Saturday, June 08, 2013

The E-Z Ride Patriot.

June 6, 2013 
By: Nick Winkler


Princeton, Minn. based electric vehicle maker, E-Ride Industries, is being considered to help replace postal service fleet.

The company manufactures electric utility vehicles that are changing the way people work and could save the U.S. Postal Service hundreds of millions of dollars.

The company says its vehicles can be operated for about $.05 a mile versus approximately $1 a mile for USPS gasoline powered delivery vehicles.

E-Ride says if a federal law is changed and the postal service replaces half its fleet with electric utility vehicles, it could save several hundred million dollars a year in fuel.

Currently, USPS says it uses approximately 726 million gallons of fuel a year.

Electric utility vehicles are replacing fleet vehicles on college campuses, military bases, and VA hospitals. They can be customized, get between 25-60 miles per charge, and are designed to perform in extreme conditions.

In the past 10 years E-Ride says it has sold more than 1,000 electric utility vehicles worldwide.    

The National Unemployment rate remains stubborn, but, the North Carolina unemployment rate is ridiculous.

USA - 7.6%

North Carolina - 9.2%

May 29, 2013
...Graham County had the highest unemployment rate at 15.9 percent while Orange County had the lowest at 5.3
percent. Among the Metro areas, Rocky Mount at 12.3 percent experienced the highest rate and Durham-Chapel Hill at 6.3 percent had the lowest. The April not seasonally adjusted statewide rate was 8.5 percent....

North Carolina's Radical Republican Administration states the unemployment rate dropped 0.2% in March. Okay. But, what they don't consider when balancing their economic plan is the fact, there were many citizens that fell off the unemployment rolls because benefits were cut. It has nothing to do with increased hiring. Quite the contrary. The Sequester, federal spending, which North Carolina thrives on has hit the state hard and there are less chances of recovering compliments of Washington Radical Republicans.


No Relief for Children of the Jobless, Underemployed in N.C. (click here)


By: 
 Laila A. Bell
Harsh Cuts Loom as the Percentage of Children Affected by Parents' Employment Woes More than Doubles

...Parental unemployment can have devastating long-term consequences for children and their families. Increased household tension and parental irritability can spillover into less supportive, more punitive parental behavior. Developmental psychologists have linked economic stress caused by parents' loss of income to reduced outcomes for children including: lower math test scores, poor school attendance, behavioral issues, and an increased risk of being held back a grade. The adverse effects of parental job loss can persist well into a child's adult life. For example, studies have shown that low-income youth whose parents lose their jobs are less likely to attend college and more likely to have lower earnings once they transition into the workforce....

Victimizing the Poor and Lower Middle Class anywhere in the USA will only propagate the problem and not resolve it. In states like North Carolina where Radical Republicans dominate the political landscape and count on extremism to be elected, the children are more of a concern than in other states where valuing upward movement is a focus.

A state and a nation gets out of it's people what it invests.

NC State cost cutting is driving up the cost of NC health care.

UNC Chapel Hill treats those unable to pay for their care elsewhere. They have clinics for Family Medicine and those with low income can receive excellent care. That has not only been good for the poor of North Carolina, it has been good for the Hospital University system. They have some of the most impoverished in the state to treat. It hones the skills of the residents and interns because of all the complications the poor frequently carry as their exclusive problems.

...UNC Hospitals (click here) reported last year that it expected to lose about $300 million in charity care expenses, or one-fifth of the hospital’s total operating expenses. But McCall said the hospital has been able to make money above their expenses despite spending even more on compensated care, freeing up extra funds for UNC.
“I think it’s very reflective of how strong our partnership is with the UNC system and UNC-Chapel Hill,” she said. “There’s certainly acknowledgement on our part of the benefits derived from being part of the UNC system.”

The Radical Republican Governor and Legislature think nothing of cutting funding to a very valuable university system. The medical school would lose some of the quality of the educational experience to these valuable people soon to be in private practice in the state and elsewhere in the USA. So, the hospital management is forced to look at increased costs and/or cutting other hospital services to be sure they can continue their good work as a university. 

UNC Family Medicine is ranked 2nd in the nation. That would end if it were up to the Radical Governor and his legislature. They are destroying the state's status across the board. It would be immediately measurable if the professionals managing this university system wasn't as good as they were.

