Update: Hats off to Comp USA who recovered all the images (and some more from ages back) from a Mini SD card.

==================================

Last night, the desktop computer crashed hard. We’re pretty good about backing up stuff but we haven’t done a back up since last week. So, all of our Christmas photos were on there, including my boy’s first Christmas. We want the pictures back.

After it crashed, I kept trying to reboot and googled up the error message. The solution from Microsoft was the same as it always is and they said to reinstall windows. I did. However, in the reinstall, it kept getting to a point where it said something like unable to create file system32 and it kicked out of reinstall. I went to Comp USA and grabbed a USB external HD case. Put the hard drive in it to see if it could be read and it could. However, all that is there is the Windows directory. It’s all gone.

So, first, when did reinstalling windows format a hard drive? Second, can I get my stuff back?

Update: Also, the data was on our flash card but was deleted. Is that a better route?

A Shrike (a belt fed upper for the M-16) in action:

Seen at Brittney’s:

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

I have a hard time believing this is true. But if it is: Wow.

Update: It’s not true. See comments. Apparently, I need to start clicking links.

Via an ad I clicked somewhere, Jillian Michaels is both 1) hot and 2) capable of kicking my ass. Not sure which of those I like better.

There is apparently a push now in my fair state to ban smoking in public places (for the children, of course). As someone who until recently was a very heavy smoker, you’d expect me to be like every other ex-smoker and become a total dick about it and support this nanny-state bullshit. You’d be wrong. Here’s the deal: If I don’t want to be around smoke, I don’t go where the smoking is. It’s quite simple. Smoking is bad for you and it will kill you, which is why I quit. But if I own a business, I and not the state should decide what happens there. There are establishments that forbid smoking and there are establishments that allow it. Go to the one that suits you. And, for fuck’s sake, don’t take your damn kids to a bar.

But Uncle say the nanny-state pricks in between heading to soccer practice, Starbuck’s and spending time not minding their own business smoking causes cancer, emphysema, other health problems, impotence, global warming, and the uncontrollable urge for people not to mind their own business. It leads to increased healthcare costs and is a drain on society. And it may complicate pregnancy And Uncle says So fucking what? Plenty of other things do all that too. Like drinking

What it boils down to is that a bunch people don’t like smoking and want to be able to go add a few ounces to their thighs by sucking down bacon-double cheeseburgers at the local Ruby Tuesday’s and not be exposed to something they find distasteful, stinky, or unhealthy. And here’s the other deal: Once you start using the threat of force (i.e., passing a law) for this kind of objectionable behavior, where does it end? Do we ban drinking? Trans-fat? Bacon double-cheeseburgers? Cars? Etc. And, of course, this will eventually lead to calls for the banning of smoking in your own home if there are children there. Sound far-fetched? Just wait and see.

I find all kinds of shit objectionable but that doesn’t mean it should be banned under the threat of a gun. For example, I don’t like seeing your big ass in a shirt that is two sizes too small. Not only that, one of those buttons could pop loose and put out my eye. But I don’t cling to the skirt of the .gov demanding that you wear shirts with soft foamy buttons that fit and that you run your ass around the block a few times (you know, for the children).

Sean Braisted sums it up nicely: No surprise here…most people will support taking away another person’s freedoms if it means a little more comfort for themselves.

If this shit keeps up, I’ll have to start smoking again to keep from choking some busy-body nanny.

These nanny-state pricks even have a blog. And they have poll.

Via Brittney.

Good. Xavier breaks it down for those who’ve not been following it:

Today, the state grand jury finally called bullshit on the New Orleans Police Department’s version of what happened on Sept. 4, 2005. The killings have been portrayed by the officers involved, the NOPD, and the MSM as an appropriate response to sniper fire at rescue workers near the bridge in eastern New Orleans. The dead victims have been demonized as criminal snipers. The injured survivors fled New Orleans in the aftermath, and gained little exposure in the press as they tried to tell their story. The facts demonstrate that the only people shooting at people that day were officers of the law. Indeed, the grand jury cleared Lance Madison, a man whom police had arrested that day and booked framed with attempted first degree murder for supposedly shooting at law enforcement. Lance Madison had no firearm. No person in his group had a firearm.

