Brief police beat news.

August 21st, 2023

Austin Police chief Joseph Chacon is stepping down and retiring from APD after two years as chief.

I really don’t have anything much to say about this: Chief Chacon didn’t do anything in his time to really rise to my attention, either positively or negatively. There are things to be said about poor police response time, ongoing issues with the homeless, and other things going on within the department. But I feel like many of those issues are the results of poor decision making by our city government, and were out of Chief Chacon’s control.

I wish him well in his next endeavors, and I think a Fist Rockbone Brian Manley for mayor/Joseph Chacon for city council ticket would be a fantastic idea.

Posted in Austin, Cops, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: August 21, 2023.

August 21st, 2023

Ron Cephas Jones, actor. THR. Other credits include “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, “Law & Order: Organized Crime”, and “NYPD Blue”.

Chris Peluso, theater actor.

Randy Minniear, former running back for the New York Football Giants.

After playing fullback at Purdue, he was selected by the Giants in the 20th round of the 1966 NFL Draft and would first play in 1967, when Earl Morrall was the quarterback.
“They rate him as the greatest backup quarterback of all time,” Minniear told the Thursday Night Tailgate podcast in 2021. “And that’s one of the things they say about me. I was the greatest benchwarmer of all time. I will tell you this, while I was down there on the end of the bench by the water bucket not one was stolen in five years.”

“The Peripheral” and “A League Of Their Own” at Amazon Prime. Both of these shows had been renewed for a second season (though “ALOTO” had only been given a four-episode run) but Amazon is apparently re-evaluating their plans in light of the strike.

I don’t care much about the baseball show. I was slightly interested in “The Peripheral” because Big Bill Gibson. But I haven’t watched any of the episodes, and am kind of thinking maybe I should read the book first.

Posted in NFL, Obits, Sports, Theatre, TV | 2 Comments »

Short movie snack.

August 21st, 2023

Remember that movie from back in March? The one that I won’t even name, because the trailer sent me into a state of apoplectic rage?

It opened this weekend…

…and finished fifth at the box office, having been beaten by “Blue Beetle” (a movie about a minor tier DC superhero), “Barbie”, “Oppenheimer”, and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Wikipedia cites the estimated budget for this pile of crap at $46 million, which means it needs to gross $92 to $138 million to break even. With an opening in fifth place, I’m thinking this is going to turn out to be one of this year’s biggest dogs, and I remain hopeful this will destroy the careers of everyone involved.

Posted in Bagatelle, Movies | Comments Closed

Obit watch: August 18, 2023.

August 18th, 2023

I haven’t done any obits for the past few days, for reasons I don’t want to go into here.

But a few people have sent me some, and it would be rude not to acknowledge them.

Sir Michael Parkinson, British talk show host. (Hattip: Lawrence.)

Darren Kent, actor. IMDB. Other credits include “EastEnders”, “Les Misérables” (the TV series), and “C.O.O.L.I.O Time Travel Gangster”. (Hattip: Lawrence.)

Paul Brodeur, longtime New Yorker writer.

Mr. Brodeur also reported on the possible dangers of radiation from microwave ovens, computer terminals and electromagnetic power lines. But this reporting was not as widely accepted as his work on asbestos and CFCs.
In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences found little to no evidence of any risk from power-line radiation. Other studies have been far from conclusive. (Mr. Brodeur noted, however, that the World Health Organization classified microwave radiation from cellphones to be a possible carcinogen.)

James L. Buckley, former Senator from New York (and brother of William F. Buckley Jr.).

Posted in Media, Obits, Politics, TV | 3 Comments »

Random gun crankery bookmark.

August 18th, 2023

I wanted to quickly bookmark this article from the American Handgunner website, even though it is basically an advertisement for an upcoming Rock Island Auctions event.

It provides a useful introduction to a couple of this blog’s ongoing obsessions:

  • The Smith and Wesson Registered Magnum
  • Ed McGivern

Posted in Bookmarks, Guns, History, Smith and Wesson | Comments Closed

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#108 in a series)

August 18th, 2023

One of last year’s big flaming hyena stories was about Harry Sidhu, the mayor of Anaheim, who resigned over land deals with the Los Angeles Angels (and his “illegal registration of a helicopter“).

