I've linked to various nonsense from Britain, including criminals filing claims against people they attacked. But this is a prize case.
"A teenage criminal who received £567,000 in compensation after falling through a roof while trespassing boasted about his wealth yesterday, saying that he was looking forward to buying "a few houses and a flash car"."
"I deserve this money and I don't care what anybody says about me," he said. "I'm going to buy a big house so I have a place to live with me mum when she gets out of jail. I might buy a few houses - I'll buy whatever I want." He added: "The papers just call me a yob and a thug because I've been done for robbery and assault but those were just silly stupid little things, like."
Ok, here's a hint. Jackass wants a nice place to live with "mum when she gets out of jail". Oh, and the robbery and assault? "Just silly stupid little things".
And why was mum in jail? "Murphy's mother Diane and her partner Kevin Parsons, both 36, were jailed for three years for dealing in crack cocaine and heroin from their council house in Bellini Close."
Proper compensation for this piece of crap would be to throw him and his mum and her 'partner' in prison and keep them there.
We've had a few cases here where some dirtbag filed suit against someone who hurt them during a robbery, and the jerk who hurt himself in a house he was burgling and sued the owner. One of the problems there is some lawyers who should be kicked off the bar for taking the cases, the other is judges who hear the case instead of throwing it out and telling the lawyers what crap they are. This, though, is a government program, tax money going into the pocket of this waste of oxygen.
Read the article, I'm out of words on this.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Lord, make a place for this man at the table,
he's damned well earned it.
This is definately courage 'above and beyond the call of duty'. And he's got a sense of humor about it. Someone asked him what was going through his mind the second time, and he said, "An RPG".
Found at Kim's
This is definately courage 'above and beyond the call of duty'. And he's got a sense of humor about it. Someone asked him what was going through his mind the second time, and he said, "An RPG".
Found at Kim's
Yucca Mountain
I hadn't heard much about this lately. Then I read this over at Mean Mr. Mustard.
I've gotten used to the hysteria anytime the words 'radiation' or 'radioactive' are heard, which is one reason I didn't pay much attention when this started. It reminds me of the people who scream about nuclear weapons materials being transported: "There will be an accident and the whole area will be contaminated! The terrorists will steal the stuff!" and so forth.
I mentioned before that I once was a dispatcher for the Highway Patrol here. In one in-service school we had some background and response materials on the transport of nuclear weapons materials, how they were set up, security, respoinses if trouble, etc. The containers, whether rail or truck trailer, are designed and built to both prevent the release of any materials in any conceivable accident, and to deny access to anyone who might attack them. In the case of truck transport, the semi pulling the trailer is armored and driven by two federal marshalls, both armed. And they have two- minimum- escort vehicles with more marshalls and sufficient weapons to fight a small battle. I do not use that description lightly; their training and focus was to, in the event of an attempt to seize the truck, hold off what would amount to an infantry assault until help could arrive. Which would be pretty damn quick. I won't go over the alert call procedures, in any case I'm sure they've advanced quite a bit.
The containers themselves were shot, lifted off the ground by cranes and dropped, crashed into by other trucks, and sat across railroad tracks and hit by a locomotive moving 65mph. All with no leaks. And if someone managed to stop the truck and kill all the marshalls? The semi would be disabled, the cavalry would be coming(literally), and the trailers contained 'denial' features, tear gas being the only one they would tell us about. Plus, it took at least two people, doing the right things in the right sequence, to unlock and open the thing.
And with all this, people still screamed about how 'unsafe' and 'insufficiently tested' all this was. The problem with those statements being that for the people making them, there was no way that they could EVER be 'safe'. No tests mattered, no security would be good enough, it involved RADIATION! This included clowns from the Benedictine Peace House who had people watching the highways for the trucks; they liked to follow them as a 'protest' to the transport of those 'immoral' weapons materials, but also because there was RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS involved.
Connected is the screaming about destroying our stockpiles of chemical weapons. Everyone wants to get rid of them, so the Army built a specially-designed incinerator for the purpose. Secured area, storage areas, the incinerator itself, all for the specific purpose of destroying the stuff. And what happens? The same people who are screaming the loudest about getting rid of it don't want it destroyed there. "You'll have to transport it through places where people live! There will be accidents and people will die! Whole areas will be contaminated!" As if the people trying to get rid of the stuff are just going to load it in a semi and drive it through, hoping for the best. So, let's see: you want it moved away from where it is, BUT YOU CAN'T DRIVE IT AWAY! You want it destroyed, but YOU CAN'T TAKE IT TO THE PLACE WHERE IT CAN BE DESTROYED! You want it gone, but YOU CAN'T BURN IT HERE!
The obvious question is, "What do you suggest we do with it, then?" But you won't get an answer. It's far too important to scream and threaten and worry about 'the children' than to actually do something. Or allow the people who are trying to do something to do it.
It's enough to make your head hurt.
I've gotten used to the hysteria anytime the words 'radiation' or 'radioactive' are heard, which is one reason I didn't pay much attention when this started. It reminds me of the people who scream about nuclear weapons materials being transported: "There will be an accident and the whole area will be contaminated! The terrorists will steal the stuff!" and so forth.
I mentioned before that I once was a dispatcher for the Highway Patrol here. In one in-service school we had some background and response materials on the transport of nuclear weapons materials, how they were set up, security, respoinses if trouble, etc. The containers, whether rail or truck trailer, are designed and built to both prevent the release of any materials in any conceivable accident, and to deny access to anyone who might attack them. In the case of truck transport, the semi pulling the trailer is armored and driven by two federal marshalls, both armed. And they have two- minimum- escort vehicles with more marshalls and sufficient weapons to fight a small battle. I do not use that description lightly; their training and focus was to, in the event of an attempt to seize the truck, hold off what would amount to an infantry assault until help could arrive. Which would be pretty damn quick. I won't go over the alert call procedures, in any case I'm sure they've advanced quite a bit.
The containers themselves were shot, lifted off the ground by cranes and dropped, crashed into by other trucks, and sat across railroad tracks and hit by a locomotive moving 65mph. All with no leaks. And if someone managed to stop the truck and kill all the marshalls? The semi would be disabled, the cavalry would be coming(literally), and the trailers contained 'denial' features, tear gas being the only one they would tell us about. Plus, it took at least two people, doing the right things in the right sequence, to unlock and open the thing.
And with all this, people still screamed about how 'unsafe' and 'insufficiently tested' all this was. The problem with those statements being that for the people making them, there was no way that they could EVER be 'safe'. No tests mattered, no security would be good enough, it involved RADIATION! This included clowns from the Benedictine Peace House who had people watching the highways for the trucks; they liked to follow them as a 'protest' to the transport of those 'immoral' weapons materials, but also because there was RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS involved.
Connected is the screaming about destroying our stockpiles of chemical weapons. Everyone wants to get rid of them, so the Army built a specially-designed incinerator for the purpose. Secured area, storage areas, the incinerator itself, all for the specific purpose of destroying the stuff. And what happens? The same people who are screaming the loudest about getting rid of it don't want it destroyed there. "You'll have to transport it through places where people live! There will be accidents and people will die! Whole areas will be contaminated!" As if the people trying to get rid of the stuff are just going to load it in a semi and drive it through, hoping for the best. So, let's see: you want it moved away from where it is, BUT YOU CAN'T DRIVE IT AWAY! You want it destroyed, but YOU CAN'T TAKE IT TO THE PLACE WHERE IT CAN BE DESTROYED! You want it gone, but YOU CAN'T BURN IT HERE!
The obvious question is, "What do you suggest we do with it, then?" But you won't get an answer. It's far too important to scream and threaten and worry about 'the children' than to actually do something. Or allow the people who are trying to do something to do it.
It's enough to make your head hurt.
In the tradition of Dan Rather journalism,
I'll state that the information in this earlier post may be 'fake but true'.
Joe Huffman has this followup on the information. It may not be a real memo. He also has links to a number of the gun-ban groups and their aims. Boils down to, the particular memo in question may have been fake; the aims of these groups are real.
Joe Huffman has this followup on the information. It may not be a real memo. He also has links to a number of the gun-ban groups and their aims. Boils down to, the particular memo in question may have been fake; the aims of these groups are real.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Acidman should get in on this
At the Carnival of Cordite, Technogypsy had a mention of Gretchen Ross taking off on a proposal in an area to declare it legal to shoot stray cats. And it has really set her off. In her response to one comment, there's this:
""Shooting them when sighted while hunting other species is a safe and cost effective way of controlling feral populations."
Safe and cost effective for YOU maybe, what about the cats? Oh yeah, I forgot, God put animals on the Earth for us to kill them...
There are other, more humane ways to control the cat population. People who want to shoot cats are pathetic. Having no real control over their own lives, they take a sick egotistical pleasure over controlling/ending the lives of others. It has nothing to do with saving the birds or farm animals from cats. If it were, there are other less sick ways to do it.
Write back when you grow a fucking soul."
Other people have written about the damage done by feral animals. And yeah, shooting them is a safe & cost-effective way to control them. It's not necessarily a nice thought, but it takes care of a problem.
As far as controlling a cat population, when you're dealing with a feral population in a suburb/rural area, it's about the only real way to handle it; trying to catch them and fix them doesn't work real well. Often it doesn't work too well in urban areas, either. In the city where my parents live there's been a terrible problem with strays/ferals. One group started a program where you could trap ferals and they would sterilize them for free, and turn the back loose! Yeah, they can't reproduce, but they're still running around, killing other animals and spreading disease and dying in nasty ways. Most of the problem has had to be dealt with by trapping and killing them.
I've got to say, her description of people who "want to shoot cats" is straight out of a PETA press release, and I'm not going to waste time on it.
Gretchen, I don't want to shoot cats. But if I lived in an area with feral cat problems, I would.
Oh, and I already have a soul.
""Shooting them when sighted while hunting other species is a safe and cost effective way of controlling feral populations."
Safe and cost effective for YOU maybe, what about the cats? Oh yeah, I forgot, God put animals on the Earth for us to kill them...
There are other, more humane ways to control the cat population. People who want to shoot cats are pathetic. Having no real control over their own lives, they take a sick egotistical pleasure over controlling/ending the lives of others. It has nothing to do with saving the birds or farm animals from cats. If it were, there are other less sick ways to do it.
Write back when you grow a fucking soul."
Other people have written about the damage done by feral animals. And yeah, shooting them is a safe & cost-effective way to control them. It's not necessarily a nice thought, but it takes care of a problem.
As far as controlling a cat population, when you're dealing with a feral population in a suburb/rural area, it's about the only real way to handle it; trying to catch them and fix them doesn't work real well. Often it doesn't work too well in urban areas, either. In the city where my parents live there's been a terrible problem with strays/ferals. One group started a program where you could trap ferals and they would sterilize them for free, and turn the back loose! Yeah, they can't reproduce, but they're still running around, killing other animals and spreading disease and dying in nasty ways. Most of the problem has had to be dealt with by trapping and killing them.
I've got to say, her description of people who "want to shoot cats" is straight out of a PETA press release, and I'm not going to waste time on it.
Gretchen, I don't want to shoot cats. But if I lived in an area with feral cat problems, I would.
Oh, and I already have a soul.
Friday, March 18, 2005
Speaking of cartoons,
Check out Wapsi Square.
You'll just have to go there, it's a GIF file and I can't figure out how to post it.
You'll just have to go there, it's a GIF file and I can't figure out how to post it.
Thursday, March 17, 2005
No, I'm not out drinking
Not that I have an objection to going out and drinking. However, spending time trying to find a place to park, pushing into the bar, attempting to work through a crowd that's so damn loud you can barely hear(let alone enjoy) the band... no thank you.
Plus, having made it home from work after 0100 this morning, in bed about 0200, and waking up a little after 0800, I'm tired. Which also means, since alcohol hits me harder when I'm tired, I'm not going to have some beers- green or otherwise- and climb into two wheels or four to wend my way home.
Therefore I shall clean up, pour myself a drink of good scotch, lean back and relax. Speaking of scotch, last time I was down in Fort Worth to visit some folks my friend Brian showed me his birthday present from the mrs. Glenfiddich Solera Reserve, 15 years old. This is the guy who started me on Scottish holy water, and one thing I'd learned over time is that whether I like one partly depends on mood; if I'm not in the mood for the stuff, I can't even drink the stuff I like. Well, I wasn't really in the mood, but just to be polite I took the taste he poured me and gave it a try.
Oh.
Oh my.
That was the finest stuff I have ever poured down my throat. Fine flavor, smoothly slid down the throat and then made a little 'boom' inside you. No, I did not finish the bottle for him, but I did have another little taste. And, having received my tax refund, I invested in a bottle of it which I shall now enjoy. Only bad thing is the $42 price tag.
This bottle's going to have to last a while.
Plus, having made it home from work after 0100 this morning, in bed about 0200, and waking up a little after 0800, I'm tired. Which also means, since alcohol hits me harder when I'm tired, I'm not going to have some beers- green or otherwise- and climb into two wheels or four to wend my way home.
Therefore I shall clean up, pour myself a drink of good scotch, lean back and relax. Speaking of scotch, last time I was down in Fort Worth to visit some folks my friend Brian showed me his birthday present from the mrs. Glenfiddich Solera Reserve, 15 years old. This is the guy who started me on Scottish holy water, and one thing I'd learned over time is that whether I like one partly depends on mood; if I'm not in the mood for the stuff, I can't even drink the stuff I like. Well, I wasn't really in the mood, but just to be polite I took the taste he poured me and gave it a try.
Oh.
Oh my.
That was the finest stuff I have ever poured down my throat. Fine flavor, smoothly slid down the throat and then made a little 'boom' inside you. No, I did not finish the bottle for him, but I did have another little taste. And, having received my tax refund, I invested in a bottle of it which I shall now enjoy. Only bad thing is the $42 price tag.
This bottle's going to have to last a while.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Kids and shooting
I was thinking earlier about how I taught my kids, thoughts triggered by an upcoming wedding. No, not mine. Friend of mine is getting hitched to a lady with a 7 year old. The lady has little liking for firearms, but has accepted that since her hubby-to-be is an owner and user, and since there will be firearms around, the kid needs to be trained. I trust my friend to do so well, and the kid is, let us say, greatly excited by it.
My daughter fired her first shot when she was about 2. It was a .54-caliber plains rifle, and yes, it was firmly rested on sandbags(beanbags actually, but who cares?). Between the noise and smoke she was delighted, and has stayed that way. My son was about 7 as I recall, and started with a .22, a leetle bit more appropriate, and he's still shooting too.
I've been going back over how they were taught. SERIOUS lectures about safety, and what would happen if they broke the rules. The water-bottle demonstration. Drawing the sights and how to line them up, breathing, trigger squeeze.
And it's been worth it. I have no idea how many thousand rounds of .22's they've put downrange. My son decided he loved a #4 Mk. 1 Enfield, and watching a kid weighing about 75 pounds shooting ball out of that was interesting(he stuck the rear sandbag between the butt and his shoulder), and my model 94 Winchester found favor with him also. My daughter mostly stuck with the .22 in rifles; with handguns she's become rather fond of my .45 Kimber(I told her no, she couldn't have it). First time she fired handguns above a .22 we started with .38 Special target loads, and moved up. She didn't care for the revolvers, but with the Kimber she placed her first five shots in a 2" group at about 5 yards, recoil not a bother. Shot about the same with a Sig P229 we borrowed.
One of the things that has stuck in my memory is when a man once handed my son a rifle to look over. First thing he did was cycle it to check for loaded with no prompting. Made me very glad, both that he did it right and that it proved something: sometimes he really did listen to me!(not a bad thing for a parent to learn)
Besides the general fun and utility, it's also given my daughter a chance to weird out her friends(the Kimber target is framed on her wall, that group just right of the X-ring of the silhouette gets their attention). And it made her a bit more active politically. Having it pointed out that if the weenies had their way, she'd never be allowed to shoot again ticked her off, and led to studying the facts. I think it also made her more picky about civil rights in general, to the point of having a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights handy. It's interesting finding out one of your kids outdid a teacher in an argument on our rights. And pissed off a somewhat sorry excuse for a teacher when she brought up some facts about the Revolutionary War, in particular the Battle of Saratoga, that he didn't know and didn't want to acknowledge.
