Archive for December 22nd, 2022

Obit watch: December 22, 2022.

Thursday, December 22nd, 2022

Diane McBain, actress.

Other credits include “Airwolf”, the good “Hawaii 5-0”, “Barbary Coast”…

…and “Mannix”. (“Blind Mirror”, season 3, episode 17. She was “Stella Diamond”.)

Posted in Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Noted.

Thursday, December 22nd, 2022

This story is a couple of days old, but I only got around to reading it this morning. When Rod Dreher says the NYT got a story about religion right, you should probably pay attention.

“The Miraculous Life and Afterlife of Charlene Richard“, about a Cajun farm girl who died in 1959 and the lengthy effort to make her a saint.

This is long, but I think it repays the effort. There’s a lot of discussion in the article about the specifics of the canonization process (including the relatively recent changes) and the internal Church politics involved in making someone a saint. If this isn’t the kind of thing that makes your eyes glaze over, I commend this article to your attention.

Posted in Clippings, Religion | Comments Closed

Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho.

Thursday, December 22nd, 2022

According to the NYT, Adair, Iowa has a population of about 800 people.

The chief of police has been using his law enforcement credentials to buy machine guns.

Lots of machine guns.

Between 2018 and 2022, Mr. Wendt requested 90 machine guns, either to demonstrate their use or to buy them for the Adair Police Department, according to the Justice Department. But prosecutors concluded that he had other purposes in mind.

…

According to the indictment, Mr. Wendt, 46, used his title as police chief to “obtain and possess machine guns not lawfully available to the public,” including military-grade weapons and machine guns of a type used in guarding high-risk prisoners as they are moved from place to place.

…

In all, Mr. Wendt bought 10 machine guns for the police department, tried to buy 15 additional guns and requested the demonstration of 65 guns, according to the indictment. But in reality, he sold six machine guns registered to the Adair Police Department for personal profit, making thousands of dollars; rented out machine guns in exchange for money; and intended to stockpile guns to sell at a later date, the indictment said.

Extra bonus points:

According to the indictment, Mr. Wendt contacted a machine gun manufacturer in January 2021 and inquired about buying a weapon known as a minigun, which prosecutors described as “an electric motor driven Gatling gun designed for speed and accuracy” that has a magazine capacity of 4,000 rounds and a fixed firing rate of 50 rounds per second. This type of machine gun is used by the U.S. military and is typically mounted on helicopters; the Adair Police Department does not own a helicopter. Mr. Wendt put down a $40,000 deposit for the $80,000 gun. In his law letter, Mr. Wendt said the gun was “suitable for engagements and suppressive fire.”
The A.T.F. rejected the purchase because the minigun was “not suitable for law enforcement use.”

More extra bonus points: he also hosted a machine gun shoot.

In April 2022, Mr. Wendt and Mr. Williams hosted a public machine gun shooting event in Woodbine, Iowa, allowing patrons to fire a number of the machine guns in exchange for money.
Among the guns was a .50-caliber belt-fed machine gun that Mr. Wendt had claimed was needed for demonstration to the police department. In his law letter, Mr. Wendt said the gun was “ideal” for the department “based on its price and availability.” Mr. Wendt paid $17,896 for the gun. He mounted it to his armored Humvee and charged participants $5 per round.

Posted in Guns, Law | Comments Closed