Was out of town for a couple of days, and since I passed Cabela's

I of course stopped in to drool browse about. I was very good, and only bought a couple of things, this being one of them













It's a fairly new light of theirs. 3 watt led, 60 lumens output and it's supposed to run up to 6 hours on two AA batteries. 60 lumens makes it just a touch less bright than a Surefire G2; I've got no way to measure it, but it passes the 'make you scream and cover your eyes' test*. And it is a white light, no sign of the blue tint most led lights have shown until recently. Turns on at the tailcap, like so many now: turn it all the way down for constant on, back it off a half-turn and press for momentary on.

Since I find myself with a shortage of AA alkaline batteries a ' turn it on and leave it until dead' test will have to wait a day or two. So far I like it.

Oh, did I mention the price? $20.


*No, I did NOT point it at my eyes and key it; I'm comparing it on the wall to my Surefire.

Theo notes that the Brit Army snipers

are getting a new boomstick

And Blogger is bloggered, so can't post the picture. Full story here.

And PC pandering pretty much always leads to

crap like this:
Six times a week, Harvard kicks all the guys out of the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center at the request of the Harvard Islamic Society. This is to accommodate those female Muslim students whose faith won't let them work out in front of men.

In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged "girls-only" campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed.

And when called on this, what do you get from a Harvard spokesman?
When I asked Harvard spokesman Bob Mitchell about this new Sharia-friendly policy, he denied that they were banning anyone. "No, no," he told me, "we're permitting women to work out in an environment that accommodates their religion."

By banning all men from the facility, right?

"It's not 'banning,' " he insisted. "We're allowing, we're accommodating people."
Yeah. You're 'accommodating' one group by banning another group, which you don't have the balls or the integrity to admit.

Anyone who thinks you can negotiate with Hamas

is a fool. And unless the Palistinian Authority actually does something to stomp on Hamas & Co., it's a waste of time and blood with them, too.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government, which mounted a major offensive in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip last week but which pledged after Thursday's shooting to push on with peace negotiations with Hamas's secular rivals in the West Bank.

Friggin' IDIOTS. Hamas shoots rockets constantly into Israel and if the Israelis have the nerve to actually do something about it, whines about (you know it's coming) how they're the victims of Jewish aggression. Etc. And makes heroes out of murderers like this.

Remember: this is one of the people Obama

has worked with:
The Weathermen claimed credit for 25 bombings over the next several years. They set bombs at the rebuilt Haymarket statue; a bathroom at the Pentagon; the Capitol barber shop; the New York City police headquarters; and a variety of other targets.

Dohrn's husband, Bill Ayers confessed that the bomb that killed the aforementioned Weather Underground members in New York was an anti-personnel weapon filled with nails and screws that would have killed or injured many at the Fort Dix dance. Ayers has recently, publicly acknowledged his feeling that his group should, in his opinion, have set off even more bombs.

And the miserable bastard is teaching at the University of Illinois.

And speaking of violent leftists, check this and this out:
Since writing previously, I've learned that the folks trying to screw up the liberalpalooza have their own website: Recreate 68.org. The site is set up to facilitate communications between protesters, and help them with planning. It includes a primer on 'Direct Action.' The first part is devoted to an argument over semantics -- trying to explain how Direct Action is different from terrorism. Then they assert that while it's not terrorism, 'it is violent:'

To say that it is violent to destroy the machinery of a slaughterhouse or to break windows belonging to a party that promotes war is to prioritize property over human and animal life. This objection subtly validates violence against living creatures by focusing all attention on property rights and away from more fundamental issues.

Oh, it's gonna be interesting in Denver.

Fr. Frog's Guidelines

are found here. Including
1) Beware of the man with one gun.
2) Fancy guns, sights, and gadgetry do not make up for a lack of marksmanship.
3) If you can't do it with a .30-06 you probably can't do it with anything else.
4) If you can't do it with a 2 MOA firearm you probably can't do it with anything else.
5) Sight picture and trigger control are life.
6) Practice, practice, practice!
7) A close miss is still a miss.
8) Smoothness first, the speed will come.
9) Inconsequential increments are meaningless.
10) Most gun writers are pathological liars.

and

Cooking

1) Don't overdo the seasonings.
2) An unwatched pot usually boils over.
3) Simple, hearty food, is the best--especially when shared with friends.
4) A day without red wine is not a complete day.
5) Fresh baked bread negates the cholesterol in butter.
6) Use fresh ingredients.
7) The most critical ingredient in a recipe you are working on is the one you ran out of last week.
8) Electric stoves keep cooking once the burner is turned off.
9) Homemade cinnamon buns are considered a health food.
10) Use real butter.

Had forgotten about these.

Just in case Warman or Kinsella happen to read this,

you two are pustules on the backside of a distempered dog. With the runs.

And the 'Canadian Human Rights Commission' is anything but.

An American who happens to have been born somewhere else

I can't remember where I first read this, I think either at Kevin's or the Geek's, but it's true. Here's one of them:
It took a full 14 years before Jamaleldine finally -- and radically -- changed his views on the Americans. It was on June 6, 2005, in the middle of the Iraq war, when he showed up at the US Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, to enlist.

And the second time he was wounded:
It's really one of the most remarkable stories I've read of action in Iraq. When Jamaledine was shot, there were no medevac helicopters in the area. There were Apaches. But the Apache is a two seater--no room for cargo, or wounded. When the call went out--by a soldier who was himself wounded--that Jamaledine needed to be evacuated immediately, one of the Apaches landed on the scene and had him strapped in. This meant the co-pilot had to "hang on outside" for the trip back to the base. Both of the crew were risking their jobs, but they got Jemaldine out. The Apache's crew then rejoined the battle, with the co-pilot sitting in a pool of blood for the rest of the night.

This is something that needs to be pointed out to pointed out to the brain-dead jihadis and the 'mothers' who want their kids to become shahid: you may love death, you miserable beings, but we love life, including the lives of our troops. Who'll put their own ass on the line to save one another.

When asked what he considers his personal contribution to peace to be, Jamaleldine says that, first of all, he killed terrorists, thereby preventing them from setting any more bombs. How many terrorists? "A few." Second, he says, he and the other scouts applied so much pressure that, within a few months, the fee for setting bombs had jumped from $50 to $500 per bomb, making life more difficult for the enemy. Third, says Jamaleldine, they took weapons out of circulation that would otherwise have been used against the civilian population. Fourth, they captured some of the people behind the attacks, thereby weakening the network of terror. Finally, he adds, they managed to win over normal Iraqis, the peaceful ones, and convince them to cooperate.

Specialist, if we ever meet, the drinks are on me.

Range report: TT33

Made it to the range today with a box of S&B 7.62x25 ball and a couple of targets. This is the first three magazines plus one round, total of 25 rounds at ten yards
























I have to call those three high as my fault. Went through the box with no misfeeds, FTEs or anything else. As mentioned before, it handles the recoil of the cartridge very nicely, and I think either better light or some paint on the front sight would've kept two of those flyers in the black.

