Dion The Wanderer

It's late the kids are sick, Zeus is complaining because he wants to go to bed and plans on snuggling with me. Oh yea and it's snowing!!!!!

I can only imagine his carbon footprint now

A Dane says he may have accidentally started a fire on a Scandinavian passenger ferry carrying 651 people by causing a short circuit while recharging his electric vehicle.

Soeren O. Ekelund says he used an ordinary extension cord, but it may not have fitted tightly to a special recharge socket.

The rest here

More guns, less crime

A tad old, but worth posting as reality keeps getting in the way of gun control nuts arguments. By the way the sale of ammunition in North America excluding military buys was 12 billion rounds of ammunition sold. I don’t want to do the math on just how small the percentage of ammo used in crime is.

FBI RELEASES 2009 CRIME REPORT . . . As firearms and ammunition experienced record sales in 2009, the nation's crime rates continued to fall, a new report from the FBI shows. During 2009, violent crime declined for the third straight year, with an estimated 5.3 percent drop from 2008 figures. Homicides were down 7.3 percent. The FBI statistics undermine a favorite argument of anti-gun groups and some mainstream media that "more guns equal more crime," especially when you consider that the decrease in violent crime in 2009 occurred at the same time that firearm sales were surging.

THIRD YEAR OF FALLING CRIME PROVES

GUN GRABBERS WRONG CCRKBA



BELLEVUE, WA For the third straight year, violent crime has declined in all categories while gun sales climbed, gun ownership expanded and more citizens are carrying firearms for personal protection; proof positive that gun prohibitionists have been consistently and undeniably wrong, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

The FBI released its 2009 report on Crime in the United States, showing that murder declined 7.3 percent, robberies fell 8 percent, aggravated assault dropped by 4.2 percent and forcible rape has declined 2.6 percent. Meanwhile, the National Shooting Sports Foundation notes that gun sales in 2009 were up dramatically.


From NRA-ILA - Gun Ownership Rises to All-Time High,

Violent Crime Falls to 35-Year Low


Coinciding with a surge in gun purchases that began shortly before the 2008 elections, violent crime decreased six percent between 2008 and 2009, including an eight percent decrease in murder and a nine percent decrease in robbery.1 Since 1991, when violent crime peaked, it has decreased 43 percent to a 35-year low. Murder has fallen 49 percent to a 45-year low.2 At the same time, the number of guns that Americans own has risen by about 90 million. Predictions by gun control supporters, that increasing the number of guns, particularly handguns and so-called “assault weapons,” would cause crime to increase, have been proven profoundly lacking in clairvoyance.4

Crimes per 100,000 population
Total Violent Crime

Aggravated Assault

Year
Murder
Rape
Robbery

1991
758.1
9.8
42.3
272.7
433.3

2008
457.5
5.4
29.7
145.7
276.7

2009
429.4
5.0
28.7
133.0
262.8

Trend, 2008-2009
-6%
-8%
-4%
-9%
-5%

Trend, 1991-2009
-43%
-49%
-32%
-51%
-39%

More Guns: There are well over 250 million privately-owned firearms in the U.S., including nearly 100 million handguns and tens of millions of “assault weapons”—the types of firearms that gun control supporters have tried the hardest to get banned5—and the number of firearms typically rises about 4 million per year.6 Annual numbers of new AR-15s, the most popular semi-automatic rifle that gun control supporters call an “assault weapon,” are soaring. In 2008, there were more than 337,000 new AR-15s configured for home defense, competition, training, recreational target practice and hunting.7 NRA-supported Instant Check firearm transactions have increased over 10 percent annually since 2006.8

Less Gun Control: Over the last quarter-century, many federal, state and local gun control laws have been eliminated or made less restrictive. The federal “assault weapon” ban, upon which gun control supporters claimed public safety hinged, expired in 2004 and the murder rate has since dropped 10 percent. The federal handgun waiting period, for years the centerpiece of gun control supporters’ agenda, expired in 1998, in favor of the NRA-supported national Instant Check, and the murder rate has since dropped 21 percent. Accordingly, some states have eliminated obsolete waiting periods and purchase permit requirements. There are now 40 Right-to-Carry states, an all-time high, up from 10 in 1987. All states have hunter protection laws, 48 have range protection laws, 48 prohibit local gun laws more restrictive than state law, 44 protect the right to arms in their constitutions, 33 have “castle doctrine” laws protecting the right to use guns in self-defense, and Congress and 33 states prohibit frivolous lawsuits against the firearm industry.9 Studies for Congress, the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress, the National Institutes of Justice, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found no evidence that gun control reduces crime.10 The FBI doesn’t list gun control as one of the many factors that determine the type and level of crime from place to place.11

via http://www.ssanz.org.nz/

Not quite what the Feminists had in mind

Thanks to Dragon models you can let your girls play with dolls and still grow up to fight for their country. Personally I think it’s a good thing and that any woman that wants to and can meet the physical tests should be allowed in a combat role. Equal rights also means equal responsibility.

Historical note, Soviet women served with distinction as noted by the service of Lyudmila Mykhailivna Pavlichenko

Sea Fort

Ugh! I can’t imagine this would be an enjoyable stint on these forts, the fact that men went squirrely is no surprise, same thing happened on this coast where some men posted to the coastal fort on Yorke Island went nuts or “Yorkie” as it was called.

Madness Under Water

Living conditions on the artificial islands were extreme, with each of the seven-tower fortresses housing up to 265 men at a time. The isolation and close quarters were hard to bear, especially in the concrete legs of the naval sea forts. While the officers' sleeping quarters were in the upper part of the cylinders, where there was adequate light and oil heating, it was intolerable for the crews, who spent their nights below the surface of the water.

To distract themselves when there was nothing to do, the men were convinced to take up hobbies. Psychologists recommended painting, knitting or building models. The men remained on board for six weeks at a time, spending 10 days on land in between deployments. Many required psychiatric treatment, and the soldiers soon came up with their own name for the manmade platforms: "Fort Madness."

At the end of the war, the crews had chalked up an impressive list of successes. Some 22 aircraft and 30 V-1 flying bombs where shot down from the Thames forts, and one was involved in the sinking of a German speedboat. But the use of the forts in the Mersey estuary had proved to be difficult. Because of their location on a constantly shifting sandbar, the structures on stilts repeatedly sank into the ocean floor. In 1948, the Admiralty had them dismantled because they posed a danger to shipping.
More
I would love to spend sometime exploring the old forts in the UK, if you are into old forts and such, check out these sites here and here.

Some more pictures

A visit to Yorke Island

Lunch Break