Earworm, 04/01/2017 -- Fed Up Edition

So, I haven't discussed my new job... and I'm not going to.

But I keep running into situations where my training was rushed, partly because they needed me to take over a shift, and partly because (in all modesty) they figured I was good enough to hit the ground running and do the job.

And, (again, in all modesty) mostly they've been right, except I keep finding things they never told me.

So last night a semi-annual report needs to be run, and I do. I've used this report before, and it was a pain in the fourth point of contact, because it's always been sorted on the wrong parameter. Maybe the choice didn't exist before, but now it does, so I sort it in numerical order by account number instead of alphabetical order by division or department, because there are too many divisions within each department, and many of the divisions across different departments have similar names, so, in the words of a colleague, you'd tell a customer to go for coffee while you find their account.

She added "You're the first person to make this report usable!"

Naturally, I got bitched at for doing it wrong.

So...

James Comey Should Resign

That is all.

Inevitable

Pippa Bacca, an Italian Artist Killed During Performance Trip for Peace, Is Mourned - The New York Times

"Peace Trip"

MILAN — The two friends, both performance artists, hatched the idea about a year ago: wearing white wedding dresses, they would hitchhike from Italy to the Balkans to the Middle East to send a message of peace and “marriage between different peoples and nations.”

But the message delivered by their performance piece was mostly sad and raw. After just three weeks on the road, one of the two Italian artists, Pippa Bacca, 33, was killed by a driver who offered her a ride.

Her naked body was found on April 11 in some bushes near a Turkish village after a suspect led investigators to the site. Although an official cause of death has not been given, local Turkish authorities said Ms. Bacca had been raped and strangled.

This has to be The Onion, right? Right?

Obama's gun control executive order directs Pentagon to make firearms safer, not more lethal - Washington Times

{I}n President Obama’s first foray into small-arms procurement for the armed forces, his Jan. 4 executive order on gun control directs the Pentagon to find ways to make not so much more lethal firearms, but safer ones.

Noting that Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy all expressed personal interest in the Army's issue rifles, Retired Major General Robert Scales told the Washington Times that

“Presidential involvement in small arms has been strategic and game-changing in our history,” said Mr. Scales, a former commandant of the U.S. Army War College. “Obama comes along and tells the Army that, in this administration, money is going into small arms to build — not a deadly weapon, not an effective weapon, not a dominant weapon, not a lifesaving weapon, not a technological cutting-edge weapon — but a weapon that prevents accidental discharge. Give me a break.”

Mr. Obama, who has made reducing gun violence and increasing gun control a top priority, signed a Jan. 4 order that directs the Defense Department, as well as the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to “Increase research and development efforts.”

A White House fact sheet states: “The Presidential Memorandum directs the departments to conduct or sponsor research into gun safety technology that would reduce the frequency of accidental discharge or unauthorized use of firearms, and improve the tracing of lost or stolen guns. Within 90 days, these agencies must prepare a report outlining a research-and-development strategy designed to expedite the real-world deployment of such technology for use in practice.”

 Because "smart gun" technology is obviously of primary interest to the war fighters. 

Actually, a smart gun would be great for a solider -- as long as it was used to automatically calculate range, hold-over, cross-winds, maybe selection of proper ammunition...

They have to tell them this?

Sheriff tells off-duty deputies to carry firearms, extra ammo | The Seattle Times

“While off-duty I am asking all commissioned personnel to always carry their sidearm, with extra magazines. I know that some of you already do, but many do not. Now is the time! With all that is going in the world, it is more important than ever to have the means to protect your family, the public, and yourself.”

I know that some agencies don't require that officers be armed off-duty -- and a few prohibit it -- but it never occurred to me that the KCSO left it optional.

Related?:

• Gunfire Erupts in Police Operation Near Paris - NBC News
• Map of Terror: Where Will ISIS Strike Next? - NBC News

He may be trainable after all...

Obama to Hillary: 'There's a Difference Between Running for President and Being President' | The Weekly Standard

Too bad he never got beyond "How to run for office" and into the "How to do the job" in the training.

So, apparently...

