RIFLEMAN'S JOURNAL - OCTOBER 2009
Guns in bars? Suuure, for the Only Ones, but not for the taxpaying peasants who fire more rounds in a month than some of the badgeboys do in their whole careers. ‘Cause we can’t be trusted. >:-[
[thoughts=random] Restaurants.... I don’t go to them often, ‘cause I’m always broke. But as the hands assemble the widgets my mind wanders and I recall that during my second Appleseed, in Yakima, Saturday night some instructors and shooters gathered at the Outback Steakhouse. Between standing around outside waiting to get in and sitting around inside waiting for a table, it was about an hour before we were served. The food was okay, and the service was adequate considering, but remembering it now got me thinking. There was another place, on the Road Trip, in Spokane. I don’t recall the name, but there was a huge mob lined up outside. One wonders how good the food, or the service, could really be with such a crowd to spread it among. We went to another place instead. Anyhow this got me recalling Atlas Shrugged and the plays and books made by the parasites and looters which were Really Bad but no one dared say so - people go to these things because they believe they’re supposed to. Things should be judged on their actual merits, not because they’re fashionable. How much of this is going on? How many products and services stay in business solely through momentum built up long ago when they didn’t suck?
Related, this is why I don’t pay to watch movies anymore. It’s mostly crap anyway these days, and the money you spend at the theater now goes to enrich child molesters and their staunch supporters.
Science.... I need to test the 1911 with those semiwadcutters, and the leftover truncated-cone loads I made for the Witness. The latter are quite mild and might not cycle the 1911 but that’s okay; I want to know if the bullet shapes feed, so I’ll have a better idea which 6-cav mold to get. Not this weekend, I’m pooped and it’ll rain. Maybe next, after the show - but it’s still Fudds & Remchesters at the club, hm.
Yet more on 14A incorporation.
Gack. One can’t tell where parodies leave off anymore. You watch, someone will be merchandising that graphic and some moonbat will wear it proudly.
Harrassment, nothing but. And cops & pols wonder why we hate them.
Tam sinks the island. (And it needs sinking.) Also, a sign of the times. There is a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. It’s called the American people!
I escaped government school. Are your kids still in it?
Pournelle warns us to be careful what we wish for. See also the second segment of his Thursday entry for some eloquence on the topic of redistribution of wealth.
2333 - Friday, 2 October 2009: Michelle Malkin snarks. It’s like the First Couple is racing each other to be the 21st Century’s Marie Antoinette.
All-in-one digiscope. Only $6,500. But of course the price will come down as competition enters the market. -And only 45x? I’ve found you need 60 to reliably pick out a .30 hole at 200 yards. And my Canon A580 takes better video. -Hey, I haven’t tried video digiscoping yet. Need an adapter bracket for that, handheld just won’t do it. But srsly, in rifle matches one can see bullets zipping into the target when the light conditions are right, or at least the air disturbed by their passage.
Real-world survival. I struggle with it every day. -Oregon unemployment was 12% last I heard, and national should hit double digits any minute now. This job ends at the beginning of February and after rent, I’ll barely have food & fuel ‘til next Friday.
Who’s “uninsured”? And I'm supposed to prop these parasites up with my taxes?
And MSM wonders why they’re losing their audience.
Education spending FAIL. But I coulda told you that twenty years ago.
Finished Grantville Gazette V Tuesday, returning to David Falkayn: Star Trader.
Codrea has more on Montana’s Firearms Freedom Act.
2334 - Saturday, 3 October 2009: Zzzz.
Wake up, check torrent progress, roll over, zzz.
Correia smacks Hussein and the city that produced him. And hey, who watches the Olympics anymore anyhow? It's all drug scandals, kickbacks and graft of every description, monumental egos... well duh, why else would the narcissist-in-chief want them in his town. Snicker also.
I had to go back and update this with the Quote o' the Day from comments: "We should give Chicago to Canada, except they’d probably start a war with us over the insult."
St. Louis GRE weighs in on Montana's FFA.
Mad Mike Williamson weighs in on child-rapist Polanski and his psychotic supporters. (I try to choose words with care. Look up the definition.) -Even the trollcats are weighing in.
Speaking of government schools and child-rape, another czar.
More data on the Badger Guns harrassment.
Two National GRE columns from Codrea today: kids & guns (hell yeah), and a Jew who was not self-destructive (and my story just got another warship name).
Priming .45 brass at laundromat.
2335 - Sunday, 4 October 2009: Zzz.
Show & chat every Sunday 1100PT.
Processing more brass....
2336 - Monday, 5 October 2009: &^%$#@ Monday. Tercel barely started in the morning cold. And/or there’s yet another electrical problem. (Started ok for the return drive, ~70F.)
More on Marek Edelman. ”Mr. Edelman and his compatriots were horribly handicapped in their nearly doomed-from-the-beginning resistance, by the simple fact of their almost total lack of weapons, and training in their use.” John Ross touched on this, in Unintended Consequences, where he had a Holocaust survivor - who, with his comrades, had to figure everything out the hard way - remarking to himself that young Henry Bowman, a mere child, as an American had more knowledge of and skill with firearms than his whole resistance band put together.
There is coming a time when it will be a civic duty to kill cops on sight. Like any other diseased animals. In the name of public safety.
More virii and trojans and suchlike. AVG and Spybot seem effective, but it's getting time to re-OS again. I'll use the opportunity to slap together a hopefully-faster machine from what I've scavenged from the recycle bins at work.
2337 - Tuesday, 6 October 2009: #$%^@* mornings. Fifty miles a day I drive for this job, and for not much pay, and in not much car. Yes, email is still behind, I’m always pooped.
Show this Saturday and maybe range time after (if the Tercel does start and doesn’t ignite), weather forecast isn’t bad. Maybe Science with Yuri, if he can accumulate some .223 and 5.56mm loads for his Bushmaster by then. I need to get busy on the .45 Big Batch - components are prepped, I have to excavate the Load Master. I might have to cast more .357 bullets too, I’ll be needing those for plates on the 24th. Depending on funds (& components) I might even enter IPSC twice on the 25th, GP100 and 1911.
