Saturday, December 30, 2006

Next time someone starts telling of the wonders brought to us

from the muslim world- medicine is usually a big one- trot out two things:
First, any 'wonderful advances' from the muslim world came, oh, about 1200 years ago.
Second, now some of the idiots can't even wash their damn hands:Dispensers containing anti-bacterial gel have been placed outside wards at hospitals all over Britain in a bid to get rid of superbugs like MRSA and PVL.

It prevents people bringing in more infections. But some Muslims refuse to use the hand cleansers on religious grounds because they contain alcohol.


This is a level of idiocy that is just amazing. There's got to be a desire to say "We're not asking you to DRINK the stuff, dammit, just wash your hands with it!"

Of course, if you did that would be considered evidence of 'islamophobia'.

Idiots.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Recoil

Complex subject, and Chris has a big post on it. With lots of technical data on it, well worth reading. Especially since he's had the chance to fire a bunch of stuff I've never been able to.

Worst handgun I ever fired in this respect was a Taurus Total Titanium Tracker in .41 Magnum. Now, I like the .41 Mag, and hope to own one someday; but I'd always fired it in steel-frame S&W revolvers. This think kicked the crap out of my hands. I don't care how good the grip is, that was just too much cartridge for that light a pistol.

My Benelli Nova shotgun is a fine firearm, but I did put one of the recoil absorbers in the butt, because buckshot and slug loads kicked me something fierce. Both the Taurus and it bring something up: the lighter and handier a firearm is, the worse(generally speaking) it'll kick when chambered in powerful cartridges. For home defense this was easy to solve, use the reduced or low-recoil loads: add those to the absorber and they're downright pleasant to fire.

Worst rifle, hands down, was a Marlin Guide Gun in .45-70*, light rifle with no recoil pad and heavy hunting loads. Beat my shoulder up worse in four rounds than forty-some-odd 7.62x54r out of a Mosin Nagant had done. Impressive rifle, at fifty yards put all four into a 1.5" group, but if I had one it'd have the best recoil pad I can find mounted.

I can fire an M1 Garand for many shots with no problem, including prone where you can't shift with it. But a 1903 or '03-A3 Springfield in the same cartridge is a whole 'nother story. Partly the Garand action takes up some of the felt recoil, partly the stock is a better design.

I haven't fired any of the semi-auto pistols that have a padded grip in the back, so I can't comment on how they feel. I'd think it would be a good thing, but that's just a guess.

On pistols, because the arthritis I have makes me a bit more sensitive to it than I used to be, I don't shoot heavy loads very much anymore. I can, no problem, but after about 30-50 rounds(depending on cartridge/load) my accuracy suffers. Which is one reason I handload, I can put together practice loads that I can shoot a bunch of, and use enough of the full-house defense or hunting loads to keep my hand in with them.

Had a chance to fire a Kel-Tech P3At in .380 a while back. The recoil wasn't bad at all: the way the sharply-checkered grips bit your hand as it flipped up wasn't pleasant after a magazine or two.

It's a very subjective thing.

Additional: when my son was about 11, just about his favorite rifle to fire was a #4 Mk1 Enfield. He took my rear shooting rest(filled with dried beans) and stuck it between his shoulder and the butt for a little padding, and if allowed to would have bankrupted me.


*Update: in the time since I have a new 'worst rifle': a beautiful bolt-action chambered in .416 Rigby.  That weighed seven pounds...  Lord, it was bad.

Saddam has left the gallows

and is rapidly assuming ambient temperature according to the headline both on Drudge and at Fox.

I know that it's generally considered a bad thing to celebrate the death of someone, even a loathsome being such as Saddam. But the whiskey tastes good, anyway.

I don't know how I'd consider myself, religion-wise. I've known Christians, Jews, a Moslem or two, Druids and Witches and Mormons some other folks, and I don't know as I fit properly into any of them, myself. It probably speaks of either a Good Thing about me or a weakness that I hope the murdering little monster had a bit of a 'come to Jesus' moment. I have my doubts, but I kind of hope so.

I know, doesn't seem to go too well with toasting his long drop on a short rope, but there you are.

Ok, the BBC just confirmed it, too.

Declaration of his martyrdom by some BPM in 3,2,1...

It's almost time,

and the last of my Glenfiddich Solera Reserve is waiting for the moment.

And while we're at it, somebody whack a couple of SCOTUS members with a bat engraved with this: U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to interfere in another country's judicial process. Not only is that true, but FOREIGN COURTS DON'T RULE US, EITHER!

