General thoughts

Week or so ago was on my way back from the range and was listening to the Sean Hannity show. Not my favorite, but sometimes interesting. Had James Carville on, interviewing him about a book he just had published; basically "How Democrats Can Take Over Again", whatever the actual title was. Now, I have never, never liked Carville. He's always struck me as an abusive, insulting bully who treats anyone who either disagrees with him or won't be driven guided by him as being too stupid to pour water out of a boot. Listening to him, two thoughts occurred: first, I still don't like him and second, I felt a certain amount of pity. At the risk of sounding like Rush, he kept hammering, over and over, that the Democrat party just isn't getting the message out, isn't staying on the message, isn't actually making people understand what they think. Hannity asked if it was just possible that people did understand those things and didn't like them? and Oh, no, couldn't possibly be that.

Is there any possible way that anyone could NOT understand their message? What, they haven't called for impeachment and filibustered and threatened and insulted enough, maybe? If the image of John 'effin Kerry calling for a filibuster on the Alito vote, from a bloody resort town in Switzerland doesn't get the message across, what will?

Connected to that, remember the Dixie Chics and the crapstorm they pulled down on themselves? Thought you would. I wonder if it ever occurred to those geniuses that if they'd made their statements here in the U.S., before a local audience, that the reaction wouldn't have been as bad? People would still have been pissed, but not the way they were by these twits waiting until they were in a foreign country with a presumably sympathetic audience to mouth off. 'Course, then they got to pose naked on a magazine cover and whine about how they were having their freedom of speech abused, so maybe they really didn't care.

Og is a lucky man. He doesn't just have back trouble, he gets a chance to be hurt in a more interesting way while having it worked on.

He's got a post up on his Dad, and how he misses him. Reading it made me think of mine. I'm lucky, both parents still kicking and showing signs of continuing to do so for a good while. I'll read something like this, and think- again- of just how damned easy I've had it compared to him. Grew up in a small town in southeast OK with his sister(she's still around, too). Woodburning stove in the kitchen which was his job to light winter mornings before he did his chores(and if he hadn't cut and prepared the wood the night before, he had to do it now), chores, clean up and breakfast, then school. Then afternoon chores and a job when he got older. You wanted to go somewhere you walked or- if lucky and had one- rode a bicycle or maybe caught a ride from someone with a car or truck who was going the right way. He's worked damn hard all his life, and earned every bit of whatever he & mom have. Yeah, I've had some nasty crap over the years; what really pisses me off when I think about it is how, when I actually did have it so much better in so many ways, I didn't take advantage of the chances I had. Sometimes it brings up the hope that someday your kids don't come up with something like "Just how did you mess up so bad?" or something. Overall they've turned out well, but it's hard to compare some of what I've done and not done with his life and not feel I've really messed up in some ways.

In any case, he & Mom are still around, and we can still talk and work on things, and for this I'm damn glad.

Speaking of tool boxes, which Og and others have been, I've almost always had some tools in the vehicle. For quite a while it was a small metal box, about 5x5x12". I'd wire-brushed it and painted it to get rid of the rust, and had some loose wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, a roll of electrical tape and a battery terminal cleaner. This last item in particular came in very handy over time, sometimes for myself and sometimes for others. When second child was on the way we had my Ford Courier pickup for transport, and needed bigger. Guy we knew had a Pinto station wagon in the driveway that wasn't running be which he swore would run, and offered to swap it for some help with yardwork around his house. Trade done. He towed it to our house, I got it running, and it mostly kept up for about two years(worth a post all its' own). The one thing it kept doing was, for some reason, the battery cables would crud up just enough that you'd come out, turn the key, and it wouldn't start. Out came the box and ten minutes later you're moving.
Fast forward some years. I was divorced, we were both in better vehicles, and I only put the box in the truck when I was taking a trip. Until one day on the way to work I stopped at the store, and when I came out it wouldn't start. I'd come back from out of state two days before and the box was, happily, still in, and it was dirty posts, so I made it to work on time. From that day, there has always been a toolbox in the vehicle. Now it's one of the low, arch-top ones about 15" long by 8" wide by 4" high. Right now I'm not going outside to dig through it, but as I recall it contains:
pair of Vise Grips
wire cutters
electrical tape
mixed cable ties
screwdriver with multiple bits
shorty screwdriver with reversible phillips/straight bit
tire valve tool
spark plug gapper
12" thin-wall steel pipe for extra leverage
battery terminal cleaner
pocket knife
roll of flux-core solder(just got left in there)
set of standard and metric combination wrenches.
And yes, it's stuffed. Right next to it is a flat box containing a 3/8" ratchet, 1/4" ratchet and a mix of standard and metric sockets, most on socket holders with a few small ones loose. You know, the odd sizes that on rare occasions are the only damn things that fit? And fitted in under them is a four-way lug wrench.
Crap, lest I forget, a set of hex keys. So far the only time I've actually needed these was at the range, when it turned out that none of the bits in my screwdriver set fit the lockscrew on my M1 front sight. Very glad to have them.
Not nearly as complete as what a lot of folks carry, but it's taken care of a lot of problems over time, my own and relatives and folks I've found broken down for some minor thing. Sometimes I have to take something out of the truck box to use, but it goes right back in there. Which is why when a guy in the Wal-Mart parking lot couldn't get his battery out(buggered screws for the side-connecting battery) I had the Vise Grips that could get a grip on the head and break them loose.

You know what's also handy to have along? Paper towels. A roll of them. Don't leave home without. And baby wipes. Especially if there's a baby around, but even without.

I think I'm done for now

More on Britain

From Say Uncle went to here, which led to here and here. Another of Uncle's posts led to here. Put it all together, and you remember that big fork sticking out of the island?

Short version, with all handguns and most shotguns and rifles banned, those not banned highly restricted, the crime rates in Britain, including gun crimes, are still going up. "As much as 50 percent" in some areas. Right now I'm taking their 'reduction' in gun deaths with a large grain of salt; couple of years ago, as I recall, a reporter had to basically sue the government to get the true numbers of how bad it was(they were saying "things are improving" then, too). And one thing that came out recently- can't remember where I read it- is that they still play with the numbers; for instance, if somebody is killed but it's plea-bargained down to manslaughter or something, it doesn't go on the books as a 'murder', and so forth. So someone explain to me again just why the example of Britain is a good thing to follow?

And remember this from Alphecca's post when someone talks about 'safe storage laws':
"Hargreaves admits to being "devastated by the news" that the gun had been involved in a homicide and almost as devastated by the fact there is now a warrant out for his arrest for unsafe storage of those weapons -- despite the fact they were stored in a 771-kilo concrete-and-steel safe and that it took the industrious thieves two days using blowtorches and sledge hammers to gain access to it.

"I went far and beyond what was legally required," said Hargreaves, indicating the vault was so heavy "that the elevator dropped 15 cm when the safe was loaded on."

"It was hardly unsafe storage," he said."
Except to the Canadian police. If a vault like that cannot be considered 'safe storage', what do you think Schumer and Feinstein and the VPC would like to force you to buy? With surprise inspections to make sure you're using it right, of course. Wankers.

And be sure to check out the street prices for guns over in 'gun-free Britain'. If I'm remembering the conversion right, you'd be damn happy to find prices like that on legal guns over here on some of them. Except that I thought those weren't allowed in peaceful Britain? At all? A pump shotgun for less than $50?

Add it all up, and it just points it out again; if you let the government disarm the honest people, and make the few arms you're allowed to keep be restricted this way, and the government takes over all power over your safety... this kind of crap is what you get.

Update: Over at Kim's, I found a link to this piece of crap. It's enough to sicken you; the hoods have taken over the place, and "Despite plenty of witnesses, and evidence, no arrests were made because the police wanted to catch the suspects in the act."
The obvious question would be "THEN WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU WHILE THIS WAS GOING ON, YOU USELESS BASTARDS?!?" Good God, I bet since no arrests were made this counts as some of the 'better news' from the British government. Or something. I'm afraid of the answer, but my question is just how bad is it going to get before the good people tell the government to fuck off and do something about it themselves? And what happens then?

Well, crap

The white ferret of the bloodthirsty duo I posted on the other night died this morning. From what my daughter says, it was simple age; she'd been weakening the last few weeks and losing weight, but no sign of sickness.

They buried her with a small bottle of Ferretone, because she loved the stuff. She was a good critter, and she'll be missed.

Proof a big fork is sticking out of Britain

Check this out from Kim. From the last Olympics held there: "Shooters were escorted from Heathrow under armed guard and their guns were taken in an armoured vehicle to the national shooting centre at Bisley. Spectators had to watch events behind screens, and shooters were guarded by armed officers even during training.

This is exceeded only by the crap in Japan. Every gun had to be locked in a vault as soon as the event was over(no time for cleaning, etc), was only allowed to be checked out just before an event, and each competitor had to find and turn in every fired cartridge case. Apparently the idiots thought some yakuza would find them and reload them. Oh, that's right, the bandits just use guns smuggled in. Never mind, they couldn't let those evil bits of brass lay around where some innocent might find them! Etc.

