Old movies

Some are bad, some are good. And some are very damn good. Not necessarily 'won an Oscar' good, but very good movies.
Over at Seraphic Secret they made mention first of Myrna Loy and a number of her movies, and just before that a bit about screenwriting. Which reminded me of Casablanca.

A few years back my daughter was over for the weekend and I finally got her to sit down to watch it. She was writing(constantly, still does) and not paying much attention for about ten minutes, then something caught her attention and she looked up and asked "What did he say?" Aha, I thought, got her now, so I gave her a ticked-off look, rewound the tape and started it over. And this time she put the notebook and pen down and watched, and listened. Clear through to the end.

When it finished I asked "What do you think?" She sat a moment, then said "You know, everything in that movie is a cliche, but when they made it, they werent."

She liked it. Got her own copy later, too.

I started agreeing with Charles and calling them Palisimians

when I saw things like this:
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Saraa Barhoum picked at the buttons on her pink bellbottom jeans as she twisted on a chair inside the bustling new Hamas television headquarters. The afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top, and a colorful hijab framed her 11-year-old face.

Saraa wants to be a doctor. If she can’t, the young star of Hamas television’s best-known children’s show said, she’d be proud to become a martyr. Saraa says little Jewish girls should be forced from their homes in Israel so that Palestinians can return to their land.

Eleven freakin' years old.

Saraa is the sweet face of “Tomorrow’s Pioneers,” a weekly, hour-long Hamas television children’s show best known for bringing the world a militant Mickey Mouse look-alike and then having him killed off by an Israeli interrogator.
...
Saraa helps deliver similar messages to Palestinian children from a Hamas TV set filled with colorful numbers and pictures of kittens. During the show, Saraa fields calls from Palestinian children who warble songs about Islam, liberating Jerusalem and finding answers in the barrel of a machine gun.

And one of the things that really pisses me off, as a side issue, is that an awful lot of the people who'll make excuses for this crap will have hissy fits at the very idea of a parent here in the US taking their kids to the range. THAT'S disgusting, but these kids praising death and murder? Why, that's just fine!

Oh, for... If you actually needed further proof that Once Great Britain

is in the toilet, here it is:
DOCTORS and health workers have been banned from eating lunch at their desks - in case it offends their Muslim colleagues.

Health chiefs believe the sight of food will upset Muslim workers when they are celebrating the religious festival Ramadan.

Now, this would be bad enough if it were standard multi-culti bullshit. But:
The new guidance comes in the wake of the failed terror attacks on Glasgow and the death of suspect Kafeel Ahmed, 27.

So if there was any doubt, this is because a bunch of chickenshits are terrified of muslims and don't want to do anything that might upset them. Even to the point of telling non-muslims not to eat.

What? You say it only says not eating at their desk? Read on:
But Greater Glasgow and Clyde as well as Lothian NHS boards also issued the advice, warning workers not to take working lunches, and said all vending machines should be removed from areas where Muslims work.

Got that? Vending machines removed, and don't even TAKE your own lunch.

The Englishman and Mr. Free Market & Co., if they haven't already, should consider stocking up on, say, anti-personnel type ammo. They may need to to repel attackers and then to fight their way out of what used to be a great country.

A bit more on point-shooting

I've heard it referred to as 'shooting without aiming', but that's not the case. It's flat wrong, in fact.

No, you don't use the sights. At least not in the standard fashion, which I'll get to later. But you aim. Go back and look at the pictures of Jordan, and you'll notice that the pistol is far enough forward that he can see it while focusing on the target. So by feel and vision you know where it's pointing. As the distance increases, you move the pistol further forward in your field of view. Please note, you're not just pointing in a direction and pressing trigger, you are aiming, using your view of the target and pistol as your reference points. And with practice, muscle memory helps out.

As the range increases and you raise your hands higher, you do see the sights- primarily the front- and that gives a more precise aim*, until- the range being great enough and/or time being available you use the sights in standard fashion.

Few people are good at this right from the start, but with a bit of practice you might be surprised how accurate you can become with this. And it has another advantage for many: if your vision isn't that good(especially dim conditions), or you wear glasses which could be wet or dirty or knocked off/lost, it saves you the time of picking out the sights and aligning them. I have the standard middle-age problem that changing from far to near vision isn't nearly as fast as it once was, which can make switching from target to sights and back a problem if speed is needed. Again, especially in bad light. Since there's not an optical/red-dot available that's small enough to fit on a holstered pistol for standard carry and affordable/reliable enough(been a while since I looked, there may be something now), that means that being able to point-shoot at closer ranges could be a very handy thing.

Generally, it's always a Good Thing to bring it all the way up and use the sights. Developing some point-shooting skill doesn't take the place of using sights, it adds a skill to your arsenal. If nothing else, get hold of a soft-air gun and try it. Which is a good practice tool anyway.


*I was once on a firing line where point-shooting was being practiced and the range master came over and told me to stop using the sights. I wasn't, I was just moving my pistol further up & forward than the others. I don't remember if I was actively noticing the front sight, but that extra bit of reach was making a real difference in accuracy.

The son is now off to a hot and sandy place

I'm not sure what might or might not be a problem so far as information goes, so for the time being all I'll say is left Germany(in the 50's at night when he called) and deplaned into 100's. Be a bit of a shock, that.

Now it'll be a while before I have a mailing address, hopefully most things he'll need will be available there. If not, well, I've got some boxes and padding saved up.

Shameless pimping of a relative's blog

My daughter has decided to start a new one, on the subject of putting together a Writer's Guide to Weapons. It's just started, The Pen is Deadlier can be found here.

Just a handy little knife

With a bit of fancy























Blade's O1 and about 4", grip is antler, fittings are brass with a bit of filework on the edges.

Just what IS going to happen to Russia?

The Geek had this up a few days back, and there've been other discussions about this for some time. Barring a miracle, I think Russia is pretty much screwed, and I think the big culprit is communism.

That faith dominated the Soviet Union for decades, and they're going to be dealing with the effects of it for decades longer(assuming Russia doesn't break up completely or get taken over). Lots of countries broke from being run by royal families and did well; Russia made a start and then the commies took over, cementing their control by any means available. Face it, at best a country run for so long by people like Stalin & Co. and their followers would take a long damn time to get over it. With the multiple shocks starting when the Wall came down, it was iffy but they had a real chance. But with so many- mostly older, true, but still...- actually wishing Stalin would come back...

I hate to see it happen.

Well, Murtha? We're waiting

And waiting. For you to actually show some integrity, considering what a jerk you've been proven to be:
In his recommendation, Lt. Col. Paul Ware said murder charges brought against Sharratt were based on unreliable witness accounts, poor forensic evidence and questionable legal theories.

"The government version is unsupported by independent evidence," Ware wrote in an 18-page report. "To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary."

Which is a fancy way of saying 'innocent of the charges made against him'.

Mr. Murtha, those Marines and their families are waiting for your apology. Just in case you have the guts and integrity to make it.

Which I will not hold my breath waiting for.

Human-caused Globular Warmering Updated

my ass:
These graphs were created by NASA's Reto Ruedy and James Hansen (who shot to fame when he accused the administration of trying to censor his views on climate change). Hansen refused to provide McKintyre with the algorithm used to generate graph data, so McKintyre reverse-engineered it. The result appeared to be a Y2K bug in the handling of the raw data.

McKintyre notified the pair of the bug; Ruedy replied and acknowledged the problem as an "oversight" that would be fixed in the next data refresh.

