Found at Rodger's place;
occasionally not really SFW
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
My ex has a couple of chihuahuas, one of which
I rather like; but this is just too good to pass up:
Found at Rodger's place;
occasionally not really SFW
Found at Rodger's place;
occasionally not really SFW
Couple of things on the current "We must tone down
the talk" noise that's going around. First, from Jack Shafer:
Embedded in Sheriff Dupnik's ad hoc wisdom were several assumptions. First, that strident, anti-government political views can be easily categorized as vitriolic, bigoted, and prejudicial. Second, that those voicing strident political views are guilty of issuing Manchurian Candidate-style instructions to commit murder and mayhem to the "unbalanced." Third, that the Tucson shooter was inspired to kill by political debate or by Sarah Palin's "target" map or other inflammatory outbursts. Fourth, that we should calibrate our political speech in such a manner that we do not awaken the Manchurian candidates among us.
And, fifth, that it's a cop's role to set the proper dimensions of our political debate. Hey, Dupnik, if you've got spare time on your hands, go write somebody a ticket.
(But writing tickets doesn't get him on the national news, so...)
The great miracle of American politics is that although it can tend toward the cutthroat and thuggish, it is almost devoid of genuine violence outside of a few scuffles and busted lips now and again. With the exception of Saturday's slaughter, I'd wager that in the last 30 years there have been more acts of physical violence in the stands at Philadelphia Eagles home games than in American politics.
Any call to cool "inflammatory" speech is a call to police all speech, and I can't think of anybody in government, politics, business, or the press that I would trust with that power. As Jonathan Rauch wrote brilliantly in Harper's in 1995, "The vocabulary of hate is potentially as rich as your dictionary, and all you do by banning language used by cretins is to let them decide what the rest of us may say." Rauch added, "Trap the racists and anti-Semites, and you lay a trap for me too. Hunt for them with eradication in your mind, and you have brought dissent itself within your sights."
Exactly. Remember the bit I noted on Rep. Brady's desire to make it a federal crime to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress? Just how big is the truck you can drive through that description? Calling for someone to be thrown out of office, voted out of office, etc., could be defined as 'threatening'; and if you think there aren't politicians and some LE clowns who would do it, you're dreaming.
So we're looking at Don't Say Nasty Things Because Someone Might Do Something Stupid combined with calls for You Can't Say Something That Makes The Politician Lose Bladder Control laws. To borrow from Insty,
Anyone else find it creepy that new standard what me may and may not say is: How will it affect the behavior of an abviously crazy person who may or may not hear it?
Embedded in Sheriff Dupnik's ad hoc wisdom were several assumptions. First, that strident, anti-government political views can be easily categorized as vitriolic, bigoted, and prejudicial. Second, that those voicing strident political views are guilty of issuing Manchurian Candidate-style instructions to commit murder and mayhem to the "unbalanced." Third, that the Tucson shooter was inspired to kill by political debate or by Sarah Palin's "target" map or other inflammatory outbursts. Fourth, that we should calibrate our political speech in such a manner that we do not awaken the Manchurian candidates among us.
And, fifth, that it's a cop's role to set the proper dimensions of our political debate. Hey, Dupnik, if you've got spare time on your hands, go write somebody a ticket.
(But writing tickets doesn't get him on the national news, so...)
The great miracle of American politics is that although it can tend toward the cutthroat and thuggish, it is almost devoid of genuine violence outside of a few scuffles and busted lips now and again. With the exception of Saturday's slaughter, I'd wager that in the last 30 years there have been more acts of physical violence in the stands at Philadelphia Eagles home games than in American politics.
Any call to cool "inflammatory" speech is a call to police all speech, and I can't think of anybody in government, politics, business, or the press that I would trust with that power. As Jonathan Rauch wrote brilliantly in Harper's in 1995, "The vocabulary of hate is potentially as rich as your dictionary, and all you do by banning language used by cretins is to let them decide what the rest of us may say." Rauch added, "Trap the racists and anti-Semites, and you lay a trap for me too. Hunt for them with eradication in your mind, and you have brought dissent itself within your sights."
Exactly. Remember the bit I noted on Rep. Brady's desire to make it a federal crime to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress? Just how big is the truck you can drive through that description? Calling for someone to be thrown out of office, voted out of office, etc., could be defined as 'threatening'; and if you think there aren't politicians and some LE clowns who would do it, you're dreaming.
So we're looking at Don't Say Nasty Things Because Someone Might Do Something Stupid combined with calls for You Can't Say Something That Makes The Politician Lose Bladder Control laws. To borrow from Insty,
Anyone else find it creepy that new standard what me may and may not say is: How will it affect the behavior of an abviously crazy person who may or may not hear it?
Monday, January 10, 2011
Hehehehehe.....
A pistol to a foot soldier is not a piece of equipment for winning a war, but rather for saving his life. Only a country that actually valued the lives and safety of its individual troopers would have, and indeed could have designed and mass produced such a pistol.
By way of comparison, we may take note of the Walther P38, whose designers seem to have expended a lot of effort to prevent their soldiers from shooting themselves in the foot. Which seems like a strange decision for a master race to make.
By way of comparison, we may take note of the Walther P38, whose designers seem to have expended a lot of effort to prevent their soldiers from shooting themselves in the foot. Which seems like a strange decision for a master race to make.
Communists are as bad as Nazis,
and their defenders and apologists are as bad as Nazis’ defenders, but far more common. When you meet them, show them no respect. They’re evil, stupid, and dishonest wrote Insty a while back. Just recently I saw a book mentioned and found it at the library: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Only about sixty pages in, and one of the things it's convinced me of is that Stalin and the communist True Believers were(some still are) even more evil than I would have believed. And I do not use that word lightly. This is part of what really got me, referring to the famine Stalin ordered in the Ukraine:
As Stalin interpreted the disaster of collectivization in the last weeks of 1932, he achieved new heights of ideological daring. The famine in Ukraine, whose existence he had admitted earlier, when it was far less severe, was now a "fairy tale", a slanderous rumor spread by enemies. Stalin had developed an interesting new theory: that resistance to socialism increases as its successes mount because its foes resist with greater desperation as they contemplate their final defeat. Thus any problem in the Soviet Union could be defined as an example of enemy action, and enemy action could be defined as evidence of progress.
Resistance to his policies in Soviet Ukraine, Stalin argued, was of a special sort, perhaps not visible to the imperceptive observer. Opposition was no longer open, for the enemies of socialism were now "quiet" and even "holy". The "kulaks of today," he said, were "gentle people, kind, almost saintly." People who appeared to be innocent were to be seen as guilty. A peasant slowly dying of hunger was, despite appearances, a saboteur working for the capitalis powers in their campaign to discredit the Soviet Union. Starvation was resistance, and resistance was a sign that the victory of socialism was just around the corner. These were not merely Stalin's musings in Moscow; this was the ideological line enforced by Molotov and Kaganovich as they traveled through regions of mass death in late 1932.
Stalin never personally witnessed the starvations that he so interpreted, but comrades in Soviet Ukraine did: they had somehow to reconcile his ideological line to the evidence of their senses. Forced to interpret distended bellies as political opposition, they produced the utterly tortured conclusion that the saboteurs hated socialism so much that they intentionally let their families die. Thus the wracked bodies of sons and daughter and fathers and mothers were nothing more than a façade behind which foes plotted the destruction of socialism. Even the starving themselves were sometimes presented as enemy propagandists with a conscious plan to undermine socialism. Young Ukrainian communists in the cities were taught that the starving were enemies of the people "who risked their lives to spoil our optimism."
Evil. There is no other word for this. Millions dead, God alone knows how many physically and/or mentally damaged for life. And we've still got fools who defend it. Make excuses for it.
This is going to be as hard to read as The Black Book of Communism.
As Stalin interpreted the disaster of collectivization in the last weeks of 1932, he achieved new heights of ideological daring. The famine in Ukraine, whose existence he had admitted earlier, when it was far less severe, was now a "fairy tale", a slanderous rumor spread by enemies. Stalin had developed an interesting new theory: that resistance to socialism increases as its successes mount because its foes resist with greater desperation as they contemplate their final defeat. Thus any problem in the Soviet Union could be defined as an example of enemy action, and enemy action could be defined as evidence of progress.
Resistance to his policies in Soviet Ukraine, Stalin argued, was of a special sort, perhaps not visible to the imperceptive observer. Opposition was no longer open, for the enemies of socialism were now "quiet" and even "holy". The "kulaks of today," he said, were "gentle people, kind, almost saintly." People who appeared to be innocent were to be seen as guilty. A peasant slowly dying of hunger was, despite appearances, a saboteur working for the capitalis powers in their campaign to discredit the Soviet Union. Starvation was resistance, and resistance was a sign that the victory of socialism was just around the corner. These were not merely Stalin's musings in Moscow; this was the ideological line enforced by Molotov and Kaganovich as they traveled through regions of mass death in late 1932.
Stalin never personally witnessed the starvations that he so interpreted, but comrades in Soviet Ukraine did: they had somehow to reconcile his ideological line to the evidence of their senses. Forced to interpret distended bellies as political opposition, they produced the utterly tortured conclusion that the saboteurs hated socialism so much that they intentionally let their families die. Thus the wracked bodies of sons and daughter and fathers and mothers were nothing more than a façade behind which foes plotted the destruction of socialism. Even the starving themselves were sometimes presented as enemy propagandists with a conscious plan to undermine socialism. Young Ukrainian communists in the cities were taught that the starving were enemies of the people "who risked their lives to spoil our optimism."
Evil. There is no other word for this. Millions dead, God alone knows how many physically and/or mentally damaged for life. And we've still got fools who defend it. Make excuses for it.
This is going to be as hard to read as The Black Book of Communism.
Take a look at this
Note the 'fly over the tank and detonate over the turret' action, so it'll strike down at the thinnest armor on the vehicle. Impressive
Speaking of tar & feathers, or at least removal from the office
he's been infesting for so long,
A top House Democrat said the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) should change how members of Congress are screened at airports.
“I really believe that that is the place where we feel the most ill at ease, is going through airports,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who serves as assistant minority leader in the House, said on "Fox News Sunday."
Clyburn called for the Transportation Security Administration, which administers airport security checkpoints, to interact “a little better” with the Capitol Hill Police.
“We’ve had some incidents where TSA authorities think that congresspeople should be treated like everybody else,” he said. “Well, the fact of the matter is, we are held to a higher standard in so many other areas, and I think we need to take a hard look at exactly how the TSA interact with members of Congress.”
At least this bastard is open about it: he thinks politicians should be given special treatment, better than what the peasants get.
Oh, and that 'higher standard', do you mean the one that kept Rep. Rangel out of jail, for instance?
And they want to make it illegal for us to say things like "You miserable little canker on the ass of the nation, you should be thrown out of that office. Preferably through a window", because it makes them all poo-poo undies and all.
A top House Democrat said the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) should change how members of Congress are screened at airports.
“I really believe that that is the place where we feel the most ill at ease, is going through airports,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who serves as assistant minority leader in the House, said on "Fox News Sunday."
Clyburn called for the Transportation Security Administration, which administers airport security checkpoints, to interact “a little better” with the Capitol Hill Police.
“We’ve had some incidents where TSA authorities think that congresspeople should be treated like everybody else,” he said. “Well, the fact of the matter is, we are held to a higher standard in so many other areas, and I think we need to take a hard look at exactly how the TSA interact with members of Congress.”
At least this bastard is open about it: he thinks politicians should be given special treatment, better than what the peasants get.
Oh, and that 'higher standard', do you mean the one that kept Rep. Rangel out of jail, for instance?
And they want to make it illegal for us to say things like "You miserable little canker on the ass of the nation, you should be thrown out of that office. Preferably through a window", because it makes them all poo-poo undies and all.
Hey, Rep. Brady(NSD-PA), you pass laws to restrict
my speech, I think you should be dragged out of your office and tarred & feathered.
There, that should get me on the list. If I wasn't already.
Deity, what a bunch of wimps and tyrant wannabes.
There, that should get me on the list. If I wasn't already.
Deity, what a bunch of wimps and tyrant wannabes.
Ref the 'If only we had proper gun control!' stuff you knew was coming,
Confederate Yankee has some updates; easiest to just go there and start scrolling down. However, I will point out one post in particular, in which he points out that Salon flat lied, repeatedly, about the murders and the Clinton AWB.
Add them to the other liars.
Add them to the other liars.
