Range day followup

Along with trying out the new M1, had a chance to try the 7.62x54r light load in a Finn M91/30. Which demonstrated that these things can indeed shoot well:
5 rounds, 100 yards, Lee 180-grain gas-check bullet over 16.0 grains of 2400. Given a better shot, I think this might have tightened up a bit.

This particular rifle had been counterbored at some point to remove damage at the crown. Instead of the usual tapered or funnel-shaped cut, this one looked like they'd used either a straight cutting bit or a boring bar to cut straight back from the muzzle for about 2 to 2.5"; new square crown well back from the muzzle. Whichever way they did it, it worked.


I mentioned the H&R M1 liked the HXP ball ammo. I also tried out some of the 150-grain cast loads. At 50 yards, not bad:
The first shot is the low one, the others nicely clustered. But at 100 yards, got this:
First two low, the other strung vertically. I got very similar results first time I tried this load at 100 in a different rifle: first two low, the others pretty tight windage-wise but strung vertically. Maybe powder position affecting velocity, I don't know. According to the Chrony this load gives an average velocity of about 1900fps, and cycles the action with no problem. But unless I can figure out something to tighten this up, it's going to be a 'indoor range only' load for when I want to shoot the M1 there.

In other news, did some digging around and helped find some .32acp dies and bullets for the Pocket Hammerless, which makes the owner very happy; not only is that ammo a bit expensive, but, like just about every other centerfire pistol cartridge, it's sold out all over the place locally. Handloading will begin soon.

Aside from the general "You cannot let cops get away

with crap like this", one line that sums up the idiocy going on in Philadelphia is near the end:
Ortiz said he took a plea deal and served six months' probation and 25 hours of community service for selling the tiny plastic bags.

Plastic bags.
...
For selling effing plastic bags.

So not only is there a strong possibility of a unit of bad cops using the law for their own purposes, one of the things they're using to pull this crap off is 'plastic bags are drug paraphernalia' worth a raid involving drawn weapons. Under the heading 'crap' I include 'raids with bullshit like this as an excuse'. And the brains(supposed) of politicians who passed laws on plastic bags.

So we're a step closer to powerguns,

and air defense that includes 'pop the shell as it approaches':
In recent test-blasts, Pentagon-researchers at Northrop Grumman managed to get its 105 kilowatts of power out of their laser -- past the "100kW threshold [that] has been viewed traditionally as a proof of principle for 'weapons grade' power levels for high-energy lasers," Northrop's vice president of directed energy systems, Dan Wildt, said in a statement.

That much power won't get you a Star Wars-style blaster. But it should be more than enough to zap the mortars and rockets that insurgents have used to pound American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Son has informed me that artillery now has
rocket-assisted rounds for extended range,
laser-guided rounds and
GPS-guided rounds that, depending on conditions, can be fired up to 90 degrees out-of-line with the target, and still course-correct and hit.
Now if somebody'll finally lick the problem so we have tanks and self-propelled guns powered by a fusion bottle, and individual guns for air defense on each... Who wants to bet the first unit calls itself the Slammers or Alpha Company?

Ok, this isn't just creepy, it's

scary:
A visit to the OFA website reveals that supporters are not simply asked to sign up, they are asked to take a pledge. A pledge to support -- not the flag, not the constitution, not the country, not even the Democratic Party, but Obama and his "bold plan." OFA does not use the Democratic Party logo but the "O"-shaped logo of the Obama campaign in which the red white and blue of the flag are abstracted to soft pastel colors.
This sounds like something out of Mao's China: "Support the Great Leader! And his Five Year Plan!"

The Navy gave Rep. Murtha(Lying Bastard-PA) an award,

and somebody thought we should let the brass know what we think of it.
Congressman Murtha's selfless devotion to the Nation's Sailors and Marines ensured they were provided the resources necessary to effectively conduct the Global War on Terrorism. His courageous leadership, vision, and loyalty to the men and women of the Department of the Navy greatly contributed to their quality of life and helped create the most modern and highly trained fighting force in history. As Chairman of Subcommittee on Defense of the House Appropriations Committee, Congressman Murtha's tireless advocacy helped maintain the Navy and Marine Corps team at the highest levels of combat readiness to meet the challenges of the 21st century. With grateful appreciation for his outstanding contributions to the Nation and the Navy and Marine Corps, Congressman Murtha is awarded the Department of the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award.
My first thought is, "Why are they kissing his ass this way? What are they trying to get out of this slimeball?" Don't have an answer, but this petition is at least a way to say "We don't agree."

And the hitchhiker made the university very happy

as they didn't have one:
TULSA, Okla. - One of the most deadly spiders in the world has been found in the produce section of a Tulsa grocery store.

An employee of Whole Foods Market found the Brazilian Wandering Spider Sunday in bananas from Honduras and managed to catch it in a container.
Question: was he just wondering what it was, or do they expect something rare and possibly valuable? Or was he just not a spider-squisher?

The spider was given to University of Tulsa Animal Facilities director Terry Childs who says this type of spider kills more people than any other.

Childs says a bite will kill a person in about 25 minutes and while there is an antidote he doesn't know of any in the Tulsa area.
Well, I wouldn't expect there to be; it would be like calling the doctors office in, say, Altus and asking of they had cobra antivenom. You would not expect to hear "Yes" as the answer. More like "Uh, sir, do you have a cobra?" in a very apprehensive voice.


Added: Yeesh, talk about fate worse than death:
Aside from causing intense pain, the venom of the spider can also cause priapism - uncomfortable erections that can last for many hours and lead to impotence. The venom may eventually be used in erectile dysfunction treatments.

A bunch of Dem representatives have said

"Don't try it" to Holder. A very helpful thing.

Sen. Chris Countrywide Dodd has now admitted he's a liar,

the question is what else did he lie about?
CNN Producer: “And there was nothing you were doing that was aimed at protecting AIG?”
Senator Dodd: “Not at all. Not in the slightest. . . . The point is when that language left the Senate I wrote, that was not included.”

Today, on CNN’s Situation Room, Dodd changed his tune and implicated the Treasury Department. He did not name Geithner personally, but neither did he say Geithner was unaware of the goings on. The bottom line: Dodd, after denying it, now admits he and the administration cooked up the language which afforded AIG some protection ( until the firestorm hit) to grant the bonuses. Geithner has been claiming a fair amount of ignorance — and certainly did not come clean on this.

So Dodd lied, repeatedly and apparently by reflex, about this(also counting on the media to help out I don't doubt); what else is he lying about? And will we get the truth about his little mortgage deals and the Irish 'cottage'?

And that wonderful example of a pimple on the ass of this country Rep. Murtha(Evil Party Slimeball-PA) thinks he has a privilege to steal your money via earmarks:
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, responded by waving the Constitution at the camera, saying: “What it says is the Congress of the United States appropriates the money. Got that?”
What we got, Murtha, is you're a slandering little bastard who needs to be thrown out of that office.

They're running the place, folks, and are really pissed when we find out what they're up to; and even more pissed when we dare to call them on their crooked deals.

Two things to note: first, the Missouri HP may need to

be a bit more careful with their training materials:
COLUMBIA, Mo. | A new document meant to help Missouri law enforcement agencies identify militia members or domestic terrorists has drawn criticism for some of the warning signs mentioned.

The Feb. 20 report called "The Modern Militia Movement" mentions such red flags as political bumper stickers for third-party candidates, such as U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, who ran for president last year; talk of conspiracy theories, such as the plan for a superhighway linking Canada to Mexico; and possession of subversive literature.
One question here: what do they define as 'subversive literature'?

