Arms Treaty Dead (for now)…

Finally!  Looks like the US contingent did it in!


UN Arms Treaty Dead

By James S. Robbins – The Washington Times
July 27, 2012, 06:53PM

Talks over the UN Arms Trade Treaty fell apart today, effectively killing the agreement. The Arms Trade Treaty Legal Blog reports that the process seemed to be moving to completion when the United States requested an extension to the time to negotiate the agreement. This opened the door to other countries to begin registering objections, and it soon became clear that reaching agreement within the allowed timeframe would be impossible. The proposed treaty, which raised considerable domestic opposition from gun rights advocates in the United States, died before it had a chance to become a threat. As a delegate from China observed, “C’est la vie et la vie c’est ça.”

The UN may take up the matter at a later date, but for now it is on indefinite hiatus. 

Out Playing…

Light blogging today/tomorrow-  Out playing with ‘things’…


A trivia question until I get back…


What’s this???





Answer when I get back in comms!

On the Road (Again)…

PMS x 2- 


It was one of THOSE mornings at IAD, trying to get through security.  TSA was on a roll (breaking the porn scanner), and backing up the line, added to multiple bag checks, and the line was full and three rows deep in the pre-check area.  They kept holding off trying to fix the porn scanner, but finally ‘had’ to start letting folks through when the line was about 15 people and the bags were backed up on the back side of security.  


About that time, they needed a male ‘assist’, so a female came stomping over and took over the line at the detector.  It was obvious she was ‘not’ in a good mood, and was being a PITA, making people wait, etc.


A lady was next in line, in a chair due to a leg operation (and TOLD the woman she had a pin in her leg)and had the paperwork. She shuffled through the scanner, and sure enough set it off…


And was told to step back and go through again, and set it off again… And the woman starts yelling for a female ‘assist’, but keeps the lady standing there.  The lady steps BACK through and tells the woman to go ahead and let folks go while she waited, but NO, YOU GET BACK HERE was the statement.  Now she’s got the woman standing there for probably 3-4 minutes, and the lady is asking for a chair to sit in and getting a ‘bit’ irate, but NO, YOU JUST STAND THERE.


By now the bags are backed up again, and I counted 22 people in line, and these two women are glaring at each other.  Thankfully a supervisor showed up, and he pulled the woman off line, let the woman with the leg problem sit down, and started running us through.  Total time 32 minutes… sigh…


And I barely made the flight, but I made it!


So I get to the left coast, knock out a couple of meetings, and had pre-arranged a visit to Creedmoor Sportshttp://www.creedmoorsports.com/shop/home.php (BAD Mistake)…  


I was like a kid in a candy (VERY EXPENSIVE CANDY) store.  They are truly nice folks, as nice in person as they are on line; I picked up the one thing I needed, drooled over the ‘real’ shooting jackets, and other nice toys, picked up something I didn’t ‘really’ need, and only spent twice what I planned… But I figure I got out cheap! It would be really easy to drop a couple of thousand dollars in that place!

Burp…

Sorry… 🙂


Too much GOOD food today!  Met up with Navy One for lunch (seafood fix), and met friends for dinner (Chinese fix).  Now I need a wheelbarrow to cart my ass off…


In other news, it appears the Aussies got to do another SINKEX during the last big exercise, so the little country that can fired a Mk-48 torpedo and sunk a fairly large ex-Navy ship with one ’round’… It hit under the bridge, broke the keel, and both halves sank in 40 minutes…


Now THAT is what you call firepower! 🙂  Off to bed, early go in the morning (WAY too early actually)… Sigh…



Agression…

This one came over the transom from the mil-net email… Once again, China IS stepping up their aggression in the region, not only militarily over the last three years, but now THIS…

CHINFO Item 17.   China Sends Troops To Disputed Islands

(NEW YORK TIMES 24 JUL 12) … Jane Perlez

The announcement came as Chinese authorities told state media that 45 legislators elected over the weekend to govern the 1,100 people who live on the island groups of the Spratlys, the Paracels and the Macclesfield Bank — known in Chinese as the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands — met for the first time on Monday.

The new legislators would not only govern the island groups, many of them consisting of rocks and atolls, but also two million square kilometers of the South China Sea over which China claims jurisdiction, according to state media.