There’s more. Also, one of the victims (a mentally-retarded man) was shot in the back five times by police.

Rep. Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee). This genius thinks that unused gift card dollars are free money and those big ol’, evil capitalist companies shouldn’t profit from it. No, really:

Kessler said millions of dollars a year go unused by gift card recipients, and retailers are allowed to book the unused values after the cards expire. He cited figures from Consumer Reports showing that 19% of all gift cards are not used because they are lost or expired.

Kessler called that a “windfall,” which he said could be used to support schools, health care or roads. Under his bill, after a one-year expiration date on all cards, 80% of the value of unused cards would go to the state treasury. Merchants could keep 20% of the value of an unused card to pay for processing, Kessler said.

Our good comrade would rather the state take the money than for a company to profit a bit. I think someone should take Mr. Kessler out back and kick him exactly once in each ball.

Anarchangel has a post up about it.

Paul Helmke:

“I’m not anti-gun,” he said. “It’s a question of what can we do to make our neighborhoods safer. I absolutely don’t want to do anything to make it harder for the legitimate hunters or gun collectors or anybody who even wants it for personal protection.”

You’re not anti-gun? Then why do you head an anti-gun organization?

And you don’t want to make it harder for collectors? Then why does that anti-gun organization you run promote one-gun-per-month laws?

And you don’t want to make it hard for people who want it for personal protection, why does your organization support the near total ban of weapons in DC and Chicago?

Paul Helmke has to lie through is teeth to appear moderate.

I’ve often said that there are a few recession/depression proof industries (porn and booze). Check it:

Vice beat virtue in 2006. Putting your money into sinful industries such as tobacco, alcohol, gambling and arms beats the market comfortably. In the US, the Vice Fund, which invests only in these sectors, is up 23 per cent for the year.

The Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund, which excludes companies that violate Catholic doctrine, is up only 13 per cent.

Via reader d who says: you can take comfort that Libertarians won in the market, if not in politics this year.

And arms are not sinful.

And scope options.

By now most people have learned of the disharmony between the City of Knoxville and Knox County government over the South Grove Shopping Center. Harmony is very important in Knox County. It appears that it is even more important than either ethics or the law.

The disharmony is over an allegedly illegal “One Man One Vote special election” which allowed a finger annexation of Knox County property into the City of Knoxville. There are many problems with the procedure and qualifications of this “special election”. Knox County Law Director John Owings thought it was so irregular he immediately filed a law suit.

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale asked county Law Director John Owings to dismiss a law suit challenging the annexation. Mayor Ragsdale said he thinks fighting the annexation is a bad use of tax money. Mayor Ragsdale was quoted in the Knoxville News Sentinel, “Spending tens of thousands of dollars in a lawsuit to contest a voluntary annexation would be a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. It would also be a huge step backward in city and county relations, which are better now than they’ve ever been.”

You can see Mayor Ragsdale explain his ideas here:

City of Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam wrote a commentary this past Sunday in the Knoxville News Sentinel entitled, “South Grove annexation: Much ado about a good thing”. Mayor Haslam requested the special commentary from News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy stating that a prior commentary by John Emison, the President of Citizens for Home Rule, was “misleading in many respects”. Ironically Mayor Haslam then made charges which are verifiably wrong on Jack McElroy’s blog “The Upfront Page”. Mayor Haslam charged that John Emison was a paid by Citizens for Home Rule, a charge which is not true. Mayor Haslam wrote, “Emison’s assertion that the referendum for the South Grove area violated the boundary and thus the agreement is simply incorrect.”

The City Mayor now owns those words.

The most surprising development is this convoluted revolting matter is the dramatic acting done by Mayor Mike Ragsdale in the December 18th Knox County Commissioners meeting. As you can see in the Part Three YouTube clip Mayor Ragsdale pleads with the Knox County Commission not to ask the State Attorney General to investigate the “One Man One Vote special election”. Yet Ragsdale’s top Lieutenant John Griess sponsored the resolution asking for the State Attorney General to investigate the special election. So are we to think that Mayor Ragsdale and John Griess disagree? Or is the more logical conclusion simply that the County Mayor wanted to have plausible deniability to maintain the illusion of harmony? Apparently if you want to be the next Governor of Tennessee you must maintain the harmony, whether that harmony is real or just an illusion doesn’t matter.

