Book Review: Red Notice

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, by Bill Browder. Feb. 2015, 416 pages.

Here is the author speaking to Standford students five years ago.  He obviously used this speech as his outline for his new book.  The last ten minutes are a YouTube video he made during the worst part of his incredible story.




My review:

One does not need to open a dusty old copy of Gulag Archipelago to read about tyranny in Russia.  That is so last century.

Maybe millions are not suffering purges and dying in Siberian labor camps.  But that evil still exists in Russia.  It is profitable.  And like the genocide of the past, it comes from the top.

Bill Browder was a hedge fund manager in Moscow shortly after the Soviet bankruptcy.  He was astonished to find investment opportunities that were reasonably valued at 1-2% of their true value.  It was through Bill’s fund that Western dollars flowed into the new Russian private sector (voucher privatization) in the 90’s. 

But while the faces that redistributed Poland, East Germany and other countries 75 years ago may have changed, the greed, criminal inspirations and disdain for human rights have not.

While not the focus of the book, you’ll read how Barack Obama, John Kerry and Harry Reid all played a part in this story of corruption and murder.  You’ll read about the author’s uphill and exhausting battle to get human rights legislation through these barriers in the US congress and White House.  He overcame huge odds.

My biggest take-aways from this book are the explanations of “why?” Russians act as they do.  What are the cultural influences that have led to their seemingly illogical behavior in personal, business and international interactions?

This book can also serve as a “how to” manual for both predicting the behavior of tyrants and corrupt officials, and how to expose their actions.

Red Notice is a fantastic book.  It is a story of evil and justice, of fear and principle.  I highly recommend this book to all audiences interested in foreign business, crime, corruption, tyranny and human rights abuses. 

My Book Notes. 

Pictured: The late Sergei Magnitsky 

The Hat - In Color

Comrades! 

Amazing scientific developments have been achieved in our struggle against the imperial forces of the West. 

Soviet photos, once black and white, are now in color. 

See more colorized photos at English Russia.

Get your own Ushanka hat at the Commie Obama Hat store!  And you too can live in glorious color!

Old Media Tribute #16

On February 10th NBC suspended top anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay.

I collected over 60 meme images mocking Brian Williams’ lying and, by extension, the loss of credibility within the old media.

I will post one of these images every three days until his suspension is over. . .  and trust is restored.

Sunday Tab Clearing

Some interesting articles from this week that you may enjoy:

The Orwellian Obama Presidency, by WSJ Bret Stephens

He claims we are winning the war against Islamic State even as the group continues to extend its reach into Libya, Yemen and Nigeria.
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He has no problem keeping company with Al Sharpton and tagging an American police department as comprehensively racist but is nothing if not adamant that the words “Islamic” and “terrorism” must on no account ever be conjoined.
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To adapt George Orwell’s motto for Oceania: Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory.
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Here is my advice to the Israeli government, along with every other country being treated disdainfully by this crass administration: Repay contempt with contempt. Mr. Obama plays to classic bully type. He is abusive and surly only toward those he feels are either too weak, or too polite, to hit back.

The Underrated Gift of Sanity, by Comrade Captain Capitalism

We could go on, but the above three anecdotes point towards a crisis the United States and Western Civilization are slowly, but unavoidably wandering into.  A crisis of a deluded population crashing into the impenetrable wall of reality.
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And so even with the benefit of stable and sane parents, even with the benefit of grounded peers, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY within Western Civilization succumbed, one way or another, to at least ONE bit of erroneous and false propaganda.  One bit of false, erroneous propaganda that cost them precious years of their lives.

Millions of students, brainwashed by public school teachers, wasted trillions on stupid, worthless, and completely unemployable degrees.

Millions of children were raised in divorced or single parent homes because feminists convinced women that was just as good an environment as a nuclear family.

Three generations of blacks were brainwashed to believe their last place socioeconomic position was the fault of white males, delivering a tragic mentality of defeatism that led to a self-fulfilling prophecy (but at least ensured democrat politicians had life long careers).

And three generations of women were led to believe their careers and government checks were more important than the human beings in their lives, only to find out too late upon their death beds that they had wasted their one shot at life (but again, at least some democrat politicians got their vote).

