Remember the girl sentenced to death

for defending against a rapist? Well, it appears that some in the Iranian 'justice system' don't have their head completely up their backside:
TEHERAN - An Iranian court has cleared of murder charges a 19-year-old woman who was originally sentenced to death for killing a man she said tried to rape her, the press reported Monday.

Mahabad Fatehi, known as Nazanin, was cleared by a Teheran provincial court of premeditated murder but still ordered to pay blood money of 260 million rials (30,600 dollars) to the victim’s family, the Etemad newspaper reported.

So she's ordered to pay blood money, but no longer under a death sentence. Which is a definate step up. Even better would be a "Clorine In The Gene Pool" medal, but we'll have to take what we can get.

If you like Gerber folding knives,

check out Smoky Mountain Knife Works site, they're having a clearance on a bunch of them. Like the Paraframe II for $6.99. And a medium grit diamond sharpener.

The street crews actually did accomplish something

Major streets were- mostly - pretty good, and sometime today they finally put a blade down the street by my house. I'm not just picky about that because of my location, this street gets a lot of traffic. It's still sheet ice out there, but not the deep sleet on top that it was when I went to work this morning.

And apparently enough people screamed about having a foot or two of ice piled up in front of their driveway that after the did a section they went back and cleared- mostly- the driveway entrances. Much better than in the past.

The various electric companies are working their butts off getting power back on in the areas with damage; I think they said earlier there's only about half as many without today as yesterday at this time.

As to the wonders of weather forecasting, last night it was supposed to be 8-10 degrees here under the clear skies I mentioned: instead it clouded up some and was 15-18. So now they're saying 8-10 tonight. We'll see.

Now if you'll excuse me, after more breaking/digging/clearing today I need to give my hands a rest. And the rest of me.

The streets suck,

but this part of the state got off easy. Despite the predictions of doom, we got several inches of sleet and a little freezing rain.

Take Oklahoma east of I-35; now cut off the bottom, oh, thirty miles. What's left got really heavy freezing rain and a little sleet. Something like 100,000 people without power; not just lines down but utility poles down. And trees down, etc.

And to add to the joy, the skies cleared overnight, so we have
Cold temperatures,
No cloud cover,
Winds have dropped to nothing,
Lots of white stuff on the ground
all of which adds up to lots of radiational cooling. It's supposed to range from around zero in the northwest to mid-teens southeast the next couple of nights, with highs only in the twenties. Gonna be an uncomfortable next week or more for a lot of people.

The OKC road crews were out today, but not exactly everywhere. Some major roads are in pretty good shape, but a lot of primary and secondary roads that get a lot of traffic got no attention, including busy intersections that are solid ice with not even any sand thrown out. A few years ago the city made a big deal of putting up signs on a bunch of these streets that said something like 'Primary Snow Route', the idea being that since these streets got so much use they'd be the first ones either bladed or sanded. The first actual heavy snow/ice situation came and guess what? The city didn't do squat to most of them. And all those signs mysteriously disappeared(wonder how much that crap cost?)

It got up to 23 degrees, which means with traffic some roads melted partially to largely clear, although as soon as the sun went down they froze over. I've got a very pretty spinner hanging out that caught some of the drips which gives you an idea of the temp: the sun was low but still up and shining on it when I got home to find this


















It's supposed to hit about 27 tomorrow, which combined with the normal workday traffic should do a lot toward clearing the streets. And if the wind stays down should help the people working on the power situation out a bit.

I got my sidewalk and part of the driveway cleared, aided by the partial melting and refreezing allowing me to use a mattock to break off slabs and shovel them aside; that ought to help the sun clear more of the driveway tomorrow. Damn near froze my fingertips, got so busy didn't notice how cold they were getting until I realized I couldn't feel them. Note to self: those gloves were not intended for work like this in these conditions.

I'm not looking forward to getting to work in the morning. What made today no problem was the holiday meant almost no traffic to get through, whereas tomorrow will be a pain in the ass if a lot of these people drive the way they usually do in conditions like this.

At this point, Romney shouldn't be allowed near the Oval Office

I couldn't care less about him being Mormon: being a two-faced jerk is a whole 'nother matter.
"We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them," he said. "I won't chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety."
and
But perhaps the most significant gun legislation Romney signed as governor was a 2004 measure instituting a permanent ban on assault weapons. The Legislature mirrored the law after the federal assault weapons ban, which was set to expire. According to activists at the time, the bill made Massachusetts the first state to enact its own such ban, and Romney hailed the move.

That was then, and now?
Today, as he explores a presidential bid, Romney is sending a very different message on gun issues, which are far more prominent in Republican national politics than in Massachusetts.

and
Romney appears to be stepping up his efforts to portray himself as a gun-friendly candidate, though some gun-rights activists in important primary states say his past positions will hurt him politically.

On Wednesday, Romney said on an Internet podcast, "The Glenn and Helen Show," that he hopes states would continue to ease regulations on gun owners, and he expressed enthusiasm for guns and hunting. "I have a gun of my own. I go hunting myself. I'm a member of the NRA and believe firmly in the right to bear arms," Romney said.

Wonderful, one more jackass who'll stick his finger up to check the wind and say whatever he thinks will get him votes.

Winter storm roundup

For the central part of the state it pretty much ended a little after noon. Again, despite various predictions of freezing rain, the most of it here was sleet with just enough freezing rain toward the end to put a crust on it. A good 2-3" of sleet on the ground, mind you, but much better than a glaze of ice an inch thick.

Speaking of predictions of doom, the last I saw of tv news this morning they were saying things like "This last round may be the worst". Which is what they said about the mess we were supposed to get overnight and didn't. What really, really pissed me off was this one weather/news weenie(not sure which), just before I turned it off, finished his prediction of freezing rain and sleet and possible disaster(degree not specified) with "So maybe those disaster supplies won't be a waste after all" with almost- not quite but almost- a little smile. You could almost see the thoughts chasing around his empty head. "We scared hell out of people telling them there'd be ice an inch or two thick around here and power lines down everywhere and sent them off buying everything in sight and it didn't happen. And they're pissed. Just maybe there'll be enough disaster to get us off the hook." Friggin' idiots.

I know that weather prediction is a very inexact science(hell, with some good meteorologists it's almost more of an art) and you can't believe everything that comes out. I know predictions will be off one way or the other many times. But you'd think they would have the honesty to say "Ok, we were wrong about when/how much, thank God, but we still have a dangerous situation that could get pretty bad", instead of basically repeating the same words but downgrading the amount of ice expected with absolutely no reference to any hows or whys the original "WE'RE GONNA DIE!" was wrong.

Further east and south they did get worse, there's a lot of downed power lines and broken utility poles and all the wonderfulness that comes with no power and sub-freezing temperatures and strong north winds. I don't know if they got the amount of ice predicted, just that it was bad enough for serious problems. Cold and no power is worse than hot: if it's hot you can at least go outside and hope for a breeze, if you're cold not only are you freezing but you have to worry about your pipes. And the stuff in the pantry.

Ah well. The dogs are good, I'm home and dinner's started. I just hope the street crews are going to do some major work starting early in the morning, 'cause they haven't done squat today.

And to take the bad taste of the last post out of your mouth,

More from the RoP

sharia law and other wonders of the muslim way of seeing things.

From Powerline:
According to her account, Nazanin was with her sixteen-yeare-old niece and their two boyfriends when they were approached by three men who tried to rape them. The boyfriends fled, and Nazanin defended herself with a knife she carried in her purse. She stabbed one of the men, who later died. So far, at least, I haven't seen any version of the facts that differs materially from Nazanin's account.

Nazanin was prosecuted for murder and sentenced to hang. The verdict was apparently set aside by an ayatollah, and she is due to be retried tomorrow, January 10.

Isn't it just wonderful? I mean, since you need the testimony of four men to prove rape, obviously she's lying and deserves to die, the sorry female, right?

From Gates of Vienna:
There has been a spike in the number of rape charges in Scandinavia in recent years. It has reached near epidemic proportions in Sweden. Although there are indications of a very high percentage of Muslim immigrants on the statistics, as it is with other kinds of crime, immigration is a non-issue for the political establishment a few weeks ahead of the Swedish national elections.

In neighboring Norway, there is an unprecedented rape wave in the capital city of Oslo. “We have to be realistic. A series of rapes have made Oslo unsafe during the summer,” says Brit Opjordsmoen from DIXI, support centre for rape victims. “When we know that there are rapists on the loose in Oslo, we have to listen to advice from the police. They are right in warning women against going home alone at night.”
...
However, Aftenposten seems conveniently enough to have forgotten an article they printed five years ago. In 2001, two out of three charged with rape in Norway’s capital were immigrants with a non-western background according to a police study. Norwegian women were victims in 80 percent of the cases.

Of course, we have a nice, gentle PC explanation:
Unni Wikan, a professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo, in 2001 said that “Norwegian women must take their share of responsibility for these rapes” because Muslim men found their manner of dress provocative. The professor’s conclusion was not that Muslim men living in the West needed to adjust to Western norms, but the exact opposite: “Norwegian women must realize that we live in a Multicultural society and adapt themselves to it.”
Now, isn't that the fanciest way you've ever heard to say "Muslim men have no self-control and are unable to realize that they A: live in a different society here, B: have to obey the law here, not the law they prefer from whatever turd-world* hellhole they came from"?

It's a big problem over Europe, apparently. Check this out: German journalist Gudrun Eussner considers this to be “sexuality as a weapon against disobedient and non-Muslim women, both categorized as “unbelievers”. Against them jihad is the duty, and what to do with women “conquered” in jihad, this may be read in the Qur’an: they become slaves to be used by the victors.”

Go to both places and RTWT. You have to to get the full, disgusting flavor of this crap.


*A post at the Diplomad a couple of years ago, one of his kids who couldn't speak clearly yet said 'third-world' that way; and he realized the kid was right.

Tammy Bruce did

it, then Sondra did it, so I'll do it!
















Eva Longoria




















Kate Beckinsale





















Mya





















Brooke Burke
















and I don't know her name, but dayum!

The cops in Atlanta who took part

in this should all be fired. And then prosecuted.
An Atlanta police narcotics officer has told federal investigators at least one member of his unit lied about making a drug buy at the home of an elderly woman killed in a subsequent raid, according to a person close to the investigation.
Really?
In an affidavit to get a search warrant at the home Nov. 21, narcotics officer Jason R. Smith told a magistrate he and Officer Arthur Tesler had a confidential informant buy $50 worth of crack at 933 Neal St. from a man named "Sam."

But narcotics officer Gregg Junnier, who was wounded in the shootout, has since told federal investigators that did not happen, according to the person close to the investigation. Police got a no-knock warrant after claiming that "Sam" had surveillance cameras outside the Neal Street residence and they needed the element of surprise to capture him and the drugs.

Sorry, lying bastards.

It's been said before, if you get a no-knock warrant there is NO room for error: there is too much opportunity for disaster in cases where such a warrant is justified, and when it's NOT justified...

Junnier has told investigators the arrest of a suspected small-time dealer named Fabian Sheats that afternoon set the fatal set of circumstances in motion. According to police reports, Sheats, who was arrested for the third time in four months, told police that he had seen a kilogram of cocaine at the Neal Street home earlier that day.

A relative of Sheats said Wednesday he is being held in jail as a government witness,

So on the basis of this 'informant' saying "I saw some coke there!", with to see if there was any truth in it, they lied to the judge to get, not just a search warrant, oh no, not nearly good enough, they really, really needed a no-knock warrant. Or maybe they just liked knocking doors down and holding people at gunpoint, I don't know. I do know that
There was no need for this type warrant.
They lied to get it.
They based lying to get it on one claim by a dealer they'd arrested.
And somebody died because of it.

Thoughts on the current weather situation

and preparedness.

Actually, still having the thoughts. Looks like, for the most part, we're not going to have the kind of catastrophic situation originally predicted. Enough ice in some areas to be a real problem, enough ice/sleet/snow to cause travel problems, fairly standard winter stuff.

It's caused me to review my preparations/supplies/plans, but I'm going to hold off till this is finished before I put anything down here. Definately a learning experience.

Two things you should read, if you haven't already

First at Kevin's, on Personal Sovereignty:
It is, in fact, the polar opposite of statism. It is the thing that statists fear above all - a population that won't do as it's told by it's betters.

And second at Alphecca, more BS and calls for bans/restrictions/licensing based on flawed research:
Helmke conveniently leaves out the fact that Hemenway's "research" and book was funded by George Soros, the billionaire who has financed anti-gun initiatives and causes for years. No conflict of interest there, huh?

Both good stuff.

Addition to range day

Remembered a couple of things. The flashlight I mounted on the shotgun had a disturbing habit of slipping forward in the mount under recoil. Tried a couple of things, including putting contact cement on the mount, to no avail. Finally took my rotary tool(does Dremel get upset if you call a B&D a 'dremel'?) with a cutoff wheel and cut a series of grooves in the side that clamps onto the light, following the curve. That seems to have done it, as I didn't notice it having shifted forward any after twenty-five rounds.

Second thing was a new grip on the Makarov. It's a nice little pistol, but the factory grip sucks. I'd read about the Pearce grip for it and bought one. Actually, bought it quite a while ago, but this was the first time I both had the chance and remembered to take it with me. I can sum up my review of the grip as 'MUCH better'. Much more comfortable to shoot, and- for me- easier to shoot the piece accurately; it helped keep the gun positioned the same from shot to shot, the factory grip tending to slip a bit in my hand. Well worth the money.

"We're not dead yet:

video and breathless warnings of possible disaster every fifteen minutesfilm at ten."

When we last took note of the dire warnings of mayhem, we had been told to expect freezing rain from sometime around noon today until Sunday with brief breaks, total accumulations across the area of one to as much as two inches; temps in the mid-to-low thirties this morning and dropping through the day. When I got up about 0730, it was about 25 and spitting freezing rain. By the time I was getting to work around 0900 it was sleeting only. Which continued all through the day.

Which caused me to wonder if the weather weenies ever look out the bloody window, because they kept reporting 'light freezing rain'. Which it did in some areas, but not through here where they kept calling it 'rain' even though it was little ice balls falling from the sky.

Speaking of weather weenies and related jackassesspecies, on KTOK radio yesterday evening one guy kept running an intro about "Preparing for the black death", sound effects and all, which he explained meant 'the ice will kill all the power and we're all gonna die in the dark'. Laughing the time, of course. Now, I have a sense of humor that can laugh at most things; it has been referred to as 'somewhat twisted' a time or two by unkind people; but when you're doing shit like that while people are being told to prepare for the worst, ain't too damn funny to me. I don't know if someone told him to knock it off or it got old to him, but about the time I was wondering about loading a rifle and looking for a line of sight to their office he stopped it. Maybe telepathy works.

I think what happened is the colder air came in faster than expected, so instead of the snow melting in the layer of warm air above and making it to the ground as liquid- thus turning the area into a giant skating rink and breaking trees- it melted in the(maybe thinner, too) warm layer and then froze into sleet. Which is fine. Sleet is a difficulty but not nearly on the scale of the alternative.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow into Sunday. Hopefully more of the same since the temperature is expected to remain almost constant at 20-24 here through then. Currently they're expecting skies to clear Sunday night, which means cold as hell the next couple of days before it starts warming up a bit.

This time of year can be strange in Oklahoma. Usually the coldest weather tends to be late December to mid-January, with the worst of snow and/or ice January to early February. Usually. There is not hard & fast rule about it. We've had heavy snow in December and little the rest of the winter, and damn cold late January-early February. Which led to a discussion with a friend one time of how some of the pagan holidays from Britain don't work the same here. Imbolc(generally Feb. 2) traditionally marks the 'first stirrings of life in the earth', which sounds nice. Except it's early January and I had to mow part of the back yard two days ago; it's not unusual to have patches of green grass throughout the winter, so the life in the earth sometimes never stops stirring. Which leads to starting the mower in January(thank you, Sta-Bil).

I'll ask you to excuse me now, I need to process the brass from the range the other day and see if I have time to replace the shotshells I fired.

Heard from my son this morning

Long but uneventful flight, followed by a long and uneventful bus ride to the base he's stationed at. In-processing ever since, with more of that to come. Got his quarters, learning the base, learning about the area/country, etc.

So he's over there, where the weather's been warmer than standard, just in time to avoid the bloody ice storm they're warning about here for the weekend. Yesterday the last thing I heard was "up to a quarter-inch, maybe as much as a half-inch" depending on the storm track. Now they're saying one inch or a bit more around here, followed by temperatures in the single digits for lows for a couple of days. Yuck. And if there's any way I can, I have to get out in it over the weekend, because I'm considered one of the 'essential personnel' at work. Which really sucks at times.

Oh well, if the glaciers wipe out the house you'll have to look for my frozen body when spring comes. Or next weekend by which time it'll be warming up some.

Range day,

and sometimes things actually do work the way they should.

Shotgun ammo test
I'd mentioned the ammo I keep in my shotgun is either Hornady TAP or Winchester Ranger: both 00 buck and both reduced recoil. You need to practice with everything, but this stuff runs $3 to $4/box of five. Yeesh. I also mentioned a while back that I became the owner of a shotshell reloading press. So I browsed around and found a recipe for a low-recoil 00 buck load I could put together, and gave it a try. And it worked pretty well, not as tight-grouping as the factory stuff, but about the same level of recoil. So today I unloaded 25 rounds of this at 15 yards(minimum distance the range requires for shotgun/rifle). Here's the result:



















This was all fired offhand, going from port arms & safety on to aim & fire. If I remember right the individual groups were about half-again as wide as factory ammo, but seems to be comparable power. Definately good for practice, and in an emergency would do the home-defense job.

Pistol mod test
The other thing tried out today was a change on the Webley Mk VI revolver I picked up at the Wanenmacher Arms Show in Tulsa last fall. Worked fine, but the cylinder had been cut so it could fire .45acp ammo in moon clips. It'll also use .45 Auto Rim cases just fine, but with both you run into the problem that the brass and bullets are a touch undersize for the chambers and bore, so accuracy suffers. And it's hard on brass, it has to expand so much that resizing it works it a lot.

I had an idea on a fix for this(which so far- not being as good a man of my hands as Og, for instance, hadn't worked). And I'd been looking around, and ran across a guy who had an uncut cylinder. No, they ain't cheap, but this price wasn't too bad either. So I robbed the change jar dug around and came up with enough. More than I'd planned on spending after the holidays, etc., but this is one of those things I figured better get while I could. It came in a couple of weeks ago, and it was in beautiful condition, looked like the original bluing and virtually no wear on any surface. Dropped right on with no fitting needed. Which brings me to

Dies, brass and ammo
For a long time the only factory ammo I saw for .455 Webley was from Fiocchi, good ammo but about $35/box of 50. Yeah, I'm gonna run out and stock up on that. Hornady makes it now, but the price is about the same. I'd known while looking for this pistol that it would be a handloading proposition, which turned out to have problems too: brass and dies both available but bleeping expensive. Until Kevin posted on finding some bullets for a good price at Graf & Sons. So I hied myself over the to check and Lo! discovered that
Hornady is selling their .455 brass, and
Lee makes .455 Webley carbide dies,
both for a much better price. So I ordered dies and 100 cases. I used the same bullet I'd used before- lead 230 grain ball, not sized and lubed with Lee Liquid Alox- as it seemed to fit the bore pretty well, found a starting load and put fifty rounds together. Today I ran the target out about ten yards and fired six rounds single-action. Then I pulled the target back, thought "Bleep!" That had to be chance.", ran it back out and fired six more. Here's twelve rounds















The low-left flyer was the first round. I was very impressed, with the pistol, the load and with my managing to use them this well. So I ran it out to twenty yards and tried it:



















Believe me, for me offhand at that range that's not bad at all. So I put up a small silhouette, ran it out to seven yards or so and



















That's twelve rounds fired double-action, not fastest speed but not taking time either. Which also made me happy. So I stuck up another bullseye at about fifteen yards and tried one-handed:


















So the original-length cylinder and actual .455 brass made a real difference, more than I expected. And the bullets I tried, I couldn't ask for better results from them. Definately a good combination.

By the way, I browsed around and ran across The Cartridge Collector who had this picture of the .455 with the Patented Manstopper Bullet and(third in line) a target bullet:



















The Manstopper is basically a 220 grain .455 hollowbase wadcutter with a hollow nose made in a fairly soft lead alloy. To quote somebody, that'll leave a mark.

The wonders of socialized medicine

I read something like this, and I wonder why some relative hasn't taken a bedrail and beaten in the heads of some of the 'medical' people involved in this shit.
An elderly stroke victim begged for a beetroot sandwich and macaroni cheese in hospital but no attempt was made to feed her, an inquest was told yesterday.

But, but socialized medicine will save us all!
Her grandson, Christopher West, told William Armstrong, the Coroner, at the inquest in Norwich: “The only thing that was said most of the time, as the weeks went on, was that she hadn’t died yet.

“Immediately after her admission it became clear it was their intention not to treat her.”

Mr West, 34, obtained a High Court ex parte injunction on October 6, 2003, forcing doctors to reinstate artificial nutrition and hydration, but the next day Mr Justice Forbes varied the order on an application by David Maisey, a consultant.

In the amended version, nutrition and hydration were to be reinstated only “as far as medically possible”.
Lamppost, rope, robed idiot: some assembly required.

Between September 14 and September 30, Mrs Nockels had received a daily intake of 140 calories from a subcutaneous infusion consisting of five per cent dextrose — a quarter of the 600 calories adequate for short-term starvation according to the WHO. From October 2 to 6 all artificial hydration of fluids was withdrawn.

Gee, you'd think they wanted her to die or something. Oops, I guess they did:
Mr West said that doctors told him that the quality of life of his grandmother would be so poor that “it would be in her best interests not to intervene and let her die”. He said: “You don’t just let someone die because you think it’s best for them. It’s inhuman. I would class it as starvation, actually.”

Yeah, it actually is starvation. At the hands of 'medical professionals' abetted by a judicial asshole.

Dr Payne was asked by Mr Dingemans: “If someone says, ‘I would like a beetroot sandwich’, does it help you decide on whether they need nutrition?”

Dr Payne replied: “It probably means they are hungry.” If a patient has lost the swallowing reflex as the result of a stroke he or she is in danger of aspirating, and so at risk of pneumonia, he said.
Which says nothing as to why they were starving her to death: you've already got an IV in, you son of a bitch, at worst she didn't HAVE to swallow.

I just can't write any more.

Found through The Englishman's Castle

To the terrified of women,

child molesting, murdering, cowardly, lying, bigoted offspring of distempered dogs and syphilitic camels who speak these words,

I don't care how many suckass politicians kiss up to you, I don't care how many of the terminally-PC idiots make excuses for you: you are disgusting bloody-handed barbarians claiming the 'glories' of a civilization that hasn't produced anything new in at least a thousand years and whose only real attachment to the modern age is weapons your own idiots are not capable of designing.











Fuck you.


Sincerely, etc.

Ok, a bit more on the Institute that lawyer works for

from this post. Just did a little searching, and aside from press release-type stuff on how wonderful they are, not much. So I checked Front Page Mag and found this, which lists it as "A Detroit-area Islamic organization", of itself not a condemnatory thing. Except that further along in the article, speaking of the study, we find "In addition, before the study’s release, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the leading militant Islamic organization in the United States, trumpeted the results on its website; and its spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, lost no time exploiting the alleged results of Bagby’s study"(emphasis mine) Which does bother me: CAIR has shown itself to be, let us say, not a friend to the United States.

