How Fast Can You Turn Up The Heat?

You know the famous analogy of a frog in water, right?  If you heat it slowly, it they say the frog won't leap out of the water, he'll just sit there until he dies; but if you heat the water and toss the frog in, the frog leaps right out.

Are we heating the water too fast?  First New York, then Colorado, and at the Federal level, Chuckie Schumer floats a law that makes many everyday things into federal felonies. Schumer's bill, S.374 was supposed to be the bill to "stop illegal transfers", only it takes the idea of transfer to whole new levels.  This isn't just making illegal things, like a straw purchase, "more illegal-er", it's much, much worse.  What follows is my own combination of Sebastian's piece and John Richardson's piece at No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money.

If you left your home for more than 7 days, say for a business trip or hospitalization, and leave any unrelated person at home with the guns, you’ve committed a felony. This should be called the “denying gun rights to gays act.” Remember that the federal government does not recognize gay marriage, even if your state does, thanks to DOMA. 5 years in prison.

Actually, even married couples are questionably legal, because the exemption between family only applies to gifts, not to temporary transfers. The 7 day implication is if you leave your spouse at home for more than 7 days, it’s an unlawful transfer, and you’re a 5 year felon. I suppose you could gift them to your spouse, or related co-habitant, and then have them gift them back when you arrive back home. Maybe the Attorney General will decide to create a form for that.

Steals the livelihood of gun dealers by setting a fixed fee to conduct transfers. The fee is fixed by the Attorney General. What’s to prevent him from setting it at $1000?

Enacts defacto universal gun registration, because of record keeping requirements.

All lost and stolen guns must be reported to the federal and local government. This means everyone will have to fill out the theft/loss form, and not just FFLs. You only have 24 hours to comply. If you lose a gun on a hunting trip deep in the woods, and can’t get back home to fill out the form in 24 hours, you’re a felon and will spend 5 years in federal prison.

No exception for state permits. All transfers must go through a dealer or 5 years in federal prison.

UPDATE: Teaching someone to shoot on your own land is a felony, 5 years, if you hand them the gun. Not an exempted transfer.

The exceptions include:

Bona fide gifts between spouses

Bona fide gifts between parents and children

Bona fide gifts between siblings

Bona fide gifts between grandparents and grandchildren

Transfers made from a decedent's estate by will or operation of law

Temporary transfer between unlicensed persons if

• It occurs in the home or curtilage (adjacent property) of the transferor
• The firearm is not removed from the home
• And the duration is less than 7 days.

Temporary transfers in connection with lawful hunting or sporting purposes

• At a range if kept within the premises of the range at all times
• At a "target firearm shooting competition" under the auspices of a State agency or non-profit organization and the firearm is kept within the premise of the shooting competition.
• If while hunting to a person with the requisite hunting license during a designated season for a legal game animal.

You can transfer a gun to someone in your home for less than 7 days if the gun never leaves the house?  What exactly does that cover?  Me letting a visitor see and handle my new precious?  I suppose if I have a house guest stay over, I can loan them a gun for the night.  I can loan someone my gun if we're at a competition on a (state registered, I'm sure) range if the competition is run by someone graced with the magic pixie dust of the state, but not if the host is a for-profit group?  If I loan a friend a gun to hunt pythons in the Everglades, they're not a game animal, so is that a felony?

The end of life as we know it?  Too far, too fast, too soon?  If this thing becomes federal law, has the frog (that would be you and me) been thrown into boiling water? 

In Which I Almost Agree With Bloomberg

While I vehemently disagree with Nazi Bloomberg's ban on large servings of some sugary drinks, I absolutely agree that sugar is likely responsible for the rise of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and a host of other diseases.  The evidence for that is pretty strong.  Coke or other sodas?  Yeah, but fruit juices are just as bad, along with yogurt with fruit jam in it, and dozens of so-called "healthy" foods.  Ordinary table sugar - sucrose - is composed of two simpler sugars, glucose and fructose, and when you eat table sugar it's rapidly digested to these two simple sugars.  Glucose is used in every cell of they body, and we have a very finely tuned system to strictly control the amount in our blood.  Fructose, on the other hand, goes directly into the liver, the only place it can be metabolized.  It is uniquely toxic to the liver and probably responsible for fatty liver disease,  metabolic syndrome and other problems. 

From that, you can probably assume that I think we either shouldn't be eating sugar at all, or we should be regarding it as a once or twice a year treat.  You're right.  You'd probably be shocked at how much sugar is added to processed foods, since they use 30 or 40 different names on the labels so that they don't all add up to one entry for sugar as the first or second ingredient.  When food manufacturers went for the low fat fad, they added sugar to keep everything from tasting like cardboard.   