NASA has now silently released corrected figures, and the changes are truly astounding. The warmest year on record is now 1934. 1998 (long trumpeted by the media as record-breaking) moves to second place. 1921 takes third. In fact, 5 of the 10 warmest years on record now all occur before World War II. Anthony Watts has put the new data in chart form, along with a more detailed summary of the events.

Which article led to this:
Two months ago, I reported on an effort to validate this network. A volunteer group headed by meteorologist Anthony Watts had found serious problems. Not only did sites fail to meet the NCDC's requirements, but encroaching development had put many in ridiculously unsuitable locations -- on hot black asphalt, next to trash burn barrels, beside heat exhaust vents, even attached to hot chimneys and above outdoor grills.

Got that? Sites recording weather data, including the temp readings used to say "We're going to burn up!"[/algore] were in not very suitable locations that would give higher readings.

Doesn't matter to the True Believers, as they have The Goreacle to lead them to his Revealed Truth, but for us infidels some very interesting information.

Update: here's more

Point shooting, and the current e-Postal Match Updated with Bill Jordan pictures

The current match is at Carnaby Fudge, and the first stage is 'no sights, point and shoot'. Which I rather like.

Current handgun training tends to be 'always use the sights unless you're at contact range', and without question it's generally easier to hit accurately, even at close range, with sights. But point-shooting can be very fast and- with practice- very accurate. And considering the number of reports I've read where someone said they never really used the sights(in normal manner), I think skipping it is a bad idea. At least some familiarizing would be a good idea.*

James at Hell in a Handbasket has a good piece on it here, and if you look around the gunboards you can find more. If you have time, one book I'd strongly recommend is No Second Place Winner, by Bill Jordan. If you've been around the shooting world a few years, you've probably heard of him; he was a Big Name for a long time, with a lot of years on the Border Patrol and having(as one guy put it) ended more gunfights than most would-be tough guys ever thought about starting. The book's good for the stories if nothing else, but his chapter on 'Combat Style Shooting' is what we're after here. To shorten it quite a bit, the closer the bad guy, the closer you have the pistol to you when you fire. To illustrate his method, I scanned these two pages from the book:















If you've never tried it, or never seen someone who's in practice shooting this way, the accuracy you can get is amazing. Jordan would, for demos, stand aspirin tablets on edge on a table about ten or fifteen feet away, draw and fire(S&W Model 19) and shoot the tablets off without touching the table. The man who handled firearms training for OK Highway Patrol for years, a gentleman named Dan Combs, was about that good, and I got to watch him a couple of times. Flat damned amazing, both accuracy and speed.

I'll throw in, the way dad was taught(and he taught me) was to get both hands on the piece as soon as possible: so for anything beyond contact range to, say, five or six feet, use both hands as the additional control and accuracy is worth it. Jordan was a big, strong man(look at the hand holding that Model 19) and shot with one hand a lot, and could handle .357 Mag loads one-handed with no problem even in rapid fire; most of us ain't quite to that point.

That kind of speed and accuracy takes a LOT of practice for all but a few gifted people, but for the practical need of placing shots in an attacker's vitals at close range, just about anybody can pick it up with a bit of practice. It's a skill well worth working on. Let me close with a couple of paragraphs from the end of the chapter:

"One last suggestion: For 90% of your practice, draw from the holster and fire one shot. It's that first shot that is important and it is the one most difficult to place accurately. Don't practice "hosing" your shots, depending on seeing hits to get you on target. You learn nothing from this and you are lost if you can't see the strike of your bullets. Your crutch won't work at night or with no background to mark your shots, and then you will be in bad trouble. The first shot is all important, and if it is in, the others will follow.

For the other 10%, if you are concentrating on that first shot and it goes in you will have no difficulty with the rest of the burst. your wrist and forearm will stiffen automatically for recoil control. And above all, take al the time necessary but don't dawdle. Remember, "speed's fine, but accuracy's final"- if you are given time to display it!"


*A while back I read a piece by a police officer whose department had gone back to training on point-shooting after numerous reports of close range and/or low-light fights found that officers either didn't use the sights(seldom) or kept moving their eyes from sights to target(very often); if I remember right, the training improved their record quite a bit.

UPDATED It's been two years since I wrote this, and I've got a new post up here that touches on the subject. I'll also add that I think you should practice firing quick pairs in point-shooting, same as sighted fire; What I should have written here originally was 'fire single shots to learn point-shooting, and when you have the idea start firing pairs'.

And please remember: I'm not an Expert, I'm a guy stating opinions and thoughts. Don't think I'm the last word on a subject(I may luck out at some point says ego, but ignore that); if you want to try something I've mentioned, check out everything you can on the subject. There are very good books, like Massad Ayoob's and Jordan's, and nowadays lots of stuff on blogs(remember, some of those folks are just like me, while some of them really are experts), so there's lots out there to read on just about any subject or method you can think of. Do your research.

Yeah, just a nice little multi-culti school

As long as it's the RIGHT multi-culti:

The first New York Charter School for Arab girls is selling T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Intifada - New York."

The principle of the school, Dhabah Almontaser, said "I think it's pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society ... and shaking off oppression."

Just absolutely freakin' wonderful, isn't it?

Only thing I'll post on this piece of idiocy

is the same thing Uncle, Xavier and Kevin said:
"Rule 4, Goddammit!"

Here's another one to hold you over

Spent a couple of days visiting my parents(not long enough, but what time I had) and I need some sleep before work. So here's another past product of the forge:














Blade is 5160 spring steel, about 11" from the guard to the point and about 16" overall. Fittings are copper, and the grip is a piece of leg bone from a whitetail. Yeah, the forge marks on the blade were left there deliberately; I like the way it looks.

Cutting tests

One thing I've always done, with every blade I've made, is test it. Both for cutting ability, edge-holding and toughness. Reason is, most of the blades I make have been tools, not wallhangers. Something like the dagger, I know, isn't likely to be actually used much, but it might. And it might be at a critical time. The other stuff, even the somewhat fancy, I expect will be used, sometimes a lot. And one thing that could keep me up at night would be the thought of someone really needing a knife I made to work and hold up to stress, and failing. It's not bridge engineering, but it's still not to be tolerated.

So I worked up a routine, varying a bit for different blade types. First step is to look the blade over very closely after heat-treating. Then sharpen it*. The most basic test is toughness, for which I take the blade, clamp the tip in a vise(how much in the vise depends on length/thickness) and flex it back & forth. It should flex and return to straight, repeatedly(amount of flex depending on the blade).

Second is the edge hardness with the brass rod, posted before.

Third is cutting. For edge-holding, I use 1/4" sisal or manilla rope, depending on which I've got or can find. I clamp a piece of 1x3 or 2x4 lumber in the vise. Then I use a marker to mark an area about an inch long. Then lay the rope on the wood, set the blade on it a little back from the end and push it down to cut through, then move the blade back a touch and repeat, over and over. A blade made of O1 or 5160 or harrow tooth, any good high-carbon steel, should make at least fifty cuts, and that area still be sharp enough to shave hair off your arm, and at seventy-five cleanly slice a piece of typing paper**.

That's for all knives. For a big one that might well be used for heavy cutting(firewood, etc.), I save branches pruned from the trees to test with, limb thickness depending on blade size, I usually use 2-3" for this(a lot of makers use 2x4). Set the branch on a solid surface(bigger branch) and chop it in two, then repeat. It's got to do this at least twice with no damage to the edge or bending of the blade, and still be at least usably sharp. The typing paper is good for this; you hold it by a corner, start near your grip and slice. If it won't cut it, or snags the paper where the blade's been cutting, problem: if it just won't cut it dulled too much, if it snags the edge roughened or nicked. If the latter, check the wood. I've seen a knot in some types of wood hard enough to mess with a knife edge, and if it's an old limb or used 2x4 there might have been a nail or staple in it.

