Thursday - January 10, 2013
Let Him Use A Whole Stack, It Won’t Matter
Two mules for sister Sarah? Meh. Looks like Obashango is going to try to double down on his second crowning. Gots to play the race card as often as possible.
Obama To Use Two Bibles At Inaugeration
like, who really cares? Oh, I forgot. Chicago Black Jesus is also Black Lincoln. The New Mr. Civil Rights done freed them slaves all over again. Yes suh, freed them from ever having to get jobs, freed them from ever having to get an education, freed them from ever having to be responsible for anything ...
President Obama is putting a symbolic twist on a time-honored tradition, taking the oath of office for his second term with his hand placed not on a single Bible, but two—one owned by Martin Luther King Jr. and one by Abraham Lincoln.
The inclusion of King’s Bible is particularly significant since the inauguration comes on Jan. 21, the federal holiday in honor of the civil rights leader, who delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech 50 years ago at the Lincoln Memorial. Obama will be facing the memorial as he takes the oath. King’s Bible, which his children say he used early in his career as a preacher, has never been part of a presidential inauguration.
Funny. But not really. I think MLKjr will be spinning in his grave; the content of this character is ... ZERO.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/10/2013 at 10:52 AM
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Permalink • A Wing And A Prayer … And A Broken Landing Strut
[Monday 1/7/13] Airport officials say an antique Spitfire aircraft owned by engine company Rolls Royce collapsed shortly after landing at East Midlands Airport in central England.
The airport said in a statement the World War II-era plane’s undercarriage failed as it touched down Monday afternoon. The pilot was unharmed and the damaged aircraft was towed away.
The sleek-looking Spitfire played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, when the single-seat fighter helped beat back waves of German bombers. More than 20,000 were built, although only a few dozen remain in working order today.
Rolls Royce, which built the Merlin engines used to power the fighters, says it bought this plane in 1996. It typically appears at airshows and corporate functions.
Well, mostly. Warbird junkies will look at that photo, see the 5 bladed prop, the shape of the tail, and the longer fuselage and immediately realize that this one was one of the late models that was built with the Griffon engine. So it’s a bid of an odd bird for Rolls Royce to have, but it’s good that somebody is keeping the old lady in good condition.
Rolls-Royce bought the aircraft in 1996 and it underwent a major overhaul in 2010 - the first since it was built.
A spokesman for Rolls-Royce, which has a base at the airport, said the pilot was not hurt in the incident and they would co-operate fully with the Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is looking into the circumstances of the incident.
Extensive restorationThe airport was closed was shut while the plane was removed from the runway and the area cleared of debris.
An airport spokesman said seven flights were diverted to Birmingham and hundreds of passengers were bussed from Birmingham back to East Midlands.
The AAIB said a report on their investigation would be filed in due course.
Staff at Rolls-Royce could not confirm the condition of the plane since the incident but said it had been in the process of being made ready for a new season of air displays starting in April.
The Spitfire, PS853, was delivered to the RAF 68 years ago and designed as a fast, high-flying aircraft.
It was engaged on active service with 16 Squadron until the end of the war and participated in Operation Crossbow to detect German launch sites.
It remained on duty in Germany until March 1946 when it returned to the UK and was placed in storage.
Edward Coxon, from Hartshorne in Derbyshire, who was plane-spotting at the airport near Derby, told the BBC: “I was just looking at the planes coming in when, all of a sudden, there were loads of blue lights coming in from the other end of the runway.
“That’s when I saw the plane in the middle of the runway. I could hear on the radio that there was only one person on board and he was fine.”
The runway was closed because of the incident, which happened at 3.19pm on Monday, and flights were suspended while the plane was recovered and safety checks were made.
The Rolls-Royce Spitfire, PS853, is an unarmed, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, one of a batch of 79 built at Supermarine, Southampton.
It is powered by a 2,050hp Griffon engine with a top speed of 446mph and is capable of flying at 42,000ft.
PS853 was delivered to the Central Photographic Reconnaissance Unit at RAF Benson on 13th January 1945, before moving to Belgium and Holland.
The aircraft was engaged on active service with 16 Squadron until the end of the war and participated in Operation Crossbow to detect German launch sites.
At the end of the war it remained on duty in Germany until March1946 when it returned to the UK and was placed in storage.
