Damn, a British tribunal with intelligence and honor!

I took note here of the utter bullshit being used to refuse entry of Gurkha veterans of British military service to Britain for medical treatment. Well, thanks to Theo I found this:
Two thousand Gurkha veterans should be allowed to live in Britain because their heroic service demonstrates the "strongest ties" to this country, a tribunal heard today.
...
Since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, Gurkhas are almost automatically entitled to live in Britain after completing at least four years of service - even if it was "just polishing boots in the barracks".

But those who retired before that date have to rely on the discretion of the British entry clearance officer and the diplomatic service procedure.

This states that only those who can demonstrate "strong ties" are allowed residency - and a distinguished Army career is not always sufficient.

Assuming you, as Kim puts it, remove breakables from reach first, I'd really recommend you read what kind of service the God-cursed bureaucrats consider 'not sufficient' to allow them entry to Britain for medical treatment, for God's sake.

Mind you, these are the same jackasses that will let any islamist nutcase who shows up illegally stay, even after they threaten to/plan to/assist in attempts to blow the damn country up.

We need another bumper sticker: Lamppost, rope, bureaucrat...

Well, that was interesting

Went to the range yesterday afternoon, both for some general stress relief and to start testing something(more on that later). I was shooting my M1 Carbine when something bumped off my left hand and fell to the shelf. Picked it up, what the hell... BLEEP! That's my extractor plunger! Look at the bolt, and the bleeping extractor is gone.

If you're not familiar with the bolt on these, the firing pin, ejector & spring and extractor spring and plunger all fit into the bolt, then(and it's a pain in the ass without one) you use the bolt tool to push the ejector back into the bolt and push the extractor spring & plunger back into their recess, slide the firing pin in and then push the extractor into place; sounds a lot more complicated than it is. The extractor locks everything else in, so if it breaks or comes out...

Happily, I found the extractor, only bounced about two feet away and appears undamaged, and everything went back together properly. I've heard of this happening, but this is the first time I've seen it with a carbine. One day at another range I saw this happen to a M1A: first time to the range, about the fifth round of factory ammo. I was firing a mix of Amerc ball(yeah, it's pretty crappy, I wanted to finish off the last bit of it) and some handloads with LC brass and Remington softpoint bullets.

Other than that, nice time at the boom-room. Ran into a man and woman(husband and wife for boyfriend-girlfriend, never did think to ask) who were having some difficulty: they'd rented a AR15 to try out, first time for that rifle with him and for her, the first time she'd ever been to a range. The rifle itself didn't bother her once she'd fired her first shot, but the noise really freaked her out at first. By the time I left she'd calmed down some on that and seemed to like shooting, so I recommended a couple of things, the big one(for an indoor range) being earplugs and muffs. They were planning to come back Saturday, I made a couple of suggestions. I think she'll turn into a shooter.

By the way, why is it that all the good-looking women you meet at the range are already either married or seeing someone? Dammit.

It's confirmed: I won't be browsing through eBay anymore

Fast response, at least. Got this this afternoon:
"Thank you for your recent email to Matt Halprin in regard to changes to our Firearms, Weapons and Knives policy. He has asked that I review your email and respond on his behalf.

At eBay we take the safety of our community and our marketplace very seriously. We have a Trust and Safety team which consists of more than 2,000 experts in online security and safety who are located around the globe. This team is dedicated to ensuring that our marketplace is a safe and trusted place for buyers and sellers to engage in trade.

We value an open and transparent marketplace; if items are legal to buy and sell in an unrestricted manner we allow them on our site. However, there are some items that while legal, may not be safe for our marketplace. In these instances, our applicable policies go beyond the
law to ensure that our marketplace is safe.

Currently we do not allow actual firearms on the site. After careful consideration our executives and our Trust and Safety team determined that any item required to fire a gun has no place on eBay. All of our policies are under constant review. As the Internet and the way our communities use the Internet evolves, our policies and our marketplace must evolve with it. We determined that this policy change was in the best interest of promoting a safe marketplace for all members."

Don't you just love that? "..promoting a safe marketplace for all members."

Now I need to hit the site one last time, to see if there's a way to delete the account.

