Did IQ's just suddenly drop?

Maybe they did in Zimbabwe.

The authorities in Bulayayo are now demanding that all residents "present their firearms and licences [sic] to their nearest police stations". Residents with licensed but malfunctioning firearms are being asked to turn those guns over to the police. The official reason for this is a recent "spate" of armed robberies. Assistant Inspector Bekimpilo Ndlovu is quoted as saying,

"We also call upon all those in possession of licensed firearms whose functions have since ceased to hand them over to the police," Asst Insp Ndlovu said.

"We expect maximum co-operation from all firearm holders as we seek to eliminate unlicensed firearms that are usually used to commit crimes like armed robberies and murder."

Got that? The goal is to eliminate unlicensed firearms. The means the authorities choose is to harass the owners of licensed firearms and confiscate any non-working guns.

Got stupid?

English article at allAfrica.com.

H/T to David Codrea

The Long Watch

Over on Sipsey Street Irregulars Mike Vanderboegh mentions Pvt Rodger Young. Go read it.

Most Heinlein fans will recognise the name as that of the troop transport in Starship Troopers but the first time I saw it was in an earlier Heinlein Short Story entiled "The Long Watch". Google Books has the text of the story (also embedded below) as reprinted in Volume 1 of The SFWA Grand Masters.

Every Three Percenter should read it.

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Death Star: Loose Credits

Part one of Loose Credits: A expose of the coverup of the destruction of the Imperial Battle Station known as the Death Star.



Also read Uncomfortable Questions: Was the Death Star Attack an Inside Job? which is a brief summary of the evidence for Empire involvement in the destruction of the Death Star.

The Single Shot, Bolt Action Assault Rifle

According to an ignorant reporter and his edtior at the The Sierra Vista Herald, the AR 50 pictured above is an "assault rifle".

NOGALES, Ariz. — Border agents seized a 50-caliber assault rifle and arrested two teenagers trying to cross into Mexico with it.

The Border Patrol said Thursday that on Tuesday night, officers working southbound inspections in Nogales referred a car for further perusal.

Officers found the Armalite bolt-action rifle on top of the vehicle’s engine.

The 19-year-old driver and his 17-year-old male passenger, both from Mexico, were arrested.

Armalite describes the AR 50 thusly:

This rifle is the newest incarnation of the wildly popular AR-50 chambered for the powerful 50 BMG cartridge. A single shot bolt action rifle featuring a unique octagonal receiver bedded down into a V-shaped stock. [emphasis added]

The terms "assault weapon" and more recently "assault rifle" are used in anti-gun propaganda to create the illusion that a firearm with certain cosmetic features is somehow more deadly than a firearm without those features. For example, the Remington R-15 firing the relatively anemic 5.56x45 (.223 Remington) varmit round is somehow more deadly than the the Remington 700 chambered in the same caliber.

Remington R-15

Remington 700 VTR

It is really just an example of the pre-logical magical thinking where a thing that looks like another thing is the other thing. In other words, if a single shot, bolt action rifle such as the AR50 has a shape similar enough to the miltary assault rifles I see in the movies, then the AR50 magically becomes an assault rifle too.

H/T to David Codrea

Free Speech is Dead in Britian

The Telegraph reports here that

Six people have been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after videos emerged on the internet apparently showing copies of the Koran being burned.

The facts in the case -- assuming the Telegrah report is accurate -- are telling.

Northumbria Police said the men were not arrested for watching or distributing the video, but on suspicion of burning the Koran.

They were not arrested for burning a book. They were not arrested for distributing a video of the burning on You Tube. It wasn't even some BS charge like an unlicensed bonfire or creating secondhand smoke. They were arested for "suspicion of burning the Koran".

Embracing my Inner Anarchist

Slate Magazine did a silly hit piece on the Tea Party Movement but they had great graphic which I enhanced a little bit with the GIMP.

Gun Owners Against Illegal Mayors

Here

H/T to David Codrea

What the GOP can learn from Dune

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
-- John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (usually known simply as "Lord Acton") in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887.

The above quotation, in one of its incarnations, was a truism even before the Internet. It is, however only partly right.

It is not the power per se that corrupts but the immunity from consequences. No man would abuse his power if he knew he would be shot for it. So even the mightiest of rulers can be controlled if he can also be killed. Unfortunately those who have power usually surround themeselve with elaborate protections from consequences. Untimately this isolation also insulates them from reality and then destroys them.

I find that an encouraging thought.

