They DO want peace and non-violence; it's just that Updated

it's peace by their definition, and- as someone put it- they're willing to kill as many of us as they have to to get it.

Added: I noticed this in the comments:
What possible legitimate use can anyone have for an assault weapon or jacketed bullets?
I leave the comments on that idiocy up to you.l=

Update II: Reasoned Discourse^tm has broken out! I left a comment asking two questions:
How are you defining 'assault weapon'? and
Since most bullets sold for ALL purposes are jacketed, what do you suggest be used?
Took maybe five minutes for the comment to be deleted.

1911 manufacture during WWII

In comments on another post, Ian pointed to A: Forgotten Weapons, and B: This link to a pdf on the making of the 1911, dated 1942. The original, not the pdf(now you can't yell at me, so there).


And a bleg: does anyone know what the thread pitch was for the sideplate screws for the Colt Police Positive? And was it a standard across their DA revolvers, or did it change from model to model or over time?

"Professor, if you cancel a class because someone with a permit (link fixed)

is carrying, it'll be your ass." Phrased in a more academically-acceptable way, that is. And that's as it should be. A someone says in the comments "Welcome to the real world; it may not intrude on the halls of academia very often, but it's there."


Seems a SEAL is releasing a book about the bin Laden raid without letting the usual people vet it; be interesting to see what all comes out in it.


Coming soon(if we're not lucky and nasty enough) from a Obamacare bureaucrat near you:
There are two tiers of men with advanced prostate cancer in Ontario: Those who get access to a remarkable drug through private insurance, and those who get a death sentence.

The grim news is often delivered at the London Regional Cancer Program to men whose shoulders sag and jaws drop when told Ontario's Health Ministry has for 15 months refused to pay for a medication covered by every other Canadian province.


Yes, I'm still sick of politics; yes, I'd rather be making blades or polishing actions or something and trying to figure how to one-handed take pictures of it. Hell, I'd rather be sitting in a hide in the backyard trying to get sight- and maybe a pic- of that sneaky little bastard hummingbird. I guess I'm hooked, or have a really bad habit here of seeing something and wanting to pass it along. At the moment, I need to grab a shower and a drink(preferably in that order) and start reading Rabid.
Who knows, it might actually have some good tips for the next couple of months and beyond.

Why are gun bigots and animal rights weenies

so violent?

McMahon's butt probably pulled some seat cover when he heard this

“This is somebody who our reports said perjured himself before the Congress,” Issa charged. “We don’t understand why J.P. Morgan would hire somebody who’s lied to Congress, that will probably be referred for criminal prosecution.”

Oh, and about that new job he's got with Morgan:
Further, Gun Rights Examiner reported yesterday that J.P. Morgan is the credit card provider for ATF (and much of the federal government), and journalist Bob Owens exposed the firm’s financial influence with the Obama administration.
My, my, my, isn't this getting even more interesting and (maybe)felonious?

If you've seen someone try to get a driving test

the last few years, you know what a friggin' mess it's been; appears DPS is actually trying to do something about it. Finally.

This has been a mess for years, and it's gotten worse the last few. You've had people taking multiple mornings off work to get to an exam station hours before it opens and still being told "You can't take your test today, you'll have to come back." Again. Etc. First-class pain in the ass, to say the least. Add to that some examiners being assholes, I'm surprised it took this long to cause something to happen. I figure enough people went to their reps and raised hell, they finally raised enough hell with the Commissioner's Office that they had to get something done.

No, I'm not real forgiving; I've heard too much crap over the years of that agency playing games. Hopefully they'll actually do something about this mess.

So if you're connected to Gunwalker and all those dead bodies

and the perjury and lies, you can make out pretty well:
Three weeks after this column first revealed that a major figure in Operation Fast and Furious was likely to retire soon, the two men leading Capitol Hill’s investigation of the scandal are now asserting that he is already working in the private sector while still drawing a government paycheck.

William McMahon, former deputy assistant director for Field Operations at the agency, is “serving as Executive Director of the Global Security and Investigations Group at J.P. Morgan in the Philippines,” according to Senator Charles Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa.
...
“This unusual arrangement,” Grassley and Issa wrote, “is apparently designed to allow Mr. McMahon to reach retirement eligibility while on extended leave for four or five months and simultaneously begin a second career before separating from government employment.”
Hey, you've got to take care of your co-conspiratorspersonnel, otherwise they might talk to the investigators and let the truth out personnel might lose confidence in you...

“Rather than imposing consequences for his admitted failures,” the letter continues, “the ATF appears to be rewarding McMahon. Through this unusual arrangement, ATF has essentially facilitated McMahon’s early retirement and ability to double dip for nearly half a year by receiving two full-time paychecks—one from the taxpayer and one from the private sector. Moreover, ATF did not wait for the Office of Inspector General to complete its report on Fast and Furious before approving the arrangement. This is in sharp contrast to the posture the agency has taken with whistleblowers like Special Agent John Dodson, who is told he must wait until the Inspector General’s report is complete before the agency will even consider his simple request for a statement retracting the false statements made about him by agency leadership.”
Like we expect anything better from these dirtbags at this point.


I mean, we're talking about a DoJ that's actively recruiting attorneys and staff who are dwarfs or who have “psychiatric disabilities” or “severe intellectual disabilities.” On May 31, 2012, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez issued a directive to affirmatively recruit people with these “targeted disabilities.”

This DOJ policy does not merely involve prohibitions against discrimination, but rather the documents reveal deliberate recruitment efforts to hire as attorneys and staff for the Department of Justice people suffering from psychiatric disorders and intellectual disabilities. Moreover, applicants can “self-identify” their disability by means of the “Standard Form 256, Self Identification Disability.”
Hey, what could go wrong?

For an anonymous tip they'll kick the doors and shoot the dogs

and tear up your house, but for a 911 call of "HELP ME!",
Once obtaining an address, the dispatcher gave the call to the first available police field element. The officers that received the call arrived at the location and knocked at the door. When no one answered, they requested a call-back of the caller which went to voicemail. They also checked the perimeter windows of the home and spoke with neighbors who reported that they had not heard any disturbance.
Her family found her dead two days later.


Unrelated to the above: yeah, I've got a problem with this:
According to the lawsuit (PDF), in January 2011, Tulsa Deputy Police Chief Alvin Webster announced in a staff meeting that the event was upcoming and solicited volunteers to attend. In February 2011, an email regarding the event was sent to all Tulsa police officers. Attached to the email was a flier from the Islamic Society describing the event and inviting police officers to attend. When neither Captain Fields nor any of his subordinates responded to the invitation, a subsequent email was sent informing Fields that his attendance was no longer voluntary but mandatory, and that officers from each shift under his command were also expected to attend.

Capt. Fields responded with an email of his own, informing his superiors that he believed the order was unlawful as it violated his religious convictions and that he would not be attending. He also said he would not order any of his subordinates who held similar convictions to attend the event.

Efforts were made to persuade Capt. Fields to change his mind, but when he did not he was served with his transfer and suspension for failing to observe Rule 6 of the Tulsa Police Department Rules and Regulations – Duty to Be Truthful and Obedient.


