A friend I see maybe twice a year is in town this past week, and this afternoon we went shooting. Initially I was a little skeptical, even though it was my idea. How would a Navy man (from Cali, San Fransisco no less) feel about shooting a civilian owned battlerifle with an admittedly evil pedigree?
We took John Kerry, my 9mm Storm, and Beretta 9mm. After brief operating instructions on range etiquette and weapons functions, we proceeded to ventilate some targets.
I shouldn't have worried. My friend loved the battlerifle, called the Storm "slick" and we ran probably 150-200 rounds through the Beretta 92. The Storm shot right of center, John Kerry shot low, and the Beretta shot where we wanted it.
My friend thanked me multiple times on the way home and at one point said how proud he was of me for doing this and taking it so seriously.
As a side note, I should point out that he and I shot with roughly the same accuracy. We weren't punching them all through the same hole, but a soldier and a civilian ran pretty much neck and neck in the accuracy department. That's reassuring to me. I'm as good as a soldier. And I'll just keep getting better.
I couldn't have asked for a better day. Well, yes, a few things could've made it better, but I won't complain.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Bryan Adams - Never Let Go
Can you lay your life down
So a stranger can live
Can you take what you need
But take less than you give
Could you close every day
Without the glory and fame
Could you hold your head high
When no one knows your name
That's how legends are made
At least that's what they say
We say goodbye
But never let go
We live, we die
Cause you can't save every soul
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Can you lose everything
You ever had planned
Can you sit down again
And play another hand
Could you risk everything
For the chance of being alone
Under pressure find the grace
Or would you come undone
That's how legends are made
At least that's what they say
We say goodbye
But never let go
We live, we die
Cause you can't save every soul
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And never let go
We say goodbye
But Never Let Go
We live, we die
Cause you can't save every soul
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Never Let Go
-------------------------------------------------
The song's from the movie The Guardian. Top Gun in water. Kevin Costner is a Coast Guard rescue diver who's entire team got killed on a mission. He himself has a House-like injury to his arm for holding a rescued sailor for 3 hours.
Costner is canned, and sent to instruct the next generation of divers. Whereupon he meets Ashton Kutcher, who's also got a "everybody died around me" story. The two butt heads, because, stereotypically, the teacher is a jerk and so is his student. Everything gets better and better, and they become fast friends.... The ending hinges on Kutcher's dedication, the way his life is replicating Costner's. "I'll never let go!" "I know that."
3 great lines from the song, and I've got them written on the whiteboard in my room:
Never look back
Never look down
Never Let Go
Don't regret, don't be scared, don't give up. Funny how words to live your life by can come from a pop song.
So a stranger can live
Can you take what you need
But take less than you give
Could you close every day
Without the glory and fame
Could you hold your head high
When no one knows your name
That's how legends are made
At least that's what they say
We say goodbye
But never let go
We live, we die
Cause you can't save every soul
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Can you lose everything
You ever had planned
Can you sit down again
And play another hand
Could you risk everything
For the chance of being alone
Under pressure find the grace
Or would you come undone
That's how legends are made
At least that's what they say
We say goodbye
But never let go
We live, we die
Cause you can't save every soul
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And never let go
We say goodbye
But Never Let Go
We live, we die
Cause you can't save every soul
Gotta take every chance to
Show that you're the kinda man who
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Will never look back
Never look down
And Never Let Go
Never Let Go
-------------------------------------------------
The song's from the movie The Guardian. Top Gun in water. Kevin Costner is a Coast Guard rescue diver who's entire team got killed on a mission. He himself has a House-like injury to his arm for holding a rescued sailor for 3 hours.
Costner is canned, and sent to instruct the next generation of divers. Whereupon he meets Ashton Kutcher, who's also got a "everybody died around me" story. The two butt heads, because, stereotypically, the teacher is a jerk and so is his student. Everything gets better and better, and they become fast friends.... The ending hinges on Kutcher's dedication, the way his life is replicating Costner's. "I'll never let go!" "I know that."
3 great lines from the song, and I've got them written on the whiteboard in my room:
Never look back
Never look down
Never Let Go
Don't regret, don't be scared, don't give up. Funny how words to live your life by can come from a pop song.
I Love This Time Of Night
I really do. Where I'm sitting, the window's open, and I can feel some cool breezes, smell the night air. My rats are playful in their cage next to the computer, and if I stick a finger in, they'll lick it and let me pet them.
Driving home, the night was warm, and the sky was sort of a plum-ish black, lightened by the city lights in the distance and the orange halos of the streetlights. There were no cars, or what cars there were, were silent. The movement of the car let a nice eddy of air in, nice and cool.
I love this time of night. It is peaceful beyond belief.
Driving home, the night was warm, and the sky was sort of a plum-ish black, lightened by the city lights in the distance and the orange halos of the streetlights. There were no cars, or what cars there were, were silent. The movement of the car let a nice eddy of air in, nice and cool.
I love this time of night. It is peaceful beyond belief.
Introspective
You ever run into those individuals with whom interaction is like pushing two N poles of a magnet together? They have a repulsive aura?
I knew a guy like that.
I'll call him Pat, but only because I refuse to use the name I really call him.
He made my first semester of college nearly unbearable. He was a complete and utter idiot, who was convinced he was knowledgeable on every subject. He talked loudly and at length about nothing worth the breath, and by the time the semester ended, he was known to the class as "The ****-head." Running into him from time to time since then, he's flaunted his great success in the computer world, despite the fact that he looks like a dirty drunk (and I'm convinced that he is), and his clothes are a monument to dirt and sweat stains.
There's a girl who frequents the bookshelves directly behind my department. She is, honest to God, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I can walk through all our music and movies and not pick out anyone more attractive on any of the covers.
Not making any statements regarding my own state of mind here, just putting out there an objective, observable fact. She's far and away more good looking than anyone I've ever dated (or tried to), and that's kinda hard, IMHO.
I see and hear she's getting talked up by some guy tonight.
Heck, I'll let you make the inference here.
Pat.
Listening to their conversation, I was amazed. She's of of his league by like, 42 levels, and he was perfectly at ease. He picked a complete stranger who was out of his league, and by the time they parted company, he'd come away with her address, email, and place of work.
He picked at her weaknesses, got her kinda sad, tried several different angles into the conversation (religion, and when that didn't work, New-Ageism, which did), changed his language and behavior to match hers...he completely and utterly manipulated her.
I know this guy's a jack***. Everyone else who's met him does too. But...dang. I was impressed.
And then I got to thinking. That ain't a good thing.
If Pat, who's a jack*** can do this, why can't I? What I mean by that is, if someone truly obnoxious and repulsive can talk up anyone far above their station in life with ease, can be totally comfortable where any sane person should be embarrassed, why aren't I able to? Why do I struggle with certain human interactions? How come I, who have far better people skills, am unable to manipulate people like that?
I often joke to my friends that I need to re-evaluate my life.
I think I do.
I knew a guy like that.
I'll call him Pat, but only because I refuse to use the name I really call him.
He made my first semester of college nearly unbearable. He was a complete and utter idiot, who was convinced he was knowledgeable on every subject. He talked loudly and at length about nothing worth the breath, and by the time the semester ended, he was known to the class as "The ****-head." Running into him from time to time since then, he's flaunted his great success in the computer world, despite the fact that he looks like a dirty drunk (and I'm convinced that he is), and his clothes are a monument to dirt and sweat stains.
There's a girl who frequents the bookshelves directly behind my department. She is, honest to God, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. I can walk through all our music and movies and not pick out anyone more attractive on any of the covers.
Not making any statements regarding my own state of mind here, just putting out there an objective, observable fact. She's far and away more good looking than anyone I've ever dated (or tried to), and that's kinda hard, IMHO.
I see and hear she's getting talked up by some guy tonight.
Heck, I'll let you make the inference here.
Pat.
Listening to their conversation, I was amazed. She's of of his league by like, 42 levels, and he was perfectly at ease. He picked a complete stranger who was out of his league, and by the time they parted company, he'd come away with her address, email, and place of work.
He picked at her weaknesses, got her kinda sad, tried several different angles into the conversation (religion, and when that didn't work, New-Ageism, which did), changed his language and behavior to match hers...he completely and utterly manipulated her.
I know this guy's a jack***. Everyone else who's met him does too. But...dang. I was impressed.
And then I got to thinking. That ain't a good thing.
If Pat, who's a jack*** can do this, why can't I? What I mean by that is, if someone truly obnoxious and repulsive can talk up anyone far above their station in life with ease, can be totally comfortable where any sane person should be embarrassed, why aren't I able to? Why do I struggle with certain human interactions? How come I, who have far better people skills, am unable to manipulate people like that?
I often joke to my friends that I need to re-evaluate my life.
I think I do.
Hillary Endorses Communism
Or socialism, or progressivism, or the democratic party...in other news, water is wet, right?
BTW, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been working full time, and it's been 5 days on, 1 off, 5 on. I have to go spend the majority of one of my next days off (next Tuesday or Wednesday) sitting at the DMV to renew my temps. Oh happy day.) On to the story.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070529/clinton_economy.html?.v=1
Selected quotes:
"I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society. I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none."
"There is no greater force for economic growth than free markets. But markets work best with rules that promote our values, protect our workers and give all people a chance to succeed. Fairness doesn't just happen. It requires the right government policies."
First John Edwards endorses the draft. Then Hillary Clinton endorses communism. What does it say about a country when, with one exception, the entire set of presidential candidates, from both major parties, could be legitimately hung for treason?
BTW, sorry for the lack of updates. I've been working full time, and it's been 5 days on, 1 off, 5 on. I have to go spend the majority of one of my next days off (next Tuesday or Wednesday) sitting at the DMV to renew my temps. Oh happy day.) On to the story.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070529/clinton_economy.html?.v=1
Selected quotes:
"I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society. I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none."
"There is no greater force for economic growth than free markets. But markets work best with rules that promote our values, protect our workers and give all people a chance to succeed. Fairness doesn't just happen. It requires the right government policies."
First John Edwards endorses the draft. Then Hillary Clinton endorses communism. What does it say about a country when, with one exception, the entire set of presidential candidates, from both major parties, could be legitimately hung for treason?
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Apprehensive
So you all know some sick **** blew a hole in our front window a month ago with a 3/8 inch ball bearing. Either he was a really good shot or nearly really lucky, because he managed to put the ball through the space where heads would've been if we hadn't have been up for a commerical break.
Between then and now, someone's been prankcalling the house. They'll call once a day, and the answering machine will pick up either the sound of breathing, swallowing, or hanging up. It's been going on about 2 weeks now.
Yesterday morning, someone woke my mom up at 5 in the morning by slinging a mudball at our front window.
There is of course the possibility that all these things just happened to converge in the same frame of time. There's also the possibility that someone is or a collection of someones are trying to screw with us, and that has me slightly worried.
We've got deadbolts on the doors, motion lights, one hell of an alarm system in the form of our parrot, and lots of things close at hand that go boom. Unless you're the 68th Airborne, or Shiek Amadadoodie And The 101 Self-Immolating Neolithic Goatherders, getting in is going to be hard, and getting out is going to be harder and messier.
I still feel like I'm waiting for the other end of the hammer to drop though. I hope I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, I really do.
Between then and now, someone's been prankcalling the house. They'll call once a day, and the answering machine will pick up either the sound of breathing, swallowing, or hanging up. It's been going on about 2 weeks now.
Yesterday morning, someone woke my mom up at 5 in the morning by slinging a mudball at our front window.
There is of course the possibility that all these things just happened to converge in the same frame of time. There's also the possibility that someone is or a collection of someones are trying to screw with us, and that has me slightly worried.
We've got deadbolts on the doors, motion lights, one hell of an alarm system in the form of our parrot, and lots of things close at hand that go boom. Unless you're the 68th Airborne, or Shiek Amadadoodie And The 101 Self-Immolating Neolithic Goatherders, getting in is going to be hard, and getting out is going to be harder and messier.
I still feel like I'm waiting for the other end of the hammer to drop though. I hope I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, I really do.
John Edwards Calls For A Draft
"One of the things we ought to be thinking about is some level of mandatory service to our country, so that everybody in America — not just the poor kids who get sent to war — are serving this country."
When asked to clarify, he said he did not mean that only the poor should serve their country. What he really meant was that EVERYONE should be forced at gunpoint to serve their country.
I cannot adequately express my rage right now. I will just say that more and more, politicians bring to mind the Mozambique Drill.
When asked to clarify, he said he did not mean that only the poor should serve their country. What he really meant was that EVERYONE should be forced at gunpoint to serve their country.
I cannot adequately express my rage right now. I will just say that more and more, politicians bring to mind the Mozambique Drill.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Bon Jovi - Story Of My Life
Yesterday’s a memory
Another page of history
You sell yourself on hopes and dreams
That leaves you feeling sideways
Tripping over my own feet
Trying to walk to my own beat
Another car out on the street
Trying to find the highway yeah
Are you going my way
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
I know it isn’t black and white
And it’s anything but grey
I know that no I’m not alright
But I feel ok cause
Anything can, everything can happen
That’s the Story Of My Life
(guitar solo)
I gonna write the melody
That’s gonna make history
And when I paint my masterpiece
I swear I’ll show you first
There just ain’t a way to see
Who and why or what will be
Till now is then
It’s a mystery
It’s a blessing and a curse
Or something worse
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
I know it isn’t black and white
And it’s anything but grey
I know that no I’m not alright
But I feel ok cause
Anything can, everything can
I been thinking and baby
You can help me write the Story Of My Life
What do you say?
(guitar solo)
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
And I hope you're by my side
When I’m writing the last page
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
I know it isn’t black and white
And it’s anything but grey
I know that no I’m not alright
But I feel ok cause
Anything can, everything can
I been thinking baby we can…
This is the Story Of My Life
The Story Of My Life
The Story Of My Life
This is the Story Of My Life
The Story Of My Life
This is the Story Of My Life
-------------------------------------------------
I love this song. It's a reflection on the collection of good and bad that make up a person's life. The lines "I know that no I’m not alright/But I feel ok" are especially telling - the narrator isn't particularly pleased about the direction his life has taken, but he's gonna roll with it anyway.
This song should've been a single.
Another page of history
You sell yourself on hopes and dreams
That leaves you feeling sideways
Tripping over my own feet
Trying to walk to my own beat
Another car out on the street
Trying to find the highway yeah
Are you going my way
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
I know it isn’t black and white
And it’s anything but grey
I know that no I’m not alright
But I feel ok cause
Anything can, everything can happen
That’s the Story Of My Life
(guitar solo)
I gonna write the melody
That’s gonna make history
And when I paint my masterpiece
I swear I’ll show you first
There just ain’t a way to see
Who and why or what will be
Till now is then
It’s a mystery
It’s a blessing and a curse
Or something worse
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
I know it isn’t black and white
And it’s anything but grey
I know that no I’m not alright
But I feel ok cause
Anything can, everything can
I been thinking and baby
You can help me write the Story Of My Life
What do you say?
(guitar solo)
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
And I hope you're by my side
When I’m writing the last page
This is the Story Of My Life
And I write it everyday
I know it isn’t black and white
And it’s anything but grey
I know that no I’m not alright
But I feel ok cause
Anything can, everything can
I been thinking baby we can…
This is the Story Of My Life
The Story Of My Life
The Story Of My Life
This is the Story Of My Life
The Story Of My Life
This is the Story Of My Life
-------------------------------------------------
I love this song. It's a reflection on the collection of good and bad that make up a person's life. The lines "I know that no I’m not alright/But I feel ok" are especially telling - the narrator isn't particularly pleased about the direction his life has taken, but he's gonna roll with it anyway.
This song should've been a single.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Home Invasions Proposed By SanFran DA
(CBS 5) SAN FRANCISCO -- On Wednesday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a new round of gun control measures.
The announcement comes nearly one year after a judge struck down a law banning handgun possession in San Francisco.
"In the last 24 months, just to give you perspective, we've taken more guns off the street than we have in the last decade," Newsom said.
A total of 2,262 guns since the crackdown began. One part of the measure bans guns from any city owned property, not only in buildings like city hall, but also city parks.
Guns are already banned at some city buildings, such as schools. Mayor Newsom hopes to extend the ban to public housing complexes, but federal laws make that complicated.
The proposed legislation would also require people who commit crimes with guns to sign up with the police department, then probation officers could keep better tabs on them.
Another aspect would require all gun owners to store their arms with a trigger lock or in a lock box. Authorities say lock boxes would help to keep legal guns from being stolen and then later used illegally.
The idea is to remind legal gun owners how to behave.
"Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're not going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible and safe in the way that you conduct your affairs," District Attorney Kamala Harris said.
San Francisco's only gun shop is also a target. The proposed legislation would require it and any future gun shop to send the authorities a gun sales list every six months.
Even though criminals already don't follow the law, the mayor believes any gun crackdown makes the city safer.
"It is fair to say that a majority of gun crime is committed with illegal guns," Harris said.
-------------------------------------------------
Emphasis mine.
As I've said before:
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence
Ignorance is cured by education
Stupidity is cured by a funeral
Where does active malice fit in there?
The announcement comes nearly one year after a judge struck down a law banning handgun possession in San Francisco.
