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.

School massacre in China

A former doctor armed with a large knife rampaged outside an elementary school in eastern China, stabbing eight young children to death and wounding five others Tuesday, a local official and a state news agency said.

Horrific. The killer was apparently captured alive, so lets hope China's prisons are as brutal as they are rumored to be.

Do note at the bottom for calls for more security. That one man armed with a piece of metal can so easily kill that many people before being stopped is a shame.

It's bus season in Delaware

As their school bus made its way on rural Cokesbury Road just south of Route 404 in Seaford about 8 a.m., it hit a deer.

But instead of landing on the roadway, the deer flew up on impact and smashed through the windshield, landing five seats back in the middle aisle, Delaware State Police said.

It's a very short article, but the reason I posted it is because of the comments. You owe it to yourself to read them this morning.

Barry Barry Barry can't you see. . . .

Sometimes your words just hypnotize me. . . . he he he he (twirling my hair with my fingers).

Marion Barry complained about news reports that Rhee has hired a public relations person for $100,000 (with private funds) to help shape the school image. But Barry drew laughter when he said he had used one or two "spin doctors" himself.

"Oh, your so funny Barry!! We luv u!!"

Can people be any more pathetic?

Why the hell is this disgusting creature not behind the high walls of the most violent and dangerous prison? No, not Rhee. . . .I could care less about her. . .I'm talking about that smug looking criminal sitting behind one of the most notoriously corrupt councils in the country.

I can't seem to find the other article, but it said that Barry also offered image improvement advice to Rhee, such as getting caught snorting blow off the ass of a ten year old Polynesian exchange student as an appeal to immigrants; bribing bureaucrats to show that she can multitask; helping prostitutes and the criminally insane become teachers to show that she cares; and maybe get a few suspended sentences for felonies to show DC residents that she takes shit from no one.

Alright, I made that last one up.

Why is ammo still so hard to find?

Because it's all in Mexico.

Also, check out this truck that took a broadside hit from a HE 40mm grenade. Nasty huh? Where do you reckon these lawless drug cartels are getting these grenades, short barreled rifles, and body armor from?

Hey buddy, why the long face?

Yeah yeah, the Democrats passed a health care bill.

I'm not all that concerned. Mostly, the thing about it that pisses me off is that the American people overwhelmingly didn't want this bill, but the Democrats pushed it anyways. Funny that they're counting it as a win for the American people when it's clearly only a political trophy.

Think about it though, did you really think the Dems learned their lesson with the Massachusetts election? Did you really think that they were going to lay down their swords and listen to the people? They have an agenda, and that's what they are going to work towards.

But here's why I'm not concerned.

The first, and most important thing, is that this marks the end of the congressional Democratic party for some time. Y'all blue bloods can be as optimistic as you want, but the Democrats have wandered the political wilderness before, and they will now wander it again; the only downside to this that I see is that now the Stupid party will have control, which is just as frightful. Hope, however, still springs eternal in the human breast, and there is always the possibility that Americans have learned their lesson with electing idiots, and might actually put some new blood into congress; there are going to be lots of seats open, which means that the incumbents will lose their stranglehold.

Keep in mind the shiny efforts that went into passing this thing. For the Dems to pull it off, they had to vote on it at almost midnight on a Sunday, with no bipartisan support; really not much partisan support since 34 Dems didn't vote in favor; they had to have some real fun with math to even get CBO's approval; and the most horrific part is that not only is the ink not even dry on the bill, but it's not even finished being written yet. Somehow this is being added up to a victory? I see it as a huge clown show with huge repercussions, because if passing a bill like this is the only way they can do it with the majority they have, imagine how little they're going to get accomplished when they're a superminority.

To top all this off, two states have passed legislation that preemptively blocks some of the bill, and over thirty others are about to pass similar legislation. This bill will be tied up in arbitration for years and years, and that's only if the reconciliation part gets passed.

This all may be fine and dandy, but there are some people out there who think that this huge piece of trash is something awesome. I know some of these people, and they are blindly optimistic because the bill is supposed to help the poor and stuff.

So how do I know that the bill is such garbage?

Well, I've had government run health care, as well as government run health insurance, and they were both every bit as pathetic as the naysayers believe. Word for word. Before that, I had never had health insurance, and afterwords I decided that the "free" system was so broken and worthless that my broke ass put together a budget and bought my own. Problem solved.

Of course I'm talking about the military health system, the VA, and Tricare (Die-care!).

It's amazing that when my health became had finally become a concern, waiting four months in between appointments just wasn't cutting it, and I figured out on my very own how to come up with enough money every month to pay for my own insurance instead of using the system that cost me nothing.

