Ha!

"WHEN THEY CAME FOR THE LIBERTARIANS, I MOCKED THEM, BECAUSE THEY ARE IDIOTS, AND LIBERTARIANS ARE WELL-ARMED."

Link to an article with a big ol strawman complaint.  The linked article even SAYS, "Some libertarians will claim we are arguing against a straw man and that no serious adherent to their philosophy advocates the extreme positions we describe."

Yes, you are arguing against a straw man.  Am I taking crazy pills?  It's more straw than the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.  You aren't hammering out some third middle way.  The AMericans with a libertarian bent and concern about the direction this country is going already own that ground, when you aren't misrepresenting them you could see that.

But this isn't about you getting something wrong about libertarians, is it, Hanauer and Liu....

Pre Load

Sometimes, I'll pre load magazines the night before and put them in the range bag before going shooting.  But not always.  Especially not when it is just me.

Range membership means I am not under any time pressure to get in and out.  They don't charge me by the half hour.  I can stand there til closing time reading a book if I want.  Shoot a mag, load two, shoot two, load one, shoot three, load four....  It breaks up the session, calms me down, gets me to think and take my time.

My goal is to get better, not get done and home.  Get better here so I can get better at a more challenging scenario or training area.

Stats

300 million people.

300 million firearms in private hands.

But that doesn't mean everyone has one gun.  Some have none.  Some are JayG.

Ok, some liberal doctor group estimates that 35%-39% of US households have guns.

Ok, how many households in the US?  Census estimates over 115,000,000. 

So, .35 of 115 is...  over 40 million households. 

Good.

Of courset that total number is the hardest number to know.  Are there 250 million guns our there in public?  350 million?  Could be.  It's somewhere between those 2 numbers I'm guessing.

Dateline: Sarajevo!

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand has been shot and killed!  100 years ago today

Boy that Archduke sure liked shooting stuff.  Killed 300,000 critters, hunting.  Almost ironic that he'd go out that way instead of choling on a fish bone or from nose cancer or what not.  Got his Hapsburg lip caught in a laundry wringer.

What a wanker.  Not because he liked shooting.  Who doesn't?  It's just the WAY he did it.

Range Time again

Two weeks in a row.  Hey!  A trend.

Same gun, no cleaning.  Testing the stainless customized Mil Spec 1911 for function post user customization.

And I broke the thumb blister on my support hand I got last session.

Here is the initial cold string, American Eagle 230 gr FMJ, 7 yards indoors.

Doable.

Then I was annoyed and started buckling on my 'front sight-press' for the next target, top two of this:

 Really pooped the bed upper left before settling down, see the stretch off of it low and right?  Yick.  The bottom 2 targets are one hand training.  Left is left, right is right.  Remember how good I was last week with right hand?  HA!  Not this time, barely on paper with anything.  But all 6 in the splatter target are from just the dominant left hand.  Didn't track the 7th. Who knows week to week with me?

and I settled down finally on the above target.  Except for 2 fliers on the low off target: upper left and lower right.

Loaded AR left in Target Toy Section

That's what I read.  It was them crazy Texas Open Carry assholes

Wait a minnit.  That's not an AR15.  And the perpetrator is a convicted felon?  Oh.

It had nothing to do them Texas guys at all did it?  Except for happening at around the same time as their shenanigans.

So this dude I know...

He thinks he's a fascist, but he isn't.  Really.  He's not really motivated enough to be a fascist.  Every time I think I am too slothful slovenly unmotivated or lazy, I remember this guy.  A pet rabbit died and he could bother to do anything about it.  So he put it in his garage.  His housing development?  It has a dumpster!  Just put it in there!

Anyway, he reposted that gun-grabby Cracked article on FB.  I just shook my head reufully and ignored him.  I don't do guns on FaceyBookie.  I got a blog for that.  And convincing him he is stupid?  What's the point.

No matter, The Contrarian jumped right on that grenade and pointed out the strawmen and fabircations the arguments revolved around with a succinct quickness.  So proud.

