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http://www.govliquidation.com Dear Valued Customer: Please take a moment to note important changes set forth by the Defense Logistics Agency: Recently it has been determined that fired munitions of all calibers, shapes and sizes have been designated to be Demil code B. As a result and in conjunction with DLA’s current Demil code B policy, this notice will serve as official notification which requires Scrap Venture (SV) to implement mutilation as a condition of sale for all sales of fired munitions effective immediately. This notice also requires SV to immediately cease delivery of any fired munitions that have been recently sold or on active term contracts, unless the material has been mutilated prior to sale or SV personnel can attest to the mutilation after delivery. A certificate of destruction is required in either case. Thank you, DOD Surplus Against this background of ammunition shortage, about the only ammunition that continues to be somewhat available is that from second tier manufacturers who are remanufacturing ammunition from once-fired military cartridge brass. As of yesterday, that supply came to an end because of the DLA administrative decision to destroy (”demil”) all fired military brass. Max, I have a lot more information about the national ammunition shortage, too much to put in one email. It is both a supply and demand problem. Without that lengthy detail, take my word for it that U.S. gun owners are very at-risk for their effective RKBA because of existing ammunition shortages. This administrative decision by DLA places a log on the back of a camel already sagging in the middle. We sincerely hope that you can do something to turn DLA around, and reauthorize the flow of once-fired, undestroyed military brass from the military to civilians and civilian entities. One final thought. The military can sell reloadable brass for $2.00 per pound. Brass that has been destroyed for reloading purposes and value sells for about 35 cents per pound. So the DLA is expecting taxpayers to pay DoD extra to make reloadable brass unavailable to civilian gun owners. If this is correct, our government is actively aggravating the ammunition shortage and wasting our money. Maybe there's some non-RKBA hostile reason for DLA to do this, but for right now I am having to assume enemy action by the Obama Administration. Labels: gun rights Labels: history At least 9 students and 3 teachers were killed at the public school near Stuttgart Germany. Three other people were killed at other locations. Unfortunately, the latest German attack is just another in a string of horrible K to 12 public school shootings in that country. In 2002, 16 people were killed at an attack in Erfurt. There were two other smaller multiple victim public school shootings in 2002 alone. In 2006, 11 students were wounded in Emsdetten. Germany has had the two worst multiple victim K to 12 school shootings in the world. The last seven years of Germany school shootings make the United States seem peaceful by comparison: though the US has almost five times as many students as Germany, a total of thirty-seven people were killed during all multiple victim k-12 shootings in the US during the eight years from the Fall of 1997 to the summer of 2005. Yet, Germany already has some of the strictest gun control laws in Europe and much stricter gun control laws than are being publicly discussed in the United States. It might not get much attention because it doesn't fit the template of gun violence in the US, but during the last seven years, other European countries — including France, Finland, and Switzerland — have experienced multiple-victim shootings. The worst outside of Germany have involved 14 murders, and all these killings have occurred in places where guns were banned. We all want to take guns away from criminals, but gun control is more likely to disarm potential victims relative to criminals and make crime easier to commit. A lot of Europeans like to look down their nose at the uncivilized U.S. because of mass murders such as Columbine--but there have been a surprisingly large number of these events in Europe the last few years, in spite of gun control laws that are comparable to or stricter than New York State or Massachusetts. As I mentioned a few months ago, after the second mass murder in Finland involving a mentally ill young man, some of these countries have been aggressively pursing the same mistaken strategy that we have: deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. Labels: deinstitutionalization, gun rights Hollar said the district won't know how cuts will affect class size until the school year starts because classes are based on enrollment. Secondary student enrollment has dropped by 550 students in the past five years, and the district has been overstaffed with teachers, especially at the secondary level, he said. Meridian School District, Idaho's largest, is growing and may qualify for additional teachers next school year, according to spokesman Eric Exline. Meridian had 1,100 more students this past fall than it did in the fall of 2007, he said. Nampa School District expects slight growth in student numbers next year, and any potential reductions in staff likely will be covered by people retiring or leaving their positions, said spokeswoman Allison Westfall. A potential conflict was brewing last night in the South China Sea after President Obama dispatched heavily armed American destroyers to the scene of a naval standoff between the US and China at the weekend. Mr Obama’s decision to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggressive and co-ordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. They harassed and nearly collided with an unarmed American vessel. Washington accused the Chinese ships of moving directly in front of the US Navy surveillance ship Impeccable, forcing its crew to take emergency action, and to deploy a high-pressure water hose to deter the Chinese ships. Formal protests were lodged with Beijing after the incident. On a day that Mr Obama and his senior officials met the Chinese Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, in Washington, Beijing showed no sign of backing down. Its military chiefs accused the unarmed US Navy ship of being on a spying mission. The US keeps a close eye on China’s arsenal, including its expanding fleet of submarines in the area. Washington says that the confrontation occurred in international waters, but Beijing claims nearly all the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with five other nations that have claims over different parts of the waters. The episode complicated fragile military relations between the US and China, which appeared to have improved after the two held defence talks in Beijing last month. Labels: 2008 presidential candidates Lesbians living in South Africa are being raped by men who believe it will 'cure' them of their sexual orientation, a report has revealed. Women are reporting a rising tide of brutal homophobic attacks and murders and the widespread use of 'corrective' rape as a form of punishment. The report, commissioned by international NGO ActionAid, called for South Africa's criminal justice system to recognise the rapes as hate crimes as police are reportedly failing to take action over the spiralling violence. The extent of the brutality became clear when Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's national female football squad, became one of the victims last April. Simelane, one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian and an equality rights campaigner, was gang-raped and beaten before being stabbed to death 25 times in the face, chest and legs. Labels: crime, homosexuality Labels: gun rights Federal agents this morning are searching the office Washington, D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer. The search of the office at 1 Judiciary Square is part of "an ongoing investigation," said a spokeswoman for the FBI's D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said. She said two men, Yusuf Acar and Sushil Bansal, had been arrested. Acar is an information security officer who was also, according to online requests for proposals, responsible for contracting. Bansal is listed on the city's procurement website as the CEO of the Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation, which was awarded two technology contracts last year worth a total of $350,000. The Washington Post and WTOP Radio report that the men are being held on bribery charges. The outgoing Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, was appointed last week Chief Information Officer by the Obama administration. His last day at the city government office was March 4, a spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Leslie Kershaw, said. He was appointed to the Washington post in 2007, and held it when Bansal's contract was awarded. Labels: 2008 presidential candidates Labels: immigration A federal law enacted in 2005 sought to shield gun makers from lawsuits like the one The gun manufacturers, in a joint legal brief, said the federal appeals court correctly applied the 2005 statute and argued the law does not violate the Constitution. "This case does not qualify for Supreme Court review," the gun makers said. Labels: gun rights Irmo - A suspected robber is dead after officials say a pizza man shot him in during the robbery. Lexington County Sheriff James Metts says Saturday night, four men ordered pizza to a house on Avery Place Lane with the intent of robbing whomever delivered it. None of the four lived there and officials say the homeowner did not realize his home was being used for a robbery. Pizza Hut delivery man, 43-year-old Christopher Miller, says he showed up at the home at 10:30 p.m. and 17-year-old Paul Sturgill was standing on the sidewalk waiting