"In the last 24 months, just to give you perspective, we've taken more guns off the street than we have in the last decade," Newsom said.
A total of 2,262 guns since the crackdown began. One part of the measure bans guns from any city owned property, not only in buildings like city hall, but also city parks.
Guns are already banned at some city buildings, such as schools. Mayor Newsom hopes to extend the ban to public housing complexes, but federal laws make that complicated.
The proposed legislation would also require people who commit crimes with guns to sign up with the police department, then probation officers could keep better tabs on them.
Another aspect would require all gun owners to store their arms with a trigger lock or in a lock box. Authorities say lock boxes would help to keep legal guns from being stolen and then later used illegally.
The idea is to remind legal gun owners how to behave.
"Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're not going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible and safe in the way that you conduct your affairs," District Attorney Kamala Harris said.
San Francisco's only gun shop is also a target. The proposed legislation would require it and any future gun shop to send the authorities a gun sales list every six months.
Even though criminals already don't follow the law, the mayor believes any gun crackdown makes the city safer.
"It is fair to say that a majority of gun crime is committed with illegal guns," Harris said.
-------------------------------------------------
Emphasis mine.
As I've said before:
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence
Ignorance is cured by education
Stupidity is cured by a funeral
Where does active malice fit in there?
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
More From Jim Doyle
From our dear governor comes a bill proposing that cities be given the power to enact gun laws stricter than state law. No provision of course for reducing the absurd number of gun laws down to their appropriate level of 0, of course.
I remember, with much fondness what happened to a similar governor in Unintended Consequences. Governor, Taser, pictures of minors, heroin "overdose", some assembly required. *sigh* If only good men were willing to do such things today...
I'm kind of ambivalent about this law. It's all bad of course, no doubt about it. But alderman are a lot easier to strongarm than state senators. It's a lot easier to, say, find a pro-victim-disarmament alderman's address and pitch a brick through his window than it is to slash a senator's tires. At least this would put our enemies within striking distance.
I refuse to comply with laws that mandate my disarmament. I will never, under any circumstances, surrender the weapons I own. Ever. I will be driven from this state before I will give up my right to self-defense.
Jim Doyle can kiss mine.
I remember, with much fondness what happened to a similar governor in Unintended Consequences. Governor, Taser, pictures of minors, heroin "overdose", some assembly required. *sigh* If only good men were willing to do such things today...
I'm kind of ambivalent about this law. It's all bad of course, no doubt about it. But alderman are a lot easier to strongarm than state senators. It's a lot easier to, say, find a pro-victim-disarmament alderman's address and pitch a brick through his window than it is to slash a senator's tires. At least this would put our enemies within striking distance.
I refuse to comply with laws that mandate my disarmament. I will never, under any circumstances, surrender the weapons I own. Ever. I will be driven from this state before I will give up my right to self-defense.
Jim Doyle can kiss mine.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Never Thought I'd See The Day...
...when Steve Kagen was the voice of conservatism and reason. He shocked me the other day by standing against his socialist ilk and voicing his opposition to the renewal of the "assault weapons" ban.
Today he appears in the local paper saying that he opposes criminal immigration, amnesty for already-arrived criminals, and that any criminal who's already crossed the border illegally should be deported.
WOW.
That is a break in the ranks of the Democrat party.
I'm starting to like this guy. He's still a bloody commie when it comes to finances, but where else are you going to find a Democrat who's, uh, liberal, on guns, and tough on the border?
Today he appears in the local paper saying that he opposes criminal immigration, amnesty for already-arrived criminals, and that any criminal who's already crossed the border illegally should be deported.
WOW.
That is a break in the ranks of the Democrat party.
I'm starting to like this guy. He's still a bloody commie when it comes to finances, but where else are you going to find a Democrat who's, uh, liberal, on guns, and tough on the border?
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Assault Weapons Ban Letter From Steve Kagen
Dear Vincent,
Thank you for allowing me to listen to your concerns regarding H.R. 1022, the Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2007. I appreciate you sharing your views on this important issue.
I support the Second Amendment, and therefore, I am opposed to H.R. 1022. We do not need any additional regulations on gun ownership. This bill would impose unnecessary restrictions on certain guns and rifles. I understand how sensitive an area this is for many people, and I will work hard to protect the Wisconsin heritage of hunting, fishing and out door recreation.
Thank you again for sharing your concerns with me. By working together, we will build a better future for everyone.
Sincerely,
Steve Kagen, MD
Member of Congress
------------------------------------------------My opinion of Steve Kagen has been raised approximately one degree out of the negative. He's still a bloody commie when it comes to financing and redistribution of wealth, and let us not forget, he did not respond at all to any comments and concerns I emailed him about prior to his election...but, this letter is a good thing. The only true test however is whether or not he'll roll with this position when it gets down to voting.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
More Government, YIPPEE!
I got to ask one of my teachers today for a letter of recommendation, and he tells me to go get the approval form from Student Services. I say "What?" He says it's a federal crime to give out letters of recommendation without an approval form.
So I mosey on over to Student Services. They say go to Student Employment. I think WTH and go across to Student Employment.
They say the only way they can release the forms to me is if I sign up for this State job-notification program. Basically, I can only receive Letter Of Recommendation Approval forms is if I declare I'm going to graduate within the next three years, and give the State-sponsored college permission to mail me job offers and keep track of me.
All I want are 2 ****ing letters of recommendation, and I have to give up my student ID, name, SSN, home address, phone number, and email to the state.
This is RETARDED!
I'm going to the range tomorrow.
So I mosey on over to Student Services. They say go to Student Employment. I think WTH and go across to Student Employment.
They say the only way they can release the forms to me is if I sign up for this State job-notification program. Basically, I can only receive Letter Of Recommendation Approval forms is if I declare I'm going to graduate within the next three years, and give the State-sponsored college permission to mail me job offers and keep track of me.
All I want are 2 ****ing letters of recommendation, and I have to give up my student ID, name, SSN, home address, phone number, and email to the state.
This is RETARDED!
I'm going to the range tomorrow.
Monday, May 07, 2007
James Schrader
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=594868
At Gander Mtn. today, I learned of this from a friend of James Schrader.
James buys old guns. Lots of them. Like, more than I'll ever even imagine owning, and in the words of Han Solo, I can imagine quite a bit.
To support his antique-gun-buying habit, he buys more than he wants, and sells the ones he doesn't want at a profit. Occasionally sets up a table or two at a gunshow, sells of some vintage Winchesters, gets the money to keep on buying. He's 61, and active in his church. Stand up guy.
At one of the gunshows, a dealer he knew approached his table, handed him an AR15. Sold it to him and mentioned in passing that it "might be full auto." Schrader says he'll check to see when he gets home, make sure it's not broken or anything. A few hours later, this dealer comes back, says "Hey, I've got a buyer, you still have that rifle?" Schrader did, and sold it to the buyer.
What Jimmy Schrader didn't know was that the dealer he'd known for 10 years had recently agreed to become an informant for the BATFE. He knowningly sold Jimmy an illegal rifle (buying and possession charges) and then got him to sell the rifle to another BATFE agent (transfer charges).
Jimmy was arrested on all of the above charges when leaving the gunshow. The guns he had were confiscated, as was his vehicle and cash. He was booked for the purchase, possession, and transfer of a Class 3 firearm without a license. Upon paying bail, he went back home and found that his house had been raided. 350 guns taken along with a substantial amount of cash.
At this point, Jimmy's waiting to be charged with a crime, and is spending his life savings trying to stay out of jail.
I don't know how to speak about my feelings on this without resorting to violent or profane language.
Another thing I don't know is how a person of decent upbringing manages to go out and of their own volition trick innocent people into committing multiple crimes, specifically to put them in prison. I don't know how you live with that, I don't know how you justify it to yourself and God, I don't know how you don't do it for the first time and then go home and put your gun in your mouth.
Anyone who does that is SCUM. They are as low as murderers. They deserve a swift trial, where their own actions can be brought against them as evidence and the excuse of "just following orders" is not allowed, and a date with the executioner 2 days later. In the 48 hour interregnum, they deserve the opportunity to file one appeal. Also in that time, they should be placed in prison, in general population, wearing jumpsuits identifying them as police officers.
After 48 hours, they should be drug out to a field, made to dig a ditch, and then they should be shot, once in the head. Kick 'em into the ditch, and forget the stain they left on the planet in their living years.
Gods I'm mad right now.
At Gander Mtn. today, I learned of this from a friend of James Schrader.
James buys old guns. Lots of them. Like, more than I'll ever even imagine owning, and in the words of Han Solo, I can imagine quite a bit.
To support his antique-gun-buying habit, he buys more than he wants, and sells the ones he doesn't want at a profit. Occasionally sets up a table or two at a gunshow, sells of some vintage Winchesters, gets the money to keep on buying. He's 61, and active in his church. Stand up guy.
At one of the gunshows, a dealer he knew approached his table, handed him an AR15. Sold it to him and mentioned in passing that it "might be full auto." Schrader says he'll check to see when he gets home, make sure it's not broken or anything. A few hours later, this dealer comes back, says "Hey, I've got a buyer, you still have that rifle?" Schrader did, and sold it to the buyer.
What Jimmy Schrader didn't know was that the dealer he'd known for 10 years had recently agreed to become an informant for the BATFE. He knowningly sold Jimmy an illegal rifle (buying and possession charges) and then got him to sell the rifle to another BATFE agent (transfer charges).
Jimmy was arrested on all of the above charges when leaving the gunshow. The guns he had were confiscated, as was his vehicle and cash. He was booked for the purchase, possession, and transfer of a Class 3 firearm without a license. Upon paying bail, he went back home and found that his house had been raided. 350 guns taken along with a substantial amount of cash.
At this point, Jimmy's waiting to be charged with a crime, and is spending his life savings trying to stay out of jail.
I don't know how to speak about my feelings on this without resorting to violent or profane language.
Another thing I don't know is how a person of decent upbringing manages to go out and of their own volition trick innocent people into committing multiple crimes, specifically to put them in prison. I don't know how you live with that, I don't know how you justify it to yourself and God, I don't know how you don't do it for the first time and then go home and put your gun in your mouth.
Anyone who does that is SCUM. They are as low as murderers. They deserve a swift trial, where their own actions can be brought against them as evidence and the excuse of "just following orders" is not allowed, and a date with the executioner 2 days later. In the 48 hour interregnum, they deserve the opportunity to file one appeal. Also in that time, they should be placed in prison, in general population, wearing jumpsuits identifying them as police officers.
After 48 hours, they should be drug out to a field, made to dig a ditch, and then they should be shot, once in the head. Kick 'em into the ditch, and forget the stain they left on the planet in their living years.
Gods I'm mad right now.
Tales From Retail Pt.10
10.Of all the things I’ve seen in 2 years and change working retail, this next one takes the cake.
In walks a mother and 3 kids. One’s a boy about 10 years old. The other is, I assume, his sister – about 15, and dressed in an unholy convergence between goth and emo. The final kid is a little older, maybe 17 or 18, and he looks normal too. I assume it’s a family.
I ask if I can help, then resume doing odds and ends behind the counter. The counter is along the wall, perpendicular to the browsers. This means I can look down one entire aisle, and though your body would be blocked to me, I can see every head in the store.
To my left, in the aisle along the wall, the only one of which I have an unobstructed view, I see in my peripheral vision, an enormously fat person. He’s like…two people wide.
I turn my head, realize I just observed an intimate moment, and guiltily stare straight in the opposite direction. Then I look again. It’s like watching a train crash in slow motion, Technicolor. The goth girl and the ten-year old are…ahem…facially bonding…at a subatomic level. Nothing obscene…yet…and I’m here to tell you it could’ve gone that way quickly. Frisky does not begin to cover it.
Meanwhile, the mother of one or possibly both of these little twits, and one of their siblings are standing next to them, whilst calmly discussing DVDs, completely aware that one or both of their children, one of which is barely out of diapers are…uh…doing a function check on the human anatomy in front of them.
Finally the family makes their selection, comes up to the register, and then the oldest boy darts off, exclaiming about forgetting something. He returns a few seconds later with a marijuana poster in hand. Whereupon, the mother informs the two star-crossed lovers that they should each get one too.
Some people remark upon my dim view of human nature from time to time. I think this could be part of the explanation.
In walks a mother and 3 kids. One’s a boy about 10 years old. The other is, I assume, his sister – about 15, and dressed in an unholy convergence between goth and emo. The final kid is a little older, maybe 17 or 18, and he looks normal too. I assume it’s a family.
I ask if I can help, then resume doing odds and ends behind the counter. The counter is along the wall, perpendicular to the browsers. This means I can look down one entire aisle, and though your body would be blocked to me, I can see every head in the store.
To my left, in the aisle along the wall, the only one of which I have an unobstructed view, I see in my peripheral vision, an enormously fat person. He’s like…two people wide.
I turn my head, realize I just observed an intimate moment, and guiltily stare straight in the opposite direction. Then I look again. It’s like watching a train crash in slow motion, Technicolor. The goth girl and the ten-year old are…ahem…facially bonding…at a subatomic level. Nothing obscene…yet…and I’m here to tell you it could’ve gone that way quickly. Frisky does not begin to cover it.
Meanwhile, the mother of one or possibly both of these little twits, and one of their siblings are standing next to them, whilst calmly discussing DVDs, completely aware that one or both of their children, one of which is barely out of diapers are…uh…doing a function check on the human anatomy in front of them.
Finally the family makes their selection, comes up to the register, and then the oldest boy darts off, exclaiming about forgetting something. He returns a few seconds later with a marijuana poster in hand. Whereupon, the mother informs the two star-crossed lovers that they should each get one too.
Some people remark upon my dim view of human nature from time to time. I think this could be part of the explanation.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Didn't Expect To Hear From These Idjits Again
Didn't hear much from the Queen-of-the-ding-a-lings Sarah Brady after my last letter. I suspect it burned through the screen of whichever monitor was unfortunate enough to display it. Today I got another letter from them. Here's my response.
Hello:
Given your organization's nature, I understand it might be difficult for you to comprehend certain things. Crime rates, natural rights, and logic all seem to be outside your grasp. Now it appears simple requests for the removal a name from your subscription are as well.
Perhaps I'm arguing with an automated system, maybe not. If there's a person reading this: Get me the HELL off your subscription list. I don't want to receive any updates from you, I get all I can take of your repulsive and moronic agenda from the news media. I don't want to hear from you ever again, understand?
If I have any interaction with your group whatsoever, it will be in the form of trying to counteract, subvert, and in any way screw with your plans and agenda, or in some other way attempting to irritate you. In the meantime, quit soiling my inbox with your deluded, impossibly stupid missives.
As I said before, I hope this letter depresses which self-centered, filled-with-delusions-of-adequacy, ignorant troll reads it.
Hello:
Given your organization's nature, I understand it might be difficult for you to comprehend certain things. Crime rates, natural rights, and logic all seem to be outside your grasp. Now it appears simple requests for the removal a name from your subscription are as well.
Perhaps I'm arguing with an automated system, maybe not. If there's a person reading this: Get me the HELL off your subscription list. I don't want to receive any updates from you, I get all I can take of your repulsive and moronic agenda from the news media. I don't want to hear from you ever again, understand?
If I have any interaction with your group whatsoever, it will be in the form of trying to counteract, subvert, and in any way screw with your plans and agenda, or in some other way attempting to irritate you. In the meantime, quit soiling my inbox with your deluded, impossibly stupid missives.
As I said before, I hope this letter depresses which self-centered, filled-with-delusions-of-adequacy, ignorant troll reads it.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
A Sight I'll Never Forget...
Finished Lost last night (loved it by the way, maybe the best of the season), and watched the news after. Big mistake.
Seems the thin blue line hereabouts is starting a 4 month program to clean up my city's north end. Two man patrols in police vans, ticketing people for any and all violations. I will never forget the sight of the man being led away in cuffs for riding his bike on the wrong side of the street.
Last year they handed out 3000 tickets due to this little initiative. Figure a min. of $100 per, that's nearly half a mil right there. Seems someone figures there's a bit of money to be made harrassing people over victimless crimes. Another example of the power corrupts motto...
They put the cuffs on him for riding his bike on the wrong side of the street!
Best solution - every time one of these two man teams goes out, they get hit with Tazers, their gear gets stolen, and they wake up in their undies with the their van gutted. Everybody goes home in one pieces, gets the message across.
I'm steaming furious right now.
Seems the thin blue line hereabouts is starting a 4 month program to clean up my city's north end. Two man patrols in police vans, ticketing people for any and all violations. I will never forget the sight of the man being led away in cuffs for riding his bike on the wrong side of the street.
Last year they handed out 3000 tickets due to this little initiative. Figure a min. of $100 per, that's nearly half a mil right there. Seems someone figures there's a bit of money to be made harrassing people over victimless crimes. Another example of the power corrupts motto...
They put the cuffs on him for riding his bike on the wrong side of the street!
Best solution - every time one of these two man teams goes out, they get hit with Tazers, their gear gets stolen, and they wake up in their undies with the their van gutted. Everybody goes home in one pieces, gets the message across.