Of course Contrarian came to me already gunnied up, having grown up in Minnesota and got his first deer with a .410 slug out of a pickup truck window long before I owned more than 2 guns, so....  I just encourage him more.  It's easy with him.  When I ran into him he had no guns down here, of his own.  I got him to remedy that.

The Cracked article isn't all bad.  They note that crime has plummeted since First Person Shooter video games were invented.  And it is true we do like to accessorize our boomsticks....

Revolver Receivers

Sure, there are plenty of AR lowers, and some people go the easy route in gunsmithing and get a 1911 receiver to mangle.

But I want something more challenging.  I want to build a revolver from the ground up!  Mmmm hmmm.

Larry Weeks was actually sharing that story at Old NFO's beer/grub set to after hours at the NRA convention.  People have asked him why he didn't sell revolver frames so us gun enthusiasts could roll our own revolvers.  Nobody there, but people in general have asked him in the past.

Oh, Larry Weeks is a high muckity muck at Brownells, in case you didn't know.

If I had the skill to the gunsmith a revolver from a frame, 1911 work would be easy, and I'd have the ability to machine my own revolver frame from a blank easier than waiting for the UPS guy to deliver one.  It would also mean I had some serious equipment.  Like a multi-ton press.  Cuz yer gonna need that kind of stuff even if you have a frame.

I wonder what an 80% frame would look like...

What are you lookin at?

In Bullitt, the bad guy shoots a cop in the airport with a 1911, then Bullitt shoots him twice with a Colt Diamondback.  Both hit their target at least twice, kills them DRT.  Or at least the cop falls down, but he WAS hit with a .45ACP, but that kills you and they might as well change the death certificate on your dead grandfather.  Heart attack 24 years prior?  No, he died of time travelling .45.  That round is that good.  Ask Colion Noir.  I like that guy more and more the more I learn about him.

Anyway.  McQueen is in civvies.  He shoots the bad guy and he falls down.  Everyone gawks at the dead bad guy.  Not the shot cop.  Not the gun wielding guy standing over him.

Hollywood?  Almost certainly.  But what would YOU do?  I guess the guy in civvies gets a pass from us 'bystander' on instinct, having offed the guy that shot a cop.  But I'd be a little wary of the dude with a gun that just shot another dude...

In the same vein as the fireworks launch failures.  You walk out of a building.  The street in front of you goes left to right in this city.  To the left is some sort of commotion you can't make out.  It could be Godzilla, it could be some homeless guy being sick in the road.  People are moving away from the commotion to the left at a jogging pace.  Not running, but faster than fast walking.  A trot.  What do you do?

Some people wanna check out the commotion, other automatically book it right because those people have been outside longer than you and might know something you don't.  

Pop Up

I don't sell ads.

But I've been getting pop up on my own blog.  A 30 second ad.  "Now a word from our sponsor."

That isn't me.  That's Google.  Anyone else noticing that BS?

Great

Monday blog droughts again.  Stream of consciousness, off the cuff, extemporize...

There was a double feature on Turner Classic Movies.  Bullitt, then Key Largo.  Not a bad way to spend a rainy Saturday.

Steve McQueen always, on some level, bugged me.  Like I would have hated his guts if I had known him in person.

San Francisco in 1968 seemed awful dark, and the hospitals seemed primitive. Even compared to Rampart General a few years later in Southern California.  And by "dark" I mean poorly lit.  Like they hadn't gotten all the street lights up.  Mercury vapor lights, too.  I miss those.  I hate the sickly pink/orange/yellow of the sodium lights we have now.  Good news!  They will eventually switch out all those for LEDs and some 20 something will lament the loss like I did for Mercury lights.

The Syndicate assassins in Bullitt used a Winchester pump 12 gauge to do the job.  Real pros.  They shot the cop in the leg and the protected target in the chest and had plenty of time, but didn't check to see if they killed him.  Pah!  Was everyone incompetent in the 60s?  So this failure required a return to the hospital to kill the target post surgery.  And the Syndicate assassin fails at this, too.  Unprofessional.