for him. Officials say soon after Miller got out of the car, two other men ran at him from the woods. When Miller started running away, that’s when authorities say Sturgill continually tried beating him in the face. Miller, who has a concealed weapons permit, says he pulled out .45 caliber handgun that he had in his fanny pack and shot Sturgill in his chest. Sturgill was taken to the hospital where he later died. The three other suspects ran and officials are still looking for one of the men. He’s 18-year-old Justin Roundtree. Metts says he’s wanted for robbery and criminal conspiracy. Roundtree is a member of a criminal gang and is 5-foot-5 and weighs 160 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. Labels: gun self-defense WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has gone from frequent flier to jet-aircraft connoisseur, with aides berating military officials to get the best planes, e-mails revealed yesterday. Pelosi, who clashed with the military to get nonstop service when she flies home to California with police protection on government planes, revealed a particular fondness for Gulfstream's sleek G-5 - a plane glamorized in Hollywood films and rap videos. "It is my understanding there are no G-5s available for the House during the Memorial Day recess. This is totally unacceptable . . . The speaker will want to know where the planes are," a Pelosi aide wrote in an angry e-mail to the military. Labels: politicians behaving badly The Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration had to wait more than a year to refurbish aging nuclear warheads — partly because they had forgotten how to make a crucial component, a government report states. Regarding a classified material codenamed "Fogbank," a Government Accountability Office report released this month states that "NNSA had lost knowledge of how to manufacture the material because it had kept few records of the process when the material was made in the 1980s and almost all staff with expertise on production had retired or left the agency." So the effort to refurbish and upgrade W76 warheads, which top the U.S. Navy's (and the British Royal Navy's) submarine-launched Trident missiles, had to be put on hold while experts scoured old records and finally figured out how to manufacture the stuff once again. According to the Sunday Herald of Glasgow, Scotland, Fogbank is "thought by some weapons experts to be a foam used between the fission and fusion stages of a thermonuclear [hydrogen] bomb." Added Kasper: "And I find it personally offensive to suggest that a single malfunctioning trolley car could have wiped out 490 city blocks." Pamphlets distributed during the symposium, which brought together some of the world's most notorious 1906 Earthquake Deniers, raised numerous questions about the so-called "myth" of the 296-mile-long rupture in the San Andreas Fault felt from Oregon to Los Angeles. "If an earthquake of that size really did strike downtown San Francisco, then where is all the rubble?" read one pamphlet, entitled "After$hock$: Truth, Lies, And The Business Of Earthquakes," obtained by reporters. "Where are these alleged 3,000 dead? And why does the mayor refuse to answer questions about the fires that mysteriously started moments after the supposed 'earthquake' occurred? Ask yourself: Who is he protecting?" Labels: movie reviews The order was clear: Kill the guy in the Astros jersey. But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away. Perez, 27, was just a working guy, out getting dinner late on a Friday with his wife and young children at Chilos, a seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway. His murder and the assassination gone awry point to the perilous presence of Mexican organized crime and how cartel violence has seeped into the city. Arrests came in December when police and federal agents got a break in the 2006 shooting as they charted the relationship and rivalries between at least five cartel cells operating in Houston. A rogue’s gallery of about 100 names and mug shots taken at Texas jails and morgues offers a blueprint for Mexican organized crime. Houston has long been a major staging ground for importing illegal drugs from Mexico and shipping them to the rest of the United States, but a recent Department of Justice report notes it is one of 230 cities where cartels maintain distribution networks and supply lines. At Chilos, the real crime boss was sitting at another table, as were two spotters. The hitman waited in the parking lot for Perez to leave the restaurant. “I just remember that guy coming up to us and he started shooting and shooting and shooting and never stopped,” said Norma Gonzalez, Perez’s widow. He was hit twice. “I know they will pay for what they have done, maybe in the next life,” she said of Perez’s killers. “I don’t know what is going to happen to them in this life.” Labels: immigration Obama made the comments as he was signing an executive order that will allow federal spending on embryonic stem cell research. Some critics say the research can lead to human cloning. Obama said the government will develop strict guidelines for the research because misuse or abuse is unacceptable. Labels: abortion "We have a number of elements that are suggesting that we are approaching the moment where you would have a pick up," European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet said in his capacity as spokesman for the G10 central bankers meeting at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). "I would say that we are at a level where the positives are not necesarily fully priced in," he added. He did not specify a turning point but said central bankers would not depart from projections by global institutions, which are forecasting global momentum at close to zero this year before growth in 2010. Trichet added that there was currently an under-estimation of the positive impact of sharply lower commodities and oil prices, as well as fiscal packages launched by governments. Labels: economics This year's Valentine's Day pillow fight was, quite simply, a mess. Officials, only slightly amused, say the episode left the city holding the bag - or empty pillow case - with thousands of dollars in damage and cleanup costs due to mounds of wet, sticky feathers. The promoters of the counterculture event, now in its fourth year, must take responsibility for future happenings or "otherwise we are going to have to find a way to shut it down," said Lisa Seitz Gruwell of the Recreation and Park Department. San Francisco's pillow fight is part of an international fad, partly anarchistic, partly absurdist, in which a mob of participants suddenly materializes at a public place, engages in odd behavior and then disperses. The events range from zombie marches to dances and pie fights, including a shaving-cream-on-paper-plate pie fight staged late Thursday afternoon at the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market streets. They are organized via telephone text messages, Web sites like Laughingsquid.com and eatbrains.com, and just old-fashioned word-of-mouth. They often have no identified leaders or sponsors. The unique code is micro-laser engraved on factory-produced ammunition. This laser engraving is etched on both the projectile and the inside of the cartridge casing. They make the claim that: Ford adds that they also figured bullets and casings were more likely to be left behind at a crime scene than a gun. With serialized ammunition, whether by the bullet or the box, it would be possible to at least find out who had originally purchased the rounds. Mace and Ford spent four and a half years and about $200,000 securing the patent for their ammunition tracking system. But once that patent was in place and they had formed a company, the unambiguously named Ammunition Coding System, to market the product, they couldn't find a manufacturer willing to consider stamping their bullets. So they focused their efforts on convincing lawmakers that coded ammunition could be a crucial crime-solving tool. To this end, Ammunition Coding hired Briahna Taylor, a lobbyist with Gordon, Thomas, Honeywell's Tacoma-based government affairs office. With Taylor's help, they began pushing for ammunition coding legislation on the state level. Taylor quickly launched a Web site, ammunitionaccountability.com, and bills were introduced in 12 states, including Washington. Busey began his roll call presentation by acknowledging that "Our first and main responsibility is to make accurate entries and to maintain accuracy of the NFRTR...." Moments later Busey makes the astonishing statement that "...when we testify in court, we testify that the data base is 100% accurate. That's what we testify to, and we will always testify to that. As you probably well know, that may not be 100 percent true." Busey then goes on for several minutes describing the types of errors which creep into the NFR&TR and then repeats his damning admission: How bad was the error rate in the NFR&TR? Busey again: "...when I first came in a year ago, our error rate was between 49 and 50 percent, so you can imagine what the accuracy of the NFRTR could be, if your error rate is 49 to 50 percent." Now, it is very possible that errors in the ammunition database would be identified and brought forward in a court of law--in which case such errors, unless they were utterly trivial, would create sufficient doubt that these records would only add to a jury's existing certainty. But it is a harsh truth that when a government agent testifies, "Our records are 100% accurate," juries are rather inclined to believe them--even when the circumstances make this most unlikely--such as maintaining unique ID information on billions of rounds produced and sold every year. Labels: gun rights Labels: history
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Where's All The Ammo Going?
