Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Alas, Macbeth, The Jig Is Up

Scumdog extraordinaire, Jesse The Lone Ranger has been outed by everyone except Mother Theresa, and that's only because she's dead. This lively little tidbit was featured at Misha's, and the headline link swoops you away to the Q and O Blog for the full tale.

"Jesse Macbeth is one of those fake veterans who allegedly tried to defraud the VA system. His story is told by Steve Oatney, State Service Director for AMVETS since Nov. 2005 in the Tacoma area. Steve relates the following in an email:

On Sept 19 2005 Mr. Macbeth filed a claim for compensation in our office. I hate to say it but he successfully passed that bogus DD214 off to an experienced NSO. (I took his place in November).

Fast forward to February. I received a call from a VA employee at the American Lake hospital. He had asked me to "verify" the 214. Now this is the first time I had any knowledge of Mr. MacBeth. I pulled his hard file out and reviewed it. As soon as I saw the DD214 (the fake one) I informed the VA employee that Mr. Macbeth had a fraudulent 214.

I proceeded to contact our National Service officer in Seattle, Sharon V***l, and Senior Investigator M**** S****s of the VAOIG (Veterans Administration Inspector General).Mr. MacBeth visited my office on February 27.

Law enforcement personnel were notified but at the time they were not really interested in picking him up.

He once more visited my office on the 9th of March with his "whine" fest. At that time I told him the "gig was up" and he should leave my office and never come back. I also sent a fax to agent S****s with MacBeths current info on it.

The whole time I never realized this guy was making videos, belonging to IVATW, Veterans for peace or anybody else.

Well now Pierce County WA has a Felony Assault warrant out for him as of 23 May. He beat up a girl. Now he has left town, believed to be in San Francisco with the group "Swords to Plowshares"!!!And yes, the VA will soon have a Federal Warrant on him and yep, they will prosecute him for fraud."

"Hi. Remembah me? Fooled lots 'a ya way back when and am still tryin'...

Ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter is in league with Osama bin Laden.

"A paper trail shows that more than $1 million has been funneled from Bakr M. Bin Laden on behalf of the Saudi Bin Laden Group to The Carter Center.

That’s an impressive bit of investigative journalism that comes your way, not courtesy of the New York Times and company, but from Melanie Morgan, Chairman, Censure Carter Committee (Censure Carter Committee ).

"An investigation by the Censure Carter Committee into the financing for The Carter Center of Atlanta, Georgia founded by President Carter and his wife to advance his "Blame America First" policies reveals that over $1,000,000 has been funneled from Bakr M. Bin Laden for the Saudi Bin Laden Group to the Carter Center," says Censure Carter.Com in a mainstream media-ignored recent media release."

I was alerted to this over at Misha's place, and true or not, it's funny. I almost said believable, but nothing this certifiably insane traitorous wretch does is un-believable. Would the news that he's long been a cross-dressing pedophile who practices devil-worship to see the light of day, I'd nod and go about my business.

Hollywood teen shoots intruder after father says on phone, `Do what you have to do'

Hollywood, Florida

"Javaris Granger wished his father was there instead of him.

His father was on the phone, urging Granger, 15, to get the gun they used for shooting practice. "Do what you have to do," his father said.

Granger did. He aimed the gun and fired at the violent intruder.Family and friends are awed by Granger's bravery. "Anyone who takes charge like that is definitely a hero," said Maxine Chandler, his mother.Before the McArthur High School freshman fired the gun, he kept a cool head and remembered his father's shooting and safety lessons during the chaos early Saturday morning.

His father, Lyndon Chandler, had left the house to visit a friend at the hospital. His wife heard a knock at the door and, thinking it was her husband, opened it. A stranger grabbed at her; she pulled free and slammed the door.

It was 3:30 a.m.Granger woke with a start, hearing his mother's frantic voice and something slamming against the front window.

He ran out to the dark living room and saw his mother screaming as a man, cursing and muttering, threw a bicycle at the window..."

Thankfully, the young man had the training and discipline to protect his family, and since it wasn't NY, or Kalifornia, or Texas, or some other gun-fearing state, he won't face any charges. Click the headline of you've a mind to read the story in its entirety.

Formerly Famous Dean Spiers On The Minutemen

"It is a pure exercise of the First Amendment. Assemble, and speak. It's all part of a redress of grievances. The ACLU, normally vigorous in defense of the First Amendment, seems to have dropped the ball on this one.The fact that some volunteers have legally armed themselves in these dangerous neighborhoods has upset many hoplophobes3, including numerous reporters I've met. Otherwise it seems quite rational (and irrelevant to the central story of massive illegal immigration). Official Minuteman policy requires that sidearms remain holstered at all times.

The Minutemen have a 100% no-contact rule – no waving, no talking, no contact of any kind. If illegals approach you, you must abandon your beach chair and leave (but they will provide water if they find people incapacitated by desert heat, rolling video cameras for protection from false claims, while awaiting Border Patrol agents; Minutemen have been credited with the rescue of more than 200 people in distress and, sadly, discovery of several dozen who died attempting illegal entry.)"

Dean Spiers is half a nutcase, and anyone in this day and age who wonders why the ACLU is not supporting the Minutemen is beyond clueless. He's a formerly famous gun writer ensconced in an echo chamber of his own design, but his website, The Gun Zone, is worth an occasional look if you can look past the hubris.

Wound Ballistic Workshop

No, it isn't what you think. Cindy Sheehan wasn't cloned then used for target practice, but Federal was out and about to show off their new HST cartridge.


Factory Representatives from ATK (Federal Cartridge, CCI, Speer) were present
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 to demonstrate the features and benefits of ATK
centerfire pistol products when shot
using the FBI Wound Ballistic Testing
Protocol.

Pierce County Sheriff’s Department,
Olympia Police Department, Auburn
Police Department, Thurston County
Sheriff’s Office, and Puyallup Police
Department were in attendance at the
shoot hosted by the Pierce County
Sheriff’s Department at the Pierce
County Training Facility.

Federal HST was the featured ATK product. However, Pierce County elected to shoot
three of their current duty rounds – Winchester SXT, Remington Golden Sabre (sic),
Remington JHP.

*NOTE* - All Winchester and Remington rounds were supplied by the
department. No Competitor rounds were supplied by ATK or Distributor personnel.

Test Events

Bare Gelatin
All rounds typically perform well in bare gelatin, which is the easiest of all test events.
Previous and current generations of hollow point rounds were and are designed to expand
to 1.5 times the original bullet diameter. Federal’s HST rounds were engineered to
expand well beyond twice the original diameter in bare gelatin.

Federal HST 45 ACP – 1.043”/.452” = 2.31 times larger than its original diameter
Federal HST 40 S&W – 0.945”/.40” = 2.36 times larger than its original diameter
Federal HST 9mm – 0.891”/.356” = 2.5 times larger than its original diameter

Bullet Caliber/Weight Penetration Expansion Retained Weight

Federal HST 45 ACP... 230 gr... 12.75”... 1.043”... 100.96%
Winchester SXT 45 ACP... 230 gr... 12.5”... 0.795”... 100.61%
Remington GS 45 ACP... 185 gr... 14.0”... 0.730”... 100.38%

Federal HST 40 S&W...180 gr... 11.5”... 0.945”... 101.78%
Winchester SXT 40 S&W...180 gr... 13.5”...0.658”... 92.67%

Federal HST 9mm...147 gr...11.5”... 0.891”...101.5%
Federal HST 9mm...124 gr...11.75”...0.839”... 101.05%
Winchester SXT 9mm...127 gr...16.0”...0.718”...94.49%

Heavy Clothing
All bullets performed well in Heavy Clothing. Federal HST again demonstrated the
designed expansion characteristics and outperformed all tested rounds for expansion.

Bullet Caliber/Weight Penetration Expansion Retained Weight

Federal HST 45 ACP 230 gr. 14.0” 0.850” 99.65%
Winchester SXT 45 ACP 230 gr. 12.5” 0.773” 101.26%
Remington GS 45 ACP 185 gr. 14.25” 0.704” 102.22%

Federal HST 40 S&W 180 gr. 13.0” 0.788” 101.56%
Winchester SXT 40 S&W 180 gr. 14.0” 0.757” 91.89%

Federal HST 9mm 147 gr. 13.75” 0.689” 102.38%
Federal HST 9mm 124 gr. 12.0” 0.709” 102.26%
Winchester SXT 9mm 127 gr. 13.5” 0.684” 97.48%

_____________________________________

Wallboard

Wallboard is a harder barrier to overcome. While Federal HST performed flawlessly,
Winchester SXT experienced over penetration, plugged bullets, and core jacket
separations.

Bullet Caliber/Weight Penetration Expansion Retained Weight

Federal HST 45 ACP 230 gr. 11.75” 0.843” 100.35%
Winchester SXT 45 ACP 230 gr. 13.0” 0.75” 100.74%
Remington GS 45 ACP 185 gr. 15.25” 0.698” 98.92%
Federal HST 40 S&W 180 gr. 13.0” 0.786” 101.78%
Winchester SXT* 40 S&W 180 gr. 20.0” 0.475” 100.11%
Federal HST 9mm 147 gr. 13.0” 0.649” 100.54%
Federal HST 9mm 124 gr. 12.5” 0.713” 99.84%
Winchester SXT** 9mm 127 gr. 15.25” 0.430” 69.13%
*Bullet Plugged
**Core Jacket Separation

Plywood

Plywood is second only to glass in difficulty when measured in terms of bullet failures
versus expansion and penetration. Federal HST rounds performed as designed and
expanded at least 1.6 times their original diameter. Winchester and Remington both
experienced over penetrations with plugged, poorly expanded bullets.

Bullet Caliber/Weight Penetration Expansion Retained Weight

Federal HST 45 ACP 230 gr. 13.25” 0.858” 101.61%
Winchester SXT* 45 ACP 230 gr. 29.75” 0.452” 99.65%
Remington GS 45 ACP 185 gr. 12.5” 0.679” 99.84%

Federal HST 40 S&W 180 gr. 12.5” 0.772” 100.33%
Winchester SXT* 40 S&W 180 gr. 21.5” 0.402” 99.72%

Federal HST 9mm 147 gr. 12.5” 0.594” 97.76%
Federal HST 9mm 124 gr. 12.5” 0.656” 102.34%
Winchester SXT 9mm 127 gr. 14.25” 0.671” 96.77%
Remington JHP* 9mm 115 gr. 26.25” 0.356” 99.65%

*Bullet Plugged

Steel

All bullets perform similarly when shot through steel. The hollow points are forced
closed and upon close inspection of the gelatin block you will discover steel discs that
have been cut out of the steel plate. Results of the steel testing are in the attached results
document.


Auto Glass

Auto Glass is the toughest and most difficult of all barrier tests. Federal’s new HST
performed amazingly for non-bonded technology. HST retained its core jacket integrity
3 out of 4 shots – 75%. Winchester SXT and Remington Golden Sabre bullets
experienced core jacket separations 100% of the time. It is important to note that in the
event of a core jacket separation, FBI Test Protocol measures only the single deepest
penetrating fragment of the bullet for expansion, retained weight, and penetration. Both
the core and the jacket were mounted separately on the board.

Bullet Caliber/Weight Penetration Expansion Retained Weight

Federal HST 45 ACP 230 gr. 14.25” 0.649” 89.39%
Winchester SXT* 45 ACP 230 gr. 13.75” 0.546” 75.65%
Remington GS* 45 ACP 185 gr. 9.0” 0.511” 63.35%

Federal HST* 40 S&W 180 gr. 11.25” 0.495” 56.94%
Winchester SXT* 40 S&W 180 gr. 7.5” 0.582 67.83%

Federal HST 9mm 147 gr. 11.5” 0.474 81.7%
Federal HST 9mm 124 gr. 11.75” 0.513 82.58%
Winchester SXT* 9mm 127 gr. 11.5” 0.499” 59.29%

*Core Jacket Separation
________________________________________

Now I'm frickin exhausted. Draw your own conclusions from this information, as each and every one of us has different needs with regards to what we feed our handguns. As a footnote, Heavy Clothing refers to 4 layers of 13 pound denim, so choose well if you're planning a to-do with a biker gang.

Holy Muff Diving!

Lady-lovin' Batwoman comic
fuels rabid debate





The newest incarnation of Batwoman - a rarely seen DC Comics character - will be a lesbian, and her new sexual orientation has provoked heated debate among faithful comic book readers.

Kinky Kommune In Kaptive NY

"A kinky commune of Staten Island that preached peace and love was rocked by violence when a woman booted from the group returned with a grudge - and a gun, cops said.

Rebekah Johnson - who had waged a decade-long campaign charging the Ganas commune was rife with sexual hijinks - was on the lam last night after allegedly seriously wounding organization co-founder Jeff Gross.

The 43-year-old suspect hid in the bushes outside one of the hippie haven's 10 Staten Island homes and ambushed Gross, 51, as he walked along Corson Ave. on Monday night, cops said yesterday.

Johnson unleashed four rounds from a .380-caliber handgun - striking Gross once in the chest and twice in the arm before fleeing, police said.

"She's a nut," a police source said after cops found target-practice silhouettes in her apartment near the commune."

And there you have it. This does happen to be the mindset of the NYPD; only criminals and crazies like guns, and I won't accept protestations to the contrary as I've more friends and relatives on the force than Carter had liver pills. I was marginally accepted as owning a modicum of sanity because of my work...Marines, after all, should be reasonably proficient with arms...but looked upon as somewhat off the wall for having silly beliefs such as a strict interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. Modern people should NOT have a gun. Modern people do not NEED a gun. Those that own and practice such barbarism are an accident or mass murder in the offing. All of our largest cities have this mindset, but maybe, just maybe, if we actually DO corral the illegals and get tough with the minorities America can someday soon reclaim the right to be called The Arsenal of Democracy.

Oh, and by the way, the gentleman who was shot is doing just fine. "Grave wounds" to a moonbat means anything more dangerous than an offending cuticle.

Marines Land To Help Quake Victims

May 31, 2006 -- BANTUL, Indonesia - "Two U.S. military cargo planes landed yesterday at the site of an earthquake in Indonesia that killed nearly 5,700, bringing some of the first significant aid to reach the tens of thousands of survivors who were left homeless.

About 20 Marines arrived on the cargo planes in the historic city of Yogyakarta and unloaded heavy-lifting machinery and a portable field hospital, as Malaysian, Chinese and Japanese rescue workers joined Indonesian teams providing medical care and emergency supplies to victims.

About 200,000 survivors of Saturday's 6.3-magnitude quake lost their homes.

Jan Egeland, the United Nations' top humanitarian official, praised the aid effort for having made "enormous progress."

"The most critical need is medical assistance and after that, it's water and sanitation, and third is emergency shelter," Egeland said."

Whenever I'd ask how people could live in such a god forsaken part of the world, the answer invariably was, "They can't." They know it, the Indonesian government knows it, and before it became fashionable to report such destruction from this part of the world they were not just expendable, but it was hoped that nature would cull enough to allow the remainder to eke out some sort of meager existence. Now folks want to help them, but that's not how it works. Too many survive such events and many more will starve or resort to cannibalism.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Ted Nugent Gives The Brits Both Barrels...

"Never has there been such an upsurge in crime since they confiscated all your weapons. Why don't you arm yourselves? You Limeys have a zipper that's locked in the closed position, because you don't have a constitution. You're rewarded for shutting the fuck up."
The AP writers had to have muddled this over for hours before deciding that "former" Marine was better than "ex", as there just hadda be a way to discribe him as discharged.

"What do you call it when five goblins armed with a shotgun and a pistol decide to assault a Marine armed with only a pocket knife?

You call it: Stupid, stupid goblins.

A former Marine turned the tables on his attackers, killing one and wounding another with a knife as they tried to rob him, police said.

What’s this “former Marine” stuff? Somebody kindly set the Associated Pricknuggets straight on the issue: THERE IS NO SUCH THING."

Misha relates the whole stupid affair, and the moral of the story is to never, ever, piss off the hi-speed/low-drag among us.
Peppering Moonbats; Traitorous Miss Martha...strike that...MURTHA; Amnesty on Steroids, all that and more over at little Michelle's joint. Go look while I rest some or get yelled at.

"Most people don't want to see other people carrying concealed guns..." NYC's Mayor Bloomberg

48 states allow concealed carry, so the "most people" that Loony Bloomy keeps talking about must live on the "Lost" island, where everyone is forever fighting over THE GUNS, just like good little liberals should.

To be fair though, in NYC and most of California, guns are trusted only to the wealthy and/or politically influential citizenry. And there are states like Texas...damn few, thank heavens, that "allow" the average joe the right to carry then arrest anyone seen 'printing' because it's considered to be disturbing the peace should a soccer mom spot a bulge then come to the conclusion that there's more to it than the bulger being happy to see her.

Handgun Law does a good job in breaking it down, state by state, and unlike Packing.org, is available most of the time.
Todd Jarret's IPSC Pistol Grip Lesson.

