Police State: Georgia?

Y'all bend over!

Yep, Georgia. Being pulled over for nothing gets you a strip search in Georgia. Not one example here, but many.

Officers are supposed to pull drivers over for traffic violations, but a Channel 2 Action News investigation found traffic stops leading to a violation of another kind.
   
Driver after driver told investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer officers searched inside their pants while they were stopped for minor traffic violations. In several cases, the invasive searches targeted passengers who were riding in the car. 

Imaginary? Nope.

 Channel 2 obtained internal Forest Park police records showing that a captain noted a unit-wide problem with violating search policies six months prior to the Phillips traffic stop. The Forest Park police chief says he has now “ramped up training in this area.”

Now, I'm just a Canadian with no right to self defense of private property. But really, if a cop decided he needed to strip-search me for a TRAFFIC STOP, I'm pretty sure I'd be a rich man afterward. Lawsuits can be very rewarding.

What's behind this abuse of power by policemen? The one cop who spoke in this article said this:

"I've seen drugs concealed on people everywhere so we are going to try and pat them down first, for weapons, and then, if permission granted, we're going to search further," said Wesley Nunn, the commander of the drug task force who searched Kassars.
          
Nunn said his cases are different than a regular traffic stop. In this one, an informant had offered a tip that Kassars and his roommate were carrying drugs. He believes that gave him probable cause, plus Kassars agreed to allow it.
          
"I've been turned down many times on searches. You can't search, get a search warrant," said Nunn.

He added that if Kassars hadn't consented, he probably would have taken him into custody to search him at the jail.

That's awesome, eh? That's what I want to hear from a cop: "Somebody (who may or may not be an enemy of yours) said you are holding drugs, that gives me probable cause to strip search you.  I can do it here in front of witnesses, or I can take you to jail in cuffs and do it there." With the "and then punch you out for wasting my time" part left unsaid.

Basically the typical Us-vs.-Them mindset, coupled with zero consequences for misbehavior. They can do anything they want, or at least they think so.

When dealing with a cop who thinks he can do anything he wants, I'm going to chose strip searched in front of witnesses every time. That way if he decides to beat me down when I'm cooperating, I'll be on YouTube before the ambulance shows up.

Which might save my life.

The Phantom

Canada in neck deep with NSA spies.

In a stupidly titled article, CITYTV from Toronto reports on a Guardian UK story. CSEC, the Communications Security Establishment Canada, collaborated with the British GCHQ to hack into Android phones and iPhones.

Canada’s eavesdropping agency helped key allies tap into Android smartphones — possibly using the popular “Angry Birds” game as an entry point, newly leaked documents indicate.

The latest disclosure by former American spy contractor Edward Snowden, published this week by the Guardian newspaper, suggests Ottawa-based Communications Security Establishment Canada helped its British and U.S. counterparts with the project.

One goal, according to the Guardian, was to take advantage of “leaky” smartphone applications, such as “Angry Birds” — a game in which feathered creatures attack tiny pigs — that transmit users’ private information into cyberspace.

The data from iPhone and Android apps include everything from phone model and screen size to personal details such as age, gender and even sexual orientation, the newspaper reported.

Included in the story is news that government agencies can turn on cell phones that are "off", and can turn on cell phone microphones. We know from other stories that the same holds true for web cams and phone cameras, they can be turned on remotely without showing the little red "on" light.

Canadians, take note. Given the proclivity for our civil service to push things as far as they can go, I fully expect we are far more watched and spied upon than Americans.

Furthermore, lets not pretend that runaway government is the only danger here. Holes that government hackers can discover and use are out there for other people to discover and use too. A government employee may hesitate to use economic information they've acquired illegally for personal gain, due to the danger of getting caught and prosecuted. Foreign criminal networks will show no such scruples.

The Phantom

S&W kisses off California.

"At last one of them has understood." Lord Raiden, Mortal Kombat 1995

Smith & Wesson joins Sturm Ruger in cutting California loose.

On January 22nd renowned gun maker Smith & Wesson joined Sturm, Ruger, & Co., by announcing it would cease California sales of its semi-automatic pistols due to microstamping requirements that went into effect last year. Ruger made the same announcement earlier this month.

Looks like the corner office boys at Smith & Wesson and Ruger have finally accepted that this battle is THEIRS to fight, 'cause mummy ain't coming to make it all better. If no manufacturers step up with this "microstamping" idiocy, there will be no guns available in California. Now the ball is back in the government's court. They'll try to spin their way out, probably with some anti-capitalist, anti-corporation smearing, but everyone will know that its on them. Even the Low Information rubes.

Here's hoping they take it one step further and stop ALL sales to California. No finished guns to federal, state or local government departments located in California, and no -parts-.

The Phantom

The Phantom is right. Listen to The Phantom.

New York Times reports this like its news: Mini-cars suck in accidents.

Of the 11 minicars tested, none achieved the institute's highest rating of Good. Only one – the Chevrolet Spark – achieved the next highest rating of Acceptable. The others received ratings of either Marginal or Poor, the lowest rating. The two worst-performing vehicles were the Honda Fit and the Fiat 500, although a completely redesigned Fit goes on sale this spring.

...

 The new small overlap evaluation, which the institute added to its repertory of crash tests in 2012, replicates what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or with an object like a tree or utility pole at 40 miles per hour.

Yes, no duh, tiny little cars don't survive accidents very well. If someone hits you or if you hit something at a speed higher than a fast walk, that cute little car will fold up like a paper bag and kill you.

This is a Chevy Spark. See how the driver has no legs now?  It did the -best- in the testing. Imagine the Feel-It 500.

Listen the The Phantom my friends. Buy a huge barge of a vehicle, pay the fuel bill without complaint and live to fight another day.

The All-Knowing, All-Seeing Phantom

Actress fired for endorsing conservative.

More high sticking in the Culture War, probably a sign of things soon to come.

Maria Conchita Alonso starred in a campaign ad for Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County, a Tea Party favorite who is seeking the Republican nomination.
... [snippage of what an utter BASTARD Tim Donnely is]...The actress was to perform next month at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco's Mission District in a Spanish-language version of "The Vagina Monologues," scheduled for a run from February 14th through 17th. The show is being produced by none other than Eliana Lopez, wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.
"We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately," Lopez told KPIX 5. She said Alonso abruptly resigned from the cast on Friday, given the backlash on the immigration issue."Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we're in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe," Lopez said.

Yas. Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants, but she better watch her mouth or she's never going to work in this town again. Anyone who is not sufficiently enthusiastic in their DemocRat Party support can resign themselves to the chorus line, Republicans better look for another line of work.

Next step, burning down houses with Republican/Tea Party lawn signs. After that, burning down houses that don't have a DemocRat lawn sign.

We SEE you, Lefties. We definitely see you.

The Phantom

Concealed carry might have made this easier for her.

Here's a story that illustrates what happens to a disarmed population. That it is in the Toronto (Red) Star and is about an NDP MP makes it all the sweeter.

Rathika Sitsabaiesan: Nearly arrested by "officials" in Sri Lanka.

New Democrat MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan traveled to Sri Lanka and got followed around by "men on motorbikes" the whole time she was there. Then things got interesting.

Sitsabaiesan went to Sri Lanka on Dec. 28, 27 years after her family immigrated to Canada. The NDP MP for Scarborough-Rouge River — the first federal parliamentarian of Tamil descent and a vocal critic of the Sri Lankan government — said it was a personal trip, not a political one, to see family and the few places she remembered from her early childhood.

The men on the motorbikes, however, seemed to suspect otherwise.

On New Year's Eve, Sitsabaiesan said she visited an orphanage she was considering supporting. While she toured one of its three buildings, the employee giving the tour received a phone call that a group of people had arrived at the main entrance with a warrant for Sitsabaiesan's arrest....

She immediately called the Canadian High Commission, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and the party's foreign affairs critic, Paul Dewar. ...

After consulting with four law enforcement agencies — local police, the criminal and terrorism intelligence divisions, and immigration authorities — Sitsabaiesan said the high commission found there was no warrant. ...

The next day, she said, government officials caught up with her while at a factory owned by a friend's family member.

The factory trip was not planned ... but three men identifying themselves as immigration officers found her there.

"They wanted a space where it was private and nobody else was allowed in. They were standing in the doorway, and it was me and these three men," said Sitsabaiesan. "They had a list of exactly what I've been doing, and they go, 'You did this, you did that, you met with this person, you did this, who is this person, why, give me names, give me contacts, give me this and that.' "  She said she was intimidated by the line of questioning, but after the experience the day before, was also conscious of her privileges as a Canadian and as a Member of parliament.

"Eventually, the controller general of immigration was on the phone saying, 'You know, we're trying to protect you and we're looking out for your best interests by following you,' " Sitsabaiesan said.

In other words, eventually the message traveled high enough up the government food chain to get to somebody with enough brain to know not to piss the Canadians off by arresting their MP.  Imagine if Ms. Sitsabaiesan didn't have all that pull in Ottawa. She'd have vanished right there and still be down a hole someplace. Or maybe buried in a hole. Hard to say.

My question to the Hon. Ms. Sitsabaiesan, the NDP as a whole AND the Toronto Star is, would this type of bullshit harassment and unlawful arrest by local petty officials have occurred had she and her escorts been armed? With, you know, guns?

Because I'm of the opinion that three "immigration officials"  aka small town black bag artists wouldn't take the chance if they weren't 100% sure that the cute girlie wasn't going to stick a gun in their faces. Ratbag thugs can't get away with this crap when individuals are armed. They don't even try.

Its a measure of how full of shit the NDP are that they know this type of thing goes on, yet they continue to advance policies which encourage it. One might almost think this was a goal, not a problem to be solved.

The Phantom

Shockah! Mass murderer also a liar!

From Five Feet of Fury today, and re-broadcast here at The Phantom Soapbox because you're never going to read this anywhere else.

Anders Brevik lied in his manifesto to make Conservative commentators look bad.

Robert Spencer was one of those commentators Brevik sought to damage by his false association. Here's what he had to say about it.

Contrast that to the huge media barrage when Breivik's "manifesto" was first discovered: I was on NBC for the first time in ten years, I was on the front page of the New York Times, I was on the BBC, and in a hundred other places -- everywhere being blamed for the murders. But now, when Breivik says he was a Nazi and was not only not influenced by the counter-jihad movement, but was trying to destroy it? Absolute silence.

Why the silence? Because anything that makes Conservatives look good is no longer considered "not news", it is lately seen as information dangerous to the regime that must be suppressed. Your main stream media outlets are busy suppressing it right now.

Screw 'em.

The Phantom

Another study confirms, media lies about firearms.

Yet another study confirms that everything we see in the media about guns is horseshit.

Media hype about mass shootings in America has fostered a myth that the killings are on the rise and that an assault weapon ban, expanded background checks and greater attention to the mentally ill will curb a rampaging epidemic, according to an authoritative and exhaustive study by a noted criminologist.

Instead, according to James Alan Fox, author and criminology professor at Northeastern University, mass shootings have remained stagnant over 34 years, averaging 20 a year, and few were committed by the type of berserk psychos portrayed by the media.

"Public discourse is grounded in myth and misunderstanding about the nature of the offense and those who perpetrate it," he writes in the journal "Homicide Studies." He added: "Without minimizing the pain and suffering of the hundreds of those who have been victimized in recent attacks, the facts clearly say that there has been no increase in mass shootings and certainly no epidemic."

Remember my friends, if you see a guy on TV with a big scary GUNS! graphic behind him and his lips are moving, he's lying.

The Phantom

Chicago: Proof that you can't fix stupid.

Today's evidence:

1) One young man dead, one young woman missing and presumed dead, third young man in serious condition in hospital after first young man drops his cell phone in the ice-covered but still flowing Chicago river and goes in after it. Genius.

2) Fifty six year old man dead after his sister shot him in an argument over whether her pistol was loaded or not. In the eye. Seems large amounts of Seagram's gin was involved. I can just imagine how that conversation went. "Is not!" "Is too! See?" Bang.

Chicoms successfully fly a hyper-sonic test aircraft.

A few years ago the science news was full of Mach 5+ aircraft, and New York-to-Tokyo sub-orbitals that got you there in two hours. Things like "scramjet" and "external combustion engine" were all over Popular Mechanics. Then it all kind of died off and everybody was talking about Kim Kardashian's ... assets.

Picture this with a big red star on the front. Flying at Los Angeles.

Well, the Chicoms just flew a hypersonic test vehicle kids. And didn't tell anybody either.

The test of the new hypersonic glide vehicle was carried out Jan. 9 and the experimental weapon is being dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The hypersonic vehicle represents a major step forward in China's secretive strategic nuclear and conventional military and missile programs.
The new hypersonic vehicle was detected traveling at extremely high speeds during the flight test over China, said officials who discussed some details of the test.
The hypersonic craft appears designed to be launched atop one of China's intercontinental ballistic missiles, and then glides and maneuvers at speeds of up to 10 times the speed of sound from near space en route to its target, the officials said.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the test but declined to provide details.
"We routinely monitor foreign defense activities and we are aware of this test," Marine Corps Lt. Col. Jeffrey Pool, the spokesman, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Its nice that the Americans are paying attention, I guess.

Anyway, here's an example of why we care about this.

Rick Fisher, another China military affairs expert, said the Chinese hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) test represents a significant military advance for Beijing.
"The beauty of the HGV is that it can perform hypersonic precision strikes while maintaining a relatively low altitude and flat trajectory, making it far less vulnerable to missile defenses," said Fisher, an analyst at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
Fisher said arms control advocates often view the U.S. Prompt Global Strike and similar Chinese hypersonic weapons as part of an isolated competition caused by misperceptions that can be resolved through arms talks.
"I'm not against that, but the lessons of recent history are pretty stark: a paranoid Communist dictatorship is going to seek maximum power to sustain its position no matter how friendly you try to treat it," Fisher said.

Um, yeah.

Also of considerable concern, the Chicoms are learning how to develop new weapon technology faster. Oh, by the way. Know who else is building this hypersonic technology? Russia and India.

Some numbers.

Just so we all know what "hypersonic" means and why the Chicoms want some, here's the basic numbers. From wikipedia:

The Kármán line, at 100 km (62 mi), or 1.57% of the Earth's radius, is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space. Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km (75 mi).

For an aircraft leaving the Earth, the Karman Line is the important benchmark. 62 miles high is where you lose aerodynamic control and become a rocket. At 62 miles up, you can pour on the speed and go pretty much as fast as you want, reaching orbital speeds of 17,450 mph if desired. That's what the Space Shuttle does. 17,450 miles per hour is about Mach 23, and gets you a low-Earth orbit of about 125 miles up.

The missile being discussed here does between Mach 5 and Mach 10. Mach 1 is ~720 mph, so between 3600 and 7200 mph. Not immediately obvious is the fact that at Mach 5, 3600mph, a missile will cross those 62 miles from the Karman Line to the surface in one (1.0) minute. Because 3600 mph is 60 miles per minute, right? Otherwise known as one mile per second. Mach 10 is two miles per second.

By contrast the current world-record holder for speed is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, at 2,193.2 mph or Mach 3.3. There was never a surface launched missile that could shoot down the Blackbird during its entire service life. Think about how the Americans are going to shoot down something that can go three times as fast as the Blackbird. With a nuke on it. They're going to need the mother of all laser guns, aren't they? And it will need to be in orbit, to catch these things as they launch from China.

China has already demonstrated their anti-satellite technology by blowing up one of their own satellites in 2007. That experiment eliminated an entire area of Earth orbit for use by spacecraft due to flying shrapnel. Its still out there, flying at orbital speed. Rifle bullets go about 1,700 miles an hour, about Mach 2.2  The Chicoms scattered fifty million little chunks of metal going 17,450 miles an hour, Mach 23. One of 'em hits your windshield its going to be a bad day.

The Phantom

Update: Yes, I fixed the minute/second confusion. D'oh.

Why does Big Brother love cell phone surveillance?

Because its cheap.

The Phantom

Republicans: The Party of Stupid.

Are Republicans the Party of Stupid? YES!

Here's why, in two headlines:
Exhibit A: 
People Not In Labor Force Soar To Record 91.8 Million; Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels

Exhibit B:

Website of Top House Republican Drops Opposition to Amnesty

Same day, on Drudge.

The Phantom

Your Ford Mustang is watching you... no, just kidding!

A Ford executive backed off from claims he made in an interview that Ford collects GPS data on driving habits from their cars.

Ford Motor Co. marketing chief Jim Farley on Thursday apologized for a remark he made Wednesday saying the Dearborn automaker tracks customers through in-car navigation devices.

Farley, the headliner at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, said Ford knows where and when customers drive their vehicles, but does not sell that information to third parties.

"We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you're doing it," Farley said, according to a report in Business Insider. "We have GPS in your car, so we know what you're doing. By the way, we don't supply that data to anyone."

Ford on Thursday denounced those comments.

"Ford is absolutely committed to protecting our customers' privacy," company spokesman Wes Sherwood said. "We do not track our customers. No data is transmitted from the vehicle without the customer's express consent."

