Oregon Only: Unsolved Murders

Willamette Week Online | News | COVER STORY | The Murder that WOULD NOT DIE

SHORTLY AFTER 6:30 pm on Jan. 17, 1989, Michael Francke, a tall, athletic man, walked out of the Dome Building, headquarters of the Oregon Department of Corrections. Six hours later, his blood-covered body was found, outside the office building's north entrance. He had been stabbed in the heart.

It took the Oregon State Police more than a year to arrest Frank Gable, a small-time drug dealer, and in June 1991 prosecutors persuaded a jury to convict him. The prosecution's theory: Gable killed Francke when the prison director caught him breaking into his car. He was convicted of seven counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

It was an undeniably weak case. No physical evidence, no credible witnesses tied Gable to the crime; prosecutors relied on testimony dominated by drug dealers and meth users. Elyse Clawson, probably Francke's closest deputy at the Department of Corrections, says she doesn't think we know the real story. "It was never cleared up to my satisfaction," says Clawson, now living in Boston. "I thought there were a lot of unanswered questions."

Fifteen years later, independent Investigative Reporters are revisiting the case. And the victim's brother, Kevin Francke, has never given up looking for the "real murderer".

This is a true instance of Sex, Lies and Videotapes. Okay, so maybe the videotapes are only of interviews (not available to the the public). But the rest of it is verifiable. Sort of.

Most interestingly, several of the principles of the investistigation ended up married to each other ... some of the relationships being most curious. For example:

* During the murder investigation, some journalists, including Phil Stanford, were chasing rumors that Tim Natividad, a low-level crook, might be involved. But in 1989, before Gable's trial, Natividad was shot to death by his girlfriend, Elizabeth Godlove, who convinced authorities it was self-defense. Kevin Francke, who believes Natividad killed his brother, married Godlove in 1993. They're still married today.

There are no real 'answers' in this article, but there are curiousities to make it an interesting read.

Me? I don't know who killed Michael Francke. I never believed that the man who was convicted of the murder, Frank Gable, was definitively identified as the killer.

Check out the article in the link provided above. You may find it as intriguing as I do.

Culture Club

Pop singer Moby: Make my kid 'gay':
Musician also rips DeLay, Coulter, Hannity as 'immoral' right-wingers

(Hat Tip for all articles:)
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com



<>

Pop star Moby, known for his political statements as well as his music, says he'd do everything he could to make his future child homosexual should the singer ever have a family.
...
He's also blasting conservatives Tom DeLay, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich as 'amoral/immoral' right wingers.

In an interview with Planet Out, a publication geared toward homosexuals, the musician, who is not 'gay,' was lamenting so-called homophobia in society when he suggested his future child should be raised to be a homosexual.

The Power of Soy!
And a Darwinian means of terminating bizarre genetic strains.


Woman facing firing squad for marijuana
27-year-old Australian insists drugs planted in luggage

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Schapelle Corby

A 27-year-old Australian beauty student is facing a firing-squad sentence in Indonesia for smuggling marijuana she claims was planted in her luggage.

Schapelle Corby yesterday remained sedated in her prison cell as her lawyer questioned whether she'll be mentally strong enough to take the stand in a final bid to win her freedom.

Okay; she's better looking than Moby.

The question remains whether this genetic strain really needs to be preserved.

Corby yesterday broke down and said her life was over after Prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu argued that she should be found "officially and convincingly guilty" of attempting to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali last year.

Wiswantanu said the former beauty student's actions threatened to make Bali look like a drug haven and could have destroyed the lives of thousands of young Balinese.

Let me do the math:
4.1kg is appromately 8 pounds of grass. What is it about the Balinese that turns them into hopeless drug addicts on (8 pounds of grass divided by 1,000,000 Indonesians)? Okay, so it's too much grass to justify a 'personal usage' defense, but I ask you ... the entire Indonesian archipelago? Geez! At that rate, Osama Bin Laden could turn the entire American population into a bunch of gibbering idiots with a mere 1600 pounds of grass!

Apparently, Pal Osama was unable to amass the grass ... he only provided sufficent TCP-laden fodder to idiotize the DemocRats.

Well, there must be SOME reason they're so spaced out.

Good news, though for the fair (and grieving innocent) Ms. Corby: The Brilliant Mind of Russell Crowe will save her assets!

Meanwhile, Corby's plight has attracted support from Hollywood actor Russell Crowe, who says he was heartbroken by the sight of her tears on Australian newspaper front pages.

Yeah, I just bet that was it. Big tears. Right.

...

Next:

Son Froze Mom To Collect Benefits?

(CBS/AP) A 15-hour standoff with a man suspected of shooting his neighbor turned into a homicide investigation after authorities found a body believed to be the man's mother stashed in his freezer.

Philip Schuth, 52, surrendered to authorities on Saturday morning after a standoff that lasted through the night. At some point during the standoff, Schuth told authorities his mother's body was in his freezer.

Authorities inspected a basement freezer, chipped away ice and eventually discovered what was believed to be Schuth's mother.

Gee, that's cold!
And Mother's Day only two weeks away! We have to wonder how Schuth planned to celebrate the event.

Surely not with a BBQ.


Next:

FEMA's inspectors included criminals

Agency relied on them for honest reports

(No kidding, Sherlock!)

Government inspectors entrusted to enter disaster victims' homes and verify damage claims include criminals with records for embezzlement, drug dealing and robbery, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation has found.

Federal officials have pointed to the inspectors as their primary defense against accusations of widespread fraud for their payout of more than $31 million in Hurricane Frances disaster aid in Miami-Dade -- a county spared hurricane-force winds.

Yup, in order to insure that FEMA funds were approved only for legitimate disaster victims, Florida relied upon the strong professional ethic of such licensed inspectors as James A. Dewan.


Here's the Money Quote:

"We know this for several reasons," said Dan Craig, FEMA's director of recovery programs. "Foremost among them is that FEMA's contract inspectors personally inspect and verify the claims. … Our contract inspectors are our first line of accountability."

Uh huh.

"We had these hurricanes, y'know? And we sorta thought that maybe, just maybe, there was some damage. But we couldn't really tell for sure, y'know, until, like we sent out the stalwart Jimmy Darwin to confirm it. what's that? You say his name is Dewan?. Oh well, like, y'know ... whatever."

Okay, so maybe FEMA director Craig didn't actually SAY this, in exactly these words.
But maybe he should have.

Plausible deniability, doncha know?
First Line of Accountability.

You bet your ass.

Gun Opponents Criticize Firearm Tort Reform

Gun Opponents Criticize Firearm Tort Reform -- GOPUSA

GOPUSA brings our attention to a not-very new bill currently being considered by the House of Representatives .. H. R. 800.

You may recall that a similar bill was introduced last year, during the Presidential Election. John Kerry and his DemocRatic Cronies managed to put paid to that bill by attaching riders which were entirely unacceptable to any RKBA supporter.

Left to right: Charles Schumer *, Diane Feinstein, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy leave the Senate Chambers after having registered their votes for riders designed to undermine the bill for tort reform which would have protected Firearms Manufacturers against Third Party Civil suits. September, 2004.

Kerry was away from the Senate all year, but he showed up long enough to trash the bill which was proposed to protect Firearms Manufacurers against third-party civil suits.



Please write your Congressman in support of this bill.

This is the entire content of the letter I wrote to my Representative, Congressman Peter De Fazio representing the Fourth Congressional District of Oregon:

Sir,
I bring your attention to House Bill H.R. 800, dated February 5, 2005.

Please support H.R. 800 when it comes to a vote in the House.

This Bill would provide protection to Firearms Manufacturers from third-party lawsuit.

Specifically, if a firearm would be used illegally by a person who purchased the firearm from a retailer, the manufacturer of the firearm AND the dealer would be protected from civil suit not pertaining to product liability.

I submit that these sort of lawsuits are currently pertinent only to lawfully acquired firearms, not to automobiles, knives, explosives, axes, rakes, hoes, iron pipes, airplanes, lead-filled hoses, matches, "The Club" or any other tool or object which may be misused by the end-purchaser.


