January « 2012 « Whipped Cream Difficulties

Archive for January, 2012

Holy…goat? Maybe. Kind of. Sort of.

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

The German Sport Guns folks are putting out some interesting stuff. I’ve been tempted for a while to pick up one of their .22LR MP-5 clones (Mike the Musicologist has been pushing me to do so as well); they’re nice looking guns, I think they’d be a lot of fun to shoot, and I often see them at the gun show for reasonable prices. But I can’t find any practical use for them (other than “they’d be fun to shoot”) and I’ve got enough .22LR guns already, thankyouverymuch.

I do also kind of like the idea of an AK-47 clone in .22LR, but it has less appeal to me than the MP-5 clones. I’d rather have a full-on AK-47. (And that is on my list, just haven’t gotten around to it yet.)

New at the SHOT show, we’ve got the Mexican drug dealer line of guns from GSG: gold-plated AK and MP-5 clones. Yeah. Not on the list, but lord love GSG for trying.

On the other hand, American Tactical Imports (GSG’s US importer) is also going to be importing GSG’s .22LR version of the StG 44. This could be interesting; .22LR is a lot easier to find than 7.92×33mm Kurz, and I do have a certain interest in the StG 44 after reading Pale Horse Coming (in which the Audie Murphy clone uses one to great effect against a guard tower).

Also, if I’m going to be honest with myself, the wooden crate “handmade by a Amish community in New York state” pushes a button, too.

(Hattip: The Firearm Blog on both of these.)

Edited to add: Something occurs to me. You know what ATI/GSG could probably rake in the cash with? A Thompson clone in .22LR, complete with drum magazine. Especially if they sold it (and the drum) at a price that doesn’t make you think it is made out of compressed unicorn tears and ambergris.

However, I’d be willing to bet that the current owners of Auto-Ordnance might not take too kindly to that without some sort of licensing deal. Which I think actually raises an interesting legal question; to what extent is the physical look and design of a firearm protected by law? GSG was, after all, sued by H&K (“you suck and we hate you”) for trade dress infringement, but how long does trade dress protection last? Forever? The Thompson is, after all, an 84 year old gun…

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Law | Comments Closed

Rumor control.

Friday, January 20th, 2012

Before I left work today, my great and good friend Commvault Bryan told me about the latest “urban legend” he’d heard. He was kind enough to email a PDF discussing it; I’m not sure that posting the PDF is okay, but pretty much the same thing can be found on the TexasBowhunter.com forum.

Summarizing, the “urban legend” is that “gang members” are going around to shooting ranges, gun stores, gun shows, and other places where gun owners congregate. Once there, the gang members are marking the cars of gun owners, following their vehicles until they get someplace “safe” (for the gang members), and then breaking in and stealing their guns.

I have not previously heard of this happening, and I’m a little dubious. I could see this being a viable strategy if you were looking for long guns and watching for folks lugging cases; handguns are likely to go with the average gun owner out of the car, so that seems less likely to work.

The PDF and article mention “27 high end shotguns” being stolen from a sporting clays event. I’m not dismissing out of hand that this really happened, but:

If I’m a gang member, I’m not looking for $6,000 Perrazi trap guns. Granted, 00 buck from one of those will still kill you dead, but if I had my druthers, I’d be looking for modern sporting rifles, not skeet guns. (And for those of you saying, “Well, you could sell or pawn the shotguns”, I have a feeling that the circle of people interested in those is a) limited, and 2) likely to know they’re looking at a stolen gun as soon as they pick it up and check the serial number.)
Given the marking they show on the tire, I’m a little dubious that gang members would be able to pick up your vehicle and follow it. It just seems awfully small to keep track of.
I suspect the traffic in the parking lot of most gun shows and ranges is high enough that someone tagging vehicles in this fashion would be noticed, and very probably stopped at gunpoint and held for police.

I’m not ruling this out completely, but it triggers my Snopes sense. Does anyone have any more information or verification on this?

In the meantime, a healthy dose of situational awareness never hurts. (I think Colonel Cooper said that once; if he didn’t, he should have.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | 3 Comments »

Quote of the day.

Friday, January 20th, 2012

KAREN O
Ahheeeaahhhhhhhhhh-aaaahhhh!
Come to the film that’s really slow;
Where the story plods and the accents blow!

(This is much funnier if you sing it to the tune of “Immigrant Song”.)

Also:

We should be able to solve this right around when the audience members start cupping their hands around their cell phones to see what time it is.

Guilty. But that was nearly two hours in, and we still had a whole bunch of Ulfråsen Fribergsgatu to go.

(Hattip: the great and good Pat Cadigan on the Twitter.)

Posted in Movies | Comments Closed

Today’s Bell update.

Friday, January 20th, 2012

More than half of the disability retirements awarded to police officers under former Bell City Administrator Robert Rizzo — including those given to three police chiefs — should not have been granted, and workers’ compensation settlements for 13 officers were “exceedingly large,” an investigation has concluded.