But I'm also all about personal choice and responsibility.  The city of New York, or any government, has no business banning things they disapprove of.  Bloomy said something to the effect of it being his responsibility to protect the people of his empire - from themselves, I assume.  Wrong, mein fuehrer.  The city's responsibility - not yours - is the same as if the city opened a hole in the sidewalk.  Tell people it's there and they should watch out for it.  If the city is feeding people, they should eliminate added sugar in what they provide, but guess what? - that just makes it less likely to be regulated because the food industry will fight that.  The judge that ruled the law invalid was right when he said it was so limited it was arbitrary and capricious. 

The only possible reason for the city to have any interest in this is that it spends some the money it takes from some of its people on healthcare for others in the city, and that affects city finances.  And that's one of the prime personal responsibility arguments against socialized healthcare: it expands the government infinitely because anything they want to regulate can be justified with real or junk studies.  The answer is to get government out of health care.  We either do it now, willingly, with our eyes open, or it happens when the governments collapse.  And they will. 

In the wake of the attempts to regulate - or outright confiscate - firearms, there have been a couple of cities floating requirements that all citizens have a firearm.  I disagree.  While they sure don't have the right to deny them, they don't seem to have the right to require them, either.  Just like I don't want Granny driving her old Buick on the interstate 1 mile an hour faster than she can safely drive that 2500 pound kinetic kill vehicle she's sitting in, I don't want someone who doesn't feel comfortable around a gun or feels afraid of them to have one either.

In Colorado, the head of the State Senate spoke proudly with Rachel Mad Cow, telling her how it was oh so important for him to ignore the calls from constituents and do what he just knew was the right thing.  Dude was comparing himself to Lincoln freeing the slaves!  What integrity!  What character! What bullshit!  I've heard talk of Colorado Senators refusing to listen to constituents and then expressing surprise, shock!, that the constituents weren't grateful to them.  Those silly voters thought the representatives were trampling on their rights!  Well, yeah, they were, but that's besides the point.  It was important the lawmakers trample those rights because they know better than us.  They're our Philosopher Kings who know so much better than everyone.  And Bloomberg's money was so green and fresh and smelled so good.  What difference does it make if those cousin-humping redneck voters do manage to get us fired, when we have guaranteed Bloomberg money? 

I wouldn't feel too comfortable about that, Senator Scooter.  As CA points out, there's a lot of good, long range shooters out there. 

Some Rare Moments of Honesty

Some rare moments of honesty on display, but mostly snow jobs from people being interviewed.



Jimmy Kimmel asks "what do you think of Obama pardoning the sequester and sending it to Portugal?"

Technical Difficulties

Firefox has taken a dump and nothing will make it work again: uninstalling/reinstalling didn't work.  "Can't find your profile" or some such.  This throws me off my limited time anyway.

 

Wish me luck...

A Little Range Time

Like most American gun owners, we own a couple of Ruger 10/22s.  I own a late '90s carbine while Mrs. Graybeard owns a Take Down.  One gripe I've always had is that I fumble around with the bolt release for far too long.  I'll be the first it might just be my klutz factor, or the arthritis that's made my thumbs way too weak, but I have a stupid hard time with it.  The stock bolt release method sucks; it just doesn't behave like everything else. 

A few weeks ago, I looked around to see if there were any fixes for this and found it was an easy mod that a bunch of people sold a part for.  Check out the options at Amazon.

The stock bolt release is on the left and you can see it has a V shape to the top cutout that the modified one eliminates.  This is the reason for the up/down fiddly tricks you have to play to get the bolt to slam forward.  With the one on the right, you can lock the bolt back manually with the bolt lock at the bottom, as always, then let the bolt close by pulling the bolt handle slightly back and releasing it.  It slaps forward just like most semiautomatics.  

It's really easy to replace this. Seriously, once you see what you have to do, and have the trigger group assembly in your hand, I doubt it takes a minute.  If you're interested, there are many videos on the modification on YouTube.  I modified both rifles a couple of weeks ago and we went to our club range to try them out today.  It works great.  Ruger should make 10/22s work this way as the standard. 

Today was probably about average for this time of year.  This is usually our dry season, no mention of rain in today's forecast. It was in the mid-70s when we hit the range in the afternoon.  Winds NE at 15 to 20, not a true crosswind, but a large crosswind component.  

Last year, I mentioned a problem with the scopes we have on our .22s, a pair of matching Tasco Pronghorn scopes.  That day, we found the zero on the scopes had mysteriously moved a long way, impact was around 2 feet from the aimed point, while sitting in storage.  Today, her scope was several inches off (at 25 yards) from the last time we used it.  Since I'd worked on her rifle several times to re-do the bolt, I re-centered the scope, but it wouldn't stay centered.  Something quite broken in that scope.  So while I was trying to hit 100 yard targets, she suddenly couldn't even hit 25 yards. 

I think it's time for a new scope.  Or two.  We always want to be able to grab each other's guns and just start hitting targets when we need to, so we keep them pretty similar. 

