Squrrel Report

WWI Podcasts

These are pretty good to get your history-addict geeking out on.

The End Again.

So, really.  How does Germany lose the war?  WWI turns into trench warfare that is horrible and terrible and any offensive always just appears to be a waste and a slaughter.  So how does Germany lose. 

The problem with a war of attrition is it is hard to gauge which side is winning.  With battles you can see ground lost and gained, casualties taken and meted out.  With attrition it is harder to know.  Are my demoralized soldiers and homefront more demoralized than the enemies?  Are my people hungrier because of the U-Boat blockade or are their hungrier because of our traditional blockade?  Is our side more encouraged because of the fresh blood from the American's entering the fray or is their side boosted by the reinforcements coming from the now defunct Eastern Front?

Another thing...  Turning turtle and going on pure defense in the trenches might be the best strategy to conserve resources might be the best strategy in hindsight.  But it overlooks the fact that that cedes the initiative to the enemy.   Just because the lines are static now doesn't mean one side or the other might not prevail in a penetration and open up the whole front.  Plus, if you cede the initiative and their side IS winning on the attrition ledger you are making a mistake, and might as well surrender sooner than later. 

But this is what happened to Germany.  They lost of the war of attrition.  A desperate last offensive in the Spring of '18 with new infantry tactics (shock troops) before the Americans were built up and able to contribute failed.  Good intel on the Entente side was able to blunt a very capable push by the Germans.  And then the initiative turned and the Germans never got it back after there was a counter offensive.

German soldiers started to figure out they were losing the war of attrition significantly in later battles due to their offensives.  They'd take some territory and notice the Tommy's and Frog's and Amis' trenches were well supplied compared to their own meager rations.  This information would filter back to the homefront which had experienced a "turnip winter."  None of this depravation helped their morale.  Seeing more and more Americans coming in as reinforcements would also be despairing coming after the failure of their own reinforcement to turn the tide.  By Autumn, Germany realized their position was untenable.  Giving up and suing for peace is better than seeing the enemy parade march through Berlin after a complete surrender.

If there HAD been a complete surrender, maybe the Germans wouldn't have had a notion they had not lost the War and WWII might have been less necessary to press that fact home and spared the world that.  I've always been a fan of U S Grant's unconditional surrender policy for other reasons, but it was called for here.

The End

The anniversary of the beginning of the Great War was yesterday.  It's a war few really understand.

For instance, how did it end?  I remember being dissatisfied with the explanation in the short unit on it in High School History.  And figured I 'd learn the answer in University courses.  Not so much, really.

Let's explain.  This is what people learn in High School and what they retain if they are interested and maybe do some outside reading:

Archduke Franz Ferdinand get's shot, the way starts because of secret treaties and alliance obligations.

The Germans do the Schlieffen plan's big right hook through the Low Countries and almost get the whole darn thing starting in August of 1914.  The Miracle on the Marne and Paris cabs turn them back because Moltke pulled unit from the plan to shore up Alsace Lorraine a bit and also to meet the Russians back East.

Stalemate.  Trench warfare is a terrible horror.  Machine guns and artillery are great against men in the open but can't prevail against dugouts.  The German Verdun Campaign is a terrible horror.  The British Somme Campaign is a terrible horror.  The French are bled so white they almost collapse from the terrible horror.  French elan.  British Pals Brigades. 

Dirigibles and canvas planes and primitive tanks are interesting but no biggee really.  Cavalry doesn't do well against machine guns.  Gas warfare is tried and it's a terrible horror.  Jutland is an expensive stalemate.  U-boats.  Gallipoli is a sideshow that goes poorly for the allies but makes New Zealand and Australia into nations somehow.

The Russians sorta collapse and revolutionize and sue for peace with Germany to just end the damn thing, freeing up German troops to go to the Western Front and this is almost decisive for Germany

The Americans and Woodrow Wilson get sick of all the German depredations and come in on ally side 'just in time.'  Black Jack Pershing.

