Several things to note

Son is off with friends, so I'm sitting here all alone and browsing around, and found some stuff.

You know, he does kind of have that look...


I'd not heard of Cherry River Blog before, but Joe Huffman had a link to this on the Mumbai attack. One part:
The overwhelming characteristic of this attack was the dependence upon there being both an unarmed citizenry and an almost-unarmed, and unaggressive, local police and security apparatus. These attackers knew full well they faced no opposition whatsoever, a concept fully borne out in the real-life results. They were able to land, advance, control territory, move freely, and command local conditions with veritable ease. There was no opposition. They had practically nothing to fear, in terms of the success of the terror attack.
I'm reminded of this article from (fG)Britain a year ago on what disarming the honest has done; one of the important paragraphs:
We are so self-congratulatory about our officially disarmed society, and so dismissive of colonial rednecks, that we have forgotten that within living memory British citizens could buy any gun – rifle, pistol, or machinegun – without any licence. When Dr Watson walked the streets of London with a revolver in his pocket, he was a perfectly ordinary Victorian or Edwardian. Charlotte Brontë recalled that her curate father fastened his watch and pocketed his pistol every morning when he got dressed; Beatrix Potter remarked on a Yorkshire country hotel where only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver; in 1909, policemen in Tottenham borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by (and were joined by other armed citizens) when they set off in pursuit of two anarchists unwise enough to attempt an armed robbery. We now are shocked that so many ordinary people should have been carrying guns in the street; the Edwardians were shocked rather by the idea of an armed robbery.

And from a current article:
For anybody who still believed in it, the Mumbai shootings exposed the myth of “gun control”. India had some of the strictest firearms laws in the world, going back to the Indian Arms Act of 1878, by which Britain had sought to prevent a recurrence of the Indian Mutiny.

The guns used in last week’s Bombay massacre were all “prohibited weapons” under Indian law, just as they are in Britain. In this country we have seen the irrelevance of such bans (handgun crime, for instance, doubled here within five years of the prohibition of legal pistol ownership), but the largely drug-related nature of most extreme violence here has left most of us with a sheltered awareness of the threat. We have not yet faced a determined and broad-based attack.

The Mumbai massacre also exposed the myth that arming the police force guarantees security. Sebastian D’Souza, a picture editor on the Mumbai Mirror who took some of the dramatic pictures of the assault on the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station, was angered to find India’s armed police taking cover and apparently failing to engage the gunmen.


With Zimbabwe going into the toilet trap, with cholera now helping things along, Mostly Cajun takes note of what Mugabe and socialism has done to the place. I'll add, Mugabe lost the first election and(as I recall) made so many threats and screamed so much to people like Jimmy Carter that a second election was held. Despite the first having been noted a remarkably clean. And, of course, Mugabe won the second. Maybe this marxist jackass would have come into power later anyway, but still... I'd hope Carter felt shame for what he'd helped along here, but I don't think he's capable of either shame or thinking he ever did a thing wrong in his life.

Speaking of the son, somebody pointed me to this
which does remind me of something; namely, his mother calling/writing me to note "Your son did/did not/won't (fill in the blank)." To a lesser extent there were "Your daughter" calls/e-mails, but for the most part it was son. The last while it's been "There's another box here for your son" when something he ordered arrived.

As an aside, this is another marker of how much things have changed. In WWII and Korea, a letter from a relative in the war zone was a happy thing, and you might get one fairly regularly- as in every few weeks- depending on where stationed, etc. Vietnam, pretty much the same. And so on, until now you can get e-mails from an FOB in Outer Bugtussle and an occasional phone call. Amazing, isn't it?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some ammo to load.

It seems H-S Precision has issued an "We're sorry you're

dumb enough to be offended"-type non-apology. And Lawdog notes the history(if you're not aware of it all) that made this testimonial so upsetting to so many.

Back to cast bullets for .303 and 7.62x54

Had the chance to slug barrels on a #4 MkI Enfield and a P14, both with very nice rifling. The #4 showed a bore just a fraction larger than .309, the P14 .309". Both much tighter than the #1 MkIII I tried the cast bullets in; I'm looking forward to seeing how the cast loads shoot in them. Considering the bore of my M39 slugs out at .310" as I recall, and shot quite nicely with them, I think these other two will work nicely with the loads.

If you've not heard of it before, slugging the bore means pushing a soft lead slug down the bore so you can measure the exact diameter across the grooves. In this case I used pieces of 00 buckshot. Grease the bore, tap the shot into the bore at the muzzle and then carefully drive it all the way through. Catch the slug at the breech end and you can use a caliper or micrometer to measure it. Ideally you want a very soft lead to make the job easier, I've heard of a lot of people using small fishing sinkers to do it; I actually had the buckshot so I used that. I have a long brass rod I used to drive them through. One guy suggested get a dowel rod just small enough to fit the bore, cut into 6" lengths; get the slug started, tap on the first piece until it's down to the muzzle, then use the second piece, etc. That method does work nicely. If the bore is smooth, once the slug is started it should push the rest of the way without much difficulty.

Just some Sunday morning stuff I ran across

First, if The Obama thinks this is unproven and wants to kill it, he's far more stupid/defeatist/on the other side than I could have believed. As Ace points out another successful test of an actual deployed system; no matter how much the 'we should be defenseless to show our good will' morons whine, it won't change that.

Let's see, Insty notes that Rep. William Jefferson(Corrupt Evil Party Slimeball-LA) lost his reelection bid. The fact that the Evil Party didn't disown him, indeed defended this clown, tells you all you need to know about it. The fact that a lot of voters, knowing of the evidence against him, still wanted him back in the office, tells you just how stupid a lot of voters are. And the fact that a bunch of Stupid Party members howled and whined with Jefferson when the FBI showed up with a search warrant for his office("Our offices are more sacred than your homes, after all!") tells you a bunch of these clowns- on both sides- have been in DC far too long.

Ace also pointed to this editorial, which I can't really argue with.
Enough. After the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the plane downed in Pennsylvania, the endless suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks in Israel, the Bali bombings, the synagogue bombing in Tunisia, the LAX shootings, the Kenyan hotel bombing, the Casablanca attacks, the Turkey synagogue attacks, the Madrid bombings, the London bombings, and the repeated attacks in India culminating in the Mumbai massacres – among literally thousands of others – it's about time that the West got the point: We're in a war. Our enemies are determined. They will not quit just because we offer them Big Macs, Christina Aguilera CDs, or even the freedom to vote. They will not quit just because we ensure that they have Qurans in their Guantanamo cells, or because we offer to ban "The Satanic Verses" (as India did). They will only quit when they are dead. It is our job to make them so, and to eliminate every obstacle to their destruction.
Terrorism is a tactic; the destruction of anyone and any nation that doesn't fall into line with the religious beliefs of the islamic terrorists is the strategy. And everyone better take note of this. I know, with our media often doing everything it collectively can to ignore/cover up that there's a serious religious- specifically Islam- backing to the terrorists, it's difficult at times. Especially with the 'PC at any cost' morons willing to excuse anything done by anyone(except us). As
notes,
Oh, I don't know about that. In fact, you'd be hard pressed from most news reports to figure out the bloodshed was "linked" to any religion, least of all one beginning with "I-" and ending in "-slam." In the three years since those British bombings, the media have more or less entirely abandoned the offending formulations – "Islamic terrorists," "Muslim extremists" – and by the time of the assault on Mumbai found it easier just to call the alleged perpetrators "militants" or "gunmen" or "teenage gunmen," as in the opening line of this report in The Australian: "An Adelaide woman in India for her wedding is lucky to be alive after teenage gunmen ran amok."
Kids today, eh? Always running amok in an aimless fashion.
The veteran British TV anchor Jon Snow, on the other hand, opted for the more cryptic locution "practitioners." "Practitioners" of what, exactly?
Hard to say. And getting harder. For the Wall Street Journal, Tom Gross produced a jaw-dropping round-up of Mumbai media coverage: The discovery that, for the first time in an Indian terrorist atrocity, Jews had been attacked, tortured and killed produced from the New York Times a serene befuddlement: "It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."
...
Are they stranger or weirder than their killers? Two "inflamed moderates" entered the Chabad House, shouted "Allahu Akbar!," tortured the Jews and murdered them, including the young rabbi's pregnant wife. Their 2-year-old child escaped because of a quick-witted (non-Jewish) nanny who hid in a closet and then, risking being mowed down by machine-gun fire, ran with him to safety.

