It may have been unwritten, but part of the LE job description

has always been "You may well have to put your ass on the line to save or help someone; if you haven't considered that, you'd better before you take the job."

Except now in formerly great Britain.
The public have ' unrealistic expectations' that police will put themselves in danger to protect ordinary people, according to new safety guidelines for officers.

The Health and Safety Executive caused outrage by declaring that officers confronted with dangerous situations-while fighting crime or trying to guard the public 'may choose not to put themselves at unreasonable risk'.

Its guidance published yesterday firmly plays down the need for officers to show bravery in the course of their duty if they make a 'personal choice' not to.

It states: 'There is often an unrealistic public expectation that officers and staff will put themselves at risk to protect the public.'

The document concedes that 'very occasionally in extreme cases', police may be justified in putting themselves in jeopardy - in which case they may be let off without being prosecuted under health and safety laws.

The report - which has the backing of senior police chiefs - prompted anger and astonishment last night.
To quote somebody: "Jayzus! You think MAYBE??!?"

We've got problems in LE over here(Lord, do we!) but this isn't one of them: it's the rare exception where somebody calls for help and the cops won't show up because 'it might be dangerous'. And when somebody does do such a thing(seems I've heard of a case or two in the past, but can't remember any particulars), the outrage lands on them like a truckload of bricks. And rightly so. Wearing the badge is like wearing the uniform of the armed forces; you damned well know when you take it up that when the time comes part of the job is putting your ass on the line.

Combine that with the first part of Kevin's post:
REPORTS of the law-abiding being serially neglected by the police when their property comes under attack are proliferating. Every day brings new stories about people who have been let down by constabularies that always seem to have higher priorities than protecting the public.

It appears that far from being an occasional aberration, such neglect is the norm in many parts of the country.

Too many forces have fallen under the command of politically correct top brass who think officers should be at best neutral when they intervene in altercations between harassed householders and gangs of thugs.

The latest examples are all too typical. In Lincolnshire, Ted Nottingham has felt compelled to advertise a reward for the capture of yobs who have vandalised his car more than 40 times and have now wrecked his neighbour’s vehicle.

In Stourbridge, disabled widow Brenda Hill has been forced to put up notices in her car, begging vandals to stop smashing it up after five attacks in the past year.
You know, trying to be an effective cop in Britain has to be like being an honest cop in New Orleans: so damned frustating at times you wonder why they don't say "To hell with it" and walk. The bad ones just sluff along playing the game; the good ones break their heads trying to actually be a Police Officer. And you know the good ones are thinking the same thing we are when we read the above: "If we cannot or will not do the job, sooner or later people will start dealing with the yobs themselves. And when we show up to arrest them for it, the war starts."

Obama wins again!

“President Obama is honored to accept the NASCAR award for Rookie Of The Year. As a close personal friend of Ricky Bobby, the president is well aware of the embedded American values of competition and wholesome recreation that NASCAR represents. Additionally, President Obama shares many of the same tastes as the fans of the sport and has even sipped on a PBR once when the local convenience store was out of his usual imported brand. Over the years, NASCAR has shown the ability to change with the nation and the president recognizes what a singular honor this award is. In fact, one of NASCAR’s greatest influences on the president can be summed up in the following; go fast, turn left.”

Fan reaction has been mixed. One man from Charlotte stated, “Well hell, if they’ll let that queer Jeff Gordon race a car, I guess it don’t make no nevermind that they give rookie of the year to some colored guy who don’t even drive him own self around.” Another NASCAR fan disagreed, saying that she thought that the president probably doesn’t even realize that NASCAR isn’t a community organization. “Maybe if NASCAR hired a few hookers and some undocumented day laborers, it might be better, but I don’t think the president understands what NASCAR is all about.”.

Further reason why a lot of people in Congress should be fired.

Preferably after- or at least followed by- tar and feathers.
So they didn’t end the reduction from our military retired pay to pay for our own disability, they didn’t end the reduction in widows’ benefits (that their husbands earned for them) and they didn’t fix eligibility for Reserve soldiers who served in the war against terror. But they did fix the thing they inflicted on service members last week. What kind of childish bullshit are they trying to pull on us?

I guess governing is harder than making campaign promises.

If you have a strong stomach, and remove the breakables

from reach, read this: interview with a guy who went undercover to investigate NAMBLA. Who also speaks on the child molester Polanski and the clowns who make excuses for him.

By the way, the people who say "Polanski never did it again!"? Bullshit; among other things, he started sleeping with Nastassja Kinski when she was 15, and the bastard had a reputation before that of messing with young girls.

Quote of the day

Referring to the wonderful document known as The Constitution,
Rather brilliant. For, in the abstract, we may envision an Olympian perfection of perfect beings in Washington doing the business of their employers, the people, but any of us who has ever been at a zoning meeting with our property at stake is aware of the urge to cut through all the pernicious bullshit and go straight to firearms.
David Mamet, Why I Am No Longer a Brain-Dead Liberal


Note to self: when setting both italics and a link, make sure the damned link actually links

Ok, no idea why but the link keeps not working; here's the address:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-03-11/news/why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-dead-liberal/
He buys a lot of the "Bush stole the election!"-type crap, otherwise a good piece. There are some pictures on the sidebar that make this possibly NSFW

As of this time the .22 pistol post has 14 replies,

and it breaks down as
Walther P11, 1
S&W 22A, 1
Sig Mosquito, 1.5(Would be 2,except Conant sort of damns his with faint praise)
Beretta Neo, 1
Various model Ruger, 7

The big gripe with the Rugers is takedown/reassembly, otherwise their owners generally love them. Decent price, solidly made and accurate. Which has been my experience.

Of all these, I've fired the Ruger MkII and 22/45(early version), Mosquito and Neo. The Mosquito I wrote about friend's problems with here; it was fairly accurate, and comfortable in the hand, but I've heard of too many problems to be comfortable recommending them(side note: Tam says she believes it's made by Umarex for Sig; doesn't Umarex also make the Colt .22 version AR15? And doesn't it have a bunch of problems too?).

The Neo looks halfway like a ray gun, and the one I fired was both reliable and accurate; the guy at the range who let me fire it loved it and had two: his and the new one he was sighting in for his wife.

On the Walther I've read of a bunch of problems with slides cracking; anybody know more? (I think I read somewhere that Umarex makes the slides; if I'm remembering right, damn) The other side is, a lot of people have them and love them.

So that's what came in, make of it what you will. Ruger has their problems, but they do make some good .22 pistols.

Know what I'd like? Someone to start making the High Standard Sport King again; that's a fine-shooting thing, and solid as a rock.

Honduras tells the OAS to kiss their collective ass

In proper diplomatic language, of course.
Yesterday Honduran president Roberto Micheletti had the opportunity to speak to the OAS in public, and speak he did: Honduras President Roberto Micheletti blasted OAS in new round of crisis talks

“First, I wish to express unending thanks for the good will that you are showing . . . but we must speak out about something: the truth. You do not know the whole truth and, at times it appears that you do not want to hear it. Why don’t we begin to investigate what happened before the 28th of June?

What happened was that Zelaya attempted to extend his own term limits, something specifically forbidden by the Honduran Constitution. Zelaya was also plundering the state treasury,

“Today we have the evidence. This is not just talk. Where Mr. Zelaya was feeding his horses with government money, where he paid the man who kept it with the State’s funds; twenty-seven thousand lempiras per month for the keeper and 20 thousand for the horses’ feed. Jewels purchased with government money, charged to the treasury of the Republic. But no one wants to see any of that. I would like you to investigate what has happened with the Treasury of Honduras in the past three months since we have been in charge.

“We were accused and sentenced in the 20 minutes that the OAS meeting lasted, where it was presumed we had staged a coup d’état. Unfortunately, in this country, some people read our constitution and say it’s a monstrosity; but that monstrosity has kept order, quiet and peace in this country for 29 years under a democratic regime in which nobody had attempted to breach the constitutional order in our country by trying to set up a Constitutional convention.”

Good for Honduras.

Maybe they decided Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize

for his concerns about religion and free speech.
Miss Mogahed, appointed to the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was "oversimplified" and the majority of women around the world associate it with "gender justice".