The Washington Post Sugarcoats Obama's Communist Mentor, by Paul Kengor

For all their hysteria about communist blacklists, liberals have long orchestrated blacklists of their own for those with the audacity to reach conclusions contrary to their whitewashed narratives about communists. For liberals, America is a nation rampant with racists and homophobes but not one pro-Soviet communist every trod this country’s soil.
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...no one but Obama really knows the precise extent to which Frank Marshall Davis’s radical political ideology influenced Obama. Only Obama can tell us that. So, why not ask him?

To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran, by hat owner and former ambassador John R. Bolton

...failing to act in the past is no excuse for making the same mistakes now.
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No way would the Sunni Saudis allow the Shiite Persians to outpace them in the quest for dominance within Islam and Middle Eastern geopolitical hegemony.
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Ironically perhaps, Israel’s nuclear weapons have not triggered an arms race. Other states in the region understood — even if they couldn’t admit it publicly — that Israel’s nukes were intended as a deterrent, not as an offensive measure.

Iran is a different story. Extensive progress in uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing reveal its ambitions. Saudi, Egyptian and Turkish interests are complex and conflicting, but faced with Iran’s threat, all have concluded that nuclear weapons are essential.

Clarey's Road Rage

Give a listen to Comrade Clarey's excellent 5-minute answer to the question:

Why don't Democrats start their own businesses to address the greater good?

And appreciate his self-discipline to park first...



He tells the libs at 3:00:

You don't like it?  Aint nothing stopping you from starting your own company.  Actually there is when it comes to leftists.  Again, they're lazy and they're stupid.  They'd rather bitch and whine about it, and live off of the production, and live off of other people doing it. 

What!?  Get up?  Early every morning?  Take my chemistry class?  Go to school for four to five years because that is what it takes to get an engineering...? And learn calculus?  What, then go get a masters?  Then go work on an oil rig?  Out away from my lattes?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

It sure is fun to hear an economist address a political question!

I'm saving up my pennies to send these questions to the Captain of Capitalism:

Why won't Libertarians start their own banks?

Why do leftists always side with science, but refuse to apply the scientific method (discard, and learn from, experiments that fail) on their own policies?

What are the rules behind playing Capture the Naughty Soviet Spy?  Is water boarding allowed?

Send him your questions, and tell him Glorious Karl sent you! - Asshole Consulting

'Not an act of terror'

This past Tuesday, co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 27, crashed his Germanwings Airbus A320 and killed 150 people.

 
'Not an act of terror,' say our elites about the crash. 

Josh Earnest, on behalf of Barack Obama and the United States government:

...based on what we know, there is not a nexus to terrorism.

Germany's "top security official:"

...there are "no indications of any kind of terrorist background" to the Germanwings crash

MyFoxAl:

The U.S. doesn't believe there's a link to terrorism in the Germanwings crash in France that killed all 150 people aboard the plane.

May I ask a question?

What part of 150 people plunging 3 miles to their deaths does not involve terror?

A follow-up, assuming the crash was not inspired by Islam:

Why does a terror attack have to be linked to Islam to be called terror?

And a follow-up, assuming the crash were related to Islam:

Why would these same governments try to separate the pilot's actions from Islam?

One more follow-up, if I may:

Why is our government so quick to announce "ALL IS WELL!" when people die, or when people are dying, when they have no facts to support their claims?

I ask, because today Gateway Pundit reports:

A German news website claims Andreas Lubitz was a Muslim convert.

Translated from zGerman website:

All evidence indicates that the copilot of Airbus machine in his six-months break during his training as a pilot in Germanwings, converted to Islam and subsequently either by the order of “radical”, ie. devout Muslims , or received the order from the book of terror, the Quran, on his own accord decided to carry out this mass murder. As a radical mosque in Bremen is in the center of the investigation, in which the convert was staying often, it can be assumed that he – as Mohammed Atta, in the attack against New York – received his instructions directly from the immediate vicinity of the mosque.

Last questions:

1) How many people still believe Democrats and their willing media in their crisis responses and reporting?