The Times was being silly in suggesting this was just an "accidental" hostage opportunity – and not just because, when Muslim terrorists capture Jews, it's not a hostage situation, it's a mass murder-in-waiting. The sole surviving "militant" revealed that the Jewish center had been targeted a year in advance. The 28-year-old rabbi was Gavriel Holtzberg. His pregnant wife was Rivka Holtzberg. Their orphaned son is Moshe Holtzberg, and his brave nanny is Sandra Samuels. Remember their names, not because they're any more important than the Indians, Britons and Americans targeted in the attack, but because they are an especially revealing glimpse into the pathologies of the perpetrators.
Read the whole thing, it's worth it.

And, speaking of slimy little dirtbag terrorists- and incidentally, why the New York Effing Times is going down the toilet- we come to William Ayers, liar and slimy little terrorist. As Jules notes,
In fairness, maybe Ayers should be allowed some parsing. Just because Ayers started a terrorist organization, postured a bit, used a lot of heated rhetoric, carried out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism against monuments to war and racism, and then other people who are part of his group, making other mistakes of excess and similarly suffering imaginative failure, killed people, does that really make Ayers a terrorist?
If you're not a NYEffingT progressive apologist and miserable excuse for a reporter, the answer is YES. Add in the fact that this "I didn't kill anyone" pimple on the anus of humanity was preparing to set off antipersonnel bombs at a dance at Fort Dix on the night that bad design(Ayer's design, let us not forget) or carelessness or good luck for everyone else caused his little minions to blow up the Weather Underground safe house, and the answer is HELL yes.

Ayers, if you ever read this, you suck. You're a murderer, a terrorist and a slimeball of the lowest order.

On happier subjects, have spent a bit of time with the son so far. He's been seeing friends and generally enjoying being home for a bit before heading to see the wife(yes, there's a reason he hasn't yet headed for her so fast there's a slight vacuum left behind). Just a little talk about stuff that happened in Iraq; I won't push it, he wants to talk about stuff we'll get to it.

It's kind of odd; he's mid-20's now, he's travelled to many places and seen and done many things(hell, my The General series that's been to Iraq and back has travelled further than I have at this point), but on some points he's still the kid. No, I don't try to treat him like a kid, he's definitely not one, but some of the kid still shows through. To me at least.

Speaking of 'This database and your information is secure',

bullcrap.
The state worker who unwittingly ran an improper child-support check on the man known as Joe the Plumber told lawmakers yesterday that a deputy director later "dictated" how she was supposed to cover it up.

Vanessa Niekamp, an administrator for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' Office of Child Support and a 15-year state employee, said that when Deputy Director Doug Thompson came into her office, "He appeared very upset, his neck was bright red, and he was shaking. He closed my door."

Thompson told her she must write an e-mail to the agency's information-security officer, and then "dictated word for word" what she wrote, Niekamp said. He also reminded her that she could be fired at any time, she said.
Situation: "Oh God, there could be real trouble about this; let's get it covered up quick!" As opposed to, oh, trying to do the right thing about it. Couldn't have that, no...

Happily, Niekamp actually seems to care about things like the law, and security:
"Within an hour, I took the rest of the day off -- again using my vacation time -- and went directly to the office of the inspector general. I told them everything I knew about what happened."
Niekamp took another day of vacation yesterday to testify before the House State Government and Elections Committee about legislation that calls for the firing of any unclassified state employee who improperly accesses confidential personal information.

And the only thing keeping Niekamp from being screwed over is the wide public knowledge of this crap. And you know her 'superiors' will try it anyway, most likely; it's the standard crooked/scared/jerk bureaucrat response to someone telling an inconvenient truth.

I don't like that 'unclassified' part; it should be 'any state employee'.

"Doug told me that the person Carri had asked me to look up was Joe the Plumber -- the one who was talked about in the national news. He said he needed my help explaining something," Niekamp said.
"Doug then told me I must write an e-mail to our agency's information-security officer to explain why the file had been accessed. He turned my computer screen so he could see it and dictated word for word what he wanted me to write. ...
"He then told me that we needed to make sure that we answer questions about what happened the same way, so that our versions were not different from each other. Before he said that, he reminded me that I was an unclassified employee -- which, as you may know, is someone who can be fired without cause."
Niekamp said she knew the checks were improper because the staff undergoes training and must read and sign a form explaining when they can access confidential and personal information maintained by the department.
"Both Doug and Carri can access the (child-support) system and could have accessed a file without my involvement," Niekamp said. "To this day, I do not understand why they asked me to look at this information when they could have easily done this themselves."
Because they're used to telling other people to do things, and it wasn't until the heat started that they realized they'd screwed the pooch. So they needed you to cover up for them, and threw in the threat of firing to back it up.

Which comes back to the 'unclassified' bullcrap; someone like that can be fired at any time for any reason, this needs to address the classified employees, the people in charge of this mess.

Now we'll see if the authorities there actually care about trying to protect these damned systems from abuse.

Columbia Univerity: the place of speech codes and

'You will be PC or else' attitude, seems to have a problem with the concept of other people owning property. And, unsurprisingly for a bunch of progressives, are willing to steal it under color of law.

Yes, the link's REALLY fixed this time. No clue why it took three times to take.

Wanted a copy? Monster Hunter International

now available for preorder.

I did my previous post just before heading for the airport

to pick up the son, who's home on leave.

Bloggage the next couple of days may be rather light.

Can you imagine the kind of disregard for life and responsibility

that led to all those police with absolutely no practice with their arms?

Think about that. Not just the general stupidity, but the overall. India is a big country, lots of people of many beliefs, which has had problems with terrorism for many years. They’ve had bombings and mass murders, the whole works. And yet their police had no practice with their arms.

What kind of uncaring stupidity can look at their situation, write laws that the police SHALL have dedicated ranges and SHALL meet training specs, and then provide neither ranges nor ammo, or the money to obtain them?

And you know, without question, that some of the same people responsible for this garbage will be among those blaming the police for not performing to the specs they’re supposed to. Wonderful, isn’t it, being a slimeball politician? Refuse to give people the places and supplies needed to train, and then blame them for not being trained when things blow up. I have no idea what the rules are on things like airsoft guns, but there’s a fair chance that if someone had suggested buying some of those so they could at least practice in an office with them, that would’ve been turned down: “What do you mean, wanting to spend money on toys? Do you not have have it in the law requiring you to have a firing range and practice with your real guns? Don’t give me squealing about no money for ranges or ammunition, it is required! That is your problem!” Etc.

Uncle, I think, linked to a story of some officer complaining that the subguns some of the terrorists had ‘are far more deadly than the AK47s we were issued’. Which is either CYA whining, or another result of bad or no training. If you’re not familiar with them, the MP5 submachinegun uses the standard 9mm(9x19mm if you want to be picky) handgun cartridge; the AK47 and clones use the 7.62x39 rifle cartridge. While the MP5 has better sights, the AK is more powerful and, for the ranges involved, quite accurate enough. IF you’re trained. IF you know how to shoot. IF you have some actual idea of what you’re doing, and what TO do. Which seems to have been the most basic problem.

Which brings up the question, what else haven’t they trained on? What other gaping holes in their capabilities are waiting to show up? Because you know damn well that if they haven’t had any training with their arms, they’ve also had little or no real training in other areas; training in crowd control or responding to a disaster or attack or riot should include use of arms- if nothing else when to and not to use- and if you don’t train in that…

Without question the special response units, the Black Cats and so forth, had ammo and places to train, but that just takes you back to the question ‘Who is there first when something like this happens?’* Unless there’s an alert and the special units are out, the first official people on the scene are the local cops. Who were not trained with/had not practiced with their arms. At all, from the sound of it.

Which brings us back to the feckless morons responsible for requiring training and places and supplies to train with, while not bothering to provide money and/or authorization to get the stuff. I wonder if they feel any guilt at all for their part in this?


* We can forget the fact that some armed citizens just might make a difference; India is one of those places where the peasants are greatly frowned on for even wanting to own a firearm(from what I’ve heard you have to get a government permit for a pellet gun, for that matter), let alone carry one; a lady noted in one article was saying that it’d taken damn near forever to get a permit for her firearm, and now the government wouldn’t allow her a permit for ammunition.

MADD and other prohibitionists

Take a look and see what you think.

By the way, is Glenn Beck giving anyone else an urge

to drink in the morning? Overall I've always liked his show. But lately... he gets started on "We're all going to die, or be stomped flat by the politicians here and foreign screwing the economy, and if you save and prepare enough there might be enough left after it burns out to try rebuilding", and I'm ready to say "Screw this, will you shut the hell up?"

