On a slightly rainy Sunday morning, rather than take a walk

and get soaked, I think I'll browse news a bit. Like the British government getting caught playing games again:
Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has suffered a major setback in her legal battle with American 'shock jock' Michael Savage after her officials were accused of banning him from the country on racial grounds.

Emails written by Home Office officials privately acknowledged the ban on Mr Savage would provide 'balance' to a list dominated by Muslims - and linked the decision to Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
This is one of the outcomes of playing politically-correct games with the security of a country; worry more(apparently) about how you 'look' than whether you're actually doing something. A lot like many of the gun bigots in this country.
The Right-wing radio presenter, whose hardline views on Islam, rape and autism have caused outrage in the US but whose show, The Savage Nation, has eight million listeners, was identified in May by Ms Smith as one of 16 people barred due to their political views.
Kind of like that Dutch legislator being banned from the country because his views weren't politically correct toward islam.
Mr Savage, who had not even applied for entry to Britain, claimed his name had been 'plucked out of a hat' because he was 'controversial and white'. He has since served a £100,000 libel writ on Ms Smith, who announced his ban on television.
Looks like he was right.
Now, correspondence released under Freedom of Information legislation suggests the banning of Mr Savage, whose real name is Michael Weiner, was based on a party political calculation made at the highest level of Government.
And why would the 'highest levels' be interested in doing this?
One message, sent by an unidentified Home Office official on November 27 last year, said that 'with Weiner, I can understand that disclosure of the decision would help provide a balance of types of exclusion cases'.

The documents include a draft recommendation, marked 'Restricted', saying: 'We will want to ensure that the names disclosed reflect the broad range of cases and are not all Islamic extremists.'
"We have to look like we're even-handed, so lets crap on somebody just to spread things out." Only one of the people they decided on actually made noise and trouble about it, so now there's a problem.


The Obama went on tv to tell people to stop causing him problems and be happy about their health care being taken over; didn't work real well:
I’ve been covering Barack Obama for a few years, and it’s usually crystal clear what he is up to. Not last night. This is the first time I’ve asked myself: What was THAT all about?

His prime time press conference was worse than a waste of time. He spent an hour (with the aide of a soporific White House press corps) pouring sand (one grain at a time) into the already-slowing gears of the machinery of health-care reform.

He made no real news on health care, but DID make news on race relations with his discussion of the Skip Gates case — thereby obscuring the topic he supposedly wanted to feature.
And that's from MSNBC; really didn't go over well.


Over in China, yeah, they own a lot of T-bills, and could cause problems for us; and screw themselves, too. Interesting article.


The Iranian people haven't given up; I haven't seen much the last few days about what's going on, fighting against a thug government like that is nasty.


Speaking of thug governments, we have a true piece of idiocy coming out of the White House:
President Obama announced today, a cut $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras and threatened to slash economic aid also.

Yesterday Secretary of State Clinton said she was looking "to restore democracy and constitutional order in the Honduras crisis."
So the Honduran government following their Constitution and kicking out of office a president who knowingly and repeatedly violated the law is against constitutional order and democracy? Takes a real piece of twisting to come up with that. You'd think The Obama has some kind of real problem with someone actually standing for 'nobody is above the law', wouldn't you? And he does this in favor of a clown who likes his picture taken with Raul Castro and Chavez, two dictators he wants to imitate. Wonderful.


India, again, says "Take your global warming hysteria and shove it; we're not wrecking our economy to make you happy."


The former military captain says it was in the early 1990s, that he watched his then commander wrestle with giving up his 12-year-old daughter who was mentally ill. The commander, he says, initially resisted, but after mounting pressure from his military superiors, he gave in. Im watched as the girl was taken away. She was never seen again.

One of Im’s own men later gave him an eyewitness account of human-testing. Asked to guard a secret facility on an island off North Korea’s west coast, Im says the soldier saw a number of people forced into a glass chamber.

“Poisonous gas was injected in,” Im says. “He watched doctors time how long it took for them to die.”
Considering what all else we know the Norks do to their own people, it would not surprise me in the least for this to be true.


Note to industry: if you throw an event for moms who blog, and decide to have it at a place where babies are not welcome, it might cause you a problem. That's kind of like having an event for gunbloggers and deciding on a restaurant with pictures of Che on the wall and where firearms are not allowed; it won't go over well.


Tam points to Marko dealing with the 'health care is a RIGHT!' noise. Starting with
Let’s get the most obvious point out of the way first. You cannot have a right to something that necessitates a financial obligation on someone else’s part.



There is a part of it that is as simple as self protection. As was my Dad, my Mom was a Law Enforcement Officer and I heard firsthand the abuses she saw against other women in the course of her work, women for whom their only crime was to be small and timid against a raging bully. Women who had yet to learn that evil does not go away by submitting, but by fighting back. So she taught me to shoot and the reasons for which she did needed no voice. Individually, collectively I believe it's a right of mine, as a law abiding citizen, whether I am a LEO or not, male or female, large or small. That being the right to protect my body and my interests for which I've toiled. And I would defend with each breath, against any interference with that liberty on which our country was founded.


Government health care. Where the doctor can screw up and cripple you for life, and you can't do a damn thing about it.

Jessica Read says around 10 a.m., about an hour into the procedure, "A nurse runs out, 'We need blood now,' and she rounds the corner and my gut feelings is, 'Oh my God, is that my husband?'"

She says his Air Force general surgeon mistakenly cut her husband's aortic artery, but waited hours to transport him to a state hospital which has a vascular surgeon. "It took them until 5:30 to get him to UC Davis. I don't understand."

Because Read lost so much blood during that time, doctors had to amputate both legs. His mother sobbed, "I watched him take his first steps, and now his legs are gone."

"Disfigures"? Disfigures? If they'd left a scar on his face, that would be "disfiguring." THEY TOOK HIS LEGS.

But that's not the worst part:

Read's wife says the doctor admitted it was human error. "All my husband ever wanted to do was to deploy, all my husband ever wanted to do was serve his country. He used to tell me when we had flyovers and they played the national anthem, the chills he would get from the pride that he felt from being an American airman, and this is something an Air Force doctor has taken from him."

But because of an old federal law called the Feres Doctrine, Read, his wife, and his family members can't sue the military over what happened to him.

Now, when the .gov takes over the $2.3 trillion in annual health expenditures, what do you want to bet one way they'll eventually attempt to limit costs will be by limiting patient's right to sue for malpractice?

Because 'The government is in control of your health care, and cannot be troubled by your problems with the treatment."
You know, I understand 'people make mistakes', but I have to admit thinking this doctor ought to be used for bayonet practice.


And last, especially if you're going to be travelling out of the US, go here and read. It's worth it.

While the AG and the PC morons in Congress are pushing 'hate crime' legislation, (updated)

I wonder if they'll bother to be troubled by stuff like this:
...When it emerged that the four female Quebecers were, in fact, Muslim, the tearful parents offered up a strange tale of an impromptu midnight driving lesson gone tragically wrong (Driving Lesson May Have Led To Drowning).

La Presse is now reporting that the girls' father, mother, and brother have been arrested en route to Montreal Airport, and that the deceased "aunt" or (alternatively) "cousin" was, in fact, the girls' father's first wife. The words "crime d'honneur" are beginning to creep into newspaper accounts.
But wait! There's MORE!!
Police say 14-year-old Kinza Kaianad died Monday evening at Kingston General Hospital as a result of injuries she sustained Saturday in a hotel pool in Gananoque, roughly 30 kilometres east of Kingston.

Her mother, 43-year-old Naila Yasmin, died in hospital on Sunday.

Yasmin, Kaianad and another daughter, age 11, were found unconscious in the indoor hotel pool just before 9 a.m. Saturday.
Seems to me that you'd have to hate someone a fair amount to do something like this to them, but since muslims are a protected species according to Holder, they can't possibly be guilty of a hate crime. As Steyn says,
In other circumstances, they'd be planning the movie with Ashley Judd or some such as the crusading feminist Assistant DA. But as the M-word's involved I expect poor Zainab Shafi and the rest will be quickly forgotten.
Yeah, it's not like some evil white guy, probably Christian or Jewish, committed multiple murders in the name of 'honor'.

