On firearms in Mexico

After this post a commenter said If anything bigger than .22 and 20ga are outlawed, then what do they use to hunt with? There are TONS of places in Mexico where you can take your hunting rifle or 12ga shotgun and go hunting.

What, only tourists can have guns? That doesn't seem very likely to me.

I think something's wrong with the claim that they are against the law.

I'd read about the situation for firearms owners in Mexico, but had never looked up specifics: when someone who's been there says "Unless you like the idea of a cellmate named Juan..." I tend to listen to them. So I contacted Mark in Mexico (where I found this the other day which started this)and asked him for some information: and, being the shameless link whostout fellow he is, he promply wrote back. First he pointed me to this at Packing.org, which includes this from the State Department:
The Department of State warns US citizens against taking any type of firearm or ammunition into Mexico without prior written authorization from the Mexican authorities. Entering Mexico with a firearm or a single round of ammunition carries a penalty of up to five years in jail, even if the firearm or ammunition is taken into Mexico unintentionally. The Mexican government strictly enforces its laws restricting the entry of firearms and ammunition along all land borders and at air and seaports. This has resulted in arrests, convictions, and long prison sentences for US citizens, even those who unintentionally crossed the border with firearms or ammunition in their possession.

And this section From a Mexican Lawyer

I am a Mexican Lawyer and I know the federal firearms law well, here is a summary The right to own firearms is granted by the Constitution but it does not include military firearms which are according to Federal Law any firearm which can fire full auto regardless of caliber, semi auto pistols in 9mm, 38 Super and larger, 357 magnum revolvers and larger, shotguns larger than 12 gauge or with a barrel shorter than 25", rifles in caliber .223, 7.62 and 30 Caliber carbines. Legal guns to own are 380s, 38 Special revolvers, rifles up to .30 caliber (larger ones are authorized for hunting abroad)and shotguns.

Permits for the transportation and use of firearms are issued for 1 year and for up to 10 firearms for each use (hunting, shooting at your club or national competition), these permits are very easy to obtain if you belong to a shooting club. There is no legal limit as to how many firearms you can own, but once you have 10 you cannot get a permit to buy more from the only authorized dealer, you can however legally buy more from other people. There are also collectors permits which allow you to own all kinds of firearms including military ones, they are also not hard to obtain except for the fact that the military authority will inspect the location to make sure it has the necessary security measures to avoid the guns being stolen.

CCW are issued but are hard to obtain although not impossible, and if denied they can be appealed at a District Court, although few people do. Until 2002 CCW’s authorized military caliber pistols, but they were all cancelled and issued 380s.

Ammunition can be bought at certain sporting goods stores, you only need ID and a copy of the firearm registration document, limits to purchase are 500.22s, 200 center fire (rifle or pistol) and 1000 shotgun shells, these limits are per gun per month (if you own 3 shotguns you can buy 3000 shells per month).New firearms can be bought from UCAM (Sporting shotguns and rifles and Glock, Walther, Taurus, Beretta and CZ 380 pistols.

Many people carry without a license and if caught usually the gun is confiscated only with no criminal charges, and although large caliber pistols are outlawed every self respecting male in the rural areas usually owns a 38 Super.(emphasis mine)

Which sounds pretty straightforward. Strange, but straightforward. Except that MiM says
Even the link above seems to hint that owning a weapon or weapons is merely a procedural process. It's not. You've got to pay and pay and pay to get these permits. That's why almost nobody ever bothers. The only people who can, more or less, follow the proper procedures and get their permits in some reasonable timeframe, like in their own lifetime, are those who are politically well connected. Everybody else has to pay bribes to get the process moving.

There were some mutterings by Fox and the PAN 2 years ago about lightening up on firearms ownership and licensing procedures. It never happened. Having an armed populace in Mexico anything even approaching that of the US citizenry frightens the politicians into recurring nightmares.

He includes this from the Mexican Constitution:
Article 10. The inhabitants of the United Mexican States are entitled to have arms of any kind in their possession for their protection and legitimate defense, except such as are expressly forbidden by law, or which the nation may reserve for the exclusive use of the Army, Navy, or National Guard; but they may not carry arms within inhabited places without complying with police regulations.

Don't you just love that wording? "..entitled to have...", "...for their protection and legitimate defense, except..." Just the kind of wording the GFWs would love to change our Second Amendment to. As MiM put it, If you take even a cursory look at that, you can see that the law can be written, or worse, enforced, in a manner to make the ownership and/or carrying of a weapon almost 100% illegal. And Mexico has proceeded to just about do that.
Which I have no doubt is why it was worded this way. Ours says ..."The Right of the people to keep and bear arms...", their people are 'entitled' for 'protection and legitimate defense', except where it doesn't suit the government.

And pay attention to that bit from the State Department: people have been arrested for a single fired .22 case that had fallen under a seat. And had bloody nightmares over it. Including that BATFE and various politicians have decided that such a 'serious criminal conviction' in Mexico is sufficient to end your right to arms here in the U.S.

So it appears that it's largely a matter of if you have the money/connections you can get a permit for damn near anything; or if you're a local the police don't see as a problem you can buy something to hunt/control pests/protect the home and get away with it(unless the police feel a need to show their zeal or your piss someone off, or etc.). But you can have that permit yanked in a second if someone doesn't get their bribe or your 'friend' doesn't win reelection(or gets indicted), and if you have something without benefit of the permit you can find yourself in jail at any time.

And I'd have to say that if you're a U.S. citazen in Mexico to hunt, make sure of two things:
That you have ALL the possible paperwork filled out and signed and officially noted, and
Have plenty of bribe money.


By the way, just to demonstrate that places like Detroit and Chicago and New York Effin' City(thanks to Kim for the term) are not along in bullshit publicity exercises involving firearms, check this:
Anyway, Ebrard and Ortega, demonstrating their newly awakened interest in truth, justice and the Mexican way, launched an operation against the street vendors in and around Mexico City's center. They sent in a highly trained force of 150 officers to sweep up and confiscate . . .

877 toy guns.

And for long-term storage,

Well, I have the vacuum sealer. And I have bags. So,


















I have a vacuum-sealed Enfield.

The obvious test at this time would be to throw it outside somewhere for a month or two. No, I ain't gonna do that. If I had an old RG revolver or something, sure. However, this does cry out for a test, so...










On the left is no vacuum, just the normally-oiled blade put in a bag and sealed. On the right, vacuumed and sealed. They're both currently buried in the garden, covered so dumbass Security officer(junior) won't dig them up. I hope. Be a bitch to see if the bags worked if I can't find them.

To Be Continued

To anyone who thinks the government in Mexico

is our friend, wrong.

U.S. officials are in an uproar after the Mexican government approved a bill which will issue global positioning satellite (GPS) tracking devices to emigrants crossing into America illegally.

Mexico says it will issue an estimated 200,000 devices in 2007, in an effort to save hundreds of lives as the crossing North grows even deadlier in the hot summer months.

Politician attacks 1st Amendment.

Again. It's not McCain and 'campaign finance reform' this time, it's Conyers(PaidFor-MI).

The Baron notes some of the points along the road to 'hate speech' laws, and particular note of one that's been used a lot lately:
5. Muslims are the equivalent of a racial minority.

Even though Muslims come in as many races as other human beings, even though Christians, Jews, and Hindus have no such protections, Islam has claimed for itself the same status as blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, etc. It’s a shrewd move, one that has been patiently and painstakingly crafted over the last ten or fifteen years by CAIR and similar organizations.

There's been lots of that the last few years, and it's followed the same lines as the crap from various black groups/individuals, especially Denny's Race Warlord Poverty Pimps: "We can call you names and threaten you and insult you all we want, but don't you DARE call us on it!" And the BPMs at CAIR have made lots of haystacks with it: there's no such thing as a racist or traitorous or whatever muslim, ANY criticism of a muslim individual or group is racism and 'islamophobia'. Remember when Sen. Boxer rescinded an award given to a man connected with CAIR because, among other things, "...a handful of individuals who have had ties to CAIR in the past have been convicted or deported for financial dealings with Hamas—another reason cited by Boxer for her action. The senator directed her staff to withdraw the certificate—which she routinely gives to community leaders in California—and asked that a statement she had previously made endorsing CAIR be stricken from the group’s Web site, Ravitz said in an e-mail." And what was the reaction from CAIR? "CAIR has formally asked for a meeting with Boxer and demanded that she withdraw the action—which one top CAIR official said smacks of “Islamophobia.”
And so on.

And here we have an elected Representative, either sucking up for votes or already bought for them(or both; no, I don't like or trust Conyers) who wants to do further damage to the Constitution.

I've said before, I don't care if they're about homosexuals or illegal immigrants or women or some church or whatever, 'hate speech' laws are an abomination that are much like 'gun control' laws: they're primarily about control, in the case of 'hate speech' laws controlling the very way people are allowed to think and/or speak. As the Baron puts it:
Why do we need to restrain IHN? What could he do that requires speech laws to guard against?

He could get a gun and shoot every black person in sight. No, wait; that’s already illegal.

