Notice Anything Wrong

Notice anything wrong here?  Anything at all?

Good work iCal team!

Mosin Delete

I've decided to change my wall decorations somewhat.

I've taken the Mosin down and replaced it with my M1903A3.

Considering Catherine's history, she deserved a place of honor.

I'm also a bit sketchy on granting such an honor to a Soviet gun after spending so much time actively opposing them.

Svetlana is delegated to a corner of the closet on account.

Edit: worthless without pics.

All Outta GAF

Florida has its share of hurricanes.

Florida also has more than its share of New Yorkers.

Something I noticed a couple of storms ago was how the former New Yorkers were treated by their friends and relatives who still lived up there and were visiting for the holidays.

The transplants were complaining mildly about insurance and some damages from the tropical storms the same year as Katrina.  The New Yorkers kept going on and on about what dumbfucks the transplants were for living in such a shit hole place that gets hit with hurricanes.

A couple even opined that no aid should be offered to such idiots as we who live here.  One even added that we deserved it for giving Bush the election (classy!).

This is why I am all out of give a fuck for the plight of New York City.

This, on top of the bullshit that Michael Bloomberg tries is enough to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude about NYC being pummeled worse with by Sandy than Miami was by Andrew (notice the difference in strength between those storms).

News People Again

The facade did not fall of that building in New York.  The WALL fell off.

Yes, it was the front wall, but saying the facade fell off implies decorative damage not a loss of integrity.

Professional News People

You know, people who have a degree in journalism which includes classes in english like engineering includes math classes...

Cache is pronounced the same as cash.  Silent e.

If you pronounce the e you sound like you are saying cachet which is not the same thing at all.

Stupid Criminal Alert

But did he say, "I just fucking shot myself"?

The Other Gorilla

Given number 2.

What happens should the revolution succeed?

Heck, what happens if you manage to wrest local control from the local government and constabulary?

What laws do you enforce, or not, and what justification do you use for doing so (or not)?

Gorilla In The Room

I'm on an email list that sends me the latest and greatest black helicopter news.

The scariest thing of late has been links to "legitimate" sources instead of the more normal incestuous "people who think like we do" sites.

About 10% of the traffic is the threeper style folks.  Lots of "when the revolution starts we're gonna..."

Even Oleg has mentioned some about that.

The 300 lb gorilla in the room is the Army is not going to be showing up until the cops lose their handle on the situation.

Let's say the Black Helicopter Militia (BHM) types are correct and all the executive orders from Herr Obama are a prelude to denying the election and imposing a more open police state on us.  (This is what we call a "given".)

Who is the first line who will enforce such edicts?

It's not Mother Green and her extensive artillery and air support.  It's your local law enforcement agency.

That, my threeper pals, is the person you'll have to shoot if The Government ever decides to go full statist.

For some this is going to be the easiest, best, day of their lives.  Those are the folks with a lot of speeding tickets or a stack of photos from a red light camera.

What about the rest of us who kinda like the idea of law enforcement but are unhappy about the direction the laws being enforced is going?

The denial is that their friend the cop won't enforce such laws.  Wanna bet?  They don't have any problem with all manner of unconstitutional crap now, why would this matter to them?  Please give a detailed response.

I would hope that officer friendly stays home should Herr Obama declare himself God-King.  Because if the rest of his department starts enforcing the edicts of the take-over then anyone wearing the uniform will be a legitimate target.  The whole "not all cops are bad" thing?  Yeah, people are going to take the time to sort that out.  This, by the way, is why your local police becoming insular and stand-offish is such a bad idea.

It's a two-fold bad idea.  It removes them as members of the public, that makes it easier for them to impose statist bullshit on us and it turn makes it easier for the public to shoot them should the need arise.

Do I believe that people will shoot the cops for enforcing such laws?  No I do not.

This is why "the revolution" will never start in the USA.  We don't fight back.  We talk and talk and talk but we never do anything, and we're past the point of do something.  Yes, me too.  I'm not shooting anyone either.  And look at me talking!

We've got too much hope.  We keep hoping that the next guy will be better than the last one, and it never seems to happen.  We keep voting and thinking we're doing something but our elections have nearly become choosing between Hitler and Stalin.  Sure, Stalin is better on agricultural issues but Hitler seems to have the economy nailed!

As has been said, we're not voting our way out of this and we'll never stand up to "them" over anything.  I weep because I feel like I should have done something but was too afraid.  I still am.

Holy Spit!

Dear Reader is doomed.  It is official.

The Raccoon River Pravda has endorsed Mittens.

Remember

Bear in mind, whenever you're feeling stroppy, that SEAL's and other Special Forces are Player Characters.

You might get one from time to time, but the GM has plenty of mooks to send.

Wear your red shirt...

Professional

You are a professional if you are being paid to do it.

You are aspiring if you are not being paid, but want to be.

Neither of those conditions implies expertise.

A hobbyist can be extremely knowledgable and never desire renumeration for their efforts.