Second, Bill Ayers is a chickenshit coward:
It’s been quite a turnaround for Bill Ayers. The Communist terrorist who planned bombings of police stations, in order to inflict maximum injury and death on police officers, is now depending on the police at the University of Illinois, where he is a “distinguished” professor, to protect him from the tough questions of students' parents. In fact, one parent who presented Ayers with a Bible and a copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was arrested last Thursday night and charged with the curious offense of somehow interfering with university affairs. A visibly-nervous Ayers accepted the books but quickly placed them down on a table.
...
According to Lt. Roy Acree of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Police Department, parent Mark Thompson was arrested on a charge of “interference with a public institution of higher education” because of his activity at the Ayers lecture. Ironically, the statute (720 ILCS 5/Art. 21.2 heading) was passed "in recognition of unlawful campus disorders across the nation," which is precisely what Ayers and his comrades in the Students for a Democratic Society were doing on college campuses in the 1960s.
Translation: "He made Ayers uncomfortable, so we arrested him." I say that because
Acree told AIM that Thompson had said that he figured his actions would get him arrested, and that he apologized to the police officers who arrested him later. Still, what did Thompson do that broke the law?

“I wasn’t there,” Acree said, although he did watch the incident on YouTube. “I felt like at that time that Thompson was at the point of interrupting the speaker, who was an invited guest of the university, and was preventing the speaker from speaking.”

But the video seems to show that the meeting was breaking up at that point.

Delta Bravo Sierra

Take a look

I note, son told me that the dogs troops adopted quickly developed a very simple outlook: if you wore ACUs, you were good people; if you did not, or they didn't know your smell from when you did wear them... you'd better keep your distance.

Oooh, Pres. B. Cartman Obama 'heard the concerns'

and changed his mind:
“President Obama listened to the genuine concerns expressed by the veteran service organizations regarding the option of billing service-connected injuries to veterans’ insurance companies,” said Pelosi. “Based on the respect President Obama has for veterans and the principle concerns of our veteran leaders, the president made the decision that combat wounds should not be billed through their insurance policies.”
Translation: "Barkey has been hearing from Reps and Senators who have pissed-off people informing them of the easy availability of tar, feathers and rope, and decided he can't get away with it."
Now, that's not a very, ah, generous interpretation, is it? Let's remind ourselves why:
“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”
and
“I got the distinct impression that the only hope of this plan not being enacted,” said Commander Rehbein, “is for an alternative plan to be developed that would generate the desired $540-million in revenue.
Ah, but that was yesterday. Before President I Spit On The Troops found out just how pissed of people were at the idea. Especially after his 'no earmarks' 9000-earmark spending bill with billions for his favorite vote-fraud organization.

I repeat what I said yesterday: this president has no honor, and is undeserving of respect.

Looks like the 'destroy the brass and sell as scrap' order

has been lifted. According to this,
- Prior to 11/2008, Demil B items required no mutilation for sale to the public. That policy changed in November, but several exceptions were granted. Expended munitions brass was one of those given a waiver.
- Enter the new administration. Since Demil B category items had been given a broad, general label as “national security sensitive” someone above the DRMS (likely in the DLA) reviewed the policy and immediately went with a CYA policy and yanked all exemptions. No thoughts or considerations were given to the implications of this policy change, but this directive was issued to DOD Surplus effective immediately last week.
- Shit storm blows up as a result. In particular, the letters, phone calls, and emails to our legislators, the media, and anyone else who would listen caused this policy to be review post haste.
- As of this morning our company was informed that expended munitions brass will now be reclassified as Demil Q –– which requires no mutilation unless sold to a foreign country.

I certainly hope this is all it was, a CYA move. Unfortunately, I do have to wonder if it was more of a "Let's see if we can get away with this" action; it wouldn't surprise me if it was. Which definitely says something about the level of trust I have in the gummint nowadays.

Range day: M1 Garand

among other things. I'll try to do a more in-depth post later, for now I'll just cover the basic:
The H&R M1, with the exception of one round that seems to have been out-of-spec and caused a jam, performed well. It did demonstrate a definite preference for the Greek HXP ball over the Korean PS; much better accuracy, and it was one of the PS that caused the jam.

It was a warm day, and the benches are partly in the sun with it at this angle; usually does a good job of telling you how much degreasing the wood needs. Happily, there was not a lot of bleed; apparently this one was never packed in cosmoline or it was cleaned very well at some point. I can see some places on the inside that seem to have some oil soaked in, but not much, so cleaning it shouldn't be bad.

Touching again on the current ammo/components situation, in the past there's been a fair amount of rifle brass to pick up; not the last couple of times. Very little .30-06 and whatever left behind, and most of that is berdan-primed stuff. A fair amount of handgun brass on that side, but not as much as before.

On the way home stopped by Gene Sears in El Reno to take a look around. Lots of ammo sold out, fairly good shape on most components exept primers; I got the last brick of standard small pistol they had, and they say primers are one of the more difficult things to keep in stock right now. Just like a lot of other places; the reloading shop at H&H said the same thing a few days back and were also down to magnum small pistol primers only.

More later; things to clean, dog to scratch, tea to drink.

And, following in the Soviet footsteps of needing control

over everything,
Will Congress kill farmers' markets?
What this will do is force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the "Food Safety Administration." Hmmmmm? (Via a TennZen tweet)

Interesting. A co-sponsor's husband has Monsanto as a client.

Naw, no improper influence there, not at all......

'Transparency', 'End to Secrets',

my ass.
Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.
Really shouldn't be a surprise; Pres. B. Cartman Obama despises gun owners of all kinds who don't have a badge or a federal ID card. 'Inspections of pilots' for BS like this:
Take a case against one flight officer who had visited the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles within the last few weeks. While there, the pilot noticed that federal law enforcement officers can, with the approval of a superior, obtain a license plate that cannot be traced, a key safety feature for law enforcement personnel. So the pilot asked if, as a member of the federal program, he was eligible. The DMV staffer checked and said “no.” The next day administrative actions were brought against the pilot for “misrepresenting himself.” These are the kinds of cases that President Obama wants to investigate.
Hey, any excuse works to screw with something/somebody he doesn't like; he wants to crap all over wounded vets, why should pilots and other flight deck personnel be any different?
Since Mr. Obama's election, pilots have told us that the approval process for letting pilots carry guns on planes slowed significantly. Last week the problem went from bad to worse. Federal Flight Deck Officers - the pilots who have been approved to carry guns - indicate that the approval process has stalled out.

Pilots cannot openly speak about the changing policies for fear of retaliation from the Transportation Security Administration. Pilots who act in any way that causes a “loss of confidence” in the armed pilot program risk criminal prosecution as well as their removal from the program. Despite these threats, pilots in the Federal Flight Deck Officers program have raised real concerns in multiple interviews.

We remember the kinds of absolute garbage that Minetta and Madoff, the Fascist Twins(why yes, I am name-calling) put pilots through for even applying for the program, and how they worked to make it as difficult as possible to get through it; now Obama is taking this step. And, as befits a man who promised 'openness' and 'transparency', doing it as quietly as possible, hoping to sneak it through before people notice.

Hope! and Change! folks, this is it.

I could have gone out partying tonight,

but a few things have come more to my attention over the years. In no particular order,

Going out with a friend or two is great; going to a bar on a night like this, being packed in with a bunch of people trying to get drunk in short order and with a noise level that wouldn't be tolerated in a foundry without ear protection, is not.

I like a drink at times: see above about drinking with a bunch of idiots. Plus I'd like to get home without an impromptu meeting with a signpost or lamppost(if you knock the latter down, that's one less to hang a politician from).

Music and friends on St. Patrick's is wonderful; see #1 above, plus the fact it doesn't seem quite the right attitude for the day.

