Monday - October 20, 2008

Colin Powell backs Barack Obama: Endorsing change, THE WORLD AWAITS AND LOOKS FORWARD TO OBAMA

NOTHIN’ TO SAY.

AND IF I DID, IT’D ALL BE SOUR GRAPES.  BAH! BUT WAIT. WE AIN’T LOST YET. AND YA NEVER DO KNOW FOR SURE TILL AFTER THE FAT LADY SINGS.

Colin Powell backs Barack Obama: Endorsing change

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 20/10/2008

In endorsing Barack Obama, Colin Powell did not give the impression of a man carried away by his emotions. His manner was measured, analytical, even-handed. But in the end, he was clear. Senator Obama, he said, “has met the standard of being a successful President, being an exceptional President. I think he is a transformational figure.”

To understand why that verdict matters, consider a survey carried out by Fox News in August. American voters were asked whether their impressions of President Bush’s former Secretary of State, as well as Senators Obama, Clinton and McCain, were positive or negative. Despite his inglorious involvement in the build-up to the Iraq war, Powell swept the board. In the same poll, 35 per cent of America’s voters (and 37 per cent of independents) suggested that a Powell endorsement would make them look more favourably on the Democratic candidate.

Even if that figure is an exaggeration, the announcement was very good news for Senator Obama, already buoyed by record fund-raising last month. The support of such an experienced military man undercuts the claim that Obama lacks the experience to lead and will be weak on national security. Yet the more interesting thing is what Powell’s decision says about the Republicans, to whom the bulk of his thoughts were devoted. Powell voiced his regret over what he saw as the Rightward shift of his party, its negative campaigning tactics, its attitude towards Muslims, its selection of the underqualified Sarah Palin, and more.

The election itself is still more than a fortnight away, and Senator McCain may yet pull off a victory. But their abandonment by one of the few Bush appointees with any reputation remaining speaks volumes about the state of the Republicans. There is a growing sense that this election is the Democrats’ to lose.

http://tinyurl.com/5f5olf

Posted by Drew458     on 10/20/2008 at 04:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Politics •  
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Schools bribing pupils to cut truancy.  School days, School days, Good Old … take it guys …

Maybe I’m just a dinosaur and way out of date with the modern world. But I just don’t understand rewarding or bribing bad behavior.
Sure, there were incentives when I was in school.  Like, you wouldn’t get hit if you behaved yourself.  I remember we used to get these little tiny glued on stars of different colors to rate how we did.  There was gold, green, and I think blue. Or maybe red. Can’t recall the third one.  The teacher would put one on some bit of work you turned in I think.  Golly. Rewards like what?  In my day I think the most they could have given would have been a radio. This would be before TV of course.  And you can be certain we were never given anything in the way of bribes.  We worried more about how parents might react then we were about the teacher. You’d get punished 2wice.

Once upon a time England really did have a first rate education system and it allowed for NO nonsense.  This country produced outstanding people in every field of endeavor you can name.  It was a glorious country with a totally fascinating history and traditions.  Sure, they had juvenile delinquents.  Who hasn’t?
And who among us never ever played hooky? Gosh that’s a word I haven’t heard or used in years.  But we darn well never received any rewards of the nature this story exposes. And you can bet your life the Brits never did either.

Schools bribing pupils to cut truancy
Schools are spending up to £30,000 a year on “bribes” to keep order in the classroom and cut truancy.


By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last Updated: 7:18AM BST 20 Oct 2008

In some cases, children can win plasma televisions, games consoles, iPods, lap-tops and even flights abroad for turning up on time and working hard.

Under a new reward scheme, pupils are being urged to collect good behaviour “points” which they can cash in for prizes.

Habitual truants can get extra rewards for turning up regularly to classes, with headteachers claiming incentives are now more effective than detentions.

The disclosure comes just days after Ofsted suggested rewards were a “powerful incentive” for students who struggled with school.

But critics claim taxpayers’ money is being wasted as many pupils “play the system” to get their hands on prizes.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Government’s flagship academies – semi-independent state schools in deprived areas – are among those spending the most on reward schemes.