Firearms are arguably the singly most regulated product of any manufacturer or dealer in America today. They are also the single object whose ownership is protected by the U. S. Constitution (2nd amendment).

Still, the manufacturers and retailers of this legal product are subject to egregious distortion of common law for no better reason than that some people fear the object. This fear is based upon ignorance and the resultant lawsuits are often based upon greed.

I personally own several firearms, all legally acquired and responsibly handled. Many of these firearms have been handed down to me by family members over he years. No firearm in my possession have every been knowingly pointed at another living being, let alone at a human, let alone with malice or intent to cause harm.

Yet if my home were to be illegally burgled, the security of my storage system compromised and the firearms stolen by a felon, the manufacturers (and the individuals from which I acquired the firearms, including members of my family) would be subject to civil suit. Not because they were irresponsible; not because they were negligent; but because they (in good faith) transferred a firearm to a family member.

This could be construed as the action of a "dealer", because they didn't manufacture the firearm. Thus, it is important that we not only protect manufacturers, but also dealers.

If dealers fail to observe current law regulating the transfer of firearms, they would be liable by existing laws and this bill would not apply.

But if the firearm functioned safely, taking into account the generally accepted rules of firearm safety; and if the manufacturer/dealer observed current law in the transfer of firearms, why should this legal transaction be cause for civil suit?

That's all this law would protect; the right of honest men to conduct business in accordance with current law, and the protection of their legal business, whether they are, in fact, businessmen or private citizens.

Please support H.R. 800 when it comes to a vote in the House.

To do otherwise would unreasonable, would not support the rights of the honest citizens of which you are representative, and would allow great harm to befall honest people.

* UPDATE: April 24, 2005

Molon Labe, in the Comments, corrects the Geek: the individual on the left of the photo is Charles Schumer (D-NY) not Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) as was previously reported.
Thanx to Molon Labe for the correction. For some of us, it's terribly difficult to distinguish one DemocRat from the other; their politics are similar, but they don't really LOOK alike!

Announcements

The Carnival of Cordite #9 is UP!

The Carnival of Cordite is a weekly feature hosted by Gullyborg at RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! It provides links to the most informative, interesting and/or thought-provoking RKBA-related blogs of the week.

This week, three of the Cogito Ergo Geek posts are featured; two on the Barrett .50-cal BMG and one on the DemocRats (even though that one isn't really on a RKBA theme.)

It's an all-time record for The Geekster. I'm so proud!

But it isn't really all Just About Me. There are a HUGE number of links in each Carnival entry. You should check it out for yourself. If you're into both RKBA and websurfing, it's a fine place to start. And the links, of course change every week.


New Blogroll Entry - .45-Caliber Justice:

I've added a new link to a RKBA (and other topics) blog. Tyler has had almost four months to establish an identity, and it's both interesting and refreshing. For one thing, he doesn't write Geek-Length Posts! I'm still working my way through his archives, and I find that some of the links he provides are websites that I would normally only see after I've tracked down a half-dozen references from other sources. For one example, check out his Ugly Cars links from yesterday (April 18, 2005).

He has obviously been reading the Carnival of Cordite, as he also links to my .50-Cal BMG posts.

Unfortunately, the new link isn't easy to see - my blogroll has been relogated to the back yard. See my comments about the Blogspot Problem. However, in recognition of this unfortunate difficulty, I've included links to both Gullyborg and Tyler in this entry.

No, don't thank me. This is just one of the many services we provide here at Geek Central.


Geek to Blogspot:

Houston, we have A Problem!

My entire sidebar has been moved to the foot of the blog.

This happened over the weekend, when vendor maintenance typically occurs. I hadn't changed my template during this period, and I've tried everything I can think of to insure that there is nothing in my code to cause this. No joy there, so I wrote to technical support. There isn't a phone number to call, so I rely on email. They haven't replied other than to cheerily inform me that they have received my report and will reply as soon as they have something to say. That was two days ago.l

I haven't yet tried to poll other bloggers using the same template (I have to find them first) , but blogspot users with different templates seem to be formatting okay.

In the meantime, I'll just have to curb my impatience and continue searching for a fix. I may have to change to a different template, which will change the look of this blog. I don't want to do that, because I LIKE the way it looks.

But I'm running out of options.

I feel like the test pilot whose plane goes into a flat spin:

Okay, I'm in a spin. Trying this. Nope, this didn't work. Okay, I'm trying that. Nope, that didn't work either. All right, I'll try the other thing. Uh, no, the other thing didn't work either. Okay, no problem, I'll try ...

SPLAT!

I hope it doesn't come to that. It's not something I can live with, because I want the links on the sidebar to be prominently displayed.

The funny thing is, if you click on the permalink of any single blog entry, the sidebar appears as it should.

The sidebar is represented at the end of the entry as the time it was published. For example:

posted by Jerry The Geek @ 9:43 PM


This means that if you want to see the sidebar before Blogspot gets around to fixing the problem, just click on any of the permalinks and catch it on the resulting window.

Culture Shock!

(Shhhh! I'm suppose to be working on the Section Points Race Results spreadsheet. Instead I'm posting about recent news that I find either curious or shocking. Don't tell my boss.)

(Hat Tip to World Net Daily ... see the link on my sidebar, if you can find it.)

Yahoo! News - Students paid for tattling on peers

Last month's school shooting in Minnesota has stirred interest in organized "snitch" programs that pay students for telling on classmates who carry guns or drugs or violate school rules.

Last week in central Georgia, the Houston County school board became the state's first school district to enroll in the national Student CrimeStoppers program, started in 1983. Students can earn up to $500 for alerting school officials about firearms. They can get up to $100 for fingering classmates involved in vandalism, theft or drugs.

That's right. It's '1984' all over again. The authorities are teaching kids to rat our their friends, on anything from ripping off lockers to bringing a gun to school (note RKBA spin!)

No more 'moral values'. Forget "It's the right thing to do". Today in Georgia, you can turn in your best friend because ... the school will pay you as in informant.

Here's the money quote:

A similar program at Cherryville High School in rural Gaston County, N.C., "has really worked well," principal Stephen Huffstetler says. He implemented the program two years ago. "This year, we've given out $1,100," he says. "For $100, they'll turn their mothers in."

Well hooray for the kids in North Carolina, and their parents who apparently see no reason why this morally derift practice shouldn't continue. I hope some of these kids DO turn their parents in.

Next; in Manchester, England;

School bans 'wrong race' hairstyle

A TEENAGER was sent home from school after the headteacher ruled she was the wrong race to have a braided hairstyle.

Olivia Acton, 13, was told she could not join her classmates at Middleton Technology College because her tightly plaited hair was too "extreme" for the strict uniform policy.

However, two other pupils at the school who have an Afro-Caribbean background are allowed to attend the school with similar hairstyles because it reflects their cultural heritage.

The teenager usually has her hair brushed straight but had it braided during a family holiday.

She was stunned to be turned away when she returned to school. She was told she can only go back to the classroom if she unpicks the plaits.

I think she's cute. I don't see anything 'disruptive' in her appearance. She's neat and clean, and she looks better than as good as my blond daughter did at her age with her "mushroom" hair style.

The money quote?

Middleton Technology College headteacher Allison Crompton confirmed that braided hairstyles were generally banned in the school but she would make exceptions for hairstyles which are a reflection of cultural heritage rather than a fashion statement.

Oh. Okay. There's clearly nothing discriminatory about THAT! It has to be YOUR "Cultural Heritage" you're "reflecting". I wonder if pupils with "Afro-Carribean background" are allowed to use pomade?


Meanwhile, back home in Kalifornia ...

Fresno teacher apologizes for smoking pot with students

FRESNO, Calif. A Fresno High School substitute teacher charged with smoking marijuana with students has apologized for his actions.

Chris Bochin wrote a letter to The Fresno Bee saying he set a terrible example for students. He says that five years of pot smoking made him -- quote -- "mentally powerless."He was arrested last month after smoking marijuana with five ninth-graders in a science class. The students were suspended for five days.