You know, there's a real disconnect between cultures about that word: take some dirt-poor hillbilly, someone rapes his daughter he'll give the sheriff a chance to do something about it, and if he doesn't, out comes the scattergun or rifle to deal with the rapist; the idea of killing his own daughter because she had brought shame on the family, generally wouldn't occur.

Update: take a look at this.

It seems that the Commie Who Would Be Stalin is a chicken,

and our SecState and President seem to have gotten the idea that Honduras is in the right, and isn't going to roll over for The One.
Surrounded by a throng of supporters and media, Zelaya, wearing a leather waistcoat and his trademark cowboy hat, stepped into Honduras briefly before returning to Nicaragua.
Before the Honduran authorities could throw his sorry ass in jail.
He retreated further from the border area later in the day and was expected to spend the night in the Nicaraguan town of Ocotal.
"...further from the border..." because he's afraid the Hondurans are tired of this crap and just might grab him. Or shoot him, which would be simpler, and maybe preferable(yeah, I know, but it's an idea).

It makes you wonder how President B. Hussein Cartman Obama will decide when

we've actually 'won'. If he hasn't decided by then that 'winning' is a bad word, too.

I have had my fun for the day.

Yesterday evening went out to the bike to go somewhere and, as I rolled forward, noted a shimmy in the back end(no, not mine; shut up, Og). Rear tire very low, so pulled out the compressor and aired it up. Got there and back, no problem.

Early this afternoon thought I'd check the tire, just to be sure, and found "The pressure, it's not there." As in wouldn't move the gauge. Bleep. Checked the whole tire, no sign of nails, screws, etc., so aired it up again and, hmmm, that his isn't from the slightly leaky chuck, where...

Tire valve. Body leaking right where it goes into the wheel, leaking badly now. So I got to take the back wheel off(not difficult, but a pain in the ass), take it to a shop and get a new valve installed. And no, this is not one of those things I'll try myself if I can avoid it. I've changed tires on my old bike, which had smaller tires and steel wheels; I'm not even gonna think about messing with a tubeless tire on a aluminum wheel without the right tools. Then home and reinstall the wheel, just as much fun as taking it off. At least I now know my rear brake shoes have about 1/3 to 1/2 their life left; be a while before have to change them.

I finally got Security Staff to ride in the front with me instead of in the bed, so she rode along. She sits up watching all, but when I get out to do something and she has to stay in, she gets excited: "Where you going? Why can't I come?!? Come back!" Especially when it's a stop at a place she doesn't remember. At least she doesn't bark, just looks very concerned until I get back.

Either the brass at Los Angeles PD know nothing about firearms,

or they're fully into the 'scare everybody about everything'. Tam pointed to Uncle who pointed to this:
Raids in Los Angeles this week that uncovered an extraordinary cache of illegal assault weapons were prompted in part by an increased use of high-powered weapons in San Fernando Valley shootings, police said.

Two men and one woman were arrested this week after authorities raided a downtown warehouse and several Los Angeles homes and seized 32 firearms, including semiautomatic rifles, high-caliber guns and ammunition for AK-47s.
As we've learned, when journalists in places like LA and far too many cops start talking about 'assault weapons' they sometimes mean a .22 rifle or a pump shotgun; and 'high-powered' seems to have a very flexible meaning. Which leads us to the "You have GOT to be shitting me!" moment of this piece:
Authorities have noticed an increase in high-caliber weapons in Los Angeles. One of the most startling incidents was when a Fabrique National 57, an assault pistol used to kill big game, was found in a victim's car by detectives investigating a double-homicide last year in North Hollywood.

"You use it on large lions, tigers and bears," said LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore, commander of the Valley Bureau.
Snork. Urgle. Hehehehehehe, does this man do standup? Let's see, an 'assault pistol used to kill big game', hmmmm? Let's leave the 'assault pistol' idiocy out; I wonder if DC Moore has ever seen any of these animals up close? Maybe considered what it would take to kill one?

If you're not familiar with the 'so scary it causes pants-wetting just by being mentioned' 57, a brief(and I hope accurate) history: the Europeans wanted to develop an arm specifically for support troops(i.e., 'Troops you hope never actually engage in combat') and came up with the 5.7x28mm; it's a little bottleneck cartridge firing a dinky little bullet with, as I recall, ballistics very similar to the .22 Magnum. Yes, it will penetrate body armor IF you have the actual AP ammo, which has never been sold to anyone except military and LE(and if it's so horribly lethal and nasty, why does LE need it? Or is that like the 'bullet-spraying killing machines' that somehow are tamed when a minion of the state holds it?) Now, of the three critters named above, would you want to go after any of them with a somewhat hotted-up .22 Mag? I imagine you could do it. Once. After which the rather pissed-off critter will convert you to either mulch or droppings.

Then we get to some more of the meat(more like gristle) of the piece:
Authorities gathered information on gun suppliers during searches at homes of residents on parole and probation.
Let's see, if you're on parole that would indicate a felony conviction which means you can go to jail just for picking a gun up and looking at it; that's not working very well, apparently.
Undercover officers from LAPD's counterterrorism bureau then bought semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons from a dealer.
'Counterterrorism bureau? They couldn't send just plain undercover cops to do it? Damn.
Recent killings of four Oakland police officers gunned down by a parolee with a semi-automatic weapon has reignited cries for the federal government to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, which expired in 2004.
A parolee already violating the aforementioned law AND with, as I recall, an illegal gun, for which every honest citizen with a non-PC gun should be screwed over. Very helpful, that'll be.

Further example of why some legislators and some cops

should be tarred and feathered. And a few of them hung.
Consider small-time inventor and entrepreneur Krister Evertson, who will testify at today's hearing. Krister never had so much as a traffic ticket before he was run off the road near his mother's home in Wasilla, Alaska, by SWAT-armored federal agents in large black SUVs training automatic weapons on him.

Evertson, who had been working on clean-energy fuel cells since he was in high school, had no idea what he'd done wrong. It turned out that when he legally sold some sodium (part of his fuel-cell materials) to raise cash, he forgot to put a federally mandated safety sticker on the UPS package he sent to the lawful purchaser.

Krister's lack of a criminal record did nothing to prevent federal agents from ransacking his mother's home in their search for evidence on this oh-so-dangerous criminal.
At least it was over, right?

Uh-uh.

The good news is that a federal jury in Alaska acquitted Krister of all charges. The jurors saw through the charges and realized that Krister had done nothing wrong.

The bad news, however, is that the feds apparently had it in for Krister. Federal criminal law is so broad that it gave prosecutors a convenient vehicle to use to get their man.

Two years after arresting him, the feds brought an entirely new criminal prosecution against Krister on entirely new grounds. They used the fact that before Krister moved back to Wasilla to care for his 80-year-old mother, he had safely and securely stored all of his fuel-cell materials in Salmon, Idaho.

According to the government, when Krister was in jail in Alaska due to the first unjust charges, he had "abandoned" his fuel-cell materials in Idaho. Unfortunately for Krister, federal lawmakers had included in the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act a provision making it a crime to abandon "hazardous waste." According to the trial judge, the law didn't require prosecutors to prove that Krister had intended to abandon the materials (he hadn't) or that they were waste at all -- in reality, they were quite valuable and properly stored away for future use.
In this case, first you have a bunch of idiots in DC who seem to think if they're not making something illegal or taxable or both, they're not doing anything. Second, you have law enforcement officials who are statist morons. There was no damned reason for, if you had to arrest Krister at all, using an effing SWAT team. And apparently we're supposed to believe that actual crime is so far under control that this moron prosecutor had the time and money to waste filing the second charge on him.

The other hardened criminal whose story members of Congress will hear today is retiree George Norris. A longtime resident of Spring, Texas, Norris made the mistake of not knowing and keeping track of all of the details of federal and international law on endangered species -- mostly paperwork requirements -- before he decided to turn his orchid hobby into a small business. What was Norris's goal? To earn a little investment income while his wife neared retirement.

The Lacey Act is an example of the dangerous overbreadth of federal criminal law. Incredibly, Congress has made it a federal crime to violate any fish or wildlife law or regulation of any nation on earth.

Facing 10 years in federal prison, Norris pled guilty and served almost two. His wife, Kathy, describes the pain of losing their life savings to pay for attorneys and trying to explain to grandchildren why for so long Poppa George couldn't see them.
Again, some morons in DC thought this crap was a good idea, and some prosecutor apparently had so little actual crime to deal with that he thought spending money and time to screw a family over, was a good idea.

