to Europe.
Thanks to James for the link.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Remember the H-S Precision idiocy?
Stingray talked to them- if you can call it that- at the convention. They said "It didn't happen."
“No comment. That never happened. He was never affiliated with us. No comment. Move along. We do not include product testimonials.” Added emphasis mine. He continued to chant the “no comment” talisman while making sure the other two H-S Precision employees got the notion that they should keep quiet too.
So I guess that wasn't actually a testimonial on their publication?
“What about the apology? Your company didn’t even — ” At this point, a white haired gentleman male stepped forward, visibly angry.
“What about an apology? Did they apologize for killing a US Marshall?”
“Did Vickie Weaver shoot him? Did the baby do it?”
“Well she was there! She knew damn well — ” at this point he was very animated and going red in the face. The original company spokesman tossed a few more “No comment!”s at me and physically removed the other individual to the back of the booth. The product rep I originally spoke to informed me that the interview was over and told me to leave the booth.
Wonderful isn't it? Just a bit, ah, testy about the non-existent testimonial, aren't they? It's apparently done something for business, all right:
It’s also worth noting that at the H-S Precision booth all I had to do to speak to a representative was interrupt his coffee and conversation with the other reps. At the McMillan booth, they were popular enough that even though they had roughly four times the staff, I still had to wait about five minutes before it was my turn to get anybody’s ear. I had a good view of H-S Precision’s booth for a solid 20 minutes while standing in a line for something unrelated to this post, and during that entire time I still didn’t see anybody approach them.
It's still amazing to me that someone in such a company didn't tell whoever had the idea of that testimonial "Sir, have you considered the possible reaction to this?" Or that, if someone raised it, they discounted it. Either case, they're paying the price.
“No comment. That never happened. He was never affiliated with us. No comment. Move along. We do not include product testimonials.” Added emphasis mine. He continued to chant the “no comment” talisman while making sure the other two H-S Precision employees got the notion that they should keep quiet too.
So I guess that wasn't actually a testimonial on their publication?
“What about the apology? Your company didn’t even — ” At this point, a white haired gentleman male stepped forward, visibly angry.
“What about an apology? Did they apologize for killing a US Marshall?”
“Did Vickie Weaver shoot him? Did the baby do it?”
“Well she was there! She knew damn well — ” at this point he was very animated and going red in the face. The original company spokesman tossed a few more “No comment!”s at me and physically removed the other individual to the back of the booth. The product rep I originally spoke to informed me that the interview was over and told me to leave the booth.
Wonderful isn't it? Just a bit, ah, testy about the non-existent testimonial, aren't they? It's apparently done something for business, all right:
It’s also worth noting that at the H-S Precision booth all I had to do to speak to a representative was interrupt his coffee and conversation with the other reps. At the McMillan booth, they were popular enough that even though they had roughly four times the staff, I still had to wait about five minutes before it was my turn to get anybody’s ear. I had a good view of H-S Precision’s booth for a solid 20 minutes while standing in a line for something unrelated to this post, and during that entire time I still didn’t see anybody approach them.
It's still amazing to me that someone in such a company didn't tell whoever had the idea of that testimonial "Sir, have you considered the possible reaction to this?" Or that, if someone raised it, they discounted it. Either case, they're paying the price.
"We're from the government,
you're screwed."
Finally, we had turned to the EPA for help figuring they would know who they licensed to haul these materials, and could point us to the closest one. 'We understand your situation' they said. They'd come and help us, they said. When they got here, they didn't help at all. What they did was count barrels, and slapped a fine on us for each barrel over our licensed limit, and left telling us that they'd be back next month, for another round of fines if we couldn't prove we'd gotten rid of them legally."
Is it just me, or is there an object lesson there? "We're from the government. We're here to help."
Read the whole damn thing, lost jobs and all.
Finally, we had turned to the EPA for help figuring they would know who they licensed to haul these materials, and could point us to the closest one. 'We understand your situation' they said. They'd come and help us, they said. When they got here, they didn't help at all. What they did was count barrels, and slapped a fine on us for each barrel over our licensed limit, and left telling us that they'd be back next month, for another round of fines if we couldn't prove we'd gotten rid of them legally."
Is it just me, or is there an object lesson there? "We're from the government. We're here to help."
Read the whole damn thing, lost jobs and all.
Long, busy day so far,
and whether it's from doing, from not enough sleep or the weather changing, I ache from roughly mid-back to my feet. And since I haven't caught anyone sneaking around hitting me with a stick, has to be one of the above.
Rafferty the found puppy
is doing well. Just slightly bigger than before, but now starting to eat softened dry food, actually playing with Itzl the long-hair chihuahua and generally acting like a 5-6 week puppy. I tried to get one of him and Itzl playing, but couldn't catch them still long enough for my camera to click before they'd move. Sometimes a considerable amount. That's daughter's hands, to give you an idea of size.
I have discovered that if, after scratching his back, I grab him around the body and wobble him a bit, he starts making noises that sound like he's off his meds(maybe a relation to Lawdog's kitten?) I am informed that if rolled on his back and suitably annoyed, he opens his mouth, sticks out his tongue and generally sounds and looks like a stand-in from The Exorcist. Which is kind of disturbing in a critter I can hold in both hands with room to spare.
I mentioned I was going to make a set of smooth walnut grips for the Victory Model, and they're coming along pretty well. I decided to make a set for the Target Masterpiece, too; the originals* just don't fit my hand very well. Here's the progress so far, Target on top:
The Victory grips have a couple of coats of my favorite finish**, the Target grips are just as I finished sanding them today.
It's been a fair while since I did a set of these, and they're not fitted as nicely as they should be. Nothing horrible, but definitely not quite right. They lock solidly into place, and fit the hand nicely, so I'll just do a bit of trying and sanding on the Target grips and then finish them, also. What I really need for this is an old Model 10 frame that's cracked and unusable for a firearm, so I can mount the grips on the frame and do a lot of the sanding/scraping without worrying about scratching the metal.
The Paseo Arts Festival is on this weekend in the Paseo District(also known- at least by me- as the Artsy Sector, or the Artsy-Fartsy District when annoyed). Usually a fairly nice fair, but about the time I was thinking of going this evening I heard thunder. It being a holiday weekend WITH a festival, of course Ma Nature has to remind us of her august presence, but why she has to do it by peeing all over us, I don't know; that hardly seems very august.
And the storm is moving northeast to southwest, the reverse of usual direction. Is Ma Nature bipolar?
Ever see Special Unit 2? Was only on for one season. SU2 is a unit of the Chicago PD(why is it always Chicago? Does the Daley presence bring even supernatural dirtbags to the area?) that deals with 'links'; their name for vampires, godlets, scarecrows and other critters of all sorts that show up in the area. Friend, a while back when the Sci-Fi Channel was showing it, taped a bunch of episodes for me(daughter says "That's the job I want!"); last night was watching one, where the male lead has been sentanced to an anger management class. Which led to things like
Pretty Psychologist: "And what happened?"
Cop: "Well, I ran this obnoxious, smelly, disgusting little... troll down the alley-"
PS: "You see, when you call someone names, you dehuminize them, to excuse your violence."
Pause
Cop: "What if he really IS a troll?"
Various discussion, ending with "So I hung him from a lamppost and used him for a speed bag."
PS: "What did you feel when you hit him?"
Cop: thoughtful pause, "A dull thud."
And later,
PS: "Officer, what do you think brought you here?"
Cop: "Honestly?... Witnesses."
Not a bad show, wish I could get the season on DVD.
Speaking of tv, when the Digital Revolution came along, I decided to give it a couple of weeks and see if I missed it enough to buy either a converter box(and I've heard some bad stories about how well they work) or a new tv. So far, the only thing I miss is Big Bang Theory on Mondays, and that's not worth buying the stuff for. Especially since I can just get it on DVD in a few months. I wonder if the networks have any idea how many people just said "Screw it" and gave up the tv for anything other than playing DVDs and tapes? And I wonder what it's costing them in the long run? Or if they really care?
Ok, the weather weenies are currently saying 40% chance of rain through Monday, which basically means "We don't know if it will or not." Considering the aches, I know if I'm going out tonight. Zorba's Mediterranean restaurant has flamenco dancers on Friday night, belly dancers on Saturday, but I'd have to shower to be presentable in company, and tonight it's just not worth it.
*Yes the originals- and on the TM they ARE the originals- are being carefully bagged and stored.
**Minwax Antique Oil Finish. No stain, just a finish that actually soaks into the surface, doesn't just wipe on top. Takes about a week to do the full job with it, but it's hard, protective and brings out the grain nicely.
Rafferty the found puppy
is doing well. Just slightly bigger than before, but now starting to eat softened dry food, actually playing with Itzl the long-hair chihuahua and generally acting like a 5-6 week puppy. I tried to get one of him and Itzl playing, but couldn't catch them still long enough for my camera to click before they'd move. Sometimes a considerable amount. That's daughter's hands, to give you an idea of size.I have discovered that if, after scratching his back, I grab him around the body and wobble him a bit, he starts making noises that sound like he's off his meds(maybe a relation to Lawdog's kitten?) I am informed that if rolled on his back and suitably annoyed, he opens his mouth, sticks out his tongue and generally sounds and looks like a stand-in from The Exorcist. Which is kind of disturbing in a critter I can hold in both hands with room to spare.
I mentioned I was going to make a set of smooth walnut grips for the Victory Model, and they're coming along pretty well. I decided to make a set for the Target Masterpiece, too; the originals* just don't fit my hand very well. Here's the progress so far, Target on top:
The Victory grips have a couple of coats of my favorite finish**, the Target grips are just as I finished sanding them today.It's been a fair while since I did a set of these, and they're not fitted as nicely as they should be. Nothing horrible, but definitely not quite right. They lock solidly into place, and fit the hand nicely, so I'll just do a bit of trying and sanding on the Target grips and then finish them, also. What I really need for this is an old Model 10 frame that's cracked and unusable for a firearm, so I can mount the grips on the frame and do a lot of the sanding/scraping without worrying about scratching the metal.
The Paseo Arts Festival is on this weekend in the Paseo District(also known- at least by me- as the Artsy Sector, or the Artsy-Fartsy District when annoyed). Usually a fairly nice fair, but about the time I was thinking of going this evening I heard thunder. It being a holiday weekend WITH a festival, of course Ma Nature has to remind us of her august presence, but why she has to do it by peeing all over us, I don't know; that hardly seems very august.
