"Cowboy The F*** Up!"

From Politico.com:

Sportsmen are also overjoyed at the addition of one of their own, and can’t get enough of video and pictures showing Palin firing a weapon. “She's one of us,” wrote Michael Bane, a prominent Colorado-based gun enthusiast who has a show on the Outdoor Channel, on his blog. “FINALLY, we can get 100 percent behind the Republican ticket ... change we can believe in!”

“You know I've had my problems with McCain, but he has reached out a hand to us both at the NRA Annual Meeting [earlier this year] and with the amazing selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate,” Bane added.

And then there is the contrast: “While Barack Obama wants to ban AR-15s, Palin shoots AR-15s, and apparently pretty well.”

“Every shooter, every hunter, every gun owner, every competitor needs to understand that it is time to, in the words of Bruce Willis, ‘cowboy the 'f...' up.’ ”

"Our Source Was The New York Times!"

Remember in "Dr. Strangelove" when the Soviet Ambassador tells the President about the Doomsday Device? The conversation went a little like this:

"But this is absolute madness, ambassador. Why should you build such a thing?"

"There are those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. And at the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap."

"This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that."

"Our source was the New York Times!"

Well, the paragraph that I excerpted in Friday's post no longer appears in the NYT article. Although Google (bless 'em!) still indexes the quote in that article, viz:

But the paragraph I excerpted no longer appears in the article, which appeared on page A1 of the August 30th issue.

So I have changed the text of Friday's post to properly identify her husband as "Todd Palin" and not "Daniel Norman", but I can no longer vouch for any part of the rest of that paragraph: army, sniper, etc. I'll make more corrections as appropriate.

Sorry to mislead you.

Madam Vice-President, Isn't That An Aimpoint?

HOLY CRAP!
Thanks to Bruce for finding this.

(And the earrings are a nice touch. Way to accessorize!)

UPDATE: From the New York Times:

In November, Ms. Palin spoke at a redeployment ceremony for the company of her husband, Todd Palin, an Army sniper who was awarded a Purple Heart for shrapnel he took from a roadside bomb in Iraq. The governor spoke so warmly to the assembled families, said Ms. Hollier, “there wasn’t one person who wasn’t crying.”

UPDATE 2: The NYT has withdrawn this paragraph; see http://turonistan.blogspot.com/2008/08/our-source-was-new-york-times.html

UPDATE 3: The NYT has removed the offending paragraph from the final published edition, so I can only guess that the paragraph quoted above was some sort of editing error.

And Breda found this kick-ass video:

NRA Life-Member for Veep!

And she has a son with Downs Syndrome. UPDATE: and his name is Trig.

Phil Hill, Racing Legend, Dead at 81

First American to win the Formula One World Championship (1961). First American to win the 24 Hours of LeMans (1958).

A classical music aficionado with an expertise in Italian opera, a collector of antique musical instruments, a master mechanic and a restorer of classic cars, Hill had a wide range of achievements even without his driving fame.

The L.A. Times has a bunch of pictures; here Hill wins LeMans in 1961.

I'll Bet I'm Not The Only One Who Complained

NYTimes: Complaint department, may I help you?

Turk: I wanna complain about your snide tone in the story about the Texas school that is allowing teachers to carry concealed handguns! You make those people out to be rubes and hayseeds just because of the way they talk. You have a man saying, "Well, I ain't took no poll, but I think so."

NYTimes: Gee, you know, you're right. I'll have them change that right away! Will there be anything else?

Turk: Uh, no. Thanks for the ... uh, you're going to change it right now?

NYTimes: Oh, absolutely, sir! And thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Boy, if life were only really like this!

The revised article takes out the offending quote:

As a general rule, the seven school board members — a collection of farmers and oil workers led by an ambulance medic — have referred all questions from reporters to Mr. Thweatt.

But one member, Coy Cato, gave a short interview. “In my opinion, it is the best way to protect our kids,” Mr. Cato said. Asked if others in the community shared his view, he said that he had not taken a poll, but “I think so.”