One more: the PC idiocy at the DoJ marches on:
This DOJ policy does not merely involve prohibitions against discrimination, but rather the documents reveal deliberate recruitment efforts to hire as attorneys and staff for the Department of Justice people suffering from psychiatric disorders and intellectual disabilities. Moreover, applicants can “self-identify” their disability by means of the “Standard Form 256, Self Identification Disability.”

Those with “targeted disabilities” may be hired through a “non-competitive” appointment. That means they don’t have to endure the regular civil service competition among applicants, but can be plucked from the stack of resumes and hired immediately instead.

The problem with "I'll sue you!" is what happens

when you do it:
Usually, you don’t welcome a nuisance lawsuit, because it’s a nuisance. It consumes time. It costs money. But this is a different matter in light of one word: discovery.

If Mann sues us, the materials we will need to mount a full defense will be extremely wide-ranging. So if he files a complaint, we will be doing more than fighting a nuisance lawsuit; we will be embarking on a journalistic project of great interest to us and our readers.
Seems Mr. Steyn REALLY got under the skin of Mann; he do have a way with words:
...Michael Mann was the man behind the fraudulent climate-change “hockey-stick” graph, the very ringmaster of the tree-ring circus. And, when the East Anglia emails came out, Penn State felt obliged to “investigate” Professor Mann. Graham Spanier, the Penn State president forced to resign over Sandusky, was the same cove who investigated Mann. And, as with Sandusky and Paterno, the college declined to find one of its star names guilty of any wrongdoing. If an institution is prepared to cover up systemic statutory rape of minors, what won’t it cover up? Whether or not he’s “the Jerry Sandusky of climate change”, he remains the Michael Mann of climate change, in part because his “investigation” by a deeply corrupt administration was a joke.

Ok, so what kind of effing moron wants to take her kids

onto the floor of a political convention in the first place? My first thought is "Morons who want to force what they desire on everyone else, damn the problems and consequences."
According to mother and 2012 Democratic National Convention delegate Susie Shannon, the policy is disenfranchising women like her.

“Moms with young children six years of age and under who cannot be left at home, some of whom are breastfeeding, are relegated to second-class status within the Democratic Convention,” she explained in a statement, “unable to participate as a delegate due to antiquated policies and inadequate accommodations that were apparently in place before women’s suffrage.”
You getting as sick as I am of hearing 'disenfranchised' used as an accusation for anything somebody wants to use it for?

Lather, rinse, repeat; some of these people are effing nuts.

You want to know just how deluded and/or stupid the Brady Campaign

really is?
Indviduals with proper self-defense training can put down attackers no matter the size difference, with little to no damage done to the victim. Ask any defensive trainer, or a student of such a trainer, and you'll get the proof you regularly state on this page that this page lacks.
Let's see, how many people get hurt in dojos with pads and gloves and all? No pavement or curbs or walls or corners to run into? Not actually trying to do damage? And yet these people...

Ah, hell, they're either freaking insane, or knowingly lying. And if it's the latter, anyone who takes their advice and gets hurt or killed, the blood is on the Brady clowns' hands.

One more thing: notice that interesting end with little to no damage done to the victim ? Apparently the attacker has become the VICTIM when they're stopped.

Because the President doesn't victory or to win,

and the press is still kissing his ass, that's why. And it would be awkward to do that while asking why he's negotiating with the enemy to hand the place back over to them.


The EPA has been told- again- that it can't do whatever it wants; attacks of vapors from the usual suspects followed.
It should be noted that the media, when it does bother to send foreign correspondents to Alabama, tends to bring their report out with a level of contempt and condescension that would make a "Look what those clever black buggers are doing" 1920's travelogue on Africa or India look kind.


Little over two months left till the election, and I've been sick of politics and politicians in general for a loooong time. Only real reason I keep writing about this crap: because of what those bastards keep wanting to do to me. And the kids, and parents, and everyone else. There's been a BUNCH of times over the last few years I've thought rather fondly of the rope/lamppost/politician theme...
Which brings me to the range the other day(because I'm effing sick of politics/politicians). Had another chance to shoot that S&W M&P, and was allowed to change backstraps. Interestingly, the 'small' felt somewhat better to hold, but the 'medium' shot better for me. In either case, the owner says has had zero fte/ftf/ftanything problems; and of the odd bits & pieces of 9mm I'd dug up to take along, it ate everything, ball and some hollowpoints of four brands. If I were going to buy a polymer pistol, I think I'd have to look at one of these. Though I think I'd like to try one with the Apex Tactical trigger Robb loves so much; the trigger's not horrible, but compared to my 1911 compact it's... not mushy at all, but there's no way to tell when it's about to break.
I'd love to try one in .45(maybe when get to the range with Jennifer and Evyl) to see something: even with fairly hot loads that 9mm felt quite mild in recoil with fast recovery, I'm wondering whether it's from it being 9mm instead of my usual .45, or if the M&P design tames it down.

Couple of weeks back I'd stopped by H&H to check on some reloading stuff, and the guy I talked to had to stop cleaning a pistol he'd just tried out, which was the M&P compact in .40S&W. Asked what he thought of it, and let's say he was impressed; said the .40 felt like firing a 9mm in most compacts. Since the .40 pistols I've fired had a definitely snappy recoil, it surprised me. And made me want to try one of these in .45 even more, to see just how it feels.

Just as general information, seems some people do not get that ball ammo isn't good for SD unless there's nothing else around. Same guy said he didn't care for 9mm for lots of people, not because 9mm won't work but because they tend to load with FMJ ammo for social purposes instead of those expensive hollowpoints. Definitely not good.


Found over at C&S

along with this comment in another post:
Hair removal in the United States grosses $2.1B a year, which minus the cost of duct tape, is pure profit.



Over at the Irishman's place,


and

and last, from Ogdaa, dumbass carries a price; lesson begins about 1:30

Never forget, Ma Nature wants you dead

and has some really interesting ways of carrying out the plan.

This vid shared by a commenter in this post of Tam's.'
I'll throw in this one I posted before:

Cops as a waste of money

The man had been killed elsewhere, and then dumped from a moving vehicle into the road. The deputies decided to secure the crime scene, call the Orange county Sheriff's department, and wait to turn it over to them, so that the Orange deputies could work the scene.

They were told that the Sheriff's office doesn't work dead bodies in the road, because this was likely a pedestrian accident, and that the deputies should call the Florida Highway Patrol. The Orange sheriff's office said they didn't have the manpower. Calls the SO also doesn't respond to, due to lack of manpower: Reports of shots fired, suspicious persons, auto accidents, noise complaints, and other "non serious calls."

Orange county Sheriff's office is the department that wouldn't investigate when checks were being stolen from my mailbox and being deposited in the thief's bank account, and they cited manpower issues. It appears as though those issues have not subsided.
But lots of time & personnel to write traffic tickets.

Gun ban people as tools of evil

We hear this, and the only possible explanation are that these people are evil - determined to seize all guns from the population and ensure a monopoly of force to the government - or tools. Perhaps well meaning tools, but ignorant and easily led by the evil group.

Some nights the wolves are silent, and the moon howls.

- George Carlin

Found at Borepatch, and here's the story he links to

Not exactly a surprise to those honestly following the Occupy movement

Former Amalgamated Transit Union local 689 president Mike Golash, now an “Occupy” movement organizer, was caught on tape Sunday revealing his political goals: overthrowing capitalism in the United States and instituting a communist government.