The two moves appeared designed to reinforce China’s claims over the South China Sea a week after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of South East Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, at which China, according to diplomats at the meeting, used its influence to stop even a rudimentary communiqué on the South China Sea among the 10 nations.

The establishment of a legislature for the sparsely populated islands, and the dispatch of soldiers, will antagonize Vietnam, which claims the same islands. Vietnam and China have fought since the 1970s over the three island groups, and last month, Vietnam passed a law that claimed sovereignty over the Paracels and Spratly Islands. In response, China said the islands were the “indisputable” territory of China.

The Philippines and China have also been involved in a dispute for months over Scarborough Shoal, an area off the coast of the Philippines claimed by both countries.

In the case of the Nansha, Xisha and Zhongsha islands, China’s State Council approved the establishment of a prefectural-level administration known as Sansha City to replace a lower county level administration last month.

The election of the legislators over the weekend and their meeting Monday at a first session of a people’s congress appeared to be practical steps to show China was serious in its drive to have the South China Sea as its domain.

A mayor, who was formerly led the agriculture department of China’s Hainan provincial government, and three vice mayors were elected Monday by the 45 deputies to run the new Sansha administration, state media reported.

China Daily, an English-language government-run newspaper, described Yongxing Island as a “hidden beauty” formed by white coral shells piled on reefs. Government buildings lined Beijing Road, along with banks, shops and an airport, the newspaper said.

The speed of China’s actions was not surprising, said Wu Xinbo, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. “Now the Philippines and Vietnam are both advancing their claims so China must also respond accordingly with its own plan,” Mr. Wu said.

The People’s Liberation Army garrison that was announced over the weekend would most likely be established on Xisha island, Mr. Wu said. “Xisha is closest to China and the facilities are relatively good.”

In a detailed report on the South China Sea in April, the International Crisis Group said that China had delayed establishing the Sansha city administration to govern the Paracels and Spratly, and appeared more intent on using tourism as way of asserting sovereignty.

Three months later, China has moved rapidly to set up the more powerful administration in response to Vietnam’s legislation claiming sovereignty and “provocations” by the Philippines, Mr. Wu said.

And our response???

Anyone???

Bueler???

/crickets

You are correct there has been NO response!  For over 30 years that I am aware of, the USA has stood behind both Philippine and Taiwanese claims and earlier Vietnamese claims to portions of the Spratleys.  The islands (mostly atolls) are the center of an ongoing set of claims of ownership that have accelerated since oil was found there back in the 70’s…

You can read THIS to get  a sense of what our administration’s ‘new’ stance is… @#&*# pathetic…

And an interesting read HERE… Are you ready???

I AM Sumdood!!!


To steal one from AD, or the alternative title is Karma is a Bitch… 

I was reminded of this ‘incident’ at dinner Saturday night; it actually happened a couple of years ago, but some folks STILL remember it…

Now on with the story-

I was sitting in on a meeting discussing training and procedures and how to fix both for a ‘certain’ location, one of the “junior” folks had been tasked to go back through archival data and documents to see if there was any previous information that might be pertinent to the discussions.  

Now for a point of reference, this guy had a rather over/hyper-inflated sense of self, to put it mildly, he thought his didn’t stink  (think BIG watch, little dick type)…

Anyhoo… At the end of the first day, a document from the mid 90s was brought up, and this little asshat summarily dismissed it with this statement.  “Aw that is useless, it was written by some civilian dude named (ME), since he was a civilian, I’m POSITIVE he didn’t have any experience and it cannot be useful.” 

Now at this point, some of the heavies in the room are all looking around at me to see my response; I just nodded to a couple of the heavies, and smiled…

After the first day closed, a few of us including this guy’s boss were talking, most of them wanted to know why I hadn’t said anything… I responded I didn’t know how important this guy was in the food chain.  One of the heavies basically said, less and less important due to his attitude, so if you want to take him down a peg or two, that’s fine!

Soooo, next morning we reconvene, and the document gets brought up again…  Now the poking starts from others, well WHY isn’t the document useful?  Did you actually read it?  

So asshat goes into this long diatribe about how it didn’t make any sense, nobody would do it that way, etc…

I interrupted and asked how he “knew” this, had he actually tried it, or had any real experience.

His answer was he had ALL this experience and he KNEW stuff like this wouldn’t work.

