The Countertop Chronicles

Anyone else having problems with it?

For some reason, I can get on the site, but I can only view my feeds when I try to access it via my blackberry. It simply won’t load on my PC anymore (no problems on the Mac)

The Virginia Citizen’s Defense League, in honor of that schmuck of a Democrat gun banning bigot Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax), has decided to host open carry lunch’s and dinners every weeken in the month of April throughout that schmuck of a Democrat gun banning bigot Richard Saslaw’s district. They actually got things started last night at Ocean M right in my hometown of McLean.

Wish I could have made it, but alas I had familial obligations that had to take presedence.

Anyway, I plan to be there next week and at least a couple of others times this month.

But thats not the point here - rather, its the fact that I went right into the heart of that schmuck of a Democrat gun banning bigot Richard Saslaw’s district tonight with the family for dinner - to IHOP on the Fairfax Circle (IHOP food sucks, but they were doing a Horton Hears a Who tie in and my son got some disgustingly sweet food - I shudder to call it that - which he absolutely devoured) and I decided to open carry. Not so much as a batted eye - and trust me,

my Colt 1991 sticks out a plenty that folks couldn’t have not missed it.

Perhaps, but I think pulling off something like this would be pretty cool in D.C. or London or Chicago too.

Sebastian posted today about a great Flickr group: theitemsthatwecarry. He was most impressed by the fact that someone there had posted their Glock.

Well, thats all well and good . . . but I’m a 1911 man and low and behold, happened to be carrying mine while perusing his blog. Well, that means only one thing . . . I ought to post my own 1911 positive entry.

In addition to Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, the other band I totally immersed myself in for years was Hot Fucking Tuna - in both their electric and acoustic variety. Jorma Kaukonen - while as liberal a hippy flake as your gonna find - is right up there as one of the pre-eminent blues guitarists around.

Fewer finer finger pickers.

Simply incredibly, and thankfully he had the sense to leave his band original band (Jefferson Airplane) to continue playing the blues, as opposed to the drug induced purgatory which Peter Green chose.

here they are in their electric glory

an as they should be, acoustic

and here they are, same song, in the wilds of Northern Jersey. this is from the summer of 1990. You can actually see me and my buds right at the front of the stage in this one. Cool! Jorma is just cruising up the neck in this one. He was at the top of his game then.

I love this clip from Simple Men. Hot Fucking Tuna.

Halloween at Radio City Music Hall.
Here’s the INSANE setlist.

Will Zoombabooobablooombababooey post this stellar show???

Franklin’s Tower
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia

In another time’s forgotten space
your eyes looked through your mother’s face
Wildflower seed on the sand and stone
may the four winds blow you safely home

Roll away … the dew
Roll away… the dew
Roll away… the dew
Roll away… the dew

You ask me where the four winds dwell
In Franklin’s tower there hangs a bell
It can ring, turn night to day
Ring like fire when you lose your way

Roll away… the dew . . .

God help the child who rings that bell
It may have one good ring left, you can’t tell
One watch by night, one watch by day
If you get confused just listen to the music play

Roll away… the dew . . .

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day
Whichever way your pleasure tends
if you plant ice you’re gonna harvest wind

Roll away… the dew . . .

In Franklin’s Tower the four winds sleep
Like four lean hounds the lighthouse keep
Wildflower seed in the sand and wind
May the four winds blow you home again

Roll away… the dew
Roll away… the dew
Roll away… the dew
Roll away… the dew
You better roll away the dew

Once a rule comes out, this is the comment I’m going to send in:

When seconds count, the police are days away

Hiker never gave up fight, Hilton said

By RHONDA COOK, CHRISTIAN BOONE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/23/08

Gary Michael Hilton acknowledged that the petite woman nearly overpowered him when he first accosted her. As they struggled near the Appalachian Trail, Meredith Emerson disarmed her attacker of a knife and baton.

Hilton eventually subdued Emerson, kidnapped her and later killed her. She did not make it easy for him, according to interviews Hilton gave to investigators that were obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Speaking to Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Clay Bridges only days after killing the young woman, Hilton said: “I think it was you probably, or one of the GBIs, said ‘That little 120-pound-girl about probably came close to whipping your ass.’ She about did.”

Her life in danger, Emerson fought back using her strength, her wits and a large measure of courage and determination. In the four days after she disappeared on a Blood Mountain hiking trail in Union County, investigators said, Emerson never gave up.

Bridges said he talked with the South Florida-born vagrant as authorities drove him from the Union County Jail to the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area, where Hilton killed Emerson. Hilton made a deal with prosecutors that he would lead investigators to her remains, if they would not seek the death penalty.

As they descended the winding North Georgia mountain roads, the Army veteran casually detailed the abduction and slaying of the 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate.

Bridges said Hilton clearly relished the attention, and authorities described his account as “self-serving.”