“Progressive labor is a revolutionary communist organization,” Golash said during an Occupy DC “People’s Assembly” on August 19.

“Its objective,” he added, “is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism.”

And if her cannon are spiked,

the bastards responsible should be keelhauled; she damn well earned her armaments.


I haven't noted any Gunwalker stuff in a while; that's my fault,not because it's not out there; and there are other, connected things going on as well:
“Even though Lopez told the ATF that he trafficked the Barrett #20488 to Mexico, that firearm is not listed in the indictment and Lopez has never been charged with trafficking [it]. This is because if the ATF charged Lopez with trafficking that Barrett to Mexico, the ATF would have to provide discovery materials that would prove the ATF knowingly allowed that gun to ‘walk,’” the source explained.
Translation: "If we tell the truth, we're admitting what we were doing; so we'll lie by omission."
Also from the link: ...but also raise suspicions that federal agents lied on the application to obtain a search warrant for Shipley’s residence.
Hmmm... isn't that quite the violation of law? Perjury, falsifying a warrant, things like that?
More on such things here and here. I'll repeat what I said after the prosecutors of Sen. Stevens got off the hook: a prosecutor, a federal agent, already KNOWS that prosecutorial misconduct and lying under oath are BAD THINGS, either unethical or flat-out lies: one who does such things should be fired, and prosecuted. Period. No "Nobody specifically told them not to lie under oath or hide information from the defense" crap; fire them and prosecute them. And fines for such should come out of their own damned pockets, just like they should from SWAT clowns who lie or don't bother to make sure they're at the right address, or otherwise violate their oath and responsibilities.

Know what? (devolving into bad language) I am God-cursed fucking SICK of excuses being made for corrupt prosecutors and cops to get them off the hook. Make them personally liable for damage they do, lies they tell; a lot of this shit will stop, very quickly. You go to the wrong address, shoot the dog and scare hell out of, injure people because you were too busy putting on your ninja suit to be sure? Lied on the application for a warrant? Better have deep pockets, asshole, because the damages are coming out of them. That goes for judges, too; you approve a warrant you shouldn't have? Dig deep, asshole, and you're losing that black robe, too.



If you're looking for fine examples of Sarah Brady Paradise(Edition Whatever) falling short, Sean usually has a number of links. Also notes of cases proving that bad guys for some reason just don't obey laws. Including this; as he says, if they can't keep the bad guys from buying or making a friggin' mortar, they think they can keep them from getting guns?

Oh my...

not only did moisture fall from the sky the other day, the current forecast is for 5-10 degrees below average for the next week. I've had the windows open all day with a fan in the living room just to spread this fine temperature through the house. And painted some windowsills that needed touching up.

Oh, and 20-30% chances of rain on several days, or so they currently say. I was afraid we'd have to wait for the state fair next month for rain; a way I'm happy to be disappointed.

By the way, having seen Jennifer today,

Damn, her hair really does grow fast.

Also, I advised that I very much want to attend the next Schutenfest; work prevented it last time, and I'd love to take the scoped Garand out and try it at some longer ranges. From the look on her & hubby's faces, they want to try it out too

A: ever bought something you didn't need or

personally want, just so you could fix it up and maybe find it a home?

B: Sucks to very badly want to get out of the house, but you're so damn tired you can't pry out of the chair.

A fine example of why I despise the 'All Cultures Are Equal' argument

and a lot of the people who push it:
Her name was Michelle Stone, then an Associate Professor of Sociology at Youngstown State University. She told me she liked the article and would publish it. Then she changed her mind and made its publication contingent: I had to remove the portion of the article criticizing the food given to the prisoners. Her exact words were “It isn’t nice to judge the foods of cultures other than your own.”
Mind you, he wasn't criticizing them eating goat or the spices or appearance: I was appalled by the fact that the prison served rotten meat to prisoners after boiling it in large vats in order to make it edible.
And, to a effing SOCIOLOGY PROFESSOR, bringing this up counted as 'judging the foods of other cultures'.

I wonder how much money had/has been lavished on this clown over the years to push this kind of garbage on students?

This wet stuff started falling from the sky,

and the ground and grass don't look quite so dessicated. Kind of amazing what almost an inch of that stuff can do.

In other news, long day yesterday and busy again today; between that and the front, my hands are killing me.

Maybe this is why NOAA wanted a bunch of ammo:

they're afraid of the people they've wronged.

This calls for firings, prosecutions, and a whipping post in the town square.

It's amazing how a small thing can excite you

Few days back I thought I saw a hummingbird rising from the feeder. I've kept it up for weeks in the hope I'd see one or two, but this could have been a dragonfly or something and it was the only possible sighting. But, just in case, I cleaned it out- it'd been a week and a couple of days- and filled it with fresh nectar.

That was about five days ago. The level had dropped, but that could've been evaporation and I hadn't seen anything hummer-like since. Decided I'd wash and refill it. Just as I started to hang it this thruum-thruum sound went past my head twice; started to think Wasp! but then Is that what I think it was?

Hung it, walked about eight feet and turned around as a little hummingbird zipped down, checked out the still-swinging feeder, looked at me, moved partway around the feeder, then zipped off.

I just spent fifteen minutes(in which the cake in the oven damn near burned) in a chair watching. He didn't show again, but at least I know he's there. Dammit, felt a little like Christmas morning as a kid.

Any doctor who would sterilize a 15-year-old girl

because of her 'informed decision' is a piece of shit who should lose his license. And never again be allowed in the medical profession.
And note that Pelosi considers having a problem with this purely a 'religious' matter.


So if I do it, it's perjury, lying to Congress, etc., but if you're the EffingBI it's only 'misleading'.


Just to make sure it keeps getting around: Progressive Insurance, you suck.



An FAQ on Christianity for the Unbeliever


The only proper answer to the State in both cases:Piss off.


More of the Wonders of Obama:
President Obama is proud of his bailout of General Motors. That’s good, because, if he wins a second term, he is probably going to have to bail GM out again. The company is once again losing market share, and it seems unable to develop products that are truly competitive in the U.S. market.
And from near the end of the article:
Uh-oh. While Dan Akerson is busy rearranging the deck chairs on GM’s Titanic, Martin Winterkorn is leading VW to world domination via technical excellence.


MSNBC: EVERYTHING we don't like is about race and the racists on the right!
At least for the effing dirtbags like Toure.

So, after making every possible attack on Issa,

and hitting the "Bush started it!" line, this author comes out with
“Team Obama’s decision to crack down on the medical marijuana industry wasn’t motivated by public health concerns,” Lee writes, answering his own question. “The Justice Department green-lit a scorched earth campaign against medicinal cannabis in order to placate law enforcement and control the damage from the Fast and Furious scandal by deflecting attention to other matters.”

And Holder's DoJ will investigate this,

probably never. Death threats, terrorist threats, more racist threats, but it's the New Black Panthers doing it.


Progressive Insurance says "We didn't do that!" Except...


It finally struck some media weenies that the drought doesn't just mean problems for farmers; I wonder if they noticed themselves, or someone had to beat them over the head with it?
From Greg in the comments: A reporter was standing in the Mississippi River near Memphis the other day...where it used to be over two miles wide, it's about .3 miles wide. They are seeing increasing groundings and navigation hazards, which could force much more truck/train supply shipping, which will add more end price to EVERYTHING.
And from Dave: Just wait till someone explains to them that corn ethanol requirements, green as they are, somehow cause higher prices at Whole Foods and make this whole situation worse. Cognitive dissonance, here we come!