Awww, the CNN guy actually asked Obama a question

and is pissed at the answer.

I have a question, you miserable excuse for a reporter, where were you with questions DURING THE DAMNED CAMPAIGN?

If you think this is going to make us trust you now...

This brings the term 'lack of preparation'

to a whole new level:
MUMBAI: The state constabulary was grossly unprepared to deal with the worst-ever terror attacks on the metropolis because of an acute shortage
of weapons and ammunition.
How bad a shortage?
In the absence of a firing range and of ammunition for practice, members of the law enforcement agencies have not opened fire in the last ten years. ‘‘I’ve been in the police force for a long time, but I had no occasion to open fire for practice,’’ a senior inspector of police said.

Ten bloody years. Not just officially, remember; India is one of those places they make it as hard as they can to allow the peasants- which includes the police- to privately own a firearm, so there's no chance for them to practice on their own, either. And if the government isn't willing to see that you practice, why should you worry about it, right? After all, apparently the firearm is mostly a badge of office as opposed to an actual fighting weapon.

The manual also prescribes mandatory training for all officials, especially shooting practice at the firing range. According to a senior IPS official, the norms prescribed in the manual now exist only on paper because of the acute shortage of ammunition for practice and the non-availability of a firing range.

As per the rules, every district should have a firing range exclusively for the police. But official records indicate that more than half the state’s districts have no independent firing range.

‘‘We have constables who have not opened fire even for practice ever since their recruitment,’’ the official said.
There is no excuse for this. Period. None at all.

So we know the truth, the reason so many of them didn't fire at the bad guys was they didn't know how. And how many people died because of it?

Here's a little further on the "Be nice to the dirtbag politician"

push from Sen. Dick Durbin(Wonder what he's hiding?-IL):
Durbin couldn't recall writing a president asking him to step into a case.

The former lead prosecutor in Ryan's trial, Patrick Collins, said a commutation is supposed to be an extraordinary measure in an extraordinary circumstance.

"To me, what is extraordinary is his defiance," Collins said, citing Lura Lynn Ryan's comments to the Sun-Times last week. She said if her husband had to do it over, "he would govern the same way as he did before."

Collins said the severity of Ryan's crime and lack of remorse were reasons he should serve out his sentence.

"This state of all states doesn't need the message that commutation might send," Collins said.
Yeah, it's not like IL is known for honest politicians and lack of corruption.

The former GOP governor was convicted in 2006 in a racketeering fraud scheme that included his efforts as secretary of state to quash a probe into a crash that killed six children of the Willis family in 1994. Durbin called on Ryan to apologize to the public and to the Willises.

A lawyer for the Rev. Scott and Janet Willis said the couple opposes any leniency for Ryan.

"There has not been one single expression of remorse in any way," said attorney Joe Power. "They're very much opposed to any type of pardon or commutation, especially in light of what George Ryan's wife quotes him as saying, that he has a clear conscience and would do the same things over again. I mean that's absurd."

Let me note this from 'Best of the Web' yesterday:
Ryan would later insist--angrily and often--that the trucker, Ricardo Guzman, had been legally licensed. No problem here in Illinois. In 1998, George Ryan was elected governor of Illinois on the strength of that lie about the Willis case. An internal memo later established that, just eight days after the Willis tragedy, at least four officials in Ryan's office were aware that "there is a strong possibility that this individual obtained his [commercial driver's license] illegally." Elsewhere at least three other people died in crashes involving truckers improperly licensed by Ryan's staff. . . .
Bad enough that Ryan's minions sold driver's licenses to bribers--some of that blood money wound up in Ryan's campaign coffers. Bad enough that Ryan gave his pals illicit influence over the conduct of state business--according to prosecutors, the cronies themselves pocketed a combined $4.77 million in sweetheart deals. Bad enough they rewarded Ryan with gifts and favors--some of that lucre went to Ryan's family members, spreading a now indelible stain from the discredited governor to his loved ones.
Ryan has claimed all along that he did nothing wrong and that he knew nothing about the crimes of his compatriots. His evident attitude toward his own corrupt acts mirrored the phrase his lawyer frequently used during the trial's closing arguments: "Who cares?"

While it's possible that Durbin is actually showing compassion, it's also possible, and more likely, that this is part of some deal with somebody. Either case, the answer to this pardon request should be "HELL no!"

And, as you probably guessed, of COURSE Mumbai

was our damn fault.
In his CNN interview, he was no less clear. What happened in Mumbai, he told the interviewer, was a product of the U.S. war on terrorism, that "our policies, our foreign policies" had alienated the Muslim population, that we had "gone after the wrong people" and inflamed moderates. And "that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay."
Because we all know moderates set up mass murders when their feelings are hurt.

What I want to know is why anyone is asking this moron his opinion, let alone giving it air time?

I will note that (fG)Britain has a fair share of worthless

excuses for lawmen:
A judge has condemned an apparent police assault on a soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall, 24, was thrown to the ground by three uniformed officers after a night out with friends and punched eight times.

The violent arrest - caught on CCTV - shocked a crown court judge, who called it appalling.
What makes this crap even worse than that sounds?
Eventually, Mr Aspinall was bundled into a police van in handcuffs, with injuries to his face and neck. He was taken to Wigan police station and kept in custody for 20 hours.

He was charged with two counts of police assault and a public order offence.

On September 22, at Wigan magistrates' court, the officers read statements claiming Mr Aspinall had been behaving violently.

Despite viewing the footage, magistrates found him guilty of the assaults, sentenced him to community service and gave him a suspended-prison sentence. They also ordered him to pay £250 compensation.
So add 'miserable excuse for a jurist' to the plagues.

He lodged an appeal against the conviction and on November 13 at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Phipps saw the footage and asked: 'Where is this man of violence? I am shocked and appalled at the level of police violence shown here.'

The judge said he had 'great concerns' about the CCTV footage and questioned the truthfulness of the officers' statements.

'I would go as far as to say the statements contain untruths,' he added.
Gee, you think maybe?

Sounds like the police(there and here both, I'll add) need a refresher in Mr. Peel's Nine Principles.

Well, it worked for one

and not for the other. Cast bullet load report.

With the cost of things, I finally decided to get a mold for a bullet that'll work for .303 and 7.62x54r. Found this one at Grafs, and since I already had a .311 Lee sizer, decided to try it first. Used a .30 caliber Hornady gas check and ran a batch through.

Test rifles were a #1 MkIII Enfield for .303 and the Finn M39 for 7.62x54. Results, as the title says. The Enfield shot bloody lousy with it, the Finn liked it. As in 1.5" group at 30 yards(indoor range; no time to go to the outdoor range, and it's cold and windy outside). Recoil in both was very light.

After I got home I slugged the bores. The Enfield, which groups pretty well with ball, came out about .312, which explains the lousy groups; the bullet just wouldn't fit the bore. The Finn came out about .309 to .310, so the bullet fit it pretty well.

I know where I can get the use of a #4 MkI Enfield that has a tighter bore, and a Mosin Nagant 91/30(bore unknown) to try these bullets in. The next larger sizer Lee shows is .314, which'd be too much for the M39(I think) but about right for the #1.

Dad has a Lyman luber-sizer, which we put a heater on a few years back so we could use some of the hard lubes, and it's great and we use it a bunch; but you have to get a sizer die(about $22) for each size and the proper top punch(about $9 now) to fit the bullet; different bullet profile, probably need another top punch. The Lee has to be used(yeah, you can get around that but lets keep it simple) with their Liquid Alox lube, but the whole setup costs $15, which includes a bottle of lube, and it mounts on your single-stage loading press; no top punch needed. If it turns out need the larger size I'll get one of the .314 sets and try it.

There's enough idiocy going on out there to merit

just wandering around a bit. Like the fact that CNN, along with being biases, seems to have no working brain cells:
From her home in Penarth yesterday, Mrs Shaw said: “We have been asked by the British terror police not to talk to the press.

“But the reason I would not want to talk to anyone is because our safety was actually compromised by CNN, which broadcast where we were.

“The terrorists were watching CNN and they came down from where they were in a lift after hearing about us on television. For that reason I would appeal to the media to be very careful about what they broadcast.
It has to be asked: in this age of Blackberries and so forth, how damn smart do you have to be, how much thinking is required, to consider not putting out information that will help the bad guys?

