State of the CTone Address

I'm alive.  Sorry I haven't been by anyone's blog in a week or so; life has me tied up right now and it's going to be weird for a little while longer.  Work has me commuting through DC traffic aaaaaaand Baltimore traffic, so I'm averaging six to seven hours in the car on top of a nineish hour workday.  If you see a shaved head dude screaming his head off in traffic, red faced with spit flying out, that's me, and it's best to leave me to my grievance and not make eye contact.

Some great news is I've found a place to live for the time being that's perfect perfect perfect in every way.  God has a way with coming through at the 11th hour with perfect solutions, and He doesn't disappoint.  There's not much to say about it other than it's close to where I am now and my kids better get used to playing outside -- it's about time for that.  Yo Gabba Gabba can take a hike.  To give you an indicator of how perfect this place is, this is me in the back yard several years ago:


My reloading addiction is about to go full tilt!  The local critters better polish up on their camouflage too; there haven't been any coyotes seen there in awhile, but I'm certainly going to find out if there are any within calling range.

I haven't had time to anything with the 338wm project, but I did get to fire my new AR upper.  It's going to need a little tweaking in the rail system, but I think it's going to be good to go.  I had many stoppages within the first twenty rounds or so -- bolt overrides, double feeds, bolt not locking back -- but the bolt was almost completely dry, and with some 10w-40 it was running like a sewing machine.  I did manage to ruin both of the Nevco steel plates; I knew better than to shoot them inside of 100 yards, but they were irresistable and I didn't have much cardboard handy.  I'll eat them up with the 338wm at distance when I get that up and running, and pick up two more for handgunnery.

I'll stop by and say hi when I can.  I hope everyone is having a smashing time with life right now!

First they came for the lead. . . .

Then they came for the copper brass .

This is the start of something very interesting. When the ATF says that a particular brand of copper brass bullet is banned because it's "armor piercing," how long before other manufacturer's bullets are banned?

Something else to think of - California is a "lead free zone" so to speak, so this really hoses the millions of rifle shooters there. And isn't it a bad idea to ban a bullet designed to penetrate deep into large dangerous critters based on the idea that it penetrates so deeply?


***ETA: The bullets are made of brass.

Menace to society

This post is many parts; the lesser of the post being the first, which is that coyotes in King George's county, Virginia are now in an almost continuous open season, and hopefully this will extend to other surrounding counties, as my county is starting to see their population increase. I take issue with some parts of this ordnance, the main one being that if you use a rifle, it has to be larger than .22 caliber. I'd love to see some evidence of how this regulation was established, and would enjoy seeing some bureaucrat publicly defend it. It's asinine. If you frequent predator forums, you'd be hard pressed to miss that hunters note the faster calibers being the ones that put coyotes down quickly, and thus "ethically" like the DGIF official wants. The gist of it is hunters have had well hit coyotes run off after being hit with larger calibers with less velocity, and anchored them well with the same hits with zippy small caliber rifles. Call it what you want, but there's definitely a trend. My guess is that this regulation is put here now to make sure that icky AR rifles don't end up being the killing tool for coyote hunters.

I'm going to go off on a tangent for a minute: this caliber restriction applies to whitetail deer hunting as well, and I've never seen any scientific evidence or studies that show that .22 caliber bullets are less effective than anything larger. The .223 Remington cartridge is a premier deer round in states where it's lawful, but general public ignorance and baseless ordinances have led them to be demonized. I've argued this with people for years, and none of them can offer anything other than "it's not powerful enough." Do you have proof of that claim, because I've seen evidence that says otherwise.

Interestingly enough, many hunters that I've known throughout the years who subscribe to this bullshit tote a magnum caliber rifle that they can't shoot because they flinch with it on every shot, and believe it has more "knockdown power" because it's so biiiiiiiiiiiig. I've tracked a ton of hit deer for them, too, some of them where the hunter felt confident to shoot a 180 lb running doe square in the ass because their cartridge case has a belt, and that bullet will definitely make it to the vitals, sure. "IT'S A GREAT BRUSH GUN!!!!" - my personal favorite. To be blunt, I've tracked more dog-sized Virginia deer hit with a magnum than I can count, but never had to track one hit with a .22 Hornet, .22 Magnum, or .220 Swift. I don't account this fact to the caliber, but to the fact that the trigger man did his job and hit them properly, and did not rely on 30 extra grains of powder, 2 more millimeters, and piss poor shooting to get the job done. Just to ensure that this dead horse is adequately beaten, if you claim that to use a .223 Remington or other similar caliber cartridge on deer, you have to "hit them just right," you are implying that using a larger cartridge means that you don't have to hit them just right. Get it?