Last, yeah, I could get laid tonight. I'm not amazingly ugly, and I do know how the game is played(I'm just not good at it): buy some drinks and say the right words and I could get someone into bed, especially on a night involving #1 above. Don't do that for the same reason I don't go to nookie bars and buy table dances: if a lady is going to be wiggling in my lap, I want it to be because she chooses to be there, not as part of a business arrangement. In this context, if a lady shares my bed I want her there by liking and choice, not because she depressed her higher-reasoning abilities by getting drunk off her ass.

So I made some soda bread(first time in a while), built a fire in the chiminea and scratched the dogs' ears for a while, and I'll have a drink in a bit. Not real exciting, but my ears aren't ringing, I'm not feeling like puking and I won't wake up thinking "Ahhh, who is she?"

My exciting life; welcome to it.

Back to idiot book illustrations,

if only because it'll keep certain things(from Tam: Oh, wait, this isn't a deficiency of "heart", it's a deficiency of "honor" and "responsibility", neither of which are to be found in quantities fit to fill a teacup at 1600 Penna., apparently. ) from causing my head to rotate like a MRAP cupola in an ambush, Marja had a comment on that post, in part:
...I'd like to add one more thing: most of those heroines have a pretty big, er, bosom. Which will make running around with no support actually painful. Not to mention the fact that the ladies in question are going to be having a more or less droopy pair in record time.
I have, over the years, known a few rather well-endowed ladies, and they had one thing in common if nothing else: they'd rather have stood and fought with fingernails than run without some kind of support or binding for the girls. Once saw a girl, maybe 18, who may well have had more boobs than brains running with no bra; damn, that even looked painful!

Back to the covers, it's like seeing the cover on a book from The General series, and finding that it has little or no relation to what's actually in the story. Kind of like the Conan movies and comic books and book covers: they show him running around half-to-mostly bare- even in the freaking desert!- by choice; but if you actually read Howard's stories, he wears clothing and armor and the only time he'll be running around in a breechclout is if something/someone chased him out of his room/camp without time to grab his gear. And he remedies that as soon as possible.

Marta, come back anytime, and speak your piece.

Since we're on the subject of illustrations, Atomic Nerds pointed to a comic I've not heard of before: Hereville. I'd say a Jewish Buffy, but that's not quite right. I'm going to have to make time to read more of it.

President B. Cartman Obama has now officially gone from my former opinion

to "You miserable shit."
The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.

“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”

The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, “This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ‘ to care for him who shall have borne the battle’ given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm’s way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America’s veterans!”

Ever have a time when you're sitting, or standing, and the rage is building to the point your hands shake, and you can feel your pulse hammering? I'm having one of those moments right now. That this miserable little bastard and his socialist flying monkeys plan to betray those wounded fighting for this country in this way... there are no words to properly describe this. They can demand hundreds of billions be stolen from our kids and grandkids, and now they plan on screwing wounded troops for this..../. so they can get more money to spend on some 'social' program intended to buy votes in the next elections.

If Shinseki doesn't resign, he marks himself as nothing more than a politicians suckup, willing to crap on the people who used to serve under him for the sake of being patted on the head. And Obama? You've shown yourself to be without honor, without respect, and completely undeserving of respect.

After Brigid made me make indian tacos*,

that started making me think of other bake-stuff, so after I got home today I made a batch(loaf? pan?) of focaccia. That and some balsamic vinegar and spiced olive oil... Yes, I did refrain from eating the whole damn thing. With effort.

Nice think about it is it takes maybe two minutes of kneading, and the rest is rising, so it's easy. Makes pretty good sandwiches, too.

Which reminds me, son is currently at a base in the southwestern US, and it seems nobody in the unit- or in town from what he said- every heard of Indian tacos. So he dug up a recipe(just before his pc crashed; it survived Iraq and about two months) and made his own, making the guys he shared with very happy.

Thinking about it, I'm glad it's now too late to start cooking; fry bread and honey...

Dammit, now Breda's talking about bread, too. That's one fine-looking burger she's torturing me withshowing. I used to have a bread machine, which was very handy as it saved all the kneading by hand. I'd usually let it do the work, then dump the dough into a regular pan to final-rise and bake so I didn't have bread with a hole in the bottom from the mixing paddle. I may have to get another, one of these days. Burgers with fresh-baked buns... no, dammit, it IS too late to start all that.

As a side point, Kevin has more on the idiot idea to scrap once-fired brass instead of selling it whole; besides the other points, it'll lose the gummint a bunch of money. Fine idea, isn't it?


*Yeah, she made me; she wrote about it, and her toppings, and I just had to have some!

Dumbass/Dishonest(take your pick) Ruben Navarrette

makes big stink with "We're causing it!" myth, Kevin takes him apart. Among other parts:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimates that 90% of the firearms confiscated in drug crimes in Mexico come from the United States, and some of the shipments can be enormous.
Which again illustrates graphically that the BATFE is a whirling vortex of suck at DOING THEIR JOB, doesn't it? Instead of investigating "straw purchases" etc., they seem to spend an extraordinary amount of time screwing with manufacturers after changing the rules on them without warning, or pursuing typographical errors instead of, you know, known criminals because, I suspect, legitimate businessmen (unlike drug dealers) don't shoot at you when you screw with them.
and

That was all it took. Those who love their guns more than their neighbor to the south were eager to believe CNN's Lou Dobbs when he declared: "Attorney General Eric Holder is willing to sacrifice our gun ownership rights under the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government, in this case Mexico."

And here's the second fundamental flaw of The Other Side - the belief that if you don't agree with them you must be EEEEEVIL! Note the comparison: If we don't believe in "gun control" then we "love our guns" more than we "love our neighbor to the south."
Etc. Go read it, it'll do you good.

Gee, so they're not buying RPGs at gun shows?

Wow, I that that was a settled consensus, like globular warmering...
Reporting from Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and Mexico City -- It was a brazen assault, not just because it targeted the city's police station, but for the choice of weapon: grenades.

The Feb. 21 attack on police headquarters in coastal Zihuatanejo, which injured four people, fit a disturbing trend of Mexico's drug wars. Traffickers have escalated their arms race, acquiring military-grade weapons, including hand grenades, grenade launchers, armor-piercing munitions and antitank rockets with firepower far beyond the assault rifles and pistols that have dominated their arsenals.

Most of these weapons are being smuggled from Central American countries or by sea, eluding U.S. and Mexican monitors who are focused on the smuggling of semiauto- matic and conventional weapons purchased from dealers in the U.S. border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Yes, the article still hits the talking points that 'most of the problem up to now is due to lax US gun laws', etc. ad blargh. But:
These groups appear to be taking advantage of a robust global black market and porous borders, especially between Mexico and Guatemala. Some of the weapons are left over from the wars that the United States helped fight in Central America, U.S. officials said.
Damn, they actually pointed out an Inconvenient Truth: It Ain't Our Fault.

How many weapons have been smuggled into Mexico from Central America is not known, and the military-grade munitions are still a small fraction of the larger arsenal in the hands of narcotics traffickers. Mexican officials continue to push Washington to stem the well-documented flow of conventional weapons from the United States, as Congress holds hearings on the role those smuggled guns play in arming Mexican drug cartels.
As has been pointed out before, this is bullcrap. And if it's not, why won't the Mexican government supply the serial numbers of weapons they've seized to the US government? If the guns were 'legally' bought here and smuggled into Mexico, the serial numbers would tell exactly who imported or manufactured them, and what dealer sold them; so the only reason for the Mex government to refuse to supply them is they know they didn't come from here. And giving us the numbers would prove it; and since blaming us is so handy for that government...

