrator inform these clowns that "It is against my religion for our patients to suffer and possibly die because of your refusal to deal with facts; so either wash up properly or get your ass out of this hospital and out of this profession. NOW."

Muslims who actually want to live in the modern world

are going to have to deal with this crap, and the governments of various countries are going to have to get off the PC bullcrap and deal with it. Harshly. Some muslims are trying, and just maybe the Brit government will actually start trying, too. I hope.
When the girl arrived from Pakistan expecting to meet the handsome man she had been shown in a photograph, she found that he was 40 years old, unemployed and disabled.

To make matters worse, her mother-in-law decided to exploit her attractive looks by forcing her into prostitution.

The family invited men to the family home to rape her before she managed to escape to the police by bolting through the front door. She was taken into care and now lives in a refuge.

The case is highlighted in a report by the Centre for Social Cohesion, which has found that policemen, councillors and taxi drivers are turning a blind eye or even conniving in enforcing the Asian community's strict "moral code" on young women. Bold mine.
Please note that 'Asian community' crap: even talking about this, they can't bring themselves to say 'Muslim'.

The report, Crimes of the Community, claims the problem is no longer an issue of first-generation migrants importing attitudes from "back home" but is "indigenous and self-perpetuating" because it is sustained by third and fourth-generation immigrants.
'Third and fourth-generation'. The refusal to deal with it, the 'sensitivity to other cultures' garbage has led to this. And a lot of them STILL don't want to deal with it.

...The girl told investigators: "I haven't been back home since then. My brothers say that they want to take me back to Pakistan so they can kill me basically. They'll just pay the police there to keep quiet... I don't want to be killed. I'm only 16. I want to live my life."
Damn, imagine that, she actually wants to live.

Take note of this part:
The study criticises the police and schools for failing to take action in a misguided attempt to avoid offending cultural sensibilities.

Karma Nirvana, a support group in Derby, claims it asked local schools last year to display warning posters produced by the forced marriage unit. It said the schools refused.

Derby council last week denied that the group had made the requests, but the prime minister has pledged to investigate reports that the government unit cannot get its advice posters into schools for fear of upsetting local opinion.

They 'failed to take action' because your damned government punished anybody who actually spoke out on this, let alone did anything, you bastards. And now your damned government not only has to do something, it doesn't seem to want to deal with its own failures that helped lead to this.

The Jammie's guy pointed this out.

Another look into the enviroweenie mind

Friend sent me a link to Depleted Cranium, which had this on the front page: "Green" groups are giving me Deja Vu. Interesting piece, pointing out that a lot of the enviroweenies sound an awful lot like the Unabomber. Including idiot statements like this:
“I would argue that it’s entirely possible to close the nuclear plants, close the vast majority of fossil fuel plants, and use renewables and energy efficiency to meet our energy needs to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, and nobody’s lifestyle has to change,” says Mariotte of theNuclear Information Research Service.
and
When asked whether energy conservation would require Americans to change their manner of living, Josh Dorner of the Sierra Club was careful to distance his organization from any suggestion of discomfort: “I think it’s about changing the backdrop as opposed to changing the fundamentals. Instead of people having a ton of lights on in their house that are wasting a ton of energy, they will have a lot of efficient lights on that are wasting less energy. … People will be able to continue living their lives without having to make big sacrifices.”

Please note the 'careful to distance his organization' crap; fancy way of saying "We want you to change your whole lifestyle, but we're not honest enough to say it out loud." Also, there's
I do think we are coming back to the old celebration of self-reliance and alternative technology at the local level. If we have a future with less oil and less nuclear, we will live differently, with less stuff and less energy consumption, but with more joy and more security. But we will have to rethink the McMansions and the two SUVs in the garage.”
Translation: "We want you to lose all the electrical appliances that can't be fed by energy from a composting toilet and windmill and solar power. And no transportation for individuals except a bicycle."

More?
Energy Justice Network organizer Reitman agrees. “I think we are going to have to face some kind of cultural shift,” he says. “I think the culture we have created for ourselves, a society based on a lot of excess and consumerism, really has let a lot of people down. I think the prospect of getting together in a serious way as a country [to stop climate change] is a great opportunity to get back to the roots of what it means to be an American, which is to be neighborly. It’s a great way to re-energize our culture, as well as our economy and our power grid.”
Translation: "We want you to stop buying anything you might be able to make yourself or buy from a neighbor: if you can't get it that way, do without. That's neighborly." And don't you love that name? The Energy Justice Network. Gee, I wonder what kind of government they'd like us to have?

There's also a piece on The Top Ten Things Enviromentalists Need to Learn. I also like a line from one of the other posts:
So I was on the Greenpeace website today. I had been looking to find out how I could get them to send me a donation mailer with a prepaid envelope (which I intended to send back to them full of lead shot and a letter telling them it was a donation of material to help shield them from the scary radiation.)

I can't decide if Malkin is right with 'let her

rot', or whether it would be better to move directly to a firing squad. Or, preferably, a rope.

Especially after the news of my great-uncle yesterday, I vote for the rope. She actively worked to aid an enemy to this country and cause the death of Americans, and I think that qualifies(and yes, I am working to keep my language clean).

I also think this demonstrates the mind of the idiot-level left in this country. This fool was breaking her word, breaking the law, etc., to help someone who- if in power- would stick her in a burkha, lock her up, punish women for wanting to learn to read, let alone go to school, etc. And yet she thinks she was helping the 'progressive' cause. That's a level of idiot that's hard to understand.