.357 loads.... I don’t make maximum loads anyway, remember the ignition and other problems I had when I started reloading. With a plated 158gr bullet, 7.0gr W231 gives about 1,000fps from my 4” GP100. Switching to plain lead requires a reduction - I’ve already done some Science on these. Hopefully I’ll have gumption to whip up more test batches, now that the bullets are sized and double-lubed. I worry about ignition issues with a 5.3(-ish)gr W231 load - I can’t afford to switch powder - and 5.5gr caused leading with unsized, single-lubed bullets. Running low on WSPM primers too, have a couple bricks of ordinary Small Pistol, CCI and Magtech - more Science there.
Yeah, we’re screwed.
There is a difference between “peaceable” and “law-abiding”. Where’s that TJ quote... ah: "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
Speaking of Virginians, VCDL continues to rock.
At the bottom of Codrea’s National GRE column for today, there is a worthy challenger for McCain’s Arizona senate seat.
There may come a time when the government goes door-to-door confiscating our property, rounding us up for our beliefs, and packing us into the 21st century version of concentration camps. But they’re gonna have to hire somebody to do it, ‘cause these guys won’t - and there will be a Disagreement.
[thought=random] STII: TWoK is of course the Absolute High-Water Mark of All Trek Evaarrr. And the aarrr got me randomly wondering, does Khan count as a pirate? Stole the ship, marooned her crew, pillaged Regula, stole Genesis.... New character class for Trek RPGs! -In SF history who/where/when was the first who could claim the title of “Space Pirate”? Something from EE Smith maybe, his Skylark series?
Huh, just noticed, in the Sipsey St. sidebar, the Quote o’ the Day: ”Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of ‘passive resistance’ would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass.” - Mike Vanderboegh
Ammunition check at Bi-Mart: "Any bulk .22?" "Oh yeah! This morning."
2338 - Wednesday, 7 October 2009: Western culture has been fighting Islam for a long time.
Following up on yesterday, Quote o’ the Day: "We lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience." - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the state of Virginia, 1782
Automated invite to the Castle Rock Appleseed, 31 October-1 November. I still haven’t shot Expert with the Queen. But I gots serious money troubles. Rent, fuel, insurance, maybe some food, and on top of all those expenses I’m supposed to keep practicing with expensive ammunition and components, prepare for disasters natural and societal, save up money for when this job ends in February and three years of collectivist/statist control of Congress have shattered the economy, and recruit more people to the Cause. Right now, as usual (and with the Cricket bill automatically deducted this morning), I have less than $100 to my name.
Oh wait, I forgot the mountains of loot I get from the lucrative ‘blogging racket. I must be set for life! >:-[
Finished Barsoom 6, The Master Mind of Mars, remarkably imaginative for the time; starting 7, A Fighting Man of Mars, good clean adventure. At least I still have books, e- and otherwise.
And webcomics.
Also continuing David Falkayn: Star Trader. If you want to know how to write a Good Story, read Poul Anderson. “The Master Key”, 1964: ”Yildivans are as graceful as cats, as pleasing in shape as a good gun.” Vivid word-pictures, like Kipling drew - you can smell the forest and feel the nip in the air. Wouldn’t mind seeing that video-ized. But anyone short of Whedon or Straczynski would wreck it, and they have their own stuff to do.
Are some cops starting to Get It? I wouldn’t bet ”Life, Fortune and Sacred Honor” on it. Carry recorders, ‘cause we know they turn theirs off.
As a Girl Genius fan, I want to see this. -But I must say my biggest complaint about steampunk is, most of the junk the cosplayers hang off themselves is just decoration. It doesn’t do anything. Now me, by golly, if I’m gonna have an espresso machine in the butt of my rifle (even though I don’t use coffee of any variety), it’s damn well gonna make espresso! (Later comments raise the point.)
Sink the Island. Naw, the ocean ain’t deep enough. Scoop it right up outta the North Atlantic and drop it in the sun. And to think, after booting them off our continent, we spent blood and treasure to bail them out of three World Wars (counting the Cold one). (Okay Maggie Thatcher knew what the hell she was doing and how to do it, but since then? Nuthin.)
Reader points out something I skimmed over on WoG: ”...government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one....” (See also.) More of these wannabe ninjas are going to get themselves righteously executed, for their crimes, during the commission thereof, by innocent citizens.
Add that, and this, to the list of reasons I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
So I’m reading this-my-own blog and rereading Codrea’s column and clicking through to the challenger for McCain’s seat and I see this. Which, if anyone Paid Attention Dammit, would end all this squabble of Incorporation. AS THE FOUNDERS INTENDED.
...Sigh. The chocolate, it does nothing. (Neither does this and now I’m out of bread.)
Got the Threeper flags from WRSA:
Doesn't look "washed out" to me.
...Also in snailmail, the first utilities bill, $65.70. Stop the world, I wanna get off.
2339 - Thursday, 8 October 2009: The Tercel doesn’t want to get out of bed on a cold morning either. Getting worse. I can probably push-start if I have to - another advantage of driving stick.
CMP stats updated, got links to recent match results. Still worried about the rounds I made, or perhaps the 54-year-old, twice-surplused Queen is coming loose.
More thugs with badges. Every. Single. Day. >:-[ (Quote o’ the Day: ”Men in uniform have done most of the murdering in history.”)
Lucrative ‘blogging racket. >:-[
I gotchyer flu outbreak. >:-[
Too many stories like those, too often. I’m constantly reminded of Mencken. >:-[
So I’m sorta kinda rereading UC a little and that gets me to researching the Bonus March and that gets me Wikisurfing and I wonder if Hussein has seen this film. -Maybe I shouldn’t have ‘blogged that. Don’t wanna give him ideas.
...OTOH if we over-feed his narcissism, will he attain critical mass and fall under the 25th Amendment? But then we get... ewww. And after that... eeeew. Never mind.
Making .45 rounds! Something over 300 (all RN, maybe some SWC and .357 tomorrow), not sure yet. Tediously removing excess LLA with Hoppe's & rag. Probably I can get a new motor for the old tumbler, maybe that and some solvent will speed things up - but not for this batch.
