Wikipedia has extensive background information about the Steyr AUG.

… but I have a full-size picture of a full-auto model:

Click pic to embiggify.

Your thoughts?

Hmm?

Details at Mr. Completely’s place.

Seven classes, one target.

And this is new:

There will be a random drawing of all the entries to win a $50 Gift Certificate from Cheaper Than Dirt. (Very cool… thanks CTD!!)

.

Go to Mr. Completely’s for the rules and the classes.  You can enter multiple entries. The only restriction is that you can only enter once for any given gun, in any individual Class.

Click pics for wallpaper size pix – from 1080p movie source.

A good post from Tammy Bruce … with a picture I had to swipe.

Click pic to read Tammy’s post.

Quote:

“… states and individuals are realizing the importance of self-reliance and individual power. It’s that simple.”

That it is.

Kenny “The Rat” O’Donnell worked the usual rackets in New York.  Running numbers, strong arm work like shake-downs of strip clubs along the Northeast seaboard – burning them down if his protection money demands weren’t met.

Kenny was about to graduate into the bigs when he accepted a contract to kill a millionaire’s wife.  However, when he broke into her house and faced her in person, he couldn’t fulfill the contract and pull the trigger. In a scene that may be worthy of a movie-script, instead of shooting her, he broke the news that her husband had arranged the hit and drove her from the scene in his car.

Kenny was later arrested after the wife went to the the FBI with the tale of her experience.

Kenny was afforded Witness Protection status and named several participants in NYC-based organized crime enterprises, earning him the moniker “The Rat”.

In the late 1990’s Kenny attended the funeral of his grandfather – accompanied by Federal Marshalls, his protectors. Years later , and out of jail (perhaps released in error) Kenny visited his cousins and borrowed $4,000.

He has since disappeared into obscurity. Some think he is lying low in the Bronx – others think he’s sleepng with the fishes.

This whole story came up when someone talked about the reluctance armed people have for shooting another human being.

In our military, it is well-known that many soldiers ‘aim to miss’ and avoid killing enemy combatants.  Pulling the trigger on actual humans is much different than the paper targets used for marksmnship qualifications.  Another statistic I recall is that something like 40,000 rounds are fired for each enemy kill reported.

Gun handlers are naturally reluctant to use them to kill. The psycological nature of human beings prevents us from pulling the trigger – especially when the target is close.

Guns are instruments of terrible power, the use of which has terrible consequences.  Perhaps no one appreciated this more than we gun handlers ourselves.

Talk about burying the lede.

Headline Reads: Official: Woman overstated power of alleged pipe bombs

The story is BY NATHANIEL JONES in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

The Arlington woman arrested earlier this month after police found suspected pipe bombs in her pickup truck exaggerated the capabilities of the explosive devices, a Fort Worth bomb squad official said Wednesday.

Kimberly Al-Homsi, 45, arrested Feb. 13 in southeast Fort Worth after a chase with police, told members of the bomb squad her truck contained highly explosive devices such as C-4 and pentaerythritol tetranitrate that were attached to pressure switches that would explode once moved.

Also, when Al-Homsi was pulled out of the truck, a remote control — later identified as garage door opener that had an antenna attached to it — fell out of the pocket of her camouflage fatigues, authorities said.”She talked a good game,” said Fort Worth Battalion Fire Chief Bobby Tatum. “But based on what the truck went through during the wreck, it really didn’t make sense. It would have gone off had she had what she described but we still didn’t know.

“On Tuesday, Tatum briefed the City Council on the Feb. 13 incident that closed southeast Loop 820 for about eight hours. In his presentation, Tatum showed pictures of the pipe bombs and dummy detonating device.

The pictures showed black painted PVC pipes that were filled with black powder and had match heads attached to them.

Tatum said bomb squad members were unable to determine Al-Homsi’s intentions, although the NBA’s All-Star Game was in Arlington that weekend.

Earlier that day, a motorist called 911 to say that a weapon had been pointed at him from a passing pickup truck. Arlington police tried to pull over a pickup matching the description the caller gave, but the driver refused to stop and a chase ensued, police said.After about 20 minutes, the pickup hit a patch of ice, spun out of control and came to a stop on Rosedale Street beneath Loop 820 in Fort Worth.

