I may surprise y'all yet.

A future Absolved editor?

Michigan Escapee announces: "Mike Vanderboegh going under the knife."

Guess he's got a big ole softball sized tumor inside of him, so they gotta remove it,and hopefully he'll live long enough to finish the book.

Nah, who am I kidding, he'll get run over by a kid on a moped 12 years from now just as he's shipping off the manuscript. Way things always seem to happen. :roll:

Pretty funny, although his frustration -- which mirrors mine -- is perfectly understandable. Actually, I finally see the surgeon in his office first thing this morning and, since all necessary tests are already done, expect to be admitted to the hospital immediately thereafter with surgery tomorrow. Had one of the worst nights yet last night so I hope it works that fast. Will be taking my laptop with me, although I expect I'll lose at least a couple of work days post-surgery. Go to David Codrea's War on Guns site for updates in the meantime.

I'll do what I can, when I can, to avoid that killer moped. Obviously my death will be no excuse for not finishing Absolved, although there is an apparently growing crowd of folks who will cheer my death, finished or not. But, I may surprise y'all yet. ;-)

Costs.

DARPA's Cheetah.

Fifty Caliber AP, and aim for the brain box.

David Codrea: ATF trivializing Fast and Furious with Ziegler defense.

David sneers at the "mistakes were made" defense.

Another big surprise. Vietnamese Communists upset about sales of weapons and military equipment on the Internet.

"Indiscriminate sale of weapons and military equipment on the Internet are a threat to society and against the law in Vietnam." Why they're even selling "Glog" pistols!

Only David Codrea could come up with this.

Lubricated for Conspiracy. This box is mis-marked, however, it should be "smaller size."

And remember to make David's Examiner column one of your stops every morning.

Sipsey Street Exclusive: Little Jimmy Vann raises his ugly little head, again, in the most unlikely of places. Friesen Case -- the ATF self-inflicted wound that continues to be a running sore on their legitimacy. Who is Delbert Knopp?

Doug Friesen, the Oklahoma attorney that the ATF tried to send to federal prison for his opinions. His case still haunts them.

When we last left the case of the United States vs. Doug Friesen, it was "Groundhog Day" while ATF's James P. Vann searched frantically for his "lost" documents, and the ATF folded because, as I was cautioned by someone familiar with the case at the time, "You don't have the half of it in this case." In order to protect themselves from further discovery, the ATF cut a deal with Doug Friesen and he paid a tiny fine on a paperwork violation.

Little Jimmy Vann slipped out of town back to the rock he lives under at the ATF Chief Counsels Office, having once again done his best to waste taxpayer dollars in pursuit of an agenda. End of story, right? Not so fast. It seems there is much more to the Friesen case that remains worth hiding to the ATF.

Doug Friesen, still considerably damaged economically by the case and more than a little curious how and why the ATF came to target him, filed a civil suit against Charlie Erb, the guy who manufactured the weapon at issue. And who comes running back to town, but Little Jimmy Vann. He hastened there because Doug Friesen, not without reason, had sought to lift the discovery protective order which had been agreed to as part of the now closed case. There is, it seems, a whole lot the ATF still doesn't want known about the case and they are circling the wagons around Charlie Erb.

Nolo Contendere is doing a fantastic job of keeping up with the case (as well as U.S. vs. Clark) over at ARFcom and he first posted this from PACER:

Little Jimmy's motion in opposition to Friesen's request. And here is Friesen's response to Vann.

Let me draw your attention to a few points from the response:

7. On February 22, 2012 USAO Mark Yancey communicated to the undersigned via telephone that the USAO had forwarded Exhibit 1 to BATFE attorney James Vann and that the USAO no longer considered itself involved in the matter of the disclosure discovery materials in this matter.

Paraphrase: I don't want any part of this turd and you need to talk to the designated sewer maintenance worker, Little Jimmy Vann. ("The Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.")

8. To date, Rowe has not received any communication from BATFE regarding its request for redacted versions of those documents surrendered to the USAO.

Paraphrase: Little Jimmy ain't going to hand over anything you don't force him to, your Honor.

9. On February 15, 2012 the undersigned received from attorney Joe Wells (“Wells”), attorney for Charles Erb, Jr. (“Erb”) in the civil case, certain materials upon which Delbert Knopp, an expert witness listed by Wells in the civil case, had relied upon to formulate the expert opinions he intends to offer in trial in that matter.

