QOTWeek

If not the whole year.

Attorney General Holder called a press conference to talk about the Just Us departments recent aggressive behavior toward some in the media who had been less than complimentary toward the president. The terms were that the conference was to be "off the record" which meant that nothing said there could be quoted.

Most of the invited media, seeing the department's recent behavior as being potentially newsworthy, immediately declined. Some attended, possibly thinking that if the department doesn't have to keep its word, then neither would they. An agreement was worked out by which the attendees would be permitted to describe in general terms what went down. The headline:

Washington Post: The Justice Department has allowed us to say AG Holder supports press freedom.

You can't make this stuff up.

RTWT at the Washington Post.

Gun Law

Via Greg Smiths newsletter:
 *Gabby and Mark Want Your Input:*If you find any value in giving the Giffords/Kelly couple some feedback they don't want, their Americans for  Responsible Action website has posted a new form you can fill in. The lead question is “Has your life been impacted by gun violence?” 
  ----------------
The site asks for your e-mail address and a checklist of things you would be willing to do to help "the cause", notably without asking which cause you might be willing to help. I'm certainly willing to write and call representatives in Washington and Denver, and publicize gatherings on my blog. I'm sure they'll understand if it's in support of such organizations as the NRA, SAF, GOA, etc.

Comments to Gabby and Mark might include a note that thanks to the efforts of them and other like-minded blissninnies, the price of firearms has doubled and tripled, and ammo has quadrupled, reducing the ability of the average citizen and even the police to arm themselves and practice to proficiency.

Large numbers of the people who benefit the most and appreciate their efforts can be found conveniently grouped together at federal, state, and local correctional facilities.

Socialist Humor

It has been observed that the sort of humor that became widespread in the Soviet Union is now becoming popular here. Thanks to Townhall, here's one now:

You’re a reporter going before Mr. Obama’s Independent Payment Advisory Board*. You want them to pony up for your heart bypass operation.
You: I guess you’ll need my Social Security number.
IPAB: That’s OK, Mr. Pressman, we already have it.
You: Well, then, let me give you my address.
IPAB: We have that, too, Mr. Pressman, we got it from your telephone records.
You: Well, can I give you my EKG print-out, so you can see that my heart really needs this bypass operation?
IPAB: Don’t stress yourself, Mr. Pressman. We will get that one, too—as soon as Eric Holder is finished looking at it.

*IPAB, Also known as the Death Panel.

Staples Equates Gun Dealer With Criminals

Rejects a gun store's application for marketing assistance.

So buy your stuff at Office Depot or Office Max, who may soon merge anyway.


That was easy.

A Survey In England

In England any MP may introduce bills. Weather they get a hearing depends on his party affiliation and seniority. The Telegraph is holding a survey of the public to ask what issue the parliament should actually consider. Offerings from the readership were collected and the Telegraph picked six.  Some of the suggested items sound like absolute lunacy, but they made the finals list.

My favorite was number six:
Repeal the ban on hand guns and re-open shooting clubs, proposed by Colliemum. They write: "After all, why should only criminals be 'allowed' to possess guns and shoot unarmed, defenceless citizens and police officers?"

A worthy suggestion. Our British cousins seem to think so as well as this one is the hands-down leader with 85% of the vote.

What do you suppose the odds are that this suggestion will be mentioned in the halls of parliament?

The Chicago Machine

Going national as it now appears that the famous Lois "I've done nothing illegal and I'm taking the fifth" Lerner, when she was with the FEC was moonlighting as a kneecapper for the Chicago mob.

If you do well there, meaning that you don't get caught, you get promoted to the front office, the IRS where you get to suppress the vote on a national level.

Don't get caught, at least by anyone who would mention it in public, and you move on up to managing the Obamacare wing of the IRS. If you need heart surgery, for example, and it is suspected that you may not have voted for the right candidate in the last election, or worse, your name shows up on the wrong donor list, and your insurance coverage will be delayed until the IRS has had a chance to evaluate your answers to a couple (hundred) questions.

Timing Is Everything

D'Wife decided to get the house fixed up, calling for new gutters, fascia, and soffits. Yesterday the old stuff was torn down. Today when some of the underlying wood is to be replaced, it is, of course belting down rain. Supposed to be raining off and on all day.

Nice to see a break in the drought I guess.

Today is our lawn watering day as well. Figures.

Rhetoric

Billlls first law of election year rhetoric: When a pol speaks of numbers, the real story in in the percentages, and vice versa. Comparing numbers to percentages is a perfect example of this.

Found here at Chris Blattman. His personal description suggests he's probably seen this sort of thing so many times he barely laughs at it any more. In a line of work that includes such descriptors as 'poverty', 'statistics', 'violence', and 'participation', a talent for this probably leads more than one NGO to big grants and possible foreign aid.

Hmmmm

Cleverly written, one could probably get the grant to include our own jet fighters complete with fuel and armaments for a year or three. Say Chris, have you thought about how much poverty we could eliminate by hiring unemployed ex-military to service a couple of obsolete F-16's, and what a boon to the economy the purchase of the fuel and munitions for the planes would be? And how much violence would be eliminated by us simply bombing and strafing cardboard targets out in Eastern Colorado instead of actual enemy combatants in some part of the world with marginal facilities and terrible weather? And the chicks we could meet if we got the 2-seat training models?

The hard work would be the statistical analysis of our bombing and strafing accuracy, an estimate of the amount of poverty we eliminated spending the $200M or so over 2 or 3 years, and something fairly discreet on the participation involvement of the chicks. I'm not seeing a down side here unless my wife finds out about the chicks.

As senior researchers I'm sure there would be a six-figure subsistence stipend in it for each of us.

Unemployment

Been a while since I've bitched written about the unemployment situation and more specifically about the governments propensity to jigger the numbers to prevent an unemployed mob from tarring and feathering them. Anyway here's a chart from John Lott showing the U6 rate on a state-by-state basis:

Click to enlarge. Colorado is currently claiming an unemployment rate of about 7.6% and next year the pols will be patting themselves on the back and asking that we reelect them on this basis.

