Assault Weapons Putting Safety in Crosshairs?

KDKA: Assault Weapons Putting Safety in Crosshairs?

Pittsburgh (KDKA) It's been nine months since President Bush lifted the national ban on the sale of assault weapons.

In that time, police say they've seen more and more of these deadly accurate weapons turning up in the wrong hands -- from gang members to other violent criminals.

"Deadly Accurate"?

IIRC, the traditional objection to "assault weapons" (note: undefined terminology) has been magazine capacity and semi-automatic firing mode. Now they're wrong because they're "Deadly Accurate"?

Hey Pittsburgh ... if you have a point, it would be good if you could stick with it.

But let us back up, and set the record straight:

First, President Bush did NOT "lift the ban on assault weapons".
(I have serious problems with this terminology, but let's ignore it for the same of argument. However, for more information about "types of guns", I recommend the excellent set of definitions available at the Guns & Crime website, which has long been resident on the sidebar.)

The Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) was a law which was enacted by Congress ONLY if it could be proved, after a ten year trial period, that it provided some kind of statistically significant reduction in crime. If this reduction could not be proven, the ban (according to the original bill) would automatically SUNSET (become null and void) unless the Senate re-enacted it.

This bill was established in 1995. In the ensuing ten-year period, no reduction in crime was attributable to the law.

When the law came up for re-enactment, President Bush stated that, if Congress chose to permanently re-enact the law, he would allow it to pass without imposing a presidential veto.

Guess what?

The phrase "President Bush lifted the national ban on the sale of assault weapons" is pure unadulterated bull-shit. The president had nothing to do with it. This source started the article with this sentence for sensational and/or political reasons ... the sentence is neither newsworthy, nor accurate.

Bad on them. We COULD ignore the rest of the article, based on the demonstrated unwillingness to present the information as a straight news-article, rather than an Opinion Piece ... which is it (though not readily identified as such.)

Bu that would be too easy, and no fun at all!

Let us get on with fisking the rest of the article:

Police say in so-called "straw purchases," drug addicts with clean records are legally buying these types of guns, then selling them to criminals for drugs and money.

Yes, that's a problem. If a person enters a gun shop and attempts to purchase a firearm, the FFL Owner will complete the purchase AFTER checking with the BATFE to insure that the purchase is legal.

So what do we do about "drug addicts with a clean record"?

It sounds very much like "What do we do with a problem like Maria?"
Only, of course, much the opposite.

Who is the Bad Guy Here?

How about we identify drug addicts ... people who are likely to take desparate measures for quick cash flow ... more promptly.

I'm sure the drug addicts will comply, if the Pittsburgh Police will cooperate in busting them more promptly.

Is this an extreme example? Why would a reputable MSM source report to that "drug addicts with a clean record" are acting as 'straw purchasers"?

Would it be in expectation that the situation, once identified, would automatically be corrected?

Or would it be ... to sell newspapers?

The AK-47 and the Soviet SKS Carbine have become weapons of choice for street criminals -- making the police under-armed and out-gunned.

"We don't carry those guns unless we have a SERT team or SWAT team hitting a house. They're more powerful than we are." -- Sgt. Mike Tracy, Pittsburgh Police

With the lifting of the assault ban, magazines and banana clips that can carry as many as 30 rounds of ammunition are now legal; as is an SKS rifle with a bayonet, pistol grip and a detachable magazine.

Sergeant Mike Tracy says that's just wrong.

"How can these be readily available at a sporting goods store? It's not a shotgun, it's an assault type rifle. Semi-automatic sure, but it can do major damage to everybody involved." -- Sgt. Mike Tracy, Pittsburgh Police

Yup, "That's Just Wrong" all right. Ownership of a shotgun is OBVIOUSLY less egregious than ownership of a semi-automatic rifle with a flash suppressor, and thumb-hole stock, or a bayonet grip.

Or is it?

Ten years of data gathering doesn't seem to have made the case for the Gun Grabbers.

The problem isn't the gun, the problem is the gunner. If these guys are so bad, what are they doing on the street? Why does Pittsburgh think it's the gun that's bad? Could it be a societal problem?

No, couldn't be. Well, it could be, but it's too hard to deal with societal problems. It's much easier to ban guns. Let's ban guns again. It won't help solve the problem, but it sure LOOKS like Pittsburgh is trying to solve the problem.

But the debate goes round and round.

While gun advocates say the answer is getting the criminals off the streets, police say it's harder to arrest people when they're armed with these types of weapons.

Yes, the debate Does go "round and round", doesn't it?

The "gun control advocates" want to get the criminal off the streets. Seems reasonable to me.
The "Gun Nuts" want to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
(Notice the difference in terminology? People who want to contravene one of our constitutional rights are "advocates", while people who insist on their constitutional rights are "Nuts".)

The police say it's "harder to arrest people when they're armed ...".

Seems to me that the answer is for the Pittsburgh police to get over the heebie-jeebies, and do their job. Get the criminals off the streets, regardless of what guns they may happen to possess.

The guns aren't illegal ... and shouldn't be.

The gunners are illegal, when they're using guns illegally. If they're not ... they are part of the solution, they're not part of the problem.

I have a great respect for cops, and I have no desire to try to arrest someone who is armed. But what are the citizens of Pittsburgh paying their police force for, if not to keep the peace and to protect the citizenry?

What ever happened to "To Protect and To Serve"?

Has it become too difficult?

Gee, it sounds to me as if Pittsburgh doesn't need more effective gun-control laws; they need more effective cops.

Am I seeing a trend here?

(Hat Tip: Geek With a .45)

UPDATE:

• Correct a few of the many typographical errors, awkward sentence constructions, poor word choices.
• Add a reference to terminology

Terror Inc: How best to blow up people on a bus

Telegraph | News | How best to blow up people on a bus - the chilling video circulating on terrorist websites:




You think these people aren't serious?

This is possibly the most disgusting article you will read on the Internet.

I don't like it, but we should know that this kind of encouragement is being offered internationally, and it can come to your hometown tomorrow.

Why aren't we as serious about stopping the people to instigate this murderous crap?

(H/T, regretfully, to Lars Larson)

The Sight: M1911-A1

"Hello. My name is Syd and I can't stop writing."

Welcome to the world of Syd Weedon, who just happens to have a life-long affection for the Model 1911.

Many of us share Syd's appreciation of John M. Browning's finest contribution to Western Civilization, but few of us express it so well, or in so many forums. Or for so long.

I've never met Syd, but I'm going to talk about him for a while as if he was an old, dear friend. In a way, because I've been reading his work for several years, that's just what he is.

I ran an Internet search on "M1911" a few years ago (1997, specifically). Number 1 and Number 2 hits were John Caradimas' excellent M1911 Pistols Home Page . Number 3 hit was The Sight's M1911 .45 acp Page, the internet home of Syd.

Here I found as much information about the M1911 as I could hope. Descriptions, history, legend and lore ... it's all here.

I kept coming back to visit Syd, answered his perennial survey (he mentioned compiling the results into some kind of report, but I haven't yet found it on his website ... a work in progress?), checked out his bookstore, and answered questions I didn't even know I had.

I even learned when when my own M1911 was built. (It's a "US ARMY" model, built by Colt sometime between January, 1913, and August 19, 1913.)




Eventually, I subscribed to Syd's newsletter. This is a monthly (approximately) collection of news articles generally relating to RKBA issues. It shows the headline or topic and an Internet Address (URL) which you can use to select and then read the entire text of the article at the original source. Sometimes, Syd includes some commentary; once in a while, the newsletter is mostly or even completely personal commentary.

Last month, after all of these years of commenting in a newsletter, Syd started a regular blog. He named it "Front Sight, Press". Well, of course; what could be a better name for a blog based on pistol shooting?
I'm delighted to report that he included the full text of his newsletter in his July 9 article.

For your convenience, and for mine, I've included the URLs for both the original webpage and his blogsite in my sidebar.

Not that this is ALL of Syd's writings. You can link to Syd's Page" , which in turn includes a link to his journal, and a BUNCH of other stuff (which I intend to spend the rest of the evening catching up on.)

[Whew!]

The Journal was the source of the quote I started out with, and I like it so much that I ought to steal it:

"Hello, my name is Jerry the Geek and I can't stop writing."

Nope. Just doesn't work as well as stolen property.

Going Postal!

A while back, I was looking for PNW (Pacific North West) gun bloggers, and I did find a few of them. You'll find links to their blogs on the sidebar, and I recommend you visit them often.

Today, I got an email from Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes. He reports that he and Mike at Mr Completely are setting up a series of Postal Matches, and invite you to participate.