And the storm is moving northeast to southwest, the reverse of usual direction. Is Ma Nature bipolar?
Ever see Special Unit 2? Was only on for one season. SU2 is a unit of the Chicago PD(why is it always Chicago? Does the Daley presence bring even supernatural dirtbags to the area?) that deals with 'links'; their name for vampires, godlets, scarecrows and other critters of all sorts that show up in the area. Friend, a while back when the Sci-Fi Channel was showing it, taped a bunch of episodes for me(daughter says "That's the job I want!"); last night was watching one, where the male lead has been sentanced to an anger management class. Which led to things like
Pretty Psychologist: "And what happened?"
Cop: "Well, I ran this obnoxious, smelly, disgusting little... troll down the alley-"
PS: "You see, when you call someone names, you dehuminize them, to excuse your violence."
Pause
Cop: "What if he really IS a troll?"
Various discussion, ending with "So I hung him from a lamppost and used him for a speed bag."
PS: "What did you feel when you hit him?"
Cop: thoughtful pause, "A dull thud."
And later,
PS: "Officer, what do you think brought you here?"
Cop: "Honestly?... Witnesses."
Not a bad show, wish I could get the season on DVD.
Speaking of tv, when the Digital Revolution came along, I decided to give it a couple of weeks and see if I missed it enough to buy either a converter box(and I've heard some bad stories about how well they work) or a new tv. So far, the only thing I miss is Big Bang Theory on Mondays, and that's not worth buying the stuff for. Especially since I can just get it on DVD in a few months. I wonder if the networks have any idea how many people just said "Screw it" and gave up the tv for anything other than playing DVDs and tapes? And I wonder what it's costing them in the long run? Or if they really care?
Ok, the weather weenies are currently saying 40% chance of rain through Monday, which basically means "We don't know if it will or not." Considering the aches, I know if I'm going out tonight. Zorba's Mediterranean restaurant has flamenco dancers on Friday night, belly dancers on Saturday, but I'd have to shower to be presentable in company, and tonight it's just not worth it.
*Yes the originals- and on the TM they ARE the originals- are being carefully bagged and stored.
**Minwax Antique Oil Finish. No stain, just a finish that actually soaks into the surface, doesn't just wipe on top. Takes about a week to do the full job with it, but it's hard, protective and brings out the grain nicely.
As I recall, isn't Sen. Barbara Boxer(Hypocrite-CA)
one of those "I think guns are awful and should be banned" politicians who turned out to have a carry permit? Makes her saying crap like this even more interesting*:
“It is a shame,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California. “But you have to come to a realization around here that at this point in time, the NRA gets the votes.”
She goes on to add, "I will just vote my conscience on those amendments and speak out until people get a hold of their senses."
You mean, gets hold of their senses and see what a miserable sad clown you are? And throw your butt out of that seat?
Every time you hear of some new treaty or UN idea a politician wants us to bow down to,
I want you to think of this:
...But it is the absence of power, it seems to me, that is an important part of public outrage. Westminster has given up so much power - to Europe, to quangos, to judges - that people wonder what they are paying for. Half the time, a big issue comes up and politicians say it's not their responsibility...
The readiness of politicians to relinquish power amazes me. Take the European constitution, now rebranded as the Lisbon treaty. I read all the drafts of that document, spoke to lawyers and became convinced that its calculated opacity was a charter for the creeping takeover of national policy by bureaucrats and judges. There were brilliant MPs who could debate every inch of the detail - David Miliband, Gisela Stuart, David Heathcoat-Amory, Chris Huhne. But I met others who hadn't even read the document and looked incredulous that I had...
Many decent MPs are dismayed at being lumped together with the crooks. But one of the reasons public anger goes a lot deeper than Sir Peter Viggers's duck pond is because we feel we can no longer change our laws by voting out politicians. The EU machine marches on, constraining everything from the future of the Post Office to what vitamins we can take. The promised referendum on the Lisbon treaty has been ditched. The quango nanny state has acquired a momentum of its own. Politicians have given away powers that they held in trust for the people. They cannot be altogether surprised if people now lump them all together in impotent fury.
and this:
Eighteen "phantom" MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] will be elected on full pay and perks next month despite not being able to start work for up to two years due to Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. The extra candidates will be chosen in the European Union elections on June 4 despite the agreement, which increases the number of MEPs from 736 to 754, remaining unsigned. Amid confusion over when and how they will take up their seats, the European Parliament has decided to give the MEPs only "observer" status from next year. The deal will mean they can draw full salaries and allowances at an annual cost of over £6 million without any legislative duties to carry out. The 18 MEPs, from 12 EU countries, including Britain's West Midlands region, will be paid more than £76,000 a year, with staff and office allowances worth £210,000. They will also be entitled to tax-free allowances of £255 for every day of their limbo existence in Brussels and can claim back business class travel. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: "Welcome to virtual politics, this has to be the political expenses scandal to end all expenses scandals. "The perfect politician for today's elite, one that takes wages and does no work at all."
This is the kind of crap that Obama and the 'progressives' would LOVE to tie us up in.
...But it is the absence of power, it seems to me, that is an important part of public outrage. Westminster has given up so much power - to Europe, to quangos, to judges - that people wonder what they are paying for. Half the time, a big issue comes up and politicians say it's not their responsibility...
The readiness of politicians to relinquish power amazes me. Take the European constitution, now rebranded as the Lisbon treaty. I read all the drafts of that document, spoke to lawyers and became convinced that its calculated opacity was a charter for the creeping takeover of national policy by bureaucrats and judges. There were brilliant MPs who could debate every inch of the detail - David Miliband, Gisela Stuart, David Heathcoat-Amory, Chris Huhne. But I met others who hadn't even read the document and looked incredulous that I had...
Many decent MPs are dismayed at being lumped together with the crooks. But one of the reasons public anger goes a lot deeper than Sir Peter Viggers's duck pond is because we feel we can no longer change our laws by voting out politicians. The EU machine marches on, constraining everything from the future of the Post Office to what vitamins we can take. The promised referendum on the Lisbon treaty has been ditched. The quango nanny state has acquired a momentum of its own. Politicians have given away powers that they held in trust for the people. They cannot be altogether surprised if people now lump them all together in impotent fury.
and this:
Eighteen "phantom" MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] will be elected on full pay and perks next month despite not being able to start work for up to two years due to Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. The extra candidates will be chosen in the European Union elections on June 4 despite the agreement, which increases the number of MEPs from 736 to 754, remaining unsigned. Amid confusion over when and how they will take up their seats, the European Parliament has decided to give the MEPs only "observer" status from next year. The deal will mean they can draw full salaries and allowances at an annual cost of over £6 million without any legislative duties to carry out. The 18 MEPs, from 12 EU countries, including Britain's West Midlands region, will be paid more than £76,000 a year, with staff and office allowances worth £210,000. They will also be entitled to tax-free allowances of £255 for every day of their limbo existence in Brussels and can claim back business class travel. Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: "Welcome to virtual politics, this has to be the political expenses scandal to end all expenses scandals. "The perfect politician for today's elite, one that takes wages and does no work at all."
This is the kind of crap that Obama and the 'progressives' would LOVE to tie us up in.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Damn, it's a hard time on the critters
Daughter's cat died last night. Keegan was a big orange furball she'd found dumped as a kitten. Had some kind of apparent birth defect in his hips that caused his legs to splay out a bit. Which didn't keep him from being able to get on the couch, bed, etc., and play once he'd grown a bit.
She's taking this hard, and I've got to help bury him. Pretty good critter overall, he'll be missed.
She's taking this hard, and I've got to help bury him. Pretty good critter overall, he'll be missed.
A few things I have to point out,
as my contribution to the "LOOK AT THIS CRAP!!" factor of the blogosphere. First, the Federal Trade Commission is mulling over guidelines that would require bloggers to disclose when they're writing about products they've been given, sponsor's products, or are getting paid to write about a particular product. The FTC says the new rules are necessary because people are increasingly turning to blogs for product information, and their unregulated nature makes them ripe for abuse.
Translation: "There's somebody out there doing something and we have no control over it! We've got to do something!"
Heard about this yesterday but forgot: Obama approves UAE civil nuclear deal. As the man says, They get cheap great nuclear power. We get conservation, windmills, solar panels, and silly lightbulbs.
Breda had a fun time with those wonderful people of the TSA. She has the followup on it. As Oleg Volk put it,
Commonsense also takes note of a review of the new Honda smugmobile:
So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.
The biggest problem, and it’s taken me a while to work this out, because all the other problems are so vast and so cancerous, is the gearbox. For reasons known only to itself, Honda has fitted the Insight with something called constantly variable transmission (CVT).
But wait! There's MORE!
And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
I have come to the conclusion that there must be interbreeding between New Orleans PD and Chicago PD:
Chicago police have issued Mark Geinosky 24 parking tickets in 16 months. They've given him as many as four in one day, and all have been issued to a vehicle he no longer owns and tag that is no longer active. Geinosky has gotten them all dismissed. But he says someone is out to get him, and he wants to know why. Chicago Tribune columnist Jon Yates reports 13 of the tickets were written by one officer, all at exactly 10 p.m., and all 13 were sequential in number, meaning the officer ticketed no one but Geinosky from that ticket book over a period of several months.
And finally, just to tick off the PC-types, some background on the (un)sainted Milk:
The bottom line is that Milk gets too much credit simply for being gay and too little credit for being just another creep politician.
Translation: "There's somebody out there doing something and we have no control over it! We've got to do something!"
Heard about this yesterday but forgot: Obama approves UAE civil nuclear deal. As the man says, They get cheap great nuclear power. We get conservation, windmills, solar panels, and silly lightbulbs.
Breda had a fun time with those wonderful people of the TSA. She has the followup on it. As Oleg Volk put it,
Commonsense also takes note of a review of the new Honda smugmobile:
So here goes. It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.
The biggest problem, and it’s taken me a while to work this out, because all the other problems are so vast and so cancerous, is the gearbox. For reasons known only to itself, Honda has fitted the Insight with something called constantly variable transmission (CVT).
But wait! There's MORE!
And the sound is worse. The Honda’s petrol engine is a much-shaved, built-for-economy, low-friction 1.3 that, at full chat, makes a noise worse than someone else’s crying baby on an airliner. It’s worse than the sound of your parachute failing to open. Really, to get an idea of how awful it is, you’d have to sit a dog on a ham slicer.