I wouldn't even be able to remember what sport was on...

If all meds worked this well,

I wouldn't be so picky about the damn things. Started the stuff the doctor prescribed yesterday afternoon, and my back is better than it's been in almost two weeks. And the elbow I banged up before that is better, too.

It's a anti-inflammatory and a steroid. I read the warnings and 'watch out for this' stuff, and between those and the 'possible' side-effects, it's enough to scare you off taking anything. So far no bad signs, though. And the steroid has a warning that you CANNOT(yes, they emphasize it) just stop; you have to taper off. The directions are 4/day for three days, then 3/day for three days, then 2/day for two days, then one the last day.

Only bad thing is the anti-inflammatory has this sticker on the bottle: Do NOT drink alcoholic beverages when taking this medication. So I'm on the wagon for a bit. Don't drink that much anyway, but it's still annoying. But if it works this well, it's worth it.

One more reason to hate lawyers

Found a link to this earlier today:
"An Army judge advocate general (JAG) temporarily banned Army and Marine Corps snipers from using a highly accurate open-tip bullet. "

You're probably aware that the Geneva Convention or some other agreement we never signed on to forbids the use of bullets designed to mushroom or upset upon impact. Well, a long time ago Sierra bullets started making a match grade that has a small hollow point. Not for expansion; if you read the box, it specifically says NOT to use this bullet for hunting as it will NOT upset. These bullets are specifically allowed for military use because of that. Part of their manufacturing process uses a small rod to hold the bullet for part of the shaping, when the rod is removed it leaves a hollow. What happened here is some JAG lawyer heard 'hollow tip' or 'hollow point' and had a fit without bothering to find out what they were talking about.

There ought to be some kind of regulation that before some REMF(to borrow a phrase) can make a ruling on equipment/actions, they have to run it past somebody who actually knows their ass from a hole in the ground. Won't happen, but it should. And please note in the article that the sniper who blew the whistle was screwed over for making noise, even though it corrected a real problem. Idiot bureaucrats in uniform are still idiot bureaucrats.

On a side note, I read years ago that when the U.S. first began using the .223 cartridge in the M16(ok, 5.56x45mm if you're going to be picky and metric) Sweden had diplomatic fits because the little 55-grain bullet will sometimes, if velocity is high enough, not only yaw and tumble after impact but break apart at the cannelure(the grooved band running around the waist of some bullets), thus causing worse wounds. Turned out that while they were bitching at us, the .30 caliber machinegun ammo they were making for their forces was specifically designed to do just that.

The JAG lawyer had the same attitude that kept many police departments from using hollowpoints for many years; screw whether it stops the bad guy better, we think they're mean. Difference being that the cops were wanting actual designed-to-mushroom ammo; the snipers were using already approved ammo that this idiot couldn't bother to find out about before taking fingers to keyboard.

Just because I'm tired, and the new meds are working,

I give you a friend's imprisoned predator pack:



















Not the glinty eyes, the barely visible tips of the flesh-tearing fangs... Scary little beasts, aren't they? I'm told they answer the Vashka and Puck. The third of the pack is sleeping off the effects of the kill napping. Sneaky little beasts, they manage to escape from damn near everything except this high-tech holding facility.

'Fluffy Bunny' syndrome

I can't remember where I first heard that, but it does cover it; Peter Capstick called it 'Disney syndrome' as I recall. 'It' being the "the nice animals won't hurt you if you're nice to them", "the bear will happily graze and not hurt you/the other animals unless provoked" type attitude.

Little earlier this evening was watching a Nature episode on PBS about the Monteray Bay aquarium having kept a small Great White shark for some months. Of itself, a neat thing, and a lot of people got to see it. But the narration and the attitude was annoying. They kept hitting on "will it stay calm or will it start hunting/killing other fish in the tank?". Finally, after it had attacked two other sharks, killing the second, and was 'actively hunting/stalking' other animals in the tank, they decided they couldn't risk it and released it at sea.

Question for you; if you had the apex predator of the sea in a tank, why would you be surprised when it started hunting? Why would you not expect it to? If these biologists actually thought that having it in a tank and feeding it would keep the base instincts from ever coming out, they're not as smart as they're made out to be.

It's like what happens when a bear whacks somebody, and especially if it eats them. Animal lovers come out of the woodwork telling how it must be the fault of the digested, they must have done something to provoke it, etc. Well, bullshit. Bears are big, powerful, omnivorous predators that will eat pretty much anything they can find or kill; sometimes that turns out to be some human. Doesn't make the bear evil, it's just being a bear. Same with cougars, when they don't have any fear of humans some are going to notice that these two-legs are easier to catch than deer. A book that came out a couple of years ago, The Beast in the Garden, covered it nicely. It's about the buildup to the first modern maneating by a cougar in CO. When the cats started coming into town, and eating pets, things got split between the "Shouldn't we make them scared of us so they'll leave us alone?" people and the "The cougars were here first! You don't like it, then leave!" people. These Aquarium people were apparently hoping the hunting instinct wouldn't come out in the shark; to quote Jayne from Firefly, "Nice move, dumbass".

Side note: after California banned hunting of cougars, the game department wound up killing more 'nuisance' cougars than were killed by hunters. The screaming when this was pointed out and some asked why not allow hunting again? told everything; the screamers didn't care how many they game department had to kill, they just didn't want anybody hunting them.

Other side note: in the year they had this shark(roughly 8 month old female), it grew by something like 17" and 100 pounds. Impressive, I'd say.

And while you're at it,

go congratulate Jawa for his part in getting a bin Laden buttmonkey thrown out of the country.

Don't you just love how this stuff works? I started at

Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, which led to Mean Mr. Mustard which led to Relapsed Catholic which led to this place from which I found the Mark Steyn piece that started it all. Damn, by the time the year's out I should be back in fine fettle as a tracker.

Basically, Steyn points out that feminism should be very damn interested in the war on terror as it has freed a hell of a lot of women to do something other than either wear a tent and be escorted to go to the market or be easy prey to be dragged to a rape room. Doing so with his usual humor causes Murney to have a bad case case of the vapors; it seems that Steyn made mock of holy Feminism and was downright racist to boot. As someone once said(or should have) "If this be misogynism and racism, kick it up a notch, boy!"

Said vapors leading to statements such as "It is obvious that Steyn is a misogynist, and hates feminism, which means he opposes gender equality. How barbaric.", and, referring to the 'torrent of hate' directed at feminists, "That hate will climax when the United States Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade, which will likely be in the not too distant future."

Never mind that if Roe vs. Wade is thrown out, that will not outlaw abortion; it will put the issue back in the individual states. That's not putting a matter into the hands of the state's voters, it's 'hatred for feminists'. To quote the Catholic, "This man actually publicizes the fact that he's a Women's Studies minor at the University of Regina (insert Beevis "heh") and has something called a Certificate of Administration in Continuing Education Development.

Meet the future of Canada, folks.

And the kicker: He calls himself a Libertarian. Kids, you can have 'im. Kate, I insist that you distance yourself from this Saskatchewan libertarian!"

No more need be said.

Carnival of Cordite #44

Up over at Gullyborg.

The bin Laden tape

Assuming it's him and not dummied up(I'm still wondering why, if he's still in operation, no video?), lets see... You're not hurting us, we're gonna get you, we're winning but we'll offer a truce to rebuild Iraq.

Translation: "We're getting stomped, every time we come out to play you kill us, we haven't been able to pull off a real operation in America in years, so please accept our 'truce' offer and stop killing us. Don't you know you unbelievers are supposed to LOSE?"

I know it's an estimated time, but damn!

FedEx was supposed to be delivering a package today. Checked the tracking data last night, showed estimated time of delivery 10:30. Ok, great, I'll be home then.

I get home from work at 9:15 to find the "you weren't here" note on the door; they'd been here at 8:10.

I understand 'estimated time', but dammit...

Oh, the wonders of the ACLU

You know, that wonderful organization that defends civil rights? As long as they're approved of civil rights and/or plaintiffs, of course. Well, they've filed suit against the U.S.G. to stop the wiretapping of al Queda-related phone calls. Aside from the bullshit about 'widespread bugging of American's phones', there's some problems with the people in the ACLU doing this. Found this at Debbie Schlussel's blog:
"I'm not referring to the famous Plaintiffs about whom you've heard: For example, Christopher Hitchens, the well-known Vanity Fair writer who is tight with convicted felon lobbyist Jack Abramoff's money launderer Grover Norquist. (Norquist's receipt of thousands from Saudi charities raided by Customs for billions in Al-Qaeda money laundering is well-known, and Hitchens wrote glowingly of Norquist's efforts on behalf of radical Islam)." and goes from there:
"I'm referring to ACLU lawyers Noel Saleh, Mohammed Abdrabboh, and Nabih Ayad, the ACLU Plaintiffs named in the yesterday's Complaint, attorney William Swor, a member National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Nazih Hassan--all named in the lawsuit. They are exactly the kind of people whom the federal government SHOULD be watching, but probably isn't. One of these men admitted to funding Hezbollah, one was accused of tampering with a witness, and a third signed a document contradicting statements he made in the lawsuit. Not to mention, one of these men engaged in exactly the same "spying" (on me) that he now opposes when done by the NSA."

