Either this will build toward restoring a REAL right of self-defense

in Britain, or it'll get shut down and things will continue downhill.
Over at Insty, CHANGE COMING TO BRITAIN? Jim Bennett emails: “Cameron is quietly walking back from the extreme anti-victim features of English law. At some point people will start to discuss whether the right to self-defense implies a right to effective means to exercise that right.”
The argument has already been made, and the State decided no; however, changing circumstances- as in people being willing to tell the politicians to sod off- may help change that back.

I have to wonder, in the case of Mr. Coley, I have to wonder if his being black played a role in his not being charged? Considering the Crown Prosecutors have imprisoned people for self-defense actions less drastic than this in the past... Real chance in attitude, or fear of being called racist? We'll see when the next case happens and the defender is white.

Why yes, I am very cynical about this anymore.

He listened sympathetically.

Then he told me. “Ken,” he told me, “if your reaction to a proposal is “HOLY SHIT, THAT SOUNDS LIKE FUN,” then as a government lawyer and member of law enforcement, you almost certainly shouldn’t be doing it.”
Yeah, I'd have to agree with that.

Among the things I've learned over time

1. On a bike, screw the speed limit and keep up with traffic.
On the highway in my truck I generally stay on the outside lane and at speed that gives the best mileage, which is a bit below the posted limit; try that on a bike and you may get run over. Including in town.

2. The kids may be grown, but you still tend to think of them as 'the kids'. Despite both being arguably smarter than I, and one getting to play with WAY cooler toys than I do.

3. "So THAT'S what this thing feels like when the front wheel leaves the pavement."

4. Being able to see the sights clearly is a very nice thing.
This brought on by having to go to bifocals last fall; to get pistol sights in sharp focus I have to tilt my head so far back I look like Obama standing in front of a marble column. So decided to get some reading glasses for close stuff(friend recommended this place) such as working on the table and some reading. Then, last week, I took them to the range with me and tried them with a pistol, and DAMN! I haven't seen the sights that sharp and clear in years. Target's fuzzy as hell, but with sharp sights could make nice tight groups.

5. Getting old sucks.
I've known for some time it takes longer to recover from physical stress than it used to. Now... I've been doing some part-time work at the old place of employment, which resulted in getting late calls to work hoot shift three times in five days. Yesterday I got a solid nights sleep, and that afternoon decided to get some exercise; it was pointed out to me by my 50+ year-old body that one nights sleep isn't enough to get over being VERY short over several days. Also, see #4.

6. More than before, there are times on the highway you really wish you could order "Get off the friggin' road and let me RIDE!"

7. I tolerate bullshit a lot less than I used to.

8. Cooler weather is great, but I hope it stays warm enough that women still wear summer stuff; Lord, I love pretty women in skirts. And shorts. And- well, you get the idea.

9. Dielectric grease has more uses than I thought.
My cruise control in the truck started acting up a while back; I mentioned it to the widely-knowledged Og and he- knowing where the connections are and having dealt with it himself- suggested getting said grease, cleaning the contacts and giving them a coat. It worked.
Then I started having trouble with a mp3 player I picked up a few months ago, sound either cutting out or only coming from one earbud. Had a bright idea: got the grease, put a film on the earbud plug, worked it in & out a few times, wiped off; it's worked perfectly since.

There's some clown calling himself Soulja Boy

who's decided to crap on the troops(and the FBI, separate matter for now); some people aren't pleased. Response NSFW due to language, about the mildest of which is "You bring your boys, I'll bring my men."

A bit more on the clown 'artist' from Michelle Malkin

Some ideas for 'Screw you, Hoffa & Co.' shirts

are going around; I have my own idea, especially after having my life threatened by Hoffa with Obama and Biden smiling approval:

What level of stupid is required for a TSA clown

to threaten to sue a blogger for writing about the way she was searched? Did she somehow think this would make the noise go away? Really?
Here's the original post on the assault(and if the description is accurate, that's exactly what it was). As to all the bitching about "You printed my name!", well, TSA has no problem putting out the name of anyone they consider to have 'caused a problem', so they'd better get used to the idea of having the TSA agents names put out in the public view.

Here's the post she just put up on the situation(the suit threat), the title: TSA Searches: "Obedience Training For The American Public"

A cat died and went to Heaven.

(shut up)God met her at the gates and said, 'You have been a good cat all these years. Anything you want is yours for the asking.'

The cat thought for a minute and then said, 'All my life I lived on a farm and slept on hard wooden floors. I would like a real fluffy pillow to sleep on.'
God said, 'Say no more.' Instantly the cat had a huge fluffy pillow.

A few days later, six mice were killed in an accident and they all went to Heaven together. God met the mice at the gates with the same offer that He made to the cat.

The mice said, 'Well, we have had to run all of our lives: from cats, dogs, and even people with brooms! If we could just have some little roller skates, we would not have to run again.' God answered, 'It is done.' All the mice had beautiful little roller skates.

About a week later, God decided to check on the cat. He found her sound asleep on her fluffy pillow. God gently awakened the cat and asked, 'Is everything okay? How have you been doing? Are you happy?'

The cat replied, 'Oh, it is WONDERFUL.' I have never been so happy in my life. The pillow is so fluffy, and those little "Meals on Wheels" you have been sending over are delicious!'

Bauder Elementary School in Fort Collins

needs to find out just who's responsible for this.

Or, as may be the case, the town needs to fire who's responsible for this crap.

Althouse has a further thought on that clown Hoffa's words

Right now, unions are fighting to preserve unions, and that might be best for workers. But the individuals who work — or want to work — may very well think their interests lie elsewhere. I'd like to think that the vast majority of people who work resist the assertion that there is a "war on workers." It's quite clear that every serious politician in America cares about what happens to individual citizens. They're not aligned in an army against the citizens! They have different ideas about how to improve things. Hoffa announces that there are 2 sides aligned in a fight against each other, and he would like anyone who has or wants a jobs to perceive himself or herself as a "worker" and thus a foot soldier in his army, with no independent mind.

That's quite repulsive.

And by the way, the constant use of this word "workers" reinforces the notion of the collective. You can see that for Hoffa, "workers" mean "soldiers" — and obviously, soldiers take orders. They don't think for themselves.
RTWT, as they say

And, in todays Gunwalker news: Indiana?

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged an Indiana dealer’s cooperation in conducting straw purchases at the direction of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Exclusive documents obtained by Gun Rights Examiner show the dealer cooperated with ATF by selling guns to straw purchasers, and that bureau management later asserted these guns were being traced to crimes.

From the confidential source providing the documents:

The dealer…was sent a "demand letter," based on the number of traces to him, which was retracted after his attorney pointed out they resulted from his cooperation with ATF. (Strangely, he got two voicemails from two different ATF people, both saying they were the head of the tracing operation).

Some of the straw men turned out to have felony convictions, the agents called the FBI background check system and fixed it so the transactions would be approved, something which may also have happened in Phoenix. (The attorney wasn't clear as to whether the guns were actually delivered to the gangs).

Which- again- means the EffingBI was in this up to its groomed eyebrows. Just like in the rest of Gunwalker(Codrea is calling this one Gangwalker). Can anyone claim, with any kind of serious belief, that the FBI Director didn't know about this?