And now we get to the real meat:
The enhanced weaponry represents a wide sampling from the international arms bazaar, with grenades and launchers produced by U.S., South Korean, Israeli, Spanish or former Soviet bloc manufacturers. Many had been sold legally to governments, including Mexico's, and then were diverted onto the black market. Some may be sold directly to the traffickers by corrupt elements of national armies, authorities and experts say.
And there it is. Those Barrett rifles that are supposedly so 'easily' being smuggled into Mexico?(maybe we need a fence, huh?) Remember this picture?

I'm doing it, I'd suggest you contact your congresscritters and point out this article, in particular the parts noting that this crap isn't coming from US gun shops and shows.

I may be mistaken, but after all the "We will now fund

fetal stem cell research of all kinds" noise in the speech, doesn't this pretty much leave things just like the order Bush signed? If not more strict?
On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”
The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.

The amendment says, in part: “None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for—(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”

...it also mandates that the government use an all-inclusive definition of “human embryo” that encompasses any nascent human life from the moment that life comes into being, even if created in a laboratory through cloning, in vitro fertilization or any other means.
Which means either the "We don't have time for you to read all this!" push caused this to get through without notice, or Obama knew it was there and just used the "I'm signing" press moment to showboat, knowing this was going to keep anything from really changing.

As examples of how companies like Adidas are run by moral cretins

and fools, I would have pointed to the products Liberty Girl pointed out with which Adidas urged people to show their love for the former USSR and for Cuba.

........

It just takes a minute to wrap your head around the idiocy involved in that crap. Said crap apparently pissed off enough people who then expressed their opinion to the company, because both products show 'temporarily out of stock'. Kind of like the supply of brains at that company.

Just because I enjoyed it,

something to start the day:
Mr. Adams: You're [sic] columns are among the most insensitive I have ever read. George Will and other true conservatives must be embarrased [sic] by your rants. Have you given no thought to the needs os [sic] the many young boys who are experiencing gender identity crises?

Lauren


Hi Lauren. I agree with you that young boys experiencing gender identity confusion have special needs. I have given the matter considerable thought. I think a young boy who thinks he's a girl needs a serious ass whipping. Parents who hear a child whining that he feels like a girl trapped in a boy's body should attend to his needs by whipping his ass immediately.

As you can see, Lauren, I've given serious thought to this matter. Is there any other subject about which you wish to survey my thoughts or feelings?

Mike Adams

and

yo, wtf do you have a gun in your hand for? it's in the pic on your fromt [sic] page. I was surfing the web and found your site, having no idea what it's about I would love to know why fire arms are on your front page.

oban cameron

Dear Oban:

I have a firearm on my home page for essentially the same reason a dog licks his genitals: Because he can and he enjoys it.

Like the dog, it is best to leave me alone to enjoy doing what I enjoy doing. I hope you understand. Your opinion means a lot to me.

Mike S. Adams

Dinner's over, my sinuses are cleared

and the last of the chili's gone. You see, the other day somebody pointed to this at Brigid's place, which reminded me of how long it's been since I made fry bread, so... Fresh fry bread with chili ladled over, grated cheese thrown on and some chopped lettuce on top. I'm stuffed, and chili took care of my somewhat stopped-up nose.

By the way, tear off a bit from a piece of the still-warm bread and drip some honey on it. I dare you to not eat that whole piece.

Sigivald thought a comment had not gone through,

but it may just have been the moderation delay. A few days ago some moron started posting garbage in comments, so I enabled moderation to stop it. Hopefully can take it back off in a while.

Sigivald had a couple of things to say, one of them
Firstly, I think your interpretation is a bit flawed; an '03 or Krag is a bolt-action and thus not affected by a "semi-automatic rifle" regulation of any sort, stupid as these proposed bans are. Likewise, the "detachable magazine outside the pistol grip" referred in the previous AWB to the location of the magazine, not its length - and I see no reason why the language presented would apply to long magazines and their extension rather than location.

I'm basing the '03 and such on "there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any law enforcement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes,"; give an AG like Holder the ability to add something to a ban at will and that line spells "Ban it all!" to me. Same for the magazine 'outside the pistol grip' line; it meant one thing in the original AWB, but if they did try to shove a new through, I have no doubt that would be used to ban any semi-auto handgun that has every had a extended mag made to fit. For that matter, the extreme gun bigots would argue that since the magazine of any pistol could be extended...

You may be right that I'm misinterpreting those parts, but I don't trust them. At all.

The Evil Party gun ban list

Friend relayed this to me, I'm just going to excerpt part of it:
The Democrats current gun-ban-list proposal (final list will be worse):
Rifles (or copies or duplicates):
M1 Carbine,
Sturm Ruger Mini-14,
AR-15,
Bushmaster XM15,
Armalite M15,
AR-10,
Thompson 1927,
Thompson M1;
AK,
AKM,
AKS,
AK-47,
AK-74,
ARM,
MAK90,
NHM 90,
NHM 91,
SA 85,
SA 93,
VEPR;
Olympic Arms PCR;
AR70,
Calico Liberty ,
Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle or Dragunov SVU,
Fabrique National FN/FAL,
FN/LAR, or FNC,
Hi-Point20Carbine,
HK-91,
HK-93,
HK-94,
HK-PSG-1,
Thompson 1927 Commando,
Kel-Tec Sub Rifle;
Saiga,
SAR-8,
SAR-4800,
SKS with detachable magazine,
SLG 95,
SLR 95 or 96,
Steyr AU,
Tavor,
Uzi,
Galil and Uzi Sporter,
Galil Sporter, or Galil Sniper Rifle ( Galatz ).
Pistols (or copies or duplicates):
Calico M-110,
MAC-10,
MAC-11, or MPA3,
Olympic Arms OA,
TEC-9,
TEC-DC9,
TEC-22 Scorpion, or AB-10,
Uzi.
Shotguns (or copies or duplicates):
Armscor 30 BG,
SPAS 12 or LAW 12,
Striker 12,
Streetsweeper. Catch-all category (for anything missed or new designs):
A semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and has:
(i) a folding or telescoping stock,
(ii) a threaded barrel,
(iii) a pistol grip (which includes ANYTHING that can serve as a grip, see
below),
(iv) a forward grip; or a barrel shroud.
Any semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine that can accept more than
10 rounds (except tubular magazine .22 rim fire rifles)..
A semiautomatic pistol that has the ability to accept a
detachable magazine, and has:
(i) a second pistol grip,
(ii) a threaded barrel,
(iii) a barrel shroud or
(iv) can accept a detachable magazine outside of the pistol grip, and
(v) a semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10
rounds. Note that the
A semiautomatic shotgun with:
(i) a folding or telescoping stock,
(ii) a pistol grip (see definition below),
(iii) the ability to accept a detachable magazine or a fixed magazine capacity
of more than 5 rounds, and
(iv) a shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
Frames or receivers for the above are included, along with conversion kits.


Attorney General gets carte blanche to ban guns at will: Under the proposal, the U.S. Attorney General can add any "semiautomatic rifle or shotgun originally designed for military or law enforcement use, or a firearm based on the design of such a firearm, that is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General."
Note that Obama's pick for this office, Eric Holder, wrote a brief in the Heller case supporting the position that you have no right to have a working firearm in your own home. In making this determination, the bill says, "there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any law enforcement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, and a shall not be determined to be particularly suitable for sporting purposes solely because the firearm is suitable for use in a sporting event." In plain English this means that ANY firearm ever obtained by federal officers or the military is not suitable for the public.
The last part is particularly clever, stating that a firearm doesn't have a sporting purpose just because it can be used for sporting purpose -- is that devious or what? And of course, "sporting purpose" is a rights infringement with no constitutional or historical support whatsoever, invented by domestic enemies of the right to keep and bear arms to further their cause of disarming the innocent.

