So the greens want us to freeze in the dark and have nothing left

to throw on the fire for heat.
"We are constantly battling against increases of wealth... There's a very fundamental problem here that no one really wants to talk about."

Stuart Bond of WWF told the Beeb: "Our claims on emissions are simply a big lie.

"There is no way the government can hope to achieve any of its emissions targets without cheating unless it changes its policies on encouraging flying and hoping to satisfy people's insatiable demands for buying more and more stuff."
Put in plain language: "We want you to not be able to buy things just because you want them, we want you to be poor. Because poor people tend to be easier to control, and we need to control what you buy and what you do."

As to how that should be done, Bond was reluctant to give specifics(gee, I wonder why?). But he said there was a need for a "strategic plan to set out very clearly how the UK will become a low carbon economy by 2050... at the moment there is no central priority for environmental issues. Consumers' consumption of goods is the driver of emissions. The continued pursuit of GDP, of economic growth - that is a mantra that we must question."
"All you damn peasants, stop buying and making things! We mean it!"
"We need to live within 450ppm CO2," he went on. "That's going to mean a very large cut - 80, 90 per cent - in emissions, within 40 years. We need to increase energy efficiency, sure, but it won't do to just put in a few energy-saving light bulbs. We need to think bigger."
"You need to make do with less, because we say so! It's all to make Mother Gaia smile upon us, so do what you're told!"
Bond also considered it essential that limited wealth and resources be distributed more equitably around the world.
Now, why isn't that a surprise, after the 'central priority', i.e. Central Planning, comment?
"We need to make this work for all," he said, "not just the privileged in developed countries."
"It's not enough to keep third world peoples living in dung huts and cutting wood to cook with; we ALL(except us elites who need modern stuff to keep you in line) need to be living like it's 1599. Maybe 14."

Asked if this wasn't, in the end, going to mean a fairly hair-shirt lifestyle for us Brits - no cars, no tumble dryers, fewer showers and iPods and so on - Bond said that "economic wealth isn't the same as happiness or directly linked to quality of life ... It's about a quantity lifestyle - more and more stuff - versus quality".
"We say you will be happy peasants, living in your eco-villages. You WILL be happier without all those electric conveniences and power tools and such(and a lot easier to control, but let's not mention that for now), just like the piss-poor nativesGaia-friendly peoples in third world countries are with their dirty water and smoke-filled huts. We SAY you will be; so let it be written, so let it be done!"

Bond was also sceptical about the chances of a technological solution appearing - for instance nuclear-fusion power, so far harnessed only in the form of H-Bombs. Working fusion reactors, if they could be built, might offer abundant and effectively inexhaustible energy without carbon emissions.

"The idea of a technological fix is one we should be cautious about," he said. "So often there are unintended consequences or trade-offs. Look at the 'paperless office' - there's now more paper, not less. Look at biofuels. I'd be wary of believing that a technology solution will arrive in time.
"Dammit, stop looking for actual working ways to produce abundant, cost-efficient energy! WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO HAVE THAT, don't you understand?"

And take note of this at the bottom about the 'government and campaign group WWF:
*The one-time World Wildlife Fund, set up in the Sixties to protect endangered species. Nowadays it has widened its remit considerably, and like the multinational arms goliath BAE says that its title letters no longer refer to specific words.
Hmmm, I wonder if they're still raising money as the World Wildlife Fund? This is the group that, back in the late 60's/early 70's commissioned a study to show how endgangered the leopard was in Africa so they could use that information to raise more money. The study came back saying the leopard, in sub-saharan Africa was nowhere near endangered, and some regions had so many they were a pest. So the WWF tried to completely bury the study while they went on pleading for money to 'save the leopard'. Seems they've decided to more openly declare themselves watermelons, now.

Since I touched on the problem of idiot judges the other day,

let's take a look at this out of New Jersey:
"If I had one message to give you today, it is that it is not your job to weigh the parties' rights as you might inclined to do as having been private practitioners. Your job is not to become concerned about the constitutional rights of the man that you're violating as you grant a restraining order. Throw him out on the street, give him the clothes on his back and tell him, see ya around. Your job is to be the wall between the two people that are fighting each other and that's how you can rationalize it. Because that's what the statute says. The statute says there is something called domestic violence and it says that it is an evil in our society.

