So That's It Then

To the President, Congress and Supreme Court of the United States, their subsidiary offices and directories:

Charging those SEALs with assault will result in no more captures.

They are not stupid men, they will notice very quickly that a corpse cannot complain about a split lip and start shooting them instead of capturing them.

Try to charge them for that and they can, justly, hide behind the Geneva Convention and its treatment of combatants who refuse to wear uniforms. Before you say, "No they cannot!" remember that we did not bring a single Nazi up on charges for how they dealt with partizans in the Balkans. Not failed to convict, but refused to charge.

Make the attempt to change the military around that point and you will rapidly discover you don't have much of a military left. Do it just right and you may find more and more soldiers looking really hard at the "and domestic" portion of their service oaths. They swore to defend the nation and the constitution, not the sitting government.

Spread The Word

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/11/24/the_fix_is_in_99280.html

Notable quote: "Peer review is the practice of subjecting scientific papers to review by other scientists with relevant expertise before they can be published in professional journals. The idea is to weed out research with obvious flaws or weak arguments, but there is a clear danger that such a process will simply reinforce groupthink. If it is corrupted, peer review can be a mechanism for an entrenched establishment to exclude legitimate challenges by simply refusing to give critics a hearing."

FuzzyGeff commented at 1325 26NOV09:

Smoking gun? Try mushroom cloud.

This incident shows such shameless violations of basic scientific ethics that some people have started referring to the conspirator Michael Mann as "Piltdown" Mann. I must protest that unfair characterization: the Piltdown Man hoaxers never tried to suppress dissent by threatening journal editors.

File Under "Shit I Had No Idea I NEEDED"

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=27504/Product/M1_GARAND_EN_BLOC_CLIP_POUCHES?mc_ID=4031

A grab and go bag for a Garand. How have I owned a Garand for months and not known about this?

Christmas is just around the corner for you employed folks wondering what poor McThag needs.

Wow!

Wings Over Vietnam (Strike Fighters 2) looks absolutely fabulous in 1920x1200!

The Mac Pro has enough smoke to run it under unlimited details too.

We are glad.

UPDATE: Some screen shots below the fold.

Bootcamp!

I have installed Windows XP Professional on my spare drive on my Mac Pro.

The same copy of Windows XP Professional also runs using Parallels Desktop.

Microsoft took the activation and registration painlessly.

Tomorrow we do the drivers for the joysticks.

If I get brave, I will install Microsoft Flight Simulator X Gold Edition and/or IL2. I am hoping that my install of IL2 and Wings Over Vietnam can be simply moved off the old C: drive from the old computer.

I will not install anything but my games over there. I have the OSX 10.5.8 on the Mac side of things for all other computer needs.

Someone Needs To Say It

I think that Og and Roberta X were talking past each other in their little spat. I hate when that happens.

She's right, we cannot sacrifice the bill of rights because we don't like the teachings of a religion.

He's right, we cannot allow a religion to attempt to take over the nation. The bill of rights is not just a prohibition of the Government declaring a state religion, but a prohibition of a religion BECOMING the state religion.

The thing that the radical Moslems are not getting is, here in America, what power the rules and laws your religion has over a member is entirely up to the member and if they wish to leave, you must let them go. Full stop. We do not accept that you get to kill them for leaving because your "good book" says so.

We don't allow human sacrifice either.

Something a lot of people do not want to admit when we talk about the Islam "problem" is that we are at war with Islam.

"No we're not," I keep hearing. Yes we are. Islam is most certainly at war with Western Civilization and it's an existential war. By refusing to acknowledge the fight and refusing to fight back, we are letting them win; but we are not "not at war" because we are refusing to accept the declaration from the other side.

The rounding up of Japanese-Americans in WW2 gets cited a lot as doing it wrong. It was wrong. I have yet to hear a rational call to round up the Moslems. Since we are at war, I suggest we stop letting new people from those nations controlled by Islam come here for the duration of the war.

I am also of the opinion that we don't allow anyone who's not actively trying to become a citizen to stay longer than 90 days a year for any reason. And if they fail to become one in the proscribed time, back home they go, forever.

Fun With Cameras Timers And Tripods

...or, "Git off my lawn!"

With Marv's super duper flash you can see up the barrel and look at the bolt face! And see that we do not have a round chambered.

3-2-1 Awwwwwwwww

It Has To Work For Everyone Or No One

Roberta X is in the center of quite the raging debate about Islam, its intent, what we should do about it, what we can do about it and whether what we can and should do about it is contraindicated by the 1st Amendment.

Neanderpundit has weighed in on it as well.

Lemme see if I can add a bit of clarity.

