So Bill Clinton, despite his "Anti-gun pushes cost Democrats

the Congress" is throwing out bullcrap for the Brady Group to Ban Firearms:
Nobody wants to repeal the Second Amendment, and nobody wants to keep you out of the deer woods, but wouldn’t it be nice if your children didn’t have to worry about being mowed down by an assault weapon when they turn the corner?
Scaremongering and bullcrap, same as the last verse. Hope and Change!

Clinton also had this in the speech:
...We are now poised, I think, to spend a generation operating as a nation the way you operate in your cities on your best days. That does not mean the Democrats will win all the elections - if the Republicans reform themselves and develop a 21st century version of the second great Republican President's - Theodore Roosevelt's - philosophy, so that we have... a dueling communitarianism. That is, "my way of bringing us together is better than your way of bringing us together." One can be a little to the right of center, one can be a little to the left of center. But we will not go forward anymore, I don't think, with the kind of politics of division and destruction that drug us down for too long.
Translation: "C'mon, socialism is a WONDERFUL thing, and if the Stupid Party will just change to agree to that, we can all move forward!"

Anyone checked the price of tar and pillows, lately?

Rep. Rush(Evil Party GFW-IL) bill is a 'literacy test for gun owners'; nice way to put it.
One should not be required to obtain a license or pass a government-administered test to exercise any constitutionally-protected civil right. If the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s taught us anything, it is that all civil rights are sacred, one is no less important than another, and all of them are worth defending because a threat to one puts all rights in peril.

Rush would demote the Second Amendment right to the rank of a privilege that can be regulated by government. He is, after all, from Chicago, home of a Draconian gun ban law that gun control extremists consider "reasonable."

He would make the entire country like Chicago - and while that may square with anti-gun demagogues such as Mayor Richard Daley, it will not pass muster in places such as Missoula, Mont.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Boise, Idaho; Flagstaff, Spokane, Wash. or just about anyplace else west of the Mississippi River or south of the Ohio River.

Perhaps Rush would like to see African-American citizens face this new test at the hands of some aging bureaucrat who remembers the "good old days" when his grandpappy was a Grand Dragon in the Klan and everybody in the county knew it.

Suddenly, if you're black, this written gun safety test doesn't sound so hot, does it?

Each of us has a stake in America, and it requires that we protect everyone else's civil rights as zealously as we guard our own.

A very nice way of pointing out one of the big problems with politicians in DC:
OBAMA: Well, I think my mistake is not in selecting Tom originally, because I think nobody was better equipped to deal both with the substance and policy of health care. He understands it as well as anybody, but also the politics, which is going to be required to actually get it done.

But I think that, look, ultimately, I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards, one for powerful people, and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes.

COOPER: Do you feel you've lost some of that moral high ground which you set for yourself on day one with the…(Crosstalk)

OBAMA: Well, you know, I think this was a mistake. I think I screwed up. And, you know, I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again.

Notice anything in that exchange? Nowhere is there any talk of right or wrong. In Washington's culture, unlike the lives of most normal obviously naive Americans, that's hardly ever the issue. It's about what works. It's all about strategy.

Cooper didn't ask about the propriety of appointing a sudden millionaire to now oversee the people who paid him. He asks if the president should have dumped Daschle earlier?

Obama says Daschle was the best guy; his own mistake was political, creating an impression of hypocrisy by campaigning one way and appointing another.

Fact is, 10 years ago without the 24-hour news cycle and blogosphere, Daschle would almost certainly have been confirmed anyway; his party definitely has the votes and senators in Washington take care of each other, even when they're ex-senators. Again, the club.

And notice the reason Daschle gave for giving up. Nothing to do with having done anything wrong because in Washington's ways, he hadn't. It had to do with becoming a "distraction" for the administration's agenda.

Again, whatever works in Washington. How likely do you think that is to change?

Once again, the Evil Party is counting on squishy RINOs to change sides and pass a bad bill:
The Hill reports President Obama is "lobbying Republican senators personally on his economic stimulus package, which failed to attract a single GOP vote in the House." Obama has "scheduled one-on-one meetings at the White House with a handful of GOP centrists" such as Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins.
Surprise, surprise.

Aw, come ON, don't these people check on, or think about ANYTHING except "He's one of us"?
President Obama wants to be the Transparency President:

ON his first full day in the Oval Office, President Obama signaled a new approach to government transparency that will help restore trust in government.

As if opening the Bush administration's musty drapes in the Oval Office, Obama issued a memo urging agencies to err on the side of disclosure rather than on the side of secrecy, when responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

So it's somewhat ironic that Obama has nominated King County Executive Ron Sims to be No. 2 at HUD.

After all, Sims is culpable for what may well become the largest fine for violations of public records laws in U.S. history: see Yousoufian, Armen

My own public records suit against Sims (for delaying release of election records which revealed that King County officials unlawfully counted hundreds of ineligible ballots in the 2004 governor's race) goes to trial in April.
Of course, considering his past with ACORN and other vote-fraud groups, Obama may not consider something like this a problem; more like "Ah, somebody who knows my kind of operation!"

Another way of looking at Sen. Dodd(Corrupticrat-CN) and his "See! I'm innocent!" show:
Now Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen, Chris Dodd, D-CN, has pulled what has to be an all-time classic evasion stunt against journalists covering Congress and the economic crisis concerning his promise six months ago to make public all of the documents about his sweetheart loan deal with Countrywide Mortgage.

Dodd invited a select few Connecticut reporters to his office in Hartford Monday and gave them a few minutes to view - but not copy - a small selection of documents that he claims proves he did nothing wrong in accepting special treatment from Countrywide that saved him a reported $75,000 in refinancing a couple of loans worth a total of $800,000. The Wall Street Journal called it Dodd's "Peek-A-Boo Disclosure."
As I recall this is the same kind of crap Sen. Kerry(Magic Hat Bearer) pulled on his "I will release my military records"; invited one reporter to view part of the record and then claimed "I fulfilled my promise."

Ok, I'm closing with this which, if true, should be resolved by Obama and everyone involved being publicly horsewhipped, then tarred and feathered, then run the hell out of the country:
According to GeostrategyDirect.com, a newsletter published by The Washington Times' ace national security reporter Bill Gertz, "Diplomatic sources said Barack Obama has engaged several Arab intermediaries to relay messages to and from al Qaeda in the months before his election as the 44th U.S. president. The sources said al Qaeda has offered what they termed a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. 'For the last few months, Obama has been receiving and sending feelers to those close to al Qaeda on whether the group would end its terrorist campaign against the United States,' a diplomatic source said. 'Obama sees this as helpful to his plans to essentially withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq during his first term in office.'"
A: If he's actually stupid enough to believe al Qaeda would honor any such agreement, he's too stupid to be out in public without a keeper to prevent him running into traffic.
B: If he doesn't believe them, but figures this is a way to make the moonbats happy, then he's so untrustworthy with the fate of this country we should go to the tar-feathers-whip option as soon as possible. Even HINTING to the enemy of such an agreement is so stupid I have no words to properly describe it.

Two things you ought to read

I know, I said 'night', but I just ran across these.

First, a piece by Judea Pearl, Daniel Pearl's mother. It includes this:
But the clearest endorsement of terror as a legitimate instrument of political bargaining came from former President Jimmy Carter. In his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," Mr. Carter appeals to the sponsors of suicide bombing. "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Road-map for Peace are accepted by Israel." Acts of terror, according to Mr. Carter, are no longer taboo, but effective tools for terrorists to address perceived injustices.

Mr. Carter's logic has become the dominant paradigm in rationalizing terror. When asked what Israel should do to stop Hamas's rockets aimed at innocent civilians, the Syrian first lady, Asma Al-Assad, did not hesitate for a moment in her response: "They should end the occupation." In other words, terror must earn a dividend before it is stopped.


Second, this piece on the strikes that have gone wildcat in Britain:
Today the strike in Lincolnshire has spread across Britain to contractors at the nuclear power plants Sellafield and Heysham, to Grangemough oil refinery and power stations at Longanet, Warrington and Staythorpe, to contractors at the South Hook LNG terminal in Milford Haven, and to Croyton oil refinery in Essex.

Thousands have gone out. The strikes have gone wild cat.