I'm steaming furious right now.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
I Love Screwing With The Bradys
http://www.ifcdata.com/clients/brady/english.asp
Apparently they're giving away free packs of anti-gun posters and pamphlets. I've got a hundred of each, in both languages coming to my house. No shipping either. If I get these, I'll order 200 next time.
Perfect way to fuel a bonfire, and I need targets.
Apparently they're giving away free packs of anti-gun posters and pamphlets. I've got a hundred of each, in both languages coming to my house. No shipping either. If I get these, I'll order 200 next time.
Perfect way to fuel a bonfire, and I need targets.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The Most Fun I've Had In School All Year...
The top two fears people have are death and public speaking, and not in that order.
I've known what it's like to be shot at, and recently, so I figure giving my hour long public speech today should be a cake-walk. It is. I kicked some Basic Excel Class hinder.
Touching on the Merge And Center button, I said "I like to use this to create headings, column descriptions, that sort of thing. It takes many cells and combines them into one. Kind of like communism, only useful, and, you know, not evil."
Got a laugh out of the class, even the teacher.
The next presenter, a friend of mine, gets up to do his speech. He starts off by saying he resents my anti-Communist statement. In fact he is one, and it's working well in China.
Vincent's response:"Maybe. But they had to whack twenty million people to get there. That doesn't scream progress benchmark to me."
So. His presentation is on harrassment. Trots out the usual statistics, the vast majority of cases go unrecorded, 15,000 cases go before the court every year (and climbing), harrassment rates are climbing, 1 in 3 people will be harrassed, harrassment can be just about anything, etc and so forth.
Vincent is scribbling notes furiously. At a pause, I raise my hand. He calls on me.
"So, if harrassment can be any action that offends people, and the vast majority of cases go unrecorded, how do we know that said harrassment is taking place, could it non-existant, or could it be people making it up?"
He says that yes, that's a possibility.
"Also, harrassment convictions are what matter. If fifteen thousand cases go before the courts every year, increasing, and the number that get tossed out increase right along with them, that isn't exactly a rising tide of a problem."
"My site was kind of...biased..."
I don't remember exactly what I said next, but it was something similar to: "So what your basically telling me is that harrassment is sort of like divorce court. You can make crap up without consequences, and the guy always gets screwed?"
I'm one of those few individuals who is blessed enough to love my work.
I've known what it's like to be shot at, and recently, so I figure giving my hour long public speech today should be a cake-walk. It is. I kicked some Basic Excel Class hinder.
Touching on the Merge And Center button, I said "I like to use this to create headings, column descriptions, that sort of thing. It takes many cells and combines them into one. Kind of like communism, only useful, and, you know, not evil."
Got a laugh out of the class, even the teacher.
The next presenter, a friend of mine, gets up to do his speech. He starts off by saying he resents my anti-Communist statement. In fact he is one, and it's working well in China.
Vincent's response:"Maybe. But they had to whack twenty million people to get there. That doesn't scream progress benchmark to me."
So. His presentation is on harrassment. Trots out the usual statistics, the vast majority of cases go unrecorded, 15,000 cases go before the court every year (and climbing), harrassment rates are climbing, 1 in 3 people will be harrassed, harrassment can be just about anything, etc and so forth.
Vincent is scribbling notes furiously. At a pause, I raise my hand. He calls on me.
"So, if harrassment can be any action that offends people, and the vast majority of cases go unrecorded, how do we know that said harrassment is taking place, could it non-existant, or could it be people making it up?"
He says that yes, that's a possibility.
"Also, harrassment convictions are what matter. If fifteen thousand cases go before the courts every year, increasing, and the number that get tossed out increase right along with them, that isn't exactly a rising tide of a problem."
"My site was kind of...biased..."
I don't remember exactly what I said next, but it was something similar to: "So what your basically telling me is that harrassment is sort of like divorce court. You can make crap up without consequences, and the guy always gets screwed?"
I'm one of those few individuals who is blessed enough to love my work.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
I Love My Work
So: It comes through on THR a couple of days ago that Sarah Brady is bathing in the gore of the VT massacre and has a premade formletter you can send to your Congresscritters asking them to support her sick agenda. Fortunately, they did not disable the text-editing capability on their form letter, and even recommended that you add a little something personal.
Hoo boy did I add something. Copied in Ted Nugent's latest pro-concealed-carry letter, and sent it off FROM the Brady website.
Just moments ago, I received a plea for donation from the Brady Network. Here is my response:
---------------------------------------------------
Hello:
I used your fill-in-the-blank form (thanks letting me edit the message by the way) to send letters to my elected officials specifically asking them NOT to support you or your disgusting victim disarmament legislation. I simply changed your pre-written message and voila! my reps got a letter espousing something other than more of your failed, bloodstained laws from YOUR website.
Given that I clicked the option (before sending off my co-opted email) that I did not want to receive updates from your campaign, I was mightily surprised to find a letter from you in my inbox today. And asking for a donation no less.
No, I will not be providing you with any money whatsoever, not as long as you continue your fool's errand of making sure me and mine are deprived of useful weaponry and the ability to defend ourselves. No, I do not want to receive your email updates. I oppose you, your hateful agenda, and the imbiciles who believe and support you utterly and without regret. Your organization is a stain on the American character and I feel sadness that the human intellect could produce such idiocy and utter maliciousness as you spew forth on a daily basis.
Remove me from your mailing list, and never send me anything again. I know I have no hope of this letter making you rethink for one nano-second the policies of harm which you and your followers espouse. My only wish is that it darkens the day of whoever reads it.
Vincent-------------------------------------------------------------
I am one of those few people who is blessed enough to really love my job, specifically: giving the middle finger to *expletive*s like these.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Gun Confiscation Begins In Illinois
http://www.kc3.com/news/chicago_confiscation.htm
Confiscation of Registered Guns Begins in Illinois
Chicago Anti Gun Enforcement (CAGE) unit. This elite squad, operated jointly by the Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, supposedly exists to identify illegal gunrunners. However, information gained by the ISRA makes it clear that the CAGE unit is targeting law-abiding citizens, not criminal gunrunners.The Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police have teamed up to make good on Mayor Daley's pledge that, if it were up to him, nobody would have a gun. Daley and his elite "CAGE" unit are apparently taking advantage of gun privacy loopholes to pinpoint certain individuals for inclusion in the confiscation program.
The ISRA is following up on leads in one case that has disturbing implications. An elderly first-generation Chicago resident was recently paid a visit by an Illinois State Police trooper. After asking to come inside the man's home, the trooper asked if the man owned a gun - to which he replied yes. The trooper then directed the individual to surrender the firearm. The man complied with the officer's demand and the trooper left with the gun. And the story gets better...The gun in question was purchased legally by the man in the 1970s shortly after he became a U.S. citizen. When Chicago's infamous gun registration scheme went into effect in the early 1980s, the man registered the firearm as per the requirement. However, over the years, the fellow apparently forgot to re-register the firearm, and forgot to renew his Illinois FOID Card.
So...what does this all mean?
In the last edition of The Illinois Shooter, we reported on the activities of a shady taskforce known as the Chicago Anti Gun Enforcement (CAGE) unit. This elite squad, operated jointly by the Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, supposedly exists to identify illegal gunrunners. However, information gained by the ISRA makes it clear that the CAGE unit is targeting law-abiding citizens, not criminal gunrunners.
Thanks to a ruling by a liberal federal judge, the CAGE unit now has the name of every single person in the United States who, since 1992, lawfully purchased more than one handgun in the period of a week. The CAGE unit also has all the makes, models and serial numbers of those guns. In essence, the Chicago Police Department is now registering guns and gun owners nationwide.
The ISRA has also learned that the CAGE unit has compiled a list of families where more than one person in that family holds a FOID card. Acting on that information, the CAGE unit is now contacting gun shops where those families have shopped, and is illegally registering all guns purchased by those families.
Now, it appears that the CAGE unit is scrubbing Chicago's gun registration list against the list of FOID card holders. Indications are that folks who have let their registrations and FOIDs lapse will have their guns confiscated. We have to wonder how long it will be until state troopers show up at the doors to confiscate the guns of non-Chicago residents who have let their FOIDs expire.
More later as this story develops.
---------------------------------------------
We were told that registering guns was not the first step towards confiscation. We were told that gun confiscation could not happen on American soil. We were told that no American law-enforcement official would ever participate in the confiscation of privately owned firearms.
It was the order to confiscate Lexington's public and private arms that led to the killing of British soldiers. Is it too much to ask that Mayor Daley, his supporters, and those that do his bidding meet this same fate as those 273 British on April 19th, 1775?
Keep the rifles handy.
Confiscation of Registered Guns Begins in Illinois
Chicago Anti Gun Enforcement (CAGE) unit. This elite squad, operated jointly by the Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, supposedly exists to identify illegal gunrunners. However, information gained by the ISRA makes it clear that the CAGE unit is targeting law-abiding citizens, not criminal gunrunners.The Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police have teamed up to make good on Mayor Daley's pledge that, if it were up to him, nobody would have a gun. Daley and his elite "CAGE" unit are apparently taking advantage of gun privacy loopholes to pinpoint certain individuals for inclusion in the confiscation program.
The ISRA is following up on leads in one case that has disturbing implications. An elderly first-generation Chicago resident was recently paid a visit by an Illinois State Police trooper. After asking to come inside the man's home, the trooper asked if the man owned a gun - to which he replied yes. The trooper then directed the individual to surrender the firearm. The man complied with the officer's demand and the trooper left with the gun. And the story gets better...The gun in question was purchased legally by the man in the 1970s shortly after he became a U.S. citizen. When Chicago's infamous gun registration scheme went into effect in the early 1980s, the man registered the firearm as per the requirement. However, over the years, the fellow apparently forgot to re-register the firearm, and forgot to renew his Illinois FOID Card.
So...what does this all mean?
In the last edition of The Illinois Shooter, we reported on the activities of a shady taskforce known as the Chicago Anti Gun Enforcement (CAGE) unit. This elite squad, operated jointly by the Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, supposedly exists to identify illegal gunrunners. However, information gained by the ISRA makes it clear that the CAGE unit is targeting law-abiding citizens, not criminal gunrunners.
Thanks to a ruling by a liberal federal judge, the CAGE unit now has the name of every single person in the United States who, since 1992, lawfully purchased more than one handgun in the period of a week. The CAGE unit also has all the makes, models and serial numbers of those guns. In essence, the Chicago Police Department is now registering guns and gun owners nationwide.
The ISRA has also learned that the CAGE unit has compiled a list of families where more than one person in that family holds a FOID card. Acting on that information, the CAGE unit is now contacting gun shops where those families have shopped, and is illegally registering all guns purchased by those families.
Now, it appears that the CAGE unit is scrubbing Chicago's gun registration list against the list of FOID card holders. Indications are that folks who have let their registrations and FOIDs lapse will have their guns confiscated. We have to wonder how long it will be until state troopers show up at the doors to confiscate the guns of non-Chicago residents who have let their FOIDs expire.
More later as this story develops.
---------------------------------------------
We were told that registering guns was not the first step towards confiscation. We were told that gun confiscation could not happen on American soil. We were told that no American law-enforcement official would ever participate in the confiscation of privately owned firearms.
It was the order to confiscate Lexington's public and private arms that led to the killing of British soldiers. Is it too much to ask that Mayor Daley, his supporters, and those that do his bidding meet this same fate as those 273 British on April 19th, 1775?
Keep the rifles handy.
The Black Donnellys
Ladies And Gentlemen please! Would you bring your attention to me!
Remember when I posted a link to The Black Donnellys episode A Stone Of The Heart, with the guarantee that it was one of the best hours of television ever? Remember how it disappeared?
It's baaacckk!
http://tv-links.co.uk/show.do/1/273
Hie thee hence, immediately. Episodes 1 & 2. You may have to register. Click that yes, you're over 18 and don't mind seeing some adult content. You may then watch 2 episodes that defy all explanations of writing goodness.
Gods I love this show.
Remember when I posted a link to The Black Donnellys episode A Stone Of The Heart, with the guarantee that it was one of the best hours of television ever? Remember how it disappeared?
It's baaacckk!
http://tv-links.co.uk/show.do/1/273
Hie thee hence, immediately. Episodes 1 & 2. You may have to register. Click that yes, you're over 18 and don't mind seeing some adult content. You may then watch 2 episodes that defy all explanations of writing goodness.
Gods I love this show.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
More School Insanity
Well, I reported this morning that Milwaukee public school teachers are soon going to be trained in how to subdue and restrain their charges aged 4-19.
Now it comes to my attention, via my father, that a school system one community over is performing random drug testing. You get yanked out of class, handed a bottle, a lock of your hair is cut, and your locker is searched. Tell them (rightfully) to go shove that bottle where the sun doesn't shine and set fire to it...and you lose parking privileges and are barred from all sporting events for a year.
At some point, we're just going to stop swirling and just go straight down the bowl.
You know, people just don't get it. They don't know how to look at a problem the right way. We'll have debates for the next six months over whether or not the random drug testing policy is too invasive or whether its actually useful...when that's not even the right question. The right question is phrased something like this:
"What is so special about school grounds that the Constitution of the United States is totally invalid behind school doors, and where do administrators pretend to get the authority (as agents of the state and federal governments) to invalidate the Constitution?"
AFTER that, maybe we can ask where in the Constitution schools are authorized to be funded. But that's not even what I want right now.
I want to see people start asking the right questions. When you realize you're in a hole, the first thing you do is QUIT DIGGING. These people are 81 feet down, and don't even realize they're in a hole, and scream vehemently and with what would normally be great hilarity when you TELL them they are in fact IN A HOLE.
Idiots, one and all.
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence
Ignorance is cured by education
Stupidity is cured by a funeral
Now it comes to my attention, via my father, that a school system one community over is performing random drug testing. You get yanked out of class, handed a bottle, a lock of your hair is cut, and your locker is searched. Tell them (rightfully) to go shove that bottle where the sun doesn't shine and set fire to it...and you lose parking privileges and are barred from all sporting events for a year.
At some point, we're just going to stop swirling and just go straight down the bowl.
You know, people just don't get it. They don't know how to look at a problem the right way. We'll have debates for the next six months over whether or not the random drug testing policy is too invasive or whether its actually useful...when that's not even the right question. The right question is phrased something like this:
"What is so special about school grounds that the Constitution of the United States is totally invalid behind school doors, and where do administrators pretend to get the authority (as agents of the state and federal governments) to invalidate the Constitution?"
AFTER that, maybe we can ask where in the Constitution schools are authorized to be funded. But that's not even what I want right now.
I want to see people start asking the right questions. When you realize you're in a hole, the first thing you do is QUIT DIGGING. These people are 81 feet down, and don't even realize they're in a hole, and scream vehemently and with what would normally be great hilarity when you TELL them they are in fact IN A HOLE.
Idiots, one and all.
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence
Ignorance is cured by education
Stupidity is cured by a funeral
Milwaukee Goes British
I've often said that Milwaukee is to me what LA is to Michael Mann. It's the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I can't adequately describe it without waxing moronic and poetic.
Well, some dumbbunny somewhere in the Milwaukee public school system recently decided it'd be a great idea for teachers to restrain students (K-12 mind you) with police flexcuffs. Apparently they've had a problem with students getting violent.
Now, let me follow the "logic" here. Students get violent, teacher gets out the flexcuffs, student...holds out their hands? WTH. Can anyone see that happening?
The only time you're going to be able to successfully restrain a student without getting tossed around the room like a lawn dart is K-8, MAYBE. This is a recipe for MORE violence, not less.
And where the HELL do admins and teachers think they get the authority to HANDCUFF students? What mental deficiency makes them think that's something that's just OK?
Well, some dumbbunny somewhere in the Milwaukee public school system recently decided it'd be a great idea for teachers to restrain students (K-12 mind you) with police flexcuffs. Apparently they've had a problem with students getting violent.
Now, let me follow the "logic" here. Students get violent, teacher gets out the flexcuffs, student...holds out their hands? WTH. Can anyone see that happening?
The only time you're going to be able to successfully restrain a student without getting tossed around the room like a lawn dart is K-8, MAYBE. This is a recipe for MORE violence, not less.
And where the HELL do admins and teachers think they get the authority to HANDCUFF students? What mental deficiency makes them think that's something that's just OK?
Monday, April 23, 2007
Updates
I've not been updating much recently. I've been working like a madman and I've got school, which is fortunately and unfortunately coming to a close for the semester. I say fortunately because, well, it is school, and that means it sucks. Unfortunately because all the professors conspire to dump a huge workload on you simultaneously at the end of the year semester. I've got roughly two weeks of the hard stuff to go.
I'm still limping like Jimmy Donnelly. I can't visually tell that I have an ankle bone, and the side of my foot is BLACK. Limping around work is not cool.
You never know what you'll find when you're not looking for it. I'm hoping I've found something. Yes, that's cryptic.
Took my HDR and my Beretta 9mm out to the range recently. The folding stock vibrated right out of my HDR. Not cool. My dad's scoped .22 worked a treat - it's fun nailing 1.5in metal spinner poles from 150 feet. *TWANG* I've got my reloading time down on my Beretta, that's good.
