11 December 2004

JR's Blasterizer



Thought I'd share. Bushmaster lower, Catfish upper. Flat top, cheapo red dot, M4 barrel, vortex flash hider, 4-position collapsible stock.

Pretty, isn't it?

10 December 2004

Go Badgers!

Texas officer suspended for comment to gay couple

Hey! You two! Don't be gay, m'kay?
"We won't have you doing this on capitol grounds"
Heaven forbid we stop two males from kissing on the grounds of the capitol building.

Mercy. My granddad is doing about 4600 RPMs in his grave right about now...

Peace on Earth

You may not want to look at this at work. It really got me in the Christmas spirit and makes me long for world peace.
My favorites are 5, 12, 14, 16, 21, and 24, but I watched 15 the longest.
Big D

Four years after leaving the White House, Hillary Clinton plots her return

It will be up to us, of course, to ensure that Hillary never gets elected President. We (the blogosphere) will have to be on point for the next 2-3 years digging up and sharing with the world what this woman has believed, said, and been involved in - in order to keep her from becoming President.

The American populace deserves to know more about Hillary than what they'll see on 60 minutes or 20/20 and in the New York Times.

CHL Reciprocity in the News!

Georgia and Montana reciprocal agreements are done. Ever since they took the duty of handling reciprocal agreements away from DPS, things have moved along nicely.

So far, Texas has reciprocity agreements with Georgia, Montana, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming. It's a good start.

Plane briefly lands atop 18-wheeler in West Texas

This takes mad skillz, yo.

No one was injured, but I bet they need some new upholstery.

Democratic Party chief arrested

This is a good start.

Bill Moyers Retiring From TV Journalism

One thing to Mr. Moyers - your side lost the election. Deal with it.

This has got to be one of the most biased pieces of *journalism* that I've read in some time now.
"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," says Moyers. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."
This idiot actually believes there's a right wing media. What channel have you been watching? An ideological press interested in electing Republicans?? You obviously didn't watch the election coverage, and the complete fawning over the Senator and the Breck Girl. You are right, however, when you say that the press has no interest in the American people. They are apparently too willing to be the accomplices, not of the RNC, but of the Democrats.

And this stands for unbiased journalism?
"One example of typically good journalism on "Now" not long ago: an in-depth look at the record of President Bush's nominee for secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice, who in her current post as national security adviser "dreadfully misjudged the terrorist threat leading up to 9/11, and then misled America and the world about the case for invading Iraq," as Moyers concluded."
Yes, Condi is just a stupid black chick, toeing the line for the President. Must be nice to be a liberal, and to be able to be a racist with no one in the right wing media calling you out on it.
"What they're really objecting to is not my ideology," he says in his thoughtful, almost pastoral manner. "I'd be doing this if the Democrats were in power. It's not that I'm a liberal, it really isn't. It's the fact that I'm doing journalism that isn't determined by the establishment."
Um, wrong. I'm doing this because of your bullshit ideology. Maybe if your *spit* journalism *spit* wasn't tarnished by your liberal ideology, you wouldn't be the abject failure that you are.

And, let me see. Who would expect your *journalism* to be tainted considering that you worked as a special assistant to LBJ?

Boffins invent joystick controlled endoscopy cam

And Dan thought that automobile black boxes were intrusive. How about a fun game of Ass Pong?

Man Charged With Sandwich Rage in Houston

Well, at least it's not a gun violence article. He just threatened to kill the manager and blow up the restaurant. What's the penalty for assault with a cold steak & cheese sammich?

Glock vs. 1911

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm an admirer of the genius who invented what I think is the finest pistol known to mankind to this date - John Moses Browning.

I'm not one of the typical 1911 fanatics who believes that every other pistol is a piece of crap (but there are indeed some that are - need I say S&W automatics?), or that if you add a beavertail safety, ambi thumb safeties, and full length guide rod you're committing some kind of heresy.

For the past two years, I've been shooting a custom pistol, built by my good friend up at Rock Ranch arms up in Missouri. It's based on an STI 2011 frame, and is a .45acp. It's easily the finest weapon I've ever owned. I've decided that in the upcoming year, I want to compete in another pistol division in IDPA, and that would require me to change calibers to 9mm, so I've been without my .45 for a month or so.