- Judge Richard Russell, Ocean City, New Jersey
And this piece of judicial crap trains new judges.

Rope, lamppost, jurist...

And the Evil Party's candidate for Senate

doesn't exactly shine in the primary election:
Editorial/The Oklahoman ~ Politicians caught in an indiscretion are said to have some 'splainin' to do. Front-runners who fail to dominate their primary election have some catchin' up to do.

Andrew Rice has some 'splainin' and catchin' up to do.

Rice, the state senator from Oklahoma City, should have walloped his no-name opponent in Tuesday's Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat. Instead, the opponent got 40 percent of the vote. Worse, Rice lost 19 counties and came close to losing a half dozen others. Even worse, most of these counties are Democratic strongholds.
This reminds me of Mike Synar, who was rep. for an eastern OK district for several years; he became so tied up in "I'll do what the national Party says, not what you voters want" that he was beat in the primary by a guy who spent his campaign budget handing out cards saying "I'm not Mike Synar".

Probably didn't help that Rice has played Obama on the 2nd Amendment:
Senate candidate Andrew Rice's embrace of today's U. S. Supreme Court ruling on the 2nd Amendment begs the question: How will his liberal buddies, including Kurt Hochenauer, the "Doc Hoc" of the liberal blog Okie Funk, react since Hochenauer is an avowed firearms opponent? (Pictured: Rice and Hochenauer.)

The Daily Kos is another huge Rice fan that regularly rails against the private ownership of firearms and supports gun control efforts.

Oklahoma City radio and television personality Ron Black, honored by the Oklahoma Rifle Association last year for his outspoken defense of the 2nd Amendment, said today, "Senator Andrew Rice supports the right to keep and bear arms about like Harry Reid supports drilling in ANWR. Rice is correct about how Oklahomans feel about the 2nd Amendment, but we also know a poser when we see one."

Others weighed in today after seeing Rice's comments posted here.

"Isn't this the guy who bragged about helping stop concealed carry on campus?" asked one writer.

"Isn't this a guy with a goober rating from the NRA?" asked another. (If a rating of "?" equals "goober," that might be the case. Here's how the NRA's Institute of Legislative Action describes the rating it gave State Senate candidate Rice in 2006: "Failed to answer NRA-PVF candidate questionnaire, often an indication of indifference, if not outright hostility, to gun owners' and sportsmen's rights.")

I'm tempted to say that Inhofe is probably pretty safe in the seat.

Another Microlon tryout

This time on the truck. After I treated the bike a couple of years ago, it steadied down to a stable two miles-per-gallon gain and has kept with that ever since*. So I finally decided to use it on the truck, and ordered a standard kit for my engine size. Changed the oil & filter last week, and treated the engine Tuesday, which was the first chance I had to do it.

'Chance to do it' because, immediately after putting it in, you need to drive. I'd originally planned to do it Friday, because I'd planned to head down to Texas to visit friends; schedule went to hell at work and that went out the window, so, not knowing when I would be able to make the trip, went ahead and did it.

The treatment is simple: shake the hell out of the stuff, put the gas treatment can in the tank, then add the main can to the crankcase, then drive. Best method is to use a funnel to add it through the dipstick tube while the engine is running, other is to dump it in the oil filler port and immediately start the engine. I'd planned to put it in the dipstick tube since, when I got a funnel for adding oil a while back, I got one that had a detachable extension for adding transmission fluid, etc., that would work perfectly. Except(you know what's coming, don't you?) that, despite having put the @_!*#^& extension where it wouldn't get lost, it wasn't there. Or anywhere else. So after ten minutes of asking the dog, the air and deity "WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!?", I gave up and used the other method. The engine was warmed up from running to the post office, so shook the stuff up, poured it in and immediately started up, then started driving.

I have to note, did the gas treatment a bit differently from the instructions. The sheet said to add it to "1/4 tank or less" so it gets sucked into the top end during the driving. Well, the instructions also said to drive at least 100 miles. My truck currently gets about 25-28 mpg highway, which means 1/4 tank would end the trip with me pulling out a gas can to get started again, so I started with a little over, six gallons or(I think) a bit less, drove a bit over 100 miles for the initial treatment, then continued to drive over the last couple of days to run the gas as low as I dared( I HATE running out of gas) to get as much of it through as possible. I tanked up this morning; the book says it's a 16-gallon tank and it took 15.25 gallons, so I think that should do it(I've never let it get nearly that low before).