He could torch the car of his next-door neighbor from Somalia. No, we’ve got laws that cover that.

He could scream racial epithets at every swarthy person he passes on the street. But even that is already covered by existing laws against disorderly conduct, public nuisances, stalking, and so on.

The ugly truth is that “hate speech” rules are a cynical way to cow political opponents and intimidate those who don’t fall in with the party line. However, you’ll notice that these rules are very selectively enforced — no particular consequence ever seems to fall on those who scream, “Death to the Jews!”

The good doctor has responded(again),

and Kevin continues tilting at windmills.

Ref his posts on this and mine, take notice that the doctor has decided that guns- not people, not illegal acts, are the problem.

This fits in with something else I've noticed, that it's almost like(may be that) some people have decided that firearms themselves have some effect upon people that somehow makes them do things, and therefore if you get rid of the objects...

It's just kind of amazing to read this coming from a doctor. Probably shouldn't be, but it is.

How anyone can still trust the UN is beyond me

Especially with this mess coming out.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday reported allegations of blue berets paying children as young as 12 for sex in the mission in southern Sudan, known as UNMIS. The abuse allegedly began two years ago when the mission moved in to help rebuild the region after a 23-year civil war.

So flat-out genocide has been going on, and honest-to-God slavery(although it apparently didn't really count until the proper celebrities took notice of it), and add on to that the UN once again being involved in the crap that's been going on in other countries subjected to their 'assistance'.

Found over at Crusader Rabbit


For that matter, check out Crusader overall, some very interesting stuff there. Found this place through Panday(and the links go on and on...)

His & Hers Diary entries

HER DIARY:
Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a bar to have a drink. I was shopping with my friends all day long, so Ithought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment on it.

Conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk. He agreed, but he didn't say much. I asked him what was wrong; he said, Nothing." I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said he wasn't upset, that it had nothing to do
with me, and not to worry about it.

On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly, and kept driving. I can't explain his behavior. I don't know why he didn't say, "I love you, too."

When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent.

Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed. To my surprise, he responded to my caress, and we made love. But I still felt that he was
distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else. He fell asleep - I cried.

I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.



HIS DIARY:
Missed a big deer today, but at least I got laid.


Yeah, I know it's been around, but I like it.

Discussing/arguing with 'the other side'

Kevin has a post on the subject of what/how the other side believes on the subject of personal disarmament laws. Takes apart an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He got a response from the writer of the op-ed and answered it, and it all made me think of something.

Got a friend who, at a Halloween party get-ready said "I'm in favor of guns, but not some things. I mean, an AK47 is for the army." So I asked "Tell me something: how is a semi-auto AK that I can buy different from any other semi-auto rifle?" And he basically shut it down. Not only no answer, he didn't want to discuss it, period.

I've had several of those discussions(if you can call them that), someone is challenged on a point- very politely, mind you- and either stumbles through a half-response and changes the subject, or flat refuses to talk about it. Sometimes they know that if they argue facts they'll be proved either flat wrong or ignorant(and I use that word in the proper sense). But other times, it's just as simple but actually a bit worse: it's This is what I've decided to believe, and I'm comfortable there, and I don't want to have to think about it.

There's an awful lot of the latter out there. Sometimes it's because of friends/co-workers of a particular viewpoint they want to please, sometimes they tend to see a matter through the PC lens, sometimes it's a viewpoint they inherited and they've had it so long they're just not comfortable questioning it. Whichever, they can be talked to, they can be reasoned with. They may not actively change their mind, but they may well add to it " but most people who have them are ok" or something of the kind.

These are completely separate from those who've decided that firearms themselves are evil and wicked and people shouldn't be allowed to own them, because then all the problems would go away or at least get a lot better. Or that they're just too dangerous for 'the masses' to be allowed to own. It never has, anywhere that's been tried, but they don't care; it is their belief, a (as Mr. Porretto points out in the comments of Kevin's post) religious faith for some, a stalking horse for power for others, and facts that don't match up to it are either wrong or to be ignored; and since ignoring them won't make them go away, they have to be demonized so no 'good' people(i.e., "Those who will do what I think right") will admit to listening to them. Or if it's the 'too dangerous to allow' attitude, then you will hear that we have not demonstrated that the masses, unlike you, can responsibly control firearms." So you might somehow be trusted with them, but the 'masses' cannot be so trusted(and have you noticed the warning sign inherent in someone referring to people as 'the masses'?). Therefore the government has to, if necessary, ignore even the Constitution and control people in this matter(which will lead to others, of course; it's all for the common good, you know).

These people are like those who believe that violence is ALWAYS bad, even when used in self-defense. I've known some of those people, and they drive me crazy: it's hard to believe that a human being could actually believe that a woman using violence to fight off a rapist or robber is as morally in the wrong as her attacker.

Actually, 'drive me crazy' isn't the right phrase, they piss me off is closer. That someone not only believes that, but would require other people to follow that belief, using the force of arms they profess to despise to do it, just flat pisses me off no end. And if someone objects to the 'force of arms' part, that is exactly how government makes people do things: if you don't minions of government show up- armed- and arrest you and will use force if you object. These people, who profess to think the use of violence on others is immoral and abhorrent, both count on other people being willing to use violence to protect them and are willing to have someone else("Must keep my own hands and conscience pure") do violence to force their view on others, by making it illegal for you to defend yourself and jailing you if you do. They're often the same people who give the 'guns are evil' and 'people can't be trusted to own them' arguments. And of course THEY know the One True Right And Only Way for people to think so everyone MUST be made to obey their wishes.

Well, hell, I've gotten off the track, although onto a sidetrack. As Kevin says, we can never forget that the true enemy in this(and yes, I do think 'enemy' is the right word) really, truly believes, and not a word you can say will change their mind. Something happening in their life that forces them to reconsider might- might- have an effect, but that's about it.

As another example of the wonders of 'gun control',

or 'personal disarmament laws' as Jeff Cooper called them, let us look south to Mexico:
In Mexico it is possible for a person to get a permit for a .22 caliber pistol or perhaps a .22 caliber rifle or even a 20 guage shotgun. All other caliber weapons are "reserved for the army and police". In other words, it is illegal to own any firearm without a permit and illegal to own any at all except for those small caliber weapons I just mentioned.(note: link corrected)

So how is it that so many people manage to get themselves shot dead with illegal weapons?

Real good question, isn't it? Especially for people like Pelosi and Schumer and Feinstein and Boxer. Oh, and people like Mr. Roth, too.

All of the deaths and woundings were blamed on organized crime. The 17 fresh bodies (well, 2 were burned beyond recognition so they may not qualify as "fresh") brought the total death toll so far this year in gang related murders to 2,198. In Michoacan, alone, there have been 565 executions so far this year, 38 of them police officers.

Ain't it just amazing how well this works?

Ok, why should the escapee

from the People's Republic of Massachussetts have all the fun?

That letter, it is just flat gold, I tell you! And I can't resist.

AR-15 rifles are not needed
to hunt deer
Anyone needing an AR-15 or a Kalashnikov to hunt deer or elk probably needs a new pair of glasses first.

Actually, I don't think the AR15 is legal for deer, let alone elk: not enough power. An AK, deer yes; elk, marginal. Which has what to do with visual acuity?

Anyone needing an automatic shotgun to hunt pheasants, rabbits or partridge probably needs a prescription from a neurologist to reduce finger tremors or fight off tension.

Strictly speaking that would be 'semi-automatic', since I don't think any state allows automatic weapons for hunting, but we'll give him a pass on that for general ignorance. But where's the neurologist come in? If you actually had a neural problem a semi-auto wouldn't be a good idea. (Or for a GFW, either)

I do not wish to change the constitutional amendment giving an organized militia the rights to bear arms, withdrawn from a carefully tended armory. The National Rifle Association has abandoned the parts of the amendment relating to "organized militia" and "tended armory." The NRA is NOT an organized militia, according to its charter.

Let's see, the phrase is 'well-regulated', not 'organized'. As has been noted by a whole bunch of people, including honest-to-God constitutional scholars, the phrase means something along the lines of 'well-trained' and 'well-prepared'. And the 2nd Amendment says not a damn thing about any 'carefully tended armory' you had to draw your arm from. And we're ALL the militia, Mr. Roth, whether you like it or not. Though from the sound of this I'd hate to have you at my side in a difficulty.

I believe we should remember that the arms of 1789 were smoothbore Kentucky rifles and that discharge was accomplished by a flint-lock striking a steel, and sending a spark into some gunpowder that ignited the propellant and sent the bullet (or buckshot) on its wiggly way. This was a single shot device (or two shot, with two flint-locks and two barrels). Not even the "six-shooter" was invented at that time. My point is that single-shot weapons, with a long time to re-load, remove school and office massacres that can be caused by automatic weapons.

