Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (Congressional Pensions)
A recent email-frenzy regarding the Social Security program has been making the Internet rounds lately, claiming congressional disinterest in funding the program is because "senators do not pay Social Security" and "they get paid their entire salary, after retirement, for the rest of their life (or words to that effect).
I received a copy of this email today, and decided to research it in depth. For me, the first place to go for information about this kind of email is Snopes.com
The Snopes rating on this rumor is: FALSE
Bottom line, Senators DO pay into the Social Security program, and they do NOT receive their entire salary (with huge payments to their spouses) unto death.
Go to the link and read the whole thing.
The reason that I include this on the blog is that I receive a HUGE number of these "announcements" every month. I use to receive them every WEEK, until I started replying to my family members .... and everyone on the headers of the announcements that they sent them to, besides me, pointing out that the rumor has been investigated and debunked by at least one source which I consider reliable.
Usually, this source is Snopes. Sometimes it's an anti-hoax website such as the CIAC Hoaxbusters website. (This is the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Office of Cyber Security, also known as the "Computer Incident Advisory Committee").
Another place to check out these warnings is the Symantic website.
You really need to check these internet rumors out, friends, before you proliferate the hoax by forwarding them to your mailing list. If you receive one of these hoax emails, you would be performing a service to yourself, your family and your friends if you confirm them before you forward the email.
Note that while these are usually started as deliberate hoaxes, in the same mindframe of those who create viral software for internet distribution, sometimes they are simply tongue-in-cheek jokes sent to a small circle of friends. This isn't always perceived by the recipients as humor, and the risk is that it will be forwarded in all seriousness and will be misinterpreted by the next level of recipients.
I can confirm that this is true. In 1999, I received an obviously joke email, and found it so funny that I made minor changes and forwarded it to a few friends.
Within the week, this email achieved certain notoriety by hitting the CIAC HoaxBusters list with a bullet.
It was a take-off of the Trojan v*r*s (deliberately obscured word) announcements, relating to the Greeks, a wooden horse, and the similarity between the words "Greek" and "Geek". I had originally taken my nom de plume from "Jimmy the Greek", naming myself "Jerry the Geek". when I saw this email hoax, I couldn't resist modifying it slightly . . . in parentheses, as I too-often do ... and forwarding it to a few friends. The original never again saw the light of day, but the Geek Version was somehow picked up and forwarded relentlessly for years. You can see my version, still in the CIAC files, here.
When you read it, there can be no doubt in your mind that it's a personal pun, and a joke. I never expected such notoriety. Nor did I expect that the phrase would be picked up and used so universally; a NetScape search on the phrase "Geeks Bearing Gifts" lists over 3400 hits, and you have to get pretty deep into the search-results list (hit #70) to get to the original. Generally, the term is now commonly used to refer to dubious software, most frequently Windows ME. (!)
I've learned my lesson. No longer will I send funny emails to people without making sure there is NO chance that they will misinterpret it as a "real" warning.
This is your opportunity to learn the same lesson. Do NOT forward any joke email unless you have clearly labeled it as something which should not be accepted as fact.
Be sure you've checked it out before you forward it. I've given you three good resources, you can bookmark them and use them to check out the validity of the claims before you impose the confusion on others.
That's what I do.
Also, I own the best Security software I can find, and update it every year. I run the AV update daily, and scan my hard-disk at least twice a week . . . daily, if I'm doing a lot of net-surfing. It's the only way I know to prevent my email addresses from being used to forward hoaxes & bogus files to my friends and family.
PS: Okay, so now there are 3401 hits on "Geeks Bearing Gifts". What goes around, comes around, eh?
Friday, January 20, 2006
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Winchester Is History!
USATODAY.com - 'Gun that Won the West' becoming just part of history
Confirmed on January 18, 2006: Winchester Rifles will no longer be made in America.
Or anyplace else.
Currently being produced by a Belgian company "Herstal Group, the Belgian company that owns U.S. Repeating Arms and the right to the Winchester name", the New Haven, Conn. factory which currently manufactures Winchester Rifles for U.S. Repeating Arms will close its doors forever as of April 1, 2006.
No, this is not an early April Fools joke.
Winchester Rifles will continue to be made in Belgian and other European plants, but the traditional designs will not be among the product line.
Citing declining sales, Robert Sauvage, spokes man for the Herstal Group, this week announced that the 200 employes at the New Haven plant will be without a job after March 31 of this year.
The recent history of Winchester Repeating Arms, once owned by Olin Matheson, includes a "massive strike" by Machinists in the late 1970's which caused Olin to sell the plant, and the copyright to the Winchester Name, to the U.S. Repeating arms. That company is going out of business in six weeks.
We'll miss them.
Confirmed on January 18, 2006: Winchester Rifles will no longer be made in America.
Or anyplace else.
Currently being produced by a Belgian company "Herstal Group, the Belgian company that owns U.S. Repeating Arms and the right to the Winchester name", the New Haven, Conn. factory which currently manufactures Winchester Rifles for U.S. Repeating Arms will close its doors forever as of April 1, 2006.
No, this is not an early April Fools joke.
Winchester Rifles will continue to be made in Belgian and other European plants, but the traditional designs will not be among the product line.
Citing declining sales, Robert Sauvage, spokes man for the Herstal Group, this week announced that the 200 employes at the New Haven plant will be without a job after March 31 of this year.
The recent history of Winchester Repeating Arms, once owned by Olin Matheson, includes a "massive strike" by Machinists in the late 1970's which caused Olin to sell the plant, and the copyright to the Winchester Name, to the U.S. Repeating arms. That company is going out of business in six weeks.
"It would be like Chevrolet going out of business or Chevrolet being made in Japan or China," firearms historian Ned Schwing said. "Winchester is an American legend, whether you're a gun person or not."
We'll miss them.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
GeekNews - Jan18
I tire of finding an excuse to present BLOGMEAT.
Henceforth, I'll save it up and compile it every couple of weeks.
The trick is to present the MSM news items without editorializing.
However, I reserve the right to slug my own headlines.
Announcing the first fortnightly version of
GEEKNEWS: News That Caught My Attention In The Past Couple of Weeks!
Volume I, Edition I: January 4 - January 18, 2006
Henceforth, I'll save it up and compile it every couple of weeks.
The trick is to present the MSM news items without editorializing.
However, I reserve the right to slug my own headlines.
Announcing the first fortnightly version of
GEEKNEWS: News That Caught My Attention In The Past Couple of Weeks!
Volume I, Edition I: January 4 - January 18, 2006
January 4, 2005
Old Man Misses Victim Burglar With Evil Gunshot!
Vows To Take Shooting Lessons.
(C-more)
Undocumented Non-Migrants Bravely Defend Against Harsh Police-State:
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico, Jan. 8, 2005 — A few weeks ago, five men were shot to death in a car repair shop in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.In any other city, it might be called a massacre. In Nuevo Laredo, it's called business as usual.
(C-more)
January 12, 2006
The Boston Herald
Bush Is Killing Sean Penn!
Although politically overactive actor Sean Penn has not stepped into battle, the country’s involvement in Iraq is going to slowly kill him.
The Oscar winner told the audience at an anti-war forum hosted by the Progressive Democrats of America in Sacramento, Calif. the other night that the stress of living under the Bush administration is making it impossible for him to quit smoking, the PDA’s Web site reported.
(C-More)
January 13, 2006
Alito Reveals More In One Week Than Kerry Did In One-Year Presidential Campaign
Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court is gliding toward confirmation despite a week of hearings in which Democrats tried and failed to hobble his prospects with withering questions on abortion, presidential power and ethics.
Democrats argue that the former Reagan administration lawyer is likely to tip the court's balance to the right in replacing centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But with little success so far peeling votes from Alito's confirmation as the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice, Democrats showed not much appetite for mounting a filibuster on the Senate floor.
Instead, they are seeking to slow Alito's ascension by demanding that the Judiciary Committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., delay the panel's vote a week.
(C-More)
The Charlotte Observer, January 12, 2006
Can we say "Bible"????
A Rock Hill man leaving church Wednesday night used his Bible to shield himself from the blows of a man who tried to rob him, according to a Rock Hill Police report.
(C-More)
Associated Press; January 12, 2006
Man Is For The Birds
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
A South African anthropologist said Thursday his research into the death nearly 2 million years ago of an ape-man shows human ancestors were hunted by birds.
"These types of discoveries give us real insight into the past lives of these human ancestors, the world they lived in and the things they feared," Lee Berger, a paleo-anthropologist at Johannesburg's University of Witwatersrand, said as he presented his conclusions about a mystery that has been debated since the remains of the possible human ancestor known as the Taung child were discovered in 1924.
(C-More)
January 18, 2006
Ann Coulter Disses Hillary "You Know What I'm Talkin' About" Clinton
Coulter arrogantly expresses disrespect for comments by former White House Distaff, spoken in a Black Church, on MLK Day, to a Black Audience, using Black Argot: Where is the outrage against this unwarranted attack on The First Black First Lady?
So Hillary Clinton thinks the House of Representatives is being "run like a plantation." And, she added, "you know what I'm talking about."
First of all: Think about what a weird coincidence it is that Hillary would have made these remarks in a black church in Harlem on Martin Luther King Day. What are the odds? Did she even know it was a holiday? Bravely spoken, Senator. I haven't been this surprised since finding out Hollywood likes a movie about gay cowboys.
As Hillary explained, the House "has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard."
Yes, that's what was really missing on plantations during the slavery era: the opportunity to present a contrary view. Gosh, if only the slaves had been allowed to call for cloture votes. What a difference that would have made!
(C-More)
January 19, 2006
WFRV Television: Madison, Wisconson
Wisconson Governor Bravely Resists Efforts of NRA-Funded Senate to Impose Concealed-Carry Law on Citizens
(AP) MADISON The state Senate approved a Republican bill Tuesday that would let Wisconsin residents carry concealed weapons, setting up what could be a fierce political clash between the Legislature and Gov. Jim Doyle.
The Senate's 28-5 vote sends the bill to Doyle, a Democrat who already has nixed one version of it and has vowed to veto this one.
"The governor believes people carrying loaded weapons around will make Wisconsin less safe," Doyle spokeswoman Melanie Fonder said.
But Republicans say people should be allowed to fight off criminals.
Wisconsin is one of only four states that bans concealed weapons. National Rifle Association lobbyists working with Republican legislators have been trying make them legal here for years.
(C-More)
Hydro Shok!
My brother-in-law, bless his heart, once shot himself through the hand with my pellet gun.
I had left it lying around in my room (this was a LONG time ago, when I was in high-school and still living with my parents), and he had picked it up in an idle moment and, while talking on the phone, pointed the muzzle at the palm of his hand and pulled the trigger. Apparently, he wanted to see what the CO2 air discharge felt like. Well, he was distracted.
When he got back from the hospital emergency room, his only comment to me was that he couldn't believe I would leave a loaded gun just laying around.
Well, believe it. My gun, my room, your hand. Not mutually compatible.
There's nothing new about this story. When people start making assumptions about guns, and especially when they handle guns when they're distracted or "just not thinking", Bad Things Can Happen.
Tonight, I received an email from the Unofficial IPSC List describing such an incident.
