You make the call

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Or “Do the Search”, or whatever you want to call it.

I’m looking for some sort of gun restricting initiative/legislation that was going around California sometime around 1986 – 1988. Something about cutting off any new sales of firearms, or maybe just handguns, in the state. It’ll come into play later this week if we can find it.

It isn’t imperative that I have it, so you Google-Fu practitioners can just look at it as a challenge to your skills (mine have failed miserably).

Same goes for you long-term masochists/residents of CA. Let us have you do some memory testing.

Posted in Color me confused, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Now that is about enough

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Phil Kadath

They’ve gone and cancelled the Dakar Rally because “AQ of North Africa” has been murdering French tourists and soldiers at one of the check points.

That is about enough of what I can stand from them. “Them” being both “AQ of NA” who needs to quit fucking with sports, and with the ASO (Aumaury Sports Organization who runs the rally). I want a stop to the attacks and a stop to the capitulation to terrorists from the Euros.

Fuck the teams who don’t want to make the attempt, everyone else just get on with it.

Here, why don’t they do this: When the teams set rubber on the African continent, they are allowed to attach an LMG (for the cycle classes), a Medium MG (for the buggys and cart classes) or a Ma Duece (for the sport truck class).

Make that lump in the navigator seat do some fucking work to hold the invading pissers back. There is a reason it is called “Riding Shotgun”.

This dude is ready to rock

“We will wear bullet proof jackets!” joked 60-year-old Jean-Claude Auert, who will race in the quad bike category. “No, we will go without the jackets. I am not worried. I know Mauritania. I have been there during more dangerous times.

“I have been there every year for the last six years. You have to take a little bit of a risk when you compete in the Dakar rally, you have to be a bit crazy, lets stay crazy until the end!” said the defiant veteran rider.

“I am going despite the government warnings. We are 2,500 to 3,000, with 4000 security force members to help us. I don’t see what could happen. Zero risk doesn’t exist. Me, I am prepared to take the risk.”

Alas, Mr. Auert was a lost voice.

Fucking Euro weenie organizers.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 9 Comments

I Really Need (Updated)

Posted on January 4, 2008 by Phil Kadath

To read my morning email from the Seattle Times in the morning and not in the evening. As it is, Rustmeister got the jump on it.

That way I would have been the first to see Lee Gaillard calling the Second Amendment “Outdated”.

The nine justices should hone their grammar skills. The introductory absolute phrase (“A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State,”) preceding the main clause sets the condition for why the people collectively had a right to keep and bear arms: to be able quickly to muster their local “well regulated Militia,” individually lifting smoothbores down from over their fireplaces so they could assemble and march off to defend “the security of [their] free State” against aggressors.

In 2007, however, the U.S. has a large, active-duty military establishment. Replacing 1791’s militias, today’s local “well regulated” National Guard units maintain armories stocked with government-supplied weapons, each pistol and M-16 assault rifle carefully inventoried upon its return after weekend and summer training periods. Citizen-furnished smoothbores? Long gone.

Given the Founders’ original intent clearly contained in that introductory absolute phrase, the consequently irrelevant Second Amendment should be long gone, too.

So now you say “No Mr. Gaillard, “Militia” couldn’t mean the National Guard, they weren’t even created until after the Bill of Rights was written.”

But Mr. Gaillard doesn’t care. If you read at the bottom of the above link, you’ll see that Gaillard’s byline says “He frequently writes on defense and aviation, among other subjects.”

And he does.

He writes for The Center for Defense Information, most prominently about the V22 Osprey, which he calls “The Widow Maker” (pdf file). Despite their name, CDI is not a pro-defense industry gang of folks. Missile Shield, waste of time. Iraq, failure. Afghanistan, not worth the effort.

He also has a connection at a place called The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Yes, a leftist group that actually has what they stand for in their title. Honest gun grabbers, but gun grabbers nonetheless.

I do find it odd that this is the first we’ve heard of Mr. Gaillard. After all, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, this same “Guest Editorial” was published previously on the 4th of December. I don’t know how all us gunnies missed it. Hit the link and check out some of the LttE from the locals. Oddly, his original piece is missing.

Conspiracy? Probably not, but conspiracies aren’t out of Gaillard’s realm of published pieces either.

Back on the 28th of last month, Uncle linked posts by Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell about the possibility of a Troofer on the board of the hyperbigot group, Ceasefire PA.