Having listened to some of the statements made
by the Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, I have a couple of thoughts:
First, the voters need to get this clown out of office at the first opportunity, and replace him with somebody who has a brain that includes a 'mute' setting, and knows when to use it. For the chief LE officer of the county to go on the air and make some of the statements he did... Unprofessional at least, idiotic at best. First, a LE officer is not supposed to be playing politics on something like that(at all, preferably, but for damned sure not on something like this). Second, the Chief LE Officer Of The County is NOT supposed to be making a defense argument for the accused. Either of these things ought to get him thrown out of office.
Second, I just read a couple more things. This and This, to be precise(thanks to Insty for pointing to them). Read this:
Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff’s Office was informed, his deputies assured the victims that he was being well managed by the mental health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County. Amy Loughner is a Natural Resource specialist for the Pima County Parks and Recreation.
If this is indeed the case, then this may partly be why the Sheriff has such a case of oral diarrhea; he's got a bad link to this mess.
First, the voters need to get this clown out of office at the first opportunity, and replace him with somebody who has a brain that includes a 'mute' setting, and knows when to use it. For the chief LE officer of the county to go on the air and make some of the statements he did... Unprofessional at least, idiotic at best. First, a LE officer is not supposed to be playing politics on something like that(at all, preferably, but for damned sure not on something like this). Second, the Chief LE Officer Of The County is NOT supposed to be making a defense argument for the accused. Either of these things ought to get him thrown out of office.
Second, I just read a couple more things. This and This, to be precise(thanks to Insty for pointing to them). Read this:
Jared Loughner has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff’s Office was informed, his deputies assured the victims that he was being well managed by the mental health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as Jared Loughner has a family member that works for Pima County. Amy Loughner is a Natural Resource specialist for the Pima County Parks and Recreation.
If this is indeed the case, then this may partly be why the Sheriff has such a case of oral diarrhea; he's got a bad link to this mess.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
I've heard variations on this before,
but not this particular one:
"Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff. The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders." attributed to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and a few other German Generals. If anybody knows who said it first I'd love to know.
"Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff. The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders." attributed to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and a few other German Generals. If anybody knows who said it first I'd love to know.
A really good thing, and what I hope
is the start of a REALLY good thing.
First, the good:
The University of Virginia (U.Va.) had stalled since last year in handing over its record relating to accusations against a former academic employee implicated in the Climategate controversy of November 2009.
The researcher in the hot seat is global warming doomsayer, Professor Michael Mann who now works at Penn. State University. Mann, a Lead Author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been under increasing scrutiny since the climate fraud scandal hit the headlines over a year ago.
The latest story appears on the SPPI website which reports, “Court records reveal that counsel for the University has indicated instead that the Mann-related records do in fact exist, on a backup server. To avoid University delay or claims for huge search fees, today’s request specifically directs the school to search that server.”
Oh yeah, Mann's got to be so happy he could pass a gallstone over this. As to the University, along with a general "No, you can't hide the information" matter, there's this:
According to Horner U.Va. has offered "a series of twists" on a novel defense of 'academic freedom.' It has spent half a million dollars on legal fees trying to prevent Virginia’s Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli acquiring any access to the records. Cuccinelli filed his petition for access on behalf of the state’s taxpayers last year.
Maybe parents and students paying Bleep-knows-what for tuition ought to file for the University to show where that half-million came from; "If any of it was from my tuition or fee payments, I want it back!".
The hopefully-will-become REALLY great thing:
Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.
From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.
“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.
This, I think, is a Very Good Thing. Got to be lots and lots of muslims in other places as well who are sick of the murders and tortures and abuse. May they all show this kind of courage in demonstrating such.
First, the good:
The University of Virginia (U.Va.) had stalled since last year in handing over its record relating to accusations against a former academic employee implicated in the Climategate controversy of November 2009.
The researcher in the hot seat is global warming doomsayer, Professor Michael Mann who now works at Penn. State University. Mann, a Lead Author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been under increasing scrutiny since the climate fraud scandal hit the headlines over a year ago.
The latest story appears on the SPPI website which reports, “Court records reveal that counsel for the University has indicated instead that the Mann-related records do in fact exist, on a backup server. To avoid University delay or claims for huge search fees, today’s request specifically directs the school to search that server.”
Oh yeah, Mann's got to be so happy he could pass a gallstone over this. As to the University, along with a general "No, you can't hide the information" matter, there's this:
According to Horner U.Va. has offered "a series of twists" on a novel defense of 'academic freedom.' It has spent half a million dollars on legal fees trying to prevent Virginia’s Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli acquiring any access to the records. Cuccinelli filed his petition for access on behalf of the state’s taxpayers last year.
Maybe parents and students paying Bleep-knows-what for tuition ought to file for the University to show where that half-million came from; "If any of it was from my tuition or fee payments, I want it back!".
The hopefully-will-become REALLY great thing:
Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.
From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.
“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.
This, I think, is a Very Good Thing. Got to be lots and lots of muslims in other places as well who are sick of the murders and tortures and abuse. May they all show this kind of courage in demonstrating such.
Friday, January 07, 2011
A weather scare sequence
Week or so back the "Nasty horrible arctic cold coming! Be warned!! Be scared!!!" stuff started. Which is my signal to 'ignore local weather weenies for a while* and check other sources'. So I did, and checked further as it approaches. It went from the above-mentioned "YOU MAY DIE!! IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO US!" to "It'll get pretty cold for a few days, be some snow in some areas so be ready if you have to travel in it." At least what I've found from the NWS and such; I still haven't gone back to listening to the local people; in severe thunderstorm conditions they're pretty good(though still doing some "We need to scare you" stuff, but in winter they can be a pain in the ass.
*Yes, I do make some preparations this time of year, just to be safe, but I refuse to listen to the crap they throw out.
*Yes, I do make some preparations this time of year, just to be safe, but I refuse to listen to the crap they throw out.
Said it before: SWAT teams, used properly,
are a valuable tool; used improperly they're a threat.
The fatal shooting of an innocent 68-year-old man by Framingham police reignited debate among law enforcement experts yesterday over the role of heavily armed, specialized units for routine drug busts.
Got curious and looked, and Balko has some more here and here. Including this bit from the Framingham Police Chief:
...During the service of the search warrant Mr. Eurie Stamps was tragically and fatally struck by a bullet which was discharged from a SWAT officer’s rifle.
Interesting wording, isn't it?
The fatal shooting of an innocent 68-year-old man by Framingham police reignited debate among law enforcement experts yesterday over the role of heavily armed, specialized units for routine drug busts.
Got curious and looked, and Balko has some more here and here. Including this bit from the Framingham Police Chief:
...During the service of the search warrant Mr. Eurie Stamps was tragically and fatally struck by a bullet which was discharged from a SWAT officer’s rifle.
Interesting wording, isn't it?
In between getting ready for the snow they're saying
should come in Sunday(or maybe Monday) and general "Bleep, where did all this mess come from?" cleaning, I found a few things to talk about. Ref the clown Colman McCarthy who has demonstrated his contempt for members of the US Military, two bits from Confederate Yankee's response:
Even so, Mr McCarthy’s appreciation for the ethic of the warrior remains undiminished: “In recent years, I've had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.” Hmm. Perhaps Mr. McCarthy might want to consider that those who are truly resolved and daring tend to involved themselves in callings and endeavors where resolve and daring are required and appreciated, endeavors such as actually fighting for peace rather than talking about it. Could this be why Mr. McCarthy finds himself surrounded by weak-minded milquetoasts?
My thought: "Mr. McCarthy, if you can't find people of such resolve and daring in your 'peace movement', why aren't you asking yourself why you don't?
The next bit:
Mr. McCarthy saves his big guns--please pardon the military metaphor; I can’t help myself--for last: “ROTC and its warrior ethic taint the intellectual purity of a school, if by purity we mean trying to rise above the foul idea that nations can kill and destroy their way to peace.”
“The intellectual purity of a school?!” No. That’s too easy. Readers who wish to discover the level of intellectual purity on contemporary “elite” campuses have only to research names such as Bill Ayers, Cornel West or Ward Churchill.
Indeed.
My oh my, this will stir some things up:
Magnus v. U.S., decided today, concludes that a defendant who pled guilty in 1996 to violating D.C. handgun ban can now have that plea set aside given D.C. v. Heller, assuming his conduct was indeed protected by the Second Amendment (and didn’t, for instance, involve the possession of a gun to facilitate an illegal drug transaction). “A conviction for conduct that is not criminal, but is instead constitutionally protected, is the ultimate miscarriage of justice,” and a defendant can therefore ask to have it set aside (via a petition for coram nobis relief) even many years later.
and so will this:
Right Turn has obtained the first oversight letter from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued to the Justice Department. While he was in the minority, Smith labored, largely unsuccessfully, on the committee to convince the Democratic chairman to investigate a range of issues, including detainee policy and New Black Panther Party case. He now has the authority to schedule hearings, call witnesses and subpoena documents.
Don't you know there were some major pucker moments in Holder's office when the Tea Party people won enough elections to take the House?
So, is Pelosi just so stuck on parroting the "It's the fault of BUSH!" line that she can't stop, or is she actually certifiable?
Obama didn't make Traver a recess appointment(you can just hear somebody on the staff saying "How many people do you really want to piss off this way right now?"), and has re-nominated him. I kind of like this idea:
While I really don't think Traver can get approved by the Senate given his record of anti-gun activism, I think his renomination actually can serve a useful purpose for gun rights. The confirmation hearings will be an opportunity to air much of ATF's dirty laundry which has been ignored by the mainstream media. These range from gross mismanagement in the upper levels of the bureau to allegations of looking the other way to AR's being smuggled into Mexico so that they could be traced back to the U.S.
Oh yeah, start bringing ALL this up and asking Traver "Were you aware of this? Really? You were in WHAT position for HOW LONG and you say you know nothing about this? Is your real last name Schultz?"
And finally, thanks to Theo,
Even so, Mr McCarthy’s appreciation for the ethic of the warrior remains undiminished: “In recent years, I've had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.” Hmm. Perhaps Mr. McCarthy might want to consider that those who are truly resolved and daring tend to involved themselves in callings and endeavors where resolve and daring are required and appreciated, endeavors such as actually fighting for peace rather than talking about it. Could this be why Mr. McCarthy finds himself surrounded by weak-minded milquetoasts?
My thought: "Mr. McCarthy, if you can't find people of such resolve and daring in your 'peace movement', why aren't you asking yourself why you don't?
The next bit:
Mr. McCarthy saves his big guns--please pardon the military metaphor; I can’t help myself--for last: “ROTC and its warrior ethic taint the intellectual purity of a school, if by purity we mean trying to rise above the foul idea that nations can kill and destroy their way to peace.”
“The intellectual purity of a school?!” No. That’s too easy. Readers who wish to discover the level of intellectual purity on contemporary “elite” campuses have only to research names such as Bill Ayers, Cornel West or Ward Churchill.
Indeed.
My oh my, this will stir some things up:
Magnus v. U.S., decided today, concludes that a defendant who pled guilty in 1996 to violating D.C. handgun ban can now have that plea set aside given D.C. v. Heller, assuming his conduct was indeed protected by the Second Amendment (and didn’t, for instance, involve the possession of a gun to facilitate an illegal drug transaction). “A conviction for conduct that is not criminal, but is instead constitutionally protected, is the ultimate miscarriage of justice,” and a defendant can therefore ask to have it set aside (via a petition for coram nobis relief) even many years later.
and so will this:
Right Turn has obtained the first oversight letter from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued to the Justice Department. While he was in the minority, Smith labored, largely unsuccessfully, on the committee to convince the Democratic chairman to investigate a range of issues, including detainee policy and New Black Panther Party case. He now has the authority to schedule hearings, call witnesses and subpoena documents.
Don't you know there were some major pucker moments in Holder's office when the Tea Party people won enough elections to take the House?
So, is Pelosi just so stuck on parroting the "It's the fault of BUSH!" line that she can't stop, or is she actually certifiable?
Obama didn't make Traver a recess appointment(you can just hear somebody on the staff saying "How many people do you really want to piss off this way right now?"), and has re-nominated him. I kind of like this idea:
While I really don't think Traver can get approved by the Senate given his record of anti-gun activism, I think his renomination actually can serve a useful purpose for gun rights. The confirmation hearings will be an opportunity to air much of ATF's dirty laundry which has been ignored by the mainstream media. These range from gross mismanagement in the upper levels of the bureau to allegations of looking the other way to AR's being smuggled into Mexico so that they could be traced back to the U.S.