For a more in-depth and detailed analysis of the problem even with this statistic, go to the statistics blog and sort through this article. There are myriad reasons why an unemployed person does not get counted as unemployed, and the reasons are growing. The average unemployment rate in Europe, for example is a bit over 20% as they haven't tumbled to the frauds we use yet. Or maybe they have and their situation is even worse which I find to be the more likely case.

Anyway, 2 good articles.

Obama Demands Legislation To Protect Freedom Of The Press

I thought we already had something along these lines in effect, but recent events are proving me wrong. The problem with using statute law for something like this is that it can always be amended later.

Perhaps a constitutional amendment.... Nah, that's crazy talk. If we tried something like that the lunatics would take over the convention and the next think you know they'd give everyone the right to carry a gun or some such.

Thanx to Town Hall for the tip.

Reconquista

Last night as I was reading about the 5th straight night of car burning and rioting in Sweden, I wondered what it would take for what was once one of the most feared and respected peoples on Europe to finally say enough. Had the Swedes really been multiculturalized into disarmed submission or were there still a few that remembered their past and could figure out what a replacement 30" table leg from the local IKEA outlet was good for in a pinch.

Tonight it seems some of them have. They are being called all sorts of names of course, like Nazi and vigilantes. Nazis I doubt, at least in the old-school sense, but vigilantes certainly. The tradition of the people banding together in the face of an assault in the absence of any official forces goes back a long ways.

As it happens, the same feelings are surfacing in England where the official mollycoddling of the bloody attack on soldier Lee Rigby is resulting in widespread anti-muslim backlash.

The Muslim model to this point is to move en-masse into a European country, go on the dole, whine that the dole payments aren't enough to live on and make no effort to join the society they have invaded. Those who lack the commitment to actually carry out acts of violence support this behavior by donating to "charities" and Imams who sponsor it.

The rioting, car burning, rapes and murders have been going on in France for some time now and the French seem to have gotten used to it. At the rate they're going, France may well be the first EU country to adopt Sharia.

If the peasants are revolting, I say more power to them! Take your countries back and vote out the people who sold you into this sorry state. This war is now 1500 years old and will not end until the last place of worship has been converted to a mosque or the last mosque has been converted to a McDonalds and serves McRibs.

The Future Of Medicine

Here we have the announcement of a new and improved "universal" flu vaccine which stimulates the body to produce antibodies not only to this years flu, but to previous and possibly future versions as well.

On top of that it's reprogrammable in case mother nature should kick out a version not already included. Presumably updates will not involve going to the clinic or supermarket for another shot, but will be downloadable. Just stick your tongue into the USB slot on your internet machine and zap! you're up to date.

Check carefully that your source for updates is a trusted one and does not have  things in it's address like .ch or .ru or .nk.

Rossi Cold Fusion

Here's what they wre willing to say about how they did it.
First the diagram:

Click to enlarge or follow the links. You will note the notations are in Italian.
Top to bottom, left to right,
1. Input and output of gas, normally Hydrogen (H2)
2. Insulation jacket.
3. Thermocouple, type K
4. Thermistor, Platinum PT100.
5. Cylinder or foil of Nickel on surface of which occurs the phenomenon of heat emission.
6. Cylinder with ceramic heating element.

Not labeled, but inferred from the article is a heating element or electrode running through the center of the device.

Story from Forbes who are as usual cautiously optimistic. Aren't we all. It would be nice if this thing actually worked but we've seen promising stuff fail to deliver before. Here's a picture form the Forbes article showing the device in test demonstrating a merry glow:

Rossi claims that cold fusion works but the word "cold" is a relative term and a modest amount of heat is required to get things going.

Energy output from fusion reactions is normally in the form of neutron emissions. I notice there is no shielding on this. Peer review is presumably forthcoming, so we'll see. In the meantime there should be enough information here for all you budding Mad Scientists to start assembling your reactors in your basements. If your hair falls out and you begin to look like Lex Luthor, you'll know you made it work. Good Luck.

QOTD - Senatorial

This from Joe Manchin, the D half of the Manchin-Toomey universal background check bill:

The Second Amendment is [in] the Constitution – it can only be changed by the legislative branch of government.”

 In all fairness the legislature can initiate changes to the constitution, but they have to be ratified by the people of 2/3 of the states within some reasonable length of time. Unless the Congress decides to allow the process to go into overtime.

H/T: View from North Central Idaho , This Ain’t Hell and Daniel Greenfield

Of course we don't actually have to change the constitution, it can simply  be ignored.

Mistaken Identity II - Hoax?

Update: See Mistaken Identity post below.  The mention of the Adams county sheriff should have raised flags. They are not ones to over react and seeing someone with guns outside a gun show would typically bring a "so what" reaction.

The whole thing in now being called a hoax . I guess this is the sort of story that falls in the "too good to check" category although checking this would involve knowing who to ask and having the chops to get an answer. Fox has details at the link.

Looks like Korrine Aguirre of Walsenburg, is in line to get her knuckles rapped although I would think that Fox would have been able to confirm the story with the Adams county sheriff easily enough.

Are We Winning?

Hard to tell sometimes as some of these fights seem to just go on and on. But as the bomber pilots used to say, "If you're catching flak, you must be over the target."

Here in CO we have one senator fighting a recall by putting out radio ads warning the folks in his district that petitioners may well be sex offenders or identity thieves. In Illinois they're having a legislative clusterf**k trying to pass a concealed carry law that will satisfy the supreme court without actually allowing anyone to carry a gun. If you don't live in Illinois, the efforts can be entertaining.

The latest effort is a mag ban that would probably make most if not all automatic pistols illegal. It's a pretty good bet that this wouldn't pas constitutional muster either, but it takes a while to get a case through the courts and in the meantime it can be modified to make the case against it moot without actually addressing the problem. The plaintiffs get to start over at their own expense of course.

