And it should be pointed out that even if the information hadn't been given

to people not authorized, the fact that they ran his information through the system at all is a crime. Not a proper, legal reason to do so.

And please note the coverup attempt:
The senior manager would not learn about "Joe" for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.

The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
...
On Oct. 23, Niekamp said Doug Thompson, deputy director for child support, told her she had checked on "Joe the Plumber." Thompson "literally demanded" that she write an e-mail to the agency's chief privacy officer stating she checked the case for child-support purposes, she said.
These people damn well knew they were misusing the system and breaking the law, and did it anyway, without hesitation. They should be fired, and criminal charges filed.

If you've got one of the LCP pistols,

there's a recall. Which I found out about because Rachel Lucas linked to Two Nervous Dogs who has one on order but it's not here yet so maybe it'll be already taken care of... etc.

I've got a blog list on my browser so damn long I lose track of who's there, and it just got longer by one.

Well, we know what a lot of The Obama's followers

want. Glenn Beck just played some audio from a rally held after the Super Obamessiah Infomercial the other night; along with the orgasmic feelings from hearing the Obamessiah speak, she said "I won't have to put gas in my tank, I won't have to pay my mortgage", etc.

You want to know why there'll be some trouble if Obama loses? He's basically told a lot of people that if he wins the gummint will take money away from 'the wealthy'(i.e., anybody who works for a living and pays taxes) and pay all their bills. And they'll be pissed if they find out they'll have to pay their own damn way after all.

Updated: just found the exact words and where:
Peggy Joseph: "It was the most memorable time of my life. It was a touching moment. Because, I, I never thought this day would ever happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car, I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage, you know, if I help him, he's gonna help me."

Speaking again of "Don't vote for McCain unless you want riots",

we have this from Erica Jong, found by Ace:
"My friends Ken Follett and Susan Cheever are extremely worried. Naomi Wolf calls me every day. Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can't cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduces her to a bundle of nerves."

"My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium."

"After having stolen the last two elections, the Republican Mafia…"

"If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it's not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets."

"Bush has transformed America into a police state, from torture to the imprisonment of reporters, to the Patriot Act."

Uh huh.

"Obama will be sabotaged by Republican dirty tricks", yeah. Democrats are registering to vote multiple times, openly; if Acorn were connected with the Mafia they'd all be in jail already after the RICO investigation; committing vote fraud with state officials helping*; Obama's campaign is engaged in credit card fraud, and intimidating reporters and stations that dare to bring up anything that he finds inconvenient, Evil Party state officials are illegally using state and law enforcement systems to try to dig up dirt on people and Republicans are going to pull dirty tricks. Yeah.

As Ace put it, this woman is weapons-grade crazy. Squirrelly as a pecan tree in November. Effing NUTS. And a fine example of the 'progressives' in the Evil Party.

Bleepin' amazing, isn't it?

*Brunner argued that federal rules only require the state to have a system in place for double-checking registrations but do not require her to make the checks. No, because it's so much more difficult for fraud to occur if the state official in charge actually does anything to prevent it.

Dealing with pirates

Seems some shipping lines are hiring contractors to protect ships and crews, especially around Somalia. With some of the usual "Oh NO!"
Mody says armed guards onboard ships may encourage pirates to use their weapons or spark an arms race between predators and prey. Currently, pirates often fire indiscriminately during an attack but don't aim to kill or injure crew. The pirates usually use assault rifles but have rocket-propelled grenades; some reports also say they have mini-cannon.
I admit to not being an expert on maritime affairs, but I'd think that discouraging 'firing indiscriminately' at my ship by rifles and RPGs would be a good thing.

"The standard approach is for (pirates) to come in with all guns blazing at the bridge because when a boat is stopped it's easier to board," said David Johnson, director of British security firm Eos. "But if you have guns onboard, you are going to escalate the situation. We don't want to turn that part of the world into the Wild West."
Uh, guy? You've got worse than the Wild West going on now; because when the dirtbags 'come in with all guns blazing', the good guys can't shoot back.

Notice how much this sounds like the GFWs here telling people not to get a gun for self-defense?

Velociman seems to have

attracted a major bunch of moonbatstouched a chord with the Barack I'll Get You For That Obama crowd. First he wrote this, that caused two high-level jackasses to take notice, and that seems to have led to a plague of acorns. Which go nicely with the squirrels who showed up in the comments.

Just amazing.

I hadn't been to Frank's place for a while,

so I'll note he has advice on investments, and a short, concise description of Daily Kos.

Let's see, isn't Delaware Biden's state?

No surprise here, then.
Delaware State Police stopped Alvina Vansickle from purchasing a .22-caliber pistol for self-defense because she was too old and a woman, said Superintendent Col. Thomas MacLeish.

The outrage that followed led to the revelation that Delaware State Police had been keeping lists of gun buyers for years; state law requires them to destroy these records after 60 days.
...
An employee in the state police Firearms Transaction Approval Program noticed Vansickle's age and gender, and brought the sale to an immediate halt.

Vansickle's application was then routed to Sgt. Benjamin Nefosky, who heads the firearms approval unit.

According to MacLeish, the transaction was halted over concerns "based upon age and gender."

And just how did these supposedly destroyed records just happen to be around?
In an interview with The News Journal, MacLeish claimed all paper firearms records are destroyed every 60 days.

The electronic records, however, are another story.

"Our review of our electronic records indicated we had a glitch in the system, back to August 2005," he said. "They have since been purged."

The electronic records never posed a threat, MacLeish said.

"The info was in an electronic file that no one did anything with," MacLeish said. "We've since purged that file in its entirety.

Excuse me for a moment, as I have the need to drop into blunt language.

MacLeish, you are a God-damned liar.

'Glitch in the system' my ass. You bastards have been SEARCHING these records for years, and you claim it's a 'glitch' that they're there? And we're supposed to believe you now that those records have been purged? Or is that 'purged from the active system, but the backup files are another matter'?

And as for 'not posing a threat', you've been using them to screw people over; I call that a threat, you bastard.

As to the 'honor' of the people involved, here's a big excerpt:
Word of the delay rebounded around Delaware's small-firearms community, eventually making its way to Dave Lawson, a retired state police lieutenant and firearms instructor. Lawson spoke to his former colleague Nefosky about Vansickle's dilemma, Lawson said.

Lawson said what Nefosky told him revealed there was a much larger problem in the firearms approval unit than keeping a small-caliber revolver out of the hands of an 81-year-old woman.

Lawson said Nefosky told him he searched seven years of firearms transaction records to see if Vansickle had ever bought a gun before.

Some gun owners fear any government agency that tracks gun purchases or keeps lists of who has them. They worry these lists could someday aid in weapons confiscation, fall into the wrong hands and serve as a road map for burglars and thieves, or result in increased scrutiny by law enforcement.

"I was totally drop-jawed," Lawson said. "I asked him how far back the records went. He didn't know. He didn't care. He felt she was possibly a threat because of her age, a threat to herself or her family. That's what the implication was. He was concerned that never having bought a gun before, why would she want one now, at 81?"

Lawson served in the State Bureau of Identification as a lieutenant, which includes the firearms approval section and other specialty units. He knew the law. Nefosky's concern about Vansickle's age and sex, he said, should never have come into play.

Lawson also knew the gun records should have been destroyed.

MacLeish would not allow Nefosky to be interviewed.

Liars. Lawbreakers. Sorry excuses for lawmen. Miserable statist.... Excuse me, I do not have the proper words right now.

Found thanks to the Random Strikes gentleman.

And if anybody actually believes the Obamessiah & Co.

only want to raise taxes on 'the rich', you're either deluded or a moron:
Obama, after all, has been promising a tax cut for the "middle class" - those making $200,000 a year or less.

Biden yesterday lowered that bar.

"What we're saying," he told a Pennsylvania TV interviewer, "is that [our] tax break doesn't need to go to people making . . . $1.4 million. It should go to [people] making under $150,000 a year."

Oops. That's a 25 percent downward redefinition of "middle class."

An Obama mouthpiece quickly dismissed the discrepancy as just another one of Joe the Senator's gaffes.

But consider: The campaign has a new TV commercial out declaring that families - not individuals - earning $200,000 or less would qualify for a tax cut. Two incomes - not one.

And, as most middle-class wage-earners know, that's a huge difference.
Yes, it is.

I make considerably less than the lowest number Obama & Biden have mentioned so far. The Bush tax cuts nevertheless got me a break. Which will go away if an Obama administration refuses to renew/make permanent the cuts. Which means Barack I Need Your Money More Than You Do Obama can raise my taxes by letting them expire, and then claim "No, I didn't raise your taxes!"

