Saturday, August 22, 2009

With some politicians and bureaucrats, it wouldn't surprise me

PHOENIX (AP) — A man carrying a copy of the US Constitution was arrested while demonstrating outside President Obama’s speech to veterans on Monday.

Although Arizona law currently allows citizens to openly carry a Constitution for purposes of self-defense against tyrants and despots, such laws are usurped in the presence of the President.
...
“Free speech is not an absolute,” explained FBI spokesman John Miller. “You can’t yell ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater. Waving a Constitution around is essentially yelling ‘freedom!’ at a crowded Obama rally. We consider this sort of offensive language a direct threat to civil order in general and the President in particular, and it will not be tolerated.”

Oh, and that wonderful socialized medicine scheme in Canada?

Don't plan on going there for surgery.
Vancouver patients needing neurosurgery, treatment for vascular diseases and other medically necessary procedures can expect to wait longer for care, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Monday.

Dix said a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority document shows it is considering chopping more than 6,000 surgeries in an effort to make up for a dramatic budgetary shortfall that could reach $200 million.

“This hasn’t been announced by the health authority … but these cuts are coming,” Dix said, citing figures gleaned from a leaked executive summary of “proposed VCH surgical reductions.”

One of the excuses?
“It is a planning document. It has not been approved or implemented,” said spokeswoman Anna Marie D’Angelo.
Ah, so you're just planning the cuts, so that makes it all wonderful...
Dr. Brian Brodie, president of the BC Medical Association, called the proposed surgical cuts “a nightmare.”

“Why would you begin your cost-cutting measures on medically necessary surgery? I just can’t think of a worse place,” Brodie said
.
Because you have government bureaucrats in charge of it all, and cutting out surgery to save money makes sense to them.

"Missile defense won't work!"

My ass.
On March 18, 2009, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA; full disclosure: I'm an MDA contractor) conducted a landmark test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

Lurking less than 1,000 km off the coast of Hawaii, MDA's mobile sea launch platform, the former amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli*, launched a medium range ballistic missile (MRBM) without warning. Seconds later, an unnamed Aegis BMD ship in the area was first to detect the launch with its SPY-1 radar and passed its tracking data to a THAAD interceptor battery on Kauai. Using the Navy's cue, the Army soldiers then directed their own THAAD radar onto the hostile missile, developed a firing solution, and loosed two interceptors seconds apart.

Meanwhile at the edge of space, the inbound threat missile released its warhead.

The first THAAD interceptor identified the warhead and smashed into it. As for the second interceptor, well, that's where things get interesting:
Go read. And use it to annoy the hell out of any friends who make sarcastic comments about 'Star Wars'.

I have one last thing to say about the Scottish 'Justice Secretary'

releasing a convicted mass-murderer for 'compassionate reasons':
He said he stood by al-Megrahi's conviction and the sentence for "the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed on U.K. soil."

He added that he had ruled out sending the bomber back to Libya under a prisoner-transfer agreement, saying the U.S. victims had been given assurances that al-Megrahi would serve out his sentence in Scotland. But he said that as a prisoner given less than three months to live by doctors, al-Megrahi was eligible for compassionate release
.
Kenny MacAskill, you miserable, crawling little piece of shit. If you stand by the conviction then that bastard should have stayed in his cell, instead of you playing "I think he should get a hero's welcome and die at home with his family" games with this murderer.

Screw you, and if this is what the place has become then screw Scotland, too; one of the commenters at Tam's is right; all the good people left, and what stayed behind is morons and socialist fools like you.

Three cases of less-than-desirable LE actions

First, 19 shots fired without a hit; not good.
During a foot chase, police said, the suspect took a "firing position" and the officer opened fire, emptying his 16-shot Glock pistol, reloading and firing three more times before the suspect surrendered in the rear yard of a home on Queenston Cres.

The bullets hit at least three homes, although police said they're still investigating. No bullets hit the suspect, although one bullet smashed through a shed and a rear bedroom window of a Tweedsmuir home before lodging in a closet wall. A man who lives at the home was in the room watching the commotion from the same window just moments earlier
.
Not good at all.


Blog about the police, wind up arrested.
Elisha Strom, who appears unable to make the $750 bail, was arrested outside Charlottesville on July 16 when police raided her house, confiscating notebooks, computers and camera equipment. Although the Charlottesville police chief, Timothy J. Longo Sr., had previously written to Ms. Strom warning her that her blog posts were interfering with the work of a local drug enforcement task force, she was not charged with obstruction of justice or any similar offense. Rather, she was indicted on a single count of identifying a police officer with intent to harass, a felony under state law.
...
All this information was publicly available, including the photograph, which Ms. Strom gleaned from municipal records. The task force's officers may have worked undercover on occasion, but one wonders about their undercover abilities, given that Ms. Strom was able to out them so consistently. Chief Longo warned Ms. Strom that her blog posts were scaring off informants and endangering the officers and their families, but he provided no evidence. At no point did Ms. Strom's blog express a threat, explicit or otherwise, to police or their sources
.


Two Marin County sheriff's deputies watched from 50 feet away while a man killed two people with a shotgun on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge last week.

The deputies, detectives returning from an unrelated investigation in San Pablo, stopped traffic and radioed for help, Richmond police said Tuesday.

But they made no move to stop the killer's rampage or to follow him or take his license plate number
.
The description of the incident leaves some room for question, but this doesn't sound good.

Way back in the 70's I read an article in a magazine about wild dog problems

and how some areas were dealing with it. Was reminded of it by this(pointed to by Uncle) about two people being killed by a pack of dogs.

The article(the old one) was written by a guy who, on a regular basis, helped organize hunts for packs of feral dogs. We're talking about dogs killing livestock and pets, and sometimes attacking people; bad situations. One of the problems he mentioned having to deal with was people giving them crap because "You want to kill my Fluffy!"; they just would not or could not understand the difference between their pet and a feral dog that would kill Fluffy; or as part of a pack kill livestock and attack people.

I've noticed that the Disney Syndrome seems to strike in many ways, one of them being that a lot of people just don't seem to realized just what kind of damage a dog, even a small one, can do; you get into medium- to large-size dogs, they can seriously tear you up.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Our President, Jimmy Carter II:

Bigoted in his piety,
President Obama is distancing himself from the National Day of Prayer by nixing a formal early morning service and not attending a large Catholic prayer breakfast the next morning.

All Mr. Obama will do for the National Day of Prayer, which is Thursday, is sign a proclamation honoring the day, which originated in 1952 when Congress set aside the first Thursday in May for the observance.
...
HotAirPundit posted Obama's Ramadan wishes today...
It's five minutes long:

and sucking up to tyrants and terrorists
The U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem is America's embassy to the Palestinian Authority, according to the U.S. Consul-General's response to a letter penned by an irate Jewish American.

Dr. Adam Splaver, a Florida cardiologist, wrote to the American Consul-General in Jerusalem on August 14 expressing outrage that the Consulate's website "did not mention Israel, projects in Israel, the people of Israel or the modern state of Israel. What it does mention is the numerous projects you have with the Palestinians and in their cities and towns."

But he'll damn sure try to use rabbis to push his socialized medicine plan down our throats; I guess he decided that Jews have some use other than being targets for the palistinians.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

You want to look at a prime case of "You stepped off the reservation,

you fool!" ? Take a look here. This is the gentleman Kevin linked to, who got a very bad reaction from someone he'd considered a friend of long standing.

I'm getting pretty sick of troops having their gear, issued or

bought, stolenconfiscated.
As he was stranded at another major base on his way out, he heard that Navy Customs in Kuwait was taking all auto-opening knives, even those we'd been issued on previous tours (as opposed to any we may have purchased at AAFES locations this tour).

Rumor has it, this can be memoed away. However...none of our people know the specifics of such a memo. Company level, battalion level, brigade...it's a mystery. As we all know, standing in the Customs warehouse and being told you should have gotten a memo from the first O6 in your chain of command is not exactly useful.

Remember that moron officer in a cavalry unit several years ago who decreed that nobody in the unit could carry even a pocketknife? Or a multi-tool with a knife blade? In friggin' Iraq, for deity's sake? As I recall, it took a large amount of ridicule and some higher-ups asking what the hell do you think you're doing? to get that fixed.

Also a few years back, someone wrote of a new LT arriving in Iraq and, first thing after getting to the FOB, asking where was the armory so his men could store their weapons? No, not just the MGs and such, the rifles and sidearms? When somebody asked him if his men were so badly trained and untrustworthy they couldn't be allowed to carry them, he got kind of flustered; seems he'd been the recipient of some of the 'enlisted men cannot be trusted with complicated things like weapons and they should be locked up' bullshit and bought it.

You can find morons and busybodies and nannies effing everywhere.

I guess The Annointed One is getting a bit jumpy,

with all the subjects reading his socialized medicine bill, and actually reading or watching him saying what his actual plans are and borrowing from Gandalf when they talk to their elected representatives("YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS!"); so he's trotted out the 'moral imperative'for the government to loot everybody who works in order to give socialized medicine(he pretends it's insurance, but hell, we know better) to 'everyone' as he defines it.

And it's getting HARD, dammit! It wasn't supposed to be HARD for The Annointed One Socialist to rul- uh, 'lead' us, yeah. It was supposed to be easy! But with this internet thing allowing people to catch- and prove- lies and distortions the state-approved media puts out, it's getting harder. And the Tea Party people don't have to go by the approved media putting out that they're a few nuts; they know better, and they're spreading; all the approved-media weenies calling them 'teabaggers' and such does is piss them off more.

I mean, what's a narcisstic semi-deity to do, when it appears his semi-divine presence and words don't make people do what they're told?

Warning: Reading Brigid is bad for your appetite

It'll make you cook and eat. Like these. I had some time today, so...

I used butter instead of Crisco, and instead of a cookie sheet I have a baking stone, and damn, they're good. No, I didn't eat all four, two left for tomorrow.

I think next time I'll make about eight smaller instead of four big biscuits.

Now, THIS is an interesting idea

She and her husband, Terry, 61, a Butternut baker, have lived in their home on North Wisconsin Avenue for 30 years, and have seen the neighborhood fall into drug trafficking. The police suggested using the Armadillo.

That weekend, the truck pulled up to the offending neighbor's house. A police officer knocked on the door and told the residents a nuisance report had been filed. Within 24 hours, the Smiths say, the house was quiet. The occupants moved out soon thereafter.

"The difference was like night and day," Mrs. Smith says. The landlord, Phil Schertz, credits the Armadillo.

"The ugliness of the Armadillo is what makes it unique," says Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. "A police car is not a particular stigma, but if people see that thing in front of your house, they know something bad is going on in there."

It's parked in a public street, there's no wiretapping or looking in windows, and the only people it seems to annoy are the targets. Not a bad piece of thinking.

Greenpeace caught lying about 'melting arctic ice';

anyone surprised?
The outgoing leader of Greenpeace has admitted his organization’s recent claim that the Arctic Ice will disappear by 2030 was “a mistake.” Greenpeace made the claim in a July 15 press release entitled “Urgent Action Needed As Arctic Ice Melts,” which said there will be an ice-free Arctic by 2030 because of global warming.

Under close questioning by BBC reporter Stephen Sackur on the “Hardtalk” program, Gerd Leipold, the retiring leader of Greenpeace, said the claim was wrong.

“I don’t think it will be melting by 2030. … That may have been a mistake,” he said
.
You think maybe? For more reasons than one?
Although he admitted Greenpeace had released inaccurate but alarming information, Leipold defended the organization’s practice of “emotionalizing issues” in order to bring the public around to its way of thinking and alter public opinion.
So flat-out lying is 'emotionalizing issues', is it? I do admit that sounds better than "We want to control your life, and we'll lie and cheat to do it."