My son isn't quite as politically active, but I believe he does pay attention to the matters, at least partially for the same reasons. His favorite handgun is a Sig Trailside with a scope on top, just wonderful at breaking clay pigeons out to 50 yards.
Have I mentioned that clay pigeons are wonderful targets for kids? They do something when you hit them, and then you can break the pieces. Start off with paper to make sure they understand the basics, then go on to more interesting things.
It's been a wonderful thing to do with them. I think my friend will find the same in teaching his kid.
My daughter fired her first shot when she was about 2. It was a .54-caliber plains rifle, and yes, it was firmly rested on sandbags(beanbags actually, but who cares?). Between the noise and smoke she was delighted, and has stayed that way. My son was about 7 as I recall, and started with a .22, a leetle bit more appropriate, and he's still shooting too.
I've been going back over how they were taught. SERIOUS lectures about safety, and what would happen if they broke the rules. The water-bottle demonstration. Drawing the sights and how to line them up, breathing, trigger squeeze.
And it's been worth it. I have no idea how many thousand rounds of .22's they've put downrange. My son decided he loved a #4 Mk. 1 Enfield, and watching a kid weighing about 75 pounds shooting ball out of that was interesting(he stuck the rear sandbag between the butt and his shoulder), and my model 94 Winchester found favor with him also. My daughter mostly stuck with the .22 in rifles; with handguns she's become rather fond of my .45 Kimber(I told her no, she couldn't have it). First time she fired handguns above a .22 we started with .38 Special target loads, and moved up. She didn't care for the revolvers, but with the Kimber she placed her first five shots in a 2" group at about 5 yards, recoil not a bother. Shot about the same with a Sig P229 we borrowed.
One of the things that has stuck in my memory is when a man once handed my son a rifle to look over. First thing he did was cycle it to check for loaded with no prompting. Made me very glad, both that he did it right and that it proved something: sometimes he really did listen to me!(not a bad thing for a parent to learn)
Besides the general fun and utility, it's also given my daughter a chance to weird out her friends(the Kimber target is framed on her wall, that group just right of the X-ring of the silhouette gets their attention). And it made her a bit more active politically. Having it pointed out that if the weenies had their way, she'd never be allowed to shoot again ticked her off, and led to studying the facts. I think it also made her more picky about civil rights in general, to the point of having a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights handy. It's interesting finding out one of your kids outdid a teacher in an argument on our rights. And pissed off a somewhat sorry excuse for a teacher when she brought up some facts about the Revolutionary War, in particular the Battle of Saratoga, that he didn't know and didn't want to acknowledge.
My son isn't quite as politically active, but I believe he does pay attention to the matters, at least partially for the same reasons. His favorite handgun is a Sig Trailside with a scope on top, just wonderful at breaking clay pigeons out to 50 yards.
Have I mentioned that clay pigeons are wonderful targets for kids? They do something when you hit them, and then you can break the pieces. Start off with paper to make sure they understand the basics, then go on to more interesting things.
It's been a wonderful thing to do with them. I think my friend will find the same in teaching his kid.
He said what?
On the radio a little bit ago, a news reader for ABC was reporting that the judge had agreed to give Scott Peterson the death penalty. So far, so good. Then he said that this was for the murder of "his wife and their unborn fetus".
?
"Unborn fetus"? There's a whole bunch of possible ways to take that description. And most of them make my head ache.
?
"Unborn fetus"? There's a whole bunch of possible ways to take that description. And most of them make my head ache.
If anyone says it's "Only about gun safety",
show them this. Read it through. This has not a damn thing to do with 'gun safety'; this has to do with completely banning the ownership of firearms. Which would, I have no doubt, be followed by banning of anything else these clowns would consider a weapon.
"Ban on all semiautos which can fire more than 6 bullets without reloading". That means ALL semiautos, since ANY ONE can be made to fire more than six rounds simply by using a bigger magazine.
'Gun safety' my ass. These clowns think what's happening to people in Britain is a GOOD thing. Which means they're statist dictator wannabes who think everyone else is too damn stupid to be allowed free action- free action meaning anything these bastards don't approve of.
Pissed-off attitude courtesy of Kim.
This is also why a lot of these clowns want McCain-Feingold to regulate blogs. You think they wouldn't like to prevent people like Kim, or your obdnt. svnt, from putting stuff like this up? They'd much rather do this crap in secrecy.
"Ban on all semiautos which can fire more than 6 bullets without reloading". That means ALL semiautos, since ANY ONE can be made to fire more than six rounds simply by using a bigger magazine.
'Gun safety' my ass. These clowns think what's happening to people in Britain is a GOOD thing. Which means they're statist dictator wannabes who think everyone else is too damn stupid to be allowed free action- free action meaning anything these bastards don't approve of.
Pissed-off attitude courtesy of Kim.
This is also why a lot of these clowns want McCain-Feingold to regulate blogs. You think they wouldn't like to prevent people like Kim, or your obdnt. svnt, from putting stuff like this up? They'd much rather do this crap in secrecy.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Somebody keep sticking that fork in Britain
until they get the message; they're done.
Look at this crap. Guy kills someone; while in a 'secure hospital' kills another inmate; gets turned loose; kills someone else and is caught while eating some of that victim's brain. NOW, the judge gives him two life sentances. Considering how things seem to work, that may mean he'll have to suffer in custody for, oh, ten or fifteen years? I hope not, but the way things seem to go...
Mind you, if you are attacked in your home in the middle of the night and whack the attacker with a cricket bat- not kill them, just smack them- and you'll probably be in prison for years. But if you're a criminal who hurts people? Well, it may take a while, and some digested body parts, before they can decide that you need to be put away for a long time.
That's aside from the fact that if you so much as punch out an attacker, the attacker is liable to sue you. And the government will probably provide his attorney.
Blech.
Look at this crap. Guy kills someone; while in a 'secure hospital' kills another inmate; gets turned loose; kills someone else and is caught while eating some of that victim's brain. NOW, the judge gives him two life sentances. Considering how things seem to work, that may mean he'll have to suffer in custody for, oh, ten or fifteen years? I hope not, but the way things seem to go...
Mind you, if you are attacked in your home in the middle of the night and whack the attacker with a cricket bat- not kill them, just smack them- and you'll probably be in prison for years. But if you're a criminal who hurts people? Well, it may take a while, and some digested body parts, before they can decide that you need to be put away for a long time.
That's aside from the fact that if you so much as punch out an attacker, the attacker is liable to sue you. And the government will probably provide his attorney.
Blech.
Monday, March 14, 2005
I have no idea why I hadn't already added him
Smallest Minority is on the blogroll. I've mentioned him before. Essays on the right to and responsibility of arms, and other interesting stuff. Definately worth checking out.
Hopefully, the IRA is going down the toilet now
Powerline has a piece on how President Bush had basically told Gerry Adams a: you won't be raising money in the U.S. and b: your sorry ass ain't coming to the White House. I know there's still a lot of people who will make excuses for the IRA and try to support them; I hope all support to it is cut off. Whatever the IRA once was, it's become one more bunch of thugs, many of the either communist or 'progressives' who follow the same ideals. They extort, torture, rob and murder, and it's time they were stopped.
The IRA has, over the last few years, been shown to have been supporting terrorists around the world, including- currently- Chavez in Venezuela, who is the current "I wanna be fidel" jackass. So stomp on them, hard.
I had a big argument with a friend a few years ago about this group. He's a serious student of Irish history, and had lots of sympathy for the IRA. I finally put it this way:
"If you want to shoot at British troops, at least you're attacking someone who's armed and can shoot back. If you want to whack a politician, you're at least going after someone who knew their job might be dangerous(no, I'm not excusing these things). But when you put a bomb in a store or a car on a street to kill whoever happens to be around, when you blow up an entire building to try and kill one person and 'screw whoever else dies', when you leave a bomb in a pub just to kill some people and keep the rest scared, that's not 'resistance'; it's murder, and you're a sorry chickenshit".
He wasn't happy, but he didn't argue it either; he's stubborn, not stupid. Later, on a different occasion I pointed out the large parts of the IRA who are commies- which he despises- and he made comment as to how 'a group can't control all it's members'. Maybe, but a group that will kneecap someone for wearing the wrong clothes or going to the wrong church could kick out someone like that; IF they wanted to.
As Wizbang put it, the murder of Robert McCartney was one of three recent deaths caused by terrorists that have awakened a lot of people who were blind before, for whatever reason, to what these bastards are. May the true memorial to these three be the destruction of those who killed them.
The IRA has, over the last few years, been shown to have been supporting terrorists around the world, including- currently- Chavez in Venezuela, who is the current "I wanna be fidel" jackass. So stomp on them, hard.
I had a big argument with a friend a few years ago about this group. He's a serious student of Irish history, and had lots of sympathy for the IRA. I finally put it this way:
"If you want to shoot at British troops, at least you're attacking someone who's armed and can shoot back. If you want to whack a politician, you're at least going after someone who knew their job might be dangerous(no, I'm not excusing these things). But when you put a bomb in a store or a car on a street to kill whoever happens to be around, when you blow up an entire building to try and kill one person and 'screw whoever else dies', when you leave a bomb in a pub just to kill some people and keep the rest scared, that's not 'resistance'; it's murder, and you're a sorry chickenshit".
He wasn't happy, but he didn't argue it either; he's stubborn, not stupid. Later, on a different occasion I pointed out the large parts of the IRA who are commies- which he despises- and he made comment as to how 'a group can't control all it's members'. Maybe, but a group that will kneecap someone for wearing the wrong clothes or going to the wrong church could kick out someone like that; IF they wanted to.
As Wizbang put it, the murder of Robert McCartney was one of three recent deaths caused by terrorists that have awakened a lot of people who were blind before, for whatever reason, to what these bastards are. May the true memorial to these three be the destruction of those who killed them.
Attitudes
In particular, those of a lot of folks who label themselves 'liberal' or 'progressive'. There's some of it on both sides, but the problem seems worse on theirs.
In particular the absolute hatred of George Bush. I'm not talking about those who disagree with him on points, and argue those points; I'm talking about those who 'know' he STOLE the 2000 election, and he's an IDIOT, and he's a DICTATOR, etc. And, in particular, those who would rather see this country fail than have him get credit for something he's done.
That's something that really bothers me. I did not like Bill Clinton, but when he did something that was good, I gave him credit. For instance, in Kosovo my big problem was not that he sent troops in, it was the way he did it; I knew he would give lots of deference to the U.N., and he was so scared of casualties on our side affecting public opinion that you had pilots dropping bombs under conditions that guaranteed misses and civilian casualties. But I do give him credit for actually doing something.(I wish he'd early on told various Europeans to either do something themselves or shut the hell up, but that's another matter). I know that he was pushed into some of the good things by the Republicans winning majorities in the House and Senate, but whether because he was calculating for his own future good or actually saw that it was good, they got done.
I give him credit for those things, just as I give him blame for the things I think were bad. But the nutcase L & P people absolutely refuse to see anything good coming from Bushs' actions, refuse to admit that he might not be a certifiable idiot, refuse to admit that he ever did anything that was good. Used to know a lady who would positively gloat on any news that might be bad for Bush, even if it would also be bad for the U.S. Nothing seemed to matter other than "Now he'll get what's coming to him!"(this is also where I first heard that Reagan did nothing to actually help bring down the Soviet Union; he just showed up at the right time to take credit. She also thought Jimmy Carter was one of the best presidents we ever had). When one country of the coalition announced that they were going to withdraw their troops(I can't remember who, and after you got through the headline it turned out it was pretty much on schedule) she smiled and said something along the lines of "Yes, that's a BIG coalition he has": she was happy at the idea of it falling apart. Mention some good things that had happened so far, mention that things are moving forward, and you'd hear about how it was actually nothing, that we were just being fed this news so we wouldn't see how 'everying is crumbling' and we DESERVE what's going to happen, etc. I failed to see how she thought the mainstream media was blindly 'feeding us' good propaganda from the administration, but apparently they were.
I've said this before: George Bush is not my ideal guy. He's done things that I think he should not have, he hasn't done things I think he should have. But the guy is not a fool, and he has done some good things. I can see someone pushing that they think he's wrong on something, no problem. It's the insistence that he cannot do ANYTHING that's good, or will have a good result, that gets me.
And it's usually connected with some idiot hoping for disaster; they'd rather see things fall apart bloodily than see success. And I just don't understand it.
In particular the absolute hatred of George Bush. I'm not talking about those who disagree with him on points, and argue those points; I'm talking about those who 'know' he STOLE the 2000 election, and he's an IDIOT, and he's a DICTATOR, etc. And, in particular, those who would rather see this country fail than have him get credit for something he's done.
That's something that really bothers me. I did not like Bill Clinton, but when he did something that was good, I gave him credit. For instance, in Kosovo my big problem was not that he sent troops in, it was the way he did it; I knew he would give lots of deference to the U.N., and he was so scared of casualties on our side affecting public opinion that you had pilots dropping bombs under conditions that guaranteed misses and civilian casualties. But I do give him credit for actually doing something.(I wish he'd early on told various Europeans to either do something themselves or shut the hell up, but that's another matter). I know that he was pushed into some of the good things by the Republicans winning majorities in the House and Senate, but whether because he was calculating for his own future good or actually saw that it was good, they got done.
I give him credit for those things, just as I give him blame for the things I think were bad. But the nutcase L & P people absolutely refuse to see anything good coming from Bushs' actions, refuse to admit that he might not be a certifiable idiot, refuse to admit that he ever did anything that was good. Used to know a lady who would positively gloat on any news that might be bad for Bush, even if it would also be bad for the U.S. Nothing seemed to matter other than "Now he'll get what's coming to him!"(this is also where I first heard that Reagan did nothing to actually help bring down the Soviet Union; he just showed up at the right time to take credit. She also thought Jimmy Carter was one of the best presidents we ever had). When one country of the coalition announced that they were going to withdraw their troops(I can't remember who, and after you got through the headline it turned out it was pretty much on schedule) she smiled and said something along the lines of "Yes, that's a BIG coalition he has": she was happy at the idea of it falling apart. Mention some good things that had happened so far, mention that things are moving forward, and you'd hear about how it was actually nothing, that we were just being fed this news so we wouldn't see how 'everying is crumbling' and we DESERVE what's going to happen, etc. I failed to see how she thought the mainstream media was blindly 'feeding us' good propaganda from the administration, but apparently they were.
I've said this before: George Bush is not my ideal guy. He's done things that I think he should not have, he hasn't done things I think he should have. But the guy is not a fool, and he has done some good things. I can see someone pushing that they think he's wrong on something, no problem. It's the insistence that he cannot do ANYTHING that's good, or will have a good result, that gets me.
And it's usually connected with some idiot hoping for disaster; they'd rather see things fall apart bloodily than see success. And I just don't understand it.
Three things
First, at Coyote Blog, "You Know It's A Dictatorship When-"
Over at Anarchangel, "A Citazen or a Subject"
And the next Carnival of Cordite is being held at Kevin Menard's place. If you know a post that should be in it, send to info to 'carnival of cordite -at- hotmail point com'.
Oh, one more thing. My daughter sent me this; what happens when you wander into a Den of Evil while looking for a bathroom?...
Over at Anarchangel, "A Citazen or a Subject"
And the next Carnival of Cordite is being held at Kevin Menard's place. If you know a post that should be in it, send to info to 'carnival of cordite -at- hotmail point com'.
Oh, one more thing. My daughter sent me this; what happens when you wander into a Den of Evil while looking for a bathroom?...
