The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage

That was the subtitle of Brian Anse Patrick's book The National Rifle Association and the Media.  It's still paying off.

Gallup's most recent poll on gun control informs us that "Americans' Dissatisfaction With Gun Laws Highest Since 2001". I'm sure that'll be the Media Narrative™ in all of the subsequent news reports - if any. But here's the kicker:

Americans may be dissatisfied with gun laws because they believe they should be stricter, or because they believe the laws are too strict as they are. Therefore, Gallup asks those who are dissatisfied with gun laws to choose among explanations for their dissatisfaction. Those who are dissatisfied have historically leaned heavily in the direction of wanting stricter rather than less strict laws.

But this year, the gap between those wanting stricter gun laws and those wanting less strict laws narrowed as a result of a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans who want less strict laws, now at 16% up from 5% a year ago. Support for making gun laws stricter fell to 31% from 38% last January. The January 2013 poll was conducted shortly after the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting tragedy, which sparked some state governments to consider new gun laws and a robust national discussion about the issue.

--

In addition to overall dissatisfaction with gun laws rising, more Americans this year are "very dissatisfied" (35%) versus "somewhat dissatisfied" (20%).

(Bold emphasis mine.) Somehow, I don't think that's going to make it into The Narrative™ without enough spin to put a tornado to shame.

Who Could Have Predicted This?!? Oh, Right...

We did.


When asked "What would you replace it with?" I like Thomas Sowell's response: "When you put a fire out, what do you replace it with?"

WORD!

RebelPundit interviews Chicago residents after the SotU address:



Bloody well right.

[tap] [tap] Is This Thing On?

Uh, hi! 

I guess I'm supposed to pay attention to this blog thing here. Sorry about that. I've been pretty busy the last several days.  Regular content may resume in a day or six.

GOF Update

As I posted at the beginning of the month, commenter Grumpy Old Fart lost his mother and his home early in December.  He left this comment this morning:

Okay, I have a paypal account. Sorry I took so long to reply, but internet access has been... problematic. However, with that said, I know basically nothing at all about paypal, so I don't know what good it does or how to tell you to link to it.

With luck, I'll still have consistent internet access for another day or two, so feel free to let me know what I should be doing with all this. Life has been... interesting lately, in an ancient Chinese curse kind of way.

I think he may be badly needing some other stuff, too.

The stuff I need most is stuff nobody can help me with. The Red Cross has been very good with the basics, clothes, toiletries and such, to the point where for a while I had more stuff than I had places to put it. The glaring issue right now is that I no longer have a picture ID, a SS card, or even a birth certificate. At this point my biggest problem is convincing anyone that I exist at all.

Kevin, you should have my email address in your contacts, so feel free to get in touch with me. You can understand why I'm unwilling to post it on a public forum. I tend to trust the people who post here, but that's probably not the entire list of people who could conceivably see this either.

Ship-to address is something I'm a lot more comfortable with however:

1350 Rikisha Ln.
Beaumont, TX 77706

Thanks, folks. Just knowing you care makes more difference than you probably realize. Since that's something you don't really get a feel for until you're in a position like this, I hope none of you ever do realize it either.

For your PayPal account, all we need is the email address you use for it, I believe.

UPDATE:  First things first, I just traded emails with GOF.  He needs a computer:

I have some contract work writing for a publishing company in the UK, but since my computer burned I'm having to start all that from scratch as well. More to the point, until I get another computer, I can't even make a start at redoing all the work I lost.

So... what do I need that you can provide? The only thing I can think of is funds toward another computer. That should probably go into paypal, since the donation account is pretty much meant for bill money.

Anybody got something they can spare?  Can we get together and buy him something?

See? Reloading is EASY!

I just wish I could find some Unique...

THIS Was Caused by a Video

...I think it's safe to say.

Cook's Postulate is:

The key to understanding the American system is to imagine that you have the power to make nearly any law you want. But your worst enemy will be the one to enforce it. - Rick Cook

Dinesh D'Souza, vocal critic of Barack Obama and creator of the film 2016: Obama's America, has just been given that lesson in spades.