Dirtbags.

Oh, and let us note another slight problem connected with the Pork, Bribes & Payoffs Bailout Bill:
Gov. Paterson grimly declared yesterday that New York faces a historically unprecedented four-year, $47 billion budget deficit, $20 billion higher than projected just three months ago - and will need some form of federal bailout.

"In order to address these issues, as New York is really the epicenter of the national crisis of finance, we're going to need federal assistance," said Paterson , as he presented a six-month report on the state's current budget.

Because we're all just DYING to have our pockets picked some more because the NY government is too stupid and corrupt to deal with their budget.

Well, at least two of the guilty parties in OH are known

in the improper(to say the least) looking for dirt on Joe the Plumber.
[DSS] Director Helen Jones-Kelley said that after a “team meeting,” she OK’d the check because the department often runs inquiries to check for unpaid child support when people are thrust into “the public spotlight.”…
If the governor of OH actually gave a crap about honor, or about the integrity of the system, he'd ask for her resignation. And if he didn't get it, fire her(I'd prefer just fire her) for misuse of the system. Instead,
Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said. “Based on what we know to this point, we don’t have any reason to believe the information was improperly accessed or disclosed by a state employee,” said Keith Dailey, Strickland’s press secretary.
Translation: "Hey, she's a Democrat and was helping The Obama, so I'm not going to bother her." This man is a liar and a dirtbag, proven by his own words. There's no damned way this was not politically motivated, and it damn well was an 'improper access and disclosure' of this information. And he knows it.

The second?
Toledo Police have confirmed that a TPD records clerk is accused of performing an illegal search of information related to 'Joe the Plumber.'

Julie McConnell, has been charged with Gross Misconduct for allegedly making an improper inquiry into a state database in search of information pertaining to Samuel Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16.
And why did she do this? She was doing a favor for a reporter.
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner admitted yesterday that a member of the media made the request of the Toledo Police Department for Joe 'the Plumber' Wurzelbacher's records, NewsTalk 1370 WSPD is reporting. The comments were made in response to questions during an unrelated press conference.

What I'm wondering is if any of the people involved in this had him run NCIC and/or III. If they did, that's not just a state problem, it's a violation of federal regulation and law. Which the FBI should get involved in. Any bets as to whether that'll happen?

A little bit more roundup

seeing as it's late, I'm tired, and I will not have a tire for the bike until Friday. No, I'm not mounting it myself(yes, Fire, I said 'mounting'; shut up). I've done it, but not on aluminum wheels.

Let's see, Sondra points to a bunch of enviroweenies who give weenies a bad name:
Simon Woods, who is 6, would like to play on a baseball team. His mother, Sharon Astyk, is sympathetic, but is also heavily committed to shrinking her family’s carbon footprint. “We haven’t been able to find a league that doesn’t involve a long drive,” she said. “I say that it isn’t good for the planet, so we play catch in the yard.”

That is one way that Astyk, a mother of four, expresses her concern for the environment. She has unplugged the family refrigerator, using it as an icebox during warmer months by putting in frozen jugs of water as the coolant. (In colder weather, she stores milk and butter outdoors.) Her farmhouse in Knox, N.Y., has a homemade composting toilet. The house gets its heat from a wood stove; the average indoor winter temperature is 52 degrees.

...They air-dry their clothes, and their four sons often sleep huddled together to pool body heat.
...
David Chameides, a cameraman in Los Angeles, is collecting all the waste he generates in a year in his basement, and keeping a blog that describes his detritus. A sample entry (from Oct. 6, Day 279 out of 365) includes “1 bag of hair from haircut – put out on lawn for birds,” “1 plastic wrapper from ice cream – garbage” and “2 aluminum tuna cans – recycle.”
...
But Gore’s group doesn’t recommends reusing the same plastic Ziploc bag for a year, as Anita Lavine and Joe Turcotte, a Seattle couple, have been doing. When their two toddlers come home from preschool, Lavine scrubs the Ziploc bags that hold their soiled clothes and biodegradable diapers, and uses them the next day. She does the same with the plastic bags that hold her children’s apples “and random lunch stuff,” she said.
My daughter is much more sympathetic to morons like these than I am; if your kids have to sleep huddled up for warmth because you're such a freakin' idiot you refuse to use enough energy to keep the place warm, you should be... I don't know what.

They began this regimen in 2002. “My husband and I started to talk about climate change, and oil prices were going up,” Astyk said. “The other factor was a justice issue. There was a great disparity between the resources used by the Third World and by us, so we decided we had to cut back.”
...
Not everyone thinks that Lavine and her ilk are crazy. “What these people are doing is fantastic, needed and catalytic,” said David Gershon, the author of the book “Low Carbon Diet” and founder of the Empowerment Institute, a consultancy that helps people and communities reduce energy consumption. “Some people are in the vanguard and show what it’s possible to do,” he said.

Listen, you dumbass: the reason the Third World countries don't use much energy is they can't; because they have (usually) socialist tyranny for a government, a trashed economy and NO WAY TO GET MORE ENERGY. In many cases because idiots like you and the Goreacle work to keep them from getting more. "What, you want a power plant? Or a hydroelectric plant? No, you can't have one. You'd just use electricity and want radios and televisions and computers; you'd hurt Mother Gaia's feelings and not live in your picturesque village any more, burning dung for heat and cooking."

There's a special place in hell for people who work to keep others living in the dark and living an iron-age(at best) existence; but we'll pass on that for now.

And as for you, Gershon, you bastard: yes, it's possible to live in a wood and dung hut, and have no electricity and no modern food storage and no artificial lights; THAT DOES NOT MEAN IT IS A GOOD THING, jackass.

I swear, these clowns would probably fit right in with Bill the Incompetent and Cowardly Terrorist Ayers; they'd likely love the idea of killing 25 million people or so to cow the others into doing what they're told. Like living without a refrigerator. Or a heater. Or air conditioning.

Got news for you idiots: the first one that comes for my modern, powered conveniences gets shot. I am not going to go back to living in the dark and cold with nothing but wood or dried animal crap for heating. Or digging a damned pit latrine in the back yard because you idiots don't like the thought of a flush toilet.

As Quint said in Jaws, it's enough to piss off the Good Humor man.


Damn, how far (fG)Britain has fallen from what it once was:
Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle both witnessed the lethal fire that Boer farmer-riflemen rained on British troops in 1899. They returned home to promote civilian marksmanship through the expansion of rifle clubs in England. ...

"What the `clothyard shaft and grey goose-wing` effected, when guided by an English eye and an English hand at Crecy and Agincourt, the rifle bullet will do in any future contest...." wrote Hans Busk in The Rifle and How to Use it.

The London Times went so far as to editorialize: "The change from the old musket to the modern rifle has acted on the very life of the nation, like the changes from acorn to wheat and stone to iron are said to have revolutionized the primitive races of men."
Now the cops will show up and steal your legally owned firearms because they make a neighbor nervous. And God help you if you use a weapon to defend yourself. Or even punch an attacker too hard. Or demand actual numbers on the crime rate. Kind of like how a lot of our 'institutes of higher learning' are controlled by idiots and GFWs:
The Young Conservatives of Texas branch at the Houston-area Lone Star College-Tomball has been censored and threatened with campus-wide de-recognition for passing out a humorous pamphlet with gun jokes at a campus fair.

Oh, and in case you've forgotten, we need Smart People™ like Edwards to do our thinking for us:
Elizabeth Edwards —currently a health care advisor to Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign—isn’t 100% behind the Democratic nominee’s health care plan.

Edwards complained that Obama… views healthcare as a commodity, rather than a human right. ...

said McCain’s plan fails in all important areas by leaving the decision-making process up to individuals, who can frequently “make stupid economics decisions.”

Yeah, like you and your hubby have such GOOD decision-making skills.

Enough. I need a drink.

Having survived the wilds of a trip to visit friends

(hey, have you been caught on I-35 in a construction zone? At rush time?), and having gotten all the stuff unloaded, put away, etc., I'm back to it. To find a number of things:
Had a flat on the bike just before I left. Flat kit got me home, but I'm going to have to get a new tire. Yuck.

