Isn't it good, Norwegian wood?

Apparently not.

Gibson Guitars got raided by the Feds, allegedly for having wood that may not have been fully finished in India, its place of origin, thus making it maybe violating the laws of India and thereby in the convoluted laws that we have here, interpreted as a violation of US federal law.

The law is so broadly written it could easily be interpreted to make lots of the wood you have in your home illegal.

Tam with her biting wit as usual, notes the insanity of it all.

That Gibson Guitars, a donor to the Republican party was raided while Martin Guitars, a donor to the Democrats using the same wood was not raises quite a few questions.

I had a friend who grew up during the end of the Francisco Franco (Yes, he's still dead)regime in Spain and the transition to democracy there.

I distinctly remember him saying that under Franco, life wasn't bad or oppressive. As long as you stayed the hell away from politics, you could pretty much do as you pleased.

Unfortunately, given the desire of the government to regulate and control every aspect of our lives, everything is political now.

It's All Greek To Me

We were kindly invited by our friendly Greek neighbors to the Taste of Greece Festival at a Greek Orthodox Church in Plymouth.

There was a fine display of Greek culture, with many performances by various Greek dancing troupes:

There was also a market displaying crafts and jewelry, a tavern with drinks and a cafe with Greek coffee, not to mention the main tent with the food and dancing within.

While the dances were performing, we had dinner.

I had a Greek combo plate - generous portions of roast leg of lamb, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), and Pastitsio (noodles layered with beef and a bechamel sauce sort of a Greek lasagna) and a Greek salad and a big thick slice of fresh bread. It was all quite delicious.

The kids, being very daring, had the mac and cheese. At least it was homemade style and not from a box. They reported it was excellent.

After the dance groups had finished, they invited everyone onto the dance floor, and a joyful ring of chaos ensued:

Everybody Dance Now:

The kids and I danced around in circles with our neighbors and had a great time.

We then finished with some Touloumbes, Greek Honey Balls:

Mmmm, honey balls.

The festival is very well organized, nicely laid out, and has a lot to offer. So, if you're by 5 Mile and Haggerty Rd in Plymouth this weekend, its well worth the visit. You won't be sorry if you go out of your way to go there its a great place to go for a family friendly event.

Dive 187 - White Star Quarry

For Dive 187, Keith and I went to White Star Quarry in Ohio.

Benefits of the quarry over Union Lake include greater depth and much clearer water with attendant improvements in visibility.

Another benefit was that there was even a cell phone if you had to make a call:

Unfortunately the reception was pretty lousy.

White Star is run basically on the honor system: you put $15 in an envelope and put it in the payment tube and keep a tear-off receipt from the envelope to be placed on the window of your car. The system works well, and there's random checks from the park rangers to make sure people paid their entry fee. So we paid our fees, filled out the paperwork and off we went.

Its quite a nice quarry and the water was warm, 77 degrees at the surface and 59 degrees at depth.

There's the usual stuff in White Star, a sunken sailboat, fish, some trees and other things, but the main attraction is the subterranean tunnel between the old rock crusher and the block house.

This photo shows the stairwell leading down in the crusher:

Ending at around 73 feet deep at the crusher and rising up to 38 feet, this square concrete tunnel is pitch black inside, requiring lights, a redundant air supply (in our case double tanks with manifold and two regulators), and some training to travel through. It is rather large, easily fitting two divers swimming wing-on-wing without either diver touching the walls, ceiling or floor which is helpful in preventing the tunnel from being silted out and losing all vision inside it.

Here's what it looked like:


As you can see, it was dark in the tunnel, with no outside illumination until you reached near the end.

Overhead environments underwater are no place to go unless you have the training, breathing gas supply, and redundant light sources to handle that kind of environment. After all, if something goes wrong, you can't just make a bolt for the surface (which you really shouldn't do even if you are in an non-overhead underwater), you need to solve the problem right where you are.

When you see one light make a circle with the other light making a circle in reply, that was an underwater question "Are you OK?", with the prompt response "I'm OK". Lights can be for communication as well as illumination.

The tunnel was pretty cool and good training in an overhead environment, and we spent a full 60 minutes underwater exploring the quarry after we did the tunnel.

The Benefits of a Perry vs Obama Matchup (and for Liberals too!)

It looks like Texas Governor Rick Perry is fast becoming the front-runner in the Republican field to take on Obama in the 2012 electoral contest. Even in the face of those in the Republican establishment who will claim it is Romney's turn to lose dutifully for the Republicans, Perry’s lead is good news.

This is good for Republicans and most likely good for conservatives as he's far less squishy than other candidates. Perry seems to have a good shot at being electable and capable of beating Obama given his pro-growth policies as governor of Texas and because so far he seems good on most conservative issues and comes across as both a sucessful governor and an erudite, likeable and electable candidate.

However, such a candidacy will not just be good for conservatives but also be good for liberals.

First, as we all know, liberals love to recycle.

Because Perry, like former President George W. Bush hails from Texas we'll probably see them re-use and recycle the same old memes they used against Bush previously.

You know the meme that goes:

He (Bush / Perry) is a diabolical Texas-oilman svengali-figure brilliantly planning world domination for big oil corporations and to turn all the little people into peons,and is a dumb as a stump Texan Chimpy-Bush/Perry-McHitler idiot.

Liberals do love to experience cognitive dissonance.

More importantly, such a match-up will also be great for liberals as it will affirm their world view that America is an evil, racist place.

After all, if Perry beats Obama and deprives him of his clearly (to a liberal anyway) entitled second term, it can only be because Americans are racist and they voted against a Black man.

It cannot be because Obama's ideologically-driven, progressive liberal budget-busting policies have sucked and are ruining the country and arerejected by the populace.

Nope, only racism will be able to explain away such a defeat and preserve the liberals dedication to their yet again proven failed policies for another day.

As such a Rick Perry candidacy is a win/win for conservatives, for liberals, and for America.

That Was An Interesting International Phone Call

Earlier this week I had received a phone call from my Dad who sounded rather worried:

"There's a Staff Inspector from the Toronto Police calling looking to talk with you about your handguns, I gave him your number"

Sure enough, as I'm talking to my dad, a call had come in and the Staff Inspector had left me a message asking me to call him. At that point I wasn't sure what to think. I knew I had no outstanding traffic tickets in Canada nor committed any offences within the fair Province of Ontario or Toronto in particular with guns or otherwise.

It seems the RCMP had lost track of my pistols in Canada and they, and by extension he, wanted to know where they were.

So I called the Staff Inspector back and we had a pleasant conversation.

He was very courteous and professional, as is quite the norm and happily typical for a member of the Metro Toronto Police. (Typically any interaction I've had with MTPD has always been professional and courteous, then again I'm not a criminal so YMMV).

It turns out that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had asked him to find me as after 15 years of not being in Canada, they could not account for the two handguns I had taken to Michgian with me and their registry was worried.

I reported that the two handguns I had exported from Canada when I moved were still in my possession and safe in my safe here in Michigan.

I also reported that when I moved from Toronto 15 years ago, I had properly imported them into the US with ATF permission had sent a copy of the ATF approved import form to the Toronto Firearms Unit as that was what TFU had told me to do at the time. I also offered to take pictures of the firearms to show I had them currently and to give him copies of the ATF import form and the Michigan registration cards if he needed them.

He kindly stated that was unnecessary and it was just a call to confirm that I still had the firearms. Since I had them, and they were not off lollygagging in Canada doing who knows what and corrupting young innocent Canadian minds (The Ruger MkII and the S&W Model 29 are well known to have mind-altering properties) all was well.