That's the general process I use. It is subject to adjustment depending on the individual knife(I wouldn't expect one forged from a railroad spike to hold an edge like harrow tooth, for instance, but it'll be hell for tough).


*Remember, if the final grinding and polishing did not move the edge back any, you may well have an edge with a little bit of carbon loss from the heat-treating. I've read a couple of makers who say they don't expect a knife to show it's best edge-holding until it's been sharpened at least twice to make sure that decarburized layer is removed. And most bladesmiths leave the final-forged blade just a bit oversize, so the final grinding removes that layer.

**This is subject to the type of steel AND the use expected. Make a blade a little too hard and, while it may well pass the tests just fine it'll be a bitch to sharpen when it dulls; pain for the owner. Something of a lower carbon content- generally speaking- won't hold an edge as well, but can be made incredibly tough and will be easier to sharpen. Everything is a balance.

And the survey says:

Beauchamp is a damn liar.

In other news, people who keep some kinds of pets may pay for it.

A pair from a few years back

The dirk, as I recall was 13" in the blade, about 18.5" overall and about 1.5" wide at the widest, 1/4" thick at the spine near the back, tapering a bit along the length. 5160 spring steel, copper fittings and twisted copper wire inlaid in the grip.

The sgian dhu is about 3.5-4" in the blade, nickel-silver fittings, walnut grip.

In both of these, there's not a guard; that's a collar. It's sized so the mouth of the sheath actually slides inside.

Damn, a British tribunal with intelligence and honor!

I took note here of the utter bullshit being used to refuse entry of Gurkha veterans of British military service to Britain for medical treatment. Well, thanks to Theo I found this:
Two thousand Gurkha veterans should be allowed to live in Britain because their heroic service demonstrates the "strongest ties" to this country, a tribunal heard today.
...
Since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, Gurkhas are almost automatically entitled to live in Britain after completing at least four years of service - even if it was "just polishing boots in the barracks".

But those who retired before that date have to rely on the discretion of the British entry clearance officer and the diplomatic service procedure.

This states that only those who can demonstrate "strong ties" are allowed residency - and a distinguished Army career is not always sufficient.

Assuming you, as Kim puts it, remove breakables from reach first, I'd really recommend you read what kind of service the God-cursed bureaucrats consider 'not sufficient' to allow them entry to Britain for medical treatment, for God's sake.

Mind you, these are the same jackasses that will let any islamist nutcase who shows up illegally stay, even after they threaten to/plan to/assist in attempts to blow the damn country up.

We need another bumper sticker: Lamppost, rope, bureaucrat...

Well, that was interesting

Went to the range yesterday afternoon, both for some general stress relief and to start testing something(more on that later). I was shooting my M1 Carbine when something bumped off my left hand and fell to the shelf. Picked it up, what the hell... BLEEP! That's my extractor plunger! Look at the bolt, and the bleeping extractor is gone.

If you're not familiar with the bolt on these, the firing pin, ejector & spring and extractor spring and plunger all fit into the bolt, then(and it's a pain in the ass without one) you use the bolt tool to push the ejector back into the bolt and push the extractor spring & plunger back into their recess, slide the firing pin in and then push the extractor into place; sounds a lot more complicated than it is. The extractor locks everything else in, so if it breaks or comes out...

Happily, I found the extractor, only bounced about two feet away and appears undamaged, and everything went back together properly. I've heard of this happening, but this is the first time I've seen it with a carbine. One day at another range I saw this happen to a M1A: first time to the range, about the fifth round of factory ammo. I was firing a mix of Amerc ball(yeah, it's pretty crappy, I wanted to finish off the last bit of it) and some handloads with LC brass and Remington softpoint bullets.

Other than that, nice time at the boom-room. Ran into a man and woman(husband and wife for boyfriend-girlfriend, never did think to ask) who were having some difficulty: they'd rented a AR15 to try out, first time for that rifle with him and for her, the first time she'd ever been to a range. The rifle itself didn't bother her once she'd fired her first shot, but the noise really freaked her out at first. By the time I left she'd calmed down some on that and seemed to like shooting, so I recommended a couple of things, the big one(for an indoor range) being earplugs and muffs. They were planning to come back Saturday, I made a couple of suggestions. I think she'll turn into a shooter.

By the way, why is it that all the good-looking women you meet at the range are already either married or seeing someone? Dammit.

It's confirmed: I won't be browsing through eBay anymore

Fast response, at least. Got this this afternoon:
"Thank you for your recent email to Matt Halprin in regard to changes to our Firearms, Weapons and Knives policy. He has asked that I review your email and respond on his behalf.

At eBay we take the safety of our community and our marketplace very seriously. We have a Trust and Safety team which consists of more than 2,000 experts in online security and safety who are located around the globe. This team is dedicated to ensuring that our marketplace is a safe and trusted place for buyers and sellers to engage in trade.

We value an open and transparent marketplace; if items are legal to buy and sell in an unrestricted manner we allow them on our site. However, there are some items that while legal, may not be safe for our marketplace. In these instances, our applicable policies go beyond the
law to ensure that our marketplace is safe.

Currently we do not allow actual firearms on the site. After careful consideration our executives and our Trust and Safety team determined that any item required to fire a gun has no place on eBay. All of our policies are under constant review. As the Internet and the way our communities use the Internet evolves, our policies and our marketplace must evolve with it. We determined that this policy change was in the best interest of promoting a safe marketplace for all members."

Don't you just love that? "..promoting a safe marketplace for all members."

Now I need to hit the site one last time, to see if there's a way to delete the account.

If true, won't be buying from eBay or Half.Com anymore

Got a sale flyer from J&G today, and it included this:
Also, for years gun enthusiasts have bought and sold gun parts on eBay, J&G included. However eBay has announced that starting mid-August they will no longer allow gun parts to be sold through their website. We encourage you to contact Matt Halpin of eBay who is responsible for this decision at mhalprin@eBay.com. Please be respectful and considerate in your messages. Ask them to review this decision since it goes far beyond any state or federal laws.

I just sent an e-mail to ask if true, and if so, why? If true, hell with it, I'll stop using eBay and Half.com altogether; if they're more concerned with being politically correct and sensitive(which is what it would boil down to, whatever else they say) than with my business, to hell with them.

Found some pictures of a couple of knives

and, having had access to a scanner for a bit, scanned them and decided to post a couple.

This is one of the fanciest pieces I ever made. The blade is O1 tool steel, blade itself about eight inches long. The grip is curly maple stained dark, with spiral grooves carved in and twisted copper wire inlaid in the raised section between the grooves, about five inches long as I remember. Fittings are copper.

















The sheath was made of maple, also stained, with a leather collar around the mouth. You can't see it, but there was a belt hook on the back.

This is one of the pieces I took the time to do a mirror-polish on. Came out pretty nice.

Why Ahmadogcrap of Iran was so worried about squirrels

What do you think, .17M2?

Thanks to Theo

Putting pieces together

Eric at Classical Values has this post on digging out details of a possible murder in Philadelphia, which ends up with:
OK, if we play detective by piecing the three stories together, the following becomes the factual scenario:

Jason Brewer was murdered;

in a robbery;

at a residence;

where he did not live;

where his companion was also wounded during the same robbery;

As a whodunit, doesn't this just cry out for more detail?