Customers give consent when they use a navigation or voice-activated system.

 Gotta love this. Farley tells the truth on Wednesday, Ford makes him lie about it on Friday. That's some pretty quick ass-covering there.

Yes, your in-dash GPS does transmit location data back to Ford AND back to Tom-Tom, every second. That's how they can tell what the traffic is like, they count the cars with GPS transmissions and see how fast they're going. Most cars have GPS so the prediciton ios pretty good. Your car also REMEMBERS every single input it receives every single second you're driving it, including speed, acceleration/braking, throttle position and etc. The GPS unit remembers routs etc, but the car's Engine Control Unit (ECU) independently remembers all that as well, even if you don't have a GPS in your vehicle. I've posted this many times now, it should be common knowledge.

Furthermore, we know that if you have SIRIUS radio, hands free phone or OnStar/Lowjack/what have you, your car can be p0wned remotely by anybody with computer skillz. Video of said p0wnage. Exploit in the wild, 100 cars disabled by remote control.

While I'm sure Ford doesn't have a Department of Eeeevile which tracks me day in and day out, and I'm sure that for legal purposes Ford's lawyers have made them remove all personally identifying information from the tracking data they do have... I'm also aware that somebody could change that with a few mouse clicks. It isn't that they -can't- track me personally, its that right now they're afraid to in case I might find out and sue them. For now. But they might get an offer from somebody that's so juicy they might change there minds, right?

But in addition to all that what-if and maybe stuff, there is an organization out there that can't be sued, and DOES track people individually. The NSA. They get all this data too, because it all travels on the cell network, and they record every frickin' packet for storage forever. Cell phones, GPS units, cars phoning home to Dearborn, they get it all.

So yeah, your Ford Mustang really is watching you. It knows when you are sleeping, it knows when you're awake, it knows if you've been bad or good. It knows when you've been parked at your mistresses' house instead of working late like you told the wife.

So be good. Or else.

The Phantom

Do cops take "Knockout" assaults seriously?

If you've been looking at all these "Knockout Game" assaults on YouTube and in the paper, and wondering if the cops are taking this stuff seriously, wonder no more my friends.

No. They don't.

Charlottesville Police have arrested two men in association with the December 20 assault on the Downtown Mall.

Malcolm James Stevenson, 25, and Richard Bernard Spears, 23, surrendered on Wednesday, January 8, according to Police Chief Tim Longo, who announced the arrests at a same-day press conference. Each has been charged with misdemeanor assault.
...
Longo also addressed concerns that the department was slow to respond to the report. He said that an investigation did commence immediately and that the officers who'd taken the report had been following up, but acknowledged that it should have been assigned to a detective earlier. He first saw the file and assigned it to the investigative unit, he said, when he returned to work after the holidays on December 30.
...
Stevenson and Spears have been released on their own recognizance and are scheduled to appear in Charlottesville District Court on February 5. Longo said the current misdemeanor charges could be raised to something more serious if Adams provides additional documentation of his injuries. Currently, Longo said, police only have documentation of a lost tooth and soft tissue damage. [emphasis mine]

Because beating the shit out of some guy and his girlfriend completely at random and for no reason at all is, you know, not a big deal.

Meanwhile, the drumbeat to disarm regular folk continues. Because its those pesky rednecks that are the real problem, right?

Just so you know what you're dealing with, my American friends.

The Phantom

Speaking of infringement, how full of it is the NYT?

Seen outside the New York Times main office.

This is the issue I alluded to yesterday with the New York Times belatedly championing the foolish Mr. Dick Metcalf. The Obama administration is proposing tighter gun controls, again, in a particularly alarming direction.

The Obama administration took steps to tighten gun background checks to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill as the president's broader gun-control proposals remain stalled in Congress.
The White House said yesterday that the Justice and Health and Human Services Departments were proposing changes in regulations to clarify who under U.S. law is prohibited from possessing a firearm for mental health reasons. The proposals would also make it easier for states to submit information about the mentally ill to the background check system.

This is an update to a post I made back on July 10th 2013. Barry is now officially going for it.

What do they mean when they say "make it easier to submit information about the mentally ill", exactly? Does it mean something reasonable and legal, like that people who have been adjudicated incompetent in a court of law will be put on a list, and the list will be provided to the FBI NICS system?

