Just WTH Is It With Feds And Guns?

Just WTH is it with Feds and guns? If this isn't a love/hate relationship I don't know what is. First they try to take them away from law abiding citizens but can't wait to get their hands on them for themselves.

EXCLUSIVE: The director of the Federal Air Marshal Service is retiring after being investigated for his role in an alleged operation to acquire guns for officials' personal use, FoxNews.com has learned.

Director Robert Bray's home was raided in December in connection with the ongoing probe, according to sources and documents. Law enforcement and congressional sources told FoxNews.com that Bray's recently announced retirement, which is effective in June, is directly related to the investigation.

Transportation Security Administration officials say no such raid ever happened.

But Bray allegedly is among several officials who were obtaining weapons through this operation.

The probe stems from whistleblower accusations involving federal Air Marshal supervisor Danny Poulos. Sources say the Department of Homeland Security inspector general is involved, and possibly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. TSA officials disputed that those agencies are involved, but acknowledged that there is an internal review underway by the TSA Office of Inspection into the supervisor's alleged activity.

The supervisor, a TSA official confirmed to FoxNews.com, is "on administrative leave."

Poulos is accused of using the agency's federal firearms license and his relationship with gun manufacturer Sig Sauer to obtain discounted and free guns. He then provided them to high-up agency officials for their personal use, according to whistleblower documents obtained by FoxNews.com and interviews with multiple officials with knowledge of the ongoing probe.

There's big bucks involved in equipping an agency with handguns. These weapons are not cheap.

The Air Marshal Service, as part of their expansion following the 9/11 terror attacks, adopted the SIG P229 handgun and has used the system across its ranks, which swelled to nearly 5,000 agents. Bray accepted the position of director of the agency in 2008. The following year the AMS announced a switch to the SIG P250 despite the fact that other federal law enforcement agencies rejected the gun after it failed performance testing.

The P250 is a subcompact that may not meet rigid government requirements for any number of reasons. Sig makes a very decent, high quality handgun but that particular configuration may only be suitable for air marshals concealed carry. IMHO as an undercover or off-duty weapon, it would be ok, but that's just me. I carry a .357 or .45, nothing less.

More here and here.

Divorce DC Style

Tony and Heather Podesta have called it quits. Once Washington DC's quintessential couple, their divorce proceedings have opened up a rare glimpse into the underpinnings of power at the highest levels of government.

This Washington Free Beacon posts the claims and counter-claims filed by the Podestas. These documents

tell stories not only of a May-December romance gone sour, but of how obscene wealth can be amassed through rent-seeking and influence-peddling in Washington D.C., and of the hoary means by which the princelings of the capital and their consorts maintain and grow that wealth. They tell stories not only of an ugly divorce, but of the power of lobbying, of how one family maneuvered to the center of the nation’s dominant political party, of the transactional relationships, gargantuan self-regard, and empty posturing that insulates, asbestos-like, the D.C. bubble.

That the broken couple now uses the tools of their trade—the phone-call to a friend, the selective leaking of documents, the hiring of attorneys, the launch of a public-relations campaign—against one another is more than ironic. It is fitting. Tony and Heather Podesta reached the pinnacle of wealth and influence in Barack Obama’s Washington. Now they, like he, are in eclipse.

Ultimately it's all about the dollar. Those who seek to enslave us also offer for sale the key to remove some of the chains ... at a price.

As government expands, extending its reach to every aspect of business, every sector of the economy, private citizens and corporations require sherpas to lead them through the mountains of regulations and tax provisions, to discover exemptions and special favors and other forms of relief or favoritism to improve the bottom line. And who better to act as sherpas than the relatives of the Democrats who impose the regulations and tax provisions in the first place, who better than the lively proprietors of a family business operating in the luxurious and morally uncomplicated world of the caste of limousine liberals who dominate politics, culture, news, and finance.

This post was written under the Pale Moon browser.