I'd tend to think so. For instance, who was robbing who? And was this murder, or bad guy being shot by intended victim?

Down toward the end he leads us to this article, basically on the subject of 'nasty suburban(white) people don't care about black people in the city dying. Except for a few saints. Think I'm kidding?
Whenever I write about Philadelphia's homicide crisis, I hear from suburban readers who think it's a waste of space.

Poor black people killing poor black people, thugs shooting thugs - why should we cry?

Having informed us that people in the suburbs(apparently all white, no blacks/latinos/whatever need apply) don't care about those nasty minority types in the city dying, she brings out her saint:
The Jenkintown graphic designer is obsessed with the death toll - already over 200 - even though the bullets aren't flying anywhere near the home and family he holds dear.
and goes from there.

This is one of the people Alphecca noted had fits over "...Philly-based Urban Outfitters for selling $6 handgun Christmas ornaments in a city ravaged by bullets." Who's now got a poster- made with police department help- to find sponsors for.

It's really fairly standard crap: white people don't care about black people dying, guns are evil, we need more laws, etc. Major Media at its finest.

What's more important? The matter at hand, or the time on stage?

What I've been thinking about is the attitude and thoughts of some of the activist types who do things like threaten the careers- and sometimes lives- of researchers who refuse to follow the 'consensus science' point of view, and the animal rights activists(to use a polite term) who do things like this. I'm not going into the 'a rat is a dog is a cat is a boy' crap of the extremists; they've got a severe mental problem and that's a whole 'nother thing.

I'm thinking of what someone wrote a couple of years ago about terrorism, and how for some of the bad guys it's 'terrorism as theater': something that, even when they know it'll not have the result they want and may even cause very bad things to happen(think WTC attack = special ops troops whacking Taliban) they have to do it anyway because that's what their image demands. Whether it actually accomplishes what they want doesn't matter, it allows them to see themselves as fearsome soldiers of Allah and that's what really matters.

I think that, to a lot of these people- the activists- it doesn't really, in their heart, matter if they actually change someone's mind; they want to
A. Get up in front of everyone and make a spectacle and
B. Force other people to do what they want. They don't care if you actually believe or agree with them, they don't care what the facts(any fact that doesn't agree with what they want is either wrong or simply to be disregarded) are; it's "I'm one of the superior beings, I think this is right, and you will do what I want."

Both are connected, but in some(maybe many) cases, I think A is more important.

Read that passage at Classical Values. This clown specifically sets out to be as offensive as possible, as threatening as possible*, as disruptive as possible without going to far as to be arrested. He dares people to beat him up, and- because they're civil, and not so stupid as to do it- he acts like he's actually braved danger. This jerk may actually care about the deer, but far more important than that is the theater, his theater. He has, in his mind, become the most important actor in that room and that's what really matters.

I'm wondering if this would explain some of the "Ban the evil guns!" activists. I have no doubt some are totally sincere, they've decided these objects are responsible for many ills and all we have to do is pass 'one more law'(Kevin's 'magical thinking') and All Will Be Well. But a good many of them seem to care at least as much about being in front of a crowd(preferably involving lots of cameras) and being seen as a Truly Caring Person as they do about actually accomplishing something.

No, that's not quite right. They DO accomplish something: they play their part in their theater. They have their time on stage and are seen in the manner they prefer. And if they actually do help to gain more control over other people's lives(for everybody's own good of course, and For The Children), that's a standing ovation and bouquet of roses for a fine performance.

Need I even speak of politicians?

Makes you wonder, just how much nanny-state bullshit is based, down inside, on someone playing out their self-made part on stage?

Some more general stuff

These globular warmering people are getting more unhinged:
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will investigate a threatening letter sent by the leader of an EPA-member group, vowing to "destroy" the career of a climate skeptic.
...
"It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar," Mr. Eckhart wrote. "If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on."

Nice, reasoned discourse. Consensus 'science'. Just bloody wonderful.

A Canadian doctor talks about socialized medicine:
Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care.

Yeah, Hillary, we really, really want to be just like Canada. And Britain and Europe:
Consider the recent British controversy over a cancer patient who tried to get an appointment with a specialist, only to have it canceled — 48 times. More than 1 million Britons must wait for some type of care, with 200,000 in line for longer than six months. In France, the supply of doctors is so limited that during an August 2003 heat wave — when many doctors were on vacation and hospitals were stretched beyond capacity — 15,000 elderly citizens died. Across Europe, state-of-the-art drugs aren't available. And so on.

And the arrogant, bullying stupidity of the bambiists:
"Today, I am not asking you to stop killing the deer, I am TELLING you to stop killing deer. There will be no more deer-killings at our metro-parks. It is off limits to you and your hunting buddies. If the HCMA continues on its bloody path, then I will execute justice the way I see fit ... and that means constructing a rogue, independent, deer-police unit to protect them from you. KAPISH!"

Hopefully, tomorrow will have a bit more time to actually write. Something I've been thinking about. So you have been warned.

Just a combination of things

For the enviroweenie on your eat it, you jerk!gift list, Kim has linked to a truly incredible(well, disgusting too) piece at Civilization Watch on- among other things- just how that bullcrap 'hockey stick' graph the True Believers In Globular Warmering use(still, despite it being shown up as crap) to try to beat people into submission. For a moment, I thought about sending this link to the friend I had the big go-round with, but decided not to; after I said I wasn't going to play that game anymore it settled back into friendly terms, and, her being one of the True Believers, I'd just get to hear the "All the TRUE scientists believe!" stuff again.

As to the Beauchamp the Slimy mess, Confederate Yankee has a whole lot of stuff; just start working your way down, it's worth it. Same at Ace of Spades. Chris noted in a comment that the guy could be facing serious charges; at one of the many posts somebody(I've lost track of which one) checked with a Army official and was told he couldn't comment because of the 'ongoing investigation'. Like nobody saw that coming. Write about atrocities and general dirtbag behaviour on the part of your whole damn unit, and you'd be surprised that someone from CID shows up and says "We need to talk"?

A columnist in Canada says 'stop blaming guns and poverty and all the usual feel-good crap, and start looking at what's truly behind these problems'. Look for the 'human rights' people to try to crucify him at their earliest opportunity.

The Relapsed Catholic was wondering why military decorations could be bought online. She gets the answer. I could buy a hat and unit insignia for my son's unit to put up on the wall or something, but it would be flat wrong for me to wear it as if I'd served in that unit. Or to buy a medal and act as if I'd earned it; such things have been known to cause a severe ass-kickingproblems for idiots and/or posers who've done it.

And a piece from the UK Times on how activist lawyers are causing problems in fighting terrorists. He also notes that a lot of European countries who bitch and whine about Guantanamo aren't exactly squeaky-clean in their treatment of terror suspects.

If this turns out to be true,

this is something else that's downright big.

By the way, did Murtha actually wave a Purple Heart around to show what a hotshot he is? If he did, that's proof that the bastard should be tarred, feathered and run out of town on a rail. And that goes for any politician who does such a thing.

So the lying little boob is unmasked

Hot Air has it, with lots of links to more. Blackfive has several pieces on this, latest here; more worth reading on this and other things, so scroll down.

This guy sounds like someone in my son's unit: pain-in-the-ass little jerk who's made himself, er, 'unpopular' with everyone and who seems to think he's undervalued. Only Beauchamp decided to piss all over everyone in uniform with his BS, and is now whining and (you know it was coming) calling "Chickenhawk!" at everyone who criticized him. Despite so many of them being, you know, veterans and stuff. I'll repeat what I once said, I'd rather be called a chickenhawk than actually be a chickenshit; which he most assuredly is.