Now, a Staff Inspector is a pretty high rank in the Metropolitan Toroto Police Force and I'm a bit surprised they were taking up his time to track down my whereabouts, especially after I had left 15 years ago. Either the RCMP had just realized that their registration system had a problem after a 15 year absence of the firearms or they do maintenance on their handgun database every 15 years or so and come up with missing guns at that point.

Certainly it was a rather surprising phone call, but it was quite positive and ended up being a pleasant conversation, and the RCMP's handgun registry is now more accurate than it had been before.

Intimidating Jurors, The Facebook Way

I was in court this morning to try and get a recalcitrant defendant to attend her creditor's exam that she has been blowing off. WEhile waiting to be heard, I happend to observe some interesting motions realting to Facebook.

The Judge had a criminal sexual conduct trial heading into the deliberation stage, after the alternate jurors had been dismissed, when she was notified by a juror of a problem.

It turns out the juror knew, and had previosuly disclosed that she knew the mother of the defendant, and she informed the Judge that she had received a Facebook message from the defendant's uncle that was rather creepy. The message was clearly aimed at her regarding her being a juror at his nephew's trial and she was clearly intimidated by it. Certainly it was a smart move on the part of the juror to expose this contact, and she properly reported it to the judge without informing any other juror.

The Judge was not pleased with this contact, nor was the prosecutor, nor indeed was the defense attorney.

So the Judge dismissed the intimidated juror and had to call back the alternate who had been dismissed Friday to return to court for deliberations.

I'm quite sure the uncle is about to get quite the talking-to about attempting to influence a juror on a case.....

Adding to the show, today there was yet another motion brought forth in an unrelated case to get a subpoena to have Facebook produce a person's page and entries.

It appears the plaintiff in the case had claimed she was disabled and badly injured in an accident. She had previously had her page public until the defendant's attorneys inquired if she was on Facebook. As soon as they inquired, she made her settings private, possibly because postings and pictures on Facebook might show her engaging in activities that show her less disabled and injured than she represented in her claims. The Judge ruled that she needed to release the page entries for the time from when she marked it private back to the time of the accident so it could be checked for any interesting content.

Facebook presents multiple opportunities for communication, but also lots of opportunities to make costly mistakes.

Dive 186 - Union Lake After the Storm

Dive 186 had its start was delayed today due to a very heavy thunderstorm that rolled through the area.

Thankfully, the thunder, lightning and rain finally ceased and Keith and I could safely get in the lake.

The visibility varied from a high of CSS to a low of SFA
(Sweet F_ All if you haven't figured that one out), basically a foot or less.

We were able to find the line and get out to the sunken boats and do some low viz practice.

We then did a no-mask line drill.

For a no mask line drill, as it is named, you take your mask off and follow the line to and from a destination by holding it in a O formed by your thumb and finger(s). Once you've gone back and forth on the line and get back to the start you can put your mask back on. The other diver supervises while you do it and then you switch off.

The drill is useful to practice situations when the visibility inside a cave or wreck becomes silted up and you have to get back to the outside by following your guideline back to the entry point.

Happily the water was pretty warm - 72 at the surface dropping to 64 at the bottom. There was quite an interesting thermocline - the level where the temperature changes, was actually inside one of the boats creating a very neat visual effect of the bottom of the boat appearing under a shimmering layer while the top of the boat was clear.

With warm water, removing the mask was relatively pleasant and we did a pretty long distance drill - going from the bars on one boat to another from stem to stern and then to the bow of the sunken pontoon and then back. As the line was tied off in various spots and into Ts with other lines, you had to pay attention to where the line you wanted ran so you could get where you needed to go.

The drill certainly shows the value of a guideline to get out of a silted out situation. With eyes shut, even as I went straight along the line I felt like I was going in circles. In a silt-out your instincts as to where the exit is will likely be wrong. This is why you don't go into caves or wrecks without a guideline (not to mention training, lights and a sufficient breathing gas supply).

So it was a good 50 minute dive with 800 psi used, and after the standard safety stops, the dive came to an end.

My Orange gloves, with the right hand now fixed, were leak proof and quite dextrous, so a comfy and dry dive was had.

A useful training dive indeed.

Latest, Best Argument for Global Warming: Aliens might not like it

Instapundit notes yet another reason to fear global warming:

Aliens might become pissed off at us.

Yep, that's the latest reason.

Yeesh, if that's the best argument global warming alarmists (even those affiliated with NASA) can come up with....

However, in case the author of the report is correct, then S.M. Stirling, please call your office.

Union Status Doesn't Permit Violations Of The CFAA With Impunity

The Sixth Circuit in Pulte Homes Inc. v. Laborers' International Union of North America held that Union status provided no protection from civil claims for its committing illegal activity that violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The illegal acts arose from the union's activites after a union member was fired:

Pulte Homes, Inc.'s (Pulte['s] ) complaint stems from an employment dispute. Pulte alleges that in September 2009 it fired a construction crew member, Roberto Baltierra, for misconduct and poor performance. Shortly thereafter, the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) began mounting a national corporate campaign against Pulte—using both legal and allegedly illegal tactics—in order to damage Pulte's goodwill and relationships with its employees, customers, and vendors.

Just days after Pulte dismissed Baltierra, LIUNA filed an unfair-labor-practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). LIUNA claimed that Pulte actually fired Baltierra because he wore a LIUNA t-shirt to work, and that Pulte also terminated seven other crew members in retaliation for their supporting the union. Pulte maintains that it never terminated any of these seven additional employees.

Not content with its NLRB charge, LIUNA also began using an allegedly illegal strategy: it bombarded Pulte's sales offices and three of its executives with thousands of phone calls and e-mails. To generate a high volume of calls, LIUNA both hired an auto-dialing service and requested its members to call Pulte. It also encouraged its members, through postings on its website, to “fight back” by using LIUNA's server to send e-mails to specific Pulte executives. Most of the calls and e-mails concerned Pulte's purported unfair labor practices, though some communications included threats and obscene language.

Yet it was the volume of the communications, and not their content, that injured Pulte. The calls clogged access to Pulte's voicemail system, prevented its customers from reaching its sales offices and representatives, and even forced one Pulte employee to turn off her business cell phone. The e-mails wreaked more havoc: they overloaded Pulte's system, which limits the number of e-mails in an inbox; and this, in turn, stalled normal business operations because Pulte's employees could not access business-related e-mails or send e-mails to customers and vendors.

Pulte, after demanding the abusive actions stopped then sued the union for violating the CFAA among other claims.

The district court held that it was preempted from deciding the claims due its reasoning "that it lacked jurisdiction under the Norris–LaGuardia Act (NLGA) to issue a preliminary injunction because the suit involves a labor dispute and LIUNA's campaign attempts to publicize that dispute."

The Sixth Circuit reversed this decision and held there was jurisdiction for the CFAA claim, and it was not preempted because it was an independent federal claim that could be acted upon regardless of the fact of a labor dispute.

Unfortunately, Pulte failed to meet the requirements of the NLGA in its request for an injunction, and the case was remanded by the Sixth Circuit with Pulte able to continue to pursue the Union for its violations of the CFAA.

In short, email and voicemail bombing are not protected labor activites.

Iran's State Media Caught Faking British Riot Photos

Iran's state run media was trying to propogandize to their people depicting the riots as “the uprising of the oppressed against the British monarchy“. but in doing were quite slip-shod in their image choices.