It's a real shopping list, isn't it? The pistol 'can accept a detachable magazine outside of the pistol grip' will mean if it can hold a mag that extends beyond the grip, the pistol is banned; which means banning EVERY semi-auto pistol. Your rifle is threaded for a compensator? Banned. Pistol has a threaded barrel, or someone every made one for that model? Banned. Your old 1903 Springfield? M1 Garand? Krag? Banned. Every 1911 variant in existence? Banned. And since lots of pistols of all types have been use in military service? Banned. Because the AG decides that they don't have a 'proper sporting purpose'.

And let's take that sporting purpose crap; it means that they want to completely trash the 2nd Amendment, AND consider self-defense to be not worthy of consideration as reason for owning a firearm. After all, self-defense isn't a 'sporting purpose', now is it?

This is what they'd like to do. And, since they've proven they have no consideration for the Constitution beyond using it as toilet paper, we have to keep reminding them of the price for trying to do this.

A nice comment from somebody on the "Make wounded vets pay

for their treatment" idea:
Let’s see. The same administration that wants to give tens of billions of dollars to GM, Citigroup, AIG, and a host of other banks and manufacturers wants men and women injured in service to their country to pay for the medical care that arises from these injuries? In what universe does Shinseki and the Obama administration live, anyway?
Really, I still have no words about this. Like I said, it tells us a lot about what kind of general Shinseki was, that he'd go along with this crap.

A Russian expert is warning that we need to take the threat from Iran seriously:
Russia and the West would be making a big mistake if they ignored or underestimated the potential missile and nuclear threat coming from Iran, a Russian military expert said on Thursday.

"Iran is actively working on a missile development program. I won't say the Iranians will be able to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles in the near future, but they will most likely be able to threaten the whole of Europe," said [retired] Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic Nuclear Forces....

"Iran has long abandoned outdated missile technologies and is capable of producing sophisticated missile systems," Dvorkin said at a news conference in RIA Novosti
Considering their own troubles with islamist types, no, I don't think the Russians like the idea of Iran having both long-range missiles and nukes; not at all. And if the EUnuchs have a brain in their heads, they'll be seriously worried about it.

Congress once again promises not to make itself vote to give itself a raise; they'd rather hide behind automatic raises.

Massachusetts proves itself a bastion of free speech as long as the speech agrees with what the nutcases think; otherwise, they don't want you to be heard.

The Most Ethical Congress EVAH!
“Note that OneUnited is the same bank whose relationship with Barney Frank raised some eyebrows back in January. After receiving $12 million in bailout funds with Frank’s help, the FDIC issued a cease-and-desist order against the bank, in part related to the fact that the bank was paying for the CEO’s beach house and Porsche.”

Ace pointed out this article on just how standard-politics Mr. Hopey-Changeypants is; as he says, Not a lot you haven't read before, but a worthy effort in showing Barack Obama for what he is.

I won't go into the latest Obama appointee resignations/raids/arrests/whatever; just too many.

I read this piece from Paglia the other day, and had about the same reaction:"So everyone in the administration except Obama is screwing up, and Obama's only real sin is in not picking the right people?" An awful lot of people have a lot of personal feelings invested in "Obama is wonderful!", and they're willing to overlook an awful lot to keep that feeling; gonna be really nasty when reality crashes down on them.

And, just to make things fun as Pres. Obama is reaching out to Tehran,
An American fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone as it was flying over Iraq, U.S. military sources in Baghdad tell Danger Room.

Details of the previously-unreported shoot-down, which occurred last month, are still sketchy. But we do know that American commanders have long accused Tehran of supplying weapons and training to all sorts of Iraqi militant groups. Shi'ite militias fired Iranian rockets at U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the American military; Sunni militias allegedly used Iranian armor-piercing bombs to reduce U.S. vehicles to ribbons.
Just wonderful, isn't it?

Back to this country, how's this for a blunt theat from Pelosi's office?
“Could you send me a hard copy of the DOD budget documents on the fy 08 request and the fy07 supplemental request?” wrote Pelosi staffer Mike Sheehy in a February 5, 2007 email to the DOD, in direct response to having the speaker’s request for a bigger, nicer plane that could take her from San Francisco to DC without having to refuel rebuffed. This was an implicit budgetary threat issued to a department Pelosi and her staff wanted something from.
So when she says
“I have never asked for any larger plane….We’ve never asked for a larger plane, this is a myth that they are talking about on the floor,” she said. “No we haven’t asked for any larger plane. …this is not my request, it is a request of the Sergeant-at-Arms…
she's lying to us. Again.

And, just as a general finish, a piece on one of the biggest diamond thefts ever. Including the idiot-level mistake that blew the whole thing.

One last thing: Tam makes reference to the ads

with pretty ladies about to fall out of their BDU pants and expose something through the open front of their vest if they turn a little, displaying whatever New Tacticaler! thing is being sold. Which reminded me...

One of my various gripes over the years has been the people who draw the covers of sci-fi and fantasy novels. In particular, the ones with the Heroine In The Mail Bikini or something similar and/or the Hero In The Breechclout chasing/being chased through the woods. No objection whatever to pretty females in scanty attire, but DAMN, people, have some sense! The way I once expressed this, in my usual quite tones, was along the lines of "I'd like to take the jerk who drew this, dress him up this way, and run his ass through the woods for a while; then we'll see if he thinks it's a good idea. And we'll send his girlfriend along, too!" The kids, having some experience with what you run into in the Oklahoma woods, laughed like hell. Yeah, think about running into greenbriar or blackberry vines with nothing between them and your tender hide; and that's not counting the bugs and the general stickers and things. There was a reason the Indians wore leggings and long shirts, people.

Since I'm- once again- on the subject of dirtbag politicians, this time the UN

has done it again.
CAPITOL HILL, March 12 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning, ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen emerged and told the Press that Ban "used the word deadbeat when it came to describing the United States... unbelievable."

Minutes later, Ban stopped and spoke to the three reporters present, including Inner City Press, all three of whom had tape recorders running. He was asked, did you use the word 'deadbeat'? Inner City Press asked, "Ros-Lehtinen seemed to say you did."

"Yes I did, I did," Ban replied, and then smiled impishly. His spokesperson, who also tape recorded the exchange, then said Ban had to go. He rushed away down the hallway surrounded by aides.
Ah, but he has an explanation, you see:
At least two stories were written. Then, past midnight, Ban's Spokesperson's office issued a midnight "clarification" --

Subj: To clarify any misunderstanding about the Secretary General
From: unspokesperson-donotreply@un.org
To: Inner City Press [et al.]
Sent: 3/12/2009 12:19:10 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time

The Secretary-General said: "The United States generously supports the work of the UN , both in assessed and voluntary contributions".

The Secretary-General also added that while the United States is the most generous contributor to the United Nations, it is also the largest debtor, with more than one billion dollars of arrears owed to the organization. Etc.
So, let's see; we put more money into that conglomeration of tyrants and leeches than any other country, we're not giving them ENOUGH, so we're deadbeats.
........
Mr. Secretary-General, there's already an awful lot of us sick to bloody death of paying you clowns to screw people- sometimes literally, considering the number of UN people involved in running brothels and child porn and other abuses- the world over. We're tired of(at the tsunami zone, for instance) being either first or among the first there, working our asses off, contributing billions, and having your delicate little flowers show up and try to take over and claim credit for everything done, and then insulting us.

And you call us deadbeats because we don't give you enough of what we work for. So you can use it to prop up more dictators, and insult us more, and abuse more people, and insist people being murdered and enslaved should just sit and take it until the Holy UN comes in(probably after they're all dead) and does something.

Screw you, Mr. Secretary-General, and every deadbeat, thieving little socialist jackass under you. We ought to stop funding your organization AT ALL and tell you to move the hell out of our country. You're so fond of dictators, go to Cuba; I'm sure the Castro regime would love to have you there.

