Thursday, January 31, 2013

Treasure Blog: Whale Puke

Ambergris.

Dog dug it up. Imagine that.

Pic:



Proverbs 26:11. Or Kipling, if you've a poetic turn of mind.

Imagine This Creature Peeking Over a Rock At You



You'd definitely want a gun, right? So would I.

Click here to find out what it is.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Peckerwood Suicide

Lacking a Golden Gate Bridge, or even an Arthur Ravenel, Jr., Bridge, our local residents have taken to jumping off interstate overpasses into the traffic below.

Second one in two weeks. I guess this one is probably a copycat.

Glad We Cleared That Up

Over at Reason magazine, they actually did a survey of random Americans, asking them to define an "assault weapon" in a few words:

Here's some of the replies. An Assault Weapon is:

A SEMI AUTOMATIC

A MACHINE GUN

SOMETHING THAT CAN KILL AND HURT PEOPLE REAL BAD MAKE THEM BECOME DISABLE OR LOOSE THEIR LIFE

MACHINE GUNS A GUN WHERE YOU CAN PUT IN A MILLION BULLETS

ANYTHING THAT IS NOT A PISTOL.

SHOTGUN

ONES THAT CAN SHOOT LONGER BULLETS

A WEAPON THAT WAS CONCEIVED ILLEGALLY

A KNIFE AND A GUN

THEY DANGEROUS

IS A WEAPON UMM WHICH SOUL PURPOSE IS USE IN KILLING PEOPLE

Click the link for more.

Wish I'd Had a Camera Handy

Our little community of Indian Trail, North Carolina, gives households two rolling garbage containers, one for recyclable trash, one for everything else. Today was garbage day so everyone rolled their containers up to the street.

My neighbor across the street just got home. His house is atop a rise, his driveway is about 10 yards long and slopes down to the street. Neighbor, rather than pulling his car into the driveway and walking back down for the garbage bins, stopped his car at the bottom of the drive, got out, and lifted one garbage bin onto the trunk lid of his car. He then got into the car, stuck his left hand out of the window, and grabbed the handle of the other container, released the parking brake on the car, and drove up the drive with one container on the trunk and the other rolling alongside the car.

I'll point out that it's January 30th and he still has his Christmas lights out, as well.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Arrival

Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop by Euell Gibbons.



This is an old classic. If you're interested in foraging your own food and living off the land, Gibbons' books are a great resource (he also wrote Stalking the Wild Asparagus, Stalking the Healthful Herbs, and Beachcomber's Handbook). He gives tips on identification of edible wild foods, cleaning and preparing them, and recipes.

Gibbons was famous for a 1970's TV commercial he did for Grape-Nuts cereal in which he asked the question, "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible!" Here's Gibbons in another Grape-Nuts commercial:

Mr. Yummy Pwns Mr. Whippy

The UK ice cream truck wars.

Frankenstein's Spitfire Flies

Assembled from the parts of dead Spitfires from around the world,it comes to life:



Here's a vid of its first flight:



Treasure Blog: 1913 Liberty Nickel

One of only five minted, and that illegally, since 1913 was the first year of the Buffalo nickel.

Apparently a mint worker got a little greedy.



It's going up for auction - - price expected to be paid? Well, it would be like winning the lottery. That much.

Sort of Like Goebbels With Hitler

60 Minutes' Steve Kroft on his rapport with President Obama:

“We have a format that suits him. It’s long, we can do 12 minutes or 24 minutes,” Kroft replied. “We do a good job of editing.”

Adding that he’s covered Obama since his candidacy, Kroft noted it’s a “question of fairness.” Obama “knows that we’re not going to play ‘gotcha’ with him, that we’re not going to go out of our way to make him look bad or stupid. Though we’ll let him answer the questions.”


Monday, January 28, 2013

Best Comeback Insult EVER!

Found at Ann Althouse's blog:

Blogger Howard said...

Fucking bullshit article. Jobs got a shitty cancer lottery ticket. He likely messed up once he got sick by going for the gorp treatment instead of surgery.

In any event, he lived a thousand more lives compared to everyone else.

Do you feel better tearing down the great man? Life is safe in the little box where rebels go galt repeating opinions from Fox -n- Friends and praying to gawd for heaven and a big mac.

1/28/13, 10:13 PM Blogger Chip Ahoy said...

Do you feel better blah blah blah crap blah blah FOX blah blah

Why no, Howard, I don't. Do you feel better painting with broad brushes slapping paint all aver the place and holding those brushes in both hands and both monkey feet?

1/28/13, 10:21 PM


Now that there is some funny shit.

Probably Misguided, But...

...there's precedent for going into the desert looking for wisdom.

And who knows? Maybe he found wisdom. In any event he's probably not as pudgy now as in the photograph, which I hope he'll appreciate.

(I tried to find that dramatic clip from The Ten Commandments of Moses battling the desert, but could only find the part where Ramases sent him on his way. Oh, well.)

A Bleak Message

Go, read.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Musical Interlude

Weekend Players, Jericho. English vocalist Rachel Foster doing the singing. She has the sort of rich, deep voice I like in a female singer. A "brown" voice, I think they call it. Carrie Newcomer has a similar voice, as does the vocalist for Everything But the Girl, Tracey Thorn:

Massad Ayoob...

...nearly purchased some agricultural real estate.

Hope you'll all go wish him well.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Found On Facebook



Look at the trigger discipline. I think this is the only pic I've ever seen of W holding a firearm.

h/t The Victory Girls. Note: I'll note the possibility of it being a photoshopped photo, just to be on the safe side. No evidence of it being so, but no evidence of it not at this point.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Ladies, Now You Can Have One of Your Very Own

You can put your makeup in it, mebbe.



