Or your FIRST Amendment rights!

So violent, these anti-gunners.  And so opposed to ALL your inalienable rights.  At least THIS one appears to be old and close to shuffling off this mortal coil.  Before he goes he wants to road haul some people to death. 

Sickening.

Bias

Lookey at the screwed up graphics:

-
Stupid Ganett trying to move opinion rather than report it.

Especially the bar graphs on the right.  There is an increase in the polling preferences of people that want to ban not-automatic rifles of 1%.

Well within the sloppy +/- 4% margin of error methodology, btw.  Horrible statistical practice.  They should get a large enough sample to make it 2% or less.  They probably DID, but those numbers didn't work out to their favor...

Anyway.  1% more favorable to ban.  But the bar graph is, say, a whole 'centimeter' bigger.  On the ones against a ban, there is a 2% move.  But the graph is only two 'millimeters' shorter.  So at least their bias in this horrible infographic is only FOR a ban.  Using a consistent bias would make that second bar graph 2 'centimeters' shorter.  They did the graphic right for the Against Ban, but biased up the For Ban.   They are trying to stress support of the removal of inalienable rights where it doesn't really exist.

Boo, USAToday.  Cheaters.  Just not cricket.

I bet they are sputtering anyway.  Despite the full court press of propaganda from all Prog outlets they still haven't moved the needle to a majority supporting their tyrannical proposals.  This may very well be scaring politicians.  The ones on board for a ban always worry that they will pay a price for their folly at the polls but thought maybe this time it would work in their favor.  They look to have guessed wrong.

Audrey

Smoking doesn't kill.  Zombie Audrey Hepburn kills.

Legislation

So, what legislation on whatever gun ban the liberals are thinking of won't be vehemently opposed by the pro-rights crowd?

'Assault' weapon ban with no sunset clause?

Regular magazine capacity ban?  20 rounds?   30 rounds?

How angry will our side get if one of these passes?  Angry?  Or ANGRY angry?

In the US Senate:

“In the coming days and weeks, we’ll engage in a meaningful conversation and thoughtful debate about how to change laws in a culture that allows this violence to continue to grow,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “We have no greater responsibility than keeping our most vulnerable and most precious resource — our children — safe.” Reid added: “Every idea should be on the table as we discuss how best to do just that.”

Nationwide Constitutional Carry.  That's an idea that would go toward stopping this violence.  Do It for the Children, Senator.

(update:  I obviously compsed this one earlier in the week...  post overcome by events.)

Ban them all!

Ban guns!  It will work as well as banning drugs did.  We'll call it a War on Guns and see the same kind of success as the War on Drugs.

It worked for alcohol prohibition so well.  Hey, the gov't can sabotage ammo so bullets explode in the chamber.  The same way gov't poisoned alcohol and killed thousand of Americans lookin' to get likkered up. 

And hey, if movies can ban the showing of people smoking and blame anti-islamic videos for murderous violence by the Religion of Peace...  Naw...  that would be a violation of Hollywood's 1st Amendment rights.  And if they show mass violence in movies, that isn't in fact influencing the watchers the way seeing insults to various religious types or seeing people enjoying the smooth smooth taste of tobacco products influences folks down those paths.  Or the way commercials influences people to purchase Audi's, Honey Nut Cheerios, Duncan Hines cake mix, or Irish Spring deodorant soap.  How can you get people to change their behavior in a 30 second TV spot?

Here's a thought... Keep closer tabs of the mentally troubled and stop forcing victims to be helpless in various places.  Let people be responsible for themselves and help out people that are incapable of being so, before you have to imprison them because they haven't figured it out, or are incapable of figuring it out.  Personal responsibility.  What a concept.  And it's cheaper, too, without violating their human rights.

Hey...

We here about proposed gun ban legislative details in the works from Liberals...  Where are the details of the pro-freedom legistlators? 

Something like a law with National CCW reciprocity, elminations of disarmed victim zones, and tweaks to the mental health laws?

Which members of Congress should we be writing to get that out there?

Gun Shop

My primary gunshop is moving from it's current convenient location.  Sad.

One of the things I loved about the old store was that it shared space with a model train store upstairs.  Plus it was on the way home, so I passed it and thought about it every time I did.  Now it is moving to the quasi industrial section of Rockville.  It's near the local range, but that range is not very shooter friendly, and costs twice as much as others, and I don't go there unless it is free.   Not shooter friendly?  What do I mean?  They don't turn on the store lights.  I think the employees would rather not be bothered with customers so why bother making the place look open or inviting?  If you think they are closed you might go away and leave them alone.

I've decided I do need to get four more items.  Spare carry pistols, snub and commander, in the same config that I have now.  And a stripped AR. lower.  Something that will all 3 fit in an .50 cal ammo can.  Just cuz.

But... meh.  It's madness out there now. 

Enough

At least when they come to tell us to turn in our guns we can cite the David Gregory rule.

CNN sez...

Or THIS guy at CNN sez...

George Soros should buy the Freedom Group when Cerberus sell it off.  Then he could run it as an ETHICAL gun manufacturer.

Hmph.  People actually let this MacIntosh character out of the house.  He doesn't seem bright enough to not walk in front of speeding cars.

After Soros does so, the company could " Voluntarily waives its rights to support the NRA and other lobbying groups."

But it was BOUGHT by a lobbying group.

They could, "Create a fund to compensate those who, despite its best efforts, are killed or wounded by its weapons." 

So I guess the company will be broken up again when the contingency civil-case trial lawyers jump on it in about 4 seconds.

The company could, "micro-stamping weapons for easy tracking"

Ha!  'Easy' tracking.

Sheesh.  They'll print any ol thing at CNN.  Even the stuff written in crayon.

Some of you

Some of you are confident that a Federal Gun Control abomination is laughably unlikely.

Perhaps.

Some of you don't live in Maryland.  A law comtemplated here is a doozy.  No 'possession'.  I suppose I'd have to get all my so-called 'assault weapons' out of the state.  My M1A, my AR, my 10/22...

I am writing my State Delegate.  Maybe I should get Archie to write my State Delegate...

Update:  When are you pro-gunners going to move to anti-gun states to help contribute to the solution?  Gunnies shouldn't be movinng, they should be moving in and voting.  If you change Maryland you move the ball.  Or you can sit there in your state and say "I got MINE" and pretend it'll never happen to YOU...

the Day After

DiFi

At least Senator Feinstein isn't talking confiscation like Gov. Cuomo is,  She is talking buy back.

I'd be happy to sell her my AR lower for $150.  But first let me manufacture my own lower in my basement.  I need to start gathering links and resources on rolling my own in my basement.  It's be nice to have on without a serial number.  Who am I kidding?  I'd put a serial number on it.  NJT00001.  Perfectly legal, too.

Anyone ever done it and can point to informational resources they liked?

Double

Shotties.

