Both Lawrence and my mother (of all people: I mean, I love my mom, and she knows I’m a “Wire” fan, but I’m not sure she’s ever watched an episode) sent me obits for Robert F. Chew, aka “Proposition Joe”. (Baltimore Sun. A/V Club.)
Don’t have much more to add to those: David Simon has a blog entry with no comments, and the A/V Club already links to the best videos of Proposition Joe. Apparently, he died of natural causes, and not from wearing a suit when it was 85 f’ing degrees out.
Clayton Cramer also questions this, and links to a blog post by John Fund on “National Review Online”:
Fund also points out that:
Fund quotes John Lott as believing the actual percentage of firearms transferred in private sales is less than 10%.
In addition, Clayton Cramer his own self has a post over at NRO about the “gun show loophole”:
There’s also a longer Clayton Cramer post, touching on many of the same points, over at PJ Media.
(Hattip on this to Sebastian. As long as we’re talking about private transfers (and since Sebastian stepped up and gave his own example), I’ll talk about my experience. In my entire gun owning life, I’ve had four transfers that didn’t go through an FFL. Three of those were presents (birthday or Christmas) from family members – my brother, father, and stepfather – which, as noted, would not be affected by Obama’s proposal. Transfer number four was a purchase by me of several guns from a private party who inherited them after the death of a parent. I wrote up two copies of an agreement with the serial number, make and model, and price paid for each gun, kept one and gave the sellers the other. I also gave them a photocopy of my driver’s license. In addition, the sellers were people I had known personally for close to 20 years at the time of the purchase. All of my other purchases have gone through an FFL.)
Lawrence sent an inquiry as to why I didn’t blog the Sergei Filin/Bolshoi Ballet attack.
Part of the reason is that I was away from the Internet; the other reason is that I wanted to think some more about the story.
This raised some red flags for me. Punctured tires, scratched car, “hacked” cellphone and email: all of those are things that have been seen in cases where people have staged attacks on themselves. The refusal of a bodyguard contributes to that as well.
But throwing acid in your own face? That seems extreme. But it turns out that kind of self-harm is not unheard of. I don’t see any evidence in the NYT report that anyone else witnessed the attack.
Do I think Filin staged his own attack? I don’t think there’s any evidence for that, but I do think that it is an investigative possibility Russian law enforcement will be exploring.
What are the alternatives? People were so upset with Filin’s artistic direction that they threw acid on him? M-m-m-m-m-maybe:
Crime of passion? Filin was sleeping with the wrong person? Or was sleeping with the right person but didn’t give them the role they wanted? I’m better able to buy that than I am the “artistic differences” theory.
Filin was involved with something else crooked, maybe outside of the Bolshoi? That seems more unlikely to me: if you’re the head of the Bolshoi, apparently you’re making major bank. Why would you get involved with the Russian Mafia or other criminal organizations? Unless they have something you need or want badly…or unless they’re promising to keep secret something you don’t want known…
Random crazy person? Why target Filin specifically? Unless that’s part of the crazy pathology.
I think this comes down to three things:
Six counts of bribery, one count of conspiracy, one count of money laundering, nine counts of “deprivation of honest services through wire fraud”, and four counts of filing false tax returns. NOLA.com has more details on the charges.
Let me say this about the subject: YOU’RE GOING DOWN IN FLAMES, YOU TAX-FATTENED HYENA!
Among other things:
Hunter’s actions, while questionable, are not actually criminal, according to the report. But: “…Hunter’s contract, which is worth up to $18 million through 2017, is not ‘valid or enforceable.'”
Lawrence wrote yesterday about David Dewhurst’s top aide skimming $600,000 from his campaign, and wondered how you manage to miss $600,000. I have some of the same questions about this next story: a former bookkeeper scammed $100,000 from Masa, the high end Japanese restaurant in New York City.
Yeah, you’d figure it is easy for a bookkeeper to scam money, but it seems like this guy was really stupid:
No dummy suppliers? Just checks made out to “cash”? And:
Sometimes, there’s just nothing you can say:
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I was WRONG!
In addition to the 2013 “stupid statement” and “best article” of the year awards, I think I’m also going to have to set up the Prometheus Memorial Stupid Behavior For A Professional Award this year.
