About those crazy militia men

The news is awash over the nine crazies that decided to make a preemptive strike against law enforcement. No doubt, the feds took quick and decisive action without a shot fired. I'll sleep better knowing that they're in jail.

What I find to be disgusting, but not at all shocking, is that the media is having a field day smearing militias and Christians over this one incident. The linked piece even shows the Minutemen that I talked about yesterday, which are not at all violent and haven't been involved in the first shooting. Christians make up like 80 percent of the US population - hundreds of millions of people - and all of a sudden nine people in a violent group represent all of them?

Simply disgusting, and just what I would expect to hear in the news.

What the media doesn't give a moments focus on is the prolific urban militia that murder people every single day. Last night in DC, ten people were shot by these types from a moving vehicle: four of them died. The rhetoric is all about the "AK47 type weapon" and "guns and violence," ad nauseum.

Where is the journalistic angst towards the perpetrators of this type of violence? Not a single solitary word about the trigger pullers, just harsh words about the type of trigger. That's all that matters. If only there were more laws, then gang bangers wouldn't do drive bys. It's common sense and all.

What I'm saying here is that nine self described Christians plan a horrific murder, fortunately a rarity, and it gets a week worth of front page play, but when several young criminals actually carry out a horrific murder, a day to day event, the talk goes to the NRA and how we need gun laws - nowhere near to the heart of the matter.

To be quite frank, one doesn't have to think too hard to come up with a visualization of the shooters in DC last night. I would bet a shiny paycheck or two it wasn't rural country boys wearing face paint and momma's rosary. When their faces come to light, you can count on the discussion to continue to head elsewhere, and not on the facts of the matter. At some point, the discussion has got to happen. Pay now or pay later, but at some point you have to pay.

NYC cops keep and bear arms

Reading this article, and the comments specifically, makes one wonder about the status of our country.

There are those who are happy to see cops with rifles on their train while heading into work, and there are those who vehemently oppose it. Being a realist, I have to see it both ways.

While I think it's a bit excessive, even in light of what just happened in Moscow, I wouldn't have a bit of problem sharing air with heavily armed cops on a train: that is, as long as they don't have a problem with me riding next to them with my loaded rifle. In NYC, that's just not the case, and the city should be ashamed for it.

To tell you the truth, I don't have any idea what the reaction would be here in VA if went to buy groceries with a loaded AR15 on my back. It's not prohibited by law. I suppose that some people would freak out, and I would expect prompt scrutiny from law enforcement, and they may even arrest me regardless. A quick lawsuit would probably follow.

Just the same, if state, local, and federal keepers of peace can wander about armed and armored, then they shouldn't have issue with me doing the same.

Tuesday morning roundup

The disaster on our border is getting worse. Why stories like this don't make national news is anyone's guess. This is the first I've heard about the Minutemen breaking up, which is interesting considering their exemplary record of avoiding a shooting, but especially alarming considering that this article says they broke up basically because they know that it's going to happen at any given moment due to the situation there. Scary. **Nothing about a breakup on their website.

Criminals often chose "safe" neighborhoods; these gunman chose a Fairfax county home. Fairfax is getting a lot of attention these days.

Just because our advanced society has a safety net, doesn't mean that that safety net can't fail. Do note that the fire chief says that 911 calls were still taken, but that doesn't mean squat if nobody can respond. Always have a plan B.

Why would anyone neeeeeed a gun in a classroom? Someone should have put up a "Gun Free Zone" sign.

Is it me, or are jails and prisons these days not very good at keeping people in? This is the second story like this that I've heard of recently. Stop letting crazies walk out the front door.

This is a better way for politicians to handle their issues than countless statutes and regulations.

Whoa!! A while back I posted about a DC man who was arrested for indecent exposure when a woman on a street complained that she could see that he was naked; well, he's still fighting this charge, and there's more to the story:

Williamson describes the day in October when police showed up at his home while he was sleeping.