Then some things happen...  and the war ends.  Versailles Treaty.  League of Nations.  Wilson has a stroke.  The maps is divvied up arbitrarily. 

But, that ellipses:  "Then some things happen...  and the war ends."  No one marched into Berlin.  Or crossed the Rhine.  What really happens at the dot-dot-dot?   Belleau Wood is in there. 

Well, it's not just now where people are confused.  It's always been kinda muddled.  It's much simpler to get your head around WWII than this earlier war.  So I got this book to sorta shed some light on the subject.

No one talks about this last part.  Heavy fighting after the last German offensive earlier in the year. The Armies have honed their skill on both sides and are very good at their jobs.  German blitz tactics and small unit maneuver warfare get's it's start in the last year of the war.  The first inkling on how to start opening up a static defensive war of attrition...  But, more on that tomorrow.    
 

100 Years Ago Today

World War I started by those prefidous Bosche.

It would have been my 23 wedding anniversary, today, too.

Random Fog Blodder

So what am I doing?

Looking for another pair of ears.  To add to the necklace.

That's not Scope mouthwash in my desk drawer at work.  It's a Scope bottle, yes, but it's full of Creme de Menthe.  Yes, I have a problem.

Anyone know where I could find and purchase a bag of lime for cash, no questions asked?  Actually, I am asking for a friend.

Mascots

Do you recognize these two spooning corporate mascots?  No fair guessing if you have lived in Maryland or Pennsylvania.

There is a third local institution in this picture.  Bengies.   I saw Hancock there.

Fud

I need to find the place that sells this for my survival larder, too.  Prolly imported.

Mmmm, that's good sustenance...

Cracked Article

About what NOT to do in the event of a Level IV Zed outbreak.

Mostly review for my readers.

Sum up:

1. Raiding the gun store
2. Get out of town
3. Fortify your base
4. Use melee weapons to save ammo
5. Always aim for the head

And WHY don't do those 5 things

1. that's what EVERYONE will be doing and you'll fight zed and each other
2. traffic jams
3. you are fixed in place with a patien foe and limited resources
4. if you can strike at Zed, Zed can strike at you
5. Sometime a knee shot is fine, if you are heading out of the area anyway.  A shattered pelvis is hard to recover from with full mobility when you were alive, shoot him there.  Headshots are HARD.  Even with lots of rangetime.

Place Holder Post

Hey!  I need a vacation....

Gonna be outta pocket for a little bit.  Please accept the following mess of blog posts I made up a coupla months back.  There are very few morse code posts.

Probably Not Helping

At Dealy Plaza. Grassy Knolling it.



Look, buddy, the trick is to make the gun banners look like the crazed lunatics.  That's how we move that ball down the field.  We want to look reasonable.  Make the bad guys seem unreasonable.  Stop helping.   Plus Birther stuff... bleh...

Shaving

Is shaving cream a racket?

If it is, I've gone whole hog the other way, into hipster British shave preparations and fine badger fur shave brushes.  Ima Geo F Trumper Limes man.  More expensive than Colgate foam, but it smells so GOOD.  Sixteen bob a jar.

But I've always been a wet shave man.  Never was happy with an electric razor.  Military school frowned on them anyway.  You couldn't get a close enough shave.  I remember when Dad switched to a Trac II cartridge, so that's where I went.  When Dad did go to 2 blades instead of the safety razor he had a lot fewer little bits of bloody Kleenex dabs on his face. 

But nowadays, the quality of the blades doesn't seem as good, and they only come with that slime strip that I loathe.

So, what to do, if I couldn't find the cartridges I wanted?  Switch to those 6 bladed jobbers that cost $12 a week?  No, I stepped back.  To the safety razor!  And good blades that are yet very cheap.  This is 2 years worth of blades.  One fifth the cost.

The trick to fewer cuts is to get a decent blade holder that works for you.  I bet that was Dad's issue.  A crappy holder.