In 1950, PS853 was one of several Spitfires selected for conversion to conduct meteorological research, known as the Temperature and Humidity of the Upper Air Masses (THUM) Flight. PS853 performed the last ever Spitfire THUM sortie on 10th June 1957.
It then retired into ceremonial and display duties to form the RAF’s Historic Aircraft Flight, the forerunner of today’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
In 1996, Rolls-Royce bought PS853 to replace the original Rolls-Royce Spitfire XIV, G-ALGT, which had been destroyed in a crash in 1992.
The Rolls-Royce Spitfire, as PS853 is now popularly known, has become widely recognised as an ambassador for Rolls-Royce.
The aircraft is based in a dedicated hangar at East Midlands Airport and can be seen around the display circuit between April and October.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/10/2013 at 10:15 AM
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Permalink • Twelve Fewer Pirates On The Loose Today, 3 Killed 3 Weeks Ago
A medium-small container ship, the MSC Jasmine, was sailing from Salalah Oman to Mombasa Kenya. Right through Somali Pirate Central, about 400 NM ENE of Mogadishu. No surprise, the pirates came after them, in an attack skiff (:-0 “ban assault boats!") and a small mother ship. The Jasmine was attacked with small arms fire and RPGs, but security forces onboard held the pirates at bay. The Jasmine’s crew hid out in the ship’s safe room and put out a mayday. NATO forces quickly responded, including the US ship USS Halyburton, the French ship FS Surcouf, German P-3 Orion patrol aircraft from the Horn of Africa base in Djibouti, and helicopters from one or both ships. The French sent in a boat crew and 12 pirates were captured in the two small boats. Jasmine sustained very minor damage, with no injuries to her crew. If the French decide it’s worth it, the pirates will be turned over to the prison in the Seychelles.
MSC Jasmine is a medium-small container ship, 198m L x 32m W (650’x105’), 31430 GRT.
So, not bad. Good work all around. And it’s nice to see a clear defensive use of firearms. Too bad there wasn’t an immediate group hanging.
A merchant vessel sailing 260 miles off the Somali Coast, made a distress call, reporting that she was coming under attack by six men in a fast moving boat, armed with rocket propelled grenades (RPG). Thankfully, having employed avoidance tactics, the merchant vessel was able to escape the attack.
Upon hearing the distress call, NATO warship USS Halyburton, operating as part of NATO’s counter piracy operation – Ocean Shield, and on patrol 80 nautical miles away, launched her helicopter and was able to quickly locate a suspect boat – which was by now towing another vessel, with several men on board.
Six pirates were aboard the skiff armed with small arms and a rocket launcher RPG type. The crew of the MSC Jasmine – a Cypriot container ship flying the Panamanian flag – took refuge in the citadel. And the team of private security guards on board went into action.
As a result of the action of the security team, the suspected pirates moved away and with no personnel injured and only minor superficial damage to the ship, the merchant vessel continued its transit to Mombasa.
While the attack was underway, the Commander of the NATO counter piracy task force, Rear Admiral Antonio Natale from the Italian Navy, tasked the USS Halyburton, which was in the vicinity, to proceed towards the suspected pirates position.
Within a few hours, Halyburton with the support of a German Maritime Patrol Aircraft and the FS Surcouf, then located and detained 12 suspected pirates on board a motor whaler, that appeared to be acting as a ‘mothership’ together with one smaller skiff.
[tranlated from the original French] The 12 suspects have been arrested - Sunday - by the French military crews collision in two stages: first the pirates skiff (there were only two on board), and those for the whaling boat mother (they were ten on board). They were brought on board for further investigation. “The suspects are being interrogated to gather evidence for possible prosecution” says one well at Atalanta HQ in Northwood. They could - if the outcome is positive - be handed over to a nearby country - Seychelles for example - if the local prosecutor believes the evidence sufficient for prosecution.
Speaking of pirates ... it must really suck to be these guys. Captured by pirates more than three years ago, then abandoned by their company and left to rot in Somalia. Finally freed the day before Christmas Eve by some nifty paramilitary action from that group in Puntland (a break-away part of northern Somalia that’s trying to bring peace and order to the area) that really is not making the news. I hope the survivors are at least able to sue for back pay.