Ill residents are encouraged to contact their legislators but with a caveat about the bills sponsor:

SPECIAL NOTICE: DO NOT call Senator Kotowski unless he is your Senator, and even then be very careful. Kotowski has a track record of having the State Police investigate and harass people that disagree with him.

He sounds like a real peach.

H/T to No Lawyers for this gem.

Tea Party - IRS Protest

I went by the Tea Party protest at the IRS building in Denver. Alas, I couldn't stay, but I got a usable picture. There were 50+ people out in front of the building with signs, a bullhorn and all that.

The zoom on the camera has stopped working or I'd have a couple more. For a protest held on a workday downtown where parking is scarcer than honest politicians, this wasn't bad.

The sidewalk had been divided down the middle to allow pedestrian passage, and there were at least 5 police cars in attendance so these must be dangerous folks.

Saw this billboard on the way back and couldn't resist:

Banking is probably the most regulated business in the world, so when the bankers lose respect for their masters, the end must surely be near.

The IRS scandal is playing out like "A Man For All Seasons" with the king lamenting "Is there no one who can rid me of this meddlesome priest?" and a couple of knights taking it upon themselves to do exactly that. In the end the king kept his crown although it didn't look good for the helpful knights.

Machiavelli covered the same situation when he described a noble sent by a victorious prince to shape the new subjects up by imposing draconian discipline and high taxes on them. After six months or so the Prince himself showed up for a goodwill visit and heard the complaints of his new subjects. To show what a nice fellow he was, he (privately) had his lackey's tongue cut out, denied wanting any of those bad things to happen, and then had him publicly chopped in half to the cheers and adulation of all present. This is how you move from "Evil Usurper" to "Respected Ruler" and incidentally get rid of a surplus lackey.

President Obama probably didn't specifically order anyone to actually do anything, but public speeches about what ought to be done coupled with senatorial letters suggesting what ought to be done can certainly get the message across. Sarah Hall Ingram certainly got the message. She also got a big promotion, but if the deal goes sour, she'll go under the bus with the rest.

Update: Got wrong name of IRS official. Corrected and link fixed. I blame Global Warming.

Immigration Law Pretty Much Optional

The advantage to having a bipartisan Gang of Eight write your immigration bill is that you can claim it was bipartisan. The disadvantage is that writing it takes so long that details get leaked out before the thing is safely passed.

Pretty much the whole bill, while calling for things like deportations and building border fences and whatnot, is at the option of the secretary of Homeland Security to do or not do as she sees fit.

The whole bill is just another "Look what we did instead of something" item.

Read the whole thing at NRO.

QOTD - With Easter Egg

Found  at Townhall, via writer John Hawkins:

When you start to conclude that it's okay for your side to ignore the law, break the rules and defeat your political enemies by any means necessary*, you're veering into dangerous territory. It's dangerous because a republic can't function over the long haul when one side of the political debate is treated as above the law. Either the law applies equally to both sides of the political debate or good people will begin to feel that they have no choice other than to operate outside the law in order to get justice.

* emphasis mine, this bit is from Saul Alinsky, whose advice, it has been noted, works both ways.

Win Glock Stuff

Go here and read the rules. Easiest path to register is a Like on FB. Since I'm not on FB, this is one of the other ways to get in.

Good News

For a change.

Dons Gun Show notes that ammo is reappearing and gun prices are returning to something near normal.

Ammo is back in case lots at the show, with even the centerfire scarcity leader, 9mm Parabellum, readily available at 35 to 40 cents a round and small pistol primers available for $35-40 per thousand. From Commie calibers to the most popular America center-fire rifle and pistol calibers, ammo is back at or only slightly above prices prevailing before the Democrat assault on gun rights.

There was still no .22LR generally available except secondary vendors selling their personal stocks at about $65 for a brick of 500.

$65/500 is still out of the breathable atmosphere, but you have to admit it's an improvement ober the $85/550 we saw not that long ago. Supply is finally catching up with demand and prices should be back near normal in a couple months.

Except in Cali where they're working on 2 bills that would double the price on .22 ammo. A 10% tax plus a $.05/round tariff on ammo would make smuggling some ammo in from out  of state a profitable business. Imagine a $20 brick of 550, plus the 7% local sales tax = $1.40, plus 10% new special tax = $2.00, plus $.05/round = $27.50 for a total of $30.90 in taxes alone. The brick would run $50.90.

Modern math problem. Give this to your kids:

Joe Tofu would like to buy a brick of .22 to shoot in his plinker. He lives in San Jose, 200 miles from the nearest reasonably priced ammo ($22.00/brick, Reno, NV). If his Prius gets 35 mpg, gas costs $4.00/gal, and he can sell bricks to his friends at $35/ea, how many does he need to buy to cover his costs for the trip? Don't forget he plans to keep one for himself.

Extra credit: If possession of more than 1000 rounds of any ammo at all is considered terrorism in Cali, how many consecutive life terms will Joe serve if he is pulled over for speeding on his way back? Assume 1 per 1000 rounds.

Mistaken Identity

Fox News reports:

Denver has a program that enlists taxi drivers to report suspicious activities.

The Tanner Gun Show is a pretty good sized monthly event held at the Merchandise Mart, just outside the Denver city limits.

A cabbie dropped a fare off at the show, who turned out to be an executive with an unnamed Italian firearms company who was carrying seven shotguns.

Seeing the mans "arsenal" the cabbie reported having dropped off a terrorist to the Adams county Sheriff. The executive's lawyer straightened things out fairly quickly although the executive was not the least bit amused.
------------------------------------
In all fairness however, back in the cabbies hometown of Peshwar, someone with seven guns may well be a terrorist.