Honest Reporting: UK Riots: Iranian Photo Fraud Exposed


Hilariously enough, they not only used old images from prior British demonstrations, but even included a riot scene from a Spanish-speaking country. After all, British police just don't say

"Pare or I'll say Pare again."

The Iranian media was, of course, trying to draw a blatantly false equivalent between the Bristish governments (inneffective) treatment of the looting rioters and the Iranian government's brutal crackdown on political protest looking for improved human rights and political freedoms in Iran.

How many leftists will nod approving at this false moral equivalence remains to be seen.

It is a good thing our media would never doctor images and video for political benefit of the ruling party. A very good thing indeed.

Now THAT'S a Shark

Surprise catch of 575-pound tiger shark could shatter world record

The picture of the shark is indeed impressive, its bigger than the man that caught it.

Not only is this a very large shark, the feat is more impressive for the equipment used to make the catch:

Brett Sinclair's recent catch of a 575-pound tiger shark is impressive not merely because of the predator's sheer size, but because it was made on fishing line with a breaking strength of only 13 pounds ... aboard a boat that was not much longer than the fearsome beast.

I wonder if anyone aboard on first seeing the shark breach the water said "We're Gonna need a bigger boat".

Increasing Angles of Attack - New study shows the English are rather more German than previously suspected

Der Spiegel: Britain Is More Germanic than It Thinks

But there is no use in denying it. It is now clear that the nation which most dislikes the Germans were once Krauts themselves. A number of studies reinforce the intimacy of the German-English relationship.

Biologists at University College in London studied a segment of the Y chromosome that appears in almost all Danish and northern German men -- and is also surprisingly common in Great Britain. This suggests that a veritable flood of people must have once crossed the North Sea.

New isotope studies conducted in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries produced similar results. When chemists analyzed the tooth enamel and bones of skeletons, they found that about 20 percent of the dead were newcomers who had originated on mainland Europe.

The Germanic invasion and the reason for its success where an estimated 200,000 invaders beat over a million natives contains a cautionary tale:

The estimated 200,000 intruders faced an overwhelming number of Britons, about a million, and yet the invaders triumphed. The kingdoms that soon developed, like East Anglia, Wessex (West Saxony) and Essex (East Saxony) were run by robust chieftains like Sigeric and Cynewulf.

The Celts were no match for these roughnecks. The Romans had taught them how to play the lyre and drink copious amounts of wine, but the populace in the regions controlled by the Pax Romana was barred from carrying weapons. As a result, the local peoples, no longer accustomed to the sword, lost one battle after the next and were forced to the edges of the island.

So the Angles, Jutes and Saxons arrived and easily took over a defenseless population,and a conquered people suffered the consequences:

Many fell into captivity. According to Härke, the captured Britons lived a miserable existence as "servants and maids" in the villages of the Anglo-Saxons.

There were two types of grave in the cemeteries of the time: those containing swords and other weapons, and those with none. The local inhabitants, deprived of their rights, were apparently buried in the latter type of grave.

The London geneticist Mark Thomas is convinced that the conquerors from the continent maintained "social structures similar to apartheid," a view supported by the laws of King Ine of Wessex (around 695). They specify six social levels for the Britons, five of which refer to slaves.

As a result of the brutal subjugation, the reproduction rate of the losing Britons was apparently curbed, while the winners had many children. The consequences are still evident today in the British gene pool. "People from rural England are more closely related to the northern Germans than to their countrymen from Wales or Scotland," Härke explains.

So an unarmed population leads to barbarians taking over. No possible modern example regarding an unarmed populace ordered by their betters to be unarmed and helpless while the barbarians are at the gates could possibly exist....

A Euphamism Darkly

Mitch Albom hides the ball well in his article on the flash mob phenomenon: Mitch Albom: Flash mobs: Quick start, hard to stop

Look at this impressive though most likely unintentional use of euphemism:

They call it a flash mob. And it recently has shown its dark side, in London, Philadelphia and other places.

That's as close as Albom gets to describing the predominantly "dark" racial makeup of the flash mobs that have been sweeping across the US and England.

Thankfully, we've yet to have one of these flash mobs in the Detroit area and hopefully Albom's coverage doesn't inspire a bunch of morons to try and form one. Of course, given the dearth of white people in Detroit proper, the focal racial bent these flash mobs of black-on-white assaults as seen in other US cities likely won't be as prevalent unless they want to try and play in the suburbs.

Albom's concern about and blame of the technology that lets morons gather into criminal mobs rather than the cultural milieu that makes such mobs thinkable is rather indicative.

As can be seen in Mark Steyn's latest must-read essay Lessons for us from London in flames, this problem is less one of technology and far more of a culture brought about by a welfare state coupled with an indulgent justice system with an attitude toward miscreants that doesn't make them face the consequences of their actions.

Until it is clear that such criminality will not be excused or tolerated, you're going to see it continue, regardless of the technology that causes crowds of those bent on criminal acts to gather.

Getting Somewhat Syrious on Syria

When you have to use gunboats to put down your protests, all pretenses that you're a reformer do go out the window.

Syria navy shells port city of Latakia-rights groups

The Syrian navy shelled the main Mediterranean port city of Latakia Sunday, residents said, as President Bashar al-Assad broadened a military offensive to crush street protests against his rule.

Of course the Syrian government hilariously paints this attack as that of aggressively attacking terrorists and as usual in Arab governmental pronouncements, has little to do with reality. The number of leftists and fellow travellers willing to believe these statements are probably still quite high.

At least now, Hillary Clinton on behalf of the Obama administration is getting around to politely asking other nations to stop buying Syrian oil and gas and to stop selling Syria weapons.

Hillarly then bravely warned other nations to

''get on the right side of history''.

This from someone who up until recently boldly claimed that Assad was a reformer. I guess Obama had led from behind long enough to realize pretending Assad was a reformer and that this whole mess would just go away if he didn't do anything wasn't going to work after all.

Better late than never for this administration to realize it Assad was hardly the reformer they claimed him to be. Now they might move their diplomatic sanctions from unkind words to at least harsh words or dare I suggest, actual sanctions rather than suggesting others who aren't going to listen to the US anyway (China, Iran)to impose them?

Democrats Getting all Originalist on the Constitution....

Normally Democrats aren't very concerned if their proposed laws are Constitutional.

Heck, for the most part they're aren't concerned much about the Constitution except how it may prove an inconvenient stumbling block in their plans or how the Commerce Clause lets them ignore the rest of the document .

For those with short memories see Nancy Pelosi on the Constitution and Obamacare - "Are you Serious, Are You Serious?"

But when their agenda is stymied, Democrats suddenly go into full-tilt originalist constituional scholar mode, searching for snippets of the Constituion that they can use to support their goals.

Remember the advice for Obama to use the 14th amendment to override the debt limit couldn't stop him from issuing new debt?

Eugene Volokh over at the Volokh Conspiracy in his post An Odd Proposal for Recess Appointments
blogs about the latest originalist proposal by lefty Michael Tomasky to have the President adjourn Congress so he can make recess appointments, which those nasty Republicans have stymied by not adjourning the House.

Funny how Democrats start forgetting about the "living, breathing document school and suddenly start reading the Constitution in scholarly detail with every word given meaning when they need to do so.

The comments to the post, especially those from the left side of Volokh's readership, are quite fascinating.

Update: Ann Althouse has a post on yet another example of this phenomenon in action: Oh, look! A liberal is talking about whether something can be "squared with the Constitution."

