A ferocious round of barking greeted me as I drove up to the Lair.
Murphy and Belle were standing watch and gave some god ferocious barks as my car pulled up the driveway.
Once inside and reintroduced, both dogs were quite welcoming, likely remembering me from prior visits both here and up in Michigan.
Once we were introduced and inside they were happy to see me, and a couple begging strips I had brought along and we were best friends.
Good dogs.
Made it from Michigan to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia in just under 8 hours, beating Google Map's estimate for the trip but that's tempered by having two stops for gas and coffee thrown in, and still beating the map's straight-run estimate. Ohio is still a heckuva long state to cross.
No problems on the drive, met up with Murphy's Law and had a good night, with some fun stuff planned for today.
The Detroit News: Michigan monitors 8 for Ebola virus
So far, all are asymptomatic.
Let's keep hoping our luck holds, 'cause not much else other than hoping for good luck is really being done to effectively stop the import of potential patient zero+1s into the country at this point.
The Detroit News: Army troops isolated after Africa duty tour
Makes sense right? After coming back from assisting, treating and exposure to Ebola patients the Army is smartly isolating those troops and not just dropping them back on bases where they could potentially expose other members of the military.
Obviously an Ebola outbreak in the Army would have a nasty impact on our military readiness, so it's a smart and sane move.
Of course, the Obama administration can't see the logic in it and can't bring themselves to issue a similar quarantine of health workers and others coming from the infected outbreak areas. Whether this Army policy will be overruled in the interests of politics is not yet determined, but the Obama administration has been successful putting lots of pressure on governors of states that ordered similar quarantines.
So we're now awaiting whether a 5 year old in New York coming in from West Africa within the past 21 days has Ebola or just a fever from other causes. And we're still waiting to see if the NY Doctor's contacts also come down with Ebola in the next 21 days or so.
Hopefully we dodge it yet again and the kid and all the doc's contacts will be just fine.
Eventually our luck, which seems to be the only thing this administration is depending on to stop an outbreak in the US, is going to run out.
‘Zombie’ out for smoke is hit by driver
From the Detroit News:
Police said a man trying to scare motorists while dressed as a zombie was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in west Michigan.Jeff Stiles’ injuries were not considered life-threatening Saturday, but he was admitted to a hospital, the Grand Rapids Press reported. He was hit by a car in Nunica in Ottawa County.
County sheriff’s Sgt. Matt Wilfong said Stiles, 45, was attending a Halloween party as a zombie when he stepped outside to smoke a cigarette.
Well, Mr. Stiles likely succeeded in scaring a motorist, with some crunchy results. Heck, I bet his costume was a real hit.
While pistols may have little stopping power, a 4,000 pound vehicle (average weight of US vehicle fleet, as we don't know what kind of car hit him) moving along the road seems to have some decent knock-down power.
After a doctor, who entered the country without a fever but came down with Ebola went out for some clubbing, bowling, and a little subway travel thrown in in New York city, a few governors came to their senses and figured out quarantining returning health workers who treated Ebola patients was a good idea.
Note that the good doctor entered the country sans fever, thus showing the rather weak linchpin in the current Obama plan to continue allowing visitors to the US from Ebola-stricken zones so long as they don't have a fever at the port of entry.
It sure didn't stop him, now will it stop anyone else who develops symptoms after arrival. Kinda a blatant chink in the ol' armor now isn't it?
But fear not, as the Obama administration really hates the idea of a quarantine procedure for health workers returning from treating Ebola patients, even after the Dr. Craig incident, and the record of health workers catching Ebola. White House working on new Ebola guidelines
Apparently the new guidelines will be to stop governors form quarantining returning healthcare workers.
Earlier, other aides to President Obama criticized the decisions by three states to quarantine people who are returning from Ebola-stricken West Africa.Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power said quarantines may discourage health workers from traveling to West Africa to help block the disease at its source.
"If you put everyone in one basket, even people who are clearly no threat, then we have the problem of the disincentive of people that we need," Fauci said on ABC's This Week. "Let's not forget the best way to stop this epidemic and protect America is to stop it in Africa, and you can really help stopping it in Africa if we have our people, our heroes, the health care workers, go there and help us to protect America."