Al-Homsi and a passenger, Yasinul Ansari, 18, were arrested. Al-Homsi then began telling authorities about the explosives.”She was using vocabulary about bomb making that the average person wouldn’t know,” Tatum said. “She used acronyms and key words like pressure switches that led us to believe she knew what she was talking about.

“In a criminal complaint filed in federal court this month, Al-Homsi told investigators that the pipe bombs contained road flares, Pyrodex powder (a propellant used for muzzle loaders) and match heads.

Authorities obtained a search warrant for her apartment, where they found cash-register receipts for some of the items. They went to the stores and got surveillance video that showed the pair buying the items during the weekend of Feb. 6-7, the complaint states.Al- Homsi has a history of possessing explosive devices including a fake grenade, according to Tarrant County criminal court records. Ansari has no criminal record in Tarrant County.

Al-Homsi and Ansari remain in federal custody pending a federal indictment on possession of an illegal firearm charge. If convicted, the two face up to 10 years in prison.

Tatum said this was the first time the department had faced such a situation. He said collaboration between ATF, FBI and Arlington police worked well.

“With all of those jurisdictions participating, we knew what we were doing,” Tatum said. “This gives residents confidence that we’ll be prepared for next year’s Super Bowl.”

Confidence … for next year’s Super Bowl?

With people having ‘names common in man-caused disaster regions’ claiming to carry C-4 and pentaerythritol tetranitrate around during our regular commutes to work, confidence in Superbowl security was not my first concern.

What an odd spin of a story.

The aftermath of the storm was 4 days without power, followed by long flights and long hours for work.

Blogging was off.

So … by way of atonement, here are the guitar chords for The Eagles’  “Hotel California”

Bm F# A E G D Em F# (twice)
G D F# Bm G D Em F#

Repeat once

Bm F# A E G D Em F# (twice)

h/t http://www.Ultimate-Guitar.com

Enjoy!

9.5 inches in the Dallas Fort Worth Area was enough to break tree limbs and shut off power to 206,000 households in North Texas.

Thanks for nothing, Al Gore.

Tam’s unobtainium was the ore that was being mined on Pandora, the planet from James Cameron’s movie Avatar.

No, pumpkin.  I haven’t read it myself, yet.  So how could I recommend it?

Here a snippet from the Top 10 Lessons For Surviving a Zombie Attack:

#4 Blades don’t need reloading.

The ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE by Max Brooks may be an excellent choice.

I’ll try to post a review when I finish it.

Well pumpkin, it looks something like this:

Daddy?  Why does Al Gore hate humanity so much that he causes so many storms and freezing snow?

I don’t know, pumpkin.  Maybe his daughter wasn’t as interested in the world around her as you are.

Daddy? If Al Gore was on fire after some terrible accident, would you piss on him to put out the flames?

That’s nothing for you to worry about, sweetheart.  I’m sure Al Gore could find thousands of people willing to piss on him if he were actually on fire.

Me?  No so much.

My review:

“Wow.” Just wow.

Read it.

Amazon has a whole Stephen Hunter page.

Traction Control recommends you read them all!

Click picture – LARGE (50MB) FILE – for WMV video.

New video release shows the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

From NYCAviation.com:

Video cameras were not the ubiquitous devices in 1986 that they are today, so the only video footage of the Space Shuttle Challenger most of us have seen are the live network broadcasts captured by the lenses of CBS and CNN.

Optometrist Dr. Jack Moss, however, was playing with his new Betamax camcorder that chilly January morning, and recorded the sad event from his front yard in Winter Haven, Florida, about 70 miles southwest of Cape Canaveral.

Moss had never shared the tape with the media or NASA, but a week before he died this past December, he fished it out of his attic and handed it over to the Space Exploration Archive, a non-profit organization in Louisville, Kentucky. The Archive transferred the video to digital formats and released it to the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the disaster this past week.

“That looks like trouble,” says Moss, as the shuttle’s single smoke plume suddenly expands and then splits into a Y-shape. As Moss and other onlookers spend several moments contemplating if something had gone wrong, a neighbor checks the news inside his house, only to return and confirm “It exploded!”

h/t to The Unwanted Blog

As the first snowflakes appeared outside my window, I was happy that the window was attached to a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (twin-jet) operated by American Airlines.

The Track Log from Flight Aware indicates that my exit reached a top speed of 516 mph today.

Sweet.

UPDATE:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Philadelphia, PA
9:07 am EST, Sat., Feb. 6, 2010

… BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THIS EVENING…

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THIS EVENING.