A friend points out that in a recent comment thread concerning the guns and ammo runs, someone claimed that the ammo is all going to Mexico "where there is a civil war going on."
That's a tempting explanation, and it might explain some of the shortages in military calibers such as 9mm, .45 ACP, 7.62x39mm, or .223. But .380 ACP (a relatively low powered pistol cartridge) is one of the very scarce calibers right now--and I suspect that the drug cartels aren't going through enough .380 ACP to make much of dent in U.S. production. In addition, I know some people who have been stocking up--it's not going south.
UPDATE: I had seen this news report, but assumed that it referred only to artillery shells and such. Apparently not! mailto:SurplusNews@govliquidation.com]
At the same web site is a letter from the Montana Shooting Sports Association to Senator Baucus (D-MT):
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 5:34 PM
To: rlepage@usa.net
Subject: Important Notice to Scrap Metal Buyers!
15051 N Kierland Blvd # 300
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
It is time to ask members of Congress why, in a time of economic crisis, DLA is actively destroying something of economic value.
Mounting a Harris Bipod On an M1A
I was trying to find out which adapter is required to mount a Harris bipod on a Springfield Armory M1A (woodland camo fiberglass stock)--and I wasn't having much luck. Over at Cabela's, a very nice person helped me pick out the right bipod, the 1A2 L (which is the lightweight version appropriate for prone shooting).
The Harris bipods attach via a quick detachable (QD) stud. The M1A doesn't have a QD stud, so Harris makes QD studs that attach in a variety of ways. Since there is a water drainage hole near the front of the M1A stock somewhat larger in diameter than the QD stud, that's the obvious choice. We picked one that looked the best choice, the No. 2 adapter. When I got home, I discovered that the No. 2 adapter wasn't quite right--and indeed, there isn't a Harris adapter that fits perfectly.
Let me explain. The QD stud itself is a round piece of steel with a hole in one end, and a 10-32 thread on the other. (I could have made this myself, but it wouldn't have been black in finish. For the few dollars it cost, it wasn't worth making it myself.) The No. 2 adapter consists of the QD stud, a washer that goes between the stud and the exterior of the rifle stock, and a rectangular plate that goes inside the stock of the rifle. But that rectangular plate is too large to fit inside the M1A's stock once you put the gun back together again.
There is a small recessed area inside the M1A's stock. It is about .110" deep, and about .875" x .375" width and length. The rectangular plate that comes with the No. 2 adapter was perhaps a little thick, but mostly, it was too long and wide to fit in that recess, so there was no hope of the M1A's barrel and operating rod assembly going back into the stock.
I thought of using a 10-32 nut on the inside, with a washer, but I didn't have a washer that was big enough not to fall through the drainage hole, and yet small enough to fit in the rectangle. And it would have been nice, anyway, to spread the load across as much of the interior of the stock as possible, to avoid damaging it.
Well, that's why everyone needs a vertical mill around the house. I dug through the scrap bin until I found a piece of 1/8" thick aluminum, and then milled it down to .875" x .375". Then I drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole in it. The rectangle fits into the recess inside the stock, and the QD stud goes through the drainage hole, and into the 10-32 hole. Snug as a bug in a rug!
I guess that I am surprised that Harris doesn't make an adapter specific to the M1A stock. There's certainly plenty of them out there.
Boise Tea Party
One of the great difficulties in motivating political demonstration or action by conservatives in Boise isn't that there aren't a lot of them--but most of them (unless they are refugees from the Soviet Union or California), simply don't understand what the urgency is. My wife and I tell the natives here about things that are the law in California, or just commonly accepted social practices, and they look at us as if we have told them that every city council meeting in California starts with a human sacrifice, followed by an orgy.
Considering the local ho-hum attitude, I guess that we should consider the 100-150 people that turned out for the Boise Tea Party today to be pretty decent. This was held on the grassy triangle in the middle of Ninth Street, which heads north to the state capitol.
Lots of signs, of course, many of them at least good bumper sticker sloganeering. As proof of the inevitable rational self-organizing nature of free people, without guidance or direction, everyone with a sign occupied a spot where cars passing by could see us--and occasionally toot their horns in approval!
One person identifying with "V", the hero of V Is For Vendetta, was wearing the Guy Fawkes mask. And of course, since many of those involved were Paulistas, the Ron Paul for President signs were present. (I didn't have the heart to tell them that 2008 isn't coming around again.)
And this sign says, "You can't borrow to prosperity."
This being Boise, we opened in prayer, and closed with someone dressed up as Ben Franklin, delivering a message that perhaps Franklin would have approved of, while my friend and fellow California refugee Jack Stuart, dressed up as Patrick Henry, delivered the famous "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech.
I did not catch this guy's name, but he explained that he was Navajo, and that if you want to know what the future for America is like, look no further than an Indian reservation, where the federal government has for many years exercised enormous paternalistic power--and it is reflected in alcoholism, short lifespans, high rates of diabetes, low home ownership, and utter misery.
While I agree that this is certainly a major component of what is wrong on reservations, I think that is a little overstated. The alcoholism and diabetes problems are interrelated, and to a large extent genetic.
At the risk of sounding like a liberal, I suspect that at least a little bit of the alcoholism problem derives from the sense of loss and failure that comes from having been defeated--and having your entire culture and civilization thrown on the scrap heap of history. There's an enormous loss that many tribes suffered as a result of the conscious effort by the federal government until surprisingly recent times to replace the native culture, language, and customs with those of white America.
The intentions of this cultural imperialism were good: to help the Indians to become part of the mainstream of American society. But good intentions are not enough--and in that respect, the state of the reservation is a valid warning of what happens when Big Brother in D.C. decides that a "stupid" traditional culture (for example, rural Americans clinging to our "guns or religion") needs to be replaced with something more modern.
Anyway, I'm glad that I went. I had a chance to meet a few Republican activists, with whom I have effectively no connections. Partly, Idaho seems to be weak on Republican activists (in spite of voting solidly Republican), and partly, the few that I meet act like I am some sort of virus.
Please Explain How This Happened
This doesn't make any sense to me:Little Rock, Ark. (AP) - Ten children drank windshield wiper fluid after a staffer at an Arkansas day care mistakenly put the liquid in a refrigerator and served it, hospital officials said Friday.
Kool-Aid comes in those kind of jugs? It didn't when I was young. How busy do you have to be to not look at the label and see that it says windshield washer fluid?
Doctors estimate the children, ages 2 to 7, drank about an ounce of the blue fluid late Thursday afternoon before realizing it tasted wrong, said Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.
Only one child remained hospitalized Friday morning, after blood samples showed "measurable levels" of methanol, a highly toxic alcohol that can induce comas and cause blindness, officials said. The day care also provided the fluid for testing.
"All we know was that the individual at the day care had recently shopped and had come back to the day care with a lot of different products," James told The Associated Press. "This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator."
Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, identified the day care operator as Carolyn Bynum in Scott, about 15 miles east of Little Rock. Bynum declined to comment Friday.
Bynum had a state license to care for 10 children in her home and had no found complaints or serious compliance issues in the past, Munsell said. Child welfare investigators planned to interview Bynum on Friday.
Useful Historical Research Materials
Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, vols. 1-9, covering 1636-1686. Unfortunately, while the pages are crisp and in a reasonably modern font, they aren't searchable. Essex County is where the Salem Withcraft Trials take place, but this covers period before the trials.
Recent School Shootings
The recent school massacre turns out to be part of a widespread problem. But not a school massacre in the U.S. As John Lott points out:
Bottom of the Bell Curve Idahoans
As is typical of liberals elsewhere in America, liberal Idahoans fancy themselves as being more educated and intelligent than the peasants. From reading the comments that appear online with respect to stories in the Idaho Statesman, I'm not seeing it! A March 13, 2009 news story concerned Boise School District's looming layoff of 122 teachers explained that the reason for this was only partly state funding problems:
Meridian's school district (which is the adjoining suburb to the west) isn't suffering a declining student population:
So the core problem here is that Boise School District's student population is falling. The shortfall of state funding, while part of the problem, is clearly not a serious one--or Meridian and Nampa schools would also be getting ready to do layoffs. So what do the elite, intelligent, highly educated commenters get out of this article?In related news, television and print sources will see a marked decline in the number of stories about teacher-student abuse. Being on the phony kidnappings and psychotic murderers-WOO HOO!
I can't even figure out what this fool was trying to say.Looks like the republican plan to dumb down Idaho is welll on it's way to fruitation. In 2010 lets change teams and try the other side for a real change.
Except that the problem here is primarily a declining student population. How will electing Democrats change that?As 'Peak Oil' continues to ravage the world, education past reading and basic math will become a luxury almost no one will be able to afford. Children will be neede to help grow food soon.
Another of those "Visualize Industrial Collapse" liberals.The last thing we want to do is fire teachers, one of our most important and least respected public servants. I'd say most teachers in this State do more good than most politicians. I have no hesitation in saying that most teachers in the classrooms do a better job than school administrators.
And yet the problem here is: not enough students!
Our children are already about as poorly educated than I can remember. Keep them in school longer and teach them. Make them do homework and make extra-curricular activities exactly that. Extra.Fund education or fund prisons.
More liberal bumper stickers instead of actual analysis of what the news story says: student population falling!
Now, I agree that in some ideal world where teachers, students, and classrooms are perfectly fungible, funds were not in short supply, there might be an argument that lowering class size would be good--take those 122 teachers, and reduce the size of existing classes. But this is not the case. Some of the teachers being let go are secondary, some are primary. The qualifications are different. A high school English teacher can't suddenly become an elementary school teacher, and many would not be willing to do so, and vice versa. Someone qualified to teach twelfth grade English isn't qualified to take over a chemistry class. If you have a half teacher surplus in one high school, it may not be feasible to have that teacher teaching in two different high schools. (Well, until they get the teleportation booths working.)
Adding to the problem is that there are "step" functions involved in staffing a school. If you have a class of 30 students, adding two more students is a burden on the teacher, no question. The marginal cost for adding those two students the classroom is quite small. But adding another teacher means that you now have two classes of 16 students--and the marginal cost of one more teacher's salary and benefits is substantial. Oh yes: you need another classroom, too. Even if you use a portable to accomplish this (as many districts did in my youth), this is a non-trivial increase in costs.
Biden Knew What He Was Talking About
You may recall some months back that then VP candidate Biden warned that America's enemies would seek to challenge President Obama's resolve. And they have done so, repeatedly, and he has been found wanting. Yet another challenge, reported in the March 14, 2009 Times of London:
Somehow, I don't think that John McCain, as much as I dislike his liberalism, would have been perceived as quite such a soft touch--and probably we wouldn't be facing these challenges right now.
Sick, Evil, Counterproductive, Misogynistic
And not coming out of Islamist insanity, for once. From the March 13, 2009 Daily Mail:
As I have pointed out in the past, there is a shockingly high rate of childhood sexual abuse reported by homosexuals, both male and female, enough to give reason to suspect that adult homosexuality, at least for some, is a reaction to premature sexualization. Even homosexual men with whom I have corresponded, while denying that male homosexuality could be such a reaction, admit that it is likely that female homosexuality is such a reaction. And so rape is going to "straighten them out"? If anything, it will aggravate existing problems, and quite substantially.
I do wonder, however, from reading other parts of the article, if this might be a rationalization or justification by rapists for something that they were already planning to do:
If this is one of the examples of "rape as cure" excuse, then it makes no sense at all. They murdered her. That presents no opportunity to see this as "cure."
RSS Feed Problems
Several of you have noticed that RSS feed isn't working. This is apparently a problem across multiple blogs that use Blogger.com. I'm sure that it will be fixed in a day or two.
The Panic Buying Continues
The March 13, 2009 Tulsa World indicates that the panic buying continues:Four months after the election of President Barack Obama, firearms and ammunition sales in Tulsa remain at a fever pitch.
Much of the coverage of this emphasizes handguns and personal protection concerns--but there's this astonishing report of Smith & Wesson's transition from losing money to profitability from March 12, 2009 Associated Press:
Popular self-protection ammunition is often sold out at local stores, weapons are flying off shelves and the state reports an 87 percent increase in concealed carry permit applications for February 2009 over February 2008.