What's wrong with that?
This is, like, Kalifornia, Dude. I thought pot smoking in the 9th grade was part of their 'cultural heritage'.

Meanwhile, in Massachusets (?)

Student opposition to civil unions disrupts SWHS

SOUTH WINDSOR -- Four high school students were sent home Friday after they wore T-shirts bearing anti-homosexual slogans to school, causing a series of disturbances as other students became "emotionally distraught," students and school officials said.

The boys, who wore white T-shirts on which they had written, "Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve," say their constitutional right to free speech has been violated.

What's wrong with that?

But other students say they felt threatened by the shirts, which also quoted Bible verses pertaining to homosexuality.

"I didn't feel safe at this school today," said Diana Rosen, who is co-president of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance.

What's this school teaching it's students?

In its emphasis on 'diversity' and 'moral relativity', it's also teaching that you do NOT have a right to express an opinion which might be counter to an outspoken group. I wish the members of he schools "Gay-Straight Alliance" had followed up the next day with shirts which read "Gay is Good!". They didn't, so we'll never know exactly what agenda the school officials were supporting.

At least the students who had the nerve to challenge Convention Morality (Version 2005.1) learned something other than that they are subject to unilateral authoriatism. Student Steven Venetta, one of the boys who wore the Shirts Of Shame:

Almost immediately, the shirts drew comment and debate from other students, Vendetta said.

"I walked down the hall, and people were either cheering me on, yelling at me, or just sneering," he said. "It was the most intense experience."

At least he learned how it feels to be an oppressed minority.

Meanwhile, in Greater America:
AOL Chat Room Monitor Accused of Seducing Girl

(note: loads very slowly!)

America Online hires adult monitors to keep its kids-only chat rooms safe from sexual predators. But one of those monitors seduced a California girl online and was about to meet her for sex before he was caught, according to court documents.

AOL officials declined to confirm or deny specifics of the case. But spokesman Nicholas Graham said the company fired the employee immediately after discovering the incident in April 2003 and reported it to the FBI and local law enforcement authorities, who notified the family.

The girl has now filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court. According to the lawsuit, the AOL employee, then 23 and working from an Oklahoma call center, began the relationship when the girl was 15.

The girl, who was living in Kern County, Calif., at the time, and the employee -- whose sole job at AOL was to monitor chat rooms -- conducted a sexually charged relationship online that lasted nearly two years, the suit contends. The two swapped explicit photographs and videos, had phone sex and made plans to meet for the first time to celebrate her 17th birthday.

I thought these Monitors were suppose to HELP the the AOL subscribers, not predate them. (Apologies for the bad pun.) This makes me nervous about my next call to AOL Technical Support ... which is more typically to Bangledesh than to Oklahoma. Maybe AOL knows what it's doing with its outsourcing policy.


Speaking of outside help, this from Hampton, Roads, VA:


Stranded in a bathtub

April 15, 2005

HAMPTON -- With only her dogs - her babies - nearby for company, Jane Fromal lay in her bathtub and waited.

First minutes, then hours, then days went by. The 75-year-old grandmother had drawn a bath Saturday afternoon to nurse a sore tailbone. But after repeatedly being unable to lift herself up, Fromal started to fear she'd die in the cold tub.

Help finally came Wednesday - five days after Fromal found herself stuck in the bathtub of her home - when a neighbor's grandson noticed the newspapers piling up in her driveway and insisted his grandmother call Fromal's family.

Hey, she's old, she's weak, it could happen to anyone. Thank Goodness that her neighbors were looking out for her. Who knew she could get trapped in her bathtub?

She knew.

It wasn't the first time Fromal, who has a little trouble with her legs, has been stuck in the bathtub, either.

When it happened a few weeks ago, she lay in the tub all day before managing to get out. But now, her family plans to make sure it never happens again ...

Yeah, right. They're planning to put rails around her tub, and maybe waterproof her phone. Maybe she should consider buying one of those First Alert amulets you hang around yoru neck, that when you push the button they day "HELP! I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP!"



We turn now to the National Rifle Association, and one of its most visible members: Ted "The Nuge" Nugent:

Nugent urges NRA members to recruit other gun owner

HOUSTON (AP) -- Rocker and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent urged National Rifle Association members Saturday to be "hardcore, radical extremists demanding the right to self defense" and to work daily to recruit new members.

Speaking at the group's annual convention in Houston, Nugent said the NRA's current record-high membership of 4 million was nothing to get excited about. He said each NRA member should try to enroll 10 new members over the next year.

Sounds pretty mainstream (for RKBA folks) doesn't it?

How about this?

"Let's next year sit here and say, 'Holy smokes, the NRA has 40 million members now,"' he said, adding NRA members should only associate with other members. "No one is allowed at our barbecues unless they are an NRA member. Do that in your life."

Is it just me?
I get the distinct impression that "The Nuge" isn't talking about NRA official functions; he's talking about (for example) the informal get-togethers after an IPSC match that my friend "Randomly Hitten' Witten" hosts. I would really hate to be excluded because I don't subscribe to the "American Rifleman" ... which is what NRA member actually provides for your annual membership fee. (Can you tell I'm disgruntled?) I've been an NRA member, several times, and every time I allowed my membership to lapse because of the exhorbitant extra fees they extort for a magazine which, except for the "Armed Citizen" page, is essentially a piece of crap.

Now, if they brought back "Gun Games" magazine, and made that an option, I would be a Life Member at the drop of a cheesy NRA hat.

Speaking of the NRA, and our (whew! Glad this is almost over!) last piece:
Tough defender of firearms may soften group's rhetoric

By Tom Beal

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

It's understandable, in an organization that still divides its convention luncheons into "ladies" and "sportsmen" categories, that publicity about the National Rifle Association's incoming president highlights her gender.

But while Monday's expected election of Tucson attorney Sandra Froman as president of the nearly 4 million-member organization might inject a more civil tone into the arguments over gun control in the United States, it doesn't signal a softening of NRA policies.

"She's not the new pope who's gonna let priests marry," said Mick Rusing, Froman's friend, former law partner and sometime hunting companion. Her election doesn't signal a liberalization of NRA policies, Rusing said, but it could produce a ramping down of its rhetoric.

That "ramping down" thing could be an improvement, or not. But I'll tell you frankly:
I miss Charlton Heston.

Okay, it's not a Drum Roll, but this single statement pretty much sums up how I feel about all of this "culture shock" minutia.

Practical Pistol is FUN!

For the past several days, I've been addressing some serious RKBA issues.

Enough of that.

I want to show you how much FUN it is to shoot in IPSC matches. After all, that's why I originally created this blog.

While I've tried to keep the number of photographs down (because they take so darned long to load ... especially if you're accessing the Internet on a too-slow modem, as I am) I think I'll just show you the pictures and let you decide for yourself whether the game is worth the effort.

The first three pictures are from the Albany match 'last' weekend in April. We were blessed with gentle weather, and I think you should be given a 'baseline' picture of Good Spring Weather in Oregon so you can see how, uh, 'changeable' it can be. These photos were taken on April 9, 2005.

This first picture is of an 'unidentified' young lady shooting an IPSC stage. I know you're paying attention to the shirtsleeve weather, and the generally green background.



In that same match, here's a photo of SWMBO at the Load And Make Ready" portion of another stage (in this case the Classifier Stage.) Note her concentration:




... And in the final photo from this match, here's 'Barsoom' smokin' the "Drum Wall" stage. The stage was named because of the reverberations of the competitor's pistol (in this case, a Glock Open Pistol in .40 S&W) from the visquine (sp) fabric which was used to fabricate the walls. Barsoom absolutely crushed me ... and almost everyone else ... at this match, and ended up placing 3rd overall and First B-Open. (I was lucky to finish in the Fourth B-Open place and 10th out of 17 Open Division.)




The final two pictures are from 'this weekend in April' ... Sunday, April 17, 2005. The host club was Tri-County Gun Club in Sherwood, Oregon.