So I interrupted again and asked him about his SPECIFIC experience relating to the subject (e.g. had he ever actually flown in that area)…

Turns out it is really zero!

Now at this point, he’s getting a little pissed, so he finally asks me what my name is and why am I “confusing” the issue…

So I tell him, and tell him I am the author of that particular document, at which point most of the meeting erupts in laughter…  

 So now asshat decides to question my credibility, after I lay out my background (including the fact that I had quite a few hours IN that area doing the actual mission), asshat decides, “Well, you are out of date and out of touch with the current procedures.”

My comeback was, “Oh really?”

At that point, his boss called a break, and left the room with asshat…

After the break, no asshat!  He’d been sent back to the office and basically told he was relieved of his job!

Moral of the story- Before you open your mouth in an open meeting, know who is at the table, and what their backgrounds are…  OR keep your ego in check…

Old age and treachery will over come youth and ego ANY day of the week!

You gotta go read this!!!

Larry Correia bitch slaps the CNN editoral on gun control…  HERE

Hey Penn State, how do you like THIS legacy…

The NCAA dropped the hammer on Penn State today, and the apologists are already decrying it…  


First article HERE.

– NCAA is imposing a fine of $60 million on the University (equivalent to proceeds of one year) — An endowment will be established to be used around the nation to serve victims of child abuse
– Penn State Football will be banned from bowl games and post season play for 4 years
– Initial scholarship reduced from 25 to 15 per year for four years
– Entering, returning athletes are able to transfer and immediately complete
– NCAA to vacate all wins of the football team from 1998 to 2011 and record will reflect change
– Football program on 5-year probationary period
– NCAA reserve right to initiate an investigation and impose sanctions on individuals


And of course the Paterno family is laying off blame HERE.

But I’d say go look at page 17 from the Freeh Report-  Paterno and the rest allowed Sandusky to retire as a ‘valued’ member, not as a child molester, and allowed him access to Penn State and the facilities until his arrest… Sorry, but THAT is covering your ass, and protecting your reputation and program NOT doing the right thing!


And if you check any of the blogs/comments the PSU ‘faithful’ are out there screaming “It’s not ‘our’ fault…

As far as I’m concerned, they should have gotten the death penalty year for year, for every year the abuse continued… 

And all the whining about ‘others’ that will be injured by this?  Well, too bad, so sad… PSU made it’s bed, and now they don’t like laying in it…

It took SMU 20 years to come back, and I hope it takes Penn State even longer!!!

YGTBSM!!!

Turns out the fire aboard the USS Miami was set by a 24 year old who wanted to get off work because he had an anxiety attack…  Tha sumbitch should be taken out and SHOT!  I hope they sentence his ass to about 40 years… THEN let’s see about anxiety!

AP article HERE.

h/t Les


And thanks to PE, HERE is the indictment of Fury…

Are you coming for MY guns???

Sullivan Act of 1911, National Firearms Act of 1934, Gun Control Act of 1968, AWB, limited/no CCW privileges, gun confiscations in emergencies, “proof” of ownership…

Where does it end, or does it?

Here is a sampling of people I respect and their posts on our about Aurora and freedom…

Peter has a good one HERE, eIA has a good post up HERE, Brigid has one up HERE, Guffaw has one up HERE, Robert has one up HERE, Sean has one up HERE, Weer’d has one up HERE, JB has one up HERE, Navy 1 has one up HERE, and Uncle has one up HERE

Why do the liberals HATE the 2nd Amendment so much, and refuse to listen to the truth and deal with reality?

I was coming back from the range today, and stopped to get gas and a bottle of water.  I happened to have on this shirt.

And a lady with a smallish (8-10 year old boy) were standing in line behind me.  I heard him ask his mother what the 2nd Amendment was, and she told him words to the effect that he didn’t need to worry about it and it was an excuse bad people used to carry guns. 

At that point I turned around and I asked her what she meant; she said words to the effect that “people” like me caused the shooting in Aurora, and that “I” deserved to have all my guns taken away and I should probably be in jail.  I asked her if she knew that AMC Theaters is a gun free zone, and that if CCW ‘had’ been allowed, there was a chance there would have been a LOT less fatalaties and injuries.  She responded, “No, there would have been MORE killed and wounded because bullets would have been spraying everywhere!”  At that point she was raising her voice, and she grabbed the boy by the arm and stormed out of the station.  The two other guys in the store were amazed by her actions, one pointed out that she was a “clinical hoplophobe” and we all agreed!  We were just standing there shaking their heads when we noticed her drive up behind my truck and write my license number down…

You can guess what was on her bumper…

But it does raise a question or two in my mind. How do we prove we own our guns?  What about our ammunition or re-loading components? What if she reports me as having ‘threatened’ her?  What if I get that knock (or no knock) on the door in the middle of the night?  What is the next stage in the gun grabber’s agenda?