Old Style Swanson TV Dinners in the grocery store.  Aluminum tray.  A buck each.

Another sign of the times?  Bad guy got a 1911 on board a 707/DC8 Pan Am flight to London.  HA!

---


In Key Largo?  Love that movie.  But I love all Florida hurricane movies.  And there is a Colt Pocket Hammerless in it.  And a text book tactic on how ambush a bad in a tight place you can't escape from easily.

Standard cop guns in both movies apart from that Colt Pocket Hammerless.

Whats not to like?  Lionel Barrymore, Bogey, Bacall, Edward G Robinson.  John Huston directs.  BAM!  Spice weasel!

People

You know, there is a whole subset of the internet devoted to people... Men, actually... males... that attempt to launch stick tailed fireworks by initially holding the stick in their gluteal cleft.  Gluteus Maximus, specifically.

They hold the stick in their butt cheek (just their cheeks if they are lucky, but ... yeah... they hold it there too) and a buddy lights the fuse for them.

Alcohol is involved.

There are LOTS of these online.  Video.  The results are the same.  It never ends well.

The fireworks rocket propellants starts first.  The sparks from the fuse alone is enough to cause a clenching, and that clenching is strong enough to hold the works in place.  4 seconds of blasting blackpowder style propellant.  Which is bad enough.  Then... the main charge goes BANG!

Yet, there is some drunk person out there, right now.  This genius has even SEEN all the videos and KNOWS the consequences.  No, he thinks, this male... no, I know what they all did wrong and it will be different when I do it in front of my buddies and their phone cams this 4th.

This one is the first I ever saw, and still may be the best.  There are dozens more.

Ultrasound

$2500 for an ultrasonic cleaner?  Well someone suggested jewelry cleaners.  Or heck, get em on sale, and you can get a gun specific one for $500. 

Not bad.  Still a bit rich for me.

Good way to clean all the 1911 gun clips I have tho.   [pistol, magazine]

New to my blogroll

http://gunssavelives.net/. Guns Save Lives.

I've seen this before, but it is high time this blog was on my blog roll so I'll see it more.

Off hand shooting drill.

That's how shaky it was with my one right hand, shooting. 

No. Shakier.  Much.

Man, that Star Model B sure has a small thumb safety.

Range Time

I went to the range on Wednesday, like I said I would.

Not too bad.  Still fell into some old habits, but fell right back out.  Still had a good initial string.  I don't know why that is, why my first several shots are better than the next 20, but it heartens me.  If I ever need to use a pistol, maybe the first magazine will be accurate.

The upper left target is the first magazine.

 

One handed...  If you ever convinced me to switch from two handed shooting to one handed only, somehow...  I'd have to learn a whole new set of skills.  Getting the grip into 'the pocket'.  Gripping it hard enough.  And man my non dominant RIGHT hand was shaking a bit trying to grip it hard enough for a modicum of recoil control.  But look at what that magazine did.  Small shoot-n-see, left hand only bottom left, right hand only bottom right.

So, some of that, some attempts at a quick second shot follow up.  Just messing around, really.  Get that trigger squeeze back on track.

But shaking the cobwebs out of the first distal joint of m left index finger wasn't the primary purpose.

I had made some changes to the 1911, and when you change one little thing on a 1911...  Well you could impact EVERYTHING.  So a big part of this trip was a function test.

What's new?  Mainspring housing and ambi-safety are the big ones.  I already had a new slide release on the gun.  The big thing that had me worried was the thumb safety though.  You can often get away with it with new slide releases or grips or mainspring housings.  They are often drop in.  But I've been surprised on how many ostensibly drop-in parts, aren't, from gun to gun.

But everything shook out ok.  American Eagle 230gr FMJ, McCormick mags, loaded only to 7, 100+ rounds fired, 7 yards indoor HOT summer day, no failures.