D'Souza has been arrested and indicted for violation of campaign finance law. Specifically:

According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D'Souza around August 2012 reimbursed people who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to the candidate's campaign.

The Justice Department in the form of the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, proclaimed:

As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process.

The mind simply boggles.

Nothing was done about voter intimidation in Philadelphia.

Nobody at Justice said "boo" when the Obama campaign accepted unverified credit card donations during his re-election run.

Not a peep out of the DoJ when Al Franken "won" his Senate race through voter fraud.

The list of "corruptions of the electoral process" are long and have been getting longer each year, but NOW the DoJ is ON THE JOB!

Like when the Bush DoJ prosecuted prominent lawyer Pierce O'Donnell for illegally contributing $26,000 to John Edwards' presidential campaign the same way D'Souza is now accused.  O'Donnell accepted a plea deal and got "60 days in prison, a year of supervised release, 500 hours of community service, plus a $20,000 fine."

I've been reading Harvey Silverglate's Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, and one thing he points out early on is the power the DoJ has to coerce people into being witnesses:

Prosecutors are able to structure plea bargains in ways that make it nearly impossible for normal, rational, self-interested calculating people to risk going to trial. The pressure on innocent defendants to plead guilty and "cooperate" by testifying against others in exchange for a reduced sentence is enormous - so enormous that such cooperating witnesses often fail to tell the truth, saying instead what prosecutors want to hear. As Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz has colorfully put it, such cooperating defendant-witnesses "are taught not only to sing, but also to compose."

Can't wait to see who the prosecution will be dragging out as witnesses.

A recent Gallup poll indicates that "trust in government" is at an all-time low, with 57% of those polled indicating the trust the government "not very much" or "not at all" when handling domestic problems. But when queried on their faith in the Judicial Branch, 62% of those polled said they had a "great deal" to a "fair amount" of faith.

I think that's about to change, too.

No matter what, the DoJ has bottomless pockets, and unless some high-powered law firm agrees to represent him pro bono, D'Souza doesn't. 

It's called "Lawfare," and when practiced by the government against its citizens, it is particularly vicious. I have very little doubt that this is what is going on in the prosecution of D'Souza. I don't know if he's guilty or not. I DO know that when the Left is profiting, not a word is said, not a soul is prosecuted. When it's their ox being gored, SOMEONE MUST PAY! And, honestly, I do not doubt that the Obama administration through the Holder Justice Department is exercising "the Chicago Way" here. As Glenn Reynolds put it:

Is there anything this administration does that isn't politically motivated?

In other words, I know who I trust, and it isn't the .gov.

UPDATE:  Read this.  Had enough yet?

Quote of the Day from Erik Prince, ex-CEO of Blackwater:

"Look," he says, grasping to end our talk on an optimistic note, "America can pull its head out at any time. That happens at the ballot box. Ballot boxes have consequences still in America." He continues: "But the American electorate has to actually pay attention, has to turn off the Xbox long enough to pay attention. Otherwise they're going to continue to elect the government they deserve."

Nerdvana

Saw this at Facebook:


(click for full size)
WANT!!

Unfortunately, copyright infringement prohibits its commercial manufacture.  Bummer.

Still like this one, though:

Your Moment of Zen

Time for another:

This is Why 18 U.S.C. § 922 Needs to be Amended

A couple of days ago in the little town of Orrville, Alabama, a man "waving a gun" walked into a Dollar General Store and forced a cashier and a customer into a break room.  Oddly enough, the force field generated by the posting of this sign

did not prevent Kevin McLaughlin from walking through the doorway, gun in hand.

The customer, one Marlo Ellis, was - in accordance with the sign - carrying his firearm concealed.  He turned, drew his weapon and shot McLaughlin once in the chest.  McLaughlin was DRT.