Someone whom is wholly ignorant on a topic can expound in absolute terms while drawing a paycheck.

Sadly, in many cases you must know a lot about the topic at hand before it's obvious which is which.

What The Captain Means

Stolen shamelessly from The Rott.

Avoid

Should someone recommend this shop to you.  Punch them in the balls and run.

That person is not your friend and RC Customz does slip-shod work.

I paid $5,000 to have a paint job that's peeling in thick sheets away from the original, unsanded, paint.

You are better served by going to Maaco.

Dark Side

One of the joys of being mechanically inclined is being a hot rodder.

My beloved Biscayne SS is not a Biscayne at all.

She started out in March of 1990 as a Caprice Classic with a 170 hp 305 cubic inch LO3 small block V-8.  In a 3,995 lb. car, that's not much motor.  Especially since it was a TIRED engine, probably barely made 130 at the end.

Because I am a rodder, I yanked that engine and replaced it with a 350 cubic inch LT1 out of a '96 Impala SS.  290 horses, 330 foot pounds!  No loss in mileage.  Win win?

No.

The dark side of hot rodding is mutant engine swaps.  When something goes wrong, you own it.  It's not something you can take to someone because they don't know what you did and there's no book explaining it.

I tried to document it all, but there's huge gaps for another mechanic to figure out.

Well, she's been dead for a few months because I am past the limit of my knowledge.  It started as an occasional miss or sputter.  It seemed fuel related because she sits so much gas going bad seemed a possibility.  I think, now, it's the distributor.

On an 92-97 LT1, that's called an Optispark™.  The opti is the source of much angst in the Chevy world.  It's mounted low on the front of the motor above the crank and behind and below the waterpump.  It's driven directly by the front face of the camshaft.  And they die.  They're supposed to be good for 100k miles, but sometimes barely last for 15,000.  When they die they don't give a code to the computer to help you diagnose the problem.  Your car just starts acting funny, or dies.

It's easy to blame an opti for a fuel problem.  It's easy to blame a fuel problem on an opti.

You don't really know which until you've pulled things apart and swapped in new pieces.

Did I mention that a new AC-Delco® Optispark™ is a $350+ part?  You can buy a cap and rotor, but that never seems to fix it.

Thankfully I have great friends and one of them took pity on the poor Biscuit and bought me a new opti.  THANKS MARV!

You Were Not Put On This Earth To "Get It" Mr Burton

Canine Calls Work On All Canines

I wandered over to the Farm's blog and found the above video.

I had to record my dog's reaction to it.

Confession

Personal time!

I've made the claim that I stopped riding because of the idiots surrounding me on the road.

That's not true.

The reason I quit is because I can't rely on my right ankle to take weight.  It will on occasion just fold under me and over I go.  On foot I can almost always keep myself from falling.  It only takes one or two times on a bike to convince you that perhaps your motorcycle days are through.

Hey, it only took me fifteen years to admit it to myself.

Then another five to go public...

I do miss it though.  I loved riding.

Hoist The Black Flag

OK, let me make sure I have this straight.

We're not voting our way out of this.

We're not shooting our way out of this.

That means there's no hope.

Explain to me, please, why we shouldn't just hoist that black flag, spit on our hands and start slitting throats?

WHAT HAVE WE TO LOSE THAT ISN'T GOING TO BE LOST ANYWAY?

"Freedom's just another word for 'nothing left to lose'." K. Kristofferson.

Going Libertarian

I have noticed, time and again, that a good many bloggers who are all for "liberty" are perfectly willing to go the fascist route on a good many non-gun topics.

Such as drugs.

They don't like people getting high, GOVERNMENT BAN.

Pick something they don't like and it's amazing how much government they'll tolerate to end it.

This pisses me off to no end because I've found yet another world where I don't fit in.

The Libertarians call me a statist because I think anarchy just won't work.

The drug problem is sticky.  Banning drugs clearly does not prevent people from taking them.  The black market for things that make you high is extremely lucrative and every single time such things are banned the people trafficking them begin a charge to the bottom in violence and depravity.

Legalizing drugs now will not end that depravity.  It will not stop the violence.  But letting people who want to get high, do so would have kept the black market from forming!  Look at the money people are willing to spend to get high!  Money that is presently funding the violence and depravity.

And that's just drug cartels.  Look at the other corrosive effects on liberty from the drug wars.  No knock searches at the wrong address where an innocent person is killed by the police who can't do once what Domino's does thousands of times a day.  Cars being destroyed during searches for the tiniest amount of contraband because a sniffer dog cued off the handler and not their nose.

Is that better or worse than just letting someone get stoned?

The drug war is lost.  People are simply willing to pay far too much to get high.  Because of the ban we now will have to fight a real war to break the nation-state level of power we've funded into the narco-cartels.  Strangely, we may end up fighting to keep them in power and eliminate the legitimate governments where they are because it's simply cheaper and easier.  One thing is certain, though, legalizing drugs cuts their funding and it's something they are very afraid of.  They went on a murder spree in Columbia over the issue to keep drugs illegal there.  If legalization didn't matter, why would they?

