The Zen of Shooting
LabRat does a helluva job explaining it.
Author: Kevin
I Repeat:
I Repeat:
I wish I could say I was surprised.
UPDATE: Reader “eeky” points out this earlier story:
Man accused of attacking DVLA inspector with broom walks free
Monday, September 29, 2008
A man accused of beating a DVLA inspector with a broom handle as walked free from court after claiming his alleged victim had exaggarated the incident.
Inspector Hayden Hart had claimed he was attakced my[sic] Paul Clarke, 26, as he patrolled Wood Street, Merstham, checking parked cars for out-of-date tax discs.
The inspector said he was clubbed repeatedly by his attacker, who warned him: “If you come near my vehicle again, I’ll break your f****** legs.”
But Mr Clarke, of Wood Street, Merstham, walked free from the Crown Court at Guildford after winning his appeal against conviction for assault by beating at Redhill Magistrates Court on March 12 this year.
Mr Clarke, 26, of Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, denied the offence, insisting he had never actually struck Mr Hart during the confrontation on June 12 last year (2007).
The court was told that Mr Hart was driving along Wood Street stopping to inspect parked vehicles to make sure that they were displaying valid vehicle excise licenses.
Giving evidence at the appeal hearing, Mr Hart said: “I had seen four vehicles which I was going to report for not having up-to-date tax discs.”
He said he was inside his Honda filling out the appropriate forms when he heard a loud bang on his window and looked up to see a young man.
Mr Hart said: “He was carrying a broom stick without the head on the end of it.”
He said the man appeared very aggressive and threatened violence against him.
“As I got out of my car to ask him what he was doing, he struck me on the arm two or three times with the handle,” he said.
Mr Hart said he grabbed hold of the stick and there was a scuffle before the other man walked off.
He said he suffered extensive bruising on his arm and had to have time off work because he felt so shaken by the incident.
“I felt very depressed,” he said.
However, under cross-examination by defence counsel Richard McConaghy, he admitted the bruises might have been caused when he had leapt out of his vehicle to see what was going on.
Mr Clarke said he had confronted Mr Hart because he thought he had seen him trying to steal something from his pick-up truck.
“I didn’t realise he was a DVLA inspector. He might have been a prolific thief,” he said.
He said he had the broom because he had been sweeping up some glass in the road – and the head, which was loose, had fallen off during the fracas.
Mr Clarke accused Mr Hart of exaggerating his injuries, adding: “I reckon he wanted some time off work and compensation.”
After the court was told that it was not possible to prove that the bruising to Mr Hart’s arm had actually been caused by Mr Clarke, prosecuting counsel Laurence Aiolfi applied to have the offence changed from assault by beating to one of common assault.
But the judge, Mr. Recorder Stuart Lawson-Rogers, refused to agree to this – allowing Mr Clarke’s appeal to succeed.
Eeky and I seem to agree that someone decided Mr. Clarke needed to pay his debt to society for failing to conform to the “passive victim” standard. Loaded sawed-off shotguns don’t magically appear in most people’s gardens.
Verbatim?
In fact-checking a recent comment, I found a review of Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story which contained this fascinating bit:
Early on, Moore admits that he, too, fell in love with post-war capitalism as a child, and that the system used to work pretty well for the average middle-class American — even if it was made possible by a lack of global competition made possible by the United States’ military dominance. The problem is that there is no middle class anymore –– there is only, as one subject of the film puts it, “the people who got nothing and the people who have it all”
Boy, that sounded familiar. Where had I heard that before?
Oh! Here:
At one time, there were wealthy people in this country who enjoyed comfortable lives, a middle class that never really had to worry about money, and poor people. Now we have wealthy people who have rigged the system and have seized more money (see:power) than this world has ever seen, no middle class, many who are one illness away from losing our homes, and an underclass that resembles Third World countries.
Now, I haven’t seen Moore’s latest “masterpiece,” but I’m willing to bet that Moore uses those exact words, verbatim in it: “NO MIDDLE CLASS.”
And my dauntless crusader for Truth, Justice, and the “GOOD Capitalist” way (that of redistribution of wealth) Markadelphia repeated it because it fits his worldview perfectly – even though I doubt seriously that he is neither of the “got nothings” or the “have it alls,” which pretty much disproves the assertion from the word “go.”
Projection, thy name is “Markadelphia.”
Just for Fun
Just for Fun
I received this via email today:
Thought you might enjoy that.
I May Have to Paint This on the Tailgate of My Truck
I May Have to Paint This on the Tailgate of My Truck
Found at AR15.com.