So now it's use the tripmeter to keep track of mileage for the next while, and see how much/if it helps. I think it will, definitely did on the bike, and an extra 2mpg would be very nice right now.

Every once in a while I find a link to or just go by Balko's site,

and it usually turns up some things that really, REALLY piss me off, generally on matters of our minions of law enforcement and judges doing stupid and/or illegal and/or really useless crap. To wit:
TSA confiscating non-dangerous items because 'somebody might THINK it's dangerous.
'Consent' searches that usually turn up nothing except a disgusted/pissed off/discouraged citizen.
Judges being taught to help prosecutors in DUI cases.
Cops getting merit badges for a wrong-address raid.

TSA has developed a well-earned reputation for security theater, along with abusing their authority. Hell, for writing about this crap I may find myself on a list if I have to fly somewhere.

I've had a problem with 'consent searches' for a long time. An officer can make you sit at the side of the road for an unset period of time("I can require you to wait here until I can get a drug dog here to sniff your car, wouldn't it be simpler to just let me search?"), and they can be very heavy-handed in pressuring someone to say yes. Which leaves, in the case of a family, having to explain to the kids why they're supposed to have respect for the badge-wearer who just threatened their father or mother into letting them dig through the car.

Judges are supposed to be disinterested, not advocates. They're not supposed to be worried about 'establishing a tone', they're supposed to be concerned with the law. Period. But, as Steve once said, they're just lawyers; why would you think putting them in a black robe would make them a modern Solomon?

As to the last, any time it can be shown that a raid was launched on a wrong address, or on bad information, and the officers did not do something like, you know, investigate before strapping on the armor and subguns and heading in with the door-breaking tools, the officers should be financially liable for the damage they do, and prosecutable for harm done to the people involved. The judge who signed the no-knock warrant should prosecute the officers who asked for it if he finds out they lied, and if the judge knew it was bullcrap and signed the warrant anyway then he should be disbarred and, if possible, prosecuted.

Yeah, some of this would make the job harder for law enforcement. Right now, I don't care about that anymore. I'm sick of hearing about people's homes damaged and people hurt and dogs killed because of bullcrap raids, and the officers being patted on the head and excused no matter how badly they screwed up. Good cops are one of the blessings in life; bad ones are a curse.

I'd like to know the reason for shooting the dogs

in this case, and a lot of others. Dog is actually attacking you, no problem; dog is hiding under something or running away, big damn problem.

There's plenty to bitch about in this case: unnecessary use of the doorkickers, basically making a point of not letting the local cops know what you're doing, etc. Right now I'm thinking about the single point
As the police came in, Calvo said, they shot his 7-year-old black Labrador retriever, Payton, near the front door and then his 4-year-old dog, Chase, also a black Lab, as the dog ran into a back room. Walking through his house yesterday, Calvo pointed out a bullet hole in the drywall where the younger dog had been shot.

Why? Why the dogs if they're not a threat? Why crap like this
But for all that, the image that sticks in your head, as described by John Dougherty in the alternative weekly Phoenix New Times, is that of a puppy trying to escape the fire and a SWAT officer chasing him back into the burning building with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog burned to death.

In a massive 1998 raid at a San Francisco housing co-op, cops shot a family dog in front of its family, then dragged it outside and shot it again.

When police in Fremont, California, raided the home of medical marijuana patient Robert Filgo, they shot his pet Akita nine times. Filgo himself was never charged.

Last October police in Alabama raided a home on suspicion of marijuana possession, shot and killed both family dogs, then joked about the kill in front of the family. They seized eight grams of marijuana, equal in weight to a ketchup packet.

In January a cop en route to a drug raid in Tampa, Florida, took a short cut across a neighboring lawn and shot the neighbor's two pooches on his way. And last May, an officer in Syracuse, New York, squeezed off several shots at a family dog during a drug raid, one of which ricocheted and struck a 13-year-old boy in the leg. The boy was handcuffed at gunpoint at the time. ?

I've known people who'd put up with all kinds of stuff being done to themselves, but if you hurt their dog without damn good reason, you'd better watch your back from then on. And this kind of garbage, to say the least, kind of screws up your 'Officer Friendly' image, especially chasing a puppy into a burning building.

So I'm wondering why?