HEAVY SNOW WAS OCCURRING ACROSS THE AREA EARLY THIS MORNING AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MUCH OF TODAY. THE SNOW WILL FALL HEAVILY AT TIMES… WITH RATES UP TO 1 TO 3 INCHES AN HOUR. THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL OCCUR THROUGH ABOUT MIDDAY TODAY. THE SNOW MAY MIX WITH SLEET AT TIMES EARLY THIS MORNING MAINLY ACROSS FAR SOUTHERN DELAWARE… AND MAY BE INTERMITTENT THERE AS WELL.

STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 17 TO 27 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE BULK OF THE AREA. AN INCREASING NORTHEAST TO NORTH WIND WITH GUSTS OF 40 TO 50 MPH INTO EARLY THIS AFTERNOON WILL CREATE EXTENSIVE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW… ALONG WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS. THE WIND COMBINED WITH THE FALLING SNOW WILL CREATE EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS INCLUDING GREATLY REDUCED VISIBILITIES TO LESS THAN ONE QUARTER MILE AT TIMES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS… MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TO PERHAPS IMPOSSIBLE.

A half-inch two inch long Lego gun piece seen at school brought the Nanny State gears into full lock-down mode.

4th grader in trouble for bringing Lego policeman to school

The young boy was playing with Lego.

We can’t have that, can we?

Yes, we can!

h/t to John Lott

Just What Is The Matter With People That Reality Has No Place In the Adult World?!

Jeez.

h/t to Maddened Fowl for the picture

UPDATE:

Apology issued (after threat of lawsuit filed). h/t Conservative Scalawag

h/t to Flopping Aces.

I bring welcome news that today PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL SAW HIS SHADOW!

This event virtually ensures us with the statistical accuracy of PROVEN SCIENCE that, despite recent mutterings, our climate remains unaltered.

Weather will indeed continue as normal. Seasons will change, seasonally.

April through September look like good months to dust off the Harley’s and storm the Capitol.

It took the World’s most famous groundhog to come forward to lay our fears of global warming to rest.

Thanks, Phil!

As I stepped out the greet the day this morning, I noticed three news helicopters hanging motionless in the sky to the East.

When I went back inside, the local channels were reporting that a small plane had made an emergency landing on the New Jersey Turnpike near Exit 4.

No injuries reported.

Happy Monday!

No spoilers, here.

I, Sniper – (and everything else) by Stephen Hunter are recommended reads!

Two sides can never – nor should they ever, agree when their “first principles” differ. Where one side is “intent largely on limiting the power of government”; and the other is intent on expanding that power, there can be no compromise and “the time for passivity is over”. [My emphasis - Ed.]

In his excellent post of 10,523 words on the topic, Kevin explains.

An upgrade that – amazingly – worked!

The road-machine is a Dell XPS M1710 originally purchased with XP, re-configured with Vista and now upgraded with Windows 7 Ultimate Edition.

The upgrade process went smoothly.

Everything seems to be working fine.

I’m impressed.

OMG! We’ve Elected an Imbecile as POTUS.

May God help us all.

Update:  And just who are those clapping and cheering after every phrase?  Methinks they need to be fired by the electorate, too.

Dell Computer, the company that boasts “Computers in 48 Hours” ruined Christmas (my order placed on 12/18 was not going to be available until 1/5/2010.)

Next,  Dell ruined MLK’s birthday (two delays later) no Dell stuff received.

A third delay notice was received last week, but no National Holidays were noted in this period.

Tonight, the fourth delay notice was received via email and by phone to inform me that February 5 would be the expected delivery date.

I have asked Dell via email to respond with a personal explanation of my order status – but so far: the sound of crickets is all I have heard.

The computers I ordered for my boys’ Christmas presents are not here.

I’m not hopeful that this will be resolved by Easter, or by the 4th of July, either.

Dang.

The picture is of our skinny tree.

Dell’s automated voice-mail system calls twice on the first order – never for the second order – even after “Permission” to continue processing the orders has benn sent online.

Dell’s systems are obviously not speaking to each other – and customer support is not speaking to me.

How hard could it be to talk to the customers who have had orders pending for over a month?

… is none other than the Lexmark Model X5650.

The suckitude of this printer cannot be over emphasized.

Co-workers offered many unpublishable views as well.

