In the news from Britain,

found at the Englishman's domicile, we have three pieces tonight.

First, we have this on the loss of freedom of speech:
the government’s exclusion zone that has banned spontaneous protest for a radius of one kilometre outside the seat of our democracy, the Houses of Parliament.

Next, the reaction to the national ID card scheme isn't exactly warm and fuzzy:
The government is predicting that some 15m people will revolt against Tony Blair’s controversial ID card scheme by refusing to produce the new cards or provide personal data on demand.
"What the Home Office is accepting in private, but refuses to accept in public, is that a massive number of ordinary law-abiding citizens simply will not go along with their scheme.”

Let's see, protests- even by one or two people- banned unless you get prior approval... millions of people saying 'screw you', more or less politely, to being told the police will have even more power to say "Papers, please; or else"... What could be the capper to this stuff?

Why, give the bailiffs who write parking tickets the power to invade your home!
More than a million motorists a year face having bailiffs force their way into their homes to collect unpaid parking fines under legislation before MPs.

Action could be taken even when the motorist is unaware that a ticket has been issued or that the debt has been pursued through the civil courts.

Now, I'm tempted to say that, in a way, this last piece of socialist bullshitgovernmental overreach is the real demonstration of how little of the old expected freedoms are left. When the government is thinking of letting a frikkin' meter maid force their way into your house over parking tickets...

Their current authority? Currently, their powers are limited to seizing a car or confiscating goods from the debtor's home - having gained entry by consent.

Confiscating goods from the debtor's home... over a God-cursed PARKING TICKET.

But there are safeguards, of course: Alan Clark, a bailiff and a member of the British Parking Association, played down the threat to motorists.

"These powers would be used very rarely. We would not seek to use them unless it was necessary.

Oh, of course it would be rare, only to be used when 'necessary'. Because minions of the government would NEVER abuse their authority.

Now would they?

Heroes

Kim has this post up on the subject, why we need them and why the major media & buttmonkeys seem absolutely determined to destroy anyone who qualifies.

Now, I'm going to post the citation for the award of the Victoria Cross to Private Johnson Beharry:
"Private Beharry carried out two individual acts of great heroism by which he saved the lives of his comrades. Both were in direct face of the enemy, under intense fire, at great personal risk to himself (one leading to him sustaining very serious injuries). His valour is worthy of the highest recognition.

"In the early hours of the 1st May 2004 Beharry’s company was ordered to replenish an isolated Coalition Forces outpost located in the centre of the troubled city of Al Amarah. He was the driver of a platoon commander’s Warrior armoured fighting vehicle. His platoon was the company’s reserve force and was placed on immediate notice to move. As the main elements of his company were moving into the city to carry out the replenishment, they were re-tasked to fight through a series of enemy ambushes in order to extract a foot patrol that had become pinned down under sustained small arms and heavy machine gun fire and improvised explosive device and rocket-propelled grenade attack.

"Beharry’s platoon was tasked over the radio to come to the assistance of the remainder of the company, who were attempting to extract the isolated foot patrol. As his platoon passed a roundabout, en route to the pinned-down patrol, they became aware that the road to the front was empty of all civilians and traffic – an indicator of a potential ambush ahead. The platoon commander ordered the vehicle to halt, so that he could assess the situation. The vehicle was then immediately hit by multiple rocket-propelled grenades. Eyewitnesses report that the vehicle was engulfed in a number of violent explosions, which physically rocked the 30-tonne Warrior.

"As a result of this ferocious initial volley of fire, both the platoon commander and the vehicle’s gunner were incapacitated by concussion and other wounds, and a number of the soldiers in the rear of the vehicle were also wounded. Due to damage sustained in the blast to the vehicle’s radio systems, Beharry had no means of communication with either his turret crew or any of the other Warrior vehicles deployed around him. He did not know if his commander or crewmen were still alive, or how serious their injuries may be. In this confusing and dangerous situation, on his own initiative, he closed his driver’s hatch and moved forward through the ambush position to try to establish some form of communications, halting just short of a barricade placed across the road.