But I was always intrigued with stories of my blind grandfather, shaving in his personal darkness with a straight razor in front of a mirror he couldn't even see.  So, for one year, every Saturday or Sunday...  I finally worked up the nerve to use one of these.

Surprisingly, my trepidation was unfounded.  I only shave with the grain, and don't have the skill to get as close a shave as with a safety razor, but it feels good.  And I like mastering a new skill.

And yes it is pretentious and hipster.  Not stopping me.

Beretta Super Rifle

Is this a troll or something?  Is some gunnie pretending to be anti gun and also writes Yahoo copy writing this story about the ARX100?  Which is apparently extra powerful and a bargain at $1950, but that doesn't include bullets.  Tell me that article is made up to be funny. 

"Gun company Beretta is tone deaf when it comes to calls for restrictions on powerful guns sold in the United States. It must be the chance to make money."

"Regardless of its origins, the gun is unusually powerful."

"In common usage, 'tactical shooter' is one of the descriptions of video game features."

Super rifle?  It doesn't look like a Garand...

Beretta Move

Others mention the move of the Beretta factory from Maryland to a friendlier state... Tennessee.  Good on Beretta and Tennessee.

Others also noticed that the southern region of this country lost the first civil war because they were against freedom and all the good manufacturing was in the north.  Thus losing on moral and material grounds before the first angry word.

Meat

You know bird watchers.  They have this thing.  A Life List.  A personal journal where they record all the different varieties of birds they personally run across.

Well, I know some folks that have a Life List of a different sort.  For MEAT.  ANd here is a source to help you work your way through your list.  Exotic Meats.  Lion and Guinea Fowl and Zebra.  Gembok. 

No horse on their list, but I've seen other supply houses that can get you that. 

Hey, I'll try anything once.  Well.  Most anything.  No Long Pig of any form for me, thank you.  And I'm not keen on housecats or domestic dogs. 

Oddest stuff I've already had?  Gator, I guess. Scrapple.

Zed Studies

I should put this on my Amazon Wishlist.

Zombology, the study of zombies.  I coulda gotten my Masters degree in this?

Trigger the Vote

Just spread this about some.

Yeaaaahhh....

The well is dry today.  But I am working on something for tomorrow.  I think.  Bit distracted.  Feelin poorly and my car is also sick.

He asked for blog fodder

What came next will SHOCK you!

SWAT abuses!

We... me... I, I grumble about SWAT abuses from time to time here.  I yearn for the good old days, when cos were more like Barney Fife.  And then LA Police Chief Gates invented Special Weapons and Tactics and everything law enforcement went to Heck in a Hanky!

Not like in the 30s.  When cops were honest, and the innocent were safe from such heinous behavaior preformed under the color of law or summat.

Oh wait.  The best romantic comedy ever filmed, never since surpassed, came out in 1940.  If you and missus/mister ain't seen it, give yourself a treat.  See His Girl Friday, starring Ralph Bellamy.  Also Rosalind Russell. Some British guy named Archie Leach, too.  It about a newpapermen.  A Red is about to be hanged in New York City.  Hilarious!


Annnnnnyway, they gotta catch that murderer. And he's loose!  They send out the Rifle Squad to bring him down, shoot to kill!

A ha! They had SWAT teams back in time of Laguardia...   they just called it something else.  And they had a reputation of being heavy handed.  Though I can't find any other references to them, apart from the colloquialism from a movie from the era.  Seems there was a Tactical Patrol Force in the 50s, but that looks more like a riot squad.

Cops and Revolvers

Huh.  Another blogger that has internal question on the wisdom of arming Barney Fife with semi-autos back in the 80s.  And how it is one of the early steps involved in the militarization of the police forces of the United States.  He is talking about China's cops going from nothing to a 6 shooter, so I guess, in a way, the cops THERE are escalating too.  They are just a step behind.

