Friday Tour d’Horizon, 2017 Week 14

Again, we find ourselves throwing together this week’s Tour d’Horizon on Friday night. We hate that. It makes us late, and you hate that.

So much hate. As the Patron Saint of this blog, Rodney King, says, “Can’t we all just get along?”

Guns

I don’t wanna work, I just wanna bang on my gun all day.

How Much Does the Blackhawk! Serpa Suck?

We honestly haven’t written much about this, because we thought everybody who couldn’t see they were junk would take the advise of everybody who’s anybody in the training world. So if you don’t know, go read this rant by Bob Owens. Who concludes:

Why on earth would you bet your life on a poorly-made, poorly designed holster that has been banned by many law enforcement agencies, top tier instructors, shooting schools and ranges, when there are so many better options on the market?

Why, indeed?

We had them bought for us and used unit money to buy Safarilands instead. Result — the only guy shot in the fourth point of contact was the battalion commander, and he insists an enemy sniper did it. (We weren’t there but the guys who were said he did not plug his own gluteus). Whoever shot him, he stayed in command after field treatment, impressing us with his fortitude.

Banned in Boston (and 49 other US states): CZ-92

This is a CZ you can’t own here. It’s an 8-shot, DAO .25 that can’t hope to pass the ATF’s Nazi-sourced “sporting purpose” test. It’s owned in Lithuania, and its new owner laid out €50 for it. (It has the Lithuanian national symbol, the Pillars of Gedminas, on it). Source.

If you really want an 8-shot, sightless, DAO .25, though, there are still options. There have been four versions of this pistol made by CZ, plus an American quasi-clone, plus its design has inspired others, including Seecamp’s LWS-25 and the ZVI Kevin / DesertTech Micro Desert Eagle. Without giving you the whole chapter of the book, the CZ versions are:

  1. The CZ-36, designed by František Myška and made in small numbers before and during WWII. It had a wrap-around checkered plastic grip with the old CZ logo, and most CZ-36s had a manual safety on the frame.
  2. The CZ-45, an update of the CZ-36, redesigned by Jan Kratochvíl for easier manufacture. A few early CZ-45s were made with the manual safety, but there are several cues that allow the models to be distinguished reliably.
  3. The CZ-70, a further production-improved and restyled CZ-45, not to be confused with the CZ-70 service pistol used by Czechoslovak police. It can most readily be distinguished by its grips, which have a pattern resembling that on the CZ-70 service pistol.
  4. This CZ-92, restyled again with two grip scales and a solid backstrap on the frame for the first time.

The American copy, the Intratec ProTec-25, is only a partial copy: many parts don’t interchange, etc. Intratec’s designers were George Kellgren (later founder of Kel-Tec) and Carlos Garcia, and their objective seems to have been lowest possible cost. The frame and slide appear to be made of el cheapo pot metal or powder metal, die cast. There were supposed to be several finishes and a second caliber (.22 LR) available, but even though they’re mentioned on the box and in the papers with our example, we’ve never even seen one.

CZ-36s are rare firearms, but the CZ-45 turns up at auctions frequently. CZ-70s and -92s postdate the 1968 pocket pistol import ban.

Gun Stocks update

Anyway you want it: we have the table, our analysis, and the popular chart. We have simplified to one chart and table, incorporating Olin.

Gun Stocks since the Election
Week Ending RGR SWHC AOBC VSTO OLN
11/8/16 64.40 28.45 38.94 22.45
11/18/16 53.20 24.13 40.02 25.16
11/25/16 52.50 23.82 41.05 25.69
12/2/16 50.25 21.10 39.66 25.94
12/9/16 51.90 21.07 38.62 25.87
12/16/16 53.45 21.59 36.81 25.42
12/23/16 54.05 22.11 38.03 26.21
12/30/16 52.70 21.08 36.90 25.61
1/6/17 54.15 21.00 38.08 26.39
1/13/17 51.35 20.60 28.70 27.07
1/20/17 50.65 20.13 27.78 26.64
1/27/17 51.90 20.58 28.33 26.69
2/3/17 50.05 20.12 26.18 30.83
2/10/17 50.15 20.07 21.58 29.81
2/17/17 49.70 19.22 20.89 30.86
2/24/17 49.85 19.45 20.72 30.78
3/3/17 48.75 18.83 20.47 32.34
3/10/17 52.15 19.52 20.71 31.70
3/17/17 53.55 19.45 20.89 33.07
3/24/17 51.90 18.73 20.31 32.77
3/31/17 53.55 19.81 20.59 32.87
4/07/17 56.00 20.63 18.42 31.80

An interesting split. Ruger is up notably, as is Smith, while Vista Outdoor has resumed a sharp decline and Olin has lost a dollar. Ruger repurchased 1.1 million shares of its own stock this week, and March raw background check numbers were strong. Yet analysts, probably reading news stories about the death of the gun market, have rated these stocks underperform or hold. (For example, a couple of analysts have assigned a price target of $48 to Ruger). All of the stocks were volatile this week.

Disclaimer: Your Humble Blogger holds RGR, bought at about 56.40 on 9 Nov 16.