You know how worried Rangel is about the House investigation? Not at all:
High-ranking members of Congress were flown to a lush Caribbean resort this month for a three-day conference planned and paid for by several of the country's most powerful corporations - a violation of federal ethics rules, critics say.

Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended the 13th annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in sun-drenched St. Maarten, including embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel and New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne.
Three guesses- and you won't need two- as to whether Nancy Most Honest Congress Of All Pelosi will do anything except maybe make excuses.

Mark Steyn points out(again) some of the PC-based stupidity that infects the major media:
There was a photograph that appeared in many of the British papers, taken by a Reuters man and captioned by the news agency as follows: “A suspected gunman walks outside the premises of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or Victoria Terminus railway station.” The photo of the “suspected gunman” showed a man holding a gun. We don’t know much about him — he might be Muslim or Episcopalian, he might be an impoverished uneducated victim of western colonialist economic oppression or a former vice-president of Lehman Bros embarking on an exciting midlife career change — but one thing we ought to be able to say for certain is that a man pointing a gun is not a “suspected gunman” but a gunman. “This kind of silly political correctness infects reporters and news services world-wide,” wrote John Hinderaker of Powerline. “They think they’re being scrupulous — the man hasn’t been convicted of being a gunman yet! — when in fact they’re just being foolish. But the irrational conviction that nothing can be known unless it has been determined by a court and jury isn’t just silly, it’s dangerous.”

Yes, as a matter of fact, our culture IS better; he's right about that.

Anyone who still makes excuses for these sorry bastards should be considered incapable of adult reasoning:
Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said: "It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the hostages were executed in cold blood," one doctor said.

The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again," he said.

Corroborating the doctors' claims about torture was the information that the Intelligence Bureau had about the terror plan. "During his interrogation, Ajmal Kamal said they were specifically asked to target the foreigners, especially the Israelis," an IB source said.
India DOES seem to have the right idea on some things:
A senior National Security Guard officer, who had earlier explained the operation in detail to rediff.com, said the commandos went all out after they ascertained that there were no more hostages left. When asked if the commandos attempted to capture them alive at that stage, he replied: "Unko bachana kaun chahega (Who will want to save them)?"
Damn straight; now if they'll take the step of burying them with bacon or pig guts...

And last, Sen. Dick Durban(Evil Party Slimeball-IL) is truly a proper Illinois politician:
Yet this was not merely more of the old Durbin passive-aggressiveness. There was nothing tepid or formally indifferent about it. This one was awfully active.

It was as if the Combine reached out and grabbed the people of Illinois and slapped us hard with a backhand across the mouth, letting us know who runs things, the sting of the knuckles on our nose to remind us that Illinois is not Camelot.

Ryan betrayed the people, who have a right to expect honest service from their government. His corruption also left a body count. Nine people, including the six Willis children, were killed in crashes with truck drivers who paid bribes for licenses when Ryan was Illinois secretary of state.

Dozens of others in his office went to prison before him, convicted of selling licenses for bribes, with much of the money going into Ryan's campaign fund so he could be elected governor. And others were ruined.

And now his allies want to redeem him, though Ryan refuses to acknowledge his specific crimes? In what universe does redemption come without cost, where cynicism so casually dresses itself up as mercy and compassion?

Here. In this place. In Illinois.
I'll add, "In the Land of Obama."

"Your records will be safe and secure;

unless the State Police want to go fishing through them."
The Delaware State Police have been conducting secret background checks of some gun owners since 2001, a process known as "superchecks" that may violate federal law.

The checks have resulted in confiscation of weapons, some for legitimate reasons, but have subjected many citizens to a search of mental health records that in most cases police would be unable to access.
"Because We are Only Ones, and the law doesn't apply to us if we want to try to dig something up on you."

I've said it before: every time some politician or LE official demands a new database of people and promises "It will be safe and secure", I don't know anymore whether to laugh, cry or scream and reach for a pitchfork.

Through a request made under the state Freedom of Information Act, The News Journal obtained the results of nearly 4,000 background checks conducted by FTAP from 1998 to 2008 in which gun purchases were denied by state police. The state must destroy records of approved gun purchases within 60 days under a law designed to prevent agencies from compiling lists of gun owners.
We already know from the previous story about the Delaware State Police that they were violating that law
The FTAP program was created by lawmakers, and funded by taxpayers, to aid licensed gun dealers, but The News Journal found that more than 10 percent of background checks denied by FTAP were requested by state troopers, not by gun dealers attempting to authorize a legal sale.

And check this out:
Attorney General Beau Biden's office is aware of superchecks, but would not comment on the practice.

"In terms of whether we condone the practice, our response is any additional response would violate attorney-client privilege," said Biden's spokesman, Jason Miller. In Mac Leish's correspondence with The News Journal, he sent a copy to acting Attorney General Richard Gebelein, who is running the office while Biden is in Iraq.
Gee, and here I thought the people of the state of Delaware were his 'clients', not the State Police who're violating the law. And that name, Biden... where have I heard that recently?

I repeat: this is another case of a law enforcement agency violating the law, and getting away with it, and the people who're supposed to be riding herd on them making excuses and trying to make it go away instead of fixing the damn problem. And we're supposed to trust these people?

So CVS Pharmacy can do without any of my money

since they're acting with the gun ban weenies:
Guns are completely safe -- as long as they're unloaded, locked away, and never touched. But as soon as a bullet enters the chamber and a hand nears the trigger, guns become a serious hazard to children. In the United States 2,852 children and teenagers died of gunshot wounds in 2004, and more than four times that many suffered acute injuries -- many of them in the home.

Of course, the surest way to protect your child from guns is to keep them out of his life. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly urges parents not to store guns at home.
And, as proof that bogus numbers will be repeated forever by these people,
If you think you need a gun for protection, consider this: According to the AAP, a gun in the house is 43 times more likely to kill a friend or family member than an intruder.
And so forth.

CVS, goodbye. Which I just told them with their contact form.

If this is indeed what happened, they shouldn't be fired;

these sorry excuses for men and lawmen should be beaten with clubs or whips. THEN fired.
The guardsmen, both of whom have served two tours of duty in Iraq, were in the Dells for weekend training. Two police officers stopped them in the early morning of June 1.

The suit says officers Wayne Thomas and Collin Jacobson accused the guardsmen of urinating in public and pointed out a wet spot in an alley that they thought was urine. The guardsmen denied having relieved themselves there.

In order to prove that it was not their urine and avoid citations, the officers made Anderson and Schiman lick the ground, the lawsuit claims. Schiman also was made to eat a plant that was drenched in the liquid, it states.

In most circumstances I'd first think "C'mon, even the most brain-dead dumbass cop around...", but I noticed where this happened: Madison, Wisconsin. Coming out of that place, I can believe it could happen.

I'd say thanks to Xavier for pointing out this marfi, but this just pisses me off too much.

Added: I noticed this the other day, but for some reason didn't comment on it then:
The lawsuit states that Thomas, 19, was fired the same day as the incident and Jacobson, 20, was suspended for two weeks without pay. Both were limited term police officers.
How the HELL were a 19 and a 20-year-old in police uniform, carrying sidearms and on patrol? That's effing illegal, so far as I know. And it increases the chances of the incident having occurred as the suit alleges.

Speaking of police and politics

(which I wasn't really, but who cares?) take a look at this, one of many Theo's linked to the last couple of days. Basically, various people were really ticked about leaks of information and called in the cops. Which is a mess, which became more so when it turned out that(among other things) they used anti-terrorism cops in the arrest/raid.

He's got lots of links on this. Do be aware that his site ranges from mildly to strongly NSFW, depending on the standards used.

The Seven Stages of an

Undercover Investigation. Worth reading. Two points to note:
First, there really are good guys in ATF, who care about the law and catching actual bad guys.
Second, along with bad general agents, there are a lot of bad/dumbass/treacherous people in the upper reaches:
The root of Dobyns’ problems may go back to the publication of a book about the Hells Angels, another recreational group of fun-loving motorcyclists known for their civic spirit. Sort of like the Boy Scouts on wheels. Angels of Death: Inside the Biker Gangs’ Crime Empire describes in some detail Dobyns’ infiltration of the Hell Angels, even becoming a full patch member, as part of ATF’s Operation Black Biscuit. I was told that the book’s description of undercover “sources and methods” gave ATF management a serious case of heartburn. It did not help that the federal prosecution basically fell apart when the case went to trial, with ATF management and federal prosecutors turning on each other as the mosquitoes dive-bombed their case.
That the good guys can repeatedly put their ass on the line, knowing the past history of the brass and prosecutors, is somewhat amazing. A good thing, but amazing.

