Dave Hardy reports that the Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of  State v. Williams. Let’s hope that’s for a reason other than they don’t have the votes for the case to win.
Month: October 2011
Holder Knew Sooner than He Testified
New documents obtained by CBS News show Attorney General Eric Holder was sent briefings on the controversial Fast and Furious operation as far back as July 2010. That directly contradicts his statement to Congress.
Of course, the White House is claiming they never knew this operation was about letting guns walk. Holder is also claiming he didn’t know details. The documents released by the White House this weekend would appear to show that if the White House wasn’t aware guns were being walked, they are pretty stupid:
As CBS News has reported, the email exchanges between Newell and O’Reilly lasted for more than a month. Among the documents produced is an email Newell sent O’Reilly with an “arrow chart reflecting the ultimate destination of firearms we intercepted and/or where the guns ended up.”
It was mostly the latter since, as we have documented, ATF agents were ordered by superiors not to interdict the weapons traffic, surveillance would be called off, and requested interdiction teams were not sent to arrest the traffickers when opportunities to do so arose. Most of the guns were allowed to “walk” into Mexico.
I’m wondering if Congress has enough now to at least impeach Holder.
Free Baths for Smelly Hippies
The people who are “Occupying Wall Street” are trying to come up with a manifesto. Being the kind, democratic collectivists they are, they are letting anyone participate. I put a few highly radical things in there just to see if they get removed. But I couldn’t resist the temptation to add this:
| 10. It is impractical for millions of American men, women, and children to be without health care for any reason. Â [This text should not be edited.] | Implement universal, comprehensive single-payer health care systems at the state level. Align federal incentives, Medicare and Medicaid policy, and the VA to support the states in doing this.
Repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something better. Free baths for smelly hippies. |
My addition in bold. It’s juvenile, but so is the entire document, and unlike me, they are serious. At least you know what these people would impose on others if they ever got any real power. The fact that there are people out there who believe things like this:
Teach character building classes from grade one, measure success based on drive/interactions with others, not only final outcome.  Impose universal morality for parents who do not participate in raising their children. Remove children from households with parents who refuse to educate them properly. Provide for re-education of parents in how to properly raise their children for the happiness of the Party.
are the reason I own guns. I may or may not have added that last bit about re-education of parents for the happiness of the Party, but I would note it hasn’t been removed, and the rest of that sick statement was the product of someone else’s sick mind.
Keyboards and Repetitive Strain Injuries
As someone who spends about 14 hours a day in front of a keyboard on a good day, workstation ergonomics is something I’ve done a good bit of experimentation with. Clayton Cramer seems to have been having some wrist problems, but believes that the Microsoft Natural line of keyboards helps a lot. I used a Microsoft Natural 4000 for a few years to help with wrist issues, and it is indeed good, and one of the better split keyboards out there.
But I’ve discovered through trying various techniques that key travel distance has more of an effect on how hard a keyboard beats up your hands, wrists, and arms as using a split keyboard does. After several years of using the Apple “chiclet” keyboards, I find them to be quite easy on the hands and wrists, despite the fact that they aren’t split. This is doubly true if you add a beanbag wrist rest to the equation. I think this is because the travel distance on the chiclet keys are so short, and as such doesn’t require as much work and movement from the fingers to depress the keys. When I go back to a regular PC keyboard, or even the Natural Keyboard, I can feel my fingers having to work a lot of harder to type. One other thing I like about the chiclet keyboard is that it’s easy to keep clean, preventing it from looking gross and crusty after a couple of years.
If you don’t want to pay a lot for Apple hardware, there are some non-apple alternatives. This one looks like a pretty good clone of the chiclet keyboard, but in black, and at 16 bucks instead of 50. If wireless is your thing, HP makes an Elite Keyboard with chiclet keys, and even wireless, it’s still cheaper than the Apple keyboard.
To go with any keyboard setup, you also need a good chair. I have been using one of these Aeron chairs for seven years. They are expensive, and infamously associated with failed .com companies (which is where my previous employer got them from at pennies on the dollar), but after using this chair, I will sit on no other. They are comfortable and rugged. At the end of our company, I got to take mine home, plus a broken one I intend to fix and take to my next job. The main drawback to the Aeron chair is that they don’t do well on plush carpet, so a chair mat is a must. Though from the pictures, it looks like they may have fixed the carpet problem in later models.
Oregon Campus Carry Already Having Positive Effects
You may have heard that the Court of Appeals in Oregon threw out the campus carry bans because the were preempted by state law. They thew the rule out on preemption grounds and did not reach whether the Second Amendment was implicated. You have to wonder if not wanting to dive into Second Amendment analysis might have been a small motivation for ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.
Either way, I’m pleased to report that the ruling is having a positive effect already. If you could take hysterics, and harness it as an energy source, our opponents could have us energy independent inside a couple of weeks.
The Success that Never Was
Joe Huffman reminds us that the gun control people weren’t always as despondent as they are these days. How much things have changed in under a decade and a half.
Gunnie Goodies
People like to mix guns and drinks. By drinks, I don’t mean the alcoholic kind. And by guns, I don’t mean the shooty kind. I couldn’t help but be amused by all these things that popped up on a random Amazon search the other day.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
What amuses me is that this stuff is just miscellaneous pop culture crap. This isn’t stuff targeted at the “gun culture.” Yet, somehow there are people on the other side who actually believe they can rid the world of guns and get rid of demand for guns.
UPDATE: This post became significantly more relevant with the discovery that tomorrow is National Vodka Day.
Socialist Plans & Priorities
So the socialists (commies, hippies, moonbats, anarchists, and everyone else) have taken over New York – or at least they keep trying to do it. I don’t really have much to add in the way of commentary on the protests, but I did find some amusement in their officially posted daily schedule.
It would appear to be a whole lotta nothing. Great. Keep doing nothing, and you can stay out of my life.
But, their list of priorities in “working groups” is a little disturbing. Let’s zoom in.
They have made an “arts & culture” committee a higher priority than sanitation. This is why these people cannot win. They consider having an arts culture more important than taking care of their shit.
UPDATE From Sebastian: For some reason, it reminds me distinctly of this:
Careful What You Wish For
Katie Pavlich reports on a rumor that the DOJ is considering elimination of ATF. As I’ve stated previously on here, I think it would be a bad idea. The country’s gun laws are not going away, and someone is going to be charged with enforcing them. That agency is likely to be the FBI. While the FBI would certainly do the enforcement part far more competently, you’d be giving the FBI an incentive to lobby Congress for more gun laws.
The problem with that is that people in Washington have a high degree of respect for the FBI, and they are listened to. ATF is the bastard step-child of federal law enforcement, and Congress and the other D.C. powers that be don’t really take them too seriously. It’s also worth noting, because of the FBI’s other missions, you’re not really going to have much luck threatening the FBI’s funding in order to keep it under control.
Given all that, I’m in favor of keeping ATF in place, and replacing its leadership, including the guys at the very top in 2012. Getting rid of ATF is a feel-good measure. Strategically, I think it would be a disaster to give FBI and incentive to lobby Congress for more gun laws, and be able to raise the specter of terrorism every time we try to threaten their funding in Congress for misbehavior.