The reason the Radical Republicans of North Carolina values these cuts is because the poor are stereotyped as lazy, etc. Anyone can ask the management of UNC-Chapel Hill Healthcare and they will tell you, these folks are lazy, they are ill.

Wake-Forest is also a magnificent university hospital in North Carolina. This medical center is complaining about the ongoing state support for UNC Chapel Hill and Rex Healthcare. But, this should not be competition, it should be mutually provided for by the state funding. The Charity Care at WakeMed is just as important as that at UNC-Chapel Hill. Both these healthcare systems are now under more stress and involved with competition for funding that should not exist.

When it comes to quality health care it should never be a matter of competition, but, only competency. With these new cuts at UNC Chapel Hill, the folks at Wake will find they have no complaints anymore.


Lee Weisbecker
Feb 11, 2011, 6:00am EST

RALEIGH – The total cost of charity care (click here) absorbed by WakeMed dipped by 2 percent last year, but the health care system’s executives contend that the medical complex remains the Triangle’s key provider for the uninsured and indigent.
To bolster their point, they turn to the mass of 2008 data used by the N.C. Division of Medical Assistance in drafting the state’s 2010 health plan. As a percentage of total facility costs, the charity care bite at WakeMed’s Raleigh campus stood at 11 percent that year.
By contrast, at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, the charity care cost was 6.9 percent, and at UNC-owned Rex Hospital in Raleigh, it was 4.7 percent, according to the data, the latest available.
Given the state’s ongoing financial support of the UNC Health Care system, WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson has been offering increasing criticism of what he calls an “unfair playing field.”

Guns thefts have been fairly static since 2000.


Theft of guns are a reality of this culture. The more guns on the street, the more thefts are an option to kill and/or carry out crime.



Victimizations (click here) involving the theft of firearms declined from 283,600 in 1994 to 145,300 in 2010 (figure 1). Overall, about 1.4 million guns, or an annual average of 232,400, were stolen during burglaries and other property crimes in the six-year period from 2005 through 2010. Of these stolen firearms, at least 80% (186,800) had not been recovered at the time of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) interview....

This reality bears the question as to how guns are handled in the USA. Guns are a self-perpetuating nightmare. Some homes are broken into for the theft of guns alone. 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Tony Rizzo | The Kansas City Star

To the nation’s gun lobby and gun rights advocates, (click here) the Obama administration is public enemy No. 1.


Yet the president has proven to be a boon for gun sales.


In the four years since Barack Obama was first elected president in November 2008, an estimated 67 million firearms have been purchased in the United States. That’s more than were sold in almost seven years before his first election.


Now come concerns that Obama will push through stricter gun laws — although in four years he’s yet to push for them.


With Obama starting a second term in office — and anti-gun fervor stoked by shooting massacres in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn. — an unprecedented surge in the sales of firearms has taken off.


December 2012 saw a record-shattering number of requests for criminal background checks on prospective gun buyers — more than 116,000 of those from Kansas and Missouri alone.


“Since Obama was re-elected,” said Gary Jessup of UT Arms in Kansas City, Kan., “it’s been off the chart.”


Nationwide, more than 2.7 million of those checks were recorded for December, according to statistics kept by the FBI. Since late 1998 when federal law began mandating such checks for prospective gun buyers, the only other month that exceeded the 2 million mark was November 2012 — when Obama won a second term....


The NSSF is another NRA using fear tactics to bolster membership and it's mission. Watch the video at this link. "Guns are disappearing along with cultural changes and loss of family traditions."

The NSSF records a great deal of gun data and were responsible for reporting the "Obama Surge."

About the National Shooting Sports Foundation (click here)

The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 8,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen's organizations and publishers....

I'd like to know their methodology and if it was refined over the years. Sometimes they just don't know what to do with all the statistics they collect. What the graph below needs is what effected the scramble for guns. In other words what in the previous 24 months was different than the current 24 months. The graph alone doesn't really serve a purpose, which begs the question, why bother? Market data with this product is more than numbers. "Opening season, declaration endangered species status, Democratic President elected." That would be more helpful to dealers than just this.

The August 2012 NSSF (click here) - adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,042,924 is an increase of27.8 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 815,858 in August 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted August 2012 NICS figure of 1,514,696 reflects a 16.5 percent increase from the unadjusted NICS figure of 1,300,433 in August 2011....

I thought this graph was more interesting:

Criminals see guns when committing other crime and they take them. It is found money.

While stealing all the cash and jewelry, the guns are stolen, too. 

In this reality, guns are not a benefit. They are social liability that needs to be recognized for what they are; dangerous. Gun owners cannot guarantee they treat their firearms any differently than any other possessions. One has to ask, is that a healthy way of viewing firearms regardless of their legitimate use. This is how homeowners or apartment dwellers are injured or lose their lives with their own guns when they walk in on a burglary. If the thief was not armed when they went into the house, they sure as heck were armed when they left.

S. Amendment 711 - legal guns - continued

``Rimfire Rifles--Lever & Slide Action

``Browning BL-22 Lever-Action Rifle(below - for sale online $1.00. I would hold them to that figure regardless of how private the sale is being conducted. click here)

The Grade II is one of five BL-22s offered by Browning for 2008. (click here) The Grade II is scroll engraved (see below) on the receiver and has a gold-colored trigger. The Grade I tested in December 2006 lacks the II’s scroll engraving and checkering on the walnut, but the Grade I MSRPs for a lot less, $494. Browning’s most expensive lever rimfire is the BL-22 FLD Grade II Octagon, $786, which a silver-nitride finish, octagonal barrel, and a front gold bead. Because the Grade II comes at a $150-ish premium to the Marlin and Henry, we wondered if those extra dollars would turn into enthusiasm in our evaluation....
       ``Henry .22 Lever Action Rifles, All Models
       ``Henry Golden Boy .17 HMR
       ``Henry Golden Boy .22
       ``Henry Golden Boy .22 Magnum
       ``Henry Golden Boy Deluxe
       ``Henry Lever .22 Magnum
       ``Henry Lever Action .22
       ``Henry Lever Carbine .22
       ``Henry Lever Octagon .22
       ``Henry Lever Octagon .22 Magnum(below - testimonial from Mike Flanders)
...While flipping through the catalog, (click here) I came across the lever action Frontier model .22 and I knew I had found the rifle I 'd been looking for. I had never owned a lever action rifle before and I was concerned whether I would like the action, but I decided to give it a try (childhood thoughts of the old west helped a bit). I ordered the Henry Frontier Model .22 rifle from Mid-State Gun Co. in Coventry, RI. When it arrived and I saw it for the first time, I knew I made the right decision. I was attracted to the rifle because of its octagon barrel, handsome walnut stock and its old west style. The rifle looked better than I could imagine and I was amazed at how smooth the action functioned....

       ``Henry Lever Youth Model .22
       ``Henry Pump Action Octagon .22
       ``Henry Pump Action Octagon .22 Magnum
       ``Henry Varmint Express .17 HMR
       ``Marlin 39TDS Carbine
       ``Marlin Model 39A Golden Lever Action
       ``Marlin Model 39AS Golden Lever-Action Rifle
       ``Mossberg Model 464 Rimfire Lever Action Rifle
       ``Norinco EM-321 Pump Rifle(below - for sale online for $299.00)
``Remington 572BDL Fieldmaster Pump Rifle ``Rossi Model 62 SA Pump Rifle ``Rossi Model 62 SAC Carbine ``Rossi Model G2 Gallery Rifle ``Ruger Model 96 Lever-Action Rifle ``Taurus Model 62- Pump ``Taurus Model 72 Pump Rifle ``Winchester Model 9422 Lever-Action Rifle ``Winchester Model 9422 Magnum Lever-Action Rifle ``Rimfire Rifles--Bolt Actions & Single Shots ``Anschutz 1416D/1516D Classic Rifles ``Anschutz 1418D/1518D Mannlicher Rifles ``Anschutz 1700 FWT Bolt-Action Rifle ``Anschutz 1700D Bavarian Bolt-Action Rifle ``Anschutz 1700D Classic Rifles ``Anschutz 1700D Custom Rifles ``Anschutz 1700D Graphite Custom Rifle(below - this link into a gun
value guide on Google (click here) Just click "add to my library" at the top of 
the page. 15th edition of the guide. The 15th edition must be fairly recent.
There are used editions for pennies at Amazon, but, they are older than this.
(click here)
The 15th edition is still relevant. It is a good reference guide for the casual
interest.
"Expert Firearms" (click here) This is just a listing of guns and their groups.

