Guard Dog

Bruce, let me pose a serious question to you. It is pretty much settled that Hillary Clinton used a private e-mail server to conduct State Dept. business. Even she admits that. The dispute is if she sent classified information that was later compromised. But put that aside for the moment. Have you wondered WHY she used a private server rather than the government's secure server? Why do that? Why even invite a problem that way? She is not stupid. She knows what server is for what. Have you at least wondered about that? I believe I know the answer but I'd like to hear from you first.

Last one... my e-mail box is empty

You also live in a place where "ethnic" violent crime is unusual. Where you live most crime has an economic motive. It's a little bit of a different story when a insular ethnic group begins comitting violent crimes and the police are ordered to back off and let it happen. The order is not in those many words but the outcome is the same. The problem here is that when criminal behavior is not punished and steps are not taken to prevent it from law enforcement which is supposed to be dispassionate it will be done by the "people" who cannot be dispassionate. Then the ugly things like blaming all immigrants for the crimes of a few start to happen.

The problem with BLM isn't that is didn't have a point, at least not in the beginning. It's that like many such movements it's vulnerable to being hijacked by those with a more radical bent and turned into something counter productive. Or worse.

Never mind. I don't have the energy or desire to start this up again

I'm definitely buying this one

If I were those guys I wouldn't f--k with Shady Sands. I know where he learned to fight. In all seriousness though. When law enforcement does not do it's job, especially for political reasons you are going to see a societal "remedy" that will usually look like vigilantism and usually not end well.

I love the DOJ comment that they believe she didn't "willfully" violate the law. I have two thoughts on that: So it wasn't malice or trying to hide something, it was just incompetence. Yeah, that's much better for a potential President. If a cop pulled me over for speeding and I told him I wasn't willfully speeding, do you think I'd still get a ticket?

Well, looking at the folding stock and the fact it's clip fed and uses 5.56mm it's probably a variant of an AR-15. So it's semi-auto. A automatic or semi-automatic weapon relies on the expanding gas from the propellant burn to work the action as well as push the projectile down the barrel. Since a blank has no projectile there is no compression of propellant gas building behind the exiting projectile so there is no energy to work the action. Meaning once you fire a blank round all the gasses exit the barrel and you will need to manually pull the charging handle to chamber the next round. Even a novice shooter would know there was something wrong with that. A automatic or semi-auto weapon cannot properly use blanks unless you stopper the end of the barrel with one of these: In the military it's called a BFA, Blank Firing Adapter. They are brightly colored so you can't miss them. Because it would really suck to fire a live round with one of those plugged in.

Here is a little quiz. If you know anything about firearms then you'll know the picture I posted, while humorous, has a serious flaw and can't be for real. Can anyone guess what that is? Shady & Manifested may not participate, they will know right away.

This guy did it better:

Leviathan Wakes starts out as a detective story. James Holden is a detective on Ceres trying to solve a disappearance. It turns into a much bigger story though.

The best history book I've read about the area was The Heart of Everything That Is by Bob Drury. I commented on it here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/69999-the-latest-reading-thread/?p=1635111. Gromnir would be a better judge on it's veracity than I am but I thought it was well researched and the writing puts you "there" and gives a feeling not just of the history but the land and locations.

I wouldn't say failures so much as "bad acts".

I'm sure it does bother some folks but it shouldn't. From what I've read of his blogs I suspect GRRM and I would never come to any kind of agreement on politics. But I still enjoy his work and I'd probably enjoy talking football with the man over scotch & cigars.. I know a lot of folks get upset when they read a story that is infused with a political or religious viewpoint contrary to their own. C.S. Lewis & Joe Halderman come to mind as writers who have been harshly criticized for that kind of thing. But a good story is a good story no matter what tone or message the witiers is trying to slip in. And if that tone or message is something you disagree with it's still ok to suspend that for a moment and enjoy a story for it's own merits. One of my favorite characters is all of literature is Wolf Larson, the antagonist in Jack London's book The Sea Wolf. That charachter is London attacking the exact kind of man I consider myself to be, the anti-communitarian. Larsen is the ultimate "survival of the fittest" libertarian arch-type. Ayn Rand would have loved him. And that is what made him a villan in London's eyes. That does not put me off at all or diminish in the least my enjoyment of the story or the charachter. Besides, the best artists are usually found on the left side of the political spectrum. Those with a mind that favors the conservative or libertarian philosophy tend to pursue careers in hard or practically applied sciences rather than creative arts or social sciences. At least that has been my experience. Engineers make poor fiction writers. Speaking from experience on that one.

I wonder is it is too late to bring this thread back on topic? I hope not because I just read an opinion piece that is exactly on-point:http://city-journal.org/html/andrew-sullivans-blind-spot-14431.html

In other news:http://freebeacon.com/issues/april-marks-12th-straight-month-record-gun-sales/

What can I tell you... I'm picky

Jack London identified himself has a communist and he is one of my favorite writers. There is something you need to understand. A persons political leanings are what they are. They are shaped by education and life experience. They should never be something you take into consideration outside 1) a political discussion/debate or 2) a voting booth. They will color your outlook on life but it should only be by the smallest amount. They should never determine who your friends are, or what entertainment you enjoy, or who you respect. Disliking someone because their politics are not the same as yours (not you personally just in general) is as asinine as disliking them because they cheer for a different sports team than you do. Unless they are New York Yankees fans... that is a different story.

I can't believe you mentioned that one! I actually have that here in paperback. It was in a box in the closet I'd forgotten about (I have a LOT of books here). I've never read it. I'll start on that one tonight.