Sunday, March 13, 2005
More cleaning, greasy old guns this time
Old military guns in particular. If you've ever bought an old surplus rifle you'll know what I mean. Some aren't too bad, others are awful. Especially British and some U.S. rifles. Many stocks were oiled to help preserve them, and they soaked up oil from the metal. A lot of them soaked up so much that when the wood gets hot from either the sun or shooting, oil seeps out. And then, of course, there's Cosmoline.
Cosmoline is a grease that was designed for one thing: to protect metal from corrosion in long-term storage. And it works, very well. The bad thing about it? Getting it off. It is the stickiest stuff you've ever ruined your pants on, and the British in particular used a lot of it; the climate I would assume. When a rifle was sent back for service/storage they would dismantle it; anything needing work was repaired or replaced; then the bore was filled, the action & barrel greased thoroughly and replaced in the stock; and sometimes the wood was given a coat. When it was placed in the rack or crate, it could- did- sit there for years into decades, well protected from rust. Which means when you get it...
Did I mention that if it has sat long enough, the stuff can harden? Petrified Cosmoline is even worse to get out.
The metal's not that bad. Most any cleaning solvent, including hot water & soap(I've know of people taking one to a car wash and using the engine cleaner spray on it) will cut the grease off; my favorite is either low-odor mineral spirits or a can of carburetor cleaner. Either will cut the stuff and leave no residue behind(yes, use rubber gloves and ventilation). However, some of this stuff can harm the wood. There's several ways to clean this off, degreasers and such. My favorite, which does take some time, is the kitty-litter method.
Strip the stock to wood only and wipe off all the surface crud. Get some heavy plastic and make a bag wide enough to put the stock in and about a foot longer, make sure you seal it well enough to hold some weight. Put the stock in, and then fill the bag with either cheap unscented kitty litter or oil absorbent. Close the bag and lay it out in the sun all day. Next day, put it back out on the other side. Depending on temperature and how much oil/grease the thing had soaked up, a week to ten days should do it. The heat will cause the oil/grease to bleed to the surface and the litter will soak it up. When done take it out and go over it with a brush to make sure you get all the dust out of the holes and inletting. I've seen an old stock come out of this treatment looking almost like new wood. Don't throw the absorbent away, save it for when you spill oil on the driveway and such.
The other way to do this is much faster, but only works if the stock is short enough to fit in the oven. Prepare the wood as before. Take a roll of cheap paper towels and stuff the receiver area, barrel channel, etc. with them, then wrap the entire stock with at least two layers. Wrap the whole thing in aluminum foil, stick it in the oven and turn it to 'low'. Please make sure the stock is not touching the coil or right on the bottom above the burner, whichever. Leave it there for at least an hour, pull it out/yes, it will be rather warm/ and unwrap. Throw away the paper, which will be soaked, repack & wrap the stock and put it back in. It does the same thing as the litter treatment, it just does it faster. For smaller pieces you could probably either use a metal pan full of litter, or a length of metal tubing; put the wood in, cover with litter, seal the end of the tube a bake.
Another thing that works well on smaller pieces is to make a mix of one part ammonia to three parts water, get a soft brush and start brushing that over the piece. My understanding is the ammonia converts the oil/grease to a form of soap which the water can wash away. This works well on pistol handgrips, handguards & such. You may not want to use this on pieces that are very thin, as it can cause warping. The piece will then need to dry thoroughly before you can refinish it. I can attest that this will get crud out of a piece of wood that looks clean, used on an oily pistol grip or handguard it can be amazing how much stuff winds up in the bucket.
Theres a forum here that specializes in this subject(their home site has lots of interesting forums), there's a lot there on both cleaning and refinishing. Some of their methods I've never tried, spraying oven cleaner on a stock for instance; that sounds a bit, oh, harsh? If something's in bad enough shape it might be something to try. I keep using the kitty litter method because
A. I'm lazy
B. Once it's set up and heating, I can do something else
C. If there are, or you suspect there may be, markings of interest on the wood, this method will not damage the
surface as some others might. I have to stress might; people on the Milsurp forums swear by some of the other methods. You makes your choice and takes your chances.
Finishing up depends on whether you're trying to keep the finish historically accurate or just get a good-looking finish that will protect the wood. You can use boiled linseed oil, you can use shellac, you can use Birchwood Casey's gunstock finish, there are lots of possibilities. Do some research and give something a try.
A lot of these are worth cleaning not only to make it neater to handle & shoot, but- rather amazingly- some of these old rifles have absolutely beautiful wood; when you get all the old crud off the surface it's sometimes amazing what you find. And it's always nicer to shoot something that isn't depositing forty-year-old oil on your face.
Update: ref the kitty litter method, if you'll be cleaning a number of stocks, you might want to make a sturdier container. I recently bought a 5' section of 5" diameter stovepipe for one. Cut it to 50" long, then mashed it into an oval cross-section, then made two plugs out of 5/8" plywood. One's screwed and caulked into one end, the other uses two screws to hold it in place. I also drilled a hole in the removable plug and set an eyebolt in it to make it easier to pull out. Then I painted the whole thing flat black. To use, pour a couple of inches of litter in, set the stock in, then fill it up, insert the plug and lock in place, then lay it in the sun.
Cosmoline is a grease that was designed for one thing: to protect metal from corrosion in long-term storage. And it works, very well. The bad thing about it? Getting it off. It is the stickiest stuff you've ever ruined your pants on, and the British in particular used a lot of it; the climate I would assume. When a rifle was sent back for service/storage they would dismantle it; anything needing work was repaired or replaced; then the bore was filled, the action & barrel greased thoroughly and replaced in the stock; and sometimes the wood was given a coat. When it was placed in the rack or crate, it could- did- sit there for years into decades, well protected from rust. Which means when you get it...
Did I mention that if it has sat long enough, the stuff can harden? Petrified Cosmoline is even worse to get out.
The metal's not that bad. Most any cleaning solvent, including hot water & soap(I've know of people taking one to a car wash and using the engine cleaner spray on it) will cut the grease off; my favorite is either low-odor mineral spirits or a can of carburetor cleaner. Either will cut the stuff and leave no residue behind(yes, use rubber gloves and ventilation). However, some of this stuff can harm the wood. There's several ways to clean this off, degreasers and such. My favorite, which does take some time, is the kitty-litter method.
Strip the stock to wood only and wipe off all the surface crud. Get some heavy plastic and make a bag wide enough to put the stock in and about a foot longer, make sure you seal it well enough to hold some weight. Put the stock in, and then fill the bag with either cheap unscented kitty litter or oil absorbent. Close the bag and lay it out in the sun all day. Next day, put it back out on the other side. Depending on temperature and how much oil/grease the thing had soaked up, a week to ten days should do it. The heat will cause the oil/grease to bleed to the surface and the litter will soak it up. When done take it out and go over it with a brush to make sure you get all the dust out of the holes and inletting. I've seen an old stock come out of this treatment looking almost like new wood. Don't throw the absorbent away, save it for when you spill oil on the driveway and such.
The other way to do this is much faster, but only works if the stock is short enough to fit in the oven. Prepare the wood as before. Take a roll of cheap paper towels and stuff the receiver area, barrel channel, etc. with them, then wrap the entire stock with at least two layers. Wrap the whole thing in aluminum foil, stick it in the oven and turn it to 'low'. Please make sure the stock is not touching the coil or right on the bottom above the burner, whichever. Leave it there for at least an hour, pull it out/yes, it will be rather warm/ and unwrap. Throw away the paper, which will be soaked, repack & wrap the stock and put it back in. It does the same thing as the litter treatment, it just does it faster. For smaller pieces you could probably either use a metal pan full of litter, or a length of metal tubing; put the wood in, cover with litter, seal the end of the tube a bake.
Another thing that works well on smaller pieces is to make a mix of one part ammonia to three parts water, get a soft brush and start brushing that over the piece. My understanding is the ammonia converts the oil/grease to a form of soap which the water can wash away. This works well on pistol handgrips, handguards & such. You may not want to use this on pieces that are very thin, as it can cause warping. The piece will then need to dry thoroughly before you can refinish it. I can attest that this will get crud out of a piece of wood that looks clean, used on an oily pistol grip or handguard it can be amazing how much stuff winds up in the bucket.
Theres a forum here that specializes in this subject(their home site has lots of interesting forums), there's a lot there on both cleaning and refinishing. Some of their methods I've never tried, spraying oven cleaner on a stock for instance; that sounds a bit, oh, harsh? If something's in bad enough shape it might be something to try. I keep using the kitty litter method because
A. I'm lazy
B. Once it's set up and heating, I can do something else
C. If there are, or you suspect there may be, markings of interest on the wood, this method will not damage the
surface as some others might. I have to stress might; people on the Milsurp forums swear by some of the other methods. You makes your choice and takes your chances.
Finishing up depends on whether you're trying to keep the finish historically accurate or just get a good-looking finish that will protect the wood. You can use boiled linseed oil, you can use shellac, you can use Birchwood Casey's gunstock finish, there are lots of possibilities. Do some research and give something a try.
A lot of these are worth cleaning not only to make it neater to handle & shoot, but- rather amazingly- some of these old rifles have absolutely beautiful wood; when you get all the old crud off the surface it's sometimes amazing what you find. And it's always nicer to shoot something that isn't depositing forty-year-old oil on your face.
Update: ref the kitty litter method, if you'll be cleaning a number of stocks, you might want to make a sturdier container. I recently bought a 5' section of 5" diameter stovepipe for one. Cut it to 50" long, then mashed it into an oval cross-section, then made two plugs out of 5/8" plywood. One's screwed and caulked into one end, the other uses two screws to hold it in place. I also drilled a hole in the removable plug and set an eyebolt in it to make it easier to pull out. Then I painted the whole thing flat black. To use, pour a couple of inches of litter in, set the stock in, then fill it up, insert the plug and lock in place, then lay it in the sun.
I know I've mentioned him before
but if you haven't looked in on the doings at Beelzebub Manor, you're missing something. Several somethings, in fact. Current happenings, British history, and childhood memories:
"We even wore caps and short pants until the age of 13. Apart from Terry Peach. Every year has a Terry Peach. Six foot six tall, size 12 feet and capable of growing a full beard before leaving primary school. Terry was a big lad in every way and Matron had to rush him into Emergency Long Trousers a year before the rest of us after his … err ... sliding tackle had alarmed a visiting French mistress."
Check out Free Market Fairy Tales.
"We even wore caps and short pants until the age of 13. Apart from Terry Peach. Every year has a Terry Peach. Six foot six tall, size 12 feet and capable of growing a full beard before leaving primary school. Terry was a big lad in every way and Matron had to rush him into Emergency Long Trousers a year before the rest of us after his … err ... sliding tackle had alarmed a visiting French mistress."
Check out Free Market Fairy Tales.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Oh, man, I just heard about Rob's mother
She died early Saturday morning.
Even when you know it's coming, that's hard.
Go over to Acidman's place and leave some words.
Even when you know it's coming, that's hard.
Go over to Acidman's place and leave some words.
New on the blogroll
Just added Og over at Neanderpundit. Family, hunting, general opinions and some interesting things to say about idiots on the highway with cellphones a lack of attention.
Another barrel cleaning method
Shooting a lot doesn't just mean powder fouling in the bore. Shooting cast bullets can leave lead fouling, and jacketed bullets-especially in rifles with their higher velocities- will leave copper fouling behind. If a bore is a touch rough, only a few shots can cause a problem, while a well-finished, polished bore may take a lot to become fouled.
Now comes the real fun part, getting that crud out. There are lots of different solvents, from the old Hoppe's No. 9 to some very fancy new stuff. Lead being relatively soft, it can be a lot easier to get out. My favorite cleaner for it is called Blue Wonder. It's a thin gel you use with a bronze brush, and it works.
Copper is a different matter. It's a lot harder than lead, and it's a pain to remove. Most of the really good cleaning solvents for it stink because they contain ammonia(which attacks copper). They work, some of them quite well, but they can involve a lot of scrubbing. There is, however, an easier way.
The easier way is Outer's Foul Out. It's an electroplating system. You degrease the bore, then put a rubber plug into the breech to seal it. There's a steel rod that you slide some o-rings on to insulate it from the barrel and slide in. Then you fill up the bore with the cleaning solution- one for copper, one for lead-, hook up the unit and turn it on. It actually pulls the fouling off the bore and plates it onto the rod. Lead comes off pretty quickly and just wipes off the rod; copper takes a lot longer, and has to be sanded off the rod when done. The nice things about it are: a. it actually does work, b. you can set it up and do something else for a while as it works, and c. it doesn't wear on the rifling as lots of scrubbing can. It ain't perfect, but it can really help.
One piece the Foul Out really helped on was a SIG Trailside pistol. It's a .22 semi-auto made for target shooting, and wonderfully accurate. This one had a bad problem, in that by the time you'd fired 100 rounds the bore was so badly found accuracy was lost. For a couple of reasons I didn't like the idea of scrubbing this bore with solvent and a brush to get it all out, so I set up the Foul Out and let it work. It cleaned the bore down to bare steel. Side note: I then treated the thing with Microlon Gun Juice, which took care of the problem, no fouling problem since.
There's a lot of cleaning stuff out there. Brownells now carries a stuff called Copper Melt that's supposed to work very well, I haven't tried it myself(at about $30 a bottle, it'll be a while). For the bad copper for now, I'll keep using the Foul Out.
Now comes the real fun part, getting that crud out. There are lots of different solvents, from the old Hoppe's No. 9 to some very fancy new stuff. Lead being relatively soft, it can be a lot easier to get out. My favorite cleaner for it is called Blue Wonder. It's a thin gel you use with a bronze brush, and it works.
Copper is a different matter. It's a lot harder than lead, and it's a pain to remove. Most of the really good cleaning solvents for it stink because they contain ammonia(which attacks copper). They work, some of them quite well, but they can involve a lot of scrubbing. There is, however, an easier way.
The easier way is Outer's Foul Out. It's an electroplating system. You degrease the bore, then put a rubber plug into the breech to seal it. There's a steel rod that you slide some o-rings on to insulate it from the barrel and slide in. Then you fill up the bore with the cleaning solution- one for copper, one for lead-, hook up the unit and turn it on. It actually pulls the fouling off the bore and plates it onto the rod. Lead comes off pretty quickly and just wipes off the rod; copper takes a lot longer, and has to be sanded off the rod when done. The nice things about it are: a. it actually does work, b. you can set it up and do something else for a while as it works, and c. it doesn't wear on the rifling as lots of scrubbing can. It ain't perfect, but it can really help.
One piece the Foul Out really helped on was a SIG Trailside pistol. It's a .22 semi-auto made for target shooting, and wonderfully accurate. This one had a bad problem, in that by the time you'd fired 100 rounds the bore was so badly found accuracy was lost. For a couple of reasons I didn't like the idea of scrubbing this bore with solvent and a brush to get it all out, so I set up the Foul Out and let it work. It cleaned the bore down to bare steel. Side note: I then treated the thing with Microlon Gun Juice, which took care of the problem, no fouling problem since.
There's a lot of cleaning stuff out there. Brownells now carries a stuff called Copper Melt that's supposed to work very well, I haven't tried it myself(at about $30 a bottle, it'll be a while). For the bad copper for now, I'll keep using the Foul Out.
.22 rifle bargains? Sometimes
One thing that happens to these little rifles a lot- especially semiautos- is they don't get cleaned. Not just the bore, the whole action gets absolutely filthy. .22 ammo is bad about leaving granules of unburned powder in the action, and over time it builds up. Combined with too much or the wrong type of oil, it can make a horrible mess that causes all kinds of problems.
I once worked on a Marlin rifle that had the worst case of this I've ever seen. The bore looked ok; dirty, but no rust or pitting that I could tell. But the action was bloody awful. There was gray sludge all over the inside, and the bolt felt gritty when you worked it. I suspect the seller was getting rid of it cheap because it wouldn't work well, and either didn't think to or didn't want to take it apart.
