Sunday - March 07, 2010

Florida challenges Britain for most ‘Idiotic’

There’s a reason that Fark.com has a ‘Florida’ tag for its submissions. Per capita there are more weird laws and stupid people in Florida than in Britain or California. This is based on my non-scientific, highly-biased, survey of the news. The only place that has a higher concentration of idiots is the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, and the Obama White House. But that last fact is well-known.

So, today’s story from Florida:

As authorities nationwide warn motorists of the dangers of driving while texting, Florida Keys law enforcement officers add a new caution: Don’t try to shave your privates, either.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers say a two-vehicle crash Tuesday at Mile Marker 21 on Cudjoe Key was caused by a 37-year-old woman driver who was shaving her bikini area while her ex-husband took the wheel from the passenger seat.

“She said she was meeting her boyfriend in Key West and wanted to be ready for the visit,” Trooper Gary Dunick said. “If I wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have believed it. About 10 years ago I stopped a guy in the exact same spot ... who had three or four syringes sticking out of his arm. It was just surreal and I thought, ‘Nothing will ever beat this.’ Well, this takes it.”

Let’s recap: a 37-yr-old woman is driving to meet her boyfriend. While doing so she is shaving her muff, thereby removing any muffness, while her ex-husband drives from the passenger seat.

I’ve got a problem here, how many ex-husbands would consent to drive the ex-wife to meet her new boyfriend? Or does he get off watching her shave?

But, it gets better…

If that weren’t enough, Megan Mariah Barnes was not supposed to be driving and her 1995 Ford Thunderbird was not supposed to be on the road.

The day before the wreck, Barnes was convicted in an Upper Keys court of DUI with a prior and driving with a suspended license, said Monroe County Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne. Barnes was ordered to impound her car, and her driver’s license was revoked for five years, after which time she must have a Breathalyzer ignition interlock device on any vehicle she drives, Dunne said. Barnes also was sentenced to nine months’ probation.

Barnes and Charles Judy were southbound in her Thunderbird at 11 a.m. when they slammed into the back of a 2006 Chevrolet pickup driven by David Schoff of Palm Bay. His passengers were a man and two women; the latter were treated for minor injuries at Lower Keys Medical Center, FHP spokesman Alex Annunziato said.

Schoff had slowed to about 5 mph to make a turn when the Thunderbird hit him, traveling about 45 mph, which was within the speed limit, Dunick said.

Barnes allegedly drove another half-mile, then switched seats with Judy, who allegedly claimed to be driving, Annunziato said.

I’m doing something stupid. I’m putting myself in the ex-husbands shoes. If I were going to drive my ex-wife to meet with her new boyfriend, I would have insisted on driving while sitting in the driver’s seat. Just steering from the passenger side does NOT give me control over accelerator and brakes. Ex-wife could sit in the passenger seat and shave…whatever.

I don’t know why, but I suspect alcohol was involved… again!

Posted by Christopher     on 03/07/2010 at 07:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Odd-Strange • weird stuff •  
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   Saturday - March 06, 2010

same old gripe

I got another Penzey’s spice catalog in the mail today. It’s a great company, they have really good spices, and they ship quickly. Living here in NJ they are my single source for dried chili peppers. But the one thing I just can not stand about their catalogs are their recipes. Oh, I’m sure most of them cook up fine, especially the baked goods. But their chili recipes are for the birds. I guess I have dead taste buds or something. I’ve tried several of them and they come out nearly flavorless. Try them again with triple the amount of spices and they start to become pretty good. Start, m’kay? At best they are bean stew with some meat and a hint of chili flavor. Why bother?

Their latest recipe uses 3 cans of beans, 2 pounds of meat, a big can of tomatoes, and 2 whole tablespoons of chili powder. Oh come on. Chili powder is not ground chili. It’s a mixture of that, and cumin, and garlic, and salt. It’s perhaps half ground chili at best. Recipe sent in by a resident of New Mexico. Shame shame shame.

So I made up a better recipe on the fly. And I only had the dregs of my pepper supply, since my last batch of heavy duty red used the better part of 2 pounds of dried chilis.
This is quick chili, unlike the slow cooked kind I usually makes that takes 6 - 8 hours. It uses ground chilis, which open up their flavor very quickly. This one will feed 4 hungry folks.

1 1/4 lb chuck steak, cut into little bits
2 smallish yellow onions, chopped fine but not minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can of kidney beans (she insisted. I prefer pintos)
1 large can of diced tomatoes

Cut up the steak and onions and garlic and put them in a wide bowl. Pour the juice from the canned tomatoes over them and let sit while you prepare the dried chilis.

