More on New Shooters

Hat tip to John Richardson, for this footage from NRA News of Cam Edwards and Ed Friedman taking Jim Geraghty to the range for the first time. Firing a submachine gun on the first trip to the range is pretty hard core, so kudos to Jim:

Quoting: “I now see why this is a fun recreational activity.” I’ve never seen anyone, who wasn’t the type to shit themselves at the sight of a firearm, who after rocking on full auto did not come away from the line with a big shit eating grin on their face.

Taking High Tech in Firearms a Bit too Far

The Firearms Blog offers an example of a Spanish soldier I feel very sorry for. He notes, “Given Spain’s current economic situation, I don’t think we will be seeing this system deployed anytime soon.” This is a good thing. Especially for Spanish soldiers.

How Not to Do It

When you find yourself writing this:

No, it not so dangerous. But I tried to cook Americium, Radium and Beryllium in 96% sulphuric-acid, to easier get them blended. But the whole thing exploded upp in the air…

Do yourself a favor and stop. No, it is very dangerous, and you pretty clearly don’t know what you’re doing. I guess what we need is careful tracking, registration, and regulation of nuclear materials. It’s common sense. Well, except we already do? There’s no system that’s so idiot proof that nature will not provide a better idiot, who will find his way into the papers. I think it’s fair to say that our opponents in this issue will never recognize this.

The Wonderful World of Defense Procurement

If the Democrats have their way, our health care is going to work like this too. Basically, a company developed a lightning machine (i.e. a fancy tesla coil) and claimed would deactivate IEDs. Turns out it didn’t work so well.

Eventually, the Pentagon soured on the JINs. Ionatron lost most of its cash, changed its name, and got wrapped up in a series of shareholder lawsuits and insider trading scandals. A couple of years ago, the broken firm reached out to Tuscon’s Southwest Liquidators, who helped clear the Ionatron warehouse of its useless inventory of electronics. “We took it all,” says Southwest’s Keith Tearne. Then they put it on eBay.

So basically the defense department was bilked out of a wad of cash, which in the big picture of the whole defense budget isn’t much. Hell, maybe some of the Pentagon brass and political appointees figured even if it didn’t work, it would scare the hell out of the insurgents. I have to admit that if my existence was mostly of dirt floors and poppy growing, seeing this head down the street would probably scare the shit out of me too. But the point is, when you don’t have a free market, or at least a somewhat free market making your decisions, bureaucrats aren’t nearly as smart as they think they are. Smarter people, with fewer scruples, are going to bilk them out of large sums of taxpayer money.

Philadelphia’s Best Faces Put Forward

Only a city like Philadelphia would decide that it’s a good thing to put their Parking Authority on television. Of course, it has only backfired on the tourism staff, so I guess the Parking Authority doesn’t give a damn.

Today, I was witness to another example of the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s great-for-television personalities. A driver in one of their trucks started honking and swearing at a cab driver who wasn’t making a right on red. The PPA driver could clearly see the line of pedestrians crossing legally in front of the cab, but that didn’t stop his outrage.

The cab driver, to his credit, put his hand out the window and made a “hold on” type gesture. The guy had riders in the back, so no doubt he wanted to go. But that didn’t stop the PPA staffer from honking & swearing to “just fucking go already!” even as pedestrians still blocked the street. Even worse, the PPA truck wasn’t actually beside me. It was slightly behind me in the next lane, and I had my windows up and music on. Yet, I could still hear every foul word out of the PPA’s truck.

And somewhere, some bureaucrat was probably given a raise for putting the wonderful personalities like this on tv. It just reminds you that even if you’re not actually parking a car in Philly, the PPA still wants to make your life miserable – and possibly run over you if you’re a pedestrian.