NJ Whores

New Jersey’s Magazine Ban Law is Set to Move Forward Next Monday:

The following story is via the NRA-ILA, 

On Monday, May 5, the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hear Senate Bill 993. Sponsored by state Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-37), S.993 seeks to restrict the maximum capacity of ammunition magazines from 15 to 10 rounds and ban many popular firearms. 

Under the guise of public safety, anti-gun politicians continue their efforts to erode the Second Amendment rights of New Jersey residents. New Jersey is one of only a few states which already has a magazine restriction, and another arbitrary limit will have no impact on crime or criminals. Instead, this legislation demonstrably favors criminals who prefer to prey on unarmed victims.

(H/T: Guns Save Lives)

Slippery Slope:

I know this is third-generation information.  If you haven't read this news item elsewhere, though, you need to think about it.

NJ is just one of the MANY states working assiduously to restrict Second Amendment Rights ....
... One Step At A Time.

If YOUR state is unwilling to accept magazine restrictions of 10 rounds, they'll sell you on a 15-round limit.

And then they will turn around and change the law from 15 to 10 rounds, because ... well, you have already shown that you are a whore; what they are doing now is merely dickering about the price.

What's next?  Probably, a five or six round ban, which will essentially eliminate all firearms except revolvers .. if that .. and then all guns will be banned by administrative fiat.  At that point, you won't get a vote.

For the benefit of those states whose citizens are currently dickering with their legislatures; take note of where this "Road To Perdition" will take you.

Aliens M41A conversion.

Aliens M41A conversion. Yes it shoots real bullets - The Firearm Blog:

 Lage Manufacturing made this one off Aliens M41A Pulse rifle. It is a M-11 in 9mm shoved into the body of a M41A Pulse Rifle. They used a Remington 870 AOW/SBS for the grenade launcher portion of the Pulse Rifle.

I spend ... not a little time ... reading other gunbloggers.  This entry is a good example of why I find it so informative AND entertaining.

You'll have to go to the link to see the video.   I could give you the YouTube link, but then you might not go see what else is on The Firearm Blog -- and what's the fun in that?

H/T: Gunbloggers.com

XP? Stop using Internet Explorer right now

This is why you should stop using Internet Explorer right now | KDVR.com - Denver, Colorado News, Weather, Sports and more: DENVER —

A warning for Internet users: this is a serious enough security flaw that the Department of Homeland Security is warning you to not use Internet Explorer until a fix is found. The problem could put your personal information at risk, and give hackers access to private things like your email accounts. With so many computer bugs out there, Internet users rely heavily on anti-virus software and patches to keep up with each new virus. This time, that’s not good enough.

From Forbes: (April 28, 2014)

A few days ago a new zero day exploit for Internet Explorer made the headlines (for the uninitiated a zero day is a new exploit that is made public before the security or technology community have patched against it). In another blow for Internet security and trust after the recent Heartbleed issues this exploit allows cyber criminals to deploy malicious code to your computer silently, without your permission as you visit any given web page with the nasty code on it. 

This exploit is particularly nasty as it impacts 6 different versions of Internet Explorer ranging from 6 to 11 (you can see more details on the impact here if you are interested) and allows fairly reliable distribution of malicious code that could do anything from stealing your data to turning on your webcam. This exploit is perfect for a drive by download where you visit a web page and the nasty code silently loads.

(from an unattributed source ...)

A newly discovered security hole in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer—the default Web browser for many users—could be particularly troubling for those still running Windows XP.

 

Personally, I'm only running XP on my laptop ... and that's due to be updated this summer.   And I don't use Internet Explorer any more.   I was a big fan of Mozilla (FireFox) but that has so much 'overhead' that it uses 80% of available (2GB) memory just to start up.  So I've been using Google Chrome lately, and it's much more economical of resources.

Not to mention that it seems to have fewer "holes".

Most of us already know that Explorer has historically been one of the most vulnerable software applications in the world.  It's virtue is that you can run ANYTHING on it; the problem is that the same structure which makes it "universally" applicable also seems to allow Junior High School students to hack it.