Delbert Knopp. Expert witness. Yes, well, let's talk about that. Nolo has also provided us with a list of Erb's designated expert witnesses. And as he comments, incredulously, "this is an expert designation in which the defense is calling ALL these ATF agents to testify on his behalf. The question is why and who is calling the shots here. WHY would all these ATF agents testify on behalf of Erb? And WHO is ordering them to do this? AND! They have designated as an EXPERT a US Attorney! holy shit! I guess that destroys Holder's opinion that "line attorneys" should not have to testify as witnesses re: Fast & Furious."

Delbert Knopp has a somewhat checkered past with ATF, having once sued then director John McGaw over a transfer after another employee filed an EEOC complaint against him. Ole Delbert happens to have been the SAC who targeted Doug Friesen for compliance inspection in the first place. Rumor has it that Knopp didn't like Friesen for a variety of reasons, including comments that Friesen made on his local radio law talk show as well as embarrassments that Friesen, a lawyer himself, had wreaked upon Knopp and Friends in court.

So, what is it that Little Jimmy is trying to protect here by this amazing circling of government-paid wagons around a plaintiff in a civil suit? Delbert's misuse of power to target someone he didn't like? The ATF's agenda as it applied to the Friesen case? Or is there something deeper? The only thing that seems certain, gentle readers, is that if Little Jimmy Vann is involved, there's government misconduct they're trying to hide.

What I want the government to pay for to assist my "quality of life."

Laura Ingraham had fun on her show yesterday asking listeners what "quality of life" things they would like the government to pay for in lieu of contraception. Being involved in a bit a co-pay generation at the time, I didn't have the time to call her, but I did send her this email later:

RE: Quality of Life -- what I want the government to pay for.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote: "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks." (Thomas Jefferson, Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318, Foley, Ed., reissued 1967.)

Therefore, I would like the government to assist my "wellness" activity by supplying me with a case of small arms ammunition a month in my choice of caliber.

Mike Vanderboegh

PO Box 926

Pinson, AL 35126

What was his first clue?

New ATF #2 says gunwalking "not good."

DC Police Bureaucrat Advocates Possum Defense.

Opossum Defense Mechanisms

"Playing 'possum": The opossum has an involuntary comatose-like state induced by extreme fear. Predators find "the kill" part of the stimulus to eat; therefore, an inert opossum does nothing to excite their appetite, and they will leave it alone. Somehow the opossum's body knows when the danger has passed, and the opossum "comes to" again. Nature's mystery!

Drooling: An opossum will work its jaw until excessive drool forms and it is actually blowing bubbles out of its nose! Heavy drooling causes a predator to think the opossum is sick and consequently unappetizing.

Alligator-mouth: Even before opossums have teeth, they will gape their mouth in a threatening manner. (The babies do not realize that this is only impressive when they finally have teeth!) This act alone will keep many predators (including humans) at bay.

Anal gland fluid: Fear can cause release of a greenish-colored anal fluid. Opossums cannot "spray," and the only way this unpleasant-smelling body fluid can come in contact with you is if your clothes brush the anal area. It washes off easily. -- opossumsocietyus.org/

D.C.’s crime solution: Be a victim.

The problem is, if you are armed, it escalates the situation,” Mr. Quander told residents. “It is much better, in my opinion, to be scared, to be frightened, and even if you have to be, to be injured, but to walk away and survive. You’ll heal, and you can replace whatever was taken away.”

Be sure and watch the video.

Maybe Quander should put out pamphlets on the old possum anal gland fluid trick.

His MoJo wasn't working. This guy couldn't make it as a "gray man." Police arrest the Hamburglar at Florida Steak N' Shake.

Ouch, that hurts. A tip of the boonie hat to Florida Guy for this one, the first real belly laugh I've had since Kerodin called me an ATF snitch: Man with purse, mask makeup busted with 'Mojo' pipe

And to think millions of kids used to look up to this guy.

Roger Dean Whitt wanted to do a good deed when he approached a Florida Highway Patrol trooper in a Steak 'n Shake parking lot this week to turn in driver license he found.

But Whitt's discovery wasn't as interesting as his unusual makeup, alcohol-infused breath and the drug pipe reportedly found in his gold purse.

Whitt, 59, was wearing makeup that made him look like a masked robber when he approached the trooper at about 4 a.m. Monday outside the Merritt Island restaurant.

Whitt also also had an image of a rabbit painted on his cheek.

The Merritt Island island man spontaneously insisted the trooper should inspect his bag on his right arm and was charged with possessing drug paraphernalia after the trooper found the pipe, a report said.

It had marijuana residue on it, the report said.

The trooper also found "assorted makeup and other personal products normally used by females."

Whitt said this about the pipe: "That's mine, I use it as an incense burner to burn "Mojo'" or synthetic marijuana, according to the FHP report.

Whitt, who is on probation for DUI, was arrested and taken to the Brevard County jail.

