Month: April 2011

More of Your Tax Dollars at Work

When the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) aren’t busy providing guns to Mexican drug cartels they’re working hard to raid small town gun shops:

Ludco Gun Shop owner Fred Ludington was arrested this morning on federal charges.

Ludington was charged with selling firearms to felons and non-Indiana residents.

There is a great sign on the desk of Ron Paul that states, “Don’t steal, the government hates competition.” Apparently this holds true in all regards as Mr. Ludington was in competition with the ATF who also like to provide guns to felons and non-Indiana residents. The result was predictable though as 70 agents… wait how many? Thor fucking God of Thunder on a pogo stick:

Special agent Kimberly Riddell, public information officer for the ATF, told The Star Press that 70 ATF agents, investigators and support personnel were at the shop, with assistance from the Indiana State Police.

It took 70 agents plus help from Indiana State Police to rob a single gun shop? I’d hate to see how many agents it would take to perform an bust against actual criminals. They would probably have to mobilize the National Fucking Guard for that kind of raid.

HP/Palm WebOS 3.0 Preview Leaks Out

For both of us who are excited about the next version of HP/Palm’s WebOS it appears as though one of the developers who was admitted access to the Early Access Program has decided to grace us all with a video of the goods:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvqzXR0JkuY]

The emulator is still in beta obviously but it’s looking pretty cool if I do say so myself. WebOS 3.0 will debut on HP/Palm’s tablet at some future point. If the actual device holds as well as the emulator preview is letting on HP/Palm’s tablet could actually give some real competition to Apple’s iPad.

The Difference Between Rifle and Pistol Powder

What’s the difference between pistol and rifle powder? It’s the difference between having a nice working AR-15 and one that is blown to Hell and back again. The shooter was lucky and ended up walking away from this with all his digits still firmly attached to his hands which are still firmly attached to his arms.

Reloading can be dangerous if you aren’t giving 100% of your attention to what you’re doing. It never hurts to triple check everything before you crank out some ammunition.

Coincidence, I Think Not

Tell me if you think my line of thought is correct on this. JP Morgan just reported $5.6 billion which they attributed to their credit card business. Unemployment has been up with the recent depression forcing people on government wealth-redistribution programs such as food stamps. Food stamps in the United States are no longer stamps but Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards which are actually just standard credit cards. JP Morgan is the company that issues and controls these EBT cards.

Anybody else getting a good idea where their record profits came from?

Did the Brady Campaign Buy Time on the Federal Reserve’s Printing Press

I think the Brady Campaign has found a means of making money, they’ve apparently purchased some time on the Federal Reserver’s printing press. At least that’s the only way I can imagine that they’ve been able to pay for a 30 second television advertisement:

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence released an ad today calling on President Obama to come out more forcefully in support of a ban on the sort of high-capacity ammunition clips used by alleged shooter Jared Loughner in the January Tucson massacre.

The Brady Campaign are trying to get standard capacity magazine banned from civilian ownership. According to them, and I’m quoting the advertisement, “a magazine that allows a gun to fire 32 shots in 16 seconds is only good for one thing: killing a lot of people – fast.” Strange though that they only want to ban them from civilian ownership and not police ownership. I’ve stated this before but I believe the Brady Campaign think the job of police officers is to kill a lot of people – fast. If this wasn’t the case shouldn’t they be demanding that such magazines be banned from police ownership as well?

The advertisement then goes on to eventually say, “Assault clips – they make everyone a target, Tell President Obama to ban assault clips.” Wait are we talking about banning standard capacity clips or magazines? These things aren’t interchangeable as a clip is functionally different than a magazine. If you’re going to demand something be banned then have the Thor damned courtesy to know what the fuck you’re talking about. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) the number of homicides committed with firearms has been on a general downward trend since 2004. That doesn’t make sense though because these “assault clips” allow criminals to kill far more people thus if the Brady Campaign’s accusation is correct the number of homicides committed with firearms should have been on a general upward trend since 2004.

I’m also going to bring up the simple fact that standard capacity magazines were illegal to manufacturer for civilian sale between 1994 and 2004. After the “assault weapon ban” sunset in 2004 they became legal again for us lowly serfs to own. So was there an increase in homicides committed with firearms since criminals could now legally purchase “assault clips that make everybody a target?”

Hopefully either the National Rifle Association (NRA) or the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) bring out an advertisement that calls these nitwits to task and explains how idiotic the anti-gunners are being.