In the meantime, I've been shooting a Glock 21, that's a full sized Glock in .45acp for those of you unfamiliar with the Glock hierarchy. It's been brutal. Now, there's nothing wrong with a Glock. I think they are indeed the finest example of the new breed of pistols. But the 21 just wasn't working for me. It's slightly too big for my hands, and the lack of a thumb safety was keeping me from locking the gun into my grip, and as a result the gun just kept jumping around and I couldn't hit crap.

So, after a sleepless night of worrying about it this week, I broke down and traded the Glock in for a Kimber 1911, in 9mm. I think Kimbers are probably the best out of the box 1911's on the market, and I hope this one runs as well as a previous Kimber that I used to own.

I can't begin to describe how much better the 1911 just feels in my hand. We'll see how it shoots at the match tomorrow, and I am really looking forward to it. Not only that, I'm looking forward to just buying some 9mm rather than handloading some .45 tonight.

Now, if I can just get to the range without my car's black box telling the po-leece that I'm speeding, it'll be a good day. :)

FOXNews.com - Views - CATO - Car Black Boxes: Safety or Spy Feature?

FOXNews.com - Views - CATO - Car Black Boxes: Safety or Spy Feature?

A few months back, I posted another article on this Black Box issue for cars. This time we are hearing more of the direction that the Insurance industry and state and federal government is heading.

I don't think this is a case of being a Chicken-Little worried about the sky falling. These devices are indeed surveillance equipment, used to either tax or track violations. Legislation for a milage tax is in the works, and once a state gets their hands in that cookie jar, watch out. As reported in the article a rental car company is already using this to charge ($150) for speeding while driving their car.

This is being hidden under the assumption that it will make us safer, but the abuses of this technology are huge. How fast do you drive, how many miles, where do you drive, how many people in the car (using total weight). All tied into a GPS system, like OnStar, and you have a reporting system of everything about your driving and your car. Or I can envision and hand held unit, that a Meter-Maid would carry and just walk up and down the streets and any vehicle that records excessive speed a citation would be sent to the owner. Easy money.

We need car companies to list cars currently being sold that have this box on them, and let the buyers decide if they want this feature. I'm sure the ambulance chasing lawyers are foaming at the mouth to get this data. Can you imagine the law suits using this data? And, it's already being used.

Perhaps we need someone to start working on some electronic countermeasures for this technology. A chip or program that would make the box record a speed of 20 mph no matter how fast you drive? Then I'm sure they would create a law against tampering with these boxes. Or maybe it needs infected with a computer virus? Maybe I see an opportunity there...

Kerry to Visit Iraq During Mideast Trip

I'm betting Kerry gets another Purple Heart on his trip. Probably from the upset tummy he'll get from the food on the plane.

Yahoo! News - MoveOn to Democratic Party: 'We Own It'

Well, looks like the Dems are throwing in the towel four years early for the next election. Go ahead, put the MoveOn freaks in charge of the DNC. Make my day.

09 December 2004

Scotland: Gun Crime - Rising Every Year

"But with the equivalent of one gun crime every hour in Britain, official figures show the problem has more than doubled in Leeds in the last six years.

'Every incident of gun crime has a critical effect on communities. We are never complacent about it,' said Mr Bullock, head of the West Yorkshire force's community safety department."
They're not complacent, because you have to care to be complacent.
'The British police service still enjoys, compared to other countries, high levels of public confidence. Again there’s no room for complacency, there have been blips, and we need to tackle that.'
Blips. That's what the rising rate of gun crime in the UK is since they banned firearms. But they have public confidence. I wonder - exactly in what does the UK public have confidence? That they'll be a victim of gun crime?
But across England and Wales the number of gun crimes have doubled since 1997 with 10,000 incidents a year.

And the number of incidents in West Yorkshire is rising year-on-year, according to the force’s annual reports.

There were more than 2,145 incidents involving firearms in the county in 2003/4, up from 2,041 the year before and more than double the 947 recorded incidents in 1998/99.

Colin Cramphorn, chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, said the murder of Pc Broadhurst had overshadowed a “challenging year” for the force.
There ya go, folks. Gun control works! Just ask the armed criminals who can act without fear. They love it.

08 December 2004

SayUncle : Holy Crap

Video of a full-auto shotgun. Looks like it's built on a Saiga/AK operating system. 12 or 20 gauge, and it looks pretty brutal to shoot. It's for police and military sales only, of course. Very impressive.

