You can be smart, brave and good looking, or you can be a gun nutter. Gun nutting is no way to go through life. #tinycockclub #gunsense
Bacon @Baconmints
Tweeted on December 23, 2014
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a Tweet from BFD @BigFatDave.—Joe]
Survivalism … is mostly about attitude and skills, not shopping and stockpiling tons of products.
Having said that, neither attitude nor skill will materialize a gun when you need it, or create water when there’s none to be found.
Fernando Ferfal Aguirre
Page 63 in The Modern Survival Manual; surviving the Economic Collapse
2009
[I bought this book over three years ago and gave it to Brother Doug. He read it, gave me a synopsis, and gave it back a few months later. I just started reading it.
Aguirre lived through the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 and tells us:
What finally convinced me that I had to something important to say was the huge, massive amount of misinformation with the survivalist and preparedness community, in particular regarding how to prepare for an economic collapse.
Unfortunately, many people take for granted concepts and ideas from movies or works of fiction that have little to do with reality.
The biggest take away I have after reading less than a quarter of the book is that good neighborhoods in cities and small towns may be safer than rural areas. In addition to other issues, in the city your neighbors are more likely to notice and help, or at least call the police, in the case where you are the victim of a home invasion. If your nearest neighbor is a half mile away they won’t hear your screams as you are tortured into giving up the combination to your safe.—Joe]
These documents demonstrate Hillary Clinton’s reckless and downright dangerous handling of classified information during her tenure as secretary of state. They also cast further doubt on the Justice Department’s decision to avoid prosecuting what is a clear violation of the law. This is exactly why I have called for her to be denied access to classified information.
Paul Ryan
Speaker of the House
September 2, 2016
Statement on Clinton Investigation Document Release
[See also FBI files show Clinton claimed ignorance on classification:
According to the files, Clinton claimed to have relied on the judgment of her aides and other officials to handle classified material appropriately. She even told investigators — when asked what the “C” marking meant before a paragraph in an email marked “Confidential” – that “she did not know and could only speculate it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order.”
The FBI document notes that the email was in fact marked “classified at the Confidential level.” And when asked about different classification types like “Top Secret,” Clinton went on to say she “did not pay attention to the ‘level’ of classified information and took all classified information seriously.”
The documents also say Clinton claimed she could not recall “any briefing or training by State related to the retention of federal records or handling of classified information.” Further, Clinton “could not give an example of how classification of a document was determined.”
Such passages could help explain why FBI Director James Comey said during congressional testimony in July that there were questions over whether Clinton was “sophisticated enough” to know at the time what a particular classified marking signified.
The markings on a classified document look something like this (in red):
Top Secret
(S) We now have all the required guns and ammo for the attack.
(TS) We attack at dawn.
Each paragraph is marked at the highest level of classification in that paragraph.* The marking at the top is the highest level of classification of any paragraph in the document.
Hillary Clinton, as described by the FBI, is not “sophisticated enough” to understand these markings. This makes it exceptionally clear that she is not “sophisticated enough” to be a president of a community book club, let alone the President of the United States.—Joe]
* A game I used to play with the classifier of the documents I created was to write the paragraphs such that no single paragraph contained any classified information. Yet when the paragraphs were taken as a whole they did qualify as classified. It was a far more amusing game for me than my poor classifier who didn’t know what to do with them and never thought to ask me to rewrite them to make it easier for her.
A majority of the public (58%) says that gun ownership in this country does more to protect people from becoming victims of crime, compared with 37% who believe it does more to put people’s safety at risk.
Pew Research Center
August 26, 2016
Opinions on Gun Policy and the 2016 Campaign
[That’s the good news.
The bad news is there doesn’t seem to be any anti-gun laws being proposed in any of the major legislative bodies that the majority of people are opposed to. I don’t have an explanation for this dichotomy other than what I have said many times before:
It’s irrational to expect people to be rational.
I guess it just means we have more work to do in changing the culture.—Joe]
In my opinion, the only good German was a dead German, and the deader, the better. I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn’t kill more.
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake
A.K.A.:
Heléne (SOE)
Andrée (French Resistance/SOE Identity)
White Mouse (Gestapo in France)
Witch (Operation:)
Awards:
Companion of the Order of Australia
George Medal
Officier de la Légion d’Honneur
Croix de guerre (France)
Medal of Freedom (United States)
RSA Badge in Gold (New Zealand)
See also here.
[H/T m.e.