Oh yeah, start bringing ALL this up and asking Traver "Were you aware of this? Really? You were in WHAT position for HOW LONG and you say you know nothing about this? Is your real last name Schultz?"
And finally, thanks to Theo,
On the Erik Scott case, more up over at
Confederate Yankee, here and here. I want to post a couple of bits, for the full impact you really need to read them entire. First, from the first link,
MINDSET: Most interesting--and disturbing--is the response of the Metro police, as communicated by their Union President Chris Collins, who represents approximately 2,800 officers. According to Collins, not only will officers--even those who merely witnessed the actions of fellow officers--fail to testify at inquests, they will refuse to make statements to investigators--usually Metro homicide detectives--after a shooting or death caused by other means. Apparently Collins has gone so far as to suggest that officers will refuse to honor subpoenas.
That one piece, all by itself, says the union needs cleaning out. Or being abolished. And any officer who refuses a subpoena, or refuses to speak to investigators, should be treated just like Joe or Jane Citizen is treated.
Collins objected to the idea that officers might have to repeatedly testify about their actions. Remember that in the past, officers have typically had to testify only at an inquest, and even so, their testimony, as in the Erik Scott case, has been less than complete. “now we’re saying ‘screw it’--you only have to answer twice instead of four times: Answer in the deposition and the federal case and skip the homicide investigation and skip the inquest,” Collins said.
Collins apparently believes that all officers will have to do is to simply inform the judge and prosecutor before the inquest that they won’t answer questions--in essence telling them that they intend to take the Fifth--and they’ll be able to ignore subpoenas. Collins said that skipping inquests will be good for officers because it will allow them to avoid the embarrassment and discomfort of pleading the Fifth Amendment to every question from the witness stand.
A: Toss Collins out on his ass.
B: Inform all officers that if they act as Collins says(Because God forbid officers should face repeated questioning, as if they were just plain citizens or something) that they'll be treated- prosecuted if called for- just like any other citizen.
The second post has a lot on how Sheriff Gillespie wants to keep control of things in inquest procedures for the benefit of the police(screw the citizens). What I want to borrow from this one is the statement from the Scott family:
SCOTT FAMILY STATEMENT: The family of Erik Scott has issued a press release to the Las Vegas media. The media has reproduced only a portion of the release in the stories linked at the beginning of this update, so as a public service, I reproduce the press release, in its entirety, here:
“The stated PPA [Las Vegas Metro Police Protective Association] policy of having law enforcement union members refuse to cooperate with investigations of officer-involved shootings and other potential abuses of police power invokes the image of a grade-school playground bully demanding that only his version of the fight be related to the principal, or the bully and his gang will refuse to cooperate at all. If that’s the way Southern Nevada police officers choose to behave, so be it. That’s perfectly fine with us and other victims’ families.
Such petulant, childish refusals to cooperate with already-questionable internal investigations may finally stimulate two backlash responses from incensed citizens and lawmakers:
• Institute a system whereby ALL officer-involved shootings that result in death must be investigated by an outside agency, ideally a U.S. Justice Department version of the National Transportation Safety Board. This federal body will have the authority to solicit testimony from any person involved in the shooting, including all officers involved.
• Pass a Nevada law similar to California Government Code 3300-3311, the “California Peace Officers Bill of Rights.” Under this statute, California police officers can elect to not cooperate with an investigation of potential police misdeeds, but, in making that choice, risk being charged with insubordination and subsequent dismissal. Officers have the right to invoke their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, but may lose their job, if warranted.
Las Vegas-area police unions are accustomed to having complete control of homicide investigations involving officers for so long that they cannot conceive of being held accountable for their actions, under the new coroner’s inquest ordinance. But in refusing to cooperate, those unions are prompting even more outrage and wrath from their employers, the citizens who pay police salaries. When will the unions realize that those halcyon days of Southern Nevada cops doing whatever they please—and getting away with it—are over?”
MINDSET: Most interesting--and disturbing--is the response of the Metro police, as communicated by their Union President Chris Collins, who represents approximately 2,800 officers. According to Collins, not only will officers--even those who merely witnessed the actions of fellow officers--fail to testify at inquests, they will refuse to make statements to investigators--usually Metro homicide detectives--after a shooting or death caused by other means. Apparently Collins has gone so far as to suggest that officers will refuse to honor subpoenas.
That one piece, all by itself, says the union needs cleaning out. Or being abolished. And any officer who refuses a subpoena, or refuses to speak to investigators, should be treated just like Joe or Jane Citizen is treated.
Collins apparently believes that all officers will have to do is to simply inform the judge and prosecutor before the inquest that they won’t answer questions--in essence telling them that they intend to take the Fifth--and they’ll be able to ignore subpoenas. Collins said that skipping inquests will be good for officers because it will allow them to avoid the embarrassment and discomfort of pleading the Fifth Amendment to every question from the witness stand.
A: Toss Collins out on his ass.
B: Inform all officers that if they act as Collins says(Because God forbid officers should face repeated questioning, as if they were just plain citizens or something) that they'll be treated- prosecuted if called for- just like any other citizen.
The second post has a lot on how
SCOTT FAMILY STATEMENT: The family of Erik Scott has issued a press release to the Las Vegas media. The media has reproduced only a portion of the release in the stories linked at the beginning of this update, so as a public service, I reproduce the press release, in its entirety, here:
“The stated PPA [Las Vegas Metro Police Protective Association] policy of having law enforcement union members refuse to cooperate with investigations of officer-involved shootings and other potential abuses of police power invokes the image of a grade-school playground bully demanding that only his version of the fight be related to the principal, or the bully and his gang will refuse to cooperate at all. If that’s the way Southern Nevada police officers choose to behave, so be it. That’s perfectly fine with us and other victims’ families.
Such petulant, childish refusals to cooperate with already-questionable internal investigations may finally stimulate two backlash responses from incensed citizens and lawmakers:
• Institute a system whereby ALL officer-involved shootings that result in death must be investigated by an outside agency, ideally a U.S. Justice Department version of the National Transportation Safety Board. This federal body will have the authority to solicit testimony from any person involved in the shooting, including all officers involved.
• Pass a Nevada law similar to California Government Code 3300-3311, the “California Peace Officers Bill of Rights.” Under this statute, California police officers can elect to not cooperate with an investigation of potential police misdeeds, but, in making that choice, risk being charged with insubordination and subsequent dismissal. Officers have the right to invoke their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, but may lose their job, if warranted.
Las Vegas-area police unions are accustomed to having complete control of homicide investigations involving officers for so long that they cannot conceive of being held accountable for their actions, under the new coroner’s inquest ordinance. But in refusing to cooperate, those unions are prompting even more outrage and wrath from their employers, the citizens who pay police salaries. When will the unions realize that those halcyon days of Southern Nevada cops doing whatever they please—and getting away with it—are over?”
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Og has a bathroom story
over here, which reminded me of my own; no sex, but plenty of potential for embarrassment.
Back when was married to first wife we'd stopped at a fabric store to look for some costume material. It was after lunch, and suddenly the digestive tract advised me that lunch needed to exit. Now. So I headed for the back.
Go through the door into the back and there's not much light, I look around and see 'Restrooms' on a sign and head that way, through the door and into a stall and- with literal great relief- sit. About halfway through I heard the door open and footsteps that sounded a little odd. Door opens in the stall next to mine, closes, I glance down.
At an obviously female foot in a brown high heel shoe, said foot attached to a leg that was obviously coming out of a skirt. Bleep.
I sat there very quietly until she finished and left, very quickly washed hands and got the hell out, after peeking out to see if anybody was in the back.
And yeah, there were two doors. I checked. They needed more light back there.
Back when was married to first wife we'd stopped at a fabric store to look for some costume material. It was after lunch, and suddenly the digestive tract advised me that lunch needed to exit. Now. So I headed for the back.
Go through the door into the back and there's not much light, I look around and see 'Restrooms' on a sign and head that way, through the door and into a stall and- with literal great relief- sit. About halfway through I heard the door open and footsteps that sounded a little odd. Door opens in the stall next to mine, closes, I glance down.
At an obviously female foot in a brown high heel shoe, said foot attached to a leg that was obviously coming out of a skirt. Bleep.
I sat there very quietly until she finished and left, very quickly washed hands and got the hell out, after peeking out to see if anybody was in the back.
And yeah, there were two doors. I checked. They needed more light back there.
One of the benefits of having the part-time job turn
into a full-time for the past month was I was able to buy the new seat for the bike as my Christmas present to myself; got a Sargent when I found it on sale(the economy makes some things more affordable while screwing you in everything else). Today was the first time I've been able to ride for more than a few miles, and the difference between this and the factory seat is incredible.
Same thing on the Vulcan I used to own. I made my first trip on it(Dallas) and by the time I got back swore there wouldn't be another until it had a better saddle; I swear the bastard who designed the factory seat didn't like the customers. That bike got a Mustang, and it was wonderful; better designed, better padding.
Kind of amazing: someone makes a really nice bike and sticks a piece of crap on it for the rider to sit on. Bad idea, guys.
Same thing on the Vulcan I used to own. I made my first trip on it(Dallas) and by the time I got back swore there wouldn't be another until it had a better saddle; I swear the bastard who designed the factory seat didn't like the customers. That bike got a Mustang, and it was wonderful; better designed, better padding.
Kind of amazing: someone makes a really nice bike and sticks a piece of crap on it for the rider to sit on. Bad idea, guys.
If this is true, heads at BATFE need to roll.
Possibly literally if people are dead because of it.
Coming next will be more info on what the agents refer to as the Phoenix ATF office "walking across" ARs and AKs to pad their statistics and especially the one that may have killed the BP agent.
For the moment ignore the other stuff in that article and focus on this; followup here and here. From the last,
I’ve just been provided some additional details. The essence of what I’ve been told:
ATF’s Phoenix office allowed the guns to go across the border. The ATF office in Mexico was denied permission to share this information with their Mexican counterparts. Believing this was wrong, they went over the heads of the Phoenix office and requested permission directly from headquarters in DC. The higher-ups sided with the Phoenix decision to withhold the information from Mexican authorities.
That would make this an international law enforcement incident, would it not?
Uh, yeah, at the very least. Hey, new Congress, you want something else that needs real investigation? Here it is.
I'll now make note of something else from the first article:
Then there's this: An ATF Special Agent who went undercover in the Hells Angels is compelled to inform a dozen U.S. Senators of his ongoing legal battle against ATF senior management, including some startling and disturbing (to put it mildly) allegations:
This mess has been around for a while. This guy managed to actually become a patched member of the Hells Angels, gathered evidence and testimony of everything from murder to drugs to prostitution to illegal arms dealing; then the BATFE brass and prosecutors managed to screw up the cases so badly that many of the accused went free, and some who were convicted were able to plead to much lesser charges. And then the HA found out who he was and went after him and his family, and BATFE did- well, I'd say 'squat to protect them' but that would give the agency too much credit. Considering how this agency treats honest cops, it's amazing there are still any in it.
No, I can't say "A few bad ones in the agency cause this" because it's been going on for too long in, from the sound of it, just about all branches; that's not a few bad apples, that's an agency with a very bad attitude.
Coming next will be more info on what the agents refer to as the Phoenix ATF office "walking across" ARs and AKs to pad their statistics and especially the one that may have killed the BP agent.
For the moment ignore the other stuff in that article and focus on this; followup here and here. From the last,
I’ve just been provided some additional details. The essence of what I’ve been told:
That would make this an international law enforcement incident, would it not?
Uh, yeah, at the very least. Hey, new Congress, you want something else that needs real investigation? Here it is.
I'll now make note of something else from the first article:
Then there's this: An ATF Special Agent who went undercover in the Hells Angels is compelled to inform a dozen U.S. Senators of his ongoing legal battle against ATF senior management, including some startling and disturbing (to put it mildly) allegations:
[I]n retaliation for a settlement with the government, ATF recalled covert identification documents from me and my wife, and as a Significant Investigative Report, obtained only through discovery, demonstrates, the Hells Angels became the lead suspects in discovering the location of my home and burning it down with my wife and children inside. In the process, ATF scuttled the investigation and let the suspects go, never even questioning them. ATF has taken the process of retaliation to a new level, letting go of suspects of attempted murder against an agent’s family.