Just saying; full disclosure - I'm not a software engineer so don't take my word for anything I say about computers.

Kennesaw Laws

FedEx Shooting and the Debate Over Gun Ownership Laws - Washington Wire - WSJ:
(April 29, 2014)

There’s a sad twist to the shooting Tuesday morning at a FedEx facility in Kennesaw, Ga., where an employee injured six co-workers before turning the gun on himself. Kennesaw is one of several U.S. cities and towns that have an ordinance requiring every household to own a gun.

That's true.  It is always "sad" when a fellow employee "goes postal" and attacks his co-workers.  Sad, tragic, disheartening, and ... morbid.

Those adjectives are especially poignant in Kennesaw, where the town passed an ordnance in 1982 "... requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun".

But as World News Daily reported almost 7 years ago exactly, in an April 19, 2007: article entitled "25 Years Murder Free in GUN TOWN USA",   that small Georgia town enjoyed over a quarter of a century of freedom from murder until, as the WSJ article says, "...  in 2010 a former employee of a Penske truck rental facility there shot five people, killing three."

Lacking other evidence, that seems to add up to 28 years without firearms violence.

Here in the small Oregon College town of Geekistan, we can't claim such a record.  And I wonder, how many other American towns, no matter how small, enjoyed such a lengthy respite from fatal mayhem?

Not many, I would guess.

So ... why now?  Why, in a town where each head of household is "...[required] to own and maintain a gun ...", would a successful attack be reported?

First, note that there are no laws requiring anyone to actually carry a gun.

Second, consider the evidence of this photo (taken from the original article):

See the signs?  Just forward of the armored walking figure (the picture was obviously taken after the shooting) there are not one, but TWO signs of a pistol in a red circle, with a diagonal slash.  This is the universal signal of a Gun Free Zone.

TWO "GFZ" signs?  That's fairly emphatic.

If you're crazy enough, or evil enough, to be looking for a place where it's 'safe' to go on a shooting rampage .... this is the insignia of "COME SHOOT ME, I CAN'T FIGHT BACK!"

Kennesaw tried, but couldn't hold back the tide of Political Correctness.

The municipal laws didn't cover self-protection in the workplace .. only in the home.

The poor bastards never had a chance.

That's sad.

Oh, to NOT be in Chicago in the Springtime

PressTV - Chicago violence: 4 killed, over 30 injured:

 Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:29PMGMT

 Four people have lost their lives and more than 30 others have sustained injuries in several shootings in the city of Chicago since Friday night, US police say.

Easter seems an appropriate season to talk about death, murder, random acts of violence in the murderous city in the nation.

For Christians, it's a time to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

For Chicagoans of every ilk, it's just another weekend when it's not safe to leave your house.

Four people have lost their lives and more than 30 others have sustained injuries in several shootings in the city of Chicago since Friday night, US police say.

Other later sources provide updated statistics:

(by Allison Geller; Monday, April 28, 2014)
Another violent weekend shook Chicago with shootings killing five people and injuring 35 others between Friday and Sunday. 

There must be a reason why Chicago is such a violent town.  Some people (such as the Chicago press), the finger are beginning to point toward Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Microstamping: Not Your Father's Second Amendment

PROLOGUE:
From February through July (with updates into December) 2008, we ran a series of articles on "Microstamping", as exemplified by Todd Lizotte's "Pie In The Sky" scheme to offer this unproven technology to  ... well, essentially, to states who wanted to so impede the ability for citizens to purchase firearms at an affordable price.  This series includes a Q&A email interview with the progenitor of the 'technology'; Todd Lizotte

(You can read the entire series here; unfortunately it is in reverse order by date, so the last is first.)

Recently, California decided to "Bite the Bullet".  (In this case .. to byte the casing, or the primer.)  In 2007. the California Assembly passed a law which required that all new firearms purchased in California "microstamp" unique data on the primer (via the firing pin) or on the face of the cartridge case (via the breech block) to identify the gun(s) which fired the bullet.