So at this time I'd have to say we've got an organization that probably does not have the best interests of this country at heart. As if the 'get rid of parts of the Constitution' didn't tell us that already.

Compare the talk shows

This is the hostess for an Italian afternoon T.V. talk show...

















And this is the hostess for an American
T.V. talk show...














To enroll in your nearest language school to learn Italian,
call: 800-555-caio

Pinups For Vets

Which, being as well-connected and all-knowing as I am, I just read about.

Go to Ace, and read. Then go here. Hey, if you were recovering from injuries, wouldn't you love to have this to cheer you up?

A defense attorney who wants to repeal the 2nd Amendment

Because(of course) we'll all be safer from crime. And, of course, we then won't have to worry about terrorists "quietly amassing handguns and assault rifles, and planning suicide shooting rampages in our malls". Because someone who's come into this country with the hope of committing mass murders would never dream of breaking gun laws. Would they?

I got this in a e-mail notice from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership(JPFO) which included this link to the article. You really, really need to read the whole thing. Here's a nice bit:
The idea of curtailing rights in the name of homeland security does not seem implausible given the current state of civil liberties in the United States. The war on terror has already taken an enormous toll on the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and thus far, very few Americans have objected. In light of this precedence, it seems reasonable that scaling back or even repealing the right to bear arms would be an easy task.

In fact, it will be a very difficult task. So far the civil liberties curtailment has affected generally disenfranchised groups such as immigrants, people of color and religious minorities. An assault on the Second Amendment will impact a much more powerful constituency.

So the various parts of the Patriot Act and other actions only affect 'generally disenfranchised groups', hmmm. Whatever was being smoked or snorted before this was written, must be good stuff.

Let's see, we're a 'powerful constituency' according to this jerk(which is good) which apparently doesn't contain any 'immigrants, people of color and religious minorities'(back to either what they were smoking or real bigotry or flat stupidity). And it's a terrible shame that civil liberties have been curtailed for those groups, but he thinks the 2nd Amendment being repealed 'for our own good'(of course) is a fine idea:
This is a shame. Instead of laying waste to the civil rights and civil liberties that are at the core of free society, and rather than squandering precious time and money on amending the U.S. Constitution for such things as “preserving marriage between a man and woman,” the nation ought to focus its attention on the havoc guns cause in society and debate the merits of gun ownership in this era of terrorism.

I admit to being rather fond of gun ownership at any time, especially in an 'era of terrorism': hard to shoot the tango who begins his action if you don't have a heater. 'Course, this guy would probably consider it to be a horrible thing for a bad guy to be shot, so he can kiss my ass on that, too.

So you've got two choices: the author is either so deluded he actually believes this crap, or he's just another nanny-state socialist who thinks this is a different hook to try to pull people in.

And I'll be Pelosi & Co. will just love them.

Couple of quick notes

Brought to mind by the post that the son is on his way.

When they went through the gas chamber in Basic, one of the guys in his platoon was from Los Angeles. He barely got a sniffle, and after they left said "It smelled just like home".

When he'd graduated Basic and was driving here to see some friends on his first pass, had to stop at midway on the turnpike for gas. Two people wanted to pay for his gas, and one insisted he should pump it, so son wouldn't get his Class A's messed up.

And the day before left here went to the barber to get his ears lowered, and discovered the barber had been an artillery grunt in the Marines. A gentleman came in while they were talking, and when they finished the man said "Thank you" and paid for the haircut.

I don't know what part of LA the one guy was from, and
Damn, I like Oklahoma.

He's on his way

Son is on the longest airplane flight he's ever had, to his first duty station. Which'll be fun: landing in a foreign country to start actually employing his new skills.