For shooting at paper, there's none better. Combat shooting is a tad different in that one doesn't necessarily enjoy presenting his or her entire head and chest to something that might be shooting back, hence the Weaver, and Modified Weaver stances.

Todd shows his favorite stance, and does a fine job of teaching proper grip, and trigger control.

Acting Less The Loon Leaves Hillary Sans Old Friends

Hillary's pilloried!

Daily News Exclusive: There's a backlash brewing against Sen. Hillary Clinton amid some of her recent shifts toward the right. Once a liberal favorite, Clinton is being shunned in her reelection bid by four local Democratic groups furious over her vote in favor of the Iraq war and her newly cozy relationship with conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
FULL STORY

There's nothing strange in the sudden cozyness between Murdoch and RodHam. Two aging primadonnas looking for one last big score can make the strangest of bedfellows. And leave it to the Loons to just now discover that Mrs. Bubba is a fence straddler par excellance.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Glock 30 Mariner

One of my favorite versions of the Austrian Ammo Eater is the G-30. Fine shooting .45, with the usual caveats for small-barreled semi-auto's; expanding means fast and fast can hard to get with a little pipe, etc, etc.

And the Mariner version is a sweet gun made for certain Asian markets. Different spring cups permit the gun to operate when thoroughly soaked, and...never tried it but have heard of it being done...some folks do shoot them underwater.

DOH!!!

This is the actual radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. Radio conversation released by the chief of naval operations, 10-10-95.

CANADIANS: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.

AMERICANS: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision.

CANADIANS: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.

AMERICANS: This is the captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

CANADIANS: No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.

AMERICANS: This is the Aircraft Carrier US LINCOLN, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic Fleet. We are accompanied with three Destroyers, three Cruisers and numerous support vessels. I DEMAND that you change your course 15 degrees north. I say again, that’s one-five degrees north, or counter-measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.

CANADIANS: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

Death, Taxes, And The Religion Of Peace...

...Irrevocable follies we are forced to endure


Jihad du Jour

8-Year-Old Israeli Girl Raped, Murdered by Palestinian...
Model Wore Burka to Fend off Rape from Muslim Men...
Jailed Women's Activist Caves After Iran Threatens to Burn Her Children...
Muslim Parents Resist Polio Immunization for Male Children...
What's Wrong with a Little Jihad among Friends?...
Hamas Praises Hitler...
Mobile Text Message Blasphemy Lands Christian in Jail...

This Has Been Making The Rounds...

You Passed the US Citizenship Test
Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!
Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?
But the link they provide along with it is inoperative, so use this one
PS: It's only the 4th time trying to get it right, so bear with me. Found the above over at Lems joint.

Quick Shots

I cannot recall linking to Instapundit before this point in time. Mr. Reynolds, when he actually does say something, is far too much the wussitarian (An Army of Davids, quite frankly, makes me want to purge), but as a holiday treat to his legion of followers...

THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF SCANDAL: CBS News turns Rep. William Jefferson into a Republican.

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll reminds me that CBS previously made Bush President back in 1998 in a story about how the U.S. failed to stop Osama back then.

Fun In The Backyard


Back when I had property to shoot on, I'd throw together a Fackler Box and shoot bullet after bullet into baggies a'briming with everything from plain tap water to 20% gelatin (NATO dismisses the 10% sort as being unreliable but thats another tale). A baggie is the preferred method of emulating an emulation such as ballistic gelatin testing, and when one is looking to determine penetration they are far easier to set up.

And play with. Open a large enough Glad Bagger and tape leftover barbeque ribs inside, or suspend them in gello to get a better understanding of what a projectile can do to something more closely resembling a homogenous or non-homogenous form, depending on what fun thing you're setting up to splatter across the landscape. Cover it all with some clothing, then some old body armor you found the last time you cleaned the garage, and it's neat to see what new rounds can do.

Bottom line is the fact that an imagination is a terrible thing not to have, as is proved each and every time the old man from The Box O' Truth goes into his yard and does something as stupid as firing a Hydrashok at body armor, and just to piss off the semi-literate, even manages to spell the name incorrectly.

YOU DON'T SHOOT A HOLLOWPOINT at armor. Now, if the senile old dude would have used FMJ's, any cheap FMJ, that would have been a far better indicator as to what a .40 caliber* round might do to reasonably good armor.

BUT, nothing was going to stop him from putting modelling clay behind the set up, because to him and others like him, such clay is a good indicator of human flesh. Forget for just a moment that it is the farthest thing FROM flesh, and use some imagination to think of a reasonably fragile backstop to see what effect the pressure wave would be from such an impact. Or, set up the clay and just punch it. Go ahead. Whale away. You'll knock one serious dent in it because it doesn't rebound, but let me stop before I confuse the old fart even more.

Pressure Wave Theory is the modern, fancy-schmancy way to say hydrostatic shock, but at long last bonafide scientists are looking into this stuff and I always keep an eye out for neater ways to put a hole in things what need a hole.

* The bullet the FBI settled on after discovering that the Clarice Starlings of the Bureau couldn't handle the 10 mm.

HALOSCAM Watch...

Two days and counting as I await my "premium" services. I'm an even tempered man so I think I'll just go on over to paypal and make a complaint about them. THAT might get their attention, but incompetent people do not suddenly grow a brain simply because a customer is upset, so I won't hold my breath.

And For Those Who've Been Waiting With Bated Breath...

Yes, there finally IS a new load for the .577 Tyrannosaur.

750 grain squarehead bullet @ 2473 fps. Energy is a little over 10,000 ft lbs., and from all accounts this load will vaporize a woodchuck* at 100 yards. Or that pissed off elephant at 30 feet.

*Don't laugh. Woodchucks are notoriously hard to stop relative to their size, and all shooters with far too much time on their hands know that a 9mm will make one jump then run away to die while a .45 will make one jump then crawl away to die. Such are the legends that the plainsmen spin.

And To A Dignity Never Had Let Alone Lost...

Bonds Passes Ruth With 715th Home Run
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)

"Barry Bonds gave his home fans what they had been waiting nearly a month to see: the historic shot that finally moved him past the Babe. No. 715 was the latest memorable homer he's hit in San Francisco, and could be his last if he doesn't stick around long enough to pass Hank..."

The travesty is almost complete. The thief has taken everything but the kitchen sink, and since baseball refuses to do anything, only injury can prevent this monstrosity disguised as a human being from passing Hammerin' Hank.

And As A Memorial To The Passing Of Common Sense...

Jolie and New Baby Doing Well in Namibia
WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP)

"It looks like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt got what every parent wants - a healthy baby. While Namibian officials declined Sunday to give any details on the birth Saturday of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, a doctor at the hospital said there were no complications and the mother..."

Just trips off of the tongue, doesn't it? Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. Sounds like the name of the hole in the ground from a long forgotten excavation in search of the Lost Dutchman's Brain that was funded by the Fwench.

Memorials

I thought about some poetry, perhaps. Shakespeare is always stirring, William Bryant, hell, name even a halfway decent writer/poet who hasn't aborn'd something famous about war dead.

At the end of the day we're left with memories that brave men would prefer over flowers, because to die in vain is the worst death. So we, to each their own, remember. In ages past, that's all a people did. Feast days were a time of recollection, an excuse for celebration. We haven't changed all that much but we do have one or two more distractions to keep us busy, so our holidays are perhaps more important as they wrench body and soul from the hectic mundane into memories of a time ago . They did, after all, die so that we could live the lives of a people free, so I'm not one of those to bash the barbeques and the beaches and the pleasures to be had on this day.

So enjoy yourself. Have some fun. That's proof enough, a fitting memorial, and evidence aplenty that such sacrifice bore fruit. It's always perfectly within reason to pause for a moment to hate the French, though, and that would be a worthwhile effort if you've the inclination.
.38 +P Corbon DPX 110 grains, Speer Gold Dot 125 grains, and virtually any Lead Semi Wad Cutter Hollowpoint @158 grains. Fired into soakened newspaper. All expand to approximately .5", and penetrate that particular media to similar depths. More and more people are returning to smaller guns such as the .38 Special for self protection purposes, and once the ammunition manufacturers begin realizing this we'll see some interesting rounds. Until then, use them if you've the mind to, but fire often as the stopping power remains marginal.

But...A-HA you exclaim...why, the old technology seems to work as well as the new fangled ones, so why spend the extra cash? Elementary, my dear powderhead, for it's all in the permanent versus temporary cavity. Flesh and innards are quite elastic, and many tests in living tissue have proven that smooth projectiles push away the soon-to-be rebounding tissue, while jagged ones tear through. The purpose of the exercise is inflicting the most damage from a handheld firearm and sharp doesn't just look nasty, it is.