``Anschutz 1702 D H B Classic
       ``Anschutz 1713 Silhouette
       ``Anschutz Achiever
       ``Anschutz Achiever Bolt-Action Rifle
       ``Anschutz All other Bolt Action Rimfire Models
       ``Anschutz Kadett
       ``Anschutz Model 1502 D Classic
       ``Anschutz Model 1517 D Classic
       ``Anschutz Model 1517 MPR Multi Purpose
       ``Anschutz Model 1517 S-BR
       ``Anschutz Model 1710 D KL
       ``Anschutz Model 1717 Classic
       ``Anschutz Model 1717 Silhouette Sporter
       ``Anschutz Model G4 MPB
       ``Anschutz Model Woodchucker
       ``Armscor Model 14P Bolt-Action Rifle(below)
ARMSCOR (click here) has perfected .22 caliber accuracy and balance in its superbly-styled Bolt Action Rifle line. Every rifle conforms to the highest standards of quality and workmanship demanded by sportsmen and rifle enthusiasts. All major components-receiver, bolt, barrel and trigger mechanism are precisely machined from high grade ordnance steel and heat-treated for optimum strength and mechanical reliability. The stock is made from American walnut or the finest Philippine mahogany, with straight or Monte Carlo style cheek piece, to fit perfectly with the barrel and receiver assembly. ``Armscor Model 1500 Rifle ``Beeman/HW 60-J-ST Bolt-Action Rifle ``BRNO ZKM 452 Deluxe ``BRNO ZKM-456 Lux Sporter ``BRNO ZKM-452 Deluxe Bolt-Action Rifle ``Browning A-Bolt 22 Bolt-Action Rifle ``Browning A-Bolt Gold Medallion ``Browning T-Bolt Rimfire Rifles ``Cabanas Espronceda IV Bolt-Action Rifle ``Cabanas Leyre Bolt-Action Rifle ``Cabanas Master Bolt-Action Rifle ``Cabanas Phaser Rifle ``Chipmunk Single Shot Rifle(below)
``Cooper Arms Model 36S Sporter Rifle ``Cooper Model 57-M Bolt Action Rifle ``CZ 452 Bolt Action Rifles ``Dakota 22 Sporter Bolt-Action Rifle ``Davey Crickett Single Shot Rifle ``Harrington & Richardson Sportster ``Harrington & Richardson Sportster 17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire ``Harrington & Richardson Sportster Compact ``Henry `Mini' Bolt Action Rifle ``Henry Acu-Bolt .22 ``Henry Mini Bolt Youth .22 ``Kimber Bolt Action .22 Rifles ``Krico Model 300 Bolt-Action Rifles ``Lakefield Arms Mark I Bolt-Action Rifle(below - sold online - click here)
Thank you for your interest. More later.

One day in a quiet little town in Connecticut...




How Did They Vote? (click here)

Today, Connecticut has some of the toughest laws in the country. Why can't the rest of us learn from that?

Yesterday was Gabby's birthday. I hope everyone signed the card.

"Happy birthday, Gabby! (click here) Thank you for your service to America, and for being an incredible inspiration to people everywhere."

I am assuming he has congestive heart failure. Get him a new heart. If Cheney can have a new heart so can Mandella, especially Mandella.

Updated at 7:25 a.m. ET
JOHANNESBURGFormer South African President Nelson Mandela (click here) is in "serious but stable" condition after being taken to a hospital to be treated for a lung infection, the government said Saturday, prompting an outpouring of concern from admirers of a man who helped to end white racist rule....

Same pattern as others, but, not all. Assault weapons, shoot others, kills self.

The Aurora killer didn't kill himself. He set up an insanity defense before he carried out the carnage.

Control, the gunman needs control to the point where he inflicts his own death. He already made up his mind he was going to die before he killed. 

What kind of people actually want these weapons? Control, right? Extreme control. I asked myself, if I decided I needed an assault weapon to control my environment from some extreme reason, would I have already accepted I am a dead person before it all happens. The answer is yes. I would have to accept the fact there is nothing I can do to control my outcome, except, to arm myself against anyone else.

What kind of thinking is that outside of 'game fantasy?' That is darn desperate stuff in a society that can't control outcomes for it's citizens. Where does that happen, realistically, where does that kind of reality in the USA exist? Crime neighborhoods where people kill rather than understand, in places where law enforcement does not exist. 

