Saturday night

and awful rainy for August around here.  Cooler, too.  Which means when it goes back to normal the humidity will be bloody awful.  Time, I think, to just relax and check out the latest information.

Well, that's weird

Get home late and find a message that sounds like it came from a bad cell-phone connection, saying something about a missing child and 'if you have any information', I get suspicious.

I get more so when I try the number I managed to pick out and there's no 'This is' business or agency answering message, it goes straight to voicemail.

What the hell kind of scam is going around now?

B asked if I'm still paper-patching,

and about the Blackhorn 209 loads.

On paper-patching, using the Lyman 340-grain hollow-point, yes.  Best load I've found with it so far uses A5744 powder, and it shoots the paper-patched bullet better than a bare lubed.  So it's definitely on the 'keep using' list.

That bullet over the recommended dose of BH209 was 'meh'.  I'll fiddle with it more, but probably stick with the patched bullet over A5744.

I tried the 405-grain Lee flatnose paper-patched, using A5744 and 2f black.  With the Accurate, results were ok; nothing wonderful.  The loads I tried over black put two close together and the others spread out; I forgot the blow tube that day, and a straw just doesn't cut it.  I'm going to try it with BH209 as well, I think a soft patched bullet might work quite well with it.

With the heavy bullet, the 500-grain Lee, I haven't tried patching; it's got such wide grease grooves I don't know how well it'd work.  With black, best load has been 68.0 grains of 2f, but- as noted in the past- it seems somewhat inconsistent.  With the 209, I first tried the somewhat lower loads, using some folded toilet paper as wads to fill the empty space*.  That was 33.0 grains, and tried it with and without the wads(did use a .060 thick wad over the powder, then the tp); results pretty much identical; some vertical stringing, but I'm pretty sure that was me, and horizontally they were very close.  After some other questions, and more reading, found that 35.0 grains with that over-powder wad pretty much filled the case below the seated bullet, so tried it; not bad at all.

So that's how it sits for now.




*I have no dacron for filler, so tp it is.  Looking around I've found various opinions on using a filler with BH(as usual for any question).  When I contacted Western to ask some questions, they said that if you're near/at max recommended loads, filler not needed; if you're much below that, use something. 
No, I didn't ask their opinion of tp.

It's Friday

And threatening rain over the next couple of days.  So, yeah, good time for checking out new data

Good. Hope he wins both ears and the tail

And everyone abused by one of the thugs hiding behind a federal ID needs to go after the thug the same way.
Defendant does not cite, and the Court cannot see, any other reason why national security concerns would counsel hesitation to imply a Bivens remedy here. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant employed excessive force during a security screening, deliberately and gratuitously striking Plaintiff in the groin. This is not conduct that the TSA has deemed necessary, or even desirable, to protect national security. Indeed, the TSA expressly forbids its officers to engage in such behavior. …
...

Defendant’s oratorical calisthenics appear calculated to avoid simple questions with obvious answers: First, does the Fourth Amendment permit a federal officer to gratuitously strike an individual during a search? No. Second, was that clearly established in the law at the time? Yes. …
Taking the allegations of Plaintiff’s Complaint as true, Plaintiff was not suspected of committing any crime, posed no threat to Defendant or others, and fully complied with Defendant’s instructions during the pat-down search. The search in question went well beyond what was necessary to detect contraband, and was not confined to that purpose. There was, in short, no legitimate government interest served by Defendant’s alleged use of force to be weighed against Plaintiff’s substantial interest in being free from an unreasonable seizure. Such an action is “objectively unreasonable,” by any measure, and violates the Fourth Amendment. …

Well, that's an unwelcome connection to history

Some 15 million Africans were killed or worked to death in the Congo, and many more were maimed, all for the natural resource of rubber.

Fast forward to now.

Volvo has promised to go all electric or hybrid with their cars by 2019.

France and Britain are banning petroleum powered vehicles in 2040.

The demand for cobalt for electric and hybrid car batteries has resulted in the enslavement of countless children in heavy metal mines in … you guessed it… the Congo.  It is described as “hell on earth.”
"But we NEEEEEED electric cars!"  Usually said by people who don't seem to realize that they'll need generators running somewhere to produce the electricity to charge the batteries back up.

Oh, that's right; they'll demand the power stations be somewhere else.  So they can claim they're only using clean energy locally, and try to ignore the power plant somewhere else.

Because lots of politicians are fools

Greedy fools, at that.

Short version: "Let's pass this tax on cigarettes to make people stop smoking!  And we can use the money from the tax to pay for lots of things!  What?  Unconstitutional?  Aw, it's for people's own good, so sure it'll pass muster!"
It doesn't.
"What?  We were counting on that money!"

Let's start with "Let's use a tax to control behavior.  For their own good." 
Then throw in "What happens if it actually works?  All that tax money will go away, and then what?"  Which isn't answered.
As warned, the tax didn't pass muster.  Now they're whining "This leaves a hole in the budget, we were planning on that money!"

Morons.

Had a chance to shoot at a place with 200 yards for rifle today;

there's something very satisfying about making a gong ring and dance at distance.

Speaking of, this was the first time to try a couple of things at ranges longer than 100, and one of them was the .338 project rifle.  Standard zero I have for it is about 1-1.5" above POA at 100; that turns out to be dead-on at 200.  Friend I was with was impressed at how 200-grains made that gong bounce, and his girlfriend loved it, too; between the AR action and a good recoil pad, didn't bother her at all.

And now he wants one.  AR or bolt, he's liking the idea of that cartridge as a backup for his .300 Winchester Mag.


Also fired the Sharps, trying some loads at 100 and seeing how it did at 100.
I made a mistake, and used a different target than I usually do for testing; the loads shot well, but I think I might've had a bit better groups using the other targets.

I did find that, once the amount of sight adjustment needed was found, making the gong ring was no problem.  And fun.  Which reminds me, I need to find a morning with nothing important holding and cast a bunch of bullets.

Also, no problems with the Blackhorn 209 loads

Ah, Democrats going all Confederate again...

A leader for the CalExit movement told Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson that California is not part of the United States and it’s time to formalize that reality. 

“This is California. We’re not the United States. Our values are different,”(no shit?) said Shankar Singram, vice president of the California Freedom Coalition. “We’re fundamentally different in how we act and speak and think about the world globally. Whether it has to do with war, the climate, the environment. We’re just a different state.” 

He added, “We are going to do things that are beneficial for our state, and we disregard what the United States thinks or even their laws,” pointing to sanctuary cities and marijuana laws as examples where California is currently defying the feds.
Wonder what he'll think when a lot of the state says "Screw you, we're separating to become the new State of Jefferson in the US."?

Seriously, he's not saying anything new, it's just that they progzis generally won't say it out loud in public.

Also, I wonder what they'll do when a number of states say "You're no longer part of the US?  Then we'll need to negotiate an agreement with you about all the water you siphon off from our states." ?

When a high school announces "Our advanced classes won't mean anything

on your transcript, but don't you dare say it's because we're doing what we said we are!"
A parent forwarded me a copy of the letter sent from John Handley High School in Winchester.

“Through our collective work, advanced classes such as AP and Honors will have proportional representation,” read the letter. “Proportional representation is 40% White, 35% Hispanic, 12% African American, 10% mixed race.”
But
“I disagree that those statements mean that students will be placed in classes based on race,” said schoolboard chairman Erica Truban.
Wonderful, isn't it?


Southern Methodist University:
“The University has a new policy regarding Memorial Lawn Displays (see below) so I have changed the location of your request to MoMac Park,” Lydia Dale, who coordinates student activities, responded to the request.

The new policy is supposed to take into consideration “the right of all members of the SMU community to express their opinions” and the university’s perceived right of students to “avoid messages that are triggering, harmful, or harassing.”
Because a 9/11 memorial on campus would be Bad, apparently.


All you need to know about Google and 'freedom to express dissent':
“First, let me say that we strongly support the right of Googlers to express themselves, and much of what was in that memo is fair to debate, regardless of whether a vast majority of Googlers disagree with it,” Pichai wrote. “However,-
Much like "Of course I support free speech, BUT-"

Looks like the Army is looking for a new .30-caliber rifle

U.S. Army weapon officials just opened a competition for a new 7.62mm Interim Service Combat Rifle to arm infantry units with a weapon potent enough to penetrate enemy body armor. 

"The Army has identified a potential gap in the capability of ground forces and infantry to penetrate body armor using existing ammunition. To address this operational need, the Army is looking for an Interim Combat Service Rifle (ICSR) that is capable of defeating emerging threats," according to an Aug. 4 solicitation posted on FedBizOpps.gov.
But not for everybody:
Milley told lawmakers in late May that the Army does not believe that every soldier needs a 7.62mm rifle. These weapons would be reserved for the Army's most rapid-deployable infantry units.

"We would probably want to field them with a better-grade weapon that can penetrate this body armor," Milley said.

So, units like (I'd guess) Rangers and Special Forces get them, and possibly as a new SDM rifle for regular units. 

