Month: June 2009

Justice?

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Justice?

By the time the game warden arrived, Kevin Kadamus was sitting down and holding his 17-year-old son in his lap, a blanket covering the boy’s bloodied body.

“He was trying to talk to his son, encouraging him to hang on,” Warden David Gregory said.

Jacob Kadamus couldn’t hang on. With a 12-gauge shotgun, his father had mistakenly shot him in the torso on the opening day of Vermont’s turkey hunting season. He died at the scene.

Now, Kevin Kadamus must cope with more than remorse and grief. The 45-year-old computer consultant and father of three has been charged with manslaughter.

That’s the opening of an AP piece entitled “Hunting deaths pose challenge for prosecutors”. As one investigator put it, “There isn’t an exemption under the law for family members being charged.”

In 2006, according to the CDC (the latest stats available), 611 people age 10 and up died as the result of an unintentional gunshot wound. The CDC doesn’t break that data down into hunting accidents, but you can see that they are pretty rare overall. Some are called “accidents” and no charges are filed, but as one game warden was quoted, “There’s three distinct actions that have to take place: You have to aim the firearm, take the safety off and you have to pull the trigger. None of those actions are ever accidental. The simplest way to avoid an accident is to identify your target.” Shooting someone accidentally requires multiple violations of the four rules of safe gun handling. It’s not accidental. At the very least it’s negligent.

But is criminal prosecution called for when the victim is a family member? Is the purpose of such prosecution punishment? What punishment can be greater than the knowledge of ones responsibility for the death of a loved one? Deterrence? The incidence is so rare to begin with that I find that idea laughable. Justice? For whom? Who is served?

It’s different when the negligence is that of someone outside the family, as in the case of the two Oklahoma police officers involved in the accidental shooting death of a 5 year-old, or the complete negligent misuse of a firearm such as the moron who shot his wife while trying to use his .22 pistol as a drill.

Or is it? I’m interested in your thoughts on this.

Quote of the Day

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Quote of the Day

There are a million things to hate about President Bush’s costly and wrenching wars. But the fact is, in ousting Saddam in Iraq in 2003 and mobilizing the U.N. to push Syria out of Lebanon in 2005, he opened space for real democratic politics that had not existed in Iraq or Lebanon for decades. “Bush had a simple idea, that the Arabs could be democratic, and at that particular moment simple ideas were what was needed, even if he was disingenuous,” said Michael Young, the opinion editor of The Beirut Daily Star. “It was bolstered by the presence of a U.S. Army in the center of the Middle East. It created a sense that change was possible, that things did not always have to be as they were.”

Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times, Winds of Change?

You Know, If You Put Enough Garlic On It

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You Know, If You Put Enough Garlic On It . . .

. . . crow still tastes like sh!t.


Billy’s right.

Again.

I let emotion get the better of me, and leaped with insufficient consideration. Now I sit here impaled on my own fallibility.

Hey, we lesser beings do that from time to time.

Let me be right up front. Billy Beck grates on my nerves. A lot of people do that, but Billy’s the only one who’s right damned near every time, and I’m man enough to admit that. He grates on my nerves because of his 80-grit high-speed carborundum personality, and I let that get the better of me. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. And I mean that, sincerely.

I misinterpreted his comment – the one I used as “Quote of the Day” Saturday. I was wrong. It fit a mental niche I’d carved out, and I slotted him right into that niche. As I said, I knew I was going to regret it later. I do. But when I conclude I’m wrong, I try not to compound the error.

I was wrong. I apologize. The other threads will contain, shortly, a link to this apology. Hopefully this concludes this week’s episode of Drama Llamas, brought to you courtesy of my personal assholeness. I’d blame it on an abscessed tooth, but no, it was just me being me.

Again, Beck, I apologize. I fucked up. You were right. Again.

Sigh

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*Sigh*

And the beat goes on . . .

Beck has responded to yesterday’s QotD post. He copied me via email, so I’ll post my reply to him as I sent it, verbatim:

Billy Beck wrote: 

 "Beck's threatened retribution over this post,..."

You really are a fuckin' asshole, Kevin.  You can complain about me all day
long, but I never do things like that, to you or anyone else.

Pot? Meet kettle. Right back at’cha, Billy. You have and you did. I quote:

“You will be exposed as an ignoramus of very dubious motive if you press on in this direction.