Oooh, I'm one of the people the Beltway Insiders don't think much of. Just breaks my friggin' heart.
...And one of my sources, who is very well connected, tells me that Noonan was at first rumored to be looking to write a regular column for the New York Times. Why she’d want to work for a paper that is spiraling further down the economic sinkhole, with stocks that are near junk status, is beyond me. But the rumor has escalated beyond the Times and gone straight to the White House: my same source says now the word is that Noonan may be being courted for the job of press secretary for an Obama administration.
She'd want a column at the NYEffin'Times because it is THE paper for the smart people, of course. She, of course, is one of Them, proven by writing things like this:
Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow. Some bloggers do their own reporting, but most rely on mainstream reporters to do the heavy lifting. Some bloggers also offer superb commentary, but most babble, buzz, and blurt like caffeinated adolescents competing for the Ritalin generation’s inevitable senior superlative: Most Obsessive-Compulsive.

Even so, they hold the same megaphone as the adults and enjoy perceived credibility owing to membership in the larger world of blog grown-ups. These effete and often clever baby “bloggies” are rich in time and toys, but bereft of adult supervision. Spoiled and undisciplined, they have grabbed the mike and seized the stage, a privilege granted not by years in the trenches, but by virtue of a three-pronged plug and the miracle of WiFi.
'Conservative pundit' my ass.

I was on the way home when I heard the quotes from Obama's interview, how the failures of the Civil Rights movement include not trashing the Constitution to allow the government to flatly redistribute wealth. This man is indeed a friggin' marxist, as well as a crooked Chicago machine politician.
And let's not forget that interview where the lady actually speared Biden with some actual, nasty questions, and Biden lies. Repeatedly. And knowingly. That man sucks like a shop vac plugged into a 220 outlet.

Want a good look(if you need another) at the sufferers of PDS? Check the comments on this post. Woman points out that Palin is anything but a moron, and the brain-damaged lefties come swarming out of the woodwork; just freakin' amazing. Read an article while I was gone, lady pointing out that it doesn't matter whether you agree with Sarah Palin's positions, she's someone who decided some things needed doing and did them, and her determination and accomplishments should be appreciated. This led to a stream of "So I'm supposed to support her because she's a women?!?" and other equally idiotic comments from people who can't stand the idea of someone not hating her, along with the required comments on her obvious stupidity. Some of these people should not be out without a keeper; they're liable to run into traffic.

Have you noticed that Obama's campaign seems to be positively allergic to anyone who asks questions? REAL questions? And otherwise doesn't bow down to Barack Lightworker Hussein Obama? Or talks about voter fraud?
In other words, I am going to read what you write and watch what you say. Hopefully you will be fair and impartial as you told me you would be.

Thomas L. Rosenberg
Roetzel & Andress, LPA

Columbus, OH 43215
trosenberg@ralaw.com
Wonder if the firm knew this dirtbag was doing this? And using their name to give weight to his threats? If they didn't, they do now. Might have been some interesting conversations about this.

Friend of mine likes the Winchester white-box 9mm for practice, doesn't like to buy anything else. Apparently he's not alone; stuff seems to evaporate off the shelves when it comes in.

On the information that people, official people, used the OH data systems to try to dig up dirt on Joe the Plumber:
Every state has law-enforcement networks to let officers in the field(if they have mobile data terminals) or their dispatcher run people to see if wanted, check their drivers license, see if their tag is good, etc. Those systems link to systems in other states, so if someone's travelling through they information can be checked if they're stopped or arrested. The states also link to the FBI, the National Crime Information Center(NCIC for short) to see if someone is wanted, if a vehicle, gun or article is entered as stolen, etc. There's also the Interstate Identification Index(Triple-I for short) that holds a lot of records. Let's take this a step at a time.
Back when I was a dispatcher, it was pointed out in training and recertification as a terminal user that this information was for law-enforcement use only: running some girl's tag to find out her name, checking someone's driving record for a friend, running somebody to see if they had any criminal or arrest record; any of these things, whether done from curiosity or as a favor or for money, are illegal. Period. Penalties ranged from getting chewed out(if handled informally) to being fired and prosecuted(done all the way). And if it could be shown that the agency knew you(or whoever) was doing it and did nothing to correct it, the agency could lose access to the system. So far as I know that was and is true in all states.

Now we move to NCIC and III. The III system holds not only criminal history information:
If you've been convicted of a crime, the information should be there.
If you've been arrested for a crime, should be there.
If you've been arrested, and cleared, the fact that you were arrested should be there.
If you were tried and found innocent, it's there.
AND
If you've applied for a job that requires a background investigation? A security clearance? Been fingerprinted and checked for a carry permit? It's there.
So there's a lot besides criminal history data in that database. And as a consequence, the use of it is fairly tightly regulated. For instance, you get pulled over for speeding, or a burned-out light, the officer can run your tag to see if the car is stolen, and check your license to be sure it's valid, he can run you to see if you're wanted; he CANNOT legally run you through III just to see if you have a record there. Or to try to find something he can use to pressure you to let him search the car. Last I heard, the only two legitimate reasons for him to run you through III would be
as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, or
subsequent to an arrest.
And a traffic stop doesn't count as an arrest. So if he does run you 'just to see' or whatever, or runs somebody as a favor or for money, it's a violation of law.

Now, so far as I know(I can't imagine this having changed) ANY agency, whether a child-support office or whatever, that is granted access to these systems and databases is under the same kind of rules: for official purposes only. Running somebody because they pissed off the mayor or annoyed a candidate, or looking for dirt on someone for political purposes, is flatly illegal. So, if the FBI is not looking into this along with the state authorities, I'll be very surprised. If they're not, somebody needs to ask them why not. This kind of garbage, besides the general bad, also causes people to lose trust in the systems: if something that's supposed to be used to fight crime, and that they've been promised is protected from misuse, can be used this way without the guilty paying the price, why should the agency that runs and oversees it be trusted? Why should they be trusted with ANY information? So, for multiple reasons, the people who did this need to be strung up, at least to the extent allowed by law.
Couple of links on this here and here.

Ah, well, back to work.

I have a whiskey bleg

I am at a friend's house, and just had a taste of this for the first time in a LOONG damn time
This, I promise you, is some of the finest stuff to come out of Scotland. It's bloody wonderful. As in, until I tasted it tonight, I'd actually forgotten how good it is.

Yes, I HAVE had a bit..

Here's the thing: the friends brought it back from Scotland, where they'd been on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Because nobody imports the stuff, for God knows what reason. Here's the bleg:
The importer for Glenfiddich is
William Gran & Sons
US Importer, Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whiskey
200 Park Avenue South, Suite 121i
New York, NY 10003
http://www.grantusa.com/
1/877/533-0947

Write/e-mail/call/beg them to start importing this wonderful stuff. It won't be cheap, but this isn't something you swig; it's something you savor. A bit at a time.

Let me put it this way: think of the finest whiskey you've ever had, with a honey liqueur, the best of both in one dram. Maybe a touch of smoke in there. Oh God, and I've only got a sip left...

Write. Call. E-mail, whatever. If they start importing it, I don't have to consider stealing a bottle.

OK, just to round up some things on this side of the globe,

Glenn Beck's on the air talking about the sky falling due to the market mess(again). Which, among other things, makes me wonder if the price for hempen rope is rising or falling. Also affecting that question is this:
Never let it be said that there's a crisis too big for Chuck Schumer to try to exploit.

New York's senior senator released a letter Wednesday that he and two Democratic colleagues sent to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson regarding the $700 billion economic rescue plan.

Their point: Direct capital injection into troubled financial institutions will be ineffective unless those banks are forced to put that money straight into the lending market - complete with "goals based on previous lending activity."

Uh-oh - here we go again: Last time Schumer publicly released a "warning" letter, it triggered hysteria in California: an 11-day, $1.3 billion run by frantic depositors at IndyMac, ending in the third-biggest bank failure in US history.

Schumer insisted back then that he was just a "bad-news messenger." But as The Wall Street Journal rightly noted, what he did was "more like shouting 'fire' in a crowded bank than calling 911."
Sen. Schumer is a miserable little bastard who deserves an especially hot load of tar before the feathers are dumped.

Let's see, up in Canada the 'Human Rights Commission' seems determined to earn a dose of petroleum and bird products:
In Saskatchewan, the CHRC is prosecuting a former Member of Parliament for politically incorrect mail that he sent to constituents five years ago.

Jim Pankiw, an MP who served from 1997 to 2004, is on trial for sending out flyers criticizing Indian crime in Saskatchewan. If convicted, Pankiw can face massive fines. He could also face other orders, ranging from a forced apology to a lifetime ban on commenting about aboriginal issues. If Pankiw refuses to comply with such an order, he could serve time in jail. Bold mine.
Calling these clowns a kangaroo court is insulting to common corrupt courts. These people are flat disgusting.

