Arrested over fowl cock

Sorry, I couldn't help myself!

So two people in Spotsyltuckey get arrested for running a cock racket (snickers). I'm really not swayed much by this as there is no way to possibly stop people from making animals fight. Not that I'm condoning it, but people have been fighting animals since the beginning of time, and they will continue despite the best efforts of law enforcement.

Speaking of best efforts, the animals were 'saved' from cruelty by animal control officers, and then promptly exterminated. Government folk have a funny way of saving life.

So mere possession of animals used for fighting is a felony worthy of prison time, but the swift intervention and euthanizing with a syringe saves the day. Good to know.

Update: The Free Lance Star reports that this is the largest seizure of cock in Virginia state history! Also, this:

There is no evidence that any actual cockfighting went on at the residence, prosecutor Tom Shaia said. It was not clear yesterday if authorities know where any cockfighting took place.

Seems like the case of fighting cocks is getting pretty flaccid.

Robbed at gunpoint? Impossible; guns are banned in DC

Must have been some kind of misunderstanding.

Thinking about it, it's really swell that DC politicos decided to abandon voting rights in the district because letting dangerous people like Kal Penn carry the most effective tool to prevent such violence was too heavy a burden to bear. We wouldn't want "the opportunity for criminals, mentally unstable persons and juveniles to purchase weapons [to] increase dramatically," now would we?

Can't have citizens who are empowered with both voting rights and the right to bear arms.

Here I am

I've been sick as a dog the last three days, so that is the reason for my lack of posting. I thought being home from work for two days would buy me some blogging time, but that's an impossibility in my household, as is getting any rest. What sleep I did get was interrupted with hot and cold spells, sweating, and a sore throat that had me getting up and eating popcicles for relief. Getting sick sucks.

Is that smell coming from your dirty arsenic?

So, apparently America's best and brightest from about seven or eight decades ago didn't exercise any good judgment at all in the use and disposal of some really scary shit; they should have been more cautious.

There is a definite trend in how chemical and biological agents have been treated from their inception to the present, and that trend can be sized up as either complete recklessness, blissful ignorance, or malice. To know that you have been entrusted with public property that is of the highest danger to mankind, and then just bury it in the ground and quietly retire requires a little bit of all three.

Let's recap so that we have visibility:

• In the case of Spring Valley, scientists from Ft. Detrick thought it was safe to take chemicals that were known to them to be of high lethality and bury them in shallow pits at random and not keep track of where those sites were. That, and they didn't even bother containing them in anything, they buried them in glass jars and mortar rounds and such like they had just scooped them off a table and dropped them in a hole. At least secure them in something that stays watertight for awhile, and won't break when struck with a shovel.
• Generations of scientists at Ft. Detrick were trusted to work with the planet's most toxic biological agents, and none of them thought it was a good idea to maybe keep track of how much agent they had on hand because they were too lazy and stupid to defrost the freezers where the agents were kept. "Fuck! When the hell is that lazy janitor gonna clean up in here!?!? This fridge looks like a pig sty!" No ledgers; no restricted access to the freezers; no accountability; no simple upkeep - Fail.
• Scientists were entrusted to work with blister agent, arsenic, and who knows what else at American University, and they thought that the best way to wrap up their work and protect their community was to bury the live bombs, mortars, and shells, as well as glass beakers full of agent, into shallow unmarked pits around the campus. It worked out great!
• US government agents that were entrusted with chemical and biological agents thought it would be best to find out how they worked by surreptitiously dosing the US military, the American public, and foreign citizens with them. "Wow! Holy smokes is that stuff contagious! Didja see that shit! Hey, how about a beer to celebrate our hard work!"
• Our president has opened the doors to the amount of people in the military industrial complex who have access to these things in the hopes that research will win the day; and nobody seems to have given the thought to history and how this stuff was treated in the past.
  

If you work in the military industrial world, I want you to stop what you are doing right now and quietly peek over your cubicle and look at the guy next to you . . . . . yes, the hungover gentleman or lady who doesn't bathe, collects cats that look like Hitler, and still plays D&D with their pet cockatoo. Now imagine that person coming in to work in the morning after a long night of arguing with their ex who's out on parole, putting on a level A protective suit and pulling a glass jar of hemorrhagic fever out of the freezer that the janitors of yore have neglected to clean out, and getting to work. Now, think of the word trust. Puts things in a different light, huh? Would you trust that person to be responsible enough to dispose of that hemorrhagic fever in a way that wouldn't effect your neighborhood? Do you think the government is a responsible enough trustee to ensure that Mrs. Level 21 Eternal Seeker properly disposes of the hemorrhagic fever, and doesn't accidentally pour it into her Star Trek thermos and take it home?