Anthony, are you Faucing kidding me?
This administration has learned nothing and forgotten nothing so far in its mismanagement of this crisis.
Reality apparently takes a back seat to ideology in their approach to handling this issue. Stopping Ebola in Africa is all well and good, but ignoring that it's now been imported on at least two separate occasions into the USA is rather foolhardy.
Note that it was imported at least once by one of these very same Fauci-celebrated health care workers, who while heroic in treating patients apparently lacked the brains and common sense to not go out on the town while feeling lousy after lots of exposure to Ebola.
The attack in Ottawa has been confirmed to be an act of Islamic terrorism.
In a show of solidarity with their good neighbors to the North, the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, before their game with the Philadelphia Flyers played the Canadian anthem.
CBC: Pittsburgh Penguins show solidarity by playing 'O Canada'. Click the link for the article and video.
A very classy move there Pittsburgh, nicely done indeed.
One confirmed Islamist attack in Quebec yesterday where a Canadian Forces soldier was killed and one wounded and the known Islamist killed by police after a chase after the attack.
Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, RIP W.O. Vincent, your killer is already in hell.
Today, in a likely Islamic attack one in Ottawa today, there was a shooting at the War Memorial where a soldier standing guard was
The Detroit Free Press: Canadian Parliament on lockdown after shooting
I think that unlike Spain, where one terrorist attack had them surrender and drop out of the coalition, I expect the Islamists will find Canadians to be made of sterner stuff.
You see, Canadians, and the Canadian Forces in particular, are nice, calm, peaceful people -- until you really piss them off.
Then they come and kill you.
The Detroit Free Press: Gov. Snyder signs bill banning direct Tesla sales
Quick summary and explanation: Dealer franchises and GM make campaign contributions in Michigan, and Tesla Doesn't. Therefore, Telsa can't have a direct company sales model or even have a car display and answer potential customer questions in Michigan at such a display.
The Detroit Free Press: 2 dead in murder-suicide outside Lansing hospital
On reading the article, you'll note the murder victim worked at the hospital, where guns cannot be carried and was shot at the entrance to the hospital as she left the building.
The article clams the murderer and victim "knew each other".
Any bets on a domestic or stalking relationship along with probably a PPO that did nothing to protect the victim in this instance, coupled with a law that denied her the ability to protect herself?
Live, from the people who brought you such gaffes as approving Mohammed Atta's visa after he had already flown a jet into the World Trade Center comes the latest bit of revealed bureaucratic insanity:
Expelled Nazis paid millions in Social Security by U.S.
Yep, even after being deported for lying on their immigration applications for hiding their Nazi past, they continued to get social security. Total amounts paid out and the number of Nazis receiving this sweet deal is hard to discover, because the Social Security Administration has stated that there is
no exception in U.S. privacy law that "allows us to disclose information because the individual is a Nazi war criminal or an accused Nazi war criminal."
In other words, probably quite a number and think millions of taxpayer dollars funding nice retirements for Nazis.
Even Illinois Nazis have received Social Security after deportation:
Mueller immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 and settled in Skokie, Illinois. Then the Justice Department caught up with him. Mueller admitted he served as an SS guard in the Natzweiller concentration camp in France.He voluntarily returned to Germany 1994. Mueller, 90, lives in a nursing home in Worms, Germany, according to family members.
And he continues to get Social Security payments to this day.
 |
| Oooh, I heard the text. Where is he!?! Where is he!?! |
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| He's not coming, is he? |
Nurse: Can I travel after contact with Ebola and go with a fever on a plane?
CDC: Of course you can my dear, there's no shame!
Lab tech: Can I travel after exposure to Ebola on a ship?
CDC: Of course you can! Enjoy your trip!
Liberian Traveler: If from a place with Ebola can I come to Michigan?
CDC: As long as you state you're asymptomatic and self-monitor then come, come again!
Everyone Else: Will finally you stop travel from Ebola infected areas and impose quarantine to keep us all sane?
CDC: Never, that might interfere with Hope 'n' Change!
Feel free to add your own couplets in the comments.
Our betters in government have apparently learned nothing and forgotten nothing. The outbreak in Dallas was apparently an insufficient wake-up call, so it's incompetent business as usual, and the consequences may be severe.