Another reason not to use Progressive Insurance

Now, here’s where it gets interesting: Katie’s policy, Fisher explains, would have required that Progressive, her insurer, pay the difference in funds. She had apparently paid for this form of insurance in case someone who was under or uninsured ever hit her (a sad reality that inevitably came to fruition). When this happened, the family assumed the situation would be rectified, but this was far from what unfolded. Fisher explains:

At which point we learned the first surprising thing about Progressive: Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones run out of money.

Coming here soon if the nannies have their way: "The man was positioned close to a small group of protesters and based on his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course, officers made an arrest to prevent a possible breach of the peace," Surrey police said in a statement.
Arrested and taken away because of what MIGHT POSSIBLY happen... Think the Brits will care what we think of this kind of crap? Probably not, as the 'worry about World Opinion' crap only seems to go one way.


The Zombie Apocalypse Academy: also general emergency/disaster-type stuff, and additionals.


The EPA answer to problems with 15%ethanol fuel: more rules.
To help keep E15 out of these and other engines, service stations offering E15 and E10 from the same pump station must agree to sell a minimum volume of fuel, four gallons, to the customer. The reason for the minimum purchase is to protect the engine of the next customer’s vehicle, as the fueling hose retains roughly a third of a gallon from the previous customer’s fill-up.


More of the "We have to pass it so you can find out what's in it!" bullshit forced on us.


Agitating for the right to arms in Russia. And the Usual Suspects^tm speak a lot of different languages, don't they?
But some skeptics claim the real reason the Kremlin is not allowing the public to own firearms is fear that armed citizens will turn their guns on the country's notoriously corrupt bureaucrats.

“They’ll just start killing off officials,” said Mikhail Pashkin, head of the Moscow Police Labor Union.
Y'know, when 'officials' are this scared of the populace, there's usually a reason why the populace is so damn mad.


Some information on the past of China, and How They Got This Way.

Our in-the-tank media strike again

Mr. Williams talked about everything, including a puppy rescue team in Detroit, except the lawsuit against Mr. Holder.
...Diane Sawyer spent maybe 20-30 seconds on the lawsuit. It was a snippet, not a segment. She even fumbled the introduction.
...
Bob Schieffer filled in for Scott Pelley tonight. They devoted only 20-30 seconds, but they can’t be criticized too much because Sharyl Attkisson broke the lawsuit story last night. But Mr. Schieffer did do the absolute bare minimum. CBS did devote quite a bit of time about some massive prawns invading the Gulf of Mexico.
Hey, why talk about a corrupt AG and piles of bodies when you can talk about Brown?


Of course, I doubt they'll have much to say about another Obama money guy in trouble, either.


Obama & Co. like to parade that Koran owned by Jefferson; I wonder how they'd react if someone started quoting what Jefferson thought of Islam?


So Jackson's a gun bigot and hypocrite of the standard type; good question, will he get special treatment?

So if I make it to Florida, carry is a must

for two- and no-legged critters. Damn.

Just in case I haven't mentioned this to World Opinion before,

piss off.
Some people like Howard may overall be nice people, but I really don't give a fart in a tornado what he thinks about us owning guns. Anything else, for that matter. And the EUnuchs? Please. These people are preparing themselves to freeze to death in the next bad winter in the name of being green(well, lots of bodies rotting is fertilizer, I guess) and I'm supposed to care that they have attacks of the vapors because we haven't disarmed ourselves to their satisfaction?

I can't find the clip I wanted, so I'll use the transcript from The Americanization of Emily:

You American-haters bore me to tears, Miss Barham. I've dealt with Europeans all my life. I know all about us parvenus from the States who come over here and race around your old cathedral towns with our cameras and Coca-Cola bottles... Brawl in your pubs, paw your women, and act like we own the world. We over-tip. We talk too loud. We think we can buy anything with a Hershey bar.

I've had Germans and Italians tell me how politically ingenuous we are. And perhaps so. But we haven't managed a Hitler or Mussolini yet. I've had Frenchmen call me a savage because I only took half an hour for lunch. Hell, Miss Barham, the only reason the French take two hours for lunch is because the service in their restaurants is lousy. The most tedious lot are you British. We crass Americans didn't introduce war into your little island. This war, Miss Barham, to which we Americans are so insensitive, is the result of 2,000 years of European greed, barbarism, superstition, and stupidity. Don't blame it on our Coca-Cola bottles. Europe was a going brothel long before we came to town.

About damned time: filing against Holder

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa plans to sue Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday for refusing to provide documents related to the "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling operation.


Because Sen. 'Get me in front of a camera' Schumer, can't stand the idea of not having pissed in every pot of soup in the nation. It's already illegal, so he want it to be federally illegaler or something.


Oh yeah:
Interesting. I had no idea that Mayor Rahm Emanuel had the delegated authority to determine the values of all citizens of Chicago. Does it say that on the city charter? Or did Rahm just smell his shit so much that he started thinking he was God? Chicago, despite my loathing for it, is still within the bounds of America so they have a Mayor. They don’t have a Pontiff, Godhead, or King. Rohm can look up “Mayor” and then look up “Absolute Monarchical Power Wielded By Divine Right”. Note; they’re not the same thing.

Damned, sorry, vile excuses for lawmen

who should be held personally liable for what they did. Not money taken from the taxpayers' pocket, from THEIRS.

Let's see... wrong address, wrong people, killed the dog,forced their three handcuffed children to sit near the dead pet while officers ransacked the home and
Another child, a girl, "a diabetic, was handcuffed at gunpoint and prevented by officer from obtaining and taking her medication, thus induced a diabetic episode as a result of low-blood sugar levels."

Let's make sure this name is mentioned: Shawn Scovill of the taskforce may have raided the wrong house, but he didn't want to let the opportunity to rifle through someone's things go to waste.
So Shawn Scovill apparently decided "We fucked up and raided the wrong house, shot the dog. We'd better tear the place up and see if we can find anything that might help cover this up."
Sorry, fucking worthless excuses for lawmen.

Daughter found the ride she'd like to have

And after you see it, look at all the other stuff they have!

Flying Soviet fighters back when; (updated, pics added)

Bleep, what a mess.
Two things that particularly grabbed me: the mechanics("We had 210 maintainers," Manclark recalled. "They were dedicated, just unbelievable, tech sergeants and master sergeants.) and this on flares:
We had the Soviet flares – they were dirty, and none of them looked the same – and the AIM-9P said 'I love that flare'.

"Why’d that happen? We had designed it to reject American flares. The Soviet flares had different burn time, intensity and separation. The same way, every time we tried to build a SAM simulator, when we got the real thing it wasn’t the same.
I realize there were problems getting Soviet stuff to test, but it seems like "We need to find out what the enemy flares burn like before we make this missile operational" would be a pretty basic thing.


Pumice- LOTS of pumice- apparently from a underwater volcano.


So if you own a AR or AK or similar, you wasted money on something no good for hunting, no good for self-defense, only good for domestic, homegrown terrorism. Right. Not the politicians with badges insisting the commoners can't be trusted with such, 'don't need them', etc.