2) If there are any, do they realize how stupid they look?

I think we're coming to a Y in the road.  Either the people throw out and turn off those who rely on Newspeak to cover their incompetence and evil intentions.  Or this becomes the norm.

Old Media Tribute #15

On February 10th NBC suspended top anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay.

I collected over 60 meme images mocking Brian Williams’ lying and, by extension, the loss of credibility within the old media.

I will post one of these images every three days until his suspension is over. . .  and trust is restored.

Advice for the New Progressive

Pat Condell's latest video.  He sets the standard for sarcasm and mockery.

To be truly progressive requires a crisp enthusiasm for severe moral judgment that inevitably appeals to the inadequate yet self-consciously superior mentality that thinks it knows best for everyone.  Is this you?

Do you feel an over-whelming urge to censor the thoughts and opinions of others?  To police the language as if you own it?  And to make ordinary decent people feel that they need to apologize for their opinions when you know in your heart it is you who should be apologizing for your shameless double standards?

Bravo Mr. Condell.  Bravo.

His YouTube channel.

Old Media Tribute #14

On February 10th NBC suspended top anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay.

I collected over 60 meme images mocking Brian Williams’ lying and, by extension, the loss of credibility within the old media.

I will post one of these images every three days until his suspension is over. . .  and trust is restored.

Back in 5...

This weather compels me to hit the road and visit a good friend for cigars and Kentucky bourbon.

UPDATED 3.25.15 10am:

Back in the hat factory.  The trip was a success.

Old Media Tribute #13

On February 10th NBC suspended top anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay.

I collected over 60 meme images mocking Brian Williams’ lying and, by extension, the loss of credibility within the old media.

I will post one of these images every three days until his suspension is over. . .  and trust is restored.

WomanCrossDMZ: What Could Go Wrong?

WZ reports that some feminist liberals progressives communists plan to walk across the Korean DMZ this May.  From the Free South, into the Communist North. 

They want to bring an end to the Korean War.

Things that could go wrong:

1) The volunteers conveniently sleep in,
2) A volunteer or two step on land mines,
3) The group is hacked to death by North Koreans,
4) The group is "welcomed home" and asked to stay in the North.

I've always wished the people complaining about injustices would try their protests in the countries where real human rights violations were taking place.  It always seemed they preferred whining in places where the police generally refrained from shooting protesters. 

WomenCrossDMZ.org is finally granting my wish.  I trust they will follow through with this plan even if they cannot get one or both governments to agree to a symbolic step-over, step-back crossing.  A noble and just cause like bringing an end to the Korean War is worth all costs, right?

North Korean feminists:

May I suggest a topic for Gloria Steimem, Medea Benjamin, Mairead Maguire and the other feminists as they take their walk?

Which country keeps the Korean War alive, and what ideology is blocking a full peace treaty and reunification?

May 24th.  Add it to your calendar!

Black Fathers Betrayed

I just found an organization in St. Louis called Fathers Support Center, or FSC.  Pic and text from their website:

We’re problem solvers.

We impact our cause for children, and the challenge we address every day is the problem of absentee and non-involved fathers. For the children of these fathers, life is difficult and the prospects for a productive life in the future are not bright.

Sounds good, right? 

They are addressing some of the biggest crimes against humanity - the destruction of the American black family and the replacement of the black father with a government check.  The solution to these problems must come from within the black community, and the Father Support Center seems like a good start.

But then I saw their twitter account, via GP:

Yep.  An organization that claims to help black fathers is posting the schedule for this week's Ferguson protests. 

My questions:

Should "absentee and non-involved fathers" be attending Ferguson protests?

Should an organization dedicated to helping "absentee and non-involved fathers" be encouraging its members to attend Ferguson protests?

Of course not.

Protests Riots are scheduled again this weekend despite the sniping of two police officers a week ago today in Ferguson.  In fact, this weekend is too far away so the Ferguson Bolsheviks are starting tomorrow (Friday). 

You may see my three comments below as opinion.  I see them as fact:

People who go to these anti-police "marches," and who support these events, are not parent material. 

