Rounds In The Chamber Make Cleaning Guns Difficult

Charges filed in wounding of Va. Beach toddler.

24-year-old Matthew Bairney lives in the apartment above the Long family on Seawall Court.  3-year-old Keneja Long was struck in the arm just before midnight Tuesday when the gun he was cleaning went off.

Here's a tip I learned. It's very, very, very difficult to get a cleaning rod down a bore when there is a round in the chamber blocking it. I know, doesn't make sense, huh? Anyway, unloading a gun before cleaning it solves that problem.

And another pro tip. If you accidentally discharge your gun because you were playing cowboys and ninjas with it, then fess up. Because nobody believes that bullshit story about you cleaning it anyway.

Misfortune about Fast and Furious

Fortune has an article on the Fast & Furious scandal that can be summarized as "YOU GUYS ARE MAKING THIS SHIT UP!" Essentially, it says that Agent Dodson, the first whistleblower in this case, is the only one guilty of walking guns into Mexico.

Fortune makes Dodson out to be a lose cannon and the agent in charge a hapless victim. As it turns, the hapless victim/hero in the Fortune article is facing criminal charges -- conveniently neglected in the article. Why do that? Look no further than the articles author, Katherine Eban, Journo-List member.

Eban says that only Dodson walked guns with a single operation for which he procured $2,500 of ATF funds. But given the ATF has acknowledged a minimum of 1,700 guns walked into Mexico, that would have to be one incredible gun buying spree on Dodson's part or Eban is flat out MAKING THIS SHIT UP.

Both NRO and Townhall have take downs of the Fortune article. Go read them. The best rebuttal to any Obama tit sucker who uses this article to say Fast & Furious didn't happen is to ask why then did the DOJ, in Congressional testimony, say it did.

Police Officer Goes Nuts

PoliceOne has a very interesting story of a rookie Virginia Beach police officer taking some prescription antibiotics. Net result: he lost his f'ing mind, thought he was on a mission from God, crashed his car, and then shot at and attempted to stab the firefighters who showed up to rescue him.

Crazy stuff!

Has the Story of Alan Turing Been Co-opted?

Eric S. Raymond has another great post, this time on the story of Alan Turing. Raymond points out that today Turing is known more for his persecution of being a homosexual than for his actual accomplishments.

Indeed, Alan Turing was a great thinker. Though miss-credited with breaking the Germans Enigma machine (the Poles actually did it first, and the Americans broke the Japanese version second), he played a huge role in breaking German codes during World War II. Turing's contribution to modern computer science still plays out today, with the Turing Test being the still unattained goal of artificial intelligence.

Mynabirds - Body of Work

This ones been rattling around in my head for two days.

There's also an album trailer here. Looks like there are a couple of other tracks worth a listen.

Think of the Children!

"Think of the Children!" that common cry that anti-gunners parrot in order to pull the heart strings of parents in sway of their anti-rights arguments. So I did.

And the children like this little airsoft ASSAULT RIFLE (bold added to emphasize the SCARY). Last night we, the family, spent some time in the garage shooting coke cans with it. My wife and my daughter just think it is so so, but the boy likes it a lot even though he really has no idea what he is doing. Neither child can actually aim it.

Right now my biggest problem is eye protection for them. I gotta find some protective eye wear for little kids heads.

This being my first airsoft gun, I'm a bit surprised at how much power that little spring can put behind a plastic BB. They can tear throw an aluminum soda can if the conditions are right, and they easily penetrate cardboard.

My many thanks to the rights groups such as the VCDL, VSSA, and NRA for getting the Republicans in our state houses to change the law. Without them, this family time would have been ILLEGAL.

Old, Fat, White Guy Judo

That would be me. I've mentioned before that I've got 10 years of flab on the next youngest student in my Judo class, but last night during randori I was able to score not one but two hip throws on two separate partners. It doesn't happen often for any of us, so I was happy. The first one was a straight up o goshi, which happened so slow I thought my partner let me have it (he claims he didn't). The second one happened so fast that I thought it was an o goshi but I'm told it was a full koshi garuma.