Apparently you don't have to be a gun-club officer who is willing to schedule a special match every week. If you have access to a range (who doesn't?), a computer (to download match descriptions and report results) and a gun-safe or secure closet filled with dusty ol' guns, here's a reason and an opportunity to get some range time.

One week you'll be shooting a rifle, the next a shotgun, the next a pistol, and the following week you might be shooting Black Powder.

Don't have a Black Powder rifle? You've got friends, doncha? Find out who has one, and invite them along ... then borrow their equipment.

Here's the drill, as I understand it:
Go to the listed sites (more later) and find out what next week's postal match looks like. Download and print the targets. Grab a few friends and a few guns, go to the range and shoot the targets. Send the results into what for lack of a better word we'll call "Postal Match Central". Then keep an eye out for the results, and figure on spending a lot of time exercising your Braggin' Rights.

Phil (also known as "The Analog Kid") sent me some links, so here is more detail:

Phil has an introduction to the whole match schtick here.

The match specs for the 7/11 match are here.

Just to make it more interesting, Phil ... er, sorry, "The Analog Kid" ... sent a link to a photo of his new Darth Vadar shotgun. I suppose I'm stealing his thunder, but I'm a sucker for Gratuitous Gun Pictures, a la Kim de Tuit.


(Click on pictures for hi-res image)

If you decide to play with the e-postal guys, do us all a favor and tell them that Jerry the Geek sent you. That's the only way we're gonna know if this blog is getting the message out to the people who are interested in this kind of games.

NOTE:
For Oregon shooters, I have TWO good black powder rifles, including a .45 caliber Hawkens and a .50 caliber something-or-other, and would be willing to loan 'em out to people I know. In fact, if some local folks act interested, I'd kinda like to try this out myself! Here's a picture of the Hawkens.

The Day After, 9th Annual Single Stack Championship

I told you Friday that I didn't expect to place highly in the Albany Rifle & Pistol club's Ninth Annual Single Stack Championships.

Those expectations were well founded, as I started the first stage by accumulating FOUR misses in a stage which only scored the best 24 shots. Actually, I didn't do all THAT badly (although I was slow ... very slow) all day because I wasn't accustomed to handling the recoil. That meant that I wasn't waiting for clean slight-alignment on my second shot at each target, so that shot often went south. Or West, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, I missed to the left quite consistantly, thank you. I DID manage to slow down and hold it together until the last stage, where I did the same thing on one long-distance target and got another miss, and a D-hit.


(click on all images for enlarged views)

In this photo, I'm scoring someone else's targets on the same stage where I missed four of 'em. Seems difficult to believe that I could completely miss targets this close, doesn't it? A determined Geek can do ANYTHING! But I missed very very fast. The good thing is, after shooting this stage I knew that for the rest of the day I was going to be shooting for fun, not with the expectation of winning anything (as if I thought that before I started the first stage!)


I ended up in 43rd place out of 108 competitors. Well, nobody said it was going to be easy, and I had a LOT of fun so I'm not complaining.

(For those who care about the details, you can find a short write-up about the match and a link to the results at the ARPC IPSC website.)


The weather cooperated perfectly. Although we had to cover the cardboard targets because of a light rain during 7am setup, by the time the match started at 9am we could pull the bags off and shot dry the rest of the day.

FRIENDS AND COMPANIONS:
I saw some old friends whom I haven't seen lately.

My friend Zippy from Washington was there. Unfortunately, I was busy with setup in the morning and we weren't squadded together, so I only had a few moments of essentially meaningless conversation; not more than shake hands, good to see you, regrets that I had to change my plans to shoot with him at the NorthWest Challenge at the end of the month (work and family obligations), and "have a safe drive home".

Zippy was a D-L10 shooter when I first met him, and a friend of my friend Bumstead (another near-Seattle native and denizen of The Unofficial IPSC List.) We both were shooting Kimbers ... he had won a custom-built Kimber in the NorthWest Challenge, and I had my $279 Kimber nicknamed "The Beloved Kimber" because it ALWAYS works.

Today I discovered, to my great surprise, Zippy is a Master-Class competitor in Limited 10 Division.

I ... am ... IMPRESSED! Way to go, Zipster! (Sure wish I had been following his career more closely over these past five years! That's the way it goes, though. You meet somebody, you become friends, and you lose touch with each other for years. I think it's the "Tournament Circuit" thingie at work. You go to matches out of your area, you meet great people and make new friends, but the only place you ever see them again are at matches out of your area.)

Almost the first thing Zippy asked me when we met again Saturday was "So, you'll be shooting The Beloved Kimber?" I confirmed the rumor, and also that SWMBO would not be competing because she is so completely taken to The Dark Side that she refused to compete in a match which would forbid competing with the STI Tru-bore named SHIRLEY1.

Well, it IS a "Single Stack" match, and the MD had set the rules: Single Stack 1911's compete for plaques, non-1911 and non-singlestacks compete for ribbons. Every other handgun design is outside of the spirit of the game.

While we were setting up the props, steel and target stands on Friday, Willy and Sam (husband and wife) showed up. They also had just driven down from Washington in their VW van, and were looking for a place to park so they could camp overnight in the van. Mike McCarter, the Match Director, was happy to let them take the premium parking place RIGHT by the Stats Shack so they were in convenient proximity to the 'facilities', as their van doesn't have plumbing. Willy and Sam make it down to Oregon two or three times a year, taking in the Columbia Cascade Sectional (August 6 & 7 this year) and the super-high-round-count Crazy Croc Dundee Banzaii Ballistic "You Got Bullets?" match (Labor Day Weekend this year) at least. Willy use to shoot a 10mm Glock, and we became good buddies because I was shooting a 10mm STI Edge. When there was nothing better doing during a match, we chatted together in cheerful superiority over our benighted friends who chose to shoot the .40 Slow&Wimpy cartridge instead of the plainly superior Mighty Ten.

But I went to the Dark Side a couple of years ago, taking up a full-race STI in Open class, and Willy gave up the Glock in favor of a 1911 ... both for reasons which seemed reasonable to us both, but not without regrets.

MATCH ADMINISTRATION:
Here's a photo of our host and Match Director, the always-courteous (if sneaky match designer) Mac:



The stages were well designed and [ahem!] well constructed, and I spent much of the setup day remarking that "Gee, this sure would be a great match for an Open Gun!" Mac was amused, but not swayed. Here's an example. The stage contains not one but TWO Texas Star targets (one of which you can partially see over the visquine (sp) vision barrier.



The shooter in the start box is Rick. He seems to be praying. Good idea. It can't hurt, may help. The RO is Harold the Barbarian, he of February Fame in these pages. One surprising trend appeared on this stage: The Texas Star arrays included one 2-shot IPSC target, and the 5-shot Texas Star. We all started with 10 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, for a total of 11 rounds to get 9 hits (with the exception of Shirley A., who was shooting a .38 Super singlestack with 9-round magazines!) Several people didn't quite manage to get all of the hits on the first array, and had to do a standing reload. I saw THREE people in our squad reload on the first Star array, then turn around and get all 7 hits on the SECOND Star array without a reload! None of them shot the gun dry on the 2nd array. Apparently, they 'went to school' on themselves, and learned how to shoot the Star with no (0r few) misses. This is a credit to the determination and the ability to take risks and make it work which typifies IPSC competitors.

I wouldn't have chanced it. I just don't have the guts to go against the star and an IPSC target with fewer rounds than I can cram into the gun.


Here's a better picture of the star, along with it's creater. All of the clubs in the Columbia Cascade Section own, and use, a Star target.



JUNIORS
Mac has been working hard to develop a Juniors program in the Columbia Cascade Section. Toward that end, he has been actively seeking sponsorship. So far Glock America has provided a few Glock 17 pistols and magazines, and other sponsors have provided magazines and magazine carriers, for the Junior Program. I don't yet know who is providing ammunition, but these young people have been practicing HARD for this match. When I went to the range last Wednesday after work, I found Mac and a handful of the juniors at practice. I stopped in and watched them for a few minutes, and was impressed not only with the quality of the training which Mac is providing, but with the maturity and eagerness to learn of the students. I watched a few of them go through a simple field course, then Mac had them lined up at a shooting counter to practice the RIGHT way to do a reload ... with the pistol still mounted, instead of dropping it to waist level.

Not all of the Juniors attended this match, but SWMBO caught three of them waiting their turn at the Timed Fire exercise stage. Chris, Drew and Justin are impatient to shoot, and all three received special recognition at the awards ceremony at the end of the match.



I might mention that the Juniors managed to kick some Geek butt from time to time during the match, and it wasn't only on my disastrous first stage. Those young men are having a lot of fun, and they are enjoying the opportunity to play big games with the grown-ups, but they're also serious about their sport. But they don't let that keep them from the fun.