Yeek; not a nice comparison at all, is it?


Also pointed to by Tam, a slight problem with equipment: those string-locking gadgets on a lot of jackets. Another incident here, noted in the comments.
Also in the comments, a guy warns about some shirts having a 'pocket' that can cause problems. I know about that; I've got a couple of shirts I've used for cover that have the problem: where the material folds back along the front, it's sewn at the bottom but not above there, and I've had the muzzle catch in that pocket during dry-fire practice. I'll take pictures later and add them to this, short on time right now.
Update: here's the inside front of that shirt:
and here's what happened a couple of times during dry-fire draw & fire practice:
This was with a IWB holster, but could be a problem with any; the shirt's light enough that it would fall back down and, sometimes, the muzzle could go into that pocket. Distracting, at the least.

Someone is printing unwelcome facts about MAIG

and some of their corrupt members, and they don't like it.

Good work, sir.

Another nasty thing in Gunwalker?

Zambada-Niebla claims that under a “divide and conquer” strategy, the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious in exchange for information that allowed the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to take down rival drug cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009 — during both Fast and Furious and Bush-era gunrunning operations — as long as the intel kept coming.

(fG)Britain is well and truly screwed

A children's play centre has barred fathers from attending with their children and is now facing an investigation by equality watchdogs.

Kids Go Wild is believed to be the first such play centre in the country to introduce a ‘women only’ policy – which also bans boys over the age of nine.



(stolen from here)


US construction jobs, given to PRC companies; isn't that just effing wonderful?





As Uncle put it, 'Not anti-crime, just anti-gun'.




Unpleasant but true: Thank God for the atomic bomb




As Tam commanded, another ride this evening on the(for lack of better term than 'bike') Street Pedal Vehicle. The handlebars make such a huge difference that I can concentrate on how my legs feel like they're about to stop functioning at the something-mile mark. I think it's about four miles total, with a stop at a park where I can further torture myself with some pushups and such, which pretty much wrings me out. And either my saddle isn't as good as I was remembering, or I don't have enough padding anymore, or it's degraded(the saddle, dammit); may have to check on a new one later on.


And, just to remind you that there are worse things than a clog in the toilet,

I'm pissed this morning,

having seen someone trumpeting a sign saying 'Romney can buy a sports car, so this kid is sick!' Apparently believing that Romney taking legitimate tax shelters means someone has to be sick or starve, and- SURPRISE!- the .gov must do something. Etc. In the meantime, the socialist in the Oval Office who keeps bitching about 'the rich not paying enough won't see that his own staff pays their taxes. And any doubts the bastard & wife are taking every shelter, etc., their accountants can find?


Another university with a "We believe in free speech, as long as it's approved speech" attitude; if they do this I hope FIRE sues their ass off.


Elizabeth Warren’s daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi is leaving nothing to chance in the 2012 election for her mother. Warren Tyagi, the chair of the George Soros funded Demos Foundation, has bankrolled, through Demos, former members of ACORN in their pursuit to have the Commonwealth’s welfare agency perform a voter registration drive. The Boston Herald has the story, although they missed the Warren familial connection….
That's 'missed' as in 'ignored completely'.


Hey, why should ATF obey laws or procedures? They've got a DoJ and politicians who'll protect them.
Additionally, the in-place rules being disregarded were implemented as a direct result of a scathing 2004 Office of Inspector General audit that found Bureau field offices recklessly out of control in establishing and conforming to standards, making the recent violations examples of negligent or deliberate indifference to mandated corrective actions.



The front of her shirt had the other name for the same group, “Queers for Palestine.”

Q.U.I.T./Queers for Palestine is an ultra-radical lesbian political group that protests against the only nation in the Middle East where gays live freely with full rights, and in favor of a culture that outlaws homosexuality and violently persecutes gays. Are they insane? Yes. Did I find it a bit unnerving that such a political stance is considered so “normal” in Berkeley that people just stroll around on an average day wearing “Queers for Palestine” shirts? Yep.
Which do you think will happen first: the complete financial implosion of the state, or the big quake?


The gun bigots have another plan to effectively ban semi-autos.


Yes, the Obamites are even more disgusting bastards than you may have thought.


Dammit. Things to do, more outrage to stew over. Back later.

Someone tell me again about the great morality of Obama on Guantanamo

And then the wheels came off the Moral Authority Express. It turned out instead of bringing enemy combatants to Guantanamo, where detainees are well-fed and have access to attorneys, Obama has been sending them to a disease-ridden hell-on-earth in Somalia. And the Obama administration began urging the Supreme Court to ignore the detainees’ appeals. And now it seems those periodic review boards were–what would the president call them? Just words:

The Obama administration has begun limiting the legal rights of terror suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, telling a federal judge Tuesday the government alone should decide when the prisoners deserve regular access to their counsel.

And, just to add to the fun, more returns from Holder's genius work with ATF and FBI and DHS and every other alphabet agency stupid enough and politically greedy enough to get tied into Gunwalker:
Drug cartel operatives used weapons from Operation Fast and Furious in a failed attempt to assassinate a high-ranking Mexican law enforcement official, the El Paso Times reports in an article that follows up on an initial report from Breitbart News’ Mary Chastain.

The gun — which “was seized in Tijuana in connection with a drug cartel’s conspiracy to kill the police chief of Tijuana, Baja California, who later became the Juárez police chief” — is tied to Fast and Furious.
To AG Holder and all the other clowns: just how many bodies can be laid at your feet in this mess(so far)?
And do you give a damn?

Damn straight

I mention this because initial reports state that when Evil presented itself in his place of peace and began to slaughter those of his flock, 65-year-old Satwant Singh Kaleka did his level best to punch the ticket of the decades-younger murderer with what the Media has described as a "butter knife" -- a blunted blade, less than four inches in length.

Some Media reports indicate that there was a "trail of blood" from the spot where Satwant Singh Kaleka did his last duty as a Sikh and as a man; others do not mention it.

For myself, I choose to believe that Satwant Singh Kaleka went to his God with a smile on his lips and a bloody Kirpan in his hand.

Hoo-ah, sir.

Oh for bleep's SAKE... Updated

I forgot to put the original link from BRM; and I got this note from Tam:
Internet rumor.

The FBI is returning a couple lots of ammunition. This somehow got conflated with an older internet piece of internet BS and is now making the rounds of the cop forums again.

(Seriously, google "Q4355 recall". If it were a real thing, it would be on Winchester's page, which it is not. Also, pressers probably would have been sent out, which they weren't.)

The FBI is working with Winchester on a potentially serious condition affecting all recently produced .40 S&W, Winchester, Q4355, 180grain, Bonded SERVICE ammunition. Some of the cartridge casings were produced without a flash hole. This condition completely eliminates the ability of this Service cartridge to fire.

This is a silent killer in that no visual inspection by FBI personnel can detect this manufacturing defect and it would only be known at the time the Agent attempted to fire their handgun. A limited number of problems have been reported: however, this is such a dangerous condition [that] immediate action across the FBI is necessary.

Affected ammunition will have a four character 'day code', two letters, two numbers, i.e., FA 42. All Q4355 with day codes beginning with the letter F and any Q4355 with the two letter combination of EN are included in this recall. This ammunition must be removed from FBI service weapons and magazines IMMEDIATELY.