From Owen's article:
The apparent purpose of the operation was to lend the thinnest veneer of truth to the 90-percent lie spread by Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Hillary Clinton from the very beginning of the Obama administration. It makes sense only as a plot to manufacture evidence for the punitive gun control laws that Obama has championed his entire political career. Indeed, even after Gunwalker was exposed, the number of U.S. guns in Mexico, many of which were put there by the actions of the government itself, was still brazenly used as the excuse for ATF long gun reporting requirements currently being challenged in courts.

Likewise, what Codrea has dubbed as “Gangwalker” appears to be another attempt to provide guns to criminals in order to generate more gun crime and then more calls for gun control.

The biggest difference between the two operations at this early date only seems to be that Gangwalker is a purposeful attempt to create the deaths of American citizens in order to pursue the administration’s fanatical anti-gun agenda.

American deaths, for political gain.

Think about that claim for a minute, and what that would mean.
We are, Mr. Owens, we are; we've been thinking about this for a while now.

Also, we have more on attacks on whistleblowers, and something even louder:
"It now appears…that an [sic] pattern of conduct has emerged to attack GS Forcelli’s credibility,” Cerasi continued in his letter, narrating details of a case involving grenade components, portions of which have been classified “secret.” As per the letter, “…Forcelli was against the ‘secret’ classification of portions of the case because he believed that it would appear that it was being so classified to prevent oversight as part of the “Fast and Furious” inquiry.

Here was the set-up:

“[I]nvestigators focused on a delivery of inert grenade hulls which occurred in November 2009. These hulls were intercepted and marked by ATF, for the purpose of identifying whether or not the suspect was, in fact, making IEDs. In this instance, the USAO had indicated that ATF should not allow the suspect to export the items even though the USAO would not prosecute the suspect if he was caught exporting them [emphasis in original]…The USAO had made it clear that it would not prosecute the case as an export violation.”

True, inert grenade hulls are not prohibited by federal law (state laws vary), oftentimes being used to make novelty items. Curiously, doing just that was one of the factors ATF used to justify its raid on the Branch Davidians at Waco. Still, the use of improvised grenades in Mexican cartel violence is widely known by law enforcement, and exporting hulls without approvals is illegal ( See: International Traffic in Arms Regulations,22 C.F.R. Chapter I, Subchapter M, Parts 120-130, “Category IV … *(a) … grenades … .(h) All specifically designed or modified components, parts, accessories, attachments, and associated equipment for the articles in this category.”)
Not good, right?
But wait! There's MORE!!
“In January of 2010, a controlled delivery was conducted. The delivery consisted of other components, which were marked in the event they were able to be interdicted at the border. By this time, ATF had developed information that indicated that the subject was, in fact, transporting the items to Mexico, and ATF believed that he was using the items in the manufacture if IEDs. Since the USAO had indicated that they would not prosecute the subject for an export violation, a plan was enacted which would allow assets from the Government of Mexico to conduct an interdiction and prosecute the case. This plan was discussed and given approval from the U.S. Attorney himself. However, after GS Forcelli’s testimony before Congress, he received a phone call from Michael Morrisey who advised him that his office’s position was that the USAO never authorized ATF to conduct a cross-border operation where grenade components crossed into Mexico. GS Forcelli, in turn, advised Mr. Morrissey of U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke’s e-mail authorizing said operation. Mr. Morrisey seemed surprised. It troubles GS Forcelli that a package was forwarded to the DAG’s Office summarizing this case which included a copy of a related e-mail but which left Mr. Burke’s authorizing e-mail out [emphasis added].”
Burke? Doesn't that name sound familiar...

Veep Biden, there are only two appropriate words for you:

Fucking Asshole.

So we're terrorists and now barbarians as well, huh? Kiss my ass, you miserable little sucking-for-votes leftist bastard.

Hey, Biden, you want terrorists? You know, real ones like the President's friends Ayers and Dohrn? How about that sodding murderer Arafat? Who the Nobel committee decided needed a peace prize(just like Obama's!) for having spent many years murdering people and promoting genocide.

Before I collapse for the night

I'll pass on two things I found at Cracked. First, a list of five celebrity outbursts, the first of which is the main one I'll point to and not an outburst, just very upsetting to many: Sean Connery from 1965
And years later, when Barbara Walters was having a fit over it:
When she presses him, Connery explains that you only beat women, "If you've tried everything else, and -- women are pretty good at this -- they can't leave it alone. They want to have the last word, and you give them the last word, but they're not happy with the last word. They want to say it again, and get into a really provocative situation. Then I think it's absolutely right.
I'd not heard about this before; must've shocked hell out of her when she pressed him and the response was "I haven't changed my opinion."*


The other: The 10 Greatest Uses of Trash Talk in the History of War. All interesting, two from Sparta, and this one from the Civil War:
It all got started when Union General Philip Sheridan was instilling confidence in his men while keeping a flask of some liquid confidence of his own close by. Suddenly, he spotted some Confederates peeking down on him from their higher ground at Missionary Ridge. So, being an officer and a gentleman, he raised his flask to them and calmly toasted: "Here's at you!"

The Confederates, pissed off at this display, responded with a volley of gunfire that splattered the Irishman and his Union officers with dirt. Sheridan, his toast so rudely interrupted, turned at his assailants and roared ...

The Quote:

"That was ungenerous! I'll take your guns for that!"

His army promptly mistook this outburst as an order and stormed up the slopes toward the Confederates on Missionary Ridge, along with the seething Sheridan himself -- while Sheridan's bewildered superior, General Ulysses S. Grant, was left wondering what the hell was going on.
Been a long time since I read about this, and I do believe this is a somewhat simplified version. But they did take the ridge.


*And of all the women you've ever known who almost melted at the sound of his name, how many do you think would change their opinion after hearing this?

I happened to have the radio on and Sean Hannity was talking to Darryl Hannah

The woman is a fucking moron.
"Radiation is scary, get rid of all the reactors!"
"Green power only!"
"I'm a pacifist, we should stop being violent and talk to people to solve problems!"

Oh, Deity, he just asked how she'd protect herself if someone attacked her in her home: she says she's got a lot of rescued animals that would be violent toward attackers. So it's ok to have your pets tear someone up, but use violence 'yourself'? NEVER, she says...

"We should stop using oil, and use alcohol instead!" I wonder how the hell she thinks we're going to produce that kind of amount of alcohol? And, of course, the problems of using alcohol are completely glossed over...

I think she spent too much time underwater back when she played a mermaid.

Yes, the AGW believers truly believe in unfettered scientific inquiry,

as long as the results are what they want them to be. If they're not, they crap all over you.


Farmer Frank was on a swine- control mission that did not involve politicians. But did involve equipment problems.