And if I hear anything about how wonderful unions are,

I'll think of this:
...In this release, Teamster president Hoffa praised the House and Senate sponsors of card check and asked, “Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?”

Well, gee, you worthless, corrupt piece of crap, for quite a long damned time. And that you can say such a thing tells me all I need to know about you and what you're pushing. And the dirtbags in Congress pushing it for you.

I wonder, what did their integrity cost? Probably went pretty cheap, I'd guess.

I would not have believed I would have to say Pres. Obama is worse

than I'd thought and feared; but this miserable canker on the ass of this country is.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.
...
No official proposal to create such a program has been announced publicly, but veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama voicing their opposition to the idea after hearing the plan was under consideration.

The groups also cited an increase in "third-party collections" estimated in the 2010 budget proposal -- something they said could be achieved only if the Veterans Administration started billing for service-related injuries.

Asked about the proposal, Shinseki said it was under "consideration."

"A final decision hasn't been made yet," he said.

I have no words. There's just no proper way to describe this shit. And that Shinseki, who used to be a general, is part of it...

Miserable, chickenshit, cowardly, disgusting...

Thanks to Sondra for helping get word of this atrocity around

Helmke, of the Brady Group To Ban Guns, is a flat-out

damned liar:

McLendon fired more than 200 rounds from his military-style semiautomatic assault weapons....Assault weapons were banned under federal law until four years ago....

"This man needed the firepower of assault weapons to execute his plan of mass carnage. Alabama, and our nation, must take action to make it harder for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign.

I'll pass on the other bullcrap; the simple fact is these firearms were not banned 'until four years ago'. Which means, once again, the Brady Group To Ban Guns either doesn't know what it's talking about, or is a bunch of damned liars.

On the subject of the care and feeding of the Garand

Rustmeister noted in comments Modern 30.06 loads are hotter than what the Garand was designed for and can damage your baby. Which is something to consider.

Remember a while back I wrote on pressure, and when it comes in, and why military arms are generally designed specifically around a cartridge? That's very much in my mind, and I plan to be careful about it. Generally, jacketed bullets from 150 to 170 grains weight can be safely used when loaded to pressures that will both give accuracy and cycle the action properly; heavier bullets, no. Lighter jacketed often no, because the powder type and charge that works best for them often does not play well with the operating system of the Garand.

Cast bullets as heavy as 200 grains, sometimes with a slower-burning powder than IMR4895, have been used successfully in the Garand due to the fact that a cast or cast and gas-checked bullet has a lot less friction in the bore than a jacketed bullet with that hard copper-alloy coat; but you do have to watch pressures to make sure you stay in the range.

I've been told the Federal American Eagle .30-06 with 150-grain FMJ bullet matches up to military M2 ball specs, but haven't checked that out for myself; I do know that one local range that regularly runs service rifle shoots sells that ammo for the matches with that as the reason.

Speaking of the Garand, after shooting it to check it out, when time allows I'll use some stuff to clean the old oil and grease(happily, doesn't look like much) out of the wood and refinish it carefully(so as not to damage the stock markings). Right now it's 30-something and damp outside, and I ain't gonna do it. I did a few years back in similar weather, because the rifle in question was really greasy and I just couldn't wait, but I about froze doing it. My hands get stiffer in the cold than they used to, so I'll wait for things to warm up a bit.

Ok, you people who voted Hopey-Changey to end the war

and bring the troops home? In case you haven't figured it out yet, President Hopey-Changey lied to you, too.
President Obama, apparently seeking to keep the anti-war left firmly under his spell, announced that he was drawing down American forces in Iraq, and was instead diverting forces who had trained specifically for an Iraqi deployment to Afghanistan.

Less than a month later, another unit's scheduled deployment to Iraq is sped up, in order to keep the same number of Stryker brigades in Iraq as there would have been if he hadn't shipped the other unit to Afghanistan.

The President ordered a unit that had trained for ten months specifically for the Iraqi mission to another part of the world that speaks a different language and has entirely different cultures. There is no easy way to determine on a Sunday night how many tens of millions of training dollars and man-hours Obama wasted by shifting this Stryker brigade, but if the Iraqi theater really didn't need them, it at least could have been understandable.

But the Iraqi theater clearly did need a Stryker brigade, and he planned on sending one all along.

We know this because just as soon as the Obama White House sold the drawdown story to the media and the anti-war left, he immediately and quietly ordered that another Stryker brigade—one that is no doubt capable, but one that didn't have the specific, intensive training of the unit diverted to Afghanistan— rushed to Iraq months ahead of schedule in order to keep the same number of Stryker brigades (two) as there has been the entire time.
So what President B. Cartman Obama really meant was "I will bring the troops home(while I send others over there, but don't pay attention to that part)!"

People taken away from their families prematurely, without the training that would really help, so Obama could play at keeping a campaign promise. Just effing wonderful.

True, true...

Thanks to RNC for the toon

The Sportsman's Warehouse here is closing

Just heard about it today. There goes one of the places I got reloading stuff locally.

I went up to take a look around, not expecting much. When a shipment of ammo, powder, primers or bullets came in, unless you happened to come by within two days it was all gone, so, as I expected, not much on the shelves. Did have some powder, shotgun primers and some bullets in stock, very little in the way of ammo. Not just handgun or whatever; if you counted up everything, maybe two cases on the shelves, and that was going away.

They have a wall behind the gun counter that has most of the handguns on it, with some of the more special stuff in the counter; it would've been easier to list what was there than what wasn't, by far. A fair number of bolt rifles and shotguns left, but they're going, too.

I'll miss the place.

A couple of pieces on the major media trying to avoid noticing

the tax protests.
If a revolution happens and no reporters cover it, will it make a sound? That's a good question because an anti-tax revolution as American as they come is under way, and the country's top newsmen could care less.

Anti-tax protests have been sprouting like spring flowers from sea to shining sea the past couple of weeks. Inspired by the "Chicago Tea Party" rant of CNBC business analyst Rick Santelli, taxpayers have rallied in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, among other locales. A national "Tax Day Tea Party" of coordinated rallies is planned for April 15.

But if you only get your news from the mainstream media, you probably wouldn't know the protests ever happened. Most major news outlets have provided zero coverage of any of the individual events or the grassroots movement as a whole. The conservative-leaning Internet startup Pajamas TV is the only outlet consistently covering the protests, which totaled nearly 30 by PJTV's count after last weekend.

and
DOES THE L.A. TIMES COVER RALLIES? YOU BET IT DOES! And they don’t have to have 15,000 people, either — as long as the issue is one near and dear to the hearts of Times editors.
Again, the major media shows hellish bias, would rather die than admit it and try to fix it, and then bitches about their markets going down the toilet.

"But THESE earmarks are IMPORTANT; and they

put the Kennedy name on more things."

Sick to death of arrogant politicians who want to spend more of other peoples money so they can polish their own image, sick to death of politicians who claim something is important but don't want to be bothered with actually arguing their point and trying to legitimately get funding; oh no, much easier to do this.

I guess the Kennedy family wants to be like Byrd in WV; they think their name ought to be on every damn thing around.

So these are the wonderful people running the

whole damn mess:
Bryan described himself as an Obama supporter who derived “intellectual satisfaction” from the president’s healthcare, education and climate proposals. But he questioned whether most people connected such complicated issues to the plunging values of their retirement accounts or to soaring unemployment.