Still, Emerson’s tenacity and smarts are evident throughout, and, despite Hilton’s best attempts, her actions overwhelm the one-sided narrative.

“She was doing everything she could to stay alive,” GBI Director Vernon Keenan said. “It’s not something you can train for. Instinct kicks in. … She nearly got the best of him. … She’s very much a hero.”

Meredith Emerson was described as “feisty” by her roommate and close friend. Her Judo teacher said at 5 feet 4 inches and 120 pounds, she “trained with us like she lived every day — hard and with everything she had.”

Hilton, 61, told investigators he abducted her because she was a woman.

Easy prey, he figured.

‘Wouldn’t stop fighting’

Both were with their dogs when they met near the Appalachian Trail in Union County on New Year’s Day. For a time they walked together, but, as Hilton later admitted, he couldn’t keep up with her and fell behind. He intercepted her on her way down, producing a military-style knife and demanding her ATM card.

Without pause, Emerson fought back.

“The bayonet is probably still up there,” Hilton told Bridges. “I lost control, and … she fought. And as I read in the paper, she’s a martial artist.”

Emerson, who held a green belt and a blue belt in two different martial arts, grabbed the blade.

He countered with a baton. She grabbed it, too. They stepped off the trail and fell down a slope, leaving the weapons behind.

“I had to hand-fight her,” Hilton said. “She wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop fighting,” he said. “And yelling at the same time. … So I needed to both control her and silence her.”

He kept punching her, so hard it left both her eyes black and may have fractured her nose. Hilton said his hand was broken by the blows. He figured she had worn down, and they moved farther off the trail.

Then Emerson started fighting again. He finally got her to stop by telling her all he wanted was her credit card and PIN. He then restrained her hands with a zip tie.

Then, Hilton told Bridges, “I had to go back and clean the crime scene.”

But he couldn’t find any of his weapons. He said he spotted three hikers nearby and assumed they had found the knife and baton.

It was one of several close calls that continue to haunt Hilton’s captors. On at least three other occasions before he killed Emerson, Hilton crossed paths or was in the vicinity of law-enforcement officials.

On the day he abducted her, he was worried police officers might be waiting for him in the parking lot as he led Emerson back down the mountain, staying off the established trails. He assumed whoever retrieved his baton and knives had called police, or perhaps they had heard Emerson’s cries for help.

Apparently no one did.

Without incident, Hilton placed Emerson and her dog, Ella, in his van and secured his victim with a padlocked chain.

Chained or bound

In the following hours and days, Emerson kept Hilton off-balance by repeatedly giving him the wrong PIN for her ATM card but assuring each time that this time the numbers were correct.

She bought time with that ploy. Three days.

“That’s one thing that broke my heart in this case,” Bridges said. “She was doing everything she was supposed to do to stay alive, and we didn’t get there in time.”

In recounting conversations with Emerson, Hilton revealed himself as a killer without shame or remorse — and unwittingly provided testament to her resolve.

Hilton said he and Emerson camped all three nights during a spell of bitter cold.

To keep her from running away, he usually kept a chain or nylon rope around her neck and she was often tethered to a tree or inside the van. When they slept, Emerson was tied to him so he would know if she tried to escape.

Hilton claimed he tried to make Emerson comfortable, at one point saying he gave her the warmer sleeping bag because temperatures had dropped to 4 degrees. He offered her aspirin for a lingering headache that followed their fight the first day.

“I was solicitous of her … comfort and everything else,” said Hilton, seemingly oblivious to the contradiction.

Perhaps one of the most chilling details followed, as Hilton nonchalantly told Bridges, he raped Emerson that first night. He was angry she’d made him drive around from bank to bank and still had nothing to show for it.

Their second day together, Hilton set up camp in Dawson Forest, where they hiked for several hours. He insisted she was free, but he also said he told her he would shoot her and anyone around if she tried to get away.

“We took both dogs and went hiking along Shoal Creek,” Hilton said. He said she was not bound while they hiked.

If she appeared to be going along with her abductor, as Hilton described, Keenan said it was only to survive. “She struggled to live,” the GBI director said.

Hilton knew he was a wanted man, telling investigators he had followed the AJC’s coverage of Emerson’s abduction. On the day she died, Jan. 4, he was pictured on the newspaper’s front page alongside a story in which police named him a “person of interest” in the Buford hiker’s disappearance.

That day, Hilton said that he told Emerson “she was going home.”

“I said, ‘I’m giving you all your stuff back.’ I had all her stuff bagged up together. I made a point of showing her.”

They drove to the spot where he would kill her. On the way, they passed a law-enforcement officer.

“I waved at him,” Hilton said. “It was that close.”

Though a police bulletin had been issued for Hilton’s van with a DeKalb County license plate, by then he had switched that tag for a stolen North Carolina tag.

“I walked her into the woods,” Hilton said. He carried two sleeping bags, an air mattress “for her to sit on,” two bags and a chain.