If you think about it, the military health system is very mature, and has had every oportunity to correct any shortcomings in the almost fifty years of its existence. And with that said, why do you think that - in light of this year long health care debate - your favorite news organization hasn't been braying on the doors of the ten million veterans using this system to collect their thoughts? Anyone? Next time you're hanging out with a veteran, ask them how they feel about the care they're getting through the VA, or about the treatment they got at Walter Reed. If it was favorable, the general public would have been hearing about how swell it is for decades. That it's not should tell you something.

What this boils down to in my mind is, the American people begged for this mess. If you honestly think that we've been swindled, then you're oblivious to the mindset of the general public. As it's said, we get all the government we deserve. I don't think copies of the Constitution are flying off the shelves right now, so expect things to progress to worse. This bill is just another cog in that machine, so it gives me no concern. Before too long, the machine will become insolvent and break down, and more money will be shoveled into it. Such is life. Just remember who built the machine in the first place, and ensure that they never get to build another one.

Update: Oh yeah, I forgot about this - SayUncle puts it down for those who don't understand what just happened.

It's a twofer!

Knauer was quoted as telling Bryant, "Let's just kill his [expletive]."

The roommate was punched in the ribs and beaten with a full shampoo bottle but was not seriously injured.

Randall suffered severe head and facial injuries in the initial attack and was placed in intensive care. He was unconscious when police arrived.

The feisty girl who initiated the attack has yet to be sentenced; her boyfriend however, will be sentenced to life 1 year and seven months. WTF?

Someone needs to take the bourbon away from the judges in Virginia. Y'all are really dropping the ball here.

How appropriate

Fourteen time violent scumbag was ordered to serve five years for maliciously wounding a man during a break in/drug deal. I blogged about this guy before; there were three other charges dropped during a plea bargain. . . . .bargain being the key word.

Here's the money shot:

Defense attorney Shama Farooq asked Judge Gordon Willis in Fredericksburg Circuit Court to sentence Vaczy to two years.

But Willis decided that would not be appropriate for Vaczy, who already had 14 previous criminal convictions.

That's Judge Willis' idea of appropriate? Giving this guy a 15th chance at killing/maiming/assaulting/abducting/burgling/battering?

His idea of appropriate and my idea of appropriate went separate ways, it seems.

How fantastic.

I'm all broke up about Mexico's tourist industry

Vendors can't possibly understand why Americanos aren't flocking to TJ to buy knockoff Nikes anymore. It's like totally safe and stuff.

Read the comments for some real fun. There are some individuals who are actually comparing murders in US cities to that of TJ. I can see where Mexico's overall murder rate is skewed by the extreme violence in places like TJ and Juarez, but overall, I don't think Indiana can hold a candle to the shootouts going down on the border.

Do not mind the gap

Admit it, you align the gas rings on your AR15 bolt. Every body does it, but do you really need to?

Head on over to Haji's Place to get a run down that will put your mind at ease.

Good stuff!!

Good for me but not for thee

The Sentinel bird-dogs some VA Beach hypocrisy from the Chief of Police, Jake Jacocks.

The letter from the Chief is chock full of common assumptions, like the typical "common citizens are not highly trained," to "bar fights will turn into murder." Complete ridiculousness.

This one caught my eye:

"The mere possession of the weapon likely makes some less apt to just walk away."

I've never heard of that one before. I know a lot of people who carry, and the common theme among every one of them is that carrying a gun makes a person way more likely to walk away from a confrontation, not the other way around. Most, including myself, won't fight over a parking space, argue with a drunk, or defend a wife against a nasty verbal comment while armed. No one wants to take anyone's life, so there's no reason to push an issue because most likely it can be avoided.

This letter shows the growing disconnect between law enforcement officers and the peaceable citizen. Chief Jacock has no problem encouraging the erosion of the liberty of others, as after his shift is over, he will still be able to take his wife to Olive Garden while armed.

Virginia taketh away

Braggart, murdering rapist scumbag will be put to death via the electric chair today.

I'm generally not in favor of the state executing people, as the criminal justice system has a hard enough time just getting people's name right on the charge; however, this guy is in this precise position because he outed himself in a nasty letter to the prosecutor thinking his recent court win made him safe.

I'm not celebrating it, but I will sleep a little better tonight.

Equipment Change Proposal

This one is the baby stuff edition.

Baby Clothes.

Some time ago, a genius individual designed little metal snaps that are amazingly strong, and very durable. Well done. But then some not-so-genius person decided that putting like thirty of them on tiny baby clothes would be a super idea. Then, along came some dumb-ass who decided that having thirty of them on tiny baby clothes wasn't quite stupid enough, and he or she sat down and pondered at length on how to make clothing your kid an absolute nightmare.

The solution was to make these little snaps the same color as the clothes.

EUREKA!!! I'LL MONOCHROME THE TINY LITTLE BUTTONS!!