If you don’t think so, then make the most of it.“

and:

“I’m going to watch, and then deal.

I told you.“

That’s a threat, sir. Very similar to the previous:

“Now: just do it. If you don’t, then the very *least* that you can count on is me making you a resounding hypocrite all over the whole ‘net, and it will never stop. You will go down in history with my boot in your ass. And that’s just the beginning. I’ve dealt with this sort of thing before, and I know the whole course.“

That wasn’t a threat?

*I did no such thing*, you chintzy little girl.  You don't know what you're
talking about.  Words mean things, son, and "retaliation" does not mean what
you think it does.

Well, apparently I’m hindered by the fact that I’m one of the “inferior animals that looks like a human being,” so you have to cut me some slack, because that sure did read as a threat. Yes sir, words mean things. We simple creatures take the simple interpretations first.

And the name-calling? Very creative. I’m awed. Truly.
 

 I haven't said a word about it out loud for a couple of reasons, and I
probably won't.  (I'm not sure yet.)  Everyone in your little high school
class out there will believe you and I'm not going to worry about that.

It's just so puny and shitty, man.  I would expect this sort of thing from
a Usenet liberal.  As little as I think of you, and didn't have you figured
for that.

I do now, though.

And I used to respect you a lot more than I do now. But it has become apparent that you’re a sad, angry little man pissed at the world because it doesn’t meet your high expectations. It’s a bitch when you figure out that your philosophy, however perfectly it functions in your mind, is disregarded by 99% of the people around you, isn’t it? Your schtick of screeching and flinging feces like a rabid baboon any time someone disagrees with you about anything has gotten past old. You’ve got about three emotional settings: one, seven, and eleven, and it appears (at least to me) that you’re spending more time at eleven than at any other. I can no longer hear you over the sound of your own anger. But that’s my fault too, I guess. Your own personal little clique of admirers will believe you, I’m sure, so we’re even on that score.

You once said that you didn’t understand why people didn’t lead themselves. It appears that you’ve finally figured it out, and that realization has embittered the fuck out of you. Well, sorry, but you’re the one whose perspective has changed. Humanity is as it’s pretty much always been. I try to deal with what is, rather than how I think it ought to be. That makes me less than a human being in your eyes, I suppose. Try not to be too disappointed in the fact that I can live content despite your disapproval. You’re disappointed with the world enough already, I’d hate to add to your already crushing burden.

Kevin

As I said, I knew going into this I was going to regret it, but I needed to do it.

I’m sure the poo-flinging isn’t over yet.

UPDATE: The poo-flinging is finished. I was wrong, and I apologized.

Quote of the Day – Going Galt

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Quote of the Day – Going Galt

If that’s what people want, so be it.

I’m done. If Congress passes Obama’s destructive zombie health plan in any form, I quit.

I will simply not practice medicine anymore. I will take my psychiatry books and my years of experience and do something else. I used to wait tables when I was in college. It’s an honest living and Obama isn’t interested for the time being in nationalizing restaurants–yet.

Let me be clear. I don’t believe that people have a “right” to health care; because, what advocating such a “right” basically means is that you believe you have a “right” to my mind; you have a “right” to my professional competence; i.e., you have a “right” to enslave me.

Dr. Sanity – THIS TIME, I DON’T CARE ANYMORE…LET THE ZOMBIES TAKE OVER MEDICINE

Yes. That’s exactly what it means. And do read the whole piece. She has a lot more to say that needs to be heard.

I Can Haz .38 Super?

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Well, I traded in a gun today. My Kimber Eclipse Pro II. Even with the new internal extractor slide I haven’t been all that happy with it, which is too bad because it’s too pretty not to shoot better than it did. It was NOT fond of my pet load that works flawlessly in my full-size Kimber Classic. And that load also works perfectly fine in my other Commander-size 1911, the Para Gun Blog .45.

Still, I’m a happy camper, because I traded it straight across for a brand spanking new EAA Witness Elite Match .38 Super.


Now I’ve got to accumulate more magazines, a fiber-optic front sight, holster, mag pouches, reloading dies and components, etc., etc., etc.

Should be a fun gun for steel shoots. Seventeen round magazines means a LOT fewer magazine changes.

Anybody got a pet load for the 124 grain Gold Dot?