I'm still limping like Jimmy Donnelly. I can't visually tell that I have an ankle bone, and the side of my foot is BLACK. Limping around work is not cool.
You never know what you'll find when you're not looking for it. I'm hoping I've found something. Yes, that's cryptic.
Took my HDR and my Beretta 9mm out to the range recently. The folding stock vibrated right out of my HDR. Not cool. My dad's scoped .22 worked a treat - it's fun nailing 1.5in metal spinner poles from 150 feet. *TWANG* I've got my reloading time down on my Beretta, that's good.
Tales From Retail Pt.9
9.It’s a common shoplifting trick to steal something, bring it back to another store, and plead “Gift” when trying to return it without a receipt.
One man who eventually got foiled at this was a fifty year old Mike Tyson lookalike who rolled into store one day in a wheel chair, jerking like he had a car battery taped to his behind. The store manager advised me to stick to this guy like a magnet – he’d stolen $300 dollars worth of DVD box sets (walking them out in foil lined bags), and attempted to return them to another store, which had phoned us and asked us if our inventory for those movies was one off (it was). Oh yeah, and he had been walking at that point, so we’re fairly certain the wheelchair was either a ruse or a cosmic spank for leading a life of crime.
So where was I?
Ah yes, Mikey rolls into the store with a friend. His friend is about the size of a refrigerator, has the stature of a bodybuilder, is covered in tattoos, and dresses “ghetto rich” if you know what I mean and I think that you do.
According to the manager, Mikey’s new shtick is to roll to the back of the store, ask people to look stuff up on the computer, and then stick DVDs under his legs.
Mikey does not disappoint in the lookup department, and I’m kept running back and forth between him and the computer. I return the final time to find him and his…bodyguard?…having a one-sided conversation. One sided because all the friend can do is grunt.
Though I’d never had chance to notice before, I believed (at that moment) that this was because of the mass of scars covering his neck. Not only is he grunting, but he’s also playing with the hem of his shirt, pulling it up and down. He’s not retarded or anything, it looks like he’s trying to A. Reassure himself that something’s in his pocket, and B. Cover it up.
On one of the up-tugs of his ridiculously expensive football jersey, I notice metal in his pocket. And leather. And…good God, this guy has a freaking bowie knife in his pocket!
Now, I’m not one to be talking about preventing people from carrying whatever it is they dang well please. I’ve always got a knife close at hand, and at that moment was trying to figure out how to deploy it and which parts of his anatomy to stick it into should he pull his knife.
But quite frankly, it scares me when a guy covered in gang tattoos, with knife wounds on his neck starts flashing a knife.
They did leave, eventually, without incident. But every employee we hired from then on, and all the ones on staff were warned to stay at least 10 feet away from these guys. I hate shoplifters. Theft is an affront to God, and I suspect if they’re also criminally engaged, the weapons they keep are not for defense.
One man who eventually got foiled at this was a fifty year old Mike Tyson lookalike who rolled into store one day in a wheel chair, jerking like he had a car battery taped to his behind. The store manager advised me to stick to this guy like a magnet – he’d stolen $300 dollars worth of DVD box sets (walking them out in foil lined bags), and attempted to return them to another store, which had phoned us and asked us if our inventory for those movies was one off (it was). Oh yeah, and he had been walking at that point, so we’re fairly certain the wheelchair was either a ruse or a cosmic spank for leading a life of crime.
So where was I?
Ah yes, Mikey rolls into the store with a friend. His friend is about the size of a refrigerator, has the stature of a bodybuilder, is covered in tattoos, and dresses “ghetto rich” if you know what I mean and I think that you do.
According to the manager, Mikey’s new shtick is to roll to the back of the store, ask people to look stuff up on the computer, and then stick DVDs under his legs.
Mikey does not disappoint in the lookup department, and I’m kept running back and forth between him and the computer. I return the final time to find him and his…bodyguard?…having a one-sided conversation. One sided because all the friend can do is grunt.
Though I’d never had chance to notice before, I believed (at that moment) that this was because of the mass of scars covering his neck. Not only is he grunting, but he’s also playing with the hem of his shirt, pulling it up and down. He’s not retarded or anything, it looks like he’s trying to A. Reassure himself that something’s in his pocket, and B. Cover it up.
On one of the up-tugs of his ridiculously expensive football jersey, I notice metal in his pocket. And leather. And…good God, this guy has a freaking bowie knife in his pocket!
Now, I’m not one to be talking about preventing people from carrying whatever it is they dang well please. I’ve always got a knife close at hand, and at that moment was trying to figure out how to deploy it and which parts of his anatomy to stick it into should he pull his knife.
But quite frankly, it scares me when a guy covered in gang tattoos, with knife wounds on his neck starts flashing a knife.
They did leave, eventually, without incident. But every employee we hired from then on, and all the ones on staff were warned to stay at least 10 feet away from these guys. I hate shoplifters. Theft is an affront to God, and I suspect if they’re also criminally engaged, the weapons they keep are not for defense.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Fun Times Pt.Whatever
The Fun Times category encompasses those unfortunate events that can be looked back on with anything other than horror. The prowler/burglar that became a flying squirrel chase. The TV turning itself on, prompting myself and my brother to do honest-to-God house-clearing.
It is important to refer to Fun Times with an ironic, sarcastic tone in one's voice. The internet gun community calls what is to follow an After Action report. I can think of no better title for it.
Recently, it was implied that no one knows what they'll do when people start shooting at them.
At roughly 1 in the morning on Patriot's Day 2007, I now know.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Two days ago, I fell down a flight of stairs. Somewhere between 4-7 steps up, I twisted my ankle and gravity did what I had wanted to do, and I went downstairs rather quickly. Landed on the side of my ankle, fell into a wall...I'm lucky I didn't snap my ankle in half. I've been limping like Jimmy Donnelly ever since.
I've been sitting a lot, and putting my foot up, icing, that sort of thing. When I sat down tonight to watch Lost, I put my foot up on the entertainment center. I'm sitting in the chair next to the window, my mom's sitting and cross-stitching a few feet away, my dad's on his laptop on the couch behind us.
Previously, my mom had tripped over my dad's laptop cord, knocking a lamp over and snapping the bulb.
At the first commercial break, I get up to check something on the computer. Coming back into the hallway, I've got my hand on the refridgerator door, about to open it up and retrieve a Premium carbonated beverage. There's a crack, and a sound like the bulb snapping again, and about one second later my dad shouts "Get down! Someone's shooting at us!"
Not a thought crossed my brain for about two minutes. Complete blankness, like someone'd flipped a switch. No fear, none. No shock. Emptiness. I can't see bullet holes, I can't see any indication of that, but I drop to a crouch, and my shoe skids on a spray of broken glass. I had an impure thought. My mom's screaming and walking around trying to see where the shot/s came/are from, and my dad says "Get down!" again.
My brother's on the other end of the hallway with the living room between him and us, and he crawls across the hall.
I'm still not thinking at this point, but I remember knowing I was on the end of the house that didn't have the guns. Generally when I think of guns, I think of the pistols my dad and I keep near our respective beds. I remember I've got three assault rifles just down the stairs to my right, and I shout "Get the guns!"
My brother and I half fall down the steps (again) as my mom's calling 911 and my dad's trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. My brother goes to his bedroom for his rifle, I go the other way into the workroom.
Live and fight like you train I guess. Every time there's a gun in my hands, I chambercheck it and presscheck the magazine to make sure I'm safe. I remember (now) doing that as I headed out of the workroom.
At this point, I should remind you, I'm downstairs. I know that unless I've got the 108th airborne outside, I'm definitely better armed than whoever just fired into our living room, and I'm out of the line of fire. I'm safe as you can be when someone's just fired an unknown number of shots into your house.
I do not mean to toot my own horn, but...if I'm not supposed to know what to do when there's people shooting at you...I guess my body's defective. Same with my brother. Safe and armed, and we head back to the danger zone.
I went back upstairs. My brother's at the back door, checking the backyard. My dad's crossed the hall to his .45 and is scanning the front yard from a bedroom window. I drop down next to the living room window and look out. My mom shouts for me to get the birds from in front of the window. My dad shouts for me to get down. My mom shouts for me to get the bird. I got the bird.
I'm back to thinking again at this point, and I'm still stunned by the lack of bullet holes. Bird hitting the window maybe? But there is broken glass, and I trust my dad implicitly. I hunker down behind the couch and try and figure out where the threat is, what's going on, why would anyone shoot at us.
My dad gives the all clear - the front yard is empty. Same as the back according to my brother. My mom's crying and the woman on the other end of the phone is saying police are on their way. My dad says to put our rifles away. My brother and I ditch them in the basement, still loaded. I go upstairs, jack a round into my Beretta, and put it on safety in my belt. No way am I going unarmed right now. Coming down the hall from the other end of the room, I finally see the hole. It's the size of a rolling pin, and about a foot over where my head would be if I were sitting down with my feet up watching Lost.
My dad's gone outside, I go outside, he says the woman who lives across the street saw someone outside our house at the same time of the shooting, smelled smoke. I relay this information to my mom, for the benefit of the cop on the phone. I go back outside. The neighbor has left. Cop cars are blocking off the street. She comes back, and finally everybody's outside while the police are asking questions (they got here roughly 4-5 minutes after the call) and no one still has any idea what the hell is going on. She'd tracked the guy from the front of our house a couple of blocks in her jeep. The cops are on the radio trying to find him. The hole in our window looks even bigger outside than it does inside. At some point I don't remember, I've unloaded my Beretta so the police don't shoot me.
We finally found a ball about the size of a .38 round on the floor in the living room, matching a dent in our woodwork at the same height as the hole in the window. ****ing pellet gun...we think. At first we thought it was a slingshot...but the angle puts it about fifteen feet above the street, and when one of the officers shown his pistol laser through the hole back from the dent, the guys outside extrapolated it to a deck about a hundred yards away, through two back yards.
They picked up the guy the neighbor saw, frisked him and let him go. No gun, no slingshot, just a phone and a pack of smokes. I'm going looking around the neighborhood for the slingshot tomorrow.
About 10:30, roughly an hour and a half after this mess started, we put tape over the window, vaccuumed up the glass, and started trying to get ready for bed.
Now is when I'm scared. I had to pee something fierce for about half an hour after the cops left, and my arms feel like I've been lifting cinderblocks for the past six hours I'm so stressed. I can't walk in front of a window without flinching.
Some little human ****stain tried to HURT us. He used a weapon capable of causing harm to us, and scared us half to death. Either that or there's a worse possibility - that some little human ****stain gives so little thought to humanity that he'll pop off a ball bearing into someone's window, at RANDOM, for FUN. A threat I can deal with. Someone coming at me, someone means me or my family harm, I can and I will put them down without any emotion whatsoever, after tonight I know that. But RANDOM? Who the **** does this for fun? Who hurts random people for fun? Who scares middle aged couples and their teenaged kids for the **** of it? Who likes it, or maybe worse, doesn't care about it?
I'm pissed and a little scared and I don't feel safe anymore, and this little ***hole just further dimmed my view of humanity in general.
But now I know what I do when someone's shooting at me. It might've been a ball bearing coming through our window at 9:10 at night, but neither my mind nor my body knew that. I'm not proud or happy or elated or scared or anything else that when I could've stayed safe and armed I went back to the scene of the crime...it's just like "Ok." The only important thing though is that everyone including the pets is A-OK. That's all that matters.
It is important to refer to Fun Times with an ironic, sarcastic tone in one's voice. The internet gun community calls what is to follow an After Action report. I can think of no better title for it.
Recently, it was implied that no one knows what they'll do when people start shooting at them.
At roughly 1 in the morning on Patriot's Day 2007, I now know.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Two days ago, I fell down a flight of stairs. Somewhere between 4-7 steps up, I twisted my ankle and gravity did what I had wanted to do, and I went downstairs rather quickly. Landed on the side of my ankle, fell into a wall...I'm lucky I didn't snap my ankle in half. I've been limping like Jimmy Donnelly ever since.
I've been sitting a lot, and putting my foot up, icing, that sort of thing. When I sat down tonight to watch Lost, I put my foot up on the entertainment center. I'm sitting in the chair next to the window, my mom's sitting and cross-stitching a few feet away, my dad's on his laptop on the couch behind us.
Previously, my mom had tripped over my dad's laptop cord, knocking a lamp over and snapping the bulb.
At the first commercial break, I get up to check something on the computer. Coming back into the hallway, I've got my hand on the refridgerator door, about to open it up and retrieve a Premium carbonated beverage. There's a crack, and a sound like the bulb snapping again, and about one second later my dad shouts "Get down! Someone's shooting at us!"
Not a thought crossed my brain for about two minutes. Complete blankness, like someone'd flipped a switch. No fear, none. No shock. Emptiness. I can't see bullet holes, I can't see any indication of that, but I drop to a crouch, and my shoe skids on a spray of broken glass. I had an impure thought. My mom's screaming and walking around trying to see where the shot/s came/are from, and my dad says "Get down!" again.
My brother's on the other end of the hallway with the living room between him and us, and he crawls across the hall.
I'm still not thinking at this point, but I remember knowing I was on the end of the house that didn't have the guns. Generally when I think of guns, I think of the pistols my dad and I keep near our respective beds. I remember I've got three assault rifles just down the stairs to my right, and I shout "Get the guns!"
My brother and I half fall down the steps (again) as my mom's calling 911 and my dad's trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. My brother goes to his bedroom for his rifle, I go the other way into the workroom.
Live and fight like you train I guess. Every time there's a gun in my hands, I chambercheck it and presscheck the magazine to make sure I'm safe. I remember (now) doing that as I headed out of the workroom.
At this point, I should remind you, I'm downstairs. I know that unless I've got the 108th airborne outside, I'm definitely better armed than whoever just fired into our living room, and I'm out of the line of fire. I'm safe as you can be when someone's just fired an unknown number of shots into your house.
I do not mean to toot my own horn, but...if I'm not supposed to know what to do when there's people shooting at you...I guess my body's defective. Same with my brother. Safe and armed, and we head back to the danger zone.
I went back upstairs. My brother's at the back door, checking the backyard. My dad's crossed the hall to his .45 and is scanning the front yard from a bedroom window. I drop down next to the living room window and look out. My mom shouts for me to get the birds from in front of the window. My dad shouts for me to get down. My mom shouts for me to get the bird. I got the bird.
I'm back to thinking again at this point, and I'm still stunned by the lack of bullet holes. Bird hitting the window maybe? But there is broken glass, and I trust my dad implicitly. I hunker down behind the couch and try and figure out where the threat is, what's going on, why would anyone shoot at us.
My dad gives the all clear - the front yard is empty. Same as the back according to my brother. My mom's crying and the woman on the other end of the phone is saying police are on their way. My dad says to put our rifles away. My brother and I ditch them in the basement, still loaded. I go upstairs, jack a round into my Beretta, and put it on safety in my belt. No way am I going unarmed right now. Coming down the hall from the other end of the room, I finally see the hole. It's the size of a rolling pin, and about a foot over where my head would be if I were sitting down with my feet up watching Lost.
My dad's gone outside, I go outside, he says the woman who lives across the street saw someone outside our house at the same time of the shooting, smelled smoke. I relay this information to my mom, for the benefit of the cop on the phone. I go back outside. The neighbor has left. Cop cars are blocking off the street. She comes back, and finally everybody's outside while the police are asking questions (they got here roughly 4-5 minutes after the call) and no one still has any idea what the hell is going on. She'd tracked the guy from the front of our house a couple of blocks in her jeep. The cops are on the radio trying to find him. The hole in our window looks even bigger outside than it does inside. At some point I don't remember, I've unloaded my Beretta so the police don't shoot me.
We finally found a ball about the size of a .38 round on the floor in the living room, matching a dent in our woodwork at the same height as the hole in the window. ****ing pellet gun...we think. At first we thought it was a slingshot...but the angle puts it about fifteen feet above the street, and when one of the officers shown his pistol laser through the hole back from the dent, the guys outside extrapolated it to a deck about a hundred yards away, through two back yards.
They picked up the guy the neighbor saw, frisked him and let him go. No gun, no slingshot, just a phone and a pack of smokes. I'm going looking around the neighborhood for the slingshot tomorrow.
About 10:30, roughly an hour and a half after this mess started, we put tape over the window, vaccuumed up the glass, and started trying to get ready for bed.
Now is when I'm scared. I had to pee something fierce for about half an hour after the cops left, and my arms feel like I've been lifting cinderblocks for the past six hours I'm so stressed. I can't walk in front of a window without flinching.
Some little human ****stain tried to HURT us. He used a weapon capable of causing harm to us, and scared us half to death. Either that or there's a worse possibility - that some little human ****stain gives so little thought to humanity that he'll pop off a ball bearing into someone's window, at RANDOM, for FUN. A threat I can deal with. Someone coming at me, someone means me or my family harm, I can and I will put them down without any emotion whatsoever, after tonight I know that. But RANDOM? Who the **** does this for fun? Who hurts random people for fun? Who scares middle aged couples and their teenaged kids for the **** of it? Who likes it, or maybe worse, doesn't care about it?
I'm pissed and a little scared and I don't feel safe anymore, and this little ***hole just further dimmed my view of humanity in general.