To put another perspective on it.  If we end up in a real war with the narco's; if drugs remain illegal we will be paying for both sides to fight.  I know how simple and cheap meth is to make if the chemicals are freely available.  The reason it's dangerous to make now is all of the processes in play to make the chemicals to make the chemicals to make the chemicals one needs to start actually making the meth.  Yet more death at the feet of the war on drugs!

It would be a lot better, overall, to let companies like Roche and Smith-Kline make brand name drugs than what we have now.  Yes, some people are going to die from overdoses (this portion of the drug problem is self correcting with hard drugs).  Yes, some people are going to die from what stoned people do while they are high.  I predict that it will be fewer than are dying now.

I tend to be goals oriented.  What is the GOAL of the drug war?  Did the ban on drugs achieve this goal?  If the answer is no and you advocated for this war we can stop listening to your ideas for a solution.

PS: I cynically think that the goal of the war on drugs had nothing at all to do with drugs but is really a vehicle to eliminate that pesky liberty wherever it's taking root in the USA.  If you look at it in that regard, it's working well.  Legalizing drugs cuts this goals nuts off.

Whose Fault Is That?

Why are the drug cartels rich and powerful?

They're rich because we're paying them to be.

They're powerful because they're ruthless.

They were able to access this power through the wealth that we gave them.

You may notice a distinct lack of murder associated the the chocolate and coffee trades.

Now that the cartels have accumulated real power that can be sustained independently from selling drugs, what do we do about it?

There's no simple or clean solution.  However this problem is entirely the USA's making.  We should be the ones who solve it because it's ours.

We're almost definitely going to have to make drugs legal.  We're going to have to let people get high.  We're going to have to come up with methods of dealing with high people.

I'll bet that with a supply of something that's cheap and legal we see a lot less of the bullshit associated with drugs.  Like no-knock searches and gun control stemming from the violence that comes with black markets on goods that are as lucrative as mind altering substances are.  The really, really sad thing about the whole mess is we've been here and done this before.  It was called prohibition.  Legalizing booze was a necessary step in stopping the wars between the liquor gangs.

But that's the domestic part one.

The cartels are not going to be happy about cutting off their funding.  Expect a violent reaction.

That's likely going to mean a real war.  A war where we have to invade and occupy one or more nations to our south.

And we'll fuck it up.

We won't do what needs done to break the decades (centuries?) of corruption and patronage.  We won't appoint a MacArthur to run the place autocratically until the old system is completely dead.  We'll do like Iraq and Afghanistan and attempt to leave the existing structure in place but altered slightly.

It would have been far better to have never gone down this road again.  While playing the what-if game I wonder how much power the mafia would have if we had not cut their legs out from under them and repealed the 18th Amendment.  Would it look like Mexico today in the cities of America?  Would we have Appalachian Booze Lords murdering people opposed to the whiskey trade or competitors?

The very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Wow, Fangs Out

When?

When will the time be right to start pushing back?

I've responded to this post.

I'll admit I didn't get active about politics until the AWB and Brady were passed.

That was 18 years ago.  The ban has been expired for 8.  We've been holding our breath about it coming back for that long too.

Every other year someone hits me up for money to stop the anti-gun menace.

Every other year I decline.

Why?

Because the anti-gun groups are in total disarray!  Haven't you been reading the gun-blogs?  They are all defunded and close to becoming non-entities.

With them out of the fight that means that the tide should be running the other direction, no?

What I want to know is why no gun control law is ever repealed.

Lots of people point to the Assault Rifle Ban's expiration like it's some sort of victory for our side, like our money kept it from being renewed.  Like I wasn't there in 1994 and paying attention.

"We need money to repeal Brady and the AWB!  Your generous donation will help put pro-gun candidates in office."  So I donated.  Donated until it hurt.  Gave up luxuries.  Got "pro-gun" candidates elected and in office.  And the very next session of congress, now fully Republican, put a repeal of the assault weapons ban on Bill Clinton's desk!

Oh, wait...

The AWB went away because to get it passed at all (with the supposed anti-gun congress they wanted money to get rid of) they had to include a sunset provision.  And it did sunset rather than being repealed.

I've been very involved in politics for the last 20 years and I am just not seeing anything "pro-gun" about anyone we've sent.  I can see a lot that isn't anti-gun, but that's not the same thing.

Far too many of us gunnies have something akin to Stockholm Syndrome, they act any politician who isn't actively fucking us is on our side.  But they aren't.  They only want our vote and once that's secured they don't do anything beyond maintaining the status quo.

They want me to fund, for the most part, the same party whose presidents signed the laws that gave us BOTH 922(o) and 922(r)!  Those two provisions were small addendum to larger bills, why cannot we get them repealed in the same manner as they were added?