The Ten Best Crime Movies

According to the London Times, anyway.

50-year-old Murder Story

Sort of a Raymond Chandler/Mickey Spillane story from 1958. Part of a "Los Angeles 50 Years Ago" series. They follow up and reveal what happened to the suspect, the ex-husband, the cops and the reporters, etc.

At School, Some Teach While Armed

As a rule, the seven school board members — a collection of farmers and oil workers led by an ambulance medic — have referred all questions from reporters to [school superintendent] Mr. Thweatt.

But one member, Coy Cato, gave a short interview. “In my opinion, it is the best way to protect our kids,” Mr. Cato said. Asked if others in the community shared his view, he added, “Well, I ain’t took no poll, but I think so.”

Typical. Talking down to the likes of us rubesoise.

Cat Shot With Arrow, Survives

From the BBC.

The patient is resting at home and recovering.
Check out the X-ray - yikes!

Quick work by a vet saved the day.

CCW-Holder Blasts Armed Robber

Via Sebastian.
The truck would be right at home at Blackwater.
No doubt the 17-year-old thug's family will sing the same old tired litany, that he's a "good boy", an "honor student", a "star athlete" and is "planning to attend college".

Yeah, right.

She doesn't just have issues ...

... she has lifetime subscriptions!

From Tam via SayUncle.

Sold!

I actually sold one of these T-Shirts on zazzle.com this morning, earning a royalty of $2.30!

If I can just sell 416 more T-shirts, that Para-USA LTC will be mine! Mine! Bwah-hah-hah!

Must be the Democratic convention that's giving my sales such a huge bump.

The First Law of Economics

Or maybe it's the Second.

It doesn't matter, the point is that demand creates its own supply:

From the BBC: Man Convicted of Converting Guns
Englishman converted 90 replica MAC-10s to fire live ammo. This apparently went on for several years. Curiously, he was convicted of seven counts of "Conspiracy to.." do this or that, and the two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon were dropped.

Update: he got a life sentence.

The Streets Ran Red ...

... with tomatoes.

Pictures from Spain's annual "Tomatina" festival.

Say It Ain't So, Joe!

Hollywood Wunderkind turns to religion.
Remember his infamous row with Michael Ovitz?

Caution: Watch for Rifles in Wheelchairs

From the L.A. Times.

Mid-Wife Kwisis!

Bad stuff 'bout men, from Oprah.com. Here's a small sample:

Marriage and its cruel cohort, fidelity, are a lot to expect from anyone, much less from swift-flying us. Would we agree to wear the same eyeshadow or eat in the same restaurant every day for a lifetime?

See, there was this department store, with six floors. And on the first floor ...

"She's The Best One Here."

Listen to what the instructor says at about 6:45.
Thanks to Sebastian for posting this.

Katey Explains It All

Thirteen-year-old Katey Montegue explains gun control, Canadian-style.

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse

This book is a fun read. Dark humor is not for everyone, but when I saw the title...

Update: this book is like, well, imagine a remake of "A Boy And His Dog" by Quentin Tarantino.

Can She Cook?

Damn straight she can cook! She cooks solar cells in a pizza oven.

Check it out!

Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit

I made my first ham radio contact (or "QSO") tonight with my shiny new key. I talked (Morse code "talk") to K4ZNC in Tallahassee on 40-meters. The above is my "QSL" card, sort of a souvenir of the contact.

My sending is almost as bad as my receiving, but I made it work.

Undefeated in 108 Matches in a Row

Kerri Walsh after clinching the gold medal in Beach Volleyball.

10-Meter Air Rifle

Makes a tricked-out AR seem simple.

This is gold medalist Abhinav Bindra of India.

National Airborne Day

Very cool! Lots of pictures.

Crapgadget

Is there NOTHING that people will not plug in to a USB port?

Via Engadget.com.