2 ancho peppers
6 guajillo peppers
4 sanaam peppers (Indian hot peppers)
2 tien tsin peppers (Chinese hot peppers)
1 tsp Durkee ground red pepper (similar to cayenne)
3-4 tablespoons fresh ground cumin
1/3 cup Spice Classics Chili Powder (from the Dollar Store)

Tear the anchos and guajillos into medium bits, leaving out the seeds. Break the sanaam and tien tsin peppers up. Put it all in a Magic Bullet or other high speed chopper and grind it up. Add the other dry ingredients to the powdered chili and give them a whir too.

Splash a little “EVOO” in the bottom of a stock pot, heat it up, a lightly brown the meat, onions, and garlic. Reduce heat and add the spice mix. If you’re Drew, add the whole thing. If you like it quite hot, add about 2/3. If you want it rich with a mild amount of heat (most folks would still call this hot!) pour in about 1/2 the mix. Stir it around and coat the meat bits. Let it heat up for about a minute. Add the beans and the diced tomatoes. Stir, cover, and simmer over low heat for at least half an hour, until the beans soften, then remove the lid and let it reduce some. I didn’t have to add any liquid to get it to stew properly, but if you feel like it I guess you could toss in a bottle of dark beer. That will soften the flavors and add about 15 minutes to the stewing time. The meat will be a bit more tender too.

Made with half the ground spices this makes a full bodied chili with a heat level most folks can handle. It’s not bean stew. It’s a good balance between meat, beans, and chilis.

I added a flat teaspoon of the spice mix to my second serving and it boosted the flavor about 200%. Made it a good bit hotter too, but not so hot I had to get out the terry towel turban I keep around for eating Thai food.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/06/2010 at 08:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
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Run For Your Life

A selection of photographs taken by storm chaser Mike Hollingshead that are making the email rounds as being taken in New Orleans LA just before Katrina hit in 2005. More pics online at his page here.

Great pictures, evil weather, wrong event. These are from Kansas and Nebraska. Several years before Katrina.

Thanks anyway, C.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/06/2010 at 07:35 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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job dissatisfaction

I think maybe I need a new business model. I do this handyman stuff. Pretty much whatever you need, from fixing lamps to drywall to painting to installing shelves. If you need it done I can do it. I go out of my way to make it easy and reasonable for folks, and I wind up feeling taken advantage of a lot of the time.

Lots of little old ladies need a little help with this or that once in a while. I live in a condo park with over 300 units, so there are lots of them around. I can walk to any of the buildings here in just a couple minutes. So I’m open for short work if I’m available. We’ll work out a price, I’ll do good work, and you’ll pay me. If I have to go buy parts or paint or whatever for you, then you’ll pay me what they cost plus the tax, and if it’s a whole lot of shopping then you’ll pay me for my time. This approach seems to work fine.

But if I have to drive out to your place, and sometimes that drive is nearly an hour, then I want at least half a day’s work. So have a list of jobs for me to do, or a big one, because it isn’t worth it for me to put in a big drive to do a 45 minute task.

I’ll come and talk to you, see what you want done, and tell you about how long I expect that job to take. You pay me by the half day, but here’s the kicker: if I say that I can do a job in 4 hours (a half day) and it takes me 6, then I only charge you for 4. If you have a big list of work and I say I can do it in a day (8 hours) but it takes me 10, then I eat the extra time. Conversely, if a task goes faster than anticipated, then I make out ... but I’ll do an extra task for no extra cost if you have one, so that you get your full half day’s or full day’s labor from me.

And I work to your satisfaction. I don’t take shortcuts and I don’t do quick and dirty work. Yes, sometimes I go slower than other folks who just want to be finished and gone. I want you to be happy with the result. I’ll even work around your schedule to some extent, but it’s in my best interest to come over early, get to work, and stay late if necessary.

I did another half day for that woman I did the drawer pulls for last week. Installed 4 pieces of baseboard molding for her, because the old molding was such a Putty Disaster it looked like there’d been a food fight down by the floorboards. So that required me to go and buy 2 lengths of molding, matching her style and size from memory, pulling off the old molding without tearing up her walls or her newly laid wood flooring, cutting the pieces to fit perfectly, cut and sometimes re-cut 8 miters by hand, nail them on, fill the small gaps and nail holes with putty, let it dry and then sand things smooth. I did another drywall repair for her, floated another coat of spackle on the big drywall repair from last week, and then took her front door down off it’s hinges to fit a threshold sweep to the underside and then a pretty brass draft catcher to the lower inside edge. Oil the hinge pins, but the door back on, and then adjust things as needed. And all that took me 3 1/2 hours.

She in not happy with the big drywall repair. Oh, it’s smooth, and vertical, and the edges are feathered into invisibility, so it will paint up fine. No, she’s unhappy because when the flooring guys put in her wood flooring, they left the end of the stairs about 3/8” shy of where the wallboard would have been, had there been any wallboard. See, when the builders built her place, one of them put the stairs in and carpeted them before the walls went up. So the guys who put the walls in cut around the carpet! And decades later, when the carpet came out for the wood flooring to go in, surprise! there was a stair shaped hole in the wall. Which is what I fixed. But now she wants the wall to come to the edge of the steps, so now I’ve got to lay on more spackle to fill in the gap. Personally, I think that’s the wrong approach. I think her gripe is with the flooring crew. Whatever. I said I’d stop buy Wednesday evening and try and fill it in with another layer. I have to get there precisely on time because she can only fit me in a 20 minute work window and then she has to go.