"People are hoarding. They're creating a shortage," Jim Prall at Sports World on 41st Street said of ammunition sales. "We've sold more ammunition in the last three months than we sold last year."
Gun sales spiked in November with the election of Barack Obama and Democrats adding to their majority in Congress. But local gun dealers say the spike is turning into a steady climb with political worries about gun rights as well as worries about the economy and potential for increased crime.
...
Internet chatter about bills in Congress that would create additional taxes on firearms and ammunition components, require strict licensing and ban more types of so-called "assault weapons" add to the concern, Stone said. "That's just driving everyone into panic mode," he said. "We're selling 10 times the ammo we used to."
Similar bills have come up in Congress before, but few have advanced.
"We ran completely out here of 9 mm and .380," said Johny Mathews, product and service manager at the U.S. Shooting Sports Academy on East 66th Street North. "We were begging, borrowing and stealing from wherever."
Concealed-carry classes at the academy are booked through April. "We used to do 15-person classes, and now we do 24 because of the demand," he said.
Mathews believes that politics are partly to blame, but the economy also has people worried.
"It's 50/50, I think" he said. "When people lose jobs and get desperate, good people can sometimes do bad things. People hear more about home invasions, robberies, and they think it will only get worse. Then they're afraid they might lose their guns or ammo, so they stock up."
Sales are so intense that Stone has limited sales of .380 ammo to one box per customer at Dong's. He has .380-caliber handguns for sale, and likes to be able to sell ammunition to whoever buys a gun, he said.
A shipment of 10 Ruger .380 LCP handguns was sold in 24 hours this week — seven the first day, three the next. "Last week I had 28 boxes of .380, rationed to one per person, and it was gone in three days," Stone said.
Academy Sporting Goods stores also are low on .380 ammo. "The other day we got 16 boxes of .380 and a guy came in first thing and bought all 16," said Jon Ide, hunting and fishing sales associate at the 41st Street store. "A few people are doing all the buying, and it's the people who are trying to just get a box or two that can't find any."
The increased sales comes with an increase in Oklahomans seeking concealed-carry permits.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation pulled in additional help last month so it could process concealed-carry permit applications within the required 90 days, according to the supervisor of the self-defense licensing unit. Unit workers do not release their names.
The 87.2 percent increase for February 2009 over the same month last year was partially due to renewal applications for permits issued three and five years ago. But new applications have steadily risen in the past three years, and increased markedly since November, she said. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) -- The parent of gun maker Smith & Wesson reported Thursday that it climbed to a profit in its fiscal third quarter from a year-ago loss, as sales of handguns and tactical rifles soared.
I confess that I didn't know that S&W sold "tactical rifles" to civilians. But sure enough, here are their AR-15s. S&W does not have a large presence in this market, in my experience. I read through Shotgun News pretty regularly, and I can't recall ever seeing S&W's rifles offered. So I would guess that the makers of such rifles with higher visibility must be running at full production capacity, all shifts, to keep up with demand.
...
"While our hunting business continues to suffer in the current economic environment, the market for hunting rifles in a healthy economy is a sizeable one," said Michael F. Golden, president and chief executive. "In addition, this portion of our business produces barrels for our tactical rifles, products that are clearly in very high demand right now."
I'm reminded of a coy little item that appeared in the January 10, 1775 Essex (Mass.) Gazette:POWDER bears a very good price in this town; the people from all parts of the country, the fall past, having bought up almost all there was, to defend themselves against wolves, and other beasts of PREY.
That was just a little more than three months before "the shot heard 'round the world." If the Obama Administration is as dumb as they seem to be, they'll try some disarming effort, or attempt to shut down talk radio--and then the fertilizer will hit the fan. And that will likely be the beginning of the end of the current system of government in the United States. I would like to think that the results will be a vast improvement, but the history of violent revolution is actually pretty dark, with the most brutal factions often ending up on top.
Boise Tea Party, March 14
I'm not the organizer, but I thought that those in the Treasure Valley would want to know about it.Friends!!
This Saturday (March 14th) we will share our last
BOISE TEA PARTY
at the grassy triangle between Capital Blvd & 9th Street across from BSU campus & Julia Davis Park.
THIS RALLY IS FOR ONE HOUR ONLY!!!
(2pm-3pm) Rain & cold weather predicted!
BRING YOUR SIGN, BRING YOUR FLAG, your tea bag AND BRING YOUR PRIDE!!
We will bring a few chairs for those who need to sit & we hope to have hot coffee on hand....dress warm...AND WEAR GLOVES!! Invite your neighbors & your family...LET'S HELP BOISE SEE ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT IMPRESSED WITH OUR MONIES & OUR CHILDREN'S MONIES GOING DOWN THE DRAIN!! We are not for taxation without representation!!! AND, we need to make ourselves heard!! JOIN with us!!
And remember the Treasure Valley Pachyderms will meet in two weeks on the 27th!! Mark your calendars!!
Redgie
p.s. Pachys wear your pins to the rally!
It Isn't Just Our Side With Dummies Running The Party
The Demoncratic National Committee, having watched President Obama behave like a middle schooler by deciding that Rush Limbaugh is his enemy, decided to solicit a really good slogan to run on a billboard in the town in Florida where Limbaugh lives.
Deciding to go after a radio talk show host was dumb; it made Obama look petty. The billboard was even more dumb, and a waste of money. Will seeing a billboard attacking Rush Limbaugh make Limbaugh see the error of his ways? Will it cause him to stop criticizing Obama's policies? Will it cause Limbaugh's neighbors to shun him? Of course.
But it gets better. According to the March 12, 2009 Christian Science Monitor, out of 80,000 suggested slogans, the one that the brainiacs at the DNC picked was:Americans didn’t vote for a Rush to failure.
You can see a picture of the billboard at Michelle Malkin. I agree with Michelle--this was the winning slogan? It might barely qualify as witty, but on a billboard? Where most people won't even know what the controversy is about, and even those who do may not have time to read it and think about it because they are driving, while simultaneously drinking their coffee, talking on one cell phone, and texting on another?
It's nice to know that it isn't just the taxpayers' money that Demoncrats waste--they waste their own, too!
Obama's Appointees Have The Worst Luck
They seem to forget to file taxes, or they turn out to be under investigation for corruption, and then this from the March 12, 2009 Politico:
Now, there's nothing that says that Kundra is in anyway involved in this. Perhaps the two people being investigated for bribery were bribing the secretaries.
The Rather Localized Nature of the Foreclosure Crisis
The March 5, 2009 USA Today had an article and map pointing out that the foreclosure crisis is really only a crisis in a relatively small number of counties--in fact, 35 counties had half the foreclosures in 2008. My recollection is that there are about 3000 counties in the U.S. Those 35 counties are, not surprisingly, the areas of the country historically most prone to housing booms and busts--like California, Florida, New York City and surroundings, and the DC area.
