Rectal Cranial Inversion Epidemic In Brussels

Well, the EU assf@!kery has reached a New Low.

The EU on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050.

The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail.

Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target of "zero" for the number of petrol and diesel-driven cars and lorries in the EU's future cities.

Siim Kallas, the EU transport commission, insisted that Brussels directives and new taxation of fuel would be used to force people out of their cars and onto "alternative" means of transport.

"That means no more conventionally fuelled cars in our city centres," he said. "Action will follow, legislation, real action to change behaviour."

Best comment so far is from London Dave, who says "Thank goodness we won World War 2, and a bunch of crazed totalitarian Nazis didn't get to enforce their crazy will on the rest of us."

I Have Waited Years....

... to see this headline:

And while I'm sorry to hear that so many people have died protesting the regime in Libya, I'm encouraged by the thought that Col. Khadaffi may have a date with the tallest lamp-post in Tripoli in short order.

Everybody Is Famous For Something....

.... And here at the MANP blog, we revel in the news that we are apparently the Number 1 search result for the Google search term "Bat Shit Crazy Blog".

If I'm reading the Google Webmaster tools report correctly.

This is probably why.

The Plow, The Surplus and The Idiot

Civilization began in the great river valleys in Africa, Asia, and Mesopotamia. Every year the waters would rise and fall, refreshing the soil, irrigating the land.

But it wasn't until we began to farm that we stayed in one place to harvest and plant again. And it wasn;t until we developed tools like the plow that our nascent nations were able to produce a surplus of food, and allow some of the population to spend time not hunting or growing food.

The creation of the plow allows priests, merchants etc. to genuinely emerge and flourish.

I told you that so I could ask you this:

The following comes from a Vegan Roomate Wanted ad on Craigslist (Best Of). Do you believe, as I do, that our western Democracies must have an amazing amount of surplus production to allow this sort of person to appear?:

Vegan household only. No animal products in the house; no new leather shoes (I am not going to shun you for an old pair of hiking shoes�I am an avid dumpster diver and may have old stuff in my life too that is on its last round), no honey, no bee pollen, no wool, no down comforters. I am a liberationist animal rights person who has a total commitment to veganism. It is a defining feature in my life.

I take care of inside-only cats. It is important to be aware of the cats when opening the door, because they are inside only,but they are older and mostly you do not have to worry about escapees, just when bringing in groceries or something like that. I scoop the cat litter everyday and vacuum very often. I am very clean about the cats. They have been with me for a decade and are the sweetest older cats ever. I do not support the domestication of animals�they are rescue kitties from the streets. Their names are Mulder, Bromden, Theo, and Zen Mama.

It is important for me to live in a straight-edge environment. Please, no alcohol or pot or anything else in the house. Please be sober in the house, even if it is not your lifestyle.

I am an environmentally aware person. I do not have an air conditioning unit, I use the heat on low in the winter (lots of layers). I shop at People�s coop and Food Fight!, I recycle, reuse, reduce. I am very DIY. I do not have a garden (there is hardly a yard here). But you can bring compost waste to various places around town if you like. I am childless by choice and do not want any kids living here, sorry parents.

Things I Learned at the New England Bloggershoot

In which I discourse upon the things I Have Learned:

1) The gun laws in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts suck. Fuck Governor Deval Patrick and his weak nanny-state shit.

ii) New Hampshire does not suck. At all. As evidence I submit the NH residents who turned up with tricked out ARs, full auto weapons and suppressors.

3) Related to point ii, above. I got to rip off a mag from an MP5-K, which was Fun.

45.3.3) They really build stuff to last in China. The large stuffed Pikachu we hung on the backstop absorbed thousands of rounds and shotgun pellets between 11am and 5pm, and never entirely lost its shape. At the end of its odyssey, the perky yellow color was all gone, along with one ear and most of another. But it was still dimly recognizable. Quite astounding.

Subsection 2) When will we know that the gun nuts have won the Culture War? When Apple starts making guns. If you extend Apple's existing design aesthetic to firearms, I think you end up with a lot of brushed steel, rounded edges, ambidextrous safety, low recoil, adjustable sights that are as high-speed-low-drag as fixed sights, and the ability to drop in a whole range of authorized parts and accessories. You'd be able to coordinate the finish on gun, holster and iPod. But you'd only be able to buy ammo from them, and you wouldn't be able to use it in any other gun.

89a) Steyr M9. If you divide the shooting public into those who like the trapezoidal trapezoid sights on this pistol and those who don't (an arbitrary division which makes as much sense an any other arbitrary division) you can put me in the camp of those who do. They are really easy to acquire and if you have time to line up your shot, you can fine tune your point of aim very easily. Marko says he can knock (empty) shot gun shells off a berm at 20 yards with this gun, and after seeing him shoot, I believe it.

40,000,003) Hierarchy of Humor: Bayonet on a rifle: Not Funny. Bayonet on a Shotgun. A Little Funny. Bayonet on a Pistol. Very Funny. Extra points: Mount rail on bayonet and attach laser sight to ensure accurate placement of bayonet strikes.

Note, addition of rail and laser sight to bayonet elevates the configuration to Very Funny regardless of firearm.

Even more extra points: Backup, holdout bayonet in ankle holster.

