American Defense Enterprises

According to Reuters, the Niger President has been captured and “they were suspending the constitution and dissolving all political institutions.”

Wikipedia has a running current events article.

Somebody found that if you take the airport scanner image and do some photoshop trickery, it looks pretty compelling as a nude photo…

Remember, this isnt porn…. This is just what the airport people see every time you consent to go in their penis sizing machine…

May they be cursed with 1,000’s of these:

They delete the images after they are looked at, right?  Not that a cell phone camera wouldnt do the same thing…

As seen in Reason:  “The prestigious British medical journal The Lancet is fully and formally retracting the 1998 study that sparked the autism/vaccine scare.”

Of course…. we will still continue to have yuppie parents with kids at high risk for diseases we eliminated in the US since the 70’s because of the great conspiracy fear….   Take frivolous vaccinations?  No.  Vaccinate your kids against life altering disease (e.g., polic)?  Yes.  It is always a risk/gain analysis.  I will cheerfully take a 1:1,000,000 chance of my kid getting autism against a 1:10,000 chance of being a lifetime cripple because of polio.  Or, to be more correct:

I will take the 1 in 1000 chance my kid will cry for 3 hours after a tetanus vaccine, and even the 1 in 16,000 chance he will develop a self-limiting high fever after the vaccine.  Comparison?  1 in 10,000 risk of a truly horrible death…

Reprinting from this story at Slashdot:

““US intelligence agencies are advising top US IT executives to weigh their laptops before and after visiting China as one of many precautions against corporate espionage. Symantec Chief Technology Officer Mark Bregman said he was also advised to buy a new cellphone for each visit and to throw it away after leaving. Bregman said he kept a separate MacBook Air for use in China, which he re-images on returning, but claimed he didn’t subscribe to the strictest policies. ‘Bregman said the US was also concerned about its companies employing Chinese coders, particularly in security.’”“

Perhaps we shouldnt be whining too much about the US government having at-will (i.e., no cause, no warrant) access to all of our electronics when we are near the border….

According to this story on BBC news, the UK Home Office is debating the requirement that pubs in this country replace their improvised melee weapons glass pint glasses, with plastic pint glasses.  I guess the theory is that there would be less fights and the fights would have less damaging outcomes.

I expect nothing less from the country that brought you non-pointing kitchen knives (the traditional design was a little to “stabby”)…

Man… I couldnt make this shit up if I tried.

In America, we have a different view on this one…

AB962 will:

• remove mail order ammunition sales
• add cost to sales because vendors will be required to record personal information and fingerprint every purchaser and keep records for inspection
• force vendors to redesign stores to keep ammunition in locked cabinets or out of public consumer areas.

This will not reduce crime (obviously). This will create unnecessary burdens on ammunition vendors and firearm range owners. This is a waste of money and effort and only serves as a form of harassment against law abiding citizens. As CK mentioned, this now moves to the Governer’s desk for a signature or veto. If he does not act in 30 d, this will automatically become law. In the past, he has always signed or vetoed such legislation after waiting until the last minute to hear comment from the community — usually signed ( .50 cal ban, microstamping).

Please contact the Governor now…

Email him here.

Or, if you are a little less lazy, consider calling/faxing or writing him here:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

State Capitol Building

Sacramento, CA 95814

Phone: 916-445-2841

Fax: 916-558-3160 ( new number )

Heck…. Just do all four.

So, we are all used to the lies that gun control folk use to say why guns are bad and evil (guns cause crime, are never used in self defense, etc)…. I just learned a new tidbit that I thought I would share….

Did you know that burglars in the United States are less willing to enter occupied homes than burglars in other countries???

Its true…  “According to Kleck, most Americans take it for granted that a burglar won’t burglarize them when they’re home. Only about 12 percent of U.S. burglaries take place when people are home, compared to 40 to 50 percent in England, Canada, and the Netherlands, where gun laws are more restrictive and ownership is much lower.“  Holy F#$%#!!!  Can you imagine living in a world where 50% of burglaries occurred in occupied homes?!?!?!?!?!  I’ll support my 2nd amendment rights just to keep that number down!!!

Emeritus professor Gary Mauser wrote a very letter to the editor describing the failings of the Canadian gun registry and strongly suggests that the government could more effectively fight crime by no longer wasting their time on this ineffective system.

Short summary…  The rate of crime reduction has not fallen any faster since gun registration was inacted.  Domestic violence and suicide remain at comprable levels, but, with other means being employed.  And, of course, many countries with complete gun bans have significantly worse gun violence than Canada (e.g., Mexico, Russia)

Apparently the UK is not happy with their current level of invasion of privacy of its citizens.  A recent UK Daily Express Article illustrates the impressive lengths that the UK state is willing to go to make sure children are raised properly by their parents and behave.  The UK Children’s Secretary Mr. Balls (stop snickering) has set aside 400 million pounds ($677 million US) to monitor 20,000 problem families with misbehaving children by monitoring these families in “sin bins” complete with 24-hour CCTV surveillance, private security guards and behavior contract signed by parents and kids to make them promise to fulfill their duties.  The bonus is that if you are a good obedient prole that behaves you have the right to complain about misbehaving people.  Awesome!

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Pupils and their families will have to sign behavior contracts known as Home School Agreements before the start of every year, which will set out parents’ duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.

Wired is running a neat little exclusive interview they had with a genuine pirate of the high seas…

Some interesting tidbits in there….

“What are the key factors to making a successful attack on a ship?

The key to our success is that we are willing to die, and the crews are not. Beyond that, in my case deploy a boat with six men to get close to the ship and leave another in reserve near the coast just in case we need backup…“