Few years back I read about a problem in New York Effing City for people who use guns in self-defense: if you had a legal gun and killed an attacker in actual self-defense, the prosecutors liked to charge you with involuntary manslaughter. It was an easy charge to make, fairly easy to get a conviction on(you either agreed to that or got charged with something else, OR went broke trying to defend yourself against it), and when you ran for office later it gave you another 'conviction of a dangerous criminal' to point to on your record. A prosecutor who actually gave a rats ass about truth and justice wouldn't do such; just like one who gave a crap about those things wouldn't have been involved in the crap above. Unfortunately, there's a lot of them who don't.

Two aspects of The One's work to SAVE US!

Thanks to Theo for both

When someone asks you a question, and the first thing you say is

'I don't know the facts of the case', then if you've got a brain you shut the hell up; you do NOT accuse the cop and the department of being racists and stupid. As Bill Cosby points out.
“I’ve heard about five different reports [on the details of the arrest],” Cosby said on Boston’s WZLX. “If I’m the president of the United States, I don’t care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I’m keeping my mouth shut.”

“I was shocked to hear the president making this kind of statement,” Cosby said referring to the president’s remarks during last night’s press conference.

More information on the incident here, including links to the report that the Boston Globe for some reason scrubbed from their site.

I will point out that from the information available, this professor managed to talk himself into being arrested due to arrogance and general stupidity. You know, I'm quite willing to call 'bullcrap' on a cop when I think he does wrong; I'm also willing to say "You know, professor, if you're so damn smart why didn't you just shut up?"

A response from Government Motors in the comments

so apparently they're actually paying attention to this kind of mess. The other day I posted on how a writer was screwed around when he was trying to test-drive a Camaro because he really wanted to buy one. Response in the comments is listed as from Adam Denison from GM:
Our response, I thought, was pretty proactive. This is a case of supply and demand because of how much in demand the Camaro is right now. Granted, it could've been handled better (hindsight is always 20/20, right?), but we're trying to correct the situation. Vijay and I have been in touch and we'll follow up with him when he gets back from vacation.

Mr. Denison, 'could've been handled better' is an understatement. Supply and demand problems mean telling the guy "Sir, we are flat sold out of them right now, we can notify you as soon as we have one you can drive" instead of either ignoring him, saying "We don't got one" and dropping him, or trying to push him to buy sight unseen. Or setting him up for a test drive and then him finding out A: it isn't the kind he wanted to drive and B: "Oh, you're not allowed to actually test drive it!" THAT was flat idiotic, and crap like that is why so many people hate looking at cars at all; and right now you can't afford to treat customers that way.

A roundup of some crap out there

The Senate made our enemies happy and our allies sad. And I have to say I'm disgusted that Sen. Coburn voted to drop F22 funding. And if you had any doubts remaining about President B. Hussein Cartman Obama, saw over at Ace that he'd promised to veto the bill if the F22 funding for more wasn't cancelled. Ace has the comment "surrender isn't an accident, it's a plan." And it seems to be the plan of the Second Carter AdministrationObama Administration.


Obama and the Democrats paid off the AMA to support his socialized medicine plan:
In the bill, Democrats provide $245 billion to eliminate an annual shortfall in payments to doctors under Medicare. Democrats resolved this annual headache, in large part, to win crucial support for the bill from the American Medical Association. That money currently counts against the overall costs of the bill, but Democrats have introduced legislation that would remove remove this obligation from federal deficit.


Michelle Malkin tried to get some answers ref the new Science King(ranks right below Emperor Obama) about his views, gets lecture and runaround:

Last week, I called the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to press Science Czar John Holdren on his views; his purported disavowal of Ecoscience, the book he co-authored with Paul and Anne Ehrlich; and his continued embrace of forced-abortion advocate and eugenics guru Harrison Brown, whom he credits with inspiring him to become a scientist.

I got an earful from OSTP flack Rick Weiss, who lectured me about journalism. He let me know that he was a reporter for 15 years (at the Washington Post) and put me on notice against writing a “smear job.” He had snippy words for blogs covering the Holdren story and warned against making unfair associations between what Holdren believes and what other population control promoters believe.

But when I pressed him specifically about Holdren’s relationship with Harrison Brown, he:

1) said he didn’t know who he was;

2) balked at drawing any conclusions about Holdren’s views based on his homages to Brown (even though Brown is a lifelong intellectual mentor, colleague, and continued inspiration for Holdren);

3) and told me not to expect any response from Holdren’s office on my specific question about whether Hodren disavows his relationship with a eugenics enthusiast who referred to the world population as a “pulsating mass of maggots.”

I didn’t have any luck. Maybe you will.


Naw, it's not about Obama, it's about medicine! And HopeyChangey!!! Except when it's about Obama.


And last, the Honduran government told the Venezuelan government
The Foreign Ministry has requested the honorable embassy of Venezuela the withdrawal of its administrative, technical and diplomatic staff in a term of 72 hours due to the threats of using force, the interference in internal issues as well as the lack of respect to the territorial integrity," Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Lorena Alvarado said.
The Venezuelans, being standard-issue commie flying monkeys for Chavez,
The request, however, was turned down by Vezezuelan diplomats who said they would not leave Honduras and would not obey the order of any coup government not recognized by Venezuela.

"We do not recognize the government led by Roberto Micheletti. It is a coup government, supported by bayonets," Uriel Vargas, the first secretary from the Venezuelan embassy in Honduras, told local radio station HRN.
I thought when a host government told you to get the hell out, you got. Unless you were actually trying to cause trouble, which these clowns are. Shouldn't that be cause for action like, oh, an infantry company exercise? Of course, since they'd be chasing a bunch of commie troublemakers out the UN and OAS and Obama would all crap bricks and make threats; if we were really lucky some of them would be so 'troubled' by Honduras defending their country there'd be some heart attacks or strokes. Or piles, at least.

Just like Jimmy Carter, "No Dictatorship We Can't Get Along With."

Thousands of Buddhist monks marched in the Hledan area of Rangoon back in September 2007. The monks led massive democracy protests against the violent junta. Unfortunately, the military regime cracked down on the activists killing and imprisoning several thousand men and women for demanding freedom. (BBC)

The regime slaughtered the democracy protesters. They gunned them down in the streets.

This is raw footage of the execution of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai by the Burmese junta on September 27, 2007.

Today, Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared "The US is back" in Asia as she signed a non-aggression treaty with the killer Myanmar junta.

You know, the Carter Dictator Suckup wasn't fun the first time around; the Obama Suckup is going to be worse, I fear.

Well, he'll have to do SOMETHING

with those old folks who 'maybe should just take a pill'.

"How dare you sell things that offer an opinion?

At least one we don't agree with?"
The bumper stickers and posters sold at "Free Market Warrior" at Concord Mills are meant to be "biting," the kiosk's owner Loren Spivack said.

At least one passerby found them racist and bigoted, and took time to tell the mall in a letter and a letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer.

Whatever your opinion, the fact is this: At the end of July, Free Market Warrior will not be allowed at Concord Mills Mall. The kiosk chain's owner shared e-mail correspondence with NewsChannel 36 that explains that the mall management has decided that the items sold are not "neutral" enough. The lease will be allowed to expire July 31, 2009 without an option to renew.
'Neutral enough'. Really? I wonder how many pro-Obama type shirts and stickers and such are sold at other stores? Especially since
The owner of the mall group, Mel Simon, has been a generous contributor to Democratic causes and politicians, including Barack Obama. Spivack thinks the decision about his lease is political.
You think maybe?

Pointed to by Insty.

Government Motors screws up, tries to catch horse after

barn door falls off; anybody surprised?
So, after seeing a newspaper ad promoting Camaros at a local Chevy dealer, I called and left a voicemail saying I was interested in a test drive.

I never heard back.

I was shocked. Here I was, ready to buy, while GM was in financial straits. I thought they'd be all over me. Turns out it's not so easy to obtain a piece of the American dream.

The next week, I decided to widen my search. I e-mailed four Chevy dealers in the area. Two never wrote back. One replied that they had no Camaros, and ended the correspondence right there. The fourth said they'd have one soon -- just stay tuned.