That isn’t original to me; it comes from an article on the A/V Club site. But having seen Prometheus, I like the idea so much I want to take it and run with it.
Before I link to the A/V Club article (credit where credit is due), I want to note that it is from their “Spoiler Space” section and does give spoilers for a movie being released this week. (I’d name the movie, but I think the combination of that and the award name is, in and of itself, a spoiler.) If you don’t give a flying fark, here’s the link.
In case you were wondering what the local reaction to Obama’s proposals was, the Statesman has your answer. Joe McBride was too busy to talk, and they mangled the name of the guy at Tex-Guns (WCD’s official purveyor of fine weapons, who does not currently have a web site). However, they did get long quotes from Steve Rose at Austin Gun Liquidators, and “Gun owner Michael Lombard of Liberty Hill, who said he voted for Obama twice and would do so again…” (!!!!)
The LAT calls the federal background check system “flawed”. Why?
So that’s not “flawed”, that’s “working by design”. Only licensed dealers can run background checks. I, as a private citizen, have no ability to run a check, even if I wanted to; the federal database is simply not available to me.
Edited to add: Forgot to mention this. “…estimated at 40% of all gun sales”. Estimated by who? (Whom?) The LAT cites that figure, but gives absolutely no source for it. Since private sales are private sales – unreported to the government – how is that figure arrived at? What is the methodology? Without a source, the LAT leaves us no way to evaluate that figure.
Wait, wait. Federal agencies aren’t doing what they’re supposed to? Stop the freakin’ presses!
Unstated, but implied here, is that the problem is also partially an IT problem; how do you interface the computer systems of 50 states, plus DC and US territories, with the Federal databases?
Meanwhile:
I know this. You know this. People living under rocks know this. But it is nice to see the NYT admit this in print. Of course, the NYT still insists on exaggerating the advantages of pistol grips, folding stocks, “bayonet lugs” (we must stop the drive-by bayonettings!) and “grenade launchers”, but this is a start.
Nagisa Oshima, noted Japanese film director. NYT. A/V Club.
Oddly enough, I’ve never seen an Oshima film. I have the Criterion In The Realm Of The Senses
The county is going to honor the existing contract, which is for nine more shows at the Travis County Exposition and Heritage Center.
“I take very seriously the idea of abiding by the law.” That’s a quote for you. But:
…she would like to see gun shows require background checks for all purchases.
That’s nice, Commissioner Eckhardt. I’d like a freaking pony.
That’s the closest the Statesman has come to getting it right in their reporting on this subject.
The county will also meet with the gun show operator, Saxet Gun Shows, about the matter.
So probably if Saxet comes back for a contract renewal, the commissioners will pressure them to agree on a “no sales except through a FFL” provision.
Awesome! Since the county staffers are going to bring “any other proposed events at the Expo Center with ‘unusually high safety risks’ for commissioners’ approval”, I suggest they start with the Republic of Texas biker rally. I mean no offense to Jay G. or any of my other motorcycle riding friends out there: I don’t ride myself right now, but I love you guys. But if we’re talking about “unusually high safety risks”, there were at least three deaths during last year’s ROT rally, and another three the year before. I’d think that qualifies.
Anyway, we’ve won the battle, but the war isn’t over yet. You need to be contacting your Congressperson. I’ve added pages with contact information for the Texas Senate and House delegations. The lovely and talented Erin Palette has pointed out Ruger’s automated letter generator, so you can even do it with a couple of clicks of the bunny. If you have time, though, I recommend you hand compose and either fax or email your rep; most of the sites I visited while I was pulling that list together warned that physical mail is delayed up to two weeks. Anthrax, don’t you know?
If you live outside of Texas, or don’t know who your people are: find your House member here. Find your senators here.
Once upon a time, a man named Colonel Michael Friedsam, president of the B. Altman retail store chain, died.
The late Col. Friedsam left his extensive art collection to the Brooklyn Museum. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But there’s a catch. Actually, several catches.
Catch one: Col. Friedsam died in 1931. Over the years, the Brooklyn Museum has discovered…well…
This leads us directly to catch number two: the museum is paying to store stuff it doesn’t particularly want.