No.

It means that any person who has ever been hospitalized for a mental illness, or has ever received medication like anti-depressants, or has ever received counseling for mental illness, or has a doctor's note that says they "don't seem right" could end up on that list.

I can hear some Lefties yelling at their computer right now, something about tinfoil hats I think.

Yes, it does seem very Soviet and far fetched doesn't it? The idea that government agencies would raid your medical records in defiance of doctor/patient confidentiality and use that information to confiscate your property, its Qwazy Talk right?

Or it would be, if the Veteran's Administration weren't already doing it. They've been sending out letters informing vets of "pending findings of incompetency" since January or February 2013. Not from a court action, but based solely on an opinion from somebody in the VA bureaucracy. An opinion apparently formed by information from supposedly confidential medical records.

Mr. Obama and his team of liberal Flying Monkeys seem eager to expand this already existing "gun safety" program to the entire population, not just Vets. "Wait for court findings? Why would we do that? Just make a list, boys! Illegal? Who cares!"

What's on the front page of the New York Times above the fold? Dick Metcalf: "Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns."  Meanwhile back in the business section somewhere, this report finds lots of problems in the new Obamacare program for digitizing paper medical records.

New York Times: not just more full of it than we thought, more full of it than we can even imagine.

In other news, December broke all records for gun sales in an already record year, ammunition remains in very short supply, and more people in Illinois signed up for a concealed carry permit than signed up for Obamacare. That's be Barry's home state, y'know. Oh, and the NSA really does read your mail, record all your phone calls and track your every movement. And hack your phone. And your computer.

But Dick Metcalf is what's important, got it?

We SEE YOU, you bastards.

About the yelling "fire!" thing...

By the way. About the yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater thing.

Do we take away everyone's voice to make sure nobody can do it?

Just sayin'.

The Phantom

Dick Metcalf: How bad did he need fired?

Since in the previous post the New York Times raised the two months dead issue of Dick Metcalf's ill fated last editorial in Guns & Ammo, let's first have a look at what he said.

It was a PDF. Darn!

First, Metcalf conflates the word "regulate" in the sense of "government regulation" with the language of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution "A well regulated militia...".  These are not the same thing. Not even close. This has been amply discussed elsewhere, and if a gun writer for Guns & Ammo is unaware of all that discussion, its because he's not paying attention to his own field of expertise. Two seconds on Google got me a nice explanation of the difference.

When the Bill of Rights was penned the term "well regulated militia" meant that given it is assumed that all able-bodied adult males within the citizenry would automatically become the militia, since there was no standing professional army, those citizens would be expected to maintain their shooting skills and keep their firearms in good working condition. "Regulated," thus, meant "regular," or "well disciplined," or "regularly kept in good working condition."
If the citizens would serve as the army or "militia," then they had to take great care in regularly exercising their shooting skills and in keeping their firearms in regular working condition, or else the nation could not depend on the citizens to fight if it came under attack. The militia, or all able-bodied male adults, had to be ready to take up their arms at the drop of a hat in the event of a surprise attack, and to use their firearms quickly and accurately.
The thinking of the Framers as indicated by extensive historical documentation, along with the words of the Framers themselves, is summarized by Daniel J. Schultz.

So contrary to the claim made by Mr. Metcalf, the purpose of the government is not to regulate the people. Rather, it is THE MILITIA which is to be "well regulated". As in, the government is to make sure that the general citizenry is armed, trained and equipped to show up at need and see off any threat foreign or domestic. That's the opposite of a citizenry restricted from owning military firearms, military vehicles, military equipment etc. as Metcalf says they should be.  The point of the Second Amendment was to avoid the formation of a standing army and to avoid government control of people and their belongings.

As you can see, its not a technical distinction we're talking about here. Its a fundamental opposition of philosophical principles.

That's pretty much his whole argument in a nutshell. Pretending that government regulation of The People is what the 2nd Amendment means. His supporting examples are the tired, worn out "you can't yell fire in a crowded building", you can't drive a car without a license, and you can't gather in a group on the front lawn of a person you don't like.

In other words, he's singing straight from the New York Times' hymn book, in harmony with Sarah Brady and Josh Sugarman of Handgun Control Inc fame. He's a Big Government fan who thinks people are stupid and have to be controlled for their own good.

In his supposed apology/explanation/mea culpa post (to be found here), Mr. Metcalf doubles down.