Dealer 4 began to check in periodically -- pitching Camaros that I could buy sight unseen. I reminded him of my request for a test drive. Then I reiterated my request for a test drive. Then I absolutely insisted on a test drive. And, eventually, I ended up with an appointment. But after driving 45 minutes to the dealer, I found that the one Camaro they'd gotten in was an automatic (I'd asked for a manual transmission) and that I wouldn't be allowed to drive it, just sit in it on the lot. The sales person tried to get me in a Corvette and to convince me that transmission is the same (it's not). I left the dealership, dejected, but not yet ready to give up.

Yeah, putting politicians and unions in charge of (used to be)General Motors works out real well. Customer wants car, "Screw you, look at something else."

Oh, the ending:
UPDATE: Just in, via Twitter from GM's Adam Denison, one of the PR personnel for Camaro:

"FYI, we offered that WaPo blogger a ride with Ed Peper at a local dealership tomorrow. Haven't heard from him yet."

Based on Vijay Ravindran's Twitter feed, tomorrow may not work out, but it's interesting to see that GM PR is all over this.
Well, gee, they just found out multiple dealers crapped on a potential customer; they'd BETTER be 'all over this'. Although, were I Ravindran, my response would probably be "Too late, jackass."

Quote of the day

in response to
"I don't think that the police should carry guns. Mainly because there is not enough respect for the police in this country. The best alternative is to issue all police officers with Taser guns.

"These are being deployed on a daily basis and hardly ever discharged. The mere threat of being tasered is often enough to stop people in their tracks. Forget the guns and bring on the Tasers. And respect the police."
Keith, in comments, says
Taser = Cattle Prod
Citizens = cattle

Does seem to sum it up, doesn't it?

How's that "Strict control of firearms" in Britain working out?

Not real well.
A 13-year-old schoolgirl has been arrested by armed police - after they discovered a sub-machine gun in her wardrobe.

The teenager was taken into custody yesterday afternoon after the M16-style rifle - capable of firing up to 900 rounds-per-minute - was seized at a flat in Croydon, South London.
Please, that's just not possible! Why, such guns are BANNED in Britain!
After they secured the flat, Sergeant Darin Birmingham and his team searched the rooms, uncovering the weapon wrapped in clothes under a wardrobe.

Sgt Birmingham said: 'We received information that the young man living here, who is a known gang member, had access to firearms.

'We pieced together the information we had and decided to act immediately in case the firearm was used.
(if it hadn't already...)
A M16 isn't a sub-gun; and we don't know if this was an M16 or an AR; you still have the fact that in 'strictly-controlled' Britain a gang-banger apparently had little trouble getting it. Seems like the "We should have laws like Britain!" idea just isn't working out real well.

Speaking of Britain,
The number of knife deaths in areas targeted by an anti-knife crime scheme has risen, the Home Office has said.

The government's Tackling Knives Action Programme started last July in 10 police areas in England and Wales.

In its first nine months, 126 people died after being attacked with a knife or other sharp object - seven more than in the same period the previous year.

Overall knife-related violence fell by 10%, but the number of deaths among teenagers remains unchanged.
There's a lot of "But things are getting better!" sunniness, but at the end you have someone pointing to a bit of reality:
Professor Marian Fitzgerald, a criminologist at Kent University, said the government was putting too much emphasis on knife carrying instead of knife crime.

She said: "They have thrown a lot at very visible police enforcement, lots of stop and search, most of which yields nothing.

"Meanwhile that hardcore who are determined to perpetrate violence whatever is done are not being dealt with."
Exactly. Someone with a pocketknife for general use isn't a threat; someone committing a crime is. Deal with the criminal, dammit, and stop blaming the object. And stop making criminals of people with no evil intent.

Remember the 'FBI agent accused of dealing guns to Mexico'

story? And the possible "Wait a minute..."? There's more:
THE SEARCH WARRANT AFFIDAVIT STATES SHIPLEY BOUGHT THE RECOVERED RIFLE BACK IN AUGUST OF 2007.

A WEEK LATER SHIPLEY ALLEGEDLY RESOLD THE GUN TO FORMER EL PASO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ FOR MORE THAN EIGHT-THOUSAND DOLLARS.

RODRIGUEZ THEN ALLEGEDLY SOLD THE GUN TO SOMEONE IN MEXICO.

and
From a source helping defend Shipley:

The AUSA leaked the sealed (by the AUSA) Search Warrant to the local press the day before John was arraigned, and never notified the Defense Attorney.

Well isn't that interesting--and something else to look into. Also:

Below I have cut from the regulation the definition for a fire arms dealer. You can see that a collector of firearms or a hobbyist is not required to obtain a license or maintain records of sales. So why is John Shipley being accused of being a dealer if he sold 50 weapons in three years and bought 53 weapons. Can a collector improve his collection? Can a collector buy a gun, shoot it and find out that it is not what he thought it was, sell it and buy something else? If you read the regulation there is no finite number that says if you sell ten guns you have to be a Federal Firearms Licensee. So if the regulation is vague, then do we allow the government to pick and choose who they want to prosecute? Does the word Selective Prosecution mean anything to you?
Why yes, it does. It's possible this agent is actually dirty; it's also possible he's a guy who bought and sold stuff for his personal collection, one of which he sold MAY have wound up in Mexico(according to the story, NOT from his hands), and the feds are playing games and wanting to hang him for publicity and example. And, unfortunately, we have reason to think the latter is quite possible; they've done crap like that before.

As Codrea says, more to learn about this.

"This bill has to be passed RIGHT NOW! Even if I don't know

what's in it!"
During the call, a blogger from Maine said he kept running into an Investors Business Daily article that claimed Section 102 of the House health legislation would outlaw private insurance. He asked: “Is this true? Will people be able to keep their insurance and will insurers be able to write new policies even though H.R. 3200 is passed?” President Obama replied: “You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about.” (quote begins at 17:10)

This is a truly disturbing admission by the President, especially considering that later in the call, Obama promises yet again: “If you have health insurance, and you like it, and you have a doctor that you like, then you can keep it. Period.” How can Obama keep making this promise if he is not familiar with the health legislation that is being written in Congress? Details matter.
Except, y'know, when they get in the way of The Chosen One getting what he wants.

I just don't know what to make of this one

The question is 'Should UK cops carry guns?', and one of the responses is
As a serving police officer, spats13 shares his frank opinion: "I don't think that the police should carry guns. Mainly because there is not enough respect for the police in this country. The best alternative is to issue all police officers with Taser guns.

"These are being deployed on a daily basis and hardly ever discharged. The mere threat of being tasered is often enough to stop people in their tracks. Forget the guns and bring on the Tasers. And respect the police."
Uh huh. Ok. Have at it, folks.

Every time Schumer supports 'state's rights', it's because

it will screw with individual rights in a way he approves:
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has pledged to filibuster the amendment, called it a breach of states' rights. "Each state has carefully crafted its concealed-carry laws in the way that makes the most sense to protect its citizens," he said. "Clearly, large, urban areas merit a different standard than rural areas," he said. "To gut the ability of local police and sheriffs to determine who should be able to carry a concealed weapon makes no sense. It could reverse the dramatic success we've had in reducing crime in most all parts of America."
Not a surprise, but Schumer has the same problem Giuliani had: apparently your rights- at least some of them- should depend on the size of the place you live. And he thinks 'may issue', where the sheriff or police chief can screw your carry license application around for months, or just deny it because he wants to, is a wonderful thing. Which, to a statist clown like Schumer, it is.

And note that 'reducing crime in most all parts of America' line: he ignores that the places with the most restrictions on firearms ownership, especially concealed carry, are generally the ones with the worst crime problems, "Let's just gloss over that because it undermines my bigotry."

Oh, jeez, so arguably the worst President we've ever had

won't condemn palestinian terrorists and muslim woman-abusers, but he's leaving the Baptist church because it 'subjugates' women...

Saw a new blurb on this earlier, the 'click to find out why he's leaving' type and didn't click on it because I KNEW it would piss me off and there were breakables in reach.

Former President Jimmy Carter, the moron idiot clownfool that keeps on giving.

Do cop shows make you laugh? Do military shows make you

scream? Does the sound of people racking their arms just before hitting a door*, or AFTER they yell 'Halt!' cause you despair?

Go here for relief.