He has a history of drug-related arrests. The report does not explain why Whitt was wearing makeup.

The only problem with me and belly laughs these days is that they hurt like hell.

Roger Dean Whitt before his fall from grace.

File this under "Nice to Know."

"Holder: U.S. can lawfully target American citizens."

More broadly, Holder argued that the targeting of specific senior belligerents in wartime in not unusual, and noted the 1943 U.S. tracking and shooting down of the plane carrying Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto — the commander of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

So, Eric, does that hold true for civil wars, too?

Praxis: What is TA-50 & 782 gear?

Folks who haven't been in the service are unfamiliar with the terms TA-50 and 782 gear. TA-50 is an Army shorthand term "Table of Allowances 50," & is Army-issued individual equipment. This acronym is used for classification purposes. TA-50 items have to be turned in to the Central Issue Facility when you PCS (Permanent Change of Station) to your next assignment, where you will be issued new TA-50 there. Here is an illustrated list of Army TA-50 items. You are responsible for these items and will be docked if you lose them. The surplus stores off-post do a land office business in TA-50 gear when soldiers PCS and come up short, because their used prices are often much less than the Army's official prices.

782 Gear is the Marine Corps term for the same thing: Originally individual equipment owned by a unit and issued to a Marine while assigned to that unit. In boot camp that included a bucket, cleaning equipment, a poncho and a shelter half. The name is derived from the number of the form on which it was originally issued. Present use refers to the Load Bearing Vest, cartridge belt and the equipment attached to the belt as well as other field equipment.

ATF trace explained.

I finally got an explanation from the Gadsden Police Department about that ATF trace on a pistol I bought about ten years ago. The explanation is more innocent than first suspected. It seems that somebody found an FEG Hi-Power clone in some brush or something. It was not part of a crime trace and the condition of the pistol was, according to the GPD property room folks, pretty beat up and rusty. I have owned two of these excellent pistols in my lifetime, one of them currently assigned to one of my daughters. But I got short of funds back then (some things never change) and I sold the second one at the AGCA gun show. End of story. I'm sure the local ATF was disappointed.

When a "grenade" is not a grenade but just as deadly.

What the guy found.

Lonoke man finds grenade in car.

The Lonoke County Sheriff's Office says a man called them saying he just recently bought a car from a local scrap yard. While cleaning out the car he found an item in the wheel well in the trunk inside a plastic cup.

The man says he took the item and placed it under a trash can in his yard. When the Sheriff's Office inspected the item, they say it looks like some type of a grenade with an extremely rusted pin which was still intact.

The Sheriff's Office called the Arkansas State Police bomb squad who took the grenade. The bomb squad says it doesn't appear to be a live grenade. The grenade was turned over to the ATF.

Well, based on my limited experience this looks like a M49A1 Trip Flare, without the mounting bracket:

The M49A1 Trip Flare is an early warning signaling device used to warn of infiltrating troops by illuminating the area surrounding the trip flare.

The M49A1 Trip Flare consists of an illuminant assembly, cover loading assembly and a mounting bracket assembly. The illuminant assembly is an aluminum case containing an ignition increment and three illuminant increments. The waterproof cover loading assembly contains a percussion primer, intermediate charge and a spring-loaded striker.

The Flare is armed by attaching a Trip-Wire to either the trigger or pull-pin. Once the Trip-Wire has been breached, either the trigger tongue or pull pin will release the lever, which in turn permits the firing pin to strike the primer. The primer sets off the intermediate charge, and the intermediate charge ignites the First-Fire composition on the ignition increment of the Flare. The M49A1 Trip Flare will provide a light intensity exceeding 35,000 candle power for approximately one minute.

Unlike hand grenades, the ignition is instantaneous without a delay and they burn hot as hell. I mention them in the Absolved chapter Black and Tans and also discuss them in the praxis post on military pyrotechnics. In order to use them to break contact at night, you have to carry them without the bracket and pull the pin and throw them behind you in one fluid motion while running away -- unless you want your hand burned off. Personally, I would be made more nervous by finding a rusty one of these than I would a live frag.

Senator Grassley, who, unlike Issa, is powerless to force the issue, tries jaw-boning again.

Issa the Inscrutable.

Grassley: Where’s report on ‘Fast and Furious’? Of course what Issa's excuse is for doing essentially nothing remains inscrutable.

College Student Proposes Doing Away With 2nd Amendment

A Second Constitutional Convention

My reply, awaiting moderation:

"The Second Amendment, a true artifact of the 18th century, should also be jettisoned. Contrary to the views of conservative justices on the Supreme Court, the amendment only protects the right to bear arms in conjunction with service in a well-regulated militia. While the Framers of the Constitution intended the Second Amendment to curb the arbitrary use of power by the federal government, not even a million gun-slinging Texans could hope to counter the power of the U.S. government today, backed in full force by the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. In light of this week’s tragic shootings at a high school in Ohio, it should be clear to any logical observer that the Second Amendment serves no meaningful purpose in the 21st century."

