Monthly Archives: October 2011

Why Red States have no use for FEMA

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If, that is, they even bother to show up when they might be needed, and the tragedy isn’t too small for them to be bothered with.

Here is why. Notice that FEMA showed up late, and generally only got in the way.

Maybe it is only Blue states who need to have their folks treated like cattle, and where the victims are more like sheep than men and women….

My area has had its share of small tragedies. Yet the community deals just fine without outside help….And especially without outside interference supervision and management by ‘professionals”. (I live in a fairly conservative area, even though the state went for Obama last election). People helped in the aftermath of the last storm. People helped people they didn’t even know. The biggest stumbling block was communicating who needed help and where it was needed. Once people knew what/who/where, it just happened. (and, actually, most folks were helping themselves, so the actual amount of help needed was, per capita, small).

FEMA is no doubt needed for earthquakes and hurricanes and such. Maybe. It always seems that they arrive late, and reduce what efforts are existing to chaos.

In Flyover Country the Midwest, it seems that the people deal with their issues better than other Blue places.

Via Borepatch

lying and the lying liars who are more equal than other liars

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Scooter Libby got 30 months in prison, a fine of $250K and was forced to resign from all of his jobs…..And disbarred. All for lying to federal investigators (Wikipedia link) in the Valerie Plame case

Roger Clemens got indicted and is currently facing trial for lying to congress regarding Steroid and other performance enhancing substances.

Neither persons actions caused the death of another US citizen or other person. Not even one between them.

Eric Holder has been caught lying about his involvement with Fast and Furious and Gunwalker.

     “House oversight committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley       sentHolder a letter in May 2011 asking for details about Project Gunrunner, the ATF operation that sent thousands guns to Mexican drug cartels. Tax money may have been used to purchase the guns Grassley and Issa, “have urged Holder to cooperate and turn over subpoenaed records that would reveal the scope of the government coverup.” In October 2011, documents were released that indicated Holder was sent memos in regards to Project Gunrunner in 2010, contradicting Holder’s sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in which he said he was unaware of Gunrunner until April 2011. In response, Lamar Smith, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to President Obama, requesting the appointment of an independent special counsel to investigate whether Holder committed perjury by lying to the committee while under oath”

Liar liar…. Pants on fire .

Seems they caught him with his pants down….

Do ya figure he’ll be indicted? It’ll be good for the Obama administration’s re-election if he is…

If not, the we would have to wonder why he isn’t. If it was good enough for the other two, then it should be good enough for a hand picked loyal syncophant Attorney General.

My bet is that Obama tosses him under the bus shortly.

Yeah, right

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In case you haven’t heard the list of demands from the folks doing the sit in protest at Wall Street, You should go and read them. Come back when you are done laughing.

Back? Ok

Here’s the thing. In the real world, they would not survive a second. Living wage? that’s been tried. The fact is that your wage is dependant upon, among other things, demand for your particular skillset and the ease with which you can be replaced. You get paid less if you can be replaced by anyone and trained in an hour or two….and if your skillset is not in demand (Transcendental Studies or Women’s Studies or Philosophy or the like) then you don’t earn much. Doctors? They get paid a bit more
cause they are harder to replace….

Free health care? Sure, when you pay for it. Until then, kiss my ass. I’ll take the (presently imperfect) system we have now, thanks. Besides, monopolies have always made things better for the consumer….right?

Demand three: Something for nothing….to many people have a free ride now. Want things? earn ’em.

Demand five?  Pipe dreams. If you want to make it work, then get busy and find a real alternative to fossil fuels. Of course then you’ll have to work hard at school and college to actually learn things so you’ll be able to do some research….

Demand #6? We’d be able to spend money on infrastructure if we weren’t paying for all those freeloaders already.

#7: yeah, we all need to return to Mother Gaia….and to keep the Earth pristine….or something. Again, we gotta pay for it. Easy to spend money that belongs to other people isn’t it? Not like any of the protesters are taking time off a a job or anything….Oh, and BTW, Nuclear power IS alternative energy..So are those Dams you hate so much. powered by falling water. water lifted by the action of sind (which is caused by the sun) and the heat from the sun…..So Hydropower IS really Solar Power…But then again, Coal and oil is just ancient solar power stored underground if you look at it right…So where is your beef again?

Whine demand number 8. Define what you want. Likely, even if you get it, you won’t like it. I’d bet that the men supported this ’cause they thought it might give them a chance with the hot man-hating lesbian couples in the protest group. Fools.

#9….yeah, that’ll work. See also the issues we have with illegal immigrants right now. I actually don’t mind the idea as long as we can imprison those who break our laws….and check the entrants for health and such…and as long as they get no benefits that they do not (there is that word again) pay for.

#10 I can sorta agree with. Maybe everyone who votes can end up with a semi permanently purple finger like they did is Iraq or Afghanistan or whatever….

#11: Sure, then after you do that, who’ll ever lend money again? Who’ll ever be able to borrow? Nice idea, if yer stoned.

#13. Sucks to have bad credit, doesn’t it? Next time, pay your bills. Besides, if you have #10, you really don’t care about # 11 when you can’t get a loan anyway….

#13. Yeah, sounds good, doesn’t it. Until your “nay” vote gets your arm broken after work….

Look folks, I was once this idealistic…Then I grew up and learned to drive and such…..These kids are indeed idealistic, but not very realistic. They have (obviously) no experience and it is obvious that they would not like the world that they are asking for. They would not survive the end result. What they want is Communism, pure and simple. But people are not as decent as they think.Some are smarter, some are not. Some are lazier, some are more industrious. They want everyone to be equal. Which is a nice dream, actually except for the people in the dream, who are about as imperfect as we can get.  The issue is that the system we have now (sorta) rewards the harder workers and the more gifted, and lets the rest find their own level. Their system (and, I believe the similar one espoused by the liberals democrats socialists (but I repeat myself) in our government) removes all incentive to work. History is rife with the detritus of the failed systems that used similar philosophy.

Jay has some good thoughts on these folks…So does Og. (we’ll go into business there, my friend) but I like the suggestion of ASM826 best. 

I’d bet big bucks that they’d not last a year. Especially not once daddy stopped their trust funds…

Rumor

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It is said that Steve Jobs, of Apple fame, has dies at age 56.

RIP man. You made significant changes in the world. For the good. And that is, IMHO, one of the best the best epitaphs a man can have.

ISad

Dija ever notice

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That this is always happening in “blue” cities?

Make no mistake, the ever escalating expenses of running a city (with government unionized employees) is making it hard for all municipalities. “red” places are having issues as well.

But all of the top 9 financially strapped municipalities are not hotbeds of conservatism…

Coincidence?

You decide.

Range report: Taurus TCP

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So I bought a Taurus TCP to replace the Kel-Tec that I broke….Last week at the gun show, I tried out a bunch of small, polymer handguns…..I tried the S+W Bodyguard, but I really didn’t want the laser. I tried out the Diamondback (not polymer) and it was too heavy… I wasn’t gonna get another Kel-Tec, and there were no other small .380 pistols that I saw…. Except the TCP.- Slightly larger than the P-3AT, it had nearly all the features that I wanted. Small, light, decent (for a compact pistol) sights…Concealable enough for a jeans pocket or a lapel pocket in a suit. Thin enough to conceal easily. .380 (which is marginal, but hopefully enough should I need it) rather than .32 or .22.  Pretty much what I was looking for..

So I bargained with one of the sellers and purchased a TCP.  (The bargaining also included another pistol which may be in a later post, but I digress)….

Disassembly for cleaning is similar to any other small pistol of the type. Pull a pin, slide the side off of the frame, lift out the recoil spring from the slide, and lift out the barrel.

Fit and finish on this pistol is good. The slide is tight enough, and the barrel to slide fit is fairly tight. No sharp edges or mold lines to deal with. The texture on the polymer is good, allowing a decent grip. The grip is slightly longer than the pistol it replaced, making for a better grip with only my pinky finger floating free. The slide has adequate texture to allow for easy action. The slide edges are well rounded and the sights are low profile enough to prevent snagging on a pocket.

Trigger is good. Long, but decent. (Say about 7 lbs). Not what I’d care for in a normal carry pistol, but for the type of carry I expect this to be used for, it’s just about right. One thing that separated this pistol from the others in it’s class is that that it is not a Double Action, but feels more like a LDA from Para. (but not really, either. It’s just a light single action with a long trigger pull).

Range time was good. I liked the longer trigger guard. Previously, I had often banged the front of my trigger finger onto the trigger guard when shooting the Kel-Tec, but this pistol has a slightly longer trigger guard to prevent that from happening. At the range, it made a huge difference after 50 rounds or so.

Target shooting at 21 feet was good. With the long trigger, I tended to shoot low for the first few shots, but once I got over that, I found that I could shoot  decent groups. A bit more practice and I think that I can tighten things up a bit. Here’s a target after a few magazines to get used to the point of aim.

The lower flyer in the 5 ring is my bad trigger squeeze. (and yes, I had the target upside down) I found that after 5 shots rapid fire, the pistol moves around enough in my hand that I end up using way too much trigger finger. Have to work on that……I finally got the groups down to less than 4 inches……

Reliability was good. no failures to feed, no failures of any kind, actually. Federal bulk FMJ in both flat nose and and round nose fed flawlessly as did Hornady Critical Defense. All in all, I shot 154 rounds of assorted ammo through this small pistol. And my hand didn’t hurt at the end of it, unlike the pistol it replaced. Now all I have to do is shoot another 350 or so rounds, and if this pistol works as flawlessly as it has so far, I’ll trust it enough to carry when I need a small concealment pistol.

 
Overall, this is a good pistol. Not a great one for long range sessions, not a wonderful target pistol, and not especially powerful. Yeah, I’d rather carry my 3 inch Para in .45 ACP when possible (or a full size!), but that isn’t always easily accomplished in some social situations Nor is it worth the trouble to deal with the issues of others attitudes regarding firearms. The .380 in your pocket is, however, better than the .45 under the car seat or on your bench at home when you are in the bank or at the store….if you happen to need it. 
I’d recommend this pistol to anyone needing or wanting a small light polymer pocket pistol. 
(note to the FTC: I paid my own hard earned samolians for this device. No one offered me any incentives to do this range report. All you folks in the Federal Trade Commission can go screw yourselves. Piss off…Go find someone else to hassle. Kiss my ass.)