Again, boxed ammunition with the following codes must be removed from service IMMEDIATELY:

• Product Code: Q4355
• Day Code: Any code beginning with F or EN

In the 'Because all the REAL problems are solved' category

we have this idiocy:
In its mounting campaign against leakers, the U.S. government isn’t just going after officials who revealed weighty secrets like the White House’s drone strike “kill list” or its plan to sabotage Iran’s nuclear sites. Federal agents are also chasing a leaker who gave Danger Room a document asking for a futuristic laser weapon that could set insurgents’ clothes on fire from nine miles away.

It’s an odd investigation, because the energy weapon doesn’t exist; the unclassified document describing it reads almost like a spoof of the laser system out of Real Genius; and this is 2012 — nearly five years after the leak in question.


So the Democrats had an ad with a guy basically saying "Romney is why my wife died, he doesn't know or care about the damage he does." And even CNN is calling 'bullshit' on it.
Romney better be prepared to whack on these people hard.



Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicating that the General Services Administration (GSA), with the blessing of the Obama White House, instructed law enforcement officers to “stand down” and not arrest “Occupy Portland” protestors who were in violation of the law.

The records, obtained pursuant to a November 11, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, include internal DHS correspondence. One November 6, 2011, e-mail exchange between DHS/National Protection and Programs Directorate Chief of Staff Caitlin Durkovich and GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Robert Peck (who has since been fired) specifically related to Occupy Portland protests taking place on federal property in Portland:


A Celebritute for Socialism has another episode; nobody surprised.


"What? I should speak directly to those peasants? No!"

A little over .10", but it was rain

accompanied by some damn strong winds. Hopefully some more will come overnight & tomorrow.

I also have to note that they officially consider a number of the fires the last few days 'suspicious'; considering this includes a guy who saw someone throw something out of a vehicle and fire immediately flare up, I'd tend to agree.
I'm also willing to start a petition to re-institute either a whipping post in the town square or a gallows for people who do shit like this

Appears the murderer in the Sikh attack was a national socialist;

wonder how many media weenies will actually use the term?


Dingy Harry Reid lies about Romney & taxes, and Pelosi lies about Republicans wanting people to get sick; these clowns are disgusting.


That's it for now; Stuff to do, and right now the inspiration fairy isn't exactly whacking me with her wand

From 'roo land, Tim Blair brings the snark

But it’s unfair to criticise our Olympians in isolation. They are but a reflection of the nation as a whole – a nation that just dropped more than $300 million on an Olympic quest currently returning more sobbing fits than medals.

Which brings us back to whales. If whale-weeping were an Olympic event, the Australian team would be carrying more gold than a gangsta rapper’s gob. Show us a dead, dying or doomed whale and we start, well, blubbering at world-record speed.

Our Olympians are the product of a culture given to whale wussiness. We shouldn’t expect our swimmers, for example, to emerge from the pool stern of jaw and clear of eye when the rest of us can’t keep it together every time a stupid humpback rocks up on the beach minus a pulse.

And on suggested training:
...As Michael Milton declared last week:
“Our athletes are too soft!”
Good call. Paralympian Milton went on to suggest that “we drop our potential gold medallists in the middle of the desert and let them find their way home”, which is the kind of hardcore training regimen you’d expect from someone who has survived a downhill ski run at 213kmh.

On one leg.


One of his commentaries on Globular Warmering*:

Manne defines “denialists” as “orthodox members of a tightly knit group whose natural disposition is not to think for themselves”.

Yet somehow these drones are easily able to resist the powerful intellects of Manne and his global army of consensus bunnies. It’s a mystery. Maybe they’ll be convinced by the latest from wild-eyed enviropath Bill McKibben:
The planet does indeed have an enemy ... we need to view the fossil-fuel industry in a new light. It has become a rogue industry, reckless like no other force on Earth. …This industry, and this industry alone, holds the power to change the physics and chemistry of our planet, and they’re planning to use it.
Unknown is when the Vulcans or Klingons gifted this physics-changing power to the oil and coal companies.

*I used that term on facebook in an argument once, and was dismissed because "If you can't even spell it right, why should I listen to anything you say?" Having it pointed out that I was using it to laugh at him and the other True Believers didn't help matters at all.

When you go outside at 8pm and it's right at 100

but with the sun down it doesn't feel bad at all, it's been too hot for too long.

Couple of days ago Tam had a piece on using the BRSUV for more exercise, and some discussion in the comments caused me to get off my ass and try something. My bicycle is a trail-type, which means the bars are almost straight, and they were killing my hands after a while. Suggestion was made to try higher bars; honestly, the idea had occurred a while back, but it got pushed back into a corner and forgotten. After a little 'net browsing(do you have any idea what some bars go for? Geez!), I swung by the "That bike is HOW MUCH?" shop nearby and asked, and it turned out they had some bars for cheap. Picked out one and put it on this afternoon; also had to replace two cables due to the height change. Just finished trying them out; HUGE difference. It'll make it much easier to use it for library runs and such. Now I need a lock of some kind for the store.


Week ago I had to get a new TV*, and the day after set it up ran across this on making a antenna. I dug up some 16-gauge galvanized wire and some 1x3, and had to get some suitable screws. I used the 16-gauge for the connector wires between 'V's, with a bit of insulation between where they cross. For the line to the tv I had on the transformer that plugs to the antenna connector on the VCR, and found some speaker wire: connected the ends of the speaker wire to the connector wires at the center, then to the transformer and plugged it in. It's working great. I may find something to use for reflectors and see if they add anything other than complexity.

As I sit here waiting for it to cool down a bit

before I try out the modified bicycle, I'm been putting together thoughts on the 'dumbass on the wrong side of the highway' the other night. Among them, how easily I could have taken a short air trip with a bad landing(takeoff wouldn't have been much fun, either).

Full rundown: from southbound on the Lake Hefner Parkway, took the exit to I-44 eastbound; it's a nice right-hand curve of about 270 degrees, as you merge to 44 you have to curve left a bit, then right. And as you are in the right curve there's a rise in the road. I'd just passed a pickup doing about 55 and was in the inside lane as I came over the rise to see those headlights coming my way. I really don't remember thinking anything except "Crap, he's on the wrong side of the divider!" before curving right- fast- into the next lane; I knew I'd just passed that truck and there was nobody in front of or next to him, don't remember checking the mirrors before getting over. I do remember checking six before moved over to the outside lane(I wanted LOTS of space between us). I don't even remember any particular excitement during, just my OODA loop working very quickly; have to wonder if all those "What do you do if-?" thought problems/drills have some crossover effect?

Got an e-mail from a guy whose best friend was killed by a drunk in similar circumstances, and having heard a lot of bits & pieces over the years(Dad worked a LOT of accidents), when there's a wrong-side collision there's usually at least one fatality. Fortunately, here I had two full lanes and a shoulder to go to; had there been someone in the lane right beside me it'd have been a 'speed up and cut over or brake hard and cut' decision with damn little time.

Such a fixation on other men's dicks these gun-ban people have

I mean, c'MON, people!

Abolish the TSA

Two more demonstrations of incompetence.

One of these days they're going to be complicit in a terrorist actually getting through, and they'll be able to add involuntary manslaughter to molestation, theft and oathbreaking

Animal-rights nuts;

they keep bringing the dumbass.