Ran across a couple of Gunwalker articles: one makes it plain(again) the White House cannot deny people there knew about it; they're claiming instead "We knew none of those nasty details". However:
The White House officials were provided information on Fast and Furious and other border gun trafficking efforts through what an administration source calls "back channels" by ATF's then-Special Agent in Charge of Phoenix Bill Newell. "...don't want ATF HQ to find out, especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you)," Newell wrote in an email to the White House's O'Reilly on July 28, 2010. Newell has since been transferred out of that post.
Newell doesn't strike me as someone of such integrity that he'd endanger his position by "You need to know this" heroics; the highlighted portion makes me think this:
Newell may be thinking that someone at the WH doesn't know what efforts he's making and wants to make sure they do; however, what if the HQ was playing word games with this to help plausible deniability by the WH? Yeah, sounds like something out of a bad spy novel; your point is?

The other article covers the same ground; there are some different bits between them.


I am less polite than BRM: I'll put it as "How fuckin' STUPID do you have to be, drunk or not, to think this was a good idea?"
I'll borrow the quote, too:
Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.


A little more Gunwalker:

At one point, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say guns sold under the program took just 24 hours to travel from a gun store in Phoenix to a crime scene in Mexico.

(ATF senior officials)... in Washington met every Tuesday, to review the latest sales figures and the number of guns recovered in Mexico.

"How long are you going to let this go on?" Steve Martin, an assistant director of intelligence operations asked the ATF top brass at meeting Jan. 5, 2010, according to a transcript of the meeting contained in the congressional report. None of the men responded and several quickly left the room, the transcript reveals.

Plausible deniability, no doubt.


That is one damned big lizard; catching it alive is kind of amazing.


So ATF was watching straw sales in Indiana, too? Including having the NICS people OK sales to inelegible people? Jeez.


And, after one more day/night on very little sleep, I'm done for the day.

The fact that this kind of crap is considered a 'good thing' in much of the muslim world

is all the reason I need to dislike so much of the muslim world.
A father slit the throat of his three teenage daughters in an ‘honour killing’ after they were raped by Gaddafi loyalists during the siege of the port city of Misrata.

Well, what currency would YOU put Obama on?

A suggestion here.

Right now the temps around here are in the 60's,

66 right here in OKC, and that's a reading we haven't seen in months. And we had about a quarter-inch of wet stuff fall from the sky. And the high is predicted to be 79 today, which has been about the LOW daily temp for the last week or two(maybe longer, I'd have to check).

I feel like having breakfast out to celebrate.

Weird weather. I know I've mentioned it before, but son's unit just finished a month at the National Training Center, usually hot as hell, and it was somewhat lower temps there than back here in Oklahoma. Of course, it's somewhat relative: they went from an area where the temps have been lower than normal to an area with highs in the 90's & some low 100's; that was a shock for them, but from what he said only had a few people go down from the heat.

Hey, Gov. Perry, maybe we need a fence on the border

so the effing Mexican authorities know where the effing border is, maybe?

Sooner or later one of these clowns is going to cross over after/and then fire at someone here and get his ass shot; what do you want to bet the Mexicans and Administration claim the US citizen crossed over into bloody Mexico to bring the body across?


Got to tell you, this is one of the silliest things I've read in a LONG time:
She added that helicopters were still searching the area for the shark late Sunday, while rescue staff searched for the man's arms and legs, which she believed had been taken by the shark.
Um, madam, I believe what you might find- if you have some way to search for poop- is the remains of the limbs in question.

some notes on the fact that Hitler & Co. were socialists,

and the people who don't like to hear about it. Part of it:
In the Thirties, intellectuals smitten by progressivism considered limited, constitutional governance anachronistic. The Great Depression had apparently proven capitalism defunct. The remaining choice had narrowed between communism and fascism. Hitler was about an inch to the right of Stalin. Western intellectuals infatuated with Marxism thus associated fascism with the Right.

Later, Marxists from the Frankfurt School popularized this prevailing sentiment. Theodor Adorno in The Authoritarian Personality devised the “F” scale to demean conservatives as latent fascists. The label “fascist” has subsequently meant anyone liberals seek to ostracize or discredit.

Fascism is an amorphous ideology mobilizing an entire nation (Mussolini, Franco and Peron) or race (Hitler) for a common purpose. Leaders of industry, science, education, the arts and politics combine to shepherd society in an all encompassing quest. Hitler’s premise was a pure Aryan Germany capable of dominating Europe.

While he feinted right, Hitler and Stalin were natural bedfellows. Hitler mimicked Lenin’s path to totalitarian tyranny, parlaying crises into power. Nazis despised Marxists not over ideology, but because they had betrayed Germany in World War I and Nazis found it unconscionable that German communists yielded fealty to Slavs in Moscow.

Obama must realize he's in real trouble; he's made the enviroweenies

mad at him:
The White House announced Friday that it is shelving a major planned Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would have tightened smog standards, dealing a huge blow to environmentalists that had pushed the Obama administration to resist industry pressure to abandon the regulation.

In a statement, President Obama said that the rule is being shelved because he is wary of imposing regulatory burdens during the economic recovery.
Translation: a bunch of states like Texas looked at what this rule would do to power generation and the costs it would impose- which would include dead bodies in heat and cold waves- and raised three levels of bloody hell. And a bunch of Democrats in those states probably pointed out "You let this go through and you're through."

One of the pieces of bullshit in this was the EPA claiming 'health benefits' would pay for the costs:
While EPA estimated that the strictest standard in the range under consideration — 60 parts per billion — would cost as much as $90 billion annually by 2020, the same analysis said this would bring $100 billion in annual benefits per year by 2020.
Number One: has ANY estimate from these people ever not turned out to be low? Often WAY low?
Number Two: Even if their estimate was correct, you're talking about crippling industry and- in extreme weather- endangering lives in exchange for an estimated $10 billion 'savings'.

Speaking of energy and Obama,

Congress requested documents related to the Solyndra loan from the Office of Management and Budget. After three months and zero documents produced, a hearing was scheduled. An OMB deputy director was asked to attend but didn’t show up, claiming a scheduling conflict. Finally, OMB allowed that congressional staff could view some of the requested documents on site, but when they arrived in mid-July not all the documents were available and some that were made available had been redacted. Specifically, the information on risk ratings had been lined out. Given that this was exactly the information congress had been looking for the entire exercise was becoming a waste of time. At this point the committee held a hearing to consider issuing a subpoena for the documents.

Why would Solyndra get such sweet interest rates for what is obviously now -- and also was obviously then -- a high-risk investment? Well, maybe because one of its "prime financial backers" was an Obama 2008 fundraiser

If you're needing some bullets and brass,

Conevera has some bullet & brass combos on sale this weekend

I'll start this with another MSNBC idiot who thinks it's racism

behind not bending over for Obama.


More on Californicated from VDH:
The UC and CSU systems in outward appearance haven’t changed that much in half a century, but no college president in either current system would bet his life that today’s random graduates of his campus could match exit test scores in math or English of their 1960s random counterparts (so much for all those cutting-edge new classes and brilliantly conceived “centers”). The effort to open the new problematic UC campus in Merced did not quite follow the long ago exemplar of Irvine or Santa Cruz: our forefathers simply built massive new campuses next to resort cities; we in contrast sue and file impact statements over starting on empty isolated ground. Half of incoming freshmen at CSU today require remediation; about half graduate in six years. Pick up an old catalog from the library and compare the course listings — and the reason why jumps off the pages.
Of course, the 'education' crap behind this has migrated all over the damn place, so we've all got some level of this problem.


