Bleh.

I'm so (expletive deleted) bored I could turn the TV on.

Breaking

NECN is reporting 'suspect #2' in the Boston Marathon bombing has been taken into custody.  He is alive but wounded.

Today’s Weather

Today in and around eastern Massachusetts we can expect temperatures in the low 70’s, partly to mostly cloudy skys with a 20% chance of showers later in the day mixed with sporadic gunfire and the occasional hand grenade.

If you are in the Boston metro area, particularly in Boston, Brookline, Newton, Cambridge, Belmont, Waltham and especially Watertown:

• Stay indoors
• Keep your head down
• And you AR aimed at the door
• And remember Rule 4: Know your target and what’s beyond your target

You don’t want to accidentally take out one of the good guys.  There are still a few out there, you know.  Lawdog as a case in point (although he’s rather obviously not in the Boston metro area)…

Oh and a note to the local media: The FAA has issued a No Fly Zone over the area of interest.  After all, we wouldn’t want there to be any independent video that might conflict with the “Official Account” of what went down, now would we?

Tinfoil hat?  Naw!  I find that a well-grounded stainless steel salad bowl works much better!

BTW: Does this vehicle look familiar to any of you?

Image from Boston.com

Pelham traffic stop yields weapons cache

Yeah, right…

Adding drama to their investigation of the suspicious vehicle at about 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Officers Thistle and Barbato, while questioning the three suspects, "observed in plain view several semi-automatic firearms/weapons" in the rear section of the Toyota van, McCarthy said.

The BB guns' resemblance to actual firearms was so significant that the officers at first believed the air rifles were the real thing, McCarthy said. – emphasis added

From the minimal description provided in the article I would speculate that the likely make and model was one of these:

Crossman M4-177 -- Image via the manufacturer’s websight.

I don’t happen to have one of those myself.  But they do look like a fun plinker.  Basically the one I handled at WalMart seemed to be a along the lines of a Pumpmaster 760 dressed up in an AR-15 costume.  If I was in my teens I’d probably be drooling all over the idea of getting one.  And the stock really is adjustable, just like its metal cousin.  Did I mention that these are almost completely made of plastic?  Metal is used where needed but the entire outer frame is injection molded probably polystyrene.

The newspaper reports that the van was stolen as were the airguns.  That got the driver arrested on felony charges for receiving stolen property.  His passengers were arrested for not being able to convince officer OMG they got gunses! that the baggies in their pockets contained oregano for their home ec class later that afternoon.


UPDATE:  It turns out that the "rifles" in question were not BB guns.  They are much more realistic airsoft guns.  I shouldn't expect the media to understand the difference, or even that there is a difference...

Lowell Sun photo

 UPDATE II:  I just thought I'd point out the nice job the local cat box liner did in cropping this photograph.  Trim a little off the stock and you don't really loose anything.  But if you trim an inch or so off the muzzle you can completely eliminate the ORANGE TIP that all airsoft toys are required by law to have.  Suddenly it looks like a real AR-15.  In terms of the oath administered to every witness in every court across this land that would be a failure to "tell the whole truth."

A worthy remembrance

Of the events of this night, 238 years ago.

Post Two, Take Two, and --- ACTION!

Over at Tam’s she tells the tale of her day.  It involves gravity, a staircase and the sudden stop at the bottom.  “Ow!” Indeed…

I’ve had a few “incidents” myself today.

Incident one and a half had me very thankful that I’d taken the time to go in the house and get my OSHA certified side-shield safety glasses.  I was using my sawsall to trim away some now excess framing from around the water heater door frame that had been part of the hinge when the long since missing original hatch was installed thirty-five years ago.  Well the one metal cutting blade I had on hand snapped.  What’s more the busted off end decided it wanted to test the robustness of those very safety glasses.  The ones about half an inch in front of mine own eyes!  I am pleased to report that both the glasses and more importantly my eyes are undamaged.  I was just annoyed that the blade snapped.  I had to make due with a not very striate universal blade instead.  It got the job done.

Incident one involved my not getting a good measurement for the width of the door.  20 ¼ will do very nicely I think.  The plywood I had cut at my local ‘big boys toys ‘is’ us’ is a nice and neat 21 inches even.  Well, at least I don’t need the lumber stretcher…

For now I reinstalled the old plywood that fits on the new hinges with the new hasp that has an integral lock.  It’s much better than the old version with all the drywall screws holding it in place.  I can now access the water heater with the turn of a key instead of needing a screw gun.  I’ll trim the new weather resistant plywood and install that another time.  I may even paint it!

As I was putting away the tools and stuff from the water heater door project I decided that now would be a dandy time to get that accursed vine out of the rhododendron out front.

You know, it’s annoying enough how much detangling you have to do to separate this kind of vine from the plant you are trying to save.  But then when you start pulling with the intent of getting as much root as possible – my ghawd!  The root structure on this damned thing is phenomenal!  We could use napalm on it and this weed would be the first thing to grow back!

Well, I managed to get most of the vine out of the rhody and took a lot of root along with it.  Then I was working on the last two strands that had wrapped themselves around each other like a cable.  I had a good two fisted grip around its throat, er, well, vine, and I gave a mighty heave with all that I had to put into it, when, suddenly, it snapped.

Pulling that hard when you all of a sudden find yourself with no resistance whatsomever can lead to some rather entertaining unpleasant things.  I damn near did a back flip right there in the driveway.  Or at least I landed in the driveway.  On the pavement.  On my right elbow and hand.