Of course, that's for you single ladies. Married ladies already have the ones formerly owned by their husbands. ;-)

Dogs Wearing Gas Masks

WWII-era photos.

Sample pic:



I think my buddy Murphy's Law will have problems getting one of those on Murphy. You can make an expedient gas mask out of a 2-liter soda bottle and some paper towels if you'd like to try, though.

Lord of the Flies

It's Beelzebub!




h/t Victory Girls.

For John Scalzi Fans...

...he's selling an "episodic" book set in the Old Man's War universe on Amazon,each episode costs ninety-nine cents. Two of the episodes have been released already, thirteen in total are planned.

Apparently In These Parts...

...crunchy frozen earthworms are a favorite snack of the Red-Shouldered Hawk.

We have a mated pair of them that spend considerable time in our front yard. They perch in the two large Bradford Pear trees and swoop down to pick up the crunchy worms. We have a yard that dries verrrrry slowly after any rainstorm, so the worms are always at the surface of the lawn.

Back To the Dreaded Merthiolate?

"Antibiotic resistance is now as serious a threat as terrorism and could trigger an 'apocalyptic scenario', warns UK's top doctor."

I'm guessing that most of the fault lays with abuse of antibiotics in livestock food, but is routine use of antibiotic ointment for treatment of scratches and scrapes partly reponsible, too? And over-prescription of antibiotics for cold viruses? Should we go back to using iodine and *shudder* merthiolate for treating childhood scrapes?

You young 'uns are lucky that you grew up with antibiotic ointment. Back in my childhood days if I skinned my knee or got caught in the rosebush thorns, my mom would treat it by pulling a red spray bottle of merthiolate out of the cupboard:

Mom: Hold still! *spray spray*

Young Bobby: Aiiieieeeeeee! Ow ow ow ow! *whimper whimper*

Can I get an Amen! from you older folks? Am I right?

Not Really, Ann

Ann Coulter, usually pretty good with her research, fails miserably at defining "semiautomatic," as in "semiautomatic firearm."

“Assault weapons” are defined as “whatever politicians say they are.” The guns that are banned and the ones that aren’t are functionally identical. They’re all semi-automatics.

Semi-automatics shoot one bullet per trigger pull — that’s the definition. Any handgun manufactured since the Civil War is a “semi-automatic.” The most basic self-defense revolver for women is a “semi-automatic.”

An example of a gun that is not a semi-automatic is a musket. Also those guns where a “BANG!” flag pops out when the clown pulls the trigger.

An automatic firearm — what militaries and drug cartels have — continuously fires when the trigger is pulled. They have been subject to a near-total federal ban in this country since the 1930s, so they’re irrelevant to the discussion.


Although revolvers do fire one shot per trigger pull, they are not semiautomatic because they don't use the force generated by the fired cartridge to cycle the action for the next shot.

Probably if you had to define a semiautomatic firearm, that would be a better fit: a firearm with but a single chamber, which uses the force of a fired round to cycle the action for the next shot. A semiautomatic firearm will fire one shot per trigger pull as long as cartridges are available to cycle the action.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

90 Sheriffs, 2 Sheriffs' Associations

That's the total so far on law enforcement agencies that won't cooperate in a Feinstein/Obama gun confiscation.

Last week, Reason's Ed Krayewski noted that a handful of sheriffs around the country had pledged to ignore new gun regulations being pushed by President Obama. If Oath Keeper Sheriff Richard Mack is to be believed, the number of sheriffs who are now refusing to enforce new federal gun regulations is up to 90.

"Sheriffs have risen up all over our great nation to stand up against the unconstitutional gun control measures being taken," Mack wrote on the site for the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). "I applaud these public servants for their courage and conviction. I would encourage other Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers to add their voices to the growing numbers of faithful protectors of our freedom."


Guess that's why the Obama administration is purging the military of leaders who refuse to fire on US citizens.

Today's Poll: Will Hillary Testify?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to testify on the Benghazi attack today. The last time she was scheduled to testify she had an unfortunate accident and couldn't make it. Do you think she'll actually make it to Capitol Hill today?

Will Hillary Actually Testify?
  
pollcode.com free polls 

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Humorous Confederate History Detail

This one regarding General Nathan George "Shanks" Evans, (no relation, as far as I know) who distinguished himself at the Battle of First Manassas:

He was commissioned a colonel and commanded a small brigade at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he was the first Confederate field commander to perceive the Union intent to attack the Confederate left flank at dawn. His command went far toward saving the day for the South. During the thick of the fight, he was everywhere, closely followed by an aide carrying his "barrelito" (small barrel) of Evans' favorite whiskey on his back.

Pic:

That's a comical picture, certainly. I guess the aide must have had some sort of tin cup for the Colonel's use. I guess the Colonel would ride up to the aide, take the cup, and then have the aide turn around so that the Colonel could dispense the whiskey. Or perhaps the aide removed the "barrelito" from his back and dispensed the whiskey himself? Sounds Monty Python-esque.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Baby Mama Wanted...

...to give birth to race of Neanderthals.

A leading geneticist is on the hunt for an 'adventurous woman' to help turn back the hands of time - and give birth to a Neanderthal baby.

George Church, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School, believes he can bring back the extinct ancestor of modern man after more than 33,000 years.

Contrary to popular belief, Neanderthals were in fact a highly intelligent race and Prof Church believes they could be recreated through modern medicine.

He told German magazine, Der Spiegel: 'I have already managed to attract enough DNA from fossil bones to reconstruct the DNA of the human species largely extinct. Now I need an adventurous female human.


The White House has already expressed interest in the plan. /sarc

V-vote...O-ob-bama...
Good boy!

Looks Like the Secret Service...

...is worried about riflemen interrupting the inauguration.



Reminds me of something Bob Owens said recently:

While the Secret Service will be able to protect the President in the White House, he will not dare leave his gilded cage except in carefully controlled circumstances. Even then he will be forced to move like a criminal. He will never be seen outdoors in public again. Not in this country.

