Weather's about to turn to crap again,

so damn right I'm inside doing something warm.  Data sorting, in this case.

Side note: the east and northeast is getting pasted with more snow, and we're still in drought conditions and could use a few inches of the stuff.  Preferably about six the next day or two, then a few days, then six more.  Ah well.

Investigations to come on NASA faking climate data

NASA says "No big deal, it's just tweaks to accurize things", and the screaming of "DENIERS!" and "They don't CARE!" has already started.

And yeah, altering data to change the whole damn picture is just 'tweaks'.  Right.


Ethical behavior is not understood at Mother Jones(big surprise, huh?), and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a dirtbag.

A basic reason for owning firearms:

When these farging idiots try to create their Stalin, there's an ultimate "The hell you will."

Morons, I tell you.  And the ones who aren't morons are flatly the enemy.

I wonder how happy the parents are

that the money they're paying for a private school is going for this bullshit:
A high-school physics teacher has developed his own six-day curriculum that he uses to teach about institutional racism, privilege, and social justice as part of his seniors’ physics classes.
Not a damn thing to do with physics, but it makes this clown feel all SJW-warmery and superior.  Even while he's being all picky about who's acceptable:
Yes — the physicist has to be black specifically and the assignment “will not cover any other minority groups that may not be as involved in science.”

Ref the damned EPA wanting to ban wood stoves,

About the level of journalism we expect from Rolling Stone.  And they picked the wrong young lady to use for their hit piece.
Great picture, bad article. … It was doing what media often does, laying it all on one-sided, and not necessarily having the best writing. The writing was the largest problem for me. When I saw it, it seemed to me that it had many inaccuracies, was biased, and not supported by sources. I was more worried about the fact he only had his opinion, rather than the opposition’s opinion as well.


What do the ten most dangerous cities have in common?  Three guesses.
And you'll be called a racist for guessing right.

Long day; so tired I nearly forgot

to check for any new data

"Nobody wants to take your guns!" my ass, Part 479: (update)

Not the multiple levels of stupid:
Basic enumerated right 'obsolete'.
Basic enumerated right 'special privilege for whites'(see 'Racist roots of gun control')
He does have one thing right: individual thought is very dangerous to nasty little bastards like him.

Update: I'm told this may be a troll of the 'muskets only' types

A: Male Privilege

B: Judge Kathleen McCarthy is a moronic enemy of justice hiding behind a black robe.
"I am outraged at the media for the willful misrepresentations of the facts of this case," said Judge McCarthy.  "Casting this court in a negative light."
Well, get used to it; you acted like a jackass, and you're getting called on it, so learn to deal with it.  And maybe give a damn about facts.

I want to hear 'Senator-Elect Condoleezza Rice'

if only to listen to the leftists heads exploding.


From the People's Republic of New York, "You commoners should not be able to buy these dangerous tools!"
Two pieces of, at best, bad thinking:
“The fact that anyone can easily purchase this potentially lethal tool is just crazy,” he said.
'Potentially lethal'.  Like a shovel, or any knife, or a hammer...
“He’d still be alive today if it wasn’t for a machete.”
Because the tool is somehow responsible for what the criminal does.  Or the criminal couldn't possibly find some other implement to do evil with.


Outnumbered, outgunned…and completely victorious.


Gunowner control: A more accurate, if somewhat awkward description of efforts to impose and hinder the Right to own and carry weapons, specifically firearms.

Terrorists with their own aircraft;

this could get interesting(annoying autoplay warning).

I strongly suspect the Italian Air Force has orders that involve '-and kill it'.  Question then is, will we ever hear about it?

There was a thread on Bookface about the 'send lots of refugees to Italy' story, and several people said that getting crossways of the Italian security people and Carabinieri would have bad results; we may find out just how bad.

I'm sure Italy is freakin' thrilled with how well Libya is doing

ISIS has threatened to flood Europe with half a million migrants from Libya in a 'psychological' attack against the West, it was claimed today.