Dive 185 - New Orange Gloves, and the VIZ was CSS

For Dive 185 I dove Union Lake last night with Keith, Maki, Chad and Brandon.

The water was pleasantly warm - high 60's at around 20 feet and dropping thereafter once the thermocline was crossed with it in the high 50s at 30 feet.

The vizibility however was CSS - Can't See S___!

There was so much particulate, weeds and stuff in the water you could see maybe a foot in front of you at most, which made keeping track of everyone a challenge. For the most part you keep the glow of the other divers light in your vision and make sure you keep up so you can continue to see it, but not so fast that you crash in to anyone before you see their fins looming out of the haze.

Luckily, I was diving using Rob's 21 watt light rather than my own 10 watt canister. This made a huge difference in terms of both being able to see ahead and for other divers to see me.

Boats were again in the water, which is ok, but some idiot boater was apparently following pour flag and dropping things on us. At least his aim was as bad as his judgment as he was consistently missing. First a lighter came floating down to land right in front of me and then a yellow golf ball. Morons, and with bad aim to boot. Ah, why we can't carry limpet mines....

The other new gear I was using were unlined orange vinyl gloves rather than my standard blue "smurf" gloves which have a thick liner. The difference was quite dramatic. I could manipulate bolt catches, switches and valves much, much easier without that thick liner and it was great. I can't believe I haven't done this switch a long time ago.

Of course, in switching over the glove, I must have had a crease in the right one when I put on the inside O-ring as the glove flooded nicely. Putting a new set of gloves on the rings is a process that needs 4 hands, multiple and varied swear words and a ton of effort. At least the water was warm and the inner suit seal kept the leak spreading only slowly up the arm so no big deal.

On searching the net this morning I found a post where a diver has made a tool to make the whole process a lot easier. I now need to make such a tool as doing it by hand really and truly sucked.

Overall, a great dive and some good conversation after the dive was had at a local bar The Library Pub, where drinks and pizza were on special which made it a nice end to a dive indeed. The Library Pub has fresh jalapenos which they put on their pizza and it rocks.

A great dive and my last one at age 38 which was a great way to close out the year as today is my birthday.

Sunday's Glock Match - A Humbling Experience

You're never as good as you think you are, and when you don't listen to your instincts it gets a whole lot worse.

So I went to my first GSSF match ever with Rob on Sunday. We paid our membership and match registration fees and waited for our friend Jon to arrive from Ohio.

My mistake was shooting my MPDC marked Glock 17 rather than my Glock 19. I shoot the 19 better but Rob and Jon were each shooting a 17 and I had heard the 17 was much better suited to the match than the 19 so. . . . I chose wrong and went with the 17.

I did ok but certainly didn't set the word on fire on 5-To-Glock and Glock-M but completely fell apart on the Glock The Plates.

After waiting an hour for my shooting time at the plates (it was massively backed up, the other two events went much quicker), I go to the line and did absolutely lousy.

The same plates that I had shot totally clean and quickly during an IPSC match in June, I couldn't get a decent rhythm at all. I actually left plates standing at the end of two of the eight runs. Embarrassing. Turns out, I was shooting high even though I thought I had decent sight pictures. I halfway wonder if the combo of the Glock 17 combined with the newer shooting glasses gave me some kind of distortion causing me to miss. Probably a combo of the new shooting glasses and using the 17 did it. That, and I was clearly having an off day.

Rob did very well and Jon was just plain awesome, it was only I that was the one holding up the stats from the bottom of the pile that day.

But for all that it was still a fun event and I'm looking forward to shooting another one now having learned from my experience I expect to practice and do better next time. And next time, I'll be doing the shoot with the Glock 19.

Thanks To The Detroit Free Press, Hell Returns To Its Normal Temperature

Just when you think the Detroit Free Press Editors are finally coming to grips with the fact that Michigan's CCW reform allowing law abiding citizens to carry concealed pistols has been a success without any of the much prophesied, by them and others, "blood in the streets", we get this editorial:

The Detroit Free Press: Editorial: In dueling views on concealed guns, caution is still best policy

It's true that most of the worst fears raised a decade ago about a law relaxing restrictions on licenses to carry concealed weapons have not come to pass, as Free Press reports this week by Dawson Bell and Gina Damron show.

With nearly 276,000 Michiganders now licensed to carry concealed weapons, there has been no epidemic of bloodshed and violence; only 2% of license holders have been sanctioned for any kind of misbehavior.

Still, these encouraging statistics and trends do not mean that Michigan should loosen its laws on carrying concealed weapons -- or, for that matter, not consider reasonable restrictions on the current law. While the law has not demonstrably made Michigan more dangerous, neither has it conclusively made it safer. There is no way of knowing even how many people with concealed weapons permits actually carry guns....To be sure, the statistics in Michigan appear encouraging, but they are tenuous at best. Michigan legislators would be irresponsible to use them to justify further efforts to eliminate pistol-free zones in bars, churches, arenas and other places where crowds or alcohol increase the potential for mayhem.

Even after running multiple articles showing the beneficial effects of the reform, the Free Press stands by its delusions.

Even after running articles that show that after 10 YEARS there has been no blood in the streets as the Freep editors proclaimed would happen, the Freep editors continue to fear that further reforming the law will lead to "the potential for mayhem".

Yes, that same potential for mayhem that they claimed would occur when the law was enacted, and they were completely wrong then, now they again claim if we continue to reform our laws the same will happen.

When faced with the facts, the Detroit Free Press editors can't handle the truth and run back to their emotional hidey-hole and proclaim "la-la, citizens with guns are bad, I can't hear you."

Freep Editors, the first step in dealing with a problem is admitting that you have a problem.

You were wrong then and you're still wrong now. Consistency of error is not to your credit.

On Escorts, Physics and Anger Management

In a sterling example of what happens when someone has anger management issues and doesn't understand physics we have:

The Detroit Free Press: Police: Driver rams vehicle carrying woman, 7 kids

Police say a Michigan driver repeatedly rammed a vehicle carrying a woman and seven children in what’s being described as a case of road rage.

State police say in a statement the 34-year-old Pinckney woman was driving a Cadillac Escalade on Monday in Livingston County’s Brighton Township, about 35 northwest of Detroit, when a Ford Escort cut off another vehicle and tailgated her vehicle.

Police say the Escort rammed her vehicle three times before the driver got out, beat on a window of her vehicle and tore off a side mirror. Police say the man walked away, leaving the Escort behind. Police found him in nearby woods and arrested him.

The Escort being both smaller, lighter and dare I say far crappier than the Escalade likely suffered more damage from this moron using it to hit the Escalade. (Having been the hapless driver of an Escort myself, the last thing I'd want to hit while driving it would be a bigger, better-put-together vehicle). Deliberately hitting another vehicle, not to mention going up to bang on a window and rip off a side mirror is the very definition of driving felony stupid.

Of course this moron probably wasn't thinking while he was engaging in his bit of road rage stupidity.

Turns out, he's not exactly up for driver of the year based on his record:

Brighton resident Steven John Blaser will be held in the Livingston County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond after the Livingston County Prosecutor's Office authorized charges against the 26-year-old man accused of ramming a vehicle occupied by a woman and her seven children during a road-rage incident Monday.

Blaser this afternoon was arraigned in Brighton's 53rd District Court on five counts of felonious assault and one count each of malicious destruction of property valued at least $1,000 and less than $20,000.

He was also charged with failing to stay at the scene of an accident.