If you doubt the 'control your life' part,
Leipold said later in the BBC interview that there is an urgent need for the suppression of economic growth in the United States and around the world. He said annual growth rates of 3 percent to 8 percent cannot continue without serious consequences for the climate.
Let's see, people in free and prosperous societies generally clean up the environment around them, wind up producing less pollution(remember the friggin' disaster the commies left behind in East Germany and other places?), and wind up with smaller families; but Greenpeace sees an 'urgent need' to suppress growth...

It appears Greenpeace doesn't love Nature; it hates people.

MSNBC either didn't think anyone would catch them, (updated with outrage)

or didn't care; either way, they're a fine example of "You only need to know what we decide to tell you" journalism.

Update:
I ran across this at Ace, and it caused me to think a bit more about this. The above was when I first read of it, and it was kind of "So a Big Media 'new' broadcast screwed with footage and lied and changed the story. Ho hum."

After a bit more thought, it's become "These bastards claim to be reporters?!? They screwed with the video to present only what they wanted people to see and think, and used that to push a bullshit race-warfare template they want to sell? God DAMN these people!"

We've become so used to clowns like these at MSNBC screwing with the news that if a lot of us don't think about it a bit, we don't even get that worked up about it anymore; we've become used to it. And that's scary as hell.
"A man at a pro-health care reform rally...wore a semiautomatic assault rifle on his shoulder and a pistol on his hip....there are questions about whether this has racial overtones....white people showing up with guns." Brewer failed to mention the man she described was black.
This is flat disgusting. These people claim protection of the 1st Amendment to lie to us, and call us names and insult us when we call them on it. They tell us that anyone who opposes Obama on damn near anything is a racist 'because there's no other reason to'. Never mind actual policy disagreements and such, those don't count because they don't want them to.

Damn these sorry excuses for reporters for so screwing with the news that we've become used to it.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Remember what I said about late summer weather?

This morning it was 20% chance of rain today, 30-40% chance tonight. As of about half an hour ago, we have this:

The yellow is tornado watch, the green flash flood watch. KTOK, a local AM station, just said 80% chance of storms tonight; the tornado watch is until 2300 here in OKC, and the flash flood watch continues till tomorrow morning.

Ok, some reporter just quoted one of the local weather weenies as saying the weather picture looks more like April than August, and he didn't mean it in a good way; April is usually when we have the most severe storms and tornados, and I could do without one of God's vacuums travelling through the neighborhood.

For the folks in north Texas who mentioned a lack of rain, I just found this at the NWS site:
Tonight  - Click for more information.
Most of the folks I know down that way are in the DFW area, so looks like they're probably out of luck tonight.

Back to Britain for more socialized medicine news

Thousands of families are expected to launch claims against NHS trusts after Alzheimer's were patients wrongly forced to pay for careThe cases of three families who have clawed back £300,000 they were wrongly charged by the NHS in care fees is the “tip of the iceberg”, a leading lawyer has warned.
But this stuff is supposed to be taken care of, I thought?
The family of Judith Roe, who died from Alzheimer’s aged 74 last October, won back £130,000 in care home fees her local NHS refused to pay because they deemed her problems “social” rather than “health”-related.

Last month the family of Marjorie Eyton-Jones, 88, who also suffered from Alzheimer’s, were reimbursed £165,000 they had paid in nursing home fees. Both women had to sell their homes to pay for care they were entitles to free.

And the family of Roger Johnson, 54, won back £51,500 after the NHS refused to pay for his care after he was left partially paralysed following a brain haemorrhage
.
...
Under current rules in England, individual PCTs decide who qualifies for free nursing care. The guidelines are open to interpretation. If a person’s needs are classed as “social”, they must fund the care themselves. It will only be paid if their needs are deemed “health”-related.

Miss Morgan, who represented Mrs Eyton-Jones, works for Hugh James solicitors, which has a specialist team dealing with continuing cases. They are acting for over 750 clients and have already recovered £8 million in wrongly paid nursing home fees
.
Can you imagine having your health care turned over to a mess like this? Where all they have to do is say your problem is 'social' and therefore you have to pay for it(you're already paying taxes and 'fees' out the ass to cover this mess, but never mind that) yourself.
Another lawyer, Paul Ridge, of human rights specialists Bindman and Partners, said: “This is a substantial problem caused mainly by PCTs trying to save money. There have been a lot of changes to the guidelines down the years which has left people confused as to what they qualify for.

“And PCTs set such tight criteria it tens to lead to a ‘no’ answer.”
You can just imagine what some functionary would do with such rules here.



The other case I found today,
The distraught father of a teenage girl who died after her tonsillitis was deemed to be swine flu is calling for over-the-phone diagnosis to be scrapped.
"Over-the-phone"? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Following revelations that 16-year-olds are being employed at a swine flu call centre, there are also fears that many of those doling out advice and the anti-viral drug Tamilfu are not qualified to do so.
Ya think maybe?
Last week the parents of a girl of two told how their daughter died of meningitis after she was misdiagnosed.

In the latest case Charlotte Hartey was told she had swine flu over the phone by a local GP.

She was prescribed Tamiflu but her condition deteriorated and she was admitted to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on July 29 where she died two days later after her lungs collapsed when bacteria overwhelmed her immune system
.
...
'Charlotte is not the first person to have died because of misdiagnosis. We are fighting a war against call centre advice.

'I am not putting blame on the doctors because they follow instructions from the Government, which says not to see swine flu victims.

'This is a breach of our human rights. The Government is restricting us from going to the doctor.'

Yes it is, sir; that's what you get with socialized medicine.
Mother-of-three Jasvir Gill, 48, of Leicester, also died this month days after being misdiagnosed with swine flu.