Never mind that the firing pin may be replaced by a generic model without the 'microstamping', or the slide; or that a casing which has been fired by many similarly 'microstamped' firearms may have overlapping imprints which preclude accurate identification of firearms similarly equipped.

(Note that while the primer is unique in each firing, firing pins which are legally required to carry the unique identifiers are prone to error; the cost of "replacement firing pins" bearing the same legally required identification is absurdly expensive and is prone to being 'avoided' by simple means.  Firing pins are "consumables", and cheap without microstampings; they may be readily purchased from outside the restrictive state without microstampings.) 

 Also, the casing may have been 'picked up' on the range and may thus carry multiple microstampings .. each of which might overstamp each other, rendering the stampings unreadable.  Also, a criminal will simply pick up his brass at the scene of a crime.  If the firearms is a revolver, the microstamping requirement does not apply.)

Gun Control is Bullshit!

Penn & Teller: Bullshit! - Gun Control - YouTube:

Published on Dec 16, 2012 Penn & Teller Commentary

(NSFW!)
[F-bomb ... well, you know, it's Penn Jillette!)

Tongue-tied; and "Gun Industry Blood Money"

Gun Owners of America | Facebook:
Gun Owners of America GOA's Larry Pratt leaves MSNBC host tongue-tied

(H/T David Codrea and Gun Owners of America)

There are SO many quotable quotes here, I'm not even going to try to cite them here.  You must go watch-the-whole-thing.  This is perhaps the most productive interview that Larry Pratt has ever given.  He was entirely on-point during the too-short episode.  Including that:

• ... George Washington understood that citizens must have access to firearms available
• ... matching firearms currently available to the military
• ... and citizens have the right to use firearms to protect themselves from both personal assault
• ... and to protect themselves against their own government
• ... and that the Second Amendment Rights are equivalent to the First Amendment rights!

Any argument about the first two amendments to the Constitution must be taken hand-in-hand.

The First Amendment has been ruled by the Supreme Court to include speech which was not available to Americans in the 18th Century, including email and the Internet in general.

These speech platforms were not available in the 18th Century, but the Supreme Court has held that freedom of speech extends to all currently extent speech platforms.

Since the First and the Second Amendments specifically speak to individual rights, many rulings on the 1st Amendment apply equally to the 2nd Amendment.  (The third to the tenth amendments generally apply to impositions of the government upon its citizens.)

When Pratt changed the direction of the dialogue, and began speaking of the First Amendment Rights, the moderator interrupted him:  "You mean the Second Amendment."

Pratt replied forcefully:  "No, I mean the First Amendment!"

That simple statement, equating the two Amendments, completely changed the dialogue.  Neither the Moderator nor the Opponent knew how to respond to the realization that individual rights were equivalent.  And so the discussion was terminated before anyone had a chance to respond to the canard about "Gun Industry Blood Money".

I'm loving it, when the mild-mannered Pratt brings opponents to their knees.

In the background, if you listen closely, you can hear "the lamentations of their women".

Suspicions Confirmed

Gun deaths are exaggerated by the media:

In 2012, the U.S. was No. 3 on the world list in gun deaths. Remove the numbers from four Democrat-controlled U.S. cities with draconian anti-gun laws (Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.), and the U.S. falls to fourth from the bottom.

I'm not surprised to hear this about Chicago, Detroit and DC; but New Orleans?

I had no idea.

That they are all Democrat Enclaves ... well, most metropolitan areas are Democrat-controlled.

That's where the Welfare Mothers live.   That's were the drug gangs live.

Metal Storm

Deadliest weapons ever invented- Metal Storm - YouTube:

Uploaded on Dec 22, 2009 Discovery Channel owns this video Category Science &Technology  

Chicago -- 8 wounded in separate city-wide shootings

8 wounded in separate city-wide shootings - chicagotribune.com:

A 14-year-old boy is the youngest of at least 8 people shot across the city Tuesday afternoon. 

