RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - NOVEMBER 2004

Nothing from temp service. Sigh.

And no weatherstripping on the new door. Fortunately I have some left over from when I tried to patch the old door a couple winters ago, I'll put it up myself, that way it'll get done in less than five hours.

660 - Tuesday, Election Day, 2 November 2004: Following election news on talk radio. No one's slashed my tires yet... but others can't say the same.

Democrats hate me. Fine. I hate ‘em right back. There will be no peace between us.

Another close election - closer in some ways than others. Some Ohio districts report more registered voters than there are people eligible to vote. Some double-voting reported in Florida. Some reports of multiple mail-in ballots being delivered here in Multnomah County.

No mention, of course, of which if any party such people belong to - which, considering media's demonstrated bias and sins of omission, implies that most are Democrats.

Again, days expected before a clear winner shows.

Or not. Later, ~7:30pm - Bush with big lead in electoral votes. ...This does not actually please me, for the various anti-Bush reasons I've listed repeatedly here in this ‘blog, but it relieves me as it postpones the next civil war, and my possible death in it.

Reports of long lines at polls. Some places I can understand that - but Oregon has mail-in ballots, and I got mine at least a week ago and dropped it off Thursday or so. They can be dropped off, without a postage stamp, at any public library and several other places, and for areas without such, a stamp is only thirty-seven cents for crying out loud. How can anyone not have made up their mind by now? Larry Elder, in Ten Things, says there's "maybe a dime's worth of difference" between Democrat and Republican these days - but there is a difference. And how can anyone not spare a couple minutes to swing by a drop station or post office? Especially this cycle, with so much at stake? Fer cryin' out loud!

Former police chief Tom Potter taking the mayoral seat - he has a record as an anti, but Jim Francesconi has a bigger one I think. Anyway I wrote in "None."

Reports of multiple security breaches at Oregon and Washington polling places - boxes of ballots left out on curbs, loose handling of ballots by unauthorized people, double-balloting for college students (registered at home and at college) - Dem SecState Bradbury, whose worry this is, re-elected, likewise Dem Attorney General Myers. What was that about the fox and the henhouse?

Hanoi John - "the only Presidential candidate in American history to be endorsed by a known terrorist," says local talker Lars Larson - taking Oregon of course. Federal and state commie incumbents, including DEMOCRAT RAPIST (another one) Representative David Wu, being reelected statewide. The effort to repeal the Multnomah County income tax failing. I now officially hate Oregon.

Later - Bush takes Florida clearly. Maybe Dan Rather will have a stroke.

661 - Wednesday, 3 November 2004: And the loser is... Hanoi John bin Kerry! Whew.

Well, half a whew. Now, in this communized town, I either have to surrender my 1st Amendment rights and take the Bush stuff off my car, or start wearing kevlar. (Speaking of which, there was a vendor at the last show... but of course I can't afford that either. I do however have a USGI flak vest and helmet from previous instances of financial fluidity.)

(On the other hand, these commies hate guns and probably couldn't hit a barn from inside with the doors closed. They're more likely to run me off the road.)

Door weatherstripping done. By me.

New image:

Some bits of The Shiva Option, published 2002, could be interpreted as commentary on the War on Terror. "If the relatively sensible people now running the Federation didn't take care to smooth the popular jitters, they'd be out, and the Liberal-Progressives would be in. The potential consequences of that, at this particular historical juncture, didn't bear thinking about." Elsewhere in the story an Geraldo-type war correspondent gets literally chopped off at the knees. Weber has already pleased me in like fashion with his Harrington series and his contributions to the 1632 and Posleen sagas; jacket blurb says White "currently works for a law firm outside Washington, D.C. specializing in constitutional law." Hmm. And Baen is the same publisher that put out Gingrich & Forstchen's 1945, and donated a heap of books to the military overseas.

I like Baen.

More details - GOP gains in federal Senate and House. Daschle out! That's a big one for gunfolk.

Reports that the stock market dipped when the lapdog media prematurely and falsely called the election for Kerry - and that the market surged, and has stayed up, since the truth of Bush's victory was grudgingly revealed.

Local conservative talker Lars Larson, and his wife, getting death threats. He's understandably incandescent. Portland blueshirts (commie chief Foxworth), old commie mayor Katz, and new commie mayor Potter doing nothing. This is the left's idea of being "tolerant" and "inclusive" - they're so supportive of free speech they threaten to gang-rape and murder the wife of someone who says something they disagree with. A Republican state senator calls the show with a similar, and similarly recent, experience.

Strapping on GP100 in crossdraw paddle holster, under GI surplus trenchcoat, before visiting library. And two speedloaders. I live in enemy-occupied territory!

New image:

662 - Thursday, 4 November 2004: Last night a flock of moonbats gathered downtown to beat drums and gnash teeth and wail, and as expected violence ensued. (I thought they were pacifists...?) Some of these creatures have stated that they believe their 1st Amendment rights infer the right to stop traffic and force people to listen to their delusions. The Democratic party and their amoral auxiliaries are just shining in the wake of Bush's indisputable reelection with clear majorities in both electoral college and popular vote. -John Edwards' wife has been recently diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm sure this will be blamed on Bush and Cheney and Haliburton.

Yasser Arafat terminally ill, perhaps already dead, in a hospital in (where else?) France. That's one less endorsement for Hillary's ‘08 run. And she'll start campaigning any minute now.

I think I have the Uncle Mike's universal belt-slide holster set up for the FM now, though it's still not the best holster for this; specifically I can't quite get my whole hand around the grip before drawing the weapon. Hope I can scrape up enough to get the front sight replaced. (Still nothing jobwise.) Only one magazine pouch, and not a very good one - some attention with needle and thread may improve it. Given current equipment I'll likely start carrying with the two 13-round USA magazines, as I've got those working well. The one "good" KRD magazine actually did cause one more slip to half-cock in the last session.

The man who sold me the big reloading-component deal via English Pit has been following this journal, and independently suggested, just as I thought of them myself, the Rainier copper-plated cast bullets as a possible solution to the smoke and leading problems I'm having with the Meister and Laser-Cast. But that's going to have to wait for income too.

Rumors that Ashcroft will be stepping down as Attorney General, due to health. Hmm. The libertarian in me doesn't like his PATRIOT Act, and the republican in me is not impressed by his "defense" of the 2nd Amendment. But what will replace him? I repeat, Bush is not a conservative! I fear he'll be so concerned about being bipartisan we'll get Reno Lite.

And Fallujah is finally being bombed. That bloody well took long enough....

Still no result in the Washington governor's race, commie Gregoire vs. GOP Rossi.

The Shiva Option wrapping up in large scale, like an old E.E. Smith planet-wrecker. Not starting another yet as I expect Turtledove's Days of Infamy at the library presently.

Expectations that the PLO will go internecine in the power vacuum left by Arafat's long-overdue passing. Okey-doke... the Israelis can conserve ammunition.

663 - Friday, 5 November 2004: Ah, finally something palatable from the temp service. Westside again, long and probably deadly commute again, but day shift (6am), stuffing circuit boards with components, soldering, $9-$10/hour. Temp rep sending my resumè, expect more news and possible interview/skills test "middle of next week." Not temp-to-hire, about two months; maybe by that time the Japanese place will get its act back together and I can go back to $11/hour. Still might have to sell a couple VZs to Cruffler in the meantime.