His name is Rich Timm. He has been shooting for 27 years of his 32-year life. ONE time he got impatient when he was checking his gun "to see if it needed cleaning", and put a 135 grain .40 S&W Hydra-Shok round though the palm of his hand. That's gonna hurt a lot more than a .22 soft-lead pellet.
Here is the PDF which (apparently) he authored. Warning of "graphic images", which means there are photos taken in the emergency room of the hospital showing the small, bruised-looking entry wound and the back of his hand being . . . missing.
Money Quote:
Be careful out there.
I had left it lying around in my room (this was a LONG time ago, when I was in high-school and still living with my parents), and he had picked it up in an idle moment and, while talking on the phone, pointed the muzzle at the palm of his hand and pulled the trigger. Apparently, he wanted to see what the CO2 air discharge felt like. Well, he was distracted.
When he got back from the hospital emergency room, his only comment to me was that he couldn't believe I would leave a loaded gun just laying around.
Well, believe it. My gun, my room, your hand. Not mutually compatible.
There's nothing new about this story. When people start making assumptions about guns, and especially when they handle guns when they're distracted or "just not thinking", Bad Things Can Happen.
Tonight, I received an email from the Unofficial IPSC List describing such an incident.
His name is Rich Timm. He has been shooting for 27 years of his 32-year life. ONE time he got impatient when he was checking his gun "to see if it needed cleaning", and put a 135 grain .40 S&W Hydra-Shok round though the palm of his hand. That's gonna hurt a lot more than a .22 soft-lead pellet.
Here is the PDF which (apparently) he authored. Warning of "graphic images", which means there are photos taken in the emergency room of the hospital showing the small, bruised-looking entry wound and the back of his hand being . . . missing.
Money Quote:
The wound was the result of complacency.
Be careful out there.
Free Annual Credit Report
Did you know you can request an AnnualCreditReport . . . online, by mail or by phone . . . for free?
You may not remember that I mentioned this federally legislated program last year, in a March article. I laid out all of the details, so you may want to click back and reread it.
I'll wait.
(dum de dum dum ...)
Finished?
Good. Here are a few comments.
The drawback is: it takes a while to enter the data, but then it takes a while to fill in the paper form, too.
Another drawback to the online Income Tax-return service is that they're not always accurate. You will want to roughly figure your taxes from a tax table, to get a ballpark figure on what your return or obligation ought to be. That way you have some idea of what figure THEY should come up with.
When I took advantage of this service last year, I found that the Federal return they calculated actually saved me money.
However, the Oregon Stage tax return (another $15, if you accepted their numbers), had me owing $1600; my figures showed that the State owed me money, because I had overpaid. I declined to accept the State tax figure they had calculated, and sent in my own . . . which was accepted.
Caveat Emptor: Free is a very good price, but sometimes it's not really free after all.
(Presented as a public service by Jerry the Geek)
You may not remember that I mentioned this federally legislated program last year, in a March article. I laid out all of the details, so you may want to click back and reread it.
I'll wait.
(dum de dum dum ...)
Finished?
Good. Here are a few comments.
- You can only request the report every 12 months, so if you requested one last year you can't request another one until the anniversary date.
- The report is available from three credit reporting companies: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.
- You don't have to choose. You can order a FREE credit report from ALL of these companies.
- The information available to each of the reporting companies will probably differ in details. I know mine did.
- If you find information which is inaccurate, which doesn't seem to apply to you (they sometimes get someone else's data confused with yours, because it is often reported by name), or which is outdated (some records can legally only be kept for a limited time, such as seven years) you can dispute it. This is also for free, and generally they just wait a while and then write to tell you that the disputed entries have been removed.
- You do NOT get a Credit Rating with your free report. However, they will happily provide you with that information on a one-time basis. The fee is usually about $25.
- They WILL put you an an emailing-list, and send you monthly offers to provide regular reports. The cost for this service varies, and you can just ignore them or you can take you up on it.
- Did I mention it's free?
The drawback is: it takes a while to enter the data, but then it takes a while to fill in the paper form, too.
Another drawback to the online Income Tax-return service is that they're not always accurate. You will want to roughly figure your taxes from a tax table, to get a ballpark figure on what your return or obligation ought to be. That way you have some idea of what figure THEY should come up with.
When I took advantage of this service last year, I found that the Federal return they calculated actually saved me money.
However, the Oregon Stage tax return (another $15, if you accepted their numbers), had me owing $1600; my figures showed that the State owed me money, because I had overpaid. I declined to accept the State tax figure they had calculated, and sent in my own . . . which was accepted.
Caveat Emptor: Free is a very good price, but sometimes it's not really free after all.
(Presented as a public service by Jerry the Geek)
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The Countertop Chronicles: The Gunnies
The Countertop Chronicles: The Gunnies
Here's your chance to nominate your favorite websites for Gun-Blogger of the year.
Here's the Real Deal:
In the meantime, go there and vote your choice. While I would be grateful for a plug or two, I can think of many gun-related blogs which deserve recognition. You probably can too, and I encourage you to take a few moments to go to the link and vote either by comments, or by email to the webhost.
Here's how to vote:
YMMV, so don't use MY criteria. Figure out your own reasons why you would nominate a blog for recognition, and in which category. For example, I would put Analogue Kid (Random Nuclear Strikes) high on my list for rants; Mr. Completely for range reports; Rivrdog for aggregator, and probably Gullyborg for overall. (This is subject to re-evaluation, I'm just stream-of-consciousness.)
I still haven't figured out where to nominate Geek with a .45. Maybe in the Best Commentary division. His overall rating is astronomical, but then there's the exquisite Smallest Minority . . . or can we include him in Best Rants?
This will take some thought, obviously I've already petitioned for more time, because the first round nominations are DUE ON THE 18th!
Don't let the grass grow while you think it over.
Here's your chance to nominate your favorite websites for Gun-Blogger of the year.
Here's the Real Deal:
As originally proposed back on January 7th, I have decided to organize The Gunnies, a web poll to determine the blogsphere's favorite gun bloggers as of the beginning of 2006. Jeff Soyer was the first (or at least the first I stumbled across) to notice that The Bloggies had once again decided to snub one of the largest and most diversified segments of the blogsphere - the Gun Bloggers.The Countertop Chronicles is a website worthy of a read under any circumstances, and I can't imagine why I haven't linked to him earlier. That will be corrected in the near future.
Hence, The 2006 Gunnies Awards.
In the meantime, go there and vote your choice. While I would be grateful for a plug or two, I can think of many gun-related blogs which deserve recognition. You probably can too, and I encourage you to take a few moments to go to the link and vote either by comments, or by email to the webhost.
Here's how to vote:
And here are the categories:
The nominees for each category will come from comments posted to this blog or emailed to countertop AT gmail DOT com with the subject line "The Gunnies". All previously made nominations will be factored in (so if you've made one, no need to resubmit it).
The Categories (what you all have been waiting for)
- Best Gun Pr0n - This category honors the blogs that consistently showcase the most beautiful images of firearms and firearm related subjects.
- Most Educational - From how to posts, shooting tips, gunbuilding/ gunsmithing tips to historical information, this category honors those blogs that consistently advance the state of actual mechanical and operational firearms knowledge.
- Best Rants - This category honors those blogs that fisk the best, bitch the most, yell the loudest, snort the angriest, and do it all with the most style.
- Best Legal Analysis - This category honors those blogs that provide the most concise, accurate, and easy to read/understand analysis of the legal and legislative developments impacting firearms and firearms ownership.
- Best Aggregator - This category honors those blogs that provide the best top level one size fits all access to the widest range of firearms related postings - whether to other blogs or mainstream media sources and whether with constructive commentary or not.
- Best Range Reports - Nothing is finer than a day at the range, whether testing a new gun, participating in an organized competition, out in the hunting fields, introducing new members to the nation of riflemen, or simply plinking away in the backyard, this category honors those blogs that either organize or record range sessions and best spread through actual example the true joy of firearms.
- Best commentary - This category honors those blogs that provide the most insightful original editorial commentory
- best Gun Post - This category honors the single post made to a weblog over the course of 2005 that best exemplified the 2nd Amendment or advanced the state of knowledge of the second amendment and related issues or simply put to shame by its sheer brilliance all other posts in the blogsphere.
- Mr. Completely
- Analogue Kid
- Xavier
- Geek with a .45
- Cowboy Blob
- Publicola
- Michael Bane
- Gullyborg
- Front Sight, Press
YMMV, so don't use MY criteria. Figure out your own reasons why you would nominate a blog for recognition, and in which category. For example, I would put Analogue Kid (Random Nuclear Strikes) high on my list for rants; Mr. Completely for range reports; Rivrdog for aggregator, and probably Gullyborg for overall. (This is subject to re-evaluation, I'm just stream-of-consciousness.)
I still haven't figured out where to nominate Geek with a .45. Maybe in the Best Commentary division. His overall rating is astronomical, but then there's the exquisite Smallest Minority . . . or can we include him in Best Rants?
This will take some thought, obviously I've already petitioned for more time, because the first round nominations are DUE ON THE 18th!
Don't let the grass grow while you think it over.
Wolverton Mountain
My friend Rueul ("Rule") Emery has been hosting various types of pistol matches in the shadow of Mount Saint Helens for a couple of years now. Generally, he tends toward bowling pin matches (are you listening, Mr. Completely?) but now and then he puts on something a little different. Fish, who HAS been to Rueul's matches, suggested that I post his latest announcement to the blog, in hopes that more people will learn about another match available to them in the general area of NW Oregon / SW Washington.
This is not only a chance to promote an unusual pistol match, but I can also see if the MS-WORD connection to Blogger works well enough to format information originally presented in a word-processor format. Apparently, it works fairly well (although I did have to convert the images to *.JPG format and host them through my old pal ImageShack.
Wolverton Mountain Gun Club
USPSA Style 1911 Single Stack / Revolver Match
“Neither Rain nor Snow nor IPSC targets shall…”
Sunday February 26, 2006. 9:30 am walk-thru
Donation: Shoot the match with one pistol for $10, or
then re-shoot with your other pistol…..for $18 total
Most shooting will be from under roofed bays.
Any standard IPSC pistol will be acceptable, but stages are revolver (6) or 1911 friendly for those who can count to 8.
Hot cider will be available at the warming room.
Contact: Reuel Emery email: reueljoe@yahoo.com
Phone: 360-687-1947
Pre-registration requested: or… just show up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wolverton Mountain Gun Club Registration
USPSA match Revolver/1911 Provisional Match Date: ______________
Name:____________________ EMAIL: __________________________
Address:_____________________ City_________ State ______ZIP_______
USPSA NO: ________________ Class: ________
Circle appropriate:
MAJ MIN LTD L10 REV PROD OPEN Lady LEO JR SR SupSR
Donation $10 or $18 Make Check payable to WMGC
Mail to: R. Emery
12415 NE 279 St
Battle Ground, WA, 98604
Take Woodland Exit 21, turn East at bottom of ramp, and follow SR-503 east past Burger Ville.
After 22.5 miles, turn right on to SR-503 heading south at Jack’s Restaurant.
Follow 1.5 miles to Williams Rd, turn left, and take 2nd road on left at Wolverton Mountain Gun Club sign.
Incidently, you can see Rueul shoot his brand new birthday gift, which I presume is a S&W Model 625, at last weekend's IPSC match here and here. The files are about 3 or 4 mb each.
