British Soldiers arrested for selling machineguns and grenades to gangs

From the UK Daily Mail

British soldiers arrested for 'selling' machine guns and grenades to gangsters
Last updated at 12:26pm on 18th February 2008 Three soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of stealing machine guns and grenades from their base and selling them to gangsters.

A 36-year-old sergeant and two lance corporals - a man of 27 and a 26-year-old woman - were arrested when police raided their barracks in Canterbury, Kent.

The NCOs from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders are said to have been raking in a fortune stealing guns, rifle ammunition, grenades and flares from Howe barracks - then selling them to criminal gangs in Scotland.

According to an army insider there were police squad cars all around the barracks and they then raided two homes in the married quarters and a flat in the barracks, as well as the sergeants' mess.

Four civilian men who are alleged to have bought stolen ammunition were also arrested in Glasgow in a carefully co-ordinated raid.

They are expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court today.

It comes as the Argylls prepare to deploy to Afghanistan.

An MoD spokesman said: "The MoD can confirm that Kent Police have arrested three soldiers from 5 SCOTS on suspicion of the theft and supply of munitions.

"The arrests took place in Canterbury, where 5 SCOTS are based. Royal Military Police officers were in support. The MoD is co-operating fully with Kent Police as they pursue their investigation."

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said: "We can confirm that on Friday 15 February as part of an ongoing joint operation between Strathclyde Police and police forces south of the border, a number of people were arrested at addresses in Strathclyde and the south of England in connection with the theft of munitions and the subsequent supply of those munitions to people in the Strathclyde area.

"A total of four men aged 27, 25, 25 and 20 are the subject of a report to the Procurator Fiscal for a variety of offences under the Firearms Act and the Explosive Substances act."

Given the UK arsenal, I'd expect the troopers were selling off HG85 fragmentation grenades, SA80 rifles, and perhaps either Browning Hi-Power or SIG P226 handguns.

Since the article mentions rifle ammo, perhaps pistols weren't involved. Which also makes sense; while pistols are used in military service, they're used in considerably less numbers than rifles.

The 5 SCOTS, or the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland is an air assault battalion.

Blow-Up Doll Stands in for Groom

Of course, it just had to happen in Ohio...

Article here.

Blow-Up Doll Stands in for Groom

Feb 15, 10:33 PM (ET)

GROVE CITY, Ohio (AP) - If one bride felt lighter than air in her wedding gown, her groom certainly felt like air itself as 19 couples renewed their vows near Columbus.

Sheila Smith's husband, Bob, had to go away on business and couldn't make the Valentine's Day recommitment service at Grove City United Methodist Church. So friends brought a life-size inflatable doll to serve as a stand-in.

They dressed Blow-up Bob in dress pants, a shirt and tie, and taped on a head-shot photo of the real Bob Smith.

His wife was blown away, because she thought she'd only be serving as matron of honor for four of her friends. After Sheila Smith phoned her husband to tell him about his air-filled alter ego, she wiped away tears as she told how he laughed so hard he couldn't speak.

Happy Caturday

A treasure trove of Lovecraft...

Stumbled upon the wikisource archive of H.P. Lovecraft writtings today.

More than just a collection of his stories, but also some of his letters, poetry, even his will.

Considering almost all of his work is public domain now, I expect there's a few collections like this. This one seems a bit more complete than others I've seen.

Enjoy.

"Child Man"or the misandry of feminism

I've been holding off writing about this topic. I wanted some distance between the emotional response I felt and a calmer analysis.

Back in January I heard a story on NPR called Young Men Stuck in Adolescent-Adult Limbo. It stemmed from an op-ed piece, "The child-man" by Kay Hymowitz who was the invited guest on NPR.

In it, Hymowitz argues that men today, especially the 18-34 age group, are in a permanent state of adolescence. She sneers at men who play video games and watch cartoons instead of doing things she'd rather they do.

From the original op-ed:

Consider: In 1970, 69 percent of 25-year-old and 85 percent of 30-year-old white men were married; in 2000, only 33 percent and 58 percent were, respectively. And the percentage of young guys tying the knot is declining as you read this. Census Bureau data show that the median age of marriage among men rose from 26.8 in 2000 to 27.5 in 2006 – a dramatic demographic shift for such a short time period.

That adds up to tens of millions more young men blissfully free of mortgages, wives and child-care bills.

Men aren't getting married and having kids like they used to. Therefore, they're still children in her opinion.

Of course, as a feminist the same rules don't apply to women. From the same op-ed:

With women, you could argue that adulthood is in fact emergent. Single women in their 20s and early 30s are joining an international New Girl Order, hyper-achieving in both school and an increasingly female-friendly workplace, while packing leisure hours with shopping, traveling and dining with friends.

So what are men doing while women are "emerging"?
Same op-ed again:

Single young males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3 and, in many cases, underachieving. With them, adulthood looks as though it's receding.

Obvious eh?

If women are putting off getting married and having kids, they're joining the New Girl Order.

If guys are putting off getting married and having kids, they're drunk horny slackers.

Beyond the obvious double standard and bigotry towards those with the wrong chromosomes, there's this from the op-ed:

For the problem with child-men is that they're not very promising husbands and fathers.

Which brings the situation into focus. Apparently, once the New Girl Order is done shopping, traveling and splitting up the check with her girlfriends she wants to come home to a guy who's paying the mortgage and raising the kids.

Gods, no wonder the marriage rate is declining. Reverse the situation for a moment, if that helps you understand: would any of the New Girl Order wait at home with the kids while Dad was out at a sports bar with their friends?