Pervasive voter uncertainty means Obama needs to emphasize short-term measures to fix the economy, Bryan said. “If there’s not a sense that we’ve reached bottom and there’s a sense of uncertainty, I think the president’s support will erode fairly rapidly,” he added.
Yeah, we're too unintellectual to connect Obama wanting to trash the coal industry and prevent drilling and shove cap & trade down our throats and warning us that electricity costs will 'skyrocket' to the economy. Uh huh. Or maybe we just don't have Mr. Bryan's 'intellectual satisfaction' in Pres. B. Cartman Obama wanting to 'remake the country' in an Alinsky image.

The whole piece is interesting, with it seeming to boil down to this: doesn't seem to matter to these clowns if things actually improve, what matters is if they can make voters think things are better so they can hold onto majorities.

It may not be Tam's preferred

flying predator, but it's a fine example of a stealth attack craft saying "TURN OFF THAT LIGHT! I'M TRYING TO HUNT!!"

Have you ever seen the claws on those birds?

About that shortage of ammo,

as I pointed out before, it ain't just the finished stuff.

The guy that owns the pretty Colt Hammerless couldn't find ANY .32acp in town. So he went online; very little there, either, and the price on stuff like Blazer is ridiculous. So I did a bit of browsing...

Checking Midway and Grafs, most .32 bullets show sold out. Neither place has .32acp dies in stock when I looked. Checked a couple of other places and things, and all kinds of bullets from .32 on up, lots of dies, even many bullet molds for .32 and .380 and 9mm and so forth are sold out.

It seems people distrust the gummint enough, and are bothered by the cost of things and worry about future availability enough, that they're stocking up on things to roll their own; wonder how many of them are people who've started handloading in the last few months?

You know, there's got to be a bunch of nervous stomachs among the people in DC over this.

My personal stimulus package, and contribution to the

re-arming of America going on.

When all the fun started back around last October, I started thinking about a EBR. Question was, what? I'm just not that fond of the AR15, they're expensive and were rapidly becoming more so, and ammo... jeez, have you looked at .223 lately? Plus son is not that fond of it*; he recommended that if I did, get a piston upper in 7.62x39; can you say 'even more pricey'?

I've always liked the idea of a M1A, but they're more expensive than most AR15s I've seen. Then I had a thought(shut up, Og, it happens). I checked the site and they still showed them, so I put the paperwork together and mailed it off. '30 to 60 days' turned to 90, to 120, and then I got an e-mail: 'processing your order'! Which was a real surprise, as I'd been afraid they'd run out. Then a couple of days ago the White Truck of Happiness brought the box from CMP:
M1 Garand in the grand old .30-06 cartridge, this one made by Harrington & Richardson. After disassembly and a thorough cleaning, it's in quite good condition; the bore looks very nice indeed, the muzzle shows little wear, the action's tight and the trigger not bad at all; I'm guessing about 5 pound with no creep or drag. The stock has a lot of little 'carried around a lot' dings, and appears to be original to the rifle.

I've got a bunch of -06 brass, and you can use any 150- to 170-grain bullet to feed it, so ammo won't be a big problem. May see about ordering some more of the HXP ammo CMP has; I've fired it before, it's good stuff. And I think the cast bullets will work out to make very nice practice loads.

True, it doesn't have the pistol grip or detachable magazine that causes such pants-wetting among the Brady Group To Ban Guns and their associates; and the handguard is wood instead of being a horrifying 'thing that folds up' barrel shroud. But it does have a bayonet lug(got a sticker for it), and you can stick a grenade launcher on it, and it is on the list those GFW dirtbags drew up as 'Evil Assault Weapons That Make Us Foul Our Diapers That Peasants Should Not Own' , so it'll do for that part. Helmke, that arms expert who said that guns capable of shooting more than 100 yards should not be allowed for hunting, should go into PSH at the thought of a 150-grain bullet at almost 2900fps("Why, it'll go MUCH more than 100 yards!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!") And, though no detachable mag, those 8-round clips go in pretty quickly, so I guess that counts for it, also.

The stimulus part? I used my tax refund to pay for it, and it'll stimulate interest at the range, pleasure for me in further cleaning and use, and "Crap, where'd you get it?" questions at the range.

Clips. More clips... And wheelweights.


*He told me that he's never seen one, properly maintained(i.e. 'scrubbed within an inch of its life daily') fail to function in combat; he does say they can be a pain in the ass to thoroughly clean after much use, and he's not fond of the cartridge for fighting.

Back to the 'Most Ethical Congress

EVAH!
Over the course of the past decade, Rep. John P. Murtha has earmarked millions of dollars for the Electro-Optics Center at Penn State University — money that has, in turn, gone to clients of the PMA Group, the Murtha-linked lobbying shop that was raided in November as part of a federal criminal probe.

Founded in 1999 as a joint enterprise run by Penn State and the Office of Naval Research, the EOC promotes electronic research needed for state-of-the-art military equipment.

But sources familiar with the EOC’s operations say Murtha has used the center as a “front” for PMA and other lobbyists and contractors with ties to the Pennsylvania Democrat.

At least 10 PMA lobbying clients have received funding via the EOC, officials at the center acknowledged. Sources familiar with the EOC’s operations said the total that went to PMA clients ran into the “tens of millions of dollars.”

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Murtha has received $2.38 million in campaign contributions from PMA and its clients over the past 10 years.

“Welcome to the ‘earmark factory,’” said a person familiar with the EOC’s internal operations.

Insty noted Some Democratic spokespeople are saying that earmarks don’t matter because the amount of money is small compared to the total budget. If that’s true, then outright bribes wouldn’t matter, either, because there’s not all that much difference . . . .
Yesterday, I think on Hannity(listen occasionally) some Evil Party mouthpiece, I think Beckel, was noting exactly that: "It's only a small part of the bill so why get upset about it?" How about BECAUSE IT'S OUR MONEY YOU'RE WASTING, YOU BASTARD! Real easy to be careless with other people's money, isn't it?

He also made the statement that 'health care is a right' and needed to be socialized. Hannity asked where in the Constitution or any of the founding documents it said that it's a right, and Beckel replied "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. So, according to the Evil Party and the socialists, those seven words mean that you have a right to have to government rob other people to pay your doctor bills. Kind of like the Interstate Commerce Clause means the feds can regulate ANYTHING in their view; all for our own good, of course.

Rat bastards.

Those wonderful Saudi enforcers of the

religion of peace:
A 75-year-old widow has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in prison in Saudi Arabia for mingling with two young men who were reportedly bringing her bread.
...
The two men, including one who was Mrs Sawadi's late husband's nephew, were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms and lashes.

The elderly woman met the two 24-year-old men last April after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported.

The men - identified by Al-Watan as the nephew, Fahd al-Anzi, and his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein - went to Mrs Sawadi's home in the city of al-Chamil, north of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. After delivering the bread, the two men were arrested by a one of the religious police, Al-Watan reported.
Just frikkin' wonderful.

The creation of the AC130,

thanks to Blackfive:
...but we think it went something like this in 1967:

Drunk engineer 1: So...dude...let's take a cargo plane and trick it out with every weapon we can find!

Drunk engineer 2: I don't know man...a cargo plane?

Drunk engineer 1: Come on!

Drunk engineer 2: Well...can we add a 25mm gatling gun and a 40mm cannon?

Drunk engineer 1: Shit yeah, man! We can even add a 105mm Howitzer cannon!

Drunk enginner 2: Really? Well in that case - I'm in!

Theo had a piece about what sons teach you,

including
1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq.... ft. house 4 inches deep.

2! .) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.
and other interesting things. Sent it to a friend, and she contributed these:

Do not pull down on handles on walls in public buildings. The fire alarm is very loud and little boys can not out-run the sound.

Boys who love splashing in puddles will seek out water. When Mom says to get out of the pond/lake/creek or river, the little boy will immediately find the hole or drop off, going in over his head and necessitating a rescue. (This has happened twice; once in a pond and once in a river. Luckily I was only a few yards away.)