All gumption expended.
2340 - Friday, 9 October 2009: When I heard this morning’s radio news I thought of Animal Farm. The line I want is not explicit in the book, but in the 1999 TV adaptation, where a toady goose is on farm-(state-)run TV lovingly announcing how Mighty Leader Napoleon was awarded the Somethingorother Medal, “First Class!”
Beyond that I’m too disgusted to snark.
Okay later I came up with: The best we can hope for at this point is a cranio-expansive detonation powerful enough to neutralize the entire site. Talk about life imitating art, just yesterday I was suggesting overfeeding the Ego-in-Chief. Alas its appetite appears infinite.
[shudder] Gah. Mindf@#%. Remember how the redcoats, at Yorktown, played “The World Turned Upside Down”? They had no freaking idea.
Huh, Wikisurfing, looks like all us folk in the Lucrative ‘Blogging Racket are Samizdat.
The .45 rounds are ~5.5gr W231, BTW, for the ~219gr LRN. That’s a tested load, and IPSC Major, one step up on the Lee Auto-Disc from the last batch. The ~215gr LSWC will be at the same charge; last time I tried them, only four rounds, I used 5.3 and had one misfeed - perhaps the greater charge will improve cycling. Anyway four rounds a long time ago tells me nothing.
LA GRE illuminates the folly of self-defense-free zones.
In SGN’s Appleseed ad I saw a description of an unusual event, then went to the Appleseed forums to investigate. I sent it to Codrea, thinking he might mention it in WoG, but he went and made a whole GRE column of it.
Cleveland GRE continues educating.
Got 30 .45 LSWC done for testing, if I can get out of bed tomorrow morning.
2341 - Saturday, 10 October 2009: Zz.
Show - more $elf-torture, don't dare buy anything now.
Wimped on practice, the Tercel threatens to catch fire every time I climb that hill, it's still Public Sight-In Days, and besides Yuri couldn't make it.
More Eloi-smacking from LA GRE.
Denver GRE has perspective.
Jeepers. Remember here when I recalled the Really Bad Art which No One Dared Criticize from Atlas Shrugged? Not Making This Stuff Up.
2342 - Sunday, 11 October 2009: Zzz.
Processing Even More Brass.
Show & chat every Sunday 1100PT.
2343 - Monday, 12 October 2009: Made more .45 last night, 71 rounds 200gr Xtreme plated SWC which I found in a stray box. Thought I had some Hornady XTP left over but can’t find it. More .357 soon.
Codrea illuminates another reason to hate cops. And remember, when the Lautenberg amendment was introduced, they wanted a law-enforcement exemption, so a decorated WWII veteran who got in one bar fight 70 years ago can’t go plinking with his grandson but a cop who beat his wife could have a submachinegun on the job. And who do you think lobbied the pols to get this legislation introduced? We got a gol-durned JBT Lobby is what we got here.
Government school. Note first comment.
This was mentioned on yesterday’s show.
Aaand there are business opportunities in California. They can’t stop a bazillion illegal immigrants, how are they going to stop a trunkful of cartridges? -Oh yeah, by tearing up that Fourth Amendment thingy at the state line (because obviously the cops have nothing better to do...). SERIOUSLY! IS IT TIME TO SHOOT THE BASTARDS YET?
Continuing Poul Anderson’s David Falkayn. The man wrote Science fiction.
Still looking for a calendar generator/converter/calculator for coordinating dates on science-fictiony planets. Maybe a spreadsheet of some kind? I get the impression there are Many Interesting Things which can be done with Excel, and by implication OpenOffice.
2344 - Tuesday, 13 October 2009: Wet roads + stupid drivers = starting work with headache.
Reading the news = headache all day.
Quotes o’ the Day: ”The most dangerous animal on the planet is a young infantryman.” “Imagine going through life knowing you had collaborated. Better to be dead.” (Yes, I’m aware of the source. Gunfolk have long memories.)
And: “The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.” - G.K. Chesterton, Broadcast talk 6-11-35
Grand Rapids GRE calls for unity.
Remember Olofson?
Pournelle has perspective on Vietnam and its relation to current conflicts. As I think I've previously stated, even the most casual study of history shows that militarily, we kicked ass. The Vietnam War was not lost in the field. Nor will be the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Now why do I suddenly think of Rommel’s Law...?
Snork. (Yes, I have Boorman’s Excalibur on disc.)
Encore l’snork - Cruffler sends: ”Special congratulations to Ted Kennedy! Seven weeks sober today.”
Aaand I’m getting the first bug of the season. Counterattacking with protein and vitamin C.
Argh. Every Tuesday I go to Bi-Mart to see if my membership number has won a camcorder, shopvac, or bag of chips. (Didn't.) While I'm there I always check the arms counter and for the first time in at least half a year there were a few bricks of .22LR still on the shelf. Thunderbolt of course (pass), Golden 525 bulk (double pass), and Federal AE5022, all just under $17. Really $houldn't'a got one but when will there be more? Good to have some on hand that isn't Thunderbolt (which has head-ruptured on me several times over years). (Made sure it was a brick of five hundred - remember Federal has or had some of four hundred in anticipation of some damnfool "arsenal" legislation requiring a license for owning over 1,000 rounds.) Remember, one brick = one Appleseed.
No I don't know if I'm going on the 31st. Money.
Double standard. Like we expect different.
Gah. Having a rough year. Bacon helps, a little. But now I'm out of that too.
2345 - Wednesday, 14 October 2009: The downward spiral continues.
Government-controlled industry.
Government-controlled health care.
Britain sucks, and so does just about everywhere else.
If rumrunner John Hancock were alive today, he’d be operating in California.
Journalism student (!) smacks Bloomberg. -He’ll get expelled, you watch.
Bumper sticker for the ladies.
2346 - Thursday, 15 October 2009: Yet another work slowdown, Friday off.
Not making this stuff up. Wish I were. And here's the other side of the coin. It's never been about this "right" or that "crisis", it's always been about control.
Still spiraling....
Looks like mail2web, which I use to keep on top of email at work, is having trouble today.
