Blog
Justice: "Fast & Furious"
The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they keep rolling along!
If you recall, on June 28, 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a bipartisan basis to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to produce Operation Fast and Furious documents subpoenaed the previous year. Then, Judicial Watch announced that on September 23, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that by October 22, the Department of Justice (DOJ) must submit a “Vaughn index” listing Fast and Furious materials Judicial Watch sought in its June 2012 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent September 2012 FOIA lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice (No. 1:12-cv-01510)).
[A Vaughn index must: (1) identify each document withheld; (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption.]
Then, following that court ruling requiring the production of withheld evidence (by October 22, 2014), Attorney Genera Eric Holder submitted his resignation.
Then, on November 20, 2014, Judicial Watch announced that it had received, from the Department of Justice (DOJ) on November 18, 2014, "10,112 documents, comprised of approximately 42,000 pages" pertaining to Operation Fast and Furious.
An inspection of the recent release has revealed that not only do the contents of these documents indicate culpability, but they explain the reason for Holder's abrupt resignation, and they serve to indict members of the Obama administration, along with some members of the media, as being complicit in their withholding information from Congress and the public.
See: Sharyl Attkisson comments on Twitter.
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Sharps Rifle
Going the Distance with the Sharps Rifle
As legions of mechanics struggled with repeating actions, Christian Sharps built a stronger breechloading single-shot. The New Jersey native had apprenticed under John Hall at Harpers Ferry Arsenal. In 1848, he received his first patent, for a sliding breech block. The tight breeching held promise for hunters, because it could handle cartridges that would hit hard at long range.
Did Billy Dixon really make that 1,538 yard shot with his .50 cal. Sharps on June 28, 1874? Flip a coin and choose a side...
The "1874 Long Range Express", and other models, are still available from Shiloh Sharps.
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Sailing
Hydrofoiling
When supplied in manageable quantity, and properly harnessed, the wind can be a thing of beauty. And, a slow-motion camera can help to savor the moment.
French blue-water sailor Franck Cammas recently joined the Phantom Sailing Team for a “flying session” off the island of Brittany.
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More Guns = Less Crime
Violent Crime Rate Continues to Drop
DOWN 37% OVER PAST 20 YEARS . . .The FBI has released its annual Crime in the United States report, revealing that the country in 2013 saw the violent crime rate fall another 5.1 percent from the previous year, so it is now at its lowest since 1978. Delving a little deeper, the murder and manslaughter rate fell 4.4 percent to the lowest level since 1968. The continuing decrease in violent crime -- down 37.4 percent over the past 20 years -- comes at a time when firearms ownership has increased across America, a fact that utterly contradicts the mantra of anti-gun groups that more guns equals more crime.
Inspecting Comet 67P
Unable to locate Bill Haley
According to truthrevolt.org, "the European Space Agency's comet-bound spacecraft Philae completed its 10-year, 6.4 billion-mile historic journey and came to rest on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Wednesday. By Saturday, its battery power had failed, but not before several pieces of data were sent back to Earth.
One such piece of data is what scientists are calling the comet's "song," captured as Philae approached the comet in flight. Take a listen:
According to Space.com, ESA officials say the sounds are "oscillations in the magnetic field in the comet's environment." They explain that the human ear would not hear these sounds because they are "singing" too far below the frequencies a human can hear. Scientists are said to have increased the frequency produced by the comet by "approximately 10,000 for an audible rendering of the comet's tune." But scientists say the are not exactly sure how the sound is generated. "[T]he sound could be produced when neutral particles of the comet are sloughed off into space and electrically charged through ionization," the report states."
Is it possible that the captured sound could be a coded rendering of 'See You Later, Alligator'?
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Sinister motives, or ignorance?
Welcome to The Weimar Republic of New York
BUFFALO, NY – Buffalo Police say they're determined to get more guns off the streets and now they're checking to see whether pistol permit holders have passed away and what happened to their gun or guns.
"We recently started a program where we're cross referencing all the pistol permit holders with the death records, and we're sending people out to collect the guns whenever possible so that they don't end up in the wrong hands," said Police Commissioner Daniel Derrenda."
Some police agencies give families of the deceased permit holder 15 days to sell or transfer a weapon or weapons held with the permit to another permit holder or a dealer.
It's difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile this kind of administrative behavior with the United States Constitution, or to figure what is going through these people's minds.
What gives the police the right to label and seize (even with token compensation) lawfully owned personal property as contraband, just because that property has become part of an estate?
There are just too many chilling similarities to what is going on in New York and the history as written in Stephen Halbrook's book Gun Control in the Third Reich Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”
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Law and Order
5-Year-Old Girl Shot
The word "outrage" is not a strong enough word to describe a reasonable reaction to this........
While the family of the slain girl is making an effort to solve this crime, the "Coalition for Justice is asking for a meeting with Milwaukee's mayor, district attorney, police chief and city council members to address the issue of gun violence", and Milwaukee city politicians are still "befuddled."
There is an obvious symbiotic relationship between befuddlement and outrage, ergo the term's "cop out" and "let's blame guns."
The problem in Milwaukee was addressed by Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. as far back as January 2013, but befuddlement is a difficult thing to overcome.
Sad.
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Civil Rights
Second Amendment -- Still 'The Palladium of Liberties'
So read the headline to Mark Alexander's March 4, 2010 column at Patriot Post. That was the week that the Supreme Court heard arguments in McDonald v. Chicago, and the headline made reference to Supreme Court, Justice Joseph Story, who wrote in his 1833 “Commentaries on the Constitution,” “The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”
“The ultimate authority … resides in the people alone. … The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition.” –James Madison
Fast forward to the mid-term election on Tuesday, November 4, 2014 and AWR Hawkins' column titled Second Amendment Crushes Gun Control Candidates In Midterm Elections:
On the gubernatorial level, in Arizona, pro-Second Amendment candidate Doug Ducey (R) beat gun control candidate Fred DuVaul (D). And in Florida, pro-Second Amendment incumbent Rick Scott (R) beat gun control candidate Charlie Crist. These victories were enhanced by the fact that Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly endorsed DuVal and Giffords' gun control PAC gave $100,000 to Crist's campaign.
The Second Amendment trumped their endorsement and their money.
In Texas, NRA-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott (R) won. In Maryland, NRA-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Larry Hogan (R) won. In Alabama, NRA-endorsed Governor Robert J. Bentley (R) won. In Wisconsin, NRA-endorsed Governor Scott Walker (R) won. In Michigan, NRA-endorsed Governor Rick Snyder (R) won. In Nevada, NRA-endorsed Governor Brian Sandval (R) won. In Ohio, NRA-endorsed Governor John R. Kasich (R) won. In Oklahoma, NRA-endorsed Governor Mary Fallin (R) won. In Wyoming, NRA-endorsed Governor Matt Mead (R) won. In Idaho, NRA-endorsed Governor Bruce Otter (R) won. In Kansas, NRA-endorsed Governor Sam Brownback (R) won. And in Maine, NRA-endorsed Governor Paul R. LePage (R) won against gun control candidate Michael Michaud (D). (On August 8, Breitbart News reported that Michaud was supported by Gabby Giffords.)
In Senate races, gun control Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) was defeated by NRA-endorsed Cory Gardner (R) and gun control Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) was defeated by NRA-endorsed Thom Tillis (R). In Kansas, NRA-endorsed Senator Pat Roberts (R) won. In Georgia, NRA-endorsed Senatorial candidate Bill Perdue (R) won. In Arkansas, NRA-endorsed Tom Cotton (R) won. And in West Virginia, NRA-endorsed Shelly Moore Capito (R) won, marking the first time that state has sent a Republican Senator to Washington DC in over five decades.
The spotlight was also on the race between NRA-endorsed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and pro-gun control challenger Alison Grimes (D). McConnell won handily.
NRA-endorsed Senatorial candidate Joni Ernst (R-IA) also won.
On November 3—the day before the elections took place—Breitbart News reminded red state and pro-Second Amendment voters to vote like their guns depended on it. They did. And as result, the Second Amendment won the day, Republicans won the Senate, and gun control took a beating.
Get the message? Apparently, not everyone does.
The right to keep and bear arms without infringement is the bedrock of 'civil rights' in the USA. We have witnessed again what happens when you try to build your house on sand. The tide rolls in, and it is gone.
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Law and Order
‘Stop the Violence’ members beat up former roommate
Nikole Ardeno and Emanuel Velez, both 30, accused their former roommate of stealing their property, and allegedly punched and kicked him in the street until he had seizures. Arrested moments later, Ardeno was still wearing the same “Stop the Violence” T-shirt she had on the night before when she coordinated a march protesting two recent shootings, Washington Police Chief Chris Luppino said.
The indicators don't get any more profound than this case. It is obvious that violence is not going to stop. So the question becomes, are you prepared to survive the violence if and when it spills out of the barbarous enclaves? Are you prepared to survive at all — anywhere?
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