Note: before I expressed reservations about this jerk actually being a troop. It turns out he does wear the uniform(for now, at least), but I admit to trouble referring to this little shit as a 'soldier'.

Remarkable things happen with you give simple orders:

Go in numbers, kill or capture the bad guys and keep them from returning.

Survival

Somebody linked to this post on the subject, specifically the way people just don't think about the fact that nature doesn't give a damn and will kill you without a care. Just because you didn't check on something/learn the area/keep your eyes open/think.

There was a book written a couple of years ago called Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why. Very good book with many examples. The people who walk into a national forest in Hawaii and disappear. The searchers who go looking for them and disappear. The swimmers who vanish, the mountain climbers who die in avalanches, slides and falls. Boaters who drown or are eaten or taken by storms. People who get lost in a relatively small area and die of exposure. The post noted above mentions a place in that book:
I read in a survival book, of a rock that's over here, a popular photo site, where the waves crash against it majestically, Tourists stop here as it's a remarkable photo opportunity, the breakers breaking up past them and showering them with drops of the sea. A man will pause to adjust a setting on his digital camera, and look up to find his lover gone, never to be seen again.

Gone. Because you were standing on a rock at just the wrong time. He wrote of a similar story to hers of going out to the beach and, just in passing, asking a lifeguard about the water today. The guy looked out and just stood there for a couple of minutes, and as the writer had about decided this guy was stoned or something the guy came out of the trance and gave him a complete rundown of where was safe, where wasn't and what would happen if you went into the wrong area. Today. Might be different tomorrow. Which probably kept the writer from being one of the disappeared.

I occurs to me that taking note of the hazards of nature before going out into it is very similar thing to the people who decide to carry for self-defense. They're not looking for a fight, they don't want a fight, they just want to go through their daily hike through life. But they've taken note that there are predators out there, some of whom will hurt or kill anyone who strikes their fancy; that "it CAN happen to me". So they decide to be more careful of where they go, of how they keep an eye out, and decide to carry the means of defense in case it's needed. Which means practicing, and running things through your mind: "What would I have to do if that guy pulled a knife? What would happen if a robbery started while I'm having dinner?" and so on.

Mind you, society can make it difficult for people in both cases. The most obvious is the carrying of arms: some places it's flat not legal, most you have to jump through some legal hoops to get a permit to carry. And even when you have the permit there are usually a bunch of places you're not allowed to carry. Including a lot of national forests and other such places. Different kind of predator(usually) to worry about than in the city, but just as dangerous. And a lot of people just as certain that you, the common peasantcivilian, cannot be trusted to carry there(and, like that idiot Biden, don't think you should be allowed to own guns or sharp objects at all).

Survival very often boils down to, on the most basic level, recognizing that there are risks, and that things can happen to you, so you at the least should be watchful. In the woods or in town.

And yet more on the 'Shock Troops' bullshit

Through Insty ran across two things. One is a different way of analyzing it, found here. Interesting read, although this pisses me off:
With 160,000 people, mostly young men, many armed, many beyond the eyes of authority, there will be some thuggery and sadism and it is doubtful that superior officers will be devoting any large amount of time and effort to finding or suppressing it.
Apparently an awful lot of people think that once troops get into combat areas, their NCOs and officers don't really care much what they do.

Other thing is here. Lots of links, and a very interesting quote from the asshat editor of NR:
The magazine granted anonymity to the writer to keep him from being punished by his military superiors and to allow him to write candidly, Mr. Foer said. He said that he had met the writer and that he knows with “near certainty” that he is, in fact, a soldier.
Got that? "Near certainty". And noted in the comments is that this has been changed: it now says "He said that he had met the writer and that he knows that he is, in fact, a soldier."

Yeah, that's real damn believable.

On a further note, Chris said in the comments to an early bit I posted on the Bradley:
The main structure and armor are relatively light aluminum; they CAN'T run though a wall as described. They'd accordion.
And what do you think would happen to the driver who did something like this in anything other than a 'no other choice' scenario?

On dealing with the possessed

Back when I was a dispatcher there was a guy working in another headquarters who was an EMT, and he'd occasionally tell a story about some run he'd made. This one made him a bit more concerned with the idea of The Devil.

They'd received a call from the local police for a mental case they needed transport for to the hospital that handled such cases. They arrived just as four slightly worse-for-wear cops had gotten the subject in question somewhat subdued, and they got him on the gurney and cuffed on both sides with no problem and headed for the hospital.

He was sitting in the back watching the guy when he turned his head, looked at the EMT and said, in a flat voice, "I am Satan".

"Ok dude, that's fine, whoever you want to be." He'd dealt with a lot of somewhat to really messed-up people by now, so no big deal.

Guy(hasn't blinked since he said that) repeated, with slight pauses to emphasize, "I.. am.. Satan." Flat voice, absolutely no emotion and still not blinking.

"That's fine, it's ok, we're almost there." Getting just a touch nervous now as the guy tried to sit up. he seemed to notice the cuffs for the first time and laid there staring at the one on his wrist closest to the EMT. Then he started flexing his arm. Not jerking, just a steady rise until he reached the end of the chain and then kept going, very slowly.

EMT was getting very nervous now because this guy was freaking him out, and, hmmm, it almost looked like the frame of the gurney where the cuff was looped was deforming just a touch, and the guy was still lifting. At this point he was sliding to the back of the ambulance where the extinguisher was and called to the driver to get ready to stop. "Why?" was answered with "Just get ready!"

Ting.

That was the sound of the cuff chain breaking. As the guy sat up and started lifting his other arm the EMT yelled "STOP!" and braced himself, driver hit the brakes, inertia surprised the subject and threw him flat, and just as they came to a stop the EMT sprayed the guy in the face, threw open the door and jumped out. Landing on the hood of the following police car that'd almost rear-ended the ambulance. He looked at two shocked faces and yelled "He broke the cuffs!" Both officers jumped out and into the back of the ambulance, he and the driver joined in and in a couple of minutes they had him secured again, this time with two cuffs on each arm. And this time one of the officers rode in back the rest of the trip, which was made with remarkable speed.

They got to the ER, took the guy inside to a room and began to relax. Until the doctor walked in, took one look and said "Take those handcuffs off him."

Chorus of "No!"

"I said take them off! I will not have a patient chained in my ER."

Lead officer took out his keys, took off the handcuff key, tossed it to the doctor and said "You do it." And both officers left. The EMTs looked at each other, and followed.

I asked him if he knew what happened after that, he said no, didn't go back to that hospital before he changed jobs a short time later. I tend to think the doctor may have had a rush of intelligence to the head and decided to sedate the guy before unlocking him; otherwise, it'd probably have been on the news when a patient remodeled the room and some of the staff.

Things do move along

I just bought a 32mb jump drive for the grand total of $5. At the checkout counter. At Target.

And Wally World has a 2 gig drive for $20.

I think it was ten years ago(maybe less) I was listening to a programmer having fits of ecstasy because he'd just found out you could now buy a 1 gigabyte hard drive for a pc for only $100.

More on the 'Shock Troops' story

Emphasis on 'story'.

Over at Q&O, found several pieces, from earliest to latest here, here, and here, and links to a Howard Kurtz article here. The response to the questions from New Republic:
"The Standard raises some important questions about the piece, and we're investigating them," New Republic Editor Franklin Foer said yesterday. "I've been in touch with several members of the author's unit who corroborate the details under question. And the author has provided compelling responses himself."