Next time somebody starts whining about the Hollywood blacklist,

tell them to worry about the blacklist going on now:
But it's only natural that industry-based Obama supporters will henceforth regard him askance. Honestly? If I were a producer and I had to make a casting decision about hiring Voight or some older actor who hadn't pissed me off with an idiotic Washington Times op-ed piece, I might very well say to myself, "Voight? Let him eat cake."
And for a bit of other information,
The problem occurs when the 50-to-1 ratio is flipped and Mr. Clooney and his allegedly egalitarian allies are doing most of the hiring. Remember his pal Julia Roberts' slurs against Republicans? "Repugnant" Reaganites and "reptilian" Bushies planning to work on the "Ocean's 14" set have mastered a code of conduct: silence.

And when like minds aren't meeting each other at work, and they aren't schmoozing Monday morning at Hugo's, and they aren't talking about what they care about, then they aren't making projects they believe in.

That's hardly a free and creative environment. But maybe Hollywood stopped being that a while ago.Sorry, George.

When a big star like Bruce Willis sees his New York bar protested for his being a Republican, and his Hollywood pals don't rally to his defense, it's no wonder Mr. Willis doesn't talk openly about politics anymore.
...
"When the blacklist hit, I saw actors walk across the street to avoid me. The doorman at 485 Madison Avenue (former CBS headquarters) turned his back as I walked by. But I never felt hated by the ring-wing blacklisters. They just felt we were terribly wrong," he said.

"These days, the left doesn't just disagree with right-wingers - they hate them. People actually shudder when I tell them I'm a Republican. I should have to carry a bell and yell, 'unclean.' It doesn't bother me, though. I've been on both ends. Being hated is like voodoo. It only works if you feel hated. And I just won't. I know it will pass." .
I damn sure hope so.

I have called Obama a socialist who doesn't have the integrity

or balls to state it openly. Kim found this, which demonstrates my point:
A careful reading of Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," reveals that his childhood mentor up to age 18 — a man he cryptically refers to as "Frank" — was none other than the late communist Frank Marshall Davis, who fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his "subversive," "un-American activities."

As Obama was preparing to head off to college, he sat at Davis' feet in his Waikiki bungalow for nightly bull sessions. Davis plied his impressionable guest with liberal doses of whiskey and advice, including: Never trust the white establishment.

"They'll train you so good," he said, "you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that sh**."

After college, where he palled around with Marxist professors and took in socialist conferences "for inspiration," Obama followed in Davis' footsteps, becoming a "community organizer" in Chicago.

His boss there was Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to hide in his book. Turns out Kellman's a disciple of the late Saul "The Red" Alinsky, a hard-boiled Chicago socialist who wrote the "Rules for Radicals" and agitated for social revolution in America.
...
As a Nairobi bureaucrat, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Harvard-educated economist, grew to challenge the ruling pro-Western government for not being socialist enough. In an eight-page scholarly paper published in 1965, he argued for eliminating private farming and nationalizing businesses "owned by Asians and Europeans."

His ideas for communist-style expropriation didn't stop there. He also proposed massive taxes on the rich to "redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all."

"Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed," Obama Sr. wrote. "I do not see why the government cannot tax those who have more and syphon some of these revenues into savings which can be utilized in investment for future development."

Taxes and "investment" . . . the fruit truly does not fall far from the vine.

(Voters might also be interested to know that Obama, the supposed straight shooter, does not once mention his father's communist leanings in an entire book dedicated to his memory.)

This is one of those 'you really need to read the whole thing' links, there's too much there to do justice to with excerpts. And we also need to ask some media weenies "Since you say you're so disinterested and evenhanded, why haven't any of you asked him about this stuff?"

"But Ma Nature IS friendly!"

Yeah, just before she turns you into critter food and fertilizer.

Hogboy had a post earlier on just how easy, overall, we have it now. And just how bad it could get back in the days before we had ways to fight some aspects of Mother Gaia.
I once read a book on the black plague. I had always assumed the plague was a one-time thing, but boy, was I wrong. Once plague epidemics began in Europe, they came back over and over. You probably know that the disease was carried by fleas, but it was also possible to contract it by being near a person who coughed or sneezed. Then you died in misery, and you stood a good chance of infecting your loved ones in the process.