Blackfive has some thoughts on the Mumbai terrorists,

and he's not buying the 'highly-trained, professional' stuff. One thing he notes was this piece from one of the pieces I linked to the other day:
"They were firing from their hips. Very professional. Very cool," says D'Souza, the newspaper's photo editor.
As he notes, that's not exactly a sign of professionalism, or even half-decent training; as he puts it, more in the line of "chimps with an evil purpose". Which was all it took for most of this, an evil purpose.

We'll find out a lot more in coming days, but I'd bet he's right; this was a bunch of murdering dirtbags with some minimal training("This curved part makes it go 'bang', don't pull it unless you want to shoot"). Which would, I think, make the part of armed citizens even more powerful should such an attack take place here; citizens who actually practice at hitting individual targets facing terrorists who spray is not really a winning combination for the bad guys. Question then becomes, will the bad guys actually train at aiming and controlled fire?

If you're new to this blog, let me put something up front: I would very much prefer the military and LE forces stop the bad guys before they get here. Or right after they cross the border. But, considering the actions of a lot of politicians and PC-minded LE(especially on the federal level), we have to face the real possibility of bad guys getting in and making such an attack; I'm really surprised it hasn't happened before, combination of luck and hard work by the good LE and military and intelligence guys. Given a choice, I'd rather I never have need of a gun for anything but collecting, target shooting and hunting.

But I don't have that choice. There are bad people in the world, ranging from muggers and home-invasion burglars to terrorists. If I decide I'd rather be unarmed, that's my choice; but the fact is I have no choice in whether or not there are threats. To me, my family, friends, people on the street. I'd rather consider the possible threats and be somewhat prepared for them. And a mess like this might be one of them.

On the GFW/Do what they tell you front,

we have this guy who wrote to Insty when he had the nerve to suggest some armed citizens might have been handy:
So you think that ordinary citizens armed with handguns would slow down a surprise attack by trained paramilitary forces armed with automatic weapons, grenades and who knows what else? I’m curious how you see that scenario playing out. Etc.

Well, I'll tell you what: I couldn't stop the whole bunch myself, but I could cause them problems, maybe take one or two out of the equation. And, being from OK, I'd have the knowledge that there's a fair chance someone else with a gun would be handy to help out. Kind of makes the job of the bad guys more difficult.

As other people point out.

Jeez, if this is accurate a lot of the police in Mumbai (updated)

need to be fired. Now.
But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
...
The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D'Souza added: "I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera."

Unarmed hotel staff putting their lives on the line to protect their guests, and armed cops refusing to, y'know, draw their sidearm and actually use it? That's friggin' disgusting.

Update: Neo-Neocon came up with this, which could indicate a combination of lack of training and political bullcrap being the cause.

'Professor of jouralism ethics'

Snork.

Wasserman asserts that the panel was assembled to the specifications of the president's most zealous supporters. However, Wassmeran skips a few steps in his accusation. He does not make out how Thornburgh and Boccardi fit the specifications of the president's most zealous supporters.

Wasserman then proceeds to argue the merits and make light of the faults of the story that ultimately led to Rather's departure from CBS:

Go read it. And discard any wonder as to how effed our media is and why, if this comes from a 'professor of journalism ethics'.

Speaking of idiot politicians,

this one's a prize:
I want to take this opportunity and use this non-event to signal a dangerous phenomenon in our society. We live in a time where everybody is free to publish whatever he or she wants on blogs at will without taking any responsibility. This exceeds mud-slinging. Together with you, other Parliament members and the government I find that it’s nearly impossible to defend yourself against this. Everyone of you is a potential victim. I would like to ask you to take a moment and think about this.
Translation: "That bitch told the truth about me, and if you don't do something about these peasants they might tell an uncomfortable truth about you, too!"

Screw you, Mr. Politician; instead of dealing with your own behavior you caused this woman to be fired. And by your actions caused yourself even more problems. Stop whining like a medieval lord who just found out the peasants are willing to burn his house down and act like a man with some sense of honor.

On the subject of the Winter War,

let's not forget one of the more amazing pieces of work by an individual:
And that skinny farmer? Well, he picked up his iron-sighted Finnish copy of the Mosin-Nagant M28, sewed himself an oversuit of white bedsheets, and (with the occasional judicious application of a KP-31 submachine gun) proceeded to personally turf between 500 and 700 Soviet solders in front of Saint Peter's desk until 06MAR1940 when a Red counter-sniper got lucky and put Simo Häyhä out of the fight for the rest of the (all-too-brief) war.
And, if I remember right, he managed to pull himself back up, spot, and kill the Soviet who shot him.

Horribly outnumbered, pushed to near-exhaustion well before the end, the Finns still kicked the crap out of the attackers through the use of their brains and courage and skill.

A bit more on the Mumbai type attacks over here and in Europe

from Canada:
When "red-teaming" potential attacks inside Western Europe and North America, counter-terror officials have often refused to even contemplate attacks like this. Mumbai-type attacks are seen as too complicated to war-game in training exercises. Moreover, the idea of a hostage situation with a gang of gunmen in a high-rise has been seen as too "Hollywood" ( Die Hard, to be more specific) to be tackled seriously.

Too 'Hollywood'. How many people writing blogs have specifically written about, worried about, exactly this kind scenario? Apparently, we're smarter than some of the officials, because any similarities to a movie didn't keep people from thinking about it.

The simple fact is that there's not enough police in any city in the world to deal with a multi-point attack like this. Which means if the bad guys get through the screen and into the country, they're half-way there to a successful attack. And considering the lack of enthusiasm by a lot of amnesty-minded socialists in DC, getting into this country isn't going to be all that difficult. Especially with the drug gangs in Mexico quite happy to help anyone in, with whatever equipment they have, for the right price. And a lot of Mexican officials happy to look the other way so long as the terrorists only attack us lousy Americans.

As Lawdog put it a while back,
"But, LawDog, I'm a CCW, not a cop. I'm not going to be responding to bank robberies."

Given that terrorism isn't going away any time soon, I'd not bet the ranch on that, but that's a discussion for another time.

Any CCW should be practising for home invasions; those who own vehicles should be practising carjacking drills; if you work in an office, office shooter drills -- all these and more.

Up until fairly recent history, most people who carry or have something for self-defense in the home or car, were worried about armed robbers and rapists and carjackers; right now, you could find yourself in the front line of fighting a terrorist attack. Not a happy thought in any way, but we'd better be considering it.

And now, on the subject of crooked politicians and their apologists,

we present Michael Barone:
I like Charlie Rangel, I think he's a decent person and a charming pol, and I'm inclined to cut him some slack because he served in the Korean War and survived some of the most horrific fighting that American men in arms have ever faced. I think it would be sad to see him lose the chairmanship of Ways and Means for sins which are more venial than mortal, just as I thought it was sad that his predecessor as chairman, Dan Rostenkowski, lost not only his chairmanship but also his seat in Congress and, for a while, his freedom for some small bits of chicanery that were dwarfed by his public policy achievements, notably in the enactment of the tax reform bill of 1986.
Yeah, that's how to do it. "He served honorably in the military, so what's some tax evasion and fraud and corruption now? Hey, I like him, he's charming; give him a break."

Bull-effing-shit, to put it bluntly. Having served in the military does not excuse corrupt/idiotic/criminal actions taken later. I don't give McCain a break on his actions as a politician; why the hell would I do so for Rangel? And Rostenkowski? Another corrupt dirtbag politician who should have had his 'small bits of chicanery' ignored because of his 'public policy achievements'.

You want to know why DC and a lot of states are so screwed up? Garbage like this: "We can ignore your theft/tax evasion/slander/etc., just be willing to make some suitable deals. And be charming, we can cover up your crimes." Mr. Barone, I DON'T CARE how 'charming' a politician is, I don't care about his actions in the past before he became a corrupt politician; honorable things done in the past do not excuse crimes committed since. Rangel has been writing tax laws that we have to follow while he was committing tax crimes(and God knows what else) and accusing other people of all kinds of crap; Rostenkowski was a standard-issue corrupt politician who managed to stay in place that long, and commit more crimes, because of people like you giving him a break.

The only break these clowns and all their corrupt brethren deserve is the one they get when they fall off the rail and the tar and feathers don't cushion the fall. They can have a cast put on before they're thrown in a cell. And if you think they're such wonderful people, why don't you dig into your own pocket and pay their tax bills and fines? After all, they're so charming and did such good work, you shouldn't mind.