From Mark Steyn:
The reason the press are going to such shameless lengths to drag Obama across the finish line is because he's their last best hope at restoring the old media environment, including a new Unfairness Doctrine for radio, and regulation of the Internet. The Obama's-already-won-give-it-up-you-GOP-losers stories are intended only to demoralize turnout. Bear in mind, that round about 5pm Eastern on Election Day, they'll be doing those stories at industrial strength, in order to clobber any Republican voters still dumb enough to think it's worth making the trip to the polls.

Virginia tossing some military ballots:
Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law -- then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then state Sen. Bill Bolling -- requires that when an overseas citizen wants to request an absentee ballot and cast a vote with the same paperwork, it requires not only a witness signature but also the current address of the witness.

The McCain campaign said there's not even a space for the witness to list an address. Suleman agreed; he said the federal document was changed in recent years and the space for the witness address was removed. But the Virginia law hasn't changed.
And isn't that just so convenient for some people? Who suck like a Hoover with a turbo.

Well, it seems Rep. Barney Frank(Corrupt Socialist Slimeball-MA) not only intends to push big tax increases, he wants to trash the military as much as possible:
In a meeting with the editorial board of The Standard-Times, Rep. Frank, D-Mass., also called for a 25 percent cut in military spending, saying the Pentagon has to start choosing from its many weapons programs, and that upper-income taxpayers are going to see an increase in what they are asked to pay.
And what's a 'side-benefit' of this for the defeatists?
The military cuts also mean getting out of Iraq sooner, he said.
And isn't that just a big surprise from this dirtbag.
“The people of Iraq want us out, and we want to stay over their objection,” he said. “It’s extraordinary.” The Maliki government in Iraq “can’t sell (the withdrawal deal with the U.S.) because it sounds like we’re going to stay too long.”

“I was teasing (U.S. Rep.) Jack Murtha (a key supporter of military budgets) and I said to him, ‘For the first time, somebody else has got a bill that’s almost as big as yours.’ We don’t need all these fancy new weapons. I think there needs to be additional review.”
Oh, of course we don't need any 'fancy new weapons', especially since this bastard and his associates would like to see the military flat chopped up no matter what.

This crap is enough to screw the mediocre attitude I woke up with all the way to 'Bleep'. I need to repeat my serenity mantra:
Lamppost, rope, politician... lamppost, rope, politician...

Looked over at Tim Blair for the first time in a while,

and found a couple of things. First, Brit police have started what amounts to a witness protection program for potential victims of honor killings:
BRITISH police will offer new identities to victims of so-called "honour" violence in a bid to combat the crime that kills one person a month.

London's Metropolitan Police said up to a dozen people were murdered annually in honour violence - defined by the police as crimes committed in a bid to protect family or communal honour.

Officers estimate a further 500 are forcibly married and then raped, attacked or falsely imprisoned.
One per month dead. That they know of/admit to. In BRITAIN. And, considering the current state, I'd bet the '500' is an underestimate as well. But even with that, they just can't bring themselves to say it out loud:
Typically, women are the victims of honour violence, which has been linked to certain interpretations of religious and cultural norms.
Yeah, must be those Methodists and Church of England fanatics; couldn't possibly be any other religious group, could it?

Next, it seems loggers down below have kind of lost patience with some of their tormenters:
FOREST activists who survived a violent attack by loggers in Tasmania's old growth Upper Florentine valley will return for what they say is a make-or-break summer of protest.

Video of the two activists' ordeal showed their disabled blockade car under assault on Tuesday from a man with a sledgehammer before others kicked in its windows.
...
They are part of a small group of protesters who on Saturday will celebrate their second year trying to halt logging in the Upper Florentine, about 120 kilometres west of Hobart.
Apparently their 'celebration' won't be all the celebratory. At least, not if they set up blockades on roads.

I need to check Blair's place more often.

Politicians and professors of economics equals

screwing with your retirement:
Ghilarducci outlined her plan last year in a paper for the left-liberal Economic Policy Institute, in which she acknowledges that her plan would amount to a tax increase on workers making more than $75,000--considerably less than the $250,000 Barack Obama has said would be his tax-hike cutoff. In addition, workers would be able to pass on only half of their account balances to their heirs; presumably the government would seize the remaining half. (Under current law, 401(k) balances are fully heritable, although they are subject to the income tax.) Bold mine.

So, let me get this straight: in the name of 'protecting me', I'm supposed to be happy about the idea of being forced to put money into a plan which will contain the fingerprints of Barney Fannie Mae Frank and Chris Countrywide Dodd...

No damn thank you.

And in further news on the 'Honorable Gentlemen' and

'Most Exclusive Club' members, here's one saying the 'Fairness Doctrine' is a 'higher calling'.

They just can't stand that there are people on radio(in particular) who tell everyone exactly what the Club Members are doing, and don't sell it as wonderful.

Need some more information on Bill the Commie Terrorist Ayers?

Michelle Malkin pointed to this at Zombietime; scans and quotes from a book Ayers put together with his little Weather Underground terrorist friends. Including this one:

The name of the book is Prarie Fire.

Way back when, I wound up(long story) seeing a ad for a newsletter called Faeirie Fire, 'Dedicated to the Pagan Warrior tradition' as I recall. I decided to see what it was and, having access to a box at the Post Office so my home address wouldn't be involved, got a few issues. Which kind of horrified me. They want to go back to a 'village tradition', which in their world consisted of no private property other than personal tools, communal farms and so on; basically communism with their version of paganism holding it all together. Ayers & Co. would have fit right in, although he'd probably have had to have Lenin and Stalin as deities.

And Barack They're Just Misunderstood Obama

wants to negotiate with the garbage that did this. And get along with them.

I thought at the time- still do- that one of Reagan's big mistakes was not hammering the bastards. Training camps, weapons dumps, target individuals, the whole works. Hammer them into dust. Should've been done then. Barring a miracle, we'll have to do it sometime.

Of course, of The Obama makes President, I'm sure his followers believe the radiance of his lightworker presence will cause the poor, misunderstood terrorists to See The Light and become nice little socialists we can get along with. After all, look at his friend Ayers, the murdering little bastard.

Front moved through this morning

accompanied by thunderstorms, then dropping temps through the day. Supposed to be about 40 for a low tonight, 30's the next few days. Yuck. I hate being cold. Kim would probably love it.

The dog's barking at something, but when she's done she'll dive into the doghouse, which has a nice, thick layer of straw to curl up in. She likes this crap, especially once the grass dries. However, every joint that gives me trouble has been a little achy; add years to injury and wear to get weather forecasting ability. Not as much as before started glucosimine; before that, about a day or so before a cold front came in my knees would get bad enough to make walking hurt at times.

So not much done outside today, some cleaning and rearranging inside. I think I'm going to clean up, have a drink and read a bit.

'Night, all.

Knife for self-defense?

James links to a very good post on the subject of knife 'fighting', well worth reading. Especially the quote noted by James:
As far as your attacker is concerned this is not a fight, it is an assassination.
I'll throw in another quote I heard from someone years ago:
In a knife fight, the winner goes to the emergency room.

Way back when I was playing in the SCA, one day at a tournament there was a 'side-issue' of a trophy for knife-fighting. Basically dueling: two people in a ring with wood and/or foam knives, see who scored first. Very little to do with a serious "He's trying to KILL me!" fight, but it did point out a few useful things. Like the fact that it's almost impossible, facing off with another knife-armed somebody, to be able to cut them without getting cut yourself. And if you honesty assessed where you got cut, it was easy to see that even if you won you'd be looking at anywhere from stitches and blood loss to crippling injury. I managed to take out a guy who was ungodly fast and good, basically I surprised him; but I'd have been cut on both upper arms doing it, see the above noted injuries.

Would I carry a knife as a primary means of self-defense? Only if I had no other choice.

Since Ayres the Dirtbag Terrorist & Co. keep claiming

that 'they were just damaging property, nobody died, etc'., anyone repeats that crap to you,
The four, along with Bill Ayers, were among the leaders of the Weathermen terrorist group. In addition to the New York police officers killed, a 1970 pipe bomb in San Francisco set by the group killed another police officer and critically wounded another.

But remember, he's a 'respected English professor', etc. ad bullshit.

Also from range day

On the subject of '.22's can be picky about ammo', I took the Enfield Trainer along since I hadn't fired it in a while. While sitting at the bench with it, I decided to try it with the Remington/Eley ammo I had. So I fired five rounds, looked through the scope, and fired five more.
That's at 100 yards with iron sights and my eyes. And a little better grouping than with just about anything else I've tried. By the caliper that's right at 2", and that includes a couple I felt iffy about right after I squeezed off.

