08:00 – I see that a jogger in Chicago was savagely attacked by two pit bulls, which persisted in their attack despite the attempts of a bystander to drive them off with a baseball bat. The cops eventually shot the dogs. What surprised me was that the article mentioned that this was not normal pit bull behavior, and that the dogs must have been abused.
Pit bulls have a horrible reputation, of course, but the truth is that they’re normally sweet, gentle dogs, at least toward people. Pit bulls were bred to fight other dogs, and I would never trust a pit bull around other dogs. But they were also bred to remove any aggressiveness whatsoever toward humans. That was crucial for the safety of the handlers, who had to handle dogs coming out of the pits after fights, when they were injured. Any dog who showed even the slightest aggressiveness toward humans, even if the dog was injured, was ruthlessly culled.
I’m still working heads down on the vertebrates chapter. I’d planned to do a lab session on animal behavior using a couple of mice. Barbara says she won’t have any mice around here. I offered to give them to Colin to play with afterwards, but she still says no deal.
Not that Colin would hurt the mice. I remember the time Duncan caught a chipmunk out in the yard. It had strayed too far from its burrow, and Duncan pounced. He came up with the chipmunk in his mouth and pranced around for a while, showing off his prey. I yelled at him to let the chipmunk go and–I am not making this up–he carried it back over to its burrow and dropped it. At first I thought it was dead because it didn’t move, but apparently it was just stunned. Duncan snouted it towards its burrow a couple of times and it finally woke up and scampered into its burrow. My best guess is that Duncan considered the chipmunk to be a very small sheep.
13:38 – I’m sure all of us are eagerly awaiting the results from Iowa. There’s one thing I don’t understand, though. According to all the political commentators, Iowa is so important that if Romney wins it’s game over for Paul and the rest of the Republican hopefuls. But if Paul wins, which seems about equally likely from all the polls, it doesn’t matter. Huh? A little biased, are we?
One of my brothers and I had a litter of American Pit Bull Terriers back in the 80s and they were great. Responsible ownership, as with firearms and vehicles, is called for, obviously.
The Chicago incident was probably a result of drug dealing/gang activity, where perps use them as guard dogs with zero responsibility, and every time there is such an incident, the media trumpet it to the heavens.
I wonder how many rounds it took of 9mm or 40 to dispatch said animals. We will never know, of course.
Weather liars blathering last night and today about frigid cold wave assaulting the nation and the Northeast here; what balderdash! It is winter, fools. Temps in the single digits and snow showers. Jesus wept and Sara laughed.
I thought it was funny that Barbara won’t allow you to have mice in the house. At the moment we have two pet rats in the house. My wife is a teacher, and the rats are her class pets.
The article did mention that the cops had trouble stopping the dogs, firing multiple shots.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/02/chicago-jogger-critically-injured-by-pit-bulls/
Of course, it doesn’t mention how many of those multiple shots actually hit the dogs. I suspect one .45 ACP each would have dropped them in their tracks.
She hasn’t said, but I suspect she’s afraid the mice will get loose and be impossible to catch. Rats might be okay. I need those to feed George and Martha anyway.
Also, a lot of dogs that resemble Pit Bulls are labelled Pit Bulls. So, while the initial mix may have been developed for dog fighting, but with restraint toward humans. The mutts nowadays are often have mastiff, rottweiler, and other guard dog breeds mixed into their bloodlines and the females are kept in cages and repeatedly inbred in ghetto puppy mills. Also, more delinquent elements of society have purposely bred aggression toward humans back into them. So, given all of that, many dogs that resemble Pitt Bulls are probably of a more dangerous temperment.
Despite what Hollywood would have you believe, many police officers and sheriff deputies go their entire career without ever having to fire their weapon in the line of duty and many may only ever draw their weapon a couple of times in their entire career. So, badly aimed panic fire is common in police shootouts.
Yep. People sometimes look at me strangely when I say that private citizens who carry are generally much, much better shots than police officers, who in turn are usually better shots than bad guys. It all has to do with achieving basic competence and then practicing until it’s second nature.
