May 2009 Archives

Suckers.

I liked this part about unfunded liabilities (healthcare, social security, etc):

We at the Dallas Fed believe the total is over $99 trillion," he said in February.

"This situation is of your own creation. When you berate your representatives or senators or presidents for the mess we are in, you are really berating yourself. You elect them," he said.

His warning comes amid growing fears that America could lose its AAA sovereign rating.

I don't really have time to elucidate my initial feelings about this pick, but luckily others of similar mindset already have.

Hsoi's entry.

Linoge's blog entry about Sotomayor.

I often hear that only law enforcement or the military should have certain guns or magazine capacities.

Why?

There's nothing magical about a badge that would enable it to turn an ordinary human into a super-being incapable of doing wrong with a gun.

"Well, police/military actually need these weapons, and civilians don't."

Really?

Apparently, being against the second amendment imparts the ability to see into the future and decide what others need or don't need.

Now, it's true, I will never serve a search warrant, or fight on a battlefield, but that doesn't mean I will never need to defend myself.

I don't know what I may need, but I see no reason not to equip myself with the best tools for the job.

I don't want this to be misinterpreted, because I have the utmost respect and gratitude for those who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice, but I can't help but think that we're damned lucky that nobody tough has attacked us recently.

I really don't think that today's Americans have the strength to withstand a full on war.

Then again, I should probably stop watching main stream media. The coverage feels more like the reporting of a tragedy than respectful remembrance of our fallen servicemen.

While I happen to disagree with Abe Lincoln on secession, this letter puts a lump in your throat.

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A Lincoln.

I headed up to ARC this morning to finish sighting in my rifle and decide on a hunting load.

It seems like every time I go some new varmint crosses my path on the way. This morning it was a coyote hauling ass across the road. (Last time it was a feral hog.)

Anyway, the loads in question were basically the same, one just had 1 grain more powder. The heavier load grouped a lot better which makes me happy since last time my groups were horrible with factory ammunition. Today I was shooting 4" groups at 100 yards counting the flyers, but I never could get all the "shake" out of it. I actually hit 3 or 4 9's in a row this morning, which is definitely a first for me with this gun.

I also found the less I touched the gun, the tighter the groups got. The problem is that lightly holding a .30-06 with hot hunting loads is a recipe for pain. I bloodied my forehead a little bit, and would have had a nice cut over my eye if not for my safety glasses.

ARC is busy constructing their action shooting bays. They have done a lot of work since the vote earlier this month. I can't wait to use them.

I've had a Ruger LCP for a while now.

For the most part, I dislike the gun. It's unpleasant to shoot, and has very long and heavy trigger pull. To top it off, the caliber is only so-so when it comes to stopping an attacker.

Until last night I thought it's only positive that was it allowed me to carry anywhere. It's so small that fits into your pocket.

There's really nothing special about last night, but it dawned on me that one nice feature of the pocket gun is you can walk out to your car (or anywhere really) with your hand on your gun and no one is the wiser.

Sure, I practice drawing from concealment (probably not as much as I should, but that's for another time), but this is faster.

Still, I think I'm going to ditch the LCP in .380 and get this instead.

I took the family out to Mighty Fine Burgers today.

Very tasty indeed. No, it's not the best burger I ever had, but I'll be going back.

I had a yeller (mustard) cheeseburger (1/2 lb) with all the fixin's. My only nitpick is that they cook everything medium well. It's such high quality beef, it's a shame not to serve it at least medium. Next time I will ask if I can get mine a little pink on the inside.

I think Fuddrucker's is probably a better burger overall, but it's almost not a fair comparison. Different styles, different ends of the spectrum.

Mighty Fine is more of a home style burger, while Fudd's is more of a upscale burger.

Once the suckerscreditors stop buying our debt, it's all over.

The government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year.

It's hard for me to imagine Obama's next budget being any smaller. Maybe next year, they can ditch the word "nearly".

Is it bad that this site makes me hungry?

Just to prove I have more than 2 interests ...

Several months ago the movie Dune came on regular TV. (I refuse to pay to watch TV.) I actually have it on DVD, but that's besides the point.

Anyway, it triggered a desire in me to go back and read the books again, and I have to say that my impressions of the books have changed a lot from re-reading them as an adult.

Some of the concepts in the books would still be considered ahead of their time, even if they were written today.

Now, I do have to say that things like the spice, expanding consciousness, the church of Muad'Dib, these things feel very 60's to me

But in contrast, Herbert has some concepts which I will call "human hacking" for lack of a better word, which I think are still very relevant today, maybe even more so. So things like the prana-bindu, Mentats, and the Tleilaxu (from later books) feel modern.

I guess no discussion of Dune would be complete without mentioning Herbert's use of the third-person omniscient perspective and first-person narratives, so I'll just say the first time I read it, I hated it, the second through n-1 times I grew to accept it, and the nth time, I actually kind of liked it.

As the title says, I found some "high capacity" magazines for my Remington 760.

They only hold 10 rounds so I guess they aren't technically "high capacity", but that's a lot of .30-06 rounds in one gun.

The downside is that they are very difficult to get in the gun. So, quick mag changes are impossible. (They're pretty much impossible on the 760 regardless of magazine due to the magazine release.) But, I don't really care as these are for range use unless I find myself in bear country or something.

You know, it's funny/sad, when someone from the anti-gun side tries to use facts. While I applaud them for trying to do so, the truth never seems to help their cause so they often resort to bending the truth, or using BS statistics, or omitting important details, or as in this case, just making shit up.

First, you need to understand that "Assault Weapon" is a made up term for a semi-automatic rifle with scary looking features. Most hunters consider the common "assault weapon" calibers to be too weak to use on game. (I'm referring to the 5.56x45 and 7.62x39 calibers of the AR-15/M16 and AK-47 respectively.)

Second, semi-autos are not jam prone and unreliable as Ed says. Yes, they are machines, and any machine can break, but with proper maintenance they are very reliable.

My AR-15 is the same as what many police departments issue. Why would they issue these weapons that are so unreliable that they can't even hold up to home defense duty? Ed, this just doesn't pass the whiff test.

The AK-47 in particular has a reputation for reliability in extreme conditions. How did Ed come to this conclusion? He's either lying or just saying whatever he thinks will help his cause.

Ed also says we should use revolvers to protect our homes because they aren't prone to jamming like the scary assault weapons. Well, as my friend Hsoi pointed out, revolvers do fail. They are also rather weak compared to a rifle.

I think it all points to the fact that Ed doesn't know what he is talking about.

So we have someone who doesn't understand the issue trying to set policy. Great.

Eliot Spitzer, of recent fame, advocates something stupid.

I think it would be quite funny if this backfired and the manufacturers refused to sell to the US government. (Like Barret did to California.)