Now. Should the USA tolerate that level of self-defense anywhere in the country?

If we should not tolerate that level of crime and violence in our country, then what are these weapons doing on the street?

By TAMI ABDOLLAH Associated Press
06/07/2013 11:53:50 PM MDT

SANTA MONICA, Calif.—A man with a semi-automatic rifle (click here) killed four people and wounded five others Friday as he carried out a deadly rampage across several blocks of a normally idyllic beachfront city. Police shot him dead in the Santa Monica College Library.
The violence began when the gunman, acting alone despite early reports of a possible second shooter, opened fire on a house where two bodies were found, police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said.
Two officials said the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman's father and brother. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
Only about 10 minutes passed between the first reports of trouble and the gunman's death, but it led to hours of fear and confusion in the balmy coastal city....

There is no such thing as cyber security and there never will be.

Computers are designed to communicate. It is the nature of the beast. 

There are finite encryption codes and when one considers how fast computers work it is odd to consider there is any security at all.


The only way there is cyber security is for a bank of computers or one computer to be used offline. As long as there are 'personnel' made responsible for security there will always be those that don't believe it is important.


The 'elements' that play into some strange 'idea' of cyber security are too many to guarantee any isolation from the rest of the world. 


So, today The Guardian is the latest hero, while the man that tried to end wars is on trial. This entire idea of having a government records online and it will be impenetrable is about as stupid as it comes.


By Jared Feldschreiber
Jun 03, 2013 11:19 AM EDT
...Manning said that he passed (click here) on information that both "upset" or "disturbed" him but reiterated that he did not give anything he thought would harm the United States if it were made public.


"I believed if the public was aware of the data, it would start a public debate of the wars," he told the court.


Adrian Lamo, a former hacker turned in Manning, when he learned about the leaking of record. In the statement to the court, Manning said he initially contacted newspapers The Washington Postand The New York Times to provide information. When he was unable to speak to anyone directly, he then gave the material to Wikileaks.


While some deemed Manning as a traitor, even a threat to U.S. national security, he is also seen as a hero, many of whom rallied for him outside Fort Meade on Monday.


"People came from great distances to stand with a true American hero. From Bradley's demeanor in court, it's clear he takes strength from the outpouring of support," Jeff Paterson, director of the Bradly Manning Support Network said.


Some see him as necessary whistle-blower to confront the U.S. military's apparatus, including Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked what became known as the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. Those papers documented the government's systematic misleading of the public about American involvement in the Vietnam War....

There have been government leaks since there have been governments, cyber or otherwise. To think there is some kind of absolute security that will protect citizens from any false claims by their government is about as ridiculous as it comes.

In the early weeks after September 11th a Pakistani man died in a prison in New Jersey because of medical neglect. The government literally rounded up people and put them in cells. Did anyone care? Hell, no. Just one of those things, he was in the "W"rong place at the wrong time. The reason this level of stupidity exists, no different than Japanese internment camps, is because there is the 'mind think' that the government has to have control over everything in order to have a nation.  Tell that to Iraq.

If a person is too scared to venture on the internet for fear of 'being caught,' consider yourself caught before you do it.

If Google, Facebook and others were cooperative with the USA government to obtain data, why did they? What was their incentive to cooperate. The fact of the matter is the data on social media is always available, it is simply easier to have it provided in lump sums in a way the government subscribes to the form of the information. Personal e-mail will never be secure. If one writes to another than the thoughts are out there. Everyone needs to decide for themselves how they want their thoughts transferred and if cyber leaks are the most disturbing sense of that reality, then don't do it. Just that simple.

It is like smoking cigarettes, if you don't want the health risk then don't do it.

What worries more than anything else though, is that media thinks they have the godly assignment to take information and distribute it at all regardless of the danger to citizens.

Ellsberg never put anyone at risk unless it was a political interest, but, that didn't stop the AP, hell it was only a few million people over the outcome of an election. 

Manning never endangered anyone. He was a whistleblower. There were no CIA agents embedded with al Qaeda involved, but, yet he stands trial after years of incarceration for protecting the USA from more war without end.

Either a country of people can trust their government or they can't. You can say the same thing about your spouse and "The Clap.'