Random Acts of Patriotism

What 5 Guns Would I Buy?

2012-01-29T11:35:00.005-05:00

Sharp as a Marble started it, I think. The question is "What 5 firearms would I purchase, should neither price nor practicality be an issue?"

I know the first one. It immediately came to mind.

1. 1928 Thompson. My grail gun. The one I will never own. It's not the paperwork or the tax stamp. It's the current cost. I've had the opportunity to shoot one a few times. Best device ever for turning money into noise.

The others will be ones that could, maybe will, come into my possession.

2. Colt Python. .357 Magnum, deep blued steel, 6" barrel.

3. M1A. The semi-auto version of the M-14. Derived from the M-1 Garand, chambered in .308, the last of the .30 caliber U.S. battle rifles.

4. A high-end custom 1911. I don't have a particular company or gunsmith in mind, I just want one where everything is done and done right. I'm regularly shooting an inexpensive Para and it runs just fine. This is just a want, without reasons.

5. An over/under shotgun. They are ridiculously expensive, and I can break 18 out of 25 with my Auto-5 as well as I could with a Holland & Holland or a Fabbri, but I would buy one just the same.

That's my list today. It might change if you asked me in a week. If I did ever own any of them, they would be shooters, it would be the only reason to have them.

What would you buy?

Whatever You Are Doing

2012-01-28T17:34:00.002-05:00

Whatever you are doing, the right tools make it easier. Sometimes the right tools make it possible.

Here's what I was using today.

A Gift

2012-01-27T09:26:00.004-05:00

The same friend that taught me to cast is retiring from the hobby. For a number of reasons, age, health, and other responsibilities, he no longer has the time or interest. He brought me all his cast bullets. It took multiple trips. Dozens of boxes and containers of all sizes filled with everything you could imagine. Pure linotype .30 caliber rifle bullets, pure lead .44 caliber balls, 7mm sized and lubed, it just went on and on. Each one more obscure than the last.

I was generous with them, called my friends, gave away thousands, only kept those I thought I might load. When I was done, I still had boxes that had been identified as only suitable to be remelted. Last night I fired up the propane, put on all the safety gear, and made these.

There's no getting around the work involved. If you want clean ingots to put in the casting pot, you have to take this step. The next time I want to cast some .45s, I'll be ready.

My Philosophy

2012-01-26T10:35:00.004-05:00

Pr. Obama recently said the following, speaking about how conservatives think:

And their philosophy is simple: We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.

To prevent the charge that I am taking something out of context, here is the White House transcript of the speech. Anyway, I'm not disagreeing with him. The Founders built a government on the premise that everyone was better off when they fended for themselves. The second part I would edit to say "play by one shared set of rules". But other than that, and that really a quibble, President Obama has stated my philosophy clearly.

Unfortunately, neither he, nor the Congress, nor anyone running on the Republican side, shares that view.

Wife of Italian Captain Defends Him

2012-01-24T10:43:00.003-05:00

The wife of the cruise liner captain that abandoned his ship is defending him in the press. This quote was the one that interested me:

"My husband is at the center of an unprecedented media storm," his wife, Fabiola Rossi, told French magazine Paris Match. "I cannot think of any other naval or air tragedy in which the responsible party was treated with such violence ...

Because she is ignoring history. The president of the White Star Line, Joseph Ismay, was on board the Titanic on it's maiden voyage. He got in a life boat. The Captain and 1st Mate of the ship stayed on board and died.

Joseph Ismay was held in the U.S., subjected to hearings in the Senate, hammered by the press and public. He lived out his life as a recluse, never able to shake his nickname "The Coward of the Titanic". Even the Wiki article on Mr. Ismay should be enough to show Ms. Rossi that the treatment her husband is getting has historical precedent.

Terminal Lance Nails It

2012-01-24T08:17:00.006-05:00

From Terminal Lance. An awesome comic for Marines.

Because we aren't all heroes when we wear the uniform and we aren't all babykillers when we come home. We're just guys who ended up in the Marines and made it through boot camp. Some would throw themselves on a grenade to save their squad. Some would steal your wallet while you were in the shower the morning before you went on leave.

Borepatch Comes Out

2012-01-23T18:22:00.002-05:00

Over at Northern Blogger, Borepatch admits his shame in the comments. Maybe we can hold a fundraiser.

Free Ice Cream

2012-01-23T15:49:00.002-05:00

Doble Troble wants it.

From the comments in the last post:

OK, that was Saturday. Today is Monday. It is passed time for new blog material. I can understand how that magnitude of cleaning up requires recovery afterward, but we need more blog, and less recovery.

Workbench Revisited

2012-01-21T14:54:00.004-05:00

Not bad for a Saturday morning.

They Just Can't Help It

2012-01-21T10:45:00.003-05:00

The New York Times has an article about a fire that destroyed a 3,500 year old cypress tree in Florida. It's a loss to the park and if it was arson, it's a crime. But in the second paragraph, The Times takes this swipe at Florida:

"In a state known for its sprawl and its zeal for pouring concrete..."

Really, Lizette? Have you looked out your window lately? Because if I was picking a place that liked to pour concrete, New York City might come to mind.

Florida has urban areas, but when I think of Florida, it's two lane roads on top of causeways running through vast swamps and forests. Alligators. Beaches. Wading out a half-mile into the Gulf of Mexico as the sun sets. Canoeing some black water river. Small towns in north Florida set on what passes for high ground, a single paved road running through.

A Question From Wirecutter

2012-01-20T23:37:00.002-05:00

Wirecutter at Knuckledraggin' My Life Away asked a great question in the comments of my last post.

How many times have you bought something only to find out later that you already had one, still new in the bag, under a pile of valuable stuff?

The answer to that question, honestly, is "Not too many." However, if the question was, "How many times have you bought something because even though you know you know you already own one you can't find it?", the answer would be lots of times.

I have an Estwing hammer. 20 oz. framing hammer. I really like it. I try to keep up with it. I know where it is right now, it's on the floor of the truck on the passenger side along with my speed square and my nail pouch. I also have a decent rubber handled, steel shaft hammer from Tractor Supply. I bought it when I couldn't find the Estwing. Looked high and low. Buying the second hammer brought the Estwing out out of hiding, that's my theory.

I have at least three 25 foot tape measures. One is on the shelf outside the kitchen. One's in the truck. The other is currently in the truck, too. It's in the nail pouch. I've been using it at the dojo doing some work upstairs. The first one moved with me from South Carolina. It's a Stanley, aluminum case, pretty beat up, has burn spots on it from welding. The other two are both replacements bought to replace the original when I could not find it.

Screwdrivers are like potato chips. Some upstairs, some in the truck, some in the tool box, some on the bench (yes that bench, the one I'm cleaning up tomorrow). I don't look too long, I have enough now that some of them turn up.

Sockets, flashlights, allen wrenches, files, knives, etc., the only working solution I have to keep them out of hiding is to own enough of them.

The last thing I bought that really fits Wirecutter's question is chainsaw chains. I thought I needed a couple of new ones. I went and bought them one afternoon. When I opened the truck box, I put the bag right on top of two new chains still in their boxes that I bought sometime last year.

Heh.

A January Saturday

2012-01-20T12:49:00.002-05:00

It's supposed to rain tomorrow. My plan is to organize my reloading area. Maybe a shelving unit and some bins from the big box store, too. Because it doesn't look like this, but it's headed that way.

Hatcher's Notebook

2012-01-19T10:06:00.005-05:00

I got a phone call from a friend discussing my latest post on old mil-surp bullets. He recommended Hatcher's Notebook. Said he had a copy and that it explored some of the same sorts of things I was interested in.

Julian Hatcher was a military officer involved in cartridge and weapons development in the early 20th century. This book is a collection of chapters on various aspects of his work and research. Information that may not be available anywhere else can be found here. Want to read about load testing up to and including the destruction of 1903 Springfield rifles? Bullet design theory and ballistics? The theory of recoil? The history of the machine gun? A detailed list and report of rifle failures? Here's one page from that section, clicky to biggify:

Hatcher's Notebook can be purchased on-line, but it can also be downloaded as a PDF file here. I have been reading.