Glenn Greenwald, Ted Rall, and now Bill Maher?

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As I’ve reported earlier, the bloom is off the Obama rose for Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald. This was followed by a strident denunciation by political “cartoonist” Ted Rall. But now even Bill Maher has nearly had enough, in an LA Dog Trainer op-ed, no less:

Enough with the Obamathon

The president is on TV more than the ShamWow guy, but I want to see a little more action.

President Obama should just join the cast of “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!” It’s not that farfetched; he’s been on everything else.

I’m still a fan, but there’s a fine line between being transparent and being overexposed. Every time you turn on the TV, there’s Obama. He’s getting a puppy! He’s eating a cheeseburger with Joe Biden! He’s taking the wife to Broadway and Paris — this is the best season of “The Bachelor” yet!

I get it: You love being on TV. I love my bong,

I’m shocked – shocked by this admission!

but I take it out of my mouth every once in a while.

I’m shocked – shocked by this admission!

The other day, I caught myself saying to a friend, “Don’t tell me if he’s fixed the economy yet, I’m Tivo-ing it.”

Remember during the campaign when John McCain attacked Obama for acting like a celebrity and we all laughed at the grumpy old shellshocked fool? Well, it turns out he was right.

I’m shocked – shocked by this admission!

Sorry, senator. I’m sending a nice gift basket of high-fiber muffins your way.

It’s getting to where you can’t turn on your TV without seeing Obama. Who does he think he is, Dick Cheney? Come on, sir, you don’t have to be on television every minute of every day. You’re the president, not a rerun of “Law and Order.” Save some charisma for a rainy day. Taking strangers from a TV show on a tour of your house? We have that show; it’s called “Cribs.”

Cue accusations of “RACIST! Oh, wait. Silly me. Maher’s a Democrat.

And letting reporters ask you questions like “You like to be the one who picks out the shaving cream, don’t you?” Or as it’s called today, “journalism.” I was willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt until I saw him take Brian Williams into his bedroom, and at the end of the bed there was a teleprompter and it said, “Who’s your daddy?”

Now Maher’s doing teleprompter jokes?

I mean, selling the personal part to stay popular, I’m all for it, but you got us already. We like you, we really like you! You’re skinny and in a hurry and in love with a nice lady. But so’s Lindsay Lohan. And like Lohan, we see your name in the paper a lot, but we’re kind of wondering when you’re actually going to do something.

Mouth hangs agape.

He has done a lot of stuff. He’s validated all most all of the actions taken by his predecessor (that’s what had Rall all fired up), he’s dissed his gay constituency (that’s got Democratic Underground all fired up), he’s essentially taken control of major banks and two of the Big 3 auto makers. How can you say he hasn’t done anything? Oh, right. You’re Bill Maher.

I know that’s harsh. But when I read about how you sat on the sidelines while bailed-out banks used the money we gave them to hire lobbyists who got Congress to stop homeowners from getting renegotiated loans, or how Congress is already giving up on healthcare reform, or how scientists say it’s essential to reduce CO2 by 40% in 10 years, but your own bill calls for 4%, I say, enough with the character development, let’s get on with the plot.

See? Obama just didn’t do what Bill wants done.

And let’s stop worrying so much about doing anything that might tarnish the brand. See, this is why I don’t want my president to be a TV star: Because TV stars are too worried about being popular — and too concerned with getting renewed.

First rule of modern politics: Keep getting re-elected. And Barack is still campaigning.

Seems only natural. He’s never actually had to do anything before. Campaigning seems to be all he actually does well, so he’s sticking with what he knows.

You can relax about that, Mr. President, knowing that there’s a large, rich organization doing everything it possibly can to ensure that you’ll get reelected: It’s called the Republican Party.

Now there’s Truth with a capital “T”.

Speaking of which, if you can’t beat Republicans now, when they’re so down they take orders from Rush Limbaugh, then when? The way to get renewed for your reality show that you love so much is to act boldly now.

Because the advice of a comedian is precisely what you need!

Obama needs to start putting it on the line in fights against the banks, the energy companies and the healthcare industry. I never thought I’d say this, but he needs to be more like George W. Bush. Bush was all about, “You’re with us or against us.”

Yeah, those banks, energy companies and the healthcare industry are just like the guys who want to destroy Western Civilization.