Moslems are setting up little enclaves where non-moslems are not welcome to live, and sometimes not even visit or shop. They have their own legal code (Sharia) they apply and don't use the local laws. From these enclaves, they expand by moving into adjacent areas and do more of the same.

For purposes of debate we shall say that the above is OK and protected by the 1st Amendment's Religious Freedom Clause.

There's a BUT here.

Whites are setting up little enclaves where non-whites are not welcome to live, and sometimes not even visit or shop. They have their own legal code they apply and don't use the local laws. From these enclaves, they expand by moving into adjacent areas and do more of the same.

Is this protected?

Gun-owners are setting up little enclaves where non-gun-owners are not welcome to live, and sometimes not even visit or shop. They have their own legal code (The Constitution) they apply and don't use the local laws. From these enclaves, they expand by moving into adjacent areas and do more of the same.

How about that?

Blacks are setting up little enclaves where non-blacks are not welcome to live, and sometimes not even visit or shop. They have their own legal code they apply and don't use the local laws. From these enclaves, they expand by moving into adjacent areas and do more of the same.

Or this?

I cannot use religious reasons to make an all white neighborhood. I cannot use religious reasons to not hire women. I cannot use religious reasons to not hire homosexuals.

But I can use religious reasons to create all Moslem neighborhoods with businesses that don't hire women or homosexuals?

Either I can exclude anyone on the basis of religion and those equality laws are invalid; or the laws are valid and religious freedom, like all rights, is tempered with responsibility. If the 1st Amendment is a catch-all that lets me ignore the local legal system at my whim because God says; then Gawd says I must have a Machinegun and it is a sin to pay $200 to register it and I must kill anyone who tries to take it away from me.

How much you wanna bet that I would be left alone and allowed to keep my MG on religious grounds? Me neither.

Who Reminds Him To Breathe

“Unfortunately, America loves Guns. We love guns to a point where that uh we see devastation on a daily basis. You don’t blame a group.”

Richard M Daley, Mayor of Chicago; said while blaming a group: gunowners.

It's That Time Again

And the hull broke open and they all drowned like rats as their lung filled with...WAH TUHR!

Air Superiority

One reason the UAVs like the Predator and Reaper are so effective (read able to operate at all) is total air superiority.

They are not stealthy, they are not fast, they are not maneuverable. They ARE unopposed, at present.

If we fight a war where the airspace is contested, and we skimp on things like fighters we are not going to be able to fly UAVs with the impunity we currently employ.

Cutting funding for F-22A and clipping the orders for F-35 by 50% is exactly skimping on fighters.

By the way, if you are going to use the argument that the A-10C and F-15E are "good enough" so we don't need so many of the new two, then you are going to have to start buying the older designs as well because they are wearing out.

This doesn't even really address the whole picture. The Navy and Marines need planes too and the way they use them wears them out faster.

Thanks!

I got the maquette on the left in the mail today.

It's Shelly Wahnee from the webcomic, Wapsi Square. The one on the right is Monica Villarreal from the same comic. I bought Monica. Shelly just showed up.

Who was generous? There was no note.

Be Prepared

http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~jybarra/zombieplan.pdf

Quote Of The Moment

"Second, they described the victim as a "folk singer" and, really, who hasn't wanted to see one of those torn apart by wild dogs at some time in their life?"
Tam

Why 6.8?

Revelations 6:8 is "I looked, and there was a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death. Hell followed him. They were given power over one-fourth of the earth to kill people using wars, famines, plagues, and the wild animals on the earth."

Revelations 6:5 is: "When the lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Go!" I looked, and there was a black horse, and its rider held a scale."

You wanna be a lamb or Death?

Never Be Accused Of Not Bringing Enough Gun

Of course the 1911 is an outdated design. It came from an era when weapons were designed to win fights, not to avoid product liability lawsuits. It came from an era where it was the norm to learn how your weapon operated and to practice that operation until it became second nature, not to design the piece to the lowest common denominator. It came from an era in which our country tried to supply its fighting men with the best tools possible, unlike today, when our fighting men and women are issued hardware that was adopted because of international deal-making or the fact that the factory is in some well-connected congressman's district. Yes, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the 1911 IS an outdated design... and that's exactly what I love about it.
Rosco S. Benson.

Weer'd started a meme based on this post!  http://weerdbeard.livejournal.com/577728.html

My Retros Baffle Me

I built Charlotte as a late production R604; when I got all the parts for Sabrina, I had an errant desire to make Sabrina as a GAU-5A/A. I took the slick-side upper from Charlotte and used that on Sabrina and used the A1 upper I had for Sabrina on Charlotte making her an M16A1 clone.