Now she’s trying to stiff me with the money. Shouldn’t I be getting less? After all, the amount we agreed to last week was “only an estimate”. (as if anyone else in the history of the planet has ever come in under estimate!) And if you add up the hours from all the days, it comes out to less than 8. By about 20 minutes. Why do people have to do this? I’m already giving them one helluva deal. Try getting in a registered, licensed “professional” for $200 a day. Try. At your convenience too. Keep trying! And try getting all that and TLC quality work from him or his crew. Let me know how that works out for you, m’kay?

I got paid for half a day last week, and the job took exactly as long as I told her it would. Installing 8 double blind pulls on 4 drawers takes a fair amount of measuring, taping, etc. And each pull needed 4 screws because of their strange shape. This is carpentry, and doing it right takes time. Last week she was thrilled with the result. This week she’s complaining that it took so much longer than she thought it would (although it took almost exactly as long as I said it would). Last week I had to start late to begin with because she didn’t want to get up early on a Saturday, then she forgot she had to take her car in to the shop for a brake job so that delayed things another 90 minutes. And then halfway through the afternoon she said she had things to do so I had to go. Surprise! Great. So what was 1 day’s work wound up eating 2 days, and took away my ability to schedule another custom for either day (had I had one). Thanks. Today she was annoyed that the molding was taking me longer than she thought it should. I told her cutting miters by hand was precision work and took time. I used about a teaspoon of putty for all those miters; the guy who had put the old molding in cut 4 of the miters backwards and just filled the gaps with handfuls of the stuff. Which looked like a stale shit sandwich of course, because he never bothered to sand anything down. Again, whatever. So instead of paying me the other half of the money today, she paid me $10 less than half of the half, and I’ll get the other half of the half Wednesday night. I guess she has trust issues.

I think I’m being too nice a guy, and too flexible. While everyone else everywhere loves the work I do for them, big jobs or small, these older single women who all work at the same law office - this is the 5th one of them I’ve done stuff for - all try to screw me over once the work is complete. Maybe I just shouldn’t take their references anymore. They can do their own repairs.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/06/2010 at 02:25 PM   
Filed Under: • work and the workplace •  
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WEEKEND WOMEN … CLARA BOW ….. Denise Milani below the fold

I’ve always been fascinated by the silent screen’s very first IT GIRL. There were stars with sex appeal before her of course.  None however with a title and universally accepted as the the very pinnacle of sex appeal. Not like her. 

Silent film acting was always exaggerated, taking it’s form from Italian opera. Pretty corny stuff and by the way, I never thought Chaplin was funny. But then, I never cared for Elvis either so I’m no proper judge of what the public loves.  But .... I sure do agree with the public of her day, who made her a major star. Even in those awful silent films, she stood out. She was watchable.  She was wonderful. She was, sexy.  She was ....

CLARA BOW 1905 - 1965

Pretty racy for the day and age.  Clara is not wearing a bra here.

OH MY GOSH. WHAT’S THAT BELOW THE FOLD?

Posted by peiper     on 03/06/2010 at 05:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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   Friday - March 05, 2010

Damn that Al Gore

The ships got into difficulties off Sweden’s east coast, and rescuers were on standby to evacuate them if needed, officials said. It is reportedly the worst Baltic freeze for 15 years. The Swedish Maritime Administration said that ice breakers in the area were trying to free the ships, but gale-force winds were hampering the effort.

”As soon as they break the ice it freezes over again,” sea rescue spokesman Peter Lindquist said.

He said no one was hurt and there were no immediate plans to bring people off the ships, but helicopters and military hovercraft were on standby in case evacuations would become necessary.

The agency said four ships were stuck, including the Amorella, a passenger ferry with 943 people on board. Two other ferries that got stuck in the ice were able to break free.

Dozens of ships stuck in the thick Baltic ice off Stockholm have now been freed.

26 other ships reportedly remain stuck firm in ice in the Baltic Sea off the Bay of Bothnia to the north.

Those broke free included five passenger ferries, carrying more than 1000 passengers, who were trapped half-way-through for several hours in frozen waters.

Amorella, a cruise ship with 943 people on board, the smaller Via Mare ferry carrying 66 people, the passenger ferry Sea Wind with 32 people and the Regal Star, a cargo ship with 56 people on board were freed by rescue teams deployed by Swedish Maritime Administration.

Isabella and the Finnfellow, two other ferries that got stuck in the ice, were able to break free Thursday.