Isn't that exactly what women were complaining about for years, that men treated them as maids and nannies they didn't have to pay?

Now, guys are expected to shoulder financial and child rearing responsibilities so the New Girl Order can be "empowered"?

Note that it's not even a reversal of roles; men are expected to maintain their financial responsibilities ( i.e. paying the mortgage ) while also taking on the traditional role of women, or at least paying someone else for child care.

Gee, why wouldn't every guy jump right on that?

In many ways, the feminist movement of the 60's did some good. Recognizing that in the workforce what's between someone's ears matters more than what's between their legs was a step forward. I work with a number of people, men and women, who are competent, some even exceptional, in our field.

Yet, there are perhaps unintended consequences. Just as women have discovered they can achieve financial independence through a larger participation in the work force, men have discovered they don't need to lead a life of quiet desperation in service to wives and children.

Feminism helped create the modern America. Feminists shouldn't be surprised at men who've adapted to the modern world and no long seek traditional roles.

After all, it's not like feminists want to return to a bygone era themselves.

Happy VD

From Chopping Block

Cthulhu Statue

I found this lovely on the Raging Gaijin site.



Beautiful work. The patina is excellent, giving it that "ancient horror from beyond" look.

The real reason for alien abductions

From Lio



Note that this also explains cattle mutilations. Cattle can't wash clothes, so obviously this angers the aliens and they respond accordingly.

Just in time for VD...

From the Onion...


Online Dating Helping Pathetic Women Get Their Hopes Crushed More Efficiently

Using Vim and GPG

So today while things were a bit slow, I decided to play with Vim and GPG.

Some of you will know what I'm talking about.

For others ( who don't like to follow links ), Vim is a text editor and GPG is public key encryption software.

Text editors just edit text; there's not much in the way of layout options, but they're very good at manipulating text in interesting ways. Vim is a favorite of mine since I find it quite powerful and it's available for just about every platform I work on.

Public key encryption software is a bit more complicated. At it's core, it's way to use encryption between two people who've never met. A very simplistic analogy is a box with two keys; one locks the box, the other unlocks it if it was locked with a particular lock key. These boxes are universally available, for free.

When you want to communicate securely, you first go to the box dealer and get two keys ( one that locks any box and one that unlocks boxes locked with the first key ). You give the lock key to all your friends and encourage them to give it to their friends. You even hang a copy of your lock key on the bulletin board of the coffee shop you hang out in from time to time.

Now, someone wants to send you a message and they don't want anyone else to read it. First, they go to the box dealer and get a box. Then, they take a copy of your lock key ( say, the one you hung in the coffee shop ) , put the message in the box and lock it with your lock key.

Since these keys come in pairs, their own unlock key doesn't work. No one else's does either; to unlock the box, you have to use the unlock key that corresponds to the lock key.

This someone now mails the locked box to you as they would anything else.

You get the box, perhaps delivered with some catalogs, bills, and other junk mail. You take out your unlock key and unlock the box, then read the message.

In this example, the "lock" key is called a public key, the "unlock key" is a secret key, and boxes are the GPG program. Sending the box is email, but the transport method isn't that significant.

With me so far? Ok. So, I wanted to use my favorite text editor to write a message without leaving any traces on my computer and GPG it.

First, I invoked Vim with this command from a command prompt:

gvim -n

The "-n" bit says "don't write anything to the hard drive unless I tell you to". Perhaps you might think that most programs don't write anything to the hard drive unless you tell them to, but that's not always the case. In Vim's case, it opens a "swap file" whenever it's invoked. It does this so if something bad happens while you're using it there's a chance the data is still recoverable.



Usually this is a good thing, but when you want to send something only your intended recipient can read it's not a good idea to leave unencrypted data laying around. People would have a very hard time breaking GPG, but they don't have to if you're going to leave the message for anyone to find.

So, with Vim open, I type my message. Once done, I enter the command:

:%! gpg -q -e -a -s -r

Whoa. WTF is that??

Ok, the ":%!" says "take the stuff I just typed and send it the application I'm specifying next". The application, in this case, is GPG. The options to GPG break down like this:
-q = quiet mode. Just do what I tell you and shut up about it.
-e = encrypt.
-a = ascii output. In other words, make the output consist of letters, numbers, and a few symbols that are safe to send in the body of an email message.
-s = sign it. Digitally, this is optional but allows someone with your public key to check to ensure it's really you that sent the message.
-r = recipient. Who gets this, specified by email address.

A prompt pops up, asking for my GPG pass phrase. I enter it and the contents of my Vim window are replaced with the ASCII encoded encrypted message. From there, it's a simple cut-and-paste into the email body.



Once that's done, I exit Vim with:

:q!

Which means "Close Vim, abandon everything I just did and yes I really mean it so don't ask". Since there was no swap file generated on opening, there's no trace left on the machine of the text you wrote; only the encrypted version remains.

Anyone else remember cyberpunk?

Specifically the sci fi genre typical of which is William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy.

One of the particular items of cyberpunk fiction that caught my interest as a youth was the idea of the Orwellian power of the heads of society, but the twist was it wasn't governments that had become Orwellian but multinational corporations.

Great fiction. It's become fact.

This article in Conde Nast Portfolio details the post cold war and post 9/11 rise of the corporate intelligence agency.

Largely overlooked in the furor was the role that Wal-Mart's internal security department had played in digging up the salacious details. This department, a global operation, was headed by a former senior security officer for the Central Intelligence Agency and staffed by former agents from the C.I.A., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government agencies. (See our Spy Slang guide) A person familiar with the episode said in an interview that an ex-C.I.A. computer specialist was involved in piecing together the email evidence—which included copies of Womack's private Gmail messages, provided by his estranged wife—and that another former government agent had supervised the overall investigation.