She began suffering from a sore throat and vomiting and was told to take Tamiflu in a telephone diagnosis.

Around 12 hours later she had a heart attack and died from blood poisoning caused by meningitis
.
And this is the kind of crap we'll be seeing in great numbers here if Obama and Barney Frank & Co. get their way and shove this mess down our throat.

Naw, no odd connections with the union at all...

U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan announced Tuesday that he has hired Sara Howard as his new St. Louis-based director of communications for his congressional operation — a choice that rekindles her old political ties with the Carnahan family.

Since 2000, Sara Howard has built a long political resume. She served as communications director for former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., and was the national spokeswoman in 2004 for America Coming Together, a massive independent (and pro-Democratic) effort to register voters around the country. Howard also has been the national media relations chief for the Service Employees International Union, and was among the key operatives in labor’s successful 2006 statewide campaign to win voter approval of Proposition B, which increased Missouri’s minimum wage.

Seems to be an awful lot of prosecutorial misconduct

going on out there:
Former CEO of Brocade Communications Systems, Gregory Reyes, had his convictions overturned by the the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court reversed Reyes' conviction "because of prosecutorial misconduct in making a false assertion of material fact to the jury in closing argument."
...
In reversing, the court states that "[t]he prosecutor asserted as fact a proposition that he knew was contradicted by evidence not presented to the jury."
So in this case they guy gets a new trial. Which means he's paying for his defense all over again, and the prosecution has to go through presenting their case all over again; this time with the defense looking for one word out of place to bring this up again.

Bet they're wishing they'd done it right the first time.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Home Security: a piece from Brigid

Well worth the time

About two weeks ago I bought a bottle of Elmers,

the plain old white glue, for a couple of things.

Four days ago I moved it.

Now? I think that brownie with a bad sense of humor is messing with me again.

While I'm wondering where the bleep it is, take a look at A Dixie Carpetbagger, a new blogger.

And "CSI- Ninekah" will have a fix for this in 3, 2, 1...

Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.

The scientists fabricated blood and saliva samples containing DNA from a person other than the donor of the blood and saliva. They also showed that if they had access to a DNA profile in a database, they could construct a sample of DNA to match that profile without obtaining any tissue from that person.
This has a whole range of 'bad news' written all over it. Adding to the others that if you're in a DNA database, somebody who can get into it can find out all kinds of things about you they're not authorized to. Though I'm sure these databases will be as secure as Triple-I[/sarcasm].

John M. Butler, leader of the human identity testing project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said he was “impressed at how well they were able to fabricate the fake DNA profiles.” However, he added, “I think your average criminal wouldn’t be able to do something like that.”
Mr. Butler, one of the problems is that the average criminal might not be able to, but he'll know someone- or know someone who knows someone- who can. For a price.

Add this to all the other 'revealed' uncertainties in forensics and it's going to get real interesting, folks.

Borrowing from Dennis again, "If you're intending

to vote "against the interests" of the people you've been elected to represent, don't mention it while being videotaped."
MASSA: I will vote for the single payer bill.

PARTICIPANT: Even if it meant you were being voted out of office?

MASSA: I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful
.
Helpful to who, you progressive dirtbag?

"It's good that Muffy knows

that I shouldn't be allowed in places like Whole Foods. The fact of the matter is, on the few trips I've actually made there, I'm cranky before I even get in the place. That's because the parking lot is normally full of Prius hybrid shitmobiles and Lexus hybrid SUVs. The stench of middle class smug hits you the moment you open the door to your car.

Once you get inside, it only gets worse. All the staff is fashionably counter-culture in appearance. There's some variety of zen-like, multicultural music playing that features Chilean mountain flutes or some such nonsense. There are boxes of children's's cereal with names like Panda Flakes that claim to be eco-friendly (how can a fucking corn flake be eco-anything?). A half-hour in that sort of environment, and I'm looking for a baby seal to club.

However, the store and the staff and the merchandise isn't the worst of it. Not by a long shot. It's the clientele. Jesus, what a fucking crew. Upper-middle class eco-fakes. Seriously coiffed corporate lawyers who wear pre-faded jeans and designer sandals to shop for overpriced eco-friendly food while a gaggle of Mexicans cuts his lawn for him. Junior League bimbos in fashionable exercise attire. A half-hour around these folks, and I'm saying "Fuck the baby seals, I'm gonna bag me a Yuppie!"

I've got to get by Dennis the Peasant more often

The American Psychological Association: heirs of the Soviet method

Psychology and Global Climate Change:

Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges

A Report by the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change
...
[Wolf's post summarizes some of the ways in which the data has been distorted and notes that global warming, excuse me climate change, research has been conducted contrary to the spirit and methodology of science:

This really is a travesty. But what I find most breathtaking is people calling themselves "scientists" while refusing to release their methodology and, now, complicit in hiding even the raw data. Such people should be stripped of their tenure and accreditation. Perhaps then some of the problems of politicized science that are now so bedeviling us would disappear.]

The Psychologists of the APA, who insist that they are scientists, accept the premise and construct a 230 page report detailing ways in which the people are failing in their understanding of the risks of "Climate Change", the necessity of the dissenters learning to accept the wisdom of those who know better than they do, and ways in which the public can be induced to accept the necessity of stringent measures to fight the menace
.
...
The report has an entire section devoted to explaining "Which Psychological Barriers Limit Climate Change Action?" (pps 123-132) Nowhere does the report include a recognition that the science of climatology is still in its infancy, that the global cooling for the last 10 years had not been predicted by any of the computer models, and that there may well be many more immediate problems that have a higher claim on our concern. No, to the APA, Anthropogenic Climate Change is a privileged "fact" which has become unquestionable.
Read the whole damn thing, and wonder just how many 'elites' like the sound of this crap.