And all of it is right. For what else can British workers do when their own parliament has turned over the power to control Britains' borders and Britain's labour laws to the Brussels empire?

There is no point in saying, 'The workers must obey the laws that govern employment.' The laws which now govern employment in this country are no longer legitimate. They are no longer the laws drawn up by British democracy.

They are the laws drawn up by the European Commission. They are laws to which a generation of Britain's politicians have signed up, giving away powers they had no right to give away.

Britain's politicians signed up to these laws in Treaties most of them have never read, and if they did read them, they didn't believe every 'Europe without frontiers' clause would be enforced.

Well, surprise: the rootless cosmopolitan euro-zealots all over the Continent (though mostly in France) and the career eurocrats in Brussels (mostly led by the French) who wrote the European treaties put this stuff in because they meant to see it enforced.

But just listen to the whining of Peter Hain, the former work and pensions secretary who was part of Tony Blair's EU-pandering government, at the weekend. He told one paper that he thought something had gone 'badly wrong' with the way EU legislation was being enforced.

What he means is it is actually being enforced. The only thing that is 'badly wrong' is that Britain should ever have agreed to it in the first place.

It sounds like a lot of the people in Britain have finally found a way to say "Enough!" that the politicians can't avoid hearing. Understanding, that's a different thing, but they're damn well hearing it from the sound of this. The EUnuchs are, too; look for them to do/say something about forcing the peasant to obey that'll really set some things off. I hope.

Ok, I broke the M1 down completely,

everything except taking apart the trigger group, and inspected. No sign of lead fouling in/around the gas port, in the cylinder or on the piston. Cleaning the bore was two patches damp with Eezox pushed through, a third worked back & forth a few times, let sit a few minutes, then wipe a couple of dry patches through; cleaned just like normal, no visible sign of lead fouling.

Looking at the target, looks like about 4-4.5" at 100 with this load, with eight clicks elevation over the regular zero putting it dead-on. I do have to make a confession: some of that group may well be me. The inside of the rear sight was at an angle that got a lot of glare from the sun, which did not help. At all. It may be that I need a different bullet. Browsing through the stuff at Cast Boolits I've seen people getting good results with cast bullets from 130 to 200 grains, so there's lots of possibilities. This load worked nicely for the indoor range when I want to shoot the Garand there, but I'd like to get a load that gives better accuracy at 100. WHich this might under different conditions; just have to try.

I was able to try the 180-grain bullet, sized .311, in the #4Mk1 Enfield, and it shot nicely, though hitting a bit, about 3", to the right of point of aim(seems to be common with cast bullets in a gun specifically designed around a regular jacketed).

Now I've just about got things cleaned up, so I need to clean myself up and get to bed. Night, all.

Ref the "They're cutting the defense budget"--"No they're

not" crap going around, Insty pointed to this.
Confronted by two costly wars and a collapsing economy, the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee is preparing to trim military spending on weapons, committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin said Jan. 30…. “We are going to cut weapons systems,” Levin said during a news conference in an ornate Armed Services Committee hearing room.

“That’s not just me speaking. The secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs [of Staff] have spoken about [how] we have got to face the reality that there’s going to be a reduction somewhere in the defense budget,” said Levin, D-Mich.

“We don’t want to reduce personnel; we don’t want to shortchange personnel” amid a war, he said. “So we’ve got to look to the future and make savings there. There’s the fact of life.”

Put bluntly, I don't trust Levin as far as I can throw my truck. I'll let Boot say it:
There is something deeply disingenuous going on when Levin says “That’s not just me speaking.” He then goes on to quote senior Defense Department leaders indicating that they have to face the reality of a cut in the budget. But note that Secretary of Defense Bob Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen aren’t saying that the defense budget should be cut on the merits. They are perfectly aware that, notwithstanding a surge of war-related supplemental appropriations since 9/11, the armed forces have pressing demands — ranging from extra soldiers to newer aerial tankers and more ships — that desperately need to be addressed.

This is one of the things that scared hell out of me about Obama, and has pissed me off for years from people like Levin. Whether Obama & Co. realize it or not, those 'future combat systems' he wants to trash even research on are what give our troops the edge they have; the NEED those things. And Levin is one of the people who were whining and bitching and accusing "We didn't put enough troops into (fill in the blank)" and blaming Bush; but they've NEVER put forth a bill to increase funding so there would BE more troops to do the damned job, and if someone else did they did everything they could think of to prevent it passing.

I'm thinking Obama probably did do the 10% cut stuff talked about earlier, then when the screaming was louder than expected played "No, no, there needs to be an increase!", and now is using Levin and the other asshats to try and keep some of the heat off himself.

No, as a matter of fact, I don't trust ANY of them.

Range day

It was above freezing, and supposed to reach the lower 50's, and I was off, so headed out this morning.
A: It never hit 50.
B: Turns out there's a front coming in, and the wind was coming out of the north all day.
C: I knew the sun would be relatively low, but I'd forgotten how much that would affect how I see the sights.
Overall, nice day anyway, though I have to admit I need targets with a bigger bull for 100 yards now; my eyes ain't what they used to be(see subsection B: Getting Old Sucks). I'll write up the results later, the one thing I will go into now is the cast-bullet loads for the M1 Garand.

These, you might remember, used a 150-grain RCBS flat-point gas-check bullet over a charge of IMR4895. They worked out giving about 4" groups at 100. I'm honestly not sure if it's the bullet or me; the aperture and sun were at just the right angle to give a fair bit of glare, which did give me problems in aiming. I'd loaded 16 rounds of 35.0 grains, and in the second clip there were two cases where the bolt didn't go back quite far enough to pick up the next round; all the 36.0 grain loads cycled normally. I'll break it down later and check the gas system to see if any sign of lead fouling.

If the system is clear, I'm going to load some more for next time, and remember my little shade for the rear sight to take care of the glare. I'm also going to measure some of the as-cast bullets for diameter; I'm wondering if using them as-cast, lubing by hand and using the .311 sizer to seat the gas checks might work better. Have to think about that.

I now return you to your regular afternoon.

So the next step in Sen. Dodd(Corrupt-CT) trying to cover up

like a cat on a tile floor is to A: refinance to try and make the sweetheart deals go away, and B:
At least he did if you were a fast reader and were one of the few reporters he invited to his Hartford office yesterday to review -- but not copy or take -- more than 100 pages of documents related to his 2003 mortgage financings through Countrywide's "Friends of Angelo" program.

Heck, we'd all love the kind of courtesy that would have saved Mr. Dodd $75,000 over the life of the two loans he refinanced to the tune of $800,000, according to an analysis by Portfolio magazine. The savings came from rock-bottom interest rates and a free "float-down" -- the right to borrow at a lower rate if interest rates fall before you've closed on the loan.
So he came clean? Not exactly:
We don't know whether the documents Mr. Dodd briefly showed yesterday illuminate this mystery or not, because he didn't release them to us, or to the public or his constituents. Perhaps the reporters he allowed to take a quick peak will tell us more. What he did release to everyone was a set of fact sheets that purport to show there was nothing favorable about the terms Mr. Dodd and his wife received from Countrywide, along with a consultant's report that reaches the same conclusion. Mr. Dodd's office did not respond to our request for the documents themselves, which he promised to release more than six months ago.

But consultant reports -- prepared at the behest of a law firm hired by Mr. Dodd to help him through the Countrywide mess -- tell us nothing about what Mr. Dodd knew and when he knew it. Instead, they are an attempt to change the subject. Mr. Feinberg has said that Friends of Angelo were regularly reminded that they were getting special treatment -- otherwise, what was the point? And he claims to have Countrywide documents that prove that Mr. Dodd was aware that Countrywide had done him favors. Those documents may or may not be among those that Mr. Dodd played peek-a-boo with Monday, but we still don't know. Mr. Dodd said he's "sorry" he didn't release the documents sooner -- just not sorry enough to actually release them, apparently.

'Most ethical Congress' my ass.

Ref the defense budget post,

if this is correct, two questions:
Did the original report get it wrong, in which case the network owes a correction, or
was the original floated to see what reaction it got, and the reaction caused change of heart/go to fallback position?