Barnfield South Academy, Luton, is investing £28,000 this year on prizes and incentives.

Mark Bennison, associate principal, said attendance rates had already soared from 88 to 93 per cent under the scheme.

“Some people say that you should not bribe children, and I am prepared for the fact that it is going to be controversial, but the fact is it has played a big part in motivating children at this school,” he said. “Learning and earning are inexorably linked and if children don’t see that they are not going to survive when they leave school.”

Many schools already operate small scale reward schemes, handing out certificates for good behaviour.

But Barnfield is among 14 to sign up so far to the Vivo Miles programme - a new reward scheme administered by a private company offering expensive gifts to the best pupils.

Under the system, pupils earn points for good behaviour, attendance, healthy eating, smart uniform, hard work, excelling in sport and helping around the school.

(a reward for “healthy” eating too? Boy did I miss out when I was a kid. When any of us cut up in class, our teacher would make us hold out a hand, palm up and slap it with a ruler. Damn it that stung. Kept kids like me in line too.  For a while anyway. I was a class clown and it is not any wonder that I should have ended up a DJ. Still remember the ruler on the palm after all these years though. Wasn’t a delinquent in my class.And there wasn’t a boy in the class that wasn’t in love with pretty Miss Beers. That was really her name.)

Each point is worth a set value – depending on the school - and students can save up for prizes, cashing them in at any time on a specially-accessed website.

Mr Bennison said the scheme was funded largely from renting school playing fields and facilities to community groups, and he insisted it was cheaper than expelling pupils altogether.

Westminster Academy in central London is spending £20,000 on the scheme this year.

Rod Boswell, a house principal, said pupils could win “anything from three tennis balls to a plasma TV”.

Prizes for the most credits include a Sony laptop, a PlayStation3 and a Palm Tungsten handheld computer. Pupils can also get a Nintendo Wii, iPods and sporting equipment, including cricket pads and footballs.

“Simply imposing detentions doesn’t work in an inner-city setting like this, because the punishment is quite often little in comparison to what some of these children see outside in their day-to-day lives,” he said.

Another school is in negotiation with a local airport to turn points into air miles. Pupils in other schools can use Vivo cards to get reduced or free entry to local cinemas or swimming pools - and discounts in some high street stores.

George Grima, chief executive of Vivo Miles, said it could spread to other state schools.

“Several schools are spending £30,000-plus on the rewards themselves” he said. “They have also successfully turned around the behaviour of some very disruptive students who were at risk of being expelled. They saved around £4,500 per student in out of school provision as a result, even though more traditional thinkers would see it as unethical.”

But critics say the scheme effectively rewards bad behaviour.

Richard Gerver, a former headteacher and Government advisor, said: “This is all about short-term impacts rather than making sure pupils really have a deeper understanding of the negative impact of bad behaviour. There are a large number of children who will simply play the system without really changing their attitude.”

A study last week by Maurice Galton and John MacBeath, from Cambridge University, found “little sign” reward systems led to improvements in pupil behaviour.

http://tinyurl.com/65nr4k

Posted by Drew458     on 10/20/2008 at 03:26 AM   
Filed Under: • Education • UK •  
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MUDSLIMES RAISE A FUSS, SONY MAKES NICE AND APPEASES. AS USUAL.

This article leaves a bit wanting or is just me?
It doesn’t say exactly what the lines were or why there was a perceived insult.  Maybe there was but I think most of us might doubt that.  These followers of the ROP always manage to find insults everywhere they look.  I’d find it hard to believe that politically correct Sony would allow an intentional insult to be included in any of their products.

Anyway .. just another case making nice to the muzzies.  Good muzzy, nice muzzy, here’s a bone muzzy.

Sony Playstation game Little Big Planet delayed after anti-Muslim claims.

A “revolutionary” video game that Sony hopes will revive the fortunes of its Playstation console has been delayed after Muslims objected to its soundtrack.

