H&I* Fires, 17 MAY 2007

May 17, 2007 | | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (1)

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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Because we don’t like becoming an echo chamber edition:

The cost of a life via the NYT. Move past the political snottiness. Does he have a point about a failure to win hearts and minds and does he have the best solution?
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Looks like OD’s worst nightmare over the Afghani poppy field situation is coming to pass: the WOD enters the WOT in Afghanistan. This could be brilliant, or it could be a goat----(which is OD’s position, and I don’t know that he’s wrong).
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Armchair isn’t real happy about the whole ‘War Czar’ idea and the choice for it(not what you think about the pick).
--ry
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Something that irritates me is the new ‘sanctuary’ movement. CA Proposition 187, and its legal battles, proved once and for all that anything and everything to do with immigration is a Federal level power; and states and community preferences or votes be damned. Or doesn’t the law matter when it’s not working in your favor, immigration advocates?
--ry
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Via the NYT comes this gem of Congressional thought.

A congressman from New Jersey said yesterday that he would propose a bill that would require all visitors to military installations to undergo federal background checks. The proposal comes in the wake of the charges filed last week against six men accused of planning an attack on soldiers at Fort Dix. The congressman, Representative Jim Saxton, a Republican whose district includes Fort Dix, said his bill would require the background checks for all visitors, including contractors, delivery people and civilians. The authorities have linked the six terrorist suspects to a pizzeria that frequently delivered to the base.

Heh. I suspect this will die a quiet death as someone from DoD drops by the Congressman's office and gives him a reality check. He will effectively be closing those installations to outsiders. There goes any airshows... open houses, access to the museums... the list goes on. Then there's the cost. I would remind the good Congressman about the backlog in doing security clearance investigations - largely due to... cost. And would security be enhanced? Only marginally. Better to allow the denizens of military installations the ability to carry concealed. That would nip things like the Six Dix in the bud pretty quickly, if there's a group out there that isn't a Keystone Kops operation. -the Armorer

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Then there's this, from Vic Hanson:

What do leftist, mostly secular elites share with medieval sinners?

They feel bad that the way they live sometimes doesn't quite match their professed dogma.

Read it here. -the Armorer

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From Zach Bauer of Missouri Carry yesterday - admittedly, it's the state next door, not here - but regional solidarity and all that!

At approximately 9:24 pm, the MO House took up and passed the Castle Doctrine bill, SB62 by a vote of 151-6.

The Missouri Castle Doctrine Law and PTA Repeal has now passed both the Missouri Senate and tonight the Missouri House! The Bill will now move on to Gov. Blunt who has said repeatedly that he will sign the bill. This is an important victory won by those of you who wrote letters, sent those emails and made countless calls to your elected state officials.

So do you want the really good news? The good news is that the Brady Campaign who currently rates Missouri a "D+" when it comes to gun laws will probably be upgrading us to the much sought after "F" rating in the coming weeks when Gov. Blunt signs the bill. That is when you will truly know that we have done something right here in the state of Missouri.

Ah, sometimes it *is* good to have an "F" on your report card. From the Brady Campaign, from Kossacks, etc. -the Armorer

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Jules - supporting Palestinian Statehood. Why wouldn't we want these guys to be a full-blown government? -the Armorer

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".

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Illegals on the Roads, and in your town! from Techography on May 17, 2007 5:48 AM

Via Ry/Gollums latest on Immigration and the propsed amnesty bill I decided to repond as well with some info of my own. Ry says: Something that irritates me is the new ‘sanctuary’ movement. CA Proposition 187, and its legal battles, p... Read More

8 Comments

By BloodSpite on May 17, 2007 5:18 AM
I find it entertaining, that we can get Congress to refuse to allow Mexican trucks on our highways, citing among the reasons lack of licensing, training, insurance, inspections, etc and say it is a danger to Americans on the roads...... .....yet there are 7 to 10 Million Immigrants driving illegally, at least 50% without insurance, and Congress wants to grant them Amnesty despite the clear danger they represent to local crime rates. Makes perfect sense...right?
 