When I took them to be zeroed, Charlotte required no adjustments.

That stood for about a week and I decided that I really wanted an XM177E2 instead of a GAU-5A/A. So the uppers were swapped, returning Charlotte to her original configuration. Both barrel nuts ended up perfectly aligned with the initial torque-loosen-torque-loosen-torque. That never happens, let alone to two at the same session!

Today I zeroed them.

Sabrina needed no adjustments. Charlotte just three clicks down and two left.

My bafflement is passed on to the guy in the next lane. He was not having any luck getting his ACOG zeroed, or his irons or his laser. I was shooting with Sabrina at 100 yards and getting better groups than he was at 25. I helped him with his settings and he got all three things hitting about the same place.

Quote Of The Moment On The Republican Leadership

"Taking lessons in how to win elections from these guys is a lot like attending a seminar on how to win the World Series by the management of the Chicago Cubs." Mike at Cold Fury.

http://coldfury.com/wp/wp-trackback.php?p=19009

Rifle Cartridges

From L to R: .22 Long Rifle (1887); .357 Magnum (1934); 5.56x45mm (1963); 6.8x43mm SPC (2002); .303 British (1889/1910); .243 Winchester (1955); 7.62x54mmR (1891); 7.62x51mm NATO (1954); .30-06 (1906).

Literally spanning the entire history of rifle cartridge development.

Get off my lawn, indeed.

Zoon

Just cause you don't understand what's going on don't mean it don't make no sense
And just cause you don't like it, don't mean it ain't no good
And let me tell you something;

Before you go taking a walk in my world
You better take a look at the real world
Cause this ain't no Mister Roger's Neighborhood

Can you say "feel like shit"?
Yea maybe sometimes I do feel like shit
I ain't happy 'bout it, but I'd rather feel like shit than be full of shit!

And if I offended you, oh I'm sorry...
But maybe you need to be offended
But here's my apology and one more thing...fuck you!

On "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

I am not addressing the entire can of worms.

One clear objection a straight man can level against openly serving homosexual men is pretty much the same objection a straight female has with her straight male colleagues: "Don't wanna bunk with someone who wants to fuck me when I don't want to fuck them."

And we don't make straight male and female personnel bunk together, do we?

So, do we have the gay guys bunk with the straight girls? Now the gay guys have an objection, some of those girls are going to want them. And bunking the gay guys with the girls doesn't solve the gay guys wanting each other, or not. By the way, when I was 19 and was joining the Army, if they recruiter had told me I could bunk and shower with the girls, all I had to do was say I was gay, I would have put on a lisp and signed! Solve that problem Mr/Mrs/Ms/?? LGBT advocate!

The best bunking arrangement is where everyone in the bay doesn't want to have nookie with the others. At present, the only way to get that is sex segregation of heterosexuals.

P.S.
Openly gay men in the military has one huge advantage over mixed straight male/female troops: no pregnancy.
Excluding females from the ranks would be cheaper in a lot of ways, only one set of facilities, no worries about troops getting pregnant... But cheaper is not always better.

The Soviets had a simple solution for females getting preggers in a mixed unit, BANG!

SUCCESS!

I finally got the windage and range knobs on the Aimpoint 1000 free and working.

Took Dee to the range and got her zeroed in at 25 yards.

This is the confirmation target. All are ten shot groups, slow fire aimed at the center of each of the six squares. Notice the center left square.

Vanity shot!

If Orca Shitheel could see this, I'll bet he wishes he'd bought a gun cabinet...

The Lovely Harvey says, "Requiring him to have a gun cabinet that isn't glass and locks was not a big request with kids in the house. Doesn't matter anyway his wife won't have guns in the house. If you like guns why would you marry time after time women who despise them and forbid you to have one?"

Idle Hands Are STILL The Devil's Gunsmithy

Sabrina is now the XM177E2 clone I originally set out to make. I swapped uppers with Charlotte.

Charlotte is returned to her original configuration as an R604 (Late) Clone.

I have now made a stereotypical gun from each of the 4 services. Sabrina being an Army XM177E2, Charlotte being an Air Force M16, Alice being a Marine M16A2 and Bubba's being a Navy M16A1. OK, I am reaching, but it's kinda neat anyway.

I Am Curious

Is there anything that the Southern Poverty Law Center disapproves of that they think is not caused by racism?

