With Your Shield, Or On It

Hey, toss me a grenade, would you?

Outstanding photo essay of Task Force Spartan in Afghanistan.

h/t Maddened Fowl.

A Medevac copter. But is that a blimp in the background?

Shotgun Silencers? Sure!

From Five Ridiculous Gun Myths That Everyone Believes.

The Velvet Geek

The coolest black velvet paintings you will ever see.

The Terror Of La Porte, Indiana

Fascinating account of a female serial killer who was responsible for at least 25 murders and possibly twice that many. And who may have escaped justice.

Neatorama.

Suffragette City

On a bicycle trip to the former site of the Lorton Prison, I spotted this historical marker.

"I'd Do Worse."

Youssouf Drame displayed scars from a gun battle in which he was shot seven times and killed two men trying to rob his Brooklyn store.

I started at the New York Daily News report of the "Bloody Weekend" in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg, true to form, calls for tougher gun control laws.

That led me to a 2008 NYDN editorial called "Wake Up, Mike", which chided hizzonor for, among other things, "abandoning Youssouf Brame."

Who?

Google reports that his real name is Youssouf Drame. So much for the "first, rough draft of history." But I wondered what happened to Mr. Drame, and why he was "abandoned."

Fortunately for us, the Gray Lady is on the case. The 2009 article, "Scars Linger..." recounts the experiences of several people who fought back against armed robbers. Most had some regrets and emotional baggage, some of it severe.

But for Youssouf Drame, who shot and killed two of the four men who tried to rob his Crown Heights electronics store last November, the pain is mostly physical: In the gunfight that broke out after he grabbed one of the robbers’ weapons, Mr. Drame was shot seven times. His left hand is permanently damaged, and scars remain where his body was pockmarked with bullet holes. But if he had it to do again, Mr. Drame said, “I’d do worse.”

His is the other face of the shopkeeper’s rage, the one that draws cheers from crime-weary citizens and business owners. At his store last week, Mr. Drame watched on the dozens of televisions on display as Mr. Augusto spoke about the Harlem shooting. “How are you going to rob an old man like that?” Mr. Drame said in disgust.

He opened his store nine years ago, after stints working as a fishmonger, a parking attendant and a cleaner of vendors’ carts.

“I worked so hard, and they wanted to take what is mine,” Mr. Drame, 35, said of the men who tried to hold him up.

Mr. Drame, who has five children, grabbed the man’s gun and started firing. When it was over, one of the robbers was dead, and another died in the hospital. The other two men fled.

Mr. Drame spent a few weeks in Kings County Hospital Center, then went back to work, installing security cameras that cover every approach to his store. If anything, the shooting gave him new strength, he said: “I didn’t come to America to die.”

Unarmed, he challenged four armed robbers, disarming one, killing two, and taking seven bullets, he nonetheless survived and has no regrets.

Bravo, Mr. Drame.

P.S. NRA News has a video essay here.

H.P. Lovecraft Box Lunch

Boing-Boing.

Windows

Washing our windows Saturday afternoon, the day before the big show.

Lest We Forget

Seen on gawker.com.

Earthquake

We just had a pretty strong earthquake (at 1:51 PM). Lasted about 30 seconds. The interior walls appeared to be shaking back and forth about six inches. No apparent damage, not even any cracked windows, but wow.

In Woodbridge, VA.

These days, if all it is, is an earthquake and not a shock wave from a nuclear explosion, I'll consider myself lucky.

Lebowski Fest

Hilarious bunch of fans, fanatics and lookalikes.

"Tea Party Patient Zero"

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

It Was Forty Years Ago Today

...that the U.S. went off the gold standard. And things have just been so utterly peachy-keen ever since.

Forbes via Yahoo.

New Book

I read the first three chapters here. It's pretty good.

h/t boing-boing.

I Haven't Tried This Barber Yet

Tesla Coil Car Theft Deterrent

h/t Snowflakes In Hell.

I think I may have seen one of these in the parking lot at the Dayton Hamvention, but it might just have been a humongous screwdriver antenna.