    

Another Metro?

I've enjoyed the web stuffs of James Lileks longer than an online presence of National Review even existed.  Lileks now occasionally does a piece for NRO.

I wonder if he is a metrocon?  A conservative that isn't super comfortable with firearms or firearms rights.

Maybe. 

His stuff is cool because it is quirky vintage stuff.  Old Motels, Ghost Signs, Pre-50s exquisite architecture that morphs into 70s dreck, unappetizing cookbook recipes from the olden days. 

He does have a bit of an urban outlook, certainly.  Fargo, DC, and Minneapolis.  No recollections of hunting trips with Dad in his stories of childhood.  

In his one gun article he is poking fun at the arse-hats that made fools of themselves in Texas with less than appropriate OC attention whoring.  Well, heck, so did I.  And there, finally, some childhood and positive gun recollections.  First I've seen of his and I read his blog pretty religiously.  So...  probably not too metroconny, deep down.

I guess I should keep an open mind about him and the 2nd.  Opener mind. 

Sometimes the Stores ARE Museums

There are more museums in the United Stated than there are Starbucks and McDonalds combined.

But in many states and regions, gunstores outnumber museums.  And it follows areas with onerous regulation and less freedom having more museums.

The Mid Atlantic area has more museums, except in Pennsylvania where people are less likely to let someone tell then how to run their lives.  As opposed to a place like New Jersey.

New Englands has more museums.  Even in the more enlightened states up there.

(And dangit, Alphecca beat me to it)

Burp III, the Embelchinating

Yeah yeah, poor WO Cook.  going up against an entrenched and incompetent War Department bureaucracy. 

But isn't that always the way Springfield Armory? (the old school original one, the ARSENAL, not the more recent purveyor of XD pistols, 1911s, and M1As.)

I mean, it's easier to list the times the place did a GOOD job and wasn't a slow, bumbling and sclerotic government entity. 

Three things they did right:

"Hey, lets make these millions of muzzle-loaders left over from The War and make them breech loaders.  The army is only 1/100th the size it used to be, and the switch is easy enough"

"Well, the Krag isn't good enough, so, what now?  Hey!  Let's STEAL the Mauser design for our new 20th century rifle!"

"Secretary McNamara is coming for a facility tour.  Be sure he gets really bad food poisoning in the Cafetorium."

Aw, geez!

People aren't paying enough attention to the zombie threat the last few years.  You let your guard down, THAT is when they get ya!

"Stockton Man Says He Was ‘Zombie’ After Swimming In Stanislaus County Reservoir"

Well, at least it was temporary...

Or... MAYBE he is a carrier!

Burp II, Subbie Boogaloo

The Sequel!  Excuse me.

Loren Cook had an improvement for the US Army's submachinegun, but the program was cancelled in 1948 because we didn't need any improvements then.  Right?  Some army schmuck in the Soviet Union goes on to eternal glory with an improvement on a German design and the Yankee Warrant Officer gets ignored and almost forgotten.

From here.  It's an ugly cuss of a weapon in prototype stage.  Looks like the Sten.  He had a battle rifle, too.  And some pretty wild claims about performance.  For instance, the accompanying article from the 50s makes it sound like he magically doubled the speed of a .45ACP bullet with that thing.  I suspect the truth is he is using 9mm ammunition and the paper is confuzzled.

Here's the battle rifle he was sure could give the FN FAL a run for its money

What's that Bullpup rifle look like to you?  Does it look like someone took a BAR receiver and made some other modifications?  Why, yes it does...  Awesome. 

Can Burp Guns Replace Rifles?

Well?  Can they?  1956 wants to know!

Well we know the answer to this one.  Where the even bigger and better idea was flechettes!

Historic background:  The Army figured nobody was shooting at anything even 300 yards away.  MORE volume of fire was the way to go, in their lights.  Instead of a squad where riflemen support one or two machine guns, they thought it's be tits if the whole squad was the equivalent of a machine gunner.  Then they wanted them to be even MORE of a machine gunner!  See projects SALVO and NIBLICK. (One useful thing to come out of those projects is what ended up becoming the M79 grenade launcher.)

