Thoughts on Umar Abdulmutallab

Most people see the Pantybomber (thank to Amy Alkon for that name) as a failure but is he really? John Robb over at Global Guerrillas has some thoughts on that.

If a faith-based fruitcake with a bit of explosive in his sneaker justifies the TSA’s foot-fetish, imagine what Leviathan can accomplish in the wake of the Pantybomber. It's a near certainly fliers are going to get virtual strip-searches with millimeter-wave scanning and there are persistent rumors the TSA now wants to do away with carry on luggage.

Once the terrorists figure out how to hide explosives in the parts being "obscured" in the images or in body cavities, fliers can expect even more friendly inspections. Given enough time, the safety worshipers will have Americans stripping down, bending over for cavity searches and boarding the plane wearing only government provided disposable loincloths and, maybe, halters for the women.

The Pantybomber didn't kill any infidels but he sure has them running about in a tizzy looking for new ways to treat airline passengers as cattle. Give the almighty nanny state a few more failures like this and all those freedoms the Muslims supposedly hate us for will no longer be an issue.

Mike Vanderboegh Rattles Some Cages

Apparently Chapter 32 of Absolved, Ten Thousand Lawyers, has a few government employees in high dudgeon. Mike patiently and with appropriate derision explains to the idiots that it is a work of fiction.

Read the offending chapter for yourself
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

More Bad News on the Economy

Or more of the same:

We're Screwed!

ShadowStats.com founder John Williams explains the risk of hyperinflation. Worst-case scenario? Rioting in the streets and devolution to a bartering system.

An interview with John Williams.

Dave Workman Finally Admits it!

The truth is out: Workman is a moron

Not really. He is just demonstrating absurdity by being absurd. After ridiculing the anti-gun nuts he concludes with:

For the folks who have been offended by what they read here, please rest assured that I meant every damn word.

Right On, Brother!

The Economy is so Bad

Gathered from an assortment of places.

The economy is so bad that:

• When I ordered a burger at McDonald's the kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”
• Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
• McDonalds is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
• A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .
• I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
• Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
• Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.
• The Mafia is laying off judges.
• Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
• Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their childrens' names.

To top it off, Congress claims they are investigating Bernard Madoff. The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

Killer Empowerment Zones

From a posting at Spartan Cops

Killer Empowerment Zones

“Killer Empowerment Zones”© are more commonly known as “Gun-Free” zones by the “Reality-Challenged”. The Utopian intent of course, is a delusion that the law, or warning signs at a public facility will be sufficient to protect the public. The otherwise perfectly legal concealed weapon civilians are disarmed and rendered as defenseless as everyone else. While this Utopian theory has no validated tracking history of success, it certainly has a documented record of failure. Even as we concede that the Utopians may deserve an “A” for their good intentions, they certainly have earned an “”F” as in FATAL for ACTUAL results.

KMZ: Unintended Consequences are Fatal

The consequence of disarming the law-abiding public is the creation of a zone that is perfectly designed for the health, welfare and safety of the mass murderer. He is virtually guaranteed that a law-abiding public will have no realistic ability to protect themselves or others. The active killer has been given a cart-blanche opportunity to decide who and how many die, almost as if he wrote the law supporting gun free zones himself. These zones are very attractive to him!

More Here

Killer Empowerment Zones. Great summation of the real world consequences of restricting the rights of the individual to protect himself.

What if there is a fire?

From The West Seattle Herald

It is a fine thing to have a watchdog monitoring our constitutional rights. Bob Warden is to be commended for ensuring that our right to carry our concealed weapons everywhere is protected. The audacity of Mayor Nickels in trying to keep guns out of city parks and recreational areas has to be condemned and overturned.

How can our children and grandchildren’s safety be guaranteed on the playfields and in the swimming areas in the city unless anyone who chooses to carry a gun there has that right. No one should have their Second Amendment rights infringed at any time. It would be like limiting someone’s freedom speech to yell “fire” in a crowded theater as a joke.

Oh, right. You can limit the right of free speech in cases like that. Well, thank goodness the state doesn’t allow such limitations on guns. Way to go Bob.