I have come to the conclusion that there must be interbreeding between New Orleans PD and Chicago PD:
Chicago police have issued Mark Geinosky 24 parking tickets in 16 months. They've given him as many as four in one day, and all have been issued to a vehicle he no longer owns and tag that is no longer active. Geinosky has gotten them all dismissed. But he says someone is out to get him, and he wants to know why. Chicago Tribune columnist Jon Yates reports 13 of the tickets were written by one officer, all at exactly 10 p.m., and all 13 were sequential in number, meaning the officer ticketed no one but Geinosky from that ticket book over a period of several months.
And finally, just to tick off the PC-types, some background on the (un)sainted Milk:
The bottom line is that Milk gets too much credit simply for being gay and too little credit for being just another creep politician.
It's just so wonderful out there,
what with the FCC saying your router may give them the 'right to enter your house, Obama's defensive speech on Gitmo and interrogation, more information on the people in NYC who wanted to kill Jews and American troops, and all the other stuff.
The FCC, you say?
Have a Wi-Fi router? If you do — and it uses an unlicensed frequency — you could be subject to a warrantless search of your home.
Federal Communications Commission guidelines stipulate that the agency can enter property when it suspects radio frequency energy is being abused. The provision, which was originally intended to aid the monitoring of unlicensed radio and tv stations, now has a broader range of application as more consumers join the wi-fi ranks.
“Anything using RF energy — we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference,” FCC spokesman David Fiske told Wired for an article Thursday. The FCC spokesman said the scope included Wi-Fi routers.
Mr. Fiske, that's not a 'right': you're claiming the POWER to invade someone's home because of their router("All power to the Government!", etc.). Which, I can tell you, will not go over well.
On the NYC terrorists,
Payen was apparently staying in a rundown house that neighbors say was known as a home for parolees. Penniless and jobless, he had been fighting deportation and seeking custody of his 3-year-old son, said Hamin Rashada, an assistant imam at the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque, where authorities say the informant first met Cromitie in June 2008.(so he wasn't here legally? Wow, illegal alien terrorists, who'd imagine such a thing?)
Cromitie was burning with anger about the U.S. war in Afghanistan, where his parents had lived before he was born, according to the criminal complaint. He told the informant he was interested in jihad and "doing something to America" and was crestfallen that "the best target (the World Trade Center) was hit already," the complaint said.
In the same conversation, Cromitie said: "I hate those mother-------, those f------ Jewish b------ .... I would like to get (destroy) a synagogue," according to the complaint.
In one conversation, Cromitie said he longed to shoot Jews in the head as they walked on the street near a synagogue, the informant told authorities. In another conversation with the informant, Onta Williams said the U.S. military was killing Muslims, "so if we kill them here with IEDs and Stingers, it is equal," according to court papers.
And isn't it interesting we keep hearing things like this in connection with people like these:
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he believed the defendants knew each other from their time behind bars. Relatives said Payen, David Williams and Onta (AWN'-tay) Williams were introduced to Islam in prison, where conversion to the faith is common.
"The Onta I know wouldn't do something like this, but the new Onta, yeah," said Richard Williams, an uncle. "He wasn't raised this way. All this happened when he became a Muslim in prison."
I will leave it to JustOneMinute to deal with Obama's speech.
I have just flipped on the live coverage of The One's speech on national security and my goodness - peevish Obama seems really irritated with us for expecting him to deal with these issues. As a good (and now abashed) citizen I almost want to send him some sort of apology note. Almost.
Connected to the NYC terrorists and Obama wanting to (just like Bush) keep the Gitmo detainees somewhere, Michelle Malkin has this:
A brief refresher course for the Left’s amnesiacs about the festering jihadi virus in our jails and overseas:
In 2005, Bush administration officials busted a terrorist plot to attack infidels at military and Jewish sites in the Los Angeles on the fourth anniversary of 9/11 or the Jewish holy days. It was devised by militant Muslim converts of Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (Arabic for “Assembly of Authentic Islam”) who had sworn allegiance to violent jihad at California’s New Folsom State Prison.
Jose Padilla, the convicted terror conspirator, converted to Islam during a stint at a Broward County, Fla., jail and reportedly fell in with terrorist recruiters after his release. Convicted Shoe Bomber Richard Reid converted to Islam with the help of an extremist imam in a British prison.
Aqil Collins, a self-confessed jihadist turned FBI informant, converted to Islam while doing time in a California juvenile detention center. At a terrorist camp in Afghanistan, he went on to train with one of the men accused of kidnapping and beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
In East Texas, inmates were recruited with a half-hour videotape featuring the anti-Semitic rants of California-based Imam Muhammad Abdullah, who claims that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were actually carried out by the Israeli and U.S. governments.
Federal corrections officials told congressional investigators during the Bush years “that convicted terrorists from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were put into their prisons’ general population , where they radicalized inmates and told them that terrorism was part of Islam.”
And now, it being that time of year, I must go out and make tactical strikes on some of the stuff that, growing like the weeds some of them are, is getting into and through the fence and otherwise being naughty vegetation.
The FCC, you say?
Have a Wi-Fi router? If you do — and it uses an unlicensed frequency — you could be subject to a warrantless search of your home.
Federal Communications Commission guidelines stipulate that the agency can enter property when it suspects radio frequency energy is being abused. The provision, which was originally intended to aid the monitoring of unlicensed radio and tv stations, now has a broader range of application as more consumers join the wi-fi ranks.
“Anything using RF energy — we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference,” FCC spokesman David Fiske told Wired for an article Thursday. The FCC spokesman said the scope included Wi-Fi routers.
Mr. Fiske, that's not a 'right': you're claiming the POWER to invade someone's home because of their router("All power to the Government!", etc.). Which, I can tell you, will not go over well.
On the NYC terrorists,
Payen was apparently staying in a rundown house that neighbors say was known as a home for parolees. Penniless and jobless, he had been fighting deportation and seeking custody of his 3-year-old son, said Hamin Rashada, an assistant imam at the Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque, where authorities say the informant first met Cromitie in June 2008.(so he wasn't here legally? Wow, illegal alien terrorists, who'd imagine such a thing?)
Cromitie was burning with anger about the U.S. war in Afghanistan, where his parents had lived before he was born, according to the criminal complaint. He told the informant he was interested in jihad and "doing something to America" and was crestfallen that "the best target (the World Trade Center) was hit already," the complaint said.
In the same conversation, Cromitie said: "I hate those mother-------, those f------ Jewish b------ .... I would like to get (destroy) a synagogue," according to the complaint.
In one conversation, Cromitie said he longed to shoot Jews in the head as they walked on the street near a synagogue, the informant told authorities. In another conversation with the informant, Onta Williams said the U.S. military was killing Muslims, "so if we kill them here with IEDs and Stingers, it is equal," according to court papers.
And isn't it interesting we keep hearing things like this in connection with people like these:
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he believed the defendants knew each other from their time behind bars. Relatives said Payen, David Williams and Onta (AWN'-tay) Williams were introduced to Islam in prison, where conversion to the faith is common.
"The Onta I know wouldn't do something like this, but the new Onta, yeah," said Richard Williams, an uncle. "He wasn't raised this way. All this happened when he became a Muslim in prison."
I will leave it to JustOneMinute to deal with Obama's speech.
I have just flipped on the live coverage of The One's speech on national security and my goodness - peevish Obama seems really irritated with us for expecting him to deal with these issues. As a good (and now abashed) citizen I almost want to send him some sort of apology note. Almost.
Connected to the NYC terrorists and Obama wanting to (just like Bush) keep the Gitmo detainees somewhere, Michelle Malkin has this:
A brief refresher course for the Left’s amnesiacs about the festering jihadi virus in our jails and overseas:
In 2005, Bush administration officials busted a terrorist plot to attack infidels at military and Jewish sites in the Los Angeles on the fourth anniversary of 9/11 or the Jewish holy days. It was devised by militant Muslim converts of Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh (Arabic for “Assembly of Authentic Islam”) who had sworn allegiance to violent jihad at California’s New Folsom State Prison.
Jose Padilla, the convicted terror conspirator, converted to Islam during a stint at a Broward County, Fla., jail and reportedly fell in with terrorist recruiters after his release. Convicted Shoe Bomber Richard Reid converted to Islam with the help of an extremist imam in a British prison.
Aqil Collins, a self-confessed jihadist turned FBI informant, converted to Islam while doing time in a California juvenile detention center. At a terrorist camp in Afghanistan, he went on to train with one of the men accused of kidnapping and beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
In East Texas, inmates were recruited with a half-hour videotape featuring the anti-Semitic rants of California-based Imam Muhammad Abdullah, who claims that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were actually carried out by the Israeli and U.S. governments.
Federal corrections officials told congressional investigators during the Bush years “that convicted terrorists from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing were put into their prisons’ general population , where they radicalized inmates and told them that terrorism was part of Islam.”
And now, it being that time of year, I must go out and make tactical strikes on some of the stuff that, growing like the weeds some of them are, is getting into and through the fence and otherwise being naughty vegetation.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Been kind of busy, so a number of things to catch up on(bad language alert for the first part)
So the editors in Congress have passed 'credit card reform', which is causing the companies to think about screwing people who actually pay in full and on time. Yeah, that's going to work.
People who routinely pay off their credit card balances have been enjoying the equivalent of a free ride, he said, because many have not had to pay an annual fee even as they collect points for air travel and other perks.
To Mr. Robertson, and every clown saying things like this: fuck you. Every time someone uses a card, you make money from the fee you charge the merchants(that's why a lot of places which sell firearms and ammo have two prices: cash and credit card, the latter to cover the fee for the credit card company). You, you miserable little worm, have been 'making out like a bandit' for years, and now you want to insult me and screw me over for handling my debts on time? I repeat, fuck you. You start charging me interest from the moment I buy something? You start charging me an annual fee? I'll cut up the card, close the account and use either a debit card or cash, and then you're getting NOTHING from me.
YOU are the people who decided to give points and whatever; if it's not affordable anymore, then inform every customer "We're not going to give points for purchases anymore." The 'perks' aren't affordable? Inform your customers, and drop them. Stop playing the Obama game and telling me that because I don't spend money I don't have, and don't make payments late, and don't default on what I owe, that I'm going to be screwed to take care of the people who do. You'll lose me as a customer, and then you get squat.