So saith Steven Sweeney. Having once been a clueless leftist college student myself, I can forgive his callow inexperience with the ironclad Law of Unintended Consequences, however, given that he just proposed the next American civil war I would like to point out that ignorance of the law -- even an unwritten one -- is no excuse.

To get what he wants Sweeney would have to kill many millions of American firearm owners, and they will not go gently into his collectivist good night, i.e. they will shoot back. It is probably outside his experience, but there are people who are not only willing to die for their principles but to kill in righteous self defense of them as well. Such people will certainly not wish to exchange their lives on a mere one to one basis, so the body count would soar into the tens of millions. It takes an arrogant college student to propose mass homicide in furtherance of his most cherished misconceptions. Most folks with experience in the real world would rather just not go there.

Second, Sweeney seems woefully ignorant of the current state of the United States military and of military history in general. The efficacy of nuclear weapons use on your own soil even to an oppressive government that didn't mind wiping out an entire rebellious region would be nil. Such use would guarantee the downfall of such a regime. And his Borgian "resistance is futile" mantra ignores the reality of today's military. Who is it, does he think, that makes up the tip-of-the-spear units of the military? Why it is the sons and daughters of those traditional Americans who most bitterly cling to their God and guns. And who does Sweeney think they would turn those sophisticated tax-paid weapons on if such an order came to kill their fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters? Once again, Sweeney should get out more into the real world.

In addition, the history and ability of tyrannical regimes with mighty militaries to deal with insurgencies is hardly persuasive to his thesis. They lose more often than not. To try such a course in the United States, whose citizenry is the most heavily armed in the world -- EVER -- as Sweeney proposes? Well, all I can say is good luck with that. He would find all his intellectual applecarts overturned in a sea of real blood.

Before Mr. Sweeney tries to remake the Founder's rule of law and the Constitution he should perhaps study the Law of Unintended Consequences first.

It would save all of us a whole lot of agony.

Mike Vanderboegh

That's all for this morning.

I swear that this alien inside of me grows by the hour. It is difficult to sit up at the keyboard for any length of time as the bloody thing puts pressure on my diaphragm, making breathing labored. I'll try to do morning this afternoon.

David Codrea: DOJ not only cabinet department deflecting Issa inquiry.

Of course, why would it be?

Not an unreasonable conclusion. "Some say re-election fear is driving gun sales in Fort Worth, elsewhere " Guns are easy. Logistics is hard.

“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” -- Attributed to Edmund Kean, celebrated Shakespearean actor, 1787 -- 1833.

"Nationwide, more people than ever are buying firearms."

The owner of Cheaper Than Dirt says:

"Look who the Republicans are trying to put against Obama," he said. "It's the Keystone Kops and people are getting scared. People are terrified he's going to get re-elected and then he won't care about getting votes next time. He'll just pass whatever legislation he wants."

Alan Korwin seconds:

"People are concerned that if Obama wins, as a lame duck, he will go after firearms in a way we have never seen before. We saw a fire sale when he was elected last time," he said. "But the speculation is that now ... with his need to get re-elected gone, the sky is the limit on attacking the Second Amendment."

This is not an unreasonable conclusion from the available evidence. However, before you spend all your money on that thousand dollar black rifle, I would remind you of a scene from the CBS post-EMP show, Jericho, in the episode "Coalition of the Willing." The Jericho folks just made an alliance with a criminal band and after the successful conclusion of their first joint operation, where both sides had agreed to a split of the battlefield pickups, the criminal gang reneges and takes everything. (There's a message there about being careful of who you choose for allies.)

"We just gonna let them go? We need those guns!" says an angry Jake.

"Guns?" Hawkins muses, "Guns are easy."

Of course, Hawkins, the government undercover man, just happens to have a storage locker full of M14s and other goodies, gifted to him by a screenwriter with foresight. But there is a lesson here, if I might combine both Kean and Hawkins:

Guns are easy. Logistics is hard.

This country has plenty of firearms. But I would guess that 95% of their owners have no more than a 50 round box or two of ammo for each of them, and they consider that plenty.

So, if you already have a rifle, a shotgun and a sidearm -- and are COMPETENT with each -- don't spend all your money on an upgrade rifle, spend it on ammunition. If you are not competent with them all, spend the money on training. Training, local organization and logistics are the hard elements of preparedness. Guns are easy.