Strike!

2012-01-18T07:20:00.004-05:00

Oppose SOPA and PIPA. Call and write your Congressmen and Senators today.

Old Mil-Sec Bullets -- Range Report

2012-01-17T08:10:00.011-05:00

Gathered up rifles, ammo, range bag, spotting scope, targets, and fortified by a pot of coffee, Dan, my son Joe, and I headed out to the usual spot to test Carteach0's bullets. It was a beautiful January day, temperature right at freezing, a light cloud cover, no wind. To recap, these are pulled and tumbled AP military bullets, all weighing 163 to 164 gr., loaded in 30.06 cases over 48 gr. of IMR4895.

Two rifles were used. A Remington 700, as pictured here.

And a Springfield 1903-A3, pictured here in use.

Results were similar to previous testing with old military AP ammo. Two or 3 hits in the 10 ring, coupled with 2 hits out in the 7 or 8 ring. Similar results were seen with both rifles and 2 shooters. All targets were shot from the bench. Click the pictures to biggify.

As a control and a testament of what that old 1903A3 is capable of, here is a 5 shot group of ammo loaded with Sierra MatchKing 168 gr. bullets. This has the same powder, and brass came from the same prepped lot that the other bullets were loaded with. This is not the best group we shot with this ammo, it's the only one.

My conclusion is that, for whatever reason, the AP bullets are not more accurate than ball ammo bullets and are significantly less accurate than modern commercial bullets. The hits outside the center were not consistent, they were random, scattered around the target. My ~~theory~~ ~~surmise~~ guess is that weight of some of the bullets is not centered around the central axis, and thus when they are fired, they yaw and travel in a spiral around the trajectory, giving us the results we were seeing.

When we were done the serious effort, we had about 40 rounds left of ammo loaded with the AP bullets. We put up IDPA silhouette targets at 50, 100, and 200 yards. Then we each shot the 1903A3 offhand, with a club timer running, one round at each target as fast as we could make hits. We took turns, timed the efforts and walked back and forth pasting the targets and evaluating the results.

We made good hits. Over and over. Offhand, with iron sights, shooting under time pressure, with ammo we using up because it just wasn't accurate enough to keep around, we would make hits at 50, 100, and 200 yards. It got good to us. Trying to better our times, trying to out shoot each other, and we still made hits. They might not have been X-ring hits, but they were on the target and most of them were toward the center. If you got sight picture/sight alignment, the rifle and the ammo did their part. It was the most fun I've ever had with that 1903A3 and that's saying something.

It does makes you ask the question though, if you're talking about military ammo, how good is good enough?

More on Carteach0 and Old Mil-Sec Bullets

2012-01-15T13:55:00.007-05:00

Carteach0 has had a recurring series of posts on old .30 caliber ammo. Recently he was given a quantity of pulled and tumbled bullets to use for reloading and was generous enough to share some with me. I have seen a preview of an upcoming post on his ~~experiments~~ ~~research~~ fiddling around with them and the pictures he has of them split and disassembled saved me from similar activities.

In the bag he sent me was 130 bullets. I discarded one for having a damaged base. Then I weighed the rest of them. Almost all of them were 163 to 164 grains. Here's the distribution.

My plan is to load the best looking of the bullets in the 163/164 gr. pile this evening and take them to the range tomorrow. They do not look like Sierra Match Kings. There are marks from the tool that pulled them, lots of small impact dimples, and most significant, many of the tips are misshapen to some degree. Here's a sampling.

And here's one in detail.

If I had the bullet pointing tool that benchrest shooters use to prep their bullets I would be tempted to clean up the ends before I loaded them, but I do not. ~~Chucking them in a drill and spinning them while~~ No, no, no. The purpose of this is to shoot them as they are. I have a friend that has most of a 5 gallon bucket of pulled .30 cal ball ammo bullets and if these samples shoot okay, a inexpensive source of bullets may be locally available. A range report on the results to follow in the coming days.

My First Car Revisited

2012-01-14T00:35:00.003-05:00

Months ago I posted and started asking everyone to write up the story of their first car. The next day I wrote about mine. Well, YrHmblHst at My First Car has a blog dedicated to first car stories and he just reposted mine. He also has Excels at Nothing's story of her Valiant which I consider one of the best first car stories ever.

He's soliciting for stories, so if you want to share your memories of your first car and see it immortalized in electronic form, here's the link.

I Wear Glasses

2012-01-13T12:04:00.007-05:00

I first got glasses when I was seven years old. I didn't want them. Even though they allowed me to see the chalkboard in school, turned trees into individual leaves instead big green blobs and allowed me to see the stars at night. I didn't want them because I already knew when I was seven that you could not be a fighter pilot if you wore glasses.

Bill Whittle reminded me of that in this video. There's a thousand other reasons I might not have made it, but I remember coming out of that optometrist's office with glasses on and looking up at the telephone poles and trees and seeing everything clearly. Knowing then that I really did need those glasses. I remember feeling the first and biggest of my childhood dreams die.

I joined the Marine Corps, and I worked a flight line. I know what a FOD walk is, did hundreds of them. I know what it is to use the best of your skills and abilities to try to maintain machines designed to do nearly impossible things. I worked on the avionics on the F4-J/S Phantom II. If Bill Whittle is wrong about anything in his video, it is that. That F18-D, for all it's superior capabilities, is not the meanest piece of iron ever to inhabit the skies. This is.

I would still learn to fly one if they'd let me.

War

2012-01-13T08:26:00.004-05:00

What do people think war is?

Heads on spikes at the city gates. Surrendering prisoners executed without mercy. Souvenirs made from the bones of the dead. Sweeping through farmland in the fall and burning all the homes and barns, killing the livestock, poisoning the wells. Raping the women, putting everyone to the sword.

War was so terrible that the Europeans made rules. Both sides agreed to those rules and everyone got together and signed those agreements. Technology changed and we got poison gas and machine guns, trench warfare that killed men by the millions. We made more rules. Technology changed again. Submarines torpedoing merchant shipping, aircraft firebombing cities, napalm, defoliants.

War is a miserable business, usually fought by very young men, and we've been at it this time for over 10 years.

Is pissing on corpses right? No. Should there be some punishment? Yes. But keep it in perspective. These Marines, good Marines, someone's sons, got sent to do our dirty work. If this is the worst they did, I understand.

Why Romney Is The Least Electable

2012-01-12T23:14:00.003-05:00

From the American Spectator, with coherent thoughts and big words, a reasoned essay on what makes Mitt Romney a bad choice.

Twinkies

2012-01-12T08:34:00.004-05:00

Twinkies are in the news this week because the company that manufactures them is seeking bankruptcy protection. It isn't just Twinkies. It's Wonder Bread, Ho-Hos, cupcakes, and donuts. And that's for breakfast.

Later we'll have snacks.

How much would a solid gold bar the size of a Twinkie be worth today?

From The Edge

2012-01-11T12:04:00.002-05:00

Edge left a comment worth considering. Here it is in it's entirety:

As much as I would like to agree with you about Romney, not voting at all or voting Libertarian is not the answer to getting rid of Obama. Imagine what the last four years of Obama's Presidency will be like. More spending, more taxes, more printing money, more borrowing, more cuts to our military, more American apologies, and most importantly a weak foreign policy with Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, China and Russia. This is a dangerous world we live in (as I know you are well aware) and having Obama at the wheel four more years is a risk this country can not take any longer.

Romney is not my first choice for President. His record with health care and gun control is certainly a concern. But to say he is worse than Obama is absolutely false. I wasn't crazy about McCain either but remember he did add Palin to the ticket to bring more conservatives back. Romney will have to do the same if he is the one to go against Obama.

I urge everyone if Romney is elected the GOP candidate to vote for him, but to remain aware of his record. If he is elected President... be critical. Write him, your US Rep and Senator and get more more involved than ever.