Someone who, more than 90% of the time, I'm very happy to call one of my senators, has given the Brady Ban Guns Group and the Violence Policy Center a massive case of hemorrhoids:
The Bush Administration rule required among other things that:
The gun owner have a concealed carry license.
The gun owner carry a handgun concealed.
The state in which the park was located had to allow carry in state parks. (Not 100% sure about this).
The Brady Campaign sued and successfully blocked this in the federal courts.
Coburn’s amendment goes much further:
The Secretary of the Interior shall not promulgate or enforce any regulation that prohibits an individual from possessing a firearm including an assembled or functional firearm in any unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System if–
(1) the individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing the firearm; and
(2) the possession of the firearm is in compliance with the law of the State in which the unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System is located.
Thus Arizonans without a license can now carry any firearm openly in their national parks and Texans can now carry rifles and shotguns openly (and handguns in their cars without a license) in their national parks since those activities are in compliance with the law outside the Park.
This must burn up the Brady Campaign - they won a battle and lost a much bigger war!
As I recall, the measure to ban any new machine guns from becoming available to citizens was passed by slipping it into another bill; so the same method screws the gun-banners. It comes around, people.
Let's see, an extortionist uses Alinsky tactics to mess with bankers. And I'm sure feels all warm and snuggly inside that he's screwing with people in the name of deadbeats. Note this from the comments:
Mr. Marks had better pray that the lenders he demonizes never wake up one days and decide, yeah, they’re really as eeeeeeevvilll as Marks claims they are. Because, if they do, Marky-Mark may well end his days in a car trunk out in the Jersey weeds.
Unwritten Alinsky rule: Your tactics will only work as long as the other side is willing to play by them. The day two large guys named “Paulie” and “Sal” show up in your driveway, all bets are off.
One of these days, an awful lot of 'activists' are going to find out that this crap works both ways; they're going to start finding their personal lives and connections being plastered all over town. And it wouldn't surprise me of some who get particularly nasty find themselves facing the same kind of crap from people sick of them.
Speaking of 'sick of them', a while back I read A Slobbering Love Affair, Bernard Goldberg's book on the major media and their sucking up to Obama. This is near the end:
Caddell worries that some day a demagogue is going to come along, somebody who makes Huey Long look like a shut-in. Somebody, Caddell told me, “who gets up at the start of his campaign and says, ‘I want you to see the press. They are the enemy of the American people. They will do everything they can to stop me because they want to stop YOU.’ And the American people will believe it. What if this is the most dangerous man that ever came along? Nobody will care what the press says.”
And THAT, my friends, is why the corruption of the media matters. The press has constitutional protections for one man reason: to keep watch over a powerful government. The fundamental job of journalists is to look out for US- the American people! If nobody cares what the press says, journalists will be watchdogs in name only. They may bark from time to time, but nobody will listen. And their weakness will make it easy for a corrupt government to get away with murder. THAT is the danger we all face when the mainstream media go on a noble mission to make history. THAT is what can happen when the media, like that liberal professor at American University in Washington, believe that their role is not simply to report the news, fairly and accurately, but to EFFECT THEIR KIND OF CHANGE IN SOCIETY.
This time, they really screwed up!
Yeah, they did. Some of them have known for years that they(up to that point) and their colleagues(still) did; many are still doing it, because they either don't care that more and more people discard them as untrustworthy, or think that The Obama will somehow make it right by screwing with the new media. And some see themselves as 'saving us from ourselves' by slanting the news/selective reporting; after all, they know what we should be allowed to hear. Some, I think, have truly realized how they've screwed the pooch and are really worried about it. But, like I told the kids years ago, when you destroy the trust someone had in you, it takes a long damn time to try to get it back; you may never get it back. And it's your own damn fault.
And, as various people have pointed out, what happens when these media weenies start facing the same kind of crap they pull? When some politician or businessman or plain guy who's been screwed over by them starts investigating thereporter'sjournalists' private life? And starts spreading everything that can be found about his finances and his personal life and his family around?* They're not going to like it, and they won't have a leg to stand on for bitching about it, because it's simply the same garbage they use on people, used on them. There's been a few bits and pieces of it, like when Ann Coulter put out the facts on that jackass Olbermann's 'ivy-league school'; the one he actually attended, not the one he kept claiming. Bastard didn't like it; neither will a lot of other media weenies when someone starts digging.
A plot to bomb Jewish centers and military targets broken up by the NYPD and FBI doing the kind of thing they're actually supposed to do, and are good at when they do it.
Agents and police watched Wednesday night as the suspects allegedly planted what they thought were bombs outside two Jewish community centers in Riverdale, a Bronx, New York neighborhood. In one case the suspected terrorists planted a bomb inside a parked car. However, officials said the suspects were actually using fake explosives given to them in an earlier sting operation to make sure they didn't get their hands on real bombs.
"The bombs had been made by the FBI technicians, they were totally inert, no one was ever at risk," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
...
The FBI said the Muslim suspects were angry and full of hate for America.
"Hatred of the West. The leader of the group, James Cromitie was concerned about deaths at the hands of the U.S. military in Afghanistan," and also expressed anti-Jewish sentiment, Joseph Demarest the head of the New York FBI said.
The fun part about this?
"It shows you can't let your guard down," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said. "They did intend to use car bombs by remote control but the bombs the informant sold them were duds."
“I have spoken to both the New York office of the FBI and Commissioner Kelly and I want to commend them both on an outstanding job. They have told me they have been monitoring this group for some time and that the men arrested did not have any connection to other terrorists," Schumer added.
Yeah it's great when something in NYEffin'C is stopped, isn't it, Schumer? So why do you so bitch and whine and threaten about trying to find and track terrorists the rest of the time?
Let's note that while the Obama administration is basically renaming lots of Bush policies and keeping them, he's also nominating people like Koh to positions where they can screw this country over.
"Was it something I said? Or wrote?"
On a personal note, I'll be retiring soon from the place I've been working for a bunch of years. Which is nice, though it's going to be strange. I have noticed, however, that when a lot of people find out you hear the story about "George, he retired a while back. Was really happy, then he had that stroke/heart attack/died." Kind of "You'll enjoy it, right up until they bury you. Or check you into the care facility."
Ah well, I've got grocery shopping to do.
*These people we'll have to call 'journalists'; they're very sorry excuses for reporters.
People who routinely pay off their credit card balances have been enjoying the equivalent of a free ride, he said, because many have not had to pay an annual fee even as they collect points for air travel and other perks.
To Mr. Robertson, and every clown saying things like this: fuck you. Every time someone uses a card, you make money from the fee you charge the merchants(that's why a lot of places which sell firearms and ammo have two prices: cash and credit card, the latter to cover the fee for the credit card company). You, you miserable little worm, have been 'making out like a bandit' for years, and now you want to insult me and screw me over for handling my debts on time? I repeat, fuck you. You start charging me interest from the moment I buy something? You start charging me an annual fee? I'll cut up the card, close the account and use either a debit card or cash, and then you're getting NOTHING from me.
YOU are the people who decided to give points and whatever; if it's not affordable anymore, then inform every customer "We're not going to give points for purchases anymore." The 'perks' aren't affordable? Inform your customers, and drop them. Stop playing the Obama game and telling me that because I don't spend money I don't have, and don't make payments late, and don't default on what I owe, that I'm going to be screwed to take care of the people who do. You'll lose me as a customer, and then you get squat.
Someone who, more than 90% of the time, I'm very happy to call one of my senators, has given the Brady Ban Guns Group and the Violence Policy Center a massive case of hemorrhoids:
The Bush Administration rule required among other things that:
The gun owner have a concealed carry license.
The gun owner carry a handgun concealed.
The state in which the park was located had to allow carry in state parks. (Not 100% sure about this).
The Brady Campaign sued and successfully blocked this in the federal courts.
Coburn’s amendment goes much further:
The Secretary of the Interior shall not promulgate or enforce any regulation that prohibits an individual from possessing a firearm including an assembled or functional firearm in any unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System if–
(1) the individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing the firearm; and
(2) the possession of the firearm is in compliance with the law of the State in which the unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System is located.
Thus Arizonans without a license can now carry any firearm openly in their national parks and Texans can now carry rifles and shotguns openly (and handguns in their cars without a license) in their national parks since those activities are in compliance with the law outside the Park.
This must burn up the Brady Campaign - they won a battle and lost a much bigger war!
As I recall, the measure to ban any new machine guns from becoming available to citizens was passed by slipping it into another bill; so the same method screws the gun-banners. It comes around, people.
Let's see, an extortionist uses Alinsky tactics to mess with bankers. And I'm sure feels all warm and snuggly inside that he's screwing with people in the name of deadbeats. Note this from the comments:
Mr. Marks had better pray that the lenders he demonizes never wake up one days and decide, yeah, they’re really as eeeeeeevvilll as Marks claims they are. Because, if they do, Marky-Mark may well end his days in a car trunk out in the Jersey weeds.
Unwritten Alinsky rule: Your tactics will only work as long as the other side is willing to play by them. The day two large guys named “Paulie” and “Sal” show up in your driveway, all bets are off.
One of these days, an awful lot of 'activists' are going to find out that this crap works both ways; they're going to start finding their personal lives and connections being plastered all over town. And it wouldn't surprise me of some who get particularly nasty find themselves facing the same kind of crap from people sick of them.
Speaking of 'sick of them', a while back I read A Slobbering Love Affair, Bernard Goldberg's book on the major media and their sucking up to Obama. This is near the end:
Caddell worries that some day a demagogue is going to come along, somebody who makes Huey Long look like a shut-in. Somebody, Caddell told me, “who gets up at the start of his campaign and says, ‘I want you to see the press. They are the enemy of the American people. They will do everything they can to stop me because they want to stop YOU.’ And the American people will believe it. What if this is the most dangerous man that ever came along? Nobody will care what the press says.”
And THAT, my friends, is why the corruption of the media matters. The press has constitutional protections for one man reason: to keep watch over a powerful government. The fundamental job of journalists is to look out for US- the American people! If nobody cares what the press says, journalists will be watchdogs in name only. They may bark from time to time, but nobody will listen. And their weakness will make it easy for a corrupt government to get away with murder. THAT is the danger we all face when the mainstream media go on a noble mission to make history. THAT is what can happen when the media, like that liberal professor at American University in Washington, believe that their role is not simply to report the news, fairly and accurately, but to EFFECT THEIR KIND OF CHANGE IN SOCIETY.