I didn't do well. It didn't have a lot to do with the weather; mostly I just wasn't turning myself loose to shoot to the edge of the envelope. Instead, I was much to conservative. It was a "Points Match" and deliberately designed to be edgy. The stages were tough, and most of them focused on accuracy rather than fast shooting. The thing is, you had to be accurate AND fast to score well in comparison to the other 74 competitors. And there was another factor: the weather turned on us.

It was a rainy day. Pretty darned rainy. Not the worst day most inclement weather we've experienced in Oregon, but wet enough and windy enough to be 'uncomfortable'.

It was a matter of grey skies with blue patches. Some people focused on the blue patches, some on the grey skies. (Note: the following picture is misleading; both of the gentlemen depicted here are of almost invariably sunny disposition. However, the accidental contrast was too dramatic to resist including it in this composition.)



The final photo is of SWMBO in a 'pixie-ish' mood. I don't know whether she's saying "hello", or "find me another mud-puddle to stomp", or "I know it's wet and rainy, and I should be glum, but I'm having a great time and I don't care!" As far as I know, she's saying "my fingers are frozen in an un-natural position from picking up brass from the mud puddles!"

I just included it because she's gorgeous, and charming, and any time I can sneak her picture into the conversation it makes it a Good Day for me!






Incidently, if you follow the link for the match scores, you will notice the Open Division is lead by a young man named "Kevin". He has been dominating the Limited 10 Division for the past year, and only in the past couple of months has he migrated to Open Division. As far as I know, he has been using the same gun for "Open" as he has for "Limited 10" ... a single stack!

I may be wrong ... I usually am ... but you will note he beat two Master Open competitors, two A-class Open shooters, and the other five B-Class open shooters (in which class I once again finished 4th of six.)

At the next club match I'll try to catch up with this relatively young open shooter (meaning, he's not a Senior like the rest of us B-Open shooters.) If I can, I'll tell you as much as he will allow about what kind of equipment he's using, how long he has been using it, and anything else I can learn about his amazing success story.

Can this be the next USPSA prodigy?

Stay tuned.

UPDATE:
Yup, it's true. I was wrong.

I've just heard from one of my 'sources' that the illustrious Kevin is not winning club matches shooting a singlestack in Open Division. He's using a big ol' STI with compensator, bigsticks and reddot sight. This revelation (to me) doesn't take a lot away from his shooting prowess, because this is apparently a situation where a talented shooter displays a "like a fish to water" affinity for getting the most out of whatever hardware available to solve the shooting problem.

I'm still impressed by Kevin's shooting, and I still intend to furnish more information later if Kevin is willing to be interviewed for an internet weblog.

The Barrett .50-BMG is Practical!

This is, I swear it, the last comment for a long LONG time about the .50-BMG.

It's just that I think we need some perspective on the issue, and I've spent a lot of time talking about the 'political' aspects of this fine rifle in America.



Now it's time we spend a moment considering the Military aspect.

We can do this, I think, thanks to a reference from the excellent Michael Bane Blog.

Michael shows us how much the U.S. Military Appreciates the contribution made by Mr. Barrett.

Barrett's Model M107 Rifle System Selected By the US Army As One of the Top Ten Inventions For CY2004

Barrett M107 LRSR Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc has recently earned several honors that reflect on the commitment the company has to providing the soldier with the best .50 caliber long-range sniper rifle in the world. This week we have been again been recognized for the US Army's M107 LRSR.

Barrett M107 was selected by the Chief of Staff Office of the US Army as one of the "Top Ten Inventions of 2004" for the fight against the war on terror.

More on the Barrett letter to the LAPD Chief of Police

Last night I posted an article which called into question the 'immediacy' of an article by Publicola. He referred to a letter that Ronnie Barrett had written to the LAPD Police Chief.

In 2002, Barrett attend a Los Angeles City Council meeting, where he was unable to convince them NOT to pass local laws against private ownership of the rifle which he manufactures. Part of the reason was that a LAPD representative was there and spoke in favor of the legislation.

I made the point that the letter was written in December of 2002. It may be 'news' (especially in light of recent productions by '60 Minutes' and published comments from the Violence Policy Center), but it isn't "NEW news".
Besides, I had no way of confirming that Barrett had actually followed through on the implied threat; that he would no longer sell to the LAPD, nor service rifles he had already sold to them. For that matter, it wasn't clear whether Barrett would refuse to do business with the LAPD, all California Government Agencies, or with anyone in California. That had seemed, to me, to be the most salient point of his letter. Consequently, I had no idea whether the issue really warranted comment.

Part of my confusion was due to the following verbiage posted on the Barrett's main page:

NOTICE TO CALIFORNIA .50 CALIBER OWNERS:

Before sending in any .50 caliber rifle or receiver to be built up, your rifle must be registered with the California Department of Justice. Shipping in and out of California must be handled by a DOJ Assault Weapon/.50 BMG Rifle Permit holder. Please call Barrett prior to shipping your .50 caliber rifles/receivers. 615-896-2938

That statement strongly implies that Barret WOULD sell to at least some customers in California.

Since that time, I've checked Barrett's website more thoroughly. Under the "NEWS" button I found a link to a letter to the American Rifleman, dated January of this year.

2 comments:

Ronnie Barrett Shuns Gun-Banning LAPD?????

LA GUN BANS - Letters of Opposition


The Los Angeles City Council, in a meeting discussing a proposal to ban the private ownership of the .50 BMG in Los Angeles ...

... voted to have the city attorney draft an ordinance to ban the .50, and further, to instruct the city's representatives in Sacramento and in Washington D.C. to push for bans at their respective levels.

Ronnie Barrett, the owner of Barret Firearms Manufacturing, Inc., attended the meeting and attempted to present the facts of .50 BMG ownership in contravention of statements by the Violence Policy Center. (See also here.)

Unfortunately, the VPC press releases had apparently swayed the council members even before the meeting started, and his arguments seemed to have no effect.

Perhaps decisions of the council were pre-determined. Certainly Barrett's position was undermined by the presence of a LAPD member who brought a Barrett .50 BMG to the meeting, sat with it in the front row, and testified that the LAPD supported the ban on public ownership of the firearm. After the meeting, the LAPD member provided the rifle to council members for "photo opportunities".

Upon returning home, Barrett was surprised to find that the LAPD had returned for servicing one of the .50 BMG rifles which they had bought from Barrett.

In a letter to LAPD Chief Willam J. Bratton, Barrett apologized for the "slow service" and stated:

I will not sell, nor service, my rifles to those seeking to infringe upon the Constitution and the crystal clear rights it affords individuals to own firearms.

Here's the most important FACT of this situation:
The letter from Ronnie Barrett to the LAPD Chief of Police was dated December 11, 2002.

It may be "news", but it ain't NEW news.

I have no idea if Barrett has actually established a policy of not selling, nor servicing rifles sold to, the Los Angeles Police Department. Nor do I know if the policy, if actually established, has continued during the intervening 2+ years since the letter was published. I can't find anything on the Internet, and the item is too old to find any information in the LA Times, the LA City Council, or Barrett's website.

I guess the lesson here is: when you read something on the web it's a good idea to check it out before you get all excited about it.

I generally check out the Snopes website as my first step to determining the probable veracity of an 'urban legend', but this is a bit too eclectic to show up on the 'Snope Scope'.


(hat tip: Publicola)

UPDATE:

I just received an email from Publicola:

Jerry,
I called Barret before I posted. If you look in the extended entry you'll see that they verified that they weren't selling to any government agency in Cali.

The letter is two years old & only dealt with L.A. but this thing they're doing now is statewide.