Both Sweden and Finland have deployed ice breakers in the area to help the stranded vessels.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Around 50 ships, including large ferries carrying thousands, were stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea Thursday and many were not likely to be freed for hours, Swedish maritime authorities said.

“Around 50 commercial vessels are waiting for help from ice breakers (and) we have had as many as six large passenger ferries stuck, but have managed to free two of them,” Johny Lindvall of the Swedish Maritime Administration’s ice breaker unit told AFP.

He said all the six ferries besides one were shuttling passengers between Sweden and Finland, while the Regal Star ferry, which had been stuck since midnight (2300 GMT Wednesday)—had been on its way to Estonia.

So maybe nobody is quite sure of the number, but it looks like it’s a whole bunch. Icebreakers are working to free them all just as fast as they can. Worst freeze in the Baltic in 15 years. Guess we know where all that ice from the “melting” North Pole wound up. Time to play Where’s Waldo with Al again.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/05/2010 at 06:53 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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from the mailbag

links to stories sent in by all you guys. Ok, I’m a few days behind with some of them.

CBullit, whose other other name is either Legion or Legend, pushes back against the global warming scientists who are pushing back against ClimateGate, with language that might get him in trouble with the Navy.

Carol and Doc Jeff sent the link that Obama wants to grab more land in the west because a bunch of stupid animals are more important than the citizens or the resources on those lands. Gee, looks like one kind of ringed neck weasel looking out for another.

Behold the Moderate Muslim! Doc Jeff links to a new fatwa that says all suicide bombers are going straight to hell without their 72 raisins. Immam Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri wrote a 600 page fatwa that says that violence is always wrong and that 3 lefts do not in fact make a right. Awesome. Now, when I hear that hundreds of millions of regular Muslims are getting behind him, I’ll take it to heart.

Carol also sends in a link to a very quick political affiliation quiz. I think it’s heavily weighted towards generating “Libertarian” as a result, even when I Just Say No to the Legalize Drugs thing.

Michael Zak sends a link to his own blog’s post that points out that ACORN operates quite like the KKK. Interesting. I like Zak, he’s real good at those Today In Republican History points, but he gets too wound up if I quote more than a super tiny bit from his writing. Hey, gots to give the folks a reason to click you know. So all I’ll give you is “Like ACORN, the Ku Klux Klan operated with impunity until Republican politicians and journalists sounded an alarm.” which might just be enough.

Rich K links to a Popular Mechanics article on UAVs, the future of the military. It’s still going to take boots on the ground in the end though.

Home is where the graft is! Rich K also links us to American Thinker where they look at RICO, the corrupt Chicago government, the mafia, and how all that lead to the city’s ban on handguns.

Lastly, Old Cat Man sends in a link that the Brits are putting spy chips in people’s dustbins garbage cans, and that some folks have the gall to object to this. You see, it’s not just WHAT you throw away, it’s HOW MUCH. So I guess they have a quota system ready to go in. Will be be seeing Carbon Credits Trash Chits being traded around the UK soon? Think of the money you could make if you were a hoarder who didn’t throw anything away!

Thanks to everyone; these all make good reading. Sorry if you sent something in and I missed it; I’m always behind in the email so sometimes I have to skip ahead to stay even a little timely.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/05/2010 at 04:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Our Captain Bligh is a Lady

Horry Clap, just what kind of a sewer mouthed monster does it take to get busted from command in the Navy? After all “swearing like a sailor” is part of our lexicon. And being tough is part of the job description. But apparently that kind of behavior has it’s own place and time, and just being angry and vindictive is no substitute for qualified leadership. Thus we see real equal opportunity means not just being promoted, but being demoted as well. This is not a happy post.

Women are so common in the upper ranks of the U.S. military these days that it’s no longer news when they break through another barrier. Unfortunately, the latest benchmark isn’t one to brag about: being booted as captain of a billion-dollar warship for “cruelty and maltreatment” of her 400-member crew. According to the Navy inspector general’s report that triggered her removal — and the accounts of officers who served with her — Captain Holly Graf was the closest thing the U.S. Navy had to a female Captain Bligh.

A Navy admiral stripped Graf of her command of the Japan-based guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Cowpens in January. The just-released IG report concludes that Graf “repeatedly verbally abused her crew and committed assault” and accuses her of using her position as commander of the Cowpens “for personal gain.” But old Navy hands tell TIME that those charges, substantiated in the IG report, came about because of the poisonous atmosphere she created aboard her ship.

A Navy captain was demoted because she berated and assaulted her crew, not because she led her guided missile cruiser on a drag-race with another U.S. warship in the Pacific, an investigation shows.

...

A Navy inspector general report said investigators had substantiated that Graf assaulted subordinates (pushing one, grabbing another and once throwing wadded up paper at another sailor) and that she regularly verbally abused subordinates by publicly berating them, belittling them and using profane language.