And now, when dad gets up at the crack of 0200 to change little Johnny's diaper, and has to change out pajamas because the first ones are filled with poo (more on this in a minute), figuring out the fucking puzzle of how to snap the PJs back together becomes an under-the-breath curse fest, as dad can't find all the snaps to click them back together with his large, fat fingered calloused hands.

Hey, you people who design baby clothes, how about painting those snaps with glow-in-the-dark paint, or at the very least leave them silver? You can't even imagine how much you would be helping the world if you made the task of changing a kid easier for fathers.

Next up - Infant Diapers.

Infant diapers are the biggest failure I can think of right now. The sized ones for older babies are terrific; whomever is responsible for designing the technology for them should be given a Nobel Prize, a high five, and a space ship for being so fucking awesome. The amount of over-night nastiness that those things will hold is simply astonishing.

But the infant ones are shittier than the shit they're designed to hold; the people who dropped the ball on these really need a severe ass kicking.

The problem with them - and I do mean all of them; we have tried every brand with all of our kids, even the generics, and they all do the same damned thing - is that they sure do absorb liquid alright, but it takes too long. When your kid pees, it flows right out, all into their clothes with all those damned monochrome snaps, and into the sheets, or worse, your shirt.

Now you're all pissed (get it!! HA!!) because not only do you have to change your shirt, and little Johnny's diaper, but now you have to navigate the dreaded infant pajamas in the dark so you don't wake him up even more than you already have with your cursing.

I can't tell you how many times I've been dressed for work, holding the youngin' in the morning, and then feel warm piss seep into my shirt. They all do this, and it's frustrating. The diapers do not absorb fast enough to stop the flow from fleeing out the sides. Also, keep in mind that infant poo is pretty much liquid too, and nobody likes to have the mustard stain on their shirt.

The disapointment that I'm talking about here is that apparently, technology is such that size 4 diapers are advanced enough to stop ten ounces of pee at a rate of 1 1/2 OPS (ounces per second), but not advanced enough in infant diapers to stop three ounces of pee at a rate of 1/2 an OPS. How do you screw that up? Why half ass the infant diapers?

No excuses, just fix it!

Not so easy money

A law in Pennsylvania to make weaponless bank robbery sentencing more strict.

I often point out these cases where some scumbag passes a note to a bank teller and gets a bag full of money. Banks have become very soft targets. I do understand that banks have a policy of just turning over the money in order to not provoke a violent situation, all while under the guise of the FDIC refunding the stolen money. I get that. I still think this is a bad policy as: a) scumbags have more incentive to steal because the consequences are lessened; b) more scumbags will steal more frequently because of a), thus there is a greater potential for violence; c) regardless if the FDIC have reimbursed anyone in the past, they are using red ink now instead of black - take that for what you will.

In decades past, America had more balls, and dealt with thievery under more severe terms. These days, we can't seem to stomach that type of prevention, which is fine, but there needs to be less incentive to steal. The prospect of spending forever in prison may suffice, but perhaps the thought of getting shot to death would work better; someone who makes a verbal or written threat of violence in order to extort money or property should be considered a lethal threat, whether they display a weapon or not. This is why most bank robbers of yore ended up with more bodily orifices than the Lord gave them. Ammunition is cheap; prison is expensive.

I think this law might just be a step in the right direction.

Don't try to run from an eagle

Pretty bad ass pictures of an eagle catching a starling.

Your daily dose of stupid

Britain, it seems, has decided. . oh, why the hell not. . .just let the burglars go on and take your stuff. It's too hard to prosecute them, so the courts are instructed to let them go. No, really:

The Sentencing Advisory Panel called for judges and magistrates not to hand down prison sentences to ordinary burglars who were responsible for 'minimal loss or damage'.

What could go wrong? It's not like burglars will maim or kill anyone if they're discovered, and more and more it seems like home owners are prosecuted for fighting back.

The destruction of that society is nasty to watch. I'm hoping it won't be us in the not to distant future.

(H/T Ace)

Ricky Ticky Recon!!

HAAA! I laughed my ass off when I saw this, courtesy of Sig2f3 on The United States Marine Corps thread at Military Photos.net. I especially liked the Sgt squaring away the machine gunner.

****Severe language warning****

Equipment Change Proposal

This one is fresh from this weekend.

The Walther P22.

What a jammamatic piece of craptastic goat shit. The gun is a joint venture between Walther and Smith and Wesson. I have a strong belief that when these two firearm manufacturers decided to start building guns together, they first decided to fire everyone in their employ that had ever done Quality Control. Just fired their asses and sent them home.

I bought my P22 like five years ago or more, and it's a very fun little gun to shoot - when it doesn't suck. I have several friends and family members who have this gun as well, and theirs sucks too; although they still enjoy shooting it. I cannot.