Meanwhile, In Virginia...

...that Democrat member of the Virginia House of Delegates who made a scene by brandishing an AK-47 rifle (and who had to be admonished to remove his thumb from the trigger area)has his own history of violence and malfeasance.

To the point of being disbarred.

He Stuck In His Thumb, Which Just Isn't Done...


A Virginia lawmaker who drew gasps from his colleagues when he brandished a borrowed AK-47 during an anti-gun speech Thursday was found guilty in 2002 of committing a vicious 1999 assault, was sanctioned for legal misconduct while prosecuting a rape case, spent six months in jail for contempt of a federal court, and saw his law license revoked in 2003.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Restoring a Spitfire

A fine article from The Daily Mail.

Pic:

Stan Musial, 1921-2013: R.I.P.

A legend passes.

Stan Musial was simply known as "The Man."

That's where the Hall of Famer stood in the annals of the St. Louis Cardinals, the National League's most successful franchise, and in the hierarchy of Major League baseball.

Musial, 92, died Saturday, the second baseball icon to pass away in less than 24 hours. Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver died Saturday morning.

Musial had battled Alzheimer's disease in recent years and was under hospice care.


Musial was one of the greatest. Even Ted Williams, no slouch himself as a hitter, once confided to his son that he thought that Musial was a better player.

Bill Clinton Warns Democrats...

...not to make the same stupid mistake he did in underestimating gun owners.

Former President Bill Clinton warned a group of top Democratic donors at a private Saturday meeting not to underestimate the passions that the issue of gun control stirs among many Americans.

“Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them,” Clinton said.

“A lot of these people live in a world very different from the world lived in by the people proposing these things,” Clinton said. “I know because I come from this world."

Clinton dedicated a substantial portion of his 40-minute address in front of a joint meeting of the Obama National Finance Committee and a group of business leaders to the issue of guns and gun control, saying that it was a test-case for President Barack Obama’s grassroots movements. (POLITICO was given a transferable ticket by an invited member of the committee.)

But, Clinton warned, the issue of guns has a special emotional resonance in many rural states— and simply dismissing pro-gun arguments is counter-productive. While some polls show that the public by-and-large supports several proposals for increased gun control, Clinton said that it’s not the public support that matters — it’s how strongly people feel about the issue.

“All these polls that you see saying the public is for us on all these issues — they are meaningless if they’re not voting issues,” Clinton said.

And Clinton said that passing the 1994 federal assault weapons ban “devastated” more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers in the 1994 midterms — and cost then-Speaker of the House Tom Foley (D-Wash.) his job and his seat in Congress.

“I’ve had many sleepless nights in the many years since,” Clinton said. One reason? “I never had any sessions with the House members who were vulnerable,” he explained — saying that he had assumed they already knew how to explain their vote for the ban to their constituents.

But he said that he understands the culture that permeates a state like Arkansas — where guns are a longstanding part of local culture.

“A lot of these people … all they’ve got is their hunting and their fishing,” he told the Democratic financiers. “Or they’re living in a place where they don’t have much police presence. Or they’ve been listening to this stuff for so long that they believe it all.”

Clinton closed his remarks with a warning to big Democratic donors that ultimately many Democratic lawmakers will be defeated if they choose to stand with the president.

“Do not be self-congratulatory about how brave you for being for this” gun control push, he said. “The only brave people are the people who are going to lose their jobs if they vote with you.”


He couldn't refrain from the patronizing, himself, there at the end: "Or they've been listening to this stuff for so long that they believe it all." Probably said that with an eye-roll and a sneer. So you see that, although "Bubba" comes from that sort of rural tradition, he really has little in common with it.

Gallery: Shipwrecks

via The Daily Mail.

Sample pic:

Eat Sh*t...and Live

Scientists have discovered that transplanting fecal matter from a healthy donor to someone with a c. dificile bowel infection will cure the infection with far better success than antibiotics.

And, contrary to my provocative blog post title, no eating is involved. A nasal tube fed into the small intestine, or an enema, is used to introduce the fecal matter.

C. dificile infections are becoming more common because of widespread use of powerful antibiotics. They can be lethal, especially in the elderly.

h/t Instapundit.

Friday, January 18, 2013

And Of Course It WOULD Be the FOX Affiliate

A female reporter managed to turn the word "inaugural" into a racial slur.

Term Limits & Gun Control

"A Gallup poll released Friday shows that 75 percent of Americans would vote for term limits, for both the House and Senate, if given the opportunity."

I'm for term limits myself, not liking political careerism. Too easy to start thinking that your shit doesn't stink and that you're entitled to exempt yourself from the laws that you inflict on others.

But term limits would probably break the power of the National Rifle Association to prevent gun control legislation from being passed. If a politician doesn't have to worry about the consequences of a particular vote because of his/her limited time in office, then (s)he can safely choose to vote the conscience, and not vote at the behest of a lobbying organization.

Those Burmese Spitfires?

Might not exist after all.

Click the link for details. They've found some crates, but one crate proved to be full of water; others are buried under power/phone cables and require careful extraction. It's not looking as if there is a squadron of pristine Spitfires ready to fly again.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Gestapo At the SHOT Show

Story.

As the industry poises for the Obama administration, word spread through SHOT Show that undercover agents supposedly from a variety of different agencies, from ATF to OSI, were wandering around the show floor, passing out business cards that bore an official-looking seal and the words "Suspicious Activity Reporting: 702-690-9142"

Curious, one industry insider called the number. After several rings, a recorded message thanked him for reporting the suspicious activity, and asked for a callback number. Instead, he hung up. Only a few minutes later, their cellphone rang and a caller identified himself as an FBI agent following up on the "suspicious activity report".