...

Graf once ordered a subordinate to stand in a “timeout” in a corner in front of the full watch team, which he complained to investigators was demeaning to him, according to the report.

The report also found she used her office for personal gain — that is, asked junior officers to play piano at her private Christmas party and to walk her dogs.

Among allegations not substantiated was one that she endangered the ship while allowing a drag-race between the Cowpens and the destroyer USS John S. McCain in February 2009.

The Cowpens lost the race too. 

Posted by Drew458     on 03/05/2010 at 03:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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Something to make everyone feel good.

My last for the day ... upstairs with a book (old technology).

Thought I’d leave you with this feel good video.yukyukyuk

Posted by peiper     on 03/05/2010 at 01:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • Humor • Miscellaneous •  
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Dutch MP Geert Wilders defies protesters to screen anti-Islamic film in House of Lords

A few weeks ago we spoke about the trial of a man named Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician being tried by a kangaroo court in his home country. At the moment, it also appears that he may be the next PM of his country.  He has a film, we have had it posted here but you can find it at YT, called FITNA.  It is not a loving testimonial islam. He is highly critical of a religion that he does not believe fits in at all well in Western culture. He also see militant islam as a threat to liberty and says so out loud.  Naturally, the miserable condomstuffers and asswipes on the left and the muzzies want to muzzle him.  Last year he was even denied entry to the former Gt. Britain as a threat to national safety or something of the like.  Of course, the unwashed lice infested rabble that carry signs saying death to the west and the hell with freedom pose no threat at all to the nation. They are members of the ROP and all one needs to do to get along well with this group of vermin, is agree with their views and accept sharia law and islamic customs and religion.

One of the (many) things that piss me off a lot about protesters is that so many of them speak with accents and have names that few outside their own rats nest can pronounce. So I think, why are these sub humans who speak another language from another country here and trying to stop a guest from speaking his mind.
What right does any foreigner have to come here and then try and muzzle an invited politician from another western country.  What are they afraid of. Answer, NOTHING.  They aren’t afraid actually.  They just don’t like the message and don’t want it others to hear it either.  Of course, they have their supporters among the idiot left and traitors.  To be critical of or question the rop automatically makes one a Nazi racist fascist homophobe.

That last is another bothersome red flag item for me.  Someone gets a dozen ppl together and they give themselves a name like the anti-fascist union or anti-Nazi volunteers or somesuch, which they think makes them legit in the eyes of folks who aren’t any of those things, and thus gives em the right to hold up traffic and try and stop the speaker.  In this case, Geert Wilders.  Something else to consider about his visit here today btw.  This is by private invitation for a private meeting and showing of his film.  So the freedom loving anti Fascist groups here don’t even want him speaking privately, never mind what he may say in public.

These folks are a clear and present danger to the west and should be eliminated by any and all means.  Of course they won’t be and they know that. They are safe. For now anyway. And they know that too.
I wish I could have worded this better then I have.  I really am very much PO’d that more people can not see the danger and can not see how phony these “protesters” are.  Why the heck is this man always referred to as “Far Right?” Even by the Daily Mail.  Finally, I find it insulting that these vermin actually think I might really believe they are merely anti-Fascist, instead of hiding behind a slogan that’s meant to censor any kind of debate.

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders defies protesters to screen anti-Islamic film in House of Lords
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 4:08 PM on 05th March 2010

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders accused Islam of being ‘incompatible’ with democracy today after arriving in London to show his anti-Islamic film Fitna at the House of Lords.

The 46-year-old Freedom Party leader’s visit to Britain came after his far-right party scored major gains in Dutch elections. He is now on course to win the most Parliamentary seats in the country’s June 9 election.

If so, it would be impossible for the current coalition government to rule without forging a strong coalition with him.

He could even land the title of prime minister, after a new poll showed that he was fifth on the list of Dutch voters’ preferred candidates.

He said: ‘Islamism and democracy are incompatible.

‘The more Islamism we have, the more freedom we will lose and this is something worth fighting for’.

Mr Wilders called for an end to immigration to Europe from Islamic countries but said Muslims who agreed to obey the law of the land would be welcome to stay.

He said: ‘To Muslims who do stay, I would say “Follow our laws and you are welcome to stay”.’

He also said that, if elected Dutch Prime Minister, he would seek to introduce a ‘first amendment’ guaranteeing freedom of speech.

He said: ‘The right of freedom of speech is especially to listen to someone who is saying something you don’t want to hear.’

Police arrested several protesters from a group who gathered in Millbank to demonstrate against the visit.

Demonstrators chanted ‘Shame on you’ as officers led several members of the crowd into vans.

Yasmin Rassool, from Unite Against Fascism, said she was at the rally to protest against the visit of Mr Wilders and the planned EDL march in his support.