The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party.

The group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world.
...
During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular "man-made law" and the West's "lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism".

They called for Sharia Law to be "the source of legislation" and said that women should not be "permitted to hold a position of leadership in government".

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that "promiscuity" and the "breakdown of traditional values" were what Muslims admired least about the West.
All righty, then.

These revelations are found in Sunstein's new book, On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done, in which he attacks the plague of "rumors" besetting the Obama administration. Rumors must be regulated, according to Sunstein. Suspiciously, Sunstein's definition of "rumors" never seems to favor conservatives. To combat "rumors," Sunstein proposes fines, and even obligatory retractions, in the case of Internet publications.[1]

In his new book, harsh penalties would be meted out for those that "spread rumors about an appointee of a Democratic president," an occurrence likely to increase if Sunstein continues to assault the very foundations upon which America is built.[2] Sunstein will have to accuse millions of Americans of "spreading rumors." Perhaps Sunstein even dreams of an eventual final solution for rumor perpetrators.
...
The essence of America is freedom for all who seek it. This includes freedom of the press, freedom to speak the truth, freedom to criticize our leaders. If America becomes a land of "freedom for some," it will cease to be America. There is no possible justification for the desecration of liberty, and if an ideology requires the desecration of liberty to succeed, it has no place in America. Freedom of speech, that precious gift men have died to protect, is rubbish to Sunstein, who considers the Constitution to be nothing more than a set of outmoded guidelines:
A system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government... Democratic efforts to reduce the resulting problems ought not be rejected in freedom's name.

Sunstein adds that his proposal is "almost certainly unconstitutional." It is curious that an effort to restrict the freedom of individual Americans to express ideas is "democratic" in Sunstein's lexicon.

More on the Battle of COP Keating

here.

I have to wonder; the bad guys had to know the base was about to be destroyed and abandoned, so did they launch the attack so they could claim "We drove the infidels out"? From the report, they lost a LOT of men and equipment, but past evidence would say they'd care less about that than about the chance to claim a victory.

I think the Saudis have enough of our money,

thank you very much.
Saudi Arabia has led a quiet campaign during these and other negotiations — demanding behind closed doors that oil-producing nations get special financial assistance if a new climate pact calls for substantial reductions in the use of fossil fuels.

Screw the 'climate pact' bullcrap; I've said before, we build nuclear power plants, develop fusion plants, we do anything that actually produces the power we need and reduces need for oil, the oil ticks once again become the lords of the world's biggest litter box. And they know it.

Ah, the wonders of socialized medicine...

More than 5,700 patients died or suffered serious harm as a result of staff errors in the NHS over a six-month period, figures showed today.

Figures from the National Patient Safety Agency showed that 459,500 patient safety incidents and near misses occurred in England between last October and March.

This is a 12 per cent increase on the previous six months but the agency, which collects and monitors safety data in the NHS, said that better reporting was fuelling the rise.
Uh, ok.
Martin Fletcher, the agency’s chief executive, added: “More reports do not mean more risks to patients. Indeed, quite the reverse. These data are sound evidence of an improving reporting culture across the NHS. Frontline staff are more likely than ever to raise safety concerns much more openly.”
Ok, if this jump is from 'improved reporting', what are the real numbers?


From another article,
Up to one in 50 patients in hospital is being treated for problems caused by previous NHS care, official figures show today.

A study by the the NHS Information Centre found that patients in England were treated for complications resulting from treatment on 326,000 occasions over a 12-month period — equivalent to two per cent of all hospital admissions.

The figures include cases of botched surgery, excessive bleeding or serious side-effects to medicines or therapies given to help patients.
'One in 50' doesn't sound too bad, but then you get to this:
A spokesman for the NHS Information Centre said: “These figures do not include people with minor complications that could have been dealt with outside hospital. It only deals with serious complications where patients had to be re-admitted to hospital as a consequence of earlier treatment.
So this only counts 'serious complications'. Which could mean the actual number is WAY higher than 'up to 1 in 50'.

Yep, we'd just LOOOOVE having our own National Health Service, wouldn't we?

What matters more to Rep. Pelosi(Corrupt Boob-CA)

than dealing with a corrupt Rep. Charles Rangel(Corrupt Tax-Cheat-NY)?
But even if Pelosi relented and asked Rangel to relinquish his gavel, there would be a political firestorm, as she would be moving to oust a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus from a chairmanship he waited nearly four decades to get.
Screw corruption, screw tax evasion by the clown writing tax laws, "I musn't get the Black Caucus mad at me! That's FAR more important a concern."

Marek Edelman: someone whose death should have received far more notice

Dr. Marek Edelman, a cardiologist who was the last surviving commander of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Germans, died Friday in Warsaw, Poland. He was 90.

A friend, Paula Sawicka, said he died "among friends, among his close people," at her home, where he had lived for the past two years.

Dr. Edelman was one of a handful of young leaders who in April 1943 led a force of 220 young Jewish men and women in a hopeless struggle against the Germans.

If a nutcase dictator is happy that you're in office...

"I will do whatever the Americans want, because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid."
--Muammar Qaddafi, 2003

"We'd be content and happy if Obama can stay president forever."
--Muammar Quaddafi, 2009

Gotta agree with Will

I'll repeat: you could not pay me enough to live

in the People's Republic of Massachusetts:
This is the infamous S. 2028 “Pandemic Response Bill,” which gives the governor the power to declare a health emergency—without any guidelines or challenge—which then unleashes a level of police powers very close to martial law. All this, according to its author Sen. Moore, over the flu. (bold mine)

As the Gate House News Service reports:

Senate Bill 2028 says that anyone who refuses to get a vaccination recommended by public health officials may be quarantined.

It also allows arrest without a warrant or entry into any house or building without a warrant if an officer has probable cause to believe there is a violation of a quarantine.

The bill itself says “Any person who knowingly violates an order for isolation or quarantine shall be punished by imprisonment of not more than 30 days and may be subject to a civil fine of not more than $1,000 per day that the violation continues.”

Arrest without a warrant? Entry without a warrant? For this? No wonder the commissars of the PROM don't want citizens to have arms.

It's official: the Nobel Peace Prize means squat (multiple updates)

Giving it to the multiple murderer Arafat just might have been an aberration; when they gave it to Carter, and one of the committee stated they did it to whack at Bush, that made it a fact; giving it to Algore? Please. Now they've proven it doesn't mean a damn thing except a political game to thump on America.
This will no doubt come as great comfort to the democracy protesters in Iran, the oppressed citizens of North Korea, the Afghan women being beaten by the Taliban, and the people of Poland, the Czech Republic, Georgia, etc., feeling the hot breath of the growling Russian bear. They’re all basking in that Obama-inspired “peace.”(I'll add, the people in Honduras trying to keep a Chavez buttmonkey from taking over)

Compared to all that “strengthened diplomacy” and “people’s cooperation” President Obama was efforting, how could the other nominees even compare?


The only thing that really bothers me is that this comes just days after the Obama administration turned a blind eye to the Dalai Lama and told the world that it's at least considering a separate peace with the Taliban. That's grotesque. Meanwhile, there are real peace activists and dissidents out there whose dungeons will stay just as cold and dark for another year because of this. Indeed, this news comes during a year when the Iranian people rose up against tyranny and were crushed. Surely someone in Iran — or maybe the Iranian protestors generally — could have benefitted more from receiving the prize than a president who, so far, has done virtually nothing concrete for world peace.


Hey, the Russians are trying to clean up Stalin's reputation(it's just so hard to scrub all the blood off...), maybe the Nobel Peace Prize can go to him next! After all, he sent millions of Soviet citizens to their final peace; that's far more than the number of Jews(and other people who got in the way) Arafat murdered.

Added: from the Times:
Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration, approval for the election of America’s first black president and hope that Washington will honour its promise to re-engage with the world.

Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace. I can only say 'risks'?

Added: "If you aren't thrilled about this, you've thrown in with the terrorists."
“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize,” DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse told POLITICO. “Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize - an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride - unless of course you are the Republican Party."
Great pride for WHAT, you miserable dirtbag? You really, truly suck. As Ace points out, Republicans have 'thrown in" with Hamas? You mean the same terrorist group that endorsed Obama last year?