When questioned about the supposed federal agents wandering the floor, the caller said that despite the fact that OSI was a military agency, breaches of security when it came to the "kinds of equipment displayed at SHOT Show" gave them full domestic arrest powers.


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

A Righteous Response To a City's Proposed Gun Bans

"Gun Range Prohibits Police After City Considers Ban."

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A rural Vermont firing range has told the police department in Burlington that its officers are unwelcome to train at the facility because the City Council has advanced a measure to ban semi-automatic rifles and large-capacity magazines in the state's largest city.

The City Council's action earlier this month threatens constitutional freedoms, Robert Boivin II, board chairman of the Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club Inc., wrote in a letter to police department, city and state leaders terminating use of the gun range by Burlington police.

The firing range is in Morrisville, about 50 miles northeast of Burlington. The city of 42,000 residents has a police force of just less than 100 officers.

The club's executive board "can no longer support the City of Burlington with such a prejudice against our club and its members, and has voted to suspend the City's use of our range for its law enforcement. This action is effective immediately," Boivin wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday. It was provided Wednesday to The Burlington Free Press.


Well done, Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club! Wish more businesses and ranges would make anti-gun jurisdictions and politicians pay the price in such a manner.

The Ridgeway, SC Police Station

Well, the old one, actually.

Saw it in my travels. Charming little town, Ridgeway. Very much a "Mayberry" feel.


Pic:

The Biggest?

One of Charlotte's local gun shops is in the news:

The nation's biggest arms store, Charlotte, N.C.'s Hyatt Gun Shop, is calling on gun owners to revolt against President Obama's new gun control move, warning that Washington has its eyes on trashing the Second Amendment and stealing gun rights.

Hyatt has turned part of its retail webpage over to the plea for action: "Whining to other gun owners and giving up on dialogue with your representatives in Congress is how you GIVE AWAY your gun rights! Remember to contact your representative and senator TODAY and keep contacting them. We cannot stress this enough!"


Nation's biggest? Didn't know that. It's pretty big, sure enough, but the United States is a huge country. There's bound to be a bigger gun shop than Hyatt.

Dispirited

Haven't much felt like posting. My apologies.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Vigilantes In Mexico Force Government To Take Action Against Cartels

There comes a time when lawlessness and government indifference to it triggers a populace to take up arms and handle the situation themselves.

That point has been reached in two towns near Acapulco:

Several hundred civilians have taken up arms in two towns in a southwestern Mexico state and are arresting people suspected of crimes and imposing a curfew, leading authorities to promise to reinforce security forces in the area.

People wearing ski masks or bandanas and carrying small arms this week began manning checkpoints on roads into the municipalities of Ayutla de los Libres and Teconoapa in Guerrero state's Costa Chica area about 75 miles southeast of the Pacific resort of Acapulco. Leaders said they were acting against crime and insecurity.

Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre Rivero responded Friday by announcing that security in the region would be bolstered by sending in Mexican soldiers and marines and federal and state police officers.

People in the area said about 800 residents were participating in the armed groups acting as unofficial police. The vigilantes ordered a 10 p.m. curfew for the two towns and are looking for suspected criminals. Schools have suspended classes.


This is what happens when a government fails in its primary duty, which is to ensure the safety and security of its citizens. It's not just a phenomenon from history. It happened in UK a few years ago, causing the government to promise reform and hastening Labour's downfall. A government that fails to keep its citizens safe from criminals swiftly loses legitimacy.

When Slurs Trigger Assaults

Just happened in Wilmington, NC:

A Wilmington man intentionally drove his car into a restaurant late Friday night, injuring at least one patron before fleeing the scene.

Officials with New Hanover County dispatch received a call around 10:40 p.m. Friday that a dark green Honda Civic had crashed through the front of Katy’s Great Eats, 1054 S. College Road, and then fled.

Officers with the Wilmington Police Department located the car a short time later. The driver, 26-year-old Jacob Spivey, admitted he’d driven through the restaurant intentionally trying to harm a female patron who had made a disparaging remark about his political beliefs.

“That upset him,” said Lt. Mary Green with the WPD. “Spivey intentionally drove over the curb and onto the patio with the intent to seriously injure the female.”

The woman, described as being in her 40s, was transported to New Hanover Regional Medical Center with severe lacerations and broken bones. Her injuries were not life-threatening, Green said.


And I don't think you can classify a Honda Civic as an "assault vehicle."

I guess it will come to this more and more as the two competing ideologies of the US become more hostile to each other.

Call Him Chief Viagra

Found this in a Wikiwander:

Buffalo Hump (born ca. late 1790s to early 19th century — died 1870) was a Native American War Chief of the Penateka band of the Comanche Indians. His Nʉmʉ tekwapu (Comanche) name, properly transliterated, was Po-cha-na-quar-hip which meant "erection that won't go down". He came to prominence after the Council House Fight when he led the Comanches on the Great Raid of 1840.

I thought that someone maybe did a bogus edit of Wikipedia, but it's apparently true. I took a screenshot, all the same:



Bet his kids liked to play ring-toss, huh?

We Don't Have the Whole Story, Lawyer Says

That would be the lawyer for Scott Compton, the Chapin, SC teacher who stomped on a US flag as part of an English class.

The action was an effort to convey symbolism by showing America “is greater than the material objects that represent it,” said Darryl Smalls, attorney for suspended teacher Scott Compton.

Compton sought to generate discussion “using a powerful symbol with which all his students would be familiar,” Smalls said. “He made only positive comments about America throughout the lesson.”


I imagine it went something like this:

*Compton walks over, takes down flag from wall* Let me illustrate with the flag, the one we say the Pledge of Allegiance to every morning. Now, as a symbol of the United States, we should treat it with a degree of respect, which of course will vary according to the individual's intelligence and level of indoctrination by the State, the State in this case meaning the entire country, and not just South Carolina. But if you take the symbolism away from it, it's just a rectangular, colored piece of cloth. No different than a handkerchief you blow you nose in, or a diaper a baby poops in.

