Because all the other crap in the world doesn't stop,

I'm still looking at other news.  One thing first:  NWS is saying that at one point, between Newcastle and Moore, this mother was 2.25 miles wide on the ground...

Some of the usual suspects are claiming Lois Lerner, the IRS clown in charge of the Exempt Organizations Division, is 'apolitical'.  Nazzo fast, Guido:
Since admitting the IRS harassed hundreds of conservative and Tea Party groups for over two years, Lerner has been criticized for a number of untruths—including the revelation that she apparently lied about planting a question at an American Bar Association conference where she first publicly acknowledged IRS misconduct.
...
The trouble with this defense is that, prior to joining the IRS, Lerner's tenure as head of the Enforcement Office at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) was marked by what appears to be politically motivated harassment of conservative groups.


Anybody else as sick as I am of
A: These 'Gang of X' groups trying to make legislation in the darkness, and
B: The idiots and/or turncoats working with the enemy?
A hot microphone caught Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) coordinating which way members of the “Gang of Eight” who serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee would vote on immigration bill amendments, Breitbart News has learned. 

“Do our Republicans have a pass on this one if they want?” the microphone caught Schumer saying.


More whistleblowers on Benghazi:
Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming “insurgents” with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft.
Hillary Clinton still wanted to proceed because, in part, as one of the diplomats said, she wanted “to overthrow Gaddafi on the cheap.”
and
Regarding General Ham, military contacts of the diplomats tell them that AFRICOM had Special Ops “assets in place that could have come to the aid of the Benghazi consulate immediately (not in six hours).”
Ham was told by the White House not to send the aid to the trapped men, but Ham decided to disobey and did so anyway, whereupon the White House “called his deputy and had the deputy threaten to relieve Ham of his command.”
They note that they don't have confirmation of these things as yet; we'll see.


Confirmed dirt- more- on Fast & Furious:
The former U.S. Attorney for Arizona could be disbarred, after an investigation found he lied to the Justice Department about his role in trying to discredit the federal whistle-blower who exposed the botched gun-running scheme known as Fast and Furious.

An Office of Inspector General report showed that Dennis Burke -- the former chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed as U.S. Attorney for Arizona by President Obama in September 2009 -- lied when asked if he leaked sensitive documents to the press meant to undermine the credibility of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson.

The IG report also said Burke likely leaked the memo in retaliation for Dodson's whistle-blowing, and challenged the credibility of statements he made to congressional investigators. Dodson first went to Congress in 2010 after his own agency and the Justice Department refused to investigate his complaints that Operation Fast and Furious, an anti-gun-trafficking effort, was out of control.


Fire them.  And take qualified immunity away from ANY LE officer involved in crap like this:
But Montanez says it was a Hays County SWAT truck that rammed his car head-on. As they collided, another police vehicle pinned him from behind, he says.
He heard a shot.

“I saw my windshield crack, and I ducked down as low as possible,” Montanez said. “I really thought I was going to die.”

Seconds later, he says, three deputies were pointing assault rifles at him. “That’s when I heard one of the officers say, ‘Oh, (expletive), we got the wrong guy,’ ” Montanez said.
...Even after officers realized that he was not the suspect, he said, they kept him in handcuffs for half an hour while they questioned him and ran a warrant check that came up with nothing. Then they let him go.
First, when the HELL did ramming a car become the approved SWAT-Operator Car-Stopping Method?
Second, THEY FIRED SHOTS?
Third, “Due to the urgency of these warrants and the hazards to neighbors and bystanders, tactics were employed in order to maximize safety to community and swift apprehension of the suspect,” the report states.  BY RAMMING THE CAR?

This is one of those 'Horsewhips followed by hot tar and feathers' things

The Department of Defense confirms to NBC 5 Investigates that accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has now been paid more than $278,000 since the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting that left 13 dead and 32 injured. The Army said under the Military Code of Justice, Hasan’s salary cannot be suspended unless he is proven guilty.
...
Meanwhile, more than three years later soldiers wounded in the mass shooting are fighting to receive the same pay and medical benefits given to those wounded in combat.
Because the chickenshits in the White House(those who aren't flirting with outright treason) won't label the attack what it was, oh no, it's just 'workplace violence'.

a bit of backed-up 'What the hell?'

Why are the Brit authorities soft-peddling who murdered a soldier on a public street, but hammering anyone who says non-pc things on bloody facebook?
Because it's safer to screw with people who say impolite things than the actual enemy, and
because they're using the enemy for votes.  And screw the future consequences.


I'm wondering, did Romney return that knife Christie stuck in his back?


This information's been out for a while, but the warmenists can't bloody stand it, so most media hasn't talked about it.

Stolen from Correia:

                                  "We're here to off the wizard"

Yes, Sen. Turban really IS a dick.



'Creeping sense of personal remorse' actually means "I got caught!"


More "I'm a gun owner BUT-" sockpuppets.

Over in Tolerance & Respect Land,

Seven Dutch teenagers and an adult man accused of kicking a football linesman to death at a junior league match have gone on trial in the Netherlands.
Well, that sounds bad.
Seven teenagers and one father, identified only as “El Hasan D”, appeared in court in the Dutch town of Lelystad, where they faced charges of manslaughter, public violence and brutality. Mr Nieuwenhuizen’s widow and one of his sons arrived at the court but declined to speak to journalists.
Uh-oh, better watch what you say about them!  But don't worry, the Court is on the watch:
“After a long time, your trial is finally beginning,” judge Anja van Holten told the accused. Most had been in detention since the attack. “These will be difficult days for you. We will try to take that into account,” she added.
Awww, isn't that nice?


Completely unrelated to the above, I was looking at the Hodgdon/Winchester loading data site, and noticed they have some load data for .50BMG; how does 225 to 260 grains of powder sound?
Hey, with the lighter load you can get 31 rounds from a pound of powder!


About the FBI shooting that suspect in Florida?  Curiouser and curiouser...
Thanks to Shermlock for that second link.
Have to borrow a quote from the Ace post:
I don't know if that happened here. The guy could have lunged for the sword, and the FBI agent could have just been a little too quick on the draw. (Or perhaps just in time on the draw. Who knows.)
But whereas before I'd provisionally assume the FBI was telling the truth, I gotta tell you: My working assumption is now that they are lying.
Because that's what they do.
Which is exactly why, if the IRS and EffingBI and other agencies actually give a damn about the law and right and wrong, they'd stomp the crap out of the agents abusing power/lying/etc.: because if they don't they're feeding the feeling people have gained that they don't give a damn about anything but their power, and the use of it.


Speaking of abusers of power, we know Holder's lied under oath before, so him lying to a judge wouldn't be a surprise. 
Lying to the press about his intentions, either.


You may have noticed that Oklahoma had another visit from the airborne vacuums; this is the back end of one of the supercells traversing the land today

It was south and a bit east of where I was standing; having seen such on a direct approach before, I like this angle better.

Also, this little camera is great.  When I get the right damn settings, and since it has so many that's sometimes problematic.

 Good grief;  I just checked and, as of September, I will have been doing this for nine years.


Og is a bastard.  thatisall.


One way or another, Ma Nature is always trying to kill you.  And eventually succeeding.

Everybody who wants a mammoth

just got a boost:
Russian scientists discovered a fully-grown female mammoth with blood and well-preserved muscle tissue trapped in ice in Siberia. The findings come amid debates on whether the extinct species should be resurrected using DNA.
Unlike, say, a velociraptor or something, cloning a mammoth would leave you with something like an elephant, which we do have experience dealing with.  So there's one more problem down.


As it should be: no special rights because you have a government job.
In Texas, the House defeated a measure on Sunday that would have given prosecuting attorneys and lawmakers permission to carry gunsanywhere they wanted to in the state. Just 38 lawmakers voted for it, while 103 voted against.


More destruction of history by Religion of Peace proponents in the mid-east.


More misconduct by the prosecutors in the Zimmerman case; so when does the bar association start disbarring these clowns, and will they be charged for their various crimes?


Ok, so exactly what the hell happened, then?
A Chechen man who was fatally shot by an FBI agent last week during an interview about one of the Boston bombing suspects was unarmed, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

An air of mystery has surrounded the FBI shooting of Ibragim Todashev, 27, since it occurred in Todashev’s apartment early on the morning of May 22. The FBI said in a news release that day that Todashev, a former Boston resident who knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed during an interview with several law enforcement officers.

So our Fearless IRS Official had a record of abuse

of power and position BEFORE she even got to the IRS.  And Obama wants her in charge of Obamacare. 



Gut-check time for the press: If they’re truly offended by the DOJ’s secret snooping on James Rosen and the AP, they won’t agree to attend Holder’s gladhanding session unless/until he agrees to make it on the record, right? Press freedom and government transparency are either important or they’re not. If they’re not, then yeah, an off-the-record session in which the powers that be privately assure a guild that they’re on their side will do just fine. Happens all the time in the Obama White House. 

Which is it?
For a lot of these sorry excuses for reporters, it'll be both: "Oh, Mr. AG Holder, you're so wonderful to be concerned about what you did!" is their default.  So they'll kiss his ass and claim this meeting makes it all better. Because supporting Obama and Holder is far more important to them than, say, reporting.

From the PROM, more zero-tolerance stupidity

I’ll give Palmer this much: The toy that caused the uproar on the school bus Friday looks like a tiny assault rifle. It’s from a G.I. Joe action figure. It’s less than 2 inches long, and the boy is 6.

“I think they overreacted totally. I totally do,” the boy’s mom, Mieke Crane, told WGGB-TV. Her boy had to write a letter of apology to the bus driver, though after she met with school officials yesterday, they agreed to drop the detention he had been sentenced to serve.

I still hear insistence that voter fraud isn't a problem,

so the only reason for voter ID laws is racism, etc.  Right.
To keep that silly narrative alive, it’s important not to read the Sunday edition of the Columbus Dispatch, in which readers were informed that “more than one out of every five registered Ohio voters is probably ineligible to vote.”

Furthermore, “in two counties, the number of registered voters actually exceeds the voting age population: Northwestern Ohio’s Wood County shows 109 registered voters for every 100 eligible, while in Lawrence County along the Ohio River it’s a mere 104 registered per 100 eligible.”


More on the piece-of-crap immigration bill Rubio wishes to trash his standing for.
The final length of the bill remained a mystery during its drafting process. Some estimates from media outlets, including from the Washington Post's David Nakamura, placed the bill length at the time at longer than 1,500 pages. Breitbart News also reported that estimate, as did many other media outlets. 

When the bill came out at introduction just under a thousand pages, Gang of Eight members tried to attack the reputations of the media outlets that reported those initial numbers. Marco Rubio attacked those who reported on the estimates of the bill’s length in a press release. 
...
The new bill towers over previous versions in length, clocking in at 1,076 pages. It was introduced on Tuesday afternoon.
A: Rubio expects us to buy this garbage just because he insists it's a good deal?
B: Just how much shit is hidden in that more-than-thousand pages of gobbledygook?
C: Next time someone announces a 'Gang of (X)' for anything, both the announcer and every member should be dragged into the town square and flogged.