(Democratic) Foes cite progress vs. Bush agenda

Boston.com / News / Nation / Washington / Foes cite progress vs. Bush agenda

(Democrats) Say strategy fuels GOP infighting

By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | April 11, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Senior Democrats are increasingly confident that they have blocked Republicans plans for historic breakthroughs in legislation under GOP control of the White House and Congress, declaring that the Democratic strategy of unified opposition to major items on the leadership agenda has succeeded in turning Republicans against themselves.
[emphasis added]

Democratic leaders say the focus on opposition, rather than on their own legislative proposals, has allowed them to hold up President Bush's plans to remake Social Security. They are honing a message that highlights what they portray as Republican abuses of power, and say their new level of party discipline is forcing Republicans to wrestle with their own divisions over judicial confirmations, foreign affairs, and taxing and spending.

Huh?
wait a minute here ... is this a Parody?

Am I reading The Globe, or The Onion?

There's more:

''The Democratic caucus has never been as unified, and you've seen it on Social Security, the budget, and judges," said Senate minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada. ''It took a while for us to realize that we weren't in the majority. I think, though, we have learned the lesson well. And we have also learned that the majority party won't be in the majority forever."

I'm happy for them, that they're all singing from the same hymnal (so to speak), but I have a problem with this:

Democrats acknowledge the strategy carries the risk that members will be viewed as obstructionists, focused on what they can stop instead of what they can accomplish. Republicans hope to use Democratic opposition as a weapon in 2006 elections, and Bush still has time in his second term to guide his priorities into law.

Nonetheless, after 10 years as the minority party in Congress, many Democrats who in the past have pushed for the party to offer explicit alternatives are realizing they can more effectively communicate their message by positioning themselves in the ways they oppose Republicans, said Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat.

''The official agenda is entirely in their hands, and it's very hard to get things that are being done unofficially into the public debate. Therefore, it makes sense for us to define what we are doing in terms of the opposition to the official agenda," said Frank, who was first elected to Congress in 1980. ''We do have a positive agenda to get to, but we first have to get everybody's attention by stressing our opposition to what they do."

[again, emphasis added]

Do I understand this correctly?
The Dems have officially discounted the principle that they "stand for something". They have decided that their best political position is to admit that they have no political platform of their own, except that whatever the Republicans want to do ... they're against it.

Am I right?



I think I'm right in my understanding of this . I mean, I do understand that the Democrats don't STAND for anything. They just so profoundly hate Bush and the Republican majority (if only because the Republicans are currently in power) that they have no political agenda other than blind, unreasoning opposition.

Well, that's refreshing.
This is the first time in recent memory that the Democratic Party has been entirely candid about their politics.

In 2004, we watched as millions of citizens voted, not FOR John Kerry, but AGAINST George Bush. There were so many citizens who hated George W. Bush that they nearly elected a political non-entity ... a man who had NO platform, other than "I'm Not George Bush!"

Thank God for that!

For the past several years, I've assumed that the Democratic Party has no agenda of their own; their platform has had only two planks:
(1) We're not Them
(2) Whatever They support, we're against it

It's pretty slim pickings, if you want to choose between political parties on a rational basis. But the Democrats haven't been rational since Clinton was elected ... or even earlier. I listen to the rhetoric, hoping to find some sort of "I'm For This" statement from the Democrats, and all I hear is "I don't like the people who are making the decisions instead of me!" It doesn't seem as if they have a vision, a plan to make the future of our country brighter than it is now. It's nothing more than outrage that they are no longer in power.

Most recently, the Democratic party has decided that they need to find something to say which will appeal to focus groups. No, they haven't considered changing their priorities, or their policies; they only need to make them more appealing to a few special interest groups.

I ask myself: "Is this a dynamic group who have a vision, who will attract me because of the wisdom of that vision; or this is a stagnent bunch of politicians who have no goal beyond regaining their lost power?"

The answer is clearly "Plan 'B'", and now they have even admitted it to themselves.

What a bunch of maroons.

(Hat Tip to Rush Limbaugh)

Selena is Dead. Long Live Selena!

Mexican recording artist Paula Rubio poses as she arrives on the red carpet for the Selena Vive tribute concert at Reliant Stadium Thursday, Apri. 7, 2005, in Houston. Some of the biggest stars of Latin music came out to pay tribute to Selena 10 years after her death. (AP Photo/Brett Coomer)

I just thought you would ... you know ... want to know.

Aftec Extractor

I broke my extractor.

For two weeks I thought my repetitive jams during IPSC matches was caused by magazines ...t he new ISMI springs I had installed in all of my magazines, the Dawson Plus-Two I had installed on one magazine, or perhaps because of the natural tendency of magazines to open up at the magazine lips due to natural wear of using the same magazines for a year or more.

When I finally wised up, I took a close look at my extractor under a strong magnifying glass. I found a chip on the face of the extractor hook ... not a corner of the hook broken, as has been my experience with EVERY pistol (including S&W) I've ever used for IPSC competition for more than a year. (Figure 12,000 round per year, at a minimum.)

Because I shoot IPSC matches every weekend during 'the season' I wasn't willing to accept any decrease in reliability, so I contacted Chuck Bradley at Shooter's Connection to get a replacement.

(Extractors are a 'consumible' product; if you're going to shoot a couple of hundred rounds through your 1911 pistol every week, most weeks of the year, you have to expect that the extractor is going to fail eventually, even if you're using the now-classic STI.

It's only reasonable to have a spare extractor in your range bag, but when I went looking for mine, I discovered that the cupboard was bare ... extractor-wise.

Chuck had much the same problem: he had no STI extractors in stock, and his order to STI hadn't come in yet. But he had AFTEC extractors on hand, and I've always wanted to see if this product was worth the premium price it demanded, so I ordered one.

I also back-ordered a replacement STI extractor, to be delivered as soon as Chuck's order came in. It never hurts to have extra parts on hand, if you compete in as many matches each year as SWMBO and I do.

I didn't get my order in to Chuck until Monday night. He replied by email later that same night (has Chuck nothing better to do than keep track of his customers?) and I clarified my request that he send his available extractor ... the Aftec ... immediately, and also send a spare STI extractor as soon as they came in.

I received my Aftec extractor on Thursday night.

Information available on the Internet indicated that installation of the Aftec extracor required 'some gunsmithing'. Specifically, they supposedly required that you drill out your extractor channel to fit the larger-diameter Aftec. After this, of course, the stock extractor was no longer an option.

The extractor is an Aftec Extractor. It uses a small, heavy duty coil spring to give constant tension to the case in the chamber. I have broken two of these in this gun so far. The replacement parts are hard to come by as they are no longer produced. To install the Aftec extractor, you have to drill out the extractor hole in the slide to a larger diameter. It is impossible to go back to the regular type extractor after one of these are installed. The weak area is by the hook part of the extractor, where a crack forms and eventually the hook breaks off. I do not recommend this modification because of the two failures I have had with mine.

Either this description is VERY much out of date, or it is patent bullshit. I prefer to believe that this installation process is based on a very EARLY model of the Aftec extractor.

My experience was less traumatic. The Aftec dropped right in. The extractor channel didn't require any modification, and even the perennially Gunsmithing-Incompetent Geek was able to install the After-Market part without opening the dusty Dremel Tool box.

Saturday morning, 9am, I started the match at the Albany Rifle & Pistol Club. To my delight, the Aftec extracted with near-perfect reliability. (The single exception was when I attempted to use a 140mm magazine newly equiped with a 'Dawson Plus-Two' basepad, which caused a jam after 6 shots in the 22-round magazine. My bad: I had used an 'old' 170mm ISMI magazine spring, conforming to my personal theory that a NEW 140mm magazine spring wouldn't work with a plus-two magazine. I'll replace that with a new 140mm ISMI magspring and report back later. Did I mention that I was mechanically stupid?)


John Moses Browning ... My Hero!

While I'm a traditionalist where gun-parts are concerned, I've never been entirely convinced that the original John Browning design of a bend-it-to-tune-it extractor was the best possible solution. Given the one-match experience, I have no negative critical comments about the Aftec extractor so far.

Give me some time. If it's possible to muck it up, I'll do it. But for now ... I like it!

THE WORLD'S UGLIEST CAR

The Worlds Ugliest car: it took 12 years to restore it to ... this!