If true, won't be buying from eBay or Half.Com anymore

Got a sale flyer from J&G today, and it included this:
Also, for years gun enthusiasts have bought and sold gun parts on eBay, J&G included. However eBay has announced that starting mid-August they will no longer allow gun parts to be sold through their website. We encourage you to contact Matt Halpin of eBay who is responsible for this decision at mhalprin@eBay.com. Please be respectful and considerate in your messages. Ask them to review this decision since it goes far beyond any state or federal laws.

I just sent an e-mail to ask if true, and if so, why? If true, hell with it, I'll stop using eBay and Half.com altogether; if they're more concerned with being politically correct and sensitive(which is what it would boil down to, whatever else they say) than with my business, to hell with them.

Found some pictures of a couple of knives

and, having had access to a scanner for a bit, scanned them and decided to post a couple.

This is one of the fanciest pieces I ever made. The blade is O1 tool steel, blade itself about eight inches long. The grip is curly maple stained dark, with spiral grooves carved in and twisted copper wire inlaid in the raised section between the grooves, about five inches long as I remember. Fittings are copper.

















The sheath was made of maple, also stained, with a leather collar around the mouth. You can't see it, but there was a belt hook on the back.

This is one of the pieces I took the time to do a mirror-polish on. Came out pretty nice.

Why Ahmadogcrap of Iran was so worried about squirrels

What do you think, .17M2?

Thanks to Theo

Putting pieces together

Eric at Classical Values has this post on digging out details of a possible murder in Philadelphia, which ends up with:
OK, if we play detective by piecing the three stories together, the following becomes the factual scenario:

Jason Brewer was murdered;

in a robbery;

at a residence;

where he did not live;

where his companion was also wounded during the same robbery;

As a whodunit, doesn't this just cry out for more detail?

I'd tend to think so. For instance, who was robbing who? And was this murder, or bad guy being shot by intended victim?

Down toward the end he leads us to this article, basically on the subject of 'nasty suburban(white) people don't care about black people in the city dying. Except for a few saints. Think I'm kidding?
Whenever I write about Philadelphia's homicide crisis, I hear from suburban readers who think it's a waste of space.

Poor black people killing poor black people, thugs shooting thugs - why should we cry?

Having informed us that people in the suburbs(apparently all white, no blacks/latinos/whatever need apply) don't care about those nasty minority types in the city dying, she brings out her saint:
The Jenkintown graphic designer is obsessed with the death toll - already over 200 - even though the bullets aren't flying anywhere near the home and family he holds dear.
and goes from there.

This is one of the people Alphecca noted had fits over "...Philly-based Urban Outfitters for selling $6 handgun Christmas ornaments in a city ravaged by bullets." Who's now got a poster- made with police department help- to find sponsors for.

It's really fairly standard crap: white people don't care about black people dying, guns are evil, we need more laws, etc. Major Media at its finest.

What's more important? The matter at hand, or the time on stage?

What I've been thinking about is the attitude and thoughts of some of the activist types who do things like threaten the careers- and sometimes lives- of researchers who refuse to follow the 'consensus science' point of view, and the animal rights activists(to use a polite term) who do things like this. I'm not going into the 'a rat is a dog is a cat is a boy' crap of the extremists; they've got a severe mental problem and that's a whole 'nother thing.

I'm thinking of what someone wrote a couple of years ago about terrorism, and how for some of the bad guys it's 'terrorism as theater': something that, even when they know it'll not have the result they want and may even cause very bad things to happen(think WTC attack = special ops troops whacking Taliban) they have to do it anyway because that's what their image demands. Whether it actually accomplishes what they want doesn't matter, it allows them to see themselves as fearsome soldiers of Allah and that's what really matters.

I think that, to a lot of these people- the activists- it doesn't really, in their heart, matter if they actually change someone's mind; they want to
A. Get up in front of everyone and make a spectacle and
B. Force other people to do what they want. They don't care if you actually believe or agree with them, they don't care what the facts(any fact that doesn't agree with what they want is either wrong or simply to be disregarded) are; it's "I'm one of the superior beings, I think this is right, and you will do what I want."

Both are connected, but in some(maybe many) cases, I think A is more important.

