Deviant Saint

Time:

1:02 am.

So I'm now 29.

Today was my birthday and all seems more or less the same except this impending feeling of my own mortality. Well not mortality... more age.
Well not really age...more "oldness". Well not really oldness... more... more...

.... more the FACT THAT I CAN NO LONGER SLEEP WITH HOT BARELY LEGAL CHICKS WITHOUT SEEMING CREEPY AS HELL.

this is a turning point for me and one I can only regard with sadness.

*sigh*

On the upside, I am now out of Iraq. I am currently sitting in a house in a charming little village in east Holland. For those of you who might be curious Holland is way more diverse than just hookers and pot in Amsterdam. Infact if you go to east holland you immediately recognize a severe lacking in both hookers AND pot.

I'm just saying.

All is well and I'll be here for up to 90 days and then I'll be back to Austin. SO, those of you still there... PREPARE FOR MY ARRIVAL AND YOUR IMPENDING DOOOOOM!!!.

or you know, for when I come back or something.

-D

Comments: Read 25 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	Now is our chance.
Time:	12:25 pm.

I am pro-gun.

Very, pro-gun

I believe that self defense is a basic human right and I believe that modern firearms are an individuals best choice for self defense. The landmark ruling by the supreme court finally lays to rest the debate in the American public sphere as to the individual nature of the 2nd Amendment. I believe that it is almost universally accepted that there are certain people who should not be allowed access to weapons, IE: violent criminals and the Mentally ill.

I also believe that on either side of the debate in the past there have been two basic agreed upon problems, that being accidental deaths of (especially of minors) with firearms and the rate of violent crime committed with firearms. I believe these two problems exist and should be combated and I believe that whether pro-gun or anti-gun it can be agreed upon that something should be done to mitigate these two occurrences. What has been hotly debated and fought over is what should be done. the two sides in the debate (pro-gun and anti-gun) have fought over what comes down to whether or not the problem should be addressed through legislation (gun bans, gun free zones, restrictions on purchasing amounts, restrictions on ammo purchases) or through education (the eddie eagle program etc).

Now that the 2nd Amendment has been confirmed to guarantee an individual right, I believe, we can move to combating directly the two above mentioned problems. I also believe the debate, though continuing, has lessened on at least one point.

You cannot ban the ownership of firearms for self defense.

However, the above two problems still need to be addressed and still need to be combated. How do we reduce the number of accidental deaths and criminal usages involving firearms? What information do we need to be able to even make a decision regarding how to go about doing something about these things?

I believe now may actually be the time to reach across the aisle on this debate and try to form some kind of plan of action. I believe that the pro-gun community should now lend it's expertise on the subject of firearms to creating a solution for this. I do not believe that legislating trigger locks or keeping weapons inoperable was the answer. I do however believe (and I am sure I am not alone in this) that proper security of weapons when not in use is important. I also believe that education is the answer rather than legislation.

I know that there is still a large amount of work to be done defending the second amendment, and I know that the work will continuously be needed.

However, now is the time to redouble our efforts into producing solutions to the problems America faces. We are the ones with an intimate understanding of firearms, we are the one who can more readily understand the pitfalls of regulation and of certain strategies. Shouldn't we be the ones to come up with something that actually can work? Shouldn't we be the ones to reach across the aisle to our opponents and agree to work on these two problems, to offer our collective knowledge and understanding?

Now we have an opportunity to start with a new understanding and look at these problems with a critical, pragmatic eye to something that can really work. There will be pitfalls, yes, there will be problems, yes, there will be issues of contention that dialog may not be able to assuage. However, I think that the impetus is on us, as part of the shooting community, to take the first steps forward to establish something we really can call a "common sense solution".

Comments: Read 21 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	SIGN A PETITION FOR OPEN CARRY IN TEXAS
Time:	6:23 am.

A petition is currently being circulated to demand the right to open carry a firearm in Texas.

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/715977.html

To: Texas State Legislature and Texas Governor Rick Perry

We hold that all citizens who may lawfully purchase a handgun be allowed to carry openly in public in the State of Texas except for those places prohibited by law. We also call for state preemption of all handgun laws concerning open carry in Texas.

1. Every individual has the right and responsibility to defend their self against unjustified threats of death or serious bodily injury.

2. The Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.

3. Criminals are not deterred by rules, regulations, and laws forbidding the possession of weapons. A man bent on mass murder will not be stopped by a rule forbidding him to have a gun.

