You have no idea!

Sometimes you find things on the internets out of sheer frustration that end up matching your situation so perfectly that it's scary. Real scary. I went from fuming mad to laughing out loud in six and a half minutes. Awesome. ***ETA: I just noticed that I had the wrong link. Fixed it!

Disconcerting

This story doesn't sit too well with me, even if an internal police investigation exonerated her actions.

City police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said an internal investigation showed that Officer Alexandra Cameron was well within department policy when she shot at the woman, who was throwing knives and a meat cleaver at city officers who’d come to calm her down.

Throwing meat clevers at the poe-leeeeeece is grounds for getting shot in my book. No question. But like most things in life, there's conditions:

The shot was not a particularly accurate one. In fact, Bledsoe said police don’t know if the bullet struck the woman or not. The woman had an abrasion that could have come from being grazed by a bullet or it could have been caused by something else.

That is part of what is unsettling. I can't tell you for a fact that I would be an accurate shot under the same circumstances, but it seems the cop had no idea about the general direction that she fired her issued weapon. It "went off" so to speak. If you have the soundness of mind to draw your weapon in response to a threat, than you should have the soundness of mind to know if your weapon was pointed at the threat's face or the townhouse two blocks down. Then there's this:

Police initially fired “less-lethal” pellets that release pepper spray in an attempt to subdue the woman. The spray appeared to have no effect, and the shot was fired as she kept coming at the officers while throwing the weapons.

You know, all this "less lethal" crap that you see on Spike TV and S.W.A.T. Magazine seems to me to be. . . . .well. . . .crap. Yes, there's the sanctity of human life and all that jazz, but something tells me that when you shoot a woman who's off her meds with shit designed to burn her eyes and skin, you're not helping the situation any, but in fact making an otherwise crazy person turn into a violent, deadly threat. This video clip comes to mind when I think about those retarded pepper balls ***Warning, language***:

Policing used to be considered serious business, so why is it these days that departments are buying junk like paintball guns filled with pepper? Tasers are close to lethal, and from what I've seen have been pretty effective. Same with shotgun shells loaded with bean bags. But pepper balls? Come on! Might as well be loaded with Nipple Twisters and Indian Rashes.

Hoppe's #9: Dog Attractant

In a routine police investigation of the truck, a bomb-sniffing dog alerted while next to the truck, Collins reported, so Independence Avenue was closed from Fourth Street to Seventh Street while the FBI investigated. Part of the Johnson Building was evacuated.

Ok, so a U-Haul truck is parked next to the Department of Education, and the cops do an investigation? Alright, Force Protection being what it is, the truck may have been parked there for some time, and someone thought it should be checked out. I can see that. But what exactly did the dog "alert" to? Some drycleaned clothes? Did it smell gun oil, solvents, powder residue on the "small handgun?" Can police dogs pick up the smell of Hoppe's #9 from the outside of a car? Interesting, none the less.

***ETA: Defensive Carry forums has a thread on this very thing, and the best I can gather out of it is "maybe." Some commenters who handle dogs say yes, and some say no. The glaring question if the dogs can sniff out guns is why don't they alert to every cop with a gun? It's not like the dog hangs out with every cop it may encounter, and is trained to not flip out on the flaky Fed, or the new Deputy. I think it's voodoo.

Alcohol fueled weekends can be expensive

I guess these three guys had determined that the fun that they were having wasn't quite as good as it gets, and injected a little bit of hillbilly power into their camping trip:

After the truck got stuck, Sillitoe said, one of the men took a bucket loader--without permission--from a nearby land development site about a mile away. He said the owner is a distant relative of one of the men and declined to press charges. On its journey down to the river, the 40,000-pound Caterpillar 963 loader took out about a dozen trees, carving some deep ruts along the way. Its tanklike tracks were imprinted along a narrow path winding through the woods.

It gets way worse from there, but at least they got their truck back! Backwoods people sure do have a way of making things right! Be sure to check out the slideshow from the incident to get an idea of what happens when you mix lots of booze with too few brain cells.