So if I were to drop this cloth on the floor (drops flag onto floor) it wouldn't be disrespectful, right? It's just an object, a thing. And if I then proceeded to stomp on this thing, like so:
*STOMP STOMP* I'm not making a statement, right? I mean, it's just a thing, *STOMP STOMP* Not the flag of the country I love. Right? Now if I stomped on it as a symbol of the country I love, it would be disrespectful. But remember, it's just a thing. *STOMP STOMP*And by the way, this is good exercise, too! Really gets the ol' heart pumping! *STOMP STOMP*(puts flag back on bracket) Now, our next class will continue with our discussion of symbols, in which I'll immerse a cross-shaped object in a symbolic jar of urine...

Quandary: Because I'm a Cheapskate

Looks like my hometown newspaper, The Charlotte Observer, and the other major NC newspaper, The News & Observer of Raleigh, have retreated behind pay walls as of the beginning of the year. This takes a lot of blogfodder away from me, since I like to comment on area events, crime, etc. Even if I subscribe to the papers it won't help my readers, because any links I include in my blog entries would be subject to the same restrictions.

So the blogging will be necessarily lighter for a bit while I figure this out. So far the Wilmington, NC Star-Ledger hasn't gone to a pay wall, so I can still cover NC news to a certain extent.

This was inevitable, of course. Blogging will die when bloggers can't send links to each other. For those of a conspiracy mindset, it might be evidence that the MSM is attempting to kill off "the new journalism" by starving it of source material, and thus competition for readers.

How many of you out there are dealing with this?

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Flying Pig Alert

Frost advisory in Hell: Leonard Pitts writes a column I agree with.

Exposed.

That, in a word, is how you feel when someone broadcasts your home address without your knowledge, against your wishes. Your correspondent speaks from experience. Six years ago when white supremacists published my home address and phone number on their web sites, the first thing I felt was vulnerable.

The folks at the Journal News newspaper in New York state would doubtless say it was not their intention to do anything like that when they published online maps of gun ownership in their area. But intention and effect are two completely different things.

The maps show dots covering two suburban New York counties — Westchester and Rockland — like a rash, one for each of the 33,614 persons who is licensed to own a handgun there. Had it been the intention of the paper simply to illustrate the ubiquity of guns, those graphics would have done the job nicely.

But the paper did not stop there. Click on any one dot and up comes the name and home address of the gun owner in question.


Because Pitts had it happen to him personally, he's able to empathize with gun owners in this situation. He then goes on to speak of privacy, and I think that is the best point he makes in the essay:

And if one consequence is that some New York state gun owners feel exposed, the larger consequence for all of us is a further chipping away of private spaces, a further compromise of the increasingly quaint idea that one has a right to live peacefully and an expectation to not be bothered in so doing.

This is not about freedom of the press or freedom to own guns. It is, rather, about the freedom to be left alone, and whether that’s still sustainable or whether henceforth we must all live exposed. The technology being what it is, it’s worth remembering that the answer to that question, whatever it may be, will be shaped both by journalists and by those who are not.

Consider that, while some gun owners vented their anger by making threats and sending baking soda in the mail, others expressed themselves more pointedly. They posted home addresses for Journal News employees online.


Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Derbyshire On Sectionalism

He ties it in with our current gun ownership issues:

The current brouhaha over gun control strikes me that way. Listening to the opinionators, I started to think I could do a near-simultaneous translation—a translation, I mean, from the surface chatter about constitutional rights, kid safety, self-defense, and 30-round magazines (not “clips,” for crying out loud) to the underlying ideas in the speakers’ heads. Something like:

Blue guy: “Why does anyone need a 30-round magazine? What use is that, except to commit mayhem?”

[Translation: You dumb ignorant unwashed cracker, you can’t wait to let loose on some harmless crowd of African Americans, can you? Get back to your cabin and jar of corn liquor and relatives with six fingers. You shouldn’t be playing any part in the life of the nation, with your crazy religion and your reactionary social ideas.]

Red guy: “The Second Amendment is the people’s safeguard against tyranny.”

[Translation: You think I don’t know what’ll happen to me and mine if you sissified, overeducated elite hypocrites ever get total power over us? Leave us alone, dammit!]

I’m not being loftily impartial here. I belong to one of those sections. (Take a guess.) I’m just making the point that what this is really about is good old American sectionalism—two big groups of white people who can’t stand the sight of each other. We are eternally re-fighting the Civil War.

(Yes, white people. Blacks are hors de combat here, as they mostly were in the Civil War, neither side of which liked or trusted them. Sherman would not let colored troops march armed in the Grand Parade. Some black pioneer units marched with picks and shovels, but they were regarded as comic relief by the spectators and newspapers. Nobody cares what the generality of blacks think, no more now than in 1865. This war, like that one, is an intra-white affair.)


Click the link to read the rest. I think he's spot-on in his analysis.

Bookmark For Future Visit

Henricus Historical Park, Chester, Virginia.

Just s. of Richmond. H/T A Woodsrunner's Diary for pointing it out.

They do living history demonstrations at Henricus, from the early English colonial period. Here's a demonstration of how to fire a matchlock musket:



Rather long and dry. He should have edited it down to around 1 minute, or posted both long/short versions.

These matchlocks might be all we're left with after Obama & Co. get their orgy of gun control out of their system.

Even In South Carolina....

...there's leftist pukes ready, willing and able to indoctrinate your kids with your tax dollars:

A high school teacher in South Carolina is under investigation and has been placed on long-term administrative leave after he allegedly threw an American flag on the floor and stomped on it in front of his students.

