Friday, October 28, 2005

Just a thought before I go...

The word on the news is that Libby will be indicted, and the Grand Jury will be continued to keep looking at Rove.

I have a question: if you can be indicted for perjury now for remembering something you forgot before, or being reminded of a conversation you testified about and remembering something about it you'd forgotten(because it was, oh, two years before or something), if you can be charged with 'lying to a federal investigator' as Martha Stewart was- in an informal interview, not under oath, etc.- why would anyone say anything to an investigator or grand jury? If, because of some political connection with someone, you know that forgetting something about a conversation or forgetting talking to/about someone could get you charged with a crime, why say anything?

I can see someone being asked a question and taking the 5th Amendment: "Since anything I say, or forget to mention, or remember and add in later could get me charged with a crime, I plead the 5th and will not answer". And if the 5th protects you against self-incrimination, I would think that a perfectly proper use of the plea.

And if the prosecutors don't like it, maybe they should have considered that before.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

I love stuff that actually works

If you don't reload, the phrase 'stuck case' won't induce the same mix of terror and rage it does to us alchemists(as the Gun Guy calls us reloaders). So I'll explain a bit.

To reload cases, once you have some to reload(obtaining fired cases being an activity worthy all on its' own), the first step is resizing. You take the case, a resizing die set up in a press, and run the case into the die. The die usually does three things: first, it squeezes the case back down to standard unfired dimensions; second, a rod sticks way down into the case and through the flashhole and punches the fired primer out; third, when the case is sized it makes the neck area smaller than it should be, so there's a hardened steel button on the depriming rod, and as you pull the case out of the die the button expands the case neck to proper dimensions.

With a few exceptions- straight-walled pistol and rifle cartridges and a very few bottleneck rifle cartridges- the die is hardened steel with the inside very smoothly polished. The exceptions noted above have a ring made of carbide or a ring plated with titanium nitride that actually does the sizing. These two are extremely hard, and when polished have an extremely slick surface, so you can generally get by without lubing the cases. However, if you run a dry case into a standard steel die, the case will get stuck. WILL get stuck. Not 'pull a little harder on the lever' stuck or 'get something and tap on it' stuck. STUCK. We're talking teenage girls stuck on Orlando Bloom level here. You now have the options of getting a stuck case remover kit or taking the die apart and using a punch to hammer the case out, both of which ruin the case. And if you get careless, ruin the die. And they ain't cheap.

Enter Microlon. Yes, the same people who make the engine treatment I used on the bike. They make a stuff called Gun Juice for firearms. I've written about it before, mainly on cutting down fouling problems in barrels, and did a full review over at Mad Ogre's place in the weapons section. It slicked barrels up so well, and it mentioned using it on dies, so I stripped and cleaned my dies that aren't nitride or carbide and treated them. It did make a noticeable difference in the force needed to run cases in & out. And then...

A couple of weeks ago I had about a hundred .30-06 rifle cases to resize. Lubed them up and started. I generally put on some music for this stuff, so I'm cranking along when I notice that this case was kind of stubborn. And thought about it and realized the last half-dozen had been a bit stubborn. I grabbed that last few, and the next couple, and found that I'd somehow missed lubing about ten cases, six of which I'd run through the die.

This was flat amazing. No stuck cases when normally the first one would have jammed tight. So I'm definately a believer in this stuff. If you decide to try it, you can order it from Brownells, or straight from the company here.

He's alive! He's safe! And he saved the beer!

Steve has now been heard from. He's posting from Man Camp, where Val has hooked up to a neighbors generator, and Steve's supplying badly needed labor and nutrients. (LIQUID nutrients, what did you think I meant?)

Among his thoughts on the current 'cane aftermath are that it's hard to get in a 'Oh my God!' frame of mind when you're sitting on the patio drinking homebrew, smoking a cigar, listening to music on the boombox and have a cockatoo for company. And how some people are freaking out, even though they don't live below sea level and have 'neighbors' floating their valuables away. And how some people in Broward County are comparing Wilma to Andrew; as he puts it:"So SHUT UP. Anyone up there who compares this storm to Andrew should be punished by having one leg of his walker glued to the floor so all he can do is shuffle in circles."

And think of being in a place where everything is electric, the lines are all down, and they tell you to boil your drinking water. As Steve says, a nicely mixed message. What to do, what to do... Aside from grabbing the nearest bureaucrat(assuming you can catch one out of his natural habitat of behind a counter with a security guard handy) and gently asking 'how?' as you choke him, that is. I'd say it's a good thing all those trees are down, except green wood doesn't burn worth a damn, and if it's been that long since a really nasty storm probably only 10% of the people around own an axe and have some idea how to use it without amputating body parts.