Bruce Colwell
1220 SW 132nd Lane
Burien

If there is a fire I can choose to warn others by shouting "fire!"   When there is a threat to life and limb I can choose to use a firearm to stop it.   What the idiot above is really advocating (admittedly, he may not be smart enough to understand this) is to deprive citizens of the right to make those choices.  That is not a limitation on a right it is the complete abrogation of it.

New Scout Scope

I just put a new Leupold FX II 2.5X28 Scout Scope on the BLR

It's too wet out right now to do more than bore sight it and punch holes in some paper but it sure is a nice scope.

Is There Intelligent Life on Earth?

Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner, Daniel White reports,

Students at the University of Colorado are being told by campus police that their planned game of "Humans vs. Zombies" must be canceled because of a campus ban on toys that look like guns.

The planned game would divide participants into "humans" and "zombies" with the human team defending themselves with NERF guns. Campus police "[fear] they could be painted to look like a real weapon and someone could become alarmed and notify authorities, who would have to respond."

CU campus police shut down NERF game

Are Colorado University students really this stupid? Is it true that the students cannot tell this:
from this:



or this:

?

Maybe it is true.

It become more obvious with each incident like the above that "zero tolerance" is the the wrong term for this behavior. It should be, instead, "zero intelligence". If the trend continues, the answer to the great question, "Is there intelligent life on Earth?", will soon become painfully obvious:

"Not any more."

Why I like the Scout Rifle Concept

When I bought my BLR takedown I originally intended to put a conventional over the receiver scope on it. Probably a 2-7X33 like on its older brother. However, three factor contributed to trying a scout set up.

First, I had carpal tunnel relief surgery on my wrists this year. The surgeon warned me that, while I will be able to return to work in a few days, it may be six months before I get full strength and use back. That pretty much meant that any hunting plans for this year were out. There was no time pressure to get the rifle ready for a hunt.

Second, I already had an XS scout mount on my Marlin 1894C which I paired with a Bushnell holosight. This turned out to be a good combination.

Thirdly, Browning offers a scout mount for the take down model. So I figured, "what the heck." I could always go back to a regular scope. Because I mount my scopes as low as the rifle allows I remove the factory rear sight on the BLR anyways so there would be no loss there.

At first, I put on one of the "spare" holosights. This worked as well as expected but the lack of magnification limited me to 150 yards which, while adequate for many purposes, is well below the capability of the 308 round. I decided to try an el cheapo pistol scope just to see if this scout thing was viable. I ordered an NcStar 2-7X32 LER scope with illuminated reticule for $55 from Opticsplanet.

The weekend after the scope arrived, I mounted it to the BLR using a set of Leupold QRW rings. The first time I shouldered the rifle to check to see if the eye relief was good I noticed something remarkable.

I am right handed with a left dominant eye -- a situation found in about one-third of all right handed persons. In 30 years of shooting, I've tried numerous peep sights, scopes, red dots, and holosights and with every one I had the same problem: When I bring the rifle to my shoulder, my brain wants to pick the left eye image and it takes 500 milliseconds or so to shift my perception and get a proper sight picture. Even with years of practice I still sometimes have to close or partially close my left eye to use any of the above sights right handed.

With the forward mounted scope my brain immediately picked out the magnified image as the correct one. I was so surprised at this that I got a rifle with a conventionally mounted scope to double check. Sure enough, with the the conventional mounting I had to concentrate to pick out the proper sight picture from the double image. With the forward mounted scope the right eye image immediately was the preferred one.

Out of curiosity, I put a Nikon 1X20 Buckmaster on the BLR. With an eye relief of 4.5 to 14 inches I could put it at about the same distance from my eye as the NcStar scope. Since the Nikon lacks any magnification, I could get an idea if it was the forward mount alone or the combination of forward mounting with magnification that was making the difference. I suspected the latter case because the holosights in the forward position on my Marlin 1894 didn't make any difference.

When I shouldered the rifle with the Nikon scope in place it was business as usual: Double image, concentrate, then see the crosshair on the target. So, for some reason, the combination of magnification and long eye relief enables my brain to shift gears fast enough that I don't know it's happening. I don't yet understand why this is so but I certainly welcome it.

Now I have to find the perfect scout scope.