Is THIS The Police? (John Farnam's Quips)

John Farnam's Quips - 26Mar05.html

I am aware that my recent preponderance of commentaries about Law Enforcement Officers (LEO) who find themselves in ... uncomfortable ... situations, seems to imply that I am gleefully gleaning the Internet for every little thing that can go wrong.

Wrong.

Actually, it has been a bad time for LEOs. I admire their willingness to put their lives on the line to protect us, but their job is so terribly difficult that it doesn't take much for Things To Go Terribly Wrong.

Which leads me to the events of March 11, and Atlanta.


An accused rapist with a long history of crime, having been taken from his cell and moved to a 'holding area', overpowered his guard (variously identified as 'a deputy' and 'a bailiff'), took her service pistol, and escaped. In the process he killed a judge and two other people, beat a reporter and took his car, and held a young woman captive for several hours before she talked him into giving himself up.

As mentioned above, our Brian is a bad boy even if he is capable of redemption.

But how did this tragedy start?

It started with the bailiff he overpowed, and he was able to do so because the bailiff (Sheriff's deputy) was an aging, short woman who was unable to successfully resist when he attacked her.

John Farnam some insight into the reasons why this attack succeeded, and it does not reflect well upon the Fulton County Sheriff's Office. The bailiff wasn't the only one who didn't do her job.

26Mar05

Atlanta incident details, from a friend and lawyer in the area:

"Video cameras, monitored at the local sheriff department, clearly displayed the entire courthouse attack on the single, hapless deputy guarding the unhandcuffed prisoner. At the time of the incident, there were no fewer than three other deputies assigned to duty in the SO's command center who were, among other things, supposed to be monitoring the video:

One deputy had been sent to assist in a courtroom, leaving two in the command center.

Another deputy was sent away by the captain to fetch the captain's breakfast.

Only one officer remained to both monitor the video and perform the other duties. He was apparently distracted when the attack took place and neither saw nor reported it.

I surely hope the captain enjoyed her breakfast!

It gets worse. The prisoner responsible for the murders was found with a shank on him two days earlier. What additional precautions were taken with respect to this prisoner? Apparently none! They did not even search his cell. When they finally did, AFTER all the murders, they discovered detailed plans of his escape route and a 'hit list' of individuals, that included the judge who was murdered.

This elevates negligence to an art form. Anyone familiar with Atlanta knows nothing substantive will be done, and our idiot sheriff will remain in office, unless, of course, we can get him to take over at the UN! You're on your own down here."

/John

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

Jeff Cooper's Commentaries

I may be a little late, but it is worthwhile noting that the March, 2005 Cooper's Commentaries is UP!

Besides the Colonel's usual eclectic comments on everything from Swagger Sticks to the superiority of the 1903-A3 rifle, he provides these comments:

As the Holy War continues in Iraq, it remains clear that minor caliber smallarms cartridges are not working. The consensus we get back from the war zone is that while the 223 cartridge is a reasonably reliable stopper when hits are delivered to the upper torso region, they are not a really good answer to a fight. The Parabellum cartridge of 1908 is simply not a good idea, except possibly in the full-automatic mode - as with the machine pistol. As a sidearm cartridge it does not measure up - or have I mentioned that before?

While it is possible to scrounge a good pistol out there in Mesopotamia, ammunition is difficult to obtain. Of course a pistol is not fired very much in military combat. My studies of the matter suggest that 50 rounds of pistol ammunition should suffice for an entire war. It is unusual for an infantryman to fire more than a couple of magazines in a whole battle.

Huh. I can't make 50 rounds of pistol ammunition 'suffice' for ten minutes on the range. But he's right, of course; there are very few 'mag changes' in battle. And if your combat situation has so degraded that you have no available weapon better than your pistol, you're so far out on The Sharp End that the question of survival will not be determined by a 1-second reload.

Kim du Toit & Massad Ayoob ... Not RKBA?

Kim du Toit - Daily Rant

Kim du Toit, usually the most ardent of RKBA supporters, cites this comment from LFI Guro Masad Ayoob ....

"No, as a matter of fact, you don’t have a God-given right to carry a loaded gun in shopping malls where there are kids walking around. It’s a privilege, and you need to be able show society that you know how to use it and when to use it. That you’re not going to shoot at a perpetrator and hit a kid by mistake."

.. and surprisingly (to me), he buys into it whole-hog:

All the above came from a reading of this article, sent by Reader Richard A. There are times when I don’t agree with Mass Ayoob, but on his central thesis at LFI, I am in complete agreement.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I do not share his agreement with the thesis, and I say so about 70 comments into the dialogue.

Somewhere less than half-way through the discussion, du Toit states that he will NOT enter the dialogue ... one supposes this decision is caused by the nearly overwhelming statements of disagreement from his readers.

This may be one of the most important subjects which he has ever posted, if only because of the huge volume of controversy among RKBA supporters who don't agree with him or with Ayoob.

I wish du Toit had continued to be an active participant in the discussion, because I don't really have a good grasp of his justification for deciding that legal CCW (Concealed Carry of a Weapon) is any more egregious thanCCW in a church or a courtroom, both of which he has discussed lately and decided that RKBA issues would apply.

One can only conclude that he is uncomfortable with his espoused position, and is reluctant to concede that his original statement is not in accordance with earlier statements.

My interpretation is that he feels he has contradicted himself, and either way he will have to admit to having taken an indefensible position.

But that's just my take on it. You may read it entirely differently.

Please go read the whole post and the cited link to Ayoob's original statement. I would appreciate it if you would comment either here or on Kim's website.

Daylight Savings Time

What does Daylight Savings Time mean to me?

Well, if you didn't get The Word, it means if that you got to work at 8am, it was really 9am and you probably are late to work.

It means that the after-work time you had counted on to go to the range isn't there. By the time you got off work, the daylight you had hoped for to sight in your heater probably won't be available for another six weeks.

It means that, during the height of summer, it's no use going to bed at 9pm. It's still light out, so if you have to get up early you probably won't have got a good night's sleep because your choices are (a) keep the window open, and smell your sun-and-beer bummered neighbors burning cheap hamburger for another hour or two, or (b) close the windows and suffocate. If you don't have air conditioning, even in Oregon, there's no way to enjoy a cool night's breeze.

If you DO go to work early, and if you expected to putter in the garden for a while before you hit the road ... forget it until June when it's finally light at oh-dark-thirty.

I have no idea whose convenience Congress had in mind when they imposed Daylight Saving Time on the American public, but I expect it's those late-to-bed, late-to-rise politicians who don't work the same hours as most of their constituents.

Lucky for me I'm a night-owl. I don't get to bed before midnight, no matter what the political expediencies are and no matter where the sun is. But I still wonder what it means to an HONEST working man, if I knew any.

No, it's not easy being me. But sometimes, it's better than being 'normal'.

Captain's Quarters

Captain's Quarters

It appears that the Canadian Government has a teensy little political scandal going on, which has reached the courts. The judge imposed a gag order. An American blogger discovered some of the details, and posted them on his website. Then a Canadian blogger (are you following this?) linked to the American blogsite.

When the Canadian Government, and the Canadian judge, found out about this they were very upset. What's the good of a gag order if it doesnt' work? (Good question, eh?)

Now Canada is thinking about prosecuting the Canadian blogger for spilling the beans, and they would really like to get their hands on Captain Ed, the American blogger who broke the story.

Can Canada prosecute an American for violating a Canadian gag order? Can the prosecute a Canadian for publishing the fact that an American has information that is not available to the average Canadian? Will Monty of the Mounties save Tess Truehart OR Little Nell before the train runs over here?

Gah!

In the hope of obfuscating the issue, such as it is, I have provided a link to Captain Ed's Big Story. And in the tradition of W ... "Bring It On".

I like "the average Canadian", but I do not like the average Canadian Government. Let's give them a few more targets to shoot at. Remember: "Style Points Count!"

I wonder how many Americans the Canadian Government will have to prosecute (after they have petitioned the American Government to arrest and extradite), before their national budget collapses? Remember, they're up to something on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars attempting to impose their draconian gun buy-back laws ... where were budgetted at not much more than one million Canadian dollars. (What's that in real money?)