She said: ‘I think the EDL are a racist, homophobic, Nazi party and they shouldn’t be allowed to march in our streets.’

The EDL marchers were penned in by Old Palace Yard, directly opposite Parliament.
Protesters, some of them hiding their faces with scarves, chanted: ‘No surrender to the Taliban’ and ‘Are you watching, Gordon Brown?’.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The Government regrets the decision by Baroness Cox and Lord Pearson to invite Geert Wilders to the House of Lords for a private showing of his film Fitna. However, we currently have no reason to deny Mr Wilders admission to the UK.

‘The Government continues to oppose extremism in all its forms and retains the right to refuse foreign nationals, including European Union citizens, access to the UK if we believe they represent a threat to security or our society.

‘The behaviour of foreign nationals while in the UK will be taken into consideration when considering granting access to the country in the future.’

The visit comes five months after Mr Wilders had to abandon a planned appearance in front of Parliament when the conference was crashed by a group of bearded Islamists.

There are nearly 1million Muslims in the Netherlands.

‘Today Almere and The Hague, tomorrow the whole of the Netherlands. This is our springboard for success in parliamentary elections,’ Mr Wilders said as the returns came in.

‘We’re going to take the Netherlands back from the leftist elite that coddles criminals and supports Islamisation,’ he said.

And, explaining his controversial views last October, Mr Wilders said: ‘I have a problem with the Islamic ideology, the Islamic culture, because I feel that the more Islam that we get in our societies, the less freedom that we get.’

SOURCE WITH MORE PHOTOS

Posted by peiper     on 03/05/2010 at 01:06 PM   
Filed Under: • Jack Booted Thugs • Outrageous • Patriotism • RoPMA • Terrorists • UK •  
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Can’t resist a bit of fun with this.  Prolly more familiar to Brits then Americans

So I should explain this first.
Until this morning I had never heard of this, and I have been to the UK and traveled widely over the years.
Apparently, gags about Essex girls are like all those jokes about blonds. But maybe more biting. I have no idea why.  I have been to Essex in the past and didn’t find anything jokey about the women there so haven’t a clue how these came to be.
Lyndon, Chris:  Any ideas?

Well, whatever the reason, this tickled the ole funny bone and so I have to share it. Oh yeah .... “smarties” are I believe, those choc. chips in the cookies below.
Torch, is Brit speak for flashlight.

I wonder if any of these jokes fall afoul of the laws of the land here with regard to offending anyone who doesn’t see the humor. I wonder if Essex girls and blonds qualify as a protected racial group. Wait, no. Can’t be. Blonds are Caucasian.

Heard the one about the Essex girls fed up with jokes about white stilettos? They set up a charity

By PAUL HARRIS
Last updated at 9:10 AM on 05th March 2010

She is bold, blonde and brassy, and her white stiletto heels are considerably sharper than her mind.

For decades, she has had to endure hurtful jokes that call into question everything from her intellect to her sexual preferences.

But now Essex Girl has a new champion. A charity has been set up to ‘empower’ the women of Essex to combat the image that has plagued them for so long.

Or, as the group puts it: ‘To stop them feeling disadvantaged and disenfranchised ... to broaden their vision, self worth and belief ... to inspire them to reach further, higher, and to live the dream of an enhanced future.’

Even for an Essex girl, it’s quite a mouthful. But organisers are adamant that it is time to call a halt to what project organiser Daphne Field called ‘the image of Essex Girls as dumb, stiletto-wearing, wine-swilling blondes’.

‘Our girls are bright and fun but then you see them crumble when people start putting them down for where they come from.

‘No one talks about the Kent Girl or the Hampshire Girl - we just ended up with this tag.

‘But there’s nothing wrong with being an Essex Girl.’

DAILY MAIL

Posted by peiper     on 03/05/2010 at 10:43 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • UK •  
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BATF Seizure and Airsoft Update

See, that wasn’t so hard. A little bit of citizen journalism: politely ask the people and the company involved a couple questions and get some answers. I wonder why the MSM didn’t do that with this story? Could it be that they were just looking for a bit of sensationalism?

Drew,

It’s great to hear from you about this. We’ve actually been following this for quite some time now. And seen many of the articles and blogs posting about it.

Just as a disclaimer, we do not carry this model because of the possible risk involved with importing it. We believe there’s plenty of money to be made in other ways. However, having said that, we have had a reasonable amount of experience with this model that was seized. 

Before deciding not to carry this model we did have a few samples. We did catch word of the possible usage of it being so realistic that it could be modified to fire real bullets. One version we heard was that a real steal upper could be used with this lower. So, just out of curiosity, several personnel here brought in several of their AR’s to work to test with. We made several observations; I’ll start with general ones and move to more specific.

First off, the lower half although made of a metal, is really only made out of cast metal. This is a low quality nickel alloy that really can’t take much abuse. We really doubt it could take any of the abuse needed. Although true a majority of the stress is on the upper, but even the buffer tube takes a good amount of stress from the recoil. Most likely the rear of the frame would break and fly off if a round was hypothetically able to be fired.