I keep hearing, "the time is not right" and "we need a clean case" to present these.  OK, well, it's been 26 years on 922(o).  It's been 22 years on 922(r).  More than ten election cycles each and I am still waiting.

Put the repeal of those in EVERY SINGLE BILL and force it to be debated in every committee meeting and every step of the way.  Carthage was eventually destroyed, you know.

Until the "pro-gun" side starts doing this they won't get any money for candidates from me.  I'll keep my money for paying organizations like SAF or Florida Carry, both of whom do more than just back candidates.  Neither of which has every pissed down my back and told me it's raining, I'm looking at you Wayne and Marion.

Sticks Of Fire Patch

I should have posted this days ago.  A week ago when it arrived, in fact.

Thanks to Robb Allen for having them made and selling them at a very reasonable price!

I guess I should actually read the books now, huh?

More Mosin

A friend of mine wants a Mosin-Nagant because it's cheap to buy and cheap to shoot.

Unfortunately doing the research to aid his search has reminded me of the existence of the Finnish M-39.

Those things are not cheap to buy!  They cost as much as some new rifles!

Still, they are tons cheaper than just about any US surplus rifle, so...

Yet another case of regret at not snatching one up when they were cheap at gun shows.

Flying

Anything that flies is magical.

I still believe that.

At one time my greatest ambition was to become a pilot.

I no longer have much desire.

Why?

Because flying represented freedom and there's not much about aviation that's free even when it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Nearly every aspect of any flying machine is regulated.  Many of those regulations are from lessons written in blood.  However many of those regulations were written before the state of the art became antiquated.

It's had a definite chilling effect on innovation.  You may notice that the engine on a typical general aviation plane is no different than it was in the late '60's.  Compare that to your car.

You have to have that engine completely torn down and rebuilt almost as often as a Top Fuel team does.  It's insane.  They can last longer than that, I've seen it.  Lots of air-boats are running engines that came out of airplanes once they fail an inspection and the owner doesn't want to pay to rebuild it (rebuilds cost just a teeny bit less than a new motor).  Those air boats run for hours and hours past that point without problems.  They do things like convert the magnetos to distributors and running an automotive sourced electrical system with normal spark plugs.

And that's just one example.

This is What Happens When You Don't Vote

English Electric

The English Electric Lightning in screenshots from Strike Fighters 2.  The Lightning is one of my favorite Cold-War fighters.  It's twin engined, with the engines stacked vertically and staggered; the top engine is aft of the bottom one.  It's definitely unique.

One feature of the early variants is the belly weapons pack.  You could choose from two heat seeking missiles, two 30mm ADEN cannon or a pack of 48 two-inch rockets.

 1960: F.1 2x 30mm ADEN in the nose, interchangeable pack in belly.  Shown here with two Firestreak missiles.

 1961: F.1A almost immediately shortcomings are noticed.  The short range is addressed by adding a refueling probe.  The instruments in the cockpit are rearranged slightly to help ease the pilot's workload.

Firing a salvo of 2" rockets.

1962: F.2 greatly improved cockpit arrangement, better engines, and the RAF gives up on the 2" rockets.

1964: F.3 The first model to carry the Red Top missile.  The definitive cockpit arrangement is introduced and the tail is given a flat top to increase stability.  The guns in the nose are deleted but the belly pack can still take either missiles or guns.

1966: F.6 A complete redesign changing almost every detail.  More powerful engines, completely new wing, the tail from the F.3, a new ventral arrangement with a large fuel tank, two fins and two 30mm ADEN cannon.  The belly pack idea is scrapped and only missiles are carried in that position.  The F.6 was both newly built and converted from existing F.3's.

1968: The F.2A is the budget conscious man's F.6.  They were rebuilt F.2's and given many of the features of the F.6.  New tail and wings, including overwing tanks and the larger belly fuel tank were added.  The cockpit and nose guns remained the same.  Interestingly the ability to carry the newer and more capable Red Top missile was not added.

1968: F.53 an export F.6 with two underwing hardpoints.  Despite the RAF abandoning the idea of the rocket pack, the option is available on the F.53.  While nearly useless in their intended air-to-air role they are functional as an air-to-ground weapon.  Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are the sole customers.

The Excitement Of The Merge!

Just under 500 knots indicated, 12,650' MSL and climbing at 3,800 feet per minute; ESE.  Just about 100 knots closure at around 17 miles on the nose, centered steering; AIM-9M selected with about 7 miles to go until I'm inside the max published range of the missile.

It's all very clear!

The important display is the radar in the center of the panel.  It's set to 25 miles so each of the horizontal lines is 5 miles of range.  25 miles at the top of the screen, 0 at the bottom.  The large circle with the gap in it at close to noon is the closure indicator, every 10˚ is 100 knots of closure from 12-9.  If it's counter-clockwise from noon (12-10:30) then it's showing increasing distance to the target.  The angled line with the gap in the center is a repeat of the artificial horizon.  The fuzzy vertical line with the blob on it is the target.