Once home I detail-stripped it('field stripping' is the minimum takedown needed to clean a piece; 'detail-stripping' means taking it down to parts as much as possible). It was, without question, the nastiest modern firearm I've ever worked on. A lot of old military rifles/handguns are greasy, but they don't generally have all the other crud mixed in. I used denatured alcohol(use gloves and ventilation) to flush the crud out of the bolt, receiver, and works. A few patches & solvent down the barrel showed it to be spotless. Once clean I oiled everything properly and put it back together, and hauled it to the range. It worked flawlessly, and accuracy was very good. It had just needed a thorough cleaning to put it right. And it's still giving good service to the owner.
Notes: if you're going to detail-strip something, find some instructions first. Some can be tricky, especially on reassembly. J.B. Wood's books on firearms assembly-disassembly are very good.
I should note that this piece shot very well with ammo it liked, getting back to the 'try different types/brands' situation. There were some that gave fair accuracy in it, but would not cycle the action reliably.
There are specialized gun-cleaning solvents that work quite well. However, for some things there are less expensive things to use. Denatured alcohol can work, but now I use low-odor mineral spirits. For something with a lot of old crud in it, you can go to some auto parts stores and buy a can of spray carburetor or brake cleaner for about a dollar, and it does a good job of cutting the junk loose. But do use rubber gloves and a well-ventilated area. And make sure you take out any plastic/synthetic parts before you use these; I know of one case where a guy hit a dirty Marlin with carb cleaner, and it melted the plastic recoil buffer in the receiver.
I once worked on a Marlin rifle that had the worst case of this I've ever seen. The bore looked ok; dirty, but no rust or pitting that I could tell. But the action was bloody awful. There was gray sludge all over the inside, and the bolt felt gritty when you worked it. I suspect the seller was getting rid of it cheap because it wouldn't work well, and either didn't think to or didn't want to take it apart.
Once home I detail-stripped it('field stripping' is the minimum takedown needed to clean a piece; 'detail-stripping' means taking it down to parts as much as possible). It was, without question, the nastiest modern firearm I've ever worked on. A lot of old military rifles/handguns are greasy, but they don't generally have all the other crud mixed in. I used denatured alcohol(use gloves and ventilation) to flush the crud out of the bolt, receiver, and works. A few patches & solvent down the barrel showed it to be spotless. Once clean I oiled everything properly and put it back together, and hauled it to the range. It worked flawlessly, and accuracy was very good. It had just needed a thorough cleaning to put it right. And it's still giving good service to the owner.
Notes: if you're going to detail-strip something, find some instructions first. Some can be tricky, especially on reassembly. J.B. Wood's books on firearms assembly-disassembly are very good.
I should note that this piece shot very well with ammo it liked, getting back to the 'try different types/brands' situation. There were some that gave fair accuracy in it, but would not cycle the action reliably.
There are specialized gun-cleaning solvents that work quite well. However, for some things there are less expensive things to use. Denatured alcohol can work, but now I use low-odor mineral spirits. For something with a lot of old crud in it, you can go to some auto parts stores and buy a can of spray carburetor or brake cleaner for about a dollar, and it does a good job of cutting the junk loose. But do use rubber gloves and a well-ventilated area. And make sure you take out any plastic/synthetic parts before you use these; I know of one case where a guy hit a dirty Marlin with carb cleaner, and it melted the plastic recoil buffer in the receiver.
Friday, March 11, 2005
And following the horrible incident
is the weenies trying to use it. In this case, the murders at the courthouse in Georgia. Some mutant got a deputy's sidearm and killed some people while making an escape. So what happens?
In Oklahoma, we have a bunch of people hollering that "this shows the need for better courthouse security". Hey, people, he took a DEPUTY'S sidearm! A weapon that was SUPPOSED to be there. If you said this showed the need for more or better training in handling dangerous suspects, fine. Trying to use this as a lever to get more money is disgusting.
And, sadly, expected.
In Oklahoma, we have a bunch of people hollering that "this shows the need for better courthouse security". Hey, people, he took a DEPUTY'S sidearm! A weapon that was SUPPOSED to be there. If you said this showed the need for more or better training in handling dangerous suspects, fine. Trying to use this as a lever to get more money is disgusting.
And, sadly, expected.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Avian Success!
I noticed earlier that the featherheads in the Front Yard have finally noticed the feeder itself. ("Dude! You know that thing waving over the seeds that appear on the ground? There's FOOD in it!") The birds in the back keep fluttering back & forth from feeder to bush to ground as long as you don't breathe too hard or something else disturbing, but the ones in front flap off in a panic when you come in sight. But over time they may calm down a bit.
In any case, it gives the cat something to watch.
In any case, it gives the cat something to watch.
This is Politically Incorrect evening
Due to a combination of tired and wanting out of the house, I said to hell with it and headed out. The evening beginning with meat.
Barbeque, that is. Slow-smoked animal parts. And fried potatoes and fried okra on the side. There's a place in northwest Oklahoma City called Oklahoma Station that has all you can eat ribs on Thursday evenings. Good stuff. Happily, on this occasion I stopped before they had to pull out a dolly to remove me from my seat and move me to the truck. Good stuff, Maynard.
And from there to the range. H&H is a nice place, and I took the Remington 33 I wrote about before, and that Star pistol I've been testing. I had stripped the Star down and took out the Dremel, polishing bobs and compound and attacked the feed ramp. Once I had shined the surface I found that the ramp was pretty rough, with some machining marks across the face. It only took a few minutes to remove most of them(Disclaimer: I'm not a trained gunsmith, so do not take this as expert advise. It's just what I did. If you've never done work like this or you're unsure about what/how, take it to someone who knows. If you try it yourself and screw something up, don't blame me). With a nice bright finish I worked some dummy rounds through, and oh, you could feel the difference. So tonight I shot some more of the Speer Gold Dots through it, all without fail or problem in any way. I also tried some Remington 117 grain hollow points; they also worked without fail.
I put a little over a box through the .22 at bullseyes at 25 yards. A few years ago I took some card stock and drew a grid of 1" squares all over it, with a corner at center. I left a bit of the upper left blank and typed in spaces for date, gun, ammo info. I kept that as a master and made a bunch of different targets by copying the grid and adding in whatever. So I've got hollow squares for sighting in scopes, different size black bullseyes, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Ok, ok, it's just a phrase, my fancy hasn't been struck in quite a while now. Anyway, the targets tonight were 2" black circles for the rifle. I used silhouettes for the pistol.
It still strikes me how nice the trigger is on that rifle. It was an inexpensive .22 for a kid, capable of hunting the elusive tin can and putting squirrel & rabbit on the table, nothing fancy about it. And yet it's got a trigger action you often have to either pay through the nose for in a high-dollar rifle, or pay a gunsmith to fix for you nowadays. Clean break at about 3 pounds I'd guess. Only thing it would need for serious use would be something to keep the trigger from moving back after the break, it does have a bit of motion there. For once I think I'll leave something the hell alone.
And just to make the evening complete, the folks in the next lane had two submachine guns, a Uzi and a Mac 10. Both with suppressors.
(Brief note. There are silencers and suppressors. A silencer makes the shot as quiet as possible, in the process slowing the bullet down some; used with sub-sonic ammo where the bullet is moving below the speed of sound, they can be amazingly quiet. Suppressors leave the bullet velocity alone, they just quiet the sound of the shot down quite a bit. This is my understanding of the difference)
I've fired a Mac 10 once before, without a barrel extension or suppressor, but I'd never fired an Uzi, so when the guy offered I grabbed- uh, happily accepted the offer and put a magazine through it. Firing that thing semi-auto there's virtually no recoil, the weight damps down a 9mm cartridge nicely. In short bursts, it was easy to control. No, I'll never get one unless I win a lottery or something, I can't afford to feed it.
So it worked out to be a nice evening. I'll clean the stuff tomorrow, I'm tired. Thank God for modern ammo where you can put it off.
Barbeque, that is. Slow-smoked animal parts. And fried potatoes and fried okra on the side. There's a place in northwest Oklahoma City called Oklahoma Station that has all you can eat ribs on Thursday evenings. Good stuff. Happily, on this occasion I stopped before they had to pull out a dolly to remove me from my seat and move me to the truck. Good stuff, Maynard.
And from there to the range. H&H is a nice place, and I took the Remington 33 I wrote about before, and that Star pistol I've been testing. I had stripped the Star down and took out the Dremel, polishing bobs and compound and attacked the feed ramp. Once I had shined the surface I found that the ramp was pretty rough, with some machining marks across the face. It only took a few minutes to remove most of them(Disclaimer: I'm not a trained gunsmith, so do not take this as expert advise. It's just what I did. If you've never done work like this or you're unsure about what/how, take it to someone who knows. If you try it yourself and screw something up, don't blame me). With a nice bright finish I worked some dummy rounds through, and oh, you could feel the difference. So tonight I shot some more of the Speer Gold Dots through it, all without fail or problem in any way. I also tried some Remington 117 grain hollow points; they also worked without fail.
I put a little over a box through the .22 at bullseyes at 25 yards. A few years ago I took some card stock and drew a grid of 1" squares all over it, with a corner at center. I left a bit of the upper left blank and typed in spaces for date, gun, ammo info. I kept that as a master and made a bunch of different targets by copying the grid and adding in whatever. So I've got hollow squares for sighting in scopes, different size black bullseyes, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Ok, ok, it's just a phrase, my fancy hasn't been struck in quite a while now. Anyway, the targets tonight were 2" black circles for the rifle. I used silhouettes for the pistol.
It still strikes me how nice the trigger is on that rifle. It was an inexpensive .22 for a kid, capable of hunting the elusive tin can and putting squirrel & rabbit on the table, nothing fancy about it. And yet it's got a trigger action you often have to either pay through the nose for in a high-dollar rifle, or pay a gunsmith to fix for you nowadays. Clean break at about 3 pounds I'd guess. Only thing it would need for serious use would be something to keep the trigger from moving back after the break, it does have a bit of motion there. For once I think I'll leave something the hell alone.
And just to make the evening complete, the folks in the next lane had two submachine guns, a Uzi and a Mac 10. Both with suppressors.
(Brief note. There are silencers and suppressors. A silencer makes the shot as quiet as possible, in the process slowing the bullet down some; used with sub-sonic ammo where the bullet is moving below the speed of sound, they can be amazingly quiet. Suppressors leave the bullet velocity alone, they just quiet the sound of the shot down quite a bit. This is my understanding of the difference)
I've fired a Mac 10 once before, without a barrel extension or suppressor, but I'd never fired an Uzi, so when the guy offered I grabbed- uh, happily accepted the offer and put a magazine through it. Firing that thing semi-auto there's virtually no recoil, the weight damps down a 9mm cartridge nicely. In short bursts, it was easy to control. No, I'll never get one unless I win a lottery or something, I can't afford to feed it.
So it worked out to be a nice evening. I'll clean the stuff tomorrow, I'm tired. Thank God for modern ammo where you can put it off.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Random thoughts
Ever used Rain-X? You put it on your windshield correctly, and it glazes the glass or something so rain just rolls off. Pretty good stuff. I just recoated all my truck windows and the mirrors.
My ex and kids have three ferrets. They're pretty neat creatures, although one of the little bastards bites everyone except my ex. Yes, the kids too. One of them has an absolute fit when anything gets moved in the living room. I mean ANYTHING; trash, furniture, if he liked it where it was you better not move it. A while back on a nice day they took the three-level cage outside and hosed it off. When I came by about an hour after they had it cleaned & dried & back in the house, he was still going. Running, jumping, bitching and chasing the cats.
Ferrets are cute, but I wouldn't have one myself. Besides having to have a room they can't get out of/not as easy as you might think/, they get into EVERYTHING. I mean it. Drawers, shelves, boxes, jackets, everything. Some of them learn to work zippers so they can get into bags and purses. My daughter once got halfway to school when she felt her backpack move. Look inside to find a weasel curled up snoozing. For a ferret, everything has to be explored, preferably repeatedly o. And if something is in reach and closed, THAT is a violation of the natural order of the universe, and cannot be tolerated. They'll work at it until either they get in or you move it out of their reach.
They also steal things and will demonstrate their unhappiness with something by crapping beside the litter box. Preferably while looking at you to make sure you see just how displeased they are.
Sondra K. got her camera, which is good. Downside of this is she's no longer selling her as- er, selling space on her ass. In her thong picture, I mean. Or does she actually paint/print the stuff on, or have someone do it? Sondra, sweetie, could I?... Never mind.
Steve is ticking off cigarette smokers. I have to disagree with him on one thing; every cigar I've ever smelled had the light aroma of burning rope. That had been laying in the yard. Where the dog does business. I have to admit I occasionally smoke a pipe, with a blend called 'IQ140' from a shop in Norman. I hate the smell of cigarettes, but some pipe tobacco smells pretty damn nice.
Kim has a link to a story about how Britain and Canada and Australia, after highly restricting/banning those nasty firearms, have all had continuing increases in violent crimes. Surprise, surprise. They're also places where everything else the MEEB's* consider 'dangerous' is restricted, including self-defense.
If you've never looked in on Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, you should. This link is generally work-safe; this one isn't.
It's March in Oklahoma, which means the weather goes from lows in the 30's & 40's and highs in the 60's & low 70's, back to 20's & 30's for lows & 40's for highs in the space of a couple of days. Whenever Ma Nature feels like it. So one day you can ride a bike around with a jacket and light gloves, and the next you may need a snowmobile suit go get around on two wheels.
More specific thoughts later.
*MEEB's: those who Mind Everybody Else's Business
My ex and kids have three ferrets. They're pretty neat creatures, although one of the little bastards bites everyone except my ex. Yes, the kids too. One of them has an absolute fit when anything gets moved in the living room. I mean ANYTHING; trash, furniture, if he liked it where it was you better not move it. A while back on a nice day they took the three-level cage outside and hosed it off. When I came by about an hour after they had it cleaned & dried & back in the house, he was still going. Running, jumping, bitching and chasing the cats.
Ferrets are cute, but I wouldn't have one myself. Besides having to have a room they can't get out of/not as easy as you might think/, they get into EVERYTHING. I mean it. Drawers, shelves, boxes, jackets, everything. Some of them learn to work zippers so they can get into bags and purses. My daughter once got halfway to school when she felt her backpack move. Look inside to find a weasel curled up snoozing. For a ferret, everything has to be explored, preferably repeatedly o. And if something is in reach and closed, THAT is a violation of the natural order of the universe, and cannot be tolerated. They'll work at it until either they get in or you move it out of their reach.
They also steal things and will demonstrate their unhappiness with something by crapping beside the litter box. Preferably while looking at you to make sure you see just how displeased they are.
Sondra K. got her camera, which is good. Downside of this is she's no longer selling her as- er, selling space on her ass. In her thong picture, I mean. Or does she actually paint/print the stuff on, or have someone do it? Sondra, sweetie, could I?... Never mind.
Steve is ticking off cigarette smokers. I have to disagree with him on one thing; every cigar I've ever smelled had the light aroma of burning rope. That had been laying in the yard. Where the dog does business. I have to admit I occasionally smoke a pipe, with a blend called 'IQ140' from a shop in Norman. I hate the smell of cigarettes, but some pipe tobacco smells pretty damn nice.
Kim has a link to a story about how Britain and Canada and Australia, after highly restricting/banning those nasty firearms, have all had continuing increases in violent crimes. Surprise, surprise. They're also places where everything else the MEEB's* consider 'dangerous' is restricted, including self-defense.
If you've never looked in on Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, you should. This link is generally work-safe; this one isn't.
It's March in Oklahoma, which means the weather goes from lows in the 30's & 40's and highs in the 60's & low 70's, back to 20's & 30's for lows & 40's for highs in the space of a couple of days. Whenever Ma Nature feels like it. So one day you can ride a bike around with a jacket and light gloves, and the next you may need a snowmobile suit go get around on two wheels.
More specific thoughts later.
*MEEB's: those who Mind Everybody Else's Business
I'm so glad I don't live in MA
mASS BACKWARDS has the current story on the dirtbags who forced their way into a house and murdered a 61-year old man and threatened to kill his wife.