Snowflakes in Hell posted on helping political opponents to Bloomberg's

gun-ban group members, which caused me to check Oklahoma; according to the site, the only mayor in Oklahoma who's a member is the mayor of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor. I don't know if that means all the other mayors in the state are smart enough not to get involved with these nanny-state clowns, or just not brave enough to be open about supporting the gun ban people.

Further "Why California is so effed-up"

Oshen's project started in October 2005 when he was called by a pair of friends, Dan Norris and Peggy Gilder, who were involved in a legal bind with the CCC. They wanted Oshen to film a CCC inspection of their property. Norris and Gilder insist that the inspection came about because nosy neighbors and a CCC agent trespassed on their posted private property, looking for complaints to trigger an inspection.

The inspection was accompanied by a court order that explicitly forbade Norris and Gilder from filming the proceedings—though at least one of the sheriff's deputies brought along by the CCC inspectors (who were also accompanied by a deputy attorney general) was filming, as can be seen in the footage Oshen did shoot. That footage appears in the rough cut of his documentary.

As Oshen told me, that October day on the 40-acre Norris/Gilder property on Old Topanga Canyon Road in the Santa Monica Mountains was the first time Oshen had even really heard of the CCC. Oshen was amazed to discover a government land use agency with the power, and the desire, to prevent citizens from making an independent record of what happened during an official inspection—thus putting that citizen at a decided disadvantage in any later court proceedings where their version of events diverges from that of a government official.
...
As CCC Executive Director Douglas humbly told Oshen on-camera in the film (along with describing himself as a "radical pagan"), his unelected commission (whose members are appointed by the governor and leaders of the two state houses) doesn't have the power of eminent domain. All it has is the power to regulate, plan, and enforce restrictions on pretty much any action involving land within five miles of the coast, which means it doesn't really need the power of eminent domain at all. It can largely control the land anyway. This also makes the CCC a walking separation of powers nightmare. Indeed, in 2002 the state's 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the CCC's structure on separation of powers grounds, though that decision was more about how the commission was appointed than how it exercised power. That decision was later overturned by the state Supreme Court.
...
See, for an example, the story of Kathleen Kenny, one of the stars of Oshen's documentary, now deceased. Kenny beat back local inspectors' assaults on her for building on her own property. She even in 1997 won an unprecedented RICO suit against local government officials for harassing her, a case where she acted as her own lawyer. Despite this, she was never able to shake off the CCC from coming after her for more or less the same offense. It has levied multi-million dollar fines that still hang over the head of her living partner, Arthur Starz.

Indeed, the CCC is still on the march. Even as it's compelling Oshen to kick up his footage, a bill is now being considered in the California state legislature that will give the CCC independent power to levy $5,000-$50,000 "administrative civil penalties" (in addition to any other fines or penalties) for violations of its ukases without having to get a court involved. The agency could then use that money for...more enforcement actions. Another bill would dictate that anyone with an unresolved CCC violation order over their heads could not submit an application for any other development permit from the CCC, on that land or any contiguous land.

Those storms that were moving this way last night

came through, and more are hanging around. I can't give a total because my rain gauge fell over, and the National Weather Service site has times when it shows 'thunderstorms', but no rain amounts. We're still under a flash flood watch(most of the northern half of the state is), and flooding happened in different areas during the night.

When I went to bed, the storms out in the Watonga area were heading this way slowly. 'Slowly' as in the weather weenies reporting them moving at an astonishing 1mph; which, with heavy rain, goes from toad-floater category to "The frogs are asking where Noah is."

The heavy we could have done without, but the amount of rain we've had over the last three weeks or so has really greened things up, nice change from the usual August brown.

And the Obama Snitch Program isn't actually gone,

it's moved. And expanded:
Suggesting New Topics for Us to Address Through the Reality Check Site

The Reality Check website exists to inform public debate about health insurance reform – not stifle it. As the President said, “We are bound to disagree, but let’s disagree over issues that are real.” To that end, we’ve seen incredible response from website visitors who are using the tools provided on the site to share videos and other content with friends and family.

To better understand what new misinformation is bubbling up online or in other venues, we want your suggestions about topics to address through the Reality Check site. To consolidate the process, the email address set up last week for this same purpose is now closed and all feedback should be sent through: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/contact


Seems to be the standard for the Obama administration: lie, change, lie about it, go after anyone who disagrees.

If you wonder how far the hoplophobes will go

to paint anyone who owns anything they consider a 'weapon' as a crazy,
This, on the other hand, is mostly incoherent: “At Obama’s town hall last week in Portsmouth, N.H., a man was arrested for having a gun hidden in his car after the Secret Service found him at Portsmouth High School hours before Obama arrived carrying a pocketknife. He didn’t have a license for a concealed weapon.”

Let's see, the Secret Service freaked because he had a pocketknife!!! HOURS before the President even arrived... And what the hell is this 'concealed weapon license' crap over a pocketknife? And, for that matter, a firearm locked('hidden' in GFW-speak) in his car? Most places, if you have a firearm unloaded and locked in the vehicle, big freakin' deal, but these people act like he was waving it around, loaded of course, in front of the President.

This is part of the slow-motion hate crime we've been dealing with for decades.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Let's start a collection with Obama harrassing the opponents

tactics, and Andrew Sullivan showing what an ass-kisser(metaphorically in this case) he truly is:
The most recent example of Obama-Planned onslaught was seen Sunday, when many established bloggers’ and message board users’ names and their links (including my own) were nearly simultaneously forged in messages on forums and blogs all over the net. The messages, falsely bearing our names, stated that we have had a “change of heart” and now “support Barack Obama”.

Knowing fully well that this entire onslaught was a forgery, the gleefully Obama-Complicit Andrew Sullivan posted this entry using a message out of context from a No Quarter thread. Sullivan used the term the Clinton “Dead Enders“. The idea here is to make his readers believe that these forgeries were real, that we have all truly had a change of heart, and the few remaining “dead enders” are in a panic over it.

Andrew Sullivan knows damned well that these messages in our names were forgeries designed by Obama’s campaign. The fact is, a NQ user was seeing all those forgeries on the net and was perplexed. As a deliberate participant of the Obama-coordinated effort, Sullivan used that message to imply those of us whose identities were stolen had actually written those messages
.
Further thoughts at The Donovan.


A lot of British nurses have doubts about the safety of the new swine flu vaccine.


And, on the White House Snitch Site, I just found this:
Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box — flag@whitehouse.gov — that was set up to receive information on “fishy” claims about President Barack Obama’s health plan.

E-mails to that address now bounce back with the message: “The email address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via: http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck.”



'Chickenshit' is the title, which pretty much covers it:
You just can’t make this stuff up–
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is holding a town hall meeting tonight…

…At the IBEW Local 606 Union Hall
.
Jerk probably pats himself on the back for it, too.


On the 'slip' by Sibelius' slip over the weekend, Mike reminds us of the 'hudna' the bad guys like to use in the mideast:
The public option — ie, the Big Takeover — will never go away as long as there’s one Democrat Socialist left in government to pimp for it.


I wrote a while back on the idiocy of the enviroweenies destroying farms in California; you know, the place they like to say "If the red states go away, we'll have the most grocery-producing state in Blue America!"? There won't be that much growing if these idiots have their way:
PAUL RODRIGUEZ, COMEDIAN/ACTIVIST: Well over a thousand, Sean. This is a testament of your message is getting to these people. They’ve been out here for hours. The only water this field has seen is our sweat. But it’s more than we’ve gotten from the government.

HANNITY: Well, Paul, we have had you on about this before. I want you to tell the entire story, because it’s almost unfathomable. Literally, farms are drying up.

RODRIGUEZ: People don’t believe it.

HANNITY: Go ahead, tell them. Tell everybody.

RODRIGUEZ: Well, the problem is the environmental laws, they’re not flexible at all. The very judge that pushed this order to cut off the water said that there was no swivel room to make accommodations for human beings. You know, this fish apparently takes high priority. All the water has been held back.

And we’re left with nothing but — right where we’re at, this used to be an almond orchard. We grew some of the sweetest almonds ever. Now it’s firewood. Do you want some? Nobody believes that how I got involved–my mother is from here.
...
We really — we tried to have the administration come to see about us. We haven't heard. They sent the secretary of the interior here. He gave us some nice lip service and said, "Oh, we're going to do this and do that." But at the end of the thing, we didn't get no water. Our fields are drying out. Something has to be done.

But today the San Joaquin Valley is being transformed into a dust bowl. Hundreds of thousands of acres are fallow, while almond and plum trees are being left to die in the scorching sun. Tens of thousands of people have been tossed out of work—the town of Mendota alone has an unemployment rate of about 40%—and the lines for food donations stretch down streets. The reason? There isn’t enough water to go around this year, and the Obama administration is drawing up new reasons to divert more of it from farms and people and into the San Francisco Bay.
.
Because sucking up to the progressives and enviroweenies is more important.


And another look at the Obama Socialized Medicine Support Teams:
Upon returning a group of pro-reform women were standing in front of my seat waving their ready made ACORN designed signs. My husband tapped one of them on the shoulder and courteously asked her to move as his wife needed her seat. She ignored him. I said “excuse me” THREE times and she looked at me and said, “You can sit over there where the other handicaps are sitting.” (Mind you this was in the hot sun on metal folding chairs and we had brought my own chair. That area was for handicapped and elderly constituents of Mr. Schiff’s …) I told her “I need my chair NOW!” as my arm was giving out and I was about to fall. My husband finally screamed “MOVE!” She and her coven screamed, “NO! WE DON’T HAVE TO MOVE ANYWHERE!” I had no choice but to shove her aside with my walker as I was about to fall and SHE STOMPED MY FOOT! I collapsed in the chair and screamed in pain. She and her friends started screaming “She’s LYING! SHE’S LYING! SHE ASSAULTED HER!!”

Of course other onlookers immediately swept in and backed us having seen her interfere with me getting in my seat and saw her stomp my foot…
...
Fortunately the kind policeman who placed us there came over and informed them I was the front of the line and to move. This harpie then started to mock me, laugh at my condition, even went so far to suggest I was faking, called me a effing bitch, this woman screamed at me so loudly just spewing hate that I was in tears: “You want everyone taken care of and you’re so concerned about others well being but you were more than happy to let me fall on the concrete and then step on me! You are a liar! You are a hypocrite! Shame on you!” I screamed “GET AWAY FROM ME!” over the din of 3000 folks in attendance some guys in suits finally came over and said she would be ejected if she said anything else to me
.
Wonderful people supporting the Dear Leader, aren't they?


Bobby Friendly apparently has lost the trust not only of many of the people, but of the magistrates:
In an extraordinary attack, the Magistrates’ Association said it is a “certainty” that officers will misuse powers because they cannot be “relied on” to handle them appropriately.

The comments have been made as part of the Magistrates’ Association response to the Government’s plans to allow police to issue £60 fixed penalties for careless driving.

Police have been accused of increasingly dealing with offences using on-the-spot fines as an easy way to hit the government’s crime targets.

Magistrates are worried that the number of offences now dealt with in this way is keeping some serious offenders out of the courts.
...
Paul Holmes, a Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “It is a sorry state of affairs when the Government’s push for instant justice is driving a wedge between different parts of our criminal justice system.

“The police have been given wide-ranging powers without adequate debate. It is deeply concerning that even judges think they will abuse them.”



Last, I'm going to try one last test with the M1 and cast(unless one of them works as should, of course); I'm going to load up one clip each of several different bullet/brass loads using a powder charge known to work well, and see what I get. As a side note, I used to have a label tape setup I bought at Wal Mart before I stopped shopping there: a spool of yellow tape and a marker for it; you pullout out and tore off a strip, wrote your label, peeled off the backing and stuck it on. Handy as hell, and waterproof. I ran out about a month ago, and in desperation I went back to Wally World when I couldn't find it elsewhere. Guess what? Yeah, not there either. So I need to find a substitute.