New bumper sticker page.

Arafat clinging. Somebody should whisper in his ear that Bush won, that should do it. -Probably he's already dead and his cronies are suppressing the news to keep the PLO from imploding. I wish he'd hurry up and officially kick, I want to make a front-page date thing to celebrate the anniversary, like for Stalin. -In Bush's favor, he never dealt with Arafat, never talked, never negotiated, never invited that mass-murdering terrorist filth to the White House for a photo op like Clinton did.

Democrats, the shock wearing off, going Even Further Left. Cool, they'll lose by even bigger margins in ‘06 and ‘08.

Days of Infamy still not coming through at the library, starting Ketchum's Victory at Yorktown. Here's a tasty morsel on page 3:

Thomas Jefferson served with Washington in the Virginia House of Burgesses and with Benjamin Franklin in the Congress, and as he put it, "I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide the question...."

It's been a while since I had cable TV and could watch C-Span, but jeez.

664 - Saturday, 6 November 2004: Zzsnrk. Up earlier than wonted. With income expected, getting rifle practice for the AvA - and stopping on the way up to sell a couple VZs to Cruffler and to yak.

But first, something I didn't get round to, removing metal from the underside of the VZ's new Mojo sight to get more elevation adjustment. -Hmm, looks like that only got me a couple more MOA, hope it's enough. There are other places I can remove metal if necessary, but for now I only have time to get the 100-yard zero for the match next weekend. Taking MojoMauser, MojoMosin, and 60 rounds each, 150gr handloads for the VZ and Albanian for the 91/30.

Cruffler'll buy all the Turk 7.92 I have, but he suggests that better accuracy might be had by pulling the bullets, dumping the powder, weighing an average charge, putting the powder back in at a consistent weight (i.e. minus 5%), and seating the bullets properly with modern dies, even resizing if necessary (by removing the decapping pin from the sizer die). I may try a small batch, like one bandolier, just for New Data, but doing a lot would be time/cost prohibitive. Have to dig it out first.

Well crap! I get up there and the gate is closed and three other carloads of people are there asking me if I'm a Range Officer because the scheduled R/O has flaked out. Someone with a cell phone says that the head R/O says that no one else is available to fill in. Oh well, at least I got out of bed and got a full tank of gas (ARCO $1.95 in Portland, $1.93 in Vancouver). Will try again tomorrow.

Oh, now the Turtledove is waiting at the library. And probably others have it on their hold lists so I can't renew it. So Yorktown goes back in the stack. Also I find that Weber, Ringo, et. al., have two further installments in the Posleen ("Legacy of the Aldenata") series (The Hero, Cally's War), and what appears to be the fourth in the Prince Roger series (We Few). Dumped a couple Commiewood videos from the hold queue to make room for them. Also more Turtledove: Homeward Bound, next in the WorldWar series (where little green lizard-men invade earth in ~1942), and Curious Notions, in the Crosstime Traffic series whose first installment, Gunpowder Empire, I found disappointing.

Days of Infamy, where the Japanese Empire invades the Hawaiian islands, does appear to be a standalone, not part of any of his other alternities - and it also appears to be the first volume of yet another. Jeez, where does he keep it all? -A nit to pick on the cover art: one of the vessels appears to be a post-war destroyer, out of scale next to the 1941-style battleships and cruisers, and sporting an ASROC launcher. Oops.

New bumper sticker:

665 - Sunday, 7 November 2004: Zzzz.... Everything packed and/or arranged for the range, just have to throw it in the car and go, therefore getting more of the sleep I never get enough of.

A bit of a cold. Waging pharmacological warfare.

Arrived about 12:30, not much of a crowd. Lower range, 100-yard line, six SR1C targets. Starting with the VZ, slow-prone. ...Hot damn! First ten for ten in the black, 94/0X! Let's see that again - a little worse, 92/0X, but not bad! On the same target at the same distance in the same position as the match! Slight tweaks to the sight, and again - hm, low, and opening, 87/0X. Maybe the barrel droops some when it gets warm, especially with the long WWI bayonet hung off it.

Another string of ten, still slow-prone - 91/0X, encouraging. Anything above 90 will satisfy me at this point. Now rapid-prone, up two clicks on the Mojo - ugh, that sucked, 85/0X. Ten rounds left, I know I'm going to suck in the standing stage - again with rapid-prone. Not quite so fast - 85/1X, but a better group, and I jerked one clear off the paper so I probably would have broken 90. Okay, I'll call that good - bottom out the sight for slow-prone and slow-standing, up two for rapid-prone. Recoil pad helps, no cheek-smacking with the altered geometry like before.

Now the Mosin. -Starting off pretty bad; too much elevation needed, the rear sight is up so high I can't get a good cheek weld on the stock. I don't remember that with the original sight... again, want smaller rear apertures, and might still get a front aperture for the Mosin. The 91/30's longer barrel may droop or whip some when warm, like the Ishapore's; next year I might go back to the Hungarian M44 carbine, with its shorter, stiffer barrel, transferring the Mojo and the selected trigger parts to it. -Need to get more comfortable with the prone position, again not trying standing. Depending on news from temp service, might come out again Wednesday or Friday. (Or not - newsletter calendar lists no R/O for either 10th or 12th.) [Shooting omitted] Getting better, but still not as good as the VZ; the trigger really counts (target triggers are now available for the Mosin, but they cost as much as the rifle). Probably want to go up three clicks for rapid-prone with the Mosin. Pretty well zeroed with both rifles, I hope. Will shoot Allied with the Mosin in first relay, get myself warmed up for my better chance with the VZ on the Axis side. Packed up about 3pm.

This week Big 5 offers a #4MkI SMLE for $180. If I hadn't been laid off I'd've put one on layaway. .303 British, ammunition a little hard to find, though components are available. This is the one with the heavier barrel and much better sights than the sort-of-#1MkIII Ishapore 2A1 7.62mm I have. And of course it takes bayonets, though the common spike is, well, short, and so is the rare and expensive blade type. I wonder how I'd do with one of these in the AvA or PIG...? Poverty sucketh. Can't! Get! Ahead!

Earlier, club membership renewal in mail. GOA renewal too, and another car insurance bill. The last at least I can pay, right now before something else comes up. Must stay motorized.

