This would be bloody cool:

diving between two tectonic plates.


When a politician as crooked as Clinton is seen trying to come to the rescue, you are, in non-technical terms, up shit creek sans paddling device. (Actually, given how things are going, Clinton’s era was a veritable golden age, although let’s not forget that his own “Hillarycare” reforms were shot down by the-then Congress.)


Also from Samizdata, a bit of history from November 10:
Whatever the semblance, nothing about the French Revolution was harmless. The Goddess Reason ascended her throne two months into the Terror. When the Catholic peasants of the Vendée were so ungrateful for the blessings of the Goddess as to attempt counter-revolution, Momoro, the man whose wife had played the role of the Goddess, was deeply involved in its brutal suppression. Chaumette, too, was one of the leading enragés, and soppy modern “liberals” inclined to praise the Cult of Reason as an ancestor of their own views might like to read more about its teachings regarding women. Neither Momoro nor Chaumette had long to enjoy their status as founders. By spring of the next year Robespierre decided to replace the Cult of Reason with the Cult of the Supreme Being. From then on it was the People’s Front of Judea scene from Life of Brian with real deaths. The Committee of Public Safety sent Momoro to the guillotine on 24th March 1794 and Chaumette followed him on 15th April. Robespierre himself fell from power in June and was guillotined in July.


Well, it's about damn time:
Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) has introduced an Articles of Impeachment resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder for his role in Operation Fast and Furious and other scandals of President Barack Obama’s administration.

Seven congressman have signed onto the resolution thus far in addition to Olson. They are Reps. Larry Bucshon (R-IN), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Phil Roe (R-TN), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Roger Williams (R-TX), Ted Yoho (R-FL), and Randy Weber (R-TX).


This is kind of hard to read all the way through: special rules for Only Ones.
And some of them wonder why they're not Officer Friendly to us anymore...

I wonder what kind of court case that'd make: "Your Honor, my client simply wants the same considerations the officers get; if he cannot have them, then we file suit."


The Truth About Obamacare, including

At your 2010 health-care summit, you dismissed what you called “house insurance”—cheap, high-deductible policies that protect people from serious illness or injury but otherwise leave them to fund routine medical care out of pocket. How do you reconcile this with your oft-stated promise that people can keep their existing insurance?

I don’t reconcile it. I lied in order to get the legislation passed. I had thought that was clear by now.


If this pic is for real,

that man has the cleanest bowels in history.


Snork... hehehehe...
But come on, people.

If you can’t take some joy, some modicum of relief and mirth, in the unprecedentedly spectacular beclowning of the president, his administration, its enablers, and, to no small degree, liberalism itself, then you need to ask yourself why you’re following politics in the first place. Because, frankly, this has been one of the most enjoyable political moments of my lifetime. I wake up in the morning and rush to find my just-delivered newspaper with a joyful expectation of worsening news so intense, I feel like Morgan Freeman should be narrating my trek to the front lawn. Indeed, not since Dan Rather handcuffed himself to a fraudulent typewriter, hurled it into the abyss, and saw his career plummet like Ted Kennedy was behind the wheel have I enjoyed a story more.

If the dog doesn't like the sitter,

there may be reason why.

Well done, critter.


Found thanks to Uncle, some really neat high-speed photography.


Sounds like the right penalty to me: hang the bastards.

A light powered by a generator run by a weight;

that'd be interesting.

Interesting piece of hardware

to be sure. I have a hard time buying the 'exact location' and 'even if the enemy moves' stuff. But giving troops a reasonably close vector toward where the shot came from, maybe even a range estimate... possible, I'd guess.

Light posting last few days, mix of busy and just not feeling like typing a lot

Still not that fond of it, but there's a lot of stuff I want to point to. Which probably translates to "I can stop anytime I want!(no you can't, dumbass) In any case,
The NRA is supposed to be focused on "Who is a friend of the 2nd", that doesn't bother me; what bothers me is idiocy like this:
If anyone thinks supporting this proven gun-grabber is the best course for the Republic (and the best inducement for the Republicans to stop with the betrayals, although why they would feel compelled to if they're rewarded anyway is a valid argument), I won't waste my time trying to dissuade you. Although I will point out he apparently doesn't feel your support is worth crowing about... What I will say is, to endorse GUN CONFISCATOR Dan Lungren and not endorse faithful gun rights supporter Sharron Angle points to a disconnect in the NRA grading system that is not only illogical, one might even consider it fraudulent.
Fraudulent or flat stupid; either one covers it.


So with this group, instead of "We'll kill you if you don't support our AGW ideas", it's "If you don't support us, YOU'RE murdering children":



Ah, Napolitano, this really is pretty simple: if she's here illegally, you throw her ass out. C'mon, how difficult is that?