I want a double.  A coach gun with external hammers.  With sling swivel mounts. I'd use it for hunting deer.  Light.  20" is fine for deer and duck.  Handy.  Plenty of capacity for what I want it for.  It could double as a backup self defense weapon.

The problem?  The price goes from $800 and up for a decent eastern European one (ouch), and there are also $250 ones from China that look and feel cheap.  Or maybe they aren't.  I haven't seen enough to check really close.  Things like Century Arms and Norinco.

Is there middle of the road side by side with hammers out there that I just haven't stumbled upon?

If someone could tell me that, "heck, those Chinese shotguns are every bit as good as a Sears for 1960, T-bolt,"  I'd get one.

Hmph... just occurred.  My real want list is a 1911, a double barrel, a revolver....  All old style designs... And another stripped AR lower to keep as a commodity. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

From Hell's heart I wish thee a Merry Christmas.  For Noel's sake, I split my last sugar cookie with thee.

~~~

Miss this

I miss this.  The illustrations that were the style of major publications before mass reproduction of color photography became cheap enough to become prevalent. 

Merry Christmas.

Ultra Violence

When you ban guns, an otherwise crime free nation descend to into violent barbarism.  Going from almost nothing to FIVE times the rate of violence visited on Americans, per capita.

Ever see Clockwork Orange?  Looks like THAT would be a refreshing peaceful world compared to the reality of the Old Country.

My GOD, you are safer trying heroine for the first time hoping not to get addicted.

The USA isn't even in the top 10 of this group,  as we are at 466 per 100,000.  Look at these barbaric backwater nations.  Don't plan to take vacation in these countries:

Hunting Question Follow Up

A big reason I asked is because MBtGE is partly color blind.  He is TERRIBLE at tracking red blood trails, and freely admits it.  I think the reason he likes to drag me along is that he wants my eyes to help him out if a deer works up a head of steam running off. 

But he also has hunted and harvested dozens upon dozens of deer, and they mostly fall down where they were standing, for him.

True Storie: Founders

Now do Framers....

Political Calculus

Politicians. 

You will lose none of your supporting voters if you try and fail to enact gun control.  I think past history is plenty demonstrative of that. 

There is also ample examples of losing supporters and gaining more motivated opposition when you succeed in enacting gun control laws. You pay a price. 

Something to think about.

It's War

Culture War.

As a matter of policy, we are presently at an impasse. The Left simply can’t persuade gun owners they’re safer with more restrictions, nor can the Left paint a picture of a gun-free world that the gun-owner wants to inhabit [or is possible -NJT]. As much as the Right argues that arming teachers and administrators would protect kids, enough teachers and administrators are appalled by the idea that it’s simply not going to happen outside the most culturally conservative regions.  

In other words, the gun-control argument is more about cultural values than it is about charts, graphs, and numbers. And those values are shaped less by public policy (or CNN or MSNBC talk show hosts) than by peers, parents, and personal experience. Welcome back to the culture wars.            - David French

Lies and Slander

How many lies does this Leftist claim without support?  I'd like him to show his work.

In the immortal words of Iowahawk:  "We will never solve [problem] until we enact commonsense [me telling you what to do]. "

Typical lefty.

My Rep...

Chris Van Hollen.  #2 man.  Or #1, really, as Pelosi is no man.  Tweets.

#NRA's LaPierre took no Qs at his press conference b/c even he can't explain why anyone would ever need a high-capacity assault weapon. 

Chris?  Need has nothing to do with it.  This is why our two sides can't communicate.  You can't grok this concept.  And constantly the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the fire.

QOTD

Via Joe Huffman.

"How many more tragedies does it take before we do something? How many more children have to die before this country realizes that No-Gun Zones create perfect locations for violence? You cannot stop criminals and mad men with laws, you can only stop violence with the fear of armed victims."  -- Alan Gottlieb

It's the victim zones, stupid.  We don't need to emplace a permanent 'TSA for Tots.'

Obama is a Genius

Without passing a law or writing a regulation... He's made it impossible to buy an 'assault weapon' or ammunition for same.

Heather MacDonald

Of the metrocon fortnightly, says:

"But if the pro-gun lobby argues the rarity of such mass shootings as one reason (among others) against further gun regulation, it cannot then use that same rare mass shooting as an argument for wider gun carrying."

She doesn't say why, and her reasoning eludes me.  So I can only justify having a gun by the number of times I use it to shoot bad guys? Is that what she means?  And I don't think us pro-gun lobby types ARE arguing that.  I don't carry to be a hero, a Walter Mitty.  I carry to defend myself and any people I am responsible for.  If I happen to help another innocent out helping myself then that is just gravy.

Hey

Wake up!  It's not just Senator Feinstein and Shumer and liberals in the US Congress that are considering gun control!

My state is considering stuff that would make DiFi go, "well, that's a bit TOO far."

Writer to your congress-critter.  But write to your state reps as well.  I have 5 envelopes in the mail, only one going to the Federal level.  That equals ALL the letters I have written in the past 5 years.  Do it.  Write a letter.  Send an email. Here is a start for your format. 

Don't let your state go down the drain and you end up saying, "I wish I lived in the more permissive state of Massachusetts."

~~~

THIS is encouraging.  I am still mailing the letters.

NPR

Listening to some guy called Diaz of the VPC talk about gun control with Terry Gross on the radio.  He goes on and on with nebulous references to the sources of NRA money.  Never alluding to 4 million dues paying members.   He claims its the HUGE billionaires in the gun industry and rich ideologues.  Hmmm.

Terry never thinks to ask him where VPC gets the money to pay him...  Mayor Bloomberg?  Goerge Soros? 

Hope

A friend of mine is anti-gun.  But he is not a moron.  He has spouted buzzwords about gun banning in the past. "What do you need a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds?"  That sort of thing.

On Facebook in the last few days a friend of his, posted one of those chain things.  Sign This Petition:

"I've committed to getting 10 friends to sign this petition. Every day, 34 more Americans will be murdered with guns – until our leaders take action to keep illegal guns out of dangerous hands. Join me and Demand A Plan to end gun violence in America."

The usual gun ban Democrat boilerplate.  My anti-gun buddy said this...

Sorry J___, but I won't sign a petition unless I know what I am asking for. I am not sure what the solution is, and I have not seen anyone smarter them me come up with a suggestion that would work.

And that is what gives me hope.  A man that, 10 years ago, I am pretty sure, would have reflexively agreed to sign onto any gun control scheme.  Now he is thinking with his head, examining past policies and found them wanting, and unwilling to agree to do something probably inneffective just for the sake of doing something.  It's not much, but it is progress.

I don't think he'd ever become a pro-gun type.   But for an anti-gunner this is a big deal.

Hunting Question

For you experienced hunters out there.

How many times have you need to take a second shot at the same sporting critter?

Why?  Tough critter?  Shot wasn't placed right or you missed?