Actually left here yesterday. His mom has family in Dallas, so they spent the night with them; they hadn't seen him in years, and that way didn't have to worry about travel difficulties getting to the airport today. I had to work, so couldn't be there. Would have been nice, but I think he was a little glad the crowd didn't get too big for the sendoff.

It'll be a couple of days while he gets to the unit, quarters taken care of, gear issued, etc. before he'll have time to send back a mailing address. Right now my parents are glad they finally got a pc, as they'll be able to get e-mail from him.

Right now I only have one worry: how good a time can you have with a numb ass for about ten hours?

Preparations

As in for Disaster Day, The Day After, SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, etc. Getting ready for emergencies natural or manmade. And, the particular subject of this, why so damn many people won't do ANYTHING toward it.

Kim just had a post on the subject with a guy relating the shitstorm he ran into for daring to say I stated, as you suggested, that I would *NOT* help them in an emergency unless they first took measures to help themselves. Basically was called everything from heartless to uncaring to genocidal, etc. All the things that you can be called for telling someone you ain't their emergency service, so they need to worry about taking care of their own precious ass.

Kim's reaction to this was about what you'd expect(What a bunch of dicks.). Og has his own thoughts here. It's really a fascinating thing to read of how these people don't want to take any preparations for themselves, and expect to show up at the home of someone who HAS prepared and be taken care of. And then, among other things, threaten to report the prepared guy to the police for 'hoarding'.

I'll leave the serious lectures to Og & Kim, they being better with words than I. I'll throw in something else as to possibly 'Why?'

They don't want to admit that there COULD be a problem that would require serious action.

In one of the Flashman books, Harry Flashman is getting ready for a journey. He opens the case and considers the pair of dueling pistol within. He tells how beautifully made they are, the finest product of a master gunsmith. Accurate. And he tries to talk himself out of packing them. But at least he's honest about why; "Because if I packed them, I would be admitting that I might need them". Which, I would submit, is one of the big reasons those people- especially the women- went absolutely bugfuck on the guy. He just told them that if there were a real disaster, they'd better have made preparations, and they didn't want to have to consider that. At all. Period. No question in my mind that there's a large amount of 'The government/someone else is supposed to take care of us', but that, I think, is also a part of this: they're using that as another key to not thinking about the potential problems.

Hell, look at Katrina, before and after it hit land, from the people who wouldn't evacuate to those who wouldn't prepare to that idiot Nagin actually turning down offers to take people out of the city to those sitting around afterward bitching that "The gummint's RACIST/UNCARING(fill in the blank) or they'd be taking care of us!" And all the excuse-making: "These are poor people, they can't afford (fill in the blank), You Are Blaming The Victims!" and so on.

I'll put this fairly bluntly: for the most part(I recognize there are a few exceptions), if you can't get to the dollar store and buy a cheap flashlight and batteries(sometimes even a radio, and they're only $5 at Wally World), if you can't save some bottles for water and buy some canned goods well before the hurricane makes landfall, then screw you. Yes, it's nasty and heartless and so forth, but I'm sick to death of people taking no responsibility for themselves, and bitching and whining that someone isn't saving them fast enough/well enough/etc. Remember the bitch saying "You expect us to eat this?" and throwing down the MRE? Food good enough to keep a fighting man going, but not good enough for her tender palate. My thought, then and now, was "Then starve, you idiot". Still is.

So you've got two big factors, the "Someone else is supposed to take care of me" mindset and the "I don't want to admit this could happen" mindset. Gonna get a lot of people killed. Has before, and will again.

If you're wondering, I'm not satisfied with my own preparations yet. I need to take Doc Russia's list and get a proper first-aid kit put together, not just the assorted meds/bandages/etc. in the house. I need to put more water in storage on a rotating basis, and some more emergency food in easy-to-grab-and-go form. And a particular set of firearms/ammo/knife for bugout duty.

I'll throw in, since the subject of Kim's post was in Washington, I especially find in amazing that they didn't want to prepare. They get earthquakes and severe storms even if you discount the potential of terrorist attack. They just recently had a combination of high winds and heavy rain that caused all kinds of problems, just to remind them. And yet...

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.