Heh heh heh: Al-Nueimi said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam to prevent him from being humiliated before his execution. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

But Saddam was loved! Various moonbats tell us so, Iraq was better off under him! WHO could possibly want to humiliate/mutilate him??? (/snark)

Thursday, December 28, 2006

And by the way, can we call the 'peace activists'/

America haters what they are now? Which is vile scumbags unfit to breathe free air. Sorry little barfhounds who consider themselves the 'caring, wise, progressive ones' so they spew garbage like this.

Just bloody amazing, ain't it?

A further thought or two on that lying 'scientist'

who's confessed to 'overdoing' it a bit on the global warmening crap.

One of the lines I've been thinking about: But knowing the science, we knew the stakes to humanity were high and that the opposition to the truth would be fierce, so we knew we had to dig in. Something about that really bothered me. Aside from the 'have to scare the peasants' it leads into. It clicked, it's that phrase 'the Truth', and the way he uses it it does have a capital.

Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? The scene in the classroom at the beginning, Indy says something along the lines of "We are searching for the facts. If you want the 'truth', go to the Philosophy Department." That's what was bugging me about this. The clown says 'knowing the science', then 'opposition to the truth'. Whether he realizes it yet or not, he stepped outside science and went into philosophy and politics when he decided to take part in lying and threats to push his views.

And I do mean threats, which is what brought him to realize he'd been 'overdoing' it a bit. He realized that honest researchers were afraid to say anything outside the approved-by-the-priests orthodoxy because of what would happen. Like the name calling, the abuse, and the threats to their position. Mind you, this jackass still believes that human-caused global warmering(or climate change, or however he'll put it next) is without question.

Unless he doesn't. Unless there's some niggling doubts coming to the surface but he doesn't have the balls to admit it for fear of the same threats his actions have helped bring to others.

This just pisses me off SO bad.

About my desire to see an erupting volcano,

Gerry says The best place to see an erupting volcano is on TV, at least 500 miles away. Upwind. I'm about 100 mi. from Mt.St.Helens, and it's too damn close by far. Mt. Rainier is even closer as is Mt. Baker. All are active volcanoes and can blow at any time.

Mt. Rainier is not a good one to be near when the day comes, because it's not the blast you have to worry about: it's another mudflow(lahar) like the Osceola coming down the slopes. Which would be a Bad Thing. That's what wiped out Armero in Colombia- and some other towns- in 1985. Hopefully, with the alert system and general consciousness of the danger, when the time comes people will be able to get to high ground/the hell out of the way and it won't be anywhere near the loss of life.

Though if you've got property in the way, you'll be missing it after.

That's an idea! Queer Muhammad posters!

There's a columnist at Townhall.com named Mike Adams. While back he had the idea of having the NEA avoid any accusations of state sponsorship of religion by insulting some religion other than Christianity. In the past, you’ve supported the “Piss Christ” and the “Elephant Dung Mary.” Now, I’m asking you to fund the “Queer Muhammad.”

For this painting, I want the artist to put the Prophet Muhammad in a pink bathrobe. I also want him holding a little toy poodle. Finally, I would like you to feature him reading a copy of “Playgirl” magazine. If you want to get daring, you can also feature him French-kissing Salmon Rushdie. Or better yet, feature him French-kissing Jacques Chirac


Sounds good, I think. But wait! It gets better! After outlining plans for the first bunch of posters, That will leave me with about four million “Queer Muhammad” posters for the most ambitious aspect of my plan. This involves hanging posters on the doors of every active member of the National Rifle Association. When the Islamic fascists begin hurling stones at the houses of NRA members, many of my brothers (and sisters)-in-arms will start heading for the nearest gun safe. I know I will.

Maybe a few of these violent Muslims will survive their attack on the First Amendment, after it is thwarted by the Second Amendment. If so, I have a special plan for the Islamic fascist survivors. This plan was inspired by my realization that so many members of the anti-war movement are also members of the pro-gay movement. Here it is, in all its leftist-inspired brilliance:


And for the rest, you'll have to go read it.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Ok, climate guy,

you helped start this crap, so what are you gonna do now?

Thanks to Tim Blair we have this:But knowing the science, we knew the stakes to humanity were high and that the opposition to the truth would be fierce, so we knew we had to dig in. But now they are listening. Now they do believe us. Now they say they’re ready to take action. And now we’re wondering if we didn’t create a monster.