I disagree with Edge's premise. As a "Republican" Romney would expect support from Republicans. Since his agenda will be moderate Democrat, he'll get lots of support from Democrats. He will not reverse course. At best he'll slow down a little.

We're in a train headed for a cliff at 90 miles any hour. If Romney slows the train to 50 miles an hour, does that fix anything? You keep spending more than you take in, sooner or later whoever loaned you the money is going to call the bill due. Slowing your spending may push the day of reckoning off a bit, that all we could hope to get from Romney. Add Romneycare and the Massachusetts extension of the assault weapons ban, and he cannot expect to get my vote. They've had since last June to find a fiscal conservative. So far, it's been all fail.

Shiny

2012-01-11T07:29:00.004-05:00

From Marooned's latest post:

...If you were to suggest that you don't believe in fire extinguishers or smoke detectors because "that's what the fire department is for", you'd be thought a loon...

This is as shiny as a 1962 aluminum Christmas tree. The rest of post gives it context. RTWT. Bad things happen. Be prepared.

As New Hampshire Holds the 1st Primary

2012-01-10T13:52:00.003-05:00

Residents of New Hampshire go to the polls today to vote in the first primary of the 2012 election cycle. Whatever the outcome might be, I want to take this opportunity to remind the Republican Party that I will not vote for Mitt Romney. His record as governor of Massachusetts speaks for itself.

SORC™. So do what y'all want, but don't try to guilt me into voting for him. I gave you plenty of time to find a real conservative.

Borepatch's Reloads

2012-01-08T09:04:00.004-05:00

When Borepatch visited last week, we had a lesson on reloading rifle cases. Since I had the 30.06 dies on the bench, that's what we used. 168 gr. Sierra boat tails, 48 gr. of IMR 4895. We made up a fair number of them, planning on using them at the bloggershoot.

As it happened, we were diverted by the bright shiny of Templar Custom and the well made 30.06 never came out of the ammo can. So yesterday I shot some of it in a Garand Match.

I had developed the load for a scoped Remington, and had not shot any out of my 03-A3, so getting a sight picture and a zero on the rifle is something I should have done prior to the match. That failure meant that five sighters was not enough and I was halfway through the slow fire prone before I settled in.

Even so I shot 273-6X. Good ammo. Accurate and consistent. Kudos to Borepatch and Borepatch #2 for the work in the ~~basement~~ man cave. They should come visit again and make me some more.

Chris Kyle, Navy Seal

2012-01-06T13:09:00.003-05:00

Some comments and observations from America's best sniper.

H/T to Atlas Shrugs

21 Minutes

2012-01-04T12:51:00.003-05:00

She was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher for 21 minutes. Since she was armed, when the bad mens came through the door, she shot one of them.

She was 18, widowed on Christmas Day when her husband died of cancer. She had been singled out. One of her attackers had already been to her door previously. They thought this was going to be an easy target. They were wrong. Click the link above for the full story and the 911 audio.

Time Passing

2012-01-03T08:21:00.002-05:00

Out at the range with another friend and my youngest son shooting clays yesterday. I did okay, but some that I was I sure of when I pulled the trigger just kept sailing on. Meanwhile, my son was hammering them. All of them. We tried two off the machine thrower and one added in with a hand thrower, he would break all three. Up, crossing, skimming low, he hit them.

Young eyes, good reflexes, it doesn't matter what excuse I use, he has passed me by. The clock is always ticking, sometimes you can hear it louder than others.

It was good shooting and I was proud to see it.

Liberator

2012-01-02T09:43:00.003-05:00

Carteach0 has a post up about the Liberator. A stamped steel, smooth bore, single shot pistol chambered in .45 ACP. It was designed to be dropped behind enemy lines during WWII. The idea was that a resistance fighter would find one and use it to kill a Nazi, taking his rifle and ammo, and sowing fear.

They were never used in large numbers, and almost all of them were destroyed after the war. I've seen pictures. There are a few in museums. Carteach0 got to shoot one. He has pictures and video. We talked about his post at the bloggershoot the other day. How often does this get to happen? It seems possible that this is the only firing of the Liberator FP45, anywhere, anytime, in this millennium.

The 6th Amendment Dies

2012-01-01T16:27:00.006-05:00

Without even a whimper. Without notice from the press. Now the military can detain you without due process, without a hearing or a lawyer, without trial or conviction. It's the brave new world of 2012.

What I am about show you was written in plain language, easy to understand. It comes from a time when words meant things. This is what used to be the 6th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Update: As noted in the comments, it is the 6th Amendment that deals with trial by jury and the rights of the accused.

Blogging As The Year Runs Out

2011-12-31T23:25:00.003-05:00

Borepatch has a long post with pictures about yesterday's shoot.

Sean Sorrentino has a post about barrel swapping while retaining rifle zero, a test he performed yesterday on one of the Templar Consulting AR pattern rifles.

Knitebane Manor is promising his impressions in an upcoming post.

My thoughts, beyond the fun of shooting some new and interesting rifles, are the relationships. There were some friends of mine from the club there, Borepatch who I've known for a few years, along with Sean, Bob, and Knitebane.

We tied up most of a range, with targets at 50, 100, and 200 yards. Without having met before, we managed to shoot safely, follow the range rules, and interact with other club members who happened to be out to use the facility that day. The shared language of the 4 rules and decades of experience gave us all a basis to make it a safe, fun day.

I would shoot with any or all of these guys again.

Borepatch Can't Shoot Worth Sh*t

2011-12-30T23:18:00.005-05:00

The title of this post is supposed to make JayG spray coffee on his monitor. Borepatch shoots just fine.

This is the first of several posts about a small blogger gathering at my club's range. Borepatch, Borepatch's Son #2, Sean Sorrentino, Knitebane, Bob of Templar Consulting, Dan, and I met and spent the day together. It was loud, there was old and new. Bob is a manufacturer, so he brought some of the rifles he's been working on. Everyone else brought their favorites and dipped into their ammo stash.

More to follow.

Go Ahead, Kid, The First One's Free

2011-12-29T22:02:00.002-05:00

Dinner with Borepatch and son. Followed by a reloading lesson. Throwing powder charges, seating bullets. Trying to make it seem easy and fun.

I want it to be easy and fun so he buys a press and a set of .303 British dies, and bullets, and powder, and primers, and lube, and calipers, and a scale, and a table to mount it on, and sets up a reloading bench. That way when he sticks a case in the sizing die or the bolt won't close on the ammo he made, or the results over the chronograph are all over the map, he can remember how much fun he's having.

Whether my evil plan works out or not, we made 30.06 with some very nice 168 gr. Sierra boat tails for use at tomorrow's shoot.

Pull!

2011-12-28T16:35:00.003-05:00

A clear, brisk afternoon, a case of shells and a box of White Flyers.

Caught the Browning in full recoil in this picture.

Interesting Little Guns

2011-12-28T08:18:00.003-05:00

From Damn Interesting, a photo collection of old miniature guns. All sorts of things, padlocks, pocket watches, even a Zippo lighter.

Victory or Death

2011-12-26T09:54:00.006-05:00

December 26th, 1776. George Washington crossed the Delaware River with 2400 troops to attack the winter quarters of the Hessian mercenaries that were under contract to the British Crown. The weather was terrible. Sleet turning to snow. The men carried 60 rounds of ammunition and bayonets. The password was Victory or Death.

Lots of details here.

Update: Does Newt read my blog? Really, less than 12 hours after I made this post, the Drudge Report has a link to this: Newt Gingrich's "Victory or Death"

Quoting Brigid

2011-12-24T17:59:00.004-05:00

Quoting Brigid, "Come to the dark side, we have cookies."

Christmas Morning

2011-12-24T02:02:00.003-05:00

Christmas morning, very early. It must have been 4:30 or 5 when I woke up. The house was cold, the living room dark. I was five years old. I knew Santa had come. I went out into the living room. The tree was dark. I turned the table lamp on, not daring to plug in the tree.