Where to start, where to start... You see, Mr. Roth, 'Kentucky rifle' and 'smoothbore' ain't the same thing. Rifles have 'rifled' bores, which is kind of where the name comes from, you see? Also, the gunpowder in the pan was the same as the 'propellant' in the barrel, just ground more finely(I know, you could call the powder 'propellant', but I'm being picky here). And the whole purpose of the 'rifled' bore was to prevent the ball going on a wiggly way(anybody ever see a ball, rifled or smoothbore, wiggling? Without the benefit of drink, I mean) Somewhat slow to reload, true, but I'm sure a 'smoothbore Kentucky rifle' carried a BAYONET! Yes, an evil BAYONET, allowing for multiple bayonettings in the office or school environment! Although, I have to point out that I don't think there's been a single case of an automatic weapon being used in any office or school massacres. For damn sure not any legally owned ones.

While it may take another few years to bring sanity to all of our states, I am sure that sanity can prevail in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and possibly even Rhode Island Plantations. If Nantucket does not approve, let them secede and we will cut off ferry service to them from our shores, and fill the sound with windmills.

If you consider your ideas to be 'bringing sanity' to all the states, I would suggest you check your medications. Or just start taking them on schedule. By the way, two other things:
If Nantucket doesn't approve and you cut off their ferry service, that would probably be considered a hostile act, and they'll have all the guns. And some boats. And
You can't fill it with windmills: the Kennedys(Hypocrite-MA) disapprove; ruins their view, don't you know?
All local deer will hold us dear.
BERNARD ROTH
Dartmouth

Until the overpopulate and first eat your garden, and then suffer mass starvation in the next hard winter. But that's Nature In All Her Glory, so I guess it won't bother you.

Don't you just love these people? And they get to vote and everything!

Why do we distrust the Major Media?

Again, let us count some of the ways.

In the AP stories, at the least they didn't bother to find out if the source was actually good, or the stories real. And caught in the act, they bluster and basically say "How dare you peasants question our stories? Or us?". Confederate Yankee notes that it appears that at least 61 stories are connected to this fictitious informant. I guess I shouldn't say 'fictitious', in that SOMEONE damn sure fed them this crap, but it sure as hell wasn't Captain Jamil Hussein. Which brings up, how many other stories has AP printed that may well be untrue? Remember the mislabeled photos from Haditha used to smear the Marines? The Reuters faked photos from a 'trusted stringer'?

Which brings up, just how many of the 'stories' we've been fed by news agencies are like this, bloody fairy tales made up and spread by 'journalists' who want them to be true?

And the New York LiarsTimes once again using a either a disgustingly incorrect or flat faked story to push their views? And, just like AP, refuse to acknowledge the problem:There is "no reason to doubt the accuracy of the facts as reported," the editors imperiously told Calame. They refuse to issue a correction, publish an Editor's Note, or inform their readers of the ready availability of the court decision that exposes Jack Hitt's deception about the Climaco case.

And we're supposed to trust what these clowns tell us?

Soda Bread

Interesting stuff. Made with no yeast, just baking soda and baking powder. Not really something for sandwiches, more a bread & cheese & sausage & butter bread. Not all at the same time, necessarily.

One problem with most I've had: the stuff was so damn dry it was amazing. This wasn't old stuff, either, most of it was pretty fresh. A few years ago I was visiting a friend in Dallas(didn't know you then, Kim) and one night we went to a pub the lady knew. Dinner was a platter with pieces of bread, slices of summer sausage and chunks of cheeses. Damn good, but I used more beer than I usually drink washing it down.

A while after that I happened to be looking at what used to be Amish Tech Support(now Is Full Of Crap) and in the comments of one post a lady threw in her soda bread recipe, and I gave it a try.

Damn.

Not dry at all, good flavor, wonderful stuff. Comes out something like this:















I tried using about a third-cup of whole wheat flour in place of that much bread flour, and I like the texture it gives it. Simple recipe, too.


3 tbs soft butter
2.5 C flour
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C raisins
1 C buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients, then cut in the butter. Add raisins & milk to make soft a dough. Knead about 2 minutes, then form into a circle about 6" or so across. Cut 'X' in top, bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes.

That's it. And it works well with the dry buttermilk I keep around for cooking when I forgot to buy milk. And since this is almost the only thing I use buttermilk in...

Remember the 'snipers' on the bridge in New Orleans?

Supposedly(the major media assured us, along with all the other bs) shooting at rescuers, etc.?
Seven New Orleans police officers were indicted today on a variety of murder and attempted murder charges arising from misguided use of deadly force on the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans, six days after hurricane Katrina.

Go over to Xavier for more, and links to even more.

The Curmudgeon writes of Islam,

muslims avoiding speaking their minds and other things. Take note of this from an interview:

Rod Dreher: Do you believe that homosexuals convicted in a sharia court should be killed, or otherwise punished physically?

Mohamed Elmougy: I don’t condone homosexuality. I have a lot of friends, a lot of people who work for me, just so you know. I don’t go kill them. But, you know, I don’t condone what they do outside of work, so long as it’s something not in front of me. So do I condone the sharia? We don’t apologize for our religion. If that is what our religion says, we certainly accept it open-heartedly.

And the guy then goes on to say... hell, go read it yourself. You need the whole thing.

And Muir ROCKS

just in case you didn't know. Go see why

I know, I know, CHRIS! CHRIS Muir!

Forged vs. Cast

I got an e-mail from a Loyal Reader(shut up, I'll call him that if I want) with a question. The mail in part read:
I'm interested in purchasing an FAL rifle. My choices seem to be between
rifles built with a receiver made of a forged billet of steel, or a
receiver made through a process called "investment casting".
Is there any reason to prefer one process over the other? I recall
reading that (the new) Springfield Armory makes receivers for their rifles
by investment casting, and also reading opinions that these are far
inferior to (the real, GI) Springfield Armory Garands & M14s ground from a
billet. That is, the cast ones have bubbles and cracks and all sorts of
terrible flaws.
And now, researching the purchase of an FAL, I'm hearing the same thing.
But I'm also reading opinions that, no, there's absolutely nothing wrong
with a cast FAL receiver, and it's every bit as good as a receiver machined
from a billet.
You seem to know about metal. Where do you think the truth lies?

Ok, first a disclaimer: I am not a trained metallurgist. What I know on this subject comes from things I've done, people I know who've done things and information read.

That out of the way, here goes:

Forging is much like a knife: you take a bar of the proper steel, bring it up to the proper heat and forge it to shape. On an industrial level this usually involves a drop-forge, basically a BIG power hammer and a set of dies, sometimes one set and sometimes several. Place the bar in the die and trigger the hammer and a multi-ton strike forges it to shape. Sometimes a single die setup does the work, in some types there may be several steps. When done, the piece is given a stress-relief heat and then machined to final dimensions.(yes, Og, you may throw in commentary)

Investment casting is the same process whether you're making jewelry or rifle parts or something else. You make the part in wax, exactly as you want it to be when finished. Depending on the size/shape/material used, you may make it a bit oversize to account for shrinkage as the metal cools. The wax is then placed in a mold housing, or stuck with other parts on a central post to make a 'tree'- and covered with investment; basically a very fine-grain plaster that will take high temperatures. In a tree for some metals, it may instead be a type of ceramic for greater strength.

Note: this is the first place you can run into a problem. The wax has to be made correct in all details. Done right, you wind up with a piece that needs minimal finish machining work. Done badly, you have a piece that- at best- will need a lot more machining to finish up.

If placed in a mold, you fill the mold with the investment and then place the whole thing in a vacuum chamber and pull a vacuum. This causes any air trapped in the plaster or along the edges of the wax to bubble to the surface. When I was making jewelry years ago, the guy in charge always pulled a vacuum, then dumped it, three times. The other method involves making the tree with a number of pieces, then dipping them into a vat of investment several times to create a thick coating(I believe a similar vacuum process is used on a tree, but I've never done this method so I'm guessing).

Next comes the step that caused this to be called 'lost-wax casting'. You first let the mold dry, anywhere from a few hours to overnight, then place it in a burnout oven. Basically the same as a ceramic kiln, it melts the wax(which runs out, leaving a hollow mold), evaporates any moisture and bakes the investment hard, and heats the whole thing to the suitable temperature for the metal being cast.

When the mold is ready, you get the metal ready. In jewelry casting, this meant using a small centrifuge set up for the purpose, setup to hold the mold and a crucible on one end and a counterweight on the other. Put the silver or gold in the crucible, use a torch to melt it, then flux it to clean it. When ready, someone takes the mold out of the oven with tongs, sets it in the centrifuge and locks it in with the crucible right up at the opening where the wax drained out, then release. The centrifuge spins and throws the metal into the mold, forcing it into every space and holding it there while the mold and metal cool enough for the metal to solidify.

I saw some pictures once of Ruger techs casting receivers. They had a furnace big enough to hold a crucible containing something like ten or fifteen pounds of molten steel. When the mold and steel were ready, the mold was pulled from its furnace and set up, and two men used a lifter to pull the crucible out and pour the steel into the mold. In this case gravity and the weight of the steel was sufficient to fill the entire mold, which was set aside to cool.