But now I know what I do when someone's shooting at me. It might've been a ball bearing coming through our window at 9:10 at night, but neither my mind nor my body knew that. I'm not proud or happy or elated or scared or anything else that when I could've stayed safe and armed I went back to the scene of the crime...it's just like "Ok." The only important thing though is that everyone including the pets is A-OK. That's all that matters.
No - 4/19 Patriot's Day Commemorative Essay
I want to tell you about a flintlock musket.
It’s probably the third crudest weapon every manufactured by human hands, and was the dominant weapon of all armies up until about a 160 years ago. Technologically, it’s right above spears and bows. It’s a long metal tube set into a carved piece of wood. There’s no “action” to speak of – a flintlock musket is basically a handheld, small-caliber cannon with no “light fuse and point at enemy” instructions written on the side.
To operate, you pour an amount of blackpowder down the barrel. This isn’t the gunpowder we know today – this stuff is barely a step above the elements its composed from, it stinks, and it smokes so bad a company of rifleman can obscure their battlefield completely. Next, a smooth, round lead ball was inserted down the barrel, usually wrapped in paper or cloth. This was packed into the powder with a long metal rod.
Now we’re ready to fire. More powder is poured in the flashpan, a chamber directly behind the user-end of the barrel. The springloaded hammer is withdrawn to full-cock. Put it up to your shoulder. Look down the rudimentary sights. This weapon is good out to 300 yards.But it’s still just a handheld cannon. Not much more sophisticated than a bottlerocket in a pipe.When you pull the trigger, the hammer is released. Flint on the tip hits the metal striker surface immediately above the flashpan. With some luck, this will trigger an open-air explosion a few inches from your face, igniting the powder inside the barrel and propelling the ball outwards.
With luck. The initial explosion may not ignite the powder. The flint may not reliably spark. Usually it does, but sometimes…You can fire a flintlock musket maybe twice inside of a minute thirty. Less if someone’s shooting at you and your adrenal gland is dumping flight-or-fight into your bloodstream, making your hands shake and your mouth taste like vomit.
Because if one of those balls hits you…the musket is a primitive arm to be sure, but the damage it can inflict is nothing if not drastic. A ball of lead, between .4 and .6 inches wide can tear a hole in a human just as fast as a modern bullet, slamming through muscle, shattering bone, tearing skin. The treatments for gunshot wounds existing at the time of the modern musket were painful and just barely above the level of drilling the head for spirits. Gunshot wounds were almost always fatal. They were always crippling, and always excruciatingly painful.
Did I mention there were very few drugs for pain, and anesthesia was a bottle of booze and a knock upside the head?
Now, I want you to imagine that the two of us are sitting in Buckman’s Tavern. It’s early in the morning. We’ve been up a long time, discussing the coming British attack. General Gage has given Lt. Colonel Francis Smith the order to come and destroy the stockpile of muskets, powder, shot, and cannon that we have been training to use to defend our town and homes. The tavern is lit by candle and fireplace, but the sun is just coming up. We were warned at one in the morning, and we’ve been up all night. Discussing what we should do, what we will do, what we want to do. Where we want to be, which is anywhere but here.
Shortly after sunrise, we can hear shouts, and feet, and the musical instruments the British use to keep their soldiers in step.There are nearly a thousand British soldiers. Inside Buckman’s Tavern, there are less than 80 of us. The British possess the sheer, overwhelming numbers and firepower to blow more than ten holes in each one of us, at once.
No pain medication. No anesthetic. No blood transfusions. No antibiotics. Amputations are done with a hacksaw and a belt.
All they want is our cannon and our guns. Simple tubes of metal set into wood.
What would you do?
History says that we rose, picked up our rifles, and walked out into the cold dawn air, as the sun was just lighting up the village green. Can you hear your heart hammering in your ears as we assemble on that green? Each thud of it could be the last. Each of us could die today. We’re counting on the fact that the British will not open fire on us, because we have no possible means of resisting successfully. If possessed of the will, they will kill us here, and we will be less than a bump in the road to them.
Our captain, John Parker, shouts: "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."
A few minutes later, we’re looking down the barrels of the British guns. Those holes are less than an inch wide, but they seem to be the size of melons. They’re dark, and each one of them can burst into flame at any point, and reduce your life to blood and screaming and pain.
Major Pitcairn rides forward and yells “Disperse, you rebels; damn you, throw down your arms and disperse!"
What would you do?
You are less than 80 men, facing nearly a thousand. The last time two forces of a similar size faced each other in epic battle, 300 Spartans and 7000 freed slaves were facing down a force of Persians between 250,000 and a million men strong at a small valley called Thermopylae.There must be something about those odds that inspires extraordinary courage, because our answer is the same as theirs.
No.
We don’t know who fired first. But all of a sudden, the world is reduced to pulling that trigger, fumbling to reload, firing again, sunlight is blocked by thick clouds of smoke, the crisp morning air is filled with the stench of violence and death, and you know for absolute certain that the entire world is trying to stop the beating of your heart, to shut down your sight and your mind and your world like flipping a switch.
232 years ago, 80 civilians lived that. They faced a force ten times larger than themselves, faced death, and pain, and disability, and said what 86 years later, their descendants would say as domestic soldiers, their countrymen opened fire on them. They said what a handful of Jews said 186 years later, as foreign troops marched into the ghetto they had been forced into and began rounding them up for extermination. They said what 218 years later, their descendants would say as domestic soldiers, their countrymen set their church on fire and machine-gunned anyone escaping from the blaze.
No.
Our lives are our own.
We will determine the course of our own destiny, not you.
We will resist you with our hands and our hearts and our minds and our breaths, and our lives, and if necessary our deaths.
We are free.
No.
You cannot do to us whatever you want.
We are free.
And we would rather die than be anything else.
Would you put that primitive cannon to your shoulder as soldiers marched into Lexington Green? Would you throw a brick at a soldier marching down your street in Baltimore? Would you sight down the barrel of a small, unfamiliar pistol and open fire as soldiers marched into Muranowski Square? Would you heft an AK-47 and open fire as soldiers cut down your family and friends and your home burned around your ears?
Would you? Would I? Would any of us?
Throughout history, on this day, men and women have done just that. They’ve held in their untrained, civilian hands primitive and unsuitable weapons, stared down the guns of better armed and trained soldiers – more often than not their countrymen – and said –
No.
We are free.
And we would rather die than be anything else.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Militias are defined as civilian soldiers, or all able-bodied civilians capable of bearing weapons in defense of their nation, state, city, or family.
The Virginians standing before the guns of the British military were a militia.
The Southerners standing before the guns of the Northern military were a militia.
The Jews standing before the guns of the Nazi military were a militia.
The Branch Davidians standing before the guns of the American military were a militia.
They were Patriots.
It’s probably the third crudest weapon every manufactured by human hands, and was the dominant weapon of all armies up until about a 160 years ago. Technologically, it’s right above spears and bows. It’s a long metal tube set into a carved piece of wood. There’s no “action” to speak of – a flintlock musket is basically a handheld, small-caliber cannon with no “light fuse and point at enemy” instructions written on the side.
To operate, you pour an amount of blackpowder down the barrel. This isn’t the gunpowder we know today – this stuff is barely a step above the elements its composed from, it stinks, and it smokes so bad a company of rifleman can obscure their battlefield completely. Next, a smooth, round lead ball was inserted down the barrel, usually wrapped in paper or cloth. This was packed into the powder with a long metal rod.
Now we’re ready to fire. More powder is poured in the flashpan, a chamber directly behind the user-end of the barrel. The springloaded hammer is withdrawn to full-cock. Put it up to your shoulder. Look down the rudimentary sights. This weapon is good out to 300 yards.But it’s still just a handheld cannon. Not much more sophisticated than a bottlerocket in a pipe.When you pull the trigger, the hammer is released. Flint on the tip hits the metal striker surface immediately above the flashpan. With some luck, this will trigger an open-air explosion a few inches from your face, igniting the powder inside the barrel and propelling the ball outwards.
With luck. The initial explosion may not ignite the powder. The flint may not reliably spark. Usually it does, but sometimes…You can fire a flintlock musket maybe twice inside of a minute thirty. Less if someone’s shooting at you and your adrenal gland is dumping flight-or-fight into your bloodstream, making your hands shake and your mouth taste like vomit.
Because if one of those balls hits you…the musket is a primitive arm to be sure, but the damage it can inflict is nothing if not drastic. A ball of lead, between .4 and .6 inches wide can tear a hole in a human just as fast as a modern bullet, slamming through muscle, shattering bone, tearing skin. The treatments for gunshot wounds existing at the time of the modern musket were painful and just barely above the level of drilling the head for spirits. Gunshot wounds were almost always fatal. They were always crippling, and always excruciatingly painful.
Did I mention there were very few drugs for pain, and anesthesia was a bottle of booze and a knock upside the head?
Now, I want you to imagine that the two of us are sitting in Buckman’s Tavern. It’s early in the morning. We’ve been up a long time, discussing the coming British attack. General Gage has given Lt. Colonel Francis Smith the order to come and destroy the stockpile of muskets, powder, shot, and cannon that we have been training to use to defend our town and homes. The tavern is lit by candle and fireplace, but the sun is just coming up. We were warned at one in the morning, and we’ve been up all night. Discussing what we should do, what we will do, what we want to do. Where we want to be, which is anywhere but here.
Shortly after sunrise, we can hear shouts, and feet, and the musical instruments the British use to keep their soldiers in step.There are nearly a thousand British soldiers. Inside Buckman’s Tavern, there are less than 80 of us. The British possess the sheer, overwhelming numbers and firepower to blow more than ten holes in each one of us, at once.
No pain medication. No anesthetic. No blood transfusions. No antibiotics. Amputations are done with a hacksaw and a belt.
All they want is our cannon and our guns. Simple tubes of metal set into wood.
What would you do?
History says that we rose, picked up our rifles, and walked out into the cold dawn air, as the sun was just lighting up the village green. Can you hear your heart hammering in your ears as we assemble on that green? Each thud of it could be the last. Each of us could die today. We’re counting on the fact that the British will not open fire on us, because we have no possible means of resisting successfully. If possessed of the will, they will kill us here, and we will be less than a bump in the road to them.
Our captain, John Parker, shouts: "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."
A few minutes later, we’re looking down the barrels of the British guns. Those holes are less than an inch wide, but they seem to be the size of melons. They’re dark, and each one of them can burst into flame at any point, and reduce your life to blood and screaming and pain.
Major Pitcairn rides forward and yells “Disperse, you rebels; damn you, throw down your arms and disperse!"
What would you do?
You are less than 80 men, facing nearly a thousand. The last time two forces of a similar size faced each other in epic battle, 300 Spartans and 7000 freed slaves were facing down a force of Persians between 250,000 and a million men strong at a small valley called Thermopylae.There must be something about those odds that inspires extraordinary courage, because our answer is the same as theirs.
No.
We don’t know who fired first. But all of a sudden, the world is reduced to pulling that trigger, fumbling to reload, firing again, sunlight is blocked by thick clouds of smoke, the crisp morning air is filled with the stench of violence and death, and you know for absolute certain that the entire world is trying to stop the beating of your heart, to shut down your sight and your mind and your world like flipping a switch.
232 years ago, 80 civilians lived that. They faced a force ten times larger than themselves, faced death, and pain, and disability, and said what 86 years later, their descendants would say as domestic soldiers, their countrymen opened fire on them. They said what a handful of Jews said 186 years later, as foreign troops marched into the ghetto they had been forced into and began rounding them up for extermination. They said what 218 years later, their descendants would say as domestic soldiers, their countrymen set their church on fire and machine-gunned anyone escaping from the blaze.
No.
Our lives are our own.
We will determine the course of our own destiny, not you.
We will resist you with our hands and our hearts and our minds and our breaths, and our lives, and if necessary our deaths.
We are free.
No.
You cannot do to us whatever you want.
We are free.
And we would rather die than be anything else.
Would you put that primitive cannon to your shoulder as soldiers marched into Lexington Green? Would you throw a brick at a soldier marching down your street in Baltimore? Would you sight down the barrel of a small, unfamiliar pistol and open fire as soldiers marched into Muranowski Square? Would you heft an AK-47 and open fire as soldiers cut down your family and friends and your home burned around your ears?
Would you? Would I? Would any of us?
Throughout history, on this day, men and women have done just that. They’ve held in their untrained, civilian hands primitive and unsuitable weapons, stared down the guns of better armed and trained soldiers – more often than not their countrymen – and said –
No.
We are free.
And we would rather die than be anything else.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Militias are defined as civilian soldiers, or all able-bodied civilians capable of bearing weapons in defense of their nation, state, city, or family.
The Virginians standing before the guns of the British military were a militia.
The Southerners standing before the guns of the Northern military were a militia.
The Jews standing before the guns of the Nazi military were a militia.
The Branch Davidians standing before the guns of the American military were a militia.
They were Patriots.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Vincent Goes To Church
Considering I chose my online name from a movie about a hitman, it's safe to say church is not a place I spend most of my time. Or even, ya know, any.
Went yesterday for the first time in four years.
Yippee-ki-yay, I get the pastor with the photographic memory. I'd been hoping to not be recognized. Wrong.
Aside from a minute incident of Muslim-bashing and a call to support our current politicians, I kinda liked it. We'll see if this going to church thing sticks.
Went yesterday for the first time in four years.
Yippee-ki-yay, I get the pastor with the photographic memory. I'd been hoping to not be recognized. Wrong.
Aside from a minute incident of Muslim-bashing and a call to support our current politicians, I kinda liked it. We'll see if this going to church thing sticks.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Home Defense Rifle Build
As I may or may not have mentioned, about six months ago, I embarked on a quest to build the perfect home defense rifle. The idea was inspired by my Beretta CX4 carbine - build a small, perfectly 100% reliable, illiterate-peasant simple, two-handed weapon that would be easier to use and more powerful than a pistol, and would still be useful in defending the home OUTSIDE the home, if you know what I mean and I think that you do.
After all, a pistol is what you use to get BACK to your RIFLE.
Recently, after purchasing a rifle specifically to use in this build (Carolynn McCarthy), I found that it wouldn't work with the pieces I had already assembled. Nancy Pelosi was recruited to fill the recently vacated HDR shoes.
Over the course of several months, I purchased and socked away the parts I'd need to optimize what is already the greatest weapon ever invented. Last night the final piece was delivered, and I spent half an hour sitting on the living room floor assembling the whole thing. To the base receiver-barrel combination I added:
-An ACE folding stock
-A "rhino-skin" textured pistol grip
-A quad-rail system
-A vertical foregrip
-A 20rd magazine
Absolutely beautiful now that it's assembled. A weapon to make liberals weep at the sight of it. Nancy Pelosi has sold her soul to try to ban every feature on it, and the platform itself. Now I just need to take a hack-saw to the solder they used to lock the lug in place over the barrel threads, and then I'll have just about every "evil" feature imagineable.
I've already made sure it runs perfectly, and accurately. Now it sits in my closet, waiting for me to buy a safe already and stash the two pistols and the carbine under my bed SOMEWHERE ELSE.
RE:Overpenetration of rifle vs pistol rounds The Box O'Truth did a couple pages on this and found that any weapon possessed of the penetrating power necessary to down an assailant is going to overpenetrate in a house. I'd much rather have blazing-fast fragments of a 130grn bullet impacting the brick on the way out of our house than a slow, 230grn, half inch wide ball bouncing off or chewing its way through to God-Knows-Where.
I'm happy as a clam at high tide.
After all, a pistol is what you use to get BACK to your RIFLE.
Recently, after purchasing a rifle specifically to use in this build (Carolynn McCarthy), I found that it wouldn't work with the pieces I had already assembled. Nancy Pelosi was recruited to fill the recently vacated HDR shoes.
Over the course of several months, I purchased and socked away the parts I'd need to optimize what is already the greatest weapon ever invented. Last night the final piece was delivered, and I spent half an hour sitting on the living room floor assembling the whole thing. To the base receiver-barrel combination I added:
-An ACE folding stock
-A "rhino-skin" textured pistol grip
-A quad-rail system
-A vertical foregrip
-A 20rd magazine
Absolutely beautiful now that it's assembled. A weapon to make liberals weep at the sight of it. Nancy Pelosi has sold her soul to try to ban every feature on it, and the platform itself. Now I just need to take a hack-saw to the solder they used to lock the lug in place over the barrel threads, and then I'll have just about every "evil" feature imagineable.
I've already made sure it runs perfectly, and accurately. Now it sits in my closet, waiting for me to buy a safe already and stash the two pistols and the carbine under my bed SOMEWHERE ELSE.
RE:Overpenetration of rifle vs pistol rounds The Box O'Truth did a couple pages on this and found that any weapon possessed of the penetrating power necessary to down an assailant is going to overpenetrate in a house. I'd much rather have blazing-fast fragments of a 130grn bullet impacting the brick on the way out of our house than a slow, 230grn, half inch wide ball bouncing off or chewing its way through to God-Knows-Where.