And will we ever actually know which? Especially with things like this also happening?
CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

Ref the defense budget post,

Just all kinds of stuff out there today

President The Obama has, of course, declared that he's standing behind Daschle the Tax Cheat Nominee #2. Surprise, surprise. With this from Sen. Dick Turban:
"If all you knew about Tom Daschle was that he used to be a senator and he made a mistake and had to pay over $100,000 in back taxes, you would have a right to be skeptical, even cynical," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.). "But if you know Tom Daschle, you know better."
Translation: "Obama won the election and he wants him, so stop causing problems! Besides, what's a little tax evasion from a former Senator, hmmmm?"

As Ace puts it "Nanny Bloomberg bitten by groundhog". Which probably wasn't rabid.
The groundhog, that is. Has the groundhog had shots?

Remember Pres. The Obama declining to answer some questions because 'there's only one President at a time'? Seems that was only in public:
US President Barack Obama has already used experts within the last few months to hold high-level but discreet talks with both Iran and Syria, organizers of the meetings told AFP... However, even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call "track two" discussions to approach America's two foes in the region.
As the man puts it,
Any meetings that happened between November and the inauguration - that was merely Obama circumventing and potentially undermining a sitting Commander In Chief. But the stuff that happened before the election - that's egregious. Remember that Obama's main line of attack on Bush and McCain was that they weren't offering sufficient "strong carrots" to get Iran and Syria to change course. While he was launching those attacks, his surrogates were sitting down with those cretins and talking about all the extra concessions they could expect if they dragged their feet until Obama's inauguration. Some people might consider that a straightforward betrayal of US interests.
Yeah.

And Pres. Hopeychangeypants and his promises to end rendition? Not so much:
Now that the L.A. Times reports that rendition will continue during the Obama administration, Human Rights Watch has apparently altered its position. According to Tom Malinowski, the organization’s “Washington advocacy director,” the risk of torture and other abuses does not mandate the prophylactic cessation of rendition.
Remember the people, during the campaign, saying "Don't lie so openly to us, it makes it hard to keep the faith"? It appears now that the lies are just papered over, now that he's in office.

The 'no lobbyists' promise? Also not so much:
It is easy to project yourself as a clean politician after making your debut in South Side Chicago with buddies like Rahm Emanuel. US president Obama has appointed more than 17 lobbyists after talking big on anti-lobbyist Governance and rooting corruption out of the American Government.

The Prime Minister of Turkey seems to be something of a standard-issue Jew hater.

James Hansen of NASA, globular warmering screamer extraordinaire, gets slapped down. By his boss:
As Chief of several NASA Hq. Programs (1982-94), an SES position, I was responsible for all weather and climate research in the entire agency, including the research work by James Hansen, Roy Spencer, Joanne Simpson, and several hundred other scientists at NASA field centers, in academia, and in the private sector who worked on climate research. ...

[James Hansen] was never muzzled even though he violated NASA's official agency position on climate forecasting (i.e., we did not know enough to forecast climate change or mankind's effect on it). He thus embarrassed NASA by coming out with his claims of global warming in 1988 in his testimony before Congress.

My own belief concerning anthropogenic climate change is that the models do not realistically simulate the climate system because there are many very important sub-grid scale processes that the models either replicate poorly or completely omit. Furthermore, some scientists have manipulated the observed data to justify their model results. In doing so, they neither explain what they have modified in the observations, nor explain how they did it. They have resisted making their work transparent so that it can be replicated independently by other scientists. This is clearly contrary to how science should be done. Thus there is no rational justification for using climate model forecasts to determine public policy.

Obama: Like Jimmy Carter(Without The Sweaters).

Local cops want to be allowed to jam cell signals. This is one of those "Aw, crap" things. I can see, under very limited circumstances(around a suspected bomb, in a jail or prison), allowing this. As a general thing? BIG problems there. And, like SWAT teams and no-knock warrants, if you give this authority you KNOW, without question, that it will wind up being abused.

Dirtbag Commie Ward Churchill wants his job back. And gets the description "In retirement, he's starting to look a lot like Michael Moore," which, considering their viewpoints, doesn't seem a surprise.

'Reporter' Ed Laskos is a bigot. And a truly sorry excuse for a reporter.

Bush hatred and Obama euphoria, two parts of the same religion.

The Stupid Party wouldn't help a guy running against Waxman, who's one of the biggest socialist moonbats out there. Although I'd argue with the line Yet again, I blame the conservative movement and the Republican Party for writing off Hollywood completely.; I'd guess a lot of conservatives probably backed him and liked the idea of him running; but the bigshots of the Stupid Party really are stupid, and they can pretty much control giving help to someone like this.

This guy says we probably don't have to worry much about Obama pushing gun and ammo bans and restrictions. Problem is, while he may not push them personally, he can behind-the-scenes encourage them. And if one made it to his desk, I have no doubt he'd sign it.

Damn, I need to do some things outside while it's nice. See you later

The Governor of Oklahoma has been studying at the alter

of President The Obama, it seems. He gave his State of the State address this afternoon at the opening of the session. Following my usual practice I turned the radio off for most of it, but when I turned the volume up a couple of times to see if he was done, I caught two things:
First, lots of pushing for the state to basically take over health care. He didn't put it that bluntly, but that's what it seemed to boil down to.
Second, you can tell that Republicans have majorities in both Houses as he(D) called for 'an end to partisanship, and said(can't remember the exact words)"You can do things that get the approval of bloggers and talk radio, or you can do what's good for the state."

Governor, if by chance you or one of your flunkies reads this: As you can tell, I'm a blogger, and your slimy insinuation that I do not care what's good for the state is disgusting. There's a guy named Shannon who has an afternoon show on KTOK; your insinuation that he doesn't care about what's good for Oklahoma is equally disgusting. I don't agree with everything he says any more than I agree 100% with Rush or Glenn Beck, but he's saying what he thinks, and a lot of people do agree with him(them) on a lot of things. We've got to put up with the President trying to silence dissent, we don't need to have to put up with it from you. And that bit of crap you threw out has gained a 'Idiot Politicians' tag on this post.

Yeah, I believe he means it;

and the unicorn is going to poop out $20 gold pieces on my front step overnight:
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs characterized the gap between Wall Street compensation and Main Street hardship as "outrageous." President Obama topped him with "shameful" and "the height of irresponsibility."

The president said, "Part of what we're going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some responsibility."
Really?
New York's Charles Rangel and five other Democratic members of the House enjoyed a trip to the Caribbean sponsored in part by Citigroup (see above) in November - after Congress had approved the $700 bailout for financial firms (including Citigroup).

The members no doubt will object to the terms "junket," but that shoe fits. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to investigate the Nov. 6-9 excursion to the island of St. Maarten.

It was called the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference, but "the primary purpose ... for most participants appeared to be to take a vacation," said the NLPC. And not only was the timing lousy, but "corporate sponsorship of such an event was banned by House rules adopted on March 1, 2007, in response to the (lobbyist Jack) Abramoff scandal," the group pointed out.
Think anything'll be done about it? Me neither. After all, they're wanting to put this tax cheat into high office, too:
“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter. ” Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.

It takes a proverb...

As grad student experts have long taught us, Western culture is quick to marginalize and devalue knowledge from the "Other." For example, look at the recent ridicule aimed at the "Egg of Power" sculpture President Obama keeps in the Oval Office. There is a disturbing hint of racism to the ridicule, because that sculpture happens to refer to a traditional proverb that comes from, depending on how you Google it, either Kenya or a 1993 Hallmark Kwanzaa card. Would these critics be so cavalier in their snickering if the president had brought some traditional white art, like a Successories poster or replica Harry Potter wand?
...
"Beware the eye of the tiger, for he is a survivor, and he knows many power ballads."
Mulleti

"Give a man a fish, he will eat today. Promise a man a million fish, he will contribute heap big wampum to your tribal election campaign fund."
Iroquois

"While the polar bear bickers with the seal, that fat asshole walrus snarfs all the fish."
Inuit
And so on. Go, now. Or you'll regret it

I now officially despise Daschle even more than before,

which I hadn't thought possible. And I can't distrust Pres. The Obama any more than I already did, but my contempt is growing. From the comments:
Daschle may have other tax problems with some other benefits.

Daschle will have to RE-amend his tax returns because he forgot to pay all of his MEDICARE taxes!

