RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - SEPTEMBER 2007
Ugh. Double, triple ugh. Not sure I can even make it to the Garand match next weekend. I have the ammunition (it's the 35-round Course A), it's fuel and the match fee I don't have at the moment.
...Meanwhile, here and here are MSM reports of a VCDL protest at the Norfolk city council, and here is a 'blog of it. Looks like Norfolk PD is as jackbooted as any other gang of thugs-with-badges, and the arrogance of the city council - in Virginia by God, the state that gave birth to Thomas by-God Jefferson and George by-God Washington - is astonishing. Hog fodder! Furthermore VCDL's email alert for the event says, in part:
As if the City couldn't sink any lower, City Council member Riddick, shamefully left the room when the first VCDL member started to speak. He did so, according to the local papers, to protest our protest!
Mr. Riddick was clearly not interested in what citizens had to say about how Norfolk is run.
...So much for our right to redress grievances with the government.
I mean Elvis Presley didn't just leave the building, he raced out the door! ;-) I pictured City Council's chairs up their still spinning, like in the cartoons.
I guess they didn't want to talk to any of us after the meeting. :-(
How very, very convenient.
Politicians protecting themselves.
While the Virginian-Pilot showed some VCDL speakers, it didn't show the other local residents also complaining about harassment. Scary when the local papers cozy up to the government and help conceal such a widespread problem.
Ohhh. In Baen's Bar, author Michael Williamson frequently suggests the use of a chipper. It looks like the majority of the Norfolk City Council, and the staff of the Virginian-Pilot, is guilty of numerous violations of Constitutional, civil, and basic human rights, most of which violations deserve jail time at least, and some of which approach the need for public hanging! From streetlights! BIRDS PECKING AT THEIR LIFELESS EYES!
City councils and police departments nationwide display a growing pattern of arrogance and contempt for the people whose taxes pay their excessive salaries, while MSM blatantly collaborates. The GOP turns on Senator Craig like that pack of dingoes on their wounded fellow outside the cave in Quigley Down Under, to resounding MSM applause. The Democrat frontrunner for President takes campaign contributions from convicted felons, plural (just as her husband and his VP took money from Communist China and many other un- or anti-American sources) and few outside the blogosphere breathe a word of it. And I can't make the bloody rent. My head hurts.
1589 - Sunday, 2 September 2007: On this day in 1945 the Second World War officially ended with the surrender of Japanese forces to the American-led Allies. On the deck of our battleship anchored in their capitol's bay 'cause we whupped 'em real good 'cause they damn well deserved a whuppin'. -Do not forget that this is also the anniversary of the official start of that war in 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
I'm typing this at about a quarter past 1am (like I'll be getting much sleep anyway, with the latest financial crisis) because I just reformatted my 75Gb F: drive again. See, the computer I'm running has two IDE hard drives, the C: on which is installed WinXP, CD-R/W for D:, DVD-ROM for E:, and the big one for F:. It would be nice to have everything on the big drive as C: but Bill Gates' annoying monopolistic activation thingie prevented me from doing so with the installation CDs I have, the first time the current setup crashed (how exactly does that work? Is it a permanent counter, or a so-many-in-a-certain-timeframe thing?), and I've got WinXP crammed into a 4Gb C: drive and all my apps and data on F:. Well, F: started acting wonky again and with assorted prodding and poking I determined there was nothing particularly wrong with C:, so I used the USB 2-way cable that came with the Vaio to suck all the important stuff off F: and park it on the 60Gb NEC, then fumbled about with a Win98 boot floppy and manual FDISK. And that turned out to be no improvement. So it finally occurs to me that there must be a way to partition a drive under XP so it's all proper and whatnot and damn it took a long time to find it. (I haven't been an actual techno-geek since about the debut of Win95.) For those curious, it's Settings - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management - and right-click on the physical drive in question. And now it's running noticeably smoother and I'm sucking the files back over.
Gaah.
(Zz. I guess.)
Gun Talk & chat. While waiting for the show to come on I've got the USB link sucking more files over, while downloading IrfanView again but this time to my USB drive so I won't have to download it again; and all seems well. (I was beginning to fear I had a bum HD.)
Radio news, Senator Craig resigns at the end of this month. When's the last time a Democrat took any personal responsibility? -Actually this is a bit of a hit for us, as Craig was, IIRC, on GOA's BoD.
Here is the YouTube submission from Tom Gresham and Clint Smith for the CNN/GOP debates later this year; it's short enough that even dialup can handle it (remember the start-and-pause trick). The odds of it being played during the debates are about the same as Ron Paul being elected President.
Commentary on the decline of England.
Dem senator Leahy accuses the GOP of hypocrisy... for forcing sen. Craig out? Uh... noooo, the GOP disapproves of what they view as immoral acts and they're cleaning their own house. That's internally consistent. The actual hypocrisy has already been illustrated. Doofus.
Why I hate the very idea of gun locks, built-in or otherwise.
Reader sends:
Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.
In the form of many people
In all panoplies of time
Have I seen the luring vision
Of the Victory Maid, sublime.
I have battled for fresh mammoth,
I have warred for pastures new,
I have listed to the whispers
When the race trek instinct grew.
I have known the call to battle
In each changeless changing shape
From the high souled voice of conscience
To the beastly lust for rape.
I have sinned and I have suffered,
Played the hero and the knave;
Fought for belly, shame, or country,
And for each have found a grave.
I cannot name my battles
For the visions are not clear,
Yet, I see the twisted faces
And I feel the rending spear.
Perhaps I stabbed our Savior
In His sacred helpless side.
Yet, I've called His name in blessing
When after times I died.
In the dimness of the shadows
Where we hairy heathens warred,
I can taste in thought the lifeblood;
We used teeth before the sword.
While in later clearer vision
I can sense the coppery sweat,
Feel the pikes grow wet and slippery
When our Phalanx, Cyrus met.
Hear the rattle of the harness
Where the Persian darts bounced clear,
See their chariots wheel in panic
From the Hoplite's leveled spear.
See the goal grow monthly longer,
Reaching for the walls of Tyre.
Hear the crash of tons of granite,
Smell the quenchless eastern fire.
Still more clearly as a Roman,
Can I see the Legion close,
As our third rank moved in forward
And the short sword found our foes.
Once again I feel the anguish
Of that blistering treeless plain
When the Parthian showered death bolts,
And our discipline was in vain.
I remember all the suffering
Of those arrows in my neck.
Yet, I stabbed a grinning savage
As I died upon my back.
Once again I smell the heat sparks
When my Flemish plate gave way
And the lance ripped through my entrails
As on Crecy's field I lay.
In the windless, blinding stillness
Of the glittering tropic sea
I can see the bubbles rising
Where we set the captives free.
Midst the spume of half a tempest
I have heard the bulwarks go
When the crashing, point blank round shot
Sent destruction to our foe.
I have fought with gun and cutlass
On the red and slippery deck
With all Hell aflame within me
And a rope around my neck.
And still later as a General
Have I galloped with Murat
When we laughed at death and numbers
Trusting in the Emperor's Star.