Range Report: Johnny Law Edition

I got some trigger time in this weekend, in between nap time and other obligations. A paramount achievement for me though was the creation of a solid shooting bench, so I have no more reason to bitch about not having a good rest:



The range is 102 yards according to my range finder, and you can see that I'm shooting into a big hill in the distance. Twenty five years we've been shooting into that hill, usually through this shed:



. . . and we've never had an issue with anybody. Times are changing though, as the hippies are streaming into my county like crazy, and apparently they are deeply unsettled by the sound of my AR belching 208 grain AMAXs.

I had just clicked off two well aimed rounds, and was prepared to send another, my finger already pressing the trigger against the sear, when I saw motion out of the corner of my eye towards the driveway. I could see a Sheriff's Deputy standing by the edge of the house with his cruiser in the background. I have no intentions of getting shot by an investigating Deputy while enjoying my hobby, so I picked my hands up off the gun and the cop smiled and nodded his head. I walked up to talk to him and he introduced himself by first and last name, and shook my hand. Obvious on his uniform was a pin that identified Officer Friendly as having joined this particular department in 1998, making him a salty veteran that is used to call-outs for hick gunfire. He chitchatted with us for fifteen minutes or so about stuff in general, and was then on his way to answer a call where the local savages were acting in an unsophisticated manner. He did note that the hill that we shoot into is now owned by an organization that would probably love to sue us for one thing or another, and that we should build a solid backstop on our side of the fence.

That's the sort of interaction with law enforcement that people should always expect. Officer Friendly who doesn't overreact to a peaceful situation. He has a sworn duty to respond to calls, and I would hope that someone like him would respond to investigate my household if he got a call about gunfire. I'm glad though that everything turned out well. My shooting on the other hand needs a bit of work. Either me or my gun is not consistent, and I need to find out quick where the problem is.

Slacks suck

There's been a moratorium in my office on the wearing of pants that have cargo pockets, which means that 5.11 brand pants are out. I've been told that the new policy that I have yet to receive will outline the use of slacks, polo shirts, coat and tie, and general "business casual" attire as the authorized duds of the day. If you are offended by strong language, than you may want to click somewhere else, because I just have to say: Fuck that!

I've been wearing slacks now for almost three weeks, and I can't tell you how much I miss my 5.11s. If you are like me and carry many useful items to help you through the journey of life, than you probably notice that slacks only enable you to comfortably carry a small tube of BENGAY and Paw Paw's mini stockman, as slacks were designed like 6,000 years ago by crusty old codgers who fathered neanderthals.

Overall I am not a fan of Western style dress, and loath how little it has changed over the centuries. To me, the "white collar" folks are the ones plummeting at speed into natural selection, as nobody there seems to give a shit about utility anymore. It's gotta be the engineers that are doing it; I bitch about how they are ruining the world all the time, and clothing designers are engineers of sorts. Where is the utility in having two wimpy little pockets in the front of your britches, and two tiny pockets in the back that barely hold a credit card? What the fuck do I do with my gigantic cellphone? I literally carry it in my hand these days, because if I stick it in my pocket with my Fenix flashlight, thumb drive, pocket change, pocket knife, it will be scratched to hell and back before the day it over. I have gotten into the habit of dropping it into the single pocket on my "professionals shirt," which means that every time I bend over to pick something up, my phone goes clattering to the ground. 5.11 pants have these neat little pieces of rectangular fabric sewn onto sides of the legs that are crazy useful for holding things like cell phones. The back pockets are not only fully capable of holding a man's wallet, but I have not failed to notice that I can conceal a government sized 1911 in there with no problem. That right there tells me that mankind has made a huge advancement that should be taken seriously. Somewhere along the line though some old fuckers are still holding tight to the pant design that their Great Grandpappy loved back before we had wonderful things like cars and airplanes, and the excuse offered for not allowing modern advancements to be worn in the workplace is that they do not look "professional."

Slacks:


Professional.

5.11s:


Not professional.

Notice the rectangular pieces of fabric sewn to the legs? That's uneccessary, icky, and thus is only worn by scumbags. For a man to look professional, he must wear slacks, a button up shirt, and a neck tie. Because nothing shouts "I'm a motherfucking Professional" quite like a piece of flamboyantly colored fabric strung around your neck. Totally neccessary, a necktie is. Notice how professional this guy looks:


He has that fabric around his neck. Professional.

