The Thing on the Fourble Board

And one of the scariest radio plays...

Three Skeleton Key

One of my favorite radio plays. Vincent Price, 1950.



And my favorite description of the ocean:  "And all about it, the churning water, gray-green, scum-dappled, warm as soup...."

WW

I can tell I've been busy at work.  There are a lot fewer gun blogs about, and I haven't even been able to keep up with them.  So my posting suffers.  Anyway.

I've always liked Walter Williams.  He is a constant. A rock in the river.  And just a little older than my father.

Now this article is mostly review for us already-gun-enthusiasts.  It's review for the rest of the country that pays attention to the issue, too.   We don't need to be told that AR stand for Armalite, for example.

You won't get much out of it, information wise.  You just get Walter Williams prose, reinforcement by repetition, and a great distillation of the issue.

Rome again, Rome again, giggity gig

I used to think Caligula was the worst Roman emperor and Nero second worst, but I am beginning to change my mind.  No longer so sure.

I was familiar with the antic of Little Boots and Nero, and familiarity breeds contempt.  The ones I, personally, was unfamiliar with are as bad or worse.

Tiberius, before Nero, had a lot of bad press after death.  He'd diddle little boys and kick em off a cliff into the sea when he was done with them.  But he was probably only a child rapist, not child murderer.  The histories were unkind to all the bad emperors and probaby exagerrated the negatives quite a bit.  But even if you discount a lot of the reports these are all bad.
Commodus.  Joaquin Phoenix.  Concentrated on being a gladiator and thusly ran the empire into the ground.  You know how Phoenix played him in the movie?  He actually toned it DOWN from the reality. 
Caracalla? Awful
Elagabus? Also.

They were all either:

Murderous, delusional, tryannical, perverts, or,
Murderous, psychopathic, tryannical, perverts, or,
Murderous, sociopathic, tryannical, perverts, or,
In one case, a murderous, paranoid, tryannical, pervert.

And by 'pervert', I don't mean sexual deviants your great grandma would be horrified by, or YOU would disapprove of, but perverts by their own contemporary Roman standards.  And, in many ways, Rome was much more loosey goosey the the more libertine 5% of modern society.

The usual common motif is a early 20's or younger boy was given absolute power and had noother authority that could temper his impulses.  And that power corrupted him.

So, how to you measure the WORST emperor?  Body count by genocide?  Caracalla?  Reigned the longest so had the longest time to sap an empires resources?  Commodus?  Craziest?  Caligula.

And I am only up to the mid 3rd Century. 

Deception

It occurred to me.

Anti-gun folks on TV, in the paper, on the internet.  They never tell the truth.  Never.  Not fully.  They might throw out a statistic that is factually true, by itself, but everything, literally EVERYTHING, is presented in a way that has the purpose to deceive.

"Conceal Carriers are dangerous killers.  Here is statistics of their body count."  And while the number is as close to factual and you sorta cannot quibble with the total, included in that total are suicide (killed someone, huh?), and CCW peeps that bashed someone's head in with a bat.   So ban guns.

"30,000 gun deaths!"  Yeah, 2/3rds are suicide by firearm.  Not good, but also no murder.  So ban guns!

"Military style assault weapon murders are up!" Well, coverage in the news is certainly way up.  But so called assault-weapons kill fewer people than kicks to the head every year, and murders are down by half in 30 years.  But by all means, sensationalize stuff to make it seem a crisis where it isn't.  AND BAN GUNS!

I can't remember a time, an instance, ever, in the past 15 years where anti-gunners didn't straight up tell the truth with no purposes of deception.  The closest they get is when they stick to feelings and subjective emotion and include no objective facts in their argument, "Guns scare me, I feel like they should be banned."

There is not factual objective cite to draw upon to make their argument because they haven't made one.  Ever.  Not just since I've been paying attention.  EVER.  Since 1968, since 1934.

Their arguments are way too weak.  And they never even try to exploit the few weaknesses on our side. 

What weaknesses?  You know them, but I'm not going to state them out loud.  The weaknesses are minor, but why leave ANY ammunition lying around for the enemies of rights and freedoms to just pick up and turn against u?

Range 22 OCT

I started with a magazine at 25 yards.  12 'cold' shots out of a rented Commodity, Plastic, Striker-Fired, Service Pistol.

If you count the holes to center mass, there are only 11, so I guess one flinched down to the crotch level.  Dang.