Vessel’s crew released after nearly three years in captivity off Somalia
After 1000 days in captivity the 22 remaining crew of the MV Iceberg 1 were freed as a result of a two- week operation by the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) in Garaad in the Mudug region of Somalia. The freed hostages needed some medical attention and are reportedly showing signs of physical abuse and illness. During the years of captivity two crew died.The vessel was hijacked off the Yemeni coast in March 2010. Since the vessel was hijacked the crew have been left on their own with reportedly little support from their owners. During its captivity, the vessel grounded and is believed to be a total loss .
The IMB commended the PMPF on their actions against the pirates. None of the crew were harmed during the operation. An IMB spokesman commented, “Whilst this is a successful rescue operation, our thoughts are with the remaining 139 hostages still held by pirates, 28 of whom have been there for just under two years.”
The number of successful pirate attacks off the Somali coast have decreased in the past year, largely due to the efforts of international navies in the region, as well as the use of private armed security guards on vessels and other measures to harden vessels against attack.
Gosh, you’d think after being held prisoner for THREE YEARS there would be more to the story than that, right? Of course there is. You just have to visit the British papers to get to the real story. And it’s an awful one ...
By the time the 22 surviving crew of the MV Iceberg-1 were finally rescued last week, most had long given up hope of ever returning home.
The ageing cargo ship was launched an attack against the Somali pirates to free eight Yemenis, five Indians, four Ghanaians, two Sudanese, two Pakistanis and a Filipino man who had been held captive since March 29, 2010.
“We thought the whole world had forgotten us but then the attack started, and again we began to hope and pray,” said 25-year-old Swapnil Jadhav, a seaman from western India’s Sangli town.
Mohamad Abdirahman, PMPF director, said: “Our forces started the operation on December 10, when they went to the coast and laid siege to the ship with the approval of the Puntland government. We had the military resources to rescue them.”
In the end, though, their rescue was not carried out by the multi-national piracy fleet, with its warships and hi-tech weaponry, but a ramshackle Somalia anti-piracy force based in northern Puntland region. They killed three of the pirates and laid siege to the ship for two weeks, riddling it with bullets, before the surviving pirates finally surrendered.
[why was the ship not ransomed? ] Its Dubai-based owner, who appears not to have been insured, refused to pay a ransom for it and simply went to ground, ignoring pleas for help from the hostages’ families.
Meanwhile, the governments representing the different sailors on board — six Indians, nine Yemenis, four Ghanaians, two Sudanese, two Pakistanis and one Filipino — were either unable or unwilling to mount a rescue attempt. So, too,was the multinational anti-piracy force, which generally prefers hijacked ships to be freed by ransom, on the basis that freeing sailors by force carries too much risk of casualties.
All of which allowed the Iceberg 1 to gain the dubious honour of becoming the longest hijack case in modern history. And one of the grimmest.
Conditions on board the boat were appalling, with the crew driven almost mad by prolonged confinement and lack of proper food and drink. Two of them died in the process, one apparently jumping overboard after becoming unhinged from stress.
As a source in the shipping world admitted to me earlier this year, the fact that the ship lay unrescued for so long is a “scar on the conscience of the industry”. The families of the hostages concerned also point out — rightly I suspect — that had this case involved Westerners, it would have been resolved long ago.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/10/2013 at 07:18 AM
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Permalink • washington sends a warning to london? sure does, and some brits will not like it
Folks who make bmews a regular port of call, are familiar with my mad rants and hopping up an down anger whenever some foreigner somewhere tries to tell us how we should do things in our own backyard. And most especially when Brits think they can decide or would like to decide, how America deals with the gun issue. None-a-your damn business is my standard reply.
So then, now I am pissed off at our government. Here’s a fellow bmews has perhaps never heard of. His name is Philip Gordon. Mr Gordon is, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
(I once had a Eurasian affair, but I never knew there was an official post for it. And he gets paid as well? )
Ok so, in his capacity as the above title, he has been visiting London where, he has warned the Brits to remain in the EU or face isolation.
OK, look. I understand there are things that may be in the interests of my country with regard to the EU. I can’t think of any but there must be one at least. I have to confess to not caring though. If I can become angry when foreigners stick their nose in our affairs, it’s tit for tat as far as I am concerned. I don’t think Washington has any business getting into this scrape. Oh and btw …. since politicians are by nature lying bastards anyway, I really do not see England leaving the EU in my lifetime. The pro euro-weenies of the left will as always, manage to subvert the will of the majority on this issue.
Do any of you recall me saying there are ppl in the USA who would if they could, have us join the EU? I ranted on about what I see as influence and agencies here in Europe, at work in the USA. Make us more like them, one might say.