This I find to be a rather odd entry into o goshi.

I would think you'd have to be fast, because if my opponent comes to my side my usual reaction is to square myself with him.

This entry I find to be much more useful, using your opponents own momentum to close the distance. I've always attempted hip throws after aggressing toward my opponent... which never works (for me).

What worked last night? Wish I knew, but I don't especially remember the entries (though neither were from the side).

Is American Judo Dying?

Dr. Ann Maria thinks so based on the down trend of the numbers of American competitors. While number of competitors is not necessarily the same thing as number of participants, its probably as good an indicator as can be found.

As a flabby, middle-aged white guy who just started Judo less than two years ago, I can certainly see why competition oriented Judo doesn't enthrall Americans, a nation of TV junkies with a special relationship to their spectator sports. But then, my interest in Judo started as a martial art and not as a sport. If randori in our club wasn't so much fun and really good exercise, I'd probably have moved on by now: throwing is a hoot but just how much of it is applicable to a street fight remains to be seen.

Female and Kicking Ass

DirtCrashr is compiling a list of women writing gun blogs. I knew there were a lot of gun bloggers, but I'm shocked that there are that many women writing gun blogs. Even though there are more women buying guns than ever before and more women getting into the shooting sports, every time I go to a gun show or a gun store the other patrons look like me (fat, middle-aged white guy). Not complaining, just observing. We need more of this.

Is There Something in the Water in New Jersey?

Leela: Who would've thought that Hell would exist - and that it would be in New Jersey?
Fry: Well, actually...

--Futurama Hell is Other Robots

First some lady is suing a kid for getting hit by his baseball, while she was at a baseball field. And now another lady is suing a cop who saved her life by shooting dead a guy holding a knife to her throat.

I generally do my damnedest to avoid New Jersey. No plans to change that anytime soon.

Is That A Gun In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

Looking Good Senator Schumer!

o·ver·priv·i·leged

Not much today, so I thought I'd blatantly rip off Marcos (who writes stuff I don't understand) and make it relevant to yesterday's news.

That was my fault, Sorry!

Yeah, I played around with some Blogger settings yesterday and for about an hour had the "dynamic view" template on. I thought it looked neat until I had to use an older machine and suddenly realized the suck. So I'm back on a different template.

I also added those "reaction" things to posts. But I noticed that the stock "funny, interesting, cool" reactions were missing a crucial emotion for this blog, "infuriating".

No real content today, as I spent last night reading on my Kindle. So I'll leave you with this indie prog rock song, Ryan Gosling by Late Cambrian. What! You don't like indi prog rock? Then mark this post "infuriating".

The Only Problem Is That It Runs Windows

Microsoft's new Surface tablet looks pretty sweet...

The only problem is that it runs Windows. If only there were some sorta touch-based, tablet OS based on Linux... that didn't suck. Google really needs to step up their game, especially after this.

But I loved this headline: So, Microsoft is making a tablet. Wait, let's just say this like normal people will say it: Microsoft is making an iPad. It's called the Surface.

Grant vs. Lee

Over at Borepatch's place, a couple of commenters have taken a rather revisionist history that Grant was a better general than Lee:

Robert E. Lee was a great general as long as he had room to maneuver and troops to maneuver with. When he didn't have those things, he was considerably less effective. 

Well, now that's interesting. Lee, who was almost always outnumbered and under equipped, wasn't much of a general because he maneuvered his troops. Suggesting that a general shouldn't maneuver troops is like suggesting that a general shouldn't be a general at all.

Great generals have always maneuvered troops. Hannibal consistently out witted the Romans by moving troops around. Rommel, the wily German general of North Africa, kept the British tied up in knots by pitching his forces hither and fore. Of course, Hannibal's victory at Cannae, one of the bloodiest and most deadly in all of history, kept him "maneuvering" around Italy for 8 more years until finally he just left and the Romans won by default. And Rommel often maneuvered his troops so far around the British that they found themselves in desert with no enemy to fight, Germany kinda losing that whole African campaign anyway. So maybe those aren't good comparisons.