I do believe the air turned a wee might blue at that very moment…

So there I am lying face down in my driveway.  I hear a car go by a few feet away in front of the house.  They apparently must have been honor students in the local school system because they “didn’t get involved” with the obvious “man down” at the end of his driveway.

I did a self assessment lying there and decided that as much as things hurt nothing was apparently broken.  OK, so now how do I move and brace so I can get up without doing any more damage, given that I wasn’t assured as of yet as to the accuracy of my initial assessment?  Well, I managed, picked up my hat which had landed some distance away, and sat down on the back bumper of the flea van to catch my breath.

Apparently the initial assessment was fairly accurate.  My hand is sore, but (rather obviously if you are reading this) I can still type while actually using both hands.

Then, a little while ago, as I was typing Take One of this very post, the Godiva Dark Chocolate Pearls tin that I had placed under the near edge of the potato chip bag intending to keep the chips from spilling out all over the keyboard fell off the counter, bounced off the back edge of the keyboard it was supposed to be protecting, hit the switch on the power box --- and shut off the computer.

I had not saved.

I blame it on the calendar.  It may not be a Friday, but still…

So shortly after I’d written and posted the previous item with those unexpected musical gems I’m sitting here thinking quietly to myself “An out of shape fifty-three year old man taking a header like that ain’t the same as a twenty year old athlete doing the same thing” when all of a sudden Mum starts laughing her head off.  She’s reading a Stephanie Plum novel.  The timing couldn’t have been better if it had been choreographed!

Updated to add:

 Road Rash is a BITCH!

The improved water heater hatch.  

Once I get the new plywood in place what color should I paint it?

Back at ya…

Weer’d has been sharing some really cool bluegrass covers of favorite songs.  Well, here’s one for you:


And while we’re on the subject of covers in very different style from the original recordings, allow me to present this:

Originally written as a comment on Facebook

Over on the Book of Face JayG posted a link to a poll of police officers regarding background checks, “assault weapons” bans and the like vis-à-vis their affect on crime.  The poll results don’t sound like any of the polls touted by the various Joyce shills.  The headline as reported at Breitbart.com reads:

Police Poll: Armed Citizens, not Gun Control, Will Lower Violent Crime

In the comments left wing anti-gun troll Jay Adams went on a fairly typical rant about how according to his world view all firearms enthusiasts have a secret desire to be Chuck Norris.  I could make some snarky comment about his Chuck Norris envy stemming from a closer affinity to Christopher Lowell – except that I like Christopher Lowell and wouldn’t want to insult him (Christopher) like that!

Anyway, to get back on point, here’s what I wrote in the comments, which I think fairly well sums up the real ‘ignore that man behind the curtain’ reason so many politicians want the citizens, that is We the People, disarmed:

Jay Adams' Chuck Norris projection problems aside, the real issue has never been crime prevention.  The real agenda all along is the consolidation of power in the hands of those who hold it today.  (“Today” being any given moment in history.)  Those drawn to power are not generally all that willing to relinquish it.  Or to share it, for that matter.  An armed population has a power all its own that mere politicians have reason to keep in mind as they grab for ever more power of their own.  Eventually there comes a point where they overreach what the population will bear.  Case in point: The battle of Athens.   On the other hand, if the politicians can convince enough of the population that those of us who exercise our god-given rights as enshrined in the Constitution ARE the problem and can convince them that the solution is to gradually and incrementally move toward the eventual elimination of private firearms ownership – at least for the law abiding – then the politicians will have far less to fear as they grab ever more control of our daily lives.

Pardon me while I go refill my illegal in New York City size glass of soda…

I’ll add this one point here while I’m on the subject: Crime, violent crime in particular and the more spectacular the better, serves the politicians interests by keeping the level of fear high enough to allow them to push through their disarmament agenda.  With their false claims that the various proposed infringements of a specifically enumerated right that “shall not be infringed” will somehow magically cause violent criminals to stop misbehaving they hope enough of the general population will go along with the infringements.  If possible even with eliminating a chief canard of the Bill of Rights itself!  Sadly with the decades long corruption of our schools and the dearth of real education of our recent generations they may yet succeed…

Be vigilant!

Apparently the comments are working

This I know from all the spam I get to read in my email. 

Back in my LiveJournal days The (Original) Dragonfly was subtitled "Shouting in the Wilderness."  That seems even more to the point around here.  I haven't been posting all that much because, why bother?  Nobody reads it.  Of course nobody reads it because I haven't been posting all that much.

We have an executive branch running wild and a congress that doesn't have the stones to do anything about it.  The UN arms trade treaty was approved by the general assembly with the express encouragement and approval of the administration.  The attorney general has been held in contempt of congress - but not faced any sanctions that I have heard about as a result.  A communist nation has used the tools of capitalism to capture the vast majority of the production capacity of what was once the strongest manufacturing economy on the planet.  American business leaders have yet to figure that one out!  The fed seems to be doing everything in their considerable power to destroy what little is left of the value of the dollar.  And all indications are that the occupant of the oval office may very well be an illegal immigrant! 

What can one lone disgusted and demoralized blogger do in the face of all that?

Or put another way: Why bother?

The flea market is scheduled to open next weekend, weather permitting.  I may have to look for a fiddle so I can teach myself to play while Rome burns.

Not tonight, dear...

I had a post all set up to write.  On second thought I think I'll pass.  Maybe I should just go take down my flag instead.  The America I learned about in social studies no longer exists.