Well, Gaillard is old school. Loose Change are whippersnappers compared to him. He wants the government to reveal the truth about Pearl Harbor.

Unreasonable and quite possibly a mentally unbalanced man telling me that I need to give up my right to self defense for “The Good of Public Safety”.

Can you guess what finger I’m holding up right now?

UPDATE: In the comments, Rustmeister remembers someone pointing out the December publication of Gaillard’s spewing of ignorance.

Via a lucky Accident, I have found that it was most likely The Gunpundit (aka Murdoc) who has written a fairly heavy LttE to the Seattle Times.

Posted in Too Stupid to Live | 12 Comments

Why is Anderson Cooper in Iowa?

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Because he LOVES the Caucus!

Anyway, my predictions for tonight, based on the 15% or more principle

The (R)’s:

Mitt “The Tit” Romney – 34%
Huck-afuck-abee – 24%
Frederalism – 22%
John McCain/Feingold – 20%

The (D)’s:

Osbama – 41%
Billary – 35%
John “Lenin” Edwards – 24%

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | 1 Comment

The Soundboard: First Tunage of the New Year

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Phil Kadath

For the next few weeks The Soundboard will be examining/exploring what could be called “Ideology Tunage” OR “Issue Music” for no other reason than it can be some interesting stuff. This is usually because a large percentage of “artists”, especially in this genre, are mentally unstable.

We’re gonna start with Canadian industrial deities, Skinny Puppy. From animal rights to early eco-socialism, these guys drove the whole map from coast to coast. Luckily for them, they made it rather interesting.

Luckily for me, I didn’t fall for the bullshit.

Being in the American PacNW, just south of the band’s home town of Vancouver, BC, made it easy to be a fan of Skinny Puppy. Trimmed down local shows weren’t too difficult to hook up with, and to be perfectly honest, the elaborate stage shows in their standard touring fare weren’t to my style anyway.

Being only 13/14 years of age when their first pair of albums hit the local indie record shop made them a taste not easily acquired by my schoolmates. Their third and fourth albums, 1986’s Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse and 1987’s Cleanse, Fold and Manipulate, however struck my friends right between the eyes and prepped them for VIVIsectVI, Rabies and Too Dark Park in our sophomore, junior and senior years, respectively.

My overall favorite track from these particular Canucks would be Assimilate from the Bites album, which explains why it pops up on The Soundboard a couple times a year.

But not today. We’re going to try out some of my other early SP favorites.

Also from Bites (or more accurately the 12inch Anthology)

The Choke (Re-Grip)

And from the Mind album

Chainsaw

If youse guyz like these, you really need to just get out your e-wallets and buy every album I’ve got linked in this post. No disappointments.

Posted in Kewel! | 3 Comments

I know they need the ratings

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Phil Kadath

But saying crazy shit isn’t the way to do it.

Yeah, sure, it works for Michael Savage (Weiner), but this is just over the top.

Leftist Radio diety, Ed Schultz

You can make the case that both al Qaeda and Musharraf would benefit from Benazir Bhutto being offed. You can make the case that the United States, the war hawks in the United States, benefited from her being offed because they’ve never seen a war they didn’t love and this is a chance for more intervention.

WTF?

I’m just speechless?

I’ve read the local leftist tongue bathing this guy, but I’ve never really listened to him.

Now I know why.

Found at RadioEqualizer via SayAnything who has strong evidence that the only reason this guy is on the radio is because the Democrat muckety-mucks are paying his salary.

Posted in Dare To Be Stupid | Leave a comment

A Spam Campaign

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Part of the reason for my post on behavior modification yesterday was a test.

Now, I must find out the culprit.

Over the past couple of months I’ve noticed that whenever we have written about “H3althc4re” here at RNS, we are inundated with pseudo “h3athc4are” spam in the form of comments and trackbacks shortly thereafter. Yesterday proved that this was no fluke.

15 phony trackbacks and more than 50 phony comments were bounced (with only one getting through the spam blocker).

Is someone out there trying to keep people from writing about this topic or do they actually think that someone is going to hit one of their phony links?
Anyone else with a blog out there notice this?