Both of these Mayor’s reportedly will seek higher office. Can you choose which one is the most ethical?

YouTube clips of the December 18th meeting in Knox County Commission:

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Six

We’ve been farked. Looks like my host doesn’t like Fark so half of them can’t get here. Bummer.

I don’t read a lot of the lefty blogs so I did miss the alleged NRA graphic novel. Via Nylar:

In short: Wonkette posted jpeg scans from a digital copy sent in by an anonymous tipster. Elsewhere, some at Daily Kos and a popular gun law forum (and, for a while, me) expressed doubts over authenticity (c’mon, it was so far-out! lobsterrorists!). Then, Wonkette shared the original doc with BoingBoing (PDF link), a Wonkette commenter determined it appears to have been illustrated by Chris Gall, and everyone agreed — not a hoax (though we’re still awaiting response from the NRA). Here’s a link to the updated BoingBoing post with embedded blog-drama, and there are fresh posts at Wonkette (Link), Kos (Link) and the CA-CCW forum (Link). And below — readers say Adobe Reader reveals what are apparently hidden notes from the NRA assigner to the illustrator.

Having seen it, I’m calling bullshit. And it seems others concur. I’m gonna call some people.

Update: Others do not concur. I called bullshit earlier because one image I saw had some reference to killing minorities which I knew was total bullshit. But it seems that bullshit image was bullshit and did not come from the alleged novel. A direct link to it is here.

Update 2: If you post at wonkette the images with these bullshit captions, don’t be so surprised when someone thinks you’re full of shit. Images from it without all the crazy crap would have been more credible.

If you think the NRA has gotten all crazy, don’t get all crazy right back.

Just saying.

David Codrea says (and USCitizen agrees) that the Bush administration has now taken a collective rights interpretation of the second amendment. Recall that back in 2002ish, the Ashcroft Justice Department changed the formal JD policy to the individual rights view of the second amendment, or as it should be called the correct view. At issue with this reversal is (and I am not making this up) the FAA issuing regulations on (again, not making it up) space travel and whether or not people could take guns with them. See the regs here:

XCOR inquired whether the FAA had the authority to impose security requirements under its statute and the U.S. Constitution. The Second Amendment to the Constitution provides that “[a] well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” This right is not unfettered. Nearly every statute restricting the right to bear arms has been upheld. For example, in 1958, Congress made it a criminal offense to knowingly carry a firearm onto an airplane engaged in air transportation. 49 U.S.C. 46505. Additionally, nearly all courts have also held that the Second Amendment is a collective right, rather than a personal right. Therefore, despite the Second Amendment collective right to bear arms, the FAA has the authority to prohibit firearms on launch and reentry vehicles for safety and security purposes.

Apparently, they don’t want you packing on a rocket ship. The issue that David and USCitizen are concerned about is that this interpretation was signed off by the President’s office, implying that it is an endorsement of the collective rights model of the second amendment. I think it’s an implication that the president doesn’t want people packing on rocket ships.

Though it is a misstep on the second amendment, I don’t read too much into it. But, as USCitizen notes:

The FAA indeed appears to be codifying constitutional interpretations of the Second Amendment into federal regulations.

Kevin has a lengthy piece on what the other side believes.

How can that be?

LaPierre on the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership’s grade system:

Maybe an “A” grade means “Anti-gun,” and an “F” stands for “Freedom.”

Heh.

Snoop Dogg now anti-gun. Of course, he’s anti-gun because he was just arrested with one.

A Sig 7.62X39? Looks like it might take AK mags too.

The WAPO:

The Justice Department is building a massive database that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies, according to Justice officials.

The system, known as “OneDOJ,” already holds approximately 1 million case records and is projected to triple in size over the next three years, Justice officials said. The files include investigative reports, criminal-history information, details of offenses, and the names, addresses and other information of criminal suspects or targets, officials said.

Suspects, targets? What’s the difference?