But let's look at it this way. Was Grant a good general? Well, if being drunk in battle is a sign of good leadership, sure! From this quarter's issue of Military History Quarterly:

“I was not long in perceiving that Grant had been drinking heavily,” the newsman later wrote, “and that he was still keeping it up.” Unable to persuade Grant’s aides to intervene, “I then took the general in hand myself, enticed him into his stateroom, locked the room…and commenced throwing bottles of whiskey…into the river.” The reporter eventually convinced Grant to lie down and fanned him to sleep. The general’s drinking continued to be a problem from time to time, but Cadwallader helped manage it, and Grant was grateful. For the remainder of the campaign, the reporter enjoyed all the perks of a member of Grant’s staff.

Eventually Vicksburg did fall. Perhaps things would have turned out differently if General John Pemberton had been shit-faced as well.

Ah! But that wasn't against Lee. So what about Lee vs. Grant.

Well, there's the Battle of Cold Harbor which started when Grant maneuvered his troops around Lee's flank giving Grant a great opening. But things went quickly down hill from that point as Grant attempted to assault Lee in a fortified position. The result was probably the most lopsided of the Civil War, Grant losing 13,000 men to Lee's 2,500.

Maneuvering wasn't part of the picture at the Battle of the Crater either, which occurred just a short while after Cold Harbor. Grant was fortunate enough to have a mining expert in his ranks, and the Union army dug a mine underneath the Confederate lines so that they could set off an explosive charge. And they did, creating a crater that is still visible today in Petersburg, VA. That blast instantly killed 250 Confederates and caused so much confusion that nary a Confederate rifle or canon was fired for a full 15 minutes. Grant took great advantage of the chaos and rushed his troops in... and still they screwed it up. Lee's lines held that day, taking only half the casualties as Grant when the battle was done.

Yes, Lee did end up surrendering to Grant ten months later but not because he was out-generaled. By any length of measure, Lee was the better general.

Feeling Insecure

(It's geek humor, folks)

On a Pike

Mikeb3d2k:

"Personally, I think brutal punishments as deterrence are much better than an armed populace for keeping people on the straight and narrow.  Sticking people in prison isn't as much of a punishment as a head on a pole, or putting someone on a gibbet."

Because putz.

Because Putz

Some times news here in the Old Dominion isn't so good. Saturday, a boy was accidentally shot while out hunting with his older brother. Tragic, especially given a young man will have to live the rest of his life with that guilt and the parents... well... there are some emotions there that are just unfathomable.

Of course, that doesn't stop the nightmare of this family from being used by Mikeb302000 to indict the larger gun owning community in his quest to ban guns. Does his blood dance help them? Why does he do it? He does it "because putz."

You Unkind, Hillbilly Americans

Remember the story about the dude hitch hiking across America to write his book, Kindness in America, when he was shot by some redneck in a pick-up truck for no reason at all. Turns out dude made it up. He shot himself.

Hey, you know what's unkind? Getting some other dude arrested for your glory seeking.

The Foosenshaftten

Seriously, I'm amazed that more people don't like Community.

Oh the ridicule. The Germans are bound to declare war on us again.

The ALT Post

Lots to do today and a short time to do it... so another music video, hopefully more pleasing to my regulars.

I don't think Old NFO was too hip to that music video I posted yesterday, but - yes - I like "alternative rock" or whatever it might be called these days. Seems I'm always in the "alternative" camp, marching to the beat of a different drummer so to speak. And sorry Borepatch, contemporary country doesn't do it for me. But I loves me some "alt country" (or as I like to call it, neo-traditional American roots music). Give me some Gillian Welch...

And the Old Crow Medicine Show... if it was possible to get a mosh pit going to the fiddle and banjo, these boys would be the ones to do it.

I Had A Dream It Was All A Dream

In the absence of real content and due to the fact that I'm taking the kids to the Spy Museum today, here is a pop song with a very unserious video about blood diamonds or something...

Uncommon Sense: The Silencing of Maya

Uncommon Sense: The Silencing of Maya: Eleven weeks ago I wrote about a lawsuit that posed a threat to my daughter’s voice.   Maya, who is four years old and unable to speak, uses...