Two quotes that really get me:
"The 61-year-old disabled retiree, who had emphysema and had suffered multiple heart attacks, was hit in the abdomen and died later at St. Luke's Hospital. It was New Bedford's second homicide this year.The trio's defense lawyers and their families said the shooting was in self-defense. They said that Murray lunged at Ramon Geliga with a knife." and
""I know they're innocent," said the Gilegas' mother, Darlene Sanchez. "He [Murray] went at them with a knife. What are you supposed to do? He was going to put it through him."
Let's see, you break into someone's home- armed- and claim you acted in self-defense when you murder the homeowner? Bullshit. You are a murderer, plain and simple. And your mother is an idiot for making such an argument. Oh, and your lawyers? They're scum of the proper type to associate with you.
In OK, if someone breaks into your house you can shoot them. Period. Too bad the People's Republic of MA doesn't think the peasants should be allowed the means and freedom to protect themselves, home and family.
Finally: " The two brothers sobbed in court as they were ordered held without bail by New Bedford District Court Judge Bernadette Sabra." Hey, genius, what the hell did you THINK was going to happen? You murdered someone, did you think that the judge would release you into momma's custody?(they might have thought so, this being in MA). And get used to being in confined spaces and ordered in every aspect of your life; you should be dealing with that for a long, long time.
A few years ago I saw one of the saddest things I can imagine. A kid had just been arraigned for murder. I say 'kid', I believe he was 14, but he had a life of crime behind him. Literally. Past arrests for assault, robbery, rape or attempted rape(can't remember which), and he'd always been put on probation and sent home. And now, finally he'd murdered a man during a robbery. Apparently he'd been expecting the usual; but this time, the judge said "No more, we're going to see if we can try you as an adult, and you're staying behind bars this time". He was being taken away, in cuffs, by two deputies, and he was screaming and crying and hanging in their hands, absolutely scared to death. Apparently for the first time, he was facing serious consequence for his acts, and he was terrified. In a case like this I do blame the local society for the situation: if he had been hammered after the first offense, been actually punished for it, it might have made an impression, made him think that doing things like this wasn't a good idea. But everyone was worried about his esteem, and punishment is such an old-fashioned idea, and we'll be nice and take care of you, and the end result of all that modern 'concern' was a man dead and this kid probably nothing more than a threat to others for the rest of his life.
By the way, note in the story that two of them went in, the third was a lookout. These little bastards planned this, which makes it premeditated, which means that in OK they'd be facing a needle in the arm. And fuck the Supreme Court weenies, these little monsters should be facing a death penalty.
Two quotes that really get me:
"The 61-year-old disabled retiree, who had emphysema and had suffered multiple heart attacks, was hit in the abdomen and died later at St. Luke's Hospital. It was New Bedford's second homicide this year.The trio's defense lawyers and their families said the shooting was in self-defense. They said that Murray lunged at Ramon Geliga with a knife." and
""I know they're innocent," said the Gilegas' mother, Darlene Sanchez. "He [Murray] went at them with a knife. What are you supposed to do? He was going to put it through him."
Let's see, you break into someone's home- armed- and claim you acted in self-defense when you murder the homeowner? Bullshit. You are a murderer, plain and simple. And your mother is an idiot for making such an argument. Oh, and your lawyers? They're scum of the proper type to associate with you.
In OK, if someone breaks into your house you can shoot them. Period. Too bad the People's Republic of MA doesn't think the peasants should be allowed the means and freedom to protect themselves, home and family.
Finally: " The two brothers sobbed in court as they were ordered held without bail by New Bedford District Court Judge Bernadette Sabra." Hey, genius, what the hell did you THINK was going to happen? You murdered someone, did you think that the judge would release you into momma's custody?(they might have thought so, this being in MA). And get used to being in confined spaces and ordered in every aspect of your life; you should be dealing with that for a long, long time.
A few years ago I saw one of the saddest things I can imagine. A kid had just been arraigned for murder. I say 'kid', I believe he was 14, but he had a life of crime behind him. Literally. Past arrests for assault, robbery, rape or attempted rape(can't remember which), and he'd always been put on probation and sent home. And now, finally he'd murdered a man during a robbery. Apparently he'd been expecting the usual; but this time, the judge said "No more, we're going to see if we can try you as an adult, and you're staying behind bars this time". He was being taken away, in cuffs, by two deputies, and he was screaming and crying and hanging in their hands, absolutely scared to death. Apparently for the first time, he was facing serious consequence for his acts, and he was terrified. In a case like this I do blame the local society for the situation: if he had been hammered after the first offense, been actually punished for it, it might have made an impression, made him think that doing things like this wasn't a good idea. But everyone was worried about his esteem, and punishment is such an old-fashioned idea, and we'll be nice and take care of you, and the end result of all that modern 'concern' was a man dead and this kid probably nothing more than a threat to others for the rest of his life.
By the way, note in the story that two of them went in, the third was a lookout. These little bastards planned this, which makes it premeditated, which means that in OK they'd be facing a needle in the arm. And fuck the Supreme Court weenies, these little monsters should be facing a death penalty.
Partial avian success
Some of the featherheads have discovered that seed has somehow begun to appear on the ground under the feeder. However, even though they fly near/around it, it hasn't occurred to them to land on the damn feeder and get the food directly.
It's been ten days, if I remember correctly. I've never seen birds take more than three, maybe four days to start hitting a feeder before. Maybe, within another day or two, they'll finally figure it out. I mentioned before that since some of these birds have to be some of those eating at the feeder in back, why aren't they hitting this one? Unless...
Do birds segregate? Are there 'backyard' birds and 'front yard' birds that don't mingle? "Get away from him, Daphne, do you know where he eats?" "John, dump that woman, she hangs around in fr0nt!"
Now I need a little paintball gun, so I can mark birds. Purely for scientific interest, of course.
It's been ten days, if I remember correctly. I've never seen birds take more than three, maybe four days to start hitting a feeder before. Maybe, within another day or two, they'll finally figure it out. I mentioned before that since some of these birds have to be some of those eating at the feeder in back, why aren't they hitting this one? Unless...
Do birds segregate? Are there 'backyard' birds and 'front yard' birds that don't mingle? "Get away from him, Daphne, do you know where he eats?" "John, dump that woman, she hangs around in fr0nt!"
Now I need a little paintball gun, so I can mark birds. Purely for scientific interest, of course.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Don't miss the Carnival of Cordite!
Will probably be a new one in a few days, in the meantime
Carnival the First
Carnival the Second
Carnival the Third
Links found over at AnarchAngel
Carnival the First
Carnival the Second
Carnival the Third
Links found over at AnarchAngel
Oh, and John McCain is as crooked as can be
I had forgotten about the Keating 5, of whom Senator 'we need the money out of politics' McCain was one. As Captain's Quarters points out, there's a bit of a resemblance between then and now.
Before 9/11, Arizona had a recall effort going on McCain, for a variety of reasons. After the attack, they decided to pull the petition since there was a war on. From the looks of things, they should have kept after the bastard. Start at the link above, and scroll down for multiple posts.
Before 9/11, Arizona had a recall effort going on McCain, for a variety of reasons. After the attack, they decided to pull the petition since there was a war on. From the looks of things, they should have kept after the bastard. Start at the link above, and scroll down for multiple posts.
Who'da thunk it?
Gee, a communist reporter lies about what happened at a U.S. roadblock? Why, however could that be?
I hadn't said anything before about this because it seemed pretty simple: if she'd been subjected to a "rain of bullets" from armored vehicles, she'd be dead; and if, by some miracle she survived, the car would look like something out of a 'Lethal Weapon' movie after the shootout. Well, we now have pictures of the car, and what do we have? Possibly four bullet holes. Not much of a 'rain' of fire, is it?
If I'm not mistaken, the machine guns on a Abrams tank are the tank commander's .50, and the other is a .30 caliber. Either one would turn a car into scrap with a single long burst. The damage in the pictures is, from the looks of it, small-arms fire, probably from trying to stop the vehicle.
Gee, a commie reporter lied. Surprise, surprise.
I hadn't said anything before about this because it seemed pretty simple: if she'd been subjected to a "rain of bullets" from armored vehicles, she'd be dead; and if, by some miracle she survived, the car would look like something out of a 'Lethal Weapon' movie after the shootout. Well, we now have pictures of the car, and what do we have? Possibly four bullet holes. Not much of a 'rain' of fire, is it?
If I'm not mistaken, the machine guns on a Abrams tank are the tank commander's .50, and the other is a .30 caliber. Either one would turn a car into scrap with a single long burst. The damage in the pictures is, from the looks of it, small-arms fire, probably from trying to stop the vehicle.
Gee, a commie reporter lied. Surprise, surprise.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Jeff Cooper ain't always right
If you're not familiar with the man, he's got quite a history. Retired Marine, service in WWII, masters degree in philosophy if I remember right, has had a HUGE influence on the development of modern defensive handgun theory. He started a school years ago that has trained everyone from ordinary people to SWAT and military special ops types in advanced use of handgun, rifle, shotgun and sub-gun. Also the official creator of the 'scout rifle' concept. The man has a lot of experience and is worth reading and paying attention to.
That does NOT mean that everything he says should be accepted flatly as the Truth. I'll state myself that he has far more experience in many areas than I do. However, there are some things on which I disagree, strongly in some cases. Here's three.
Aiming.
He has said that unless you're in contact range(muzzle almost touching the target) you should never point-shoot; you should always bring the piece up to eye level and use the sights. Strongly disagree here, for several reasons. First, with practice point-shooting or hip-shooting, call it what you will, can be both fast and quite accurate. Second, at close range it keeps the weapon closer to you and further from the target. And third, it teaches that you can shoot accurately without using the sights, and in dim light or other bad conditions that can be a very good thing. A man named Bill Jordan once wrote a book called 'No Second-Place Winner' on the subject of gunfighting. He was himself a veteran of WWII in the Pacific and many years in the Border Patrol. Check it out, it's worth reading for many reasons, and it lays out his reasons for hip-shooting at close ranges. I'm prejudiced on this point because this is the way my father was trained to shoot, and the way he taught me when I began learning handguns. And it works. Note: on pages 94-95 he illustrates his shooting positions; except at the closest range, I always used two hands, and tend to hold it out further than he illustrates. It's something you have to experiment with a bit.
Shooting sticks. This can be either a single stick or a pair that can be used as a walking stick, and is used as a rifle rest when shooting at game. Cooper basically says that if you properly train to shoot offhand, they're a Bad Thing and unnecessary. Other side of that is a: I've read of many comments from experience hunters and fine shots as to how handy they can be, and b: I was always told that if there is any way to do it, you ALWAYS use a rest when shooting at game. You may not like sticks yourself, but apparently they work very well for a lot of people.
Scout rifle. This is basically a very simple concept: a rifle of minimum weight and length, chambered for a serious cartridge- he prefers .308- with a three-point sling and a forward-mounted scope. It's a nice idea, and can work quite well. My problem here is that anything other than the Steyr Scout Rifle with the built-in bipod and spare magazine holder and fold-down backup sights just doesn't cut it according to Cooper. Now, the Steyr is without questions a finely-made firearm, but the damn thing costs about $2500. Savage used to make a Scout that came with a forward-mount for a scope, a ghost-ring rear sight and a synthetic stock, and I think it came with three sling studs, for about $600 new- I've seen them for $350-450 used- and it's a fine rifle. Ruger is making one that they call a Scout, has the sights and scope mount and sling studs, and if you have to pay actual MSR price, it's about $800 I believe. Both of these are quality firearms capable of fine accuracy, at a hell of a lot less money. I think I can put up with no integral bipod and spare magazine in the stcck for, oh, $1500-2000 difference.
Cooper is a very interesting man, and his writings, either in his books or his columns(found here) are definately worth reading. I do not mean to take anything away from him, I simply point out that there is room for disagreement on some things.
What started me on this was I read his current column in Guns and Ammo magazine, and he went off on shooting sticks. Again. So I thought I'd speak my piece on this.
Personal note. I had an old Mauser rifle I'd fixed up that shot wonderfully, and after reading about the scout rifle idea, I thought that would be nice to try. So I went to an Evil Loophole Gun Show and found an old Turkish Mauser that with some argument I bought for $65. Kind of beat-up on the outside, but mechanically sound and the bore looked good. So I did the following:
Cut the barrel to 20".
Cut the stock down to match and refinished, and put on a recoil pad.
Put on a post front sight and a Williams receiver sight(the less-expensive model without click adjustments).
There's a hole in the front of the trigger guard for I know not what reason, so I ground that area thin enough for a quick-release sling swivel to hook on there, and put standard swivel studs front & rear.
Made sure all the trigger bearing surfaces were polished and gave a nice, clean break.
Into the original rear sight base I stuck a B-Square scope mount for a long eye-relief scope.
When all this was done, I had a pretty good rifle. It was a little heavier and longer than the Ideal, but quite handy none the less. It had the three-point sling. The rear sight didn't fold down out of the way, but it worked nicely. So for less than $200 in cash and some careful work I had a short, light rifle in 8mm Mauser that would take care of any game I could conceivably run into. And after careful cleaning, the barrel justified my trust; at 100 yards it'll shoot 1 to 1.25" groups if I do my part. A scope did run the price up over $200 but still less than $300. I can't guarantee someone else would get equally good results from the project(no guarantee, mileage may vary as Kim puts it), but if you like to work on things it might be worth a try.
That does NOT mean that everything he says should be accepted flatly as the Truth. I'll state myself that he has far more experience in many areas than I do. However, there are some things on which I disagree, strongly in some cases. Here's three.
Aiming.
He has said that unless you're in contact range(muzzle almost touching the target) you should never point-shoot; you should always bring the piece up to eye level and use the sights. Strongly disagree here, for several reasons. First, with practice point-shooting or hip-shooting, call it what you will, can be both fast and quite accurate. Second, at close range it keeps the weapon closer to you and further from the target. And third, it teaches that you can shoot accurately without using the sights, and in dim light or other bad conditions that can be a very good thing. A man named Bill Jordan once wrote a book called 'No Second-Place Winner' on the subject of gunfighting. He was himself a veteran of WWII in the Pacific and many years in the Border Patrol. Check it out, it's worth reading for many reasons, and it lays out his reasons for hip-shooting at close ranges. I'm prejudiced on this point because this is the way my father was trained to shoot, and the way he taught me when I began learning handguns. And it works. Note: on pages 94-95 he illustrates his shooting positions; except at the closest range, I always used two hands, and tend to hold it out further than he illustrates. It's something you have to experiment with a bit.
Shooting sticks. This can be either a single stick or a pair that can be used as a walking stick, and is used as a rifle rest when shooting at game. Cooper basically says that if you properly train to shoot offhand, they're a Bad Thing and unnecessary. Other side of that is a: I've read of many comments from experience hunters and fine shots as to how handy they can be, and b: I was always told that if there is any way to do it, you ALWAYS use a rest when shooting at game. You may not like sticks yourself, but apparently they work very well for a lot of people.
Scout rifle. This is basically a very simple concept: a rifle of minimum weight and length, chambered for a serious cartridge- he prefers .308- with a three-point sling and a forward-mounted scope. It's a nice idea, and can work quite well. My problem here is that anything other than the Steyr Scout Rifle with the built-in bipod and spare magazine holder and fold-down backup sights just doesn't cut it according to Cooper. Now, the Steyr is without questions a finely-made firearm, but the damn thing costs about $2500. Savage used to make a Scout that came with a forward-mount for a scope, a ghost-ring rear sight and a synthetic stock, and I think it came with three sling studs, for about $600 new- I've seen them for $350-450 used- and it's a fine rifle. Ruger is making one that they call a Scout, has the sights and scope mount and sling studs, and if you have to pay actual MSR price, it's about $800 I believe. Both of these are quality firearms capable of fine accuracy, at a hell of a lot less money. I think I can put up with no integral bipod and spare magazine in the stcck for, oh, $1500-2000 difference.