Which boils down to "We say it's true, so there. We'll have some proof at some point. When we feel like it." Which, considering the attention this is getting, would seem to mean "Crap, we need something to prove at least some of this! What'll we do? We can't get away with 'the story is true even if the facts are not' anymore!"

One thing , aside from the other BS in this, is the stuff about a Bradley driver ramming through walls, etc. I'm not an armor guy, so I'm going by what I've read. And one thing you don't do with a bloody TANK if you can avoid it is ram through concrete walls; hard on the vehicle and the people inside. Well, the Bradley is NOT a tank, it's much lighter and more lightly armored, and the consequences to the vehicle of doing such a thing would be, shall we say, 'bad'. Like damaging the gun, and the missile launcher, and the people inside... I kind of think the vehicle commander and unit commander would have some words to say to the driver who did something like this without very damn good reason. Said words probably being accompanied with the driver's ass being relocated to somewhere in the vicinity of his shoulder blades.

But, why let nasty facts get in the way of a 'true' story? Didn't stop Dan Rather.

H&H Range had Dealer's Days

on Thursday, Friday & Saturday. They've been doing this for several years now, and it's pretty nice. This year they had people from Springfield, S&W, Para-Ordnance, Kimber, Sig, Taurus, Savage, Wilson Combat, Leupold and Surefire. Way it works is if you find something you'd like to try out you buy a ticket($3, money goes to the state shooting sports assoc.) and give it to the dealer. You get the gun and(for most*) five rounds of ammo and a target to take to the range and shoot. Plus they have discounts on most things, and a lot of the dealers throw in extra mags or a holster or hat or shirt or a combination of the above if you buy.

Found a couple of things I wanted/needed, but the only thing I tried out this time was a Kimber Aegis II















Take their micro-compact .45acp, give it an alloy frame and chamber it in 9mm as a thin, light carry piece. It's a single-action with the entire hammer spur cut off(that part I'm not too sure about why), which is why you don't see it.

Very small, very light, and the one I tried had night sights, a full stainless finish and as fine a trigger as I've ever felt: short takeup and breaking light and clean. It put my five shots into a group about 2" across at 15 feet exactly at point of aim. Not a bad little pistol at all. If only it didn't cost so damn much.

Speaking of cost, the Wilson table had a couple of their full-size 1911's, a AR15 with everything and a shotgun with most things. I know you pay for handwork and don't gripe about that, and from a quality maker you get what you pay for, but damn! The less-expensive 1911 was $3200. Which puts it WAY out of what I'm willing to pay for a pistol unless I come into a big damn pile of money.

I just wish I'd had more time, there were a couple of other pistols I'd have tried out.


*For the .500 and .460 S&W Magnums, you got one round; any more than that, you had to buy.

'New Republic publishes 'Murdering Soldiers' story

Smell of bovine fertilizer in the air

I'm quite a bit behind on this. Some clown going by Scott Thomas had a piece in NR called 'Shock Troops' on the horrible, nasty people in/created by the Army. Among other things which caused a lot of people to call "Bullshit!" was this:
Someone reached down and picked a shell casing up off the ground. It was 9mm with a square back. Everything suddenly became clear. The only shell casings that look like that belong to Glocks. And the only people who use Glocks are the Iraqi police.

The technical BS in this will be obvious to most people who swing by here. If you're not familiar with firearms stuff, there is no gun made that uses a 'square back' cartridge case. Period. The second thing is that Glocks are kind of like mosquitos, they're all over the damn place. Including in Iraq.

I could go on, but there's no reason to; a lot of people with better backgrounds have taken this crap apart on various levels. So what I'm going to do is put together some links on this.

Blackfive, here and here.

Confederate Yankee here, here, here.

Michelle Malkin here, here(bottom of the post, multiple links), Hot Air here.

Ace here, here, here.

That's not nearly all that's coming out on this crap.

And just to cover the 'we support the troops' line, Ace has this and this from the Kossites.

Some Marines who could use a hand

Information here at Blackfive

Dammit, another couple of places to keep track of

A comment on the butthead reporter led to Plains Feeder, which led to People You'll See In Hell.

Warning: looking at the latter may cause side effects on the order of breaking things, boosted blood pressure and acknowledging what that comedian said some years back: "Some people just look better dead."

'Reporter and accomplice hoisted on own petard:

complains of great discomfort. Updated!

Thanks to Unix-Jedi who pointed Kevin to the previous article, we find this:
Reporter goes to another state with accomplice and intent to violate federal firearms law.
Reporter and accomplice violate law.
Reporter brags about it in column, brags about offending 'loony gun lobby'.
Reporter and accomplice get visit from ATF.
Reporter now whining This is how it works. Intimidation is the stock in trade of the National Rifle Association and all the NRA knock-offs out there. Dare to say we need fewer, not more guns in this country, dare to say we need a uniform system for monitoring gun sales in this country and you become a target to be hunted down. Democrats and Republicans have allowed themselves to be cowed by this one-issue bloc for too long.

Boo-freakin'-hoo, jackass. You deliberately broke the law, bragged about it, and now you're getting the treatment that's been given to lots of gun owners who made an honest mistake. Except, you being in the media, are being treated a lot nicer by ATF.

Update
Uncle has more, and it appears reporter is either lying now, or was lying then, and may be going through a bit of major pucker-factor ass-covering.

And our friend who escaped from MA has a look at the skewed method of looking at numbers this clown uses

"...as illegal as firing a sub-machine gun"

No, not shooting somebody. Bloody pepper spray. In Formerly-Great Britain.

Under the Firearms Act, it is ranked alongside rocket launchers in that using it carries a 10-year prison sentence.

This is what happens when God-cursed socialist nanny-state politicians and their little 'progressive' buttmonkeys get do decide your life. And the Brady/Violence Policy Center/Gun-Ban At Any Cost clowns here want things to be just the same.

At times I think I may have to stop reading Kevin; he's bad for my blood pressure.

Well, they're back to their bases

Put son & new daughter-in-law on their respective planes yesterday. Son had the much longer flight, getting there this morning; DIL was back just a few hours after leaving.

Kind of odd being a father-in-law. And I like her, so can't be too obnoxious about things(she married him, that ought to be punishment enough for a few decades).

In any case, back to long-distance contact as son will be going to a hot & sandy place in a month.

Yeah, government-run health care will work

just as well as the tax system.
A missing property tax bill for $1.63 has given Kermit and Dolores Atwood "seven years of emotional hell" in a fight to keep their home.

The bill was sent to a defunct address in 1996 and returned undelivered to the St. Tammany Parish sheriff's office. The Atwoods weren't looking for it since they had owned the four-bedroom house mortgage-free since 1968 and had been exempt from the state tax.

Which does bring up the question of, since their home was exempt, why was any bill sent? And why no further attempt? Of course, that would be calling into question the efficiency of the agency involved...

Instead, the Atwoods' home was sold at a sheriff's auction in 1997 to American Land Investments because of the delinquent bill. The couple have won several court challenges since then and hope to withstand one more appeal over the property.

The State Tax Commission eventually nullified the 1997 sale, but when the Atwoods tried to sell the house in 2002, they discovered that American Land Investments had sold the property rights to Jamie Land Co., which then sued the Atwoods.

James A. Lindsay II, the company's president, said his rights were violated when the tax commission didn't inform him of its decision.

And so on.

This kind of crap happens fairly regularly. And how many cases have been noted where the IRS made an error and screwed someone's life over? How many people have been advised to 'pay whatever they demand, because you'll go broke fighting it'?

