All Guns are Loaded

Words fail. 17 people injured, 4 critically, including children, at an open house day for the French Special Forces. Apparently instead of the expected blanks, live ammo had been loaded in weapons for a demonstration. I have visited Carcassone and walked past the Special Forces barracks--even seen a few of them walking about. They seemed to have the proper military bearing; no slouching. The area was squared away. How could this possibly have happened?

I've never handled blank ammo, but common sense would dictate it be in some way visually distinct from live ammo. Yes? Please?? If it is visually distinct, did the soldiers with the (allegedly) blank-loaded magazines not check for themselves? Your gun, your responsibility.

But the big question is ... even if you are firing blanks, what in the name of little green apples would possess you to even think of POINTING your weapon at live people you have no intention of making into dead people? Blank ammo can still kill. I am sure there are American military who are curling up into whimpering balls at the mere thought of ever pointing even an empty weapon at civilians. Not as a joke. Not as an exercise. Not even a demonstration with blank ammo. NEVER. What mental giant thought this would be a good thing?

UPDATE: reports coming in that all the live rounds came from one soldier. Who didn't stop when he saw the very realistic blood? Hmmm.

Sunday Funnies

- Lackadaisycats has updated! It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for, especially when they get their paws on a tommy gun.
- Gone with the Blast Wave has updated! Lieutenants and maps ... rarely a happy combination. Even in a post-apocalyptic future.
- the kitties of Two Lumps continue shenanigans
- meanwhile, in the secret underground beer garden, Girl Genius continues ... with weaponized polkas!
- Schlock Mercenary attempts to deliver food and medicine to a bunch of ungrateful thugs, who would prefer to *steal* it.
- Dresden Codak ponders why handing over everything to a World Computer is not a good idea

Heh

Hopey Changeitude! Now with extra added clones!



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Persons of Very Small Brain

Exhibit A: Person or persons unknown who decided to forcibly remove the "Stop Global Whining" bumper sticker from my car whilst it was sitting innocently in a parking lot. On a day even more chilly and damp than usual. In June. I hope you got a wicked thrill, because you probably won't like the replacement much -- "I support the troops AND their mission". See how violence just escalates the problem? Just pretend I'm an insurgent, and anything you do to tick me off just makes more of me.

Exhibit B: Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, who has now banned guns from city facilities. All this in response to a shooting at a big Seattle festival caused by a person with a history of mental issues, who got a concealed carry permit anyway because the mental health people aren't ALLOWED to share information about who is a raving nutcase with the folks issuing the permits. I guess the Snohomish County Sheriff's department is staffed by psychics? You don't suppose a mental basket case would *lie* about being fragile in the head-gasket department, would you? (The person who carries a lot of culpability in this sad case was the guy's father, who knew his son wasn't right in the head but bought him a gun anyway. Fortunately nobody died.) It's interesting, but one of the people who was shot has a very rational take on the whole mess.

Sarah Thorsnes, a 21-year-old who was shot in the thigh, said she appreciates the mayor's efforts but does not support his prohibition.

"It's putting a strain on people who have a right to own guns and should know how to use them properly," said Thorsnes, who lives in Renton. "I still stand behind needing to look at mental health as a problem rather than banning guns from people who have a right to have them and use them properly."

It was against the law for the guy to have a carry permit or a gun in the first place, but more laws are going to help? I'm confused ...

Let's ban "assault knives"

And trucks. No word if this vehicle was fueled with biodiesel. So, seven people (so far) are dead in this brutal attack. All the guy used was a truck and a knife. No guns. Maybe, just maybe, the problem is homicidal thoughts and not the instruments used in homicide? There are some Indonesian folk tales about evil swords that *like* to kill, but my guns are pretty much inert lumps that do what they are told. No complaints about only slaying paper targets.

I don't know if this is just media hype, but there seem to be some strange stories coming out of Japan lately. Like the "monster parents" who ensured a grade-school play featured 25 Snow Whites and no dwarves because all of them wanted their child to play the lead. Now this guy who was "tired of life" and thoughtfully decided he would also help some innocent bystanders out of this vale of tears as well. Hopefully this is just a temporary aberration. I never thought the extreme emphasis on consensus at all costs was a good thing in the long run, and all it takes is one rude person to screw it up for everyone else in a consensus-driven culture. Looks like they figured that out.

BCR Labs approves

We are inching closer to a death ray. Right now this is just a death ray for IEDs and cars that don't stop at checkpoints, but incremental development ensures a solid final product. And testing. Lots and lots of testing. Bwahahahaha.