This isn't to say this activity is illegal; far from it, it seems that for the most part this activity is well within the law.

For instance, installing a keyboard monitor on corporate owned hardware is hardly an invasion of privacy. Most people, as a condition of employment, agree to such monitoring anyway. If that happens to capture your gmail password..

Similarly, techniques like this:

At Diligence, a New York private-investigation firm founded by former C.I.A. and British agents, ex-intelligence officers have taught newcomers how to construct false identities by using fake business cards, creating phony websites, and directing incoming calls to cell phones reserved for each separate identity. "You are establishing a cover, like in the C.I.A.," said a former Diligence employee, adding that there are people who know investigators only by their phony identities.

Aren't illegal. While there are laws against fraud, they don't apply if you're not trying to get any money from the target of your deception.

I'll expect you've heard of dumpster diving. Not popular, but at least some consider it effective, albeit a bit sleezy:

Even some of the legal methods are controversial within the industry. Certain old-school firms won't stoop to dumpster diving or stealing garbage—which is usually legal as long as the trash is on a curb or other public property—because they consider it unethical.

Outside of techniques, this really caught my eye:

"The private sector has virtually all the same techniques as the government," Devine told me. A favorite haunt for former American spies is the elegantly appointed dining room of the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, a short drive from the cafeteria they used to patronize at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley.

Perhaps Gibson got it right. It seems that the private sector now has an intelligence capability focused on their needs. That makes me wonder how much else of Gibson's vision could, or will, become reality.

Fun with the bleep

The Count Censored


Apparently the only addition is select words were bleeped out with the standard FCC compliant bleep. Amusing to see what words the brain fills in.

Conspiracy theory and general freakishness

A mailing list I'm on posted a link to this gem, the beyond weird site.

It's a collection of weird writings on a variety of subjects, from UFOs to occultism, hauntings and black magic.

Just to be clear, I'm endorsing none of that. However, if you've an interest in esoterica as I do you might find something of interest.

If nothing else, it's a laugh.

Happy Caturday

Why the youth vote doesn't matter

Obama Girl didn't vote.

On Tuesday night, City Room ran into Ms. Ettinger at an election-watching party in Greenwich Village and asked how things went at the polls.

“I didn’t get a chance to vote today because I’m not registered to vote in New York,” she said.

So where is Obama Girl registered to vote?

“New Jersey.”

Um, but didn’t New Jersey also hold a primary?

True. The problem, she explained, was that she was sick in New York City and was unable to get back across the Hudson River to the polls in Jersey City.

“I was in Arizona for the Super Bowl — every time I get in the airplane I get sick,” said Ms. Ettinger, who did manage to make it to the Svedka Fembot election returns party at Chinatown Brasserie. (The Fembot campaign for the White House, the Svedka marketing manager assured us, is not a commentary in any way on Hillary Rodham Clinton, who defeated Mr. Obama in both New York and New Jersey.)

Ms. Ettinger said she had dragged herself out Tuesday night under duress only because she was scheduled to perform at the Bowery Poetry Club. The previous day she had hit the streets of New York to interview voters, where a Daily News photographer snapped her picture on Park Avenue.

And how did she feel about missing the opportunity to cast her ballot for her one and only? “I’m a little upset but I really couldn’t help it today,” she said mournfully.

So that's it then.

Apparently, as long as you have good feelings and make an exciting, fulfilling video it's ok not to follow through with actions that really matter. So long as you have a good excuse.

Is it any wonder pundits laugh off the youth vote? Look, do whatever you like to support your candidate, but remember that it's vote totals that matter in the end. If you don't vote, don't expect your candidate to win. And no, it doesn't matter how you feel about that.

The truth about semi-automatic firearms

I saw this over at the Firearms Blog. Really well done, it shows in simple terms the difference between a fully automatic assault rifle and a semi-automatic rifle. It also shows how the features of some semi-automatic rifles, while changing the appearance, don't change the nature of the rifle.

Cocaine Submarine

I've seen these before, but they usually rate a second look.

With huge profits as the lure, drug traffickers in Colombia use every possible method to ship their cocaine to market. And, if the latest trend is any sign, they're as ingenious as ever.

Colombia's navy has been detecting the increasing use of submarines to transport tons of cocaine.

Everyone seems to know there's money in drug smuggling. That the smugglers are making their own submarine service shows both how much money there is as well as how determined and inventive the smugglers are.

This item, from the same story, is also interesting:

"This craft comes with a fiberglass cover, on the outside and on the inside," says Lt. Manuel Higuera.

Indeed, that's what gives the vessel a leg up over the Navy. With little metal to speak of, it's hard to detect with sonar.

I wonder if that was on purpose. Fiberglass can be easier to work with than steel and can take fewer men since it's much lighter. That it's harder to detect on sonar could be a side effect or a design consideration. No idea really, but it's an interesting question.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the Year of the Rat! May good fortune smile on all.

Rat years are a strange one if you're a cat owner. While there is a Tiger in the zodiac, there's no house cat. The all knowing wikipedia has two versions of the story as to why that is:

According to one legend, in the sixth century B.C. the Jade Emperor invited all the animals in creation to a race, only twelve showed up: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Lamb, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig, and according to their places in the race, the Jade Emperor had given them each a number starting with the Rat who was the winner of the race.