Then I brought it closer, 8 yards, and did the head shots.  Similar drill, I've done this before.  I have that little yellow bit, might as well aim for it.  And it keeps me honest because I can't much see the the holes in the black, so, less 'prairie dogging,' looking up over the sights, to see how I did. 

Then, new target.  50 more shots. 

Not too bad.  You can see my groups easing over to the right more as I fatigue.  I kinda like that upper right target.  Felt pretty good.  7 shots touching.

What I was working on, what I was there for, what I was trying to improve or at least keep honed was my trigger pull.  Per usual.  Trying to make if faster.  A surprise trigger pull on demand.  Not:  aim.... aim....  pull back the trigger... aim... squeeze.... aim... surprise-BANG.  Not: Aim... flinch-BANG.  But:  Aim..... surprise-BANG!

It's all I've been working on. 

I need to see if I can get some training.  I wanna do that, but in pairs.  Decent pairs.

Think of sumthin T-Bolt

You owe me a Sunday blog post.  And try to improve you quality.  Yeah, I know, you been playing that stupid new game.

Hey!  That reminds me!  More stupid new games.

Lots come out around now.  It's the season for game releases.

But there is a stupid old game coming out.  Red Dead Redemption 2.  But for PC. 

I suck at console controllers, so I don't use one.  And Red Dead was console only.  Until this November 5th.

I know the storyline to the game.  It's been spoiled for me.  But I just want to go around as Arthur, riding and hunting and camping and just enjoying the absolute beyootiful scenery this game has on offer.   Maybe look for Gavin.  Help that English tenderfoot out.

Lots of gunplay in that game, too.

So, I am not blogging right now

It means I am playing this.   Which came out yesterday.

Space-Fallout.  New Vegas.

Also...

St Crispins




What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

75 years ago

The last battle between battleships happened.

Part of the Battle of Leyte, this engagement happened in Surigao straight.

Admiral Oldendorf had six battleships: West Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, Tennessee, California, and Pennsylvania.  All but Mississippi had been sunk or damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor and repaired.

And that is kinda neat.  You can't reliably get that many battleships fightin' on one side in World of Warships.  Maybe every third game?  Like this:

G. Gordon?

Nooooooooooooooo!!!

The Goat

So, rewatching this Buster Keaton short, with the ability to pause, I am really getting into the snapshot in time you catch of the background in non-studio shots.  They painted ads everywhere them days, 1921. (and if you watch close like, there is some revolver gunplay, a big ol honking one 12 minutes in.)

Soft Drinks, Beech Nut chewing tobacco, and Coca Cola.  Soft drinks.  It's Prohibition.  You can still get Beech-Nut.  I wonder if that Coca Cola stuff caught on.  Hey, where was this movie shot?  Jersey or Cali?  Hard to tell in the early days of film

Ah, California.  A Proto Safeway in South Hollywood.

"1914 In a separate commercial effort Sam Seelig founds a chain of four stores in California called Sam Seelig Grocers. According to the Safeway web site, this chain grew to over 322 stores by 1926. In 1925 he renamed them Safeway."


Ol' Engine 3244 SoPac RR

 It's a Mikado 2-8-2, built in 1913.  You can buy that train.

Chesterfield satisfies, and more Beech Nut.

This place had been in business 22 years when this was filmed in 1921.  Cohn and Goldwater clothiers.  Sort of a Dickies of Souther California.  Clothes for the working man

Another.  This is now a museum locomotive, 1229

Tires and Chinese food.

Chockablock with ads.  Is that coca cola again, or someone violating their trademark?  Gold Dust?

Question...

For the GOP conservatives that are looking forward to a post-Trump world where they get back in the driver seat.

Ok, you got another head of the party, and he isn't a loud-mouth vulgarian from Queens.

What Trump policies are you looking to reverse?

• cutting regulations
• enforcing law and order, both crime and immigration laws, supporting the police, but not over incarcerating
• refraining from nation building with an active and kinetic foreign policy
• not rolling over on trade deals, ceding every advantage to our partners and rivals
• lower taxes
• low interest rates, low inflation
• full employment, and the end of the Great Recession of his predecessor
• vigorous appointing of Originalist justices
• kiboshing Global Warming baloney

Which of these do you think is really the wrong direction and un-conservative?  

If Pence ran on continuing all these things in 2024, would that be bad, that post-Trump world?  If Mitt Romney won the nom again and ran on all these things, would you vote of AOC, instead, in the general, because it smacks of Trump?