Days of Infamy: the departure point is obvious, an invasion force attached to the Pearl Harbor attack, specifically at Genda's suggestion to Yamamoto. Quickly getting into the action, Turtledove spends little time setting up what would already be known to anyone who would be interested in an alternate history of Pearl Harbor, and bluntly omits the entire 1st and 2nd waves - in our timeline of course there was no third, which probably lost the war for Japan, or at least shortened it by a year or several. Our carriers Enterprise and Lexington charge back from maneuvers to join the battle - and are both sunk, in what strikes me as Midway Lite, as Nagumo, with troopships and orders to land, sticks it out instead of turning for home after two air strikes. (Historically Enterprise's fighters did tangle with the departing Japanese aircraft on 7 December.) General Short (who lined up the land-based planes wingtip-to-tip to defend against sabotage, thus making perfect bombing targets) and Admiral Kimmel are blamed (the latter for bringing most of the Pacific Fleet into port on most weekends, thus forming a pattern an enemy could use to time an attack). The fate of Battleship Row largely unchanged; Nevada aground and afire as before, Arizona... as before, some ships sunk instead of capsized or vice-versa from how I remember it. But the biggest point is the third air strike, which took out the huge fuel tanks, port facilities, airfields, blocked the channel to sea, etc., which all were left useable originally - and then they land troops. America's peacetime forces are, as usual, woefully unprepared for a real fight - though as Rommel observed, they learn fast. Almost a third through already, good read aside from Turtledove's oft-frustrating writing style. Glancing ahead at the last pages, this is obviously yet another series, and it ain't looking good for the Stars and Stripes. -No direct mention of a German declaration of war, though the Axis is referred to. And now, with our own territory occupied (hmm, will obviously have to write in a Reformation for the Shinto population of New Israel - or even change their religion altogether), we've got higher priorities than being the Arsenal of Democracy, meaning the Reich has less on it's plate. -And Wake fell of course, but Midway too, and there's no Doolittle Raid, and....

Democracy. Phooey! It's a republic dammit! THERE'S A DIFFERENCE! Now comes a report that a moonbat (Michigan's term, that), distraught over bin Kerry's defeat, did himself in with a shotgun at the ruins of the World Trade Center. Okey-doke.... Think what this says about lefties' collective mental capacity and their ability to cope with the real world. Any lefties reading this, you can get an NEF or H&R or Rossi or Magtech single-shot, brand-new, for about $100 most of the time, at most of the big sporting-goods chains - even cheaper used at pawn shops. Check your Sunday newspapers for sale prices on ammunition - 25 per box, gather your friends. -Of course, since most of you are liars and vandals and thieves and drug addicts and such, you'll probably fail the background check, assuming you're literate enough to fill out the Form 4473 to begin with.... You'll just have to jump from tall buildings or throw yourselves under onrushing freight trains or leave the engine running with the garage door closed, or suchlike. Buh-bye!

Turtledove not sugarcoating Japanese occupation. Like Given Up for Dead, Bill Sloan's account of the siege of Wake Island (reviewed December 2003), it's enough to start the war all over again. -Ah, later, there's Doolittle and the B-25s, very embarrassing for the occupation forces.

666 - Monday, 8 November 2004: Dry-firing in the standing position with both rifles, especially the Mosin with the heavier trigger. Judging from past matches, the slow-fire stages may be single-loaded - digging out some 20-place belt-slide cartridge carriers I've had for years, sized for .44 or bottlenecked .30-ish cartridges.

I wonder if they'll have Foul Weather matches again this winter? If I don't get more practice this week before the match, I'd have just enough VZ handloads for one match... but I want to make a heavier load anyway, maybe 175gr Pro Hunters. But not $oon.

Troops entering Fallujah. Kick ass, boys.

Finished Days of Infamy. I can see how the series will, or could, play out; a certain character will make it all the way through the war only to learn what happens to his hometown.... Library computer says The Hero, next in the Posleen series, should come through presently. Meanwhile piecing through Yorktown, not as engrossing as Fischer's Washington's Crossing (reviewed August 2004) but decent.

667 - Wednesday, 10 November 2004: Cruffler suggests some work, tearing up old carpet with a friend of his, better than nothing I guess. Temp service says... nothin'. Will sell him most of the Turk 7.92 tomorrow (need that money for the match fee...). No Christmas shopping this year.

Lefties saying the Blue States (mainly northern) are tired of "paying the freight" for the welfare-ridden Red States (largely southern) (I thought socialism was their whole thing, "To each according to need, from each according to ability"...?). Limbaugh throws out some numbers - Mississippi, with the lowest per-capita income, has the highest per-capita rate of charitable donations. Connecticut is the exact opposite. Hanoi John's Massachusetts is #49 in the union for charity per capita, that is, the second-stingiest state in the country. The five most charitable states are formerly Confederate. -Lefties talking of secession - hateful denigration of Southrons and anyone who didn't vote for bin Kerry. I've never been to Wyoming, and I note on the election maps that the northwest corner of the state (around Yellowstone) is damnyankee blue, but the rest of the state voted against Kerry.... It looks like not a single county in Utah went left (they're far-right churchy, but at least they have morals), nor did much of anything between Austin and Omaha. So there are still places for real Americans to go.

Meanwhile, free speech critically injured in America's universities. The guy from the SCA crowd who made my longbow is (or was) a Naderite. Is he part of a similar crowd at the University of Oregon in Eugene, cursing and intimidating and vandalizing and assaulting anyone who disagrees with his socialist ideology? Elder reports that at a Minnesota high school, Bush supporters were beaten with baseball bats by Kerry supporters.

Speculation on the Dems ‘08 candidate - Hillary of course, but Kerry says he'll run again. Says he'll be in the "forefront of the party." Bwaahahahahaaa! How does the party feel about that? A caller to one of the talk shows points out that Democrats "eat their dead" after failed elections.

Carrying the big fat GP100 revolver rather regularly, now that the weather makes the trenchcoat feasible to conceal it in the paddle holster. Looking forward to switching to the shorter, slimmer, lighter Hi-Power, once I can afford a proper holster for that. Also rethinking the need for a retention strap - that's another half-second or so spent getting the weapon into action; modern form-fitted holsters reduce the need for one, just wrap your hand around it and pull.

Picked up The Hero, by John Ringo and Michael Z. Williamson, "a state-ranked competitive shooter in combat rifle and combat pistol." (Both are also veterans, Williamson of the USAF and Ringo of the 82nd Airborne.) Unfortunately for the storyline it seems this book is set nearly a millennium later than the rest of the Posleen series. Cally's War is likely set back here in the 21st Century and based on the daughter of the protagonist of the previous four books. I don't like skipping around in a timeline like that.... Okay, it's far enough removed temporally and spatially to not spoil anything (much), and it gives some Deeper Knowledge of the galactic society involved.

Updated links page with my daily or weekly favorite webcomics.

229 years ago today, the United States Marine Corps was formed.

Marines’ Hymn
Words: L.Z. Phillips (1919)
Music: Jacques Offenbach from Genevieve de Brabant (1868)

From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom, and to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine.

Our Flag’s unfurled to every breeze from dawn to setting sun.
We have fought in every clime and place, where we could take a gun.
In the snow of far off northern lands and in sunny tropic scenes,
You will find us always on the job - The United States Marines.

Here’s health to you and to our Corps, which we are proud to serve.
In many a strife we’ve fought for life and never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven’s scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.

668 - Thursday, Veteran's Day, 11 November 2004: Gods bless our men and women in service!

Sold the Turk 7.92mm to Cruffler - he got 1,050 rounds ammo, I got cash, happy/happy. -He's taking up home brewing, just for entertainment, but I pointed out that when the infrastructure collapses in the Second War Between the States he'll have a barterable skill.

Arafat is dead! (Yesterday officially I think - probably days ago really.) And there was much rejoicing. Good riddance to bloodthirsty hatemongering mass-murdering rubbish! CNN's Aaron Brown fawning over his successor. France giving him a state funeral with full honors, Jimmy Carter may attend. France is a state sponsor of terrorism and the Democratic Party is a terrorist support organization!