Continuing Barsoom 7, A Fighting Man of Mars. Often do I long for a simpler world and time, where matters are clearer and can be dealt with more purely:
"And if he does not believe me?" I asked.
"He is a beast," she said, "who is better dead than alive. Therefore you will know what to do."
"I understand," I said. "Lead the way."
Setting David Falkayn aside again, for Niven & Pournelle’s Escape from Hell, decades-awaited sequel to their Inferno.
This could be a useful marksmanship training tool, hm? So you can show what a sight picture is supposed to look like, and see what the student sees. -And it’s just cool of course. Tactical goggles, combat helmet displays, VR immersion....
Recently Clayton Cramer wrote a column denouncing open carry. I'm ambivalent about the column, but personally I'm in favor of unrestricted OC. Anyway if Cramer really ticked you off, for an antidote try some Suprynowicz.
2347 - Friday, 16 October 2009: Zzz.
Errands to run, less bandwidth in the hovel than at work. Go look 'round the 'blogosphere yer own selves, you know where to go.
Yes! The library is getting Correia's MHI!
2348 - Saturday, 17 October 2009: Sis visits! So I'm busy.
2349 - Sunday, 18 October 2009: Z.
Show & chat every Sunday 1100PT.
Red Dawn remake? Try it this way.
In conversation over Mongolian yesterday, sis pointed out some long-reaching effects of the Cash for Clunkers program:
Makes sense to me.
Whew, busyness - plates Saturday, IPSC Sunday, and now I'm leaning against my fifth Appleseed on the 31st/1st. Might do a podcast with Yuri and another reader that weekend instead.
Took the checkered, grooved Uncle Mike's grip off my GP100, put the wood-insert factory original back on. Dry practice feels better. -I'm told the company which supplied those grips to Ruger is out of business, which is why current production uses Hogue. Next time I see a stray original GP100 or Super Redhawk grip at a show, I'm grabbing it.
2350 - Monday, 19 October 2009: Monday. :-6
Is anyone else having trouble with mail2web? The entry page loads, but it crashes at login.
More &^%$ malware. Sticking with Spybot and AVG.
2351 - Tuesday, 20 October 2009: Mail2web works at the hovel but not at work. Prolly some IT thing, shrug.
Reading.... Ringo & Kratman’s The Tuloriad, from the Posleen POV, waiting at library, and MHI will come through any moment. Meanwhile, halfway through Niven & Pournelle’s Escape from Hell. And now a word from William Bonney, captain of guards, River Phlegethon, Seventh Circle, Hell:
”New one,” Billy said. “Seung, something like that. Went out and shot a bunch of people in the college he was at. Allen, it puzzles me that a man can shoot thirty-two full-grown men and women before the sheriff’s men gun him down. You’re more his time, maybe you can tell me. Why didn’t someone just shoot the son of a bitch?”
I scratched my head. Billy’s viewpoint seemed skewed, alien.
”Five of ‘em were teachers,” Billy said. “They had to protect their kids. How could they not be armed? It’s as if someone has been taking away their guns.” He saw my puzzlement....
And they call us racists. See also.
Quote o’ the Day: ”In Massachusetts not long ago, I found myself driving behind a car with ‘Free Tibet,’ ‘Save Darfur,’ and ‘Obama 08’ bumper stickers. I wonder if it will ever dawn on the owner of that car that at least one of those stickers doesn't belong.”
First Amendment Repealed, Film At Eleven. And other media bias. ...Which seems too weak a term.
Related: ”It Can’t Happen Here”? It bloody well did. They didn’t get away with it... this time.... No wonder some people are afraid of these people.
Money... have I ‘blogged on this before? Seems to me the people most likely to look down on folks for trying to get ahead, calling them “materialist” or “shallow” or “money-grubbing”, are the same people who never miss a meal, never have to worry about making rent or the electric bill, never wonder if the car will start on a cold morning so they can keep their job – and likely have never had a job without quotation marks around the noun. But they’re the ones who end up with the power (not the right) to tell us how to live?
...Related? Niven’s 15th law, ”Never waste calories.” And a snip from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long – I can’t find it online (I need to buy a copy), something like ”Never pass up a chance to pee, eat, or arm yourself.” Sis took me out for belated birthday breakfast Sunday (that being the reason for her visit) at an Elmer’s restaurant, and as we were seated a couple with small child were leaving... a lot of food behind. At work, there’s a little place with a refrigerator and microwave, and that’s where maintenance parks the cart on which the cubizens leave their plates and such from the on-site café and there’s always several thousand wasted calories there. Looky, I grew up poor and stayed there. I may not have appreciated it at the time but as I achieved sentience I damn well learned to not waste food! Makes me wanna grab some collars and shake vigorously.
Not planning on having children. That reason is but one of many.
Seen in the latest American Rifleman, jewelry.
2352 - Wednesday, 21 October 2009: Twenty-five miles every morning, and often more in the evening with library and other errands. Worst Traffic In Town. This morning’s commute took a full hour, with attendant fuel consumption. Oregonians do know how to drive in rain. The problem is they’ve all escaped to Red States and the Commifornians have filled the demographic vacuum!
Dial 911 and Die. Your Tax Dollars At Work!
Via WoG, The Founders’ Intent.
Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers was on MSNBC. Video & analysis can be found here, here, here, and more places by the minute I reckon.
Oh look, hypocrisy from the Federal government. Who’d’a thunkit. Related, Ohio jumps on that pesky Tenth Amendment bandwagon.
Hey – what are you doing this weekend? Me, I’m driving a bunch of miles on Saturday to be in charge of an action handgun competition, which I also expect to win part of; then Sunday I’m driving a bigger bunch of miles to take part in an even-more-action handgun competition, which I won outright last time I attended. Get out of the house! SHOOT SOMETHING!
Holy crap, remember back here when I was proposing Vintage Retro 3-Gun? Already done. Just about exactly as I imagined it!
Yah we’re screwed.
2353 - Thursday, 22 October 2009: Bias. Also.
From a reader, Dial 911 and Die, redux.
More on Tuesday's racism. Not. Making. This. Stuff. Up.