Good. Moving on.

The "no hunting on Sundays" is an archaic regulation that needs to be repealed. I don't know where it comes from, but to my knowledge folks believe that God will be angry with them if they're in their treestand on Sunday vice raking leaves or fixing the sink. The Lord didn't smite David for eating the showbread, and I don't think He will condemn Elmer Fudd for sending a ballistic tip through Wile E's guts. If you believe otherwise, then I invite you on a witch hunting journey with me in Salem. It'll be swell! My county this year has had a continuous doe-day this hunting season in a vain effort to control the population, and if they let hunters hunt one more day out of the week, a balance in the herd might be struck. The insurance companies would surely be happy with this concept, as they wouldn't have to shell out millions every year because of all the deer hit by vehicles.

Next up on my list of shit I don't like is this:

King George doesn’t allow the use of high-powered rifles during hunting season. Bullets fired by more powerful weapons travel farther, and that can be dangerous in areas with dense populations or flat terrain, which is the case in King George.Caroline County has the same restriction.

Now, this DOES NOT apply to shooting coyotes in the county -- it's for deer hunters -- but going off on a tangent again (I can do that, you know) I note that this is an asinine regulation, and it's one that plagues many counties around mine. Whoever came up with this should be kicked in the balls. The concept is that rifles are dangerous because the bullet has the potential to go further, so some counties only allow hunting with shotguns and muzzleloaders. The problem with that is that that concept is baseless:

Of Pennsylvania’s approximate 900 miles of border with other states, it was found that the centerfire rifle was unlawful along the entire boundary with the exception of western Maryland. They found that in no case was any state able to provide definitive information upon which they based their decision. In fact, most reported that they simply responded to the public perception that shotguns were less dangerous than centerfire rifles. At that time, PGC staff found there was no data to support the contention that shotguns and muzzleloaders are any less risky than centerfire rifles. They found, instead, that in the “shotgun-only” states this appears to be “an issue driven by emotion and politics rather than sound scientific data.”2

You mean to tell me that laws and regulations subjected on Pennsylvanians was born out of politics and emotion instead of facts? Weird. Don't quote me, but I think this sort of shenanigans has happened elsewhere in the country.

Anyhow, the conclusion from the linked study from Pennsylvania is that shotguns are "more risky" when fired from the ground at a zero degree angle, and Paw Paws 30.06 is "more risky" when fired at an angle, such as from a treestand -- but the risk factor in the study is based on the "danger zone" after the projectile has ricocheted, which is based entirely on the distance that it travels. My point is that who cares if the round ricochets one mile or ten: it's one bullet, and it's dangerous no matter how far it goes before it lands. It would be different if the bullet rained death down on everything below it during its brief flight, whereas the further and longer it flies, the more harm is done. That's not the case though; what we're talking about here is if a hunter fires a rifle at a deer, and the bullet skips off a rock and heads out of the pasture, that if it strikes Timmy in his back yard a thousand yards away it's "more safe" than if the round came down and struck grandma in the next county. Sorry, but that dog don't hunt.

According to the PA study, the criteria for the "danger zone" came from studies done by the US military on the ricochet distance for small arms for military ranges. So yeah, a two mile danger zone behind Edson Range is a good idea because thousands of Marine recruits fire millions of rounds there, and all those rounds will fall in a predictable area. Finding out how big that area is and making sure some developer doesn't build a Kroger there is in the public's interest. How this somehow applies to Elmer and his carbine is anyone's guess; I just don't see how a shotgun slug bounding half a mile is less dangerous than a .30 caliber Accubond skipping two miles. The telling part to me is the chart on page 26, where it shows that the probability of a rifle round ricocheting when fired at a 10 degree down angle is 38%, and the probability of a .50 round from a muzzloader or a shotgun slug ricocheting from the same angle is 91%; what I get from this is that there's less chance of an errant projectile to begin with if I stick with a rifle, damn the distance it flies. Go ahead and look that chart over real well. See how much more probable a ricochet is when you don't use a rifle?