Two quotes from a Reuters article:
"It would be wonderful if I could think why he won," said Claire Sprague, 82, a retired English professor as she walked her dog in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. "They wanted to give him an honor I guess but I can't think what for."

Itya Silverio, 33, of Brooklyn, was also surprised. "My first opinion is that he got it because he's black," she said. "What did he do that was so great? He hasn't even finished office yet."
and the big points,
"The guy hasn't solved any conflict anywhere so how can he win the peace prize? But if we don't reelect him the next go around we will all look like idiots because the world has anointed him," said Schultz, who lives in a suburb of Dallas.
and
"It looks less like an objective award than it does a political endorsement," said William Jelani Cobb, a history professor at Spelman College in Atlanta and author of a forthcoming book on Obama.

"Guantanamo is not closed yet and it makes it difficult for him to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan," he said, referring to the U.S. prison in Cuba where some detainees have been held for years without trial.

If you had any illusions that President B. Hussein Obama

actually wants to win a war ANYWHERE(except maybe here against people who don't worship him), put the breakables out of reach and read this, and this.
Bowing to the reality that the Taliban is too ingrained in Afghanistan’s culture to be entirely defeated, the administration is prepared, as it has been for some time, to accept some Taliban role in parts of Afghanistan, the official said. That could mean paving the way for Taliban members willing to renounce violence to participate in a central government — though there has been little receptiveness to this among the Taliban. It might even mean ceding some regions of the country to the Taliban…
Like the guy said at Hot Air, if you think troop morale is bad now... when President HopeyChangeyPants McSmartdiplomacy hands Afghanistan back to the Taliban while still expecting our troops to keep fighting.

This slimeball in the White House never meant a word about 'winning in Afghanistan', he was just giving the idiots who wanted to vote for 'change' a way to pretend he was something other than what he is; they bought it, and now the troops will pay in blood. The rest of us may well pay in blood later.

"My bird ate my gun!!!"

I don't care how much I liked the bird, I think he'd be making the conversion from 'African Grey' to 'entree' after this.

Pointed to by Uncle

Information on the Battle for COP Keating

here, and a way to donate to help out the the Bravo Troop 361 Cavalry troops.
When the chopper lifted off moments later with three wounded soldiers, it left behind others who were wounded but refused to be MEDEVACED out of the combat zone so they could return to fight with their buddies.
...
Soldiers told the MEDEVAC crew that troops were donating blood during the battle, so it could be transfused into wounded comrades.

Go read. And give, if you can. I'm going to copy the donation info here:
Here is where to donate online using your credit card.

Here is where to mail checks:

COP Keating Relief Fund
PO Box 1954
Indianapolis 46206

Make sure you have COP Keating Relief Fund on the check so we can allocate it correctly.

If you want to send stuff today, and do it completely on your own, please mail to:

CSM Robert Wilson
TF Mountain Warrior
FOB Bostick
APO AE 09354

It's raining. Again.

Add this to what's fallen the past few days, and

The dark green is flood watch, the lighter flood warning according to the legend at the NWS site. And it's a grand total of 60 degrees; glad the hummingbirds took off a couple of weeks back.


It should be a basic rule: intelligence agency personnel who screw intelligence reports around for political reasons should be fired. And prosecuted. There is no excuse for this kind of garbage.


The Obama administration is still playing delaying games on the IG firings.


Sen. Reid(Slimy Vile Bastard-NV) is still planning to ram a government takeover of your health care through no matter what you think. I have to wonder, does he actually believe in this crap so much he doesn't care it'll get him hung out to dry, or is he being pressured some other way to make him do it? Or is he such a partisan bastard that it's simply "A Democrat President wants a Democrat plan shoved through, so it must be done"?


Folks, you haven't figured it out; they don't care what you think or want. And, on top of that, you're blaming an Obama buttmonkey for part of the problem, and that's just not tolerable.
Asked specifically if the group would be meeting with students and parents at Fenger, Daley demurred. "Oh I don't know about that," he said.

Meanwhile, community leaders are livid.

"President Obama fueled up Air Force One to fly to Copenhagen to try to win the Olympics. Why can't he fuel up a Greyhound bus and come here?" asked Jackson.

"The Mayor and President want parents to get involved in the lives of their children," Jackson said. "We are here, where are they?"
They're putting on a show, Mr. Jackson; and you're not a part of it.


Trying to debunk theories that higher CO2 levels cause warming, he cites studies that show CO2 levels following temperature spikes, prompting him to back other scientists who say that global warming is caused by solar activity.

In taking on lawmakers pushing for a cap-and-trade plan to deal with emissions, Steward tells Whispers that he's worried that the legislation will result in huge and unneeded taxes. Worse, if CO2 levels are cut, he warns, food production will slow because plants grown at higher CO2 levels make larger fruit and vegetables and also use less water. He also said that higher CO2 levels are not harmful to humans. As an example, he said that Earth's atmosphere currently has about 338 parts per million of CO2 and that in Navy subs, the danger level for carbon dioxide isn't reached until the air has 8,000 parts per million of CO2.
Mr. Steward, you have to understand something: huge taxes are one of the main reasons for this crap being pushed. That and using this as a means of controlling people; they don't want you causing problems for their plans, and screw the facts.


“Many members” of Congress suffer from the same disclosure issues as Rep. Charles Rangel (D.N.Y.), one of his allies said Wednesday.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) downplayed the seriousness of allegations against Rangel that he failed to disclose sources of income and pay taxes on some properties, saying that many lawmakers suffer from innocent lapses in judgment when filing mandatory financial disclosure forms.

“I want to tell you, there are many members who, if you go back over all of their records, over all of the years, you’re going to find that there were disclosures that were not made,” Waters said during an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday morning.
Waters, you're disgusting; that's not an excuse, that's an explanation of how crooked the place has become. And every one of you with the same 'issues'(fancy word for 'corruption and tax dodging') should be dealt with.


You know, if you developed a reactor that could power half a state for the next 20 years and only produce a ton of leftovers, these people would still scream like a scalded cat at the very idea of building it. They aren't simply worried about pollution; they don't want us to have plenty of energy. It's like food irradiation; it doesn't matter that it's safe, that it doesn't harm the food, that it could save lives, none of that matters because the scary word 'radiation' is involved. Therefore, it cannot be allowed, no matter the cost.


Dear Leader's people(like CNN) really love using kids, don't they? A comment at Althouse:
CNN was tired of people arguing that it wasn't really in the tank.

"Hello! See this tank?! See us in it?! Glad that's settled."

This is the televised loyalty oath.


Ok, if you were Polanski, would you want people who'd written this jumping up to defend you?
In his 2005 book The Bad Life, he wrote: "I got into the habit of paying for boys," saying his attraction to young male prostitutes was not dimmed despite knowing "the sordid details of this traffic".

"All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excited me enormously... the abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire."

Mr Mitterrand, 62, has denied being a paedophile, saying the term "boys" was used loosely.
Yeah, very loosely, I'm sure.


The Virginia State Board of Elections argued in their most recent filing that they have no legal obligation to send out military absentee ballots in a timely manner. Restated, the State of Virginia has argued in a federal court filing that they can legally send out absentee ballots to active duty soldiers the day before an election. Restated again, theDemocratic Chairwoman of the Virginia State Board of Election (appointed by the Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, in his capacity as Virginia Governor) Jean Cunningham just claimed a legal basis for massively raising the barrier to voting for soldiers at war.
...
This is remarkable, and the implications of this should be understood. First of all, some counties in both Virginia and New Jersey haven’t sent out absentee ballots yet in violation of their own laws. Whether due to maliciousness or simply being overburdened and understaffed is always up for debate. If Virginia prevails, there would be a legal argument for putting the ballots of active duty military at the back of the bus, as it were.
There are officials in VA and NJ who need to be flogged.