Called one of the labor-hirers Cruffler suggested - left message. Plumbing and carpet work. The very same remodeling jobs I recently vowed never to take. Well, I can try it one day and get a few bucks I guess, then decide if it's worth it. (Is this what I'm reduced to? From $11/hour making high-tech medical analysis devices to pulling up old carpet? I've got six lottery tickets from two states I haven't checked.... Hmph, if I won I'd probably keel over with a coronary.)

Can't even get online during this unpaid vacation, as I have to leave the phone line open during business hours. :-/ Tearing through The Hero, tasty as only something can be when written by people who have been there and done that.

Oh look! Another case of leftists committing violence against Republicans! And here's a pre-election article recounting more of the same. I'm telling you, it's going to come down to Legitimate Acts of Self Defense on my people's part.... Elsewhere, moonbats calling for Kerry to "unconcede", for Howard yeearrrgghh Dean to run again in ‘08, or to put Dean in charge of the DNC.

Speculation and hearsay flying on gunfolk lists about Alberto Gonzalez, Ashcroft's replacement as Attorney General. Some of it stokes my fears that he's a "bipartisan" offering to the gods of statism.

Apparently the supposed Kerryite who self-snuffed at the World Trade Center left a note... which had nothing to do with the election. The lefties are even exploiting suicides for political gain.

669 - Friday, 12 November 2004: Still no employment. May sell the other two spare VZ24s to Cruffler.

Getting ready for the match tomorrow - twice as much ammunition as I'll need, prone mat, spotting scope, etc., etc. Hope to have time to stop at Barberton show on the way back and talk to hobbyist-gunsmith about fixing the Hi-Power's sight(s) (and get surplus hot dogs from Cruffler's cart again).

Working on new page, Crimes of the Left. All readers please contribute URLs! I may become a capital-B Blogger after all.

Victory at Yorktown, pg. 80:

Baron [Ludwig von] Closen [a Bavarian whose adopted country was France, who came to America with the French expeditionary forces to fight the British and aid the American Revolution] was struck by the way an American's outward appearance often suggested carelessness or even thoughtlessness, yet despite this apparent indifference to the opinion of others, "these same people fight with so much bravery, can support a war, and have such trained and disciplined troops. Who would believe that an American, who scarcely dares to go out of his house on a rainy day, the moment he has a musket on his shoulder, braves every danger and the most difficult weather?"
-The Revolutionary Journal of Baron Ludwig von Closen, 1780-1783, pp. 49-51

670 - Saturday, 13 November 2004: Match day! Arrived in plenty of time. The usual Garands, a targetized Mauser or two, an 03A3 with chopped stock (therefore no bayonet) but original sights; one Arisaka, the same guy who placed dead last with it last year, but a different Arisaka this year. Rarity o' the day: Swedish AG42 Ljungman 6.5x55mm semiauto! Often rated as one of the Best General-Issue Rifles, up there with the Garand. (It appears to take the same bayonets as the Swedish Mauser). Sweden was neutral... match director put it on the Allied side. I got 5 bonus points for the longest rifle/bayonet combination; the guy with the other M91/30 did not have a recoil pad so I won with the extra inch. However, he got his match fee refunded by having the best period outfit.

Starting with Allies, with the Mosin. Cold - wearing USGI M65 field jacket over flannel (extra recoil reduction, too) and simple pigskin gloves, comfy enough except for runny nose. All stages, two SR1 targets at 100 yards. First stage, slow prone, 5 sighting shots on upper target and 10 for score on lower, all together in 15 minutes. Shoot, look, shoot, look, click sight, shoot, look - then ten for record. Needs a touch more windage, using Kentucky today. Everyone done, go down to score and patch targets - not bad, 85/1X, better than I expected from the Mosin. (X, 10, three 9s, three 8s, two 7s.) Back to the firing line. Ten for score, rapid-prone on upper target, up two clicks on the Mojo, blamblamblam - Arisaka had one misfeed and generally poor ejection, but he managed. AG42 flings brass almost ten meters! Look through spotting scope... that can't be right.... Now slow-fire standing on lower target, down two clicks - wiggle, wince, blam, repeat. Downrange to score, cringe.

Goodgodsa'mighty! 98/1X in rapid-prone! Only two in the 9 ring! Wish I coulda taken a picture. And 84/1X in standing! Never done better! Total "real" score 267/3X of possible 300, 89.0%! Plus ten bonus points each for the bayonet in the rapid and standing stages, plus five for the longest bayonet, is a total score of 292.03! Unbelievable! If the barrel and/or I had been fully warmed up I'd likely have broken 90 in slow-prone too.

Back up to the line, do it all over again with the VZ. Only four shooters stayed for the second relay, eight or so in the first. Slow prone, sight, click, sight, click. And for record - 97/2X! Three 9s this time. Having a good day so far, that's ten for ten in the black once each with two different rifles. Rapid-prone, up two clicks - looks good through the Tasco.... Down two clicks, slow-standing - weird, something about the VZ vs. the Mosin, more dry (and live) practice in standing is indicated. Score: 92/0X (four 9s, two 8s) in rapid-prone, respectable, 81/0X in standing, better than I feared. Real score 270/2X, 90.0%, plus twenty for bayonet is an official score of 290.02! More practice is needed, but what I've been getting has paid off! And with last year's winner not present I have every expectation of placing in the top six - probably take 1st Place Axis again. Cool. Now must wait for results to be mailed.

Run window cleaner down the Mosin's bore to neutralize Albanian corrosive residue, then off to Barberton ~11:30. -The usual there, though half the show had packed and left by then; yakked with Cruffler (he got a pretty Krag carbine, slightly mismatched but all "original"), and with last year's AvA winner, who was there instead, selling off stuff ‘cause he needs money. One mildly intriguing sighting, an NEF Handi-Rifle in .45/70 (!) for $150, VG+, stubby ~18-20" barrel, newish bore, tight lockup. Cushy factory recoil pad, you betcha, but still someone probably bit off more than his shoulder could chew. I've developed a recoil tolerance.... (Later, Cruffler says he knows of someone who rechambered one of these to .45/120. Ouch!) Crude sights though, simple blade front and square-notch rear, looks like my GP100's rear sight, at barrel midpoint for unsatisfactory sight radius - but, rear of barrel drilled & tapped for scope mount or aperture sight. (I am picky about sights, especially on rifles.) If I hadn't been laid off, if I'd been getting a steady $11/hour all this time, I might have haggled for that.... :( If I hadn't been laid off I'd be damn close to a CMP Garand by now, a Real Rifle with Real Sights. :( :(

Met hobbyist, discussed and delivered Hi-Power slide, rummaged through his parts bin there, selected a front sight that might work - says he'll try cutting a standard 3/8" dovetail ($5/slot!) (!) but if there's not enough material there he'll cobble something up to replace the original. Expecting less than $20, cool, but probably not until next Barberton, which is after the next plate match (no plate match in December, Christmas weekend), but I can't afford to develop a load or buy factory rounds by then anyway, shrug. (Could still try with the GP100....) Got surplus hot dogs & buns, free calories; discussed selling other two spare VZ24s, "anytime." Back to the hovel about 1:30.

Well. Even if I don't win an award in this match, I have made an improvement over last year. I have improved.

Except, objectively, this match was at a shorter distance, on larger targets, in fewer positions, than last year. Furthermore this match neither a) uses MR-series targets so I could use a percentage to improve my unofficial military-equivalent standings, nor b) uses the SR1 target in the full four-stage, 32-round NRA-official course of fire for Sporting Rifle Rules so I could increase my official standings there. Hmm. OTOH, I do still have stacks of MR-series target centers from my big target purchase some months ago, I could set up my own unofficial course of fire, or at least get more-challenging practice.... Well, at least I am actually competing against actual live opponents, some of whom have been punching long-distance holes longer than I've been alive. Looking forward to the results in the mail.

Victory at Yorktown, pp. 99-100:

...[British Major Patrick] Ferguson [inventor of the Ferguson Rifle, among the first practical breechloading small arms (though the particular method actually goes back to the 1720s in France)] had sent a patriot he took prisoner to tell [North Carolina militia Colonel Isaac] Shelby if he did not surrender, Ferguson planned to cross the mountains and burn his whole county.

These frontiersmen from the Watauga settlements in what is now Tennessee did not take that sort of threat lightly. They were acutely aware of what the enemy had done at the Battle of Waxhaws, where Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton attacked Colonel Abraham Buford's Virginia Continentals, rode them down, and massacred his command even though they had surrendered. As an American wrote, "The demand for quarters... was at once found to be in vain... for fifteen minutes after every man was prostrate they went over the ground plunging their bayonets into every one that exhibited any signs of life...." Only Buford and a handful of other mounted men escaped from the battlefield, and the man who defeated them was known thereafter as "Bloody Tarleton," and "Tarleton's Quarter" became a rallying cry for the rebels.

Shelby's and other militias from what was then the western frontier gathered to battle Ferguson and Tarleton:

They were in North Carolina because they preferred to have the fighting here, rather than back home on their farms, near their wives and children.

Or in other words:

And I repeat:

671 - Sunday, 14 November 2004: ....

672 - Monday, 15 November 2004: Lessee here, what-all's happening? French Consider Naming Streets After Arafat; OFF warns that Democrats now have official control of the state legislature (formerly in the hands of RINOs); Prairie Home Companion's Garrison Keillor says Christians should be denied voting rights; Elder reports 337,000 new jobs in October, average gas price dropping under $2/gallon since election (presently $1.89 in Vancouver, $1.93 in Portland); a Muslim self-immolates at the White House while shouting Islamic oaths; Condoleeza Rice may succeed Colin Powell as SecState.

Finally some work coming - but remodeling, ick. Calling tomorrow for supposed work Wednesday.

673 - Tuesday, 16 November 2004: Called the plumbing guy, got address in North Portland, start time 8:45 tomorrow. At least it'll get me out of the hovel.

674 - Wednesday, 17 November 2004: Yecchh. Dirty work, crawling around in basements and under a deck wrasslin' rusty ol' pipes and dodging rusty ol' nails. Most of my job was gofer, though I also wielded a SawzAll and a big honkin' drill. More tomorrow. -The boss is a Polish immigrant, escaped communism in ‘80, has a big ol' truck with his name on the side. American Dream! More power to him.

Temp service says... nothing at all from the Japanese place, the one electronics job is "dragging its feet", but there's another - they want a "materials handler", meaning warehouse work, sigh. On the west side again (Commiefornia's northern annex), sigh. But $9-$11/hour, to-hire. Details expected Monday.

Mail - snail-spam here, beg-for-money there... oh look, my first jury duty, starting 15 December. Ten dollars a day for the first two, $25/day thereafter, plus twenty cents a mile. Of course I can expect to be denied the right to self-defense while on statist soil - I'll park off-site and hike in so they don't have an excuse to violate my automotive 4th Amendment rights. Maybe when they find out I'm a gun-owning Constitution-reading Republitarian one shyster or the other will dump me.

Of course the courthouse is downtown, cityfolk, ugh. Somewhere I recently read that there are only a half-million people in the entire state of Wyoming, which is about the same geographical size as Oregon (which has somewhere between 5 and 6 million). That's my kinda state.

On gunfolk lists, reports that pending SecState Rice is a "2nd Amendment Absolutist" who relates anecdotes about growing up in the segregated South and how her elders would bear arms on neighborhood patrol to protect their homes from the Klan while local law enforcement (and, of course, Democrats like Senator Byrd) did nothing, or wore their badges under sheets. Hmm. Outgoing SecState Powell did dissatisfy me on that and other points.

Meanwhile, Savage reports that Bush wants to increase the deficit by another $Trillion, and that Republican lawmakers are overturning a requirement that all imported foodstuffs be labeled with their country of origin.

>:-[

Rummaging through hovel, still trying to clear out the junk. Found the folding stock for the M500/590 shotguns; found twenty pieces once-fired Federal Mauser brass, will track them carefully and try to get them up to the same number of firings as the rest.

Some time ago I managed to purchase a sack of Federal 12S0 12 gauge shotgun wads and have now rediscovered them. According to Accurate's powder booklet, 15.0gr Nitro 100 (which I still have most of a pound of) under these, under ¾oz. shot, in the common Winchester AA hull, produces a transsonic load at 4,000psi, possibly the lowest-pressure 12-gauge load in the book, which means I can make low-pressure (and low-recoil!) smokeless loads for the old double, thereby eliminating both the messy cleanup and the tactically disadvantageous billow of blinding, choking white smoke resulting from Pyrodex RS. For Cowboy Action I'd still need a period repeating rifle (Colt Lightning slide-action reproductions are now available, as are Spencers; I'd probably just get a Marlin from Big 5). I have four percussion revolvers... but I think I'd want cartridge pieces so I could compete with regular rules, which include reloading on the clock in some stages; reloading a percussion piece takes tactically forever in comparison, even with combustible paper cartridges (which I still haven't fully developed, though I do have actual saltpeter now and did cook up a solution once that showed promise). Now, the Armi San Marco Remington New Army can probably be fitted with either a Kirst or R&D conversion unit (I'm pretty sure one of them is available for the disparaged Armi; Pietta appears to be the market leader) for .45 ("Long") Colt or perhaps .45 Schofield, but that requires removal of the cylinder to reload. (Hmm, I could fire off the percussion cylinder, then switch to the conversion cylinder, or vice-versa, a great advantage of the Remington's design over the Colt's... see Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider.) The Lyman 1851 Colt Navy, on the other hand, with a percussion cylinder whose chambers are too large to properly seat the .375" round ball, might lend itself to a full-blown permanent conversion with loading gate and ejector rod (and the wedge and cylinder shaft would need a real gunsmith's attention too). Options there might be modern .38 Special target wadcutters (shorter cartridge overall length) or, uh, .38 Long Colt (which I believe can be cut down from .38 Special). (Say, I wonder if a Marlin 1894 in .357 would feed .38 LC? With the shorter cartridges the magazine capacity should be at least ten (usually nine in that caliber/model), as required for the stages I observed in May (#481)... but I've read a few reports that the Marlins can be finicky about COL.) Lots of these ancient Cowboy cartridges are coming back, with brass, dies, and even loaded rounds available, due to the popularity of Cowboy Action Shooting. -The presumably-Pietta 1861 is too pretty to convert, and there are no conversions available for the Uberti Dragoon, though I may slightly alter the latter to improve the loading-lever latch so it doesn't flop open on every shot when more than 30 grains of Pyrodex P is used. I might even have a rear sight fitted on the rear of the barrel, as was done on many original Dragoons, thus eliminating the squinty little V-notch in the hammer nose - though that would shorten my sight radius, and I like that to be as long as possible....

But that's all vaporware of course, pending income. Except for the smokeless 12 gauge rounds. Expo show this weekend - probably wouldn't go even if I had money, too crowded, and blueshirts prowling the aisles. Cowboy match at Clark Rifles on Sunday - I've seen one, and I reckon I'll need sleep by then.

675 - Thursday, 18 November 2004: Yecchh. Crawling around under houses. More tomorrow and probably Monday. Hope the temp service comes through soon.

[partisan="on"]

Here, here's how those election maps should look, pointing out the bleeding wounds in America's destined greatness:

And just what the heck is wrong with the Mississippi valley? Are they still voting against the party of Lincoln? Abe's dictatorial socialist big-government policies are far more in line with Hanoi John and Slick Willy, these days.

Huh - looks like Utah, Nebraska and Oklahoma are the only states where not a single county went left. Noted! And it appears Massachusetts and Rhode Island are the only states that went entirely left (there's a couple specks of morality in western Connecticut). Also noted.

[/partisan]

Mmm, Wyoming. One-tenth the population of Oregon. Oh, sweet solitude....

676 - Friday, 19 November 2004: Yecchh, ratty old attic. At least I got some money today. Immediately paid a month ahead on storage rent.

Condi ‘08? Hmm... may be more of a man than George W. (See visual aid.) But where does she stand on immigration and taxes and smaller government and zillion$ in foreign aid and the UN's constant attacks on our Constitution and so on? (What does Ron Paul think of her?)

Stores, radio stations, everything Christmasy already. Bah Humbug! I look forward to sleeping in on holidays.

677 - Saturday, 20 November 2004: This weekend my long-lost big sister is visiting! Been setting up for it all week. Somewhat shocked to have been rediscovered by my family after twenty-plus years, but survived. (And it gave me an excuse to clean the hovel.) Already getting email from her friends who are reading this journal. Sis says she may take up shooting. In another email my other sister implies she is Not a Leftist.

Meanwhile, Fox News to air a report on "Hating America" on Sunday. Sometimes I do miss television.

But not often. Now comes a report that the embedded cameracritter, who recorded the Marine, who disposed of a wounded terrorist, who was Very Likely to have been faking death and/or to have been booby-trapped to blow up in a corpsman's face, that cameracritter is a lefty using his position to push an anti-war, anti-military, anti-American agenda. While the Marines were hunting terrorists, this creature was hunting Marines. I'd like to lock him in a room with one of the "insurgents" he fawns over.... (See visual aid.)

Elsewhere, Ms. Rice publicly affirms Second Amendment stance.

So I'm watching The Phantom Menace again and I'm reminded of nearly the only Clausewitz I know: that thing about attacking an enemy's "center of gravity," the one thing or person or place or resource or whatever that must be defended, thus forcing the enemy to react and delivering the initiative to the attacker. So I check the library's online catalog for On War and there's three editions, fine. So I figure the older the edition, the less likely it is to be twisted with some anti-war, anti-military editorial agenda. Fine, there's a 1976 edition and a 1968... and both of them have only one copy in the entire system, and both of those are marked "ask at retrieval desk" and both of them are out ‘til December anyway. That leaves the 1993 edition from Knopf. The same publisher that gave us Bellesiles' Arming America (scroll down) (though to Knopf's credit they (eventually...) dumped him). >:-[ ...Well, how far can one twist Clausewitz, anyway? Into the hold queue.

Invitation from Artist, Blacksmith's daughter, for thanksgiving dinner with her family. Yeahokay.

Wrapping up Victory at Yorktown and one phrase keeps running through my mind, something said by British weapons expert Ian Hogg on the History Channel (referring specifically to the ineffective deployment of the Ferguson Rifle), that "the biggest pack of prize dunderheads in milit'ry history" was in charge of British forces in America during our War of Independence. String. Of. Bloody. Miracles.

Battle of Fallujah an American victory, civilians returning to their homes, lights and water coming back on, etc. Zero confirmed civilian casualties. If you have to be invaded, pray it's by Americans. "They make a desert and call it peace"? WE rebuild cities and call it war. Maybe Michael Moore will have a coronary.

678 - Sunday, 21 November 2004: Looking over my other flintlock pistol, the one I salvaged from a flea market. Outwardly the two are (or will be) similarly styled (in the American Pennsylvania or "Kentucky" pattern), but the one that works is marked "JUKAR SPAIN" on the barrel and the one in pieces is marked "JAPAN" inside the lockplate. Anyway, the Jukar's lock does not use a bridle, and furthermore has a neat little set-screw through the tumbler to adjust sear engagement. The other's lock does use a bridle - which is cracked at the thinnest web where it goes around a positioning bump on the tumbler. (Image at right is similar.) This has spread the bridle open just enough that, when fully released from full cock, the tumbler will turn so far that the end of the mainspring slips off the end of the tumbler, this reducing the pistol's rate of fire from ~3 shots/minute to ~5 shots/hour, as I then have to take the lock out and wrassle with it to get the mainspring back over the tumbler.

Now the simplest and most obvious solution would be to replace the bridle - but the odds of finding just the right piece for an imported kit likely made twenty or more years ago are about the same as George W. Bush overturning his father's executive order banning the import of "assault weapons," and the design-flawed bridle would probably break in the same spot again. Another possibility is to repair the bridle, i.e. with silver solder - which I still don't have or quite know how to use, and can't presently afford to order from Midway or Brownell's - but if I had income I might go that route, carefully setting the thing in the bench vise I got a few Barbertons ago and squishing it shut before soldering. But that would probably break again too.

But there's another option. A pin comes out the side of the bridle to pierce the lockplate, to anchor the bridle relative to everything. That pin is of a piece with the top of the bridle, where the top of the tumbler slams into it when the cock is released, to stop the cock's forward motion. (On the Jukar, a step in the cock arm slams into the top of the lockplate.) This pounding is undoubtedly what caused the bridle to crack in the first place. If I could attach a shim to the underside of that big flat top part of the bridle, about 1/16" thick, that would stop the cock at a point where it would still have enough forward motion to strike sparks from the frizzen and push the pan cover open, yet not have enough motion to let the mainspring run off the other end of the tumbler. I can cut a piece of something appropriate with a cutting disk in the Dremel (hobbyist quantities of sheetmetal, including stainless, at local hardware store), and JB Weld just might work on properly cleaned parts for this application. Hmm. If it does, then I can proceed with the restoration of my second flintlock and end up, not only with a mostly-matching brace of Revolution-era pistols, but yet another fully-functional weapon in my collection! Later, with income, I could get a cheap commie Chinese drill press, clamp the tumbler in something, drill a little hole, get a tap from the hardware store down the street, and functionally duplicate the cool sear-engagement adjusting screw from the Jukar. (Another option would be to place the adjusting screw in the sear itself - which incidentally would make it possible to adjust the sear engagement without disassembling the lock to get at the top of the tumber. But that might interfere with the half-cock setting, hmm. But maybe I could scoop out a recess in the underside of the tumbler between the half- and full-cock notches to clear the end of the screw, hmm.)

Another way would be, instead of the shim, to drill & tap the top of the tumbler at the point where it slams into the underside of the bridle, drive a screw with an appropriately wide head into that, and file the head down to the desired protrusion - I'll go that route if the JB Weld falls off. Okay, next step, disassemble the lock. I'll take pictures as and when. Wrassling the mainspring will be the worst. Dixie Gun Works offers special tools just for compressing lock springs - I have previously managed with carefully-applied ViseGrips or C-clamps and a deal of cussing.

679 - Monday, 22 November 2004: Yecchh. But the boss compliments my work and is already upset that I might have a regular job coming elsewhere. And he's a nice guy to work for, but it is not nice work.

Call temp service... "I was just getting ready to call [company]." Expect news tomorrow. No plumbing work tomorrow as what's been done is to be inspected; some work Wednesday perhaps if I have nothing else.

680 - Tuesday, 23 November 2004: Zzzz....

While checking URLs for updates to my Crimes of the Left page, I found this at, of all things, a San Francisco radio station's site:

Temp service says... that job is "going with other candidates." Another "materials handling" position opening with another temp rep. More plumbing work tomorrow, yecchh. Between this and selling the other two spare VZs to Cruffler I should make hovel rent but the bills are backing up.

Picked up the Clausewitz - Book Six, Chapter Twenty-Six, "The People in Arms." Somehow I don't think they would have covered that if I'd stayed in public education.... -Thumbing through; Book Eight, Chapter Nine, "The Plan of a War Designed to Lead to the Total Defeat of the Enemy:"

...we can identify two basic principles that underlie all strategic planning and serve to guide all other considerations.

The first principle is that the ultimate substance of enemy strength must be traced back to the fewest possible sources, and ideally to one alone. The attack on these sources must be compressed into the fewest possible actions - again, ideally, into one. Finally, all minor actions must be subordinated as much as possible. In short the first principle is: act with the utmost concentration.

The second principle is: act with the utmost speed. No halt or detour must be permitted without good cause.

I can see I'll have to buy a copy. Meanwhile, setting it aside and starting Turtledove's Curious Notions. The premise is a cross-temporal empire, where one timeline exploits the natural resources of others, having depleted their own. Portals are disguised and operated as various merchants, importer/exporters, and so on. In Gunpowder Empire, a little shop sold Swiss-Army knives and the like to a never-fallen Rome, taking payment in bushels of grain, etc.; a bushel here, a wagonload there, across many timelines, and it all adds up back home. In Curious Notions a shop in San Francisco operates in a late-21st-Century United States long-since subjugated by a Germanic Empire that: won the First World War in 1914 with a properly-executed Schlieffen Plan; neutralized Russia; consolidated Europe; never kicked out or mass-murdered its Jewish scientists; acquired nuclear weapons in the mid-1950s; and briskly used them to polish off the rest of the planet, particularly several American cities. So far the writing is a little better than the first installment of this series (a little), though I wonder if the characters from the home timeline will be as helpless and weak as those who operated in Imperial Rome.

681 - Wednesday, 24 November 2004: Zzsnrk yecchh. Well, ½ yecchh, working indoors preparing to install a hot tub upstairs. At least I got paid today, such as that is. Full tank of gas; Vancouver $1.87, Portland $1.89. No more work this week, more yecchh Monday, no further word from temp service.

Still no match results in mail.

Republican Rossi tentatively wins Washington state governorship recount by whopping 42 votes, hand-recount starting, expected to take ten days.

Turtledove's Crosstime Traffic series shares its name with the organization that is harvesting resources from the other timelines. CT's operatives are doofuses! They've got a Prime Directive to conceal the secret of crosstemporal travel; in technologically-advanced timelines like the late-21st-Century Germanic Empire they also keep an eye on the natives to prevent them from developing their own such. But good gods! They way they blunder about it! It's a wonder the home timeline survived long enough to develop this technology! -And this from an author with a degree in Byzantine History!

682 - Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, 25 November 2004: Zzzz.... Thanksgiving dinner at Artist's place with her husband, parents Blacksmith and his wife, and grandfather. Sigh. Several instances of Kerryitis and Bush-hating for the sake of Bush-hating. Also not-thought-through peacenikism. Not my bag, man! Sigh. At least I got the stack of gun books back from... I dunno how many months ago.

Hmm, what's this? SingleRepublican.com? ConservativeMatch.com? Hmm.... But I'm a very secular conservative, how many of these ladies will be Very Very Christian...? (See visual aid.) Sigh.

683 - Friday, 26 November 2004: Zzzz....

Ooog. Late last night, dinner forcefully rejected, yecchh. Achy and queasy all night and barely staggered out of bed this morning. Good thing I'm not working today. Yecchh! More rejection this morning! Started feeling better once it was out, though.

Curious Notions not as bad as Gunpowder Empire, the protagonist displaying some intestinal (and testicular) fortitude and intellectual capacity. Still, people from the home timeline have been so citified they're largely useless outside their safe, predictable routines. -Finished, starting Omaha Beach by Joseph Balkoski, a detailed and chronological account of 6 June 1944. But first, a Post-Ited bit from Victory at Yorktown - pg. 259:

During the winter of 1781-1782 the French had little to do beyond resting and making acquaintances in the neighborhood [of Yorktown], and with time on their hands officers enjoyed sitting around a fire in the evening ruminating on the qualities and effectiveness of the American troops. What seems to have impressed them most was their expertise with the carbine, or long rifle, which they used to great effect on the English. They rarely missed their mark, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Verger observed, and the tactic they employed was to face the enemy individually, not as a unit, slipping from bush to bush until they brought their quarry within range, then picking off a sentry and vanishing. An Anspach [German mercenary] officer told him that riflemen killed eight sentries in this manner on the day they arrived. The English were so fearful of their abilities that they gave them no quarter if caught.

Bleah, still feel lousy. Napping. I never nap, it screws up my internal clock. Absolutely nothing accomplished today.

684 - Saturday, 27 November 2004: Zzzz.... Whew! Feeling better, though still achy and stiff. No appetite either, but at least I can start rehydrating myself. Disturbing, I rarely get that sick.

On gunfolk lists, discussion of Culture War, friendships ending, families dividing, etc., just as I experienced at Thanksgiving dinner. At least I've learned that at least one of my sisters is a Conservative, as is her husband and probably my two nephews by them (one studying to be a minister, I'm told). Of course that branch of the family is also quite religious, but like solid-Republican solid-Mormon Utah, at least they have morals, and Christians and gunfolk are usually molested by the same mob of moonbats - "The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend." -Speaking of which, here's a report on the Declaration of Independence being banned from a school in (where else?) California because it mentions God.

685 - Sunday, 28 November 2004: Bleah, recovering. No plate match today; no OAC show.

Later, managed to drive over and sell the other two VZs to Cruffler - that just barely makes hovel rent and nothing else. :(

Adding my own transcripts of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights to my front page, with links to the originals at the National Archives and further resources at the Constitution Society.

686 - Monday, 29 November 2004: Getting colder at night.... Sometimes the greatest pleasure in life is to roll over and go back to sleep.

But not this morning. Up at 7, get all ready, call the boss at 8 to get the address, charge over there at 8:30 and wait about an hour for the city inspector to wander over - then over to the hot tub place from last week and wait about another hour while the boss gets parts and such, then it's half past noon and the next job is on the west side and there's no point trekking all the way over there for the short amount of time that would be available to work. So that's where I'm going tomorrow morning unless I hear different.

Finances juggled - just enough in checking to send a rent check and to cover the $25 monthly deposit to savings. The latter required taking $8.77 out of savings, leaving $2.00 just to keep the account open. I might barely afford a gallon of milk to make tuna casseroles at the hovel or another WinCo deli sandwich for lunch at work. Argh. Probably I can get a partial advance on this week's pay if I have to. -Well, Wednesday afternoon I should be able to withdraw a whopping twenty dollars, I should be able to last that long.

Changing voter registration back to the GOP. If one wants to change an organization, one should at least be a member or affiliate.

Talk radio - the Declaration of Independence thing at the California school is being picked up by the big guns like Limbaugh and Hannity; Elder interviewing the censored teacher's lawyer. Look, I'm agnostic, which is a short step from atheism - but the mention of God or Divine Providence or the Supreme Judge of the World in our Founding Documents does not freak me out. That is how the world was, that is who and what our founders were at that time, and even the most casual reading of the Founder's own writings makes clear that without their faith, probably our Founders would have just curled into fetal balls and whimpered at a fraction of the disasters they instead manfully overcame. So I'm not offended or insulted or traumatized by the mention of Christianity. I am instead freaked out by people who are freaked out by that. [Smack] Grow the hell up a'ready! And besides this points out how much "tolerant, inclusive" liberal academia plainly hates America. -Whatever happened to Reagan & Gingrich's Contract with America to abolish the Department of Education? Eh?

As expected, Hillary starting her campaign machine, hiring high-powered consultants and staff. Black and Latino Bush Cabinet appointees all under racist attack by "liberals." Universities intimidating and oppressing anyone, student or faculty, who deviates from the "liberal" herdthink (Hannity encouraging student callers to record the anti-American harangues, possibly for broadcast). Lefties freaking out about "values" as a deciding factor in the election - heh, Limbaugh plays a clip of, as I recall, Slick Willy Hisself speechifying years ago that "We are sick and tired of hearing about family values!" Bill Cosby (with, if I heard correctly, a doctorate in higher education and race relations) blasting "ebonics" and lazy worthless absentee-parent "knuckleheads" - "They buy their kids $500 sneakers and won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics." Black liberal minister caller on the Hannity show says Cosby should "stick to entertainment" as though that's all the doctor is good for. I wonder if all this will tick Cosby off enough to slide down from his lifelong jackass ride and climb up on a pachyderm...? He is already "off the plantation."

Temp service offers a "material handling" job Even Further West, but day shift at $11/hour and it would be regular work in a shirtsleeve environment. No details yet.

Fiddling with 12 gauge components. Previously determined that nine OO buckshot pellets are Very Close to 1-1/8 ounce, a standard shot weight in load data; now confirmed that six such are Very Close to ¾ ounce, the absolute lowest-pressure 12-gauge load listed in Accurate's Cowboy Action section. But, will those big fat pellets fit in the 12S0 wad without bulging the hull to the point the cartridge won't chamber? Hmm. Of course I could use cards & fiber wads and put the OO in the hull nekkid, like I do with the Pyrodex loads, but the pressure data is based on the specific use of the 12S0 between powder and shot, determined by careful testing with sophisticated instruments - not inclined to mess with that. Alternative, #4 buckshot (carried by Sportsman's Warehouse, and I got enough from the English Pit deal for a few experimental rounds); ¾ ounce is between 17 and 18 pieces, that would fit well in the 12S0's shot cup. #6 birdshot (umpty pounds on-hand) for CAS competition, but just as I won't own a weapon that doesn't work, I won't own one that can't (within its technological limitations, i.e. rate of fire or chamber pressure) be fought with if necessary. I already have 9/OO Pyrodex loads for the double; I'd like some smokeless loads that will do at least some damage.

Library - picked up Ketchum's Saratoga, continuing the education denied me by government schools; Cally's War by John Ringo and Julie Cochran, whose hobbies the jacket blurb says include pistol marksmanship; Weber's The Shadow of Saganami, "Introducing the Saganami Island Series" (Honor Harrington's version of Annapolis); and Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935, Clark Gable (compared to the garbage coming out of Commiewood today...). Cally's War is about O'Neal (protagonist of the series starting with A Hymn Before Battle)'s daughter, and oh! What they've done to her! (And no, I'm not talking about the cover art.) Saganami is a berthful of middies, Honor's recent students, on their first cruise, learning that "adventure is someone else in trouble far away" in the second round of the Haven/Manticore War. Both no doubt have long waiting lists. Setting Omaha Beach aside; starting with Cally's War I think. -Thirty-odd years on, the Posleen War (on Terra anyway) is largely over, though feral Posleen are still wandering about and much of Earth's surface remains to be reclaimed and reconstructed - Africa particularly is a basket case. Social and political developments and complications result from a war for racial survival against big nasty centaur-lizards who breed compulsively and eat nearly anything. Travelers must be constantly on guard against ferals: "Please tell me you've got more than that dinky forty-five...."

687 - Tuesday, 30 November 2004: Yecchh. Actually the real yecchh comes tomorrow when we go under this particular house.

Five hours yesterday, four and a half today. This is not enough money to pay the bills.

On the west side (northern Commiefornia), near a socialist indoctrination center (public school). So many Kerry stickers on the Volvos and Subarus and assorted SUVs, a guy could sprain a finger. And the suburban housewives are wandering by in their oh-so-stylish walking outfits and the shoes that cost more than my last rifle and I'm thinking, "Not one in ten of these people could change a flat tire to save their own lives." Useless ignorant cityfolk, hmph.

Ringo & Cochrane appear to be of like mind. Thirty-odd years ago, at the time of the Posleen invasion of Earth, much of the population was shoved into underground arcosancts (see Niven & Pournelle, Oath of Fealty) called Sub-Urbs - where, by the way, civilian armaments were utterly forbidden (with predictable food-chain results). In one of the previous books Ringo painted a picture of what happens to the human rabbits in such a warren when something mean actually gets inside with them.

The suburbanites I observed today muddle blindly along with their little blue ADT signs in the front yards, blithely certain Nothing Will Ever Happen to Them. Well, three years, two and a half months ago, it damn well happened. And they still wrap themselves in Nike and Adidas and stroll down the street and cart their younguns off to the creche. Their reality checks have bounced. Sigh.

Of course I don't know these people. It's possible I'm being too arbitrary and prejudicial.

...

Nnaaaaaaahh.

Temp service says... nothing.

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