The one thing that gave me trouble is this is so similar to a 1911, but the differences sneak up on you. I kept trying to thumb the safety, for instance, when the safety on this one is in a far different place. And the grip is shorter, which made for a bit of fumbling and adjusting. One thing it does share with the 1911 is a good trigger. The Romanians spent some time putting the fire control group together properly: long take-up, then a clean, light break. I think this thing is capable of better accuracy at, say, 25 yards than I am.

Shut up. No commentary on that last needed.

Overall, a very nice pistol. I'll find some international orange paint to touch up the front sight, and I'm wondering how either handloads with the Hornady XTP bullet or the Wolf Gold hollowpoints shoot in it. 90-grain XTP at 1400-1500fps, that'd leave a mark.

Mr. Completely has started a new postal match

All information here.

Personally, I think he's out of his effin' mind. Hit the flies at 25 feet? Offhand? MAYBE with a scope(my current state of vision applies, your results may vary).

Remember the idiot reporter who wandered onto

the ladies' porch? Phelps has a couple of responses to the commenters:

wild schield

March 2nd, 2008 5:16 pm ET america the land of gun nuts….way to go rednecks. I am so glad i live in europe now where this kind of thing is not tolerated even the least little bit.. ….with the danish prime minister right across the street no less can’t wait to see those pics all over the news tommarrow

You better go outside. I bet a bunch of teenagers are burning your car.
...
Remember, Eurovictims, we are laughing at you, not with you.

Let's see how well gun ownership controls are working in Britain,

that star of the Brady Bunch and VPC dreams.

Not very well.
The rise of violent crime was highlighted yesterday when it was revealed that children as young as eight have been caught with guns.

The searches by police officers in Greater Manchester, which has been plagued by gang shootings, even discovered a machine gun hidden under the bed of a ten-year-old boy.

It is believed that some of the children had been asked to look after handguns for gang members because they are too young to be charged.

Others claimed the weapons belonged to their mother or father or other close relatives.

According to a senior police source, the ten-year-old kept the sub-machine gun in the bedroom of his house in South Manchester. It was not loaded.

But, but handguns are banned! And shotguns and rifles highly restricted! This is unpossible!

Lucy Cope, from Mothers Against Guns, said: "The consequences of an inquisitive eight-year-old getting their hands on a gun do not bear thinking about."

Professor Peter Squires of the Gun Control Network, which campaigns for tighter controls on guns of all kinds, said: "In the more troubling cases serious offenders will have given young children guns to carry because they are off the surveillance radar."
Uh, Ms. Cope and Professor? You're doing what Kevin refers to as "Do it again, only harder!" And it won't work any better in the future than it does now.

We do have to consider that it may be something reported as a 'sub-machine gun' as opposed to an actual sub-gun but in either case the fact remains that on an island, with handguns- let along automatic weapons- banned, and so much as a .22 rifle heavily restricted, they can't keep the crooks from getting guns. And yet people like Obama and Clinton & Co. think the way Britain has gone is THE way to go.

Morons.

It seems to be getting worse in Paris,

at least from the looks of this:
PARIS - Dozens of hooded attackers opened fire on police this weekend, wounding four officers, France's interior minister said.

Michele Alliot-Marie called the Sunday afternoon attack an "ambush," saying that about 30 people, some of them armed, were waiting for the officers in the southern Paris suburb of Grigny. The officers were responding to a call about vandalism of a local bakery.

'Ambush' is the right word. Planned, prepared and- I don't doubt- more of the same in the making.

Ran across a few things I've got to list

First, advise to tourists in Australia: 'Apex Predator' means exactly what is sounds like:













Next, it appears Colombia isn't going to back down from Chavez & Co.:
"Colombia proposes in the International Criminal Court to denounce the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez for sponsoring and financing genocide," Mr Uribe said.
Mind you, the ICC will be nothing but a place to make the accusations 'official'; otherwise, the ICC will be the same teats on a boar hog it's always been.
Venezuelan troops were reported to have been moving towards the border. Colombia, which has armed forces twice the size of Venezuela's, has said it would not be provoked into mobilising troops in response.
Translation: "We're not going to do something flashy and give that jackass something else to scream about. We're already prepared, and if he steps over the line we'll kick his ass." However you put that in diplo-speak.

Anybody who goes anywhere and thinks they can roam about with no consideration for personal safety is asking to get hurt.
Last night however, the chief minister of Goa, Digambar Kamat, was reported as saying that foreign women who visited the state should take more responsibility for personal safety.

"Foreign tourists have to be careful," he said. "They can't just do these things and then blame the government for the consequences. You can't expect the government to provide police on the beaches after midnight."

He warned foreign women in Goa to avoid "insecure places" and to take "precautions", but declined to define either.

Mrs MacKeown, of North Devon, who was due to meet Mr Kamat, said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure the safety of visitors.

"If they are saying it's dangerous, then it's the government's responsibility to warn people," she said. "Instead, it's advertised as a hippy paradise."
Madam, an awful lot of 'hippy paradise' places turned out to be damned dangerous. I agree that a government has a responsibility to look to the safety of people, locals and visitors both; that does not mean they can make it completely safe. All around the world, teenagers and others tend to find out the hard way that 'popular destination' includes 'for predators who go after people like you. Especially young females who drink a lot'. No matter how nice the place.

Speaking of fidel's buttmonkey, here's some thoughts on what the monkey is hoping to accomplish, and why he's worried.

Back at home, some people in Congress are actually wanting to do something about the border:
The first initiative involves one of my favorite GOP Senate members, Jeff Sessions of Alabama. He is rolling out nearly a dozen different bills addressing specific border security and enforcement issues. The plan is to announce the campaign tomorrow.
Which is good. Especially when people like Reid are getting advice like this:
...A confidential study assembled for the Democratic leadership earlier this year urged them to start using tougher language. Democrats have focused on offering opportunity to immigrants, but the study by two think tanks urged them to begin speaking in terms of “requiring” illegal immigrants to become legal and about what’s best for the United States.
'Tougher language'. 'Speaking in terms'. Translation: "Say things to make the bigots and racists(D definition: anyone who doesn't want to do what we say) happy, you don't have to mean it."

I'll close with this post from Kim, on what'll happen if the Obamessiah wins.

Just checked AIM,

no TT33 pistols as noted earlier; I must have gotten one of the last. Damn, glad I didn't take more time to decide. They've got CZ82 and 1895 Nagant pistols, and some 59/66 SKS rifles among other long guns. SOG and J&G both shows TT33's still in stock. SOG shows CZ52 pistols, also, only place I've seen them in a while.

Hmmm, Military Gun Supply has CZ52 pistols listed. They've got K31 rifles, too.

Ammo, AIM has a lot, Samco has the brass-case Yugo 7.62x39, in boxes or on strippers. Ah, they've got K31's too, Very Good and Special Select; the Excellent show sold out. Have some 59/66 rifles, too.