If you are a conservative and have anything more severe than mild opposition to any of the policy results, above, are you really a conservative?  What do you DO here?

Midway

Tam posted this.  Midway battle from the perspective of the Japanese

I had seen it before, and this sort of history stuff is right in both our wheelhouses.

I am expounding on one part, that struck me, upon rewatch

"The only chance Japan had in winning this war, was if the American carrier fleet was destroyed."

Hmmm.

That may have been the thinking at the upper echelons of the Japanese leadership, but was it right?

Let's say they did take Midway, and then sank all four carriers that came after them and with minimal Japanese losses.  From this momentum they continued, spreading a bit more of their sphere out, raiding on Hawaii, pushing supply lines to Australia further south or even the east to come via the Indian Ocean.

Bad for us.  But does it just delay the allies eventual victory?  Lots of new ships are still on the ways, more than the Japanese can produce.

I don't think it does.  Victory in the Pacific before 1948 still happens.  The Japanese were deluding themselves.  I don't think we'd quit after such a (devastating, surely) loss.

"I wish he would stop tweeting"

I hear that from everyone.  Trump haters, of course, but also people that voted for him and from fans. (not the same thing)

I wish he would stop tweeting.

And I get it.  Trump's biggest negative is that he is a loudmouth vulgarian from Queens.  And that all is in your face because of the constant tweeting.

If he was charismatic and amiable like Reagan was that'd be great, huh?

Well, the thing is, he is president because of his tweeting, not despite them.  Being boisterous in tweets draws attention.  And tweeting is him directly communicating without filters.  He is going to up his tweet level now.  An election is coming in a year.  Maybe after that he will dial it back.  Unless he wants to get something passed through Congress...

Getting and staying in the Whitehouse has in history often been greatly helped due to a candidate best exploiting the latest communication gizmos.  Tyler and broadsheet gazetteering with song books, Lincoln and the telegraph,  FDR and radio, Kennedy and B&W TV, Reagan and color TV.  Clinton and the then extra plethora of TV talk shows.  Obama and email lists.

Trump and tweets.

Also, Trump and memes.

A new candidate at a future election will have the next new big way to communicate with the electorate.  Watch.  The one that works the new medium best will come out on top.

---

Yeah, yeah, more Trump nonsense.  I wanted to get Tippecanoe into a post.  If it's too much Trump send me a wire or Aeromail demanding a refund of your blog subscription and I will give you back all the money you are due.

Voting record

Everyone is doing a mea culpa.  "I am so sorry I voted for Mitt Romney, what a crap weasel he turned out to be."

"I am so sorry I voted for Egg McMuffin in 2016.  All he had to do was not go kookoo banananas."

I could piss my pants in public and it still wouldn't be as embarrassing as the fact I cast a protest vote in 2016 for this absolute knob. https://t.co/cDjJ8t5zYt

— 𝔱𝔰𝔞𝔯 𝔟𝔢𝔠𝔨𝔢𝔱 𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔪𝔰 (@BecketAdams) October 19, 2019

Well, I voted for McCain, but only because of Sarah Palin.  I was gonna vote for no one until she got on the ticket.  I don't regret that.  Because of her.

I did NOT vote for Mitt.  I live in Maryland, it didn't matter.  I voted for no one for president.  And I am glad I did.  I am glad some deep Dem OP didn't fool me into not supporting a decent conservative fighter, throwing the re-election to a guy as bad as Carter.  Turns out Mitt isn't decent, or conservative, and was always a loser. 

I held my nose with Trump, but that was because he wasn't Hillary, and had a chance.  If slim. No way he would win.

I still don't believe he did.

He's been a pleasant surprise exceeding my standard of "he isn't Hillary."

Can you tell I am reaching for flog bladder?  Er, bog fluffer?  BLOG FODDER!

So what is gun related about Trump, that loudmouth vulgarian from Queens that few like yet voted for?

Well, I am nervous about future gun cases.  Because there is a risk, even if Trump already HAD replaced Ginsberg you don't know how the cases will go until they do.  Like New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York.

Lets assume that one stays on the docket (and there is a chance it will get yoinked.  New York thinks they will lose so retreated and repealed to avoid getting dragged to SCOTUS, hoping to moot the whole thing.)  So, it goes up and let's say it rules on our favor.  5 to 4 or 6 to 3.  What does that mean?  It means someone in New York city can take his gun to a range, minimum in that case.  But the devil is in the details.  It could be really good news.  Shall Issue in all 50?  Constitution Carry in all 50?!  These are too much to hope for.  But could happen.