Rule of thumb: Anything with a caliber of .3 needs giddyup along the lines of 1200-1400 for 158 grains 1400-1600 fps for 110 to 125. Calibers of .4 and better, 155 and below should move at 1100 fps minimum, 165 -200 @ 950-1050, and 230 grains at least 800.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

We Be Outrageabel'd

Found the following at Misha's:

"Furious black lawmakers, rallying behind Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), were pulled back from the brink of open revolt against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an emergency meeting with her Wednesday evening.

The meeting with a handful of CBC members was called after Pelosi wrote the embattled lawmaker, who is at the center of a massive bribery scandal, a curt note requesting his immediate resignation from the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Outraged that one of its members was being picked on even though he has not been charged with a crime, the Congressional Black Caucus had intended to issue a defiant statement against their leader but agreed after the meeting to pause, at least briefly, for reflection.
"

Being picked on? They FOUND BRIBE MONEY IN HIS FRICKIN FEEZER! The only thing keeping this jackass afloat was Bush calling for a timeout session so the guy could do the right thing. But of course he won't. Pelosi sensed that and if Pelosi can sense something that means it's as obvious as getting smacked in the ass with a wet towel.

Tha Black Caucus is a disgrace. First for singling themselves out as being black...quick, show me the White Caucus and I'll retract this...and secondly for backing such a crook just because HE'S black. That's sickening. That's the exact opposite of how really works, fella's and galla's. Or do you merely wish to prove that everything other bigots have said about you'se ole' steps and fetchit's roots is flat out true. You CAN'T stand on your own. You CAN'T tell right from wrong. You CAN'T look at the world through colorblind eyes because being BLACK makes you SPECIAL.

Sorry the Dems made you slaves. Sorrier that you remain so.

Straight From His Very Own Blog...


Iranian President Imofpoorhygiene Speaks About His Love Letter To George...

"Just wanted you to know that we hung the interpreter who told us that Condi Rice meant Free Fellatio in English slang, so please pass along my apologies to your Secretary of State for presenting her with those monogramed knee pads. And remember that boil on my Virgin-Breaker I was telling you about? Well it burst on it's own, Alahlu Ahkbar, and a good thing because I just learned that the French were sending a Jew specialist and could you imagine a Hebrew taking into his hands the most adored thing all women in creation are to be craving for..."
GOP Rep. Rejects 'Amnesty' for Migrants

"The Senate plan to provide illegal immigrants with a shot at citizenship probably is a deal-breaker that will prevent passage of a compromise on immigration overhaul, the House's lead negotiator said Sunday. "The words 'path to citizenship' is a buzzword for amnesty. We ought to..."

But of course a path to citizenship is an amnesty, and thank heavens SOMEONE realizes this. And forget for a moment how aggravating this is to all of us LEGAL Americans, and imagine how those millions of immigrants AWAITING citizenship must feel after being informed that all of their years of doing the right thing meant nothing. They might as well have snuck in like the criminals the Senate wants to mollycoddle, and place ahead of them.

Really sends a terrific message, doesn't it, Something along the lines of: The Nation of Laws is closed for business so that the Democrats might bring in more voters. Think they're still pissed over that slavery deal and want another shot at getting some more folks who'll do their bidding for next to nothing? After all, they're using the same argument. The country was going to fall into ruin if the slaves were freed, and now if we send their new slaves away its the same doom and gloom.

Folks actually vote for these monsters, don't they?

Boggles the mind.

So How's Them Wacky A-Rabs Been Behaving...

Abusive Husband Demands SR30,000 for a Divorce

Arab News
JEDDAH, 28 May 2006 — A violent and abusive husband in Taif is demanding SR30,000 from his wife for a divorce. Three years ago Nawal Mohammed, of Abqaiq, married a man from Taif. A month later... Full Story

Anybody have Madonna's email address? It's okay if you don't want to share it, I remember when I stumbled across Adrienne Barbeau's email, and like a knucklehead accidentally posted it over at my old AOL blog . Boy was she pissed. Anyway, if you do have a way to contact the Material Girl, then please send her the above story, as I'm quite certain she'd jump at the chance to take on Islam.

Haloscan Query

So I opted for the 'premium' Haloscan deal, paid, and received the paypal receipt within moments. That was over 24 hours ago and still nothing from Haloscan regarding email notification activation. The same message appears:

"Before comment notification is enabled, you must confirm your email address. An email has just been sent to the email you have specified in the account info page.

Included in the email are instructions on how to activate. Until these instructions are followed, you will not receive any email notification from HaloScan. Note that if you have any sort of spam filters enabled, then you may need to disable them for emails coming from notification@haloscan.com.

An activation email for this account has already been sent in the past 30 minutes. Please try again in 30 minutes."

Strange how ALL of my other emails are working just fine, including the one informing me that they received payment, but their mail just doesn't seem to be getting through to me.

Halo-Scam?

AND THEN...

I send them an email. They respond that wowsers, the email to you should have been instantaneous...I'll dismiss the fact that the messages kept telling me to try back in another half an hour...but maybe it's because it's your aol email address because sometimes we have problems with that.

So I give 'em another address, and still nothing. They can tell me to keep trying via email, but cannot activate me via email. And when I try again, I get the message to retry in another 30 minutes which is the definitive way to keep an idiot busy, but who has time for this nonsense. Sorry, but my tolerance level for incompetance does not permit me to recommend these twerps. And besides, half the time I don't know there's a comment unless I click in because there is no numerical factor beside the Comment indicator.

Bad show. And to all who use and recommended this atrocity, just remember that it's a small world.

(Lisa said that I should SAY when I'm joking because sometimes I sound too serious)

Navy forges New York with Ground Zero steel

"The warship New York, partially fashioned with steel salvaged from the World Trade Center site, is rising to life on the banks of the Mississippi River just outside New Orleans, built by workers who lost their homes and more to Hurricane Katrina.

And though the massive 684-foot-long vessel is still a year away from setting sail - with 10 tons of WTC steel at the bow - it is already stirring powerful emotions among those forging its awe-inspiring hull.

"I was going to retire last year but I told my wife that I had to see this one final ship through," said Tony Quagliro, 66, the project's crane superintendent who has worked in the Louisiana shipyard for 41 years.

The $1.3 billion New York will be the fifth of its class of warships that will specialize in supporting amphibious assaults by delivering helicopters and up to 800 Marines to combat.

The first, the San Antonio, is in Manhattan for Fleet Week. Future ships will also honor the terror attacks' victims by adopting the names of Arlington [Va.] and Somerset [Pa.], the locations of the other two Sept. 11 plane crashes.

"The courage of the heroes that day will never be forgotten," said Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, executive director of the ship program."

It'll be good to see the name as a symbol of something other than a clarion call for leftwing lunatics or the deadliest attack ever upon US soil. And the fact that SOME people DO actually work in Louisiana is nice to know as well.

The Navy's First Hero

"NO military service remains as close to its founder as the United States Navy. No trace of Washington's Continental Army survives in America's current ground forces. Today's Air Force is a far cry from the seat-of-the-pants days of Eddie Rickenbacker and the Lafayette Esquadrille.

But from his tomb at Annapolis' Naval Academy, the ghost of John Paul Jones still keeps watch over the service that he in large measure created, and foresaw as necessary for America's future. In the ceremony interring him in the Academy chapel crypt in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt told the Navy, "Every officer should know by heart the deeds of John Paul Jones." America's sea warriors have been admiring and emulating Jones ever since.

Jones could be violent-tempered, contemptuous of his superiors and subject to long bouts of self-pity. He was also unwavering in his loyalty to the revolutionary cause, and that too would become part of the navy he founded.

It would produce many flag officers with colossal egos and touchy tempers. Yet the idea of publicly calling for the resignation of a defense secretary in the midst of a war and branding that war "unnecessary" while soldiers are dying in the field, as a group of retired army and air force generals recently did, would be abhorrent to a patriot like Jones - and repulsive to the traditions of the United States Navy."

Travel the globe, nay, the universe, and you will not find a more professional assemblage of fighting men. Our Navy is the epitome of grace under fire, and in this day when there ARE no other superpowers of the sea, our seamen raise the standards of excellance each and every time a ship sails into harms way.

John Paul Jones was the genuine article, and by all accounts this book of ARTHUR HERMAN'S: JOHN PAUL JONES: AMERICA'S FIRST SEA WARRIOR BY JOSEPH CALLO NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS, 288 PAGES, $29.95, is the real deal as well.