This time, they really screwed up!
Yeah, they did. Some of them have known for years that they(up to that point) and their colleagues(still) did; many are still doing it, because they either don't care that more and more people discard them as untrustworthy, or think that The Obama will somehow make it right by screwing with the new media. And some see themselves as 'saving us from ourselves' by slanting the news/selective reporting; after all, they know what we should be allowed to hear. Some, I think, have truly realized how they've screwed the pooch and are really worried about it. But, like I told the kids years ago, when you destroy the trust someone had in you, it takes a long damn time to try to get it back; you may never get it back. And it's your own damn fault.
And, as various people have pointed out, what happens when these media weenies start facing the same kind of crap they pull? When some politician or businessman or plain guy who's been screwed over by them starts investigating the
A plot to bomb Jewish centers and military targets broken up by the NYPD and FBI doing the kind of thing they're actually supposed to do, and are good at when they do it.
Agents and police watched Wednesday night as the suspects allegedly planted what they thought were bombs outside two Jewish community centers in Riverdale, a Bronx, New York neighborhood. In one case the suspected terrorists planted a bomb inside a parked car. However, officials said the suspects were actually using fake explosives given to them in an earlier sting operation to make sure they didn't get their hands on real bombs.
"The bombs had been made by the FBI technicians, they were totally inert, no one was ever at risk," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
...
The FBI said the Muslim suspects were angry and full of hate for America.
"Hatred of the West. The leader of the group, James Cromitie was concerned about deaths at the hands of the U.S. military in Afghanistan," and also expressed anti-Jewish sentiment, Joseph Demarest the head of the New York FBI said.
The fun part about this?
"It shows you can't let your guard down," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said. "They did intend to use car bombs by remote control but the bombs the informant sold them were duds."
“I have spoken to both the New York office of the FBI and Commissioner Kelly and I want to commend them both on an outstanding job. They have told me they have been monitoring this group for some time and that the men arrested did not have any connection to other terrorists," Schumer added.
Yeah it's great when something in NYEffin'C is stopped, isn't it, Schumer? So why do you so bitch and whine and threaten about trying to find and track terrorists the rest of the time?
Let's note that while the Obama administration is basically renaming lots of Bush policies and keeping them, he's also nominating people like Koh to positions where they can screw this country over.
"Was it something I said? Or wrote?"
On a personal note, I'll be retiring soon from the place I've been working for a bunch of years. Which is nice, though it's going to be strange. I have noticed, however, that when a lot of people find out you hear the story about "George, he retired a while back. Was really happy, then he had that stroke/heart attack/died." Kind of "You'll enjoy it, right up until they bury you. Or check you into the care facility."
Ah well, I've got grocery shopping to do.
*These people we'll have to call 'journalists'; they're very sorry excuses for reporters.
Monday, May 18, 2009
How the government bailout works
Greener Grass...
It’s important in life to reach out, to strive for greater achievements, to go for that greener grass that is on the other side of the fence. But one must also be careful,
Sometimes you can reach too far!
But when you find yourself over-extended and you're stuck in a situation that you can't get out of, there is one thing you should always remember.......
Your Government is behind you, and there to help bail you out, in their own special way!
It’s important in life to reach out, to strive for greater achievements, to go for that greener grass that is on the other side of the fence. But one must also be careful,
Sometimes you can reach too far!
But when you find yourself over-extended and you're stuck in a situation that you can't get out of, there is one thing you should always remember.......
Your Government is behind you, and there to help bail you out, in their own special way!
I'd not read any of Terry Pratchett's work before
Night Watch, but I'm going to have to look up more of his work. One of the reasons is things like this Watchman ruminating on his situation:
Swing, though, started in the wrong place. He didn’t look around, and watch, and learn, and then say, “This is how people are, how do we deal with it?” No, he sat and thought: “This is how people ought to be, how do we change them?” And that was a good enough thought for a priest but not for a copper, because Swing’s patient, pedantic way of operating had turned policing on its head.
There had been that Weapons Law, for a start. Weapons were involved in so many crimes that, Swing reasoned, reducing the number of weapons HAD to reduce the crime rate.
Vimes wondered if he’d sat up in bed in the middle of the night and hugged himself when he’d dreamed THAT one up. Confiscate all weapons, and crime would go down. It made sense. It would have worked, too, if only there had been enough coppers- say, three per citizen.
Amazingly, quite a few weapons were handed in. The flaw, though was one that had somehow managed to escape Swing, and it was this: criminals don’t obey the law. It’s more or less a requirement for the job. They had no particular interest in making the streets safer for anyone except themselves. And they couldn’t believe what was happening. It was like Hogswatch every day.
Some citizens took the not-unreasonable view that something had gone a bit askew if only naughty people were carrying arms. And they got arrested in large numbers. The average copper, when he’d been kicked in the nadgers once too often and has reason to believe that his bosses don’t much care, has an understandable tendency to prefer to arrest those people who won’t instantly try to stab him, especially if they act a bit snotty and wear more expensive clothes than he personally can afford. The rate of arrests shot right up, and Swing had been very pleased about that.
Admittedly, most of the arrests had been for possessing weaponry after dark, but quite a few had been for assaults on the Watch by irate citizens. That was Assault On A City Official, a very important and despicable crime, and, as such, far more important than all these thefts that were going on everywhere.
It wasn’t that the city was lawless. It has plenty of laws. It just didn’t offer many opportunities not to break them. Swing didn’t seem to have grasped the idea that the system was supposed to take criminals and, in some rough-and-ready fashion, force them into becoming honest men. Instead, he’d taken honest men and turned them into criminals. And the Watch, by and large, into just another gang.
Damn, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Swing, though, started in the wrong place. He didn’t look around, and watch, and learn, and then say, “This is how people are, how do we deal with it?” No, he sat and thought: “This is how people ought to be, how do we change them?” And that was a good enough thought for a priest but not for a copper, because Swing’s patient, pedantic way of operating had turned policing on its head.
There had been that Weapons Law, for a start. Weapons were involved in so many crimes that, Swing reasoned, reducing the number of weapons HAD to reduce the crime rate.
Vimes wondered if he’d sat up in bed in the middle of the night and hugged himself when he’d dreamed THAT one up. Confiscate all weapons, and crime would go down. It made sense. It would have worked, too, if only there had been enough coppers- say, three per citizen.
Amazingly, quite a few weapons were handed in. The flaw, though was one that had somehow managed to escape Swing, and it was this: criminals don’t obey the law. It’s more or less a requirement for the job. They had no particular interest in making the streets safer for anyone except themselves. And they couldn’t believe what was happening. It was like Hogswatch every day.
Some citizens took the not-unreasonable view that something had gone a bit askew if only naughty people were carrying arms. And they got arrested in large numbers. The average copper, when he’d been kicked in the nadgers once too often and has reason to believe that his bosses don’t much care, has an understandable tendency to prefer to arrest those people who won’t instantly try to stab him, especially if they act a bit snotty and wear more expensive clothes than he personally can afford. The rate of arrests shot right up, and Swing had been very pleased about that.
Admittedly, most of the arrests had been for possessing weaponry after dark, but quite a few had been for assaults on the Watch by irate citizens. That was Assault On A City Official, a very important and despicable crime, and, as such, far more important than all these thefts that were going on everywhere.
It wasn’t that the city was lawless. It has plenty of laws. It just didn’t offer many opportunities not to break them. Swing didn’t seem to have grasped the idea that the system was supposed to take criminals and, in some rough-and-ready fashion, force them into becoming honest men. Instead, he’d taken honest men and turned them into criminals. And the Watch, by and large, into just another gang.
Damn, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
President Obama has a history of not seeming to understand
that there really is reason for him to control what he says, as in the fact that the President jokingly threatening people with the IRS isn't very damn funny. And V-P Biden has a history of spouting off in inappropriate and sometimes downright stupid ways. Which now include letting out classified information, apparently without a second thought.
And, considering Biden, do we have any idea what else he may have blown the cover on that the media just hasn't reported on?
And, considering Biden, do we have any idea what else he may have blown the cover on that the media just hasn't reported on?
Friday, May 15, 2009
Hot and humid today, and I'm beat,
so I'm just going to point out some things. First, from the Real Gun Guys, a response to Jimmeh Carter's blathering:
Isn't it interesting that the same people who say us peasants have no business owning 'assault weapons' because 'they're only for spraying bullets and murdering groups of people' have no problem with cops of all stripes running around with them? Apparently they don't have a problem with minions of the state who are armed to spray bullets and murder groups of people. Kind of like how they keep pushing for 'smart' guns that only the owner can fire, but always exempt law enforcement from having to use them.
Also from these folks, a note that 911 isn't to be counted on in Australia, either:
“Seven times, teenage hiker David Iredale used his cell phone to call Australia’s equivalent of 911, pleading for rescue after he became lost in tough scrubland and ran out of water in 100-degree heat.
Each time he got through, he was told he needed to give a street address before an ambulance could be sent. Shortly after the final call, Ireland collapsed and died of thirst.
An inquiry into the 2006 death of the 17-year-old exposed deep flaws in the country’s emergency response system, including what a coroner called an astonishing lack of empathy by the operators who took his increasingly desperate calls for help.
As Lawdog might put it, sweet suffering Shiva, how the hell difficult would it be to grab a supervisor, or just call the cops and get the work started and to hell with the damn computer demanding an address?
Milovanovich's 35-page report released Thursday recounts the calls, and Iredale's rising anguish as time and again operators "interrogated" him about a street name that could be entered into the service's computer. He could only name the walking trail and Katoomba, the town where the trio began their trek.
On the third call, an obviously distressed Iredale tells operator Laura Meade: "I'm lost. I need water. I haven't had water for a long period of time."
She interrupts him to ask, "Sir, do you need an ambulance?" When he says yes, Meade asks for a suburb and street name, which prompts Iredale to yell that he is not in a town. Then the connection drops out.
Iredale called back and cried out, "Hey, this is an emergency ... emergency!" before the line dropped out again.
During the final call, Iredale, groaning audibly and breathing heavily, tells the operator he had fainted and needed a helicopter, Milovanovich's report says. She put him on hold twice before then line dropped out.
