“Gee (child’s name), do your friend’s parents own a car?”

Dr. John Lott may be familiar to some of you.  He’s an economist and political commentator, most famous for debunking gun control as effective crime control, through the use of statistics.  He recently posted some stats on his blog, after the NYT did another hit piece regarding a woman’s concerns about her child visiting a home of gun owners.

The statistics speak for themselves:

What is the risk of a six year old dying from an accidental gun shot?

Lisa Maxbauer recently wrote a piece in the New York Times worrying about her six-year old visiting homes of gun owners.  Here are some numbers from the CDC for both six year olds and those under age 10.

For other ways of accidental deaths, the numbers are as follows:

IDIOCY ON PARADE!

Sipsey Street Irregulars recounts for us idiocy in it’s highest form.

Those who know better.

Gunfire and moments of fear as a rural Oregon school tests its readiness.

Two masked men wearing hoodies and wielding handguns burst into the Pine Eagle Charter School in this tiny rural community on Friday. Students were at home for an in-service day, so the gunmen headed into a meeting room full of teachers and opened fire.

Someone figured out in a few seconds that the bullets were not drawing blood because they were blanks and the exercise was a drill, designed to test Pine Eagle’s preparation for an assault by “active shooters” who were, in reality, members of the school staff. But those few seconds left everybody plenty scared.

I’m with Dutchman6.  If I’d been present (and legally armed) I’d have shot the bastards!

Reminiscent of my security guard days, walking into a cafeteria right after an ‘armed robber’ put a gun in the cashier’s face.  It was Halloween and it was a friend of hers in costume.  I arrived five minutes later.

He would have been shot – right there.

They’re BA-ACK!

♫…and like a good neighbor OWS is there!♫

Taken yesterday (Wednesday, May 1) in Manhattan’s Union Square, note the signs praising North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung.

Oh!  It was MAY DAY.  Celebrate the millions killed by communism!  I forgot…

Vladimir was correct – “useful idiots”…

h/t/ Weasel Zippers, NRO

Stuff I Didn’t Know…

…could fill uncounted libraries stacked to the rafters with (blank) telephone directories…

This was one of those things:

Human Events.  Yes, Human Events (!) brought me this information.  Quelle surprise, eh?

I’ve owned a few rifles.  Most were acquired due to the previous so-called Assault Weapons Ban.  Because I greatly dislike the government telling me what rights I have and don’t have!

But, while I’m an ‘okay’ rifle shot, I’m no rifleman.  I’m a much better pistol and revolver shot than I am with a rifle, comparatively   And with the exception of a .22, the AK variant, and the M-1 Garand, all the others were AR-15 style rifles.

And I didn’t know this.

Is firing a 5.56 NATO cartridge in your .223 Remington chambered AR15 dangerous?  Or do Internet forum-ninjas and ammunition companies selling you commercial ammo instead of surplus overstate the dangers?  Believe it or not, a real danger exists, and some gun owners who think they are doing the right thing may not be safe.~

~The significant difference between the .223 Rem and 5.56 NATO lies in the rifles, rather than the cartridges themselves.  Both the .223 and 5.56 rounds will chamber in rifles designed for either cartridge, but the critical component, leade, will be different in each rifle.

The leade is the area of the barrel in front of the chamber prior to where the rifling begins.  This is where the loaded bullet is located when a cartridge is chambered.  The leade is frequently called the “throat.”

On a .223 Remington spec rifle, the leade will be 0.085”.  This is the standard described by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc. (SAAMI).  The leade in a 5.56 NATO spec rifle is 0.162”, or almost double the leade of the .223 rifle.~

~Many of the AR-15’s currently sold on the market are made for the 5.56 NATO cartridge.  If you own one of these, you should be fine with any .223 or 5.56 ammunition.

However, ATK dropped this bomb in the bulletin on the .223/5.56:

“It is our understanding that commercially available AR15’s and M16’s – although some are stamped 5.56 Rem on the receiver – are manufactured with .223 chambers.”

So, even if your AR is stamped 5.56, is it really?  Check your owner’s manual or call the company directly and make sure you get an answer you feel comfortable with.~

You should go and read the whole article.  Then check your rifles’ manuals and markings.

Just to be and stay safe.

Now we both know.

My Lott in life is to Drone on…

…about our continuing loss erosion outright THEFT of our civil liberties!