4. It is well known that the requirement to conceal a handgun for the purpose of protecting self, friends, and family can be difficult especially in Texas with our extreme heat since a person will usually have to wear a jacket to properly conceal a handgun and to avoid "printing."

5. The requirement to conceal a handgun can make it difficult to draw the weapon should the life of the carrier or the life of someone else be in danger.

6. A criminal will not open carry a weapon because he does not want to draw attention to himself. We believe that a citizen openly carrying a handgun lawfully will be a deterrent for crime.

7. Ten states including Arizona, Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming all allow open carry of handguns without a license. Twelve states including Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, and Tennessee allow open carry of handguns with a license. In fact, Texas is one of only SIX states in the entire United States that completely bans open carry of handguns.

8. In these states, Open carry is very common and it does not alarm law enforcement or other citizens.

For the foregoing reasons, we residents of the State of Texas affirm and assert that all citizens who may lawfully purchase a handgun be allowed to carry openly in public in the State of Texas except for those places prohibited by law. We also call for state preemption of all handgun laws concerning open carry in Texas.

Please sign the petition here.
http://www.petitiononline.com/texasoc/

Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	I'd hate to say it's natural selection but....
Time:	9:53 am.

Woman dies in second accident on LBJ

07:45 PM CDT on Sunday, June 15, 2008

By MARISSA ALANIS / The Dallas Morning News
malanis@dallasnews.com

A 22-year-old woman was killed after she was hit by a car while trying to take pictures of a three-vehicle accident on LBJ Freeway early Sunday.

April Sterling of Dallas and her friend were heading west on LBJ Freeway near Plano Road when they stopped so she could take pictures of the accident that occurred about 7:45 a.m., said Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda.

Ms. Sterling wanted to get closer to the accident scene so she ran into the HOV lane when a vehicle traveling west struck her, throwing her into the eastbound lanes of the freeway. She was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where she died from her injuries.

The three-vehicle accident shut down both sides of LBJ Freeway for several hours.

Police said a tractor-trailer was heading east on the freeway and driving over a hill when he locked his brakes to avoid hitting two trucks parked on the freeway's shoulder.

The tractor-trailer crashed into the two pickups, causing all three vehicles to burst into flames. One driver was taken to an area hospital. That driver's condition was unknown Sunday evening.

Sgt. Cerda said the tractor-trailer driver faces a misdemeanor charge of faulty evasion action.

Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	Speculation and the Price of Oil.
Time:	7:57 pm.

Here is a brilliant article explaining a part of oil pricing economics.

Speculation and the Price of Oil
Ferdinand E Banks
http://seekingalpha.com/article/81394-speculation-and-the-price-of-oil

Some observers think that speculation is the cause of the escalating oil price – an escalation that, as I have pointed out in many lectures and publications (e.g. 2007), is capable of cutting the ground out from under the international macroeconomy. Put another way, these ‘pundits’ (= self-appointed experts) believe that we are dealing with a bubble, which is a price movement unsupported by fundamentals.

Among the gentlemen claiming that excessive speculation is responsible for the bad oil news being experienced by the buy side of that market, are the billionaire financier Mr George Soros (who admits that he is not an oil market expert, and that the oil price bubble has strong fundamental underpinnings), the influential television personality Mr Bill O’Reilly, and Lord Megnad Desai, who is a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. Many years ago Lord Desai and myself had a disagreement about the price of copper that terminated in the select learned journal Econometrica. I don’t recall how the referees ruled on that dispute, although I do remember that with copper – as at present with oil – I took great care to avoid making embarrassing mistakes.

Nor do I intend to make one here. The steadily rising oil price that we have witnessed of late is basically explained by the relation between ‘flow’ supply and ‘flow’ demand, where the term ‘flow’ will be explained in the next section. What has happened – as you know as well as I – is that ‘normal’ demand is tending to outrun ‘normal’ supply, causing a fundamental supply-demand imbalance. What you may not know is that this keeps inventories below the desired level, and leads to the earlier rather than later production of a certain quantity of oil, although ‘later’ could reduce the present value of intertemporal production costs by allowing a less intensive exploitation of high cost deposits. (Among other things, this might lower the rental rate for some production equipment, as well as reduce ‘overtime’ costs for employees.)
( Read more... )

Comments: Read 7 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	Reloading and Errata.
Time:	2:15 am.

So, first, if I have not mentioned this before. I should be coming back to the Austin area in the fall. Sometime around October I believe.

Two. I have decided to get into Reloading my own ammo. Not only will I be buying a reloading press. I believe I will actually be buying two of them.

A lee turret press, and a hornady LNL AP.

I realize that reloading is an expensive hobby to start, but as I'll be loading LARGE amounts of 5.56 and 9mm, I think that it will be well worth it. ALSO (and very importantly) the wife is very supportive of this. To the point of suggesting I get an Ammo resellers license (with is about 30.00 usd) and peddling any excess I crank out.

SO... yeah...hand rolled ammo goodness to come.

Comments: Read 21 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	Guns don't kill people, Toxic fumes do.
Time:	4:33 pm.

Toxic fumes suicide forces evacuation in Japan

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Police evacuated dozens of residents after poisonous fumes escaped from an apartment where a man killed himself by inhaling a detergent-laced gas, authorities said Wednesday.

The death in the city of Kanazawa, northeast of Tokyo, is the latest in a spate of suicides where people have mixed detergent and other chemicals and inhaled the resulting toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.

According to local media reports, more than 180 people across Japan have committed suicide in such a manner since late March -- an average of more than two a day.

The instructions are easily available online, and officials have asked Internet service providers to take down the recipe for the deadly mix.

In the latest case on Wednesday, officers found a man in his 20s in the bathroom of his apartment surrounded by bottles of detergent and other chemicals, said a Kanazawa police officer.

The man had posted a note outside his front door that warned residents that gas was being generated inside, the officer said.

Police evacuated 34 residents for two hours. One woman, complaining of sickness, was taken to a hospital.

Even before the spate of recent death, Japan had one of the highest rates of suicide in the world.

CNN's Junko Ogura contributed to this report

Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	PTSD and the Army.
Time:	3:21 am.

According to media reports the number of service members with PTSD has increased by about 50.0 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052701512.html?hpid=topnews

I have a theory about this stemming from a personal experience recently.

About a month and a half ago (something like that) my wife and I had a 107mm rocket land about 20m away from us. We were sleeping in bed when the early morning attack occured. The concussive wave was enough to rip the door right off our housing trailer.

The wife is now having symptoms of what I can only call "PTSD". I however am fine. I'm used to this much more having gone through basic training and the three combat tours. It's led me to think about something though. All these soldiers who're having PTSD in increased amounts, might it have something to do with the lowering of the training difficulty during basic?

I'm not saying that if basic was tougher we won't have PTSD. It's going to happen to some people in some amounts in a war. War is stressful and forces people to confront the universal human phobia of facing personal agression. (Lt Col Grossman coined the phrase "universal human phobia" in his book "On combat").

However, I'm prone to believing that Grossman is correct in his statements that fear and stress can be innoculated against by being exposed to stressful situations in a controlled environment (like basic training).

So, I'm wondering if the increase in PTSD reports in 2007 might correspond to soldiers who went through basic post 2003 after basic training standards were changed (read: made easier). It would be interesting to see that metric published. I've always said that basic training for the army needs to be longer and harder. The Marines do 12 weeks, and then a 5 week infantry tactics school (my understanding) and THEN they go on to their technical schools for their MOS.

In the army we do 9 weeks of basic and then right to your MOS school. Perhaps it's in the Army's best interest to push aside any quotas they might have and re-focus on making a better soldier rather than just more of them. The Marines have made their reputation from being the few and the proud. People join the corp because they want to be Marines (read: Bad asses). The army needs to think long and hard about what it is they want to stand for and what they want to accomplish and attract. Maybe a better understanding of how we prepare people for war needs to be reached so we can make better warriors better suited for handling the realities of warfare.

our understanding of PTSD is still in it's infancy, I'm not saying that it will ever go away or to deride the experiences of those who are grappling with it. What I am saying is that we need to look more at how we forge soldiers to make them more resiliant psychologically as well as physically.

Comments: Read 10 or Add Your Own.

Subject:	Save Red River and the Elysium
Time:	4:12 am.

Concerning the future of the Waller Creek District/Red River Area:
FORWARD IT TO FRIENDS.

REPOST IT.

Thanks

*****

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/wallercreek/survey.cfm

This is the survey for the City of Austin about the plan for Red River in 2012. This is the LAST CHANCE for public comment. All surveys must be in by May 31st. Please suffer through and fill out the survey, and if you know anyone else who enjoys any bars/bands on Red River, please send it to them as well.

The first part covers your interest in the Red River/Waller Creek area, then your choice of what should be done in different areas along Waller Creek/Red River, then lastly the comment section.

Please fill out the survey.

Thanks,

John Wickham
Elysium
President Red River District

Comments: Read 9 or Add Your Own.

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