Alabama law does not require a permit for open carry, but does for concealed.  According to the story, the police are checking to ensure Ellis was properly permitted, though the DA stated that he didn't believe any charges would be pressed, regardless.  HOWEVER, Ellis is currently out of jail on bond, facing charges of "rape in the second degree and enticing a child for immoral purposes, stemming from a 2013 investigation involving a girl under the age of 16."  The DA stated in the story that Ellis was within his rights to have a CCW permit because he has not yet been convicted.

I don't think so.

Question 11b on BATFE form 4473 (PDF) asks:

Are you under indictment or information in any court for a felony, or any other crime, for which the judge could imprison you for more than one year?

And the instructions for questions 11b through 11l state:

Generally, 18 U.S.C. § 922 prohibits the shipment, transportation, receipt, or possession in or affecting interstate commerce of a firearm by one who: has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; has been convicted of a felony, or any other crime, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year (this does not include State misdemeanors punishable by imprisonment of two years or less); is a fugitive from justice; is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance; has been adjudicated mentally defective or has been committed to a mental institution; has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions; has renounced his or her U.S. citizenship; is an alien illegally in the United States or an alien admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa; or is subject to certain restraining orders. Furthermore, section 922 prohibits the shipment, transportation, or receipt in or affecting interstate commerce of a firearm by one who is under indictment or information for a felony, or any other crime, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.

Mr. Ellis is under indictment.  He is may be a "prohibited person" and can might be charged with possessing and carrying a weapon illegally.

A weapon which he used to, quite possibly, save several lives, including his own.

The local DA might not charge him, but a Federal prosecutor certainly could, and I wouldn't put it past them.  The number of "crimes" that carry a possible sentence of "imprisonment for a term exceeding one year" is insane.  Just being under indictment for one negates your right to arms.  Crimes like "providing police with a false name" for instance.  Or walking out of a restaurant on a $25.01 tab.

Mario Ellis might very well be a child-raping scumbag who should be thrown under the jail - but until he goes to trial he should either be sitting in a cell or he should have all the rights of any other citizen.

UPDATE:  After carefully scrutinizing 18 U.S.C. § 922, I'm certain that it's illegal for someone to SELL to a person known or believed to be under indictment, but I'm not so certain that it's illegal for someone under indictment to possess.  I think it's a gray area that Prosecutors might play in.  I have altered the post to reflect this.

Quote of the Day - Sultan Knish Edition

Daniel Greenfield, who blogs at Sultan Knish, is also a contributor at FrontPage Mag.  His most recent column No Country for Liberal Republicans is chock-full of QotD material.  Here's my selection for today's serving:

In the last two elections, the bloodthirsty neo-confederate party of hate served up a liberal Republican, currently championing Obama’s illegal alien amnesty, and a liberal Republican, currently being blamed  by Obama supporters for inspiring ObamaCare. Its fantasy candidate for the upcoming election had spent the last election hugging Obama, and then signed off on tuition for illegal aliens and banned gay conversion therapy, and was, until a few weeks ago, being praised as the ultimate good Republican; only to be subjected to the same ritual media humiliations as McCain and Romney.

The same media that insisted that the murder of four Americans in Benghazi was not a scandal and that the murder of Brian Terry in Operation Fast and Furious was not a scandal is bleating that a little traffic is a scandal.  Not a little traffic in assault rifles, as in Fast and Furious, but in the distance between cars.

By all means, do read the whole thing.

When Dealing with New Jersey Maryland, the Gun Owner Acts at His Peril

I have discussed this before, but in 1996 the New Jersey Superior Court declared a man a felon for possession of an "assault weapon" - a Marlin Model 60, tube-fed .22 rimfire rifle he had won as a prize in a "police combat match" in the late 1980's.  He took his prize, put it into his gun safe with the tags still dangling from the trigger guard, and apparently never took it out again....

Until 1993 when apparently someone dropped a dime on him after New Jersey passed its draconian "assault weapons" ban that made a .22 rifle with a 17-round magazine capacity a prohibited weapon.  Mr. Pelleteri, a firearms instructor, fought the case all the way to the New Jersey Superior Court which found against him, stating this chilling phrase:

When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril.
The GeekWithA.45 calls New Jersey a "dark and fascist state," and I think with ample reason.  (Begin Edit) But New Jersey apparently isn't content to oppress its residents ain't got a patch on Maryland.  If you're a visitor there, you're at severe risk as well:

Gun owner unarmed, unwelcome in Maryland

John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm.