Chris' dad, Jeff, got his son into IPSC because Mac encouraged him. Jeff didn't shoot IPSC at the time, but after a few weeks of watching Chris have so much fun, Jeff got into the game too. It's an uphill battle for Jeff ... Chris is hard to beat! But they go to the matches together, and you never see either of them without a big grin on their faces.

Chris and Jeff help set up the match on Friday (Chris has already designed his first stage, which we shot at the ARPC match in June. It had not two, but THREE Texas Star targets! We don't like Chris much after that one! Okay, we do, but that young man has a mean streak, I think.)

While we were doing the setup, we were conscious of the need to insure that the same shooting challenge was offered to every competitor. Toward that end, all of the props, all of the steel targets, and the stands which supported the IPSC targets were fixed in place by driving ten-inch spikes into the ground, using a three-pound hammer. Chris was designated Official Hammer Guy, because he was so good at it. (Also, because us Old Guys didn't want to do the hard work.) As we were finishing with the last stage, Chris was spiking the steel target frames. ARPC President John (who also shoots IPSC) was watching Chris and finally said "Your arm is going to be SO sore tomorrow, you won't be able to shoot right; maybe I can FINALLY beat you!" Chris looked up at John, beamed a big smile at him, and said: "That's okay, I'm going to win a free gun tomorrow!"

Who can beat that kind of optimism?

IPSC WELFARE:
Oh, maybe I should explain that "win a free gun" comment.

EVERYBODY who shot the match received a ticket for a drawing. The match was sponsored by Springfield, which had provide FOUR hard-chromed Springfield Single-Stack pistols. The only restrictions were (a) you MUST be present during the drawing (at the end of the Award Ceremony) to win, and (b) you must prove eligibility to own a firearm via the usual BATFE process.

As it happened, Chris didn't win a pistol, and neither did Jeff.

However, my friend Fish ... did!

He had trouble with his Kimber through the match. No reason for the feeding problems have yet been identified, but the same ammunition and magazines worked just fine in the pistol he borrowed from another competitor. (Just one more example of how everybody supports the game ... we're all friends here, and nobody wants to win by making the other guy drop out just because he has equipment malfunctions. Heck, the MD, Mac, broke an extractor during the match; it took him about 5 minutes to find somebody at the match who had an extractor that would fit his gun, and who would not only loan it to him but stick around at the Safety Table while he fitted and tuned it.)

Because of his mechanical problems, Fish was clearly out of the running for winning an award, so it was entirely appropriate that he won a free gun 'just for showing up'.

As I remarked to Fish later, this is the only sport where you are awarded not only for doing well, but for being old (more later) and for showing up.

Some people refer to this "door prize" process derogatorily as "IPSC Welfare". I call it just one more way to make the game more attractive for people. I've been to so many matches which included prize tables, but only the very best shooters ever won the "Good Stuff". It's discouraging to the people who love to shoot, but don't have the skills (or time to practice) to get good enough to win. Everybody pays the same match fee, but the top ten percent get the goodies ... and they usually turn around and sell their prize, often before they leave the range. It seems appropriate to me that, since people who probably aren't going to win a trophy constitute 75 percent of the match fees, they should also be eligible for a prize.

I can't recall off-hand who won all of the other 3 guns, but I think only one of them finished in the top 25 percent. Seems reasonable to me.

WHAT DID I WIN?

Essentially, I came home with a T-shirt;



It's a very good shirt, as are all of the shirts available at ARPC SS matches. Emmanuel Bragg provided the trophies, the designs, and I don't know for sure whether he provided the shirts or not.

Here's a close-up of the design, which I think just about says it all:




Note the "No Yuppie Guns" icon. I love that, even though I usually shoot a 'yuppie gun'.


But that's not to say that I went home entirely empty-handed.


This is my trophy. I won SECOND Really Old Coot, which is a first for me. I've won Second Old Coot before, but I turned 60 this year and made the mistake of telling Mac about it.
Ever since, even though I tend NOT to register for the Super Senior category, Mac makes sure that I'm in the running.

I've talked to him about that. He just chuckles, doesn't say much, and continues to make sure I'm considered for the Super Old Coot award at every match.

WHAT DID MAC WIN?

He did NOT win a place in his class. Mac worked his skinny butt off during the match, before the match, and after the match. He was constantly called away from his squad during the match to solve problems, and he never complained. When he wasn't being called away, he was coaching the Junior Team. (He made sure that he was squadded with them, for just that reason.)

At the end of the awards ceremony, when it was time for the drawing for the guns, he had a special drawing ... one of the four guns was devoted to the people who worked the match either as Squad Leaders, setup crew, or match administration. This is just one of the ways that Mac insures that contributions are recognized.

The first drawing was for the Match Staff. Keith T., who won the match for the fourth year in a row, came forward to draw the winning ticket. He handed the ticket to Mac, who looked at it and laid it down on the table. Mac shook his head, laid the ticket on the table, then pulled a ticket stub from his pocket and laid it down beside the other half of the ticket. Then he told Keith to draw another ticket.

It was obvious that Keith had drawn Mac's ticket.

There was a pause, while Brian B. (who was helping with the ceremony) checked the tickets, then looked at Mac.

Then a voice from the crowd shouted:
"Mac, take the gun!"

The cry was taken up until everyone was chanting "TAKE THE GUN! TAKE THE GUN!"

Mac took the cased gun. Held it against his chest with both arms. Then put it down on a separate corner of the table. It was his, we all wanted it that way, and he accepted it.

We didn't all win a trophy, or a gun, or a Springfield hat. But nobody went home empty-handed.

Damn, I love this game.

Blog Errors on IE

Mr Completely said...

The photo is messing up how your blog displays when you are viewing with Internet Explorer. No problem with Firefox. I had the same problem. If you want to know how I solved it, hit me with an email. No point filling up your comments with this...

.......Mr. Completely

12:44 PM

Dear Mr. Completely ...
... you're right! (Of course, you already knew that.) And thank you for pointing it out to me, so I could fix it. I post in NetScape, which handles the situation a bit differently, so I wasn't aware of the problem until you mentioned it.

The reason it doesn't didn't load right in IE is that the blog template doesn't translate photos which are too wide for the text area, and therefore overlay the sidebar. That is found in both the "London Blitz" article (showing EMTs racing to the hospital with a bombing victim) and the "Every Little Movement" article (showing a Stephen Pastis "Pearls Before Swine" comic strip).

I should have realized this myself, and much earlier, because I had fought the same problem LAST month and thought I had fixed it permanently by changing my techniques. Unfortunately, I hadn't changed them for ALL photos, and these two appeared to be marginally acceptable on my browser.

I've corrected this by replacing those two full-size photos with thumbnails from ImageShack photo hosting.

If you or anyone else notices future errors of this sort, I would appreciate your bringing it to my attention ... again. I've been on the job for eight months, by know I should know what works and what doesn't.

Thank you for your assistance, your courtesy, and your patience.

The Night Before: 9th Annual Single Stack Championship

The Single Stack Championship match in Albany starts tomorrow (Saturday, July 9) at 9am. I remain phlegmatic about my expectations. SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) is bouyant with encouragement which sounds to me much like wishful thinking. I don't know. I just spent six hours helping set up the stages, and it is a gruelling (very challenging) set of courses of fire. I would love to shoot it with my Open gun. Trying to hit the targets while using a gun I can't see the sights of, however, is discouraging.

SWMBO has promised to take a lot of pictures at the match. I'll post the best of them Saturday Night on the blog.

The weatherman predicts nice weather.

We'll see.

In the meantime, over 100 people have signed up to shoot the match. Eight stages, about 200 rounds ... should be interesting. Chances are that the match will ultimately fill up with the 120 slots available.

For those who don't regularly participate in IPSC matches, 120 competitors is a VERY reputable turnout. Heck, anything over 60 people is a Major Match. We've had National Matches in USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association) which attracted less than 400 shooters. This number of competitors is VERY respectable for a local match which recognizes only single-stack 1911-type equipment.

If you're in the area, consider coming out to watch the match (starting at 9am, running until about 1pm.) So far, we have only one Grandmaster signed up for the match ... but we have several Master Limited 10 shooters signed up, which represents a significant percentage of the best Single Stack shooters in the World.

You won't see this on CNN. But you'll see it in Oregon.

Single Stack competition is the best of a dying breed, and illustrates the way IPSC competition was originally designed to be played.

It's a GAME, folks!

London Blitz, Part II

Yes, I am not unaware of the latest terrorist attack, this time targeting London.

I need Edward R. Murrow to tell me what is happening.