When Did the Definition of Voluntary Change

I’m a bit confused. Some point between the time I learned the definition of voluntary and yesterday the definition of the word was changed. I say this because Harry Reid has stated that paying taxes is voluntary:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6q0slMhDw8]

Thankfully Google still has my back here as it contained the old definition of voluntary which reads in part:

of your own free will or design; done by choice; not forced or compelled

Voluntary action is action taken by choice and free of any coercion. Paying taxes on the other hand is something we do because the government has threatened us with violence if we do not. If you or I don’t pay our taxes the government will take one or all of several actions which include taking the money from us (garnishing wages), tossing us in prison, taking your property, or having one of their hired thugs beat us should we refuse to comply with either of the two previous retaliatory actions.

So I’m very confused and would like to know this new definition of the word voluntary that Harry is using. It’s not in any dictionary so I’m guessing it’s probably in the newest version of the Newspeak.

Ad Supported Kindle

In their drive to make the Kindle cheaper Amazon is trying something new; an ad supported Kindle that will be sold at a $25.00 discount. The advertisements will be displayed on the users home screen and as screen savers but no advertisements will be displayed while you’re actually reading a book. This was a smart idea because displaying ads while somebody is reading would probably destroy the image of the product. If you get sick of the ads you can also pay Amazon an additional $25.00 to turn them off which was the smartest move they could make. At least that way you don’t have to worry about buyer’s remorse.

Overall this move was better than what I was expecting. The system I figured Amazon would create would involve periodically display ads between page turns. I though they would go with a system where every ‘x’ (x being an arbitrary number most likely higher than 10) page turns would display a full screen ad similar to magazines. Thankfully they didn’t go this route because it would be annoying to anybody who purchased the discounted device.

With all of this said $25.00 is not enough to make me put up with ads so I’ll continue to buy the more expensive model (with 3G because I like being able to download books anywhere). For those of you who don’t care though this may be a way to save $25.00.

Because They’re Better Than You and Me

Getting a permit to carry in California is almost impossible unless you’re rich or politically well connected. I also learned that it’s illegal to carry in their state capitol unless you’re a law enforcement officer or a legislator:

When state lawmakers return to Sacramento this week, a few will carry guns. Four members of the Assembly have been given permission to carry concealed weapons in the Capitol.

Anyone entering the Capitol building in Sacramento passes through a metal detector at a security checkpoint. State law prohibits concealed or deadly weapons in public buildings, including the Capitol.

But law enforcement officers are exempt – and so are legislators under limited circumstances; the Assembly or Senate sergeants-at-arms can give permission for a lawmaker to carry a concealed weapon.

See, they need to be protected from us serfs. If they allowed lowly serfs to carry guns who knows what kind of terrible things could happen. Hell just look at all the shootings that have occurred in the capitol buildings in Texas and Minnesota… you know all zero of them.

You have to love how California legislators can’t carry in the state capitol under “limited circumstances” which basically amounts to asking permission from your fellow legislators. Then again these are the same punks that can also give themselves raises. I believe we should hold legislators to the exact same standards as actual productive people. Thus if you or I can’t carry at the California state capitol neither should those critters who call themselves “representatives.”

I Don’t Think Asking Nicely Will Work

Apparently Pakistan has the audacity to ask the United States to reduce the number of spooks (CIA agents) operating inside of their country and restrict the number of people being blown up with drones:

Pakistan has asked the US to reduce the number of CIA agents in the country and to limit drone strikes along the Afghan border, US media reports say.

The reports quote unnamed officials and come as US and Pakistani spy chiefs met at the CIA’s US headquarters.

An official spokesman described those meetings as “productive”.

By productive he meant he was allowed to leave with his life. I’m sorry but I don’t think asking nicely is going to work in this case.

Car You Can’t Own

Many people claim that we have a free market in the United States. These same people also blame the lack of regulations on our recent financial problems. Neither fact is true as we haven’t had a free market since… well ever honestly as there have always been regulations on the free exchange of goods between two people. Well I have yet another example of market regulations in the United States that I feel few are aware of, a list of cars the government says you can’t have:

Sure, some lustworthy Euro-spec cars can make it in. Witness the list of Show and Display cars the overlords at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration OK’d despite the fact that not one of them meets government safety standards.

Such cars must be exceedingly rare, historically significant and driven a mere 2,500 miles annually. But if you think a boatload of money and reams of paperwork can get any car into the country, think again.

Today, we present some of the cars people tried to import under Show and Display that were rejected by Uncle Sam. We aren’t talking about fanboy fantasies here, but actual cars that someone went to the trouble of tracking down and applying to the feds for.

The list contains 17 vehicles that us measly peasants can’t be trusted with.