Till at last our star faded,
And we shouted to our doom
Where the sunken road of Ohein
Closed us in it's quivering gloom.
So but now with Tanks a'clatter
Have I waddled on the foe
Belching death at twenty paces,
By the star shell's ghastly glow.
So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.
And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.
So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.
General George Patton - Through a Glass, Darkly
Reader informs me that there is going to be a live-action film adaptation of the G.I. Joe cartoon, and that, naturally, it's being butchered. -My appreciation of the G.I. Joe story pretty much ends at MoH recipient Mitchell Paige being the model for the original, but still.
1590 - Monday, Labor Day Observed, 3 September 2007: Everything's closed. Zzz.
From a VCDL alert, commentary from Investor's Business Daily on VT. From Patriot Post, commentary by Ann Coulter on the relative merits (and corpse-counts) of our last few Attorneys General.
Looking like I won't make it to the Garand match because I'll be at Barberton instead, selling off more stuff to pay the rent. Double :(.
From the lists I see that Texas' Castle Doctrine officially took effect on 1 September. Dead crooks, live citizens, and unemployed blueshirts. God bless Texas!
1591 - Tuesday, 4 September 2007: So begins another month of money stress and other head problems.
Phone temp services... hmm, possible tech support position, but I'm probably too out-of-date for it. I'll go to their office tomorrow and test.
Phone eee-vill government - my property is still being held as evidence for a trial now set for the 24th, suggested that I call on the 27th. Explicitly confirmed that my original GP100 is still operable and has not been nor will be rendered otherwise.
Phone hovel property owner. Normally a $75 late fee but since I called, cut to $40. Which is a total of $375. Which I don't have. And doubt my ability to raise by next week.
Over $27 from CoinStar, after 8.9% fee. But now that reserve is gone too, mostly to fuel for the cross-town drive to job-test tomorrow. And, if I get this job, it'll be another wretched (and now, expensive - local ARCO, as low as $2.55 last week, is now up to $2.63) commute. -At least the Corolla seems to be staying together for the moment, when I can afford fuel for it. -And I probably shouldn't have typed that out loud.
Readers send: Drunk-Driving Cop Busted in Hawaii; ACLU Brags About Pandering to Illegals; locally, English Pit prepares for reopening. (But I'll still make the longer drive to Clark Rifles.)
Eye candy. Hmm, the cutlass revolver (a pinfire), fifth from bottom - maybe someday, if I ever get it back and if I ever get money again and if I don't have to turn right around and liquidate it anyway, I wonder how a GP100 would look with such a treatment....
1592 - Wednesday, 5 September 2007: Dragged self out of bed to the clattering of the case tumbler on the appliance timer. Trim beard, nice shirt, get in Corolla, turn key-
Click.
Yep, I shouldn't'a typed it out loud. There is power - instrument lights and the key buzzer when I open the door. Open hood, nothing obviously wrong. Try again several times and finally it starts. Starter motor "high-centered"? Or just dying?
The gods, again, are jerks.
Drove cross town on infamous Banfield and Sunset Freeways without incident. 15-question written test; some were obvious, some I could make educated guesses, a couple I'd never heard of (like AGS and SATA). Scored 80%, impressed the temp-service tester. (Again I get the impression the workforce continues to degenerate, if an 80% score is impressive. I can scarcely imagine what the guy's been seeing.) In any event I passed and the tester seemed to think I would get the job, pending a new resumé, which I'm now working on (ugh).
Car starts normally now.
Gah.
Possible parking dispute arising with new hovelplex occupant.
O. M. G. The biggest whoppingest donation yet. That, plus one item Cruffler has already made an offer on, will cover rent; anything else I can liquidate at Barberton this Saturday will carry me through the payroll lag, if I get this job (and a regular there makes a monthly offer on the FR-8 he sold me a couple years ago).
From Patriot Post, Quotes o' the Day: "The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men." - Samuel Adams
And: "It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care. If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK." - John Edwards on his universal-healthcare plan
Visual aid. And the left has the nerve to call us totalitarians. We're gonna have another *&^%ing civil #$%^ing war and I'm gonna get killed in it.
Meanwhile, for the Only Ones files, reader sends: Dog & Horse Cops Exempt from Poop-Scoop Law. Arrogance and elitism.
Interview noon tomorrow. Gaah.
Finished Fox on the Front, ended with a satisfying bang. Recommended by a reader, starting Scorpion Down, on the loss of SSN-589 to possible hostile Soviet action in 1968, and the alleged USN coverup thereof.
1593 - Thursday, 6 September 2007: Gaah, job interview.
Car started easily.
Got the job. Didn't even have to lie much. I'll be sitting in a cubicle answering the phone and occasionally asking "Do you want RAM with that?" Training starts Monday, 0630-1500 for a couple weeks. If I can get the Corolla out past the new folks' SUV.
Ugh. I saw some of my prospective coworkers in the lobby, complete with pantyhose on the arms, multiple facial piercings, and the occasional copy of Willamette Week, the local leftist rag. (I speculate that the interviewer was shocked to encounter someone who wasn't three different kinds of freak.) But it seems I'll end up with a cubicle to myself. Hours & days are a different issue. As stated, I will not give up shooting, the only thing giving me joy and measurable success in life, for a job. -I did meet one person from Dilbertville (the electronic cable place), the documentation lady who was not part of the problem(s) there.
Back to hovel. Phone temp service to touch base - need to go back there to sign "one piece of paper". I have a cell phone but am not of the mindset to use it, or I'd've saved myself another cross-town drive.
This will be a direct hire, with pay every two weeks. A rough calculation based on observed taxation rates in the past estimates a net of $300 per week, which I can certainly live on, but the payroll lag is now an issue. I still can't make the Garand match this Saturday as I'll need to sell stuff at Barberton. The rent is covered now, between the last donation and an offer from Cruffler, but there's nothing left over for fuel, the phone bill, or food, unless I do well at the show.
Whoa.
1594 - Friday, 7 September 2007: Car still starts.
Paperwork done. Back to hovel before noon.
Cruffler, bless him, phones me from a Vancouver pawn shop where he found a Mossberg M590 similar to my stolen one - but the serial number does not match. That was really cool of him to check though.
Reader sends:
I would suggest that what has happened to Senator Craig has everything to do with the fact that Idaho has a Republican governor and can be counted on to name a Republican successor. Sen. Vitter (R-LA) has a Democratic governor, so nobody is calling for his head, and he actually used those hookers, and not some probably legally ambiguous foot-tapping.
I'm simply disgusted by the whole mess. Both sides. And any third/alternate party that has a platform is also just as bad. There aren't that many good people out there. Venality and short-sightedness prevails. They tossed Larry Craig because they could, without any political risk, i.e., losing a Senate seat. You know Barney Frank is lower than pond scum, but the Dems need the seat, so there he is. A pox on all of them.
There isn't any moral high ground. Or rather, there is, but nobody in national politics is anywhere near there.
Reader makes offer for the FR-8, FFL process beginning.
PayPal donation processed, now the rent is covered and anything I sell at Barberton (beyond what Cruffler's promised) is for bills, fuel, and food.