I'll bet some people at IRS just about crapped their pants when this order came in.  And the investigators better be looking for evidence of screwing with files before it came down.


On personal stuff, in this case the 'life calling' over the previous few days involved not work, but a chance to travel a bit.  I'll have that story later.  Right now there's shopping to do and other everyday stuff to take care of.

Memorial Day

On in Army now, and I remember two great-uncles who served in WWII; one in the Pacific, one in Europe.

I'm going to try to watch some of Band of Brothers later; if nothing else the Why we fight episode.




Which does lead me to the one other thing I want to say today:
Britain is a shining example of losing everything fought and bled for.
Media timidity in the face of these obvious declarations is matched by equally feeble responses from the political classes. Richard Barrett, a former United Nations co-ordinator for the al-Qaida and Taliban monitoring team, offered this insight following yesterday’s brutality: “The idea that this may be terrorism inspired by some sort of religious extremist belief is quite plausible.”

Quite plausible, old chap? Quite plausible, you say? Well, let’s not jump to any conclusions simply because some Koran-quoting maniac carrying two bloody knives has just cut off a man’s head. Maybe he had trouble at home.
Open attacks and murders by muslims, who insist on saying that's exactly why they're doing this, and the Brit media and politicians, overall, don't have the balls to say something about exactly that.  Oh no, excuses and weasel-words abound.  

And we've got a bumper crop of the same level idiots here, and they're just as much in a rush to hand over everything to the enemy in the name of 'tolerance' and 'being sensitive to the beliefs of others'.

I'm sure some clown will run across this and trumpet it as "SEE, THEY HATE MUSLIMS!", so- assuming such will bother to read this far- no, all muslims are not the enemy; SOME are, and they number in the millions.  And they want us dead, converted or dhimmi.  And ignoring that, ignoring the religious reasons behind their actions, is stupid.  And downright suicidal.

Just how screwed is (fG)Britain?

This screwed:
If you mean laws against carving up innocent people on the street with knives, well, the Brits have a problem. But if you complain about such an outrage on Facebook or Twitter, you’re going to be crushed by the full majesty of the law. (Via InstaPundit):

A 22-year-old man has been charged on suspicion of making malicious comments on Facebook following the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby. Benjamin Flatters, from Lincoln, was arrested last night after complaints were made to Lincolnshire Police about comments made on Facebook, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.

Murder and beheading of a British soldier ON A STREET IN FRIGGIN' LONDON, with cops standing by helplessly waiting for a cop with a gun to show up...  then this.  "Don't you dare say anything hurtful about muslims, just because a couple did this(on top of all else, but don't mention that either)!  You'll be nicked if you do!"

The window's closing; and if they act before it does, I'm afraid it'll be as Tam thinks.  In large part because, when you let things reach that point, that's about all the reaction that's left to stop it.


Yes, still tied up; had a minute to look around and saw this crap, and it demanded some speechifying before my head blew up.

Yes, I'm still here.

Yes, another round of storms came through; heavy rains, lightning, some hail, etc.  Flood warnings, including the area with people trying to salvage what they can, others trying to minimize further damage to houses still there, and cleanup crews trying to get some improvements done, on streets if nothing else.

Security Staff(Jr.) has never really liked storms, but I've never seen him as scared as he's been the last few days.

This from daughter:
(Friend) and I were talking last night and came to a conclusion: Oklahoma is the Australia of the United States. 
Let’s see: all the poisonous snakes. All the poisonous spiders. Scorpions. Alligators. Mountain lions. Bears. Fire ants. Tornados. Winds. Floods. Droughts. Wild fires. Earthquakes. Landslides. Blizzards. Ice storms. Severe storms. The most consecutive days over 100 degrees in recorded history for all of the United States. We even managed to have a hurricane once. And I’m sure I’m missing something.


About the riots in Sweden, from Marja in the land next door:
No hint in Finnish newspapers either about who the rioters are. But no need - most of the comments are about that. Even the lefty types aren't trying to deny, they are just inventing reasons why everything is the fault of the ethnic Swedes who haven't done enough to help the immigrants to get jobs and feel at home there. Poor immigrants are being suppressed or something (so no miracle they are acting out...).

At least those comments are shown. With most papers you have to be a bit careful about how you phrase things (although sometimes you also see very, shall we say, questionable comments too - I do know of some complaints how their facts only comments disappeared while the racist rant stayed), but if done so most comments seem to go through. Although more and more papers are requiring registration, and often, after that happens, you start seeing more comments which fit the preferred narrative and less opposing views. I don't much like the idea of registration, I guess most people who think like me don't. I guess most of us are a bit paranoid. Perhaps stupid, perhaps not.
No, I think the proper term for that is 'realistic'.
And later
Hm. I may have been a bit hasty with the previous comment. Now there is news that one of the main suspects in the Swedish riots is a Finnish citizen. One paper I've been checking has been getting a lots of comments on that, mostly full of, well, glee over the fact. Except some which mention that the names of the suspects would be available on some Swedish sites. The first name of the Finnish citizen would be, according to those, Ahmed. The last name isn't anything like Lahtinen either. Points for family roots a bit further south.

And for some reason those comments keep getting deleted, all of them, after a very short while. Funny, that.
Isn't it, though?


Nanny Bloomberg really doesn't like it when he doesn't get his way:
“I saw Bloomberg and his security there in the club, so I went over and said, ‘Tell me what is going on with the Taxi of Tomorrow?’ ” Freidman, 42, said yesterday.
“He turns to me, and said, ‘Come January 1st, when I am out of office, I am going to destroy your f–king industry.’