Transcripts of telephone intercepts published in Italy claim to provide evidence that ISIS is threatening to send 500,000 migrants simultaneously out to sea in hundreds of boats in a 'psychological weapon' against Europe if there is military intervention against them in Libya.
And how many would be terrorists?  Make a guess, you could be as accurate as the intel services.

He said: 'If the militias of the Caliphate advance faster than the decisions of the international community how can we put out the fire in Libya and stem the migration flows? We are at risk of an exodus without precedent.'
Well, Minister, if you're looking for the international community to decide ANYTHING 'faster than', you're in for a world of disappointment.  Especially if you expect it to 'put out the fire', considering President Selfie-Stick is busy apologizing for the crusades and making excuses for the bad guys.


Speaking of apologizers, what the hell is wrong with the Church of England?  Apologize for Dresden?  Really?


Why you're not Officer Friendly anymore:  you're incompetent boobs who just love flash-bangs and breaking homes.  With excuses like
Riviera Beach Police said the search warrant was executed at the correct address and while the resident may not have had any knowledge of drugs being sold from her home, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
90-year-old womans' home.  Raided in the dark of night(misread the time).  Because knocking on the damned door in the daylight is too dangerous.
The department has since put up temporary repairs and has decided to pay for new windows and doors.
The resident is supposed to get a new door later this week – and new windows by February 28th.
Well, isn't that just freaking nice of you?  Considering you broke them and all(and I wonder what other damage they did?).

Another thought occurs: what idiot in a black robe signed-off on the 'break in in the night' warrant?  And what idiot with a badge insisted putting on the ninja suits was necessary?

Leftist admits mindset; Nobody surprised

University of Chicago Professor Eric Posner said that universities were well within their rights to limit the free speech and behavior of their students as college students need to be treated like children instead of adults.

“Critics complain that universities are treating adults like children,” Posner wrote in an article for Slate. “The problem is that universities have been treating children like adults.”
...
“If students want to learn biology and art history in an environment where they needn’t worry about being offended or raped, why shouldn’t they,” he said, even suggesting that libertarians should “reflect on the irony that the private market, in which they normally put their faith, reflects a preference among students for speech restrictions.”
Correction: leftist assholes want to censor the speech of anyone who doesn't agree with them; that's hardly 'private market'.  But Posner knows that.

Also, note that he lumps 'being offended' in with being 'raped'.  Nasty little bastard, isn't he?"

And from his spiritual followers, we have the spectacle of trying to tell the other side of a matter being labeled as 'trying to prevent an informed electorate'.
Only in your twisted mind, clown.

Ronald Ritchie is the lying bastard who caused the deaths of two people

with his fake 911 call.  And now says one of the victims 'kind of deserved it'.

Mr. Ritchie, I want to know why you haven't been arrested for your abuse of the 911 system and your lies.  And I devoutly hope that the families of your victims sue you for everything you have or ever will have, you disgusting bastard.

So you expect Sean Penn to be less of a hypocrite

than Stallone, or Neeson?  Tell everyone guns are evil, and shouldn't be allowed, while you make millions in movies in which you shoot lots of people.  And
It must be love, because Charlize got Sean to give up his guns. It’s probably easier on all concerned to give them to a sculptor than to leave them in your car for street criminals to steal. Besides, if you’re a guy who has “Hitleresque bodyguards,” you don’t need an impossible-to-get-for-the-masses concealed carry permit. And who better to call guns “cowardly killing machines” than a ... um ... wife beater with a baseball bat?And don't forget, as noted in the post, that he appears to have gotten special breaks after the domestic violence, as he still owned guns when, under the Lautenberg amendment, he shouldn't have.  The leftists take care of each other.


This constant solicitation of women's feeeeelz whenever they come under scrutiny or criticism -- note that every anti-GamerGate story is about how Anita Sarkesian can possibly endure mean people on Twitter -- strongly suggests to me that most liberal men and especially liberal women emphatically do not believe in the equality of the sexes, but still treat one sex as basically the Child Version of men.

Imagine reporters asking Bush, constantly, how he felt about all the criticism he was experiencing as president, and how he felt about his critics.


