Friday, November 15, 2013

Thus Spake Obama: The incompetence of our neo-monarchy

Via WRSA

 

It is a condition of my admission to this great land that I am not allowed to foment the overthrow of the United States government. Oh, I signed it airily enough, but you’d be surprised, as the years go by, how often the urge to foment starts to rise in one’s gullet. Fortunately, at least as far as constitutional government goes, the president of the United States is doing a grand job of overthrowing it all by himself.

On Thursday, he passed a new law at a press conference. George III never did that. But, having ordered America’s insurance companies to comply with Obamacare, the president announced that he is now ordering them not to comply with Obamacare. The legislative branch (as it’s still quaintly known) passed a law purporting to grandfather your existing health plan. The regulatory bureaucracy then interpreted the law so as to un-grandfather your health plan. So His Most Excellent Majesty has commanded that your health plan be de-un-grandfathered. That seems likely to work. The insurance industry had three years to prepare for the introduction of Obamacare. Now the King has given them six weeks to de-introduce Obamacare.

Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force-June 15, 1944


 PIAT

General Eisenhower announces that Allied forces will be withdrawn from the Normandy beachhead beginning today due to the heavy allied losses and defeats. With the British and Canadian beachheads already evacuated, the small American beachhead has been under constant counter-attack and bombardment by German Panzer Forces. Remaining troops will be withdrawn as soon as possible. General Eisenhower has submitted his resignation to the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff....


Although this press release is of course fictitious it very possibly could have come true if not for the courage of one British Airborne soldier, his PIAT, and one PIAT round.

It was the morning of June 6th 1944. D Company, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, along with attached troops had landed by glider and had seized and held the vital bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River, along with a vital crossroads known as the “T-junction”.

Although well equipped their sole means of repelling German Armored advances was the dreaded PIAT. The PIAT was a short-range infantry anti-tank weapon. It had numerous shortcomings one of which was the inability to reload quickly. PIAT gunners had a saying, “hit it with the first shot because you won’t get a second.”

The commanding officer, Major John Howard, knew that they would likely face a German counter-attack and hoped he and his men would not have to fight Panzers with only PIAT’s and small arms.

Major Howard started receiving reports of German armor approaching his position. They were moving the vital “T-junction” which served as the main arterial road from Benouville to Le port, and then on to Caen and the invasion beaches. Approaching the British positions were 6 Tanks, a force of German infantry that outnumbered the British 4 to 1, and a battery of 88′s.

In his defensive position was Sgt. “Wagger” Thornton, who had the one remaining operable PIAT and two PIAT rounds. The “Ox and Bucks” held their fire so as to not reveal their positions, hoping to lure the leading German MK IV tank into the killing zone. Sgt. Thornton coolly waited until the tank was well within range and fired. The PIAT round struck the front of the tank almost dead center, penetrated the interior, and set off all of the ammunition inside. The German forces withdrew reporting that the British troops had heavy anti-tank guns set up at the Bridge. The German tank then sat in the middle of the “T-junction” blocking movement for any other heavy vehicles, effectively preventing the use of this vital road for any German counter-attacks.

What if Sargeant Thornton had missed? Surely the superior numbers and armor would have overwhelmed the lightly-armed British Airborne forces. The rest of 6th Airborne Division would have been hard pressed to stop a determined German attack. The paratroops were scattered and at the time of Sgt. Thornton’s action were just starting to form into effective fighting units.

Colonel Von Luck, commander of the German 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment, stated that if he had had use of the “T-junction” and bridges he could have supported the attack on the British beach-heads by the 21st Panzer Division. Such an attack would have succeeded if the Germans had sufficient troops, which the 125th would have provided. Of course if the German 21st Panzer Division had succeeded in penetrating to the British and Canadian beach-heads the landing would have become a debacle and likely a second “Dieppe”. If the Commonwealth landings had failed we can also argue that the bulk of the German armored force, which was used to defend the Caen region from the British and Canadians, would have then been free to encircle the American beachheads and similarly annihilate them. Something else to consider is the enormous casualties endured by the British and Canadian forces in Normandy facing the German panzers. This was due to the fact that the Allies even in 1944 did not have a tank capable of consistently defeating the front-line German tanks. With the bulk of the German armor now facing the Americans and with criminally poor anti-tank weapons the Americans would have been decimated like the Canadians were later around Caen.