Second, the top of a real AR does not fit the lower. We tested this on several different makes and models, none of which fit. The 2 pins were located in different locations and just off about 1/2”; enough so that you couldn’t drill another hole there in place of the original without the 2 overlapping and becoming one big hole. Not only that, but the top half wouldn’t even close down onto the lower, even with the lower gutted and emptied out.

Third, the magazine lock was not located in the same position as the real magazine. It was about 1/4” higher. We’ll have a short video of another M4 that we took a real steal M4 magazine and it would not fit in. It’s part of our weekly you tube videos. And this one happened to be about another M4. It will be published tomorrow, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/AirSplatcom

But even more so, for this gun in specific, the mag well, was about 1/4” narrower than the magazine, so even if you could re-notch it, the magazine would have to make it 1/4” slimmer to fit in. This is only true with the model that was seized. In airsoft, we’re only making replicas, we’re not making makeshift fire arms, so manufacturers really have no standard as to what size they make the magazines or mag wells for that matter. So in the video it’s 1/4’” wider than a real M4 mag. But for this gun it’s 1/4” slimmer. 

Fourth, I won’t go too much into the trigger / hammer assembly. Mainly because this is just completely different, it’s not even close to be compatible and I don’t think anyone has gone so far as to say it would be compatible. But I would like to mention that the trigger assembly in the real AR’s we compared to this rifle, were completely different, and it’s highly unlikely that they would somehow fit in, even with major milling and reworking.

These 4 points cover one concern where a real upper is used with this lower.

However, in this specific seizure, if I understand it correctly is stating that the guns as is, even without a real upper, could be modified to chamber and fire a real bullet. Which in this case, I have to say is case is absolutely impossible. The barrel isn’t the right size, there’s no where to “chamber” a round. There’s no hammer / pin to strike the bullet. It’s completely impossible without a complete rework and replacement of the entire internals and barrel, not to mention redoing the entire lower and upper to house these new or modified internals. Making a gun out of paper would probably be more effective and faster, although look less appealing to the eye.

Sorry, I think I ended up writing an essay for you. There are some distributors in the industry that send every one of their airsoft guns to ATF first before they import. Hence, if you ask the ATF HQ, they most likely know that airsoft guns, couldn’t possible be have any sort of these ramifications that are being implied and stated in this seizure.

But sometimes eating your own words is very hard. Sometimes it’s easier to stay the path!

We’ll be sure to continue following your blog, please feel free to let us know if you have any questions. You have a great blog. Feel free to let us know if you’re looking for any support or help. Thanks.

AirSplat.com

I guess that settles it. The parts don’t fit close enough, and even if you could make them fit via a whole lot of modification, they would not hold up to the stresses of firing real ammunition. And we have a corporation, the major player in this field, investigating things on their own and arriving at that conclusion. Sounds like responsible action to me. And even though they disproved this rumor to their own satisfaction, they decided not to run with this model just in case. Because rumors can turn into hassles for business, even when they are utterly untrue. Who needs that? They are even taking it one step further, putting out a video that shows it can’t be done. Just to help squash the rumor. Nice move.

So now the ball is squarely in the BATF’s court: make it work. Get out the hand tools and have at it. Prove your case on both points: that not only is such a modification possible and that a reliable firearm is the result, that it can be done is reasonable time by laymen with only reasonable tools and skills. Otherwise they’ve only hammered a new hobnail into the soles of their jackboots, and managed to give themselves both a black eye and a sore thumb at the same time. And they’ll owe the importer an apology, some sort of certificate of approval, the cost of the materials seized, and some amount of payment for the inconvenience. I’d say court costs too, but there shouldn’t be any; the BATF should be doing the right thing, right now, WITHOUT any pressure from the courts or any legal injunction. Otherwise they ARE a bunch of ham handed jackbooted thugs with an agenda.

And that’s all I have to say about that. Except to tell our overseas readers that ATF and BATF and BATFE are the same folks. The federal government’s Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms enforcement agency renamed themselves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. So they have a new acronym, but WTP - We The People - continue to call them whatever we want. Which is often unprintable. And now you see why.

Small Update: Reader B3 is big into Airsoft, and he says it CAN be done. See his comment in the original post. So I guess it comes down to Show Me. I’m looking forward to AirSplat’s video, but like OJ “trying” to put on the bloody glove, I will have to view it with a bit of skepticism until B3, the ATF, or somebody can either put out a video that shows that the conversion works, or publish an official paper detailing how it was done in front of recognized experts. Perhaps all that is needed is a diagram that shows the measurements of the “toy” receiver vs. the real one? Mmmm ... no. Even if it was one for one, as B3 says, I’d want to see proof at the firing range, although I realize that isn’t strictly necessary from the ATF’s perspective. The receiver is the part on this rifle that is designated as the actual firearm, so all they really need to show is that the real parts can fit on and that, with a bit of work, pulling the trigger releases the hammer enough to fire the primer on a chambered blank round. Anything more than that is a parts quality issue, which is not germane here.