The Detroit News: Liberian visiting Oak Park told to watch for Ebola symptoms
The Oakland County Health Division said officials learned about the man from the Michigan Department of Community Health, which had been informed by the Centers for Disease Control, according to a statement.The man, who has not been named, entered the United States through an airport in New York City, where he "was screened in accordance with CDC protocol before being permitted to enter the country," officials said. "The man said he had had no contact with anyone known to have the Ebola virus and was observed to be symptom free at the time of arrival.
"When he landed at Detroit Metro Airport, he was screened a second time by the CDC which showed he remained symptom free."
The CDC has asked the man to self-monitor his symptoms daily, and "out of an abundance of caution," an Oakland County Health Division epidemiologist has been assigned to communicate with him twice a day to monitor his health for at least 21 days, officials said in the statement.
So out of an abundance of caution they'll let a suspected carrier roam around in public and just self-monitor for 21 days?
CDC? That One Job Thing? Hello?
With this focus on political correctness and refusal to ban travel from infected areas for political reasons, the Obama Administration's response to Ebola is clearly desperate but not serious. With this administration, Hope seems to be the strategy.
Instead of our regular Friday morning meeting, I took five members of a business networking group I'm a part of to the range this morning as a get out of the office event.
A few of them had never shot before, and a couple had either as hunters and one as a more Gen2 type shooter.
In short it was a great time.
We hit the rifle range first. I let them shoot one of my ARs, the AK and the Tavor on the rifle range. That's another 100 flawless rounds through the Tavor.
Everyone thought the Tavor was very cool and one of the guys that owned an AR was very impressed with it.
One of the guys brought along a GSG MP-5 in .22. It was a blast to shoot - lots of fun, ridiculously easy to control and just a fun gun. I could ring the steel plates at 100 yards no problem. It had quite a few failures to feed, most likely due to the ersatz lead round nose budget 22s that was all he could find to shoot through it, so can't blame the gun for that.
One not so funny event happened. One of the guys had brought his deer rifles out to sight in (He's a deer season only shooter). His first rifle had some serious functioning problems due to a complete lack of lubrication. It was so dry the bolt would not close on a round. I put on some Slip2000 EWL
The second rifle was a different story.
He fired a round and it worked ok, but the second round he tried to fire jammed completely and could neither be fired nor extracted, so he had a live round stuck in the chamber.
The round would not come out of the chamber no matter what - prying with knives and multi-tools did nothing, nor did a rod down the barrel. It was jammed in tight. I couldn't figure out how it could be so jammed into the chamber like that.
It was a 308 Winchester round, which he swore was the caliber of the rifle.
I took a look at the markings on the barrel and guess what? It wasn't chambered in 308. The rifle was chambered in 30-06.
Be sure you check you've put the right ammo in the gun folks.
Then we headed to the pistol range and had a blast. I set up a couple plate racks, then added some poppers and supervised them shooting at them in a friendly competition as to who could knock 'em all down with 10 shots on 8 targets. They had a great time shooting.
One of the guys brought a few interesting pistols - A Walther PPX, a S&W Shield and a SiG 239.
I got to try out the Walther PPX. If you're following Tam (and if you're not, you should) you know about the Walther PPX and can see how she's putting one through its paces. Handling the PPX was interesting. While it looks blocky as heck, the grip fit my hand like a glove and the trigger was truly and impressively excellent, I'd say certainly better than a stock Glock trigger. Knocking down plates quickly with accuracy was no problem.
The Shield was also easy to shoot as was his Sig 938.
I brought along my 9mm S&W M&P, my Glock 19 and two 1911s.
The 1911s were a big hit. But they had problems clearing all 8 targets with just the 8 shots in its magazine.
After putting hundreds of rounds through the guns it was time to head back to work. Now I've got quite a few guns to clean.
Everyone had a great time at the range and agreed that it kicked the Group's golf outing's butt and that we should do it again.
Apparently the address book for the Yahoo account I use for this blog was compromised today.
As such, if I sent you an email form this account or if we've communicated by the Yahoo email account before, you may have received an email purporting to be from me with a link in it.
Obviously, don't click on it. The big tip off is that the from: address, while having my name on it, the underlying email reply address is ashlee@newriverretreat.com.