But wait: I thought Rall’s argument was that Obama was acting too much like George W. Bush. Now I’m confused.

Obama’s more like, “You’re either with us, or you obviously need to see another picture of this adorable puppy!”

Bush had horrible ideas, like torture and deregulation and preemptive war and tax cuts for the rich, but he pushed them through, in their full measure, never mind Congress or the Constitution or the Geneva Convention or the Magna Carta or the Code of Hammurabi.

The point is, he didn’t care if it made him unpopular with every human on the planet not named Cletus or Fred Barnes. Which it did.

Nothing like the strength of one’s convictions. And you’ll note that Congress went along. Not that Obama (nor the Left for that matter) seems to have any actual convictions beyond “We know what’s best for everyone else.” (That would be the Imperial “We.”)

And we need to marry the good ideas Obama really believes in with that Bush attitude and Bush certitude. I’d love for Obama to come out one day and say, “Jesus told me to fix healthcare.” Or, “History will decide whether stopping the polar ice caps from melting and drowning us all was a good thing.”

I reiterate: What is it that Obama “really believes in”? No one’s been able willing to find out. Even immediately after the election the media noted that nobody knew the guy. He was “a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” Bill Maher: Exhibit A.

In conclusion, Bush was a jerk, but he never cared about being seen having a burger with Dick Cheney. He picked up the phone in the White House and said, “I’m the president, bring me a burger.” And they’d say, “Sir, this is NORAD. Would you please stop ordering burgers with the red phone?”

Ah, yes, the “Bush is a moron” meme. Stay classy, Bill!

I’m glad that Obama is president, but the “Audacity of Hope” part is over. Right now, I’m hoping for a little more audacity.

Stand by for further disappointment and disillusionment! I’m sure President Obama has someone writing another strongly worded memo to Kim Jong Il right this minute!

This would be fun if it wasn’t so damned serious. And the fact that the alternative was McCain is even more depressing.

Quote of the Day – That I Know I’ll Regret Later

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Quote of the Day – That I Know I’ll Regret Later

But sometimes you just have to say “F^*k it.”

Today’s QotD is a comment by the aforementioned Billy Beck left at the blog The Trooper’s Gal in response to a less than totally admiring comment addressed at him. Here’s Beck’s reply, in its entirety:

Rollory: you can resign yourself to life among inferior animals that look like human beings, but I will not.

I know that humans exist.

Wow. “. . . inferior animals that look like human beings.” Isn’t there a single word for that? Unter-something . . . ?

Good to know where you stand in Beck’s taxonomy, I guess. “Overweening misanthropy” illustrated.

(Oh, yes – Beck’s threatened retribution over this post, too. They’re his words. In context. He can choke on them. Far be it from me to expect anything approaching a retraction.)

UPDATE 6/14: No retraction. The drama continues.

UPDATE II: OK, I was wrong. Apology tendered.

90 Days and Counting

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90 Days and Counting

This year’s Gun Blogger’s Rendezvous is now 90 days away and closing. I’ve made my hotel reservations (9/10-9/12, checking out Sunday) and put in for vacation.

I want to reiterate: this isn’t a trade show, a sales meeting, or multi-level marketing – it’s a gathering of people of like mind for three or four days of fun, conversation, food, drink, recreational shooting, and other adult activities. And it takes place right next door to Circus Circus, where the kiddies can have a good time too! (My wife and I are bringing the grandkids this year, I think.)

BUT the Rondy is sponsored (thanks to tireless efforts by Mr. Completely, the organizer of this thing) by several of the major players in the field:

Para USA

Hi Point Firearms

Dillon Precision

Brownell’s

and this year, GLOCK
And others – and this year, me, since I’m donating a Para myself.

That is to say, there’s a lot of swag at this thing, and the chance to win some pretty damned nice stuff. (I’ve brought home a damned nice Brownell’s range bag, a Dillon Border Shift ammo bag, some Brownell’s AR15 magazines, and other stuff.) Plus, we raise money for a very good charity, Project Valour IT.

A lot of the blogger attendees of May’s NRA convention 2A Blog Bash have said that the thing they wish they could have done more of was interact with sit around and shoot the shit with the other bloggers.

This is the event for that.