I'm tempted to get one of the bolt-on scope mounts for the #1MkIII and see what I can do with it.

And yes, even though it hurts my cheapasseconomical nature, I may have to get a couple of boxes of this ammo for the Enfield, since it likes it so much. And for .22, this stuff is expensive(to me, anyway; shut up, Kim)

Range report

Primarily on the .45acp I loaded to try to match the factory Gold Dot specs.

Yes, I did remember the Chrony, so fired one full load(8 rounds). High velocity 1087, lows 1021, average 1050. Considering the Speer website shows muzzle velocity for the 185-grain Gold Dot to be 1050, I think this does indeed duplicate it nicely. At slightly less powder than shown at the Alliant site. So I'll call this a very successful project, which will make the magazine or two of Gold Dots for practice MUCH less expensive.

If you need a few things to get your pulse rate up,

check out these:
Gee, no wonder the Justice(?) Department hasn't been working too hard on this vote fraud stuff; chunks of it is in the tank for The Obama, just like the media.
Yet Mukasey is nowhere to be found, perhaps because the career attorneys in his Civil Rights Division seem to lean well to the political left.

Consider the California case in which the division’s lawyers have actually indicted former Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen for making “misleading statements to investigators.”

About what? Nguyen was tangentially involved with sending a letter that urged Latino citizens to vote but warned that illegal immigrants could be prosecuted if they tried to vote.

Every word in the letter was true. But DOJ investigators were more interested in cracking down on the people who wrote the letter – a legitimate expression of free-speech rights – than on the illegal immigrants who may be voting.

The kicker: The DOJ attorney on the case, former Ted Kennedy-affiliated lawyer James Walsh, is as contributor to the Obama campaign, as is his boss, former ACLU attorney Mark Kappelhoff.

In all, DOJ lawyers and staff in the metro area have donated at least $150,000 to Obama.
No wonder they seem more interested in prosecuting those who warn against vote fraud than enforcing vote-fraud laws.
Which is why we need to reserve some lampposts for bureaucrats.

I just heard a piece on Glenn Beck's show from Rep. Barney Frank(Slimy Pol-MA) saying that 'what we really need is a massive increase in spending to fix things'. Massachusetts, even if you don't mind him stealing from the rest of the country, do you not realize that this slimy statist thief is stealing out of YOUR pocket, too? Especially since he had such a prominent role in letting this mess get as bad as it is in the first place?

Let's see, Sen. Dodd(Socialist Thief-CT) was not only getting 'special' deals from Countrywide, he was getting lots of 'contributions' from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Isn't that so special? But not to worry; the Democrats are going to hold hearings. AFTER the election.

Team The Obama just can't seem to help lying about Ayers and the connections. There's physical proof of the connections? Lie anyway. After all, the triple-edited-and-fact-checked media sure isn't going to report on it if they can avoid it.

Up in Canada, the Nice-Fascists can't help themselves either:
But here's where Dagenais becomes a symbol of everything that's wrong with the CHRC and its censorship fetish: she blacked out portions of my defence before passing it on to the commissioners. Seriously -- she censored what I wrote in my own defence, before she passed it along to the people who will sit in judgment of me. She's only allowing me to say things in my defence that she approves in advance.(bold mine)
Isn't that just freakin' amazing? And look for the same crap here if Barack Hussein I Decide What's Free Speech Obama is elected.

Pennsylvania, if you people put Murtha back into office, you are too damn stupid to be out in public without a keeper. To keep you from running into traffic.
Just days after classifying western Pennsylvania as racist, Murtha took a step back from those comments, albeit a small one.

"What I said, that indicted everybody, that's not what I meant at all. What I mean is there's still folks that have a problem voting for someone because they are black," Murtha said.

Murtha said the history of southwestern Pennsylvania is rife with racism.

"This whole area, years ago, was really redneck," Murtha told Channel 4 Action News.

Murtha believes there is one segment of the population which is holding on to its racist beliefs and he said it's difficult for them to change. Murtha said it may be even more difficult for them to vote for Barack Obama.
And everyone knows that ANYONE who might be described as 'redneck' is automatically a hood-wearing, cross-burning racist who hates blacks. And everyone else. That's SO much better than his original statement.

Screw it. I'm off to the range.

We are not hanging various politicians

why?
The effective cost of the various bailout packages is that the expansion of the U.S. military that had been set in motion is now effectively dead. D-E-A-D.

That's the word in Washington that no one wants to talk about, proving once again that regardless of which party's administration sits atop the Executive, the military is the only federally mandated 'program' ever under consideration for real and meaningful cuts.

And that's now. If Obama is elected, he's been promising to slice big bleeding chunks out of the military. After all, with the Obamessiah elected there will be peace, so long as we destroy our military and sovereignty, right?

And yes, I am expressing my opinion on this crap to the congressvarmints.

And let us note a piece from Down Under on why some women

hate Palin so much:
...But in her brief starring role on the global stage she has been a powerful psychic enema, flushing out the poison at the heart of establishment feminism for all to see.

No more sheathed claws or pretence about "tolerance" and "diversity". From Madonna to Sandra Bernhard, Pamela Anderson, Naomi Wolf, Lindsay Lohan and Kathy Lette, a certain type of influential progressive woman has been driven to insane rage by Palin's very existence.

Good piece, well worth reading

Added: So now, according to the Apostles of the Obamessiah, she's not even human. Just bloody wonderful.

The question is, is Biden puffing weed and blowing smoke

to get the 'support The Barack no matter what' feelings up, or preparing supporters for "The torches and pitchforks will come out, and we need you to keep the peasants under control"?

And note the obligatory reference to he then said of the Bush regime, at the bottom. No, no bias at ABC, nosiree.

Well, it WOULD explain some things

Wouldn't it?

Why do so many damn near crawl before politicians?

From what I’ve read, it really started in the 1930’s, the habit of deference to our employees. I mean the politicians, of course. The ‘Most Exclusive Club’ members of the Senate, and the Representatives in the House. Have you ever listened to the way these clowns address each other? "The Honorable Gentleman/Gentlewoman from", "My Esteemed Colleague" and so on. Which, if that garbage stayed in the chambers, I wouldn’t mind so much; if you want to vocally kiss the ass of people who despise you, in some cases hate and want to destroy you, go ahead. It’s the ass-kissing they get in public that ticks me off.

So many people are in the habit now of deferring to some suited jackass because his job title is Senator or Representative. And they love it, far too many of them. They love it when people give them things, speak far more respectfully of them than they deserve(people remind us to write "The Honorable" before the name of the politician we’re writing to; must properly bend the knee to them, you know). They love the chance to make insider deals and then demand it not be noticed. Sen. Countrywide Dodd insisting that just anybody could call the owner of the company and get a special deal; Rep. Rangel shouldn’t be prosecuted for violating the tax laws he helped write because "He’s a simple man, and didn’t understand them"; Feinstein and Boxer and Schumer have the kind of concealed carry permit the average citizen has no chance of getting but hey, they’re wealthy and powerful politicians, so they shouldn’t be held to the same restrictions as us peasants. And let us not forget that the last three spend half their time speaking of how firearms are evil and nasty and ought to be banned; from everyone except them and those like them. And when they get caught? Remember Rep. Jefferson having fits because the FBI dared to search his office? How many other politicians of both parties had the same fit? Their office is FAR more sacred than our homes, and even a search warrant shouldn’t allow the servants to disturb them.

And the staffs reinforce it. Some are flat enablers who don’t want anyone who won’t stroke the ego of their master through to speak to them, try to keep anyone who’ll ask uncomfortable questions from speaking and so forth. They only want their masters to speak in places where they’ll be applauded, not places where they’ll be held to account. Some because they worship at the altar of Party and Their Candidate, some simply becuase of the prestige and perks that fall their way as a Servant of the Senator or Rep.

And far too often we cannot count on law enforcement. Agencies like the FBI and ATF have proven that the bureaucrats running them are very sensitive to politics; crap they would throw you or I into jail for, the politicians aren’t even investigated for, or it’s a show to pretend they actually did something.

You know, it really wouldn’t take much to change this crap we’re dealing with. If enough people started treating these clowns as what they are, hired help, and stopped acting like that job title made them royalty. Ask them hard questions and demand answers, none of this taking around the question and wanting to move on: "Senator, that was a nice round of nonsense, but I WANT AN ANSWER. And I’m not stopping until I get one." Refusing to let the bastards get around it.