Anybody else want to buy into the game? The chips are cheap.

It seems worth the effort, to me.

Another Evening WASTED Sitting At My Computer!

People often ask me:

"Hey Geek! You spend all day in front of a computer. You're a Systems Analyst, you write programs eight hours a day. Don't you have something better to do when you get home?"

Actually, nobody has ever asked me this. But if anyone ever noticed that this is how I spend my evenings, five nights a week, they might wonder.

The thing is, you can do a lot of 'stuff' with a computer. There's games like Minesweeper, etc. for those times when you're just bummered out and want some totally mindless thing to do and you don't feel like reading.

But you can do some social things, too.

For example, I spend some time every night writing emails. Sometimes to my family, and often to The Unofficial IPSC List. (In fact, it was to reduce the level of Geek-Length Posts to the IPSC List that I started this Blog.)

Sometimes, during the day, I think up questions that can easily be answered via the Internet. A few of my favorite links are listed on the sidebar. For example, I can look up the results of the latest IPSC match I shot, by calling up www.columbia-cascade.com. Or I can check to see if I've yet made GrandMaster in Open Division at www.uspsa.org. (Hint: I'm lucky I'm still a B-class shooter!)

Also, since I don't have television and my radio-listening hours are limited by the requirements of working for a living, and I refuse to pay those leftist-pinkos who write for the newspapers in Red-State Oregon, I can check out the news at a world-wide selection of news websites. In fact, if I'm curious about politically slanted interpretations of the breaking news, there are a number of commentators who are woodified in hopes that I'll check their website to find out what THEY think. (They're entertaining ... especially Anne Coulter ... but they don't form my opinion. Rather, I look to see if THEY know anything I don't know; more often, I check to see if have achieved the zen-state of understanding which compares favorably with my own "God-like" talent to interpret the news.

Or, you can look up the cinematic contributions of Forrest Tucker, which is one of the oddball things I did to support my Geeky READING post yesterday ... believe it or not.

Occasionally, I put the resources of the Internet to more productive purposes. Tonite was one such night. Here's what I did:

April First. Tonite, I pay my bills. Mostly, I make payments online.

AOL is an automatic deduction, as are car insurance, life insurance, and renter's insurance.

Credit card ... paid it.
Electricity ... not due yet. I'll pay it next week.
Land-line phone ... paid it.
Cell Phone ... not due yet. I'll pay it next week.

All of these bills are paid online. I also checked my bank account to ensure that my paycheck had been credited.

Car payment ... not an issue any more, Brother. Paid it off early ... online.

Rent ... wrote a check. I'll put it in the landlord's mailbox in the morning. It's easy to forget this, but I just write the check when I pay my other bills. Some of the websites load slowly, there's enough time to write a check and stuff it in an envelope.

Water and Garbage: included in the rent. Oh, the joys of non-home-ownership!

Gun Club Membership ... wrote the check and put it in the mail.

Othe bills: there ain't none. I live a minimalist life. Money for Nothin' and Checks for Free (which I order from my bank ... online.)


There are a couple of new things this month, tho.

Income Taxes ... paid it, online, for a $5 fee. My bank has a deal with TurboTax which accepts online tax filing requests from bank customers at a reduced rate. Unfortunately, I could only file my Federal taxes with TurboTax. When they calculated my State Taxes, they decided I owed the state of Oregon another $1680. By my calculations, I owed $106. I wrote TurboTax a curt note on their "feedback" website, indicating most graciously that I couldn't afford their services in this area because it would require that I overpay by 1500%. I'll do my state tax return tomorrow, on paper, and still grumble about the absurd socialist tax structure in Oregon.

At least I don't have to pay Property Taxes anymore, since I'm renting. Oh sure, I DO pay Property Taxes, because it's part of the way my rent was calculated. But I've lived in the same place for 9 years now, and my rent hasn't gone up one penny. Tell me, you folks who own your own home ... habe your property tax, maintenance fees, garbage service and water/sewage bills stayed the same for the last 9 years? And when your diswasher breaks, do you have to buy a new one? Or does some kind neighbor (in my case, the owner) replace it for free?

That's what I though. Oh, the joys of non-home-ownership!


Next, my car registration is due to be renewed.

Paid it ... online ... in the comfort of my home and on a secure website. Computers are better than hanging around the DMV waiting for your number to be called. Did you know you can't smoke in a public building in Oregon? Screw them. I smoked a cigarette while I renewed my car registration. Life is good when you're a Geek.

Finally, I received an email telling me that a bill has been introduced simultaneously in both the House and the Senate (by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Lamar alexander, both of Tennessee), intended to help the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) with their fund-drive problems. You are probably aware that, thanks to the American Civil Liberties Union, the United Way fund-drives no longer support the BSA in fund-raising activities. Further, the ACLU has taken direct action to insure that the BSA can no longer hold meetings or conduct recruitment campaigns on school grounds. The have lost access to many of the public venues where they once held "Jamborees" and meetings. This bill will, hopefully, return their right to use these public facilites.

The “Support Our Scouts Act of 2005” guarantees the Boy Scouts’ right to equal access in a number of ways. The legislation removes any doubt that Federal agencies may welcome Scouts to hold meetings and go camping on federal property. It ensures the Defense Department can continue providing support consistent with U.S. law. The legislation also ensures state or local government entities do not deny Boy Scouts equal access to public facilities, programs, or forums. Finally, the act clarifies that federal agencies cannot provide less support to the Scouts than the agency has in the past.

So I wrote to my Senators, Ron Weyden and Gorden Smith. And I also wrote to my Representative, Peter DeFazio. (You gotta love FIRST.GOV)

I told them that back in the '50s and the '60s, when I was growing up, it was EASY to be a kid. My parents were married. We had scouting, where we could go places and do things with other kids, and we didn't have to wonder if whether the scout-master was there to help us or to do bad things to us. We knew we could trust them.

I told them that kids today don't have it so good. Their parents are making babies, then going their separate ways. Children aren't 'given' good role models, they have to take 'em where they find 'em. I said that the BSA is finding pedofiles in their upper ranks even when they try real hard to weed 'em out. The Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, has declared bankruptcy because of the civil suits they had to pay out due to the predations of pedophiliac priests ... PRIESTS! For Christ's sake, can't we do better than that with the Boy Scouts of America? These people are trying to hold the line, to protect our children and teach them the values of common decency, but there are people out there who want to put our children at risk for the sake of chimera .. a freaking PHILOSOPHIC CONCEPT ... called "diversity".

And I said that there wasnt' a damned thing I could do about it. I'm nothing but a balding, over-aged misanthropic Geek, and all I can do is write letters to people. But this bill could help the Boy Scouts at least regain some access to facililties which were available to them before the 'diversity' thing got blown out of proportion, and I think it's worth the effort to support it. Maybe they could do something to help a worthwhile cause.

Do it for the children.

Of course, I didn't put it quite that way, but that was the general gist of my comments.

. . . . . .

So there it is. How I Wasted My April Fools Night, Sitting In Front Of A Darned Ol' Computer.

How did you spend YOUR evening?

We Few

Here's a first: instead of talking about IPSC, RKBA, current events, cultural issues or any of The Usual Subjects, I want to talk about books.

(Most of the people, websites, etc. I talk about here are represented on the sidebar ... that bunch of links you see over on the right side of your screen.) ==========================>

If it can be said that I am 'into' IPSC, then it must be also said that I am WAY into books.

I keep several books in my desk at work, for reading on breaks or on weekends. I keep books in my briefcase. Beside my bed. In my car. Anywhere I go where I may have a few unfilled minutes, I can reach out and lay my hand on a book. Or two, or three ...

At any time, I have at least three books 'going'. And I don't have any problems with keeping the story-line or theme separate. Where books are concerned, I'm not only vociferous, I'm omnivorous. I choose 'themes', or 'authors', and I read a slew of books in this category until I burn out. I have (as far as I know), and re-read frequently, every book that Robert Heinlein ever wrote. I'm currently working my way through a 10-volume set of the works of Rudyard Kipling (printed 1923), and earlier this month I bought two more volumes of Kipling because I learned that he had written a lot of his best work after that publication date.