Of course a lot of YOU don't care.  You got carry.  Florida might care.  It might make that whole "slip and print while concealed and someone sees you can get in trouble."  It's nice to plug up situations like that for Florida, in cases that no one in Vermont or Alaska gives a fig about.  A whole host of things could get corrected for the better in Maryland though.

A little or a lot of corrective, it is all because Trump won and Hillary lost.

"But Trump banned arm braces and bump stocks, T-Bolt! He's not on our side?"

Maybe.  Maybe not.  I can see this Trump guy being slippery with ATF regs.

Sorry!

Thought I had something lined up here!

Uhhh, wait one.


----


Yeah, this is weird.  The lower receiver is ruled that it isn't a receiver on an AR, maybe?

How is that difference than my bare 1911 frame, then? 

The AR lower contains the hammer lock work, but that is removable.  The magazine goes in there too.  The upper part has the barrel and firing pin and sights location and the breech face...

The 1911 frame contains the hammer lock work, but that is removable. The magazine goes in there.  The upper part has the barrel and firing pin and sights location and the breech face...

See?  I am waiting for smarter people to hash this out, but I think many folks are confused all around.  And I like it when out enemies are confused. 

Every Fall

I try to psyche myself up to set the thermostat to 50 degrees.  Toughen myself up.  Get acclimated.  Probably better for me.  Wear more sweaters.

Yeah!

Only...

Shaving is tough early mornings.  Middle of the night getting up to use the facilities isn't easy either.

I don't think a space heater in the smallest room would do the trick, and while a time can be set for wake up time, it doesn't account for middle of the night activities. 

And I don't have a woodstove.  Olden days, it was the pater familias' job to get up first and stock the banked coals back to life and the rest of the family can enjoy the toasty blaze and conduct their toilette in moderate comfort.  Enjoy the cold over night, not suffer like a Spartan dressing for the day. 

It's a hard habit to adopt when a thermostat is so easy. 

Training for a MD Purchase Permit

If you don't get to waive your training requirement for the HQL, I wondered how do you find a trainer that will work to qualify?

Within 3 years prior to the submission of an HQL application, an applicant must demonstrate a satisfactory completion of a Firearms Safety Training Course. Qualified Handgun Instructors can be found online HERE. The Firearms Safety Training Course must be instructed by a Qualified Handgun Instructor, and shall consist of a minimum of 4 hours of instruction and include the following minimum curricula:

1. State Firearm Law. Overview of the State firearm laws, including discussion of what constitutes a regulated firearm, how to properly purchase or transfer a firearm, where allowed to carry or transport a firearm, when necessary to possess a carry permit, who is prohibited from possessing firearms, and state law relating to minors, permissible levels of force, and use of deadly force. 
2. Home Firearm Safety. Overview of handgun and firearm safety in the home, including discussion of access to minors, locking and storing of firearms, and use of safety devices, such as secure lock boxes. 
3. Handgun Mechanisms and Operation. Overview of the proper operation and safe handling of a handgun, including cleaning and maintenance, the loading and unloading of ammunition, and the differences between revolvers and semi-automatic handguns. 
4. Operation and Handling Demonstration. Orientation component that demonstrates the person’s safe operation and handling of a firearm, to include a “live fire” component in which the applicant safely shoots the weapon. An applicant may not be required to fire in excess of 15 yards during qualifications.

The web page to apply for an HQL has a handy link.   Put in a zip code and it spit out local teachers.  Remember that cop that died in downtown Silver Spring a few posts ago?  Here are all the instructors in that zip code.

CUNNINGHAM, BILLY JOE SILVER SPRING MD 20910
moreno, roberto edward Silver spring MD 20910

All both of them.

But there are others.  That's just one zipcode.  With a gun store in it. 

"Why didn't you have to do the training, T-Bolt?"

Prior military service

Progressive Overreach

I do like how Progressive overreach pushed the ACLU more and more into 'our' camp. 

California is being particularly onerous of late.  A bridge too far?

The American Civil Liberties Union is one of the few ostensibly lefty orgs sticking by first principles from when it was founded.  I guess during the Long March Through the Institutions they took a look at the ACLU and shrugged, "don't waste time with them, they are already full of liberals and on our side."