I wonder if this moron knows what a lot of Kiwis are calling her

now?
AN Eskimo-shaped sweet eaten innocently by Kiwis for decades has raised the ire of native Canadians who claim it is offensive in both shape and name.
A young Canadian tourist travelling in New Zealand, Seeka Parsons, says she was appalled by the sale of Eskimo sweets, an iconic marshmallow treat sold widely in corner stores across New Zealand.

The native Canadian said the word Eskimo itself was an insult in her country, carrying with it negative racial connotations, and has long since been replaced with Inuit.

Not only has the name of the lolly aroused painful memories, she believes the shape is an unfair stereotype of her people, the Taranaki Daily News reported.
Well, boo-freakin'-hoo, dumbass. If you don't like them, don't eat them and take your grievance-mongering ass back to Canada.

And, of course, we have the "We are holy beings who should not be spoken of in other than ass-kissing terms" bit:
“We are much more of a people than that image. We have deep ties to the land and an ancient culture and I think we should be recognised as that and not just a marshmallow figure,” said Parsons, 21.
If you're so damn insecure the mere sight of a candy in another country sends you off like this, I can't wait until you hear about Eskimo Joe's; you'll probably wet your diaper.

Ah, the joys of late summer

This morning there was a 20%(30% depending on who you listened to) chance of showers & storms tonight. Now we have this:

The purple is severe thunderstorm watch, the green is flash-flood watch. They're now saying(again, depends on who/when you hear it) a 50 or 70% chance of storms tonight and 20-50% chance tomorrow.

In either case, I think I'll make sure all the 'don't let it get rained on' stuff is put away, and I'll hold off on watering the garden.

If you've got a Lee bullet mold that's sticky-

as in the bullets not wanting to fall out of the cavity without you whacking on the hinge bolt- here's something you might try; I found it in a review at the Midway site.

I've got a .312" 180-grain mold with that problem. After reading the review, I decided to try it, and being the patient sort I am, instead of waiting until the next time I cast, I took two bullets and a couple of long #6 machine screws. I drilled a hole as close to centered as I could in the bases of two bullets, about 3/16" deep, then ran the screw into the hole. Then, using one bullet for each cavity, I coated them with Flitz(the finest abrasive I've got available), placed the bullet in one mold block cavity, very lightly closed the mold and started turning the screw, closing the blocks completely as the bullet seated in. After a minute or so of turning I removed it, put on fresh compound, and repeated. Then did the same on the other cavity.

I've cast in that mold twice since, without smoking the cavities or doing anything else, and most of the time the bullets drop out when I open the mold; sometimes takes a tap or two on the hinge bolt. BIG difference.

Today I did it the way recommended by the guy in the review on a different mold: moved the sprue plate out of the way, set a nut on top of one cavity, then poured it full to the top; when it cooled opened the mold and removed that one and did the same to the other cavity. That gives the nut to turn the bullet with. I just polished both cavities in that mold, and next time I cast I'll try it. I'm hoping for results as good as the first mold.

Human Rights Watch apparently only cares about the rights of

politically correct humans. They just released a report accusing Israeli troops of murdering palistinians in cold blood. However, among other things, there's a tiny problem with the guy who did the report:
Last Thursday, many world media outlets covered the press conference in which a senior Human Rights Watch official, Joe Stork, presented the report accusing Israel of killing twelve Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who waved white flags during Operation Cast Lead. Stork, the person identified with the report, has a unique history of Israel-hating: He supported the murder of Israeli athletes in Munich, was an avid supporter of Saddam Hussein and more.

Several times in the past, Stork has called for the destruction of Israel and is a veteran supporter of Palestinian terrorism. Already as a student, Stork was amongst the founders of a new radical leftist group, which was formed based on the claim that other leftist groups were not sufficiently critical of Israel and of the United States’ support of it. Already in 1976, Stork participated in a conference organized by Saddam Hussein which celebrated the first anniversary of the UN decision that equated Zionism with racism. Stork, needless to say, arrived at the conference as a prominent supporter of Palestinian terrorism and as an opponent to the existence of the State of Israel.

He also labeled Palestinian violence against Israel as “revolutionary potential of the Palestinian masses”—language that was typical of fanatical Marxists.
...
Stork reached his peak in a statement published by the Middle East Research and Information Project, which dealt with gathering information on the Middle East conflict, and in which Stork was a leading figure. This was a statement that included explicit support for the murder of the eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics:

“Munich and similar actions cannot create or substitute for a mass revolutionary movement,” the statement said, “But we should comprehend the achievement of the Munich action…It has provided an important boost in morale among Palestinians in the camps.”


'Human Rights Watch'. Yeah.

In a post a few days back on cops being recorded

on the job, Guard Duck pointed to this article from Oregon:
After Mike Tabor turned his videocamera on two Portland cops rousting a couple of men on a downtown sidewalk, one cop seized his camera and gave him a ticket, saying he'd broken the law by recording the officers without their permission.

The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute, and now Tabor is trying to force the Portland Police Bureau to take a formal position on whether it's OK for civilians to videotape cops -- with sound -- in public places
.
A little further down we find this:
In 1991, then-police chief Tom Potter issued a training bulletin stating that the public had the right to record video and audio of police arresting suspects in a public place. Woboril, Schmautz and Police Chief Rosie Sizer weren't aware of the bulletin, but Tabor's attorney, Haile, dug up it up in his research.

Haile said he wants the bureau to specify that police stops -- not just arrests -- can be recorded. He also wants the policy put in the bureau's policy and procedures manual, so it won't be forgotten
.
So there was actually something put on on the subject, but the officers were either not familiar with it or didn't care, make your choice.