He'd rather he didn’t feel the need, "but things aren't like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I'm constantly going to the bank.

"I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I'm standing on. But I'm not looking for any trouble."

Filippidis keeps his gun — a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic (layers of editorial fact-checkers - Ed.), barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case — in one of two places, always: in the right-hand pocket of his jeans, or in the safe at home.

"There are kids in the house," Filippidis says, "and I don't think they'd ever bother with it, but I don't want to take any chances."

He's not looking for any trouble, after all.

Trouble, in fact, was the last thing on his mind a few weeks back as the Filippidises packed for Christmas and a family wedding in Woodridge, N.J., so he left the pistol locked in the safe. The state of Florida might have codified his Second Amendment rights, but he knew he'd be passing through states where recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions affirming the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms have been met by hostile legislatures and local officials.

"I know the laws and I know the rules," Filippidis says. There are, after all, ways gun owners can travel legally with firearms through hostile states. "But I just think it's a better idea to leave it home."

So there the Filippidises were on New Year's Eve eve, southbound on Interstate 95 — John; wife Kally (his Gulf High sweetheart); the 17-year-old twins Nasia and Yianni; and 13-year-old Gina in their 2012 Ford Expedition — just barely out of the Fort McHenry Tunnel into Maryland, blissfully unarmed and minding their own business when they noticed they were being bird-dogged by an unmarked patrol car. It flanked them a while, then pulled ahead of them, then fell in behind them.

"Ten minutes he's behind us," John says. "We weren't speeding. In fact, lots of other cars were whizzing past."

"You know you have a police car behind you, you don't speed, right?" Kally adds.

Says John, "We keep wondering, is he going to do something?"

Finally the patrol car's emergency lights come on, and it's almost a relief. Whatever was going on, they'd be able to get it over with now. The officer — from the Transportation Authority Police, as it turns out, Maryland's version of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority — strolls up, does the license and registration bit, and returns to his car.

According to Kally and John (but not MTAP, which, pending investigation, could not comment), what happened next went like this:

Ten minutes later he's back, and he wants John out of the Expedition. Retreating to the space between the SUV and the unmarked car, the officer orders John to hook his thumbs behind his back and spread his feet. "You own a gun," the officer says. "Where is it?"

"At home in my safe," John answers.

"Don't move," says the officer.

Read the whole thing. Check your blood pressure afterwards. I think a little B-positive spurted from my eyes.

"Dark and fascist" might be a little generous there, Geek, (but I bet you're glad you didn't relocate to Maryland).

(Screwed up the post - I plead fatigue.  It's been a rough week.)

Another Box-Office Loser

So Harvey Weinstein has announced that he's going to make a new film, starring Meryl Streep:

Mr. Weinstein then revealed his secret project about the gun rights group. "I shouldn't say this, but I'll tell it to you, Howard," he said. "I'm going to make a movie with Meryl Streep, and we're going to take this head-on. And they're going to wish they weren't alive after I'm done with them."

"This" and "them" being "guns" and "the NRA."

Perhaps Mr. Weinstein should read Brian Anse Patrick's The National Rifle Association and the Media: The Motivating Force of Negative Coverage.

Nah. Let him waste other people's money.

UPDATE:  Saw this over at Bubba's:

Doesn't Fit The Narrative™

Yesterday I stumbled across this story at BusinessInsider.com, CONFIRMED: The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Cartel:

An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

Sinaloa, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.

There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be "the world’s most powerful drug trafficker," coordinates with American authorities.

Read the whole thing, but there is this disclaimer at the bottom:

This post has caused many to interpret that the U.S. government is actively supporting Sinaloa. That has not been established, despite claims by Zambada-Niebla's lawyer and Stratfor's source. What El Universal's investigation and the newly published court documents reveal is that there was a strong correlation between 2005 and 2009 regarding the rise of the Sinaloa cartel and the DEA's relatively regular contact with a top Sinaloa lawyer.

