Month: April 2023

I think I can kick back for the weekend, proudly knowing I’ve done about the best I could this week. And ended on a high note.

I hurt an LA Times reporter’s feelings. [proud smile]

This is in reference to her story claiming that Baldwin’s gun had been modified and wasn’t working properly. After reading Meg James report, I wrote up my own column. I emailed her and pointed out that her “unnamed sources'” claim seriously conflicts with the FBI’s forensic examination of the gun, and with the charging affidavit.

She said she read the forensic report, but couldn’t see where it said the FBI broke the gun themselves.

I pointed her to right page. And made reference to checking sources’ stories before publication. She didn’t care for that.

I am a nice person, I sent you a nice email and you replied with mean and nasty insults. That’s sad.

The mean and nasty insult? I’d said: Have you considered that this tendency to rush a story out before you’ve.. you know, actually checked facts, may be why I, and many others, have long considered the LA Times to be extremely unreliable?

She also whined that she only had 28 minutes to get that story out. So I replied:

And in less than 28 minutes, I read a report citing yours, tracked down your story, read it, dug up the forensic report, re-read it, and wrote my own column, complete with links to your story and the forensic report, with quotes.

Oh, and emailed you.

I could have been even meaner and pointed out that an “entertainment writer” probably shouldn’t be trying to write about technical aspects of firearms. I leave the entertainment industry alone, except where — as in the Baldwin shooting — it intersects with my own area of semi-expertise.

Show of comment-hands: Who amongst my readers generally considers the LA Times to be reliable?

Added, 4/22″ Heh. Purely by coincidence, Dail Caller weighs in on the LA Times.

EDITORIAL BOARD: Here’s Everything The LA Times Got Wrong In Their Hit Piece About Us (Pretty Much All Of It)
What happens when you combine wealthy business elites with axes to grind, a semi-retired reporter out of his depth and a major newspaper with low editorial standards? You have the perfect recipe for a factually-challenged hit piece against honest journalists.

 

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I saw this headline and thought, “No; they can’t be that stupid.”

VIDEO: Chicago Group Hopes to Deter Teen Mobs with Amber Alert-Type System

Well, it’s Chicago. So yes, they are.

Everybody here probably has a phone in their pocket right now, so if you get a text right now, you are going to get the text and you are gonna say, “okay let me check, let me call my kids to make sure they are not there” and maybe even make sure if any of their friends might have been there but now they can call their friends and say, “hey such and such might be down here, you might want to check it out.” It’s trying to bring the community together to work together.

Yep. If When another flash riot kicks off, they want to send a notification to everyone who hadn’t gotten the word yet, so they’ll know to show up and Burn, Loot, Murder, too.

 

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Given the FBI’s testing of the murder manslaughter weapon, this claim seems awfully dubious. And unnamed sources again…

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BALDWIN’S GUN WAS MODIFIED?
This claim comes via the not-so-reliable LA Times.

The replica of the vintage weapon — a Colt .45 revolver — had been modified , increasing the odds that the gun might have misfired, as Baldwin has said, according to the sources.

Methinks someone neglected to read the FBI forensic report on the testing of the gun. Here’s is the relevant portion (page 6).

TL;DR: They tried to force it to fire without pulling the trigger by pounding on the hammer with a mallet 1) with the hammer down, 2) at quarter cock, 3) at half cock, and 4) at full cock. The only detonation occurred in the full cock position…

…when they pounded the hammer so hard that the sear sheered.
[Read more]

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GUN CONTROL SCHADENFREUDE
I don’t normally turn to Vice for news, but this is too good to skip.

The Washington state legislature passed an “assault weapons ban,” HB 1240. It seems to be fairly bog standard as these things go: cosmetic characteristics that they swear “are not “merely cosmetic”,” and doesn’t actually ban any existing firearm. Just future sales and transfers. But…

Ah, schadenfreude! Vice, for once, is freaking out over a gun control law, because the Washington lefties…
[Read more]

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SO MUCH FOR WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
Based on the majority of snooze stories, I was chalking up the Louisville bank shooting to workplace violence. Multiple reports had it that he had been, or was about to be, fired. Not so much, apparently.

While the Feeble Bureau of Intimidation is all fired up over right-wing domestic extremists and infiltrating conservative Catholic churches, things like lefty women thinking they’re men and shooting schools get missed.

Or lefty gun control activists shooting up banks.
[Read more]

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HANSON V. DC: “LARGE CAPACITY” MAGAZINE BAN
I’ve only been up for a couple of hours (as I begin typing), and the news is already full of stupidity that I’ll need to address. I’ll lead off with a case challenging Washington, DC’s “large capacity” magazine ban, Hanson v. DC. The judge, one Rudolph Contreras, denied a preliminary injunction against the ban. His… reasoning is… remarkable. Or something; I’m trying to be somewhat polite.
[…]
At this point, I wouldn’t blame Clarence Thomas if he is looking for a 2X4 and Contreras’ home address.
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BALDWIN SHOOTING DEVELOPMENT
You may have heard that charges are going to be dropped against Alec Baldwin, in the killing of Halyna Hutchins.
[…]
I think it may be a little premature for Baldwin to relax.
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Attend a New York state “buy back,” go to prison.

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NEW YORK “BUY BACK”
I see New York state Attorney General Leticia James is going to hold a statewide gun “buy back” on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
[…]
Again James is the state’s top lawyer. Surely she knows she’s telling people to break the law.

You know what else is illegal in New York? Disposing of a licensed firearm “without first notifying in writing the licensing officer.”

Funny how James fails to mention that part. Entrapment, anyone?
[Read more]

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Minneapolis cop Derek Chavin‘s badge number is being retired.

MPD chief: No future officer will wear Derek Chauvin’s badge number

So that’s like a Hall of Famer’s jersey number being retired, because he was so great that no one else is worthy of bearing his number?

Hat tip to Wisco Dave.
 

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Wisco Dave sent me a link to this, with the comment, “We are not the same.”

Plan B, condoms, pregnancy tests, Narcan. For his 12 year old daughter.

Excuse me, for his daughter and her friends. I wonder if those parents realize he’s providing drugs and sex gear to their kids. And if they, in turn, wonder why this adult male is making sure their kid is ready for an unexpected pregnancy or overdose.

Personally, I’d order my kid to stay the hell away from him, get a restraining against him requiring him to stay away, and be sure he understands I have the tools and will to back it up.

Maybe he should add a bottle of lube, too.

That’s sarcasm.

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