Sponge Bob Gas Pants

This device makes gasoline from sea water

I really want to see what effect this has at the pumps. Then again, if the politicians have their way and get lubed up by the big oil companies, nothing much may change.
From the UK Daily Mail:

The US Navy has developed a radical new fuel made from seawater.

They say it could change the way we produce fuel - and allow warships to stay at sea for years at a time.
Navy scientists have spent several years developing the process to take seawater and use it as fuel, and have now used the 'game changing' fuel to power a radio controlled plane in the first test.

The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is being hailed as 'a game-changer' because it would allow warships to remain at sea for far longer.

The US has a fleet of 15 military oil tankers, and only aircraft carriers and some submarines are equipped with nuclear propulsion.

All other vessels must frequently abandon their mission for a few hours to navigate in parallel with the tanker, a delicate operation, especially in bad weather.

The ultimate goal is to eventually get away from the dependence on oil altogether, which would also mean the navy is no longer hostage to potential shortages of oil or fluctuations in its cost.

The predicted cost of jet fuel using these technologies is in the range of $3-$6 per gallon, and with sufficient funding and partnerships, this approach could be commercially viable within the next seven to ten years.

Slap Happy Surgeon

Our daughter was one of the fastest kids in school, she still holds the girls' middle school record in the hurdles. Unfortunately this has cost her. She has been complaining for some time about her hips "snapping" and aching; after several tests we found out that due to a congenital condition, she will need to have both her hips replaced. It doesn't need to be done right away, but the discomfort is mounting.

Annnnnnd guess who her surgeon is...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Federal investigators say a Syracuse surgeon often slapped anesthetized patients on the buttocks and insulted them before surgery.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that the doctor slapped patients so hard he sometimes left red marks or hand prints.

St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center faces sanctions over the issue, including a possible termination from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

A complaint filed in January with the state Health Department identifies the doctor as Michael Clarke, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hip replacement. The state health department's findings are the basis of the federal report.

From what I have been able to gather about this man, as a surgeon there is none better; as a human being there are few worse. It is his conduct, not his competence, that is in question.

Still, we are considering the services of some other surgeon. And perhaps another hospital also since the one he was in appears to have been more interested in the lucrative hip surgery field than in patient dignity and safety. For a typical hip or knee replacement surgery where the patient is in the hospital for two and a half days, the bill is over $26,000. Many of these patients are on Medicare which is how the feds got wind of this.

Buh Buy Mozilla

The gay nazis are on a roll, or so it seems. Never heard of this guy Eich and with his abilities I imagine he won't be out of a good paying job for too long.

Anyway, I deleted Firefox as a browser and using Safari after getting sick and tired of IE crashing on me.

Thanks Odie for letting me steal your "No Firefox" image.
Safari will take some getting used to...

People In Gas Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones

Mens rea is Latin for "guilty mind". In criminal law, it is known as a culpable mental state. This is the knowledge or intent that the act committed would be a crime. For obvious reasons children are not held to the same standard of conduct as adults; except in some countries apparently.

There is only one way to top this surreal piece of Pakistani juris prudence, in utero arraignments.

Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP) - While many children his age are still learning how to crawl, a nine-month-old boy in Pakistan has been accused of attempted murder in a case observers say highlights endemic flaws in the country's legal system.

Baby Mohammad Musa along with his father and other family members was booked for throwing rocks at gas company officials in the working-class Ahata Thanedaran neighbourhood on February 1, the family's lawyer Chaudhry Irfan Sadiq told AFP Friday.

Inspector Kashif Muhammad, who attended the alleged crime scene and has since been suspended, wrote in his report that it was a case of attempted murder.

Appearing in a packed court room with others accused in the case on Thursday, Musa was seen crying as his grandfather Muhammad Yasin held him on his shoulder.

Yasin later fed him milk from a bottle while fielding questions from reporters.

"Everyone in the court was saying 'How can such a small child be implicated in any case'? What kind of police do we have?" the 50-year-old labourer said.

The is the kind of police you have when your nation has embraced the demonic utterances of a child molester for religious and moral standards. At least he won't be executed until he is weaned from the bottle.