And we worry about gas-price spikes.
Yeah, three forms of bubonic plague developed: deadly, deadlier and "Everybody who catches me dies". And for lack of antibiotics, or a good way to kill rats, unknown millions died in Asia and Europe and Africa. Let's pass over smallpox for now(which, like plague, developed three types). Lots and lots of things; a cut that today you'd wash, maybe put some antibiotic on and forget, could kill you. I wrote the other day about some of the less friendly activities of lions; read up sometimes on what happened in bad winters in Europe and Russia with wolves. And that happened clear up into the 1940's in a couple of cases.

It drives me nuts when people speak in reverent voices of Mother Gaia Who Loves Us All. Don't know about you, but my mother has a certain preference as to who, between some animals and me, dies. Mother Gaia doesn't.

Old Ma Nature will use you for food same as any other being, whether your body being eaten by something after you die, something killing you and eating you, or- after being killed by whatever- turning you into plant food to feed the herbivores who feed the carnivores, on and on.

Nature gives you no 'right to life' except what you take by force. Ask someone freezing in a blizzard, drowning in a flood, sweating their life out or facing something toothy about their 'right to life'. Guy I used to work with had spent time in the Air Force, and a year of that was at a base in Alaska. He said that in winter there were two rules in particular for that place: it was a court-martial offense to go outside the fence alone, and in any group that went out there had to be at least one of them armed. The first because in that weather you could sprain an ankle or something and be dead before they knew to come looking for you; the latter because the Kodiak and polar bears looked on anything they could catch as food. While he was there, in spring, two guys went camping and never came back; the search party found what was left of their camp and some blood, nothing more. Seems that, as they set up camp that last evening, it was just a few yards off a trail and the tracks said bear found them before they noticed bear.

Nature is wonderful, nature can make you lose you breath in awe. It can also- WILL, if you don't pay attention- kill you without even noticing.

Let's go down the list of what should happen after bullcrap like

this:
In the course of research for our book on the confiscation of firearms in the aftermath of the hurricane, we heard a number of similar stories. They all followed the same vein: A citizen is pulled over in a traffic stop. The NOPD officer takes a gun from the citizen, and asks if the citizen has a receipt for the gun. When the answer is no, the gun is seized, and the citizen is informed if they will show up at a specific precinct with proof of ownership, they can have the gun back.

A recent gentleman caller on a New Orleans radio talk show described having a personal handgun seized during a traffic stop. This particular gun was passed down through his family — it was an heirloom — and he wanted it back. This gentleman stated he had placed numerous calls to different divisions within the department, and had been unable to get any information on the whereabouts of his gun.

A local gun store informed me they have had numerous citizens buy guns, only to return and beg for a copy of their receipt to get the gun back after it had been seized during a traffic stop in New Orleans.

The officer should be prosecuted, the chief should be prosecuted for not stopping this, and the mayor ought to have his ass kicked for tolerating this crap in the police department.

Remember a movie called The Big Easy? Big factor in the movie was corruption in NOPD. I didn't realize at the time it wasn't a drama, it was a documentary.

Looks like protection orders/restraining orders have become

the new version of the child sex-abuse accusations against- surprise- primarily fathers.
Under the DVPA, it is very easy for a woman to allege domestic violence and get a restraining order (aka “protection order”). New Jersey issues 30,000 restraining orders annually, and men are targeted in 4/5ths of them. The standard is “preponderance of the evidence” (often conceptualized as 51%-49%), and judges almost always side with the accusing plaintiff.

Under the DVPA, the accuser need not even claim actual abuse. Alleged verbal threats of violence are sufficient, even though it’s almost impossible for the accused to provide substantive contradictory evidence.

The restraining order boots the man out of his own home and generally prohibits him from contacting his own children. Men are cut off from their possessions and property, and some end up in homeless shelters. Yet most have never even had a chance to defend themselves in court. In recognition of the gravity of these orders, the Hudson County judge, Francis B. Schultz, found the current standard of proof unconstitutional, however, and required the stricter "clear and convincing evidence" standard in the case before him. His ruling was not binding on other judges, but will likely be appealed, which could lead to a decision with a broader impact.
...
“Protective orders are increasingly being used in family law cases to help one side jockey for an advantage in child custody…[they are] almost routinely issued by the court in family law proceedings even when there is relatively meager evidence and usually without notice to the restrained person....it is troubling that they appear to be sought more and more frequently for retaliation and litigation purposes.”