Many legends arose from the Race of the Chinese Zodiacs. One told of the reason why cats and rats shall always be enemies: He and the cat (at the time good friends) were poor swimmers, so they asked the ox if they could stay on top of his head to cross the river. Along the way he pushed the cat off of the ox's back. And the cat, incapable of swimming, lagged behind. The rat stayed on top of the ox's head until the ox was almost at the finish line. And as the ox was about to cross it, the rat jumped from the ox's head and became first place. And the cat and rat have been enemies ever since.

Another legend tells that the cat had asked the rat to wake him up the day of the Race. The rat agreed, but on the said day, he did not wake the cat in his greed to win. When the cat finally woke up and got to the racing ground, he found the race to be over. The cat then swore revenge upon the rat.

So either the cat was betrayed by his friend the rat, or the rat took advantage of the cat's laziness to win the race to the Jade Emperor. No matter how you look at it, rats and cats just don't get along.

Should be an interesting year.

Cthulhu Buddha

Now this is fraking cool...


...Cthulhu... by ~Santani on deviantART

Cthulhu in a Buddha-esq pose. One may not find enlightenment, but it will lead you to a higher knowledge.

Damn... anyone else hungry for calamari now?

NYT on Genre fiction

As seen on Charlie Huston's site, the New York Times has an article up on genre fiction, with this gem:

The distinction between highbrow and lowbrow — between genre writing and literary writing — is actually fairly recent. Dickens, as we’re always being reminded, wrote mysteries and horror stories, only no one thought to call them that. Jane Austen wrote chick lit. A whiff of shamefulness probably began attaching itself to certain kinds of fiction — and to mysteries and thrillers especially — at the end of the 19th century, with the rise of the “penny dreadful,” or cheaply printed serial. The market and public appetite for this stuff became even larger in the early years of the 20th century with the tremendous growth of pulp magazines, which specialized in the genres and eventually even added a new one: science fiction.

The idea that if something is easy to read it must have been easy to write is so much crap. As if running a thesaurus through a tree shredder to generate dialog makes a better book than continually writing and editing your work so that it's accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Both require work, but in the second case the product has half a chance of being read.

Not that one should dumb down or PC one's writing so that the average five year old can find it mildly amusing. However, if you presume your reader has dual PhDs in English literature and Russian history, you've got to realize you've limited the appeal of your work.

It strikes me that those who most rail against genre fiction are those who are unable to publish books most people would like. University professors and their ilk. I can understand their frustration; they devote years of their lives to furthering their academic career, kissing ass and changing their writing style to match the expectations of those higher on the ladder only to find their books never see the light of day outside of classes they teach.

Must be hell.

Obviously, they've worked hard, so it must also be the readers fault. Silly plebs; they just don't know what's good for them.

Bullshit.

If genre fiction is what sells, it's because people like it. Full stop. Now, you can say that the average person buys crap, and from a quick browse through the romance section I'd be hard pressed to argue.

Thing is, that's a matter of taste. Everyone has different likes and dislikes; choosing to like one doesn't invalidate other choices.

So sure, if you prefer your prose blessed by an ivory tower, go for it. Just keep your mouth shut when the rest of us decide a blood soaked pulp novel is more the thing. Once our favorite authors have been dead long enough, we'll see which ones history remembers.

Until then, it's just a matter of taste.

Man Indicted in Machete Killing

From the AP

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) - A man accused of hacking his wife to death with a machete and leaving her body in her bed was arraigned Tuesday on a second-degree murder charge.

Thomas Delenzik was ordered held without bail during a hearing before state Supreme Court Justice Robert Doyle.

He was arrested Jan. 24 after his wife, Myong-Ok Delenzik, 46, was found dead by her daughter.

Police initially said that Delenzik, 42, and his wife were arguing over his refusal to take an undisclosed medication, but Assistant District Attorney Nancy Clifford said Tuesday that the argument centered on her anger over his unemployment and her threats to leave him after 19 years of marriage.

"We are not aware of any mental illness," Clifford said.

Delenzik's court-appointed attorney declined to comment.

Just another case where the absence of firearms does not equate to the absence of violence. Perhaps if his wife was armed with something other than attitude she might be alive today.

In any case, restricting the tools available to commit violence just caused the attacker to use different tools.

So ok... I couldn't resist

Max.. part deux...

Here's a few new pics of Max...

I think he looks kinda odd in this pic... almost like he's standing guard.

This one is the classic zoom in as he's looking up. Extra cute, although I can attest that nose is much colder than in looks.

Fat people and smokers save health care costs

Seriously.

From the AP:

LONDON (AP) - Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.

"It was a small surprise," said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who led the study. "But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more."

In a paper published online Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, Dutch researchers found that the health costs of thin and healthy people in adulthood are more expensive than those of either fat people or smokers.

When I wrote here that health practitioners attempting to restrict access to care based on behavior ( as some doctors in the UK would like ) only works if the doctors are unbiased and right 100% of the time... well, here's where they're wrong.

Clinton health care plan: we're taking your money

From the AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to have workers' wages garnisheed if they refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans.

The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed during a television interview, she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."

Clinton said such measures would apply only to workers who can afford health coverage but refuse to buy it, which puts undue pressure on hospitals and emergency rooms. Under her plan, she said, health care "will be affordable for everyone" because she would limit premium payments "to a low percent of your income."

I've wondered how those advocating universal health care coverage planned on paying for it, and suspected something like this.

Additional taxes seem the only way the massive social spending the Democrats have planned can have any funding. It's not like they're going to cut spending; social programs are in large part the reason for their existence. Without the government providing benefits, people might try to help themselves. That is anathema for them, since they seem to believe the purpose of government is to lead it's citizens, rather than create an environment for their citizens to make their own way.