Seems like they want to be Martyrs to the Cause,

so give them what they want.
The two women said they researched how to pierce the steel pipe used for the pipeline and in March they began using oxyacetylene cutting torches to damage exposed, empty pipeline valves. They said they started deliberately vandalizing the pipeline in southeast Iowa’s Mahaska County, delaying completion for weeks.

Reznicek and Montoya said they subsequently used torches to cause damage up and down the pipeline throughout Iowa and into part of South Dakota, moving from valve to valve until running out of supplies. They said their actions were rarely reported in the media…
So do a proper investigation, try them, and throw their asses in cells.  And if it can be shown their organization was aware of this, or aided in any way, nail it as well.

And take note of that 'rarely reported'; gee, I wonder why...

From people who're usually all about the feels

“Google is not a space where employees should be able to express and share whatever feelings they may have, regardless of how it affects others,” Shevinsky wrote.
And what set this off(aside from their usual 'Fall into line, comrades!)?
“Distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership,” he wrote.
Cue screams of "BURN THE HERETIC!!"   Along with blaming him for thing he didn't say:
Entrepreneur Elissa Shevinsky wrote on blogging website Medium that speech “questioning the technical qualifications of people based on race or gender” could fall under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
He did NOT 'question their tech qualifications based on race or gender', but why let that inconvenient fact get in the way?  Much better to signal your virtue by wanting to destroy hinm.

Of course, Google's also busy making deals with the PRC to screw anyone who wants to be able to blog without winding up in a reeducation camp(or dead, or both), so maybe they're too busy to think clearly.


Which brings me to the next example for today of 'progressive' thought:
Bottom line: When life, wellness, and happiness are at stake, Black, Indigenous and People of Color have a right to gather without white people in order to address issues that are important to them.

Or even just to gather socially without the fear or inconvenience of having to worry about whether white people will insult them or act awkward.

Similarly, darker-skinned BIPOC may also desire spaces where they can process and organize around the unique issues they face because of their closer proximities to Black and Indigenous skin tones and facial features and (here it is)that us lighter-skinned people do not have to worry about.
Yep.  The whole thrust of this piece is "Yes, yes, you're a Person of Color, but you're not colored ENOUGH, so you don't have the real problems, so maybe you should stay out of People of Color Spaces."

You think I'm kidding?
And every time I have been a part of putting together or attended such a gathering, the issue of whether very light-skinned or white-passing BIPOC should attend has come up.

At the very least, people have expressed annoyance that white-passing people seem to feel entitled to BIPOC spaces and/or get upset if someone questions whether they are BIPOC.
Apparently one of the newest ways to separate people is 'Black, Indigenous, and People of Color'.  Because in woke culture, you've got to have proper ways to separate people out so you can figure out just how to treat them.

This mess includes people who aren't actually whateverthehell PoC they claim to be, 'but how should we treat them since it's not good to question someone's personal identification?', and on and on.

Freakin' amazing, isn't it?

At first, the grenade attacks were mostly directed at cars and homes linked to criminals and their relatives — but from two years ago perpetrators began to target the nation’s “society and state”, an expert at Sweden’s National Police Department told SVT.

“One very worrying trend we’ve noticed is that from 2015, we started to see people throwing grenades at municipal buildings, police stations and police officers,” he said, lamenting how, as the number of attacks has increased, so has the number of people who have been injured.
And a very interesting statement:
According to Peter Hejdström, head of police investigation in Halmstad, the explosives — which are typically thrown by hand — are not a problem that is restricted to the big cities, as the widespread availability of grenades in Sweden means even rural areas have been affected.
'widespread availability of grenades'...  Apparently someone isn't- surprise!- obeying the law.

And you'll notice there's no mention of any possible connection to people of certain ethnicity or- well, hell, you know the rest.

Professional Journalism, Time magazine version

Time Magazine covered a Charles Koch speech with the headline “Charles Koch says U.S. Can Bomb Its Way to $100,000 Salaries.” Except what he actually said was:

“I think we can have growth rates in excess of 4%. When I’m talking about growth rates, I’m not talking about that GDP, which counts poison gas the same as it counts penicillin,” the 79-year-old industrialist said, veering off his prepared remarks. “What a monstrous measure this is. If we make more bombs, the GDP goes up — particularly if we explode them.”

In other news, "Don't worry, this is politically-correct segregation(and if you don't agree you're a racist)!"
The new Director of Multicultural Student Affairs at North Carolina State University recently pledged to create a segregated housing option for “women of color” only.
...
While NC State already has two housing options for racial minorities—one exclusively for black males and another for Native American students—the school does not currently have one for female racial minority students, hence Whittenburg’s proposal.
I will refrain from further comment, because this pretty much covers it:

If you'll excuse me, I now have an appointment with a shower, followed by one with my bed.