Community organizations like FSC who promote civil unrest are not promoting community.

There are great people trying to reverse the destruction of the black family.  The community organizers in the Fathers Support Center in St. Louis are not among them.

Last week's shooter is Jeffrey Williams, age 20 and a high school dropout.  He's the absentee and non-involved father of this two year old boy:

A question for the FSC Board of Directors (Jonathan Dobson, Jefferson Miller, Deborah C. Smith, Ray Hemann, Kirksy Williams, and Doris Stoehner):

Why do you insist on setting such low standards for behavior?

Quote of the Day

You may have heard that Starbucks, a public company dependent on customers and profits, wants to promote discussions about race with its customers.  Did they recently hire some government workers into decision-making positions??

Time, which calls the Starbuck's decision "brilliant":

On Sunday, [CEO] Schultz announced a new initiative that will encourage Starbucks’ baristas to write “Race Together” on their customers’ cups to foster “an opportunity to begin to re-examine how we can create a more empathetic and inclusive society.” In other words, discuss race.

Our quote of the day was seen floating throughout FB today.  This is what I call "brilliant":

If a barrista decides to engage me in discussing race I am going to respond by asking if they have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and I will stay all morning talking to them about it.

UPDATED 3.20.15 11am:

Another great one from our comrade Stilton:

UPDATED 3.25 10am:

Greg Gutfeld at FoxNews:


UPDATED 3.29 Noon:

Found at Comically Incorrect:

Democrats and Social Media

Democrats and Social Media: They were not meant for each other. 

Democrat National Committee Chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, tweeted out a question a few days ago:

Democrats have led on so many great policies.  Which is your favorite?  Tell us the one that makes you most proud!

90 Miles shares some of the responses.  Here are my four picks:

Keeping poor people poor so they'll vote Democrat seems to work really well.

When FDR made Japanese go into internment camps.

The one where the government takes the product of my time & effort & uses it to buy off votes from the lazy & incompetent.

I lean towards the one where people lost their health insurance. Targeting conservatives with the IRS is up there.

Sure, anyone can pile on in an Internet squabble. But notice how our side uses fact and history vs. their profanity and vacuousness.

My advice: when you have to lie, and your track record is filled with failure, stay off the Internet.


Your only other option is to regulate it.

Armistice Update

VICE News, a left leaning media company on YouTube, just released this 25 minute update on the information war North Korean defectors are waging against the North.

Look past the unshaven journalist, his informality, unprofessionalism and profanity, and his passing judgement on those he's reporting on, and look into the eyes of the warriors.  Just regular people with a fire for fighting tyranny and for freeing their families and countrymen.




Imagine what a credible journalist could have done with this story.  I guess any publicity is good publicity...

You'll see a member of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) in this video.  I've been following LiNK for several years now and encouraging Ushanka visitors to donate to their program.  They only need $2500 to get an escaped North Korean, who is hiding in China, smuggled into South Korea where they are then welcomed, made citizens, and supported during their transition to freedom.

You'll also see Park Sang-Hak, a warrior I recently profiled in a Tribute Post.

100 million died, and some are still dying, to bring you today's lesson:

Don't wait to fight a communist regime.  

Kill it before it takes power.

Amateur Hour: Obama Foreign Policy

Shared by FB Comrade Geoff:




Playing Foreign Policy is fun. 

Until the first mushroom cloud.

Tuesday Tab Clearing

I grabbed this pic from Western Rifle a couple weeks ago to add to my Hammer and Sickle collection. 

Supposedly, if I collect all the Hammer and Sickle photos I win a prize.  Although I haven't read the fine print on that yet...

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Rex Nutting at MarketWatch is the useful idiot of the day with his article: America is full of slackers and deadbeats who won’t work.

Good ol Rex is preparing the opposition for 2016 when Republicans suggest Obama and the Democrat Party have been bad for jobs.  Rex tells us the real reason is that the unemployed are lazy and won't go find a job.  This must be part one of a two-part series, and that he'll list the companies in part two that can't seem to find the help they need.

Another article idea for Rex is for him to tell us what jobs he's had, outside of journalism.