I want a mulligan

Any day that starts with the phrase "I gave my cat a pill" is doomed from the outset. Now, I succeeded in giving the pill, after two attempts, and the discovery that my little cat can morph into a strange being made entirely of spring steel, 16 elbows, and an air horn. No blood transfusions necessary. Said cat was getting this pill (a tranquilizer) because he becomes overwrought when his happy home is invaded by strange humans with big clompy feet making loud and strange noises, and yes, the contractors were coming. So Kitty floated away on a happy pink cloud of chemicals, I showed the guys where the problem was, signed away a big chunk of cash, and left for work. A few hours after I get to work, I get a call from the contractors. No, they hadn't broken my house (big relief). However, they discovered my old, crochety, idiosyncratic house had done it again and they COULDN'T fix the problem, not without completely shredding my living room and oh yes, more money. So, another fixit job gets shoved to the "After I Rob Several Banks" list. Then, when I am going home, I see a tree on fire. What was particularly remarkable about this was it was on fire in a complete downpour--a pretty neat trick, I thought. Apparently a (wet) branch was bridging two wires just enough to allow a current to dry and incinerate said branch. Given the soggy state of the world right then I did not classify it as an emergency, but thought the local fire department might be interested. Like a Good Citizen, I called the non-emergency number .... only to find that they WANTED me to call 911. Someone should tell these guys they are wasting a lot of money on PSAs that sternly warn you to only call 911 for *real* emergencies, like severed limbs. So, now I am going to pull the covers over my head and pretend today never happened.

Global Warming, where are you?

Went toodling over the Cascade Mountains this weekend, via two different passes. Stevens Pass, even at this late date, still has HUGE amounts of snow. Not drifts, actual snow deposits. Well over 10 feet in some places. The North Cascade loop, the return route, had less snow (but still there). Lots of avalanche debris, and huge boulders by the side of the road trying to look nonchalant that weren't there last year.

Back in Snark Central the cottonwoods are making their annual attempt to take over the world with fluff. Much to the consternation of the cats, the heat has been turned off but it isn't what you would call balmy outside. I remind them *they* have fur coats. And still owe me their share of the heating oil bill. And if we don't get some sunspots soon that heating bill is only going to get worse. I am going to have to have a bonfire every weekend to get caught up on my carbon emission. Gotta do something, after all!

Man and Horse

For Memorial Day

An Army man and an Army horse, 1917. For all those who have served, two-legs and four.

A few observations

-Bicyclists: I am happy to share the road with you, really. However, when there is a nice, functional bike lane completely unobstructed by potholes, gravel, dead deer, or lava I expect you to use it, and not the lane intended for motor vehicles. When I am Evil Overlord, if a bicyclist is run over and flattened *in* the vehicle lane where a bike lane is available, no charges will be permitted against the driver. Sometimes Darwin needs assistance.
-People Obama will Talk To: Never mind the preconditions/preparations hairsplitting. Your humble Snarkatron firmly believes the only things a red-blooded American should say to Amahdinejad is "Blindfold? Cigarette?" but the spirit of Jimmy Carter lives on. I just want to know why Obama is willing to talk to all kinds of bloodthirsty thugs, but gets the vapors even considering appearing on Fox. What's his rationale, here? Fox News hasn't slaughtered anybody.
-Looking At Watch Anxiously Dept.: We still really haven't started Solar Cycle 24. The only sunspots that are appearing are a) rather sparse and b) belong to Cycle 23 (yes, we can tell). This is Not Good except for Thermo-Pane window salesmen.

And Cigarettes are legal, too

Note to all the drug legalization proponents. Organized crime and cigarette smuggling. Tobacco, at least for now, is legal to own, use, grow, and you can even carry it onto school grounds. Smoking may give you a nice assortment of illnesses, but as far as I know it does not impair your ability to hold down a job (well, maybe liquid oxygen dispenser ...) or care for yourself or your family, or make you a hazard behind the wheel. Now, the article is quite clear that the smuggling efforts (and murder, etc) peak with high cigarette taxes and ebb when the taxes are lowered. No doubt the legalization folk are mumbling about how legal drugs *would* be cheaper, so there. Yeah, but how cheap is cheap enough for people whose teeth have fallen out and can't find any work at all because of their drug addictions? And you just know that the state will find drug taxes irresistible. Plus age restrictions, just like cigarettes, and you know kids will always obey the laws. Just like they do now. So that's at least two sizable populations that can't go to to the Hallucinogens-R-Us store and load up, aaaannd ..... we're right back to the criminal profit motive again.

Completely leaving out the bit about me not wanting to fund in any way, shape, or form all the medical issues the drug users will have, and want treatment at the emergency room for, that RIGHT NOW I pay for. The war on drugs is ongoing just like the war on murder. Deal.