Yeah, some people in some branches of the ACLU have done some good things; and many people in many branches have done bad things. If the ACLU actually cared about justice and honesty, they'd throw these clowns out of the organization.

Further, check this out at Stop The ACLU for more information.

I need to put this up at work

Rendezvous!

Not the black-powder kind this time. Well, mostly not. Mr. Completely is putting together a meet in Reno NV in November, details here.

Damn, I'd love to go, but this far out I have no idea if I can get the days off. Hoping, hoping...

Did I mention pain hurts?

My back is easing off, but not fast enough. I'm beginning to feel like a dis dyks dyslexic pirate; every time I bend over or stand up I go "URRRRRR".

Ah, the wonders of 'gun control' laws

Or, as Jeff Cooper refers to them, 'personal disarmament laws'.

Got a notice from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership(JPFO) about this article from San Francisco. Short version: abused woman thinks her husband may have found her, so under a CA law that "waives the permit requirement for anyone who "reasonably believes that he or she is in grave danger because of circumstances forming the basis of a current restraining order.'', she starts carrying a gun. Accidentally leaves purse at store, gun found & police called; she went to jail because it turns out the restraining order which she thought was permanent had expired two months before.

She understands leaving her purse, especially with the piece inside, was bad; she now, because of the conviction, cannot even have a firearm in the house or pick one up for self-defense.

Joan Ryan, the writer, doesn't like guns. Here's the last paragraph:
"The law against carrying concealed guns makes good sense. But so many women every year are killed by their abusive boyfriends and husbands. Restraining orders, as we know, can't stop them. The police often can't stop them. I don't know what the solution is. But something's wrong when, in trying to keep herself alive, the terrorized woman becomes the criminal."

As I said in the e-mail I sent her, Joan, you can't have it both ways. If someone has the right to self-defense, they also have the right to the means with which to defend themselves, and for most people that's a gun. Firearms are not magic wands, you can't wave one and make troubles go away; they are damned effective tools for repelling boarders who come through the window at night, or attack you in a parking lot. But it doesn't matter how skilled you are or how great your need for it, if you don't have it with you when you need it, you're screwed. And the law you think makes such good sense has now prevented this woman from even owning this means of defense, ever again.

Meanwhile, at Smallest Minorty...

I wrote a few days back about when the personal disarmament people really got my attention. Kevin read it and asked the question, and got a lot of comments.

You ought to go read them.

What I'd like to find...

Xavier was writing about what he'd like to find next. Here's what I'd like to run across:


















This beast is the Webley Mk VI revolver, in .455. Friend of mine got hold of a target model a few years ago and I had the chance to shoot it. And immediately lusted after it.

It ain't small; it was adopted by the British army- and lots of people who went out around the world- as a self-defense weapon that would put an attacker down. Big heavy bullet at moderate velocity. Easy to shoot. If you've never been around one, it's a top-break; there's a thumb lever(you can see it in front of the hammer) that you push down to unlock it. Rotate the grip section down and the ejector kicks the empties out, then you drop six more in, close it and continue.

A lot of these were modified during WWII to fire .45acp cartridges. They milled a few thousandths off the back of the cylinder and used half-moon or moon clips to hold the cartridges. Here's a moon clip from a Taurus Tracker:


















Bad thing about this: can't pick out a couple of empties and reload those chambers. Good thing: fast reloading. The other thing about this is that a .45acp bullet is a touch undersize for this bore, so it's not as accurate.

So, what I'd like is an Mk VI, with an uncut cylinder if possible, for $350-400. Which is the real problem. These pistols are out there, but with uncut cylinders tend to go for $450 and up, often going over $600; far more than I'm willing to spend. I'd settle for one with a cut cylinder; I think an unsized .45 bullet would work nicely, and handloading is no problem. I found one in my price range a while back, but close examination showed a slight ring in the barrel, about an inch ahead of the cylinder; bad juju, guys, I decided not to chance it. May not have affected shooting with appropriate handloads, but I'd worry 'bout it. So I'll keep looking.

By the way, if you've read some of my earlier stuff you'll have seen the piece on testing a later model, and Enfield .380:














Very similar design, but smaller and chambered for the .380/200, basically our .38S&W(NOT .38 Special) with a 200-grain round-nose lead bullet. This cartridge was reported to do a very good job of stopping fights; but after they decided a lead bullet violated the Geneva Convention the changed to a 170-grain jacketed bullet and results were not as good. I mentioned I found a Lyman mold that throws a 195-grain round-nose bullet, almost identical to the original for these. Dug around and- at The High Road, I believe- some suggested loads.

DISCLAIMER: This load works very well in this revolver, it might not in yours! Start lower and work up if you try this!

What I wound up using was 2.4 grains of Unique powder and a Winchester Small Pistol primer. According to what I read that gives about 650 feet per second, like the original. Good accuracy, and the bullet hits where the sights are at ten yards.

I love these old firearms.

Speaking of tyranny,

Chris had a link to this. Among the good parts:
"Give us a leftwing dictator, and soon enough every rightwing wacko would be up in the hills with his rifle collection and enough ammo to sink the Titanic. (Not that the Titanic needed any help sinking, but you get the idea.) If things got worse, it wouldn't take long before the wackos were joined by their center-right comrades. The only difference between them would be the price of their guns.

Given a rightwing dictator, the results would be much the same, only more urbanized. Instead of ragtag bands of wanna-be soldiers hitting government convoys on isolated stretches of interstate highways, it would be our cities that would become ungovernable. And don't even try to tell yourself that liberals are too limp-wristed to put up a fight. Set your Way Back Machine to 1968 and think again."

I would argue that left or rightwing tyrant would get all the people in the middle pissed. And I think it would be a BIG middle. Question would become who'd actually be willing to take up arms, and who'd keep talking until it was over for them? Socialist/communists have shown a great willingness to slaughter and imprison "for the good of all/for the revolution!"; far right types the same "for the good of all/for the leader!" So would the people in the middle be ready/willing to stomp on both extremes?

Seems like both extremes want control over everything. Difference seems to be the left wants everything including your thought processes controlled, their opposites often don't care what you think as long as you don't actually oppose them, and don't actually hate the idea of private property. Simplified, yes, but seems to cover much of it.

More armor?

With all the arguing about body armor for the troops, I remembered something. This is from David Drake's book Fortress:

"The thing that nobody who directed war movies understood- and why should they? It would come as news to rear echelons in all the various armies as well- was that the guys at the sharp end carried it all on their backs.

The irreducible minimum for life in a combat zone was water, arms and munitions, and food. In most environments, heavy clothing or shelter had to be factored in as well; exposure in a hilltop trench would kill you just as dead as a bullet.

Helicopters were fine, but they weren't going to land while you lay baking on a bare hillside traversed by enemy guns; so you carried water in gallons, not quarts, and it was life itself. If you ran out of ammo, they'd cut you apart with split bamboo if that was what they had... so you carried extra bandoliers and extra grenades, and a pistol of your own because the rifle you were issued was going to jam at the worst possible time, no matter who designed it or how hard you tried to keep it clean.

Besides that, you carried a belt of ammo for one o f the overburdened machinegunners or a trio of shells for the poor bastard with the mortar tube on his back. You were all in it together; and besides, when the shit hit the fan you were going to need heavy-weapons support.

And the chances were that, if you were really trying to get the jump on the elusive other side, you had a case of rations to hump with you as well. Ever time a resupply bird whop-whopped to you across hostile terrain, it fingered you for the enemy and guaranteed that engagement would be on the enemy's terms.

So you didn't move very fast, but you moved, and you did your job of kicking butt while folks in strack uniforms crayoned little boxes and arrows on acetate-covered maps, learnedly discussing your location. That was the way the world worked; and that was why Tom Kelly felt subconsciously better for the equipment slung on his body as he shuffled into combat."

I'm all for better armor, but if you just keep adding plates and panels, you wind up with something that may technically give better protection, but is so damn heavy and/or constricting that troops wind up taking pieces off. Yeah, we need better armor, not just add-ons to the current stuff. There's been stuff posted about some real interesting ideas(I think Anarchangel had some but I'm too lazy right now to dig it up), and I don't doubt there's stuff being worked on we don't know about; but it will still boil down to a balance between protection and comfort and mobility. And if it doesn't balance out that trifecta, it won't work for people on the sharp end.

Ok, this is getting confusing

First time I looked I was a Flappy Bird; then I was a Floppy Fish(never did hear from Sondra...). Now I'm a Slithering Reptile.

I don't know if I'm evolving or devolving.