“I said, ‘Whoa, Mr. Mayor, calm down! Why can’t I sit down with you and figure out something that works?’ He got back in my face and said, ‘After January, I am going to destroy all you f–king guys,’ ” said Freidman, whose company operates a fleet of 925 yellow cabs.
Nasty little tyrant, isn't he?


My line keeps dropping again, every time another effing storm comes through the area.  And still busy, so don't look for more for a couple of days.  

Life is calling; next few days to a week

will have light bloggage.  No, not WA; though this would probably be a good time to see St. Helens.

A roundup of stuff on the IRS law & ethics abuse.


Add up all the recent scandals and the message is clear: the Obama administration is showing that it cannot be trusted with the basic functions of government: law enforcement (surveillance of reporters), taxation (IRS scandals), and national security (Benghazi).


"Money out of politics(unless it's coming to us)!"


 Why I don't give to the Red Cross: "So what if you gave money for this disaster?  We'll use it as we see fit."


Gov. Howler really doesn't like the commoners speaking out, does he?


Ah, those nasty Methodists, they just can't control themselves(you expect Sweden to call the rioters what they are?)...


Ed Markey is a slimy bastard.
So why is ANYBODY voting for him, even in the PROM?

And, just to make the situation even more fun

To Sen. Whitehouse, the miserable global-warming skank:

1975 : Tornado Outbreaks Blamed On Global Cooling

If you'd been around then, you'd have been screaming about this, too.

Official death count 51 right now, Update: they just dropped it to 24 at 0955

expected to go up.  They found more than 100 people overnight in shelters that'd been buried by wreckage; there will probably be bodies found as this mess gets cleaned up.
Update: as of 0955 they just revised the death count DOWN to 24; med examiners office says the situation has been so chaotic that the count was too high earlier.


Video of the thing, this one starting just before it touched down

Speaking of video, the house is gone but the dog was still there.


Looking around at places for donations, I'm going to cut & paste some stuff:

Text "STORM" to 80888 for Salvation Army.
Text "FOOD" to 32333 for Reg. Food Bank for OKC Tornado.

Mercury One is taking donations here.

Salvation Army has a donation station at KFOR in Oklahoma City,
444 E. Britton Rd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73114
Please DO NOT bring clothing. 
Items needed: 
- Bottled water
- Gatorade
- Wipes
- Diapers
- Baby formula
- Hand towels
- Individually wrapped snacks
- Work gloves


TheRed Cross has set up shelters in various communities. You can donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund here, and the organization also suggests giving blood at your local hospital or blood bank.

If you want to send a $10 donation to the Disaster Relief fund via text message, you can do so by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999.

Speaking of blood, the Oklahoma Blood Institute has offices all over the state.  Usually short on blood, more so now.  If you've got O- they'll be especially happy to see you.

Relief drop-off locations in the OKC metro area.

Home Depot donated 1 million for disaster relief, a quarter of that earmarked for Moore.
Chesapeake Energy has pledged 1 million.


 Some of the local stations with information:
KFOR
KTOK
KWTV
KOKH
KOCO
Drop-off points and other news, Oklahoma Nation on FB

On critters: after the worst had passed, I went out to feed the dogs, and Security Staff(Jr.) was missing.  Bleep.  He's a bit jumpy about thunder, and there were some, ah, interesting sound effects during the tornado in Moore, and I figured he'd panicked enough to get over the fence and hide.  So I spent a while looking around the neighborhood.  No luck.

Came back, let Sec. Staff(Sr.) out to sniff around and called a few times; and (Sr.) looked into the garage with ears perked.  I could not think of anyplace he could get into, but grabbed a flashlight and found him.  The little bastard had managed to squeeze between the bike and a shelf of vehicle stuff, and couldn't get out; how the hell he got in there...  Had to move the bike a bit for him to squeeze out.


Reminded me some of the May 3 1999 tornado outbreak; while that one was stomping through THE SAME PATH this one covered through Moore, was home then, too.  Watching what could almost have been the same video from different angles.  These things are nasty.


Now, to some of the assholes playing games with this:
I never heard of Lizz Winstead; wish I never had.
And I hope the bitch pays for this for a LOOOONG time to come.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: fuck you with a splintery hoe handle, you miserable little bastard.
To any other globular warmenists who want to use this to push their political views on us:
IT'S MAY IN TORNADO ALLEY, YOU MORONS.  Tornadoes happen, and sometimes they're friggin' awful.
It's not your favorite cause, it's not evvvillleee Deniers, IT'S WEATHER.  Deal with it, and shut the hell up.

Update since the line is up right now

official count is 51 dead(last I've seen) and God knows how many injured.

And, proving there are walking wastes of oxygen good only for target practice, there is some looting going on.  Which, in a proper world, would provide the local citizens and LE with some tactical training.

Without lots of details, after two days of storms and not nearly enough sleep, I'm done.

I'll make this fast, as my connection keeps going away

Big damn tornado, started near Newcastle- southwest of me- and moved east through Moore.  That one lifted, and now they just said there's another one that's dropped from that cell.

For those of you familiar with it, they're saying followed damn near the same path through Moore as the May 3, 1999 F5.  If we don't have a LOT of deaths it'll be a bloody miracle.

All this is not counting the other tornadoes reported either forming, on the ground or done their damage and gone away.

And if I hear that asshole Mike Morgan on channel 4 talking about 'world's worst' or 'record-setting' and such again, I'm going to look him up and beat the crap out of him.