Fundamental Transformation of the Republic

The Contra Costa Times out in the Peoples Republic of Calley-Fornia does us the favor of posting a short summary of all the gun legislation floating around in DC, and then in their own state (H/T the Girls Just Wanna Have Guns newsletter).  It makes good on Obama's pledge of "fundamentally transforming the United States of America".  The second amendment will become meaningless.  You'll need approval and paperwork to buy or sell anything. 

I'm just going to post a few of them here because I'm short of blood pressure pills. First, one man wrecking crew Frank Lautenburg,

S. 22, the Gun Show Background Check Act of 2013, by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. --S.22 would require background checks for all firearms sales at gun shows, with "gun show" defined to include any place where more than 50 guns are on sale/display. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:s.22:

S.33, the Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device of 2013, by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. -- S.33 would prohibit the sale, transfer, importation or possession of any magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, unless it was made before the law's effective date. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:s.00033:

S.35, the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2013, by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. -- S.35 would require face to face purchases of ammunition, require licensing of ammunition dealers, and require reporting regarding bulk purchases of ammunition. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:s.00035:

Not to be outdone, this act of insanity requires a background check for every purchase of ammo:

S.174, the Ammunition Background Check Act of 2013, by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. -- S.174 would require an instant background check for the purchase of ammunition, and would restore pre-1986 requirements that sellers track their inventory and keep records of their customers; purchases of 1,000 rounds or more, or thefts of large amounts of ammunition, would have to be reported to law enforcement. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:s.00174:

Now I'm always suspicious of these glowingly named laws they keep coming up with, since the laws never do what they're intended to do, but Chuckie Schumer sponsoring something called "The Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act"? Does anyone on Earth with an IQ above the freezing point think Chuckie actually wants to protect anyone with any gun business?  What horrors live in this one?  Do we have to pass it to see what's in it?  No effin' thanks.

S.374, the Protecting Responsible Gun Sellers Act of 2013, by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. -- S.374 would make congressional findings that Congress supports and respects Second Amendment rights and the existing prohibition on a national firearms registry, but also that the Justice Department should make a priority of closing holes in its firearm background check system and that citizens should be more vigilant about keeping firearms from dangerously mentally ill people. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:s.00374:

Isn't amazing they want to add thousands of background checks every day, vastly multiply the paperwork to buy or sell anything, and yet they'll tell you to your face they don't enforce the laws they have today because they don't have the manpower?? 

The House is a mixed bag of mostly bullcrap, too, with some scattered hints of sanity in there.  For example, how about a national registry of all handguns?

HR 117, the Handgun Licensing and Registration Act of 2013, by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J. -- HR 117 would require that each state provide for the mandatory licensing and registration of every handgun sold in the future. The bill is based upon New Jersey's mandatory handgun registration law. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:h.r.00117:

No?  Don't want a handgun registry?   How about no guns whatsoever without a Federal license?

HR 34, Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2013, by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. -- HR 34 would bar anyone from buying or owning a firearm without a background check and government-issued license; the U.S. Attorney General would establish a federal record-of-sale system, and any firearm thefts or losses would have to be reported to the government within three days. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:h.r.00034:

The winner on false and deceptive naming here is probably this one:

HR 21, the NRA Members' Gun Safety Act of 2013, by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. -- HR 21 would require a background check for every firearm sale or transfer, with the only exceptions being gifts between immediate family members; probate or executor transfers after the owner's death; a loan to someone who believes they need the firearm in their home to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm; and certain loans while target shooting, hunting, fishing or trapping. It also would require owners to report a firearm's theft or loss within 48 hours, and would require any state that allows concealed carry to establish a permit process if it doesn't already have one. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:h.r.00021:

There's a ton of laws in the sausage mills.  Every permutation of taking away virtually everything, all the way to removing gun free zones around schools, revoking presidential executive orders, but no mention of revoking the 1968 Gun Control Act or the NFA.

Hope you're up for running a marathon because this fight is going to be on for a long time.  Your senators' and your representative's office staffs should be looking at caller ID or email address and saying, "oh, crap; not him again".  Unless you know for sure they're on the right side of this.

I can hear you saying what I've been saying, that we need to work our state governments just as hard or harder.  That's true.  If necessary, split it up.  Get a group together and trade off responsibilities.  "I'll call state, you call Federal - next week, we swap". 

And start looking at ways to defeat the ones who vote for this crap.

In your spare time.

I'd Like to Get My Hopes Up

(Ramirez, of course)
So Fidel's Dumber Brother has bit the big one.  I'm hoping that the people of Venezuela can get out of the long dark nightmare of the last several years, but I'm betting it doesn't happen.  Everyone knew Pugsley was on borrowed time and planned for this, so they have a chosen successor.  In a cult of personality, once the object of the love goes, chaos can follow.  Plus, I hear that Cuba is keeping its options open about intervening in whatever way they can.  The citizens are likely out of the question. 

Of course, if they really want a socialist dictator, God knows they can have ours.