Me neither.

I thought it might be useful to catalog some of this stuff since the media seems content to just post a two paragraph article about it. There's a sexting scandal at a school right now, you know, so there's much more important things going on to waste the space. Fortunately, I have plenty.

A gun related poll to hit

At NBC4 Washington regarding gun owner's rights next week at the 2nd Amendment March. So far the natives are 'thrilled' about it, but more love from my fellow gunnies wouldn't hurt. There's also an article on DC getting voting rights passed despite another rider amendment that would further cripple DC's silly gun laws.

On another note, a group of Americans took DC's DMV to the mat over wearing a hijab for their driver's license photo and won.

Arguing over state benefits is the cool thing to do these days, but none the less, people are waking up and finding out that they can collectively make a difference. Whatever your proclivities may be, people flexing their might in a peaceful fashion aught to be celebrated.

**So this post is going to be a roundup post, as I've been super strapped for time the last few weeks, thus the reason for the light blogging.

A new war museum got the nod to be built in Prince William county, Virginia. It sounds like it's gonna be huge! I have some pics from a recent trip to the Marine Corps museum that I haven't had time to post yet, but will get to it eventually.

The 4 Rules, modernized

Sometimes you have to be flexible; Marines call this Semper Gumby - always flexible.

Were you aware that the 4 Rules of gun safety had other applications as well? That's the sign of good doctrine.

Please, Please, Ple-e-e-e-e-ease save me from myself

Here is a stark example of the kind of person that would gladly throw away their rights in return for someone else protecting them from their stupidity. This person suggests throwing away what little rights everyone else has in the process, just to keep you safe too. "There aughta be a law!!"

They are breeding among us. Keep that in mind.

That policy is working out so well

12 year old takes a pistol to school and points it at his head. There aughta be a law!

OOOh-ooooh that smell. . . .

Last week, I noticed a whiffy emanation in my truck that my senses told me was originating from the back seat somewhere. My first thought was that the higher temperature outside was agitating the fabric on one of the carseats, which at several points in time last year captured barfed material from the kids; those of you with rugrats know exactly what I'm talking about.

I removed the seat at once, but the smell did not go away.

Several days later, I detected the smell coming from the floor of the rear driver's side, and upon further investigation I discovered a rogue, unsecured sippy-cup leaking weapons grade, homogenized bovine lactates, the potency of which increased three-fold with every degree above 90F.

Sippy-cups pose a unique problem for parents: you issue full cups to your children several times a day, and when they go missing you have to track them down lest the contents spoil. The last thing in the world that you want to see is one of your kids sucking from a cup of partially hardened milk that they dug out from behind the couch.

In my house, when a sippy-cup of milk goes unaccounted for we go to DEFCON 12.

Beware, the apocalypse has begun!

Alright all you gunnies out there, tell me you wouldn't do a triple take upon the sight of this coming toward you!

Imagine getting out of your car to make your way into Target with the family in tow, and all of a sudden you notice the undead is danger close! Yikes!

The DC mentality

Here's a video from NBC News in Washigton, DC about the upcoming security crackdown for the nuclear summit. The po-po and G-men are going to have the place locked down around the convention center, even going as far as to stop and ID people who are shopping nearby, and possibly not allowing them to enter parts of the city.

What interests me though is not the blatant violation of everyone's rights during this time - DC residents happily gave away their rights wholesale in return for some benefits, so they can only blame themselves - what I thought was striking was the guy at the end of the video clip that actually enjoys living in a place that restricts your freedom to move about.

The security crackdown is in the news because it's going to piss people off; naturally, there will always be freedom loving people in any city that are offended that their actions would be halted because of some pompous foreign elites that they don't know are coming to town. What's sad is that there is a majority of folk there who have no reservations about giving away their rights and the rights of others over some security.

Et Tu, Navy?

It seems the US Navy is jumping on the anti-smoking bandwagon by turning off the smoking lamp in submarines.

Don't those guys already have enough stress in their job? Do non-smoking Sailors really bitch about the smoke on a sub?

Sheesh. I'm a non-smoker and all, but I don't think I could tell a blood brother that his smoking offends me while we're under the surface for months on end. Just go ahead and pass me one of those, friend.