Of all the sporting critters you've shot what proportion were needed a second shot?  1 out of 100?  1 out of 10?

By sporting critters, I mean something like trophy animals or meat animals  White tail deer being the most common.  I am not counting things like prairie dogs or wild pigs.  Varmint critters.  With varmint critters a crippling shot that gets away is less of a concern.

--

I ask because usually I hear from folks more experiences than me that they don't even have to track shot game.  It most commonly drops where it stood, with not tracking of blood trail necessary.

Gallup

Hmmm... apparently only leftist idealogues and the press seem to jump to the gun ban conclusion.  And the American people haven't fallen for the screeching just yet.  Normal citizens have a more moderate approach. 

Nobody

NOBODY knows what they are talking about.  If you are on a journalistic payroll, even the gun experts get assault rifle (invented 1944) and assault weapon (invented by Josh Sugarmann) confused.  The journalist messes up, many commenters mess up...

Facts

I've been doing this a while and some truisms have emerged in the self defense culture.  Now I need to cite the plethora of examples, but I wanted to get this down with just the few I have at my fingertips.  Examples take research and work, but the skeleton is easy.


Fact:  Madmen go on killing sprees.  And have been doing so for ages.  Means of destruction can vary

Fact:  Madmen gravitate to easy victims.  This happens so often it can't be ignored.  Crowds of unsuspecting victims.  Seemingly to maximize their internal rage by expanding the suffering.

Fact:  When confronted in midst of their spree with resistance, the wind often goes out of the sails or the rampage.   The spree generally concludes soon after.

Fact:  The only other way a spree ends is generally by suicide, either to themselves or suicide by cop.  A gun tends to stop the killing.



Like I said, I can think of plenty of supporting evidence.  Can anyone think of counter examples to the above 4?


You can't stop the first two.  Look at China on that dark day (and many other days...  seems to be a trend to knife school kids in China right now), look at the Bath Michigan Bomber, look at the spike in crime in Great Britain post gun ban.

Maximizing the chances of second two occurring as early in the spree as possible should be policy.  You don't get rid of bad guys by hamstringing good guys.  A police officer in every school like Geraldo Rivera said?  Expensive.  How bout letting other good guys you don't have to pay possibly be on school grounds?

Also, the unspoken 5th fact.  If you want fewer madmen going on killing sprees, have fewer madmen.

We need Crazy Control.  Gun Control doesn't curb violence and it's a violation of our sacred and protected constitutional rights.  Beltway Sniper, Virginia Tech, Columbine,  Aurora,  Arizona, Newtown.  ALL done by folks crazier than an outhouse rat!

Semi

Leftists constantly conflate semi-automatic and automatic.  It's been their policy for 20 years (see Josh Sugarmann).

So, maybe we should change the name.

Your semi-automatic is now a not-automatic pistol.  A not-automatic 1911, a not-automatic Glock, a not-automatic Sig.  That should help the confusion the gun-controllers are trying to sow.