 O.K. the cabbies home town was not suggested. Still, the Tanner features large numbers of people standing on the sidewalk with all manner of firearms hanging off of their persons much like the normal crowd at an Afghan arms bazaar.

Update: The mention of the Adams county sheriff should have raised flags. They are not ones to over react and seeing someone with guns outside a gun show would typically bring a "so what" reaction. The whole thing in now being called a hoax . I guess this is the sort of story that falls in the "too good to check" category although checking this would involve knowing who to ask and having the chops to get an answer.

Colorado Gun Laws

Under the 15-round limit law, smaller magazines with removal base plates are also outlawed — a measure that affects most handguns and many rifles, Kopel said of the move to limit gun ownership.

I've seen different interpretations of this ranging from "pay no attention to it"  to yes, any magazine with a removable floor plate is effectively banned.

I suppose it will be like most laws passed here, interpretation will be left to the cops judgement and/or orders from higher ups.

The city and County of Denver has always taken the most draconian interpretation of all legislation, and if it can't be over-interpreted, they write their own municipal statutes to fill in any perceived gaps. If you want a semiauto pistol, you'll have to buy it outside of Denver if you want any magazines at all to go with it.

Either that, or this law, like most of the others, will be widely ignored. 

There is a lawsuit started to overturn this, but getting anything through the courts typically takes a long time.

More Bad News

Not gun related this time, but still...

While out cruising down the Platte and up the Highline Canal on my bicycle, I'm noticing an unusually large number of dead trees. It seems that the drought is killing off the weaker ones and the late Spring isn't helping.

I've lost a peach tree, a walnut, and several shrubs and the remaining trees are very slow budding out. The late snowfall and freeze has stopped all flowering on the plums, apple, and remaining peach, so no fruit this year. The squirrels will be eating the bark off the trees to stay alive, so if I don't thin that herd, I'll lose the rest of the foliage weather we get any rain or not.

Cold and Dry: Global Tundra.

Bad Year

On top of the New York gun laws we got in the first quarter, now the gun club I belong to has been shut down. Some 1200 people are now looking for another place to shoot. There are a few in the National forests and on the National Grasslands, but none very convenient to the Denver area.

Cherry Creek State Park has a range with up to 100 yards available which I'm told if normally quite busy.

The next nearest ranges are about 1-1/2 hours drive from where I live, and have wait lists up to 3 years to get in. 

In the meantime I'm trying to find a place to shoot the e-postal match and dial in the .22. The problem being that the indoor ranges don't like you to use copier paper targets. First because they like to sell their own targets, but second because the debris from copier paper gunks up their air filters more rapidly than the soft brown stuff. I may have to shoot this one in my back yard with a pellet gun.

As bad as losing the range is losing the social group that went with it. That will be impossible to replace.

How The Game Is Played

When it is the privilege of the other side to make the rules, it is incumbent on the underdogs to understand those rules and use them to the most favorable extent possible. When it becomes apparent that your Tea Party group is going to be bogged down in IRS red tape with the chilling threats of even more IRS attention, the solution is to adopt the protective coloration of the other side:

In 2011 Conservative watchdog group Media Trackers filed with the IRS to achieve nonprofit status. The application got stuck in Obama-induced IRS limbo. In 2012 the same group changed its name and filed again with the IRS as “Greenhouse Solutions.” They were granted nonprofit status in 3 weeks.

I especially like the use of the word 'greenhouse' as it distracts the government drones at the Ministry of Truth from the actual orientation of the group, and carries the implication that your groups objectives can be more effectively carried out beneath a protective shelter.

Perhaps if the Tea Party organizations began to adopt the Liberty tree as logo and called themselves the Green Tree Party, "Our motto: Watering the Tree", they could get tax-free status in no time at all and vote the bastards out before they caught on.

Grammar Test

The fine points of English grammar can sometimes be confusing. That said, here's a grammar test from the BBC, the worlds greatest authority on energy, economics, social issues, and of course, English grammar.

I got 7/10, which for an engineer has to be fairly good. Any higher and I'd be looking for work as a professional pundit, librarian, or green energy expert.

Something In The Water?

BELCHERTOWN (CBS) – Shortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir.

State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates.

-------------
One of the college courses I took was a civil engineering course in water treatment. We visited the local reservoir and treatment plant. During business hours. Accompanied by a professor. With an appointment with the plant manager.

I have heard it suggested that there must be something in the water in Massachusetts, but no one ever suggested who it was who might be putting it there. Now maybe we know?

Obama Accepts Limbaugh Summit Offer

President Obama today has announced that he will accept Rush Limbaugh's offer of an economic summit, and has set most of the details for the historic meeting. The summit will take place at Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The president has asked Mr. Limbaugh to appear there as soon as possible, assuring him that the military will provide him with lodging "fit for a Sheikh" upon his arrival.

Mr. Obama has also said that due to a very busy schedule  he has had lately including pre-arranged tee times, he cannot guarantee an exact date or time for his own arrival, but will be there to begin the summit as soon as he possibly can.

When asked, press secretary Jay Carney suggested that the soonest the president had any time slots available would be "late January, 2017".

Several prominent Republicans have applauded the president's offer stating that they would do their best to expedite the presidents arrival at the Guantanamo facility at the earliest possible date.

Colorado Law - State-of-the-State

Went to the Republican post-mortem today and heard what a bunch of poopy-heads the Dems are from the minority leaders of both houses. They thought they had given the people good ideas and good candidates in the last election but if they were all that good how come their titles include the word "minority"? The question of "what are you going to do about it?" came up. I didn't hear any definitive answer.

Both of them think the all-mail-in vote fraud bill is a complete travesty, which tells me that they expect to be minority leaders into the foreseeable future unless the electorate somehow finds itself hugely betrayed and votes against the Dems at levels great enough to offset the expected fraud.

