Sleepless in Midland

Democrats are struggling to chalk up Obama's accomplishments

Bernie Reeves at Americanthinker.com quotes a scholarly Democrat's assessment of the Obama presidency, to wit:

“First, he brought the country out of the deep economic chaos that he inherited from the second George Bush. Second, in a very perilous world situation, he made no major blunders. He made no commitments overseas with the kind of disastrous results that the second George Bush had in Iraq. And third, he extended the great benefits of health insurance to millions of Americans who weren't covered".

The speaker is William Leuchtenburg, and Mr. Reeves pokes some huge holes in that hypothesis at How Do Democrats Rank Obama's Presidency?

Regarding that great economic achievement, it's well to note that the recovery took much too long and is much too weak to amount to much. President Obama turned a ton of money over to special interest groups, and while a few individuals did very well from it, the overall economic benefit was negligible.

Obama's overseas accomplishments amount to kicking the can down the road. He's creating a huge problem for some future president.

And health insurance? Whoa boy. Obamacare is costing individuals a fortune, and the prospect of more government involvement in health care is driving doctors out of the profession. Now there's an accomplishment.

Obama was fond of telling his followers that he inherited a big problem. The next president should say it honestly.

Dennis Hastert -- So the strongest case they have against him is structuring bank deposits and lying to feds?

Whenever I hear of someone being charged with lying to FBI agents, Scooter Libby springs to mind. He was the eventual target of the very thorough investigation of who leaked Valarie Plame's name to the press. Libby didn't do it, but apparently he said something that was untrue during the questioning, and the feds proved he was lying. That was his crime. That's a bad law, and it should be a two way street. If it's legal for law enforcement to lie then it should be legal for citizens, too. The badge shouldn't carry with it the license to mislead.

Then there's another bad law, the anti-structuring statute. Bank transactions involving $10,000 or more must be reported to the feds. However, smaller transactions subject a person to charges of "structuring" and confiscation of the money. (Eric Holder announced a few months ago that the DOJ was going to stop grabbing the money in those situations, although the law is still on the books, so the new Atty Gen could revoke that.)

There's a very interesting interview available at c-span.org with David B. Smith, former Deputy Chief, Asset Forfeiture Office, Department of Justice. Watch it here. Go to the 13 minute mark to hear this part:

Most people don't know what structuring is. It is a crime, federal crime. What it means is breaking down currency amounts of more than $10,000 into smaller deposits or withdrawals from a bank. Let's say a small businessman has $15,000 of cash receipts. He is running a cash intensive business. Instead of ringing the $15,000 to the bank for deposit, he decides he will only deposit $5,000 at a time. For a variety of reasons, perhaps he is afraid to take that much money to the bank, or perhaps he doesn't want the bank to have to go through the trouble of filling out a report that the bank is required to file if more than $10,000 is deposited. It flows down the line at the bank and frequently the teller tells the customer, please keep it under $10,000 because we are busy and we don't want have to take time to fill out this form. That is structuring. That is a federal felony. Most people don't know that is a crime.

On occasion the feds give the money back -- that occasion being a lot of public pressure.

Back to Hastert. If he paid someone to keep quite, why weren't there any blackmailing charges made against the recipient of the money? We don't know. But we do know that a Democratic administration is charging a Republican with crime Bill Clinton could have gotten away with.

For more on this see The 4 Worst Things About Dennis Hastert’s Indictment.

Rasmussen -- Most Democrats think illegal aliens should be allowed to vote

This shouldn't be surprising. As one radio commentator asked rhetorically, would Democrats give a hoot about immigrants if they tended to vote for Republicans? We all know the answer to that. Witness Democrats' coolness toward Republican leaning Eastern European immigrants during the Reagan years.

Here's the link to the Rasmussen article: Most Democrats Think Illegal Immigrants Should Vote. Excerpt:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that one-out-of-three Likely U.S. Voters (35%) now believes that illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote if they can prove they live in this country and pay taxes. Sixty percent (60%) disagree, while five percent (5%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording,click here.)

Fifty-three percent (53%) of Democrats think tax-paying illegal immigrants should have the right to vote. Twenty-one percent (21%) of Republicans and 30% of voters not affiliated with either major political party agree. ...

Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters agree with the legal challenge [in Evenwel v. Abbott] and say states should only count eligible voters when setting the size of legislative districts for voting purposes. Just 23% favor the current system in Texas that counts all residents including illegal immigrants. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

Note this oddity: 35% want illegals to vote, but only 23% think they should be counted when setting the size of legislative districts. That's a head scratcher.

IRS got hacked -- too bad they didn't get Lois Lerner's emails

Is it any wonder that rational people have lost faith in the federal bureaucracy? We're learning now that the Internal Revenue Service has revealed that some taxpayers information was obtained by hackers from the IRS. See IRS hit by cyberattack, thousands of taxpayers’ information stolen. Lead paragraph:

Fraudsters stole private information from the IRS on more than 100,000 taxpayers and used it to bilk the agency of tens of millions of dollars, Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday — though he insisted the breach didn’t affect most Americans.

