- For some reason, the NRA sat on its review of the notorious Armatrix iP1 “smart” gun and just recently released it. They probably didn’t mean it to be hilarious, but it is.
- Ten ways to lessen your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack.
- #BlackLivesMatter may get all the press, but Tommitrise Collins, college student and new mother, is a lot more impressive.
- Wendy McElroy found this one first, but it should be spread far and wide: thanks to asset forfeiture, U.S. cops now steal more property than all the nation’s burglars combined.
- What The Hunger Games movies say about feminism and war. I read this week that Jennifer Lawrence was initially frustrated with her character Katniss’ reluctance to fight and to lead, but eventually came to understand that it’s one of the character’s great strengths.
- Newly discovered spider named after a Lord of the Rings character. No, not Shelob.
- Well, I’m sure that’s one good reason to fire the head of the DEA. But somehow it hardly seems the biggest reason (to fire the head of the DEA, send all its agents off to work at McDonalds, burn the agency to the ground, and salt the land on which it stood).
- And speaking of the progress on pot, good on you Canadians.
- Hillary: She Who Must Not Be Mocked. (Here’s Nicki’s take on the mysterious phone call. And the video some Hillaryite objected to.)
- Finally dogs painting poetically and dogs wet and dry.
Only one answer to the “smart gun” thing: NO. I don’t care how good it gets or how “reliable” it becomes. I don’t need it or want it. Ever.
I do believe Hillary has a sense of humor, she thinks she’s the best person to become God, oops, I mean President.
Oh, about Canada; Trudeau and the Pot stuff there may be a few issues the Feds will have to overcome.
http://policyoptions.irpp.org/2015/11/18/trudeau-pot-constitution/
“Smart” gun, ha! I have yet to see smart technology that can’t be gotten around with a little thought and skill and this overpriced Edsel of a gun is no different. If the gun can be taken apart the gizmos inside can be rendered inert. At the very least building a short range EMP generator should do the trick.
http://www.instructables.com/id/EMP-generator/
In the end it doesn’t really matter to me anyway, I’ve got all the firearms that I will ever buy. Should I choose to expand my collection any guns I buy will definitely be dumb.
[Clarkson] We tried getting Jerry MicuStig to test the new Armatix smart-pistol, but he couldn’t be bothered. So, we decided to try it ourselves…but we couldn’t. It turned out to be the single most unreliable handgun…….in the world! [Clarkson]
Definitely a waste of ‘smart’.
I certainly have no desire for a “smart” gun, but the NRA’s stated opinion about it in that article, let the market decide, would be correct in the absence of a government that would certainly mandate it once it works well enough to saddle the police with the technology. And though the Armatrix appears to be a failed attempt, the technology definitely COULD work.
Send DEA agents off to work at McDonalds? Nope. Try them for kidnapping and execute those found guilty by a jury of their peers. Of course that would require courts willing to declare off-limits the criminalization of non-criminal acts. I won’t hold my breath.
Concerning those ten ways to lessen your chances of being killed in a terrorist attack, mostly good. But even though the attacks WILL come to America, your chances of being caught in one will still be lower than dying by hitting your head when you slip and fall in the bath. Your chances of being badly effected by the state’s response to those attacks, on the other hand, is nearly 100%.
“government that would certainly mandate it once it works well enough to saddle the police with the technology.”
HUH? Bill, I don’t think the police will ever be burdened with this technology, however well it “works.” And a mandate for it on guns bought by the mundane will certainly not depend on it working well at all, let alone working for the police. Get real! 🙂
And yes, Claire, the fate of the DEA must be the same as for any other fed alphabet soup gangs, government “schools,” and every other effort to track, snoop on and otherwise control ordinary people by government at any level. The city council and county commissioners are actually just as or more dangerous to us as any fed.
Rope, lamp post/tree, politician/bureaucrat: some assembly required.
The cops are not going to rely on anything that is not proven reliable. Something that won’t come until at least decades of working right.
On another note, Claire, your wish for a warmer or a dryer winter just may be fulfilled and California may soon have all the water they can handle.
http://gizmodo.com/this-years-godzilla-el-nino-could-be-the-worst-ever-rec-1743300907?utm_expid=66866090-67.e9PWeE2DSnKObFD7vNEoqg.0&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fgizmodo.com%2F%3FstartTime%3D1447999619076
On the other hand, Jim B: Update on El Niño: Gaia disappoints the climate activists http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/22/update-on-el-nino-gaia-disappoints-the-climate-activists/
When did we “pathologize” weather? When did commonplace weather become abnormal? The debates over the past and future of anthropogenic climate change are of great importance (climate change is ubiquitous in history). But the news increasingly describes normal weather as a kind of plague, something to fear.
Yes, they keep talking about that exceptionally warm dry winter we’re expecting. Makes me wonder if they’re just nostalgic for last winter, which actually was warm and dry between a handful of torrential pineapple express rains.
So far this year we’ve gone from the torrents to dry and cold and are heading into dry and much, much colder soon. Still, we may end up having it a lot better than people in many other places.
Time magazine interviewed Randall Munroe. No-one should be surprised at his answers.
Why do you think I couched it in “may be fulfilled”? We know these things come in cycles and that sometimes big storms or stuff happens every now and then. The droughts of California have been “baking” for a while now in order to get to where they are.
I thought the environment was due for a break. Not the people, they can stuff it, due to what they did with their political environment.
I’m glad the “smart gun” review didn’t grace the pages of American Rifleman…I’d much rather read about the Rigby Big Game Rifle (in .416 Rigby, natch) then see ink wasted on the former…even if I’ll never own the latter!
TXCOMT
2. Always carry a concealed firearm where legal
2.a. And avoid going where it isn’t legal.
Even if you illegally carry you’re in an area that’s more likely to be the target, and it’s much less likely anyone else will be carrying.
After the trials that Bill mentioned, have all the DEA and the ATF agents and staff left, (if any) sent to guard the borders. One every 50 ft. or so should do it. Rain or shine, day and night .