Every other blogger in the world is talking about London tonite. I will not. When extremist assholes knocked down theTwin Towers on September 11, I was in a virtual coma for days ... I didn't even go to work that day. I went to work today, and when the campus at Oregon State University suffered an hour-long power outage, I expected the worse. This should give you some idea about how subsceptible we are to threats.

So I'll continue to talk about inconsequential things, and ignore the important news of the day.

This does not mean that I am not aware of it, or that I don't care.

Bandwidth

I've been hearing about "Bandwidth" for ... eons. Since computer chips were made out of dirt, because Man hadn't yet discovered Sand.

I use to get a lot of crap (another possible base material for computer chips? I have heard that Apple was going to start using Intel ... naw ... never mind) from The Unofficial IPSC List, complaining that I was using precious "bandwidth" with my Geek-Length Posts. Bandwidth, on a mailing list? Perhaps I'm not the only one unclear on the concept. Funny thing, after I started writing a Blog, I received a couple of posts from IPSC-list members suggesting that I should write the comments directly to The List rather than to write it on my Blog and provide links to The List.

Can't please everyone. I'm liking the private blog, even if nobody reads it. Well, not "nobody", exactly. I just topped the 8,000 hits milepost in the seven months since I started my hit-counter. (I've been blogging for a bit over 8 months now, but it took me a while to get the statscounter going.)

Anyway, one of the things I've discovered is that a blog is useful for a lot of things besides writing my opinions for people to read or ignore. One thing I can do here is present the results of a LOT of research. Some of my posts are the results of 5 or 6 hours research, finding different references and choosing those which are worthy of being linked.

The trouble is, it takes FOREVER for my AOL-based (56 Baud modem) to return the results of a search, and then I have to look at all of those hits to find a website containing quotable content. This takes time, and I'm getting tired of playing Hearts and MineSweeper while I'm waiting for the websites to load. Besides which, modem-accessed AOL has this cute little trick of dropping the landline right in the middle of something interesting.

I know, I've mentioned this more than once. I've been looking at Comcast, but you have to subscribe to Cable TV FIRST, and then you have to buy the broadband connection on top of that. I haven't had Cable TV for 8 or 9 years, because it's a time-waster and I can't sit still through an entire movie ... let alone the insipid dreck that passes for Network TV. (Not everybody loves whatshisname; I cut off Cable TV when Grace Under Fire was dropped by the networks.)

I also looked at telephone-based broadband. Specifically, I looked at QWEST, which is my landline provider. It just happens that I detest talking on the telephone, as my family and my Sweetie will attest, so I have an ingrained disinclination to throw more money their way. Actually, the only reason I continue with my QWEST subscription is that I can access the internet via the modem, via AOL, which is an entirely different grumpy monologue.

I'm now looking at WiFi, which (I'm told) stands for Wireless Fidelity. There's a local WiFi provider called Alyrica which has been advertising on the radio lately, and I wrote them to ask what's the deal-io. They claim they can sell me the receiver for $345, and charge me access fees of $45 a month.



I'm already paying about $30 a month for AOL, and $50 a month for QWEST even though I never call on that line except for the AOL thingie. So I've got $80 a month to get on the Internet anyway. I can cut my monthly 'connection' bills nearly in half, and pay for the receiver in about a year. I have a Verizon cell-phone that I already use for all of my personal calls, so this is looking pretty good.

I emailed Alyrica yesterday, and they replied with the above numbers today. They're going to come out to my house and check the signal strength, but they already have a customer on my street and I'm in a two-story townhouse so chances are good they can put up a receiver on top of the house and give me reliable reception.

The installation ... including making sure that all of the connections between the receiver and my desktop work ... is free. I'm liking that.

Here's the good part, which makes it worthwhile for me to move to WiFi.

Fast data access.

I may forget how to win bit at Hearts, how to find all those stinky Mines in Minesweeper, because I have more interesting things to do with my time of an evening.

Better yet, they have webhosting for another $10 a month, which includes 1GB of data hosting. That means I will have a place to put my more interesting MPG files, which are usually stages at IPSC matches to share. I've been looking for THAT since I bought my digital camera as my birthday present to me in February.

If this all works out, my email addresses may change in the months to come. I can get rid of the QWEST landline (no loss!), and my AOL connection & email addresses on an unreliable, slow landline (net gain!), and do the computer things I really want to do at a lower cost to me by this time next year.

And I'll still be here next year, posting interesting RKBA and IPSC-related topics as well as this kind of really boring personal crap. But then I'll be able to offer digital MPG files of movies taken at IPSC matches, which includes Candid Camera moments that are worth the price of the ticket all by themselves.

Yeah, Baby, Yeah!

Set Phasers at STUN

US aims Star Trek ray guns at nuclear sites - vnunet.com

Yup. They're really gonna do it.

The GuvMint plans to build handheld 'energy weapons', and issue them to American troops.

Don't let 'em fool you. If they can make ray guns for special purposes ("Nuclear Sites") they can make them any purpose they decide is worth the development and production costs.



Is this A "NON-LETHAL" weapon? I don't know, they're not giving out too many details yet. My best guess is that it is designed to cause pain, but the descriptions available don't tell you if they actually do damage to skin, nerve endings, whatever. But I suspect that an energy projector (for lack of better terminology) that causes stimulation of nerve endings 1/16" below the surface of the skin will cause permanent blindness if directed toward your eyes.

I'm telling you, if this is a prototypical phaser, you WILL see it in riot control situations within twelve months after its distribution to "nuclear sites".



What I want to know (getting back to my IPSC roots) is ... what is the Power Factor for a Phaser?

THIS WILL MAKE YOU PROUD

THIS WILL MAKE YOU PROUD
[Hat Tip to Dale W., of the Unofficial IPSC List]

Sergeant York, 21st Century Version.

Okay, he's not a Sergeant ... he's a Captain. And he's not Army, he's a Marine.

But Sergeant York would be proud of him.

Last year, he busted up an ambush that "Iraqi Insurgents" laid on an American column, and fought a battle "in the best traditions of the Service".

The Main Stream Media (MSM) gave him, and others like him who were involved in the same battle, little or no credit. But the Internet has HUNDREDS of entries recounting the action of this man.

Glorious? No, not really. There's Glory to be had in the 'after-action' reports and the awarding of medals, but there's no Glory involved at the time.

Heroics? Sure, you and I would consider his action heroic. But I'll give you nine-to-five and a ten-point spread that if you asked Brian Chontosh about that day, he'll just say he was doing what needed to be done, and anybody would have done it.

His fellow Marines (including the Marine Commandant) award him the Navy Cross, and say ...

Ooh-Rah!

Ninth Annual Single-Stack Championship

Next weekend, I will be competing in a Single-Stack IPSC match.

This is a match in which the competitors are expected to use a single-stack 1911-model pistol.

(Other pistols which meet the qualifications for USPSA Limited 10 Division will be allowed to compete, but they will be eligible only for ribbon awards, not for trophy awards.)

You can see the competition rules by clicking on the title of this post. For applications, go here.

I missed the first match. I don' t know how but stuff happens. However, looking at my Trophy Wall I see that I took 2nd "C" in 1998. This isn't likely to happen again.

Those of you who know me, know that I switched to Limited Division with the acquisition of a new STI Edge around this time. Even though I qualified as B-Limited using my Kimber Custom (fixed sights, Kimber-Krap finish), after switching to the STI Edge I ignored my Kimber. As a consequence, I have not been able to shoot the Kimber at the B-level.





A couple of years ago, I noticed that my eyesight had deteriorated to the point that I was unable to easily see iron sights clearly. I started shooting Open Division in February of 2003, and am now shooting it at a mediocre B-Open level of competence.

Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that Growing Old is acceptable only in comparison to the alternative ... which is grim.

Accordingly, I dragged the Kimber from the Gun Safe last week with some trepidation.

It was well deserved.

I hadn't shot the Kimber since the last Single Stack Championship, last year. Somehow, I had failed to clean the gun after I used it, which is a violation of some Ethical Rule by which all right-thinking people abide.

There was some rust on the trigger-adjustment screw, and a little surface rust under the grips. Mostly, the gun suffered my abuse with little complaint. So I took it to the range, where I scrubbed off the accumulated powder reside on the slide rails and frame rails, and the chamber ramp, before I started shooting it.

Every other round missed the target. I don't know if it was my grip, or my trigger-finger, but when I tried to shoot double-taps the second round went invariably low and to the left. I know, you're saying things like "Jerking the trigger" and "It's your GRIP, man, you're putting too much Left Hand into it!"

You're probably right, no matter WHAT you're thinking. I was doing everything wrong.

This practice session was using old ammo which I had loaded last year ... which is not as much a pathetic attempt to blame the ammunition as it appears, but merely a lead-in to the next paragraph.