Well, of course 100,000 taxpayers is not "most Americans." But it's still a large number. Apparently, only those taxpayers who have enrolled at the IRS' Get Transcript program were affected. And it can't be comforting to know that hackers had access to the victims' tax returns for however far back the transcript access goes.

It's also not very comforting to think that all Obamacare patients' information will be kept by the IRS.

Now if only those hackers would publish those lost Lois Lerner emails.

Finally, a plausible explanation of why increased immigration might not hurt local workers

Common sense tells us that an increase in the number of immigrant workers who would compete with the workers already there would decrease wages for both groups. Opponents of illegal immigration and open borders have driven the point home. Supporters, on the other hand, have their own reasons for wanting increased immigration, and they downplay that potential outcome.

But here comes a study that claims increased immigration results in an increase demand for local services. And that results in an increase of local services, an increase in local wages, and an increase in the number of jobs. Here's the abstract from Are Immigrants a Shot in the Arm for the Local Economy? To wit:

Most research on the effects of immigration focuses on the effects of immigrants as adding to the supply of labor. By contrast, this paper studies the effects of immigrants on local labor demand, due to the increase in consumer demand for local services created by immigrants. This effect can attenuate downward pressure from immigrants on non-immigrants' wages, and also benefit non-immigrants by increasing the variety of local services available. For this reason, immigrants can raise native workers' real wages, and each immigrant could create more than one job. Using US Census data from 1980 to 2000, we find considerable evidence for these effects: Each immigrant creates 1.2 local jobs for local workers, most of them going to native workers, and 62% of these jobs are in non-traded services. Immigrants appear to raise local non-tradables sector wages and to attract native-born workers from elsewhere in the country. Overall, it appears that local workers benefit from the arrival of more immigrants.

A casual observation suggest that that seems to be happening in some of those bustling Texas border cities. Although a closer look would be necessary to say for sure. One has to wonder about single industry towns, farm communities, for example. An influx of immigrant farm workers would seem to drive farm wages down as well as displace some existing farm workers. The increased demand for local services may not offset that feature.

A bigger issue, though, is the effect millions of immigrants would have on our political system. If they gravitate toward politicians who remind them of the government they left behind or promise them free stuff then that's a problem.

NBER abstract via Cafe Hayek.

Faked gay marriage survey -- like counterfeit bills, you know there are more out there

By now everyone has everyone has heard about the survey the gay UCLA PhD published which purported to demonstrate that contact with a gay canvasser can change people's opinions about gay marriage. The survey was later shown to be bogus. They've created another fissure in the credibility of social scientists and the journalists who aid and abet that mendacity.

Daniel J. Flynn in What the Faked Gay Marriage Study Says About Academia and the Media says this:

Ultimately, the fraudulent peer-reviewed study says more about the corruption of the media and academia than it does about the corruption of one activist professor. Journalists and professors ostensibly dedicated to the search for truth unravel the institutions they serve when they imagine themselves as already possessing the truth.

The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and other leading publications initially ran uncritical pieces on the research. Princeton hired Michael LaCour, the UCLA Ph.D. allegedly responsible for the faked data, as an assistant professor and Science published his co-authored article.

We needn't look any farther than the global warming movement to see examples of science subjugated by ideology with willing media accomplices.

It's a little bit like counterfeit money. If a fake twenty dollar bill shows up at a convenience store, you know there wasn't just one out there.

Amazing how people can change their memory when they change their minds -- many who supported war in Iraq now say they didn't

In the presidential election of 1972 Richard Nixon beat George McGovern in every state except Massachusetts. But tough times were ahead for Nixon as the Watergate scandal became more widely publicized. And since then Nixon became the personification of an evil president in popular opinion.

Here's the funny part. Years later polls showed that an impossible number of people claimed to have voted for McGovern instead of Nixon. They were on the popular side at the time of the election, and after opinions changed about Nixon, they were on the popular side then, too.

Fast forward to a few days ago when poll results tell us that an astonishing number of Americans remember opposing the 2003 Iraq war. Take a look at these Yougov comparisons. Back in 2003 a poll showed that 63% supported the war. But in 2015 only 38% will admit they supported the war back then.

So are people really remembering wrong? Maybe. Or perhaps they're just providing poll takers with the answers that make them appear politically correct.

Does anyone wonder why America's enemies always seem to prefer a Democrat president?

We've all noticed it, and Democrats don't comment. But our enemies always seem to favor Democrats as America's president, and often they do comment. President Obama is returning the favor. Victor Davis Hanson explains why. Obama has made such a mess domestically that he's looking for help abroad to prop up his legacy. To wit:

... Nobel Laureate Obama logically sees that history’s positive verdict on his tenure must come from abroad. He will normalize relations with Castro’s Cuba and let others worry whether there is any reciprocity on issues of longstanding disagreement. History will record the fact of normalization, not transient details concerning human rights. Obama will bring Iran into the fold of nations — its nuclear-weapons program soon accorded the status of Pakistan’s. He will work with Islamic radical groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, acknowledging their legitimate grievances and helping them to forge a new generation of Middle Eastern leaders. He has not given up on Erdogan’s Turkey as a logical bridge between Islamic and Western nations. He has tried to reset relations with Putin and will try again, as he stealthily promised President Medvedev before the 2012 elections. Israel will be accorded the status of Switzerland or Belgium, a minor entity deserving of normal U.S. relations, but not of extraordinary American commitments.