Now, there are a number of threads on how to make it not suck. I have read them. My problem is that for every problem fixed, another problem pops up. One would think that in the almost ten years that this POS has been in production, that the good folks at S&W would have all the problems ironed out, and that they would offer to fix their older guns retroactively considering the pathetic warranty that comes with them. This is not the case from the overwhelming number of problems that others have posted.

The first complaints were about the magazines - I know someone who has shitty magazines - but mine came with the better ones. Even with that, the gun will only shoot CCI Mini-Mags with any reliability, as any other ammunition will jam the gun. Mine stovepipes with just about every magazine. Also, I bought the 5" barrel for mine which comes with this fake compensator. The accuracy with this barrel is great, but the compensator would walk its way down the barrel when I shot it, making me have to pound it back down. Yeah, not very safe. I found out it was because of a missing screw - a worm screw as S&W calls it - that screws down through the compensator and into a notch in the barrel sleeve. Mine didn't come with it, so I ordered one from S&W, and installed it, and now the compensator doesn't walk down any more. I took the gun out for a spin this weekend to make sure that fixed the problems, and for my troubles I was rewarded with a gun that won't fire in double action. The hammer catches on the safety notch.

Hey Smith and Wesson, if I wanted a single action .22 pistol, I would have bought a Ruger Single Six. At least that gun will fire any ammunition that you stuff down in the cylinder. Do y'all care to build a .22 caliber pistol that doesn't suck?

Thinking back now, the first pistol my wife bought was a Walther PPK in .380 acp, also a joint Walther/S&W deal, and that gun was returned to the store within the hour. It didn't even get a full box of rounds fired through it. I fired the first magazine, and after the third or fourth round the rear sight fell off and wouldn't go back on. It just slid right through the sight cut in the slide with no resistance.

But back to my P22: my problem now is that I have to either take my Dremel to the gun in one of the many user fixes listed in the above linked forums, or I can send it to S&W for repair which will cost me money since it's no longer under warranty. Or I could do as several ARFCOM posters have suggested and toss the piece of shit into a lake, but only after I stuff a dollar into the grip so that I can say I threw something of value away.

Why, oh why can't people these days make stuff that works? This week I'm sending my new T.A.D. Gear jacket that I got three months ago in for repairs; I have a two year old JVC camcorder that I need to send back because it keeps telling me it can't find the battery (while it's on); I still haven't figured out how to fix the nightmare in the bottom of my gun safe; and the list goes on and on. I have a ton of stuff to either fix or send back, and I'm pretty tired of it.

If you build stuff for a living, and you're reading my rants, please please please with ammo on top start making things that don't suck!!!! Go that extra mile and make sure it's not going to fall apart the moment John Q. Public tries to use it.

Must have equipment for deer season

This is probably the coolest thing I've seen so far this year.

Stabby scumbag caught

Or at least charged. He stabbed a 20 year old man to death.

Hopefully this guy is put away for ever, and we can forget his name. That's if he's convicted, mind you; if not, then let's hope the real scumbag is dragged in kicking and screaming, and gets what he deserves.

Alexandria is a pretty safe place considering its proximity to DC; this is the first murder in the town in 2010. Cross the Potomac into DC, and things change real quick - DC has had 16 murders already this year, down from 24 the last year.

I don't think it's something in the water.

A BB gun is still a gun

This story is tragic, but I would guess that it is a pretty rare event.

Either way, this message does need to get out more:

"If you come across any type of gun: stop," Pagano said. "Don't touch it. Leave the area and tell an adult. Everybody needs to know that, as surely as they need to know how to dial 911, don't take candy from a stranger, stop drop and roll. That message needs to get out more."

Absolutely.

Police selling tainted guns to unscrupulous gun show dealers

At least, that is how I'm reading this article. Fortunately, they let someone with some common sense have the last word.

This is just another way of pushing for a ban of gun shows.

My question is: what would they have the police to do with confiscated guns? Lose them? I would imagine that that would place them into criminal hands more readily than selling them to licensed gun dealers.

Of course no research went into how many guns across the US are sold by police agencies to peaceable citizens and not used in crime. That would be hard.

OMFG!! Secret Contractors!!!

Tell me it isn't so!

So the evil empire known around the world as the United States has hired contractors to kill our enemies? And that this was kept secret?!? These guys were hired to collect intelligence and to kill people?!?!?

What evil Bush era mastermind came up with this idea?!?! What an outrage!!

Look folks, the media gets this "Jason Bourne" stuff stuck in their craw from time to time, and you can feel their seething anger in these sniping articles about how awful contractors are; how getting paid to go to war is somehow immoral; how their is no oversight, blah blah blah blah blah.

Paid contractors have been used in every war that mankind has ever waged; this is not something George Bush or any of his staffers came up with. The same goes for Gitmo. Military leaders have constructed prisoner camps outside of their countries before in order to keep their enemies far from their people. That is a part of war.