SPLC's Hallucinations

So the SPLC, officially the Southern Poverty Law Center, but colloquially the Stupid Preposterous Lie Center, has released a new study showing (surprise!) "explosive growth" of right wing terrorist groups - as they have in every report for years.  Bear in mind that this is the group that monitors only scary right wing groups but specifically refuses to look at left wing groups that commit actual terrorism (like ELF, EarthFirst!) - and openly admits it! 

The SPLC opens with:

The number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment “Patriot” groups on the American radical right reached an all-time high in 2012, the fourth consecutive year of powerful growth by a movement that is becoming increasingly militant as President Obama enters his second term and Congress debates gun control measures, according to a report issued today by the SPLC…

Thankfully, Professor Jacbson at Legal Insurrection brings the smart:

The SPLC count is grossly exaggerated.  If there’s a Neo-Nazi website which lists branches in every state, SPLC counts that as 50 groups, even if the groups are only names on a website.

The SPLC has upped the number of “hate groups” in my home State of Rhode Island to 4, including the same supposed neo-Nazi and Klan groups which we repeatedly have pointed out do not exist.

They do the same thing all the time.  They see political disagreement and combine it with behaviors they don't understand ("why would anyone think the dollar isn't solid?") and come up with a list of bogeymen to be afraid of - real or imagined but pretty much all imagined.  The media laps it up without question because - hey!- the center has poverty and law in the name, it must be good!

Meanwhile, they inspire leftists, like the shooter who went to kill at the Family Research Council and got his list of targets from the SPLC. 

The Enemy Attacks in Florida

Mayor Bloomberg's shock troops, the group of lawyers and agitators that have invaded and occupied Colorado, have opened a front and begun the attack in Florida.

H/T and kudos to Miguel at Gunfree Zone, first the Assault Weapons Ban, SB1670.  At first glance, it looks like the New York bill (what a surprise!) with a single feature test, but a 10 round magazine limit (Colorado is currently at 15, New York at 8).  It also outlaws any semiautomatic shotgun that can easily accommodate more than five rounds.  No mention of revolvers at all.  Full text of the bill here in html.  It considers semiautomatic pistols as assault weapons if the magazine is not in the hand grip, making things like your 1896 "Broom Handle" Mauser an assault weapon.  

The second bill is somewhat odder.  I haven't specifically heard about this approach being used elsewhere but SB1678 requires a current certificate from a state approved anger management class to buy ammunition - a cert that must be renewed!  Unfortunately, that's a 15 line add-on in 60 lines of law.  It also replaces the word "handgun" with "firearm" in state law 790.065.  Full text here in html.  The practical result of this is that the 3 day waiting period that used to apply to handguns applies now to all firearms.  No more dropping by the local Bass Pro or Walmart, and walking out with a shotgun or rifle without a waiting period - although they keep the exemption for those who hold a valid concealed carry permit.

Let's get to it Florida gun bloggers, the enemy is inside the gates.  Time to start hassling our representatives, and maybe governor Scott or attorney general Bondi, although I don't really see what she can legally do.  Forward this information to all your friends.  If anyone says they don't care because they don't own a black rifle, smack them up side the head (open hands only!) and have them read the anger management law.  Make sure they know the "bell tolls for thee", too.  They're next. 

 

Can We PLEASE Get Some Sanity?

Can we please get some sanity about guns into the public schools? 

I guess I've hit my limit.  I'm a patient guy - maybe too patient, at times - and I've let a lot of idiocy go by without going nuts, but I... just... can't ...take it any more.  Look, teachers, this is not a gun, but a 7-year old boy is suspended from school for producing it and they called it a gun.  Anyone who isn't profoundly retarded will tell you it's a partially eaten Pop Tart. 

It doesn't even look like a gun, unless you're so hoplophobic you hide from clouds.  If anything, it reminds me of a crude, off-center model of a flying wing airplane. 

If someone is a teacher, or an administrator, then they must have gone through school.  They must have attended college.  It follows that they absolutely must have heard that "the symbol is not the thing".  This piece of common sense was drilled into my head in elementary school math, but it's taught in language classes, philosophy, and other places.  If I write the symbol "3" it's a representation for a concept.  It's not the number.  That's why they use the term numeral for a written representation of the number - to emphasize it's a symbol and not the thing.  If I draw a picture of a gun, it isn't a gun.  It's a drawing. 

It doesn't matter if the kid produced this half-chewed Pop Tart or if he produced a photo-realistic drawing, it is not a gun and does not need to be treated like one.  Look, teachers: this is not a gun:

This is a reproduction of a digital photograph.  It's hard to get a much more realistic depiction of a gun on a computer screen.  But it's not a gun, it can not hurt anything or anyone.  It is a symbol, not the thing.  It absolutely won't shoot electrons deep inside the monitor and it absolutely won't shoot anything on your side of the monitor. 