An article in the November, 2007 issue of the Illinois Bar Journal explains:

"If a parent is willing to abuse the system, it is unlikely the trial court could discover (his or her) improper motives in an Order of Protection hearing."

These orders have become so commonplace that the Illinois Bar Journal calls them "part of the gamesmanship of divorce.”
...
Jane Hanson, executive director of Partners for Women and Justice in Montclair, argues that Superior Court Judge Francis B. Schultz is wrong in ruling that the DVPA violates parents’ “fundamental” right to “be with or maintain their relationship with their children.” Yet when a restraining order is issued, fathers can be (and sometimes are) arrested for calling their own children on the phone or going to their Little League games.

Moreover, by removing the father from the home, a custody precedent is set with mom as primary caregiver and dad as occasional visitor—a precedent which harms fathers’ ability to gain joint custody of their children in divorce proceedings.

I remember when the sex-abuse mess started. It was discovered that if a woman accused her ex, or ex-to-be, of abusing the kids, he was screwed: he'd be thrown out of the house, he'd be presumed guilty which led to everything from losing his job to being shunned by everyone("Nobody would accuse him of that if there wasn't something to it!) and so on. A lot of dirtbag prosecutors discovered that it was fairly easy to get small kids to say "Daddy touched me in a bad place", which meant an easy conviction and screw whether it was true or not. And even when the father was able to prove it was a lie, his life was still screwed. And legal action was almost never taken against the female(that would be 'insensitive', and besides, it'll make women mad if we do and they'll vote against us).

Well, with the Lauterberg Amendment, if a PO is made permanent, you lose your 2nd Amendment rights on top of everything else. It's interesting that this judge calling for 'clear and convincing evidence' causes this kind of hyperventilating from the Usual Suspects.

And though Mr. Monster Hunter's response has been noted

already, I just have to link to this; it's too good not to:
You know what really breaks the ‘bad financial cycle’? Quit waiting around for the government to come and make your life better. Quit waiting around for the government to punish somebody who has more stuff than you. Government is not Robin Hood, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Government is a giant, forceful, idiotic brute that clubs everybody indiscriminately, punishes success, and rewards stupidity, all while being cheered on by fools.

20-to-1 odds at one point

and the enemy got their ass kicked.

I'd heard something about this last week, but being the going-in-circles sort that I am, didn't dig up the facts on it at the time. I heard the "Nine American soldiers killed!" media noise, but didn't trust it; they've played games with things too many times. I remember a report on an ambush on one of our convoys a couple of years ago and the near-hysterical "Three American soldiers killed and seven wounded!" noise, but when you dug into it you found out that the enemy lost something like nearly 40 confirmed killed, a bunch captured and a bunch wounded; and that last was never, to my knowledge, reported in the major media. So this case should be no surprise:
"Perhaps the most important takeaway from that encounter, though, is the one that the mainstream media couldn't be bothered to pay attention long enough to learn: that, not for the first time, a contingent of American soldiers that was outnumbered by up to a twenty-to-one ratio soundly and completely repulsed a complex, pre-planned assault by those dedicated enough to their cause to kill themselves in its pursuit.

That kind of heroism and against-all-odds success is and has been a hallmark of America's fighting men and women, and it is one that is worthy of all attention we can possibly give it."

Make time to read it. And remember those men, the fallen and the living.

Now for the other part I promised, making & fitting

a guard made of antler.

Took a large-diameter piece of antler* and cut a cross-section a little over 1/4" thick, then sanded both sides flat & smooth, using 240-grit paper. Then draw a line marking the center, then lay the blade on it in the position I want it to fit, and trace the tang curves onto it.
I drilled it as noted in the previous post, then used a jewelers saw to connect the holes. This is like a coping saw, with thumbscrews to lock the ends of the blade in place. Lock one end, put the other through a hole and connect it, then cut down from the edge of one hole to the next,
flip the antler over and do the other side. That should give a slot a little smaller than needed, so you can do a bit of file work to fit it.
Just a few strokes at a time, a sharp file cuts this stuff fast.

When fitted here's the parts strung together:
Now cut a few notches in the corners of the tang, then it's time to glue.