Thanks to James for the link


*Making enough noise for an infantry squad WITH a couple of M249's thrown in, which makes sneaking up on the bad guys kind of difficult...

Here's something I haven't seen before

Happened to look out back at the birdfeeder and saw white. So snuck out with the camera and got these:
Couldn't take a rest, so not the sharpest. Sparrow or finch, almost all white; that's a new one on me.

Just to add to the fun,

if Obama were found to be ineligible, how about this:
What happens to the people who knew, and still let him run?
Would that come under the heading of conspiracy, or something else? And what would be suitable punishment, besides being marked as vile lawbreakers of the worst kind?(which wouldn't exactly bother them, some would probably consider it a mark of distinction: "I tried to save us by helping The One, no matter the cost!", etc.)

A couple of years ago I posted a range report on a flintlock pistol

of Highland pattern. Just had a question from a gentleman,
I have one but the lock states Main Scott and Deeks. Grnk Greenock? 1777
I have shot it a great many times and it is the 4th of July in your hands.
Anyone know about the info on the Lock?
The name Greenock sounds familiar, and it's a town in Britain but other than that I don't know, and can't find, anything.

Anybody have any information/ideas?

On my question the other day ref the birth certificate question,

I maybe should have phrased it differently:
If it turned out to be true that he's not legally qualified to be President, do we do what the law and right demands, or go with the "It would cause too much disruption!" argument and let him stay in?

Messy as hell either way. If we hold to the law, it means
He's out of office, immediately.
EVERY law, act, executive order, ANYTHING signed into effect by him is void.
Every appointee to any position is out.
And, of course, we'd wind up with Biden in the Oval Office(there's a nightmare for you).

If we don't do the above?
EVERYthing he's done or would do in the future is tainted. This is not something Congress could throw a quick law through to get over(and who would sign it?); we're talking having to actually amend the Constitution to change that. And God, wouldn't there be a mess while you were trying to do it? And lawsuits on everything in sight. Because "He was not a valid President when he signed/appointed/whatever.", and rightly so.

So the question, better put, is "Would you favor follow the law and let the chips fall, or somehow letting him stay in the office(IF a legal way could be found) so as to minimize disruption?(it wouldn't, the disruption might actually be worse, but that would be the argument)

As RNS points out, you'd have heard about this ALL WEEKEND

IN CAPS if it'd been a Republican anything:
The president of the Stokes County chapter of the NAACP was arrested Monday on sex and weapons charges.

Larry Lash, 54, of Walnut Cove is charged with 6 counts of statutory rape, 2 counts of sex offense with certain victims, and 2 counts of first degree sex offense among other sex charges.

Stokes County Sheriff Mike Joyce told WFMY News 2 the case involves three victims. He said at least two of the victims were under the age of 16 when the crimes occurred. Investigators believe the sex acts took place at Lash's Walnut Cove home over a period of time.
That's the sex; what about the weapons?
Lash was taken into custody at his home. During his arrest, investigators found five guns and multiple rounds of ammunition, according to Sheriff Joyce. As a result of the discovery, Lash was also charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

"He had two prior felonies, according to his records," explained Joyce. "One involved the death of two people back in the mid 70's, and the other was an incident where in Rockingham County he discharged a weapon into a motor vehicle."
Damn, nice people in charge at the NAACP, huh? And if they claim "We didn't know about this", I call bullcrap, too:
If the there is any evidence at all that Lash used the influence and prestige of his position to carry out his assaults, I hope that the families of the victims sue the state and local organizations into bankruptcy as a warning that no organization is above the law, and especially one chartered to fight for equality.

In this day and age where you have to submit to a criminal background check for everything from applying for loans, to applying for jobs, to volunteering in many organizations, there is no excuse at all for the NAACP not vetting their officers on every level, including Lash.

The other possibily—that the NAACP knew Lash was an convicted killer, and allowed him to serve anyway—is even more dangerously negligent, and I hope is far from the truth.
But, I have to say, it's quite possible.

And down in Honduras,

the legal government has basically said "You're not going to shove this Chavez puppet back into our President's chair":
When asked about the idea of having Zelaya return to Honduras as president with a reconciliation government, Assistant Foreign Minister Martha Lorena Alvarado gave a one-word response: “Impossible.”

Her comment in Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, was the clearest indication that the talks had deadlocked.

“The reinstatement of Zelaya, as we have maintained and now repeat, is not negotiable … there is no possibility of him returning to Honduras as president,” Alvarado said.

And, later,
Honduras' interim leader, Roberto Micheletti, flatly rejected Arias' proposal that Zelaya be reinstated, the major stumbling block in the mediation.

"I'm very sorry, but the proposals that you have presented are unacceptable to the constitutional government of Honduras ... in particular your proposal number one," said Carlos Lopez, head of the negotiating team for Micheletti.

Hell yeah! The Honduran government followed the law and threw Zelaya out, and they're not letting HopeyChangeypants push them into lettting this clown turn their country into another Venezuela. Despite Obama being seen as so friendly to tyrants that Chavez called Washington for help shoving the dictator wannabe back into power.

So part of bankrupting the country does involve spending lots of money

on illegal aliens for their health care. Wonderful.

And the Obama administration doesn't want to release data until AFTER they get 'health care reform' shoved down our throats, if they can. Keep yelling at the congresscritters, folks, it's the only thing that may stop this atrocity.

Three men and a woman with guns walk and have lunch

Nothing happens. Except for the shooty goodness later.

Pointed to by Insty.

I have a question for the five of you who read this,

which will probably get me labeled 'conspiracy loon' by some. Question is,

Let's say someone puts information before a judge who then says "I order President Obama to produce his actual birth certificate." Screaming, threats, etc. ensue, but in the end you have a legal order from a judge saying "Produce it or people are going to jail." And the certificate is dragged out and examined, and lo! Barack Hussein Obama is not a natural-born American citizen.

What should happen then?


Yes, I know, I've read all the crap from both sides. I wouldn't worry about it except for one thing: instead of producing the damn thing and ending the question, Obama and the Democrats(or should I just say 'his flying monkeys'?) have spent a hell of a lot of money and lawyer time trying to make sure no such order happens. Which makes me think there's something rotten in the Democrat PartyDenmark of this matter. Thus, the question.

Today I have for you evidence of standard commie-type nation-stealing,

and leftist insanity.

Commie-type bullcrap first:
A Spanish Catalan newspaper is reporting that Honduran authorities have seized computers found in the Presidential Palace belonging to deposed president Mel Zelaya. Taking a page right out of the leftist dictator's handbook, these computers, according to the news report, contained the official and certified results of the illegal constitutional referendum Zelaya wanted to conduct that never took place. The results of this fraudulent vote was tilted heavily in Zelaya's favor, ensuring he could go ahead and illegally change the constitution so he could remain in power for as long as he wanted to. ACORN, I'm sure, is taking notes.
He's got the article in Spanish, and a translation. Part of which:
The official investigation now deals with the possible crime of fraud and falsification of documents due to the fact that some of the certified voting results had been filled with the personal information of individuals that supposedly participated in the failed referendum that did not take place because of the coup.

One of the district attorneys that participated in the operation that took place this Friday showed reporters an official voting result from the Technical Institute Luis Bogran, of Tegucigalpa, in which the specific number of people that participated in table 345, where there were 550 ballots, 450 of which were votes in favor of Zelaya's proposal and 30 were against, in addition to 20 blank ballots and 30 ballots, which were nullified.
Aside from what seems to be the 'required by journalists' reference to it being a 'coup', it seems hard evidence of prepared vote fraud in an election that was illegal to begin with. Wonderful, isn't it?


Now, to leftist idiocy, I point to Janeane Garofalo:
The, mostly the media in the States is much more to the right. I mean there is almost no liberal outlet for news commentary or editorializing. And also, they have an unfortunate need to make it combative where they have people that wind up devolving into a shouting match of sorts.
It seems that I'll have to refer to her as either deluded, off her meds or insane. Or, simply, a bald-faced liar. Because if she actually believes this crap, then she's out of her damn mind.

Among the reasons it's referred to as the People's Republic of Massachusetts,

"Armed with the knowledge that more than 250,000 tickets for civil motor vehicle infractions were challenged in the state last fiscal year, legislators have voted to charge drivers $25 for such hearings."