I am getting tired of hearing left wing reporters, journalists, and writers going on and on about evil contractors on the battlefield, and smearing them left and right. The over use of the words "mercenary," "money," "special operations," "mercenary," "covert," "mercenary" - all in the same sentence together is the vehicle for this task. I once tried reading the book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill once, but couldn't get past the third chapter for all the use of the word mercenary; he used it like 300 times in the first two chapters alone.

The thought of making war free from profit is a main tenet of leftist war-making ideology, as with any venture they come up with. The thing is, war is always profitable for somebody, in some way shape or form, otherwise there would be no reason for it. There are things that have to be done, or objectives that have to be met, that conventional troops just cannot be used for. This will never change, and can be expected in wars far into the future.

I found it ridiculous that Scahill noted Blackwater's contract with the State Dept. on providing armed security for diplomats, as that is their bread and butter, and that is something you don't want federal troops doing, and then turn right around and call them mercenaries. The argument was that the Blackwater employees, working in Private Security Details, which amounted to like 98% of what they did, made them outlawish cowboys just itching for a fight; then topping that off with noting how successful they were at the task. It doesn't take a security specialist to notice that if you have an immaculate reputation for PSD, then you're definitely not getting into firefights every day, as that would mean that you actually suck at PSD. Would you want an organization providing security for you if they're shooting all the time? No, right? What made them so successful was that they weren't shooting all the time, and that means that they weren't mercenaries, as mercenaries are specifically hired to shoot people.

We saw this in the movie The Hurt Locker, where some private contractors had captured some dude and, after a sniper starts shooting at them, decide to gun down the the captured dude because they would get money for him dead or alive. This part of warfare somehow amounted to cold blood. Just preposterous.

Jumping back into the article, I found this gem:

Instead, Mr. Pelton said, millions of dollars that were supposed to go to the Web site were redirected by Mr. Furlong toward intelligence gathering for the purpose of attacking militants.

The purpose of the web site was to gather intelligence for attacking militants, no? So instead of pissing away millions on the web site, they went ahead and blew up a group of scumbags carrying rockets on a donkey. I see that as a far better use of capital then just letting them wander over into Pakistan where US troops can't do anything about it three days later when they get the intelligence from the website. Of course this is speculation; my point being that just because it's not federal troops doing the killing does not make it immoral. A bomb dropped from a US aircraft while guided by guys who are paid more than an Sergeant is just as ethical as a bomb guided by that Sergeant.

There are tens of thousands of armed civilians on the battlefield on any given day. I would say that all but a handful are the cowboy type, and all of them are necessary.

Quote of the Day

"The notion of anyone "deeming" anything "passed" without going through the actual voting process of real passage is the kind of governance seen in Saddam Hussein's Iraq or Bashar Assad's Syria or Castro's Cuba. "

Who could ever imagine we would see something like this in our time? I know that the Constitution has been pretty much ignored in one way or another for almost a century, or longer, but this is just insane.

Tough week

This week I get to drive around in the eternal hell known as Northern Virginia, so blogging will be hit or miss. As you may have noticed, I've been posting from my crappy BlackBerry, so the linkery will not be as pretty as it is when I post from this little laptop.

Good bloggage to return when I am no longer spending 3 1/2 - 4 hours behind the wheel in traffic.

Invincible Soldiers

Get the skinny on some Soldiers who just refused to die, and went on to kill, destroy, and otherwise made someone elses life a living hell. **NSFW - Language**

That's pure awesomeness right there!

Another lesson

There was a shooting today at Ohio State University - http://m.yahoo.com/w/ynews/article/topstories/1%3B_ylt=A0SO80Pog5ZL9CcASAIp89w4?url=http%3A%2F%2Fxml.news.yahoo.com%2Fus%2Fnews%2Frss%2Frichstoryrss.html%3Fu%3D%2Fap%2F20100309%2Fap_on_re_us%2Fus_triple_shooting_osu&.tsrc=yahoo&.intl=US&.lang=en - no doubt the campus is a "Gun Free Zone."

Not that either of the victims would have bothered with the means of defense if it wasn't; the point is that they were denied the choice.

Making areas "Gun Free" stands about as much of a chance at actually detering a gunman as making campus shootings with two guns illegal. Face it. It is nothing more than a fluffy pillow for the naïve heads of those with no sense of reallity.

Planning a murder only gets you five years?

That's odd.

In five years, this guy will once again be wandering around society. I don't know about you, but the thought of that does not make me happy.

I think that it's safe to say that a man who doesn't follow through on a murder plot because he can't come up with the money to pay the hitter is still a "serious" threat.

In a world without guns

Before there were firearms, there were savage people with swords. The outcome was way more bloodsoaked than anything we could imagine.

In Nigeria, over 500 people were butchered by savages with machettes; this was done while there was a curfew supposedly to keep savages from wandering about. In the end, guys with rifles were sent in to provide security since the average Nigerian can't.