Gun Poly-Ticks

Stunt Doesn’t Work

An anti-gun legislator in Tennessee made an attempt to straw-sell an AK before the adoring local media, but didn’t find any buyers. His stunt was in aid of a back-door registration “background check” bill pending in the legislature at the time.

His bill didn’t pass, either.

Rotary International Goes Anti-Gun

The 19-member, mostly foreign, board of Rotary International have thrust the organization into the United States gun control debate through a new series of anti-gun positions, which apply only to the United States.

Left: Logo of Rotary, which wants no guns under its emblem. Right: Rotary’s inspiriation, logo of the Nazi union DAF, which felt the same way about peasants’ guns.

If you are solicited by a local Rotary for support, membership, or facilities, be alert to the fact that they are an SJW-converged, anti-2nd-Amendment, anti-gun organization. Let them get paid by Bloomberg, like the rest of their movement.

Usage and Employment

 The hardware takes you only half way.

Cop Wisely Ducks

Here’s a series of several videos of the same shooting in San Ysidro, way deep in the south of California, on 28 Mar 15 (video just released at the conclusion of the investigation). Cops responding to a domestic encountered a man, later determined to be Alberto Hernandez, with a handgun that appeared to be a 9mm Beretta. Later, he exits and refuses to put down the gun. Not surprisingly, three cops engage him and he’s killed.

Tentative conclusion: suicide by cop. But what we thought was interesting was the first cop bodycam, where you see the cop take cover and you don’t see the shooting. You can see this cop’s actions from the other angles as well, especially from the crisp FLIR in the helicopter. And it’s clear that he did just the right thing in taking cover behind a concrete wall.

It’s great to approach an enemy or a suspect from many sides to try to get him to surrender. But when the shooting starts, you have to make sure your buddies don’t shoot you!

Two more things: the 9mm Beretta was actually a Daisy Powerline 340, which is styled like the Beretta. It comes with an orange muzzle cap, but the cap had been removed, making it indistinguishable from a firearm without close examination. And the investigation (.pdf) learned that Hernandez was mentally ill (bipolar), full to the gills with psychoactive drugs, and juiced up to a BAC of .30, which probably explains why he didn’t flinch when first shot — he wasn’t feeling any pain.

Cops ‘n’ Crims

Cops bein’ cops, crims bein’ crims. The endless Tom and Jerry show of crime and (sometimes instantaneous) punishment.

Sumdood Picked the Wrong Time to Rob the Store

‘Cause he only thought he was a badass. As he learned, if he retained any of the lesson after the concussion, a whole other dude was the badass. Fun with John Correia and ASP.

She’ll Never Make 35 Million Bail

That’s what the California courts thought about Tiffany Li, who seems to have murdered her estranged husband in a custody dispute, and whose ties to China are more solid than any to the USA.

She made bail.

Most of it by other overseas Chinese pledging their property (which means the court has more like $65 million in property if she bugs.

What’s the over/under on her showing up for court? If she does, what’s the over/under on her showing up for sentencing?

The Family that Does Crime Together Does Time Together

Wesley Leverett is accused of murder in McMinnville, TN. He’s being held on $1 million bail. His immediate relatives — mother and two grandparents — were also busted, as accessories after the fact, and accused of evidence tampering.

I guess the difference between murderers and the rest of us, is the difference between parents who destroy evidence for you and parents who pinch your ear and drag you straight to the station.

The Perils of Kathleen: Longest 15 Warhol Minutes in History

How can we miss her if the state won’t put her away?

  • Item 5 Apr: Williams Turned Into Kane, that’s his problem, according to D’Annunzio in the Legal Intelligencer. It does seem like more than the average number of Pennsylvania prosecutors wind up prosecuted these days. Like Kane, Williams belongs in jail. They both might still go there.
  • Item 3 Apr: We Read a Book on the Jerry Sandusky case, by the kid who was identified as Victim 1. Our interest: was Kane mentioned at all? She made her pursuit of Sandusky proof of her prosecutorial bona fides. Her name is absent.

What, It Wasn’t Rent Boys?

Forgive us, for we have stereotyped. But we saw a monsignor (a grade of Catholic priest) was arrested in Philadelphia, and we jumped to the conclusion that buggery was a factor. (Ever notice that with seven deadly sins, that isn’t one? Hmmmm…) But as it turns out, it wasn’t buggery at all, but another one of the Big Seven: greed.

Federal prosecutors accused Msgr. William A. Dombrow, 77, of siphoning funds for nearly nine years from a private account set up to support Villa St. Joseph, the facility in Darby Borough that also houses priests who have been accused of sexual abuse.

OK, so there’s a buggery angle, but the newsman is stretching, there.

Much of the money that flowed into that account came from the life insurance payouts of priests who had died while residing there or bequests from the estates of parishioners who intended to support the facility.

The theft was discovered, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella said, after the bank that administered the account flagged several suspicious payments and deductions at Harrah’s Casino in Chester and notified the Archdiocese of Philadelphia last year.

Yeah, it does look amiss when the money donated for the benefit of elderly and infirm priests winds up being gambled away. Apparently Dombrow blew over a half million on high living. What vow of poverty?

Dombrow is a recovering alcoholic who devoted his time to helping other priests with struggles with alcohol. He previously led the Archdiocesan Priests’ Committee on Alcoholism and a center for those seeking religious-based addiction treatment.