This printer consumes 33 Mb of disk space for drivers and another 2Mb for a toolbar that pops-up if you insert a USB drive to tell you that there IS NOTHING on the USB drive that the printer can print!

Not helpful.

If you DO attempt to print with this printer, the first three pages will be printed IN RANDOM ORDER – then the Spooler subsystem will be disabled and ALL OTHER printers you have installed on your computer will be absent. Gone.

Not Nice.

Re-boot your computer and the print jobs in the queue resumes in reverse order.

What?

The best feature of this printer is that it has not burst into flames and showered the office area with a burning deluge of flaming shrapnel, killing us all … yet.

The Lexmark X5650 wins Traction Control’s Printer from Hell Award for 2010.

Evidently aimed for a different market …

Meanwhile I note the Banner on Fox News reads:

AWAITING PRESIDENT OBAMA’S DEPARTURE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

(just like that – all in caps)

Yep.  As  do we all.  As do we all.

Update:
Fox News caption now reads: AWAITING OBAMA’S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS.

(just like that – all in caps)

Dang. It looks like he left the building, but did not resign.

Majid was “executed by hanging until death,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

After four convictions, this mass murderer has now met his maker.

My guess is that his maker will not be pleased.

Burn in Hell, you murdering slime-ball.

A Lot. Out Loud.

Dirty Harry meets Rain Man:

H/T to Bore Patch

Original credit to xkcd.com – Brilliant!

Details and video from Wild Thing at Theodore’s World.

Neanderpundit meets R. Lee Ermey
Cool!

That just about sums it up for me.

Threeper Flag at Victory Speech?

Flag sighting at Scott Brown’s Victory Speech.  Front row, center.

Click pic to order yours!

As I watch Scott Brown’s Victory Speech, I see that the first shots in the American Revolution have hit their targets.

Meanwhile, Bill Quick posts much more at A Call to Arms!

Bravo. Let’s do it again in every precinct, in every district, in every city, county, State and region until all representatives represent us, the Citizens of The United States of America!

America will not abide the tyranny that the Democrat Party has now revealed itself to be.

Congratulations to Scott, with a heartfelt thank you from the entire Nation to the Voters of Massachusetts!

P.S. From the Tea Party movement: “Can you hear us now?”

An executive for Smith & Wesson Holding Corp and 21 others have been charged with violating federal bribery laws involving the sale of weapons and protective gear.

Story here.

On the eve of The Scott Heard around the World and the Miracle in Massachusetts – the PEOPLE speak tomorrow to reclaim their voice (and their seat) in the U.S Senate.

Republican candidate Scott Brown stands to take over Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts in a historic election – spelling the end to 50 years of Democrat control and the possible end to the unpopular Obama-supported healthcare bills in the Legislature.

The future of the Nation’s prosperity is in the hands of the voters of Massachusetts.  I pray they choose wisely.

Message to any future candidates for public office:  the term is “Tea Party”, not “Tea Bag”.

Martin Luther King.

As this holiday comes to a close, Traction Control hopes that all of those who struggle against intolerance and infringements upon their natural rights can gather strength in the memory of the late Dr. Martin Luther King: a Republican who stood for liberty.

Martin Luther King:  A Great American.

Another gun found in an airport.

Instapundit has this:

Kimmy Janke had gone through security. In fact, she was in a secure part of the terminal when she stopped to go to the bathroom before making her connecting flight.

That’s when she found a loaded handgun. . . . A Cleveland police report confirms a fully-loaded .40-caliber pistol was left on top of a toilet paper dispenser.

“A little kid could have grabbed that. The wrong person could have grabbed that. You never know,” Janke said.

We’ve since learned the gun was traced to a federal customs agent.

Once inside the airport’s security area, there are no more checks.  What would you do if you found a pistol in an airport?

I would probably just say, “Hey!  Free gun,” jam it in my carry-on bag and continue on with my way – all the while, wondering if I had broken up some kind of nefarious plot in which the gun was intentionally planted for someone else to retrieve.

The quote at 1:49 in the embedded clip:

“The Supreme Court never suggested that the Second Amendment protects the individual’s right to have guns, not once … “

Does this sound like someone who has sworn to uphold the Constitution?

Filed under: Enemy, Domestic

h/t Lew Rockwell Blog

The End?

Xavier’s Thoughts is a daily read here.

I left a comment of disapproval.