If you get a Glock 18 someday, you can call that an automatic Glock.


~~~

Oh, also we should ban the term Assault Weapon.  If you put those two words together, that should be a crime.  What?  It's not like you have a right to say 'assault weapon' out loud.  The gov't just has to pass a law...

Won't end well

Or at least it wouldn't if anyone actually listened to Ed Schultz and his calls for widespread firearm confiscation.

How does he think that will work?  Not the "once we've confiscated them all, then..." the actual 'go out and confiscate them' bit?  This isn't England.  People won't turn them in.  Not like they did there.  Ed is guilty of Stage One thinking.  Most prominent lefties are.

Mockingbird

I've seen this movie a passel of times, but never before I took a greater interest in firearms.  So now I notice it's a Krag...


Shortened up a bit, it looks, too.

A good guy, in popular culture, using a firearm to help the community.

Be prepared for...

Someone to come out with: "I've been pro-Second Amendment all my life.  NRA lifetime member.  Been duck hunting most every year.  I was all for everyone in the country dealing with them the same way Vermont does.  But now my opinion has changed and I think the Feds should go house to house confiscating all of them."

-

Don't forget!

Gun control has always been racist.  When some white leftists says we need some gun control measure, ask they why they hate black people.  They are only paying attention new because a white suburban school was shot up.  They don't care when the same thing happens in Chicago every month for years.  Those Chicago victims are black.

Magazine Capacity.

So, in the civil war, the 'mag' capacity of a rifle was one and more American soldiers were kill than all our other wars put together.

In WWI the capacity was from 5 bullets on a stripper clip.  6 total in the bandoleer.  Horrible war.  Look at the casualty list for the Somme.  But the US didn't lose so many in that war, but only because we were a bit late to the party.

In WWII and Korea the US infantry used a rifle with an 8 round capacity.  A few hundred thousand deaths,

Viet Nam, 20 round mags, 50,000 deaths.

War on Terror, 30 round mags, a coupla thousand deaths...

See the more rounds in a rifle, the less soldiers get kilt.

So, if we issue 100 round mags in the next war we might not lose a man in battle.  I wonder why that is? It's not that they are overwhelming the enemy with capacity, as in each case the 'other side' has comparables.

altoid kits in video form

When I started this blog I stumbled across, and was fascinated by, a survival kit that was designed to fit in an Altoids mint tin.

Well, now there is practically a whole YouTube channel devoted to it.  Neat.

But the thing that may be most useful... How to open a can without a can opener.

Metrocons

David Frum was the original Metrocon.  The Platonic ideal.  If you looked up Metrocon in the dictionary you'd see a picture of Frum there.  The conservative intellectual from an urban area that is for gun-control because of their upbringing.  Only cops and robbers in 'his' world have and use firearms.  And since he is neither of those...

Except now Frum is not so conservative and hasn't been for years.

He's been a bit of a nobody, which is probably why he tweets such outrage.  To draw attention to himself.  And here I am obliging him.  So it must be working.

THIS is why

I don't care how much you pay, a job like this would be tedious.


Better than starving.  Which is why hungry people in China now do it.  Make jack in the boxes.

Americans will do any job.  MBtGE discuss that.  Would you do that porta pot vacuuming job in the summer?  No, not for what they are getting paid.  But there is a salary level where I would take that job.  Where I would leave my current job, even, so go tend fiberglass portable outhouses.

That's not to say I'd LOVE doing it. 

But when someone tells you that such and such an illegal alien group are doing job that Americans won't do, call that person a liar.  The immigrants are doing jobs Americans won't do at that pay grade.  If the illegal immigrants weren't there then that might actually PAY at that level.  Or go undone.  Whichever.

World Gone Mad

I don't care if the whole world went mad yesterday.  I did not.  So you have no call to come after me and mine.

I am not mad, nor a threat to others.  Quite the contrary.

-

And YOU, sir, are despicable.  Dancing in the blood of the innocents.   Look at yourself.  All of you.  For shame.  In fact, their argument that YOU caused this is strong.

Clip

I was reading up on the aborted OICW rifle the army was looking at (and throwing buzzwords at) in the 90s.

Forgotten Weapons sent me there.

I noticed this:

I think that's an army document.  They have labelled the two magazines, 'clips.'   Do that today and everyone blows a gasket.  So here I am, blowing a gasket.  Well, there is leakage around my gasket, I'm too mellow to go all catastrophic failure over this. 

Some pencil pushing egghead did that labeling?  Some PR Army guy with a head full of Synergy and somehow was sick the day they went to the range at Basic where a drill instructor would have set him straight permanent?  They just didn't get wrapped around the axle over it all of 15 years ago?  Who knows...  I just thought it interesting.

If they had only gotten that part right they would have deployed that weapon...

KIDDING!

Speed Strip Holster

Crap!  I saw this on a revolver blog somewhere but didn't retain the originating source.  Dangit.

Anyway, I want to check these out.  Not that I've noticed much tell tale printing with my speed strip, I just think a pouch would protect them more.  Here is a pic from that site of the double:

But I'd go with the single.

I wonder how easy they are to 'deploy' from.

Knife

Meme time.

Take the knife out of your pocket and take a picture of it.  Post it on your blog.

Did this before...

Here is mine, today:

From here.  Did I blog about this already?

I guess you recognize that wood scales?  I chose the walnut.  It feels really good in the hand.  It came unfinished so I added my own boiled linseed to it, rather than wait for my sweat and grime to do the job for me. 

Immortal Word

In the immortal words of Joe Biden.  Yes this IS a Big Deal...

Illinois?  Whoda thunk it.

Hunting part deux

Shooting a deer is the easy part.  Cleaning and quartering and butchering is the hard part.

So, I have been asked, "if dad or grandpa never taught me these post shooting hunting skills, how do I learn how?"

Good question.  Many options.

Do what I did.  Pair up with an experienced mentor like I did with MBtGE.  I have now, thanks to him, been in on the preparation of 4 smallish bucks (he got 3 of em... what is he doing right that I am doing wrong...?).  He commented this time as I fumbled my way through my part of the quartering, "hey, you are WAY ahead of me when I started.  I can't tell you how many carcasses I munged up when I first started out."  I'm a slow learner.   I might be able to do one solo now, but it'd have to be NOW, while I have these two fresh in my mind.  But if I did go solo anytime, I am ahead of the game, I hope.

Another option, just learn the field cleaning part.  Take your tagged deer to a butcher that does this sort of thing.  You don't even have to skin it.  They call you and you come back and pick up your shrink wrapped meat, prepared as you requested.

Another option... the Internet.  Lots of videos on youtube about how to do this.

Prep ahead of time.  Think ahead through the process before you go out to hunt.  And be ready to do it when the brown goes down.  A place to hang it, rope to hang it, sharp knives, both big and strong to cut through the ribs and thing to get into tight spaces.  You need something like a hatchet, maybe, to crack bones, though the strong knife can often work between joints.  Gloves and a cooler and ziplock freezer bags.  A hose is nice.  Don't hang it in the foyer if the missus cares about the broadloom. 

Hmmmm.

Color me intrigued about a pistol caliber carbine concept.

It is my weakness.  Luckily, I haven't spent any money on any yet.  There is always some problem for me.  The only one I've bought is a 1894C, and I sure don't regret THAT.

KRISS?  Klunky and expensive, wrong magazine type.  Would buy a full auto version, but that isn't going to ever be possible.

Camp Carbine?  Saw my first one in the wild last fun show.  Resisted.  Too expensive for what it is (a 10/22 in .45ACP, really) and there are rumors it's too dirty.

 Beretta CX4?  Not for me. 

See why it is easy for me to resist?  But VAPORWARE (so far)?  That gets the juices flowin'.

He's got a System!