Daschle waited six months to amend his tax returns (after he was picked for the nomination).

Smells, smells very bad.
I'll have to disagree with the description: it doesn't 'smell very bad', it flat-out effing STINKS! This clown didn't bother with paying his taxes on this stuff until he was picked for this post, and then he STILL didn't pay all of them(just like our tax-cheat head of the Treasury), and apparently he's STILL trying to get away with skipping on some of them. And Obama & Co. keep saying it's not a 'real problem' and he should get the post.

He should get the same treatment anybody else would, which would include an IRS enema and back-taxes and penalties and interest. AND being told he has no damn business handling our money because he cannot be trusted. How do regular peasants get treated?
And how did the Daschles' get a penalty waiver? How, how, how...

Don't get me started. I have to deposit payroll taxes weekly online through my bank.

I got hit with a 10% late deposit penalty after mistakenly clicked the last day of the following month instead of the last day of current month.

I sent the IRS a letter with the documentation to prove it along with 1% interest.

On Friday I got the response. "Sorry, we can't waive the penalty because although you show it was not wilfull, you have not shown reasonable cause. You still owe $700 for the penalty."

But there's Hope and Change! with the new form:
Well, I'm doing my taxes on the new 1040dem form this year. It's even easier than the 1040EZ, the only IRS form that can be filled out with a crayon. With the 1040dem, you just take the form, wad it up, and throw it away. One caveat: you have to fill out a Schedule OOPS if you ever get nominated for a high visibility position.

Joshua Key: deserter and liar

And oh, what a liar! Among other things, the man at the first link points out 'who the hell could enlist after 9/11 and think they'd never deploy?

But he says the US sends out the REAL terrorists(our troops) to murder and rape, so the leftards just love him. As usual.

Snork... a quote for the day

"The Feds? Make me laugh. How come they think they're the only ones with a list?"

Why you should check Tam's place on a regular basis

Of his rifle designs, I've always gotten weepy every time I see an 1895 in .405 Winchester; they make my heart go pitter-pat. And a Russian military contract 1895 in 7.62x54R with wood out to the muzzle would be the berries, if ever I could find one. While I've never had a burning desire to own any particular '92 or '94, the 1886 makes me want to do something with my life that would let me afford one, like get elected to Congress for the sweet bribes and kickbacks or, if my conscience wouldn't handle that, smuggle coke.

"Trillions for Pork! But I don't want to waste money on that

icky defense stuff."
BREAKING 01/30/09 7:41PM ET: Fox News Television reports that Barack Obama has issued a demand that the Pentagon reduce its budget by more than 10%. The dollar figure is $55 billion.

President Obama wants to spend a trillion dollars on welfare, condoms, international STD prevention, 600,000 new government jobs and handouts for illegal immigrants... but negative funding for the very mission his Presidential Oath required.

This man said he would cut combat systems and the development thereof, and now he's going to try to do it. Among the things in the current 'stimulus'(i.e. "Spend everything we can get our dirty hands on") bill are
• $83 billion in welfare payments (the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax)
• $81 billion for Medicaid
• $66 billion on "education", more than the entire Department of Education required just ten years ago
• $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
• $20 billion for food stamps
• $8 billion on "renewable energy" projects, which have a low or negative return
• $7 billion for "modernizing federal buildings and facilities"
• $6 billion on urban transit systems, dominated by unions and which, almost universally, lose money
• $2.4 billion for "carbon-capture demonstration projects"
• $2 billion for child-care subsidies
• $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that's run in the red for 40 years
• $650 million for "digital TV conversion coupons" (on top of billions already spent)
• $600 million on new cars for government (added to the $3 billion already spent each year)
• $400 million for "global-warming research"
• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts

He wants to spend almost half-again what he wants Defense to cut in an increase in welfare payments. You know, the program he's already trying to remove limits on?

And this is from a guy who insists on using an electronic device that is in no way safe from hacking, and is listening to people like Levin:
Update V: Via Reuters, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) says that long-range U.S. antiballistic missile system should be scaled down as part of a belt-tightening.

Yell at the Senators, people; loud and long.


*Yes, I originally yelled incorrectly about the digital conversions; I should read more closely when I'm that pissed. Still, 650m? On top of what's already been spent? Bullcrap.

The next 'journalist' who parrots an excuse for Obama-appointee tax crimes

should immediately be tarred and feathered. And the next time some sorry excuse for a reporter or Pelosi or any other politician makes snotty comments about the 'Republican culture of corruption', they should be next. Or first. I am, to put it bluntly God-Damned sick of this.

Contrast that to Daschle's freebie car and driver. First, there is no theory that his wife insisted that Daschle be chauffered around. Second, there is no ambiguity in the law, or no theory that he did not know that he owed the money. It is obviously an in-kind payment for services. Of course he knew he owed the taxes. Finally, there is no tedious extra bureaucratic obstacle to paying this tax. You just drop a number right on to the 1040. You know, that document that you signed under penalty of perjury. Yep, you got it. Mistakes are obvious and when it comes to the tax laws I am more than sympathetic to people who make them, but it is very hard for me to believe that this was one. Genuinely intentional misstatements on a tax return usually require penance more onorous than mere restitution.
...
Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle has an even bigger tax problem than Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: Daschle paid more than $140,000 in taxes and interest on January 2, 2009 for three tax mistakes he made on his 2005-2007 tax returns comprising over $350,000 of omitted income and overstated deductions that were uncovered in the vetting process:

• Failing to report over $255,000 of income from the free use of a car and chauffer provided to him in 2005-2007 by InterMedia Partners, a private equity fund and its managing partner, Leo Hindery, Jr., a prominent Democratic fund-raiser.
• Failing to report over $80,000 of consulting income from the same source in 2007.
• Failing to properly substantiate $15,000 of charitable deductions in 2005-2007.

The Senate Finance Committee staff also notes that there are two unresolved tax issues:

• Free travel and entertainment services provided to the Daschles by EduCap, Inc., Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, Academy Achievement, and Loan to Learn.
• Additional unsubstantiated charitable contributions for 2005-2007

...

As a life-long politician, Tom Daschle never earned much money. But he retired from the Senate, after being defeated for re-election by John Thune, as a multimillionaire. He retired to Georgetown, of course, not to South Dakota. This happens a lot in Washington, and Daschle's case is pretty typical.

His wife Linda is or was a lobbyist, and she was the one who reported the family's income. (This is inference, since Daschle consistently chose not to make his tax returns public.) Linda Daschle made millions "lobbying" on behalf of various corporate interests. There was no conflict of interest, the Democrats assured us, because Linda Daschle only "lobbied" the House of Representatives, not the Senate, where her husband was either the Majority or the Minority Leader for much of his career.

But wait! If a company hired Linda to lobby House members, the check they wrote went straight into the Senate Majority Leader's joint checking account. It would have been a felony to write the check to Tom in exchange for political services, but a check to Linda, that went into the same bank account? No problem! She wasn't lobbying the Senate! So Tom Daschle became a multimillionaire.
and
The principal issues that Daschle is now rectifying with the IRS stem from his relationship with InterMedia Advisors of Englewood, Colo. Daschle is a limited partner and chairman of that firm's executive advisory board, and is also an independent consultant to InterMedia Advisors LLP of New York City.

InterMedia Advisors was founded by Leo Hindery, who, as we noted here, was once the CEO of Global Crossing, a company that enriched a number of prominent Democrats, including Terry McAuliffe, but also turned into one of the biggest bankruptcies in the history of American business, in which creditors and innocent investors lost many millions of dollars. Hindery subsequently ran for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, served on the Board of Advisors of left-wing Democracy Radio, and was awarded the "Oates-Shrum Leadership Award of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund." In his spare time, he's been funneling cash to Daschle.

And Michelle Malkin has this, including a list of the Bend-Over 'Republicans'(here, more than every, the Stupid Party) likely to make excuses for this tax cheat, just like they did the other:
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
Ensign (R-NV)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Voinovich (R-OH)

So the guy in charge of the tax-writing committee is a tax cheat, the guy now in charge of the Treasury is a tax cheat and liar, and now Tom "I'm very concerned" Daschle, another Obama pick for high office, is a bigger tax cheat than either of the other two. Not counting, of course, whatever dirty activities they got away with other than these. And, for the sake of President The Obama we're supposed to applaud these criminals going into high office after getting to skip the penalties any plain old peasant would face ALONG with swallowing the shit sandwich of a spending bill they want to cram down our throats.