I understand the concept and what they were going for with those, but  I was never sold on the whole flechette thing.  And, after many decades of investigation, it actually proved to be unworkable for various reasons.

Fiction has taken up the flechette thing, tho.  Look at the anachronistic Neuromancer, from the 80s.  Where Japan rules the world and the cultural inclusion of Jamaicans into the fabric of America and the world continued unabated and the Soviets were still a thing  (well, the same 'thing' they were then).  Also, Marko went down the flechette path with Mil SciFi books.

[Check out Neuromancer.  An '80's' book as much as The Stand is a '70's' book, (even with Kings small little updates {he put a throwaway line in there are Spuds McKenzie a decade and a half after initial publication} but Gibson invented the terms cyberspace and matrix.])

Yes, if you got them to work flechettes would be great.  A 3mm or maybe smaller tungsten needle, get the speed up to 4000 ft/s...

In the '56 article it's mostly submachine guns.  Because, Burp Guns, of course.  The newest, most exciting one is the Uzi, and it's really the only post war gun there.  (The Israeli-Egyptian border is cloak in 'velvet darkness.'  Who knew?) The only thing different is the StG44.  The AK47, only 9 years old, isn't even on the radar of a western, civilian, firearms periodical.  And the M14 is still the T-47.  No one is thinking 5.56 military carbines.

Short answer:  Widespread submachinegun usage by miltary forces was a transition period to something new and different. The real thing to watch is the increased ability to make a bomb or shell of some sort explode over there, where the bad guys are.  But the crystal ball of 1956 wasn't quite there yet.

But the best part of that article, the snippet that enthralled me, was about a Cook...

Rut

I've been in a rut of late.  And there is no excuse for it as my time is taken up by Archie 4 times a week like it used to last year.

I need to get to the range and shoot more regular.

Make it a habit.

Like it was a coupla years back.  Back then, it was Thursdays, but I think Wednesdays are better for me now.

I am so out of practice that even Tam noticed and said something at the NRA convention.

Plus there are more local firearm training opportunities I should look into apart from regular range practice.  In the past, training has been less available locally or classroom/range facilities were hours away.  Less of a problem now that more places are capitalizing on the demand.

Open Carry, hot weather

I hope we get Open Carry more acceptable soon.  This is my preferred July/August outfit, and there aren't a lotta Conceal Carry options.

Lost Parts

Do you carry a lost parts kit around with you and your rifle?  If you do some minor maintenance at the range or a cleaning of you AR and drop that little cotter pin in the bolt group you are SOL for the rest of the day.

Stuff that goes "SPROING!".

More importantly, do you have a lost parts kit in you Bug Out Bag for whatever platform you are likely to grab if you leave the house in a hurry?

OPSEC

Operations Security.  Not tipping your hand to the adversary.

Before Clinton's Kosovo war started up, Whitehouse staff burned the midnight oil.  The Reporters knew something was up because the closest Pizza joint was making big 3AM deliveries to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  It'd be like the Germans noticing that Ike's Lucky Strikes supplier was laying in extra cartons in early June, like he was gonna be under extra stress.  Or like noticing that condom sales in East England where Patton FUSAG fake army was supposed to be prepping for a Calais landing, while condom sales were UP in West England across from Normandy.

OPSEC applies to you too.

It's one reason I prefer Conceal Carry over Open Carry.   Even assuming Open Carry was socially acceptable everywhere.

NRA Sticker on the Durango is bad OPSEC.  That might be a good truck to break into and check if I am not around.  And I am often not around

A sign in my picture window saying the house is "protected by .357" is bad OPSEC.  Perhaps a deterrent when I am home, but I am often not home.

