Friday, May 30, 2008

Welcome to the BATFU Building!

ATF Dedicates Its New National Headquarters

Award-Winning Design Incorporates Latest Federal Security Standards
We talked yesterday about the grand unveiling.

Funny. The BATFU press release doesn't say anything about the $19 Million in cost overruns. Oh, here's why--they replaced a $65,000 conference table with one that only cost half that. Besides, look at what they're considering scaling back on.

Still, with all the hoopla, I thought it would be nice to see what our tax dollars are paying for. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new BATFU Building:


Wait...that isn't right. OK, let's try this...


What th...??? I wonder if this morning's computer glitch is still messing things up...OK, let's try it one more time and...VOILA!


Sa-ay...nice digs! I'd want to wear my good man slacks and bubble wrap hat if I worked there. And they sublease to retail tenants? How are they going to maintain "latest federal security standards" with all that going on?

Maybe after Heller is decided, someone'll open up a gun shop.

Oh, and there's one more photo--this one from the press conference. Why that looks like "Maximum Mike," and I do believe he's addressing the reporters from behind that $32,500 conference table...


Is it just me, or does that design on the back wall look like a giant Leatherman tool?

UPDATE: This photograph that I found on a couple other websites looks quite a bit different than the architectural illustration.

When Thulsa Snuffed Snuffy

Obama campaign dumps 'Hillary supremacist' priest
Minister who served as Dem candidate's faith adviser said Clinton thought being white entitled her to victory

Snuffy Pleger seems out of control when even Thulsa doesn't want anything to do with him. He starts out doing a bad impersonation of Frank Gorshin impersonating James Cagney. Then he devolves into a cross between Adolf Hitler and Elmer Gantry.

I don't know how much more blatant Snuffy and Trinity United need to get in shilling for a candidate though, in order to get Americans United Against Non-Marxist Religion's attention--or the IRS's.

Any way you look at it, this guy acts like an unhinged, self-loathing white who would fit in great with these lunatics. And notice how hard he tries to talk in a way he thinks this audience will respond to--then notice how his accent and demeanor change when he's got a "mainstream" audience. What a Pfoney Pfraud. And tell me, with his adopting that street persona, he had no idea what "snuff out" meant.

He's crossed the line. I know Cardinal George was afraid to rein him in and demand obedience because Snuffy threatened to take his congregation and go home, but he has become such a national embarrassment that the church can no longer look the other way. Since American Catholics have not done their job to repudiate one of their clerics using his position in the church to spread racist hatermongering and covetousness, it's time for the Vatican to lay down the law--up to and including excommunicating their rogue if he does not submit.

[Via HZ]

We're the Only Ones Lapping it Up Enough

U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce computers...
See, because government officials are "The Only Ones" who can be trusted with laptop data, to the point of assigning themselves authority to inspect yours...

Gee, I hope nobody would think less of me if I ponder out loud on how badly the story I'm hearing here stinks. Because I have absolutely no evidence to speculate about bribes for setting something down and turning a blind eye--I'd much prefer to believe this is just monumental stupidity bordering on a criminally negligent security breach instead of a deliberate act of treason.

[Via Plug Nickel Times]

Calling California Gun Owners

From Tom McClintock for Congress:
Please Help Tom McClintock Get Out The Vote!

Saturday, May 31st – 10am
Sunday, June 1st – 12pm
Monday, June 2nd – 10am
Tuesday, June 3rd – 9am

Campaign Headquarters
1700 Eureka Rd, Suite 170
Roseville, CA 95661

Please call for information regarding alternate meeting locations and volunteer opportunities.
(916) 783-4411
(530) 613-1188

You know why it's important, right? And you're not about to let some guy in Ohio do more to help elect your representative than you're willing to do yourself?