Well, apparently those Brady-approved gun laws aren't doing much good.
And remind me, what party has been running that state/city for, oh, the past few decades?




Just how much does Obama care about the troops? This much.
Isn't that just going to do wonders for morale?
About as much as this request from the Egyptian government; if Obama goes along with this...


My first thought on this is 'Gibson decided that, rather than be screwed around for years by the Dept. of 'Justice', they'll play this game. And it sucks.'

Ok, this is gonna be a long one: Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A “Vision” of the Future

is the article it's about. I'm going to borrow a lot from Sipsey as he covers it quite well; I'd say read the piece, and the comments as well; lots of people aren't happy with this.

On an office door at the United States army's Command and General Staff College someone has scrawled: "You can't see the forest if you burn down all the trees."

Alongside is another titbit of advice to the hundreds of officers studying how to wage a counter-insurgency: "It should be obvious that there is a gigantic difference between defeating an army and running a country."

Fort Leavenworth, a sprawling base on the Missouri River, is in ferment as the army frantically tries to learn the harsh lessons from Iraq. This is the cauldron of a revolution in the US army's psyche. . .

In the words of a colonel at the staff college, officers during the Cold War era were taught what to think. Now they must be taught "how to think".

Critical to the army's hopes is Col Kevin Benson, the head of the School of Advanced Military Studies, also at Fort Leavenworth, which each year picks the army's top 78 majors to train as war-planners. -- US army officers learn harsh lesson in history, London Telegraph, 3 June 2006.

...

Before we plunge into this column, a little background is in order. The first thing for the reader to understand is where this ill-thought, offensive and dangerous article appeared:

The Small Wars Journal (SWJ) is an electronic journal and website focusing on counter-insurgency. Aside from its online journal, SWJ hosts an accompanying blog and the Small Wars Council discussion board. Other site features include an online reference library, recommended reading and event listings.

Contributing authors to SWJ include Gary Anderson, Matt Armstrong, Robert Bunker, Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, General Martin Dempsey, Thomas Hammes, Jim Gant, Gian Gentile, Robert Haddick, Frank Hoffman, David Kilcullen, Robert Killebrew, Peter Mansoor, William "Mac" McCallister, John Nagl, Malcolm Nance, John Sullivan, Bing West, Paul Yingling and Michael Yon among others.

The title Small Wars Journal is a reference to the 1940 Marine Corps Small Wars Manual, which used "small wars" as a catch-all term for unconventional and guerrilla warfare, also encompassing foreign internal defense (FID), military operations other than war (MOOTW) and military operations in urban terrain (MOUT). -- Wikipedia.

To say that the Small Wars Journal is influential in current military thinking circles is an understatement. SWJ has this caveat lector up front:

Small Wars Journal publishes contributed work from across the spectrum of stakeholders in small wars. We look for articles from serious, authentic voices that add richness, breadth and depth to the dialog that too often occurs in cloistered venues. We do not screen articles for conformance with a house view; our only position is that small wars are wicked problems warranting consideration of myriad views before action, to inform what will no doubt be imperfect decisions with significant unintended consequences. On the continuum from paralysis by analysis, to informed action with recognition & maybe mitigation of cascading effects, to bold & ignorant decisiveness, we strive to help our readers find the middle ground.

Next, you need to know who the authors are. First, from the SWJ thumbnail:

Kevin Benson, Ph.D., Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired, is currently a seminar leader at the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He holds a B.S. from the United States Military Academy, an M.S. from The Catholic University of America, an MMAS from the School of Advanced Military Studies and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. During his career, COL Benson served with the 5th Infantry Division, the 1st Armored Division, the 1st Cavalry Division, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, XVIII Airborne Corps and Third U.S. Army. He also served as the Director, School of Advanced Military Studies. He works for AECOM.

AECOM is no fly-by night military consultant company:

AECOM Technology Corporation is a professional technical and management support services conglomerate. Ranked in terms of revenue from design projects, the company was the number one design firm for 2010 and 2011 by Engineering News-Record and ranked number one by Architectural Record for 2008. It provides services in the areas of transportation, planning, environmental, energy, water and government. With approximately 45,000 employees in 2012, AECOM is listed at #353 on the Fortune 500 list. The name AECOM is an acronym for Architecture, Engineering, Consulting, Operations and Maintenance. -- Wikipedia.

Retired Colonel Kevin C. M. Benson (USMA, 1977), is currently employed as Senior Analyst for defense policy and business development as AECOM's Seminar leader at the University of Foreign Military & Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth.

The School of Advanced Military Studies, of which Benson was Director for 3 years and 10 months from August 2003 to May 2007, educates commanders and general staff officers for US Army divisions and corps as well as officers from other US services and international armies ranging from Great Britain to Egypt.

Benson's last operational job in the U.S. Army was as Director of Plans (J5) for Third US Army/CFLCC (June 2002 to July 2003) where he was, according to his LinkedIn biography, "Director of plans for the initial invasion and occupation of Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom."

A May 2011 graduate of the University of Kansas with a PhD in American history, later that year Benson was named the Summer 2011 Fellow at the Dole Institute where he developed and presented a series of five study seminars on warfare in the 21st century.

And what is the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies where Benson currently works as a seminar leader?

The University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies (UFMCS) at Fort Leavenworth is an Army-directed education, research, and training initiative for Army organizations, joint organizations, and other government agencies.

Red Teaming is a structured, iterative process, executed by highly trained, educated, and practiced team members that provides commanders an independent capability to fully explore alternatives to plans, operations, concepts, organizations, and capabilities in the context of the operational environment and from our partners’ and adversaries’ perspectives.

UFMCS educates Red Team Leaders, Members, and Practitioners; researches best practices for Red Teaming tactics, techniques, and procedures; and develops a reach-back capability to provide commanders and staffs alternative perspectives. Graduates of Leader and Member courses receive an additional skill identifier (ASI).

UFMCS offers four courses of instruction: An 18-week Leaders Course, a 9-week Stop-Gap Leaders Course, a 6-week Members Course, and a 2-week Practitioners Course (no ASI).

"Red Teaming" requires further explanation for the uninitiated:

A red team is a independent group that seeks to challenge an organization in order to improve effectiveness. The general idea of Red Teaming can be described as a bright light we shine on ourselves to expose areas where we can improve effectiveness. This light starts out white for everyone, under the banner of Red Teaming, but it goes through the prism of the particular organization and takes many different forms in its application. Some of these forms are as different as black and white. Sandia National Labs uses teams that attempt malicious entry in both the physical and cyber world, while the intelligence community has teams that speculate about alternative futures and write articles as if they were despotic world leaders. . .

The idea of using Red Teams has been around for a long time. Private business such as IBM, and other government agencies like the CIA and Sandia National Labs have long used them to help improve their organization. Red Teams in the military got a boost after a 2003 Defense Science Review Board recommend increasing the use of Red Teams to help guard against the shortcomings that led up to 9-11. Largely in response to 2003 report, the Army stood up its service-level Red Team, the Army Directed Studies Office, in 2004. This was the first service level Red Team and until this year was the largest Red Team in the DoD.

One type of Red Teaming can take the form of penetration testers that assess the security of an organization, which is often unaware of the existence of the team or the exact assignment. This type of Red Team provides a more realistic picture of the security readiness than exercises, role playing, or announced assessments. Red team may trigger active controls and countermeasures in effect within a given operational environment.

