Archive for 2013

REMINDER TO SELF — ORDER MORE AMMUNITION: Just heard audio from Syrian rebel who says, “We have less ammo than what most Americans have under their bed.”

Also, I like us having that reputation.

UPDATE: A reader emails: “Pffft. No self-respecting American gun owner would be able to fit his ammo under the bed.” Well, you know . . . foreigners. You have to make allowances. Or maybe he just means the ready-use supply.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Kim Sommer writes: “Order more ammo? From where?” LuckyGunner.com!

MORE: Reader William Basow writes: “Actually, the auctions at Gunbroker offer bulk 9mm ammo much cheaper than Lucky Gunner. Just bought 1000 rounds of new, brass, Winchester 9mm ammo for $420, including shipping. (Bought at buy-it-now price rather than waiting out an auction.) Gunbroker is a site similar to e-bay, with seller ratings, etc. Great place to shop for firearms as well.” Never heard of that one, but okay.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Hillary Clinton’s Shameful Intimidation Of Gregory Hicks. “The secretary of state in the most transparent administration in history has her chief of staff warn a Benghazi whistle-blower to not spill the beans on Benghazi to a U.S. congressman.”

ANYBODY NOTICING A PARALLEL WITH THE IRS SCANDAL? Bloomberg Execs Knew Journalists Were Tracking Clients In 2011. Okay, maybe not. But I think this piece is excessively sanguine. I remember insider-traders using law firms’ car-service calls to gather data; there’s more information available here.

UPDATE: Ben Smith emails with the most amusing angle: “Bloomberg confessed the spying on air and got away with it because nobody watches Bloomberg TV.”

I’D PREFER A BOFORS GUN, PERSONALLY: How Massive Ships Defend Themselves From Pirates. But what’s this line? “Traditionally, countries have discouraged mariners from bringing firearms on board.” Well, it depends on how far back you count as tradition. . . .

MAXIM’S HOTTEST GIRL OF THE YEAR: Miley Cyrus?

POLITICIZING THE IRS: IRS anti-Tea Party scandal gets real — senior IRS officials aware of targeting. “This is getting real. Yesterday it was just some ‘low level’ employees involved. Now AP is reporting that senior IRS officials were aware of the targeting.”

Here’s the story: “A federal watchdog’s upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011. The disclosure contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who repeatedly assured Congress that conservative groups were not targeted. . . . The Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The Associated Press obtained part of the draft report.”

So that’s why they released the story early — they knew it was coming out anyway. (Bumped).

LAWPROF ACTION SHOT: Me running into the law school earlier today, to sign an urgently-needed student letter of recommendation. (Photo by the Insta-Daughter, who found it amusing.)

rainlawschool

GOOD NEWS! New Flu Bugs: Too Lethal For a Pandemic? “Calculations by Dr. Boni and his colleagues show that with 60% mortality, H5N1 bird flu is still four times too lethal to be able to spread within a human population. In captive ferrets (the experimental animal of choice for flu research) it is rapidly evolving toward lower virulence. Ironically, the most worrying sign for a bird-flu pandemic would be if the virulence dropped significantly—then it could spread. There are signs this might be happening in Egypt.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Sallie Mae Profit Boosts College Endowments And Pension Funds As Students Pay More. “The previously unreported investments mean that education professionals are able to profit twice off the same student: first by hiking the cost of tuition, then through dividends and higher valuations on their holdings in Sallie Mae, the largest student lender and loan servicer in the country, which profits by charging relatively high interest rates on its loans and not refinancing high-rate loans after students graduate and get well-paying jobs.”

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE AND WEIRD CLAIMS IN THE AIR: OK, He Didn’t Cause Hurricane Katrina. But He Is Guilty of Fraud. “In the history of U.S. military research, there’s never been a project with such a combination of big science, high sleaze, and pure conspiratorial strangeness. Yet somehow, some way, the story of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, just got sleazier and stranger — all thanks to an elderly physicist named Alfred Wong.”

PRODUCT OF IGNORANCE: Poll: 64% of Gun Control Advocates Wrongly Think Gun Crime Up. “According to a Rasmussen poll released on Friday, while gun killings have plunged 39 percent since 1993, and non-fatal gun crimes have dropped 69 percent in the same period, those who want gun control think that gun crime is up. Rasmussen reports that only 7 percent of adults believe there are fewer gun owners in the country than there were 20 years ago – and more importantly, 64 percent of those who want more gun control think that gun crime has escalated.”

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The most popular day for moms to cheat on their husbands. “Here’s a brutal revelation about modern motherhood: the notorious pro-cheating site Ashley Madison (yes, the one where you can find the perfect person to have an affair with) announced that the biggest spike in women signing up for the site occurs on the day after Mother’s Day. In fact, last year, they saw a 439% increase in new women signups on that fateful Monday.”

READER BOOK PLUG: Reader Douglas Hufnagel writes: “Hey Professor Reynolds, I was won