"You wake up, roll over, you have guns out in your face. Yes, it's shocking it's almost like a home invasion-- like robbery, except they have uniforms on. I just put my hands straight up. And did exactly what I was told to do. They asked me for an ID. What am I doing here? I live here. What are you doing here?" Williamson said.

Ummm, it is a home invasion! Where do these cops think they have the authority to just come into that mans house?

An officer testified they had guns drawn "just in case we encountered a hostile individual...could have been a burglar."

Uh huh. Sure buddy.

Police are fulfilling their function as a "community caretaker"-- checking to make sure no one inside the house needed help.

Raise your hand if you think this is a good idea. I don't care how much you luvs the cops because your uncles dad was a cop and he was cool n' stuff; cops can serve a legitimate purpose, but they are ultimately armed strangers. Not only that, but there is a procedure for entry into a person's home, and that does not entail just wandering in and sticking a gun in their face. Painting them as "community caretaker[s]" is perhaps the most dangerous idea I have heard of in my time.

Unbelievable.

What would you do?

. . .if you checked your bank account and noticed it had an $88 Billion dollar balance?

I do agree with the one commenter that the IRS is likely to be all over them. Pity.

An Eastern clown show over a Western Diamondback

Years ago, I researched the pros and cons of owning a venomous snake, and reached the conclusion that I wasn't responsible enough to own one. From what I could gather, people that did own them overwhelmingly said that you will be bit eventually.

This guy found that out the hard way when his pet rattlesnake decided enough was enough. He should be fine.

What I thought was interesting about the story though is frightful behavior of the cops in the man's yard. Watch the video. They're all standing around holding shotguns like the snakes are going to make a run for it, and they have to stop them. Buncha sissies!

I think I would lose all confidence in my local law enforcement if I witnessed such a spectacle - cops all jittery while holding long arms.

And somebody needs to tell reporter Rob Hoell that "poisonous" snakes are not illegal as far as I know; I don't think they even exist. He might as well have said that the tooth fairy is illegal.

That the illegal ownership of venomous snakes is common should tell you something about the regard people have for the law. Why, it's almost like people will do what they please, and that they should be held accountable for their actions only if it effects others, which in this case it is clear that it does.

This beam, what is it doing in my eye?!?!

"Hey US, stop letting my narcos buy weapons from your gun shows."

Alright, Mexican president Felipe Calderon didn't quite phrase it like that, but that's exactly what he's saying. If people in the US would just stop snorting drugs and make it illegal for the narcos to buy guns, Mexico wouldn't be in this problem in the first place.

Awesome.

Calderon says that in the last three years or so, they have confiscated over 66,000 weapons - half of them "assault thingies." Well let me ask you something about that, sport.

Out of those weapons your guys have confiscated, how many of them were originally sold by the US government to your government? Were any of them the:

• 6,407,497 M16s
• 1,853,384 AR15s
• 1,282,841 Sub machine guns
• 1,026,692 TOW missiles
• 23,071,635 Pistols and Revolvers

. . . .sold to the Mexican Army between 1996 and 2003? Were they part of the over 240 million weapons systems kindly sold to you, because they all "originated" in the US, many of them manufactured here.

You should at least make an elementary attempt at tying up your loose ends before taking a poke at us. You could start by closing the "Mexican Government Loophole;" you know, the one where your own law enforcement and officials routinely broker deals to scumbags. That would help.

Jerk!

On Civil Rights

Armed self-defense was a cherished African-American tradition - until we became Democrats. But brothers like McDonald know one thing: Well-meaning Democrats can’t stop the thug invading your home.

But a Smith and Wesson can.

Gun control has racist roots, as is often pointed out. With that said, it's nice to hear that someone out there can see through the political minefield and speak some truth.

Well done, and very much worth your time.

Via War on Guns.

Giving new meaning to the word "Safe"

Hmmm. There is a common theme when someone is murdered at a school: the president, or some other official talking head, goes on the record as saying that the facility is "Safe."