I realized that I was going to have to do a LOT of practicing, and I only had a couple hundred .45ACP bullets to load with. Using the Internet, I order one thousand 200gr LRN bullets from Laser-Cast.

That was last Wednesday. UPS delivered the bullets on Saturday, which was a shock to MY system because I had no idea that they delivered on weekends. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Monday was Independence Day, and they delivered Saturday rather than have to deliver Monday. Whatever the reason, I had plenty of bullets to reload all of the old (dirty!) cases sitting in cans on the shelf.

Wuff! No alibi about being unable to compete because I didn't have ammunition. Bummer, man!

SWMBO came down on Friday, and Saturday, Sunday and Monday she helped me reload about 1300 rounds of ammunition for the Kimber. (I had a partial box of Laser Cast bullets left over from last year.)

We got a bunch of bullets (about 500) loaded up on Saturday, and took 'em to the range. I shot about half of the loaded rounds, and couldn't hit the target at any useful speed at all. I don't mean I wasn't getting A-zone hits regularly (which I wasn't), but I was demonstrating a deplorable tendencey to miss wide left/low.

(Sunday was not much better. We used the video camera to record the process, took it home and watched it on the computer. Nothing was obvious, except that my grip seemed to slip frequently, and I was seen to be re-adjusting my grip every now and then. The slim single-stack grip was too small for my hands, and while I don't believe it is the primary reason for the misses it was still something I need to work on.)

My friend Gary the Fish joined us for the end of the Saturday session, and on Sunday he actually did some shooting. He kicked my butt all day, and I can just see how it's going to look NEXT weekend when we shoot for score.

Monday, we loaded up all the rest of the Laser-Cast 200gr LRN bullets. We marked 400 of them for the match, and I set aside the rest of them for practice.

Then, after all of the reloading was completed, I took a look at the pistol. I had intended only to give it a thorough cleaning (which I did), but during the process I realized that I had not replaced the recoil spring since 1998!

The recoil spring was about 8-1/2" long. A new recoil spring is about 10" long. (Eye estimation ... if I'm wrong in the precision of the spring lengths, it's because I'm half blind. Accept the stated differences as 'proportional', not exact.)

Take a minute to appreciate the singularity of the original Kimber pistol design. It doesn't use the same barrel bushing as the standard Cold 1911; it uses the same barrel bushing as does the Colt Commander.

And the slide is just a little bit shorter, too. When I replaced the recoil spring in 1998, I found that it was too long. I discovered this the first time I shot it after replacing the spring. The overly long recoil spring tried to stop the slide before it reached full recoil, and consequently blew the ears right off the barrel bushing. Bushing parts, spring, recoil spring-guide ... everything that wasn't glued down ... went down-range.

But still I decided that I needed to replace the recoil spring. I had two 18-pound 1911 recoil springs which I had bought from ISMI in 1998, along with installation instructions. I followed the instructions (a first for me!) and determined that the spring was somehow NOT too long for the gun. Still, I dutifully cut off a coil on the assumption that I had never measured anything correctly before, so I probably screwed up again. Besides, that 18# was REALLY heavy.

Here's my theory:
If I didn't cut enough off the recoil spring, the first time I shot it I would lose the barrel bushing, the spring-guide, and maybe even the spring. I have replacement parts, but I've never actually fitted them to the gun. I have no idea if they will fit.

When I test-fire the gun, it may happen that the parts will break or be lost, and the replacements may not fit. Since the earliest I could order replacement parts would be Tuesday, chances are they wouldn't arrive in time to be fitted to the gun and be tested before the match on Saturday.

If THAT happens, I could legitimately claim a broken gun, and instead of embarassing myself on the rage (remember, I still can't see the sights very well), I'll end up sitting in front of the air conditioner and making up statements for later publication bemoaning my 'lost chance' to shoot the Kimber in at least one more match.

I put the parts in on Monday, Independence Day, and was just to darned tired to drive to the range to test the gun. Instead, I tried it out after work today ... Tuesday.

The darned thing worked just fine, and it even shot better than it had over the long weekend. Wouldn't you know it. I will be competing at the Single Stack Championship this weekend, and making a damned fool of myself in public.

I remember how much I use to enjoy shooting a Single Stack in IPSC competition, glorying in how I could beat the Open Gunners who hadn't shot a Single Stack with iron sights for at least a year.

Now I find myself on the OTHER end of the stick, and I must tell you that it smells terrible!



There's no avoiding it. This weekend, I WILL be competing at the Ninth Annual Single Stack Championship at the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club in Albany Oregon. If you want so see something REALLY scarey, show up and see history in the making.



I do have a slight edge, though. After cleaning the gun, I painted the fixed sights with bright orange fingernail polish. You can see them suckers from a mile off. (I can't see them from the furtherest length of my extended arms, but never mind that.)



SWMBO has declined my invitation to compete, which is at least one fewer person who will beat me. But she has promised to take pictures.

Maybe she'll start her own blog, and post 'em.

For damned sure, you won't see them HERE!

Independence Day!

Last night (Sunday, July 3, 2005) I was sitting in my living room, chatting with SWMBO, when I heard a series of small explosions outside. SWMBO asked "What's That!?" I replied that they were 'ladyfinger' firecrackers, and thought it shouldn't be a concern even though it was after midnight (illegal under local ordnances AND at this time of night doubly illegal under local noise ordnances), but as they continued they became increasingly irritating.

Finally, I got up from my comfortable couch-potato position and threw open the front door.

I saw a 'big guy' walking toward a set of three rocket fireworks, in the center of the cul-de-sac in which my townhouse apartment is located. There were a half-dozen small children sitting enthralled along the curb.

Having no appreciation for the esthetics of the moment, I loudly suggested that they "wait for tomorrow, or at least make all this noise before midnight!"

The figure hesitated, then instead of igniting the ground flares walked over to the sextet of expectant children and began to explain why he couldn't continue with the early fireworks show.

It wasn't until after I had slammed the door in disgust that I realized that the fireworks guy was . . . my landlord.

I really liked living here.

Okay, I'm stil resident in my apartment. And I like fireworks, and kids. It's only that Indepence Day Fireworks bring out the worst of my Vietnam hangups that I was such a cranky bitch.

I saw my landlord out in our shared driveway today, and he was kind enough not to mention the incident.
But I have to say, I was a real jerk last night. Tonite, when folks start shooting off fireworks (which should happen any minute), I plan to keep my tater trap SHUT.

Okay, it helps that I installed my window air-conditioner today, and I have turned it on in hopes that the 'white noise' from the air conditioner helps drown out the street noise.

I really don't like being the cranky dude in the hood.

But somebody has to do it.

Or am I just Wrong?

What do you think?

UPDATE:
Hey, it WASN'T my landlord .... it was my landlord's family.

When they started shooting fireworks tonite (Fourth of July) I was front & center with my camera, and I love the display.



I wished I had gone to the fireworks stand and bought more rockets for them to shoot off. But I didn't. They were producing a fireworks display for their kids, and it was glorious .... but short.

I could have contributed, but I didn't.

Just one more reason why old folks should be very careful about asserting themselves.

I learned from this, but too late to do any good. You may use this lesson to your benefit.

Or not.

As Heinlein suggests, age does not confer wisdom. Experience might.

Red Shirt Friday

I've been checking around, and there are a LOT of causes out there in the Wide Wonderful World of the Internet which encourage you to wear a Red Shirt on Friday.

Snopes reports a general email effort to get you to wear a red shirt on Friday to "support the troops".

Angelfire reports an effort from September 6, 2004, to wear red in order to support apartheid in hawaill (identify Native Hawaiians).

The American Heart Association wanted you to wear red to emphasize the heart disease risk for women.
(Community Dispatch wanted you to wear a red dress on February 4, 2004, for the same reason. I probably wouldn't have have gone for this, even if I had known about it at the time, 'cause I don't have the legs for it. Their red pin looks kinda swanky, though, and Laura Bush was kicking off American Heart Month .... Saint Mary's Hospital in Michigan was also pounding the drums)
Even the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians bought into this.
The University of Southern Mississippi thought this was a great idea, and mentioned that Daryl Hannah was the national spokeswoman for the campaign. I always liked Daryl Hanna, except for the Clan of the Cavebear thingie. But that's just me. I never liked movie dialogue that consists primarily of "OOG" and "Og" and "Whatever happened to foreplay, you Neanderthal!" I get too much of that in my personal life.

Some peacenik org wants Redshirt Friday (May 21, 2004) to encourage bringing our troops home. No word here on whether they should leave in the middle of a battle, but I'm sure their heart is in the right place.
In 2003, "Breaking the Chain" had the same idea, in support of the Special Forces Administration.