The Mission

Fascinating account of the raid on Abbottabad, in, of all places, The New Yorker.

The helicopters traversed Mohmand, one of Pakistan’s seven tribal areas, skirted the north of Peshawar, and continued due east. The commander of DEVGRU’s Red Squadron, whom I will call James, sat on the floor, squeezed among ten other SEALs, Ahmed [the translator], and Cairo [the dog]. (The names of all the covert operators mentioned in this story have been changed.) James, a broad-chested man in his late thirties, does not have the lithe swimmer’s frame that one might expect of a SEAL—he is built more like a discus thrower. That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others SEALs had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A “blowout kit,” for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James’s back.

Highly recommended.

Artsy Posters For Cult Films

"No Shirt, No Shoes, No Dice" from "Fast Times."

"Vote McFly" from "Back To The Future"

Via Neatorama.

Text Messages In 1890

Article about after-hours chatter among telegraph operators...the first "texting".

From Sunday Magazine.

Via Neatorama.

The Debt Crisis

1) Standard & Poor's has already told the Treasury that even if the debt ceiling is raised, odds are 50-50 that they will reduce the rating of U.S. Treasury notes from “AAA” to “AA+” within three months. Reason: the current level of federal borrowing at a rate of 40 cents of every dollar of federal spending is unsustainable.

2) Forty-seven percent of American households paid no federal income tax at all in 2009.

3) Entitlement income is now 18% of total personal income in the United States and wages account for 51%.

There is a wonderful, pithy saying that is often wrongly attributed to Benjamin Franklin: “Democracy will last until a majority of the people discover that they can vote themselves largess from the federal treasury at the expense of the minority.”

The federal government is poised on the brink of a financial "death spiral".

What's going to happen when the ex-millionaires begin to show up at homeless shelters and food banks?

It Was A Dry Heat

I went on a 25-mile bike ride today in the middle of this scorcher. It was 90 degrees at 11 AM when I started, 95 at noon and the high was 97 at 3 PM. But I took this snapshot at 1 PM... local temps were a bit higher. Riding on the sidewalk next to the traffic was like breathing from a blow-dryer. I took a Camelback canteen full of ice and water and today I used it all; first time for that.

Happy Anniversary, Neptune!

Today the planet Neptune completed its first orbit around the sun since it was first observed on September 23-24, 1846.



Voyager 2 photographed Neptune's two faint rings in 1989, from about 3,000 miles altitude.

Neatorama.

D.C. Gov't May Help Residents Buy Guns

For several months, the only FFL in the District of Columbia, a man named Charles Sykes, has been without a business location, having lost his lease. He has been unable to find a new lease.

Sykes said Thursday that city regulations have made it very difficult for him to find a new place of business. Zoning rules demand that he locate no closer than 300 feet from schools, libraries or certain other landmarks.

“I wish the District would assist me more with trying to find an office,” he said. “I’m just a little disappointed that I’m not getting any encouragement or support.”

Sykes says he has proposed several addresses to the city, but to date they have all been rejected. “I thought [finding a location] was going to be the easy part,” he said. “This has been a stumbling block.”

He said he has no estimate on when he might return to business.

Three hundred feet?! Dude, in Chicago they require 1,000 feet!

While Sykes’s business in on hiatus, D.C. residents have been prevented de facto from buying guns, which has opened the city to lawsuits. In late May, Virginia lawyer Alan Gura sued the city in Alexandria’s federal court on behalf of three District residents who have purchased guns legally but are unable to transfer them into the city.

God bless Alan Gura!

So D.C. City Council is considering a bill to allow the city government to operate as an FFL.

Details in WaPo.

Big Second Amendment Decision

In Ezell vs Chicago, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and instructed the lower court to issue an injunction to prevent Chicago from banning private indoor pistol ranges within the city limits. Interesting that that there are already eleven pistol ranges in Chicago: four federal, five CPD and two for private security guards.