Cooper is a very interesting man, and his writings, either in his books or his columns(found here) are definately worth reading. I do not mean to take anything away from him, I simply point out that there is room for disagreement on some things.
What started me on this was I read his current column in Guns and Ammo magazine, and he went off on shooting sticks. Again. So I thought I'd speak my piece on this.
Personal note. I had an old Mauser rifle I'd fixed up that shot wonderfully, and after reading about the scout rifle idea, I thought that would be nice to try. So I went to an Evil Loophole Gun Show and found an old Turkish Mauser that with some argument I bought for $65. Kind of beat-up on the outside, but mechanically sound and the bore looked good. So I did the following:
Cut the barrel to 20".
Cut the stock down to match and refinished, and put on a recoil pad.
Put on a post front sight and a Williams receiver sight(the less-expensive model without click adjustments).
There's a hole in the front of the trigger guard for I know not what reason, so I ground that area thin enough for a quick-release sling swivel to hook on there, and put standard swivel studs front & rear.
Made sure all the trigger bearing surfaces were polished and gave a nice, clean break.
Into the original rear sight base I stuck a B-Square scope mount for a long eye-relief scope.
When all this was done, I had a pretty good rifle. It was a little heavier and longer than the Ideal, but quite handy none the less. It had the three-point sling. The rear sight didn't fold down out of the way, but it worked nicely. So for less than $200 in cash and some careful work I had a short, light rifle in 8mm Mauser that would take care of any game I could conceivably run into. And after careful cleaning, the barrel justified my trust; at 100 yards it'll shoot 1 to 1.25" groups if I do my part. A scope did run the price up over $200 but still less than $300. I can't guarantee someone else would get equally good results from the project(no guarantee, mileage may vary as Kim puts it), but if you like to work on things it might be worth a try.
Carport maintenance & Italian journalists
No, they're not connected. Other than both being a pain.
When I got this house one of the things I liked was the carport. I still do, but I've been trying for a while to clean out the drain channels. One pair I could stick a gutter-blaster hose attachment into in places and blow some of the stuff out, but the other two channels are covered in such a way that there's no damn way to wash them out. Leaf litter would be bad enough, but the big problem is all the gravel from the old roof. After a year of trying various things, I finally gave up and did the drastic thing; since the corners couldn't be opened up, I got out the hole saw and cut holes in two corners. With the holes there, I was able to blast most of the crap out them, and when leaves blocked it could use a wire to pull the plug out and continue. It looks like I've got the worst of it out, and when I'm fairly sure I'll cut two plugs out of sheet aluminum and stick them in with silicone sealant. Should make drainage a lot better.
The Italian journalist in question is the idiot who got shot approaching a road checkpoint at high speed and is now claiming the troops were intentionally trying to kill her. Hey, stupid, if they'd wanted you dead, you'd be in a box instead of flapping your gums. Instapundit has lots of links on this. I like the comment at Wizbang:
"On her way out, our forces shoot 300 to 400 rounds at their car. And the result of all that firepower? One killed, three injured -- none apparently very seriously. Then they treat them and send them home.
When I got this house one of the things I liked was the carport. I still do, but I've been trying for a while to clean out the drain channels. One pair I could stick a gutter-blaster hose attachment into in places and blow some of the stuff out, but the other two channels are covered in such a way that there's no damn way to wash them out. Leaf litter would be bad enough, but the big problem is all the gravel from the old roof. After a year of trying various things, I finally gave up and did the drastic thing; since the corners couldn't be opened up, I got out the hole saw and cut holes in two corners. With the holes there, I was able to blast most of the crap out them, and when leaves blocked it could use a wire to pull the plug out and continue. It looks like I've got the worst of it out, and when I'm fairly sure I'll cut two plugs out of sheet aluminum and stick them in with silicone sealant. Should make drainage a lot better.
The Italian journalist in question is the idiot who got shot approaching a road checkpoint at high speed and is now claiming the troops were intentionally trying to kill her. Hey, stupid, if they'd wanted you dead, you'd be in a box instead of flapping your gums. Instapundit has lots of links on this. I like the comment at Wizbang:
"On her way out, our forces shoot 300 to 400 rounds at their car. And the result of all that firepower? One killed, three injured -- none apparently very seriously. Then they treat them and send them home.
Obviously all that money we've spent on training and equipment has gone to waste if our forces are performing that poorly."
'Nuff said.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Bill Clinton sucks(as well as inhaling)
With the problems with Iran, including but not limited to the governments support of terrorism and working to build nukes, at Davos Bill Clinton made comments about how wonderful it is in Iran. Including:
" [It is] the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in six elections: two for President; two for the parliament, the Majlis; two for the mayoralities.
In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70% of the vote. There is no other country in the world I can say that about, certainly not my own."
Found at Little Green Footballs.
" [It is] the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in six elections: two for President; two for the parliament, the Majlis; two for the mayoralities.
In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70% of the vote. There is no other country in the world I can say that about, certainly not my own."
Found at Little Green Footballs.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
What to do, what to do about accuracy...
If you've ever been around someone who's really serious about .22 rimfire accuracy, you know about picky. One thing a lot of people don't realize about firearms is that some can be really picky about what they like; what shoots amazingly well in one rifle or pistol may give lousy accuracy in another. Some shoot almost everything well, some only one or two types.
I've got a BSA Martini model 12/15 rifle I picked up a while back that fits in the 'good with everything' category. I've sat down at a nice, solid bench with it and a dozen different brands/types of ammo over time, and it shoots as well at 50 yards with Federal Lightning ammo($.69/box) as it does with Wolf Match or Aguila match ammo($3 to $4/box). I haven't tried the Lapua($7 to 10/box) or some of the other serious match-grade stuff; being chea- uh, fiscally conservative, laying out $7 to $10/box for .22's just doesn't register. Not when I get 1/2" groups with the 'economy' ammo at 50 yards.
But for the serious accuracy hound? Oh, he'll buy a box or two of each, carefully clean the bore between each brand/type. He'll check out the different sites for anything that might tweak the ammo just that final little bit to get the dream groups; like putting a different lube on the bullets(here and here).
The one advantage .22's have for those who go all out is that a $10 box of ammo still holds 50 rounds; a 20 round box of centerfire match will probably start about $15 or so, depending on cartridge/brand.
I'll never make a serious match shooter. If I can find a .22 round that, off a solid rest, groups 1/2" or a little less at 50 yards, I'm real happy since that's the best I'd ever be able to shoot in the field. Likewise, when I work up a centerfire rifle load that'll group an inch at 100 yards, I know it'll take care of anything I'm going to try in the woods. The people who are SERIOUS about accuracy will keep trying different case/primer/powder/bullet/lube combinations forever, or with .22's different brands/lubes/bullet mods, looking for the golden combination for that firearm.
Notes: I'll admit to plans to buy a box or two of CCI or Eley match stuff to try in this and another .22, someday when I'm feeling rich, but unless the stuff all goes through the same hole in the target, it'll just be to try the stuff out.
On centerfires, it can be amazing the difference one component can make. I once worked up loads on an 8mm Mauser. With Federal or Remington brass holding the same primer/powder/bullet combination, group size was identical with the Remingtons hitting right at 1" higher; with Winchester brass, the group was about 6" and about 5" higher and to the right.
On tweaking ammo, there's an interesting gadget here that swages the bullet of a .22 to either a more accurate(possibly, depending on firearm) bullet diameter or a more efficient hollowpoint shape, depending on which rod you use. Hmm, tax refund should be in soon...
Update: Welcome Carnival of Cordite readers!
I've got a BSA Martini model 12/15 rifle I picked up a while back that fits in the 'good with everything' category. I've sat down at a nice, solid bench with it and a dozen different brands/types of ammo over time, and it shoots as well at 50 yards with Federal Lightning ammo($.69/box) as it does with Wolf Match or Aguila match ammo($3 to $4/box). I haven't tried the Lapua($7 to 10/box) or some of the other serious match-grade stuff; being chea- uh, fiscally conservative, laying out $7 to $10/box for .22's just doesn't register. Not when I get 1/2" groups with the 'economy' ammo at 50 yards.
But for the serious accuracy hound? Oh, he'll buy a box or two of each, carefully clean the bore between each brand/type. He'll check out the different sites for anything that might tweak the ammo just that final little bit to get the dream groups; like putting a different lube on the bullets(here and here).
The one advantage .22's have for those who go all out is that a $10 box of ammo still holds 50 rounds; a 20 round box of centerfire match will probably start about $15 or so, depending on cartridge/brand.
I'll never make a serious match shooter. If I can find a .22 round that, off a solid rest, groups 1/2" or a little less at 50 yards, I'm real happy since that's the best I'd ever be able to shoot in the field. Likewise, when I work up a centerfire rifle load that'll group an inch at 100 yards, I know it'll take care of anything I'm going to try in the woods. The people who are SERIOUS about accuracy will keep trying different case/primer/powder/bullet/lube combinations forever, or with .22's different brands/lubes/bullet mods, looking for the golden combination for that firearm.
Notes: I'll admit to plans to buy a box or two of CCI or Eley match stuff to try in this and another .22, someday when I'm feeling rich, but unless the stuff all goes through the same hole in the target, it'll just be to try the stuff out.
On centerfires, it can be amazing the difference one component can make. I once worked up loads on an 8mm Mauser. With Federal or Remington brass holding the same primer/powder/bullet combination, group size was identical with the Remingtons hitting right at 1" higher; with Winchester brass, the group was about 6" and about 5" higher and to the right.
On tweaking ammo, there's an interesting gadget here that swages the bullet of a .22 to either a more accurate(possibly, depending on firearm) bullet diameter or a more efficient hollowpoint shape, depending on which rod you use. Hmm, tax refund should be in soon...
Update: Welcome Carnival of Cordite readers!
Watch lost
Og tells about almost losing a watch that means a lot to him. I did lose mine.
When I was about 19, my parents bought me a Seiko divers watch; self-winding, extra-tough crystal, waterproof. That thing went everywhere with me, from school to the woods to 95 feet down in Lake Elmer Thomas(what's at 95 feet there? Muck and darkness). Years and lots of wear and knocks later it stopped working, and since I didn't have the money to get it fixed(new kids, house payment, etc.) it was put in a drawer for 'someday'.
About ten years later a friend of mine in Texas turned out to know a Seiko repair guy who had/could get parts for older watches. So I packed it off to Fort Worth, and it came back in beautiful shape. And once again it sat on my wrist for several years. And then it vanished.
I took the house apart, moved everything in the garage, did everything but find a psychic to look for the damn thing with no luck. It was just gone.
I still miss it.
When I was about 19, my parents bought me a Seiko divers watch; self-winding, extra-tough crystal, waterproof. That thing went everywhere with me, from school to the woods to 95 feet down in Lake Elmer Thomas(what's at 95 feet there? Muck and darkness). Years and lots of wear and knocks later it stopped working, and since I didn't have the money to get it fixed(new kids, house payment, etc.) it was put in a drawer for 'someday'.
About ten years later a friend of mine in Texas turned out to know a Seiko repair guy who had/could get parts for older watches. So I packed it off to Fort Worth, and it came back in beautiful shape. And once again it sat on my wrist for several years. And then it vanished.
I took the house apart, moved everything in the garage, did everything but find a psychic to look for the damn thing with no luck. It was just gone.
I still miss it.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
While I'm on the subject of 'other uses'
This is the first large knife I ever made. I decided to go for a clip-point blade because it's a good generally-useful shape. I had a piece of leaf spring from God knows what kind of car, put it in the fire and started hammering. When done, I used a piece of thick brass for the guard, and for once I had a good piece of antler that would work nicely for the grip. (By the way, have you ever tried to drill/file a shaped hole in a piece of old Sambar stag? That stuff is hard)
First time to harden and temper something this size(the blade is 12" from guard to point), and I damn near sweated blood trying to keep the heat even over the length. But it came out nicely. And I did some nice filework on the guard, and made a sheath out of good heavy leather. And it was good.
At the time, then-wife and I were still active in the SCA, and I took it to an arts & sciences meeting, where it met with acclaim. And one guy was interested in buying it. Now, we could really have used the money, no question. But I didn't want to let it go. I was wrestling with my conscience(left shoulder:"You should sell it, you know you need the money" right shoulder:"Shut up over there! Keep it!") when wife said "Keep it. You really like this one, and we're not that desperate". So I kept it.
I have had this blade for about 22 or 23 years now. I have carried it as my dirk with my kilt, I have carried it camping. I've used it to cut bread, and cheese, and meat, and wood. I've used it to trim brush and tree limbs in the yard, and to cut up limbs for the trash pickup. The antler is worn a bit smooth in places, and the finish is kind of blotchy now. But it will to through limbs better than some hatchets I've used, and when the edge starts to dull/which takes a lot of cutting/ a few strokes on a stone or steel brings it back. And it hangs on a belt, far more out of the way than an axe would be.
In case you haven't figured it out, I'm very glad I kept it.
Other uses for stuff
I'm too lazy to get up right now to shoot the stuff I mentioned in the last post, so in the spirit of the matter, here's something else.
This is my personal sgian dbu, Gaelic for 'black knife', supposedly because the traditional grip was ivy root stained black. It was a Scot's general-purpose cutting tool, good for everything. I once found a book titled- I think- "Knives in Colonial America" that contained a picture of the dirk and sgian dbu of a major in a Highland regiment that had been stationed in North America in the 1770's. The dirk showed signs of wear, but the sgian dbu was only about half as wide as when new; it had been used and sharpened so many times it had been worn back that far. Tells you which one got the most use.
This one has a walnut grip and nickel silver fittings on the knife and sheath. 'Other uses' comes from the blade, which started out as a 5/8" ball bearing. Do you have any idea what it's like trying to hold onto a red-hot ball while you hammer it into a bar? It ain't fun. I just know that someone will see this and say "Why didn't he just weld a handle on?" I didn't have access to a welder, so shut up.
Besides, it's good for your footwork when it jumps out of the tongs...
Thoughts on a tired evening
This has been a fun 24 hours. Yesterday about this time a friend called and asked if I could go by his house when I got off work. He'd been at his fiance's house when he was notified that his house was on fire. A couple of hours later he told me not to bother coming by, fire was out and the house was secured for the night. Get off work at 1a.m., home & in bed about 2. Get up a little after 9 and go to friend's house; happily the damage was mostly confined to the utility room- except for the whole house smelling of smoke and the water damage- but the power & water are off until repairs/upgrades are done(upgrades because they apparently think it was of electrical origin). Then outside to work on a couple of knives, and while out back notice that part of the yard needs mowing. Again.
Then met a friend for dinner. About halfway through, two waiters started to clean up under a table nearby, the baby in the family had been a bit messy. They had one of those small push sweepers, and on the first push a mouse jumped out of it and ran under our table, from where it vanished. Not quite the entertainment I'd have selected for dinner, but it did.
I've been reading the transcript of a show featuring an idiot named Nancy Soderberg, who was talking about her book on how the U.S. has messed/is messing up the world(found the transcript at Opinion Journal). It's very revealing, in that Soderberg makes it quite plain that since Republicans are in charge right now, she'd rather see the entire world go down the toilet than see good things happen that the R's might get credit for. To me, the high points are:
Got that? Some very good things are happening in the world, but "there's always hope that this might not work". These clowns are like some brat who can't eat another bite, but he'll spit on the last roll or piece of pie so nobody else can eat it. 'If WE don't get credit for it, we don't want it to work!' I am so freakin' sick of these people.
My earlier post on why carry?, I left out a point. Rights need to be exercised; if they're not used regularly, a lot of bureaucrats and politicians take this to mean that you won't miss them if they take them away from you. Carrying a sidearm is, besides a means of defense, a way of telling the pukes that they will not take this away from you without a fight.
I miss Calvin and Hobbes. One of the finest comic strips ever.
I made a tall hook yesterday to put in the ground by the pecan tree in front and hold a bird feeder. The feeder's up and filled, and so far not a single bird has noticed it. I know some of the featherheads are the same ones who dine at the feeder in the back yard, it's the same type feeder so you'd think they'd notice, but no..... I'm going to see how long it takes them to 'discover' it.