So with all this 'Federal Family' crap, they're admitting they're Big Brother and Big Sister?
Also:
Really? So if I ever choose to fly again, I shouldn’t worry about being probed by some degenerate government thug, I should just think of it like a visit to Uncle Pervy’s secret closet?

Long ago, I read something somewhere — don’t know whether it’s true. I read that Edward R. Murrow had a sign in his London office, saying, “It is more important to win the war than to report on it.”

Until the elites figure that out, they will be nothing more than useful idiots.


In one of S.M. Stirling's Draka novels, one of the Draka tells a nun from a recently conquered part of Europe that the reason they let the muslims keep their holy Koran was because it had been suitably altered so they'd have the proper attitude toward their masters; wouldn't surprise me if the Chinese did attempt something of the kind.


Yeah, all cops are professionals who can be trusted with firearms, but we can't...

Supposed to be a front coming in tomorrow night; I'll wait & see.

A fine example of why I call it 'Californicated'

Idiot and legislator Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) just authored a bill requiring parents to provide workers' compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time...for babysitters! *
...
Under AB 889, household "employers" (aka "parents") who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers' compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.

Failure to abide by any of these provisions may result in a legal cause of action against the employer including cumulative penalties, attorneys' fees, legal costs and expenses associated with hiring expert witnesses, an unprecedented measure of legal recourse provided no other class of workers - from agricultural laborers to garment manufacturers. (On the bright side, language requiring an hour of paid vacation time for every 30 hours worked was amended out of the bill in the Senate.)


*"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." Mark Twain, very appropriate to this clown Ammiano

Issa and Grassley are politicians, but they actually seem to give a damn (Updated)

about the breaking of law and misuse of authority by the people in charge of Gunwalker; their latest letter, to the acting AG in Arizona:
“The level of involvement of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona in the genesis and implementation of this case is striking,” the letter states. It continues:

Operation Fast and Furious was a prosecutor-led Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force case. The congressional investigation has revealed that your office, and specifically Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Emory Hurley, played an integral role in the day-to-day, tactical management of the case. In fact, Mr. Hurley served as a prosecutor on this case until very recently.

Witnesses have reported that AUSA Hurley may have stifled ATF agents’ attempts to interdict weapons on numerous occasions. Many ATF agents working on Operation Fast and Furious were under the impression that even some of the most basic law enforcement techniques typically used to interdict weapons required the explicit approval of your office, specifically from AUSA Hurley. It is our understanding that this approval was withheld on numerous occasions. It is unclear why all available tools, such as civil forfeitures and seizure warrants, were not used in this case to prevent illegally purchased guns from being trafficked to Mexican drug cartels and other criminals. We have further been informed that AUSA Hurley improperly instructed ATF agents that they needed to meet unnecessarily strict evidentiary standards merely in order to temporarily detain or speak with suspects.

It is essential for Congress to fully understand your office’s role in Operation Fast and Furious. … In addition, it is imperative that the Committee have an opportunity to discuss the facts above with individuals in your office who are familiar with the details of this operation. It is not our intention to second guess day-to-day decisions of your staff, but rather to make sense of them. The Attorney General has said that “letting guns walk is not something that is acceptable. … We cannot have a situation where guns are allowed to walk, and I’ve made that clear to the United States Attorneys as well as the agents in charge of various ATF offices.” Operation Fast and Furious is unique in that guns were allowed to walk with the apparent knowledge of, and authorization by, officials in your office.

Whew! That letter should make it perfectly clear. If AG Eric Holder seriously thought shuffling the players would shush the investigation, he should think again.
I've no doubt that the transfers and shufflings and 'promotions' had two purposes:
1. To try and protect those people, as much as possible, so as to keep them from testifying/being questioned without DoJ lawyers present to try to protect the bigshots in hazard, and
2. "Maybe if we fire and transfer Melson it'll let them put some of the main blame on him and stop digging. And we can explain away the promotions for Newell and the others."
Fat chance on both points.
CBS News has a link(here) to "an internal ATF email dated the day after Terry's death reveal[ing] the quick decision to not disclose the source of the weapons found at the murder scene: "... this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case."

The link to the email on the CBS News site results in a "page not found" message. Fortunately, Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars obtained a copy from another source and it has been posted on this reporter's Scribd page. In it many names that have become familiar to those following this story will surface, including two recently "reassigned" figures, former Phoenix Filed Office Special Agent in Charge William Newell and former ATF Supervisor David Voth, as well as former Phoenix Assistant SAC George Gillette.

Especially relevant to prior reports in this column: Much of the correspondence focuses on straw purchasing suspect Jaime Avila, and a memorandum from AUSA Hurley to his then-boss, just-resigned U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, specifically opens detailing Avila's connection to the guns found at the Brian Terry murder scene. Burke, regular readers will recall, filed a motion with the court in the Avila case to deny victim status to Agent Terry's parents citing lack of a link between Avila's straw purchases and their son's murder.

Update:
Just days after Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Ken Melson was forced into a make-work job at the Justice Department and long-time Janet Napolitano confidant U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke abruptly resigned, the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious rapidly gained momentum with evidence of a coverup instigated within hours of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death.

Also, the Justice Department begrudgingly revealed that Fast and Furious guns were recovered at the scene of more than twice as many violent crimes as they has originally told congressional investigators.

And in the latest bombshell, emails reveal that the White House had indeed been briefed directly about Operation Fast and Furious while the operation was still walking thousands of guns to the Sinaloa cartel.
Which means there's solid proof that Holder lied to Congress, and Obama lied to Congress; they need to hand Holder a subpoena and put his corrupt ass under oath and see what comes out.


Sipsey brings us this from the LA Times:
Three national security officials were given some details about the operation. But an administration official says the emails do not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert tactics of the program.
...
Newly obtained emails show that the White House was better informed about a failed gun-tracking operation on the border with Mexico than was previously known.

Three White House national security officials were given some details about the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious. The operation allowed firearms to be illegally purchased, with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. But the effort went out of control after agents lost track of many of the weapons.
...
But the senior administration official said the emails, obtained Thursday by The Times, did not prove that anyone in the White House was aware of the covert "investigative tactics" of the operation.

"The emails validate what has been said previously, which is no one at the White House knew about the investigative tactics being used in the operation, let alone any decision to let guns walk," said the official, who was not authorized to speak about it publicly. "To the extent that some [national security staff members] were briefed on the top lines of ongoing federal efforts, so were members of Congress."
Except, as Sipsey notes,
"The emails were sent between July 2010 and February of this year before it was disclosed that agents had lost track of hundreds of guns." Serrano himself knows that this statement is false. Even ignoring the fact that David and I have been on this story since the first of the year, Charles Grassley's letters to the administration began on 27 January.

And the bigots are in full cry at Huffington Post

because someone in AZ is acting in a non-pc manner. It's not your general gun bigotry, oh no, it's 'anyone who uses/owns guns and defends the 2nd' bigotry.


The Brady Campaign lies. Again. But we're used to that, aren't we?


McCain full of crap; that pretty much sums it up.


Ah, Britain's National Health Service, which Obama's minions consider a model to be followed...


