Friday, April 18, 2008

Magazine safeties

Personally, I don't like them. They're basically an 'answer' to bad training: people not learning to check the chamber of a semi-auto after they drop the magazine. What brought this to mind was Sebastian linked to this article:
The officer was struck with the bat as he walked out of his office and fell backward in a daze, Dyer said.

As the officer tried to draw his firearm, the weapon's magazine clattered to the floor, Dyer said.

The student with the bat approached the officer again, the chief said, prompting the officer to reach for a second firearm attached to his ankle.

The student- who happened to be 6'1" and 250 pounds- was hit once and died at the scene. This kind of thing is one reason I do NOT want one on any pistol I own, especially a self-defense piece: stunned and desperate the officer either accidentally hit the mag release or, in drawing, banged it against the holster or belt(I'm guessing), leaving him holding a pistol that was now a very short club. Any argument about what would have happened if he hadn't had a backup piece?

I read an article a couple of years ago that was basically officers saying they loved the things, because in a couple of cases, when a bad guy wrestled the officers gun away, he was able to hit the release before losing it, thus leaving the bad guy unable to use the gun on the officer before he could flee or get to a backup. Yeah, it can work, but I'd hate to have to trust in it.


By the way, 'flee' is not a shot at the cop: to paraphrase Matt Helm, if the bad guy has a gun and you don't, the best option is to put a solid object between you and him and run like hell.

Got a response from Wal-Mart

After reading about the "Let's suck up to Bloomberg and his friends, and screw the customers" nonsense from Wally World(Sebastian has a lot on it), I decided to write. I was polite, but did tell them that that's what I thought this was: trying to buy favor from politicians by selling out customers. And I just got what seems to be the canned response they've put together:
Wal-Mart understands its role as a leading, responsible retailer in the U.S. and is making strides to strengthen its already existing security processes to help combat illegal gun activity in the communities we serve. Wal-Mart has a long and proud history of offering the products hunters and outdoorsmen want and need and that will not change.

It is important to note that these procedures should not impede law-abiding citizens from purchasing firearms at our stores that sell them. These processes merely provide us, as a retailer, an additional mechanism to assist law enforcement when illegal activity occurs.

We are hopeful these enhanced processes  with help from law enforcement and other retailers committing to do the same  can make a positive difference in our communities.

So the Wal-Mart response is "If you're an HONEST citizen, you won't mind us giving your information to a private group. And if you Do object, you don't want us to help law enforcement out." Just bloody wonderful.

And I like the "...with help from law enforcement and other retailers committing to do the same..." I wonder just how many 'other retailers' they're figuring on rolling over for Bloomberg?

Speaking of politicians, have you noticed how Hillary

changes her accent according to the audience or whatever group she's sucking up to at the moment?

She's kind of like some actors, you wonder just how much of her is still connected to her, as opposed to the characters she plays.

Speaking of the UN and other useless pimples

on the backside of humanity, some people are trying to do something about Jimmy Carter:
Congressman Joe Knollenberg (MI-09) today introduced legislation that would prevent the federal government from giving taxpayer money to the Carter Center, headed by former President Jimmy Carter.

“America must speak with one voice against our terrorist enemies,” Knollenberg said. “It sends a fundamentally troubling message when an American dignitary is engaged in dialogue with terrorists. My legislation will make sure that taxpayer dollars are not being used to support discussions or negotiations with terrorist groups.”

and

A North Carolina Republican member of Congress is calling for the State Department to revoke the passport of former President Jimmy Carter, who’s been meeting, against the wishes of the U.S. Government, with representatives of the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

He and his idiot wife must be chewing rebar after hearing about these.

Well, damn, who'd have thought that?

UN-effective against bandits in Darfur:

“Attacks on the WFP food pipeline are an attack on the most vulnerable people in Darfur. With up to three million people depending on us for their survival in the upcoming rainy season, keeping WFP’s supply line open is a matter of life and death. We call on all parties to protect the access to food,” said Josette Sheeran, WFP’s Executive Director.

At this time of year, WFP-contracted trucks should be delivering 1,800 metric tons of food daily to Darfur to supply warehouses ahead of the rainy season, due to begin next month. But deliveries have dropped to less than 900 tons per day.

I realize that I'm just a dumb semi-redneck, but wouldn't you think that, with all those 'peacekeepers' available(come on, SOME of them must not be tied up in porn rings or brothel management) they'd be able to scrape up some people who know how to shoot, and some of those pretty blue vehicles, to guard the food shipments?

Of course, that would probably be considered as 'inconsiderate of the customs of the local bandit and slavers', so that would be a non-starter at Turtle Bay.