"The vehicle was hit again by sustained rocket-propelled grenade attack from insurgent fighters in the alleyways and on rooftops around his vehicle. Further damage to the Warrior from these explosions caused it to catch fire and fill rapidly with thick, noxious smoke. Beharry opened up his armoured hatch cover to clear his view and orientate himself to the situation. He still had no radio communications and was now acting on his own initiative, as the lead vehicle of a six Warrior convoy in an enemy-controlled area of the city at night. He assessed that his best course of action to save the lives of his crew was to push through, out of the ambush. He drove his Warrior directly through the barricade, not knowing if there were mines or improvised explosive devices placed there to destroy his vehicle. By doing this he was able to lead the remaining five Warriors behind him towards safety.

"As the smoke in his driver’s tunnel cleared, he was just able to make out the shape of another rocket- propelled grenade in flight heading directly towards him. He pulled the heavy armoured hatch down with one hand, whilst still controlling his vehicle with the other. However, the overpressure from the explosion of the rocket wrenched the hatch out of his grip, and the flames and force of the blast passed directly over him, down the driver’s tunnel, further wounding the semi-conscious gunner in the turret. The impact of this rocket destroyed Beharry’s armoured periscope, so he was forced to drive the vehicle through the remainder of the ambushed route, some 1500 metres long, with his hatch opened up and his head exposed to enemy fire, all the time with no communications with any other vehicle. During this long surge through the ambushes the vehicle was again struck by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. While his head remained out of the hatch, to enable him to see the route ahead, he was directly exposed to much of this fire, and was himself hit by a 7.62mm bullet, which penetrated his helmet and remained lodged on its inner surface.

"Despite this harrowing weight of incoming fire Beharry continued to push through the extended ambush, still leading his platoon until he broke clean. He then visually identified another Warrior from his company and followed it through the streets of Al Amarah to the outside of the Cimic House outpost, which was receiving small arms fire from the surrounding area. Once he had brought his vehicle to a halt outside, without thought for his own personal safety, he climbed onto the turret of the still-burning vehicle and, seemingly oblivious to the incoming enemy small arms fire, manhandled his wounded platoon commander out of the turret, off the vehicle and to the safety of a nearby Warrior. He then returned once again to his vehicle and again mounted the exposed turret to lift out the vehicle’s gunner and move him to a position of safety. Exposing himself yet again to enemy fire he returned to the rear of the burning vehicle to lead the disorientated and shocked dismounts and casualties to safety. Remounting his burning vehicle for the third time, he drove it through a complex chicane and into the security of the defended perimeter of the outpost, thus denying it to the enemy. Only at this stage did Beharry pull the fire extinguisher handles, immobilising the engine of the vehicle, dismounted and then moved himself into the relative safety of the back of another Warrior. Once inside Beharry collapsed from the sheer physical and mental exhaustion of his efforts and was subsequently himself evacuated.

"Having returned to duty following medical treatment, on the 11th June 2004 Beharry’s Warrior was part of a quick reaction force tasked to attempt to cut off a mortar team that had attacked a Coalition Force base in Al Amarah. As the lead vehicle of the platoon he was moving rapidly through the dark city streets towards the suspected firing point, when his vehicle was ambushed by the enemy from a series of rooftop positions. During this initial heavy weight of enemy fire, a rocket-propelled grenade detonated on the vehicle’s frontal armour, just six inches from Beharry’s head, resulting in a serious head injury. Other rockets struck the turret and sides of the vehicle, incapacitating his commander and injuring several of the crew.

"With the blood from his head injury obscuring his vision, Beharry managed to continue to control his vehicle, and forcefully reversed the Warrior out of the ambush area. The vehicle continued to move until it struck the wall of a nearby building and came to rest. Beharry then lost consciousness as a result of his wounds. By moving the vehicle out of the enemy’s chosen killing area he enabled other Warrior crews to be able to extract his crew from his vehicle, with a greatly reduced risk from incoming fire. Despite receiving a serious head injury, which later saw him being listed as very seriously injured and in a coma for some time, his level-headed actions in the face of heavy and accurate enemy fire at short range again almost certainly saved the lives of his crew and provided the conditions for their safe evacuation to medical treatment.

"Beharry displayed repeated extreme gallantry and unquestioned valour, despite intense direct attacks, personal injury and damage to his vehicle in the face of relentless enemy action."

I would think that anyone, in favor of or opposed to the war, would think that courage and determination like this should be noted. Except in England at the God-cursed chickenshit BBC:

For the BBC, however, his story is "too positive" about the conflict.

The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain's youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.