Take a day of from work to fight a $100 speeding ticket, and if the court finds you were wrongly cited and clears you of any wrongdoing, the State will now be charging you $25 for the "privilege" of being found innocent.

and
TWENTY (at least!!!) prior convictions for violent crime, and a woman was raped and stabbed to death, because there was no one in this guy's long relationship with the criminal justice (for lack of a better word) system to say "Gee, maybe this asshole should be in prison."

Massachusetts lawmakers will pass a law making it illegal for a non-criminal Massachusetts resident to purchase a 12-round magazine for a pistol (10 rounds are OK, less violence-inducing, apparently) and justify it with "IF IT SAVES JUST ONE LIFE!".

But that same group of lawmakers has sat on their collective ass for decades, doing nothing to keep repeat violent offenders in prison, and letting scumbags like this walk the streets, free to rape and murder with impunity.
...
Obligatory Closing Line: Thank God Ms. Gosule wasn't carrying a firearm that night. Someone could have got hurt.

Among the reasons it's referred to as the People's Republic of Massachissetts,

Among the other reasons the current Iranian government should fall

and some members of it burn in hell,
He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so "impressed my superiors" that, at 18, "I was given the 'honor' to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death."

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said.

Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"

"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.

"I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."
This is not the only case of this conduct coming to light, only the most recent.

And our President Obama and that bitch Clinton just can't wait to have 'talks' with these bastards...

Well, it seems Amazon didn't delete

just the book from Kindle:
Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old from the Detroit area, was reading “1984” on his Kindle for a summer assignment and lost all his notes and annotations when the file vanished. “They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work,” he said.

Add that to this:
Amazon’s published terms of service agreement for the Kindle does not appear to give the company the right to delete purchases after they have been made. It says Amazon grants customers the right to keep a “permanent copy of the applicable digital content.”
And yet they did it anyway. And so far their main comment hasn't been "We shouldn't have done that", it's "We shouldn't have done it the way we did." Which isn't exactly comforting.

"Truer words have never been babbled."

Yeah, that sums up Veep Biden, all right. For example,
Iran. Earlier this month George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if the US would stand in the way of Israel decided it was time to take out Iran's nuke program. Said the Veep: "We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do ... if they make a determination that they're existentially threatened and their survival is threatened by another country."

True. But wrong! The sensible thing is to say: "We are seriously concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions, and strongly support serious efforts to be concerned, in coordination with allies whose serious efforts are concerned with -- hey, is that a mushroom cloud on CNN? Turn the sound up." Everyone knows Iran will give up the bomb, but in their own way: by putting it on a rocket and waving safe journey, Allah-speed. As the saying goes: If you love something, set it free. If the US isn't going to stop them, shouldn't Israel have the right to?

But that's not the official line, so YANK went the collar. Administration officials explained that the Vice President was using secret reverse-talking, and the allies remain committed to a sustained effort to frown and grip the podium while hoping there's no follow-up questions.

As for the 'truer words',
So do not criticize him; applaud his palaver, and hope for more. Biden's "gaffes" are anything but -- they're simply what the administration is really thinking.
Which, if it doesn't already, should scare hell out of you.

Sir Robert must be rotating in his grave at a velocity

sufficient to generate seismic waves. Latest example of 'law enforcement' in (fG)Britain,
According to his blog, our over-tall photographer Alex Turner was taking snaps in Chatham High St last Thursday, when he was approached by two unidentified men. They did not identify themselves, but demanded that he show them some ID and warned that if he failed to comply, they would summon police officers to deal with him.

This they did, and a PCSO and WPC quickly joined the fray. Turner took a photo of the pair, and was promptly arrested. It is unclear from his own account precisely what he was being arrested for. However, he does record that the WPC stated she had felt threatened by him when he took her picture, referring to his size - 5' 11" and about 12 stone - and implying that she found it intimidating.
I have no idea about Britain, but I think it's law in most places in the US that if a plain-clothes officer accosts you and you demand ID, they have to provide it.
Turner claims he was handcuffed, held in a police van for around 20 minutes, and forced to provide ID before they would release him. He was then searched in public by plain clothes officers who failed to provide any ID before they did so.

Following his release, he further claims that the police confirmed he was at liberty to take photographs, so long as - according to the PCSO - he did not take any photographs of the police.
If it's not law in Britain, it would at the least be courtesy for someone in plain clothes to show ID before searching you, to prove A: they really are cops and B: therefore have a legal backing of some kind for the search. However, as noted by my title, they seem to have forgotten Sir Robert's Principles completely.

Further down,
This is just the latest in a long line of PR disasters that have dogged police forces over the last 12 months, with tourists, schoolboys and passers-by all subject to arrest for the heinous offence of pursuing their hobby. Each incident is followed by much police hand-wringing, and statements to the effect that these are one-offs: the fault of over-zealous individual officers.
Except that if it keeps happening, it ain't just the 'over-zealous' officer; they're either not getting the word, or they're getting the message that they can keep doing this and get away with it.
The Home Office has issued numerous statements reaffirming the public’s right to take photographs. Last week, the Met issued its own guidelines, which may go some way to explaining why the Police so persistently get it wrong.
You really need to read this to get the full effect of the idiocy involved. I will quote a bit from the response they finally got from Kent police:
"At the time of this incident, a police officer responded to a report concerning a man who was taking photographs of buildings and people in Chatham town centre. When challenged by the police officer the man refused to give any personal details which it was thought was suspicious.

"As a result, he was arrested and asked to wait in a police vehicle while his details were checked. He was released a short time later after these details had been properly verified, and no further action has been taken.
And we're back to, among other things, did the first two ID themselves as police? If not, why the hell not?

I'm now going to post Sir Robert Peel's Nine Principles of Policing(thanks to Lawdog for keeping track of them); see if you can figure out how many these people are violating in the cases listed in the article:
1) The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two things to point to, one for funny and one for serious

The funny is here, speaking of the attitudes of(in this case one particular) 'Republican pundit' who lost her brain over Sarah Palin:
You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. But it's not the normal kind of jealous, the kind reserved for girlfriends who can squeeze into size 2 jeans. No, it's the kind of jealous that hurts, that grabs your gut and twists, that has you howling with rage into your pillow in the middle of the night, screaming "It's not fair" like a two-year-old denied another piece of cake. It is Sarah Palin jealous...and it is consuming you.
...
And, what's worse, everyone continues to talk about her. You've tried everything, using your mainstream media platforms, your Wall Street Journal columns, and powerful friends -- so many of them -- to savage her, to give her a rhetorical beating so fierce that it would bring a smile to the face of Vince McMahon -- if you knew who he is, and if you had ever watched a WWE wrestling match, which he heads. "She is a complete elite confection. She might as well have been a bonbon," you wrote, your $300 manicured fingers shaking on the keyboard.
...
You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. You don't understand it. Sure, maybe she has accomplished a few things (like the $26 billion dollar natural gas pipeline deal, restructuring Alaskan government, and taking an ice pick to corrupt politicians). But she has no style, no pizzazz -- she just does stuff. But so do you -- and you can't understand why you don't get the same adoration. After all, didn't you go before the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission and not just protest, but elegantly protest -- so said The New York Times -- a 16-story tower a developer wanted to build in your ritzy Upper East Side Manhattan neighborhood? Sarah Palin wouldn't have done that; she's not brilliant enough to understand preservation. She probably would have looked at the jobs the construction would create and given it a déclassé "Hell yeah!"
Well worth reading, and I hope Noonan hears about it, reads it, and shrieks so high only the dog knows she did it. And runs away.


The serious is that Amazon deleted books from peoples' Kindle readers. No notice, just did it. And what books were they? Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm and Atlas Shrugged.

I had no idea Amazon could do that, let alone without bothering to tell you "We're going to delete the book you paid for. We'll refund your money, but you can't keep it." And with all the books out there, that it would be these three that are the only faulty file and that book will no longer be available, or the books in question were being sold by Amazon despite being unauthorized copies. In the link at Insty we have
It appears as though Amazon’s purchasing system does this automatically. The company told Ars that they are “changing [Amazon's] systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.”

Bravo to that, but it would have been better for Amazon to tell customers of this planned change directly, in the first place. And why was the system designed to reach out and remove books, anyway?
Good question. I'd thought about one of these before, but this pretty much kills it; I don't want some possible censor being able to delete or edit books I've bought.