By Matthew Moore
Last Updated: 7:33AM BST 20 Oct 2008
Little Big Planet: The Sony Playstation game has been delayed after anti-Muslim claims about its soundtrack
Sony has not yet confirmed a new release date

Millions of copies of Little Big Planet have been withdrawn from warehouses after lines from the Koran were found to be included in the accompanying music.

The game, which was due out on Friday, will now be re-programmed without the offending song – a track by Mali-born singer Toumani Diabate that contains two lines from the Islamic holy book.

The costly recall is a blow for Sony, which has made Little Big Planet the centerpiece of its Playstation 3 Christmas sales push.

Sackboy, the rag doll star of the British-developed game, is being promoted as a “face” of the Japanese electronics firm, similar to Nintendo’s Mario character.

“We’ve never really had an icon before. That was a deliberate policy of the early days because we did not want to be pigeon-holed,” a Sony spokesman told The Times.

“It’s psychologically telling that this, arguably our first mascot, is fully customisable. You can make him anything you want him to be.”

Little Big Planet, which allows players to design their own levels in detail and share them with friends, has been lauded by critics.

Steve Boxer, the Telegraph’s games reviewer, said that it was “so deceptively simple, and its conception is so immaculate, that it has the power to turn all of us - gamers and non-gamers - into game developers”.

Little Big Planet was developed by Media Molecule, a small games designer based in Guildford, Surrey.

Sony has not yet confirmed a new release date, but the postponement is expected to be a matter of weeks rather than months.

http://tinyurl.com/62njw3

Posted by Drew458     on 10/20/2008 at 02:53 AM   
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AND THESE ARE THE FOLKS WE’RE TOLD WE SHOULD NEGOTIATE WITH. ALL IN A DAYS WORK.

Some pols have suggested that the west needs to talk to these folks. Right.  How does one carry on a conversation with an insect?

Taliban kill 30 on bus in southern Afghanistan
Taliban militants have stopped a bus travelling on the Afghanistan’s main highway, seized about 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them.

A Taliban spokesman said the militia’s fighters carried out the attack in the country’s south and that they had killed 27 Afghan army soldiers riding on the bus. However, Afghan officials said no soldiers were aboard and that the militants had killed civilians.

The bus was travelling in a two-bus convoy in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, a Taliban-controlled area about 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of Kandahar city.

Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief, said bout 50 people were taken hostage, though several were freed.

Officials offered varying death tolls from the attack, which occurred in an area of Afghanistan that government forces cannot safely travel to without heavy military protection.

The Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, said 31 people were killed. Six of the dead were beheaded in a separate area of Maiwand from where the other 25 bodies were found, he said.

Mr Khan said authorities had arrested four Taliban commanders in connection with the attack.

Gen Azimi dismissed the Taliban claim that 27 soldiers had been killed. “Our soldiers travel by military convoy, not in civilian buses. And we have military air transportation.

“The Taliban want to hide the news that they arrested and killed innocent Afghan civilians,” he said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said militants looked at the documents of those traveling on the bus, released all the civilians and killed only soldiers. Taliban spokesmen often exaggerate their claims but occasionally their information matches with the government version of events.

Mr Khan said two buses had been traveling together, and the militants had tried to stop the first one but failed. He said the insurgents fired at the first bus and killed one child on board.

Taliban attacks have become increasingly lethal this year, as the militia has gained power and surged throughout southern and eastern Afghanistan. Violence in Afghanistan this year has killed more than 5,100 people — mostly militants.

http://tinyurl.com/598xdz

Posted by Drew458     on 10/20/2008 at 02:23 AM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • War On Terror •  
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   Sunday - October 19, 2008

HEFFER ON PUBLIC FORNICATION AND GUN OWNERSHIP IN THE UK. YES TO FORMER, NO TO LAST?

Some thoughts from Simon Heffer of The Telegraph.

Simon Heffer
Saturday Telegraph

Forget Dubai, life’s a beach in Lancashire, UK

Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer deny they were fornicating on a beach in Dubai last July, for which police arrested them. A local court, however, gave them three months in jail and they face deportation.