Some thoughts from a shrink on the anti-gun and anti-self-defense mentality


Well, the proper response to such questions would be "None of your damned business".
Aides point to a series of high-profile cases where councils demanded deeply personal information when people signed up for services.

That includes revelations last month that libraries in Islington, north London, were asking people registering to borrow books if they had cancer, HIV, or diabetes and whether they were transgender.

Mike Lawlor, undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning

in CT is a miserable bastard who doesn't care about the law and abuses his authority. And helps cops who don't bother to know the law to abuse THEIR authority. Both of which abuses the citizens of CT.
Here’s the problem: If you have a permit, it’s perfectly legal to walk into a McDonalds in Connecticut while plainly carrying a firearm. As Gideon notes, the problem is that too many cops in Connecticut simply don’t know the law. Lawlor’s solution isn’t to educate them, but to come up with creative (and baseless) applications of other laws that allow cops to continue to violate the rights of Connecticut citizens who exercise their right to carry. Gideon’s analogy to the camera issue is spot-on. Because exercising this particular right tends to upset police officers, and because police officers aren’t aware of the law, the state officials in charge of law enforcement have chosen to simply not give a damn about protecting this particular right.
Sue the bastards. Every one of them. And, since this appears to be the cops either not know the law or not caring about it and the clowns like Lawlor WANT to help them screw the public by making up bullshit charges, they might not be covered by sovereign immunity; which means THEY'LL have to pay.

I don't really care for suing people, but if it's the only thing that'll get these bastards attention, do it.

A little more on the CERN release on the affect of cosmic rays

on cloud formation, short version: "It really doesn't mean anything(even though it does) and we wish we didn't have to release this information."

One could perhaps understand if all scientists were similarly gagged and prevented from interpreting the results of their research in ways that could be relevant for policymaking. However, the main problem is that many people who are trying to work on very different phenomena in the climate are not prevented from interpreting – and indeed, overinterpreting and misinterpreting – their results that are often less serious, less reliable, and less rigorous, perhaps by orders of magnitude, than the observations by the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Moreover, this sentence by Heuer

One has to make clear that cosmic radiation is only one of many parameters.is really a proof of his prejudice. Whether the cosmic radiation is just one player or the only relevant player or an important player or an unimportant player is something that this very research has been supposed to determine or help to determine. An official doesn’t have the moral right to predetermine in advance what “one has to make clear” about these a priori unknown scientific results.

But then, as Lawrence Solomon reminds us, this was never an experiment the scientific establishment wanted to happen in the first place.

Totally unrelated: a true "SHI___!!!" moment:

So the BATFEIEIO* and EffingBI and DHS and all KNEW

in 2009 that the Mexican Gun Lie was a lie clear back in 2009; but they pushed it anyway. Gee, I wonder why...
¶6. (SBU) Comment. Claims by Mexican and U.S. officials that upwards of 90 percent of illegal recovered weapons can be traced back to the U.S. is based on an incomplete survey of confiscated weapons. In point of fact, without wider access to the weapons seized in Mexico, we really have no way of verifying these numbers. (Emphasis supplied, MBV.)
Other link to the information if you can't look at Sipsey


As Sipsey also notes, this is so big and in the open now that even MSNBC is reporting on it. Including Issa telling the Administration "We're not stopping the investigation":
"While the reckless disregard for safety that took place in Operation Fast and Furious certainly merits changes within the Department of Justice, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn't offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department," Issa said in a statement.
It's been pointed out that if the budget stuff hadn't been making enough noise to drown everything else out, Gunwalker would be a much bigger deal because the media- like it or not- would've been forced to cover it more; it's reaching the point- or has hit it- that they can't ignore it anyway.

Speaking of "The bastards CANNOT leave us alone",

He said an “increased supply of cheap, palatable, energy-dense foods”, coupled with better distribution and marketing, had led to “passive overconsumption”.

Passive eating?

Naturally the individual is incapable of deciding these things for himself. And naturally, we have to think of, yes, wait for it, the children.
And, naturally, it involves coercive taxes:
“I think governments get it, but don’t know what to do about it, and don’t think it’s their responsibility. But it is their responsibility,” he said. His study lists eight cost-effective policies. Topped by a tax on unhealthy food and drink, the rest focus on shielding children from TV advertising or ensuring they exercise more.

A good step forward

The officers, of course, claimed qualified immunity, under which an officer acting in good faith is generally immune from prosecution. The legal standard for this is that if a "reasonable" officer would have recognized that his conduct violated someone's Constitutional rights, immunity is lost and the case may proceed. The District court indeed concluded that a reasonable officer should've recognized that arresting Mr. Glik for recording them was a violation of his First Amendment rights, and that, therefor, they had no qualified immunity. The officers appealed, and, today, a three-judge panel affirmed that, yes, they should've known they were trampling Mr. Gilk's constitutional rights, and that they could consequently be sued.
Well, hot damn!

Next, they need to hold a prosecutor to the same standard and let him PERSONALLY get his ass sued off.

Let's start with 'A twit pic

in more ways than one'.
(thanks Insty)


To borrow Insty's phrase, I don't want to hear another goddamned word about the nasty rhetoric from the tea party, or Republicans, or libertarians, from the bigots and assholes in the Democrat party.
Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the CBC's chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would "love to see us as second-class citizens" and "some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me ... hanging on a tree."
Carson also said the tea party is stopping change in Congress, likening it to "the effort that we're seeing of Jim Crow."


For some reason I didn't connect the names: US Atty Dennis Burke, who became 'physically sick' when the Committee grilled him on Gunwalker?
Dennis Burke, a close confidant and former chief of staff for Janet Napolitano, has resigned, effective immediately, just days after testifying in from of the Congressional Oversight committee about his role in Operation Fast and Furious:

Burke's resignation comes days after he testified before a Congressional committee about his office's role in the ATF gun-smuggling operation known as "Fast and Furious" that has become the center of a growing scandal because some of the weapons federal firearms officials were tracking in the operation ended up used in crimes and many others could not be accounted for.

...
Burke is the same slimeball that blocked Brian Terry's family from being recognized as crime victims in court after Terry was murdered and two Fast and Furious weapons were recovered at the scene of his death.

The only plausible reason Burke would have done that was an attempt to limit his own legal exposure and that of the government as it relates to investigations about Agent Terry's murder.

Burke's sudden resignation occurs on the same day other players in Gunwalker scandal were reassigned:
That must've been some real interesting questioning, not to mention the answers.
I should note Sipsey Street is calling Burk's quitting and all the transfers 'Night of the Short Knives'.



This must be more of that 'doing jobs Americans won't do' stuff:
Phoenix-based Nuestros Reconquistos claims that there will be a war very similar to the Civil War fought in the next five years. “La Raza and MEChA have already talked to Latinos and Phoenix and explained that Latinos need to arm themselves for war,” says Nuestros Reconquistos President Manuel Longoria.

Cecilia Maldonado of Chicanos Unidos Arizona isn’t hoping for any sort of war, but believes it may be unavoidable. “For generations, our people have prepared us to take back the lands of the Southwest that were stolen from our Mexican ancestors. Because of the bad economy and many racist laws, Latinos will be forced to fight sooner than later,” says Mrs. Maldonado.