But what would they show? The Ministry of Defence recently expressed concern about Channel 4's The Mark of Cain which showed British troops brutalising Iraqi detainees. That programme was temporarily pulled from the schedules after Iran detained 15 British troops.

Like Instapundit once said, it's not a question of their patriotism; they're actually on the other side. So heroes are to be either ignored or, if possible, destroyed. And an awful lot of our media is following suit.

This is what murding jihadi fornicators of camels

really find after they die

My only comments about the Imus mess

First, "Imus? Who?" Never heard his show, remembered he's some radio show host in NYFC.

Second, nobody with a brain and/or balls would even consider offering an apology for 'racial insensitivity' to the 'reverends' Sharpton and Jackson. For more on Sharpton's lying, race-baiting career, see here. And Jessie 'hymietown' Jackson? The 'reverend' who was screwing women on the side, fathering a child by one and using company money to pay her off? These RWPP assholes demand apologies and ring-kissing? Bleah.

Third, the dumbass should have apologized to the team for making a stupid comment; I have to agree with Howard Stern who(I heard) said that Imus should have said "It was a joke. Screw you" to the above noted RWPPs, and never apologized to them. I think Imus is a standard shock-jock type from what I've heard; shock-jock said something offensive, this is a surprise?

Big friggin' mess(with media help, of course) that the above noted RWPP assholes are using to gain power and money. It's enough to make you start drinking.

I don't read Bill Whittle often enough,

especially since(in this case speaking of Rosie O'Donnell and other conspiracy idiots) he writes things like this:
"This is the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel," she said. This is a statement of such pristine and perfect idiocy that it surely must be emblazoned in stone across the entrance to the Physics Imbecile wing of the Moron Museum of Natural History. But mastery of physics and engineering requires some intelligence, some perseverance and some discipline: none of which are in evidence in this buffoon. Everything is a conspiracy to a mind this far gone. The 15 British sailors kidnapped at sea? All a plan by our evil (but incompetent!) government to get the next war it so desperately needs. “Gulf of Tonkin! Google It, people!” she said on national TV.

And I will, Rosie. I promise. As soon as I finish googling MAD COW DISEASE.

Hehehehehe.

I remember first hearing about this"A fire from an airplane couldn't melt the steel in the building!" crap from people who, for the most part, never tried working hot steel, let along melting(or burning, but that was an accident) it. Ignoring that tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel, burning in a smashed up building that's now acting as a chimney to an extent, probably could flat melt it, the fact is it doesn't have to. Which is what I explained to someone at the time.

Take a steel rod that you can't bend. Light a torch and heat part of the center to a low red heat and then try to bend it; chances are you can, more easily than you might think. Heat-treated steel, whether structural or in a blade or spring, starts losing strength as soon as the temperature is high enough to affect that heat treatment. Get a spring up to 500 to 600 degrees(depending on alloy and use) and it's lost its ability to be a spring; that heat is enough to remove the internal stresses that make it springy.

So if you have steel beams supporting a huge weight, both of building and wind load and etc., and get those beams hot, they don't have to melt; they get hot enough and they lose so much strength that they can't support everything anymore. Add that to the damage of having a freaking jetliner crash into the building...

Part of all this mess, as Mr. Whittle so well points out, is one simple, glaring fact: you cannot keep something that big a secret. Remember that old saying that "Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead"? But, according to these monster-level idiots like O'Donnell, hundreds- maybe even thousands- of people can keep anyone from finding any 'proof' that the gummint did it(let's not forget that among people like that, you'd damn sure find some who'd sell the story for enough money).

Oh, hell, just go read it; he covers it all very well.

I wrote a while back of the hostage situation

with the Brit Marines and sailors, and mentioned an old saying I'd heard: "Lions, being led by mice". Ran across this today from Michael Yon. Go read it. You really should.

Back? Here's what you usually have seen over the years from British military forces; competence and courage. Despite their government all too often screwing them over. Here, no air cover to both spot bad guys and suppress enemy fire from the rooftops. In the hostage incident, orders not to fire if attacked and, from the looks of it, insufficient training. The British Navy is about to have half of its ships trashed. In the past... remember early in the invasion when Brit troops had to borrow ammo, because they didn't have enough for a basic load?