This insanity has to end.  A 5th grade girl is suspended for having a torn-off, L-shaped piece of paper that only resembles a gun in the most abstract sense.   Not just suspended, she was tormented to the point of recurring nightmares by the school, telling her they should call the police on her, and physically searched in front of her classmates - whom she says called her a murderer.  I can excuse a kid a lot sooner than I can the teachers, administrators and school "resource officers". 

And, of course, there a similar stories from all over the country.  Not to mention when a real gun is involved, and a kid becomes a hero by risking his own safety to take down an attacker, he gets suspended!  He was "involved in an incident with a gun" - another shining example of "zero tolerance means zero sense". 

My kids are way past out of school, and this nonsense wasn't going on then.  If you have kids in school, it's time to fight this.  This looks like nothing so much as a propaganda campaign to get kids so terrified of guns that they'll be hampered for the rest of their lives - an inclined to vote for gun banning politicians.  Soviet propaganda at its finest. 

A Little Bit of This - A Little Bit of That

I just finished watching the video FrackNation, the crowd-sourced video investigative report about fracking that started with the anti-fracking documentary Gas Nation and looked for the truth behind the allegations.  After seeing the first posting about it over on The Smallest Minority, I joined the KickStarter funding at a level that got me a copy of the DVD. If you're not familiar with the video or their story, check out their YouTube Channel for samples and followup. 

The video is good, and presents a counter to Gas Nation, which comes across as a media/leftist propaganda piece on fracking.  Fracking is a modern miracle that has lowered natural gas prices so much that companies investing in gas production can't meet their loans and there's evidence that natural gas is too cheap to drill for.  They based loans on producing gas they could sell at $10 or more per thousand cubic feet, but the gas being produced has driven the price down under $5.  That said, the video doesn't address every common objection, just the most common ones  - poisoned water, cancer clusters, and poisonous air in the region.  In my opinion, they spend a bit too much time pursuing the creator of Gas Nation to show that he doesn't want honest debate, but I couldn't tell you how many minutes of air time they spent and whether or not they could have developed another subject in that time. 

I will leave the subject with one connection I hadn't made; maybe you haven't either.  One of the biggest opponents of fracking in the US and the EU is... (wait for it)... Vladimir Putin and Gazprom, the Russian gas producer.  As the West restricts fracking, more countries turn to Gazprom and into Putin's grip.  Gazprom makes more money, because since gas is as fungible as oil, a smaller global supply raises prices on every cubic foot.  Plus, Putin gets power over Europe.  They've already cut gas supplies to the Ukraine, in the midst of the winter of '09.  France outlawed fracking, so that they can put themselves in the same situation.  That makes the producers of Gas Nation and the Hollywood types that protest, Russian agents - in purpose if not on payroll.   

On the personal side, "Gray momma" is in a rehab hospital three hours away and we made the drive yesterday.  Momma's 90 and lives by herself - dad passed on over 30 years ago.  She has fallen several times, often enough that the paramedics are getting to know her by name, and about a month ago she fell twice in one day.  She ordinarily refuses to go the hospital, but had to go this time.  She got a clean bill of health, but is in need of time with physical therapy to build strength and learn some life skills.  Her mind is sharp, and she has a good firm hand hold, so hopefully it's just a minor setback.  One does not want to be in a hospital of any kind and minimally dependent on anyone if the slope into collapse should pick up, or the currently cold civil war go hot. 

Seems Borepatch and I are going through a similar passage, although the details are quite different.

Personally, I had an issue about a month ago, too, a day or two after my birthday post.  It led to me wearing a Holter monitor overnight, and will soon lead to what they're calling a nuclear stress test.  I've done some reading, and as far as I can tell, they leave me alone in a room handcuffed to a nuclear bomb that has one of those movie-style, LED clocks counting down, and if I don't disarm the bomb before it counts down to 00:00, the bomb takes out the city.  During that time, they monitor my heart to make sure I'm handling the stress well.  Or something like that. 

The Curious Case of Leo Hindery

Until today, I had never heard the name Leo Hindery.  That's just another sign of my ignorance of the rarefied air where big-bucks donors to the Democrats and media moguls intersect.   A quick look shows he gave over $131,000 in the just completed election cycle.  It was spread among people like Princess Fauxcohontas, Elizabeth Warren, Kerstin Gillibrand, Debbie Stabenow and Robert Menendez (who very briefly was in the press for making the sign of the three pronged plow with under-aged foreign hookers) as well as giving money to the president's campaign.

It should go without saying that I will never begrudge a guy who has enough money to burn $131k giving it to whatever flavor whore he wishes.  It just seems out of place.  One of these things is not like the other.  Because Hindery is the managing partner of Intermedia Partners:

The New York-based media private equity fund owns Intermedia Outdoor Holdings, which publishes 17 hunting, fishing, and shooting magazines, including Guns & Ammo, Handguns, Gun Dog, Rifle Shooter and Shooting Times.  ( add in Shotgun News, Handguns, Petersen's Hunting and more - SiG - source here )

InterMedia Outdoor Holdings purchased the pro-gun hunting and fishing network the Sportsman Channel in 2007, and is now in the process of acquiring the Outdoor Channel, pending the federal government’s approval of last month’s merger between InterMedia Outdoors and Outdoor Channel Holdings.