...all it takes is you...

No, wait.

When I got home from overtime in the Salt Mines today (part of why I didn't go to Gun Blogger Rendezvous X) Mrs. Drang was cleaning house with the TV on.

The TV was showing Law and Order, which may not {added, DWD} be the nes plus ultra of statist hoplophobic television, but I don't want to see the show that's worse.

Plus, its another of those shows where pretty much no one is an attractive charactor. Even Fred Thompson; sorry, Senator, but you play a lawyer...

Anyway.

According to the episode I walked in on, a guy with a drug dealing conviction on his record can get his Federal Firearms License for $75 by simply "forgetting" to tell the ATFEieio that he got busted, and then he's Good To Go for selling guns to high school students.

I damn' near went Full Elvis on the Tee and Vee...

QOTD, 08/01/2015

I actually saw this yesterday, but I already had a QOTD for yesterday, so it got deferred to today.

At what Tamara likes to refer to as "An away game", and while discussing the Cecil The Lion "scandal", which in the way of these things devolved into a free range discussion of hunting, and what was Right And Proper and Pure, and What Was Evil and Wrong And Bad, David S. observed

How is it that so many of us in the gun community, who distrust the "liberal media," are so willing to accept this story at face value?

I've never been on an African "Safari"¹. If I had the money for same, I'd probably invest half and spend the rest on an Alaska hunt instead.

So here's what I know from talking about it with people who have been on Shikar²:

• You pays your money, you hires the Professional Hunter and his staff.
• The PH takes you around, and tells you when and where and which animal to shoot.
• That makes you the sport, not the, or a, "hunter."
• You have the option of paying "trophy fees" and getting a mount of the head.
• The meat is distributed among local communities.
• Hunting is controversial, especially among those whose knowledge of actual ecology ended at viewing Bambi at a young age.
• Hunting different from the way you/I do it is also controversial. 
• Mid-Westerners who "stalk"with a rifle or shotgun are liable to view those who hunt from a stand as some kind of barbarian, regardless of whether hunting from the ground there is practical, or even legal.
• People who have a scope on their shootin' 'arn feel the same about those without, and vice versa, ditto regarding legality.
• (EDITED TO ADD:) That goes double for weird styles of hunting involving strings and pointy sticks, guns that load from the front, or guns that look... icky.
• Also, some idiots are so much more concerned about the fate of a wild (well, semi-wild) animal than the facts that the "sport" in this case has received death threats, and the enlightened government of Zimbabwe (!) is demanding that said "sport" be extradited.
• Cecil was 13 years old. 
• The Average Life Span Of A Lion in the wild is 10-14 years.

Clearly, it's time to move to a cave in the mountains with a pile of "dead tree" books and give up on the human race.

***

1. Safari: A long overland trip, usually for diplomatic or trading purposes.
2. Shikar: Hunt, hunting.
This pretty much exhausts my knowledge of Swahili.

Looks like we got us a movement here...

Man with AR-15 stands guard at Va. military recruiting offices - DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

The local recruiting offices are right across the street from the Friendly Local Gun  Store and Indoor Range, so...

h//t Insty

Good! And also... Ridiculous!

Hiram residents hold watch at recruitment center - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5


To paraphrase a comment seen on Pistol Forum, a neighborhood watch of volunteer security guards are guarding offices that recruit Embassy Guards.

And Paratroopers.

And Military Police, for that matter.

Et cetera.

The Pledge

If the Government makes rules that limit my First Amendment right to express my opinion, I will not obey those rules.

I'm see no reason to limit the Patterico Free Speech Pledgeto the Federal Elections Commission,or, for that matter, the Federal Communications Commission.

My greatest fear is that someone, somewhere, will find a way to interpret a simple statement of opinion as libel/slander or a "disclosure of national security information", and the next thing you know, it's off to the Lubyanka...

Not sayin' it's "decorate the lamp-posts" time, but, frankly, any politician, elected or appointed, who supports government control of the internet deserves the whole torch & pitchfork, tar & feather, stocks & pillory, ride 'em outta town on a rail treatment.

