Blackberry Smoke - Leave A Scar

Southern Rock is alive and well, playing at local venues all over the South.  Blackberry Smoke is one of those bands on the cusp of breaking out into wider recognition.  I for one hope they do, because that recognition would be well deserved, and while it's OK for a band to open for Skynyrd, it would be sweet to see a band who can write something like this have opening acts at their concerts.

Because this really captures the soul of working man's rock 'n roll.  Life is hard, and you do what you can.  You live as big as you can, and when you go out, you hope to go out as Blackberry Smoke themselves say on their web site:

Don't go out quietly, slide that casket in on two wheels and scream, "Hot damn that was fun!"

That's a prayer, if you think about it.  So let it be written, so let it be done.



Leave A Scar (Songwriters: Blackberry Smoke))

The old man was a good man he raised his children right
He taught us how to work hard and showed us how to fight
Told me about the good Lord and when to use a gun
Made me very proud of where it is that I come from

When I die put my father in the big same urn
Look down at me smiling I don't want no beating tune
All I leave behind me is a ragged old guitar
I may not change the world but I'm gonna leave a scar

Years a row nobody, the old man turned me loose
Way cross town I learned about those sad ol' country blues
Taught me how to prep my heart from trying to make it right
Told me not to ever break one alone at a time

When I die put my father in the big same urn
Look down at me smiling I don't want no beating tune
All I leave behind me is a ragged old guitar
I may not change the world but I'm gonna leave a scar

Hope you have me on your memory like a painted old tattoo
I might not make a history book but I'll burn a page or two
Yeah

When I die put my father in the big same urn
Look down at me smiling I don't want no beating tune
All I leave behind me is a ragged old guitar
I may not change the world but I'm gonna leave a scar

One of the engineers wore this to the office today

I laughed and laughed.  XKCD t-shirts and other stuff.

SWPL in action

You don't get much more SWPL than a symphony orchestra.  I used to like me some symphony myself, back in my SWPL days.

The problem is that the dynamic of SWPL drives it to become a parody of itself:

Two East Cobb high schools have been told they will not be performing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in the fall because they lack racial diversity.

The choruses at Lassiter and Walton high schools have been barred from full participation in the ASO's joint holiday concert held in December.

Both schools would still be allowed to send smaller contingents of chorus singers to the performance due to space restrictions.

Cobb Schools spokesperson Jay Dillon told 11 Alive News that, "the schools were informed by Symphony officials that their choruses are not diverse enough, and that the Symphony would be inviting a third, more diverse chorus."

Membership in both choral groups is based upon merit alone.

*blink* *blink*

I guess that we can say that SWPL people don't like white kids.  It's all a bit confusing, and I sure wish that they'd publish a rule book so we can know what's OK and what's not.  But it sure is good that we elected Barack Obama President.  I can feel my soul healing ...

P.S. I leave it as an extra credit assignment to my gentle readers to say whether there is a single African American that plays on the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

UPDATE 17 August 2012 14:49: Nick the Blogless does the research I was too lazy to do.  There is ONE African American musician in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.  But the Lassiter and Walton High School choruses aren't diverse enough.  Hypocrisy stinks, even when it's wearing White Tie and Tails.

Ya know, the gun blog community is like this, too

Well it is.

Anarcho-tyranny 101

Anarcho-Tyranny is the intersection of a failure by the government to maintain order needed for society to function (anarchy) combined with a grossly excessive application of governmental force to law abiding citizens.  This is how it's done.

That right there is some "Zero tolerance" policy, Scooter:

The terrorizing charge against a Freeport Middle School teacher who spoke in class about shooting a rifle will be dismissed if he avoids criminal conduct for the next 60 days.

David Mason appears at his plea hearing Monday at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland. David Mason, 59, pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court on Monday. He was issued a court summons Feb. 14 for what he said during a seventh-grade social studies class the previous week.

Parents have told the Portland Press Herald that Mason spoke about shooting students on the school's roof with an M-16. John Richardson, Mason's attorney, disputed that but would not say exactly what Mason said.

Well, talking about shooting from the roof of a school is pretty clearly a violation of the "zero tolerance" no guns in school policy, right?  Good thing he won't be around the schools.  Oh, wait:

Mason will spend the next academic year working on curriculum in the superintendent's office and may retire after that, Richardson said after Monday's brief court proceeding. Mason declined to comment.

Compare and contrast with this hardened criminal:

A New Jersey second-grader's drawing of a stick figure shooting a gun has earned him a one-day school suspension.


Seven-year-old Kyle Walker's mom told an The Press newspaper of Atlantic City that her son was suspended for violating the district's zero-tolerance policy on guns. She said her son told her he'd drawn a water pistol.

The kid's biggest mistake was that he didn't join the teacher's union.  Then he could have told all his playground chums that he was going to shoot them from the school roof, and nothing would have happened to him.

Siri vs. Android voice command

This is a pretty interesting test of each voice search capability - Apple's Siri and Android's new voice command in Jelly Bean.



What's particularly interesting is that the questions are more complex, and more like what might get asked in real life.  Rather than "How's traffic?", you have things like "Show me pictures of men's cut-off jeans."

We can expect that this will drive improvements in Siri - nothing like a little competition to get improvements racing to market.

Via Nerd Vittles, a pretty interesting tech blog.

World War II Lancaster crew chatter

ambisinistral has it.  And fascinating it is, too, in that Lawrence Olivier stiff upper lip keep clam and carry on sort of way.  I wonder if this was an old propaganda bit recorded for the war effort?

And I'm of the opinion that if the Lancaster had had belly turret, it might have been the finest bomber of the war.  Might.  That enormous bomb bay was part of the plane's greatness.

Well, this makes the Left's anti-gun sentiments a bit more clear

They keep looking at gun owners like we could sprout horns and start shooting at any moment, and that the stronger our political beliefs the more likely we are to start shooting.  Thus, the hysterical reaction to the (entirely non-violent and demonstrably orderly) Tea Party movement.  To hear the Left describe them, they're all about to blow up a Federal Building full of day care centers.

Well, here's a window into why they think that way:

“The security guard here is a hero, as far as I’m concerned,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. ”He did his job. The person never made it past the front.”

The guard, who was not identified, was shot in the arm and was conscious after the shooting and was in stable condition. The gunman, who also was not identified, was being questioned by the FBI, sources said. Sources said he is in his twenties.

...

Sources told Fox New that after guard took away his gun, the suspect said, "Don't shoot me, it was not about you, it was what this place stands for."

"Hey nothing personal when I shot you, it was just politics."

No wonder they want to take everyone's guns.  If they had any themselves, they'd start shooting the local GOP offices up.  Oh, wait.

My big reason to oppose more gun control laws used to be that I think that the proponents don't have the slightest idea what they're talking about and that the new laws will be ineffective or counter productive.  Now I'm starting to think that there's simply no reasoning with a wild fire, and that all proposed gun control laws should be rejected out of hand, without consideration, because they are presumed to be malicious in nature until proven otherwise.

I would support criminal control laws doubling sentences for politically motivated shootings.  How's that for a compromise?

The Romney/Ryan mullet

It used to be that the Right was the boring side that were the grownups and the Left was the all party all the time side that you wanted to hang out with drinking beers.  Man, that's over now:

And this one just cracks me up.  You can hear Liberals' heads exploding:

Memetic Warfare, directed at the side that thought that only they did that.  I'm taking a wait and see attitude with Ryan, but what on earth has happened to the GOP.  The Romney/Ryan team has turned into a political mullet: all business up front, all party in the back. 

So far, in a good way.  We'll see if that keeps up.

Revolver bleg

Last weekend I saw a Ruger LCR for sale for $350 (maybe negotiable).

I've never shot one of these, but have been thinking about a backup carry piece, and thinking it should be a revolver (malfunction drill = "pull the trigger again").

Does anyone have one?  Anyone shot one?  What do you think?  Is this an OK price?

DoD to take over critical networks in cyber emergency?

What could possibly go wrong?