It seems to me that we have the dumbest possible people struggling to make public policy, which I guess is better than letting them figure it out on their own using common sense, or worse, emotion.

Bitch set me up!

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, apparently. Time will tell if this is a once-off screw up, or if he's going to follow in the footsteps of his daddy and become as vile as a man can be.

Why not hire Batman instead?

It would be a better idea than the one proposed:

On the heels of an uptick in violence that claimed the life of an off-duty cop, Newark's city council voted Thursday to require all late-night restaurants that serve less than 20 people at a time to have an armed security guard posted from 9 p.m. to closing.

Mmmmm hmmmm. I see. So you want the restaurants that presumably bring in the least amount of profit to shoulder the major financial burden of hiring an armed dude to just stand there, all because a cop was gunned down by scumbags who sped by suddenly in a car and open fire? What exactly is an armed guard supposed to do to prevent a drive-by shooting? Would an armed guard fare better at stopping a drive-by than a cop? Will the city pay to have ballistic glass installed on the restaurants, and buy body armor for the guards?

Here's a novel idea: why don't you allow the store owners and patrons to be their own armed guards? How hard is that? It's doubtful that it would prevent drive-by shootings, but it would certainly make the stores a harder target for thieves and thugs.

If it seems like I have a lot of questions, it's because the idea of making small businesses hire armed security is a stupid fucking idea. It's the sort of non-solution that can be expected from a city council of Newark; although it does seem that Newarkians don't really give a damn about protecting themselves, so maybe it's warranted.

Just some good ol' boys . . . .

. . . .never meanin' no har. . .

Sheriff Maj. David Decatur says Douglas Edward Turner went banging on the "victim's" door just before midnight demanding that he come outside. When the man opened his door, Turner came at him with a chainsaw. Turner cut up a handrail but did not injure the victim, who ran back inside and locked the door.

Stafford county heathens just doing what they do best. The moral of this story is never bring a chainsaw to a baseball bat fight. Tell me you knew I was going to say that. Also, if someone is braying on your door at midnight, and you hear an idling two-stroke engine on the other side, it's a safe bet that you can go ahead and back away from the door and call the cops. Hasn't the homeowner ever seen a slasher movie before?

And another thing, I don't know about you, but I qualify a chainsaw as being a deadly weapon, and not just a tool for wounding maliciously; you can bet that this crazy sumbich would have been shot the moment he breached the walls of my house with that thing. If there was one time an AR15 with all the accoutrements could be readily prepared and wielded against a bona fide madman in the process of sawing his way into your domicile at night, it was in this attack, and the homeowner grabs a stick of wood instead. At least he used it well.

Circus side show

BERLIN (Reuters) – A shootout between two German circus families competing over tent space has left six people injured, police said on Tuesday.

If we can't agree on registration and background checks for circus folk, than what can we agree on?

Germany obviously needs to strengthen its gun, knife, baton, and circus freak laws to prevent madness like this in the future.

Are these the new dangerous times?

When I was a kid, there was the always constant threat of all out nuclear war with Russia, which would have likely destroyed every living thing on the entire planet. I mean, Russia had something along the lines of 30,000 nuclear missiles, all of them pointed at the US, and that discounts their. . . .ahem. . .robust chemical and biological weapons programs, all of which were too, aimed at the free world.

To me, the threats that we face today pale in comparison. Not to downplay 9/11 or anything, as loosing thousands of Americans in a terrorist attack was definitely a defining time in this country, but for several decades people in the US went about their day knowing that if there was an attack, millions of people would die, and that is if everything didn't go as bad as we had been told.