Seems inevitable that any national health care plan will also seek to regulate personal behavior, similar to how some doctors in the UK would like to. For those who would support such actions, remember that only works if the doctors are right and unbiased 100% of the time. For a humorous look at when they're not, see the movie The Road to Wellville keeping in mind the movie didn't invent the "health practices" advocated by the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

What really irks me is the attitude I see here. It's "We're you're betters. Give us your money so we can tell you how to live your life."

That's not what I want from my government. I want to be left alone, to live my life in peace. I don't desire control over others and don't wish to be controlled.

Seems that's becoming less and less of an option.

How to dress and clean a rabbit

No, this has absolutely nothing to do with putting cwute widdle fwuffy bun buns in a pwecious outfit.

It's how to prepare a dead rabbit for roasting, stewing, or whatever.

Fearsclave's article on dressing and cleaning a rabbit

Happy Caturday

Nice cat toy...

Catholic Bishop says don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Wait, what?

From the Columbus Dispatch

Local Irish Catholics face a dilemma this St. Patrick's Day: Celebrate the feast day against the bishop's wishes or miss out on the fun.

This year, St. Patrick's Day (March 17) falls on the Monday of Holy Week, the most sacred period of the Christian calendar, from Palm Sunday to Easter.

Feast days cannot be celebrated during Holy Week, said Deacon Tom Berg Jr., vice chancellor of the Columbus Diocese. Columbus Bishop Frederick Campbell has asked that all St. Patrick's Day celebrations, including the traditional parade, be moved to another date.

The 2,200-member Shamrock Club said the Downtown parade and Irish Family Reunion at Veterans Memorial will go on as planned.

But another Irish group, the 200-member Ancient Order of Hibernians Patrick Pearse Division, will not participate because they are all Catholic.

The decision to move forward in Columbus has caused a rift in the Irish Catholic community, said Monsignor John K. Cody, who is chaplain of several Irish groups, including the Shamrock Club and the Ancient Order of Hibernians Patrick Pearse Division.

Can't be violent... no guns

If you've been watching the news, you could be forgiven for missing the civil unrest in Kenya. After all, we've got the Superbowl, the elections... I'm sure there's a missing white girl we all need to get angsty about.

What strikes me is the mobs in Kenya seem to be armed with two main implements: machetes and gasoline.

This CNN story says it well:

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Gangs of young men armed with machetes are roaming the streets in Kenya as post-election violence threatens to engulf the country. Horrific attacks are being reported, including the torching of a church where people who had sought refuge were burned alive.

So, in general the mobs in Kenya aren't armed with firearms, but that doesn't stop mass killings and barbaric behavior. Almost as if it's not the tool that make someone violent, but the nature of the individuals involved.

Restricting firearms doesn't restrict behavior. Those motivated to commit violence on others just find other tools. Like machetes and molotov cocktails.

Overdose deaths now surpass firearm deaths

From NPR

For the first time in U.S. history, drug overdoses and other types of poisonings now kill more people than guns, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Record numbers of West Virginians are dying in the quiet epidemic, mostly from prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone.

I tried to find the article mentioned in the story; someone needs to improve the search function on the health statistics site. I did find this though, which supports the NPR report.

I doubt this story will make much more than a ripple in the public consciousnesses. The irrational fear that the media seems to like isn't present. Firearms are something unusual in many people lives, but everyone is familiar with prescription medications. That which is familiar isn't scary.

True... and welcome back Butchie!

From Chopping Block. Good to see Lee Adam Herold is back at it.

National Health Care: Only if we like you

As a sort of follow up to an earlier post, this story in the UK Telegraph caught my eye:

Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.

Fertility treatment and "social" abortions are also on the list of procedures that many doctors say should not be funded by the state.

The findings of a survey conducted by Doctor magazine sparked a fierce row last night, with the British Medical Association and campaign groups describing the recommendations from family and hospital doctors as "out­rageous" and "disgraceful".

So, at least from some survey respondents, in the ideal national health care system every citizen pays for health care through their taxes but are denied benefits if they don't live their lives the way doctors think they should or get too old.

Of course, those "bad people" won't be getting a break on their taxes of course. They have to keep paying for the "good people" who really deserve medical care.

That's a national health care system you can keep on the other side of the pond. Socialism is egalitarian only if you're one of the "good people", apparently.

Happy Caturday

Meet Max

Meet Max.

I've no idea what sort of dog he is, but I suspect he has a bit of black lab in him. Because he's black. Ok, so it's entirely possible I'm wrong, but there ya go.

The girlfriend has a coworker who lives out in BFE. Max showed up on his doorstep last week; we think someone abandoned him. She's never one to turn down a stray ( rather the reason she and I are together... badum-ching ) so, as of this morning, we have a dog.

So far, he's getting along with the cats reasonably well. My cats being cats, they're aloof and uninterested. Vaguely bitchy. Rather normal.

So anyway, meet Max. Latest member of the clan.

Got Milk?

Muslim activist critical of "Multicultural Mistake"

I ran across this on NPR

In 2005, Seyran Ates was named Germany's woman of the year for her work in defense of Muslim women in immigrant communities.

and

Ates blames the rise of political Islam in Europe in great part on what she calls excessive tolerance, both by the left and the right, of repressive traditions of minority cultures — and a widespread unwillingness to integrate immigrants into mainstream society. She calls it the "Multicultural Mistake," also the title of her recently published book.

Forced marriages, she says, are locking up German-born Muslims in separate Islamic enclaves.

There are tens of thousands of women so isolated from German society that they're unable even to call an ambulance.