The loot in the stockings and unwrapped presents left by Santa were always immediately available on Christmas morning. Wrapped presents under the tree were opened later. I went through my stocking and then played quietly with a small locomotive that had been left for me. It gradually got lighter outside and my mother came out to find me in the living room.

I don't remember any other gifts I got that year, just the dark house and the quiet time alone by the tree early on Christmas morning.

Memories of Christmas

2011-12-23T17:07:00.001-05:00

I'll post mine tomorrow. Today I want to share someone else's. This is special.

Machines Know

2011-12-22T22:59:00.004-05:00

Machines know. They do. Type up that term paper, move the 1st birthday party pictures off the camera. If you don't immediately make multiple copies on CD, external hard drive or network storage, you have doomed your hard drive and the data to oblivion. If you have three copies in two locations, your original drive will keep right on spinning.

And it's not just the modern stuff. It worked out that I have a day off tomorrow. I was going neglect to set the alarm, go with my wife and son to visit friends, maybe make some cookies and do some last minute Christmas stuff.

So, in the car this evening, she casually mentions that the washing machine won't spin out the clothes and that when she went down to the basement, it was noisy and smelled "funny".

I should be grateful that it waited for me to be freed up. It's been a good machine and it deserves my company tomorrow.

Knife Attacks

2011-12-22T09:05:00.001-05:00

Last night at the dojo was all tanto waza, knife attacks and defenses.

My first learning was that I don't know anything about fighting with a knife or defending against an attacker with a knife.

The other thought I had was that you could be defending against what starts as an empty hand attack and the attacker could bring a knife into play at any time.

Tie those two thoughts together and it seems it would always be better to run.

This may not always be a choice.

The Hobbit

2011-12-21T10:00:00.008-05:00

Flying my geek flag, I confess to being a fan of Tolkien. I have read The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings (more than once), and tried to read the Silmarillion. I liked Peter Jackson's movie adaptation. Now there is a trailer for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. ~~Clearly filmed at the same time~~ Filmed in the same style as the Lord of The Rings, this goes on my must see list. Full screen HD available, if you like.

Update: edited at the strikethrough.

People Like Us

2011-12-20T22:08:00.003-05:00

Stumbled across these videos chasing reloading links. Nominally, they about a homemade method to remove Berdan primers from rimmed cases.

But what I want you do is watch what is not being focused on. The sawhorse table in the background. The old gooseneck lamp. The labels on the plastic drawers. The various tools and the way they are stored. The scattered reloading equipment. The host, his clothes, his hands.

I don't know him, but I know people like him, with basements and sheds that look so much the same that I would feel immediately at ease.

Christmas 1957

2011-12-20T17:05:00.001-05:00

Reposted from last year.

Christmas 1957. My grandparent's home. If you click on the image, I deliberately left it large enough to zoom in on. There's a lot going on for me in this image. The chair on the right is in my living room today. My mother was 24 that year. The house was modernized in the 1960s after a lightening strike, redecorated again when my grandfather remarried in the 1980s, and then sold after his death. It looks like this only in my memories.

It is the decorations on the tree I want to focus on. The decorations were my grandmother's and when she passed away, they were handed down to me. I still have them, and as delicate as they are, use them every year, accepting the inevitable losses of children and gravity as the price of seeing them each Christmas cycle.

Wrongness

2011-12-19T07:56:00.004-05:00

Wrong. Space-time continuum warpingly wrong.

Give a Gun a Home

2011-12-17T20:36:00.000-05:00

Give a poor, abused, misunderstood, gun a good home this Christmas.

From the Daily What.

USPSA

2011-12-17T18:21:00.004-05:00

The December pistol match. I ended up squaded with the go fast guys. I could predict my times within a 1 to 2 second accuracy range. Whatever the fastest two or three guys shot it in? Double that. That was my time.

I had fun, it was a beautiful day, temps approaching fifty, and I was at the range.

Update: I achieved mediocrity! There were 35 shooters. I was 18th.

Beauty

2011-12-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

Celebrating The Return of Troops From Iraq.

2011-12-14T13:24:00.003-05:00

Not us. Them. In Fallujah. They didn't have fireworks, so they burned the U.S. and the Israeli flags. Yup, there's a victory celebration worth the lives and treasure we poured into Iraq. We sure build a modern democracy ready to join the civilized nations. Won't be any more trouble in that part of the world.

Hundreds of Iraqis set alight U.S. and Israeli flags on Wednesday as they celebrated the impending pullout of American forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah.

Shouting slogans in support of the “resistance,” the demonstrators held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases like, “Now we are free” and “Fallujah is the flame of the resistance.”

Meanwhile

2011-12-13T16:09:00.005-05:00

So, here we are, thinking about Christmas, concerned with upcoming Presidential race, reading about the Euro and whatever the Iranians are going to do next. Meanwhile, on the far side of the world, the Marines are still engaged in carrying out their orders. From MarinesTV.

The Stupidest Thing You Ever Did

2011-12-12T15:07:00.006-05:00

When you get mad or frustrated and you decide to take it out on someone, it often backfires. I first heard this story from a friend of mine about 5 years ago. Written down, it is just an echo of itself. Originally told to me by the guy who did this, it was one of the funniest "Yes, I really did this" tales I ever heard.

I had just graduated from college and was desperately trying to find a job in my field (TV/video). I interviewed for a job in Charlotte and this interview process was different than most because they would actually pay me for a week and see if I fit in with their production house. I went there for the week, but it didn't work out at all. Thursday had rolled around and I knew more than likely I was not going to get the job. I tried to remain positive and when I was leaving for lunch I told the two guys I was working for that I was going to look for an apartment in town.

"I wouldn't sign any leases if I were you," one of them said.

That knocked the last bit of any optimism I had in the can. So instead of going to look for a place to live I wandered down the main street looking for a place to eat. In a series of fast food restaurants, I spotted a Bojangles and pulled through the drive-through. I ordered a chicken biscuit, some fries, and a Coke, and pulled the car into the lot.

Still wondering what I was going to do with my life and still very ticked off, I tilted the seat back in my car and tried to relax while eating my lunch. I took one bite of my biscuit and it was still frozen. It was like the Bojangles guy said, "Hey I know how we can speed things up a bit! We just won't cook the F@#$%*&G food!"

It was THE LAST STRAW! DEFCON 5. All circuits red. I stuffed my food back into the bag, got out of my car, and marched into the restaurant. Now, you have to remember that this is Charlotte. It's a fast food place, and it's lunch time, so we are talking about a lot of people in this place. The line was huge, but I didn't care. I pushed my way up to the counter making a big scene as I went.

Behind the counter was a pasty chubby red head kid with huge black rimmed glasses. You know, the epic dork, the guy working in fast food because it is the limit of his potential. I looked him square into those coke-bottle glasses and said (and keep in mind that everyone in the restaurant could hear me loud and clear)

"Man, my chicken biscuit is cold. I want another one, I want a fresh drink, I want my money back and I want to talk to the manager!"

Instant silence. Everyone in the place is now completely focused on the angry guy at the counter. The kid behind the counter looked down at the crumpled bag I was carrying and then looked up at me and smiled. Smiled like Clint Eastwood in a Dirty Harry movie. Like he was seeing the cross hairs on my forehead and was going to take the shot, he calmly said, "Mister, I'd really like to help you. But you see, we're Wendy's. Bojangles is next door."

The entire restaurant erupted in laughter. I looked out the window, the Wendy's I was in and the Bojangles I had driven thru shared a parking lot. My car sat on the row between the buildings. I grabbed my smashed bag and headed for the door. Walking out head down, completely humiliated, people were slapping me on the back.

"That's right jerk! Bojangles is over there!"

"You told him, man!"

Even when I walked out of the building people were laughing and beating on the windows and pointing to Bojangles. The Bojangles was just as crowded and the line was long, but I just waited in line, hoping nobody from Wendy's would come over and say..."Naw! Naw! Tell them what you just did!" When I got to the counter I politely (and quietly) told them the problem and got a new biscuit.

So I didn't get the job in Charlotte, but I always seem to be a big hit at parties when we play "What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?"