This mess has been around for a while. This guy managed to actually become a patched member of the Hells Angels, gathered evidence and testimony of everything from murder to drugs to prostitution to illegal arms dealing; then the BATFE brass and prosecutors managed to screw up the cases so badly that many of the accused went free, and some who were convicted were able to plead to much lesser charges. And then the HA found out who he was and went after him and his family, and BATFE did- well, I'd say 'squat to protect them' but that would give the agency too much credit. Considering how this agency treats honest cops, it's amazing there are still any in it.
No, I can't say "A few bad ones in the agency cause this" because it's been going on for too long in, from the sound of it, just about all branches; that's not a few bad apples, that's an agency with a very bad attitude.
Let's begin this with "If I'd ever done anything APPROACHING this level of
idiot, I'd have been fired on the spot":
The Punchbowl restaurant does not serve bacon or pork in accordance with Islamic law, and one employee can be heard saying "we don't have bacon" before the other begins yelling.
"Don't record me bitch!" he screams as he approaches the counter. "Don't f---ing record me!"
The employee continues to yell and smacks the cash register display on its side, before other workers grab him and lead him outside.
"I'm gonna f---in break your head bro," he says to the person filming as he is led around the corner out of sight.
Ah, but we must be sensitive and caring:
A spokesman for KFC Australia told ninemsn the employee had been suspended over the incident and offered counselling.
"KFC Australia strongly condemns the behaviour of the team member who appears in the clip and sincerely apologises for this very inappropriate reaction," the spokesman said.
because it's apparently not possible to expect muslims to behave like civilized human beings, so you have to hold them to lower standards.
What was that line about 'the bigotry of low expectations'?
What, you expected anything else from the High Court of the People's Republic of Maryland?
Speaking of the PRoM,
Alcohol may soon come with a new kind of high. It’s not stronger proof. It’s a higher tax.
Alex DeMetrick reports supporters of a “Dime a Drink Tax” think they have a shot at making it happen in Maryland.
Yes, because nothing helps recovery like higher taxes.
This is going to make some lefty heads implode:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to send an additional 1,400 Marine combat forces to Afghanistan, officials said, in a surprise move ahead of the spring fighting season to try to cement tentative security gains before White House-mandated troop reductions begin in July.
Yeah, trust the media to bury this part of it way down in the story:
FBI special agent Manuel Johnson said the incident occurred at around 3. a.m. local time.
“Border Patrol agents were attempting to arrest alleged drug smugglers. …when bystanders began to throw rocks” at them, Johnson said. “A Border Patrol agent responded by firing a shot at an alleged rock thrower.”
Frustrated by tighter security on the U.S.-Mexico border, illegal immigrants and drug traffickers regularly pelt U.S. agents with rocks, take shots and even throw gasoline bombs.
About what you'd expect from Salon: ...then sword violence starts to look like a problem. A small problem, and a weird problem, but a problem nonetheless. So let's ban them!
And last this morning, yesterday a local radio station had the usual suspects hyperventilating because a Arizona-style law on illegal immigrants is going to be offered in the new legislature; "It will scare away (apparently only)Latinos from Oklahoma, hurt the economy", all the usual. Well, if someone is here legally it wouldn't be a problem, now would it? And if they're not, then leave. There are major highways going in various directions, and if you go south don't fall in the Red when you cross the border into Texas.
'Course, Texas isn't going to be all that welcoming, either.
The Punchbowl restaurant does not serve bacon or pork in accordance with Islamic law, and one employee can be heard saying "we don't have bacon" before the other begins yelling.
"Don't record me bitch!" he screams as he approaches the counter. "Don't f---ing record me!"
The employee continues to yell and smacks the cash register display on its side, before other workers grab him and lead him outside.
"I'm gonna f---in break your head bro," he says to the person filming as he is led around the corner out of sight.
Ah, but we must be sensitive and caring:
A spokesman for KFC Australia told ninemsn the employee had been suspended over the incident and offered counselling.
"KFC Australia strongly condemns the behaviour of the team member who appears in the clip and sincerely apologises for this very inappropriate reaction," the spokesman said.
because it's apparently not possible to expect muslims to behave like civilized human beings, so you have to hold them to lower standards.
What was that line about 'the bigotry of low expectations'?
What, you expected anything else from the High Court of the People's Republic of Maryland?
Speaking of the PRoM,
Alcohol may soon come with a new kind of high. It’s not stronger proof. It’s a higher tax.
Alex DeMetrick reports supporters of a “Dime a Drink Tax” think they have a shot at making it happen in Maryland.
Yes, because nothing helps recovery like higher taxes.
This is going to make some lefty heads implode:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to send an additional 1,400 Marine combat forces to Afghanistan, officials said, in a surprise move ahead of the spring fighting season to try to cement tentative security gains before White House-mandated troop reductions begin in July.
Yeah, trust the media to bury this part of it way down in the story:
FBI special agent Manuel Johnson said the incident occurred at around 3. a.m. local time.
“Border Patrol agents were attempting to arrest alleged drug smugglers. …when bystanders began to throw rocks” at them, Johnson said. “A Border Patrol agent responded by firing a shot at an alleged rock thrower.”
Frustrated by tighter security on the U.S.-Mexico border, illegal immigrants and drug traffickers regularly pelt U.S. agents with rocks, take shots and even throw gasoline bombs.
About what you'd expect from Salon: ...then sword violence starts to look like a problem. A small problem, and a weird problem, but a problem nonetheless. So let's ban them!
And last this morning, yesterday a local radio station had the usual suspects hyperventilating because a Arizona-style law on illegal immigrants is going to be offered in the new legislature; "It will scare away (apparently only)Latinos from Oklahoma, hurt the economy", all the usual. Well, if someone is here legally it wouldn't be a problem, now would it? And if they're not, then leave. There are major highways going in various directions, and if you go south don't fall in the Red when you cross the border into Texas.
'Course, Texas isn't going to be all that welcoming, either.
Every time I think I've heard one of the more idiotic things ever
I find that I just wasn't waiting long enough. Remember the Zionist Attack Sharks? Well,
A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday.
The bird was found in a rural area of the country wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet bearing the words "Tel Aviv University", according to the reports, which surfaced first in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.
Although these tags indicate that the bird was part of a long-term research project into migration patterns, residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be a "Zionist plot."
The accusations went viral, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the "Zionists" had trained these birds for espionage.
And with visions of "I'm gonna find a baby bumblebee..."* floating through my mind, I'll leave this.
*If you've never seen the cartoon, I'm not explaining it
A vulture tagged by scientists at Tel Aviv University has strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, where it was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a Mossad spy, Israeli and Saudi media reported Tuesday.
The bird was found in a rural area of the country wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet bearing the words "Tel Aviv University", according to the reports, which surfaced first in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.
Although these tags indicate that the bird was part of a long-term research project into migration patterns, residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be a "Zionist plot."
The accusations went viral, with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming that the "Zionists" had trained these birds for espionage.
And with visions of "I'm gonna find a baby bumblebee..."* floating through my mind, I'll leave this.
*If you've never seen the cartoon, I'm not explaining it
I got into a bit of an argument on Facebook
(yes, I know, just kind of happened) over WMDs and Iraq in which various people laughed that there were still people deluded enough to think there had been any. Well, among other things,
But, as Wired reports, the WikiLeaks documents clearly show "for years afterward, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins and uncover weapons of mass destruction. . . . Chemical weapons, especially, did not vanish from the Iraqi battlefield. Remnants of Saddam's toxic arsenal, largely destroyed after the Gulf War, remained. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict — and may have brewed up their own deadly agents."
One of the things derided in the argument was that Iraq had anything to sneak into Syria:
Of note too is a January 2004 revelation by Syrian journalist defector Nizar Nayuf. He reported there were three locations in Syria where Iraqi WMDs had been transported prior to the 2003 invasion and were being stored. He also revealed some of these sites were being built with North Korean cooperation. This explained why three years later Israel attacked a nuclear facility being built in Syria by Pyongyang — and Syria’s subsequent failure to criticize Israel for fear of drawing further international attention to what Damascus had been doing.
And, which nobody wanted to remember,
Five years after Joe Wilson’s op-ed claimed no yellowcake was sold to Iraq — the ease with which Saddam could have snapped his fingers and reinstituted his nuclear program became apparent. In July 2008, in an operation kept secret at the time, 37 military air cargo flights shipped more than 500 metric tons of yellowcake — found in Iraq — out of the country for further transport and remediation to Canada.
Gee, I wonder why most of the media isn't talking about this part of the released documents?
(Yes, I know, that question is about as useful as an argument on Facebook)
But, as Wired reports, the WikiLeaks documents clearly show "for years afterward, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins and uncover weapons of mass destruction. . . . Chemical weapons, especially, did not vanish from the Iraqi battlefield. Remnants of Saddam's toxic arsenal, largely destroyed after the Gulf War, remained. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict — and may have brewed up their own deadly agents."
One of the things derided in the argument was that Iraq had anything to sneak into Syria:
Of note too is a January 2004 revelation by Syrian journalist defector Nizar Nayuf. He reported there were three locations in Syria where Iraqi WMDs had been transported prior to the 2003 invasion and were being stored. He also revealed some of these sites were being built with North Korean cooperation. This explained why three years later Israel attacked a nuclear facility being built in Syria by Pyongyang — and Syria’s subsequent failure to criticize Israel for fear of drawing further international attention to what Damascus had been doing.
And, which nobody wanted to remember,
Five years after Joe Wilson’s op-ed claimed no yellowcake was sold to Iraq — the ease with which Saddam could have snapped his fingers and reinstituted his nuclear program became apparent. In July 2008, in an operation kept secret at the time, 37 military air cargo flights shipped more than 500 metric tons of yellowcake — found in Iraq — out of the country for further transport and remediation to Canada.
Gee, I wonder why most of the media isn't talking about this part of the released documents?
(Yes, I know, that question is about as useful as an argument on Facebook)
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Remember I mentioned I picked up a neat little flashlight at Tulsa?
You didn't? Well, it's one of these
Found the pic here; and it's something. It's about an inch longer than the AAA battery that powers it; 3 light levels, turn it on by turning the head and then bump it off & on to go to the next brightness. I've been using it off & on since mid-November and the battery is still going strong.
And if you decide to put together a mini emergency kit similar to this, it'll fit in.
I originally saw a link to a kit like that at someone's blog(I think Tam's, but can't find it right now) and it was more of a 'carry around with you kit'. If I can find that, I'll add it
Found the pic here; and it's something. It's about an inch longer than the AAA battery that powers it; 3 light levels, turn it on by turning the head and then bump it off & on to go to the next brightness. I've been using it off & on since mid-November and the battery is still going strong.
And if you decide to put together a mini emergency kit similar to this, it'll fit in.
I originally saw a link to a kit like that at someone's blog(I think Tam's, but can't find it right now) and it was more of a 'carry around with you kit'. If I can find that, I'll add it
The University of Utah has created a secret policy
whereby its police officers are instructed in how to harass and intimidate law abiding gun owners by trumping up non-gun charges for perfectly lawful conduct. This policy violates both the letter and spirit of State Law and binding State Supreme Court ruling. Keeping such a policy secret violates sound notions of openness and transparency in government.
Ok, two things:
First, this kind of crap NEVER stays secret. Never. Ever.
Second, werethese friggin' idiotsthe campus brass wanting to get the university sued? Because when word of this did get out, it was just about bound to happen.
Ok, two things:
First, this kind of crap NEVER stays secret. Never. Ever.
Second, were
PS: Marxism is intellectualism
for stupid people – and, believe me: if you’ve got books by Stalin in your library and you’re using those books to look for ideas… yes, you are a stupid person.
Insty adds Or, you know, evil.
Insty adds Or, you know, evil.
From Robb Allen on the new Ruger
At 2:00, Ruger plans on announcing their newest line of KelTec Clones. But what makes this revolutionary is not the pistol, but their patented “Precall” system.
5 minutes before the official release, Ruger will be recalling the LC9, signaling an unprecedented commitment to customer support.
I for one am amazed!
That there is some high-grade snark.
5 minutes before the official release, Ruger will be recalling the LC9, signaling an unprecedented commitment to customer support.
I for one am amazed!
That there is some high-grade snark.
When he gets rolling...
(Pelosi)She is crazy, batshit crazy! I guarantee you that woman sleeps upside down!
That's found right at the end of this video; earlier he probably guaranteed himself a fatwa.
That's found right at the end of this video; earlier he probably guaranteed himself a fatwa.