Remember the 'upset kid suicide by bomb' outside the stadium?

Went over to Random Nuclear Strikes to see of Prof. Booty had been by(yeah, yeah, I'm a guy; deal with it) and found note of this at Mark Tapscott's place, noting a possible connection to the terrorist arrests in Italy. You know, the ones where the clowns were planning to bomb, among other things, stadiums? The arrests that several people have noted the major media has taken damn little to no notice of?

We've been assured by various officious- that is, official people that he was just a lonely kid who decided to end it all. Problem is, all the bits and pieces don't add up to that. Add this into the mix, and it becomes even more worrying.

And no, I don't trust the officials who said not to worry; they've lied too many times before.

Ok, I started out not liking Swimmer Kennedy,

but the pieces of the Alito hearings I listened to were kind of painful. Whatever he may have once been(and I've never been fond of him), he's become a great big damn joke. I'd say the only joke bigger is the people in MA who keep reelecting him, but that they do is pretty damn scary. I'd have to agree with Rush on this, some of the idiot things he came up with were from notes handed to him by a staffer who got them from some raving left-wing type without bothering to check them out. Either that, or his brain is flat gone. One's stupid, the other's pitiful. And he's pretty well both nowadays.

Biden? I don't hate him(hell, I don't think I've ever actually hated anybody), but I despise him. This just reinforced that.

Feinstein I also despise; at least she didn't make a point of showing her ass to buy votes from her moonbats back home. Though asking a judge to say how he'd rule on a future case... she's GOT to know that no capable judge would do it. And unless her staff is completely stupid, she knows he's capable.

Blah.

Additional: found this over at Rob's place:
"Times change. Two new verbs may emerge from the Alito hearings. Consider “To teddy.” A working definition might be “to decay like Dorian Gray, except do so during live, televised Senate hearings.”

Biden may yet become a verb. “To biden”: to shoot onself in one’s own foot using one’s own mouth."--- austin bay

Carnival #43, the Zombie Edition!

Lots of tips on dealing with zombies, the the poor souls and idiots whose brains have already been eaten. Go here, quickly!

I dislike pain

Especially back. Yeah, while screwing around with the chipper & yardwork yesterday I pulled something, badly enough that I stayed home today. Better this evening.

I took the time to work on repairing my favorite pocket knife. It's a CRKT lockblade marked 'Mirage' on the blade; half-serrated blade and pocket clip. Discontinued, of course. Problem was the two screws at the pommel end that hold the scales on; they fell out a little over a year ago, and I found replacements, but these somehow stripped their threads on the one scale. No, I don't know how, I put them in with threadlocker and aside from checking them every once in a while have not put a lot of torque on them.

What I wound up doing was a: find some screws that would work, b: drill out the hole on one scale and the liner plates to fit the screw, c: drill out the threaded scale a little smaller than the new screw and use one of them suitably modified, to cut new threads, d: profile the head of the new screw to fit in nicely, e: cut that screw to length and finish the end, f: install it with threadlocker.

I only did one of the two; the drill bit that fit the purpose died while trying to drill the liner for the second. So there's one new screw, and I'll do the other later when I can get a new bit.

Just another day in my whirlwind life.

Well, I share some attitudes with Chris.

Surprise, surprise. You can take the test here

Curvy and Naughty Raw score: 70% Big Breasts, 72% Big Ass, and 56% Cute!

Thanks for taking the T and A and C test! Based on your selections, the results are clear: you show an attraction to larger breasts, larger asses, and sexier composures than others who've taken the test. Note that you like women overall curvier than average. My third variable, "cuteness" is a mostly objective measure of how innocent a given model looked. It's determined by a combination of a lot of factors: lack of dark eye makeup, facial expression, posture, etc. If you scored high on that variable, you are either really nice OR you're into deflowering teens. If you scored low, you are attracted to raunchier, sexier, women. In your case, your lower than average score suggests you appreciate a sexier, naughtier look. Kudos! Recommended Celebrities: Supermodel Laetitia Casta and Actress Angelina Jolie.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 81% on tit-size You scored higher than 90% on ass-size You scored higher than 57% on cuteness

Link: The Tits, Ass, and Cuteness Test written by chicken_pot_pie on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

If his mouth is the only thing in the way, we're really in trouble

Joe Biden, that is. Senator Joe Biden(musn't forget the title, he'll get the vapors). Was over at Instapundit and found this article with the title Loose Lips Sink..., subtitle Biden's Leadership Is Lost in All His Talk. Ok so far, it's about Biden huffing and blowing at the Alito("the humorless Supreme Court nominee") hearings. Read it through, and my first thought is that if Cohen thinks his mouth and not his record is the 'only' thing in the way of his becoming president...

"Biden occupies the sensible center of the Democratic Party", hmm? Evidence is his support of the AWB and his "centrist--and defensible-- position" on the war. Ok, the AWB was, by the admission of the people at the Violence Policy Center and other groups who pushed it, worthless as far as cutting crime; it mainly served to help demonize 'assault weapons' and get people use to the idea of a ban on types of firearms 'for the common good'. And Biden, as I recall, hasn't met a gun ban, restriction, tax or licensing scheme that he didn't vote for. And his 'centrist' position on the war has consisted of loudly criticizing and bitching and moaning, and not having the guts to actually vote to cut and run. Maybe these things are the 'sensible center' of the Democrat party now, but it doesn't fly real well with an awful lot of people.

And I've got to take note of this: "But even before that vote, Biden was urging President Bush to seek international support for the Iraq effort, not to move precipitously, and to have a postwar plan. Bush, listening to you-know-who, did what the voices told him." This is so much bullshit it's amazing. I guess wasting all that time at the U.N. asking them to actually, you know, enforce the U.N. measures doesn't count. And the 'postwar plan' crap; "He didn't know beforehand exactly what he'd do when, so he shouldn't have done anything". And we have the obligatory "Bush talks to God" knock("The President listens to voices, obviously he's insane"). Cohen is a jackass.

He does take note that part of Biden's problem is how long he's been in the Senate, and that he's come to think "...that he and his colleagues are the center of the world." You think maybe? Cohen thinks the seniority his time there confers is one of his good points. I'd argue that it's one of his problems. We've got far too many people in the Senate and House both who think that having 'Senator' or 'Representative' as their job title means they're far above the common scum they rule. And far too many of them DO think they 'rule', or should.

Ending with this: "Biden ran for president once before -- and then, too, his mouth went off on its own. (In 1988, his stump speech was perilously similar to the one used by Neil Kinnock, Britain's Labor Party leader.) This time seems no different, except the loss is greater. Foreign policy, Biden's specialty, is the number one issue. He has much to say -- and then too much to add. He is an anatomical disaster. His Achilles' heel is his mouth." If I remember right, "perilously similar" meant he actually took whole sections for his own. And if foreign policy would suffer from Biden not being in the Oval Office, bring on the suffering.

Cheap screws and good threadlocker

Never a good combination

Having nice weather today, I decided to flip the blades on the chipper, which were getting dull. No big deal, pull two machine screws on each blade and turn it around, then put the screws back. Uh huh. Let me mention that I put penetrating oil on them a few days back, just to ease things.

One screw came out ok. One came after some bad words and fiddling. And both on the other blade stripped. Hex-head screws, yet. So get the drill and the broken-screw pullers, and drill through both screws and turn them out(I highly recommend these tools, by the way; every home should have a set. I use the things 2-3 times per year, but on those occasions nothing else would do the job). The first two didn't show any, but the stripped pair seemed to have some kind of threadlocker on them. I'm wondering if someone picked up the wrong damn tube and put the high-strength or stud-grade stuff on them. Anyway.

So now I need two metric machine screws, not something found at Wally World. So get the helmet and start the bike and go to Pep Boys. Always a good place for stuff like this, as they've had bins of bolts and screws of different types, standard and metric both. Guess what? Pep Boys doesn't have those bins anymore; they've got about six or eight feet of fasteners in little packages. No bins, no large or odd stuff anymore. Crap. Then I see a rebate on the new Sylvania halogen headlamps, which my son swears by. Except they don't have the size for my truck. Double crap. Where now?

I remembered there's an Ace Hardware on the way home, so I swing in there, and lo and behold! I find them. Bigger heads than the originals and a little longer in the shank; big deal, both fixable. So home. Chuck the shank of one in the cordless, turn on the belt sander and cut down the edge so, although it'll stick up a bit the edges will curve down nicely and leave no step for anything to catch on. Do that twice, then cut the shanks to length and use the sander to clean up the ends. And while it's out, use it to sharpen the dull side of the blades. And THEN, put a drop of medium(yes, I checked) threadlocker on each screw and turn them into place.

So a job that should have taken half an hour if I sharpened the blades took about two damn hours. And a sliced thumb. No, not from sharpening, that happened when trying to get the two #*%)$(*!! jammed screws out.

And the gas bill came in today. DAMN! Almost double what it was last year at this time! I'd expected higher, it was warned of, but it's still a bloody shock. Damn hurricanes.