Took the daughter for her birthday dinner tonight

before she leaves for New Orleans in the morning on vacation. Went to a place called Pop's east of Edmond: restaurant that also makes a lot of different flavors of soda. My chicken-fried steak was good, she said her burger was very good. And dessert... their ice-cream sandwich is a big chocolate chip cookie, about five small scoops of vanilla spaced suitably, another cookie, then hot fudge and whipped cream.

We split the dessert, and you could easily have split it three ways; I'm still stuffed.

Ref her trip, yes, she's planning on great care. No, I'm not thrilled. About a month ago at the range as I was checking out was talking to one of the new people there and mentioned daughter's trip; she looked at me in amazement and said "You're letting her go?" I pointed out she is of age and I didn't have a lot of input; next question: "Does she have a gun?" It seems she used to work with the US Marshalls Service, and the last in-service training she had was in NO; before they got out the first night they received a sheet of warnings: "Do not leave brightly-lit streets; do travel in groups of three or more" and so on. For US Marshalls who they knew would be armed.

Real confidence-inspiring, that.

Ref the airliner crash in Iran,

Two-Four has this:
Dan Collins links a Reuters item on the Caspian Airlines crash, which includes this helpful information:

"U.S. sanctions against Iran have prevented it from buying new aircraft or spares from the West, forcing it to supplement its aging fleet of Boeing and Airbus planes with aircraft from the former Soviet Union."

This crap reminds me of Cuba; we're told the sanctions don't make sense because 'Everybody else in the WORLD trades with Cuba!', and yet they also tell us it's our fault the Cuban economy is in the septic tank. Or, in Nicaragua in the 80's, they were constantly threatening us and calling us names, and then bitching because "You won't give us things for loans we won't pay backsell us things we need!" when- again- we were being told "Sanctions don't make sense because EVERYBODY else trades with Nicaragua!"

Can't have it both ways, folks; if 'everybody else' trades with whoever, and they're still in the toilet, either somebody else won't sell them what they need or can't make what they need; not our fault. Or, if other people DO sell them the stuff, and they're in the toilet anyway, you can't blame us.

Ref another "Oh NO, he was legally carrying a GUN!" case,

Tam covers it quite well:

"My opinion is that members of the public should allow trained professionals to carry and use firearms," Maloney said.

Having seen the effects of gun use, Maloney thinks citizens should instead be good witnesses if they spot a crime, he said.

I'd be all about some trained professionals, but all we have is you, chief. And you know what they say about you guys: You're never around when I need you. And when I do call you, you've got the rest of my life to get here. I reckon I'll keep lugging my own heater around, thanks."

A while back I wrote about Bank of America screwing some people

around in disgusting fashion. Final outcome with Bank of America is
...Today my local branch manager called, and begged me to make this go away. She was authorized to offer me a dollar amount that equates to about 30% of what I lost last week in terms of cash laid out. It didn't account for pain and suffering, or any sort of emotional factor. It didn't even cover the new tickets I had to buy for my family's airfare.

I took their offer, simply because I don't think that I could do more without a protracted fight, and what's the point? Every day I deal with this shit is a day closer to my death. I'm not talking big bucks, and I'm not a man who likes to beat his head against a wall simply because it feels good to stop at the end.

Anyhow, the little bit of money that they offered me is enough to keep my wife and boy comfortable for the duration of their wait in Brazil, with enough left over to pay back most of the money I borrowed to cover my shortfalls in the ticket price. So, all's well, sort of.

Probably as well as it could get with these clowns. But I'll tell you three things:
1. There was no excuse for them screwing up the account once, let alone multiple times.
2. There was no excuse for the way he was treated while trying to straighten things out.
3. There is no damn way I'll ever take a card from Bank of America. Or do anything else to put money in their pocket if I can avoid it.

A comment in the original post basically says "He should have set things up better." Maybe so, but that does NOT in any way excuse the actions of Bank of America in this.

Because, of course, only government minions can be

trusted with arms.
In the last article, reader “Alex” commented:

“Obviously it is time to repeal the second amendment because of all the bloodshed it has caused.”

...
I used to agree with “Alex.” Then, during my initial 3+ years of research, I discovered, and corresponded with, Rudy Rummel, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Hawaii. He has published over 20 books and been published over 100 times in professional journals. His university website addresses the above issue.

Here is a partial list of countries that, in the 20th century, carried out government-sponsored mass murder, termed “democide” by Professor Rudy Rummel: People’s Republic of China (76.7 million murdered); Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (61.9 million); and Nazi Germany (21 million). Other countries listed by Professor Rummel include: Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Yugoslavia, et al, resulting in another 13 million murdered by their own governments. Other homicidal countries included Imperial Japan (World War II) and Turkey (1.9 million), who murdered mostly ‘others’ in the name of racial purity and territorial conquest. All told, Rummel estimates that 262 million people were slaughtered by homicidal governments during the 20th Century alone. These numbers are beyond comprehension, as Professor Rummel explains:

He ends with
Don’t like Jews or Catholics? Hitler disarmed them and then murdered millions in concentration camps, along with Gypsies, homosexuals, etc.

Hate Christians? After Uganda banned guns, 300,000 were rounded up and murdered.
Don’t like “smart” people? After banning guns, Cambodia rounded up and murdered over one million of them.

Hate people who disagree with you? After the Soviet Union established gun control, over 20 million dissidents were rounded up and killed.

By comparison, the Second Amendment has actually saved millions of lives. It also protects your right to religious freedom, your pursuit of happiness, and your opportunity for upward mobility. It raises the cost for thugs who want you rounded up and murdered.

It also shows that anybody who is against the civil right of self-defense is a person who hates your life, liberty, and happiness.

Why would you want to be disarmed before such a person?

If your Senator reacts this way to your protest, (updated)

you need to see about replacing her.
Local Tea Party patriots held an anti-Obama Care protest at Senator Claire "ACORN" McCaskill’s district offices on Delmar Boulevard today.
The protest was organized by Americans for Prosperity and the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition.

McCaskill's office manager locked the doors, pull down the blinds, called the cops and forced the protesters across the street.
...
A staff member opened the door for the police and said they were being threatened. The staff member took some notes from a few protesters while the police were there and said she'd pass them on to Senator McCaskill.
Like Insty said, it's not like she's crapping on constituents or somet- oh, wait, yes she is.

Update: you can add Congressweenie Keith Shuler to the list of "Who cares what you peasants think?" politicians:
It is important to note here that we were not “storming the Bastille.” We were not carrying pitchforks, nor did we arrive announced. Our group called ahead well over a week in advance and requested that someone from Shuler’s office receive our petitions and comments. We were informed that they would not accept our petitions and that Shuler would not be there, but that someone would receive us.

Shuler’ assistant stood in the entry to the offices and stated that the Congressman “has no comment.” He said that he would be willing to talk to one or two of us. Several people spontaneously made comments to be relayed the Congressman.
Translation: "The Congressman is busy with important matters, he can't be here to talk to you. And I, his buttmonkey, will not accept your smelly papers for him; they'll contaminate the office." Sounds like Shuler needs to be reminded that he can be thrown out of that office. And should be.

Magnets: they're not just for Mythbusters and screwing up your disc

One of my 'it makes things easier' is to use magnets for holding things. Specifically, say I've got a pistol I've wiped down with Eezox and I don't want it laying on a cloth or something while it dries. I've got a file cabinet next to the table where I do things like that, so I put the piece muzzle-down on the table and set a magnet on the cabinet where the butt touchesand it'll stay there while the stuff dries. Or penetrating oil soaks in or whatever. You can do this with a rifle or shotgun(minus the stock), though I'll generally use two magnets, one on each side of the receiver or barrel, for that to make it more stable.

I'll throw in, you know those plastic clamps you can pick up at Harbor Freight or wherever on sale? Nice & strong? You can clamp two of them on the table and lean a long gun between them so it can't fall over.

Probably these are methods you're aware of, but just in case.

Two things to read, both connected to oil

Kevin has this on the Bakken Formation having a LOT more recoverable oil than previously thought:
3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—

Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

From the FAQ,

Why isn't this information concerning the Bakken Formation on front page news?