Proof of ownership is becoming an issue, witness what happened in NOLA and in NC after the confiscations.  If you couldn’t ‘prove’ you owned the gun by providing written proof, you didn’t get your gun back, even though they had the records that it was taken from YOUR possession.  What about the family guns, handed down through generations?  Or that, according to Bloomie, “illegal” gun you bought at a gun show? What is the definition of proof?  I don’t know… 

And how much ammo is ‘enough’…  Any time I go to the range I’ll shoot 150-200 rounds of major caliber pistol/rifle and probably 200 rounds of .22 for warmup.  When I was practicing to compete, I’d shoot 1000 rounds plus a month in practice… I normally buy ammo by the case, to save cost an simplify storage.

I actually asked the two guys and they gave me their addresses and phone numbers, just in case she does try something. 

I do keep loaded guns handy in my house, and I don’t answer the door at night (well, I DID screw that up once)… I’m thinking if that does occur, I’d dial 911 put it on speaker, and keep the chain on, block the door while asking for a picture ID.  That will probably get the door taken and me either proned out or possibly shot since I WILL have a weapon.

More and more laws have not stopped the criminals, in fact we’ve seen MORE serial killings, mass killings SINCE most of those laws have taken effect.  And a bigger and bigger push to ‘outlaw’ guns…

What piece of legislation would have stopped this tragedy?  Please somebody tell me that…

PLEASE!

BECAUSE CRIMINALS DON’T OBEY LAWS! They could care less, and they want us not to be able to defend ourselves, it makes it a LOT easier to threaten and do violence to unarmed people.  Witness the mass shootings that have occured, most have occurred in “gun free zones”, just like a lot of the mob violence…  The criminals know there aren’t enough LEOs to handle the situation, respond in time as most crimes like these take place in seconds to a minute or two. 

In the current ‘flap’ over the tragedy in Aurora, the liberals are truly dancing in the blood of the dead and injured victims.  Not the first whit of sympathy, just pushing the “Military guns” mantra- He had a MILITARY pistol (Glock 40), an ASSAULT weapon (S&W M&P AR-15), and a TACTICAL shotgun (black 870 12 Ga).  And ILLEGAL clips (33 round Glock mags, and apparently a 100 round C-mag), but the actual AR in this article (scroll down to the bottom) shows a regular 30 round mag . And OMG ELEVENTY 6312 rounds of ammunition and he could shoot at a rate of 100 rounds a MINUTE!  And he got all that ‘legally’…

But if we pass more laws he can’t do that!!!

I’m beginning to believe there are two possible agendas at play here, one is to turn ALL of us into felons through a mishmash of  laws that will be so confusing we WILL sooner or later violate one and get nailed.  The other, I think will be an attempt to make ammunition hard/impossible to buy, or only be able to buy it in one box lots.  And tax the hell out of every bullet.

What is coming in the next few months?  I have no idea… BUT I will hazard a guess… If the congresscritters cannot make a deal on the budget, we ARE going to see cuts in everything, including entitlements, welfare, etc.  When that happens, I believe section 8 housing, and those that live off those entitlements will go on a rampage unlike anything we’ve seen.  It will occur mainly in the cities, as that is where most of those folks live.  I also think it will make the LA riots look calm.  Interestingly, one of the ONLY strip malls that did not get fired/looted in the LA riots was Korean owned and they DEFENDED their property with guns and DID shoot people.  After that nobody tried anything around them. 

The other thing I would guess is a possibility of marital law being declared, and God forbid if you actually defend yourself… Especially if you shoot someone of a different race.

OR, will the BATF go into gun stores and take the gun books and pay ‘visits’ to those in the books and confiscate their (and MY) guns???

I ‘hope’ none of my worst case scenarios pans out, but I’m going to STAY prepared! And wait for that knock on the door… 

         Aurora, Colorado July 20, 2012