Can't fail!  Happy birthday Melvil Dewey.

Went Hunting

Well, it was more like "went 'sitting briefly'" followed by "went butchering".

MBtGE did all the shooting.

Thing is, when I stood up to go to his stand and start the process, I spooked a deer that had been heading my way.  15 more minutes...

I kept the pic small of me getting this fellow's coat off, because it might be gross to some readers.  Click to embiggenate, I think.  The pants were on sale, is why I have them. 

Great day for it.

After quartering and getting ready to head home we went back to the gut piles to see if the vultures found them yet.  The gut piles were GONE.  Maybe some bit of intestine, left.  Amazing. 

Done with meat in the freezer by 1PM.  Time for beer at that point.  Now I need to think on tenderloin prep

T

.

.

Christmas

What caliber for reindeer?

You hunt deer with rifles, often.  Flying critters with shotguns.  What is appropo for flying reindeer?  Just the 00 buck?

Spam 2: Boobs

Hmmm.  Based on cursory observations...  If you want to attract the attention of Chinese spambots you should use specific words.  Like felt and feelings and boobs.  Especially in the subject line.

"Those boobs and yahoos won't hurt my feelings if they tear the felt.  That billiard table is a rental, and fully insured."

I may have to instigate some spam filtering again, sadly. 

Liberal Superhero, NPR celebrity...

Spoken word demi-god... And his ignorance of firearms... in the beginning part of this. Glock 7?




Some of it IS funny, too.

Look!

It's the school Tam goes to for her dental work.  Try to guess which one is her.

I TOLD you!

The Zombacalypse.  You shoulda listened to me.

Even the Prime Minister of Australia is warning the world.  And Australians oughta know about the end of the world.  They made all those documentaries about it.  Usually with autogyros and crossbow wielding motorcycle gangs with colanders.

Fallacious

North Central Idaho quotes this Mauser guy with his slip of admitting to the world that his way of thinking is all about Collectivism.

Notice that victims or relatives of victims of mass shootings, you invariably have one of them making a career out of it?  This guy from Columbine, that kid from VT, that congress critter from the Long Island Express Train shooting 20 years ago.  Sarah Brady.  Being a victim is a racket or something.

Anyway, Mauser pulls a lotta factually challenged boners in that Atlantic article.

For instance, he is proud that because of Columbine he was able to get a gun-show 'loophole' bill passed in Colorado.  Because the underage shooters used an adult to buy their guns at a gun show.   If only the law had been in place years before the outrage.  Because then... the underage shooters could have used the same adult to buy their guns at a gun show...

He laments:  “I heard the same kinds of statements from some people after Columbine: ‘Well, you know, they had bombs, too.’ The fact is that the deaths were from guns.”  Actually, the deaths were from killers.

Mauser does some amatuer psychology, with the country on the couch being too infantile, next.  He wants us to be more like mature Euro countries where the violent crime rate is on the rise (he doesn't note this rise, and I think assumes the opposite.  I think he thinks 'there are fewer guns there, it MUST be better in Euro-land...').  Unlike here in America, where the guns are and crime rates are going down.  Plus, if we were more Euro-y, he thinks, it would be easier to do the whole confiscation thing.  This segues into the collectivism quote.

Then he says that then: “The people themselves would understand that having guns around puts them in more danger.”  Do you have any evidence at all that this is true?  Because there is plenty of evidence that it is not true, and there is correlation that it may be the opposite.

Read the whole thing.  It's amazing that apart from the one interview subject that is only a small part of the whole article that the MSM Atlantic actually gets this close to 'our' side on the issue.

-

Gunsmith Fantasy

We were playing around with this idea at work, me and some of the other gunnies there.  Coffee break, you know how it is.

If you could devote 10000 hours of your life to learning how to be a first class gunsmith, what would you specialize in?

I'm not talking being able to finely assemble the parts for a 1911, frame slide barrel and guts, and make an extraordinary pistol, fine tuned and well ballanced a joy to shoot.  Beyond that.  You have the training and the basement shop to forge the receiver, machine the slide from a bar, and bore and rifle the barrel... THEN assemble those parts to make that extraordinary pistol.  And you are familiar enough with the all the details you could make a well functioning quarter sized 1911 that shot .22 BB caps. 

That's one route.  Super 1911 smith.  Or what 10000 hours of excellent training would yield if you had the talent and gumption.

Another is to go Colonial Williamsburg Gunsmith.  Make truly fine flintlock rifles.

Another that appealed to me is to make M14s from the ground up.  Total control of the parts, and producing an exceptionally accurate semi-auto rifle, lock stock and barrel. 

Of course just being able to assemble and fit from parts all the necessary to make a top shelf custom 1911, alone, is a win.

Leave that dang Constitution OUT of this!

The metrocon fortnightly noted this little gem from MSNBC.  They want to leave that pesky foundation document out of the whole gun rights debate.  And they strawmen gun enthusiasts, ascribing us to positions none of the non-crank among us hold.

Won't some person of authority SWAT up the MSNBC offices and jail everyone there without cause or habeus corpus for the good of the rest of the country already.  They don't need any lawyers either.  Jail any of those that show up, too.  MSNBC is a menace.  We need to be rid of them for the good of the children.  Won't ANYONE think of the CHILDREN.  /sarcasm

I'm just taking their cues... 

House Blog

I like my house.  Bought it in 1999.  It was built in 1951.  It had a lot of the original appliances and whatnot.

Well, 60 years is a long time...  I've had the hot water heater, stove (pity), and air conditioner replaced.  The washer and drier is still going strong.

What ISN'T going strong is the fluorescent lights in the basement.  So this weekend was about swapping out the one that just didn't work anymore.

MAN is the sheet metal thick and heavy!  And the ballast is 4 times the size of modern ones.  And yup, it was the ballast/transformer, as they have burst and oozed black stuff all over the inside of the fixture.

Well, now I can see what I am doing better with my new cleaning station for rifles and whatnot.  And yikes, I could probably do with hauling 3 contractor bags of junk out the door.

When wiring household current, I like to at least turn the switch off to the fixture.  Hitting the breaker is a good idea too.   But my Dad?  He like to play it fast and loose.  He has wired things with the juice on.  On multiple occasions.  I've seen him do it.

My ex Father in Law did that once with 220 service for his drier.  Once.  I was helping him.  When the lights went out after the loud pop there was a pause.  "The good news is... I can still pick my nose.  The bad news is, we need a new drier."

Costas

Who let Bob Costas on TV?  That man has no right to speak and be broadcast for others to see.  He should be forbidden from writing his opinion down and getting that opinion published in ANY venue.  If he stand on a street corner and starts talking for others to hear he should arrested, gagged and thrown in the klink.

Where does he get off?  What gives him the right to spout these odious opinions?  They should pass a law silencing him forever.

It's not like there is a rule or something written down that allows that kind of thing.  Stop Bob Costas before he opines again!

Obama Executive Order

Use NFA regs to make semi-auto firearms verboten.

No skin off my nose.  I got my revolver and my duck gun, and they'd never ban those.  Uncle isn't worried, I'm not worried.

Never heard of John Snyder before now.

Doomsday Preppers

Horrible show.  A train wreck.  And bad for 'our side', this Doomsday Prepper show.  (Bob Owens is unimpressed with the show, too.)

TV shows need to sell soap to make money.  So they need ratings.  To get rating they need colorful entertaining characters to showcase.  So they show preppers that seem a bit... off.  Showing a regular everyday Joe and his family doing some disaster prepping is boring.  Super-preppers know their OPSEC and are too paranoid to agree to be filmed, and rightly so.  So the only ones left to show are clueless weirdos.  Might as well be subject on Hoarders, these folks.

