"We Promise to Investigate the Election That We Stole." --Dmitry Medvedev

Besides calling the protestors traitors and tools of Hillary Clinton, the Russian government has promised to investigate its theft of the recent parliamentary elections.

They might want to hire Ken Blackwell, as rumor has it that he has considerable experience in rigging elections.

Caturday

George is hanging out on one of his favorite places.

I have two cats who like to lie on heated cat pads. So why they insisted on sharing this one is beyond me. Jake can take up an entire pad by himself.

With a Jaundiced Eye

If there was ever a reason to put zero trust in whatever the Washington Post has to say about education, this graphic from the NY Times is it.

Kaplan "University", one of the country's "for profit" colleges, is the cash cow for the WaPo. Like all for-profit colleges, its student take on massive debt loads and the vast majority do not graduate.

Here's an example: Last month, the GAO released a study reporting the abysmal academic standards at for-profit schools. The WaPo noted it on one of their blogs, thus ensuring that maybe a few thousand people saw the story. Some other papers and magazines did take not of it in print, jut not the WaPo.

It all goes back to the primary rule: Money talks.

Well, That Was Fun

I finally dragged my dead ass to the pistol range. They had these targets, which were fun to shoot at. I pretty much shot the head out of this one:

The worrisome thing is that this range, which has something like a dozen firing positions, was pretty busy. Normally, it's almost dead in there early on a weekday afternoon, but not today. Either a lot of people had time off or a lot of guys found themselves with more free time than they had anticipated. Which may not be a good local economic indicator.

Art

You can see more engraved firearms here.

I've not been able to justify, to myself, the cost of having a gun engraved. But I like the looks of the ones that are moderately done so that the weapon is still usable.

The Flocking of the Goyim

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The first bit about Bachmann was hilarious.

OK, Play Us Out Tonight

Sleep well, everyone!

Farewell, Colonel Potter

Harry Morgan has died. He was 96.

I know that a lot of people have posted this clip of Col. Potter expressing outrage over the varied ways men kill one another. But I'm fond of this clip:

Drone

You've probably heard by now that a RQ-170 drone was lost over Iran and that the Iranians recovered the wreckage. What caught my eye, though, was this quote in the NY Times:

Dennis M. Gormley, a missile and drone expert at the University of Pittsburgh, said reverse-engineering the aircraft itself would be difficult even for a sophisticated military. “Unless somebody put the engineering drawings in the U.A.V.,” he said, using the abbreviation for unmanned aerial vehicle, “it won’t be easy. In any complex piece of aviation equipment, you have to replicate the tolerances precisely.”

Let me offer, if you will, Exhibit A: The Tupolev-4, NATO codename: "Bull"

If it looks familiar, it should:

L

After three B-29s landed on Soviet soil during the war, Tupolev produced a damn near exact copy of the B-29. The one real problem Tupolev had was that due to the differences between the English and metric systems, Tupolev had to use slightly thicker aluminum and larger rivets. The Tu-4 was reportedly had an empty weight that was over a ton heavier than a similar B-29.

Copying is possible. But more likely is detailed analysis and copying of the sensors and passive anti-radar characteristics of the skin.

What isn't being discussed is the effect that the drone crash will have on the push by the U.S. and U.K. for increased sanctions on Iran to punish them for their pursuit of nuclear weapons. The Iranians now have a nice bargaining chip to help persuade the Russians and the Chinese to push back against more sanctions.

Barry Sucks Up to the Far Right

If you don't think that this was a political decision, email me. I have a bridge to sell to you.

The federal government Wednesday rejected a request to let young teenage girls buy the controversial morning-after pill Plan B directly off drugstore and supermarket shelves without a prescription. ... In a statement, FDA Administrator Margaret A. Hamburg said she had decided the medication could be used safely by girls and women of all ages. But she added that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had rejected the move.

My guess is that the Obama Administration is betting that whoever is nominated by the GOP will not sit well with the Christian Taliban. What they want to do is not give those folks a reason to go to the polls. A "Plan B goes on the OTC shelves" would give them a reason.

It's a good think that the Talibanistas don't regard taking pain meds as a sin. Otherwise, we'd need a prescription to buy a bottle of aspirin.