Police said the shooting, which stems from an ongoing gang conflict in the Marquette Park neighborhood, happened about 6:40 p.m. 

The boy was approached by two others in the 7300 block of South Maplewood Avenue. The two asked him if he had marijuana before firing at him. They shot “multiple times” and hit him once in the arm, police said. The boy was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in good condition. \ 

The seven others wounded ranged in age from 18 to 56 and were shot as far north as Logan Square and as far south as Roseland. 

The latest shooting happened at about 7:31 p.m. on the 1700 block of 71st Street in the West Englewood neighborhood.In that shooting, a 23-year-old man suffered a wound to his leg and was being treated on the scene as of 8:10 p.m., said police.

Chicago ... again.

You're tired of hearing about Chicago Shootings, aren't you?.  I know I am.

When are we going to read that there were NO shootings in Chicago, for ... like .. a whole week?

Now, that would be a "Man Bites Dog" article which is worth writing about.

In the meantime,  Liberal commentators continue to talk about "GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM!", instead of talking about the factors which truly promote violence.

• Families without Fathers
• Drugs
• The Society of Violence
• The "Make Your Bones" imperative in Ghetto Communities
• oh hell, the whole "Ghetto" thing!

Gun violence isn't about Guns; it's about Violence.  When the Libs "get" that, their whole message will change.

I know ... ain't gonna happen.  It's not conservative values which promote violence in a fatherless community ... it's liberal values that ignore the core issues of poverty, disenfranchisement, and "what it takes to be A Man".

“The Scene Had a Problem, and the Problem Was the Gun.”

Never Yet Melted 
 “The Scene Had a Problem, and the Problem Was the Gun.”:
24 APR 2014

Isn't it always "The Gun"?

Sometimes ... it's not the fact of the gun, but the dimensions.

(Hat Tip to .. well, you know)

Wayne LaPierre To Announce He's Breaking Up The NRA

Wayne LaPierre To Announce He's Breaking Up The NRA - Misfires And Light Strikes:
(April 22, 2014)

Faced with overwhelming and relentless opposition from Michael Bloomberg’s grassroots “Every Town For Gun Safety”, Wayne LaPierre will announce that he’s disbanding the National Rifle Association at the conclusion of this week’s NRA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis.

“Look, everyone”, Wayne said at a press conference today, “We gave it a good run, but it’s over. We just can’t win against the dozens of people who have joined Michael Bloomberg on his new crusade. I mean, have you seen what they’re doing on social media to show how they can get people involved in gun safety and educate people about the realities of firearms? The NRA just can’t compete with that kind of know-how, so it’s time to call it a day and go home.”

 Michael Bloomberg was busy purchasing the entire state of Rhode Island as a location for his new mansion and was unavailable for comment.

[emphasis added]
(April Fools' Day came late this year)

Drinkin’ and gunnin’

Oklahoma Gazette Chicken Fried News: Drinkin’ and gunnin’:

Darwinism at it's finest!

Because some of Oklahoma’s finest contributions to the advancement of human civilization have started with the words, “Hold my beer and watch this,” an Oklahoma City gun range has taken the steps necessary to be the first gun range to serve liquor by the drink.
 According to a report on Fox News, Wilshire Gun has plans to have firearms lanes, archery lanes, classrooms and a VIP lounge, making it the first of its kind in Oklahoma.
 According to the same news brief, Jeff Swanson, the owner, has said, “This is where the shooting sport is headed.”
 He’ll need to be careful when guests hit the lanes and then the lounge, and not the other way around.
Because that way, Okies, lies madness. And perhaps a Darwin Award

[emphasis added]

"This is where the shooting sport is headed"?
( I most sincerely hope not! )

I am against it.  Remind me to not travel to Oklahoma for a match this year.

Next year?

No problem.  All the trouble-makers will be dead.

Heinlein

I was determined to clean out my garage last week, and I was making remarkable progress until I ran across an old printer-paper box on the top shelf, marked "HEINLEIN".

In it, I found 33 paperback novels, all written by Robert A. Heinlein, "The Dean of Science Fiction".