I'm happy as a clam at high tide.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Mike Schmid - Forget You
In case you were wondering what that haunting song played at the end of A Stone Of The Heart was, it's called Forget You by Mike Schmid, and you can listen to it here:
http://www.broadjam.com/player/player.asp?play_file=7308_56502
Here are the lyrics:
I thought I'd never see you again
But I also thought that I was wrong
If time's my enemy
I don't know who's my friend
All I know
Is every day's so long
But I'm doing fine without you
I live my life
The best I know to live it
I never even think about you
It's hard enough
To just get through this minute
Without telling the truth
That I never do
Forget You
The toughest part is all of the little things
Like sleeping, eating, driving my car
And fighting back the tears
And keeping my mind from wandering
To wondering where you are
But I'm doing fine without you
I live my life
The best I know to live it
I never even think about you
It's hard enough
To just get through this minute
Without telling the truth
That I never do
You can't ruin my life
You don't have that much power over me
I just need some time to see
That everything will be alright
Alright
But I'm doing fine without you
I live my life
The best I know to live it
I never even think about you
It's hard enough
To just get through this minute
Without telling the truth
That I never do
Forget You
----------------------------------------
The song was pefect for, and just like the show. Hauntingly beautiful, tragic, truthful, with a strange kind of gentle brutality. I love this song. It brings back tons of memories.
Edited to add:Support this artist, and buy his music!
http://www.broadjam.com/player/player.asp?play_file=7308_56502
Here are the lyrics:
I thought I'd never see you again
But I also thought that I was wrong
If time's my enemy
I don't know who's my friend
All I know
Is every day's so long
But I'm doing fine without you
I live my life
The best I know to live it
I never even think about you
It's hard enough
To just get through this minute
Without telling the truth
That I never do
Forget You
The toughest part is all of the little things
Like sleeping, eating, driving my car
And fighting back the tears
And keeping my mind from wandering
To wondering where you are
But I'm doing fine without you
I live my life
The best I know to live it
I never even think about you
It's hard enough
To just get through this minute
Without telling the truth
That I never do
You can't ruin my life
You don't have that much power over me
I just need some time to see
That everything will be alright
Alright
But I'm doing fine without you
I live my life
The best I know to live it
I never even think about you
It's hard enough
To just get through this minute
Without telling the truth
That I never do
Forget You
----------------------------------------
The song was pefect for, and just like the show. Hauntingly beautiful, tragic, truthful, with a strange kind of gentle brutality. I love this song. It brings back tons of memories.
Edited to add:Support this artist, and buy his music!
A Stone Of The Heart
I've run into a scant handful of television hours that I would classify as perfect TV.
~Children Of Time and In The Pale Moonlight from Star Trek:Deep Space Nine.
~Twilight, Similitude, and Damage from Enterprise.
~The Last Of Summer and East Meets West from Everwood.
~Walkabout, Confidence Man, and Do No Harm from Lost.
~Detox and House vs God from House M.D.
~Rampage from CSI: Miami.
That's 13 hours of perfect television out of hundreds that I've seen. Without further ado, here's the 14th. No description of mine can do it justice. Hie thee hence and watch, and then mourn with me at the show's recently announced passing.
http://www.nbc.com/Video/rewind/full_episodes/blackdonnellys.shtml?show=donnellys02
Edited to add:As I can't go back and watch http://www.nbc.com/Video/rewind/full_episodes/blackdonnellys.shtml?show=donnellys01, I'm not a hundred percent whether this link will remain, uh, linked after the new episode is posted tonight. I hope so. If not, I figure I'll download it, and I urge you to do the same.
~Children Of Time and In The Pale Moonlight from Star Trek:Deep Space Nine.
~Twilight, Similitude, and Damage from Enterprise.
~The Last Of Summer and East Meets West from Everwood.
~Walkabout, Confidence Man, and Do No Harm from Lost.
~Detox and House vs God from House M.D.
~Rampage from CSI: Miami.
That's 13 hours of perfect television out of hundreds that I've seen. Without further ado, here's the 14th. No description of mine can do it justice. Hie thee hence and watch, and then mourn with me at the show's recently announced passing.
http://www.nbc.com/Video/rewind/full_episodes/blackdonnellys.shtml?show=donnellys02
Edited to add:As I can't go back and watch http://www.nbc.com/Video/rewind/full_episodes/blackdonnellys.shtml?show=donnellys01, I'm not a hundred percent whether this link will remain, uh, linked after the new episode is posted tonight. I hope so. If not, I figure I'll download it, and I urge you to do the same.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
An iPod For Every Michigan Kid
An iPod for every kid? Are they !#$!ing idiots?
The Detroit News
We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.
No cost estimate was attached to their hare-brained idea to "invest" in education. Details, we are promised, will follow.
The Democrats, led by their increasingly erratic speaker Andy Dillon of Redford Township, also pledge $100 million to make better downtowns.
Their plan goes beyond cluelessness. Democrats are either entirely indifferent to the idea that extreme hard times demand extreme belt tightening, or they are bone stupid. We lean toward the latter.
We say that because the House plan also keeps alive, again without specifics, the promise of tax hikes.
The range of options, according to Rep. Steve Tobocman, D-Detroit, includes raising the income tax, levying a 6 percent tax on some services, and taxing junk food and soda.
We wonder how financially strained Michigan residents will feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else's kid an iPod.
That they would include such frivolity in a crisis budget plan indicates how tough it will be to bring real spending reform to Michigan.
Senate Republicans issued a plan a week ago that eliminates the deficit with hard spending cuts. Now their leader, Mike Bishop of Rochester Hills, is sounding wobbly, suggesting he might compromise on a tax hike.
We hope Bishop is reading the polls that say three-quarters of Michigan residents oppose higher taxes.
There are few things in the House budget outline from which to forge a compromise.
For example, Dillon says he would shift the burden of business taxes to companies that operate in Michigan, but don't have a facility here. The certain outcome of that plan is to drive even more businesses out of Michigan.
About all we see of merit is a call for government consolidation and a demand that state employees contribute more to their retirement benefits -- which is no more than House Democrats suggested for future state lawmakers a few weeks ago.
We find it ironic that the Democrats are proposing floating $5 billion in revenue bonds to pay for retiree health care, when Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed a nearly identical plan by Oakland County because it would cost the state money.
Instead of advocating cost-saving changes in public school teacher pension and health plans, Dillon suggests more study. There have been plenty of studies of the issue, with the conclusion being that hundreds of millions of dollars could be saved through reforms. Michigan needs action, not more study committees.
Dillon also proposes that the state cover 50 percent of the cost of catastrophic health insurance for everyone in the place, but once again doesn't specify a funding source.
Stop the stupidity. Michigan can't tax or spend its way out of this economic catastrophe.
The only responsible option is to bring spending in line with current revenues. The mission must be to expand the tax base, rather than to expand taxes, by crafting a budget that encourages growth.
We won't get there by wasting money on early Christmas presents for Michigan kids.
------------------------------------------
Apparently, this was an editorial in a Michigan newspaper, rebutting a budget proposal of some sort.
You don't often equate tyranny with iPods, but...crap, think of the arrogance and capricious power that would be used. Michigan taxpayers' money, EVERYONE'S money, used to buy toys for school children. Even those people that don't have kids. Even those people that don't LIKE kids.
And the state covering half of all catastropic illness expenses...how do you NOT go commit suicide in guilt after proposing to confiscate other people's wealth - a measurement of their finite time on earth - for the benefit of others that they will never even know or meet?
The Detroit News
We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.
No cost estimate was attached to their hare-brained idea to "invest" in education. Details, we are promised, will follow.
The Democrats, led by their increasingly erratic speaker Andy Dillon of Redford Township, also pledge $100 million to make better downtowns.
Their plan goes beyond cluelessness. Democrats are either entirely indifferent to the idea that extreme hard times demand extreme belt tightening, or they are bone stupid. We lean toward the latter.
We say that because the House plan also keeps alive, again without specifics, the promise of tax hikes.
The range of options, according to Rep. Steve Tobocman, D-Detroit, includes raising the income tax, levying a 6 percent tax on some services, and taxing junk food and soda.
We wonder how financially strained Michigan residents will feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else's kid an iPod.
That they would include such frivolity in a crisis budget plan indicates how tough it will be to bring real spending reform to Michigan.
Senate Republicans issued a plan a week ago that eliminates the deficit with hard spending cuts. Now their leader, Mike Bishop of Rochester Hills, is sounding wobbly, suggesting he might compromise on a tax hike.
We hope Bishop is reading the polls that say three-quarters of Michigan residents oppose higher taxes.
There are few things in the House budget outline from which to forge a compromise.
For example, Dillon says he would shift the burden of business taxes to companies that operate in Michigan, but don't have a facility here. The certain outcome of that plan is to drive even more businesses out of Michigan.
About all we see of merit is a call for government consolidation and a demand that state employees contribute more to their retirement benefits -- which is no more than House Democrats suggested for future state lawmakers a few weeks ago.
We find it ironic that the Democrats are proposing floating $5 billion in revenue bonds to pay for retiree health care, when Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed a nearly identical plan by Oakland County because it would cost the state money.
Instead of advocating cost-saving changes in public school teacher pension and health plans, Dillon suggests more study. There have been plenty of studies of the issue, with the conclusion being that hundreds of millions of dollars could be saved through reforms. Michigan needs action, not more study committees.
Dillon also proposes that the state cover 50 percent of the cost of catastrophic health insurance for everyone in the place, but once again doesn't specify a funding source.
Stop the stupidity. Michigan can't tax or spend its way out of this economic catastrophe.
The only responsible option is to bring spending in line with current revenues. The mission must be to expand the tax base, rather than to expand taxes, by crafting a budget that encourages growth.
We won't get there by wasting money on early Christmas presents for Michigan kids.
------------------------------------------
Apparently, this was an editorial in a Michigan newspaper, rebutting a budget proposal of some sort.
You don't often equate tyranny with iPods, but...crap, think of the arrogance and capricious power that would be used. Michigan taxpayers' money, EVERYONE'S money, used to buy toys for school children. Even those people that don't have kids. Even those people that don't LIKE kids.
And the state covering half of all catastropic illness expenses...how do you NOT go commit suicide in guilt after proposing to confiscate other people's wealth - a measurement of their finite time on earth - for the benefit of others that they will never even know or meet?
And This Man Stand A Good Chance Of Being Our Next President...
December 17, 1998
Giuliani Backs DNA Testing Of Newborns for Identification
By BRUCE LAMBERT
Escalating his debate with civil liberties advocates, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday that he had ''no problem'' with the DNA testing and fingerprinting of all newborns, although he did not propose actually gathering such records.
The Police Commissioner, Howard Safir, is already drawing both criticism and support for his new proposal that the police take DNA samples from the hundreds of thousands of people arrested every year in the city.
Mr. Giuliani, who backs the police plan, broadened the debate in a speech and news conference yesterday by endorsing the use of DNA tests in intensified city efforts to identify ''deadbeat'' fathers and force them to support their offspring financially. Children in single-parent homes are eight times more likely to commit crimes than those in intact families, he said.
Asked whether the DNA samples from children in support cases should also be given to law enforcement agencies, the Mayor said: ''The same way fingerprints are available, DNA should be available.'' He called DNA tests ''a wonderful protection for the innocent and another method of catching the guilty,'' as well as a tool for determining paternity.
When asked whether all children should have DNA tests at birth, the Mayor said: ''I don't know that that's the proposal, but I would have no problem with that, or fingerprinting all children. We go through a massive effort to try to fingerprint large numbers of children'' now, he said, ''so in case they are lost they can be found again or in case if they are kidnapped they can be found again. There is absolutely no reason why people should be afraid of being identified.''
Scientists say testing a person's unique DNA, which can be done with samples of blood, tissue or secretions like saliva, is a highly accurate technique for identification.
''It's not invasive,'' the Mayor said. ''It doesn't invade any right of privacy. You don't have a right not to be identified. I don't remember a constitutional amendment that gives you the right not to be identified.''
But critics say fingerprints differ from DNA samples, which contain genetic and other biological data that they say should be protected by medical privacy laws. All hospitals in New York State give newborns blood tests for various illnesses, but the records are confidential.
''I don't know any bioethicist of any stature that would condone the taking of blood samples from children at birth for purposes like what the Mayor is talking about,'' said Barry Scheck, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and a member of state and Federal panels on DNA issues. ''It would be a step towards a total-surveillance society.''
The New York Civil Liberties Union's executive director, Norman Siegel, said: ''This really does evoke the specter of 'Brave New World.' The Mayor reconfirmed the precise concern we've had about government and police agencies maintaining massive data banks containing personal information. This country was not based on trusting government but on limiting government and safeguarding individual rights. This is the beginning of a major policy debate that will determine where the city and state go in the new millennium.''
The Mayor's remarks came in a speech to the New York City Police Foundation, which honored him as the ''Crimestopper of the Year'' for his administration's success in continuing the sharp reduction in crime that began under Mayor David N. Dinkins.
---------------------------------------------------
Collecting DNA from all children at birth, so we can keep "deadbeat dads" from missing childcare payments, and then making that DNA available to all police agencies forever... I realize that this article is nearly a decade old, but that's just plain evil.
Giuliani Backs DNA Testing Of Newborns for Identification
By BRUCE LAMBERT
Escalating his debate with civil liberties advocates, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday that he had ''no problem'' with the DNA testing and fingerprinting of all newborns, although he did not propose actually gathering such records.
The Police Commissioner, Howard Safir, is already drawing both criticism and support for his new proposal that the police take DNA samples from the hundreds of thousands of people arrested every year in the city.
Mr. Giuliani, who backs the police plan, broadened the debate in a speech and news conference yesterday by endorsing the use of DNA tests in intensified city efforts to identify ''deadbeat'' fathers and force them to support their offspring financially. Children in single-parent homes are eight times more likely to commit crimes than those in intact families, he said.
Asked whether the DNA samples from children in support cases should also be given to law enforcement agencies, the Mayor said: ''The same way fingerprints are available, DNA should be available.'' He called DNA tests ''a wonderful protection for the innocent and another method of catching the guilty,'' as well as a tool for determining paternity.
When asked whether all children should have DNA tests at birth, the Mayor said: ''I don't know that that's the proposal, but I would have no problem with that, or fingerprinting all children. We go through a massive effort to try to fingerprint large numbers of children'' now, he said, ''so in case they are lost they can be found again or in case if they are kidnapped they can be found again. There is absolutely no reason why people should be afraid of being identified.''
Scientists say testing a person's unique DNA, which can be done with samples of blood, tissue or secretions like saliva, is a highly accurate technique for identification.
''It's not invasive,'' the Mayor said. ''It doesn't invade any right of privacy. You don't have a right not to be identified. I don't remember a constitutional amendment that gives you the right not to be identified.''
But critics say fingerprints differ from DNA samples, which contain genetic and other biological data that they say should be protected by medical privacy laws. All hospitals in New York State give newborns blood tests for various illnesses, but the records are confidential.
''I don't know any bioethicist of any stature that would condone the taking of blood samples from children at birth for purposes like what the Mayor is talking about,'' said Barry Scheck, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University and a member of state and Federal panels on DNA issues. ''It would be a step towards a total-surveillance society.''
The New York Civil Liberties Union's executive director, Norman Siegel, said: ''This really does evoke the specter of 'Brave New World.' The Mayor reconfirmed the precise concern we've had about government and police agencies maintaining massive data banks containing personal information. This country was not based on trusting government but on limiting government and safeguarding individual rights. This is the beginning of a major policy debate that will determine where the city and state go in the new millennium.''
The Mayor's remarks came in a speech to the New York City Police Foundation, which honored him as the ''Crimestopper of the Year'' for his administration's success in continuing the sharp reduction in crime that began under Mayor David N. Dinkins.
---------------------------------------------------
Collecting DNA from all children at birth, so we can keep "deadbeat dads" from missing childcare payments, and then making that DNA available to all police agencies forever... I realize that this article is nearly a decade old, but that's just plain evil.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
New Jersey Hostage Drill - Christians Are Terrorists
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07040301.html
BURLINGTON, NJ, April 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Thursday, March 22, officials at Burlington Township High School enlisted the help of two local policemen to carry out a mock ‘hostage situation’ drill at their school. The drill invoked disapproval from Christian students as the student body was told that the alleged gunmen were “members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders' who don't believe in separation of church and state.”
According to a report in the local paper, The Burlington County Times, the mock gunmen pretended to gun down several students in the hallways before taking 10 students hostage in the school’s media center. Given that the drill was intended to test the disaster response of students, faculty and local emergency personnel, county officers were dispatched during the drill to realistically execute an emergency evacuation of the building.
The drill organizers explained that the supposedly Christian gunmen “went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class.” School Superintendent Chris Manno praised the drill beforehand explaining that “You perform as you practice. We need to practice under conditions as real as possible in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they're as effective as possible.”Bob Pawson, National Coordinator of the Scriptures in School Project, denied that the drill portrayed a possible reality and instead asserted that the drill was used as an excuse to denigrate Christians. “So what allegedly real condition was imagineered? A grotesque scenario saturated with Christian-bashing prejudice and bigotry; a scenario which could never possibly occur.”