This guy? Not so much:


See, he has all of that uneccessary stuff, called "pockets" all over his trousers and shit. Having a place to hold all of your things is uneccessary and looks tacky. To be a real man, he needs to have the fabric tied tight around his neck, and have an uninsulated jacket that makes his shoulders look square, because the Lord forgot to make him that way, look:


Doesn't he look sharp? No, really, doesn't he look like he was just pulled out of a pencil sharpener?

Mankind built this thing and used it to send people to the moon, have built this thing to find and cut out tumors in people's heads, and yet still tie brightly colored napkins around our necks and hope it doesn't get hung the fuck up in the paper shredder, killing our stupid asses dead. They're a safety hazard for sure, and serve no purpose at all. And those ridiculous and uncomfortable jackets? What purpose do they serve? Are they any better than my TAD Gear Stealth Hoodie? Will they hold a sippy cup? Will they hold anything? If you have ton of kids like I do, you may find it helpful to know that you can fit two (2) sippy cups in one (1) cargo pocket on the 5.11 pants. Several diapers, or a small pack of baby wipes, or a paperback book, or a technical manual will fit in one of those pockets as well, making them very practical and utilitarian. But alas, it's not about being able to have things on your person to accomplish things like your job, it's about looking Professional:


Man, those shoulders sure do look sharp! By my estimation, he would be qualified to wear that outstanding outfit to my work and be counted amongst the Professional alumni here. This guy would too:
But not this guy:

Yes, I am bitter.

Size matters

Check out this suppressed 20mm Anzio rifle with EOTech shooting subsonic ammo. I would bet that his reloading bill is off the charts!

Gun/Knife/Tomahawk/Sword P0rnucopia

Lots of good stuff over at ARFCOM.

Comparison between NAA mini revolvers - .22 LR and .22 Magnum. I think I would go for the .22 LR after reading that.

Sword P0rn. Do I even need to add anything there?

Pictures of Cold Steel's ginormous Espada folding knife. That thing is awesome, and may be classed as a sword.

A custom blade made for a Microtech Scarab.

Tomahawks!!

Rock bottom

This guy found it. This is a prime example of why you shouldn't drink if you can't hold your liquor:

The man began cursing at and spitting on the city officer when he tried to speak to him.

Bledsoe said the man also kept falling down, vomiting and urinating on himself.

Two other officers arrived, and the man spat on them as well. He also swung at one officer and kicked another.

Enjoy prison, idiot.

Knife Steals

Being the knife dork that I am, I tend to collect them like a kid collects Pokemon cards or those little plastic skateboards. Every one has its own individual use, and these days I favor tough budget-friendly knives that fill several roles.

Not everyone needs a high end knife. I think highly of super steels for super people who do super things for a living, like getting stabby with bad guys in unhospitable places where one may not have the luxury or time to touch up the blade to a hair popping edge. I have knives like these, with D2 and S30V steel, sitting in my gun safe. I still carry them every now and again, and they can do the simple stuff too, but they are a pain in the ass to sharpen. For the mundane tasks that I typically ask a knife to do, I chose solid quality knives with good "working steel" (my term) that can maintain a nasty edge for awhile, but doesn't take a lot of time or effort to sharpen, and doesn't cost over $100.

This weekend I had the good fortune to pick up a 1st generation Cold Steel Recon 1, since like a dumb ass I had lost the same knife this past winter at Bass Pro Shops, and they don't make this generation anymore. It was the last one the man had for sale at the local funshow, and I had to have it. My first Recon 1 sold for about $65, and this one I got for $79. That's still a steal.



This knife has rode in my pocket for years, and I trust my life to it. Years ago I talked my brother in law into the Recon 1 since I was no stranger to Cold Steel products, and knew that they could take a beating. I was impressed with it enough to buy one for myself after witnessing said brother in law using it to dig with, often stabbing it into the dirt to hook leads to and use as a ground. After several months of unspeakable abuse, he would bring it to me to clean up and put a new edge on, and it always did. He gave that knife to his nephew with reluctance, but I know where he can find one more just like it if I don't get to it first.

The other knife that is a recent purchase is a CRKT M21-04. I have a history with this one as well. The first one I bought my dad fell in love with, so I gave it to him. I got another one brand new, and it was taken from me in the famous BWI Airport incident on my way to Iraq. My third chance at buying this knife yielded the M21-02, which is the smaller version of the knife. I had bought this same one for a close friend years ago, and he lost it. I found out shortly after I got this one in the mail, and it made his day when I gave it to him. Now I have another M21-04, and I will take better care of it.