R.L. Stine wrote horror novels for kids

and has now apparently decided to write adult fiction.  From daughter:
We’ve also got the world’s least competent and most hypocritical child psychologist and the worst trained police officers in the history of fiction. Here’s an actual quote from the book, as a Sag Harbor police officer is describing a state police officer:
"Andy saw that he had a standard Glock .22--the policeman's favorite--in the black holster at his waist."

I posted about it somewhere, and one of the comments was really golden:
"He could see his target carried a Daisy pellet gun, so he knew this was going to be a dangerous confrontation."

Proving once again that the wind here not only sweeps down the plain, UPDATE on Perazzi story

sometimes it sucks, the airborn vacuums were out in force last night.  Appears casualties are very low; annoying as a lot of the weather weenies are, they're generally pretty good on short-term severe weather stuff.  Lots of destroyed homes, and people with stunned faces.

At one point KWTV had two chasers in Edmond with one storm, and one of them was about to hyperventilate, and the head ww had to ask twice "Where are you?" to get an exact location; and I swear that for a moment I thought he was going to reply "I'M RIGHT HERE!!"  But they did keep a good eye on the things.

Big ones here last night were two BIG supercells, both firing up here in central OK.  Both producing multiple tornadoes, the one that went through Norman very happily waited until it was east of town before it dropped the first, then produced twisters over and over.

It is a big change: not that long ago it would've been cops out watching the sky and radioing their headquarters that one was coming and the word spreading from there.  Now you can get severe weather alerts on your phone, or watch live radar and spotter coverage, and they generally see the wall clouds before the twister forms.  Tech can be a pain, it can also be very damned useful.


In other news, on the IRS:
In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report.


 Be nice if Scott Pelley cleaned his own damned house before he went out whining about the state of media.


And it's bad enough that some journalists are actually acting a bit like reporters.


Thoughts on nosy doctors and "Are there any guns in the house?  Or you could be rude and use my response of "That would be nobody's damned business."  Which gets varying results.


Homicide rates before guns.  Some interesting data here.  I remember reading years back of someone finding records for London around 1100 or so; made Chicago look like a calm city in comparison.


Europe is on the edge of flat-out disaster, but the EUnichs have time to worry about olive oil jugs on tables.  
In ways that will benefit the people with money to spread around, of course.


No surprise the DC mayor was involved in keeping Gregory from being prosecuted, and his office really doesn't want to have to deal with this.


Idiocy On Parade in Colorado:
“He loaded prototype shotguns into the cab on the way to the Merchandise Mart,” gun rights activist and newly-elected National Rifle Association Director Steve Schreiner, who is attending the event this weekend, told Gun Rights Examiner this morning. “The cab driver notified law enforcement he suspected he had a terrorist in his cab, and they were waiting to intercept him, evidently oblivious to the fact that he was arriving at a highly-publicized area gun show. 

“He has two lawyers, Schreiner continued, “one of whom went to the police station, and convinced the police that the owner of one of the most expensive shotgun companies in the world was not a terrorist.
And, to make the stupidity of this even more amazing,
Perazzi was released a short time later and his prototype shotguns were returned to him, but reports have emerged that he was ordered by law enforcement to leave the state by nightfall, and sources tell Gun Rights Examiner he has gone one step further and left the country. He is expected to be returning soon with an eye toward filing legal action.
I damn well hope so.
Gun Rights Examiner also spoke this morning with one of the two attorneys involved with helping Perazzi straighten matters out to obtain his release. That attorney essentially confirmed the account provided by Schreiner, albeit she characterized the authorities’ position on Perazzi leaving the state more as advice than an ultimatum by the sheriff to get out of town by sundown -- something that would have no readily apparent legal basis. A call has been put in to the Adams County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer for comment and clarification on this and other details, but a response has not been received at this writing.
And 'advising' a legitimate businessman to get out of the state HAS a legal basis?  Really?

I tend to think Mr. Perazzi can afford good lawyers; the Denver PD and that cab company better be ready to kiss ass and apologize in a major way.  And/or have their checkbooks handy.
Update: This is getting really weird.  So just what the hell IS going on?

Over in (fG)Britain,

A town has voted not to fly the flag of St George in case it offends Muslims.

Radstock in Somerset has a population of 5,620, 16 of them Muslim, census data shows.

But a Labour councillor said the red and white cross could upset people because of its links to the Crusades.
Note that local muslims say this is fairly stupid, but what do they know?
Also note that they'll fly a homosexual pride flag 'at appropriate times'; wonder what they'll do if some muslim objects to that?


Stolen from Sipsey Street:

If I'm reading this correctly, Holder wants out, and Obama wants another statist thug to take his place; either one, based on words and deeds, would be just as bad as Holder.


Kurt Hofmann speaking of a 'Only the .gov can be allowed arms' clown:
National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea responds to Fish on his War on Guns blog, and notes the most contemptible aspect of this outright rejection of ever fighting back:

The one thing he and his fellow travelers never will [say] is what their personal line in the sand for resisting tyranny would be. That's because they want an unchallengeable monopoly of violence, and can't conceive that when an idiot's usefulness has expired, he will too.

And just because:

The PROM says goodbye to some of that Beretta tax money;

more to follow.
Not to mention jobs lost and so on.  But I'm sure the clowns running the state will feel very virtuous at running this company out.


In the Dark and Fascist State of New Jersey: "How dare you bring inconvenient facts into this! Guards!" 


Why I call it Zero-Tolerance Stupidity:
The family of a second-grade boy suspended from his school in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County for chewing his Pop-Tart-like pastry into the shape of a gun has lost a bid to have the episode expunged from the child’s record, according to the family’s attorney.