AIM also has this up at the top:
03/03/2008 Important Shipping Delay Notice
Due to high order volume we are currently experiencing a slight delay in shipping. Please allow for an additional 1-3 working days for us to process your order. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Damn, you'd think people were buying a lot of stuff for some reason.

Roundup time again

Poor little fidelista buttmonkey Chavez is all unhappy because Colombia took out a FARC terrorist bigshot. In Ecuador. So he has one of his patented Adolf-like fits and sends troops to the Venezuelan border with Colombia, throwing in this bit of crap:
“The Colombian government has become the Israel of Latin America,” an agitated Chavez said, mentioning another country that he has criticized for its military strikes. “We aren’t going to permit Colombia to become the Israel of these lands.”

Got news for you, twinkie: if being the 'Israel of Latin America' means 'find the terrorists and kill them', they're already there. And if your little terrorist buddies and you push it too far, you might find out if Colombia has other things in common with Israel. Like being able to kick your ass. Hell, since you seem to have such a problem with Jews, maybe they'll(or are?) give Columbia some tips.
Further comment at Q&O.

Speaking of Q&O, socialist politician's socialist wife spreads bullcrap. Big surprise, huh?

It's been noted before, one of the big problems with face with the islamists is mothers who hope their kid blows himself up while trying to kill Jews. Or 'crusaders'. Or SOMEBODY. As long as they 'die for islam'. Friggin' idiots.

New boomstick for general issue to the Spec-ops people.

Gee, Obama sucking up to illegals? Whoda thunk it? And George Lopez can kiss my ass.

That's it for now.

Comrades! I got one!

TT33, that is
















After trying that one out a while back, and doing a lot of ditheringsome thinking, I decided to get one, having some of my tax refund available. So last week I hied myself off to the AIM site and ordered one(holy crap! I just looked at AIM to link to their pistols, and the TT33's are gone!), which came in yesterday.

It's just like the one I posted on, and in just as nice condition: good finish, bore is bright with sharp rifling, and a fairly amazing trigger for a military sidearm. Amazingly, it was not coated with cosmoline, just a heavy coat of oil inside and out, easy to clean off and replace with a known oil, and appropriate grease on the sear & hammer and frame & slide rails. Came with a holster(in quite good condition), lanyard and a spare mag. You can tell the difference between the original mag and the spare: the original slips in, locks, and slips out nicely, the spare binds some and will need some fitting. Ammo coming in, so should be able to fire it the next day or two.

On alertness and being the well-armed sheep*

One of the things just about every blog touching on self-defense, and every trainer having something to do with it, stresses is awareness. Of what's going on around you, who's around you and so forth.

Go read this at Xavier's. Being aware, and quickly figuring what to do, at the least kept them from being robbed: at most, injured and maybe killed.

I'd guess they saw a man with a kid and the magic box, and thought he'd be too busy with the kid to notice them 'till too late. I'll throw out a thought: a man, even a good-sized one, who's too preoccupied to take notice of what's around him will be seen as a better victim than a smaller woman who's seeing what's going on.


* I think it was Churchill who said something about democracy being two wolves discussing lunch, and a well-armed sheep arguing the point.
Correction: it was two wolves and a sheep discussing lunch; a republic is a well-armed sheep disputing the menu.

Dumbass Journalist Trespasses;

It being Texas, there are Consequences

Go ahead and read the CNN story. Then, assuming you want to read lots of PSH, read some of the comments; you'll find lots and lots of GFW weenies moaning about 'uncivilized' and 'barbaric' America, and how the rest of the world laughs at us. But the best summing up is this one:
I'm not American, and you people need to re-read the story. At no time does it say she POINTED the gun at the journalist. She simply had it in her hand. There was a stranger on her property and she went out to investigate. The gun was there in case she needed it. He ran off like most Europenas do at the first sign of conflict and that was the end of it. Big deal

Game, set, match.

I don't like working on ladders in the best of times

Which times do not include 35 degrees, gusting north winds and wet, soft ground.

You need the full timeline for this:
Yesterday evening it was almost 70, winds gusting out of the south at, on 35 or so(until the strong ones hit). Then it started pouring rain and the tornado sirens started blowing as the storms set up by the cold front moved through. No tornado, happily, the circulation didn't develop fully. Then the front came through with the same winds and gusts from the north. So I came home to find it had ripped some of the siding on one side of the house loose during the day. So I had to run to the store for screws & sealant, get out the ladder and the steel squares I keep for such things, set up the ladder and repair the mess. No way I was going to let it sit with the wind working on it all night, especially with a chance of some more snow.

So the siding is repaired, though a few spots will need extra attention tomorrow when it's warmer and the wind is down. A few years ago I bought a steel folding ladder, one of those you can set up as a stepladder or work platform, and set up as the latter it let me do the work with a reasonably solid base. Which doesn't change the fact I was standing on a ladder on wet ground in gusting wind on a cold day. Couple of years ago, after a lot of sleet and a little freezing rain, I discovered too late that I'd damn near frozen my fingertips on several fingers, and I may have frostbit them just a bit; as a consequence this kind of crap makes them stiffer and number than formerly. Especially since I can't wear gloves and handle the screws, etc. Which is why my first notice of something puncturing a finger was the red smears on the siding. Washed up now, bleeding stopped and feeling has returned to the digits in question.

Sometimes a house is just SO much fun.

Oh joy, I hear the tornado sirens

sounding just south of me, and the weather radar shows a circulation moving through that area.

This is part of the line of nasty storms about to move through, but don't worry; later tonight, after the front moves through, the rain will be changing to snow. With highs tomorrow in the mid-30's.

'Tis the season, etc., bah humbug.

Wow, the VPC really has a blog*

Though they say nasty things about John Browning:
The patron-saint of all Gun Blobbers, John Browning invented numerous firearms and thus is the source of much of the world’s ills. Gun Blobbers idolize him because he represents someone who acted completely sane around firearms. We at the VPC Blog know this is a quality only to found in Law Enforcement Officers, thus his fanatics are deluding themselves.

Here is a sample list of his crimes:

Turned a lever-action rifle into an assault weapon. He probably used Black Magic in order to accomplish this feat.
From this, he designed the M1895 machine gun, and then the M2 machine gun.
The Browning Automatic Rifle. Truly a deadly assault weapon.
Created the the M1911 and Browning Hi-Power pistols, frequently used by gangsters.
He created six deadly pistol cartridges: .25 ACP*, .32 ACP, .38 ACP, .380 ACP, 9mm Browning Long, and .45 ACP.
And, worst of all, he created the .50 Caliber Browning Machine Gun cartridge.

If you haven't seen it already, check out all the goodness.


*Ok, so it's not actually theirs, but it makes as much sense as they do.

Kevin brought up antidepressants and campus shooters

here, and it brings a thought to mind: I wonder how many of these people were on ritalin at some point as they grew up? And considering the way some of this stuff can- sometimes permanently- mess with brain chemistry, could that be a contributing factor to later problems/medications/outcomes?