"We have in the third generation children who do not speak very well German," Ates says. "They cannot speak very well their own language — they are not integrated in the culture, they do not even know how big is the city in which they live in."

Domestic violence and even honor killings take place behind walls of silence.

To be honest, I'm not sure what to make of this story. Ates doesn't seem a likely candidate for a reactionary, and I can understand her frustration. Germany, perhaps like all Western societies, is relatively open. So long as you don't hurt anyone else, you're free to do just about anything.

Including isolate yourself from the larger society.

Forcing others to isolate themselves would seem to be illegal, although one could conceivably convince someone they were better off isolated without using force.

So, how does one solve this? Forced integration into the larger society? If so, who gets to decide what's "normal"?

On the other hand, education alone doesn't strike me as particularly effective. Sure, if the children of first generation immigrants make it to public school there's a good chance they might decide to look beyond their upbringing. On the other hand, if the society is closed enough, children could be born at home with the aid of a midwife; the kids wouldn't have so much as a birth certificate.

Perhaps thats an extreme example; still, if a subset of society refuses to integrate with that larger society, that doesn't seem to bode well for the health of either society.

Previously, it's been a bit rocky but integration has happened. Look at the history of the Irish or the Italians in the US, for example. Perhaps this situation, in a few generations, will be the same... but I can't help thinking such hopeful thoughts are just whistling in the dark.

Why So Serious?

Why So Serious?

The Call of Cthulhu

Perhaps it's a sign of the end times, but while out shopping with the girlfriend at Best Buy ( hey... she had a gift card! ) this caught my eye:



I'd heard of this before; a fan made silent movie of the H.P. Lovecraft story 'The Call of Cthulhu'. Insightful readers might note the title of this blog, and conclude that I loved the thing.

Of course I did! In all it's cheesy goodness, it follows the story quite well and given that the people who made it had a budget of pocket change it looks great.

The "making of" extras on the DVD have some cute moments. Apparently, they had no problem finding people to play the role of Cthulhu Cultists. Hardly shocking. Then in the filming of the ship scenes was this gem:

"Hey... this looks like blood."
"Don't ask."

Obviously that's the secret to getting your movie made. Blood sacrifice.

The obligatory trailer:


And the even more obligatory link to Amazon

Happy Birthday David Lynch

Whoa. I didn't realize it, but today is David Lynch's birthday.

Say what you like about the guy, but his movie and TV work is iconic. At least, if you remember the 90's as something other than grade school.

Besides, he's got the right attitude about coffee:

I like cappuccino, actually. But even a bad cup of coffee is better than no coffee at all.

So, of course, that influences his work. As seen in Twin Peaks:



So happy birthday David Lynch. Hope you have a good one.

Happy Caturday

Finders Keepers!

Seems the police in Wayne, NJ have lost one of their submachine guns

WAYNE, N.J. (CBS) ― A large police department in New Jersey is in nail biting mode. It has lost one of the deadliest weapons in its arsenal -- a fully automatic submachine gun, and has no idea where it could be.

A 9 mm submachine gun of German design, the MP5 was developed in the 1960s by a group of engineers from the West German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It's used by law enforcement tactical teams across the country, as well as Army Rangers, Delta Force and Navy SEALs, among others. It is a deadly, fully automatic weapon, which can fire up to several hundred rounds per minute.

The Wayne Police Department had three MP5 submachine guns. That is until last week, when one of them went missing.

Just so everyone knows what they lost:
Wikipedia on the MP5



Chambered in 9mm parabellum ( aka 9x19mm ) with a cyclic rate of 800 rounds per minute, this is one of the worlds most popular submachine guns. Even more popular with whomever finds it, of course.

Anti-whaling protesters fed whale

From the UK Daily Mail

The crew of a Japanese harpoon ship holding a British anti-whaling protester captive insist they are treating him well - and have even offered him a meal of whale meat.

British protester Giles Lane remained a captive on board the Japanese harpoon ship tonight as accusations flew across the icy, fog-shrouded waters of Antarctica.

The Japanese crew accused 36-year-old Mr Giles, from Cuckfield, West Sussex, and an Australian colleague of piracy after the pair stormed the whaling vessel Yushin Maru on Tuesday.

Whale, when properly prepared, tastes much like beef. Very tender, with no noticeable marbling but instead an oily sort of rainbow shine. Delicious.

I'm having a hard time feeling sympathy for the Brits involved in this one. To board a boat illegally with intent to harm the ship and/or crew is piracy.

Having lived on ships for a few years, I can say taking the Brits prisoner is the best option for the Brits; kinda surprised they weren't blown over the side by fire hoses as that's the standard method of repelling boarders.

So the Brits get turned over to the Japanese authorities when the Yushin Maru returns to port. The anti-whaling crew on the Sea Shepherd won't like that, but then when their "protest mission" involves boarding actions that's the best they can expect.

It was 30 years ago today...

ROCKETMAN!

There's a flaw in that cunning plan...

If you get arrested for DUI in New Zealand, turns out you can't just drive a lawn mower instead.

From the AP

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A New Zealand man has been charged with driving a lawn mower while drunk, police said Tuesday. Richard Gunn, 52, was driving the lawn mower down a street in the northern New Zealand town of Dargaville late Monday evening when police stopped him, police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said.

Gunn's breath alcohol level was at more than twice the legal limit for drivers, police said, and he previously had lost his driver's license.

Gunn said he has been using the lawn mower to get around town since losing his license.

"I thought I was safe," he told TV One News.

Even bicycles went faster than the lawn mower's 5 mph, he said. "I've watched them go past me."