Looks like the current terrorist attack in India is over

with most of the bad guys dead. And far too many innocents and security people. As to the preparations, check this line:
Two of the hotel staffers have also been rescued and the security forces are now destroying ammunition in the hotel.
These dirtbags brought lots of stuff, they prepped for this.

In the midst of this, let us take note of, and honor, some non-official people who kept their heads and displayed great courage:
Among the workers there were some whose bravery and sense of duty led them to sacrifice their own lives, witnesses said.

Prashant Mangeshikar, a guest, said that a hotel worker, identified only as Mr Rajan, had put himself between one of the gunmen and Mr Mangeshikar, his wife and two daughters.

“The man in front of my wife shielded us,” Mr Mangeshikar said. “He was a maintenance section staff member. He took the bullets.”
Others of the hotel staff hid people, locked doors to keep the terrorists out, and- in the middle of this mess- provided food and drink to those people. God knows how many were saved by them; they should be honored for their work.

On the dirtbag side, Britain better get its collective head out of its backside and deal with this:
As many as seven of the terrorists may have British connections and some could be from Leeds and Bradford where London's July 7 bombers lived, one source said.

Two Britons were among eight gunmen being held, according to Mumbai's chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. At least nine others are reportedly dead.

India has a bad situation on its hands; but I think they can deal with it. As to the long-term fallout, we'll see; but I think they're going to be doing some serious rooting out for a while.

And the question arises again:

What happens if/when a successful attack of this type happens here?

And remember, for these dirtbags every one of them being killed still counts as a success if they think we're terrified enough. Which all too many of the major media will help out on.

Ah, the GFW mindset in full flower

And coming, not surprisingly, from Chicago. In the comments on this article:
Mayor Daley is quite often wrong about a great many things and he's probably wrong to spend taxpayer money fighting a losing court battle, but he's not wrong about handgun laws.
Then why is he wrong for fighting a losing court battle?
It's perfectly reasonable for a local law to say, "You can't kill each other. You don't need a handgun."
Two different things there, guy. Which you just don't seem to understand.
What is so outrageous about a ban on handguns?
Nothing, if you don't mind trashing parts of the Constitution because they offend you. And don't mind preventing honest people from having the most effective means of self-defense.
The posters here (as well as Steve Chapman) obviously believe otherwise, but I say you're wrong.

Good citizens don't "carry" and the Supreme Court decision in the DC case was a poor reading of the 2nd amendment -- which is intended to protect militia, not individual vigilantes.
Oh, it's so nice to have you universally decide what a good citizen does. And I just love you deciding that anyone who wants to carry for self-defense is a 'vigilante'. You see, the term came from some people who literally took the law into their own hands because their local LE and government were corrupt and/or unwilling to enforce the law impartially; your deciding that desiring the most effective means of self-defense- one of the most basic human rights- means you 'take the law into your own hands' betrays either ignorance, or a truly corrupted viewpoint. As the Supremes noted, the 2nd Amendment is based in a pre-existing right of individuals, not something granted by the government; and not something granted only to minions of said government.
It's disingenuous to call the ban worthless because the murder rate is high. Do you NRA members out there really believe the local murder rate will go down once the ban is lifted and handguns become cheaper and easier to come by?
Do you actually believe this has anything to do with the price of firearms? Then you ARE deluded; and I don't think the dirtbags and gangbangers are paying the same price honest citizens do to legally buy something. And, considering what the murder and other crime rates are in your 'handguns are banned paradise', do you actually think they'd get worse if honest citizens are armed?
Shoot each other if you must. I don't want or need a gun. But I may need some Kevlar.
You don't want a gun? Fine, no problem. It's your unilateral decision that nobody should be allowed to have one that pisses me off.

And let us note the repeated "Why do you need a gun?" and "You people just want to shoot someone" attitude, repeated by GFWs all over. Seems like their attitude is that you have to have an approved(by them and their favored politicians) reason to own something; and, again, the apparent belief that the only reason someone would want a firearm is a desire to kill.

Two things here, guy. On the second, I don't want to kill anybody; I don't know anyone who does. We do like having this means of self-defense available to us and to other honest people; we don't like the viewpoint of people like you that the means of self-defense should be limited to empty hands. Or would you be open-minded enough to allow us peasants to have pepper spray or tear gas?

And, guy, there's only one proper answer in a free society to your question: None Of Your Damned Business. As long as I'm not violating the law in my use of what I own, it's nobodys damn busines what I own; not yours not the governments, nobody.

Tam noted a bit of Finland history

the other day, and Existing Thing pointed out the numbers of the Winter War:
Impressive, that.

H-S Precision did indeed print an endorsement from Lon Horiuchi

in their catalog. Just frikkin' amazing.

In that case the other day of "We've ambushed the Marines;

crap, we're screwed!" by the bad guys, Ace notes a new award: the Legolas Award for Most Orcs Killed.

And I wonder, of those who got away? How many wounded?

Just some general stuff

Here's an idea for the auto industry and unions. And as he says, any politician who votes for bailing them out should, if every again use the words 'corporate welfare', be immediately tarred and feathered and thrown out of office(which should happen to a lot of them anyway).

William Ayers is a murdering terrorist dirtbag. And anyone who tries to deny what he's done and/or make excuses for his actions is a douche.

That the feds felt such need to inject themselves into this 'cyberbullying' case is disgusting. Can you say 'trolling for headlines and power'? I knew you could. I'll further note, they don't mention what kind of 'bullying' the jerk is facing in school; considering the current climate, someone saying "You did a disgusting thing and I don't want to talk to you" would probably be considered bullying.

If you're not aware of some of the more idiotic/demented/bloodthirsty followers of the Religion of Peace attacking people in India, you're even more out of the loop than I often am. I think the reaction of the Indian government is likely to be, ah, let's say 'energetic'.

The Brits also have problems with LE who A: don't actually investigate before they go charging into people's homes and B: can't tell marijuana from things like, oh, tomatoes:
Mrs Matheson’s 47-year-old son Gus, a former driver, was looking out of the window when he spotted police cars screeching to a halt .

He said: ‘I wondered what on earth was going on. I opened the door and they more or less barged past, saying that I was growing cannabis on the windowsills.

‘I started laughing because I knew they were tomato plants but it wasn’t so funny when they frisked me and then started tearing the house apart.’
No, it wouldn't be. And, with what seems to be a standard leavetaking,
He added: ‘Despite leaving with their tails between their legs, the police didn’t even apologise.’
Hey, at least they didn't shoot the dogs this time.

The dumbass fascist-type homosexual activists demonstrate their tolerance for people who disagree with them.
The outbreak of attacks on the Mormon church since the passage of Proposition 8 has been chilling: envelopes full of suspicious white powder were sent to church headquarters in Salt Lake City; protesters showed up en masse to intimidate Mormon small-business owners who supported the measure; a website was created to identify and shame members of the church who backed it; activists are targeting the relatives of prominent Mormons who gave money to pass it, as well as other Mormons who are only tangentially associated with the cause; some have even called for a boycott of the entire state of Utah.
I wonder how the jerks involved in this will like being prosecuted under the 'hate crimes' laws they're so fond of pushing?

What was that line about "Whiskey is God's way of keeping the Irish from ruling the world'?

And ending with another case of 'Politicians who should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail':
“Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?” said Councilwoman Tonya Payne, a supporter. “This is what’s right to do, and if this means that we have to go out and have a court battle, then that’s fine … We have plenty of dead bodies coming up in our streets every single day, and that is unacceptable.”
The only good thing about crap like this is it clearly displays whose word is not worth the air used to speak it.

Happy Thanksgiving

While not talking with family and friends and either stuffing yourself or recovering from, Xerox has a site where you can send a card to a troop.

Enjoy your family, and give a thought to those at the sharp end.

Oh, it's been such a FUN day...

Start with about an hour and a half of sleep. Get up, go to work. Get off, help someone with a flat, take care of a couple of things and then get to the doctors office for the appointment. You're shown to an exam room after only a few minutes, great, right?

It would be. If you hadn't been left there, apparently forgotten, for damn near an hour after the time of the appointment. Which would have been longer, except that at that point you said the hell with it and left. It took about 30 minutes to get home, and right after you walk in the phone rings. "Mr. Firehand?"
"Yes."
"This is Doctor Jerkwad's office, are you all right?"
"Except for being left in the exam room for an hour, yes."
Pause.
"Ah, Doctor Jerkwad just checked your room and you weren't there."
"Yeah, and nobody noticed me leaving, either, did they?"
Another pause.
"I'm sorry for your wait-"
"Yeah. Thanks." Click.