89 1/2) Shooting a Russian Mosin-Nagant M44 and a Lee Enfield reinforced my desire to collect the rifles from all the major combatants of WW2. Those go on my "Guns to Buy" list, along with the Mauser K98. Hopefully they'll join my Garand in the gun safe soon.

MCXLLV) If you're going to hang out with 20 bloggers, bring your A-Game.These folks are smart, funny and interesting every day, sometimes twice a day.

Twenty Seven) Next time, we should invite a delegation from MoveOn. The only thing missing was the opportunity to show some lefties how wrong they are.

JayG and Lissa did a much better job than I at documenting the day, given that they were not only armed with firearms, but cameras and notebooks as well. Follow these links if you'd like a clearer picture of the day:

JayG's NE Bloggershoot AAR

Looking for Lissa's AAR

Too Old to Work, Too Young to Retire's AAR

Borepatch's AAR

And I Thought We Stood For Freedom and Liberty

I think it will be a little bit weird that if, against all odds, the Iranian people do free themselves, we'll be able to take no credit at all.

Zero. None. Nada. Nichevo.

That doesn't mean I think I know what the correct detailed actions are, but choosing between the chance that the Iranian regime as we know it goes away or the chance that the Iranian regime as we know it stops rabbit punching us in the nads anytime soon seems like a pretty easy choice to me, even leaving the Iranian people out of it.

Oh Brave New World That Has Such Dumb-Assery In It

I just can't wait march into the broad sunlit uplands of a new era, illuminated by (but not limited to) such amazing elements as nationwide compulsory computerized medical records.

And this is why:

Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site's homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents.

And the reason why this could never happen again, and my soon-to-be-digitized medical records are perfectly safe is what, exactly?

Martin M. Looney, Will You Please Stop Now

In Connecticut, ignorance of a subject is apparently no impediment to making laws.

Martin Looney grew up, got himself elected to the Connecticut Senate and is now introducing some highly technical legislation that would regulate the mechanics of handguns.

But he doesn't know what a revolver is.

Thats the only thing that could explain his proposal for microstamping legislation on semi-automatic pistols. His bill requires that every semi-auto sold in CT after 2011 would have to have a little gizmo inside it that stamps a code unique to the pistol onto every cartridge casing.

Amazingly, Looney thinks this is a crime stopping measure. I guess he has visions of cops picking up spent casings from an alleyway, running the serial numbers through a computer and heaving the bad guy into the slammer 30 minutes later. To which I respond: "Har har har."

This is when we get to revolvers. A revolver carries 6 (or 7 or 8) cartridges in a 'revolving' cylinder. Every time you pull the trigger, the cylinder rotates and brings a new cartridge in line with hammer and barrel. (Remember Dirty Harry?)

And here is the clever bit: unlike a semi-auto which ejects each shell as it is fired, spent casings from a revolver stay in the cylinder. So you could stamp War and Peace on each one, for all the good it would do you.

Should the legislature fall prey to some collective spasm of idiocy and pass this offal-masquerading-as-legislation, criminals will immediately switch to revolvers, or pick up one of the many pistols that was made before 2011, or spend 5 minutes with a screwdriver and belt sander to disable whatever widget is doing the microstamping. Or maybe replace the firing pin, or swap parts from another gun, or steal a gun from someone else.

What's Looney's next move? Make it illegal to sell firing pins? Make it illegal for me to fix my own firearm when the parts wear out? Make cleaning guns illegal? Ban belt sanders?

I think its pretty clear that Martin M. hasn't fired a revolver, but I'm starting to wonder if he's ever seen a pistol at all, ever.

Don't Be A Grass-Eater

"If your first reaction to a law being horrifyingly broken is “we gotta make more laws”, you might be a grass-eater. If you believe in angels — or the Just World hypothesis — you’re probably a grass-eater. Both of these delusions indicate a desire to give up responsibility (and, therefore, freedom) to a faceless “higher” power. Grass-eaters are perfectly happy to give up liberty for a little safety — even if the only safety they get is from the consequences of their actions."
-Blunt Object
H/T to Smallest Minority, who found it on Atomic Nerds

You Do Not Have The Right...

...to credit. Community Reinvestment Act be damned. I don't care how much you want a house, you can't buy one unless you can pay the mortgage every month.

...to not be offended. The world is full of sharp corners and grumpy people. Some of them disagree with you. Some of them will make tears of pain and rage flow down your dimpled cheeks. Tough. They don't have to shut up because they harsh your mellow, dude.

... to be taken seriously if you wear a tight, low-cut top and then complain that "men are pigs" when they look at your tits.

... to ignore stop signs because you are old. Grey hair and wrinkled skin do not make you immune to the traffic laws.

Ford Lots Forced to Sell Toyotas Too

Insane, isn't it?

It's also not true, but something just as insane is:

eHarmony Forced to Provide Same-Sex Matches. Courtesy of Townhall.com.

Why not just start "gayHarmony"? Why pee in eHarmony's pool party? Would the same judge who made this ruling force rehab facilities to allow drinking on-site?

The lengths to which educated people will go to hurl their own liberties onto the train tracks somehow continue to amaze me. Maybe it's time for me to sue my employer to allow me to come to work dressed in assless chaps and a baby bonnet.

"Come now, Smasher, you're just exaggerating."

Uh-huh.