Interesting things happening and questions about what Castro & Co. are up to.


Well, if you had the money wouldn't you build a submarine?


You've got some people actually worried about doing their job right, but the wording of some of this tells me TurboTax Geithner is mostly worried that if people find out just what Obama & Co.'s bullcrap is going to cost them before the election...


I've been running a test on some rust-bluing stuff, I hope to post it later today. For now, 'bye

Now, this is downright cool!

A dinosaur that was partly mummified instead of petrified:
Although the first dinosaur mummy was found a century ago, the newly described fossil is striking because it contains soft tissues from the original beast.

The remains of the uncollapsed skin envelope of the tail, arm, and legs of the Hadrosaur were uncovered in a rocky tomb in North Dakota to reveal fossilised skin and tendons that, under the gaze of an advanced scanner, provide a unique and tantalising glimpse of the 3D innards of a dinosaur.

All kinds of interesting things out of this. The changes in how this thing looked sounds like something a Drake character said in Time Safari: that so much of what we 'know' about extinct species is based on guesswork that damn near all of it is subject to change the moment we find something that gives more hard information. For instance, now it's been decided that T-Rex was relatively slow and some argue he was mostly a scavenger; what if it turns out there was something about his structure that allowed him to run faster than we think from looking at the fossils?

Lots of interesting things to come in the future, I have no doubt.

Been a bit busy

with a personal matter, so not much to write the past while. Should have something to put up either later today or tomorrow, but for now:
Dumbass union people, sucking up to Hillary Clinton.

Traitor convicted for trying to get al Qaeda help to attack this country. Wasn't convicted of treason, unfortunately, though what he was doing damn well qualifies as such.

It's discovered that if you look around you can find all kinds of useful things right on the shelf. And if you tell people "We need this", they can build it. Without spending a few billion on committees and so forth.

Kucinich proves he's a friggin' idiot(as if further proof was needed) by trusting Edwards.

Drug gangs threaten journalists. But of COURSE these people will be stopped by a 'virtual' fence.

The Brits just can't seem to help themselves about flushing their country down the toilet.

Speaking of flushing, demonstration of why Kim calls Republicans the 'Stupid Party'.

Tim Blair notes some things about Globular Warmering:
But climate change is like Michael Moore's tracksuit - it can fit anyone. In 2005, Greenpeace rep Steven Guilbeault helpfully explained: "Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with."

What we're dealing with, apparently, is weather.

Ah, but what weather it is!

The son has been heard from,

Yesterday while packing up to head out in the field again. They've been training hard(as they should) and spending a lot of time out in the field.

Pretty much everybody's been qualifying with everything, and he made expert with the M240B











.30 caliber machinegun. Also fired the M2 Browning, (only with the plastic bullet practice ammo, alas) and everything else that might come to hand in time of trouble.

He's supposed to have some leave and come back for a visit in the near future, which'll be nice. So far, so good.

If you've got someone joining or in who doesn't have one, may I make a suggestion? A really good folding knife. Gave him one for his birthday a couple of weeks before he shipped out, one of the big CRKT folders, and it's been a very handy tool.

I think I could call this a 'spike in traffic'

I looked at Sitemeter for the numbers for the last seven days. Here's visits:























And here's visits and page views:
























Guess which day Insty linked to my post?

Of course, the day after it's a big drop downward(ah, fickle fame...) so I'm back from a tall soapbox to a standard size with a saggy lid.

Wow, Instalanche!

over the post on using your hands.

To address something Bruce said in comments:
No, if you're a lawyer/doctor/software engineer working on a $200/hour job, I don't think it's generally a good idea to drop everything to fix the furniture yourself. And not everyone enjoys working on the car, or fixing the lawnmower or whatever.

I do think it's a Good Thing to be able to do some of that, for a variety of reasons. It makes you less dependant on someone else for some work(I'm not fond of crawling under a house working on something, but knowing how to fix the problem in question saved money I couldn't afford to spend), it can save time, and, what may be the big one, people I know who can fix some things on their own are generally proud of it. May just be small things, but they like being able to take care of it. And knowing they can fix that makes them more likely to fiddle with something new and either fix it or figure out exactly what's wrong(which can save time and money when you take it to a pro).

I would flat hate taking the top off the truck engine in the driveway, especially some times of year, but it's comforting to know that I could find a manual and do it if I had to. And I'll admit that if I had to call someone to change a tire because I couldn't figure out how I'd be embarrassed as hell(which happens often enough, I don't need it over something like that). I'd much rather read, or screw around on the computer, or go to the range than fix the mower; but fixing it has saved money and time over taking it to someone else. And the kids knowing how to do some things on their own has helped them out.

