I have no love for El Presidente but this flap about his wedding ring appears to be crap. I am not an expert but a blowup from a high resolution photo (available from gettyimages) doesn't look at all like Arabic script.
There are plenty of reason to throw the bum out but this just tars his opponents with the stupid brush. Jeez, did the TSA infiltrate the WingNut Daily?
For those who can pass off the deaths of thousands of Mexicans as collateral damage in the War on Guns/War on Drugs, here is a little walk down memory lane. Fast and Furious -- also know as "Gunwalker" -- wasn't the first time the US Government has engineered the death of thousands in the pursuit of a social goal.
Although mostly forgotten today, the "chemist's war of Prohibition" remains one of the strangest and most deadly decisions in American law-enforcement history. As one of its most outspoken opponents, Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner of New York City during the 1920s, liked to say, it was "our national experiment in extermination."
Read the rest here
H/T to Sipsey Street Irregulars
And it really beats the heck out of Honey Boo Boo.
(Picture links to a site that may not be safe for work)
I normally pay about as much attention the Olympics these days as I do the Acadmey Awards -- that is not at all. I came out of that shell for a few minutes today and discovered that Voula Papachristou has been dropped from her country's team because of a allegedly "racist" joke she made on Twitter. Translated it was:
"With so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food!!!"
WTF? That isn't even in particularly poor taste so I dug a bit more (meaning I plugged her name into some search engines and followed the bunny trails). It seems that Ms. Papachristou has shown some sympathy for the Golden Dawn Party in Greece. Perceived as being "far-right" and "nationalist" the party is very much in disfavor with the ruling classes. Perhaps wishing to divert negative press for their part in the meltdown of the EU, the Greek state decided to take advantage of Ms. Papachristou's very minor gaffe and throw her under the bus.
I do think she was badly mistreated by her government. What she did hardly deserves removal from a place she worked very hard to get to. Still, her removal from the team does demonstrate that the Olympic Games are not about the athletes. No more now than they were in 1936 when the Nazis tried to use them to demonstrate the superiority of the "Aryan Race" (whatever in the hell that is). They were and still are about the glory of the state.
First, it is not a "tragedy". Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. What happened in Aurora was an atrocity.
Second, I am hearing anti-gunners yet again floating one of their eternal question, "Why does anyone need <fill in you favorite evil gun or feature>?
OK, I used to be try and be reasonable with them. I tried to explain why a certain "evil" gun can be a rational choice. Then I figured out they don't want an answer. It was like debunking the Creationists on the old Talk.Origins. No matter how often someone explained it to one, he just backed off for while and came back later with the same line of bullshit
Life to short to waste it on idiots so now, in my dotage, I'm going to just give the short answer: It has nothing to do with "need". It's about what I want and it is none of your fucking business why I want it.
In a sane world, there is no reason why I have to justify my choices to you. I don't have to give you a reason why I use Linux instead of Windows or a Mac. I don't have to explain why I drink Southern Comfort or Jack Daniels nor explain why I don't drink Rum or Tequila. I don't have to justify to you the sex or number of people I sleep with. It is none of your business what kind of guns I own or how many rounds each will fire before reloading.
I hope that is clear enough.
I don't know why it so hard for some people to understand that steel jacketed bullets can cause fires. Iron is pyrophoric and the small particles generated by an impact with a hard surface will ignite spontaneously in air. The phenomena is well known to chemists, firemen, and anyone who has used a flint and steel.
Copper and lead are safer but caution is still necessary. Both metals are also pyrophoric but are more difficult to ignite because the oxide scale is not as brittle as that for iron. Impacts on steel plates will generate sparks if the copper jacket fragments are small enough.
It occured to me as I was typing the above that Utah was called a "red" state even before the infamous map from the 2000 election. This is because of color of the hematite rich rock and concretions in its deserts. Hematite is iron oxide and the small particles generated by an impact will ignite spontaneously in air. So Utah deserts may be at a higher risk of bullet induced fires under drought conditions.
Jeez, people. Let's be careful out there.
On this Independence Day you might want to read How are we doin'? by Vin Suprynowicz. I think he aptly summarizes the feelings of a large number of people
Read the rest here.How are we doing, safeguarding those “unalienable Rights” with which we are “endowed by our Creator” — in support of which 56 patriots solemnly pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred Honor, 236 years ago?
We remain free by many measures. Americans can still pretty much live where we want, work where we want, drive where we want. In fact, for women and racial minorities, many of those liberties have expanded, compared to 70 years ago. We can all be proud of that.
But the average urban American can be excused for sensing the police state now constricts like a boa around many of our remaining freedoms.
From the July 2012 Newsletter of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network.
Hayes summarizes the statements made by Zimmerman after the shooting and covers how the media may be distorting the story. He also points out out how the the prosecution behavior in the case indicates the state may be out to get Zimmerman in any way possible.
The penultimate paragraph is instructive,
Lastly, as I write this, there has been another bond hearing to see if the judge would again grant bail for Zimmerman. The prosecution argued strenuously that they believed Zimmerman was the initial aggressor in the incident, and that at trial, Zimmerman would not have the right to claim self defense as a defense to the crime of second degree murder. In making this statement, the prosecution pretty much agreed that Zimmerman had the right to use deadly force because he was being assaulted, but they claim that because he started the altercation, he doesn’t have the right to claim self defense
Looks like the prosecution's strategy is to admit that Martin was beating on Zimmerman but try to get the judge to disallow a claim of self defense under the so-called Stand Your Ground law because Zimmerman started it. I don't know if Zimmerman, in his zeal to be a good citizen and help out law enforcement, told the cops enough to make the above strategy viable. That remains to be seen but, if he did, it is just one more example of why an honest citizen should tell the cops no more than absolutely necessary.
Always remember that anything you say can and will be taken out of context, reworded, remixed, and then used against you.
Wielded, it appears by a flaming idiot.
Giant Wildfire Started During Bachelor Party
JULY 2---The largest wildfire burning in Arizona was started during a bachelor party when one shotgun-toting celebrant fired a shell that promises to shoot “100 feet of fire, setting everything in its path ablaze,” The Smoking Gun has learned.
The Sunflower Fire--which has burned nearly 18,000 acres of the Tonto National Forest and is not fully contained--began in mid-May after five Arizona men gathered to celebrate the upcoming May 19 nuptials of Bryan Reeder. The group--all in their mid-20s--traveled from Mesa to the Sycamore Creek area for a weekend “campout and bachelor party,” according to court records.
Note to future idiots with a shotgun. If you're the type of fool that is tempted to shoot an incendiary round into dry brush, do the rest of the world a favor and shoot yourself in the head instead. That way the rest of the world can get a good laugh at your expense and you are less likely to pass your pathetic, defective genes on to future generations.