Scott Compton, an English teacher at Chapin High School in Chapin, S.C., reprised the unpatriotic deed in three classes over the course of one day, reports local NBC affiliate WIS.

According to FITSNews, a South Carolina-based conservative news and entertain website, people in the Chapin High community describe Compton a “good teacher” who is “very liberal” and “wears it on his sleeve in the classroom.”


h/t The Daily Caller.

Apologies For Light Posting

Been down with a case of diarrhea, so have been in my bed most of the day. Contemplating calling off work, which I almost never do.

Y'all stay safe out there.

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Want To Help Restore a B-17?

Here's your chance.

SPRINGFIELD, OHIO — The stakes aren’t as high as when 12,726 of them were built during World War II, but the effort to restore one B-17 in Urbana still needs everyone to do their part.

Close to 90 volunteers at the Champaign Aviation Museum have so far spent seven years returning a single Flying Fortress to flying condition, and they can always use another Rosie the Riveter.

“The door’s open,” project manager Randy Kemp said. “Come get acquainted and see what you like.”

Don’t worry about experience — all you need is the same can-do spirit that won the war in the first place.

“Most of these guys have never before bent a piece of aluminum in their lives,” Kemp explained recently. “But, pretty soon, you’re building an engine nacelle.”

For history buffs, it’s an open invitation to come tinker on the ultimate muscle car — only this one could carry 8,000 pounds of muscle in its bomb bay.


I know I have some readers that would probably enjoy the chance to work on this project.

'E's Stunned!

But, unlike the parrot in the famous Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch, these sea turtles are, in fact, stunned from sea water suddenly cold from sharp drops in the weather:

The recent cold spell has kept area aquariums and the sea turtle hospital on Topsail Island busy helping cold-stunned sea turtles from North Carolina and other locations along the East Coast.

Ten live, cold-stunned juvenile green turtles were found Saturday on the beach south of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

According to information from Cape Lookout National Seashore, park volunteers Dallas and Marjorie Spruill rescued the stranded turtles and contacted park officials. Rangers Wade Keeler and Kerby Price responded and carried the turtles back to the park offices on Harkers Island.

Matthew Godfrey, state sea turtle biologist and representative of the N.C. Sea Stranding and Salvage Network, picked up the turtles. The turtles were given an initial assessment by a veterinarian and then transferred to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island.


The turtles are also being cared for at a couple of NC state aquariums, at Fort Fisher and Pine Knoll Shores.

And yes, here's the Dead Parrot sketch mentioned above:

Monday, January 07, 2013

Sammy Johns, 1947-2013: R.I.P.

The singer of the iconic 1970's hit song Chevy Van.

Sammy Johns’ song about a chance encounter with a girl sat on the shelves of a record company for nearly two years before being released in 1975.

That song, “Chevy Van,” went on to sell 3 million copies and was called “The Song of the Seventies” by Rolling Stone magazine. It reached No. 5 on the charts in the United States and Canada.

Johns, who was born in Charlotte but spent most of his life in Gaston County, died Friday at Gaston Memorial Hospital. He was 66.


Sammy Johns.




Boy, that was a beach song of my youth. Daytona Beach in those days. Good times.

Revenge of the Munchkins

Comes the Global Warming Apocalypse, your best bet for surviving is to be a midget:

The joint editor of the Climate News Network is warning that in as little as two centuries global warming will lead to “mass extinction,” which may be good news for residents of “The Shire.”

“Hobbit-sized humans, able to exist on less nourishing food, will have the best chance of survival in a warmer world, scientists say,” said Paul Brown, a journalist and author, in an article entitled, “Mass extinction forecast with 6C temperature rise,” published on Jan. 7.

Brown bases his claim on findings by the “Bighorn Basin Coring Project,” a group of scientists from the United States, the UK, Germany, and Netherlands studying a “period 55 million years ago when the Earth’s temperature rose suddenly.”

“Dwarfism is again expected to be a successful strategy for the survivors, enabling humans, animals and insects to mature earlier with less food and so reproduce before they starve,” he said.


We Just Hope There Ain't No Wicked Witches!


h/t Weasel Zippers.

Saturday, January 05, 2013

I Always Wondered About That, Myself

The foreskin of Jesus of Nazareth.

There are ample representations of Christ’s circumcision in art, and though we might blush and wince from the mere mention of the procedure, the faithful in ages past were less inclined to look away. The cult of the relic of Christ’s alleged foreskin was the occasion for pilgrimage with rival claimants to the real thing vying for the attention of the crowds and the Church’s approbation. It was a cultural icon with enough traction behind it to warrant Voltaire’s sneer, and as Modernity advanced, for many in the Church, the foreskin relics and their cults became a source of embarrassment. I think that the last one of these alleged relics was kept on display until the early 1980′s. The bejeweled reliquary and its relic have since disappeared.

That should have warranted a Monty Python sketch all by itself in Monty Python & the Holy Grail and Monty Python's Life of Brian, both. Shame they never did it.

Bicycle Next, I Guess

'Cause he done wrecked his liquorcycle:

A man was in critical condition after driving his moped while under the influence of alcohol and colliding with another vehicle in the intersection of Rocky River Road and WT Harris Boulevard in northeast Charlotte Saturday.

Witnesses told officers that around 7 p.m. the moped “all of a sudden appeared in front of traffic” in the intersection, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said. Another vehicle struck the moped, and it’s driver was taken by helicopter to a local hospital, medic officials said.


DUI on a liquorcycle means he had his license to drive taken away already for the same offense. Maybe, if he lives, this will be enough to make him change his ways. But I doubt it.

And yet this is the sort of person who most needs our prayers, isn't it? Does the Lord mind much if your prayers for someone like this are sort of half-hearted? Is it hypocrisy to pray for someone you feel little empathy for?