Need I mention that the garage is still a cluttered mess?  And so is my bedroom, as there are 33 paperback novels by Heinlein, sitting on the floor ... 25 of them yet to be read.

Oh, the frabjuous joys of Retirement!  I can read all I want, and I have.  Three books a day, about 200 pages (paperback format) each, means I can read three books a day -- six hours total --  and I only need to worry what to read after the 11 scheduled days I've put aside for 'catching up' on books I haven't read for 30 years.

To my chagrin, I went right to my favorites the first day.  "Tunnel in the Sky", "Space Cadet", and "Have Space Suit, Will Travel".

I'm holding off on "Podkayne of Mars" and "Starship Troopers", and "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" because ... hey, I'm not some SF Junky!  (Besides, they were written ca 1963, and I've decided to sort them into copyright-date order and read them in the sequence they were written.  More or less.

Okay, I read "The Star Beast" out of order, too.  So sue me.   Discovery Day was a long one, reading 4 books.

The first book in the series (I won't bore you with titles from now on) was an anthologies; the first story there was written in 1939.  I'm tempted to list all of the 'inventions' that Heinlein predicted decades before their actual denoument, but I'll limit myself to cell phones and Skype ... both described with fair accuracy in 1939.

Heinlein was careful to state that he wasn't making "predictions" ... and those which he DID make he assigned 'reasonable' timelines.  For example, in 1941 he predicted that man would walk on the moon by 1978.  Very close .. but we beat him by ten years.

On the other hand?

1980 ... rocket ships between solar planets.  Boo, I was wanting to be like D.D. Harriman and die on the moon by now!

However, he DID predict that there would be a hiatus in 'rocketry' in the 1980's, due to cultural upheavals.  Witness Obama's defunding of NASA last year; who would have predicted that kind of Change?

A lot of the stories that R.A.F. wrote were for Boy's Life Magazine, so these early books are called his 'juveniles'.  I suppose it's significant that I enjoy them so much; many, if most of his heroes are teenage boys  (see "Tunnel in the Sky") who achieve much during their adolescence.  And even his mature male protagonist (Harriman in "The Man Who Sold The Moon") have never been able to allow their childhood dreams to be thwarted by the Adult pastimes of making millions in business.

We won't address "Lazarus Long" here, except to mention the expertise with which Heinlein managed to seque into a Timeline Which Would Not Die.

(If you don't "Grok" the cultural reference, you're probably not interested in this theme anyway.  And if you do ... I don't need to explain.)

Finish:  I have the books, you don't, and they're in such bad condition that I am NOT going to loan them to you.

But they're still readable, for those who appreciate the joys of a favorite author rediscovered.

Crazy Carry

Open Carry, Concealed Carry and Crazy Carry - Bloomberg View:
(April 22, 2014)

I often focus on the dangers of reckless people with guns, rather than criminals with guns, for two reasons. First, reckless people seem very plentiful. Second, they are invariably ignored in gun-rights rhetoric. The gun-rights movement advances a Manichean vision of criminals and "law-abiding citizens," with the latter always and everywhere in need of heavy firepower to defeat the former.

National Rifle Association Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre's rhetoric about criminals -- "so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons" -- is basically pornographic at its peaks. But LaPierre is silent about the legion of gun-toting clods, bumblers, stoners, wife-beaters, fools and drunks who kill, or injure, Americans every day. (Once in possession of a gun, you don't need to be actively stupid to produce tragedy; you can be passively stupid.)

A dialogue between a bloombergview.com commentator (By Francis Wilkinson   and John Pierce, co-founder of OpenCarry.org)

A surprisingly 'balanced' discussion.  Since Wilkerson, the author (and an apparent Bloomberg supporter) seems to have presented both sides of the conversation, I'm pleasantly surprised that he has resisted the temptation to bowdlerize the exchange.

It's not that long.  Go, read the whole thing.