In April 2008, when the USGS released the assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources of the Bakken Formation, there was a press release which was distributed to the media. The individual media organizations make the decision about what stories to publish. When the USGS assessment was released, news articles were done in several news avenues including the New York Times, the Associated Press, and Oil and Gas Journal.

In other words, "It doesn't fit the agenda."


Read the whole thing; interesting information. Which brings us to a post a while back by Geek with a .45; it starts off with Ron Paul getting his ass kicked in the debates, and really starts here:
The significant reason that Ron Paul got his butt whipped was because his response demonstrated that he did not have an understanding or command of the monstrous, overriding Excruciating Truth that it is rarely uttered aloud.

That so many liberty oriented brethren don’t understand that Ron Paul has fatally screwed up tells me that they don’t grasp Excruciating Truth either.

(Hmmmm….am I a prophet, or a politician? At least I’ll confess confusion on that point. But then again, I’m not in congress, running for president. I’m just a sleepy guy who has to get up for work in the morning.)

------------------------

So, here’s the Excruciating Truth:

Whether America remains free and prosperous will be determined by whoever controls The Lightning; which is some critical portion of war suitable energy resources.

And it damned well better be us.

"They want the farmer to die

and the canary to live."

In recent months, actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez has made known his defection from the Democratic party because of the party's lack of interest in helping drought-stricken farmers like himself in California who have had water denied to them by court order under the Endangered Species Act to save an endangered fish, the delta smelt.
Reality strikes home.
As he recounted that environmentalists compare the delta smelt to the canary in a coal mine, he quipped that environmentalists treat the farmer like the canary. Rodriguez quoted his uncle who used to be a coal miner: "The job of the canary is to, you know, we were digging and we’re looking at the canary, we’re digging and looking, when the canary dies, man, you run the hell out of there! That canary’s job is to die so you live, see?”

He continued: "And that really got to me, and I said, 'They got it wrong. They want the farmer to die and the canary to live.'”
And some of them want the farmers and all the other humans to die.
Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants, also spoke of his late father's admiration for America, and the good fortune one has in just getting to live in this country: "He had a deep love for this country. He was grateful. He told me that he wasn’t going to leave an inheritance for his children. He was going to leave something more important than that. He was going to leave them in a place with ideals, and a place where you can become someone if you really wanted to, you had a shot at it."
An ideal that the Evil Party and linguini-spine Stupid Party members are trying to destroy. Speaking of which,
And in contrast to much of the mainstream media's habit of encouraging Republicans to moderate on social issues, he suggested that the Republican party's conservative positions on issues like abortion and family values would be an advantage in attracting Hispanic voters. Rodriguez: "You need to attract more of me, or else you’d be an endangered species. ... You know, we have so much in common. A lot of the values that this party espouses, we espouse. We believe strongly in family. We believe life is sacred."

Rodriguez lamented as he concluded his speech: "It is tragic that in the most fertile soil that God has ever placed on any corner of this blue marble that we should have a desert where there should be a garden."

And the most Hopey!Changey!!Transparent!!! administration EVAH!!!! reaction?
Rodriguez also appeared on FNC's Hannity show on June 19, and complained that the Obama administration has ignored his pleas for help: "I think that when the Endangered Species Act was put on, they didn't take humans into consideration. ... We tried to get the attention of the administration. Mr. Salazar was gracious enough to fly over our valley but didn't land. I don't know what. There's plenty of places to land, you know, because there's no farming going on. It's pathetic." Video of the interview can be found here.

Remember AG Holder dismissing the charges

on the Black Panthers intimidating voters? He doesn't want to tell the Judiciary Committee why.
The Department of Justice responded to questions from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) in a letter earlier this week. DOJ has agreed to a closed door meeting, to be announced.

The letter does not address the basic question, what facts changed? The letter also attempts to reassure, citing the experience of the decision makers. It raises more questions than it answers.

"The Department voluntarily dismissed (the charges) in the complaint because the facts and the law did not support pursuing those claims...That decision was made after a careful and thorough review of the matter by the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, a career employee with nearly 30 years experience in the Department, including nearly l5 years as the career Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights."

The facts did not support the claims? And does careful and thorough review mean, "we won?"

And don't you just love the 'agreed to a closed-door meeting'? Because he apparently doesn't want the peasants hearing what he has to say?

Remember what I said about when it rains

this time of year?

The orange in the center of the blue around Oklahoma City is the severe thunderstorm warning(I can hear thunder approaching), to the east is Excessive Heat Warning and south is Heat Advisory mixed with storms forming.
(Note: when I posted this, it showed the colors in the preview; but they apparently didn't actually post)

So I think I'm going to shut the pc down for a while.

Idiot And Bigoted Politicians On Parade

Bigoted, first, Sen. Durbin(Slanderer of Troops-IL):
"When we asked questions of the white male nominees of a Republican president, we were basically trying to ... make sure that they would go far enough in understanding the plight of minorities, because clearly that was not in their DNA," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said.
I wonder if that includes the nominee to the Supreme Court Democrats trashed BECAUSE he was latino?


And from Closing Velocity we have Colin Powell discovering that sucking up to The Obama just might have been a mistake:
Obama ally Colin Powell asserts that the United States' national interest trumps Russia's demands:

Russia's foreign minister said that progress would be jeopardized if the U.S. decides to create a global missile defense system. But Powell says Russia "can't have veto power over what we think is needed."

That's certainly a far cry from what Powell said about Russian objections to our missile defense when we were preparing to withdraw from the ABM Treaty in 2001:

Powell is sympathetic to [the Russians'] anxieties.

Which is followed by
In sharp contrast to his positive words during President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow earlier this week when the two reached broad agreement on nuclear arms cuts, Mr Medvedev used a news conference at the G8 summit to return to Russia's earlier tough rhetoric on arms control.

Referring to an order he gave earlier this year to prepare deployment of short-range Russian missiles in the western enclave of Kaliningrad to answer to any US deployment of a missile shield in central Europe, Medvedev said:

"If we don't manage to agree on the issues, you know the consequences. What I said during my state of the nation address has not been revoked."
...
Mr Medvedev, speaking at the G8, also appeared to change his tone on the missile defence shield itself.

During Mr Obama's visit he told the US leader, using markedly softer language than normal, that "no one is saying that missile defence is harmful in itself or that it poses a threat to someone".

But in Italy on Friday, Mr Medvedev returned to the Kremlin's traditional posture on the system, describing it as "harmful" and "threatening to Russia".
With this comment from Krauthammer:

Obama says that his START will be a great boon, setting an example to enable us to better pressure North Korea and Iran to give up their nuclear programs.

That a man of Obama’s intelligence can believe such nonsense is beyond comprehension. There is not a shred of evidence that cuts by the great powers —- the INF treaty, START I, the Treaty of Moscow (2002) —- induced the curtailment of anyone’s programs.

Moammar Gaddafi gave up his nukes the week we pulled Saddam Hussein out of his spider hole. No treaty involved. The very notion that Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will suddenly abjure nukes because of yet another U.S.-Russian treaty is comical.

If you want to see Sen. Boxer(Brain Dead-CA) getting her comuppance,

go here and watch. Absolutely wonderful.

Added: Fausta linked to a transcript:
“Madam chair, that is condescending to me,” Alford said. “I’m the National Black Chamber of Commerce, and you’re trying to put up some other black group to pit against me.”

Boxer defended including the report, however, saying the report reflects a “diversity” of support behind climate change legislation facing the Senate.

“If this gentleman were here, he would be proud he’s being quoted,” Boxer said in defense of the NAACP support.

Alford, however, struck back against Boxer, accusing her of “getting racial” in the climate change debate.

“All that’s condescending, and I don’t like it. It’s racial. I take offense to it. As an African-American and a veteran of this country, I take offense to that,” he said. “You’re quoting some other black man — why don’t you quote some other Asian or some other… You’re getting racial here.”

“You’re speaking on behalf of the black community?” Alford asked. “Why are you doing the colored people association’s study with the black Chamber of Commerce?”

He finally concluded:

“We’ve been looking at energy policy since 1996. And we are referring to the experts, regardless of their color. And for someone to tell me, an African-American, college-education veteran of the United States Army, that I must contend with some other “black group” and put aside everything else in here — This has NOTHING to do with the NAACP, and really has nothing to do with the National Black Chamber of Commerce. We’re talking about energy. And that — that road the chair went down, I think is God awful.”