Two more from Nationalreview.com: Enemies of the West Find a Friend in Obama about Obama's seemingly hostile attitude toward Israel; and Is the Obama Administration Readying More Concessions to Russia?.

Democrats have been the best ally our enemies have had since the war in Vietnam.

You wouldn't think this was necessary -- bill requiring a warrant to search body cavities at roadside traffic stops -- but it is in Texas

This is a little bit hard to believe, but some Texas DPS officers were sticking their fingers where they didn't belong. Forbes told the story at The War On Drugs Now Features Roadside Sexual Assaults By Cops.

One particular incident happened on Memorial Day in 2012 when two women and some children were driving home to Houston from the beach. They were pulled over for speeding, and a DPS trooper claimed he smelled marijuana. A routine search turned up paraphernalia but no dope. So he ordered a female trooper to search their body cavities right there on the side of the road.

Texas state Representative Harold Dutton of Houston is trying to put a roadblock on those searches with HB 324 which would require a search warrant before an anal or vaginal cavity search by law enforcement during a traffic stop. The bill passed the House and as of this writing has not been brought to a vote in the state Senate.

The bill wouldn't stop a search without a warrant, it would only mean it couldn't be conducted right there on the side of the road.

The main stream media use gay marriage to distract from real issues

A few years ago I read a very poignant blog essay in which the writer explained that he understood how serious the federal debt, the deficit, the Mid-East, Russia, China, North Korea, etc., were. But when two men love each other but were denied the right to a government sanctioned marriage that's a real travesty. And it overwhelmed all those other issues.

As a consequence of the type of thinking that puts social issues ahead of serious economic and geopolitical issues we've got people who vote to put and keep Barack Obama and his like in national office.

That brings us to Ted Cruz and his efforts to get the main stream media to focus on the real issues America faces. They badger Cruz in a effort to get him to say something anti-gay. But he's having none of it. Carol Brown in Media obsessed with fringe issues during interviews with Ted Cruz. Excerpt:

Last month during an extensive interview with a reporter from the Texas Tribune, after patiently indulging the man’s persistent questions about gay marriage (as well as the legalization of marijuana), a third of the way into the interview Cruz said:

I’ve gotta say, you’ve got some interesting party priorities. You’ve been in Travis County for a while, so gay marriage and pot are the pressing issues of the day.

This is the left in action. They have decided to act as if homosexuality and gay marriage are central to the future of mankind, to frame conservative Christians as people who hate gay people, and to run with it as far as they can.

Regrettably, given how brainwashed and dumbed-down many members of the electorate are, my guess is they’ll get pretty far.

That seems to be the way it works now. Imagine our enemies laughing at us and our misplaced priorities. They develop plans to divide the United States among themselves while we celebrate gay marriages. Remember when lefties decried George W. Bush as a "cowboy?" There was a time when our enemies were afraid of us. We need a cowboy like the one the left portrayed Bush to be.

Texas' rank on a Kiplinger list of best states for retirees - We're number 42!

It's Kiplinger's list of How Every State Ranks for Retirement 2015. (Via Newmark's Door.)

Here's the list, but go to the link to see more detail.

1 Delaware
2 Florida
3 West Virginia
4 Pennsylvania
5 South Dakota
6 Arizona
7 Hawaii
8 Iowa
9 Kansas
10 Wyoming
11 Arkansas
12 New Hampshire
13 Mississippi
14 Alabama
15 Ohio
16 Connecticut
17 Oklahoma
18 Nevada
19 Kentucky
20 Vermont
21 Michigan
22 Maine
23 South Carolina
24 Idaho
25 Missouri
26 Alaska
27 Louisiana
28 North Dakota
29 Virginia
30 Wisconsin
31 Rhode Island
32 Washington
33 Colorado
34 Georgia
35 Tennessee
36 New Jersey
37 Indiana
38 Massachusetts
39 Maryland
40 Montana
41 Illinois
42 Texas
43 Utah
44 Oregon
45 Nebraska
46 North Carolina
47 Minnesota
48 New York
49 New Mexico
50 California
51 District of Columbia
Rankings are based on seven factors: taxes on retirees; share of residents 65+; average income for 65+ households; poverty rate for residents 65+; cost of living for all residents; home values for residents 65+; and crime rates.

It's not surprising to see Florida near the top. All those old folks knew something. It's also not surprising to see California and New York near the bottom, although it might be a positive for New York retirees that New York City’s narcotics cops are being told to stop arresting suspects over the age of 40.

Texas' selling point appears to be the lack of a state income tax. But be forewarned before moving here. There's a state sales tax of 6.25% which when added to the local sales taxes drives it up to 8.25% in most municipalities. That can really add up on big ticket items. On a national basis that's why I favor the flat tax over a nationwide sales tax. Imagine the sticker shock when faced with a total sales tax of about 1/3. Ouch!