There's been a lot of stuff over time about the number of kids, almost all boys, put on this stuff,and problems/possible long-term problems from it. Which makes me wonder, if you've got a kid who was drugged with this stuff, often for years, growing up could that be a factor in later diagnosis of depression, etc.? And/or problems with the antidepressants prescribed?

Back when the kids were small, I worried about this crap because son was standard young male: problems sitting still, etc., and several times some teacher spoke to his mom(she had primary custody) about "I think it would be good for him to take ritalin". As it worked out, I always found out about this later and it was never a real threat; whatever problems I had with my ex, worrying about her folding up for some teacher with a drug fetish wasn't one of them. At all. I'd imagine the teacher(in some cases 'excuse for a') wound up fairly sorry she brought it up. But how many kids wound up being dosed because
A: some 'teacher' found handling drugged kids easier than active, questioning ones,
B: parents conditioned to 'go with what the teacher says' just said 'ok', or were browbeaten into agreeing. There's an awful lot of cases that have come out where some idiot 'teacher' called DHS or whoever and they both threatened the parents if they didn't agree to drug the kid(I will save the rant on that bullcrap for later),
and how many of those kids may be/are set up for real problems later by this stuff?

Considering how many kids have been/are on these drugs, it's a real worry.

To take note of a couple of Oklahoma laws

passed or proposed that touch on the 2nd, I note these:
HB2513: The bill would allow students to carry firearms on campus if they are at least 21 and are licensed to carry a concealed weapon. "As long as students kept their weapons concealed, they could go into class with them," Murphey said. He said he decided that the bill was needed after the Feb. 14 shootings that left six dead, including the gunman, at Northern Illinois University and an attack in April at Virginia Tech in which a gunman killed 32 people.

Of course, one of the objections is Rep. Paul Roan, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper for 25 years, voted against the bill, saying such a law could greatly hinder law enforcement.

"You wouldn't know who the players are," he said. Because weapons now are banned, he said, police can tell if someone comes onto campus "with a gun for evil purposes."

No you can't, sir; you have no damned idea if someone has 'evil purposes' in mind or is just concerned with protecting themselves if some dirtbag decides to get his name in the media. And it doesn't do any good for the cops to 'know who the players are' when that means they find a bunch of dead students and teachers and a bad guy. When they finally get there.

Which is the reason for this bill: the cops always get there after pretty much everybody who will die, is dead. It may sound very nice to say "We need to know who the players are", but that is covered very nicely by "Some guy just started shooting at people, and a guy in class shot him. Yeah, we're in the classroom and we'll stay here 'till you get here." on the phone. Or simply the good guy setting his piece on a desk- unloaded if there's time- and saying "My sidearm's over there." Or something similar.

Second, a while back OK passes a law basically saying that employers couldn't fire someone for having a firearm locked in their vehicle. And some people are not happy about it:
ConocoPhillips Co. and other smaller employers in a court case contend the law constitutes "an unconstitutional taking of (their) property" and their right to exclude people from their property. That argument is in a new filing by the employers at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They want the court to uphold a decision of U.S. District Judge Terence Kern in Tulsa who struck down the law.
Now a couple of other groups are getting in on it:
Two major safety and security organizations - the American Society of Safety Engineers and ASIS International - joined the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in filing a "friend of the court" brief urging the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a 2007 federal district court ruling striking down Oklahoma's 2005 guns-at-work law as unconstitutional. In a suit filed by ConocoPhillips and others - ConocoPhillips v. Henry - the lower court held that the law, which made it a crime in Oklahoma for employers to bar guns from company property, impermissibly conflicted with the general duty under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act for all employers to provide workplaces free from recognized hazards.

To me, the 'right to exclude people from their property' argument sounds like BS; they're not 'excluding people', they're telling people they can't have something in their vehicle. And the 'providing a workplace free from recognized hazards' is standard Brady Coalition to Ban Firearms and other nanny groups crap.

One more set of battles.

The aftermath of a screwed-up SWAT incident

The handwritten settlement reached this week that resolved the fallout over the shooting death of 18-year-old Peyton Strickland included just three main points, officials say.

They were: $2.45 million, headed to a scholarship fund; an apology, issued Wednesday; and an audit of the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office's Emergency Response Team. On Thursday, county officials said plans for the review aren't set but they are open to outside advice.
...
Attention turned to the office's Emergency Response Team on Dec. 1, 2006, when Cpl. Christopher M. Long mistook the sound of a battering ram for gunfire during a raid.

He fired through a door, killing Strickland, a student at Cape Fear Community College, who was wanted in connection with the robbery of video game equipment. Strickland wasn't armed. Causey said Wednesday that Long mis-evaluated the threat. A grand jury considered the case but chose not to indict.

On the face of it the most basic point is that the officer screwed up: he heard what he thought was gunfire and shot through a door. SERIOUS violation of basic firearms rules, the kind that generally has police and prosecutors trying to hang a citizen who does such. I dug around in some earlier stories and found this:
His gear included a hood, earpiece and helmet that he said muffled his hearing.
So part of his excuse(and I have to use that word) for shooting through a door is he had so much equipment on he couldn't hear very well. Wonderful.

Yes, I am being snarky. The biggest factor of this is a SWAT team was used when it wasn't called for. Again. And again, somebody wound up dead.

One of the reasons I get so damn tired of hearing about cases like this is I get tired of seeing things like that illustrated below:























A New Hanover County Sheriff's Department ERT member walks through Taylor Homes during a search for escaped inmate Joseph Corbett Wednesday afternoon.

I understand the armor, etc. But would someone please explain, in simple terms my mind can wrap around, why they're wearing masks? They're searching for an escapee, not undercover agents who need to keep their faces hidden, dammit: WHY do they have to hide their faces?

Dammit.

Threats to Prince Harry's life from the usual suspects

Thoughts of a crusade seem more appropriate lately.
Ran across this, which you may have already seen: it seems the islamist dirtbags have now decided that Prince Harry is an 'legitimate target' because he's 'acting tough', etc.

Considering these threats tend to come from the same goat-humpers who think it's a fine demonstration of faith to blow up kids in a school, or women in a market, or murder men who have the temerity to work as, say, police, their claims of upset don't exactly tug at my heartstrings. Do deal with a couple of things right off:
Omar Bakri Mohammad is a miserable, cowardly, chickenshit little offspring of a camel that was sold as a whore and a distempered mongrel. He wouldn't know a 'tough man' if- I take that back: he'd know a tough man because that'd be one of the troops ready to whack him. So your opinion, Omar, counts for less than the dog crap I had to scrape off my boot a while ago. Fuck you.