More of the story here.



I apologize for the title of this post.

Don't Mess With My Printers

One of my roles is the SPOC for IT work in our office.
I finally got a technician to yank one of our color printers and fix it. The busted part was only $6.
It was broken by some idiot slamming shut the front cover.

I sent out this email to advise the staff that the printer was on line again.

The HP 3505 color printer by the library has been repaired.
This is the second time a ham handed person has broken a color printer at this location.
We are not amused.
These machines and the toner to support them are not cheap.

Do not open up this printer. It is not a goat and you can't read its entrails.
Do not play with it if it is not working.

It is a machine; physical punishment such as slamming, pounding and water boarding have no effect on this soulless contraption.

It does not fear you.

If you send a job to this printer, check to make sure the job has printed.
Printers and little puppies both need paper. Check the paper drawers to see that they contain the right supplies.

If it doesn't print, let someone in IT or myself know. An email would be nice.
Don't leave it jammed up for days and then complain that nothing works.

Do not use it to print your vacation itinerary or recipes for hamster cordon bleu.

Stand by the 3505 printer and look up at the top of the library door towards the ceiling.
There, on the left.
That is a camera.
We will find you.

Yes, there really is a camera just for this printer.
I had the investigators install one there.
I am a little pissed.
God pity the fool if I catch him. I am not a gentle man.

Chicagoland

Forget about the taxpayers.
Forget about those seeking justice.
It's all about saving their jobs.
Disgusting.

For the first time in Illinois, attorneys on the case say, a judicial disciplinary panel has begun tackling the question of whether a judge whose psychotic episodes can apparently be controlled through medication should be allowed to return to the bench.

Judge Cynthia Brim, 55, testified before the Illinois Courts Commission for more than two hours on Friday in a bid to save her $182,000-a-year job. The seven-member panel – made up of judges from outside of Cook County as well as two citizens – will later issue a written decision.

Brim was found not guilty of misdemeanor battery by reason of insanity last year for shoving a sheriff’s deputy outside the Daley Center during a manic episode in March 2012. A day earlier, while on the bench, she broke into an extended rant while presiding over a traffic court call at the Markham courthouse.

Story here.

A Putrrhic Victory?

The Spectator has an interesting read by Newsweek’s former Moscow bureau chief, Owen Matthews, who tells us not to worry. In the long run, Putin's actions in Crimea will not be to Russia's advantage.

In a nutshell, Crimea is a worrisome carbuncle on Ukraine's backside. Cut it off, get your political and economic systems fixed and the Ukes will be a lot better off. And please, stop already with the mail order bride scams.

[...] Let Crimea go: it will be the making of Ukraine and the end of Vladimir Putin. Without Crimea, there will never again be a pro-Moscow government in Kiev. Ukraine will have a chance to become a governable country — a strongly pro-European one with a Russian minority of around 15 per cent. Putin will have gained Crimea but lost Ukraine for ever. And without Ukraine, as former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski famously said, ‘Russia can no longer be an empire.’

[...] Thanks to Putin’s rash decision to occupy Crimea, not just the EU but its most powerful members — notably Germany, the UK, France and Poland — realise that supporting Ukraine is no longer about handouts but principle. Countries that strive towards European values — and suffer for it — should be rewarded and protected. Angela Merkel, the European leader who knows Putin best and is usually the most conciliatory towards Russia, told the Bundestag last week that he was ‘on a different planet’. Brussels has hurried to offer an amended Association Agreement; the US has backed a generous bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

[...] What’s more, in taking Crimea Putin has made himself a hostage to Kiev. Putin’s main economic leverage is that he sits on Ukraine’s gas pipelines: but now Kiev sits on Crimea’s road, rail, water and power. And unlike the gas wars that the Kremlin launched against Ukraine in 2005 and 2009, which cut off Moscow’s European customers, a Ukrainian blockade of Crimea will hurt only Crimeans.

There's a lot more here.