Why we can't have nice things

Or: Sometimes the Jackassery is on our side.

So, big rally in Olympia yesterday against I594, as mentioned here and here. We did not attend because of the creeping crud, and also because Mrs. Drang needs to concentrate on her job search.

But.

Anette and Barron were there and I am sure will have posts up soon, if they're not up even as I type. Much material has been posted on Facespace, and in the press.
Hundreds at Capitol protest new gun-purchase background checks | Politics Northwest | Seattle Times

Links to AP File Story and photographs from same after the page break.

They hear me trollin', they applaudin'... -- Guns & Gun Shops

So, this post and this one, and this gun:

Photo from Gun Nuts Media, which you should totally go visit, or I wouldn't have linked the article already. Don't read the comments.

I visited two local gun shops today, one to sign up for an upcoming class and the other to buy some ammo for said class.

At both shops I asked if they had the Taurus Curve in yet.  They could probably tell from the way I said it and the expression on my face that I was needling them, but they didn't know why...

...until they looked it up, and saw the splendiferous derpitude for themselves.

Hooray, me!

***

Speaking of signing up for a class, they had this flyer up in the range area:

In case you or someone you care about is from around here and wants/needs some training. Highly recommended.

***

From the "Seriously?" department:
I ordered some spare mags for Mrs. Drang's Elsie Pee early in September.  They just arrived. Annoyed...

How dost thou annoy me? Let me count the ways:

• The people refuse to get enough training to understand that dropping the mag does NOT mean the gun is unloaded.
• That the herp-a-derps who need the reminder will try and load the mag with the sticker attached.
• That the Herp-a-derps who do that will ask for my gun advice and ignore it.

Mind you, I really believe that, before the end of 2015, Ruger will bring out their own version of the Curve, and it will almost certainly be a decent option for self-defense. 

***

At work the other night one minion overheard a conversation about guns, about the Taurus Curve, in fact. "I need to get a gun."

Asked what she was getting, she said "I really want a snubnose. So-and-so says I should get a .357..."  So-and-so being other minion. She also said she plans on practicing weekly.

The fact that Minion So-and-so is mostly a rifle and shotgun shooter, that he was giving her "Gun Culture Gen 1" advice, and that she normally responds to any advice or feedback at work by saying "I know this job as well as any man!" caused me to react, well, not very respectfully.  (Mostly to her citing a non-pistol guy with whom she does not get along very well¹, but that was obvious to no one.)

Guys.  Really, Stop that.

No, really. STOP THAT!!!!

A double action revolver has simple, easy-to-master controls for the non-enthusiast, and a full sized (4+") barrel six+-shooter can make an excellent general purpose sidearm, but a snubnose revolver is a specialists tool; as a concealed carry gun for the neophyte it sucks out loud.

• The sights are as vestigial as those the Army had John Moses Browning (pbuh) put on the 1911. 
• Or worse.
• In those rare cases where the sights are OK, the sight radius is so short as to be laughable.
• With that short a barrel, you need to select ammo carefully.
• And the recoil is going to be a beast.  NOT good for newby non-enthusiasts.
• That's in .38 Special; a snubnosed .357 magnum has reduced grown men to tears. 

A hammerless model can be useful as a pocket gun; as Tamara has related that she sometimes carries one in an outer pocket of her winter coat in addition to her regular defensive piece, as she can get to it faster when dressed for Fimbulwinter. (Fortunately, it rarely gets as cold in Western Washington as it does in Indiana²...)

***

1. Yes, I wonder if he was trolling her.
2. Because if it did, Mrs. Drang would make me relocate to Arizona or someplace.

Typical classy gun banner does the Blood Dance

Too Soon? Nick Hanauer Posts Sarcastically, ‘We Need More School Shootings!!!’ | KUOW News and Information
This is the tweet in question:

Seen at KUOW News and Information

Nick Hanauer, of course, is one of the billionaires who is backing Washington State Ballot Initiative 594, which would mandate a background check for nearly every firearms transfer in the state, even if all you are doing is swapping guns with your buddy on the range.

Seen at KUOW, the NPR station of U of W. Not too crazy about their headline, either, frankly. According to the article, several backers of I594 have asked him to take the tweet down, but it was still up late this afternoon.

Liberals.  Can't live with 'em, can't string 'em up from the nearest lamppost, no matter how big a douche bag they are.

The Lynching of Disbelief

So, dinner being done Mrs. Drang took over the remote control and turned on... something.

Which was followed by something called Madam Secretary, about a female Secretary of State.

This being prime time broadcast television on a major network, you have to know that the inspiration had nothing to do with Condaleeza Rice.

Or ay respect the network or production company have for the audience's intelligence. 

Apparently, Keith Carradine is the president, which is a good sign.

Alas...

So, there's this scene in which the President and the SecState and... somebody (National Security Adviser?) are discussing some untenable situation in Yemen, during which it is revealed that she used to be "with" the Central Intelligence Agency, and the President refuses to close the embassey, or send in the Marines, or beef up the Embassy Security Detail, and then tells the Secretary "It's your problem."

And as he walks away, she asks "the other guy" "What does he mean when he says it's my problem?"

Really?

 But we know she's a Powerful Woman because in the next scene she buffaloes some Congressmen into letting her Play Through on the golf course.

And then, in a staff meeting, rather than the imminent terrorist attack on the embassy, her minions are discussing some antics her daughter got up to in college.  The main issue being, no one knew she had a daughter.

The Secretary. Of. State.

Obviously she should have stayed at Langley.

Anyway, that's when I decided it was time to go in the other room and play Cradle of Rome II on the desktop, because, as the old book review said, I am willing to suspend my sense of disbelief, but I am not willing to hang it by the neck until it is dead, dead, dead.

Well isn't this special?

Police: Woman beheaded at Oklahoma food distribution center | abc30.com

And doesn't this line come as a shock: (The suspect) "had recently been trying to convert coworkers to Islam..."

Am well aware of the fact that "Not all Muslims are terrorists", or even goat-humping stone-age neo-barbarians who long for the establishment of Shariah law.

But it gets harder and harder to ignore the fact that one hears of pretty much no Muslims standing up and yelling "Stop!"

In the meantime, I do not leave the house unarmed if I can avoid it. 

The Breathtaking Hypocrisy of Gun Control

Semantics triggers opposition to I-594’s gun-sale checks | Local News | The Seattle Times

Because for us to say that, where Ballot Initiative 594 says 

‘Transfer’ means the intended delivery of a firearm to another person without consideration of payment or promise of payment including, but not limited to, gifts and loans

that it really means "selling a gun over the internet."

Amazing, not only do the 1%'ers supporting this crap think only people who can afford to hire private security should have non-.gov guns to defend them, but they also think we're stupid.

Feelin' like I lost a friend

So I came home from work yesterday to read on Facebook Tamara of View From The Porch fame announcing that she was fed up and quitting.

???

VFTP is now shut down. Accessible "By invitation only". No archives, nothing.

I feel like a kid whose best friend at school is moving with his family to some country he never heard of, where they don't have roads or mail.

All because some creeper stalker Would. Not. Let. Her. Alone.

This is why she went from "Prove you're a human" word verification to "Owner Approval" on comments, by the way. A lot of us knew of the shitstain's existence, but we'd just chuckle to ourselves and ask "What kind of an idiot would stalk Tamara, for Christ's sake?" Because, not only does she have guns and know how to use them, but she is the reigning Queen of Snark, with an encyclopedic knowledge of history and technology, and her blog is read by everybody.

I can't even begin to explain how much I have learned from Tam about firearms and history and technology, nor can I describe the way she routinely humbles me with the breadth and depth of her knowledge. In all modesty, people come to me with questions about guns and history and technology -- when Drang speaks (about some things) people listen --  but I feel like the merest, newest Padawan next to her...

Some bloggers speak of the "Blogfather".  I won't say that Tamara is my "Blogmother", but if there was one blogger whose example I tried to follow, it was her. And, in the 6 years or so I've been blogging, I've managed a couple of Instalanches, a Dailylanche, and a couple of Tamalanches.  I got more hits off a single Tamalanche than the other 'lanches combined. This is not to brag, exactly -- my usual post has fewer hits than her occasional "Not up to it, come back later." Rather, it's a comment on her influence.