If you did receive such an email, my apologies for the inconvenience and bother.
If you have a Yahoo account, I'd suggest checking it and probably changing the password just in case as well.
I don't think this is a hack of the account itself as it had a pretty strong and long passphrase, but just in case I changed it and added two-step verification. I suspect this is yet again another Yahoo-wide vulnerability.
Damn spammer scum.
So not only was it incorrect that the second nurse got on the plane to Ohio without any symptoms as originally claimed, as she did in fact have a fever.
Incredibly, she reported she had a fever to the CDC who then told her she could travel anyways.
CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. John LaPook reports that Vinson called the CDC several times before boarding the plane concerned about her fever.“This nurse, Nurse Vinson, did in fact call the CDC several times before taking that flight and said she has a temperature, a fever of 99.5, and the person at the CDC looked at a chart and because her temperature wasn’t 100.4 or higher she didn’t officially fall into the category of high risk,” said Dr. LaPook on the CBS Evening News.
Yes, WTF was she thinking getting on a plane knowing she had a fever and had worked with an Ebola infected patient? If she was concerned and had two brain cells to rub together how about a voluntary quarantine or getting tested before getting on a plane with over 130 people on it?
More importantly WTF was the CDC rep thinking in okaying the nurse to travel? Is s/he still employed by the CDC at this point?
It's just not reassuring that Frieden of the CDC is now saying the risk that she infected other passengers is "extremely low", considering the stellar track record they've had on this so far.
One Job CDC, you've got Just. One. Job.
And you damn well seem to be flunking it.
The Detroit News: Feds admit to failings in Ebola response
I realize spending millions on politically correct yet stupid things like fighting privatization of government run liquor stores , or your sister organization the NIH spending millions on things as useful as $509,840 grant from NIH to pay for a study that will send text messages in “gay lingo” to meth-heads, may be distracting you from your core competencies.
Oh, and until blocked by Congress the CDC was happily distracted working on anti-gun ownership propaganda rather than you know, having you Center on Diseases that need to be Controlled.
Just One Job CDC. All we want is for you to be competent at One Job.
Or did they just proudly proclaim that they're about to install a screen door on the submarine?
The Detroit News: Ebola screening starts Thursday at 4 U.S. airports
Still no travel bans, quarantines or other travel restrictions coming from the infected zone.
Likely as efficient as the TSA and as effective. Aspirin can mask the fever, so just a thermometer check won't catch all potential carriers, nor those still during the incubation period.
Oh, and after all this fanfare, not to mention delay, it still won't even screen all potential carriers of the disease:
Customs officials say about 150 people travel daily from or through Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the United States. Nearly 95 percent of them land first at one of those five airports.
And the five percent coming through without even this cursory screening?
Anyone else longing for at least some Fed Gov competency?
After all, preventing the spread, not to mention introduction of a killer communicable disease is or darn well should be the ne plus ultra of Federal Government roles and responsibilities, and they've been rather underwhelming in this role so far to say the least.
Obama and the Democrats favorability ratings are at a record low, matched only by their incompetence.
Obamacare is sucking the life out of the economy, people hate it and it's going to get worse.
EPA regs will harm Michigan's auto industry.
Obama's foreign policy is at best a shambles, at worst a complete disaster, as is his push for amnesty.
And Gary Peters has been a lock-step Obama supporter throughout this presidency that makes Jimmy Carter look good.
And the Michigan Republicans put up a candidate against him that can't capitalize on any of this and instead of winning with votes to spare is losing, and losing badly, mainly by running as the Democrat-lite candidate.
The Detroit News: Beckmann: The Terri Lynn Land autopsy
It's not over until election day, but seriously, there hasn't been a Republican Senator from Michgian since 1994, and its about time the party realizes they can't win by being Democrat-lite. Sheesh.
It'll hit 'em right in their employment.
Abby, being a bookworm, and a chip off the ol' block at that really wants to have her first job to be working at Barnes and Noble. The kid loves that store.
Not a bad place to work and she'd get some real life work experience along with some discounts on books.
Obviously she's not of an employable age yet, but as we went to the cash register and she paid for her book with money she had saved up I asked the cashier, who was being very patient with her as she counted out her coins, how old you need to be to work at Barnes and Noble.