Women of Mass Destruction

My posts as of late have been pretty negative, so I figured I would focus on the possitive today.

Check out this thread at MilitaryPhotos.net on Women in the Military.

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?130786-Pictures-of-women-in-the-military-police%28read-the-1st-post%21%21%21%29

It's 576+ pages of women all over the world doing their part in smiting enemies of their country.

Rated PG

Posted from BlackBerry

Equipment Change Proposal

I've had a bad day, and I'm in the foulest mood, and I've been fighting the moron invasion for the last hour.

The target of my rage: automated voice answering systems.

These have become the pinnacle of frustration to millions of Americans. Let me tell you about why they are the one of the most un-sat devices that mankind has ever devised -- because when customers such as myself are trying to call customer service for whatever, and the stupid electronic woman's voice that's supposed to soothe you but doesn't asks one of the thousands of possible arbitrary questions that have no relation to what you need, and at the moment she says "say 'I need assistance for pain'"" - at that moment is precisely when your child shouts out from the back seat and queers the whole process - "Proctology department, you got it." Now you're going to cycle into a department that you don't want, with another arbitrary list of options that have no bearing on what you're doing, and the only real option at this point is to hang up and try again. That can take an hour or more, and you can bet that the customer will be screaming by the time they get ahold of a representative.

Also, the loathsome Gollum looking creatures that design these automated systems have figured out that pissed off customers like me will just hit "0" over and over again until we get a real person on the hook, and they've made it so you can't do that anymore.

I'll tell you right now, calling customer service and finding out that it's one of these unhelpful machines is a good way to get me to spend my money at your competitor. And to the geniuses who thought to write their customer service number with letters - you do know that these days, most phones have QWERTY keypads that don't have multiple letters assigned to numbers, right? I mean, you'd have to be pretty clueless to miss that. You have no idea how frustrating it is for a guy who is just trying to get some service, and can't because some goon thought they'd be clever by writing out the name of their company in their phone number. Try figuring that out while heading down the interstate.

I just went through this with GNC, and by the time I finally got ahold of a flesh and blood person I was beside myself with anger. Reggie was good to go though, and got my problem solved quickly. Who would've thought a human could fix something better than an electronic bimbo with a nice voice?

Fix it!!

Bitterness

My grapes have soured.

Today was supposed to be my mental health day, where I have the day to go out and do whatever it is that I want to do. For me, that means to get some shooting in; this time at 300 yards as that is the farthest I can safely shoot these days. Well, not any more.

First off, about a week ago some local thieving shits went through mine and my wife's cars. At first, I thought all they took was the change out of my console, but this morning I noticed my rangefinder was missing. Little scumbags.

Then, I went to a friend's property about thirty something miles away and found it occupied by a random elderly couple wading around in the creek doing who knows what, and a neighbor on a backhoe trying to make a ditch deep enough to prevent the local teenage scumbags in his AO from riding their 4-wheelers down his property and stealing his stuff. Can't shoot there with any notion of safety now.

I now have nowhere to hunt, nowhere to fish, and nowhere to shoot. I suppose I should now take up yoga and buy a Prius. Actually, I've gotten into weight training now, and I'm hearing that the douchebags in congress want to ban supplements. Time to write a letter.

The destruction is complete. Central Virginia is now a suburb of DC, and the commuters can have this place. I think I might go to Wal-Mart and buy a fistful of posted signs and post the hell out of my teeny little yard, and then sit on the front porch with my cell phone and call the cops every time some neighborhood kid walks through my yard. I trust no one these days.

Saint Paddy's Day Parade

Yesterday we took the kids to see the parade in Old Town Alexandria. It was a little cold, but we had a good time, and the kids got to see their first parade. Overall it lasted about an hour and a half.

The parking in Alexandria was atrocious. Part of that is because I'm a moron when I get into a city as I have no idea how stuff like that works. The place was loaded with cops directing traffic, and it was a free-for-all for parking spaces with our caravan of two vehicles. Contrast this with the VA state fair last year where the VSP did an outstanding job not only keeping the immense amount of traffic moving smoothly, but also kept a large but subtle force in the park for security.

Anyhow, my shoulders went numb from having a 28 lb weight sitting on them for an hour and a half, and I loved every second of it!



Apparently, the Empire is full of Irishman!



My wife tapped me on the shoulder just in time for me to snap a picture of an anti-gun protester that was later seen on the news in front of a Starbucks in Alexandria:



Sooooo. . . .why hasn't it been a disaster so far? These people act like Americans just started carrying guns in Starbucks the other day, just because they announced that they respect the law. I've carried in Starbucks and everywhere else for years.

But be very affraid my fellow gunnies; there were at least a dozen of them! No mention in the news about the tens of thousands of everyday gun owners who didn't protest, but otherwise spent some hard earned money in Starbucks in the regular course of their day.