The US Concealed Carry Association?  I kept getting their emails, and ignored them, until I learned that she has a monthly column. (Light on the snark, though.)

I have to wonder if JTC of Sebring, FL, knows just how many people he has pissed off. Many if not most if not all gun bloggers.  Many if not most if not all gun blog readers. Larry Correia, which means all of the Monster Hunter Nation.  Chris Muir of the Day by Day web comic.

So then, today (yesterday when you see this, almost certainly) I get home and see a Facebook post by her that says more-or-less "REDACTED, it's been fixed", but the comments make it sound like she's going to unfriend anyone she has not met IRL. And I can't help remember how it made me feel when she accepted my friend request, because maybe now I could be one of the Cool Kids, except that now I might be permanently black listed, and it almost makes me want to cry.

Which is pathetic at my age.

(At this point, I want to explain that all this is in a distinctly non-creepy, nothing-to-get-jealous-about, honey, type of admiration...)

(And as for Facebook friendage, I wonder if "One degree of separation" will do?  'Cuz I know True Blue Sam, and Engineering Johnson, and Ray Carter, and Chance, and...)

Sigh.

Look, hobby bloggers have been saying all along "I do this for my entertainment, not yours, so if you don't like what I write, sorryaboutthat."

And "If it stops being fun, stop doing it."

So, if it has become more of a chore than Tamara wants to put up with, she should, indeed, pull the plug.

Many of us mourn.

Who's Denying What Now?

This has been all over the Gunternet, at least locally, but Phil has a pretty good recap at Outrage is their only option | Random Nuclear Strikes

Basically, one of the Good Guys (NRA Rep Brian Judy) made a statement comparing Washington State Ballot Initiative 594, which calls for "universal background checks", to Nazi Germany era gun control laws.  Specifically, Mr. Judy said

“Now [individual who has written of his family escaping Nazi Germany]..., he’s put half a million dollars, toward this policy, the same policy that led to his family getting run out of Germany by the Nazis. You know, it’s staggering to me, it’s just, you can’t make this stuff up. That these people, it’s like any Jewish people I meet who are anti-gun, I think, ‘Are you serious? Do you not remember what happened?’ And why did that happen? Because they registered guns and then they took them.”

So, apparently, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle has decided to apply the common misinterpretation of Godwin's law to political discourse.  Because, as anyone who has read Stephen Halbrook's Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and "Enemies of the State" (reviewed here) knows, it is a fact that strict gun control laws were passed by the Wiemar Republic, and that Nazi Germany took full advantage of them to disarm anyone who was regarded as an undesirable.

Whether this really made the Holocaust possible or not may be a matter for writers of speculative fiction, I suppose, but to claim that "it didn't happen"is just...

...Living in Denial.  Which is not, apparently, just a river in Egypt, but a state of mind among Progressives.

What do you call it when Jews deny a factor in the Holocaust, anyway...?

Well, isn't this an interesting development!

Alan Gura reports success inVictory in Palmer v. D.C.

The full decision is here, all 19 years of it, but here is what you need to know:

In light of Heller, McDonald, and their progeny, there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny. Therefore, the Court finds that the District of Columbia’s complete ban on the carrying of handguns in public is unconstitutional. Accordingly, the Court grants Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and enjoins Defendants from enforcing the home limitations of D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(a)(4) and enforcing D.C. Code § 22-4504(a) unless and until such time as the District of Columbia adopts a licensing mechanism consistent with constitutional standards enabling people to exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms.4 Furthermore, this injunction prohibits the District from completely banning the carrying of handguns in public for self-defense by otherwise qualified non-residents based solely on the fact that they are not residents of the District.

(Emphasis added.)

IANAL, but... Constitutional Carry in DC! Seems appropriate, actually. Look for the Fed .gov to ban it in all Fed-controlled property. Cuz the Smithsonian should obviously be a No Self-Defense Zone.