Really.  What does 12 rounds of 9mm in a semi solve that 6 rounds in a revolver didn't?  I mean really.   Actual outcomes.  Yes, police had a bad resolution when they needed a 7th shot with a 6 round revolver.  But police have a bad situation when they need a 13th round out of a 12 round magazine.  Or a 19th round out of a 18 round magazine.  And it is probable mathmatically more common to need that 7th when you only have 6, than if you need that 19th when you only have 18.  But is it statistically significant, really? 

Of course there is the cost consideration, and I don't poo-poo that.  It's harder to keep costs down per unit!  Ruger did do a bit of it, and, presumably, if the cops stuck to revolvers in the past 3 decades I imagine there would be more along the lines of cheaper revolver construction and procurement.

Zombie Survival Guide

From here.

No, not how to survive the Zombacalypse. How they can survive their new unlife against YOU, you trigger happy gun nut.

Sing!

Anniversary

Hey!  Been blogging 7 years now.

Rights and Emotions

"Your right to self defense?!  You right to keep and bear arms?!  What about my right to feel safe?!"

You don't have a right to that feeling.  It's a feeling.   That's on you.  It's not the goverment's job to make you feel feelings or protect your feelings or check to see what stimuli makes you feel certain feelings and then make policy to increase or decrease such stimuli.

The gov't is only supposed to not interfere with your pursuit of happiness.  It's not some bureaucrat's job to stalk, run to ground, dispatch happiness, then field strip and quarter happiness and wrap it in butcher paper and deliver happiness to your chest freezer. 

But lets say we are on the hook for each other's feelings, through the filter of government.  Why do YOUR feeling to feel safe trump MY feelings to feel safe?  A firearm in the home is what I use to keep the zombies, flash mobs, rogue SWAT teams, King George III, and home invaders away.  It makes me feel safe.  Oh you think my worries of undead monarchist ERT cops is silly?  How DARE you question the validity of my feelings.  That's a HATE crime.  Two can play at that game.  Well I think YOUR feelings are silly, too. 

So we are at an impasse.  No wait, we aren't.  Because there is no such thing as a right to feel some way, but there is a natural right to defense yourself.  Game, Set, Match.  Checkmate.  Stragego!  Yahtzee!  Pente.  Boo yah.  GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! 

Now, I looked these up

Tam called out a dude that confused the .38 Long Colt with the 9mm NATO standard, somehow.  He thought 9mm was much weaker than it actually is.  So I looked em up. Did the legwork.   Pistol energies, average-ish, with FMJ bullets, in general, are:

• 9mm 400 ft/lb
• .45 ACP  360 ft/lb
• .38LC  175 ft/lb
• .38ACP 330 ft/lb
• .38Super  480 ft/lb
• .38Special  200 ft/lb

You all know the stories...  .38 Long Colt blackpowder revolver cartridges seem inadequate again drugged up Phillipine insurreectionists over 100 years ago, so we got Browning to make a semi-auto 1911 in God's own caliber for the world.  Yay.

Later, in the Reagan era, we switched to 9mm to make our allies happy or something.  At least simplify supply issues in the event of a hot war with the Soviets pouring through the Fulda Gap.  Right.

Plus, we must remember, the Hague conventions restrict bullets to full metal jacket only, and maybe we should unilaterally pull out of that part of the agreement, yada yada yada.  Modern ammo would be better, yes. 

And foot pounds of energy doesn't tell the whole story, no, yes, we all understand that.

What surprised me with this exercise that I had done before, was how close .45ACP and 9mm were in energy.  My assumption up to now was that there was a much bigger gap in foot pounds of energy with 9mm head and shoulders way above .45.  I was mistaken.  The two were closer than I thought.  That detail slipped by me up until this point.  I like when I learn junk.

Ok, ok, ok...   Ok.  How bout this?  185 grain .45 ACP.  But a semi-wadcutter.  Still fully jacketed.  Or with a tungsten carbide needle like core. Much gentler recoil with thems, I've found, but the speed might get north of 1000 ft/s with a subsequent bump of energy.  Nah, that hard tip will mess up any gun's feedramp.  Forget I said anything, I don't know what I am talking about.  Those gentler recoils I experienced were prolly from less propellant as well as less bullet weight.

AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS?!!

Or has EVERYONE to the left of center gotten a little dummer lately.  Tam calls it "Gun Derpes".   Now it's Rolling Stone.   The world's deadliest guns are the ones that shoot things out of them, apparently.  huhWha?...

I KNOW!  I didn't know that either.

1. Pistols
2. Revolvers
3. Rifles
4. Shotguns
5. Derringers

(yes 'dummer')

Blue on Blue

Conservative outlet complains about another conservative outlet getting details wrong on firearms, while getting a lot of details wrong on firearms.

I sorts can see what the Fox story is trying to say that the PJMedia story brings up.  Fox did a poor job explaining, but their point stands when you decipher it.  But then PJMedia starts comparing pistol bullets to "a rifle’s larger and faster bullet..."  well... yes, faster...  But 230 is still a bigger number than 165 or 55.  And I don't think the PJMedia guy has ever field stripped a Beretta.  The slide is... not usual...

Sheesh.  A pox on ALL of our pedantic houses!

Women are Weak

And shouldn't carry a gun.  If a gun gets involved in a squabble with a rapist or robber, heck, he'll just take the gun away from you and shoot you with it.  Silly dames.  Thinking above their station.  Be a victim like the Democrats taught you.  Them Leftists can't even exist without a created Proletariat. 

In other news:  Woman Snatches Carjacker's Gun, Shoots Him

Sweet.

Lethal Weapon

III

Turns out I had never seen this movie until this past weekend.  I've seen 2 and 4, but somehow this got past me. 

This is the one with the dirty cop/ex-cop dealing guns to street gangs, and it has a few of those big gunnie bugaboos.   Cop killer bullets and closed bolt semi-autos being readily converted to submachineguns.

Both make sense.  Or would to a person unfamiliar to the gun-o-sphere.  "Sure, I don't know how to convert a semi auto into a machine gun but I can imagine how that could be easy," would have been MY thought, when the movie came out.  And it would have seemed common sense that a submachine gun is much more dangerous that a pistol, right?  And a special pointy 9mm bullet that go through a vest like butter?  I knew nothing of ballistics (or proper feedway loading from a magazine...) back in the mid 90s, I'll have to take the movies word for it, then.

But hey, there IS a cut the red/blue wire to disarm the bomb dealie in this flick.  Bonus! 

Solve This Military Problem

It's age old.  And the Army is sorta dipping into it again with thoughts of a new model pistol.

Rifles are effective weapons, but are too bulky to port about when you are doing non shooty things.

Pistols are portable, but inneffective.  The bullet isn't nearly as lethal as a rifle bullet, and it is much harder to be skilled enough to deploy a pistol to full potential.

So, throughout time, they try to shrink the rifle down or embiggen the pistol up, but no one has nailed that sweet spot.

How do you equip non-direct-combat types with a weapon that is both portable AND effective?  No one has penetrated this barrier.

The laws of physics weigh against you, I fear.    THANKS A LOT, NEWTON!  If that apple/gravity guy hadn't invented that cookie I'd have no use for him.  But I failed Calculus twice

T-Bolt waves a magic wand and solves it somehow...  Let's say you could solve the problem?  Wouldn't the regular old combat-type trigger-puller, tip of the spear folks, just take up this new thing?  Heh.

But the answer is simple the 1911 pattern Colt .45 is nigh perfect.  We just need to make a Colt .46.  People have been talking about this for YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARS.  Just do it.  Bam!  Solution!  You're welcome.

Army's New Pistol

Let me right now highly encourage the US Army to go back to the 1911 for their sidearm.  Yes.

Oh, not for the usual reasons.  It's .45, it's a superior pistol, it's the sentimental favorite, it's downright nigh perfect.  No none of that.