Yeah, government-run health care will be just wonderful!

Ammo testing

James had a post a few days back on one of his 'working guns', a Star Super B. Specific note is made that this pistol "...won't feed any hollowpoint ammo at all, or at least any that I have bothered to try."

This is something I(and just about every other gunblogger) has stressed before: NEVER trust ammo for self-defense that you have not fired through your sidearm! Revolvers are much simpler here, as they'll generally digest damn near anything without problem, but a lot of semi-auto pistols can be downright finicky about what they'll digest.

I wrote a while back about trying out a Star BM (if that link doesn't work, try here and here)9mm. That little pistol was fired with CCI Blazer ball, some other brand of ball, two different bullet weights in Gold Dot hollowpoints, Remington hollowpoints and some Winchester hollowpoints as I recall and it ate all of them without a bobble; excellent performance from that beast. I've also fired some high-grade semi-autos that flat would NOT reliably cycle some particular brand of ammo. No reason we could figure, it just wouldn't.

My carry piece is a Kimber Compact, their version of the Officer's Model 1911. The only thing I've fired that it wouldn't feed well was some semi-wadcutter target ammo(a common problem for almost all 1911 pistols that don't have a barrel throated for this bullet). But I've read of other people whose Kimber was very damn picky about what it would work with.

What makes really testing ammo properly a problem is the price that premium self-defense ammo sells for (especially now); for instance, last time I looked Federal Hydra-Shok in .45acp was selling for $15-16. For a box of twenty. That kind of cost really hurts a lot of people. But the plain fact is you cannot short on this: you HAVE to shoot enough of the stuff you choose to make sure it will function reliably in your gun. No ifs, ands or buts.

And here's another kick in the ass for Murtha

Only metaphorically, unfortunately.
Yet another Marine has won a court victory in the investigation of the battle at Haditha – adding more doubts to the claims of a massacre. In this case, the officer conducting an Article 32 hearing (equivalent to a grand jury hearing in civilian courts) has ruled that charges should be dropped. In essence, the claims of a massacre at Haditha are now looking false.

There has GOT to be some kind of payback to both the bastards like Murtha in Congress and the equally disgusting bastards in the media who went way, WAY out of their way to railroad these Marines.

"Don't give them what they want"

Damn good information from Anarchangel

One of my favorite fictional characters(mentioned previously) is Matt Helm. A time or two he explained his actions- on and off-duty- very simply: "If someone opens the door to violence, they've got no room to complain if more than they were expecting walks through". Which pretty much matches with what Chris puts forth: if you have to act, do not stop until the fight is over. No matter what it takes.

Remember the recent Righteous Shooting report from Kim about the old man in the fast-food place? The article(link not good anymore) noted that the reformed criminal deceased dirtbag was upset the man wouldn't comply with an order to pick up his wallet and was trying to force him into the ladies room; the man knew what that meant and acted.

So according to these idiots our troops are both murderers

and can't shoot. So how come so many of the bad guys have assumed ambient temperature?

Now, I know you're thinking the same as Sebastian, "Haven't these clowns heard of 'training'?" But of course! In the original article we have this note on that concept:
Pointing out that officials say many of these bullets have been used for training purposes, he said: "What are you training for? To kill insurgents."

So ammo expended in training is the same as that actually used in combat, and our troops aren't very good shots, the Israel is controlling everything... And thus we end this episode of 'Lifestyles of the Ignorant and Bigoted'.

(Damn those eeville JOOOS; they're responsible for EVERYTHING, aren't they?)

'Cheap Red-Dot Dies:

Surprise expressed by none'

About a year ago I picked up one of the on-sale cheap 30mm red-dots Sportsman's Guide was selling, just to try out on the M1 Carbine with the forward mount I'd put together. Worked really well.

Well, I went to the range today and first fired a couple of rounds at 50 yards just to check zero; about 2" high I thought, but centered on windage. So I moved the target to 100 and fired three. None of which even came close to the paper. Fired a shot at a clay pigeon on the backstop and saw dust jump about three bloody feet low. Not good.

Just to see if it could be adjusted I wasted about 20 rounds on it. Not only would it not hold zero, the adjustments would work and then not work. POI kept shifting all over the bloody place, by feet from one shot to the next, although one time it did put two damn close on the target, then went off to God-knows-where again.

I pulled the sight and fired a group with the iron sights, and it was hitting exactly where it should(as I'd expected), so I'll take the battery out of the sight and trash it*.

Considering the thing cost the grand total of $20, a year on the carbine isn't bad. So down the road a bit(bills right now, you know) I'll find a better-quality sight for it.

Oh, the $15 red-dot I stuck on the .22 pistol? It's still working fine; I'm guessing the greater recoil of the rifle had a definite part in this.

By the way, is there a rule somewhere that if you go to the range on a hot day that the wind will disappear the moment you set up? If I hadn't gotten there early I'd not have made it long, and even drinking like a camel after the road trip I damn near overheated.


*Yes, I HAVE to trash it, otherwise I'll keep fooling with the damn thing.

Yeah, that handgun ban and 'easy on the crooks'

is really working well:
Violent crime and muggings have risen sharply in the past 12 months, despite Government pledges to crack down on the problem and increase the number of front line police officers, figures will show this week. In some rural areas, robbery offences have risen by almost 25 per cent while crimes of violence against the person have risen by almost a fifth.

They also note "The figures are expected to show that sex attacks fell by eight per cent and domestic burglary by three per cent, leading to an overall fall in crime by three per cent.", but I have to wonder if that's actually true; as The Englishman notes, "And anecdotally the rate of non reporting of crime is rising even faster, there is just no bloody point unless you need a crime number for an insurance claim," which ties in with some articles not long ago about how the crime numbers were being figured in ways that cut down on the totals.

They're also on the 'knife amnesty' kick("Bad knife! No whetstone for you! Now toddle off to bed without your oil!"), which hasn't exactly been a roaring success:
A report from the centre for crime and justice studies at King's College London accused the Government of presiding over an incoherent strategy to tackle the problem. It was also sceptical about the merits of amnesties. Although the last one produced 90,000 knives, that represented just 0.0041 per cent of the total available.

This kind of action never works, but that hasn't stopped the magical-thinking clowns over here from wanting to do the same:
“We’re going to have to take this one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily - given the political realities - going to be very modest. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal - total control of all guns - is going to take time…..The final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition - except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs and licensed gun collectors - totally illegal.”

Because it's not really about crime control: it's about control.

The good side of the recent rains

was the lower-than-usual temps for this time of year and things being greener(though a few inches less of the wet stuff would have been just fine). The downsides include:
Now that temps are up at average, the humidity is bloody awful. It feels like the damn mosquitoes could almost lay eggs in the air.
Since it's about the only thing that usually bothers me, it must be the mold that's way, way up.
And it dews so heavy the grass doesn't dry out until afternoon. When it's hottest.

I just finished mowing about an hour ago. If I'd waited until it was mostly dry it'd have been evening, and I plan on taking son & wife to dinner. So another session of 'mow a strip, beat the caked grass out, repeat' was done. Only this time it was hot and humid enough I lost buckets of sweat- which in this humidity won't evaporate as you go- and, courtesy of the mold, had to keep blowing my nose to keep it from running down my face. Yuck, to say the least.

Going by past experience, if no rain for about a week things should dry enough to get back to 'normal' humidity for this month. Which means hot, but not 'drown in your own sweat' conditions.

Ah, normalcy.