True Courage Not Confined to the Battlefield

Via Billy

 General-Robert-e-lee (1)

 It was a relatively small church. The parishioners knew each other quite well. Or did they?

Families had helped build each other’s houses. Barn raisings had been a common, even social event. Their children had courted each other, some having gone on to marriage. They had stood together and cried together at the gravesides of countless loved ones over the past five years. They had gone through a most traumatic period as a community. Now it was time for the healing to begin.

Together in church one day, they would be challenged, and together, most would fail.

Such is the story of human history, and sadly, of the Body of Christ known to the world as “the Church.” Sometimes, there is but one man who has the courage of his convictions and that sole man’s faithfulness in the heat of battle may melt the hard-hearted and inspire the lesser men around him.

One sunny day in a little Virginian church, parishioners gathered to observe what is known in much of Christendom as The Lord’s Supper – the Eucharist. As the people were about to keep the ritual, a young man – a young, “black man” entered from the back and approached the podium to, himself, partake.

Point of Concern for Future Urban OPS

http://tensmiths.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/shotspotter_briefing_room_final.jpg?w=420&h=223

 

Get out-of-town as quickly and quietly as possible”, is probably ITEM #1 on your Escape and Evade SHTF plan if you live in a town of any size.  Understandably, you might be tempted, after successfully making your way out, to go back in and do a little “post SHTF Shopping”.  

 

This is potentially made more hazardous if the town has a system called “ShotSpotter” made by SST, based in Newark, CA.  SST installed their biggest system in the most gun free city they could find.  The nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., of course.

 More @ Ten Smiths

Cops use GPS cannon to track your car: Patrol vehicles equipped to launch device, then monitor in secret

 

Police cars across the country are being equipped with a system for tagging and tracking vehicles using Global Positioning System, or GPS, technology.

The StarChase system installs into the grille of a police car a compressed-air cannon, which can fire 4.5-inch GPS projectiles that stick to a parked or fleeing vehicle, using a high-grad adhesive. The GPS tags then enable the patrol car to back off, while computers at police headquarters track the suspect car’s movements.

The system was designed to eliminate the need for high-speed car chases, which are blamed for 360 deaths every year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

More with video @ WND

Was That Supposed To Be An Apology Mr. President? Or It's Not Like Nobody Warned Us.

Via comment by JWMJR  on Cover Oregon: Health exchange ranks last in enroll...

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOah-WgxutT5eB9YQF5bvWqlOdEzmnWYap2fYfWmbC08qBIwZpY_vHIwGEXCXTA1Jl287lY___XzX4pC5LIU5DZl5OR8XLlVB-bkbw4F3J2GCydoJk7oC2YammCxZqYJWufSTHKr2G5Ach/s1600/20131115_obamacare1.jpg

 This latest leftist debacle, that ongoing, predicted and predictable disaster known as Obamacare has revealed itself as the biggest clusterfuck in the last half century.  (Short of G.H.W. Bush's failure to hold communism accountable for its crimes in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Because if we had we wouldn't be faced with this disaster today.)

Let's give this mess a little perspective shall we.

Republican candidate for governor gives Heimlich maneuver at dinner


California Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly recently saved the life of a potential voter while out on the campaign trail.

The campaign of Donnelly, a member of the California State Assembly, uploaded a video on YouTube showing the Republican successfully giving a woman the Heimlich maneuver during a political dinner last week. The video is titled, “Assemblyman Donnelly to the rescue!”

“You all right?” Donnelly, wearing a wearing a black cowboy hat, asks after successfully helping the woman.

Force-on-force shooting center catering to civilian scenarios opens in Plano, TX.


In all the years I’ve been writing about war, crime, and firearms, I’ve yet to hear of a person being assaulted by a piece of paper stapled to a stationary cardboard backer, or a steel plate attached to a post, and yet that is how 99.9% of us train with firearms.