Don't you just love it? Chicago has the worst victim-disarmament laws in the country, AND horrible crime, and yet the fact that the criminals still have guns simply means- to them- that they need MORE laws and MORE disarmament of honest people. Listen, you stupid bastards, stop blaming OBJECTS; if you hadn't raised a couple of generations of kids who see murder as just a means of settling disputes, you wouldn't have the damned problem. But acknowledging that would mean you couldn't blame other people and objects, so you won't.

Fools.


I think that's enough for one morning.

I haven't seen that many fools dressed in white

since O Brother Where Art Thou? And they must be fools for they are certainly acting against their best interests, as Bill Whittle would say.
The man does have a way with words.

A SERIOUS failure of the victim selection process

Two thugs who attacked what they thought were a pair of transvestites picked on the wrong men - when their intended victims turned out to be cage fighters on a night out in fancy dress.
...
The cage fighters were then seen teetering away in their high heels, stopping only to pick up a clutch bag they dropped during the melee.

Gardener and Fender were left dazed and seen staggering to their feet after their failed attack.
Probably lucky; they didn't get finished off.

Yeah, we'll just LOOOVE socialized medicine...

Once again, all you have to do is look at British news and you find things like this:
A grandmother dying of ovarian cancer was sent home five times by medics who said her crippling pain was caused by trapped wind.

Barbara Collins, 68, was bed ridden for months with agonising pain and bowel problems, classic signs of the killer disease, but sent home with only laxatives.

The mother of four was correctly diagnosed with ovarian cancer a staggering four months after her first visit to Manchester Royal Infirmary, and died 10 days later.
Of course, according to President Obama maybe she'd have been better off just taking a pill.
Mrs Collins first visited Manchester Royal Infirmary on April 6.

Medics failed to pick up the condition during two separate visits to the walk-in centre and a visit to accident and emergency.

The grandmother of ten was even sent home without a diagnosis after being admitted to the hospital for five days following a referral from her GP.

Mrs Collins was later called for a ‘non-urgent scan’ which also failed to identify the life-threatening illness and was sent home with the message that her crippling pain was simply due to trapped wind.
So these clowns had her in the hospital twice, once for FIVE FRICKIN' DAYS, and couldn't find the problem
The tumour was only diagnosed on 31 July by which time it had spread to her lungs and her bowel.

Mrs Collins died at St Mary's Hospital on August 10.
Of course, they are 'launching an investigation' as to how this was screwed up; anyone want to take bets they'll get to the real problem?

.22 auto pistols

So far, my post asking "What would you recommend?" has 12 responses. Many point to the Ruger, but also fans of the Sig, Walther, S&W and Beretta replied. James even managed, through is classes, to shoot out the bore of a Ruger MKII, which I wouldn't have thought possible(but you put that much ammo through one...).

I'll throw out another option: if you have a pistol for which they're available, you can get a .22 conversion. I got a Ciener for my 1911 compact several years ago, and it works well. Takes less than a minute to change it over, and it's worked well with most ammo I've tried. Upside, you can get one without all the paperwork of a new pistol, and you can use it for less espensive practice. Downside, when it's in use your pistol can't be used as a .45 or 9mm or whatever.

Damn. I hadn't looked at their site in a while, here's what they make them for now: 1911, Glock, Beretta, Taurus and Browning Hi Power. And for Mini-14, AR and some AK platforms. They even make one for the Thompson subgun.

That's the take so far. Anyone with a suggestion/recommendation/"Stay away from", throw it in; later on I'll take everything I get and put them all together in a post.

I have removed the a/c from the bedroom window;

the heat wave should arrive in about a week.

I've tried Kevin's bread,

and that's good stuff. So let it be written, so let it be remembered. Or something.

I added one thing: ex is a very good cook, and when I mentioned the bread was said to be 'heavy', she suggested adding a tablespoon of gluten to it. So I did. Since this is the first time I've made it, can't compare to before, but doesn't seem heavy to me. Warm with butter, yum.

If you know of a level of disgusting Mikey Moore won't sink to,

let me know.
But, Marxist Castro-sympathiser Michael Moore shrugs it off.
Moore hissed at Sean Hannity last night when Sean brought up Castro's murderous record:

"You're still following that line?... That was 40 years ago."

...
Moore told Hannity that only a wuss would be afraid of Al-Qaeda terrorists.


In other disgusting news, maybe Obama will have them swearing fealty to the socialized medicine system as well as his own august self.


If you have a problem with ACORN being involved in criminal enterprises and hiding embezzlement, you're a raaaaacist. Of course.


Crap on this. I'm going to try Kevin's beer bread recipe. And do some cleaning.

Like Kevin says, this kid has a future

if some bureaucrat or politician doesn't lock him up first for acting without approval or something.
Though he ultimately had big designs for his creation, all he really wanted to do initially was power a small bulb in his bedroom so he could stay up and read past sunset.

But one windmill has turned into three, which now generate enough electricity to light several bulbs in his family’s house, power radios and a TV, charge his neighbors’ cellphones and pump water for the village’s fields and household use.

Now 22, Kamkwamba wants to build windmills across Malawi and perhaps beyond. Next summer he also plans to construct a drilling machine to bore 40-meter holes for water and pumps. His aim is to help Africans become self-sufficient and resolve their problems without reliance on foreign aid.
Hot damn and hallelujah! "Let's do it ourselves, and not have all the strings and traps attached." Bloody wonderful it is, and if that attitude starts catching on...

Every time I hear someone call for 'social justice' I either

make sure my money's out of sight or that there's a weapon handy; apparently I'm going to have to start thinking the same way when some 'scientists' speak.
In other words: truth is irrelevant, lying is perfectly ok, and "compromising on accuracy is a necessary evil" --particularly when it is some important issue like climate change...or any other issue deemed important for social policy by the political left. It is, after all, for our own good! A "greater good" !

Stephen Hicks in his book quotes Frank Lentricchia, a noted Duke University literary critic. Postmodernism, says Lentricchia, "seeks not to find the foundation or conditions of truth but to exercise power for the purpose of social change."

Back when I was a kid, and the scientific method was explained to me, I thought it would be heartbreaking to put all kinds of time and effort into an idea and then have it proven incomplete or wrong and have to start over; and I thought it was wonderful that people could desire to find the facts enough to have ideas trashed, as long as it led to the correct information in the long run.

I've had a lot of disappointments since then, lots of people too tied up in their hypothesis or theory to give it up, who'd mess with the facts to make them fit the idea; reading people who are supposed to be scientists saying "Well, maybe an important issue is too important to worry too hard about facts"... Partly it scares me, and far more it pisses me off; how the HELL can you deal with a 'issue' if you don't know the facts? And if you're caught screwing with the information you give people because you're not informing, you're indoctrinating, why the hell should you be trusted on anything?

Aw, hell, hit the link to Kevin and the Doctor and read. This kind of bullshit is what will wreck the sciences in this country, and set us back a long damned way.

Tim Blair points to a literal hot-shot kid

who whacked a 'gator
The huge alligator bit into a baited hook in a marsh on the property, coming face-to-face with Simon. The boy reacted with lightning speed, grabbing his gun and shooting the reptile in the head.

"It come out, the biggest alligator I've ever seen," Simon told MyFOXHouston. "He did his death roll."

The reptile was nearly 20 times the 3-foot, 44-pound boy’s size. It didn't survive the shooting.
Said gator being converted to dinner. The article doesn't say, but I'm guessing a .22. Which makes it both a good and very lucky shot.(Update: in comments I'm informed it was a .410)

Then he points us to a near-death experience with a bit of hot sauce:
The pain started out mildly, but I knew from past experience that this would build to a delightful fiery sensation. I was even looking forward to it. But the moment soon passed. In a matter of seconds I was in agony. After maybe a minute I was frightened that I might die. After five I was frightened that I might not.
Damn. I think I'll skip this stuff.

Rep. Pelosi(Slimy and/or Retarded-CA) plans on the public option

destroying private insurance. Which doesn't sit well with The One's statement "Let me be clear: If you have insurance, you get to keep your insurance"

Of course, if you believe a word out of his mouth...