On the Wikileaks stuff,
I didn't see any legitimate way for us to prosecute him; foreign national, was not in the US, etc.(Manning, on the other hand, we can legitimately hang). There may be some kind of espionage law that can be used against him, but I don't know enough on the subject to say.
On the other side, I can definitely say Assange is a vile piece of dog vomit who was so busy playing games and pretending to be someone important that he couldn't take the time to, say, redact names and such that would get people killed. Or, more likely, he didn't care. "Not my problem, and I'm getting the publicity I want!" For example:
And so, where Mugabe's strong-arming, torture and assassination attempts have failed to eliminate the leading figure of Zimbabwe's democratic opposition, WikiLeaks may yet succeed. Twenty years of sacrifice and suffering by Tsvangirai all for naught, as WikiLeaks risks "collateral murder" in the name of transparency.
Oh, and let's not forget 'journalists' like the NYE' Times who've had no problem publishing all his releases(but wouldn't publish any of the CRU e-mails because 'they were wrongly obtained).
On the other side, I can definitely say Assange is a vile piece of dog vomit who was so busy playing games and pretending to be someone important that he couldn't take the time to, say, redact names and such that would get people killed. Or, more likely, he didn't care. "Not my problem, and I'm getting the publicity I want!" For example:
And so, where Mugabe's strong-arming, torture and assassination attempts have failed to eliminate the leading figure of Zimbabwe's democratic opposition, WikiLeaks may yet succeed. Twenty years of sacrifice and suffering by Tsvangirai all for naught, as WikiLeaks risks "collateral murder" in the name of transparency.
Oh, and let's not forget 'journalists' like the NYE' Times who've had no problem publishing all his releases(but wouldn't publish any of the CRU e-mails because 'they were wrongly obtained).
My God, that Ashley Smithwick is a threat! She actually
PUSHED ANOTHER STUDENT a year ago!
What do you want to bet this getting out was the somewhat veiled threat from the school weenies? Except she released the records herself, taking the fangs out of that.
This is what caused this line?
Dr. Moss said he read these records numerous times before making his decision about Smithwick, a decision he said is fair.
The earlier decision that, for a lunch bag mixup, she should be thrown out of school? That 'fair' decision?
What do you want to bet this getting out was the somewhat veiled threat from the school weenies? Except she released the records herself, taking the fangs out of that.
This is what caused this line?
Dr. Moss said he read these records numerous times before making his decision about Smithwick, a decision he said is fair.
The earlier decision that, for a lunch bag mixup, she should be thrown out of school? That 'fair' decision?
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
I shall lead off this morning with a question
If this is so environmentally-friendly a way to dispose of your body, does a unicorn piss out the liquid nitrogen? Do the chemicals to dissolve the body magically appear in a jar, and go away in the same manner?
I'm not sure who ought to replace Michael Steele as head of the Stupid Party, but he SHOULD be replaced. Not only is he a dirtbag who helps the other side, he's apparently trying to claim some credit for the tea party movement(well, pissing people off to that level definitely helped the movement, but still).
And, just in case the Stupid Party hasn't figured this out, if they put another left-leaning Steele-type in the position, they can count on donations dropping even more.
Under the headline, "Construction Stops at Physician Hospitals," Politico reports today that "Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing.
And after that, I've got nothin'. Which usually doesn't stop me from making noise, but it has this time.
I'm not sure who ought to replace Michael Steele as head of the Stupid Party, but he SHOULD be replaced. Not only is he a dirtbag who helps the other side, he's apparently trying to claim some credit for the tea party movement(well, pissing people off to that level definitely helped the movement, but still).
And, just in case the Stupid Party hasn't figured this out, if they put another left-leaning Steele-type in the position, they can count on donations dropping even more.
Under the headline, "Construction Stops at Physician Hospitals," Politico reports today that "Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing.
And after that, I've got nothin'. Which usually doesn't stop me from making noise, but it has this time.
I've come to the conclusion that Japete isn't confused
or uncertain of the facts; she's a damned liar, period.
Airsoft, for Deity's sake!
I looked at the comments, and the last one was her: after multiple times having it pointed out how horrendously expensive any actual automatic or select-fire weapon is(let alone things like grenade launchers and grenades), the background checks and taxes and so on, she says she 'hopes' that things like this are hard to obtain...
Yeah, for law-abiding people, they are. For drug cartels who import them from overseas or further south(Central & South America), not so much.
Airsoft, for Deity's sake!
I looked at the comments, and the last one was her: after multiple times having it pointed out how horrendously expensive any actual automatic or select-fire weapon is(let alone things like grenade launchers and grenades), the background checks and taxes and so on, she says she 'hopes' that things like this are hard to obtain...
Yeah, for law-abiding people, they are. For drug cartels who import them from overseas or further south(Central & South America), not so much.
Monday, January 03, 2011
In the last two days gas went up
another dime/gallon.
But we're not allowed to explore, let alone drill, in vast amounts of our territory*. While Obama helps Brazil drill, while Cuba and China are drilling in the Gulf.
Salazar ought to be incorporated into a drilling bit. And Sheriff Joe and Obama given- ah, let's not go there, I'm too pissed to be delicate in my language.
*And let us not forget, that in some places where it's not banned, they're effectively carrying out a ban by simply not giving approval to start drilling.
But we're not allowed to explore, let alone drill, in vast amounts of our territory*. While Obama helps Brazil drill, while Cuba and China are drilling in the Gulf.
Salazar ought to be incorporated into a drilling bit. And Sheriff Joe and Obama given- ah, let's not go there, I'm too pissed to be delicate in my language.
*And let us not forget, that in some places where it's not banned, they're effectively carrying out a ban by simply not giving approval to start drilling.
Schwarzenegger takes a tip from Obama
Obama sent Empty-Hat Salazar out to say "Oh, we decided to ban oil & gas exploration & drilling in these areas after all"; Schwarzenegger demonstrates a fine manner of cowardice and dirtbaggery in doing this:
So, how did Schwarzenegger leave office? By committing one last shameful act of back-scratching politics as usual and granting a commutation to the son of a Democrat political crony, former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (his longtime collaborator on job-killing environmental regulations) .
Nunez’s privileged son, Esteban, was serving 16 years (already a reduced sentence resulting from a plea bargain) for his role in the vengeful stabbing/manslaughter of a college student, Luis Santos. Nunez and other defendants were involved in a conspiracy to cover up the crime, according to another member of their gang. Before he pleaded guilty, Nunez had his lawyers trying to blame the victim for his death. Oh, and there’s this damning piece of responsibility-evading crap from Nunez that was admitted as evidence before Nunez ducked trial:
“Gangsta rap made us do it.”
The family of the murder victim?
Santos, a software engineer in Concord in Northern California, said Esteban Nuñez “had already gotten lucky once” when prosecutors accepted a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid standing trial on murder charges, which could have led to a life sentence.
He said the family was not warned about the impending commutation and learned about it Sunday from reporters.
Absolutely friggin' disgusting.
So, how did Schwarzenegger leave office? By committing one last shameful act of back-scratching politics as usual and granting a commutation to the son of a Democrat political crony, former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (his longtime collaborator on job-killing environmental regulations) .
Nunez’s privileged son, Esteban, was serving 16 years (already a reduced sentence resulting from a plea bargain) for his role in the vengeful stabbing/manslaughter of a college student, Luis Santos. Nunez and other defendants were involved in a conspiracy to cover up the crime, according to another member of their gang. Before he pleaded guilty, Nunez had his lawyers trying to blame the victim for his death. Oh, and there’s this damning piece of responsibility-evading crap from Nunez that was admitted as evidence before Nunez ducked trial:
“Gangsta rap made us do it.”
The family of the murder victim?
Santos, a software engineer in Concord in Northern California, said Esteban Nuñez “had already gotten lucky once” when prosecutors accepted a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid standing trial on murder charges, which could have led to a life sentence.
He said the family was not warned about the impending commutation and learned about it Sunday from reporters.
Absolutely friggin' disgusting.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Interesting piece of hardware
to be sure. I have a hard time buying the 'exact location' and 'even if the enemy moves' stuff. But giving troops a reasonably close vector toward where the shot came from, maybe even a range estimate... possible, I'd guess.
Remember Bill Holda? The university president
who made false statements about the Luby's massacre(among other things)?
Tam points to information that at least, unlike so many academics, he's apparently actually dealing with the facts and learning about guns.
However.
Tam, you don't have to worry about crow. To borrow from AT in comments,
This gentleman is an academic. An intelligent man in a responsible position who probably makes official position statements to his board, his faculty, his student body - and the media - on a regular basis.
So either he does so entirely out of his ass (idiot), or he intentionally makes false statements when he believes the ends justify his means (liar).
I applaud popgun for reaching out to give the doctor some actual experience and knowledge, and the doctor for taking it. Let's hope there has been a real change in his perspective that he will use to guide the young minds over which he has substantial sway, making "factual" statements backed by actual facts instead of the partisan dogma that so thoroughly saturates his profession.
But that doesn't mean he wasn't an idiot, or a liar, or both...when he gave that teevee interview.
And it doesn't mean you were wrong to say so.
Indeed. Yeah, maybe a bit harsh, but pretty accurate.
Tam points to information that at least, unlike so many academics, he's apparently actually dealing with the facts and learning about guns.
However.
Tam, you don't have to worry about crow. To borrow from AT in comments,
This gentleman is an academic. An intelligent man in a responsible position who probably makes official position statements to his board, his faculty, his student body - and the media - on a regular basis.
So either he does so entirely out of his ass (idiot), or he intentionally makes false statements when he believes the ends justify his means (liar).
I applaud popgun for reaching out to give the doctor some actual experience and knowledge, and the doctor for taking it. Let's hope there has been a real change in his perspective that he will use to guide the young minds over which he has substantial sway, making "factual" statements backed by actual facts instead of the partisan dogma that so thoroughly saturates his profession.
But that doesn't mean he wasn't an idiot, or a liar, or both...when he gave that teevee interview.
And it doesn't mean you were wrong to say so.
Indeed. Yeah, maybe a bit harsh, but pretty accurate.
Just because it should be remembered what (fG)Britain
used to include:
In Britain, however, the image of violent America remains unassailably entrenched. Never mind the findings of the International Crime Victims Survey (published by the Home Office in 2003), indicating that we now suffer three times the level of violent crime committed in the United States; never mind the doubling of handgun crime in Britain over the past decade, since we banned pistols outright and confiscated all the legal ones.
We are so self-congratulatory about our officially disarmed society, and so dismissive of colonial rednecks, that we have forgotten that within living memory British citizens could buy any gun – rifle, pistol, or machinegun – without any licence. When Dr Watson walked the streets of London with a revolver in his pocket, he was a perfectly ordinary Victorian or Edwardian. Charlotte Brontë recalled that her curate father fastened his watch and pocketed his pistol every morning when he got dressed; Beatrix Potter remarked on a Yorkshire country hotel where only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver; in 1909, policemen in Tottenham borrowed at least four pistols from passers-by (and were joined by other armed citizens) when they set off in pursuit of two anarchists unwise enough to attempt an armed robbery. We now are shocked that so many ordinary people should have been carrying guns in the street; the Edwardians were shocked rather by the idea of an armed robbery.
If armed crime in London in the years before the First World War amounted to less than 2 per cent of that we suffer today, it was not simply because society then was more stable. Edwardian Britain was rocked by a series of massive strikes in which lives were lost and troops deployed, and suffragette incendiaries, anarchist bombers, Fenians, and the spectre of a revolutionary general strike made Britain then arguably a much more turbulent place than it is today. In that unstable society the impact of the widespread carrying of arms was not inflammatory, it was deterrent of violence.
TSA Scorecard
2010 statistics on Airport screening from the Department of Homeland Security
Terrorist Plots Discovered 0
Transvestites 133
Hernias 1,485
Hemorrhoid Cases 3,172
Enlarged Prostates 8,249
Breast Implants 59,350
Natural Blondes 3
Stolen from Theo
On the subject of the sanitation 'workers' in NYEffin'C,
add this to the other crap:
It was a real snow job.
Between 660 and 720 Sanitation workers called in sick for the cleanup of last week's blizzard -- more than double the usual rate, The Post has learned.
About 11 to 12 percent of the Sanitation Department's 6,000-strong force didn't show up for work on Monday or Tuesday, city officials confirmed, as 20 inches of snow brought the Apple to a near-standstill.
My answer: "Let's see a doctor's appointment. Or a prescription. Oh, don't have one? Next time this happens you don't get sick pay." Something along those lines.