I do hand it to this protester though, he saw me standing there in all my OD Green and 5.11 glory and proudly let me take his picture. He must have known that I was not in agreance with his views, although he probably had no idea that I was about as armed as one man can possibly be; and I also had the feeling that I was not alone there on the sidewalk.

I found it odd though that while they were picketing in front of Starbucks, none of these guys open carrying found it in their black hearts to start shooting, stabbing, or slicing through the hundreds of thousands of little children that lined the streets:






You would be hard pressed to find an Irishman there yesterday who was not armed. Virtually everyone of them had a flask, a sword (which in contrast to firearms, which were designed to fire cartridges, a sword was indeed designed to kill people), and most had a dirk down in their sock. None of these bloodthirsty men and women stabbed anyone in the face with these deadly tools:



Weird.

Maybe people are not so bloodthirsty after all!

There's supposed to be another parade next week in down town Fredericksburg for anyone interested.

Open Carry

Israeli style! Site probably **NSFW**

Muzzleloader KaBoom!!

Site **NSFW**, and also a warning about graphic injuries.

It would seem that the owner fired his muzzleloader with Pyrodex, instead of the smokeless rifle powder it was designed for.

Ouch!!

Brownells has a Facebook page

You learn something new every day. I don't have a Facebook page, because I have a hard enough time keeping up with a blog, and I only have a couple of friends, but I can see why it's been so successful. Instant communication.

Anyways, stop by and check it out. What a great conduit to exchange ideas in a hurry.

Also, as an added bonus, Pete Brownell is running for the NRA Board of Directors. Something tells me that you won't hear him loathing on hunters using AR15s!

There's more here.

To tell you the truth, I'm not an NRA member. I've always steered shy of the organization as I've always felt that some of the leadership plays political games. An influx of new leadership should turn things around, and now is the time that I should get up and give some support.

I blame California's lax gun laws

SaysUncle noted that Big Box media is chanting the Virginia-lax-gun-laws-to-blame-for-this mantra over the shooting at the Pentagon.

Virginia, which has some of the most lax gun laws in the nation and has been pushing to expand gun rights, has been criticized lately by gun control advocates. The state’s General Assembly approved a bill last month allowing people to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, and the House of Delegates voted to end a 17-year-old measure barring people from buying more than one handgun a month.

Well well well. What have we here?

— A California man killed in a shootout with Pentagon police drove cross-country and arrived outside the military headquarters armed with two semiautomatic weapons, authorities said Friday.

What grade did the Brady Campaign just give California again?

Maybe it's time The New York Times got off its knees and stopped entertaining the gun control crowd.

Back on the streets

In case you were not aware, DC is planning on re-arming a detective who pulled his gun on a crowd of DC citizens.

Now, to be fair, these folks were massacring each other with projectiles handmade from wadded up snowflakes. That's a danger to society right there. Since these citizens were obviously a deadly threat to be dealt with immediately, one can't help but to justify him pulling out and threatening them with the very gun that they paid for with their own money. Makes perfect sense.

Tell me, would you trust this cop to save your life? Would you hesitate to call him to come into your house, armed, knowing what you know about him? How would you feel if he - acting under color of law - showed up on your doorstep with a warrant to search your house?

I wouldn't trust him in my house, near my kids. Not with him clearly showing how irresponsible he is with the authority trusted to him by the population.

The consideration of his image in public, and the confidence of public trust, should be first and foremost in the decision of whether it's a "termination offense." Not his career as a detective.

Big shootout at the Pentagon

Here's the skinny from Fox News.

Not that it matters to me, but it is being noted that the shooter was definitely NOT a Tea Party conservative right winger. So that's out of the way.

He's also dead, which is pretty helpful unless you are really wanting some answers. I prefer crazy shooty people dead. The fact that he is dead is because the Pentagon, while being a "Gun Free Zone," is not completely a gun free zone; it's very well protected by guys and gals with guns.

Not that I agree with their policy to disarm everyone: you can't even bring pepper spray in, because mere citizens can't be trusted to not take control over the entire "Reservation" with that deadly 4oz. bottle of Mace. If you get abducted in the parking lot while on your way to the entrance, well, tough shit. Safety first!

I did hear on the news this morning that there was a ton of rounds fired. From what the reporter said - take that for what it's worth - the FBI was up all night counting shell casings. They may have even recruited the help of two boats full of Chinese immigrants to help count them all. Allegedly, the gunman was carrying two 9mm handguns, and had a bunch of loaded magazines (yes, the reporter called them magazines. Cool huh? Now, if we could just get them to call them "mags," or call shotguns "shotties." That would really be cool!) with more magazines in his car.

That's all I know for now.