Marines Buy Up Used Harriers

2011-12-11T21:36:00.002-05:00

The Marines are going to buy all the old British Harrier jets, along with engines and spare parts. A good deal for the Marines, as this will keep the U.S. Harriers flying for another decade or so. The British mothballed them, and the carriers they launched from, late last year.

If I was a general in Argentina, I'd be dusting off the invasion maps for the Falkland Islands. The British aren't coming to defend them again. The Iron Lady is just a historical movie and the sun has most definitely set on the British Empire.

Why Did He Do This?

2011-12-10T15:02:00.004-05:00

So, a high profile shooting in Hollywood. A man standing in an intersection firing shots at passing cars until the police finally take him down.

Why did he do this? No one seems to have a clue. Even interviews with witnesses provide nothing....Oh wait, here in this report, not covered by any major news reporter, and already dumped down the memory hole, is this video I found on YouTube.

At 2:40, a tiny glimpse of why.

Saturday Blogroll Updates

2011-12-10T08:46:00.003-05:00

I try to only keep active blogs on the blogroll, so it is worth noting that I reluctantly removed The Breda Fallacy. She left a goodbye note and hasn't posted or replied to comments. One of the good ones and if you hadn't been reading her, you missed out.

New additions are An NC Gun Blog and Tango Juliet.

Both should have been up there sooner. I have a list of bookmarks on my computer, and don't always think to move my regular stops over to the blogroll.

Everybody Has A Plan Until They Get Hit

2011-12-09T09:30:00.004-05:00

NC Gun Blog explores a gang beating video. The video and the step by step breakdown of the isolation of the victim, the escalation, and the eventual violence should be read by everyone that thinks they would attempt to defend themselves in a violent situation.

Eric Holder Makes Up Definitions

2011-12-09T08:19:00.004-05:00

Eric Holder redefines lying as "a state of mind", perhaps because it was just pointed out to him that lying to Congress is a felony. So I wouldn't want to say you lied, I'll just go with obfuscate. It has a different definition.

obfuscate
verb
\ˈäb-fə-ˌskāt\

1: to make obscure
2: confuse

intransitive verb
: to be evasive, unclear, or confusing
— ob·fus·ca·tion noun
— ob·fus·ca·to·ry adjective

Here's a song for you, Eric. You could get together with Haldeman, Erlichman, and Dean and sing it as a quartet.

CBS News Reports The Obvious Answer

2011-12-08T08:11:00.007-05:00

CBS News is reporting that internal emails at the ATF show that their intent for letting guns be sold and delivered from gun stores in the U.S. to drug cartels in Mexico was to use the issue as an excuse to push for more gun control. This is not a surprise. It was the obvious reason all along.

"In light of the evidence, the Justice Department's refusal to answer questions about the role Operation Fast and Furious was supposed to play in advancing new firearms regulations is simply unacceptable," Rep. Issa (R-California) told CBS News.

Hymn To The Fallen

2011-12-07T09:19:00.006-05:00

Remember December 7th. Tell your children and grandchildren so they can remember. Freedom has a price.

When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today
--The Kohima Epitaph

This Is My 1911, This is My Glock

2011-12-06T20:28:00.004-05:00

I own both. I have a Glock 21 and a 1911.

Things that are true of the Glock:
1. It worked right out of the box.
2. It has worked every time I used it.
3. It is reasonably accurate.
4. It requires little maintenance or cleaning. The finish on the slide seems to be rustproof. The polymer frame is rustproof.
5. The normal magazines hold 13 rounds.

Things that are true of the 1911:
1. It required work to make it reliable.
2. Since that work was done, it has worked every time I used it.
3. It is very accurate.
4. The blued slide will show rust easily. I'm probably going to have the slide refinished in something more protective.
5. I clean it after every match.
6. It has 8 round magazines.

Those objective facts do not begin to describe the difference I personally feel. Like the difference between a modern sedan and an old pickup truck, it is hard to explain why I would choose the truck. Both get you there, both work. Plenty of people make the other choice and I'm okay with that.

But I'm at home in an old truck. And it's more satisfying to be shooting a 1911.

1911s VS Glocks

2011-12-05T10:33:00.005-05:00

All the cool kids are doing it so here's my effort. Feral Irishman inspired me and a H/T to Borepatch for the suggestion.

The Feral Irishman Wins the Interwebz

2011-12-04T22:30:00.001-05:00

Click here. Watch video.

The World Is An Ashtray

2011-12-03T10:47:00.002-05:00

Why do people think it's okay to throw their cigarettes out the car window? You see it all the time. Nice cars, cars with Save the Earth bumper stickers, Priuses (Prii?), it doesn't seem to matter. They sit at the light, flicking ashes until the light turns green, then BAM!, they flick it away like the world is an ashtray.

Uncle Jay takes issue with it in a wonderful post. He get a link and added to the blogroll for his fine, insightful, and reasonably profane writing.

What is wrong with smokers? Cars have ashtrays. If you can put it in your lungs, you can keep the butt in the ashtray. If you've been smoking in it, your car smells like crap anyway. I swear, if it was up to me, the punishment for throwing cigarette butts out your car/truck window would be:

First offense: Not permitted to buy cigarettes for 30 days. One day picking up cigarette butts in major intersections.
Second offense: Not permitted to buy cigarettes for 6 months. One week spent sweeping street gutters with a wisk broom and a dustpan.
Third offense: Lifetime ban on smoking. 6 months on a road crew picking up trash.

Long Bayonet Is Long

2011-12-02T16:20:00.001-05:00

Never point your bayonet at anything you don't want a hole in.

Language alert. H/T to Everyday, No Days Off.

Bringing Something Up For Review

2011-12-02T08:50:00.003-05:00

Back on February 4th, 2011 I posted the following:

Over at New Platz Journal, he has a short post on the situation in Egypt. Here's a quote: "Egypt? There’s no telling how that will turn out."

I like his writing, but in this case, I beg to differ. I think lots of people know how it's going to turn out. As soon as the demonstrations began, there was looting and arson. Now it is clear that Mubarak is planning to hold power by force, so there will be street fights, and one of two things will happen.

1. The army will use enough force to regain control and the situation will simmer like a pressure cooker with a stuck valve until some future explosion when Mubarak will be deposed.
2. The army will side with the demonstrators now and Mubarak will fall immediately.

When he does fall the Muslim Brotherhood will consolidate power and Egypt will join the other 14th century theocracies in the region. Along the way there will be a lot of blood. It is already starting, but that how I predict it will turn out.

So now Egypt has had an election and here is the outcome. Is anyone surprised? And where does it lead? Here's my next predictions:

1. Internal repression of dissidents and minorities in Egypt.
2. Sharia law in Egypt.
2. Increased militarism in the region.
3. Another war with Israel.

We can check back in a couple of years and see how that whole Arab Spring thing worked out for them.

Flip Floppin' With Mitt

2011-12-01T14:38:00.003-05:00

More of the SORC™. No, I will not vote for Mitt. The Republicans have to find a better candidate than a left of center former governor of Massachusetts that brought in a state mandated health care system and signed a state extension of the "assault weapons" ban.

Here he is, in his own words. First one side, than the other.

Boot To The Head

2011-12-01T13:14:00.001-05:00

Because, hey, we all want to beat up some bozos...

Accidental Truth

2011-12-01T10:50:00.004-05:00

President Obama gave a speech in Pennsylvania yesterday, taking his reelection message on the road. He spoke about his health care plan, banking regulations, and energy policies. Then he told the crowd, "I'm going to need another term to finish the job."

Memes Inside Memes

2011-11-30T15:03:00.002-05:00

This is so epic. Self referential meme nesting. With a nod to Godwin's Law.

11-22-63

2011-11-30T13:41:00.003-05:00

Stephen King has a new book out. The title is 11/22/63. It's a simple enough premise for a Stephen King book, there's one magical thing, a door from now to 1958. When you find it, what do you do with it? For anyone over 55, the title gives it away. You decide to change history, to stop the events of November 22, 1963. And yes, some of the book is about that.