Pawson explained that the scenario created by the Burlington school officials could never realistically happen. “Why could it never happen? Because, as all Burlington school officials know full well: It is perfectly legal for any student or staff member to pray in a public school. They know that no student can ever be expelled for praying before class. Hence, the contrived reason for the mock attack is bogus.”
Prayer in school has been a contentious issue for schools in the past despite a 1969 Supreme Court ruling that stated that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The US Department of Education explicitly affirms the high court ruling and the national No Child Left Behind educational program penalizes any school that does not allow for constitutionally protected religious speech which includes public prayer.
While county officials praised the drill saying that it was the first live test of its sort Pawson explained that he thought the drill was a test of another sort. “This denigrating drill is also a test of the reactions and responses of New Jersey 's Christians, along with all other fair-minded citizens of any faith, to such a blatant example of anti-Christian animosity.”"A public apology is in order. The citizens of Burlington County could rightly demand the resignation or termination of school officials who dreamed up and approved this reprehensible scenario."
The County Times reported that the drill was observed by law enforcement, school administrators and state and county officials from the Office of Emergency Management.
---------------------------------------------------
I've hung out with the denim, clogs, multiple-rugrats, and bible-thumping set on more than one occasion, and I find them as outhouse-rat-crazy as the next person.
That said, their craziness is confined to praying Real Hard, and casting aspersions of damnation at the unholy. Quite unlike a certain other religion, that actively calls for the killing of non-believers, and the adherents of which make a pretty dang good attempt to do just that.
We saw what a ****storm the Muslims kicked up when someone drew insenstive pictures of their prophet; I can only imagine how they would act when hostage takers and terrorists are portrayed as having Islamic sympathies...
Is it possible this New Jersey school is AFRAID of the Muslim community, and that is why they portrayed the always-gentle Christian community as mad-dog killers (and don't even mention the millenia-old Crusades)?
Or could it be that they just decided to deride the only unprotected cultural group remaining in the world - usually white, conservative, Christians (and probably men too, I doubt the pretend hostage takers were women).
Which is more likely: A school shooting/terrorist attack involving members of The Religion Of Peace(tm) or fundamentalist Christians? Which group thinks unbelievers should be taxed for the privilege of not being killed, and which thinks unbelievers should be preached to? Which group murders the unholy, and which group prays for or ignores them? Breaking it down to its most simple elements: Which religious group today kills people on a regular basis and which does not?
And if one group is less likely to commit mass homicide than the other, why does the group with a track-record of atrocities get a free ride, and the peaceful group get derided as deranged murderers?
Of course, it is New Jersy, which considers a Marlin .22 rifle to be a Weapon Of War, so like the Benighted Kingdom, their level of governmental intelligence is through the floor.
BURLINGTON, NJ, April 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Thursday, March 22, officials at Burlington Township High School enlisted the help of two local policemen to carry out a mock ‘hostage situation’ drill at their school. The drill invoked disapproval from Christian students as the student body was told that the alleged gunmen were “members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders' who don't believe in separation of church and state.”
According to a report in the local paper, The Burlington County Times, the mock gunmen pretended to gun down several students in the hallways before taking 10 students hostage in the school’s media center. Given that the drill was intended to test the disaster response of students, faculty and local emergency personnel, county officers were dispatched during the drill to realistically execute an emergency evacuation of the building.
The drill organizers explained that the supposedly Christian gunmen “went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class.” School Superintendent Chris Manno praised the drill beforehand explaining that “You perform as you practice. We need to practice under conditions as real as possible in order to evaluate our procedures and plans so that they're as effective as possible.”Bob Pawson, National Coordinator of the Scriptures in School Project, denied that the drill portrayed a possible reality and instead asserted that the drill was used as an excuse to denigrate Christians. “So what allegedly real condition was imagineered? A grotesque scenario saturated with Christian-bashing prejudice and bigotry; a scenario which could never possibly occur.”
Pawson explained that the scenario created by the Burlington school officials could never realistically happen. “Why could it never happen? Because, as all Burlington school officials know full well: It is perfectly legal for any student or staff member to pray in a public school. They know that no student can ever be expelled for praying before class. Hence, the contrived reason for the mock attack is bogus.”
Prayer in school has been a contentious issue for schools in the past despite a 1969 Supreme Court ruling that stated that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The US Department of Education explicitly affirms the high court ruling and the national No Child Left Behind educational program penalizes any school that does not allow for constitutionally protected religious speech which includes public prayer.
While county officials praised the drill saying that it was the first live test of its sort Pawson explained that he thought the drill was a test of another sort. “This denigrating drill is also a test of the reactions and responses of New Jersey 's Christians, along with all other fair-minded citizens of any faith, to such a blatant example of anti-Christian animosity.”"A public apology is in order. The citizens of Burlington County could rightly demand the resignation or termination of school officials who dreamed up and approved this reprehensible scenario."
The County Times reported that the drill was observed by law enforcement, school administrators and state and county officials from the Office of Emergency Management.
---------------------------------------------------
I've hung out with the denim, clogs, multiple-rugrats, and bible-thumping set on more than one occasion, and I find them as outhouse-rat-crazy as the next person.
That said, their craziness is confined to praying Real Hard, and casting aspersions of damnation at the unholy. Quite unlike a certain other religion, that actively calls for the killing of non-believers, and the adherents of which make a pretty dang good attempt to do just that.
We saw what a ****storm the Muslims kicked up when someone drew insenstive pictures of their prophet; I can only imagine how they would act when hostage takers and terrorists are portrayed as having Islamic sympathies...
Is it possible this New Jersey school is AFRAID of the Muslim community, and that is why they portrayed the always-gentle Christian community as mad-dog killers (and don't even mention the millenia-old Crusades)?
Or could it be that they just decided to deride the only unprotected cultural group remaining in the world - usually white, conservative, Christians (and probably men too, I doubt the pretend hostage takers were women).
Which is more likely: A school shooting/terrorist attack involving members of The Religion Of Peace(tm) or fundamentalist Christians? Which group thinks unbelievers should be taxed for the privilege of not being killed, and which thinks unbelievers should be preached to? Which group murders the unholy, and which group prays for or ignores them? Breaking it down to its most simple elements: Which religious group today kills people on a regular basis and which does not?
And if one group is less likely to commit mass homicide than the other, why does the group with a track-record of atrocities get a free ride, and the peaceful group get derided as deranged murderers?
Of course, it is New Jersy, which considers a Marlin .22 rifle to be a Weapon Of War, so like the Benighted Kingdom, their level of governmental intelligence is through the floor.
More British Nonsense
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=446245&in_page_id=1770
In most offices, when a chair is in the wrong position then immediate action is taken. Somebody moves it.
But not at the Health and Safety Executive.
There, employees have been banned from shifting furniture on the remote chance that they might do themselves a mischief.
They are told to book a porter to complete the task - and allow two days for it to happen.
The new rule could prove particularly problematic for staff planning a last-minute meeting.
If a porter cannot be summoned urgently staff would be left with the awkward choice of disobeying a direct order from the management or asking some of their guests to stand.
To hammer home the point, signs which read: ‘Do not lift tables or chairs without giving 48 hours notice to HSE management’, have been plastered across the walls in several meeting rooms.
The ruling was discovered by Labour peer Lord Berkeley. He noticed the signs when he attended a meeting at the London headquarters of the HSE, whose responsibilities include workers at nuclear plants, oil rigs and huge factories.
Incensed by what he considered to be "health and safety gone mad", Lord Berkeley raised the matter in the House of Lords, demanding in a parliamentary question to know why the HSE had put up the notices.
"I saw them and thought, 'It just can’t be true'," he said.
"It’s ridiculous to mollycoddle people like that. It’s taking health-and-safety precautions to a ridiculous level.
They ought to be concentrating on the important things.
"The HSE is an office like any other – so if it is not required in other offices, why there? It’s the epitome of a nanny state."
Lord Berkeley also criticised the HSE for sending home staff from a meeting he was attending after it had snowed.
"We were told we had to go home because there was an inch of snow on the ground outside," he said.
"The buses and trains were still running. It’s just preposterous."
In a written answer to Lord Berkeley, Lord McKenzie, a work and pensions minister, said: "Where furniture needs to be moved regularly, it is mounted on lockable wheels so that any staff can move it easily.
"For other cumbersome furniture, arrangements have been made with porters to move it safely.
"Signs have therefore been posted in some meeting rooms advising of this arrangement."
The signs have been put up in almost all of the 31 HSE offices across the country, where 3,600 staff are employed.
A spokesman said: "HSE’s approach to moving furniture in its offices is based on its own assessment of the risks from manual handling - one of the main causes of work-related absence among its staff."
An insider at the executive described life there as "a nanny state gone absolutely bonkers".
"Why we can’t move a chair or lift a table out of the way when we want beggars belief," he said.
"Are we seriously supposed to wait two days before we can rearrange a room so we can all see each other in a meeting?"
Unsurprisingly, the HSE has one of the best records for accidents in the country, with 107 injuries per 100,000 workers over the last year compared with 150 per 100,000 in education, 360 in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing, 640 in construction and 1,390 in transport, storage and communications.
The furniture-moving ban follows a long line of edicts made under the banner of health and safety.
Last week, it emerged that a school banned knotted ties because it said they were a safety risk. Pupils at Bramhall High in Stockport were told to wear clipons instead or be sent home.
During the festive period staff at Tower Hamlets Council in East London were banned from putting up Christmas lights and decorations in their offices in case they hurt themselves.
---------------------------------------------------
Maybe I shouldn't be reporting on British news. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, or shooting a .22 rifle at a target 3 yards away. It's all ridiculously easy...to point and laugh at. There's no sport. Should I stop?
Nah.
Too much fun stuff here.
Banned from moving office chairs. The nation that gave birth to the ancestors of Washington, Adams, and Henry has fallen so far that they are legally prohibited from moving wheeled office chairs and desks.
What do you say to that?
In most offices, when a chair is in the wrong position then immediate action is taken. Somebody moves it.
But not at the Health and Safety Executive.
There, employees have been banned from shifting furniture on the remote chance that they might do themselves a mischief.
They are told to book a porter to complete the task - and allow two days for it to happen.
The new rule could prove particularly problematic for staff planning a last-minute meeting.
If a porter cannot be summoned urgently staff would be left with the awkward choice of disobeying a direct order from the management or asking some of their guests to stand.
To hammer home the point, signs which read: ‘Do not lift tables or chairs without giving 48 hours notice to HSE management’, have been plastered across the walls in several meeting rooms.
The ruling was discovered by Labour peer Lord Berkeley. He noticed the signs when he attended a meeting at the London headquarters of the HSE, whose responsibilities include workers at nuclear plants, oil rigs and huge factories.
Incensed by what he considered to be "health and safety gone mad", Lord Berkeley raised the matter in the House of Lords, demanding in a parliamentary question to know why the HSE had put up the notices.
"I saw them and thought, 'It just can’t be true'," he said.
"It’s ridiculous to mollycoddle people like that. It’s taking health-and-safety precautions to a ridiculous level.
They ought to be concentrating on the important things.
"The HSE is an office like any other – so if it is not required in other offices, why there? It’s the epitome of a nanny state."
Lord Berkeley also criticised the HSE for sending home staff from a meeting he was attending after it had snowed.
"We were told we had to go home because there was an inch of snow on the ground outside," he said.
"The buses and trains were still running. It’s just preposterous."
In a written answer to Lord Berkeley, Lord McKenzie, a work and pensions minister, said: "Where furniture needs to be moved regularly, it is mounted on lockable wheels so that any staff can move it easily.
"For other cumbersome furniture, arrangements have been made with porters to move it safely.
"Signs have therefore been posted in some meeting rooms advising of this arrangement."
The signs have been put up in almost all of the 31 HSE offices across the country, where 3,600 staff are employed.
A spokesman said: "HSE’s approach to moving furniture in its offices is based on its own assessment of the risks from manual handling - one of the main causes of work-related absence among its staff."
An insider at the executive described life there as "a nanny state gone absolutely bonkers".
"Why we can’t move a chair or lift a table out of the way when we want beggars belief," he said.
"Are we seriously supposed to wait two days before we can rearrange a room so we can all see each other in a meeting?"
Unsurprisingly, the HSE has one of the best records for accidents in the country, with 107 injuries per 100,000 workers over the last year compared with 150 per 100,000 in education, 360 in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing, 640 in construction and 1,390 in transport, storage and communications.
The furniture-moving ban follows a long line of edicts made under the banner of health and safety.
Last week, it emerged that a school banned knotted ties because it said they were a safety risk. Pupils at Bramhall High in Stockport were told to wear clipons instead or be sent home.
During the festive period staff at Tower Hamlets Council in East London were banned from putting up Christmas lights and decorations in their offices in case they hurt themselves.
---------------------------------------------------
Maybe I shouldn't be reporting on British news. It's like shooting fish in a barrel, or shooting a .22 rifle at a target 3 yards away. It's all ridiculously easy...to point and laugh at. There's no sport. Should I stop?
Nah.
Too much fun stuff here.
Banned from moving office chairs. The nation that gave birth to the ancestors of Washington, Adams, and Henry has fallen so far that they are legally prohibited from moving wheeled office chairs and desks.
What do you say to that?
UK Police Want Tougher Knife Laws
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=444955&in_page_id=1770
The police today warned that hundreds of knife offenders are escaping justice because of legal loopholes.
Mounting a sweeping attack on the Government's crime record, the Police Federation said many of those caught carrying knives were being cautioned.
The law requires officers to prove offenders are carrying for illegal purposes to prosecute. This has meant many criminals carry craft knives and similar weapons, knowing they can escape prosecution.
The federation also warned robbers were receiving no extra sentence for using knives.
Other loopholes are regularly used by defence lawyers exploiting the complexities of existing law to argue that an offender should be acquitted because they had been charged under the wrong piece of legislation.
The catalogue of flaws was revealed in a submission by the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, to the Commons home affairs select committee.
A special session on knife crime was being held following the recent fatal stabbings, including those of London teenagers Kodjo Yenga and Adam Regis.
The criticisms and proposed changes will be an embarrassment to the Government.
Home Office minister Vernon Coaker told the committee the Government had vowed to tackle this "hugely serious" issue.
Police said a new Knife And Offensive Weapons Act was needed to simplify existing legislation and introduce stronger powers.
These new measures should, it said, include legislation to ensure possession of a weapon while committing any other offence was considered when passing sentence.
The onus should be on the person carrying a knife to prove they are doing so for legal purposes.
The federation is also demanding the current definition of knife crime should be extended to include domestic violence.
The Government has proposed new measures including raising the maximum sentence for carrying a knife from two to four years and raising the age for buying a blade from 16 to 18, as well as longer term preventative work in schools.
Mr Coaker suggested officers should be given more effective guidance in how to implement the legislation.
Labour MP Martin Salter backed police demands, however, saying: "We should cut through this nonsense and bring it together in a Knife And Offensive Weapons Act."
Mayor Ken Livingstone told the committee 12,341 knife crimes were recorded last year by the Metropolitan Police.
-------------------------------------------------------
I'd say millions of Americans carry knives every day (myself included), and rarely do we do something naughty with them. Are the British just more inclined towards crime, or do they have weaker self-control?
Neither. Maybe.
They've become a land of sycophants and parasites, expecting government to take care of them cradle-to-grave, and spawning at least one generation of spoiled, irresponsible little criminals in the process.
It's sad to discuss a nation which produced the exact same stock from which George Washington, Sam Adams, and Patrick Henry were born discussing, seriously, how many years a person should spend in jail for possession of an Exacto knife.
And what the hell does "longer term preventative work in schools" mean? They're already paying for babyfood, how much deeper into a child's life can they insinuate themselves?
The police today warned that hundreds of knife offenders are escaping justice because of legal loopholes.
Mounting a sweeping attack on the Government's crime record, the Police Federation said many of those caught carrying knives were being cautioned.
The law requires officers to prove offenders are carrying for illegal purposes to prosecute. This has meant many criminals carry craft knives and similar weapons, knowing they can escape prosecution.
The federation also warned robbers were receiving no extra sentence for using knives.
Other loopholes are regularly used by defence lawyers exploiting the complexities of existing law to argue that an offender should be acquitted because they had been charged under the wrong piece of legislation.
The catalogue of flaws was revealed in a submission by the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, to the Commons home affairs select committee.
A special session on knife crime was being held following the recent fatal stabbings, including those of London teenagers Kodjo Yenga and Adam Regis.
The criticisms and proposed changes will be an embarrassment to the Government.
Home Office minister Vernon Coaker told the committee the Government had vowed to tackle this "hugely serious" issue.
Police said a new Knife And Offensive Weapons Act was needed to simplify existing legislation and introduce stronger powers.
These new measures should, it said, include legislation to ensure possession of a weapon while committing any other offence was considered when passing sentence.
The onus should be on the person carrying a knife to prove they are doing so for legal purposes.
The federation is also demanding the current definition of knife crime should be extended to include domestic violence.
The Government has proposed new measures including raising the maximum sentence for carrying a knife from two to four years and raising the age for buying a blade from 16 to 18, as well as longer term preventative work in schools.
Mr Coaker suggested officers should be given more effective guidance in how to implement the legislation.