I'm beginning to wonder if there are enough lampposts in DC; how sturdy are cherry tree branches?

Back on the subject of the shit sandwich, Insty has a post on people mad at FEMA over how long it's taking for FEMA to show up, and notes somebody named Taylor Marsh saying “Well, this certainly seems fitting in the afterglow of Republican stiffing the new, popular President, all the while people are freezing because of a failed power grid. Nope, can’t spend money on that.” Apparently the concept of 'the spending bill The Obama is pushing doesn't have a damned thing to do with this' just doesn't register; probably because ignoring that means "IT'S THE REPUBLICANS FAULT!!!" in her twisted little mind. I went to her site to see the whole of this piece of sh- er, work, to find a 'system maintenance in progress' message. Which seems good timing if it's regular maintenance, and a way of avoiding criticism if it's not.

Further on the M16 and the powder change

I'm doing this as a separate post instead of adding it to the other.

In comments I got
IIRC, the original powder specified for the M-16 was an "IMR" (stick) type. A ball powder was substituted for some reason. The problem was that as long as the ballistics requirements were met, the specification for the powder didn't put any limit on the content of calcium carbonate. (Calcium carbonate is used as an antiacid.) As a result, the maker used a lot of the stuff. This resulted in a calcium based fouling in the gas system which was extremely hard to remove. This and the early report that the M-16 never needed cleaning had predictable results.

I did some checking(hey, I was in a hurry last night) and this does indeed cover it. I also found this:
1965 - 1967. Field reports from Vietnam began to look much more pessimistic. M16 rifles, issued to US troops in the Vietnam, severely jammed in combat, resulting in numerous casualties. There were some causes for malfunction. First of all, during the introduction of the new rifle and its ammunition into the service, US Army replaced originally specified Dupont IMR powder with standard ball powder, used in 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition. The ball powder produced much more fouling, that quickly jammed the actions of the M16 unless the gun was cleared well and often. This pitifully combined with the fact that the initial M16 rifles were promoted by the Colt as "low maintenance", so, for the sake of economy, no cleaning supplies were procured for new M16 rifles, and no weapon care training was conducted fro the troops. As a result, soldiers did not knew how to clean their rifles, and had no provisions for cleaning, and thing soon turned bad. To add the trouble, the ball powders also had a different pressure curve, so they produced higher pressures at the gas port, giving the rise to the rate of fire, and, thus, decreasing accuracy and increasing parts wear.

I remember reading, years ago, accounts of units where the only people who had any real understanding of cleaning the thing were those who'd been shooting before entering the Army; and they had to rig pull-throughs and such to do it.

I haven't whacked on (fG)Britain in a while, so

let's start with a chaplain who drops the Creed
Sandhurst military academy has dropped the Church of England Creed from services over fears that it may offend religious minorities.
Cadets do NOT have to attend, and yet he does this. To prevent giving offense to non-believers. The chaplain apparently has no balls, and the required 'PC at any cost' attitude that seems to be required in (fG)Britain nowadays. Or just no damn brains.

A big problem in British schools, which far too many socialist moron teachers and school brass over here are pushing us into as well:
...In a discussion about the profound failure of the Government's £5 billion adult literacy drive, an unfortunate young man who was struggling in the world of work because of his inability to read properly was interviewed about the lack of help he had received. The crash almost came when it was mentioned, in passing, that he had seven GCSEs.

Now I do not wish to be problematical, but could somebody tell me this: how in God's name does someone get seven GCSEs if he can't read? Is not much that is wrong with our suffering country revealed at a stroke by that admission? Does it not reflect the dismal nature of our schools, the dismal nature of what passes for public qualifications, and above all the dismal nature of the educationalists who have made such an absurdity of the GCSE system and the politicians who endorse them?
Yes, it does. But the socialists are in charge, and they don't care what damage they do to your(or our)country because they want it absorbed into the Great Collective where Big Nanny will take care of you. And don't you dare protest about it.

Uncle notes PSH in Britain over a picture. Which the paper can't look at without letting their bigotry run wild.

I just found this crap at Hell in a Handbasket, and had to add it in. As he notes, the headline speaks of 'tackling internet knife gangs', but there are no gangs, just somebody's web page:
Young trainee officers at Strathclyde Police search social networking sites for pictures of people posing with weapons, mainly knives.
...
"We're looking for anyone who is brandishing offensive weapons or blades," Holly told Newsbeat.

"We take the date, the time, detail of what's in the photograph, [then] a copy of the photograph is printed out and thereafter it's all sent to the gangs task force unit."

That's when more experienced officers in the Violence Reduction Unit at Strathclyde Police get involved. And what do they do?
The man in charge of this, Superintendent Bob Hamilton, says there are two ways of dealing with people once they've been tracked down.

If they were posing in a public place, like on the street or a park, the law has been broken and they'll be arrested.

Even when pictures are taken in private, though, which isn't technically breaking the law, he says the weapons are so dangerous his officers pay a visit to the people involved.
"You haven't broken the law, but we don't like what you're doing! So here we are to threatenscare you into being a good little peasant."

"We show the parents their pictures," he explained, "recover the weapons and make sure they know that behaviour is unacceptable.
"We steal private property just because we don't like them having it and threaten them for daring to step outside the template." So posing for a picture with something you legally own is 'unacceptable' and worth of having your property stolen.

Superintendent Hamilton says Operation Access has been a complete success.
"We've questioned more than 400 people, most of them teenagers, as part of it and it's worked so well it will carry on indefinitely," he said.
'A complete success' translates to 'giving people a criminal record for posing with an object, and stealing private property because it offends us." Yeah, that's a real success for the Nanny State, it is.

As James says, Let us consider this as yet another reason why I thank God every day that I was born an American.

And last, an 83-year-old man with balls takes on a robber, while a bunch of males with none stand around and refuse to help. Which is just the perfect ending, and brings back the question "Hey, Brits; what the HELL happened to you?"

Pressure curves and moment; updated

See, I can too speak techno babble.

A little.

Ok, very little.

What brought this on was part of what Gerry put in comments on the casting post:
I tried my tried and true Unique powder in my M1 Carbine. According to the books the velocity was fine. Unfortunately it wouldn't function the rifle making it a straight pull bolt action*. It's OK though, I have an adapter cartridge so I can shoot .30 Carbine rounds in my Ruger #1 and one of my Military bolt rifles both chambered in .308 Win (7,62x51mm NATO). For loads for the carbine, it's back to 2400. Something about pressure curves and moment. Techno engineering babble.
In the general interest of spreading knowledge I shall now exhibit some of my somewhat incomplete and possibly slightly-flawed knowledge on this subject.

When he speaks of the pressure curve, he’s hitting on one of the things behind the design of any semi-auto or automatic firearm that’s gas-operated; that there has to be sufficient pressure in the right place and for the right length of time to operate the action.

Take a look at the old M1 Garand. Way out near the muzzle is a gas port, a small hole drilled into the bottom of the barrel. Attached to the barrel is a combination gas tube/sight base, and sliding into the gas tube from the back is the operating rod. When a shot is fired, as the bullet passes the port some of the high-pressure gas is siphoned off into the gas tube, where it pushes the op-rod to the rear, which unlocks and retracts the bolt, ejecting the empty case. Then the op-rod spring pushes the bolt and op-rod forward to strip the next cartridge into the chamber, lock the bolt and position the rod for the next operation. This action, including the size of the hole in the barrel, was designed around a 150-grain spitzer bullet moving about 2800-2900 feet per second and being pushed by a particular powder. It’s been known for a long time that shooting bullets heavier than 180 grains, or using a slower-burning propellant, can produce pressure in the system high enough to bend the op-rod and/or cause other damage. Bad Thing. This is one of the reasons why, when it was decided the Garand had to be in .30-06 instead of the .280 cartridge that it had originally been built around, it took a lot more than just a different bore & chamber to make the change. It’s also why, with cast bullets, you can use some powders that are too slow-burning to be used with jacketed bullets; cast have less resistance to being pushed down the bore, and a powder that can damage things with jacketed bullets can, with a heavy cast, be just right to produce the needed pressure at the gas port for the necessary time.