Speaking of idiocy,
The United States does not support Egyptian and Emirati airstrikes against Islamist militias in Libya because the U.S. believes the crisis in Libya must be resolved politically and without outside interference, a Department of Defense spokesman said Tuesday.
Roll that around on your tongue.  Taste the stupid, with strong overtones of dementia.  'Resolved politically'.  In a place where the current political process involves forcing a bunch of Coptic Christians to a beach, murdering them on camera, and the administration won't call the victims 'Christians' and won't identify ISIL as Muslim.
“We discourage other nations from taking a part in Libya’s issues through violence,” Kirby said. “We want the issues solved in Libya to be done peacefully and through good governance and politics and not violence.”
Well, Admiral, just what fairy dust are you planning on spreading over the place to make that happen?  And do you actually believe the crap you're spouting, or are you forcing yourself to act like you do?

“If the UAE thinks there is a threat emanating against itself from Libya, why can it not, under the same justification, bomb Libya?” he asked.

“Our concern here is about the fragile state of Libya’s political process,” Psaki replied. “We believe there isn’t a military solution. The political process is what the focus needs to be on, and hence the concern that we have.”
This is... and these idiots are actually in charge.


Man asks people if they're Muslim.  They say no.  He stabs them.  Feds say 'potential hate crime'.

Know how the courts say cops have no duty to protect you, or any individual?

Federal cops are informed
The document acknowledges that this feels counter-intuitive for Border Patrol agents, but eases concerns by answering a hypothetical question for the officers who have sworn to uphold the law: “If you allow this driver to continue down the road and they kill someone, aren’t you liable?” The answer is no, according to the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo. “There is no legal requirement for a Border Patrol agent to intervene in a state crime, including DUI,” the order says, adding that “therefore there is generally no liability that will attach to the agent or agency for failing to act in this situation.”
Since Obama & Co. have told them to let illegal aliens keep driving while drunk, so they can kill and cripple and damage even MORE people, I guess they want to reassure their minions that ignoring drunk illegals isn't important enough to keep the BP from harassing American citizens at those bullshit hundred-miles-from-the-border checkpoints.

Just don't inconvenience the illegals breaking another law, because THAT will get you in trouble.

Speaking of the range, more light-load tests

After some more reading on the subject, I decided to try using 5.0 of Unique out in .30-30, 7.62x54r, and .30-06.  Gave them a try today.  

.30-30 used the same three bullets as in the 3.0 grains of Bullseye experiment.
Roundnose,

.32 semi-wadcutter

and, as a pleasant surprise, the .32 wadcutter

Yes, that's four in that nice cloverleaf, and I'm willing to blame myself for that one left-low.

And, just as a try, the Lyman 115-grain spitzer designed for the .30 Carbine, used as-cast, lubed with Liquid Alox, no gas-check.

All show well.  The roundnose, SWC and spitzer all fed with no problems; the wadcutter has to be loaded individually.  Recoil was along the lines of 'Oh, the rifle shifted slightly'.  Slightly different points of impact vertically between some.  The SWC and wadcutter ought to be death on small pests and varmints at short range.  This being a tube-magazine I did not try feeding the spitzers from it, as- even with such light-recoil loads- you shouldn't put pointed-nose bullets in a tube mag.

The 7.62x54r, with the SWC bullet and this load,  was so-so.

whereas the E-Treme 123-grain plated shot ok

It appears that center hole is for two of the five. 
Frankly, it may be that with a bit better light and more solid rest the SWC loads may have looked better; that was the last group of the day and I'd started being distracted by the Tommy gun.

I did try .30-06 with the 115-grain spitzer, no gas-check, with this load

Left target shot with the bullet seated to the crimp groove, on the right seated to the first lube groove.  That one I'll try again.

This is mostly for fun, seeing what can do with light bullets and very light propellant charges.  Five grains equals 1400 charges from a pound of powder, not much noise and almost no recoil.  Be great loads to teach a new shooter with.

And I'm curious, would that SWC load shoot better in a different Mosin-Nagant?  How would it work in a Lee Enfield?  Makes me wish I had more rifles, and a range in the back yard.