As for the retirees themselves, they're probably not especially appreciated wherever they are. They keep the local newspapers, cable TV companies, and any cafeteria with an early bird special alive. But no one else wants them. Even Mother Nature, with all those cancers that afflict reproductive systems of both men and women, seems to be saying "Get out there, reproduce, then get the Hell out of the way!"

Texas gun owners are watching anxiously as the open carry bill creeps to the finish line ahead of the deadline

Representative Larry Phillips' open carry bill passed the House a month ago. And according to the action page for HB 910, yesterday the state Senate held public hearings on the bill.

A whole slew of women spoke against it, all purporting to be supporters of an organization called "Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America" which appears to be a garden variety anti-gun group. Here's the fun part. They all seemed to be reading from the same script. At least that's the way it appeared in this youtube video montage. Bless their hearts. If only good intentions really did translate to good sense.

If you want to skip the anti-gun ladies, start at the 8:13 mark to hear Open Carry Texas founder and president CJ Grisham rebut the claim that open carry might have contributed to the violence at the biker gang shootout in Waco. He patiently explained that known gang member are already prohibited from carrying guns. And the open carry bill would not change that.

So now we await the Senate's action, then the governor's signature.

Judith Miller give a refresher course on what the left tried to promote as "the big lie" about the war in Iraq

The main stream media are trying to put heat on Jeb Bush for his support for the war in Iraq. And by doing that they've signaled one of the points of attack they'll take against Republicans as the 2016 election approaches.

So now may be a good time to take a look at Judith Miller's recent refresher course at WSJ.com in The Iraq War and Stubborn Myths. (It's behind the pay wall, but you probably know how to get around it.) Here are some excerpts:

There was no shortage of mistakes about Iraq, and I made my share of them. The newsworthy claims of some of my prewar WMD stories were wrong. But so is the enduring, pernicious accusation that the Bush administration fabricated WMD intelligence to take the country to war. Before the 2003 invasion, President Bush and other senior officials cited the intelligence community’s incorrect conclusions about Saddam’s WMD capabilities and, on occasion, went beyond them. But relying on the mistakes of others and errors of judgment are not the same as lying.

Turns out that after Saddam was toppled a significant cache of old chemical weapons was found in Iraq.

Miller goes on:

A two-year study by Charles Duelfer, the former deputy chief of the U.N. inspectors who led America’s hunt for WMD in Iraq, concluded that Saddam Hussein was playing a double game, trying (on the one hand) to get sanctions lifted and inspectors out of Iraq and (on the other) to persuade Iran and other foes that he had retained WMD. Not even the Iraqi dictator himself knew for sure what his stockpiles contained, Mr. Duelfer argued. Often forgotten is Mr. Duelfer’s well-documented warning that Saddam intended to restore his WMD programs once sanctions were lifted.

One important aspect that wants to be forgotten was the support prominent Democrats gave to the WMD hypothesis. Miller again:

Though few legislators apparently read the classified version of the 2002 WMD estimate—which contained more caveats than the sanitized “key findings” disclosed in October of that year—almost none disputed the analysts’ conclusion, with “high confidence,” that Saddam retained both chemical and germ weapons, or their view, with “moderate confidence,” that Iraq did not yet have nuclear weapons. Speeches denouncing Saddam’s cheating were given not just by Republican hawks but by prewar GOP skeptic Sen. Chuck Hagel and by senior Democrats Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and Jay Rockefeller, among others.

So while everyone is looking back and playing arm chair quarterback with full knowledge of the facts, one wonders if they are able to foresee that alternate history beyond the start of the war. Saddam Hussein had been busy seducing and bribing officials everywhere in an effort to get sanctions lifted. Given how easy Iran seems to be having in getting their own sanctions lifted, the shrewd Hussein would have had an easy go of it. By now one of his sons would be heading a clandestine program to develop a nuclear weapon. The middle east would be in an arms race to get the first nuclear bomb. And Saddam would be thumbing his nose at the west, only this time he wouldn't be bluffing.

That's the problem with backwards time travel the msm want to do. You go back and change the one thing you don't like, and here come those annoying unanticipated consequences.

It's almost as if the standard excuse for mishaps and malfeasance is that there just wasn't enough taxpayer money thrown their way

It sounds like extortion.

The city of Baltimore received $1.8 billion from Obama's stimulus program. And the results seem to be nil, at least as for as preparing the youth for productive careers. Yet President Obama wants us to search our souls and come up with more money. Do that, and any guilt you feel will be absolved, at least until the next time.

A speeding Amtrak train jumps the track, and the first reaction is to blame stingy lawmakers. Never mind that $1.4 billion went to Amtrak under Obama's 2014 appropriations bill.

Most conservatives are tired of explaining that throwing money at an entrenched problem involving government generally doesn't solve the problem. But maybe they're not going far enough. Perhaps throwing money is what caused the problem.

Fox Friday 5-15-2015 -- no foxes this week, photos from good old days

The foxes boycotted the Bone Yard this week. The wild Yellow Cat has been so inhospitable to them that they've left the area. But we needn't worry. They fed themselves before I started putting out food for this photo project, so they can probably take care of themselves now. Good for them, but it's our loss.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the good old days when they had command of the feeding station.

So long you magnificent creatures. I'll miss you.

Fox Friday will go on hiatus until they return.

The strange thing about the donation from Stephanopoulos to Clinton is that the money went the wrong way

There are those who say that progressivism is like a cult religion. Its adherents are dogmatic, loyal to its leaders, always proselytizing, and hostile to disbelievers. So when George Stephanopoulos became a journalist at ABC most observers realized he could not be neutral even if he tried.

Now we learn that Stephanopoulos has donated a chunk of money to the Clinton Foundation. At last count, it was supposed to have been $75,000. That's a lot of money for most of us but probably not that much to a network news celebrity. Here's media analyst Howard Kurtz:

Let me be blunt: For George to give money to the Clinton Foundation, out of all possible charities, knowing full well that Hillary was gearing up to run, is a grave error in judgment. For him not to disclose this to his network or to viewers—especially when he was aggressively interviewing “Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer about that very foundation—is unthinkable. And for ABC to brush this off as an “honest mistake” is embarrassing.

People already distrust the media as too liberal. A late-in-life journalist who began his career as a prominent Democrat working in the White House faces a special burden to demonstrate his independence. By donating to the Clintons’ family charity and keeping it secret, Stephanopoulos has failed that test.

I'm confused about the whole thing. The money flow seems to be going the wrong way. Stephanopoulos has done so much for the Clintons and the Democratic Party they should be paying him for his service. But people donate to their churches, not the other way around, so I guess it fits.

Peace Officer Memorial in Midland Texas -- 5-14-2015

In normal times the job of a law enforcement officer is fraught with danger. And these days the arrests reports in the local newspaper are full of incidents in which someone assaulted an arresting officer.

Sometimes those encounters get deadly. Law enforcement officers are on the job by choice, and they assumed the risk when they signed on. Nevertheless, that doesn't matter much when a deadly encounter occurs. Then there are those hot spots where it seems as if residents have drawn bulls eyes on police officers to satisfy racial grievances. It's a dangerous job.

Today in Midland, Texas, the Midland Police Department conducted its annual memorial ceremony. And it was a touching ceremony.

Here are a few photos.

The main speaker was Judge Robin Darr who remarked that police officers who died in the line of duty gave their lives so that we might live. What a burden we carry. How could we ever repay such a sacrifice? About all we can do is honor their memory.

This PDF is a scan of the program where you can see the list of the 15 Texas officers killed in the past 12 months. That's 15 too many.

P.S. It was 16 if you count the Pepper, the dog from the Wise County Sheriff's office.

Obama called sexist for referring to Elizabeth Warren by first name -- At least he didn't call her a Redskin

This is too funny. The late night TV show comedy writers could have taken a day off yesterday, because the jokes wrote themselves. Thehill.com tells the story this way:

National Organization for Women (NOW) president Terry O'Neill on Wednesday called President Obama's critique of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sexist.

O'Neill told The Hill she took issue with Obama calling Warren by her first name during an interview with Yahoo News published Saturday.

"Yes, I think it is sexist," O'Neill said. "I think the president was trying to build up his own trustworthiness on this issue by convincing us that Senator Warren's concerns are not to be taken seriously. But he did it in a sexist way."

Obama told Yahoo that Warren was opposing his trade agenda to further her own political brand.

What else could he have called her? Fauxcahontas seems fitting.

Surprising poll -- only 43% of Democrats view socialism favorably

It was a yougov.com poll which says it has a 4% margin of error. But if it's accurate, that seems like a low percentage for Democrats on socialism. Maybe they like the idea that it creeps in unannounced so they don't have to face the reality of it head on.

Anyway, a link to the above results can be found at the article titled One third of millennials view socialism favorably. As you can see, they're more impressed with the young peoples' view. That's important all right, but attitudes change as people get older. We've all heard the old saw about how you don't have a heart if you aren't liberal when you're young, and you don't have a brain if you are still liberal when you get older. Spending a few years in the real economy can do that to a person.

Furthermore, as young people get exposed to the chaos of countries like Greece and Argentina they'll wise up to hazards of socialism.

What impresses me is what seems to be a low number of Democrats who view socialism favorably. The numbers were 7% very favorable and 36% somewhat favorable. Barack Obama swept Democrats off their feet in 2008. And few knew before he got elected president what President Obama would do once in office. This poll doesn't appear to have a prior set of numbers for comparison. But now that Obama has made some significant strides towards a socialism, voters should have a better idea of what socialism means. And maybe next time they'll vote with their brains, not their hearts.

Link to poll via hotair.com.

Bob Owens weighs in on Glocks and safety, or lack thereof

Readers of this blog may recall the several articles I posted on these pages about Glock handguns and the frequency of their involvement in accidental/negligent discharges. They've got a light trigger pull, and there's no manual safety. And they are very easy to shoot.