I suppose ppl reading my thoughts based on the things I read and hear in this place, might have some of you thinking I exaggerate things a bit. Ya think?
Well, I have pretty much chopped up this article to highlight those things that have more meaning to me personally. How else should I take this? You decide.
There’s a link so you can read it in the unedited version.
Obama administration warns Britain to stay in the European UnionBritain risks damaging its relationship with America and being sidelined in the international community if it leaves the European Union, the Obama administration publicly warned today.
“We value a strong UK voice in a strong European Union,” the US State Department’s Philip H Gordon, the Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, said starkly during a visit to London to meet ministers yesterday.
“We have a growing relationship with the EU as an institution, which has an increasing voice in the world,
A British exit from the EU would not enhance the “special relationship” in any way, he said. America would continue to forge stronger links with member countries of the EU which it sees as having “a growing voice in the world and a critical partner on global issues”.
The public statements of Mr Gordon, a respected senior member of the administration, show the level of concern in Washington over a mooted referendum on British membership of the EU.
In a long-awaited speech due soon on Europe, the Prime Minister, it is believed, will say that a referendum will take place in 2018, after the next election.
But Eurosceptics have demanded that it is held sooner and Boris Johnson, seen as a rival for the Conservative leadership has joined them in making the call.
Francois Hollande, the French president, has, in turn, stressed that the UK cannot pick which laws it likes from a “a la carte” EU menu and should realise that membership “is for life”.
Mr Gordon insisted that in fact the US will be damaged if Britain did pull out. He said: “The EU in particular is such a critical partner for the United States on all of these global issues and therefore we also value a strong UK voice in that European Union.
What’s in the British interest is for the British people and the British Government to decide.”
“What’s in the British interest is for the British people and the British Government to decide.”
Hey, hasn’t he already said the opposite? And if it’s really up to “the British people” which I bet it will never work out that way, then why is he making suggestions and giving warnings?
the Prime Minister, it is believed, will say that a referendum will take place in 2018, after the next election.
Uh huh. So a wait of five years? What scheming shits leaders (I use the term loosely) truly are. He promised a referendum a few years ago. Whatever happened to that? I’ll tell ya. It was scrapped because he knew ahead of time what the outcome would be.
Everytime I see the letters EU I want to scream, TO ARMS! TO ARMS!
Posted by peiper
on 01/10/2013 at 07:12 AM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • EUro-peons • UK • USA •
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Permalink • Wednesday - January 09, 2013
Making Political Hay
Here we go again. All the useful idiots have their talking points and their marching orders ...
Never mind that New York already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Never mind that “assault weapons” are already illegal there (as they are in Newtown CT). Never mind that using the dead children as political pawns is about as low as low can be ...
Cuomo Close To Announcing Sweeping New Gun Control Laws
A deal to give New York one of the toughest gun control laws in the nation is being negotiated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who, sources said Tuesday, is hoping to announce the plan Wednesday during his State of the State speech in Albany.
Cuomo hopes to jump-start the 2013 legislative session with a big deal that could dramatically alter gun control laws across the state.
Highly placed sources told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer that Cuomo is negotiating with Assembly and Senate leaders for a package of gun control laws that would be a dramatic response to the gun violence besetting the nation, including the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
“It’s a very divisive topic,” Cuomo said on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of energy on both sides. Some people are vehemently against’ some people think we’re out of our minds for not passing it.”
Sources told Kramer the governor and lawmakers are negotiating furiously in the hope that Cuomo can announce a deal during his speech Wednesday.
Sources said the package is expected to include:
* New restrictions on assault weapons
* Stiffer penalties for using a gun to commit a crime
* New limits on the number of bullets in a gun magazine
“Gun control is highly political, politically contentious situation. It is polarizing,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo’s move comes as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Gun Violence released a new commercial to push for federal action. It features Roxanna Green, the mother of Christina Taylor-Green, who was killed two years ago Tuesday in the Tucson, Ariz., massacre.
“How many more children must die before Washington does something to end our gun violence problem?” Roxanna Green says during the ad.
It would be quite a coup for Cuomo, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, to show progress on gun control while Washington dithers.
In case the media forgets to tell you, New York made it’s own assault weapons law, a permanent one, back before the federal 1994 AWB law expired. It’s pretty much a word for word clone of the AWB. And that law already includes a 10 round magazine provision. Read it right here.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/09/2013 at 10:40 AM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
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Permalink • Life Here In Upside Down World
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don’t give you any choice
‘cause they think that it’s treason.