Rafiq Choudhry, 69, said: “The Royal Family is supposed to be neutral. If Prince Harry wants to be neutral he should not fight against Muslims.” Got news for you, dumbass: the Royal Family is NOT supposed to be neutral in facing threats to Britain, or civilization in general. And(to explain this because you're evidently too effing stupid to understand it on your own) he's NOT fighting against 'muslims'; he was fighting against a bunch of miserable excuses for men who think it's God's will to murder little girls for going to school, or their mothers for not dressing in a tent, or their fathers and brothers for not acting 'muslim enough' to suit the islamist assholes. So fuck you, too.

Britain really needs to get of its collective ass and
A: round up a bunch of the illegals and those aiding terrorists and prosecute and/or deport them, and
B: get their leaders off the "PC at any cost" throne.
The latter being just why so may of these child-murdering dirtbags keep doing and saying these things and getting away with them. Hell, they've got some of them living on welfare while calling for blood and death to the infidels, etc.

And do take note of this bullcrap:
Catherine Heseltine of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee warned that many might find Harry's "glorification" of war offensive. She said: "It is not the way to talk about a war where so many Muslims have lost their lives - men, women and children, innocent civilians. It is not an adventure, it is not exciting."
Madam, show me one place where he's said it was 'glorious'; and I'll bet it got real damn exciting at times, though not in the slanderous way you mean it. And the reason "... so many Muslims have lost their lives - men, women and children, innocent civilians." is because radical muslim terrorists and islamists murdered them; dirtbags you, you bitch, seem to want to defend. Anyone who can think that fighting child-murdering terrorists equals murdering innocents is a friggin' moron. And as big a bigot as you'll run across.

Whatever his faults- a being human he has them- the guy fought like hell to stay with his unit, and when unable to did service in another where he'd still be except for the information getting out. Harry, I ever meet you, the drinks are on me. And thanks for being one of those who put his ass on the line fighting the bad guys.

What was that line in 'Last Man Standing' about death

being the only cure known for being stupid?













Full story at Sailor Curt's place.

More on the infection problems in Brit hospitals

Theo had a link to this:
Deaths from the hospital superbug C. diff have soared to record levels in a damning indictment of hygiene levels in the Health Service.

The Clostridium difficile stomach bug killed or hastened the death of almost 6,500 patients in 2006 - a staggering 72 per cent rise on the previous year.

And since 1990 the number of people infected by the bug has risen almost 50-fold. It is a bigger killer than MRSA.

Patients' representatives and politicians said the figures highlighted the failure of numerous Government drives to halt the rise of the bug, which thrives in filthy conditions and can be combated with simple soap and water.

Take note of that last sentence, and then this:
He added: "Since 2006 we have taken significant steps to tackle infections.

"These include stringent handwashing guidance for the NHS, a bare-below-the-elbows dress code, putting matrons back in charge of cleanliness on their wards and an on-going deep clean of every ward.
But the 'bare-below-the-elbows dress code' is exactly what the idiot-level muslims are objecting to. Maybe, just maybe, these numbers might get some of the PC-at-all-costs fools to stop playing games..

People the major media won't tell you about

because it wouldn't match up with their 'evil soldiers committing war crimes' storyline.
The three humvees were disabled by the VBIED and an immediate second blast which “came from nowhere”. Then all hell broke loose. The Marines were in a pre-registered and pre-planned kill zone. RPG’s, mortars, and small arms fire tore into the Marines. Knowing the Marines’ Rules of Engagement, the insurgents had positioned some of their heavy weapons in a hospital offering a devastating field of fire on the ambush site.

The dismounted QRF was devastated by the initial fusilade of fire. Of 16 Marines, 11 were down, with three killed instantly. Lance Cpl. Corbin immediately positioned his truck between the downed Marines and the bulk of the enemy forces. He leaped from his vehicle into the middle of the enemy fire and began directing those that could still shoulder a weapon to return fire, marking targets and taking control of the situation.

He then ran to his seriously wounded patrol leader, threw him over his shoulder and ran 40 yards back to his vehicle. Running under fire the whole way, he returned fire with his offhand while the Sergeant bled out on his shoulder.

Go read it. These people need to be recognized and remembered.

Remember the problems in Brit hospitals

with muslims not wanting to expose their indecent wrists and forearms to wash properly?
Muslim medical workers in three major English cities are balking at hospital hygiene rules such as rolling up their sleeves when they scrub for surgery, according to The Daily Mail.

Health officials have been ready to wash their hands of the dispute, but at least one hospital is bending to the requests.

Female med students and staff at hospitals in at least a trio of large British cities — Liverpool, Leicester and Sheffield — have continued to flat-out refuse to comply with regulations aimed at fending off germs and infections, the Mail reported, with some saying they'd rather quit than expose their arms.
So get your sorry ass out of the profession. Or go somewhere that proper hygiene isn't considered such an important thing.
The workers object on the grounds that showing their forearms is immodest for women who practice Islam and against their religion. Hygiene gurus insist that no exceptions should be made for religious or other reasons.

I repeat what I said before: someone needs to say "My religion forbids letting patients suffer infections because idiots won't properly wash up. Either follow the rules or get out." 'Hygiene gurus' my ass, that's called 'proper procedures'. Instead, they get this:
At the Liverpool children's hospital, medical students gave a thumbs-down to pushing up or removing long sleeves while assisting in treating patients and washing their hands.

They asked for some concessions, and the hospital is complying.

Students. Refusing to follow the rules and making demands. And the hospital is complying caving in. And, of course, nothing of this sort would be complete without
The Islamic Medical Association has gotten involved, telling Muslim women in the field that they must stay covered.

I wonder just what excuses the hospitals give to patients fighting infections spread by these idiots? Or the families of the people who died of them?

Dumb crooks, 0:

Bikers, 2.5*
Two masked and machete-wielding men who barged into a club in Sydney, Australia, couldn't have picked a worse night for their robbery -- a monthly meeting of bikers.
...
"These guys were absolutely dumb as bricks," Jerry Vancornewal, leader of the bikers, told CNN Thursday. "I can't believe they saw all the bikes parked up front and they were so stupid that they walked past in."

Hehehehehe. If this doesn't get your sense of humor going, there's no hope for you.

Hearing the commotion from an adjacent room, Vancornewal and his pals with the Southern Cross Cruiser motorcycle club stomped through to the bar area to intervene.

"They (the robbers) thought they had the upper advantage with their knives and their machetes," Jim Webb, night supervisor of the club, told CNN. "They didn't expect to run into a bunch of guys carrying chairs and tables."
...
The second man made a break for it through the club's service entrance, but the bikers tackled him near a neighbor's fence.

"We just grabbed him, crash-tackled him to the ground, hogtied him with electrical wire and left him for the cops," Vancornewal said.
...
A third person, who was waiting in a getaway car, took off when the bikers threw pieces of furniture at him, Webb said. Police have not located him.

"AAAAAH! THEY'RE FIGHTING BACK!"


*Due to only two being captured. Though the getaway car being chased away with furniture probably ought to get them a 2.75.

The joys of computers

as noted by Hogboy and Kim.