I've got a couple of letters to write tomorrow.

No matter how drunk and stupid, I think words like these

would get your attention:
By-the-by, your wife's loving father has tried to post your bail. Four times. Apropos of nothing, if I were you, I'd meditate on the fact that the weather in Outer Mongolia is absolutely splendid this time of year.

I'm just saying, is all.

"What? Insecticide? No, no, we'll allow nets."

This rant is going to upset a friend, but I’m too ticked off not to blow off some heat.

Just saw a commercial from the United Methodist something. “Malaria is a bad problem.” No argument. “Malaria harms millions in Africa.” Without question. “Bednets are the answer.” What?

Oh, yeah, the whole thing is for a setup ‘Nothing But Nets’. Never mind that nets only work when you’re in the bed, and don’t have holes or get disarranged. Never mind a little DDT will run the bugs off or kill them for months. And never mind that, used properly, it doesn’t bother people or animals, and is far more affordable; oh, no, using DDT might make Mama Gaia tear up or something. And who wants the locals to actually buy something and do it themselves? I mean, don’t they know we’re supposed to save them and take care of them?

Kind of hard to describe just how pissed I was by the time that commercial finished.

Dammit.

Due to circumstances beyond my control,

since I want to keep paying the bills, I find myself semi-conscious at 0237 in the morning. So, I'll take note of a few things:
Larry Correia's description of the current firearms market:
I found 5 DPMS AP4s yesterday and picked them up from a local cop shop. I brought them into the shop around 3:00, put them on the bound book, and the last one was sold by 6:00. In that same timeframe I sold 2 Sig 556s, a Colt sporter, an Olympic plinker, 2 WASRs, a Golani, an AK made out of railroad ties and plywood by a Pakistani over a campfire from the Khyber Pass, an Airsoft gun, and traded 2 chickens and a bag of rice for a goat. It was a very busy afternoon.
and
Some folks still make me laugh. I love the guys who call and ask how long it will take to get a DPMS AR10 custom with cryo barrel chambered in .267 Huffalump Magnum. They get offened when I tell them that I have no earthly idea. Why, yes sir, I’m sure DPMS is just cranking those out in a time when people are selling their organs and children to get a shot at a rusty Kel-Tec SU16 that’s missing its bolt carrier.
Ok, that's bad.

Bill Whittle got sent to Sexual Harassment Training. And writes about the idiocy involved. When someone else gets to say "It doesn't matter what you actually said or did, or what you intended, I'm upset so you're GUILTY!"...

The Geek speaks on the "You're backordered for HOW LONG?!?" situation:
But this isn't about hunting guns, and everyone with a functional neural net knows it. The racks that were empty used to be filled with fighting rifles, and Americans have, in the last week, literally purchased every functional fighting rifle they can get their hands on, completely depleting the sales pipeline.

You can attribute the behavior to either "hoarding" or "gearing up", but I don't think it matters.

What I do think is very important is that this has actually happened: humpteen zillion arms have been transfered to private hands and scattered all over the nation, with no realistic hope of ever tracing or getting them back. More will follow, as fast as they can be manufactured.I also think that it's very important that this fact can not escaped government notice. It can't possibly escape notice; NICS keeps getting swamped.
Yeah, that do kind of send a message, do it not?

As to that last, it's something that's happened before(as Geek notes; read his whole post), but I hadn't specifically thought of it lately. I should have. An awful lot of people have basically said "Screw you" to the Minions of Government, and those Minions with three working brain cells have to be considering "Even if only a few percent of them actually mean 'I will not surrender my arms, come and get them'... we're in trouble." I have no doubt there are some True Believers In The peasants, er, masses, ah,Citizens Doing What They're Told who'll consider this horribly arrogant of those mere people, and a few of them would probably consider sending in some LE personnel to get shot up to be a suitable way of stirring things up('making the most of a disaster', as it were); most of them, and the non-morons in LE should keep the idiots reined in.

Yes, I actually do think there are some people at the state and federal level who'd think that way; considering what some of these clowns have done in the past, why wouldn't I?

Ok, if this is accurate and correct, this is flat idiotic choice of an endorser. Endorsement? Whichever, dumb, dumb, dumb.

And to close, from Theo:
A Frenchman's comments on American troops:
And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the ennemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge ! They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts any pussyfooting short.
and
Five Reasons Computers Are Female....
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
2. Even your smallest mistakes are immediately committed to memory for future reference.
3. The native language used to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
4. The message “Bad command or filename” is about as informative as “If you don’t know why I’m mad at you, then I’m certainly not going to tell you.”
5. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your salary on accessories for it.

Range day, load tryout

One of the cartridges I mess with is the .38 Smith & Wesson, the ancestor of the .38 Special. It's a shorter case, with a larger diameter. The heaviest load for it was used by the British as their original load in the Mk IV Webley as the .380/200, and it was also used by some police departments here: it's a 200-grain roundnose bullet at about 650 feet per second. I've heard it had a pretty good record as a fight-stopper, but have no accounts to list. The Brits wound up, due to the Geneva Convention having a problem with non-jacketed bullets, going to a 176-grain jacketed bullet(long taper with a small round nose), and from what I've read it lost much of the effectiveness with this load. In any case...

There are a lot of old revolvers out there, S&W and Colt and Webley and Iver Johnson and others, chambered for this cartridge. Some, like the Webley and Enfield and IJ, are top-break designs and some of those should be approached with caution: some of those designs are stronger than others, and some may not have aged well, especially if they'd seen much use. The Webley/Enfield, for instance, has a pretty strong lockup involving good amounts of steel interlocking, while some have a spring-latch that's not as strong. So if you're going to shoot one of them, check it out carefully before you take it to the range.

Reasons for handloading this are primarily
Expense. Factory ammo for this seems to be limited to a 145-grain roundnose, and fairly expensive.
Accuracy. The factory stuff tends to be loaded down due to the company not knowing if it'll be put in a vault-strong S&W or Webley or a worn-out old Iver Johnson or some Spanish copy, so they keep pressures low. Which usually leads to ammo that hits above or below point of aim, sometimes drastically so.
I originally wanted to duplicate the .380/200 load for a Enfield revolver so it would hit where I was aiming; factory stuff hit low. Lyman makes a mold for a 200-grain roundnose .38 bullet, and some digging around found some load information. I use the bullet as-cast, lubed with Lee Liquid Alox, and wound up using Unique powder; the load hits right at 650fps and hits dead-on point of aim at ten yards. Good load, and I think it would work as a defense load( I don't know if the bullet would stay straight and maybe overpenetrate, or yaw after impact and spin). But I also wanted a practice load with a lighter bullet for target-punching. So I tried these:
The left is a 148-grain wadcutter, the right a 162-grain semi-wadcutter. Both from .38 molds, used as-cast with Liquid Alox. They're seated out to keep the overall length and depth in the case as my measurements indicate proper; like I said, it's a short case. Both use Unique. I tried them both out today, but no targets to show; did not have a solid rest and some of the lights in the range were out, so pretty targets will have to wait a while. However, both seemed to shoot to point of aim, both cut nice, sharp holes and had light recoil. The wadcutter seemed to group a bit tighter, but without a rest that's not something I'd swear to.

So two good possibilities for target loads, which means I'll have to load some more for testing(work, work, work, to quote Wash).

If you get hold of one of these revolvers, new brass is available, bullet molds in .38 are easy to find and someone, I've read, does sell ready-to-load bullets for the cartridge(yes, I am too lazy to dig it up right now). Just make sure the pistol is in good condition, and don't push the limits.

Nice to have some confirmation as to how much good

"No weapons allowed" signs do. The whole article is on LE response to an active killer, here's the part I'm specifically referring to:
The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out "gun free" zones for their attacks. In most states, concealed handguns are prohibited at schools and on college campuses even for those with permits. Many malls and workplaces also place signs at their entrances prohibiting firearms on the premises.

Now some tacticians believe the signs themselves may be an invitation to the active killers.

The psychological profile of a mass murderer indicates he is looking to inflict the most casualties as quickly as possible. Also, the data show most active killers have no intention of surviving the event. They may select schools and shopping malls because of the large number of defenseless victims and the virtual guarantee no on the scene one is armed.

As soon as they're confronted by any armed resistance, the shooters typically turn the gun on themselves.