So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.
I wanna bite the hand that feeds me.
I wanna bite that hand so badly.
I want to make them wish they’d never seen me.
-Elvis Costello, Radio Radio
As American International Group Inc. weighs whether to join a lawsuit against the government that spent $182 billion to save it from collapse, U.S. lawmakers have a message for the insurance behemoth: “Don’t even think about it.”
In a letter to AIG Chairman Robert Miller, U.S. Reps. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Michael Capuano, D-Mass., characterized the insurer as the “poster child” for Wall Street greed, fiscal mismanagement and executive bonuses.
“Now, AIG apparently seeks to become the poster company for corporate ingratitude and chutzpah,” the letter read. “Taxpayers are still furious that they rescued a company whose own conduct brought it down. Don’t rub salt in the wounds with yet another reckless decision that is on par with the reckless decision that led to the bailout in the first place.”
In widely reported comments, former inspector general for the financial industry bailout Neil Barofsky said AIG joining the suit would be a “giant middle finger” to the American taxpayer.
AIG said Tuesday its board of directors will weigh whether to take part in a shareholder lawsuit against the U.S. over the government’s $182 billion bailout of the insurer.
If AIG decides to join the complaint, which seeks $25 billion in damages, it would pit the company against the government that rescued it in 2008 from collapsing under the weight of huge losses on mortgage-backed securities and other toxic assets.
AIG said that its directors will take up the matter on Wednesday and expects they will have a decision by the end of the month.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said it was “simply outrageous” that AIG officials would even consider such a lawsuit.
I admit to being a bit confused here. Ordinarily, my response to such amounts of gall would include copious quantities of large caliber artillery fire, but if whack-a-doodle-do Maxine thinks it’s wrong then I have to step back and give it some thought. The shareholders got screwed royally here, so they are suing. If AIG joins the suit on their side, then it’s a CYA effort that will keep them from being named on the other side of the lawsuit. Better to be the plaintiff than the defendant when death is on the line when billions are involved, so this might be a smart move for them.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/09/2013 at 10:12 AM
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Permalink • More Global Warming
Snow falls in Jerusalem
2 cm of snow accumulates in Gilo and Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhoods of Jerusalem; heavy snow falling in Golan, with flooding expected throughout country; police assist 70 people endangered by rising water levels on roadways.
Snow began falling in the elevated suburbs of Jerusalem on Wednesday, following a deluge of rain that shut down major arteries across Israel and turned highways into raging rivers on Tuesday.
As temperatures began falling in the capital, there was some accumulation of snow, including 2cm on the ground in both Gilo and Pisgat Ze’ev. This was sufficient for some enterprising Jerusalemites to build small snowmen and to sled on plastic bags.
Israel Storms Cause Floods as Jerusalem Braces for Snow
Israel’s heaviest rainstorms in more than two decades have caused flooding that closed roads and damaged property throughout the country, as Jerusalem residents brace for as much as 30 centimeters (1 foot) of snow.
Jerusalem closed its schools at noon today and the municipality advised drivers to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a meeting with Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and police officials to assess disaster preparedness efforts.
“Emergency and rescue services are working around the clock to save lives,” Netanyahu said in a text message sent from his office in Jerusalem.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/09/2013 at 09:55 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - January 08, 2013
It Ain’t Kandy …
... no, it’s her sister Kloe.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/08/2013 at 03:59 PM
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Permalink • And Here We Go
With new Congress comes a new push for gun laws
Washington (CNN)—Lawmakers began a new session of Congress with the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, still fresh in their minds—inspiring a new push to pass gun laws that could prevent another tragedy.
On Day One, lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced nearly a dozen bills related to gun violence.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-New York, a longtime gun control advocate, led the fight on the Democratic side of the aisle. She’s sponsoring legislation that would require background checks for all gun sales—including at gun shows—and ban online sales of ammunition. McCarthy is also co-sponsoring a bill to ban high-capacity magazines with Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado. DeGette’s district includes Columbine High School, where two gunmen killed 13 people in 1999, and is next to Aurora, where a gunman killed 12 people in a mass shooting at a movie theater in July.