Ravenclaw Eric Commented Thus:

Not really, unless you count "anti-Semitism" as different. Basically, they're a money-making scheme that depends heavily on scaring rich, slightly aged, rather out-of-touch liberals with scary stories about the Klan, Neo-Nazis, skinheads and other eeeville racists marching down their street tomorrow...if you don't give generously!
It's one of the richest "charities" in the country, and specializes in going after people who can't really fight back---Tom Metzger of WAR, for example. Compared to the kind of legal talent that SPLC can deploy, almost any leader of a group they've targeted is seriously outgunned.

Even a lot of liberals have started having second thoughts about SPLC---the legal precedents they've set could easily be used against groups they like, and the way they blitzkrieg people who have no real effective way to fight back does not always set well, no matter how unpleasant SPLC's targets are.

This Is Getting To Be Bullshit

The H&K suit against GSG and ATI reminded me of something that's being abused.

Trademarks.

H&K's suit against GSG is essentially, "They make a gun that LOOKS like our gun!" and since you can now trademark the appearance, apparently, you can sue.

Companies have been trying for centuries to get permanent patents. Trademarking is allowing them to do so.

The GSG-5 looks a great deal like an H&K MP5, but in .22 LR instead of 9x19mm. The patents on the MP5 expired years ago. So, I can make a gun that works exactly like an MP5 as long as it doesn't look like one, but since form follows function, we end up with expired patents being forever because the design influences form.

Colt tried this on the M4 and failed. Their permanent patent loophole is their contract with the government for M16 sales, signed in 1967 with no closure date. Anyone making an M16 and selling to the USA has to give Colt money. They have to pay even more to use the Colt Technical Data Package, which if you wanna sell to Uncle Sugar, you have to have to meet specs.

The aviation/defense industry has been suing plastic model kit makers and flight sim designers over their trademarked designs for a long time. It's especially galling since the most egregious suer here is Grummann, and they don't even own the design they got famous for suing about, the TBF Avenger. The Navy hired them to design a torpedo bomber and held all rights to the manufacturing. Most Avengers were actually made by General Motors (TBM). I love the legal brief about how letting a flight sim include a flyable version of an Avenger would negatively impact future Grummann sales.

Future sales of a WW2 torpedo bomber?!?!

This shit has gotten out of hand.

Quote Of The Random Interval

"The [HK] USP is the best $500 pistol you can get for $800." SayUncle.

In Keeping With A Theme

Brunhilda gets the ugly, worn, but still functional, parts that are sort of left-over...

Like this pistol grip.

And this slick-side upper receiver.

Same Shit Different Day

"Look me in the eye and tell me I am less of a person than you are," Christine Quinn, the first openly lesbian speaker of the New York City Council, said yesterday.

You are less of a person than I am.

If you were equal to me, you would not demand special legislation to be elevated above me. You would be the same as me.

I ask again, are you a people?

We are not equal if we are not equal under the law.

I support equal rights, not special protections.

I Just Got A Survey

The "Republican National Committee; 2009 Obama Agenda Survey"

It's a multiple choice deal: I am given Yes / No / No Opinion to choose from for my answers. My answer will appear and comments in parenthesis.

1. Do you agree with Barack Obama's budget plan that will lead to a $23.1 trillion defict over the next ten years?

No.

2. Do you believe that the federal government has gone too far in bailing out failing banks, insurance companies and the auto industry?

Yes. (I also don't think that this is purely a Democrat or Obama issue.)

3. Do you support amnesty for illegal immigrants?

No. (I also extend the welcome mat for any and all legal immigrants.)

4. Should English be the official language of the United States?

Yes. (Duplication of paperwork savings would be immense. It would also encourage immigrants into assimilating into our culture.)

5. Are you in favor of granting retroactive Social Security eligibility to illegal immigrants who gain U.S. citizenship through an amnesty program?

No. (I don't want them to be citizens in the first place!)

6. Are you in favor of the expanded welfare benefits and unlimited eligibility (no time, education or work requirements) that Democrats in Congress are puching to pass?
No. (I'm of the opinion that welfare is breaking our bank, expanding it will accelerate the process.)

7. Do you beleive that Barack Obama's nominees for federal courts should be immediately and unquestionably approved for their lifetime appointments by the U.S. Senate?

No. (The process should be the same regardless of who is president. If you are going to go through a nominee's life with a nit-comb, we do it to all nominees. If we rubber stamp, we rubber stamp for all.)

8. Do you believe that the best way to increase the quality and effectiveness of public education in the U.S. is to rapidly expand federal funding while eliminating performance standards and accountability?

No. (I want the feds out of education. What performance standards and accountability? I want k12 to be deunionized too!)

9. Do you support the creation of a national health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Washington D.C.?

No. (Nor would I want a state health insurance plan that would be administered by bureaucrats in Tallahassee. Private would be just fine, and eliminate the state border as a barrier to competition between insurance companies.)