In either case, once cool the investment is broken off and, if casting went well you have the pieces, whether jewelry or rifle parts, now made in steel instead of wax. Cut them off the 'sprue'- the metal leading from the mold opening to the ring, receiver, etc.- and clean them thoroughly and inspect. So far, so good, but for something like a receiver or firing pin or whatever, the next step is absolutely critical and if not done right, that perfectly cast piece is scrap.

You may remember that in forging a knife, in the final heats of forging and the heat before quenching it, you need to control the temperature carefully because when steel gets above its critical temp, the grain structure becomes enlarged, which makes it weaker. Well, steel heated to melting is WAY above that point, so the receiver has to be properly heat-treated to give it the maximum strength and wear-resistance for the alloy used. That can be as simple as heating it to a certain temp, holding it there the proper time and then letting it cool, or it could involve multiple cycles of heating to temp-cooling down, possibly with a quench to harden and a tempering heat at the end. Depends on the alloy and specific requirements of the piece. In any case, this step is not optional: when I said absolutely critical I meant it. Without this, the piece will be weak(weaker at the least) and not trustworthy, especially in a piece that's supposed to contain multiple thousands of psi a few inches from your face.

Casting and forging are both mature technologies, they've both been in use for centuries with improvements of various kinds added in as developed. Make no mistake: a cast receiver, made properly of good materials, is just about as strong and durable as a forged piece. What happened is that so many crap firearms were made in various places with cast frames/receivers(because it's cheaper than forging) made with cheap steel, bad technique, bad/lack of heat-treat or a combination that cast got a very bad reputation.

For some shapes/types of receivers, casting can produce a solid piece at less expense than forging, so you'll find all kinds of firearms with cast pieces and variations on that(MIM for instance). I didn't even know they made FALs with cast receivers, but in any case my advice would be to check thoroughly on the brand/maker of the rifle you're looking at: check back on the maker for reputation and past performance, look over the gunboards for reports on their stuff, and put up posts asking if you don't see any. If it's got problems, you'll hear about it. This is very much a caveat emptor situation, so check it out carefully.

Next time someone starts telling of the wonders brought to us

from the muslim world- medicine is usually a big one- trot out two things:
First, any 'wonderful advances' from the muslim world came, oh, about 1200 years ago.
Second, now some of the idiots can't even wash their damn hands:Dispensers containing anti-bacterial gel have been placed outside wards at hospitals all over Britain in a bid to get rid of superbugs like MRSA and PVL.

It prevents people bringing in more infections. But some Muslims refuse to use the hand cleansers on religious grounds because they contain alcohol.

This is a level of idiocy that is just amazing. There's got to be a desire to say "We're not asking you to DRINK the stuff, dammit, just wash your hands with it!"

Of course, if you did that would be considered evidence of 'islamophobia'.

Idiots.

Recoil

Complex subject, and Chris has a big post on it. With lots of technical data on it, well worth reading. Especially since he's had the chance to fire a bunch of stuff I've never been able to.

Worst handgun I ever fired in this respect was a Taurus Total Titanium Tracker in .41 Magnum. Now, I like the .41 Mag, and hope to own one someday; but I'd always fired it in steel-frame S&W revolvers. This think kicked the crap out of my hands. I don't care how good the grip is, that was just too much cartridge for that light a pistol.

My Benelli Nova shotgun is a fine firearm, but I did put one of the recoil absorbers in the butt, because buckshot and slug loads kicked me something fierce. Both the Taurus and it bring something up: the lighter and handier a firearm is, the worse(generally speaking) it'll kick when chambered in powerful cartridges. For home defense this was easy to solve, use the reduced or low-recoil loads: add those to the absorber and they're downright pleasant to fire.

Worst rifle, hands down, was a Marlin Guide Gun in .45-70*, light rifle with no recoil pad and heavy hunting loads. Beat my shoulder up worse in four rounds than forty-some-odd 7.62x54r out of a Mosin Nagant had done. Impressive rifle, at fifty yards put all four into a 1.5" group, but if I had one it'd have the best recoil pad I can find mounted.

I can fire an M1 Garand for many shots with no problem, including prone where you can't shift with it. But a 1903 or '03-A3 Springfield in the same cartridge is a whole 'nother story. Partly the Garand action takes up some of the felt recoil, partly the stock is a better design.

I haven't fired any of the semi-auto pistols that have a padded grip in the back, so I can't comment on how they feel. I'd think it would be a good thing, but that's just a guess.

On pistols, because the arthritis I have makes me a bit more sensitive to it than I used to be, I don't shoot heavy loads very much anymore. I can, no problem, but after about 30-50 rounds(depending on cartridge/load) my accuracy suffers. Which is one reason I handload, I can put together practice loads that I can shoot a bunch of, and use enough of the full-house defense or hunting loads to keep my hand in with them.

Had a chance to fire a Kel-Tech P3At in .380 a while back. The recoil wasn't bad at all: the way the sharply-checkered grips bit your hand as it flipped up wasn't pleasant after a magazine or two.

It's a very subjective thing.

Additional: when my son was about 11, just about his favorite rifle to fire was a #4 Mk1 Enfield. He took my rear shooting rest(filled with dried beans) and stuck it between his shoulder and the butt for a little padding, and if allowed to would have bankrupted me.


*Update: in the time since I have a new 'worst rifle': a beautiful bolt-action chambered in .416 Rigby.  That weighed seven pounds...  Lord, it was bad.

Saddam has left the gallows

and is rapidly assuming ambient temperature according to the headline both on Drudge and at Fox.

I know that it's generally considered a bad thing to celebrate the death of someone, even a loathsome being such as Saddam. But the whiskey tastes good, anyway.

I don't know how I'd consider myself, religion-wise. I've known Christians, Jews, a Moslem or two, Druids and Witches and Mormons some other folks, and I don't know as I fit properly into any of them, myself. It probably speaks of either a Good Thing about me or a weakness that I hope the murdering little monster had a bit of a 'come to Jesus' moment. I have my doubts, but I kind of hope so.

I know, doesn't seem to go too well with toasting his long drop on a short rope, but there you are.

Ok, the BBC just confirmed it, too.

Declaration of his martyrdom by some BPM in 3,2,1...

It's almost time,

and the last of my Glenfiddich Solera Reserve is waiting for the moment.

And while we're at it, somebody whack a couple of SCOTUS members with a bat engraved with this: U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to interfere in another country's judicial process. Not only is that true, but FOREIGN COURTS DON'T RULE US, EITHER!

Heh heh heh: Al-Nueimi said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam to prevent him from being humiliated before his execution. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

But Saddam was loved! Various moonbats tell us so, Iraq was better off under him! WHO could possibly want to humiliate/mutilate him??? (/snark)

And by the way, can we call the 'peace activists'/

America haters what they are now? Which is vile scumbags unfit to breathe free air. Sorry little barfhounds who consider themselves the 'caring, wise, progressive ones' so they spew garbage like this.

Just bloody amazing, ain't it?

A further thought or two on that lying 'scientist'

who's confessed to 'overdoing' it a bit on the global warmening crap.

One of the lines I've been thinking about: But knowing the science, we knew the stakes to humanity were high and that the opposition to the truth would be fierce, so we knew we had to dig in. Something about that really bothered me. Aside from the 'have to scare the peasants' it leads into. It clicked, it's that phrase 'the Truth', and the way he uses it it does have a capital.

Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark? The scene in the classroom at the beginning, Indy says something along the lines of "We are searching for the facts. If you want the 'truth', go to the Philosophy Department." That's what was bugging me about this. The clown says 'knowing the science', then 'opposition to the truth'. Whether he realizes it yet or not, he stepped outside science and went into philosophy and politics when he decided to take part in lying and threats to push his views.

And I do mean threats, which is what brought him to realize he'd been 'overdoing' it a bit. He realized that honest researchers were afraid to say anything outside the approved-by-the-priests orthodoxy because of what would happen. Like the name calling, the abuse, and the threats to their position. Mind you, this jackass still believes that human-caused global warmering(or climate change, or however he'll put it next) is without question.

Unless he doesn't. Unless there's some niggling doubts coming to the surface but he doesn't have the balls to admit it for fear of the same threats his actions have helped bring to others.

This just pisses me off SO bad.

About my desire to see an erupting volcano,

Gerry says The best place to see an erupting volcano is on TV, at least 500 miles away. Upwind. I'm about 100 mi. from Mt.St.Helens, and it's too damn close by far. Mt. Rainier is even closer as is Mt. Baker. All are active volcanoes and can blow at any time.

Mt. Rainier is not a good one to be near when the day comes, because it's not the blast you have to worry about: it's another mudflow(lahar) like the Osceola coming down the slopes. Which would be a Bad Thing. That's what wiped out Armero in Colombia- and some other towns- in 1985. Hopefully, with the alert system and general consciousness of the danger, when the time comes people will be able to get to high ground/the hell out of the way and it won't be anywhere near the loss of life.

Though if you've got property in the way, you'll be missing it after.

That's an idea! Queer Muhammad posters!

There's a columnist at Townhall.com named Mike Adams. While back he had the idea of having the NEA avoid any accusations of state sponsorship of religion by insulting some religion other than Christianity. In the past, you’ve supported the “Piss Christ” and the “Elephant Dung Mary.” Now, I’m asking you to fund the “Queer Muhammad.”