While I understand the need to calm people down, I don't think that I could go on record with a big bold lie.

"In our sorrow, we must come together," Rosenberg said in his message to the university community. "Our campus is safe. Now more than ever, you must tell this story. ... Even while we mourn Kendall and express our sympathy to his family and friends, we must not let this heinous crime overshadow the incredible track record for safety that we have."

A student was tragically murdered hours ago, and the killer is nowhere to be found, so how can Rosenberg say something that is blatantly not true? From Webster:

Main Entry: ¹safe

Pronunciation: \ˈsāf\

Function: adjective

Inflected Form(s): saf·er; saf·est

Date: 14th century

1 : free from harm or risk : unhurt
2 a : secure from threat of danger, harm, or loss
3 : affording safety or security from danger, risk, or difficulty

So how can the campus be "secure from the threat of danger, harm, or loss" when the students have been advised to basically stay indoors:

FIU opened as scheduled Friday morning, with increased security for students and grief counseling available. Students living in residence halls were advised to keep doors locked, and any person at the university could be escorted around campus if desired.

And again, the killer is still at large.

Not very safe, huh?

So what recourse do students have right now to deal with an armed killer? Run to the blue phone and call for help? Yes. Have an unarmed escort walk you to your car? Yes. Carry a tool to help them effectively deal with an armed attacker? No; that is considered "Disruptive Conduct." You know what else is considered Disruptive Conduct?

(a) Endangerment. 1. Physical violence toward another person or group. 2. Action(s) that endanger the health, safety, or welfare of self or others. 3. Interference with the freedom of another person or group to move about in a lawful manner.

The killer certainly qualifies with all of them, and he or she is still out and about. Whomever issued the advisory to keep their doors locked runs afoul of "Interfer[ing] with the freedom of another person or group to move about in a lawful manner," do they not? This policy of disarming all but the violent people is madness. I know that everyone is sad, but you can't guarantee the safety of the campus. To do so is a lie.

Two and a half cases of ammo to Mexico seized

A major victory in the Mexican Drug Farce?

I see it as two fun filled weekends of shooting for some Texan was spared from being shot at the Federales by scumbags. Hopefully the ammo gets returned to its rightful owner.

Oh, and a whole 13 rounds were "armor piercing," meaning it had a steel core. This means nothing in reality, as non steel core rounds have no problems piercing armor, trees, or armor and trees at the same time. It's just a pathetic stab at some sort of shock value.

One step forward, two steps back

With drug violence on a frightening rise along the Mexican border, the assessment found greater levels of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine flowing across the border than ever before -- and predicts more to come.

****

Government officials, in fact, estimate that heroin production in Mexico jumped from 17 metric tons in 2007 to 38 tons in 2008.

Saaaaweeeet!! So how much is this "progress" going to cost Americans?

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Mexico with other high-level administration officials to discuss the Merida Initiative, a multi-year, $1.4 billion project aimed at helping Mexico combat organized crime. Clinton said the initiative would emphasize social and economic development in addition to security.

It's a damn fine thing that America doesn't need that $1.4 billion to fund our own social and economic development. Really though, if she didn't give our money to Mexico, it would have been squandered here on something just as stupid. In the end, it's always about the money.

I've talked about that before. More and more money and effort is going to be thrown at the problem. That includes the funding of more arms and equipment, which Hillary will be bitching about shortly when the cartels get a hold of it and expand their efficiency at killing.

Remember the encrypted radios and night vision? Quoting an earlier post:

. . . take former drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey's word for it:

"As a result, the U.S. government has stepped up military assistance to the Mexican military and police, mostly through transfers of free military equipment. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director, traveled to Mexico in March 1996 smoothing the way for an agreement between the two governments which has resulted in Mexican soldiers beginning to train at Ft. Bragg and other American bases, and in the gift of 73 "surplus" helicopters, four C-26 surveillance planes, night vision goggles, radios and other military equipment. In addition, the White House has requested $9 million in military aid for Mexico for fiscal year 1998 (up from $3 million in fiscal year 1996) for the purchase of new weapons from U.S. arms manufacturers.