... If a respected editor can be forced to resign and a controversial writer's voice be shut down by a one-sided social-media and internet outcry, virtually overnight, simply because they dared to open a discussion or ask questions about a politically sensitive issue . . . then I fear for the future of our industry, and for our Cause. Do not 2nd Amendment adherents also believe in Freedom of Speech? Do Americans now fear open and honest discussion of different opinions about important Constitutional issues? Do voices from cyberspace now control how and why business decisions are made?

That's the whinging of a man caught doing something he knows he's not supposed to be doing. He knows he was singing with Sarah Brady and he's pissed off because he had to deal with some hefty consequences for running his mouth.

But that's not why he got fired.

No, Mr. Dick Metcalf did not get fired for what he said. He got fired because THOUSANDS of people who buy Guns & Ammo magazine were so enraged by his column that they wrote in and cancelled their subscriptions. Thousands more took to the internet and started ranting about how G&A had jumped the shark and how they weren't going to buy the mag anymore if this was the kind of thing G&;A were going to print.

See, Guns & Ammo is a magazine that a company sells to make money for its shareholders. If nobody buys it, the company doesn't make any money, and they all get fired.

Comparing briefly with the Arts and Entertainment Network/Duck Dynasty uproar, Phil Robertson said some things in a magazine interview that pissed off a group of gay activists called GLAAD. Those activists called A&E poobahs and threatened them, so A&E ditched Robertson the same day. We're talking about one phone call here, maybe a couple of emails. Then THOUSANDS of people who watch Duck Dynasty were so enraged by this, they called A&E and threatened to cancel their cable subscriptions of Robertson wasn't reinstated.

Again, these two occurrences are the exact opposite of each other.

Metcalf was fired for threatening the profitability of a commercial venture. There are no "freedom of speech" issues at play here other than his wish to make everybody who disagreed with him shut up.

To continue Mr. Metcalf's car theme, if Ford makes a really bad car, does the CEO get to complain when people write in and say they'll never buy another Ford as long as they live? Or does he resign after firing the doofus who designed the bad car?

So how bad did Dick Metcalf need firing? Really, really bad. So bad in fact that I personally bought the latest edition of Guns & Ammo just to show my support for the new Editor in Chief.

You play with the bull you get the horns, Mr. Metcalf.

Revenge of the Weather Gods.

The Weather Gods shall not be mocked. 

Last week, 72F at the car show, Phantom Southern Command.

Warm and toasty!

This week, -8F by the space heater in Phantom Central Command. Plus wind chill.

Plugged in to keep the oil from turning to slush.

There is no escape.

The Phantom

When Liberals say "compromise" it means "SHUT UP!!!"

Spotted this piece in the NY SLimes on the front page yesterday. Front page above the fold, no less. "Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns."

The piece regards an article written by Dick Metcalf in December's Guns and Ammo magazine. More people wrote in to complain about it than the poohbahs at G&A expected in their wildest dreams. So Metcalf was fired and Jim Bequette, the editor who green-lighted his column, resigned immediately. Mr. Bequette wrote a G&A blog post responding to the Metcalf column.  Dick Metcalf digs himself in deeper in this blogpost here.

All of this activity happened back in October/November 2013. I will (for the moment!) leave aside any judgement on the Metcalf articles or the Bequette response, saying only that if Phil Robertson can get fired from Duck Dynasty for quoting the Bible, Dick Metcalf can get fired for reading from the liberal anti-gun catechism. Sauce for the goose and all that.

Bringing us to the NY Times article. They drag this thing up from two months ago and stick it on the front page. Its heavy with words like "pariah", "silenced", "extreme", and this beauty here:

""I've been vanished, disappeared," Mr. Metcalf, 67, said in an interview last month"

People from Communist countries who had relatives actually disappear no doubt feel your pain, Dick baby. Funny how you can still do interviews and blog posts while "disappeared". Just sayin'.

Question I have is: Why now? They didn't give a crap about this guy back in November, suddenly January 5th this is a front-page-above-the-fold issue?

New York Times employee at work.

Yes it is! Because Barry is having a new gun control push, and his water-carriers at the New York Times had to scramble to find -anything- they could smear the "gun community" with. Lacking any actual dirt they have had to manufacture some out of this no-brainer job action taken against an obvious idiot instead.

I can SEE YOU , you assholes.

The Phantom