Remember conservatives, if there is a problem in 2016, it is your fault.

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From the Manosphere, Roosh gives us the results from his recent study of Mao: The Wisdom Of Mao Tse Tung. 

What drew me to this book [On Guerrilla Warfare] is to learn exactly how he did it. How did he go from being a member of the rag-tag Chinese communist party with a small membership to eventually overthrowing the Western-backed Chiang Kai-shek after World War 2? The answer lies in time, extraordinary persistence, and genius. 

I'd suggest the answer also lies in Mao's ability to exploit envy to the tune of 60,000,000 murdered, and Truman's reluctance to remove communists from his administration who facilitated the US dropping support for Kai-shek.

But not to be critical, this is the kind of research we can benefit from.  The stories of Mao, Hitler, Trotsky, et al can both help us spot the next tyrant and learn from those who suffered.  History is full of smart men motivated by power-over-others who were tied to deeply destructive ideologies.  Anyone who can rationalize killing their political opponents have no place in power.  Like "climate changers."

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Speaking of dead innocents, Thomas Hobbes also writes at Return of Kings: How Political Correctness Killed 1,200 People.

It took five years, but the electorate eventually woke up to this slow motion catastrophe, booting the Labor government out of office in 2013. Yet the grand total, over six years of “compassion” was at least 1,200 people, drowned or smashed up against one reef or another. In the last six years of the Howard government, this figure was zero. It was entirely preventable.

Hobbes posts an excellent and focused comparison of a specific policy under a conservative and under a liberal. 

Hobbes states he is a former "social justice warrior," or what I call here at Ushanka, a "liberal progressive communist." 

As I've warned communists here and abroad before, beware of the former liberals.  They know your game plan, your tactics and your goals.  They will eat you for lunch.  Hobbes just did it. 

This guy did it:

Old Media Tribute #12

On February 10th NBC suspended top anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay.

I collected over 60 meme images mocking Brian Williams’ lying and, by extension, the loss of credibility within the old media.

I will post one of these images every three days until his suspension is over. . .  and trust is restored.

Book Review: The Sledgehammer Concerto

Book Review: The Sledgehammer Concerto, by Francis W. Porretto.  Oct. 2010, 250 pages.

The author is one of us.  He blogs at Liberty's Torch.  He recently asked for reviews for his books. 

His books cover several genres and I chose The Sledgehammer Concerto based on the Amazon summary.

The Sledgehammer Concerto is not a story, but a series of stories with some shared characters.  Siblings, two brothers and a sister, share a close relationship based on a very troubled past that they've put mostly behind them.  They are successful in their fields, and you'll get an Atlas Shrugged feel from their successes and the government's attempts to shut them down.

A taste, on page 71:

Devin could easily understand the government's antipathy toward his books.  His fantasies had all been about the destructiveness of power over others, and the character of the men who pursued it.  His concept of the morals and drives of the power seeker was not a kind one.  Every story he'd ever written sketched them as monsters, whether blatant or well disguised.  None could be trusted to keep his word. None could be bound by the most solemn of oaths.  From cover to cover, they strove to cast off all restraint and reign unchecked with any consideration but their own visions and desires.  His works were filled with such men.

The book opens and closes with supernatural/religious themes:  good vs. evil at the beginning, and mostly good and hope at the end.  Two characters find love where and when they expected it least.  And you'll read about some fantastic futuristic technology innovations.

The Sledgehammer Concerto is a fast read.  It reads easy, but I'd warn the reader to pay attention.  I felt lost at times as the timeline and scenes change with little warning.  The author does not stay within standard boundaries with his story - a plus for the reader looking for something unique and different.

Click here to buy the book.  And please, help him out with a review!

Click here to check out the author's blog.

Old Media Tribute #11

On February 10th NBC suspended top anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay.

I collected over 60 meme images mocking Brian Williams’ lying and, by extension, the loss of credibility within the old media.

I will post one of these images every three days until his suspension is over. . .  and trust is restored.

China Had Common Core

A passionate plea by mother and former Mao student, Lily Tang Williams, against the nationalization of education.  