Burglar DOES break in and sees gun cleaning gear in the basement, shot up targets hanging on the wall, a .50 shell casing from that one time I shot a Ma Deuce, American Rifleman magazines on the coffee table, Cheaper than Dirt catalog on the back of the terlet.... Bad OPSEC.  A burglar will check extra careful for hidey holes and what behind that 'junk' in the basement.  Maybe a gun safe...

More OPSEC:  eschew the shoot-me-first vest.  Unless you are a 1980s photographer by trade.  Or a Han Solo cosplayer.  You don't want someone to 'make' your holster outline under your suit that you are wearing on a too-warm day, either.  Do what you can about that, but there are limits.  I like to tool around Ocean City Maryland's boardwalk in the summer wearing my Speedo trunks, tank top T, and flip flops.  If I was allowed to carry their I'd have some concealment problems to solve in my usual outfit.

Cheerios

General Mills, the other GM, makers of Cheerios, Golden Grahams, Count Chocular, et al., also delved into defense industry ventures during the War.  Artillery sights, torpedo detectors.  Later the bomb sight for the B-47 Stratojet.

And in the 1964 they built the deep submersible Alvin for $500,000.   Of course, 500 large was a lotta money back in them days.

Not bad.  I did not know that.  And I've always liked plain Cheerios.

Retro Tech!

Alert the Retrotechnologist!

There is a picture of Philo Pharnsworth.

Another Zombie Vector

Uh-oh.

"Mysterious brain illness causing terrifying outbursts."

Don't get bitten. 

Esquire Writer

Can't understand why Cops would support the 2nd Amendment or the NRA's effort to preserve same.  He calls cops that DO traitors.

Let me get this right...  Does he think that the NRA is on the side of 2 crazed murderous cop killing loonie felons?

People like me carry guns because of loonies like them.  Cops carry guns because of loonies like them.  Cops aren't special.  They aren'tNinja Ranger Delta Force Borg Magicians putting a hurt on bad guys, and only bad guys, infallibly, then go into a locker to enter sleep mode until their next shift.  They are people.  People with a job the REST of us hired them to do so we didn't have to spend a good deal of our day preserving public order.  Sure they can screw up sometimes, and make mistakes other times, or be downright evil, some of them.  Just like the rest of us.  But they can't be everywhere at once.  And they aren't responsible for me 24/7.

I am not the biggest fan of cops. When policy or personal foibles send them down the wrong path and their job shields them from the consequences of said improprieties I am outraged and it colors my opinion of cops that labor mightily to always do the right thing, regardless.  But one thing I like about many cops is they take the Constitution seriously.  Good on them.  Keep that up. 

Dismissing the biggest law of the land, like that Esquire reporter does, because you don't like it?  That's closest to Treason, here.  I hope Charles Pierce gets a nasty case of diarrhea.  So there.

I'm not too worried that cops turn to that guy to help form their opinion on how the world should be.

Henry Louis

Mencken...

The Sage of Baltimore.


He was a bit too elitist to be a perfect sage.  He didn't trust his fellow man.  But that was more that he thought he and people like him should be in charge rather than no one beholden to anyone else.  Or at least that the body politic should minimize such entanglements.  Mencken loved Liberty.  For him.  I don't think he thought it was for everyone, deserved, or even desired by most except as platitude.  He did think it better, for all, than alternatives.  Like here:

"I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty. If ever a man is to achieve anything like dignity, it can happen only if superior men are given absolute freedom to think what they want to think and say what they want to say. I am against any man and any organization which seeks to limit or deny that freedom. . . [and] the superior man can be sure of freedom only if it is given to all men."

'Superior men'.  Hmph!

Overlook that and there is plenty of other things to recommend him.  He didn't like FDR.  He DID like a good.  He never suffered fools.  And he sure knew how to turn a phrase.  That's why we still talk about him.

  
"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the Bill of Rights. "

Heh.  He didn't mean literally.  Well, not all the time.