The Pentagon has proposed that military cyber-specialists be given permission to take action outside its computer networks to defend critical U.S. computer systems — a move that officials say would set a significant precedent.

Gee, ya think?

The proposed rules would open the door for U.S. defense officials to act outside the confines of military-related computer networks to try to combat cyberattacks on private computers, including those in foreign countries.

This is a stupendously bad idea.  Let me count the ways:

1. Cyber Command has not demonstrated that they're better than n00bs.

I'm sorry to be so harsh, but in the Internet Security industry, it's not what you wear that makes you cool, it's what you do.  I literally do not know anyone who thinks that Cyber Command is 1337.  I'm willing to listen, so my invitation to the DoD is: go ahead - dazzle me.

2. There's a HUGE difference between offense and defense.

Duh.  So what's with the "biggest swingin' ****" business with foreign computers?  Shut up and sit down, Soldier.  You're making things worse.If you think I'm wrong, then I'm willing to listen, so my invitation to the DoD is: go ahead - dazzle me.

3. Posse Comitatus Act.

If you seize control of my computers, I will do my best to see you breaking rocks in Leavinworth.  Just sayin'.  And to the h4x0Rz with a star on their BDUs, you're where I'll start.  Commander is responsible, right?  If you think I'm wrong, then I'm willing to listen, so my invitation to the DoD is: go ahead - dazzle me.

4. Your folks will not know what is going on better than the people under attack.

How could you?  Sure, sure, you're all Cyber Ninjas and everything [rolls eyes], but you think that by the time some 4 Star approves actions your team will have more of a clue than the civilian Boots On The Ground?  History suggests that you're wrong.  If you think I'm wrong, then I'm willing to listen, so my invitation to the DoD is: go ahead - dazzle me.

5. Your people will not be more motivated to solve the problem than the owners and operators of the computers under attack.

Duh.  If you think you will be, then I'm willing to listen, so my invitation to the DoD is: go ahead - dazzle me.

This is a monumentally bad idea, and Cyber Command's budget should get cut to show people that this is not the way to advance their careers.

This is the first thing that I've seen that makes me like Romney/Ryan

Rush unloads on the GOP establishment:

There are two stories out today, one from TheHill.com and the other from Politico. They essentially say the same thing. The Hill: "Republicans strategists are worried that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) addition to the presidential ticket will cost their party House and Senate seats this fall. Their concern: Democrats will successfully demonize Ryan’s budget plan, which contains controversial spending cuts and changes to Medicare."

...

But they're really not worried that he's going to cause us to lose the Senate, and they're really not worried that he's going to cause us to lose the House. What they're worried about is that the conservative wing of the party is going to be able to lay claim to victory here. And that they -- these unnamed establishment Republican consultants and what have you, they -- are the ones who are going to lose their positions of power and influence because they aren't on board with this.

The Dinosaurs sniff a change on the breeze, and roar their (anonymous) defiance.

Why do they not understand it's Obama and the Democrats who are the opposition? What's in it for them for the Democrats to win? And when you answer that question, then you'll have an idea what's going on. What's in it for these Republicans for the Democrats to win? And make no mistake: There are Republicans happy to be losers if it keeps them in the money and in positions of power in a second-tier party, as opposed to out of power in a first-tier party.

You might almost think that this is the Peter Principle in action, working hand in hand with a MSM that is the embodiment of the Peter Principle in action, feeding inside baseball to each other while the Republic burns.  It may all end in ash and tears, but at least the money's good, right?

The Romney/Ryan camp seems to be making the right enemies.  I don't mean the Democrats, I mean the too cozy Republicans.  Sure, there's still a ton not to like about Mittens, but this is the first "green shoot" that I've seen in some time.

Chill out about NOAA and the ammunition purchase

You can't believe everything that you read in the paper:

We talked to Scott Smullen, the Deputy Director of NOAA Communications & External Affairs who says the announcement is a mistake and is apparently being corrected at the time of this writing.
From Scott's email:

Due to a clerical error in the federal business vendor process, a solicitation for ammunition and targets for the NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement mistakenly identified NOAA's National Weather Service as the requesting office.  The error is being fixed and will soon appear correctly in the electronic federal bidding system.  The ammunition is standard issue for many law enforcement agencies and it will be used by 63 NOAA enforcement personnel in their firearms qualifications and training.