I'm not relying on them.  I still they count to ten by reciting 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.  But every now and then it's nice when peeps on the left pulls back the curtain on the actions of same.

No one wants to impeach Trump

Well, that's not true,  Maybe 30% of the House does.  But the vast majority of both parties do not want to impeach.

CONFIRMED: Pelosi informs caucus there will NOT be a formal floor vote to launch the impeachment inquiry

— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) October 15, 2019

I'm right.  And there is no way Nancy Pelosi can prove me wrong. 

Impossible

No way to falsify me.

I say vast majorities don't want it, and why not take my word over Nancy's?  She's lied to you a LOT more than I have.

Well there is one way she can prove me wrong...  But she don't wanna.  Too scared?  Maybe.

Fake but Accurate

ABC News: 'Slaughter in Syria' pic.twitter.com/UfCBil1XaD

— Wojciech Pawelczyk 🇵🇱🇺🇸 (@PolishPatriotTM) October 15, 2019

Thank you Dan Rather.

Silver Spring, just the one, the spring is singular.

He did succumb to his wounds.

A Montgomery County Police officer was shot at a parking garage in Silver Spring, at intersection of Ellsworth Dr and Fenton St., in downtown Silver Spring. Condition of officer and circumstances unclear at this point. Several blocks of traffic affected in downtown Silver Spring. pic.twitter.com/Q6Nb3bdPSF

— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) October 14, 2019

This is near me.  My address says Silver Spring, but that covers a lot.  I used to meet friends for breakfast Saturdays down there.

But the few times I went out to dinner there, at night?  Walking from the restaurant to the car didn't fill me with warm fuzzies.   I mean it isn't awful, but lots of alarm bells do go off.  It can be rowdy. 

I'm not surprised a cop might be shot after midnight in downtown.  Nothing good happens after 10PM.

Wait, he was shot at 8:50 AM?  Yes, I know that is after midnight but it's also after dawn.  What the hell...

But this is worth highlighting

For the music and smoking indoors alone.

Ammunition, wee lad

My first contacts with ammunition were at the shore of the Chesapeake.

My grandparent lived right on the water near Pt. No Point.  A great place for a kid to visit.  There were inlets nearby for crabbing, and there were plywood shacks over the water I couldn't get to.  I was told that these were duck blinds.  The whole area would be great for hunting ducks.  Flat, lots of shallow protected waterways, away from the bay proper.  Farm fields bordering.

Along the shore shotshells would wash up, and we picked up any old interesting thing we saw on the beack, including these.  They were often colorful, too.  Red green and yellow. Invariably, in the early 70s, there were high brass and plastic casing.  Later, the metal part was more often rusted.  Steel.  Usually plastic, 12 gauge, but sometimes .410.

I was an adult before I ever saw a cardboard shotgun case.  Maybe those rotted away in the water.

Was there a time when paper crossed over to mostly plastic?

I don't even remember seeing any ducks, ever, tho.  Near the water and away froim bird feeders in Paw Paws yard there was little bird variety  Saw lots of gulls.  Osprey and osprey nests on navigation markers.  Might have saw a bald eagle in 1978 way off in the distance.  Then in '85 I saw 2 bald eagles fly over head close enough I could have thrown a baseball up to them.  I don't remember 2 or 3 mallards in all that time.  And no other ducks.

Peleliu

So in seeking out my grandfather I ran across this book.  Twenty Two at Peleliu

George Peto is the WWII verteran.   Margaritas helped him get his recollections into book form at this late stage of life

In it an old guy, Goerge, with a great memory, records his time before the war and in the Marines in WWII.  He served on Peleliu under Puller, left flank, while my grandfather was on the right with Hannekin.  Of all the description of what that island's battle was like Peto's was the best I've read.

Peto was a bit of hell raiser and reminds me of the trouble Archie, my crotchety old neighbor of blessed memory, used to tell me.  Time in the brig, troublemaking, a string of girls.  Kindred spirits, they.

He seemed to thrive in the Corps when not in trouble, though, and was a forward observer for the mortars when it was possible, a rifleman when circumstance didn't permit, like when the jungle was too dense or the mortars couldn't deploy, or the comms were down.  Call sign was X-Ray.

Thanks George, for the insight to what my grandad was up to. 

Rome

My college degree is in History.  It was what I fell back to when engineering calculus kicked my butt.  But only because I loved history as much as I love knowing how mechanical things worked.

So I have advanced formal instruction.