Why would someone who supports a gun control candidate like Obama or Kirsten Gillibrand be involved with these gun magazines and shows that feature shooting, hunting and even self defense shows? The Sportsman Channel is referred to as being more political than the Outdoor Channel, although I don't know why.  It's true they run a couple of shows produced by the NRA, Guns and Gold, and NRANews Cam and Company, but two programs out of a week hardly qualifies as being political in my book.

CNN, and to a lesser extent, Buzzfeed, seem to take the stance of the left that Hindery is bad because he takes money from the evil NRA.  

Now maybe Hindery and Obama simply share common economic philosophies but differ on gun control. Or maybe Hindery is able to draw a bright line between business and personal politics. Or maybe Hindery didn't give much thought any of this before Newton, kind of like California Teachers' Retirement System with its indirect investment in Freedom Group. At the very least, the NRA and Hindery seem to make for some very strange bedfellows.

Buzzfeed quotes an Outdoor Channel "stockholder"

"This is an inherent conflict between his political and business relationships," said Andrew Franklin, a shareholder of the Outdoor Channel. Franklin is working with fellow shareholders to prevent the merger by pointing out Hindery's apparent conflict of interest.

Franklin said he and other Outdoor Channel shareholders are upset that they might be forced to take on Sportsman Channel stock, which he sees as contrary to Outdoor Channel's message and Hindery's own political leanings alike.

Things are not happy in Intermedia land as Hindrey spreads out.  According to an article in the Daily Caller, insiders are saying he's gutting the operations.  They talk of beautiful buildings filled with production facilities that have been gutted and reduced to “basic administrative types,” who “think every day they go into work is going to be their layoff day”.  They accuse him of buying up these operations so that he can kill them off, something I find harder to understand than him even being in this market space.

“Now that Hindery has the Outdoor Channel, he’s in a position to consolidate all of the major pro-Second Amendment media titles in this country, strip them down, and destroy them, like venture capitalists do sometimes,” the employee said.

Many Outdoor Channel producers are “scared shitless,” realizing that the careers they built are now in the hands of an Obama donor who is in the process of breaking apart pro-gun media companies.

(Leo Hindery)

The backdrop to this story may not be politics so much as the collapsing media picture in the US.  I've read that while the mass circulation magazines are in trouble, the more targeted ones, like Intermedia owns, are not as bad off.  They still may be under pressure.  In a landscape of hundreds of cable channels narrowcasting to relatively small audiences (compared to the old "Big Three" networks), maybe consolidation is needed. 

Interesting development on this story today, after these articles were posted, another "suitor", Kroenke Sports has offered a larger per share offer than Intermedia for the Outdoor Channel - $8.75 vs $8 per share.  As a publicly traded company, stockholders decide if they'll accept either merger. 

The idea that a guy like Hindrey, though he may be a Democratic contributor or a solid, true blue Democrat, would buy these companies to destroy them seems too much of a reach for me.  First off, he's not the CEO of Intermedia, and he's not the only guy there.  Are other people ok with throwing away their money for this cause?  I find it easier to believe he either has no problems with hunting and the shooting shows they produce, as long as profits keep rolling in, or that he has the cognitive dissonance to not like guns, but like the money the products bring in. 

The thing is that if there's really a market for these shows, and there sure seems to be, someone will bring them back and create a new channel for them.  I don't think the market can be suppressed by these guys.  With the increasing spread of online streaming video services, there is a place for them.

If This is Right

Michael Ramirez, probably my favorite editorial cartoonists, posted this earlier this week: 2/25.

Ramirez, of course, doesn't write analysis.  I don't know where he got the figures, and the deficit appears too small, but let's say he's right.

The 40% difference in overall size  3.8 - 2.7 is 0.9 (Trillion).  The deficit?  0.9 trillion.  The 40% larger "budget" isn't all increase in deficit; since the deficit was 161 B in 2007.  The growth in the deficit is 901-161 or 740 B larger.  740/900 says 82 % of the growth in the budget is deficit spending.

From other sources we know the Federal Reserve is creating about $85 billion/month.  Over a year, that's even more than the deficit - $1020 billion.  That says 113% of the deficit is being created out of thin air.  So the Fed is not just funding the deficit by buying out bonds, they're pumping money into the economy at large; probably the major banks.  "Pumping" in the same sense as pumping air into a tire: inflating the economy.