10. Do you believe that the quality and availability of healthcare will increase if the federal government dictates pricing to doctors and hospitals?
No. (More but harder does not work.)

11. Are you confident that new medicines and medical treatments will continue to be developed in the federal government controls prescription drug prices and sets profit margins for research and pharmaceutical companies?

No. (Socialism is dangerous. Fascism is dangerous. This is both.)

12. Are you in favor of creating a government funded "Citizen Volunteer Corps" that would pay young people to do work now done by churches and charities, earning Corps Members the same pay and benefits given to military veterans?

No. (When you hire them, they stop being volunteers. I don't like how they linked this to parity with veterans. Separate issue.)

13. Are you in favor of reinstituting the military draft, as Democrats in Congress have proposed?

No. (The all volunteer military we have now is far superior to the draft armies we used to have; for many reasons.)

14. Do you believe that the federal government should allow the unionization of Department of Homeland Security employees who serve in positions critical to the safety and security of our nation?

No. (I don't think any government employee at any level should be allowed to be in a union. Ever. Period.)

15. Do you support Democrat's drive to eliminate worker's right to a private ballot when considering unionization of their place of employment?

No. (The entire point of a private ballot is so the employee can vote their conscious without worry of retribution or sanction from the union organization or fellow employees!)

Comments Were Thus

The US Is Too Racist To Be Socialist?

WOW!

I never thought that someone would come up with an argument for joining the Klan that I could get behind.

Being a racist stops socialism? That might end up as a positive in the cost/benefit analysis (because I am not a minority).

Nope.

They are both evil and we can be egalitarian while rejecting socialism. Adopting one evil, just to be rid of another is not a plan I can endorse. Evil is evil.

Presented In Its Entirety

From here: http://www.bookwormroom.com/2009/10/04/the-difference-between-conservatives-and-liberals/ The comments have additions.

If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn`t buy one.
If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn`t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy.
A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a black man or Hispanic are conservative, they see themselves as independently successful.
Their liberal counterparts see themselves as victims in need of government protection.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it’s a foreign religion, of course!)

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a conservative slips and falls in a store, he gets up, laughs and is embarrassed.
If a liberal slips and falls, he grabs his neck, moans like he’s in labor and then sues.

If a conservative reads this, he’ll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A liberal will delete it because he’s “offended”.

From Tam

"6.5 does indeed have marginally better ballistics in many engagement envelopes, but its fans are such a bunch of goddam furries, trolling the 'nets for any mention of "6.8SPC" so they can start a caliber war, that I wouldn't be caught dead with a 6.5 upper even if it was a frickin' death ray. ;)"

In comments to her own post here: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=15907727&postID=6646615511555070084&isPopup=true

Slow Motion Bullet Pr0n

Oh, and thanks Robb!

File Under "Why Are You Thinking About This"

Tam has posted about assault.

She is making an entirely different point, but she raises an idea that had never occurred to me (with good damn reason) and that my mind is fascinated with.

Justifiable Rape, Self Defense.

Self defense is allowed in other forms of assault like battery and homicide.

Tonight's thought exercise, the circumstances where one could use self defense as a justification for rape. I assume we would need Rop'r'rian levels of "givens".

Harvey Has Been Bit By The Retro Bug

Cheyenne was originally inspired by the carbine carried by Tom Berringer's character Sgt Barnes in Platoon.

We started out with what we thought we wanted...

...along the way we tried out some more modern parts...

...but today she is a relatively faithful clone of an R653 carbine.

I love working on them so Harvey's experimentation has been a lot of fun for me.

Potential Cover For Harvey's New Book

Sabrina Is Completed

From a sad collection of parts.

To a complete carbine. 6.5 lbs loaded with 20 rounds. 33 5/16" long with the stock extended and 30 1/8" retracted.

A lot shorter than when I mocked it up in June, huh?

Pictures of the assembly.

11.5" barrel.

Being installed.

Adding the gas tube.

The beginning and the end:

UPDATE: Range report:
25m Zero.

25m Zero Confirmation. I was aiming at the top '8'.

100m Confirmation. I think I screwed up when I used the short range aperture for the zero. I will have to take her out again and check with it zeroed on the 'L' aperture.

Charlotte Is Changed

She started as a 1969ish M16 (R604).

She's now a later pattern M16A1, just like the one I first fired in Basic.

This led to a shot of the recreations of the rifles I served with.

The pristine slick-side upper is going to be part of Sabrina now. The more beat-up slick side is now back on Brunhilda.

Found By Weer'd Beard