Wake may have been a sociopath and was definitely a new force of nature. She left a trail of dead Nazis in her wake:
By 1943, Wake was the Gestapo’s most wanted person, with a 5 million-franc price on her head.
…
She also led attacks on German installations and the local Gestapo HQ in Montluçon. At one point Wake discovered that her men were protecting a girl who was a German spy. They did not have the heart to kill her in cold blood, but when Wake insisted she would perform the execution, they capitulated.
From April 1944 until the liberation of France, her 7,000+ maquisards fought 22,000 German soldiers, causing 1,400 casualties, while suffering only 100 themselves. Her French companions, especially Henri Tardivat, praised her fighting spirit, amply demonstrated when she killed an SS sentry with her bare hands to prevent him from raising the alarm during a raid. During a 1990s television interview, when asked what had happened to the sentry who spotted her, Wake simply drew her finger across her throat. “They’d taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE, and I practised away at it. But this was the only time I used it – whack – and it killed him all right. I was really surprised.”
Ahh… yes. Women, the gentle sex. Keep this in mind if you ever need help killing Nazis.—Joe]
To the filthy and coward non-believers and to the holders of the Christ emblem, we bring the good news, which will keep them awake, that a new generation in the Islamic State … that loves death more than life … this generation will only grow steadfast on the path to Jihad, stay determined to seek revenge and be violent toward them.
ISIS
August 30, 2016
ISIS spokesman killed in Aleppo, group says
[Read that carefully and remember this:
It would appear to me they desire we make one of only two active choices. In either case we give them what they want. Although there is potential for other, long term, active choices if I were directly faced with making the decision on short notice I know what my choice would be.—Joe]
In truth, one who believes it wrong to arm himself against criminal violence shows contempt of God’s gift of life (or, in modern parlance, does not properly value himself), does not live up to his responsibilities to his family and community, and proclaims himself mentally and morally deficient, because he does not trust himself to behave responsibly. In truth, a state that deprives its law-abiding citizens of the means to effectively defend themselves is not civilized but barbarous, becoming an accomplice of murderers, rapists, and thugs and revealing its totalitarian nature by its tacit admission that the disorganized, random havoc created by criminals is far less a threat than are men and women who believe themselves free and independent, and act accordingly.
Jeffrey R. Snyder
1993
A Nation of Cowards
[It’s probably been 20 years since I read this. I linked to it on a very old web page of mine here. The link there, and nearly all the others as well, are dead. I was somewhat surprised that many of the things I have said in more recent years had been said, more eloquently, in Snyder’s essay in 1993. I should reread that powerful essay more frequently and use his words instead of substituting my resuscitation of the dusty, vague, memories of decades old enlightenment.
H/T to Kirk Parker and Sean for bringing this to my attention again.—Joe]
@Trunthepaige
Ed S. @SnowdenEd
Tweeted on September 15, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
This guy is particularly dim-witted because @Trunthepaige is a woman.
Via a tweet from QuackHead/PotterHead @Duck_Hunter7.—Joe]
As a life-long investigative reporter, I remain committed to the facts. But I recognize that the contest in November will be determined not by facts, but by faith, and by how many believers on each side come to the polls. That is the new reality of the two Americas of 2016.
Kenneth R. Timmerman
July 28, 2016
Democratic convention more about Fantasyland than America
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
So, Hillary now is the Reset Button?
John Hardin
August 26, 2016
Comment to Quote of the day—Liz Crokin
[I think this might be better rewritten as, “Hillary is the Reset Button.”
Back in the late 90’s, in the dark days of the Clinton presidency, I knew gun people who said we should vote for the most totalitarian administration imaginable, Hillary, for the next president. The thought was that the “water” would heat up so rapidly that “the frogs” would take action rather than die from the slow increase in temperature. There are people today saying similar things.
I don’t know whether that would have been the correct choice then or it is the correct choice now, but it might very well be the choice will be made for us. And if the election goes worst case for us it will be ugly. Not only are the anti-gun people openly talking of an “assault weapon ban”, and “the Australian example”, but also “a ban on semi-automatic firearms, which are often described as ‘assault weapons.’” Never mind semi-auto handguns were a significant component of the Heller decision and protected. As it stand the Heller decision is being essentially ignored. With another Clinton presidency it will be nullified in everything but our memories.