There are two small circles and a dot in the center.  The larger one will expand as the computer decides you have a better chance of scoring a hit.  The small one is just a center indicator.  The dot is a steering indicator, you center that dot in the center of the screen and you're pointing the nose to give the correct lead for the missile shot.

Notice that we do not see the target in the windscreen yet?  Seventeen miles is a long way!  Since this is an F-4N Phantom II, he can probably see the smoke from my engines.

He's not using radar, you can tell that because the little box with the round display to the right has no lines radiating out from the center.

Long Term Political Victory

There are only two real strategies for winning long term in American politics.  And it's really only one...


You need to either get both sides to support your position openly or you need to get both sides to stop talking about it altogether.

The latter is preferred.

If only one side supports you and your agenda you are boned as soon as the other side recovers power.

Fraud Compounded By Lies

You're lying.  You know you're lying even if there's a kernel of truth there, the specifics change that truth to a lie.

Subsidy

That old saying, "If you want more of something; subsidize it.  If you want less; tax it,"

It explains why the war on poverty is an abject failure.

Do I need to walk you through it or can you connect the dots on your own?

Auction Fever

There was once a small gun shop in Huxley, Iowa that went bankrupt.

The owner had an auction to ease the process.

Prices were generally fair, but no real bargains were to be had because the buyers weren't having it.

Until this one Ruger 10/22 came up to the block.  A nothing special bog-standard 10/22 with a plain wood stock and blued finish.

It started out at $50, which was super low.  It bid merrily up to around $110 when people started to drop out.  By $150 there were just two guys left and they weren't going to let that other bastard walk home with THIER rifle, by God!

In $5 and $10 increments they bid that lowly 10/22 up to $650!  The place was stunned.  The victor strutted to the office to pay his fare and start the paper work when he hears Russman yell to the loser, "You still got that $640 for a 10/22, because I'll just zip over to Wal Mart and get you one just like his and make me $510 in profit."

The victor suddenly realized that he'd bought a $130 gun for $650.  The look on his face was absolutely priceless and the laughter that erupted from the crowd was definitely a "laughing at you" sort.

I learned a lot that day.  When the point of the auction becomes to win and not to own the item, you are now a fool and you will soon be parted from your money.

Worrisome

What worries me the most about presidents like Carter and Obama is that the damage they do in four years takes a lot longer to put right; and then we go and elect another one!

I wish there was some way to instill some sort of national memory on folks to stop trying things that demonstrably didn't work last time.

F-4N for Strike Fighters 2

New DLC for my favorite flight game!

It's basically a rebuilt and refurbished F-4B.  The N adds AN/ALQ-126 ECM antenna to the intakes.

Got yet another VF-201 tail-art.

Persons flying MiG-15's should not mess with Texas!

Chaff and flare dispensers were also added with the upgrade.

An important part of the upgrade was the AN/AYK-14 dogfight computer and gunsight.  Lead computing makes the Mk4 Mod0 gun pot a LOT more accurate.

UPDATE: Talking to Fuzzygeff and I realized that my gun sight pics reinforces #3 from this list.

Movie!

I just saw the film, Safety Not Guaranteed.

I enjoyed it!

Don't go to the wikipedia page if you don't want spoilers, and its definitely something you need to go into cold.

Little Changes

I've decided that my jump drive moves a volume of space not a mass.

This didn't make much change to the cost or mass of my fictitious spaceship because much of the cost is in the sensor suite and most of the mass is in the water in the fuel tanks.

Mourning My Ass!

Burn, Arlen, burn in whatever turncoat RINO Hell you find yourself in.

This is something to celebrate, not mourn.

Worth A Read

It's referenced in the "Day By Day" comic on the right margin there. --->

I noticed some of this way back in the early days of Clinton at how small the media really is in terms of people.  At the time I was deflecting the theory that the media was a vast conspiracy when I felt that it was "merely" a small group of people who'd aggregated like-minded people to them so as to hear "yes" more often.  Considering that the major networks were owned by a very small number of people and that radio stations were being consolidated into even smaller numbers of owners at the time, it made some sense.

It seems that I was on to something even if I didn't have the wherewithal to track the relationships and put names to people.

Check it out.

Thanks For The Spam!

Mr Larimer, your email to me about your blog changing into a business is the very definition of spam.

It seems I got this message because I once commented on your blog.  I say once because I cannot remember your blog or what I commented on now.  I was not a regular reader or commenter.

I don't appreciate the mailing and I hope your business venture fails because I hate spammers that much.

This Sort Of Thing Is Why Florida Has A Preemption

Ames poised to pass a bill of attainder.  h/t Tam

That's my hometown.  Every once and a while I wonder if I made the right decision in moving to Florida, it is stories like this that confirm my decision to get out of Iowa was the right one for me.

I don't think it's really a bill of attainder, (Tam's snark) but it's frighteningly close.  The way people react and city councils respond is very close to treating gun businesses as tainted and doing all in their power to eliminate them from their jurisdictions.