Side effect for the kids? Cuts or scrapes or small injuries were generally seen as something to gripe about a bit and get over, because they were in the way of what you were doing, not obsess over. Which, in the long run, is a very Good Thing.

MOLLE light

Saw a review of these in Shotgun News last month, and thought it looked pretty neat. So I checked it out, and ordered one









I'll state right off that I'm still a bit ticked off at PentagonLight who make it. Ordering it involved a delay("I didn't get a confirmation for shipping like the site says to expect." "We're backordered, it'll be a week or so."), then more delay, then a couple of unanswered e-mails, then a "Tell me where it is or cancel the order" from me followed by "We're sorry about that, yours should ship Monday at the latest".

It shipped Tuesday. Yeah, it's just one day, but it was damn near a month after I ordered it. So while I'm hoping that this was an exception for their service, I'm still ticked.

MOLLE is short for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment, the system that replaced the old ALICE gear(no, I don't remember what it's short for). This light looks kind of like the old military right-angle flashlight. This one is small(3.5" tall) and light(1.5 oz) and uses a single AA battery. Instead of a bulb, it uses a .5 watt LED with about 40 lumens output, and can be had with blue or red filters that screw onto the base for storage and over the lamp for use. It's supposed to fit inside one of the loops on the MOLLE gear(don't have any to check that) and has a spring clip that allows it to be hooked on a belt, pocket or whatever.

A bit unhappy with the company or not, so far I have to say this is a very good light. Not as bright as my Surefire G2, it's a very similar white light with no shadows or holes in it. The switch is on top: press down a little for momentary, down all the way for constant on. It's supposed to run about three hours constant with a fresh battery, soon as I get a chance I'll stick a brand new Duracell in and try it. It'll sit upright on the base, and I've hooked it on pockets and belt; the hook does swivel so you can aim it.

Overall I rate it as a good piece to have.

Ever heard of Leslie Fish?

Among other things, she's a filksinger; someone who takes traditional tunes and makes lyrics- usually related to a sci-fi or fantasy story/movie- to go with them. She also composes her own stuff(a talent I'm somewhat in awe of). Here's one of hers:

Black Powder and Alcohol

Black powder and alcohol
when the states and the cities fall
When your back is against the wall
black powder and alcohol

Give me charcoal to the measure two,
sends the bullet where you want it to
Give me sulphur to the measure three,
make the powder gonna keep you free
Give me saltpetre measure fifteen,
sweetest shootin' that you've ever seen, remember

chorus

Give me water, yeast and veggie trash
leave it sittin' in the slurry mash
When it's ready put it in the still
if you can't heat it up the sunlight will
Draw the alcohol away and then
put the slurry back and start again

chorus

Booze'll clean your cuts and run your car
you can make it anywhere you are
Black powder in your cartridge shell
Will send your raiders runnin' clean to hell
You can make it if you just know how
so kids, remember what I'm teachin' you now

chorus twice


Here's a place with some of her stuff in mp3 form, check it out.

Og asked what critters those were in the 'Spring' post,

Kiki the ferret and Bun-Bun the(Glock & switchblade packin') mini-lop. Of Sluggy fame.

Ever finish the backlog, Cowboy?

Amazing what comes out of the change machine sometimes

This quarter looks really worn, so I flipped it over to check the date



















1935. I've found pre-1964 quarters a couple of times before, but never one this old.

Time trial on the flashlight

I turned it on at 11:30 last night. When I got up at 7:30 it was noticeably dimmer, still useable but fading fast enough to see over the next half hour.

Say eight hours good, and that's with cheap Rayovac non-alkaline batteries(6 for $1 at the dollar store). With good alkaline batteries, I imagine it'll extend that a bit. Next time I get a chance I'll pick some up and give them a try.

Sometimes good things come from EvilBay

Couple of days ago was browsing over flashlights, searched 'led flashlights', and among lots of stuff ran across this:

















It was listed as a '1 watt led light' that puts out 35 lumens. Hmmm, little over five bucks, three minutes to go, hey, free shipping! So I put in a bid, and won, and paid for it.

Know how shipping of some things seems to take forever? Not this time, it was in the mailbox about 48 hours after I paid. Very nice.

It's an aluminum body 4.25" long, about 1.25" diameter at the head, pushbutton tailswitch. Uses three AAA batteries: unscrew the back and a plastic housing drops out, put in the batteries, slide it back in and close it up. Then wait for dark to try it out.

I don't have any way to measure it, but this sucker is bright. Not as bright as my Surefire G2, but bright; you do not want to shine it in your eyes. The light compares favorably to the Surefire in that it's a bright center with no shadows or dark spots, though it does have that led blue tint(not bad, but noticeable).

I want to find out how long batteries will last in this, so I'm going to mark a starting time, turn it on and leave it until it goes out or too dim to use. Update to follow.