“These assault magazines help put the ‘mass’ in ‘mass shooting’ and anything we can do to stop their proliferation will save lives in America,” said McCarthy, whose husband was killed and her son critically wounded in a mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad in New York in 1993. “These devices are used to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time possible, and we owe it to innocent Americans everywhere to keep them out of the hands of dangerous people.”
Meanwhile, two Republican freshmen, Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, have introduced bills that would allow more guns around schools.
California Legislators Introduce Bill To Regulate Ammunition
Legislators for years have tried regulating firearms to protect people from getting shot, but on Monday, California Assemblymembers Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) unveiled a different approach, announcing a bill that would restrict the sale of bullets.
In a press conference attended by more than a dozen gun control advocates, religious leaders, educators and other activists, the legislators said their bill would help prevent murders like the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
“When we have so many safeguards in place around the purchase of guns, why is it so much easier to buy bullets?” asked Skinner. “It is easier in California to buy bullets than to buy alcohol, cigarettes or Sudafed cold medicine.”
Wow. Big turnout. More than 12 people were there in the audience.
The bill is meeting opposition. Sam Paredes, executive director of the Gun Owners of California told KQED’s Mina Kim that high-capacity magazines are not being used in very many California crimes.
“We don’t have a gun problem in California or in America,” he said. “We have a people problem that nobody wants to address. As long as everybody concentrates on gun control we will continue to have these massacres occurring.”
The bill, AB 48, would
* Require licenses for ammunition sellers
* Require ammunition purchasers to show identification
* Require ammunition sellers to report sales to the California Department of Justice
* Create a registry of ammunition purchases available to law enforcement agencies
* Require the Department of Justice to notify law enforcement of large ammunition sales. (The bill does not yet have a definition of “large ammunition sales.” The legislators said they are still working on that.)
* Ban kits that can convert ammunition-feeding devices into high-capacity magazines
* define “high capacity” as more than 10 rounds, but excludes tubular magazines on lever gunsThe bill is not the first to take aim at ammunition in the wake of the Newtown killings. On Dec. 20, state Sen. Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) introduced SB 53 requiring a permit for the purchase of ammunition.
AB 48 is a one-pager, so you can read it all in a flash right here.
Well golly. Seems to me that New Jersey already has laws on the books just like that. It’s against the law here to possess any ammunition of any kind that you don’t have a legal firearm for. Not to mention that whole “hollow point bullet” idiocy. And from what I’ve heard, NJ has upped the penalty for “high capacity” 15 round magazines to a Class 2 felony: 18 months in jail, no early release, for each one they catch you with, whether they fit any legal arms you own or not. In NY it’s 10 rounds. But hey, stun guns are illegal here too, and so are pepper sprays larger than 0.75fl oz. Which is pretty tiny.
Only in Obamaland ... somehow this smells a bit fishy ...
Member of Biden’s Gun Control Task Force Has a Son Convicted of Planning School Mass Murder
President of the National Assocation of Police Officers and Boston Police Officer Thomas Nee is a member of Vice President Joe Biden’s gun control task force, which was created by President Obama in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Nee’s son, Joseph Nee, was convicted in 2008 for planning to commit mass murder of students and teachers at Marshfield High School in Massachusetts, similar to that of Columbine in 1999. After spending nine months in prison, Nee’s conviction was upheld by the Supreme Judicial Court.
...
Thomas Nee is serving as an expert on gun violence for Biden. Attorney General Eric Holder, Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department Charles Ramsey and others have also been tapped to provide their expertise to the task force.
Such an expert ... who didn’t even know his own kid was a whacko planning mass murder. But gosh, he has a badge. Philly’s Ramsey is another rabid anti-gun bigot as well. He’s one of the hands behind the anti-gun bills that Philly keeps passing that get shredded by the PA legislature nearly every year.
*******************************
The foo is hitting the shan folks. It really is. The lunatic commies are in charge.
Oh, and now shooting victim and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her retired astronaut husband Mark Kelly are trying to climb up on Cindy Shitcan’s High Horse of Moral Authority ... wannabe the new Bradys ... funded by Bloomberg because neither of them has a job any more ... hiding behind a “common sense” front group ... with the same old pitch: overbearing legislation followed by confiscation. Believe it.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/08/2013 at 12:50 PM
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Permalink • Totally Unexpected
Say It Ain’t So Joe:
Psych Doc: Oikos U mass shooter is a nutcase
Better ban all the guns and ammo anyway, just to be safe. And let’s get bigger Gun Free Zone signs for next time. Yeah, that’ll fix things. Too right.