Other municipalities have run into legal issues about banning JUST gun businesses in residentially zoned areas, but none in Iowa as far as I know.  What happens is a court challenge to the ordinance or zoning discovers you cannot ban just a certain type of business from residential areas and that banning a  garage gun shop also means you must ban all home based businesses.

A small bit of history.  Ames is a fairly large city for Iowa.  Yet if you wanted to buy a gun you had to leave town to do so.  The closest FFL was Jacobson's Gun Center 15 miles north in Story City.  There used to be an FFL on Main Street in Ames, Zimm's Sporting Goods, but constant harassment and Wal Mart undercutting their prices killed them off.  In their last two years on main they were no longer an FFL because the city had made life too difficult via zoning.  I got to hear the whole story from the owner when I asked why he'd moved from the large building he'd been in for decades to the tiny one he was in when I asked.

At present there's just a single storefront FFL in Ames, Jax Outdoor Gear.  Selling guns is ancillary to their business and they are definitely of the Fudd focus.

Ames' hostility to gun based businesses is not new.  What is new is there is a groundswell of resistance to the ordinances that ban such businesses.

So, Ames reader, where are you going to be on October 23rd?  Fighting for your rights or passively observing their erosion?

UPDATE: The first comment is not from someone who lives in Ames.  Oh, bitter irony; we meet again...

Yet Another Modest Proposal

The grounds an embassy stands on are sovereign territory of that nation's diplomatic mission.

There are time honored methods for severing diplomatic relations and the host nation getting that piece of property back.

These methods were not used in Teheran or any of the recent embassy attacks.

I have a proposal!

We reopen our embassies as bomb ranges.  They can't say we're attacking them, we're dropping bombs on US soil.

Colateral damage?  I'm sorry, but why did you build so damn close to our bomb range?

It wasn't a bomb range when you built all around it?  Then why did you do nothing to prevent it from being overrun by militants?

Basically speaking, if you're going to keep painting the USA as the bad guy; then shiny.  Let's be bad guys.

If they can't get their shit into one sock and the bombs don't work I think the black mosque retention pond from Mecca Pork Products will get their attention.

All we want is to give you money for oil.  You couldn't handle that so you get to see our creative side.  Germany has not invaded France nor has Japan invaded China since our last burst of creativity.  We're creative to last when we can.

Faragosis

"Faragosis (n.) – The act or attempted act of being a d*ck within the gun-rights community." Peter in the comments to this post.

I've had no troubles with Robert stealing my stuff.

Nothing worth stealing here, but others have.

His being a dick is just icing on the shun-cake.

Read about all about it here.

No Your Honor We Do Not Mean That

I am officially fed up with the judges in this state.

We, the citizenry, go through all the effort to wake up our congress critters in Tallahassee and get them to pass laws to address our wants and needs only to have some judge say, "nope law didn't mean that."

Hey judges, FUCK YOU.

We were fed up with county commissions and city councils ignoring the state preemption on firearms law.  We insisted on the cash penalties to the elected officials for a reason.  Fines are perfectly legal under the Florida constitution.  We insisted on them because said elected officials were using their access to the public trough to avoid responsibility for violating the law.  Your "honor" by saying that the fines don't apply you're subverting the demands of the people whose interests you are on the bench to protect.

We were fed up with being arrested and subjected to ruinously expensive legal proceedings when we availed ourselves of our right to defend ourselves.  This law is quite simply in its scope and language, why is it then that Mr Zimmerman is being subjected to a ruinously expensive legal battle when the facts of the case are very consistent and clear?

We were fed up with our rights to carry a firearm being curtailed.  So we created a shall-issue process to allow any honest citizen to carry one concealed.  We did not intend for that be a positive defense in court but rather an immunity to the crime of carrying a firearm.

We were fed up with a brief, unintentional, exposure of our concealed firearm to be considered open carry.  We tried to get open carry allowed, but got a half measure passed.  And it was passed, your "honor".  Why then are prosecutions for exposure still happening and proceeding through the court system.  Why are you not using your position on the bench to enforce the law against overzealous police officers who believe that only they should carry a firearm?

If our own government officials aren't going to follow the law; why should we?

Hey Now

Vonage now offers unlimited free calling to India.

Why?

I mean any time I want to spend hours on the phone to someone in India, all I have to do is call customer service.

UPDATE: Note the "humor and snark" tags before lashing out in righteous indignation about my insensitivity to the Indian immigrant community.

An Observation

Something I've noticed about the wretched hive of scum and villainy. (Thanks for the title, Tam)

Everyone there has all sorts of criticism for the AR-15.

It shits where it eats.  It takes too much maintenance to keep it running.  The round is too wimpy.  The USGI magazines suck.  You can't put a real folding stock on it.  Etcetera ad nauseum.

Yet, they all own one.  Many own several.