That lack of familiarly with how real human targets move and react to being fired upon has caused people to freeze up or react poorly, and it has gotten countless people killed. The poor survival rates in real-world situations is the reason that both law enforcement and the military have spent billions in recent decades on ever-more-realistic simulators and force-on-force training tools.

A new facility in Plano, Texas is now adapting some of these training tools and methodologies to provide force-on-force scenarios to mimics situations that citizens might encounter.

More @ Bearing Arms

Ruger’s N.C. location to complete first gun today; backlog now 1,999,999 guns

 http://www.gunsholstersandgear.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Ruger-plant-NC.jpg

That’s one heck of a sales job, Barack:

Sturm, Ruger & Co. has a backlog of 2 million guns on order – a fact that’s “absolutely ridiculous,” “pretty silly” and “kind of crazy,” said CEO Michael Fifer at an earnings calls last week.

More @ Bearing Arms

ATF sounds alarm on 3D-printer firearms

Via avordvet

 http://img.deusm.com/designnews/2012/03/240666/132353_864109.jpg

  Officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Wednesday warned that a possible proliferation of plastic firearms made from 3-D printers poses a threat to public safety.

Such weapons "create a public safety concern for the American public because (they) can defeat metal detection," said Richard Marianos, ATF assistant director for public and governmental affairs.

"That's something we're all concerned about."

Marianos spoke at a briefing for reporters called less than a month before expiration of the Undetectable Firearms Act, the 1988 law that bars the manufacture and possession of plastic firearms such as those produced by 3-D printers.

Seattle police deactivate surveillance system after public outrage

Via avordvet

http://rt.com/files/news/21/1f/c0/00/seatlle-police-deactivates-street-surveillance-system-after-public-outrage.si.jpg

Police in Seattle, Washington have responded to a major public outcry by disabling a recently discovered law enforcement tool that critics said could be used to conduct sweeping surveillance across the city.

Last week, Seattle’s The Stranger published an in-depth look at a little known new initiative taking place within the city that involved the installation of dozens of devices that would create a digital mesh network for law enforcement officers. The devices — small white-boxes equipped with antennas and adorned on utility poles — would broadcast data wirelessly between nodes so police officers could have their own private network to more easily share large amounts of data. As The Stranger pointed out, however, those same contraptions were able to collect data on internet-ready devices of anyone within reach, essentially allowing the Seattle Police Department to see where cell phones, laptops and any other smart devices operating within reach were located.

More @ RT

Cover Oregon: Health exchange ranks last in enrollment of state-run peers: study

Screen Shot 2013-11-11 at 11.38.59 AM.png

Oregon's health exchange ranks last of 12 state-based insurance exchanges in enrollment, according to a new analysis.

 Avalere Health used online news reports and public statements to compare enrollment for 14 state-run exchanges. Those are the states choosing to build their own consumer marketplace under the new federal health law, rather than let the federal government handle it.

The result of the comparison is not a big surprise -- Oregon's online marketplace has not enrolled anyone -- but the numbers do put things in context.

More @ Oregon Live

*************************************

Via Michael


"We have the governor best equipped to lead us into healthcare reform" says multimillionaire Earl Blumenauer, Oregon congressman, just weeks before Obamacare and Governor Kitzhaber's Kitzcare (Cover Oregon) went into effect. "Squeezing value out of it so it goes to people who are sick, need help, not having other layers of bureaucracy", he says as the massive multi million dollar ad campaign was being rolled out, soon to be followed up by the expansion of the state program by way of hiring 400 more people to shuffle the handwritten papers around because no one can input data through the website. "John Kitzhaber is recognized by this administration as a visionary"..."Oregon is in position to be a leader" he goes on to say. Fast forward to mid November, and Cover Oregon has yet to enroll one single person in the program, and ranks last in the independent Avalere study on state run

Vepr 12 Gauge Tactical Shotgun With Fixed Tubular Stock: $999.99



Manufactured in the Molot factory the Russian Vepr is the Mercedes Benz of Russian Semi-Auto Shotguns .

*Special "Pre-Black Friday" pricing below is for new orders only and is for a limited time*

More @ Classic