Read that passage at Classical Values. This clown specifically sets out to be as offensive as possible, as threatening as possible*, as disruptive as possible without going to far as to be arrested. He dares people to beat him up, and- because they're civil, and not so stupid as to do it- he acts like he's actually braved danger. This jerk may actually care about the deer, but far more important than that is the theater, his theater. He has, in his mind, become the most important actor in that room and that's what really matters.

I'm wondering if this would explain some of the "Ban the evil guns!" activists. I have no doubt some are totally sincere, they've decided these objects are responsible for many ills and all we have to do is pass 'one more law'(Kevin's 'magical thinking') and All Will Be Well. But a good many of them seem to care at least as much about being in front of a crowd(preferably involving lots of cameras) and being seen as a Truly Caring Person as they do about actually accomplishing something.

No, that's not quite right. They DO accomplish something: they play their part in their theater. They have their time on stage and are seen in the manner they prefer. And if they actually do help to gain more control over other people's lives(for everybody's own good of course, and For The Children), that's a standing ovation and bouquet of roses for a fine performance.

Need I even speak of politicians?

Makes you wonder, just how much nanny-state bullshit is based, down inside, on someone playing out their self-made part on stage?

Some more general stuff

These globular warmering people are getting more unhinged:
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent by the leader of an EPA-member group, vowing to "destroy" the career of a climate skeptic.
...
"It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar," Mr. Eckhart wrote. "If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on."

Nice, reasoned discourse. Consensus 'science'. Just bloody wonderful.

A Canadian doctor talks about socialized medicine:
Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care.

Yeah, Hillary, we really, really want to be just like Canada. And Britain and Europe:
Consider the recent British controversy over a cancer patient who tried to get an appointment with a specialist, only to have it canceled — 48 times. More than 1 million Britons must wait for some type of care, with 200,000 in line for longer than six months. In France, the supply of doctors is so limited that during an August 2003 heat wave — when many doctors were on vacation and hospitals were stretched beyond capacity — 15,000 elderly citizens died. Across Europe, state-of-the-art drugs aren't available. And so on.

And the arrogant, bullying stupidity of the bambiists:
"Today, I am not asking you to stop killing the deer, I am TELLING you to stop killing deer. There will be no more deer-killings at our metro-parks. It is off limits to you and your hunting buddies. If the HCMA continues on its bloody path, then I will execute justice the way I see fit ... and that means constructing a rogue, independent, deer-police unit to protect them from you. KAPISH!"

Hopefully, tomorrow will have a bit more time to actually write. Something I've been thinking about. So you have been warned.

Just a combination of things

For the enviroweenie on your eat it, you jerk!gift list, Kim has linked to a truly incredible(well, disgusting too) piece at Civilization Watch on- among other things- just how that bullcrap 'hockey stick' graph the True Believers In Globular Warmering use(still, despite it being shown up as crap) to try to beat people into submission. For a moment, I thought about sending this link to the friend I had the big go-round with, but decided not to; after I said I wasn't going to play that game anymore it settled back into friendly terms, and, her being one of the True Believers, I'd just get to hear the "All the TRUE scientists believe!" stuff again.

As to the Beauchamp the Slimy mess, Confederate Yankee has a whole lot of stuff; just start working your way down, it's worth it. Same at Ace of Spades. Chris noted in a comment that the guy could be facing serious charges; at one of the many posts somebody(I've lost track of which one) checked with a Army official and was told he couldn't comment because of the 'ongoing investigation'. Like nobody saw that coming. Write about atrocities and general dirtbag behaviour on the part of your whole damn unit, and you'd be surprised that someone from CID shows up and says "We need to talk"?

A columnist in Canada says 'stop blaming guns and poverty and all the usual feel-good crap, and start looking at what's truly behind these problems'. Look for the 'human rights' people to try to crucify him at their earliest opportunity.

The Relapsed Catholic was wondering why military decorations could be bought online. She gets the answer. I could buy a hat and unit insignia for my son's unit to put up on the wall or something, but it would be flat wrong for me to wear it as if I'd served in that unit. Or to buy a medal and act as if I'd earned it; such things have been known to cause a severe ass-kickingproblems for idiots and/or posers who've done it.