The jury ruled last March that [John] Hoff’s scathing blog post amounted to actively interfering with [Jerry] Moore’s job at the U, even though Hoff’s statements were true when he linked Moore to high-profile mortgage fraud.
Bad idea, I'm thinking.



A concrete tent?



Fighting pirates fairly seriously; personally I'd say "One warning shot, then take them out." Though in some cases it should be "Warning shots? You serious?"


Some more on how the UN is the enemy of free people: current example, the Arms Trade Treaty and supporting dirtbagsdocuments:
The draft Bill establishes a principle that has developed globally in the last decade, and is a core objective of many government’s efforts to strengthen their national legislation: “the possession and use of weapons is a privilege that is conditional on the overriding need to ensure public safety.”
...
Licence applicants may be required to provide a good reason, justifying why they need to possess a firearm. Legislation may prescribe the circumstances under which possession of a firearm may be justified.

If‘personal protection’is permitted as a good reason, applicants should prove to the police that they are in genuine danger that could be avoided by being armed.
Yeah, we've seen how well this kind of crap works. For disarming victims and giving criminals more freedom to act, that is.
Yes, I do include governments in the last.


A Chesty Puller story.
What? You never heard of him? Shame on you.
Stories began to cluster about him. When he was first shown a flame thrower he supposedly asked, “Where do you mount the bayonet?” Advised that his unit was surrounded he replied: “All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us…they can’t get away this time.” On an inspection tour of a Marine unit he became exasperated at the lack of spirit he saw and finally said,”Take me to the Brig. I want to see the real Marines!”
Oh bleep, I've got to steal this from a comment:
MEMO FROM: God Almighty
TO: Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines
RE: Which Service is Best

I’ve been watching and here’s what I think. All branches of the United States Armed Forces are truly honorable, courageous, well-trained and capable.

Therefore, there is no superior service.

Sincerely,
God Almighty, USMC (Ret.)


Somewhere amidst all the above I found this link; I've heard of a Kelly Kettle before, but not this particular note of use:
On a typical trip I'll boil up one batch of water and use that to reconstitute a freeze-dried meal, pouring the boiling water into the food pouch which is wrapped in something insulating, like a sleeping bag or my wife's wool hat.


Ok, so the Lakewood Police need their ass sued off. Then prosecution for violation of civil rights. There is no bleeping excuse for this kind of crap.


And last, two at Beck's place:
"If cigarette packs are required to have pictures of diseased lungs, college brochures should be required to have pictures of graduates working at Starbucks."
and
They came for my cigarettes -- who among you said one word against it? I could ask questions like this all day long and there are no answers.

Why should I care? I've got a bagful of nice guitars, and when they take them away from me, then I'll be in the same leaking kayak with the rest of you, with one signal difference: I always told you they were coming, and almost all of you always thought I was out of my mind.

Well, I wasn't. I was way ahead of all of you.

Tell me why I should give one shit in the world, now.

So Melson is out of BATFE, but in the DoJ

Looks like he’s being moved to Justice, presumably where higher ups can keep a closer eye on what he’s up to.
Must've been some interesting dealing back & forth on this; lots of room for speculation. Especially with this:
Melson is being reassigned as a senior adviser on forensic science in the Office of Legal Policy, the department said.
Does Melson actually have expertise in this, I wonder?

Wow!
U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, one of the officials closely tied to Fast and Furious, is also a casualty in a shakeup tied to the botched gun-running program. Burke was on the hot seat last week with congressional investigators and, according to several sources, got physically sick during questioning and could not finish his session.




I know, but I heard this a bit ago when had to run out, and wanted to say something. Why, when my eyes are crossing, I don't k now...

Without going into details, maybe one hours sleep

since 0700 yesterday. Damn, I'm dragging. But a couple of things I want to post on before I lose them:
First, a different view on the 'sheepdog' metaphor:
Sheep dogs are someone’s property and they help control other property. It sounds like a liberal’s fantasy of society. You know, the flock carefully tended and controlled with the sheep dog doing the master’s bidding.

No thanks.

I only plan on defending me and mine.

You’re on your own, sheep.


Second, Linoge responds to a gun bigot point by point. In detail. A VERY short version would be "Since you cannot tell the difference between honest people and criminals, and apparently have no self-restraint and think nobody else does either, and LOVE the idea of non-violence, you want us to be unarmed in the face of attackers; no thanks."
Actually, you can get a pretty good idea of the mindset of Marcia Capellan by this line alone:
The Constitution is really just a bunch of words and it can be amended. Guns are not the answer and I hope the government does something about it soon.

And that's it for now

Ok, just one more: some idiot who goes by The Cruel Meatball of War lies. Repeatedly. and Huffman nails him on it.

Followup on the grease test

that started here.

Went to the range yesterday and ran eight or ten(I forget) magazines of the Federal through the conversion: not a single failure to cycle, which is better than I've ever done before with this conversion and ammo.

This is some seriously slick grease, light enough to easily use a hypodermic syringe and needle to deliver and yet it seems to stay where you put it; I'm impressed. I did clean and lube the kit after the last firing; I always have before. This time I'll leave it, and see if it's still as slick next time.

I'll repeat my original caveat: this is just some tests that came to mind to try the stuff out, not a proper scientific test; but it seems to be giving some interesting results anyway.

Aside from the thought that if the FDA has enough money

to fund a SWAT team then they need their budget cut, more on the raw milk raids, including
The movie though brings up a couple of themes that should resonate with Americans, especially when it comes to the 2012 elections.

Why aren’t we Free to Choose? Armed with information, why shouldn’t we be able to make those choices for ourselves whether we consume raw milk or not?

Obamacare will take all those choices you make for your health care and institutionalize them. It’s not hard to imagine underground doctors giving banned medical treatments one day and government SWAT teams raiding their office.

The other point the movie makes is symptomatic of Big Banking, Big Pharma, Big Oil or Big Business taking roles in the federal bureaucracy and then slanting rules and regulations to help their former businesses, then leaving the bureaucracy and becoming re-employed in their former industry.

The answer is not to change the system or have a counterbalance. The answer is to shrink or eliminate the system and its influence. How do you do that? Strangle it by cutting spending. Don’t give the beast any money and it can’t operate. The additional option you must take is to change the dynamic by putting the power into the hands of individual decision makers and eliminating top down control.


From Britain, another view on the Irene hype:
Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security chief, declared that there was “a ways to go with Irene” but “with the evacuations and other precautions taken we have dramatically decreased the risk to life”. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York seemed thoroughly delighted with himself, as if he personally had calmed the waters and stifled the winds.

The truth is that the dire warning beforehand suited both politicians and journalists. Just as with the minor earthquake that shook the east coast last week causing no loss of life and virtually no damage, Irene became a huge story because it was where the media lived.

For politicians, Irene was a chance to either make amends or appear in control. The White House sent out 25 Irene emails to the press on Saturday alone.
Hey, with the peasants all pissed off about he and the wife spending Deity(and their accountant)alone knows how much on their vacations- including the separate flights to this one- he had to do SOMETHING that looked official...


Combat engineers, and some of the vagaries of enemy bombs and your own equipment.