From the Real World: Scary Tales for Politicians

Your humble Snarkatron was quite amused to learn, via the learned and ponderously fact-checked media, that it is simply not the done thing to ask candidates for political office *any* questions that do not pertain to their positions on Important Issues (defined, I believe, as those topics for which the networks have already created clever graphics.) So, asking Madame Clinton about her rather unverified account of dodging sniper fire is rude. Asking Senator Obama(jr.) about the terrorists (former, domestic) he has in his Rolodex? Rude. Asking why his clinging to Rev. Wright isn't a sign of economic desperation and feeble-mindedness, unlike the gun-toting bible-thumping rubes of Pennsylvania? VERY rude.

So, why do we keep doing it when Our Betters(tm) tell us not to? Because politicians lie. A lot. Sometimes the best ones merely don't tell the truth. Unless they are running for the position of Evil Overlord for Life, candidates cannot truthfully promise much of anything because execution of said promises in this democracy requires the active collaboration of a lot of other people, some who do not think the same way. Most ordinary folk simple accept political promises as a wish list of what the candidate would like to do--much like listening to a promising five-year-old's pronouncement that they want to be a fireman when they grow up.

Instead, we gaze with laser-like intensity on what the candidates have already done. I've never been shot at myself, but I gather from those who have that the experience makes a decided impression on the memory. People capable of inventing I-was-shot-at stories can invent other stories. Like I-won't-take-your-guns stories. Or tax-increases-what-tax-increases stories. People who don't understand why a few social engagements with a known, unrepentant, blood-on-his-hands terrorist should raise eyebrows are quite capable of signing treaties with heads of state that are real, blood-on-their-hands terrorists.

Those of us who live in the universe where you get in a LOT of trouble if you don't balance your checkbook care about these things. Sorry, politicians. Yes we were listening, yes we remember, yes it will be on the final. Forever. Bwahahahahaa!

Guns: yes
Job: yes
Religion: none
Bitterness Level: 0.00000001 Michele Obamas

Further Signs of the Apocalypse

Look, this is getting embarrassing. It's the middle of bleeping April, guys. Ixnay on the owsnay. Do you know how silly a hammock looks covered in snow?

Now, what were those things we weren't supposed to do for fear of Global Warming? I think I'd better start working my way down the list. Before it's too late ...

Sunday Funnies

• Four more pages of Lackadaisy and the adventures of rum-running Jazz era cats. Or, true chivalry is paying for the doctor when your lady-friend's "muscle" gets a lung full of buckshot.
• Girl Genius presents management techniques of the Mad Scientist. Or, the minute but significant difference between certain death right now and certain death which is more of a surprise, timing- and source-wise.
• Dresden Codak with cool robots and badly-behaved time travelers.
• The kitties of Two Lumps need tech support.
  

Yesh

I got to meet an Iraqi kitty that came back to the states with his hoomin. He ossim too. This clearly Intelligence hoomin who knows kitteh is Superior Being and should get pets. And cheezburger if PX has.


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Of course you realize, this means WAR

It's nearly April, for heaven's sake. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and I don't ever recall snow that stayed on the ground this late in the year. Yet the AGW folks are *convinced* we have rising global temperatures. I'll just send them my heating bill, then. And I'm having a bonfire this weekend. Feel free to join in. We obviously aren't polluting enough.

Happy Pi Day!

Secant, tangent, cosine, sine,
3.14159

Yay pi! See, it's March 14. 3.14, geddit?

What?

Character is what you are in the dark

The Snarkatron's reaction to the latest sordid sex scandal is mixed. From the curious reticence of the Mainstream Media to mention Mr. Spitzer's political affiliation I rudely assume he is a Democrat. So yay, the sewage isn't in *my* house, but ick, it's still sewage. And the industrious members of the Fourth Estate seem to think my life would be a trial and not worth living if the latest details aren't shoved in my face with red banner headlines every 15 minutes. Come on, folks, this isn't the crash of the Hindenberg.

In between breathless updates about the party of the second part's MySpace page (0y...) we get Deep Thinkers and Pundits and other heavily-brained folk who opine on the legalization of prostitution (pro and con), is it really exploitation of Modern Women who Own their Bodies, and Men Have Urges. (No, really? Stop the presses! This is NEWS!)

The Snarkatron's opinion has not been asked, strangely enough, but here it is. Legalization of prostitution will not make a damn bit of difference, except hookers will get to experience twice as much government efficiency as the rest of us who merely have to deal with the Department of Motor Vehicles for licensing. It will still be a scandal for highly placed government officials to be found patronizing the ladies of negotiable affection, and the pro's won't exactly be taking out ads in the New York Times with their vital statistics and independently verified suction strength either.

