Oh, Bleepin' Deity, you'd think these clowns could get their anthrax story straight...

Department lawyers created a stir in recent days, first by filing court papers that appeared to undercut the FBI's finding that the late Army scientist Bruce Ivins was the killer. The filings said Ivins had no access in a secure lab to the sophisticated equipment to produce the anthrax powder.

Four days later, the lawyers abruptly revised that statement to say he lacked access in his lab to a specific machine that could dry wet anthrax.

“I think it creates a great deal of problems for the government,” said Paul Kemp, who represented Ivins before his 2008 suicide.

I'd wondered about the true worth of the fancy

and expensive running shoes; looks like my doubts may have been justified:
In a paper for the British Journal Of Sports Medicine last year, Dr Craig Richards, a researcher at the University of Newcastle in Australia, revealed there are no evidence-based studies that demonstrate running shoes make you less prone to injury. Not one.

It was an astonishing revelation that had been hidden for over 35 years. Dr Richards was so stunned that a $20 billion industry seemed to be based on nothing but empty promises and wishful thinking that he issued the following challenge: 'Is any running-shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up?'

Dr Richards waited and even tried contacting the major shoe companies for their data. In response, he got silence.

So, if running shoes don't make you go faster and don't stop you from getting hurt, then what, exactly, are you paying for? What are the benefits of all those microchips, thrust enhancers, air cushions, torsion devices and roll bars?

The answer is still a mystery. And for Bowerman's old mentor, Arthur Lydiard, it all makes sense.

Today is the daughters birthday

Once upon a time she was in diapers, then looked like this

and then this
and now she's got her own house, and work and critters. They do grow up.

Things to know for homesteading

10. Tools, chainsaws, buckets, mauls… you need a whole lotta’ shit to reduce materialism. Go figure.
11. The closer you are to “carbon neutral” the more ridiculous the concept will seem.

The rest of the list is here

I am forced to deal with the fact I've become a wuss

It's not just the half-shot knees and some other joints; it's the heat. I just don't handle it as well as I used to. Yeah, it's anywhere from 101-105 lately, but I'm wearing pants or shorts and a shirt. The troops are in heat at least this high, often more, with a considerably less comfortable style of dress. To borrow from a couple of messages from the son his first time in Iraq:
We weighed my body armor today, 90lbs, thats with full battle load of ammo, shoulder guards, side plates, and other useful items.
The useful items?
Camelback attached to the back, starts out the day with 6lbs of ice and 2 liters of water; lasts about four hours, then back to the water bottles.
Gerber multi-tool
550 cord
camera
candy for the local kids
carabiner
lighter
spare lenses for the goggles
a cloth gaiter to pull up and filter out some of the dust.
Plus:
Add about 3lbs for the helmet and 8 for the m4, plus whatever else you carry like a flashlight, machine gun ammo, etc. and the weight jumps up there quick.
The area they were in when he sent that: daily highs 120-125F. The infantry walking with what were sometimes considerably more of a load for long distances over lousy terrain.

Getting old sucks.

An interesting bit of "We're done for"

So, person to person, I don't know about you, but I'm weary of being ruled -- not governed, mind you; governed is in the rear-view mirror, and fading -- ruled by a gaggle of metrosexual car salesmen, slovenly ward heelers, and soi-disant intellectuals that can't operate an apostrophe, never mind something substantial and commendable like a dry cleaners or a brothel.

Found thanks to Kevin

Oh, God, if this is true then we should skip the tar and feathers (updated)

and go straight to hanging, drawing and quartering:
Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, claims that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapons:

Jordan, who served as director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center in 1995, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons purchased in the Dallas area through El Paso.

Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, told the Times he supported Jordan’s allegations, adding that the Zetas have reportedly bought property in the Columbus, N.M., border region to stash weapons and other contraband.

“From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas.”
This is even worse than Gunrunner and Gunsurfer and whatever the hell else we previously knew about.

If true, we're talking about a BUNCH of high-rankers at State, including Clinton, being involved. And if she claims that she 'knew nothing about this', then we're in the same situation as Holder: if you didn't know, then you've no damned business in the position you're holding. And if you did...


Update: The question is asked, what if this is pure disinformation to try and distract from Gunwalker & Co.?

Of general interest,

311.945 miles per hour on a motorcycle. Damn.


I doubt these were Black Widow bites; they're generally considered pretty painful. Something else, but I doubt BW.


So TSA doesn't just steal your stuff, they steal your money, too, while they're molesting you.


O'Keefe has had some stings running on Medicaid offices; major media ignores- as usual- and liberals scream "LIAR! EDITED!!" as usual to defend.


And that's it for now

Well, this isn't exactly a surprise

The first part of the article covers the events on the video. It's about 3/4 of the way through the article that we find these interesting tidbits about Officer Steroid:

Canton’s internal affairs unit has investigated 16 complaints involving Harless dating back to 2000.

He was reprimanded in one 2003 case. Harless and another officer were exonerated of using excessive force, but were given a letter of reprimand for not activating the in-car video camera at the scene per department policy.