That means nothing.  I left school with huge holes in my knowledge.  Over the years I have tried to fill these gaps.

Recently, I really got into the nitty gritty involved with WWI.

Couple decades ago it was shoring up my colonial and ante-bellum North America knowledge.

Recently, I have availed myself of the History of Rome podcast to put the ancient world together in some modicum of sense in my head.  Like history lectures when I drive.

I can keep better track of the first few emperors, now.  Before it was dribs and drabs.  Before the emperors?  Gah!  That's still hard.

Lessee, from recent memory (so there still could be errors)

• Julius Caesar.  I know lots about him already
• Octavius Augustus.  LONG reign despite being sickly, horrible at raising up heirs.  
• Tiberius.  Paranoid kiddie diddler, was the emperor when Jesus got it. 20 years or so.  Awful
• Caligula.  Know about him too.  Only around for 4 years.  AWFULLER.  Assassinated
• Claudius.  Starred in a PBS miniseries.  Stutterer.  Assumed a imbecile and thought 'uh, here we go again...' but, much better than his pre-elevation reputation
• Nero.  You know about him, too.
• 69 AD, the year of the 4 emperors.  Galba, the humorless governor from Spain, Otho, the apple polisher in Rome, Vitellius, the gluttonous governor in the Rhineland, and Vespacian, the governor from Syria.
• Vespacian was a mild and generous emperor
• Titus, was a milder and more generous, but only around a couple years.  The Coliseum was dedicated, Mt Vesuvius buried Pompeii, and the Jewish revolt finally put down in Judea.
• Domitian.  Horrible reputation because he hated the Senate and the Senate hated him right back
• Nerva.  2 years and assassinated by the Praetorian guard, but the first of the Five Good Emperors
• Trajan. Knew about him
• Hadrian.  Knew about him
• Anonius Pius. Adopted son of Hadrian
• Marcus Aurelius, the last great Stoic.  Knew about him.
• Joaquin Phoenix.  Made the Joker movie.

And it would hurt me to memorize that short list.  It gets me from before 48 BC to 180 AD.

The Republican era is harder to keep track of because Consuls did their thing for a year, then a new guy.  But you get the interesting Punic War, there.  It's Legendary city state of Rime, slowly gobbles up the Italian peninsula against the Etruscsans, the Latins, the Samnites, then over the Sicily, then butting heads with the Carthaginians, and finally against what Alexander left behind in the east, with Greece, Syria, and Egypt.

Do you know any other really good history podcasts as good as this that you really like?

Sometimes you go a while

...with plenty of blog fodder.

Sometimes you are caught short.

Follow up interview with buddy.

"I like the sights much better on the .22 than on the M&P."

I told him the shape of both is virtually identical.  The only difference is the Ciener is all black square notch and post.  The 9mm is 3-dot, white. 

He was shocked. 

One of those things a beginners notices on his path.  I'm sure in time he will grow accustomed.

If he is like me, his preferences will change.  Time and again.  Even when the different varieties no longer seem to matter for performance as long as they are decent.   

Took a buddy to the range

The one I mentioned before.

Didn't have time to do the whole sit down with a blue gun, and the four rules.  Got him the lesson on always point it level and toward the far end no matter what and went with that. 

He has shot things before, it's just been a long time.  I know him, and he's pretty level headed and as old as me.  And I warned him about the startle response and the hot-brass dance.  This was just a familiarization run.

I had the Ciener .22 on an old 1911 to start with.  From there was went to a M&P 9mm that he is leaning toward. 

The biggest lesson he learned is how to do is use the LULA mag loader. 

Only 2 in the mag the first time.  I didn't want to find he real DID have a startle response. 

After I told him to concentrate 1) relaxing, 2) focus on the front sight and 3) try for a surprise trigger break, but really, the surprise trigger break.  You are 95% there if you master a surprise trigger break.  He actually had quite a few shots well in the paint when he did.  A bit of a heel on some shot, and probably a lobster style pinch on others. 

He took the target home as a souvenir or I'd have pictures of his progress. 

Now I need to enourage him to do the training and get the license to purchase.  But I have NO IDEA about the stuff for that.  He knows more.  I never see ads for that.  I better ask next time.  It'd be nice to have the dope for folks.

Hooray

It's Lief Erickson Day and Good Commie Day.

It's genealogical legend in my family that we can trace our lineage back to ol' Lief.