Today I take a look at the news to find material to mock, and am treated with sensational headlines describing how some miscreant placed what could only be a plastic soda bomb on somebody's window sill, spraying high velocity shards of glass from a single window across ten whole feet of lawn, complete with breathtaking "RAW" footage of firefighters milling around their truck, and cops slowly walking through the woods with flashlights. There's also the breaking report of the DC GOP office getting its windows "shot out" (cracked, but still standing) by hard-core violent gangsters firing high velocity BBs from an air rifle. The audacity of these people. Oooh, and how can I forget the edge-of-your-seat breaking news story about shoppers in a mall in Roanoke loosing their shit over the sight of an old man walking the isles holding an umbrella, which they thought was an AK, or even an RPG picked up at a gunshow in Arizona for $38. It was raining that day, which is theoretically why a man would have on his person an umbrella; and the PEW PEW PEW sounds the man imagined coming out of the moist instrument were telepathically picked up by other shoppers and mistaken for actual automatic gunfire from a rifle. Lastly, the news is putting up a desperate attempt to scare the shit out of every American over the nuclear reactors in Japan with stories of "all hope is lost" and "DEATH CLOUDS!!!" DEATH CLOUDS will come and eat the brains of your children while they sleep peacefully in their beds dreaming childish stories of Chicken Little telling everybody that the sky is falling!

Be advised that DEATH CLOUDS are in no way related to DEATH BLOSSOMS (warning, language).

So if the latest round of news stories is any indication, America is about as secure as it could possibly be. And don't forget that this feeling of safety is facilitated in large part by bad ass Americans killing tangos across the globe.

Political seppuku

The Obama administration has apparently decided to jump aboard the gun control train and see what kind of wreck they can make of it. I am surprised at this; I expected that they would light the torches around the gun control altar after President Obama's re-election is determined. Either way, I don't see how there can even be an agreement when the vast majority sees gun ownership as being a basic human right, and not a political gemstone that needs to be placed on a political party's ring.

There's some good stuff in there, like here where President Obama lashes out at Congress for slacking on their duties to the American people:

"Every single day, America is robbed of more futures. It has awful consequences for our society. And as a society, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to put a stop to it," he wrote.

Oh, wait, actually he was directing that statement at firearms, and not necessarily firearms used against Americans by evil people. Silly me. Here's a catch-all statement that can mean so many things as to be virtually useless:

"I'm willing to bet that responsible, law-abiding gun owners agree that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few -- dangerous criminals and fugitives, for example -- from getting their hands on a gun."

I would offer that I could agree with that statement as long as "dangerous criminals" is strictly defined as criminals that have committed the most serious of an act such as violent rape, murder, or attempted murder, and not someone who verbally distrusts the government and has faded Reagan stickers on their bumper; and I would also add that the mechanism for keeping these dangerous criminals from getting their hands on a gun is by placing them in prison forever, and not delaying millions of non-dangerous people from buying guns at Wal-Mart. I think we may have something there. Sadly, I don't believe that that's the conclusion that President Obama and his administration is shooting for:

Obama called for "sound and effective" steps to prevent lawbreakers from obtaining guns. A system of criminal background checks must be better implemented and made more efficient, he said.

Hmmmmm. Preventing violent criminals from ever seeing the light of day again would qualify as "sound and effective," no? I'm thinking his intent though is to delay the purchase of a Colt at Gander Mountain by five-time serial rapist murderers on parole to the tune of a week or so, and not finding a way to keep them behind bars.

"Most gun-control advocates know that most gun owners are responsible citizens. Most gun owners know that the word 'commonsense' isn't a code word for 'confiscation,'" he wrote.

He doesn't read gun blogs very much. This line here shows me that he doesn't have his finger on the pulse of gun owners these days. I would also add that congress has not made it apparent that confiscation is not on the top of their list, not even by a long shot. And in case you're wondering what type of people President Obama considers "dangerous criminals:"

"A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun," Obama wrote.

The Army rejects amputees, paraplegics, and people who sleepwalk as being unfit for Service, so they should be barred from buying a gun? Is that where you're heading? Sounds like it's going to be an epic train wreck.

Give me Libya, or give me death

Man, it's all out warfare there now. The Libyan government is shelling and dropping bombs on rebels, which is an indicator that they could care less about collateral damage or loss of innocent life. At least when government forces are shooting individual people with precision rifle fire, they are making an attempt at stopping the revolt with as little bloodshed as possible, but we are definitely not seeing that here.