SIXTEEN IA investigations in 11 years. That's one and a half a year, or roughly one instance every 9 months. Unfortunately there's no information on whether there were 16 exonerations, 16 convictions, or whatever. It is very interesting to note that Harless has been officially reprimanded for not turning on the dash cam - as well as having at least one excessive force claim against him already.

This guy's a bad cop, and the Canton PD has known about it for a while.

Added: Lawdog expresses his opinion; it's about what you'd expect.

Looks like Norway is finding out the hard way Updated

that being nice to jihadi-minded people does not get good results.
Car bomb, and somebody in a police uniform opening fire on a bunch of people at a youth camp. And the cops are saying they fear bombs at the camp. They're trying to decide if the two attacks are connected.

Update: looks like may not have been a RoP type after all. Surprising. I do have to wonder about possible follow-on attacks by such, considering the situation up there.

Added: there's some odd things floating around about the apparent dirtbag; assuming he wasn't simply a flake-brained nutcase, it's going to take a while to find out anything solid. I have to add: the Norwegian government has bent over backwards to avoid talking about crimes involving muslims in the past; if there is indeed a jihadi connection I don't doubt they'd do everything possible to ignore/downplay it.

Creepy Van Guy is better than TSA

Ten reasons

I've been thinking about that sorry excuse for a lawman

caught on tape committing committing egregious offenses against Good Practice, Good Sense and making terroristic threats.

I've mentioned before that Dad spent a lot of years wearing a badge; I grew up around state, county, city and federal cops(not many federal). The vast majority were good people; some had about as much give as a plank of hickory, but you didn't have to worry about them being honest, or fair. Comparing that to far too many cops today, it's discouraging*. Then something occurred to me: where'd they come from?

Most of these guys were from small towns or medium-size cities originally; places where if a officer behaved badly, most people wouldn't have any problem going to the chief or sheriff or- in the case of OHP- the area troop headquarters and saying something about it. You may be a deputy/officer/trooper and have a job to do, but by God! that didn't give you some privilege to treat people badly! and they WOULD talk to someone about it. Also, they'd grown up being taught that thing called 'manners'; it can be amazing how use of that(apparently mysterious to many) thing can calm things down.

I have to wonder if some of the current problems are a combination of training problems("You will Take Charge of the situation, even if you have to be an asshole to do it!"), attitude problems when they come into the academy and maybe not having grown up with that smaller-town attitude?

I once had a roaring argument with a guy about some of what I saw as idiocies in OHP training; close order drill, military-type crap. He insisted that this stuff was 'necessary to teach discipline', etc. I said it was time-wasting crap: these guys are going to spend the majority of their time working traffic, working accidents, dealing with local citizens and occasionally taking part in a manhunt and such, and the time wasted on marching drill could be much better spent on driving or shooting or first-aid or 'how to actually get along with people' training. Neither of us gave an inch, and I still think marching drill for a Highway Patrol officer is a bloody waste of time. Any other officer, for that matter. Why are you spending time on military-type unit training for people who have to be able to work by themselves most of the time? If they go onto the tac team later on, they'll train as a team; unless/until then, marching drill? And do you really want your cops thinking in military terms? I don't; that's not supposed to be their damned job, and things tend to get messed up when they think it is.

I fully appreciate that, when you walk into a mess, you have to get in control of it; when your attitude takes a mildly troublesome situation and turns it into a real confrontation with you, you've just created a bigger problem for yourself than previously existed, AND caused everyone witnessing to have thoughts of "Why did he have to act like that? These cops are nasty!" Which causes problems down the road for everyone else with a badge. Witness the mess in the video; that guy took what should have been, at most, a "Sir, could I see your license?"-type contact and turned it into a real mess. That- hopefully- will cost him his job, and ought to at least get his partner a new anal orifice reamed without benefit of anesthetic for just standing there and doing nothing to get things under control, or keep them from getting that bad in the first place.

Just some thoughts on the matter.

Just ran across this on the current situation: the city tried to play "We'll let you off if you promise not to sue us" and got the proper response. Plus Mr. Hardy has a thought that's really interesting, that the city may have stuck its collective organ in a pencil sharpener by the offer:
1. I'd think they would have skipped that offer, since it sounds uncommonly like extortion to me. We will drop criminal charges if you give us something of monetary value....(does sound that way, doesn't it?)

2. In a §1983 claim, the person who violated rights is of course liable. The problem is always with proving liability of the City or other governmental unit. The ordinary respondeat superior (the principal is liable for the acts of his agent) doesn't apply, you have to show that the city itself did something that makes it liable. This usually takes the form of arguing insufficient training, or an extensive list of violations so long that violating a right becomes unwritten policy. (And the loss rate here is high). Or ratification -- the city did something that retroactively endorsed the violation, essentially. If you give your agent a bonus for his illegal acts, or a commendation, then you become liable for them.

