Ok, what's this gun of the week? Hint: Confederate soldiers called it "that damned Yankee rifle that you load on Sunday and shoot all week".

Guns in the News: This was mentioned earlier this week, self defense with firearms on the rise in Detroit and the Police Chief approves.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said at a press conference last week that in his 37-year career, he’s never seen as many homeowners defending themselves by shooting intruders. Craig told The News in January he felt the crime rate could be lowered if more “good Americans” were armed, because he said criminals would think twice about attacking.

“It does appear more and more Detroiters are becoming empowered,” Craig said. “More and more Detroiters are getting sick of the violence. I know of no other place where I’ve seen this number of justifiable homicides. It’s interesting that these incidents go across gender lines.”

He's very right and it's refreshing to see a police chief say so.

Ok this is an abbreviated gun thread because sunny and 72 degrees outside. Have a great weekend y'all. Gun answer below the fold.

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Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:32 AM | Comments (133)
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Welcome to another week of NASCAR racing. This week the action is at the short track at Martinsville in Ridgeville, VA, for the STP 500.

This week NASCAR suffered the loss of a beloved family member as Linda Petty, wife of Richard Petty, succumbed to cancer. ESPN writer Ryan McGee recalls a morning spent with her in 2008.

I was standing just outside the front door to the office, staring out at the front yard of the Petty homestead, and no doubt grinning ear-to-ear. The team had recently moved south to the Charlotte area and the near-empty buildings where the most dominant race cars in NASCAR history were once built was now downright tranquil. But it still gave me chills.

I was so giddy to have the place to myself that I hadn't even noticed the car that pulled up and the woman that started walking toward me.

"Good morning," she called out. "Are you lost or waiting on someone?"

It was Lynda Petty. Wife of Richard, mother of Kyle, matriarch of Petty Enterprises, and to so many, certainly to me, the first lady of stock car racing.

I introduced myself and she was kind enough to act like she remembered me. I told her that I was waiting for her grandson, Austin, to pick me up and take me over to the nearby Victory Junction Gang Camp for a tour. To that she replied, laughing, "If you're riding with Austin, be sure to wear your seat belt." Then she said, "Why don't I wait with you and you tell me about yourself."

Funny, I'd wanted to say the same thing to her.

It's been a tough week for the NASCAR family as another legendary clan lost a loved one. Bobby Waltrip, brother to Darrell and Michael, a Fox Sports announcer and successful go-kart racer, passed away last Sunday.

May God grant the families of Linda and Bobby with peace and the loving support of those who surround them.

Now, on to race day...

The snapshot can be found here. (Warning: There's an auto-play video)

Pole position for today's race belongs to Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin who qualified at 99.674 mph and 99.548 mph respectively.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:20 AM | Comments (89)
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MSNBC and the Democrats are already pushing the line that Chris Christie had "Slut Shamed" this poor woman, when the report on Bridgegate mentioned she'd had an affair with Christie's former campaign manager, Bill Stepien.

A lot of "thrown under the bus" and #WarOnWomen battle-cries here.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo touches all of the Progressive Caucus Erogenous Zones in such rapid succession he's likely to be accused of having Busy Hands.

Generally speaking when you throw someone under the bus and you want them to play along, you add as much padding to the process as possible. That doesn’t appear to be the Chris Chrisitie way. The main fallperson turns out to be former deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly. And the “report” prepared by Christie’s lawyer not only places all the criminal liability on her (along with David Wildstein). It also goes out of its way to say that she is, to put it bluntly, emotionally unstable and loose.

The whole thing is vaguely reminiscent of David Brock’s notorious line that Anita Hill was “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” (If that line is before your time, Brock long since recanted, repented and a bunch else.)

The "mainstream" media -- apart from MSNBC, I mean, which is a clownshow -- will likely follow suit, but right now, it's just MSNBC and MSNBC's Research Department, by which I mean leftwing blogs and Democratic strategic statements.

Usually the infection proceeds thus:

Infection phase: A leftwing blog or cooked-up Democratic attack line provides the initial vector of infection.

Incubation period: MSNBC begins spending six to eight hours each day covering the "shocking new allegations" for 4-8 days.

Re-infection & Outbreak Period: Shortly after, the entire "mainstream" media comes down with a bad case of Progressive Meme Transmission Syndrome.

We'll see if that pattern holds.

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (189)
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Y-not is otherwise engaged: apparently she is doing a free climb of Mt. Everest to harvest a rare orchid that grows only on the South slope of the mountain.

Remember all of those interminable trips you took with your family? The ones where you were unsure whether your dad's threat to "pull this damned car over and leave you all in the desert" was actually serious? more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:30 PM | Comments (238)
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Open. more...

Posted by: JohnE. at 05:11 AM | Comments (164)
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Posted by: rdbrewer at 07:14 PM | Comments (757)
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"Hey, Isn't This Thing Supposed To have An Engine?"

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Every Moron Likes Free Books

...especially if they're pulp sci-fi books from the 50s. So I discovered this site here that specializes in what they call "off- trail" sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. The have a free section where it looks like they've adopted the Baen strategy of offering some of an author's work for free in the hopes that you will like it well enough to actually purchase other books.