After this call, ambulance officials contacted the police and the two services began cooperating on a search. Police planes flew over the area, and a major ground search began.
The mind just boggles. I used to dispatch for a LE agency; if I'd handled a call like this, I'd have lost my ass for it.
Milovanovich said he did not want to criticize the individual ambulance operators, instead blaming a system he said did not allow them to override a computer that demanded a street name before an ambulance could be dispatched.
"The relentless focus of all the call-takers in further attempting to establish an address or precise location, having regard to the nature of the calls, was astonishing," Milovanovich said.
Oh God no, can't hold them responsible. At all.
David's father, Stephen Iredale, declined to criticize the ambulance service but said he hoped the inquiry would help prevent anyone suffering a similar fate to his son.
"We hope that this will result in a useful legacy for David," he told reporters after the coroner's report was released.
This gentleman is far more understanding, or something, than I. I'd be wanting the heads of the people involved. And damn right I'd be criticizing the ambulance service. At the top of my lungs. This was a disgusting failure, and the people involved ought to pay a price for it. SOMEONE DIED OF THIRST, and when they weren't putting him on hold they repeatedly asked for the street address of someone lost in the bush.
And last, Kevin has a post on the Reasoned Discourse™ he's been carrying on with a guy in Scotland. Who says, among other things,
...But if like me you see the right to own a gun as a relatively meaningless, one-dimensional freedom, and thus interpret the banning of handguns as merely a minor disappointment to the minority of people concerned, then it's obviously perfectly rational to put those people through some inconvenience even if it will only save a very small number of lives.
Translation: "Screw that the right to arms is a basic human right, screw all the people who do defend themselves and others with arms; sometimes evil people do bad things, therefore your rights mean nothing.
It's a long piece, so take a drink. And note this, which I will steal without regret and post here because even if you don't read Kevin's whole piece, you need to read this:
"Former Chief Inspector Colin Greenwood of the West Yorkshire Constabulary, an acknowledged authority on gun control in the UK, from his report Evaluating Britain's Handgun Ban (PDF):
Here's a report from one of The Experts, stating flatly that the ban was a waste of time and money(not to mention trashing the rights of freeborn Englishmen, to borrow a phrase) and their government didn't care; because what they wanted to do, even without real cause, was disarm the British people.
And much good that's done, hasn't it?
Isn't it interesting that the same people who say us peasants have no business owning 'assault weapons' because 'they're only for spraying bullets and murdering groups of people' have no problem with cops of all stripes running around with them? Apparently they don't have a problem with minions of the state who are armed to spray bullets and murder groups of people. Kind of like how they keep pushing for 'smart' guns that only the owner can fire, but always exempt law enforcement from having to use them.Also from these folks, a note that 911 isn't to be counted on in Australia, either:
“Seven times, teenage hiker David Iredale used his cell phone to call Australia’s equivalent of 911, pleading for rescue after he became lost in tough scrubland and ran out of water in 100-degree heat.
Each time he got through, he was told he needed to give a street address before an ambulance could be sent. Shortly after the final call, Ireland collapsed and died of thirst.
An inquiry into the 2006 death of the 17-year-old exposed deep flaws in the country’s emergency response system, including what a coroner called an astonishing lack of empathy by the operators who took his increasingly desperate calls for help.
As Lawdog might put it, sweet suffering Shiva, how the hell difficult would it be to grab a supervisor, or just call the cops and get the work started and to hell with the damn computer demanding an address?
Milovanovich's 35-page report released Thursday recounts the calls, and Iredale's rising anguish as time and again operators "interrogated" him about a street name that could be entered into the service's computer. He could only name the walking trail and Katoomba, the town where the trio began their trek.
On the third call, an obviously distressed Iredale tells operator Laura Meade: "I'm lost. I need water. I haven't had water for a long period of time."
She interrupts him to ask, "Sir, do you need an ambulance?" When he says yes, Meade asks for a suburb and street name, which prompts Iredale to yell that he is not in a town. Then the connection drops out.
Iredale called back and cried out, "Hey, this is an emergency ... emergency!" before the line dropped out again.
During the final call, Iredale, groaning audibly and breathing heavily, tells the operator he had fainted and needed a helicopter, Milovanovich's report says. She put him on hold twice before then line dropped out.
After this call, ambulance officials contacted the police and the two services began cooperating on a search. Police planes flew over the area, and a major ground search began.
The mind just boggles. I used to dispatch for a LE agency; if I'd handled a call like this, I'd have lost my ass for it.
Milovanovich said he did not want to criticize the individual ambulance operators, instead blaming a system he said did not allow them to override a computer that demanded a street name before an ambulance could be dispatched.
"The relentless focus of all the call-takers in further attempting to establish an address or precise location, having regard to the nature of the calls, was astonishing," Milovanovich said.
Oh God no, can't hold them responsible. At all.
David's father, Stephen Iredale, declined to criticize the ambulance service but said he hoped the inquiry would help prevent anyone suffering a similar fate to his son.
"We hope that this will result in a useful legacy for David," he told reporters after the coroner's report was released.
This gentleman is far more understanding, or something, than I. I'd be wanting the heads of the people involved. And damn right I'd be criticizing the ambulance service. At the top of my lungs. This was a disgusting failure, and the people involved ought to pay a price for it. SOMEONE DIED OF THIRST, and when they weren't putting him on hold they repeatedly asked for the street address of someone lost in the bush.
And last, Kevin has a post on the Reasoned Discourse™ he's been carrying on with a guy in Scotland. Who says, among other things,
...But if like me you see the right to own a gun as a relatively meaningless, one-dimensional freedom, and thus interpret the banning of handguns as merely a minor disappointment to the minority of people concerned, then it's obviously perfectly rational to put those people through some inconvenience even if it will only save a very small number of lives.
Translation: "Screw that the right to arms is a basic human right, screw all the people who do defend themselves and others with arms; sometimes evil people do bad things, therefore your rights mean nothing.
It's a long piece, so take a drink. And note this, which I will steal without regret and post here because even if you don't read Kevin's whole piece, you need to read this:
"Former Chief Inspector Colin Greenwood of the West Yorkshire Constabulary, an acknowledged authority on gun control in the UK, from his report Evaluating Britain's Handgun Ban (PDF):
We could fill page after page with statistics and do little more than confuse the true picture. Let me suggest that if something as Draconian as the handgun ban was to have any effect at all, it would show in the six years following the ban taking effect. If we look at a period of six years before the ban and six years after, as in Table 2, and consider the use of pistols alongside other weapons favoured by criminals, we might see the real effect the ban.
If we average out the total homicide figures for the six years before 1997 and the six years after (ignoring the Dr Shipman cases*), we see that homicide has increased from an average of 706 to 825 and despite yearly fluctuations, the figure is steadily upwards. This is also so with homicide involving firearms, where the six−year average has grown from 61 to 72 and again with a steady upward trend. The use of shotguns, however, has fallen from an average of 20 down to 11 and sawn−off shotguns from 9 down to 5, but the use of pistols has increased from an average of 29 to 42. But in none of these cases does 1997 mark a watershed. Trends that began long before 1997 have continued entirely unchanged.
In Table 3, increases in the total robbery figure are much more marked and much more consistent and the firearms robbery figures tell us more about the impact of the handgun ban. Contrary to many claims, the use of firearms in robbery did not increase after the 1997 Act; it fell slightly from a six−year average of 4700 to 4100. The use of shotguns fell more sharply, but the use of pistols also fell, though by only a small amount.
Looking at the figures in Table 3 will show, however, that these trends were well under way before the 1997 Act and there is no way that the changes can be attributed to that law. The only possible conclusion is that the handgun ban was a complete and pathetic irrelevance to protecting the British public from armed criminals. It has not changed a pattern of increases in crime that existed before the ban. (bold mine)
Here's a report from one of The Experts, stating flatly that the ban was a waste of time and money(not to mention trashing the rights of freeborn Englishmen, to borrow a phrase) and their government didn't care; because what they wanted to do, even without real cause, was disarm the British people.
And much good that's done, hasn't it?
Maybe we should make silhouette targets with a 'Journalist' nametag
and a label 'Enemy of Reporting'? I mean, reporting is supposed to include things like checking out the information sent to you to see if it's true and accurate, as opposed to blindly reprinting a press release as fact. But, kind of like a lot of cops seem to want to go straight to kicking doors and shooting dogs and screaming at people without bothering to investigate first, an awful lot of 'journalists' don't seem to want to check for facts before 'reporting' what some politicially-correct group tells them as if it were confirmed Truth.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
As the weather continues to prove "You don't know nuttin'"
to the weather weenies, I'm wondering if the habanero is going to get enough sun to do anything.
Yesterday, depending on what time you listened, went from a medium percentage to 90% that we would have severe storms. Which did happen: big hail, high winds, heavy rain and some scattered tornados. Nobody dead, happily, some property damage. In this case, the storms moved northwest to southeast(roughly) in front of a cold front. Which caused the forecast for today to go from '50% chance' to 'a slight chance' of rain today. It's cloudy and cool, though the clouds are lightening a bit.
The grass did dry enough yesterday that I got the mowing and edging and such done, so the grass won't be quite as high in a few days when it next dries out(if this pattern continues). And the birds are combing all that fresh-cut area for seeds and bugs, and the dog is ignoring them. Odd thing, when the birds are in the garden attacking the tomatoes, she goes after them; she's caught and eaten a number of them. But when they're in the yard? Yawn. I've not even seen her chase a squirrel; doesn't mean she hasn't, but I've not seen it.
On a sad note about dogs, I've written a couple of times about Shika, the visitor I've had a couple of times. She died a few days ago, and to say daughter was broken up would be a drastic understatement. Then, a couple of days ago, this beast appeared:
Meet Rafferty, another rescue. Who seems to be settling in pretty well. And the older dog has decided he's not a problem, although no snuggling up for naps. At least not yet. Daughter's cat, however, considers it to be another canine pest that should be sprayed for.
Life goes on.
Yesterday, depending on what time you listened, went from a medium percentage to 90% that we would have severe storms. Which did happen: big hail, high winds, heavy rain and some scattered tornados. Nobody dead, happily, some property damage. In this case, the storms moved northwest to southeast(roughly) in front of a cold front. Which caused the forecast for today to go from '50% chance' to 'a slight chance' of rain today. It's cloudy and cool, though the clouds are lightening a bit.