I kind of lost track of this story because California newspapers. But thanks to the Field of Schemes blog, I found out: former mayor Sidhu is taking a guilty plea.

The charges against Sidhu in a plea agreement filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana include lying to FBI agents about not expecting to receive anything from the Angels when the transaction closed — secret recordings captured him saying he hoped to secure a $1-million campaign contribution — and destroying an email in which he provided confidential information about the city’s negotiations to a team consultant.

…

Sidhu, who pledged to “make Anaheim shine again” after being elected in 2018, resigned after the FBI’s sprawling public corruption investigation into Anaheim became public. At the time, he denied doing anything wrong. Now, he will plead guilty to obstruction of justice, wire fraud and two counts of making false statements.

…

When FBI agents interviewed Sidhu on May 12, 2022, the agreement said, he “falsely stated” that he expected “nothing” from the Angels after the stadium deal was completed, that he did not conduct city business from his personal email and that “he did not recall ever providing information about the Stadium sale to the Angels consultant during negotiations over that sale.”

Really, seriously, just shut the f**k up.

The plea agreement said Sidhu destroyed emails related to the stadium sale. They include one sent from his personal email account to the Angels consultant and the former head of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce in July 2020 with an attached document that contained “confidential negotiation information related to the potential sale of the stadium, discussion of issues related to price and other terms of the sale.”

…

Two of the counts against Sidhu — false statements and wire fraud — are related to his purchase of a helicopter in October 2020. According to the plea agreement, Sidhu registered the helicopter at an Arizona address, despite residing in Anaheim, to avoid paying more than $15,000 in California sales tax.

…

[Todd] Ament [former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce President – DB] cooperated with authorities and pleaded guilty last year to multiple felonies, including wire fraud, making a false statement to a financial institution and subscribing to a false tax return. Melahat Rafiei, a former state Democratic Party official and campaign consultant, pleaded guilty in April to one count of attempted wire fraud. Neither has been sentenced.

Remember, my people: the coverup is almost always worse than the actual crime.

Posted in California Über Alles, Law, Politics, Sports | Comments Closed

Even more hoplobibliophila, plus previews of coming attractions.

August 17th, 2023

First, a preview of something that I hope to post very soon.

You may remember a while back – April of 2022, as a matter of fact – I said I was special ordering a gun from my local gun shop for Buy a Gun Day.

It came in…on August 3rd. Yes, this year. I actually waited longer for this than Someone Who Isn’t Me expects to wait for their Form 4 item. (Don’t ask. I will not be taking questions at this time.) Not that I blame my local gun shop for this. As I understand it, there are reasons for the delay related to the manufacturer. All will be revealed soon, I hope.

In the meantime, let no man say that I am not PC.

After the jump, some more gun books for my loyal reader…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Books, Guns, Hoplobibilophilia, Smith and Wesson | 1 Comment »

TMQ Watch watch.

August 15th, 2023

Gregg Easterbrook posted a new Tuesday Morning Quarterback on August 1st. We missed it because we were preparing for our trip.

What does he have to say?

Note to readers: this is a Tuesday Morning Quarterback sample, offered to announce that TMQ will return on September 5 — sharing this space with non-football commentary.

Well, that sounds ominous.

Doing a copy and paste into Word as plain text gets us a word count of 4,210 words. That doesn’t seem too bad by the standards of previous TMQs, but this is a “preview”, not a regular season column.

And here’s the nut graph:

From now on almost all posts will be subscription-only. Paid subscriptions support my work, both my Substacks and my literary writing – thank you!

Posted in TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

The Gun Book Club.

August 14th, 2023

Would you believe I actually got to engage in a little bit of recoil therapy this weekend? Thanks to KR Training for letting us use their range after the class, and thanks to Greg Ellifritz for putting on a great class: “The Explosive Threat: Recognizing, Detecting, and Neutralizing the Terrorist Bomber”.

I didn’t do a lot of shooting because it was hotter than the hinges of Hell, and we didn’t have a lot of time before our dinner engagement. But I did manage to function check a couple of carry guns, and am reasonably satisfied with their performance.