For this painting, I want the artist to put the Prophet Muhammad in a pink bathrobe. I also want him holding a little toy poodle. Finally, I would like you to feature him reading a copy of “Playgirl” magazine. If you want to get daring, you can also feature him French-kissing Salmon Rushdie. Or better yet, feature him French-kissing Jacques Chirac

Sounds good, I think. But wait! It gets better! After outlining plans for the first bunch of posters, That will leave me with about four million “Queer Muhammad” posters for the most ambitious aspect of my plan. This involves hanging posters on the doors of every active member of the National Rifle Association. When the Islamic fascists begin hurling stones at the houses of NRA members, many of my brothers (and sisters)-in-arms will start heading for the nearest gun safe. I know I will.

Maybe a few of these violent Muslims will survive their attack on the First Amendment, after it is thwarted by the Second Amendment. If so, I have a special plan for the Islamic fascist survivors. This plan was inspired by my realization that so many members of the anti-war movement are also members of the pro-gay movement. Here it is, in all its leftist-inspired brilliance:

And for the rest, you'll have to go read it.

Ok, climate guy,

you helped start this crap, so what are you gonna do now?

Thanks to Tim Blair we have this:But knowing the science, we knew the stakes to humanity were high and that the opposition to the truth would be fierce, so we knew we had to dig in. But now they are listening. Now they do believe us. Now they say they’re ready to take action. And now we’re wondering if we didn’t create a monster.

Gee, let's see, blow a lot of smoke and scare hell out of people for years with "We're all gonna die unless we act NOW!", and now it's gotten a bit out of hand, and you're wondering of you went a bit overboard?

Read the whole damn thing here. In a way, the big quote to me is this:None of this is to say that the risk of climate change is being questioned or downplayed by our community; it's not. It is to say that I think some people feel that we've created a monster by limiting the ability of people in our community to question results that say "climate change is right here!" So this clown is relieved because the 'risk of climate change' isn't being downplayed, but is upset because the idiocy he helped start is keeping people in the 'profession' from questioning whether it's happening 'right now'. The level of 'the peasants won't do what we want' in this is amazing. And now this jerk admits that, seeing as how many of his colleagues are scared to question any of this because their career will be threatened, he thinks they may have overdone things just a bit.

We're wondering if they realize how uncertain our projections of future climate are. We wonder if we've oversold the science. We're wondering what happened to our community, that individuals caveat even the most minor questionings of barely-proven climate change evidence, lest they be tagged as "skeptics." So you spent years and years telling people 'the models show this' and 'we predict that' and 'studies of ice cores and tree rings and temperature records PROVE THIS!'; and now you wonder ...if they realize how uncertain our projections of future climate are.? You God-cursed fool.

But be not too worried, for he's changed:I don't play in the weeds of climate change anymore, I play in the weeds of how the science gets to policy makers and how the nature of policy-making gets back to the scientists. Isn't that just so freakin' wonderful that it sets your mind at ease?

I didn't think so.

Jeez, talk about all the trouble in the world!

Let's see, here's a coyote attack in Pennsylvania: ...the first attack was about 6 a.m. at the Palmer Community Pool when a man walking his dog was bitten in the stomach. and it goes on from there.

Then a possible killer bee attack in Florida: Two teenagers washing their dog at their Ft. Lauderdale backyard were attacked by what experts think might be killer bees. And you KNOW this had to be written by someone in the U.S., who else would write they suspect the bees got riled up when the teens were bathing the dog, near a cedar log where the bees had their hive. A critter control expert destroyed it.?

And I ain't going to Acapulco any time soon: have fought bloody turf battles in Acapulco in recent years, and the city has seen a series of killings, gun battles and beheadings. Who do these gangs think they are, BPMs?

As if the gorillas didn't have enough problems, ebola has shown up: An outbreak of Ebola virus in northwestern Republic of Congo has killed 5 000 gorillas, helping to push the threatened species even closer to extinction, says a study. And here's something I'd not heard about: ...-last year, three species of African fruit bat were fingered as an Ebola source -...

And St. Helens is erupting. This, by the way, is something I want to see, an erupting volcano. Preferably just a 'routine' eruption: I don't particularly like the idea of fleeing for my life as a pyroclastic flow or a 150mph landslide heads my way.

Heh heh heh heh

Remember a few months ago, the stories about the two bigshot Democrat politicians who went to Iraq to talk to the troops? Word was, when the talked to the guys from their districts they got a serious earful of "What the hell is wrong with you?" thoughts. Of course, when they came back all we heard was "The Senator/Rep(can't remember which, though I think one was Kennedy) had some very good conversations with the men", etc.

Well, John Kerry(Insufferable D/MA), finishing his suckup visit to Egypt, went to lay his hands upon the troops, and they weren't having any of it:
Hey, I just came from a meeting where they were trying to get some commander, any commander, in the Green Zone, to host Jawn Carri.

Swear to God, the CG is saying, "You can't tell me you ALL have things going on at that time! Come on!"

And when he ate at the chow hall? Normally when a Senator/Representative visits, he is joined by a contingent of soldiers/Marines/airmen from his home state. Despite the fact that the MP unit responsible for Green Zone security is an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, not a single soldier went to sit with him.

I was thinking that in that last picture he looks not real happy, and you could almost feel sorry for him. On second thought, I think he doesn't look unhappy enough, and for his words and actions that have harmed the troops it's too bad they couldn't like up to each give him a kick in the ass.

Merry Christmas,

and despite it being such a nice day, I have to put these up before I forget them.

Tim Blair linked to a piece noting something I'd not heard of: In 1902, the Los Angeles Times reported that the great glaciers were undergoing "their final annihilation" due to rising temperatures. But by 1923, it was the ice that was doing the annihilating: "Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada," the Chicago Tribune declared on Page 1.

A guy at Kim's forum pointed to this:BAGHDAD, Dec. 24 — The American military is holding at least four Iranians in Iraq, including men the Bush administration called senior military officials, who were seized in a pair of raids late last week aimed at people suspected of conducting attacks on Iraqi security forces, according to senior Iraqi and American officials in Baghdad and Washington.
May I suggest serious questioning, followed by a firing squad or a rope, whichever seems most appropriate? Followed by the same for a bunch of BPMs in Iran.

And one more from Blair, on a pure bs piece from an enviroweenie on disappearing islands.

Spent the day at my folks, my daughter and son and son's girlfriend were there, too. May be their last time together for a while: not only is he shipping out shortly, she's in AIT and will wind up God knows where when she graduates. I got a shot of them with that '47 Jeep he started restoring












which will be stored until he winds up back here in the USA. At which time he can finish rebuilding the motor and do the wiring. Wiring's figured out, just hadn't had time to do it.

'Scuse me

Back, I damn near burned the cornbread, but though it's more brown on top than I'd wanted it'll go quite well with the leftover stew tomorrow at work. Where was I? Oh yeah, he knows what he needs for the motor- tranny is already rebuilt- so it'll just have to wait a while.

Had to do something I don't like to do: give my daughter cash for her present. Some of the things she wanted would have needed ordering(certain uncertainties there) and the main thing locally available the bloody stores that had it stopped carrying it. Which the bastards will probably have it back tomorrow, in which case she can pick it up herself.

Enough. I need to stretch out after all the driving and sitting, and a lunch that has kept me from needing any dinner. 'Night, folks.

Christmas Eve

and I hope you all have a happy one. And thanks for the suggestions for my son, helped me decide on/find some things.

On this night, I shall find a DVD I haven't watched in a while(since my Benny Hill collection won't be here till next week), make a drink involving something hot and soothing early, and northern British and even more soothing later, and relax. Going down to see my folks tomorrow, son and daughter are already down there. Son towed his jeep today, Dad said can store it there so he won't have to pay storage charges on it, so I'll need to help them move it into the back yard. Had to work today, and have to come back tomorrow night because I work Tuesday, but should be a good day anyway: besides the usual, since it'll be son/grandson's last Christmas here for a year or two I think Grandma has gone all-out on the food. I may need to be dollied out to the truck so I can drive home.

And for those interested, son has found out his first duty station is in a place famous for beer, some types of sausage and busty women.

If I were younger, I'd join up and hope to go there myself.

I am full of the Christmas Eve spirit

Except for these dickheads

Yesterday I ran across this piece of Crap(yes, it does deserve a capital 'C'):U.S. Hispanic groups and activists on Thursday called for a moratorium on workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants, saying they were reminiscent of Nazi crackdowns on Jews in the 1930s.

"Oooh, we're VICTIMS! You people are NAZIS for trying to enforce your EVIL immigration laws!" Etc.

I just love it, and people of Jewish descent must just absolutely freakin' love it when every bunch of chickenshit 'activists' claims that things like 'they want us to obey the law!' somehow morphs into 'This is just like the mass murder of Jews and others!' "This unfortunately reminds me of when Hitler began rounding up the Jews for no reason and locking them up," Democratic Party activist Carla Vela said. "Now they're coming for the Latinos, who will they come for next?" Got news for you, you sorry little bitch: I don't care what the skin color is, I hope they actually start rounding up every damn illegal they can catch and kicking their ass back across whatever border.