It is a lesson in the stupidity of offending against the customs of other countries when we visit them, something I wish we were hotter on here.

However, when they return to the United Kingdom they could head for Lancashire and copulate in whatever public place they fancy. Michael Cunningham, its deputy chief constable, has told officers not to prosecute such behaviour, not least because it might alienate homosexuals.

Just another fun thing to enhance our children’s lives when they play in the park, no doubt.

Criminals get licence to carry on shooting

As a licensed shotgun owner, I live in trepidation of infringing any of the rules (mainly nit-picking and lacking in common sense) that would cause me to lose my certificate.

For example: my wife - one of the least psychopathic people I know - is not allowed to know where I keep the key to my firearms cabinet, lest she get into it and conduct a massacre in our local village.

The police use the slightest excuse to remove a shotgun licence from a member of the public, even though the only fatalities caused by legally held weapons are when farmers driven bankrupt by the Government’s mismanagement of agriculture end up shooting themselves.

Yet we are told that only half the criminals convicted of possessing an illegal firearm receive the supposedly minimum mandatory sentence of five years.

Why is it that serious criminals are treated so leniently while those with no criminal intent are given such a hard time? Is it the old story of being so much easier to persecute the harmless than to prosecute the harmful?

Posted by Drew458     on 10/19/2008 at 11:10 AM   
Filed Under: • UK •  
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Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama for White House .

This is how the story reads here, less then half an hour ago.  Guess it doesn’t matter where it reads or how.  The news could be a lot better.

On to 2012 people. 

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama for White House
Colin Powell, a Republican who once aspired to be the first black United States president and later became one of the faces of George W. Bush’s Iraq war, has endorsed Barack Obama for the White House.

By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 4:32PM BST 19 Oct 2008
Colin Powell, a Republican who once aspired to be the first black United States president, has endorsed Barack Obama for the White House.
Powell said Obama had met the standard to lead his nation Photo: AP

In a major blow to John McCain, a fellow Vietnam veteran whose campaign is based largely on his military and patriotic credentials, Mr Powell, a former four-star general who led US forces in the Gulf war, announced his decision on NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme.

Both Mr Obama, the Democratic nominee, and Mr McCain, his Republican opponent, have avidly courted Mr Powell. The former US Secretary of State, who has indicated he would like to return to public life, is a possible Pentagon chief or diplomatic envoy in an Obama administration.

Mr Powell, 71, said that the young Illinois senator had “met the standard” to lead his nation “because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America”.

Should Mr Obama, 47, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, win on November 4th then “all Americans should be proud, not just African-Americans”, Mr Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, said. “It would not just electrify our country, it would electrify the world.”

He continued: “Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigour.

He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well.”

A former national security adviser to Ronald Reagan who also served President George H. W. Bush before becoming his son’s Secretary of State from 2001 to 2004, Mr Powell said that Mr Obama would be a “transformational president” and added: “For that reason I will be voting for Senator Barack Obama.”

Mr Powell was the first black man to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the uniformed head of the US military. He publicly toyed with the idea of running for the White House in 1996, when early opinion polls indicated he would have had a strong chance of unseating Bill Clinton.

His wife Alma, frightened that he might be assassinated, is understood to have played a key role in dissuading him. Mr Powell a now notorious presentation to the United Nations in February 2003 advocating the invasion of Iraq and citing intelligence information that was subsequently discredited.

Mr Powell said he was disappointed by a “rightward shift” by Mr McCain and by his selection of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his vice-presidential running mate, whom he said was not ready to be president.

He criticised Mr McCain, 72, a long-time friend to whose primary campaign he donated the maximum permissible $2,300 last year, for being inconsistent in his approach to the Wall Street meltdown. “"Almost every day he had a different approach to the problems we were having.”

The former general also lambasted the Arizona senator for focusing on Bill Ayers, the former Weather Underground domestic terrorist with whom Mr Obama worked in Chicago. “Senator McCain says he’s a washed-up old terrorist.