I finished Ammunition, Demystified: The (non) Bubba’s Guide to How Ammo Really Works on my trip. My opinion hasn’t changed. I absolutely do recommend it. But you should be aware that there’s some pretty heavy duty math in the book. I think most folks could probably benefit from it even if times tables give them a headache. My only other issue with the book came when Mr. Siewert discussed some ballistic work he did back in the day with a company that was making air rifle pellets. My issue? “Where were you when I was a teenager, Mr. Siewert?”

And now for some more gun books from the stack…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Books, Guns, Hoplobibilophilia | 1 Comment »

DEFCON 31 notes, part 3.

August 14th, 2023

There’s a story in The Register about the Johannes Willbold “Houston, We Have a Problem: Analyzing the Security of Low Earth Orbit Satellites” presentation at Black Hat.

But I’m not going to link it. Instead, I’m going to link the Hacker News discussion of the story, which I think is more interesting (and contains a link to the story itself).

There was a suspicious package discovered on Saturday night, and DEFCON was evacuated until it was dealt with. There’s a lot of speculation floating around that I don’t want to link to, so I’m only providing the official statement.

Here’s a really detailed and clear write-up of “A Pain in the NAS: Exploiting Cloud Connectivity to PWN Your NAS”.

And here’s more on “All Cops Are Broadcasting: Breaking TETRA After Decades in the Shadows”, including the team’s paper for the USENIX Security Symposium.

I know I pointed folks to the media server the other day for preliminary presentation slides, but I want to call this presentation out specifically: “Private Keys in Public Places”.

Posted in DEFCON, DEFCON 31 | Comments Closed

Obit watch: August 14, 2023.

August 14th, 2023

Shelley Smith, actress. Other credits include the 1989 “Dragnet” revival, “Magnum P.I.” (the original), and “Cover Up“.

Linda Haynes, actress. Other credits include “Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley”, “In Like Flint” (uncredited), and “Paper Moon” (the TV series: yes, there was a TV series based on the movie. It lasted 13 episodes.)

Posted in Movies, Obits, TV | 5 Comments »

Short random gun crankery, with a patriotic and historical bent.

August 12th, 2023

One of the guns that is currently high on my want list is a Smith and Wesson Model 53.

The Model 53 is a weird gun. It was designed and chambered to shoot the .22 Jet cartridge, which is a .357 Magnum necked down to take a .222 bullet. This was a relic of the time when people were experimenting with odd .22 caliber wildcat cartridges in revolvers.

I’ll probably write some more about the Jet when I get mine, but for now I’ll just say the .22 Jet and the Model 53 were not a complete success. Fortunately, the Model 53 can also bet set up to fire .22 LR: either by swapping out the .22 Jet cylinder for a .22 LR cylinder (it was fairly common for the guns to ship with both) or by using special inserts in the .22 Jet cylinder.

The 53 shipped with 4″, 6″, and 8 3/8″ barrels. I’m pretty set on getting one with a 8 3/8″ barrel, as that seems ideal for varmint hunting.

I’ve actually just found a really nice Model 53 with an 8 3/8″ barrel and both .22 LR and .22 Jet cylinders…that I won’t be buying.

Why?

Three reasons:

1) The estimated auction price is between $60,000 and $90,000.

2) It is really really really nice. Too nice to shoot.

3) (related to #2 above): it was Elvis’s gun.

“Elvis’ Guns: The Bicentennial Smith & Wesson” from Rock Island Auction.

Elvis Presley loved guns. He loved buying them, shooting them, gifting them, and showing them off. As his fame grew, threats came and he regularly went armed as well as arming the men who surrounded him. At the time of his death at the age of 42, Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll, reportedly owned 37 firearms and a machine gun.

RIA lot number 1504: Elvis Presley’s Exhibition Quality S&W Model 53 Revolver.

I saw this gun, up close and personal like, at the 2022 S&WCA Collector’s Association Symposium. it is a beautiful gun, and if any of my readers have a spare $90,000 I encourage you to submit a bid. Better photos than I can take are in the RIA listing.

Posted in Elvis, Guns, History, Music, Smith and Wesson | Comments Closed

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