We've got tornados here, but at least they're a: at worst a mile wide, b: only travel about 20-30 miles in most cases and c: even though they can have winds over 300mph, they pass by in a few minutes, as opposed to a hurricane which only has 150mph winds but is a couple of hundred miles across("Wilma, you bitch, go on a diet!") and takes hours to pass by. Although we've had ice storms and wind storms that took down lines and poles and left some people without power for more than a month.

In any case, we have heard from Hog-Boy, and he is well. Maybe we can get him a laurel wreath to wear, with a sign that says 'Pig Power'.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

More general thoughts

Steve has once again been rendered speechless by FP&L. I'm wondering if he ever got the ice for the fermenting fridge?

Kevin over at Smallest Minority has a number of good thoughts and reports. On the wussy GFW new James Bond(!), the move toward a carry law in Wisconsin, and the vote in Brazil.

The Geek speaks of Eugene Volokh and the 2nd, ABC playing bluffing games with the news, FEMA reversing course on one of their latest bullshit moves, and his own thoughts on Brazil.

I'm trying Steve's advise from last week on seasoning cast iron. I hope it works, I can smell it inside and the grill is outside and the windows are closed...

Mr. Completely writes of the Jennings .22. When I took my carry class, one lady had one of these, and the shots were keyholing at three yards. No thank you.

I checked the cast iron; it was nice & hot, and I hadn't set the garage on fire, so I turned off the heat and left it to cool slowly.

I just re-read Volokh's piece that I mentioned earler; GO READ IT. It's important.

I may not post for a few days. No, I won't be able to make the NoR shoot, but I will be out of town.

Various observations and comments

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the news the last few days, so last night & this morning I've been cruising around.

Just read about the burned terrorist bodies and 'muslim outrage' at Wizbang. I have to agree with Jay; the 'mainstream Muslim community' does want it both ways- "Don't blame us, they're not true Muslims" and "You're not showing these Muslims proper respect!". To quote one of the commenters, "Pigshit". Either the bastards who set off a car bomb to kill a bunch of women and children or men applying for jobs are Muslims and you worry about their treatment, or they're murdering wastes of oxygen and don't deserve any consideration. You can't claim them when it suits you and disclaim them when it doesn't. Make up your damn minds, and in the meantime, shut the hell up.

Ran into Harry's Place, which I'd never seen before, who had this post on a wanker in the Guardian. Short version: Iraqi's Vote, Bush Aided In Next Election, All Is Lost! Worth reading, if only to see how BDS has spread worldwide. Check out the commenters for further illustration.

That bitch Sheehan and the fascist supporters are all atwitter because the 2000th soldier died due to combat in Iraq. Bunch of fucking vultures. I did hear Bush's speech the other day while I was doing laundry; contrast this to the MoveOn wing of the Democrat party and marvel at idiots who think terrorists killing people is preferable to us doing something about them. And a people becoming free.

Got time, go to Power Line and start at the top; lots of good stuff there.

The Gun Guy has initial thoughts about the Tulsa Gun Show.

Michelle Malkin wrote about a racist idiot at North Carolina State University. And the University disowning him.
Gee, I wonder why?

Captain's Quarters writes of Iran calling for Israel to be destroyed. NOW will somebody do something about their working to build nukes?

Michelle also notes that, beyond doubt, Al Franken really is a friggin' idiot.

I know I said it before, but Britain just keeps working harder to flush themselves further down the toilet. Piglet, pig stories, piggy banks... why don't they just wave a damn white flag and get it over with?

I think that's it for now.

Monday, October 24, 2005

Brazil Votes 'NO' On Gun Ban

In other news, Sara Brady is reported to be suffering severe gas attacks.

This is very good news. First, for the Brazilian people. They were hit with every 'we know best' hammer the 'elites' could use, and in the end said 'Hell no'. And 64 to 36 counts as Hell no. To quote a guy who wrote to Instapundit on this:
"Hi Glenn, I live in Brazil and believe me, you don't know the half of it. The level of propaganda from the pro-ban side, which included the current government, the Church, the Globo television network (think CBS, ABC and NBC combined) and the arts/intelligentsia crowd was beyond the pale and clearly directed at the less fortunate. In other words, it was presented as a class vote. The margin of victory indicates that Brazilians of all classes voted against this ridiculous referendum. It is a sure sign of the steady but certain maturing of democracy in this country. "
Think about that; just about every group that keeps helping push for bans/taxes/restictions here- discounting the President and our current government- was yelling at them, and they listened to both sides and said 'No'. I like this quote from Dave Kopel's post at the Volokh Conspiracy:
“Their whole campaign (against the ban) was imported from the United States. They just translated a lot of material from the NRA. Now, a lot of Brazilians are insisting on their right to bear arms, they don’t even have a pseudo right to bear arms. It’s not in their Constitution,” said Jessica Galeria, an American who researches gun violence with the Viva Rio think tank.