I spent four years as a dispatcher for a LE agency, then a bunch more years in another division of said agency in a 24/7 office. It was shift work, and the rule for bad weather was simple: "You are considered essential personnel, so you have to be here. Roads are icy or snow-covered? All state government offices closed? Doesn't matter; you have to be here to keep this section running." And, with rare exceptions, we all did.
So this 'slowdown' bullshit in NYE'C gets absolutely no sympathy from me(even discounting the injuries and death it contributed to), and the "I'm not coming in, I'm sick" when they're not bullshit none. As in "People ought to be fired for this bullshit." Not only are they causing actual harm to people- well, hell, for that alone screw 'em.
Oh, and what do these clowns get paid in overtime? We didn't get a damned penny extra, just comp time(whenever it would be possible to take it).
So fire the bastards who set this up, and prosecute the bastards where possible.
It was a real snow job.
Between 660 and 720 Sanitation workers called in sick for the cleanup of last week's blizzard -- more than double the usual rate, The Post has learned.
About 11 to 12 percent of the Sanitation Department's 6,000-strong force didn't show up for work on Monday or Tuesday, city officials confirmed, as 20 inches of snow brought the Apple to a near-standstill.
My answer: "Let's see a doctor's appointment. Or a prescription. Oh, don't have one? Next time this happens you don't get sick pay." Something along those lines.
I spent four years as a dispatcher for a LE agency, then a bunch more years in another division of said agency in a 24/7 office. It was shift work, and the rule for bad weather was simple: "You are considered essential personnel, so you have to be here. Roads are icy or snow-covered? All state government offices closed? Doesn't matter; you have to be here to keep this section running." And, with rare exceptions, we all did.
So this 'slowdown' bullshit in NYE'C gets absolutely no sympathy from me(even discounting the injuries and death it contributed to), and the "I'm not coming in, I'm sick" when they're not bullshit none. As in "People ought to be fired for this bullshit." Not only are they causing actual harm to people- well, hell, for that alone screw 'em.
Oh, and what do these clowns get paid in overtime? We didn't get a damned penny extra, just comp time(whenever it would be possible to take it).
So fire the bastards who set this up, and prosecute the bastards where possible.
Having suffered through a horrible thing doesn't entitle you
to screw over other people. Ref Colin Goddard, one of the Virginia Tech victims, wanting to disarm EVERYBODY:
I have heard more ignorant arguments, but they came from inanimate matter.
I have heard more ignorant arguments, but they came from inanimate matter.
Look, Colin, you waste of oxygen: MAKING AN ILLEGAL THING MORE ILLEGAL WILL NOT PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING.
How ignorant do you have to be? Every Goddamned instructor at Virginia Tech ought to have their ASSES FIRED POSTHASTE. They are not producing students capable of even the most rudimentary reason.
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Having managed to shoot up from 15
to a balmy 36 degrees(back to 15 tonight), I have a conclusion:
It's cold out there.
Stuff to take care of, so just two things to point out at this time.
First, some more cases like this just might clear up some of the SWAT idiocy:
An Ecorse couple won a $215,000 judgment Tuesday against the city, retired Police Chief Jerry Copeland and two police officials stemming from a drug raid executed against the wrong house in 2008.
Wrong house?
The Phelps accused the city, Copeland and others of executing a search warrant on the wrong house in September 2008. The lawsuit claims Sgt. Cornelius Herring and Cpl. Timothy Sassak obtained a search warrant to raid the home next door based on a tip from a confidential informant.
Instead, the Phelps home was raided — a mix-up that happened during a SWAT team briefing session during which the wrong house was identified, according to the lawsuit.
Officers threw the couple to the floor, pushed Michael Phelps' head and face with the barrel of a gun and handcuffed his wife, according to the lawsuit.
Lesson, class?
"Don't use the SWAT team unless it's actually needed. And make damn sure you have the right house before you kick in the doors and scare hell out of people."
Second, if you hadn't heard about a guy named Ezra Klein who said 'The Constitution is too old and confusing for people to understand', go here for a bit more on the matter.
Awright, one more: some of the latest "You will do what you're told, serf!" dirtbaggery from the TSA. You know, at some point they're going to do something so offensive that not only will the victim deck the offending bastard, but when they pile on the victim some of the other passengers are going to pile on the TSA; it's going to get especially interesting after that.
From one of the comments:
You do not have a right to fly. Our founding fathers wanted you to have the freedom to travel, state to state, but they never said you had a guaranteed right to any advancement in travel. Horse and buggy, or walking, was good enough for them, as it is for you. They could've no more predicted airplanes than the internet. You're free to waive your right to get on that airplane. Nobody is forcing you. This isn't like a search and seizure at your residence. I agree that nobody should be criminally charged for refusing the pat down. They just shouldn't be allowed to fly.
Which is like saying "They never foresaw the internet and the personal computer, so it doesn't really count in the 1st." And again, for how long was air travel just a travel option? Now we have government assholes telling us "We think it's a privilege for which we'll demand you give up your rights." And a bunch of people saying things like this to excuse people being felt up and irradiated by machines that haven't been properly tested.
It's cold out there.
Stuff to take care of, so just two things to point out at this time.
First, some more cases like this just might clear up some of the SWAT idiocy:
An Ecorse couple won a $215,000 judgment Tuesday against the city, retired Police Chief Jerry Copeland and two police officials stemming from a drug raid executed against the wrong house in 2008.
Wrong house?
The Phelps accused the city, Copeland and others of executing a search warrant on the wrong house in September 2008. The lawsuit claims Sgt. Cornelius Herring and Cpl. Timothy Sassak obtained a search warrant to raid the home next door based on a tip from a confidential informant.
Instead, the Phelps home was raided — a mix-up that happened during a SWAT team briefing session during which the wrong house was identified, according to the lawsuit.
Officers threw the couple to the floor, pushed Michael Phelps' head and face with the barrel of a gun and handcuffed his wife, according to the lawsuit.
Lesson, class?
"Don't use the SWAT team unless it's actually needed. And make damn sure you have the right house before you kick in the doors and scare hell out of people."
Second, if you hadn't heard about a guy named Ezra Klein who said 'The Constitution is too old and confusing for people to understand', go here for a bit more on the matter.
Awright, one more: some of the latest "You will do what you're told, serf!" dirtbaggery from the TSA. You know, at some point they're going to do something so offensive that not only will the victim deck the offending bastard, but when they pile on the victim some of the other passengers are going to pile on the TSA; it's going to get especially interesting after that.
From one of the comments:
You do not have a right to fly. Our founding fathers wanted you to have the freedom to travel, state to state, but they never said you had a guaranteed right to any advancement in travel. Horse and buggy, or walking, was good enough for them, as it is for you. They could've no more predicted airplanes than the internet. You're free to waive your right to get on that airplane. Nobody is forcing you. This isn't like a search and seizure at your residence. I agree that nobody should be criminally charged for refusing the pat down. They just shouldn't be allowed to fly.
Which is like saying "They never foresaw the internet and the personal computer, so it doesn't really count in the 1st." And again, for how long was air travel just a travel option? Now we have government assholes telling us "We think it's a privilege for which we'll demand you give up your rights." And a bunch of people saying things like this to excuse people being felt up and irradiated by machines that haven't been properly tested.
Friday, December 31, 2010
No, I'm not at the big New Year's thing downtown
and not at the various bellydance shows on for tonight.
A: I don't really like crowds, especially crowds with lots of drunks,
B: It's going to drop to 17 tonight(it's 25 as I write this), and
C: I've had a scratchy throat and aches all day; it may be just lack of sleep and the weather changing again, but I'm not pushing it.
So I made a good dinner, and I'll have a drink or two before I go to bed. Good enough.
Oh, and let us not forget "I don't like driving around wondering if that clown weaving a bit is drunk." Especially if said vehicle is heading in my direction.
A: I don't really like crowds, especially crowds with lots of drunks,
B: It's going to drop to 17 tonight(it's 25 as I write this), and
C: I've had a scratchy throat and aches all day; it may be just lack of sleep and the weather changing again, but I'm not pushing it.
So I made a good dinner, and I'll have a drink or two before I go to bed. Good enough.
Oh, and let us not forget "I don't like driving around wondering if that clown weaving a bit is drunk." Especially if said vehicle is heading in my direction.
The Lee County Board of Education is in dire need
of a personnel change. After said personnel are dosed with tar and feathers. Just for this bit alone:
When the discussion arose about the Smithwicks providing a written release, the Superintendent said that he would not, in their place, give a release to the press, because he would not want the press to be rooting around in his child’s records. That struck me as an implied threat. Don’t sign a release, or we’ll plaster every little detail of her records all over the news.
When bureaucrats start this kind of crap, it's time to change them for the same reason you toss the diaper from the baby with diarrhea.
I hope her parents blew a gasket and called the lawyers in; that may be the only thing that will get through to these idiots.
When the discussion arose about the Smithwicks providing a written release, the Superintendent said that he would not, in their place, give a release to the press, because he would not want the press to be rooting around in his child’s records. That struck me as an implied threat. Don’t sign a release, or we’ll plaster every little detail of her records all over the news.
When bureaucrats start this kind of crap, it's time to change them for the same reason you toss the diaper from the baby with diarrhea.
I hope her parents blew a gasket and called the lawyers in; that may be the only thing that will get through to these idiots.
I haven't fel them either, Tam
She mentioned missing the latest tremblor in her neck of the woods; of the several here in OK lately I haven't noticed one of them, including the one where three people came into the office I was in and said "Did you feel that?"
I think I must be partly immunized. Back when I lived in Lawton you got used to rumbles and the ground shaking a touch every time the redlegs at Fort Sill started practicing. 155mm was nothing but background after a while, though when they(rarely) cut loose with the 8" guns...
I think I must be partly immunized. Back when I lived in Lawton you got used to rumbles and the ground shaking a touch every time the redlegs at Fort Sill started practicing. 155mm was nothing but background after a while, though when they(rarely) cut loose with the 8" guns...
The truth is that law enforcement is fundamentally unserious
about prosecuting straw purchasers, and about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals broadly speaking. Doing so is, to put it bluntly, too much work for a unionized American government work force, whose idea of a good anti-gun program is the buyback: offering up taxpayers’ dollars in the hopes that criminals will bring the guns to them. (Way to work that shoe-leather, Joe Friday.) From the police’s point of view, criminals are an inconsiderate bunch: no fixed address, very little record keeping, no scheduled hours of operation, etc. Criminals do not keep appointments or offer even minimal cooperation. It is a lot of work keeping tabs on a Carail Weeks, or on an Eric DeShawn Floyd, a felon with at least 17 priors on his rap sheet who was involved in the fatal shooting of Philadelphia police sergeant Stephen Liczbinski during a botched bank robbery. (I wrote about the case here.) It’s a real challenge. Some cops are heroes; 100 percent of them are government employees.
Which is why Traver and the other gun-control types have focused their attention instead on gun dealers, provoking sufficient controversy to distract the public from such uncomfortable questions as: “Why exactly was a felon with a 17-count criminal history walking abroad to rob and murder?”
Which is why Traver and the other gun-control types have focused their attention instead on gun dealers, provoking sufficient controversy to distract the public from such uncomfortable questions as: “Why exactly was a felon with a 17-count criminal history walking abroad to rob and murder?”
I'm not going to go after the stupid and bigoted Colman McCarthy;
when somebody else has already done such a good job:
That is the warrior ethic, Mr. McCarthy — and Harvard could stand a good deal more of it.
To borrow a phrase, people like Colman McCarthy aren't for 'peace'; they're on the other side.
On then to McCarthy’s penultimate paragraph, in which he expresses his admiration for soldiers everywhere:
To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America’s or the Taliban’s: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home.
See there, Mr. U.S. Marine Captain — McCarthy doesn’t hate you. Why, he thinks you’re every bit as respectable as a Taliban.
McCarthy concludes with this:
ROTC and its warrior ethic taint the intellectual purity of a school, if by purity we mean trying to rise above the foul idea that nations can kill and destroy their way to peace. If a school such as Harvard does sell out to the military, let it at least be honest and add a sign at its Cambridge front portal: Harvard, a Pentagon Annex.
And I’ll conclude with this.
That is the warrior ethic, Mr. McCarthy — and Harvard could stand a good deal more of it.To borrow a phrase, people like Colman McCarthy aren't for 'peace'; they're on the other side.
If the Lee County School Board didn't have something they'd rather hide,
or at least, ah, de-emphasize, I doubt they wouldn't have done this:
UPDATE: Transparency! Sorrentino follows up: “The first and only thing that was said was for the Vice Chair, John T Bonardi to move to go to closed session. They are currently in closed session upstairs to discuss ‘information not subject to public records,’ and to ‘preserve the attorney client privelige.’ There’s still time for more Sanford locals to show up.” They sound nervous. As, it seems, they should be.
I've said it before: Zero-Tolerance isn't really about student safety, it's about protecting bureaucrats from having to actually think and make judgements.
UPDATE: Transparency! Sorrentino follows up: “The first and only thing that was said was for the Vice Chair, John T Bonardi to move to go to closed session. They are currently in closed session upstairs to discuss ‘information not subject to public records,’ and to ‘preserve the attorney client privelige.’ There’s still time for more Sanford locals to show up.” They sound nervous. As, it seems, they should be.
I've said it before: Zero-Tolerance isn't really about student safety, it's about protecting bureaucrats from having to actually think and make judgements.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Last year the Met predicted 'warm, dry winter' as I recall
and the winter sucked. They predicted that this year, and
“Temperatures will be down again by Sunday, with nights below freezing and daytimes below average at 3C to 5C. Our outlook forecast to January 26 shows temperatures 2C or 3C below average, frost and ice likely and the highest chance of snow or sleet over the northern half of the UK.”
Although official weather records only go back to 1659, weather experts said the centuries from 1100 to 1500, dubbed the “Medieval warm period”, would not have produced winters as cold as today.
So 2011 could end up being the coldest winter of the last millennium.
So Rachel Stewart is an official lying journalist
“Sitting down for dinner at any Texan diner, in my experience, often involves guns,” Rachel Stewart of the Tarnaki Daily News (New Zealand) informs her readers.
I can't recall the exact number of times I have eaten a meal in the immediate company of a man, or men, with shooters on their hips in plain view. For me, I am always equal parts spellbound and queasy.
Spellbound because there is something so fundamentally cowboy and western about it. Guns, freedom, country music and the Second Amendment. It is Texas after all. Yeeha!
Try to recall the exact number, Ms. Stewart. Because funny thing about Texas, besides that “Yeeha!” stereotype you ridicule them with. From Open Carry.org:
Texas is not a traditional open carry state. They also do not allow open carry, or even printing, by those who have a concealed carry permit.
And from NRA-ILA’s “Firearms Laws for Texas”:
It is unlawful to intentionally, knowingly or recklessly carry on or about one’s person a handgun in a motor vehicle if the handgun is in plain view…
Whole piece here
On the most recent Zero-Tolerance Idiocy case,
the school system is blowing smoke and denying; their denials don't exactly work out.
So there was bullcrap on 'cop-killer bullets' way back
in the '30's. Wonderful. And another reason to not be real fond of Hoover.
Over in Britain, the Scottish government says "No!", but
SCOTLAND'S wind farms are unable to cope with the freezing weather conditions – grinding to a halt at a time when electricity demand is at a peak, forcing the country to rely on power generated by French nuclear plants.
Output from major wind farms fell to as low as 2.5 per cent of their potential generation capacity during the cold snap as power demand rose to close to the highest level yet recorded, new figures have revealed.
And why might that be? No surprise to most of you:
Meteorologists say extremely cold temperatures can occur only when there is little or no wind and icy pockets of air are trapped close to the ground, prompting accusations from anti- wind-farm campaigners that wind power cannot be relied on to meet Scotland's electricity needs in the depths of winter.
Over here the government is saying "We did not!"; however,
The data, charted on the Balancing Mechanism Reporting System website, which the National Grid uses to monitor UK power generation, also revealed that at times when wind energy was at its lowest, back-up power had to be piped in from France, where the majority of electricity is nuclear-generated.
And Scotland is planning on closing down the two nuke plants they do have and forbidding any more being built. Glad I don't live there.
Also from across the pond, some slight problems showing up with the new "You can ONLY install one of these!" heating systems.
However, the recent cold snap has revealed a major problem with them. Tens of thousands of people found themselves shivering as their shiny new boilers cut out without warning.
British Gas is understood to have had 60,000 call-outs in Yorkshire alone. And the cost to call out a plumber? It can be between £200 to £300 on a bank holiday. And don’t forget about VAT.
That would be the Value Added Tax that a bunch of our politicians want to stick us with, and that the Brits have been getting screwed by for a long time.
Output from major wind farms fell to as low as 2.5 per cent of their potential generation capacity during the cold snap as power demand rose to close to the highest level yet recorded, new figures have revealed.
And why might that be? No surprise to most of you:
Meteorologists say extremely cold temperatures can occur only when there is little or no wind and icy pockets of air are trapped close to the ground, prompting accusations from anti- wind-farm campaigners that wind power cannot be relied on to meet Scotland's electricity needs in the depths of winter.
Over here the government is saying "We did not!"; however,
The data, charted on the Balancing Mechanism Reporting System website, which the National Grid uses to monitor UK power generation, also revealed that at times when wind energy was at its lowest, back-up power had to be piped in from France, where the majority of electricity is nuclear-generated.
And Scotland is planning on closing down the two nuke plants they do have and forbidding any more being built. Glad I don't live there.
Also from across the pond, some slight problems showing up with the new "You can ONLY install one of these!" heating systems.
However, the recent cold snap has revealed a major problem with them. Tens of thousands of people found themselves shivering as their shiny new boilers cut out without warning.
British Gas is understood to have had 60,000 call-outs in Yorkshire alone. And the cost to call out a plumber? It can be between £200 to £300 on a bank holiday. And don’t forget about VAT.
That would be the Value Added Tax that a bunch of our politicians want to stick us with, and that the Brits have been getting screwed by for a long time.
Just have time for two things this morning
First, if this is true, every clown in charge who had anything to do with it needs to be fired. And the drivers taking part, for that matter.
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.
...
"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.
Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.
Also, Halloran should be informed that calling drivers who tell you about this kind of crap 'snitches' isn't real bright.
Second, this crap:
Banovac was back at the Will Rogers Airport Tuesday and once again, security says she can't board her flight back home to Phoenix.
Last month security denied her access because they said they found traces of nitrate somewhere on her body.
Now, it's something near her bottom that is raising a red flag.
"The stated reason was there was... They were unable to clear an unusual contour of my buttocks area," said Banovac.
TSA goes after a pilot for posting video of things that anybody can look out a window and see; think they're not going to screw with her for causing them a problem?
Oh, and I still think the sheriff's office that helped TSA with this crap and seized the guys carry permit ought to be nailed for it, too.
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.
...
"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.
Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.
Also, Halloran should be informed that calling drivers who tell you about this kind of crap 'snitches' isn't real bright.
Second, this crap:
Banovac was back at the Will Rogers Airport Tuesday and once again, security says she can't board her flight back home to Phoenix.
Last month security denied her access because they said they found traces of nitrate somewhere on her body.
Now, it's something near her bottom that is raising a red flag.
"The stated reason was there was... They were unable to clear an unusual contour of my buttocks area," said Banovac.
TSA goes after a pilot for posting video of things that anybody can look out a window and see; think they're not going to screw with her for causing them a problem?
Oh, and I still think the sheriff's office that helped TSA with this crap and seized the guys carry permit ought to be nailed for it, too.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Speaking of officials who need a liberal dose of petroleum and livestock products,
another LE officer dead, this time in the PRoMA:
and he was out on the street with a gun.
I can't buy a new 12 round magazine for my Smith & Wesson, but this violent career criminal was let out of jail on a GED and a successful completion of a substance abuse program? Are they for real? As stories like these increase in frequency it will become a spiraling problem - more and more folks are going to disobey the law, because punishment is a joke and actually incarceration is practically non-existent.
Read that again.A paroled career criminal, he had a history of violent theft: two decades ago he was convicted of stealing $86,000 worth of jewels in a downtown Boston store and shooting a security guard in the chest during a scuffle. As a teenager, Cinelli stabbed a man in the chest, police said. Both victims survived.In 1986, he pleaded guilty to five armed robberies committed after he failed to return from a one-day furlough from the Worcester House of Correction. According to a 2008 Parole Board decision, Cinelli was serving three concurrent life sentences.(bold mine)
The Parole Board released him in March 2009, saying the lifelong drug and alcohol abuser had completed several prison treatment programs for substance abuse and alternatives to violence and earned his GED.
THREE
LIFE
SENTENCES
LIFE
SENTENCES
and he was out on the street with a gun.
I can't buy a new 12 round magazine for my Smith & Wesson, but this violent career criminal was let out of jail on a GED and a successful completion of a substance abuse program? Are they for real? As stories like these increase in frequency it will become a spiraling problem - more and more folks are going to disobey the law, because punishment is a joke and actually incarceration is practically non-existent.
So the wonderful gun laws of the People's Republic of MA failed?
Whoda thunk it?
Massachusetts registers firearm owners, it registers firearms, it registers firearm carriers, it registers all firearm transfers between people (even private sales), it even requires registration to possess a single piece of expended brass – an object that poses no threat to anyone older than two (choking hazards and all that). And yet here we have an individual officially judged unsuitable for firearm ownership due to repeated (and serious) mental illness issues, and he still owned firearms. He was ordered to turn those firearms in, and he still owned them. The police knew where he lived, knew that he owned firearms, knew that he had not turned them in, and he still owned firearms – the very firearms he used to murder those seven people.
From the linked post:
There's a good bit missing from the retrospective. First, Brad points out this nugget:
Despite the passage of time, Stephen C. Doherty, the now-retired Wakefield police chief who rushed to the company minutes after shooting erupted in the usually placid town, said his memories of the carnage surface almost every day.
(emphasis mine). Minutes. When seconds count, police are only minutes away. We repeat this mantra often, at the risk of losing sight of what it represents. This is the very reason we carry our own guns - by their very nature, the police cannot be everywhere at once.
Ref that last, I'm going to bring up one of Robert Peel's 9 Principles:
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.
And it was an expected thing that a citizen had the right of self-defense, and the right to use the tools necessary to defend; a part of the Principles that far too many LE and politicians really don't want people to think about, or consider.
Speaking of the last, Lawdog noted that BBC did a series of shows based on Sherlock Holmes and Doc Watson, updated to current days; I've seen two of them, and they were good. What comes to mind right now is from the first, when Watson realizes he's in a situation were things are getting very odd and somewhat dangerous and asks the people giving him a ride "Can we make a stop so I can pick something up?" They stop at the place where he's been staying and he goes in, digs out the pistol he snuck back from 'Stan, checks the mag and slips it under his belt, under his sweater; don't you know a bunch of people at BBC and in the Brit government shit bricks when they saw that? I'm really surprised it made it in.
Massachusetts registers firearm owners, it registers firearms, it registers firearm carriers, it registers all firearm transfers between people (even private sales), it even requires registration to possess a single piece of expended brass – an object that poses no threat to anyone older than two (choking hazards and all that). And yet here we have an individual officially judged unsuitable for firearm ownership due to repeated (and serious) mental illness issues, and he still owned firearms. He was ordered to turn those firearms in, and he still owned them. The police knew where he lived, knew that he owned firearms, knew that he had not turned them in, and he still owned firearms – the very firearms he used to murder those seven people.
From the linked post:
There's a good bit missing from the retrospective. First, Brad points out this nugget:
Despite the passage of time, Stephen C. Doherty, the now-retired Wakefield police chief who rushed to the company minutes after shooting erupted in the usually placid town, said his memories of the carnage surface almost every day.
(emphasis mine). Minutes. When seconds count, police are only minutes away. We repeat this mantra often, at the risk of losing sight of what it represents. This is the very reason we carry our own guns - by their very nature, the police cannot be everywhere at once.
Ref that last, I'm going to bring up one of Robert Peel's 9 Principles:
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.
And it was an expected thing that a citizen had the right of self-defense, and the right to use the tools necessary to defend; a part of the Principles that far too many LE and politicians really don't want people to think about, or consider.
Speaking of the last, Lawdog noted that BBC did a series of shows based on Sherlock Holmes and Doc Watson, updated to current days; I've seen two of them, and they were good. What comes to mind right now is from the first, when Watson realizes he's in a situation were things are getting very odd and somewhat dangerous and asks the people giving him a ride "Can we make a stop so I can pick something up?" They stop at the place where he's been staying and he goes in, digs out the pistol he snuck back from 'Stan, checks the mag and slips it under his belt, under his sweater; don't you know a bunch of people at BBC and in the Brit government shit bricks when they saw that? I'm really surprised it made it in.