I was looking at the Surefire website and found

this:

No BAG Day buy for me

The only thing I really wanted to get was one of the S&W 1911PD pistols. Which are so shiny, and pretty, and shoot so nicely. But I couldn't even convince myself that I needed to lay out that much money right now for such, so...

What I did do was make a new degreasing trough. I wrote before about using a piece of PVC pipe for degreasing. And I tried a wallpaper tray. Later, I tried taking a piece of vinyl guttering, putting a cap on each end and using that: you can lay a barreled action in it, pour in mineral spirits and start brushing. This worked pretty well, but it was too short for many stocks to fit into. And I had a stock to clean: my 1903A3 Springfield. I'd done a lot of degreasing on the stock when I got it, but when I took it to the range a few days ago I noticed that, as it got hot(shooting and sun) some grease was still bleeding out. Back when I first cleaned this the weather wasn't too comfortable to stand out in and the wallpaper tray wouldn't hold it all: and, while I'd planned on taking the wood down for a more thorough cleaning in summer, for some reason didn't get it done. So now I needed to get the rest of the stuff out. I hadn't been too happy with the guttering: it was a bit narrow and the shape wasn't too stable, but I still had a section of it so I headed to Lowe's to get a pair of end caps to make a longer tray. It turned out they didn't have the same type guttering, so no caps: they did have some guttering that was a simple flat-bottom shape, wider and more stable than the other. So I got a piece of it, two caps and- just to make it more stable- a pair of the 'heavy-use' supports; they snap around the gutter to keep it from spreading when filled. They also give it more support, when set on a bench or whatever, to keep it from tipping.

Here's the trough sitting on the ironing table I use for this:
Yes, that's a different stock, I forgot to take a picture of the A3 in there. But I did make the trough long enough for the A3 to fit in, which it did. As I mentioned, the shape is much better for the purpose; it'd be better were it an inch wider, but unless I make something purpose-built this is what I've got. For now, anyway. The end-caps have a rubber seal in them that, I was surprised to find, did a very good job of sealing in the mineral spirits with no leaks. Later on I'll take some suitable caulking or epoxy and permanently seal the seams. Which I should have done now, but I tried it with just a little of the spirits and no leaks, and I wanted to get this done that day, so...

This stuff worked very well for the purpose. To really do it right, I need to put a drain valve in one end to make it easier to put the spirits back in the jug. I guess hit the plumbing section next time I'm at the store.

I feel like a roundup today,

partly because there's so much going on, and partly because- despite having a few days off- I've done little the past few days but clean in the house and work in the yard & garden and start refinishing a couple of stocks.

First off, no, I did not watch the debate between the Obamessiah and The Hillary(I think I mentioned once I detest these things). I have been hearing the fallout from it, especially Obama trying to make his contacts with terrorist Bill Ayers 'no big deal'. Personally, I think that's bullcrap, based on what I've read. You want to read all about it, just look around; you can start here. One of the things I ran across that I think points out just where Obama wants to go is this from the Volokh piece on the group Obama and Ayers were on the board of:
This new Fund focused on welfare reform, affordable housing, the quality of public schools, race and class disparities in the juvenile justice system, and tax policy as a tool in reducing poverty. The Fund supported the concept of an expanding welfare state allocating ever-increasing amounts of money to the public school system, and the redistribution of wealth via taxes.
Encouraging, isn't it?

Murtha has been, is, and will be a dirtbag. Who refuses to even speak with troops.

The mess over the group in Texas is, well, a mess. And I don't think it's going to clean up any time soon.

Kim has been posting peoples' BAG Day buys. Lots and lots of boomy goodness going to new homes out there.

As they note at Ace, Obama & Co. just seem to be really comfortable with endorsements from terrorists.

Ah, the benefits of our Great Institutions of Higher Learning. And the moonbats who attend.

And that's enough of this for the morning.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Considering the weather lately,

and that we just had what should be the last frost in this area(I hope), I tend to agree:

Stolen without compunction from Denny

Notes from the range

Two M44 rifles. One was hitting way to the left, until it was tried with the bayonet extended: then it was dead-on. Heard of it, first time I've seen it. The other one, the bayonet position made no difference.

Trying to get accuracy with ANYTHING when the wind is 25-30, gusting to 45, is a losing game. For the most part. I got a five-shot group from the Martini that spanned 1.5" at 100 yards, then the wind came back up and the group went to hell.

There's some Czech 7.62x25mm ammo available now, comes in a box of 40 on 8-round chargers(for loading subgun magazines, I guess). I picked up a couple of boxes at the last gun show to try and fired a box of it today. Clean, shiny ammo, all went 'bang' and fed & ejected properly, and accuracy seemed to be equal to anything else I've fired in the Tokarev. One odd thing about it: it's berdan primed, but where everything else of the type I've seen has two tiny flash holes, one on each side of the anvil, these have one. But it works.