Hanging on the coat tails of such luminaries as John Lott, who reports to us through c|net the following:

DHS built domestic surveillance tech into Predator drones

Homeland Security’s specifications say drones must be able to detect whether a civilian is armed. Also specified: “signals interception” and “direction finding” for electronic surveillance.

And just for fun, I also noticed a disturbance in the Force on the Internet, today.  It seems a significant number of high-ranking military officers are taking their retirement, because they’ve been asked by the current administration if they’d follow orders to disarm American citizens!  And they’d rather break ranks than to violate their Constitutionally-supportive oath.

No wonder the gun stores are lacking stock in ammunition and popular firearms.  They’re flying off the shelves.

Scary stuff.  1984 was 29 years ago, and things were bad THEN.  I fear for the future, and I don’t make that statement easily.

h/t Declan McCullagh

The True Believer

I watched and listened in amusement, disdain and horror as the 17th President to achieve reelection took again the oath of office.  His discussion of upholding rights for all…WE the People, failing to acknowledge the individual rights we hold (or rather held) in this country; speaking of the collective.  And never stating that those rights are natural rights, not something issued or taken away by government.

Constantly referring to our founding documents, as though saying those wise words would make his statements go down easier.  Because the speech was about his agenda, not upholding a Constitutional vision for the Nation.

And the camera shots of the audience, obviously fans of the President, alternately staring enraptured and bored, speaking to one another during the National Anthem and the Benediction.  No respect.  Even one of his daughters was not paying attention and talking to her mom.

In 1951, Eric Hoffer wrote The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements.

The book analyzes and attempts to explain the motives of the various types of personalities that give rise to mass movements; why and how mass movements start, progress and end; and the similarities between them, whether religious, political, radical or reactionary. As examples, the book often refers to Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, Christianity, Protestantism, and Islam. Hoffer believes that mass movements are interchangeable, that adherents will often flip from one movement to another, and that the motivations for mass movements are interchangeable; that religious, nationalist and social movements, whether radical or reactionary, tend to attract the same type of followers, behave in the same way and use the same tactics, even when their stated goals or values differed.  (Wikipedia)

I fear most of the persons in the audience were such people.  True Believers.  Folks who either love the man because he’s Black, or because he’s not George W. Bush.  Or because he gives them stuff or money.  Or who voted for him as an agent of change, out of white guilt.  Hardly thoughtful reasons to vote for a chief executive.  Many who now have taken note that the government is more powerful than any previous in American History.  Not militarily, but in a domestic police role.

It was especially telling to have Senator Charles Schumer introduce the President.  A man who needs no introduction to most of my blog readers.  An individual rights bigot and hypocrite.  Another True Believer.

The President did as he did last time.  Instead of making an historic speech, he made a campaign speech, trying to sound inclusive, but ignoring the individual.

This was not unexpected.

Cleanliness is next to…

So, I’m reading passing-over, yet again, another warning on the Internet regarding keyboards.  It seems, more than public bathrooms, computer keyboards are THE source of e-coli bacteria for most folks.  E-coli is one of those nasty things we sometimes access through uncooked food and can cause serious illness and even death.

Yeah yeah, sure sure…yawn

I’m a bit of a germaphobe.  Being slightly OCD and having been ill many times in my life, this is not surprising.  A while back I was reading how the so-called 5-second rule is more realistically a 5-minute rule.  (dropping food on to a generally-clean-appearing floor does not automatically mean it’s instantly acquired enough strange bacteria to be a health hazard if eaten!  As if I’d do something like that! )  Currently living in a house with three dogs and a cat usually means mishandled food doesn’t even make it to the floor.  If it does, it means they’re kenneled, sleeping or seriously full.

So, back to the keyboard.  Specifically MY cordless computer keyboard.  Usually observed in low-light conditions, no issues are observed.  Wait-a-minute…what’s THAT on the keyboard, that red stuff (OH, it’s probably wearing paint…) WAIT!  The keyboard has black with white lettering, no color!  Uh-oh…

Yep.  A couple months back, just after my move, I developed a habit of eating at my computer, over my keyboard in some cases.  Usually…aw geez!  That’s it!  Jack-In-The-Box Tacos!

Old, dried TACO SAUCE ON AND IN-BETWEEN THE KEYS!  Yucch!

Apply Clorox Disinfecting Wipes to the affected area, twice!  And to all the electronic gadget remotes living in my room, just in case.  Because one never knows.