"He who can destroy a thing has the real control of it"
-- Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides in Dune by Frank Herbert

The above quote is more often heard in the format from the 1984 movie, "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing", but the lesson is the same: If I can deny you something you want, you must either negotiate with me or kill me. That is power of the Tea Parties.

Mike Vanderboegh has an insightful summary of this in
"Long live the fighters!" The Lesson of the Fremen applied to the GOP.

The lesson of the Fremen, the spice and the Empire from Dune quoted above is absolutely true. The GOP is squealing so loud at this point precisely because they understand this. Even if their candidates lose the general elections, they will have at least removed the professional politicians of the GOP establishment from the board, and it is the GOP and its epochal failures which actually spawned the Tea Party. The Democrats are howling as well because they perceive their food trough is also about to be upended.

And, although I would not have said it on the radio, to the opponents of the Founders' Republic whose appetites compel them to try to take more and more of our property and our liberty -- even our lives if we get in their way -- I would also echo the warning of Paul Muad'Dib: "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing."

Whatever rapacious tyrannical collectivist slugs value can also be destroyed.

"Long live the fighters!"

One of the lessons of history is that those who desire power do so for different reasons but the tool is the same. If the Tea Partiers can deny a politician the power he desires then that politician must either negotiate with the Tea Party or somehow negate them. The politician can retaliate with destruction of his own but that will hurt him more than his opponents. No one except the truly insane or the faith-based fruitcake wants to rule over the blasted lifeless remnant of civilization. The Tea Partiers understand, at some level, that the politicians need the Tea Party more than the Tea Party needs the politicians.

This fight ain't over 'til we say it't over.

Smith and Wesson Internal Lock

There is a minor brouhaha on Calguns over the S&W internal lock. Most of it is the typical S&W bashing but one poster put up a link to a video showing how easy it is to disable the lock.



Tempests are forever in search of new teapots. The S&W internal lock is one of the most furious of late. For the record, I don't like the lock. Neither do I like those sub-standard magazines S&W, Ruger, Glock, Beretta, etc sells with their California models. So what?

I try to be realistic about such things. Over 300,000 handguns are sold in California every year. Most of these are new. I have no right to expect a gun maker to willingly give up competing in a market that size and if S&W has to put a chickenshit lock on their guns to be able to sell it to me then I'm glad it is one I can deactive in a few minutes.

The Deathplace of Liberty

From NBC Philadelphia comes the following report on the antics of the Philadelphia TSA.

I am sure the security uber alles untermenschen will claim this is a reasonable restriction and that you don't have a right travel on the subway. Which only proves two wrongs do not make a right but they can sure be used to destroy one.

Random Pat-Downs Turn PATCO Into Police State

Commuters who ride PATCO trains between southern New Jersey and Philadelphia should expect random searches of their clothing, pockets, bags and vehicles on their morning trip to work.

Twelve Transportation Security Administration screeners, armed with an explosive-sniffing K-9, checked 663 commuter bags randomly selected from the morning rush at the Lindenwold station Tuesday.

"It was chaotic," Kevin Greczyn, an accountant from Magnolia who commutes to Philadelphia daily, told the Courier Post. "Nobody was sure what was happening, whether it was safe to get on the train, or whether we were carrying something we shouldn't be.”

Delaware River Port Authority Police Chief David McClintock told The Courier Post of Cherry Hill screeners were looking for improvised explosive devices and weapons.

The chief says that out of the 6663 bags searched between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., a crack pipe was the only item confiscated.

“We can conduct any kind of search we want," said McClintock. "We could ask TSA to bring wands or X-ray machines like they have in airports, though we don't think that's appropriate for PATCO riders at this time."

There are about 5,000 commuters passing through the Lindenwold daily, according to the Courier Post. The searches will be conducted by a freshly hired DRPA police several times a month, --without advance warning -- at various PATCO stations.

A special Delaware River Port Authority police unit plans to conduct surprise searches at various PATCO stations.

The Tactical Judge

In recent years I discovered that Taurus produces some pretty good revolvers at a reasonable price. I have a model 66 with a 6" bbl that I honestly consider to be almost as good as my S&W 686. The word "almost" is an important part of the above recommendation but at about half the price it's a very attractive alternative for the shooter who cannot afford S&W goodness.

The Judge, IMO, is not one of the better ideas to come out of Taurus. However it must be very popular because they now have a "tactical" version.

Make if it what you will but I admit I just don't get it.

Why not burn a few Bibles?

Some Muslims in Afghanistan are upset because of plans by members of the Dove World Outreach Center to burn some Qurans on Sep 11.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Hundreds of Afghans railed against the United States and called for President Barack Obama's death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce an American church's plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11.