Past vs. current engineering

Tam's written a time or two on how much skilled machine work was used in making firearms in the past compared to how a lot are made now.  Reason I was reminded of that was that at the range this morning I was distracted by a couple of bursts of automatic fire.  Peeking around the partitions revealed a man firing an honest-to-Deity Thompson subgun.  1943 manufacture.

Yes, he let me fondle it, and put ten rounds through*.  If I could afford the regular conversion of that much money into noise, I'd buy one.  But to the point at hand: in the past I've had the opportunity to fire a Uzi and a couple of Ingram subguns, one of the latter in .45.  Compared to them, the Tommy is heavy.  That receiver is one big hunk of machined steel, making for the heart of a heavy firearm.

And that translates to money; big steel blank, lots of machining to turn it into a receiver, which involves a skilled machinist and machine time and cutters.  Thinking of making this sucker by the many-thousands during a war makes the adoption of the M3 very understandable.

The obvious question: "Chief, if your officers were doing everything right,

and didn't plan on doing anything wrong or questionable, why did they turn the cameras off?"

Turning the cameras off should be considered proof of bad or illegal intent, and punished appropriately.  With any fines coming out of the pockets of the officers involved.


And how many of the leftists screaming "War on women!" here are screaming about the women actually being bought and sold as slaves over there?


And yet more wonders of the British NHS.

Does this mean The Atlantic is now a hotbed of right-wing racism and islamophobia?

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls, in its press and pronouncements, and on its billboards, license plates, stationery, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology,” which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail. Muslims can reject the Islamic State; nearly all do. But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it. We’ll need to get acquainted with the Islamic State’s intellectual genealogy if we are to react in a way that will not strengthen it, but instead help it self-immolate in its own excessive zeal.
I think the only way it'll 'self-immolate' is if it pisses off the surrounding Muslim nations badly enough that they do the immolating.  But this is a pretty good piece on the mess.  And doesn't back off from facts that the PC excuse-makers don't like.
According to Haykel, the ranks of the Islamic State are deeply infused with religious vigor. Koranic quotations are ubiquitous. “Even the foot soldiers spout this stuff constantly,” Haykel said. “They mug for their cameras and repeat their basic doctrines in formulaic fashion, and they do it all the time.” He regards the claim that the Islamic State has distorted the texts of Islam as preposterous, sustainable only through willful ignorance. “People want to absolve Islam,” he said. “It’s this ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ mantra. As if there is such a thing as ‘Islam’! It’s what Muslims do, and how they interpret their texts.” Those texts are shared by all Sunni Muslims, not just the Islamic State. “And these guys have just as much legitimacy as anyone else.”

and
Following takfiri doctrine, the Islamic State is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people. The lack of objective reporting from its territory makes the true extent of the slaughter unknowable, but social-media posts from the region suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions every few weeks. Muslim “apostates” are the most common victims. Exempted from automatic execution, it appears, are Christians who do not resist their new government. Baghdadi permits them to live, as long as they pay a special tax, known as the jizya, and acknowledge their subjugation. The Koranic authority for this practice is not in dispute.

What the hell has McCain been smoking?

Or is his brain completely gone?

Hey, Senator, you may have forgotten this but there are three CO-EQUAL branches of government; two of them are SUPPOSED to be able to limit the actions of the President.

Or have you forgotten that?

Looks like if Saudi wants to modernize, some people

will need to be dropped on their heads.  From a fair height.

So, let us list:
If' you're female and muslim, but non-Saudi, being raped isn't a big deal.
Camels never went lame or otherwise suffered breakdown.
Every Saudi male is at the beck & call of mom/wife/sister/daughter.

Ok, after that last one I have to stop before I completely blow the 'suspend disbelief' setting...

From Tam, who notes That interviewer was a model of composure. I'd have started throwing stuff at the dude.