I understand that newer ones have an indicator which tell the user whether there's a bullet in the chamber. But that's a relatively new feature, and besides, it only matters if the user actually looks at it.

Anyway, gun writer Bob Owens weighed in on the issue in Why the police shouldn't use Glocks, (Via Instapundit.) From Owens' article:

In terms of mechanical design, there are few flaws with Glock pistols. If a law enforcement officer, soldier or citizen does exactly what they are supposed to do all of the time with cyborg certainty, there will be no problems with the Glock or other popular pistols mimicking its basic design. Unfortunately, “RoboCop” is only a movie, and humans are liable to make similar mistakes over and over again.

The cyborg metaphor is a good one. It's always risky to engage in an activity that requires you to be right 100% of the time. That's why skydivers use back-up parachutes. More from Owens:

The underlying problem with these pistols is a short trigger pull and the lack of an external safety. In real-world encounters, a short trigger pull can be lethal, in part because a significant percentage of law enforcement officers — some experts say as high as 20% — put their finger on the trigger of their weapons when under stress. According to firearms trainers, most officers are completely unaware of their tendency to do this and have a hard time believing it, even when they're shown video evidence from training exercises.

In any event, there seem to have been an inordinate number of accidental/negligent discharges involving Glock handguns. From time to time a victim sues the company following an injury from an unintentional discharge. One such case that may still be pending is Chavez vs. Glock, Inc, et al. Enrique Herrera Chavez was a Los Angeles police officer who was hauling his small child in the back seat of his car when the child fiddled with Mr. Chavez's Glock model 21 which was also back there. The gun discharged and injured Mr. Chavez. Mr. Chavez sued Glock, Inc., as well as some tangentially involved parties. The trial judge threw the case out with a ruling in favor of a motion for summary judgment. The appellate court confirmed in part but allowed Mr. Chavez to continue his suit against Glock, Inc., on the theory that the gun could have had a design defect. The appellate case issued the ruling on July 24, 2012. And then the case disappeared off the face of the internet.

Paul Barrett wrote an excellent book titled "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" which is well worth the time it takes to read. In it he says that Glock, Inc., tends to quietly settle the cases it thinks it could lose and fight those that it thinks it can win with an emphasis on just how careless a person has to be to fire off a round unintentionally. It would seem that the Chavez case could go either way in a California court. So maybe the case was quietly settled with a non-disclosure clause.

For more about Glocks at this blog click on the Guns tag. The post there aren't all about Glocks, but it shouldn't be hard to find them.

the Jade Helm 15 map shows conservative voting areas marked as hostile zones -- probably the way Obama sees them

We talked about Jade Helm 15 the other day. Texas Governor Abbott asked the state guard to monitor the federal military exercises in Texas, and the liberal media goes bananas.

Obama loves to lay out leg traps for his political opponents, for example, there was the birth certificate trap that caught Donald Trump. So when a large military exercise has a map showing Texas, Utah, and Southern California -- all mostly politically conservative areas -- as hostile territories, one has to be suspicious of the motive. A coincidence? Well, how politically shrewd are Barack Obama's minions? Either that they didn't see a problem with it, or they saw the problem and decided to go ahead with it anyway.

Amy Davidson, in Unclear Dangers, tries to explain it this way:

The Jade Helm training exercises are drawn on a map of the Southwest not because it’s ground zero in an incipient civil war but because the landscape there is similar to that of battlefields that we have rushed and wandered into in recent years, in countries that do have “insurgent pockets.”

She must be talking about Iraq and Afghanistan. For her to say the landscape in Texas is similar to Iraq and Afghanistan suggests she has not seen much of Texas.

Meanwhile, lefties are now busy chastising Pamela Geller for daring to exercise her right of free speech. As Mark Steyn notes in Stay Quiet and You'll Be Okay, they're busy chipping away at our liberty without even knowing it.

Hat tip to PH Factor for the map.

Active shooter training paid off for Garland cop who shot terrorists

Keeping him anonymous is a good idea. They're doing it to keep him off a jihadi hit list. But the anonymity adds a mystery. Who was that masked man? He could be in that patrol car. He could be anywhere. Watch out, you crazy jihadist losers, he's watching you.

Most police officers these days are trained for active shooter scenarios. And one important aspect of that training is conditioning the officer to advance toward the gunfire. Talk about counter intuitive.

That Garland cop who shot the two terrorists obviously had some good training. Bob Owens analyzed some of the published photos of the crime scene and tells us that the trail of evidence markers indicates that the officer advanced toward the shooters with a Glock-a-blazing. That takes some fortitude. See his analysis at Bearingarms.com. Via Weeklystandard.com.

The last active shooter training session I observed was eight years ago at the Permian Basin Law Enforcement Academy in Midland, Texas.  Officers were sent into scenarios designed to test their ability to think and act in a situation with the potential of return fire.