Early on in this war there was an editorial in a British paper basically asking "Why is it that, despite the roadblocks put in his way, the squaddie delivers? We've sunk billions into education and the National Health System and we're getting trash back; the troops aren't paid enough and all too often don't have what they need and are looked down on by too many in the government, but they generally get the job done anyway." And they have, with a few exceptions.

And I don't doubt they'll continue. Unless the bastards like Blair & Co. finally screw them over so badly they either cannot fight, or they all stand up and say "Enough".

About those Carbine handloads

Thought I'd put up some more on them. The bullets were the Lyman 115-grain gas-check, cast of mongrel lead, sized to .309", lubed with Rooster Red and with a Hornady gas check on the base. I generally don't mess with a very specific alloy, as I cast for practice bullets and have always gotten the results I needed. If you're wanting to get the best possible accuracy from cast bullets you really ought to be fairly precise in the alloy you mix, especially if it's not in a gas-check design.

These were shot at 30 yards at an indoor range off a not-overly-steady rest, soon as weather and time allow I'll try the best at 50 & 100 yards. And use the chronograph to help get an estimate of the pressures.

I used 2400 powder for these. I like it because it works well in a number of handgun loads, it makes good light practice loads in .30-06, .30-30 and .308(I've used it for 7.5 Swiss, too), and it flows very smoothly through a powder measure(some, like Bullseye, can be something of a pain in the ass at times). All this means I can use it for a number of things, and I like a powder this versatile.*

DISCLAIMER: these loads worked for me, in my rifle, with these bullets/cases/primers: that doesn't mean they'll work as well for you. Start at the bottom and work your way up on powder charge, and don't yell at me if something doesn't work right.

I started at 11.0 grains























Not exactly breathtaking. Next load was a touch better at 11.2 grains, but I lost the damn target; so the next picture is 11.4:























Much better. Next up was 11.6:



















Just about identical results. So the last was 11.8. Remember I mentioned that a very slight change can make a big difference?























Opened up quite a bit.

I stopped there because the manual showed 12.0 grains as the max. Since these are intended as practice ammo I'm not worried about maximum possible velocity, just good accuracy and reliable function. These loads all cycled the action without fail, and two gave very promising accuracy, so I've got something good to work from.

What I'll do next is load up more of the 11.4 and 11.6 to try out from a solid rest at longer range. I've also got a box of Speer 110-grain hollowpoints to work with. I'd like to have some accurate soft/hollowpoint loads for this, and since Remington and Winchester run about $25-35/box of 50, and Federal about $15-18/box of 20...

As to the cast bullets: yeah, there's still a lot of milsurp 110-grain ball available for good prices, and I've got some. And commercial, too. I just like being able to make my own.


*I wish some of the manufacturers would make powders available, at least some of them, in 4 oz. bottles, so you could try a new one without having to buy a full pound. Or more: VihtaVuori starts in 2lb. bottles.

Sometimes you know the kids listened

Seen the trailer for Grindhouse? Including Rose McGowan with an M16 stuck on her stump? My daughter reported this conversation with a friend while watching it:
Friend: That gun on her leg is cool.
Daughter: But every time she takes a step she'll plug up the muzzle!
Friend: Shut up.

Just a tiny bit of powder

can make a big difference in a load. Black powder, generally speaking, isn't quite as touchy on small differences in a load(a grain or less). But with smokeless propellant, in a lot of firearms, just a fraction of a grain can make a big difference in accuracy.

Case in point: once worked up a load for .303 British using Hornady 150-grain softpoints. Started at the low end of the load range using IMR4064 powder, and got about 3" groups at 100 yards. Upped it by a half-grain, and a little better. At one grain higher the groups shrunk to 1.5-2" at that range. That last was close to two grains below the suggested maximum, and gave by far the best accuracy with that powder/bullet combination.

Went to the range tonight to try out a couple of things, one of them being a cast bullet load for the M1 Carbine. Again, started at the low end, went up by .2 grain increments. The first two gave about 2" groups at 30 yards; up it another .2 grain and I got one big ragged hole with one about a half-inch outside that. Another .2 grain, the same. Add .2 more and it opened back up to about 2". Guess which I'll be trying out at longer ranges?

Cases, powders, primers, bullets; they're all different. Usually. I've got an old 8mm Mauser I've mentioned before that doesn't shoot badly with any load I've tried, but with the one it really likes I consistently get 1" groups at 100. I've fired others that would only shoot well with certain loads; get just a little outside the parameters they liked and it started patterning instead of grouping.