The crowd in Kabul, numbering as many as 500, chanted "Long live Islam" and "Death to America" as they listened to fiery speeches from members of parliament, provincial council deputies, and Islamic clerics who criticized the U.S. and demanded the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country. Some threw rocks when a U.S. military convoy passed, but speakers shouted at them to stop and told police to arrest anyone who disobeyed.

The New Black Panther Party appears to be outraged too.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Members of the New Black Panther Party showed up in Gainesville Monday to let The Dove World Outreach Center know it is outraged by its plan to burn the Koran.

"I believe in peace but if you aggress me, I am going to fight back," said State Chairman of the New Black Panther Party Mikhail Muhammad.

It is not aggression to destroy your own property no matter how holy someone else may consider it to be. I'm not very likely burn a Quran unless it was really cold, the gas was off and I need to start a fire in the old fireplace. Even then I'd just use what I have to and save the rest for later. Toilet paper maybe.

I guarantee that if things really get that bad, I'll burn every Quran, Bible and Book of Mormon I can lay my hands on long before I'll destroy something useful like Gray's Anatomy, Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers or the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. I even give those awful Twilight books a higher regard than the holiest of the holy books the world's religions have managed to produce.

I wonder if even the educated Mulsims can understand the difference.

I live in a country that is supposed to recognize every person's goddamn right to do with his property pretty much as he sees fit. The people in Florida are not harming anyone nor putting anyone in danger. They are not threatening a single Muslim by burning his holy book. The only threats I hear are from the faith-based homicidal maniacs who froth at the mouth over any perceived insult to their religion.

Tit-for-tat: If the Christers down in Florida burn some Qurans then let the Muslims burn some Bibles. That's a proportional response. Threatening to kill someone because he destroyed his own property is not.

Bigfoot's Connection to 9/11

Brian Trent the National Independent Examiner writes aboutFaked moon landings, creationists, and 9-11 truthers. However, in his seach for rationality, he misses completely the connection between Bigfoot and the incidents of 9/11.

Of course Bigfoot exists. More accurately there are small breeding populations of a hominid species living in some isolated places of the world. The most common names given to them are are "bigfoot" and "yeti". They remained mostly hidden because the psionic abilities they normally use to confuse and control prey animals can also be used on human beings. A group of at least 22 such bigfoots captured at considerable expense during the late 1990's are living at a hidden government base in Nevada (not area 51, that is a red herring) where they use Hieronymus Amplifiers to extend their normal range to implant suggestions in human minds over distances of several thousand miles.

The 9/11 hijackers were contolled by the this Bigfoot Corp. While continuous control over more than a few minutes is extremely difficult, certain mindsets -- among which are religious fanatics -- are highly susceptible to suggestion. Once a suggestion in implanted, the susceptible individual become single minded in carrying out "orders" needing only an occasional nudge to keep them on track. Once the operation was under way using fanatical Islamists, the BC prepared for the diversion of fighter aircraft. After the hijackings they sowed confusion in the military and civilian government by "suggesting" contradictory orders or information making it easier for the hijacked planes to reach their targets.

After the attack the BC was used sparingly but very effectively to divert attention from the truth by spreading confusion about events -- mostly through the news media. Shortly thereafter they implanted suggestions in susceptible minds about how to interpret the evidence focusing on creating contradictory narratives.

Some humans possess a recessive gene pair that enables them to detect the tampering. With a little practice such persons can become immune to the Bigfoot Effect. It is a rare trait estimated to exist in between one person in 100,000 and one in 1,000,000. However, the growth in DNA databases has made it possible to determine which persons have the ability so the BC handlers -- which must have the gene pair -- can plan ahead to avoid direct interference with such detectors.

Not Your Founders' Sam Adams

David Codrea has some comments on a recent Oregonian Editorial defending new restriction on gun rights proposed by Portland Mayor Sam Adams.

I don't think I have to tell the readers of David's column that the mayor's proposals are just another attempt by anti-rights politicians to burden the peaceable gun owner while offering nothing in return.

There is a lesson here for the politicians and the increasingly anti-rights police: The Second Amendment exists and has been incorporated. If you examine the history of selective incorporation you will see that, once a part of the Bill of Rights is incorporated, the protected right will be expanded by the courts. The politicians and police need to deal with that or find work at McDonald's. It will be a hard road to gain the lost trust but gun owners will help to curb criminal use of firearms if the politicians and police will work with them in good faith. The proposed laws from the Mayor of Portland are not in good faith and gun owners know it.