In the very first session the trainees were told there was a villain in one of the rooms. As soon as they entered the structure a shot rang out from a back room. It surprised them, but they advanced toward the sound like they were supposed to. Courage was on display along with skill. Read the write-up here, and see some photos here.

Meanwhile, citizen gun owners around the country are probably imagining similar terrorist scenarios in their own communities and planning to take careful aim so that only the terrorists are harmed.

Good shooting, everyone.

Fox Friday 5-8-15 -- they're back, at least for now

Each Fox Friday for the last couple of months I've wondered if it would be the last. Feral cats have commandeered the feeding station, and the foxes have left it to them. Hopefully, the foxes are getting enough food elsewhere. But one cat seems to have become dependent on the food put out for the foxes. As I remarked once before, that cat might make someone a good pet if he/she wanted a pet that won't come near a human.

This past week the fare was going to be dry dog food exclusively. Yellow Cat ate it, and that tells us she probably doesn't have any other source of food. But one night two foxes came by. So the next night I put out three chicken drumsticks -- one was thawed and two were frozen. The theory was that the cat would eat the thawed one and become satiated. Then later as the other two thawed the foxes could come along and get them. It almost worked.

This first set is from Tuesday night. Dry dog food was on the not-so-tempting menu that night.

150506 79, 82 Old Crooked Tail nibbles dog food while Little Fox slinks by in the background. Then OCT watches Little Fox's back as she leaves.

Wednesday night the bait consisted of one thawed and two frozen drumsticks. Yellow cat got the thawed drumstick. Black Cat hauled off one of the frozen drumsticks. Then along came the foxes.

Old Crooked Tail sniffs around while Little Fox watches from the shadows. Then they both graze. Unfortunately, they didn't appear to want the remaining frozen drumstick, and in the early AM Black Cat came back and got what was left of it.

The handouts this week will be dry dog food again, however a fox presence might justify a more tempting fare. The feline felons take a lot of the fun out of this project. So we're just going to take it week-by-week to see how it goes.

Carly Fiorina turns the tables on Seth Meyers -- Hilarious

This is the funniest TV thing I've seen a long time.

Jon Stewart wannabe Seth Meyers was doing his best to try to embarrass Carly Fiorina by pointing out that some sneaky lefty bought the domain name CarlyFiorina.org and is using it to try to damage Fiorina's campaign. Great fun, huh?

Not so fast, Seth. Carly said she bought the domain name SethMeyer.org while she was in the green room. "Actually, it was really cheap."

Wow! What a comeback. In the low information environment those are the type of things that win votes.

Watch the video at this Youtube link.  Via Townhall.com.

Hmm. I wonder how many other famous domain names she has in her inventory. She could use income from their sales to replenish her campaign coffers. Some could be quite valuable, for example, according to nationaljournal.com Rand Paul's campaign just bought RandPaul.com for $100,000.

Outspoken Obama critic Wayne Allyn Root offers up evidence that he was targeted by IRS

It will be hard to prove that the IRS targeted someone because of their political viewpoint, especially in light of federal government habits of stonewalling investigation. A claim that it was only a random audit may be enough to raise a reasonable doubt.

In any event, outspoken Obama critic Wayne Allyn Root contends that he has evidence, obtained by Judicial Watch, that he was targeted. He's posted it several places around the net, and here's one at foxnews.com titled IRS Scandal: I was targeted and I've got proof it was a Democratically-led conspiracy.

His evidence includes the following:

His tax file was labeled “SENSITIVE CASE.”

A Senator was involved.

The case was closed on the same date Lois Lerner resigned.

An auditor wrote in a margin that he spent hours researching Mr. Root's political views.

That's all circumstantial. But he does make a compelling case. Only a real investigation could get to the bottom of it, and only a Republican administration would order one.

But this does help remind us of how arrogant those IRS agents were when they testified before congressional committees. If there is any justice the tax code would be replaced with a flat tax, the IRS would be completely revamped, and there would be very severe penalties for anyone who let their politics influence the tax collection duty.

Death to America - just an expression. Stomping American flag -- A OK. Picture of Muhammad -- Ohhhh Noooo!

Practically every utterance we get from Iran contains the phrase, "Death to America." But our own supreme leader says it's just an expression. Here at home the hipsters are making viral videos of themselves stomping the American flag. However, there's nary a word of discouragement from the fourth estate practitioners.

But if someone holds a Muhammad cartoon contest the outcry from the newsies is deafening. How easy it is for them to blame the victim. See Carol Brown's article I support free speech, but, however, and except.... Excerpt:

After Pamela Geller’s free speech event in Texas and the terror attack that followed, it has been stunning to hear one journalist after another ask Ms. Geller why she held the event, question the wisdom or need for such an event, and go so far as to insinuate that she was somehow to blame for the violence.

Just as the media’s coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas said that of course Israel had a right to defend herself, buuuuuuut…, these same journalists interviewing Ms. Geller start out by saying that of course we support free speech and that there’s no excuse for violence, buuuuuuuut…

Read the whole thing for quotes from the usual suspects.

They're rationalizing, of course. They're afraid, and they're doing a poor job of hiding it.

