Archive for January, 2009
The British called – They want their guns back!
The “take away everyone’s guns” thing isn’t working out so well. At least not for everyone.
The Never Ending Small Arms Caliber Debate
Lt Col P and Uncle Jimbo on the issue.
Change for the Worse
The big “stimulus” bill undoes the 1996 cap on welfare payments to states.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of Obama’s key allies in Congress, waltzes away from Obama’s commitment to a 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq
Obama supporters sure fell for a lot of shit.
“The request to delay the arraignment is not reasonable.”
Obama administration does not get extra time to study up on new strategy to deal with Cole-bombing leader in Gitmo.
Russia Snares New Black Sea Bases
The Rooskies are not kidding around.
The World War That Never Happened: US Occupies USSR
1951 Colliers magazine imagines what would happen of the balloon went up.
Swiss Army Knives
Great prices.
Heavy Metal band name taxonomy
Cool. And don’t forget the
Heavy Metal Band Name Generator
I’m thinking of using “Nordic Koala” if Murdoc starts a metal band…though “Gore Hound” has a lot going for it, too.
Russia Unveils Aggressive Arctic Plans
“It cannot be ruled out that the battle for raw materials will be waged with military means” Did I mention that I don’t think the Rooskies are kidding around?
Exploding banana head man, we salute you
Some things there is just no explanation for. And if there is an explanation for this, Murdoc doesn’t want to hear it.
My recent article Black Market is up on the Shooting Sports Retailer magazine website. Check it out if interested.
A little more discussion over at GunPundit. Plus, weigh in over there with your favorite AR accessories.
This make Murdoc laugh:
Has anyone noticed that about 80% of blog posts concerning Harry Reid use that photo?
Is teh funny. (via teh Instapundit)
1986:
73 seconds in.
I was in the high school library playing chess. We had wanted to watch the lift-off, but the television wasn’t working. Some kid came in and told us, and after finally coming around to believing he wasn’t pulling our leg about the space shuttle blowing up, I asked him if it pulled into pieces, dove out of control, or just exploded in a huge fireball. “Fireball,” he said. I responded that it must have been the ET somehow managing to explode. It was not really a full-on “explosion,” but that’s sure what it looked like at first.
That afternoon, before going out on a run in the cold, cold Minnesota countryside, I cried during President Reagan’s speech.
The first flight of the Boeing 787 will hopefully take place next quarter, but when it happens it will be without all of the proper fasteners in place.
Boeing acknowledged Monday that it will not take the extra time that would be needed to hunt down and replace all the nonconforming fasteners in the six flight test planes. Fastener issues have been among many that have already delayed the program by about two years, and Boeing can’t afford to further push back the flight test program.
Boeing says the problem fasteners don’t present a safety problem. Of course.
The status of the program is to be updated today at some point. 15 orders were canceled in December, but 93 new orders were placed. There is currently a backlog of about 900 planes.
Jimmy Carter just shrugs when told that Hamas is considered a terrorist group.
Is this a preview of the things to come?
President Obama took a surprise tour of the White House press room late Thursday afternoon, startling journalists as he explored their cramped work area. The presidential walk-through touched off what Associated Press writer Ben Feller described as “a wild scene,” as journalists quickly surrounded him…
Mark Knoller of CBS News reported that Obama was asked about the White House basketball court, winning the fight to keep his BlackBerry and his selection of a former lobbyist as deputy defense secretary.
“I can’t come in and shake hands if I’m gonna get grilled every time,” he said in response to the question on the Defense appointment.
Asking about the appointment of the deputy defense secretary is “getting grilled?”
Meanwhile: New, Transparent WhiteHouse.gov Forgoes Press Briefing Transcripts?
Barack Obama’s administration may be promising the “greatest ethical standard ever administered to an executive branch,” and increased transparency over his predecessor, but it seems to be forgoing at least one transparency practice that was routine in the Bush White House— transcripts of the daily press briefing.
It’s been four days since Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ first (and widely panned) appearance before the White House press corps, but no transcript, summary, or video of the event has shown up on WhiteHouse.gov. The delay could be forgiven in a less tech-savvy bunch, but given the Obama team’s considerable online skill, the omission of the the transcript is clearly intentional.
In contrast, the Bush White House provided a transcript of every daily briefing, searchable and accessible in its own section on their web site.
The George W. Bush administration provided complete transcripts of every daily briefing. The Clinton administration began doing it in 1999.
The Obama administration? Not so much. There’s a change for ya.
Via Glenn Reynolds, who writes:
Bush wanted transcripts online because he expected the press to filter what he said. Obama doesn’t want transcripts online . . . because he expects the press to filter what he says.
He also points out Pliability Journalism: Change comes to the Associated Press
Last September over at GunPundit, I noted a proposal that the NRA said was an attempt to ban lead ammunition in the state of Washington.
Kathy Davis, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Ecology, contacted me and pointed out that they were not calling for a ban on lead ammo, just a “voluntary, educational program to promote the use of non-toxic alternatives.”
Here is how that voluntary, educational program will work if Washington’s Senate Bill 5095 becomes law:
- If you use non-approved ammunition in a restricted area:
- Misdemeanor
- $1000 fine
- Lose hunting privileges for 2 years
If that’s the “voluntary, educational program,” I’d sure hate to see the outright ban.
More details over at GunPundit.
We’ll try this again. The previous attempt posted despite only one item, and I pulled it. Not sure if this is going to be a regular weekly feature or not, but I’ve really been ignoring a lot of space-related issues and stories. So here are a few.
NASA gives space cargo contracts to start-up firms
NASA, rejecting aerospace giants Lockheed and Boeing, awarded $3.5 billion (2.37 billion pounds) in contracts to start-up companies on Tuesday to deliver cargo to the International Space Station after the U.S. space shuttles are retired.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a Hawthorne, California-based company headed by PayPal founder Elon Musk, and Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp are due to start cargo shipments to and from the space station beginning in 2010.
I think this is huge news and a great move. In fact, it’s so good and so welcome that I fear it’s untrue. Can the Russian Progress and the European ATV not keep up with demand? They’ve got to be fuming over this decision. (via Instapundit)
Jupiter Direct and Ares compared. PM image.
NASA Renegades Pitch Obama Team New Post-Shuttle Plan
During a morning meeting at NASA headquarters in Washington D.C. with Obama administration transition team members, a handful of advocates today pitched an idea to scrap NASA’s existing post-shuttle plan.
Instead, they want to create a different launch vehicle from space shuttle parts that could reach the International Space Station and, eventually, be used for a return to the moon. According to the current plan, NASA’s launchers are slated to fly in 2015, five years after the shuttle is retired. The alternative plan, called Jupiter Direct, promises to trim that date by two years and tens of millions of dollars.
Jupiter Direct has not died. I keep saying the only thing worse than keeping the Shuttle flying too long would be to stop flying it too soon.
How BAE’s Jam Lab Develops Countermeasures Against Antiaircraft Missiles
Popular Mechanics:
For U.S. and NATO countermeasures researchers and for Russian anti-aircraft missile designers, the Cold War never ended. Between 1991 and 2000, all but four of the 17 total U.S. aircraft that had been shot down in combat were hit with missiles, according to a study by the Air Force Historical Research Agency. And in the case of each downed aircraft, the missile delivering the killing stroke was of Russian design. Shoulder-fired SA-7 missiles, vintage Russian innovations, have shot down several U.S. helicopters in Iraq.
A quick look inside the effort to combat threats to our air supremacy.