Gunn was scheduled to appear in court later this week on charges of careless driving, driving while disqualified and driving with excess breath alcohol. He faces a potential prison term if convicted.

Police impounded the lawn mower for 28 days.

A moral dilema..

Happy Caturday

Why 911 doesn't always work

Coffee

Click the pic.. and check the noses...

Spot the Alkie

From the The Sacramento Bee

Investigators were trying Monday to determine if a suspected drunken driver involved in a solo crash into a tree Sunday night failed to buckle his own seat belt even though the 12-pack he was carrying on the passenger seat was safely belted in.

Witnesses told Citrus Heights police that they saw the man driving north on Van Maren Lane in excess of 60 mph before he lost control of his car and slammed into a tree near Garden Gate Drive.

The driver suffered serious head and body injuries and he was rushed to a local hospital.

He was found still in the driver's seat, unrestrained, next to the 12-pack of beer secured by a seatbelt, according to a police summary.

A police traffic investigator is reviewing the incident.

See, he had to belt in his beer... gods know you don't want it flying all over the place while you're driving; makes it hard to reach.

Just hope he has health insurance. I'd hate to see taxpayers get stuck with the bill for this one.

More Guns, Less Crime... in Michigan

From the Detroit Free Press

Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased more than six-fold.

But dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed have largely gone unfulfilled, according to law enforcement officials and, to the extent they can be measured, crime statistics.

The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.

I love stories like this. The anti-gun crowd reasons that with more guns there will be more violence and killing; to them, the firearm inspires illegal behavior.

Stories like this show instead that arming law abiding people does not increase crime; the inanimate object does not whisper to them in the night to go an a killing spree.

Given that, I'm at a loss to explain the anti-gun mindset except as an emotional response to inanimate objects. Which, frankly, seems irrational.

The Post-Apocalyptic Workout

The Post-Apocalyptic Workout



As seen on Warren Ellis's blog an unemployed writter in LA just realized she doesn't have much in the way of skills to survive a natural disaster ( outside of hosting cocktail parties ). Her new blog is a way to remedy that.

New blog? What about her old blog? That's here; The Slack Daily.

British National Health Service and behavior

With the talk of health care as a campaign issue in the upcoming election, I've heard some people say we should move to a national single payer health care system, similar to the National Health Service of the UK.

So, when I saw this article it caught my attention, especially as the author is described as doctor.

He makes some interesting comments on the National Health Service:

When the NHS was born, there was widespread rejoicing. People were grateful that, almost overnight, they could receive treatment for illnesses and diseases that had previously ravaged those who could not afford to pay for a doctor. However, somewhere along the way, we've forgotten this. The NHS, despite its many faults, remains remarkably popular. But several generations have now been born and brought up under its care, and no longer know anything different. They take it for granted, not making a connection between the cost of health care and the taxes we pay. We think of the NHS - its services, medications, investigations and procedures - as "free", when of course it's not: it's a pooled resource which we all pay into, and can all use.

Here in the US, some 47 million people, or 16 percent of the population don't have health insurance. Considering the need most people have for some level of medical care, this seems an alarming statistic. Some even go so far as to say we should all sacrifice some ( in the form of higher taxes ) to provide health coverage for those without. In the UK, they thought such sacrifice was warranted and created the NHS.

Note, however, that according to the author, attitudes have changed in the UK so that many take medical care for granted. It's not so much a sacrifice to some as air; just something that's there.

So, what effect has that had on the health care system in the UK?

Yet on New Year's Day, NHS services were stretched to breaking point. The London Ambulance Service handled 1,825 incidents in its first four hours, a 16 per cent increase on last year, and 30 per cent higher than the year before that. Ambulance crews in the North West attended 1,013 incidents, an increase of 38.5 per cent, while the West Midlands saw an increase of 37 per cent on last year. The vast majority of calls were due to alcohol and fights.

When I saw these statistics, all I could think of were the genuinely sick people on that night whose care was compromised not by Whitehall directives, but by other people's thoughtless selfishness. Visit any A&E department on a Friday or Saturday night, and you will see row upon row of beds taken up with inebriated individuals. Not people who have fallen over after having a few too many, but people who are so drunk they simply cannot be allowed to leave the department, people who have to have fluids pushed through their veins to sober them up, and who then roll straight back in next weekend after passing out on the same street.

Now that's interesting. If health care is taken for granted, then risky behavior is, well, less risky.

If, for instance, one binge drank in the US so much that a hospital visit was required and the patient didn't have health insurance that would be an expensive trip to the ER. Less so, perhaps, if the patient did have health insurance, but it would cost the patient something.

In the UK, with the NHS, that same event wouldn't cost a patient anything.

So, what's the authors reaction?

The principle behind this is known as "risk pooling": the greater needs of one person are offset by the lesser needs of another. We are unlikely to use the full extent of the services our taxes pay for in a particular year, but this excess provides for who have need to call disproportionately on those shared resources. Insurance companies work on a similar principle, but because they are concerned about profit margins, they must exclude individuals who may place higher demands on the centralised pool. A nationalised system is egalitarian and just, because it provides for those with chronic diseases, or who require expensive treatments. Not only is socialised medicine the hallmark of a civilised society, it is also economically viable. The UK has one of the lowest expenditures per capita on health amongst developed countries, and yet produces similar outcomes.

But this only works if we all take care of the demands we place on resources. Yes, many of the problems faced by the NHS have been caused by the government - for example, its agenda for a "mixed economy of care" has led to a reduction in the overall number of hospital beds, with subsequent problems when additional pressures are placed on services, while the introduction of targets and league tables has seen a proliferation of paperwork on an unprecedented scale.