Clean and roughen the sides, you don't want any oil or dirt in the way of the glue. Now mix up the epoxy**. First put a bit on the inside of the slot and fitted it to the blade; you want it to seal between antler and blade. Then pour more into the hole in the block, enough so that when you slide the tang in, it'll coat the back of the guard and a bit run over the sides; more is much better than not enough, you can wipe excess off, and you'll be sanding the grip down later anyway. Then I use a bar clamp to hold everything together while the epoxy sets.
These clamps are some of the handiest tools you can get hold of. These are a steel bar, and the clamp pieces are hard plastic. With steel clamps put a piece of plywood(as it won't split) between point and clamp. Just use enough tension to keep things locked in alignment until the epoxy sets.

I usually leave it in the clamp at least a couple of hours; you can speed it up if need by by putting it where it'll get hot. 'Hot' as in 'hot to the touch', not burning or something: epoxy that cures too fast will be weaker. When it's ready, take it out.

I took this to the belt sander and rough-shaped it as shown before, then hit it with 180, then 220-grit abrasive strip, which got it to here:
Now it'll need whatever finish you plan to use, and it'll be done.


*For something like this you're better off using something like Sambar stag if you can: it has little or no pithy core, solid virtually all the way through on big stuff, smaller pieces will be solid. If you do use antler with a core, you can soak epoxy into it before or after the cutting & fitting(I recommend before) to make the core harder and waterproof.

**You can get epoxy that sets in anything from 5 minutes to an hour or more. I use 30-minute for most things, as I like having enough time to get things adjusted. One store around here used to carry a 15-minute, which was great stuff, but I haven't found it in a while.

Some Scandinavian knives built up the hilt with a piece of antler, then a piece of wood, alternating to antler for the pommel; the end of the tang was shaped small & round, went through a washer and was then peened down to rivet things together. Looks very nice.

People-chomping kitties

who are not in the least cute.
The other day had the chance to watch a show on Animal Planet about lions, specifically maneaters in Kruger National Park. It seems that a lot of people are crossing the border, and crossing the park, getting to South Africa. And some of the lions in the park have started treating them as a traveling buffet. This guy wanted to walk around and see how close he could get, and how they would react. Unlike a lot of the ‘Nature is our friend’ people, he fully recognized just how dangerous the cats are, and just how dangerous this was. Really, not a bad show. I’d just argue with one thing.

He kept mentioning lions having a natural fear of man, and wondering what overcame that for the maneaters. Going from what I’ve read, I don’t think they have a 'natural fear'; I think it was earned, through lions facing armed humans over a long period of time. And protected in the park, I think they lost what fear or respect they did have. Add to that humans being so much easier to catch and kill than buffalo or antelope, and you get an increase in bad table manners.

I remember reading about a study done years ago that showed that while most tigers that go maneater tend to be old or injured(or both), most lions tended to be in good health, just like leopards. However it begins, once one discovers the ease of chomping humans as opposed to fighting with a Cape buffalo, they simply continue. There actually are cases of prides where the cubs are fed on human kills, and continue the family dining tradition. In Maneaters, Peter Capstick writes of the pride that, due to a combination of WWII and politics, wound up having virtual free running over the Njombe district of Tanganyika(now Tanzania) for years; no exact number of how many kills due to lack of communications, the wide area, some people being scared to speak of it, and the fact that someone disappearing, in some cases, leaves no evidence; but the number Capstick quotes is 'better than two thousand'. And considering all the ways to die and disappear there… Hyenas and leopards and crocs and lions will kill and eat you; elephant and rhino and hippo and buffalo will stomp you into mulch and the aforementioned- along with the jackels and bugs and birds- will clean up what’s left. Kind of like some shark attacks: someone goes fishing or swimming and disappears, you may never know just what happened to them.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot. But, among other things, they believe this started in 1932 and it ended in 1947. Think about that: fifteen years. Considering how much a pride of lions eats, and that people are a lot smaller than zebra or buff, God knows what the actual total was.

On a much smaller(and happily less lethal) scale we've got some of the same problem in our western states with mountain lions. Many areas they’ve been completely protected from hunting, and as a consequence they no longer treat us as anything but some odd-looking animals with fancy dens. Who, on occasion, are used for munchies.

Just some thoughts on the kitty trouble and the show.