That was in 1996, but what does Gen. (Retired) McCaffrey have to say now:

The outgunned Mexican law enforcement authorities face armed criminal attacks from platoon-sized units employing night vision goggles, electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG’s, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns.

Emphasis all mine.

So we are now at the point where $3 - $9 million a year is not cutting it, so the ratchet gets a few hundred cranks and we are now giving multi-year awards for billions. Inflation is a real bitch.

But at least we're slowing the flow of drugs into the US, right? Oh yeah, it's getting worse. I suppose this is all part of that "the increase in resistance is because we're winning" strategy. Nice yardstick.

Also in the article, I found this:

The report's authors credited the Mexican government with moving to ban the importation of certain chemicals used to produce methamphetamine, but notes the cartels have found substitutes.

No way? Those clever drug dealers must have mastered chemistry! I can't imagine how they pulled that one off, with their clear track record of incompetence and all. And what do chemicals have to do with drugs anyways? Everyone knows heroin is plucked off of trees. Just ban the trees. Just the same, I think now is the time that the Mexican government should ban NyQuil, you know, to stop the narco terrorists from making ecstasy. Methamphetemines are grown in NyQuil you see - George W. Bush proved it with his own clever initiative to take away cough medicine that contains that baby killing stuff called psuedoephedrine. It worked!! No more ecstasy!!

This whole shootin' match (pun intended) is an engineering catastrophe of the US and Mexico's design. Yeah, the drug cartels are violent scumbags, but the fact that they exist and thrive is entirely the fault of these two governments. It's very clear that the further funding of this mess is fuel being poured on the fire, with no end in sight; and any day now, the US and Mexico are going to hold a presser stating that they're no longer going to fund this nightmare. Any. Day. Now.

Road Rager

Bumped for an update below.

Perhaps, but something tells me that there's more to this story than meets the eye.

Why would the dump truck hit the car twice? It's pretty obvious why he took off afterwords; and if the guy doing the shooting was just pissed off, than that's not very helpful and he will probably spend lots of time behind bars cooling off.

My first guess is that the shooter thought the guy in the dump truck was trying to kill him and his daughter. It takes a very rare sort of person to get angry enough to start shooting for no reason; and if that's the case, how has this guy made it so far in life to have kids and be driving a Jaguar and not have a history of violence?

I hope I can get more info on this one later.

Update: I knew there was more to this story. First of all, the dump truck driver is now being charged with 2nd degree attempted murder. Originally he was only charged with reckless driving. The shooter is also being charged with attempted murder; and from the earlier post he is also being charged with child endangerment, although that post has not been updated. I can't think of why he would be charged for child endangerment, but not the truck driver.

There's some things to point out. The quotes from the VSP in the article make it seem like there was a demolition derby type incident between both drivers, when I can't possible see that as being the case. A guy in a nice sedan with his two year old in the back just doesn't play crash and smash with a ten ton vehicle. It just doesn't work that way. I don't even ride next to a truck with my kids in the car, absent the anger and frustration. My kids lives are too valuable to risk getting in a wreck when a tire blows out on a truck and comes through the window.

What I'm gathering is that there may have been some non-violent provoking, like horn honking and middle fingers, but that the truck driver took it to another level when he struck the Jaguar twice, driving it against a jersey wall. If that's the case, then the driver of the Jag would have reasonable cause to think the truck driver was trying to kill him. However, firing a handgun at the back of a fleeing dump truck is a big no no, especially considering this is I95 during rush hour.