Then why does he keep talking about him?” A disappointed Mr McCain sought to play down the potential impact of the endorsement. “It doesn’t come as a surprise,” he told Fox News. “I’m very pleased to have the endorsement of four former Secretaries of State, well over 200 retired generals and admirals. I’ve admired and continue to respect Secretary Powell.”

http://tinyurl.com/6mz3pb

Posted by Drew458     on 10/19/2008 at 10:39 AM   
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Iran to stop executing children.  (hmmm. not sure if we should be happy about this)

Iran to stop executing children
Iran’s judiciary has pledged to stop executing children after six were hanged this year alone.


By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor

No other country is believed to have imposed capital sentences on people under the age of 18 as frequently as Iran. These hangings, which are routinely carried out in public, have become far more common since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hardline government won power in 2005.

But a statement from Hossein Zabhi, the assistant attorney for judicial affairs, pledged a moratorium on the execution of children. When juveniles are convicted of the most serious offences, judges should now refrain from imposing capital sentences and instead send them to jail for life or terms of 15 years.

But the death penalty for juvenile offenders remains part of Iranian law. The judiciary appears to have decided on a unilateral moratorium.

“An end to child executions in Iran is greatly welcome but long overdue,” said Kim Manning-Cooper of Amnesty International.

“Iran has a long history of executing juvenile offenders. It is the only country in the world to have executed a child offender this year. We now urge the authorities to follow up this announcement by implementing it as soon as possible, so that we can quickly see an end to the execution of juvenile offenders.”

Amnesty International called on Iran to amend its criminal law to abolish the death penalty altogether. Some 25 children are presently believed to be awaiting sentence for crimes that could carry a capital sentence.

http://tinyurl.com/67tj5j

Short article and doesn’t tell us what the charges are. Not that it’s our business. Under 18s doesn’t mean much either. What? 12? 17?  Then too I can’t help but see the stories and the photos of the monsters home grown here in the UK who commit all kinds of unspeakable crime.  I’d happily see those little turds hang.
So I can’t get too excited about this except that if Amnasty is in favor of something, I just naturally have to be on the other side.
If the kids mentioned in that article are anything even close to the UK brand of “juvenile” thug, I can understand and heartlessly approve.  (yeah, heartlessly)

Now then, this little headline is a job for either Christopher or Drew.  I don’t know where I’m going wrong, but when I see something that says the following,

BROWN:  I’LL CURB CAPITALISM ....  well you just know I have to blog the damn thing and share it. Right?  Well not so darn fast bunky.
No matter how I do it, no matter what words I enter into a search field, this is just one of those items that get away from me.
The headline comes from The Telegraph, and it’s pretty much the norm for that paper to make things hard to find or not at all.
Sometimes I can Google the headline and up pops the article I want.  Other times there’s some sort of pay only service and finally somebody like the two mentioned come to the rescue.  And I still haven’t a clue how they find the same thing and I can’t.  Especially when we often use the same source.

So, the author of the article is the Political Editor, Andrew Porter. Now wouldn’t think The Telegraph would have his blurb online?

Gloom and Doom ....
Just saw a headline says Colin Powell endorses Obama .... oh bloody great.  Funny thing however.  I’m not surprised but I don’t know why.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/19/2008 at 09:41 AM   
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What I learned from watching Kelly’s Heros

You really have to wonder . . .

The war was won by individual choices made on the spot.

Face it folks, the free market wins in war or peace.

In this fictional example, self-interest (not greed) won the day.

Note that the ‘central planners’ had no idea of where the front was!

Posted by Christopher     on 10/19/2008 at 09:59 AM   
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Trivia

A trivia question:

Name a President who served without a Vice-President.

Posted by Christopher     on 10/19/2008 at 08:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Education • History •  
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Goal: Push the forums.

Hey folks. I didn’t know this either. BMEWS has forums!

Check it/he/she/them out.

Posted by Christopher     on 10/19/2008 at 12:49 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff •  
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The Homosexual Agenda – What’s the Point?

A little trans-sexual . . . humor?