Don't Wink at Gun Owners

An Open Challenge to Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr

Mr. Barr,

As WarOnGuns visitors were recently reminded, based on reporting by Gun Owners of America:

On September 28, 1996, you issued a memo on Congressional letterhead advocating:

The Lautenberg amendment with the Barr language is strong protection for women and children.
On October 12, 1996, you sent a letter to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, claiming you "improved" the Lautenberg language so it could not be struck down by the courts, stating:

Under the Lautenberg language -- which was cleared up through my amendatory language that was adopted -- there was no consistent definition of "crime of domestic violence," and therefore the entire provision would have been declared unconstitutional. My language corrected this deficiency by setting forth the common elements of the crime that would apply to everyone.
On Mar. 6, 1997, your editorial, "Don't Wink at Violence," was published in USA Today. In it, you wrote:

[Lautenberg] is important and worthwhile legislation, and we cannot allow its effectiveness to be reduced.
Despite the fact you then voted for Lautenberg as part of an omnibus spending bill, there are those who would like to hear your reasoning. I'm among those.

But I think you need to go one step further. With the exception of your USA Today piece, which can be purchased individually (but not disseminated in total without violating copyright), the other referenced documents aren't accessible to scrutiny.

This issue will not go away, Mr. Barr--you will either address it directly, and explain yourself--or ignore it.

I challenge you to release and post the full text of your memo, your AJC letter, and your USA Today opinion piece, and let gun owners read your words for themselves. And I challenge the Libertarian Party to demand it of you as well.

Cashing Out

Rosanne Cash was all in black yesterday, but not because it was the fave color of her dad, Johnny. The country songstress and 32 others dressed in mourning for a noon demonstration at Times Square, where they remembered the Virginia Tech tragedy by lying down for three minutes — the time it took Seung-Hui Cho to kill 32 students and himself. The demo, attended by Mayor Bloomberg, was organized by protest site easyguns.com, a grass-roots group started by Washington Philharmonic cellist Abby Spangler.

Roseanne Cash is not on the list.

But she ought to be.

Model Behavior

British supermodel Naomi Campbell has been charged with a string of offences after allegedly assaulting a police officer at London's Heathrow airport, her lawyer said Thursday.

And lookee here--a whole big section on this head case's "acts of violence."

Assault...assault...assault...assault...

Good grief.

No wonder she doesn't want people having guns --particularly those in her employ. She's afraid they might be just as violent and out of control as she is. Or at least inclined to defend themselves.

Projection seems to be a recurring theme with people who don't trust others to be responsible with freedom, doesn't it?

We're the Only Ones Provocative Enough



"Les Seules" serving and protecting in Quebec.

How do you tell them apart from violent criminals?

You can't?

No wonder they don't want people to have guns.

[I can't find the email to credit who sent me this tip--sorry.]

Grading the Graders

The term paper author responds.

I'm not enabling comments on this post because I'd like to keep them all over there in one place.

Always Think "Hopefully"?

We’re glad the agency is now setting the record straight and, hopefully, will provide accurate, honest and straightforward information in the future.
This is more on the "Always Think Forfeiture" fiasco, and it is unintentionally revealing.

Honesty is not something you should have to hope for. It's something honorable men and women demand of themselves. It's one of those "gimmes" I just referred to.

Still, I wonder at the sudden conciliatory tone, and from "Maximum Mike" himself. Perhaps everyone wants to be on good behavior during an "audit". Lord knows the powers who prefer to work in darkness have had some high profile illuminations lately.

Based on observation, I think it more likely this is just the BATFU CYA MO. I can't help but speculate on what might be revealed if Rep. Sali demands all documents related to this, including producing the names of the other representatives he was told had inquired into the matter before him. If any really did.

That's the problem with broken trust. People never know what to believe, and even when you're telling the truth, your motives are suspect. It's that boy crying wolf thang.

Anyway, head on over to the title link and read the whole thing. You might want to leave a comment there, too, because some of the leftist flamers are in need of a good dousing.

[Via AvgJoe]

What a Morning!

And I had so much I wanted to accomplish--and hoped to be finished with by now so that I could get on with my real life.