Review: Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)

I'm not much into reading about psychology or topics similar, but a friend whom I respect a lot recommended that I read Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Caroll Tavris & Elliot Aronson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Not that he was trying to hint at something, just that the topic of self justification came up. In essence, it's a really good book, I learned a lot and there are even a few things I plan to do differently thanks to it.

The book's focus is to show how cognitive dissonance works in every day life. Of course, we've all probably heard of the term of cognitive dissonance but I doubt many people realize that we all, every last one of us, suffer from it each and every day. OK, that sounds a little too ominous but in reality in our day-to-day lives dissonance is a necessary part of our sanity. However, for the larger, non-trivial decisions in our lives dissonance can cause us to make and continue to make irrational decisions, bend over backwards in self-justification, and even alter our memory of events.

But more than that, dissonance theory has also disproven many commonly held beliefs regarding human nature and psychology. For instance, we've all heard that people can go beat a stick against a rock or embark on some other act of aggression to tame their anger. Not so. It doesn't work:

Actually, decades of experimental research have found exactly the opposite: that when people vent their feelings aggressively they often feel worse, pump up their blood pressure, and make themselves even angrier.

But that just scratches the surface. Dissonance theory has been the basis for disproving the myth of repressive memories that was the foundation in many of the outrageous convictions of daycare workers for child molestation in the 90's:

Overwhelmingly, the evidence shows just the opposite. The problem for most people who have suffered traumatic experiences is not that they forget them but that they cannot forget them: The memories keep intruding.

And even helps to show that the modern methods police use for seeking confessions are highly likely to elicit false confessions from the innocent while simultaneously convincing the police interviewers that they are getting an accurate accounting. And it is the need to reduce dissonance that prevents many prosecutors from re-opeing cases even in light of exonerating evidence:

Of all the convictions the Innocence Project has succeeded in overturning so far, there is not a single instance in which the police later tried to find the actual perpetrator of the crime. The police and prosecutors just close the books on the case completely, as if to obliterate its silent accusation of the mistake they made.

And there's more. So as you can see, this is not just another pop-psy book. It is well written, well researched, and well put together. I highly recommend it.

Other selected quotes from the book:

"In the final analysis, the test of a nation's character, and of an individual's integrity, does not depend on being error free. It depends on what we do after making the error."


"A stereotype might bend or even shatter under the weight of disconfirming information, but the hallmark of prejudice is that it is impervious to reason, experience, and counterexample."


"If a memory is a central part of your identity, a self-serving distortion is even more likely."

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

The Little Guy

From Nancy R's Kids Shoot I

He didn't quite get it, but his heart was certainly into it. Maybe in a year or two...

You'll Want Your 10 Minutes Back

Karma or Irony? You Decide.

Stranger Shoots Hitchhiker Writing Kindness of America

Shooter was one of them persons prohibited from owning guns, but if you read the comments it is so obviously neo-conservative haters and Rush Limbaugh listeners turning this country into a shooting gallery (you know, despite crime being down again this year).

British PM Leaves 8 Year Old Daughter at the Pub

If You Use Microsoft Products, Consider...

Microsoft is taking a lot of flak for this dance number they orchestrated at the Norwegian Developers Conference.

If I were Microsoft, I'd probably also want to get the word out that the company name has nothing to do with my penis, but throwing the words "And Vagina" in the mix in some sort of bout of political correctness is nothing more than stunning.

This is just bizarre and embarrassing. It's hard to believe somebody reviewed this whole dance number and said, "Yup, that's a winner!"

Pictures at an Exhibition

... or I went to a gun show and all I got was this:

Actually, I got a bit more... which was a bit more than I anticipated buying.

I met up with Old NFO, Murphy's Law, and Proud Hillbilly on Sunday at the Nation's Gun Show in Chantilly. Let me tell you, NFO and Murph can smell the BS a mile away from some of these dealers. Though the guy trying to sell the "Colt" AR upper didn't even have me fooled. Yeah right... Colt didn't mark their uppers, so we had to trust him it was a genuine Colt.