Both of these knives have 4" blades made of AUS8. Some folks bash this steel because you don't find it in $500 Strider knives, but I find that it's a great compromise between high end stainless and carbon steel. It will rust a little given enough time, but not like 1095. I don't mind the rust that much because I can wipe a bit of motor oil on the blade to keep it in shape. This can pose a problem if you decide to use your cutting tool to hack your childs McNuggets into smaller pieces, since society tends to frown upon children eating oil tained chicken, so I like to keep the teflon coated blade of the Recon 1 in my pocket most of the time.

Both CRKT and Cold Steel make high quality knives that will take an edge and take lots of abuse, but may lack some of the fit and finish that knives like Benchmade, Emerson, and Protech are known for. That fit and finish make up the last 15% of knife's character, and to get it will cost you an additional 2 - 3 times what the two above knives will cost you. I've never been hartbroke to lose a budget knife, either because I broke it doing something I wasn't supposed to, or because I had to toss it in the trash, like the SOG Trident that I forgot to place in my check-on luggage in a foreign country that I won't name here. Had that been my Rukus, I would have cried.

Hopefully this post gives my several readers a look at lesser folders that will last a lifetime doing tough tasks, but not break your wallet.

Clever wording

The press is famous for it, and no doubt this article about the US ambessador to Mexico resigning does not disclose all of the facts.

This gave me a snort this morning:

Calderon's office on Saturday said U.S.-Mexico relations remained solid despite Pascual's resignation and the two nations would continue working together to deepen their relationship "as neighbors and friends."

But the alliance has recently been soured by the public dispute between Calderon and Pascual and Washington's failure to stop weapons smuggling into Mexico.

"Clever girl" - Muldoon, Jurassic Park

So now we have the ATF Project Gunrunner scandal -- in which federal agents were ordered to basically facilitate the smuggling of weapons into Mexico -- being sold as "Washington's failure to stop weapons smuggling." B.E.A.U.Tiful wordsmithing! I would have never thought to put it like that.

Why lie when you can simply not tell the truth?

Lead, Follow, or get the *#&@ out of the way!!!

You know your foreign policy blows goats when you're the Head of State of the most powerful and influential country in the world, and France knocks your hat off as they shove past you to kick some Libyan military ass. "If you ain't gonna start some shit, then get out of the way cause' I'm damn sure gonna!!"

Good on you, Frenchies!!

On the bright side, pun intended, it is a beautiful day for golf!

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

The title of this post is often heard on ARFCOM, and it means that if you take big risks, you risk getting hurt bigtime. On one post at ARFCOM in the General Discussion forum, I found an example of the big risk/big hurt rule:

The protester, Julia Symons of Melbourne, was accidentally shot in the face while the shooter was aiming at a low-flying bird.

She staggered into the arms of two friends, saying "I've been shot, I've been shot". She was carried from the water with pellets still stuck in her face and one of her teeth shot out.

This happened in Australia. From the article, it seems that the protesters sneak into the water early in the morning before the hunters get there, and then do their best to spook the birds so that they don't land in the water. It's precisely at that moment - when a duck is slowing down to hit the water - that hunters take aim and shoot, as they are not moving as fast and are easier to hit. This sort of activity was bound to lead to this sooner or later. Thankfully the woman lived, and hopefully she has learned her lesson.

The protesters continuingly break the human safety laws by going into the water before 10am and very few of them understand the safety zone of a shotgun."

Perhaps hunting-protesters should have to attend a hunter's safety course before heading out for a long day of danger on the water, or maybe it's bad policy to interfere with Natural Selection. I don't know about you, but I don't go about my day trying my best to meet Darwin.

**Edit - The protesters don't bother with eye and ear protection, which is pretty stupid considering they are wading around amongst duck decoys in the water while hunters blast away at ducks with birdshot. That women is extremely fortunate.