Update: Remember the days when I was a gun geek? Yeah, I still am - the cop in the picture on the front page of the Fox News article is carrying a LWRC PSD 5.56mm rifle with an EOTech optic, Surefire M900 series weapon light, and Magpul magazine. Oh yeah, mag - pardon me!

Where to shoot?

I'm having a hard time finding a range to suit my needs. I've been looking for a centerfire rifle range with 500+ yards available in Virginia somewhere, and so far I haven't found anything that fits.

Quantico has a 1,000 yard shooting range, but club membership seems to take years to get into, and you need a sponsor, and they only have days open to the public like once every 70 years or so. I don't mind paying dues to be in a private club, but most only have 100 yard ranges, with the most I've seen being 300 yards. I can do that here. Also, I can't drive more than a couple of hours because of family commitments, so it has to be reasonably close. Clubs require you to also work for your membership, which I don't mind, but again, I can't put in 20 hours if the club is five hours away. It's insane.

I found this website which is very useful: Where To Shoot.org. I found a 500 yard range that was perfect, until I found out through further research that it was only 150 yards. Bummer.

I have friends that have permission from local farmers to shoot 1000+ yards, but their schedules suck as bad as mine, and every time we try to get something together it falls apart. Too many layers to get access. I need either a public range, or a membership to a club.

Any thoughts?

If land in my AO wasn't running $200,000+ an acre, and I wasn't in debt up to my throat, I would buy up some property and make my own range.

Enough with the signs! We need Gun Free Zone force fields!

"Brandy Finley and her mother are outraged that a 11-year-old was able to pull out a BB gun on her daughter."

This article is mainly a bunch of gibberish quotes that don't make sense, but this one sentence sums up the entire "Gun Free Zone" mantra.

The question here is how was an 11-year old able to pull out a BB gun. The fact that the kid was 11 is irrelevant; how is anyone - an 11 year old; 19 year old; diabetic gay rodeo clown - ABLE to pull a gun in a school. Read the comments: "How did an eleven year old get out of the house with a gun??"

The answer: who cares! The kid got out of the house with a gun because he planned on getting out of the house with a gun. There is no mechanism to stop any crazy mo-fo from acquiring firearms, leaving their house with them, and walking into a school with them. None. At least at places like federal buildings and courthouses, there's usually an overweight security guard that provides some type of controlled access, but nine times out of ten it's theater security.

The better question to be asked is: what needs to be done to immediately stop an armed attacker in a school? Immediately stop - not stop in six minutes, or even two minutes, but immediately. The problem is, nobody wants to consider the answer.

The current answer is to keep branding places "Gun Free Zones," as if the sign in the parking lot is a magic talisman that will keep the crazies out. It doesn't work that way.

There is always the argument that laws like the Gun Free School Zones Act needs to be in place to provide a way to prosecute kids who bring guns to school. That logic is wrong on its face considering that, for one, murder is illegal, and there are robust laws in place for that, and two, conspiracy to commit murder is also illegal, and again, there are laws for that as well. And on top of that, catching a student who is planning a mass school shooting is the ounce of prevention that is needed; the current pound of cure is rarely, if ever, there on time. That is a fact.

Last I heard, Texas was experimenting around with a non-PC plan to immediately stop an attack, and that the bloodshed has mercifully not happened.

One thing is for sure, these silly laws will not stop an attack because the people who are committed to the attack have nothing to lose. They are ready, willing, and ABLE to follow their plans through.

This Starbucks thing is now getting insane

As you may know, The Brady Campaign recently threw a fit over Californians open carrying firearms because they don't like it when they get pee all over their trouser legs when they buy coffee, so they tried to get Starbucks to put up "Gun Free Zone" signs to stop them. Earlier, I equated this effort with similar efforts by bigots at preventing peaceable people from going about their lives without being discriminated against.

Starbucks declined to discriminate against the peaceable and lawful carry of arms, and to give thanks, gun owners picked a day to go and buy a cup of coffee there, many of which were open carrying. Everything was rather simple, as from what I can tell this idea was spread around by bloggers.

But then the media picked up on it, and made it a big deal.

Now we have the Brady Campaign trying to show that they still have weight, and they want to stage a sort of collective gun banning coup at Starbucks. I imagine that there will not be a big turn out, as there really aren't a lot of anti-gun people with the motivation or organization to pull it off. It was easy for gun owners because, contrary to popular belief, those who carry a firearm don't put one on to go out and make a statement. They just holster their pistol or slip it in a pocket first thing in the morning before heading out for whatever it is they do for the day. They're already carrying, and it only takes an extra two minutes to swing into Starbucks and grab some Joe.

We don't have to rally together, get on a bus, and head out to protest all wild eyed with bull horns. We just show a little support.

I think in the end, the anti-gun crowd is just making themselves look bad. They're going well out of their way, with considerable effort, to show that they don't support an individual right. I say let them have their rope; they seem to know exactly what to do with it.