Or maybe he did:

"I propose that it shall be no longer malum in se for a citizen to pummel, cowhide, kick, gouge, cut, wound, bruise, maim, burn, club, bastinado, flay, or even lynch a [government] jobholder, and that it shall be malum prohibitum only to the extent that the punishment exceeds the jobholder’s deserts."

Truth:

"When A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel."

"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."

Youngins

I'm not getting any younger.  I wasn't that young when I started this blog.

And blogs aren't getting any more popular with the young crowd.  We are like newspapers in 1999.  Still important, but kinda stuff, and something is around the corner to make us obsolete.

But what is that 'something'?  I ask because how are we gonna reach out to the young gunnies coming up?  Blogs were great for spreading the gun message and before that bulletin boards and story comments, but if those are fading then we may come adrift again in the so-called gun culture. 

I'd hate for the only visible outlet for gun stuff to be those Texas open carry yahoos giving us such a bad name recently.

FB and Twitter?  How real depth is there to that?  Might be a bit more widespread, tho...

Checkering

The Stand

I just started reading it.  The updated version.

I was never a huge fan of Stephen King.  My brother was a big fan and gobbled up his works.  And lately King has been a bit of an outspoken Libtard (Shut and and sing, man...)

So why the interest now?

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it is about a virulent gov't engineered fast acting virulent flu that wipes out 99% of the population.  It is set in the then 'near future' 1990, but was written in 1977.  Say what you will about King, but he does a decent job capturing time and place in a story.  And though it is about 1990, the feel is all 1977.  And I wanted a 'period piece' from that decade.  Oh sure, it's not all wide collars and whatnot.  But the mindset of the character is by necessity all 70s, because that was what the author was.  There are no IBM Dos computers, for instance.  Or music on CDs.  And he assumed the malaise of the Carter nightmare would continue for 10 more years, which is typical from late 70s books.

I'll get to WWI era stuff after this.

The big question is, when do I STOP reading the book?  A lot of Stephen King books peter out near the end and become more trouble than they are worth.

Tricky

ONE thing drilled into me in High School by ex-hippie teachers in History, 'Social Studies,' English, and Aviation Science (don't ask...) classes...  No American is above the law.  Not even the President.  Especially the President. 

Gah, they repeated that over and over.  And man they all hated Nixon.  He was 10 years in exhile in San Clemente and they still spat when they thought of him.

This was all fallout from Watergate naturally.

That was then.  This is after the W administration.  After 2008.  This is NOW.  And it's not just this 'issue of the day.'  We all in the gunnie community know that since Fast and Furious.  But even Leftists are starting to hem and haw about it and shuffle their feet, avert their gaze, change the subject. 

And GAWD those ex-hippie teachers were annoying.  Damn Red-Diaper Babies.  And it's not even because I was raised a rock ribbed Republican or Conservative.  My family didn't have National Review about anywhere.  Nor were any of them Birchers.  They kept their politics to themselves.  Religion, politics, salary, household financials... none of these were appropriate to bring up in any family discussion.  And for the most part, even today.  And from what I can tell now, Mom leans left, but isn't married to it, Dad is a bit apolitical and may be registered Independent.  My Grandfather was old school GOP, and that rubbed off on my Uncle.  But the most conservative rag in their house was Reader's Digest. 

No, I disliked hippies because they were dislikable and came around to my political position because of them and their unworkable nonsense. 

Ike

This story is powerful.

80%

He expected to be responsible for that kind of loss.  Just of Airborne.  If the Airborne failed that badly, the whole invasion may well have, too.

70 years gone

D-Day.

I remember in 1974 thinking  a penny dated 1944 was FOREVER ago.  Somehow that 30 years seems longer than this 70s years.

Here is a video of one of the less famous contributors to the invasions success.  The Hawker Typhonn fighter bomber.



I like P-47 Thunderbolts (duh) but I learned things from this video. The 2500 hp 24 cylinder engine for one... Nice.

I miss Farmer Frank

He had some serious health issues last year that he is recovering from, but his blog posts on farming had thinned out anyway.