You'd think that there'd be no Bushmaster ACR's, FN SCAR's, Robinson XCR's, M1A's or FAL's for sale anywhere at any price because the demand was far higher than the supply.

Yet...

Every alternate to the AR is really a boutique offering against the mainstream.

And they don't see that there are ample alternatives to the AR out there if they'd only just stop complaining about what they already own and bought one.

Then the complaints turn to price.  The comparisons get more honest and in the end they admit that the AR isn't so bad after all.  It's like watching the Army tests.

And I say this as someone who owns an AR in a non-wussy caliber and has an FAL in God's Own (Second Coming) Cartridge.

No Surprise

I am not surprised that I poll republican.  I doubt that Romney is really that in synch with my ideals.  It fails the stink test on one respect, it claims I agree with President Obama that we should expand offshore drilling.  Is there another Barack Obama who isn't blocking oil exploration leases and hasn't issued a moratorium on drilling?

Take the quiz here.

Hat tip Linoge.

Falcon 9 To The ISS

Guess where I was at 2035 EDT!

Inevitable

Ladies:

Men are problem solvers.  Men also want to please.

If you demonstrate that the way to please you is for him to give up everything he loves, make no mistake; he will eventually get around to giving you up too.

Candidates

The NRA is running ads talking about how one of my Federal Senators cast a deciding vote that got us Justice Sotomayer.

The Democrats are running ads about his opponent.  They claim that he was seldom present for votes when he was a state congressman.

You know what?

I think I will vote for absenteeism over active opposition.

Moron Mosin

The Mosin Nagant has two primary features that make it a desirable rifle.  First it is reliable.  Second it is cheap.  That's it.

Compared to just about any other bolt action battle rifle it's not really all that good.

The M-1891/30 is a shortening of the original M-1891, and they still didn't shorten it to the same length standards everyone else went to around the start of WW2 (compare Lee-Metford with Lee-Enfield)

The M38 and M44 carbines are shortened past that point.

The 7.62x54mmR is a full power battle rifle round looking for a long barrel.  The carbines do not have that barrel, expect a gigantic fireball.  Expect some muzzle blast.  Expect some surprised looks in the other lanes.  Even the basic rifle has this to a larger degree than other main battle rifles of the same era.

That 'R' in the cartridge name?  That means "rimmed".  This is often a problem with box magazine guns because if you get the rim of the ready round behind the rim of the round below it, you've got a jam.  The Mosin design mitigates this a bit with its magazine design, the follower drops in such a way that it's a lot harder to get the rounds in wrong and there's a nifty little spring catch at the top.  What it does is segregates the ready round from the others in in the magazine.  I believe that was originally to give a constant feed pressure for the shooter, but it also has the effect of keeping the rims from getting tangled.  This magazine is also emphatically a five round unit, not 5+1.

This little spring tab you can't really see holds the second from next round.

Round being held by the tab.  Photogenic Finnish ammo provided by Willard. 

Round in feed position.

The action of the bolt closing trips the tab and releases the next round into the feed position.

While we're on the topic of feeding, let's talk about the bolt.  It's fairly complicated when you compare it to other guns its age.  A lot of that has to do with being late to the game and everyone else patenting the more obvious routes to a workable bolt than any real advantage or improvement; but it does work.

The bolt is strong, but it is clunky.  The handle is awkwardly placed and short.  They often hang-up just after unlocking, but before opening and there's just no easy way to apply extra leverage without changing your grip on the gun.  It's a "cock on open" design so you're fighting both the striker spring and the rounds resistance to primary extraction.  What works for me is to not treat it like a door latch.  Hit that fucker hard from below to slap it open!  This might be how the Russian, then Soviet, conscript was trained because it's surprisingly natural compared to treating it like a Remington 700 or Winchester 70.

This is not a gun to be treated daintily!

The safety.  Ye Gods, the safety.  The standard answer is, "Iz gun, iz not safe!" but nominally there is a safety.  I mentioned the striker spring earlier... I think it was originally designed for a truck.  To engage it you put on your boots of giant strength® and pull the cocking knob back (against spring pressure) then rotate it counter clockwise about 30˚ and let it come forward to the safety step.  The knob is not well shaped for this and it's not easy to get a good grip on it.

Fired.

Cocked.

Safe.

To date I have not had great luck with clips for these guns.  I'm told that much of the problem stems from poorly made reproduction strippers, but they don't seem to be a well designed clip either.  Poor designs never respond well to shoddy craftsmanship and lack-luster quality control.

The sights are typical tangent with a U-Notch.  You'll have to work hard to find a Mosin still marked with Arshins and virtually all of those will be an original M-1891.  Part of the process of converting existing rifles to the M-1891/30 standard was changing the sights.  If you have an 91/30 with an arshin rear sight, you have a collectable!

Marked in meters from 100 to 2,000 in 50m steps.

Set to 2,000m.  Yes, more than a mile.  Can you even see who you're shooting at?