Posted by Christopher     on 10/19/2008 at 12:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • No Shit, Sherlock •  
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   Saturday - October 18, 2008

Update on the scroungers!

This post is about a previous post which was about Europeons

Peiper might be mad at me for this. He’s probably thinking he has an easy post for later and I’ve beat him to it.

Remember the Cromptons?

The jobless couple with 10 children who rake in £32,000 a year in benefits.. and who STILL aren’t happy

Yeah the scroungers.

They found another poor family with 10 kids not two miles away from the Cromptons.

And boy were they p*ssed when they read about the Cromptons:

Mrs Tate, 43, a stay-at-home mother, could barely believe what she was reading when she saw media coverage of the Cromptons’ situation earlier this week.

‘I am absolutely furious,’ she said. ‘The Government want shooting for allowing people to get away with scrounging like this.

‘We have worked hard all our lives to provide for our kids, and when you see families like this it makes you wonder why you bother.

Exactly. Why bother?

(Why? Oh, yeah. Because you love your children more than the Cromptons do. You demonstrate sacrifice for your children, to your children. The Cromptons demostrate theft from the public trough.)

It is a story which crystalises the dubious values encouraged by the British welfare state.

While hardworking Sean and Anne Tate scrimp to afford a few little luxuries for their ten children on his £15,000 lorry driver’s salary, a family of the same size two miles away take things a little easier.

Harry Crompton, 50, has been out of work for 15 years and his wife Tracey, 40, has never had a job.

So go read about the Tates.

What is really interesting is the pictures of the two families.

The scrounging Cromptons

The hard-working Tates

Which family looks happier?

The idle rich Cromptons? (sit-on-their-@ss welfare income equivalent to £46,500)

Or the scrimping Tates? (actual hard-working income £15,000)

You decide.

Posted by Christopher     on 10/18/2008 at 09:46 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Economics • UK •  
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Continuing Education

I think it’s been awhile since we did a book list. I want to do something just a little different here.

Not ‘my favorite books of all time’.

What books of a political/current events persuasion have you read this year?

Here’s my list:

Climate Confusion by Dr. Roy Spencer.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism by Christopher C. Horner.

Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg. This one is on my ‘must buy’ list. I’m just waiting for the soft-cover edition (due out early next year).

The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness by Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr. MUST BUY!! Excellent!

This one has an interesting story for me. I recommended my library purchase this so I could read it before buying it. I’ve recommended many books over the years and not once has the library ever acted on my recommendations. I’ve assumed that my recommendations are too ‘politically incorrect’. Imagine my surprise to get this answer:

Yes. They were going to buy it and I was first in line on the reserve list, which grew quite quickly. I had to just skim the last half because I couldn’t renew it. This is not light reading. So I’m gonna buy it. I’m still astounded that they bought a recommended conservative book. I thought the title alone would offend someone.

The Little Ice Age by Brian Fagan. If you are worried about ‘global warming’ wait until you read about the effects global cooling had on Europe circa 1250 AD.

America Alone by Mark Steyn. I first read the library copy and then bought a copy direct from Mr. Steyn. Autographed by the author, no less.

Two by Robert Spencer: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades and The Truth about Muhammed.

Black Gold Stranglehold by Joel Rosenberg. Oil is NOT a ‘fossil fuel’.

Surrender Is Not An Option by John Bolton. Yes, that John Bolton. This book convinced me that ‘President Bolton’ would be a good idea.

Understanding Terror Networks by Marc Sagemon. This guy used to advise the Pentagon, until a high-ranking military aide, who is muslim, became offended.

Those are my serious, non-fiction, reads so far this year. This does not include my ‘light’ reading.

So, what books are on your list?

Posted by Christopher     on 10/18/2008 at 08:32 PM   
Filed Under: • Education •  
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Gun Show review

Meh. What a let down. There must have been 300 vendors at this show out in Allentown PA today, and my guess is 2000 guys walking around looking at stuff. And about 11 women, 7 of whom were working behind the vendor tables. And 1 who was a rentacop. Not one vendor had any new reloading supplies. Very few vendors even had new rifles or pistols for sale. The only ammo available was out of code milsurp stuff by the wooden case full, which is great if you have a milsurp rifle to feed.