Update on Haditha

Or, as I should say, the Haditha railroad some troops for fun and profit travesty of justice. I wrote about this a couple of times, the last here. The other day I found something which led to Blackfive(here and here), to Pundit Review(here), to Let Freedom Ring(here) and to Michelle Malkin(here).

Short version, as PR put it, "Murtha’s guilty verdict in Haditha case overturned by actual evidence". The case(such as it was) seems to have pretty much fallen apart, leaving a lot of people with questions for that slimy little politician Murtha(Pond Scum/PA). And the little bastard ducking and hiding.

I don't know if it's possible for the Marines he called murderers to take him to court for it; I hope they can. Because with Pelosi in charge of the house, the chances of the censure he deserves(at a minimum) are just about zero.

As to that personal business,

my son was home on leave, and took care of some business while here. Meet the daughter-in-law























and son in his dress uniform.

Nice ceremony, family & friends from around the state and a sister(she has several) from out of state.

I've got one more thing to post tonight, then I'm done. It's been a busy day.

Been a bit busy

with a personal matter, so not much to write the past while. Should have something to put up either later today or tomorrow, but for now:
Dumbass union people, sucking up to Hillary Clinton.

Traitor convicted for trying to get al Qaeda help to attack this country. Wasn't convicted of treason, unfortunately, though what he was doing damn well qualifies as such.

It's discovered that if you look around you can find all kinds of useful things right on the shelf. And if you tell people "We need this", they can build it. Without spending a few billion on committees and so forth.

Kucinich proves he's a friggin' idiot(as if further proof was needed) by trusting Edwards.

Drug gangs threaten journalists. But of COURSE these people will be stopped by a 'virtual' fence.

The Brits just can't seem to help themselves about flushing their country down the toilet.

Speaking of flushing, demonstration of why Kim calls Republicans the 'Stupid Party'.

Tim Blair notes some things about Globular Warmering:
But climate change is like Michael Moore's tracksuit - it can fit anyone. In 2005, Greenpeace rep Steven Guilbeault helpfully explained: "Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with."

What we're dealing with, apparently, is weather.

Ah, but what weather it is!

If you remember the Los Angeles riot in 1992,

you'll be familiar with a lot of the crap that happened. If you're not, you especially need to read these three posts about My Hollywood Gun:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

And to those who say 'the police can/will protect you', I suggest you point them to this line in Part 3:
We have learned that the Los Angeles Police Department has been "pulled back for their own safety."

It notes the point made time after time: it doesn't matter how good your local LE agency is, or how hard they work, it's just not possible for them to be there all the time to protect you. Which means, especially when things go completely to hell like in LA, you're on your own.

It's not a fun thing, but it's fact.

Canada's gun registry is both expensive

and a flop.
Canada's homicide rate and number of
gang-related murders has increased since the federal government's firearms
registry and licensing program was implemented, an indication that the program has failed to improve public safety, according to Hubris in the North, The Canadian Firearms Registry, a new report from independent research organization The Fraser Institute.

Gee, ya think?

"In 1995, the government promised Canadians that the gun registry would reduce total criminal violence, suicide and domestic abuse, not just gun violence," said Gary Mauser, author of the report, senior fellow with The Fraser Institute, and a professor at Simon Fraser University. "But the legislation has failed to do that, primarily because it relies upon public-health research to justify a moralistic approach to firearms that exaggerates the danger of citizens owning firearms through pseudoscientific research methods."

Tell me more!

The gun registry and its supporting legislation were introduced in 1995 by the Liberal government. Justice Minister Allan Rock said at the time that registering guns and licensing their owners would save lives by reducing criminal violence, domestic violence, suicide, and firearm accidents.

But Mauser's analysis shows that public safety has not improved. He finds that overall criminal violence and suicide rates have continued their long-term decline with the violent crime rate falling by about four per cent. Yet the homicide rate has actually increased by nine per cent since the registry was implemented. No persuasive link could be found between the firearm registry and these changes.(bold mine)

Doesn't look good for the program.

"I don't think you can credit the gun registry for the decline in criminal violence because the data indicate the drop began well before firearms registration was introduced," Mauser said. "Moreover, homicide and criminal violence in general have fallen more in the United States during the same time period than in Canada, so it's hard to imagine the gun registry having a measurable impact in this environment."(bold mine)

No! Do tell!

One of the most striking findings is that gang-related homicides and homicides involving handguns have increased substantially.

"Gang violence typically involves handguns and although handguns have been registered since the 1930s, this has not reduced the level of their criminal misuse," Mauser said. "The gun registry had no effect on homicide rates and was particularly ineffective against gang activity."

Hmmm, gangs don't obey the law... Whoda thunk it? Which brings up, just how did this piece of expensive crap get passed? Pay attention now:
The report suggests that the rational for the registry program is based on faulty research.

"The government's approach to public safety relied on an analysis of firearms and violence that greatly exaggerated the dangers of firearm ownership," Mauser said.

"This misrepresentation stemmed from public-health researchers who ignored basic scientific principles in favour of advocacy. These activists drew conclusions that were not supported by their research studies and they compounded their errors by recommending legislative solutions that fell outside the boundaries of their research. Such studies are not properly
scientific but use the scientific trappings of research to prove claims rather than testing hypotheses."

Invalid conclusions, junk science, done by advocates instead of researchers. As Jamie says on Mythbusters, "Well, THERE'S your problem!"

And a key bit that relates to firearms and a whole lot of other things:
"We lose much of our inherited democratic freedoms if we treat mature citizens as if they were helpless patients rather than responsible adults," Mauser said.
And that's a key to the problem with a lot of the nanny-state crap we're putting up with.

Their final conclusion:
Despite its estimated $2 billion cost to date, the firearms registry remains notably incomplete and has an error rate that remains embarrassingly high. As a result of its many failures, particularly its failure to reduce gang violence or stop senseless killings such as the recent occurrences at Dawson College and Mayerthorpe, Alberta, the firearms registry has not been
able to win the trust of either the public or the police.

Mauser pointed out that Auditor General Sheila Fraser complained that she could not get all of the necessary financial information during an audit of the registry and summarized her review of the books by saying the registry had one of the largest cost overruns her office had ever seen.

"Clearly, the evidence shows that the registry has failed Canadians. It has failed to reduce gang violence or stop senseless killings. So why then, should we trust it, and why should we continue to fund it?" Mauser said.

Why indeed? Directly relating to the efforts by the GFW gun banners here("This database will be complete, accurate and secure", etc.) are the bits about being 'notably incomplete' and 'an error rate that remains embarrassingly high. Also note that the freakin' Auditor General was not able to get all the costs information from the people running this mess(can you say 'bureaucrats hiding their mess/incompetence/corruption?') Which would be exactly what would happen here. Uncle has noted in the past that the NFA database is horribly incomplete and inaccurate, and that's on guns and other pieces that you have to go through a background check and pay transfer tax, etc., before you can take possession, run by a federal agency that's not exactly been shy of support and money. The only way these people can actually believe that any system in the future would be wonderful would be the 'magical thinking' Kevin writes of. Which is not exactly something you should base a government on.

Article found at RNS

It's hard to believe we actually have these clowns in our government

People like Sen. Reid(SurrenderMonkey/NV) who say things like
























Problem being, the 'intended result' for him and his buttmonkeys is us losing. Whereas the surge appears to be having real effect.

I guess I'm still a bit naive about this crap, because it's really hard to understand why someone in our own government would want us to LOSE a war. Pretty damned disgusting, it is.

Picture stolenborrowed from Hugh Hewitt