And a piece from the UK Times on how activist lawyers are causing problems in fighting terrorists. He also notes that a lot of European countries who bitch and whine about Guantanamo aren't exactly squeaky-clean in their treatment of terror suspects.

If this turns out to be true,

this is something else that's downright big.

By the way, did Murtha actually wave a Purple Heart around to show what a hotshot he is? If he did, that's proof that the bastard should be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail. And that goes for any politician who does such a thing.

So the lying little boob is unmasked

Hot Air has it, with lots of links to more. Blackfive has several pieces on this, latest here; more worth reading on this and other things, so scroll down.

This guy sounds like someone in my son's unit: pain-in-the-ass little jerk who's made himself, er, 'unpopular' with everyone and who seems to think he's undervalued. Only Beauchamp decided to piss all over everyone in uniform with his BS, and is now whining and (you know it was coming) calling "Chickenhawk!" at everyone who criticized him. Despite so many of them being, you know, veterans and stuff. I'll repeat what I once said, I'd rather be called a chickenhawk than actually be a chickenshit; which he most assuredly is.


Note: before I expressed reservations about this jerk actually being a troop. It turns out he does wear the uniform(for now, at least), but I admit to trouble referring to this little shit as a 'soldier'.

Remarkable things happen with you give simple orders:

Go in numbers, kill or capture the bad guys and keep them from returning.

Survival

Somebody linked to this post on the subject, specifically the way people just don't think about the fact that nature doesn't give a damn and will kill you without a care. Just because you didn't check on something/learn the area/keep your eyes open/think.

There was a book written a couple of years ago called Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why. Very good book with many examples. The people who walk into a national forest in Hawaii and disappear. The searchers who go looking for them and disappear. The swimmers who vanish, the mountain climbers who die in avalanches, slides and falls. Boaters who drown or are eaten or taken by storms. People who get lost in a relatively small area and die of exposure. The post noted above mentions a place in that book:
I read in a survival book, of a rock that's over here, a popular photo site, where the waves crash against it majestically, Tourists stop here as it's a remarkable photo opportunity, the breakers breaking up past them and showering them with drops of the sea. A man will pause to adjust a setting on his digital camera, and look up to find his lover gone, never to be seen again.

Gone. Because you were standing on a rock at just the wrong time. He wrote of a similar story to hers of going out to the beach and, just in passing, asking a lifeguard about the water today. The guy looked out and just stood there for a couple of minutes, and as the writer had about decided this guy was stoned or something the guy came out of the trance and gave him a complete rundown of where was safe, where wasn't and what would happen if you went into the wrong area. Today. Might be different tomorrow. Which probably kept the writer from being one of the disappeared.

I occurs to me that taking note of the hazards of nature before going out into it is very similar thing to the people who decide to carry for self-defense. They're not looking for a fight, they don't want a fight, they just want to go through their daily hike through life. But they've taken note that there are predators out there, some of whom will hurt or kill anyone who strikes their fancy; that "it CAN happen to me". So they decide to be more careful of where they go, of how they keep an eye out, and decide to carry the means of defense in case it's needed. Which means practicing, and running things through your mind: "What would I have to do if that guy pulled a knife? What would happen if a robbery started while I'm having dinner?" and so on.

Mind you, society can make it difficult for people in both cases. The most obvious is the carrying of arms: some places it's flat not legal, most you have to jump through some legal hoops to get a permit to carry. And even when you have the permit there are usually a bunch of places you're not allowed to carry. Including a lot of national forests and other such places. Different kind of predator(usually) to worry about than in the city, but just as dangerous. And a lot of people just as certain that you, the common peasantcivilian, cannot be trusted to carry there(and, like that idiot Biden, don't think you should be allowed to own guns or sharp objects at all).

Survival very often boils down to, on the most basic level, recognizing that there are risks, and that things can happen to you, so you at the least should be watchful. In the woods or in town.

And yet more on the 'Shock Troops' bullshit

Through Insty ran across two things. One is a different way of analyzing it, found here. Interesting read, although this pisses me off:
With 160,000 people, mostly young men, many armed, many beyond the eyes of authority, there will be some thuggery and sadism and it is doubtful that superior officers will be devoting any large amount of time and effort to finding or suppressing it.
Apparently an awful lot of people think that once troops get into combat areas, their NCOs and officers don't really care much what they do.