The AR15/M16 family is similar in that the gas port is out front under the front sight; in this case a gas tube takes the high-pressure gas all the way back to the receiver where it pushes on the bolt carrier to operate the action(‘direct gas impingement’ I believe it’s called). Again, there has to be enough pressure, for long enough, to cycle the action.

The early M16 cartridge story also has one of the reasons it got a reputation as a jamming POS. It was designed around the military version of the .223(called the 5.56x45mm), which used x grains of a certain powder. Then it was decided, without sufficient consideration for the consequences, to change powder(I believe because the new was easier/safer to manufacture). I can’t remember if went from a ball to a flake or the other way ‘round, but while the new powder produced the right pressure, it also produced more fouling. Which clogged up either the gas tube or the receiver/bolt carrier/bolt. Which, combined with lousy instruction on cleaning and few or no cleaning kits, produced lots of jamming problems that got people killed. (Update: more information here; it was going from a stick powder to ball)

So a gas-operated firearm of any kind has certain limitations on ammo. Not as many as once, because there are ‘self-regulating’ gas systems that can compensate for different shells(in the case of semi-auto shotguns), and some machine guns and semi-auto rifles have an adjustable gas plug that lets you compensate for ammo variations and/or dirt in the system from sustained firing. For that matter, you can get a gas plug for the M1 that is adjustable, to allow the use of other than M2 ball-standard ammo without damaging the works.

The M1 Carbine has the gas port much closer to the chamber; part of the reason was to have the gas at high enough pressure and temperature as to keep the port free from fouling. There’s no way to adjust that gas system unless you decide to do some machining and modifying, which means there’s a definite limit on what can be done with the cartridge as far as pushing velocity up without hitting dangerous pressures.

Basic 'how it works' according to my understanding; if you've got better info, say so, I have no problem with being saved from continuing error.


*I'll note that some people, for plinking, don't mind their semi-auto turning into a straight-pull bolt. I've read of the '150 to 170-grain bullet and 16.0 of 2400' load in the M1 Garand; it won't work the bolt, but it will, in many rifles, give good accuracy with light recoil. And working the bolt by hand means the fired cases don't go far.

Dammit, I can't find a new sticker

Before some moron broke the rear window, I had a nice, oval Molon Labe sticker. I'd thought Life, Liberty, etc. was where I got it; but if it was, they don't have them anymore. They do have the Peace through Superior Firepower stickers, but not the other.

Anyone know where I can find them?

Lots of stuff out there, crooked politicians and the crap sandwich

they want us to eat now! or the world will fall apart. Some of this one makes me think some people would like to pin a lot of the bullcrap on Emanuel so as to keep Pres. The Obama looking pristine. Which may well be part of his job. I don't buy it, Obama's in this crap up to his ears, but it does give them a way to try to deflect it.

The Pork, Payoffs & Bribes BailoutStimulus Bill, i.e. the crap sandwich the Evil Party wants to shove down our throats, turns out to include ways to try and bring back the pre-reform welfare state.
But, thanks to the simple phrase slipped into the legislation, the new "stimulus" bill abolishes the limits on the amount of federal money for the so-called Emergency Fund, which ships welfare cash to states.

"Out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated such sums as are necessary for payment to the Emergency Fund," Democrats wrote in Section 2101 on Page 354 of the $819 billion bill. In other words, the only limit on welfare payments would be the Treasury itself.

"This re-establishes the welfare state and creates dependency all over the place," said one startled budget analyst after reading the line.

In addition to reopening the floodgates of dependency on federal welfare programs, the change once again deepens the dependency of state governments on the federal government.
Gee, now why wouldn't the administration and their pet media say anything about this, hmmm?

A media guy saying there are problems with how the Obama administration is dealing with the press, while it's being pointed out- again- that there's also a problem with the media not asking questions at all in many cases. At least not that they'll actually, y'know, report to us.

Speaking of crooked politicians, Sen. Dodd still hasn't released those documents, while he keeps accusing other people of things.

And let's take a look at crooked judges, and the people who won't speak of what party they belong to:
If the allegations are true, Ciavarella and Conahan were involved in a disgraceful cabal far worse than one that merely lined their pockets.

First, the judges helped the detention centers land a county contract worth $58 million. Then their alleged scheme was to guarantee the operators a steady income by detaining juveniles, often on petty stuff.

Many of the kids were railroaded, according to allegations lodged with the state Supreme Court last year by the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, an advocacy group.

In asking the court to intervene in April, the law center cited hundreds of examples where teens accused of minor mischief were pressured to waive their right to lawyers, and then shipped to a detention center.

One teen was given a 90-day sentence for having parodied a school administrator online. Such unwarranted detentions left "both children and parents feeling bewildered, violated and traumatized," center lawyers said.
Hell with disbarment and jail, this cries out for a whipping post, followed by tar and feathers. Then being beaten by the parents of the kids railroaded into jail.

Blackfive has a post on a story that somebody started that the armed forces were going to have to start swearing loyalty to the President, not the Constitution. From what B5 says, the story is bullcrap. What's kind of interesting is the number of people willing to believe Pres. The Obama might try to order such. I know why some would believe it; but that it got a fair amount of traction is a bit surprising. Maybe it shouldn't be. Besides his apparent general contempt for the military, he just had the shocking experience of a military judge telling him "No":
''On its face, the request to delay the arraignment is not reasonable,'' the judge, Army Col. James Pohl, wrote in his three-page ruling denying a prosecution request to delay Nashiri's first court appearance.
...
''The public interest in a speedy trial will be harmed by the delay in the arraignment,'' Pohl also wrote.

He noted that unless Congress amended the 2006 Military Commissions Act, ``the commission is bound by the law as it currently exists not as it may change in the future.''
McQ says he'd like this to get a lot of publicity to prevent the chance of the President or people in his administration trying to screw the Colonel over. I agree.

And, on a non-political note, Redoubt in Alaska seems to be building to another eruption, and so many people tried to hit the Observatory site they crashed the server. The first victim of the eruption, it would seem.

Hope! and Change! and government theft;

new thieves same as any old thieves, etc.
I love this. The new kind of politics of hope. Eight hours of debate in the HR to pass a bill spending $820 billion, or roughly $102 billion per hour of debate.

Only ten per cent of the "stimulus" to be spent on 2009.

Close to half goes to entities that sponsor or employ or both members of the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions, or other Democrat-controlled unions.

This bill is sent to Congress after Obama has been in office for seven days. It is 680 pages long. According to my calculations, not one member of Congress read the entire bill before this vote. Obviously, it would have been impossible, given his schedule, for President Obama to have read the entire bill.

For the amount spent we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.
And remember, we HAVE to do it NOW! Translation: "We need to shove this through before the suckerspeople find out just what's in it!"

And remember "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,"?
Somebody, please, calculate the increased size of the White House carbon footprint caused by this preference for being surrounded by warm air instead of warm clothing. You're setting the thermostat, in winter, to — what? — 75°? 78°?

And isn't it amazing how some clown fired during the campaign for being a problem can just show up again?

And now the US has a oh-so-progressive bunch of academics who want a 'academic and cultural boycott' of Israel for being such bastards as to do something about Hamas shooting rocket all over the place and murdering people.

Yeah, the last isn't directly connected to Pres. The Obama that I know of, but it just had to be mentioned.

I've talked about cast bullets over the past while,

so I thought I’d write some basically about how/what/why on them.

Casting requires metal to melt, a way to melt it, and a mold to cast it in. Then the bullet(sometimes) has to be sized to give it an exact diameter, and lubed. The sizing can take a bullet that’s a little too-large diameter and form it to an exact smaller diameter; the lube helps keep the metal from melting or scraping off due to friction and sticking to the walls of the bore.

The metal. For what we’re talking about, lead alloy. When you’re messing with cast bullets, you’ll run into mentions of hard and soft alloys. Generally speaking, the two elements used to alloy lead are antimony and tin; the more of them(up to a point) the harder the alloy. Tin also does a wonderful thing, making the lead easier to cast. Bronze is copper with a bit of tin added, it not only makes it harder but makes it ‘flow’ better and easier to cast; it does the same with lead. A lot of people shooting black-powder cartridges use pure lead, but often add just a tiny amount of tin to make it fill the mold better for perfect bullets; not enough to harden it, but enough to help it flow. Antimony mostly adds hardness.