A.T.F. - Alcohol, Tobacco & Fleming

A delightful evening on the back porch with a Gloria Cubana cigar, a snifter of Drambuie, a cup of Colombian Supremo and a good book.

This one features the appearance, the one and only appearance, of the Armourer, Major Boothroyd. He takes away Bond's .25 Beretta and replaces it with the famous 7.65 Walther PPK, and, much less famous, a Smith and Wesson Centennial Airweight in .38 Special.

The Armourer is based on a real person, Geoffrey Boothroyd, a British firearms expert who wrote to Fleming that Bond's choice of weapons might be improved. Fleming asked Boothroyd if he could write him in as a minor character.

And, in the first chapter, a Morse code shortwave contact on 14 mc that is mysteriously broken off in mid-sentence and gets the whole plot rolling. Ham radio, too? Be still my heart!

Although, the "hits" were carried out with silenced revolvers (!). Well, there's only one way THAT can work:



Do you suppose Boothroyd told Fleming about the curious design of the 1895 Nagant?

Top Ten Fictional Bands

It says, "Top Ten", but it actually goes to eleven.

This photo shows "The Foggy Bottom Boys" from "O, Brother, Where Art Thou?" which is itself based on the Preston Sturges (pbuh) masterpiece, "Sullivan's Travels".

Well, loosely based.

Plus some other stuff.

Girl Grabs Air

How can anyone compete with someone who can actually fly?

Nastia Liukin of the U.S. What an amazing athlete!

Air Rifle Romance at the Olympics

He's American, she's Czech.

High-Speed Photography

Sharp As A Marble has found some wicked-cool strobe work.

TV Reporter Shot by Sniper

On Georgia-TV.

Awwwww!! (Part 2)

Kitten in an artillery piece in a museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Nation's Poorest 1% Now Controls Two-Thirds of U.S. Soda Can Wealth

From The Onion.

CNN IS Actually Selling This T-Shirt

I'd buy one just for the irony value.

Unusual Idea for a Tour

I saw this ad as a pop-up in the Jerusalem Post yesterday. I was able to grab a freeze, but I couldn't get a URL.

Madonna Turns 50

I don't particularly care, except for this wonderful quote:

"A woman who pulled herself up by her bra straps and has been known to let them down occasionally" (Bette Midler, introducing Madonna at Live Aid in 1985).

But an interesting article from BBC.

My Favorite Cat Cartoon

I like the way the cat is refusing to make eye contact with the prosecutor.

U.S. Olympic Shotgunner Kim Rhode

The L.A. Times has a nice feature on "the most decorated member of the U.S. Olympic shooting team."

UPDATE: She won the Silver Medal in Women's Skeet last night, in a torrential downpour. Congratulations, Kim!

"Rocky Horror" To Be Remade!

If the BBC says it, it's gotta be true!

Here are my casting suggestions:
Riff Raff – Johnny Depp
Columbia – Angelina Jolie
Magenta – Catherine Zeta-Jones
Brad – Leonardo di Caprio
Janet – Scarlett Johannsen
Eddie – Andrew Dice Clay
A Noted Criminologist – Michael Caine

But who will play Dr. Frank N. Furter, Tim Curry's part in the original?

Got it! John Travolta!

A.T.F. - Alcohol, Tobacco and Firefly

I enjoyed episode 2, The Train Robbery, on the back porch with Drambuie and La Gloria Cubana, plus a mug of mocha java. Ahhh...

It was so excellent when Mal kicked this bad dude into the engine intake!

Fauxtography

Interesting article in the NYT about photo-fakery in the Photoshop era.

Watchin' the Detectives ...

Well, they're not really detectives.

I've been watching the Firefly series on hulu.com. I like it. Although so far I've only seen the pilot, but I want to see more.

Here's a screen grab. I was using a Blackberry as an air-modem to a wi-fi router, and then to Firefox on Ubuntu Linux on an old Pentium-3 laptop.

Signs, Signs, Signs.

From Brazil. Translation: Forbidden to throw garbage and corpses in this area.