Prosecutors asked for the high bond because of Blaser's "horrible record," which includes eight prior accidents, seven speeding tickets, one failure to stop and identify himself after an accident and one animal abandonment that was adjudicated via the Homes[sic] Youthful Trainee Act. Blaser also has a pending civil infraction of careless driving.

This guy sounds like a real winner. Hopefully he'll see some jail time out of this stupidity and with any luck lose his license as idiots like this shouldn't be allowed behind the wheel.

The road is no place for morons to play bumper cars.

It is only by chance that he chose a victim that was unarmed. She would have had ample justification to defend herself when the guy came up to her door and was beating on her window after hitting her car three times.

Detroit Free Press wonders why it and so many others were so against Michigan's CCW Shall-Issue Refom 10 Years Ago

Ok, the Freep doesn't get quite that introspective, but at least it identifies amultitude of opponents of CCW who are now admitting they were wrong to predict blood in the streets, dogs and cats living together and mass hysteria should CCW reform take place.

The Detroit Free Press: 10 years after concealed weapons law, unclear why many in state were gun-shy

Ten years after Michigan made it much easier for its citizens to get a license to carry a concealed gun, predictions of widespread lawless behavior and bloodshed have failed to materialize.

Today, nearly 276,000 -- or about four out of every 100 eligible adult Michiganders -- are licensed.

That's more than twice the number predicted when the debate raged over whether Michigan should join the growing ranks of so-called "shall issue" states.

The article then quotes a multitude of prosecutors and others who were against the CCW reform and who admit they had made much ado about nothing with their baselss scare tactics. Ok, they didn't go that far, but they should have.

The article fails to note The Detroit Free Press' own hysteria concerning the law, nor admit it was itself wrong in its prognotiscations of impending doom, but we'll take the mainly positive coverage.

The Free Press also ran a rather friendly article on Michigan gun owners and Concealed Carriers as well: Michiganders get armed to feel safer, because it's their right to do so

That's quite a shift from the Detroit Free Press' usual coverage of law-abiding gun owners. Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful friendship based on facts rather than the previous fare of emotion-laden scare tactics on the subject.

The Hama Rules, Take Two.

It looks like the Obama administration's proclaimed "reformer", Bashar Assad is trying to carry on in his father's footsteps.

Syrian army kills 100 in Hama crackdown

Tanks shell Syria's Hama for second day, 4 killed

Hama is infamous as the city where Hafez Assad killed between 20,000 to 30,000 Syrians to put down an uprising against his rule, introducing the term "Hama Rules" to the lexicon.

One would think that Obama's moral justification, as it was his only real justification for his Excellent Libyan Adventure would, being solely morally based on preventing a dictator from massacring his own people would apply to Syria.

For consistency's sake if he wants to maintain the pretense that the intervention in Libya was for a high moral purpose it would require him to take action in response to Assad's killings of his people in Syria.

Or perhaps Libya was just a way for Obama to look tough on foreign policy for what he thought would be a low cost, short and sharp bit of tactical air operations followed by an easy victory waged in the name of progressive values.

These progressive values in foreign policy being the furthering of the principle that the United States will not engage in war unilaterally, but shall only do so when it is not in America's interest, and then only so long as the action meets European approval.

Libya hasn't worked out so well, and there seems to be a distinct lack of enthusiasm to extend the Obama doctrine to the Syrian situation.

1911 Range Report and prep for GSSF match

The day began with the family going to the West Bloomfield Art Show as the temperature reached 100 degrees.

We saw lots of art on display, much of it very talented indeed, especially in the area of photography, as well as some impressive pottery pieces.

Abby was enthralled with an 8x10 picture of a bee on a flower and she persuaded us to buy it for her room. Funnily enough, she described it to the photographer as the bee picture and he wasn't quite sure which one it was until she brought it to him. He stated he calls it after the flower in the picture as he had taken the picture meaning to focus on the flower but the bee wouldn't leave, and since it stayed still he took the picture with it. He was impressed with her enthusiasm and even gave her a kid discount on the purchase price. Nice guy and I think he just got a customer for life.

So, tent after tent of art was set out upon the blistering concrete, with not a bit of shade to be found except within the tents themselves.

It was so hot I was inspired to artistically fry an egg on the concrete. Alas, no egg was at hand for the job.

After surviving the art show death march, we had lunch and headed home.

After experiencing so much art, I joined up with Rob and we headed to the range for a different kind of artistry, of an amateur and far more noisy sort.

The 1911, as hoped, shot very well indeed with the first eight rounds looking like this:

The new sights line up on target very nicely.

It handled 50 rounds of FMJ with no problems, ate some 50 lead semi-wadcutters reloads with aplomb, and only had some issues with the 230 gr Hydrashocks. For some reason it failed to eject the fired casing from the last round of Hydrashocks on a few magazines. It wasn't consistent and seems to have gone away by the time all 50 Hydrashoks were fired.

I then shot my Glock 19 in preparation for next week's GSSF match. I also let Rob try my Glock 17 as that is what he is going to shoot in the match. This will be my first GSSF match ever and I'm looking forward to it.

This should match should be fun. Rob was a student in one of my CPL classes and it is good to watch him improve as a shooter and challenge himself by shooting a match, and I can always stand some improvement that comes from the pressure of a match myself.

Tigers under a scorching sun

Today I took the family to a company function in Detroit that featured a picnic lunch and a Detroit Tigers game.

It was sunny and real hot, 95 degrees hot.

Unfortunately the seats that we had were right under the sun without a bit of shade.

So hot that we a new record stay on the stands - one and a half innings.

Leah announced that she was being barbecued, and even being slathered in sunscreen she was looking a little pink.

So we got under some shade and the girls declared we were done so we headed back to the cart and headed for home.

A quick little outing indeed.

The 1911 Returns

As I blogged about before, my go-to 1911 was looking a little worn and sad. The night sights on it had gone dim, the bluing was worn, and it still had a drop-in kinda beavertail rather than a properly installed one.

So I sent it off to Robar to be redone and brought back hopefully better than even its former glory. They were having a sale on NP3+ finishes so I decided to go for it, along with new night sights and a proper beavertail.

I hoped it would return refreshed and restored from its sad state, ready to return to use.

After a reasonable wait, the result:

I can't wait to get it to the range this weekend.

The NP3+ is a really slick coating. The slide moves much easier, and magazines drop with alacrity (the magazine was also NP3+ coated as part of the job).

The new beavertail is flawlessly fitted and fills the hand perfectly, making an instinctively perfect grip a simple thing. The bump on the bottom of the beavertail makes sure it is always depressed when a grip is taken.

Oh yes, the new night sights are bright and perfect, and have a nicer appearance than the old sights.

Robar did a really, really, nice job on this refurbishment. Robar lived up to its reputation and exceeded my expectation.

My go-to 1911 looks and feels like a completely new pistol, and I expect it will shoot as nicely as it looks.

How do you say "Stop, Thief!" in the form of a question?

Jeopardy! host injured after chasing burglar in San Francisco

“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek says he snapped his Achilles tendon while running after a burglar who had stolen cash, a bracelet and other items from his San Francisco hotel room.

The 71-year-old Trebek tells KGO-TV that he also injured his other leg while falling down during the chase early Wednesday. He was on crutches later Wednesday when he hosted the National Geographic World Championship at Google headquarters in Mountain View.

San Francisco police Lt. Troy Dangerfield says 56-year-old old Lucinda Moyers was arrested on suspicion of felony burglary and receiving stolen property.

It cannot be determined from the news report if she yelled while being chased ""Then the day is mine!"".

