Nothing, That's What.

"I've prayed for my family and friends, because obviously if someone was deliberate to do this, what's to stop them from coming to our homes and our schools?" said Mohamed Alyagouri, who worships at the same mosque as a dude who tried to wage Jihad in Portland.

The entire article -which includes quotes from multiple people who worship at this mosque- fails to mention any public statement of condemnation of the anti-human activities of Mohamed Mohamud, who was recently arrested when his atempt to be a good muslim landed him in jail.

They are upset that someone set their islamic center on fire. That is proper. What would also be proper is for their imam to be all over the news saying he's against blowing up innocent Americans over religious differences. Here's a hint: if you don't want to be associated with a terrorist, make a very big public effort to come out and say you're against him. Otherwise (note I am not advocating, only mentioning) don't be surprised when you are lumped in with your co-religionist and your mosque is set on fire.

But VFD, they HAVE condemned the bombing plot! lookit here! (.doc file warning) they're part of the religion of peace! There's no reason to try to burn down this Islamic Center!

Uh-huh. I'll allow for the sake of the current discussion that the general falsehoods in that condemnation don't make the whole thing a farce. Then we are left with (at least) three other obvious possible explanations:

shades of reichstagbrand

random act of violence, or

shot across the muslim world's collective bow


A lot of nominal moslims who were not participating in Jihad were killed in the crusades. The crusades were not started because there was nothing else to do that Tuesday.

I'm just sayin'.

Technical Difficulties

Busy with computer troubles. Spent two days trying to get up to date and 100% backed-up. I hate dealing with computer security junk. I wish people wouldn't be jerks and write malicious code so I could just USE my PC.

Update: Temporary (?) Good News!

You may recall that we were losing a lovely little section of woods behind our house. I noted that the workmen didn't come back after the weekend to finish the job. There was a note on our door that they were not going to continue the clearing until further notice. One of the neighbors said something about destroying wildlife habitat and that was enough to kill the project, for now.

I'm happier to have coons, 'possums, pigeons, cardinals, and mosquitos than I am to have a view of the neighbors, so whatever. I guess my tax dollars are going to be used for an environmental impact study here shortly, if the City wants to keep clearing out the ditch. I hope not - I hope they decide to just leave it. It's not hurting anybody and not clearing it saves the city probably a few thousand bucks. We'll see.

Gun Porn: The Original Marlin Goose Gun

It's not every day that you see a detachable box magazine-fed bolt-action 12 gauge shotgun with a 3-foot barrel. I have been around guns since before it was a good idea for a child so young to be handling them unsupervised, and I had never until this day been exposed to such a thing.

As always, click any image to see a somewhat better version.

It's in good cosmetic condition overall



The stock really looks nice when it's rubbed with oil, from a few feet away. Figured, even.



This was a field gun. It shows honest wear from use, and has the "bonus feature" of either unscrewed or ripped-out sling swivel stud holes.





The action operates pretty smoothly, as one would expect of a working piece. The cocking indicator is a nice touch. Bolt action. Huh! A FAT bolt action.



With a detachable box. A FAT detachable box. Ooookay. Remember the scale: 3-plus inches long by over an inch wide. Three rounds of 2-3/4" 12 gauge.



Well, at least the business end is in good condition.



The one, the only, the ORIGINAL . . .

What Happens When An Education Bubble Bursts?

I think they made a movie about it, called "Idiocracy."

The poor, poor, pitiful poor people who happened to be dark-skinded couldn't get a home mortgage. Not because they couldn't afford it and 100% for-sure would default on the note, but just because those rotten ol' banks were racist and greedy! So the Democrats in Congress passed laws to make it easy for race hustlers like Al Sharpy-sharp to pressure banks into making loans to poor people who would never be able to repay them, in the name of racial equality. Those people and a few others were not economically literate enough to realize they were being screwed and they went out and got houses they couldn't afford. Now they are in foreclosure and the economy is in the tank.

Why bring up old stuff, VFD?

Because this story just reminded me of it. Here we have the poor, poor, pitiful poor stupid children whose parents won't force them to study and get good grades, and who are non-white, not getting into advanced courses in high school. The obvious solution: take away the courses because it's not fair for the white kids to be educated. Spread the mediocrity around.

How is it not obvious that this only makes Evanston, Illinois a city with less well-educated citizens? What good is it to deny intelligent students an exceptional education? Oh wait, I forgot . . . it's for equality.

Not everyone can excel, but everyone is capable of sitting on their ass and failing at life. If you insist on making everyone the same, you have to enforce the lowest possible standard. Then when everyone is declared to be special, nobody is special. To a Socialist/Communist, that is the stated goal . . .

Economy To Fall Along With Unemployment

Either they will get off their asses and find jobs after two years of drawing unemployment checks, or they will draw savings down further, or they will stop contributing to the economy almost entirely when two Million people get their last unemployment checks in the next two months. That's in addition to the last 1.5M from the month just past.