I’m preparing for the worst and hoping for an indictment of Hillary.—Joe]
I began looking into how strong the bias and censorship runs in these forums after I did an interview on the pro-Trump podcast, MAGAPod. The show’s host, Mark Hammond, was disappointed Apple wouldn’t run his show without an “explicit” warning. Hammond’s podcast didn’t contain content that would be deemed explicit under Apple’s policy, and most other shows in the News & Politics category aren’t labeled as such.
On June 18, Hammond talked to Sandra, a representative from Apple. She explained that, since the description of his show is pro-Trump, his show is explicit in nature—because the subject matter is Donald Trump. So, an Apple employee concluded the Republican presidential candidate is explicit.
Liz Crokin
August 12, 2016
Tech Companies Apple, Twitter, Google and Instagram Collude to Defeat Trump
[H/T Michael Krieger.
Ry and I had breakfast together the other day and discussed some things tangentially related to this. I.E. Germany and Japan had culture issues that apparently could only be fixed by their complete surrender at the end of WW II and then the rebuilding of their government and social institutions with a different set of values.
Today there seem to be things in our society and/or government that appear to be so broken, corrupt, and/or deeply ingrained that they can’t really be fixed via normal means. One could make the case that a hard reset may be necessary.
[Heavy sigh]
I really don’t want us to go there.—Joe]
People in the United States of America want it understood that designating arms, ammunition and related accessories, which are currently legal to make, keep or bear in any state, which may later be declared illegal to make, keep or bear, or encumbered in any way by any means and for any reason, constitutes Second Amendment infringement.
Such actions are null and void, amount to prima facie violation of the oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and are grounds for removal from office for failure to faithfully execute the duties of the office.
Any action or attempt by any person to enforce such infringement on property possessed in our state will be a class four felony for a first offense, and a class three felony for second and subsequent offenses.
County Sheriffs and law-enforcement agencies in this state will be authorized to enforce this Declaration and to deputize as many residents as may be necessary to enforce this Declaration.
This Declaration, circulated widely by people who support it, is provided as a courtesy and notice of protected civil rights to candidates, politicians and people working in any capacity in government. It will be introduced as state legislation to authorize peaceful enforcement of those civil rights. Model legislation is in the draft stage and will be circulated soon.
…
Consider yourselves notified of impending disaster, if the headlong rush to infringe the public’s right to arms — and all the other blatantly unconstitutional abuses — continues on its current path. Don’t shoot me, I’m only the messenger.
Alan Korwin
August 21, 2016
American Protection of Arms Declaration
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
We were concerned about copycats and that if we tried to be too specific, that these people are very adept at figuring ways to get around (the law).
We wanted the law to be dynamic and evolving but aimed with the purpose to ban assault weapons.
Warren Tolman
Former Massachusetts Democratic state Senator.
Cosponsor of the 1998 law.
August 20, 2016
1994 Massachusetts law at center of assault weapons clash
[I think the title should be “1998…”, not “1994…” but that’s not important.
The important part is that non specific and “dynamic and evolving” are weasel words for “unconstitutionally vague”.
Update: Weer’d gives us the contradictions in the Massachusetts AG “clarification” letter.
And, as pointed out by Archer, don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
Terrorists can recognize the difference between actual security and it’s mere appearance. You think they can’t see past a gun free zone sign? It might as well say, “Terrorists welcome! Ready access to undefended scores of innocent children.” Please get over the gun-control distraction. Ask yourself, “What stops four men from going to a school with knives or bombs?” I know that by the time a threat reaches me on an airplane there is no time for hesitation, talk, quarter. I want to win more than I can tolerate losing.
In 2016 federal agencies are training their law enforcement personal to respond to active shooter scenarios. Concealed carry permits for civilians are going up. That’s great!
But we need a more honest discussion. By the time a terrorist or a criminal boards a plane with ill intentions we’re past the time for obfuscating their plans or negotiating them down. Either FAMS personal is on the plane when it takes off or its passengers and crew are marked for death and they better know it. The Federal Air Marshal, the passengers, the flight crew, and pilots are truly the last line of defense. Public spaces and schools need the same approach.
Let’s cut the feel good politics and recognize by the time someone with dangerous plans reaches your doorstep it’s too late to ponder root causes of anti-social behavior. It’s time to act. All of the thinking should have been done beforehand. And the level of commitment to stop grotesque violence in its tracks, stone cold dead, has to exceed theirs if protecting the principal is going to succeed.
