I'll be the first to admit I've never liked twitter. I generally have no interest in opening an account nor following anyone. And I've come to hate Twitter TV. I don't know if it's TV channels jumping on the twitter bandwagon or if twitter is paying for exposure on mainstream programming, but I cannot stand inane twitter popups whilst I'm watching my shows.

I've tuned out from more than one show for showing stupid, vapid comments every five seconds. Maybe I'm becoming an old fuddy duddy.

When the zombie apocalypse hits, apparently you're better off being in Alaska than New Jersey. That seems like a no-brainer, but I totally disagree with the methodology of this study.

The researchers looked at Facebook to see who was interested in topics like paintball, martial arts, survival skills, laser tag, and Ironman triathlons, while they turned to census data to determine active and retired military personnel.

Alaska and New Jersey are pretty much polar opposites, but why does Alabama rate so low, and New Hampshire rate so high?

Well, New Hampshire has a lot of gun owners, veterans, paintball enthusiasts and triathletes. On the other hand Alabama is filled with fat-asses who know nothing about zombies and never play laser tag. Hell do Alabamans even use facebook?

Selection bias aside, while laser tag and paintball might help you bring some practical zombie hunting skills to bear, they are severely overrated in this particular matrix. After all, Alabama is filled with actual game hunters and target shooters who likely don't waste their time playing with toy guns.

If I were putting together a matrix (and I'm not) I would rate not only gun ownership, but population density (which isn't even considered). After all, the last place you want to be when the zombies start their rampage is in an urban area. You want to get to a low density area with defensible and fortify-able positions. It also helps to have access to not just guns, but plenty of ammo. Urban areas may have guns (illegal or otherwise) but are there stockpiles of ammo? And then there's food stores; though that likely plays to the strengths of urban areas.

When the shit hits the fan, personally I think your best bet is to grab some supplies throw them into your big gas guzzling SUV and head for the hills at full speed. Yeah, a Prius might get your more range, but good luck busting through barricades and hordes of dead bodies. I'd gladly sacrifice miles per gallon for a good roomy 4x4 with a locking diff. But that's just me.

As for food, a buddy once asked me about putting MREs in my "bug out" bag. I told him I got a gun so I can always get food. He said, "Oh you mean by hunting?"

"Umm.... yeah, right... hunting," I replied. Maybe living in a state with relatively few gun owners isn't so bad after all.

A federal judge issued a scathing opinion against the ATF for their "stash house" stings in Los Angeles. The stings, which the judge referred to as made-up crime, involve soliciting people to rob houses that are supposedly chock full o' drugs, but which don't actually exist. The ATF then arrests the suspects for the supposed robbery, with penalties based on the fake amounts the ATF invented.

[U.S. District Court Judge Otis] Wright said agents had no evidence that [defendant Antuan] Dunlap had been involved in drug house robberies in the past or that he would have participated in one had an undercover ATF agent not offered him the chance to steal as much as 25 kilograms of non-existent cocaine. He criticized the government for basing the severity of the charges Dunlap faced on the "whims" of federal agents and questioned whether the ATF's investigations have done anything to benefit public safety.

It's about damned time. This is not the first time the ATF has resorted to entrapment and other questionable tactics (not even counting Operation Fast and Furious). A few years ago they solicited a mentally challenged man to get people to buy them guns at exorbitant prices in a Milwaukee sting that included plying juveniles with alcohol.

The news organization found the agency used mentally disabled people to promote operations and then arrested them on drug and gun charges; opened storefronts close to schools and churches, boosting their arrest numbers and penalties; and attracted juveniles with free video games and alcohol.

Agents paid inflated prices for guns, which led to people buying weapons at stores and selling them to undercover agents hours later, in some cases for nearly three times what they paid. In addition, agents allowed armed felons to leave their fake stores and openly bought stolen goods, spurring burglaries in surrounding neighborhoods. The ATF operations themselves were burglarized.

In Milwaukee, Operation Fearless' lead undercover agent had three of his guns, including a machine gun, stolen from his car. The machine gun and a handgun remain missing, a Milwaukee police spokesman said Thursday.

Crime in the surrounding area actually spiked thanks to your friendly neighborhood ATF agents.

After 9/11, ATF was changed from being a tax collection agency and moved from the Department of the Treasury to the DOJ. Since then they have proved time and again that they are not cut out to be a full fledged "law enforcement" organization.

Congress should just disband them and turn their duties over to the FBI.

Okay, okay, so this site has gotten dusty and been neglected over the past 5 or 6 years, and I'm trying to decide what to do with it.

I'm not sure anyone would still read this site. I wouldn't mind dabbling in a few posts again, but I really don't have the energy to talk much about politics anymore. I do still have a keen interest in guns, cigars, beer, motorcycles and the finer things in life so there's an idea. But if I do decide to start posting regularly I desperately need to update the site. I still like the look, but design and layout are very much dated.

I'm also running an ancient version of MT, so I would either need to update that or migrate to Wordpress (more likely).

If the comments still work, I'm open to idears.

Decisions.. decisions..

In Virginia it's legal to carry a gun in your car in a closed compartment without a concealed handgun permit. The Attorney General issued an opinion as such, and Virginia Judges and case law agree that the compartment does not have to be locked, it merely has to be closed (think center console or non-locking glove box). However, the actual text of the law says "secured" compartment which is ever so slightly ambiguous.

House Bill 962 would have clarified the law to make it align with the AG opinion and existing case law. It's pretty non-controversial and passed with veto-proof majorities and bi-partisan support, however our carpet bagger, campaign finance cheat, and gun-grabbing Governor Terry "The Punk" McAuliffe decided to veto it anyway.

His vote was largely symbolic, because it doesn't change Virginia law, rather than merely clarify the law. Let's hope the bi-partisan majority votes to override his veto later this year.