Update the II: I think this is a situation where we need government. Not for willy-nilly arbitrary enforcement of “it’s wrong because I say so” feelings, but to act as a fair arbitrator in setting up standards that everyone can live with. Somewhere there has to be a line between what is a toy, what qualifies as a BB gun, what is a replica, and what is a real firearm. That line may have to be drawn right down to the individual components, or at least the receivers. But without such a standard and the widespread awareness of it, problems will continue to occur. If such standards already exist - and I bet they do! - then it’s merely a matter of getting the word out; better awareness should alleviate situations like this one. It is not fair to expect customs agents to have the level of expertise required here to tell the toys from the real things, right down to the individual parts level. They have plenty of other things to do. But parts for toys or replicas could be shipped with some kind of label or certificate that says “meets government standard XYZ.123” and a look at the stuff, a quick check of the rules book, and a measurement or two would be enough. Especially since labeling real firearms receivers as toys would be a form of smuggling! 

Posted by Drew458     on 03/05/2010 at 10:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Government • Guns and Gun Control • Jack Booted Thugs •  
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Just another silly story about silly, stupid people in a nanny state. Whatever happened to logic?

This is pretty silly and in fact it’s plain STUPID which is why .... it deserves the Bat Award.  How do folks like this get hired? Or perhaps it doesn’t show at the time of employment. What are schools turning out?  This is nothing serious compared to all the bad stuff going on these days.  There has always been that.  But there seems to be less common sense.  Less logic.  And before anyone points a finger at Brits alone, let me tell ya that I’ve seen it at work back home in the USA long ago.  Maybe not as often back then, but it was beginning. So then, here.
Just Another Stupid Story about silly stupid people.

Staff at a WH Smith store refused to sell a mother a pair of children’s scissors in case she let her three-year-old daughter use them unsupervised.

By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:30AM GMT 05 Mar 2010

Nadine Martin was left shocked and angered after a sales assistant said she could not buy the brightly coloured scissors for her three-year-old daughter.

The high street chain yesterday apologised for embarrassing Mrs Martin, admitting that the staff member had been “overzealous” in applying safety guidelines.

Mrs Martin was buying art supplies for her daughter at the firm’s branch in Chichester, West Sussex, when the toddler spotted the scissors which were marked “3+”.

But when the youngster placed them on the checkout counter, the woman sales assistant asked: “Will you be supervising her?”

Mrs Martin said: “She called another woman over and she said it was company policy that because my daughter had put the scissors on the counter it called into question whether she would be supervised using them.

“I can’t believe a parent can’t buy plastic scissors. They were clearly labelled and had ‘3+’ on them. There was a queue of about four people and it was embarrassing.”

In protest, Mrs Martin left the shop without buying any of the items they had picked up.

A spokesman for WH Smith said: “Customer safety is of paramount importance to us.

“To that end we insist our staff complete regular training updates to remind them of their obligations both legally and in accordance with our own policies.

“On this occasion a staff member may have been a little overzealous in their interpretation of that training and we apologise for any inconvenience or embarrassment that may have been caused.”

SILLY SOURCE FOR STUPID PEOPLE

I think one other item stands out here like a red flag. See it?  Management says a staff member “may” have overreacted. May have?

There isn’t any “MAY” about it.  That implies there’s still a question of some kind, to my way of thinking.  No. There isn’t any “may” involved here.
It’s just another example and one of many I’ve been confronted with lately, where people in management or authority of some kind just can’t being themselves to state the obvious without any qualifications. 
Oh well. Big deal, right? Yeah, I guess.

Posted by peiper     on 03/05/2010 at 06:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People • UK •  
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   Thursday - March 04, 2010

Those wacky Japanese…

Seems the world-wide recession has even hit Japanese pet owners. Instead of sending their pets to the usual pet groomers, they’ve opted for the pet washing machines

Japanese pet owners are trying to save money in today’s recession by having their dogs and cats washed in a specially designed machine instead of using groomers.

More and more people in the suburbs of Tokyo are using the vending machines that wash, rinse and blow dries their pets in about 30 minutes, Ananova reports.

A groomer at Joyful Honda pet market claims the process uses pure ozone water and is completely safe for the pet. One user, however, admitted it took his Yorkshire terrier a while to get used to the dryer.

The vending machine wash costs about $5 compared to approximately $30 for grooming.

Small print: $150 may be needed for pet therapy afterward.

Why yes! Thank you for asking. There is a video:

Posted by Christopher     on 03/04/2010 at 08:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Animals • High Tech • Humor •  
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