Just about covers it
All the talk lately of “bipartisan consensus” and the smug No Labels movement brought back to mind the surely apocryphal but truthy story of the Russian visiting a U.S. Senate aide shortly after the fall of Communism in the old USSR. “Please explain two-party system,” the Russian asked, having no experience with multi-party democracy. “It’s simple,” explained the Senate staff veteran. “We have two parties in America—the stupid party and the evil party. Since I’m a Republican, I’m in the stupid party, and we stupidly battle against the evil of the evil party.”
“But sometimes the two parties get together and do something really stupid and evil. We call that ‘bipartisanship.’”
“But sometimes the two parties get together and do something really stupid and evil. We call that ‘bipartisanship.’”
Why his being good on budgets still won't get me to vote for Christie
Governor Christie commuted Aitken’s sentence because of procedural errors on the part of the trial judge, James Morley. (Some would argue incompetence, or even malice.)
...
Chris Christie wasn’t appeasing the NRA or 2012 Republican primary voters. And sadly, he isn’t anything resembling a “friend” to gun owners. A northeast Republican, Christie’s stance on firearms is as draconian as that of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The simple fact of the matter is that if Christie’s views on firearms were widely known, his chances of capturing the 2012 Republican primaries would go up in smoke.
How bad is Christie’s record?
This bad.
...
Chris Christie wasn’t appeasing the NRA or 2012 Republican primary voters. And sadly, he isn’t anything resembling a “friend” to gun owners. A northeast Republican, Christie’s stance on firearms is as draconian as that of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The simple fact of the matter is that if Christie’s views on firearms were widely known, his chances of capturing the 2012 Republican primaries would go up in smoke.
How bad is Christie’s record?
This bad.
Baby, it's cool and wet outside
so I'm in here raising my blood pressure and laughing alternately. For the latter, from Reason, the Venn Diagram of Junk-Touchers
Yesterday happened to have some of Glenn Beck's show on for background noise, and the stand-in host was talking to a security and training guy who said we need to give TSA a break because 'they're professionals doing their job', etc.
No.
On to the fact that a bunch of idiots of muslim persuasion take this
as reason for this:
Three of the suspects are Swedish residents and reportedly arrived in Denmark last night, and PET said the attack was to be carried out “in the coming days”.
All four suspects have Middle-Eastern or North African backgrounds.
In addition to the arrests in Copenhagen, Swedish officials arrested a fifth suspect in Stockholm at the same time.
During the arrests, Danish police found an assault rifle and silencer, ammunition, as well as plastic strips, which are often used by police as hand restraints.
According to PET, the group planned to kill as many people as possible in the building that houses Jyllands-Posten.
Over some bloody cartoons. Because the whole damn world is supposed to do whatever it takes to accommodate their tender sensitivities.
Speaking of vile dirtbags, the family of this murdered state trooper should do everything they can to pull the names of the people involved in this dirtbag being on the street out in public. And demanding to know why this piece of crap wasn't behind bars. And hounding them with the consequences of their actions. Preferably for a long, loooong time to come.
No wonder Nanny Bloomberg was so upset by people who didn't want the Ground Zero mosque built; they were defying what The Mayor and Chief Nanny wanted:
In fact, it turns out that Team Bloomberg was heavily involved in operating the political machinery needed to ensure that various regulatory agencies approved the controversial project -- which has rightly drawn the ire of many 9/11 survivors and victims' families.
Even to the point of pressing Community Board 1 to cast an approving vote -- so that the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission could be given the "political cover" he so urgently sought before his agency denied landmark status to the existing building.
...
Bloomberg's community affairs commissioner even ghost-wrote a letter to CB1 on behalf of Daisy Khan, wife of mosque promoter Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Meanwhile, officials intervened to obtain permits so that prayers could be conducted at the site.
A: this is dusgusting
B: since when is 'Polish' a race?
Oh, I wish I'd seen this before Christmas!
An official staff visit by LtGen Claus is expected at this base on 25 Dec. The following directives govern activities of all personnel during the visit:
The lady speaks on the latest idiocy of Incompitano:
That’s right boys and girls, the groping and the porno scans that haven’t caught a single terrorist have made aviation objectively better. Because it’s really the breast feeding mothers, amputees, and nuns that were the real threat anyway.
So will there be a list of things I can and cannot carry on my person at the mall? Will I be frisked before checking into a hotel? And what if I just went to the mall and purchased a sword at that little shop near the restrooms? Or a chainsaw at Sears? Or what if the whole reason I’m staying at some hotel is for my hunting trip? Is it suddenly far too dangerous for me to keep that high-powered rifle in my hotel room?
One more example of Zero-Tolerance Idiocy in schools. Much easier to screw somebody over blindly following the rules than to actually think about what to do, isn't it? Southern Lee High School officials, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Assuming you HAVE any shame, that is.
Insty pointed to this guy; I hope he's wrong, or not right about the level. But this is beginning to sound like the backstory of Fallen Angels.
Thanks to Uncle, some of the idiot crooks out there. Couple of years ago I read a piece by a prosecutor in Texas who said it'd become policy for them to, immediately after an arrest, check Facebook and Myspace to see if the clown had an account; said it was amazing how many people posted brags on the robbery/burglary/whatever they'd just committed. Sometimes with pics or video.
Unrelated to news, I tried something new for the kitchen not long ago. I've got a FoodSaver, which has been handy, but the thing's been acting up. And I'm low on bags, which are expensive. So decided to try the Ziplock vacuum pump and bags(which were actually cheaper at a local store); so far, working great. Seal well, hold vacuum and easier to wash and reuse. Now I need to stick something steel in one and repeat the 'bury it in the garden' test.
Son started back to his base today after the Christmas visit. Mentioned this before, kids grow up and sometimes you get that odd double-vision. I remember the Sergeant as a kid with a lapful of kitten, same as I remember daughter as a 8yoa on an elephant ride where the critter kept stretching her trunk back to sniff daughter's leg, causing a large amount of giggling. Time do go by, do it not?
Yesterday happened to have some of Glenn Beck's show on for background noise, and the stand-in host was talking to a security and training guy who said we need to give TSA a break because 'they're professionals doing their job', etc.No.
On to the fact that a bunch of idiots of muslim persuasion take this
as reason for this:Three of the suspects are Swedish residents and reportedly arrived in Denmark last night, and PET said the attack was to be carried out “in the coming days”.
All four suspects have Middle-Eastern or North African backgrounds.
In addition to the arrests in Copenhagen, Swedish officials arrested a fifth suspect in Stockholm at the same time.
During the arrests, Danish police found an assault rifle and silencer, ammunition, as well as plastic strips, which are often used by police as hand restraints.
According to PET, the group planned to kill as many people as possible in the building that houses Jyllands-Posten.
Over some bloody cartoons. Because the whole damn world is supposed to do whatever it takes to accommodate their tender sensitivities.
Speaking of vile dirtbags, the family of this murdered state trooper should do everything they can to pull the names of the people involved in this dirtbag being on the street out in public. And demanding to know why this piece of crap wasn't behind bars. And hounding them with the consequences of their actions. Preferably for a long, loooong time to come.
No wonder Nanny Bloomberg was so upset by people who didn't want the Ground Zero mosque built; they were defying what The Mayor and Chief Nanny wanted:
In fact, it turns out that Team Bloomberg was heavily involved in operating the political machinery needed to ensure that various regulatory agencies approved the controversial project -- which has rightly drawn the ire of many 9/11 survivors and victims' families.
Even to the point of pressing Community Board 1 to cast an approving vote -- so that the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission could be given the "political cover" he so urgently sought before his agency denied landmark status to the existing building.
...
Bloomberg's community affairs commissioner even ghost-wrote a letter to CB1 on behalf of Daisy Khan, wife of mosque promoter Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Meanwhile, officials intervened to obtain permits so that prayers could be conducted at the site.
A: this is dusgusting
B: since when is 'Polish' a race?
Oh, I wish I'd seen this before Christmas!
OFFICIAL VISIT OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL S. CLAUS
An official staff visit by LtGen Claus is expected at this base on 25 Dec. The following directives govern activities of all personnel during the visit:
- Not a creature will stir without permission. This includes Officers, Warrant Officers, Staff Non-commissioned Officers, Noncommissioned Officers, and mice. Marines may obtain special stirring permits for necessary tasks through the Battalion S-1 Office (See Company Office for PAR).
The lady speaks on the latest idiocy of Incompitano:
That’s right boys and girls, the groping and the porno scans that haven’t caught a single terrorist have made aviation objectively better. Because it’s really the breast feeding mothers, amputees, and nuns that were the real threat anyway.
So will there be a list of things I can and cannot carry on my person at the mall? Will I be frisked before checking into a hotel? And what if I just went to the mall and purchased a sword at that little shop near the restrooms? Or a chainsaw at Sears? Or what if the whole reason I’m staying at some hotel is for my hunting trip? Is it suddenly far too dangerous for me to keep that high-powered rifle in my hotel room?
One more example of Zero-Tolerance Idiocy in schools. Much easier to screw somebody over blindly following the rules than to actually think about what to do, isn't it? Southern Lee High School officials, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Assuming you HAVE any shame, that is.
Insty pointed to this guy; I hope he's wrong, or not right about the level. But this is beginning to sound like the backstory of Fallen Angels.
Thanks to Uncle, some of the idiot crooks out there. Couple of years ago I read a piece by a prosecutor in Texas who said it'd become policy for them to, immediately after an arrest, check Facebook and Myspace to see if the clown had an account; said it was amazing how many people posted brags on the robbery/burglary/whatever they'd just committed. Sometimes with pics or video.
Unrelated to news, I tried something new for the kitchen not long ago. I've got a FoodSaver, which has been handy, but the thing's been acting up. And I'm low on bags, which are expensive. So decided to try the Ziplock vacuum pump and bags(which were actually cheaper at a local store); so far, working great. Seal well, hold vacuum and easier to wash and reuse. Now I need to stick something steel in one and repeat the 'bury it in the garden' test.
Son started back to his base today after the Christmas visit. Mentioned this before, kids grow up and sometimes you get that odd double-vision. I remember the Sergeant as a kid with a lapful of kitten, same as I remember daughter as a 8yoa on an elephant ride where the critter kept stretching her trunk back to sniff daughter's leg, causing a large amount of giggling. Time do go by, do it not?
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Another "The 1911 sucks" post is noted
by Uncle(no, not linking to the specific). The usual "Only reliable if you invest in a gunsmith and lots of parts", "Old design with lots of problems", etc.
My only statement on this:
You don't like the 1911? Don't carry one. And, put bluntly, piss off; I hate those posts.
My only statement on this:
You don't like the 1911? Don't carry one. And, put bluntly, piss off; I hate those posts.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Two people now talking about running for President
to whom I say "Hell NO!" Among other things. Newt Gingrich and the senior Senator from Arizona.
Gingrich, for having that commercial with Pelosi on AGW and various other things, no. HELL no. Gingrich, if you run you're screwing the Stupid Party and conservatives just to stroke your ego.
McCain, you not only ran a lousy campaign last time, but you've proven we can't trust you. And we don't. Only reason you'd run again is that you, for some reason, think it's OWED to you to be President, or it's your turn or something. No damned way you'd get my vote.
Gingrich, for having that commercial with Pelosi on AGW and various other things, no. HELL no. Gingrich, if you run you're screwing the Stupid Party and conservatives just to stroke your ego.
McCain, you not only ran a lousy campaign last time, but you've proven we can't trust you. And we don't. Only reason you'd run again is that you, for some reason, think it's OWED to you to be President, or it's your turn or something. No damned way you'd get my vote.
And the squawk of the True Believer is heard in the land
Over here, in an article on the AGW bullcrap, there's this comment:
Ever since then, all the floods,volcanic eruptions, precipitation,quakes,anomolies have increased between 350 -4000 %. Also the jet stream and ocean conveyor belts have been destroyed.
So there you have it: Man-Caused Globular Warmering also causes earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and anomalies(?) AND has destroyed the jet stream and-
I can't go on, the level of stupid is just too much.
Ever since then, all the floods,volcanic eruptions, precipitation,quakes,anomolies have increased between 350 -4000 %. Also the jet stream and ocean conveyor belts have been destroyed.
So there you have it: Man-Caused Globular Warmering also causes earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and anomalies(?) AND has destroyed the jet stream and-
I can't go on, the level of stupid is just too much.
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