But in my experience, and that of the doctors and nurses I talk to, the problems are also a result of the inappropriate use of NHS resources by patients.

Emphasis mine.

So, given that easy access to medical care leads to more risky behavior, the author of the linked article seems to be saying that people need to moderate their behavior so they don't overuse shared resources ( i.e. the NHS ).

I can easily see that "for the good of the community" a government would at least try to impose certain restrictions on behavior if they wanted to "protect a shared resource".

These could be economic; say, billing bars which serve patrons enough alcohol that they end up in the emergency room the cost of treatment or legal in the form of, say, heavily restricting the hours of operation for bars and restricting the times / days alcohol may be sold.

Either way, it would seem inevitable that a government response to this tragedy of the commons would be to regulate citizens behavior one way or another.

Happy Caturday

Oracle PL/SQL Functions and the LIKE operator

Had a bit of a struggle with PL/SQL functions today.

The idea was to see if a record existed in a table, based on a LIKE
condition. Really, rock simple stuff.

SQL Example:

"afiedt.buf" 4 lines, 55 characters

 1  select count(1)
 2  from test
 3* where ssn like '%1817'
SQL> /

 COUNT(1)
----------
        1

SQL>

Should be simple to use this in a function, right? Turns out, not so much.

create or replace function zetest( inssn in char )
return number
       is dacount number(10);
begin
       select count(1)
       into dacount
       from test
       where ssn like '%inssn';
       return(dacount);
end;
/

SQL> select zetest(1817) from dual;

ZETEST(1817)
------------
        0

SQL>

So, what the frak?

Apparently, to use a wildcard operator with PL/SQL you have to wiggle it a bit:

create or replace function zetest( inssn in char )
return number
       is dacount number(10);
begin
       select count(1)
       into dacount
       from test
       where ssn like '%'||inssn;
       return(dacount);
end;
/

SQL> select zetest(1817) from dual;

ZETEST(1817)
------------
        1

SQL>

So, you pass the wildcard inside single quotes, then concatenate it to
the variable.

Fiskars hatchet, Corona saw and a downed tree limb

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I heard a small crash outside. When I looked, a truck had nailed my neighbors low hanging branch, doing a bit of ad-hoc pruning.

He drug the branch off to the side of the road, fixed his passenger side mirror and drove off. Great.

After calling my neighbor, I offered to clean it up if I could keep the wood. It was a rather big branch; I figured I could help her and have a bit of extra wood to feed the fire place for my trouble.

After work, I came home and got out my Fiskars 14 inch hatchet and my 8 inch Corona folding saw. I must be the last person in the neighborhood who doesn't own a chain saw. Either way, I got started at 7pm; the buzz of a chain saw seems a bit rude that late.

To drag the branch out of the street and into my yard where I can work on it, as I don't relish chopping wood while cars are whizzing by, I used some line ( rated for 280lbs safe working load ) to rig a timber hitch.

It was a 25 foot length; rather than having to fiddle about with coiling the line ( or just leaving it free ) I tied it into a chain sennit. Great knot, that. Also known as chain shortening or bugler's braid ( at least according to my knot book ) it shortens a line considerably but also allows one to play out the free end as needed quickly and without tangles. I used the chain sennit as a grip with an unfurled free end as a timber hitch.

That all rigged, I drug it out of the street and up on my front lawn. Took a bit, since there's still snow outside. Hard to melt off when the high is 18F.

Took about three hours, but between the saw and the hatchet that tree limb is now on my wood pile, with the twigs and branches given to another neighbor who stopped by to see what the crazy bastard was doing on his lawn at 9pm. He'll feed them to his fire pit.

So, the Fiskars Hatchet and the Corona Saw get a "highly recommended" from me. They stood up to a bit of use, yet again.

PS: Ok, I've linked to Amazon in this post. Note that I'm not making a cent off those links; they're there so everyone who reads this knows what I'm talking about ( provided the links keep working, of course ;) ).

homemade bomb: 1, psychology student: 0

Man killed in explosion was Miami University student

WEST CHESTER TWP. — A Miami University student was killed Wednesday in an explosion here in the backyard of his parent's home.

Police said a group of teenagers were trying to blow up a two-story, wooden playground set at 6747 Apache Way, when debris from the explosion hit Daniel Ferraro, 19, a 2006 Lakota East High School graduate.

Butler County Corner Dr. Richard Burkhardt confirmed Ferraro, a Miami sophomore studying psychology, was killed, but said the cause of death has not been determined.

And..

Police would not say what kind of explosives were used, but neighbors said the explosion rocked their homes in a neighborhood that sits west of Cincinnati-Dayton and north of Tylersville roads.

Neighbor Gary Hoff said he heard and felt the explosion at his home that sits more than 100 yards away. Hoff said he walked outside because he thought it was a neighbor's furnace.

"It quietly shook the house," Hoff said.

Remember kids, shrapnel and debris radiate in 360 degrees from the point of origin and even if you've got cover that doesn't mean everyone does.

Knob Creek

I found this gem on youtube; it's a Mail Call special on Knob Creek:



For those who don't know, twice a year the Knob Creek range in Kentucky holds a full auto firing event. Targets are old cars and boats loaded with what appears to be Tannerite ( a shock insensitive binary explosive ). You can rent time on the full auto weapons, or a flamethrower if you prefer.

Come to think of it, the flamethrowers would be a real time saver. You can hunt and BBQ at the same time. Probably only work if you like your meat well done though.

They Suspect Nothing