Tri-County Gun Club
On the third Sunday of every month, you can shoot an IPSC match at the Tri-County Gun Club in Sherwood, Oregon. I've talked about this club before, of course. It was, for example, the co-host of the 2005 Columbia Cascade Section Match last August. (The weather was warmer, and dryer, then.)
Oh, and don't forget the "Practical Shotgun" match, also in August, and also hotter than Hades.
This past Sunday, SWMBO and I made the 70-minute drive up I-5 to Wilson, took the North Wilsonville Exit to Day road, left to Scholls Ferry Road, Right to Tonquin Road, then 3 more miles to the TCGC "Training Facility". They have a huge facility there, including trap, skeet, sporting clays, indoor and outdoor small-bore ranges, outdoor pistol range, black-powder range, a beautiful clubhouse, bench-rest ranges out to 600 yards, an on-site rock quarry where Practical Rifle matches are held at least once a month, and . . . the Action Pistol Range.
This range not only features monthly IPSC and Cowboy Action matches, but is used as a training facility for several county sheriff's departments and municipal police departments, as well as the National Guard. (The U.S. Marine Corps 6th Engineer Support battalion pays for their range time by using the heavy-equipment of their Engineer Company to perform range improvements. Not only does the club benefit from their essentially free labor, but the Marines have a place where their Engineers can keep their skills sharp with earth-movers of various kinds.)
This club owns 220 acres of forested hills within a half-hour drive of downtown Portland. At a guess, there are about 2000 members, and the annual dues are$120 with a one-time initiation fee of $175. (Information from the TCGC website.)
As is the case for many shooting clubs near major metropolitan areas (Portland is the 30th largest city in America, by population), TCGC has fought a running battle with land developers who want to shut them down so surrounding property can be 'developed'. That means, they (not the gun club, the developers) would cut down all the old-growth fir trees, level the hills to fill the surrounding wetlands, bulldoze roads and build tacky-but-expensive houses all over the place.
Fortunately, TCGC counts among its members a number of successful lawyers who have, through the years, donated their time and legal expertise to fight this urban incursion. It's not a cheap battle, nor an easy one, but it helps that the original 172 acres were purchased in 1944, which establishes a clear precedence over the
immediate needs of the developers in this rural area. The nearest town is Sherwood , (which holds an annual Robin Hood Festival), "One of the fastest growing towns in Oregon".
The club has recently more-or-less completed a major improvement on the Action Pistol Range, which provided them with 13 bays. Some of the bays are about 100 feet square, which not only allows them to set up some outrageous run&gun stages but also provides plenty of rooms for rifles to be used.
Because of these developments, TCGC has recently been selected to host the 2006 Area 1 Match (July 16 - 18, 2006) by the United States Practical Shooting Association.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the outcome of the Sunday IPSC match.
I didn't win, but Beven Grams almost did.
However, I took pictures!
You can view the album here.
Film includes some excellent examples of moving-while-shooting, in Stage 3. It also includes some embarrassing moments on Stage 1, where competitors often forgot to shoot at ALL of the targets. Well, it was a confusing stage.
The album contains a sub-album, with unedited full-length raw film showing the agony and the ecstasy of IPSC competition. Unfortunately, there's more agony than anything else. The files in the sub-album run up to 23mb in length, although the edited *.wmv versions in the main album are usually 4mb.
Knock yourself out.
Nobody got sunburned, it didn't rain, and even thought most of us hadn't been shooting for 6 weeks before the weekend, we all had a great time. What more can you ask?
Oh, and don't forget the "Practical Shotgun" match, also in August, and also hotter than Hades.
This past Sunday, SWMBO and I made the 70-minute drive up I-5 to Wilson, took the North Wilsonville Exit to Day road, left to Scholls Ferry Road, Right to Tonquin Road, then 3 more miles to the TCGC "Training Facility". They have a huge facility there, including trap, skeet, sporting clays, indoor and outdoor small-bore ranges, outdoor pistol range, black-powder range, a beautiful clubhouse, bench-rest ranges out to 600 yards, an on-site rock quarry where Practical Rifle matches are held at least once a month, and . . . the Action Pistol Range.
This range not only features monthly IPSC and Cowboy Action matches, but is used as a training facility for several county sheriff's departments and municipal police departments, as well as the National Guard. (The U.S. Marine Corps 6th Engineer Support battalion pays for their range time by using the heavy-equipment of their Engineer Company to perform range improvements. Not only does the club benefit from their essentially free labor, but the Marines have a place where their Engineers can keep their skills sharp with earth-movers of various kinds.)
This club owns 220 acres of forested hills within a half-hour drive of downtown Portland. At a guess, there are about 2000 members, and the annual dues are$120 with a one-time initiation fee of $175. (Information from the TCGC website.)
As is the case for many shooting clubs near major metropolitan areas (Portland is the 30th largest city in America, by population), TCGC has fought a running battle with land developers who want to shut them down so surrounding property can be 'developed'. That means, they (not the gun club, the developers) would cut down all the old-growth fir trees, level the hills to fill the surrounding wetlands, bulldoze roads and build tacky-but-expensive houses all over the place.
Fortunately, TCGC counts among its members a number of successful lawyers who have, through the years, donated their time and legal expertise to fight this urban incursion. It's not a cheap battle, nor an easy one, but it helps that the original 172 acres were purchased in 1944, which establishes a clear precedence over the
immediate needs of the developers in this rural area. The nearest town is Sherwood , (which holds an annual Robin Hood Festival), "One of the fastest growing towns in Oregon".The club has recently more-or-less completed a major improvement on the Action Pistol Range, which provided them with 13 bays. Some of the bays are about 100 feet square, which not only allows them to set up some outrageous run&gun stages but also provides plenty of rooms for rifles to be used.
Because of these developments, TCGC has recently been selected to host the 2006 Area 1 Match (July 16 - 18, 2006) by the United States Practical Shooting Association.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the outcome of the Sunday IPSC match.
I didn't win, but Beven Grams almost did.
However, I took pictures!
You can view the album here.
Film includes some excellent examples of moving-while-shooting, in Stage 3. It also includes some embarrassing moments on Stage 1, where competitors often forgot to shoot at ALL of the targets. Well, it was a confusing stage.
The album contains a sub-album, with unedited full-length raw film showing the agony and the ecstasy of IPSC competition. Unfortunately, there's more agony than anything else. The files in the sub-album run up to 23mb in length, although the edited *.wmv versions in the main album are usually 4mb.
Knock yourself out.
Nobody got sunburned, it didn't rain, and even thought most of us hadn't been shooting for 6 weeks before the weekend, we all had a great time. What more can you ask?
Monday, January 16, 2006
CCS IPSC - January Match at ARPC
FINALLY we get to shoot IPSC again!
It has been a long dry spell, and I'm not talking about the weather.
We haven't been to an IPSC match since early November, and we, SWMBO and I, have missed the exercise, the camaraderie, and the smell of Gunsmoke.
ALBANY Saturday Classifier Match:
Unfortunately, SWMBO was feeling a little under the weather on Saturday (pun intended), so I had to go to the ARPC Classifier Match on Saturday by myself. I arrived at the range at 10am instead of the intended 8am, because I overslept.
When I got there, Mike "Mac" McCarter saw me pull in, and as he was just moving from Stage 6 to Bay 1 -- near the stats shack -- he invited me to join his squad, as they only had 7 people and all the other squads were 9 or more.
This turned out to be one of the few occasions when I wasn't squaded with The Usual Suspects -- the composition of which varies but is usually composed of a bunch of fat old men and SWMBO.
Mac runs the Junior Program in the Columbia Cascade Section, so I wasn't surprised to see that there were only four fat old men and three lean, energetic teen-age competitors in the squad.
The three juniors were Chris Cardoza, Chris Champ (whom I had not met before), and Andrew Jacobson (Mac's grandson). The 'fat old men' included Mac, John Matlock (president of ARPC), Mark McDonald (son of two other Junior shooters, who were not present today, and Jeff Cardoza (Chris' father). There were also two spectators named Larry and Skip. I never understood the relationship of Larry, but Skip was a preacher whom Mark knew personally and whom Mark had convinced to begins competing in IPSC. Skip was a charmer, and would have been competing this day except that his pistol was in the shop having some work done on it. I look forward to shooting with Skip on another date.
Because this was a Classifier Match, most of the stages weren't very interesting photographically, although they were technically challenging.
I started on SIX CHICKENS CM03-02. This is a 12-round Virginia-count standard exercise with a lot of no-shoot area showing between three 2-target arrays with not a lot of brown paper showing. To my surprise, I shot it without penalties. This built up a lot of confidence, which I later discovered was not justified by my current shooting abilities.
Stage 2 was another classifier, RAW DEAL CM99-33, another 12-round Virginia count classifier which served only to bolster my false confidence.
Stage 3 Crap Shoot was the first of two 'field courses' which was especially designed to allow the shooters to stay under cover against the rain. Actually, and surprisingly, we didn't get rained on during this match. But had it rained, ARPC was prepared to keep us as dry as possible. I appreciated that, even though I didn't score very high due to my conservative approach to the stage. Well, as I said, it has been over a month since I shot a match and I continued to shoot conservatively (read: slowly) until the end of the match, when I shot too fast and missed a target. But I'm getting ahead of my story.
Stage 4 was one of my favorite classifier stages MELODY LINE CM99-08. This allows the shooter to shoot quickly, as long as he or she has confidence and the ability to back up that confidence. I had shot the same stage at Albany in October of last year and got an A-level score. This year, I shot with the same confidence but without the same level of expertise, and missed the last target with the last shot. The Mike dropped me from a solid B-level score to a mediocre C-level score. Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug.
Stage 5 was another field course, WHICH ONE NOW, in which both the shooter and the targets were mostly under cover. It required us to shoot the last two targets through a low port, and this caused a lot of problems for most of us. I managed to shoot a few videos of this stage, and this is the primary reason (apart from vanity) for writing this article.
I saw a couple of incidents which illustrated the reason why I so enjoy IPSC competition. Both of them illustrated the friendly environment which is typical of an IPSC match, and I posted the videos on the Jerrythegeek Shooting Gallery so I could share them with you.
In the first film, Andrew (Mac's grandson) does a fine job of addressing the field-course until he attempts to engage the last two targets, through a very low port under a bench. During this engagement, he moves his pistol too close to the 2x4 which supports the bench, and in fact the recoil drives the front sight of his Glock up into the soft wood, where it momentarily sticks. Of course, this causes a jam which costs him precious time. This is the reason why I usually warn new shooters to keep their pistol far behind the shooting port, a lesson which it took me ten years to learn myself. That is, when your pistol is too close to overhead cover such as a shooting port, the recoil often causes the pistol to impact on the material at the top of the port. This slows down the cycling of the slide resulting in some nasty jams. Andrew, unknowingly, provided and excellent example of this phenomenon, and I'm not sure he even yet realizes that he caused his own jam or how it happens. In fact, since we all know that we're not always aware of some of the things we do while shooting a stage, he might not realize it until he sees this video.
After Andrew finished the stage, his grandfather took him to take for his action. In fact, Andrew didn't realize he had hit the overhead so hard that the front sight momentarily stuck into the soft wood, but Grandfather Mac saw it immediately. In truth, I had to watch the video a couple of times before I saw it.
All ended well, as Mac pointed out the error and then clapped his grandson on the shoulder to show that it was all in jest.
If Robert Ruark had held off writing "The Old Man And The Boy" until this weekend, I feel certain that this incident would have been featured as an exemplar of how a grandfather serves a useful service in teaching his grandson how to handle firearms. In fact, if Mac reads this and reminds me, I'll not only loan my copy to him and to Andrew, but I'll also loan him the follow-up volume "The Old Man's Boy Grows Older". These are recommended reading for any man and boy who choose to learn not only how to shoot, but how to act.
After Andrew completed the stage, it was Mac's turn. Mac was careful to shoot the stage clean, and provided an excellent example in "how to act".
If that wasn't enough, the next shooter was Mark M. Mark had scoped out the stage carefully, and determined that if he reloaded between the first two ports he wouldn't have to reload while moving to the third port . . . the low port which cost Andrew so dearly in time.
but in the actual even, when Mark moved to the 3rd port he reloaded anyway . . . and he didn't need to. On the video, you can clearly hear mark say (as he reloaded the dropped magazine):
"I didn't need that, but I done it anyway!"
after he complete the stage, his memory was that he said "Darn!" Entirely not consistent with the actual verbiage, but it shows how we forget the details of how we shoot a stage, and only remember the gist of our thought process.
After this stage, the "Junior Squad" was done with the match and they moved on to other things.
I had yet to shoot stage six, TAKE YOUR CHOICE CM99-12, and I was fortunate that the previous squad hadn't cleared the stage yet. I prevailed upon the good humor of John B. to run me through the stage. I discovered that I must have been in a hurry because I managed to miss one of the targets, again with my last shot.
My experiences in this match taught me some valuable lessons, which I will promptly forget:
Of course, it helps a lot if you get your hits.
Later: the Sunday Match, with a LOT more videos.
UPDATE:
Match results here.
It has been a long dry spell, and I'm not talking about the weather.
We haven't been to an IPSC match since early November, and we, SWMBO and I, have missed the exercise, the camaraderie, and the smell of Gunsmoke.
ALBANY Saturday Classifier Match:
Unfortunately, SWMBO was feeling a little under the weather on Saturday (pun intended), so I had to go to the ARPC Classifier Match on Saturday by myself. I arrived at the range at 10am instead of the intended 8am, because I overslept.
When I got there, Mike "Mac" McCarter saw me pull in, and as he was just moving from Stage 6 to Bay 1 -- near the stats shack -- he invited me to join his squad, as they only had 7 people and all the other squads were 9 or more.
This turned out to be one of the few occasions when I wasn't squaded with The Usual Suspects -- the composition of which varies but is usually composed of a bunch of fat old men and SWMBO.
Mac runs the Junior Program in the Columbia Cascade Section, so I wasn't surprised to see that there were only four fat old men and three lean, energetic teen-age competitors in the squad.
The three juniors were Chris Cardoza, Chris Champ (whom I had not met before), and Andrew Jacobson (Mac's grandson). The 'fat old men' included Mac, John Matlock (president of ARPC), Mark McDonald (son of two other Junior shooters, who were not present today, and Jeff Cardoza (Chris' father). There were also two spectators named Larry and Skip. I never understood the relationship of Larry, but Skip was a preacher whom Mark knew personally and whom Mark had convinced to begins competing in IPSC. Skip was a charmer, and would have been competing this day except that his pistol was in the shop having some work done on it. I look forward to shooting with Skip on another date.
Because this was a Classifier Match, most of the stages weren't very interesting photographically, although they were technically challenging.
I started on SIX CHICKENS CM03-02. This is a 12-round Virginia-count standard exercise with a lot of no-shoot area showing between three 2-target arrays with not a lot of brown paper showing. To my surprise, I shot it without penalties. This built up a lot of confidence, which I later discovered was not justified by my current shooting abilities.
Stage 2 was another classifier, RAW DEAL CM99-33, another 12-round Virginia count classifier which served only to bolster my false confidence.
Stage 3 Crap Shoot was the first of two 'field courses' which was especially designed to allow the shooters to stay under cover against the rain. Actually, and surprisingly, we didn't get rained on during this match. But had it rained, ARPC was prepared to keep us as dry as possible. I appreciated that, even though I didn't score very high due to my conservative approach to the stage. Well, as I said, it has been over a month since I shot a match and I continued to shoot conservatively (read: slowly) until the end of the match, when I shot too fast and missed a target. But I'm getting ahead of my story.
Stage 4 was one of my favorite classifier stages MELODY LINE CM99-08. This allows the shooter to shoot quickly, as long as he or she has confidence and the ability to back up that confidence. I had shot the same stage at Albany in October of last year and got an A-level score. This year, I shot with the same confidence but without the same level of expertise, and missed the last target with the last shot. The Mike dropped me from a solid B-level score to a mediocre C-level score. Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug.
Stage 5 was another field course, WHICH ONE NOW, in which both the shooter and the targets were mostly under cover. It required us to shoot the last two targets through a low port, and this caused a lot of problems for most of us. I managed to shoot a few videos of this stage, and this is the primary reason (apart from vanity) for writing this article.
I saw a couple of incidents which illustrated the reason why I so enjoy IPSC competition. Both of them illustrated the friendly environment which is typical of an IPSC match, and I posted the videos on the Jerrythegeek Shooting Gallery so I could share them with you.
In the first film, Andrew (Mac's grandson) does a fine job of addressing the field-course until he attempts to engage the last two targets, through a very low port under a bench. During this engagement, he moves his pistol too close to the 2x4 which supports the bench, and in fact the recoil drives the front sight of his Glock up into the soft wood, where it momentarily sticks. Of course, this causes a jam which costs him precious time. This is the reason why I usually warn new shooters to keep their pistol far behind the shooting port, a lesson which it took me ten years to learn myself. That is, when your pistol is too close to overhead cover such as a shooting port, the recoil often causes the pistol to impact on the material at the top of the port. This slows down the cycling of the slide resulting in some nasty jams. Andrew, unknowingly, provided and excellent example of this phenomenon, and I'm not sure he even yet realizes that he caused his own jam or how it happens. In fact, since we all know that we're not always aware of some of the things we do while shooting a stage, he might not realize it until he sees this video.
After Andrew finished the stage, his grandfather took him to take for his action. In fact, Andrew didn't realize he had hit the overhead so hard that the front sight momentarily stuck into the soft wood, but Grandfather Mac saw it immediately. In truth, I had to watch the video a couple of times before I saw it.
All ended well, as Mac pointed out the error and then clapped his grandson on the shoulder to show that it was all in jest.
If Robert Ruark had held off writing "The Old Man And The Boy" until this weekend, I feel certain that this incident would have been featured as an exemplar of how a grandfather serves a useful service in teaching his grandson how to handle firearms. In fact, if Mac reads this and reminds me, I'll not only loan my copy to him and to Andrew, but I'll also loan him the follow-up volume "The Old Man's Boy Grows Older". These are recommended reading for any man and boy who choose to learn not only how to shoot, but how to act.
After Andrew completed the stage, it was Mac's turn. Mac was careful to shoot the stage clean, and provided an excellent example in "how to act".
If that wasn't enough, the next shooter was Mark M. Mark had scoped out the stage carefully, and determined that if he reloaded between the first two ports he wouldn't have to reload while moving to the third port . . . the low port which cost Andrew so dearly in time.
but in the actual even, when Mark moved to the 3rd port he reloaded anyway . . . and he didn't need to. On the video, you can clearly hear mark say (as he reloaded the dropped magazine):
"I didn't need that, but I done it anyway!"
after he complete the stage, his memory was that he said "Darn!" Entirely not consistent with the actual verbiage, but it shows how we forget the details of how we shoot a stage, and only remember the gist of our thought process.
After this stage, the "Junior Squad" was done with the match and they moved on to other things.
I had yet to shoot stage six, TAKE YOUR CHOICE CM99-12, and I was fortunate that the previous squad hadn't cleared the stage yet. I prevailed upon the good humor of John B. to run me through the stage. I discovered that I must have been in a hurry because I managed to miss one of the targets, again with my last shot.
My experiences in this match taught me some valuable lessons, which I will promptly forget:
- when you haven't shot in competition for a while, you tend to shoot conservatively
- when you shoot conservatively, you tend (if you're an Open shooter) to adopt the rhythm of Limited shooters, and wait too long between shots when you should be striving for fast double-tap times
- conservative shooters also tend to think a lot while shooting. This is anathema to fast stage times. You must strive for a zen-like mindframe wherein you only want to shoot as your mind and your body know you can shoot quickly. You think slower than you shoot. Just walk though the stage often enough that you know what you must do, and when you must do it. Then . . . just do it. Don't think You can ruin your stage by over-thinking it.
Of course, it helps a lot if you get your hits.
Later: the Sunday Match, with a LOT more videos.
UPDATE:
Match results here.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Yin and Yang: Peggy Noonan
Yesterday I called Mark Steyn "one of my all-time favorite political commentators".
That hasn't changed, but now I see it's time to introduce another: Peggy Noonan.
Ms Noonan often writes for the Wall Street Journal (see the link on the sidebar, under WSJ Opinion Journal), and if Steyn's style is to go for the gonads (in the nicest possible way), Noonan's style is to go to the heart (in the deadliest possible way).
Steyn and Noonan are the Yin and Yang of political commentary.
I love this lady. She has style, she has verve, and she has the sharpest knife in the drawer. She can slice and dice you in 600 words, and you wouldn't feel a thing as she cuts out your heart.
Today her target was Joe Biden.
For twenty years, I have referred to him as "The Distinguished Windbag from Delaware".
Imagine how rewarding it is to read the following paragraph from today's column, as Ms Noonan typifies the congressional interrogation of Judge Samuel Alito by Senator Joe Biden. In part:
I just love that, don't you?
They (the Judiciary Subcommittee) abused Alito to distraction; and then, when Lindsey Graham spoke nicely to Sam Alito, the poignancy of the moment drove Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, to tears. From that moment on, if it hadn't already happened, Alito became a shoo-in.
In the words of Robert Culp (or was it Bill Cosby, in "I Spy":
I just love it when a plan comes together.
Lindsey Graham for President?
That hasn't changed, but now I see it's time to introduce another: Peggy Noonan.
Ms Noonan often writes for the Wall Street Journal (see the link on the sidebar, under WSJ Opinion Journal), and if Steyn's style is to go for the gonads (in the nicest possible way), Noonan's style is to go to the heart (in the deadliest possible way).
Steyn and Noonan are the Yin and Yang of political commentary.
I love this lady. She has style, she has verve, and she has the sharpest knife in the drawer. She can slice and dice you in 600 words, and you wouldn't feel a thing as she cuts out your heart.
Today her target was Joe Biden.
For twenty years, I have referred to him as "The Distinguished Windbag from Delaware".
Imagine how rewarding it is to read the following paragraph from today's column, as Ms Noonan typifies the congressional interrogation of Judge Samuel Alito by Senator Joe Biden. In part:
Must he sit there bland-faced and unmoving as they say what they say? Yes, of course. Judge Alito and the White House know they have to let these men talk. They don't want the senators to feel resentful or frustrated. They know each senator feels he has to play to his base. They know the senators are, by nature, like Conair 2000 hairdryers: They just love to blow, and hard. Fwwaaaaahhhhhhhhh. And they know it is good, it is helpful, to let each senator reveal himself through his own words. I think senators feel that their words, when strung together, become little bridges. I think the White House feels that their words, when strung together, become little nooses."Little Nooses".