Couple of days go did a post on The Obama

and some of the recent events that further convinced me that Barack I Should Be On Shark Week Obama is a miserable bleep who shouldn’t be allowed within 100 yards of the White House. In comments Martywd had this link to something I hadn’t heard of. Basically, if you want something act as if it’s already fact, and it will become so:
Once I was speaking with a black friend of mine who had been interviewed to be a manager at a company that day. I asked him about it. He said, "I am the manager." I said, "Oh, you already heard from them?" He said," No, but I am speaking it into being."

After *cough/laughing* about this and saying, "Say what?", I found that this was a belief practiced at his Church and it was a common way of thinking and believing in the black church in general. The idea is to speak to what you want in your life and make it real, make it happen. Speak it into being.

It would explain some things about his actions- the press weenies demanding presidential protocol and actions, Obama making statements that should only come- if at all- from the President and so on.

If that’s the case, it does bring up a couple of questions. Like if Obama’s retired-but-still-active pastor and his replacement do things like scream “God Damn America!” in sermons, are they stating a belief or pushing for action? From the bastard’s actions and words over time(no, as a matter of fact, I don’t like him) I’d imagine it’s the latter.

Well, it MIGHT explain some things...

Some of you will recall that on July 8, 1947, a little over 60 years ago, witnesses claim that an unidentified flying object (UFO) with five aliens aboard, crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell , New Mexico . This is a well known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies and organizations.
However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of April 1948, nine months after that historic day, the following people were born:
Albert A. Gore, Jr.
Hillary Rodham
John F. Kerry
William J. Clinton
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Dianne Feinstein
Charles E. Schumer
Barbara Boxer

See what happens when aliens breed with sheep?

I certainly hope this bit of information clears up a lot of things for you.
It did for me.

No wonder they support the bill to help illegal aliens!

Now You Know.


Sent from a friend. Who will remain anonymous

Remember what I once wrote about bicycles

and the morons they seem to attract? Well, Sondra took note of another particularly idiotic bunch who should be introduced to a scattergun:
Seattle Police spokesman Mark Jamieson says that on Friday between 100 and 300 bicyclists were riding down a street in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, blocking traffic on both lanes, when a man and a woman in a Subaru station wagon tried to pull out of a parking spot.

But some of the bicyclists blocked them, sat on the car and began banging on the vehicle. Words were exchanged between the male driver and the bicyclists.

The driver feared being assaulted and backed up, but bumped a biker and enraged the group. In response, some of the bikers smashed the windshield and rear window. He tried to drive away but hit another bicyclist.

The car stopped a block down and the bicyclists surrounded the car. One biker punched the driver through an open window and another used a knife to slash the tires.

When the driver got out of the car a male suspect struck him with an unknown object in the back of the head. The driver was later taken to the hospital. His female companion was not injured.

I pointed out what would happen in this neck of the woods if they tried that; it needs to start happening there, too. I'll note that you don't smash windshields by whacking it with a fist, so I'm wondering what they used, and did they bring it with them? If so, wouldn't that count as premeditation? And how about that 'unknown object'?

The fact that they were allowed to block traffic, instead of the police dragging them off in job lots to jail...

Dirtbag politician assaults cop;

but he can still make the Democrat Convention.
DETROIT -- A 36th District Court judge restricted Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's travel and revoked his personal bond today during a bond hearing, one day after the mayor was accused of assaulting a detective.

The mayor, who was on a personal bond that did not require him to pay any money to the court, was required to pay $7,500 in cash -- 10 percent of his $75,000 bond -- to stay free, 36th District Judge Ronald Giles ordered. By 2:50 p.m., Kilpatrick had paid his bond after a delay at the court.

"I am being real rational today," the mayor said as he waited to be released.
As opposed to the rest of the time, I guess.

And why was he being investigated?
Worthy's investigation began after pager text messages published in January pointed to a sexual relationship between Kilpatrick and Beatty and possible perjury about the nature of their relationship and circumstances surrounding the removal of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown when they both testified in that civil case last year.

Just bloody wonderful.

Weenie liberal politician aids lawbreakers;

weenie liberal politician gives various lawbreakers virtual "Get out of jail FREE!" card.
One of lawbreakers commits multiple murder.
And(you know it's coming) weenie liberal politician blames the NRA. Seriously.

The kind of mind that can actually say this crap- let alone actually seem to believe it- is just about incomprehensible.

Except, of course, it means he has no responsibility in this mess, so hey! let's be HAPPY and blame honest gun owners.