Steve mentioned he's considering using some Colibri ammo in his .22 if the squirrels go after his tomatoes. If you've never tried this stuff, it's worth messing with. It fits any .22 long rifle chamber, and has no powder: primer only. They have two, Colibri and Super Colibri, the latter having a bit more priming compound. Neither will work a semi-auto action. They shoot out of all handguns I've tried, but the bullet won't make it out of the barrel of some rifles. But in the ones it works in... I've got a Remington bolt-action out of which the Super gives minute-of-squirrel-head accuracy to 20-25 yards, and when you pull the trigger all you hear is the 'click' of the firing pin falling; it makes a pellet rifle sound loud in comparison.

This was the first time I've been to this range in quite a while, and I picked up a BUNCH of Lake City .30-06 brass. And some Federal .308. All in the tumbler now.

When I say it was windy, I had to keep my muffs on just to keep my hat from blowing off. And while walking into the wind to set up targets, twice a gust damn near took them both off.

The more I shoot the TT33, the more I like it. The one problem I have is the grip angle: it's a bit closer to vertical than the 1911, and it makes me shoot low if I don't watch it. With good hollowpoints, I think this would be a nasty self-defense round: something like a Gold Dot at 1500fps, damn.

Got a question: the .30 Mauser and 7.62x25 cartridges are almost identical. Can dies for .30 Mauser be used to reload the 7.62? Anybody know?

Oh Lord, look at this! It's freaking amazing what people will do because 'somebody at the range told me'. And remember, kids, booze and boomsticks do NOT go well together*.

And it's not range-related, but a thought occurs: Obamas' latest bit of bullcrap pretty much sounds like "I will be the government: and I will savehelp you. Whether you want me to or not. Because I know better than you."

To go with Absolut Idiocy


Thanks to Theo

Monday, April 14, 2008

If I hadn't thought MADD had already fallen over the edge,

Rustmeister brings us this:
But Lightner was disgusted that our fighting men and women would have the audacity to imbibe. She ranted that 18-year-olds haven't "developed, and that's exactly why the draft age is 18, because these kids are malleable." She added: "They will follow the leader, they don't think for themselves, and they are the last ones I want to say, 'Here's a gun, and here's a beer.' They are not adult—that's why they're in the military. They are not adults."
***?
What the hell is wrong with this woman? "They are not adult- that's why they're in the military."??? This woman is out of her frakkin' mind! Rusty's wish* may seem a touch over the top, but... nah, it's not.


*I wish she'd go get a sex change, so I could kick her in the nuts.

Og wrote about a rainy night

and it reminded me of one about ten years ago.

I'd been down in Fort Worth visiting friends, and started back on Sunday evening with storms between me and home. Got to a little south of the border before I ran into them: strong, gusting winds, heavy rain, lots of lightning, the only thing missing was hail. I kept going and about the time I passed Ardmore I hit the big one. Rain was pouring and blowing so hard I finally couldn't see the lines on the road and decided to pull over for a bit.

There were headlights behind me and apparently my worries about them running into me were not needed, as they- keeping their distance- followed me onto the shoulder and stopped. I sat there about five minutes trying different radio stations with no luck, there was so much lightning so close that both AM and FM stations were nothing but static.

Finally the rain eased enough I could see a bit, and since the storm seemed to be moving more east than north I decided to get moving and try to get out from under this cell. I got up to a whole 25-30 mph when a gust hit me so hard it shoved me onto the shoulder. Where I stopped while A: saying some words and B: being glad I wasn't in the ditch. The rain and lightning eased up a bit and I got moving. Radio reception was much better though in normal conditions would still have been classed as 'lousy', and another storm alert came on: radar indicated a tornado X miles north of Ardmore, 'just crossed I-35 heading east'.

I looked at the odometer, said a couple of very rude things, and wondered whether it had been in front of me, behind me or off the ground.

Rainy nights like that I can live without, thank you kindly.

There are good, honest lawyers out there,

and then there are all the rest.
An innocent man was behind bars. His name was Alton Logan. He did not kill a security guard in a McDonald's restaurant in January 1982.

"In fact," the document said, "another person was responsible."

They knew, because Andrew Wilson told them: He did it.

But that was the catch.

Lawyer-client privilege is not complete; most states allow attorneys to reveal confidences to prevent a death, serious bodily harm or criminal fraud. But this case didn't offer that kind of exception.

So when Andrew Wilson told his lawyers that he, and not Alton Logan, had killed the guard, they felt powerless — aware of information that could free a man they believed to be innocent, but unable to do anything with that knowledge. And for decades, they said nothing...