There may be hope. The Dems voted in obligations without including funding in a couple of cases amounting to some $1Bn which will need to be found pretty soon. The marijuana regulation bill includes a call for taxation which the Republicans tried to keep low. The Dems set it up to start at around 30% combined to start with a proviso to allow it to grow to about 40% as quickly as localities can set their own rates. I bet the pot-heads thought the price would go down now that the new cartel was dealing the stuff. The tax on pot is subject to voter approval and it's unlikely to actually pass, so there will be no funding for regulation except from the general fund, which means that something will need to be cut.

Renewable energy will get a boost as the rural folk will be required to get some 25% of their juice from renewables. The urban districts somehow were exempted. Vestas, a maker of gigantic windmills, is losing $200M/quarter and needs the subsidy to keep the donations to the Dems coming.

By 2014 Obamacare will be in full cry and we'll see if the gratitude of people who pay no taxes at getting free insurance is greater than the anger of people who pay taxes at seeing their insurance rates quadruple.

There was also an education bill that called for a big increase in education spending. To what purpose was not specified. Here is a graphic that suggests that after about $6000/student/year, additional monies don't buy improved test scores

Colorado spends about $9300/student/year on K-12 public education. Note how much improvement that gets us on scores.

In secondary education, the Dems voted to give every person in the world who could show up at our door, in-state tuition at Colorado colleges and universities. Unless of course you happen to be from one of the other 49 American states. Just walk across the border and show proof you're here illegally. Don't forget to register to vote when you get your drivers license.

In Douglas County, the GOP has been pretty much having its way with the Dems and enjoys huge popular support. The leadership there recently tried to become state leader for the GOP but was told by the party membership from the more urban counties that they were not needed at the state level. The more urban counties were the ones that made Colorado such a solidly blue state in the last election, so the leadership there must know what they're talking about. That or the State GOP chairman is in fact a Democrat mole.

O Wad Some Powr The Giftie Gie Us..

To See Oursells as Others See us. Quoth Robert Burns.

Thanks to Zero Hedge, Here's one of several graphics showing how the Europeans see each other:

It is to note that pretty much everybody who is up to their eyeballs in debt owes it to the Germans. Several of the self-assessments are entertaining as well. Everyone sees their own country as most compassionate, no matter how punitive the tax rates.

The Brits and the French still hold one another in the same high esteem they've held since, I'm guessing, about 1066.

A lot of people are taking the position that the collapse of the EU is not a question of if, but a matter of when. The good news is that a war probably won't break out when it does since Germany doesn't want one with any of its customers, and no one else can afford one.

Fun With Headlines

Saw this on Drudge:

Joyce Brothers dead at age 85...

and wondered to myself: Who are the Joyce brothers and why would they both die together?

Gun Law - Possibilities

From a famous judge:

All too many of the other great tragedies of history – Stalin’s atrocities, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Holocaust, to name but a few – were perpetrated by armed troops against unarmed populations. Many could well have been avoided or mitigated, had the perpetrators known their intended victims were equipped with a rifle and twenty bullets apiece, as the Militia Act required here. If a few hundred Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto could hold off the Wehrmacht for almost a month with only a handful of weapons, six million Jews armed with rifles could not so easily have been herded into cattle cars. Alex Kozinski, 9th circuit

As much as I admire Mr Kozinski, I have to take issue with his conjecture regarding the Jew. For the most part they were all law-abiding citizens and loyal to their country, just like us. They followed every rule and regulation the government issued including laws requiring registration and ultimately confiscation of any guns they owned.

When registration was demanded, they registered, both themselves and their firearms. When it became illegal for Jews to own firearms, they dutifully turned them in, even going to the effort of surreptitiously bringing guns found after the turn-in dates to the police in order to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

When ordered to turn themselves in, they had no choice but to pack a small bag and get on the trains. They were good law-abiding citizens with an unlimited trust in their government. Just like the CCW holders at the Aurora theater who dutifully either left their guns at home or locked them in their cars.

In this country where gun ownership is generally only moderately restricted, about 1/3 of the population might be said to have the “firearm and twenty rounds” called for in the Militia Act, although that percentage is rising. In 1935 it would probably be safe to assume that no more than 1/3 of the Jewish population possessed a firearm either a hunting piece or a pistol, frequently a holdover from WWI. Had 9 million Jews possessed a rifle and 20 rounds, and the will to use them, there would have been no holocaust. A messy insurrection maybe, but no holocaust.

It comes down to the will, real or perceived, to use the guns you have. To Quote Saul Alinsky’s rule #1:  Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have. You may not plan to use them, but you should never leave the impression that you wouldn’t.

May e-postal - First Person Shooter

This month the match is more like your favorite video game, DOOM!

You probably recognize all the silhouettes. Just to keep it interesting, some of the higher-value targets require multiple hits, just like in the game. New improved rifle rules too!

Visit Sand Castle Scrolls or The Smallest Conservative and download the target and the rules.
It's Limited Vickers so no more than 20 holes per piece of paper to conserve ammo.

Gun Purchases

Days Of Our Trailers has some stats up from Illinois. There a new gun buyer must first obtain a FOID card, the Chicago equivalent of the yellow star formerly used in Europe. Existing gun owners will already have one of these and not need a new one.

Applications are running an average of 53,300/month in a population of some 12 million.

Extrapolating the numbers, the FOID figures for Illinois imply that the country as a whole is adding 1,325,153 new gun owners every month. That's people who didn't own one before.

Couple this with 2.181M NICS checks average for this year, and existing gun owners are buying some 856,000 additional guns per month. Probably a bit less as not all NICS checks are for gun purchases.

The U.S. Military is about 3 million strong, including cooks, clerks, and bottle washers.

Smoke forces evacuation of White House press room

None of the mirrors were damaged in the evacuation and activities returned to normal within 1 hour.

Story from Fox.

Gun Shopping

Following the Appleseed event I decided I needed some new equipment. I ordered a Marlin 795 from Bass Pro, 2 spare mags from Promag, and a modest scope from Wal Mart. This was late last month.