A recovering alkie, but a practicing gambler.

Among the funds he is accused of embezzling was $14,410 left to Villa St. Joseph by the Rev. Francis P. Rogers, who had numerous sexual-abuse complaints lodged against him prior to his death in 2005 — the same year a Philadelphia grand jury issued its report detailing the allegations against him.

Okay, so two buggery angles.

Unconventional (and current) Warfare

What goes on in the battlezones of the world — and preparation of the future battlefields. 

She Was in a Safe Job

Safest service? The Air Force, hands down. As the old joke goes, “An honorable alternative to military service.” But mortal danger is where you find it, or, as Staff Sgt. Alexandria Morrow, USAF, discovered, where it finds you:

Alexandria Mae Morrow, 25, an Air Force weapons loader known to her comrades as “the mom of the flight line,” died Wednesday, March 22, during noncombat operations in the Middle East, the U.S. Defense Department reported.

Staff Sgt. Morrow was loading or unloading a bomb near a jet when the device slipped off its track, hitting her on the head. The Air Force is investigating the incident.

Of course, we’d never suggest a mismatch between a 100-lb airman and a bomb several times her weight may have been a factor. And you may rest assured that the officers doing the investigation won’t suggest it, either.

A seven-year veteran and the mother of two young daughters, she had been deployed for five months to Jordan with the 332nd Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron, although she was assigned to the 366th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.

 It was a safe job. Or it should have been. Everyone take care out there.

Syria – The International Players

Here’s the program, courtesy of The Daily Mail. Syria doesn’t just have Russia and Iran, but also a few other friends in low places.

Syria Strike

Here’s some BDA on the Syria strike. There was no attempt to disable the base, but some facilities and some aircraft were hit.

The dog that did not bark was the SA-300 Growler missile system that the Russians have deployed at the airfield. The Russians had an hour to thirty minutes notification of the strike, and yet they did not engage the missiles at all. Our best guess is that they do not have the capability to detect the TLAMs until they are within the Growler’s minimum engagement range.

Pre-attack airfield. The fan-shaped paved areas around the ends of the runways are the Hardened Aircraft Shelters. More aircraft dispersal is on individual pads in the east-northeast.

Post-attack airfield:

The next image shows the the lower right HAS area. Some HASes have been hit, and some not. If you look to the right of the five-trail intersection in the lower right area of the image, you’ll see several oval defensive structures which may be AA related.

The westernmost array of HASes was hit pretty hard.

Then there’s this image, promoted by the Syrians and Russians as proof that the US dropped the attack ball.

As the Daily Mail put it, “Unscathed: This collection of five jets on al-Sharyat Air Base somehow escaped the bombing raid, despite being located out in the open, on a patchy grass plain”.

“Collection” is a pretty good term for these museum pieces. The first and probably the last (foreground-to-background) are MiG-21F-13s, an early 1960s variant that was already being replaced at the time of the Six Day War. The middle jet is a MiG-21PF, the one that replaced it. The other two are MiG-21MFs, we think; late seventies or possible early eighties jets. In other words, the US recognized and didn’t hit a line of decoys.

Sorry about that.

It’s harder to tell whether the jets we hit in the HASes were modern jets or more old junk, because they’re really junk now.

An unidentified single-engine jet lies in ruins. In the background, two jets in facing HASes appear to be intact. The one on the left is a 1970s jet, like a MiG-21 or Su-7 or -22. One on the right, unidentified.

This could be another MiG-21 or an Su-7 or -22, planes of broadly similar vintage. It’s hard to tell. 

Veterans’ Issues

Is it time to o disband this thing yet, and letting all its bloatoverhead seek its own level in the Dreaded Private Sector™?  Taking a break this week.

Health & Fitness

Nothing new. 

Lord Love a Duck!

The weird and wonderful (or creepy) that we didn’t otherwise get to.

Snort

This struck us funny. This unit must be too small for a sergeant major, as there’s no reflective belts on anybody.

49 thoughts on “Friday Tour d’Horizon, 2017 Week 14”

  1. Ti

    Chester, PA. Worked there and would comment that the neighborhoods I traveled through did not look welcoming after dark. Local contractors explained what lie across the river(i.e. camden,nj et al.). Bad jujun for the ill informed. Would only travel there for business.
    Corrupt priest’s? How can this be?

  2. Paul Rain

    Syria – The International Players:
    What an interesting diagram.

    ISIS as a seperate player? Ridiculous. There is one side, the pro-Syrian human side, and there is another side, the side opposed to having strong nations near Turkey and Israel. ISIS is on the anti-human side.

    It may be interesting to discuss whether the jets that the Trumpstrike hit are modern or not, but Mig-21’s in good hands are perfectly good weapons. Certainly in Sunni dog hands they would be garbage, but they worked perfectly well flown in their initial deployment period by Russians, or in the 90s and early 00’s by Afrikaners.