Go ahead, read all of it. I swear, this society lost something when we got rid of the whipping post in the town square. Because, after being disbarred, these dirtbags should be strung up to it and gone after with a flagrum.

Now the lawyers had two big worries: Another killing might be tied to their client, and "an innocent man had been charged with his murder and was very likely ... to get the death penalty," Kunz says.

But bound by legal ethics, they kept quiet.

'Legal Ethics' my ass. And here's why the legal profession tends to be regarded as lower than some useful profession like pond scum:
Kunz says he mentioned the case dozens of times over the years to lawyers, never divulging names but explaining that he knew a guy serving a life sentence for a crime committed by one of his clients.

There's nothing you can do, he was told. [emphasis mine]

So these members of the bar described the problem to a bunch of other noble members of the bar, and they all said "Gee, that's bad, but don't do anything to help the innocent guy."

Kunz says he knows some people might find his actions outrageous. His obligation, though, was to Andrew Wilson.

"If I had ratted him out ... then I could feel guilty, then I could not live with myself," he says. "I'm anguished and always have been over the sad injustice of Alton Logan's conviction. Should I do the right thing by Alton Logan and put my client's neck in the noose or not? It's clear where my responsibility lies and my responsibility lies with my client..."


You know, I thought lawyers were supposed to have some small regard for those concepts of Truth and Justice, but apparently I was wrong: their 'ethics' override all.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

"We'll tax EVERYTHING, and it IS for your own good

after all.
The San Jose Democrat on Thursday proposed raising the beer tax by $1.80 per six-pack, or 30 cents per can or bottle. The current tax is 2 cents per can. That's an increase of about 1,500 percent.
That's one hell of a jump.
Beall said the tax would generate $2 billion a year to fund health care services, crime prevention and programs to prevent underage drinking and addiction.

"The people who use alcohol should pay for part of the cost to society, just like we've accepted that concept with tobacco," Beall said.

Yep. Had a beer the other day, God knows what damage that did to Society.

Mike Fox Sr., chairman of San Jose-based beer distributor M.E. Fox & Co., said Beall's heart is in the right place. "He's very dedicated in areas of looting every pocket in reachhealth," Fox said. "But a tax of that nature is far too grievous. The beer industry produces so much for the economy. He won't get to first base with that."

"It'll piss off too many people. And we won't be able to make them mad at someone else for it."

And here's just about the prize moment in this:
Beall said he's targeting beer because his research showed that California undertaxes brew relative to other states, which he said isn't the case with wine and spirits.
"Damn, we're not taxing this as much as those other states! That's a Bad Thing! We've got to raise taxes on it RIGHT NOW!"

Because You have to be taxed just like everywhere else; unless they're taxed less, of course.

About two years ago I had an argument with a friend about Iran

being involved in Iraq. She insisted that was BS, that the Iranians had nothing to do with smuggling weapons and troops across the borders. Never mind the evidence, it just wasn't happening. Which wasn't a big jump for her, as a bunch of people have spent a lot of time and breath saying the Iranians had no involvement.
After more than a week of fighting, the Iraqis forced the Quds commanders to call for a cease-fire through Sadr. The Iraqi commander agreed - provided that the Quds force directly guaranteed it. To highlight Iran's role in the episode, he insisted that the Quds force dispatch a senior commander to finalize the accord.

The Iran-backed side lost more than 600 men, with more than 1,000 injured. The ISF lost 88 dead and 122 wounded.

Some analysts suggest this was the first war between new Iraq and the Islamic Republic. If so, the Iraqis won.

I doubt if she'll believe any of this, either. Or this part:
Only a year ago, the ISF had been unable to provide three brigades (some 9,000 men) to help the US-led "surge" restore security in Baghdad. This time, the ISF had no difficulty deploying 15 brigades (30,000 men) for the battle of Basra.

Led by Gen. Mohan al-Freiji, the Iraqi force sent to Basra was the largest that the ISF had put together since its creation five years ago. This was the first time that the ISF was in charge of a major operation from start to finish and was fighting a large, well-armed adversary without US advisers.

All you 'Firefly' fans

ought to take a look at this: a demonstration of nutcase-level 'feminism' in full cry.
I have become increasingly interested in examining Joss Whedon’s work from a feminist perspective since I had a conversation with another lesbian feminist sister at the International Feminist Summit about whether Joss was a feminist. I am really quite shocked by how readily Joss is accepted as a feminist, and that his works are widely considered to be feminist. I decided to start re-watching Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and also to watch Firefly and the movie Serenity.

I have to say that now that I have subjected myself to the horror that is Firefly, I really am beyond worried about how much men hate us, given that this was written by a man who calls himself a feminist.

And it just gets more freakin' insanebetter as you go.