It also appears that the truck driver was somehow following the Jag after the shooting; the details seem sketchy, but the Jag driver's dad said his son called him scared during this "chase", or whatever it was. Why the truck driver would give chase after being shot at is a big question. If it was the other way around, and the Jag driver was chasing the dump truck, then my question again is why? If the attack is over, why would you drive down the shoulder after a vehicle ten times the size of yours?

I may have to eat crow if it turns out otherwise, but my guess at the story is that the dump truck driver was the antagonist who got violent by striking the Jaguar. The driver of the Jaguar was under the belief that he was being attacked with deadly force, but got carried away with his pistol and emptied the thing in anger and/or frustration, after which, the dump truck driver tried to follow the Jag for another crack at his bumper.

What's your thought?

Update: This comment on the article I just posted is from alleged eye witness Joshua Tree:

"Good 4U Sante Clawse! The rest of you that ARE judging from the media...grow your own brain and not what the media wants you to see. I was the closest bystander to this incident. I watched the ENTIRE thing play out. The only thing that the Jaguar driver could have done better, was to shoot the dump truck driver while he was being rammed. I saw the truck smash the car up against the rail on the right. Then, the guy tried to get away in his busted car, but the truck driver turned and rammed him up against the wall. As if that wasn't bad enough, he backed up and hit him again. He was trying to kill this guy. This guy was slow on the draw, but had every right to be concerned the guy would come back and hurt him/his daughter again. The truck driver, without question, was the aggressor and tried to run him down...to the point of following him across 3 lanes! Don't judge until you have been..or at least witnessed."

There is also a newer comment from someone who allegedly knows the dump truck driver, who says that the guy in the Jag pointed his gun at him, which caused him to start smashing into the back of the Jag in what can only be implied as self defense. I find that pretty preposterous, and don't think that would stand up in court.

Boy do I see some cost saving measures in here

Reading some of these stories about strange injuries in the ER makes me doubt the strength of the republic. But more importantly methinks many of these injuries will become a thing of the past when the new health care bill gets rolling.

Any risky behavior that leads to unnecessary visits to the ER can simply be regulated away. Some of them will be simple, like not standing on a basketball while texting in the shower. More popular stuff is sure to follow, like motor cross or high school football. Count on it.

You can bet that if the government is going to extort money from my family to pay for the health of yours, than I get a say regarding your risky proclivities. My list won't be as inclusive as most.

I see America as becoming one big ass home owner's association; but instead of regulating the color of your azaleas, look forward to soulless panels of people voting to ban little Veronica from playing field hockey.

Davy Crockett's hat was not made from a raccoon

Every one knows it was made from the delicate skin of a guinea pig! Sheesh.

Alright, Virginia has its fair share of weirdos too.

I blame violent video games

Counter Strike was the cause of all of this.

Perhaps China should ban knives.

Yippppieeeeee! Explosive growth RULZ!!!!

Per the latest census information released Tuesday, Culpeper County ranked No. 82, experiencing a 35.7 percent growth rate from 2000 to 2009.

Yeah!!! An almost 36 percent growth is super awesome, with no possible downside at all. Shoe-horning people into a county is cool because it means that people really really really want to live there sooooo-o-o-o-o bad!

Welcome to the suburbs of DC, Culpeper residents. I hope you enjoy it.

The dumb ass leadership there no doubt has your best interests in mind.

Spotsylvania, east of Culpeper, has experienced 33.8 percent growth since 2000, reaching a population of 120,977.

Sure, lets use Spotsylvania as the shining example, because it's turned out to be so fantastic. I love spending an hour in traffic trying to cross town when fifteen years ago it took me eight minutes. I can't wait until they finish the worlds largest water park! The city tells me with their exhaustive study that there will be no impact whatsoever on the traffic nightmare that we have now. No sir! It's not going to be as bad as even a tiny strip mall. And surrounding counties (like y'all, Culpeper) that suffer from water shortages and drought will not have like any impact from all the water used to make the dirty foreign kids happy.