I should note that stealing from 71-year-old cultural icon Alex Trebek is absolutely disgraceful and unacceptable.

I'd suggest that as a fitting punishment, she be strapped to a chair with electrodes attached every time Jeopardy! is on TV for a year. Each time a contestant fails to correctly answer a question she gets a painful electric shock and a double shock every time Trebek says "wrong answer".

Circumcision Ban Snipped From San Francisco Ballot

In an appealing display of normalcy and sanity, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ordered the circumcision ban off the ballot.

USA Today: Circumcision ban to be stricken from San Francisco ballot

Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi said in a tentative ruling that the proposed law prohibiting circumcision of male children violates a California law that makes regulating medical procedures a function of the state, not cities.

"It serves no legitimate purpose to allow a measure whose invalidity can be determined as a matter of law to remain on the ballot," Giorgi wrote.

Giorgi ordered San Francisco's elections director to remove the controversial measure from the ballot that would have made the city the first in the nation to hold a public vote on whether to outlaw the circumcision of minors.

The proponent's campaign for the ban included some very typical and classic anti-semitic imagery to promote the proposal, which certainly calls their real intent into question.

Nice to see the judge restore some sanity in San Francisco.

Who is this Jalen Rose person and why should I care?

So I was going to the 48th District Court this morning on a motion and as I entered the parking lot I found it packed, complete with three TV crew vans and camerman and reporters milling about.

One would think there was a high profile murder arraignment or something similar going on.

It turns out that the focus of the feeding frenzy, Jalen Rose is a former University of Michigan and NBA star who was involved in a single-vehicle accident after drinking 6 martinis and veering off the road in the snow. He plead guilty and was set to be sentenced today.

So I did my motion and left the circus behind.

Given that Mr. Rose is set to come in front of Judge Kimberly Small, a judge well known for hammering drunk drivers, I expect he's going to be looking at some jail time and heavy fines, not to mention being an example pour encourager les autres.

Some people's lives are lived as an example to others of what not to do, and drunk driving in West Bloomfield tends to be heavily penalized, unlike Detroit for example.

Drinking 6 martinis and then getting into an automobile is behavior to be avoided not emulated.

Update: And he gets 20 days in jail after having 73 days of the 93 day sentence suspended Not a bad amount of time, considering the pressure the judge was under to be lenient on him from such luminaries as Detroit Mayor David Bing and the Detroit Free Press with its uncannily timely coverage of the differences in sentencing for drunk driving around the southeast Michigan / Detroit area.

Family Reunion Time

Blogging is light as I'm up in the wilds of Huntsville, Ontario with no Internet access nor cable tv, a rather relaxing and blissful no-news state. It's been quite relaxing to be pretty much cutoff from the outside world for a bit with no outside distractions. At least there was none until my sister-in-law Sonya handed me her IPad, a most addictive device.

So here I am looking at a lake from my parent's cottage, hanging out and now browsing the net, doing some work remotely and then heading back to supervise the kids swimming.

A nice getaway indeed.

Blogging shall resume when I get back. For now there's kids to help swim and kayak around the lake and dinner to plan.

Teen Robber's Career Gets Off On The Wrong Foot

Findlaw: Teen Robbery Suspect Shot Himself in the Foot

Michael Anthony Randall Jr. literally shot himself in the foot.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, Randall, a teen robbery suspect, shot himself in the foot while preparing to rob a convenience store on the west side of Athens, Georgia.

Police said Randall, 19, shot himself above the ankle with a sawed-off shotgun when he tried to pull it from his coveralls.

Ooops, you have to hate it when that happens. Then again he was about to pull a robbery so this is one of those fortunate mistakes.

After reviewing surveillance videos, investigators said Randall had his finger on the trigger of the shotgun, which was concealed beneath his coveralls with the barrel extending down his left leg, and that the gun went off as he tried to withdraw the weapon.

Such a pity they don't teach gun safety in schools. Perhaps he'd have learned to keep his finger off the trigger, but I suspect ne'er do wells like him wouldn't have paid attention anyhow.

On the upside, it looks like his criminal career is somewhat stalled and he'll have to hop to his next criminal activity:

Randall was taken to the hospital. Doctors did not think they would be able to save foot due to extensive nerve and tissue damage.

The downside: Why they heck aren't they charging him with an NFA violation for the sawed off shotgun?

Investigators plan to charge him with criminal attempt to commit armed robbery.

A measly attempt charge with presumably not much time or an opportunity for a 10 year federal felony?

This is crying out for an NFA charge, namely 26 U.S.C. sec 5861(d): here we have an actual criminal, caught in the act of being about to commit a robbery with a sawed off shotgun - it doesn't get much better than that.

Making Iran-Contra And Watergate Look Like Games Of Tiddlywinks

The biggest Obama Administration scandal that the media doesn't want to touch so far.

Project Gunrunner - walking guns to Mexico through Border States in such a way that their use as evidence was questionable and with no real prospects of accomplishing any real criminal investigations.

Operation Fast and Furious – a subpart of Project Gunrunner, again walking thousands of guns to Mexico through Border States in such a way that their use as evidence was questionable and with no real prospects of accomplishing any real criminal investigations.

Operation Castaway – allowing guns to be illegally transferred to Mexican criminals from Miami via shipment through Honduras. So much for claims that this was an operation solely based out of the ATFE’s Phoenix office.

For a good well-written description on project Gunwalker, and see Larry Correia’s write up and linkage to a good timeline of the investigation so far. Say Uncle also has good details.

Now further information may come to the fore, as the family of murdered U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was most likely shot with weapons that were “walked” by ATFE (and funded with stimulus funds and possible involvement by DEA and DHS) which were recovered at the scene might be suing the US Government under the Federal Tort Claims Act for its malfeasance.

The Operations seem to have no real criminal investigative purpose and certainly no real potential for success to match against thousands of gun illegally shipped to Mexico with the government’s acquiescence.

It seems that this was part of Obama’s plan to push for gun control “under the radar” by creating a crisis and claiming that crime in Mexico is caused by American guns sold in gun shops, which is untrue...but for those thousands shipped there with ATFE’s blessing and connivance.

The scandal doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of coverage in the MSM.

Given that an American Border Patrol agent and possibly hundreds of Mexicans also have been killed due to this colossally messed up operation that seems to have been ginned up for domestic political considerations, the lack of such focus is indeed curious.

Of course, given the scandal deals with Democrats, malfeasance and a ham-handed attempt at backdoor gun control by the Obama Administration, it isn't too surprising.

After all, the MSM loves Obama and gun control both, and it is rather hard for them to get through their ideological blinders on this one.

This scandal isn’t over yet, nor have all the details on it come to light, including the important question of how high up the Obama administration this goes. Nor have those Howard Baker-esque questions been seriously asked yet:

What did President Obama know, and when did he know it?

They Shoot Cars, Don't They?

Not in Kingman, Arizona, at least not anymore.

Findlaw: AZ Man Gets 90 Days Jail for Shooting His Car That Wouldn't Start

[Lauriano Lawrence]Lovato went out to his car at around 9 a.m. in April and tried to start up his car, reports the Daily Miner.

But alas, it did not start. And in what was probably a fit of a rage - or at least a fit of frustration - Lovato shot his car twice. The shots went through the windshield and into the car's dashboard. And, guess what: Lovato's actions actually set off a SWAT team standoff.

Neighbors heard the sound of the gunshots, who reported it to the police. Police arrived at the scene and found some bullet casings, reports the Daily Miner.