Aside from the one vendor who did beautiful engraving, and the one vendor who had some first class antique rifles in A-1 condition for sale, this show was more like a flea market than a gun show. Sure, there were lots of guns for sale. Every rotted and rusted old double barrel shotgun in America. Those odd little Stevens single shot .22s from the turn of the previous century were there in abundance. I saw more Spencer carbines than I think were ever produced. And a lot of forged Trapdoor Springfields. I happen to know that rifle inside and out, and can spot the fakes and the ones built up from spare parts a mile away. And I saw so many old rifles that had been molested. I’d like to say raped. People get some old gun and try to “fix ‘er up” by sanding all the patina off the stocks, sanding them down to bare wood, then slapping a coat of spar varnish on them and spray painting the barrels gloss black. Shudders. Horrors. Then they think the thing has collector value because it’s old but still “looks good” and they slap on a premium price tag. No, sorry. I won’t give you a dollar for that thing now. I lost count of how many M1s I saw that had been subjected to this, and worse - there were more “tanker” Garands at this show than ever saw production. Forgeries folks. Somebody took a hacksaw to a fine battle rifle and produced this abortion, just in case a sucker came along.

I saw one really great deal, a Ruger GP-100 .357 with a 4” barrel with the full underlug for $395. I forget what I paid for mine when I bought it new 10 years ago, but I think it was more than twice that amount. So there may have been some good deals on pistols, if you knew your product and knew your prices. But I still don’t think Markarovs or any of the Soviet bloc WWII rifles or handguns that the reds have dumped on the market by the millions have any collector value, and never will. That’s why they make good $150 pistols, not $800 investment pieces. Same goes for SKS rifles. It’s a cheap chicom POS trunk gun. That’s all it will ever be. $175 tops, $120 on average. Not $600. No. Flicking. Way. The only good Moisin-Nagant rifles with collector value are the ones made in America and shipped over for the tsar way back in the day, and those have been snapped up ages ago. The 1943 version of that clunky rifle is just another trunk gun.

And I saw a very bothersome amount of WWII Nazi gear. Table after table after table. What up with that? No, I don’t want a “genuine” SS overcoat. Nor a reproduction Hitler Youth dagger. And if you have a nice K-98 Mauser for sale, fine. The ones made pre-war are superb guns. But the absolute last rifle on earth I would spend money on would be one with a proven provenance that it was built for the SS in a concentration camp. No. Never. Not in my worst nightmares. That one has evil built in, and I wouldn’t want it in my town, much less my own home. And besides, Mitchell’s Mausers has the same rifle in mint condition, for a much better price, without that “wonderful and amazing” provenance. So it was no real surprise to me that most of the guys were just walking around, not lining up to buy stuff.

I met one of my readers. How about that? Since all of my NRA shirts are at the dry cleaners (yeah right) and my McCain Palin gear wasn’t clean, I wore my only other firearms related shirt, my IMAO Top 10 Gun Safety Tips one. Some guy behind a table looks at me and says “I know that blog!” and we get into a short conversation. I told him that I run the Barking Moonbat Early Warning System blog. “Hey I read that one sometimes. You’re that guy from England?” (Peiper has minions, damn his hide!!) No, I’m Drew458. I sort of own the place. And he tells me his user name. And I forgot what it was. Sorry guy!!

I saw many many McCain Palin signs, shirts, and stickers. The ONLY Obama things I saw were signs around, say a Barrett .50 BMG rifle, that said “Buy it now before Obama makes it too late!”

It sure was nice having a visit with America for a few hours. Now I’m back in New Jersey. Time for lunch, laundry, and getting the weekly papers together for bowling league. At least I’m mostly over this damn cold by now. Yay drugs, better living through chemistry!

Posted by Drew458     on 10/18/2008 at 01:13 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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