You can buy pure lead ingots, you can buy lead already alloyed in a certain way for casting bullets. You can buy or pick up wheel weights, you can(sometimes) find bars of linotype, and you can buy plumbers lead(pure). All of it’s useful

Dig around and you’ll find formulas(x pounds of wheelweights added to x pounds pure lead for instance) to get a particular hardness. For some things people use straight wheelweights as that’s a pretty hard alloy. The hardest alloy is linotype, a lead alloy that used to be used by newspapers to make the plates for printing(and hard to find now). Generally, a hard alloy can be pushed to higher velocity without causing lead fouling in the bore than a soft alloy. A hard is also more brittle; bullets cast of linotype can be driven to pretty high velocity, but when used for hunting have been known to break up after impact in an animal. Soft alloys can’t be pushed as fast, but tend to hold together after impact, and can often expand nicely*.

What changes the situation of choosing alloy is a little thing called a gas check. It’s a small copper cup. Bullets designed for them have a short shank on the base, you push a check onto it and when you size the bullet it crimps the check onto the base**. This protects the base from the hot propellant gas and allows a bullet of softer alloy to be driven faster without fouling the bore(in a semi-auto it also reduces the chance of fouling the gas system). That means that you can, at least up to a point, use general scrap lead for bullets with much less worry about fouling, and you can use a softer alloy for a hunting bullet.

Melting the metal. You’ve got to keep it hot enough to flow freely and fill the mold properly, but don’t want to get it too hot. You can use a camping stove, there are electric melters into which you dip a ladle to pick up and pour the lead, or you can use one of the bottom-pour melters. I’ve got one of the latter, the smaller Lee unit that holds ten pounds of lead. It’s got a thermostat so you can keep the temperature steady, you hold the mold under the spout and lift a lever to pour the metal. It beats hell out of the pot & ladle method, and I’ve been very glad I got it.

Once the metal is melted, you need to flux it. Which means to add something to it that will help cause impurities to float to the top, and help make sure the alloying elements stay in the mix. There are fluxes made specifically for this, some people put a lubed bullet in, some people use a piece of candle wax. The lubed bullet and wax produce a lot of smoke, the special fluxes generally don’t. You put it in and stir things up thoroughly for at least 30 seconds; then you can skim the impurities off the top. With things like wheel weights, a lot of people melt, flux and clean them and then cast them into an ingot mold, cleaning a bunch at a time for later use; that’s what I usually do. Also, some ingots you buy won’t fit into a melter for casting, so you’ve got to break them up somehow for use.

I’ll pass on something I read a few years ago: a guy wrote in one of the gun rags of a friend who got very good results with his cast bullets, and the subject of fluxing the lead in the melter to clean it came up. The friend didn’t; he kept a layer of cheap, unscented kitty litter on top, said it seemed to almost act as if constantly fluxing the lead. Fresh ingots could be slipped through, and about every third use, he’d skim off the layer and put on fresh. I’ve tried it, and it does seem to work pretty well.

You need a mold. Depending on the bullet size and type, you can get molds to make a single bullet, two bullets, or up to six at a time, and they're generally made of iron, steel or aluminum. Most have the bottom of the bullet at the top; some, for making sure a bullet has the most clean, precise bottom possible, fill from the nose. There’s a piece called a sprue cutter where you fill the mold. When pour lead into the mold, you want to have an excess amount on top, so as the bullet cools and contracts it can- if needed- suck in metal from the excess to fill out. That excess is called the sprue, and when it’s cooled enough you use the cutter to take it off. Usually by tapping it with a hardwood baton. Then you open the mold and dump the bullet/s out, preferably onto a padded surface as they’re still hot and somewhat soft.

Sizing/lubing. The bullets then may need to be sized and will need lube. Sizing is usually done with some type of press into which fits a die of exact diameter, most of which have a top punch that fits on the ram to avoid deforming the nose as you push the bullet down into the die. Most sizers also have a reservoir you fill with lube. When you push the bullet into the die you turn a crank to force lube through the die into the lube grooves on the bullet. Then, when you lever the bullet up, it’s done. Lee has another type, a die that screws into any standard loading press, a piece that fits into the shellholder slot to push the bullet through and a basket that catches the bullets as they come out. On this one you lube the bullet first, then place the gas check on(if used) and then put it on the ram and shove it through. Works quite well, and doesn’t cost much.

Lube ranges from the Lee Liquid Alox(very simple and works quite well within limitations) to the original Alox(soft and kind of sticky), to the newer stuff that’s hard enough that the luber has to be heated to soften it, generally much better for high-velocity loads. I’m going to stop there; if you’re interested, there’s lots of good information, online and in books, on these. I have used several. For bullets for the Webley revolver, I’ve had good results using a .45acp or .45 Colt bullet, unsized, lubed with Liquid Alox. For rifle I prefer using one of the hard lubes because A: they’re not sticky to handle and B: in summer, around here, some of the soft lubes can get pretty messy. But I’ve also used Liquid Alox on a gas-checked bullet for .303 and 7.62x54r with good results, i.e. good accuracy and no apparent fouling.

I’ll note that you don’t always have to size the bullet, but you DO need to lube it.

Once you’ve got bullets, you need loads. The Lyman handloading manual, for instance, has cast-bullet loads for most every cartridge in the book. And they have a manual that’s nothing but cast loads. Interestingly, there are some loads that work quite well over a wide range of cartridges and bullet weights. Over at Cast Boolits, there’s a set of four basic loads that cover a whole bunch of cartridges and bullet weights. I’ve mentioned using (in my guns, check it out before trying in yours) 16.0 grains of 2400 powder with 150 to 180-grain bullets in .30-06, .308, .303, 7.62x54r and 7.5x55. With a bullet that fits the bore this load gives good accuracy in all of the above with mild recoil. I first read of it I have no idea where(I’ve eaten & slept many times since then). Very Helpful Commenter had mentioned before that his standard load in military rifles is a certain Lee dipper of Unique; gave him good results in everything. I’ll post this from the Cast Boolits article:
… Four load classifications from Mattern (1932) cover all uses for the cast bullet military rifle. I worked up equivalent charges to obtain the desired velocity ranges with modern powders, which provide a sound basis for loading cast bullets in any post-1898 military rifle from 7mm to 8mm:

1. 125 grain plain based "small game/gallery" 900-1000 f.p.s., 5 grains of Bullseye or equivalent.

2. 150 grain plain based "100-yard target/small game", 1050-1250 f.p.s., 7 grains of Bullseye or equivalent.

3. 170-180 grain gas checked "200 yard target", 1500-1600 f.p.s., 16 grains of Hercules #2400 or equivalent.

4. 180-200 grain gas-checked "deer/600 yard target", 1750-1850 f.p.s., 26 grains of RL-7 or equivalent.

None of these loads are maximum when used in full-sized rifle cases such as the 30-40 Krag, .303 British, 7.65 Argentine, 7.7 Jap, 7.62x54R Russian , or 30-06. They can be used as basic load data in most modern military rifles of 7mm or larger, with a standard weight cast bullet for the caliber, such as 140-170 grains in the 7x57, 150-180 grains in the .30 calibers, and 150-190 grains in the 8mm. For bores smaller than 7mm, consult published data.

You get a chance, go read the whole piece; there’s a LOT of information there on bullets, powders, cases and loads if you’re interested in using cast bullets. Or just interested in what’s been worked out for these. If you’re not familiar with this, when he speaks of “Lyman #3118, #311008, #311359, or #311316” and such, he’s referring to the number for that bullet & mold. They’ve got a sticky here that shows ALL the Lyman bullets and their numbers; if you’ve got a slow connection like mine, it’ll take a while to load.

I’ll throw in that I’ve stuck with 2400 for most of these loads simply because it flows so nicely through a powder measure, whereas some flake powders like Unique can be more difficult to get consistent throws with.

This is by no means a complete 'Go do it' guide, just a bit of general overview. Hope it might answer some questions anybody might have about what the hell I'm talking about.

