Wind Speeds between:

00 mph to 10 mph: Stagnant.

11 mph to 25 mph: Very light breeze.

26 mph to 45 mph: ” ‘Bout time we had a bit of wind.”

46 mph to 60 mph: “Maria, get the parrots inside the house and wear a helmet, coconuts might be flying.”

61 mph to 73 mph: “Hey! Check with Channel 7 see if we have a hurricane coming.”

74 mph to 95 mph (Cat One Hurricane): “Should we install the hurricane panels? Nah! Let’s do some grocery shopping just in case.”

96 mph to 110 mph (Cat Two Hurricane): “OK, BBQ grill goes in the Living room, generator goes in the small bathroom, the dog goes in the bedroom and your mother stays on the porch.”

111 mph to 130 mph (Cat Three Hurricane): “Evacuate where? the whole state is in the path of the Hurricane. Let’s party!”

131 mph to 155 mph (Cat Four Hurricane): “Don’t worry about the roof. We have tarps, ammo and it never rains after a hurricane anyway.”

156 mph and up (Cat Five Hurricane): It must be blowing hard. I think I just saw Fidel Castro flying by.”

What happens when you have a digital camera, a quick media distribution system and an ego and you mix them with scarce knowledge, a reloading press and a gun? Instant KaBoom Newswire.
You all read the horror stories: Gun X barrels do not support the case fully and they will explode crating a miniature atomic detonation that will wipe out any living creature in a  mile radius.  Gun Y is a POS import made with recycled tuna cans that will break apart if you use plus P ammo. The machining of Gun Z is so poor, the gun will fire out of battery taking out your fingers and your 401K.

Guns are product made by humans so there will be a number of factory created failures, but most gun catastrophic demises are operator error. It is hard for the ego to blame ourselves for a mistake that leaves us counting only till nine, but the fastest we acknowledge we screwed up and share that information, the fastest shooters that did not know will avoid making the same mistake.

By far, the number one cause of KaBooms seem to be careless handloading of the ammunition used with the gun. Handloading is easy and gives you an inexpensive ammo alternative for your shooting pleasure. Unfortunately people confuse easy with not giving a two turds about safety and that is when double charges, wrong powder loads or squibs are created with the consequences paid at the range.

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It should go without saying that Eye Protection is a must to avoid permanent visual reduction if anything like above should happen.

So I get this article from the Huffington Post where Jamel Jaffer, litigator for the ACLU is discussing the validity of Targeted Killings and the following words just got me to blink hard.

Outside the context of armed conflict, government agents — and the rest of us — can permissibly use lethal force in self-defense or defense of others.

Wait one. Is this the same ACLU that does not support the Second Amendment? If according to the ACLU we do not have the Right To Keep and Bear Arms, How are we supposed to defend ourselves? Exhaling bad breath and cussing out loud?

And then they complain when we do not take them seriously.

My first proffesional…profezional… (where is the darned spell checker?) professional article published.

Gonna gloat to the cat for a while. Tried with the wife and she told me not to forget to take the trash out and do the laundry.

If you are most anywhere USA walking down the street and you are suddenly aggressively confronted by four or five individuals with dogs demanding money; if you refuse, you are threatened with the dogs, spit on your face or worse. Again, most anywhere in the USA you’d be in your right to feel in danger for your life, you’d be in your right to call police and have them arrested, to take the dogs away and to address your grievances against those punks in court. But there is a place where such behavior is not only tolerated but defended: Haight-Ashbury, the birthplace and time capsule of the Hippie Movement.

For a while,citizens tried to get this issued resolved by a simple prohibition against loitering called the Sit/Lie Law, but it was view by the Liberal Powers That Be as a bigoted stance against those poor individuals forgotten by society and blah-blah-blah. Neighbors were scared of these protected gangs and the quality of life (Yes, even residents Hippieville deserves a decent quality of life) suffered accordingly. It wasn’t until one of these peace-loving abode-impaired individuals attacked and almost gauged out the eyes of a resident that the law finally voted in.

How can people be so heartless and vote on the freedom of those less fortunate to sit, lay down, impede pedestrian traffic, strong arm visitors and residents?

Community activist call the new law as “cruel and heartless.” He goes on to say:

More than beacon, SanFran is like one of those blue lights you hang on your back porch during the summer and attracts all kinds of bugs.

Hippie Please!

I was reading The Liberty Zone‘s take on the New York Times and their complicity publishing of the State Department memos illegally obtained by WikiLeaks and decided to stroll over the opinion page on the Gray Whore On Line. I did not manage to reach the intended op-ed because the picture of a laptop wearing a balaclava caught my attention. Op-Ed Contributor Julie Zhuo’s “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt” is an amazing piece. Of what I won’t say.

That somebody in the media is actually vying for legislation that come close to resurrect the Sedition Law is just par for the course. Yes, I am not surprised that the NYT would actually demand that the Government should go out and punish those who “troll” their articles. But what is Trolling? According to Ms. Zhuo “is defined as the act of posting inflammatory, derogatory or provocative messages in public forums.” The problem resides in how to determine what posting is inflammatory, derogatory or provocative and this is so open ended and subjective, you pretty much can rest assured anything the author or owner does not like (as in a conservative reader expressing a dissenting opinion) can be considered posting inflammatory, derogatory or provocative.

Ms. Zhuo tries to inject a shot of credibility by quoting the Classics: ” Morality, Plato argues, comes from full disclosure; without accountability for our actions we would all behave unjustly.” Damn, now that sounds civilized! Problem is that media types are not accountable in 99% of the times they behave “unjustly.” Other than a couple of young journos that stole from other authors or making a big media hash of of false documents (What has Dan Rather been doing lately), Journalists pretty much get away with murder…literally. If you don’t believe me, do a bit of research about Michael Isikoff and his false report on Guantanamo Guards flushing the Koran down the toilet and the people that died in Pakistan because of the riots in protest against such violation of their religion. Last I heard Mr. Isikoff is doing quite well and free as a bird although he got a new laptop on account on the spilled blood all over the keyboard of the old one.

Ms. Zhuo goes on to rant about cyber bullies and other potatoes, but the simple solutions escape her. Pay attention now Julie: Solution One is to delete the offending posts. Solution Two is to ignore them. Solution Three is to make fun of the Trolls. Bloggers have been doing this for a while now and works fine and without government intervention. If you are too busy sucking on the latest Tofu Latte Mochaccino with Organic Sprinkles, you may request from your editor to hire somebody to delete the posts that offend you. Oh crap, I forgot you guys are losing subscriptions and having to fire people. Sorry!

I wonder why.

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will start the new Extra Enhanced Pat Downs that will include body cavity searches and will augment the power on the Body Scanners so they will be able to search up to 2 inches deep inside our bodies.

The announcement came after that massive document dump by WikiLeaks’s Julian Assange. Over a quarter of a million confidential and secret communications were released yesterday forcing Homeland Security to reinforce security at all airports. In an interview in NPR, TSA’s Chief John Pistole said that TSA Agents are being trained on the new procedures. “We are living in a new world of increased risks and the Extra Enhanced Pat Downs are a small sacrifice we all must make in order to be safe.”  When asked by a New York Times journalist if he thought that it made sense to increase security measures because of the WikiLeak affair, Mr. Pistole replied: “We are applying the same protocols we always had since the inception of TSA. Sense, common or otherwise have no relevance in what we do.”

An airline passenger undergoes a full body scan and Tanning Session with the newly released Chertoff-Scan Enhanced at O’Hare International Airport Wednesday,