Have no misconceptions. Any outcome at that point will be bloody, ugly, and lowdown. It’s like nothing you have seen in any Hollywood movie. It’s going to be bad breath and fingernail close. But it’s a fight that is coming our way whether we get ready for it or not.
Let’s get ready.
Gary J. Byrne
2016
Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate
[I listened to this as an audible book so I probably have some punctuation messed up and maybe some spelling and other minor stuff. But it’s pretty close.
The book, as you can see, isn’t just about his time as a Secret Service Officer for the Clintons. It briefly covers his time in the Air Force, time with the Bush’s before the Clintons, testifying during the investigation by Kenneth Star, and time with the Federal Air Marshals.
There are some quotes I’m going to pull out about the Clintons too. But I thought this was higher priority. I really like it.
It’s a good book. I highly recommend it.—Joe]
IOW – We’re bullies and we want you to see our guns to make up for our other tiny appendage.
Figment @Figment_Imagine
Tweeted on January 16, 2016
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from QuackHead/PotterHead @Duck_Hunter7.—Joe]
The six months under review have seen central bankers continuing what is surely the greatest experiment in monetary policy in the history of the world.
We are therefore in uncharted waters and it is impossible to predict the unintended consequences of very low interest rates, with some 30 per cent of global government debt at negative yields, combined with quantitative easing on a massive scale.
In times like these, preservation of capital in real terms continues to be as important an objective as any in the management of your company’s assets.
Lord Jacob Rothschild
British investment banker
August 16, 2016
Rothchilds Buying Gold On “Greatest” Money “Experiment” In “History The of World”
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
As is often the case with virtue-signaling lifestyles, number-crunching doesn’t quite justify the supposed benefits of granola-crunching. “When applied to an entire global population, the vegan diet wastes available land that could otherwise feed more people,” concluded news site Quartz in a review of a scientific study published in the journal Elementa that compares the sustainability of various eating patterns.
Just as global-warming hysteria leads to draconian restrictions and taxes that devastate the poor in order to provide conscience relief to progressives, totalitarian eating habits aren’t as sustainable as more moderate ones. For instance, trying to grow crops on land best suited for use as grazing land for cattle means wasting resources.
Kyle Smith
August 4, 2016
Selfish vegans are ruining the environment
[“As is often the case with virtue-signaling…”. I think a good case could be made that it goes beyond problems with simple number-crunching. Data and logical thinking in general is not something they are really all that familiar with.—Joe]
Mr Kuntzman my 10 year old daughter shoots her AR-15 often and she has never shown signs of PTSD so I am assuming she is doing it wrong. Could you look at her picture below and please let us know what she is doing wrong? Is her wrist not limp enough? signed frustrated father
Dear Frustrated, the answer is simple. Your daughter does not have what it takes to be a reporter for a big New York City paper.
Larry Correia
June 16, 2016
ASK KUNTZMAN!
[This is Larry mocking Gersh Kuntzman who wrote about how terrible the recoil, among other things, is when shooting an AR-15.
Via email from Paul Koning.—Joe]
I don’t want to live in a world where hacking comes in second to ISIS.
Chris Rock
August 6, 2016 at Defcon 24
How to Overthrow a Government
[This is the white Australian Chris Rock, not the black U.S. Chris Rock.
This was his response to someone who said the biggest threats the world currently faces are, in order, ISIS, Hacking, … some other stuff. His point was that he thinks hacking should be number one in the list of threats to the world. Why should hacking come in behind a bunch of incompetent amateurs? So, he showed how hacking was used to create changes in the government of Kuwait a few years ago. At least that was strongly implied. It wasn’t clear to me whether this actually happened or was just a plausible explanation of what might have happened.
Here are some pictures from his presentation:
Interesting stuff.—Joe]
Crime is one example where a rebound in carbon emissions could be an issue, according to this study. While there is an energy cost to operating prisons, the study notes, inmates generally consume less than an average citizen in the country, so fewer prisoners might mean higher overall energy consumption.
Additionally, the money saved from reducing crime would go into the government’s budget and people’s pockets. All that money could be spent in other ways — infrastructure, buildings or goods — that may require more energy to produce or operate, possibly adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Tatiana Schlossberg
August 3, 2016
How Lowering Crime Could Contribute to Global Warming
[H/T to Anonymous Conservative.
I found this very telling. The violation of the rights of people by criminals is secondary to the concern about carbon emissions. And, most importantly, they now have the idea that putting lots of people in prison is good for the environment. Think about what that might lead to.—Joe]