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Monthly Archives: July 2012

SSCC #376–DEA

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Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty’s knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.

At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers – all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.

In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy.

As expected though the DEA is refusing to accept responsibility for the damages to his truck.  This however is unsurprising since I’m sure Obama would claim this man wasn’t building a business, someone else was.  Now for those who claim that his insurance should cover the costs:

Copies of letters and emails from Patty’s insurance company state that it won’t pay for repairs because the truck was part of a law-enforcement operation. Patty drew from his 401K retirement fund to repair the truck, which was out of operation for 100 days.

So basically what happened here is the DEA shifted the costs and risks for their idiocy onto a small business man and when it went south they left him with the bill.

State Sponsored Criminal #376: The Entire DEA

Because when fighting the war on drugs, collateral damage is inconsequential. 

Morons of the male persuasion

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Bloomberg is such an asshole!

Mayor Bloomberg is pushing hospitals to hide their baby formula behind locked doors so more new mothers will breast-feed.

Really?! Blocking the accessibility of formula to new mothers?  For some women, they are not able to produce milk with their pregnancy.  Some, even though they are producing, aren’t producing enough colostrum and therefore are starving their child.  I wonder if they will charge the mother with child abuse if the pharmacy is closed and the baby wants to feed?

Legislative fiat and nanny statism does not change biology or the way the real world works.

Women don’t need a lecture about choosing formula over breast-feeding.  Breast is not always best.  Especially since not every mother produces enough milk.  My husband was raised on formula because his mother was unable to produce milk as he was born by C-section.  A friend of mine didn’t produce milk for her child and didn’t realize it until she had starved her child for a day not knowing she wasn’t producing enough milk.

Some asshat politician who doesn’t understand biology or the medical sciences has no business telling me, my doctor, or any one else what is best for me or my child.

This is one big reason why I don’t want to be in a hospital when I have kids.  I don’t need some moron telling me what to do with my own body!

If you’re female and work in his office, do the rest of us of the female gender a big favor and kick him right between the uprights.  Then again I’m reasonably sure he’s lacking functional equipment down there which is why he’s spouting off about shit he doesn’t know about.

h/t Weer’d

SSCC #375 – Michigan

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The Michigan State Police post commander in Gladstone was arrested for drunken driving in Chippewa County over the weekend, according to county officials there.

Lt. William H. Smith, 43, was booked into the Chippewa County Jail at 4:51 a.m. Saturday, confirmed Undersheriff Mike Bitnar this morning. Smith was booked under an "OWI" charge which is operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, said Bitnar.

No word on him being fired yet.  I expect if charges move forward he will be on no more than administrative leave.  Since drinking and driving is a perfectly acceptable behavior for a  Law Enforcement Officer.

State Sponsored Criminal #375: William H. Smith

Because drinking and driving is only bad when you end up in an accident, never mind experience and history should have taught to know better.

via Lance A.

Earworm Monday – 7/30/2012

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Yes I know it’s early, but by god this is just hilarious!

Now I hear you asking why is that funny, that’s just awesome helicopters.  Well it’s funny because of the following:

The Iranian nuclear program has been hit with a severe case of heavy metal. Al Arabiya reports that technicians at two of Iran’s secret nuclear facilities were startled in the middle of the night when their computer consoles started blaring AC/DC’s classic metal hit “Thunderstruck” at full volume.

No I didn’t have anything to do with that, but I really wish I could take credit.  Whoever did come up with the idea for the music choice, Bravo Zulu sir!  Now pardon me while I watch it again and laugh while thinking of the pissed off Iranian’s.  All I can see mentally is Achmed waking up at BF thirty and saying in Arabic, what the hell is that crap.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

Surviving An Active Shooter – A commentary

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So I saw this in passing last week but didn’t really have time to watch it or talk about it.  Alan posted it today and well it gave me the urge to comment.  So to start off with watch the video.

First off is with its emphasis on running and hiding the immediate thought was of Bert the Turtle and if you don’t know what I’m talking about.  Here is an educational video from on how to survive a nuclear attack, like the above, this one is made by your government.

At least with Bert it made a little bit of sense because you couldn’t do anything to change or alter the damage from a nuclear weapon.

Amazingly though this video does give some insight that we can all take home. The first notable item is that the attacker plainly and clearly ignored a gun free zone declaration on the door, this can be seen at 1:00. Attackers do this to know their victims cannot fight back.  Attacks frequently happen within gun-free zones, including the most recent one.  Secondly it guarantees the outcome discussed and noted at 4:20, specifically:

Improvise Weapons

It’s pretty hard to improvise a weapon equivalent to firearm, doubly so when you know the attacker has one.