Yes, this is bad news for people in those communities, even those who are not losing their houses. But the vast majority of American counties are not being all that hard hit by this problem.
What An Absurd Lawsuit Against Sheriff Arpaio
I've long respected Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Arpaio for doing what he can to enforce the laws--and sometimes being very creative in how he does it. As Crimes, Gun, and Videotape explained a while back:The problem the good sheriff had was that his deputies were paying parking fees or getting citations on county cars at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The deputies need to pick up many freshly extradited prisoners there wanted for felony matters to deposit in Sheriff Joe’s jail.
Maricopa County has a big problem with crimes committed by illegal aliens (as do many cities and counties across the United States). Arpaio worked out an arrangement a while back to have his deputies cross-trained by ICE (the federal agency that now almost enforces immigration law). His deputies are now arresting large numbers of illegal aliens, and speeding up their deportation. So what is Obama's Department of Justice doing? According to March 12, 2009 CNSNews:
The problem was that the City of Phoenix refused to cooperate by ending their parking fee extortion against the county cops.
Fighting Extortion With Extortion
The City of Phoenix just unveiled their new light rail mass transportation system with service to Sky Harbor Airport. City officials are feverishly trying to get the public to use the new system. Sheriff Joe could not wait to oblige and help them with their public relations campaign. I don’t think Sheriff Joe’s publicity idea was what the city politicians were looking for to increase ridership.
Sheriff Joe announced he had a way to save $75,000.00 per year in airport parking costs. He pulled off yet another media stunt announcing his deputies would begin using the light rail to transport felons. With TV news cameras in tow the resourceful Sheriff went along as his well armed deputies picked up a hapless wanted felon from Sky Harbor Airport transporting her by light rail to his jail.
The thought of Sheriff Joe expanding the program to include jailed chain-gangs being sent to work sites worked incredibly well to get city official’s minds right. They agreed to let deputies park their vehicles at the airport without charge while there on official business. (CNSNews.com) - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona following requests by congressional Democrats and allegations by liberal activists that the department has violated the civil rights of illegal aliens.
Let me guess: his officers are using that a person doesn't speak English as a basis for asking if they have ID? Perhaps they are assuming that because you don't speak the language of this country, that there is a possibility that you might not be a lawful resident? By itself, of course, that's not enough, but if you have already been stopped for a violation of law, asking a couple of questions and doing a records check seems unobjectionable.
Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Robert Scott (D-Va.) requested the investigation, and activists groups such as National Day Laborer Organizer Network and ACORN launched petition drives and rallies in support of the probe.
The investigation focuses on Sheriff Joe Arpaio and dozens of officers under his command who were trained through the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS), which partners federal and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. (The Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is known popularly as ICE.)
In a letter dated March 10, 2009, Loretta Smith, acting assistant attorney general at the DOJ, detailed what her department would be investigating:
"This is to inform you that the United States Department of Justice is commencing an investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (''MCSO'') pursuant to the pattern or practice provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994,42 U.S.C. §14141 ("Section 14141") and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968,42 U.S.C. § 3789d ("Safe Streets Act"), and pursuant to the prohibitions against national origin discrimination in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d to 2000d-7 ("Title Yr') and the Safe Streets Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3789d(c)."
The letter continues: "The investigation will focus on alleged patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures conducted by the MCSO, and on allegations of national origin discrimination, including failure to provide meaningful access to MCSO services for limited English proficient (LEP) individuals."
"In conducting the investigation, we will seek to determine whether there are violations of the above laws by the MCSO," the letter says.
Sheriff Arpaio's efforts to enforce immigration laws have been the focus of previous criticism, but Arpaio has defended his department and the results his ICE-trained officers have netted.
Concerning the DOJ’s investigation, Arpaio told CNSNews.com: “I will not back down. What I am doing is upholding the laws of the state of Arizona, and I will not be persuaded to turn my back on my oath of office as sheriff of this county.”
Expected, But Still Nice To See
From March 9, 2009 Dow Jones News Service:
This was one of those "negligent marketing" suits that claimed the gun makers intentionally sold more guns than there was any legitimate market for, in order to arm criminals. Now, if New York State didn't have very strict handgun licensing laws, or if it was legal for New Yorkers to go buy handguns in other states, I could at least wonder. But what this suit was really saying is: "Federal law and state law work together to make it effectively impossible for many New Yorkers to legally buy a handgun, therefore our gun problem has to be push marketing caused." What nonsense.
Varmint Riflescopes
I have an older Bushnell 4x-12x40mm scope that I like very much except for thing: above about 9x, it will not come to a crisp focus. This is disappointing. I have a Bushnell 3x-9x40mm scope that is a little lighter and shorter, and focuses crisply all the way to the 9x area. I have decided to get back into target shooting for a hobby, and with one of my rifles, I want a scope that doubles as a spotting scope. That means 4-16x, or perhaps 6x-24x, matte finish, with a mildot reticle.
So, what's the choices? Leupold makes beautiful scopes; so do Swarkovski and Nikon--and priced accordingly! I'm not sure that I want to spend $400-$900 on a riflescope! One reader thinks highly of his 3x-12x50mm Barska. I went to Cabela's website, and while the overall rating by customers was okay, it appears that most of them are very good, and some of them are junk. Not at all a surprise, they are Chinese made. (I saw that vaguely Slavic name Barska and hoped that they were from Eastern Europe. Nope.)
Of course, there's no substitute for looking through scopes. I went down to Sportsman's Warehouse in Meridian. I've never noticed how many riflescopes they have, but it had that same mostly empty look that their ammunition shelves now have. (Someone, somewhere, is going to produce the world's first ammunition-fueled black hole, the way people are stockpiling it.) And especially in the higher powered, not outrageously priced range of scopes that I want.
I looked at one of the Bushnell 6x-18x scopes, and I found that it had the same problem as my 4x-12x: the image fuzzed up pretty badly at the top of the range; 12x was as high as it looked good. They didn't carry Tasco, didn't seem to have anything of interest much below $300.
So I drove over the Cabela's. They also had that "Mongolian horde just cleaned us out" look. The salesman there showed the Tasco 6x-24x42mm (or maybe it was 40mm). Very nice, all the way up the power range. But then he told me that while he had one on a .22 Magnum rifle, and liked it very much, he had at least customers who had returned them, because they couldn't take the recoil of a .270 Win. (in one case) or a .300 Win. Mag. (in the other). That's doesn't bode well. He had a lot more confidence in the equivalent Bushnell scopes. I looked through a Bushnell 6x-24x40mm, and all the way up the power range, it was crisp, and even betterthan the Tasco scope. But it didn't have the bullet drop compensator (BDC) that I wanted--and I thought that when I looked online that I had found this Bushnell with the BDC.