Speaking of hurricanes, read earlier that someone started a petition to recall the governor of Louisiana for poor performance. The Gov. was not available for comment, being in the Netherlands. Probably looking for wooden shoes for office decorations. While they're at it, they need to do something about Schoolbus Nagin. And has anything been done yet about the Chief of Police of NO? Not about the gun seizures and connected mistreatment of people, I mean about the ghost officers, and the looting officers and the deserting officers? If not, something should be done. And while we're on the subject, the dickhead I mentioned earlier still hasn't contacted my ex and daughter to repay them for the gas; somebody needs to feed parts of him to a gator, or a snapping turtle. Bastard.

Yeah, I am in a mood today.

What got my attention on gun control laws

Some people figured this stuff out early, or had it pointed out to them. I think a lot- maybe most- of us had it creep up and whack us over the head. Which is pretty much what happened to me. I'd heard bits and pieces when I was a kid; the first I actually remember was my dad and someone else talking about a measure someone had introduced in Congress to ban 'short-barreled' handguns. Dad thought it was a dumb idea, and that led to discussion of some other idiots' idea of banning ALL handguns, including for law enforcement personnel. General outcome of that discussion was Dad saying that if it happened, he'd either borrow the cut-down Winchester idea from Steve McQueen, or quit; he would not go out on patrol unarmed. I wondered what kind of jerk would want to disarm even LE, but after that it slipped out of my mind. We were visiting my grandparents, and there was fishing to do and beehives to watch and maybe some squirrels to hunt.

It continued like that for several more years, something would bring this stuff to my attention and I'd get distracted and forget it. Then one day Dad and I went to the range. Didn't get to go often at that time, so it was an occasion. Handguns only that time, Dad's sidearm and a .22 revolver(side note: I was in my early 30's before I fired a semi-auto pistol). Great fun was had, and then it hit.

I was lining up a shot when the aforementioned Truth walked up behind me with a 2x4 and swung. There were people out there who would never let us do this again! They'd take the .22, and Dad wouldn't be able to let me shoot his .357! I'd never be allowed to own a pistol, and if I had kids someday, I wouldn't be allowed to teach them to shoot them! Hell, if those people had their way, we wouldn't be allowed to own ANY firearm!!!

It's kind of hard to overstate how strong a shock this was. I'd known it intellectually, but not in my gut where it counted. I knew it now, and it scared me. And then it made me mad.

Dammit, we were honest people! We weren't going to rob or rape or murder someone, but it might be handy to have one if some criminal came along. The thought of our own government saying "You cannot be trusted to own arms" really, really pissed me off. And I joined the NRA.
And I read the magazine every month, and I started writing letters. I was a pissed and scared teenager who didn't like the idea of my basic rights being chopped up by politicians and GFWs(damn, I wish I'd known that term then!); especially when I started finding out just how crooked and hypocritical many of them were. And how arrogant and condescending others were.

So here I am. I still write letters to my Rep. and Senator; I write letters to the editor sometimes; and I talk to people. I've helped a few people start shooting, helped others with maintenance or ammo questions. I've been an on & off member of the NRA, partly because there were years I flat couldn't afford the membership and sometimes- in later years- because I was pissed at them for compromising(or compromising excessively) on something important. When I wasn't in NRA, I was in GOA after I learned about them. Yeah, they sometimes are excessive on some things; I've decided that I'd rather support that in many cases than the 'we must compromise' attitude.

And I raised my kids as gunny people. Bill of Rights people in general, actually, which led to some funny and some scary episodes. Funny when- my daughter in particular- got into arguments with teachers about the Bill, especially the 2nd and firearms in general, and either fought them to a truce or won. Scary when they found out how little most of the other kids- including in high school- knew about their rights and responsibilities, and how little many of them cared.

So on we go. They're of age now, and as I have happily found out, willing to argue the matters with people. Oh yeah, they've discovered the "if you bring up nasty facts I'll call names and go away" method of 'argument' among many GFWs and libs. We don't agree on everything; they weren't raised to be parrots. On a number of important things, however, we're in accord. And the 2nd is one of them.

Oh, being able to point out some interesting facts to a teacher and change their mind about firearms is a fun thing, too. The hippies I just wear a suitable shirt and annoy.

It has to be said:

This woman must be stopped!

So Steve mentioned he's on a diet; good so far. And the usual bitcher- helpful commenters have their say. And then.

She struck.

First, she suggested kickboxing. Ok, it does burn calories, and might be useful someday. But does she stop there? NOOOO. Then she tells him to.. it's hard to say.. she told him to QUIT DRINKING!!!

That's it. I don't care if she IS the big-ass- er, big-shot Diva blogger, Something Must Be Done!

If you've never heard of Oleg Volk,

he makes things like this:













Don't you just love it?

Check out his other stuff at A Human Right, and here at his place.

Interesting site, and a particular post

The Carnival had a link to a site I'd not seen before, the Pro-Gun Progressive. Looking through the site, found this comparing the murder rate in the U.S. to that of other countries.

Brings up a good point. Someone starts yapping about the high rate of murders involving firearms here, they either don't know about total rates, i.e. by all causes, or don't care; guns are bad and that's all that counts. Being able to point out those total numbers can really take the wind from their sails. And in the case of the really annoying GFWs, it really pisses them off, too.

"Saddam had nothing to do with terrorists"

'Bullshit' has been the proven reply to that nonsense before; now there's this:
"THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD by eleven U.S. government officials."

As Michelle says, this is Big News, and ought to be on the front pages. Want to hold your breath until it is?

I didn't think so.

Combat stress

I'm not writing this from firsthand experience of the real thing; it's been a long time since I've been in any kind of fight. I was just thinking back on some of the descriptions of fights in Afghanistan and Iraq, particularly from a writer like Yon. Just reading about this gets your system pumped up. One thing I do know is that while hard, realistic training will stress you out, nothing equals the wear and tear of a real fight. I've never been in a real life-or-death struggle(happily); and the closest I came to true combat exhaustion was from a demonstration, of all things.

I've mentioned I used to play around in the SCA. Well, one evening the local group had been asked to do a demo for some organization. The guy I was to fight was working hard at a Japanese persona, and at that time fought only with katana. We'd sparred some times before, and that night we agreed to use his chosen weapons. Time came and we got up on the stage and stood facing while we were introduced, rules explained, etc.

I had always seen SCA combat as a game. I'd never taken it seriously, seeing it as a real fight. Until tonight. For some reason, this time, I looked at Taisho and thought, "You're mine". Everything around me faded into the background; I could hear everything but only the sounds from my opponent counted, I knew where everything/everyone around me was without having to glance aside. And the fight began.

And this time it was a real fight to me. I was fairly skilled, but not taking it dead-serious kept me from getting much better. But this time, everything was focused. He was better, better than me at this style but I had him on the defensive from the start. I have no idea how long it lasted, probably no more than a minute, then I feinted him out of position and made a beautiful cross-body cut into him, and he folded and went down. I stepped back, they called me the winner, and then, I couldn't move. I mean I couldn't move; I had to lean my helmet on the sword pommel- point on the floor- to keep from falling over. Truly realistic training is much like a real battle, it drains you, and this was the first time ever in SCA combat I'd done this. I think somebody led me off the stage, at least I didn't really remember walking off. And after we both calmed down, Taisho basically said "What the hell was THAT?" I said something like "I remembered to concentrate this time" and left it at that.

I was wearing a steel helmet that probably weighed about 6-8 pounds, a padded tunic and leather and steel scale laced onto a leather backing body armor, shoulders to mid-thigh, some leather armor over arms and gauntlets for the hands. Probably about 45-50 pounds total weight, and the sword weighed about three.

What made me remember this was thinking of what our troops wear. Fatigues, and armor, often elbow and knee pads, helmet, goggles, sometimes night-vision gear. Ammo and first-aid kit and water and food and personal weapons. Sometimes a belt for the guy with the machinegun or other ammo for somebody with the heavy-weapons stuff. And so on. David Drake wrote in Fortress that what a lot of people didn't realize is that the infantry grunt carries everything he needs on his body, and hopes it's enough at the same time he's sweating to carry it all. And in real combat; real outdo the other guys, kill or die combat. I don't think I can imagine the level of stress, and the let-down at the end, when the shooting stops. And then they have to stay mobile and alert until things are secured and they're relieved...

A lot of people have said it better than I can; we OWE these people bigtime for doing what so many of us cannot for whatever reason.

Carnival of Cordite #42

The first of 2006 is up at Gullyborg, with a big backlog of gunny posts to check out.

I have to agree with Gunner,

this is it:
"For those who believe it to be outdated, the Second Amendment provides a good test of whether their allegiance is really to the Constitution of the United States, or only to their preferences in public policies and audiences."

And from the desks of Steyn and Lileks,

we have first "It's the Demography, Stupid" from Steyn. And then we have further on the message and on the mindset of those who hate and/or despise their own western culture from Lileks.