Little boys should not be left in parked cars when the motor is running, even for thirty seconds. They can put the car into drive. Yes, Grandmas can run fast enough to catch up and stop the car before it reaches the fence.

I'll throw in, "They can't remember being told to pick up the damned toys, but they can remember every one of your special words for fixing the car."

Question: Does Pres. B. Cartman Obama just not pay attention

to the problems with nominees, or did he think he could just shove them through anyway?
...The allegations against Freeman included claims that he was insensitive to the cause of Tibetan independence, having described Tibetan independence efforts as “race riots.” He described “Israeli violence against Palestinians” as the barrier to peace in the Middle East without acknowledging Palestinian violence against Israelis. Freeman’s stance on these issues may come as no surprise given that he was part of an institute that was funded by Saudi money and sat on the board of a Chinese state-owned oil company.
Including this marvelous comment he made:
For myself, I side on this — if not on numerous other issues — with Gen. Douglas MacArthur. I do not believe it is acceptable for any country to allow the heart of its national capital to be occupied by dissidents intent on disrupting the normal functions of government, however appealing to foreigners their propaganda may be. Such folk, whether they represent a veterans’ “Bonus Army” or a “student uprising” on behalf of “the goddess of democracy” should expect to be displaced with despatch from the ground they occupy. I cannot conceive of any American government behaving with the ill-conceived restraint that the Zhao Ziyang administration did in China, allowing students to occupy zones that are the equivalent of the Washington National Mall and Times Square, combined. while shutting down much of the Chinese government’s normal operations. I thus share the hope of the majority in China that no Chinese government will repeat the mistakes of Zhao Ziyang’s dilatory tactics of appeasement in dealing with domestic protesters in China.

Wow. That's just... amazing. And Obama, with all the stuff hanging off this guy, thought he could be run through with no big problem. Like all the tax-cheats and other assorted dirtbags he wanted in high position.

So did he just think his powers could loft them through the process anyway, or did he and his staff just not pay attention?

Back to the subject of insulting allies,

these are some of the people President B. Cartman Obama wants to use a bargaining chip with the Soviet bastardsRussians:
WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's army is changing its tactics in Afghanistan -- going on the offense in military operations in view of more likely attacks on coalition forces, Poland's Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said.

Klich, who is paying a visit to Afghanistan, said that Poland's likely involvement in offensive military operations in Afghanistan is linked to the forthcoming presidential elections there and the end of winter, a time when rebel attacks are hindered. Intensification of U.S. operations in neighbouring provinces is another reason.

"Taking this into account we decided to change our tactics in Afghanistan and cooperate as closely as possible with U.S. troops," Poland's defence minister said.
I remember reading that the Polics specops people who were involved in the invasion and after were considered first-class people, very nice to have on your side; nice to know they're still carrying their end. Now if we could get the other NATO 'allied' governments to let their troops do the same...

Man reads headline "Madam arrested for keeping a disorderly house";

Wife says "They arrested Pelosi?"
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly requested military aircraft to shuttle her and her colleagues and family around the country, according to a new report from a conservative watchdog group.

Representatives for Judicial Watch, which obtained e-mails and other documents from a Freedom of Information request, said the correspondence shows Pelosi has abused the system in place to accommodate congressional leaders and treated the Air Force as her "personal airline."

Pelosi's office disputed the claim, pointing to White House policy enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks allowing for the House speaker to travel to his or her congressional district via military aircraft whenever possible for security reasons. Her office said she typically uses the same kind of aircraft used by her predecessor, Dennis Hastert.
One of the important things here: 'whenever possible'. That's not supposed to include "I want an airplane and I want it now!"
In one e-mail, aide Kay King complained to the military that they had not made available any aircraft the House speaker wanted for Memorial Day recess.

"It is my understanding there are NO G5s available for the House during the Memorial Day recess. This is totally unacceptable ... The Speaker will want to know where the planes are," King wrote.

In another, when told a certain type of aircraft would not be available, King wrote: "This is not good news, and we will have some very disappointed folks, as well as a very upset Speaker."
And if that last isn't a threat, what is it? Please note, not "Is there a flight we can get on?" or "Is there a plane available?", but "The Speaker wants a G5!"

Most Ethical Congress EVAH!!!

Gee, there are bad things hidden in the Rob Your Grandkids

Spending Bill? Damn, ain't that something?
Some issues that inflamed Democrats in previous years have yet to even register, including the proposal in Obama's budget plan to "means-test" the Medicare drug benefit as a way to pay for health-care reform. Doling out entitlement benefits based on income has long been anathema to most Democrats.
I will, for now, pass on commenting on the 'entitlement' crap; the important thing here is this was being snuck in without even most Evil Party members being aware of it.

Menendez knew that his hard-line approach to Cuba was a minority view within his party, and that it was at odds with Obama's approach. But he did not expect to discover a significant policy change embedded in the text on an appropriations bill. His policy aides came across the language when the legislation was posted on a congressional Web site.

"The process by which these changes have been forced upon this body is so deeply offensive to me, and so deeply undemocratic, that it puts the omnibus appropriations package in jeopardy, in spite of all the other tremendously important funding that this bill would provide," the enraged son of Cuban immigrants said last week on the Senate floor. Menendez even slapped a hold on a pair of Obama nominees to draw attention to the issue.
Well, something should put that piece of crap in jeopardy, before it ruins us all.

Yeah, well, I'd like to trace my ancestry back to Conan,

but that don't make it so.
The remark provoked much headshaking in the parliament of a bloc that likes to trace back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.
Very conveniently passing over all those monarchies and dictatorships and socialist 'people's republics' that watered the ground with blood for centuries*... Guess what, bozos? Our republic IS older than your somewhat free governments. Which are becoming steadily less free as your socialist governments keep moving toward fascism.

As to Clinton?
Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was effusive in his praise, saying that with the new administration, the United States and Europe once again "share the same values."

"What you said mostly could have been said by a European," he told Clinton after she fielded questions ranging from climate change to energy security and aid to Africa and one on gay rights from a participant wearing an "I love Hillary" t-shirt.
Snork. Snuffle. "...said by a European" Personally I find that to be something of damning with faint praise, if not a flat-out insult. I don't doubt Hillary Clinton shares your socialist('progressive' if you prefer) viewpoint; you should get along famously, but don't expect the same from an awful lot of us.

*Yes, Greece began democracy; hasn't been a straight shot for it all these years.

No wonder President The Obama didn't want Churchill

looking at him:
"There is no such thing as a good tax."

"Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon."

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy."

"You ask, What is our policy? I will say; “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.” You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival".

And on to the borders and illegal aliens

and the damage they're doing:
But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away.

Perez, 27, was just a working guy, out getting dinner late on a Friday with his wife and young children at Chilos, a seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway.
...
“It is here and it has been here, but people don’t want to listen,” Rick Moreno, a Houston police homicide investigator working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI, said of the cartels’ presence in Houston. "It is so far-reaching>"

Washington is taking notice, even if the toll on U.S. streets is nowhere near as pervasive as in Mexico, where cartels are locked in a war against one another and with the government.
A: A lot of us have been taking notice of this kind of garbage for years.
B: DC 'taking notice' has all too often been of the 'amnesty for illegals' variety. Except when they can use it as a club to whack at the 2nd Amendment(see 'illegal US guns to Mexico bullcrap).

“International drug trafficking organizations pose a sustained, serious threat to the safety and security of our communities,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said. “We can provide our communities the safety and the security that they deserve only by confronting these dangerous cartels head-on without reservation,” he said.
Well, isn't that nice. You know, AG Holder, it might help if there were a bit more control over the borders; you know, a fence or something? Or is that too simple-minded an idea to suit you?