So now, most people are getting their introduction to Survival Prepping by watching fools and crazies do it on the TV.  "Prepping?  That what them dunderheads on A&E do? HAW!  Yeah, I'm not crazy so I don't do that kind of nonsense."  So now we have a negative.  And at a time when other circumstances are normalizing the utility of prepping and are a net positive.  Which is probably what prompted this show in the first place, prepping was getting mainstreamed by other events. 


So, Liberals already thought it was a Conservative 'thing' and won't prepare.  And this show will dissuade some low information and uncommitted votes that preparing for bad events is a fools errand.  In the event of the unthinkable these groups will be part of the problem.  Say what you will about politics, I'd rather there be a few 'problems' as possible in the event of a disaster.

Zombie Fiction

Check out the story.

It's not mine, obviously, but I like it. Well, except for some rough parts.  Check it out.  Judge for yourself.

Mainstream

Here is the metrocon fortnightly noticing and applauding MSM coming out with positive pieces on gun rights.

Money quote:

"But I think they are a sign that the Left is coming to grips with two important facts: (1) The Second Amendment takes gun bans off the table and (2) concealed-carry laws at the very least do not increase crime."

Spam

Either the spammers have a more efficient system circumventing blogger or they just 'found' me, but my spam comment rate has gone from a few handful to a few hundred.  Gonna take a while. 

It's easy to find comments I want to keep in the awaiting moderation folder.  They are the ones that aren't Anonymous.

More and more will get through as Google pulls development support for Blogger, I figure  It's a shrinking revenue stream, since everyone knows that blogs are dying out.   Why devote resources to it?  It's like developing new 8 Track tape players these days.  Nice, I guess, but don't knock yourself out.  Fortunes are to be made with CDs, not 8 Tracks!  (in the age of MP3s...)

Hey, remember music videos?  In the 80s and 90s?  Those were great.  You'd still get to watch those on the EmptyVee if you bought more CDs and cassettes.  And that's ok, too, as television is going away, too. 

Hoobody.  I am tired.  Think I will go lay down.  All this top velocity Futuring about makes my old bones tired.  I think I got the Lumbago.  Or is it the Grip? 

Probably... FUTURE SHOCK!

You Glock afficiandos need to get with the times.  Upgrade your gatt to something modern that wasn't designed in the age of bell bottoms and leaded gasoline.  It's an Old Fogey platform.
-

Les Baer

This pistol gives me a case of the 'wants'

Les Baer Stinger.  Except...  I can't leave well enough alone.  Never.  I'd want a low profile thumb safety on on the other side, and no hump on the grip safety.  Other than that...

M-14

Gods of the Copybook Headings

Reject the promises of the Jacobins.  Everything worked so much better without them. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Do right. Keep your powder dry.

I like this version. But then, I usually like Bill Whittle's stuff. Ever since his Eject Eject Eject days.

Low and Right

About my standard flaw.  Low and right.  Even when I totally surprise myself with the trigger pull it's still low and right.  With guns that other people hit center or left or high with for their grouping.

So, if I am legitimately not flinching or pushing or what have you, what am I doing.

Dunno.  Maybe I am am still pushing?  Maybe the push of my trigger finger is that direction.  Maybe the tendon and the base of that finger is wiggling and in contact with the grip panel.  Beats me.  Maybe some very careful hand and finger placement is worth testing.  I've done that before, but I was less good before.

I'd love to figure out what it is.  On m best day I get all shots into a tuna can as long as you put the 10 O'Clock of the can on the point of the bullseye.

So what is my goal here?  I'd like to be good enough that a bowling pin match is a possibility.  That would be fun and a level of competence I'd like to have for other applications.   Faster and bowling pin accurate with competition pressure.   Wish they had more bowling pin potential places around here.

But most of my professional training, (and training from other tyros) has consisted of "you gotta flinch.  don't flinch." and stops at that.  Very helpful.  I did learn about that little tendon thing.  I've also gotten from pro trainers, "you are accurate enough, lets make you faster." Which is a thing, too, I value.  It'd just be nice to take a zombie target to the range, shoot 7 magazine at it, and have a big ragged hole in the face and nowhere else.

Jamming

I think I have been loading 8 rounds in my 1911 mags again and am getting jams.  One range trip, both 1911s had the same jam on Federal Hi-Shok 230 grain hollow points.  (the cheap shooty stuff, not the expensive hydra-shok defense rounds.)

Now this gives me consternation, as I don't want to see problems with hollow points.

But, like I said, I've been load 8 rounds recently kinda often in my Chip McCormack mags, and ONE of the jams was in a brand new magazine that has had less than 2 dozen rounds through it.

I'm glad it was both guns with similar stoppages.  It may have been on the last round both times, but it was definitely the same presentation.  The nose of the bullet is canted up at a severe angle and stuck between mag, feed ramp, and chamber.  Minor scratches to the case, and it fires fine, after.  Clearing is an issue.  Tap-rack-bang is useless.  You have to dump the magazine and rack the slide to clear it.  So it's a pretty serious hang up that I need to get to bottom of.

I did relearn the old lesson.  Just because they SAY they are 8+1, you don't necessarily believe that.

Further testing, is, of course, called for.

The Zombies

Garand guts

Lots of fiddly little details on how the guts of a Garand work.  Stuff I didn't know.  Like both sets of teeth on the seer that make the semi-auto trigger possible.  The way the hammer turns the bolt if it has to to fully seat it and won't hit the firing pin home otherwise.  Man on man, I like this kind of detail and info and I am just amazed at what gun designers like Garand and Browning came up with to solve problems, thinking up solutions in their head, then making a thing out of metal that worked.  Complicated enough, but not too complicated.

XS Sights, One Year Later

So, I got XS Sights for my carry guns.  Little front sight for my S&W 640, and rear and BIG honking one for the Colt Commander.

Before I got them I was told by well meaning folks I respect and had tried it themselves that, "You're gonna be soooooooooorry..."  At least with the big honking one.  That I wasn't going to like the lack of precision.

Well, I do like them.

Put aside the snubbie.  It's just a tritium replacement for the nearly invisible standard blade on the double action revolver, and isn't that much fatter.  It needed something for low light at any rate and is probably what I'd have to hand in house if something went bump in the night.  That kind is not what folks fault, I am almost sure.

The 1911...  It's post and dot.  Bright tritium, and BIG dot, as I mentioned.  That big dot does indeed cover up the target area, and you have to cover what you want to hit to shoot it.  I already shoot like this with my sight picture no matter what kind of sight I am using, so I didn't make any adjustments  (see #3 here and below).  If I used a lollipop style hold (picture #1), then yes, it would be a problem.

With shoot n see sticker targets about 9 inches in diameter, dinner plate size, the front sight about half obscures the target at 7 yards.  I need to adjust my practice and do more 25 yard events.  In fact, I did last Sunday.  Sent a silhouette all the way down with NO shoot n see to give me feedback.  Both the conventional sighted 1911 and the XS commander had groups in the center mass at the same area as usual for me.  A little low and right, but all on. I am faster re-acquiring with the big dot.

I'm not that good a shooter to do competition like a bowling pin shoot.  But if I did I'd use my full size Springfield 1911 with more standard sights.  But this Commander is a carry pistol, not a bowling pin pistol.  I was never going to be shooting at eyeballs with either one.  Again, I'm not that good.  If my only visible bad guy in a self defense situation is presenting an eyeball sized target for me to hit 25 yards away I am not only moving laterally to make his problem harder, I am moving laterally and attempting to extricate myself from the whole bad scene.  As I assume most folks will be.  I'm not hunting bad guys, I'm trying to save my skin.  If I was hunting bad guys I'd have a rifle.  I can hit an eyeball at that range with an 1894C.