I wonder if the city's plea offer isn't ratification of the violation. The arrest was the officer's problem, but the prosecution is theirs. They demand something of value from the victim -- specifically, a release from liability for the officer and the city -- as a price for their dismissing. The principal has used its power in order to protect its agent from liability for wrongdoing.


*When you've sat in a car with four or five long-service officers, 15 or 20 or 25 years, and listened to them talk about the attitude problems of the younger officers, it makes an impression.

We interrupt the current broadcast to bring you a word from Rat

I flat love reading about discoveries

like this:
Near the South Sandwich Islands, a British territory that straddles the Southern Ocean and the south Atlantic, scientists found more than a dozen huge underwater volcanoes, some of which tower 2 miles above the ocean floor. The expedition's leader, volcanologist Phil Leat, who is working with the British Antarctic Survey, says the volcanic cluster is unusually dense and active. "We weren't expecting to find so many undiscovered volcanoes here," he says.
...
Leat says the formation's conical shapes and cratered summits are signs of recent eruptions, meaning that almost all of these volcanoes are active. "This is the only place that's this active in the whole of the Antarctic Ocean," Leat says. The tallest of the newly discovered volcanoes has a summit that lies just 160 feet below the surface (less than twice the ship's length). Another eruption might be enough for this volcano to break the surface and become an island, adding to the South Sandwich chain to which the underwater giants belong.

Maybe he was a good cop once, but now

he's the kind of asshole who should not be allowed to wear a badge.


Found at Arms and the Law

Further reason not to piss off the customers, current

or potential:
True Story: Back in the days when one had to pass an interview with il Commendatore to purchase one of his roadgoing automobiles, which he only soiled his hands with to generate funds for his racing team, one Italian industrial magnate got rejected for his purchase by Enzo as an ill-bred parvenue and thus not worthy of owning a prancing horse. Thus rejected, Ferruccio Lamborghini said “Screw you! I’ll start my own sports car company!” And so he did…

So if you're somewhere in the parts of Africa where lions roam,

pay attention to the phase of the moon:
A lion is most likely to eat you just after a full moon, research has shown.
...
The discovery, from an African study of 500 lion attacks, could explain the full moon's place in folklore as a harbinger of evil or disaster, and its association with werewolves and vampires.

Scientists studied records of nearly 500 lion attacks on Tanzanian villagers between 1988 and 2009.
It doesn't mention of maned cats of other nationality share this timing.

By the way, that's 'nearly 500' attacks in one country over that period; any guesses of the actual total across Africa?

Aside from a troll who came by for a while, the most upset comments I've had over the years of this blog was when I wrote about the bad table manners of Elsa the lion & Family; I wonder if taking note of this'll upset the bunnyhuggers again?

After-Action Report from Dealer Days

at H&H.
Went this morning; lots of dealer reps with lots of stuff. And you can try them out; buy a ticket for $4(or 3 for $10), give the rep the ticket and sign the list and you get the firearm, a target and five rounds to take out on the range. Here's what I tried:
SiG 1911-22
Same size as a full-size 1911A1, not quite the weight. Very good trigger, shot very nicely. The sights had neon lime-green dots that showed up quite well.


Uberti Schofield:
The one at the shop is nickel-plated, and in .38 Special. With that weight, .38 ball ammo had very little felt recoil, shot nicely. The grip shape is such that I had to roll it back in my hand for my thumb to reach the hammer, or- with a two-hand grip- use the left thumb to cock.


Kimber Solo:
This is a single-stack 9mm, very short, slim and light. Uncertain about it due to the trigger; it's considered single-action and has a thumb safety, but the trigger is a cross between a true single-action and a double, not much weight but a fair amount of travel. And I could not tell when it would break. Probably something you could get used to with some practice, but if you're going to have a thumb safety, why not a proper single-action break? 'Course, that's my opinion, you may well like it.

STI Shadow
True single-action semi-auto, sub-compact 1911 size, the one I fired was 9mm. Aluminum frame, a little thicker than the Solo and a few ounces heavier. I liked it. Very clean trigger, fit the hand well. If I had that much disposable cash, I'd get one. If it had the bobtail on the frame it'd be even better for a CC pistol, but still very nice.

Lots of other stuff on display, shotguns, rifles and pistols from a bunch of companies. One other thing I'll pass on, saw a guy coming off the range with one of the Taurus mare's leg- pistol? rifle?- things,

and asked what he thought; the one he'd fired was .44 Magnum, and his comment was "Try it out and you'll probably save yourself $500."

Bullet sale, and a postal match

Midway has a blemished bullet sale; rifle and handgun.


Mr. Completely has the current e-Postal Match up.

Two things this morning:

First, I have a hard time believing the fire department in someplace like San Francisco does not already have any equipment or training for cold-water work.


Second, I'm really sick of someone dismissing information entirely because "It came from Faux News!" They can't point out where the information is actually wrong or something, but that they assume that's where you got it, or heard Fox did a story on it, is all it takes in their mind to dismiss it entirely.
But Media Matters and such is considered an unimpeachable source of information...