“Secured her to a tree. Walked back to the van. Kinda got myself together. Made some coffee.”

Killing was difficult

When he came back to her, Hilton said with a little laugh, Emerson told him, ” ‘I was afraid you weren’t coming back.’ ”

He gave her a book to read, “Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures” by Marvin Harris, walked behind her as if he were going to remove the chains holding her to the tree and hit her several times with the handle from a tire jack.

Hilton both killed and decapitated Emerson in a vain effort to destroy evidence that might incriminate him.

Hilton was worried about another piece of evidence that might link him to the slaying — Emerson’s dog. She had told him the Lab-mix carried a microchip identifying it as her pet.

“If I wanted to ensure that no one would associate the dog with her, I would’ve killed the dog,” Hilton said. “But there’s no way I could do that.”

He had no such reservations about killing Emerson.

“Was it difficult for you at all?” GBI agent Bridges asked after Hilton finished his account of the murder.

“It was like an out-of-body experience. It was surreal. … You look back on it, and you say ‘That wasn’t even real.’ You might say it was an altered state. …

“It was hard,” Hilton continued. “You gotta remember we had spent several good days together.”

Well, apparently, these won’t embed. Wonder why?

Here’s a link then:
Ouch!

I want!

This one’s hot hot hot

HT to Chris Byrne

Shake Your Money Fucking Maker

I need your love tonight

These may be the best I’ve posted yet

So, in light of this post on Guitar Hero and this one on Peter Green, I’m wondering where on the scale of difficulty Black Magic Woman lies in Guitar Hero (and if they give appropriate credit to Peter Green - or do legions of the clueless masses still think its a Santana song????)

Your choice. But the realization that Sheryl Crow wants to drag this once great band further into the hell of cheesy mediocrity is certainly a shame.

Enjoy them, as they once were, under the direction of the inimitable Peter Green, the “greatest white blues guitarist ever”.

You can read more here and here, at the old blogger site. Or at this fantastic fan site

Here he is, more recently, after his re-emergence

Some great covers under the fold
(more…)

never played it, indeed have never even seen a Wii, but apparently you can groove out to Dead songs on it.

Clifford P. Albertson and Constantinos E. Scaros. Both in the NY Times today. Its a shame I have to run one before the other. But here goes (with my emphasis where warranted).

To the Editor:

Re “The Court Considers Gun Control” (editorial, March 18), about the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision on the District of Columbia’s gun control law:

You refer to Washington’s law — which bans private ownership of handguns and permits only locked or disassembled rifles and shotguns — as reasonable, and, implicitly, you agree with judge-made law that the right to bear arms refers to service in a militia.

If, in fact, the founding fathers envisioned guaranteeing the right to bear arms to individuals only insofar as they participated in a militia, do you suppose that on their off-duty days they were required to turn in their guns, disassemble them or keep them under a trigger lock?

Your concern about the dangers that arise from too-easy access to weapons is sensible. But for the law to change in order to reflect contemporary society, the Second Amendment would have to be repealed by another constitutional amendment, not by judicial legislation.

Constantinos E. Scaros
Cliffside Park, N.J., March 18, 2008

The writer is dean of criminal justice at the Katharine Gibbs School and a professor of history, law and political science at New York University.

•

To the Editor:

Your editorial says, “For the high court to choose this moment to strike down reasonable gun rules would defy common sense.”

One wonders what “reasonable” controls you would consider on the freedoms guaranteed by the other nine amendments in the Bill of Rights. There are those who would consider it reasonable to restrict publication of information detrimental to national defense. What “reasonable” rules would you impose for quartering troops in your home? Or what “reasonable” rules would you place on the right to be protected in your home from unreasonable searches and seizures?

In short, none of the other freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights require registration, nor can they be arbitrarily prohibited by any state or local government. If they are abused, suitable sanctions are in place. Why, then, should gun ownership be treated differently?

Clifford P. Albertson
Suffern, N.Y., March 18, 2008

I am a gun blogger.

So, it shouldn’t surprise me that traffic spikes (like by a factor of 6 or 7) when I blog about guns vs when I blog about random shit no one cares about.

Comments too!

Now, if I were a Democrat and I wanted to correct this blog traffic disparity, I’d just ban gun blogging so my traffic would be across the board pathetic.

Of course, if I were a Republican, I’d offer some idiotic tax incentive, perhaps a $1.54 per view for anyone who viewed the shit no one cared about, plus add a tariff on viewing the gun blogging goodness - let’s say $0.54 per view for anyone who viewed the shit that was in demand and then claim it was vital to saving the US from the scourge of gun blogging goodness.

I’m neither, of course, just a small l libertarian who realizes if I care about traffic, I’d just blog about guns more often.

But its not like anyone is going to read this non gun blogging post anyway, so Ill just put it up for my benefit.