I feel better now, and a little hungry.  What sounds good?  mmmmm-tacos!

The Last Samurai

(If you never read another link on this blog, again, please go to the link below and read it. – Guffaw)

My Daily Kona has a guest post from a naturalized Japanese-American writer about The Last Samurai.  No, not the movie, the real last samurai.

And how this relates to the last 150 years of history, and the Decline of Civilization in favor of multiculturalism, political correctness, and many other things repellant.

It’s a rather lengthy post, but well worth the read.

A segment:

The Anglican Archbishop of the former Rule Britannia is now a promoter of sharia. Spain’s prime minister wants the country that once reconquered itself from Muslim rule, to let itself be conquered again. The Dutch want to sue a man for loss of profits when he warns of their colonization by people who boil over for cartoons, but bowl over for beheadings.
The Vikings are now the obsequious servants of their women and their imported freeloaders. Not that there was true glory in being savage brutes; but being eunuchs is not much better. And the United States, once of ‘manifest destiny,’ has curdled into a “proposition nation” of no discernible borders, language, culture or continuity — as though the people who founded and built it, their culture and their descendants, never existed.

Please visit the link above, and remember from whence we came.  And perhaps shed a tear for The Last Samurai, and for the rest of us, as well.

Officer Safety

FIRST, let me state I come from a family with a proud law enforcement background.  I wanted to become a peace officer, but my physical disabilities kept me from so doing.  I still went ahead and got the requisite college education in the field.  I’ve great respect for the law enforcement community.

I just read Kent’s ‘Hooligan Libertarian’ Blog.  I like the guy.  Sometimes he tweaks my libertarian soul; other times, he concerns me.  Like today’s post.

Today, he writes about what he calls ‘the bogus concept of officer safety’.  He then proceeds to enumerate a number of circumstances wherein law enforcement had intimidated, harassed and abused their authority against the hapless citizenry.

If you’ve read my blog, you know I, too, don’t condone abuse by any officer ‘under color of authority’.  But while there are many reported circumstances of such abuse, this doesn’t mean all law enforcement are criminal miscreants who take advantage of their positions of power.  I am certain the vast majority of cops are hard working, dedicated, and just as horrified at these abuses as the citizenry.

The Thin Blue Line represents governmental authority at it’s best.  Or at it’s worst.  Because they are right there, on the street, where the action takes place.  Not in some ivory tower administrative office making rules-of-engagement indecipherable by the rank-and-file.  And, just like our military, they deserve the best protection possible.

Not all street cops are jack-booted-thugs!  But, some are.

And they represent the idea of The Republic’s government, up close and personal.  Let’s support them as best we can, and weed out the abusive criminals.

One or Two Degrees from Mobsters in Phoenix

Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano

I’ve always been fascinated about the real corridors of power.  The underpinnings, not just that which is presented for public consumption.  That’s probably one reason I became a private investigator and liked hanging out in the Old Phoenix downtown area.  Back when half the men in suits were in Western-style suits and cowboy boots.  And many carried guns.  There were no permits, then.

It’s been said the mob never really controlled Arizona.  But, this was a free-fire area for folks from Detroit, New York and Chicago.  Connected folks.

The names Gus Greenbaum, Willie Bioff and Louis Bombacino are historic in the lore of mob killing in Phoenix.  And let’s not forget the Don Bolles murder.  Bolles was an investigative reporter who incessantly dug up dirt on mob toeholds in the State, and was blown-up for doing so.

I knew a bartender who worked at the I****** and the U**** T**** bars, known hangouts and meeting places for the Bolles bomber and his confederates.  He confided in me he was harassed by local PD while he was giving prosecution testimony in the case!

These were not the usual known mob watering holes, like Rocky’s Hideaway or the Scotch Mist.

During the trial, my PI friend Harry (previously described in these pages) asked me if I wanted a piece of doing backgrounds on all the witnesses/participants/persons-of-interest.  The list he showed me had many local dignitaries, including a prominent Senator, listed.  At that time, I had a young family and confided in him that I’d just as soon not.  Harry, always low-key, told me he understood, after all he’d known J***** N**** aka Louis Bombacino, before he was dispatched by the mob.

Guess the excitement of rubbing elbows with connected folks was a bit too real.  Joe Bonanno still died peacefully in Tucson at age 97.  Who knew?