A fisking of a grossly awful article.

(Reuters) – Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.

These extremists, sometimes known as “sovereign citizens,” believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.

Well, no! Nobody’s above the law (unless they’re elected).

The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

Wait, defy environmental regs? Like not exactly calculating the amount of fertilizer per hectare to put on their lawn? I can see how that’s an FBI concern.

Routine encounters with police can turn violent “at the drop of a hat,” said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

“We thought it was important to increase the visibility of the threat with state and local law enforcement,” he said.

In May 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were shot and killed in an argument that developed after they pulled over a “sovereign citizen” in traffic.

That’s awful. Dangerous nutjobs are everywhere. Were Police not aware of that already? This needs FBI intervention?

Last year, an extremist in Texas opened fire on a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer was not hit.

An officer shot at but not hit. Terrifically bad for that officer, but this isn’t evidence of a tsunami of lawlessness. It’s one dirtbag who (fortunately) can’t shoot. I hope the Officer ended him (there’s no information in the article about that).

Legal convictions of such extremists, mostly for white-collar crimes such as fraud, have increased from 10 in 2009 to 18 each in 2010 and 2011, FBI agents said.

Wha? These are White Collar goofballs? So these (scarequotes) ‘sovereign citizens’ are lawyers and accountants and doctors and such? That would explain their not being good shots, but none of the rest of the story.

And, an INCREASE from TEN to (hold your breath) EIGHTEEN in twelve months? It’s a tsunami of lawlessness! Now I see why the FBI is in on this.

“We are being inundated right now with requests for training from state and local law enforcement on sovereign-related matters,” said Casey Carty, an FBI supervisory special agent.

FBI agents said they do not have a tally of people who consider themselves “sovereign citizens.”

So far you’ve described two dangerous morons and 28 non dangerous idiots. One killed two cops, and here’s for his dying in prison, dunno about the other ones. So, 30. 30 of these ‘sovereign citizens’ in a citizenry of about 300 Million. It should be easy to make a tally of them. Just sayin’.

J.J. MacNab, a former tax and insurance expert who is an analyst covering the sovereign movement, has estimated that it has about 100,000 members.

Sovereign members often express particular outrage at tax collection, putting Internal Revenue Service employees at risk.

Let’s give then that 30 of 100,000 are bad people. 3/100k= .0003 which means a 0.03% risk from these people.

via FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists | Reuters.

Okay, I have family in Law Enforcement. I’m not Anti Law.

This doesn’t mean this alleged group (which they cannot even describe in a way to identify anyone in it) is a danger more than the general population.

Reuters fail. Weird there’s time spent putting this out.

It’s only on in Canada (eh).

It’s good.

Yeah, it’s a Budwiser ad, but since they paid for the stunt (I guess), so they get a lot of credit from me.

via SFGate

All,

Sitemeter tells me people still visit this site. Probably from a sense of nostalgia, and I thank all of you for checking in here from time to time.

I’m working a lot of shifts, going to a lot of meetings, and still trying to have a semblance of a life. This leaves no time for original writing here.

The meetings: our Gigantic Corporate Overlord has graciously agreed to part with a Princely Sum of Cash, and in March we break ground on a new ED. Nice! (Figures off the top of my head: currently we have about 96 beds in 24K sq. feet and see 96K/yr, and we’re going to 81 rooms and 48K sq. ft.).

In case you missed that, we’re not scheduled to get the same number of beds as rooms, but a bunch of our current beds are hall beds. I hate hall beds. And, many of the new rooms are to be designed to ‘double up’ so we can put 2 beds in 1 treatment room, so we’re going to net more than we have now.

Additionally, 2 CT’s, an MRI, and 24 hour sono. And a designed environment rather than the hodgepodge of assumed spaces we currently have. (When I describe our current condition it sounds like I’m down on it, but I’m not. It’s functional. And our staff is terrific. Fortunately they’re going to make the move too)!

Bizarrely, I am one of three docs to work with the team that engages the architects, and it’s a fun if time consuming process. It’s fun to play ‘what if’ with these differently trained pros, and I feel like the time I’m spending there is worthwhile. I get to help design the ED I hope to retire in, and not many get to say that.

And did I mention we’re remodeling the kitchen in the homestead? No? We (had) a mostly original 1986 kitchen that was awesome 10 years ago when we moved in, but now is worn and dated. Well, was. Now it’s torn out to the walls. Our former bulkheads (fir-downs in Texas) were pulled out so we can go all the way to the ceiling, but they contained a lot of wires and plumbing (which are being moved).  It’s very expensive entertainment watching the trades do their thing, and a tiny part of me wants to be one of them. Yes, my brain, thanks…

Speaking of the trades, the electricians liked our garden trolls, and decided they needed to be fed. Heh.