But hey, the growth is totally worth it because "tourism is our economic development engine!" The more shit and people you can jam into the area translates into more money into the pockets of the county bureaucrats the county residents! That's it! Sure sure. They'll publish a study saying so!

So just keep telling yourselves that explosive unsustainable growth is the path forward to enlightenment, and you too can end up with a population six times what it should be!

Clown shows in New Mexico

Ummmmm, this is pretty weird. Let this be a lesson to all you young whipper snappers: don't ever ask a drunken witch if you can watch her pee. WTF?!?!

Also, I was not aware that people are actually trained in how to properly dispose of a giraffe. I mean, someone actually developed a training course?

I find it startling that the mayor is pissed about finding a dismembered ungulate in a dumpster, but would sleep well at night knowing that it was dumped in the pet cemetery at the local landfill.

Destructive device

Possession of a venomous creature without a permit in Maine.

The 5-foot long Gaboon viper was found dead on a rock by a woman who was walking her dog on a trail behind the Cinemagic Movie Theater on Route 1 on March 8.

Why does anyone neeeeeeed such a venomous snake, anyways?

We can't have crazies running around with gaboons, when a copperhead should suffice. And to be quite honest, Maine isn't known for having the toughest laws against importing foreign destructive devices.

Please don't feed the pirates

In one pirate skiff, which was riddled with bullets, the boarding party found three live pirates and the body of a fourth who had been hit by small arms fire, Commander Harbour said.

That's some good ol' fashioned victim selection fail, me hardies!

But wait! Experts don't think repelling armed boarders is a wise idea:

The death of the pirate could escalate the struggle between pirates and merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, where cargo ships increasingly carry private security operatives to repel assailants.

Yeah, lets not piss off the starving pirates and force them into being violent or anything. Just give them what they want!

And if you absolutely must resist, use something that won't hurt or agitate the pirate in any way, like a water cannon or deck chair.

. . .YOUR COMB!! USE YOUR RAT-TAILED COMB!!!

About that straw purchase

Anti-gunners often chant about prohibiting straw purchases in bordering states with not as severe gun laws, but do they ever take into account that firearms are durable goods that last many lifetimes?

The reason I ask is due to this article showing that the gun used by Amy Bishop was straw purchased by her husband over twenty years ago. There is simply no way to determine that that gun would have ended up used in a mass murder.

Changing the laws would not have had the slightest impact on availability, since there are many hundreds of millions of guns in circulation, and there are millions more sold every year.

Playing devils advocate for a minute: what would happen if all of these guns in the US suddenly vanished? There would be gnashing of teeth amongst the millions of gun owners that didn't kill innocent people, but the criminals in this country would continue on with their trade by resorting to other effective means of controlling and destroying. That, and they would still be able to find weapons elsewhere, like from Mexico. Take away all of the guns in the world, and it would look something like this.

Not pretty.

We would be well served to concentrate our efforts on locking up the looney toon people like Bishop when they first show their tendency towards violence, instead of taking away every thing that they could use to hurt people with.

No. Way.

Seriously? The CIA may have experimented with chemical agents on people? I am both shocked and outraged at the same time.

"People were starting to hit each other, people were insulting one another, people were screaming. It was very serious," Paul Pages, who was 26 years old at the time, told ABC News. "There was a young guy who jumped out of a hospital window after screaming 'Look, I'm a dragonfly'. He broke both of his legs," Pages remembered. "The postman was also seen zigzagging on his bike. He eventually fell. He had lost his reason."

What would give anyone get the idea that the US government would be so reckless as to test chemical warfare agents on unsuspecting people? That just can't possibly be. Stupid people and their stupid conspiracy theories.

The more reasonable explanation is that this was the work of the Illuminati trying to make it seeeeeeem like it was the US in an effort to draw the French into a war that would bring untold profits to several secretive elites hell bent on enslaving the poor. Or, the CIA may have just been testing chemicals on the French. Your call.