Some excerpts from the decision, and it's a doozie:

p41:

The City urges us to import the “undue burden” test from the Court’s abortion cases, but we decline the invitation. Both Heller and McDonald suggest that First Amendment analogues are more appropriate, and on the strength of that suggestion, we and other circuits have already begun to adapt First Amendment doctrine to the Second Amendment context...

p48:

As the record comes to us at this stage of the proceedings, the firing‐range ban is wholly out of proportion to the public interests the City claims it serves. Accordingly, the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment claim has a strong likelihood of success on the merits.

and:

Properly regulated firing ranges open to the public should not pose significant threats to public health and safety. On the other side of the scale, the plaintiffs have established a strong likelihood that they are suffering violations of their Second Amendment rights every day the range ban is in effect. The balance of harms favors the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs asked the district court to enjoin the enforcement of Chicago Municipal Code § 8‐20‐280—the prohibition on “[s]hooting galleries, firearm ranges, or any other place where firearms are discharged.” They are entitled to a preliminary injunction to that effect. To be effective, however, the injunction must also prevent the City from enforcing other provisions of the Ordinance that operate indirectly to prohibit range training. The plaintiffs have identified several provisions of the Ordinance that implicate activities integral to range training: CHI. MUN. CODE §§ 8‐20‐020 (prohibiting the possession of handguns outside the home), 8‐20‐030 (prohibiting the possession of long guns outside the home or business), 8‐20‐080 (prohibiting the possession of ammunition without a corresponding permit and registration certificate), 8‐20‐100 (prohibiting the transfer of firearms and ammunition except through inheritance), 8‐24‐010 (prohibiting the discharge of firearms except for self‐defense, defense of another, or hunting). To the extent that these provisions prohibit law‐abiding, responsible citizens from using a firing range in the city, the preliminary injunction should include them as well. Similarly, the injunction should prohibit the City from using its zoning code to exclude firing ranges from locating anywhere in the city.

Finally, because range training is required for the issuance of a Chicago Firearm Permit, a registration certificate, and ultimately, for lawful possession of any firearm, the firing‐range ban implicates not only the right to train at a range but also the core Second Amendment right to possess firearms for self‐defense. Accordingly, the preliminary injunction should include sections 8‐20‐110(a) and 8‐20‐140(a) to the extent that those provisions operate to prohibit otherwise eligible persons from “carry[ing] or possess[ing] a firearm” at a range without a Permit or registration certificate while they are trying to complete the range‐training prerequisite for lawful firearm possession.

Those are the bounds of the proposed preliminary injunction, which should be entered upon remand.

And Judge Rovner concurs:

Stung by the result of McDonald v. City of Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010), the City quickly enacted an ordinance that was too clever by half. Recognizing that a complete gun ban would no longer survive Supreme Court review, the City required all gun owners to obtain training that included one hour of live‐range instruction, and then banned all live ranges within City limits. This was not so much a nod to the importance of live‐range training as it was a thumbing of the municipal nose at the Supreme Court. The effect of the ordinance is another complete ban on gun ownership within City limits. That residents may travel outside the jurisdiction to fulfill the training requirement is irrelevant to the validity of the ordinance inside the City. In this I agree with the majority: given the framework of Dist. of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), and McDonald, the City may not condition gun ownership for self‐defense in the home on a prerequisite that the City renders impossible to fulfill within the City limits. The plaintiffs have a strong likelihood of success on the merits of that claim and the district court should have granted an injunction against the operation of the ordinance to the extent that it imposed an impossible pre‐condition on gun owner ship for self‐defense in the home. There are two obvious ways for the City to remedy this problem: it may either drop the requirement for one hour of live range training or it may permit live‐range training within the City limits.

Wow!

h/t to Days Of Our Trailers and Of Arms And The Law.

Shock Wave Condensation Collars

A collection of beautiful and unusual pictures of the Space Shuttle, in The Atlantic.

"The Citizen Kane Of Jukebox Musicals"

I watched "A Hard Day's Night" on Netflix today. It's still fresh!


Pattie Boyd (yes, that Pattie Boyd) had an uncredited part as a passenger on the train.

Somewhere In Ohio, Last Month

From The Driver's Seat

There's something about big trucks in the rain. I wonder how many foot-pounds of energy a fully-laden rig has?