Revenuers... what kind of person do you have to be to want the job of robbing people at gunpoint? (And what kind of sicker thrill do they get cashing a paycheck made of their own victims' tax dollars?) ("Base is the slave that pays!") Anyway they're getting sneakier. Now a lot of them you can tell by the lights peeking out of the windows and grills. General car-body types are a big giveaway. Also look at license plates. In Oregon, the "unmarked" vehicles have an "E" prefix (for Exempt, of course - remember, they only enforce the law, they don't obey it). Up in Washington, where I do pretty much all of my shooting, I've seen shiny new SUVs (Your! Tax! Dollars!) with what look at first glance like normal peasant plates, until you notice the last three digits are "WSP". Be aware. Anyone have examples from other states?
I wonder if this is where all that malware is coming from? (I'm hitting the box with Spybot and AVG every day or two now, and the stuff keeps coming back - fortunately those two softwares detect and kill it, again, before it manifests.) I have the Big Three browsers, MSIE8, Opera10 and FF3.5. All my bookmarks are in Opera. I only use MSIE when a particular page has to be loaded correctly - mainly for my temp-service timecard. I use FF more often, when Opera chokes on something. FF's Download Helper lets me grab .FLVs from more sources too.
I gotchyer Afghanistan policy right here. Can I get a "duh"?
2354 - Friday, 23 October 2009: Craaaap, I had a big long entry for today and forgot to email it to myself. You'll see it Monday evening.
With car and money and other forms of stress, after work I went to a Grocery Outlet for a shrimp ring!
And they didn't have any! 8-(
Stores.... Everyone asks for your ZIP code now. I tell the clerk "No thank you" and the poor lady's brain crashes harder than pre-SP1 Vista. Sometimes I make one up just so the poor thing can have something to punch in. One day I looked it up and it turned out to be a tiny town in eastern Washington up near Canada. :D
2355 - Saturday, 24 October 2009: Plates! Yuri couldn't, squirrel problems. (Inside joke.)
2nd Revolver of six, beat by Breen and that's okay. Going back to the factory grip is an improvement. Decent turnout, 17 names, 30 entries. Also used the 1911 - ran perfectly, had some good runs, need more practice. The image to the right is a S&W M625, Jerry Miculek edition, with Miculek grip and sideplate initials, belonging to one of my assistant directors. I take Cool Action Photos. (-Get a decent camera, ~$150, and read the manual, and you can't hardly not take good pics.)
Now I need to clean both weapons for IPSC tomorrow and whip up more .357. Yes, I think I'll shoot both.
Question Authority. Always....
Authorized Journalists. ...Need a good smacking. Sherman was a damnyankee and probably a war criminal but he was right about that kind.
Yeah.
Hey Yuri! Next time we stop for burgers after a range day we need to go here. Bacon! The INFIDEL's delicacy!
...GP and 1911 cleaned, magazines and speedloaders filled (found two more HKS #586 in the hovel, seven of those and three Safariland Comp 2), Enough Rounds (75-round course) packed for both (after whipping out 98 more 158gr plated .357, this time over 6.5gr W231, and next time I load it'll be cast). (Gah, I make the ammo, I shoot the ammo, I realize I need more ammo now, I scramble to make the ammo.... At least my presses are set, all I have to do is swap turrets and rotate the Auto-Disk's disk.) Need more 10-round 1911 magazines - only one, and four 8-round. And another single-column carrier. -I'm going to need actual IPSC rigs next, not so much the $200 plastic-and-aluminum rare-earth-supermagnetic coathook "holster" as a belt everything will stick to, especially if I'm going to make a habit of multiple entry. It takes time to change all those carriers around.
2356 - Sunday, 25 October 2009: IPSC!
This is the kind of holster I don't expect to ever get:
Not that there's anything wrong with that, for racing. All my racing gear can also be used in the field or a fight. I don't race for racing's own sake, though I do race to win - I go to the races for training and practice.
Which today paid off with 3rd overall! Of 17, with the 1911:
My revolver score would have been higher if not for an ammunition-related FAILURE - probably a case sizing issue, I noticed when making the last batch last night that my sizing die had backed out some. (Someday I'll add the Lee FCD to my .357 setup, just to be thorough - it eliminated feeding problems in the Witness' .45ACP loads.) I theorize the insufficiently-sized case did not chamber fully, sticking out just enough to bind against a particular step in the GP100's recoil shield. My brain shut down as I tried to clear it until the match director told me to reload, then I remembered the sizing die and did my approximation of Miculek and it ran. That's the first time the GP100 has run anything but perfectly since I-can't-remember-when and I'm morally certain it's the fault of the ammunition I made. Zero failures with the 1911. Also, no misses, hostage hits, or procedural errors all day. I. Shot. Clean. ...As usual.
(Cops'd prolly shoot everydamnthing but the targets, then take a nightstick to the match director after being disqualified... but that's a whole other conversation.)
Four stages. No zombie targets, this is a low-budget operation ya know, but there were pumpkins and "goblins" and movement and awkward angles and Good Training and Learning Experiences.
At Wolverton, the handgun bays are to the left, there's a 50yd rifle range in the center, and the 150yd rifle range is to the right. The 50yd range was Stage Three and the longest was Stage Four. These two were shot first so they could be torn down and the targets stored before the rain moved in, while Stages One and Two were in the handgun bay, which has overhead shelter uprange and down.
Stage Four, which my squad shot first. (For those unfamiliar with competitive-shooting terms, "squadding" is the practice of taking a big gang of shooters and splitting them up into more efficient, smaller gangs, so squad X does part W of the course of fire while squad Y does part Z, without stepping all over each other. In rifle matches, there's usually only the one firing line with room for only so many people - those are usually called relays. There is a lot of standing around waiting your turn in competition shooting - which time you should be spending topping off your magazines, reading the description of the next stage's course of fire, and watching how the other folks do it so you could maybe like learn something before you get up there and fumble something in front of a dozen people who do know which end the hot stuff comes from. Anyhow this crowd is almost entirely veteran shooters who've been doing one flavor or another of competition for many years.) First the IPSC-iconographic map:
And a photo:
The pumpkin was a plastic yard decoration, the kind with an electric light inside. Probably no more than a pound. So: On buzzer, grab the pumpkin. Proceed to box A, B or C. Three rounds each on the cardboard, one each on the steel. After engaging targets from whichever was your first box, pick up the pumpkin again and move to the second box, engaging the appropriate targets from there. Then you can leave the pumpkin as you move to the third box. The steel targets must be engaged twice. My course was A-B-C-B. Score for GP:
And 1911:
And compared to the field for this stage:
You can see I'm faster with the 1911 (mainly due to reloads), and more accurate with the revolver.