Gee, let's see, blow a lot of smoke and scare hell out of people for years with "We're all gonna die unless we act NOW!", and now it's gotten a bit out of hand, and you're wondering of you went a bit overboard?

Read the whole damn thing here. In a way, the big quote to me is this:None of this is to say that the risk of climate change is being questioned or downplayed by our community; it's not. It is to say that I think some people feel that we've created a monster by limiting the ability of people in our community to question results that say "climate change is right here!" So this clown is relieved because the 'risk of climate change' isn't being downplayed, but is upset because the idiocy he helped start is keeping people in the 'profession' from questioning whether it's happening 'right now'. The level of 'the peasants won't do what we want' in this is amazing. And now this jerk admits that, seeing as how many of his colleagues are scared to question any of this because their career will be threatened, he thinks they may have overdone things just a bit.

We're wondering if they realize how uncertain our projections of future climate are. We wonder if we've oversold the science. We're wondering what happened to our community, that individuals caveat even the most minor questionings of barely-proven climate change evidence, lest they be tagged as "skeptics." So you spent years and years telling people 'the models show this' and 'we predict that' and 'studies of ice cores and tree rings and temperature records PROVE THIS!'; and now you wonder ...if they realize how uncertain our projections of future climate are.? You God-cursed fool.

But be not too worried, for he's changed:I don't play in the weeds of climate change anymore, I play in the weeds of how the science gets to policy makers and how the nature of policy-making gets back to the scientists. Isn't that just so freakin' wonderful that it sets your mind at ease?

I didn't think so.

Jeez, talk about all the trouble in the world!

Let's see, here's a coyote attack in Pennsylvania: ...the first attack was about 6 a.m. at the Palmer Community Pool when a man walking his dog was bitten in the stomach. and it goes on from there.

Then a possible killer bee attack in Florida: Two teenagers washing their dog at their Ft. Lauderdale backyard were attacked by what experts think might be killer bees. And you KNOW this had to be written by someone in the U.S., who else would write they suspect the bees got riled up when the teens were bathing the dog, near a cedar log where the bees had their hive. A critter control expert destroyed it.?

And I ain't going to Acapulco any time soon: have fought bloody turf battles in Acapulco in recent years, and the city has seen a series of killings, gun battles and beheadings. Who do these gangs think they are, BPMs?

As if the gorillas didn't have enough problems, ebola has shown up: An outbreak of Ebola virus in northwestern Republic of Congo has killed 5 000 gorillas, helping to push the threatened species even closer to extinction, says a study. And here's something I'd not heard about: ...-last year, three species of African fruit bat were fingered as an Ebola source -...

And St. Helens is erupting. This, by the way, is something I want to see, an erupting volcano. Preferably just a 'routine' eruption: I don't particularly like the idea of fleeing for my life as a pyroclastic flow or a 150mph landslide heads my way.

Heh heh heh heh

Remember a few months ago, the stories about the two bigshot Democrat politicians who went to Iraq to talk to the troops? Word was, when the talked to the guys from their districts they got a serious earful of "What the hell is wrong with you?" thoughts. Of course, when they came back all we heard was "The Senator/Rep(can't remember which, though I think one was Kennedy) had some very good conversations with the men", etc.

Well, John Kerry(Insufferable D/MA), finishing his suckup visit to Egypt, went to lay his hands upon the troops, and they weren't having any of it:
Hey, I just came from a meeting where they were trying to get some commander, any commander, in the Green Zone, to host Jawn Carri.

Swear to God, the CG is saying, "You can't tell me you ALL have things going on at that time! Come on!"


And when he ate at the chow hall? Normally when a Senator/Representative visits, he is joined by a contingent of soldiers/Marines/airmen from his home state. Despite the fact that the MP unit responsible for Green Zone security is an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, not a single soldier went to sit with him.

I was thinking that in that last picture he looks not real happy, and you could almost feel sorry for him. On second thought, I think he doesn't look unhappy enough, and for his words and actions that have harmed the troops it's too bad they couldn't like up to each give him a kick in the ass.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas,

and despite it being such a nice day, I have to put these up before I forget them.

Tim Blair linked to a piece noting something I'd not heard of: In 1902, the Los Angeles Times reported that the great glaciers were undergoing "their final annihilation" due to rising temperatures. But by 1923, it was the ice that was doing the annihilating: "Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada," the Chicago Tribune declared on Page 1.