My Pick For Secretary of Defense

It's a shame the execrable Chuck Hagel was confirmed as SecDef, and while it was largely a party line vote, and the Evil Party still controls the Senate.  Frankly, I'm disappointed with Rand Paul's explanation of why he voted for him.   Hagel is an embarrassment.  The fact that the Iranian opposition in exile is against him while the current Iranian government endorsed him tells me that it was not likely a disinformation campaign on their side to get us to nominate someone else.  A very likely scenario for the new SecDef and his crew to war game is a problem with Iran.  He's pretty much on their side - like the president. The fact that Louis Farrakhan endorsed Hagel is another straw against him. 

Plus, the guy looks like a milquetoast.  Just not threatening looking enough.  I think we should have a guy who's not just tough, but looks like he just might be crazy enough to push that shiny button.  Fred Thompson is tough, and believable, but doesn't have the crazy I'm looking for.  I'm thinking more like Jack Elam.

This is Jack in one of his saner looking roles, Dr, Van Helsing (yes!) in "The Cannonball Run".  When he points a gun at you, you think "this guy is crazy enough to kill me for no good reason".  America's enemies should think that way about us.  Not as the bankrupt, doddering, weak old fools they currently do.

OK, technically, being dead and all, we can't have Jack as Secretary.  And it's too late, anyway.

Sequestration Fun Facts

Working on some ideas that just won't fit together.  So a minor continuation of the previous piece:

Glenn McCoy at TownHall.com

The most important thing I forgot to mention, and really should have emphasized, is that the sequester isn't even a real cut.  As the cartoon says, it's a spending reduction, a DC cut, which means it just slows the rate of increase.  Spending still goes up, even including mythical decreases out at ten years, where nothing will ever happen as planned.  This plot, by economist Veronique de Rugy for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, shows the story. 

The Media Research Center.

Makes it hard to stomach those lies from the Evil Party, doesn't it? 

Careening From Crisis To Crisis

It's really simple.  The reason for the panic over the "sequester" - a few percent of spending - is the same as the panic over the debt ceiling before it, and the panic over the fiscal cliff and the panic over, well, everything for the last few years.  The reason is that the congress refuses to pass a budget.  One of their main constitutional duties is to pass a budget.  Instead, they work by Continuing Resolution, sticking spending bills as riders onto anything else that happens to be gathering enough votes to pass.

(ZeroHedge) 

And you can't pass a budget and act like reasonable adults if you're trying to keep the country in a constant state of crisis.  After all, you don't ever want to let a good crisis go to waste.  Instead, you line up a bunch first responders (or actors paid to dress like them) and prattle on about firemen not be paid, police not being paid, teachers not being paid - all the while knowing the people watching won't think "wait a minute, those people don't get paid by Washington".  It's the same whenever any government body gets funding cut: go to scare tactics and line up police and firemen.  They never suggest cutting stupid waste - they try to scare taxpayers.  We can't cut the algae to diesel fuel energy program?  The turtle tunnels under roads?  Does the Mandatory Airport Art get funded by them?  That's an easy cut.  How about the corn for ethanol idiocy, excuse me, subsidy, which seems to exist only because Iowa has the first presidential caucus?    

The CBO says the sequester will amount to $44 billion in cuts this year.  The last time we had a budget, it was about $4.4 Trillion, $4400 Billion, with 2.2B of that revenue, and the rest from deficit spending (mostly made up out of thin air).  That makes this "world-ending" cut about 2% of revenue.  $4400 billion dollars over 365 days is just over $12 billion per day, and the sequester costs less than 4 days spending.  Even if CBO is wrong (they often are) and the full $85 billion is cut this year, that basically only doubles those numbers above.  Instead of cutting 4 days of spending, they cut 8 days of spending out of 365.  BFD!

Look, if we can't handle that small a cut, when we need to cut about 50%, we may as well just dig the grave and cover the country over now.  We're never getting out of this mess.  The presidents assertion that we fix this by "closing loopholes" is laughable - or it would be if idiots didn't pass that on as some sort of Gospel Revelation.  You could confiscate every penny - tax 100% of the income of "the rich" and not fix this mess.  The president's claim is class warfare demagoguery. 

And the next crisis is that we run out of money on March 27, again.  All because Harry Reid is afraid to pass a budget that might make him lose plausible deniability.  Allow us to see just what they are really spending - how much and on what.  They want it this way. 

Blogiversary

Today, I'm three years old.  Well, the first post was actually on February 21, not the 24th, but that was a Sunday, and I've come to think of the closest Sunday as the anniversary date. 

I never knew there was PSP game called The Third Birthday, so thanks to them for great third anniversary image complete with enough apocalyptic imagery to fit in perfectly here.  Now if the girl was Ben Bernanke, that would be perfect. 

I think I need brain bleach for that thought.

As I've said before my overall approach to this blog reflects something I've said before: bad times are coming.  Survival is for cockroaches; let's thrive.  Someone has to know how to make things. 