The grass did dry enough yesterday that I got the mowing and edging and such done, so the grass won't be quite as high in a few days when it next dries out(if this pattern continues). And the birds are combing all that fresh-cut area for seeds and bugs, and the dog is ignoring them. Odd thing, when the birds are in the garden attacking the tomatoes, she goes after them; she's caught and eaten a number of them. But when they're in the yard? Yawn. I've not even seen her chase a squirrel; doesn't mean she hasn't, but I've not seen it.
On a sad note about dogs, I've written a couple of times about Shika, the visitor I've had a couple of times. She died a few days ago, and to say daughter was broken up would be a drastic understatement. Then, a couple of days ago, this beast appeared:
Meet Rafferty, another rescue. Who seems to be settling in pretty well. And the older dog has decided he's not a problem, although no snuggling up for naps. At least not yet. Daughter's cat, however, considers it to be another canine pest that should be sprayed for.
Life goes on.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
They just LOVED it when jerks in the CIA screwed up Bush;
so deal with it, you whining bastards:
Democrats charged Tuesday that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on harsh interrogation techniques in order to deflect attention and blame away from itself.
“I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters [of the CIA] that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others — that’s what I think,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and was briefed on interrogation techniques five times between 2006 and 2007.
Translation: "You aren't supposed to do things like this to US!"
Well, let's see: Obama & Co. start talking about prosecuting lawyers for giving Bush opinions, and then rush of to the CIA to say "Oh, don't worry, we won't prosecute you." And for some reason, they don't believe it. So they leak information showing that you clowns knew exactly what was being done and had no problem with it. That's not 'shifting responsibility', that's letting uncomfortable(for the Evil Party) facts out. Deal with it.
Remember Rep. Barney Frank(Sleazeball-MA) claiming there was no problem with Fannie and Freddie(and don't concern yourselves with him sleeping with a guy on the board or any of that stuff)? That trying to do something about the mess was 'partisan politics' and so forth? Well, it's been a popular way to deflect attention from messes with lots of Evil Party members:
“Today’s report confirms that the so-called Social Security crisis exists in only one place — the minds of Republicans,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “In reality, the program is on solid ground for decades to come.”
Reid, everybody and their grandma who looked at the information knew you were full of crap. And the results of so many of you crooked bastards not wanting to deal with it?
Social Security and Medicare are fading even faster under the weight of the recession, heading for insolvency years sooner than previously expected, the government warned Tuesday. Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, a year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner, trustees reported.
Which means Obama and Buttmonkeys, Inc., will plead with us to- no, they'll demand we not gripe about having our taxes raised to 'deal' with it; money they'll waste just like they have for decades. And I'm including Stupid Party members who weren't willing to deal with it, too, in the crooked bastards category.
Some information on just how much Big Labor looted from members to put Obama in the Oval Office, and the payoffs for it.
Speaking of slimy politicians,
UPDATE: Just confirmed with his office he did vote against the measure. Details coming.
UPDATE II: Here's the statement his office just e-mailed me: I have consistently been a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights, but this legislation goes too far - further than President Reagan, further than President Bush, and further than Tennessee law.
As Rustmeister says, Ok, Mister Senator, but I have to ask: Does it go further than the US Constitution? Or, for that matter, the desires of your constituents ?
The kind of thing that causes me to not be very concerned when the American Library Association starts whining about 'banned books week' and other matters; so many of their members are like the ACLU: very picky about what rights, and what freedom of speech and reading, is actually important. You know, somebody doesn't want kids looking at porn on library computers and it's a Fascist Threat!, but Cuba throwing librarians in jail for loaning unapproved books isn't something they want to mention.
Kevin found a sticker. That's not only true, but ought to be mailed to lots of people in the Stupid Party.
Oh, gee, the Mexican government may be full of crap about guns from the US? And set up a 'dog and pony show'? Whoda thunk it? Besides all the gunbloggers and others who pointed out various problems with it, that is.
Right now, it's sunny and windy here. We had what I think was outflow from collapsing storms shove 70mph winds through here last night- I lost power for about two hours- and do some damage. And there's another chance of storms tonight, so I need to mow while things are fairly dry.
Democrats charged Tuesday that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on harsh interrogation techniques in order to deflect attention and blame away from itself.
“I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters [of the CIA] that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others — that’s what I think,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and was briefed on interrogation techniques five times between 2006 and 2007.
Translation: "You aren't supposed to do things like this to US!"
Well, let's see: Obama & Co. start talking about prosecuting lawyers for giving Bush opinions, and then rush of to the CIA to say "Oh, don't worry, we won't prosecute you." And for some reason, they don't believe it. So they leak information showing that you clowns knew exactly what was being done and had no problem with it. That's not 'shifting responsibility', that's letting uncomfortable(for the Evil Party) facts out. Deal with it.
Remember Rep. Barney Frank(Sleazeball-MA) claiming there was no problem with Fannie and Freddie(and don't concern yourselves with him sleeping with a guy on the board or any of that stuff)? That trying to do something about the mess was 'partisan politics' and so forth? Well, it's been a popular way to deflect attention from messes with lots of Evil Party members:
“Today’s report confirms that the so-called Social Security crisis exists in only one place — the minds of Republicans,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “In reality, the program is on solid ground for decades to come.”
Reid, everybody and their grandma who looked at the information knew you were full of crap. And the results of so many of you crooked bastards not wanting to deal with it?
Social Security and Medicare are fading even faster under the weight of the recession, heading for insolvency years sooner than previously expected, the government warned Tuesday. Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, a year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner, trustees reported.
Which means Obama and Buttmonkeys, Inc., will plead with us to- no, they'll demand we not gripe about having our taxes raised to 'deal' with it; money they'll waste just like they have for decades. And I'm including Stupid Party members who weren't willing to deal with it, too, in the crooked bastards category.
Some information on just how much Big Labor looted from members to put Obama in the Oval Office, and the payoffs for it.
Speaking of slimy politicians,
UPDATE: Just confirmed with his office he did vote against the measure. Details coming.
UPDATE II: Here's the statement his office just e-mailed me: I have consistently been a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights, but this legislation goes too far - further than President Reagan, further than President Bush, and further than Tennessee law.
As Rustmeister says, Ok, Mister Senator, but I have to ask: Does it go further than the US Constitution? Or, for that matter, the desires of your constituents ?
The kind of thing that causes me to not be very concerned when the American Library Association starts whining about 'banned books week' and other matters; so many of their members are like the ACLU: very picky about what rights, and what freedom of speech and reading, is actually important. You know, somebody doesn't want kids looking at porn on library computers and it's a Fascist Threat!, but Cuba throwing librarians in jail for loaning unapproved books isn't something they want to mention.
Kevin found a sticker. That's not only true, but ought to be mailed to lots of people in the Stupid Party.
Oh, gee, the Mexican government may be full of crap about guns from the US? And set up a 'dog and pony show'? Whoda thunk it? Besides all the gunbloggers and others who pointed out various problems with it, that is.
Right now, it's sunny and windy here. We had what I think was outflow from collapsing storms shove 70mph winds through here last night- I lost power for about two hours- and do some damage. And there's another chance of storms tonight, so I need to mow while things are fairly dry.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Why, if you don't read Lawdog occasionally,
you should.
I notice, as I hold him up for the admiring masses, two things. The first of which is that Neighbor Lady has disappeared. I mean, "Poof!" One moment she's there, the next she's gone, leaving only a faint odour of burning sneaker tread and a gently bouncing hoe to show that she was ever there.
The second thing I notice is that the bullsnake whom is currently wrapping himself around my good right arm has a rather nice, extremely loud, buzzing thingummy on his south end.
"Oh, bugger," think I, as I gaze in some consternation at the eighteen-inch long prairie rattler who is apparently expounding at length with regard to my ancestry, sexual habits and intelligence.
I notice, as I hold him up for the admiring masses, two things. The first of which is that Neighbor Lady has disappeared. I mean, "Poof!" One moment she's there, the next she's gone, leaving only a faint odour of burning sneaker tread and a gently bouncing hoe to show that she was ever there.
The second thing I notice is that the bullsnake whom is currently wrapping himself around my good right arm has a rather nice, extremely loud, buzzing thingummy on his south end.
"Oh, bugger," think I, as I gaze in some consternation at the eighteen-inch long prairie rattler who is apparently expounding at length with regard to my ancestry, sexual habits and intelligence.
Thoughts about an electric car argument
A while back, in the comments of a post I did on electric cars, had a bit of a go-round with a guy who insisted they’re much better than I thought(fine; I have no problem with the idea of electric cars, my problem is with a lot of the ‘They will save us!’ attitude), and that no additional electric generation capacity would be needed to charge up a couple of million cars. That last was the part that got my attention; considering the forecast is that we’re going to need more electricity every year for the foreseeable future- if we want the economy to grow instead of stagnating or collapsing, that is- I didn’t see how you could add in charging all those cars and it not have an effect.
Well, he claimed that it would be done by using the ‘excess electricity’ available at night. Which made no sense to me; there’s generally less demand on the system at night, but that doesn’t mean there’s a bunch of ‘excess’ electricity hanging around, waiting to be used. I once read some of a description of electricity use and generation(much of the technical stuff I had to skim over; just don’t have the background to fully understand it) that boiled down to ‘the amount being generated and the amount being used are virtually identical’, which would mean that if you start charging a bunch of electric cars at night you’re not using ‘excess electricity’; you’re causing generation capacity that was not previously being called on in those hours. Which is not ‘using excess’.
Turns out that part of what this involved, in his explanation, is that the future holds you being charged different rates for electricity being used at different times of day; you use some in the afternoon(say when it’s hot and you want to use the a/c), you’ll be charged more than for power you use at night(when you don’t need as much anyway), and ‘reducing’ demand during the day would produce the excess at night to charge the vehicles. Again, you’re not using ‘excess’, you’re forcing people to use the generation capacity at different times of day. Which does not change that we’re going to continue to need more power every year, and juggling hours isn’t going to change that; you’ve got more glasses than bottles and playing this game isn’t going to change it. We need more electricity(and gas and diesel for that matter), and that means more power plants and fuel for them. Period.