Go read them both if you haven't already.

OKC Bombing update

All the current screaming because the NSA was checking calls made internationally to specific phone numbers found on a terrorists' cellphone? How about this:

"A series of internal documents from the U.S. Secret Service obtained by this newspaper provide details of a project involving the transfer of thousands of telephone and bank records to a government database with the help of U.S. telephone and financial company executives. "

"Federal prosecutors would, over a year later, use the roadmap created by the so-called Daryl Bridges calling card to obtain convictions in the Denver federal trials of McVeigh and Nichols. However, during each trial there was scant mention of any role played by Riley or the Secret Service in obtaining the phone records.

Instead, a series of FBI agents and phone company executives would take the stand to tell jurors a much more “sanitized” version of how the records were obtained.

At no time did the government admit that federal agents were able to obtain thousands of unsuspecting Americans’ phone and bank records without their knowledge, nor did the government show a court any evidence that these citizens had done anything illegal."

Gee, I thought all was wonderfulness and light before the Eeeville Bushymacchimphitler took office?

If this is true, Britain's gone through the toilet

And is reaching the pond.

Update: I found this link at No Quarters; this crap is for real. Here's his post on it.


" Police in the United Kingdom have now been authorized to arrest anyone at any time for any reason, according to the UK Telegraph."

Civil liberties? What are those?

"Before the law changes, police were able to arrest suspects only if the police had reason to believe that the suspects were going to commit a crime punishable by at least five years of jail. Those restrictions have been dropped such that police can now arrest and detain anyone that they think might commit any type of crime. Police will still have to file a report explaining why they thought arresting someone was necessary."

I looked over the Telegraph site for more information and couldn't find reference to this. I did, however, find this:
"The government was accused last night of compiling a national DNA database "by stealth" as police reported a rapid increase in genetic profiling in recent years." Sound interesting?
"The growth in the UK database has followed several legal changes allowing the DNA taken from people who are acquitted, or arrested and questioned but never charged - or even cautioned - to be retained indefinitely.

No other country gives its police greater freedom to obtain, use and store genetic information and most remove the profiles if the person is acquitted or not charged."

Near the end it has this from the Home Office minister:"

Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, said: "It is vital that the police are equipped with the powers they need to enable them to do their jobs properly and effectively. The powers need to be updated to reflect modern policing priorities and the changing nature of criminal activity.

"We need to maintain the crucial balance between the powers of the police and an individual's rights.

"The introduction of a single, rationalised power of arrest simplifies arrest powers and requires the police officer to consider the necessity of the arrest." Yeah, it really simplifies things when you can bust someone you think, might, commit any type of crime.

Combine this with the ever-increasing video surveillance, and the plan to track every motor vehicle all the time... If you're planning a trip to Formerly Great Britain, be damn careful when you're there.

I think it may have been Cowboy Blob who started the 'first gun' stuff lately. I don't have the first one I bought, but I do have the second:














Ruger New Model Super Single-Six, to use the whole name. 5.5" barrel, adjustable sights, and came with both .22LR and .22 Magnum cylinders. Like Cowboy, I wasn't old enough to buy it myself, Dad did the honors there, and I've had it ever since. Not too many magnums have been fired(I was always short of money, and they's expensive), but I have no idea how many long rifle cartridges have gone down the bore. When I first heard of them, I wanted to get a Wolff spring kit to lighten the trigger, but a: didn't have the money then, either and b: since then just never got around to it. Realistically, wouldn't make a lot of difference; the trigger has a bit of creep, but it's not heavy, and someday I'll get around to taking it apart and polishing things.

Nicely accurate, and solid in the hand. I found a holster that fit, and used it to carry it on fishing and camping trips and hikes. Barring disaster, it'll go to the kids to argue over someday.

The first gun? Marlin Model 60 .22 rifle. I don't have it because it belongs to my daughter now.

And for a better level of reporting from New Orleans,

go here.

Can they tar and feather the judge?

After hanging the bastard?

"A Williston man who admitted repeatedly sexually assaulting a young girl for four years was sentenced Wednesday to spend 60 days in prison -- a punishment that angered the victim's family but was defended by the judge as the only way to provide counseling for the perpetrator."

And when the prosecutor asked for at least an eight-year sentance? "Cashman, though, told the crowded courtroom that punishment was not his priority in sentencing Hulett, but rather finding treatment for the man to prevent future abuse."

How about this, judge; you could prevent future abuse by LOCKING HIS ASS UP FOR A LONG DAMN TIME! He repeated his crime over FOUR YEARS, YOU IDIOT! He RAPED the kid over and over and over, and YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT HIM GETTING COUNSELING?!?!?

This is the kind of thing tar and feathers exist in tandem for. And a nice, splintery rail, too. It's hard to imagine anything else as vile as what this walking piece of trash did; and it's hard to believe a rational adult could do something as idiotically PC as this worthless excuse for a judge did.

And you know what? If a family member of the kid beat the crap out of the molester, let alone hanged him as he deserves, this jackass jurist would probably want them imprisoned for life; after all, the 'justice system' had dealt with the miscreant, right?

God, it's enough to make you dig up pitchforks and torches.

Book Review

Through The Crosshairs, by Andy Dougan

Found this at the library, and decided to give it a try. It's about snipers and their craft. And it does have some good bits and pieces of history. Unfortunately, it suffers from two faults: first, the guy obviously read a lot of references, but never actually learned enough about the subject to tell good info from crap; and second, he occasionally lets political bias into his writing.

The major problem is not being able to sift crap from good information. Best way to cover this is to give some quotes from the book.

On the problem of the musket ball: "Additionally the soft lead ball itself had a tendancy to deform as it traveled through the air, meaning that it lost power and accuracy in flight... Sometimes musket balls ended up as no more than flattened lumps of metal that scarcely broke the skin of their intended targets."(page 85)

On German snipers in WWI: "...using rifles with muzzle velocities of around 3,000 feet per second - more than twice the speed of the deadly Mauser of twenty years earlier."(page 165). I never knew a 7mm Mauser only had a MV of 1500fps.

Referring to the 8mm Mauser: "The bullets had hard metal jackets and were larger than the Minie' ball - about three-tenths of an inch in diameter, or .30 caliber"(page 153). Considering the Minie' ball was, in the arms he speaks of, .57 or .58 caliber, I think he needs a ruler.

And one of the really good ones. Most of you have heard of the Snipers Triangle; his definition of how it's used is priceless: "The sniper wants to place himself on high ground or in a sufficiently elevated position to be shooting down on his target. If he misses the clean head shot then the bullet should still travel through the head, down through the neck, along the long axis of the body, through the heart and out of the back. This vastly increases the chances of hitting a major organ such as the heart or liver or severing an artery."(page 252-253)

And so on. I think he must have taken some things he read or heard of and come up with his own ideas on how things work; that last bit, for instance. Either that or he swallowed the hook, line and sinker when someone threw him a line of BS.

The political bias doesn't show that often, but the time that pissed me off was a reference to a mission of Sgt. Carlos Hathcock in Vietnam. He'd been sent out to kill a Frenchman who was helping the North, among other ways by torturing American prisoners for information. Hathcock made the shot, and this jerk's opinion is "Whatever the Frenchman's crimes - and they may have included the torturing of captives - Hathcock's mission was an act of sniping as terrorism."(page 252). It takes a real friggin' idiot to pop out with this.

Overall, I'd have to say give it a pass. There are lots better books out there on the subject.

Note: I will give him this, he reminded me of something. At the Battle of Saratoga, Daniel Morgan gave the order for a British general trying to rally his men to be shot. The official words are "That gallant officer is General Fraser", he said. "I admire him, but it is necessary that he should die. Do your duty." Considering what is known of Morgan, he more likely said "You see that bastard on the gray horse? Kill him." In any case, Timothy Murphy climbed a tree for a better line of sight and did the job nicely.

Ok, guys, get ready to drool

Range report, 1903-A3

Today, being the first day since I got this thing that a: the weather is decent, b: I'm not at work and c: I had time, I took it out to try at 100 yards. To refresh your memory of which I speak,














Yeah, it's kind of washed out. January, low sun, no helping it. That white thing over the rear sight is bacause of the angle; I was getting a LOT of glare into the sight, so I taped a piece of target paper up as a shade. Which worked very well. Wind was a bit gusty, too.

I tried this with both the Korean M2 ball which works so well in my M1, and- having gotten myself some for Christmas- some Greek ball I ordered from CMP. Both hit at the same point of aim so far as I can tell, and gave pretty much identical accuracy.

I fired about 40 rounds total, and saved three targets. Some were not in the 'bragging' category, but that went away when I made the sight shade. Which gave me this:















The group on the left was the first three, I checked them through the scope, adjusted windage, and shot the next two. Adjusted, then fired the next target, lower three first, then the next two:















Note that while I strung the first three vertically, the horizontal dispersion is damn near zero.
Which made me very happy. This rifle, with standard ball, will shoot minute of angle or better; not sometimes, but every time when the guy shooting it does his part. I'm really tempted to get some match bullets and work on some loads, for it and the M1 both. And I need to find a place with a longer range, I'd really like to try this at 200 & 300.