Wonder if the "Get big money out of politics!" people

will be as upset with Steyer as they are with the Kochs?
Top advisers to the billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer helped run a green group, financed in part by Steyer himself, that is at the center of a corruption scandal that could force the Democratic governor of Oregon to resign.
An executive at one of Steyer’s nonprofit groups and a political vendor who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the hedge fund manager’s political operations helped run the group, which is accused of influencing state energy policy through undisclosed payments to Oregon’s first lady.


I don't doubt that, if(probably when) a US plane goes down, the S&R guys will do everything possible to get the pilot(and aircrew for some) out; however, questions come to mind:
Will they get the support?  If they call for air or artillery, will they get it or will they be under the same idiot ROE that cost lives and body parts in Afghanistan?
And if the enemy grabs someone, can they trust Obama to ok missions to get them back?  Or will he play 'smart diplomat' until the end, and then sternly insist the people who murdered our guys will be 'brought to justice'?
I'd bet a bunch of pilots are just a bit worried about that.


Wirecutter has had a bunch of posts about drought conditions in Californicated, and just how the enviroweenies have screwed things up.   More on the subject from Hanson.


Ok, even for a modern Institute of Higher Education, this example of prize-winning stupidity is friggin' amazing:
...None of the Facebook posts came from Barnett’s account; the statements were posted by his husband, who either tagged Barnett or posted them directly to Barnett’s Facebook page. Barnett’s husband later submitted a sworn affidavit attesting to his sole authorship of the posts. Nevertheless, shortly after TU professor Susan Barrett filed a complaint against Barnett arguing that Barnett could not “avoid responsibility” because someone else was responsible for the posts, TU Senior Vice Provost Winona Tanaka imposed eight restrictive interim measures against Barnett. The sanctions included suspending his participation in certain courses and activities and even barring him from speaking about certain individuals.
There's even more, which I'll let you read directly.  And then we come to this:
TU has also threatened the expressive rights of the staff of its independent student newspaper, The Collegian, which this week reported on Barnett’s suspension and criticized his treatment. The Collegian reports that after contacting TU administrators for comment, student reporters were told by TU’s director of marketing and communications that if “anything that the university deems to be confidential” is “published or shared, (that) could violate university policies.” The university refused to explain what might constitute “confidential” information and, come press time, the journalists were unsure what action the university might take against them.
Isn't that just bloody wonderful?


I'm going to close this with what a nation that once produced some of the boldest traders and pirates and soldiers ever is going to hell of its own volition.  In the name of PC At Any cost:

...Forty years later the dramatic consequences of this experiment emerge: violent crime has increased by 300%.

If one looks at the number of rapes, however, the increase is even worse. In 1975, 421 rapes were reported to the police; in 2014, it was 6,620. That is an increase of 1,472%.

That makes Sweden the rape capital of the West, second globally to only Lesotho in Southern Africa in the number of rapes it suffers.
What's that got to do with PC?
Note that conspicuous by its absence is any mention of who it is who is committing the rapes. Gatestone quotes Michael Hess, a local politician from the Sweden Democrat Party: “When will you journalists realize that it is deeply rooted in Islam’s culture to rape and brutalize women who refuse to comply with Islamic teachings. There is a strong connection between rapes in Sweden and the number of immigrants from MENA-countries [Middle East and North Africa].”

For that bit of plain speaking, Hess was handed a fine and a suspended jail sentence by a Swedish court. Was what he said untrue? Truth was not something the court cared about: “The Court [Tingsrätten] notes that the question of whether or not Michael Hess’s pronouncement is true, or appeared to be true to Michael Hess, has no bearing on the case. Michael Hess’s statement must be judged based on its timing and context.”
Speak the Truth We Don't Want To Hear, and it's jail and fines for you.  Barring a miracle, the place is screwed.

"Hey, we're progressives, we can't have some Jew who won't toe the line

causing problems!"

But they're the tolerant, good people; they'll tell you so.  And if you don't believe it, they'll try to ruin you.


Only way I can see that this 'took them by surprise' is if they either
weren't paying attention, or
are friggin' idiots.
Likely some mix of both.


I've run across people still pushing the "BUSH LIED!" stuff, too.