This story reminded me of the El Paso Times report from July of 2011 that U.S. military weapons (the real thing, not semi-autos from border gun shops) were being smuggled to the Zetas cartel through Texas and New Mexico - Zetas may be smuggling weapons:

The brutally violent Zetas drug organization may be smuggling military-grade weapons through El Paso and Columbus, N.M., to feed its ongoing battles against other cartels and to possibly disrupt the 2012 elections in Mexico.

Phil Jordan, a former director of the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center and a former CIA operative, said the Zetas have shipped large amounts of weapons through the El Paso area.

A federal law enforcement agency in El Paso said it has no information about the allegations that the Zetas are smuggling weapons through El Paso.

"They are purchasing weapons in the Dallas area and are flying them to El Paso, and then they are taking them across the border into Juárez," said Jordan, a law enforcement consultant and former DEA official who still has contacts in the law enforcement community.

--

Robert "Tosh" Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, supported Jordan's allegations and said the Zetas allegedly also purchased property in the Columbus-Palomas border region to stash weapons and other contraband.

He said purchasing property and setting up a weapons-smuggling network suggests that the Zetas were establishing a staging area for their operations.

DEA Special Agent Diana Apodaca, spokeswoman for El Paso's DEA office, said the agency did not have any information about the Zetas allegedly operating in this border region.

No one from the Border Patrol or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives returned calls Tuesday for comment.

Earlier this month, Plumlee had a debriefing with the Border Patrol in Las Cruces about the intelligence he gathered when he accompanied the U.S. military's Task Force 7 along the border. The military, which assists civilian law enforcement in counter-drug operations, was looking into allegations of gun smuggling along the border.

"The military task force became concerned that its information about arms smuggling was being compromised," Plumlee said. "From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas."

Under the Direct Commercial Sales program, the U.S. State Department regulates and licenses businesses to sell weapons and defense services and training for export. Last year, according to U.S. statistics, the program was used to provide Mexico $416.5 million worth of weapons and equipment, including military-grade weaponry.

The program is different from the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, which operates on a government-to-government basis.

Plumlee said military-grade weapons were found in a Juárez warehouse two years ago, and some of them were moved later to a ranch elsewhere in Juárez. Arms stash houses have also been reported in places across the border from Columbus and Antelope Wells, N.M.

"They've found anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era," Plumlee said. Other weapons found include grenade launchers, assault rifles, handguns and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor.

Do read the whole thing.

Two things about this struck me:  One, it would appear that the Department of Justice is working with one cartel and the State Department is (or was) working with a different cartel.  Two, neither of these stories has any traction with the major media.  UPI picked up the El Paso Times story, but I found no other major media references to it in Google.  The new Business Insider piece?  Crickets.

I guess Bridgeghazi is more important.

UPDATE:  I contacted the reporter from the El Paso Times piece, Diana Washington Valdez, with the question "I was curious as to whether there was any follow-on to this story?"  Her response:

No, because neither ATF or DEA will provide any more information. All they keep saying is that the investigation is ongoing. (I think the investigation is long over.)

This is my shocked face....

Quote of the Day - Tam Edition

"Bridgeghazi" is the headline story on Meet The Press. Extra Double Tone Deaf Pauline Kael Irony Points for the people in the media calling it "Bridgeghazi" who don't even acknowledge Benghazi as an actual, you know, scandal. -- Tam, What did he know and when did he know it?

An Obamacare Photo-essay

While you're waiting, here's a short photo-essay I started a while ago, and never posted. Part of Instapundit's "peeling an onion of fail" meme:

































Feel free to link to anything you think I should add in the comments.  I'll see what I can do.  Must be a graphic.

FAIL!

The first rule of blogging is "post something every day." 

Yeah, right.

I've been really busy with work and some extracurricular activities and haven't had much of an urge to put pixel to flatscreen recently, so sorry about that.  I'm even sorrier to admit that things don't look to improve much in the near future, either, so once again the free ice cream machine is on the fritz.