Millions. Unemployed for two years, and soon to have no income at all. All hail the great recovery from the Great Recession! Soon they will no longer be counted as unemployed, and all will be well with the economy!

Gun Porn: New England Firearms SB2 Handi Rifle .22 Hornet

Those who are into this sort of thing will really enjoy this one. This rifle is in at least Good, possibly Very Good cosmetic condition. The overall view is Very Good from just a few feet away.

As always, click any image to see it without blogger messing up the image quality





Look a bit closer and you see it is definitely, but lightly, used. The muzzle end has some slight wear in the bluing, and the stocks have rub marks on the high parts of the deeply contoured (almost sculpted) wood.





The breech face looks great, the breech end of the barrel less so. Ho do you ding the chamber end of the barrel without damaging the other parts of a rifle? It's a good thing the barrel has a stepped crown. The false crown has scratches and faded finish . . . the true crown, as is the case with the rifling, is in great shape.



The scope was, apparently, installed by a poorly-trained gorilla. If I saw this rifle in a private sale, I would likely pass on it for this reason if I otherwise wanted it: If you can't use a frikken turnscrew to mount a scope without chewing up the rings, you can't do anything good with the rest of the gun, either. This is an extremely bad sign when you are evaluating a used firearm! The rear lens of the scope is in great shape, but the front lens is scratched. NEVER use anything but the proper cleaning cloths on a coated lens. This is another red flag.

AETEC - marketing hype or merely an excuse for a pretty logo?



How "Handi" that all the roll marks and stampings on this rifle are in the same spot . . . one shot and you've got it all! Photographic efficiency WIN!



Neither single-shot rifles nor the .22 Hornet caliber really float my boat, but -aside from the scope issues I mentioned- this is a pretty nice used example of the type.

We Say Bad Things About Each Other . . .

When it is about to be time for a new national leader in the USA, half the country starts saying nasty things about the other half. It is hoped that, in this case, the North Koreans start killing just a few South Koreans to show that the new dictator leader of North Korea isn't afraid of the USA.

It is hoped they are not trying to egg South Korea into a war. Especially because we are BFFs with South Korea and we're not big fans of letting the NorKs take over without a fight.

It is regrettable that we have Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama when this is taking place, but I give even this lot better than even odds of managing to not get us into a nuclear war with North Korea. Conventional war, even odds or better also.

Perhaps we should be praying about this . . . .

FN Makes Creating My Dream Home That Much Easier.

FN Herstal, makers of fine arms for worldwide military and civilian use, have made it that much easier to fabricate my fantasy home. You know, the one with a hundred fifty yards' clear space around the house, then woods for a few miles before we start to run into other peoples' property? That one. Part of the planned security system has always been sentry guns that pop up out of the roof when somebody approaches without authorization. Make that, a pair of M2s on each end of the house. Trespassers VERY not welcome.

Well, FN has come up with a handy ready-made part for me. I'm afraid it's not M2s and only a single piece, but really how many heavy machine gun rounds can one . . . er, one deer or racoon take?

Click here for a video of the FN deFNder remote operated machine gun. Very nice. Do want, x2, when my house is being built. That will be shortly after the credit card is paid off, which will be just after my flying pig farm gets off the ground. But still, do want.

Hat tip: Uncle

Really? Yahoo?

I can't write about the big news today, so instead I'll nip at the small stuff from Yahoo! News:

The head of the Theatre Securite Americain TSA prays to vishnu that you please oh for the love of god please don't [deleted] up his life by refusing a full-body scan when you go home for Thanksgiving. I found high comedy in this bit:

Ricky D. McCoy, a TSA screener and president of a union local in Illinois and Wisconsin, said the atmosphere has changed in the past two weeks for officers in his region. Since word of the pat-downs hit the headlines, officers have been punched, pushed or shoved six times after they explained what would be happening, McCoy said. "We have major problems because basically TSA never educated the public on what was going on," he said. "Our agency pretty much just threw the new search techniques out there."

The problem is not that you don't want your little children strip-searched, it's that you didn't know it was coming. The aftermath of this Thanksgiving flying season will be . . . interesting. I hope we at least get a couple of TSA firings, a few lawsuits, and a good Congressional Oversight Hearing out of it.

Apparently the only person who wants to see the law carried out in Alaska is the guy who (barely, maybe) lost an election. Everyone else is apparently happy to ignore misspelled and fraudulent write-in ballots for the apparent winner. At least they did manage to find a judge who would stay the contested results, unlike what happened with the clown from Illinois a while back.

The next bugbear you can't do anything about but we'll be happy to take your money to try and affect: methane from the permafrost! It's going to kill us all! Surrender your national sovereignty and your luxurious lifestyle before it's too late!