The 1911A1, admittedly, needs a bit of armorer support.  and in 6 year or so I want a LOT of discharged E-5s with that MOS back in the civilian world.  Competent 1911 pistol smiths.  At least some of them will be.  And it will drive gunsmithing costs down to me, the user.

700

So how many of you own one of of those ticking time bombs known at the Remington 700 bolt action rifle?  Five million rifles!  That could go off at any moment! 

It looks like 2006 might be the cut off date.  And since I only started to think about shooting stuff much around 2007.  So I would have been ok, if I had bought a new rifle. 

--

For those few of you unfamiliar.  There have been claims that the trigger in a Remington 700 bolt action rifle of a certain vintage could malfunction and cause the gun to fire with no manipulation of the trigger.  Remington has settled some lawsuits after decades of denial.  Might be a recall of all those rifles now.  All of a sudden, 5 million rifles somehow feel less secure somehow, but those owner had be confident up to that point.

Theme Song

Harry Hates Linguini

Detective Harry Callahan.  He seems to work in a crack against Linguine or Linguine eaters in several of his movies.  It might be universal, in every movie.

I guess Dirty Harry really does hate everyone.

I noticed it in Sudden Impact.  When mobster Threlikis is vapor locked into a miacardial infarction during his grandaughter's wedding by Harry's meddling, Harry gets off a one-liner.

In the first two movies, Harry's normal partner is a portly Italian that in both movies it is said "he eats too much linguine."  This is Dirty Harry and Magnum Force movies.

Now I have to watch the rest on something I can pause and rewind to see if there are more pasta references.  Lessee...  The Enforcer and Dead Pool.   This is imporant gun related research, you know.

Man does he hate pasta...

Uh oh

White House plans for bowling alley upgrades abruptly canceled

I guess they found Nixon's Gold.  I knew he hid it around the White House somewhere.  Makes sense he'd put it there.  Hillary is gonna be SO peeved she didn't have the chance to find it in 2017.

It's the only real explanation why the renovation was suddenly halted.  Plus dealing with all the curses and bains that Dick put on the seals to the burial chamber.  You gotta handle that stuff delicately.  Hate to have to call in an Old Priest and a Young Priest to do a Whitehouse exorcism.  AGAIN.

Work Buddy

So a work buddy is moving out of DC and to Virginia.  He's a former Marine that transferred to the Air Force, and has spent time overseas as a civillian contractor.  As a DC resident there is NO WAY he can own a gun....   Yeah....  Anyhoo.  Here is his recentest email:

"Ok, so I move into Virginia in a couple weeks, first gun purchase?

• I do like the HK MP5 a lot
• Love M4s
• Not a huge handgun fan
• Like .45 over 9mm

GO!"

My answer, so far, is "Well, that depends..."  You know how it is. 

And he is one of many former Marines I've come across that eschew pistols.  Interesting.

Personally, I'd avoid the MP5.  But that's me.  He is trained with AR, go for the carbine.  Next, and more important question, how to kit it out.  My personal pref is lightweight stuffs.  But I'll need to hear back from him.  And while I also prefer the .45, I told him the trend it toward 9mm.  In case he is the sort that follows the fashion trends....

I guess I need a new name for this new work buddy gunnie.  In case I have to refer to him again, and want to keep him anonymous.   How bout Lance Corporal Cunningham?

I did meet him in Nam.

Tea for Two

I need a gross of tea candles.  And I was gonna go to that Ikea to get em, but...  Not now.  Not because of a boycott, per se, but I don't want to be there on a day when bad guys do a hostage situation thingy.  Since bad guys are the only ones allowed in there, armed, you know.  Everyone else would get into BIG trouble, Buster!  So, the cops can't go through the door, they'll just have to beseige the place and starve us all out.  And it's not like a host of victims and kidnappers can't hole up in an Ikea for a long long time.  All that bedding, and meatballs to subsist on.  At least some SWAT tragedy won't happen.  But I don't have the vacation days to be a hostage for a coupla months.