There are times I think Kim is right to call handloading 'alchemy'; there've been times I'd swear that breathing the right way or muttering under your breath(in the right frame of mind, of course) made a difference in how a load worked out.

For more on Giuliani the Vote-Sucker,

read this piece, found thanks to Uncle.

Giuliani explained the rationale for the lawsuit during a June 2000 radio show: "We are dealing with a problem that is foisted on the city by the rest of the country 95 percent of the guns in New York City can be traced to someplace outside the city A lot of the problems in New York City are caused by very, very lax regulations outside the city." So much for letting each city or state go its own way on gun control.

Oh, yeah, ol' Rudy is a real, true friend of gun owners.

In a pigs ass.

I don't care how much Hannity and some others make excuses for him, Giuliani will not get my vote.

Remember, April 15 is BAG Day

As in 'Buy A Gun Day'. Pellet/BB guns and up, with more points if you buy something that makes Schumer/Pelosi & Co. wet their pants or have a stroke.

Preferably both.

I was reminded of this Holy Day by Cowboy Blob, weasel-wrangler extraordinaire. Who has a rundown of what various nice people are getting/have bought/planning for.

Added: and Uncle has this

And let due note be taken: Marooned had note of it, too

I hate to say this on such a holiday, Updated

but I am freakin' sick to death of these people.

While back it was the GFWs who wanted the rifle taken out of the hands of the Minuteman in MA. Now, it's a bunch of GFWs and 'we don't like the military' types who think a statue honoring a fallen American SEAL is a bad thing- especially anywhere kids will see it- because some neighbors are concerned about the children who will walk by it because Dietz is holding his automatic rifle in the statue. One of the neighbors would not go on camera, but sent an statement saying, "We encourage the community to carefully consider the appropriateness of the proposed location. This has been, and will remain our sole intent."

God, no, can't have that. Can't have a statue of an honest-to-God hero where kids might see it and consider his courage, his devotion to duty; they might come to think of him as a good man, and his actions as a good thing, and that would be flat disgusting, wouldn't it?

And for further roundup of this crap, go here:
"If I've got my 4-year-old at the playground, I feel it would be a threatening image that would frighten her," Fuchs said.

She said the ideal solution would be to place the statue at another location, but Dietz's family disagrees.

Got news for you, you idiot: the only reason your kid would see this as a 'threatening image' is because you taught her not to trust our troops, and taught her to be scared of firearms. If your kid asked about the statue and you said it was to honor a man who died fighting for his country, for her freedom, she wouldn't feel threatened at all; but you wouldn't want her to feel unthreatened by him, would you? Clowns like you are so busy blaming objects for what people do, and trashing our troops whenever possible, you've got to make sure your kids are scared of guns and contemptuous toward those in uniform. Because if they actually consider that there are people out there who'll fight like hell for, and if necessary give their lives for this country, they might think this country is actually worth defending. And that there might actually be good uses for arms. And then where would we be?

A hell of a lot better off, you sorry bitch.

Update: I just cannot stand this shit:
"We're not trying to hit kids over the head with this; we want them to have fun. We also want to bring attention to the fact that our munitions cause a lot of death and destruction to civilians, especially children."

Oh, no, not trying to hit the kids over the head at all.
Lying, sorry sack of dog crap.

At a "teach-in" yesterday at a Northwest Washington community center, Hennessey and others helped the children fashion the fake bombs, using balloons, tennis balls and brightly colored clay. The adults told the children they could write their names on the "bombs" and take them home after Monday's event. And they tried to explain what the concerns were all about.

"In these countries far away from here, kids find them and they look just like toys," said Radia Daoussi, a Vineeta worker, holding up a ball covered in swirls of orange, blue and yellow clay. "If you saw this, wouldn't you want to pick it up and play with it?"

!!*&#^%$#(****

Attention, useful-idiot surrenderpeace activists: cluster bomb submunitions tend to look something like this:
















They DO NOT! look like a fucking toy ball. OUR military does NOT do things like make bombs that look like toys so they'll kill or maim children. It was your socialist cohorts the Soviet Union that did that, in Afghanistan for instance.

If I were an atheist, with absolutely no religious beliefs at all, I'd still have to ask the Almighty for forgiveness for having the thoughts I am right now, on such a day as this, about these, people.