By Oldloadr on May 17, 2007 7:22 AM
Here’s what I believe is the elephant in the corner on the whole illegal immigrant issue: 1. Advocates for the illegals claim we have a labor shortage (I don’t know any state reporting less than 3% unemployment). 2. They claim that Americans aren’t willing to do the work the illegals do (I don’t know, maybe it’s different in other states, but here in li’l ol’ South Carolina, I have never seen an operation employing “newly arrived” Hispanics, or any other group, that did not have a sizable mix of lighter-skinned and darker-skinned employees. No, the real answer is Americans are not willing to work for less than minimum wage and they can’t be coerced to work for less as that is against the law and is too easy to track with our social security and tax system. I know hiring illegals is supposed to be against the law, as well, but the current penalty structure and probability of being held accountable is less than the profit to be gained by those entities that routinely engage in hiring illegals. This is one reason why, IMHO, that there has not been any movement to fix anything. If there was amnesty, or guest worker, or fast track citizenship, or any other program that gave the illegals legitimate status, the whole reason employers hire them will have evaporated, because then, the “foreign workers” would have to be paid minimum wage. The second reason I see, from the other side is politicians who practice demagoguery reap more benefit from a perpetual victim class than from actually solving the problem.
 
By Cricket on May 17, 2007 9:53 AM
Well, Governor Blunt, as a property owner in your state, SHOW ME your signature.
 
By KCSteve on May 17, 2007 2:09 PM
If this isn't enough we've got some ideas of ways to earn that coveted 'Free State' grade from the Brady's!
 
By KCSteve on May 17, 2007 2:18 PM
(I'm posting this separately in case John wants to pull it out from comments) There's a Zumbo Update over at Ted Nugent's place
Ted,
I recently completed the tactical weapons course under the direction of instructor Pat Rogers. It was a life changing event for me. The course allowed me to become familiar with the firearms, and also to understand what I hadn't realized before.....that black rifles are used and owned by people who are salt of the earth. Fifteen of us took the course, including four women, two doctors, a chef, a retired engineer and law enforcement and military folks. I have to tell you that I was overwhelmingly intimidated the first morning, and was tempted to quit. I had difficulty with the unfamiliar guns, and the course was designed in drill fashion. This was no bench rest scenario where you sat and tried to shoot as accurately as possible. Here we followed very explicit orders by the instructors and shot from sitting, kneeling, standing and prone positions. As the first day wore on, I began to feel more comfortable with the gun and shooting requirements. By the third day I didn't want to leave, and had one of the most incredible experiences of my life when I fired fully auto rifles and handguns. I made great friends among the other students and instructors, and have to tell you that I drove home from the Indiana course with an ear to ear grin. Sitting beside me in my pickup truck was a very large Elmer Fudd doll that was given to the student who screwed up the most. I don't need to explain the reasons why I was the recipient! It was all in great fun, and the outpouring of kindness from the people there was terrific.

Throughout all this, since I wrote that blog in February, I learned many, many things. I want to thank you for understanding, early on, how my words indicated an ignorance about black rifles, and I want to thank you for your efforts in using my ignorance as an example in order to unite all of use who own guns, all guns, whether they're for hunting, shooting, home defense, or simply as collectors items.

Rock on, bloodbrother!

Jim Zumbo

 
By ry on May 17, 2007 7:29 PM
BlSp, you don't mess around do you? Saw what you put up at Techo'. Loose nut behind the wheel is right. Ted Nugent. Sigh. I dunno. I just can't get behind the Motor City Madman, Herr Cat Scratch Fever. Not saying that nobody should just that I can't. There's something about him that puts me off.
 
By BloodSpite on May 17, 2007 11:28 PM
Hey, this is one of the few issue's that I play for keeps on. Full Court press. I mean when in 2001, MADD reported 44.1 percent of California's drunk driving arrests were of Hispanics, while, officially, they made up just 31.3 percent of the population, someone has to step to the plate and scream "Uhm, Hello?" One of those nasty tricks I've learned from the Mass media. Folks don't understand touchy-feely political geography. They do understand body counts. And a recent survey suggests many of last year's 42,636 road deaths involved illegal aliens. Thats more people than has been killed in Iraq in 4 years. But whats the headline reading on CNN? Yea I'm just a little impassioned. Or maybe bitter is a better word. Take your pick :)
 
By ry on May 18, 2007 12:53 AM
"I mean when in 2001, MADD reported 44.1 percent of California's drunk driving arrests were of Hispanics, while, officially, they made up just 31.3 percent of the population, someone has to step to the plate and scream "Uhm, Hello?""
And you know what they did in response to that? Shut down sobriety check points since it was profiling, and, in the words of the esteemed Ron White, profiling is wrong.