Things will resume when they resume.  Not making any promises at this point.

Happy Freakin' New Year - Bumped

I'm going to keep this at the top of the page for awhile.  Scroll down for any new content.

Reader (and prolific commenter) Grumpy Old Fart left this comment on the latest Moment of Zen post on Christmas day.  I am remiss in not seeing it earlier:

On December 1st, my mother's house burned to the ground, with all my worldly goods in it (I had been living there for the last several years taking care of her while she was fighting cancer). On December 8th, a week later almost to the minute, she passed away at the age of 82.
Thanks, I have been badly needing a moment of Zen.

I think he may be badly needing some other stuff, too.

Let us know, GOF.  We're here for you.

UPDATE:  There's a Facebook page and a link to a donations page.  GOF, set yourself up a PayPal account, and I'll link to it, too.  And get me a ship-to address.

What to Take, What to Take...

I'm getting ready for tomorrow's Central Arizona Blog Shoot.  I've decided to take the .458 SOCOM, the Garand (a perennial favorite at these things), the 1917 Enfield (as it shoots the same ammo as the Garand), the new Smith 629, the Power Tool™, and my XP-100.  Oddly, I don't have pictures of either the SOCOM or the '17.  Looks like turnout is going to be a dozen or so. 

Should be a good time.  Hope you can make it.

The 2013 TSM Year in Review

Last year I almost didn't do this post.  This year, I forgot about it until about 11PM, so it goes up today.  Next year...?

January:

I did not post all that much in January, just 39 pieces and only one long one - a fisking of an op-ed by Dr. James J. Magee, Professor of Political Science and International Relations for the University of Delaware. I may not have a doctorate, but I know more history and law than the good Professor apparently does.

I got my first new gun of the year by trading in an old one: my '94 Winchester rifle for a '92 Winchester carbine clone made by Rossi. It was a good trade.  The Rossi is very handy as opposed to the 24" barreled '94.

February:

I was a little more prolific in February, but then Tucson got SNOWPOCALYPSED!  Dr. Benjamin Carson appeared on the political scene and rapidly became an un-person.  The LAPD went completely insane when one of their own went rogue, and they decided to shoot at anything... well, ANYTHING.  Apparently the LAPD has been using these targets in their firearms training.

The nice ladies they shot up are OK.  None of the cops involved suffered disciplinary action of any kind.

Joe Biden advised people - women especially - that they don't need "assault rifles," they need double-barreled shotguns!  Which he then advised them to use in an illegal manner.  Way to go, Joe.

March:

I cranked it up in March.  One Quote of the Day has particular application to a much more recent one.  I got my second new (to me) gun of the year (one gun a month!  Yea!!!)  And I first noticed that all of the .22 ammo was gone.  I had my first disagreement with 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski.  Hey, nobody's perfect.  Magpul announced that, in the wake of Colorado's anti-gun legislation, they would be leaving the state.  It took them a while to get their ducks in a row, but they're following through with it.

I got ANOTHER gun (two in one month!!)  But I sold my .308 700-5R to finance the purchase.

In perhaps the most important post of that month (or possibly the year), the question of the reliability of the UK's homicide statistics was raised.  That question has still not been answered to my satisfaction.

And, finally, as the implementation of Obamacare bore down upon us, I reviewed the predictions made about it before, during, and immediately after its passage.

We were wrong.  It was worse.

April:

I started April off with a bang with Burying Them Won't Save Them.  It was not an April Fool's post.  I discovered that it wasn't just .22 ammo you couldn't get - I couldn't find .300 Win Mag brass either.  A post I really liked:  What Takes 55,000 Hp Just to Run the Fuel Pump?  I spent two weeks in Houston for training, and then got to spend the following weekend at the NRA convention.  April's überpost Gun Control was written after it became apparent that no new federal gun-control legislation was going to be passed in 2013.

I still need to get this T-shirt.