Labour MP Martin Salter backed police demands, however, saying: "We should cut through this nonsense and bring it together in a Knife And Offensive Weapons Act."
Mayor Ken Livingstone told the committee 12,341 knife crimes were recorded last year by the Metropolitan Police.
-------------------------------------------------------
I'd say millions of Americans carry knives every day (myself included), and rarely do we do something naughty with them. Are the British just more inclined towards crime, or do they have weaker self-control?
Neither. Maybe.
They've become a land of sycophants and parasites, expecting government to take care of them cradle-to-grave, and spawning at least one generation of spoiled, irresponsible little criminals in the process.
It's sad to discuss a nation which produced the exact same stock from which George Washington, Sam Adams, and Patrick Henry were born discussing, seriously, how many years a person should spend in jail for possession of an Exacto knife.
And what the hell does "longer term preventative work in schools" mean? They're already paying for babyfood, how much deeper into a child's life can they insinuate themselves?
And Now For Your Friendly "Let's Make Fun Of The UK" Post
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070404083030.ootuegy7&show_article=1
Talking" closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras which allow operators to shout at people behaving badly are to be installed across England, the government announced Wednesday.
The scheme lets local council workers in a control centre monitor pictures from the cameras and talk to them if they feel they are doing something wrong.
The cameras were piloted in Middlesbrough, north-east England, where they have been used to reprimand vandals and litter bugs, but now loudspeakers are being fitted to cameras in another 20 areas.
Britain has some 4.2 million CCTV cameras and the government's privacy watchdog, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, warned last year that the nation risks "sleep-walking into a surveillance society".
Human rights group Privacy International says Britain is the worst country in the European Union at protecting individuals' privacy, citing "endemic surveillance".
And a powerful group of lawmakers -- the House of Commons home affairs select committee -- is to hold an inquiry into the extent of surveillance in Britain this year.
The "talking CCTV" move comes as Prime Minister Tony Blair's administration attempts to impose a "respect agenda" by cracking down on petty anti-social behaviour.
Home Secretary John Reid defended the scheme, saying it was aimed at "the small minority who think it is acceptable to litter our streets, vandalise our communities and damage our properties."
Reid added that schools in many areas were holding competitions for children to become the "voice" of CCTV cameras.
The scheme is likely to cost around 500,000 pounds (740,000 euros, 988,000 dollars).
------------------------------------------------------
They read George Orwell's 1984 and thought it was an instruction manual.
There comes a point where screaming and ranting just gets old, and the only sane thing left to do is point and laugh and jeer and make merciless fun of the person who JUST DOESN'T GET IT.
Talking" closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras which allow operators to shout at people behaving badly are to be installed across England, the government announced Wednesday.
The scheme lets local council workers in a control centre monitor pictures from the cameras and talk to them if they feel they are doing something wrong.
The cameras were piloted in Middlesbrough, north-east England, where they have been used to reprimand vandals and litter bugs, but now loudspeakers are being fitted to cameras in another 20 areas.
Britain has some 4.2 million CCTV cameras and the government's privacy watchdog, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, warned last year that the nation risks "sleep-walking into a surveillance society".
Human rights group Privacy International says Britain is the worst country in the European Union at protecting individuals' privacy, citing "endemic surveillance".
And a powerful group of lawmakers -- the House of Commons home affairs select committee -- is to hold an inquiry into the extent of surveillance in Britain this year.
The "talking CCTV" move comes as Prime Minister Tony Blair's administration attempts to impose a "respect agenda" by cracking down on petty anti-social behaviour.
Home Secretary John Reid defended the scheme, saying it was aimed at "the small minority who think it is acceptable to litter our streets, vandalise our communities and damage our properties."
Reid added that schools in many areas were holding competitions for children to become the "voice" of CCTV cameras.
The scheme is likely to cost around 500,000 pounds (740,000 euros, 988,000 dollars).
------------------------------------------------------
They read George Orwell's 1984 and thought it was an instruction manual.
There comes a point where screaming and ranting just gets old, and the only sane thing left to do is point and laugh and jeer and make merciless fun of the person who JUST DOESN'T GET IT.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Trip To The Range
Managed to drag my brother and one of his friends to the range yesterday. Got a chance to workout my rebuilt BAG-day gun(George Bush Jr.) and battle-rifle(Carolynn McCarthy), as well as my Sig220(Paul Nelson).
The BAG-day gun was the surprise of a lifetime. It's a heavy sucker, and my arms still ache from holding it up, but that's my only complaint. Out of 40rds through 2 magazines (detachable mags for this type of rifle are supposed to suck, but Tapco delivered) I had only one jam, and I suspect that was peculiar to that particular round, as it wouldn't feed even after multiple replacements in the mag. Everything else ran wonderfully. I was amazed by this thing - hardly ANY recoil, and the brass (er, steel) didn't fly all over tarnation either, it just flipped gently a few feet to the right). Accuracy was fantastic. Out of 20 rounds, I put everything inside two inches (diameter) at 25 yards, excluding 2 flyers that I couldn't find.
Carolynn was a major disappointment. When she ran, she ran perfectly. When she wanted to misbehave...jam-o-matic. I have never seen this platform jam before. I've never had a problem with it. But I guess even peasant guns can shake your faith, and mine was shaken. We must've had 20 jams out out of 50rds. Of course, we replaced the jammed round in the mag every time, and that might've had something to do with it, because it'd run 15-20 rds before a jam, then fail-to-feed a certain round or two 5 times in a row. I've gotta give her a gasoline bath, clean the dickens out of her, and then reshoot. If it's still a problem, off to Gander we go. Oh yeah and, accuracy was just fine for this particular variety of rifle. 2-3 inches (diameter) at 25. That's still minute-of-chest when you've got the adrenaline dump, and that's a good starting point for me. I'll get better.
Mr. Nelson was fun. Put probably 50rds through him, and he is, as my dad would say A Blaster. You really gotta hang on for the ride, but the Hogues do a good job. Blew an index card sized sticker to bits at 10yds, and that's pretty good IMO.
My brother and his friend were loving the .22 rifle and pistol, and once I'd shot through the expensive ammunition (.45 and ammo for my rifles is a killer on a college student budge, that's why I shoot a ton of 9 when I can, and only run a few mags through the battle-rifles when I take them out), and when I was done with the function testing I needed to do, we had a contest trying to see who could shoot the sticker off a 10yd backstop first. The sticker was an inch square, roughly, and we'd take turns with the .22s.
Tons of good, wholesome fun.
The BAG-day gun was the surprise of a lifetime. It's a heavy sucker, and my arms still ache from holding it up, but that's my only complaint. Out of 40rds through 2 magazines (detachable mags for this type of rifle are supposed to suck, but Tapco delivered) I had only one jam, and I suspect that was peculiar to that particular round, as it wouldn't feed even after multiple replacements in the mag. Everything else ran wonderfully. I was amazed by this thing - hardly ANY recoil, and the brass (er, steel) didn't fly all over tarnation either, it just flipped gently a few feet to the right). Accuracy was fantastic. Out of 20 rounds, I put everything inside two inches (diameter) at 25 yards, excluding 2 flyers that I couldn't find.
Carolynn was a major disappointment. When she ran, she ran perfectly. When she wanted to misbehave...jam-o-matic. I have never seen this platform jam before. I've never had a problem with it. But I guess even peasant guns can shake your faith, and mine was shaken. We must've had 20 jams out out of 50rds. Of course, we replaced the jammed round in the mag every time, and that might've had something to do with it, because it'd run 15-20 rds before a jam, then fail-to-feed a certain round or two 5 times in a row. I've gotta give her a gasoline bath, clean the dickens out of her, and then reshoot. If it's still a problem, off to Gander we go. Oh yeah and, accuracy was just fine for this particular variety of rifle. 2-3 inches (diameter) at 25. That's still minute-of-chest when you've got the adrenaline dump, and that's a good starting point for me. I'll get better.
Mr. Nelson was fun. Put probably 50rds through him, and he is, as my dad would say A Blaster. You really gotta hang on for the ride, but the Hogues do a good job. Blew an index card sized sticker to bits at 10yds, and that's pretty good IMO.
My brother and his friend were loving the .22 rifle and pistol, and once I'd shot through the expensive ammunition (.45 and ammo for my rifles is a killer on a college student budge, that's why I shoot a ton of 9 when I can, and only run a few mags through the battle-rifles when I take them out), and when I was done with the function testing I needed to do, we had a contest trying to see who could shoot the sticker off a 10yd backstop first. The sticker was an inch square, roughly, and we'd take turns with the .22s.
Tons of good, wholesome fun.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
So Much Wrong Here, I Don't Know Where To Begin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031300555.html
TUESDAY, March 13 (HealthDay News) -- The lion's share of Emergency Medicaid expenditures in North Carolina covers undocumented immigrants' pregnancy and labor complications, a trend that's probably occurring in other states, a new study found.
The findings are one of the first close-up looks at the health care needs of the growing numbers of immigrants in the United States, and they appear to question the monetary costs of excluding undocumented immigrants from routine health care, especially prenatal care.
Other experts agreed.
"Providing a dollar's worth of prenatal care can save $3 of postnatal care," said Mara Youdelman, director of the National Language Access Advocacy Project at the National Health Law Program in Washington, D.C. "It's much more costly to use Emergency Medicaid to pay for prematurity and low birth-weight babies and postnatal complications."
The research is published in the March 14 issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association, which has a series of articles on health care.
Undocumented immigrants are estimated to account for 29 percent of the total foreign-born population in the United States. Many "new growth" states that previously did not have large immigrant populations, such as North Carolina, are getting many of the newcomers. These "new growth" states may be less prepared to meet the health-care needs of the new arrivals, the study authors suggested.
In North Carolina, the total foreign-born population grew by 274 percent during the 1990s, and included about 300,000 undocumented immigrants by 2004. These immigrants face a host of barriers to accessing health care, not the least of which is federal law.
Undocumented immigrants and legal immigrants who have been in the United States less than five years are generally excluded from Medicaid benefits. But they can receive emergency medical care (known as Emergency Medicaid) if they are children, pregnant women, families with dependent children, or elderly or disabled.
For pregnant women, Emergency Medicaid funds cover labor but not routine prenatal care.
In their study, researchers at the University of North Carolina analyzed administrative claims data for Emergency Medicaid, which showed that 48,391 people in the state received emergency care between 2001 and 2004.
Within that group, 99 percent of patients were undocumented immigrants, 93 percent were Hispanic, 95 percent were female and 89 percent were between the ages of 18 and 40.
In addition, the data showed, about 82 percent of Emergency Medicaid spending in 2004 was for childbirth and pregnancy complications, which accounted for 91 percent of hospitalizations.
About one-third of the remaining funds were spent on "sudden-onset" problems, such as injuries and poisonings. (Hispanic immigrants account for a disproportionate number of workplace injuries and fatalities in the United States, and motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among Hispanics in North Carolina). Large chunks also went to complications of chronic disease, such as kidney failure.
The study found that the largest spending increases occurred among undocumented immigrants who were elderly and disabled.
Spending on pregnant women increased by 22 percent during the study period, by 70 percent for families with dependent children, by 82 percent for disabled patients and by 98 percent for elderly patients.
Still, only a small proportion of the undocumented population seems to be using Emergency Medicaid. The 16,106 patients utilizing Emergency Medicaid in 2004 represented only 5 percent of the total estimated undocumented immigrant population of North Carolina. Emergency Medicaid was less than 1 percent of the total state Medicaid budget, the study authors said.
The study authors wrote: "The availability of affordable culturally and linguistically appropriate primary care, however, will be a critical determinant of both the effectiveness and cost efficacy of health care for immigrants in new-growth areas."
But without Emergency Medicaid, many medical institutions and poor people would be lost.
"We're very happy that Emergency Medicaid covers women, especially the ones who have childbirth, or we wouldn't have funding. We would be destitute," said Dr. Leo B. Twiggs, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and clinical service chief at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Jackson is the safety-net hospital for Florida's Miami/Dade county and serves many undocumented immigrants who give birth.
"It's the right thing to do," Twiggs said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
First off, they're not "undocumented immigrants," you MORON, they're ILLEGAL ALIENS. They're danged lucky they're not considered invading foreign soldiers, which they SHOULD be, any time they start waving the Mexican flag and talking nonsense about "Aztlan" or "the reconquista."
Second, why are we aware that all these criminals are in the United States and receiving our tax dollars and yet not placing their buttocks on a plane seat and flying them back to their third world country in shackles?
If at the hospital you have no money, no documentation of your birth here or legal immigration status AND/OR you don't speak English, whatever ails you should be stabilized as cheaply as possible, you should be put in leg-irons and handcuffed, and then INS should escort you to south of the border, key your cuffs, and send the bill for your treatment and their gas money to the Mexican embassy.
And, anyone found to be helping you escape justice should be brought up on felony charges of harboring a fugitive.
Seriously, where does this get hard?
TUESDAY, March 13 (HealthDay News) -- The lion's share of Emergency Medicaid expenditures in North Carolina covers undocumented immigrants' pregnancy and labor complications, a trend that's probably occurring in other states, a new study found.
The findings are one of the first close-up looks at the health care needs of the growing numbers of immigrants in the United States, and they appear to question the monetary costs of excluding undocumented immigrants from routine health care, especially prenatal care.
Other experts agreed.
"Providing a dollar's worth of prenatal care can save $3 of postnatal care," said Mara Youdelman, director of the National Language Access Advocacy Project at the National Health Law Program in Washington, D.C. "It's much more costly to use Emergency Medicaid to pay for prematurity and low birth-weight babies and postnatal complications."
The research is published in the March 14 issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association, which has a series of articles on health care.
Undocumented immigrants are estimated to account for 29 percent of the total foreign-born population in the United States. Many "new growth" states that previously did not have large immigrant populations, such as North Carolina, are getting many of the newcomers. These "new growth" states may be less prepared to meet the health-care needs of the new arrivals, the study authors suggested.
In North Carolina, the total foreign-born population grew by 274 percent during the 1990s, and included about 300,000 undocumented immigrants by 2004. These immigrants face a host of barriers to accessing health care, not the least of which is federal law.
Undocumented immigrants and legal immigrants who have been in the United States less than five years are generally excluded from Medicaid benefits. But they can receive emergency medical care (known as Emergency Medicaid) if they are children, pregnant women, families with dependent children, or elderly or disabled.
For pregnant women, Emergency Medicaid funds cover labor but not routine prenatal care.
In their study, researchers at the University of North Carolina analyzed administrative claims data for Emergency Medicaid, which showed that 48,391 people in the state received emergency care between 2001 and 2004.
Within that group, 99 percent of patients were undocumented immigrants, 93 percent were Hispanic, 95 percent were female and 89 percent were between the ages of 18 and 40.
In addition, the data showed, about 82 percent of Emergency Medicaid spending in 2004 was for childbirth and pregnancy complications, which accounted for 91 percent of hospitalizations.
About one-third of the remaining funds were spent on "sudden-onset" problems, such as injuries and poisonings. (Hispanic immigrants account for a disproportionate number of workplace injuries and fatalities in the United States, and motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among Hispanics in North Carolina). Large chunks also went to complications of chronic disease, such as kidney failure.
The study found that the largest spending increases occurred among undocumented immigrants who were elderly and disabled.
Spending on pregnant women increased by 22 percent during the study period, by 70 percent for families with dependent children, by 82 percent for disabled patients and by 98 percent for elderly patients.
Still, only a small proportion of the undocumented population seems to be using Emergency Medicaid. The 16,106 patients utilizing Emergency Medicaid in 2004 represented only 5 percent of the total estimated undocumented immigrant population of North Carolina. Emergency Medicaid was less than 1 percent of the total state Medicaid budget, the study authors said.
The study authors wrote: "The availability of affordable culturally and linguistically appropriate primary care, however, will be a critical determinant of both the effectiveness and cost efficacy of health care for immigrants in new-growth areas."
But without Emergency Medicaid, many medical institutions and poor people would be lost.
"We're very happy that Emergency Medicaid covers women, especially the ones who have childbirth, or we wouldn't have funding. We would be destitute," said Dr. Leo B. Twiggs, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and clinical service chief at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Jackson is the safety-net hospital for Florida's Miami/Dade county and serves many undocumented immigrants who give birth.
"It's the right thing to do," Twiggs said.
--------------------------------------------------------------
First off, they're not "undocumented immigrants," you MORON, they're ILLEGAL ALIENS. They're danged lucky they're not considered invading foreign soldiers, which they SHOULD be, any time they start waving the Mexican flag and talking nonsense about "Aztlan" or "the reconquista."
Second, why are we aware that all these criminals are in the United States and receiving our tax dollars and yet not placing their buttocks on a plane seat and flying them back to their third world country in shackles?
If at the hospital you have no money, no documentation of your birth here or legal immigration status AND/OR you don't speak English, whatever ails you should be stabilized as cheaply as possible, you should be put in leg-irons and handcuffed, and then INS should escort you to south of the border, key your cuffs, and send the bill for your treatment and their gas money to the Mexican embassy.
And, anyone found to be helping you escape justice should be brought up on felony charges of harboring a fugitive.
Seriously, where does this get hard?
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