Playmate Feels That Cops Bungled Her Bust...


"A group of cops didn't play nice with a Playboy Playmate, leering at her body and shoving her to the ground in Chelsea after a cab driver falsely claimed she threatened him with a gun, the model says. "I felt assaulted," said Stephanie Adams - the first openly lesbian Playmate - of the incident near her home at 11 p.m. Thursday. "They pulled guns on me and there were several of them," the 35-year-old stunner said. "They know what happened was wrong, the way they looked at my breasts and crotch. I was wearing tight-fitting pants and they could see I didn't have a gun, but they forced me down and pushed my face into the ground."

Okay now. She throws a hissy fit because the cabbie didn't get her close enough to her apartment, and this happens all the time what with people double and triple parked, emergency vehicles, deliveries,or even just too many people milling about an area. She refuses to pay him and according to him claims she has a gun. The cops arrive and don't even frisk her, but they...GASP...stared at her.

Don't ya just love these babes who walk around showing more skin than clothings, then complain because men look...

Saturday, May 27, 2006

New Comment Section

Thanks to the ever lovely Lisa, her name be praised, Haloscan is now working so there'll be no further need to enter a barely legible code just to say "Gee Fits, you suck."

Tempest Tossed Teapots

"Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that God is with the righteous." —(Koran 9:123)

From Dan Simmons Official Website

Courtesy of Woody's News & Views

Seems that old Dan riled some loons by writing a speculative fiction piece about, gasp, moslems.

"Nor did I not anticipate that there would be much ad hominem hatred and vitriol self-righteously launched in the name of opposing hatred and vitriol. Such are the times we live in. Such are the minds living in the times we live in."

Sound familiar? Dan is just now coming to grips with the modern liberal mentality. The sort that'll threaten to kill you if you don't agree with them that killing is wrong.
This has been bugging me so I thought that mentioning it might do some good. This past Tuesday night I had one helluva bad case of indigestion. Really knocked me off my pins, and I imagined all sorts of gall baldder problems, or oncoming ulcers, but the discomfort abated and I went my merry way. Didn't get much sleep so I figured that was the reason I was so bloody tired. Went to the range on Thursday and had to fight off the drowsies, but it figured that I shot the best groups ever because life is like that.

Long story short, I had a heart attack, or as the medical professional like calling it, a cardiac event, or some other such nonsense because if it sounds simple they can't charge you as much to fix it. I'm okay, just a little winded still and need to get on some meds and have more tests, yadda yadda, but I wasn't spending this weekend in the hospital for love or money because it would have been a waste of so very many things. The deal is if I don't feel the pain again I can wait until Tuesday to get back to being a guinea pig for the guys in the white coats, but the point I wish to make is the fact that I have recognized the problem and am not going into the kind of denial that cranky old frigs are apt to do.

I'll do what they want. I owe it to Lisa and my family to take care of things because that's who really feels the pain in the long run. Thinking of oneself in such instances is really cruel to those who love you. The old bod must have shook it off fairly well because test after test was coming up okay until they got the blasted blood work back, and all of these CRITICAL ENZYMES were popping up all over. The doctors office was calling and leaving messages every half hour for me to get my ass in or call 911, but we'd turned on the answering machine to have a little peace and when I finally got back to them they threatened to have a bell surgically implanted in me if I didn't promise to pay more attention.

Bottom line is it doesn't matter how good you feel or how tough you believe yourself to be. Unless you're a hermit, there are others who feel your pain so my advice is to think of them when you want to play John Wayne with your life. One tear from Lisa hurt me far greater than anything I'd felt up to that point in time and I do not want to see that again. I'm spending the long weekend inside and out of the sun and am reading and resting like those pencil necks want. If I can be good then none of you have an excuse.

Thing that bugs me is about 3 months ago I passed a monster physical and stress test with flying colors, so they don't know squat if and when it's gonna hit ya because nowadays the medical profession specializes in cut and stitch since that's where the money is, but I won't bitch about that too much.

And thanks to a new friend who I told the deal to. I was worrying that I'd suddenly drop off the map and folks would think I was ignoring them so I turned to someone I trusted to get the scoop out should worse come to worse.

I WAS planning a monster barbeque, meat-and-more-meat followed by meat day on Monday, but I think I'll roast up some corn instead. I think 90 or so ears will do. It'll keep me busy and I can play make-believe like it's burger and steak and sausage and shrimp stuff.

NRA News...

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

And Now For A Lighter Moment...

Mike on prez plans - no Bloomin' way
After spending a week on immigration, global warming, evolution and other hot-button national issues, Mayor Bloomberg made yet another national pronouncement yesterday: He's still not interested in a run for the White House.

FULL STORY

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Ahem. Um, gee, that's too bad. Think of the fun we'd have lambasting this poor excuse for an upright sapien. Mayor Mike is the latest NY Daily News liberal darling because RodHam has been making fence-sitting noises as she prepares for her stab at the Oval Office. But maybe, just maybe, she might convince him to be her Vice Presidential candidate and that'd be the most hilarious thing to hit the media since Blazing Saddles. And with just a few more lesbian-billionaires in the country, they'd win hands down.

Yawn. More Hillary As Goddess Flummery From John Podhoretz

"Unless she does something to disrupt her own progress, or unless something happens in the world that makes her candidacy untenable, Hillary will be the Democratic nominee. And there's no doubt she will be a tougher candidate to defeat than Al Gore, whose message of onrushing global doom isn't exactly the kind of optimistic promise of a better future that resonates with voters.

Thus this Democratic fantasy of salvation from Hillary Rodham Clinton may also the fondest wish as well for Republicans and conservatives who want to keep the White House in GOP hands come 2008."

J-Pod is pimping a new book featuring The Hillary Is Coming, The Hillary Is Coming, to counter Gore's The Sky Is Falling, The Sky Is Falling, because there's big bucks in scaring the country in the same manner the first Ring movie did.

But if Hillary withstands the vetting process then the fix is in. A corrupt lawyer, and an AS corrupt, meddlesome, and incompetant First Lady, the thing from NY doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of withstanding the same sunlight that evaporates all such soap scum. Besides, to win the Presidency you've got to be attractive to middle of the roaders, and attractive she ain't. Short dumpy old women with screechy voices and bad variations of the Moe Howard hairstyle don't make the best of impressions on nationwide television, but that's the choir NOW was created to preach to so she will raise tons of cash.

Online Gaming Addiction

"Moon Sung Hoon, a 31-year-old Web page designer who spends about five hours a day inside PC baangs (rooms), said he paid $800 in an online auction last year for a virtual sword.

But doctors cite a growing toll on Korean family life. M.H. Kim, a 37-year-old homemaker in Seoul, forced her 14-year-old son into treatment at a private clinic two months ago. The boy had slipped deeper and deeper into his computer games as he entered junior high school."


Online gaming addiction has reached epic proportions in South Korea, where 10 people died in 2005 from gaming related causes. Ten percent of those from 9-39 are borderline addicts, and while things aren't getting any better, at least the country has realized this national health problem and hospitals and care centers have responded by focusing upon this, the latest addiction. As a longtime video game devotee I can understand the attraction, as well as the addiction, but I was most likely too old and had too much real work on my hands to waste time on a path to such a jones. Combining the siren call of the online experience itself with the sheer pleasure of being a virtual master of the universe is apparently a difficult thing to just say no to.

We' don't have such a problem here, and won't, at least not for a while. 75% of South Koreans have high-speed internet access compared to about 33% of the U.S., but when it becomes cheaper and/or our more liberal state governments force the issue of providing free access to the underprivileged, then stand by to stand by.

Interesting article and worth a look see

Friday, May 26, 2006

Ruminations Upon A Desultory Philippic

The other day while driving, Linda Ronstaaaaaadts anti-love song Different Drum was playing on one channel of the radio, and I had just switched from some liberal jibber-jabber, so thoughts did collide.

We speak of someone dancing or heeding the rhythm of a different drum, but it can safely be said that modern liberal thinkers would have nothing to do with so odious an instrument. Loud, brash, unruly, and a quick glance is all it takes to see that one could obviously harm oneself while flailing away at the skins, and it is somewhat shocking to know that such contrivances can be had by virtually anyone, and without a permit.

Small and cowardly thinkers are best served using tom-toms, or perhaps even bongos.

Different they are, indeed. But drummers? Never. Those that set the bar so low simply must be called Different Toms in deference to such rigid thinking that is the very essence of self-limitation at its saddest level. Some stoop to conquer, others because the upright position is simply too painful, and, after all, they are not worthy.