On the other hand, somebody nicknamed Sultan In the Spriit of Cyrus the Great wants us to wear red on Friday "... until we have peace in Iran...". I can get behind that.

The Witherspoon Society ("for progressive presbyterians") thinks this would be a good idea to protest the current Norweigan government's policies. This was a device used in 1940 to protest the German occupation of Norway.

Whew! That's a lot of links, and a lot of research behind it.

But most of the causes are a little dated, and I figure that the basic premise is up for grabs. So here's MY suggestion for Red Shirt Friday:

I live in Oregon ... generally acknowledged to be a "Blue State" because the socialist welfare people (who knew they voted?) folks in the major metropolitan areas, and the towns with big socialist universities (including Corvallis, home of Oregon State University, where I live and work) voted DemocRat in the last election.

Don't you think it would be appropriate to register a quiet protes once a week?

I do.

Here's the concept:
Whether you live in a Blue State or not, if you voted against the DemocRat/Socialist ticket in either of the last two Presidential Elections, or in the 2002 elections for U.S. Senator ... wear something red on Friday.

It doesn't have to be a shirt. It's enough to prominently display something Red on Fridays.

That will tell your friends and co-workers that you don't agree with their Liberal DemocRat views, that you DO support a more conservative approach to government, and that HEY! They voted for the wrong guys!

This is a lot easier than hanging a sticker that says "THANK ME, I VOTED FOR BUSH!" on the bumper of your Porsche.

Every little movement has a meaning of its own

(photo courtesy of The Analog Kid)


I love the Internet. You can find such INTERESTING things there!

Each of these are worthy of a complete article, but I think I'll just throw them out there so you can judge for yourself. Taken together, they form a commentary on not only the American culture, but perhaps our World Culture.

In America:

FIFTH AMENDMENT
A company which objected to the recent SCOTUS decision undermining private property rights has petitioned the Towne of Weare, NH, to condemn the home of Supreme Court Justice David H. Soutus so they can build a hotel on the property. No, it doesn't ask that an entire neighborhood be taken, just . . . that . . . one . . . lot, and only BECAUSE it belongs to Justice Soutus. The hotel, if the project should unaccountably go through (fat chance), would be named the Lost Liberty Hotel.
(H/T John Hurd of The IPSC List. Image, again, stolen from the Analogue Kid))



UNTIL THEN
On the "War Front", a company named "GCS" (I have no idea who they are) has provided a 'flashdance' all their own, composed of images from Iraq. (H/T John "Big Dog" Weill)

This takes a while to load via a modem, but it's do-able even though the music comes across better on broadband. Click on the link to get it started, then come back and read the Geek archives.

REMEMBER ITHACA SHOTGUNS?
... they've shot their wad.

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE
A few days ago, I responded to a Meme Tag which asked me about my reading habits. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the answers I gave, but that's only because I hadn't been doing enough Internet reading lately.

I'm glad that Stephan Pastis had a graphic demonstration about just how MUCH reading dominates my life. Apparently, I'm not the only one who is sufficiently "Type-A" that bathroom time translates directly to reading-time.




(the strip doesn't fit my format, so you can go here to see the 'hole thing'.)

Not VOODOO
In Barbados, they're reporting the possibility of witches as if it were a real human-interest story.

NOT YER VIRGIN ISLANDS, BUT I GOT YOUR VIRGIN RIGHT HERE, PAL!
JamesTaranto, over at Opinion Journal, links to an article which wonders, if male suicide bombers get 72 virgins as a heavenly reward . . . what's in it for the female suicide bombers?

No, I'll save you the download time: The Telegraph at Girls Gone Wild suggests . . .

Fundamentalist Muslim mythology has it that terrorist "martyrs" are greeted in heaven by 72 virgins. With Palestinian Arabs increasingly making use of female suicide bombers, we've often wondered what they get in heaven. Now we have the answer, thanks to a report in London's Sunday Telegraph from an Israeli prison:

One of the inmates, Ayat Allah Kamil, 20, from Kabatya, told me why she had wanted to become a martyr: "Because of my religion. I'm very religious. For the holy war [jihad] there's no difference between men and women shaid [martyrs]."

According to the Koran, male martyrs are welcomed to Paradise by 72 beautiful virgins. Ayat, as with many of the women she is incarcerated with, believes that a woman martyr "will be the chief of the 72 virgins, the fairest of the fair."

That is to say, the highest aspiration for a fundamentalist Palestinian girl is murder, suicide and prostitution. Has there ever been a more depraved culture?

COBOL meets SHOCKWAVE

Got Shockwave?

Get this!

H/T Ghost of a Flea and SondraK.

Even do-able with Modem access, if you have a few minutes to spare.

Not at the office? Turn up the volume. Rock out!

The Lion Sleeps Tonite (or) Run Through The Jungle

Chehalem Valley Shooters Club, home of Dundee Practical Shooters, hosted an IPSC match today (Saturday June 25, 2005). Unlike the match at Tri-County last weekend, this was not six but SEVEN big stages, including . . .

... The Jungle Run!

Yup, the Jungle Run is back. It's open for business and it's looking great.

I have a ton of pictures to show you. Well, as many as ten pictures, if I get all of 'em downloaded. So sit back, shut up, and wait for the pictures to download.


One interesting incident, during the match we had some hobo wander in from the nearby park and offered to Brass for Food. We fed him, but we soon learned to NOT brass behind him. Gassy, y'know.




Some people had their backs turned. Well, that's the nature of IPSC phogtography. But in this instance, Tim is having some problems with his Glock in 9x19 Major.




On the other hand, speaking of "view from the Back, Big Dog resents having his face displayed.
And he's not above showing his displeasure.




We had some 'new guys' shooting the match.




Okay, so Charlie isn't exactly a "NuGuy", but he's new enough that it's fun to watch how his skills progress from match to match. Here, he's shooting a field course fast enough that we can see the brass spinning out of the chamber between shots.

The last stage of the match was the "Jungle Run". This will be a feature of both the Columbia Cascade Section Match on august 6, 2005, and the "Croc Match" over Labor Day Weekend.

Here's the first view of the Jungle:


Understand, this isn't necessarily the way the Jungle Run will look at any other match besides the June Dundee Match. But it's typical of the stages which will be designed for the milieu.

In THIS stage design, you're presented with a single IPSC target as soon as you start the stage. There are a bakers-dozen IPSC targets in the stage, including three US poppers at the end. This stage requires a minimum of 23 rounds to complete, as the best two hits are scored on all IPSC targets.

After you engage the first IPSC target, you make a turn uphill to the right, and there are three IPSC targets partially obscurred by the ferns (soft-cover) and also partially obscurred by a no-shoot target (serious hard cover!)



The fifth IPSC target (to the left and far downhill of the 3-target array shown here) is so hidden by foliage that we never did get a good photo of it. But targets 6 and 7 are uphill, and on the other side of a log which crosses the trail. You have to hop over the log before you can engage these two targets. Some of the competitors engaged T5 - T6 in mid-air. Well, okay, the only one who did that (and did it successfully) was the hobo who wandered onto the range. But I have to admit, he got good hits from his unorthodox approach!.



Having successfully engaged T6-T7, the competitor moves on down the muddy trail, threading between trees, bushes and ferns, until T8, T9 and T10 are in clear view. They can be engaged before reaching the fault line which marks the safe distance to engage the three US poppers.



After all is said and done, there's only one conclusion to reach:

It's a jungle out there.



Can you handle it?

Meme Tag

Thanx to Tyler over at .45 Caliber Justice, I've been tagged.
Here's the 'survey', which is not quite like the ones out of Cosmopolitan that my ex use to make me fill out all the time:

1.) Total number of books I own:

Counting the boxes in the garage, the boxes in the upstairs hallway, surrounding my bed, in the bookcases, in my briefcase, in the 'reading room' (bathroom), in my car, in boxes on the living room floor, in every closet and every room at home, in my desk at the office --- who the hell knows? I figure, if you have any IDEA how many books you own, you aren't a serious Reader. Thank GOD for used book stores, which enable me to clean out a couple hundred books a couple of times a year and trade them in for ... more books!

2.) Last Book I Bought:

The Service of the Sword, by David Weber

3.)Last Book I Read:

The entire (13-volumes, so far) "PREY" series, by John Sandford

(I don't read books one at a time, folks, so get use to this 'cause you're gonna see a lot more 'series' and "collections" and "every thing ever written by" in the next category.)

4.)Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:

1. The entire collected works of Rudyard Kipling and Robert Heinlein
2. Everything David Drake ever wrote.
   
3. Also, everything ever written by John Ringo, S.M. Stirling, Eric Flint, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, William C. Dietz, Mike Resnick, Rick Shelley, Elizabeth Moon, John Dalmas, Lois McMaster Bujold, Leo Frankowski, Terry Pratchett ... never mind, too many to list.
   