Call The Police? Call For A Pizza
One of the wittier libertarian complaints about relying on government in urban areas is the disparity of response times. "Call 911. Order a pizza. See which gets there first." It's not really a fair comparison. Yes, the pizza will usually get there faster, because it is a capitalist, competitive situation, but there are so many other differences that I can only regard it as humor, not a serious criticism. (Where I live now, the police would arrive first. There's no pizza delivery here.)
But I thought of that when I read this news account of what happened when a pizza delivery guy discovered that the only tip he was going to get was whether he lived or not. From the March 8, 2009 South Carolina State:
Outnumbered 4:1. Ambush. In the dark. But he was armed, and he came out scared but alive.
It turns out that pizza delivery drivers shoot robbers so often that we have added a label for it on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog so that you can see just such incidents.
Nancy Pelosi, Leader of the People's Party
The Speaker of the House started to get use of a military aircraft after 9/11, and I can't argue with the reasons: the Speaker is pretty high in the line of succession if a catastrophic attack wiped out a big chunk of our executive branch. But what started out as a reasonable thing has gotten more and more out of control. First Pelosi was upset that the plane that had been used by the previous Speaker (who lived much closer to DC) had to stop and refuel--so she wanted a plane that could fly nonstop. Okay, I can somewhat go along with that. Landing and taking off are the high risk parts of any flight, and it does slow them down. But this meant that the Air Force was flying Pelosi and staff crosscountry in a 200 seat military 737. Talk about a carbon footprint!
But it gets more outrageous--and if a Republican Speaker of the House behaved like this, it would be on the evening news broadcasts every night for weeks. From the March 11, 2009 New York Post:
Now, I understand Pelosi's preference on this. I am probably the only conservative blogger who has actually traveled in a G-5, owned by the company I worked for at the time. (I would guess that many liberal bloggers own their own, or have friends that do.) It is far nicer than a 737. But perhaps she needs to understand that there are sacrifices required in government service--and having to live with what is effectively your own private 737 is one of those sacrifices.
Write Down All Procedures
Or someone who knows how to do it will retire. Lots of little companies end up in trouble because of this, and sometimes over trivial procedures that turn out to be more important than you think. And some not so little companies, with some no so trivial procedures. From March 9, 2009 Fox News:
9/11 Truthers Get Shaky
Another amusing piece of satire from The Onion:SAN FRANCISCO—In an event that sparked outrage across the historical community, deniers of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake convened last weekend to share their controversial theories about what actually occurred on that tragic day more than a century ago.
The desire to possess secret knowledge is so strong in some circles that some people will come up with the most preposterous claims just to be special: 9/11 was an inside plot; the Holocaust didn't happen (or was exaggerated); we didn't land on the Moon.
The 1906 Earthquake Deniers, a group reviled by Californians and scholars alike, held three days of lectures and roundtable discussions over what they call a "century-long hoax" of exaggerated seismic activity in the Bay area, and part of a conspiracy to bring the World's Fair to San Francisco in 1915. Historians protested the conference, saying the organization's statements denying any major seismic activity in 1906 are reprehensible and out of line with all available geologic data from the time.
...
Batman Begins (2005)
My daughter spoke very highly of this film. Had I not been too busy at the time, I might have gone to see it. I was a fan of the Batman series in the 1960s, campy as it was, and very impressed with the depth of Michael Keaton's performance in Batman (1989). But this film is one of the perhaps five finest, and certainly ten finest films that I have ever seen.
There are so many things right about this: the performances of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, and Katie Holmes, were all spectacular. The script creates a powerful emotional significance to Bruce Wayne's actions, while creating plausible methods by which Batman can do the things that he does, with his time in the underworld, ninja training, and the gadgets from the Defense Systems Division of Wayne Enterprises! All of them are just barely in the realm of possibility (or just out of the realm of possibility).
Sets? Wow. Beautiful editing, especially the fight scenes. A thoughtful film about how the very human desire for revenge can lead people astray--and how the quality of a person's character can pull him back from the precipice.
Glenn Beck Is Up To Something
Go here. I've always preferred Beck to O'Reilly. Beck is a lot more humble than O'Reilly--or at least he knows how to fake it well! We need a movement with a leader--and Beck might be an adequate leader. He doesn't have the baggage (ego and prescription drug problems) as Rush Limbaugh or O'Reilly (the sexual harassment claim).
Why We Need A Border With Mexico
And something more than a color stripe on a map. From the March 7, 2009 Houston Chronicle:
Does Anyone Have Experience With This Scope?
It's probably made in China, but the price is low enough that, for the features it has, it might be tempting. J&G Sales has been selling it for more than a year. Someone who read this much have seen this! It's 4-16x56mm tactical scope with mildot reticle.
Another of Those Bible-Thumpin' Politicians, I Guess
So, who do you think made this statement?[H]uman cloning is "dangerous, profoundly wrong" and has no place in society.
Some ignorant Bible thumper? Former President George W. Bush? No. President Obama. From March 9, 2009 Associated Press:WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says human cloning is "dangerous, profoundly wrong" and has no place in society.
As it happens, the embryonic stem cell research (much of it funded by other governments and private research organizations) has so far yielded nothing. Unlike adult stem cell research--which has! So why the insistence on embryonic stem cell research? Because there are a lot of people that really, really want to avoid confronting difficult ethical questions about frozen embryos in fertility centers.
Liberalism's Coming Police State
One of the worrisome aspects of the Soviet Union was its insistence that anyone that disagreed with socialism was mentally ill--and its use of mental hospitals and drugs for "treating" the antisocialist mental illness that caused permanent blindness. Now I see that liberalism is following down the same road. Here's an announcement for a conference at the University of the West of England:Man-made climate change poses an unprecedented threat to the global ecosystem and yet the response, from national policy makers right through to individual consumers, remains tragically inadequate. The Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England is organising a major interdisciplinary event Facing Climate Change on this topic at UWE on 7 March 2009. Facing Climate Change is the first national conference to specifically explore 'climate change denial'.
If you disagree with the liberalism's orthodoxy on this--even when there are a lot of prominent scientists who are specialists in this field who are suffering from "climate change denial"--it's a form of mental problem.
This conference aims to strengthen our awareness of the challenge facing us and to enhance our capacity for effective decision-making and action. It will do this by bringing together a group of people - climate change activists, eco-psychologists, psychotherapists and social researchers - who are uniquely qualified to assess the human dimensions of this human-made problem.
Professor Paul Hoggett is helping to organise the conference, he said, “We will examine denial from a variety of different perspectives - as the product of addiction to consumption, as the outcome of diffusion of responsibility and the idea that someone else will sort it out and as the consequence of living in a perverse culture which encourages collusion, complacency, irresponsibility.”
George Marshall, Director of Climate Outreach Information Network, and one of the conference keynote speakers said, “The knowledge of the problem is remarkably well established yet we clearly refuse to recognise the implications of that knowledge.”