Marines To Stand Court Martial...

I won't apologize for any of the following, nor say that it did or did not happen. That's for a military court to decide.

"An administrative inquiry overseen by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell found that several infantry Marines fatally shot as many as 24 Iraqis and that other Marines either failed to stop them or filed misleading or blatantly false reports.The report concludes that a dozen Marines acted improperly after a roadside bomb explosion killed a fellow Marine, Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas."

Nothing in the full story tells me much, other than some people believe that the use of force was excessive. Were I to have been there as a senior NCO, the rules of engagement would be pretty much the same as in all wars. If someone is unarmed and as long as they understand and follow your instructions, then your first thought is to determine if they should be allowed to go their way, or held for questioning, but always treated with due respect. That's the problem in fighting an enemy without a uniform, but all civilians must be protected. On the other hand, if you are in a fight and an unidentified civilian fails to follow instructions, then kill him. If the shit has hit the fan you are not there as a referee. Nor as a policeman. Give all the benefit of the doubt but only once. We don't issue summonses, and the situation must be under YOUR control at all times.

And I strongly disagreee with the statement attributed to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, who reportedly said:

...Marines should overcome the tendency "of becoming indifferent to the loss of a human life" in their dealings with Iraqi civilians.

It may have been taken out of context, and I hope that is the case. Killing demands a certain measure of indifference or sane people could not do it for a living. We do NOT want weepy Marines. Now or ever.

Give Me Strength, Lord...

Robertson Says He Leg-Pressed 2,000 Pounds photo

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says he has leg-pressed 2,000 pounds. The feat is recounted on the Christian Broadcasting Network Web site, in a posting headlined, "How Pat Robertson Leg Pressed 2,000 Pounds." Robertson founded CBN and is host of its flagship...

That's not all that much. I once saw an ant move a twig that had to weigh 20 times it's own weight, and if one insignificant little insect can do it then so can another.

If It's Friday Then It's Time For: Where's The Pentagon Spending Alla Our Money...



Say hello to the Isomer-Grenade. 2 kilotons worth. That's if the science proves do-able. If it works, the only problem the Pentagon envisions is in finding someone with a really-really-really strong throwing arm.

Hey, psst....

Randy Johnson can still throw close to 100 but can't get major league hitters out, so maybe they could offer him a new job.

Gunfire In The House....

Breaking News...

House police are investigating reports of gunfire in the parking lot. Cable stations are blowing hot air and little else at this point in time.

We'll be back if it warrants more bloviating.

AND MORE

The whole fiasco began with a phone call. No one claimed they saw anything, just some loud noises, and it seems that some detweiler mistook the sounds of construction work for gunfire.

Gee, and here the Brady Bunch was readying a TOLD YOU SO response, and this frigged up their day but good. Was kinda fun watching the cops scurry about while the cable news teams made mistake after mistake because nary a one of them knows shit from shinola about anything. Anyone else remember a time when news people weren't total fricking retards? I do admit that seeing that tons-of-fun D.C. police sergeant spokescow waddle her way to and from the microphone WAS starting to make me ill, so it's good they wrapped this up.
Gun-loving goon gets 25 years in shooting

"Trigger-happy thug Damian Henry, whose violent history with cops goes back years, finally got some serious jail time yesterday.
Henry was sentenced by a Brooklyn judge to 25 years in prison for shooting up an East Flatbush restaurant last June - firing the same gun used to kill Police Officer Dillon Stewart seven months later.
Henry, 25, was not charged in the cop killing, but earlier this month a jury found him guilty of attempted murder in the gunplay at the Tropical Paradise Restaurant.

It was his first felony conviction, despite a string of arrests after clashes with cops - including allegedly firing an Uzi at police outside a Brooklyn club in January. In 2003, he was acquitted of shooting a rookie cop."
___________________________________
The headline tells the real story, just as headlines are supposed to. Gun loving. That's his crime. Forget the fact that this bad actor spent most of his life robbing, and beating, and yes, shooting at people, because the story is about guns or the authors would have told the truth.

25 years for attempted murder never gets past an appeals court, no way, no how. Particularly since this was Henry's first felony conviction. A weepy judge reduces the sentence down, WAY down, so if he's a good boy while behind bars Mr. Henry spends may 3 years in the slammer and is back on the streets. He know this, every minority criminal in NYC knows this, and even the NY Daily News knows this. As shills for liberal Mayor Bloomberg, The News will jump on any story about guns and feature the tool as the real criminal because that's the Loon agenda. Mr. Henry is only a bad man because of society's deficiencies, and without the guns he would not have been able to commit such crimes, so punishing HIM, really punishing him is out of the question.

The Loons Never Sleep: "Facilitated Communication" Once Again Rears It's Ugly Head...

"Facilitated Communication." That's when someone sits down with an autistic child or adult, and "helps" them communicate their thoughts and feelings via a keyboard or similar device. Was all the rage in Australia, then brought to the states in the early 90's. Funny thing was, if the faciliator was shown one object and the autistic person a different object, then guess which one was communicated? Bingo.

Time and again, Facilitated Communication was proven to be a sham, an unholy sham that saw conmen preying upon the helpless. Some kids got Doctorate degrees in College by bringing along their Facilitators, but in truth never even learned to actually read or write. Parents went to jail for child abuse when a Faciliatator was angered or displeased, and all sorts of incredibly horrible deeds were done via this bogus "science".

But...it's baaaaaaaaack. Time Magazine, that paragon of Loon-atic virtue featured a cover story that harkened back to the bad old days when the gullible actually believed in such nonsense, and here's the whole story. It's lengthy, but fairly inclusive and worth the time to understand how totally fucked these nutcases truly are:
_______________________________
"The cover article of Time magazine dated May 15, 2006 was entitled, “New Insights Into the Hidden World of Autism.” The article began with the story of a 13-year old profoundly autistic girl whose language was “limited to snatches of songs, echoed dialogue, and unintelligible utterances” and who was “most likely retarded.” However, a few days before her 13th birthday, Hannah was introduced to a communication technique known as facilitated communication. This is technique whereby a “facilitator” helps stabilize an autistic person’s hand and arm so that they are able to type a message on a keyboard. On that day, the girl was asked by the facilitator, “Is there anything you’d like to say, Hannah?” Hannah, with the assistance of the facilitator, then typed out, “I love Mom.”

A year and a half later, Hannah is working her way through high school biology, algebra, and ancient history.1

If you are skeptical of this claim, you have good reason to be. Facilitated communication is a technique originally developed in Australia to assist individuals with physical limitations such as cerebral palsy to communicate via a keyboard. The technique was introduced in the United States in 1990 by Dr. Douglas Bicklen, a professor of special education at Syracuse University. While facilitated communication was never intended for use with autistic children, Bicklen believed it had the potential to provide a means of expressive communication for uncommunicative autistic individuals. Bicklen believed that while autistic children understood language, they were unable to express their thoughts due to a type of developmental apraxia that impaired their ability to control voluntary movement. It was their inability to express themselves, according to Biklen, which often masked the autistic individuals’ true cognitive and linguistic abilities.2

Like 13-year old Hannah, parents of autistic children in the early 1990s found that when assisted by a facilitator their autistic children demonstrated extraordinary abilities. Five and six year old autistic children were writing complete sentences. Others wrote poems and short stories, while autistic adolescents successfully completed high school and college courses despite never having been taught to read or write or having demonstrated such abilities.3

Public schools around the country spent millions of dollars to hire and train facilitators. Parents made plans to have their child’s facilitator accompany them to college. Parents, teachers and therapists did not question the validity of the facilitated communications. They believed facilitated communication was a breakthrough technique that completely redefined autism. The messages their autistic children typed, such as Hannah’s “I love mom,” was all the validation many parents would ever need.

However, some began to doubt the validity of the facilitated communications and began to ask difficult questions. Why would a child be able to successfully communicate with the assistance of a facilitator at school, but not at home with his or her own parents? How could a child demonstrate extraordinary literacy, writing grammatically correct sentences, when they had never been taught to read or write? How could a child type a message on a keyboard while they were staring at the ceiling? And most importantly, were the facilitated communications real? Were the autistic children authoring these writings, or were the facilitators?

The question of whether the facilitated communications were real took on increased urgency when accusations of child sexual abuse began to surface around the country. As a result of these accusations, autistic children were removed from their homes by child welfare agencies while their parents were charged with child sexual abuse.

One of the first investigations of the efficacy of facilitated communication resulted from one of these sex abuse accusations. A profoundly autistic adolescent girl had accused her parents and grandparents of sexual abuse. The girl’s facilitated communication skills were subsequently evaluated by Dr. Howard Shane, a speech pathologist and expert in augmentative communication. He first showed the adolescent girl and her facilitator a picture or object. The typed messages that followed correctly identified the picture or object both had seen. However, when the facilitator and child were shown a different picture or object, the message typed out on the keyboard was consistently what the facilitator had seen. It soon became apparent that it had not been the adolescent girl who had authored the accusations, but rather the facilitator.
Individual case studies were followed by larger controlled studies that sought to determine the validity of facilitated communication. These studies typically included autistic as well as moderately and severely mentally retarded individuals—precisely those individuals whom Bicklen and facilitated communication advocates claimed needed facilitated communication in order to express their hidden thoughts.

In a well-controlled 1996 study, for example, the efficacy of facilitated communication was assessed in 12 individuals ranging in age from 7–36. Six of the participants had a diagnosis of autism, while six had severe to profound cognitive impairments. All subjects had demonstrated unexpected literacy once they began using facilitated communication. The facilitators in this study were those who had demonstrated the most success with each subject. Four of the facilitators were the subject’s mothers, two were special education teachers, two were resident assistants, and one a teacher’s aide. The amount of time each facilitator had been facilitating with each subject ranged from six months to two years.

The subjects were assessed in a familiar environment. The subjects or their facilitator were allowed to stop at any point if they felt uncomfortable. The subjects were presented with either an auditory or visual stimulus, and were then asked to identify that same stimulus. When the facilitators were unable to see or hear what the subjects saw or heard, the autistic subjects’ unexpected literacy via facilitated communication was no longer evident.4

In a 1995 study, the subjects included 18 preschool through secondary students diagnosed with autism. All were nonverbal or had extremely limited verbal-expressive abilities. The student’s teachers attended a two-day training session on facilitated communication taught by Douglas Bicklen. After a 15-week period during which the teachers used facilitated communication on a daily basis with the students, the students’ ability to communicate using facilitated communication was evaluated. Several students demonstrated the ability to correctly respond to requests and questions when the facilitator knew the answer. When the facilitator did not know the correct answer, however, none of the students were able to respond correctly.5

In a 1993 study with 21 elementary and secondary autistic students, the researchers found no support for facilitated communication and concluded that “no client showed unexpected literacy or communicative abilities when tested via the facilitator screening procedure, even after 20 hours of training.”6

A 1994 study examined the facilitated communications of 19 developmentally disabled adults ranging in age from 23–50. All the subjects in the study had been successfully using facilitated communication in their day treatment facility. The study required the individual via their facilitator to identify the color, shape, and the number of shapes they saw on a card. When the facilitator did not see the same card shown to the subject, no subject was found to perform at levels that exceeded chance.7

In a 1996 study of 14 students with autism, none of the students were able to produce functional, typed communication following 10 weeks of instruction in the use of facilitated communication.8

These studies, along with many others, failed to validate the claims of facilitated communication advocates.9 The empirical data was clear. It was not the autistic children who were authoring the typed messages, but their facilitators. The results of the scientific studies prompted the American Psychological Association in 1994 to adopt a resolution that stated, in part, that “facilitated communication is a controversial and unproved communication procedure with no scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy.”

Parents, their relatives and friends, teachers and therapists had all had wanted to believe that the facilitated communications were real. Any caring, empathetic person would want them to be real. Unfortunately, the scientific results were unequivocal.

What were the costs of uncritically accepting these facilitated messages? False accusations of sexual abuse were made, parents were investigated for child sexual abuse (some were even jailed), children were placed in long term foster care, families were torn apart, millions of public school dollars were spent to hire and train facilitators, and years of schooling were wasted as autistic children sat in advanced classes rather than learning the life skills they would need.

This recent Time magazine article will undoubtedly be eagerly devoured by the parents, relatives, friends, therapists, and teachers of autistic children. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence accumulated over a decade ago that clearly demonstrated that facilitated communication is an illusion, a minority of parents of autistic or severely mentally impaired children have continued to believe in the technique. Whether advocates of facilitated communication will one day succeed in bringing facilitated communication back into the mainstream is unclear, although this recent article is certainly troubling. The history of facilitated communication, however, should remind us of the significant costs that are often incurred when we, as a society, uncritically accept what we want to believe to be true based on emotion, rather than accepting what is based on fact."

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Found This Over At Pat's Joint, Then Took The Silly Thing For Myself

You Are 82% American

You're as American as red meat and shooting ranges.
Tough and independent, you think big.
You love everything about the US, wrong or right.
And anyone who criticizes your home better not do it in front of you!
How American Are You?

82% my ass. Betcha some frickin Loons had a hand in designing this.

Knights Of The Dumb Table


Britain is, Once Again, Safe From Marauding Bands of Klingons

Misha has the scoop on the UK's attempt to rid the streets of senseless acts of violence commited by aliens.

For real. It's modern Britain and you couldn''t make this shit up if you wanted to. Just take a look at the serious face this man has on. How in the name of all that's holy did he manage to heft that thing and not laugh his ass off is beyond me. Sort of reminds me of the time Kirk fought Spock when the Vulcan was going through a serious case of the hots during pahn-far time of the month. You don't think this Bobby is really on the prowl for some green bitch, do ya?

Nah.

But That Wasn't The Half Of It...


Now remember...I had 6 shots remaining. So I said what the heck. For the first two, I was leaning a little against the wall on my lefthand side, so I took a breath and got down and dirty. The head of the target was pristine so I lifted my aim, braced fully against the wall, and fired the lowest hole you can see on the target. Kept squeezing...SLOWLY now, real slowly, and the last of the 6 was the high one up and a little to the right.

6 shots. 25 yards. 3/4" group. Yes, that is not possible. Yes, you can call me a liar, but I'm really not dumb enough to try and fool anyone with such a target because no one who knows shooting would believe that a compact gun could shoot like that. It did. Shit happens. I have never in my over 40 years of shooting had an under 1 inch group @ 25 yards from a pistol or revolver with such a short barrel. Maybe a $3000 gunsmith special in a Ransom rest, using match ammunition. It's possible, but not likely. 5 of the shots went into a hole under half an inch, and that's plain crazy. I want those bullets back. I'm awful sad I shot them now because they were self-defense rounds I was checking for feed, fire, and fling, and I'll never, ever find ammo that accurate again. Not world class hollowpoints. Not from a bone-stock G-27. And certainly never at that distance.

Once again, they were Federal HST .40 caliber hollowpoints. 180 grains. I'm ordering some more from Streichers online tonight ($16.00 for a box of 50), and I know damn well the accuracy fairy didn't linger long enough at the factory for any more of these suckers to be around, but like I said, they were giving me 2 and a half to 3 inch groups all afternoon at that distance, and that's plenty good for any concealed carry firearm.

We shot the Ruger GP 3 incher as well, and the Double-Tap 158 grainers were cranking out at a hair over 1400 fps. Lisa and I were focusing getting the rounds in as small a group as possible at 25 feet, and the gun and ammo did really well. Lots of big ragged holes, and the recoil wasn't so bad she wanted to stop, not at all. I carry that gun sometimes, was pleased with the ammo, and to my hands the recoil was negligible. 6 rounds in a smidge over 3 seconds produced 2 inch groups, and if I ever need better than that I've gone and done something really, really stupid.

Not a bad day at the range.

Let the flames begin.

Lucky Shots


Okay so I had 8 rounds left. Federal HST, .40 caliber. 180 grains. Chronographed @ 1005 fps from my Glock 27. We'd been shooting a while, and I realized I had one target that wasn't made holy yet, so I hooked it up and cranked it back to 25 yards. First shot was the one below the X, so I adjusted and of course went high and left. Now, that's an inch and a half. I can't shoot that small a group at that distance, and neither can a G-27 with a 3.5" barrel, so they were lucky shots, with all the stars aligned just so. Give a high-5 to the ammo because it was dead-on all day.
All was not well on the southern front. The mainstream media continued to portray illegal immigrants as poor souls just wanting a piece of the American Dream, but brave journalists began telling the truth. The outrage grew, with the Loons not understanding that this was not something we had been aware of, as they asked..."Why now? Why THIS Administration, this Congress?

Bounties placed upon Sheriff's by the drug cartels might be something to have a look at. No? How's about kidnapping, extortion, and a white slave trade? 80% of all illegal methamphetamines comes to America through the California and Arizona borders, and the Loons response was to place restrictions upon over-the-counter sales of cold pills.

Doesn't GET more amazing than this.