Sometimes my back up store is Target.  For tea candles.  But I can't go there, now that we are all boycotting it.

Walmart?  Weren't we boycotting them too 6 years ago because they were recording personal data on all ammo purchases somewhere sometime?  Is that boycott over?

Crap.  I'm boned.

Takoma Park is like 8 minutes away from me

AH HAHAHA HA HA HA!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

"Police Chief in Uniform Told to Leave Gun Outside Ikea"

You'll have to remember that in 1981, when that Reagan guy got elected, Takoma Park declared themselves a nuclear free zone, that town did.  They sorta straddle the DC line.  They refused to deal with contractors involved with any arms sales to the DoD, so all their police squad cars were expensive Volvos.  (They were almost Saab, then someone told them about Viggens)

And now the police chief can't shop at Ikea while strapped.  Good luck when a shooter invades the Takoma Ikea store.

Either way, no armed cops allowed!


Fools.


And it's kinda iffy if that Ikea is in Takoma Park or College Park, home of the University of Maryland, and the fighting Diamondback Terrapin, Testudo.  Iffy to me, at least. 

Money quote:

Neither of those options seemed a good one to the officer. "It isn't the most prudent thing to do to walk around the store in uniform with an empty holster," he said. "And I am not going to lock my gun in a commercial parking lot, with people watching me put it in there. That's just ludicrous."

Me either, buddy.  I don't see the sense of it either.

Ikea is walking it back, now.

This is in MARYLAND, mind you.  With precious few CCW folks.  No one OCs here except police.  So what few CCW people there are are just continuing to carry on the down low.  Oh, and the crooks are still strapped, of course.

I'm sure this cluster will be straightened out when the store has a chance to think about it.  I do like it when the Soiled Undergarment Histrionics Brigade gets called out for their foolishness and hoisted by their own petard.

and again

SWAT team overkill: "80 percent of small towns now have their own paramilitary forces" http://t.co/NzMFg2lMQo

— Salon.com (@Salon) July 7, 2014

Salon

Correlating gun ownership with all violence rather than with ONLY violence caused by guns is for dishonest wingnuts

— Salon.com (@Salondotcom) July 7, 2014

Monday Blahs, again

What is it about Sundays that I can't get up the gumption to write a Monday post?  It's odd.  I got all day to think about it, it's Sunday.

Not much out there on other blogs, even, to riff off of.  Except for this.  A 70s housewife blog.  Yeah that was what growing up, in the 70's was like.  Our kitchen was Harvest Gold.  I was always jealous of the houses with Advocado Green, too.  And I remember what a huge deal it was when the grocery bill was $100 the firs time.  And kid's shoes pushing $10 a pair....

But none of that is gun related.

I missed a range trip last week.  I blame the short week.  Gonna go again this week tho.

That 70s stuff reminds me.  My dad bought a 1969 Pontiac LeMans wagon, green, like this one.  But not this specific one.

It had a 400 cubic inch engine in it and he kept it until he got a 1978 Pontiac Bonneville 2-door.  The thing HAD seatbelts.   Lapbelts.  But they were only buckled on special occasions, and then inconsistently.  Maybe a dozen times?  Usually my brother and I rolled around in the back.  We started wearing the seatbelt consistently around 1980, I guess?  Certainly 1983 or 4.  So I am celebrating 30 years of safety.  Wonder if there is a connection to that correlation.

Thing is, I was never in an accident before the seatbelts were mandatory, and I've been in a few since.   

Gangsta Style

You know how Gangstas shoot!  They shoot it sideways!

Here is Jerry Miculek (h/t Firearm) testing out the grip type, 'scientifically'.



I have a confession to make.  I have never SEEN anyone hold a pistol sideway except when making fun of the gangster style sideways grip in gunnig websites and blogs.  Is this even a real thing?  Is there photographic evidence of it somewhere I am just not privvy to?  Some iconic movie I haven't seen?  Is this a Grand Theft Auto video game thing that didn't exist in the world before that? I'm beginning to think that you are all trying to put one over on me with this. Pull the other leg, it has bells on it.