Whenever I’ve taught people to shoot pistols, I’ve always told them to expect to fire 1,000 or more rounds to achieve beginner status and several thousand more to achieve basic competence. We used to define “basic competence” by setting up #10 cans of food discarded by supermarkets, with a standard pint can on top of them. From 25 feet, basic competence means hitting the #10 can, which launches the pint can airborne (at least if one hits the #10 can with a .45 ACP). If someone can hit that pint can in the air five times out of of ten, we considered them to have achieved basic competence.
By that measure, very few cops and essentially no criminals have basic competence. Of course, few private citizens do, either. Some private citizens take a course to carry and then never shoot again, but on average a private citizen who carries has probably shot a lot more than the average cop. I’d much, much rather have a bad guy shooting at me than an average cop, and I’d much, much rather have an average cop shooting at me than an average private citizen who carries.
Which reminds me of the first time a guy I used to work with went out to shoot with the Pittsburgh SWAT team. They set up an assortment of old dinner plates and saucers at 275 yards, and told Nick to go first. He honestly thought they were talking about pistol practice, so he pulled out his S&W .41 Magnum and started adjusting its sights. They thought he was kidding until he started busting plates at 275 yards. Nick came back just shaking his head. He said that if he were ever taken hostage, he hoped no one would call the Pittsburgh SWAT team to rescue him.
So, badly aimed panic fire is common in police shootouts.
So true. In Knoxville four officers opened fire on a suspect with 22 rounds being fired. Only one round hit the suspect and even then it was not a life threatening wound. Oak Ridge PD took down a chap that was mentally imbalanced who was waving a knife. Several officers fired a couple dozen bullets and only two hit the suspect, one which was apparently fatal. People were wondering where all the extra bullets went and no one could answer the question. The best guess was “out there somewhere.”.
Oh, yeah. For those of you who aren’t shooters, Nick was indeed a superb pistol shot. World-class, in fact. His point was that a good sniper with a good rifle in good conditions should be shooting sub-2″ groups at 275 yards, not aiming at dinner plates.
As to me, at my best I’d have had trouble consistently hitting a stop sign at 275 yards with a pistol, even one with excellent adjustable sights and a flat-shooting load.
Huckabee won Iowa in 2004’s primary, but it was McCain’s name on the ballot in November.
I meant 2008. I get my election years mixed up. 🙂
Well, I’m hoping that Ron Paul wins the nomination, chooses Gary Johnson as his VP, and that we then have two terms of Paul followed by two terms of Johnson. That might be a good start to getting the country back on track. And we’d have the first decent presidents since Calvin Coolidge.
Johnson dropped out of the Republican race and is going for, or has been given the Lib Party nomination.
I sorta wish it was the other way around: Johnson is much younger and has been governor of a state.
Yeah, and he’s also not anti-choice like Paul.
Oh, and Johnson also supports gay rights, which Paul doesn’t.
Nick had a S&W .41?? I don’t find many folks who have those, besides little ol’ me. I’ve had my 4″ for thirty years now, a wonderful round developed by the late Elmer Keith. It is one flat-shooting accurate cartridge, I can attest. I prefer it to the semi-autos, although the 1911 is great, because I am up here in the cold country and that bugger will go off every single time and hit what I am aiming at. And I am just plain used to revolvers.
Ruger makes a nice single-action, and Taurus now has a couple of models. Marlin used to make a lever-action rifle chambered for it, which I would love to have but cannot find yet.
Nick’s was an 8-3/8″ M57. I think it was that pistol that he told me he’d taken to a first-rate gunsmith to see if he could improve anything. The guy said the pistol was perfect out of the box, with a match-quality trigger. I’d shudder to think what that pistol would sell for today.
I know that mine is worth way more than its original retail price, by a factor of six or seven. I keep it pristine, too.
I am in the market for the aforementioned Marlin, and will probably pick up the Ruger with a 7-1/2″ bbl. Although the Taurus models are both DA.