    Here’s a better question. Why is anyone accepting the claims by chemical weapons experts that the forces of I Sunni I State could not possibly have set up a chemical weapons factory with Sarin gas precursors side by side, in such a way that it harmed their supporters when Syrian jets struck it? Yes, no chemical weapons engineer would have done this. Yes, noone with a triple digit IQ would have done this. Yes, no native of:
    * Austria
    * Belgium
    * Bulgaria
    * Croatia
    * Republic of Cyprus
    * Czech Republic
    * Denmark
    * Estonia
    * Finland
    * France
    * Germany
    * Greece
    * Hungary
    * Ireland
    * Italy
    * Latvia
    * Lithuania
    * Luxembourg
    * Malta
    * Netherlands
    * Poland
    * Portugal
    * Romania
    * Slovakia
    * Slovenia
    * Spain
    * Sweden
    * United Kingdom
    would have done this, but we are talking about 7th century Sunni dogs who in Pakistan, screw their cousins at rates over 70%. Even in pre-war Syria, over 40%. Elsewhere, they drop their kids out of education even before high school. In Syria, the civilised influence of the Allawites, the Maronites, the secularist SSNP used to force them to let most of their kids (at least the boys) stay in school at least until 14 years old, while the civilised people of Syria value education and culture.

    These ‘people’ are the reality of Hollywood’s ‘Deliverance’ stereotypes. But instead of shake and bake meth, they’re making shake and bake nerve gas, and screwing it up. Even if they really were the victims rather than the perpetrators of this supposed atrocity, who should care?

    1. 10x25mm

      Here’s a better question. Why is anyone accepting the claims by chemical weapons experts that the forces of I Sunni I State could not possibly have set up a chemical weapons factory with Sarin gas precursors side by side, in such a way that it harmed their supporters when Syrian jets struck it?

      G and V series nerve agents have to be produced and mixed in fragile borosilicate glass lined vessels with borosilicate piping. Divergent thermal coefficients of expansion are a real problem here. Very sophisticated glassworking skills are required to set up such equipment and then confirm containment. Artillery and bomb strikes would almost certainly compromise containment. This kind of process equipment also does not travel well, especially in war zones. Nerve agents also require a lot of electricity in their production and Khan Sheikhoun hasn’t had electricity in years.

      Cyclosarin (GF) is the only G or V series nerve agent which lends itself to binary deployment. Its precursors are an order of magnitude more complex to produce than the other nerve agents’. The others’ precursors take too long to mix and react – a period of minutes. Sunni terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Iraq with a Saddam era cyclosarin binary artillery shell rigged as an IED. U.S. troops escaped serious injury because even the cyclosarin binary precursors did not react at detonation velocity.

      Cyclosarin binary ordnance uses shell rotation, or a gas fired internal mixer in the case of air dropped cannisters, to mix the agents after firing or release. This mixing function determines the minimum distance or drop altitude for such ordnance. This results in a peculiar mission profile unique to nerve agent air strikes.

      1. Ti

        Very interesting comment. I was wondering if they might have just got ahold of a common (more available) cholinesterase inhibitor like a an insecticide(malathion/parathion). This would make a great Reichstag fire setup on the cheap.

  3. RostislavDDD

    >>>The dog that did not bark was the SA-300 Growler missile system that the Russians have deployed at the airfield.
    Of course it raises the spirit, but at the airfield Shayrat is visible only the Syrian SA-6 Gainful (2К12Е «Квадрат» )

    1. Hognose Post author

      Ah, well that would explain much. SA-6 was a very deadly system — in 1972-73. Plus, operated by Arabs.

  4. 10x25mm

    Vista Outdoors is an unsecured creditor in the Gander Mountain bankruptcy case to the tune of $ 15.2 million. This alone is about 20% of their annual reported GAAP profits. And five times the amount lost by any other firearms related creditor. Analysts are predicting that more losses are in the offing.

    1. Hognose Post author

      Ow. I hadn’t thought that through. For the benefit of those unsteeped in bankruptcy law, when there’s not enough money to repay creditors, a company is insolvent. Whether it is liquidated (Chapter 7 of the US bankruptcy code, every country has some equivalent) or reorganized to continue operating (Chapter 11), if the company owes you money, how you fare in the bankruptcy depends on what kind of creditor you are.

      If you have security for your loan (for example, if you loaned money for a real estate mortgage secured by the property) you are a Secured creditor. Anybody else (pensioner, employee, supplier [VSTO], subcontractor, probably the city for taxes and the utilities for power and water), you are an Unsecured creditor. Secured creditors are first in line for any disbursements. If there is enough to make secured creditors whole, then unsecured creditors get a pro rata share of what is left.

      If there is not enough cash and a sale of assets cannot raise enough to make secured creditors whole, the secured creditors get a pro rata share of what is available, and the unsecured creditors get, “So sorry. Thanks for playing.”

      If the company is not badly cratered, the decision is almost always to try to fly it out of the crash in Chapter 11 (or equivalent). Sometimes this works (all the major airlines). Sometimes it doesn’t.

      Sometimes the courts or another branch of government intervenes to disrupt the normal flow of bankruptcy, as happened with the Government Motors bankruptcies: unsecured pensions and union positions were favored over secured bondholders.

      1. John Distai

        This what makes the poorest members of society the most “free”. They can behave as they wish. If they get out of control and are asked/ordered to pay damages as a result of their behavior, they can hire some snake like John Orcutt to file bankruptcy for them. He get’s the $1,500 up front, of course. In the end, there ends up being nothing to liquidate, and the debt ledgers get wiped clean. They can start over. You as the injured party are SOL.

      2. 10x25mm

        You can tease some useful information out of the Gander Mountain bankruptcy documents (Case 17-30673 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota). Their top 20 unsecured creditors are:

        Vista Outdoor, owed $15.2 million
        Pure Fishing, $4.5 million
        Ellett Brothers, $3.0 million
        Sigarms, $2.86 million
        Remington Arms, $2.63 million
        Starcom Worldwide, $2.24 million
        Vortex Optics, $2.24 million
        Liberty Safe & Security, $2.0 million
        Bills Hicks & Co., $1.69 million
        5.11 Inc,; $1.5 million
        Sports South, $1.41 million
        Benelli USA Corp, $1.22 million
        Smith & Wesson, $1.2 million
        Under Armour, $1.07 million
        Magpul Industries Corp, $1.03 million
        Normark, $979,866
        Hydro Flask, $871,132
        Carhartt, $855,696
        Red Wing, $819,708

        There are two overlapping distribution models in the shooting sports space: manufacturer direct to (mail order or B&M) retailer and manufacturer>distributor>retailer. We know a bit about the finances of publicly traded shooting sports manufacturers, but almost nothing about the finances of distributors. Manufacturers and distributors both extend trade credit to retailers which can bite during a downturn. Manufacturers also extend trade credit to distributors in that model.

        The manufacturer direct to retailer model is probably sound – but dented – because it is limited in scope to the largest retailers and the manufacturers can often lay off the credit risk on third parties. But the distributors? They may also be experiencing a surge in defaults by small retailers who are the core of their business. Opportunities to lay off the credit risk of smaller retailers on third parties is quite limited, so they are financing trade credit from within their capital structure.

        Note that Sturm, Ruger and Olin are not on this list. In the short term, they are protected from Gander Mountain bankruptcy fallout. However, their longer term may be clouded if their distributors are crippled. The manufacturer>distributor>retailer model also has much higher inventory float that takes longer to clear during a downturn.

        All of this suggests that the shooting sports space will be soft for at least a year, even if sales have stabilized.

      3. staghounds

        “Secured creditors are first in line for any disbursements.”

        Not true. It may look that way, because secured creditors usually do better out of a bankruptcy than unsecured, but it’s not because they are “first in line”.

        Let’s say that Boat Guy, Haxo, and Staghounds each lent Hognose a nice round $100,00- each. Boat Guy takes a morgtage- a “security interest” in Hognose’s guns. Haxo takes a mortgage on the dog. Staghounds just gets a promissory note, or whatever Elizabethan term they use up there.

        Hog invests it all, plus the proceeds of selling everything he owns but his shack and trousers, in a 3-d Johnson rifle printing scheme, which fails miserably because there’s a reason those rifles are rare. Hognose files for Chapter 7.

        Boat Guy and Haxo are secured creditors, Stag is unsecured.

        Independently of the bankruptcy, Boat Guy and Haxo execute on their mortgages and sell the securities. Hardly anyone wants the guns, so Boat Guy raises $20,000 on them at auction. He keeps that, but now he is an unsecured creditor as to the remaining $80,000.

        Haxo sells the dog, which Haxo’s Mohel told him was valuable because of its pedigree which goes all the way back to Maimonides’ Torah retrieving dog, sells at auction to a wealthy Tel Aviv syndicate for $140,000. Oy, who knew?

        Haxo keeps the $100,000 off the top, the other $80,000 goes to the bankruptcy trustee. The trustee divides it up pro rata, Boat Guy gets $30,000, Staghounds gets $50,000.

        So both secured creditors did better than the unsecured. In real life, many times the security interest produces nothing- most second and all third home mortgages, for example- so the secured creditors are no better off than the unsecured.

        Regular stockholders, of course, get nothing.

        2. John Distai

          I think your math may be off. Haxo sold the dog for $140k. He keeps the $100k to make him whole, and the $40k would go back to the bankruptcy trustee.

          1. staghounds

            You’re right, $40,000 not $80,000. Typograpical error plus lax proofreading.

        3. John M.

          Is it weird that we have inside jokes around here now? I LOLed several times.

          -John M.

          1. SPEMack

            So what I got from that, as an employee of Gander, is that I really need Hognose to make a killing printing rifles?

          3. John M.

            @SPEMack,

            I think the legal term for what employees get in a Chapter 7 is “Jack squat.” You really want to be rooting for a Chapter 11 reorganization proceeding that zeroes out the shareholders but leaves the company as a going concern, mostly for the benefit of the creditors, with the side benefit of keeping jobs for whatever employees remain afterwards.

            -John M.

        4. xwire

          *Haxo’s mohel*
          You owe me a new keyboard, mate, just laughed coffee all over this one…

  5. Brian jaynes

    Hanging sentence in the Perils of Kathlene sections about the Sandusky events: Her name is…

  6. John Distai

    That FLIR video is outstanding. Much respect for the situational awareness of the officer behind the wall. Perhaps it was obvious where his counterparts were. The bodycam footage doesn’t seem to communicate that (or I’m not watching it closely enough).