Part of the problem is idiocy, and part of it is "But EVERYBODY knows that!" when EVERYBODY very obviously doesn't. But the idiots who put together the 'help' files and- back when companies still supplied them- manuals never seemed to understand that. So you had manuals and help files that left out parts of how to do something. Because 'everybody knows that'.

Which leads to frustration and thoughts of hanging Bill Gates & Co. by a shoelace over a deep, rocky canyon.

Why the BBC should be counted as

'On the other side'.
A BBC producer failed to give police information that would have helped track down the July 21 bombers, the trial was told.

Don't Panic, I'm Islamic, which featured the group paintballing and an interview with Mohammed Hamid, was shown on BBC2 on June 12, 2005.
Obviously a good British subject of the Crown, right?
Oops.
Nasreen Suleaman, the producer, told the court that Hamid said he would use his £300 fee to settle the fine he had been given by magistrates for racially abusing two policemen at his Oxford Street stall.

Remember during the Iraq invasion when the crews of British warships asked to have some of the news from Britain turned off because it was basically sympathizing with the enemy?

Miss Suleaman claimed she told BBC managers of the situation but no one passed on the information to the authorities.

She looked visibly shaken when told that two of the July 21 bombers, had joined Hamid on another paintball trip two weeks before the bombings.

Miss Suleaman saw Hamid a few days after July 21, 2005 and he seemed "very shocked that the men he knew were accused of this".

Duncan Penny, prosecuting, said: "Did you tell him to go to the police?"

Ms Suleaman replied: "I don't think I needed to."

And to concentrate on the boys for a minute,

have your sons read the previous and then ask some questions. And I'm sure you can think of some.

If you're one of those more delusional types who think "MY son is a paragon of virtue, and I do not need to worry about this", I've got news for you: with very rare exceptions, your kid is just as horny as all the others, and on the subject of sex has about as much self-control, as issued from the factory, as a ferret in a box of packing peanuts. Which means you have to prepare them for what amounts to an open buffet in high school and college. For that matter, it starts in middle school for a bunch of them, which means you'd better talk about this mess with them early.

Two things for them to learn. Number one is the older problem that unpleasant things can happen to people who sleep around, ranging from minor infections to "I missed my period!" conversations to being screwed over by finding out that someone you thought actually liked you actually just wanted the use of your penis for a while. Or was just drunk and thought you looked like some actor she's got the hots for. Or both.

Second is the stuff Mac Donald pointed out. That chickie who sucked up booze like a vacuum pump and then sucked up you like said vacuum can, the next day(or week or month) screw your whole life up if she decides
A: "I wish I hadn't done that", followed by
B: "Therefore(according to current feminist theory), I WAS RAPED!"
She's got a whole damn network that'll support her and back her up and blame you for every damn thing, and that generally includes the school. Because no educrat wants to be accused of 'not supporting female students/womyn/the oppressed sex'; I mean, God, people might think they're not progressive and feminist themselves! Remember what happened a while ago at Harvard? The dean had the nerve to actually suggest the difference in numbers between males & females in some fields might be due to differences between the sexes, and the Legion of the Eternally Offended tried to destroy him. And did a pretty good job of it. Kid, do you think they'd have a second thought about stomping on you?

Another of the unpleasant facts of this mess is that she doesn't have to actually start this herself. All it takes is a somewhat radical friend who hears "I wish I hadn't done that" and pushes her to file a complaint. Or talks to some idiot teacher/professor who then pressures her into "acting to prevent this predator from harming other women", etc.

And the last is the very simple question to ask when they're old enough: do you really want to spend parties dipping your wick into every drunk female who decides she wants you? After all the other guys who've been doing so at the other parties? As somebody once put it, you screw her, you're also screwing everybody else she's screwed. And considering what you know about some of those guys, do you REALLY want that level of shared contact with them? Which question can go to daughters, too: considering what you know about some of these girls, do you REALLY what that level of shared contact with them by grabbing some guy they nailed at the last party?

To you parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles and just plain concerned friends: ain't all this fun?

The Campus Rape Myth

If you've got kids in or going to college, and you haven't already thought about this mess- or God forbid, had to deal with it- read this. You already know things are messed up in our universities, but this points out just how bad this mess has become.

Mac Donald writes about girls going to parties with the intention of getting drunk and getting laid, which- unhappily- isn't a surprise to me. Daughter told of friends going out on Thursday nights- the big party night- to watch the Walk of Shame as they called it: girls who'd gone to a frat party to get drunk and laid walking back to the dorm, sometimes still drunk and sometimes somewhat sober, with their panties in their purse. Apparently it was a fair spectacle, and unless the weather was really ratty it happened most weeks.

There are a lot of people out there who have a lot to answer for, for what they've done to our kids. You can prepare them for this kind of garbage but it's still a threat. And so much of it boils down to "You are not responsible if bad things happen." Well, sometimes not. But if you act in ways that lead to a problem, if you go out wanting a situation to happen, you damn sure DO have responsibility in it. This bit covers the thoughts of the 'experts':
But suggest to a rape bureaucrat that female students should behave with greater sexual restraint as a preventive measure, and you might as well be saying that the girls should enter a convent or don the burka. “I am uncomfortable with the idea,” e-mailed Hillary Wing-Richards, the associate director of the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Women’s Resource Center at James Madison University in Virginia. “This indicates that if [female students] are raped it could be their fault—it is never their fault—and how one dresses does not invite rape or violence. . . . I would never allow my staff or myself to send the message it is the victim’s fault due to their dress or lack of restraint in any way.” Putting on a tight tank top doesn’t, of course, lead to what the bureaucrats call “rape.” But taking off that tank top does increase the risk of sexual intercourse that will be later regretted, especially when the tank-topper has been intently mainlining rum and Cokes all evening.(bold mine)

Think about that. Not only does getting drunk and bedding some guy, and regretting it the next day now constitute 'rape' to these people, they've reduced these females to beings incapable of being responsible for their actions; they can't be blamed, oh no, it's the guys' fault. Every time. You went out with the intention of getting drunk and 'hooking up' with some guy? Not your fault something happened, ever.

If you've got a daughter in or going to college, and you haven't already, talk to her about this bullshit. This crap has already screwed up too damn many lives.

Speaking of cats,

first read this; then I've got a story.

Back? Ok, years ago, during first marriage, we had a cat. Started out as a black & white fuzzball that grew into a 14-pound cat. Overall very nice critter; any ambushes he pulled were in playing. Worst that ever happened was when he was about, oh, two pounds. I was sitting on the floor, talking on the phone, and he decided to head for my shoulder. Which involved the jump landing him on my back and of COURSE he had to hold on... I screamedyelled, he ran away, and no permanent harm done(what he once did to a vet is a whole 'nother story).

Well, he grew up downright protective of his territory. To the extent my wife once observed two dogs coming down the street see him sitting on the porch and cross the street to pass our house. Well, one night wife woke me up from a sound sleep with a frantic whisper "Someone's messing with the front door!" I'm fumbling for the only pistol I owned- a .22 if it matters- and listening to some odd noise, finally gripped the pistol and eased into the living room. No, being a dumbass, no flashlight handy.