She'd Have Probably Appreciated a High-Capacity Magazine...

...but all she had was a five-shot revolver.

And Senator Diane Feinstein of California probably begrudges her even that.

Please notice that the thug who broke into her house had just been release from prison in August.

Meanwhile, In Sweden...

...executives at a Swedish zoo hosted a party for employees, and barbecued two of the zoo's wildebeests for the main course:

Bosses at a Swedish zoo have been accused of barbecuing their own animals for a staff party.

The Parken Zoo in Eskiltuna, west of Stockholm, put two of their own wildebeest on the menu for the event, it is claimed.

Financial constraints were said to be behind the decision to cook the animals.


And, since the wildebeests were old and tough, they made them into meatballs:

A Little Further Down the Road To Tyranny, But Not By Much

UK Labour Party: Let's just ban those Frosted Flakes!

A consultation paper identifies a number of breakfast cereals containing more than 30 per cent sugar according to research by Which?, including Kellogg's Frosties, with 37.0g of sugar per 100g and Tesco Choco Snaps with 36.1g per 100g.

The latest research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), shows that in the UK, 26.6 per cent of girls and 22.7 per cent of boys are now considered 'obese'.

Meanwhile, the National Child Measurement Programme last month reported that one-third of children in England are either overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school. Overweight children are at a greater risk of developing diabetes and cancer.

Mr Burnham said: 'The findings of the OECD should shock us out of our complacency. It is clear that the current voluntary approach is not working. We need to open our minds to new approaches in tackling child obesity.


And the US can't really gloat on this issue, because we're only a step or two behind UK, what with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Big Gulp bans.

Call this "small-T" tyranny, or the nibbled to death by ducks strategy of tyranny. The end result is the same: loss of freedom, but by gradual erosion rather than blunt-force theft of it.

Quote of the Day

Society really does depend on the imperfect virtue of its members. Self restraint and moral behavior, even only realized in part, really are the foundations of liberty. If too many people do the wrong things too many times, nothing can protect us from the consequences.

The weaker the hold of virtue on a people, the stronger the state needs to be. If people don’t voluntarily comply with, for example, the tax codes, the enforcement mechanisms of the government need to be that much stronger. If more people lose their moral inhibitions against theft, and against using violence against the weak, then society has to provide a stronger, tougher police force — and give them more authority under less restraint.

Yet at the same time the state becomes stronger, it loses control of itself. When the moral tone of a people declines, bureaucrats and the police are not exempt from the decay of morals. Perhaps a stratum of high minded elites and civil servants can keep up a moral tone that is significantly higher than the declining standard around them, but lesser officials and the police will reflect the society around them. They will steal; they will abuse their authority; they will manipulate the processes of the state to serve themselves and their favored clients. The courts become corrupt; the security services link up with the crime syndicates. Night falls.

This is not some abstract fear; history and the world today are full of places where the collapse of moral values blights daily life and undermines the prospects for development. I’ve been to many countries where nobody trusts the courts, the police, the politicians or the journalists. None of these countries are nice places to be, and more than anyone else it is the poor — those who most need the state and most need justice — who suffer the accumulated consequences of the moral failures of their society.

Sadly, people do not spontaneously choose to behave like angels. Virtue has to be cultivated and developed. Young people have to be persuaded, cajoled, admonished and above all inspired to seek wisdom, self control, a life of service and all the other virtues that are necessary for our civil lives as well as for the fullest development of our true selves. Older people have to be reminded of their ideals, encouraged to live up to them and to continue fighting the good fight through the long years of adulthood and on into the twilight.


Found here. Click to read the whole thing.

Friday, January 04, 2013

Grandma Tyrant

Up in New Hampshire, a state legislator - - and a Democrat, naturally - - wants to clamp down on freedoms that the citizens of the state enjoy - - simply to discourage conservatives from moving to the state.

"In the opinion of this Democrat, Free Staters are the single biggest threat the state is facing today. There is, legally, nothing we can do to prevent them from moving here to take over the state, which is their openly stated goal. In this country you can move anywhere you choose and they have that same right. What we can do is to make the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave. One way is to pass measures that will restrict the 'freedoms' that they think they will find here. Another is to shine the bright light of publicity on who they are and why they are coming."

Totalitarianism with a geriatric face.

Thursday, January 03, 2013

When You Say Our Military Won't Confront Gun Owners...

...keep this story in the back of your mind.

HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. -- A Saucier, Miss., hunter suspects his father's deer dog is dead.

H.W. Krohn doesn't have proof, just a bloody collar he's turned over to Naval Construction Battalion Center investigators and a sad story to tell.

Krohn has hunted the woods around Mississippi 15 for most of his 57 years, and more than once he's had a few deer dogs end up on Camp Keller, where the military's Woolmarket Rifle & Pistol Range is located.

Usually the dogs come back out the same way they went in -- through a barbed-wire fence in the back of the ammunitions range off Mississippi 67, he said.

On Dec. 29, Krohn's father's 2-year-old Walker named Lil Gray and another dog ran a yearling deer onto the federal property.

The dogs had trailed the deer for eight to 10 miles, crossing several roads before they slipped through the fence at the back of the rifle range.

That area is off limits to civilians and "keep out" signs are posted around the chain-link and barbed-wire fenced property, NCBC Public Affairs Officer Rob Mims said.

Krohn believes a Navy security officer shot and killed the two dogs that day while he and the other dog's owner were calling for them from outside the fence.


Click the link to read the rest. Militant gun owners often claim that police and military won't confront them in an any sort of gun ban/confiscation scenario, that the two groups will put their oath to the Constitution above their duty as government employees. Existing research, such as the Milgram Obedience To Authority Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment tend to contradict this belief.