So supposedly ethanol is supposed to be saving the environment, etc.; so this just doesn't look right:
Since the federal renewable fuel mandate classifies sugarcane ethanol as an advanced biofuel, but corn-based ethanol as only a biofuel, it's quite likely the United States will continue to export corn-based ethanol to Brazil while at the same time importing mass quantities of the sugarcane-based biofuel from Brazil. This looks like we're moving towards a future that puts us right back where we started: relying on foreign fuel.
Looks to me like various industry weenies and politicians ripping us off with our own money. Again.


From RNS:



I must admit, my first thought was "Must've been the neighbor's wife or girlfriend bitching." Why?


I'll close with this: Judith Wagner, a professor of education at Whittier College and every teacher who takes part in this should be fired. And have their ass kicked from the office to the street.
What comes next, she said, is a hard call. “Do you go back to the parents and say, ‘Gosh, can you rethink the plastic bags and all this food?’ Or do you talk to the children, and you make the children feel guilty because they’re throwing this all away?”
Let me make this simple, Wagner: who the FUCK gave you permission to shove your beliefs on kids this way? Who the hell do you think you are, shaming kids for the horrible 'crime' of having their lunch in a fucking plastic BAG? You are a sodding disgrace to the profession of teaching; if you had any real integrity you'd resign. But then you wouldn't have a nice, safe, protected position from which to screw with kids minds, would you, you miserable bitch?

Makes me wonder if the reason some liberals hated Thomas so much

wasn't simply that he was originalist in his views but because they feared him...

About the "Irene is going to RUIN US!" hype:

The Feral Irishman pointed to this guy(old site here, current site here) who has a bunch of posts on the subject.

Note to media: big difference between immediate accurate coverage of a storm and "Flee, or you're going to DIE!!" idiocy.

Further from the Weather Nerd:
All of which brings us to the inevitable questions about “hype.” Was Irene overhyped? Well, yes and no. The fearful possibility of a monster hurricane hitting North Carolina, then taking an exceedingly dangerous and potentially mega-destructive track of the East Coast, was very real and fully justified as of midweek. And indeed, Irene took precisely the near-worst-case track that was being discussed. It just failed to ever became a true “monster.” There was nothing preordained or inevitable about that failure — indeed, the meta-conditions were broadly favorable for rapid strengthening — yet it didn’t happen, demonstrating once again forecasters’ lack of skill at predicting hurricane intensity (in stark contrast to the ever increasing skill, sharply on display here, at predicting hurricanes’ tracks).

As I wrote in my post about “misconceptions,” the mere fact that a worst-case scenario doesn’t occur is hardly proof that it should never have been considered a possibility, or that precautions taken against such a scenario were therefore unwarranted. That’s totally illogical. I’m sure NOAA officials and others would love to have access to the 20/20 Hindsight Computer Model that some commentators seem to possess, but absent that, I believe it was completely justified and necessary to evacuate the folks who were evacuated, given the uncertainties in the forecast at the time decisions had to made. It’s the nature of the beast that most “alarms” will be “false alarms.” The fact of a “false alarm,” without more, is not evidence of improper “hype.”

Yet overhype certainly exists, not so much in the forecasts but in the media coverage. The primary problem, as I’ve observed many times. is the MSM’s failure to adjust the tone of coverage when it becomes apparent that the worst-case scenario or scenarios, despite having previously been realistic, have now become unrealistic. In other words: the failure to dial down the hype a notch when it’s clearly no longer justified.
Good piece, worth reading.

Dammit, it's still 100 outside

and it's 2043 hours here. This is kind of sucky. So, since I'm not taking a walk in this, I shall instead peruse the blogosphere for things to bitch about. Easy job:
On the raw milk raids by the FDA(another organization that obviously has too much money and time on its hands),
Possibly the most bizarre thing in the article is this:

• FDA officials have stated, during these monthly "Raw Milk Calls," that their goal is the complete destruction of the raw dairy industry in the United States, and that achieving this goal was a top priority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. [emph added - GB]

But why? Why raw milk?
Some numbers follow.

Also from SG, found this on the ARMED raid at Gibson Guitars:
Gibson is the only guitar company targeted by the Obama DOJ under the Lacey Act -- Tennessee is a right-to-work state.

Fender, Taylor, Rickenbacker, Danelectro, Carvin, MusicMan, and ESP are in California; Spector is in New York; Martin is in Pennsylvania; Guild, Ovation, and Hamer are in Connecticut; Alvarez is in Missouri; B.C. Rich is in Kentucky; Heritage is in Michigan; Washburn is in Illinois. -- All are forced-union states. [emphasis for Martin added]

Peavey is another guitar and electronics company, located in the right-to-work state of Mississippi. -- Since 2009, Peavey has been the target of multiple lawsuits filed by a competitor, MUSIC Group, which alleges that Peavy products fail to meet federal safety and emissions standards.
No, it wouldn't surprise me either.


The University of Virginia is playing games; some of which are liable to get their ass sued off. And in the name of protecting AGW nut Michael Mann & Co.
UVa's August 23 release under court order of 3,800 pages of emails - records that UVa previously denied existed - was its second since the American Tradition Institute (ATI) sought judicial assistance in bringing the school into compliance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (VFOIA).

The school has spent approximately $500,000 to date keeping these records from the taxpayer, who paid for their production to begin with.

The university again labored to avoid releasing correspondence directly addressing the now discredited “Hockey Stick” graph produced while former assistant research professor Michael Mann worked there.
...
UVa acknowledges withholding between 3,500 and 4,000 more pages. This likely represents around ten times the original number of UVa emails revealed in “ClimateGate.”

Even before ATI was able to review these emails, Mann described the release to Science Magazine, indicating a collaborative effort with the university in what amounts to hiding from the taxpayer efforts to derail exposure of the “Hockey Stick.”
Some of the people involved are really desperate to risk the kind of damage this nonsense can do to the university and the people making the decisions. Gee, I wonder why...


Mark Steyn on the "The rioters are doing it because they're deprived" crap in (fG)Britain:
...The preceding film had shown a neat subdivision of pleasant red-brick maisonettes set in relatively landscaped grounds. There was grass, and it looked maintained. Granted, it was not as bucolic as my beloved New Hampshire, but, compared to the brutalized concrete bunkers in which the French and the Swedes entomb their seething Muslim populations, it was nothing to riot over. Nonetheless, someone explained that these riotous Mancunian youth were growing up in “deprivation,” and the rioters themselves seemed disposed to agree. Like they say in West Side Story, “I’m depraved on account of I’m deprived.” We’ve so accepted the correlation that we don’t even notice that they’re no longer deprived, but they are significantly more depraved.


Schoolbus Nagin was giving advice on hurricane preparation... It's amazing he's got the lack of humility to do this. Even considering the suckass politician he is.


What ATF & Co. is doing. Like celebrating breaking the law(some more)


What? Terrorists like the idea of Victim DisarmamentGun-Free Zones? Why, who'd have thought such a thing?


The level of hype and screaming involved in Irene has been kind of amazing. On the subject of getting ready, Unc has an important point:
If you’re prepared for the zombie apocalypse, a hurricane is just a storm.