Future Magazine Ban

"I remember when they banned high capacity magazines.  Regular mags became so expensive in Cheaper Than Dirt catalogs.  I mean, the ban didn't work, they were readily available.  You just had to pay extra.  If they ever look like they are gonna ban magazines again Ima buy a whole bunch right before as an investment vehicle."

Heard that today.

If the law is close to being enacted then you are too late.  If you think that is really going to happen you should have bought last year and continue to until the price started to creep up on you.  Then hold until the price was worth cashing in on

Even then, it won't be like before.  People already have the attitude you have, buddy, and resolved not to be left holding the bag again.  There is a much bigger stockpiled supply, in situ, all over.  I bet even causal gunnies, not normally the hoarder type, are more likely to buy a spare mag or two these days, where in the old days they would be satisfied with the 2 that came in the box with their new gun. 

And yes, I buy spares.  Part of it is to short circuit any possible future ban and appease the prepper in me.  But another part is to cater to my laziness.  I like to go to the range with enough mags to load a whole box of ammo into.  Less things to keep track of.  All the bullets either get shot or loaded into a magazine and the empty box goes in the trash.  Just a habit peculiar to me.   

Brother in Town

Was out late last night.  No blog idea right now, sorry.  Odds and sods:

Uh...  I don't mind a robust and kinetic furren policy.  I do mind not bothering to win the wars we get in.  So, despite feeling bad the Kurds might get boar-hogged, I'm not offended about just letting the Turks deal with them bastards in Syria.  I hope someone does.  Deal with them.  That isn't Iran.  Second place for 'hope doesn't win'.  Everyone else.  We should have settled everyone's hash by 2006 by victory, and this conversation shouldn't even be happening.  So, whatever.

Yankee screw drivers.  I don't recommend using the apparatus for standard head screws.  It makes a good long ratcheting screw driver without the drive mechanism.  I don't even recommend it for Phillips heard.  But man, that mechanism works great with Robertson (square hole) screws.  The screw sticks to the tip so you don't have to hold it to get it going. I did a plank floor in the attic this way.

Pink Guns

I prefer handtools.  No electrons wasted.  Like with this for driving screws.

Or this for drilling holes.

But I sometimes want to drill half inch holes in steel.  For that a plug-in 1/2 inch chuck monster.  But that is too bulk for driving a dozen screws into the wooden fence in the back yard.  Something compact, light, and handy.  So I am shopping for my first cordless drill that uses batteries.  In searching I came across this.

You know.  For ladies.  So it's not just the gun makers doing that sort of thing.

YouTube

The algorithm used to be good.

"Hey what was that 80s song?  Every time you go away... you take a piece of me with you..."  Type that in in the old days and you got the music video by Paul Young.  The search also give you covers.  In the old days it gave you more.  Like movies that song had been in, or similar tunes from that era that people liked and click on before or after clicking on Paul Young's.  Similar songs a decade before or after.  Now the recommended next video is a song you liked 3 weeks ago or whatever is next on your subscriber list.  Walling you in in the already walled garden, instead of expanding horizons.  Booo.

I guess they figure they get more eyeballs longer this way than the way I want them to go back to.

Here is a trick I must try.  Log off.  You tube won't know me, the user, won't know my subscriptions, and maybe that will reset the algorithm.  Logarithm.  Biorhythm.

Kamala Brings Up A Good Point

"Kamala Harris Says She Might Confiscate ‘As Many As 10 Million’ Guns"

Confiscating 400,000,000 guns is a big chore to do all at once.  Impossible even.  So when the Leftists go on a confiscation spree they aren't even thinking of going after all of them.

They will go after a subset first.  Then work on going after another subset later.   Smaller less popular groups of items are easier to marginalize.  Even Kamala realizes it would be folly to go after every last class of gun all at once might ellicit a negative reaction from the public at large.  Divide and conquer.  ARs now. Handguns next decade. Duck guns further down the road.  Patience, patience.

How do you eat a gun ban elephant?  One bite at a time.

Of course 10,000,000 scary looking black rifles is still a HUGE number to deal with.  But nice to think that Senator Harris, a Democrat, believes that actually doable.  I was told it would be absolutely impossible to deport anywhere close to that many illegal aliens, for instance.  If Senator Harris thinks it's possible to collect 10 million guns, maybe we can convince Senator Romney that sitting on his hands about illegal alien solutions doesn't have the excuse that it's just too hard.  He needs to think of a new excuse. 