Won't Hear That In NYC

Ericcson claimed he was so distraught over the snake’s death, he shot up the large cabinet that contained his Dale Earnhardt collection.

You'll burn in NASCAR Hell for that, dude.

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Other Than That It Was a Great Airplane

"The U.S. Navy gave it to the Marines. Pilots thought it was a sweet plane to fly, but noticed that the wheel struts sometimes broke, that the engine leaked oil, and that the guns sometimes didn't fire. And when they flew it against the nimble fighters of Japan, too often they didn't come back."

Some parts of a Brewster F2A Buffalo have been found in 10 feet of water in the lagoon at Midway Atoll.

The Buffalo is widely recognized as one of the worst airplanes to fly during WWII. There's only one left in existence, in a museum in Finland.

Pic:



Sort of short and fat, isn't it? I remember playing with model planes as a kid and the Buffalo was one of my favorites, for some reason.

Amazingly, No Food Was Taken In the Robbery

That would be the robbery of a Papa John's Pizza in Cherryville, NC.

I made the crack about the food because of the surveillance footage taken of the two robbers:

"If Anyone Tries To Stop Us...SQUASH THEM!"


Not to put too fine a point on it, being a fat man myself, but that boy needs to buy a set of bib overalls, change his name to Haystacks*, and get a job in the WWE.

Less Likely To Kill You Than Blacks

I speak, of course, of Brown Widow Spiders:

Huh? What did you think I was talking about?

“The Brown Widow Spider is a cosmopolitan tropical and subtropical spider having established populations in Hawaii, Florida, some Caribbean Islands, parts of Australia, South Africa, Japan, and Cyprus,” according to the website.

In North America, the Brown Widow Spider was restricted for many decades to the Florida peninsula.

“However, around the year 2000, it started showing up in other Gulf Coast states. Brown widows are now known from Texas to Georgia and South Carolina. As specimens were found in new locations in the southeastern United States, this species was simultaneously being collected with greater frequency in southern California. The first specimens were collected in Torrance in 2003. After that, the spider was found with greater frequency in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties,” the website says.

The brown widow has apparently made inroads into North Carolina, said Susan Brown, horticulture agent with Cooperative Extension of New Hanover County.

“The brown widow spider is fairly timid. I currently have a live sample in my office in a jar,” Brown said. “They are brown instead of black and they do have an orange hourglass on the belly.”

Brown widow spiders are rarely known to bite “and are unable to inject a substantial amount of venom into a victim,” Brown said.


A spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Black Widows (NAABW) called the accusation that Black Widows are dangerous "racist."

Pic:

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

British Discover Persimmons

Possums hardest hit.

A few years ago, it would have been very unusual to find them gracing the fruit bowl.

But they are now the fastest-selling exotic fruit in Britain.

Sales of persimmons overtook kiwi fruit, mangos and avocados in the build up to Christmas, according to industry experts.

More than four million of the fruit, which resemble bright orange tomatoes, were sold in British supermarkets in 2012 – double the number sold the previous year.


To check local North Carolina reaction, I contacted Percy Possum, a local possum. He took the news badly:

THEY'RE EATING WHAT??!?!!

Funny How Your View Of Armed Security Guards Changes...

...when you feel the cold wind blowing down your own spine.

The Journal News of West Nyack, N.Y., has hired armed security guards to defend its offices after receiving a torrent of phone calls and emails responding to the paper's publication of the names and addresses of area residents with pistol permits.

RGA Investigations, a private security company, "is doing private security at on location at the Journal News as a result of the negative response to the article," according to a police report first obtained by the Rockland County Times (Nanuet, N.Y.) and shared with POLITICO. The guards "are armed and will be on site during business hours through at least January 2, 2013."

Last month, in the wake of last month's elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the Gannett-owned Journal News published interactive maps showing the names and addresses of pistol permit holders in New York's Westchester and Rockland counties. Conservatives and gun rights advocates publicly protested the paper's move; on Monday, the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association called for a nationwide boycott of the paper's advertisers, calling it a “wanton act” that “has put in harm's way tens of thousands of lawful license holders."


Yer LOL of the Day

Charlie Sheen shows the way:

Yesterday, Charlie Sheen dropped a slur against gays at the opening of a bar in Cabo San Lucas; the opening was also attended by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was not too busy with his city’s massive budget deficit to party with the ex-Two and a Half Men star. Grabbing a mic, Sheen blasted away: “How we doing? … Lying bunch of f****t a**holes, how we doing?”

Now Sheen has tried to joke away the incident. Asked by TMZ about the slur, Sheen said, “I meant no ill will and intended to hurt no one and I apologize if I offended anyone. I meant to say maggot but I have a lisp.”


That could work in debates over race, too:

I meant to say "neighbor" but I have a lisp.

The Relentless Logic of Al Sharpton

via Gateway Pundit:



REV AL SHARPTON (28 Dec 2012): In any civilized society you do not see massacres continue to happen, from Tucson to Aurora to Columbine to Virginia Tech to where we are now in Newtown to Chicago and you keep the same laws when clearly they’re not working.

ROSCOE IN MARYLAND: What happens when the criminal goes to knives Al?

REV AL SHARPTON: Then you deal with knives.

ROSCOE IN MARYLAND: Oh I see.

REV AL SHARPTON: The same thing as if you have a head cold and the same thing you do if you have a head cold and the cold is gone and you have a headache. Then you take headache medicine. The job of society is to deal with whatever problem confronts it.


Taken to its logical end, the Rev. Al solution would still leave you able to bite someone's leg off:



Although I guess Rev. Al would, at that point suggest knocking their teeth out.

Still, that one line...

"The job of society is to deal with whatever problem confronts it."

Hey, Rev. Al, in major cities throughout the country we have a problem with violence. We've identified the source of the problem. Are you sure you want us to deal with it? Really sure? I mean really really?