May:

I cranked out more posts in May (52) than any other month.  I got to meet a bunch of bloggers for the first time at the NRA convention and associated dinners.  And the enthusiasm of the gun-control crowd at the convention was awe-inspiring.  (I actually said "Awwwwww.")  The media, of course, has not let up its constant drumbeat.  They breathlessly informed us that, despite skyrocketing gun sales since 2008, in fact there are fewer gun owners now than some arbitrary number of years ago.  I fisked, but this meme still has legs today.

The blog turned ten.  That's what, seventy in Internet years?

The media, in the guise of the Chicago Tribune, showed its first cracks in covering up for Obama.  I wrote about it.  Even Piers Morgan gave pause. 

May's überpost was Government v3.0, Confidence and Preference Cascades wherein I discussed the idea that we're on the cusp of a transformation equivalent to the Industrial Revolution as far as .gov is concerned.  I was not sanguine about the possibility (and remain so).

June:

June posting started off with a bang, literally.  The IRS scandal was making waves (though the media has done as much as possible to ignore it.)  The New York Times took up the "overreach" meme, as further cracks in the Obama media armor opened.

The post with possibly the highest number of comments for the year was I Don't Like Your Face, Obama.  Either One of Them.  Not a lot of words, but three videos.  252 comments.  The Usual Suspect was involved.

I got my Arizona CCW renewed.  114 days after submitting the application.  They're a little busy, even though Arizona is now a Constitutional Carry state and you don't need a permit unless you want reciprocity with other states.

I got a new T-shirt.  It inspired a post.

July:

The big news for July was the overturning of Chicago's ban on concealed carry:  And Then There Were None.

A couple of young men took the law into their own hands took Robert Peel's Seventh Principal at face value and saved a young child from a predator.  Stuff like this should get wider coverage.

George Zimmerman was found not guilty by a jury of his peers in a court of law after being tried in the press.  Iowahawk got a QotD on the topic as well.

And, after six years here and uncounted comment threads 100 responses or longer, our lone perpetual Leftist was voted off the island.  It was a very close thing.  Apparently he still visits frequently, but has made it quite clear I'm not wanted in his comments.  Fair enough.

But that's OK, a post very shortly afterward drew over 100 comments without him.

August:

I was kinda busy in August.  Lots of Quotes of the Day, not much original content.

Not my content, but worth the read:  I Love My People.

And I discovered the webcomic Failure to Fire.  Definitely NSFW, but fun, nonetheless.

September:

The Gun Blogger Rendezvous, of course!  Drove up this year in my 2002 F-250 diesel, 13 hours and 40 minutes door-to-door.  Sure could carry a lot more people and their stuff than the 'Stang.  Fuel costs, though...  STILL haven't won a gun there, but I did get TWO Crimson trace lasers.  (Haven't sent in the certificate for the second one yet.)

Before the Rendezvous, though, I introduced my readers to Dr. Grover Furr, Stalin denialist.

Good news from Colorado.  After passing gun control legislation, two State Senators lost their seats in a recall election.  Think THAT got politician's attention nationwide?

Dilbert's mom came out as a Tea Partier.

There was another rampage shooting, this time at the Navy Yard in D.C.  The media was its usual self, with layers of fact-checkers and editorial oversight.  Oddly, when the perpetrator turned out not to be a middle-aged white male member of the Tea Party who used a shotgun instead of an "assault rifle," they lost interest.  Instead, they brought out the drums made from the skins of dead children.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department got a slap on the wrist for killing veteran José Guerena in 2011 for the crime of having a scummy brother.  No officers were disciplined, not even for the Keystone Kops routine they performed in front of Guerena's home as they killed him.

And we all prepared for a .gov shutdown!

October:

As Obamacare implementation loomed ever closer and the healthcare.gov website fired up, those cracks in the façade we were seeing started to widen.

A .gov shutdown?  I guess dead kids aren't really that important when politics are involved!

I got another gun!  (Traded in for it, too.) What is that now, four for the year?