Memo to the media -- people out here in flyover country don't trust the federal government

Instead of ridiculing the people you perceive as your intellectual inferior, e.g., those who were concerned about the feds conducting military ops in rural Texas, how about explaining to us why you trust the government so much.

This is about the knee jerk progressives' reaction to Texas Governor Abbott's order to the State Guard to monitor the federal government's planned Jade Helm 15 operation on Texas soil. See press release and letter.

Of course progressives are going to seize on that to criticize Texans. They'll seize on any thing. It's all partisan politics. For an example, see the opinion piece snapped from this morning's Midland Reporter-Telegram on the right.

The question we should ask is why these people who want to influence our opinion think we can trust them much less the federal government.

There was Fast and Furious, the program through which Eric Holder's DOJ funneled American made assault rifles to killers in Mexico then refused to turn over records about it. There was the Lois Lerner IRS assault on conservatives and the destroyed hard drives. There was the terrorist attack at Benghazi with subsequent government cover up. There was the Clinton Foundation and the vanishing emails. These are the biggies that just about everyone has heard about.

So, main stream media, please explain to us why you think these things should not influence our trust in government. I think I know the reason. It isn't that you trust the government so much, it's that you think you are immune from government action and therefore have nothing to fear yourself. Other peoples' fears might seem trivial until it happens to you.

Looks like the boatload of money Obama's stimulus package dumped on Baltimore went down the drain

Last week we commented about President Obama's speech telling us what we should do about Baltimore and how if only the Republicans weren't so bullheaded the government could spend the money to get those impoverished areas in Baltimore going again.

The reason we are revisiting this today is because of an item at freebeacon.com titled Baltimore Received $1.8 Billion from Obama’s Stimulus Law. Go to the link to see a breakdown. But the title makes the point.

The War on Poverty is 50 years old. President Obama's knowledge of American history doesn't go back that far. But the story is there for anyone to see it. While it might have seemed like a good idea at its inception, throwing money at the problem only created dependents. And more problems.

So, President Obama, your suggestion looks a little tired, especially since you've already tried it. Look where it got Baltimore. But that's a hallmark of liberal activism. If spending money didn't work. Spend more money.

And there's the problem with socialism. In theory it sounds like a good idea to put smart people in charge of running an economy in a way that makes everyone financially successful. Problem is, no one is that smart. We would end up with a government picking winners and losers with lots of unintended consequences. What works is to get the government out of the way and let entrepreneurs do what they do best.

Editor's note: Your title would have made a better metaphor if you said the money went up in flames. Robo-ed. -- DOH! Sleepless.

Will genuflect for food -- Venezuela to nationalize food distribution

Democrats don't boast much about their desire for a socialist America. But if polls are correct, as recently as 2010 sixty-one percent of liberals said their image of socialism was positive. Source: Gallup.com.

Perhaps this is one of those cases where liberals and progressives are less informed than conservatives. So it's up to us to help bring everyone up to speed on just what socialism does to the countries that are stuck with it.

A case in point is Venezuela. See Venezuela to nationalize food distribution. How does one put a happy face on that? Excerpt:

Venezuela is struggling with a recession, 68.5-percent annual inflation and severe shortages of the basic goods that it relies on oil money to import.

On any given day, people in Venezuela can wait hours to get some subsidized milk, cooking oil, milk or flour -- if they can be found at all.

Maduro's government is strapped for cash in the face of a global supply glut that caused oil prices to collapse by more than 50 percent between June and January.

Nonetheless, Maduro also announced a 30-percent increase in public wages on Friday.

Venezuela is a country rich in natural resources but poor in economic opportunity. Then they get leaders who promise the moon and deliver dirt. That's what socialism does. Democrats, please snap out of it.

Polygraph -- The lie detector that doesn't detect lies

My first experience with a lie detector happened when I was about four or five years old. Some older kids in the hood built one. It looked like a ordinary cardboard box except that it had two holes in it, one covered by red cellophane and the other by green cellophane. If you told the truth, the green one would light up, but if you told a lie the red one would light up.

Questioner: Do you have a girl friend?
Me: No.
Lie detector: Red light.

Wait, what?

Turns out there was another kid inside the box with a flashlight. Doh!

The modern polygraph machine is a little bit more sophisticated, but it probably isn't that much better at distinguishing truth from fiction. There have been some famous cases of guilty people passing the poly. Spy Aldrich Ames, for example.

And no doubt there are many honest people who flunked it. Fortunately, the test results are generally not admissible in court.

The real value of the polygraph is if the test taker believes it will work. The technician tells the subject that the test says he/she lied. Faced with this scientific proof and a convincing technician, the test taker then confesses.

Oh, did I let the cat out of the bag? Nah. This is old stuff and came to us by way of thedailybeast.com in The Polygraph Has Been Lying for 80 Years.

P.S. This is barely related and didn't involve a polygraph. There's a very good talk on C-span in which Sandra Grimes talks about her book, "Circle of Treason" and her work in the CIA ferreting out the spy Aldrich Ames. It's a fascinating story, and her talk is worth a look and listen.