Heavy

Milwaukee Famous

A beer ad that RobertaX might like.

Well, the radio part.  I'm sure she wouldn't mind Tam making a run the fridge for her, either.  Awful night of her.  I'm sure Roberta would return the favor another time.  But now, she is busy trying to hold a signal from Des Moine that is detailing the location of a deadly face-eating monkey horde and it's a little tricky.

Glorious Forf

Hey King of England?!  Keep outta my face.

Tip for Gunstores

Display the pink handled pistol in your gun case where it is easily seen.  Never offer it to any potential customer.  NEVER.

Someone wants to buy that gun.  That particular someone will ask to see it.   How can anyone miss it?  Everyone else wants nothing to do with it. 

Do you usually push something like a Glock 17 on new shooters as a started gun?  Great.  Put the pink handled gatt next to the Glocks.  Do you new shooter spiel with the Glock and ignore the pink.

Don't worry.  The customer that wants that gun will find it and buy it.  Leave everyone else alone about it.  Pretend it isn't even there unless someone wants to see it.

Cut the blue wire...

But first be sure you have disconnected the red wire or the bomb WILL go off.

Why is it, in Hollywood, the time bombs that some poor shlub has to defuse (am I using that word right?  How about diffuse?  If you don't defuse the bomb it will diffuse you all over the landscape) always comes down to "cut the blue, or cut the red wire."  And choosing wrong ALWAYS leads to bomb detonation.

You're the villain that made the bomb, maybe hide it better instead of setting up some elaborate electronic trap where diffusing the time wrong leads to KABOOM. 

I got 10 seconds left on the clock, I don't want an electric impulse going from the timer to the detonator, all wires are getting snip snip snipped.  But that is just me.

So many shows:

The Abyss, the green light meant he couldn't SEE the colors. 

A M*A*S*H   episode.

The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down.

That time when there was a bomb on the Skytanic.  Lukcily Ray Gillette knows his bombs.

The Manhattan Project.  With John Lithgow!

Militarization

Saw my first police up-armored SWAT suburban assault vehicle in the wild this week.  It was on the way to the Harris Tweeter grocery.  They were giving a ride to civvie dames..  Cops know that women like a cool ride, right?  Amiright fellas?

They had the back doors open.  I bet the AC is no good in them things, and that is why.

Meh.  I don't know how I feel.  Better to be using the superfluous things to flirt with gals than to use them to do a live fire re-enactment of the battle of Kursk in lovely downtown Greenbelt.  Or Laurel. 

It was one of these.    With all the ports and windows and such.  Not a paddy wagon.  No turret up top, at least.

Keep Your Stinkin Paws Offa Me

You damn dirty gun grabber!

The latest Planet of the Apes movie has an anti-gun message?  Well, that makes me less likely to seek out the movie and watch it, now.

Super intelligent monkeys at war with us Humans?  I'd think that would be a better argument for universal rifle ownership AND mandatory training. 

I've never liked monkeys.  I never understood why Human's urge to kill off Neanderthals didn't extend to monkeys.  At least the bigger kinds, chimps, orangutuans, gorillas.  See what happens?  They get super intelligent and go to war with us.  If spiders could grow to the size of housecats there would be a concerted effort to extinctify them, too.  Anyway, a species that represents an existential threat?  You don't want that on the same planet.

Now, the important question:  What caliber for smart-monkey warfare?  These are animals that might be able to take more punishment than a man.  5.56 and 9mm might not be enough.  More 'ammunition' for fans of 7.62x51mm and .45ACP, again.  Great.  But if 9mm wasn't enough to stop a drug crazed Moro looking to end Yankee imperialism in the Phillipine, it sure isn't gonna work against a Mountain Gorilla outside Woodley Park.