Other thing is here. Lots of links, and a very interesting quote from the asshat editor of NR:
The magazine granted anonymity to the writer to keep him from being punished by his military superiors and to allow him to write candidly, Mr. Foer said. He said that he had met the writer and that he knows with “near certainty” that he is, in fact, a soldier.
Got that? "Near certainty". And noted in the comments is that this has been changed: it now says "He said that he had met the writer and that he knows that he is, in fact, a soldier."

Yeah, that's real damn believable.

On a further note, Chris said in the comments to an early bit I posted on the Bradley:
The main structure and armor are relatively light aluminum; they CAN'T run though a wall as described. They'd accordion.
And what do you think would happen to the driver who did something like this in anything other than a 'no other choice' scenario?

On dealing with the possessed

Back when I was a dispatcher there was a guy working in another headquarters who was an EMT, and he'd occasionally tell a story about some run he'd made. This one made him a bit more concerned with the idea of The Devil.

They'd received a call from the local police for a mental case they needed transport for to the hospital that handled such cases. They arrived just as four slightly worse-for-wear cops had gotten the subject in question somewhat subdued, and they got him on the gurney and cuffed on both sides with no problem and headed for the hospital.

He was sitting in the back watching the guy when he turned his head, looked at the EMT and said, in a flat voice, "I am Satan".

"Ok dude, that's fine, whoever you want to be." He'd dealt with a lot of somewhat to really messed-up people by now, so no big deal.

Guy(hasn't blinked since he said that) repeated, with slight pauses to emphasize, "I.. am.. Satan." Flat voice, absolutely no emotion and still not blinking.

"That's fine, it's ok, we're almost there." Getting just a touch nervous now as the guy tried to sit up. he seemed to notice the cuffs for the first time and laid there staring at the one on his wrist closest to the EMT. Then he started flexing his arm. Not jerking, just a steady rise until he reached the end of the chain and then kept going, very slowly.

EMT was getting very nervous now because this guy was freaking him out, and, hmmm, it almost looked like the frame of the gurney where the cuff was looped was deforming just a touch, and the guy was still lifting. At this point he was sliding to the back of the ambulance where the extinguisher was and called to the driver to get ready to stop. "Why?" was answered with "Just get ready!"

Ting.

That was the sound of the cuff chain breaking. As the guy sat up and started lifting his other arm the EMT yelled "STOP!" and braced himself, driver hit the brakes, inertia surprised the subject and threw him flat, and just as they came to a stop the EMT sprayed the guy in the face, threw open the door and jumped out. Landing on the hood of the following police car that'd almost rear-ended the ambulance. He looked at two shocked faces and yelled "He broke the cuffs!" Both officers jumped out and into the back of the ambulance, he and the driver joined in and in a couple of minutes they had him secured again, this time with two cuffs on each arm. And this time one of the officers rode in back the rest of the trip, which was made with remarkable speed.

They got to the ER, took the guy inside to a room and began to relax. Until the doctor walked in, took one look and said "Take those handcuffs off him."

Chorus of "No!"

"I said take them off! I will not have a patient chained in my ER."

Lead officer took out his keys, took off the handcuff key, tossed it to the doctor and said "You do it." And both officers left. The EMTs looked at each other, and followed.

I asked him if he knew what happened after that, he said no, didn't go back to that hospital before he changed jobs a short time later. I tend to think the doctor may have had a rush of intelligence to the head and decided to sedate the guy before unlocking him; otherwise, it'd probably have been on the news when a patient remodeled the room and some of the staff.

Things do move along

I just bought a 32mb jump drive for the grand total of $5. At the checkout counter. At Target.

And Wally World has a 2 gig drive for $20.

I think it was ten years ago(maybe less) I was listening to a programmer having fits of ecstasy because he'd just found out you could now buy a 1 gigabyte hard drive for a pc for only $100.

More on the 'Shock Troops' story

Emphasis on 'story'.