      1. Hognose Post author

        Yeah. A lot of FLIR is this good but to get the files down to size it’s usually compressed to sludge. FWIW the outfit operating the helicopter (SDSD?) had just upgraded the system and this was its first major outing. Needless to say they’re pleased (and the vendor is even more pleased… the video is already going into their pitch presentation).

      2. LSWCHP

        I was tracking a pelican on radar at night one time (don’t ask) and had a FLIR slaved to the track so that we could see it cruising along just above the Pacific rollers without flapping it’s wings. Suddenly the bird gave a little shudder and then took a huge mid-air dump and a great glowing stream of hot pelican shit shot out of it and splashed into the cool water below. It was one if the greatest FLIR scenes of all times and we had it recorded, but I doubt the camera folks would want to use it for PR purposes.

        1. staghounds

          Oh yes they would. It’s perfect, not staged, just nature and no one is injured.

        2. Mike_C

          That is actually a very cool story, at least from my perspective of a one-time hobbyist bird photographer. Also an evocative and memorable description: “a great glowing stream of hot pelican shit shot out of it”. (Not that I’m particularly interested in poop. If I wanted to deal with shit all the time I’d have become a gastroenterologist.)

  7. John Distai

    I appreciate you including the ASP videos. Monday morning quarterbacking here – I think the “defender” should have pivoted the assailant during the chokehold so that the defender had his back to the chip rack. The defender could then keep his eye on the others while the the assailant became a shield.

    While he prevented an armed robbery, it appears he was shoplifting. Then again, perhaps the clerks gave him the stuff gratis.

  8. James

    How is this for the wierd? ht tp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/07/embracing-figures-pompeii-could-have-gay-lovers-scan-reveals/ ,put a space in http to avoid the “moderation game”Why the hell does one think they were gay during the eruption?!They could have been friends saying”See ya’s in the next life”/one to no avail trying to cover up for a friend and save his ass/perhaps one saying to the other while thrashing him”I told ya’s not to play with the anarchists cookbook!”Speaking of the cookbook,a plethora of recipes on the net these days,try at your own peril!I do know a guy who did decades ago to celebrate the 4th with a home made bang in a sandpit,worked well,perhaps too well and guy decided cooking perhaps a dangerous and bad idea unless in really trying times.With the net and new tech soon folks will be building lasers ect.,soon perhaps a oooops on a grander Tesla scale(the great man,not the great band that took his name).

  9. Ray

    So did the US Navy actually bombard a “live” target or did the Navy shoot up a decoy? Or was this all another staged “WMD” fake to kick start another ten years of “war in perpetuity” and pass “Patriot act III”?

    1. Hognose Post author

      Well a close look at some of the destroyed jets shows that they were fueled and armed.

      Whether this is a good idea is a whole other question. A lot of people don’t grasp the idea that Boy Assad is the most civilized and least barbarous player left on the board in Syria. Sure, he deserves to hang, but victory for any other faction is probably going to mean a sustained human rights disaster. And continued war is a sustained human rights disaster.

      The probability of human suffering by every family remaining in this ancient land is 100%. That was pretty much locked in when Obama incited, and then bobbled, the Arab Spring. Look at the current state of Iraq, Syria, Algeria, etc. The only place hanging on are the ones that rejected the American advice, places like Egypt (where they overthrew Obama’s preferred Islamist, Morsi).

      1. Max Popenker

        “A lot of people don’t grasp the idea that Boy Assad is the most civilized and least barbarous player left on the board in Syria. Sure, he deserves to hang, but victory for any other faction is probably going to mean a sustained human rights disaster. And continued war is a sustained human rights disaster”

        And yet, Russians supporting Assad is a bad, bad thing, because, you know, RUSSIANS!

        1. Hognose Post author

          Yeah. So at this point, the choice is human rights disaster with Russians or without Russians. But that’s a Russian choice. What Russia gains from this is being seen to back up a friend, even in the face of the US. That will encourage Russian clients and allies elsewhere. It’s going to be pretty heartbreaking for the Russians there, because the cause they’re fighting for is going to lose and most of the Syrians they’re fighting with are going to die, and unpleasantly.

          I just think it’s too late now. Assad and his family and friends end in exile or murder either way. Russia can’t save him, and the guys the US favors — if there even is such a thing, there’s just warlords and crazies left — are even worse.

          Ten years ago I might have been all for throwing Assad over and rolling the dice. But that’s basically what Obama and Hillary did in 2009-2011 in Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, and Yemen, and each one of those places is worse than before, and the only organizations to fill the power vacuum are Islamists, i.e., worse than before.

          Sarin, or Islam? Most of the Syrians will fall to one toxin or the other.

          1. Aesop

            1) Assad’s days are numbered.
            2) The Russians’ inability to stick up for their client leaves them rather pantless in public as well (fitting, since they are to a near certainty complicit in any use of chemical weapons by Assad, at some or any number of points of the process).
            3) In the long run, that puts both Assad and Russia out of Syria.
            4) Regardless of what follows, what we do about that, and whether it works, that’s two generally good things at the outset.
            5) As we already have boots on the ground, deconflicting the Russian forces all the way back to the other side of the Black Sea uncomplicates future SOF activities in future beyond that point, which opens Syria up to the same sort of thing that took the Taliban out of A-stan the first time.
            Whether the NCA has the wit or will to act upon that opportunity, should it present itself, remains to be seen.
            6) Anything that keeps Syria backwards, pre-occupied internally, and hamstrung is probably a good thing too.
            7) The prospect of Isis snuggling up to their southern border might induce in Turkey a stronger desire to return to a more secular government pattern, as Egypt used to, and for the same reasons. The alternative is to join the Caliphate, and withdraw from NATO, which might almost be enough to finally wake up a few million chowderheads in Greater Eurostan that they have returned to the status quo ante Lepanto, minus the backbone to self-preserve.