Why?

And to contrast...

Guy charges at a cop with a knife in both hands.  Gets aired out by 10 police semi-automatic fully automatic murder pistols with high ammunition magazine clips and hollow point bullets that cause extra wounding.  Dies.  Community wants to know why.

Not why he died.  Ten people shot at him, probably more than once, and probably a lot of them shots hit him.  That's why he died.  No.  Why they shot him.

Well, it sounds like knifey handsy was a bit disturbed in the head and was trying to commit suicide.  He was successful.  And cops weren't able to isolate knifey handsy so he couldn't hurt police officers or flee and hurt members of the public, and were sorta backed into a corner on possible acceptable course of action when it went all kinetic.

(Of course, this news story might have gotten hordes of details factually wrong.  And my conjecture thus rendered useless.  A justifiable shooting, and a damn shame all around.) 

"Why didn't you shoot to wound?"

"Why didn't you just lasso him?"

Because this is Hyattsville, not Hollywood.

"Was people's safety even thought about?"

Oh, yes, that's why he was shot.  By ten cops.  After the cops' desperately trying to diffuse the high emotion situation for half an hour.  Just awful for everyone.

Amber Alert

So that lady cop that murdered that guy in Texas when she walked into the wrong apartment in her own building got convicted of murder.

Good.  I'd hate for a cop to mistakenly walk into my house and pop me one while I was sitting on the couch, munching on sumthing, watching Netflix.

Heard thing like "How could she screw that up, dude had a HUGE red door mat"

Maybe she was drunk?  That's why she missed the doormat?

Naw naw.  Even too drunk for me to drive to my house from somewhere if I walked into the wrong front door and the house was dark except for a TV glow down the hall it still would smell different.  Even with a cold and drunk it'd smell wrong.  And the question mark wouldn't be "someone made my house smell wrong and is still here!"  The question mark would make me question deeper than that.  Strange unfamiliarity question mark.  Enough to not just air out some fool in 'my' house.  Enough to make drunk me hesitate on trigger pulling.

And that is just one of the things about this case that made me squint with a dubious gaze.

10 years in the Big House, too.

Old School Gun Handling in the Field

Here is a sample from the mid 50s.  These actors are either in the military, or served at one point in the relative near past.  There was nigh universal selective service requirements, obviously, and these fellows could even be actual WWII or Korean War veterans, and toted weapons about for realz, yo.

They don't carry at low ready, with the butt of the weapon in their shoulder and the muzzle down.  As that is more a modern method with pistol grip rifle.  No, the rifle is at Port arms, like in parade ground drill (1), the shorter submachinegun is cradled under the arm pit (2), and the 1911 is, per usual, unsafely toted (3).  Just point that at your buddy, Fred, finger on the trigger, safety off.  Jeez.

This guy explains it in more detail and is worth a watch.

Vegas Shooting

I was told, recently, that this quote was from Denzel Washington.

"If You Don’t Read the Newspaper You Are Uninformed, If You Do Read the Newspaper You Are Misinformed"

But that source is probably not so.

I was never satisfied with the news coverage of the Vegas shooter.  NO information about him?  I feel misinformed AND uninformed.  I don't trust law enforcement PR types and journalist to not hold stuff back from me.  Plus, the state of journalism in this country is rife with ignorance and incompetence.

Now, Brit journalism is just as biased as our own, but they seem to retain some actual investigative ability.  With novel concepts like 'facts' that they then 'publish'.  And the Daily Mail has told me more about the Vegas shooting in that one article than everything else I've heard to date.

He was crazy.  Went crazier near the end.  With evidence of same, not just guessing.

I have new questions.

How can the Filipino girlfriend of the shooter set herself up in a nice LA neighborhood.  I can guess some possibilities.  The shooter might have left a lot of assets to her in his will, conceivably.  As she is an innocent party there may have been nothing stopping her from receiving from a monster's estate after a lotta legal dust settles.  And that is fine.  Still, knowing some detail about it would be nice, and it would be public record at this point, Daily Mail.   The Daily Mail did know the house cost $3,400,000.

They also did put up:  "The luxury home in an exclusive Los Angeles neighbourhood is reportedly owned by her daughter and son-in-law."  Reportedly?  Maybe dig a bit more and be more declarative?

But I quibble, and should be pleased I got THIS much info about the case.  Do I want egg in my beer?

But good for her daughter if she married well and/or is very successful and can help out her mother so nicely.