There is an increasingly strong argument for defunding significant portions of the higher education system, and liberal fascist stuff like this among the strongest reasons.
Recovery?
I mentioned in late February that the January leading economic indicator data was perhaps giving a glimmer of hope that we may see some economic recovery. A March 9, 2009 AFP (that's one of the French news agencies) news story, indicates that others are seeing this as well:The global economy is "approaching" a pick-up point as positive elements that could fuel growth have yet to be priced in, G10 central bankers said Monday.
Amazing! Something Weird In San Francisco That Isn't Disgusting!
There is so much about San Francisco that is repulsive, nauseating, creepy, or downright evil. I can remember when I work in Bay Area 1982-84 seeing, on two separate occasions, news stories that would have received front page coverage anywhere else--buried deep in the paper.
One was the sentencing of Satanists who had kidnapped a homeless person, drove him around in a van for several hours while they tortured, and sexually abused him with a dog, and were getting ready to sacrifice him when he managed to jump out of the car. And this was like page B15 or something of the San Francisco Chronicle. I guess it just wasn't all that unusual.
The other was the discovery of a 15 year old runaway girl who was found hanging in an abandoned church, upside down, with a pentagram painted on her abdomen. (A murder victim, of course.) But again, buried deep in the paper. Anywhere else, this would be profoundly shocking. But in Babylon by the Bay--it just wasn't that big a deal.
So it is always gratifying to see something bizarre but wholesome happening in the most depraved and repulsive city in America. From the March 8, 2009 San Francisco Chronicle:(03-08) 17:48 PST -- It's not political, ideological or cultural, but San Francisco officials say they are seriously considering cracking down on one of the city's most popular events in the growing "flash mob" phenomenon.
Now, I understand the concerns of the city government about this. (Although a city government that wastes money defending clearly unlawful same-sex marriages, and a ban on handguns, is in no position to whine about irresponsibility.)
There was one comment that at first had me saying, "Typical humorless leftist."These flashmobs are idiots. Notice how they can never get together for real political change. It's always for something trivial (and often consumerist) like some mass silent iPod dance, or "freeze-in-place" prank. Big deal. And all these pillows and feathers. Did they even think of the poor dead birds whose feathers are still used to cushion our stupid heads, while we get our rocks off in some pseudo-anarchic way by beating each other with pillows? They think they're liberated from the "man", yet they are just consumerist tools. Get a life, you "flash-mobbers"! You don't impress me. Organize against corporate America and do something serious.
Then I noticed the picture that the commenter (Filterfish) provided of himself--and it is clearly "Big Brother" from 1984, although I am unsure from which of the several film versions this clip came.
Ammunition Accountability
I received notice of a group promoting what they call "ammunition accountability." By this, they mean that they want a law requiring unique ID numbers on every bullet and case:Ammunition coding technology assigns a unique code to every round of ammunition manufactured, and by recording sales records, law enforcement personnel will be able to easily trace the ammunition involved in a crime and have an avenue to pursue and solve even the most difficult cases.
Each year there are many homicides from senseless gun violence in America and perhaps more astounding is the fact that 30% of those crimes go unsolved.
Did you read that as 30% of gun homicides go unsolved? That was how I read it. However, I can't find any data on the breakdown of gun homicides by solution. The figures from Crime in the United States 2007, Table 10, "Expanded Homicide Data Tables" shows that 36.9% of all homicides are relationship "Unknown." Even those where the relationship of offender and victim is known, this may not mean that we know who the offender is. If you find a convenience store clerk shot to death, and the cash register has been emptied, you can be pretty sure that this was a robbery, even if you never find the killer.
When you look at the same data broken down by weapon type, it turns out that 36.8% of handgun and rifle homicides are relationship "Unknown." The temptation to think that serial numbering ammunition might solve some significant fraction of those crimes is quite strong. It is certainly the case that such an approach would make it possible to identify to whom a particular recovered bullet or case was first legally sold. But there are some serious problems with this:
1. It applies only to factory-production ammunition. It isn't exactly a high technology to cast bullets. Many people do it themselves, even today, when there is neither pricing nor criminal motivations to do so.
2. It is utterly impossible to use for shotgun pellets.
3. Since cases are commonly scrounged from shooting ranges and reloaded, the number on the cartridge case only tells who the first lawful retail buyer of this case was. Handgun cases can be reloaded 5-10 times without problem.
4. Ammunition lasts a long, long time. I understand that even World War II era ammunition works quite reliably. Anyone who is intending to commit a serious crime with a gun and has half a brain will simply buy existing ammunition. Especially because Guns & Ammo salesman of the year Barack Obama has caused an astonishing run on ammo, there are going to be plenty of people over the next few years who are going to look at the 10,000 rounds on ammo sitting in their garage, and ask if perhaps it's time to sell.
5. Unlike firearms, which federal law regulates rather carefully about where you can buy, ammo is pretty loosely regulated. If California passes this ammunition accountability law, you can drive to Nevada, and buy all you want.
6. It turns out that the people pushing this "Ammunition Accountability" have something more than the public interest at heart. From the March 5, 2008 Seattle Weekly:
7. How much will this add to the cost of ammunition? The promise is five cents per bullet. That's a non-trivial increase in the price, and for .22 LR, that's roughly tripling the price.
8. How accurately will those records be kept? You may recall the hullaballoo some years ago when someone produced a recording of someone at BATF, during a training session, telling agents that they were supposed to testify that the machine gun registration records were 100% accurate, when that was simply not true. Records were out of date, lost, wrong--and yet the "100% accurate" claim was something that agents were supposed to testify to under oath:
"So the information on the 728,000 weapons that are in the database has to be 100 percent accurate. Like I told you before, we testify in court and, of course, our certifications testify to that, too, when we're not there to testify, that we are 100 percent accurate."
9. If a criminal really wanted to bollix up the criminal justice system, he will go to outdoor ranges, and pick up random shells in his caliber. If he has occasion to shoot someone, throw down a couple of shells. Yes, the bullet numbers won't match the shell numbers--but that could be the result of using reloaded ammunition. And the original lawful purchaser of those shells will now spend several hours persuading the police that he wasn't at the crime scene. The mismatches of the numbers will also create even more uncertainty and doubt that can be exploited by even an unclever defense attorney.
Bizarre Question of the Day
I am having trouble finding the language of the oath administered to the trial jury in federal criminal trials of the 1850s. I found John Elliott Byrne's Federal Criminal Procedure, with Forms For the Defense published in 1916, and while quite interesting (okay, I'm a nerd), it doesn't show the trial jury oath in 1916--only the grand jury oath.
In case you are wondering: I invented a time machine last week, and I've decided to escape the Obamination of Desolation by moving to the 1850s--and I won't be able to pass myself off as a lawyer unless I can clarify some details of the legal procedures in federal courts.