Even the agency which put this video together admits what the pro-rights side of the argument has said from the beginning.  A criminal intent on doing harm will not be effected or restrained by law.  The intended victims of the attacker however will be left without the most effective means of self-defense.

Next up are the comments about first responders at 4:40.  Let this be a lesson to everyone because it is correct.  They are not there to evacuate you, they are not there to give you medical aid, they are there to stop the threat and secure the area so that medics and other emergency personal can do that.  Just because the Johnny Law has shown up doesn’t mean you are safe, that you are clear, or will receive immediate medical attention.  Let me translate this for people who still may not understand.

You are still on your own!

Emergency services will arrive on scene when they can, there is no guarantee for the response time for either medical personal or police to show up with their guns since this particular location wouldn’t let you have yours.

Hopefully the gun grabbers are crying in their beer because even the educational videos on surviving mass shootings emphasize the lack of rationality in their logic.  Can you say “Winning?”

*Overall I think the video was actually well done and decently educational.  I am not going to go running through an area looking for the shooter, but if I see him and have an opportunity I will fight, I will not run.  Running just serves to allow others to become victims or allow him a chance to shoot me in the back.

Today’s Reminder and Lesson

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When you end up in a rush is usually when you do something wrong.  Last Thursday night, before leaving on my current trip, I spent a bunch of time cleaning a gift for the in-laws.  I cleaned it from top to bottom after test firing it.  After I was done I did a full functional test to make sure everything still was working correctly.  Packed it up and all was well.

While I was busy doing all of that I decided that I should clean my XD.  It hadn’t been cleaned since April and it was looking pretty crusty.  While cleaning it was about 85 degrees in my shop, I was sweating like mad and mid cleaning my latex gloves bit the bucket.  I couldn’t get a new set on so I just gave up and decided to soak my hands in chemicals.  I hate doing that because many of them will absorb through the skin but the biggest dangers were already done.

I quickly finished scrubbing and cleaning the weapon. Put it back together and in a rush to go pack other stuff for the trip I missed a step.  I put all the parts back in.  I didn’t break anything either.  What I didn’t do though was dry fire it before reloading.  Normally I test every part individually before loading the weapon and holstering it.  Verify all the safeties, make sure all feels well and nothing is out-of-place.  Since I decided I didn’t need to test all the safeties I didn’t bother with functional testing.  Well there was one test I really still should have performed but didn’t.

I pulled out the gun and unloaded it today for the mother-in-law to take a look at.  She squeezed the trigger but nothing happened.  She hands it to me and I say, “there’s the slack and it should break about here.”  Nope trigger is total mush.  I promptly start trying to remove the slide.  There is one problem though, you have to drop the striker to remove the slide and barrel assembly.  I start playing with the slide and notice that the striker will fall if I slightly pull the slide back out of battery.

I promptly look inside and see something that is wrong.  There is  a small piece that normally springs up and down but it is fixed in place and isn’t moving.  I pull apart the striker mechanism and find exactly what happened.  The spring fell over and was not providing positive movement to the piece to allow the safety to disengage correctly.  Fix the spring reassemble and promptly dry fire.  Works just like it should now.

So here’s the lesson.  Always functional test the most important aspect of the firearm after being reassembled.  My new rule is if it comes apart even in the most basic way, in the XD for example I remove the slide, it gets dry fired immediately when it has been reassembled. I had a gun that was useless the past couple of days, not freaking cool, but it was my own damn fault.  Learn from my mistake.

SSCC #374 – Dallas

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A rookie Dallas police officer was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving early Wednesday morning after he nearly hit two squad cars near the scene of Tuesday’s officer-involved shooting in south Dallas.

Yeah, that right there isn’t too bright.  You would have thought he would have at least known to avoid the area.  Then again he probably felt safe since it was just his buddies in the area.

If all else fails though I’m sure he will probably transfer to IMPD.

State Sponsored Criminal #374: Officer Matthew Gaines

Because drinking and driving is acceptable when you’re an officer of the law.

via Bob S.

Quote of the Day – Law Dog (07/26/2012)

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So, I have to ask: if gun control is the panacea these folks think it is, why aren’t they clocking in to the safety, peace and quiet of a boring shift at Sing-Sing or ADX Florence? Complete and total gun control means those should be amongst the safest places in the world, right?

Law Dog – Meditations on Gun Control

July 25th, 2012

[Go read the whole thing Law Dog as always has a way with words.  -B]