A man accused of killing seven people at a small California Christian college has been deemed mentally unfit for trial.
A judge issued the ruling Monday and ordered defendant One Goh to return to court Jan. 28.
Goh is charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the April 2 attack at Oikos University in Oakland. He has pleaded not guilty.
His attorney says a psychiatrist determined that Goh suffers from paranoid schizophrenia that dates back several years.
How much you wanna bet he was dosed to the gills with Ritalin and a stewpot full of other psycho drugs at the time? You know, just like most of the other young mass shooters in the past 30 years. Didn’t Ann Coulter just write an essay about that? I can’t find it.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/08/2013 at 12:34 PM
Filed Under: • Crime •
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Permalink • A big bad combination
Ships and bridges ... two things that just don’t go together
Coast Guard investigators on Tuesday plan to interview the pilot of an empty tanker that struck a tower in the middle of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge while navigating beneath the hulking span.
The 752-foot Overseas Reymar rammed the tower on Monday afternoon as it headed out to sea, according to the Coast Guard and state transportation officials.
The unidentified pilot will also report to the state Board of Pilot Commissioners, which will conduct its own investigation of the accident. That board regulates bar pilots.
The pilot has been a San Francisco bar pilot since 2005, said Charlie Goodyear, a spokesman for the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association. The association did not release his name.
Lansing said the ship’s double hull wasn’t breached, and state officials said the bridge sustained minor damage but remained opened immediately after the accident. The crash damaged 30 to 40 feet of “fender” material that will need to be replaced.
same story at other places -
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=8945133
http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/01/07/live-video-tanker-strikes-bay-bridge-tower/
Now there are calls demanding that even piloted ships not sail around San Fran Bay when visibility is less than half a mile. And that bay is pretty much the fog capital of the west coast. Golly, think of the economic impact such a move would entail. But it’s for your own good!
Posted by Drew458
on 01/08/2013 at 12:13 PM
Filed Under: • Bridges • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •
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Permalink • A Bigger Boat
[12/31/12] ‘Vale Sohar’ docked at Vale’s deep-water jetty in the Port of Sohar to unload iron ore on its first voyage from Brazil.
The ship, one of the largest bulk carriers in the world with the capacity to transport 400,000 tons of minerals and the length of four football fields, was welcomed to Oman by members of the North Al Batinah community headed by H.E. Sheikh Hilal bin Ali Al Habsi, Wali of Sohar.
The two remaining vessels, ‘Vale Shinas’ and ‘Vale Saham’ are currently in the final stages of construction and are scheduled to be handed over during the first quarter of 2013. The first vessel to arrive to Oman was ‘Vale Liwa’ which unloaded its shipment of iron ore last month and is currently en route to Brazil for reloading.
Due to the very large capacity of these carriers, the shipments create a ‘virtual iron ore mine’ in Oman which ultimately allows Vale to serve its growing network of clients in the Middle East, North Africa and Indian Sub-Continent faster and more efficiently.
I had no real intention of doing a big ships post at first, but this bit of news caught my eye. Well, the name of the ship did; I thought it was something similar to the “valar morghulis” expression from the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy/sci-fi books by George R.R. Martin that are the basis for HBO’s fantastic but slow moving series A Game of Thrones (fans of that show who have already read the books: can we please poison Jeoffrey already? Please??) But it was instead a bit of shipping news, which turned out to have a bit of sci-fi about it regardless.
You’ve probably heard of a ship size classification called “Panamax”, which is a set of dimensions for the largest ship that can navigate the Panama Canal. Now that Panama is busy building a new and larger third set of locks, there is a larger set of specs called “New Panamax”. And you may have heard of several container carrier ships and ULCC oil tankers that are far larger than them. And there is at least one cruise ship out there with a 150 foot beam (ship width) that is also to big to transit the locks. Well, it turns out that there are a couple of other even larger maximum size specs for ships. The next level up is called “SuezMax” for obvious reasons, and now we have the latest mega-boat specs called “ChinaMax”. And ChinaMax is so damned huge only half a dozen ports in the whole world can handle them. The Vale Sohar is a ChinaMax class vessel. It’s a ship so huge that just one load of ore is enough to impact production prices in that hemisphere.