To set this up, one of the stereo speakers was sitting where, when the front door was open, it was right by the edge of the door. The noise was the cat. He was crouched on the speaker, almost vibrating, left front paw slightly raised, making a low moaning noise fit to raise the hair on your neck: low and, had it been directed at me, I'd have left. He was waiting for the door to open.

I eased up to the door and looked out. The storm door had been blocked open but nobody was there. Whether they'd heard me or the cat, I don't know. I opened up and checked around the porch, closed the storm door and locked up. The cat was still sitting there but considerably calmed down, and I stroked him and told him what a good kitty he was.

A time or two I've thought it would have been interesting had that jerk opened the door, but I'm glad he didn't: too much mess to clean up.

The Captain asked you a question, dammit!

That brownie

does have a nasty sense of humor.

After I got home from work I spent another fifteen minutes(approximately) looking again for that firing pin stop. Flashlight and magnet both again. No joy.

Little while ago I went to a nearby mall for a bit so I could walk around without freezing my nose, came back and decided to walk to the liquor store for a bottle of something relaxing. Just before heading to the door I grabbed the Surefire and took another look. Here, there, over there where it couldn't possibly have bounced, nothing. Glanced down by an ammo box.

Understand something: the pile of stuff there, wasn't there yesterday evening. I'd picked every bit of that stuff up, checked them individually to see that it wasn't hung up/stuck on anything, then piled it up by the door while I searched, INCLUDING sweeping the area with the magnet broom my daughter gave me a couple of years ago. Then, after all that, picked the stuff up and set it near an ammo box(that had been moved and searched on/around/under). During the search after I got home had looked there and swung the broom over the spot. Again.

And I saw, as I glanced down, a shine. Which was the freshly filed part of the stop, laying ON TOP OF a piece of cord in the pile THAT HAD BEEN PICKED UP A PIECE AT A TIME AND MOVED. TWICE.

I can't remember, what's supposed to be a bribe for good behavior for the little buggers?

Well, at least he has decent timing on it. The Brownell's site was up and I'd marked a replacement, and was going to see if there was anything else I needed to order.

And it only took about twenty light file strokes on each side to finish fitting it(I'd gotten the thickness done yesterday).

Right now, I'm about as frustrated as I can get

EGW oversize firing pin stop came in a couple of days ago, and I finally had time to sit down to fit it. Had it about halfway done. Made a couple of file strokes, blew it off, stood up to stretch and gave it a swipe on my jeans. It slipped.

I have spent the last 45 minutes, first with a flashlight, then with a magnet, then the light again. I've gone over the whole floor, I've moved things it couldn't physically have gotten to/behind, and I've gone over the floor by braille. I've shaken out shoes and the pockets of the jacket I was wearing- yes, even the off-side. And it's not to be found.

Seeing as how I cannot see God deciding to take an interest in my patience and making it go away(any deity, for that matter, even a drunk Irish one) to test my limits, I'm going with what my daughter once suggested: there's a brownie in the house, and it's either got a bad sense of humor or it's pissed at me.

No, I have not been drinking.

Yet.

Word from the son

Reasons #23 and #172 why we don't want Obama

in the Oval Office.

I've mentioned before that I generally don't watch the Presidential 'debates' because I consider most of what comes out to be a very low grade of fertilizer. So I didn't hear about the bullcrap from Obama until today. Good overall of the mess over at QandO:
And then we have the "capturing Taliban weapons" for resupply bit. Uh, really? So we have half a platoon commanded by a captain on its own in Afghanistan without enough humvees, weapons and ammo having to capture weapons from the bad guys in order to fight?

Whoa, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Rambo are jealous. And that's pretty much the realm in which this story or "anecdote" belongs.

But again, he didn't know enough about it to know that.
And so forth. McQ points out the big thing about this(aside from telling this in the first place) is that neither Obama or anybody on his staff either knew enough about the military to catch the bullcrap, or didn't bother to, you know, check it out. Not a good thing in someone who says he's ready to lead us into Change.

Second thing, this story about some of Obama's contacts/supporters, including a couple of domestic terrorists.
In 1995, State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to a few of the district’s influential liberals at the home of two well known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local activists, they’re better known nationally as two of the most notorious — and unrepentant — figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement.
Oh, they're just activists; that bombing thing is just so yesterday.

Obama’s connections to Ayers and Dorhn have been noted in some fleeting news coverage in the past. But the visit by Obama to their home — part of a campaign courtship — reflects more extensive interaction than has been previously reported.

Neither Ayers nor the Obama campaign would describe the relationship between the two men. Dr. Young described Obama and Ayers as “friends,” but there’s no evidence their relationship is more than the casual friendship of two men who occupy overlapping Chicago political circles and who served together on the board of a Chicago foundation.

And as to the local political circles:
The relationship with Ayers gives context to his recent past in Hyde Park politics. It’s milieu in which a former violent radical was a stalwart of the local scene, not especially controversial.

It’s also a scene whose liberal ideological features — while taken for granted by the Chicago press corps that knows Obama best — provides a jarring contrast with Obama’s current, anti-ideological stance. This contrast between past and present — not least the Ayers connection — is virtually certain to be a subject Republican operatives will warm to if Obama is the Democratic nominee.
...
Though he is a respected figure in liberal educational circles, Ayers wrote recently about how in 2006 he was informed he was persona non grata at a progressive educators’ conference in the summer of 2006.
“We cannot risk a simplistic and dubious association between progressive education and the violent aspects of your past,” he quoted the conference organizers, whom he described as friends, as writing to him.
Don't you just love that? Their only problem with a terrorist- who's proud of it- showing up is "Someone might make troubling connections between you blowing things up and our progressive agenda."
But the couple has been embraced, by and large, in the liberal circles dominating Hyde Park politics.
...
Others are less inclined to even consider forgiveness.

“Ayers was a terrorist. Bernardine Dohrn was a terrorist. Ayers has never offered one word of apology — he glories in it, thinks it’s terrific. And that to me is not what I would call acceptable or mainstream behavior,” said Dan Polsby, a former law professor at Northwestern who is now dean of George Mason University Law School. “If Obama takes a different view on that — well, OK, that’s data about Obama.”
It damn sure does.
He described Ayers as “a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a former aide to Mayor Richard J. Daley,” referring to printed reports that he had “advised” Daley on school reform.
Geez, no wonder the schools are so screwed up.
As Bloomberg News reported recently, Obama and Ayers have crossed paths repeatedly in the last decade. In 1997, Obama cited Ayers’ critique of the juvenile justice system in a Chicago Tribune article on what prominent Chicagoans were reading. He and Ayers served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago for three years starting in 1999. In 2001, Ayers also gave $200 to Obama’s state Senate reelection campaign.