And this said 'evening' for time; and I screwed up and forgot to hit 'publish' last night, so now it's morning.

My, Nanny Bloomberg is a real PITA who hangs around with

nasty people, isn't he?
The police chief and borough manager in Dormont are accusing the mayor of ticket fixing.

It turns out the mayor has dismissed thousands of tickets over the years and now the Allegheny County District Attorney is getting involved.
As Sebastian notes, we should not forget all the other criminals involved in Bloomberg's "We Don't Like Peasants Owning Guns" group

Second,
The Newscaster were taking calls in between interviews with authorities and assorted End Of The World advice. One particular caller had already lost electrical power and was getting her light out of a candle. The words that came out of the mouth of the female newscaster floored me:

The Mayor doe not like candles!

Well, neither does he like salt or fat(except on HIS food). Or guns(unless it's his minions or bodyguards or the wealthy and/or connected who have them).

Along with trying to create deaths in Texas from rolling blackouts

in bad weather, the EPA is tirelessly trying to trash the economy:
The EPA wants to adjust their regulation on allowable Ozone levels. (one amazing aspect of this is that we're talking about an modification to an existing regulation - not even a new reg.) Old level was 75 ppb (parts per billion or 0.075 ppm) - they want to lower that to the 60-70ppb range.

Is that a big deal?

According to an analysis conducted by the Business Round Table, 66 out of 736 counties nationwide do not meet the EPA’s current ozone standard of 0.075 ppm. However, if the EPA lowers the acceptable concentration down to 0.060 ppm, then the estimated number of non-attainment counties would skyrocket to 628 (out of 736) according to the Business Roundtable. That means fully 85 percent of the nation would be in non-attainment. The EPA’s own analysis is even more pessimistic, predicting that up to 96 percent of monitored counties would be non-attainment with the stringent 0.060 ppm threshold.

...
... the proposed 60 parts per billion standard is so strict, that even areas of Yellowstone National Park may not be in compliance. To the extent that some areas will be affected by ozone emitted elsewhere (even outside the United States), it may prove literally impossible to comply with the draconian new regulations.
So make a regulation that CAN'T be complied with, and tax us to death for not complying.

Lampposts, ropes, politicians...

Some thoughts on the Gibson raids

from the Bear's Den:
Let's think about that for a moment. You have a commodity or product in your possession that you purchased on the legal market here in the United States, say some Brazilian hardwood, that you want to spend a winter making furniture out of for your home. You bought it from a reputable outlet, and have no criminal intent and no reason to suspect that the wood was harvested, processed, or exported from Brazil illegally. Some arcane aspect of the Brazilian lumber law makes someone think that your future dining room set might be illegal if you had it in Brazil. Let's say that Brazilian law says that a special tax on hardwoods must be paid, and you don't have a tax stamp or something from your supplier to say that the tax was paid.

So your home could be raided, your wood, tools, financial records, computers, and anything else they think was related to this "crime" could be taken, and you could be charged with a crime for possession of something that is three or four levels of separation away from its origin in South America. You didn't cut it down or mill it. You didn't export it to the United States and sell it. All you did was buy it and try to use it. The law that you are accused of breaking is outside of the control of your elected representatives, so you can't even appeal to them to get it modified or repealed. But you're the one who got raided. And it doesn't have to be raw lumber. Can you prove that the Brazilian hardwood dining table you inherited from grandma was made from wood imported before these restrictions were put in place? If not, when you are questioned, you are out a dining table, out a fine, and out of luck.

Also some ideas on hurricane prep, including

1. Leave. Staying in the path of a hurricane is the definition of idiotic. Pack your kids and everything you care about, call a relative further inland and get out of Dodge. Preferably a relative who lives two states towards the center of the continent. Things you should take include heirlooms, food, clothing, weapons, pets, and liquor.
2. Remember the liquor. Living with your brother-in-law for a few days with all of your and his kids is going to be hard enough without trying to do it sober. Don't get sloppy drunk and for heaven's sake don't drink tequila. Just a nice mellow buzz. Bonus points if you share with said brother-in-law, especially if you break out the good stuff.

Pay special attention to #8

The proper response from the judge should probably have been

"Bailiff, kick these people twice around the room and throw them out for bringing such idiocy into the court." Properly appended to the decision should be "And for being such whiny little bastards."
Raised in a $1.5 million Barrington Hills, Ill., home by their attorney father, two grown children have spent the last two years pursuing a unique lawsuit against their mom for "bad mothering" that alleges damages caused when she failed to buy toys for one and sent another a birthday card he didn’t like.

Emergency/survival notes: saw test

Yeah, I mean those wire saws that come in versions ranging from 'cheap piece of crap that can't pop a balloon' to 'can be used to cut through jail bars' (like the one Chuck Yeager used) quality. There's a gun show this weekend and Dad came up for it. While there ran across a table carrying these:
That's right, it's Commando! and everything! In any case...
No visible teeth to it, it's a braided-wire saw
hooked to two big rings using heavy swivels. Doesn't feel very sharp, so wasn't sure how well it'd work. So, to the yard.

I've got a piece of oak pruned from a tree, about 1.5" diameter and thoroughly seasoned, hard as hell. So clamped it in the vise
hooked my thumbs through the rings and started sawing. It took about three minutes(yes, I forgot to find my watch to time it accurately) to cut through by this method; hooking it to a flexed piece of branch to make a bow saw would probably work a bit faster, but it did indeed slice through.

Second test, had a piece of 1x2 handy, which is a fairly soft wood, and tried it; took maybe 30 seconds to slice through.

So this appears to be a pretty good quality saw for cutting wood, and will coil up small enough to make for easy packing/storage. After I regain strength I'll try to find a piece of metal more suitable for a test than most of what I've got out back and give that a try.


Added: Mattexian noted in comments that it's best to use a branch to make it a bow saw: flex the branch and hook the loops at the ends. In fact, the back of the package shows just that; didn't have anything immediately available that fit the bill so did it the quick & dirty way

I noted, in a post a couple of weeks ago, a moron named Phillips

who seems to think the tea party here is the same as the thugs rioting, burning, thieving and murdering in England. I said he was a moron in order to keep the language polite.

I just got a comment on it from someone claiming to be the moron Phillips. Among other things he can't spell('Wendy' is not the same as 'Windy', idiot), and apparently lacks the brain cells to figure why Windy might name him the Moron Phillips(no, I don't think anyone would or could mistake you for a Mormon). It included a threat(maybe promise from his point of view) that the anarchists 'will be coming out from the shadows to liberate you very soon indeed'.

Slight problem with that: this ain't England, we have the right of self-defense, we have the right to arms, and we don't consider a bunch of idiot thugs burning and raping and murdering to be 'liberating'. In fact, there are an awful lot of people who'd consider such a situation to be a target-rich environment.

A bunch of progressive/commie/Democrat politicians and PC morons might make excuses for you; the rest of us won't. We'll call you what you are, and if you attack us, our homes, we'll defend ourselves. And(outside of places like PROM) we'll not fear our government for having done so. So piss off.

This story counts for two points:

First, what kind of damage even an unfocused knife attack can do.

Second, just what damage a determined sort can do even when sliced up and hemorrhaging all over the place.