So far, the scope has arrived. It's a Tasco Pronghorn, 3-9x32. Not fancy, and not expensive. I have a Tasco on another gun and it has given good service.

I guess I need to bug Promag since if the magazines arrive after July 1, they would be illegal. They are 25 round mags after all which puts most of the states population at risk.

Bass Pro must have gotten a shipment of ammo in and in the ensuing crush, all the sales reps in the hunting department have been trampled to death. Or it could be some less interesting reason why they don't answer the phones there, but I like my explanation better.

Range report eventually.

Update: Bass Pro reports that Marlin hasn't shipped them any rifles recently, but I'll hear from them when they do.
            Promag reports: Due to the high volume in recent orders, all orders will take 4-6 weeks to process from the date the order was placed before they are shipped.
           The mags may be squeaking by to get here before the deadline.

Another Reason Not To Go To College

The Department of Education has put forth a letter establishing a speech code to be applied to all colleges and universities. Since they know better than you do, here are some highlights:

Among the forms of expression now punishable on America's campuses by order of the federal government are:

• Any expression related to sexual topics that offends any person. This leaves a wide range of expressive activity—a campus performance of "The Vagina Monologues," a presentation on safe sex practices, a debate about sexual morality, a discussion of gay marriage, or a classroom lecture on Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita—subject to discipline.
• Any sexually themed joke overheard by any person who finds that joke offensive for any reason.
• Any request for dates or any flirtation that is not welcomed by the recipient of such a request or flirtation.

There is likely no student on any campus anywhere who is not guilty of at least one of these "offenses." Any attempt to enforce this rule evenhandedly and comprehensively will be impossible.

Frankly I doubt that evenhanded enforcement was ever a consideration. Punishment would range from a letter of reprimand to expulsion.

From FIRE.

SOTW

Sort of like Quote of the week, except this is for the Statistic of the week.

From the studies somewhere between 85,000 and 130,000 criminals are shot at each year as they pursue their trade.
“Bullet burns” and graze wounds aside, bullets strike home in 7,500 to 12,000 would be perpetrators.
Between 1,100 and 1,800 of the perps do not survive the experience. And the results of all of this – can be seen in the Bureau of Justice Statistics graphic on the right, which shows a 75% decline in violent crime since 1993.

Weather or not the injuries inflicted on criminals affects the number of people willing to risk said injuries and to what degree is possibly a nice topic for an anthropology major.

Got this from Gun Watch who has all sorts of interesting anecdotes.

Horse, Barn Door, Some Assembly Required

For those of you following the continuing saga of Distributed Defense who have developed such handy gadgets as a 30-round AR mag, ditto for AK, an AR upper, and most recently the Liberator pistol, the plot predictably thickens.

The U.S. Department of State has ordered DD to take down from their website all the models used to make the parts as they want to investigate if the CAD models might violate export laws regarding firearms.

DD, being a federally lisenced firearm manufacturer, has complied.

The Liberator pistol models alone were downloaded >100,000 times in the first two days after being published.

To add insult to injury:

As Wilson hints, that doesn’t mean the government has successfully censored the 3D-printable gun. While Defense Distributed says it will take down the gun’s printable file from Defcad.org, its downloads–100,000 in just the first two days the file was online–were actually being served by Mega, the New Zealand-based storage service created by ex-hacker entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, an outspoken U.S. government critic. It’s not clear whether the file will be taken off Mega’s servers, where it may remain available for download. The blueprint for the gun and other Defense Distributed firearm components have also been uploaded several times to the Pirate Bay, the censorship-resistant filesharing site.

Pirate Bay also has the files. The horse hasn't just left the barn, it's sending you post cards from island beaches.

It's Only Money

Colorados insurance exchange which is supposed to help the ignorant masses find insurance under Obamacare is scheduled to get started in October, but already is short of funding just to open it's doors. The original $61M the feds gave us (it's not our money!) is fast disappearing and another small donation from the Feds of some $125M is required.

Good thing this is Fed money and not our money, right?

Operating costs for the exchange have not been mentioned, but it's supposed to be funded by a modest $1.80/month fee from anyone who uses it. There are two possibilities here.

1. Users will be limited to the approximately 350,000 uninsured residents who aren’t eligible for Medicaid. So 350K x $1.80 x 12 = $7,560,000.

2. Generously, every person in the state will need this so 5M x $1.80 x 12 = $108M.

This to fund a boondoggle that costs $186M just to get the lights turned on and the door open. Either way I feel safe in thinking that there will be a pressing need for BIG infusions of money here, and this is just to get people signed up for insurance that may or may not actually pay for your health care. The feds are promising additional funds in the form of grants of decreasing amounts if needed, but  at some point the states are on their own.

"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free!" - P.J. O'Rourke

Award Winners

The Gold Dome Awards are out for the best and the worst in the Colorado legislature this year. With snark like this:

Morgan Carroll. When she wasn’t sleeping on the Senate floor, the upper chamber’s top ginger ran the legislative body from the #2 spot. Her boss, Senate President John Morse, was basically an irrelevant toady.

Of course if the outcome is a forgone conclusion and your party's organizational skills make the Keystone Cops look good,  I suppose at least some slack can be granted for catching up on your beauty snooze on the Senate floor.

Colorado Peak Politics is a fine place to catch up on liberal antics and to find out who really wears the pants under the dome.

Sen Morse represents Colorado Springs a “right-wing, religious whack-job stronghold.”. Or at least some part of it by virtue of the Libertarian candidate pulling down about 3 time Morse's winning margin.

Moron Of The Week

Here's a fellow who was electrocuted while shooting down a power line so he could steal the copper.

Wait! Where did he find the ammo to do this?

Didn't he realize that the ammo he used to shoot down the wire was probably worth more than the wire?

Hope For Change

There's hope for the future of the country after all. A new survey suggests that 61% of college-age students want the government out of their lives.