So, I am happy with the change to XS sights.  And, in fact, am getting comfortable enough to carry the 1911 concealed at this point.  It is edging the Sig 229 out for holstered CCW, versus the pocket carry I do with the revolver.  But this is certainly a "your mileage may vary" type situation.  They aren't for everyone.

I am kinda shocked I took to the post and dot style sights of any description.  Before I tried them they just seemed wrong and I gravitated to 3 dots, in a row, horizontally.  Surprisingly, I get along with post and dot (non XS) like a house afire.

I would consider the smaller front post on future modification, and XS sights on other carry guns.  Not that I need more carry guns.  Maybe spares...

Here is a target set at 25 yards with both styles of sights and 1911s, and I think the one outside the circle is from the gov't model:

Springfield Armory

Back in the day.  I love this history junk.  Sorry I've been video heavy lately.  I've just run across so much good stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving

More blogging later, maybe.  Maybe not.

Zombimages

Yeah, she won't last long.  No protective clothing and look at the choice of weapon.  I am very disappointed.  The Zombacalypse is not a T&A bacchanalia!  Do you wanna end up like those people on the Walking Dead?

More info:

Vehicle

Well, now that I have a driveway, I need to save up for a new vehicle.  I figure this one is the conveyance I want.  Only $600k.  Gotta save up, so... next year sometime.  I'll need to spec the zombie package.  Good for weekend camping tho.  Better than a Scamp.

















Ok, ok, that might be priced a bit out of reach...  The 11 year old Durango may need to do the trick.  What?  It's been a good car.  The least worry of any I've owned.  The only car I've owned and really liked was an '85 Riviera, and it was a maintenance nightmare. 

Why did I like it?  It was a 4 bbl V8, classic 2 door land yacht.  But it was good in the snow.  Why?  Good weight and...  front wheel drive.  That surprised the hell out of the emissions test people when they tried to put the rear wheels on the treadmill to spool it up to sniff the exhaust.   I TOLD them.  Silly motorists, they thought, doesn't know which are the drive wheels.  Hey, waitaminnit...

How it's made

SAA types

Diagnosing a Zombie

~

Very technical. Might be difficult for a Layman to follow.

~

One at a time.

They design guns with computers now?  What will the world think of next...

Remington in 1969:

Tubular

In reference to a 108 year old and its birthday yesterday...


There is this guy, still rolling his own vacuum tubes. 




 I think I saw this video years ago on RobertaX's site. 


I'm adding one plus two here and thinking...  Make Nixie tubes in my basment, turn them into steampunky clocks, sell them to Gen Y hipsters for a mint, use the proceeds to buy ammo and canned goods.  BRILLIANT!

You can make your own comms gear with the tubes too, and worry less about EMP.

Racists

Space Zombie

Awesome.

Peh-Pe-Pe-PEW!

Quibbles

There is an article of The Art of Manliness on selecting a firearm for home defense.  It's decent, but I have minor quibbles.

He stresses training.  I have no problem with that.   Whatever you get, practice with it, too.  and it's important to have a place to practice.  If there are no rifle ranges nearby, an AR, while an effective choice, isn't so good if you have no place to train and  familiarize yourself with it.  

Shotguns, for example, are hard to train with.  There are many restriction at local flat ranges.  Skeet shooting, while good at familiarization, is less effective when trying to learn your gun's foibles with buckshot.  Clay shooting experience is not the same as home defense simulation experience.

The author of the article comes out with a pump shotgun recommendation first thing.  And get's his highest rating.  No mention of it's unwieldiness inside the home.  No mention of the possible problem of short stroking the action.

His next recommendation is the revolver.  Even simpler to use, yes.  But the hardest to get good at, no?  Not a problem if you practice fervently, double action.

His lowest rating is for semi-auto pistols, and this model gets low marks because of its complication.  I posit that this concern shrinks to nothing after a year of faithful range trips and a training class or two beyond basic instruction.  There isn't THAT much more to learn with a Glock over a revolver, after all.

I still go with the tried a true, "shoot a bunch of different types before selecting with an open mind if you are a noob."  Then practice with your selection.  Be prepared to trade it in for a new model after you are no longer a noob and know a little more about what you are doing.  Your revolver selection, initially, may less relevent to your needs after you become more of an intermediate shooter.  

Broken Record

Political analysts are doing the autopsy of the Romney campaign and making prognosees for future elections.  "Stick to principles!"  "Reach out to illegal immigrants!"  "Kick out the people obscessed with lady-parts!"  Yeah yeah.  Happens every cycle.  And the never get the answer right.

I voted for Bush Bush Dole Bush Bush Palin Nobody, in my long life.  I vote for those early ones because they were the closest thing to what I was.  Libertarian conservatives interested in a robust War Department.  Certainly compared to the alternative.

And while I like Ryan, Romney was not my first choice, and I am not doing that again.  Vote for the VP of the ticket.  So I didn't vote.  Not for president.  I voted downticket.  NONE of them won, either.  (And I don't vote 3rd party.  3rd party is usually insane and if you want a real system with more that 2 parties you have to change the Constitution first.  So either get with the program or take over one of the exisiting parties or completely displace one.)

But I wonder if I am alone?  3 million FEWER GOP types voted for Romney than voted for McCain.  I am one of those 3 million.  Maybe THAT is what the analysts should look at the hardest.

Go Galt

Bummed about the election and the direction the country is heading? Well, there is a solution for that.

But how. How do you withdraw from Leviathan and still live your life? I'd rather not sell everything and build a Unabomber style shack in the countryside. Plus my bread is paid for with your tax money, as I work as a defense contractor in this Company town. If I was completely in the private sector around here most of my income would come indirectly from that same pile of tax money. Say I was a cobbler... I'd end up fixing the shoes of government workers and government contractors.

I'm looking for ideas. Legal ones. For instance, I can't just NOT pay my income taxes and thus get thrown in the hoosegow.

Fund Raiser for Tam

Tam has the Cansker.  They are going to fix her, but Doctors like to be paid.  Obamacare doesn't apply to her because she voted wrong.

I hit her tip jar back a bit, because I like her blog and get lots of enjoyment out of reading it for free.  Might as well pay for the privilege, I reckoned.  Besides, I've never met her at a blog event, so I figured... increase my chances if she gets un-sick.

But NOW, there is more reason to hit that tip jar.  Selfish reasons!  You can apply your donation for her medical bills to a chance to win great swag!  

Navy Veteran

I was in the Navy, and for some reason about this time I parboil Navy Beans for soup. 

That about covers my contribution to the National Defense.  Reward myself with soup.  Secret ingredient?  Bacon.

I did next to nothing during the Clinton era military contraction.  I wanted to be like OldNFO, but washing out of Navy Aviation was really easy in the days when they wanted to squeeze down the personnel pipeline from water main size to garden hose size.  You had to be better than me to stick.  And lots of people were better than me.  I know, I met them.  They deserve more than soup.

Glowball Warmening

Something occurs...

Ya know, More than 90% of what you, the American people, know about the 'Climate Crisis' was told to you by English majors.  English majors control the narrative. 

"But T-Bolt, I see scientists on the TV and in Time magazine talking about looming Catastrophic Anthropogenic Greenhouse Warmening all the time!"  Maybe.  But they were selected to be presented to you by English majors.  Terry Gross of NPR chose that guy to interview.  The NYTimes editorial staff gave that column to that other guy.  An English major only lets you be exposed to the information you see/hear/read about that they agree with or have been convinced by.