What started my distrust and dislike of politicians in general, and career ones in particular, was a man named George Nigh. Several times governor of this state, lifelong politician. I was 17 at the time, he was a guest speaker at a summer thing called Cadet Lawman; you spent a week in a scaled-down version of the Highway Patrol academy, and he was the graduation speaker. He finished what amounted to a comedy routine(so-so) and asked for questions, and I asked his opinion on gun control. And then listened in amazement for a couple of minutes. That man managed to use more words while actually saying less than anyone I’d ever heard before. Then, at the very end, threw in- very quickly- "I think you should have to have a license" and immediately "Next question!". I sat down in amazement at the technique: throw around a whole lot of words fast and throw the actual answer in so late, and so fast, he could move on hopefully before you realized what he’d actually said, or at least before you could follow on with asking for more information.

That actually started me listening to what a lot of these people say, and what they actually mean, and over time that brought me to despise about 90% of them. They’ll lie to get into office, they’ll lie to stay there, far too many of them who start out fairly honest become corrupt once they’re there. And they’ll do ANYTHING to stay there. And when they do get around to leaving? Why, they have a pension waiting for them. Paid for out of our pockets, one last chance for them to loot us.

Personal thoughts? First, stop treating these parasites(which all too many of them are) like royalty, treat them like people we hired when we voted. DEMAND answers, real ones. And when they do something unethical or illegal, hold them fully to account.

No pension. It was never intended that people spend their whole damn life in the House or Senate or Mayors or Governor’s office; you want to do that, no retirement package. And if we find you making shady deals to set yourself up when you leave, we put you in jail.

A Constitutional Amendment would be nice, two terms in the Senate, three in the House. Period.
And stop calling someone who used to be in that office by the job title. I didn’t call Reagan ‘President’ after he left office, because he no longer held that job; why the hell should I call someone else who left- or was thrown out of- office by the job title?

Yeah, I’m dreaming. I am so very sick of these people I just have to consider what might do something about them. What started me on this particular track? Insty linked to this article, on why so many of the ‘upper-class’ types seem to despise or flat-out hate McCain and Palin while Ayers and Dohrn and Obama are wonderful people. A couple of bits:
And what about Sarah Palin? Here, the upper-middle-class deficit gets worse. Throckmorton-Zakaria's husband, Fareed Zakaria, uses a rare one-word sentence to make his entire argument against her: "Palin Is Ready? Please." She notoriously strikes the wrong class note on a thousand media keyboards with what Andrew Sullivan calls gallantly "Sarah Palin's cocktail waitress act." But the problem is not that the governor can't conform to upper-middle-class norms. It's that she won't.

If only Palin were really as trashy as Sullivan thinks she is. Sadly she is quite the opposite--one of nature's noblewomen. She rose by refusing to accept the limitations of her proper station in life; she is despised for continuing to do so. If Palin wants to pal around with the Throck-morton-Zakarias, she is wasting her time memorizing classic 19th-century Supreme Court decisions (Katie Couric isn't going to give her a mulligan). Instead, she should learn from watching herself as she ought to be.
…
Scheiber's attempt to understand Sarah Palin, detailed in the New Republic, took him all the way to Wasilla, as strange to him as Ethiopia to Evelyn Waugh. Scheiber spoke to various people from Palin's past, all of whom have two things in common: Every one of them is smarter than Palin and none of them has been heard of since their encounter with her. Scheiber's pet specimen among what he calls "the more urbane members of the community" is a Dartmouth graduate who reads Civil War histories, self-published a book, and not only does but "savors" the New York Times crossword puzzle. This sort of résumé wouldn't get your niece an unpaid internship on L Street--but for a Rhodes Scholar lost in Alaska, the Dartmouth degree, the Civil War buffery, the Times crossword puzzle all take on huge significance. Unable to comprehend how Palin could have outpaced the Wasilla gentry, poor Scheiber clings for dear life to these sad fragments of class dignity.
…
The Republicans, alas, are stuck with this election's true and unrepentant revolutionaries. McCain and Palin have each refused, by sheer cussedness, to fulfill the social expectations of others. This may make them poison to undecideds who suffer, more than most, from class anxiety. But do not despise the undecideds. Even conservatives can contract Scheiber Syndrome. Think of David Brooks, Christopher Buckley, David Frum, Peggy Noonan, and George Will. The symptoms? Curiously amplified, obsessively repeated, sometimes elaborately stage-whispered doubts about the Republican ticket.
Note: ‘do not despise’ them? Too late, I already do. More so ‘conservatives’ who think this way.
And, finally,
The influential section of our upper-middle class, which lives in media centers, does, of course, have an understanding of the ethic of service, and a special familiarity with men in uniforms decorated with epaulets. Paula Throckmorton-Zakaria finds the spirit of service right at home in Manhattan:
We may not have a ''servant'' class in the strict Victorian sense, but a "service" class we have indeed, and it is serving us. How do we square our egalitarian self-conceit with a liveried doorman? Not easily. For non-New Yorkers, doormen are the guys who carry the bags, organize the packages and tell you who stopped by to see your 15-year-old while you were out. They also open the door.
Receiving all those services in exchange for a partially deductible maintenance fee and a Christmas tip, we don't much miss the small matter of McCain's authentic service to his country. I, my children, and perhaps the Sulzberger and Couric children spent years passing through doors opened by uniformed, epauletted men on the way to private schools that were proud to teach an ethic of service. The experience didn't equip us to recognize the real thing.

Yeah, to all too many of the ‘upper classes’, a uniform means a menial, a servant, someone to look down on. Remember, early in the war, the intellectuals who had kids who joined the military? All the other ‘intellectuals’ asking them what went wrong? Because, obviously, someone of their class wouldn’t join the Army or Navy or Marines or Air Force unless they couldn’t hack it in school. Or had a mental problem. Wanting to serve and protect the United States? Obviously the act of someone with a mental defect, who can’t do any better.
It’s just amazing, isn’t it? Someone who actually puts their life on the line, someone who takes on their own party to clean up a mess? Plebeians to be despised. Someone who consorts with terrorists and wants to tear the country down? A bloody natural wonder, they are. And the terrorists are considered 'rehabilitated'; they're of the proper class and have very PC ideas, so they're just wonderful people.

And the clowns who believe these things think they deserve to run our lives.

What's your buckshot of choice

for home defense use? #4 or 00? Magnum, standard or reduced recoil?

The 12-gauge I have for the purpose is, with magnums or standard buckshot, fairly nasty to shoot. It’s light, which is very nice, except less weight means you feel more of the recoil energy; makes practice downright uncomfortable. So I tried two loads: the Winchester Ranger low recoil, and the Hornady FPD reduced recoil, both with 00 buckshot.

The Ranger load uses eight pellets, the Hornady nine and a lower powder charge. Recoil feels about the same, definitely lower than standard(let alone magnum) loads. Both give tight patterns in across the room/across the yard ranges(my scattergun has a 18" improved-cylinder barrel), easily placing all pellets well inside COM. With a high COM aim, all pellets in the upper chest of a silhouette. And I can’t believe that, at these ranges, the slightly lower velocity of some of these will be enough to make a difference to the goblin.

I'd forgotten this cartoon

Just found it the other day

It's GOT to be some kind of rule

Is there a rule that the Sci-Fi Channel HAS to make crap movies?

Due to circumstances watched as much as I could stand of a ‘Made for Sci-Fi Movie!’ called Pterodactyl. Let’s see,
Special Forces team that can’t shoot for shit(also generally incompetent),
Flying lizards going from hatching to big enough to carry people away(and breed) in three months,
Said lizards, except for certain scenes, virtually invulnerable to gunfire,
AND not bothered by the noise,
Etc.

I mean, it was BAD.

There’s GOT to be some rule they have.

Just as a thought,

How much trouble ARE we going to have after this election?

The weenies have been prepping the ground for a while now; consider that sorry bastard James Carville’s speech a few days ago that ‘If Obama has a lead in the polls and loses the election, it will be bad.’ Setting up excuses for the morons to riot if The Obama is denied his ascension(just one of the reasons I loathe that miserable bugger. Carville, that is). Every nutcase on Daily Kossacks and Democrat Underground is threatening violence if their selection isn’t officially selected. Question there becomes, how many of these morons will actually head out to break, burn and assault? If they’re so willing to openly commit vote fraud, what inhibitions will these clowns have against taking another step?

