This is Just Plain Weird.

Just last night I was explaining to my wife that I don't really believe in zombies. They are just a metaphor (or sometimes a joke) for those bad people who, given the chance, will do bad things to decent people.

Then something like this happens:

Naked man killed by Police near MacArthur Causeway was 'eating:' face off victim

According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away.Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.

The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.

Video of News Reports are upon You Tube:

The Night the Lights Went Out in Detroit.

A lot of "preppers" seem to think that TEOTWAWKI will happen fast. They will go to sleep one day in a comfortable middle-class neighborhood and wake up the next morning in a third world cesspool. Aside from a natural disaster that is not how it happens and those are temporary disruptions anyways -- not the end of Life As We Know It. Civilizations fall apart slowly and it takes generations for it to happen. Most people don't even know what the early stages look like (read Heinlein for some insights into that) but when the lights start going out it's a good bet that the shivas are in the home stretch and sprinting toward the finish line.

Half of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out as City Shrinks

Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.

As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.

Other U.S. cities have gone partially dark to save money, among them Colorado Springs; Santa Rosa, California; and Rockford, Illinois. Detroit’s plan goes further: It would leave sparsely populated swaths unlit in a community of 713,000 that covers more area than Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco combined. Vacant property and parks account for 37 square miles (96 square kilometers), according to city planners.

A good sign the so-called "leaders" in the affected areas are unable or unwilling to stop the collapse is when they decide to use shortages of services and goods to control the population.

“You have to identify those neighborhoods where you want to concentrate your population,” said Chris Brown, Detroit’s chief operating officer. “We’re not going to light distressed areas like we light other areas.”

The final collapse is still not going to happen over night but in some places the nights between now and then are going to be darker and more dangerous.

Fucking Governments.

Granny Got Her Gun, Then Went to Jail

Report from myfoxdetroit

I am pretty sure there is more to this story than meets the eye. My first impression is that this woman is seriously disturbed but the police did not hold her and did not confiscate her P22. That leads me to suspect that there may be something to her story about harassment and police indifference.

In any case the news report was surprisingly neutral.

REVOLVERS: Boring, Antiquated, & Stupid

Courtesy of the TheYankeeMarshal.

I especially like the advice about not going out with the prettiest girl in school. It may be just the aftereffects of the anesthesia (I had a wisdom tooth removed today) but I imagined Sean Connery's voice telling me, "Losers always whine about doing their best. The man with a revolver finishes the job, calmly reloads, then goes home and fucks the prom queen."

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day -- Again

I didn't have time to create anything new for this year so I'm just going to post my favorite past offering again:

Prediction my Ass!

Barhardt is making a big deal* -- again -- of "Communist-Homosexualist Infiltration" (My, doesn't that sound evil?) of the Catholic Church. It is mostly just a collection of the half-baked raving I've come to expect from her but as one of her "proofs" she cites the Second Secret of Fatima making a big deal of the "prohecies" therein. She asks:

How did three children know the name of the next pope, who wouldn’t even be elected and thus given the name "Pius XI" five years before the fact? How did three children foresee and date World War II?

The so-called miracle at Fatima happened in 1917 while WWI was already raging so predicting its end is not too remarkable. Wars come and then they go. Similarly, predicting the beginning of another war (assumed to be WWII) is not exactly evidence of precognition.

How about that part about predicitng the name of of a future Pope. OK, that could be a real prophecy. Pope Pius XI (born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti) did not ascend to the Papacy until 1922 -- almost five year after the alledged miracle.

Wow!

Of course, if you are one of the half dozen people in the world who read this blog you know there is catch here. This one is simple: The Second Secret wasn't written until 1941. Every "prediction" it contains happened before the the "secret" was revealed.

Just how gullible does she think we are? In reality, any prophecy in the letters were postdiction made after the fact.

*Sorry, no link but it was posted on April 28, 2012 at 10:05 PM MST. Just in case you want to search it out.

Overreaction.

Toy grenade prompts NYC office building evacuation

The police bomb squad was called to 2 World Financial Center in lower Manhattan at midday when a security guard reported a package that seemed suspicious. Brookfield Properties, which runs the property, ordered an evacuation as a precaution.

I'm sure you've seen one. In fact, you can buy them on Amazon

Even if the grenade had been real what could it have realistically destroyed? It makes no sense to evacuate an entire building for a threat that encompasses the mail room at most. Everyone in a forty-four floor building was evacuated for 90 minutes in response to a room sized threat.

Follow Up Report on Alliant 300MP

Back in October, I did a post on Alliant's new 300MP powder in a carbine. Those values were for the low end of the recommended load range. Last month I was able to get to a range where I could set up a chronograph so I tested loads at the high end of the range.

• Gun = Marlin 1894C 18.5" barrel
• Bullet = Hornady 158 gr XTP/FP
• Case = Starline 357 magnum
• Primer = Winchester Small Pistol
• Powder = Alliant 300 MP
• Ambient temperature = 88F (prox)

Charge Weight	Average	Standard Deviation	Minimum	Maximum	Spread
18.0	1,839	4	1,846	1,836	10
18.2	1,853	7	1,844	1,859	15
18.4	1,854	10	1,870	1,841	29

At 18.2 gr -- still 0.4 gr below the maximum recommend charge for 158 gr jacketed bullets -- the XTP slugs were clocking as fast or faster than any commercial ammunition I've tested so far except for the Buffalo Bore 19C. Since Tim Sundles must be in league with the devil I don't really feel too bad about that.

I think I have found my new go to powder for 357 magnum in the 1894C.

Gay Student Suspended for Having a Taser

Gay Ind. teen had stun gun to ward off school bullies, now he's suspended

(CBS) INDIANAPOLIS - A gay Indiana teen whose mother gave him a stun gun to defend himself against bullies is facing expulsion for bringing the weapon to school and reportedly firing it into the air.

Firing a single shot weapon into the air is probably not the best tactic. However, it did work and success counts for a lot in a self-defense encounter. Nevertheless a mild rebuke is in order for lapse of good judgement.

Of course, the Principal of the school, instead of good advice and some common sense, comes up with this particular bit of stupidity:

Arsenal Tech principal Larry Yarrell says that Young is a flamboyant dresser and that school staff had been trying to get him to "tone down" his accessories.

OK, Principal Yarrel, What's next? You going to tell the next girl that get's raped it's her fault because she wore "provocative" clothing?

The inmates really are in charge of the asylum -- or at least in charge of schools in Indiana.

Rob Pincus on the Compact 1911

H/T to The Truth about Guns.

Grant Cunnningham also has some commentary on the subject.

My comments

A full-sized 1911 was one of my first handguns. I bought it largely on the recommendation of the experts writing for the the gun magazines. I finally got to where I could shoot it reasonably well but I never did -- and still do not -- care much for them.

I finally sold that first 1911 and bought a Glock. Once again because I listened to the experts who touted its high capacity and light weight. I sold that gun a year or so later. The Glock was far more reliable than the 1911 but about the same time I was starting to shoot DA revolvers -- a Ruger Security Six and a S&W Model 14 were my first two. Frankly, by comparison, the Glock was coitus interruptus but the 1911 was erectile dysfunction.

I still have a full-size Kimber I picked up cheap and a Spanish made 1911 clone I picked up even cheaper. I put maybe 100 rounds a year through each just to give me an excuse to clean and inspect them. I keep them to trade off when the SHTF.