Californian Wins Immigration Journalism Award

Coverage of Southern Border Highlights Serious Problems WASHINGTON (May 2006) --

Sara Carter of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif., has been named the recipient of the 2006 Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration. This award, presented since 1997 by the Center for Immigration Studies, is intended to promote informed and fair reporting on this most contentious and complicated issue.

Traveling frequently from California to Arizona and Texas and Mexico, Ms. Carter broke story after story related to the dangerous conditions all along America’s southern border. Rare has been the week in the past six months that Ms. Carter hasn’t appeared on a cable news program discussing her latest scoop. It was Ms. Carter who broke the story that our government was alerting Mexico City to the locations and membership and other details of the Minuteman Project civilian border-watch group.

She also first brought word of bounties being placed on the heads of sheriffs’ deputies along the Texas border by Mexican cartels. The body of her reporting over the past year is an important example of how the public interest can be served when even a relatively small media outlet devotes appropriate resources to coverage of our nation’s immigration crisis.

More information on the Katz Award, including information on the previous years’ winners, is on line at http://www.cis.org/articles/Katz/katzintro.html

The inspiration for the award was Eugene Katz, a native New Yorker who started his career, after Dartmouth and Oxford, as a reporter for the Daily Oklahoman. In 1928 he joined the family business, working as an advertising salesman for the Katz Agency, and in 1952 became the president of Katz Communications, a half-billion-dollar firm which not only dealt in radio and television advertising but also owned and managed a number of radio stations.

Mr. Katz was also a member of the Center for Immigration Studies board until shortly after his 90th birthday in 1997. The Center benefited greatly from his wise counsel, and the board and staff developed an affection for him that went well beyond business matters. He passed away in March 2000 at the age of 93. # # #

For more information, contact John Keeley, (202) 466-8185 or jmk@cis.org


More Beating The Dead Horse Time In Loonville...

Libby Told Grand Jury Cheney Spoke of Plame

Vice President Cheney was personally angered by a former U.S. ambassador's newspaper column attacking a key rationale for the war in Iraq and he repeatedly instructed his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to "get all the facts out" related to the critique, according to excerpts from...

How DARE he! Imagine the gall of that Cheney in asking Libby to get to the bottom of the lies that Mr. Plame was spreading all over town! Dammitall, if the media is forced to publish just the truth then where will all the innuendo-only writers find work?

And don't EVEN tell me that there's a passle of Mexicans just waiting to jump into them jobs...

If 'Lost' Left You Shaking Your Head...

That's okay. The castaways on Gilligans Loon Island did what they always do; set out to find something and get caught by The Others. For, what's that now, the zillionth time?

They can't shoot for shit, left their own little spot on the island knowing full well that they were walking into a trap, and STILL managed to be darted into submission. But at least we didn't have to watch the incredibly ugly fat boy go down with 40 or 50 knockout needles embedded in his acres of ass.

The button wasn't pushed, and that resulted in a lot of shitty special effects that featured little except flying forks and aluminum pots and tin cans being swept away in a physics-from-hell scene straight from Bad-Science 101, so Locke was right. All that was missing was one of those flags that pop out of toy guns and say "BANG", but maybe they'll feature that next season.

Some crazy Russians stopped playing chess long enough to phone Desmond's ex that they'd registered a electro-magnetic anomoly, but she'd told Des that when someone is rich they can find anyone, so we all knew that was coming, too.

Here's the 'official' version of last night's travesty, as told by Loon-Media apologists:

My Way News - 'Lost' Finale Leaves Viewers Less Lost

The Gun-Grabbers Never Rest

It's troublesome. Constantly beating the same dead horse can be boring, but if we don't keep up with the lies of liberal gun-grabbers then they've got us right where they want us. Complacent. Tired of fighting the same old battle, day in and day out.

Rust never sleeps and neither do the Loons. They'll scream about evil guns then fight to free criminals who've slaughtered the innocent.

Guns, you see, can't vote. But the friends and family and neighbors of murderers can.

Michael Daly is the NY Daily News mouthpiece for gun control. He's a tree-hugger, 2nd Amendment destroyer par excellance, and in todays issue of the big newpaper in the biggest city in America, he weeps. The essay is barely readable, as it flails to make sense of nonsense, but the tone remains the same as always. Criminals in less restricted cities, illegally sell guns to other criminals from NY.

There are plenty of laws against this, but enforcing the law means sending minorities to jail, and, minorities being minorities, they'll continue to try for the easy money so why tempt them? To the Loon-atic way of thinking, the only way around all of this is to ban what they steal and sell.

Sort of like saying that stolen cars, and drunk drivers kill the most people so lets ban all cars. And better yet, lets also ban alchohol. That of course WOULD solve that particular problem, now wouldn't it? But oops, we tried the booze-ban deal and all THAT did was create organized crime as we know it today. Make something illegal, and criminals will get rich giving the people what they want.

Enforce the existing laws, and make the penalties more severe. In NY you must be caught with over 15 guns on your person to be charged as an illegal gun dealer, and why not make that ridiculous number a LOT lower? ANY illegal weapon you are caught selling makes you a dealer, and you face the same sentence as the big boys. Sure, there will remain the hardcore that continue to traffic in illegal weapons, but there will be one helliva lot LESS of them.

And many of the problems in NY and Kalifornia were of course created because of the ridiculous laws against the ownership of firearms by perfectly legal citizens. Because none of us can be trusted with power, the Loons wish to take such power away. Makes us more beholding to them for protection. Forget that the vast majority of illegal handguns in our big cities are purchased by otherwise law abiding people who want to avail themselves of their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Focus on the crooks and the murderers. Send them away for a very long time. Execute them when their crimes are so heinous as to warrant society's hard solution.

Read some of Michael Daly's call to disarm. Then take a long shower to wash away the mental stench.

Staring Down The Barrel Of The NRA's Evil Lobbyist

George Will On Dangerous Ballots

"In 1906, the year before a rabbi in a Passover sermon coined the phrase "melting pot" during torrential immigration from eastern and southern Europe, Congress passed and President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation requiring people seeking to become naturalized citizens to demonstrate oral English literacy. In 1950, the requirement was strengthened to require people to "demonstrate an understanding of the English language, including an ability to read, write and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language."

Hence, if someone needs a ballot written in a language other than English, that need proves the person obtained citizenship only because the law was not enforced when he or she sought citizenship.

So one reason for ending ballots in languages other than English is that continuing them makes a mockery of the rule of law - including even the prospective McCain-Kennedy law that pro-immigration groups favor. It contains several requirements that those aspiring to citizenship demonstrate "a knowledge of the English language" or "English fluency" in order "to promote the patriotic integration of prospective citizens into the American way of life" and into "American common values and traditions." How can legislators support both language like that and ballots in multiple languages?"

They can't. Politicians being politicians, they want to have their cake and eat it too, and hoping that no one notices such two-faced standards of ethics they whistle past the graveyard knowing full well that the weak-kneed will see them as being comprimisers and not thieving SOB's who'd court the Mexicans just to stay in office.

Every time I have asked someone in politics why spanish remains necessary for people who by law are required to speak English as part of citizenship, I am told that it is nothing more than a courtesy. We had a different explanation for that way back when. When second and third generation Irish, and German, and Italian immigrants would say that their forebears learned English because they wanted to be Americans first, and the spanish wished to remain spanish. And to heap epithets describing lazy spanish speaking peoples is not what I want to do, but that is what they were described as being. Many, many, NY'ers would not enter a business establishment unless the proprietors spoke at least SOME English, as this was the symbol of becoming an American, and particularly right after WWII this was an important thing. Patriotism ran rampant, and one could of course retain the lingo of a mother or fatherland, but no English, no business.

Then the liberals began working the streets. They assembled the spanish speakers into voting blocks and, as time passed, these became powerful entities that had to be catered to. Gone, but not forgotten was the premise that you speak English or you admit a disdain for the American way of life. But, ever since the spanish-speakers had those marvelous rallies a few weeks back, Americans are becoming more and more angered by the unmitigated gall of these hand-me-outs.

The slumbering giant was awakened. The backlash is still simmering and has not reached epic proportion, but you'll notice that there haven't been any such parades of hatred for the real America since. And thats what it's all about, and forget what the Loons want you to believe. The spanish do not wish to be part of the American culture. The spanish want all of the benefits of being American, but do not want to become American.

Liberal politicians successfully assembled the blacks into voting groups, and now wish to add illegal immigrants to the list of peoples handed a crutch and told they're too weak to walk on their own. But the giant is now awake and it isn't going to be as easy for them this time around.