Highly recommended for folks who dig the old-school wheelgun shooters: “Hell, I Was There!” by the late Elmer Keith, and “No Second-Place Winner,” by the late Bill Jordan. Also anything by the late Colonel Cooper and the late Mel Tappan. And, of course, Mas Ayoob, who lives and works in our neighbor state of NH, soon to be in the news again, and word has it that Mittens will take it in a landslide, but we shall see.
What, the media? Biased? I am quite sure that our paragons of journalism do their very best to present unbiased data. They would never let their personal views influence reporting. *cough*
I don’t quite understand the current polling results in Iowa. Nationally, Gingrich seems to have a substantial lead, closely followed by Romney. I’ve heard that there were lots of anti-Gingrich attack ads – apparently well-enough done to have an effect. Any idea who paid for them? Was it other Republican candidates, or are the Democrat organizations playing games?
I note that the others all say things like “I will eliminate any federal spending I consider unnecessary” – which, of course, may be none at all… Ron Paul is the only one to flat-out state that he will close entire departments. I wish Ron Paul were 20 years younger and 20% more charismatic – then he might actually have a chance.
If Obama is the Democratic candidate, Paul is the Republican candidate and Johnson is the Libertarian candidate you’ll vote for Johnson?
brad wrote:
“I wish Ron Paul were 20 years younger and 20% more charismatic – then he might actually have a chance.”
John Howard was elected prime minister here four times running, and he is the least charismatic person in Australia.
I have a similar, but slightly different wish. I wish Rand Paul was running and doing as well as his father.
My problem with Rand Paul is that he’s way too religious. I mistrust anyone who believes that any religion should have any influence whatsoever, direct or indirect, in government. Ron Paul is bad enough in that respect. Ron supports neither abortion rights nor gay rights, although he doesn’t think either issue belongs at the federal level. If Ron had his way, abortion laws and gay marriage would be up to the states entirely. I can live with that, because some states would allow both. That’s not ideal, but it’s better than legislating against both at the federal level.
Iowa and New Hampshire are made up of entirely different stock, and independents and Libertarians usually do well in New England. But Ron Paul is abysmally uncharismatic. Rand is much better and at least can speak in full sentences. I have never been a fan of Gingrich, and his whining will do more harm to himself than good. I suspect New Hampshire will send him packing.
And the competition is fierce! 😀
Those of us in the Commonwealth have a long history with voting for the most boring politicians. I think it’s mostly served us well. I would much rather have a boring, but fairly capable, Prime Minister; than an exciting, but lame duck, President.
Pierre Trudeau and Kim Campbell were boring? (And I thought Kim was fairly cute too.)
While I understand the attraction of Paul i.e. some of his libertarian views on domestic policy are refreshingly sane (vs the insane more commonly held views), he makes far too many comments like the one during a debate where he said that he was against the fence (to “keep illegals out”) because ” it could be used to keep us in”. I heard this debate in its entirety and there was no out of context problem. He has other very well known deal breaker problems e.g. his foreign policy, etc.
I hope it does not come down to Obama vs Romney, though it may very well.
He isn’t nearly as “venerated” in the west, as he is in the east. He did a lot to promote socialism, that we couldn’t afford then, let alone now. However, he certainly wasn’t boring, and he is far from being an example of the typical commonwealth politician. I loathed his politics, but loved his style and smart ass personality.
Kim Campbell was Prime Minister solely because our laws allow a transfer of power when the “real” PM retires. In her case it was because Brian Mulroney and the Tories were about to be almost obliterated in the next election, and that black hearted bastard ran from the polls, leaving Kim holding the bag. Ms. Campbell didn’t survive the purge, lasted a mere 132 days in power, and never had a real chance of being elected as PM.
And my goodness, Greg, you have low standards for women. You’ll probably think BC’s newest unelected, because the incumbent was about to be shot down in flames for far too many scandals, Premier is downright hot.
Actually, she kind of is… 😀
You know you’re getting old when the politicians at the top of the heap are younger than you…
Yes, she’s pretty cute too…
Agreed. Christy is kinda hot.