And this is where being at a gun show with Murph is both a blessing and a curse. First, we're standing around chatting when Murph comes up and starts talking about a deal on an Enfield two tables down. Then my brain asks "Which type of Enfield?" and my mouth asks, "What's an Enfield?" The three of them busted out laughing!

But I decided if Murph was all excited about it then perhaps it was worth a look. Here is what it is.

1910 or 1916?

I don't know what any of that means.

The stock had been sporterized, but Murph has an extra one he is gonna give me. And then the quest of .303 British and stripper clips and more. How did this happen? I was at the show looking for AR parts. Damn you, Murphy's Law! And thank you, Murphy's Law!

We didn't make it all the way through the show, as hunger was starting to set in and we were getting punchy and the razzing was picking up. Converging on Hooters, we ate and drank. It had been awhile since I had stepped foot in a Hooters but it would appear nothing has changed but the faces.

Thanks to Old NFO, Proud Hillbilly and Murphy's Law for the enjoyable morning. You all rock!

When Nobody Gets Involved

The Washington Post documents the abduction and kidnapping of Bobbie Bosworth from the Springfield Mall in 2008. Forced to buy beer for her kidnappers and obviously in distress, PDQ Mart refused to call the police. An hour later she was dead.

Apron Gun Holster

A woman in Roanoke is selling aprons with built in holsters, selling them out of her health food store.

It goes to show that women are taking guns seriously, and that a lot of the smaller gun businesses are cottage industry. Gun controllers should take heed, their ambitions don't square with more and more of mainstream America.

Valkyrie

You know that movie Valkyrie, about the Stauffenberg plot to kill Hitler? In the movie many of the scenes take place in the German Army High Command, the Bendler Block ( I don't know if the movie was filmed there, but the real events took place there). Turns out that it was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM MY HOTEL.

You know the courtyard where they executed Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators. It's open to the public. I got to walk through it.

The whole site is now the German Resistance Memorial. And the road has since been renamed to Stauffenbergstraße after Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.

The Bendler Block as seen from the road,
or rather the front door of my hotel.

A picture of the courtyard from July 20, 1944.

The courtyard as it is today.
Not much has changed.

Propaganda posters from the '30s.

Two floors are permanent exhibitions. The first floor is an exhibition about Jewish women victims of the Third Reich. I got about half way through that, but those stories are very difficult to take.

The second floor has a very large exhibit about the German resistance. Unfortunately, most of it was in German only. The only English I found was in the room about the communist university students who organized a very slipshod resistance ring and were subsequently executed (they never committed any acts of resistance and were caught by a janitor for throwing leaflets from an auditorium balcony). So that was a bit disappointing, but I'm gonna guess I am not the target audience.

It was really sobering to see that site.

Thinking of Going to the Nation's Gun Show

"The Nation's Gun Show" is in Chantilly this weekend. I'm thinking of hitting it up on Sunday morning. Opens at 10am. Any takers?

What's Wrong With this World?

If you are passing around this image as some sort of yardstick of a person's worth...

...you just might be a pretentious dickhead!

Just saying'!

(I honestly don't know who she is, btw. But then it doesn't matter.)

Special Camp No. 3

East Germany, the GDR, was the most spied upon population in history, far surpassing former Nazi Germany and even that of its patron state, the Soviet Union. The task of spying on its own population fell to the Ministry of State Security, more commonly known as the Stasi. In Berlin, the Stasi ran Hohenschönhausen prison, which was the headquarters of the Stasi's network of 17 secret prisons. The secret prisons were not marked on any maps and every effort was made to keep the prisoners from knowing where they were or where they had been if released. These secret prisons were used for political detainees. Common criminals were housed in regular prisons.

Today I toured Hohenschönhausen, which is now a memorial.

The "U-Boat" was an underground set of cells built by the Soviets
later to be abandoned by the East Germans

The Stasi used unmarked, civilian work trucks with multiple cells in the back to collect prisoners. They would start out in the morning snatching political detainees off the street as they would normally make their way to work.