He's right; there needs to be something in the official "What you can and cannot do, Officer Friendly" rules on this.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

'Democrats finally embrace the death penalty!'


Hehehehehe

A bit more on range day

One of the things I tried in my ongoing 'cast bullets in the Garand' tests was using the Lee 160-grain .311" bullet. Last time it grouped nicely at 100, so this time tried it again; five rounds in about 3" and the other three I have no idea where they hit.

I've tried a number of loads and bullets, from 150 to 155 to 160 to 200 grain(I've read a number of reports of the heavier bullet giving better accuracy), all but the 160(at .312) sized to .309", with IMR4895 powder. All work the action reliably, and I've found no signs of lead fouling in the gas system, but accuracy at 100 yards is not acceptable with any of them. It may be that this rifle just doesn't like something about cast bullets, or I just haven't hit the magic combination. Right now I've got several loads that shoot about 1.5-2" at 50 yards, good for plinking at that range, but not accurate enough for longer distances.

I'm going to try one more thing: I'll take the bullet that's given the best accuracy and work the powder charge up a bit. And if that doesn't work, I'll relegate these to short-range practice only and use jacketed bullet loads for longer ranges.

In the bolt rifles, no problems with cast. I noted last range day that the Lee 155-grain bullet at .309 shot very well in the K31, and it shot well in the 1903 this time. The 160-grain bullet shot well in the M39(7.62x54r), I think as well as the 180-grain .312 bullet does. Good accuracy and light recoil with them, a good combination.

One other thing I tried was some loads in .30-30. My standard practice load has been a 150-grain gas-check flat-point bullet in front of 16.0 grains of 2400. Looking at the manual, I could jump that up quite a bit from the look of it(this is guesswork; the Lyman #48 manual shows loads for 170-grain cast bullets, but not 150. Not wanting to push things too far(and I couldn't find anything online, either) I tried five rounds each wtih 17 and 18 grains, which are both below the max load shown for 170-grain bullets so with a 20-grain lighter bullet I figured they should be ok. The 16.0 grain load averaged about 1620 feet per second, 17.0 grains 1790fps, 18.0 grains 1876fps. The tightest group(shot all these at 50 yards just to simplify) was the 16.0 load, just under 1" and a good 3" below the other two groups. Next time I have a chance, I'm going to chrono the loads I have for hunting and see what they give; if I can get about the same velocity with cast and use something I read about to improve bullet upset(more on that later), I'll just go to the cast bullets for .30-30.

And, after finishing up on the pistol side, as there was nobody else around at the time, I spent a while in my guise as the Bent-Back Brass Picker and found almost fifty .380 cases and- for friend with the .32 Colt- almost forty .32acp cases. And a few .44 Mag cases a friend can use. This time I actually found some rifle brass I could use; last few months people have been picking up almost everything, this is the first time I've found more than a couple of reloadable cases in cartridges I use.



This morning, I'll throw in, I hit a local flea market and came home with a half-dozen cookbooks and a 2 oz. ball-peen hammer. Now I need to hit the grocery store.

Yeah, this is what a 'Washington Insider' thinks of us commoners

It seems safe to say that of the hundreds of thousands of style guides currently for sale on Amazon, not one of the didactic, shop-your-closet authors was prescient enough to outline the appropriate attire for those public occasions when good citizens decide to behave like raving lunatics and turn lawmakers into punching bags. What does one wear to a town hall meeting on health care when the sole reason for attending is to shout down one's congressman like a peevish teenager in the midst of a hormonal rage?
...
But lawmakers have also had to deal with innumerable folks who believe that the legitimacy of their protests over reform will be determined solely by their lung capacity. The louder and more obnoxious the scream, the more their message will register with the power brokers in the nation's capital -- or at least that is the thinking. There is, of course, a smidge of logic to this strategy. After all, if the squeaky wheel gets the grease, then perhaps the bellowing citizen can influence policy
.
So. We don't dress well enough(unless you're Nancy Pelosi who said too many of us were dressed too well to be believed), and instead of being nice, quiet people who just sit there when politicians try to brush us off and their buttmonkeys and union thugs try to silence us we actually get mad about it. And YELL. So we should be ignored, I guess.

I wonder if this clown said the same things about the progressive morons screaming and throwing things and breaking windows at universities to completely silence speakers they didn't like?

Mark Potok is the bigot at Southern Poverty

LieLaw Center who provided the bullcrap DHS used in their 'report' that basically said "White males of conservative or libertarian beliefs, especially if they own guns, are racist and BAD." Interestingly, over at Sipsey Street Irregulars, the overheard a theory as to why Potok
is the way he is.

They also have one of the newer inspirational posters from the Obama Administration:
I know it inspires me. Just not the way they might hope.

"In actual shootings, citizens do far better

than law enforcement on hit potential,” said White. “They hit their targets and they don't hit other people. I wish I could say the same for cops. We train more, they do better."
Statement from Sheriff Greg White, found by Clayton Cramer.

And on the subject, we find this from Germany at Just One Minute:
The provocation was the murder on July 1 of Marwa al-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian pharmacist here. She was stabbed 18 times in a Dresden courtroom, in front of her 3-year-old son, judges and other witnesses, reportedly by the man appealing a fine for having insulted Ms. Sherbini in a park. Identified by German authorities only as a 28-year-old Russian-born German named Alex W., he had called Ms. Sherbini an Islamist, a terrorist and a slut when she asked him to make room for her son on the playground swings. Ms. Sherbini wore a head scarf.

The killer also stabbed Elwi Okaz, Ms. Sherbini’s husband and a genetic research scientist, who was critically wounded as he tried to defend her. The police, arriving late on the scene, mistook him for the attacker and shot him in the leg
.
As the blog says,
That is great security work by the German police - stand around checking the union rulebook while the wife is stabbed 18 times, then shoot the husband, almost surely for an illegal skin tone.