I just love that, don't you?
They (the Judiciary Subcommittee) abused Alito to distraction; and then, when Lindsey Graham spoke nicely to Sam Alito, the poignancy of the moment drove Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, to tears. From that moment on, if it hadn't already happened, Alito became a shoo-in.
Alito's wife, Martha-Ann Alito, was overcome with emotion as Sen. Lindsey Graham called her husband "a decent, honorable man." (Watch wife brought to tears -- 1:57)
In the words of Robert Culp (or was it Bill Cosby, in "I Spy":
I just love it when a plan comes together.
Lindsey Graham for President?
Canadian Cluebat 3: Life Imitates Art
TheStar.com - Absent fathers root of gun crimes, faith leaders say
You heard it here first.
On December 29, I commented on the gang shootings in Toronto (Canadian Cluebat 2: Toronto). My theme was that the cause of "Gun Violence" was not the GUNS, but the VIOLENCE, and that the indirect cause of the violence was the break-up of the Nuclear Family.
If you couldn't bear to wade through all the pedantry, here's a summary; my thought was that when the family doesn't have both parents, or when the parents themselves are disfunctional, their children will not be given the chance to learn how to act. Given no familial support, children may turn to gangs as their only 'family'. The gang culture is typically violent, and leads directly to the kind of criminal behavior which Toronto experienced on Boxer Day.
That concept has been reinforced, surprisingly by the MSM ("Main Stream Media"), in the form of an article in the Toronto Star.
Here are some cuts from the article:
You heard it here first.
On December 29, I commented on the gang shootings in Toronto (Canadian Cluebat 2: Toronto). My theme was that the cause of "Gun Violence" was not the GUNS, but the VIOLENCE, and that the indirect cause of the violence was the break-up of the Nuclear Family.
If you couldn't bear to wade through all the pedantry, here's a summary; my thought was that when the family doesn't have both parents, or when the parents themselves are disfunctional, their children will not be given the chance to learn how to act. Given no familial support, children may turn to gangs as their only 'family'. The gang culture is typically violent, and leads directly to the kind of criminal behavior which Toronto experienced on Boxer Day.
That concept has been reinforced, surprisingly by the MSM ("Main Stream Media"), in the form of an article in the Toronto Star.
Here are some cuts from the article:
Absent fathers root of gun crimes, faith leaders sayYoung male adolescents who have no male role model at home 'look to gangs for family'Jan. 11, 2006. 04:13 PM
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Anonymous Comments
SayUncle � The end of blogs?
I've posted before about the annoying habits of some people who indulge in blog-spamming.
This is something different.
As of last week, if you write an annoying, ANONYMOUS comment, you're subject to fines and who-knows-what-else.
That's right, it's a federal crime to write annoying anonymous comments with the intent to . . . well, annoy someone.
Three questions:
(H/T Triggerfinger)
I've posted before about the annoying habits of some people who indulge in blog-spamming.
This is something different.
As of last week, if you write an annoying, ANONYMOUS comment, you're subject to fines and who-knows-what-else.
That's right, it's a federal crime to write annoying anonymous comments with the intent to . . . well, annoy someone.
Three questions:
- What's "annoying", and is it possible to write Anything that won't be Annoying to Somebody?
- Who's going to turn in an "annoying" commenter to the feds?
- If they're anonymous, how ya gonna catch 'em?
(H/T Triggerfinger)
Russian Free-Runners
Got eight minutes, 24 seconds to spare? High-speed Internet connection (or a HELL of a lot of patience)?
Acrophobic, tolerant of french rap, and prepared to be amazed by the gymnastic abilities of deceptively aesthetic-looking young men?
Wander over to Wadcutter and check out the video on Russian Free-runners.
Blow your mind, it will.
There's also a couple of other NSFW (Not Safe For Work) videos that were not to my taste, but you don't have to watch 'em if you don't want to. It took me about 10 seconds to kill the play, when I previewed them.
Acrophobic, tolerant of french rap, and prepared to be amazed by the gymnastic abilities of deceptively aesthetic-looking young men?
Wander over to Wadcutter and check out the video on Russian Free-runners.
Blow your mind, it will.
There's also a couple of other NSFW (Not Safe For Work) videos that were not to my taste, but you don't have to watch 'em if you don't want to. It took me about 10 seconds to kill the play, when I previewed them.
Reloading Tip No. 1: Boraxo
Boraxo
I've talked about this on The Unofficial IPSC List, but I just realized that I've never mentioned it here.
I reload a lot (though not so much during the winter months; it's too cold in the garage!) and when I get done my hands are covered with grease, carbon, lead and powder residue -- whatever comes from handling brass, powder, bullets and that filthy Dillon XL-650.
When I use one of those waterless hand cleansers, my hands feel like I've been washing in solvent.
Regular hand soaps just don't do the job. They're too wimpy. I have to scrub and scrub, use a brush (ouch!), and I often still have black crud in the knuckle-wrinkles.
A few years ago I remembered that my father, a mechanic, use to wash withLava, a bar soap with pumice. It worked, but his hands were sore and red when he finished. (I know how they felt; I've used it myself.)
Then I also remembered the can of Boraxo in his shop. So I found my own can of Boraxo at the grocery store, brought it home and tried it.
Wonderful stuff! A little Boraxo powder (actually, it's more like 'granules') and hot water, wash-wash rinse-rinse, maybe finish with some of that wussy liquid "Antibacterial" soap if I want to smell like a flower, and all the black crud is gone.
The best part is that my hands don't hurt, they don't feel chapped and dry, and they're not red.
I don't know why people still use the waterless hand soap crap if there's water handy. Lord knows, you STILL have to wash in water to get the "soap" residue off, and it makes your skin (well, MY skin) burn.
Buy the Boraxo. It's cheaper than dirt. And you don't have to coat your hands with greasy hand lotion, as my father did every working day of his life, just to feel like the skin on your hands maybe won't break if you move your fingers.
Your hands won't stink of petroleum distillates, either. You can go right to the dinner table without smelling like the crank-case of a '49 Chevy pickup, and (also) not have to worry whether there's still some lead residue on the hand you're using to hold the Pillsbury Buttery Dinner Roll.
PS: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The background in the picture? Yep, that's the notorious BoomerShoot T-shirt.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
U.S. shouldn't have to do tap dance over bugging
U.S. shouldn't have to do tap dance over bugging
Mark Steyn remains one of my all-time favorite political commentators. The New Hampshire British-sounding guy has the gift of finding the nugget in the nuggies and polishing it into an eminently readable argument for survival of Western Civilization.
Here he takes on the DemocRats who would impeach President Bush for taking needful steps to ferret out terrorist snakes before they can strike.
Citing, just for example, the resounding intelligence success which stopped a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge (why didn't they just buy it?), he makes the case for unfettering the hands of the man who we re-elected to protect us from another 9/11.
You do remember 9/11, don't you? I sure do. My clock radio woke me at 7am Pacific Time with continuous news about planes striking the Twin Towers in New York, the skyscrapers in flames, people trapped on the 83rd floor and jumping to their death from fear of being burned alive, the inevitable word that the towers had collapsed into rubble heaps . . . two . . . one . . . zero towers.
I didn't go to work that day. I sat at home alone, listening in horror to the newscasts on the radio. My Darling Daughter called me from San Diego around mid-day, and we talked in hushed voices about the calamity and what it might mean for our country. We had no idea how bad it could be.
Later, we all found out how bad it could be.
We were lucky, if you can call it that. About 3000 people lost their lives, including the people in the three buildings and the passengers in the four airplanes, plus all of the rescue workers caught in the collapse. It could have been worse. Initial estimates were that as many as 50,000 people could have been in the World Trade Center buildings. But it was too early in the day, about 9am Eastern Time, and the shopping crowds hadn't yet gathered in the ground-level malls.
Lucky. Yeah.
The following days gave us a glimpse of national solidarity, as Congress gathered on the Capital Steps to sing "America" and every one said "Never Forget!"
But some of us did forget.
There was a lot of talk about the failure of the intelligence services, and how they SHOULD have known about this threat, but they were forbidden to work together to process and share the information that was, as we now know, readily available.
We changed that. Changed the laws that enforced only the concept that International Terrorism was only a civil or criminal matter. We knew now that we were in a war, a knife-fight for national survival. Never forget.
But some of us did forget.
"Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
It has nearly come down to that, as politicians play the game for political advantage . . . the Outs furious that they are no longer the Ins, and forgetting that it was their casual, Politically Correct vision of National Security brought us to this National Tragedy.
They no longer foam at the mouth in a vindictive desire to find the people who "did this to us", and to take any necessary measures to prevent a similar recurrence. Instead, they snap at the heels of the Big Dog whose job it is to, as the Constitution requires, insure that we can
That's how I feel about it.
Here's how Mark Steyn says it:
And this is, indeed, a desperate time.
There WAS a time when my greatest fear was that my son would be called upon to serve his country by taking up arms in its defense. I did it, in 1968-1970, and I would not wish that on anyone who was not whole-heartedly determined that this was The Right Thing To Do.
I did it, even though I was not "whole-heartedly determined". My family was frightened for my sake during the entire time, perhaps even more frightened than I was. Hard to imagine.
Now I'm even more worried. Even though my son, and my daughter's good husband, will probably NOT be conscripted to fight a war, we have all been so conscripted in a way that is even more fearful.
We don't have a country to fight. We don't even have an open enemy.
Instead we have a nest of vipers who lurk in the shadows, hide amongst honest folk, and only strike at the most vulnerable of us. They have no fear of death, and deprecate us because we love life.
We cannot raise an army, train and arm them, transport them on troop ships to their home country to defeat them in detail. They don't have a home country, they only have malice.
How do we find these pockets of enmity?
You have to know where to look.
How do you know where to look?
Aye, there's the rub. And the very few, the pitifully few weapons we have at our disposal are being taken from us by serpents at our breast. The people whom we chose to protects us in mass have chosen to protect their own vested interests by attacking our leaders.
Oh, go read Mark Steyn. He's much less melodramatic than I am. More convincing as well
x
Mark Steyn remains one of my all-time favorite political commentators. The New Hampshire British-sounding guy has the gift of finding the nugget in the nuggies and polishing it into an eminently readable argument for survival of Western Civilization.
Here he takes on the DemocRats who would impeach President Bush for taking needful steps to ferret out terrorist snakes before they can strike.
Citing, just for example, the resounding intelligence success which stopped a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge (why didn't they just buy it?), he makes the case for unfettering the hands of the man who we re-elected to protect us from another 9/11.
You do remember 9/11, don't you? I sure do. My clock radio woke me at 7am Pacific Time with continuous news about planes striking the Twin Towers in New York, the skyscrapers in flames, people trapped on the 83rd floor and jumping to their death from fear of being burned alive, the inevitable word that the towers had collapsed into rubble heaps . . . two . . . one . . . zero towers.
I didn't go to work that day. I sat at home alone, listening in horror to the newscasts on the radio. My Darling Daughter called me from San Diego around mid-day, and we talked in hushed voices about the calamity and what it might mean for our country. We had no idea how bad it could be.