I will say this in simple words, just in case one of these clowns actually reads this: illegal aliens are breaking the law. That makes you a criminal, and the law- in force for many years- says to kick your lawbreaking ass back to where it came from. Simple, isn't it? You're not a martyr, you're not a 'victim', you are a criminal. And the idiots like Vela are enablers of people breaking our law, and should be treated as such.

The other group of dickheads in question is the 9/11 conspiracy nuts, like this one, and here's a study of one of the 'Truthers'; very educational as to brain size, etc. It's amazing, ain't it? They think the gummint is so all-powerful it can somehow work a crew of a couple of hundred in a building, doing demolition and setting charges and hijack some airplanes and mess with all the video shot on 9/11, and yet nobody involved ever talks? And most of these clowns think the gummint would be just fine after this if the 'right people', progressive thinkers(i.e. castro/che worshipping idiots) were in charge. Kind of like the people who say the government is corrupt, untrustworthy and needs to be destroyed and rebuilt, BUT only the government minions should be allowed to own arms...

Merry damn Christmas Eve to y'all

More on Jimmy(Dhimmi) Carter

and his latest book. If you can call this load of fertilizer a book.

From Instapundit followed a link to this opinion on the matter. I just love this part:
A former president whose legacy has rested on bringing about peace between Arabs and Jews has turned his back on that to become a partisan. A man whose Christian values made him see both sides in a tragic conflict has become blind to one side's suffering. A man who walked in paths of peace has now become an obstacle to peace.

For me, it means the loss of one of my greatest heroes. I have never allowed a snide remark about Jimmy Carter's "failed" presidency to pass without contradicting it. I have said countless times that he is the greatest former president, setting a new standard for that role.

I don't recognize Carter any more. I am afraid of him now, for myself and for my children. He has not just turned his back on the balance and fairness that all peacemaking depends on. He has become a spokesman for the enemies of my people. He has become an apologist for terrorists.

This clown has been sucking up to dictators and crapping on Israel for a long damn time, but after THIS book,"I don't recognize Carter any more. I am afraid of him now, for myself and for my children. Snort. Amazing what it takes to finally turn on the light.

Possibly a real problem from the Administration

according to David Codrea. Take a look, and see what you think. And yell as you think and at who you think appropriate.

How not to get customers to come back

Office Depot had a Toshiba laptop on sale for a really good price in the last ad, so I went by this evening to look at it. None there, not even a 'sold out' space. Then it took about five minutes to catch someone to ask.

So she calls to the manager(I think) up front, 'do we have any?', and he says "I don't think so". Without looking up, mind you. Girl says "It's worth checking, at least." So he leaves off whatever the hell he's doing, walks over to the ad posted on the wall, looks at it and says "No, we're sold out." Doesn't check stock, nothing. I say thank you and head for the door, and he suddenly ups with "Do you want us to check the other stores?" I say no, and leave.

And won't go back. Hell with them if they can't even bother to post a 'sold out' in the laptop section, and don't want to bother looking for one.

Ref the Duke 'rape' case,

the chickenshit little excuse for a D.A. has dropped the rape charges. However, he has kept a bunch of others.

I think one of Barber's commenters is right: he's hoping to use pressure from them to keep the actual victims of this mess from suing his ass off for all he now or ever will own. I hope their lawyers ram that right up his ass, and then push every way possible to have Nifong prosecuted for everything possible. And I hope the Justice Department racks his ass, too. This contemptible little canker on the ass of Madame Justice needs to be excised from the system. Permanently.

And I wonder if he's considered if this, along with the confession of his accomplice in hiding information from the defense, is going to cause some of his previous cases to be reviewed?

The latest on Haditha

It's been in the news(over and over and over) about the murder charges being filed on four Marines, and four officers being charged for "failing to investigate and report the deaths properly". Earlier I went over to BlackFive to see what he had to say. Along with the current, he's got links to two earlier pieces on the mess.

Here's the part of his post that really, truly pisses me off:Back to those officers, none of whom was a shooter. They are ultimately responsible for the actions of the enlisted men they lead. That responsibility sometimes leads to accountability, and charging four of them leaves plenty of sacrificial lambs and scapegoats. I would bet the case against Wuterich and the other three is too weak for comfort and the officers are charged to make sure somebody fries. We shall see what a trial brings.

What pisses me off about it is that I have the sick feeling he's right.

The problems for the accused are two, I think: lots of political heat pushing for some kind of punishment for somebody no matter what, and lots of politicians in uniform willing to do that. I realize that's a fairly drastic thing to say, but I think it's true. Combine that with the services being infested with lawyers who too often don't seem to know their ass from a hole in the ground, and it means big problems for the people at the sharp end. Remember the idiot who decided the match ammo being used by the sniper teams violated the Geneva Convention and ordered use of it stopped? Even though various people pointed out that it had already been cleared? And going quite a ways further back, during the invasion of Panama a group not in uniform attacked a position a squad from the Army held. The sergeant put them down, and wound up charged with murder. He was cleared, but the point is he never should have had to go through that bullshit.

So I- unhappily- think BlackFive is right: the lawyers and politicians in uniform who care more for process and making various brass hats happy than about what they're doing to the troops, are trying to set this up so they can convict SOMEBODY of SOMETHING. Especially considering the reports of how these men were being treated for months after they were pulled from their units. Remember that? Isolated, in chains when allowed out of their cells, etc., all before there were even any charges. After that I think a bunch of clowns are desperate as Nifong to find somebody guilty to deflect from what they did, and to appease various politicians.

Please understand, I very much wish to be proven wrong on this. But considering the past, I'm not hopeful.

The AP demonstrates how collectively full of crap it is

With Michelle Malkin and several others over there looking for their 'reliable source' and finding no sign of him, Malkin sent to AP three questions, to two people. One responded:
Michelle-

I have no additional information for you at this time.

Linda

That's it. No burned down mosques, nobody saw anybody dragged out and burned alive, nobody can find the source for a BUNCH of AP stories, and the one AP official who responded says 'got nothing for you'.

I'll let people like Malkin and Powerline and so forth do the actual damage noting, I'll just say that AP cannot be trusted.

Further evidence of idiocy

is brought to us tonight by Bruce, who's in the act of escaping from the PRM*:
The snake was still strangling Dres when deputies arrived, and the officers had to work with members of an animal protection group to remove the reptile, the sheriff's office said.

Probably too obvious a question but I'd like an answer anyway: if a LE officer arrives to find a big friggin' snake wrapped around somebody, why the HELL was he worrying about idiots from a 'animal protection group' instead of either cutting off the snakes head or shooting the damn thing?

I need a drink.

I started to simply say "Britain circling the drain",

and it's true, but too many people want us to follow the same damn path.
It was the second time this week that immigrants who had been allowed to remain in Britain despite committing a string of offences were found guilty of a brutal killing.

On Tuesday, a court heard how two Somali men involved in the shooting of Pc Sharon Beshenivksy had been spared deportation because their homeland was judged too dangerous for them.

At the Old Bailey yesterday, Diamond Babamuboni, 17, his brother Timy, 15, and Jude Odigie, 16, all from Nigeria, were convicted of the manslaughter of Zainab Kalokoh, 31, a married mother of two children from war-ravaged Sierra Leone.

And what did these worthless bastards(who some God-cursed judge wouldn't allow to be kicked out of the country) do?
As the gang rushed into the hall, Mrs Kalokoh was holding her niece, who had been christened, in her arms.

"She was shot while she cradled the baby," said Mr Altman. ''The effect of the shot to her head caused Mrs Kalokoh to collapse to the floor still with the baby in her arms. Although covered in Mrs Kalokoh's blood the baby was mercifully unharmed."

As the woman lay dying, the gang stole money and valuables from the guests, carrying the spoils in bin bags.

A witness said that as the gang returned home, they were arguing about who had shot Mrs Kalokoh.

Mind you, that was just the latest and biggest offence:
they carried on a life of crime with apparent impunity other than occasional court appearances. They were meant to attend courses run by local youth offender teams but shunned any interventions.

Oh, poor boys, they apparently just couldn't take the stress of 'interventions', I guess. Couldn't possibly be that they're murdering assholes who don't care about the law, now could it?

Please note: A fourth, who cannot be named, was found guilty of her murder at the party in Peckam, south London, in August last year.
and
The Babamubonis and Odigie were cleared of murder but convicted of robbery and possession of a firearm at the time of committing an offence. The fourth defendant was also convicted of robbery and possession of a firearm.
My question here is, why the HELL don't the Brits give up on this multi-culti bullshit and hang the bastards? All four of them? 'Manslaughter' my ass.

Also note that they seem to have had no problem getting firearms, despite all the laws and bans in force on those islands.

Our problem is similar: a bunch of idiots- some of them wearing black robes- who are more protective of a bunch of illegal immigrants than they are of the victims of said illegals.

Jingle freakin' bells, y'all

And we mustn't forget the dumbass troops in the Balkans,

as Sondra reminds us.












Hmmm, and wasn't there something about their being sent there back in the Clinton the 1st reign(Hillary hopes) about, oh, 'only there a year' or something? 'Course, according to Rangel and Kerry & Co., they're probably too dumb to know how long we've had troops there.

I know people with legal qualifications have/will write about this,

I just have two simple questions: why isn't that sorry little bastard Sandy Berger not in prison, and how the hell did the judge manage to justify not putting him there?

And by the way, the people working at the Archives shouldn't give a rats ass about who it is or being 'uncertain' about things; when they've got classified documents missing after someone handled them, or see 'suspicious' activity while someone is looking at them, the idiots are supposed to report it, not dither around because "One employee "did not believe there was enough information to confront someone of Mr. Berger's stature" and delayed acting as a result... So why aren't these people either being fired or demoted or something for worrying more about this jerks 'stature' than about the security of the documents?

A protest about lawbreakers from the Mexican government

is like a roach bitching about sanitary conditions

Which observation was brought to mind by this post at Hogboy's place. I just love it: a country that will throw you in jail if they find a single fired .22 case in your vehicle and keep you there until you're bled dry, a country that openly shelters murderers and rapists who make it across the border, which bitches and whines that Mexicans should be able to cross our border at will and that we should all switch to speaking Spanish to make them feel at home, has fits because someone dared to arrest a multiple rapist who, because of now being in a U.S. prison, cannot keep paying off the local authorities and whatever Mexican national official was also getting his pocket filled to let him stay there.

The new President of Mexico wants to better his relationship with the U.S., he can start by arresting every dirtbag criminal who ran across the border to escape arrest and sending them back in chains.

Although in some cases we will accept seeing them stood against a wall and shot, just for the sake of saving money on the trial and appeals. Not to mention the entertainment value.

Kim for UN Ambassador!

An idea whose time has come.
# Every time some crappy Third World country starts a speech asking for aid, I’ll take off my headphones and start playing cards with the UK ambassador.
# All countries and cities will be referred to by their names circa 1935: Burma, Southern Rhodesia, Bombay, Tangyanika, Tsingtao, Borneo, etc.
# All Communist countries will be referred to as “those Commie rats from...”
# Issue all U.S. diplomatic staff at the U.N. with Tasers, and instructions to use them at will.
# Speeches addressed to the Usual Suspects will begin: “When your country has paid all their parking tickets and other traffic fines, we’ll consider your proposal. Otherwise, forget about it.”

And for his confirmation hearing:
# Any question put to me by Sens. Leahy, Kennedy or Schumer will be answered with: “Did your masters in Moscow or Peking tell you to ask me that?”
# Any comments from a Democrat senator about my lack of diplomatic experience will be met with: “Well, you talk about climate stuff, economics and morality, don’t you?”
# If asked what my qualifications for the job are, I’ll answer: “I don’t trust foreigners. Any of them.”

I promise, if he gets the nomination I will take annual leave so I can go to D.C. and attend the hearing.

Are YOU a sensitive man?

10 Question - Male Sensitivity Test
(Scoring Protocol is at End of Test)

1. In the company of females, intercourse should be referred to as:
A. Lovemaking.
B. Screwing.
C. Driving Mr. Sausage to Tuna Town.

2. You should make love to a woman for the first time only after you've both shared:
A. Your views on what you expect from a sexual relationship.
B. Your blood-test results.
C. Five tequila slammers.

3. You should time your orgasm so that:
A. Your partner climaxes first.
B. You climax simultaneously.
C. You don't miss ESPN Sports Center.

4. Passionate, spontaneous sex on the kitchen floor is:
A. Healthy, creative love-play.
B. Not the sort of thing your w ife/girlfriend would agree to.
C. Not the sort of thing your wife/girlfriend ever needs to find out about.

5. Spending the whole night cuddling a woman you've just had sex with is:
A. The best part of the experience.
B. The second best part of the experience.
C. $100 extra.

6. Your wife/girlfriend says she's gained five pounds in the last month. You tell her:
A. That does not diminish your affectionate feelings for her.
B. Not a problem ... she can join your gym.
C. A conservative estimate.

7. You think today's sensitive, caring man is:
A. A myth.
B. An oxymoron.
C. A moron.

8. Foreplay is to sex as:
A. An appetizer is to an entree.
B. Primer is to paint.
C. A long line is to an amusement park ride.

9. Which of the following are you most likely to find yourself saying at the end of a relationship?
A. "I hope we can still be friends."
B. "I'm not in right now, please leave a message at the beep."
C. " Welcome to Dumpsville. Population 1 -- You!"

10. A woman who is uncomfortable watching you masturbate:
A. Probably needs a little more time before she can cope with that sort of intimacy.
B. Is uptight and a waste of time.
C. Shouldn't have sat next to you on the bus in the first place.

SCORING PROTOCOL

If you answered "A" more than 7 times, check
your pants to make sure you really are a man.

If you answered "B" more than 7 times, check
into therapy. You're a little confused.

If you answered "C" more than 7 times,
"You Da Man!"


Sent to me, by the way, by a female friend.

Back to December weather

We had a few days with temps in the 60's & 70's; now it's 40-something, foggy and raining. Go about 50-60 miles west or northwest and it's snowing and light freezing rain. Supposed to be wet here till late tomorrow, then clearing but still cold.

And I don't care if it's -5 wherever the hell up north you are, 30's and 40's and wet here is cold. So say my joints

We've got that bastard McCain trashing amendments

in the Senate, and now- as part of her 'cleaning up the place', of course- we have that bitch Pelosi working in the House to trash them. In this case, the 1st specifically. As Kim says, remove breakables before reading this crap.

Drugs, War On, and associated things

Yesterday at Anarchangel I read his piece on this misbegotten adventure. Which made me think on the current attention on no-knock raids as part of the WoD and all the waste that has involved over the years. Waste of time, waste of effort, waste of money, waste of lives.

My general view is simple: if you're an adult and want to take something and screw yourself up, go 'head. I refuse to put a large part of society and our legacy to the future in the can in order to save someone too stupid to live. When the subject of drug legalization comes up, I say fine, but I have two caveats:
First, anyone who sells or gives drugs to a kid gets either a minimum ten years at hard labor(real Hard Labor) or a long drop at the end of a short rope.
Second, there has to be passed a law that if you mess yourself up, your health is shot and you're broke and you can't get/hold a job and have no place to live, well, tough shit. You have NO call on the public purse for one damned penny. If a charity or church wants to help you, that's fine, but NOT ONE PENNY gets taken out of other peoples' pockets to take care of you.

Which is where it falls apart, because most of the legalizers insist we have to set up treatment centers and provide medical care and food and on and bloody on. I say no, you can't have both, either you say it's a personal matter only, or it's not. And if it's personal, the aforementioned druggie can straighten up or die on his own.

And please, nobody tell me that 'victimless crime' crap. This is no such thing, and you damn well know it. Friends and relatives are victims of the dumbass: sometimes just from watching them destroy themselves, sometimes robbed, and sometimes the dumbass decides he doesn't have the guts to kill himself or just die so he winds up taking someone with him.

All this comes up because I'm remembering something that happened at Med Fair. There's a girl I've known since she was a little kid. She's about a year older than my daughter, and they used to play at Scottish gatherings. I've only seen her once or twice a year for the last seven or eight: she's had problems, but I thought it was general stuff for a kid her age.

She showed up at the fair, not in garb, just visiting. She looked good at first glance: she'd lost some weight, seemed very up. After a few minutes talking while I worked on a piece I noticed she seemed a little too bright-eyed, a touch too up, but nothing I could really put a finger on. She mentioned somewhere in this she'd been working at/hanging around biker places, and that put a chill through me. Most bikers I've known were good folks, but some are nowhere near 'good', and I knew which she'd been hanging around.

We talked a bit, then someone asked a question and she went over to the table to look at the stuff on display. Friend of my daughter was helping watch the place and he talked to her a bit while I was hammering and talking. She finally said bye, she'd be back later and left. I'd finished the piece I was working on, the current crowd had moved on, and when she was a ways off in the crowd he looked over and said "She's on meth". No question in the voice, just flat statement. I had that flat 'part of your guts just fell out' feeling and asked how he knew? Daughter said that a couple of their friends had messed themselves up on it and he listed the points of note, including one I had never heard of: scratching. She'd been kind of aimlessly scratching herself as we talked but I'd not known it meant anything. Until I now got the explanation.

I didn't look after her, she was too far into the crowd, and I didn't know if I dared to. I just stood there for a minute listening to the information and diagnosis and feeling that dread. She was an adult- I've not seen her since, and don't know if she's still alive or not- and could screw herself up as she chose. But I'll tell you something:

If the one who started her on that shit stood in front of me and said "Yeah, I sold it to her", I'd shoot them and never miss a beat or lose a moments sleep over it.

I've written about how much better things are from the past

in so many way, before: well, Kim just noted this post by the Mrs. on the subject of 'poverty'. Read it. All the way through.

And remember, without all that nasty industrialization and progress the 'progressives' like to spit on, we'd ALL still be living this way.

Would you give the local PD your serial numbers?

Just to keep on file? I've gotta say, Hell NO! Not on my car, not on my firearm, not on my pc or my stereo.

I've got a list of all that tucked away in a safe place, and if needed I can get them. But to just turn said list over to the PD? I'm not happy that to get a C&R license you have to send a copy of the app to the chief's office, so why would I give them this information?

Also, found this article on the good news from Ohio. I just love this part:
"It's really arrogant for them to just ignore the will of the people," said Toby Hoover, executive director of one of Ohio’s anti-gun organizations. "It shows they just don't have any respect for us at all. We're terribly disappointed. It's a pretty determined bunch of people in favor of the gun lobby."
A: yeah, we're determined. And B: Whether you like it or not, this WAS the will of the people: House Bill 347 originally passed a Senate committee, the Senate floor, and the House floor with overwhelming numbers on the same afternoon! It then survived a veto override that is very hard to achieve. Heck… it hasn’t been done since 1977. How was all of this possible? The people wanted it.

courtesy of Keyboard and a .45

And on the subject of legal problems,

if you haven't been following the 'rape' case at Duke U., check out Durham In Wonderland. With the latest revelations of either stupidity, criminal activity, arrogance or some combination of all.

One more no-knock mess

in Georgia, early news article here, later followup here(courtesy of Publicola). This has been bouncing around some gunboards and blogs the last couple of days, with the various reactions you would expect.

I'm not going to say much about it, there's still a lot of uncertainty in the 'who & when'. I will note a couple of things. From the first article:
“They knocked and announced their presence,” Jackson said. After they entered the apartment, he said, “they were met with gunfire from within the residence.” Which sounds nice. But later we read:
Edward said he received a phone call from a neighbor saying, “Someone’s kicking in your door.” He said the neighbor screamed and told him, “Somebody’s shooting.”
'Knocked, announced and entered' sounds not too bad; neighbor's report doesn't sound nearly so nice.

And from the second article, from the 'informant':
“I’m confused,” Reed said. “They came to me out the blue, to my parents house, asking me questions about what was supposed to have happened with the gun, and I was frightened. I told the truth about what I knew, but I was scared into telling them.”

Reed says she told the ATF a different story than what they used to issue the warrant.

“No, I never told them that he stole the gun from me, because he stayed at the same house. They implied that someone had got killed with one of the guns, is what they said. They wouldn’t tell me which one, basically saying he stole the first one, trying to say he still had it.”
Which does not sound good at all. If accurate, it means a couple of agents basically intimidated this woman into telling them something they could use, and may have lied about what she said in getting the warrant.

Happily, nobody's dead. Unhappily, without the kind of noise and attention generated by a death, I very much doubt the full truth of all this will every be known.

Yeah, I have become cynical about things like this.

Santa's Bad Day

Courtesy of Sluggy

If I knew it'd be done right,

I'd almost get cable just to watch it. Just found out the Sci-Fi channel is going to have a series starting in January called The Dresden Files. It's based on the books by Jim Butcher(#1 of the series here) .

Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire in Chicago. Advertising in the Yellow Pages and all. The White Council is pissed at him for (among other things) going public, he gets called a phony a lot, and he's made some serious enemies.

It kind of straddles the line between sci-fi and fantasy: there's magic, but it works in predictable ways, there's an actual system to it. Pretty good stories.

By the way, anybody else remember a tv show called Special Unit 2? It was in Chicago, too(and I wish the two seasons were on video, I want them). One of the best exchanges in it was when the lead character(officer in SU2 of Chicago PD) was sent to an anger management class: "So I chased the little troll down an alley, hung him from a light fixture and beat him like a pinata." "That's so insensitive! Not only abusing that poor person but calling him a troll!"
"What if he really WAS a troll?"
"Now you're just being silly!"
Smile.

For the picking-up-babes-challenged among us

Can't remember where I first heard of this, but: How To Pick Up A Really Hot Babe

Fire works

Fuel-wise, that is. If all you're needing heat for is hardening/tempering, there are some very nice electric furnaces out there for the purpose, but if you're planning on forging, you're looking at one of three fuels: gas, coal, and charcoal.

Gas
Natural or LPG. You can buy a gas-fired forge, or there are a lot of plans out there to build one. It costs about the same as running a coal forge from what I'm told. It burns clean(very nice in any case, especially if you're in a city), it's fairly easy to set a heat and keep it there, anywhere from low forging heat to welding. The one real problem with it is that once it's lit, you have to keep it going; you can't turn off the blower for a while and then pump the fire back up later, it's either on or off. You can turn it down, but that's it.

Coal
Probably the most used fuel. It's plentiful, it's Traditional, and it works. Once the fire is going you can keep the draft going a long time, just pushing fresh coal in from the edges of the fire; if you turn the blower off, the fire dies down but will take a long time to go out. Increase the air blast and you get more heat, reduce it and it cools down. You can make a forge that has a relatively small fire for most work, and there are ways to add in a different air grate to make a much wider or longer, more narrow fire.

Coal definately has drawbacks. You need to get good low-sulphur coal both for reducing smoke and because sulpur in a fire where you work steel is bad. You need to break it up to small pieces before adding it in. And it's dirty(spend a while breaking up/shoveling/whatever coal and see what your hands and arms look like).

Charcoal
Probably the earliest fuel, and definately the most favored for many centuries. It burns fairly clean(little smoke, no sulphur), and will do anything a fire with coal can.

Drawbacks to charcoal are two: cost and availability. You can use commercial charcoal briquets, but it's a mess; the binder they use to hold the powdered charcoal in that nice shape causes the fire to produce a lot of ash, and it clogs up the fire grate. And it can blow out of the fire like a pyroclastic flow in miniature when you bump up the blast. Raw charcoal works very nicely, but finding it in quantity- which is also the only way to get it at a decent price- is not easy. And it takes more charcoal to get the same amount of heat as a given amount of coal.

Let me deal with one other thing here. It's kind of folklore that working steel in a charcoal fire will make it better. Not true. This came from people thinking that 'charcoal is carbon, and carbon added to steel is good, so a charcoal fire will add carbon to the steel'. But it doesn't work that way.

When you heat steel to the critical temperature, that needed for forging medium and high-carbon stuff, the crystilline structure changes, it 'opens up' and the carbon atoms that were locked in the matrix can move around. Not only inside the metal, but those on the surface, and moving to the surface, combine with oxygen in the air and go away*. Which means that every heat you do, you lose carbon from the surface. It's also a factor in scale formation, which causes you to actually lose metal from the bar with every heat.

You can reduce this in a couple of ways. One is to keep the fire going so that the area where you actually place the steel has a 'reducing' atmosphere, i.e. most of the oxygen burned out(though you still lose a bit when you pull it out to hammer/punch/twist/whatever). The other is to use something to coat the steel. This is one of the things flux does when used in welding: it both lowers the melting temperature of scale or other impurities that may have gotten between layers to it'll melt and be forced out when you set the weld, and it coats the surface and keeps oxygen off. It works, but it's not really practical for general use.

So, back to the main subject. I've used coal(still do) and charcoal. If I could find charcoal at a good price I'd use a lot more of it, especially for hardening blades. I haven't used a gas forge, so I have to go by reports from people I know and what I've read, which are enough to make me want to build one in the future if I can keep doing enough forging to make it worth it.

So take your pick, they all work, and find the one you like.

*Case-hardening does often use charcoal as one element in a sealed atmosphere to increase the carbon content of steel. 'Sealed atmosphere' being the key, because you have to have the metal surrounded by the carbon-bearing material and sealed away from the air. In the old days that generally meant inside a clay crucible or chest with a lid sealed on. Although for small pieces you can wrap them with thin pieces of leather, maybe put some other stuff on or in the wrap, then coat it with clay to seal it. Then the whole thing is placed in a fire or furnace and brought up to heat and kept it there a while. There's enough carbon around the steel or iron that some migrates into the surface, I seem to remember reading either 1/64 or 1/32" per hour. You can keep it going long enough to convert a bar of iron to steel all the way through, though if you're not careful it tends to be of uneven quality from end to end(which is one reason laminated or pattern-welded steel was developed).

People are really weird at times

in how they make distinctions between things. I have a lady neighbor who was pretty forthright on about any subject she had any interest in, including the opposite sex. But a mutual friend had some(I thought) very nice nude paintings in his house, and they offended her greatly; she thought they were obscene.

What brought this to mind was a print I have, which I rather like. I was looking at it- and reminding myself once again that I need to get a frame for it- and thought of Candy. It's the Tequila Fairy



















by Alain Viesca(website here). My daughter got a piece of his a couple of years ago, and a while later I ran across him at a fair and bought a copy of this; one of my favorite things. It would probably have pissed Candy off if she'd ever seen it.

But I like it.

Well, here's another reason not to buy at Target

The little jerks are using castro buttmonkey Che' as a sales item. What makes it even more stupid is his image adorned with earbuds, when the little swine sent teenagers to camps when they were caught listening to rock and other nasty capitalist music.