In wargaming, the opposing force (or OPFOR) in a simulated military conflict may be referred to as a red cell (this is a very narrow form of Red Teaming) and may also engage in red team activity, which is used to reveal weaknesses in military readiness. The key theme is that the aggressor is composed of various threat actors, equipment, and techniques that are at least partially unknown by the defenders. The red cell challenges the operations planning by playing the role of a thinking enemy. -- Wikipedia.

A UFMCS-trained Red Team is educated to look at problems from the perspectives of the adversary and our multinational partners, with the goal of identifying alternative strategies. The Red Team provides commanders with critical decision-making expertise during planning and operations. The team’s responsibilities are broad—from challenging planning assumptions to conducting independent analysis to examining courses of action to identifying vulnerabilities.

Red Team Leaders are expert in:

1. Analyzing complex systems and problems from different perspectives to aid in decision making using models of theory.

2. An analysis of the concepts, theories, insights, tools and methodologies of cultural and military anthropology to predict other’s perceptions of our strengths and vulnerabilities.

3. Applying critical and creative thinking in the context of the operational environment to fully explore alternatives to plans, operations, concepts, organizations, and capabilities.

4. Applying advanced analytical skills and techniques at tactical level through strategic level and develop products supporting command decision making and operational execution. -- Wikipedia.

The UFMCS Red Teaming handbook is found here.

Benson, in short, is no lightweight in his circles, although the same cannot be said about his thinking, but more of that in a moment. First, a bit about his co-author:
(I'm leaving the picture out)

Jennifer Weber is an Associate Professor of History (Ph.D. Princeton, 2003) at the University of Kansas. Jennifer Weber specializes in the Civil War, especially the seams where political, social, and military history meet. She has active interests as well in Abraham Lincoln, the 19th century U.S., war and society, and the American presidency. Her first book, Copperheads (Oxford University Press, 2006), about the antiwar movement in the Civil War North, was widely reviewed and has become a highly regarded study of Civil War politics and society. Professor Weber is committed to reaching out to the general public and to young people in her work. Summer's Bloodiest Days (National Geographic), is a children's book about the Battle of Gettysburg and its aftermath. The National Council for Social Studies in 2011 named Bloodiest Days a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Dr. Weber is very active in the field of Lincoln studies. She has spoken extensively around the country on Lincoln, politics, and other aspects of the Civil War. -- SWJ thumbnail bio.

That's it for the background, here's what these two big brains wrought -- Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A “Vision” of the Future.

Not to put too fine a point on such an article, Small Wars Journal helpfully included this at the end for a link: "Related Content: A Knife into the Heart of the Confederacy: How General Sherman’s Georgia and Carolinas Campaign Helped Empty Southern Hearts and Minds of the Will to Wage Insurrection."

At least some wag at SWJ understands the bloody road down which this article points.

The reactions of SWJ readers were not universal acclamations of approval. Here's one:
I'm leaving the comments out, they're all at the article link.

As one retired military guy I talked to said, "This is the ultimate mission creep. The Pentagon bright boys understand that we're not going to have the money anymore to project force overseas so they're planning to fight in the one place that doesn't require it: 'the Homeland', which is a damned socialist term anyway."

What strikes me is that this retired big-brain colonel has so little grasp of reality that he should choose the Tea Parties and "extremist militias" for his offensive action scenario. I guess it must be true what folks have been saying for some time -- that white Christian "bitter clingers" are the only politically correct evil enemy anymore.

Benson touches only tangentially on the National Command Authority's principal problem in his scenario:

Once the Fifth Army commander determines he has a complete picture of activity within the town and especially of the insurrectionists’ patterns of behavior, deployment of combat, combat support and combat service support forces will begin from Forts Bragg and Stewart, and Camp Lejuene. Commanders will need to consider how the insurrectionists will respond. Soldiers and Marines involved in this operation, and especially their families will be subject to electronic mail, Facebook messages, Twitters, and all manner of information and source of pressure. Given that Soldiers and Marines stationed at Forts Bragg and Stewart as well as Camp Lejuene live relatively nearby and that many come from this region, chances are they will know someone who lives in or near Darlington. Countering Al Qaeda web-based propaganda is one thing, countering domestic information bombardments is another effort entirely.

Yet Benson seems to think that individual troop morale is his only problem. He ought to be wondering whether his orders will be obeyed at all, or, more to the point, which way the military's weapons will be aimed.

As ridiculous and faulty-premised as Benson's article is, we must take it seriously. At least some Pentagon planners are considering how to wage "anti-insurrectionary" operations against that class of folks that Obama sneeringly referred to as "the bitter clingers." That such military tyranny would be both a violation of their Constitutional oaths and treason seems not bother Benson and his ilk a whit. Thus, if the Pentagon is going to consider us potential enemies, we must give some thought to the application of Fourth Generation Warfare techniques in righteous self-defense against tyranny.

Now there's a nugget around which Benson can build his next article.

Down in the comments section there's a piece by Benson basically saying "Hey, take it easy, we don't mean you."
...Several readers(as in 'a shitload of people')objected to our using the Tea Party in our fictional scenario. We see your point. Understand, though, that you could insert any number of organizations into our scenario in lieu of the Tea Party. The scenario and the response thereto, rather than the specific actors, are the focus of our piece.
You could have used the OWS Black Block, the NBPP(both of which has actually called for violent revolution), others of that type: instead you specifically say tea party. And when called on it throw in this excuse(either for actually figuring the tea party types want this, or to cover your cowardice in not calling it some of these other groups). Yeah, a lot of people have a real problem with that, and if you don't understand why, they you shouldn't be sitting in the position you are.


In a somewhat-connected matter, the Fed and Treasury are 'auditing' some of the gold they hold:
"The calls for audits are saying, 'We don't trust the government for the last 200 years,'" said Ted Truman, a former assistant Treasury secretary and Fed official. He called perennial questions about the country's reserves "the gold bug equivalent of the birther movement."
No, asshole, it's the people saying "We want an audit of our gold that you have in your hands." Which is a perfectly reasonable thing, I'd say. The fact that you clowns have fought it tooth and nail for- years now?- is part of why so many are suspicious.
The final results still might not satisfy some. Paul, the Texas Republican and presidential contender, wants an independent audit of all U.S. gold.
And just why that upsets the Fed and Treasury so damn much, that is a good question.

So Acting BATFEIEIO head B. Todd Jones (something added)

doesn't want to hear from people who know things about what's been going on. At least people he doesn't control who have information it seems he really doesn't want coming out.


Added:
In a non-connected matter, Brinks wants to depose a ATF official:
Brink's says that after the BATF inspected its facility in Coppell, Texas in December 2010, it received a notice of revocation from Bennett.
It claims the revocation is illegal and against the BATF's own policies.
...
"Brink's has never received an ATF Warning Letter, nor been asked to attend an ATF Warning Conference, at any time in the past," the complaint states.

Weer'd calls it A Field of Strawmen,

and that about covers it.
Most of the “Facts” presented are just dumb, like saying you’re a bad hunter if you use a semi-auto. Hmmm How come every duck-hunting fanatic I know owns a Browning auto-5? Or the guy saying we should ban dangerous weapons so he won’t kill people when they make him upset. (classy!)
Etc.