Later, we all found out how bad it could be.
We were lucky, if you can call it that. About 3000 people lost their lives, including the people in the three buildings and the passengers in the four airplanes, plus all of the rescue workers caught in the collapse. It could have been worse. Initial estimates were that as many as 50,000 people could have been in the World Trade Center buildings. But it was too early in the day, about 9am Eastern Time, and the shopping crowds hadn't yet gathered in the ground-level malls.
Lucky. Yeah.
The following days gave us a glimpse of national solidarity, as Congress gathered on the Capital Steps to sing "America" and every one said "Never Forget!"
But some of us did forget.
There was a lot of talk about the failure of the intelligence services, and how they SHOULD have known about this threat, but they were forbidden to work together to process and share the information that was, as we now know, readily available.
We changed that. Changed the laws that enforced only the concept that International Terrorism was only a civil or criminal matter. We knew now that we were in a war, a knife-fight for national survival. Never forget.
But some of us did forget.
"Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
It has nearly come down to that, as politicians play the game for political advantage . . . the Outs furious that they are no longer the Ins, and forgetting that it was their casual, Politically Correct vision of National Security brought us to this National Tragedy.
They no longer foam at the mouth in a vindictive desire to find the people who "did this to us", and to take any necessary measures to prevent a similar recurrence. Instead, they snap at the heels of the Big Dog whose job it is to, as the Constitution requires, insure that we can
. . . establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity . . .
That's how I feel about it.
Here's how Mark Steyn says it:
It's very hard to fight a terrorist war without intelligence. By definition, you can only win battles against terrorists pre-emptively -- that's to say, you find out what they're planning to do next Thursday and you stop it cold on Wednesday. Capturing them on Friday while you're still pulling your dead from the rubble is poor consolation. For example, in 1988, a British SAS unit shot dead three IRA members on the streets of Gibraltar. The United Kingdom's Joint Intelligence Committee were acting on information that the cell was planning to blow up the changing-of-the-guard ceremony on the Rock. The two men and a woman were subsequently found to be ''unarmed,'' and as a result various civil liberties groups protested and critical TV documentaries were made. But there was no dispute that they were IRA members and that they had bomb-making materials in their car. If the state cannot take action until its sworn enemy uses those materials, it had better be prepared to lose the war.It shouldn't be necessary to point out the obvious. But, unmoored from reality, wafting happily into fantasy land safe in the hermetically sealed Democrat-media bubble, Sen. Barbara Boxer and her colleagues are apparently considering impeaching the president for eavesdropping on al Qaida calls made to U.S. phone numbers. Surely, even Karl Rove can't get that lucky.
By the way, I'd love to see the witness list for that trial: Muhammad al-Jihad testifying that a week before he blows up a Bali nightclub he always makes a perfectly innocent call to his cousin in Milwaukee to ask how the kids are; Abu Musad al-Zarqawi testifying that he only called Howard Dean to issue a formal complaint about congressional Democrats stealing his rationalizations. Etc.
The Democrats and the media want to upgrade every terrorist into O.J. Simpson, insulated by legalisms and entitled to his own dream team. (Their figleaf, the court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which previously denied not a single request, has turned down hundreds in the years since 9/11.) The practical effect of the Dems' approach is to extend the protections of the U.S. Constitution to any dodgy character anywhere on the planet who has a U.S. telephone number in his Rolodex. Indeed, given that perfectly ordinary cell phones can be used almost anywhere -- this week, I spoke to an American in London by dialing his Washington cell number -- if the Democrats have their way, all terrorist cells in Europe or Pakistan would have to do to put themselves beyond the reach of U.S. intelligence is get a New Jersey-based associate to place a bulk order for Verizon cell phones.
There's more, much more, and you really must read the entire article to appreciate the concise flavor of his proposition that, essentially, desperate times require desperate measures.
And this is, indeed, a desperate time.
There WAS a time when my greatest fear was that my son would be called upon to serve his country by taking up arms in its defense. I did it, in 1968-1970, and I would not wish that on anyone who was not whole-heartedly determined that this was The Right Thing To Do.
I did it, even though I was not "whole-heartedly determined". My family was frightened for my sake during the entire time, perhaps even more frightened than I was. Hard to imagine.
Now I'm even more worried. Even though my son, and my daughter's good husband, will probably NOT be conscripted to fight a war, we have all been so conscripted in a way that is even more fearful.
We don't have a country to fight. We don't even have an open enemy.
Instead we have a nest of vipers who lurk in the shadows, hide amongst honest folk, and only strike at the most vulnerable of us. They have no fear of death, and deprecate us because we love life.
We cannot raise an army, train and arm them, transport them on troop ships to their home country to defeat them in detail. They don't have a home country, they only have malice.
How do we find these pockets of enmity?
You have to know where to look.
How do you know where to look?
Aye, there's the rub. And the very few, the pitifully few weapons we have at our disposal are being taken from us by serpents at our breast. The people whom we chose to protects us in mass have chosen to protect their own vested interests by attacking our leaders.
Oh, go read Mark Steyn. He's much less melodramatic than I am. More convincing as well
x
Xbox Rage
The ChronicleHerald.ca
In Nova Scotia, a man killed a friend because he believed the friend had stolen his 'game console'.
One more justification for "Xbox Control".
Maybe there should be a law against possession of "electronic game players". At least, keep them out of the hands of kids.
Nope, that won't work. The killer was 24, legally "old enough to know better".
I guess the Canuks will just have to put them off-limits to anyone who can't prove he's mentally competent, trained in the safe usage of electronic game players, has a valid REASON for possession of an electronic game player, and can get three citizens to swear to their good repute. Then they'll have to register and license their xbox, and open their home to police inspection to assure that they are keeping their xbox out of the hands of children. You know, like they do with guns.
Perhaps the family of the victim will sue IBM for irresponsible marketting of a dangerous electronic game player. I'd love to see how the Canadian Parliament handles THAT question.
Dang, I'm feeling very dark tonite.
In Nova Scotia, a man killed a friend because he believed the friend had stolen his 'game console'.
One more justification for "Xbox Control".
Maybe there should be a law against possession of "electronic game players". At least, keep them out of the hands of kids.
Nope, that won't work. The killer was 24, legally "old enough to know better".
I guess the Canuks will just have to put them off-limits to anyone who can't prove he's mentally competent, trained in the safe usage of electronic game players, has a valid REASON for possession of an electronic game player, and can get three citizens to swear to their good repute. Then they'll have to register and license their xbox, and open their home to police inspection to assure that they are keeping their xbox out of the hands of children. You know, like they do with guns.
Perhaps the family of the victim will sue IBM for irresponsible marketting of a dangerous electronic game player. I'd love to see how the Canadian Parliament handles THAT question.
Dang, I'm feeling very dark tonite.
Woman sues cops for shooting her
Macomb Daily : Woman in high-speed chase sues police for shooting her
Woman gets into a "dispute" at her brother's house. Brother calls cops, says she pointed a gun at him and drove off in her Chevy Malibu. Cops find the Malibu driving down the road, try to pul her over. Woman jackrabbits, reaching speeds of up to 110 miles an hour on the freeway. Cops ahead of her put out 'stop sticks', puncturing her tires. Woman crashes into freeway wall.
Cops approach the wreck, see woman "lying across the front seat with a revolver in her hand". Cops see "smoke or flame" coming out of the barrel of her gun. Cops return fire.
Woman severely wounded (see below) goes to hospital where she's declared a 'paraplegic', eventually. Meanwhile, cops find 400 rounds of ammunition in her car. Woman claimes she kept all of her belongings in the car because she's homeless. Excuse me: "transient".
Here's where it gets complicated.
Woman hires lawyer. Lawyer sues city, saying even though [woman's] brother told police his sister was armed, police "didn't know she had a gun." Also, woman "did not fire her gun first, and even if she did, the police officers' response was excessive."
Brother later tells cops his sister is "bipolar".
I may sound a little insensitive here. I do believe that the woman (let's call her by her name: Carmen Mattera) was hit in the arm by a shotgun blast, and that's probably the reason she's now considered 'paraplegic' . . . the doctors eventually amputated her arm.
I'm sorry she lost her arm, and was so banged up in the car crash. She had enough problems already, having been diagnosed (as it turns out) as a "paranoid-schizophrenic" a few years before, and having been in and out of psychiatric treatment for ten years.
Now she's suing the cops who stopped her from whatever her fevered mind would have caused her to do, with her revolver and her eight boxes of ammo. Essentially, her claim is that the cops over-reacted.
No, they didn't.
Reading both sides of the story, and allowing that you can't tell WHAT the truth is by what you read in the newspapers, I'm inclined to believe the cops' version. The woman is a dingbat. She finally stepped over the line and threatened people -- her FAMILY -- with a gun. When the cops tried to stop her, SHE over-reacted. They responded with appropriate force, and it's hard to tell why she lived through the experience. As soon as she pointed a gun at a cop, she had forfeited her right to live in a civilized society.
Sorry, this isn't a simple, amusing story about a dingbat who went goofy and sued the cops who were doing their job. There is no punch line about "she got what she deserved" or ""she did that, and then sued the cops for making her face the consequences of her own bad decisions".
And I'm not going to do the "poor little girl" speech, and tell you that the police should have been more understanding of her problems, or celebrate her psychiatric diversity.
I have some history of dingbats with guns. Their sickness may not have been their fault, but you can't reason with a rabid dog and that's what she was.
Sometimes, the family just can't protect each other from their screwy members. Police are suppose to be psychologists, because the people they meet are often deranged in one way or another. The line is drawn, and rightly, when the people they meet are obviously a threat to the health and life of everyone they meet. You can't reason with them. You can only stop them.
Whatever it takes.
Here's the Bottom Line:
Indeed.
This is what her brother must have felt when she pointed a gun at him.
A woman who was left a paraplegic after being shot several times by Warren police in the moments following a high-speed car chase has accused officers of using excessive force in a lawsuit filed in Macomb County Circuit Court.The story is complicated, you really need to read the whole article to figure it out. But here's the summary (if I'm capable of boiling down an article, which I doubt.)
Woman gets into a "dispute" at her brother's house. Brother calls cops, says she pointed a gun at him and drove off in her Chevy Malibu. Cops find the Malibu driving down the road, try to pul her over. Woman jackrabbits, reaching speeds of up to 110 miles an hour on the freeway. Cops ahead of her put out 'stop sticks', puncturing her tires. Woman crashes into freeway wall.
Cops approach the wreck, see woman "lying across the front seat with a revolver in her hand". Cops see "smoke or flame" coming out of the barrel of her gun. Cops return fire.
Woman severely wounded (see below) goes to hospital where she's declared a 'paraplegic', eventually. Meanwhile, cops find 400 rounds of ammunition in her car. Woman claimes she kept all of her belongings in the car because she's homeless. Excuse me: "transient".
Here's where it gets complicated.
Woman hires lawyer. Lawyer sues city, saying even though [woman's] brother told police his sister was armed, police "didn't know she had a gun." Also, woman "did not fire her gun first, and even if she did, the police officers' response was excessive."
Brother later tells cops his sister is "bipolar".
Following the incident, Mattera spent 10 months under police guard in William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where an arm was amputated below the elbow, then spent up to 60 days in a state psychiatric center.Her later statement was that she saw police at her brothers house:
Right. Okay, who believe this ding-bat's story? Show of hands? (Oops, sorry lady. You're the only one who believes your story, and you're running out of hands.)"There were at least 40 or 50 of them," she says. "I did not know they were there for me. There were so many, why would there be? Then I realized and I got scared and I ran."
She says that after her vehicle crashed on I-696, "I stayed in the vehicle and saw them draw their weapons. I got down in the seat of the car because they drew their weapons. They opened fire and I saw the bullets going in and out of the car. I was hit with quite a few of them. I brought out my pistol and I fired in the air and fired wide, not to hit anybody. I saw that it was doing no good, so I quit doing it. They brought out a shotgun and shot my arm off. That was it. It was over."
I may sound a little insensitive here. I do believe that the woman (let's call her by her name: Carmen Mattera) was hit in the arm by a shotgun blast, and that's probably the reason she's now considered 'paraplegic' . . . the doctors eventually amputated her arm.
I'm sorry she lost her arm, and was so banged up in the car crash. She had enough problems already, having been diagnosed (as it turns out) as a "paranoid-schizophrenic" a few years before, and having been in and out of psychiatric treatment for ten years.
Now she's suing the cops who stopped her from whatever her fevered mind would have caused her to do, with her revolver and her eight boxes of ammo. Essentially, her claim is that the cops over-reacted.
No, they didn't.
Reading both sides of the story, and allowing that you can't tell WHAT the truth is by what you read in the newspapers, I'm inclined to believe the cops' version. The woman is a dingbat. She finally stepped over the line and threatened people -- her FAMILY -- with a gun. When the cops tried to stop her, SHE over-reacted. They responded with appropriate force, and it's hard to tell why she lived through the experience. As soon as she pointed a gun at a cop, she had forfeited her right to live in a civilized society.
Sorry, this isn't a simple, amusing story about a dingbat who went goofy and sued the cops who were doing their job. There is no punch line about "she got what she deserved" or ""she did that, and then sued the cops for making her face the consequences of her own bad decisions".
And I'm not going to do the "poor little girl" speech, and tell you that the police should have been more understanding of her problems, or celebrate her psychiatric diversity.
I have some history of dingbats with guns. Their sickness may not have been their fault, but you can't reason with a rabid dog and that's what she was.
Sometimes, the family just can't protect each other from their screwy members. Police are suppose to be psychologists, because the people they meet are often deranged in one way or another. The line is drawn, and rightly, when the people they meet are obviously a threat to the health and life of everyone they meet. You can't reason with them. You can only stop them.
Whatever it takes.
Here's the Bottom Line:
Oppression and malice? Reckless disregard? Emotional distress? Beyond the bounds of decency? Indifference to rights? Proper response? Excessive force?In the lawsuit, Mattera accuses police of "oppression and malice" with "reckless indifference and disregard for the plaintiff's physical welfare, safety, life and liberty."
She says police conspired to cover up police misconduct, and the officers intentionally inflicted emotional distress on her and their actions "went beyond the bounds of decency."
She says the city of Warren exhibited "deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of persons in Warren" by failing to provide proper police response and or stop police from using excessive force.
Indeed.
This is what her brother must have felt when she pointed a gun at him.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Swedish Bikini Team
How can I have been posting IPSC news for over a year, and never have mentioned
the Swedish Bikini Team?
Just stupid.
There's actually two of them. The 'new' Swedish Bikini Team, seen above, and the Old Swedish Bikini Team.
Here's the Old Team.
They don't look all that old to me.
The Swedish Bikini Team was best known (to me) for their IPSC participation. Obviously, they had a lot of other activities. There are a lot of Bikini Team websites. You can look them up on your own ... Google works for everyone.
Here's one that emphasizes the IPSC activities of the team.
Don't be fooled by the flash and glitter, these ladies DID compete in several shooting matches. I can't tell you whether they did well in competition. Rumor has it that the RO never looked at the trigger finger, and the scorekeeper just wrote down whatever the team members said.
Works for me.
the Swedish Bikini Team?Just stupid.
There's actually two of them. The 'new' Swedish Bikini Team, seen above, and the Old Swedish Bikini Team.
Here's the Old Team.They don't look all that old to me.
The Swedish Bikini Team was best known (to me) for their IPSC participation. Obviously, they had a lot of other activities. There are a lot of Bikini Team websites. You can look them up on your own ... Google works for everyone.
Here's one that emphasizes the IPSC activities of the team.
Don't be fooled by the flash and glitter, these ladies DID compete in several shooting matches. I can't tell you whether they did well in competition. Rumor has it that the RO never looked at the trigger finger, and the scorekeeper just wrote down whatever the team members said.Works for me.
Texas Shoot-Out
Here's a video, and supporting still photos, proving that Cops earn a lot more than they are paid.
The originator (H/T: G-man) suggests that you look at the video before you view the still photos. You can't really do that in this format. But after you have viewed the 4mb video, go back and look at the "after" pictures anyway.
I did, and I thanked God that I don't earn my living by going around with a big bulls-eye painted on my forehead.
I count 38 bullet holes. What's your count?
Warning: obscene language.
Completely justified, I believe.
The originator (H/T: G-man) suggests that you look at the video before you view the still photos. You can't really do that in this format. But after you have viewed the 4mb video, go back and look at the "after" pictures anyway.
I did, and I thanked God that I don't earn my living by going around with a big bulls-eye painted on my forehead.
I count 38 bullet holes. What's your count?
Warning: obscene language.
Completely justified, I believe.
UPDATE:
More information about these pictures has become available since I wrote this.
The still photos of the car were taken after a separate, entirely unrelated shooting incident.
The Gun Zone has the information about the five shot-up-patrol-car photographs. (Note: may load slowly on lo-speed connections.)
H/T: C.T.
13-JAN-2005:
Chris wrote to point out that I failed to include the link to the Gun Zone article. That has been done (above), but for emphasis here it is again:
http://www.thegunzone.com/mos/schertz.html
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Bandwidth II
SELF-PROMOTING PROPAGANDA: Ignore at your leisure!
A few months ago, I talked about bandwidth , by means of complaining about AOL and dial-up access.
I had some goals:
But I'm doing it faster.
Remember the Six Million Dollar Man?
Okay, so maybe I'm no Better but I'm sure-hell Faster and Stronger.
With my faster internet access, I can do more in less time. One of the problems I use to have (last June, when I was complaining about dial-up access) was that it took me all night to research a topic. I could do internet searches, but the results were so slow that following the links to real information could take all night. Sometimes I grew impatient, and was unwilling to continue my search for data which would either support or disprove my thesis. Consequently, some themes were never completed, and remain to this day in my DRAFT files.
On the other hand, it may be that further research would have revealed the story behind the story, and prevented me from proliferating fallacies. I am reminded most immediately about the story of a deputy sheriff who suffered injuries due to an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound which turned out to be not his fault at all. I characterized as "either the biggest liar, or the luckiest man I've ever heard of" or words to that effect. When the duputy contacted me later and explained the circumstances, I realized that I was misrepresenting him egrigiously and wrote a hasty retraction. Unfortunately, it may be that readers will remember the original canard and not the correction. My bad, entirely, and while it may be personally embarassing for ME, it created a situation which I can never make right. I hope never again to demean an innocent, and this tool (faster access to background material) may help me to realize this goal.
The written word can be cruel, and it matters not if the cruelty is unintended.
---
The faster internet access has also allowed me to take advantage of web hosting, which has resulted in protecting against broken links to photos (they're on MY web-host server, not somebody else's, so I know they won't disappear).
Thanks to my new best friend and web-host Brian B (whose name I can't spell, according to evidence in Front Sight Magazine), I have been able to store photos and videos of several IPSC matches, and provide them to you on a separate website (Jerry the Geek's Shooting Gallery). Brian was kind enough to install the software necessary to establish a photo gallery, and has been entirely supportive while I bloat his server hard-drives with, at last count, over 2GB of photo content. This photo gallery alone supported my efforts in achieving several goals:
But we're getting a lot closer to being able to provide a valuable service to our readership, and as far as I'm concerned it's worth the expense, the temporary inconvenience, and the steep learning-curve to accomplish an improvement in content.
Besides, it's fun.
A few months ago, I talked about bandwidth , by means of complaining about AOL and dial-up access.
I had some goals:
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.Well, it's 'next year', and I am still here and I AM doing the same old boring stuff.
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.
But I'm doing it faster.
Remember the Six Million Dollar Man?
"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him . . . we have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man.Steve AustinJerry the Geek will be that man. Better than he was before, Stronger, Faster . . ."
Okay, so maybe I'm no Better but I'm sure-hell Faster and Stronger.
With my faster internet access, I can do more in less time. One of the problems I use to have (last June, when I was complaining about dial-up access) was that it took me all night to research a topic. I could do internet searches, but the results were so slow that following the links to real information could take all night. Sometimes I grew impatient, and was unwilling to continue my search for data which would either support or disprove my thesis. Consequently, some themes were never completed, and remain to this day in my DRAFT files.
On the other hand, it may be that further research would have revealed the story behind the story, and prevented me from proliferating fallacies. I am reminded most immediately about the story of a deputy sheriff who suffered injuries due to an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound which turned out to be not his fault at all. I characterized as "either the biggest liar, or the luckiest man I've ever heard of" or words to that effect. When the duputy contacted me later and explained the circumstances, I realized that I was misrepresenting him egrigiously and wrote a hasty retraction. Unfortunately, it may be that readers will remember the original canard and not the correction. My bad, entirely, and while it may be personally embarassing for ME, it created a situation which I can never make right. I hope never again to demean an innocent, and this tool (faster access to background material) may help me to realize this goal.
The written word can be cruel, and it matters not if the cruelty is unintended.
---
The faster internet access has also allowed me to take advantage of web hosting, which has resulted in protecting against broken links to photos (they're on MY web-host server, not somebody else's, so I know they won't disappear).
Thanks to my new best friend and web-host Brian B (whose name I can't spell, according to evidence in Front Sight Magazine), I have been able to store photos and videos of several IPSC matches, and provide them to you on a separate website (Jerry the Geek's Shooting Gallery). Brian was kind enough to install the software necessary to establish a photo gallery, and has been entirely supportive while I bloat his server hard-drives with, at last count, over 2GB of photo content. This photo gallery alone supported my efforts in achieving several goals:
- Promote Practical Pistol Competition by showing what IPSC matches look like, for the benefit of people who may be interested in joining but just aren't sure what the Sport is like;
- Promote participation of experienced competitors by demonstrating the high quality of stages and matches in the Columbia Cascade Section, using views of actual shooters in actual matches as an example;
- Improve training of new shooters, by showing not only the RIGHT way to shoot a stage, but often the WRONG way as an example of what to avoid. (Videos of my own shooting frequently provides the most embarassing examples of the "wrong way", but that's the price you pay when you decide to accept "full disclosure" as a standard. Fortunately, I'm not so committed that I won't edit out my worst stages.)
- Reinforce continued participation by experienced shooters by providing photos and videos of their match experiences when they are performing at their very best competitive level. I've been fortunate in that I have been able to include videos of stage winners in 'major matches' (within the Section) at their most glorious moments.
- Demonstrate stage designs, and target arrangements, which provide interesting Shooting Challenges that might be used in other matches.