I'm saving this target for last because, though I like it, I can't repeat it. Not so far, at least. This is right after I made the sunshade, and it's three shots. The first and third are the one hole at the left:














Honest and for true, I swear it! The second wasn't a surprise, I thought I'd pulled it. After the third I used the spotting scope, and couldn't figure out where the third round went, so I walked down and checked it. That hole is just slightly out of round, which flat amazed me.

Not bad for a rifle built in 1943.

What's YOUR worst/best New Years?

Steve having made his contribution to the mental health of his readers this morning, it made me remember the one time I didn't wake up the proverbial bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

A few years ago I was invited to a New Years party in Dallas. I took a bottle of whiskey as my contribution to things, and on the evening off we went(staying with friends, one of whom didn't drink, hell NO I wasn't driving). Party went very nicely until...

Most of the people there are Rennies(i.e., people who work at/live for Renaissance fairs), and were generally good people(Mouthfull, where are you now?). Great fun was had by all, the host took note of the fact that I spoke better English after some booze than I did sober, and somebody kept topping up my drink. With straight whiskey. Late in the evening, a while before midnight as I recall, I was sitting in a corner, halfway dozing; very drunk, and very aware that if I sat there a while and drank nothing more but water or tea I'd be fine. FINE, I tell you. And then a couple of people(man and woman, and later I could not remember who) started talking about the bit the woman was working on to gross out patrons(people who just come to the fair, wear regular clothes, i.e. normal people, though they wouldn't have put it that way).

I can't remember what the hell she came up with, I just remember that it was so bloody gross that after about ten minutes I arose fairly unsteadily from my nice, comfortable, warm corner and headed for the bathroom. Which luckily was empty. Where I proceeded to involuntarity purge my system of what seemed like everything except my lower intestines. Apparently noisily because when I left the host was at the door inquiring as to whether medical attention was needed.

I assured him no, just water. NOW, please. Which he did provide, and which I drank a damn lot of. By this time it was just about midnight, and I was in much better shape than I'd have expected, and the toast(beer passed around in a by God drinking horn) I did not have to bypass. Then I was (probably, this is a bit fuzzy) guided to the car and we went home.

The folks I stayed with had a big two-bedroom house, big bedrooms, but one was given over entirely to an office/workspace for jewelry work, so they had a cot in the attic for visitors. Not bad at all, actually; the heater was up there, it was warm and the cot was comfortable, it both gave me a place to stay and allowed people the chance to refer to me as the odd relative who lived in the attic. God knows how I made it up the ladder, but I did.

Came the morning, and probably because of all the water I'd had I did NOT have a hangover, but I didn't feel quite right, either. So I sat up and contemplated the universe until it occurred to me that food might be a good idea. So I dressed and went downladder, and happily it was only a short time after that my hosts came dragging out. I looked at them and suggested "Food?". They paused, hubby said that sounded like a good idea, so they dressed and off we went.

There's a chain in the Fort Worth area called Beefers, and they served breadfast until 2 p.m. on New Years, so there we went. No, it wasn't 1:30, only about 10:30. I got the BIG breakfast, as I recall a small chicken-fried steak, and hash browns, and two over easy, and a biscuit and gravy. And the Lord did smile upon me, for I took the first bite and a feeling of peace came over me, and all was right with the world. And I sat there and attacked my plate. About halfway through I looked across the table at wifey, who was leaning her head on one hand while she poked at her plate with the other; she turned barely-open eyes at me and asked, in a cracked voice, "How can you eat at a time like this?".

That was my worst awakening that had anything to do with booze, amazingly. Especially considering my mood for quite a while after my divorce. As of now, I've never woke up with a hangover. Never. A little fuzzy a couple of times, but nothing some liquid and food didn't take care of. I have aided some friends through the aftermath of one, and it's made me very happy to have avoided that particular experience.

And Steve? I had to work the day before AND New Years, so I had reason(besides not wanting to be on the road with a bunch of idiots and/or drunks) to wake up clear-eyed, as us virtuous folk do. So yell away.

(but if I'm nice, can I come to ManCamp someday? Please? I'll bring good scotch, I promise)

Ref New Orleans and the confiscations

Over at Xavier Thoughts found this on the matter. It's got some bits I hadn't heard, and reminded me of some I had.

When I first heard about this crap, one of the quotes was from a National Guardsman from- I'm ashamed to say- Oklahoma, saying something like "I never thought it would come to this, but we're doing it". It took a certain amount of restraint to keep from calling the OK headquarters for these people and asking what the hell they train these people to do? that they'll follow orders like this. The thought occurred that we took drastic action about 60 years ago against a bunch of people who used "I had to follow orders" as an excuse.

That's not counting the various law enforcement 'professionals' who, as Xavier put it, showed once and for all just what a lot of them think of the Constitution and their oath. I've been around LE for most of my life, and I've been bothered many times by things done. This is up at the top of the list.

Xavier is right, we need to keep this in mind and keep it up as a subject. Lawsuits have been filed, but you can bet that the major media will, if they can, say not a damn word about it. If, as Xavier says, some bubbas in LA doubt it actually happened, there's a real damn problem with public memory and care about our rights.

Additional: remember the gun show in VA where ATF agents and local LE were illegally taking information from NICS sheets and going to people's homes to question relatives and/or neighbors about them? I had heard the show organizers were going to file suit; anyone know if they did? This is ANOTHER one that's slipped out of mind, and shouldn't.

Holidays involving balloons

and cats(Surprise, Aciddude!)

























If you don't check out Two Lumps, you should

This is kind of amazing...

Sometime in the next couple of days, I'm gonna hit 30,000.

To think that seven people could look back here that many times is really something. And a little strange, is this ALL you people do?

In any case, yay me!

Happy Early New Year! Again!

And start it off right; you have GOT to read this!

Tactical Tommy Goes to the Store, courtesy of the Texican Tattler.

Found through the good offices of Uncle.

Another wonderful piece from Michael Crichton

Couple of years ago he wrote a book called State of Fear about the enviroweenies working to scare us all to death, to try to force us into doing what they want. I wrote about that book and a speech he gave, and it got me some of the more passionate comments I've had; all from people who insisted global warming was real, a true danger, etc. Mind you, I didn't mind the comments, with one exception they actually argued their point without insult or name-calling.

Well, Clayton Cramer linked to a speech by Crichton on Fear, Complexity & Environmental Management in the 21st Century. It's a wonderful piece, which touches on:
Just how wrong the predictions were about the impact of Chernobyl;
How people can 'believe' themselves to death;
More predictions of "We're all gonna DIE!" that were/are wrong;
And just how much we don't know how to manage nature.

(Ref the last, in 1987 Playing God in Yellowstone came out, about that exact subject. Well worth the read)

And, just to enrage the enviroweenies and Indians-as-God fetishists, both Crichton's speech and the book take note of the ways in which the first immigrants managed land and animals, fire being one of their main tools.

Go read the speech, at least; you'll be glad you did.

There's no other way to put this

Fucking Barbarians

I don't care about their 'culture' and 'social mores', that this is considered a normal and proper thing in so much of the muslim world marks them as such.

"Appearing disheveled but composed, he said he killed Muqadas because she had committed adultery, and his daughters because he didn't want them to do the same when they grew up."

I repeat, fucking barbarians. And if the muslim community doesn't like being thought of as such, then a: speak out against this crap, and b: STOP IT!

Remember Sacco & Vanzetti?

I do. It was a case I remember several teachers hitting on in school and college. A marvelous example of the unfairness and bigotry of our system, the teachers said. Except that they were guilty as hell, as noted in the article that Red State links to.

I haven't read the L.A. Times article, as it requires registration. However, Betsy has some excerpts from a letter written by Upton Sinclair:
"Alone in a hotel room with Fred, I begged him to tell me the full truth," Sinclair wrote. " … He then told me that the men were guilty, and he told me in every detail how he had framed a set of alibis for them." and

"But the fearless Sinclair was left a conflicted man by what Sacco and Vanzetti's lawyer — and later others in the anarchist movement — told him."

Fearless?
"My wife is absolutely certain that if I tell what I believe, I will be called a traitor to the movement and may not live to finish the book," Sinclair wrote Robert Minor, a confidant at the Socialist Daily Worker in New York, in 1927."
"He also worried that revealing what he had been told would cost him readers. "It is much better copy as a naïve defense of Sacco and Vanzetti because this is what all my foreign readers expect, and they are 90% of my public," he wrote to Minor."

So the 'fearless' Mr. Sinclair wrote a book painting the two as railroaded innocents even though he knew they were guilty and had said he was going to "write the truth about the case."