In a survey launched by Young America's Foundation and conducted by the polling company, Kellyanne Conway, Inc.,  more than 60 percent of college-age students feel that government should not take an active role in their day-to-day-lives, and half of respondents believe that the federal government is mostly hurting economic recovery.

With unemployment in this demographic running about 45%, it's good to see they're finally figuring out what's causing it.

Bill Whittle has some ideas as to how the Republicans could snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory....Again.

Janet's New Digs

Old news by now, but something kept nagging at me about the DHS getting a new building all their own for 15.000 employees at a cost of $3.4Bn.

The new building to be located on the campus of a now abandoned insane asylum would be about a city block square, and 3 stores high*, similar to the Lubyanka building in Moscow which at one point served a similar purpose.

The building should perhaps be named Lubyanka West and a statue of "Iron Janet" placed out front.

I especially liked the Russian joke about the original which described it as the tallest building in Moscow, since one could see Siberia from its basement.

*Size based on BOE calculations of 9 sq yards/employee times 15,000 employees. Sub basements for parking, detainees, and training are assumed, as is a set-back penthouse for upper management offices. See pictures at the link.

QOTD - Culture

The U.S. and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language quoth Churchill, G.B. Shaw, (Thanks Al!). There's more to it than that though as this comment popped up in a discussion regarding 3D printed guns on Samizdata:

In Britain the popular consciousness runs thus:

Guns kill people – Killing people is bad – Guns should be banned – Obvious ‘innit?

Whereas in America it runs:

Guns kill people – Some people need killing – Ooh that Glock looks nice – Obvious ‘aint it?

From Jaded Voluntaryist

How To Win Friends

And influence people.

Might make a good book title, and carefully written, might pay divedends for the leaders of the Colorado Democrats.

The liberal front group attempting to beat back the burgeoning recall effort of Senate President John Morse is headed by the Chairman of the Denver Democratic Party who calls Colorado Springs a “right-wing, religious whack-job stronghold.”

That should improve the party's standing down there all right.  Of course if news of the party's position becomes more widely known, it might even influence the other three recalls currently in signature-collecting phase.

Might even impact the voter initiative to repeal the mag size bill that is driving MagPul out of the state.

Definitely check the story at the link.

The Great Gun Debate

Since this link to the Snell article has appeared on Insty, I will assume that most people have read it. Nevertheless, it's so good I'll second the motion. Here's a couple of lines:

Gun people don’t trust anti-gun people because they lie to us. President Obama directly says he won’t tamper with guns or the Second Amendment, then turns around and pushes Congress to do just that. We don’t trust anti-gunners because they appoint one of the most lying and rabidly (and moronically) anti-gun people in America, Vice President Biden, to head up a “task force” to “solve” the so-called “gun problem,” who in turn talks with anti-gun special interest groups instead of us to complete his task.

The Guardian in England is soliciting opinion from American gun owners and asking if we feel misrepresented. The place for comments is not readily apparent, but it's in the comments for another article by a journalist who went so far as to buy a gun and get a CCW in Texas. This was supposed to be his Secret Decoder Ring that gets you into the Secret Club of gun owners.

The Guardian would do well to simply republish Snell's article.

It's not just guns. It's a characteristic of the left that they seem to lie about everything. No proof presented to them up to and including criminal convictions has any impact.

Can't talk about guns, Can't talk about race, can't talk about the economy, can't talk about health care.

I'm coming to believe that if they couldn't lie, they'd be mute.

Beer Summit Contest

Instead of having to drink beer with a would-be 3rd world dictator, you can have a shot (!) at a drink with none other than Mitch McConnell.

McConnell has a tumblr — yes, he has a tumblr — called ObamaDrink. Send in a picture of yourself sharing drinks with an empty chair, and be entered to win drinks with a chair filled with Mitch McConnell.

See how many drinks it takes before it seems like a good idea to make espousing Socialism in any form a hanging offense .Public hanging. With beer sales.

O.K. maybe that's a bit overboard. Flogging maybe?

H/T to Colorados best known drinker.

Recall Efforts - A New Low

The recall effort against Senate president John Morse reaches a new low with this bit of information:

John Morse is concerned enough about our efforts to create fear and has started using scare tactics to stop people from wanting to sign the petition to recall him. His issue committee which is headed by operatives from the democratic party, A Whole Lot of People for John Morse, has created a robo-call which says people collecting signatures may be criminals and sex offenders. They are telling people to not sign the petition and avoid people going door to door.

This from a newsletter written by Greg Smith.

Maybe it's just me but this sounds almost actionable.

AWLOPFJM seems to have only 3 members and $1100 in its treasury, and has expanded from robo-calls to radio ads. I hear Mike Bloombergs money talking.  Also sounds like they got Sen Morse's attention.

Gun Law - 4th Circuit

The 4th circuit has ruled that open carry of a firearm is not probable cause for a stop. This assumes that open carry is inherently legal in the first place.

The 4th circuit covers Maryland, the Carolinas, and the Virginias.

Colorado is an open carry state with Denver taking the position that the state constitution does not apply there. Interestingly the Colorado Supremes have gone along with this.

Gun Fun - Bowling Pins

O.K. so everybody is familiar with a bowling pin shoot, so forget about that part. The fun part is when a new box of pins is brought out and is discovered to include a large nest of mice.

One drops the box, and attempts to step on the first mouse to run out. As more and more mice flee the demolition of their condo, more and more of the match participants join in the ceremonial mouse dance which involves 6-8 grown men with firearms on their belts dancing from one foot to another in an attempt to land on a rapidly scurrying field mouse.

There were about 8 mice in the box and they tended to run out one at a time, prolonging the festivities. Fortunately no one there had a video camera.

There are snakes under the shed, which we all root for, and whom all likely suffer from morbid obesity by the end of summer. Unfortunately, it's too early for them to be active, and the mice have no trouble at all out-reproducing the snakes.