This works out to a little over 700 rounds each for practice and qualification.  Quite frankly, that doesn't seem like a very stringent qualification.  NOAA should be ordering a half million rounds of ammo for these 63 officers to train and qualify.

So everyone can stand down.  Not only is there a perfectly plausible explanation, it's another example of the low standards set by the Fed.Gov.  Hopefully these are FPS types, and represent entry level (not elite) police.  Why NOAA needs a police force is a whole different question, of course, but it sure doesn't seem very big (or 'l33t).

Of course, I'll probably be keeping a bench in the Camps warm for all y'all, but this seems to be pretty minor.  Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, do not remove tag under penalty of (NOAA) law.

Guess what killed passenger rail?

Despite what your liberal friends say, it wasn't the Interstate Highways.  Passenger rail travel was declining for a decade before the Interstates were built.  No, the real reason the inter-city rail withered and died in the United States was government regulation:

If any federal action helped to kill passenger trains, it was a 1947 rule passed by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) regulating high-speed trains. The ruling, which went into effect in 1950, specified that trains could not go faster than 79 mph unless railroads installed expensive signaling and other improvements.

During the 1930s, several railroads had responded to the decline in passenger traffic by speeding up their trains. The Burlington, Milwaukee, Pennsylvania, Santa Fe, and Union Pacific were among the roads that routinely ran passenger trains between 100 and 120 mph in order to get average speeds of 60 (over the entire journey) to 80 (between some cities) mph. This was a huge improvement over the 30 to 40 mph average speeds of most trains at that time. The result on routes with such fast trains was almost always a huge increase in passenger traffic.

The ICC rule put the brakes on these trains. The railroads estimated it would cost them $80 million (more than $800 million in today’s dollars) to install the signals, which wouldn’t be worth it for the passengers that made up a limited part of the railroads’ business. Rail officials pointed out that, while there had been accidents involving fast streamliners, most would not have been prevented by better signals. (For example, two people were killed when a Burlington Zephyr collided with a tractor that had fallen off a freight train on a parallel track just seconds before the Zephyr passed by.)

As a paper by historian Mark Reutter notes, when railroads complained about the ruling, an ICC commissioner responded, “When you get to the final analysis here, it is a question of whether you [the railroads] should determine how these funds should be used or whether the government should. . . . And hasn’t Congress given the commission that responsibility?” [emphasis by Borepatch]

And so all this Progressive SWPL vision that is fixin' to (further) bankrupt California with a $100B high speed train to nowhere wouldn't be needed if the government hadn't regulated passenger rail to death.  For teh Childrenz™, of course.

Exciting Spam is exciting

Sometimes the Spam filter contains a higher caliber dross.

Neighborhood resident David Plunkett said she or he saw the type of male chimpanzee jump on apex of any police car - who has its lights on additionally an police agency inside - preceding the entire animal jumped you can each of our ground additionally headed towards a single vacant lot.  "We tried if you want to establish a brand new perimeter until that experts arrived," said Representative Marcus Martin, a trustworthy Las Vegas police spokesman. "But in the least to get ones to begin with animal, they start to couldn't getting there of spare time."  "They got competeing, and then the police did what folks had to assist you to would," said Paolone, a particular paving company worker who ended up being in work from the course of generally commotion then seemed to be to prevented regarding a good season anywhere from returning to positively his house and police investigated

I'm glad that this was a trustworthy Las Vegas spokesman, or who knows how it might have turned out.

Government screwups, making food and gasoline expensive edition

Both the Republicans and Democrats can take the blame for this.  Not quite half of this year's corn crop will go to making ethanol for gasoline.

For 2012, if ethanol production were to occur at 2011 levels, then net corn production would drop to 5.8 billion bushels, the lowest since at least 1993. Without the ethanol mandate this year, US corn production would be at an all time high.

The data are stark (this year's harvest looks to be sharply down, due to the drought):

So the price of food goes up, screwing the poor.  The price of gasoline goes up (corn ethanol is a lot more expensive that gasoline, hello), screwing the poor.  The only thing you can say in favor of the GOP's pandering to the farm states here is that at least the GOP doesn't pretend to be in favor of the poor.

Your Fed.Leviathan, screwing your life up.  Is it too much to ask them to stop screwing over the poorest in our society in the interest of pandering to a few swing state votes? 

But hey, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will change everything! [rolls eyes]

Because eating souls is magic!

My Little Cthulhu.

Also My Little Stormtrooper, My Little Ironman, My Little Darth Vader, and a whole bunch more.  The web site claims that you can buy these, but if so, it's the worst eCommerce site ever.

Real Houswives, 17th Century style

The Real Housewives of Shakespeare.



I laughed and laughed.  I think those of you in the Minneapolis area can go see these people in person.  The Great River Shakespeare Festival.

Anarcho-Tyranny 101

Anarcho-Tyranny is defined as a situation where the Government harshly enforces excessive punishments on the law abiding while ignoring actual crimes committed by favored classes.  Here's how it's done in Practice, in the People's Republic of Massachusetts.

Tyranny

Massachusetts' gun control laws are famously strict, although the murder rate in Dorchester doesn't suggest that they're effective at preventing gun deaths.  The gun laws aren't aimed at this, although it's the nominal justification.  Rather, they are aimed at disarming the law abiding population.

L'affair TJIC is a particularly egregious example of this, where a Massachusetts resident lost his gun permit because of his exercise of free speech.  Since Massachusetts gun permits are issued at the discretion of the local Police Chief, they can be revoked at any time, for any reason.

I myself nearly ran afoul of those same laws, when an empty .22 case got embedded in my boot tread during a trip to the range.  Since the law makes it a felony for an unlicensed individual to possess "ammunition or ammunition components", it was a good thing that I checked my boots before I left.  While it's unclear whether I would have been prosecuted for having a unreloadable case or not, this would have been at the discretion of the Organs of the State.

The arbitrary nature of the laws is what is proof of the tyrannical nature and presumed intent, to intimidate the law abiding population, or at least put so many ridiculous hurdles in their way that they forgo the exercise of their rights.

Anarchy

Criminals in Massachusetts routinely go unpunished, or receive sentences so light as to be essentially unpunished.  For example, child molestation:

A 45-year-old Ayer man was given 10 years probation and will spend no time in jail after a jury found him guilty of attempting to sexually assault a 19-month-old child.

After a four-day trial last month, a Lowell Superior Court jury found Joseph Sacramone guilty of one count of assault to rape a child...

At his sentencing hearing Monday, prosecutors requested a five-to seven-year state prison sentence, but Judge Janet Kenton-Walker sentenced Sacramone to 10 years probation with conditions.

Attempted child rape gets you zero jail time in the Commonwealth, because Governor Patrick appoints judges who believe - as a philosophical ideal - that the poor dears are oppressed, and so we mustn't judge too harshly.

And lest you think I'm cherry picking my examples, remember the former Marine Dad who caught subdood trying to molest his kid in the restroom, and punched his lights out?  Sumdood never saw the inside of a courthouse (and was in fact an illegal alien; the local Police Chief was astonished when he didn't show up for his Court date).  The Dad, of course, was arrested and charged with assault.

This was the incident when Massachusetts' dumb as a rock Attorney General Martha Coakley said that the State "didn't encourage self-help".

So there you have it, Anarcho-Tyranny 101, brought to you by those Intellectual Giants from Harvard Yard.  Remember, they're smarter than you and me.

Nicer, too.  They helpfully keep reminding us of that.

ZOMG! Teh Global Warmeninz!

It was positively autumnal last night in Roswell, GA - the heat of the day probably only say 85°, and the forecast was for a low around 60°. It's not even mid August yet.  In Georgia, it's making me think about covering up the tomatoes.

Clearly, this unseasonable cold snap is caused by Global Warming.  My proof?  Everything is caused by Global Warming.