Senator Dick Durbin(Vile Toad-IL) doesn't like to face the voters

in any venue he doesn't control. Including who's allowed into his presence.
A spokesman for U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) says the senator's office will no longer send media information to Quincy's oldest radio station because the station decided to let the public know he was coming to town.
...
Moyers said Angarola was not pleased that WTAD chose to make public the time and place of Durbin's September 4 visit to Quincy's Blessing Hospital to hold a meeting on health care with officials from the hospital, Quincy Medical Group and Quincy Mayor John Spring and State Senator John Sullivan (D-Rushville).
Isn't that just bloody awful? The peasants were actually informed that His Grace the Senator would be in that neck of the woods, and His Grace Is Not Pleased. Why?
Durbin, the assistant majority leader of the Senate, has been an outspoken critic of health care town hall meetings, said he didn't want to get a "sucker-punch" from constituents and opted to have a session in a conference room before an invited few and a handful of reporters.
Really doesn't like facing the peasants who vote, does he? And just who was he meeting with? Well,
Four of the 10 people Durbin chose to meet on September 4 have donated to Durbin's campaign fund in the past: Blessing Corporate Services President/CEO Brad Billings, Niemann Foods Inc. Chairman Rich Niemann, Sr., Spring and Sullivan. Durbin has also funneled several thousands of dollars from his war chest back to Spring's mayoral campaign fund.

So if you're a lowly voter, he doesn't want to have to deal with you, but if you've given him money? Or you're connected in the Illinois Jackass Politician Circle? Well, come on in!

This is taking "I don't want to meddle" to the level of

"I'll kiss their ass" level.

Insty thinks the Obama administration is planning to completely sell out Israel, and this is one of the steps. It wouldn't surprise me.

Meanwhile, back in Illinois,

the SEIU moves along. And screw the people who'll be tromped on.

If you went to a tea party or you're a military vet, you're a terrorism suspect,

but if you're an illegal alien Janet Napolitano thinks it'll be cheaper and just as safe to keep you in a hotel or nursing home...

Question: of the current crop of .22 semi-auto pistols

which would you recommend to a friend? Ruger, S&W, Sig, which? And why?

Well, we now know for certain that Obama doesn't really believe

in that troublesome 1st Amendment, either:
The new resolution, championed by the Obama administration, has a number of disturbing elements. It emphasizes that "the exercise of the right to freedom of expression carries with it special duties and responsibilities . . ." which include taking action against anything meeting the description of "negative racial and religious stereotyping." It also purports to "recognize . . . the moral and social responsibilities of the media" and supports "the media's elaboration of voluntary codes of professional ethical conduct" in relation to "combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."
...
The Obama
administration's debut at the Human Rights Council laid bare its very different priorities. Threatening freedom of expression is a price for engagement with the Islamic world that it is evidently prepared to pay.
Same thing I told the FTC last night: the Human Rights Council is cordially invited to kiss my ass. If I want to call Mohammed a fornicator of swine who created a religion perfectly suited for a culture of thieves and rapists, I'll say it. If I want to call the Pope a clown who wears funny hats and thinks he speaks for Deity, I will. If I want to call Wiccans morons who think they speak to the trees and the trees talk back, I will. Etc. Screw you, and screw the Obama administration if it thinks it can disapprove me speaking my piece.

Curiously missing from most news accounts

were doctors who aren't on board.

If you happen to be connected to Sam's Club,

and you see this, pass something along: I'm REALLY sick of making a trip there and finding out that they've stopped carrying something I like/need.

It seems that, as the latest in a string of stuff, they've stopped carrying the 12-packs of Elations; now only the 18-packs, which are amazingly more expensive.

Sam's, you're pissing me off, here, and I'm up for renewal; get the message?

If this information is correct, the Phoenix PD

officers involved need to be fired. And prosecuted. And sued.
...Sgt. Coutts asked Office Lilly where Tony's gun was at the time Officer Lilly had opened fire on Tony. Officer Lilly admitted that he did not know where Tony's gun was: 'I don't know. I heard screaming and I fired.'"
Lilly later told a police internal affairs investigator that Anthony had pointed his gun in his direction, "in the 'ready' position," the complaint states. But Anthony Arambula says he was facing away from the officers, who could not have even seen his gun.
The complaint continues: "Still not knowing that he is being recorded n the 911 tape, Sgt. Coutts interrupted Officer Lilly's admission and apology with his assurance that the cover-up would commence: 'That's all right. Don't worry about it. I got your back. ... We clear?'"

I've got a category of 'Law Enforcement-sorry excuse for', but it's not really sufficient for this kind of crap.

And how was YOUR weekend?

Mine was spent visiting my parents. For Dad this involved cutting down one big tree, two small, a bunch of pruning and moving some stuff. For Mom, this involved an opportunity to say "We have company, screw the diet." Said in a very ladylike way, of course.

Got the last stuff done this morning. Blogging will be light, because my hands ache; add the work to the front & damp that came in, and they don't like it. But the stuff got done, so it's all good.

Security Staff made her delight at my return known by running out, checking the pee mail next door and demanding a munchie. Which she happily grabbed and ran back into the yard to enjoy. Looks like the food was it, her nose & eyes are fine now.

See you later.

The Federal Trade Commission

can kiss my ass.

Apparently it's something in Pedigree food;

changing food and the pills have made a world of differene in Security Staff. Nose back to normal size and the rawness going away, eyes back to normal and more energy.

Damned if I know what it is, but I won't be getting that brand for her again.

I first read the saying A pistol is to get to a shotgun is to get

to a rifle a while back; we may have to add a corollary: An axe is to get the guys rifle and shoot him with.
...21-year-old Rukhsana Kausar attacked him with an axe, then shot him dead with his own gun.

Let's start with Sen. John. Effing Kerry(Evil Party-MA)

blocking a Stupid Party senator from going to Honduras.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has blocked Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) trip to Honduras slated to begin Friday, according to DeMint's office.

But the chairman's office claimed that the DeMint trip was stopped because the South Carolina Republican is blocking two of President Barack Obama's nominations: Auturo Valenzuela, Obama’s nominee to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and Tom Shannon, the current assistant secretary and nominee to be ambassador to Brazil.
'But'? That translates to "Give us what we want and we'll let you go", which is about the level of work we've come to expect from John Effing Kerry. And considering the actions of Brazil in this mess, they ought to be having some kind of problem. And gee, makes you wonder why the Democrats don't want this trip to Honduras made, doesn't it?


Take a look at how Chicago taxpayers- everyone, really- are going to be screwed(again) for the sake of the Daleys and friends. Probably including Obama, who's taking time from worrying about things like the war to fly around pushing for Chicago to get the Olympics.


Oh, and Jimmy Carter(Worst President Ever, except Obama's catching up fast) is a damned liar.


Mikey Moore(Lying Hypocrite-who cares) is making the unions he keeps praising unhappy. Again. Let us remember, this is the guy who told people working for him that if they joined a union they'd be fired. Who's become rich making bullshit 'documentaries' and claims 'Capitalism never did a thing for me'. Slimy bastard, isn't he?


Today we'll find out if the Irish still have enough spirit to tell the EU to piss off. For the second time, as noted.


My first thought is "Tough crap, guy; you have to wear the helmet for riot duty, and if it won't fit over your turban..."
But the panel found he suffered a single case of indirect racial and religious discrimination, after he was included on a group email on February 8 2008, telling officers riot training was mandatory and he would therefore have to remove his turban.

'Indirect discrimination', yet. Jeez.


"Don't try to protect yourself, leave that to the Police!" Does that still hold when they won't show up?
After her attacker fled, Nikki rang Warwickshire Police who promised to send an officer to her home in Kenilworth.

But an hour later she received a phone call from a woman police officer who told her it would be better if police did not attend because it might inflame the situation.
...
'I was so scared I asked what I should do and she told me to try and sort it out on my own. I was really upset and felt really alone.
And you know damn well that if she actually tried to 'sort it out'(with a shotgun in a civilized society) the police would be happy to show up and jail her. So you're not allowed to protect yourself, and the police won't do it either. Wonderful.
(this prize found thanks to James)


In lathe news, I now have a new set of brass and steel punches. On the steel, I faced-off the ends of pieces of 1/4" stock to square them, drilled a hole in and set a piece of music wire in for the different sizes; very stiff, and if it gets bent I can replace it. When I do get a tailstock shaft and chuck for center-drilling, it'll make stuff like this easier.