Emily Miller and Judicial Watch are after the reasons why Dick Gregory wasn't treated like any other citizen.
And the OAG and MPD really aren't happy about it.
Tough shit, folks.


If you haven't heard what happened to the Reese family, go check it out.  It's a disgrace.  And I should have been doing a better job of following this.


Yes, she would; and this kind of thing we really do need to be aware of.


In closing,

After one too many "I wish I had a camera!" moments,

I broke down and bought one that'll fit in a pocket and be handy.  Which, about an hour ago, allowed me to see this on the back of a car and share it with you:

I doubt they see any problem with all the 'coexist' and 'be inclusive' stickers right next to the 'get rid of Fox' one.


Todd Kincannon is a violent asshole.  So is RT@Amendment 28th.
And this clown is- well, a clown.
Update: received this from Bob: That is not the real Todd Kincannon, but one of the many people on Twitter who hate him and stalk him. Todd's real Twitter handle is @ToddKincannon. He's a lawyer and GOP operative based out of Columbia, SC. He's well worth following on Twitter, although he's not the least bit politically correct.


Damn right they did

And, again, do not forget that Timmy Tax-Cheat Geithner was in charge of the IRS when this all started.


Steven Miller, Obama's IRS hit man, knows how to stick to a lie.
Not that it'll do him much good.  Assuming any of the Congresscritters actually care enough about this crap to really go after it.  And him.
Though some do seem willing.

Pentagon furious w/Russia over new arms shipments to Syria. State Dept: We don't know anything about it. Russia: We've made no secret of it.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) May 17, 2013

On a personal note, spent the last couple of days getting reacquainted with posthole diggers.
I really need to swear off that crap.

Democrats want gun to use tech that doesn't really exist;

because(all together now) "It's for the CHILDREENNN!"

And I guarantee that somewhere in there law enforcement and military will be exempt.


Can you scream "BULLSHIT!"?
Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee he recused himself from the leak investigation involving sweeping surveillance of the Associated Press because he was a “fact witness,” meaning he had access to the classified data at issue and was questioned about it. But he can’t recall when he recused himself. And it wasn’t in writing. In one of the worst security leaks of which he is aware (he says), he never told the White House (he says) that he took himself out of the loop.
I knew you could.


I have to say, while I generally disapprove of such things, I do sympathize.


The Wall Street Journal set the record straight: "The IRS is many things, but 'independent' isn't one of them. It is formally part of the Treasury Department and is headed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who is appointed by the President. The Commissioner is accountable to the President reporting through the Treasury Secretary."
Hmmm, and as I recall the TS was Little Timmy 'It Was All Turbotax's Fault' Geithner, wasn't he?


And now, having spent the day- among other things- digging six two-foot-deep postholes in somwhat damp clay soil and setting posts, I am now going to go collapse.

To all the people who insist we need more .gov to save health care,

go read this.  Or, more likely here, point those friends to it.


More on the IRS acting as thugs for Obama and the Democrats:
The director of the Office of Rulings and Agreements, which oversees the determinatons of tax-exempt organizations, is a donor to Barack Obama. Holly Paz donated $2,000 to Obama’s 2008 campaign, according to Open Secrets, which maintains a database of individual political donations.


The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official who apologized for targeting conservative nonprofit groups for extra scrutiny is married to an attorney whose firm hosted a voter registration organizing event for the 2012 Obama re-election campaign, praised President Obama’s policy work, and had one of its partners appointed by Obama to a key ambassadorship.

Roundup of a lot of the crap coming to the surface.  And that's not counting the crap floating up from the Benghazi investigation

Sean has a breakdown of the 'Moms Demand Action(against you)' demands,

which boil down to
They don’t just hate your guns, they hate you and they hate your freedom.


NAACP leader: "The IRS should violate the law and ethics and go after those people, because I don't like them."


Truth Minister Carney says "There's nothing to this!"

Pic found at Sipsey, also links to the next two stories.

Los Angeles wants to confiscate legally-owned magazines as 'public nuisances'.
They really don't mind wasting other peoples' money on court cases, do they?


Hazards of a militarized police force.


The People's Republic of New Jersey; anybody really doubt Christie will sign this crap if it hits his desk?


Over in Missouri, looks like they're really pissed both at what happened, and at agencies saying "We don't want to tell you anything."
Last week, two actions have occurred to try and get the full truth out of the Department of Revenue. First, in a lawsuit filed in Stoddard County regarding the scandal, subpoenas have been issued to Governor Jay Nixon and senior officials at the Department of Revenue to compel their testimony. Second, the Senate took sweeping action by defunding several divisions of the Department of Revenue that are directly connected to the source document scanning program. In total, the Senate’s actions would strip more than $40 million out of the Department’s budget, directed mostly at the divisions responsible for driver licensing. The Senate has made it clear that these appropriations will not be restored until the Department comes clean about everything regarding this scandal.

Like Insty says, Good:

A steeper-than-expected rise in US shale oil reserves is about to change the global balance of power between new and existing producers, a report says. 

Over the next five years, the US will account for a third of new oil supplies, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Which accounts for Obama and the EPA trying to stop it; they WANT us dependent on outside sources.


Liberal Rednecks.  Oh yeah.  You might be one if-


Something on the subject of weather and general science and what all we don't know. 


I tried out the homebrew CLP.  Despite what you might think, the smell is very faint.  And not objectionable.  Only did minor cleaning/lubing, but it did a very nice job of wiping out bores.  More to follow.

I've heard of 'throwing like a girl',

but damn!