Malice, meet Aforethought

A tragic murder in Bethesda, Maryland has residents on edge. This news video covers the now ramped up sales of pepper spray to the locals. I recommend the blue OC spray that the store owner is endorsing, as it is on my keychain right now, but I do think that the Spartan sword hanging on his wall makes for a more effective defense against violent murderers. I carry OC spray for dogs, as I have no interest in shooting someone's Cujo if I could instead send it running away.

The reason for the title of this post is because of the first comment to the video, which I quote:

Anon - "this news site is so typically Mont. Co. A bunch of true gutless wimps! pepper spray? I think I'll start walking around Bethesda late nights with something much more lethal than pepper spray. God help anyone who tries to rob me, or anyone who thinks they're going to arrest me for protecting myself. That goes twofold for any of my family members. I will kill any POS who threatens any of my family ON SITE!"

While I believe it's good that he or she is passionate about protecting their family, I caution folks on making public statements that they would kill someone, even if that someone was committing a crime. I also add that Anon has just admitted that they carry a weapon or other object, presumably a firearm, and presumably against the law, that is lethal. This is the sort of thing that gets otherwise good citizens in deep hot water. When they do wound or kill a dangerous scumbag in what would normally be considered a good shoot, some salty lawdog will have remembered a comment like this, and take the time to find out who made it.

Protecting yourself is good. Making useless and damning statements to the public on how you're a hardass is bad.

Shootout in convenience store

Armed self defense works even if you're not good at it. In this case, a store owner is assaulted by two armed men. When they jump off of him to attack someone else in the store, the store owner pulls a small concealed handgun from his waistband. This video is exactly why you carry your gun fully loaded with a round in the chamber; you can see that when he draws his gun, he tries twice to chamber a round, and then the magazine falls to the ground. The video skips forward a few seconds, and he has reinserted the magazine and then sucessfully chambers a round and starts firing. He doesn't even attempt to use his sights, but the bad guys don't notice; they're trying their hardest to flee!

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.

Don't shoot your wad

A Mossberg 500 Kaboom with picture. The actual reason for the Kaboom is not known for certain, but the consensus is that a 20 gauge shell was chambered first, followed by a misfire and the racking of a 12 gauge shell. There is also the speculation that a plastic wad got stuck in the barrel and the shot from the next load hit it, causing the Kaboom. Who knows?

Super glad I don't have to bother with DC Metro

With videos and news reports like this, I am glad I drive my gas guzzling SUV to work every day. Issues like these that I found on Unsuck DC Metro give me some entertainment, if not outrage anger.

Media sleight of hand

ISLAMABAD — An American CIA contractor facing murder charges in Pakistan has been released after the payment of "blood money" to the relatives of the victims, local officials said Wednesday.

Raymond Allen Davis has been in jail since Jan. 27, seriously straining ties between Pakistan and the United States.

Good for him that he's been turned loose and will not die in that country. It's unfortunate that he spent a month and a half in prison in Pakistan because he had to shoot two robbers, and that the Pakistani media made him out to be the villain. Of course, Davis doesn't get a warm welcome from our media either; read that first sentence above again. Still don't see? How about this one:

Pakistani law allows murder suspects to be set free if they compensate the heirs of their victims.

This is a common tactic amongst the disingenuous hacks that make up 99% of our media, both the newspapers and TV news: calling the shootees who were killed due to their own violent actions the "victims," which makes the shooter the aggressor. And "Blood Money?" What happend to "settlement," like it is here when some coked up lesbian actor destroys some innocent person's life with the hood of her Escalade? Nice try fuckers.

I get that Pakistani people are going to be pissed regardless of what the facts are; they watch the local news just like we do, and it's apparent that word smithing and fact twisting in journalism is a global phenomenon, like a big bolus of hippie is injected into the frontal lobe of every journalism grad. The Pakistani government is between a rock and a hard ass, as even our Head of State publically called Davis a diplomat, which seals the deal, leaving the Pakistani government having to face their own angry people. Bad place to be and all. Overall it was worked out peacefully, thankfully, but I just wish the douchebags working in front of cameras here in the states would do something honest for once in their lives and call a spade a spade. How hard is that?

Big crazy in a little town

A rather large shootout in a sleepy Virginia town leads to 2 cops killed, and 2 wounded. The killer was later shot dead by police, sparing the town the financial burden of convicting him and sentencing him to death. It's stories like this that remind us that cops have a dangerous job that can turn deadly in a moment.