More to come.

Volkswagen rolls out full Super Bowl ad – Autoweek.

Dear AA,

I appreciate all the good to great service over the years, so this is why, in the spirit of improving our relationship, I offer this constructive criticism:

For those unfamiliar with DFW, the gates are always related to the terminal. So the terminal being B and the gate starting with D, that’s a disconnect.

I figured it out, but only after asking a terminal B curbside bag fellow which was real, and the answer was that the Terminal B was incorrect, it was supposed to be D.

No harm, no foul. A learning experience. From a friend.

Laugh, and enjoy!

Official 2012 Honda CR-V Game Day Commercial – “Matthew’s Day Off” Extended Version – YouTube.

Okay, it’s got an Fword in it, so if you’re prone to the vapors, skip this one.

The rest of you, laugh, and enjoy.

Pretty neat.

Zdogg and Dr. Harry have the Christmas spirit. Sorta.

There comes a time…when we heed a certain call—when the world must come together as one.

This is NOT one of those times.

But it is the Holidays, so we should probably take a moment to think of those less fortunate than ourselves. People who go hungry while others feast. People without a single shred of hope remaining. I’m talking about healthcare workers taking call during the Holidays.

via Feed The Wards (Do They Know It’s Christmas Time?).

Follow the link and enjoy their latest video. The chorus is very good. They aren’t Bad Lip Reading quality with their chorus, but not bad…

(Yeah, jealousy, I wish I had this kind of creativity. Or any, really.)

Comments on products can be pretty silly, but sometimes they get the Muse going.

For instance, this dainty little Swiss Army Knife:

Has spawned an hours’ reading and chuckling with the top most being:

Found this…stuck into a stone while on vacation. I’m impressed with it, generally. Unfortunately, it turns out that removing it made me the new king of Switzerland, which is a lot of responsibility.

via Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Wenger 16999 Giant Swiss Army Knife.

 

Worth the effort to read the comments. Some pretty darn creative people out there…

via Dave in Texas, on Ace.mu.nu

My yearly Christmas favorite, reposted:

Courtesy of the British National Health Service:

NSFW. Funny, but Unsafe for work, unless your work involves STD’s in which case it’s required.

It’s my seasonal favorite post, and I hope it’s one of yours.

Not the STD’s, the funny song with equally amusing illustrations. The backstory, from a previous blog post:

I have seen several searches of this blog for the British National Health Services’ “12 STI’s of Christmas“, and wondered why. The answer: the NHS site no longer carries the wonderful show, for reasons unknown to me. As for the searches, I guess the Christmas season has people thinking about sexually transmitted infections (diseases on this side of the Pond) set to Christmas tunes.

Merry Christmas!

Seems Archaic, indeed.

via @bungeechump on Twitter

I think I just found what I want for Christmas…

Welcome to The Journal of Irreproducible Results

In six funny issues a year, JIR offers spoofs, parodies, whimsies, burlesques, lampoons, and satires. JIR appeals to scientists, doctors, science teachers, and word-lovers. JIR targets hypocrisy, arrogance, and ostentatious sesquipedalian circumlocution. We’re a friendly escape from the harsh and the hassle. JIR makes you feel good :-. Subscribe

via The Journal of Irreproducible Results.

I like it when science makes fun of itself.

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.

Nearly $2 million worth of vehicles were wrecked in a 14-car crash in Japan on Sunday. The pileup involved eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini, three Mercedes-Benzes and two Toyotas.

via Japan freeway clogged by supercar pileup – Autoweek.

This is the power of a technological revolution.

A New Zealand man was Monday being hailed as the first amateur photographer to capture an image of another solar system, after he photographed the star Beta Pictoris using a 10-inch 25cm telescope at his home in Auckland.Rolf Olsen, who moved to New Zealand in 2003 from Denmark, put the photograph on his website, sparking congratulations and amazement from members of the scientific community around the world.”I realized it was a special thing but I didn’t realize it would generate such a stir,” Olsen, who lives in Titirangi west of central Auckland, told news website stuff.co.nz.

via Amateur Astronomer Snaps Historic Photo Of Another Galaxy | Fox News.

via @SteveMartinToGo on Twitter. Yes, Steve Martin is a) on Twitter and b) apparently at least links Fox News.
Read the rest of this entry »