Right after I'd completed my history post, and was working on the next feature, my Internet went out. The "online" light was out on the modem. I did the standard unplugging, waiting, reconnecting--even rebooted--nothing.

Better call my ISP. Wait--the phone is dead. Oh yeah, that's right, phone is a package deal, along with cable. If the computer's out, so is the phone.

No worries. Cell phone. "Go Phone" actually--I have no need for a monthly plan, so have a pay-as-you-go phone for needed family use only--a kid goes out he can have it to reach us--not to chat or text other kids.

Fine--where's the damn phone? Who had it last? Aw come on.

Here it is--on the bookcase. I've asked to always have it returned to the desk in the kitchen. Oh, well--my government doesn't listen to me, why should my children?

And it's dead as a damned doornail. Naturally. Uh, I don't suppose the charger is anywhere around here?

Found it. That only took 20 minutes. Chargechargechargecharge...chargecharge...DONE!

"Emergency calls only."

Who ran it out of minutes...? And didn't tell me?

OK, time to go to the store, get a refill card.

Great--all they have is $50 cards. I'm not gonna use $50 before the minutes expire. If I wanted to use that much in a month, I'd have a damn cell plan. OK, where's the next store--oh, wait--here's some $20 cards by the register for impulse buyers.

Alright. Scratch off the back strip to reveal the PIN. Check.

Dial 1-800... Check.

Welcome to...blahblah...press "One" for English.

I do. I get Spanish. I press "One" again. It hangs up.

Dial it again. Repeat process. "One." Hola, amigo!

Third time. Nope, they are not gonna let me recharge. Wait, what's this? There's a punch-out card to take into the store so they can refill minutes. To the service desk goes I.

Naturally, the man behind the counter knows nothing about how to do it. Leave it to corporate to implement a marketing program and not, you know, train anybody. But he pages another woman, and she also reveals she has no clue. Still, she's smart enough to use her phone to call the number and hook me up to where I can enter MY number, and the deed is done. I got phone.

Back home we go. And of course, whatever the glitch was, the modem is sitting there innocuously, like nothing ever happened, the "online" light glowing green and steady. And here I am.

In the course of my life I have literally thought I was going to die several times, where my decisions and reactions were all that stood in the way of me getting seriously, perhaps terminally, messed up. I've been blessed with the genetic predisposition to act rather than freeze. Things go slow motion. My senses are heightened. I always seem to know what to do. I claim no credit. It's nothing I've earned. It just is.

So I can pretty much handle the big picture and not go into adrenalin seizure until after the moment has passed. But the little stuff is my Achilles Heel. See, I expect certain things--I stole the golf term and call them "gimmes." These are the nits you should never need to worry about--they ought to be automatic. You know, simple take-for-granted stuff, like "shall not be infringed..."

And when they don't happen, when for want of a nail all my plans are thwarted, well, Vol becomes very angry indeed.

I do need to work on that, because we all know life is generally a series of little things. Still, temper tantrums can be like naps--every once in a while they can be therapeutic--plus I generally get very creative in my cussing, and having the wife laugh at what I come up with usually breaks the spell and gets me laughing right back.

Now I've got some work to do. If you sent me anything to consider for posting, I might not get to it. But first I need to get something wet that I can spill all over the keyboard.

This Day in History: May 30

That they are perfectly united in opinion and determined to pursue the most effectual measures, and to use the whole force of the Kingdom, if it be found necessary, to reduce the rebellious and refractory provinces and colonies.

And we know how their inflexible arrogance worked out. Isn't it revealing how the willingness of tyrants to desist and negotiate increases based on the amount of force a rival is capable of fielding?

That's why, when the Second Amendment is working properly, the incentive for abusers to behave themselves likewise increases, with the seemingly paradoxical (but only on the surface)result of a more peaceable society. The deterrent effect reduces the likelihood of physical conflict just as surely as it gives an individual predator pause to reconsider.

Those working to weaken such protections should also give pause, and consider the results they get may not be the ones they set out to achieve.