And let us not forget the grievance-mongers, for whom everything is an excuse to “take some of what I’m owed”. Barack Hussein I Am Owed This Obama losing the election will be prime excuse material for those parasites.

And the Nation of Islam and every islamist jerk in the world: “See! The evil white crusader Christians conspired to prevent Obama from taking his place in the world!” Etc. Think they’d have many inhibitions about staging A Summer in Paris in NYeffin’C? Or Chicago? Or Los Angeles?

And may I suggest something else to worry about: what if The Obama wins? Some of these clowns are going to take that as virtual license to riot and burn in celebration. Got a McCain/Palin sign in your yard, a sticker on your car? In some places, be ready for damage as they celebrate.

Let’s see, Evil Party members have been playing “The last two elections were stolen!” victims for years and threatening all kinds of violence; the Obama cultists are liable to take anything short of a landslide victory as evidence the eeeeviilllle right-wingers are coming after them; the professional victims and enablers will use his loss as an excuse for more demands for blackmail and ‘no justice, no peace’ demands that rioters and rapists and arsonists not be punished; and, especially considering the absolutely disgusting levels of bias and falsehood the major media have shown themselves to be willing to stoop to, you know that they’ll be making excuses for damn near anything of the kind: “Since The Obama’s victory was stolen, can you blame them?”, etc.

Few days ago I caught part of Glenn Beck’s show on CNN. Among other things, had a segment on the FBI and other agencies monitoring the internet for ‘militia’ and other groups and individuals showing upset over the current idiocy and theft going on in government; “They are looking for warning signs” and so forth*. Beck ended that with a heartfelt “PLEASE, keep things under control, don’t do anything hasty or bad”(he’s been hitting that frequently lately), which is all very nice; I wonder if he’s asked if the Obama and DU kool-aid drinkers and associates are being ‘watched for warning signs’? And, referring back to our ‘triple-layer edited and fact-checked’ media, the fact that if any of the Dummies attack people and burn things the ‘right-wing militia types’ who fight them(i.e., anyone trying to keep the bastards from burning things and beating people) are going to be portrayed as ‘vigilantes taking the law into their own hands’. In suitably breathless terms, of course, while asking why the Feds aren’t ‘cracking down on these militia people/right-wing nuts/current term for ’. Some freelance socialist breaks into a home and attacks someone and gets shot and he gets portrayed all too often as the choirboy who was ‘murdered’ by the victim NOW; what happens if the major media has co-religionists to defend? It’ll be “The fascists attacked the peaceful protesters who were expressing upset after losing the election.”

I very much hope none of this crap happens; I very much fear it will, in some places.


*Beck, referring to the people ‘keeping their eyes on’ the ‘net, asked the guy(retired FBI weenie) if the people doing the watching, considering the political climate, might let politics influence them. The weenie informed him that ‘in all my years, all the fine agents I worked with, none of them would do that’. Which, considering the crap that’s come out about FBI and ATF the last few years, makes me think he either
Worked only with paragons of virtue his career,
Is blind, or
Is lying.

I tend to go for the last two.

In what passes for 'news' today,

when I opened up AOL last night it noted that one of the most prominent celebritutes, Miley Cyrus, was openly flirting with an 'older man'. In front of her mother, who apparently did nothing about it.

I have to say 'apparently' because I did not read this crap. First, I have no interest in Miss Cyrus or her activities, though I do worry about what other girls that age and younger are getting from it. Second, I just wonder what friggin' moron decided this was news?

Kevin lead to

Fun, which leads to this

So it's officially- as much as the Feebs will do it- labelled an honor killing

Found this at Keyboard's place:
Almost a year after two teenage girls were found dead — allegedly executed by their father — in the back seat of a taxicab in Texas, the FBI is saying for the first time that the case may have been an "honor killing."

Sarah Said, 17, and her sister Amina, 18, were killed on New Year's Day, but for nine months authorities deflected questions about whether their father — the prime suspect and the subject of a nationwide manhunt — may have targeted them because of a perceived slight upon his honor.

The usual suspects are whining that it shouldn't be called that, it might 'stigmatize the islamic community' and so forth. I would like to inform CAIR that muslims murdering their daughters and wives- many, many documented cases around the world- is what 'stigmatizes' your beliefs. Be nice if you did something to stop that garbage.

As the man says, the Obamessiah people are officially

insane:

I'm listening to Fox, on which an Obama spokeshole is claiming that the McCain campaign "didn't vet Joe the Plumber."

They must be terrified.

So terrified that they come up with crap like this. Let's see, Barack Don't Ask Me REAL Questions Hussein Obama is in the guys neighborhood. Asks for questions. Guy asks a question and The Obama slips and tells the truth about what he is. And the McCain people should have vetted him?

Absofreakinlutely amazing.

The High Road has a new address

it's over here.

This definitely counts as 'Law Enforcement-

Sorry Excuse For:
He runs into a member of one of the groups, and they tell him outright that the group has their eye on him, will get even, he is dead meat, etc.. He requests from his supervisor an emergency transfer. With one of those the person and family are moved immediately, to a good distance, and given new identities (down to a credit history under their new names, so no one can trace them that way).

His supervisor handles it as an ordinary, voluntary, transfer. As in, it'll take weeks for approval, if we do approve, you can be transferred nearby, no new identity. In the meantime other reports are coming in. An informant who shared a cell with a prison gang leader reports that he saw a list of men marked for "hits" and noticed the agent's name on it. Etc., etc.. It becomes apparent that not one, but two groups well-known for killing people are both out to kill him.

The transfer is not modified. It's still voluntary, agent is in one duty station and would like to move to another for personal reasons, and HQ will process when they feel like it.

It's kind of amazing. If nothing else, how the hell do these clowns expect to get people to volunteer for this kind of amazingly dangerous work, when they know they'll be crapped on for it down the line?

Ok, this is interesting

and might become very interesting:
API is disturbed by the way many have reacted to the story on Mrs Obama’s call. Many have shown us by the way they have behaved towards API that they only think of their own interests because they have demanded that the audio recordings should be released immediately. We understand that the tapes should be released, but those who have demanded the release of the tapes seem not take into account that API may become a suing target.

The Recordings:

API has recordings of the conversation between API and Mrs Obama (Shocking development: Mrs Obama decides enough is enough: “My husband was born in Hawaii and adopted by his step father, does that make him unpatriotic; she asks”, on a direct telephone to API., and we confirm that the audio will be released to the public. In the last 24 hours, API has been consulting legal advisers on the way forward in order to avoid being sued by the Obama camp. API has realised that the contents of the tapes if made public may change the political atmosphere in America for ever, especially in the next few days.

Due to enormous reactions received, API now understands the impact of the statements made by Mrs Obama. The American people have reacted in a way we in API would never have expected............
...
A number of Americans who are die-hard Obama followers have tried their best to intimidate API using all kinds of threatening methods when they call in and when they email us. They are implying that API is planning to destroy Obama’s chances to become the next US President. API does not have a direct interest in the US Presidential elections and we want Obama supporters to understand that. However, when someone who may become the next first lady makes such comments as in the story we have published, the public have the right to know. Intimidation directed to the publishers of the story is not the answer.

Went to the range

to get the bad taste of politics out of my system, and to try a couple of loads. Specifically, I wanted a load that would closely duplicate the factory 185-grain Gold Dot 45acp load. The factory stuff is damned expensive, so having something very close to practice with would be rather nice.

Couple of days ago I looked at the Alliant Powder site and, lo and behold, they had some loads for that specific bullet. Since I A: had some and B: it gave higher velocity I went with Unique.

I have to mention, I've always had two problems with Unique: it didn't feed very smoothly through my powder measure, and it burned fairly dirty. Why use it? Because there are a couple of older cartridges it's one of the most recommended powders for, and because it tends to give good accuracy in them. Last time I got a bottle I noticed the new bottles are marked 'Cleaner Burning'. And it is, noticeably so. It also flows through the measure better than the previous version; whether the two are related, no idea, but I'm glad of it either way.

Yes, I did drop the charge from the load shown, using 8.0 grains. I loaded two full loads in my pistol(16 rounds) to try. Well, it felt indistinguishable from the factory loads, and the shots went right where they were supposed to. No signs I could spot of high pressure, so I'll make up some more and, next time I'm at the outdoor range, use the Chrony to check velocity(along with the other stuff I need to test).

I love it when something actually works the way you want it to.

I wrote to both my congresscritters this morning

telling them what I think about the current results of the Pork, Payoff and Bribes Bill. Yes, I was polite. No, I do not write 'The Honorable' in the address or any other of that bullcrap; they're our EMPLOYEES, dammit, since when am I supposed to crawl when I speak to them?