Many details of the 1995 meeting are shrouded by time and by Obama’s and Ayers’ refusals to discuss it.
...
Personally, this seems to have far too much contact between them for this to be a "We just ran into each other occasionally" excuse to fly. I'll end with this on Obama:
They, like others in his old Chicago world, now consider him a bit too “conservative” for their liking, as Warren wrote recently.

Ackerman, the Hyde Park activist, complained of his votes for continued funding for the Iraq war.

“A lot of people were very angry when he voted to fund the war,” he said. “But any candidate running for president is going to strive for broader appeal and move more to the center — I don’t believe that Barack has departed from his basic principles.”

Dr. Young said, however, that he isn’t supporting either of the leading presidential candidates because he is a single-issue voter, and the issue is single-payer health care.

He said he was disappointed that Obama is “equivocating” on his support for single-payer health care, after saying in the past that he supported it. But he said Obama’s style — “cautious, deliberate, defensive” — was also familiar from the senator’s Hyde Park days.

Translation: Obama will say whatever he thinks will get the most votes, which means his word is no damn good. Much like Al Gore, he'll do damn near anything to get into that office.

The Obamessiah

at work:

Why people like Val must want to chew nails at times

is pretty well covered by this post over at Winds of Change commenting on a piece of casto tongue-bathing:
You know that whole thing about the values of the Left having eroded into simple anti-Western Imperialism? There may be something to that, you know...

...and that's a Left I'm happy never to have been a part of, and never to be a part of. If the price of universal literacy is prison camps for writers, count me out. If the price of "decent standards of health care" is lavish living for the Party cadres and grinding poverty for everyone else, count me out. If the price of resisting apartheid is brutalizing and murdering your own citizenry - in essence creating a contest between two brutally repressive governments - count me out.

How, exactly, does Bertram keep any claim to moral authority after writing this?

The piece they quote is bad enough; go through the comments and get a taste of real, live, idiot-level leftist thought, including this:
...And while you guys like to point out and overemphasize the blinders you think "liberals" have concerning Cuba and communism (if you can even call the USSR at any point a communist country except nominally)you might want to check your own blinders. While at least the Cubans gave a shit about apartheid, what was the US doing?..
You really need to check it out, and a couple of supporting comments. Castro wasn't trying to help communists take over countries in Africa, he was nobly resisting apartheid. All that stuff that's been recorded about the appalling state of 'health care' in Cuba for all but communist party members and rich foreigners? Lies, all of it. Etc. Oh, and do note that the USSR wasn't EVER REALLY a communist country.

I'd say those people have their head up their ass, but even in that much crap they'd have to have some contact with reality. And the one clown quoting Kofi Annan as a great authority on right and wrong... I wonder if he even has contact with oxygen.

In another of the series of "Troops the major media

will never tell you about", also known as 'Guys who need a prescription jockstrap to carry that weight', I found this at the Emperor's place:
Staff Sgt. Covel moved under fire to a rooftop forward of the safe house and settled into his battle station, alone except for one still anonymous SF operator who provided security for him.

“I set up my radios and requested air support,” he said. “I figured that if I was in front, then all of my guys would be behind me – so there wouldn’t be the risk of them being hit by our planes.”
...
“I don’t feel that I did anything different than anyone else in that same situation would have done. Any of the other guys who do my job would have done the same thing.” Staff Sgt. Covel said.

Apparently the Green Berets, who Covel spent 36 hours exposed in his “own little corner of hell” protecting with his airstrikes, were slightly more impressed. They were the ones who submitted him for the decoration.

Go. Read. Brave men and lots of dead jihadis.

In another of the series of

Imagine the cops setting up metal detectors on the street-

all for your own good, of course. But if you're in (formerly)Great Britain, you don't have to imagine it:
High-profile plans to tackle knife crime with airport-style scanners have been called into question after it emerged that each police force will be given just two of the new metal detectors.

The Home Office's proposal for the scanners was thrown further into doubt when the police officer in charge of the plan urged pubs and clubs to buy them themselves.
Yeah, the gummint won't pay for enough to keep you peasants in line people safe, so we want the pub to do it for us. All for their own good, of course.

There were also concerns it might be difficult to force people to walk through the scanners on the street if they did not want to, because of stop and search rules which require them to fill out a consent form first.
"The peasants don't have to just do it when ordered, damn their eyes!"

Further down we find this bit if intelligent thought:
Jan Berry, the chairman of the Police Federation which represents rank and file officers, said the proposals were "nothing more than sticking plaster solutions that do nothing to actually address the root of the problem, and the growing lawlessness and loutish behaviour we are experiencing on the streets".
which is encouraging. Except that it's followed by this:
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: "We called for this in 2004 and, despite ample opportunity and repeated promises by the Government, all we have for years on now is 500 machines.

"That is just a drop in the ocean compared with the thousands of schools, pubs, clubs and other target premises where possession of knives lead to violent crime."

No, you socialist jackass, knives do NOT 'lead to violent crime'; thugs and people with no concern for the lives of others do. Here we see the continuance of the real problem in this approach: blaming objects for what people do. Knives can't 'lead' to anything, any more than guns or cars or tire irons do, but it's so much easier and more politically correct for you to blame objects than to actually hold the bad guys responsible. You friggin' idiots.

I wrote once about one of the most heart-wrenching things I've ever seen, a 14-year-old kid who'd just been grabbed for murder. His first offense and arrest- theft- had happened when he was 9, and he got a nasty talking to. Every step from there, from theft to damaging property to assault, etc., all he ever got was a slap on the hand and probation. Now he was 14 and had murdered someone, and the judge had just informed him he'd be certified as an adult for trial, which meant life in prison if convicted. Two deputies were having to carry the little bastard out of court, he was screaming in flat terror, and I think may have lost control of his bladder because he was actually going to be held to account and it had never happened before. He was scared to death, and rightly so. But due to his never having had a severe kick in the ass, or ANY real penalty before from parent/s or government, no matter what he did(because he's only a CHILD, you heartless pig, how can you punish him?!?) he'd never seen any downside to his actions. Until it finally caught up to him. So people had been injured and finally killed by him, his life was screwed, and a lot of the people responsible for this occurring were bitching and whining racism and 'nobody cares' and all the other bullshit.

Mr. Shadow Home Secretary, start dealing with the bad people, and start teaching kids that there are rules- real ones, not PC bullcrap ones- and penalties for breaking them; you'll be amazed what a difference it'll make.

First they drive people to drink,

and then that costs too much.
The price of a cup of tea is forecast to reach a record high while the cost of a pint of beer could soon hit £4, industry experts warned yesterday.

Shortages of tea from Kenya - currently in the grip of post-election political turmoil - and soaring malted barley prices are behind the increases.

I just looked it up, £4 works out to $15.54 $7.77*a pint. No wonder the Englishman(found this at his place) and Mr. Free Market tend to be pissed off about things.

Last time I bought a six-pack of Sam Adams it was $7, if that went the same as the above it'd go to... WAY too damn much.

*Roger pointed out the currency converter I originally used is screwed. By a considerable margin.

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.