This year as an extra added bonus we will have as our guest of honor Alan Gura, the lawyer who argued D.C. v. Heller in front of the Supreme Court and won, and who will (hopefully) be arguing NRA v. Chicago before it in the not-too-distant future. How can you pass up that opportunity?

Hey, Mike Vanderboegh might even show up. (I’m still hoping U.S. Citizen gets Summer Glau to appear, but . . .)

And you don’t even need to be a blogger! Want to meet the people you read? C’mon down! The more the merrier!

Plus, Reno in September should be beautiful. (Not f*^king freezing and snowing like last year! Unless Al Gore plans on being in town that weekend.)

So scrape your pennies together now, and sign up! September isn’t that far away!

$134.5 Billion in Bonds?

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(Found at AR15.com)

2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy

ROME —

Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities.

According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan. The daily did not say on what charges they have been detained, but the two may have been detained on suspicion of attempting to take a large amount of securities out of Italy without declaring it because the paper said they had not declared the bonds.

Note the date in the original article – June 3.

More:

Italy Seizes $135 BILLION Of US Bonds

This is a totally crazy story.

Asia Times: Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollar each.

The question now is whether the bonds are real or counterfeit

Karl Denninger, who discovered the story, notes that either way, this is wild:

If they’re real, what government (the only entity that would have such a cache) is trying to unload them?

If they’re fake, this is arguably the biggest counterfeiting operation ever, by a factor of many times. I’ve seen news about various counterfeiting operations over the years that have made me chuckle, but this one, if that’s what it is, is absolutely jaw-dropping.

The cute part of this is that if the certificates are real Italy just got a hell of a bonanza – their money laundering laws provide for a statutory 40% penalty for failure to declare instruments and cash in excess of $10,000 Euros, which means they’d garner a close-to-$40 billion dollar windfall.

We’re leaning towards counterfeit on this one. Either way, we wanna know more!

Me too. Here’s a picture of the seized bonds:


A poster at ARFCOM found this interesting coincidence:

Yosano Says Japan’s Trust in Treasuries ‘Unshakable’

June 12 (Bloomberg) — Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said his government is confident about the outlook for U.S. Treasuries, signaling the second-biggest foreign holder of the securities will keep buying them amid record sales.

“We have complete trust in the fact that the U.S. views its strong-dollar policy as fundamental,” Yosano, 70, said in an interview in Tokyo on June 10 before attending a Group of Eight meeting of finance ministers starting today in Italy. “So our trust in U.S. Treasuries is absolutely unshakable.”

China and Russia, the largest and third-largest single holders of the debt, have said they may switch some of their reserves out of Treasuries, and economist Nouriel Roubini said yesterday the dollar won’t always be the world’s reserve currency. Treasury yields fell today after Yosano’s remarks, retreating from a seven-month high.

“Japan is, of course, mindful that selling Treasuries will cause the yen to strengthen and that would hurt corporate profits,” said Chotaro Morita, chief strategist in Tokyo at Barclays Capital Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “Even with their strong ties, it’s possible Japan would consider selling U.S. Treasuries should the dollar say, halve in value.”

RTWT. If it IS the Japanese government, $134.5 billion represents about a quarter of their current holdings in U.S. bonds.

Another Bloomberg report from today:

Japan Probes Report Two Seized With Undeclared Bonds

June 12 (Bloomberg) — Japan is investigating reports two of its citizens were detained in Italy after allegedly attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the border into Switzerland.

“Italian authorities are in the midst of the investigation, and haven’t yet confirmed the details, including whether they are Japanese citizens or not,” Takeshi Akamatsu, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said by telephone today in Tokyo. “Our consulate in Milan is continuing efforts to confirm the reports.”

An official at the Consulate General of Japan in Milan, who only gave his name as Ikeda, said it still hasn’t been confirmed that the individuals are Japanese. “We are in contact with the Italian Financial Police and the Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office,” Ikeda said by phone today.

The Asahi newspaper reported today Italian police found bond certificates concealed in the bottom of luggage the two individuals were carrying on a train that stopped in Chiasso, near the Swiss border, on June 3.

The undeclared bonds included 249 certificates worth $500 million each, the Asahi said, citing Italian authorities. The case was reported earlier in Italian newspapers Il Giornale and La Repubblica and by the Ansa news agency.

So it appears that the story isn’t B.S.

Tinfoil hat time?

UPDATE: More here.