Colt CCO has some. He confirms that, again, H&K tells the civilian market to get bent. That is precisely why I never buy anything (not even a hat) from H&K.

If your dog is wondering loose, it is a nuisance. End of story. So, check this out. Police dog decides to leave its house and runs loose (it is therefore a nuisance). It is threatening a neighbor and his kid (therefore is a nuisance again). Man shoots the dog, which is what you should do.

Now, he’s charged with cruelty to animals and third degree felony assault. That’s bull shit. The only one who is responsible here is Police Officer Bryon Deeter for failing to contain his dog. He is, of course, not being charged.

Blaming castle doctrine laws for the death of 92 year-old Kathryn Johnston. I’m more inclined to blame shoddy police work.

Squirrel pack kills dog. The suspects:

The Akins Folks have posted the letter rescinding prior approval of the stock system for a Ruger 10/22 that facilitated bump-firing. They have the other approval letters and such too. Very inconsistent and, honestly, just made up as the ATF went along.

Translation: Wait, it works? Then it’s a machine gun. By the rationale they’re using here, any semi-automatic firearm capable of being bump-fired (i.e., all of them) is potentially a machine gun. Some notes on the fly:

Says someone asked them to review the device. I wonder who? My guess is: someone who bought one wanted to get their own letter or a gun maker who didn’t want their gun associated with the device.

Basically says: We changed our mind.

trigger has been re-defined

anything without a trigger can’t be a machine gun

your finger acts as an auto-sear yet a finger is not a firearm

any semi-auto can “shoot or readily restore to shoot….. by single function of the trigger” by this logic

Post 86 MGs can’t be registered, so many people are out some major $$$

Background here.

LaPierre says it was a good year for gun rights. Indeed it was one of the better we’ve seen with castle doctrine, more states allowing concealed carry, the ban on gun confiscations during emergencies, and some significant state level victories. But what next? I have some ideas.

First, with the change in power going to a San Francisco liberal, expect a push to ban weapons that look like assault weapons. So, go on offense with that one now.

Second, time to get rid of the sporting purpose language in the law.

Third, will somebody please do something about the ATF? I’m not calling for them to be disbanded like the purists. The fact is, we are going to have federal gun laws. And, if we do, someone will enforce them. Their recent troubles include:

A circuit court smacks them down for their ruling on model rockets;

An agent testified under oath that the NFRTR (the NFA weapons database) was corrupt;

Having budget issues due to mismanagement;

Being investigated for breaking he law at Virginia gun shows.

And they’ve had funds cut for some of their rather, err, dubious programs.

The ATF Director has resigned over excessive and lavish spending.

The now former head of the ATF ordered staff to do his nephew’s homework.

And there may be somewhat of an internal revolt at the agency. David Hardy posts an email from a group called ATFers United against Mismanagement and Misconduct.

Also, their fickle minds are potentially bankrupting people and making criminals out of the law-abiding since they can decide what is or is not law. There needs to be oversight of the agency.

Win a Winchester Model 70 Stealth

Briefcase machine gun.

High Impulse Weapons System (via Ringo)

The MK11 7.62 Carbine.

Radley is tracking botched police raids so I don’t have to.

Unclear on the concept:

Polcie in Arizona raided the home of a 73-year-old man with Alzheimers this week. The flash grenade they deployed during the raid set the home on fire, and burned it down. No one inside heard a police announcement, though the police of course insist they made one. They claim they were looking for a wanted burglar, and insist they had the right house. But they found none of the evidence they claimed they would find on the search warrant.

Then what is a botched raid?

Shades of Goose Creek:

About 30 police officers, narcotics detectives and five drug-sniffing dogs descended on Bonneville High School in Washington Terrace on Tuesday in a search for drugs being dealt out of lockers and hallways.

The officers walked away empty handed.

Meanwhile, on another famous botched raid:

Some of the worst abuses of government force in recent years were precipitated by technical and victimless gun-law violations. For example, the BATF claimed that the Branch Davidians possessed machine guns without paying the required federal tax and filling in the proper registration forms. So a tax case worth less than $10,000 led to a 76-man helicopter, machine gun, and grenade assault on a home in which 2/3 of the occupants were women and children.