If you buy surplus ammo, it will almost certainly be corrosive.  This means you want to get to cleaning the bore as soon as you can.  Corrosive ammo is also why you're going to find more an a few "dark" bores when you're Mosin shopping.  At one time that bore was machined smooth and shiny, if it's dark, it's no longer smooth.  Bring some windex to the range and flush out the bore before putting it in its case will do.  Or you can just pay a bit more money for non-corrosive ammo.  Read carefully when you shop!

I am sure I missed a hundred things and I am also sure I will be writing about this topic some more.

Blogorado

I was not invited.

That is not a shock, nobody there really knows me from Adam.

An invite would be a "you've made it" moment for my poorly written little-read blog.

Actually marshaling the resources to attend would be an epic accomplishment!

Someday...  Someday...

Until then, I will live vicariously through the people who are going.

For Jose En Memoriam

Hey, Weer'd: There's A Duck In It!

On The Debate

"As far as "edged your vote in one direction:" Romney 35% more likely, Obama 18% more likely. 47% say no effect."

CNN poll quoted at Ace of Spades HQ.

47% you say?

Forty seven.

Forty.  Seven...

That sounds familiar...

Where have I heard that percentage before?

Pattern

If the only thing that disparate situations have is you...  It's probably your fault they occurred.

That they keep happening is likely an indication that you're not learning from the exchanges.

The constant repetition of these little confrontations costs you any sympathy once notes are exchanged and compared between the "offending" parties.

The truly tragic thing about the above is that while it's directed at a specific individual, I know at least three other people who might read it and think it's them.  Heck, it could be... I'm not going to name names.

Four Years Ago

We decorate extensively for Halloween.  It's our favorite holiday.

It's also the first time of each year when we really look around and pay attention to what the neighbors are doing with their houses.

Four years ago there were a lot of Obama signs and not so much halloween.

This year there's more halloween and not so much Obama.

We're a bedroom community with a decidedly blue collar bias.  We had about 40% Obama signs, 20% McCain and 40% no sign at all last election.  This year we have FOUR Obama signs and pretty much nothing else.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is an early proxy for turn-out.  The primary in 2008 was positively crowded, this year I had the place to myself.

I keep reading that recent polls are making the assumption that the record turn-out of 2008 will repeat and that the proportions of party affiliation will be be identical.  I just am not seeing that this time.

Our staunchly anti-Bush friends, for example, are now reluctant to engage us in political discussions because their agent of change sure didn't change much from how Bush was doing it.

So, You Want To Buy A Mosin-Nagant?

Welcome to the pit!  This is a fast and dirty guide not an exhaustive treatment.

The bog standard M-1891/30 rifle is your cheapest option.  Sub $100 plus shipping and transfers from Gunbroker or AIM Surplus all day.

The M-189/30 is the basic issue rifle the USSR used against Hitler in the late unpleasantness of The Great Patriotic War.

Towards the end of the war the Soviets made a couple carbine versions, some conversions and some new built.

The M38 and M44 are the most common of those carbines and are distinguished by the folding bayonet.  The M44 has a bayonet, the M38 don't.  Prices seem to run between $150 and $400.

The rest of the Warsaw Pact and China issued them as well.

The nicest examples of the M44 are the Polish versions, some are new and unfired!  Expect to spend a bit more for them though, $300-500.

Going back to rifles, the Finns made a nice one.  The stock and sights are different and they've got a reputation for being shooters.  $300-500 again, though.

If all you want is a $100 gun to mess with, get the 1891/30.  It's hard to go wrong, really.

What you probably won't get is a tack-driving sniper rifle.  The specifications for accuracy were rather loose by the standards of the day, the USSR was more concerned with it going bang every time.  Some are excellent, some aren't and it's luck of the draw!

Changing out the stock will likely not help with anything, might be more comfortable to hold; but you're making a gun that kicks like a mule lighter.  That's recoil enhancing!  That will also add to barrel flip.

Be sure to get the bayonet!  Many Mosins shoot BETTER with the thing mounted/extended.  Mine does.

Originals of any variant except the Finn or snipers are cheap enough that you don't have to settle for a pre-bubba'd example to save money.  Even if you want a bubba'd gun, best to start fresh.

Don't forget to check the bore!  Remove the bolt and shine some light in there.  Surplus 7.62x54mmR is corrosive and the typical conscript was not normally prompt about cleaning.  Go ahead and be choosy about dark bores, there are plenty of nice shiny ones with crisp rifling out there for the same price.

Other than that, find one that you like the looks of.  Quite a few were arsenal reworked at the end if the war and are relatively pristine today.  Some show a lot of wear, but are still in good shape inside.

Have fun and good hunting!

HORRIBLE HISTORIES - The Wives of Henry VIII (Terrible Tudors)

Kilted to Kick Cancer Finale

KTKC 2012 raised $22,475.55!

Readers, you brought in a solid 1.1% of that!

Jay G racked up more than 25%!  And now he must shave.