Special Graphics Filter Reveals

So, what was in those 900 pages of heavily-redacted documents that the ATF sent to Congress?



Thought so!

h/t Say Uncle.

Kicking The Can Down The Road

Congressional Budget Office Warns Of Debt Explosion

Fed Says Economy Is Slowing, Will Let Bond Program Expire

Financially Troubled Postal Service Suspending Contributions To Employees' Retirements

Like watching a slow-motion train wreck.

The Mexican Government Has An FFL

Yeah, a real ATF-issued Federal Firearms License. Is that why "most weapons siezed at crime scenes in Mexico are traced to FFLs"?

Sen. Grassley asks the ATF:

(5) Data indicates that the top source dealer for illegal firearms traced in Mexico for 2009 was "Direccion General de Industria Milita" or the Directorate General of Military Industry in Mexico. They provided 120 firearms that were later traced back, likely after a crime. Why does this entity have a U.S. Federal Firearms License? Are sales to this and other foreign entities with U.S. FFL's included in the numbers the ATF provided as being a gun from a "U.S. source"? If so, why?

It could turn out that the two organizations most responsible for trafficking guns to the Mexican narcos are the ATF and the Mexican military.

From Dave Hardy's Of Arms And The Law.

A Trip To The Range

I took the Garand to the range this afternoon. Here's one of the targets:

I don't often get an X-ring, even at short range and with 16 shots...

Here's an example of smartness here. The Garand won't reassemble if the hammer is down. What to do?


Answer: Make the trigger guard cock the hammer!

There's a lot of other design cleverness in this trigger group that I'm not competent to describe adequately.

Mosquitos

I'm reading "The Traveller's Tree" by Patrick Leigh Fermor, a reprint of his 1950 account of a voyage through the Caribbean. Staying at the Hotel des Antilles in Guadeloupe, he was besieged by insects, even under mosquito nets, and wrote,

Joan's plan - still, alas! as I write, no more than a plan - of sleeping chained to a chameleon seems to be the only practical way of neutralizing the unceasing siege of the insect world. With this alert little basilisk camped on one's bosom, suitably camouflaged to melt into the slumberwear; prepared, at the faintest buzz in the surrounding ether, to fire half a yard of tongue at the foe, and swallow it without blinking an eye, one might snore the night peacefully through. Not otherwise.

Delightful book, so far, but contemporary readers might be a little put-off by the author's attempts at amateur ethnology.

Busy Day

I took an eleven-mile bicycle ride in the Prince William Forest Park this afternoon. It's adjacent to the big Quantico Marine Base. This bridge is over the Quantico Creek. Sometimes, if I'm in a part of the park close to Quantico, I can hear the "pop-pop-pop" of our nation's youth at play.

And this evening I took in a minor league baseball game. This seat cost me $12. I had a wonderful view of a bunt in the fifth inning. The ball rolled down the first base line, about a foot to the left of the stripe. The first baseman charged it, but the batter sprinted ahead and passed the ball before the first baseman could reach it. The first baseman picked up the ball and did a wild spinaround to try to tag the batter, but the batter arched his back and the tag missed, by about an inch. The umpire and the manager had a heated discussion about that play, but I think they called it right: safe at first.

The commercial tie-ins were amusing. Nearly every inning was sponsored by a business or product. The first inning was sponsored by a car wash, "The Official Carwash of the Potomac Nationals." The second inning was sponsored by a cookie company, "The Official Cookie of the Potomac Nationals." The third inning was sponsored by a spa, "The Official Spa of the Potomac Nationals." And the fourth inning was sponsored by Kraft Singles, "The Official Sliced Cheese of the Potomac Nationals."

Why Wasn't I Told?

You might enjoy this article from the Feb/Mar 2010 issue:

Fetch Daddy A Drink: How To Apply Gun-Dog Training Methods To Your Children
by P.J. O'Rourke

Scorcher!

It was 92 degrees when I started this ill-advised bicycle trip, and 95 when I got back. Only about ten miles, and I had plenty of water (and ice!) but it was hard going. The new kevlar-lined tires worked fine. Stopped under a shade tree, rested and downed an icy cold soft drink, then headed home.

Last week this bike and I were touring the wilds of the Monon Trail in deepest, darkest Broadripple. Around here, though, you make the best of the sidewalks and parking lots.

Grand Prix in Blu-ray

It's finally here! The 1966 movie Grand Prix is finally available in Blu-ray, transfered from original 65mm to 1080i. And it is beautiful. Particularly the first 20 minutes or so, at the Monaco Grand Prix. That's American driver Richie Ginther below, probably in the "camera car", a real Formula One car with a 65mm Super Panavision camera.

Lots of great "extras" on the disk. The director, John Frankenheimer (who also directed Ronin), describes how he was shown the door at Ferrari, when he came to ask for their assistance. Mr. Ferrari didn't want anything to do with the movie and wouldn't allow the Ferrari "prancing horse" logo to be shown, or any mention of the word "Ferrari" to be in the movie. So after the Monaco footage was shot, Frankenheimer begged for the opportunity to show a rough-cut of the footage. Mr. Ferrari was so impressed and enthusiastic that he gave the film makers complete access, even allowing them to film in the Ferrari factory, an absolutely unheard-of concession. In the snap below, Enzo Ferrari (on the right) is meeting actor Adolfo Celi, who played Senor Manetta, a thinly-disguised version of Mr. Ferrari.

In another "extra", someone recounts a conversation between a young Jackie Stewart and the legendary Jim Clark. Stewart and Clark were discussing how to handle a certain corner.

“I lost it at the Station hairpin,” Stewart said.

“Did you shunt?”

“No I recovered, caught it and didn't hit anything.”

“How'd you do THAT?” Clark asked.

At first, Stewart was pleased that he had impressed the great Jim Clark, but as he gained more experience he realized that he had profoundly misunderstood. Clark was asking why Stewart wasn't driving at 100%, right on the edge, where there is no recovery, but where a driver has to be if he wants to be World Champion.

But it's the race footage and the editing that makes this movie so special. The plot, involving the love lives of three or four drivers, is ridiculous and hackneyed. But Yves Montand is good, and so is Antonio Sabato. Even Toshiro Mifune does well, although his audio bothers me. It looks dubbed or looped in, and badly.

When In Indianapolis...

A two-hour tour of Fry's Electronics is de rigueur in Indianapolis.

But you should also try the food:

The banana walnut coffee at Cafe Pretentiu, or their vegan Bloody Mary.

The Reuben dog at King David's Hotdogs (just across the street from Morton's).

The chili cheese etouffe at Yat's.

The cheese quiche at Taste that was as fluffy as egg custard.

Morel mushrooms from Locally Grown Gardens, sauted in Irish butter.

And the guns:

The Darne shotgun at 500 Guns, 20-gauge with case coloring as beautiful as I have ever seen - like woodgrain in steel; or the Enfield Mk. 4 Trainer in original .22LR.

The Savage Navy side-hammer revolver at Beech Grove Firearms, with two triggers, one to rotate the cylinder and one to trip the hammer.

Further This Respondent Sayeth Not

Overheard at the outdoor flea market at the Dayton Hamvention:

Turk: "Check out that great-looking 19" Bud equipment cabinet."

Roberta X: "I wish I had a rack like that!"

Turk: "#%*?@!"

Super Bee

Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Dodge Daytona

As red as red can be!

Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Breakfast Of Champions

Hash browns, fruit salad, a side order of bacon and a cuppa Joe.

At Taste.

Blood Orange Vinegar

At Locally Grown Gardens.

Blogmeet!

Having wonderful time, wish you were here!

Dayton 25

Dayton 24

Swiss Enigma machine.

Dayton 23

Big tubes!

Dayton 22

Manual Microstatic Frequency Modulation.

Dayton 21

A genuine BC-AG-229!

Dayton 20

More tubes!

Dayton 19

Tubular!

Dayton 18

Stuff.
Just. Stuff.