But you have 5 years to live through to get there and that is the real story in this novel. The living, breathing heart of it is just this man's life as he lives it in a small town in America as it was. Because what happens when you live somewhere? You get connected, you grow rooted, and sometimes you fall in love.

Here's a review from the Cleveland Plain Dealer by Michelle McFee. It's clear she saw some of the same things I did. This is one of the best fiction stories I have read in a long time. He found a group of characters in a place and time and gave them life.

To Silent To Be Real

2011-11-28T10:23:00.001-05:00

There's a pride and a sadness in this song that always spoke to me.

The 4 Rules

2011-11-28T08:20:00.002-05:00

Really. All four. All the time. Because there is no taking the bullet back.

Carteach0 and I Collaborate

2011-11-27T09:08:00.003-05:00

Carteach0 and I collaborated on a post about military surplus ammo. It's not definitive by any means, just we have learned so far, and it has raised as many questions as it answered.

The best thing about it is that the internet allowed Carteach0 and I to connect, share ideas and common interests, and put up a post together. Go and read it, if old ammo and even older rifles are of interest to ya'.

From Here to New Year's

2011-11-27T06:57:00.001-05:00

Somewhere I had read an article about five years ago that talked about why Americans were overweight. There had been a study tracking adults over a long period and they found a very interesting trend. A large number of the people maintained their weight through the year, then gained approximately five pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's. That became the new normal weight and they would weigh that until the next holiday season where they would gain five more.

Even a guy who counts to twenty by taking off his shoes can see that if that trend continued for a decade, you would be fifty pounds overweight. Everything from today's leftovers, the extra cookies in the break room at work, on out to the egg nog punch at the Boxing Day party are all adding up. Come January you'll be letting the belt out a notch and it's not like most of us are going to lose it when the spring planting season kicks off and we're hitching up the team to plow the north field.

So I've set a goal to hold my weight even from here to New Year's. I'm at 180, give or take a pound or two. If I'm at 180 on New Year's Day, I can work on losing another five or so pounds in the spring. I want to train for my next Aikido test at 175.

Grandma's sugar cookie recipe will probably be my undoing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T08:51:00.002-05:00

Borepatch has a post up about mission creep at Homeland Security. A serious comment on a serious issue, to be sure.

I, on the other hand, want to go with the obvious.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Cook the bird in the oven.

Another Question Or Three

2011-11-22T19:53:00.004-05:00

Robert at My Tumultuous Adventure continues the discussion with a series of follow-questions.

Finally, I ask both you and ASM826, what should have been done? Should the public area have been given to them? For how long? Should they have then been responsibility for it's care and upkeep at that point? Should they be held liable for anything that happens in their zone as if it were their exclusive property (crimes, accidents, etc)?

I'll answer the last one first. No, of course not. No one, even a property owner on their own property, is held to be exclusively liable for the actions of others. If I trespass and then kill an endangered bird, the property owner is not at fault, I committed two crimes.

The other questions are where we work out the last clause of the 1st Amendment, isn't it? Should every protest require a permit from the very organization that is being protested? In a public area, what limits are appropriate? Who decides? There is some room for interpretation. There is some case law on the subject. My answers are not absolute, and they have fluidity at the edges.

The other questions are questions for the authorities and the police. How do you decide what level of protest you will allow? Where are protests permitted? When the protesters are non-compliant, or openly defiant, what responses are appropriate? How do the police handle a provocative group without inciting the protest to ratchet up?

Like the old saw about pornography, "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." What I saw in that video was wrong. It was wrong if for no other reason than it was ineffective and provocative. The policeman and his superior have been suspended. The University head is under pressure. The protesters have renewed support from the student body, alumni, and some elements of the public. They have worldwide media coverage. It was the casual arrogance in the body language of the officer as he walked up and down the line spraying the contents of that canister at close range in the protesters faces that gives it away. It may not be illegal, but it was abusive.

If there was good and legal reasons to clear these protesters, I don't see what they were. This was not a city sidewalk, it was a sidewalk in a park-like setting. Other students were not being prevented from free movement. No imminent threat of violence was evident. In this case, letting them sit there until they got tired or hungry would have been a better decision.

Again, I want to thank all of the people who have taken the time to comment, as well as everyone who is reading and considering these ideas. This is how freedom works. It's messy and ambiguous. My answers aren't "right". They are just my answers today.

What Constitutes Assault?

2011-11-22T16:39:00.002-05:00

Was the act of pepper spraying students for non-compliance an assault? Gunsmithing&Politics thinks it was. Robert thinks it was not. Pondering it myself and watching the video again, I want to turn the question around.

If, by chance, one of the students had popped up and grabbed the can of pepper spray, turned it around, and sprayed the policeman with it, would that have been assault? What response would you expect from the other police officers on the scene? What would the student have been charged with?

If one is assault, then why not the other? If acting to prevent further assault is justified to prevent injury to the policeman, then why didn't the other officers act to prevent injury to the students?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

As I Expected

2011-11-22T10:19:00.002-05:00

As I expected, some, perhaps most, of my readers disagreed with my viewpoint on the last post. I'd like to offer Robert at My Tumultuous Adventure a link to his post on the subject. I recognize that there are plenty of laws to support his point of view.

So we have rights, some mentioned in the Bill of Rights, but those rights are now subject to being hedged in by laws and regulations. I submit that if I need a permit to exercise my 1st Amendment rights, that makes those rights into privileges subject to approval of whoever is issuing the permits. On this we will have to continue to disagree.

The use of tear gas, pepper spray, and pepper balls to disperse a riot seems justified when public safety is an issue. Close in spraying of pepper spray to punish people is not. It was use of force in a situation where no force was called for.

While the first comment on the previous post goes places I think are completely over the top, the second seems so willing to restrict the right to assemble and protest as to make the right meaningless. I feel the same way about permits to carry a firearm. If it's a right, who gets to decide if I can exercise it?

When They Do It To The Least Of Us

2011-11-22T00:03:00.008-05:00

You don't have to watch much of this, the part you need to see is pretty much over in the first 50 seconds. These are college students and yes I suppose from the policeman's point of view they were being a pain in the ass. But here's my take. They weren't any threat to the policeman at all. They were peacefully assembled to protest something. Well within any interpretation of the 1st Amendment.

They weren't armed, they weren't committing any violence. The police are armed, dressed for a riot. Carrying the economy sized pepper spray dispensers. Carrying guns and batons and paintball guns loaded with pepper balls. Who did the provoking here?

I think the whole OWS movement is a bunch of misdirected crap, but what's the lesson these kids learned from this event? That they are powerless in the face of the weapons of the State? That peaceful protest will be met with force? I don't have to agree with your views or your beliefs to think that you have a right to assemble and protest, to seek redress for your grievances. I want the same rights for myself.

Here's a two minute history lesson. The firehoses come out at 1:50.

I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
Radio and Television Report to the American People on Civil Rights, June 11, 1963

There's Nothing New Under The Sun

2011-11-21T15:42:00.002-05:00

Looking back at old editions of Guns Magazine, I found an article in the July 1955 edition titled "Why Guns Blow Up". It starts on page 30.

The classic 20ga. shell in a 12ga. gun. Double charging a .357 Magnum. Modern smokeless powder in black powder guns. Loading the wrong size cartridge. Firing with a barrel obstruction.

If you were rewriting the article for publication today, some of the older mistakes would be less likely because those guns and calibers have become collectors items, not shooters. A few new issues have arisen. But for the most part everything they were writing about in 1955 is still happening.

Oh, and on page 50, where the article is continued, there is an ad for the Boys antitank rifle. You could have one shipped to your home, no paperwork, for $98.50 from Southeastern Shooters Supply in College Park, Md.

Old Ammo

2011-11-20T15:21:00.006-05:00

Primers used to be made with a compound that left a corrosive salt residue in the firearm. U.S. made ammunition manufactured up to the mid 1950's is suspect, as is foreign made ammo up to about 1980. It's a problem, and if you've seen an older rifle that wasn't properly cleaned, it will have a dark, pitted bore.