Cramming a bag with stuff I can bear to part with - some factory .38 Special rounds, some surplus 7.62x51mm, Lee Perfect powder measure (never been pleased with its accuracy, have two RCBS and two Lee Auto-Disk), still-sealed jugs of IMR stick rifle powder (since I have a good .30-06 load with easy-metering BL-C(2)), a sealed pound of Pyrodex RS, safety glasses still in package, etc.
Hmm, primer flash test photos. Recall that with CCI200 I was getting hangfires with BL-C(2) in .30-06, but WLR has always given good ignition and even a 3rd Place medal in May. Unfortunately CCI200 isn't shown on that page; I'd be fascinated to see a direct comparison between CCI200, CCI250, WLR, WLRM, and while we're at it, CCI #34 military (which I scored 2,400 of during the road trip).
Hey, while rummaging through the hovel for saleable stuff, I found the CDs for Descent I & II! -But my old Thrustmaster has about had it. I'll get some kind of stick a couple paychecks from now I reckon, after the new power switch for the Vaio.
Second sis informs me that my photos of the burst barrel are still going around the net and have now appeared in the magazine of Washington Arms Collectors:
Reader sends YouTube video of National Geographic segment on a Chinese crossbow.
1595 - Saturday, 8 September 2007: Did adequately at Barberton. Took a loss on some items but raised over $80, which I later blew half of on groceries; furthermore I didn't have to part with any actual arms. Money for the FR-8 is on the way and there are two more small area shows this month to sell at if necessary, so I'm in good shape.
Thread on rec.guns asking, "If you had to go into battle using WWII vintage American firearms, which one would you choose?" Then the original poster, perhaps a spray-and-pray type, eliminated everything but the M2 Carbine and the Thompson; he dismissed the M1 Rifle as being too heavy. And the responses, overwhelmingly, selected the Garand without hesitation. (The '03 seems to be coming in second.) Uh huh.
Remember the cops who negligently killed a 5-year-old about a month ago? They're being prosecuted. A pessimist can only be pleasantly surprised, and I am. But note how the DA held his nose while filing the charges against his fellow King's Men, uh huh.
Guns magazine's 1957 issues. I'd'a forgot if not for a mention in WoG, one of the few 'blogs I actually read with any regularity.
Sen. Craig gets burned at the stake while MSM applauds. Virginia's Ex-ACLU Chief Gets 7 Years for Child Porn - and MSM yawns. Uh huh.
Ed Offley's Scorpion Down isn't sucking, giving some historical background for submarine warfare in general, detailed looks inside the Skipjack class SSN, and clear descriptions of SSN operations and the Cold War environment of the time. (Trivia: USS Roper, DD147, the destroyer on which Heinlein once served, on 15 April 1942 sank Germany's U-85 off the Virginia Capes (though Offley makes no mention of RAH).)
Comes now yet another reader donation, with the caption, "Get yourself some shrimp rings." You guys are the greatest!
Hm, useful article from CMP newsletter.
1596 - Sunday, 9 September 2007: Zz.
Gun Talk and chat every Sunday morning. One of the Elves recently got a piston conversion for his AR, and sends this detailed ArfCom product review & discussion and this report on the installation process, while expressing his own customer satisfaction. Same also sends link to SmartCarry concealment holsters.
Remember that old S&W M&P? When I tried to identify it I did not take the C prefix into account. Cruffler ended up with it and sends along this from a third party:
1597 - Monday, 10 September 2007: Visual aid (second panel). -I'm not taking calls yet, three weeks of training have just begun, but I just may not have the temperament for this kind of work, being too burnt-out and cynical. Still, I'll try.
Some break room they have, arcade games, web access terminals, FPS LAN game, on-site cafeteria and lots of vending machines. Parking sucks though.
Anyhow, paid rent, in cash, in person, at 3:50pm - just as the two office girls on that side of town were sprinting out the door. :-\ Got receipt though. Fuel topped off, a little more groceries (no shrimp ring yet, maybe tomorrow). If my head (or the car) doesn't explode I'm set for awhile.
More PayPal percolates through, paying car insurance. Would have paid part of phone bill if Qwest's site didn't chronically suck (under maintenance when I tried).
In the news, and elsewhere: Fugitive Dem Fundraiser Hsu Unbalanced?; Teacher Denied Self-Defense, Threatened by Government School Bigots; The Only One Who Started it All; I gotta get some of these (prolly get SWAT called on me at the new job, on the Californicated side of town); article (.PDF, ~1Mb) torture-testing high- and low-end 1911s.
Readers send: Cop Grossly Overreacts at McDonald's; Soldier Jailed for Rescuing Abused Women. You know how some parents are "chipping" their kids these days? Those things'll kill ya. (See also the same AP article on The Washington Post, which link may last longer than Yahoo.) And from the lists, Boston Sucks.
Fine rant on the evils of disarmament.
And, Vietnam Memorial Vandalized. Get the chipper.
1598 - Tuesday, 11 September 2007:
Today's training grew more interesting as the motivational videos and corporatespeak PowerPoints began to give way to nuts & bolts: introduction to the customer-service software and critiquing of recorded calls. Maybe I can do this after all, if only because the bad examples used for illustration offend my sense of competence.
This... has the potential to be a... good... job. If I can get my head around it. Sucky commute....
Then I drive back to the hovel in cross-town freeway traffic and wait entirely too long in line at Bi-Mart for a &^%$ single #%^& oil *&^%$# filter and I'm all bummed again. And, though Bi-Mart presently has a sale on Hornady reloading projectiles, they don't have #3037, .308" 150gr FMJBT. Not that I'm fully recovered financially yet but I coulda squeezed in one box on sale.
Sounds like the Corolla needs front brake pads again. I'll get those $oon.
Signed up for direct deposit but as usual that requires "a few pay periods" (why, when it only takes a couple business days for a PayPal donation to appear in my checking account...?). I get paid on the 1st so October's rent shouldn't be a problem.
Quote o' the Day: "How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?" - James Madison (Federalist No. 41, 1788) Or in other words.
Huh. I might have to start reading this comic.
Auction of props used in the A&E Hornblower films.
Britain Halts Immigration! Or steps in that direction. Who'd'a thunk it, given their recent history of appeasement, multiculturalism and socialism! -And if a nation so deep in the throes of communist degeneration can do such a thing, why the hell can't we?
Reader sends, Geezer Whups Punk. But note the sneering "Don't-you-dare-defend-yourself" dreck from the local blueshirt. Reader also sends NRA .PDF of NY arms laws (under 200kb) illustrating that NYC sucks.
From a VCDL alert, an LTE referring to this act of self-defense says in part:
Perhaps these swarming, well-paid, well-fed creatures of the state should be asked to give up the company of the superbly-armed people they work with, and go work for $8 per hour in a retail store. To make it real, we can refer criminals to rob it every few weeks, just to keep them on their toes.
But no. Those who work for the government amass a sticky layer of "anti-citizen insulation", which makes them immune to the suggestion that they are employed to protect us.
Leave the store employee alone. Instead, arrest the bureaucrats who failed to keep Jerome Davis behind bars until he couldn't hurt anyone else.
Britain Sucks - but the lion still has a couple teeth. -Not very sharp, and decay-prone, to judge by the author's Oh-don't-worry-we'll-register-everything-because-government-knows-best whining, but still.
1599 - Wednesday, 12 September 2007: Burnt-out cynic, me. But I haven't quit yet. Learning more.
Tired.
And sick & tired of hovel living and daily commutes and cityfolk and And.
Quote o' the Day: "It's getting close to the point where Osama bin Laden could deliver the keynote speech at the Democrat National Convention." - Rush Limbaugh
1600 - Thursday, 13 September 2007: Summer draws to a close, with a hint of precipitation contrasting the 80-90°F days earlier this week.
Still ain't quit yet.
Gods I hate city traffic.
Reader donates box o' stuff! Among other things, more .30-06 brass; a Lee Minié .54 mold (which I intend to test-drive this weekend), a couple Garand op rod springs, and bunches of other-than-.54-caliber ML stuff for me to resell at the Washougal show on the 29th (including some .451 & .454 RB I might keep for myself, since I do plan on replacing the Remington percussion revolver someday - though I think the mutilated remains of the Dragoon will end up as a permanent cartridge conversion).
From the lists, Michigan Lawmaker Wants to Arm Educators. A jarringly-balanced piece from MSM, IMO.
Paid most of phone bill, that should forestall shutoff. Qwest's site really sucks bad.
Finished Scorpion Down, not bad. It spins an interesting tale, but the truth may never be known. And now I'm out of book! With nothing ready in the hold queue and not wanting to deal with the crowds of screeching brats and non-American-speakers at the library, I'm restarting Niven & Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer, 'cause hovel tectonics placed it in reach.
1601 - Friday, 14 September 2007: So ends my first week of training. I've learned quite a lot about a particular range of a particular large technology company's products. If the commute doesn't kill me this might stick for a while.
The last of the PayPal comes through; no more income 'til the 1st, but I should be fine barring fresh disasters.
Mmm, Niven & Pournelle. I'd forgotten. And I see where watered-down ripoffs like Armageddon and Deep Impact come from.
Pins tomorrow, hoo-aah. I truly need some live-fire. -I really like it when I do well in competition. Thinking beings naturally enjoy what they do well. In my case there's the additional feeling of having some measure of control, at least over that one small part of my as-documented-here chaotic existence. And everyone - unless they're head-sick - likes to prove their superiority over others in at least some field. Competition is Natural, Right, and Good. These useless PC wastes-of-oxygen in government schools who say it harms children to keep score, or Barney the Communist Dinosaur who methodically destroys individuality - they're doing the real harm, leaving children completely unequipped to survive in a hostile world. Some of these folks have their heads so deep in the sand I expect to see parts of them squirting out of some oil well in the Middle East. I like to win. And the tougher the competition, the larger the field, the sweeter the victory.
1602 - Saturday, 15 September 2007: Encore l'hoo-aah. 1st Major Revolver again, but only two in the field; 3rd Overall of 16. At 53.58 seconds, a bit over 3 seconds slower than last month, but still respectable. Next Saturday is the intramural, combining these times with the qualifying runs for the plate match that I run at my club; details still being worked on. And d'oh, I was going to get a photo of the big sign, painted on a huge ancient sawmill wheel blade, for the Wolverton club, so I could use that against the Clark Rifles logo in the certificate. I'll just use text this month I guess.
Oh! And I got my first taste of IPSC after the match, some introductory practice. Good thing I brought the P35 (which I hadn't fired in months) and holster and magazines; lots of mandatory reloads and a conventional revolver with HKS speedloaders can't keep up with that. There's an IPSC match at Wolverton on the 30th but I doubt I'll have fuel (or, for that matter, gumption) to make it. Future though, yes.
After, met CR's activities director to clarify a couple things where matches are concerned - no worries.
Article on Switzerland having actual free-market health care! Which, of course, works better than anything we've ever tried. -One of the instructors at the new job is Canadian and seems to think socialist health care is a good idea. This person isn't rabid about it though so I'm only nibbling my tongue.
John Lott sounds off on Oregon schools prohibiting self defense and, incidentally, violating state law.
Here's a bit of a recent exchange with Cruffler:
1603 - Sunday, 16 September 2007: Zz z z.
Gun Talk & unofficial chat every Sunday, 11am Pacific. Guest host Dave Workman of Gun Week.
Looks like my round count was 40 for this month's pin shoot (perfect for this course is 27); and at one second per round that meshes with the difference in total times (last month was 37). At this rate, I have enough of the last batch of the hotter load for at least two more pin shoots, but I'll probably need to make more for October plates.
Hah! The club has two electronic shot timers but only one has worked since I started shooting plates there. Yesterday, while there, I fiddled with the other and got it honking, and just now found the instructions for it on the web. This will speed up the qualifying runs in the plate match and make assorted other people happy by reducing overall match time.
Meanwhile I'm firing up the .54 Minié mold and it's working, once it gets up to operating temperature of course. Results come out at .543", which drops easily (enough) down my particular Armi Sport Hawken's muzzle. Pending gumption, I might try some live testing after plates Saturday. Biiig bullet, heh.
Doing a little catch-up on email. Reader sends photos of eee-vill Walther P22 with eee-vill accessories:
Yes, that's a SMLE #9Mk1 bayonet, which he got elsewhere. He got a heck of a deal on the package:
1604 - Monday, 17 September 2007: On this day in 1787 the Constitution of the United States of America was signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention.
1605 - Tuesday, 18 September 2007: Forty.
Tired.
Also weary, which is not the same thing.
No financial slack whatever. I'm in a race between my fuel tank and my first paycheck (on the 1st). OAC show this Sunday, might sell some leftover 7.62x51mm rounds (Portuguese and South African I think); Washougal on the 29th where table space has been arranged with Cruffler, bless him, where I can liquidate more stuff including that recently donated for the purpose.
Disgusted with traffic, incompetent cityfolk, and moonbats everywhere I turn.
Ain't quit yet. Training not quite half done. Today I also got my first taste of Vista, shrug.
Quote o' the Day, and a classic. Hail him as a lost libertarian messiah, snarl at him as a GOP-election-spoiler, or just shake your head and chuckle, Harry Browne got this much right: "Government is good at only one thing: It breaks your legs, hands you a pair of crutches, and says, 'See, without us you wouldn't be able to walk.'" -To which can be smoothly added: "In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." - Thomas Jefferson
And just to prove I haven't tossed myself under a train quite yet, a comparison of Hornady .224" 55gr FMJBT, Hornady .308" 150gr FMJBT, and Lee #90474 .540" Minié:
I have 31 good Miniés at this point - timing and temperature are more important with these whopping huge projectiles and more go back into the pot than with a smaller type. Hey, should I lube these things? I have a couple tubes of T/C goop - two of #7309 Bore Butter, one of #7305 Maxi Lube.
Author Paul Chafe, of Destiny's Forge in the Man-Kzin Wars, and one of three (so far) Baen authors to have emailed me after I reviewed their work, apparently added me to his email list after I favorably reviewed that book here, and has now sent out a .PDF pre-release of his latest, Genesis. Cool!
From VCDL: rant on the VT massacre report; LTE comprised of more such; Crooked Greenshirt Jailed - for a fraction of the time us peasants could expect for a fraction of the crime, uh huh.
Reader sends, Federal Prosecutor Arrested in Child Sex Sting. In cold-blooded objectivity, with an eye toward dangerous precedent, one might cry "entrapment"; but mostly one reaches for a rope. -And one casts a wary eye at anyone in government. I've said it before: they don't see us as human, but as animals and objects to be used or destroyed at their whim.
Reader sends:
Firearm used is a blued Ruger Blackhawk Convertible 4 5/8" barrel chambered in .357 Magnum with the extra cylinder in 9x19mm. My next Blackhawk will be a .45 Colt/.45 ACP convertible likely in the same barrel length.
Another reader sends that the burst barrel is still going 'round the net very nearly a year later, and now some third (or twenty-third) party has attached a photo of some guy with facial injuries in a paramedic gurney - and that did not happen. There were no injuries in the burst barrel incident at Clark Rifles on 30 September 2006!
From the lists, Officer "proficient in all types of firearms" killed at weapons exhibition. Uh huh.
Someday I need to have my very own chronograph... again. Hmm....
Unholy Crap. And there are people in this country - even in my training class, I fear - who think this is a good idea.
1606 - Wednesday, 19 September 2007: Reader sends:
For longer term storage, and to cut down on the reloading ritual there is wax-based stuff, homemade and store-bought that can be used. The easiest and cheapest method is a beeswax and olive oil mix that can be made at home, and is solid at room temperature. One arranges the projectiles to be lubed vertically in a shallow pan, and then you fill it up to the top of the lube rings. let them cool, and then using a salvaged metal can to make, in your case, an approximately .55-.58 cal tube, and punch them out like cookies.
Then there's a hard wax coating, similar to what is found on .22LR, and a barrel treatment, such as Eezox or a moly coating.
And, he said, saving the best for last, might be Hornady One-Shot
... the lubricant section of Midway's site has the One-Shot listed, although the customer commentary is clearly about lubing lead bullets.If you have any Eezox, it might be interesting to see how One-Shot treated bullets work with an Eezox treated barrel: it works pretty damn good with the Green Mountain 1:28 barrel and those nifty 460gr Hornady Great Plains with the factory wax coating
.... If you go over the comments, you'll notice that there's no particular protocol here. One guy spoke of spraying already lubed bullets in the tumbler, another mentioned using it on moulds and reloading press parts, yet another was One-Shotting the bullets and then using standard bullet lube.Reader sends Michael Totten's report from Iraq. I can see the peaceniks sticking their fingers in their ears and going "LaLaLa" from here.
Oh this is just un-be-effing-lievable. Little Old Lady Roughed Up by Cops for Not Watering Lawn. Into the Chipper!
From the lists, article on the gunsmithing trade.
Quote o' the Day: "Every day you meet a delegation going to some convention to try and change the way of somebody else's life." - Will Rogers
Via WoG, Bob Barr Goes Republitarian all over a whole spectrum of JBTs.
Re: a speedloader for single-action revolvers, reader sends the Blakeslee cartridge box for the Spencer. Certainly a possible solution, especially considering the smaller scale and shorter length required for a six-shot handgun - reader says to just place the mouth of the tube in the loading port and rotate the empty cylinder under it. And, it's period design so SASS has less reason to kick.
1607 - Thursday, 20 September 2007: Both sisters sending birthday money, shucks. At least my pride doesn't choke on that. As much.
From the lists, TSA = Thought Police. Hssss.
Yuri 'blogs, Seattle PD a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Anti-Freedom Tyrants. And if you go through to the original Seattle P-I article and read the comments, brace yourselves for some revolting sheeplism.
On Miniés, reader sends:
Anyway, you really need a "soft" lube (I like bore butter) to deal with the fouling when you ram the next one down and that stuff is just a mess if you try to store it on the Minnie balls.
The harder stuff doesn't provide the right lube for either loading or firing and causes hard loading AND leading.
1608 - Friday, 21 September 2007: Bleh.
Second of three weeks of training is done, a full paycheck in the pipeline for the 1st. Quite tired. Call simulations next week.
Today I received a Lee lube-and-sizing kit for .358" projectiles, including a bottle of Lee liquid alox. I've selected one of the test batches from my first bullet mold (supposedly-plain lead in fact) and have followed the instructions for applying lubricant, using an empty margarine tub. The lube coats the bullets easily and apparently fully, and this first batch is now set out on wax paper to dry as instructed; the stuff smells, but not awful. (As long as I'm at it I've also lubed five .54 Miniés, though I don't know when I'll have gumption to test them. Letting them sit for an undetermined time will also be part of the experiment I guess; after all I am looking for a long-shelf-life lube solution for the Minié. More data!) The die and ram are very simple to set up in a single-stage press; the ram fits in place of a standard shellholder and exact positioning of the sizer die is not required, so long as the tip of the ram goes past the top of the sizing constriction, which is easily visible inside. The standard cylindrical Lee die box comes with a different bottom, to mount on the die and capture the sized bullets as they emerge. Midway sells these sets for about $15 (plus shipping of course), and Lee offers 25 sizes from .224 to .510. Alas they don't have .535 or the like; other companies do, but way spendier.
Great Googly! Generous sisters. I'm in fine $hape now.
Impatient, after a couple hours I sized the first batch of bullets and results from the .358" die measure .359", hm. Close enough, though I'll need more mouth expansion. And someday I'll load them and shoot them.
Reader sends horribly mutilated Garand. And I sent back this one.
Reader also sends yet another Democrat presidential candidate. As Cruffler would say, Holy Crapping Crap.
And that same reader sends interesting article on the risk of civil war in the United States.
1609 - Saturday, 22 September 2007: Et toujour l'hoo-aah! And a WOO-HOO too! VICTORY!
First place overall in a field of 18! Ain't managed that in thirteen months. And top qualifier (total of 13.61 seconds on three runs of five targets each; the second run was 3.77 and the other two were under 5.0), and 2nd place in the inaugural intramural between Wolverton pins and Clark Rifles plates (combined time of 67.19) in a field of six! The way the tournament trees shook out I had to defeat five opponents: two in the regular bracket of the chronically-underpopulated Revolver division, then re-defeat the winner of the loser's bracket (Chris Hall, to my left, who I put there in the first round despite his Mateba's self-cocking action), then I didn't get the Bye in the final between the division winners and had to defeat both past match winners, Jim Breen (directly behind me - four overall wins so far this year) with a .38 Super 1911 and John Goss with a red-dot 22/45 (white Nike shirt, two overall wins this year). When I do the writeup for the club newsletter I've been begging for more revolver shooters to flesh out that division. (Yuri! Dust off that slicked-up GP100!) We had a smaller turnout anyway this month, with hunting season or work or whatnot - normally there are over two dozen total entries, counting multiples.
Using up the 5.6gr load, still 107 left, probably enough for another plate match; and 141 of the 7.3gr pin load, but no pins in October, so I won't need to make another batch of .357 racing loads until at least mid-November, and the dies are already set and the load is already developed. -The lighter load still gives ignition problems. It always goes "bang", but the first round is often weak, having a different POI from the subsequent five as the powder slops around in the Magnum case. The 7.3gr load doesn't have that problem, but it's harsher on the hand; but the Ruger's beef and grip design counters that.
From the lists, International Police Chiefs Advocate More Gun Control. "No conspiracy" the blueshirt told me. Liar, or moron.
Also from lists, Teacher, Denied Self-Defense, Speaks Out; chip in.
Reader sends a bit of perspective on slavery.
Finished Lucifer's Hammer, haven't read it for years. Really Good, Man-Conquering-the-Universe, "...we control the lightning." -Visual adaptation? It would need something similar to the Babylon V treatment, and Larry & Jerry sitting there on the set every day with shotguns in their laps. Whedon maybe?
About 1/3 through Chafe's Genesis and it's... not as good. I don't want to be mean, but I can think of a better path for space exploration than the all-or-nothing generation ship the author proposes - and I remember Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky, which I categorize as a horror story. -And there's some politics that are not my flavor.
1610 - Sunday, Autumn Equinox, 23 September 2007: Z (relatively).
OAC show, theme "Military Arms & Accessories" - splendid displays of course; a fine Red 9 C96 still calls to me, and I saw a shockingly-nice Savage .32 pistol: I've rarely seen one intact and never seen one that looked like it just came out of the box. Probably restored. And finally I acquired a spare Garand firing pin, evidently unused, which will live in the Queen's butt trap. Then some groceries, including, finally, one shrimp ring which is thawing as I type. (Second sis' generous birthday gift specified it, heh.)
Gun Talk and unofficial chat every Sunday at 11am Pacific, where is everybody? Host Tom Gresham talks of this incident in which a blueshirt jackbooted fascist thug was officially reprimanded for hassling assaulting a citizen who was open-carrying in a Wal-Mart in TN. Bad Cop! No Donut! HAH! Of course the thug-with-a-badge belongs in jail, or perhaps on a gallows, but us peasants have to take what we can get. (Until we take the rest of it back.) Yuri also 'blogs and so does WoG. Later the show plays a 911 recording of a dispatcher telling a little old lady "Do not go get a gun" with a thug inside her house coming to get her. That murderous, callous, subhuman dispatcher should be hung in low gravity!
All of which reminds me of this Clayton Cramer article which concludes, "There are things worse than violent revolution - much worse."
Ron Paul.... There are people who just do not grasp that this war started a long time ago. Even libertarian icon Thomas Jefferson knew when to send in the Marines.
Reader sends article on a lying, abusive blueshirt actually getting fired. Wow. But you watch, he'll cross a state line, lie on his resumé, and get a shiny new pair of jackboots.
-Observation: in the Islamic world, a thief gets his hand cut off. Over here, he gets a badge and a patrol car and a *&^% paycheck. >:-[
Reader sends M1A bullpup conversion. I dunno... every bullpup I've ever handled (AUG, Bushmaster M17, Mossberg M500) has been tail-heavy and unergonomic. No backup sights? And a stubby sight radius if there were? And how exactly do you do bayonet drill with one of these?
1611 - Monday, 24 September 2007: More training. I feel like I'm starting to reclaim some of my long-lost techno-geek credentials.
Outrage o' the Day. I am Really Very Agnostic but even I am thoroughly ticked at this.
Speaking of badges, Tiny Bit o' Justice o' the Day. (No gallows involved. Tiny.) Dig the comments!
Reader sends video of Dillon Aero's idea of an SUV. I read about this recently, in Shotgun News I think. The blue lights, and the implications thereof, offend me, but I wouldn't mind having one, as a link in the aforementioned "chains of the Constitution."
Which segues into the Quote o' the Day: "The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise." - Mark Twain
Hm, I remember Ken Burns' really fine documentary on the War Between the States; I'll probably buy a copy someday. Now I learn he's done one on the Second World War, and it starts tonight at 8pm Eastern/Pacific. ...Except it's on PBS, hm. Well, it won't cost me anything but electricity, assuming I can get a good signal in the hovel and the ancient TV doesn't burst into flames after months of disuse.
Reader sends this Volokh commentary on Orson Scott Card's commentary on the parallels between Herbert's Dune (which, yes, I have read; first film was okay, only seen bits of the remake, pointedly ignored the sequel with moonbat Sarandon) and the rise of radical Islam. Interesting. Also sends this bit of (naturally under-reported) interesting data from Syria, re: WMD.
Lemme see here, I think I only had to reach for a speedloader two or three times in the last match; I made a total of 16 runs, counting qualifying and head-to-head, in which I engaged five targets each, for 80 total targets (though when I lost a H2H run, as I did three times during the match, I stopped shooting when I saw the opponent's stop plate go down, so I actually hit fewer than 80 targets); I recovered all my brass, which counts 97. One of my qualifying runs was perfect, no misses; at least a couple of the head-to-head runs were too. And that was, as a reader comments on Yuri's 'blog, with a load known to give inconsistent performance. So! Heh!
Remember to subscribe to the Virginia Citizens Defense League's email alerts for a neverending procession of jackbooted thuggery from the badgeboys. VCDL rocks. They're fighting back! Send them money!
So I tune in for the Burns documentary a few minutes early and there's Lehrer interviewing Richardson, a huge-government Democrat calling for "an Apollo program" to end the use of fossil fuels, "universal" health care, and the usual totalitarian claptrap. Then I learn I've missed the first episode of the documentary; and the blurb for the upcoming episode naturally focuses on poor little Japanese children in the eee-vill American internment camps. Then the show starts and there's the expected weighted whining about women's "liberation", race relations, The Great and Beneficent FDR, and the general vibe is that the American war effort was a Dehumanizing Experience that turned our guys into Soulless Killing Machines, it was All Just Awful, we Made a Horrible Mess of Things, we Slaughtered Thousands of Innocent Civilian Children, the entire war was All Our Fault, and we weren't very good at fighting anyway and would have lost if not for the Terribly Unfair advantage of our enormous industrial wealth, which of course was created by Corporations Which Are Inherently Eee-Vill (except the ones who fund PBS, and sometimes them too). About the only thing missing is something about how the Germans and Japanese were Poor Underprivileged Misunderstood Agrarian Reformers. After the lead-in, and the context of being broadcast on PBS, I was somewhat surprised to see actual coverage of Japanese brutality against POWs. Perhaps I'm hypersensitive, but with the moonbats actually physically attacking us, with lethal intent, I'm not about to cut the left, or anything that smells like them, any slack. I'm going to have to watch Back to Bataan or Uncommon Valor again as an antidote.
1612 - Tuesday, 25 September 2007: Even More Training.
Uh huh, I'm not the only one with misgivings about Ken Burns' objectivity. In fairness one might ask how much of the PC slant is Burns' own opinion and how much is a PBS mandate; but in counterfairness one can point out that after The Civil War, Burns can film nearly anything he damn well pleases. Not watching subsequent episodes. Maybe I'll get it on library DVD sometime next year.
Speaking of library DVDs, I now have the first four episodes of 24, Season 6. I'd rather have waited for the whole series but this is all that turned up in the search.
And I filled the empty slot in my 15-place hold queue with Flint's 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, which isn't even out yet but I lurk on the library's site waiting to pounce on new Baen releases as soon as the system orders them.
As for reading, I'm still working through Genesis when I'm at the hovel (grave warnings and dire consequences for taking a USB drive or laptop to work). About 2/3 now and... the generation ship project was initiated as the personal crusade of a UN secretary-general who is evidently answerable to no one (got that much right at least), the UN is multiply and variously arrogant and condescending, and not once in the entire book is the United States even acknowledged to have ever existed despite UN headquarters still being in New York City (they spend Euros there (and everywhere else)). This work is slipping into the Socialist Utopia category. Now it's 177 years after the ship was launched, on a voyage expected to take millenia, and it looks like they're heading toward a caste system. -On a less political note I'm disappointed that a society that would, even through coersion, devote such enormous resources to such a project, would seem to completely ignore colonizing Luna, Mars, the Belt, the gas-giant moons, and artificial habitats wherever they found a LaGrange point, and would almost completely ignore the scarcely-imaginable potential of spaceborne industry (a single asteroid can contain more nickel-iron than the entire human race has used since maybe ever), agriculture (they'll build a 30km sublight starship based on one man's traumatic childhood but won't slap together a few 1km hydroponic stations in that same synchronous orbit, where they'd have only a few minutes of not-daylight every 24 hours, if that? And they build a 40,000km orbital elevator for the ship but don't think of hanging some farms and apartments off it?), and power generation (there are a few solar power satellites - but c'mon, this book has fusion power (to drive the ship and provide an artificial sun inside) and a beanstalk and only incidentally has a small amount of surplus solar power coming down the wire for dirtside use, when the first half of the book bawls about people not being able to afford to turn on electric lights in their own apartments in NYC?).
As for hardcopy I'm on McGivern's Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting again. A new coworker (about half my age ("Damn kids!")) asked who McGivern was and I responded, "The Yoda of handguns."
Mmm, shrimp ring. And as for one reader who criticizes my diet: "Product of Thailand", not China; and I'll have you know I actually do eat an apple every day or three. :)
Yuri sends bumper stickers.
Crapping Crappity Crap. "I know I’m a Jewish lesbian and he'd probably have me killed. But still, the guy speaks some blunt truths about the Bush Administration that make me swoon..." This is half-past insane.
OH! YEAH! 24, Season 6, Episode 1, about 40:30 along! FANGS OUT! That is the way a war should be fought BY GOD! -And look at the "making of" featurette on the Conan: the Barbarian DVD for another example. HOO-AAH!
1613 - Wednesday, 26 September 2007: Chafe's Genesis now begins to devolve into church-bashing, stereotyping clergy and religious parents as narrow-minded power-hungry child-abusers. I'm agnostic, but Christians - the obvious target here - are generally on my side in the Culture Wars and seeing my allies thus attacked offends me. -As for S.M. Stirling's lame excuse that one shouldn't assume that the fascistic horror stories he writes have anything to do with his personal views, authors have been putting their own messages into their work since Homer. That's what writing, especially fiction and not least science fiction, is for.
Whoa. Marry me.
Still thinking about Burns' The War. I happen to have a copy of Band of Brothers and the ancient survivors of Easy Company, interviewed throughout the series, are still MEN who could still kick my ass and yours too. It strikes me, in comparison, that Burns sought out the whiniest veterans and widows and descendants he could find, or at least edited out anything that displayed intact vertebrae or significant testosterone content. -Considering all that generation accomplished, and the manner in which they did, he must have looked long and hard for "suitable" material.
Tucson Tom sends Ted Nugent Video Rant.
From the lists, a topical Farnam Quip.
Reader sends video of Women of the Israeli Defense Force.
Reader sends, "...a huge amount of pissing and moaning by cops over having been ticketed and otherwise being treated like one of those, whaddayacallem, oh yeah, Citizens. Have your antacids close by." Disgusting arrogance.
Hah! Saudi Cops Roughed Up by Girls!
Government Space Program Finally Getting Around to Returning to Luna. See also a better way. Enlightened Self-Interest makes the universe go 'round. If I ever own a sea- or spacegoing vessel, that's what I'll name it. Speaking of which. See also.
Cruffler sends (this is one of many websearch results for the story), Israel Whacks Syria and Syria Says Nothing. Hmmm.
From the lists, this rant on Islam. ...We may be forced to Final Solution them before they Final Solution us.
1614 - Thursday, 27 September 2007: Phone evil government (redundant, yes) instutition for my stolen-and-recovered property - left message.
Training nearly over. The assorted software tools we're to use variously suck. Also I got conscripted into Heaving Stuff (dead monitors) after completing the latest knowledge-and-processes test. I am not in this job to Heave Stuff. It seems nearly every job I've had involved Heaving Stuff. Or Boxes.
Gods, I hate boxes.
Setting McGivern aside yet again to start Ringo & Travis Taylor's Vorpal Blade, sequel to Into the Looking Glass, interdimensional warfare. Not to be confused with Weber & Evans' Hell's Gate series, which I also eagerly await, though some of the premises are similar.
Finally starting to take photos of my revolver speedloading technique, the page should be up in a day or three. ...Ooorrrr now.
Reader sends follow up on the fired fascist. Apparently his weren't the only pair of jackboots in the precinct locker room.
1615 - Friday, 28 September 2007: Training done, to be followed by two weeks OJT. Sharing a cubicle with three others from the same class; have my own terminal, running XP, and a "crash box" right behind me with Vista, to duplicate walkthroughs for customers.
Why did I take this job? I'm allergic to stupid people. How often will I have to tell customers to remove the protective shipping tab from the connector area of a product, as is clearly illustrated in the pictorial setup poster? [face in hands]
*&^%$# Friday traffic. More than twice as long to get back as it took to get over. The Corolla could probably use some clutch work but it likely would be cheaper to buy another car.
At least I have some Ringo to read - Vorpal Blade sets off briskly, as expected, and carries one smoothly along.
Email backed up.
New 'toon:
Oh yeah, I finished Chafe's Genesis, which, while not the full Orphans of the Sky creep-me-out, was a downer with the passengers losing nearly all their history, most of their understanding of who they were and where they were going, and degenerating to a medieval level while the ship plunges on for potentially ever until something breaks and they all die, making the whole thing - the resources, the expense, the brilliance, the sacrifices, the Vision - meaningless. Now if, if there's a sequel where Daring Adventurers and Free Thinkers Courageously Rediscover the True Nature of the generation ship - which, if memory serves, was kinda what happened with OotS, at least a little - then I'll dish out some redemption, but after a quite good showing in the Man-Kzin Wars franchise this was not what I was expecting from this author.
Sometimes you just want good guys whupping bad guys. Ringo ain't missing any meals, I reckon. And Thomas Wagner can go grapp himself.
D'oh! All this time I've been hoping the library would get the first two volumes of Drake's RCN series (they have the next three), which seems interesting (and I ain't read any bad Drake), and all this time they've been on my HD, and now on my CD/W, in .RTF. I can email the things to myself at work and read them there on break and lunch, when I don't have any hardcopy in hand.
1616 - Saturday, 29 September 2007: Washougal show, made a few bucks, shrug. Nothing amazing and shocking there (aside from the doofus who wanted $100 for a Lee Pro 1000 with one turret, one shellplate, an incomplete set of dies that did not match the shellplate, no powder measure, and no casefeeder - Natchez' regular price is about $150 delivered, complete for one cartridge), but the show is still growing. After, gave one-on-one training to Yuri for revolver handling. His GP100 has had a lot of work done: smooth action job, stop screw behind the trigger to prevent overtravel, jeweling on the trigger & hammer flats, Millet sights front & rear. He has a camcorder; we plan to make a video tutorial of the process. The page may be adjusted.
I took the NEC laptop to the show and, it being trendy hippie Washougal, as Cruffler predicted, I got a WiFi signal, albeit a weak one. After the Sharpshooter precision rifle match at the club, Yuri joined Cruffler and I and pointed me to this new photoblog, to which I will presently send this photo.
Bloodsucking thieves-with-badges crawling all over the I-205 bridge on the way back, scrambling to meet their revenue quotas as the end of the month approaches. Not the first time I've seen it either. How can those people live with themselves? Or are the stereotypes true, that they derive perverse satisfaction from stealing the peasants' stuff and making them grovel and beg? And the fines, good gods! A week's pay gone because some two-bit thug claims you were going too fast when a hundred other cars all around you were going at least the same speed! (In Wyoming the extortion levied from my sister was about a third of what they have here.) (And if you question the thug's thuggery, he goes all thuggy on you.) Lemme tell ya, badgeboys, us peasants kicked Almighty Authority's ass before, and we can damn well do it again. Do Not Tick Us Off. We have you outnumbered, and we're way better shots. You will get some of us, yes. But if you make us start, we will, eventually, get all of you.
Re: Burns, Tucson Tom sends: "Ever since watching his liberal abortion on baseball I have not watched anything else he has done. When jesse jackson gets more time than any other person, what does that tell you? What has jj got to do with baseball you may ask? Well, nothing. He did give a eulogy at Jackie Robinson's funeral however."
During a discussion of revolver design (specifically my idea for a modern top-break, which could be fully ambidextrous; and reviving (and doubtless improving, perhaps a'la ParaOrd's Power Extractor) the S&W M547's retractable fingers for rimless cartridges without moon clips (I actually have an HKS speedloader for that and someday I'm going to hunt down the revolver just so I can watch the little slidey thingies go in and out)), reader quips, "...stupid *&^%ing gun grabbers! Leave us alone so we can deal with important stuff like the difference between revolver designs!"
Reader sends 1, 2 follow-ups on Israel bombing Syria. Hmmm.
Also sends yet another firearm-related 'blog. We Are Everywhere. Featuring what I try to emulate with a revolver.
Also sends Trekker-style moonbat-bashing.
Also sends indications that we're winning (at least this round of) the war.
Another reader sends me a link to a not-quite-private transcription, at Baen's Bar, of the afterword to Tom Kratman's Caliphate, which is in my library queue but still only on order. I won't provide the link or a transcription here, except for this spooky-foresightful bit at the end: "The Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries." - Napoleon
Comparing Lucifer's Hammer to Genesis, one sees a triumphant tale of disaster, adventure, perseverance and brilliance, vs. one of closed-mindedness, bureaucratic scheming, cultural stereotyping, and dissipation. Kinda like comparing WWII's generation to this one. Okay, I'll stop bashing it now. Vorpal Blade is a fine antidote with Competent People doing Competent Things to Evil Creatures who Really Deserve It. And you don't have to be a physicist (coauthor Travis Taylor is an Actual Rocket Scientist among several other things) but it wouldn't hurt.
A couple readers have pointed out recent activities (1, 2) with significant Constitutional implications. I am... ambivalent. Also some sources are questionable, though one reader astutely points out, "Does it really matter who carries the water, so long as these [BofR-trampling] *&^%$#@ are put back in their place?" On the one hand, we are at war with an external enemy with our very cultural survival at stake and certain tools are needed to fight that war effectively. On the other, what price that survival? Who wields those tools? I dunno. And though I have touched on these issues, these are not the topics I usually tackle in this journal. If that's the sort of thing you're looking for, it's a great big 'blogosphere.
1617 - Sunday, 30 September 2007: Z.
Already making adjustments to the speedloading page, particularly Step 8, after discovering a new wrinkle yesterday while training with Yuri. Also added a link to the abovementioned Miculek video, and to McGivern's book. Step 4 may be pared down too, as turning the revolver so the cylinder is down is not entirely necessary if you get your thumb out of the way and hit the ejector rod hard enough. Heck, as Yuri and I work on the video we may rewrite the whole thing.
Kevin Starrett on Gun Talk about the Medford teacher being denied her human right to self defense, and in the course of the interview arises the fact that NRA is completely opposed to teachers being able to defend themselves or their students. With much snarling in the chat room.
Doing a bit of holster drill with the Witness. The long slide and extended barrel do slow the draw and the return. If the job (or car) doesn't blow up and I'm not robbed at badgepoint, I hope to order some handier replacement parts. I may even make it "Commander" length like my P35. Yup, I'll have to do that before I start racing with it, especially for pins or IPSC where I draw from a holster. There are those open-faced racing holsters, for the gamesters with five-pound optics and foot-long compensators, but again I say, I use competition as a training tool for potential combat, not as a game for its own sake; and I choose my equipment accordingly. -EAA's site shows the complete kit for $229 with fixed sights, either standard or compact in blue or Wonder finish.
Radio news, a noose is found by a janitor in a police precinct with a high percentage of minority cops. MSM's natural reaction is that it must be eee-vill racist whites. I offer two alternative hypotheses: it's one of us peasants sick and tired of being robbed at badgepoint and race has nothing to do with it; or it's a Jackson/Sharpton type faking it to generate victim status as an excuse to stick it to Whitey.
Speaking of the great big 'blogosphere, reader sends this offering focusing on GWoT.
Some readers are sending me videos, or URLs to them - and I just don't have the bandwidth to view every one. However Tucson Tom sent a juicy one which I have since tracked down here.
Speaking of videos, do a websearch for "youtube download save" and you'll find several options for saving them on your machine, and even converting them to different formats. I'm still looking through the results myself.
Tucson Tom sends word that Oklahoma is actually doing something about illegals. Watch ACLU and assorted packs of brown supremacists call in the equivalent of carpet bombing.
All over the lists, cop negligently kills cop. See Rule #3. But nnnooooo, only the Magic Badge qualifies one to handle firearms.
From the lists, Tiny Bit o' Justice o' the Day. But I'm still boycotting Pizza Hut.
Inspired by a chat room Elf, new bumper sticker:
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