Apparently the DEA has been involved in laundering money for Mexican Cartels. I have to echo SayUncle on this, who asks, “So, can any agency bust border crimes that they didn’t create?” With this bunch, you really have to wonder.
Month: December 2011
Cheerleading More Dangerous Than Hunting with Guns
I always loved it when a fellow instructor used to pull out the stats on range safety versus cheerleading. For many of the people in the room, the thought that they were sending their little girls off to a far more dangerous activity than if they took them to the gun range or took them out hunting with guns usually took a minute to settle in.
Today, NSSF released some data comparing various activities – including cheerleading – to hunting with guns. Now keep in mind that the numbers for hunting are many times not related to gun incidents. Tree stand falls are some of the most problematic injuries hunters face. So, if you want to give your kids a great activity to keep them outdoors and safe, teach them to hunt. Cheerleading, football, basketball, and even riding a bike are far more likely to result in injuries than hunting.
Herman Cain Like Nicholas Cage in National Treasure?
As a friend of mine said, for someone who had never stolen anything, Cage’s character sure picked an ambitious first target. You could say the same thing about Herman Cain trying to win the presidency as his first political office. Based on this week’s announcement Cain obviously didn’t have Cage’s screenwriters.
I never really could buy into Cain as a serious candidate. Even Ronald Reagan, though he had the simple folk charm of a political outsider, was a two term governor of California before seeking the Presidency.
Cain’s 15 minutes was largely due to the party seeking someone to be the anti-Mitt. That clearly isn’t Cain. Who who will be the next anti-Mitt? Gingrich? That’s about all that’s left, before we’re going to have to decide whether to swallow the bitter pill.
Groupon Comes Around on Shooting Sports
Just a few days ago, the gun blogosphere was talking about this article that said Groupon refuses to do gun-related deals so as not to offend anyone. Well, I guess that position didn’t last very long when they saw their competitors were making thousands of sales off of shooting sports bargains (something we have documented before).
I saw this deal for more than half off of a round of sporting clays in New Jersey come across the @GrouponPhilly Twitter account this morning.
Yay for learning!
High Tech Unemployment
Of course, the problem that the tech companies are trying to solve is “a lack of access to highly-skilled workers.” Â Wow. Â You would never know that America is awash in software and electrical engineers who are out of work, working part-time, or making a fraction of what they did several years ago. Â And so we need to simplify the process of bringing in low-paid workers from other countries?
I am making about 35% less than I was making in my previous job, so I am sympathetic to the notion that salaries are taking a beating. But I still support making it easier for the best and brightest from other countries to come here and make the United States their home. I’d much rather have those individuals here, where they will have very similar cost of living situations to myself, than to be competing against them living in their home countries, where the cost of living is a pittance compared to here.
With technology increasingly blurring national borders, I think having the talent where, where they at least have to complete on the same cost of living, cost of doing business playing field, is inherently more advantageous than having them competing against us from home.
Increases in NFA Transactions
Extrano’s Alley takes a look at NFA transfer numbers over the past several years. They’ve nearly doubled since 2007. Most of that is likely an increase in interest in sound suppressors. I need to get myself one eventually, but because of some significant life disruptions over the past year, I’m not shooting all that much, to be honest. Once I get back into the swing of things, It’ll be time to start thinking about what to add to the collection.
Joe Walsh Probes the Brady Campaign
Congressman Joe Walsh has been busy trying to get Brady Campaign “Acting” President Dennis Henigan to debate him. But Henigan won’t take him up on it, unless the debate is hosted in Washington D.C. Walsh has even goaded him with a letter.
This is very useful information to us, because I can’t think of any reason that Henigan would spurn Walsh’s challenge, except the the Brady Campaign doesn’t want to spend the money to send Henigan out to Illinois. He’d rather have it in DC, because, quite frankly, he doesn’t have to travel for that. If this is indeed the case, Henigan is a fool for even making the counter offer, for what that reveals.
I’m really starting to believe we’re witnessing the end days of the Brady Campaign, and possibly even of the Brady Center. If they can’t even send their lead man out to an important battleground state to make the organization’s case, things can’t be good  for them.
On the Militarization of Police
It’s good of the New York Times to finally notice, what has been discussed on the far reached of the Internet for years.
Eric Shelton on Mac OS Lion
Vista was so awful users would “upgrade†back to XP, and it never gained more than 19% installation based. Apple jumped on this with blatantly mocking (and successful) ad-campaigns to woo users burned by Vista.
But now, Apple seems to have done a remarkable job of causing me to do a 180. OS X Lion (or 10.7 in more logical terms) seems like a massive step back in usability for something named after the king of the jungle.
Now that we’re on 10.7.2, it’s more stable, at least. I haven’t had to reboot it due to issues for a while. In my mind the biggest mess from the Lion release Apple has yet to fix is Safari. A lot of technology companies seem to be infected with fixing what ain’t broken syndrome. Apple now seems to be one of them. I just installed an update to Safari that I sincerely hope will address some of the stability problems.
I also agree with Eric on the reversed scrolling thing. I think it’s actually is more natural on a trackpad. On a mouse not so much, but I think Apple has determined the mouse to be passé.