400,000 DWT is 8,000,000 pounds. That’s enough iron ore to make enough steel to build the Golden Gate bridge more than half a dozen times. The Vale Sohar is part of a huge shipbuilding order put out by Brazilian mining company Vale SA; within the coming year there will be 35 of these ships. Each one is over 1100 feet long - about the size of an aircraft carrier - but with tremendous beam of 213 feet. That’s roughly twice as wide as a typical super large cruise ship. Bloody huge. And they carry so much cargo that, when loaded, the keel is nearly 76 feet under water. That’s not only too deep to use most of the world’s ports, it’s far too deep to even use the English Channel. Unreal. Sci-fi. But they are real, and they’re fantastic. And they cruise along at 15 knots, powered by a 39,000hp two stroke diesel engine. And they make economic sense, lowering the fuel cost per unit ton shipped to about half what other smaller freighters can manage.
Yes, the largest container ships are a good bit longer. And the next generation of container ships will be even longer than that. And none of them come near the mass of the largest ship ever built, the Seawise Giant, a giant daydream of an oil tanker that was too big for any port anywhere, and spent half its life being used as a floating oil tank. That one went to the ship breakers 4 years ago. Lesson learned: get the world to upgrade its ports before building the next class of super ships.
But still ... eight million pounds of cargo. Horry clap.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/08/2013 at 09:51 AM
Filed Under: • planes, trains, tanks, ships, machines, automobiles •
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Permalink • Spying for no reason
Oh please. 99.999996% of everything on Twitter is just crap. But it’s data; it’s conversation between citizens. So the government is storing it, analyzing it, and will of course be handing over anything remotely “suspicious” to the NSA. The Thought Police are here, or at least the Tweet Patrol. What a total waste of taxpayer money, and what a perfect example of the government keeping tabs on everyone.
Fuck this, and fuck them.
An effort by the Library of Congress to archive Twitter posts has amassed more than 170 billion tweets, which the library is now seeking to make available to researchers and other interested parties.
Created in 1800, the Library of Congress serves as the unofficial library of the United States, as well as being Congress’ official research library.
In April 2010, the library signed an agreement with Twitter to gain access to all public tweets since the site’s founding in 2006.
“Twitter is a new kind of collection for the Library of Congress but an important one to its mission,” Gayle Osterberg, the library’s director of communications, wrote in a blog post. “As society turns to social media as a primary method of communication and creative expression, social media is supplementing, and in some cases supplanting, letters, journals, serial publications and other sources routinely collected by research libraries.”
Osterberg wrote that the library has completed digitally archiving all of the tweets it currently possesses and is now working on how to best make them available to the public. The library already has received about 400 requests from researchers all over the world looking into topics ranging from the rise of citizen journalism to tracking vaccination rates to predicting stock market activity.
The archive promises to keep growing fast. Currently, the library is processing roughly 500 million tweets per day, up from about 140 million daily messages in 2011, according to the blog post.
Blah blah blah, as if any of that nonsense has the slightest bit of importance. The people who request access to the data will be marketing groups trying to drill down into it to spotlight trends and to target market their products. The rest, aside from NSA using it as a spy tool, is garbage.
Not that Twitter was innocent here. Or any other of the social network sites. They are all about collecting, analyzing, and then selling a nearly infinite amount of personal data about everyone. No. The “we’re all connected” meme that you should share every detail of your life with the public is complete crap. Not only does it give you a false sense of self-importance which you don’t deserve, it trains you to forget about anything that was ever called privacy.
Big Brother also stores your telephone and cell phone conversations, and most likely any emails sent by or to the common email engines (gmail, yahoo, etc). And they’ll open your paper mail if they feel like it. So there is no communication privacy, and hasn’t been for a very long time.
“no search without a warrant” ... what a laugh. Who needs a warrant when you make your every thought, emotion, experience, and attitude public. Suckers.
So keep on Tweeting sheeple.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/08/2013 at 08:58 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Computers and Cyberspace •
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Permalink • Monday - January 07, 2013
Finally
Every once in a while I have some short “contest” asking the readers to solve some problem or to come up with some fact. And for a prize I offer free caulk. I’ve been doing it for years. And nobody has ever claimed the caulk.
Until now.
Reader Stephan knew what was wrong with the gun picture the other week, and has sent in his address, so the caulk is on its way.
Caulk. It’s so useful. And so much more fun than a can of dick, like that other blogger hands out.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/07/2013 at 08:40 PM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • Five Most Recent Trackbacks:
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Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28
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On: 07/09/17 03:07
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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