On the other hand, the rebel forces have done a spectacular job at arming themselves with enough weaponry to take down fighter jets, or so it seems. Check out that link for some good photos of the carnage that is going down in Libya.

It amazes me that these rebel fighters started out basically throwing rocks, and then armed themselves enough to take down military bases and get heavy weapons to knock down aircraft and destroy tanks. That's motivation. I can't say I don't blame them for wanting to out Qaddafi and his entourage of women bodyguards. Forty some years of that mess is enough for anyone.

***Edit: Holy smokes! It's fun for the whole family over there!

Seeing children waving Colt Detective Specials in the air while the wimmens scream at the camera and point AK47s at their friends goes to show you that it's a full blown calamity.

Like LEGOs

Committee looks at how to allocate 4,000 housing units in Stafford County

Why not just start stacking them on top of each other? That seems the only logical choice these days considering the sheer amount of homes built in the county over the last decade. So this is exactly what a county plagued with insufficient amount of schools, water, roads, and power needs: more frickin' houses to be filled with more frickin' morons with more frickin' cars.

I've got news for you retards: there ain't many more trees around here to knock over to build your Sim City. It would be wise for you to take your pipe dreams and shove them up your ass.

When unrestrained growth is allowed, you end up with a ton of people in an area that cannot support it ("ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag" - thanks dad!), and when the economy tanks, you end up with tens of thousands of people who want to work but can't. Here we have county politicos suggesting that the fix for this mess is to have more unrestricted growth to get all of the morons working again.

UDAs [Urban Development Areas] are required by state law to accommodate at least 10 years worth of population growth. Eliminating UDAs in Brooke and Widewater left Stafford’s plan with six UDAs—and 4,000 housing units short of its 14,661 requirement. The committee was tasked with finding a place for those units.

Very clever. Stafford county (my county is guilty of this too) completely ignores that "10 year accommodation" part in favor of just rapidly putting up houses and filling them with people, because it's not like they're going to stop the funding stream for one moment. Pockets are being lined, and we can't have reality stand in the way. Notice that three UDAs were eliminated, probably because there couldn't be justification to keep adding to them, and now it's recommended that there be three new one's added, conveniently.

And now there's a recommendation to add a "downtown" area? Where the hell are you going to put it? I don't suppose you are planning on building it in space and then crashing it into the dirt on top of nine subdivisions?

Here's an idea, how about taking the tens of millions of dollars in imaginary funds that you don't have and plan on fixing the nightmare of a roadway and infrastructure problem before you go about making any other plans!

The committee also approved the addition of a 600-unit UDA in Boswell’s Corner. That area had been considered for a UDA last year, but was rejected because Marine Corps Base Quantico officials were concerned that more residents in that area could adversely affect the operations of the base.

Ya think! Completely absent from this article is that 2,700 more Marines and Servicemen - complete with their families, SUVs, and need for shit like power, water, and roads to drive to work on - will be moving into Stafford county this July. I guess that their basic needs take a back seat to other more pressing needs like fresh new architecture to look at "downtown", and maybe a few more Starbucks stores and another Target to buy CDs at.

Snellings also questioned whether the Brooke area could sustain a UDA, as it has a limited road network and no access to public water and sewer.

Have no fear, the county head shed will no doubt publish an exhaustive "study" consisting of a paragraph or two stating that it can support everything as is, and that it can just keep borrowing stuff from the adjacent county.

This jackassery of fueling the overcrowded fire with more bodies is a symptom of being a Virginia politician, I wager. These idiots that the local morons elected will need to hire craftsman skilled at building skyscrapers if they intend to keep up this pace. I'm seeing that the larger picture here is not to turn what used to be a cozy hick town into a bustling place of commerce, or to settle with maintaining it's current status as a suburb of DC, but to turn it into DC.

Fantastic. Lets just hope that somewhere in this madness someone suggests building a Cabelas.

Resurgic Acid

A "resurging" community in DC discovers that it's not so resurgent, with two shootings in two weeks, and residents fearing for their safety. Understandably, something needs to be done. Action must be taken.

So what's the proposed answer? Lighting. More lighting is needed to thwart the "spasm of violence" that rips at the soft underbelly of this community. Oh, and abandoned houses; something needs to be done about them too.