And in the update, they list the information to back up the 'invitation' point, including
Based on data from the SEALE study, an analysis by TDI, and our own painstaking research, we are able to say definitively that most "active killer" shootings have occurred in so-called "gun free" zones. The experts who say they may be "invitations" are also John Benner and Ron Borsch who have six decades of law enforcement experience and training between them.

And they end with evidence that there actually are reporters out there who believe in reporting facts, whether anyone likes them or not:
As journalists, we are not interested in entering into the heated debate over gun control. We are, however, interested in reporting the facts. In this story, the facts point to the active shooters ignoring gun prohibitions and perhaps selecting those locations because they are "soft targets" where no resistance would be found.

Troops, meet thugs; thugs, meet trained troops;

thugs die now.
FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan — In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.
Like them bite marks in your ass, dirtbags?
The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill zone, another platoon sergeant personally led numerous attacks on enemy fortified positions while the platoon fought house to house and trench to trench in order to clear through the enemy ambush site.

“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”
Oh, yeah.

And here's an example of 'get the job done no matter what' mindset:
During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.

“I was in my own little world,” the young corporal said. “I wasn’t even aware of a lot of the rounds impacting near my position, because I was concentrating so hard on making sure my rounds were on target.”
Hell, yeah. Corporal, if we ever meet, the drinks are on me. And that goes for your whole damn unit in this mess(yes, I do realize I might have to take out a loan to pay for it).

Here's a question for you: how many times in this war have we heard of something like this, our guys being ambushed and kicking the crap out of the bad guys, and our media never mentioned it? Or gave a brief "X soldiers killed/wounded in an ambush" while NEVER mentioning the end result? I guess they were too busy getting geared up to not investigate Obama & Co. this election season.

I've only followed some of the Sainted Obama Birth Certificate Question

so can't claim any expertise or deep study on it. I can say that the stuff Rodger posted on this today does seem to raise some questions. Then it raises speculation:
Can you bloody IMAGINE the insanity that would explode if the Supremes said "Show the proof. Now." and it turns out The Obama isn't qualified? The Kossites and every true believer that wet his/her pants at the sight of him or had an orgasm at his words would either flatline or start calling for revolt and that that 'old, outdated' part of the Constitution be ignored.

Talk about the circus coming to town...

Having trouble relaxing and 'going'?

Just look over your shoulder:
Look familiar, Og?


Thanks to Theo for brightening the mood

Two things to read

On the ownership of arms:
Joel Barlow, a political theorist of Jefferson's time, wrote tellingly: "[The disarming of citizens has] a double effect, it palsies the hand and brutalizes the mind: a habitual disuse of physical forces totally destroys the moral [force]; and men lose at once the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression.

And on the subject of our media(bees pee upon them):
I have to disagree. I think the media performed flawlessly during the two year election cycle. They managed the story, shielded their candidate, attacked the opposition, sat on damaging stories, and in short did everything a good state run media should do during an election cycle.

In fact, the only sign of their incompetence was that McCain kept the race much closer than he should have, but that failure might be more due to the education system failing to properly propagandize the young voters, although they'll probably blame home-schoolers for that.

Who're the rubes?

Insty had some stuff on the various people mad at Barack I'm Number One Obama for either hinting at or flat saying he won't do what he promised, and had this link on the subject. Althouse basically says "I think his flip-flops make him better, so should I be mad he lied before? Or just didn't keep the promises?"

I have to say, this annoys me. This is the lady who once wrote, after a particularly blatant lie, that 'You shouldn't like to openly, it makes it hard to keep faith with you', which makes me think she'd forgive him almost anything. Including looking her in the face and lying, over and over. The flip-flops? "Oh, he had to say those things earlier, and now I think his positions are better since he's shown himself to have lied to us before." Well, he was lying to you then, or he's lying to you now, maybe both. We all know that old joke: "How do you know he's lying? His lips are moving." Perfect example, courtesy of The Obama. And that people keep excusing this crap is part of why we're in the hold we're in.

Now, if someone will finally develop the fusion bottle

to power these, I suggest 1st Armored can start calling themselves the Slammers.
At least that’s what the Economist reports. It says a “directed-energy weapon” named Zeus (presumably because of his fondness for hurling lightning bolts) has been deployed in the back of a Humvee in Iraq. It’s being tested by soldiers who are using its laser beam to detonate roadside bombs from a safe distance of 300 meters.
Now, this is something! A real, useful, vehicle-portable laser than can help take care of a problem. Several, really; IEDs, unexploded ordnance and so forth. Instead of having some EOD tech wire each shell or mine, clear it with this. And then we come to the second article:
The FIRESTRIKE(tm) laser is a line replaceable system that allows for scaling a laser weapon to desired power levels for specific warfighting applications and platforms. Northrop Grumman believes that FIRESTRIKE(tm) laser will form the backbone of future laser weapon systems.

You can put together up to eight of these to achieve the maximum power available, although that would so much electric power that the military would have to mount them in tanks. Which, mind you, I bet it's exactly what they have in mind.
Damn, I hope so.

And if you want a 'GFW on the military' viewpoint, look at the comments in the first article; "Oh, wonderful, now we can murder and maim children without all the messy bullet holes." Oh yeah, our troops just wander around looking for kids to kill, don't they? You effing morons. We've been acting for years to decrease the number of non-combatants getting hurt, troops have been wounded and died trying to save such, but you jackasses still whine about us 'killing children'. Screw you. The tool in the first article is being used to clear IEDs and mines, and will be used to clear unexploded bombs, artillery shells and such, which means innocents don't wander into them. The second, assuming it really works out, will give our troops a new edge on the bad guys, which has two good points:
First, it makes all but the ideological morons pause; do they really want to start a fight with us when our troops have their current training and equipment backed by new systems like this? and
Second, it allows us to both clear threats from a current or past battlefield, and- in many cases- strike with less effect on non-combatants.
Both of which are one of the reasons I think The Barack is going to be, at best, a mild-to-medium level disaster; I remember his promise to 'end development of new combat systems'. This stuff is giving our troops the edge they need, and he's promised to end the developments of such, and he's got a bunch of GFWs and anti-military Evil Party members of Congress who'd love to help. You know, the dirtbags who whined there weren't enough troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, but who'd die rather than increase military funding so the forces could be expanded? Yeah, them.

Lots of people have said something like this,

just not nearly as well:
I ordered a stubby GI-style Commander-length guide rod and the proper plug from Brownell's this morning, because the full-length guide rod that is in the pistol is an abomination unto the eyes of God and John Moses Browning (pbuh) and Jeff Cooper who is their Prophet. Lo, it doth complicate disassembly and raise a vile smell unto the nostrils of the Lord, much like the designated hitter, or Jeff Gordon fans.

Snork... here's definition of annealing

that indicates experience:
The once fired factory brass was thin and pinged like an empty tin can, so I annealed the case mouths. Annealing, a highly technical process based on holding a case at mid point while rotating between the fingers and heating the case mouth at the tip of a propane flame until the pain reaches your brain and you are forced to let go. The case then falls into a pan of water waiting below. If you find your fingers will not let go of the brass, you have overheated the cases.

I guess something about Palin just scares the little bastards to death,

and they can't stop talking about her. And calling her names. And demonstrating what candy-ass little clowns they really are. Just flat amazing.

Speaking of bastards, this is what Obama wants for his Attorney General. Yeah, that's really hopey-changey, all right; an GFW Statist AG who thinks the First Amendment doesn't include people he doesn't like. Freakin' wonderful.

Speaking of candy-ass, some of the media seem to be, ah, confessing to their behavior in the Presidential campaign. With suitable excuses, of course. Please note that 'suitable' doesn't include "He's our man, so we have to help elect him. Investigate him and report? Forget it, we've got that plumber and Palin to screw over."

Speaking of bastards, the tax cheating by Rangel just keeps showing up. I repeat: if you or I pulled crap like this, we'd be lucky if we weren't already in front of a judge entering a plea.

Powerline notes the chance that if judges in CA tell the voters they're stupid and throw out the Prop. 8 vote, the voters have a way to go after them. And they should.

There was a gun show in town this weekend, and I went for a bit. It was what most in the area have unfortunately become: small. No ammo dealers, no parts(except for old bits & pieces some people had out. There have been two groups doing shows the last few years, and they tend to put them too close together, and it's run things down a lot. The only ones you can count on being decent are the Hall of Fame and Sooner shows, and they're down from what they used to be, I think because of the overdoing by the two groups.

Anything with AR or AK as a model prefix was selling fast, except for some AK variants that the owners had WAY overpriced.

I now have somewhat more constructive things to do, see you folks later.