And before long after that it'll be 'any reading within the margin of error

of 0.01%'; because this is more about control than safety.

Thus causing the weenies in question to burst into flames

like vampires in the presence of a piece of the True Cross:

The IRS demands Marion Bower provide the Government with details of what materials her group is reading.
Mrs Bower mails back a copy of the United States Constitution.

'Low-level employees at one office'

my ass:
Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

IRS official: "Oh no, I didn't lie to Congress, I just didn't tell them about some things.  Even when they asked."

And don't forget Sebelius extorting money to pay for Obamacare.


And the EPA playing more games.
Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Conservative Enterprise Institute.


Daughter once referred to a good moving as 'somehow having made it through the Disney crap machine'; this kind of garbage is a fine illustration.  "Hey, this character's really popular!  So let's change it!"


ATK is expanding into the gun-making market.


Ever heard of Stumpies Custom Guns?  Go take a look.


That homemade CLP formula at PDB mentioned the other day?  Dug around, and after getting a bottle of Mobil 1 and the STP, had enough stuff to make a 1/4 batch; that'll be PLENTY to try it out.  In fact, I've got some stuff that needs cleaning.  After I till the garden and get the truck cleaned out.

Another source for stock for small punches

Music wire.

I'd always thought it would work for the purpose, but I'd never actually tried it.  So...

Happily, I had a piece of 1/4" out in the garage.  This stuff IS hardened, so cutting it with a hacksaw will require heating the area for the cut up to a dull red(easiest seen in deep shade or a dark area) and letting it cool.  I cut a piece, then shaped and heat-treated it same as the rock drill.  Just tapped it on a couple of things, and it seems to work well.  Might need to be tempered a bit harder(yellow to light bronze) to last as well, far as staying sharp, but will have to experiment to find that out.

This stuff can be found at hobby shops, and a lot of hardware stores; I seem to remember it comes in sizes above 1/4", though not bigger than 3/8" at most.

Tab clearing. Yes, again.

Biometric database requirements hidden in the immigration 'reform' bill


More IRS abuse of power and law, and leaking.

Right now, if you want to keep up with a lot of the crap coming out on this, just go to Instapundit and search 'IRS'.  You'll have reading material for the next couple of hours.


A lesson for politicians on getting snotty and snobby on news sources.  And something on the DHS ammo buys.


PDB on discoveries ref the Model 94, double-edge razors and big cars.
Also on a homemade CLP formula; be interesting to see how it works.


And

So, if the NYEffingTimes and Timeis reporting on it, is it still

a conspiracy theory that the IRS abused its power for political purposes?

Tab clearing

Pictures of guns make British GFWs wet their pants.


“They let him die, and then told lies over his coffin,” he told fill-in host Guy Benson.


 "I'm not good at math."  You're not very good with the truth, either.
A federal watchdog’s upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011.
...
Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS’ Rulings and Agreements office “held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue.”
'Mistake by low-level employees' my ass.


I have GOT to read this book.


Lawdog's thoughts on ITAR and State Dept. PSH.


Got stuck behind a car yesterday which had a half-dozen stickers on the back; the usual 'coexist' and 'Obama' and 'Democrats care', being driven-not very well- by an idiot who was using an electric toothbrush...

Generally useful tools, in this case Updated

A prick punch and center punch, beginning to end.

NOTE: If you want to make these, please remember that this method involves cutting tools, power tools, and torches, and if you don't pay attention to what you're doing you WILL GET HURT.  And if you do, it's your own damn fault so don't yell at me.

First, the terms: most of you know a center punch: a relatively blunt point, used to make a deep punch mark, good for starting a drill bit without it walking away from the spot.

A prick punch has a much slimmer, finer point.  Easy to move along a scribed or marked line and put in the exact spot you want the hole.  But unlike the center punch, you only use a light tap on this one; its job is to mark the spot precisely, then you use the center punch to deepen the mark.

This is a stone drill, the kind you hit with a hammer, and it makes a 5/16” hole.

Good steel, excellent for the purposes.  A lot of these, the shank either isn’t hardened or is to a much lower degree than the cutting end; for that matter I’ve seen some where the cutting end wasn’t very hard.  Either case, you can usually cut the piece with a hacksaw.  In this case, it gives two pieces five inches long*.

 If the whole thing is hardened, mark the spots where you want to cut and use the torch to heat them up to a low red, then let it cool; that should normalize those areas enough to let the saw cut.

For punches, here’s the two tools that do most of the work for me: drill or driver, and the belt/disc sander.

Chuck one of the pieces into the drill, and start grinding.  First thing I do is bevel the striking end so it’s smooth and has no corners.

Second, turn it around in the drill and use a low angle to taper the other end.

Third, form the point.
Yes, it’ll get hot on that end, hot enough to soften it.  Since you're going to have to heat-treat it, not a problem.***

They’ll work as-is, but they'll dull the first time you use them; much better to heat-treat them, and on small stock like this a cup of water and a propane torch will do.  For heavier stock you’ll need something a bit hotter(and something with more volume for the coolant), as you need to get the point section up to at least a low-red heat, ideal is a medium- or cherry-red.  Do NOT try to get the thing as hot as possible, you’ll damage the structure and ruin that section(yes, you can anneal it and start over, but let's keep this simple).

Short digression: steel has a grain structure, and the finer you keep it the better.  The first stage of heat-treating is hardening: get the piece, or- as in this case- the section of it you need to harden- up to critical temperature** and then quench it, cool it very fast.  Get the steel another 50 to 100F above critical and the grain structure starts to enlarge, and the hotter it gets the worse; if you harden it then it'll look fine, but it'll have a coarse structure that's weak.  Much more prone to chipping or breaking.
This stuff isn’t a air-hardening steel, which hardens just from being brought up to heat and then letting it cool in air; it has to be quenched in water(preferably hot to reduce the amount of shock to the steel) or oil(also better heated; not only to reduce shock but to make it flow better for a more even quench.  Not too critical on a piece like this, very critical on a blade of any sort).  Most of the stuff I’ve worked with, critical temp is 1500F, plus or minus 50; that medium or cherry-red is it, and you can learn to see it; or can use a Tempilstik, or a thermometer like this, to check it.

In this case water will do nicely, so get a cup ready.  All you need or want to heat here is the area up to about a half-inch from the point; that’s the part that has to be hard, and this leaves a softer shank to absorb shock and for the hammer to strike.  Find a shady spot so you can see the color and start heating the end,

turning it to keep it even.  I try to keep the tip of the flame about 1/2" back from the point; if you put it ON the point that'll heat fast, true; but I want more than just the point to be hard, so I actually get from the point about 1/4-3/8" back to the required color, and when it looks right stick it in the water.   Swirl it around a bit, won’t take long for a small piece to cool.

I like to check for hardness with a fine file.  Just stroke it lightly on the hardened area, and if you did it right the file will skate over without biting; if it does bite, either you didn’t have it quite hot enough or it’s not the high-carbon steel you thought(yes, I’ve had that occur; damn cheap drills or files).

Back to the grinder, this time just touch it lightly, to shine up the surface.

The second step of heat-treatment is tempering; heat the piece up again, but to a much lower temperature.  Hardened high-carbon steel is highly-stressed and brittle; idea is to use sufficient heat to relieve enough of the stresses so it’s not brittle, but leave enough that it’s still hard enough not to dull when you whack it.

If need, can hold the shank with pliers, though since you’re mainly heating the sharp end I can usually just hold it by hand.  Hold it point angled upward and start heating no less than an inch below the hardened area;

if you’ve got a torch with a pinpoint head you can start a bit closer, with a wide flame further back.  And turn the flame down a bit; slow is good here.  Keep the piece turning and watch for colors(and yes, you can hold it in the drill and spin slowly if you wish).  The first you’ll see is a very faint yellow appear that should flow up toward the point; behind that it’ll darken into a dark yellow, then into a bronze.   For this tool I like light-to-medium bronze as the stopping point.  Once the yellow is moving up to the point you can usually remove the torch; should be hot enough in the area you heated for heat to keep flowing up the piece.  And soon as the desired color reaches the point, quench it to stop the process.  It should look something like this

If need,  sharpen the point and test it on a piece of suitable metal.  And that’s it.

If you want to practice the tempering to get used to the colors, just shine up a piece of steel, any shape, and then heat it and watch.  Kind of fascinating to observe as the colors appear and march along.

And if you need a small, fine chisel, this stuff works well for that too.  For a chisel you just grind the two sides flat for the main bevel.

On one this small, I prefer to grind the main bevels, then harden & temper(same as on the punches, then grind the edge bevel.  Depending on exact purpose and what you expect to use it on, can use a fairly blunt edge bevel, or a very thin.

I had a third piece of stock available, so made one of each: prick punch, center punch and chisel

Closer look at the working ends

The punches are right after tempering, the chisel I shined up when ground the edge bevels.

Update: Tried this with music wire, full info here




*Nice thing about making these, you can make them as long or short as suits our purpose.
**Depending on the alloy, critical temp can vary from 1500 to over 2000F for some of the air-hardening tool steels; some of those also need a controlled-atmosphere for best results, and that can get complicated.  Which is why a lot of knifemakers who work with those steels send them to a specialist for heat-treating.
***You can use this setup to resharpen a punch that's dull; since that should already be hardened, take it slow and have some water to dip it in to keep it from overheating.  Which can happen a lot faster than you might think.

'Even-handed, unbiased, non-political agency' my ass

A federal watchdog’s upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011.
...
Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS’ Rulings and Agreements office “held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue.”

On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement,” the report says.
Translation: "These people are upsetting the President and a lot of other politicians, so let's go after them."

If the IRS was serious about that 'even-handed and non-biased' stuff, they'd have come down on the people involved in this like a semi rolling over an armadillo; but they didn't.

But we're supposed to trust them.  Yeah, add this to our tax-cheat former Treasury Secretary and tax-cheat politicians who get special deals as to why we SHOULDN'T trust them.  And why a serious housecleaning is needed.

Preferably involving something really nasty in the way of exit routes.

Over in (fG)Britain, this counts as progress

A new law has finally come into force giving householders the right to ‘bash a burglar’…but not if they are stealing from your garden shed.
...
But it yesterday emerged the new rules contain a string of exemptions.
For instance, in guidance sent to prosecutors, officials say that homeowners cannot rely on the new defence if they find an intruder in their garden, such as stealing a lawn mower or ornament.
Nor will they be protected if they chase the burglar outside. The fight must take place indoors.
So the commoners can defend themselves, even with force, BUT
The guidance also says that shopkeepers can only get away with using ‘disproportionate’ force on robbbers if they live above their shop, and only if the two parts of the building are connected.

Shop assistants and customers cannot get involved in the violence, unless their loved ones happen to be living in the store.

Householders cannot use the defence if they are only trying to protect their property, rather than trying to defend themselves or their family.
So if someone is about to cut your throat, the clerk can't legally jump in and beat him over the head with something useful because THAT is just not allowed...

Kind of disgusting, isn't it; idiotic as this is, it really IS progress over there.