I remember listening to Jethro Tull’s Standup album or the first time, and thinking: “Okay, how — exactly — can they play that?”
Month: August 2023
Dept. Of Righteous Shootings
Sent to me by several Alert Readers, there’s this happy tale.
Two masked men were shot and killed during a botched robbery in Houston’s East End on Wednesday, according to the Houston Police Department.
A preliminary investigation revealed the business owner was coming back from a bank when he was hit in the back of the head. When he turned around, he saw two masked men wearing gloves and he immediately opened fire. An employee came out, saw what was going on and also fired shots at the robbers.
There’s nothing quite like a two-fer, is there?
Proving that nobody’s ever completely satisfied, however, there’s also this:
Police said a third suspect heard the shooting and took off in a newer model black Lincoln Navigator with Texas license plate RTS-3919.
Never mind. They’ll get to him later.
Normally I’d want to get details like guns used by the good guys, caliber etc., but I think I’ll just have an extra breakfast gin to celebrate because… two-fer.
News Roundup
And speaking of breaking things while getting screwed:
...in other news, Lindbergh makes first solo crossing of the Atlantic. And still in that barrel of idiotic monkeys:
...”stopgap spending bills” is just another term for “let’s rape the taxpayers a little harder while we have them panicking.”
...just the latest of so many, many Republican fuckups.
...”taking a swing at Tony fucking Blair on the campaign trail” was surprisingly not mentioned.
From the Dept. of Mass Assimilation:
...wait: people are trying to get into Saudi Arabia? LOL I bet not too many are Christians, though. Also:
...whatever, dude; just don’t try to sneak your humanitarian crisis into somewhere else that isn’t.
From the Woke Chronicles:
...wait: I thought that chess was one of those things where physical strength doesn’t matter. Parallel thought: why are there women-only chess tournaments? Are chicks really less intellectually-capable than men, chessly-speaking?
...or maybe they just didn’t have enough lesbians in the team. Makes about as much sense.
...I know; just reading that makes you want to listen to the song, right? Go on: the link’s in the picture:
And from the INSIGNIFICA files:
...we haven’t seen this plump little pullet in a while, so:
She has a sister, by the way, who seems equally tasty:
…and that’s all the news fit for a Friday.
The Three Worst Things To Be Forced To Watch
Assume you wake up to find yourself in this rather dire situation:
What would be the three worst things you would want to see appear on the screen (still or movie) for three hours (nine hours total)? Mine:
Caption Competition #294
Your suggestions in Comments.
Mixed Reaction
I’m going to tread very carefully around this one:
An agent with the IRS is dead after being accidentally shot by another agent during a training exercise Thursday at a federal gun range, according to officials.
Arizona’s Family reports a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that an incident occurred at its gun range in the Phoenix area. The gun range was reportedly being utilized by multiple federal agencies at the time of the shooting through an interagency agreement.
Here are my thoughts on this rather touchy topic.
If this kind of training tragedy befalls actual federal law enforcement agencies (FBI, DEA, Secret Service, etc.) then I am truly sorry, and mourn their loss.
But far as all the other federal alphabet agencies (IRS, DoE — Education or Energy — BLM, etc.) are concerned: I don’t care. They shouldn’t be armed in the first place, and therefore have no business being around a federal firearms training facility.
My reason for saying this is quite simple: what the federal government has been doing for the past seventy-odd years is turning misdemeanors or regulatory infractions into federal crimes, and ordinary citizens into criminals every chance they get. But for all that, the latter agencies are not law enforcement departments, as much as the government would like them to be such.
Let me get specific.
It is a totally abhorrent idea that the IRS — who are nothing more than a bunch of accountants and debt collectors — should be sending their agents to get firearms training (on the use of, lest we forget, full-automatic firearms). Who are they going to use those guns on? And don’t insult me with the “self-defense” argument: we ordinary folk aren’t allowed to use automatic rifles and machine guns to protect ourselves; why should these jumped-up bureaucrats get special treatment? Let’s be honest: when an IRS agent is issued with an actual assault rifle — that would be a full-auto rifle, not some semi-auto AR-15 — it’s not to protect himself or his home from rampaging tax delinquents, it’s most likely because he’ll be ordered to storm someone else’s home or place of employment (that would be the very definition of “assault”). And by the way, that’s the job of the FBI, not the bean-counters.
So no: as much as I feel the suffering and loss of this agent’s life for his family, the plain fact of the matter was that he had no damn business being there in the first place.
And the fact that he was there is entirely the responsibility of the federal government.
By the way, should any of the alphabet agencies read this, you should know that my opinion in this is probably the mildest you’ll encounter among the vast majority of the population. Out there, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the popping of champagne corks. The federal government offers little comfort to the population of this country; they should expect little in return.
Update: both in Comments and by email, Readers take issue with my stance on the Dept. of Energy not needing guns, in that they have to guard installations like nukes and other such power plants.
No.
If those installations are so important to the national security (and they are), they need to be guarded by the military and not by the paramilitary. The point is that the military is Constitutionally restricted in terms of its deployment (against citizens), whereas a paramilitary force isn’t. I’d rather that power be held by the Army (and therefore by Congress) than by a bunch of bureaucrats.