*If you read accounts of the buffalo hunters in the late 1800’s, they’ve mentioned that a shot that hit a buffalo behind one shoulder would penetrate completely, sometimes breaking the off-shoulder, and the bullet would be found flattened out against the inside of the skin. Pure lead generally; they’d save the bullets, melt them and cast new bullets.

**Some gas checks have a thick edge so it physically locks onto the shank when crimped. Others are simply a cup, held in place by friction. On the latter, it’s possible, if the base of the bullet is seated below the case neck, for them to come loose, which is a Bad Thing. If you use that type, make sure the base does not go below the case neck.

People have written that they don't know how people like Michelle Malkin

can stand the crap they put up with. Prime examples:
Michelle Malkin,

Reading through your articles on your blog indicates hate, bitterness, envy, pettiness and a deranged woman. Even your appearance on Fox News, shows you are a troubled woman from the glint in your eyes and tightening at the corners of your lips. My advice: Slow down on Obama’s presidency, as you nor other rightwing bigots can not change the course of history, as you are terribly ill-equipped intellectually.

From Antonio Simmons:
U are a BITCH and need to go back where your parents are from and stop tryin to rain on our parade!!!! MY PRESIDENT IS BLACK BITCH!!!!!

From Tabatha Jones:
You are the stupidest BITCH in the world, how can you talk about minorities like you do. What make you think that white people like your dog eating ass. They just tolerate you because you are always talking about Obama. BITCH President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama has more class in their little finger then you have in your whole entire body. RESPECT YOUR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!
And so on.

It seems the worshippers of President The Obama, and a lot of nutcase leftists in general, just cannot stand a woman who fits into a minority group not being one of them; especially when the points out things like this. Which leads to garbage like the 'privacy' advocates publishing her address and phone numbers, and so on, for daring to piss them off.

Leftists. They're who need medication.

There are some honest, law-abiding agents at BATFE,

and then there are the rest:
The dispute is over a part he submitted to the agency that he is proposing for an existing line of legal machine guns in the U.S. The part would convert the weapons to operate with ammunition that costs 1 or 2 cents per shell, instead of 25 cents or more...

Savage said he submitted the part to the BATFE, even though it technically was not a gun, and was stunned to get a response that not only was his repair part a gun, it was a machine gun, and he had only hours to "register" it properly.
Why?
[A]ll it took was some metal, a length of chain, some duct tape and some plastic wire ties for the federal inspectors to make his gun part operate in that fashion, he said he was told.
Which means they can say "All it took to turn your 10/22 into a machine gun was some tape, zip ties, wire and an electric motor; therefore we arrest it for being an unregistered machine gun." After which they'll come after you.
I just got of the phone with Dahil Goss, Assistant United States Attorney from Northern District of Georgia. She has informed me that a complaint against the firearm I submitted to ATF's Firearms Technology Branch, who then then seized, has been filed.

I asked if a summons with attached complaint had been mailed or served upon me. She informed me that no in fact no attempt to serve me has been made. The arrest warrant has been issued for the firearm, she explained that it would take ATF 1-2 weeks to proceed with "legal fiction" [her term, not mine] and serve the arrest warrant on the firearm. She thought the arrest would occur in Martinsburg West Virginia at FTB, I was under the understanding that the firearm was in the ATF Atlanta office. I can only hope the firearm does not evade arrest if found in one place when going to arrest it in another?

Next time BATFE comes to Congress with its hand out, it should be slapped away and their budget cut; because if they've got the time/money/people to do crap like this, then obviously they have far too much money and too many people and too much free time to play with.

If it's too expensive to upgrade, don't worry;

we'll screw your customers to force them to pay for it.
What's the problem? These new cleaner gas stations aren't cheap, and "dozens, and potentially hundreds" of gas stations in California might close down instead to upgrade. In other words, in this case, going green means going out of business. According to the Pasadena Star-News, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has heard from 76 refueling sites (of about 4,500 total in its area) that will shut down because of the high costs of the EVRP.
And the California Government solution is:
CARB responds by saying that gas prices will go up by about 0.68 cents a gallon to cover the cost of upgrading.

Standard government solution: order something done 'for the public good', and then- in this case directly- screw the citizen to pay for it.

So we've got a tax cheat writing our tax laws, a tax cheat

and liar now in charge of the Treasury, a terrorist-pardoning liar with a contempt for non-PC parts of the Constitution who'll probably become Attorney General... Effing wonderful.

On the other side, Republicans in the House refused to give Obama and the Democrat Party cover and ALL voted against the New Pork, Payoffs & Bribes Stimulus Bill. I guess enough people finally screamed and threatened and said "We said NO, DAMMIT!" enough to get even the attention of the Stupid Party. To borrow a line, "And whales do too have wings."

There's a call for a new tea party. Personally, I still lean toward a box with tar, feathers and a rail. Or that stall on the Mall selling lengths of pre-stretched hemp rope and noose instructions.

How Much I Support Our President:
1. I support him as much as Code Pink supports our troops.
2. I support him as much as N.O.W. supports Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
3. I support him as much as the Hollywood community supported Theo Van Gogh.
4. I support him as much as Nancy Pelosi supports the Catholic Church’s teachings on life.
5. I support him as much as Al Gore supports cutting down on his personal carbon footprint to save the world.
6. I support him as much as John Edwards supports The National Enquirer’s right to publish pictures of his girlfriend and baby.
7. I support him as much as Western gay rights groups support Mehdi Kazemi.
8. I support him as much as the Castro brothers support Oscar Biscet’s right to free speech.
9. I support him as much as Ted Kennedy supports renewable wind energy off the coast of his summer mansion.
There's twelve total.

Obama I(or would Obama be Carter II?) is still the terrorist suckup he's always been.

And on a happy note, the 7.62x54r brass and bullet lube came in today; therefore, there is shooty goodness in the future.

Well, the "We don't have time to find someone else!" excuse

got us a tax-cheat Treasury Secretary, now "We don't have a lot of time" gets the bridge panels moving.
Inspectors hired by Caltrans to monitor the fabrication of steel girders that will support the tower's roadway reported finding cracked welds last year, Caltrans records show.

The discovery has raised the question whether Bay Area taxpayers are getting a substandard product that could wear out prematurely and require costly repairs in a decade or two.

Caltrans and others in charge of the bridge construction say the welds are safe and that fixes have been made - but also say the inspectors interpreted the welding standards too rigidly.

Meanwhile, the inspection outfit that sounded the alarm has since been replaced.
I'm not an engineer, and this may not be that big a deal; but as a layman who knows a little bit about welding and steel, my first thought is "How do you get too strict on welding standards on a big effing bridge?"

Got to tell you, if I had to drive on this bridge, this would not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about it. Especially with the comment from one of the officials that 'we're racing the next earthquake."

Friend sent me some editorial cartoons

Weather, and a couple of new links

on the sidebar. First, there's a lot of ice in the eastern/southeast part of the state, but remarkably few power outages; I think the ice storms the past couple of years took down a lot of the limbs/old lines that were potential problems, and people did a LOT of pruning/cutting down on trees that might threaten lines in the future; so a lot less outages than would otherwise be the case.

In the post on the creepy "We are your servants" oath to Obama, BobG noted "First time I heard someone give an oath of fealty given." Which is exactly right. And a pretty wrong thing to be giving to a damn politician.

New links: Dinah Lord, keeping an eye on the islamists, and Closing Velocity, keeping track of missile defense developments.

Oh, and Bill Ayers is still a liar, a murderer and a miserable douche; that this bastard has been training teachers should scare hell out of you.

And, do you feel like a chump for following the damn rules?

And, a guide for celebrities to help Save Mother Gaia

4. Crush a Third World Economic Development Movement. One of the most pressing threats facing our environment is rising income in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. A generation ago these proud little dark people were happily frolicking in the rain forest, foraging for organic foods amid the wonders of nature. Today, corrupted by wealth, they are demanding environmentally hazardous consumer goods like cars and air conditioning and malaria medicine. You can do your part to stop this dangerous consumerism trend by supporting environmentally progressive leaders like Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe, and their programs for sustainable low-impact ecolabor camps.

You'll especially like #10.

And yes, I will stop now and go do something cleanup-like. Or maybe put some loads together, after having considered the implications of Obama's Little Book a bit more.