Don't you just love that? "Oh, God, they actually believe they have a right to arms! And their government hasn't given them permission to think such a thing! And the eeeeviill NRA had a hand in it! Aaaaaahhhh!" May they strain their throats with their screaming. As Kopel points out, their constitution specifically states:
"the home is the inviolable asylum of the individual, and no one may enter it without the dweller's consent, save in the case of "flagrante delicto" or disaster, or to give help, or, during the day, by court order;"
and if you have the right to protect your home from invasion, you have, implied at least, the right to the means to protect your home. There's more in the post, so go read it.

And the Reuters AlertNet article is just full of good stuff.
""We didn't lose because Brazilians like guns. We lost because people don't have confidence in the government or the police," said Denis Mizne of anti-violence group Sou da Paz." Gee, you think maybe? They think the police are corrupt and/or incompetent and want means to protect themselves? Whoda thunk it?

"Many voters had expressed concern before the vote that a ban would leave them defenseless against heavily armed criminals. Public confidence is low in a police force widely seen as inefficient, abusive and corrupt." Yep.

" "This referendum ... is not going to end violence," said Assis Augusto Pires, 60, who voted against the ban in Sao Paulo's wealthy Jardim Paulistano district, where high walls, electrified fences and private guards protect residents." Wow, even people who can afford private heat want arms! Hear that, Sen. Kennedy(Dr.MA)?

"Spotlighting the issue, a young girl was wounded by a stray bullet as police clashed with drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro's Dende slum on Saturday night, police said." Gee, some of the strictest gun-control laws around and the gangs still have guns? Sound familiar, D.C.?

And this one: " The ban failed in all 26 states and the federal district of Brasilia. Rural areas rejected it overwhelmingly. "This region is very isolated. If you don't have a gun here you don't have protection," said Igor Dedea, a logger in the rainforest state of Para." So it failed everywhere, and in rural areas 'overwhelmingly'.

Brazil is like a lot of countries; the government has made it as difficult as it can for a common citazen(at least they don't openly call them 'peasants') to own a gun, and is constantly trying to make it worse. And in Brazil's case, they're next door to Venezuela which has the weenie Chavez as president(think that may have something to do with some of their troubles?), with Chavez trying to export the wonders of castro throughout South America. But this gives me hope. The people of Brazil got both sides and voted to keep their ability to own arms for whatever reasons they choose. They took note that with current laws the bad guys aren't even slowed down in getting weapons, and decided that "Trust us, this will make you safe" from the government didn't cut it.

Now, let's see, a referendum to put a right to arms in their constitution... Probably won't happen, but it's a nice thought, isn't it?

Sunday, October 23, 2005

And let us not forget National Ammo Day

If you're new to it, it started as one day in which everyone possible would buy at least 100 rounds of ammo. For all information, posters, etc. go here.

I just wish I could count the stuff I picked up yesterday.

Carnival of Cordite #35

Is up at Gullyborg. I don't even know what's in it yet; I just got the e-mail. So go, beat me to it.

The Big Gun Show Report

As I mentioned, this is the biggest gun show in the world; the building is 11 acres(!) and it's full, something like 3800 tables. Guns, ammo, parts, accessories, knives, books, if it's related to firearms you'll either find it there, or find someone who can get it for you.

Also there, I just found out was the Gun Guy. Dammit, I wish I'd known, I'd have made sure I said hello. As it was, there's so many damn people, so many of whom look familiar for different reasons, I didn't notice him. Or maybe he doesn't look like his picture, or was gone to pee, who knows?

For some reason Martini Cadet rifles seem to have gone way up on price; the only one below $500 was pretty beat up in the stock and still $450. I'd like to have one, but not for that price.

Among other things, I picked up some sling swivels, recoil buffers and ammo. Found a place that had a good price on M2 ball for the M1 rifle. And my friend bought a tuna can each of 7.62x54R and 8mm from them. AND they dollied it out to the truck; what more can you ask for? You could go broke in the place really easy. And really quick.

Books. Lots of books. I'm going to have to make a list of Peter Capstick's stuff I don't have or want in hardback. No problem with buying from Books a Million, but if I can pick it up at the show...

Yesterday was cloudy and cool, today started cloudy and occasional sprinkles and cold. And maybe some frost tonight, dammit. I've got to cover the squash and maybe it'll last long enough to produce. I hope so.