            As long as we aren’t focusing on illusory “nation building” in Syria, and don’t care about looking brilliant, toppling Assad and pushing Russia out of the country for a generation or more are frankly the best we can hope for in the short-term. And with Russia and Assad gone, a substantial percentage of the country would gladly embrace hunting ISIS down to the last member, for the good of their nation; we ought to be able to find some common cause with the default powers that be in Syria at that point.

            And given the fact that their mere existence pisses off Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and probably Russia, the sooner we recognize an independent Kurdish Republic as such, the sooner we’ll have two stable allies in the region.

            I’d go on, but it appears SecState Tilleron’s voicemail box is full.

          2. Max Popenker

            2 Hognose.
            Well, and of cause US has nothing to do with human disasters in entire region, because Obama or not, US is uber alles!
            Lets’s blame Russians for everything, becuse, otherwise, someone might decide thet the real “Big Devil” is really the US

            2 Aesop.
            “And with Russia and Assad gone, a substantial percentage of the country would gladly embrace hunting ISIS down to the last member, for the good of their nation; we ought to be able to find some common cause with the default powers that be in Syria at that point”
            Can you please provide some example of other countries in the same region, that, once their domestic dictator is overthrown by US-lead forces, became a better and safer place than before?

          3. Aesop

            Better and safer for whom, Max?

            Total number of girls shot in the head in the Kabul soccer stadium by the Taliban is way down since 2002, last I checked.
            And BTW, who was it that hastened the Taliban to the podium thereabouts? I’ll take geopolitical meddling for $500, Alex.

            The only thing permanent in the world is death.
            Nations change like the tides.

            I’m willing to trade current evil for temporary less-of-it, especially at the cost of a Tomahawk-fueled nudge or three.
            Assad has no shortage of enemies, all deserved.

            The only safety we’ll get will be relative, and transitory.
            Ask Ozymandias.

          4. Max Popenker

            2 Aesop
            Safer for local population.

            speaking on Taliban origins: “The Taliban emerged in 1994 as one of the prominent factions in the Afghan Civil War,[36] and largely consisted of students recently trained in madrassas in Pakistan.[37][38] … At its peak, formal diplomatic recognition of the Taliban’s government was acknowledged by only three nations: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates”

            Guess whose allies those three recognizers of Taliban are?

          6. Aesop

            You’re just emphasizing my point, Max.

            And recognition is merely diplomatic courtesy; it has no effect on the facts on the ground. The Taliban was in charge, because there was a power vacuum after the anthill was kicked over in ’78. Everything else is ripples in the pond.

            Looking at a roster of 9/11 hijackers, with “allies” like those, who needs enemies?

          7. John M.

            @Max: Why were all those Afghans in Pakistan in the 80s? Vacation? Job opportunities in the refugee camps? Climate change?

            I disagree with Aesop’s thesis regarding Syria, but to leave out Russia’s role in creating the environment that the Taliban spawned in is…a difficult thesis for you to argue.

            -John M.

      2. John M.

        Don’t forget that every monarchy in the region has fared better than every strongman regime in the region, including Bahrain’s Sunni monarchs ruling restive Bahraini Shia.

        Jordan, Morocco, Saudi and Oman all did quite well, all things considered, even if they didn’t come out unscathed.

        -John M.

          1. John M.

            Last I checked, the pretender to the Pahlavi throne lived in the US: Maryland or someplace and maintained a low-grade pretension, like a web site or something. I don’t think there’s a lot of support for a Restoration in Iran, though.

            And I’ve been meaning to Google who the current heir to the Afghan throne is and seeing if he maintains any pretensions. The post-US invasion Afghan constitution made Ahmad Zahir Shah “father of the nation” or some nonsense, but he was pretty useless as a king for decades and decades. He took the throne in ’33 if memory serves, and sat around Europe while the Soviets burned his country and then the muj fought over the place like it was the buz in buzkashi. Many of his ancestors would’ve seen their opening after the Russian invasion and come back and handed out some posterior whippings. But if he’d had that kind of temperament, he probably wouldn’t have let his cousin Daoud make off with the country like a kid stealing a chicken.

            -John M.

  10. Ray

    Aesop: What PROOF can you provide that did not originate from known liars that WMD were used? Provide PROOF that The US overthrowing the government of any nation in the world at any point in the last 75 years has resulted in a “democratic” government replacing it. I’ll do one better. Please provide evidence that the overthrow of ANY nation by the US has resulted in a stable government and has not lead directly to civil or regional warfare.(you can’t because there isn’t one anywhere in history) The US has been the primary instigator of the bulk of the wars ,”police actions”, and old fashioned murder for the last 75 years. Almost all built on lies created by the US in the name of “National Security”. So WHY should we believe people who would happily Nuke a city, rape our children or murder us for a candy bar and who have lied time and again to justify unprovoked military action?

    1. Aesop

      Ray, you’re really not tall enough for this ride, as will become painfully apparent.
      What PROOF can you provide that did not originate from known liars that WMD were used?
      Immaterial; the Tomahawks were real. So are the results.
      Provide PROOF that The US overthrowing the government of any nation in the world at any point in the last 75 years has resulted in a “democratic” government replacing it.
      Been to Berlin or Tokyo lately? That’d be 72 years since overthrow, sport. The defense rests, your honor.
      I’ll do one better. Please provide evidence that the overthrow of ANY nation by the US has resulted in a stable government and has not lead directly to civil or regional warfare.(you can’t because there isn’t one anywhere in history)
      You were asick that day in history class when they talked about WWII, weren’t you?
      The US has been the primary instigator of the bulk of the wars ,”police actions”, and old fashioned murder for the last 75 years.
      Yes. Dreadfully clever of us to cause Hitler to kill the Jews, Mao to slaughter tens of millions, the Norks to go south, Castro to conquer and enslave Cuba, the Arabs to invade and attack Israel 4 times (so far), etc.
      You did include all of that in the phrase “bulk of the wars, “police actions”, and old fashioned murder for the last 75 years” when you penned that recockulous screed, right?
      I could go on for quite some time, but even someone as thick as pyramid blocks can see your thesis is total horsesh*t, built on the twin pillars of a dearth of factual historical information, and a surplus of breathtaking ignorance of that fact, right?
      So maybe put down the tequila, and go back to sleep.
      Drunk posting is never a good idea.
      Almost all built on lies created by the US in the name of “National Security”. So WHY should we believe people who would happily Nuke a city, rape our children or murder us for a candy bar and who have lied time and again to justify unprovoked military action?
      I advocated no such, so your question is pointless. In your haste to be outraged at my imaginary offenses, perhaps you missed that niggling little detail.
      Oh, and besides eschewing alcohol, stop reading Howard Zinn, and stop watching Alex Jones.
      None of those three are your friend. I really mean that, and tell you for your betterment, I hope.

      So Ray, did you want to talk about the weather, or just make chit-chat?

      My sincere apologies to the bloghost for smiling while clubbing the baby seal in question.

      1. Ray

        So you advocate military action could very well lead to WW3. You troll on behalf of the CIA/NSA. Use sadistic imagery and generally engage the idea that murder based on lies is a good thing and that the US starting WW3 is somehow the right thing to do? Then try to tell me you don’t think that? You are a troll. As such your argument that attacking a country protected by a country armed with atomic weapons and a willingness to use them is both insane and well…stupid. Sorry but your juvenile insult trolling is lost on me. I am unimpressed by insult no matter how intelligent the author thinks himself. If you were half as intelligent as you think you are you’d still be a fool. Picking a fight with Russia or China is stupid. The rest of your bullshit is just troll babble. Too bad all that education was wasted on you. But please keep going. Abuse from self important internet bullies is just SOOOO hurtful. I could just DIE.

        1. Hognose Post author

          Ray, the CIA and NSA budget is big but it is not big enough to pay everybody who disagrees with you. Find another reason to explain that disagreement and you’ll get closer to arguing effectively rather than just launching nasty ad hominems, something we usually see little of here.

          Even old cold warriors Max and myself can disagree civilly, when we disagree; and we were literally on opposite sides.

        2. Aesop

          No, Ray, I fart in your general direction, and laugh at the impotence and prima facie FOOLishness of your arguments, after being handed your hindquarters on seven courses of serving platter, largely by your own hand.
          I can’t help that you’re a flaming idiot, but you can. After pulling your own pants down in your original farcical screed, you had the right to remain silent, but clearly not the ability.
          As for charges of trolling, you’re the one who came in here half-cocked and half-witted and crapped on the carpet, then picked it up and started flinging. Your facility at that betrays you almost as quickly as your incompetence at the effort. Your follow-up is even less worthy of detailed fisking than the original, and if I’m going to address litter boxes full of nuggets, I’ll attend to my cat before I take any more time to clean up after you.
          Look, I get that your mother may have hung your diapers on the refrigerator and told you they were artistic genius, but let me be the latest in what is, with certainty, a long and distinguished line of commenters on the internet to notify you: it simply isn’t so.

          “Abuse from self important internet bullies is just SOOOO hurtful.”
          Project much there, Cupcake?
          “ I could just DIE.”
          Stop teasing us.

          But I dug your picture on the “Arguing On The Internet” meme posters.
          Do you get royalties, or was that pro bono work?

          I really implore you to run along, before someone drops a house on you. (You’ve already been taunted a second time, so I can’t use that one on you, mighty quixotic warrior that you are.) Grown-ups are talking here, and you really, truly, sincerely aren’t tall enough for this ride.

          The bar is much lower over at Democrat Underground. You never should’ve left your safe space.

  11. Topbuilder

    “My sincere apologies to the bloghost for smiling while clubbing the baby seal in question.”

    And that, is part of the reason I feel like I’m shoplifting every time I stop by…

Comments are closed.