I figured I'd give Abby something to look forward to and after all I figured they'd take high school students and that is coming up in a few years.
The answer: "18".
Why 18, that seemed a little high. After all, I had worked in a bookstore, at a country club as a short order cook, a catering company, and at an ice cream shop all long before I turned 18.
Well, due to Obamacare and the requirement to provide health insurance, Barnes and Noble will now only be hiring 18 years and up.
Imagine this trickling through to other businesses - where the heck will kids under 18 get decent jobs to start building up their work experience, sense of responsibility, and life skills not to mention save up for college while they're going to high school?
This is going to seriously hurt the employability of under 18-year-olds.
Maybe they'll grow up and not vote Democrat as a result of this follishness, or the Democrats will convince them it's all the fault of the mean Republicans that they're not employed.
There's been quite a slew of road-rage brandishing incidents in southeastern Michigan recently.
The latest reported one is involving one of Detroit's (possibly not so-) Finest, courtesy of the Detroit News:
Charges sought in road rage case for Detroit officer
According to police, a Beverly Hills couple allege the officer's vehicle cut them off about 7 p.m. Friday on Woodward Avenue near Maple Road in Birmingham.As the cars continued south on Woodward, Kiernan said, the incident escalated into a "road rage" incident with erratic driving by the officer, the couple allege.
The officer pulled next to the couple, lowered his window and laid his gun, a Glock 40 caliber, across his chest, Kiernan said.
The couple then called 911, he said.
"He rolls the window down, has a gun in his hand, laying across his chest. Whether it was pointed at them or not, I don't know. It will make a big difference," he said. [Note: Indeed it will, for that's the difference between felonious assault and misdemeanor brandishing]
Once the cars crossed 14 Mile, they entered Royal Oak, where police were contacted and the officer was pulled over.
A friend of mine witnessed the felony stop in this incident and we only saw the article about it later. Multiple officers with guns drawn converged on the vehicle during the stop.
Please Understand and Do NOT draw you firearm just because someone cuts you off in traffic, or even worse if you cut someone else off. Do NOT draw just because someone honks at you or extends to you the international hand sign for peace, goodwill, and inter-driver understanding.
It is highly rarely, if ever, justifiable at that point. Expect everyone working on your case to consider it not justifiable without one heckuva convincing and demonstrable reason why it was justifiable. Someone being an idiot while driving and cutting you off is simply not a sufficient reason to display a firearm in a threatening manner.
If you cannot honestly and reasonably explain how you're about to imminently face death, grievous bodily harm, or forcible sexual penetration, leave the gun in the holster or otherwise out of sight.
Further, if you pull your firearm in public, assuming you had good and justifiable reason to do so, call the police immediately and report on the attacker. Otherwise, the chance of your being on the receiving end of a felony stop whether from your attacker calling the police and claiming to be the victim, or from an eye-witness who misunderstood the situation is quite likely.
Being on the receiving end of a felony stop because you stupidly didn't report displaying your firearm to defend yourself can lead to a situation with fatal consequences should a misunderstanding occur during the stop.
I haven't been getting out to the range much lately as I've been busy rebuilding my office and such.
and a cotton cloth and then commenced to wiping down the metal and wood with a light film of RIG.
So far only that one gun safe had the problem, but I'm going to go through and carefully clean and grease every firearm in the collection as a preventative measure.
A big thumbs up for Rig Universal Grease
Or to be more precise, Meditations in Jett.
He ate and chewed up a copy Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
A hundred-year-old copy of the Meditations, in fact, in a plastic sleeve to keep it in good shape.
If you haven't read Meditations, you should, and since you can download it for free on your Kindle or Kindle app, there's no reason why you should miss the opportunity.
To say that I'm displeased would be a serious understatement. Interestingly, he also chewed on a Latin-English Dictionary. I don't know why he's started eating books in addition to shoes but this needs to stop.
I can only hope that Jett has gained some wisdom by his digesting of this classic work.
I think I'll go meditate on patience and upon this bit of timely wisdom from the great Philosopher-Emperor himself:
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.
(Meditations VIII. 47, trans. George Long)