I try to post something every day.  Borepatch, Tam, Bayou Renaissance Man; you guys have my admiration.  I'll be first to admit it can be difficult and sometimes there just isn't anything there.  Every now and then my muse goes and does her hair or something.  This year I aim to post worthwhile reading, even if it isn't every day.  Most of the folks who put up several posts everyday tend to put up shorter things than I seem to be capable of writing. 

As I tend to say every year, I have no idea how long I'll be here, but here's to the ride!

A Little Musical Interlude

This girl is amazing.


As you see, her name is Joanne Shaw Taylor.  From her bio page:

"Last year I heard something I thought I would never hear... a British White Girl playing blues guitar so deep and passionately it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!" (Dave Stewart/Eurythmics)

You can say you heard her at the beginning.

"She plays with more attitude and flare than most. Massive potential here. Inspiring."
Guitarist magazine

"Joanne IS the new face of the blues"
Blues Matters

223 Day of Resistance - After "Action"

The closest meeting place for the Day of Resistance meetings in the US was close to my home town, so of course we went. 

I'm sure there are readers who will envy our 86 degree weather, but it was a bit uncomfortable when the sun was out.  I'm going to estimate the group was around 200 people; a lot of constitutional restoration signs were on display, along with strong second amendment support.  This wasn't an open carry rally, but while open carry is generally illegal in Florida, it is legal if you're fishing or hunting, or on your way to or from either.  Since this little park is on the Indian River (a saltwater lagoon), at least one guy was carrying a fishing rod and open carrying in a thigh holster.  I think it's safe to say that most of the group was armed. 

The content was a little thin.  We did have the chairman of the county commission vow to oppose any efforts by the feds to restrict our rights, and since our Sheriff was one of the first in the state to sign the petition vowing to stand by our R2KBA, it sounds as good as we can ask for in our little corner of the FUSA. The commissioner's wife gave a rousing speech (she's in a minor office, not specifically related to  the 2A) and another couple of speakers rounded out the day, urging us to gather momentum, contact our elected officials, and keep up the pressure ... interspersed with a talented couple of kids - young girls - who sang.

I didn't notice this guy's III-per sign until I was editing the pictures to post.  My III-per patch is on a jacket and 86 is not jacket weather.  It was more like T-shirt weather. 

Happy Engineers Week

This is not a joke.

There really is such a thing as National Engineers Week.  Personally, I'd never heard of it until I went to work for Major Electronics Manufacturer almost 17 years ago.  We make a bit of a big deal about it, with a recognition program for "Engineer of the Year" posters, pictures of the winners and such.  If you get picked to the final group, you get a nice bunch of mementos, and a picture with a VP.

Whenever the topic of famous engineers comes up, after the one or two people that most folks think of  -- Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates are most folks' limit - the conversation gets kind of quiet.  I hardly even ever hear people mention Woz anymore and only old guys will mention Neil Armstrong or Werhner Von Braun.  In reality, look around you.  If it isn't grown or used out of the ground, an engineer was involved in getting it to you.  A machinist probably made the first one, and after that, mass production takes over.  (lots of exceptions to this, obviously).

Probably the most popular example of the forgotten inventor "engineer" that magazines like to bring up is Hedy Lamarr.  You might recognize her name as an actress from long ago - the 30s and 40s - when she was considered one of the most beautiful and glamorous women in the world.  But she was also a mathematician who invented and patented - along with a piano player she knew named George Antheil - a system known today as frequency hopping spread spectrum.  Her purpose was to allow US radio controlled torpedoes to escape jamming by the Nazis.  Their system relied on the technology an actress and a piano player had available; piano rolls.  The piano rolls coded the channel a radio could be tuned to.  The torpedo and ship would use the same sequence on their rolls, and were synchronized by motors that were started at the same time.  They wouldn't stay in sync, since the motors were separated by large, increasing distances, and both ends were subject to random mechanical errors, but they would stay in sync well enough.  Lamarr and Antheil offered the patent to the US Navy with no royalties, but the Navy wasn't interested, and did not use the system in WWII.  I've read they did use it after the patent expired, around the time of the Cuban missile crisis, but other methods of designing jam-resistant systems were becoming available then.

I've seen her referred to as the inventor of modern wireless and cellphones but that's too much of a stretch for me.  Frequency hopping is important but modern systems are way beyond that level of complexity.  Celebrate her for what she did.

Personally, I'm a little creeped out by the engineers who have become politicians.  Ex-president and Hesbollah fan club member for life Jimmy Carter is one.  Chinese president Hu Jintao is a hydraulics engineer and premier Wen Jiaobao is a geochemical engineer.  I'd rather identify with guys like Tom Sholz, guitarist for Boston, and one of the main inventors of their distinctive sound.  Tom was a lead product designer for Polaroid, with BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, before making the break to music.  A guy who went the other way is John Tichy, who went from playing for Commander Cody (no, not Hot Rod Lincoln) to department head of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.