Great job Mayor Grey! Way to step it up there and take the bull by the horns!

When DC leaders respond to crisis like this, you know what it reminds me of? Madlibs.

DC officials are concerned about (adjective) ________ violence in a South East DC community. Just last (time)_______ twelve people were (past-tense verb) _________ while on their way to (utopian place)________. DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier is considering (majestic verb)__________ with (type of people, plural)______________ in an effort to stop them from (verb)___________. DC officials have also considered installing (plural noun)_______________ and (noun)___________ to prevent (adjective)__________ (type of people, plural)______________ from destroying the very fabric of the community.

Go ahead and have some fun with that one.

I bet you a shiny new nickel that there's some government employee that works for the mayor's office who's sole job in life is to dream up words to fill in those blanks, and when the media comes hunting for some BS story, that's the dude they look for.

As for solutions to the violence problem, you know where I stand on such matters.

Don't feed the critters

It's pretty bad when a 50 lb coyote thinks that a grown-ass man is dinner. Hopefully the beast hasn't gotten it through his head that stupid people like this guy might be cream filled and try to eat somebody's five year old.

Idiot:



In the states, coyotes are generally a little more wary of humans, as they are used to getting hit with flying copper when they get too close. When I used to spend a lot of time in the woods, seeing a potentially dangerous or predatory critter with sharp teeth show me that it's not afraid to approach would have made up my mind that it needs to be put down. I don't want to read about a kid killed by a feral dog in my paper and know that I somehow helped it overcome the natural tendancy to fear mankind.

From the movie Jurassic Park:
Dieter: "It gives me the creeps, like it's not scared."
Dr. Robert Burke: "There haven't been any visitors on this island. There's no reason for it to fear man."
[Dieter touches a cattle prod to the dinosaur's head, causing it to flee]
Dieter: "Now it does."

Yup!

Found in discussion at AR15.com

A lame duck in denial

"There seems to be some denial about what's contributing to the crime and violence in our community. . ."

You got that right, Mrs. Bland.

Hey, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and assaults county employees for starting a meeting without master. . . . .oh, wait.

And, apparently, what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander. Hmmm.

Road Ragers

It's stories like this that make me doubt the future of humanity.

At some point, the driver of the Lexus pulled up and threw a container of yogurt at the Toyota. That’s when the driver of the Toyota displayed a small caliber handgun.

Dude. I get mad at other drivers just like anyone else, but even though I may scream a long list of obscenities, I never get to the point where I would throw things at another moving vehicle or brandish a gun, and certainly am not stupid enough to call the state police if I did.

Interesting part is the charges associated with these two morons; misdemeanors for the handgun guy, and felonies for yogurt slinger. Oh that just sounds bad.

Is that how it works?

Let's see if I can extrapolate how Virginia's justice system works these days.

If you are a violent psychopath that started your career of mayhem at the age of ten, then you qualify for like a year or two of time in state prison--most of it suspended--for every violent crime you commit up until the point where you are indicted for murdering five people.

If you are a violent psychopathic woman who stabs someone in the chest with a kitchen knife, then you qualify for five years in state prison, but will only serve six months so that you can do it all over again as soon as possible.

If you are a violent psychopathic man who has a lengthy criminal record for such peaceful acts as assaulting a cop, then you qualify for six months in jail with four and a half months suspended, making it possible for you to drive around at night while firing your gun in the air.

If you are a violent psychopathic scumbag with a lifelong penchant for hurting people, and you are arrested for tying a guy down to a chair with a lamp cord and beating his face in over a drug deal that didn't go your way, then you qualify to serve five years in a state penitentiary.

If you are a violent psychopathic scumbag with ten felony convictions, then you qualify to be released on parole once again from state prison so that you can rape, sodomize, and murder a depressed woman and leave her body to freeze in the woods. It's cool. We know you like that, so we'll give you a break this time too.

Now, if you're a creepy older guy with no known prior convictions, and you pull your winky out in front of your web cam to impress a 13 year old, than you qualify for 80 years in state prison.

WTF?