Over at Q&O, found several pieces, from earliest to latest here, here, and here, and links to a Howard Kurtz article here. The response to the questions from New Republic:
"The Standard raises some important questions about the piece, and we're investigating them," New Republic Editor Franklin Foer said yesterday. "I've been in touch with several members of the author's unit who corroborate the details under question. And the author has provided compelling responses himself."

Which boils down to "We say it's true, so there. We'll have some proof at some point. When we feel like it." Which, considering the attention this is getting, would seem to mean "Crap, we need something to prove at least some of this! What'll we do? We can't get away with 'the story is true even if the facts are not' anymore!"

One thing , aside from the other BS in this, is the stuff about a Bradley driver ramming through walls, etc. I'm not an armor guy, so I'm going by what I've read. And one thing you don't do with a bloody TANK if you can avoid it is ram through concrete walls; hard on the vehicle and the people inside. Well, the Bradley is NOT a tank, it's much lighter and more lightly armored, and the consequences to the vehicle of doing such a thing would be, shall we say, 'bad'. Like damaging the gun, and the missile launcher, and the people inside... I kind of think the vehicle commander and unit commander would have some words to say to the driver who did something like this without very damn good reason. Said words probably being accompanied with the driver's ass being relocated to somewhere in the vicinity of his shoulder blades.

But, why let nasty facts get in the way of a 'true' story? Didn't stop Dan Rather.

H&H Range had Dealer's Days

on Thursday, Friday & Saturday. They've been doing this for several years now, and it's pretty nice. This year they had people from Springfield, S&W, Para-Ordnance, Kimber, Sig, Taurus, Savage, Wilson Combat, Leupold and Surefire. Way it works is if you find something you'd like to try out you buy a ticket($3, money goes to the state shooting sports assoc.) and give it to the dealer. You get the gun and(for most*) five rounds of ammo and a target to take to the range and shoot. Plus they have discounts on most things, and a lot of the dealers throw in extra mags or a holster or hat or shirt or a combination of the above if you buy.

Found a couple of things I wanted/needed, but the only thing I tried out this time was a Kimber Aegis II















Take their micro-compact .45acp, give it an alloy frame and chamber it in 9mm as a thin, light carry piece. It's a single-action with the entire hammer spur cut off(that part I'm not too sure about why), which is why you don't see it.

Very small, very light, and the one I tried had night sights, a full stainless finish and as fine a trigger as I've ever felt: short takeup and breaking light and clean. It put my five shots into a group about 2" across at 15 feet exactly at point of aim. Not a bad little pistol at all. If only it didn't cost so damn much.

Speaking of cost, the Wilson table had a couple of their full-size 1911's, a AR15 with everything and a shotgun with most things. I know you pay for handwork and don't gripe about that, and from a quality maker you get what you pay for, but damn! The less-expensive 1911 was $3200. Which puts it WAY out of what I'm willing to pay for a pistol unless I come into a big damn pile of money.

I just wish I'd had more time, there were a couple of other pistols I'd have tried out.


*For the .500 and .460 S&W Magnums, you got one round; any more than that, you had to buy.

'New Republic publishes 'Murdering Soldiers' story

Smell of bovine fertilizer in the air

I'm quite a bit behind on this. Some clown going by Scott Thomas had a piece in NR called 'Shock Troops' on the horrible, nasty people in/created by the Army. Among other things which caused a lot of people to call "Bullshit!" was this:
Someone reached down and picked a shell casing up off the ground. It was 9mm with a square back. Everything suddenly became clear. The only shell casings that look like that belong to Glocks. And the only people who use Glocks are the Iraqi police.

The technical BS in this will be obvious to most people who swing by here. If you're not familiar with firearms stuff, there is no gun made that uses a 'square back' cartridge case. Period. The second thing is that Glocks are kind of like mosquitos, they're all over the damn place. Including in Iraq.

I could go on, but there's no reason to; a lot of people with better backgrounds have taken this crap apart on various levels. So what I'm going to do is put together some links on this.

Blackfive, here and here.

Confederate Yankee here, here, here.

Michelle Malkin here, here(bottom of the post, multiple links), Hot Air here.

Ace here, here, here.

That's not nearly all that's coming out on this crap.

And just to cover the 'we support the troops' line, Ace has this and this from the Kossites.