A guy at Kim's forum pointed to this:BAGHDAD, Dec. 24 — The American military is holding at least four Iranians in Iraq, including men the Bush administration called senior military officials, who were seized in a pair of raids late last week aimed at people suspected of conducting attacks on Iraqi security forces, according to senior Iraqi and American officials in Baghdad and Washington.
May I suggest serious questioning, followed by a firing squad or a rope, whichever seems most appropriate? Followed by the same for a bunch of BPMs in Iran.

And one more from Blair, on a pure bs piece from an enviroweenie on disappearing islands.

Spent the day at my folks, my daughter and son and son's girlfriend were there, too. May be their last time together for a while: not only is he shipping out shortly, she's in AIT and will wind up God knows where when she graduates. I got a shot of them with that '47 Jeep he started restoring












which will be stored until he winds up back here in the USA. At which time he can finish rebuilding the motor and do the wiring. Wiring's figured out, just hadn't had time to do it.

'Scuse me

Back, I damn near burned the cornbread, but though it's more brown on top than I'd wanted it'll go quite well with the leftover stew tomorrow at work. Where was I? Oh yeah, he knows what he needs for the motor- tranny is already rebuilt- so it'll just have to wait a while.

Had to do something I don't like to do: give my daughter cash for her present. Some of the things she wanted would have needed ordering(certain uncertainties there) and the main thing locally available the bloody stores that had it stopped carrying it. Which the bastards will probably have it back tomorrow, in which case she can pick it up herself.

Enough. I need to stretch out after all the driving and sitting, and a lunch that has kept me from needing any dinner. 'Night, folks.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Christmas Eve

and I hope you all have a happy one. And thanks for the suggestions for my son, helped me decide on/find some things.

On this night, I shall find a DVD I haven't watched in a while(since my Benny Hill collection won't be here till next week), make a drink involving something hot and soothing early, and northern British and even more soothing later, and relax. Going down to see my folks tomorrow, son and daughter are already down there. Son towed his jeep today, Dad said can store it there so he won't have to pay storage charges on it, so I'll need to help them move it into the back yard. Had to work today, and have to come back tomorrow night because I work Tuesday, but should be a good day anyway: besides the usual, since it'll be son/grandson's last Christmas here for a year or two I think Grandma has gone all-out on the food. I may need to be dollied out to the truck so I can drive home.

And for those interested, son has found out his first duty station is in a place famous for beer, some types of sausage and busty women.

If I were younger, I'd join up and hope to go there myself.

I am full of the Christmas Eve spirit

Except for these dickheads

Yesterday I ran across this piece of Crap(yes, it does deserve a capital 'C'):U.S. Hispanic groups and activists on Thursday called for a moratorium on workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants, saying they were reminiscent of Nazi crackdowns on Jews in the 1930s.

"Oooh, we're VICTIMS! You people are NAZIS for trying to enforce your EVIL immigration laws!" Etc.

I just love it, and people of Jewish descent must just absolutely freakin' love it when every bunch of chickenshit 'activists' claims that things like 'they want us to obey the law!' somehow morphs into 'This is just like the mass murder of Jews and others!' "This unfortunately reminds me of when Hitler began rounding up the Jews for no reason and locking them up," Democratic Party activist Carla Vela said. "Now they're coming for the Latinos, who will they come for next?" Got news for you, you sorry little bitch: I don't care what the skin color is, I hope they actually start rounding up every damn illegal they can catch and kicking their ass back across whatever border.

I will say this in simple words, just in case one of these clowns actually reads this: illegal aliens are breaking the law. That makes you a criminal, and the law- in force for many years- says to kick your lawbreaking ass back to where it came from. Simple, isn't it? You're not a martyr, you're not a 'victim', you are a criminal. And the idiots like Vela are enablers of people breaking our law, and should be treated as such.

The other group of dickheads in question is the 9/11 conspiracy nuts, like this one, and here's a study of one of the 'Truthers'; very educational as to brain size, etc. It's amazing, ain't it? They think the gummint is so all-powerful it can somehow work a crew of a couple of hundred in a building, doing demolition and setting charges and hijack some airplanes and mess with all the video shot on 9/11, and yet nobody involved ever talks? And most of these clowns think the gummint would be just fine after this if the 'right people', progressive thinkers(i.e. castro/che worshipping idiots) were in charge. Kind of like the people who say the government is corrupt, untrustworthy and needs to be destroyed and rebuilt, BUT only the government minions should be allowed to own arms...

Merry damn Christmas Eve to y'all