I have some of this ammo in 30.06, with headstamps from the '40s and '50s. It's been sitting in an ammo can, isolated from the newer stuff and the reloads. But if you never plan to shoot it, why keep it around? So yesterday I took it to the range, along with my 1903A3 and sent about 30 rounds down range, as practice ammo for upcoming Garand matches.

I had planned to clean it right away when I got home, but then it was time for dinner, so I set the '03 back in the safe next to the Garand.

Two hours later I came back. The 1903A3 had completely dissolved, leaving just the stock and sling and a pile of rust. The Garand next to it had pitted to the point that it will never be usable again. I took a picture of my folly:

Oops, sorry, got sidetracked by the gun forum warnings.

Actually, two hours later, I came back and got the '03 and cleaned it. I had a couple of ideas, using ammonia and then hot water to remove the salts, then a regular cleaning, but decided to look around the interwebz to see what was recommended. I found this thread on the CMP forum and used what I learned there in addition to my own ideas to clean the rifle.

My baseline idea is that this was the only ammo available for decades and all these old rifles used it. The rifles survived it then and have come down to us in serviceable condition. Proper cleaning is possible, just time consuming.

Don't Shoot Me 'Cause It Hurts!

2011-11-20T11:21:00.003-05:00

Reposted from Way Up North because this is the best thing you gunnies will see this week.

Email and Reply

2011-11-18T14:09:00.002-05:00

One of my sons wrote me in reply to my post about Penn State. Here is most of his email and my reply.

Hey dad,

Had some spare time and was reading your blog. find the comments thing to be a pain so I figured I'd just respond to you directly...read your post about Sandusky and found it pretty much to be on the mark but one thing I am curious about. Part of the reason everyone is upset is because raping kids is wrong. It also feels wrong, in the way that makes us hate the perpetrator, much more than a bank robber or a murderer or even a frat guy that "date" rapes girls.

But a lot of the moral outrage seems to be reserved for this guy McQueary, who clearly seems to not have done enough. He knew about a severe injustice and did next to nothing, or at least not enough, about it. It seems that if me or you or anybody I know or want to know walked in on that type of thing that they would stop it, tell the cops, and tell the media. Who gives a shit about football?

The thing seems to be that maybe this guy McQueary fulfilled his legal obligation (maybe) but certainly not his moral one. And all of us, atheist or Christian or Jew or whatever, have to agree that there are morals or there doesn't seem to be much point left in this life.

There is a problem though. Outside from the gut-wrenching disgust one feels when hearing about little boys being raped, the fact of the matter is that they were helpless, and people like McQueary knew about it, and did nothing to stop it. And perhaps by that standard, we are all failing miserably.

I can think of a dozen real life examples, but here is one. Certain people in prison get raped. It is almost certain that large numbers of these people are innocent of the crime they are in prison for, and much larger numbers of them certainly do not deserved to be raped. And by any standard, they are helpless. Just as helpless as those little kids. The word helpless literally meaning not able to help oneself. There is no relativity to the word. And yet where is our moral outrage? Where is our indignity? It is not a political issue. I have lost much of my taste for political labels, although it seems only a bleeding heart liberal would be working for prison reform. And I don't feel like doing it, and I'm sure you don't either.

It is easy to say that perhaps had we been the ones to walk in on child rape that we would have stopped it. It is harder to accept that perhaps much of humanity is on the moral low ground much of the time. Certainly an argument can be made for as how the two situations I described are not even close to equal, and maybe the argument would be somewhat valid. But arguments to get out of a moral obligation are the kind that lawyers, and politicians, and football coaches, and child molesters, and the people who cover up for them make. Perhaps it would be better to accept that we are failing, and do something about it.

Anyways, I think you get my point. Feel free to use it on your blog. Just trying to use that philosophy degree a little bit.

Love,
(the kid)

Well, there you go, I had showed him RAoP but didn't realize he was reading it on a regular basis. Since he wrote me, I wrote him back. Here's my reply.

Dear Kid,

A couple of thoughts.

Yes, the weak and helpless in a prison are a very vulnerable population. It is a very sad commentary on our "correctional" system that people, guilty or not, are at risk of being sexually assaulted in prison. I don't know what to do about it, but it is clearly any evil thing. They are comparable to the extent that if people with power know about it they should be morally obligated to act to prevent/stop it. There's no morally defensible viewpoint that justifies leaving people to be assaulted just because they have been convicted of a crime that includes jail time as a punishment.

McQueary was by no means the only person that knew about this. He is just one that we know about. This is at the heart of the crucifixion story. Innocence condemned because of the failure of supposedly righteous people to act on their moral beliefs. Most of the time I think we are just monkeys that have learned to use tools.

Any abuse of power in human relations, small or large, is an issue of morality. How we confront both ourselves and others in those situations is the true measure of who we are.

Dad

Your thoughts on this are welcome, too. I will post any thoughtful insights I get on this subject for all 10 of you to read.

Guest Post, With Math and Logic

2011-11-17T07:59:00.006-05:00

I have a friend that tried blogging and found the need to have a steady stream of words day after day to be too much. To be fair, he has two young special needs children, along with a life and a wife and a job. Yesterday he got a few free minutes and wrote the following, then sent it to me as an unsolicited submission, asking that I consider it for Random Acts of Patriotism.

So here is my first guest post. Written by a good man who asked to be called Doble Troble. Warning! Math will be involved.

The Illogic of “Occupy” Protests

“We are the ninety-nine percent!”

What does this mean? It means that you represent essentially the entire population from which you come. This means that you are indistinguishable from any other individual. You are decidedly indistinct, and yet you are angry enough to protest against the remaining one percent of the population. In statistical terms, one percent is considered to be insignificant. One percent of a population is unrepresentative. It is an anomaly. It is nothing.

Those claiming to represent essentially the entire population are protesting against essentially nothing.

The “ninety-niners” claim that the “one-percenters” are greedy. “Five-percenters” like Barrack Obama, Michael Moore, Donald Sutherland, Mike Meyers, Lady Gaga and numerous others agree.

They all support redistribution of “one-percenter” wealth, apparently through Federal government action, although the specific mechanism to be used to create “fairness” remains unclear.

So what is it that “one-percenters” have that everyone else wants? It is 34% of our country’s net worth1. Isn’t it clearly unfair that so few should have so much? Maybe so!

What would happen if tomorrow Congress (comprised almost entirely of “five-percenters”) using authority vested by the “Commerce Clause” passed legislation to confiscate the net worth of “one-percenters” and then evenly distribute it among the ninety-nine percent?

OK, this requires math! Thirty-four percent of our country’s net worth, divided by ninety-nine percent of the population not subject to confiscation, means that everyone will receive an average of 0.34% increase in net worth! Finally! Justice!

Of course this also means that those exceedingly rare individuals who understand how to be productive at levels not appreciated by essentially everyone will no longer have the resources to do what they have done so exceedingly well.

What happens next?

Most “forty-seven-percenters” who actually pay Federal income tax can tell you right-away: recession if we’re lucky, depression if luck has nothing to do with it, and most-likely economic collapse.

You go, “ninety-niners”! In order to fundamentally change a system, you must first tear it down. Although you apparently don’t understand this, it is clearly what you are accomplishing. And what do you stand to gain? A one-time across-the-board “stimulus” of 0.34% in net worth. Enjoy that IPad upgrade (hopefully the internet won’t be impacted to the point that it becomes useless).

1 http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Homeland Security

2011-11-16T10:48:00.003-05:00

Homeland Security stopped by. This post on sight picture/sight alignment has been one that gets hits almost every day. Normally I'd think it was someone trying to improve their marksmanship, but now I wonder.

Really, all the information is in the Marine Corps Rifle Marksmanship manual.

Click to biggify

Comparisons

2011-11-16T08:30:00.002-05:00

The child molestation scandal at Penn State has been compared to the ongoing child molestation scandal within the clergy of the Catholic Church. This seems to me to be a valid point. Despite the vast scale of the Catholic Church and it's clergy, there are some similarities.