I'm very damn ready for a day warm enough to put on shorts and lay out in the sun. Even if it does scare the birds.
So now it's late, and I'm tired. If I can find the camera and the energy I'll take a picture of the knives I worked on today and post it.
Then met a friend for dinner. About halfway through, two waiters started to clean up under a table nearby, the baby in the family had been a bit messy. They had one of those small push sweepers, and on the first push a mouse jumped out of it and ran under our table, from where it vanished. Not quite the entertainment I'd have selected for dinner, but it did.
I've been reading the transcript of a show featuring an idiot named Nancy Soderberg, who was talking about her book on how the U.S. has messed/is messing up the world(found the transcript at Opinion Journal). It's very revealing, in that Soderberg makes it quite plain that since Republicans are in charge right now, she'd rather see the entire world go down the toilet than see good things happen that the R's might get credit for. To me, the high points are:
Stewart: He's gonna be a great--pretty soon, Republicans are gonna be like, "Reagan was nothing compared to this guy." Like, my kid's gonna go to a high school named after him, I just know it.
Soderberg: Well, there's still Iran and North Korea, don't forget. There's hope for the rest of us.
and:
Stewart: [crossing fingers] Iran and North Korea, that's true, that is true [audience laughter]. No, it's--it is--I absolutely agree with you, this is--this is the most difficult thing for me to--because, I think, I don't care for the tactics, I don't care for this, the weird arrogance, the setting up. But I gotta say, I haven't seen results like this ever in that region.
Soderberg: Well wait. It hasn't actually gotten very far. I mean, we've had--
Stewart: Oh, I'm shallow! I'm very shallow!
Soderberg: There's always hope that this might not work.Got that? Some very good things are happening in the world, but "there's always hope that this might not work". These clowns are like some brat who can't eat another bite, but he'll spit on the last roll or piece of pie so nobody else can eat it. 'If WE don't get credit for it, we don't want it to work!' I am so freakin' sick of these people.
My earlier post on why carry?, I left out a point. Rights need to be exercised; if they're not used regularly, a lot of bureaucrats and politicians take this to mean that you won't miss them if they take them away from you. Carrying a sidearm is, besides a means of defense, a way of telling the pukes that they will not take this away from you without a fight.
I miss Calvin and Hobbes. One of the finest comic strips ever.
I made a tall hook yesterday to put in the ground by the pecan tree in front and hold a bird feeder. The feeder's up and filled, and so far not a single bird has noticed it. I know some of the featherheads are the same ones who dine at the feeder in the back yard, it's the same type feeder so you'd think they'd notice, but no..... I'm going to see how long it takes them to 'discover' it.
I'm very damn ready for a day warm enough to put on shorts and lay out in the sun. Even if it does scare the birds.
So now it's late, and I'm tired. If I can find the camera and the energy I'll take a picture of the knives I worked on today and post it.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
That didn't take long
For once, I found a picture when I needed it. Here's Axe, with his brother Little. Little was made the same way, though his haft is ash wrapped with braided leather for the grip. I need to set up a target and see how Little throws, he works quite well at trimming limbs and brush.
Done, in plenty of time for the Fair
This is the second large axe I've made. The body is mild steel wrapped around a mandrel(fancy name for pipe) to shape the eye and welded together. Then a piece of high-carbon steel is inserted between the sides at the end and welded. Once that's done you grind the profile and bevels, harden and temper the edge, then either polish to a sheen, or grind clean and brown, which is what I did here.
The haft is a three-foot piece of oak, which when I have time I'll probably soak in kerosene; that works very well with hickory to make it more flexible and tougher, I hope it'll work as well with oak.
So far it cuts wood quite well. No, I haven't tried it on a mugger/burglar/generic orc; do you have any idea how much paperwork that involves?
I'll see if I can find a shot of him with his little brother.
Yeah, them A-rab types can't do a republic...
But they're trying damn hard.
Found this at Insty. Along with notes on the new Lebanese government being formed. And the Syrians being told to get out. And Egypt making some moves. And for a a change, the Palistinians not dancing in the street over the last suicide bombing.
I think I sense a pattern developing...
Yes, there are other pictures from Lebanon, and they're all inspiring. I just like this one.
Followup on Star BM
Star test target
Took it to the range last night with a box of Speer Gold Dot 147 grain hollow points and half a box of Blazer ball. Accuracy was quite good with the GDs, and recoil quite manageable; the weight of the Star balances it out nicely. The GDs are a fairly long cartridge, the bullet being long to get that weight with the big hollow, and they're about the maximum length this pistol can handle(and I suspect the same for other pistols). They all chambered and fired with no problem, and no jams. There was one nose-down fail to feed, cleared by pulling the slide back and releasing. I can't decide if it was due to the length of the cartridge or shape of the nose, or simply one of those things. When I get a chance I'll pick up some other brands of hollow points to try in it. God knows a lot of semi-autos are picky about what they like, this may be a case of that, although I doubt it, it wouldn't have ripped through the rest of the box as nicely if that were it.
That picture is the 50 rounds, ranging from 7 to 15 yards, slow-fire and three-shot drills from low-ready. Overall I'm impressed with the accuracy of this piece, the limit so far being what I'm capable of. As I mentioned I'll try some different ammo in it, see if there's anything it likes better. And I might get out the Dremel and polish the feed ramp...
Shut up. Yes, I know I have a problem leaving things alone.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Bob Jenny died today
Bob Jenny was kind of an institution around here for many years. I first saw him back in the Dark Ages when I was a kid, on a local kid's show called 'Foreman Scotty'. Scotty was the foreman of the ranch, and one of the things he did at times was have Jenny on to talk about animals, primarily reptiles. Snakes, lizards, turtles, alligators. Over the years he did God knows how many programs for Scouts, schools, churches and anyone else who wanted the kids to learn about the critters.
He was a fine man, and was somewhere in his 70's(didn't catch the exact age when the news mentioned his death). He ran a nature center north of Oklahoma City, hopefully he had someone ready to take it over.
One instance I heard of was when he was out in the field with a Scout troop and one of the boys found a Gila monster. If you've never seen one, it's a truly ugly lizard, and one of only two venomous lizards in the world. Somehow in the pointing out and lecture the thing- slow moving most of the time, but can strike damn fast- managed to sink fangs into his hand. So he calmly detached it, put it back under a rock, and proceeded to give a demonstration of first aid for the bite of a poisonous reptile.
From what I understand, the kids were very impressed.
He was a fine man, and was somewhere in his 70's(didn't catch the exact age when the news mentioned his death). He ran a nature center north of Oklahoma City, hopefully he had someone ready to take it over.
One instance I heard of was when he was out in the field with a Scout troop and one of the boys found a Gila monster. If you've never seen one, it's a truly ugly lizard, and one of only two venomous lizards in the world. Somehow in the pointing out and lecture the thing- slow moving most of the time, but can strike damn fast- managed to sink fangs into his hand. So he calmly detached it, put it back under a rock, and proceeded to give a demonstration of first aid for the bite of a poisonous reptile.
From what I understand, the kids were very impressed.
Remembering Mark Wilson
Kim du Toit lists what this man did that justly allows him to be called 'our hero'.
I think one of the best definitions of that word is someone who puts their own life at risk to help others. He and another guy kept the goblin from murdering more people, at the cost of Wilson's life, and gave the police time to get on the job.
Two things. In comments to the 'Why Carry?' post, a gentleman said that you have to be realistic in assessing risks; I doubt Mr. Wilson had any idea that he would be on the scene of an attack by such a waste of oxygen, but a lot of people owe lives/health to the fact that he had a gun handy. Like I said, better to have & not need than need & not have.
Second, this was outside a courthouse; security all over. And yet it was up to a couple of citazens to prevent the goblin from killing all the people he planned on, and given a chance would have killed. As a lot of people have pointed out, the cops, no matter how good, are primarily reactive, they show up after a crime has occurred. You're the one there when it happens.
Remember Mr. Wilson, good people owe him.
I think one of the best definitions of that word is someone who puts their own life at risk to help others. He and another guy kept the goblin from murdering more people, at the cost of Wilson's life, and gave the police time to get on the job.
Two things. In comments to the 'Why Carry?' post, a gentleman said that you have to be realistic in assessing risks; I doubt Mr. Wilson had any idea that he would be on the scene of an attack by such a waste of oxygen, but a lot of people owe lives/health to the fact that he had a gun handy. Like I said, better to have & not need than need & not have.
Second, this was outside a courthouse; security all over. And yet it was up to a couple of citazens to prevent the goblin from killing all the people he planned on, and given a chance would have killed. As a lot of people have pointed out, the cops, no matter how good, are primarily reactive, they show up after a crime has occurred. You're the one there when it happens.
Remember Mr. Wilson, good people owe him.
I'll give it a try
Found this quiz at Mostly Cajun, your senior year of high school:
What year?
1976
What was your schedule?
Good God, I don't know! Only part I remember was the auto mechanics class in the afternoon.
What were your favorite bands?
Heart is the only one I remember offhand.
What was your favorite outfit?
Jeans and a t-shirt in warm weather, jeans and a flannel shirt in cold.
What was up with your hair?
When it started getting in the way, I went to the barber.
Who were your best friends?
Didn't really have anyone I did stuff with.
Did you take the bus?
No.
What did you do after school?
Depending on weather and time of year, read, hunted when could, watched tv, took some classes at the local YMCA.
Who did you have a crush on?
Lots of girls I thought were pretty, none really had a crush on.
Did you fight with your parents?
Not much.
Who did you have a celebrity crush on?
Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Jan Smithers, the chic who played Bailey on 'WKRP in Cincinnati'.
Did you smoke cigarettes?
No.
Did you lug all your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker?
Carry the damn things around all day? No, I went to the locker.
Did you have a 'clique'?
No.
Did you have Chili's? Denny's?
Nope. If I had, didn't have enough money to hang out there.
Who did you want to be just like?
I don't remember, other than wanting to be able to kick ass like Bruce Lee.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I grew up?!? Dammit, when did that happen?
What year?
1976
What was your schedule?
Good God, I don't know! Only part I remember was the auto mechanics class in the afternoon.
What were your favorite bands?
Heart is the only one I remember offhand.
What was your favorite outfit?
Jeans and a t-shirt in warm weather, jeans and a flannel shirt in cold.
What was up with your hair?
When it started getting in the way, I went to the barber.
Who were your best friends?
Didn't really have anyone I did stuff with.
Did you take the bus?
No.
What did you do after school?
Depending on weather and time of year, read, hunted when could, watched tv, took some classes at the local YMCA.
Who did you have a crush on?
Lots of girls I thought were pretty, none really had a crush on.
Did you fight with your parents?
Not much.
Who did you have a celebrity crush on?
Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Jan Smithers, the chic who played Bailey on 'WKRP in Cincinnati'.
Did you smoke cigarettes?
No.
Did you lug all your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker?
Carry the damn things around all day? No, I went to the locker.
Did you have a 'clique'?
No.
Did you have Chili's? Denny's?
Nope. If I had, didn't have enough money to hang out there.
Who did you want to be just like?
I don't remember, other than wanting to be able to kick ass like Bruce Lee.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I grew up?!? Dammit, when did that happen?
Sunday, February 27, 2005
I need more shelves
Especially with the box of books sitting in the floor. About $200 worth new, for $22. I love this sale.
Ever noticed how crowds warm a place up? Outside it was mid-50's, walk through the doors into that crowded room and it went up 15-20 degrees. But I found copies of stuff I didn't have, stuff I'd wanted to read, replacements for a couple of beat-up old books I have, and a couple to pass on to the kids.
Ever heard of Matt Helm? Donald Hamilton wrote a series about this character, and agent in a classified agency. He once put it that his job was taking care of people who the FBI types didn't want to dirty their hands with and who the other alphabet agencies couldn't deal with. In some ways like the James Bond of the early novels; hard as nails, sometimes bothered by what has to be done, but gets the job done. Some clowns made a couple of movies by combining elements from several of the books, with Dean Martin playing Helm. They did them as comedy/action movies, and they're pretty crappy. I think Martin could have done the character pretty well, but they'd have needed a director who kept him on the character. I think they could still make some damn good movies, though they'd need screenwriters/director who cared more about a good story and characters than about how many car chases, messy shootouts and explosions they could cram in. Anyway, I found one of his, I'll pass that on to the kids; I think they'll like it.
In any case, the book sale's over for me. There is a motorcycle swap meet Sunday, I'll be going by that. It's at the fairgrounds too, so I may swing over to the sale again, but I doubt there'll be much left.
Ever noticed how crowds warm a place up? Outside it was mid-50's, walk through the doors into that crowded room and it went up 15-20 degrees. But I found copies of stuff I didn't have, stuff I'd wanted to read, replacements for a couple of beat-up old books I have, and a couple to pass on to the kids.
Ever heard of Matt Helm? Donald Hamilton wrote a series about this character, and agent in a classified agency. He once put it that his job was taking care of people who the FBI types didn't want to dirty their hands with and who the other alphabet agencies couldn't deal with. In some ways like the James Bond of the early novels; hard as nails, sometimes bothered by what has to be done, but gets the job done. Some clowns made a couple of movies by combining elements from several of the books, with Dean Martin playing Helm. They did them as comedy/action movies, and they're pretty crappy. I think Martin could have done the character pretty well, but they'd have needed a director who kept him on the character. I think they could still make some damn good movies, though they'd need screenwriters/director who cared more about a good story and characters than about how many car chases, messy shootouts and explosions they could cram in. Anyway, I found one of his, I'll pass that on to the kids; I think they'll like it.
In any case, the book sale's over for me. There is a motorcycle swap meet Sunday, I'll be going by that. It's at the fairgrounds too, so I may swing over to the sale again, but I doubt there'll be much left.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Why carry?
Not 'why own guns?', that's a question I'll go to later. Specifically, why carry?
Oklahoma specifically forbade concealed carry up until a few years ago. There were the usual hysterical denunciations("bodies in the streets, blood in the gutters", etc.), but it was passed. I didn't get a carry permit right off. Partly inertia, partly because I had become much more protective of the 2nd Amendment and it pissed me off that I had to be 'approved' by the state to carry.
I had carried in my vehicle for years; every trip I made a revolver was under the seat. I had decided my fathers' attitude was the right one, better to possibly face trouble if caught with it than to be in a bad situation and not have it. However, I did not carry on my motorcycle, and that's where my decision came in. At the time we were having a lot of the noise about gang problems, with some of the big-name coastal gangs moving into the city, and I had to drive through the area of town they were most active in. And I liked the idea of having arms legally handy, just in case. So I took the course.
The class I attended was taught by two local police officers, who did a good job of it. The range test was straightforward, and I passed it and the classroom both. So I got two pictures taken, and went to the Sheriff's office to have my prints taken, paid the fees and sent it all in. In due time I was notified to pick up my permit, and did so. It was exciting to have it, and I began carrying wherever I legally could.
No, I wasn't just jiggly-happy, and I didn't flash it or take it lightly. What it did to my attitude was reinforce what I'd already learned. My dad was a law officer, and when teaching me to handle handguns had been unsparing as to the responsibility arms carried. When I'd decided to keep a gun handy at home, and to carry in the car on trips, the thought of "what happens if I pull the trigger?" had gone through my mind. A lot. And this simply made it more locked into my mind that I was responsible here.
Face it, in some ways it's a pain to carry. In hot weather it can be difficult. In any season you have to make sure you don't take it somewhere you shouldn't. Some friends will think you're a nut, and some people will treat you like a mass-murderer in waiting just for speaking about it- they find out you actually carry a deadly weapon on your person! well, what is wrong with you? that's the job of the police to protect you, etc. And the responsibility is always there, and the weight that you come to not consciously notice reminds you of it. Think about that last; it reminds you of your responsibility. And that responsibility is a big reason why I carry.