A prisoner collection truck parked in the sally port
of Hohenschönhausen prison.

The Stasi built a more modern prison above the Soviet prison, which housed many more political prisoners. The prison was carefully constructed to keep prisoners from having contact with each other.

Hallway of the modern prison.
Note the floor covering.

Cell door of a Stasi prison cell.

Inside view of a Stasi prison cell.

Prisoner isolation was so entrenched, that the prison had a series of small exercise yards outside for letting a prisoner get fresh air only one at a time.

More information on Hohenschönhausen can be found here.

Potsdamer Platz

A Lego giraffe

I took a walk down to Potsdamer Platz to find some food that wasn't hotel expensive. This was sitting on the sidewalk to entice people into the Lego store, which wasn't nearly as impressive.

Andy's Diner & Bar

Across the street I spied this small place to eat. The name has a certain ring to it.

Cover of the menu.

Seriously, why wouldn't I eat at this place. It has everything. So I had a Berliner draft beer and a club sandwich.

Kids Shoot AAR

Many thanks to Nancy for hosting the kids shoot. My kids had fun. And it looks like a lot of the kids enjoyed the shooting. Of course, when the kids were off doing other things many of the adults started plinking away. JB Miller and his wife even pulled up lawn chairs to the firing line. And for about five minutes Nancy and I had a little competition going... that was until I heard, "Daddy, I go pee-pee now."

I can't remember the last time I got some time with a pellet gun. That took me back to youthful summers spent shooting bottle caps off of distant rocks in the backyard.

Mr. A Girl was there with his kids. His sense of humor about that nick-name was amusing. And I got to meet Dr. Mike (another addition to my "bloggers I've met" list), who not only helped with the shooting instructions but ran the grill and then gave us adults history lessons when Nancy pulled out her way, cool black powder rifle collection.

I'm looking forward to the next blogmeet, which is September 29.

BTW, it was also PX4 weekend. Or maybe it was just Open Carry Weekend and JB Miller and I just cowboyed up the same way. I have nothing unusual to report. We went to a Fairfax County park on Sunday and then to a family restaurant. Nobody said a word to me, nor did I get any stares or awkward glances. Truthfully, I'm not sure anybody noticed.

Good News

Bob S.'s daughter is out of surgery and doing fine. Wish them well if you have a chance.

The U.S. Chip Bidness, Yo!

Reader, commenter, former neighbor and maybe future neighbor again one day William B. took me to task over yesterday's post about the British researchers who claim to have found proof that the Chinese are muddling with chip designs produced in their semiconductor fabs. U.S. intelligence agencies have been warning of this sort of thing for years.

Is this threat real? Well, those British researchers say so, and they'll sell you the gear to scan your chips using their patented technology. So no bias there. But it was only a few years ago that the FBI discovered counterfeit network gear had been sold to the U.S. military. While the chip backdoors may not have materialized, certainly the attack vector exists and it should be a cause for concern.

But that wasn't William's point:

The researcher who found the "backdoor" is either being misleading or conflating Taiwan with mainland China. There are a variety of legal restrictions that ensure mainland Chinese semiconductor foundries will not make chips for the military of ANY country. (I can go into more detail on this if you're curious.) It's also hard to believe that a foundry in any country would tamper with a customer's design--the loss of customers' trust could destroy the foundry's business.

Hmmm... that makes me ask the question, just how many fabs are in mainland China? According to this map from 2009, not too many. But there is a trend, and its not good for the U.S. According to a 2010 report from the Center for Public Policy Innovation:

Sixteen semiconductor wafer (fab) plants began construction in 2009, only one of them in the U.S. Seven of those fabs will produce light-emitting diodes (the most promising energy-saving technology developed in 50 years), none of which will be built on U.S. soil. China led the world, constructing six fab plants, Taiwan began construction of five, while Korea, Japan, the E.U. and Southeast Asia each began construction of one plant.

So have the Chinese put backdoors in computer chips? William is right in hinting that the circumstances aren't right for that type of exploit right now. However, in 10 years it maybe that most of the fabs are in China and the opportunity will be ripe.