And I’ll never look at Spongebob quite the same way again. NSFW.

(Push the button … )

What I said before about the Wikileaks being a good thing, in that it keeps government honest, still stands.  However, those who deign to release information deemed secret do have a responsibility to ensure that the information released won’t hurt innocent civilians or regular soldiers.  If it slams political figures who are being deceitful, great; but the folks who are just trying to do the right thing, or just following the orders of those political figures, get hurt in the back wash, well, there has to be a reckoning.

So, RivirDog, I submit that you were right, the released data was not properly vetted, and damage has been done to persons who are not valid political targets.

Can you please pass the ketchup, this is one gamy bird I gotta eat?

Doggies are once again ensconced in their luxury kennel at Woodland Veterinary Hospital while we head to Santa Ynez for our niece’s wedding at the lovely Roblar Winery. I’ll be using this trip as a mock bugout towards the Central Valley over the Altamont hills, avoiding the commuter-clogged interstate 580 through Altamont Pass. Instead we’ll try the Patterson Pass backroads and see how it goes.

To watch Alaska and Kaya luxuriating,

(Push the button … )

I’ve been meaning to write this up for a week now but haven’t had time, but now I do.

Last week, a group of males drove to a house in the Lakewood/Tacoma are after getting into an argument via a text with a resident of the neighborhood. After calling out the guy they were arguing with they proceeded to start a melee in the street. The resident’s mother exited her house with a baseball bat in an attempt to break up the fight.

One of the non-resident males then pulled out a pistol, pointed it at her and then fired a shot off into the air. The males then got back in their car and drove off. However, before leaving the block the front seat passenger turned and fired multiple shots back at the residence.

One of these hit a neighbor who had exited her home to see if she could render assistance after the males drove off. It entered her left eye and did the damage you’d expect, killing her immediately.

The police have caught one of the three males and have arrest warrants out for the other two.

I live in Tacoma, but I don’t live anywhere near that neighborhood, or any neighborhood that even has a reputation for incidents like that in the past. In fact, I can count the number of high school/college aged “young adults” in my neighborhood on one hand. It was part of the reason The Wife and I chose this neighborhood.

However, I plan on being here for a while and know that when the retirees/soon-to-be retirees leave they will rent/sell their homes and that I have no control over who moves in. I also know that Chaos rules the universe and anything can happen at anytime to anyone.

So I have a plan. For every circumstance that I can imagine (and having seen some ghastly situations live and in person, I can imagine quite ghastly things), including this one.

As I heard the new radio station reporting the story I ran through my plan for this exact situation. I know the tools I will need, where they are, the exit, the path, and the position. I also know the law, which dictates the breadth of my available reactions, and the points at which certain options become available.

Do you?

A carload of “yoots” enter your neighborhood and their sole intent is to assault and threaten the lives of your neighbors and raise general hell.

How long will you take to make ready your defense? If you’re over 60 seconds your defense is useless. Your AAR will consist of “and my neighbor took a bullet to the head as I was loading up a mag.” I’m 15 seconds or less from any point in the house to my ready-long gun (either my AR, my HK or my 1187). Then I’m 20 to 25 more to get outside and into position for a situation in the street. That leaves me 20 to assess any changes in the situation that took place in those 40 seconds.

If you don’t figure this shit out now, you may as well just stay sitting on the couch scratching your balls and reading the news reports the next day.

The “most open and transparent government, ever” just got another new FOIA proof agency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

This is what we get when the public puts up with lawmakers who pass laws before reading them.

ErnestThing gave me this earworm Sunday, and it’s still with me, so now I give it to you.

Here’s the version with the voice track — very cool in and of itself.

The other day Derek, The Packing Rat mentioned that he’d gotten his Glock specifically because some cops of his acquaintance had opined that no civilians should own Glocks — or any non-double-actions for that matter — because they’re too dangerous. These cops would get all hinky if they saw a civilian with a Glock. “Only Ones,” anyone?

Well, that night Derek permitted me to inspect his Glock. My Glock experience is limited to say the least — I’d previously shot a .45 Glock more than fifteen years ago, and it was okay, but nothing special. But at SHOT Show 2010 I really really liked the Gen 4 9mm Glock I shot at Media Day. Easy to shoot, fit my hand very well, ridiculously accurate offhand. So I wanted to see what the earlier-generation Glock felt like, and Derek’s Glock 19 felt very compact in my hand. I was quite surprised — I’ve been assuming for years that Glocks were about as thick in the grip as a Beretta 92, which is really too thick of a shooting handle for my wife.

See, I’ve been musing about standardizing on something other than the Beretta 92/Bersa Thunder 380 platforms for our home defense guns. (Those work well together because the controls are virtually identical.) Glocks came to mind. I like the way you can use the 17’s magazines in all three sizes in exigent circumstances. And the grip would fit her hand quite well, I think. But I mentioned this to the wife, and she said “ooh, too thuggish.” Which is of course a completely irrational, biased opinion, just like the cops above.

We don’t have any gun-rental places nearby, so (sigh) I suppose I’ll just have to buy one so she can try it out.

Any Glock owners want to answer this question for me: if you hold your Glock with your finger off the trigger, and you were severely startled, do you think your natural hand-clenching motion would be enough to fire a round unintentionally?

Science reporting is using more authoritarian phrases, and scientists aren’t doing much to tell reporters (& other scientists) to cut that out.

Your estimations are not entirely your own.

Quite possibly because it pisses off both the hippies and the Christian Socialists at the same time.

Re-reading it, I can see exactly where all those points came from. If I weren’t such a rational individual I’d like to drop a few points off my score by firebombing the co-op. As it is, I’ll just drive the diesel to work for the rest of the week instead of the Jeep.

Found at The Minuteman (and Woman)