4. Everything ever written by Stephen Hunter, Robert B. Parker, Michael Connely, James Patterson, Donald Hamilton, Edward S. Aarons, John D. MacDonald ...
   
5. The entire collected works of Alexandar Kent ("Richard Bolitho" - 27 volumes) and C. S. Forrester ("Horatio Hornblower" - 11 volumes plus "The African Queen")
   

And my list (of folks who are 'tagged' to respond to this meme) is as follows:

1. Wadcutter
2. Rivrdog
3. Gullyborg
4. Publicola
5. Cowboy Blob

Hump Day is Blog-Meat Day!

I've been VERY proud of myself lately.

For several weeks I've managed to post content-specific articles without once resorting to "blog meat" specifically. (For the uninitiated, the term "Blog Meat" refers to an article which contains a lot of links to articles and events which I find generally interesting, but doesn't necessarily have a single cohesive theme.)

This is the kind of article which is typical of diary-type Web Logs ("blogs"), and I usually consider it a lazy way of blogging for people who don't really have anything to say. But for someone who spends as much time as I do using the internet as a primary information source, its tempting. Very tempting.

Tonite we have a mish-mash of articles I found interesting, incidental information that I would share, and stuff I just want to say.

Let's get started:

House Approves Move to Outlaw Flag Burning
I don't like this.
Sure, I'm a conservative kinda guy, but the idea of putting some weirdo in jail because he burns a flag in the streets just strikes me as wrong.
Sure, I was in the army. I fought for causes my country thought were right ... in Vietnam we fought the "Domino Theory" , to keep other countries from falling to "Godless Communism". What I thought we were fighting for, though, was to prevent other countries from falling to oppressive governments.

This business of making a holy icon out of the national flag goes too far when it results in jail-time. The ACLU is not my favorite people, but they serve to make us really THINK about what we're doing. They say flag-burning is protected under the First Amendment, and in this case I think they're right.

If you want to burn a flag, that's your business. I do suggest that you don't come to MY house, tear down MY flag and try to burn it in MY street, because I'll kick your ass. But that's just me, exercising My First Amendment freedom of expression. I don't need no stinkin' Constitutional Amendment. I got your amendment right here, pal.

- - -

The other day I mentioned Pro-Gun Bloggers in the PNW. One of the people I mentioned was Rivrdog. He was kind enough to write back and tell me that I missed the fact that he has more than one blog going, and he specifically mentioned Paratus, which he typifies as "The How-To and Why-For of Preparation for Conflict".

Being a curious kinda guy who uses the Internet to learn things I never knew before, I moseyed over (moseyed ... is that a real word? Well, it is now) to Paratus and started reading.

I'm not done reading. This guy has threads to threads, and they're so darn well-written that I can't finish one before I switch to the next. I'm like a kid in a candy shop when the counter-man steps out for a smoke; I grab a handful of this, and before I can head out the door I see some other goodie and I go back for a handful of that. The analogy breaks down (as all analogies must) when I realize that I don't have do drop any of THIS to get some of THAT ... it's all there, just waiting for me to get around tuit. Basically, it's SHTF (translation: "Shit Hits The Fan") stuff that we don't really expect to ever need, but ain't it kewl to know this stuff?

Makes me want to type faster, so I can get back and see what else he has to say.

- - -

Fight or Pay your Parking Ticket
What a concept. A website that promises ... no, GUARANTEES! ... it can prevent you from having to pay your parking ticket.

I'm not silly enough to provide the information they require to thoroughly research this website. But if you get a parking ticket, I strongly encourage you to use this website to fight it, and send me a report on how much you saved by fighting it 'their way' vs just paying the freakin' ticket.

As the DemocRats are so fond of saying ... Move On!

- - -

Speaking of DemocRats, Dick Durbin now has a new nickname: Dick Turban.
While I think his original comment was shocking egrigious a partisan piece of shit, I don't think the Republicans are advancing their cause by these sophomoric tactics of name-calling. I know the DemocRats are trying to show the Bush administration in the worst possible light with their tactics (I don't for a minute think that Durbin is acting on his own), and the Republicans are trying to show how ugly it would be if THEY used the same tactics ... but ultimately, the Reps ARE using the same tactics, and the whole thing ends up looking like a bunch of spoiled children squablling in a sandbox, you should excuse the expression.

If these politicos don't quit fighting for bragging rights, and start working together, you and I will suffer the consequences. This BS is tearing the country apart. We can't afford such dissension.

The closest we have ever come to a 'popular' war was WWII, where our country was clearly attacked by an aggressor nation. Now we have been attacked, but the aggressors can't clearly be clearly associated with a national entity. (Afghanistan was an easy target, but getting rid of the Taliban obviously didn't remove the threat.)

Where we go to counterpunch? How do we respond? How can we put pressure on the people who attacked us?

I didn't like it when Bush attacked the political leadership of Iraq, but I think I understood what he was doing, and why.

He (Bush) moved the focus of conflict from the American soil, and goaded the Islamist Extremists to attack us on THEIR ground, where every American who was a target was armed and trained. We've suffered grevious casualties ... every American killed is a tragedy, but we've lived through that before ... and the CIA may be right when they say that IRAQ has become a training ground for terrorists.

Fine. Bring 'em on. We have seen that we will have to fight them somewhere. Better in Kabul than in Kansas City. We've suffered casualties before in the fight against aggression. We don't like it, but sometimes it is necessary.

In the meantime, getting back to Dick Durbin, we have a bunch of terrorists in Guantanamo who are NOT fighting us. Good place for 'em, I think.

- - -
Finally, for the coup de gras ...

Family: Bush's America killed loved one

A 53-year-old Arizona man died this month due to the stress of "the stolen election of 2000 and living with right-winged Americans," according to a death notice published by his family.

Corwyn William Zimbleman, of Tucson, was an accomplished artist, the notice said, and an "avid atheist, he studied the bible [sic] and religion with more fervor than most Christians."

The notice then reads:

He had strong political opinions and followed Amy Goodman's radio broadcast "Democracy Now." Alas the stolen election of 2000 and living with right-winged Americans finally brought him to his early demise. Stress from living in this unjust country brought about several heart attacks rendering him disabled.

I have so MANY punch-lines here, I'm bleeding out of my mouth from biting my tongue.
Why should I inflict such pain on myself? Here's a list of possible responses, you choose the one that works for you:

• He has gone to a better place; there are no right-wingers where he's going ... either way.
• It's WORKING!
• If only we could get rid of the Far Right, this would be a perfect socialist country
• My nose precedes me by 15 minutes. (Sorry, that's a quote from Cyrano de Bergerac)
• If you thought Bush was bad, how did you survive Reagan?
• When did obituaries become a political forum?
  
• Is this a Leftist-thing?
• We hope that his bible studies prepared him for his Final Exam.
• Maybe Amy Goodwin's listeners will pray for him. Oh, wait, that's not gonna work.
• One down, 58,999,999 to go.

But wait, there's more!

In another politically charged death notice, the family of 71-year-old Sally Baron, who died in 2003, reflected her apparent disregard for the president.

The Aug. 21, 2003, notice in the Capital Times of Madison, Wis., stated:

Memorials in her honor can be made to any organization working for the removal of President Bush.

An article in the Capital Times the same day as Baron's death notice said her children had no question she would approve.

"She thought he was a liar," Baron's daughter, Maureen Bettilyon, said of the president. "I think his personality, just standing there with that smirk on his face, and acting like he's this holy Christian, that's what really got her."

Joe Baron said his mother "just didn't trust that a big corporate guy was going to be doing what was best for her. She just really didn't trust him."

Well, you know, these "holy Christians" are ... wait a minute, he's "a big corporate guy".
Was he 'a big corporate/Christian guy' to her, or what? Did she object more that he was a "Christian guy' or that he was a 'big corporate' guy, whatever that means.

Apparently, even her own children didn't know her.

Are you surprised?

Neither am I.

Anti-Gun Campaigner gets screwed

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Anti-Gun Campaigner Attacks 'Heavy-Handed' Police

See, here's one of many reasons why Pro-Gun people hate gun-control laws. It doesn't matter how well-intentioned you are, sooner or later the anti-gun laws will turn around and bite you in the rear.

In Scotland, a long-time anti-gun campaigner talks a gangbanger out of his gun. (Don't ask how, just suspend disbelief long enough to accept the basic premise, okay?)

Said Anti notifies the Scots police that she has a gun, and wants an amnesty deal to turn it in.

The Scots police wig out and tell each other "Omigod, Anti has a gun in her closet. Let's bust her arse!"

Well, what did she expect?

