Why you need a shotgun: Reason # 284

We're all familiar with the usual reasons that ownership of a shotgun is virtually mandatory. For example, when your daughter's boyfriend comes to the house to pick her up for a date, it's important that he see you sitting at the kitchen table, cleaning your 12-gauge. And nothing beats a shotgun for repelling zombies.

Now this story comes to us from the Orangeburg, South Carolina Times & Democrat:

A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday near Ehrhardt, S.C.

Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.

"It didn't work; what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal," Hindi said in a news release. "Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave."
He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.

"Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out," Hindi said in the release. "As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter."

He claimed the shooters were "in tree cover" and "fled the scene on small motorized vehicles."

At The Volokh Conspiracy, this raises questions about "Drones, Privacy and Air Rights." We agree that there are interesting legal questions involving possible violation of FAA regulations, whether there would be a right-of-action against my neighbor spying on me this way, and operation of such a thing over public lands.

On the other hand, we also think it's important for all concerned parties to be aware that we've established a no-fly zone out here above our little patch of Fauquier County.

Zombies

Here comes the science.

Whoa!

Here's what we think. Why put up with this:

When there are superior options?

Zombie Stimulus

No, really!

When Vegetarians Go . . . . . Zombie

Tee-shirt available from Seventh.Ink.

Book Recommendations: Preparing for the Apocalypse

A Practical, Useful, Do-it-Yourself Project

You're welcome:

When these main ingredients of tetradotoxin, datura, an hallucinogen of varying strength, and local plants of varying properties are crushed and combined with ground glass, the effect is devastating. The ground glass serves as an irritant which allows quicker absorption, not that is truly needed. The ritual of making Zombie Powder varies by Priest/Priestess and location. Common threads however are that it is generally said the powder must be made at night and in a place of the dead such as a graveyard. Prayers are repeated, chants echoed, and in some cases the conjuring of spirits. It is all a nice touch for stories but really unnecessary.

Zombie Awareness Month

The Zombie Research Society reminds us that May is Zombie Awareness Month:

Supporters of Zombie Awareness Month wear a gray ribbon to signify the undead shadows that lurk behind our modern light of day. From May 1 through May 31, Zombie Research Society Members and friends take this small step to acknowledge the coming danger.

It's easy to become complacent and ignore the impending zombie apocalypse, just as prior generations dismissed the scourge of pet rocks, chia pets, and little yappy dogs as fashion accessories for disease-ridden skanks. And it's just as easy to adopt an attitude of fatalistic inevitability: when they come to eat my brain, what can I really do? Neither of these attitudes is helpful.

Educate yourself and your family; acquire a shotgun and a limited supply of extremely loud ammunition that will run out just as your gardener's corpse begins gnawing on your daughter. Lay in an inadequate supply of wooden planks that can be criss-crossed over your windows and doors, delaying the front-yard horde until the back-yard contingent discovers your unlocked kitchen door. And remain vigilant: when your wife rolls over at 3:00 a.m., throws her leg across your hips and begins nibbling at your ear, really -- what are the chances that you're going to get lucky? She's going for your brain, man. She's going for your brain.

The Bennet Girls are Ready . . . are You?

Federal Appellate Court Ruling

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled, inter alia, that "It was not enough that the zombies were loud and may have been bothering people."

More from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

EVERYTHING Goes Better With Zombies

1. Really smart techno-nerds with too much time on their hands:  cool.
   
2. Google Maps: cool, but creepy.
   
3. Zombies: creepy, but cool.

The intersection of underemployed techno-nerds, Google Maps, and the Raging Zombie Hordes:   Awesome.

p.s.  Yes, we noticed these guys are a tad unfamiliar with D.C. geography, but there's only so much of the real world you can see from the basement of your mom's house.

"To Sing is to Pray Twice"

Sometimes. Sometimes not so much. From public access cable:

You've Gotta Enjoy the Little Things

Without Chemicals, Life Itself Would Be Unbearable

The Truth Will Set You Free

We're beginning to detect a collateral phenomenon generated by the New Dawn ascendancy of the radical wing of the Democrat party: now that they're firmly in the driver's seat, some of them feel free finally to speak the truth. These tidbits of honesty are no surprise to those of us who have long since been making cryptic maps of where we've buried the Krugerrands. But we suspect that the naked contempt for ordinary people will eventually persuade Americans to seek leaders, rather than masters.

Case in point: John "I married another guy's money" Kerry opining on the ineffectiveness of tax cuts:

I've supported many tax cuts over the years, and there are tax cuts in this proposal. But a tax cut is non-targeted.

If you put a tax cut into the hands of a business or family, there's no guarantee that they're going to invest that or invest it in America.

They're free to go invest anywhere that they want if they choose to invest.

Over at The Weekly Standard, the adorable Mary Katharine Ham observes:

Indeed, people with their own hard-earned money in their own pockets are free to spend, save, invest, or not wherever they please. Kerry betrays the fear that haunts every good liberal— that the American people won't spend their money on exactly what good liberals would spend it on. Good liberals must, therefore, advocate for forcibly relieving the American people of the better part of a trillion dollars of their own money to fund things like STD education, welfare programs, and water parks.

Just so.

Hope

Eternal Love?

What To Do In A Zombie Attack

A series of educational Civil Defense shorts that I'm pretty sure I saw in about 1961. Today we tend to discount the zombie menace, and concentrate on more trendy threats, such as reality television, Paris Hilton and speed cameras. Presented as a public service: