RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - JULY 2009

Your charitable donations are deeply appreciated!

Are you getting it? They don’t view us as human. They don’t view you, personally as human. They have no regard whatever for your life or those of your entire family. All we want is to be left alone. But the other side has made it clear, in the strongest possible terms through their words and actions, that they will not leave us alone, that they want to control and dictate every facet of our lives, that in their eyes we have no rights whatsoever. If you’re not preparing to defend yourselves, you’re ”lining up to be a hot lunch.”

And. You. Cops. You’re the ones they’ll call, the ones they’ll send, when the knives come out. What order would you not obey? What law would you not enforce? What wouldn’t you do to keep your pension? Or don’t you view us as human either? How many of you are taking notes while watching Iran murder its own people?

2242 - Friday, 3 July 2009: Zzzz.

One report of bleeding eyes, shrug, back to the old style.

Global Warming My Ass.

Another data point for Wednesday's pogrom warning here (Vanderboegh's last few paragraphs specifically). (And another here.) Related, via WoG, here seem to be some answers (mostly in comments) to the questions I asked.

NOLA still at it.

TSA are still thugs.

Worth a thousand words.

Mm-hm.

So... they're going to fine people $1,000 for not having government health care? They're going to steal money I don't even have because I don't have enough money? These people are clinically psychotic!

Hitting! The backed up! Email! (Though some I am ruthlessly deleting.) Reader sends a couple articles on private-vs.-government space exploration.

Tucson Tom sends an Economic Indicator:

Reader sends free reloading ebook.

Yuri sends:

The United States of America has, even before Trinity, always wielded the biggest axe. Militarily, we have always kicked any ass which required kicking, all the way back to Tripoli. It's the cotton-ball-wielding bureaucrats (and Usurpers) who are responsible for any and every defeat we suffer either on the fields of battle or in the halls of diplomacy. Related, from the lists: "It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand." - old Apache proverb

(I wonder if that's where TR got his sigline?)

Tucson Tom sends more awsumm space pics. (Note comments - GWMA, mommy Gaia hardly knows we're here and cares less.)

From Guns & Ammo online, articles on jihadi snipers (from March 2007 actually, which I commented on at the time) and what I think might be a puff-piece on the L85A2 - I never have liked bullpups and this one particularly has a big reputation hump to surmount, on which I've also commented.

Faithful readers will have seen my frequent criticism of, and inferred my escape from, the government-run public school system. On that topic, Cruffler sends:

White dude who sit nex to me is McGee from Ocala . He got a 94% on the test but no extra points on acount of he have the same skin color as the opressirs of 150 years ago. Granny ax me to thank all Dimocrafts and Liberuls for suportin Afermativeaction. You be showin da way to true eqwallity. I be gittin in medical skool nex an mabe I be yo doctor when Barrac take over da healtcare in dis cuntry.

Finished In the Stormy Red Sky last night this morning, very tasty as usual. Resuming Johnstone's Vengeance is Mine.

2243 - Saturday, Independence Day, 4 July 2009:

Read the Declaration of Independence.
Consider how many of our Founders' greivances apply today.
And prepare.

2244 - Sunday, 5 July 2009: Zzz.

Pyro with Yuri last night.

Chat & show every Sunday 1100PT. (Alternate chat room.)

Nearing the end of Vengeance is Mine by William W. Johnstone. It bears several ideological similarities to Unintended Consequences and The Black Arrow.

2245 - Monday, 6 July 2009: Oh look, more rioting Muslims (though Wiki appears to qualify as MSM now, based on their obfuscation). Who’d’a thunk it.

Quote o’ the Day: "The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. ... We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end." - George Orwell

Which is why George Washington freaked out the whole world when he stepped down after his second term. Compared to America, everywhere is a tinpot dictatorship. Though some are working very hard to Change that.

Gura interview.

Via WoG, more BATFU antics. Like we expect different from the authority-fetishists.

Effing DMV took my entire lunch hour. And most of what I had left in checking. At least, when I finally reached the counter, I had all my Stuff together and dealt with a pleasant little old lady who spoke American as a first language, and things proceeded smoothly from there. But still yech, I get the icky every time I have to interact with any branch or level of government.

Heh. LOLcat w/RAH ref.

Why we are armed.

2246 - Tuesday, 7 July 2009: So much for the 4th Amendment. -Yes, I link my transcription of the Bill of Rights nearly every time such issues arise. 'Cause it seems a lot of people have never read the thing!

For those of you with a Kalashnikov in 5.56x45mm, here is an AR magazine adapter (some receiver milling required but methinks the logistics far outweigh the effort).

For years, some in the supposed RKBA camp were resisting a SCOTUS hearing - note that Gura won Heller despite NRA. Now me, I've said let’s get a decision, then either start repealing infringements or push the reset button (again). But in fairness, the resisters do have a point.

Vengeance is Mine would make the kind of movie I would pay to see in the theater. Which ain’t bloody likely to happen. Next is Pournelle's Fires of Freedom, an omnibus of two novels, one I think I've never read and the other, King David's Spaceship, I haven't read for years.

Coincidentally, while at Oleg's 'blog I clicked on the link for Leslie Fish's Lock & Load and saw in the playlist what appeared to be a Kipling adaptation so I looked that up and it was on Pournelle's site.

-And Kipling is still spooky. You thought Dubya was bad for creating HomeSec? Well yeah, so did I. But I warned you it could be even worse.

Some very slim evidence the munitions drought is lessening - still about 30 boxes of UMC M193-equivalent on the shelf at Bi-Mart, $9/20 (though no handgun rounds to speak of except .41 Magnum, .45 Colt, .25ACP, etc.), and a very few trays of CCI #550 and 450 primers, $3 IIRC. I'd'a cleaned out the 550s for my GP100 if I hadn't blown so much at DMV. Oh, and a little powder too, mostly the numbered Reloaders.

2247 - Wednesday, 8 July 2009: Last night on library disc I watched Thin Ice, fifth in the Jesse Stone series of cop films starring Tom Selleck. Now even the most casual reader of this journal will know I really don't like cops, and certainly don't trust them - nor do I enjoy cop shows. But in this series generally and in this film particularly, Selleck played a mostly-honest, mostly-trustworthy cop. And, in the subplot, the revenue-greedy town council canned him for not writing enough tickets, which he viewed as unethical. Recommended viewing for that bit alone.

Quote o’ the Day: ”...it may take a small miracle to prevent Judge Sotomayor's appointment - or the sudden development of a backbone by supposedly conservative Senators.”

Yuri sends another report on the degeneration of the public school system. Your tax dollars at work.

Massachusetts still sucks.

If you look at it from a certain angle, and squint a bit, this is actually kinda encouraging....

It appears S&W have crammed a six-shot .40 into an L-frame. (IIRC the M610, 10x25mm, is an N-frame.)

Things of this sort no longer interest me. If you’re gonna have a chopper, it should chop, and if you’re gonna have a rifle, it should reach. These (to include the Uzi carbine, HK94, M1927 Thompson, etc.) do neither, and are half-a-foot too long while not doing it, with (the Thompson excepted) ridiculously short sight radii besides.

2248 - Thursday, 9 July 2009: Huh, no Zit on that .40 L-frame. The Zit, we hates it. It’s ugly of course, but it’s also an insult, and it might get you killed.

A little glimpse of what lies beneath the statist agenda.

Image o’ the day.

Codrea keeps up with state AGs’ positions on 2A. He’d already done a whole column on it before I happened across the article by Michigan’s AG. (I see both Montana’s and Wyoming’s AGs are on the side of liberty. Naturally Oregon’s isn’t....) And do read the brief - right up front, in plain language, they confirm the Founders’ intent that private citizens be armed to deter, and in the last resort combat, government tyranny: ”The Founders well understood that, without the protections afforded by the Second Amendment, all of the other rights and privileges ordinarily enjoyed by Americans would be vulnerable to governmental acts of oppression.” And similar content, with historical examples, throughout the document. Holy smoking smoke, it don’t get no clearer.

Heh, Barsoom 3, Warlord of Mars: With a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword, but whether Salensus Oll was a good swordsman or a poor I never learned; for with Dejah Thoris at my back I was no longer human--I was a superman, and no man could have withstood me then. MANLY!

The first part of Pournelle’s Fires of Freedom is Birth of Fire, apparently a standalone but similar in many respects to the beginning of his CoDominium timeline. Mars is the frontier and Terra is the British Empire, speaking in grossest terms. (Perhaps not coincidentally the publication date is listed as 1976.) And it’s Pournelle anyway, so already doubly recommended. The second part of the book is King David’s Spaceship, which is part of the CoDominium saga.

The .44 Magnum SAA clone I was fiddling with some months ago was a Great Western, made in West Germany; one of the back-burner projects is to develop a mild load for the owner (and for Science), as I’ve been doing in .357 for my own purposes. Idly browsing GunBroker for comparable pieces, it looks like the name is coming back, though I would guess these are made in Italy.

Walter Williams rants on reparations.

The last thing I did at work today was assemble a pair of big racks for rack-mount servers. These racks have sliding rails, which mate to each server's chassis with studs on the chassis' sides, so each server (twenty per rack) can be slid out of the rack individually if desired. I was at it about two hours, unboxing the rails, removing the shipping tape, knocking out 240 small adapters from each of the racks, and mating each rail with the resulting holes.

And guess.

That's right folks, the slots in the rails don't match the studs on the chassis. And that's how we do it at the Big Electronics Company!

Then there was a 90-minute return commute and I damn well stopped for ice cream and root beer when I finally got back to my side of town.

2249 - Friday, 10 July 2009: Every morning, local radio news has talker Lars Larson with a short preview of what he’ll be ranting about in his regular program later in the day. (-Larson is okay on the national security angles (to include combating immivasion), and not bad on economic freedoms, opposing taxes and skewering government waste, but like many such talkers he thinks Laws Must Be Passed to Prohibit Such-and-Such, and he blindly deifies anything with a badge. Sigh.) This morning his pre-rant was about the US Naval Academy dumbing down for racial quotas.

The undermining continues. The least-malicious explanation is still racist, but there may be a more sinister motive: How can there be Oath Keepers if they don’t have the education to comprehend the Oath? But that’s the point - the powers-that-currently-be don’t want men of honor, integrity and intelligence, they want unquestioning thugs, personally loyal to the Leader and the Party who changed the rules in their favor. Clinton tried this too, less blatantly and less racially. Fortunately our military has always had a surplus of honorable men but changing that is what this latest round of demographic warfare is about.

Speaking of demographic warfare.... (For the record, original MSM article here.)

Hussein continues to dismantle the American economy.

California still sucks. Boy am I glad I’m set up to reload and cast.

Authorized Journalists.

...Combined with Only Ones. Moron-Twin Powers, Activate!

Dah-dum-kish.

Slowdown at work the next two weeks, voluntary time off - dibs on Fridays, regular traffic is bad enough. And off early today too:

2250 - Saturday, 11 July 2009: Zz.

Show - price gouging on old primers & powder & .22LR, phooey. Lowest price I saw on a tray of primers was $5, some were marked $12. Did see a couple reasonable prices - two-screw Single Six, 6.5" I think, both cylinders, adjustable sights, $350 in box, wanted rather badly for subversion and my own entertainment; Winchester '94 Trapper carbine, .30-30 of course, $300, decent shape; Marlin M1895 (modern production), standard model, $475 - I think that sold; Winchester M70, blue/synthetic, factory sights & Weaver bases, dunno if it was push- or controlled-feed, .30-06, $275. Only saw one 10/22, base blue/wood model with ¾" scope mounted, $225. Rock Island M1911A1 in box, $485; Yugo Simonov, Good, $250, and IIRC it had the launcher instead of the Kali/Big 5 brake. One table had a stack of in-the-bag 30-round AR magazines for $9, with Magpul followers - that table also had Magtech #7½ Small Rifle primers, $35/1000, or @$32 for a case. Same table again, some ammunition not unreasonably priced, M193-equivalent $9/20, M1943 a little less.

The usual burgers with Yuri after, then Sportsman's Warehouse, which has changed to Wholesale Sports Outdoor Outfitters. Counter-guy rumors of shipments coming in, but still no primers at all on the shelf and a brick & a half of CCI #350, under glass next to the $279.99 combo laser/light for pistol rails but marked $2.99/tray. -I didn't buy because I really am trying to control spending, I do have some WLP on hand, and I'm not really feeling a need for Large Pistol Magnum - besides the WLP is supposed to work for Magnum loads as well, next time I take the .44 project off the back burner. (I've always had good results with Winchester primers.)

Prepare.

A real man has passed away. From the lists:

Rest in peace, Shifty.

The nation has not been so divided since it was divided. And the other side keeps pushing.

2251 - Sunday, 12 July 2009: Zzzz.

Chat & show every Sunday 1100PT. (Old chat room.) Various guests ranting on racist, anti-liberty Sotomayor.

I think what particularly appeals to me about the Barsoom series is the lack of nanny-state political correctness. Men can be men, and evil can be destroyed instead of coddled. -I train with firearms and I study, as well as I am able, the arts of combat. But I don't dare use what I have learned! I fear a corrupt government and a perverted system of deliberate injustice more than I do criminals! When my apartment was burglarized, I, the victim of the crime, was treated as a criminal. Some parts of what used to be America are getting as bad as hasn't-been-Great-for-a-long-time Britain.

The Garand match for the 25th has been cancelled! Dammit! I could rant on the club's board of directors but I'll restrain myself.

From the club CMP guy, who would be running the Garand match(es) if they weren't cancelled:

Do you wonder why that rifle
Is hanging in my den?
You know I rarely take it down
But I touch it now and then.
It's rather slow and heavy
By standards of today
But not too many years ago
It swept the rest away.
It's held its own in battles
Through snow, or rain, or sun
And I had one just like it,
This treasured old M-1.
It went ashore at Bougainville
In Nineteen Forty-Three.
It stormed the beach at Tarawa
Through a bullet-riddled sea.
Saipan knew its strident bark,
Kwajalein, its sting.
The rocky caves of Peleliu
Resounded with its ring.
It climbed the hill on Iwo
With men who wouldn't stop
And left our nation's banner
Flying on the top.
It poked its nose in Pusan,
Screamed an angry roar
And took the First Division
From Chosin Reservoir.
Well, time moves on
And things improve
With rifles and with men,
And that is why the two of us
Are sitting in my den.
But sometimes on a winter night,
While thinking of my Corps,
I know that if the bugle blew
We'd be a team once more.

I've said it before: Eco-freaks won't be happy until we're all living in caves, wearing grass skirts, and dying of the common cold at age 40. Except for themselves of course.

Treason is defined by the Constitution of the United States in Article III, Section 3:

Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort....

From a reader, I think this qualifies.

It's official: Britain is a police state. They're also the violent crime capitol of Europe. -There is a correlation, depending how far along one is on the downward spiral. Eventually, there was a lot less street crime in, say, Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany - but instead of home invasions, theft, rape and murder committed by random thugs, it was the government kicking down doors. And Mussolini made the trains run on time but would you want to ride one? What's the difference between thugs with badges and thugs without? Sheeple don't think these things through.

You'll recall there were allegations that red-state auto dealerships were targeted for closure while blue-state dealers weren't. Forbes looked and sez not so.

Reader sends Norwegian Forest Cat. A soft fluffy cuddly viking kitteh....

2252 - Monday, 13 July 2009: Almost got squished by a dramatically-swerving semi who suddenly discovered he wanted that exit. Perhaps I should rig a CommuteCam.

Prohibition Fail.

Remember the Tench Coxe quote about ”every other terrible implement of the soldier” and ”the unlimited power of the sword”? Via WoG, source.

King David’s Spaceship remains a very yummy read. And speaking of Pournelle, he has this to say re: Palin (scroll down below Honduras). He also rants on education.

Alas, UniverseOS’ Natural Selection subroutine has been disabled. -Where's the .INI file on this thing...? Or is it a BIOS setting?

And now the Tercel has electrical problems of the ever-entertaining intermittent kind. Whimper. Now watch, next my Cricket cellmodem will catch fire while I leave it doing a torrent while I'm at work, and the entire hovelplex will burn down. 'Cause that's how my world works.

Cussed thing won't start. Multimeter says battery has only 9V. Called the usual people, cleaned & reseated contacts (positive isn't as firm as I'd like), put a charger on. At least I'm prepared enough to have tools, but something caused a new electrical problem after two weeks of daily commuting.

Meanwhile, finally did the final tweaking on the 1911's thumb safety, much more positive now.

2253 - Tuesday, 14 July 2009: Got it started, drove to work, but electrical problems continue.

Dammit. A racist racing toward a Supreme Court seat (La Raza must be looking forward to having their very own SCOTUS judge), nuke-happy despots hating us on both sides of the planet, thieves-with-badges lurking on the highways, taxes going up, rent going up, literacy and competence going down, and now I can barely get to work, much less the shooting events which are the only reason I get out of bed most mornings. What the hell?

Why California Sucks.

Conservative celebrities? I dunno, seems to me like the more famous a person is the more IQ points they’re required to give up. And the descriptions of “conservative” leanings are thin at best - I don’t count endorsements of Giuliani or McCain. (Me, I voted for Sarah, and more to the point against Hussein.) I guess they counted anyone who ever, for a moment, by any stretch of innuendo, strayed from the Regierung über alles reservation.

Needed a jump start to get back. Off early, off tomorrow, help supposedly coming tomorrow. Could be the alternator, the battery itself, loose connections at a hundred points, I dunno.

Meanwhile, hiked to Bi-Mart - .223 MegaPacks, 200rnd, in stock (at least while I was there), $90, or UMC green-box $9/20; .40S&W MegaPack, 250rnd, $80, but only a couple and no other popular-size handgun rounds at all except premium stuff like Hornady and very little of that. Four boxes UMC .32ACP, $20/50, even .25ACP gone; two old boxes Remington green/yellow .41 Magnum, didn't bother checking price. No primers but #209 and few of those, and now even the BP substitute powders are gone - saw a couple pounds of Trail Boss and a few of Re25. No .22LR except much less than a brick's worth of Remington Subsonic, and birdshot.

Waaaant.

2254 - Wednesday, 15 July 2009: The universe is crapping on meee.... Email backing up yet again while I stress over my car.

While waiting for carhelp, hiked to laundromat. -When you go to Big 5 Sporting Goods for shoes on sale, don't get the $15, get the $30. I knew that.... Well, I've had blistered feet before. Good Training, yeah, that's it.

ACLU on Gun Talk. That should be... I don't even know what to call that. But be there Sunday 1100PT.

I don't wear neckties. But this is kinda cool.

Via Sipsey St., video & article on the Haganah's secret munitions factory in Ayalon. -Yes, Israel is a socialist nation and that sucks. I hope my version isn't and wouldn't.

Hypocrisy. And a troll in comments.

Sotomayor refuses to answer. See also.

Prepare. -What did you think would be required, "harsh language?"

Facepalm.

I'm on several Yahoo email lists, and also on e-alert lists from GOA, SAF, OFF, VCDL, etc. GOA particularly has a slick setup for automatically emailing pols. But, in my experience, most pols never respond at all, or if they do it's literally months later and you the voting taxpayer can't even remember, or figure out from the invariably weasel-worded response, which unConstitutional injustice you were ranting about back then. I did however receive this today:

I believe that thorough and careful evaluation of a Supreme Court Justice nominee is one of the most important responsibilities of a United States Senator. Unlike any other court, the Supreme Court is called upon to decide cases which weigh competing public priorities and resolve conflicting democratic values. To handle such cases properly, justices not only must be intelligent, learned, and experienced, but should also be sensitive to the practical effects that their rulings have on average people. I believe we must confirm a justice who understands these special obligations and who displays the necessary judicial character. [Is that "empathy"? How about a judge who adheres to the rule of law? For a change?]

As you may know, the Senate has begun its consideration of Judge Sotomayor. During and following the confirmation hearings, I will be working with my colleagues to ensure that we apply the high level of consideration due to this significant appointment. At the same time, I strongly believe the nomination must be considered in a speedy manner. I am also hopeful that this debate continues to take place without inappropriate partisan rancor. [The Democrat definition of "bipartisan": "Shut up and do what we say."]

Judge Sotomayor's distinguished track record of service and personal history are certainly impressive. Born into a Puerto Rican family [must rub the ethnic-identity card in the peasants' faces] in New York, Judge Sotomayor attended Princeton University and Yale Law School, following which she served as a prosecutor in New York City. President George H.W. Bush appointed her to the U.S. District Court in 1992, and President Bill Clinton appointed her to her present position in 1998. With nearly 17 years as a federal judge in two of our nation's busiest courts, she clearly is experienced in the challenging work of the modern American judiciary. As the confirmation process continues to unfold, I look forward to learning more about her record and views.

Please know that as I consider Judge Sotomayor's nomination, I will keep your concerns in mind. Thank you, again, for contacting me about the issues that matter to you.

All my best,
Jeff Merkley
United States Senate

Gaaaah. Carhelp came, prodded & poked - it's the alternator. Called around - $140 installed if I can get it there, which I did barely, and that's all the money I have 'til Friday. On the way to the shop, pavement work on a major street and a failed traffic signal at a major intersection and the perfect end to the story would have been for the Tercel to get squashed by the steamroller (I know, they don't run on steam anymore) but it didn't. Post-mortem suggests the oil leak killed the alternator, meaning it might eventually kill this one too, $igh.

I did have just enough cash left to stop for ice cream & root beer on the way back. But only the cheap house brand on sale. -What the hell is wrong with this country? Trillion-dollar "stimulus" made of MY TAX MONEY AND YOUR GRANDKIDS' TOO going almost entirely to "erect... a multitude of New Offices, and [send] hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance"; fat parasites who "haven't worked in five generations" driving Lincoln Town Cars and wearing gold jewelry and buying the good ice cream with Oregon Trail welfare cards which are also made of that same tax money; while I, who work for a living, drive a hundred-dollar hand-grenade-on-wheels and have holes in my t-shirts and keep a case of Emergency Ramen in the cupboard. It's not supposed to work this way.

2255 - Thursday, 16 July 2009: Well it runs.

Yesterday was the only unplanned work absence I’ve had in well over two years. I’m lazy, I don’t like work, but when I’m at work, I work. If there is no work I’d rather not be there.

Reader sends link to Armscor (specifically an article on a Tanfoglio licensing agreement), who quite possibly also made my 1911 though it doesn’t have that name on it. While wandering about the site I found this .PDF article on RKBA, mentioning Heller and taking a poke at their own licensing scheme.

Prepare. ‘Cause we’re headed for interesting times.

It’s all. About. The revenue.

Huh - back here I rediscovered Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy. (I’ve recently added his ‘blog to my daily read.) Meanwhile over here he gives some Serious Thought to Constitutionality - saving that for future study.

King David’s Spaceship is much longer and fuller than I remember. It’s been many years since I first read it. Maybe I had read an excerpt in some anthology?

Been thinking more about a netbook. When they first came out I felt they lacked horsepower and standard features, but Yuri says it runs OpenOffice easily, and that’s nearly all the apps I would need in a portable machine; you can get USB drives including optical; and I’d also use it as a glorified ebook reader while sitting around waiting for something. (These things are small and therefore highly portable - you could almost wear it on your hip.) But that’s $300+ I just don’t have, and won’t for months even if something else doesn’t fall off the Tercel. (Srsly my accounts are blown right now. The ramen would be getting nervous, if it weren’t, you know, ramen.)

Examiners examine Sotomayor.

The slowdown is hurting my pay, but as stated above I’m lazy and don’t like going to work. Tradeoff. Half-day tomorrow, next Friday off, maybe out early other times next week. Hope to get some handloading done including a Big Batch of ’06.

Government health care. I gotchyer "Change"....

2256 - Friday, 17 July 2009: Merkley’s response, transcribed Wednesday, is canned and probably fully automated - just got another just like it after acting on the latest OFF alert. Most pols are worthless at best; few who have acheived any position of influence recognize us as human beings. We can expect this one to vote for the racist.

Effing Only Ones. I don’t currently own a slide-action shotgun but replacing the M590, with evil bayonet lug, is on the to-do list. -Meanwhile I guess I’ll have to dispatch the fascists with the even eviler Queen, from even further away.

Pins tomorrow! And maybe a range session after. I wonder if the Tercel will shed something 50 miles from the hovel?

Chronologically-correct rebroadcast of the Apollo XI mission on it's 40th anniversary! (Doesn’t work in Opera, okay in MSIE8, site recommends FF3.5.)

Speed strips in various sizes.

BATFU urinates on the rule of law. But we knew that.

Geico's site allows replacing one's vehicle completely online. Something about the lizard still creeps me out though. Probably the British accent.

2257 - Saturday, 18 July 2009: Today is the 40th anniversary of the negligent homicide of Mary Jo Kopechne. Just sayin'. To which a reader responds:

>:-[

While there, ran into Wheeler, regional Appleseed coordinator, who reported forty shooters at the Independence Day Castle Rock AS and again pestered me to become an Orange Hat. I don't not want to, yah, but any given morning a meteor could total my Toyota, huh? Anyhow he was at Wolverton for a smallbore match and I pointed him at the pins director to look into getting an AS at Wolverton, which would be an even shorter drive than Castle Rock.

Since neither Yuri nor the other reader I pestered at the show last weekend could make it, I wimped on the planned range time after. Heat wave on anyway.

Buck Knives abandons California.

"First, the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers." Another government system having an effect opposite of it's stated purpose.

Snicker.

Health-care hypocrisy.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter pics. We should go back. We must go back. But let's leave government out of it this time. Free Luna!

One of the old-guy pins regulars is also an SF reader and during our monthly chat I was reminded of some of the works of H. Beam Piper. Looks like Gutenberg has most of them. Somehow I have to work a re-read of Space Viking into my queue.

Comes now an invitation to an Appleseed at Garfield, WA, 15-16 August. [grimace] Must decline - pins 15th, Lone Oak CMP 16th, and I doubt I can come up with $70 + fuel + ammuntion by then anyway. -Furthermore, once the web map finally loads, it's between Spokane, WA, and Lewiston, ID, and the treks to Yakima were expensive enough. My next planned AS is Castle Rock, 5-6 September. -Wheeler mentioned something about another location with a real AQT out to 400yds, that's real riflery. Dammit I hate being poor and driving scrap. Blessings upon Tucson Tom for gifting me a true MBR anyway.

One of the other pins regulars had a birthday and I took some video and I'm fiddling more with the software I scrounged from the recycle bin at work. Making some progress, at least with .AVI files. As a separate project I'd like some software that will take .FLV files (such as from the web via SaveTube or Firefox's Download Helper) and burn them to a playable DVD. Research suggests later versions of Nero will do this but I can't justify the expense.

2258 - Sunday, 19 July 2009: Zzzz.

Chat & show every Sunday 1100PT, with an ACLU person in the first segment.

Effing BATFU. 1861 all over again. All we want is to be left alone.

I wonder if AARP is regretting their endorsement of Hussein? Well, considering they don't want you to be able to defend yourself against criminal attack - and seniors are among the most vulnerable and most frequently targeted - I guess it fits the pattern that they don't care if you just curl up and die. -What kind of perversion is this? People paying membership dues to an organization which actively strives to shorten their life expectancy?

Islam is barbaric. For lack of harsher language. Words fail.

Big 5 Sporting Goods' weekly ad lists $800 Garands. The ad says they're Springfield Armory, just like the Queen herself, not the Century frankengewehren they had previously. If I didn't already have a Garand (TUCSON TOM IS TEH AWSUMM) I'd be auctioning a kidney. Kinda tempted to do just that anyway. Hope to inspect one soon.

Censorship. Can we expect a "Truth Czar" now?

Walter Cronkite. The man who lost the Vietnam War. 'Cause our troops in the field sure as hell didn't.

Sundays are my days to veg. (Unless there's a match, like Wolverton IPSC on the 26th.) They're also my days to clean weapons I'd fired the day (or the week...) before, and to maybe sometimes fiddle on back-burner projects. This afternoon I finally dug out the Dremel and relieved some points of contact and reassembled the M100. (Had to rummage in the junk drawer to find the action screws, and the VZ24 is still missing the forward one 'cause the M100's broke several moons ago.) Might-maybe test Saturday morning-ish before the plate match in the afternoon. Before I started mucking with it, the M100 was under 2MOA with factory rounds - last time I tried she was all over the paper but I hope I've figured out why and fixed it. -Hm, need to build a cheek riser, probably from tape and some surplus packing foam at work. The one I got in reader loot is probably for an M1C/D with the portside offset and is not suitable for a sporting/tactical Mauser. The Shooter's Ridge bipod I have for it is a little too tall for proper use in prone, hm - maybe I can sell it to a Gear Whore. The Butler Creek Fudd sling has to go too, the padded section is elastic (!) and even if it weren't, it won't adjust short enough for Hasty - I'll get a GI nylon like the Queen wears (at my last Appleseed I saw a few 10/22s so equipped - lots of places on the web to order them including the Appleseed store).

2259 - Monday, 20 July 2009: On this day, forty years ago, the United States of America became the first, and thus far only, nation to place men upon the moon and return them safely to Earth.

There is nothing America cannot do, and there is nothing Americans cannot do. -Observed the rebroadcast using work’s bandwidth. ;)

Radio news, Neil, Buzz & Mike calling not for a return to Luna but a mission to Mars. I partly disagree. Luna still has a lot to teach us, and she’s right there. Days away, not months, even without constant-boost (which at 1g would be - I figured it once - four hours; but we don’t have constant-boost... yet...). Three-second communications lag, not twenty minutes or more. Roughly half the surface gravity of Mars, with correspondingly-lower launch costs. Yes we should go to Mars, and even terraform if we can. And Ceres and Titan and Ganymede and everydamnplace we can reach. But going back to Luna, and staying there, is a logical previous step for many reasons.

And like my sister said, give the job to a Vegas developer. Hotels in two years, at a profit. SERIOUSLY, keep government out of it. The private sector will, if motivated, get it done orders of magnitude faster and cheaper - and government has for all of history proven itself to be the greatest evil ever created by man. Unfortunately one of the worst things that could happen to the American economy, the exploration of space, and the future of humanity itself, would be for Hussein to get a JFK-legacy bug and push a government mission to Mars, which would bankrupt the nation (like she ain’t already!) and cause generations of resentment toward anyone and anything related to space. And considering his ”What does this but-ton dooo” behavior thus far, that’s a distinct possibility. :(

Finished Pournelle’s Fires of Freedom, variously recommended. Starting Transhuman, anthology edited by Mark L. Van Name and T.K.F. Weisskopf, Jim Baen’s successor. This is a collection of stories about human transcendence, evolution, upgrading, and the intended & unintended consequences thereof. I snagged it mainly ‘cause it came up in a search for Van Name’s name while hunting for the next in his Jon & Lobo series.

Heat wave forecast all week, yech.

Again contemplating the M100. To review, it’s a commercial ’98 large-ring, presently wearing a Fajen synthetic contoured for a bull barrel - this leaves the sporter barrel very much free-floated and ventilated, while allowing traditional sling use without putting any stress on (or taking any off) the barrel. A Bold trigger with side safety is installed and nicely adjusted. There are metallic sights, crummy squinty ones like a base-model 10/22 - I’ll need to check them on principle. Ordinary Weaver bases, medium-height Weaver rings (with the big coin-slot knobs in case I do have to use iron) - lower rings won’t do as the bolt handle barely clears the scope bell as-is. Tasco 2.5-10x44mm scope from a show, ordinary Fudd duplex reticle - the crosshair step might be of some use as a rangefinder. Fajen recoil pad removed and replaced with the slip-on Limbsaver which came with the Golden State Arms Corp. painted wood, which also slips right off opening a big empty space in the stock - already have a Nikon lens pen in there but it’s loose, I’ll add stuff like a BoreSnake, maybe a solvent bottle, filler to keep it all from shifting, etc. (Srsly I could maybe get a whole J-frame in there.) (Wouldn’t mind having an M640 or the like.)

This is the second scoped rifle I’ve ever owned and the first I’m taking seriously. This is not a battle rifle, it’s for specialized work, either sporting or combative, hunting either critters or tyrants. 2MOA will do but I’ll take as much better as I can get. Bi-Mart - I haven’t checked lately - used to stock glass-bedding kits, or I can order one. I’ll have to see how it shoots since the Dremel work. -And get some spare action screws.

Oh yeah, GRE Chicago.

2260 - Tuesday, 21 July 2009: Government health care.

Pournelle contemplates Luna.

Kids & guns. I’ve ‘blogged before, there are 40-year-olds I wouldn’t trust in front of me with a plastic spork, and 12-year-olds I would trust behind me with live grenades - and evidently at least one 10-year-old.

Effing TSA. Bane laughs, but the thieving whiteshirts are fortunate dueling has been outlawed.

Codrea ponders the Thune amendment for national CCW reciprocity. Beware of unintended consequences. That being said I did send my GOA emails. What the heck, I figure it’ll come to blood anyway, let’s poke the pols in the meantime.

Saturday’s “Snicker” link was incorrect, fixed.

Mothergrapping Space Marines! (Ref.)

Transhuman isn't my particular cuppa, reminding me some of Steel Beach's amorality, or some of Spider Robinson's anti-individualist pieces before I stopped reading him. Skimming over much. These kind of stories turn me off - it's like humanity doesn't matter, like nothing we did before the Singularity counts. And if that's true what's the point of living? Gimme Ringo, or Kratman, or Burroughs. Or Piper.

2261 - Wednesday, 22 July 2009: The Tercel continues to bleed oil, and comes now a moral dilemma: I’m told there’s a $4,500 clunker-trade-in stimulus. The moral objection is, that’s someone else’s money. -The more practical objection is that’s only money toward a new car and I don’t think there’s one being offered anywhere in the American market which costs less than twice that - so I’d be on the hook for car payments which, historically, I know I’d have trouble making. -And it looks like neither Tercel nor Corolla would qualify anyway.

Meanwhile I have $100.00 in savings, $19.something in checking, $2 in my wallet, $375 in rent due at month’s end and two short paychecks from the work slowdown. Sigh.

Hm. Aldrin was actually scornful of a return to Luna, calling for going directly to Mars. Am I gonna hafta rename a ship?

You ever notice how some people are just no good with their hands? Well, some people are just no good at anything. Like you go up to them and ask them for a very simple task, well within their job description, routine even, something they should be accustomed to doing several times a day... and they get the deer-in-the-headlights look. Yet these are, in my experience, invariably the people with the company health care and the paid vacation and the paychecks half-again as big as those who actually work. -One could understand the siren call of socialism, if one were criminally ignorant of history.

”...[M]odern police officers... all too often act as if the worst crime of all is to fail to defer to a badge.” (Follow-up: The idea that you "do not argue with the police" even in your own home when they no longer have a reason to be there is a poisonous one. It has no place in a society that claims to be free.) There’s more to it than that of course, but the point is: When did “Protect and Serve” become “Submit or suffer”? This is why I, and Our Kind, are training and equipping to defend ourselves, with whatever level of force necessary, against these lawless thugs. All we want is to be left alone. But not even our own homes are safe anymore. Every day there is less difference between the gang-in-blue and some random meth-head carjacker.

Technology trumps tyranny.

Thune’s national CCW amendment fails. Whether it should have is a valid question - always beware of unintended consequences.

Government health care. And the destruction of any other kind. Could Hussein be doing any more damage if it were deliberate? Will there be anything left by November 2010, much less January 2013? Atlas is shrugging.

2262 - Thursday, 23 July 2009:

”...[T]he ruination of medicine."
Genocide.
“Change”.

Another reason to return to Luna.

Imagine if cops did this to your children, and their boss said they followed protocol and did "nothing out of the ordinary." (If you think Codrea’s cherry-picking, click the title link for the MSM story. And don’t plan on eating for a while.) If one of us peasants had done this, there’d’ve been a SWAT raid with helicopters and MP5s and probably stray pyrotechnics, but if a badge does it he gets paid leave. Law enforcement does not view citizens as human beings. Police officers are proven, by their actions, to be violent sociopaths who present a clear and constant danger to public safety.

CLOSE THE GODS-DAMNED BORDER NOW! -Except how do you do that without getting even more brutal scum like we saw in the preceding paragraph? Here might be a clue: ”These sorts of [honorable, competent, good] people are still around, often in the military.” But: ”Perhaps too often. Great democratic civilizations can’t survive on values that emerge from a single, undemocratic cultural stream.” We are very screwed. Either we follow the current path to a collectivist dictatorship, or there's a backlash to, what, a military one?

David Weber sez, Characters Matter. Writing can be so frustrating. Once in a very great while it’s all pouring out of you and you can’t type fast enough; you come back to read it an hour later and you don’t remember writing it; a month after that you can’t stand to look at it; a year after that the very same faucet starts pouring again. There is a magic, a real power, in writing, when it works - your disbelief is suspended and your consciousness is fully transported to a place and time whose realism can intoxicate. Kipling, as I’ve said before, could draw word-pictures so vivid one can taste the dust and smell the horses. The ability to harness that power is a rare gift. -And, one can imagine, especially reading some of Kipling’s poems, it might also be a curse.

Gah, full weekends! Plates Saturday afternoon and I’m running it; IPSC Sunday morning and I’ve been officially asked to video it (as I exhorted you my readers to do, I’ve taken to wearing the little RCA everywhere on my hip - but the present camera case precludes a quick draw, and the one sis gave me with my first digital camera years ago, which I’m currently using for the Canon, won’t stay on a belt); muzzleloader match next Saturday, if it’s not cancelled; show the Saturday after that, then the Chet Plotner (a founding member of the club, pushing 90, and still a darn good shot) precision rifle match Sunday 9 August if that’s not cancelled; pins at Wolverton the 15th, Garands at Lone Oak the 16th, and a different little show at a NG armory that weekend; then it’s plates on the 22nd again, and maybe Garands on the 23rd; I’ve been invited to a Wolverton club picnic on the 30th; then my fourth Appleseed, hopefully LTR/MBR, 5-6 September. This is why I’m ambivalent about the work slowdown and loss of pay - I can use the time to rest and make cartridges.

And the system's broken.

2263 - Friday, 24 July 2009: Zzz.

Quote o' the Day: "All the problems with the American health care system come from government intervention, so naturally the Democrats' idea for fixing it is more government intervention. This is like trying to sober up by having another drink." - Ann Coulter

Received today:

All my best,
Jeff Merkley
United States Senate

Resting, after 50 miles a day in half a car in some of the worst traffic in the city. Then processing brass. Tumbler still dead, can't afford replacement, but fortunately I'd previously gained ground so I can, if gumption holds, do a Big Batch of '06, and I have enough .357 and .45 for the next few handgun events, though I'll soon have to semi-retire the Witness and cast more for the 1911. Word is the muzzleloader match on the 1st is on, no shortage of Hawken fodder.

2264 - Saturday, 25 July 2009: Zz.

Weather forecast not quite as hot, ~90F. 100 during next week. Eh, whadda they know.

Before the plate match I actually did fiddle with the M100. Definitely needs a cheek rest and probably won't be ready in time for the Plotner match, though I hope to get more practice after muzzleloaders on the 1st. Fired only 6 rounds, Federal #308A 150gr Hi-Shok, several years old; but nothing broke and I have a preliminary 25y zero fom which to start reaching further:

(Kicks harder than the Queen. But most rifles with useful bore diameters do. M1 is teh awsumm.) The six rounds were fired in pairs, with scope adjustments between each pair, should be obvious which was when. Then I quit to start getting ready for plates.

Low turnout, between the heat, the change in start time, and the detour for road work too probably. Only 8 shooters and 13 entries. I did take 1st Revolver yet again (of four), though it was a near thing and I advanced a couple times purely on my reload technique. My handgunning skills are slipping the last few months, not sure why but I can feel it - I lose my sight picture and start spraying. Fresh paint on the Witness' sights did help some. Couple more misfeeds with the 185gr truncated-cone in the Witness but they didn't cost me a run, got whupped elsewhere. Could be the magazine. Anyhow I'll be out of that stuff in another month or two and that's when the Witness will go in the safe and the conventionally-rifled 1911 will come out.

1911 for IPSC tomorrow, if there's anything left of the Tercel by then. I'm going to have to degunk the engine every day or two, especially with next week's heat wave forecast, so the leaked oil doesn't, like, ignite. The leak appears to be somewhere in the starboard aft quarter of the engine compartment under a whole lot of plumbing which would take a whole weekend to ferret out and I don't have any weekends - shooting is what makes the rest of my life worth getting out of bed for and I'm taking as much of it as I can get. I knew when I bought it that the Tercel would only be a stopgap.

On my old slow computer I have a hotkey in the Windows XP start menu so that with two keystrokes I can launch the word processor file into which I dump my wannabe writing. As the muse whispered, I wanted to get some facts straight, so I went to a search engine and entered "federal bureau of incineration", with the quotes so it would search for the exact phrase. The second hit from AlltheWeb.com was a Suprynowicz article, very much what I was looking for, but the very first hit was the official FBI NICS page, a search of which did not find the word "incineration". Nor in the source HTML. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? FWIW Google's first hit is the same Vin article, and it doesn't show the .gov hit.

2265 - Sunday, 26 July 2009:

I IZ TEH
SUPER
AWSUMM
!!1!

GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY I WON! That was worth getting out of bed for.

There were four stages. No prone this time, but we were swinging from a rope at one point. 20 shooters counting a couple duplicate entries, divided into two squads; my squad shot 3-4-1-2.

Stage 1:

In this stage, start from the lower-left corner of the picture (there's a mark), move toward the wall while engaging the three targets on your left. Strategy for a single-column is to then reload before stepping on the milk crate. Grab the rope with your weak hand and engage the three targets on your right, strong-hand only. Step down off the crate to reload, for safety reasons. Step up on the crate again, grab the rope with your strong hand and engage the other three targets which you can't see from here, weak-hand only. Two rounds minimum on each target, best two for score. I did particularly well in this run:

Poking more at the video software, and a reader has sent some useful links to forums and freeware for more such. Now getting .WMVs of reasonable size and quality from honkin' huge original .AVIs. Here is a 48s, 4.1Mb .WMV of Stage #1, which I shot third.

Stage 2:

I gambled some on my strategy for this one, and it paid off. I chambered a round, then swapped for my single 10-round magazine, so I had 11 loaded. (Need more magazines, particularly 10-round. Also need at least one more magazine carrier.) (The 1911 is running quite well, though I might back off the trigger stop a bit, I think I had some trigger-reset issues, or maybe I'm just not used to it. It won't be a great tragedy when I run out of plated rounds and have to stop using the Witness.) (And I scrounged bonus lead today too, every bit helps.) Starting in Box A, at the center of the photo above, face downrange, make ready, then face uprange. On signal, turn, draw, and fire two shots at each brown target, then move to either Box B or Box C to engage the brown target(s) and steel plate(s) in each bay. I moved to Box C with five rounds left - two for each brown target and one for the steel. I didn't miss. I reloaded, from slide lock, as I moved to Box B, with one of my 8-round magazines - one on each of three plates and two in the brown target. I had zero no-shoots all day, and only one miss, in the long-range Stage 4, and I think that was with the weak hand. I didn't get a photo of my scorecard for Stage 2, but here is a 61s, 5.3Mb .WMV of Stage #2, which I shot last.

Stage 3:

This stage used bowling pins instead of steel plates. There's a red X painted on the ground, you start there, then engage the three brown targets, the usual two rounds each - one I've outlined in red to the right, the other is out of frame in the expected place to the left. After this you move to one of the ports and shoot through the port at the pins, avoiding the white targets. I didn't get useable video of myself in this stage but here's a 67s, 6.2Mb .WMV of another guy. My scorecard:

Stage 4:

This was the long-range stage. Start in either of two Box A, fire two rounds at each brown target. Move to the other Box A and repeat. Move to Box C and repeat, strong hand only. Move to Box D and repeat, weak hand only. That's three reloads on the clock for a single-stack. Here was my only miss of the day:

And here is a 39s, 3.7Mb .WMV. Also fiddling with the embed command in old-fashioned HTML. It seems to work in Opera 9.64, but is not sized properly; works fine in Firefox 3.5 and MSIE6, but it plays automatically in Opera and Firefox - the AUTOSTART="FALSE" command seems only to work in MSIE. If anyone has some better code so you can tell it when to start, please send:

Boy that's fun. Again a month from now, and maybe twice the round-count - I'll need to cast more. The next couple weeks are financially tight but I do have everything I need to make that much .45ACP.

Damn, the next Wolverton IPSC is on the same day as the next Clark Rifles CMP.

Hitting some backed-up email before bed. Reader sends:

When you hit the cylinder release, with the middle and ring fingers, shove the cylinder into your hand, securely grasping the entire gun from The inside out, having your pointer finger on the top strap and the pinky grabbing along the hammer, roll the gun vertically (nose up) and push the rod with your thumb, all in one motion-you'd be hard pressed to lose/drop your piece with this method.

2266 - Monday, 27 July 2009: Now comes the real heat wave. Carrying a fire extinguisher in the Tercel. Srsly.

”Loophole”.

BTW, in the Stage 1 video where I ripped off six fast shots at the first three targets as I moved toward the wall... those were all A-zone hits. The only shots outside the A zone for the whole run were weak-hand, swinging from a rope and balancing on a milk crate, and even those all scored. :D

Need more of these. Have just the one, could use at least two more, a half-dozen would be lovely. It appears to be the magazine of choice (everyone says Wilson but I see McCormick) for most of the single-column 1911 shooters I encounter (or these, and what’s the difference?), and mine works perfectly. -OTOH my third 8-round McCormick, having been on hovel duty and used for dry/dummy practice, is dropping free now, mostly. (I have three McCormick “classic” 8s with pads, and I think a knock-off of the McCormick Power 8, also with pad - the pads are required for proper seating because of the magazine well funnel donated by a reader, and desired because in this kind of game I do drop non-empty magazines.) Also want at least two of these - the one I have is belt-loop, though it’s stocked retail locally.

You don’t need a lot of expensive gear to do this. I won first place in a field of twenty against folks with four-figure firearms and $300 electronic sights and $200 aluminum-and-structural-nylon holsters. The 1911 is, counting the add-ons, probably still under $500 and it came with two McCormick 8s (okay, I Scored a Bargain); the holster is Uncle Mike’s zero-maintenance kydex for about $20; I load my own rounds and now cast my own bullets from picked-up scrap, using mostly inexpensive Lee equipment. What you need to spend money on is fuel to drive to the range for practice, and lots of ammunition.

I wonder what IDPA is like?

Cleaning the 1911, no significant signs of wear (remember the barrel bushing fitted on purchase was soft, but the spare it came with is holding up fine), still no leading to speak of.

Huh, no recent photo of the 1911’s current configuration. There. -And I’ve put the donated stag grips back on, at least for the photo. Very handsome, but I’m concerned how they’ll perform vs. the Uncle Mike’s checkered synthetic when I need to hang onto the weapon.

Finished Transhuman, quality writing but I found it too utopian and anti-individualist for my taste. Next will be the third in Weber’s Safehold series, By Heresies Distressed. -Which, perhaps ironically, has a protagonist uploaded to a synthetic body, which was (sort of) the theme of the last story, by James P. Hogan, in Transhuman. Meanwhile continuing Barsoom, now on the fourth, Thuvia, Maid of Mars, good clean old-fashioned adventure. And from this, the Quote o’ the Day:

"We hated war, and so we trained not our youth in warlike ways. Thus followed our undoing, for when the seas dried and the green hordes encroached upon us we could do naught but flee....”

Checking weather sites online before departure, it’s pushing 100F for most of the week. Avoiding freeways, with their combination of high-speed, high-RPM runs and creeping-crawlingness guaranteed to detonate any engine prone to pyrotechnics - taking alternate routes where I could pull over and use the extinguisher if necessary. And considering typical 5pm traffic there’ll be little difference in travel time.

Wolverton finally has a site!

2267 - Tuesday, 28 July 2009: Forecast 105F today.

Quote o’ the Day: "The house of representatives ... can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny." - Federalist No. 57, February 19, 1788

But that’s not how it works today, is it?

Open carry in Washington state.

Alternative to the NICS illegal database.

Why we hate cops. Read thoroughly and reach for antacid. See also Image o’ the Day.

True Class-A Hoplophiles will be aware of a company named Vltor reintroducing Jeff Cooper’s personal creation, the Bren Ten. Update. -Not that I’m about to buy one, it’s probably four figures and I already have three fine fighting pistols and I’m always broke, but do want.

Why RKBA matters. And why the rest of the world just sucks.

Fight back.

Via Pournelle’s site, more awesome space pics.

Long hot drive in stupid traffic. Possible record high tomorrow and tonight, triple digits through Thursday. Bah.

2268 - Wednesday, 29 July 2009: Quote o’ the Day: "As our president bears no resemblance to a king so we shall see the Senate has no similitude to nobles." - Tench Coxe, An American Citizen, No. 2, 1787

Look at yesterday’s, and look at pols today. Coincidentally: Swine flu in congress? Like John Candy said in Splash, ”Well I’m for it, of course.”

Outrage o’ the Day: Codrea did a whole article on this and posted the link as I was typing my email to him about it. At the MSM link, dig the disgusting comments. New Yorkers have been under the yoke of the nanny state for so long, they’re incapable of imagining anything else. They’re no longer human.

In further communication, reader/donor points out the 1911’s stag grips are synthetic. Which is just as well as they needed a bit of filing to clear the extended safety and slide lock. -Dry practicing, these are probably not the best choice for actual use. There is some texture but the high points are slippery. The (no-longer-produced?) Uncle Mike’s checkered synthetics really work for me, with just the right amount of sticky and a hint of squish - I have the same style on my P35 and GP100. Well, at least I have a “barbecue gun”.

Speaking of slippery, this might be a good solution to the smooth plastic buttplate on a standard 10/22 LTR. But twenty dollars? I’ll get a roll of skateboard tape and live with the shorter length-of-pull.

I haven’t fired the P35 in well over a year.... Well, when you have two .45s including a 1911, and a .357, and you’re winning stuff with all three, even Saint John’s 9mm pales a bit.

The Plotner match, Sunday the 9th, is bench only, no positions. Grumble. I think I’ll pass - the M100 isn’t ready yet and I can use some rest. The muzzleloader match this Saturday says there’s an offhand stage just like last time. Meanwhile in the latest club newsletter (available for public download), the club president is telling the entire membership ”you might want to find another range.” I joined this club years ago specifically to shoot rifle matches from field positions. If they’re not going to allow that anymore, or are going to load it down with onerous rules for the people who are not causing the problem (and I’ve heard some things about who is), then yes, I’ll leave the club. And someone else can run the plate match every month, which means no one will, you know how those things work. There are other clubs, and I’d have more time (and money) for Appleseed and IPSC.

Eh, too many .gov types mucking the place up during the week anyway, every fourth Saturday I have to go hunt for, and often repair, the plates stuff.

License to murder. Anyone still think only the police should be armed? Every day the badgethugs are proving they’ll just brutalize and/or execute you no matter what you do, or what you haven’t done. It’s logical to flee from any homicidal sociopath, and logical to defend oneself with whatever force is required when retreat is not an option.

Oh yeah, missed the OAC show Sunday ‘cause I was off winning IPSC. :D

Weber is still wordy, in both prose and dialogue. But he’s also still Weber and eventually gets around to telling a Good Story.

2269 - Thursday, 30 July 2009: Quote o’ the Day: "If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute." - Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

It’s always been all about the revenue.

Staggeringly ignorant cop. One begins to wonder if there is any other kind. -Why do we allow ourselves to be lectured and dictated to by bigoted morons who can’t tell a flintlock musket from a Star Trek phaser? Related, This Just In: New York still sucks. In case you were wondering.

Ticking off vegans (and Islamists) is always a noble pursuit. And I might have to try this next time I can afford the ingredients.

Indoctrination. I count myself fortunate to not have children, ‘cause they’d probably be in government school, and they’d have this crap rammed down their throats. (Yuri, you have kids and are thus more qualified to comment, perhaps you can expand on this?) And speaking of government school....

Community Activism Fail.

Boycott airlines.

Nordyke (2A -> 14A).

Government waste. But I repeat myself.

Yes I know PayPal sucks. (Not that anyone’s sent me a donation for maybe half a year.) Alternatives?

Perspective.

This looks useful, as I continually struggle to upgrade my system. And the store is near work. -Consider also the unlikely-but-real advantage one would have, carrying one of these about in one’s laptop bag, in case of damage to the system or the need to access data from another inoperable machine - yank the drive and plug it in to one that runs.

Almost forgot: In the last Shotgun News was an advertisement for a holster rig for a Mare’s Leg. At the IPSC shoot Sunday, one of the shooters had a Really Nice leather IPSC rig for his 1911 made by the same maker:

That's velcro lining, and you wear a matching under-belt so it doesn't shift.

2270 - Friday, 31 July 2009: Last day of the month and the revenuers are out, blatantly setting up their radar traps as they scramble to meet their quotas. THIEVES IN UNIFORM AND NOTHING BUT.

Watched Endeavour land live.

Quote o’ the Day: "If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it." - Federalist No. 57, February 19, 1788 ...But no, not anymore. :(

Paid... rent’s covered, but no shrimp rings, pig candy, or circumnavigations of Mt. Hood in the near future. (Darn exploding cars.) Muzzleloader match tomorrow, only five bucks.

Violent sociopaths with badges. When the only tool they even acknowledge the existence of is a hammer, their whole world looks like nails. More of them will be killed in self-defense by innocent citizens.

WANT. Despite Really Do Not Need. (Or do I? Viewing the previous paragraph? -Nah, the thugs wear armor and buckshot won’t penetrate. "Most human problems can be solved by an appropriate charge of high explosive" - and the rest by a skilled rifleman.) But by the gods, if you had a ship, wouldn’t you want a few of them on the rail? Repel-Effing-Boarders!

And they call us racists.

I think I’ve just found a freeware program that will generate tournament trees complete with graphic presentation and a double-elimination loser’s bracket just like I’ve been using for the plate match. Exploring, and testing with the dead-tree trees I used last weekend.

Heat wave abating, slightly.

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