And before anyone breaks out in a fit of sympathy for the cute little fuzzy mice, just take a zen meditative stance and repeat to yourself: Mmmmmmmm Hanta.

H-P 4095 Range Report

Since I got my 4095 back from the factory I've found that a LOT of improvements have been added. The bolt is heavier, the frame has been updated, and the barrel attachment has been improved to improve rigidity. Several other things have been changed as well to the point that I now think of the gun as the 4095 v2.0.

Last time I had it out I got to put 10 rounds through it and concluded that my scope would make any gun an 8 MOA gun. Removed it and went back to the new factory irons. It may be just me, but the rear sight ring is an exact match for the front sight ring where my head falls on the stock. If I move closer, I can get a ring of light around the front ring to tell me that everything is properly aligned. Likewise if I pull back, I can get the ring of light around the rear ring to show proper alignment. In between, both rings are near the same size which will allow a certain amount of sight misalignment without it being detectable.

At 25 yards we shot several groups. Here's the best.

The tick marks are 1/4". Shot by me, with my dubious eyesight, through the factory irons, a 3 MOA group. I'm sure the gun can do better.

The front sight is a 2-piece affair with the blade and ring attached to a support allowing vertical adjustment. Replacing the blade and ring with a short bit of rail would allow mounting the flip-up sights off an AR pattern gun. Hmmmm.

Breaking News

Al-Jazeera will be opening a news agency in Denver, among other places. They are looking for office space.

I bet they could get a good deal on some unused space here:

Colorado Gun Law

The peasants are revolting!

The county commissioners in Weld county, North East of Denver have voted to back their sheriff, taking the position that the recently passed batch of New York gun laws are do-nothing feel-good nonsense that inconvenience primarily the law-abiding and need not be enforced.

The county cannot, of course, overturn the law, but it can ignore it to some extent.

In a related story, a conservative womens group has gotten on board with the recall effort against Senate president John Morse, boosting the effort.

Gun Shopping

As fallout from the Appleseed, I have gone from not actually needing anything gun-related to needing a whole bunch of stuff.

Firstly I have concluded that while it is possible to get your riflemans patch with a tube-fed gun, for me the extra effort is too much, so I need a mag-fed .22. I decided on a Marlin 795 and since I have gift certificates and such for Bass Pro, that's where it's coming from.

Problem: Not in stock. I am assured it can be had Before Too Long and so I'm awaiting the phone call to come pick it up.

Possible related item: No one can tell me how many mags the Marlin comes with. To be safe I've ordered 2 Promag 25 round mags. These will become illegal in Colorado July 1 so I hope I get them in my hands before then. The reviews suggest that they work well but are hard to load. They are also out of stock everywhere except from Promag where they also have the highest price. I'm awaiting delivery.

Next I discovered that the oversized UTG scope I was using on the Remington will not hold zero. I can put 10 rounds or so in one small ragged hole, then I find I'm making another small ragged hole about an inch away from the first one. So I need a new scope. I decided on a Tasco 3-9 x 32 from Wal-Mart which had good ratings.

Problem: Not in stock, but deliverable within a week to a store near me. I'm awaiting the phone call to come pick it up.

Bottom line is that for the price of a Ruger 10/22, I can have a rifle, spare mags, and a scope. We'll see how this works out.

Now that I've become familiar with bad scopes, I realize that the Hi Point is not the 6 MOA gun I thought it was, but I do have a 4x32 Chinese-made scope that will deliver 4-6 MOA on any gun it's attached to. I'll put the irons back on and get to that later.

Conspiricies

A UPI poll finds that:

...  29 percent of Americans agree with the statement, "In the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties." Five percent were "unsure" about that statement.
Eighteen percent of Democrats said an armed revolt “might be necessary,” as compared to 27 percent of independents and 44 percent of Republicans. Support levels were higher among less educated voters, but similar along gender lines.
It turns out a full quarter of Americans believe the Newtown shooting was a so-called "false flag" operation orchestrated by the government to push stricter gun control.

 Keeping in mind that 25% of Americans don’t believe that Elvis has actually left the building and 51% thought Obama would get it right this time.

No one ever went broke underestimating the taste or intelligence of the American people.

H/T to Jeff at Alphecca for the lead.

Flying Cars

Well it is the 21st century after all, and I still don't have one in my driveway, so where exactly are those flying cars? I've seen various approaches to the problem showing varying degrees of success, but here's one from DARPA:

This was obviously designed by a Marine Gunny sergeant with a lot of time in the sandbox. Take the traditional transport, lose the doors, and marry it to an Apache helicopter. A semi-auto-gyro from the look of it with motive force supplied by the pusher prop and lift by a combination of a modest fixed wing and an auxiliary overhead rotor.

If fitted with a body more like a chopper, and presumable in the same weight category, this might work, minus the ability to hover. It certainly isn't about to land and proceed down the narrow streets found everywhere in the Middle East, even with the fold-back wings pictured.

Still, a fun project for a Major to manage, producing one or two prototypes and some evaluation flight time in Nevada.

Happy May Day

Celebrating many things, beginning with carefree outdoor recreation:

TODAY: *Winter Weather Advisory* Cloudy and colder with snow showers. An additional 3-7" of snow possible across the metro area during the day. A lot of melting and compaction could limit the amount of snow on the ground at any one time.
TONIGHT: Snow will gradually come to an end and a hard freeze is in store.  Record setting lows will be possible as temperatures drop to 20 to 25 degrees. The record low for May 2nd is 22 degrees, last set in 1954.

So I probably won't have to shovel it. My plum trees on the other hand, have just started to blossom.

Gay marriage became official today with several hundred being registered at 12:01 this morning. Big whoop.

Oh yes, there's also supposed to be a big celebration of the progress we've made toward a global socialist utopia of the sort already achieved in places like Cuba and North Korea as the rest of us roll merrily down the four-lane superhighway of communal liberalism, paved with human skulls.