One of the facts of life has always been that you are responsible for your own safety and protection, and the police came in to clean up. If you were able to call them in in time to help protect you, all to the good, but you were the one there, you were the one next door to your neighbor when they screamed for help. It became more and more the attitude that the cops will take care of everything, and we started hearing directions about how to behave when you were robbed or raped, including all too many officials telling you how you should submit to pretty much anything so as 'not to make the situation worse'. And NEVER should you 'take the law into your own hands', which was how so many of these beaurocrats with badges saw self-defense; YOU weren't qualified, YOU were not properly able to act, wait for the PROFESSIONALS from the government to show up.
There were problems, of course. You had to actually call the cops before they could do anything, or someone seeing or hearing you being attacked had to call them, and they had to find an officer free to come over. And something else happened. There were a couple of cases where people who did call were harmed or killed, and they or their family sued the cops. And the courts ruled you couldn't do that, because the cops had no responsibility to you; their responsibility was only to 'society' in general, and if they fell down and you died or were crippled, too bad, now stop making noise and annoying us. So we don't have to do anything to protect you, but we sure don't want you doing it yourself!
The fact is that you are the primary one responsible for your/your familys' safety. You can try to farm it out, but that's always the fact. That doesn't mean everyone should go out and buy a gun; it does mean you have to think about it. If getting an alarm system for the house and some pepper spray for pocket or purse makes you feel better, fine. It makes me feel better too, because you have actually thought about your safety and how to safeguard it. My thoughts for safety include firearms. I have no desire to get into a fight, because at best people get hurt and I'm allergic to pain. If it comes to it, I want the best tool for the job, and that's a gun. Don't lecture me about batons or whatever; if I or my familys' safety is in danger, damned if I'm going to choose something that means I have to get within reach of some orc with a knife or chain, let alone trying to play disarm games against somebody with a gun.
I took a friend to the range for the first time a couple of months ago, first time she'd ever fired a handgun, and she did quite well. She wanted to get one to keep in the house due to some problems in the neighborhood, and we did some talking about what to do if you actually have to grab it. She commented a couple of times about how big a thing this was, and I made sure she kept thinking about it. Taking up any weapon means lethal force, and it is not to be taken lightly. Ever. Every time I put that sidearm on my belt and walk out the door I know the responsibility I carry, literally, for my actions. And that's a good thing.
Note: someone had the usual question of a friend, do you carry a pistol because you want a fight? In one of David Drakes' books a character was carrying a .38 revolver, and noted that it was just in case; if he knew he was heading into trouble, he'd have an automatic rifle. True enough.
Oklahoma specifically forbade concealed carry up until a few years ago. There were the usual hysterical denunciations("bodies in the streets, blood in the gutters", etc.), but it was passed. I didn't get a carry permit right off. Partly inertia, partly because I had become much more protective of the 2nd Amendment and it pissed me off that I had to be 'approved' by the state to carry.
I had carried in my vehicle for years; every trip I made a revolver was under the seat. I had decided my fathers' attitude was the right one, better to possibly face trouble if caught with it than to be in a bad situation and not have it. However, I did not carry on my motorcycle, and that's where my decision came in. At the time we were having a lot of the noise about gang problems, with some of the big-name coastal gangs moving into the city, and I had to drive through the area of town they were most active in. And I liked the idea of having arms legally handy, just in case. So I took the course.
The class I attended was taught by two local police officers, who did a good job of it. The range test was straightforward, and I passed it and the classroom both. So I got two pictures taken, and went to the Sheriff's office to have my prints taken, paid the fees and sent it all in. In due time I was notified to pick up my permit, and did so. It was exciting to have it, and I began carrying wherever I legally could.
No, I wasn't just jiggly-happy, and I didn't flash it or take it lightly. What it did to my attitude was reinforce what I'd already learned. My dad was a law officer, and when teaching me to handle handguns had been unsparing as to the responsibility arms carried. When I'd decided to keep a gun handy at home, and to carry in the car on trips, the thought of "what happens if I pull the trigger?" had gone through my mind. A lot. And this simply made it more locked into my mind that I was responsible here.
Face it, in some ways it's a pain to carry. In hot weather it can be difficult. In any season you have to make sure you don't take it somewhere you shouldn't. Some friends will think you're a nut, and some people will treat you like a mass-murderer in waiting just for speaking about it- they find out you actually carry a deadly weapon on your person! well, what is wrong with you? that's the job of the police to protect you, etc. And the responsibility is always there, and the weight that you come to not consciously notice reminds you of it. Think about that last; it reminds you of your responsibility. And that responsibility is a big reason why I carry.
One of the facts of life has always been that you are responsible for your own safety and protection, and the police came in to clean up. If you were able to call them in in time to help protect you, all to the good, but you were the one there, you were the one next door to your neighbor when they screamed for help. It became more and more the attitude that the cops will take care of everything, and we started hearing directions about how to behave when you were robbed or raped, including all too many officials telling you how you should submit to pretty much anything so as 'not to make the situation worse'. And NEVER should you 'take the law into your own hands', which was how so many of these beaurocrats with badges saw self-defense; YOU weren't qualified, YOU were not properly able to act, wait for the PROFESSIONALS from the government to show up.
There were problems, of course. You had to actually call the cops before they could do anything, or someone seeing or hearing you being attacked had to call them, and they had to find an officer free to come over. And something else happened. There were a couple of cases where people who did call were harmed or killed, and they or their family sued the cops. And the courts ruled you couldn't do that, because the cops had no responsibility to you; their responsibility was only to 'society' in general, and if they fell down and you died or were crippled, too bad, now stop making noise and annoying us. So we don't have to do anything to protect you, but we sure don't want you doing it yourself!
The fact is that you are the primary one responsible for your/your familys' safety. You can try to farm it out, but that's always the fact. That doesn't mean everyone should go out and buy a gun; it does mean you have to think about it. If getting an alarm system for the house and some pepper spray for pocket or purse makes you feel better, fine. It makes me feel better too, because you have actually thought about your safety and how to safeguard it. My thoughts for safety include firearms. I have no desire to get into a fight, because at best people get hurt and I'm allergic to pain. If it comes to it, I want the best tool for the job, and that's a gun. Don't lecture me about batons or whatever; if I or my familys' safety is in danger, damned if I'm going to choose something that means I have to get within reach of some orc with a knife or chain, let alone trying to play disarm games against somebody with a gun.
I took a friend to the range for the first time a couple of months ago, first time she'd ever fired a handgun, and she did quite well. She wanted to get one to keep in the house due to some problems in the neighborhood, and we did some talking about what to do if you actually have to grab it. She commented a couple of times about how big a thing this was, and I made sure she kept thinking about it. Taking up any weapon means lethal force, and it is not to be taken lightly. Ever. Every time I put that sidearm on my belt and walk out the door I know the responsibility I carry, literally, for my actions. And that's a good thing.
Note: someone had the usual question of a friend, do you carry a pistol because you want a fight? In one of David Drakes' books a character was carrying a .38 revolver, and noted that it was just in case; if he knew he was heading into trouble, he'd have an automatic rifle. True enough.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Book sale!
Every year the local library system has a Friends of the Library book sale. Books they have too many of, damaged, replaced old copies, donations, all up for sale. I think hardbacks are $1 this year, paperbacks $.50. And of some things there'll be a whole sackfull for $5 or something.
The weather is supposed to be decent, so while I'll have to park in Outer Mongolia, it shouldn't be a problem.
I'm ready for some actual warm weather. Especially now that I'm over the plague minor, I'd love to be able to just sit out in the yard in the sun, without a coat.
But I should have some new books to hold me over.
The weather is supposed to be decent, so while I'll have to park in Outer Mongolia, it shouldn't be a problem.
I'm ready for some actual warm weather. Especially now that I'm over the plague minor, I'd love to be able to just sit out in the yard in the sun, without a coat.
But I should have some new books to hold me over.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Ok, Britain is not only being run by GFW's,
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Someday, I'd like to go to Africa and hunt
Not really interested in elephant; they've got enough problems without me annoying them, and I've got no place to put the tusks. Lion? Maybe, would make a nice rug. Leopard? Oh, yeah. And antelope and Cape Buffalo.
The antelope and buffalo have the most good points on their side: not only can you hunt them, you can eat them. Ok, you could eat the lion and leopard, but I've read that lion is really gamy tasting, and I'd think leopard would be about the same. Warthogs could be had as bait for the leopard, and for their tusks; from what I've read they tend to be infested with enough parasites that you wouldn't want one for dinner unless you had NO other choice.
Having somehow, er, 'obtained' enough cash for this venture, I would also need to draft Steve into the trip. I'd bring in the meat, and he could cook the beasts and make beer to wash them down with. Maybe talk Kim into going along; he's got some familiarity with that part of the world-some parts of it anyway- and might be handy to keep something from having me as an entree. Or something venomous from sinking fangs into me. All things to be avoided, I'm sure. Since I've heard that a lot of government agencies over there operate largely as kleptocracies, he could probably give pointers on who to brib- er, encourage to assist us and with how large a gratuity.
My son, if along, would probably spend some time hunting, and some figuring out how to lift and blow the pro hunters vehicle(mechanically, dammit; shut up). Daughter would, along with shooting tasty things for dinner, be talking to the local citazens and finding out what was poisonous, how to use it, etc.(she's interested in poisons, and has a number of references on the subject; her bookshelf used to make dinner guests nervous)
This would be an interesting trip in many ways("Kim, where's the brandy? " "Steve, go ahead, stuff the whole damn thing! The crew can dig a firepit and they'll help eat it, too." "Son, he doesn't want the drivers seat as high as the platform on top of the other one. However after that elephant chased us yesterday, he will let you give the engine and tranny a kick up." "Jasmine, would you please be sure and store that stuff well away from the spice rack? And how are you gonna get it through customs, anyway?") We could name the local livestock, for instance call a drunk elephant 'Ted' or 'Senator'. Though it might be better to use that for a hippo, since they run into the river a lot.
This would be fun.
The antelope and buffalo have the most good points on their side: not only can you hunt them, you can eat them. Ok, you could eat the lion and leopard, but I've read that lion is really gamy tasting, and I'd think leopard would be about the same. Warthogs could be had as bait for the leopard, and for their tusks; from what I've read they tend to be infested with enough parasites that you wouldn't want one for dinner unless you had NO other choice.
Having somehow, er, 'obtained' enough cash for this venture, I would also need to draft Steve into the trip. I'd bring in the meat, and he could cook the beasts and make beer to wash them down with. Maybe talk Kim into going along; he's got some familiarity with that part of the world-some parts of it anyway- and might be handy to keep something from having me as an entree. Or something venomous from sinking fangs into me. All things to be avoided, I'm sure. Since I've heard that a lot of government agencies over there operate largely as kleptocracies, he could probably give pointers on who to brib- er, encourage to assist us and with how large a gratuity.
My son, if along, would probably spend some time hunting, and some figuring out how to lift and blow the pro hunters vehicle(mechanically, dammit; shut up). Daughter would, along with shooting tasty things for dinner, be talking to the local citazens and finding out what was poisonous, how to use it, etc.(she's interested in poisons, and has a number of references on the subject; her bookshelf used to make dinner guests nervous)
This would be an interesting trip in many ways("Kim, where's the brandy? " "Steve, go ahead, stuff the whole damn thing! The crew can dig a firepit and they'll help eat it, too." "Son, he doesn't want the drivers seat as high as the platform on top of the other one. However after that elephant chased us yesterday, he will let you give the engine and tranny a kick up." "Jasmine, would you please be sure and store that stuff well away from the spice rack? And how are you gonna get it through customs, anyway?") We could name the local livestock, for instance call a drunk elephant 'Ted' or 'Senator'. Though it might be better to use that for a hippo, since they run into the river a lot.
This would be fun.
This kind of thing happens so often there,
I'm getting tired of posting about it.
"Police arrest father who fought off two strangers and was threatened with a gun".
Over at Alphecca, check it out.
"Police arrest father who fought off two strangers and was threatened with a gun".
Over at Alphecca, check it out.
Is your property yours? Maybe not.
Professor Bainbridge and Kevin both take a look at a case before the Supreme Court that has BIG implications for all of us. It's about the way cities are using their power to take your property, pay you what they decide is a fair price, and then sell or give it to someone else. Kevin's got a very good breakdown of what's been happening with this, and why it appears that the SCOTUS may lack the integrity/balls to rule as they should, so I won't try to repeat or compress it.
This boils down to, if SCOTUS rules(literally, in this case) with the government, we're screwed. It means your city or county can literally steal your home or business so they can sell or give it to someone else who they think can 'better' use it; and their idea of 'better use' could be anything from apartments, to a condo complex, to some business they think will pay more money in taxes(i.e., pay us off and we'll rob the citazens for you).
This is profoundly depressing. The highest court in the land appears to care not for the document it is supposed to protect and defend, caring only for the way the words can be twisted and warped to serve what they've decided is a 'good idea'. If you disagree, tough shit, because the all-high court knows better than you peasants!
And the question becomes, what do we do about it?
This boils down to, if SCOTUS rules(literally, in this case) with the government, we're screwed. It means your city or county can literally steal your home or business so they can sell or give it to someone else who they think can 'better' use it; and their idea of 'better use' could be anything from apartments, to a condo complex, to some business they think will pay more money in taxes(i.e., pay us off and we'll rob the citazens for you).
This is profoundly depressing. The highest court in the land appears to care not for the document it is supposed to protect and defend, caring only for the way the words can be twisted and warped to serve what they've decided is a 'good idea'. If you disagree, tough shit, because the all-high court knows better than you peasants!
And the question becomes, what do we do about it?
Monday, February 21, 2005
Nobody in black with a scythe riding past......yet
I was right, I do NOT have the real plague; only a undistinguished relation.
The flu is fairly consistent when I get it. Somewhere between one and two weeks of misery during which I have to keep putting lotion on and around my nose to keep it from turning into scenery from a Martian landscape. This is a pain, but not nearly the bad relation.
It's weird how this stuff happens at times. Real flu fades in over a couple of days, settles in and makes itself at home for a while. With this, Thursday night I was a little ratty, but I thought that was from tired and from the ventilator draft at the range blowing on the back of my head & neck. Then I woke up Friday morning and could hardly talk, and felt halfway like someone had whacked me with sticks while I wasn't looking. Now my throat and the aches are both a lot better. Still tired, the way this crap does to you, but not too bad; though I'm not heading back to the gym for a few days, and I'll stay out of the wind.
Found out today that some other people at work got the same thing. It's some type of virus, confirmed not the flu that all the news people are screaming about(Is the epidemic due to the vaccine shortage? More at ten!).
It rained a bit last night, and it's supposed to tomorrow night & Wednesday. And the grass in back gets higher, and higher... By the time it's dry enough and I'm healthy enough to mow, I may need the hooded guys' scythe to take it down to lawn mower height.
But it sure is green out there.
The flu is fairly consistent when I get it. Somewhere between one and two weeks of misery during which I have to keep putting lotion on and around my nose to keep it from turning into scenery from a Martian landscape. This is a pain, but not nearly the bad relation.
It's weird how this stuff happens at times. Real flu fades in over a couple of days, settles in and makes itself at home for a while. With this, Thursday night I was a little ratty, but I thought that was from tired and from the ventilator draft at the range blowing on the back of my head & neck. Then I woke up Friday morning and could hardly talk, and felt halfway like someone had whacked me with sticks while I wasn't looking. Now my throat and the aches are both a lot better. Still tired, the way this crap does to you, but not too bad; though I'm not heading back to the gym for a few days, and I'll stay out of the wind.
Found out today that some other people at work got the same thing. It's some type of virus, confirmed not the flu that all the news people are screaming about(Is the epidemic due to the vaccine shortage? More at ten!).
It rained a bit last night, and it's supposed to tomorrow night & Wednesday. And the grass in back gets higher, and higher... By the time it's dry enough and I'm healthy enough to mow, I may need the hooded guys' scythe to take it down to lawn mower height.
But it sure is green out there.
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