What's wrong with a little history?

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signs a declaration bringing back Confederate History month, and the media tries to smear it.

I really can't bring myself to blame the media or angry citizens; the whole history of the Civil War and Confederate States of America is shrouded by a smokescreen generated from our public education system. The visceral reaction from many is the outcry against slavery, when in reality slavery only played a mild part in the war. The anger and hatred towards the mere sight of the Confederate flag is telling. Americans really are blinded.

There are people in this country who enjoy celebrating their heritage. That does not mean that they want to relive slavery any more than they want to relive firing volleys of mini balls at their brother.

Gunfight at Gunsight Ranch

If you're a youthful adventurous type, you may want to avoid getting into a gunfight at a place that sounds like it promotes marksmanship.

BTW, this is not Gunsight Academy in Arizona; this is a hunting ranch in South Western Texas.

War, through the looking glass

The news being ever more depressing these days, I tend to only skim for the abundance of articles that allow me to mock the media's view points. I haven't found any of those yet.

This morning there is much ado about video footage of a gunship doing dirty work in Iraq. The armchair warrioring going on is disturbing, as looking at grainy IR footage is not the way to best judge a situation. This is one reason I think the public at large should be cautious about how much war they watch on TV.

There are so many war videos available now that a majority of people are seeing a part of life normally reserved for the few who actually go into harms way and become a part of it. I can't bring myself to say that it's unhealthy, as time will be the final judge of that; but when the non-warrior population watch 24 hour streams of war, they are going to have a bias that leans towards condemning what they see. That is natural.

Maybe the crew of that gunship had black hearts and just wanted to kill some people, but I highly doubt it. Maybe they mistook cameras for weapons, but again, I highly doubt it. The footage is raw warfare in black and white; you can say all you want about what you would have done, but your opinion is entirely after the fact.

If you really want to know how you would handle yourself in the situation, go get your commission and fly a gunship, or enlist and go fight with a rifle. If you outright condemn war on its face, then you are irrational. War is Natural Law, and we shall have much more of it in our time.

Gunshots outside a forum on gun violence. . .

. . .in a "Gun Free Zone." No surprises here; this is DC we're talking about.

My heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one. I couldn't agree more that the murderous perpetrators are animals; and the grieving mother is spot on that her daughter wasn't the one in the wrong place at the wrong time.

These grieving parents are the community members that should have the means of protecting their neighborhood from the violent thugs. Unfortunately, they have all signed away their rights, so they do not have the means, and they can't count on justice being executed on the matter. Their hands are tied.

I wouldn't be surprised if those responsible for the latest mass shooting get twenty years or less. We already know that at least one of them has been through the revolving door many times before. This cycle will continue until the DC residents wake up and take control of the situation with their own hands.

Brandishing or self defense?

There's not enough information to tell from the story alone, but look at that police response over the "display" of a knife!

That's DC for ya. Luckily he didn't dare display a can of mace!

Because gangs fear the curfew

That right there should be enough to enforce a ban on the movement of regular folk. Gangs are out and about killing one another, so let's make it so nobody can go out.

That's some problem solving, I gotta say.

To see that people are calling for this preposterous edict to be permanently enforced shows just how far down this country has become. Keep giving away your freedom. Just don't bitch when you get pulled out of your taxi past curfew because you needed a gallon of milk.

Quick, subsidize it!

I'm waiting for the USDA to move in with a quick subsidy on this one any day now. Any. Day.

DC official's outrage in 3. . .2. . .1. . .

????????

Now we know who the perpetrators are, and I'm not surprised. There's lots of sadness and rhetoric, but nobody is digging to the bottom of the deeper problem.

What about the question that Fenty, Barry, Mendelson, and Lanier, should be asking? Why is the question not on the front page of the news?

It is perfectly clear that the question will not be asked because it's too hard. Instead, we have DC police chief Cathy Lanier talking about how it doesn't make any sense. Ya think? Perhaps it's because the genesis of this madness is not in a bracelet; there's a deeper problem. Until you start asking about that, dragging that problem out into the light where we can all see it and do something about it, then it's not going to get solved.

US AG Eric Holder asked the question, although it was far too wide in scope, and for that reason it was inflammatory. Narrow the scope and we can focus on a lethal issue that is the cause of the deaths of many people in this country every year. This can be prevented. Stop focusing on the peripheral stuff like the type of weapon used or the stupid reason for the argument and we can get somewhere. Not focusing on this question does indeed make us cowards.