Science Fiction has been my first love, since I discovered an omnibus of the works of Lewis Padget's (the pen name Henry Kuttnerand his wife Connie "C.L. Moore") in the Pendleton, Oregon, Umatilla Ccounty library about 1960. I had previously read Phillip Wylie's "Generation of Vipers" and "Tomorrow" and "The Disappearance" and "Gladiator" (a progenitor tale of the 'Superman' myth), and found them fascinating although I didn't realize that what I was reading was social commentary often disguised as Science Fiction; but when I read Padget I was hooked forever.

(Incidently, Wylie also wrote the "Crunch and Des" stories, which was made into a brief television series starring Forrest Tucker, he of later "F-troop" fame. Wylie also wrote the scripts for a number of movies and television shows. Can you tell I'm a big fan of this misunderstood writer? He died in 1971, somewhat after I was drafted. I blame Lyndon Johnson for Wylie's untimely death.)

When I got to high school, I discovered the Russian Novelists:, Anton Chekov, Ivan Turgenov and the unreadable - in - any - language Dostoevsky (not to mention the equally uncomprehensible, but charming, German and/or Bohemian and/or Chech author Franz Kafka) ; my classmates were wading through Mark Twain, whose works I had read years before ... right after Doctor Doolittle. But that's another story (Aren't county libraries wonderful?)

My latest SF discover is John Ringo, who is . . . surprise! . . . still alive! He's ex-embassy kid, ex-military, and he writes "Military SF" with a gritty sorta-realism that makes me believe that he knows he meaning of the term "The Sharp End" (not to be confused with a David Drake novel of the same name.)

Ringo has written about a dozen books by now, mostly in a couple of series. The best of them is the "Marching ..." series (Marching Upland, Marching Upland, Marching to the Stars) and the final book is "We Few", the subject of this post.

You're probably waiting for the punch line by now. Expecting there to be a "point" to this.

Well, the point is that I enjoy this author so much that I ordered his latest book (We Few) in September of last year, expecting it to be published on schedule in November. It didn't happen. In fact, this book has been republished for an April, 2005, release date, but Amazon.com received a shipment and filled my order early enough that I finally received it today.

So I'm going to close my little "I Like To Read" post, finish cooking dinner, and curl up with my latest literary acqusition. It'll probably mean I'll read through the night, get to work late tomorrow morning, and not be worth a damn because I'll only have had a couple of hours sleep.

Or maybe I'll only read a couple of hours, turn the lights out, and get a good night's sleep.

It could happen.

Bent Targets and All

2003 Area 1


Last Saturday we went to an IPSC Club Match on the rainiest March 26th in Fifty Years.

No, this picture isn't from that match. The sky is too clear, and the targets are un-bagged . . . and in better shape.

But it serves to illustrate how necessary it is to take special precautions during 'inclement weather'.

You'll notice that most of the target stands have sandbags holding the legs down; this is so the wind doesn't blow them over.

Also, the cardboard targets have been warped by the moisture they have absorbed.


This is hardly an extreme condition; we saw what 'extreme conditions' can do to cardboard targets last weekend.

This is nothing new to those of us who compete in IPSC matches in Oregon year 'round. When the air is excessively humid (as during a constant drizzle, which we experienced Saturday), the cardboard absorbs the moisture and curl, as you see here.

More important, when the rain is allowed to fall on the targets, they become so saturated that it is difficult to keep the tape, which covers the bullet-holes caused by previous shooters, to stick to the surface.

One solution (sorry, pun not intended) is to 'bag' the targets. That is, clear plastic bags are pulled over the targets to keep the rain away. And of course, stormy weather typically includes wind, so the target stands must be either staked down or held down with sandbags, rocks, extra target stands, or whatever heavy material is available to help resist the efforts of sudden gusts to tip the targets over. (When targets are tipped over, the bags often are blown around so that at least some of the target is exposed to the rain, so they quickly become soaked.)

Unfortunately, when the targets are bagged it's hard to see the hits ... shots through the bags often leave dark grease-marks, so it's necesssary to lift the bags to determine which dark marks are new bullet holes.)

And taping the bullet holes becomes particularly difficult, as the person doing the taping needs to lift the bag to reach the holes, then carefully smooth the plastic down over the target. Sometimes an impatient taper will cut or tear a slit in the bag, to facilitate access to the surface; this slit can be opened by the wind allowing rain to soak the target.

In this particular match, the Match Director had made careful plans to avoid as much as possible the conditions which would slow down the match, or make it difficult to accurately score the targets.

All targets were bagged before the match began. All target stands were either weighted with sandbags (or rocks, etc.) to prevent their tipping under the influence of the expected wind. Extra targets were made immediately available at each stage, so if a target became too saturated with water it could be replaced with a minimum of disruption to the match. (Staple Guns and new bags were stored at each stage, also, so the targets could be replaced quickly.)

However, the weather was so windy and rainy that the advanced planning sometimes proved less than completely adequate.

First, not all targets were fixed firmly to the ground. During the walkthrough, we found that all of the targets on one stage had been blown down by the wind ... all of the targets had to be replaced before the match even started.

During the match, we discovered that the stage construction crew, in their drive to prevent the bags from blowing off the targets, had placed the bags over the targets before stapling the targets to the supporting wood sticks. This met their goal, but it made it very difficult to tape. In frustration, some squad members applied their own Gordian solution by tearing the bags covering the front of the targets. This allowed them to easily tape the bullet holes, but the rain quickly soaked the targets ... and it wasn't an unusual occurance for bullets striking the wet targets to blow tape off previous bullet holes, making it difficult (or impossible) to determine which hole had been made by the current shooter.

We were thankful that extra replacement targets and were available on the stages, but the frequent need to replace targets soon exhausted the supply. By the last half of the match, everyone seemed to be so tired that few squads made the extra effort to find a member of the hosting club to find out where new targets could be found. The last couple of stages were sometimes very difficult for Range Officers, tapers and competitors.

There was two other situations which slowed down the match. First, the classifer which had been scheduled for this match was CM99-14, "Hoser Heaven". In this stage, there are three strings ... and the targets must be scored and taped before each string. In retrospect, the need to disrupt the stage twice for each shooter greatly increased the stage-clearance time, and delayed the match significantly.

Second, because of the weather some out-of-state competitors didn't arrive at the range until after the match had started. They joined the squad which started on the stage just before the classifier stage, changing the size of the squad from 11 (which was the approximate size of the other four squads) to 17. Apparently, this was their own arbitrary decision; the Match Director wasn't informed until that squad was half-way through the classifier. One person left early in the match, the rest split up into two squads . . . but not before the back-up on the classifier stage had become impossible to resolve.

I realize that this this litany of events may seem critical of the pre-match choices of the host club, but in retrospect there were few decisions which didn't seem reasonable at the time. The INTENT was to have all targets bagged, staked, and replacement targets allotted on all stages.

Unfortunately, the weather was so inclement that the events strained all prior planning. The extenuating circumstances are that Oregon had, for the previous two weeks, experienced an unseasonably warm and dry situation which looked more like early summer than late winter / early spring. We had become complacent, not least because the media had been predicting the worst draught in 60 years because so little rain & snow had fallen over the winter.

There are two lessons which might be learned from this experience:
(1) During seasons which are typically inclement, plan for the worse, marshall your reserves . . . then double it!
(2) It might have been a good idea to have a "Mr. Fixit" roaming the range during the entire match, to spot potential trouble-spots before they became critical.

This last measure, while prodigious of limited personnel, may have resolved many unforseen situations which eventually delayed the match.

In an all-volunteer sport, it's difficult to forsee the worst possible scenario and provide the staffing needed to counter it. However, if the goal is to provide a safe, enjoyable match to the participants, it may be necessary for the host club to schedule some non-competing personnel to insure the goal is met.