Sports Wisdom

"I won't know until my barber tells me on Monday."
- Knute Rockne, when asked why Notre Dame had lost a game

"I tell him 'Attaway to hit, George.'"
- Jim Frey, K.C. Royals manager when asked what advice he gives George Brett on hitting

"I learned a long time ago that 'minor surgery' is when they do the operation on someone else, not you."
- Bill Walton, PortlandTrial Blazers

"Our biggest concern this season will be diaper rash."
- George MacIntyre, Vanderbilt football coach surveying the team roster that included 26 freshmen and 25 sophomores.

"The only difference between me and General Custer is that I have to watch the films on Sunday."
- Rick Venturi, Northwestern football coach


"My knees look like they lost a knife fight with a midget."
- E.J. Holub, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker regarding his 12 knee operations

H/T Theo Spark


And something for naval aviators.

The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life to experience all three at the same time.
- Author Unknown

Another Top Ten List

Here's another top ten list for 2013 - countries with the most executions.

In order of ascending executions:

	Country	Executions
10	Vietnam	7
9	Japan	8
8	Yemen	13
7	Sudan	21
6	Somalia	34
5	USA	39
4	Saudi Arabia	79
3	Iraq	169
2	Iran	369
1	China	1500

Commies keep it quiet, No one really knows how many were executed in Vietnam and especially in China; it's a closely guarded state secret, but estimates place it somewhere between lots and lots to who knows. When you have nearly 1.5 billion people to mess with you can get careless... I used 1500 for China because they have soldiers practicing mass executions. I have a sneaking suspicion that I severely underestimated the Chinese.

The list was compiled by Amnesty International. and was heralded by a UK Telegraph article as the "ten most brutal places in the world" (*cough* bul...hit *cough*). But look again, this time at the number of executions per 100,000 population.

	Country	Rate/100000
10	Japan	0.006
9	Vietnam	0.007
8	USA	0.012
7	Yemen	0.055
6	Sudan	0.059
5	China	0.111
4	Saudi Arabia	0.289
3	Somalia	0.326
2	Iran	0.456
1	Iraq	0.519

The allegedly bloodthirsty US has a rate only twice that of the peace loving Japanese. And of course the Telegraph ignores it's own article concerning a UN report that the UK is one of the most violent places in the world.

The Hornet's Nest

There is a movie coming out this Spring about the war in Afghanistan.
There are no actors, only soldiers.
It's the real deal.

Top Ten Small Cities To Aviod

The Movoto real estate blog has this to say:

After studying more than 200 small cities, we’ve concluded that Wilmington, DE is the most dangerous in terms of crime. It’s joined in this dubious honor by nine other places to comprise our 10 most dangerous small cities in America:

1. Wilmington, DE
2. Canton, OH
3. Jackson, TN
4. Rocky Mount, NC
5. North Little Rock, AR
6. Pensacola, FL
7. Daytona Beach, FL
8. Homestead, FL
8. Lauderhill, FL
10. Warner Robins, GA

Story here.

A Nation Of Felons

There are so many laws in this country that a lawyer has recently wrote a book detailing how the average American commits three felonies a day. There are so many unknown laws on the books that any one can risk a prison sentence for almost anything and never know that they're a felon.

The Smallest Minority has quite a work up on this.

Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged wrote: "There is no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking the law. Create a nation of lawbreakers and then you can cash in on the guilt."

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
-- Winston Churchill

Judges, legislators and cops. It's a mess. And they are writing more laws every day.

How To Save Taxpayers $100 Million A Year

They'll go nutzoid over this.

Rumsfeld says ‘a trained ape’ could outperform Obama in Afghanistan

You know it wasn’t a racist comment. You also know it doesn’t matter. MSNBC has their see-what-racists-all-Obama-opponents-are talking point for the next few days.

More to the point, though, knowing Donald Rumsfeld he doesn’t care about any of that, which is one of the things I love about him. The far more important point here is the point itself - that the U.S. had a good relationship with Karzai in Afghanistan when the Bush Administration was in office. It was only when Obama and crew came in that we suddenly couldn’t work with him.

Video clip here.