I'm not concerned about the well being of the creepy guy, but when the hell do violent people get shown to the revolving door while the guy who is accused of what is arguably a victimless crime get fed into the grinder? What am I missing?

I don't know about you, but if I was, say, searching for a home to move my family to, and I had to chose between having a neighbor who was convicted and served time for showing his junk to an undercover cop posing as a kid, or a guy who was convicted and served time for taking hostages and shooting up a post office, and for shooting his girlfriend in the chest while he was wanted for having sex with a child, then which one do you think I would pick?

I understand that the economy thrives in part on the sale of prisoner's bonds as securities, but come on now!! You've got it all backwards!! Is this some sort of inflation backlash from the new sex crime laws? Somebody needs to go back and rethink murder and other violent charges so that they're up to par.

I've read somewhere before that 15 years is the average time served in America for murder. You have to have one seriously mangled schlong to traumatize someone to the point where you should get more time in prison than the fella who tries to hire a hitman to cut the throat of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Hey Virginia, how about some crime reform?

Repetitive vicious maliciousness

A Stafford county Virginia woman was arrested last Friday night for aggravated malicious wounding. She had stabbed a woman multiple times in the "upper body" which I construe as being in the chest.

So big deal right? Some trashy scumbag in some no-name county in the Old Dominion got her stabby on, what's that got to do with anything? Who cares?

With that question I point you to the Virginia Court Case Information System where you can look up this woman's name in the same county and see where she was convicted last year for the same damn thing - stabbing a woman repetitively with a knife. And what severe sentence did she receive for this reckless act? Five freakin' years, which seems pretty appropriate for a first time offense of that nature where the victim lived. The problem is that four years and four months of that sentence was suspended, and she got out after six months in state prison and promptly and repeatedly rammed a pair of scissors in a girl's chest.

What is it about arresting and locking up crazy people, and then cutting them loose way before you said you would so that they can go out and paint the town red? If you say that the state demands five years for stabbing someone, then make it five years! If this woman had been caught with a pound of pot you know she would still be in prison. Keep the loony toons behind bars where they belong!

Oooh, check out the second comment for some humor!

Thy righteousness and thy cellphone, they comfort me

Update: To the below post, in comments Boomhauer notes that DC police are in official uniform when working security, so that indicates that the hoodlum would be the one who flew off the handle. Perhaps he had been sniffing the Gorilla Glue for too long, and thought he could take on the world!

Today's dose of stupid and quote of the day, all rolled into one:

kj85756
Guns are dangerous. The civilian should have called the police and let them take care of it. Guns are not needed when you have a cell phone.

This is a comment in response to this article which lays out very little detail about an upstanding armed citizen in DC who saw a crime being committed and intervened. As you can guess, the citizen was an off duty cop, and as usual, his firearm un-assed from his holster and discharged, all on its own.

Some facts here:

1. The off duty cop works part time at the Home Despot where this all went down.
2. The cop was carrying his "service revolver", as the news person in the video knows firearms very well, and has made that determination with all the accuracy and oversight that we have come to expect from the media.
3. The Service Revolver has full control of itself, and can discharge at will.
4. Bite wounds and a grazing gun shot wound warrant a high speed ambulance ride to the hospital, complete with two police cruisers in tow, for everybody, not just cops. Honest.
5. Guns are baaaa-ah-ah-ah-ah-d.
6. Cellphones stop violence.

Now, the article says our off duty hero witnessed a crime being committed, confronted the dangerous threat, and a fight ensued whereas the violent hoodlum showed how completely reckless he was by grabbing the issued Service Revolver which then in protest decided to discharge without any such human interaction. The video has some cop-like official stating matter of factly that the Home Despot employees, who we presume were unarmed considering that they work in DC, saw the alleged hoodlum committing NoGood and confronted him at the front of the store, wherein the off duty cop comes strolling by and the employees ask him to intervene in a more authoritative capacity. Either way the off duty cop assumed his role as a cop and took action, which means that the above quoted moronic commenter has failed to notice that the "civilian" did in fact summon the police; he just happened to summon himself.