What really blew the “No, we don’t need more generation capacity” argument was both that, and this statement as part of a 'coal needs to go' statement:
...These pollutants (SOX, NOX and mercury primarily) are responsible for thousands of premature American deaths every year. Most of these, obviously, occur in states with the highest percentage of coal plants. This is a cost of coal that is not paid for when you buy a kWh from your utility.
That has to stop.
Any human with a sense of fairness will agree that when you do harm to another, you should compensate that person.
What the hell does 'compensating someone' have to do with how we generate power? Answer is, it doesn’t. But it makes a fine ‘progressive’ argument for playing games with peoples’ lives, and this nations’ future. Especially when he throws in
... The way to pay for it is through "tiered rates". This means you get a certain number of kWh per month at a low rate. The the second tier costs more. Every tier additional costs even more. We have five tiers in California and I can guarantee you that people conserve when they know they are paying a lot.
Well, no shit; you charge people out the ass for something, they use less of it. Even when they need it. Which translates to “You’re going to be forced to use power how the government decides, not how you need it.”
Which brings me back to my original thought: I have no problem with someone using an electric car. I do have a problem with someone ordering me to use one(whether it meets my needs or not), and pretending there’s no real price for the power needed to keep them running. That’s like Obama pretending having the electric company(under government direction, of course) control how much and when you can use you’re a/c or heater will solve our need for more power; it won’t, it’s just a nice argument to allow the government even more control over your life.
Well, he claimed that it would be done by using the ‘excess electricity’ available at night. Which made no sense to me; there’s generally less demand on the system at night, but that doesn’t mean there’s a bunch of ‘excess’ electricity hanging around, waiting to be used. I once read some of a description of electricity use and generation(much of the technical stuff I had to skim over; just don’t have the background to fully understand it) that boiled down to ‘the amount being generated and the amount being used are virtually identical’, which would mean that if you start charging a bunch of electric cars at night you’re not using ‘excess electricity’; you’re causing generation capacity that was not previously being called on in those hours. Which is not ‘using excess’.
Turns out that part of what this involved, in his explanation, is that the future holds you being charged different rates for electricity being used at different times of day; you use some in the afternoon(say when it’s hot and you want to use the a/c), you’ll be charged more than for power you use at night(when you don’t need as much anyway), and ‘reducing’ demand during the day would produce the excess at night to charge the vehicles. Again, you’re not using ‘excess’, you’re forcing people to use the generation capacity at different times of day. Which does not change that we’re going to continue to need more power every year, and juggling hours isn’t going to change that; you’ve got more glasses than bottles and playing this game isn’t going to change it. We need more electricity(and gas and diesel for that matter), and that means more power plants and fuel for them. Period.
What really blew the “No, we don’t need more generation capacity” argument was both that, and this statement as part of a 'coal needs to go' statement:
...These pollutants (SOX, NOX and mercury primarily) are responsible for thousands of premature American deaths every year. Most of these, obviously, occur in states with the highest percentage of coal plants. This is a cost of coal that is not paid for when you buy a kWh from your utility.
That has to stop.
Any human with a sense of fairness will agree that when you do harm to another, you should compensate that person.
What the hell does 'compensating someone' have to do with how we generate power? Answer is, it doesn’t. But it makes a fine ‘progressive’ argument for playing games with peoples’ lives, and this nations’ future. Especially when he throws in
... The way to pay for it is through "tiered rates". This means you get a certain number of kWh per month at a low rate. The the second tier costs more. Every tier additional costs even more. We have five tiers in California and I can guarantee you that people conserve when they know they are paying a lot.
Well, no shit; you charge people out the ass for something, they use less of it. Even when they need it. Which translates to “You’re going to be forced to use power how the government decides, not how you need it.”
Which brings me back to my original thought: I have no problem with someone using an electric car. I do have a problem with someone ordering me to use one(whether it meets my needs or not), and pretending there’s no real price for the power needed to keep them running. That’s like Obama pretending having the electric company(under government direction, of course) control how much and when you can use you’re a/c or heater will solve our need for more power; it won’t, it’s just a nice argument to allow the government even more control over your life.
Talked to the son the other day about his past couple of weeks
in the field, which was as much fun as such usually is. Did tell me a couple of things I didn’t know.
They were working with gunners in the Paladin self-propelled 155mm gun. There are three powder bags for it: White(standard charge), Green(medium charge) and Red(max charge). They had two guns with rebuilt breech mechanisms, and it seems the standard method of proofing them is to fire them twice with a Red bag, those two shots being the first fired, using a 50-foot lanyard; it survives that, all’s well. Yeah, I’d have thought they’d do that when they were rebuilt, but apparently not.
This led to mention of once in Iraq, he watched a Paladin fire with a DOUBLE-Red bag charge; target at max range he was told. Ok, the Paladin is a tracked chassis and the whole thing weighs 32 tons, and before firing they put chocks behind the tracks(when there's time). The recoil impulse of this shot was strong enough that the whole damn vehicle jounced back so far the chocks wound up in front of the rear road wheel. Think about that; even with the recoil mechanism on the gun and the weight, it pushed the whole thing back that far. As he put it, “When they fire that, you don’t want to be anywhere near it.” Can you imagine the muzzle blast?
Also mentioned that in the region around White Sands, it’s not unusual to be driving along the back roads and see Oryx. The things were imported for game farms a long time ago, and some got loose, and now there’s a sustaining population(hell, they live in the Kalahari; they can take the American southwest no problem). As he put it, they’re driving along and see one(“That’s not too big, maybe deer-size”) and then daddy came out(“LOOK at that sucker!”) Part of the briefing for that area had included “When you run across one of these, don’t bother them; they’re kind of bad-tempered.” Considering the damage a pissed-off deer can do, I would not want to be on the bad side of one.
There was also the Effing New Guy(FNG for short) who is fresh out of AIT and getting the full treatment. Though the worst he did all on his own. Sent out to find something, a while later someone asked “Where’s FNG?”
“Oh, hell, I don’t know. Let’s go on the rise.”
A couple of minutes with binoculars, “Who’s that in the impact area?”
Radio call: “FNG, where are you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Wave your arms around.” He did, it’s him. “Do you see any unexploded ordnance?”
”Yeah, I’ve seen about twenty.”
“Didn’t that tell you something? You’re in the mortar impact area, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE.” In proper radio language, of course.
“Uh, ok.”
No, there were no loud bangs, he did make it out, and I’m sure he heard words about taking a look around before you walk into the area with all the holes in the ground and unexploded shells.
Speaking of artillery, here’s something I’d love to have one of these. It’s a 37mm anti-tank gun, built in the 1930’s. There are two(de-milled, unfortunately) in front of the 45th Infantry Division Museum here in Oklahoma City, and from the first time I saw them, I wanted one. Just think of the fun you could have with one; solid shot, talk about long-range shooting. I know zinc has been used, and I’ve heard of aluminum being used to make shot for small guns like this; you could use a lathe to turn them.
Can you imagine being stopped as you tow it to the range? “Sir, where are you going with that?” “Target shooting.” “With THAT?” “Yeah, want to come try a shot?” With most cops around here, “Hell yeah!”
Mind you, you’d go through a lot of powder. And I wonder what kind of primer you’d need? Something standard, or would you have to mill out the pocket and make an insert so you could use shotgun primers? For that matter, where to find 37mm cases?
But it’d be fun
They were working with gunners in the Paladin self-propelled 155mm gun. There are three powder bags for it: White(standard charge), Green(medium charge) and Red(max charge). They had two guns with rebuilt breech mechanisms, and it seems the standard method of proofing them is to fire them twice with a Red bag, those two shots being the first fired, using a 50-foot lanyard; it survives that, all’s well. Yeah, I’d have thought they’d do that when they were rebuilt, but apparently not.
This led to mention of once in Iraq, he watched a Paladin fire with a DOUBLE-Red bag charge; target at max range he was told. Ok, the Paladin is a tracked chassis and the whole thing weighs 32 tons, and before firing they put chocks behind the tracks(when there's time). The recoil impulse of this shot was strong enough that the whole damn vehicle jounced back so far the chocks wound up in front of the rear road wheel. Think about that; even with the recoil mechanism on the gun and the weight, it pushed the whole thing back that far. As he put it, “When they fire that, you don’t want to be anywhere near it.” Can you imagine the muzzle blast?
Also mentioned that in the region around White Sands, it’s not unusual to be driving along the back roads and see Oryx. The things were imported for game farms a long time ago, and some got loose, and now there’s a sustaining population(hell, they live in the Kalahari; they can take the American southwest no problem). As he put it, they’re driving along and see one(“That’s not too big, maybe deer-size”) and then daddy came out(“LOOK at that sucker!”) Part of the briefing for that area had included “When you run across one of these, don’t bother them; they’re kind of bad-tempered.” Considering the damage a pissed-off deer can do, I would not want to be on the bad side of one.
There was also the Effing New Guy(FNG for short) who is fresh out of AIT and getting the full treatment. Though the worst he did all on his own. Sent out to find something, a while later someone asked “Where’s FNG?”
“Oh, hell, I don’t know. Let’s go on the rise.”
A couple of minutes with binoculars, “Who’s that in the impact area?”
Radio call: “FNG, where are you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Wave your arms around.” He did, it’s him. “Do you see any unexploded ordnance?”
”Yeah, I’ve seen about twenty.”
“Didn’t that tell you something? You’re in the mortar impact area, GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE.” In proper radio language, of course.
“Uh, ok.”
No, there were no loud bangs, he did make it out, and I’m sure he heard words about taking a look around before you walk into the area with all the holes in the ground and unexploded shells.
Speaking of artillery, here’s something I’d love to have one of these. It’s a 37mm anti-tank gun, built in the 1930’s. There are two(de-milled, unfortunately) in front of the 45th Infantry Division Museum here in Oklahoma City, and from the first time I saw them, I wanted one. Just think of the fun you could have with one; solid shot, talk about long-range shooting. I know zinc has been used, and I’ve heard of aluminum being used to make shot for small guns like this; you could use a lathe to turn them.
Can you imagine being stopped as you tow it to the range? “Sir, where are you going with that?” “Target shooting.” “With THAT?” “Yeah, want to come try a shot?” With most cops around here, “Hell yeah!”
Mind you, you’d go through a lot of powder. And I wonder what kind of primer you’d need? Something standard, or would you have to mill out the pocket and make an insert so you could use shotgun primers? For that matter, where to find 37mm cases?
But it’d be fun
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