Quote of the Day – Snark Edition
Wait a second… I can’t believe it’s taken this long to point out that Kevin finally is quoting Rush verbatim.
— “EMP” in the quotes to A Host of Holy Horrors to Direct Our Aimless Dance
That’s some quality snark, right there!
Speaking Truth to Power
Speaking Truth to Power
Where are the “General Betray Us” ads, offered at a reduced rate in the New York Times? Are we going to see an entire subculture—Michael Moore, novels, docu-dramas, comedians, etc.—slamming Obama on the war? Or, in contrast, an entire populist, in the streets, protest over Obama voting “present” while he goes to Copenhagen instead of meeting with Gen. McChrystal? Cannot the media see that the surge in Iraq—little public support, defections in Bush’s own party, a hostile media, demagoguery from the left, campaign distortions by the likes of Obama himself—was the far harder call than granting a troop request in Afghanistan? Why was Bush’s tough call “doomed” in a “lost” war, while Obama’s “present” vote is seen as sober and judicious?
—
These are the most interesting of times: we are witnessing nothing less than an attempt in just 10 months to reinvent the United States at home and abroad into something it never was, led by someone who, the more soothing, comforting, and melodic his speech-making, the more bruising, cut-throat, and ruthless the act that follows.
So it’s like we’re living in the late Roman Republic…
Victor Davis Hanson, Works and Days – Thoughts from the Later Republic>
RTWT. Out loud. Print it out and pass it around.
More like this, please.
Quote of the Day – Thomas Jefferson Edition
Quote of the Day – Thomas Jefferson Edition
Jefferson disregarded his constitutional doubts, signed the proposed treaty [The Louisiana Purchase –mpa], and sent it to the Senate for ratification. In justifying his actions, he later wrote: “[a] strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means.” — Wikipedia
Found in an interesting post at Mark Alger’s Baby TrollBlog.
That’s very much the point I was making in The United Federation of Planets, in far fewer words.
AZ Blogmeet & Range Trip – Update
AZ Blogmeet & Range Trip – Update
OK, according to the poll, 11 people can make the Dec. 12 date, one (1) can make Dec. 5, and six can’t make either. (Sorry, y’all!)
We’re going with the 12th. Now I need to verify from the City of Casa Grande that the range is not reserved on the 12th for Cowboy Action shooters or such. It would be a bummer to show up there and not be able to shoot!
Assuming there’s no conflict, here’s how I see it happening: I and at least a couple of other people need to be at the range when it opens at 7:00AM in order to secure good shooting positions. I’ll be bringing my AR500 plate steel targets, and I’ll need a hand setting them up – they weigh about 35lbs each, and they have to be hand-carried downrange, since there is no longer vehicle access. We’ll shoot until about 1:00PM, then pack it in and go to a restaurant still to be determined. I’ll be contacting other, non-gun-oriented Arizona bloggers to invite them to shoot and/or eat, too. At least this gives me about a month to get this organized.
A word or twelve about the Elsy Pearson Public Rifle Range:
1) It is an unsupervised range – there are no Range Officers, so we have to do that ourselves. I expect everyone to be familiar with the Four Rules. I also expect everyone to be familiar with firing range etiquette.
2) There is no potable water at the range. Bring fluids. (But no alcohol.)
3) There is, at least, a Porta-Potty on site now. There didn’t used to be. I suggest that someone bring some toilet paper, just in case. And hand-sanitizer, too.
4) Even though it’s late fall, and the firing line is covered, Mr. Sun is nasty. Bring sunscreen.
5) There are no targets nor target stands at this range. You can bring anything you’re willing to clean up as a target (exceptions being glass and explosive targets – that’s posted). As I said, I’ll be bringing my steel targets, and everyone is welcome to shoot them. I’ll also be bringing a target stand for paper targets. If you go out to pick something up, don’t get the “stick in the ground” type target stands. The ground out there is caliche, and about as hard as cement.
6) There are three ranges to shoot from, a 100 yard range with covered shooting benches, a 300 yard range with covered benches, and a 25 yard range with no benches, but the firing line is covered too. I figure we’ll take up one end of the 300 yard range. In addition, the backstop is a range of mountains. About 600 yards downrange on the side of the mountain someone has put some steel targets, so if you bring something with some reach, you have something to shoot at.
7) Sorry, but they don’t allow .50BMG at this range. I suppose it’s just slightly possible to loft a 750 grain .50 caliber projectile over the mountain range backstop and drop it onto Interstate 8, so they’re verboten.
We still need a place to go after the shoot. I’m open to suggestions. I’d prefer it if it wasn’t posted “No Guns,” obviously. Anyone familiar with Casa Grande?