With the .gov shutdown in full swing, the Obama administration, through the mechanism of the National Park Service, cranked up the pettiness to eleven.  The media, of course, paid little attention.  Cracks in the façade, yes, but lots of spackle to cover 'em up.  Bill Whittle, however, was paying attention.

The Republicans surrendered, of course, but they just play the game badly - not realizing that the old rules no longer apply.

The For the CHIIIILLLLDREN! drumbeat was taken up again.  Spackle over the cracks, distract, obfuscate.  Still, the Obamacare debacle pushed those cracks wider.  "It's like peeling an onion of fail," said Instapundit.

November:

In November, I received an email from someone who claimed to be an Obamacare insider.  I see no reason to doubt their story.

More and more people began feeling the bite of the "Affordable" "Care" Act.

I got my last new gun of the year, a Lew Horton custom .44 Magnum, circa 2001.  Five guns this year, but only two additions to my collection arsenal.

In desperation over the disastrous implementation of his signature legislation, Obama keeps making law up on the fly. Eleven state Attorney's General have sent a letter to HHS head Sebelius declaring his actions illegal.  But that doesn't matter - they're all Republicans.  Which makes this QotD more telling.

The Chicago Tribune doubled-down on its position first expressed in May.  I was starting to have some glimmer of hope.  Nah, not really.

And, in November, the Democrats finally detonated the "nuclear option" in the Senate, after railing against it most eloquently (and accurately) in 2005.  I called them on their hypocrisy.

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman compared Obamacare with Benghazi.  He said it, I didn't.

And, finally, December:

It was a light month for posting, as I've been VERY busy.  The only real post of note that month was about a legal decision in the 9th Circus with ANOTHER outstanding dissent by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski.  Too bad his best work seems to be in dissent of poor decisions.

And another calendar year slips by.  Amazing how they seem to do that faster and faster each year.  Five more months, and this blog will be eleven years old.  I'm not sure at this point how much longer I'll keep it up.  It's time-consuming as hell, and I find I am repeating and repeating and repeating what I've said years before.  I don't know. We'll see what comes.

Anyway, a happy new year to you all, and let's hope 2014 turns out to be better than any of us have any right to expect.

A Pack, Not a Herd

Yes, it is important for all potential victims to be as dangerous as they can...  (Edited for a better story link.)

Victims Strip Suspect Naked, Take His Gun During Robbery In OKC

OKLAHOMA CITY -

Several victims fought back against a suspect armed with a gun, leaving the man naked and injured outside an Oklahoma City hair salon.

Employees told police due to the busy holiday, they were working late at "Head Honchos" near N.E. 36th Street and Lottie. Just after midnight on Christmas Eve, a woman said a suspect identified as 23-year-old Corneilyus Howeth jumped into her car and pointed a gun at her.

The victim managed to call her brother, who was inside the hair salon just a few feet away. He rushed outside to help, but said Howeth pointed the gun at him and pushed him back into the salon. The victims said Howeth demanded all their money and kept asking for someone who wasn't there.

A few moments later, someone else walked into the salon. Witnesses said Howeth turned to point the gun at the newcomer, and that's when one of the victims tackled the suspect.

According to the police report, the two struggled over the weapon. The victim hit Howeth with a table leg, and another person in the salon jumped into the fight to help subdue Howeth. The victims told police they managed to take the gun from Howeth. They then stripped off his clothes, pushed him outside, and locked the door before telling someone to call 911.

The victims were not seriously injured. Howeth did sustain some minor injuries and was taken to a hospital for treatment before being booked into the Oklahoma County jail for robbery with a firearm.

Here's the perp:


I don't think he was expecting that.

Firefly > Castle

Over at AR15.com in the "General Discussion" forum, someone posted that the short-lived TV Fox series Firefly is better than the ABC series Castle, both starring Nathan Fillion.

I had to share my response:

I'm a 51 year-old male. I watch Castle because of Stana Katic.



And because I like Nathan Fillion as an actor. It's not Firefly, but nothing else is or will ever be.

ETA:

THIS sealed Firefly for me - from the pilot:



My reaction:

 

Happy New Year, y'all.