Stage Three, shot second:
My course was, from the left corner of the triangle, engage T1, S1, S2; move to center/top of triangle, engage S3, T2, S4, S5 (that's how they were unmasked by the no-shoots); move to right corner, engage T3 as I rounded the barricade and it unmasked, then lean around to engage S6; then move back to the left corner and repeat all the steel targets. Score for 1911:
And GP:
Stage One, shot third:
Take a closer look at the beginning:
You start in the box, with both hands on the gourd. For autoloaders, start with empty chamber. On buzzer, move the gourd off the platform. This triggers a solenoid to release the swinging hostage targets which are very annoyingly timed to synchronize with your eliminating the first plate and/or chambering your first round. They stop after a couple swings, but you don't get those seconds back. Then you move to the right through the course engaging targets as they are unmasked. Six standard IPSC cardboard targets, two rounds each, and three falling plates, minimum 15 rounds if you don't miss the steel, and I did a few times with both weapons. My score with the GP:
And the 1911:
Stage Two, shot last:
The left bucket was placed on the chair for easier reach, and a minipumpkin placed inside. My strategy was to engage T1-3 from the left edge of the box, move the pumpkin, engage T4-6 from the right edge; mandatory reload; reverse engagement; mandatory reload again, and reverse engagement again. This is where the GP locked up on a sticky cartridge. Scores, for 1911:
And GP (you can see what it cost):
I got video too (none of myself though), but I'm too pooped to process it.
AND WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND?
2357 - Monday, 26 October 2009: #$%^&* traffic. Get off my road! 50 *&^%$ miles every #$%^& day....
Now here’s what I had intended to post Friday:
California still sucks - and is still the canary in the mine. It really wouldn’t upset me if the San Andreas dumped the whole thing into the Pacific. Nevada beachfront, baby!
This is the other reason I don’t pay to see movies in theaters anymore. No srsly, many of them are going this way.
Craaaap, mid-November there’s a “Bubba” rifle match – Remchesters and other Fudd types only, but still a match, and I need to do more work with the M100 anyway. And the Allies vs. Axis on the 7th! Gah! I think I have enough components to whip up some 7.92x57, and perhaps some 7.62x54R, must excavate the Dangerously Disorganized Reloading Table (of Doooom). And Lone Oak Garands on the 8th (with CMP surplus rounds only)! Double gah! -At least public sight-in days end this weekend.
Maybe I should carefully make more Garand rounds, on the single-stage, with weighed charges, with Noslers (the only suitable projectiles I have left and everyone is sold out of anything else). Anyway I need to whip out more .357 like tonight.
*&^%$# Microsoft! Excel 2007 won’t let you print an unsaved file! Whose idea was that? >:-[
Way back in the 2000 primaries I figured Cheney had more vertebral fortitude (and, yes, cerebral horsepower) than his principal. (Ditto Lieberman/Gore. The VP debates were way more interesting than those for the top slot.) And I was right.
Number Seven. I have experienced that Joy. And might again tomorrow!
Whoa, I need to add this ‘blog to my links page, ‘cause he done put me in his sidebar.
And now for something (via Pournelle) completely different and mightily awesome.
Finished Escape from Hell, entertaining. Not overdone. Skilled writers. I think I’ve read all their collaborations over the years – one can’t go wrong with either, and together they’re quite good indeed. Starting Ringo & Kratman’s The Tuloriad. -I had thought Kratman’s third Carrera, The Lotus Eaters, would be out about now – maybe I was thinking of Tuloriad instead. Now I see TLE is scheduled for April. (And according to Wiki the fourth volume will be The Amazon Legion, and he’s working on a whole other series besides.) Library hasn’t ordered yet. Elsewhere in the hold queue, Ringo’s latest, Live Free or Die, which appears to be a standalone (how can I not read a book with that title by that author? Also looks like the start of a series); and Exodus: The Ark, sequel to Paul Chafe’s Genesis, which I received as eARC back here and was ticked off by. I said I’d try the sequel if there were one – let’s see if Chafe can pull out of the Turtledove-esque PC nosedive he entered with the first volume.
(And it appears I’m still on Chafe’s email list ‘cause Sunday evening he sent me another eARC, freeing up a queue slot for... ah, they finally got Heston’s El Cid on disc! The current war has been going on for a long time. Back to Friday:)
Pennsylvania also jumps on that Tenth Amendment thingy. Darn pesky Bill of Rights, whose idea was that? ;)
(Did, a little, at IPSC Sunday. Not the Full Joy of an Undisputed Win, but for a while I was ahead of people who spent a lot more money on their gear....)
SHOOT SOMETHING! NOW! -And I’m not going to next weekend’s Appleseed, pooped and broke and too many other things to do. But there’s another in December....
There endeth Friday’s intended ‘blog.
Range work... this weekend, this Saturday anyway, I need to do car stuff which will probably take all day. Science Sunday maybe, but cold weather will skew chronograph results. Plus there’s still a new podcast with Yuri and another reader a-coming. AvA and CMP next weekend, need to sight-in; Bubba match the weekend after, need to dust off the M100; then pins after that and plates after that, need to carefully punch paper with both GP and 1911; and then I’m running the Turkey Shoot’s 2x4 shoot on the 5th (unless someone on the board gets too control-freaky and I walk off in disgust).
So... who exactly will be stuffing the peasants into the FEMA camps? -Local blueshirts maybe but we know they’ll be grass to our rifles’ scythe, and the guys who really know what they’re doing will be on our side – heck, they are our side.
Registration FAIL. Coulda told ya, but nooo....