Dallas police get more firepower

Officers will be allowed to carry semiautomatic weapons

This was all over the local news last night. Almost too funny, but mostly pathetic.
Some say it's been a long time coming, but the weapon they'll be carrying is potent - and their most powerful ever.

The weapon known as the AR-15 is not a machine gun, but it's close: a seven-pound, semi-automatic rifle that fires a 223-caliber bullet, with an effective range of 200 yards.
That's right, in the hands of the police, it's a semi-automatic rifle. In the hands of a civilian, it's an "assault weapon."

The good news is that they'll be required to take a 40-hour training class (most police are not very good at handling their firearms. Sorry, but it's true.). The bad news is that the city's not paying for them - the cops have to buy their own. As they're finding out, they're not cheap.

07 December 2004

Fourth-grader suspended over suspected 'Jell-O shots'

The ole catfish sees a similarity between this event and the krispy kreme quandry:

"The gelatin was turned over to the sheriff's department for testing to see if it contained alcohol."

Knowing how things work in New Orleans (and JR knows even more!!), I'm willing to bet the evidence dissapears, but confirmation that there was indeed alchohol in the jell-O will be made.

Gunman Robs Armed Guard, Sprays Shoppers With Mace

This bad guy made it look easy. "Armed" guards are only as good as their training. You suppose the armored car company sends their guards to mall cop school? Here's the winner of the Obvious Award, a poor woman who got a free sample of CS gas:
"My chest was burning and my eyes were burning and I had to make it to the door to get some air," said shopper Lori Watkins.

Yahoo! News - Bill Clinton Helps Launch Search Engine

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

06 December 2004

Minty Fresh Breath Counts for Something, Doesn't It?

Two bottles of mouthwash does not make a good cocktail.
"He was friendly and cooperative, just not doing so well walking," Hoelscher said.

The man was not given a breath test. "He had good breath, though," the officer said.
Seriously, can a bloody mary help that hangover?

FT.com / World - Annan rejects calls to quit United Nations

Hell, why should ole Kofi quit?? His family is reportedly raking in the bucks, and he's still at the helm of the most corrupt organization in the world. But, he's still a lot better than blowjob Bill in the same job, doncha think?

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: NAACP Head Mfume Didn't Retire, He Was Booted Out by Armstrong Williams

Interesting take on the NAALCP, further supporting my recent statement concerning Clarence Thomas and Condy Rice.

Coalition to Prevent Assault Weapon Violence

Here's a call to action: do your part to help prevent assault weapon violence. Volunteer your time to watch these weapons to make sure they do no harm.
Helping is easy - you simply need to load this page regularly. Bookmark it. Make it your browser's default page. Check it every night after you tuck your children in. It's their lives your assistance might save.

You could be the one that spots the violence.

Courts Defend Guns

A decent read on the recent trend of courts dismissing lawsuits against gun manufacturers.
Ultimately, the message for our judges and legislators is twofold. First, courts must continue to reject bogus claims instigated by anti-gun zealots seeking to circumvent state legislatures. Second, Congress should keep its nose out of state tort law and reaffirm that our national government is one of enumerated, delegated and, therefore, limited powers.
Spoken like a true Federalist.

05 December 2004

Yahoo! News - Congress to mull mandatory drug tests for baseball: McCain

I think that pro ball has got to quit letting the player's union dictate the rules and get its players off steroids and other illegal drugs designed to enhance the player's performance.

That being said, Congress needs to butt the hell out and let baseball clean up its own shop. John McCain (maverick Republican Senator) needs to remember the (R) by his name is not a (D) and remember that a core Republican belief is the belief in a SMALLER and LESS intrusive federal government. Senator, stay the hell out of it.

French training exercise leads to explosive mistake.

Ahhh, our amis, the frogs.

This leads to the observation that perhaps the Inspector Clouseau and his leetle yellow fwend are alive and kicking, and working for the Paree poleece.

It also leads me to wonder if the Frenchies have their hearts in the anti-terror thing. Feel happy, dear travelers, though, because the gentelman at the French Military Information Department (You know, the one who will let us know just how fast the retreat du jour is going) because, in his words, the plastique is "totally inoffensive."

And, after all, it was only a simple mistake:
"During what was described as a "lapse of attention," a baggage handler put the suitcase with checked luggage being sent to an aircraft hold."