Posted in Color me confused | 1 Comment

Hey, Somebody Else Likes My Pistol

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Alaska

Get your Gunblast Review of the “gold-plated” Bersa Thunder .380 here. And no, it’s not gold-plated, it’s gold paint.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | Leave a comment

Important action Alert

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Your blog-work for today consists of hitting this link and downloading the video footage of made by Joe and the Boomershoot Crew of the snowman they made disappear with “Five gallons of gasoline, Ten pounds of Boomerite, and one shot from an AR-15 chambered in .223.”

He has to take it down by midnight tonight so that he can submit it to Americas Funniest Home Videos’ “Destroy a Snowman” Video Challenge, so hop to it.

Posted in Kewel! | 4 Comments

New Year. New Healthcare Plan.

Posted on January 2, 2008 by Phil Kadath

Since around Thanksgiving I’ve been receiving these mailers from my health care insurer about the “New and Improved” coverage I would be getting in 2008. Well, come a week or so before Christmas I open the mailbox to find a letter “Inviting” me to lower my health care costs by completing their survey.

I’m getin’ fit and workin’ out now for two months or so and seeing decent results, so I think “Sure, I’ll take their survey and lower my co-pay”, and with the evening off from work last night I logged in and started answering questions.

I did rather well, though I’m apparently needing to eat more grains and dairy.

However, there were two points in this thing proving that these people are in need of psychotherapy themselves and/or need to be locked away:

First, they say that if I weigh more than 199lbs (at my 6ft 4in height) that I am obese. I don’t remember the last time I weighed 200 lbs, but I’m not so sure I was legal to drive. And I know I wasn’t fat.

Secondly, there was an “Injury Prevention” section. In said section, I was asked the following single question:

Yes or No – I do not drink alcohol before driving an automobile or ride with other people who have consumed alcohol, always wear a seatlbelt while riding in a automobile, have multiple working fire alarms/smoke detectors in my home, do not own firearms or allow firearms to be stored in my home.

That single question, that was to be answered with one single answer comprised the company’s entire “Injury Prevention” section.

According to HealthMedia, Inc, formerly Harris Health Trends, owning a firearm or allowing the storage of one in your home is equal to getting drunk and driving a car.

Nice to know my personal information was given to such open-minded folks by my employer.

So I started looking around and found their “About” page.

About HealthMedia, Inc.

MyHealthMedia was developed by HealthMedia, Inc., a company dedicated to the improvement of human life through the creative use of behavioral science and information technology. HealthMedia® develops industry leading, scientifically proven health behavior change programs that are conveniently available online and in print. The company has effectively redefined the way in which people can get the help they need to improve their health.

Based on years of university research, HealthMedia’s revolutionary programs use an innovative tailoring process to produce health improvement plans that are relevant to participants, helping them meet their personal health goals. HealthMedia’s programs increase the ability of individuals to make behavior changes that will improve their overall health and quality of life.

HealthMedia was founded by Dr. Victor Strecher, a leading expert in health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the company began business in July 1998. HealthMedia’s behavior change programs are developed by an expert team that includes behavioral scientists, healthcare professionals, and multimedia and technology designers.

That’s some scary shit right there. “Behavior Change Programs”?

Sounds like “Reconditioning” or “Re-education” to me.

I find another link hidden at the bottom of another page and go to their actual homepage

I see the term “The Revolution” popping up all over the place and clicked a linked marked as such, and find this

Until HealthMedia came along, there were only two choices for behavior change solutions: web content and/or counselor-based interventions.

We have invented and developed a technology that effectively emulates a nurse counseling session. Delivered across wellness, disease management, behavioral health and medication adherence, our web interventions go beyond typical web health education content, infused with over 30 years of proven behavioral science research.

We change behavior by offering you scalable web interventions that produce outcomes.

Every single intervention begins with effective engagement. We study your culture, environment and population to work with you to build an effective recruitment strategy, understanding and engaging your participants from the start— maximizing participation and ROI.

A fusion of our own unique technology and proven behavioral science, HealthMedia’s engaging web interventions are for real people and deliver real outcomes— all at an affordable cost.

Welcome to the revolution.

And the creepiest part is that everyone is smiling. Well, not so much “smiling” their giving off that cult-member looking toothy grin. Like they’ve been eating Soylent Green, know its made from people, and they are loving it anyway.

So, I’ve called and bitched about their bigoted attitudes, though I’m not sure what, if anything, it’ll do. If you’d like to let them know that you as a gun owner are pissed at being compared to a drunk driver, you can contact them at their Ann Arbor, MI headquarters (734) 623-0000 x300.

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments