Archive for November 22nd, 2010

Speaking of the gun show loophole.

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

The Saxet Shows are back in Austin. (Previously.)

A group of us went yesterday. Things I noticed:

  • The show was at the Travis County Expo Center. There was no requirement that sales go through a licensed dealer, and I saw a lot of folks with “Private seller” signs on their tables.
  • I did see a considerable police presence, but I’m not sure how many of those police officers were just browsing the show in uniform, and how many were actually working.
  • I also saw a lot of folks with what I’ll call, for want of a better word, “wanted” posters with photos of some guys who’ve apparently been running doing purchases at gun shows as part of some kind of Brady Bunch sting.
  • No book dealers. Except for that guy who is always at the gun shows, selling survivalist books and weird crank literature about the Trilateral Commission/New World Order/Illuminati connection.
  • A fair amount of ammo, including .380 auto.
  • Didn’t buy any guns. Someone had a XP-100 in .221 Fireball, which was tempting, but I’d have to start reloading, and I didn’t feel like shelling out $575 right now. (That was with a scope, though I didn’t look closely at what kind of scope.) As I’ve noted before, I have a nostalgic attachment to the XP-100. As I’ve also noted before, nostalgia is a moron.
  • Decent assortment of vendors. I’m hoping next month’s show will be even larger, now that folks have had a month to prepare.
  • What of the gun show in the old Target building? The web site still shows them with a show scheduled December 18th and 19th. Yes, that is the same weekend as the next Saxet show.

Posted in Guns | 2 Comments »

Boom! Boom! Acka lacka lacka boom!

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Brad Childress. Over. Done.

My reaction? I was somewhat amused that I was listening to Was (Not Was) when I found this out. As I’ve said previously, I think the major problem that Childress had was his failure to walk the dinosaur.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

The Washington Post makes me testy. (Part VI)

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Oh, look! The WP‘s “Hidden Life of Guns” is back! Unleash the dagron, as they say on FARK!

I am rapidly coming to the belief that the most dangerous things in the world, in order, are:

  • a software guy with a soldering iron.
  • a hardware guy with a programming language.
  • a journalist with a database.
  • and a government employee with an idea.

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics | 4 Comments »

Quote of the day.

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Over the weekend, I picked up a copy of David Chadwick’s Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki.

I haven’t read it yet, and I’m going to be up to my eyebrows in the Iranian Revolution for the next week, but I did find one rather striking exchange while flipping through the book.

The setup for this is that a group of Suzuki’s students were sitting around with Suzuki talking about some book “about the meeting of East and West”. The students were making comparisons between East and West, and the West was getting the short end of the stick.

As conversation continued in this vein, Suzuki spoke up, obviously upset. “If you want to be a good Buddhist,” he said, “first you’re going to have to learn how to be a good Christian.” Then he got up and walked out.

Posted in Books, Zen | Comments Closed

Obit watch: But what about Thumper?

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

One of my tipsters pointed out that Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek has died.

For those of you who don’t remember the bizarre saga of  the Bembenek case: Ms. Bembenek was a former waitress in a Playboy Club who became an officer with the Milwaukee PD. Shortly after that, she married a Milwaukee PD detective. Shortly after that, the detective’s ex-wife was capped.

Ms. Bembenek was arrested and charged with the murder, but claimed she had been framed by members of the Milwaukee PD, as retaliation for her cooperation in a federal investigation of the department. In spite of this, Ms. Bembenek was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Eight years after her conviction, Ms. Bembenek escaped from prison and fled to Canada. She was recaptured within three months, but in the meantime had gained a substantial amount of support in Milwaukee.

A reinvestigation of the case followed, and in December 1992 a judge reduced Ms. Bembenek’s life sentence to 20 years after she struck a deal with prosecutors in which she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. She was immediately released for time served.

Edited to add: slightly more detailed WP obit here. Somehow, I missed the whole “lawsuit against Dr. Phil” thing.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Obits | Comments Closed