If he had still be an active farmer, well, it looks like he'd be posting about another wet Spring vexing the Midwest planters.  A coupla years back it seemed to take forever to get the seed into to the fields.  Just mud mud mud everywhere.

I liked getting the details of the nitty gritty of such an occupation that I am so far removed from but so vital to our very existence.  Making food from dirt and water.  It's just so fascinating to me to hear well written stories about another occupation.  I don't think I can make my system administrator job half as interesting on my best day, in a post.

I met Frank at the Pittsburgh NRA convention.  I hope you are still improving, sir.

Woman Shoots Robbers

Dressed as police.

So, should this be SOP?  If people in police uniform come to your front door assume they are felons, not police, and act accordingly?

Well, I don't know if that is a good idea...  But the attitude is partly the result of wrongly executed no-knock raids.  Or rightly executed one that go all pear shaped.  A totally rational response by a felon with police trying to bust in is to fight back or surrender or flee.  A totally rational response of an innocent person is to fight back.  In either case someone is very liable to get hurt one way or another no matter what happens.  SWAT entries are dangerous, full stop.  Everyone admits that, especially officers serving the warrants.

Perhaps the police need to rethink this whole "bust down the door with a heavy thing" and come in guns ablazing.  Of course cops shouldn't be doing that to innocent people, but mistakes happen.  And it's almost certainly a bad idea when the suspect isn't violent or wanted for violent crimes.  

Ultrasonic

You know what would be neat to have?  An ultrasonic cleaner.  Get into all those nooks and crannies of a gun with ease.  Sure.

Wait... $2500?!!!

Well then.  There goes that idea.  That kinda money buys a lotta q-tips and borepatches and elbow grease.

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And speaking of gunsmithing...  Checkering in metal and wood with a specialized checkering tool.  I need to check that out.  I don't want to DO any of it, but I am having trouble picturing in my head how hand checkering works.  Seems like a pretty precise operation to do my hand without jigs and fences and what not and I am curious how they do that.

Detail

You know what was neatest about the 1911 armorer class?  Learning the detail-strip.

It always amazes me how the bits and parts logically fit together and hold other things in place to function. For instance, a pin could be used to hold the grip safety in place.  But why not incorporate the pin on the thumb safety to do double duty.  There are other examples on the gun.  And you got to hold the thumb safety in a halfway position to remove it from the frame.  Not engaged, not off, but between the two.  Or the parts won't clear.  And that helps lock it all together.  Loose pins are covered by the safety and can't fall out until you remove it in a detail strip.  And, of course, Browning designed it to be possible to detail strip using no tools but the parts of the gun, a magazine, and a spent case. 

It's just a tidy piece of late Victorian era mechanical engineering.  The golden age of mechanicals.  See the Singer Sewing machine and the Remington typewriter for other excellent examples of the more complex items.  Guns want to be simpler for reliability rather than feature loading.  I like the "simple, but not TOO simple, complex enough to function but not an iota more complicated than that."

All this fiddling makes me want to own a Luger and a Mauser C96.  Not to shoot.  At all.  But to take em apart and put them back together.  They are also put together in ingenious and intricate ways, I hear.  But they are like great books I have not yet read, just in the mechanical assembly department.  It'd be fun to explore them.  Because they are different.

Spree Killers

A murder spree usually ends with a dead murderer.

How are the cases treated if something goes wrong with this narrative and the bastard is caught, alive?

Totally different.

I wouldn't count that Nissan terrorist at Ft. Hood.  He sorta had a double purpose.  But that crazed dude that shot Congresswoman Giffords and other, and that Colorado theater shooter, THEY got caught.  And they all seem kookoo bananas.  But WE, the public don't interact with them naturally.  We rely on reports filtered through the news.

The Sandy Hook situation, I think, would have been covered very very differently if someone had clopped Lanza on the head just before he offed himself.  Same with this recent California Douche.

In other news, Hinckley is out of Saint Elizabeth's.