The question that remains unasked is whether the off duty hero cop identified himself as a police officer, or whether he tried to use armed color of law while clad only in an orange apron. If he chose the latter, and displayed a Revolver that we all know the DC police still issue to cops for Service, than the hoodlum may have assumed he was an armed antagonizer. If he chose the former, than did he display the required amount of credentials to show without a doubt that he was a cop, and not just some random un-blessed guy with a gun who works at Home Despot?

The article does say that the off duty cop had just arrived at Home Despot to "work security," which leads to more questions such as: was he wearing the beautiful blue uniform that security guards wear to identify them as being there for the purpose of making something secure? Was he openly wearing the big ol' honkin' Revolver issued by DC for Service, making it easily identifiable as a Service Revolver for the purposes of making the store secure? Who initiated the physical altercation which led to a Revolver having to discharge? Was the hoodlum acting as a patron who was scared of a big scary armed man, or was he acting as a violent scumbag who hates the coppers and won't be taken alive? Why the hell does Home Despot need an armed security guard?

The hoodlum may indeed be a violent scumbag for all I know, but I have to question whether he would risk fighting with multiple people in the front of the store, one of them who probably stated that he was a cop and who is at least potentially armed, all to make off with a booty of gas cans and Gorilla Glue. But then again, this is a Home Despot that though it prudent to hire a cop to be an armed security guard, so there is potential for the area to be saturated with people who would gladly kill for some brushed aluminum door knobs.

Also, if cellphones are all that's needed to stop criminals in their tracks, than why don't cops carry them in their holsters instead of dangerous Service Revolvers? You know, the more news articles I read, the more questions I have. You would think that journalists would be trained to provide facts, and not make a big mess of things.

What could go wrong: DC police edition

"Lanier unveiled the "Got Guns?" initiative on Friday. She says people can call in anonymously and receive up to $1,000 for tips that result in authorities recovering a gun."

So much for being able to face your accusers. How will the cops explain that one in court.

Regarding all these armed miscreants, I guess Chief Lanier failed to "get them", negotiate peace accords with the gang bangers, or even bring down crime by putting every cop they have on the street. Damn! And I was sure that was going to do it too! So close.

What will they think of next?

Pit Bull violence

Jones refused and officers escorted her outside, officials said. She suddenly stopped and ordered the dog to attack. The pit bull began biting the officer's foot, which was protected by a boot.

Many things to discuss. One, did the woman really "order" her dog to attack? Are the cops suggesting that she compelled the dog to act by tendering it spoken words? Seriously? I'm not defending her overall actions; she seems like quite the scumbag, and whatever charges are conjured up over her "ordering" an animal with a primitive will and no mastery of the English language will probably stick, but it still stands to ask the question of whether one can make an animal do anything. Responsibility for the dogs actions on the other hand. . . . .

Two, who wants to bet that the dog is not a "pit bull" -- the assault thingy of the canine world -- at all, but merely some form of muscular terrier that cannot be accurately identified by the police? Back in time, way way back before the Russians covertly introduced pit bulls to the American continent to wreak havoc on the place, the canine threat of the day was either the Doberman or the Rottweiler. At that time, pretty much any mid to large black dog that made the news was one of those highly dangerous and volatile animals, and the world knew about every toothy incident where one of them ate an entire city of people. These days, the Doby and Rotty threat is a thing of the past, as advanced doggy electroshock therapy and loppobodomy techniques have been so perfected that they don't seem to attack everything in sight like they did in the 80s.

Third, why the 1st degree assault? Are they suggesting that she planned to sic the animal on the cops all along? Like before she left her apartment that day, she re-checked her map and battle plan of the ambush, took a last long drag off her crack pipe, put on her shoes and grabbed Cujo's leash. "Lets go get us some poeleeeeeeece, Cujo! Don't let me down boy!" Yeah, totally premeditated, with like malice aforethought and stuff.

With all that said, it's surprising that the dog didn't get shot considering how often that seems to happen these days. Also, since we all know that a pit bull can tear off a mans leg with little to no effort, that only reinforces my opinion that this wasn't an American Pit Bull Terrier or other Bull Terrier breed at all, but probably a Beagle or something. And of course it sounds like this woman will be getting the treatment she needs. I could be wrong on that one; she could be a saint thrown into a big misunderstanding, but something tells me that that is not the case here.