Friday, January 15, 2010

Jittery much?

After cryptic "Breaking News" announcements from the AP all morning about the Pantex nukyular weapons assembly facility in Texas being put on lockdown, we find out why:
An Amarillo, Texas nuclear plant was put on precautionary lockdown after armed hunters were spotted in a field across from the plant, the Carson County Sheriff's Department said.
For Shiva's sake, people, y'all are in Texas! Don't tell me you've never seen a hunter out there before.

25 comments:

TJP said...

Those six-legged, flying deer that drink out of the spent fuel ponds are not only an important part of reactor site ecology, but are also fetching trophies for the hunter who has taken just about everything else.

Tam said...

Especially now that all the dogmadillephants have been killed for their bread-like tusks...

Anonymous said...

Just another sign of the rise of the Moron.

Jim

Bob S. said...

Of course most of the city dwellers haven't seen hunters -- most of the hunters wear camouflage

Anonymous said...

It's the unarmed hunters you need to worry about. They use satire to cut their prey to the bone.

Who knows what damage they could have done.

Gerry

WV Dupess: The wife of a Dupe

Anonymous said...

"Yeehaw, Yeehaw, this is Cledus Six Actual, I have good ol' boys out a-huntin', one round vee tee frag . . . ."

Shootin' Buddy

Anonymous said...

They'd better keep it locked down!
There is a finite, non-zero probability that there may be a Texan with a concealed carry permit within 200 miles.
Goodnes Gracious, people exercising their rights! Run!!

Anonymous said...

Gotta be a recent transplant from NJ or CA. Texans usually aren't that dumb.

"Hmm, two guys in pickup, get out carrying shotguns and a tent, wearing camo, and it's hunting season. Better call the law!"

- Texas Mike

Anonymous said...

just goes to show yah! yah can't fix stupid!

Anonymous said...

I asked a friend. Head of security there is ex Air Force. Need we say more?

Hunsdon said...

Dad gum it, I still think you got it from me, but you've made it your own.

"Fundamentally unserious."

Drang said...

And there I was yesterday speculating about moving to Texas while there still may be time to establish residency before it secedes. Mayne not: Texas: Students denied right to stage empty holster protest
"When Tarrant County College denied a TCC student the right to stage an empty holster protest in April 2008 at the South Campus, officials feared someone would use the event to bring a weapon on campus. TCC interim chancellor - testified Thursday she believed a student would actually bring a gun on to campus if the community college allowed empty holster protests to go forward."

Old NFO said...

LOL- transplant AND Air Force... nuff said... sigh...

jeff said...

This is the part that has me taking mild offence to the Air Force cracks. Until recent embarrassing events, USAF nuc security was pretty damn solid. If this guy is old enough and has a SAC background, his level of hyper vigilance will be way up there. He may have even locked it down as an excuse to run an exercise; I did the same thing given the opportunity. Would you rather he just say "Aw shucks, it's just the locals" and leave that as an opening? Always assume your opponents are at least as sneaky as you are, dressing up as hunters is a great way to get bad guys in close without being commented on.

TBeck said...

Pantex is about twenty miles east of Amarillo. I wonder why they didn't just send out a humvee to ask them what they were doing? People around here are normally pretty casual about hunting.

TBeck said...

Pantex is not a reactor, it's a weapons disassembly and storage facility. Before we moved to Amarillo I sudied what limited information was publicly available. The place is plenty safe. I don't lose any sleep at night from living nearby.

Jeffro said...

Probably hunting pheasant. Pheasants are originally Chinese. You do the math. ;)

Anonymous said...

No. They got put on lockdown to make sure that the geeks inside didn't get any ideas.

"Hey, Jeff. You hear about those hunters outside?"
"Yeah, Roy. The were hunting 'yotes with blot actions... Totally inefficient."
*Roy and Jeff turn to each other, as of one mind, with a BAD idea.*

The Freeholder said...

Be thankful no Lite-Brites were involved.

Anonymous said...

Jeff Said....

Its a she Jeff, as in girl.

Not as in he.

Probably got her off the golf course. That always get's them PO in the Air Force.

LOL

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of open territory around the plant. Hunters are pretty common, but so are protesters and rebels looking to make a point.

Most local hunters know to avoid the place.

The guards have three choices when they spot some guys with guns - ignore them, hit the alert which triggers a lock down while investigated, or open fire.

I think they did the right thing.

Tam said...

"I think they did the right thing."

Yes, but that's not funny.

ditto said...

When I was stationed at POMFLANT in Goose Creek S.C. we were allowed to hunt on the base. Just not inside the exclusion area.
If there are Nuclear weapons present there are armed marines present with enough firepower to take on nearly anything.

UbiCaritas said...

@D.W. Drang:

I attended TCC during that particular chancellor's reign of stupid. Aside from his refusal to allow the empty holster protest (not, as I frequently pointed out, that I thought he could do much about it, seeing as the campus cops were limited, to about one guy patrolling at a time), he also managed to irritate most of the folks who donated to scholarship funds for this school by focusing his Scholarship Banquet (a dinner for the donors and the student recipients) speech on, I kid you not, the evils of capitalism. (headdesk)

Crotalus said...

This reminds me of one time we were driving in the country. Men were parked on a ridge above the road, pulling guns out of the car. As I'm thinking, "Cool! They're going hunting." I hear, "*gasp* They got guns!" After I picked up my jaw, I explained to my wife that they were hunters, "going to shoot little birdies!"

People need to quit the knee-jerk reaction, and determine what a "man with a gun" is really up to before sounding the alarm.