Now expensive public policies regarding Climate Change?  THOSE are rammed down your throat and added to your regulator and tax burden by PoliSci majors...  Who get their information from the English majors and use it to their advantage.

Whatcha think?  I think I'm onto something...

ATF and the Border Patrol

Both may have supplied guns to Mexican drug cartels

Range Report

Jeff Cooper is good for something.

I went to the range, after WAY too long since my last time... And now I shoot the best session of my life.

I forgot to do everything.  Purposefully, too, for the most part, once I realized it.  I didn't hold my breath, spend too much time with the grip, flex my knees, get my feet just so.  I did two things, as Cooper would say:  "Front Sight... Press."  I focused on the front sight, and didn't mash the trigger as is my wont, causing me to 'push' the pistol.  I let it surprise me.  I got the hang of letting the trigger surprise me.  Finally!



And from the first round to the end.... only a coupla three was off the target area.  And I called those as I shot them.

Look at these!  These are excellent, for me.  Still low and right, gut only a few inches low and right rather than almost a foot.  Because, let's face it... I'm never going to shoot the wings off a fly, a dime in mid air, or the eyeball out of a charging rhino.  But THIS level of accuracy with a CCW pistol?  I can live with that.  And doing so well is a joy for me.  Makes we wanna practice more.

Of course, 5 years is a long time to figure something out, and when I say I 'forgot to do everything' some of the right things are now just natural habit.  Like my grip.  That needs very little tweaking once I remember to think about it.

WWZ trailer

Oh God... They're sprinters.

Future Shock

Future Shock.




The problem with this theory is that when it was written in 1965-70, the future had already peaked and was beginning to ebb.  We needn't worry about future shock.  People adapted well, especially children, so this excuse for more top down control was just that, an excuse, and not really a true concern.  But the future wasn't coming at any rate.

The future isn't arriving prematurely.  I arrived over 40 years ago and has since gone home.

Oh sure, laptops, the internet, cellphones, dub step... that was all to come.  But the big stuff was already done.  And no more big stuff was on the way.   The Space Station? Just denouement to the Moon Landings. And it crashed in Australia and it took us 20 years to repeat the attempt.

Watch old episods Johnny Quest.  Jet packs, flying cars, nuclear powered supersonic travel, walking eyes that look like a spider...  All was right around the optimistic corner in 1965. We are still waiting. 

Call me when we get a moon colony that people take vacations to.

Call me when a fusion reactor comes online that produces electricity at a price point less than coal.

Until then, bring on the future shock madness.  

Area Safe Despite Attack

8 youths brutally beat a 32 year old man to within an inch his life in Baltimore.

If yuo watch baseball, this was near the Bromo Tower if you ever catch an Orioles home game.

But Maryland doesn't need Shall Issue CCW....

Don't worry, Baltimore is well covered with the Orwell Cameras.  These 8 miscreant will be brought to justice!  Probably.  Well, maybe.  Well, it sounds good if I say it, but really, the chances are slim.

Half Smokes

On of the biggest tragedies is that Washington DC area's indigenous hot-dog sausage is becoming less and less available.

The Half Smoke.  Different from a brat or a kielbasa, and are eaten like a hotdog, on a bun.  They have a unique little zing to them. 

They used to be available in every grocery store around here.  Briggs and Eskay brands.  Those have been bought up by bigger conglomerates and they don't make the half smoke in such quantities, certainly, that every Safeway could carry it.  I have found a local to me source in Shopper's Food Warehouse and go there just for the dogs.

I went to bed early

So how much did Mittens win by?

Kick Ass

Zombacalypse

Finish Him!

Obviously in a calm, electorial-kinda way.  Nothing violent, naturally.  It's a proverbial 'finish' for any given unit of 'him.'

My Vote

Like many of you, I'm a single issue voter.  So I'm afraid I am voting for the devil I know.  Obama gets my support at the polls.  Only because the other candidate is unproven, and there hasn't been a single major Zombie outbreak in the 4 years Barry has been at the helm.  On this alone, he earns my nod.

At Stake

Dave Kopel analyzes the coming election and implications to the 2nd Amendment in all races, federal and state in the Metrocon Fortnightly. 

Vicky Zed

Victorian Zombies

Survival Vulnerability

With the Hurricane coming, I was expecting a power outtage.  Coping with loss of power is an important survival skill.

I noticed a vulnerability.  Coffee!

While I have a french press and don't need the electric coffee maker... I usually use whole beans, and grind them with an electric grinder.  Luckily I had a bag of pre-ground ready to take to work, so if Sandy had eaten the lights, I'd have been okay.  But this isn't the usual situation.

Now, apart from getting a manual grinder ahead of time, what would be the procedure if I had a hankering for Java in the dark?

Well, I'm sure in my desperation I'd have improvised something.  Put the beans in a bag or between paper towels and just mash it with something heavy. This is a less than optimal technique. 

Then I remembered.  I have a marble mortar and pestle that isn't hopelessly tainted with cumin or other strong spice.  Were it so contaminated, I could line it with plastic.  Problem solved.  

Wow

Look at this graph from here.

The rate goes up about 25% with Clinton depradation then sorta levels off.  Then it lower a hair during W, then doubles for the 2008 election and levels off and then DOUBLES again for 2012.  Amazing!

Obviously it can't keep this rate of growth up.  Your Smith and Wesson and Ruger common stock has probably peaked.  But if Barry wins, hold it.   

Carter 2

I never thought I'd see odd-even days again.

Of course, in the bad old days of the 70s, you needed to get an attendant to pump your gas for you, too.  Just like in New Jersey.  Apparently they still have the complicated old style pumps in that state and a professional is required to pump your gas safely.

Slicker

As part of my hunting/surviving/outdoor attire, I acquired an oilskin duster.  Sorta like this.  To keep the rain off. 

I got a great chance to use it during the windy rain we had this week, since I was going to work.  I figured worst case scenario and I'd have to get out of my car and hoof it somewhere.  And no umbrella was going to help.  An oilskin cowboy hat with a chin strap completed the ensemble.  I had boots in the car if I had to get out of my workshoes.  I probably shoulda placed wools socks in there, too.

Me likey.  Even oversize, any bulkier a coat underneath and it would be a bit too snug.  I best empty those pockets of extra gear.  That was the only thing against it.

A heavy pack over top of it might have been too much, though, pulling at the snaps.

Tea Party

The Tea Party is about Constitutional restraint on gov't and fiscal responsibility.  That's pretty much it.  It's focus has been limited to that, and it's been a pretty disciplined sentiment.  Keep the feds out of our bidness and stop spending our tax money and borrowing further money to spend even more and stop taxing us so much. 

That doesn't mean there are Social Conservative that participate in the Tea Party that care very much about abortion issues. 

But the Tea Party is not about "going after your lady parts" or what have you, as RobertaX highlights, and quite correctly. Trying to pait the Tea Party as a bunch or retrograde Puritan Inquisitors is just standard lying by the other side. 

There are RINOs and Security Conservatives, and Second Amendment Conservatives, and Libertarians and whatnot in the Tea Party, but they are there because of the shared values regarding the Constitution and Fiscal stuff.  (or as a Me Too thing for the RINOs that they think will help get them elected.)  Stuff overlaps.  But it doesn't meld into a monolithic whole.  When someone tries to meld them like that to criticize Tea Party policies call that person on it.

[Personally I look forward to the day the only time I even think about any Federal interaction is on April 15th.  And I'd like to think 'well that isn't so bad' on that day.  I'm looking at YOU TSA.  Why do I interact with incompetent Feds just to fly to Topeka?]