My thanks to Lily for calling out Obama and Jeb Bush for their participation in this communist scheme.

We all know the answer to this.  No doubt many in the education system abhore what is taking place.  The problem: they hate even more if the opposite were to occur and government were removed from their current role in education.

Vouchers would be a mess, if implemented.  A wonderful, enlightening, glorious mess that would return this nation to its greatness in just a single generation.  It'll only happen if parents make it happen.  And there is the rub.  Lily is not enough.

U/T: Moonbattery

Tribute Post: Park Sang-Hak

Park Sang-Hak defected from North Korea and currently lives in South Korea.  He has pledged to smuggle 10,000 copies of new comedy, The Interview, into North Korea via balloon.  Story at MarketWatch.

Most who escape communism pursue life and career goals - the reasons for escaping in the first place.  They are driven to make-up lost time and, understandably, want to put their past behind them.

It takes a rare and selfless person to agitate against his former tyrant, and information is the best weapon against the left.  Leaflets, DVDs, and radio and TV signals, are all absorbed by North Koreans who are becoming bolder in their quest to know more.  Shin Dong-hyuk, the subject of the 2012 book, Escape from Camp 14, said every North Korean in the capitol city of Pyongyang knows their country is a communist prison in a world of relative freedom.  Not unlike the Soviet Union in the 80's, I'd suggest.

Kim Jung-Un has ordered Park Sang-Hak's assassination - confirmation Park is doing something right.   In 2011, a North Korean assassin was arrested before he got to Park Sang-Hak.

He is the Chairman of Fighters for a Free North Korea, and was awarded the Vaclav Havel prize for Creative Dissent in 2013.

Old Media Tribute #10

On February 10th NBC suspended top anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay.

I collected over 60 meme images mocking Brian Williams’ lying and, by extension, the loss of credibility within the old media.

I will post one of these images every three days until his suspension is over. . .  and trust is restored.

Lying Liars Lie Again

The late William Safire, January 8, 1996, NYT:

Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -- a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -- is a congenital liar.

It was Bill Clinton's ability to bend the truth that fascinated me in the mid-90's.  Between the in-your-face dishonesty of the Clinton machine, and some good political mentoring from Comrade Mikhail, I bloomed late into the super-conservative you see before you now.

Now it is Hillary's turn. Story at The Daily Mail.  This video found at WZ:




I'll bet a Commie Obama hat that she doesn't lose a single vote out of this.  So long as she remains a staunch supporter of 'womens' reproductive rights,' the nomination is her's to lose.

From FB comrades:

U/T: My comrades in the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

UPDATED 3.11 10am:

Some excellent analysis:

Gateway Pundit -
Yesterday - Hillary 2001 Flashback: Why “Would I Ever Want to Do Email” That Leads To Investigations?
Today - RNC: Hillary Clinton’s Deceptive Press Conference a Huge Disappointment

PatriotReport - DIANNY RANTS: Deconstructing Hillary’s Bull

WeazelZippers posted this poll of MSNBC voters.

Just more proof that the only Democrat who can beat the Clinton machine is/was Obama.  Hillary is the nominee in 2016 if she is a) still alive (or thought to be alive), and b) is still pro-choice.

UPDATED 3.11.15 1pm:

Found this one at Earl of Taint:

And this one from The People's Cube:

Can you imagine what all the Federal Government HR people are hearing from government employees who want to host their work email from home?  The recent rash of hard drive failures in the IRS, for example, suggests this option has merit.  I wonder if it is too much to ask Hillary to produce server setup procedures.  She obviously did a good job, as the NSA was unaware of her email server.

UPDATED 3.11 4pm:

FB Comrade Stilton just shared this.  Brilliant.

Monday Afternoon Cigar

Rocky Patel Edge.

I'm shooting off my M855 cop-killer heat-seeking super-duper armor-piercing anti-tank intercontinental ammo for one of the following reasons.  You pick:

1)  It is the least accurate ammo on the market for my (1:7) rifle and I want to be rid of it, or

2) I want to get rid of it because the government thinks I shouldn't be trusted with it and I always turn to the government for guidance because they are infallible and have my best interests at heart.