I just got a canned response from Coburn, basically "We had to act or the world would end." So I just sent asking him why, if it was so damned important, they had to lard all the bribes and payoffs and pork into it?

You know, this is just freakin' disgusting, on a level hard to find words for. Countrywide Dodd and Fannie Mae Frank, complicit in causing the problem, corrupt, and still in Congress with their hands all over this crap. And further in our pockets. And the excuse we still get is "We had to act NOW!!!"

Lampposts, ropes, politicians...

Oh, saw part of the Glenn Beck show last night. There was a segment with a retired FBI weenie talking about how the government is 'monitoring the internet to keep an eye on 'militia' types who may cause problems after the election'. You ever wondered if a lot of us are on a list, I think you can end your doubts.

Beck asked him if the FBI(mentioned as the agency primarily involved in the monitoring) could be trusted not to let politics shape their actions, and the weenie informed him 'of all the agents I knew over my career, none of them would do that'. WHich means, considering what's come out over the last few years, he either worked only with paragons of virtue, he's blind, or he's lying.

Can we add bureaucrats to the list? Not nearly enough lampposts, but there's always trees, and cranes...

That hijacked Iranian ship?

Something I hadn't heard before about it:
[Russian sources claim she] was an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel. The entire cargo of radioactive sand, obtained by Iran from China (the latter buys desperately needed oil from the former) and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to the boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive cloud ashore.

That would be remarkably nasty. And fit right in with Ahmadogcrap's threats.

I have been taken to task for daring to write about

Elsa the Lion turning out to be less than a storybook happy-ending story a while back, in the comments. Including:
I cant see why you had to write this story.About elsa the lion she was doing what any lion woud do to feed her young cubs when she can not hunt,on her own and you shot her. Shame on you

Yeah, God forbid I actually take note of a problem with an idea. But, of course, I am a Nasty Gun-Clinging American:
But you are from the US the gun country shoot anything and anyone.
Yeah, corpses everywhere and holes in the neighbor's houses, that's me.

Nothing in this world is perfect and even the best of intentions can go awry. The wild animal population needs our help and support! Not people like you who could probably find a negative thing amidst an almost perfect bed of roses!
Well, the roses don't crawl out of the bed and chase me with their thorns, but overall I find them pretty pleasing. And he's stuck on 'people like you!' It seems that simply by writing about this incident, I have become a Destroyer of Wildlife and All That is Good; kind of like writing about Barack I Hate Plumbers Obama makes you a racist, I guess.

I wasn't going to post about this until I got another comment today, including the above and this gem:
Maybe when we can fully appreciate all forms of life(including people like you), maybe then we can find hope in saving ourselves!
No, of COURSE I have no consideration for other forms of life. Otherwise I'd be a enviroweenie animal-rights squirrel(oops, there's that specie-ism again) who thinks writing about a people-munching lion is equivalent to wanting them all shot. Geez.

Ah well, I need to check the muzzle-loader out. Just in case I have a chance the next while to go out and whack Bambi.

This about says it all

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

This moron thinks that taxing the life out of someone building a business is 'spreading the wealth around'. Spoken like a socialist politician who's never had a damn thing to do with a business in his life.

I don't think I've said this before, though I thought it: this man is flat-out dangerous to this nation.

Yeah, it's fall

Cool, solid overcast, and a mix of fog and/or very light rain all day. And I think most of the night. Which makes it nasty outside, but a good night for sleeping it was.

And the stuff helped the friend plant- and the stuff that wasn't in the ground yet- should like it.

Times past, I'd have headed for the woods on a day like this. However, between work, time and distance that isn't an option most days. Does make baking and such a more comfortable, though.

And that's the extent of my brilliance today. Except I'll pass on another dog story:

My parents used to have a West Highland Terrier; think of a Scottie, white and smaller. Very nice dog. Got along with everyone, cats no problem, with one real dislike.

Skateboards.

She detested them. If she heard or saw one coming down the street, she hit the fence. If she was inside, and there was no one to let her out, she’d run through the house to the doggie door in back to get out, then clear around the house to bark at it.

Well, years before this Mom & Dad had a deck built on back of the house. Except for the hottest weather it was a comfortable place to sit, and Dad extended the roof over a bit to cover an area he leveled with patio blocks for the grill. The one drawback was cats. Stray pregnant females would home in on the place and set up housekeeping under the deck to have their litter. Dad spent a lot of time taming the mom & kittens so he could find homes for them(there was a BIG problem with stray cats for a couple of years).

So one day Mom’s in the bedroom folding clothes, Dad’s out back sitting watching the latest mother & litter play on the deck and the dog’s in the living room. Then she hears it.

Skateboard wheels. Coming down the street.

At this point two of the kittens are rolling around, and the other four & mom are sitting grooming, about two feet in front of the back door.

Cricket(from past experience) jumps up, looks out the window and heads for the back.

Dad is watching the felines when the dog came through the door at a dead run and scattered cats like pins in a kids bowling set and never broke stride. She shot off the deck and around the house to deal with the hated skateboard, leaving five cats in various poses of “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?”

Damn, the things that happen with no camera rolling.

As somebody said, significant hemorrhage takes the fun out of things

Smaller amounts, not as bad. At least when it's not my blood. And for a change it was not I losing blood.

Went out to visit some friends don’t get the chance to see very often and, while there, helped plant some trees. They bought this house about two years ago and he’s been very big on planting both trees and roses. Some have done fairly well, some not so much; the weather this past winter didn’t help matters. So, went to Lowe’s to help him pick up some potting soil and they had their remaining trees on sale, so…

Six trees and nearly twenty berry bushes later(also on sale), back at the house, there was one tree that’d been loosened up in the pot badly enough thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get it in the ground. So dug the hole. Which took more than you might think; about two or three inches below the surface there’s a thick layer of clay, actually had to break it up with a pick and then scoop it out to get the hole deep enough. Finally got that done, put some organic matter in the hole and soak it, put in the tree and fill the hole up, then soak it well. Now comes the post, to hold the tree upright in this wind while it settles in and roots. So he got a t-post and the driver and began hammering.

If you’ve never worked with one of these, the driver is basically a section of pipe with a heavy cap welded on one end and a handle on each side. Slip it over the top of the post, drive it down, lift and repeat; lots easier than using a hammer for these.

Well, the ground was hard enough that he was having to really slam it down to get the post in, and had only gotten it in three or four inches when- in one of those “Damn, how’d THAT happen?” accidents- he lifted the driver just a bit too high, which naturally means the thing moved a touch toward him, the bottom edge rose clear of the post and as he drove it down the far side hit and the driver pivoted over and slammed into his head.

I was figuring the best way to tie the tree when he said a word(I promise, it was not “Shuckins”) and hit the ground. It took a minute to figure out exactly what’d happened, since I hadn’t seen it and he was concentrating on pain. Then he took off his hat and we discovered the bleeding, so I told him to stay down with his daughter for company(“Daddy’s ok, he just needs to rest.” “Daddy booboo?” Etc.)

Get inside, “Do you have a first-aid kit?” His wife was on the phone- that was a call that ended quick- and she grabbed a towel and out we went. Apparently the “There’s a bit of hemorrhage, but not much” didn’t really help. “Hemorrhage?!?” “Just a little bit, he banged his head.” She didn’t exactly leave a vacuum behind, but there was a bit of a swirl.

Let me note, the wife is a nurse specializing in pregnant women and newborns; a damn good one. But she says herself that she doesn’t deal well with family and other problems, like head injuries. So after getting him in and cleaned up a bit, she was worried enough to demand a trip to the ER. So an entourage of the wounded, the wife, the daughter(not quite three) and me loaded up. Happily the daughter doesn’t get freaked out, so my job in the event was to
First, park the car after dropping dizzy husband and wife at the door,
Second, bring child in,
Third, keep her out of the way and as happy with things as possible. Which I hadn’t done in quite a while, but I remembered how and she did quite well.

So it was determined that while he may have damaged one of his five remaining brain cells, there didn’t seem to be any serious damage. So while wife was being informed as to what specifics to watch for over the next couple of days, I took kid to car and brought it to the door, and all went back to the house. Shortly thereafter I had to go home and get some sleep before work(this is being written at o-dark-thirty in the morning), and as of last word the injured is doing fine. Though his head is going to be sore for a while.

By the time I got home I was able to get about two hours sleep before having to be at work at the proverbial oh-dark-thirty. But I do get to sleep tonight.

And how was your day off?