It is now officially time to puke on Hollyweird

In an interview, Weinstein said that people generally misunderstand what happened to Polanski at sentencing. He's not convinced public opinion is running against the filmmaker and dismisses the categorization of Hollywood as amoral. "Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion," Weinstein said. "We were the people who did the fundraising telethon for the victims of 9/11. We were there for the victims of Katrina and any world catastrophe."
We shouldn't be surprised; this is a direct fallout from those idiot bumper stickers that say Democrats Care. 'Nobody else does, just us.' Apparently nobody else raised money/donated for 9/11 victims(damn few in Hollywood seem to give a crap about the troops fighting the enemy); and nobody but HOLLYWOOD PEOPLE were there after Katrina and whatever the Approved Cause de Jure is.

Oh, and Weinstein? Would have been nice if some of that wondrous compassion could have been given over to the troops keeping the enemy from raping you and cutting off your head, instead of you pissing down their back damn near from day one.

Tam want's a .470;

she can join the club. I'd have to spend a fortune just to buy dies and components to reload to feed the damn thing, but I want one.

Like that Holland & Holland double in the case I saw at Tulsa. God, it was a lovely thing.

Apparently there are problems with the Colt Umarex

At least the ad indicates so.

Pointed to by Uncle

They knew it was there,

but it had never been excavated. But it's being done now.

"Who you gonna believe, us or the documents we left beh-

er, were stolen from us?!"
Documents purported to have been taken from ACORN computers in Oklahoma City by a state lawmaker appear to be "partially doctored,” a national leader of the community-organizing group said Wednesday.

"The documents that we have seen — ostensibly taken from these computers — do not appear to reflect the work of ACORN in Oklahoma and appear to be partially doctored versions of some ACORN documents,” said Brian Kettenring, deputy director of national operations for ACORN.
Oh, of COURSE it couldn't be their data; why that would mean they were dishonest... Of course, they could claim he 'doctored' them by printing them out. Which doesn't change the content, but it all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is, doesn't it?
Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, said the documents were recovered from two computers abandoned by ACORN workers in Oklahoma City. Reynolds said he bought the computers from the landlord of an ACORN office in Oklahoma City after the group stopped paying its lease on the office. The computers were password-protected, but he found the passwords in a drawer, he said.
ACORN didn't pay the bills? My, my, my.
"We consider our computers to be stolen property, the contents thereof stolen work product,” Kettenring said in an e-mail response Wednesday to The Oklahoman.
Well, they can bitch about it, but if they left the stuff behind when they moved out, I rather doubt they can call it 'stolen'. Not legitimately.

Short version:
ACORN didn't pay the bills and moved out. Left stuff behind.
Landlord kept stuff.
Reynolds bought stuff, found the documents.
ACORN starts "IT'S A LIE!!" coverup. Like the "We never gave aid to that pimp!" coverup, I guess.

Delight your kids! Amaze your friends!! Make Sarah Brady cry!!!

Kalashnakitty shirts, in time for the holidays!!!!

"Obama's not-so-secret plan to raise taxes"

Which article includes this:
Obama’s campaign promise to not raise taxes on households making less than $250,000 a year was always considered a joke here inside the Beltway. It’s the economic “consensus” — and this was true even before the financial meltdown and recession — that rising entitlement costs would eventually mean a higher tax burden for the American people.

Maybe it was a joke inside the campaign, too. Since being elected, Obama has raised cigarette taxes and has advocated raising healthcare taxes, energy and small business taxes, in addition to corporate taxes. What’s more, economic advisers like Larry Summers seem eager to get rid of all the Bush tax cuts, not just those on so-called wealthy Americans.
...
Liberals love the idea of a VAT because it’s, well, so European — also because it does raise tons of revenue to expand government. And that is what Obama wants: more revenue to pay for bigger government. Is a VAT better than the soak-the-rich approach favored by Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel? Sure. Of course, the concern is that a VAT would be in addition to new soak-the-rich taxes.
(Of course it would; can you see Obama and the Democrats actually getting rid of a tax?)
See, even after the recession, there might be a 6 percentage point difference between what Uncle Sam spends as a percentage of GDP and what it takes in. Liberals like Krugman have no problem with making up that difference purely through higher taxes, even though that translates into raising the national tax burden by at least a third. And that, even though such a massive hike might well have a crushing effect on growth.

Think of your taxes going up by 'at least a third'. Think of how that would screw with things. And think about the fact that so many Democrats(and some RHINOs) have no problem with that.

Range, general and Gadsden stuff

Today reinforced one of the nice things about the .22 conversion kit I have for the 1911: I can only shoot a box, maybe a box .5 of full-power .45 in a day before my hands are asking me why the hell I'm doing this to them?, whereas I can put a LOT of .22's downrange. Practice is practice, and you can do draw & fire and everything else with it.


I've noticed that ammo is becoming not quite as scarce; it's not plentiful, but you can find some now. Except for .380, that stuff is still "I've got X-thousand on order, but no idea when they'll get in."


Yesterday helped friend with the last of the back porch crap I'm doing for a while. Got the forms set and concrete mixed and poured for the sill around the new porch area. And my hands ache. Kind of like the day after Med-Fair aching. Which means no more digging, or anything else, for a few days.


Kathy Shaidle points to a place with lots of Gadsden flags and patches and stuff.


Security Staff was having some nose problems, as in her nose getting very red and a bit swollen, and today her eyes were puffy. Took her to the vet. Verdict: the new food I switched to a week or so ago?, she's having an allergic reaction to. So new food bought, she got a cortisone shot and some pills and I hope that'll take care of it.


I was the subject of an attack in The Phoenix a year or two back. As hit pieces go, it was a pretty feeble effort, and I didn’t feel it was worth driving all the way down to Boston just to kill a few members of staff and burn the building down. But it makes you think. In our multicultural society, the best way to get “respect” from others is to despise them; the surest way to have your views boundlessly “tolerated” is to be utterly intolerant of anybody else’s. Those who think Islam will apply these lessons only to op-ed cartoons or representations of Mohammed are very foolish.

Meanwhile, we prattle on about “moderate Muslims”, telling ourselves that the “vast majority” of Muslims aren’t terrorists, don’t support terrorists, etc.

Okay, why don’t we hear from them then?

Because they live in communities where the ideological bullies set the pace, where the price of speaking out is too high, and so they find it easier to say nothing, keep their heads down. And why would we expect them to do any differently when the mighty BBC and CNN do the same? If there is such a thing as a “moderate Muslim”, he’s surely thinking, “Well, if the CBC and The Toronto Star have to knuckle under to the imams, there’s no point me tossing in my two bits.”


My Ceiner conversion is one of the more ammo-tolerant .22 systems I've seen. It'll work reliably with Remington Golden Bullet, Federal copper-plated hollowpoints, Centurion solids and Federal Champion, but doesn't care for Winchester unplated hollowpoints. The latter just don't have enough power to cycle the slide but maybe three times out of ten. Works a hell of a lot more reliably with more ammo than friend's Sig Mosquito did.


Yeah, ACORN has been screwing with things in Oklahoma, too.
The document continues, noting that Oklahoma ACORN, in 2007, was looking towards a five-year plan to obtain power and that is the key term – power – that is evident is this particular document.

Note: “Therefore, the route to power is twofold: First, build powerful city organizations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa that can control these municipalities. Second, become an influential organization by shaping a handful of strategic legislative districts that, by themselves, can change who controls the state legislature.”


I just noticed earlier that not only had the coolant level in the bike dropped(a bit over time, no problem), it had dropped fast. I think there's a crack in the overflow tank, which means tomorrow I have to take it off and see if it's repairable. I hope so, as that's a part that's only available from the factory.