Of course, there are rules and standards on how museums are supposed to store art, so they can’t just shove stuff “willy-nilly into a closet”, as the NYT describes it.
So why don’t they just get rid of the stuff they don’t want? Surely, they can find a buyer, even for the fakes? I’d give them $5 for that Louis XI portrait.
Ah, but that’s catch number three: Col. Friedsam’s will requires that the museum get permission from the executors of his estate before they “deaccession” items. And the last executor died in 1962. The museum is working with the courts on this problem, but:
Left unclear in the article: why it took 80 years for the museum to figure out it was stuck with a bunch of crap. Or, alternatively, why there’s a crap crisis now.
Well. It is starting to look like I was…wrong, wrong, wrongity wrong! Sorry, folks. I need some more time to process this, and may have more to say after Thursday.
The HouChron has totally lost their stuff over the existence of Houston Armory. Houston Armory, which is actually located in Stafford, advertises itself as the largest Class 3 dealer in Texas, and sells things like twin .50 caliber machine guns for a mere $75,000, or a fully-automatic 12 gauge shotgun for $150,000.
The HouChron is lying here, and they know they’re lying. The $200 transfer tax was mentioned previously in the article; in the following two paragraphs, they also mention the “six month waiting period” for the application to be processed, and the requirement for a signature from the “chief law enforcement officer” of the owner’s locality. The HouChron totally omits the requirement for a photograph and fingerprints of the owner. So much for “about the same as a regular gun”.
Note the phrase “illegal machine guns”. Specifically, note the word “illegal“. Previously in the same article:
Another tag I don’t get to use as much as I would like: the Humboldt squid are swarming in California.
There’s no specific bag limit for the Humboldt squid, but apparently California has a “general invertebrate bag limit of 35”.
Been busy all afternoon, first chance I’ve had to blog, but still ahead of FARK:
The University of Southern California has fired men’s basketball coach Kevin O’Neill.
O’Neill was 48-65 overall at USC (this was his fourth season there), and 7-10 so far this season.
(I don’t think any other major college basketball coaches have been axed yet this season. Am I wrong? Tell me in comments.)
I come up with a figure of 0.055 percent.
Is it possible that Criminal Mayors Against Guns and other parties are starting to realize that we have plenty of gun regulation already, and one of the problems is that people who violate the laws frequently aren’t prosecuted?
(Remember the WP series “The Hidden Life of Guns“? Remember the WP pointing out that “straw purchasers” and other people who lie to purchase guns are rarely prosecuted? More to the point, does the WP remember?)
Even though it has one strike against it (being written by A.G. “a vegetarian at Arthur Bryant’s” Sulzberger), and even though FARK linked it, I still wanted to tag this article:
Two Men, One Sky: A Flight to the Finish.
Or, the true story of two guys who took off from Zapata, Texas one morning last July in an attempt to set the world record for flying the longest distance…in a hang glider. One of them flew 472 miles in 11 hours (the previous longest flight was 438 miles). And the other one? I’m not going to spoil it for you.
A couple of things I want to bookmark here, even though they’ve been all over the web, for two reasons:
These are mostly bookmarks for myself, so the rest of you can ignore this post if you’d like.
So:
“Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie“, the absolutely crazy account of what happens when Paul Schrader, Lindsay Lohan, Bret Easton Ellis, and a porn star try to make a low-budget, funded on Kickstarter, movie. Hilarity ensues.
Also: “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek“. This is supposed to be an amazing use of interactive media to tell a story, and it is the kind of story that’s right up my alley; I just have not gotten around to going through it yet.
This isn’t really an “article of the year” candidate, but I wanted to point it out and bookmark it for future reference: “The Minimum Viable Kitchen“, or how to cook great food for an investment of under $1,000 in tools. I wouldn’t take this as gospel: while my two favorite kitchen knives are both Victorinox (and I should probably add that paring knife to the battery), I’ve heard some pretty negative things about the accessories for the Kitchenaid mixers. So take this with a grain of salt and do some hands-on work before making a major purchase (or even a minor one: Blood Bath and Beyond should let you fondle that Oxo whisk for a while before you buy it).