Cramer again. Okay now he’s starting to tick me off. Click through for a commentocaust at PJM.
Hey – related: Third panel. T-shirt idea?
I hate Antec brand computer chassis. You maybe don’t? “So preeetty.” “So many feeeatures.” Try building twenty-seven of the *&^%$#@ things!
The stakes: "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." - John Adams
2358 - Tuesday, 27 October 2009: Last night, just to be thorough, I collated my review of Paul Chafe’s Genesis. Starting Exodus (when I’m not reading Tuloriad) – it’s a few thousand years later and the society appears feudal/medieval with little or no awareness of their origin, beyond ritualized references.
...I seem to have mislaid the eARC .PDF for Genesis.
Hardcore SF readers will be aware of the CDs packed full of ebooks often included with hardcover Baen releases. If you have a lot of bandwidth, they are archived here, and more you won’t have seen.
Pournelle smacks government education, not for the first time. (And has cold fusion news.)
Speaking of government, Amtrak sucks. I’ll drive, thanks.
I read Dilbert every day but I’m starting to take a personal dislike to the character. Because he’s an engineer. And the “engineers” at this place make three times what I do, for one-tenth the work, and routinely leave messes for the peasants in the back with the tool-thingies to clean up. Earlier today I had to reassemble two large tower machines (in Antec chassis!) which had been almost entirely disassembled for no discernable reason since I was putting exactly the same parts back in (I recognized my bundling of the power supply wires). Presently I’m having to rework an entire order of rack-mount servers because the engineers designed it with two add-ons which can only go in the same, single mainboard connector, and after discussing it with my immediate supervisor I went ahead and built them the one, logical way... and had them all done that way before the email came back saying to build them the other way.
And they can’t *&^% SPELL, either!
Another view on Cramer and open carry. Also this, via Oleg Volk.
The nature of government, and what happened to Britain.
Arizonans! Deakin for Senate!
Ah, I’ve been meaning to investigate this. All I have are a few pieces of ALICE.
Czars. >:-[
Fourth Amendment? Fifth Amendment? ”Nevvah hoid of ‘em.”
Unstable, unaccountable freaks with badges. Your Tax Dollars At Work!
More Guns, Fewer Accidents. How Can This Be? (Not finding emoticon for rolling eyes....)
This rant is about gaming characters... but it is so easily adapted to the “least-common denominator” philosophy prevalent in today’s government, schools, and government schools.
Heh.
On talk radio on the return drive I heard "exploding iguana population". I knew what they meant, but what I thought was, "How do they get them to wear the little vests?"
2359 - Wednesday, 28 October 2009: I’ve posted a couple links to Investor’s Business Daily editorial cartoons in the last few weeks, but a month or two ago they remodeled their site and the links only go to the current cartoon. Removing the links here. (Yesterday’s, déjà vu, was Obama portrayed as Nixon, displaying an enemies list containing Tea Partiers, Fox News, etc.) Supposedly they’ll have archives again. Over the past year or more I’ve posted other links to IBD toons, no idea where they go now – neither time nor energy to scroll through megabytes of ‘blog to check Every Single Link. (Dead links are one of the natural laws of the internet anyway.)
”Enforce existing laws”? Think it through. (Reminder.)
Zero Tolerance strikes again.
Part of my email signature is, “Criminals Prefer Unarmed Victims.” Duh.
[thought=random] “There is no Goddess but Gaia, and Algore is her Prophet. ulululululululGAIAHU AKBAAAARRRR*splorch*”
You’ll have seen, around the net, the joke that goes, “Why does no one like Obama jokes? Because liberals don’t think they’re funny, and conservatives don’t think they’re jokes”. :(
Remember my rant back here (and here) about Rand’s reference to Bad Art Which No One Dared Criticize? Your Tax Dollars At Work.
I just upgraded to AVG Free 9.0, and it insists the Resident Shield is disabled, which makes WinXP nervous. Fortunately I also have Spybot running and what does get through appears to be under control, but what the heck?
Gots mah shrimp ring! :-9
2360 - Thursday, 29 October 2009: “RIGHT LANE ENDS” MORON! GET OUTTA MY GENE POOL!
In the news, Boeing bugs out and Washington ”governor” Gregoire throws a tantrum. On radio I heard her say something like, ”We’ve done everything possible to make Washington the best place to build airplanes.” You’ve done just the opposite you lying thieving psychotic! TAXTAXTAX, REGULATEPROHIBITBAN, that’s why they split! -Now watch, she’ll raise more taxes and other financial penalties on the remaining Boeing operations in the northwest, for spite. Goose? Golden Egg? Get It, They Don’t. –Unions and their constant demands for ever-increasing wages and benefits? Same coin, different side – entitlement parasite culture.
Speaking of geese and eggs....
Campaign promises? Demand proof.
Via WoG, Founders’ Intent Found in Dumpster.
Ah-ha! Need to change the flag of Monticello! Should be done by the time you read this – formerly said “TYRANNUS MORS”.
IPSC... compared to some, I actually kinda suck. I’ve been beating up on beat-up old guys. (Remember that bit in The Road Warrior where Max is setting out to recover the tractor and one of the refinery group oils his leg brace? Most of the IPSC crowd I shoot with is... squeaky.) But that’s okay – I shoot IPSC (and there won’t be another at Wolverton ‘til spring) to develop skills, specifically engaging multiple targets, shooting and moving, reloading on the move, ammunition management, etc. The more you do it, the better you get. I’m learning.
I’d really like to do some 3-Gun... but the only shotgun I have is the old hammer double and my only autoloading rifle is the Queen. The M1 might actually be competitive – I know how to reload fast (without injury) – but outside of Cowboy Action the shotgun just won’t keep up. Handguns, I’m well-equipped with; for 3-Gun one needs something like an AR and at least an extended-magazine slide-action.
(Some weeks ago a reader pointed out that Numrich has shotgun speedloaders for the common models, i.e. 870 and 500.)
Mental illness. (Also.)
Government lists. Who watches the watchmen?
.22 vs. .25? Hmm.
Mouseguns. Forty years we’ve known....
”Global Warming” My Ass. And, GAIAHU AKBAAAARRRR*splorch*
I get linked! From BTR and WRSA!
Via WRSA, highway robbers in uniform. >:-[ Hogfodder!
Codrea takes a deeper look at “existing laws”.
And then smacks the Brady Bunch.
Insight and foresight from Victor Davis Hanson. (One of these days I will finish Carnage and Culture....)
Back here I ranted on sheeple’s overdependence on technology and their expectation that Almighty Government would bail them out of any minor discomfort. I restrained my impulse to blame genetics and instead called for a solution through education. But now comes this... powerful argument for a eugenics program.
Back here I asked what kind of person one has to be to apply for the job of badgethug. Here’s the answer.
2361 - Friday, 30 October 2009: Last night I’m pretty sure I saw an AVG popup indicating that Resident Shield is working, but XP isn’t recognizing it. Ditto the email scanner I think. Encore l’WTF?
About ¼ through Chafe’s Exodus, and if you ignore the previous volume it’s a relatively clean adventure/intrigue story so far. –One can continue nitpicking the science – how do you get a “morning” mist in an O’Neill cylinder with no day/night cycle? (Still can’t find the Genesis .PDF, can’t recall if there’s some mechanism in the ship’s design to create weather.) And how, even with an oppressive monotheistic monarchy, do you not advance past swords and arrows in 3,800 years? I can’t think of any human society, at or above the metalworking level, that’s lasted so long in recognizable form – there’s always some inventive iconoclast upsetting the applecart. Humans always bust loose! -Well, he is having a war....
...No gunpowder on Chafe’s Ark? There’s livestock, and KNO3 Happens (hah! Geek bumpersticker!), as does charcoal, but no sulfur deposits designed into the ship, hm. Heeeeeyyyyyy, waitaminnit.... That got me looking. Might have to whip me up a few spoonfuls – I have both flintlock and percussion testbeds. Saltpeter I can get at a local pharmacy (already have, for nitrated paper cartridge experiments in percussion revolvers) and powdered charcoal at an art/craft supply store maybe? In the Name of Science!
Also continuing The Tuloriad, which as you’d expect from Ringo & Kratman has plenty of action, and homages to Great Last Stands – the one about halfway through reminds me of Rorke’s Drift, though the authors may have had something else in mind. (It can’t be the Alamo because these are the lead characters....) (Oh, and bayonets will never be obsolete.)
Enumerated Powers. That’s a good idea. I stole it some time ago. The greatest lesson to be learned from the American experiment is, government must be restrained.
Michael Flynn peels the healthcare statistical onion.
SINK THE ISLAND. Ye gods, it’s like watching the fall of Saigon again. We gonna have choppers on rooftops and a new wave of boat people? Is that neighborhood going to fly the Union Jack every April 30th in remembrance? At this point that may be the best the Brits can hope for, ‘cause they obviously lack the national spine for anything more.
Bumper stickers and stuff.
Codrea keeps digging. "Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges."
Learn. –Often I get n00bs at my plate match – flinching, bucking, jerking. I say to them, “Squeeeeeze. Let it surprise you. Don’t anticipate. Squeeeeeze.” And if they do, suddenly they start making hits. The pistol will do it if YOU can. ”First comes right, then comes fast. Again, Hannie, again!”
Encore l’>:-[
Et tujours l’>:-[
2362 - Saturday, 31 October 2009: Now AVG9 says Resident Shield is working but the email scanner isn't. Previously opposite. o_O
Doing car stuff....
Pournelle keeps an eye on the economy and net neutrality.
And they call us perverts.
In Codrea's National GRE column for today, there's a photo of the cover of the latest Guns magazine, featuring the Taurus PT845. And I'm looking at it.... The plastic frame is the first turn-off of course, but then I look closer. Exposed hammer - good for visual and tactile condition management, and for second strikes on misfires (SA/DA trigger). Taurus' three-position safety, allowing Condition One and decocking - they introduced that some years ago on their Beretta derivatives, best of both worlds. Fully ambidextrous controls (I'm right-handed, I shoot right-handed, but some IPSC stages are weak-hand and I dry-practice lefty on principle - do you? You think, if you do see action, you'll never be hit, or never have to lean around something that way to make a shot? -During her visit sis had that figured out her own self, relating a conversation with someone who didn't). One great big locking lug in the ejection port, one of the few improvements to Saint John's tilting-barrel system in a century. Cocking serrations fore and aft (Witness has, 1911 doesn't, want). Hooked trigger guard for the support hand's index finger - I use that. Meaty-looking external extractor (well, everything has that these days). Dovetailed sights for easy upgrade. Replaceable backstrap to adjust grip size and angle. Equipment rail of course. And on the frame, just forward of the Glock-type takedown catch, there's a little dimple - that's where you put the tip of your trigger finger while observing Rule #3. The design's thoroughness approaches the Teutonic. And of course it's chambered for the most combat-proven pistol cartridge Evar, and carries 12+1 of them. Not Bad At All.
Except for the plastic.
Making rifle rounds.... Eyeing the CoF for the AvA - 46 rounds. I have fifty Sierra #2400 for the MojoMauser. Enough brass and primers - not enough W748 for the old load. Over a pound of IMR4895 - Sierra V starts at 44.1gr for 2,400fps, but I've had ignition problems; I'll go up one column to 45.7 for 2,500. Now the MojoMosin - more than enough Sierra #2305, and brass, but no IMR4064 at all for the old load - the book says 44.7 for 2,500 and 46.5 for 2,600. Those velocities will be well off of course, first because they always are and second because it's November. Hope to save a few after the match for the chronograph.
50 rounds 7.92 done. ...Nnnot going to the range tomorrow after all, conserving fuel and gumption. M100 practice after the AvA I hope - enough rounds left from the last time (but only enough of the heaviest, Sierra #2140 over 40.5gr BL-C(2) - at least it's already made and I don't have to madly hunt for sold-out components). But, I have to steal the action screw from the M100 to reassemble the VZ for the AvA, then vice versa for the M100 for the Bubba the following weekend (36 rounds). -Which is also on the day of the show where I could probably find some action screws if I had time to stop there which I won't.
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