A lot of the freebies are reprinted "pulp" authors from the 50s. And some of the titles are a real hoot:

The Man Who Saved The Universe [The Adventures Of Johnny Mayhem #1] by C.H Thames. (Look, any book with a main character named 'Johnny Mayhem' has got to be worth reading)

The Dream Girl [The Hilarious Adventures of Toffee #1] by Charles F. Myers. (OK, the title isn't much, but look at the cover art -- dude's obviously living the moron lifestyle)

Interplanetary Huntress by Arthur K. Barnes. The blurb for this one is great:

Science Fiction's first heroine! Out of print for more than 50 years! The action-packed exploits of Gerry Carlyle, Interplanetary Huntress, on assignment from the London Interplanetary Zoo to capture the rarest alien lifeforms in the solar system – and "bring 'em back alive." The only fly in the ointment of this intrepid woman is pilot Tommy Strike, who's just as determined to prove no woman is his superior. Their battles with the most fearsome of otherworldly critters are nothing compared to their battle with each other!

So check 'em out.

Gone With the Wind Prequel Coming

And the main character will be Mammy:

The Mitchell estate has authorized writer Donald McCaig to write a novel, titled “Ruth’s Journey” (Ruth is Mammy’s real name in this telling), that details how the character is brought to America as a slave and how she views the events of Mitchell’s original novel. McCaig’s novel “Rhett Butler’s People,” which was released in 2007 and explores the childhood and family history of “Wind” romantic hero Rhett, was one of two books previously authorized by the Mitchell estate, with author Alexandra Ripley’s “Scarlett” also approved.

Huh. I hadn't heard about these other prequels. I'm thinking they can't be good, but what do I know?

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:58 AM | Comments (184)
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There are two types of people: Those who only sometimes procrastinate those who are so inclined to it that it creates havoc in their lives. Lately, I tend to be the latter of the two. So, while I should have been practicing using MS Visio all day, half my day was spent here with you fine folks.

My procrastination has been so bad today that I actually researched "procrastination" in order to procrastinate a bit longer. Then, I tweeted about my procrastination in order to drag it out even further. Then, others joined in, and it was clear that I am far from the only one.

Well, the fine folks at The Next Web blog have posted a very timely article on the science of procrastination, and it makes all the sense in the world.

It's a fight or flight response.

The amygdala is the section of the brain associated with our automatic emotional reaction to a situation. In moments of being overwhelmed, such as having many tasks to do or a difficult one to do, there is a fight (resistance) or flight (ignore) reaction.

Both are procrastination – the brain is protecting us against possible negative feelings. The norepinephrine chemical takes over, causing increased levels of fear and anxiety. Adrenalin gets pumped in.

We are addicted to dopamine, which is produced by pleasurable experiences. So long as a task has a higher historical likelihood (or perceived future likelihood) of producing dopamine, our brain is addicted to reproducing these activitiesÂ… and avoiding the others.

Do you want to play Candy Crush or do tax returns? Yeah.

It occurs to me that, if we identify the cause, we can also mind-play our way through it. Perhaps we can tell ourselves repeatedly that the faster we get it over with the faster we'll feel relief that it is over. Or... perhaps we can stop hitting ourselves in the head with the hammer in the first place because procrastination seems to arise from fear... fear of failure, of rejection, of not being good enough and, frankly, isn't the world tough enough without us kicking the crap out of ourselves on a daily basis?

Tell them about it, Stuart.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 04:04 PM | Comments (352)
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I assume Connecticut will want money for that, but who knows. I guess Democrats have a political incentive to share here.

Maryland officials are set to replace the stateÂ’s online health-insurance exchange with technology from ConnecticutÂ’s insurance marketplace, according to two people familiar with the decision, an acknowledgment that a system that has cost at least $125.5 million is broken beyond repair.

The board of the Maryland exchange plans to vote on the change Tuesday, the day after the end of the first enrollment period for the stateÂ’s residents under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

...

Maryland is not alone in having deep-seated problems with its health marketplace. Technical issues also have plagued Oregon, Minnesota and Hawaii. But Maryland will be the first to walk away from its site, a particular embarrassment for Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D), who was placed in charged of implementing health-care reform in Maryland by Gov. Martin OÂ’Malley (D).

It was not immediately clear how much more money Maryland may have to invest to get a fully functioning system, according to the two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the changes.

Stuff Democrats buy never "costs" anything. The War in Iraq "cost" a great deal of money.

But in the media's telling, Democratic expenditures are usually "investments."

phreshone worked out the math:

MD spent $125 million in an effort to enroll 150,000 people. Essentially $1000/person projected transaction cost (actual is running $2500, and cost will expand as the system will be replaced with a copy of CT's before the next enrollment period.

Maryland invested $1000 per sign-up.

What are you, against investing in our own people?

Posted by: Ace at 11:12 AM | Comments (257)
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Yesterday, Ace linked to a touching story about a lady who had been deaf since birth and blind since her twenties. Through the miracle of a Cochlear Implant device she is now able to hear. It's an allergy provoking video to say the least. However, something in the article seemed to escape notice in the comments here so I thought we might take a second look.

This lady, Joanne Milne, asked one of her closest friends to compile a playlist of music for her.

Can you imagine the significance of that task?

In the end, he decided to create a list using one song from each year of her life, starting with this:

You've been asked by your friend to provide a list of the most important music she'll ever hear. Do you build the list based upon important works, or joyful hymns, or vibrant pop.... it would be an incredibly daunting task. Myself, I think I would offer this for her fist piece of music, and branch out from there:

If given such a monumental task privilege, what would you add to her very first playlist? Why?

Open thread.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:09 AM | Comments (306)
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