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Tsunami, a year later

While I was visiting my folks saw two shows, one specifically about the tsunami, the other one of the Discovery Channel "Here's what's going to kill you next!" shows. The second had good points, including a team scouting the sea floor around the fault area and finding some really amazing evidence of how strong the quake was and precisely how it generated the tsunami.

The first had a lot of video I hadn't seen before, and some of it was scary as hell. Most of the early stuff I saw either was from areas where the wave height wasn't that great, or you just couldn't tell because of angle, obstacles to view, etc. Some of this showed the proverbial 'wall of water' slamming in. One was from a beach where when the water pulled out, a lot of people went to the beach to see; you can hear the two people shooting it talking, finally one says 'tsunami', and finally someone realizes what's about to happen when they see the wave building in the distance and started yelling, too late. One guy who must not have believed what he was seeing was still standing on the beach when it hit him.

One from Banda Aceh showed a city street when the water started up. The first like a spill moving up, then deeper with timbers and cars and bicycles and people rushing along at(I'd guess) a good 20 mph. A couple of guys who'd been caught actually jumping along the mass of wreckage until they were able to jump onto some stuff trapped against a building and made it to safety.

I think the worst was someone shooting from the second or third story of a hotel; a half-dozen women were in the lee of a small building trying to hold on. The photographer zoomed in on one for a few moments; she was screaming and trying to hold on to another woman, then the photographer zoomed back out, and a few seconds later those two were swept away.

And then the aftermath. Women screaming and crying over the bodies of their children, men and women and children carrying bodies, children looking around for families they'll never see again. A guy sitting beside his bicycle. Apparently he'd been somewhere else when it hit and hurried home. You didn't really need the translation; "My family is gone. I'm the only one left. Why has God abandoned me?" The despair in that voice was enough to give you nightmares all by itself.

A quarter of a million dead. Something like 50,000 missing. People saying they'll not believe their family is dead until they see the bodies, which means never.

A few years ago an F5 tornado passed nearby, thanks to modern forecasting and chasers only a few died in a storm with winds of 319mph(I drove through an area that took the full brunt about two weeks later; pictures cannot do justice to the sight). The Gulf coast states take hurricanes every year, some of which can be terrible. Blizzards can still, forecasting or no, slam you with little warning. Rogue waves on the ocean can destroy ships. Earthquakes, almost always with no warning. Volcanos can sit rumbling and making people nervous for months and do nothing else, or can go from the first quakes to full eruption in days and kill thousands. Remember Nevado del Ruiz in Columbia? Actually not much of an eruption, but the mudflows it generated killed tens of thousands.

I can't remember who, but when I was little I heard or read someone saying about any body of water "If you don't respect it, it can kill you without a moments notice, and the water won't care". That pretty much goes for much of the planet and many of the creatures on it. Spiders and snakes and sharks and blue-ringed octopi and lions and hyenas and buffalo and fish and cattle and pigs and dogs and so on. But normally- make that 'usually'- they don't whack people in such numbers.

I still remember one picture from the days after the wave. One baby's hand sticking out of some rubble. I pretty much summed it up.

Note: Michelle Malkin has this link to Storm Track, which links to some of the videos.

Happy Early New Year!

Just in case I forget later.

Remember I said I don't like working on ladders and roofs? Went down to see my folks the past couple of days and helped Dad take down the last of that tree we'd worked on before. Wasn't a lot left, and we got all we needed to cut before the wind got really nasty yesterday. Very happily without me falling from any great height.

I am trying to decide what to do, if anything, for New Years. Most of the folks I know don't go out to party, and I don't particularly enjoy spending the evening around a bunch of noisy drunks. I also have a great dislike of driving while some of these fools are on the road; I drive a truck, not a light armored vehicle. At this point I think I'll stay home and drink a little good stuff.

That's another factor; for what three or four drinks cost anymore, I can buy a bottle of good whiskey. So I don't generally drink when I go out, other than a beer or two in some cases.

Well, it's still a couple of days away. We'll see what turns up.

This is a lousy thing to go into on this day,

but I have to.

I've only been over at Junkyard Blog a couple of times; no idea why not more often. Today I clicked over there, and found this post about Spielberg's new movie. I'd already heard enough about it to know I'll not put money in his pocket by seeing it; he also linked to this article which has a pretty good critique of Spielberg's point of view and the movie, and some in-depth information about the murders in Munich and what led up to them than I'd not seen before. It also has some information about the aftermath, in specific:

I remember hearing some at the time of the hijacking of a German airliner by Palistinians who wanted the three terrorists who'd been captured released. They were released. This is something I never heard a hint of before now:
"In the course of the making of the documentary film and writing of the book One Day in September, it was revealed that the hijacking had been set up between Black September and the German government."

Read it all. Then remember that the German government just released the terrorist who'd murderered an American, refusing us any opportunity to extradite him. And the damn Lebanese government, who held him for a short time, turned him loose.

Some things seem to hold true over time. One is that we can't trust many governments to give a rat's ass about what terrorists do to Israeli and American citazens; if they do care, it's only enough to give themselves some cover.

The other? Never trust those people to do something about the terrorists. A bit unfair? Maybe for some people over there, but recent history has shown that too many people in too many positions of power actually seem to delight in our people being murdered.

I didn't know squat about politics at the time of the Munich murders; I did know that when I heard later the Israeli's were hunting down the guilty and killing them, I thought "Good!". Looks like we need to have some people going hunting, too.

Merry Christmas to all!

Or Happy Solstice, or Happy Day Off Work or whatever. That doesn't cover it? Screw you, just be happy.

My present for you is this for the devoted of the 1911:












(found in a post at The High Road)

All hail the fish!

I just checked my status at Truth Laid Bear, and I'm now a Flippery Fish.

Whatever the hell that means.

Hey, Sondra, wanna bass around?

Over at Moral Flexibility found this post on the 'get out of the country' response by a bigshot Liberal politician to an upset sport shooter. Down in the comments found an interesting piece of crap. I left a comment, but apparently it didn't meet with the moderator's approval, so I'll do it here:
I must admit I have to chuckle every time I hear an American brag about their vaunted liberties and freedoms. Yes, I’m sure that if you’re white, rich and well-connected, America can be a great place to live.
Yeah, that explains all the rich white Mexicans and everybody else crawling over each other to get here.

Certainly, Canada is not without its own problems. But, unlike the U.S. Constitution, which is being progressively eroded (especially with respect to the First, Fourth and Sixth Amendments) by expedient legislation such as the ‘Patriot Act’, Canadians’ rights under our Charter remain largely intact.

"Largely intact"? Like a previous mention of private property rights basically being written out of the Charter by Trudeau? And the current crap going on? Ok.

I still have confidence that I won’t be rousted off an inter-city bus by armed constabulary at 3:00 a.m. for an unreasonable search, as happened to me in Arkansas last year. Admittedly, as an alien, I could claim no protection under your Constitution, but I watched as several dozen Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights were flagrantly violated. Presumably with impunity, because they were black, poor and politically unconnected.

Not having any knowledge of the incident you speak of, I'll only comment that based on your other comments, I have great suspicion that what you describe leaves a lot out.

By most objective international standards, the quality of life in the US is on the decline. As the gulf between the rich and poor widens, as compromises in personal freedoms are introduced in the name of ‘national security’, as political corruption continues largely unabated, claims of ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ ring somewhat hollow.

Hee, I guess compared to the gentle social life in France, and the huge unemployment, and the people being murdered by Islamists, our lives must seem pretty bad. Though I keep reading about middle-class people in other countries who want to live like the 'poor' do here, and most millionairs here are self-made, so I must be missing something. Like just what your 'objective international standards' are. Political corruption? You mean like the finance and bribery scandals that got your PM and party a no-confidence vote? Guess we'll have to work harder to live down to your standards.

Claims of democracy are hollow without an informed electorate, a viable and free press and freedom from censorship. America has now dropped to forty-fourth place in the world in terms of freedom of the press (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Without_Borders)

If I remember right, this is one of those organizations that think Castro and his little buttmonkey in Venezuela are wonders; so screw their opinion.

America’s record on human rights abuses has become a scandal (http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/usa-summary-eng), it now leads the world in incarceration rates (http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/pub9036.pdf),
continues to slip on the UN’s ‘Human Development Index’, falling to tenth place in 2005 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index), largely reflecting its levels of poverty and inequality.

To quote somebody in the comments, I wouldn't cross the street to piss on Amnesty International; they suck up to every anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-Jewish weenie in the world. Screw them too.

America is a great nation. But it could be a true world leader with a rational foreign policy and improved social equality for its citizens.

First, we're a great nation party BECAUSE we don't have what you probably define as a 'rational foreign policy', which probably means "hand over the keys to the UN and EU and let them run your lives". And 'improved social equality' tends to be code for 'socialist control of the country and everyone/everything in it; no thank you, we've seen how that crap works in other places. So you just go ahead and feel superior; I'm sure the terrorists and sympathizers your current government has let into the country will get to you eventually.

Jackass.