"Oh, Sorry About That"

US homeowner Byron David Smith heard taunting dying teens in audio of killings | News.com.au:

(April 23, 2014)

A HOMEOWNER can be heard calmly telling a teenage girl “oh, sorry about that” and calling her “bitch” as he shot her and another unarmed teen dead after they broke into his house.
Byron David Smith, 64, is on trial for the murder of 18-year-old Haile Kifer and her 17-year-old cousin Nicholas Brady on thanksgiving two years ago.
Smith had fitted his home in Little Falls, Minnesota, with recording devices after repeated break-ins. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune , the devices captured the chilling audio of the teens’ killings.
The paper said the crystal clear recordings were played to the court. On them glass is heard breaking then two shots then a groan from Brady followed by another gunshot and Smith saying, “You’re dead”.
Smith is then heard moving Brady’s body to a workshop, to keep him from staining the basement carpet, as he later told authorities. Some minutes later Kifer can be heard whispering, “Nick”. There are more gunshots and then the sound of Kifer falling. Smith says, “Oh, sorry about that.”
Kifer can be heard screaming, “Oh my god! Oh”. Smith then responds, “You’re dying,” and after more gunshots, “Bitch.”

The Castle Doctrine?

Or murder?

Proof that Concealed Carry permit holders live in a dream world, - VPC

Proof that Concealed Carry permit holders live in a dream world, Part One - YouTube:

Uploaded on Apr 21, 2010

The controlled study documented in these videos show that concealed carry permit holders are fooling themselves if they think they will be able to react effectively to armed aggressors. Most CCW holders won't even be able to un-holster their gun. They will more likely be killed themselves or kill innocent bystanders than stop the aggressor. For more details, see "Unintended Consequences: Pro-Handgun Experts Prove That Handguns Are a Dangerous Choice for Self-Defense."
http://www.vpc.org/studies/unincont.htm.
 CCW permit holders don't protect innocent people. They kill them.
Category News; Politics

Part 2:

The controlled study documented in these videos show that concealed carry permit holders are fooling themselves if they think they will be able to react effectively to armed aggressors. Most CCW holders won't even be able to un-holster their gun. They will more likely be killed themselves or kill innocent bystanders than stop the aggressor. For more details, see "Unintended Consequences: Pro-Handgun Experts Prove That Handguns Are a Dangerous Choice for Self-Defense."

Bring back Clean Nuclear Energy?

Energy Plant in Oregon Burning Aborted Babies From Canada to Generate Electricity | LifeNews.com:
(April 23, 2014)

An energy plant in Oregon is reportedly burning aborted babies from Canada to generate electricity. UPDATE: Local officials say they will stop the practice while they look into the situation. Following the LifeNews story below that received national attention, the Marion County Board of Commissioners issued the following statement:
Today the Marion County Board of Commissioners learned that the Covanta Waste-to-Energy Facility located in Marion County may be accepting medical waste containing human tissue from outside sources. In response to an April 21 article in The B.C Catholic, the board took immediate action to temporarily halt the acceptance of boxed medical waste at the facility.

This hits too close to home.


[update 5/1/15 - featured in SNOPES]

Drink Out; Dust In

Feds approve the sale of powdered alcohol | Fox News:

Ever tried to transport a bottle of alcohol only to give up because it was too heavy or it broke? Meet your new best beverage friend: powdered booze.

A patent for Palcohol has now been approved by the Treasury Department, reports Lehrman’s Beverage Law.

According to the product website, Palcohol is expected to launch this fall. Six versions are on tap to be released including a Vodka flavor that has been distilled four times, a plain rum powder, and four cocktail powers – Cosmopolitan, Mojito, Powderita (Margarita), and Lemon Drop. All you need is a little water to get the party started.

 The product is gluten free and has about... (obscured in the original article.

 The site is even touting its potential as a condiment, right up there with salt, pepper, and a little Parmesan cheese. This is from their website, according to Lehrman: ...

Pack it in your pocket, along with your grass.   The good news is, there's no distinctive aroma to give you away at the Football Game!

"Better Living Through Chemistry"