The Safety Inherent in a Gun Free Zone

Seriously, if you have friends who think Gun Free Zones are a good idea or who even claim to respect the right of a business to ban personal firearms from their premises get the hell away from them. Life is too short to be bothered with the willfully stupid. Don't bother trying to fix them. Simply state the obvious, "You are an idiot.", and walk away. Find new friends. 

If ever there was proof the electorate is incapable of choosing it's representatives wisely this is it. Were there not idiots
voting there would not be idiots making policy.

TransPersonality?

Since Sybil was all the rage in 1973 the general populace has been aware of the phenomenon of Multiple Personality Disorder or DID. Whether the phenomenon is  so much hoaky horseshit or a real effect of trauma is a matter for a different discussion, but the current Narrative push for Saint Transgender brings it to mind in a couple of similar ways: Is it a genuine effect or an affectation? Should its  victims?/sufferers?/practitioners?  be described as a subgroup of  those effected by or affecting MPD/DID? What are the consequences of encouraging victims/practitioners of what is an obvious break with objective reality?

A quick google search by anyone conversant with a keyboard will yield a plethora of information straight from the horse(tte)'s mouth about the past of many of those experiencing/participating in Transgender phenomena.

I suspect more strongly as time progresses that the public's TransFad is nothing more than the perfect storm of a few attention whores melded with a media wedded to pushing an ever degenerate world view and the common desire of many to be seen as already on to the Next Big Thing after the recent pseudo-normalization of homosexual marriage.

As is often the case, in the Freaks-R-Us proponents' rush and frenzy to push this narrative  any potential harm to those being encouraged toward potentially self destructive behavior is ignored in the interest of passing another perfect, shiny, secular milestone and unintended consequences be damned.

 Whether or not anyone who is genuinely affected by such a severe mental disorder (or is so fucked up they are driven to portray said disorder) falls victim to the transfad frenzy will never be reported, or investigated because, as we are continually informed, believing oneself to be something one is not is perfectly normal.

Psychosis

Psychosis occurs when a person loses contact with reality. The person may:

• Have false beliefs about what is taking place, or who one is (delusions).
• See or hear things that are not there (hallucinations).

Link to NIH

A rare "Oh Shit" moment captured in the wild.

I have watched this many times looking for the point where the guy did something I would not have done. I haven't found it yet and that is disturbing. I'd like to think I would have abandoned the bike before it dragged me off a cliff. The disturbing part is at the 5 min mark. It's funny the first time you watch it.

'nuff said.

College Football Surrenders to the SEC - Darren Everson - WSJ.com

A bit of rear suspension stiction.

Hmmm

Is there still a chick running H.P. ? A new pre?

I don't see the point. Palm bounced their first web os device by using a too-small screen which made some of its many fine features annoying to use. Multi-touch zoom is nice but not as a required motion to operate the phone.
So, they blew it on hardware and lost their only shot at gaining a foothold to contest  androids ascension.  Now that the window is closed HP launches three "oh, by the way" devices. D. O. A.
Android will soon become a multitasking os and no one but a democrat will be caught with an iphone.

Happiness is a new pistol pit!

Devil Weed. Corona. Power Tools.

Happy  New Year, Y'all!

Plastic welding on ABS! It works!

Sent from my Palm Pre on the Now Network from Sprint

The Evil Women Do

Sent from my Palm Pre on the Now Network from Sprint

!!!!Obama Blog Update!!!!

er, or not.

It is the tendency of the left to overreach, declare the revolution come to pass and act accordingly; shedding all restraint. Some few, OK, a LOT of their fellow travelers in congress get to play kamikaze legislator, but their dreams of free everything for everybody at no cost to anybody moved one step closer to their imbecilic perception of reality. This perennial overreach allowed the electorate ( even some yankees!) to realize yet again that "a chicken in every pot" really means "I eat steak and you go hungry" and expressed its displeasure in the voting booth.

As much as I enjoy the whining and "end of the world" carping, objectively not much has changed: The legislative and executive branches are still open for the usual fee-for-service and money-for-nothing arrangements with financial sector executives, the campaign to devalue the dollar in your pocket will proceed apace, war in perpetuity is under no threat of ceasefire, the judicial branch will continue to just make shit up, no government handout is in serious jeopardy (other than "full faith and credit" sounding more and more like "checks in the mail"), and The One still knows his way around a teleprompter. So, why the tears, Nancy?

Old farts at play.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

The Decision Process: A Car for My Child

A young one comes of an age where freedom of movement is required to conduct the day to day business of growing up, becoming educated, and taking those first faltering steps toward independence and self-sufficiency. Suddenly, the nest is a too small world for the youngster and inroads into the commerece, travel, and geography of the adult world must be made. But how best to begin?

With a well cared for, quality, safe used vehicle, of course.

Choosing one puts quite an onus upon any father not blinded by glitzy car ads, government bureaucratic doubespeak, and grass-hut treehugger propaganda (re: safety and survivability on public roads) and wanting to provide his child with reliable personal transport while balancing cost, performance, safety, and economy.

Step one: Weed out all the small cars. This is not an equivocal statement, and it is not for the simple reason that small cars will kill your kids. See below:

Yes, they will kill and mutilate your kids.

This still leaves a lot of options; SUV, midsize car, large car, Fullsized pickup, midsized pickup, van (forget it. no shag wagons).

Next up: Mid sized and Full sized Pickups are a good option for their mass, durability, and structural integrity, but suffer from the lack of weight over the rear wheels which makes them prone to a skid on wet/slick pavement. Throw them out unless you can teach your child to reliably control a vehicle in that situation.

So that leaves us with large SUV, midsized SUV, midsized car, and full sized car.

While large SUV's are currently inexpensive to buy, inexpensive to insure, and massive (thereby benefiting lavishly from Newton's first law in a vehicle to vehicle collision) they are horrendously fuel inefficient which doen't mesh well with a teenager's budget. Mid sized SUV's benefit to a lesser extent from Newton, but don't really improve much upon the inefficiency problem of large SUV's.

Midsized cars are a viable option with vanilla safety ratings and very good efficiency, but Sir Newton frowns ever so slightly upon them.

A full sized car is typically safer than a midsize with very little mileage penalty and some are even known for a specific design on safety, quality construction, careful and intelligent engineering. Sadly, these are typically made by Europeans.....

The Options:
1: Volvo
2: Mercedes
3: BMW

These are high-end brands with great reputations and each has a different primary focus while maintaining a firm grip on other aspects of quality vehicle design and manufacture. I chose the Mercedes e320.








Rationale to follow.