Former police chief Michael Chavez gets a pension of $117,942, and got a worker’s compensation settlement of $140,000. Former police chief Andreas Probst gets $160,649 a year on top of his $250,000 worker’s compensation settlement. Former police chief Dennis Tavernelli gets $169,027 a year on top of his $395,667 worker’s compensation settlement.

The advantage of a disability retirement is that only half of the pension is taxed; workers’ compensation settlements are tax free.

And:

The Times reported that in at least two instances, the city wrapped severance and unused vacation and sick time into the workers’ comp settlements, which experts said violated tax laws.

Question: if the city and the police chiefs knowingly violated state law in that fashion, could they be charged with tax evasion?

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Pancho’s Mexican Buffet.

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

The thing I always liked best there were the sopaipillas.

(Wow. They’re still in business.)

But I digress. (Thanks to the Atomic Nerds for the pointer on that.)

Anyway, speaking of SOPA and PIPA, I’ve seen a lot of people today asking the musical question: “If you were opposed to the Citizen’s United decision, then why were you not also opposed to Google changing their logo to signify opposition to SOPA/PIPA?”

But the absolute best asking of the question, and exploration of the issues surrounding it, comes from none other than Ken at Popehat.

Posted in Clippings, Geek | 1 Comment »

It tastes so sweet.

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Terrell Owens has signed with Dallas.

Well, technically, Allen.

The Allen Wranglers, that is, of the Indoor Football League.

In the FARK thread on this, I suggested that the Wranglers should also seek out Tiki Barber. But I’m going to throw it open to you, good people; what other notorious team cancers can the Allen Wranglers sign? And if they sign enough of them, will the suburbs of Dallas collapse into a black hole?

(Scalzi’s Schadenfreude pie.)

Posted in Clippings, NFL, Schadenfreude, Sports | Comments Closed

A show of support.

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Today is the first anniversary of l’affair TJIC.

“Brad in MA” apparently originated the idea of commemorating this date by going out on and purchasing something Second Amendment related, which we think is excellent. Our great and good friend Borepatch elaborated on this idea some more by suggesting folks patronize TJIC’s company, Smartflix, which rents learning DVDs. We also heartily endorse this idea; Smartflix has an amazing selection of firearms related DVDs for rent.

On this day, I encourage you to consider both options. As for myself, I’ve already set up a Smartflix account, specifically as a response to the illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Arlington, MA police, and look forward to a long and pleasant relationship with the company.

I also wanted to make passing note of this tweet by TJIC about the firing of Boston PD officer David Williams for beating a suspect. As the article notes, Williams was previously fired in 1998, and rehired after winning an appeal in 2005.

As it happens, I am currently reading Dick Lehr’s book The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston’s Racial Divide about the previous case involving Williams. In brief, Williams and a group of other BPD officers beat a black man who they thought was a criminal suspect senseless; then, when it turned out he was actually a fellow BPD officer in plainclothes, more or less successfully covered up their actions. The one BPD officer who was actually convicted of a crime was later found to be telling the truth (that he hadn’t seen the beating) and had his conviction overturned.

I’m not far enough into The Fence to feel confident recommending it, but the story of Michael Cox is appalling and deserves to be better known.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

It’s like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

WCD did not go on strike yesterday because of SOPA and PIPA (though we did call our Congress slime and make our views known).

(By the way, we think the “Congress” app for Android is pretty spiffy.)

Basically, there just wasn’t much going on yesterday.

Today, we note the NYT‘s article on discussions of doing away with the leap second.

Also noteworthy: Penn State trustees discuss the decision to fire Paterno.

We have no joke here, we ust like saying “feral burros”.

Posted in Android, Clippings, Geek, Law, Sports | Comments Closed

Foodie things that bring a smile to my face.

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

TJIC’s new site.
The WikiTravel entry on Stavanger, Norway, which states “Stavanger is considered a great place for foodies, with a range of good restaurants”…and gives details on exactly two restaurants, one of which is vegetarian.
The HouChron‘s report on the Houston branch of Uchi opening February 2nd “in the former Felix space in Montrose”, which promptly draws complaints from people in the comments that you can’t get good Mexican food in Houston any more.

Posted in Clippings, Food | Comments Closed

Notes and updates.

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Jim Caldwell fired from the Colts. 26-22 over three seasons, 2-14 this year. I don’t think there was anybody who didn’t expect this.

Moving right along, Harris County DA Pat Lykos did testify today before the grand jury investigating her office and the BAT vans.

This is another story where there’s really not much to add beyond the basic fact that she did testify, and apparently did answer questions (as opposed to pleading the Fifth). But we note it here as part of the ongoing story.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, HCDA, Law, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

The Journalist’s Guide to Firearms Identification.

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

There was a bit of a kerfluffle last week. A group of “intruders with assault rifles” robbed a Walmart in the Houston area.

Television station KPRC reported that the assault rifles were AK-47s.

Today, the HouChron is reporting that they caught the alleged robbers. (Actually, the girlfriend of one of them turned them in.) And…

She said the three had a large amount of cash and a long-barrel weapon, which she said they called an “SKS,” records state. According to online information, the SKS is a widely sold copy of the Russian AK-47 assault rifle.

Yeah. Not so much.

(Hattip.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed