What happens if the terrorists do attack our schools?

Was listening to Glenn Beck earlier today, hearing things I didn't like and reflecting- again- on the long-term consequences if it does indeed happen.

Specifically, he was talking about the plans of some of the nutcase islamic groups- plans hell, the burning desire- to pull a Beslan-style attack in the U.S. Preferably in multiple schools on the same day. Had information I'd not heard before. That there were training tapes found in Afghanistan on making attacks on businesses or offices or schools I knew: that they found, in Iraq, building plans for a half-dozen American elementary schools I did not. Elementary because they want to hit a place where the boys(girls don't count, of course) aren't old enough/big enough to be a threat. He's going to do a show, several episodes during the week, on CNN talking about this, including naming the schools the plans were for.

I have no doubt of this. I'm certain there are a bunch of nutcase islamists out there- who'd get lots of support from millions of 'moderate' muslims- who desperately want, and plan, to do this. They want to get into one of our schools and torture and rape, and in the end kill, every child they can. These- I'll use 'things', as my command of language isn't quite good enough to truly demonstrate what I think of these beings- things would happily die doing this, seeing it as a wonderful demonstration of devotion to their god. As to what will follow if they make such an attack-a serious attempt, let alone a successful attack, they either don't believe what we will do, or they don't care.

A lot of people have written about this before, that these things just don't understand what this country is capable of if pushed to it. Fact is, if the God-cursed lawyers and politicians weren't in the way so much, the situation in Iraq would have been a lot more settled two years ago; among other things, there would have been patrols, ground and air, killing every Iranian who came across the border, followed by press conferences showing the stuff they were smuggling in. I think it was Armed Liberal at Winds of Change who wrote that 'he feared what we would do if struck by such an act'. You know something? I don't fear it. It'll be messy and nasty as hell, but I don't fear it. What I fear is that the likelihood of this happening has been greatly increased by the 'fight when/how will make the critics happy' bullshit. Every time the enemy found they could hide in a mosque and shoot at our troops and get away with it, every time the news announced a lawyer wouldn't let an air strike take out a bunch of the enemy because they were at a friggin' funeral... every time something like this happens, the enemy takes it as proof that we will give up. That we don't have the balls to do what's needed. It encourages them, it makes them believe that they can beat us.

In this country, several things will happen. One- regrettably- is that every mosque that has put out "Yes, terrorism is terrible, but-" statements is liable to go up in flames. In a way I have to admit that wouldn't bother me too much, but other mosques will be attacked, also. Accompanied by other attacks on moslems. Probably not a lot, but in the rage following such an attack, all bets are off. Another is that almost any politician, except those in the most moonbat-infested districts, who says "We must show restraint", or in public says "We're gonna get 'em!" but in private acts to prevent it, is going to pay the price. Preferably only in recalls/losing elections/etc., but I seriously fear some of them might be killed. I think some of these people truly do not understand the level of rage that will come in after such an attack, or else think 'the masses can be controlled'. These 'things' attack a school and kill a bunch of kids, even without the flourishes, and there will be demands for blood. For telling the troops "The gloves are off: find the bastards and kill them, wherever they are." 'Demands' as in "You do this, or we'll drag your ass out of that chair and put somebody in it who will."

As to specifics to various moslem nations, I don't know. That's going to vary. I can see Iran, if their prints are found on it, being- if not having their nuclear program smashed- being cut off: no refined oil products, no anything that can be turned back. Pakistan, Musharraf being told, whether in public or not, "You take out a lot of these people in the tribal areas, or we will. You'll like it better if you do it." Syria, Hamas, Hizballah: can you say 'stomped on'?

I think there are those among the things who don't want this attack to happen: not because of any unwillingness to kill our children, but because they do know what will happen after. And they don't like the idea of being converted to mulch. But they've got an uphill fight against the things who want to spill blood. Preferably on camera to demonstrate their faith.

Somthing else I think will happen in the aftermath of such an attack, is some European countries will cut loose. We'll hear the usual socialists and communists and America-haters basically saying we 'deserved it', but I think it would be the last straw for a lot of people, and it would give some governments the opening they need to stomp on their problems. Of course, it's possible the things would try to include some European schools in the day of terror, in which case... let's just say that a lot of moslems will find out how a lot of these people's ancestors got the reputations they did.


As a side note, I remember when he was putting together a 'man-caused global warming is bs' show, he talked about the huge amount of crap, the lies and roadblocks thrown up by CNN officials and employees to try and prevent it. If not for the crap we've seen out of the major media over the last couple of decades in particular, I wouldn't have believed such a mess would be done. As he put it today, 'if the facts weren't there, if the sources weren't there, if EVERYTHING weren't there, there's not a chance you could get this show through the PC attitudes at CNN'. Need to see if a friend can tape it for me.

I forgot to mention Charles Schumer

in my earlier post. Which actually works out ok because that little turd- to borrow Kim's spot-on description- deserves his own mention. Especially after this:
Newsbusters noticed that the speech posted on his website is not the same disgusting speech that Schumer gave to the US Senate. It has been changed.

Which is about par for the course for that vile, lying, cowardly, disgusting little camera-chasing excuse for a man.

Let's not forget hypocrite, too; after all, this little GFW has never seen a firearms ban, tax, licensing scheme, taxing scheme or other restriction that he didn't latch onto while we found out a while back that the chickenshit has a gun license there in NYFC. The kind of license that actually allows him to carry concealed. You know, the kind of thing he says should be banned? Except for him and his little friends, of course.

A nice article in the Times of London:

Wouldn't you feel safer with a gun?
...
The short answer is that “gun controls” do not work: they are indeed generally perverse in their effects. Virginia Tech, where 32 students were shot in April, had a strict gun ban policy and only last year successfully resisted a legal challenge that would have allowed the carrying of licensed defensive weapons on campus. It is with a measure of bitter irony that we recall Thomas Jefferson, founder of the University of Virginia, recording the words of Cesare Beccaria: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

Article well worth reading. And, of course, you have one of the standard replies, included in the first comment:
If the present restrictions prevent another such tragedy then they are worthwhile.
Let's say you grant that: that somehow the 'ban almost everything and license & restrict everything else' laws prevent another such horrible crime. The followup question is, How many people have been robbed/raped/tortured/crippled/murdered because they had no means of self-defense that the bad guys are afraid of?

Because every time someone pops out with that "If it saves only one life, it's worth it" line, they're in essence saying "I do not care how many people get hurt because they don't have a gun; that does not concern me." And it's too bad it doesn't bother them, because the list of victims is long and growing longer by the day.

Just to cover matters: Harry Reid, Dick(Turban) Durbin

Rahm Emanuel and Dennis Kucinich are vile, slandering, disgusting pieces of work.

That is all.

For now.

Millett red dot update

Took my daughter to the range the other evening, first time we've been able to go in a while. Fun was had and our carbon footprints suitably enlarged. I took the Carbine along just to check zero.

And why is that, you ask, since I'd only zeroed it about a week ago? Because I had it leaned in what I THOUGHT was a secure position a couple of days ago(always had been before, dammit) and it slid off and fell. Right on the Millett. Which I think caused some of the paint to blister a touch from my language.

If the thing shifted at all, I couldn't tell. It put the rounds right where I was aiming. I'm liking this sight more and more.

More Carbine stuff
The CMP M1 Carbine page has links to two good articles, one on Carbine shooting with accuracy (covers fitting barrel/receiver to stock & barrel band, ammo and such) and- if you're looking for some- THE article on the Carbine 30-round magazine.

The ammo pouches for the older 20-round M16 magazines will very nicely hold four of the 30-round Carbine magazines.

And now, I'm to bed. Night, all.

'Osama's' newest press release

Translated.

Farouk, Cave Affairs correspondent, CBC (Cave Broadcasting Service):

Thank you, Your Eminence. Mr. Sheikh, you have praised Allah and his “law of retaliation … eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, the killer is killed … ” And yet the resilient infidels have been martyring our righteous militants at a rate of better than 5 to 1, conservatively. How do you explain the tooth deficit of your current strategy?

"I said no, no, no!"

Go. Watch.

Thanks, Theo

Maneaters

Saw a show on the subject of 'maneaters', specifically about lions. The first segment was about a lion in the Rufiji River area in Tanzania the locals named Osama. Killed and ate 50 people in the area before a game ranger was able to put him down. This was in 2002, in an area alive with game of all kinds; it's just that, as one researcher put it, "We're so much easier to kill than buffalo and zebra."

Two things about this: one is that, when they put those numbers down, I always wonder how many might not be known of. Jim Corbett, who hunted a bunch of man-eating tigers and leopards in India, knew of many kills by some of them than were not on the 'official' list for various reasons. Last I heard the average daily kills of people by crocodiles in Africa, Asia and Australia runs about ten. Again, that we know of. There's an official number of people killed by sharks each year, but if some swimmer or fisherman just disappears...

Second, they interviewed the ranger who put paid to Osama, by setting up in the high grass around the last two victims- both killed in the same night- to catch him when he came back to feed on what was left. Pictures of Osama showed two holes in his forehead: one to put him down, and one to make sure. The rifle the ranger uses?

#4 Mk1 Enfield, with the forend cut back. Good things still work.

Chicks with guns!

Thanks to Theo

remember the 'useful items' son said added to the weight?

Asked him about them, and got the following:

Camelback attached to the back, starts out the day with 6lbs of ice and 2 liters of water; lasts about four hours, then back to the water bottles.
Gerber multi-tool
550 cord
camera
candy for the local kids
carabiner
lighter
spare lenses for the goggles
a cloth
gaiter to pull up and filter out some of the dust.
Plus:
Add about 3lbs for the helmet and 8 for the m4, plus whatever else you carry like a flashlight, machine gun ammo, etc. and the weight jumps up there quick.

And it's been averaging 120-125F for the days high temp.

The Sci-Fi Channel needs to go back to class

At least on a few things. Particularly, they need two classes:
Firearms, General Characteristics and Operation
Firearms And Their Effects On Animals, Large And Small

Over time I've seen a few of their 'made for Sci-Fi' movies, and they tend to display absolutely incredible ignorance on the above. For instance, today saw parts of Curse of the Komodo and Attack of the Sabretooth, and in the past various 'giant Komodo dragon' or 'attacking dinosaur' movies. Various things apply to these:
A 1911 only holds seven rounds in a standard magazine, eight in a higher capacity that doesn't stick out the bottom of the grip: that does NOT translate to '35 rounds without reloading!'

EVERY gun runs out of ammo, even if it's belt-fed. Which means you do have to reload, like it or not.

You cannot get semi-auto fire out of a bolt-action rifle.

I don't care if it's a giant mutated Komodo dragon or a velociraptor, if you shoot it? IT WILL NOTICE. If you miss it completely, it'll notice the noise; if you hit it, it'll notice because high-velocity projectiles impacting will cause pain, which all animals seem to notice for some reason. Stop having four to six people shooting off their never-ending ammo supply(quantum pockets in the mag well, perhaps?) at said giant lizard and it not even looking around. Or ever bleeding.

And connected with the above: I don't care how big the damn thing is, you put thirty or so rifle bullets and fifty or more handgun bullets in it, two mysterious things will happen: it will bleed, and- sooner or later- IT'S GONNA DIE.

Maybe I should write them?

Two nice things to check out

I've read some bits about Robyn Ringler at Smallest Minority and Say Uncle, never went to her site. If you've heard the name and wondered what it's all about, The Armed Scholar will explain it. Very well:
But she soon hit a few bumps in the road. For one thing, American gun owners seemed to be strangely resistant to "compromise." It was almost as if they wanted to get something in return for giving something up, but any good gun control activist knows that just isn't the way compromise works.

And if you haven't been there before, take a look at the Pro-Gun Progressive. Found the above through him.

Just an interesting column:

The Year the Global Warming Hoax Died, found through Freedom Sight.

Speaking of which, I'm just wondering- just a little bit, mind you- how the people who claim they can forecast the whole bloody climate in 50 to 100 years can blow 24-hour forecasts so bad. Day before yesterday and yesterday we were informed that OK was to expect heavy rains, many areas getting 4-5 inches, from Friday evening through Saturday. We in OKC are right in the middle of the "You Will Receive Heavy Rain" area. Little bit overnight, just enough to wet the plants, and the '100% probability of rain Saturday' has become 50% tonight. We'll see.

Goreacle, you've failed your believers! We're all NOT gonna die!

Have 20/20 on,

and John Stossel just ripped Mikey Moore's ass off on the 'wonderful' health care in Cuba. Wonderful to behold.

And he promises more next week.

Remember the two dumbass cops who shot at the snake

and killed the kid? Word from the D.A.'s office today:
Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn announced Friday afternoon that the officers who accidentally shot and killed a 5-year-old Noble boy will face charges of 2nd degree manslaughter.
Mashburn says Brad Rogers and Shawn Richardson acted negligently when they fired at a non-poisonous snake last month.

It's still kind of hard to believe they were dumb enough to do that.

I was checking comments on the 'let the peasants take care of it'

post, and found this by Dirtcrashr:
I grew up watching men use these - it's like they were tethered to the device - water your crop or die, but while watering you cannot tend the crops...

When I did the post, I just excerpted a couple of bits and let it go. Something didn't feel right, but had other things to do. Then I read that comment, and thought about it, and got pissed. Not mad, not upset, PISSED.

While back read about a dam project in Africa(can't remember the book, or where the project was) that was scuttled because of pressure from enviroweenies on the government. Some of it was the standard 'keep Gaia's river in its Natural State', etc. But the part that really set me off was the comments. One was, as I recall, that jackass Ed Begley Jr., who basically said 'they can put solar cells on the roof of the hut to run a laptop or radio, and that's renewable energy(one of the sacraments), it won't change the environment. The other was some Friends of the Earth or whatever clown who said that the villages were still in their more pristine state, which would be ruined if they got electricity: 'they're happy in their village life, and radios and tv and computers would ruin that social existence'. Change a few words and you've got a slave owner saying "Them darkies is happy in their houses I give them, why you want to mess with their life?"

I didn't write much about that the other day because the more I think about it, the more pissed I get. These clowns who fly around the world, Begley with his electric cars and 'earth-friendly' house, the computers and clean water and all the other modern conveniences, but the wogsnative peoples shouldn't have those things. Oh, give them some solar panels, and treadle pumps for water(but no way to treat it), but no more: you'll mess up the primitive ambiance they find so attractive. Screw the natives who want electricity and clean water and power tools, if they get those they'll advance, into modern life! Which is not to be tolerated, it offends me!(listen closely, you can hear Ted Kennedy saying "But that's where I sail!") Besides everything else, if you can't buy 'credits' that force them to do without, how will you hold your head up before all the other Gaia-worshipping assholes?

Damn, I need to rinse the bad taste out of my mouth.

Kid's camping books

Instapundit links to this one, but I've got another suggestion. It's not in print, unfortunately, but if you can find a copy, Kid Camping from Aaaaiii! to Zip, by Patrick McManus. Funny, and a lot of good stuff in it.

Yes, Mr. Beck, I AM going to mention this part

first. Beck had Rudy Giuliani on his show right after it opened, and the big thing(to me at least, and probably a lot of others) was what Giuliani said about illegal immigrants.

He interrupted something Beck was saying on the subject to inform him that illegal immigrants are 'not criminals', that illegal immigration is 'not a crime'. And when specifically asked if it SHOULD be a crime, he said no.

Even if I weren't already against voting for him because of his work trashing the 2nd Amendment, this would be a big strike against him.

Speaking of his anti-gun ownership activities, a few months ago, not long after he announced he was running for President, he was interviewed by Beck, and on that day Beck really hit him on this matter. He finally flatly asked "Should people be able to carry a gun for self-defense?" It was both painful and disgusting to listen to the answer: he brought out a 'depending on local laws, blah-blah-blah' line, and you could hear it in his voice that he didn't want to say it.

But now he wants votes and he 'supports' the 2nd. Oh, sure, and I can carry my son's field load on a 20-mile run and not break a sweat.

Warning: Serious Thoughts included

Accuracy/insight not guaranteed

I've been thinking about what I wrote the other day on the tar & feathers incident in Belfast, about it being a warning not only to the crooks but to the government as well.

One of the basics of a free people is that if the government does not, or will not, take care of its job, then the people have not only the right, they have the obligation to take care of it. Not something generally thought about, but it's there.*

Now, this obligation brings in one of the frustrations and dangers for a society: when the authorities(police, judge, jury, prosecutor) don't do their job for whatever reason. When some rapist or robber or burglar isn't prosecuted, or is but plea-bargains to something minor and walks out or whatever. At the least it erodes confidence in the system: at the most it can lead to people deciding "Ok, if the damned police and judges won't protect us from those bastards, we'll do it ourselves". If frustrations and fears and anger become great enough that they start acting on it, things have a real potential to go to hell in a major way.

There you wind up with the authorities("You cannot take the law into your own hands!") facing the people("If you won't enforce the law, we've got not choice but to do it ourselves!"), with- most of the time- little good that can come out of it. There are real problems with both sides here: people in authority positions don't take kindly to someone else taking over what they tend to see as their prerogative to act, even- sometimes especially- when they're not using it. And it really is not a good thing for people to have to enforce the law, call it 'informally'. If it's hit that point, and the police come down hard on the people doing it, they've now gone from being the 'useless bastards who won't put the crooks away' to 'the enemy'. At best they might be 'the worthless shits screwing over the people doing the job the cops wouldn't do', but that's not much better. Just a bit. Same thing happens when the law enforcement authorities come to be seen not as peace officers, not as the people Sir Robert Peel** wrote rules for, but as agents of the politicians, who don't care about the law and right or wrong.***

At best, at that point, The Authorities get the idea that if they don't straighten up and accomplish some of the things they're supposed to do, all hell will break loose. The people decide to give the Authorities the chance to do their jobs, and things settle down.

At worst... That line about 'hell breaking loose' isn't hyperbole, it's a description. That can get to the point of, at worst, open war. At which point it's much, much more difficult to get things back on track. And even if you do get back on track, the emotions and attitudes set up by the Troubles(to borrow a phrase) will last for years, with real distrust/dislike/hatred on both sides. Politicians and cops who've had their Authority and Dignity kicked in the ass by something like this have a bad tendency to decide that The PeasantsPeople need to have a lot of their ability to annoy their masterspublic servants taken away, or at least greatly restricted; people who already don't trust the aforementioned politicians and cops take any steps toward such restrictions as evidence of the need to do something drastic to the Authorities. Possibilities from there, good or bad, you can figure.

Which is why I very much hope the Brits either elect some people who understand the problems they've got and actually work to improve things(not a lot of hope of that), or the Stout Bulldogs manage to bite the collective ass of the government bad enough to shock them into straightening up(not much hope of that, either, at this point). Otherwise- ESPECIALLY if there's another big, bloody terrorist action, but also if people just get fed up and say to hell with it- it's going to degenerate very badly, which will probably get very damn bloody


*Side note: A lot of people- most, in most places- understand the right of self-defense, but not as many think of the obligation. I've read that in the Torah there is specific note that if you are attacked, you have the obligation to protect yourself, your family, your people; that to fail to do so not only leaves you a victim but means you have failed in your duty to God.

Ok, take deity out of it: that still leaves you a victim if you do not act in self-defense, and, in the long run, everyone around you is at more risk. Because if the bad guys get away with robbing/raping/killing you and yours, they're out there waiting for a chance to do it again.

I think a lot of us know this without having actively thought of it this way. "If someone robs/cripples/kills me and just walks away, they're free to do it to someone else." Which adds a certain amount of pressure to things. Not at the time of the act, I wouldn't think; you're kind of busy at that point with the more immediate problem. But thinking about it before, and dealing with it after... It's become kind of a cliche', "If you hadn't stopped him, he'd be killing/raping/robbing/torturing someone else soon, so stop blaming yourself for killing him." But it's a real fact to deal with: you stop an attacker, whether by shooting, whacking them with something heavy or holding them for the police, you're both protecting yourself and the other people that crook would have victimized after you.


** These deserve posting:

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S NINE PRINCIPLES

The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

***Remember the piece about 'Romanian rules'? The latter has become a real attitude problem among a LOT of people. They don't trust the FBI or ATF or US Marshalls much to start with after the crap that's been happening the last couple of decades: add in some big, messy incidents and it goes from 'don't trust' to 'they're the enemy, period'. In the aftermath of Ruby Ridge and Waco, as the piece points out, a lot of feds got the idea real quick as to what would happen if there were any more of those incidents, which is probably why they didn't. But that's been a bunch of years ago, and there are a lot of agents in various agencies who've forgotten that, or they weren't there at the time and haven't really learned it/figured it out. Which means a real possibility for disaster in the future.

Carbon offsets:

Let the peasants deal with your jet emissions!

What an idea!
Somewhere in the Indian countryside, a farmer is about to repay Mr Cameron’s debt to the planet. Climate Care’s latest enterprise is to provide “treadle pumps” to poor rural families so they can get water on to their land without using diesel power. The pumps are worked by stepping on pedals. If a peasant treads for two hours a day, it will take at least three years to offset the CO2 from Mr Cameron’s return flight to India.

What was that line, "It's good to be the King!"?

Check this out in the 'salve your conscience by paying a peasant to do without' category:

Treadle pumps A century after treadmills were abolished in British prisons, peasant farmers are being encouraged to irrigate land using “human power” rather than diesel pumps. Supporters say that the project alleviates poverty, improves agriculture and enables men to stay with families instead of going to cities for work. It is being introduced in the Indian regions of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal

Burning dung Instead of using firewood for stoves, villagers are encouraged to collect cowpats and water and put them into “biogas digesters”, which create renewable fuel. The project is close to an tiger reserve at Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan. Supporters say that it spares the trees, which are the tigers’ habitat

Hey, I've got an idea: instead of collecting cow crap, how about electric or gas stoves? Of course that means the dirty peasants have to have electricity or gas, and one cannot offset one's lifestyle if they move into current times, now can one? And if spending hours a day manually pumping water wears you out and restricts the land you can work, well, that is The Price We Pay to offset our mansion(s) and our jets, private and otherwise, and our other modern conveniences.

Read the whole damn thing. Be prepared to wonder where Grandpa's whip is, and can you put up a post in the town square?

Ok, funny as hell, and from the sound of it he deserved it,

but it's a warning, too. Not just to the druggies, to their government.

Tied to a lamppost, he stands with his head and upper body covered in tar and feathers. A makeshift placard hung around his neck with a piece of string announces the reason for his treatment.

And why did they do this?

Frankie Gallagher, of the Ulster Political Research Group, said: "The UDA told the local community to go to the police about this. The community responded in the way it did because it had no confidence in the police."

People tend to forget where the word 'vigilante' came from: from 'Committee of Vigilence', which was formed when local law enforcement(what passed for it, anyway) was either too corrupt or too uncaring to do their job.

If "this remains the crude face of justice on the streets of south Belfast." is indeed the case, the Brit government is farther down the drain than I'd thought. Which takes some doing.
Margaret Ritchie, Northern Ireland's social development minister, said: "This kind of behaviour has no place in a civilised society."
Got news for you, madam: if this is going on at all, let alone on a regular basis, these people are not living in a 'civilised society'; in such a society the cops take care of such matters and people don't feel the need to literally tar and feather someone.

Just a reminder of what people in DC have had to deal with

over the years:

"The Fenty and Singer piece contains this howler:

The handgun ban has saved countless lives, but this fundamental part of the District's public safety laws will be no more if the Supreme Court does not review and overturn this year's decision by the D.C. Circuit.

Countless lives? D.C. is consistently at the top of the U.S. murder rate rankings. Was the gun ban saving "countless lives" in 1991, when the rate peaked at 80 murders per 100,000 people? Would the number have otherwise been even higher? Is it still saving "countless lives" when our murder rate for 2005, at its 20-year low, was still five times that of New York City?

If I'm not mistaken, Fenty and Singer appear to be suggesting that their city is so totally lawless that only a total deprivation of Constitutional rights can make it moderately liveable. I wonder how they feel about wiretapping?"

As long as it's wiretapping the 'right' people, I'd imagine they're all for it.

Wankers.

Dammit, Rodger has

pulled the plug!

Crap, unless his new stuff works out, he'll NEVER get the B-52 loaded and fueled for that mission...

Mr. Completely's Gunblogger Rendezvous is coming up

Information on it here, go check it out. No way I can make it. My daughter made a trip to Vegas last year and loved it, add to everything else the list of people you'd get to meet...

Oh, the other day, I did indeed make it to the range. Guess which targets I forgot? So no entry in the postal match for me(I did NOT claim to be organized: see past history). I did remember the Carbine and put about fifty rounds through; the Millet red dot was still dead on. Looking better and better.

Tar and feathers my ass, Mr. Reynolds,

this crap calls out for a post and a whip. Or maybe a gallows.
A pregnant woman has been told that her baby will be taken from her at birth because she is deemed capable of "emotional abuse", even though psychiatrists treating her say there is no evidence to suggest that she will harm her child in any way.

As Kim puts it, you should make sure breakables are out of reach before reading this.

And as JT notes, here's further reason that disgusting, slimy lawyer John Edwards should never be allowed near the reins of power. Period. Ever.
TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

Got that? You have no choice, and I'll be you'd have no choice about your doctor either. You will go to the doctor they choose, when they choose, or else.

I repeat from the past: anyone who tells you we should have socialized medicine should be immediately kicked somewhere sensitive. Treatment to be repeated as needed.

Found through Instapundit. Who I should demand relief from for probably ruining my blood pressure. What was that line of Quint's in Jaws? "It's enough to piss of the Good Humor man."

Ah, a nice, comfortable walk

with all your gear

Got a message from my son, currently in a hot & sandy place. Among other bits:
We weighed my body armor today, 90lbs, thats with full battle load of ammo, shoulder guards, side plates, and other useful items.

What was that the other day about 'infantry is a young man's work'?

*No, I don't know what the 'other useful items' are, but I'm going to ask.

Ok, I have to tell you about this

Went back to the gun show today to take another look around, and at one table found a bandolier of .30 Carbine ammo. Cloth stamped as Carbine ammo and all, so I asked what he wanted for it.
"I don't know, I'm just getting rid of it for a friend. Got another partial over here," and from the other aisle table brought over another. This one wasn't in as good a shape, but was about 3/4 full. We pulled a stripper out and the ammo was dated 1952. He laid this bando on the other and said "How about $40 for both?"

I figured one full, 120 rounds, one partial- about 90 rounds-, plus the strippers and bandoliers, hmmm... "Done." So I gave him money and put them in my bag. Which got heavy real fast as I finished walking around.

I just finished going through them. The one did indeed have 90 rounds, some fairly tarnished but nothing too nasty, and one stripper with the mag guide somewhat mashed. The other... reason it was heavy was there were three strippers in each pocket instead of two. AND it still had the big safety pin on the strap.

So, considering what brass-case .30 Carbine is going for now, plus the strippers(everybody today was asking $2 each, the few who had any), plus two bandoliers, I think I'm happy with this deal. Damn glad I went back today.

Ammo prices: Yuck!@!

At the show yesterday my favorite ammo guy was indeed there, and I picked up some stuff. There were two other major ammo sellers there, too('major seller' defined as multiple tables of nothing but), more than I've seen there before. And as we've all noticed, prices are up. Again.

The Czech 7.62x54r light ball is not to be found the last while, dammit, it's good ammo. The Hungarian and Russian light ball is running about $80 for a 440-round can; it used to be $35-40. 9x18 Makarov ammo has doubled(although one deal had the tripled the price for Wolf). The Federal Champion .22lr I buy at Academy has gone from $.79/box to $1.18, and so on. The only stuff I found that hasn't is favorite ammo guy has 6.5x55 Swede Mauser surplus for $9/box in the battle pack(apparently the Swedes turned a bunch of it loose*), and he still had Winchester Ranger 12-guage buckshot for $3/box, but EVERYTHING else is up.

One nice thing he had, Brit-produced .303 ball, in chargers in bandoliers, $19. All dated 1944.

Kim had this a few days ago on the general "It's going up", and a year ago Kevin posted this interesting chart. Energy prices, metals prices, transport and demand all working together. Damn.

Also, if you like M1 Carbine stuff you've noticed the prices for some things: a parts dealer had some new barrels, and while you expect the WWII barrels to be high, he had a couple of Vietnam-era barrels, new, with sights and band: $250.

On the subject of weather forecasting,

I have to note that Hogboy had a piece on the horrible, we're all gonna DIE! very quiet hurricane season so far, and in the comments you'll find this:
I work for a company that produces Long Range (i.e. 12+ months forecasts) based on Solar cycles and past weather along with some proprietary software. We've done well on some things, not so good on others. All you need to know about my faith in the process is that I haven't used it to plan my vacations.

That about says it.

.30 Carbine loads Pictures added

One of the things that gets said a lot about the ammo for the Carbine is that it's weak. And in comparison to the M2 Ball for .30-06 or 8mm Mauser, it certainly is: a 110-grain bullet at 1900fps compared to a 150-grain at about 2900 comes off as Niles Crane standing next to Clint Eastwood.

However, the big thing in the .30 Carbine's favor is short, light & handy. Try putting something like a .30-06 in something that light and you'll fire it once. Twice if you're a masochist. Three times if you're a sado-masochist: you get to hurt yourself and make the people around you cringe at the look on your face. So the usual thought is to buy some softpoint ammo.

I dug around and found softpoints by Winchester, Remington and Federal. All of them run about $35/box of 50(Federal comes in boxes of 20, works out about the same), which is just a bit pricey. So I decided to find some suitable bullets to try. The standard bullet is a 110-grain FMJ. Remington sells their 110-grain softpoint, and Speer sells a 110-grain flat-nose hollowpoint, so I gave those a try.
















From the left: GI ball, Reminton SP, Speer**, Sierra.

The Remington, with the same powder charge/type as ball gives about equivalent accuracy, but hits a bit to the left. The Speer bullet was very tight at 50 yards, but opened up a bit at 100.* Realistically, either should work quite well in a emergency situation, as repelling boarders at the house or protecting yourself/your group as you get out of Dodge isn't generally done at very long distances. However, on general principles I like to have the best accuracy I can get. So a while back while I was digging through the Midway site I checked for .30-caliber bullets of 110 grains and ran across these: Sierra Varminter, a 110-grain hollowpoint spitzer. A nice, efficient shape with a design that ought to leave a serious mark if you had to use it in a social situation. AND they were on sale, so I got a box.

The one problem with a nice, pointed bullet like this is that in the same weight it's longer than a round-nose. So I took the load I use with ball and the Remington bullets and dropped one full grain, then seated the bullet just a fraction(0.001 by my caliper) below the maximum length the manual shows for the cartridge. The lighter charge because you always work up with a new bullet, and also because it looked like the base of this bullet would sit a bit further into the case. As it works out the base, with the bullet seated at max length, is pretty damn close to the depth of the ball, but I'd rather work up anyway.



















From the left, standard ball, Sierra Varminter, and one of the cast-bullet practice loads I make.

I've put 20 rounds of this load through so far. The first ten were at the indoor range, mostly to see if they'd function properly, to check brass for any signs of excess pressure and to see where it went on paper. They fed flawlessly, no signs of high pressure that I could tell and they hit about the same point of impact as ball. The second ten I was going to shoot over the chronograph the other day(you know, the day I found the dead battery and my spare gone?); if the velocity was over 1900 I figured I'd need to back off on powder just a touch. So I went ahead and shot them for accuracy at 100 yards: identical point of impact as ball and nice grouping. As in a touch under 2" with two five-shot groups. Which is damn good for this little beast, and I'm very happy about it. But I still need to check velocity, so I just loaded ten more for the next trip. I just wish I could set the chrono up at the indoor range I use, it's a lot closer and easier to get to, since if I'm going to the outdoor I plan on spending at least a couple of hours making noise and enlarging my carbon footprint.

Right now I'm about to crash, so tomorrow I'll try to get some pictures of the different bullets posted with this.

*By 'opened up a bit' I mean about 4" groups or a touch over, which is well within minute of goblin.
** That's actually a .32 caliber 100 grain Speer: I remembered I'd used all the 110-grain .30 caliber. The 110-grain is a bit longer, bullet shape is identical, though.

And from the ADS* people of France,

we get this:
Though, one woman adds sternly, it won't last forever: ''We threw out the Germans, we'll throw out the Americans, too.'' Asks the interviewer in astonishment: ''The French threw out the Germans?'' Well, the Frenchwoman replies airily, ''you Americans helped a little.''

Among other things, they should never have talked Churchill out of whacking De Gaulle back then.

And be sure to check out the peace racket, too.


*America Derangement Syndrome

And I hope it does

cost them dearly

Found thanks to the Geek.

Ah, the tolerance and caring of the left

Gay Democrat Leader Laments Inhofe Near-Miss

A homosexual leader of the Oklahoma Democratic Party makes it plain in an Internet blog posting that he wishes the military airplane carrying Senator Jim Inhofe, three other members of Congress and a full crew had been shot down over Iraq.

James Nimmo, treasurer of Central Oklahoma Stonewall Democrats and a representative to the Oklahoma Democratic Party's Central Committee, posted a wire service story about the C-130 being attacked as it left Baghdad with the headline, "So close yet so far...Inhofe plane fired on in Iraq."

Full post here

Infantry combat is "young man's work"

That's the damn truth. Found a link to this at Q and O, and it reminded me of something. In the article Mr. Smith notes:
So, a 5’11’’ Marine weighing 175-180 lbs., weighs about 250-280 lbs. in full battle kit. Yet with this added weight, he must remain strong, fast, agile, able to withstand long road marches in extreme temperatures and capable of fighting another man of equal size and weight in the often-close quarters of an urban environment.

That brought to mind a passage I posted once before, taken from David Drake's book Fortress:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gee, another couple of sorry, two-faced hypocrite actors

Who'da thunk it?

A study that will give GFW's the vapors,

and delight the rest of us.

Now, THIS is more like it!

Last week I was going through the Midway site for a couple of things, and looked at the red dot sights they stock(there's a LOT of them). Midway for three reasons: lots to browse through, customer ratings, and if there's a problem they're real good about taking care of it.

I decided to look at
Below $100,
Only those with four stars or above.
The latter really cut down the list. Several with four or four-and-a-fraction, then I hit this one. I'd heard about Millet before, generally good things, and there were no bad points in any of the reviews. So I added that to the order. And, Midway shipping being what it is, I had it four days later.

Nice, solid unit, came with rings and mounted easily. Good things:
Windage and elevation are solid click adjustments.
Brightness settings are solid clicks.
Nice, sharp dot(3moa instead of the usual 5).

Bad things:
Nothing so far. This is a 1" tube instead of a 30mm like a lot of others, but the diameter doesn't bother me in aiming, and the smaller tube puts the dot a bit lower than the 30mm I once tried, and I like that.

Yesterday I took time from stuff I was supposed to do to hit the range; after the Pentax crap I wanted to find out quickly if this thing worked. It does. Once adjusted(very easy with proper adjustments), it held zero with no shifting around. I put about 100 rounds of various ammo through the Carbine, and this thing just sat there doing the job. And I like the 3moa dot better than the 5 for a rifle.

100 rounds isn't a real trial, it's just a start, but already it's lasted longer than the Pentax, and the adjustments are a huge improvement. I'll be shooting it when possible the next while and watching the thing for any problems, so far it looks promising.

I was going to shoot the current postal match while I was out there, but by the time I finished up with the rifles the pistol range was pretty full. There's a gun show this weekend, I'm hoping after it on either Saturday or Sunday I can hit H&H and shoot it. If I do, I'll take the Carbine and run a few more rounds through. Oh, and just to cover it:
Pentax red-dots suck!
Pentax customer service sucks!

Pentax red-dots suck!
Pentax customer service sucks!

Pentax red-dots suck!
Pentax customer service sucks!


*Added: this was not one of my better days. I forgot the spotting scope, and when I set up the chronograph to check some .30 Carbine loads I'm testing, the battery was dead. And the spare I thought was in the truck, wasn't. The loads are shooting very well, but I'd really like to check velocity for an indication of pressure.

More on Haditha

Blackfive has another post on this, which includes links to previous important posts. I'd suggest you go through the comments; there's a guy throwing in every "The Marines messed up, the Marines lied, the Marines should be in jail!" line that's been come up with, and Grimmy takes them apart.

And we're still waiting for that sorry bastard Murtha to say something about the people he wronged.

I just had to note this before I go to bed

Go here, and read. Take note of this in the update:
Obviously Joe Huffman has never lived off the grid without A/C,
refrigeration or phone service. I have, and must confess I prefer life
without all the amenities.

Well, I'll tell you what, dumbass: I have lived for years without A/C, and in Oklahoma summers it flat sucks. When it's 80F at 1am, and the humidity is 60%, you can't lay down without breaking a sweat and a fan barely helps. Oops, I forgot, you said 'off the grid' so there's no fan either.

I have no idea where you live, and I don't care, you're just one more smug BS artist telling other people how they should live. You go ahead and do without power, without refrigeration to keep food and without telecomm to talk to people(including calling for aid in an emergency); I'll keep on using power to stay cool when it's hot and keep food fresh and stay in touch with people.

I note that you say 'I have', not 'I am', AND you're posting using a computer which causes me to conclude you're a true, first-class jackass of the 'do as I say' type.

These people SHOULD voluntarily become extinct.

Something that John Effin' Kerry never wanted to hit a courtroom

isn't a threat anymore. Because you know there's no way in hell he'll give people a chance to drag his whole record, ALL the documents, etc., out into the light.

Range report (Star BM) and cleaning notes Picture added

I'd written about the Star BM 9mm pistol before(here and here); well, a guy picked one up a couple of weeks ago and wanted to try it out, so to the range we went("You want me to help you test it out? However will I screw the yard, let's go!find the time?")

The cleaning note is this: I don't care if it's new in the box from the factory or an old, used whatever, take it apart and clean & lube it before you shoot it. If you don't know how to break it down or there's no manual, buy or borrow one of the Assembly/Disassembly books or find someone who can help. Not only do you need to make sure the bore is clear, etc., but it will almost certainly need lube. I have no idea how many new firearms I've seen that, when opened up, were dry, no sign of oil or grease anywhere. Which is not good. Manufacturer doesn't seem to matter, though it seems to be worse on revolvers; most semi-autos seem to at least have some oil on the rails.

Back to the range. Since the guy wanted to know both would it shoot well and would it make a good carry piece, we tested it with a variety of ammo. James wrote a while back on a Star Super B he owns that will NOT reliably feed anything but ball ammo, and wanted to make sure that was not the case on this BM.

The group below(in the X & 9 ring) is a total of 50 or 60 rounds, all shot offhand at about twenty feet
















That is with a mix of handloads(124-grain cast ball), CCI Blazer ball and Gold Dot 124-grain hollowpoints. Two of the magazines were random mixes of all three, and no failures of any kind. It went through it all without a hitch.

At the end I loaded one mag with the handloads and fired it one-handed at about fifteen feet:





















I'm a fairly lousy one-handed target shooter, and I wasn't taking any particular pains on breath control or timing, just 'line up the sights and squeeze', and got this.

This is the third one of these I've had the chance to shoot, and I really like them; I wish they were still being manufactured, they're a damn good pistol, well-made of good materials. This one had a trigger a target pistol would be proud of, was totally reliable with all ammo tried and is more accurate than I am. All three have eaten everything fed to them without a bobble, handloads and different brands of ball and hollowpoints.

I have to wonder if, since the Star BM's imported were originally issued to the Spanish Civil Guard, they may have been throated to handle hollowpoints? Or maybe it's just a bit different design than the Super B. In any case, it works.

The other thing I shot was that Sistema 1927 I reblued. I went through the 'Poor man's trigger job' instructions posted at the M1911.org forums in the tech section and wanted to try it out. Also, after bluing it, I've been carrying it some and shooting it to see how the finish holds up. The finish is doing well. And the trigger was much better; the original was clean but fairly heavy, now it's clean and lighter(I need to rig up or buy a trigger scale).

Clayton Cramer brings up something interesting

in the mess with ATF and Red's Trading Post:
As I have stated before ATF DIO Richard Van Loan has stated that he would have never revoked our license if we had purchased a computerized system.

Read the rest, it goes downhill rapidly from there. Unless there's some specific thing in law about it, ATF has no privilege or power to demand someone pay for a computerized system. And the BS- Yet the ATF has now deemed this system before our judge, that is so widely used and touted...inadequate.- does make you wonder what they're up to. In the case of Red's, they're probably willing to drag out any dancing pig they can find to get around what they tried to do and got caught at, so the question becomes are they trying to do this to others? And is there something to Cramer's theory:is it possible that some sort of corrupt deal has been made by some ATF bureaucrat to require a particular software vendor's system? If you don't buy a system from a particular vendor, you get extra special scrutiny, and then get closed down for trivial errors on paper forms?

Medical kits come in handy

Remember I mentioned nearly falling out of a tree? Scraping up my leg? Turned out I had no gauze pads or anything else in the house. However, a few months ago I'd turned to Doc Russia for advice on a first-aid kit; he had links to suggestions for basic, intermediate and full-blown emergency kits. I used a cheap buttpack somebody gave me to put together a basic, which was in the truck, which had gauze and wrap and so forth.

Which I now need to replace. Over the last few days used most of the gauze pads and wrap on the two bad areas of the scrape, which is sore but doing much better. Looks like hell but no signs of infection.

A: Get at least one kit put together, preferably two(vehicle and home).
B: Get extras of everything.

Now I need to find someplace with better prices than Wally World or the drug stores for the elastic wrap and such.

That fish

with the big teeth? Tigerfish, from Africa. Rob C says:
"Found in the Okavango, Zambezi... can somtimes be persuaded to jump into your lap by using a dollop of C4 in a coke can. These blighters can usually only be caught by using a stainless steel lead on the hook, normal line is no match."

Jeez, with those teeth I don't doubt it. I'll have to take his word on it for the C4 method, having no familiarity with it.

Heard about the ol' boy caught using dynamite to fish? Game warden heard what sounded like a blast and went up the river a bit, found this guy anchored and scooping fish off the surface with a net. Looked into the boat and saw two capped & fused sticks and said "Jason, you damn well know you can't do that. I'm gonna have to write you a ticket and arrest you on top of that!"

Jason picked up a stick, lit the fuse and tossed it to the warden. Warden caught it and was standing there in shock when Jason said "You gonna talk or you gonna fish?"

Australia and Britain:

Screw the facts, we'll wet our pants if we see those nasty guns!"

Instapundit linked to the first, Tim Blair to the second.

"We teach children about how bad guns are and yet we are being put into a position where we have to explain why there is a man in the car park carrying a gun bought across the road."
How about "Because, dear, not everyone is such a wussy as your father and I."?

Chris reminds us of murder and other disgusting crimes

committed fifteen years ago by US Marshalls, ATF and FBI.

At the time I thought that, second to the deaths caused by these jerks, the real damage would be to law enforcement, particularly federal; after witnessing this crap and the coverups and lies after, how the hell were people supposed to trust them on anything?

Add in some years, and the PC attitudes- or fear thereof- that kept FBI brass from even requesting a warrant to search the laptop of a terrorist, and caused them to- instead of demoting or firing his sorry ass- transfer and promote a Special Agent(very special, yes indeed) who refused to do his job because "A muslim does not tape another muslim". And the continuing lies and BS and crimes committed by ATF. Then add in the FBI lying in court and withholding evidence, sending innocent people to prison to cover for informants, and as I asked before, we're supposed to trust these people why?

When a friend sends you something like this

and your firstone of your first thoughts is























"Good trigger discipline", you need help.

Or a date.

Heard from the son this morning

As I mentioned before, I'm not sure about security/risk aspects of the information so for now I'm going to be vague: he's still in one hot & sandy place, about to travel to the other hot & sandy place to the FOB where he'll be stationed.

Comments so far boil down to: It's hot(120F) and it's flat. As to the latter, "Looking out in the desert there's some bumps on the sand. Then you zoom in, and it's a bunch of camels. It's FLAT out here."

And so things continue.

Does anyone know what the hell

this is?


















I don't have any 'fish of the world' books, and every time I try to find something like this online I get sidetracked. Any guesses?

Guy sent it to me with the caption 'world's biggest piranha', but I don't think so; the body shape seems wrong, and the teeth are different. But it's an interesting thing in any case.

Why I have a label of "Liberal 'thought' "

Couple of days ago Kim had this post, which led to the article. I just read it, and out of all the "Oh, God..." things in it, this one really seems to sum up what's wrong not just in Britain, but with a bunch of the nanny-state weenies we have to deal with here:
There's at least a vague agreement among progressive people that if you live in reasonable accommodation you are asking for trouble. To occupy a decent house, after all, is to provoke the less fortunate.

Think about that. If you work hard and save up and have a nice house, you're 'asking for trouble'. Not 'you worked hard and succeeded', not 'if he can make it, others can'. Oh, no, working and succeeding is 'asking for trouble'.

I need to practice tying a noose.

"So there ah wuz..."

I ache. All over, but especially my right shin. It's been a long day.

Yesterday I noticed some limbs on a couple of trees that had grown far too close for comfort to the power line to the house, and a big limb on one elm that was dead. I figured I'd get them tomorrow before it gets hot. So this morning after I regained consciousness woke up I headed out, got out the ladder and polesaw and got to it. The elm took less than an hour, cutting the thing up to get rid of took longer. Then to the other side of the yard to clear the power line.

Let me preface this with "I do not like working around power lines". Period. But I could get this done without getting too close to it, so to work. However, after the first bit I found that the limbs I really needed to prune could not be reached from the ground or the ladder; I had to get them from the trees themselves.

I don't know what kind they are. They're only about 15-feet high at most, but they'll forever after be known as 'those damn tangled trees'. Lots of little twigs and branches going every which way, so to get to the main problems I had to get up in each with a pruning saw and loppers and
first, cut the stuff I could reach that needed pruning, and
second, cut enough small stuff out of the way so I could get the polesaw to the stuff I had to cut.

First tree, no real problems. Second tree... more tangled than the first, by this time it was afternoon and getting hot(combined with high humidity, oh joy), and a lot harder to get in a secure position to cut. But had things going along fairly well, when the polesaw overbalanced, and I overbalanced and all went forward. No, I didn't quite go to the ground; I did find myself facing back up into the tree with a branch in each hand and one foot on a limb and some definite pains. I hauled my fat ass back into the tree, wilted some leaves with language expressing my feelings of upset, and managed to drag the saw back up and get it done.

By the time I got down I now had a big damn pile of limbs to cut up-some to be fed through the chipper and the rest cut to proper length so I can put them out for big trash pickup in a couple of weeks- and a scrape on one shin that goes from a little below the knee damn near to my instep. Which of course bled and hurt like a sonofabitch when I took a shower. So I was very careful when I dressed to go out and take care of some things to make sure my sock was rolled as low as possible.

So the evening consisted of every bang and strain I hadn't felt earlier presenting themselves for inspection and drinking a lot because I damn near overheated while doing all this. And when I took the socks off I discovered(of course!) that the sock on that leg had worked its way up a bit, so pulling it off took some scab with it. To the accompaniment of more language practice.

I so much do NOT want to repeat all this. The pruning not for a while, the gymnastics practice ever.

More general

Support MYOB in comments on the mining deal Rosia Montana referred to this, a blog by a local. Check it out.

How Societies Commit Suicide.

Science is supposed to be about asking questions of everything, whether anyone likes it or not. But the nanny-state "You hurt my feelings!" people will try to ruin you if your question upsets them.

And a bunch of people have made note of this study, this post from Anthroblogogy:
For example, handguns are outlawed in Luxembourg, and gun ownership extremely rare, yet its murder rate is nine times greater than in Germany, which has one of the highest gun ownership rates in Europe. As another example, Hungary's murder rate is nearly three times higher than nearby Austria's, but Austria's gun ownership rate is over eight times higher than Hungary's. "Norway," they note, "has far and away Western Europe's highest household gun ownership rate (32%), but also its lowest murder rate. The Netherlands," in contrast, "has the lowest gun ownership rate in Western Europe (1.9%) ... yet the Dutch gun murder rate is higher than the Norwegian."
Yes, definitely an interesting piece to bring up to GFW's who blame guns for everything.

Oh, and just to cover it again:

Pentax red-dots suck!
Pentax customer service sucks!

Pentax red-dots suck!
Pentax customer service sucks!

Pentax red-dots suck!
Pentax customer service sucks!

On disaster preparation

There are things I hate to shop for or buy.

Not because there's something inherently bad or unpleasant about the thing in question, but because of what it stands for. Medications or vitamins mean accepting that there's a health problem or the possibility of, crap like that. Some things, sometimes, it means you've looked at a very unpleasant possibility, decided it could happen and then decided to get ready. Just in case.

One thing a lot of people have a real problem with, in this line of thought, is buying a gun for self-defense. Or just deciding to use one they own for the purpose. Many of us have known someone who liked to hunt or target shoot or collect, but would not have a loaded gun in the house; the idea of looking down the barrel at another human being, even in the gravest circumstances, they can't handle. Especially if you've been around people who've prepared for that(law enforcement, military, just people who've decided their life and their families lives are worth defending), it's usually not as big a problem. With the exception of a few people who have a screw so loose it's about to fall out, nobody likes the idea, but the idea of being unarmed and helpless in the face of an attack, especially if someone you care about is at risk, is far worse than the thought of firing a shot into another person.

The step that started me thinking about this was buying a holster. Someone, can't remember who, a while back wrote that part of his get-home or bugout bag was a thigh holster, because his standard belt holster didn't fit well with a backpack.

Simple thing, right? Which I'd never thought of. I've got a get-home and a bugout pack(which I tend to keep fooling with what's inside, but that's another matter) and I'd adjusted the straps and so forth, but I'd never actually worn the damn things with a pistol on. So I tried it, and yeah, a low-ride holster would be a very good idea.

I'd looked online and found a couple, but wanted to actually see the thing before buying. Other day I finally took time to hit a local shop(nobody else locally had one I could find) and found a couple. And then spent a while comparing, and trying to decide between(one more expensive but more solid, the other less expensive and lighter) and it finally hit me why I was dithering: for some reason, this step- even more than putting the packs together- was admitting that certain things could happen to make the world go to hell and I'd better be ready, just in case.

I spent the drive home thinking about this, and wondering why this step hit that point so hard. I couldn't figure it out, still can't(just amazing how the mind works at times). It did remind me of something, which I finally found. Ever heard of Harry Flashman? A gentleman named George MacDonald Fraser wrote a series of books about him, all well-worth reading. Harry is a no-crap coward who wound up in the British army and was involved in some very important events for the British Empire, and some other nations as well. In Royal Flash he's been enticed into a trip and he's packing, when he runs into a quandary over a pair of pistols:
But I pondered about taking them. The truth was, I didn't want to believe that I might need them.
...
I knew, as I hesitated with those pistols in my hands, that if I took them I should be admitting the possibility of my own sudden death or maiming in whatever lay ahead.
...
And experience has taught me that, as with all weapons, while you may not often need it, when you do you need it badly.

A few months back Kim had a letter from a guy who'd basically been disowned by 'polite society' for doing a horrible thing: during a discussion about disaster preparations, when some of the neighbors/friends said if things blew up they'd come stay with him- since he was prepared- he basically said "The hell you will!" This struck them as being absolutely horrible of him, proving that he was uncaring and uncivilized and hateful and probably ate kittens and puppies for breakfast. I commented at the time that at least some of that nonsense was probably because he faced them with a terrible thought: that if things did go to hell they'd have to take care of themselves. Even if only for a little while. And that just flat terrified them. Especially since, as for Harry, they were faced with the thought of their death. And maybe the deaths of their family.

One of the mantras of self-defense is "mental preparation and attitude is vital, even more so than physical preparations". Really, it goes for pretty much any emergency. And, as per Harry's words, one of the possibilities you have to face is "I could get hurt. I could get killed, even in winning." Because, especially if you're protecting wife/husband/kids/etc. from attackers, the very unpleasant fact is that 'winning' can mean you stop the attackers, but you're crippled. Or dead. Not a nice thing to contemplate, but it has to be faced. So part of preparation is working scenarios in your head, and including in them you getting hurt but not stopping until the fight is done.

I think I've gone a bit overlong in this. It just struck me that this kind of reluctance to do/buy something has to hit a lot of people, and getting over it is part of developing the mental state of I will survive. And getting to that proper mental attitude can be a lot harder than buying the tools.

Remember the AP story about LE ammo shortages?

Caused by the nasty war?

BS.

And in other news:
Enviroweenies and rich socialists don't care about people who's lives are at stake:
And in late 2004, the Council of Europe sent Eddie O'Hara, a British Labour Party member of the European Parliament, to Rosia Montana to file an official report. Opposition to the mine, he said, was "substantial," but it was "very much fueled by outside bodies, presumably well-meaning but possibly counterproductively. It seems in part at least exaggerated." Mr. O'Hara concluded the opposition "do not take account of modern mining techniques and in fact the Rosia Montana project will help to clear up existing pollution." He also warned that not allowing the mine "would remove any chance of local development for some time."

Gee, outside agitators telling the locals what's good for them. Who'da thunk it?

Quote of the day:
It’s easy to see why he’s so anti-gun. He thinks we all have as little self-control as he does.

And last, more on the New Republic/Bullshit Beauchamp situation, here and here.
More later. Once I can find the book I'm looking for.

What is it about spiders

that brings some of these people out? Remember the guy whose pet black widow killed him? At least this guy got rid of the beast before something really bad happened, but still...

Not one of the rescuers dared to open the container, lest the orange arachnid get loose or bite them with its half-inch fangs.

Half-inch fangs? On a freakin' spider?? No, I do NOT want one around. Strange I may be, but not that strange.

More point-shooting pics

Also from Jordan's book, his sequence on draw & fire from concealed carry at close range.

Starting, his gun hand sweeps in & back to start carrying the jacket out of the way, and he does something you can't really see in these: he sways his hips to the left a bit















The motion continues, the jacket out of the way as he grasps the pistol,















draws a sweeps it forward and level to fire

On the 'hallowed halls of journalism' and other bullcrap

Insty linked to this which led to the article. I'm not going to go through it, you should just read it and marvel at the attitude.

'Sacred and magical place' my ass.

Erin is a bitch

even this far from water.

My rain gauge shows about 5" since yesterday afternoon, and we got off light compared to some areas west & southwest of here. They had heavier rains, strong winds and some tornados yesterday evening through last night. The storm came through Texas, into southwest OK and then looped north & east, wetting all over the place as it went.

There's a system called Mesonet in the state, observation stations for the National Weather Service*. A little earlier I heard one of the weather weenies saying that it sends in wind readings every five minutes, and for a couple of hours in some areas it kept reporting wind speeds in the 60's. We get lots of storms and such with gusts in the 60's, but continuous winds of that speed aren't real common around here. Lots of damage, lots of power & phone lines down.

And lots of flooding, to the degree of closing down I-40 out west for hours due to water flowing across the highway. Hard enough and deep enough to wash a semi into the median.

Now it's moving further off to the east and we should have just some sprinkles or light stuff before it clears out completely. A little rain to water the landscape would have been nice, but this was not needed; most ponds and lakes and reservoirs are still as full as they've ever been from the rains May-July. Downright messy out there.

*Interesting system. They wanted to expand it years ago and wound up making a deal with the state law enforcement network. They set up stations(usually at/near a police or sheriff's dept) and hook up to the LE network; that way they could set up a lot more stations, with people nearby who can check the equipment if it drops off, and they didn't have to pay for independant circuits to move the data.

"Gangs, alas, are offering what boys need"

is the title of this article Insty linked to, in which a lady reports on a year spent digging into why the gang problem in Britain has become so bad. Her two main points are:
Young boys join gangs, they told me, because they are afraid. There is nobody else to protect them, certainly no responsible adult.
The second:
Teenage boys need different treatment to girls to become responsible members of society. They need a role model.

Now, I know a lot of you are rolling your eyes over the latter and thinking things along the lines of "Well, no shit!" And a lot of people have said this over time and been ignored(I think she's probably catching a lot of crap for daring to state that 'boys need different treatment', thus violating the pc demands that there's no difference between boys and girls other than genitals). I have no hope for the upper reaches of the Brit government, it overall having shown itself to be so dedicated to nanny-state BS that no pointing out of facts will sway them. And the way their government is set up(as I understand it) the people in general have real problems trying to change things. At least until, as Kim puts it, the Glorious Day arrives.

A big part of her fix is both more male teachers, and more sports. As to the male teachers, that can have some really good benefits, but only if the teachers are more worried about teaching than about being pc:
One young man teaching in a school in a deprived area in the northeast said his “main focus” was not to offend his pupils. “I don’t want to push my middle-class values on them,” he explained earnestly.
Never mind that they NEED someone to tell them to work hard, to study, to try to become better, to shut up and behave: far more important to too many(and we've got the bastards here, too) is being 'sensitive and caring and non-judgemental'. No matter the cost.

And sports, be it said, can be a real lifeline to some kids, but in so many cases it's substituting for having a family that gives a damn and demands the kid actually perform.

Going back to her first point, there's a bit that I had to read twice:
The police and the Home Office have not taken crimes against young people seriously because they do not know they are happening. The British Crime Survey, described by the Home Office on its website as “the most reliable measure of crime” does not include crimes against anyone under 16.

Well, hell, no wonder nobody believes their idiot Crime Survey when it says things are better! How the HELL can you leave that group out? Sheer idiocy. Or completely deliberate: I very much doubt the 'they do not know they are happening' is true. Considering some of the crap that's come out in the past, I think they may deliberately have left them out so as to make the 'official figures' look better. No, as a matter of fact, I don't trust them; God knows why anyone would.

Personally, I'd say a hell of a lot of this boils down to the fallout of the multi-culti PC crap. If you don't judge people behaving badly, if you don't demand discipline and learning in school, if you have no problem with women(to use the term loosely) pumping out bastards from different fathers- none of whom bother to stay around- and think society has some obligation to provide a check and a place to live to people who don't want to take care of themselves... You get gangs, you get crime, you get social standards disappearing.

Oh, as a finish, I can't pass up this line about teenage boys: In times of war we value their aggression, their sense of immortality, their loyalty to one another. But in peacetime they are at best a nuisance, at worst a threat.
Not exactly encouraging, is she?

More on the jackass reporter in Boston

whining that the nasty 2nd Amendment types are out to get him. The Real Gun Guys have a nice roundup of the situation.

Oh, and they were the guys with the smoke bomb recipe. I need to go shopping...

As my experience now says, Don't Buy Pentax

They may make good cameras, but their red-dots suck. And so does their 'customer support'.

About a month ago at Dealer Days at H&H Range, there was a Pentax dealer. One of the things shown was their HS10 red-dot sight. Not bad, I thought, small & light, would fit nicely on the M1 Carbine, and the man said they'd been tested clear up to .454 Casull revolvers for recoil tolerance. So I laid down my money and took it home.

Fast-forward to range day, where I discover this is a piece of crap. The adjustments are uneven(sometimes a slight turn makes a BIG move, sometimes a BIG turn doesn't move at all), so it took a bit to get it zeroed at 50 yards. And then it lost zero. Reseat the battery(I know, but just in case), no difference. Damn thing now wandered all over the place.

I checked the Pentax site and it has their 'customer service' link to contact them. They say someone will get back to you within three business days. Bullshit. I sent and waiting a week, no response. So, just to see, I sent again, being sure to mention the first no-response.

It's been just over a week. And sure enough, no response. Pentax either doesn't read their web contact forms, or don't give a crap about their customers. So I look up their 800 number and decide to have everything handy before I call.

Yeah, you know what's coming.

I can't find the damn receipt, despite having set it with some others. Which means even if Pentax came through I couldn't return it.

Losing the receipt was my bad. Selling a defective product and then not responding to multiple requests for assistance, their bad.

PENTAX RED-DOT SIGHTS SUCK!

PENTAX RED-DOT SIGHTS SUCK!

PENTAX RED-DOT SIGHTS SUCK!

PENTAX RED-DOT SIGHTS SUCK!

PENTAX RED-DOT SIGHTS SUCK!

Dammit!

Couple of days ago I ran across a blog which had-among other things- a very good recipe for making smoke bombs.

Anyone know who it might have been?

And we're supposed to trust Federal authorities

why?
In one eye-popping exchange, two congressmen—one Democrat and one Republican—confronted Wayne Murphy, the assistant director of the FBI Directorate of Intelligence about the way the FBI uses drug informants. Rep. Dan Lundgren, R-Calif., and Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., told Murphy they were troubled by reports that the FBI had looked the other way while some of its drug informants participated in violent crimes, and that the agency then failed to notify local authorities, leaving many of those crimes unsolved.

Lundgren and Delahunt said they were also troubled by reports that in order to protect the identity of its informants, the FBI had withheld exculpatory evidence from criminal trials, resulting in innocent people going to prison.

Now, just by itself this is reason for tar, feathers and a rail; but it gets worse:
Could Murphy assure the U.S. Congress, Delahunt and Lundgren asked, that the FBI has since instituted policies to ensure that kind of thing never happens again?

Murphy hemmed and hawed, but ultimately said that he could not make any such assurance.

So the damned FBI has knowingly and repeatedly sent innocent people to prison. But when they show up to ask questions, you're supposed to TRUST these people?!?

Another reason not to vote for Giuliani

I've mentioned before that I could not vote for him, if for no other reason than his hostility to the 2nd Amendment. Well, I was over at Confederate Yankee and found a link to The Shield of Achilles who has this on Giuliani and illegal immigration:
At a town hall-style meeting with about 100 voters at a technical college in Concord on Tuesday, Giuliani encountered a voter who asked why the former mayor made "New York City a sanctuary for illegal aliens."

"You must be talking about another candidate," said Giuliani, who went on to argue that his administration urged the federal government to deport as many illegal immigrants as possible.

However,
“Some of the hardest-working and most productive people in this city are undocumented aliens,” Giuliani said at the time. “If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you’re one of the people who we want in this city. You’re somebody that we want to protect, and we want you to get out from under what is often a life of being like a fugitive, which is really unfair.”

As much as the encouraging of illegals, what pisses me off here is that he flat lied about his previous words and actions.

So here's two reasons I could not vote for this man.