Shots fired, bullet casings... the responding officers were understandably unsure as to what kind of situation they were facing. So, officers established a perimeter around the house and tried to communicate with Lovato who was inside, according to the Daily Miner.

During the entire ordeal, Lovato says he was blissfully taking a nap inside, the Daily Miner reports. He had no idea that he had caused such a huge commotion.

Eventually, police broke into the house and found Lovato on a couch in the back of the house. According to Lovato, he had slept through the entire ordeal, even though officers had used loudspeakers to try to communicate with him, reports the Daily Miner.

The end result? Lovato pled guilty to a count of discharging a gun unlawfully within city limits and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 3 years of probation, the Daily Miner reports.

Got to watch those improper firearm discharges within city limits. A little anger management can really go a long way.

The sentence seems a bit excessive and probably has more to do with the standoff than the shooting of the car itself.

Typically, your car isn't going to work any better with bullet holes in it. Next time I suggest giving it a good swift kick, or for more satisfaction take the tire iron out of the trunk and give the car a good beating, that'll teach it.

Radom - Polish for Good Gun

I just acquired a Radom P-64 pistol in 9x18 Makarov.

Designed by the storied Łucznik Arms Factory factory in Radom, commonly known to non-Poles as Radom for pronounciation reasons. The pistol was developed by the design team of W. Czepukajtis, R. Zimny, H. Adamczyk, M. Adamczyk, S. Kaczmarski and J. Pyzel.

The pistol is reminiscent of a Walther PPK in size and take-down procedure and holds 6 rounds in the magazine. It is a double action, blow-back design. The magazine release is located on the butt of the pistol and there is no external slide release. Like the PPK, on the last shot the magazine raises the internal slide catch to hold the slide open.

Adopted in 1965 as the standard sidearm for the Polish army to replace the Tokarev pistol. It is an interesting choice for a military sidearm. A pistol that is small, light, and easy to conceal is typically not the specifications for a military sidearm, and it is, as far as I know, the smallest Warsaw Pact adopted as a standard issue military pistol.

The pistol came with a spare magazine, cleaning rod, and leather holster.

Interestingly, my Radom, dated 1972 (a nice coincidence as I was born in 72) does not have the triangular trigger spur that makes the P64 look so distinctive, but instead has a rounded spur that is almost completely blended into the frame. This makes it rather snag free but hampers quick cocking of the action, which is why I can see they went to a new design as the double action trigger on this pistol is hardly what anyone would characterize as light.

While the double action is a fair bit lighter than the double action on my FEG PA-63, that really isn't saying much, and it takes some significant finger pressure to get the double action shot off. It is not nearly as nice as the double action on the Bulgarian Makarov, but it was still possible to keep the shot on a silhouette target at 7 yards.

The sights on the pistol are very small, yet very usable.

The first six rounds fired at seven yards, two handed standing looked like this:

The sights were very usable and single action mode was simple with a decent trigger that was easy to use for rapid aimed shots.

Notice where the double action first shot went on a subsequent string:

Reliability was excellent- 150 rounds fired - 100 Silver Bear hollow points and 50 Brown Bear FMJ rounds. No stoppages or failures of any kind were experienced.

Recoil is not bad at all with this pistol. The P64's size, shotability and performance with hollow points it makes a great CCW firearm. The P64 easily dissappears in a pocket and between the safety and the extra-heavy double action first shot its rather secure for such a discreet carry option.

While the Kahr PM9 is a better choice for CCW as it is slightly smaller in barrel length than the P64, and fires a 9mm Luger round and has better sights and a consistent action trigger, there are positive aspects to the P64, namely cost and reliability, not to mention history.

You could buy two P64s and 1000 rounds of ammo plus a hundred or more Hornady 9x18 hollow points to carry for the price of a Kahr PM9 and still have enough left over to go out for dinner. Not everyone can afford a Kahr for CCW and the P64 will suffice with practice.

In addition. the P64 makes a fine addition to a collection of Cold War firearms and is a welcome addition to my 9x18 collection.

Dear Mr. Concerned Boat Guy – You’re a Moron

Dive 184 at Union lake started much like any other dive.

Rob and I geared up and got in the water about 10:00 pm. In addition to our standard gear we carried a deco bottle to practice gas switching and passing the bottle back and forth.

About 10 minutes into the dive we hear a boat’s engine zipping by right overhead. We’re comfortably deep in 28 feet of water so while it is annoying to have a boat come by that close we’re safe from harm.

We have a dive flag flying in full compliance with the law, complete with a solid blue battery-powered lightstick attached as an extra (and statutorily unnecessary) warning device. Since lights tend to attract drunken boaters its efficiacy as a safety tool is questionable.

So after 45 minutes we surface about 20 feet from the boat launch and see a car and a truck pointing towards the water with their headlights on, which is peculiar

As we approach the dock, we see it is this post’s eponymous Mr. Concerned Boat Guy and an Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy.

Mr. Concerned Boat Guy then launches into a diatribe on how he called the Sheriff because he was on his pontoon boat and ran over our dive flag and we really should have a bigger light on it ‘cause he couldn’t see it till he was almost on top of it. He then states he could see our lights below.

We kindly point out that we were 28 feet down and our lights were moving around for a good 35 minutes after he passed us.

We point out that we're fully in compliance with the law by carrying a flag and go beyond it by putting a light on it.

Doesn't seem to help with Mr. Concerned Boat Guy.

He then says we should put a white light on it. We point out a white light tends to get washed out by the shore lights and it tends to attract boaters who proceed to run over the flag.

We also kindly point put that boats are suppose to remain 200 feet from the flag,

The deputy doesn’t say much during this exchange, but he seems to be in a decent mood and understands that we are diving in full compliance with the law. He finally says for everybody to be safe and heads off, as does Mr. Concerned Boat Guy. Sadly he doesn’t stroke Mr. Concerned Boat Guy for violating the law, namely running over a dive flag and busting the 200 foot radius and admititng to it.

We head back to our cars and it turns out that Mr. Concerned Boat Guy (MCBG) left a page long screed on my windshield that is amazing for its mix of self-righteous and stupidity, and it makes me wonder if he was tipping back a few during his boating excursion or if he's this naturally stupid 24/7.

“To whomever was diving in the DARK tonight!”

Yes, that us, and you were boating in the dark tonight with or without your capslock on, your point?

You almost got ran over tonight. I can’t understand for the life of me why you would dive at nihgt without having a lighted marker! Just so you know, it is impossible to see your little tiny blue light on your Flag in the DARK!

We did get run over, by you. Luckily we were 28 feet under you.
And again with the dark in caps, methinks MCBG never learned proper grammar. Look moron, you admit our marker was lighted. Why don’t you have a sufficient light on your boat so you can see what’s in front of you, dummy?

I was idling in a pontoon and we did not were not able to see your dive marker until we were right over top of you. I am not sure if you even knew how close we were to you, but I did see you flash your light under water once the boat was over top of you.

No, the heck you were idling. That was a running motor that we heard you lying sack. Yes, we knew you were 28 feet above us driving your boat like an oblivious idiot.

If you are going to dive in Union Lake or any other of the surroundings lakes please make sure that your location is clearly marked, especially at night. I do not want you to end up dead / or as a statistic of an unsafe / unprepared diver & I definatly (sic) do not want to be part of an accident involving any diver that is careless & irresponsible of their surroundings.

This is a bit like yakking on a cell phone, staring out your back window, ramming the back of a car stopped at a red light and then blaming the person that was stopped.