The most important one is that the real problem is not the individual offender. While heinous, his crimes are isolated to his personal actions. The real problem is the people that become aware of the offender and participate in covering up the offenses. To protect the offender becomes more important than justice for the victims and more important than preventing further offenses.

Bishops and Cardinals in the Catholic Church did some moral calculus that I cannot fathom and decided that the innocence of the children in their dioceses was less important than "protecting the church". There are even cases where parents who became aware of their child's abuse were told by clergy to keep silent for the good of the church. Here's one. There are many more.

I don't attend Mass anymore. I stopped giving money a few years before that. If you want to get the attention of people that care about an organization more than they care about any moral standard of human behavior, you have to figure out what will concern them. It's money. Money runs the show. All those church buildings and rectories and retreat centers take money to heat, light, and maintain. Since the Church is completely dependent on the donations of the laity, the laity holds the power. All they have to do is take it.

The Penn State football program is the same in this way. It is money driven. Penn State's mission statement and charter says it clearly:

Penn State is one of four "state-related" universities (along with the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and Lincoln University), institutions that are not state-owned and -operated but that have the character of public universities and receive substantial state appropriations. (Bolded by me)

Cut off the flow of money until they feel the pain. Do the same to Sandusky's ~~charity~~ victim pool.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
--Matthew 5:13

The Right Response

2011-11-15T10:53:00.012-05:00

Had a friend email me and ask me why I hadn't commented on the Penn State/Sandusky news. So here goes.

I think it's bigger than has been reported. I think this "charity" and it's donors may be involved in something far more monstrous than one man taking advantage of his power and position. Somehow people that do these these things find one another and when they have power, it may not be worth your life to cross them.

There hasn't been any believable explanation for why Mike McQueary didn't respond by stopping the abuse he was witnessing and then calling the police. The best explanation is that he was afraid, not for his job, but for his life, and possibly for the lives of his family. To just walk away and then call your dad for advice is otherwise incomprehensible.

This post, titled Remedial Masculinity by Dr. Leon Podles lays out the only honorable course of action. Here's a quote:

If you need a reminder of what to do if you walk into a shower area and find a grown man thrusting behind a boy bracing with his arms against a wall, you could do worse than the following.

You: Move away from the boy. I’m talking to you old man. Stand back. Do it now.

Man: Aw, come on, we’re just horsing around.

You: Shut up and move away from the boy. Kid? Kid, look at me. Turn around and look at me. Go get dressed. You’re going to the hospital.
(More at the link)

Because it isn't just that moment in the shower, is it? And it isn't just Mike McQueary. Joe Paterno knew. So did others, including the athletic director and the VP for finance at the university. Every day, every damned day every one of them didn't report this, they choose their life and their career and their own comfort over the ongoing abuse of children. Every morning when they woke up and decided to go to work, they knew that their silence was enabling evil. That sometime, today, tomorrow, the next day, next week, a 10 year old boy was going to be anally raped and any one of them could have stopped it, but instead they choose to be silent. I'm sure it seemed like the expedient thing to do.

Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish."
--John 11:49-50

NC Disarms Everyone On Campus

2011-11-14T18:03:00.002-05:00

NC disarms everyone but law enforcement on all school campuses including universities.
This is the result.

Two Fayetteville State University students were robbed at gunpoint in their dorm room early Sunday, in what CBS affiliate WRAL reports was the fourth armed robbery within student housing this year.

It's not safer. It doesn't even feel safer. It just makes it a pretty good bet that the criminals are not going to run into armed resistance.

Saturday Morning Range Time

2011-11-12T21:26:00.003-05:00

Went out to the range to accuracy test some old military 30.06 ammo. Got the idea from a post over at Carteach0's site and I just mailed him the results along with some pictures. I expect he'll edit and put it up soon.

It was a beautiful November day. After we got done with the 30.06, we shot a AR-15, a Ruger SP101, a Kimber 1911, a Hi-Power and a Walther 380 just for fun. A good time with good friends at a great range.

Nov 10th and 11th

2011-11-11T08:07:00.003-05:00

November 10th is the Birthday of the Marine Corps.

November 11th is Veteran's Day.

Take some time to remember.

Find a veteran. Thank them.

How We Store Information

2011-11-10T08:13:00.004-05:00

I don't know if I could vote for Rick Perry, but I sympathize with him today. It's a hard moment when you can't come up with a piece of information. There you are, trying to think of a name or a date, while the person or persons you were talking to wait for you to finish your thought.

To have it happen while the cameras are running is worse.

The worst problem of this sort I ever had was with the name of Walter Matthau. Long before the internet, when he was still alive and making movies, I could not keep his name in my memory banks. I would be able to think of the movies, I could see his face, quote lines from the films, and still his name was in some dead spot I could not access. It didn't happen once, it happened so often that my wife would bring him up just to watch me struggle.

I finally wrote his name on the wall of the hall closet. I would just get up, go open the door, and read the name. Then I was okay, I could hold onto it while we talked. After a while, it got so I could just think about opening the closet and reading the name written on the wall and I could come up with the name. That was 30+ years ago. We were renting that house. But I still had to imagine walking around the corner by the bathroom, opening the door, and looking at the words I had written to come up with the name for this post.

He was a funny guy, I liked him as an actor. You know the one, ummm, ummm, did the "Odd Couple" and the original "Taking of Pelham 1-2-3". What the heck is his name?

When Water Flows Uphill

2011-11-09T09:28:00.002-05:00

Bill Whittle breaks it down in little words.

The Cripple Creek Line

2011-11-08T08:29:00.005-05:00

The Cripple Creek Line was the original name. It was built along the New River, eventually reaching the town of Galax. The Norfolk and Western bought the line and ran it until 1985. Here's some more history. There's more and lots of pictures at this site hosted by Virginia Tech. They asked for no reposting so I am settling for a link to this picture of one of the bridges we crossed as it looked when the trains were running.

If I had seen the picture before we went on the trip, I would have tried to get a current shot from the same vantage point. Here's one I did take, looking down at the structure of the bridge.

It's a park now, 57 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trail. It is a scenic park, the facilities are well maintained, and we had a great time.

But something has been lost. The industries that made the line profitable are gone, the rails taken up. The energy that led people to dig and blast and build bridges just to build a spur line railroad is gone, too.

November Camping

2011-11-07T09:27:00.003-05:00

November camping at Foster Falls in the New River State Park. The sun is just coming up, you can see it lighting the trees at the top the hillside. It was in the mid-twenties at night, made it to about fifty during the day.

We were there to bicycle a section of abandoned railroad that has been turned into a trail. Pictures of that in the next post.

Where Henry Ford Once Built Model Ts

2011-11-04T09:41:00.001-04:00

Where Henry Ford built his first assembly lines, the city has turned out the lights. No one builds anything there anymore, it's not really in decline, it's in free fall.

In late August, contractors from DTE Energy Co. began rolling through the streets, taking out two-thirds of the light poles.

When You can't Defend Yourself

2011-11-03T13:07:00.001-04:00

When you can't legally defend yourself, you get this. Gun and machete attacks on restaurant customers. Here's the store video.

The Center Does Not Hold

2011-11-03T11:29:00.001-04:00

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity...

--William Butler Yeats

The Answer To Last Month's Question

2011-11-03T11:17:00.005-04:00

On October 14th, 2011, in relation to the OWS protests, I asked the question, "How long before the riot starts?"

The answer was 19 days.

From The Onion

2011-11-01T21:17:00.002-04:00

Things can be funny and sad. Truth is where you find it. Here's a quote.

According to researchers, these long- forgotten people once flourished between western New York state and Illinois, erecting highly distinctive steel and brick structures wherever they went, including many buildings thought to have held hundreds of paid workers at a time..."It's a complex and intriguing set of rituals we're still trying to fully understand," Mueller added. "But it appears as if their entire society was centered around creating, out of thin air, actual jobs that paid an actual living wage."