The tool holders I ordered from Grizzly for the lathe came in today. Not usable at all; the body is thicker than the description, and they only hold a tiny 3/16" bit. And even if I ground the body to fit the tool post and the body to hold 1/4" bits, it wouldn't fit right between tool post, compound slide and work. Good thing, I sent for a return number and had it in about two hours, so they're on the way back. If I can find some suitable size flat stock I may just try making one; I'd wanted to skip that if I could because it'll involve a lot of hacksaw work(hands hate that anymore) but it may be the only way. Unless I want to spend a hundred bucks for a quick-change toolpost, which I don't.


Damn, it's past 2200. 'Night, all.

For further idea as to why the Republicans are known as the Stupid Party,

RNS points to this:
Here’s the story that is circulating at the convention: Back in the spring, Elder went to Washington to sit down with John Cornyn and the NRSC, and ask for their support for a bid for U.S. Senate against Barbara Boxer. Cornyn and the NRSC told him the following:

1. If Elder chose to run, they would not support him.
2. The NRSC was already committed to supporting Carly Fiorina
3. The NRSC expected Fiorina to lose against Boxer, but expected her to tie up Democrat resources in the meantime.

So Larry Elder came back to California and did not run. You know the rest: he’s watched the Fiorina campaign move from crisis to crisis (failure to vote, Iran sales, revelation of no self-funding, no CRP attendance, this Rasmussen poll, that website, etc.), and feeling increasingly frustrated. It’s probably too late for him to enter and Larry is hot under the collar that Cornyn gave him such terrible advice. So he’s talking to his friends — and his friends are talking to us — and I’m talking to you.

And the threats and "Bleep you!" over the H1N1 vaccine

begin:
New York is the first state in the country to mandate flu vaccinations for its health care workers. The first doses of swine flu vaccine will be available beginning next week. Much of it is reserved for state health care workers, but there is growing opposition to required innoculations.

Health care workers in Hauppauge screamed "No forced shots!" as they rallied Tuesday against the state regulation requiring them to roll up their sleeves.
...
Small said she will refuse, worried the vaccine is untested and unproven, leaving her vulnerable. In 1976, there were some deaths associated with a swine flu vaccination.
In '76 there were more deaths, and damned nasty side effects, from the vaccine than there was from the flu. And people are worried about a repeat of that mess.

Friend of mine's wife is a nurse. She recently asked someone she works with who has an epidemiology background about the vaccine and was flatly told "Don't take it; it's not been tested sufficiently. And don't let your kids get it, either." After that, and talking to some other folks, they can forget making her(or some of the other nurses for that matter) take the stuff unless they can be shown test results they can trust.

So the Brazilian government is taking heat back home

for screwing around in Honduras. Good. I do have to take note of the excuse the government is using:
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim defended Brazil's position before a Senate foreign relations committee on Tuesday.

"What's at stake here is not only a small country but the future of democracy in Central America," Amorim said. "Tolerating this coup could stimulate others in the region."
Mr. Amorim, you're a damned liar. This was a legal action taken at the request of the legislature and at the order of the Supreme Court; you calling it a coup to excuse your meddling does not make it so. If you had any sense of honor or shame, you'd hide your face, apologize, and try to get your country out of this bullshit. Instead, having no honor or shame, you are making it worse.

Magnitude 8 earthquake in the Pacific updated

but it looks like minimal deaths, happily.

Added: news just mentioned 'villages wiped out' and 'scores missing', so it could turn out a fair bit worse than I'd thought. We'll see.

Update: well, crap. Looks like a lot more deaths than the original report I read thought; I was afraid of that. And then another, 7.9, in Indonesia, lots of damage, death & injuries.

Ah yes, 'sensitivity' taken to the level of utter stupidity

When Tracy Ryan spotted a suspected burglar emerging from the dog sanctuary where she works, she thought she would have little problem pointing him out to police.

After all, he had a large port-wine stain on his face.

But when police set up an identity parade, they refused to take the man's distinctive birthmark into account - in case it infringed his human rights.
What's that you say? Effing insane? Stupid?

Yup.

An officer from the Nottinghamshire force explained that the mark was too rare to be included in a profile of the burglar when it was entered into a computer database.

It would leave only a small pool of potential suspects in the electronic ID parade, he said, breaking police rules.

Under laws designed to take into account 'the rights and freedoms of the public', witnesses must be shown a minimum of 12 photographs before they are allowed to identify a suspect.
So screw having a positive identifying feature to narrow the possibilities, instead they use it to BROADEN the number of people she has to look at.

But wait! There's more!!
Mrs Ryan noted that, apart from his birthmark, the suspected culprit was tall and wore a white tracksuit. She also took his car registration number.

Police have subsequently made an arrest and Mrs Ryan is due to attend a second identification parade which will include the suspect, who is on bail.

He will be pictured alongside 11 people of a similar appearance. But if he has a birthmark, it will still be kept secret.

The suspected thief and the other participants will be made to cover one side of their face.

The British justice system; broken beyond belief.

I think you probably know what I think of Polanski,

but after reading about all the Hollyweenies pleading- or demanding in some cases- that it all be dropped, I'll throw it out anyway:

In a pigs ass.

He drugged and raped a 13-year old girl. He didn't get a trial because he plead guilty. He knew she was 13, he gave her drugs, he anally raped her. And when he thought he might get an actual sentence for it, he fled. And now he's been caught and is facing being brought back for sentencing.

What do we get from our 'elites', especially those in entertainment? "Oh, this is a waste of time. It was so long ago. Hasn't he suffered enough? I mean, he hasn't been able to work in Hollywood for DECADES!" Which last is apparently so horrible(ignore working in Europe and travelling and marrying and getting a bloody Oscar) a punishment that anything short of defenestration(now there's an idea...) is a lesser harm.

He did it. He ran. He's been arrested and he should face the penalty. And Hollywood and every other apologist for him can kiss my ass.

It's been said you should never answer questions from a cop

without an attorney beyond "May I see your license?"; it seems the prosecutors make that an even better idea.
In November, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on Pottawattamie v. McGhee in order to resolve it. The facts of the case aren't in dispute. In 1978, a retired Iowa police captain was killed by a shotgun blast while working as a private security guard. Prosecutors Joseph Hrvol and David Richter then worked with local police to manufacture evidence against the two chief suspects, Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee, Jr. The two men were convicted of the murder in separate trials, and each was sentenced to life without parole.

The Iowa Supreme Court set aside both convictions in 2003, citing exculpatory evidence pointing to another suspect that was withheld from defense counsel in both trials. Both men were eventually released from prison. Seeking damages for losing 25 years of their lives, they brought a civil rights suit against the police, prosecutors, and county that convicted them. Hrvol and Richter maintain that under the Supreme Court's decision in the 1976 case Imbler v. Pacthman, they have absolute immunity against such a suit.
Bad enough, right? Two prosecutors deliberately, with malice aforethought you could say, frame innocent men into prison. But it gets worse:
Hrvol and Richter contend that prosecutorial immunity gives government officials the right to coerce witnesses to lie, withhold evidence pointing to a suspect's innocence, and work with police to manufacture false evidence of guilt, then use that evidence to win false convictions that send two men to prison for 25 years. Their motivation for making this argument is obvious; they'd rather not pay for their misconduct. But they're supported in amicus briefs filed by the U.S. Solicitor General, the National District Attorneys Association, and the attorneys general of 27 states and the District of Columbia. Notably, Cook County, Illinois, home to a number of wrongful convictions, also filed its own brief in support of the prosecutors.

My first thought involves very unsocial behavior. For a bunch of law enforcement and Justice Department 'professionals' to argue that one of their number who lies in court, frames innocent people and sends them to prison should be immune from being sued... reminds me of the bastards in Congress who had such cows when the FBI served a search warrant on Jeffords and searched his office; they seemed to believe their offices were somehow immune to the laws everyone else has to obey. Now we see that these clowns think the same thing; that they shouldn't have to face the same kind of penalties that you or I would for doing such wrongs.

Any prosecutor who knowingly uses false evidence, let alone frames an innocent into prison this way, should not only be sued, they should be prosecuted and jailed. Assuming we could find an honest prosecutor who'd handle the case.

Which, from the sound of this crap, I wonder.