“They took my house apart searching it and even arrested my daughter.”

The mother of three said she called police at around 1.00am on Saturday to report interrupting an attempted burglary at a neighbour’s home.

She said she told them she had the weapon and invited officers to collect it.

Mrs Eccleston said she was given the gun by a young gang member she refused to identify and kept it, while awaiting a police weapons amnesty.

When police arrived she was taken to Longsight police station where she was kept overnight in a cell.

She said: “It is disgusting. How do the police expect people to feel comfortable handing in guns when this is what happens to someone known as being against gun violence.”

She was released on police bail until August 18 while forensic tests are carried out on the shotgun.

Her son, who was also known as Marcus, a 24-year-old father of two was shot seven times at close range in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, in October 2001. The gunman has never been caught.

When they arrest Anti for possession of an Evil Gun, Anti gets all bent out of shape because ... after all ... they should have realized that her intentions were good.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing the cops. I just think that Anti got what she deserved asked for, the reaction she has been campaigning for all these (four) years. It's a double-edged blade (illegal in the UK).

Do you think she will have learned anything from this experience?

Naw, I don't either.

IPSC in Oregon: June, 2005

Last Sunday I attended an IPSC match at Tri County Gun Club (TCGC) in Sherwood, Oregon.

This is notable for four reasons.

First, for some reason I was ON. It was probably the best performance I have ever turned in, and at my age probably the last time I will ever shoot as well, in the 22 years I've been competing in IPSC.



Second, I managed to catch a couple of great snapshots of SWMBO.



Third, SWMBO was running the camera when one of the competitors ("Fish") got hung up on a spike which was used to fix a obstacle (a plastic barrel) to the ground, and he took a tremendous spill. Thanks to years of practice, Fish managed to keep the muzzle pointed down-range and finished the stage with an excellent time, considering that he spent half of it rolling in the dirt. (Sorry I can't find a host for the *.MPG file.)



Fourth, it was only FIVE stages instead of the usual SIX stages. TCGC is in the midst of a major restructuring of their range ... blowing up rock outcroppings, making over their bays and expanding their parking lot in readiness for the Columbia Cascade Section (CCS) Tournement. They only had five bays available, so the match was a lot shorter. Perhaps this explains why I did so well, as we had 83 competitors (as opposed to the usual sixty-some) and we had a lot of sitting-around time between stages. Plenty of time to rest up.

Maybe this is why this old man managed to look good in the final standings; I often run out of steam before the last stage, and this time they took OUT the last stage.

I say, let's have some more five-stage matches.
Okay, so let's not say that. I like shooting, and the more I get to shoot, the better I like it -- even if I don't do as well.

(I'm a liar, I LOVE shooting a hot match well!)


Man, I sure wish you could have seen it. It was a good match with a good mix of stages.

Did I mention that I did good?

Pro_Gun bloggers in the PNW

I mentioned the other day that I planned to support other Pro-Gun Bloggers in the Pacific North West.

I received in return a very nice note from Mr. Completely, who mentioned some other Pro_Gun Bloggers (note the differnence in terms: replacing the hyphen with an underscore is a deliberate action, the purpose of which is not clear even to me) .

I've only had the opportunity to take a cursory look at these blogs, but I've included them in the sidebar for your personal evaluation.

I'll include a few comments here, just so you'll have the (dubious) advantage of my own initial impressions. Don't put too much importance on what I say; I would rather you form your own opinion. I hope you'll spend a little more time than I expect to spend, late on a Sunday night, but these small summaries may serve to at least adquaint you with the general tone of each blog. I won't bother to put the links in this article; they're all available on the sidebar.

The first (presented in no particular order) is GullyBorg, of "Resistance is Futile!" He's a law student (pre-law?) in Eugene, Oregon. He is the sometimes host, and the originator of the Carnival of Cordite. Every Friday, he or some alternative host provides links to the RKBA-applicable article most highly prized by the author, all over America. This provides a delightful cross-section of pro-gun information which is often more inclined toward a humorous look at the Shooting Sports, but very often includes some serious RKBA commentary on legislation, etc.

Next (as a courtesy) is Mr. Completely. His blog features a template which is as butt-ugly as mine ... in fact, he uses the same blogspot template as I do. You gotta like him, right off. He presents an eclectic mix of photos, references to GullyBorg & the Carnival of Cordite, thought-provoking questions, bitching about blog-relates software, legislation, personal observations, and whateveryouwannatalkabout. One of the best recommendations I can cite is that he claims to have "... shot at Custer ...", which implies that he plays the IPSC game. Best of all, of all, of all ... he has a lot of links to HoserCam. Anyone who is impressed by Nolan Smythe is okay in my book.

Jason's Blog is more introspective, more like the traditional format of a personal diary. He talks about his high-school reunion in Tumalo, and goings-on in Seattle. Likes Skeet & Trap. He has been blogging for over 3 years, which beats my unimpressive 7-month tenure so he must be doing something right.

Random Nuclear Strikes is an obvious fan of Benjamin Franklin, as evidenced by his inclusion of "Don't Tread On Me" flags in his masthead. (O'Shea, don't make something of this term which isn't there!) He seems to be a rifleman by inclination, has posted for over three years, and isn't afraid to talk about legislation in Washington. Funny, isn't it, how legislation introduced in Washington seems so often to be mirrored in Oregon ... most frequently by the awful Ginny Burdick? Recently, he has talked about the egrigious Kos, Gulags, PETA, Cops in Canada, 80's music, and a miscellany of popular topics. Displaying a creative collection of photos to illustrate his subject, you can usually find something startling to start your morning.

Rivrdog (no clue about why he has eschewed the obvious "e", but I bet it makes a good story), tends to be more ... ah ... SERIOUS about his choice of topics. Though they're often humorous, there's an underlying message of alarm running through it. (Apologies for dated pop-culture references here.)

For example, in a recent post he suggests a similarity between he Holloway Aruba situation, and the Jon Benet Ramsey case. It would never have occurred to me.

He includes refs to MJ and OJ, to the OSU Beavers winning, and a deep and thought-provoking discusion of Liberals and Genocide. Sure, he'll tickle you with Oregon issues and pop culture, but he'll turn right around and stab you in the heart with RKBA-based articles that will make you sit up and say ... huh?



I haven't mentioned Brian, from ARPC, who isn't regularly 'blogging' in the generally accepted sense. However, Brian is the webmaster at the Albany (Oregon) Rifle & Pistol Club and usually manages to include his personal observations when describing IPSC matches at the club. If and when Brian decides to generate a regular blog which he wishes to include here, he'll appear on the sidebar as well.

There's a reason for including a new sidebar-entry which links to PNW (Pacific North-West) based bloggers.

I think we can provide a much richer mix of perspectives and information-based discussion of the issues by providing a cross-section of observations region-wide. My hope is that you are encouraged to visit other forums/blogs, see what THEY think is important, and gain a broader viewpoint by benefiting from their evaluation of what is the important issues of the day.

The usual reason for providing links from one blog to another is that the other blog will reciprocate, and will improve your OWN traffic. Nothing wrong with this; if we didn't think we had something significant to say, we wouldn't be spending evenings sitting in our pajamas in front of a computer, chipping away at the Main Stream Media (MSM).

But there's more to it than trying to go one-better over the MSM. Those "real" reporters will write one or two poorly researched articles, and then their editors will tell them "get me something new" and they're off on another subject.

Bloggers don't do that. They get their teeth into an article, and they blog the sh*t out of it. We saw it right here in the article about BB-guns not being acceptable to the Mass. Science Fair because they (BB guns) are dangerous.

Bloggers get the bone between their teeth, growl like junkyard dogs, and spend an inordinate amount of time demonstrating that there is something rotten in the information you're getting from 'other sources'. Dan Rather saw that happen to him. John Kerry hates the Swift-Boat Veterans becasue of that. Other examples are easy to find.

We don't expect that THIS 'harmless blog' is going to have the same international impact as these examples, but maybe if you have ready access to a number of regionally related sources you can find the best examples of perspective on a number of issues which affect you, personally.

So much for the 'cross-polinization' reason for linking between regional bloggers.

The best reason, and perhaps the truest, is that these people represent a group which have intersting things to say, and I want to share their collective wisdom with you.

No, that's a damned lie.

Really, I want to get them involved as a group, and see what happens. If nothing else, maybe they will allow us all to get to know them better, and perhaps someday they'll show up at a local shooting match so we can ALL meet & greet them.

I just think they're an interesting group, and if I play my cards right I could meet them all and spend some range time with them.

What do pro-gun bloggers talk about when they meet on a range?

I figure, they just put as many rounds down-range as possible in the time available, and have a helluva good time.

That's what I'm talkin' about!
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