It all has to do with respect. What does it say about a man who patronizes women who will only have sex with him if they are paid? Maybe he's so repulsive it's the only way he can get any. Maybe he just wants to have sex without having to pretend he gives a damn about how the woman feels. Maybe the cool chicks *he* thinks he rates can't see him with a telescope. (I am leaving out situations where the only women available are prostitutes, since all the others are hidden or locked up. This is about free actors on both sides.) Not very flattering to the man, any way you look at it. Especially in this modern day and age, with working birth control and other wonders, a reasonably polite, attractive man has other options that don't have a fee schedule. Then there's the women. I don't think we're ever going to get to the science fictional "socially acceptable courtesans". Prostitutes will always be looked at askance for the same reason you don't see hetero male prostitutes all over the landscape. Yes, women view sex differently than men. If a woman is paying for sex, to her way of looking at it she's already lost since it clearly isn't about the emotional connection, is it? In the same way, a woman *selling* sex isn't expecting an emotional connection either, and is also saying "I wouldn't do this guy if I wasn't getting paid". She doesn't respect herself, so why should anyone else? Please note I'm not saying prostitutes should be stoned or branded. Plain ole social stigma is all, just like for drug abusers and people who don't bathe.

Please. I don't WANT to know about your sex life! Really.

Power Windows

Sometimes your humble Snarkatron hears people complaining about how hard they have it, and just has to wonder. If you aren't being shot at, have a roof over your head and enough to eat (even if it isn't FairTrade/Organic/Free Range/Cruelty Free/Martian Friendly) an awful lot of people would like to trade places with you. Some people, it seems, can't be happy no matter what they have. Other people can be happy with very little. I've lived *officially* below the poverty line, in an apartment with cinderblock walls and linoleum floors. Most garages were nicer than that place (and sometimes the sink drain burbled up ... things ... I had never put down it) but it was clean, cheap, and the heat worked. I even had a cat who thought hunting the cockroaches was great fun. Since we both liked liver (he preferred his share raw) we could afford meat now and then too, when the Ramen noodles began to pall.

I live in a house that I own, now. Like the Obama's house that has been in the news of late, it has mahogany paneling--but there the resemblance ends. The guy who built my house back in 1935 *made* the paneling his own self. The only wine I have is Three Buck Chuck, and I sure don't have a thousand bottles of the damn stuff. I don't have, or want, cable, or air conditioning, or a host of other things I have been assured are "necessities". When I bought the house I didn't need to resort to dodgy financial arrangements, because (as a friend once described it) it "looked one step up from a crack house". Yeah, it needed a lot of TLC, but that was why I could afford it. What is all this whining about not having the time to get fresh fruit for the kids, or the hassle of picking them up from all their expensive lessons and how tired you get? I filled an entire construction dumpster (by hand) with siding I and my trusty crowbar pried off (by hand). THAT was work. I'm not a glutton for punishment, either. I couldn't AFFORD to hire anyone to do it for me. Ergo, I did it myself. See a pattern here?

And yet, I am happy. I like my life, and I look forward to puttering around my house and garden, seeing my friends, writing my books. I doubt I will ever earn as much as Michelle Obama does, and I don't mind. So why is she the bitter one?

Power Windows, the video.

Bookshelf Extreme

via Instapundit, a very entertaining take on some individuals who seem to think that books are for display. They debate whether or not it is de rigeur to display books which one has not actually read, and are roundly mocked in the comments by bibliophiles who could care less what *people* think, they like *books*. Now, I will confess to a form of bibliomancy when invited to someone's home--I check out their bookshelves. It gives me some idea of the hidden depths involved without requiring rude questions or other social hazards, like actually talking to them. (If they don't have any books, I suddenly recall I left something on the stove and run out the door, gibbering.) My bookshelves must give *my* visitors furiously to think, as M. Poirot would say. Yes, he is present, as is Lord Peter, the Thinking Machine, and others of their ilk. Plus lots of science fiction, fantasy, *real* science, a little-known book by a Secret Service officer, the ABC Telegraph Code (1917 edition), Chaucer, some strange books in German, and a damn near complete set of Georgette Heyer. I actually took the room that was supposed to be the dining room and turned it into a library, complete with comfy chairs and tall bookcases that look built-in. I have LOTS of books, 99% of which I have read, and I don't care what other people think. Hell, I shelve Nietzsche next to Jane Austen. (In my mind, it makes sense. They're both classics, you know.)

We have *cultured* smut around here

There are a few holdouts remaining in what used to be the red-light district of Seattle. One of these, an establishment devoted to worship of the female form (unclothed), has a sign. This week it read:

Veni, Vidi, Veni

I think ol' Julius, ladies man that he was, would approve.