Window replaced

Amazingly, no visible blood loss during process

My house has the old style windows where the bottom will slide up and the top slide down. About a month ago I decided to slick up a couple of them where the upper was sticky, so I got out the paste wax and waxed the track, pulled them down, then waxed the upper section. Work them back & forth a few times and it smooths things out nicely. So nicely that one of them slipped down a bit when I moved the lower, and when I pushed it back up it went with just a little more enthusiasm than expected.

Crack.

Diagonal crack from the lower left to upper right corner with a small piece breaking out at the top. Dammit. Since it was rainy at the time(the thought of standing out in the rain replacing glass did not thrill me) I flooded the crack with superglue to stabilize it and left it for later. Which, today being nice, was the day. Only problem was that the old glazing was still in very good shape; I wound up using the dremel and a coarse grinding ball to break some of it loose, which let me break the rest off.

Oddly enough, among things I know will hurt me, window glass is one thing that doesn't really bother me to work with. I know how an edge of it will cut, and I've known a couple of people who had broken glass fall on them(one industrial accident, one doing what I was) and got interesting scars from it; one damn near died. But for some reason, unlike various machinery and work, glass doesn't bother me; just go slow, and wear gloves for taking out the broken stuff. Odd, because it's at least as dangerous as most of the other stuff.

In any case, it's done. I had to get glazing points and glaze as well as the glass. And for some reason Lowe's doesn't carry the small tubs of compound, only the one big enough to do most of the house. So I got a tube that fits the caulking gun instead.

So one new window pane installed.

After all that was done I fooled with the lathe a bit. Not much; all the digging caught up today, mostly in my hands. Sore enough I almost put off the window another day. I tried some threading and screwed up; I started it at one point without engaging the backgears and chipped two teeth on one gear. Happily, nobody was around to hear the language practice. I know where I can get a replacement, but it'll have to wait a month or so.

Well, THIS is really going to help settle things

[/sarcasm]
A Utah attorney claims the FBI edited some security camera videotapes from the morning of the Oklahoma City bombing before releasing the recordings to him.

"Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain’t no such thing as a coincidence,” Jesse Trentadue told The Associated Press Sunday.

"The interesting thing is they spring back on after 9:02,” he said. "The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn’t want anybody to see.”

From the AP story,
He said government officials claim the security cameras did not record the minutes before the bombing because "they had run out of tape" or "the tape was being replaced."

One camera having tech problems or tape being changed at just that time, sure. Two of them? Hmmmm... Three or four? All at once? All at that time? Sorry guys, have a bit of a problem with that.

Not only is Gadhafi a freakin' nutcase

who supports terrorists, now President Unicornfarts wants to give him money. To 'project a new and positive image of Libya'.

Like anything short of a decapitating strike or revolution could manage that...

Test results: Microlon engine treatment and joint juice

No, dammit, they're not the same stuff.

First, about a year ago I decided to give my truck engine the Microlon treatment, and I've been watching mileage ever since.

Not the best of tests because my tracking of mileage had been kind of sketchy prior to this. But here's what I came up with:
There is a bit of mileage difference. I'm guessing 1-2 mpg in the city, as much as 3-4 highway. Not dramatic but a real difference. On highway I say 'as much as' because on some of the trips I'd have strong headwinds, and a truck doesn't have the most aerodynamically efficient shape; not much the engine does can make up for that.

So I didn't get a large boost, but I did get one. Realistically, about all I could ask for. As I recall the motorcycle got about a 3-5 mpg boost, city & highway. One thing I noticed is real subjective but I'll pass it along anyway; seems like the oil doesn't look as dirty when I change it, usually around 4,000 miles. I have no way to test the oil for dirty at that point so I'm just throwing it in as an oddity.

I did say it was subjective.


The other test is a very short-term at this time: Elations. Og wrote about the stuff and said it really helped his knees. Well, even taking glucosimine/chondroitin pills every day mine have been getting worse(maybe they want to match with my hands?), so decided to try it. Happily I found out Sam's* carries it, so got some to try.

I've been taking it about a week now, which is too short a time to say much, but I really noticed one thing this morning: after all the shovel/walk/carry work yesterday, my knees should have been awful, and they weren't. I was a touch sore, but nothing like what I expected.

So I'll keep taking the stuff and see how it goes.


*Yes, I know Sam's is directly connected to Wal-Mart; I can't give up every damn place. I have been pretty good about not going to Wally World unless there's something nobody else around carries, and that'll have to do. If you're new to this place, when W-M decided to suck up to Bloomberg's Mayors Who Want To Ban Guns But Don't Have The Integrity To Say It Flat-Out group, I wrote to them saying I had a problem with their actions on this; I got back a fairly insulting form letter blowing me off. 'Fairly insulting' as it included the line "...we don't think our honest customers will mind" near as I can recall the wording; someone hints that objecting to their decision means I'm not an honest customer, they're cordially invited to kiss my ass. And I won't give them any more of my money if I can avoid it.

Well, maybe this is why Brazil is sucking up to Chavez

Take this:
Iran is helping to detect uranium deposits in Venezuela and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, President Hugo Chavez’s government said Friday.
and cross it with this:
To top that off, Brazil’s vice president and former defense minister, Jose Alencar, told journalists that “we have to advance on” developing nukes “as an instrument of deterrence” because of Brazil’s massive western border and oil-rich territorial sea.

Yeah. Brazil 'needs nukes' to protect their oil...

FROM WHO, you fucking morons?

And President HopeyChangeyPants can't deal with the commander in Afghanistan's request for more troops right now because
...the Obama administration took official custody today of the report that requests a significant troop increase for the Af-Pak theater. However, Barack Obama will not officially get to see it for a while. The Pentagon says they will hold his request, officially, until Obama officially makes an official decision about the officially official policy he wants to officially pursue in the war:
Which means he wants to see if he can find a way to surrender and run to make his lefty allies happy without everyone else looking at either impeachment or hanging. This from a bastard who spent how long lecturing that 'Afghanistan is the real war, the right war, and I will fight to win it!'* Of course, now he IS the President and won't be allowed to vote 'Present' on it. He'll be held responsible, and he don't like that, do he? And he's so busy telling us how he's "...not interested in victory", probably because both he's not(asshole) and trying to set things up so if he does pop out with a cut & run strategy, he can claim it's part of a 'more worldly strategy' or some similar bullshit.

Hey, Mr. President, you going to give Brazil a stern look over this?

Bullshit Bob Ainsworth, British Defense Secretary

As to why Yon has dubbed him that, go read.

“This will prove Bob Ainsworth was trying to cover up the real reason for James’s death. He was trying to shift blame away from the lack of equipment for which the MoD was responsible and negligent,” Philippson said.

Bob Ainsworth is covered in British blood and painfully deceptive. Henceforth, he will always be known as “Bullshit Bob” to me.

Among the other reasons Baucus & Buttmonkeys Inc.

don't want to post the bill before voting; not only can you be fined $1,900 for not buying insurance,
...if there is a willful failure to file, pay, maintain appropriate records and the like that the taxpayer may be charged with a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to $25,000 and not more than one year in jail.

Well, damn

Amazing what happens when a tool is made right.

Evening before last I worked with the lathe a bit, then did some comparing to the book and found I had the side rake angle(think of one of the bevels leading to a knife edge) wrong. So I reground it- yes, again- and this time got it right. Last night, before I collapsed, I gave it a try; BIG difference. Faster, cleaner cutting and could do deeper cuts with no chatter.

I found a set of mini-lathe tool holders at Grizzly and ordered them(which also includes more bits which at this rate I'll need), so hopefully will get here in a few days. Right now I'm clamping the bit in the post that should hold the tool holder, which is not exactly the ideal setup; enough for trying some small stuff, not stable enough for bigger. Happily, most of these things don't cost much, and as it is it'll take a while to get all the stuff. Next after this, maybe sometime next month, is a tailstock spindle I can put a drill chuck on, which will make drilling pieces in the exact center much easier and more consistent.

Sarkozy has his problems, but he seems more grounded in reality

on the subject of nukes than The Obama:
… Secondly, there is North Korea — and there it is even more striking. It has violated every Security Council decision since 1993. It pays absolutely no attention to what the international community says. Even more, it continues ballistic missile testing. How can we accept that? What conclusions should we draw? …”