Look dumbass, we are fully aware of our surroundings and floating a flag in full compliance with the law. In this case it was you the unsafe / unprepared driver of the boat who was "careless & irresponsible of their surroundings". Quit blaming others for your own stupidity if you please.

Please remember that you are not the only ones using these waters & that there are many other people out here trying to enjoy the lake as well!

Right back at you dumbass. Please learn and remember what a dive flag means and share the lake accordingly. Please try to pay attention the next time you drive your boat in the lake would ya?

Thank you,
A concerned citizen.

You’re welcome.

Now please take a boater safety class as soon as possible and learn the laws of boat operation before you cause an acccident.

Also, please man up and leave your name and contact number next time you fancy leaving a page-long ignorant screed on someone's vehicle you irresponsible, unsafe, and pathetic excuse for a boat operator.

On Order: Monster Hunter Alpha

If you have yet to read Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International and Monster Hunter Vendetta, you better get with the program as the next sequel, Monster Hunter Alpha is coming out in August for shipping according to Amazon.

Go Ahead and Pre-order and and then wait impatiently for it to arrive in your hands.

I suspect its going to be worth this short wait in spades.

Kwame, tired of the Race Card, reaches for the Joo card

Kwame is truly the Detroit Democrat that just keeps on giving.

Michigan Citizen: Kwame Kilpatrick was victim of Jewish conspiracy, says Kwame Kilpatrick

If you thought Kwame Kilpatrick’s downfall was the result of his own hubris, prepare to have your mind blown by Michigan Citizen writer Zenobia Jeffries. Oh sure, Kilpatrick made some mistakes, but he was really brought down in a plot instigated by…wait for it…the Jews

The "progressive" rag the Michigan Citizen reviews Kwame's book thusly:

There’s always been somewhat of an underlying question in the midst of the Kilpatrick scandal: Who the hell did he piss off to bring this level of scrutiny?

This question could be answered in Kilpatrick’s account of visits by Detroit attorney Reggie Turner on behalf of the area’s powerful Jewish community.

I guess when your basic race card stops working, its back to blaming the Jews to regain your follower's support.

Frankly, I'm surprised Kwame didn't blame the bicyclists for his demise.

Happy Independence Day

For this Independence Day Weekend, the family and I went down to northern Indiana to visit Amish country and allow Tash to do some serious quilt supply shopping and for the rest of us to have a short break.

We visited Shipshewana, where we stayed for a couple nights at a hotel with a water park, which the kids loved, We also did some day trips to Nappanee and Elkhart. Northern Indiana is a very beautiful pastoral area - lots of farms, and horses galore and the locals are friendly.

Since Leah at 4 seems to have every young girls love of horses, we couldn't go more than 5 feet down the road before a joyous cry of "horse!" arose from the back seat.

This meant that we had to do a buggy ride in Shipshewana, which was a lot of fun.

An Amish man ran the buggy and told us quite a bit about Amish culture during the ride. He amazed both kids with the news that Amish children as young as grade 2 could take their own horse and buggy to school if they were responsible enough to do so.

Lots of horses and buggies on the roads and of course, Amish-style food is out of this world good - the broasted chicken is awesome, as are the many amazing ways they can prepare egg noodles. Not to mention the desserts.

Then on July 3 we went to Elkhart for a three hour tour on the River Queen, a 150 passenger stern-wheeler, on the St. Joseph River.

The River Queen was leading the annual flotilla of 4th of July boats, many of them extensively decorated:

But, this idyllic riparian cruise was not to last.

While leading the boats, there was a sudden clang and the River Queen came to a sudden and complete halt.

So sudden was the stop and so loud was the noise, I was going to ask if there was an extra charge for the unplanned wreck dive.

The boat had struck an underwater stump on its keel and was well and truly stuck.

We were stuck on a stump for about an hour with two police boats and a jet boat with volunteer river patrol members all with ropes attached trying to tow the vessel off the stump:

They finally succeeded in their efforts and we continued on our way.

The grounding of the River Queen was such a rare event that it made the local news.


So today we woke in Shipshewana and went to both the Shipshewana flea market and Yoders. The flea market was huge, with a tpical vareity of flea market wares from used books to beautiful woodworking to chinese junk trinkets and everything else you could think of at a flea market.

Yoders Meats and Cheeses however was the highlight of the day and the place to go for incredible food to take home.

We bought excellent Amish made cheeses, especially after the kids loved the samples, and a 1.5 lb grass-fed sirloin steak. Then we drove home.

We BBQ'd the steak tonight and it was big enough for the four of us with an unbeatable taste - only a slight bit a kosher salt and a couple grinds of pepper were used and it was fantastic.

A great vacation.

Now the kids are asleep, I'm going to walk outside and see the fireworks.

Happy Independence Day!

6th Circuit: Refusal to consider race unduly burdens minorities in collecge admissions

In a decision that makes one stop and wonder, 6th Circuit in Coalition to Defend Affirmative v. Regents of the University of Michigan has come it with quite the opinion.

The 6th Circuit panel has held that Michigan's Proposal 2, that ended affirmative action in Universities by refusing to allow the race of an applicant to be considered is an undue burden on minorities by not allowing their race to be considered in college admissions.

Orwell would be proud.

Proposal 2 targets a program [affirmative action] that
“inures primarily to the benefit of the minority” and reorders the political process in Michigan in such a way as to place “special burdens” on racial minorities....We therefore find that the race-conscious admissions policies now barred by Proposal 2 inure primarily to the benefit of racial minorities and that Proposal 2, insofar as it prohibits consideration of applicants’ race in admissions decisions, has a “racial focus.”

Under this analysis, affirmative action can necessarily never end as its absence will end a program that benefits minorities. Affirmative action is a one-way ratchet according to this panel of the Sixth Circuit.

The court then heads way off into left field and holds that the ending of affirmative action reorders the political process in a manner that unduly burdens minorities because it prevent public university boards from using affirmative action without arranging for a change in the constitution to permit such racial discrimination.

By amending Michigan’s Constitution to prohibit university admissions units from utilizing race-conscious admissions policies, proponents of Proposal 2 thus removed the authority to institute racially-focused policies from Michigan’s universities and lodged it at the most remote level of Michigan’s government, the state constitution.

Constitutionally enshrining a non-discrimination policy on the basis of race is, according to the court, discriminatory.

I know this decisions is heavily outcome-determinative [both judges were Clinton appointees, the one dissent on the panel was a G.W. Bush appointee), but did the judges draft this tautological and fallacious reasoning with a straight face?

Expect this one to go to the 6th Circuit en-banc and most probably to the Supreme Court.

The Case of the Cancelled Czech

The Detroit Free Press: St. Clair fisherman catches Czech man trying to swim into U.S.

St. Clair County fisherman reeled in a man from the Czech Republic who investigators say was trying to illegally swim from Canada into the United States.

“I’ve caught some big things on this river but never anything this big,” Brad Pederson of Algonac said in a news release about Wednesday’s 11:40 p.m. catch off his boat in the St. Clair River between Marysville and Algonac.

You do have to slightly admire anyone with the gumption to try to swim across the St. Clair River - the current is a real kicker and it is not exactly at spa temperatures with the water hanging around the 60s.

But, instead of returning him to the Canadian side from whence he came, taxpayers will now pony up to return him to the Czech Republic:

The man was arrested for entering the United States at a place other than a designated port-of-entry and is being sent back to the Czech Republic

This creates some bad incentives for visitors to Canada from foreign lands - run out of money? Just start swimming towards the USA and get a free ticket home!