- Amuse you and me by illustrating the funny little glitches which are part of the Sport.
But we're getting a lot closer to being able to provide a valuable service to our readership, and as far as I'm concerned it's worth the expense, the temporary inconvenience, and the steep learning-curve to accomplish an improvement in content.
Besides, it's fun.
Pirates! A History Lesson
Somali piracy is worst in world
I know I've written before (although even I can't find the link, it was in some BLOGMEAT post last year and it's too obscure to find) about the problem of Pirates on the High Seas.
As I recall, the earlier post was a tale of a couple of yachts sailing together in Indonesian waters, who were beset by pirates in small boats. (Indonesia, and the straits, there-in, having been the scourge of the seas for the past hundred years.) The yachts were both equipped with small arms, and between them they managed to provide mutually supportive fire and drove off the pirates with some apparent casualties. That is, casualties to the Pirates, not to the Yachters.
That was then; this is now.
Now, the entirely lawless non-state of Somalia is riding high on the misery of their Tsunami-decimated neighbors and the influx of international aid flowing to them by sea.
Rather than to accept that these mercy ships are bringing much-needed supplies to their brethren in a humanitarian effort, the blackguards (I've waited my whole life to use that word!) are preying upon their fellow citizens, once removed, by ambushing ships which would relieve the suffering in Somalia.
This is the style of predation which led to the "Blackhawk Down" situation under President Clinton's watch; there, American troops had been volunteered in an effort to ensure that international relief supplies were actually delivered to the starving populace. Due to a lack of mission support and true commitment to the goal, not only were supplies of food, medicine and clothing intercepted in a political situation which precluded the American mission from actually accomplishing its goals, but the under-supported American forces were attacked and decimated (literally) by forces of the Somalian warlords. America suffered one of its greatest defeats there, and it was not due to the lack of dedication by the brave warriors who had dedicated themselves to a worthy effort, but by the lack of dedication on the part of the politicians who set the goals.
This was probably one of the most telling events in the promulgation of terrorism in modern times, as the terrorist world subsequently decided that American troops and forces could be attacked safely, because the American forces had not the will to enforce civilized behavior by dint of our obvious strength.
This event was a direct precursor to the 9/11 attacks directly on America, and the loss of thousands of American lives, the undermining of the American economy to the extent of billions of dollars, and the current Jihad of Islamic Extremists against the American Extremists.
(Thank GOD that Al Gore didn't win the 2000 election, or John Kerry the 2004 election, lest these mongrels would be nipping at our homeland heels even yet!)
You can see that, as an indicator of attacks against Western Civilization, piracy is a non-insignificant matter both to America and to Civilization as a whole.
In this latest attack, pirates in small, open boats attempted to attack and, presumably, board and capture, a Cruise Ship in the Indian Ocean off the shores of Somalia. It seems reasonable to assume that the were Somalian "nationals", if such a term is applicable to an outlaw land which has had no national leadership for several years.
To our surprise, the cruise ship fought back. Admittedly, their weapons were non-lethal 'noise generators', and happily these were sufficient.
But what if they were NOT sufficient?
Would the cruise ship have had the resources to resort to more lethal defenses? Do cruise ships carry large guns, as traders have historically found necessary to defend themselves against barbarians?
Barbarian: a useful word, denoting (among other things) 'non-civilized' persons. *
It is interesting also in that it suggests a connection to the Barbary Pirates.
The Barbary Pirates were predators in the Mediterranean Sea for a thousand years. In fact, they ruled that body of water even during the period when America, a fledging nation, was expanding its international trans-oceanic trade up to the 19th century. At first the American government was convinced that the best way to handle the pirates (who not only had captured American traders, but had even enslaved American seamen and held them for ransom) was to pay tribute. This did serve to emancipate a few sailors, now and then, but the pirates realized that America was just one more Paper Lion and continued their predations. The effect was that American trade, like that of other sea-faring nations, was constantly subject to pirate attacks until it became obvious that no amount of tribute had the effect of lessening the aggressive behavior of these Tripoli-based "insurgents".
(Do you now see the parallel?)
Finally, in 1801, America decided to discontinue tribute and instead invested its resources in a long and ongoing attack against the barbarian state of Tripoli; a kleptocracy, as is Somalia now a kleptocracy; albeit on a somewhat smaller scale so far.
This wasn't a "short, decisive war" (or "Short, victorious war" as it is often referred to).
Instead, " It was not until 1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U.S., although some European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s."
But in the final act, American shipping was no longer subject to the 'Barbary-an' *(barbarian)* trepidations and, eventually, the whole world was able to free itself from this egregious and bloody battle to ensure safe world-wide trade among civilized nations.
Take a moment and scroll back.
Can you see the analogy between the Barbary Pirates and the Islamo-Fascist terrorism of our modern world? How has the world changed in the past 200 years?
The only changes are in the technology of defense, and the will to defend civilization against barbarism.
Civilized nations now have better weapons to defend itself against barbarians. A single US Naval flotilla could wipe out the Somalia Pirates. Better yet, a policy of arming civilian shipping against pirates could have the same effect at one tenth the cost.
Will 'they' do it? Will civilized nations arm civilian traders (and cruise ships) sufficiently to defend themselves against "three men in a boat"?
Probably not yet. But this is what the world is coming to.
Liberals and liberal nations are determined to insist that it is 'ungentlemanly' (or words to that effect) for civilians to arm themselves in self-defense. In fact, they are loath to allow individuals to arm themselves in self-defense. But we are seeing today that this is necessary. Police cannot protect individuals; nations cannot protect groups; navies cannot protect ships of their own flag!
The time has come when steps must be taken.
Flag-carriers must be armed to defend themselves.
Individuals must be armed to defend themselves.
Those who would argue that civilian defense measures would inhibit the international (via the United Nations) drive to disarm everybody . . . will eventually become extremely uncomfortable living with their head in such an uncomfortably anal position. If the United Nations, individual nations, and local bodies finally are driven by circumstances to admit that they cannot protect their citizens, they will take such measures as are necessary to provide these citizens with the means to defend themselves, or at least ALLOW such self-protection.
It will happen. It is bound to happen, because the only alternative is to continue losing law-abiding citizens to such predations as is typified by the Somalia Pirates.
It won't happen soon, and a lot of good people will die before the politicians decide to get out of the way.
The politicians only need to be thumped resoundingly by the barbarians a few more times, and to find a viable 'exit strategy', to explain away the reasons why they haven't taken such actions before.
I do feel sorry, though, for the innocents who must suffer until they find the courage to do the right thing.
It's always the innocents who suffer from the sins of politicians, isn't it?
I know I've written before (although even I can't find the link, it was in some BLOGMEAT post last year and it's too obscure to find) about the problem of Pirates on the High Seas.
As I recall, the earlier post was a tale of a couple of yachts sailing together in Indonesian waters, who were beset by pirates in small boats. (Indonesia, and the straits, there-in, having been the scourge of the seas for the past hundred years.) The yachts were both equipped with small arms, and between them they managed to provide mutually supportive fire and drove off the pirates with some apparent casualties. That is, casualties to the Pirates, not to the Yachters.
That was then; this is now.
Now, the entirely lawless non-state of Somalia is riding high on the misery of their Tsunami-decimated neighbors and the influx of international aid flowing to them by sea.
Rather than to accept that these mercy ships are bringing much-needed supplies to their brethren in a humanitarian effort, the blackguards (I've waited my whole life to use that word!) are preying upon their fellow citizens, once removed, by ambushing ships which would relieve the suffering in Somalia.
This is the style of predation which led to the "Blackhawk Down" situation under President Clinton's watch; there, American troops had been volunteered in an effort to ensure that international relief supplies were actually delivered to the starving populace. Due to a lack of mission support and true commitment to the goal, not only were supplies of food, medicine and clothing intercepted in a political situation which precluded the American mission from actually accomplishing its goals, but the under-supported American forces were attacked and decimated (literally) by forces of the Somalian warlords. America suffered one of its greatest defeats there, and it was not due to the lack of dedication by the brave warriors who had dedicated themselves to a worthy effort, but by the lack of dedication on the part of the politicians who set the goals.
This was probably one of the most telling events in the promulgation of terrorism in modern times, as the terrorist world subsequently decided that American troops and forces could be attacked safely, because the American forces had not the will to enforce civilized behavior by dint of our obvious strength.
This event was a direct precursor to the 9/11 attacks directly on America, and the loss of thousands of American lives, the undermining of the American economy to the extent of billions of dollars, and the current Jihad of Islamic Extremists against the American Extremists.
(Thank GOD that Al Gore didn't win the 2000 election, or John Kerry the 2004 election, lest these mongrels would be nipping at our homeland heels even yet!)
You can see that, as an indicator of attacks against Western Civilization, piracy is a non-insignificant matter both to America and to Civilization as a whole.
In this latest attack, pirates in small, open boats attempted to attack and, presumably, board and capture, a Cruise Ship in the Indian Ocean off the shores of Somalia. It seems reasonable to assume that the were Somalian "nationals", if such a term is applicable to an outlaw land which has had no national leadership for several years.
To our surprise, the cruise ship fought back. Admittedly, their weapons were non-lethal 'noise generators', and happily these were sufficient.
But what if they were NOT sufficient?
Would the cruise ship have had the resources to resort to more lethal defenses? Do cruise ships carry large guns, as traders have historically found necessary to defend themselves against barbarians?
Barbarian: a useful word, denoting (among other things) 'non-civilized' persons. *
It is interesting also in that it suggests a connection to the Barbary Pirates.
The Barbary Pirates were predators in the Mediterranean Sea for a thousand years. In fact, they ruled that body of water even during the period when America, a fledging nation, was expanding its international trans-oceanic trade up to the 19th century. At first the American government was convinced that the best way to handle the pirates (who not only had captured American traders, but had even enslaved American seamen and held them for ransom) was to pay tribute. This did serve to emancipate a few sailors, now and then, but the pirates realized that America was just one more Paper Lion and continued their predations. The effect was that American trade, like that of other sea-faring nations, was constantly subject to pirate attacks until it became obvious that no amount of tribute had the effect of lessening the aggressive behavior of these Tripoli-based "insurgents".
(Do you now see the parallel?)
Finally, in 1801, America decided to discontinue tribute and instead invested its resources in a long and ongoing attack against the barbarian state of Tripoli; a kleptocracy, as is Somalia now a kleptocracy; albeit on a somewhat smaller scale so far.
This wasn't a "short, decisive war" (or "Short, victorious war" as it is often referred to).
Instead, " It was not until 1815 that naval victories ended tribute payments by the U.S., although some European nations continued annual payments until the 1830s."
But in the final act, American shipping was no longer subject to the 'Barbary-an' *(barbarian)* trepidations and, eventually, the whole world was able to free itself from this egregious and bloody battle to ensure safe world-wide trade among civilized nations.
Take a moment and scroll back.
Can you see the analogy between the Barbary Pirates and the Islamo-Fascist terrorism of our modern world? How has the world changed in the past 200 years?
The only changes are in the technology of defense, and the will to defend civilization against barbarism.
Civilized nations now have better weapons to defend itself against barbarians. A single US Naval flotilla could wipe out the Somalia Pirates. Better yet, a policy of arming civilian shipping against pirates could have the same effect at one tenth the cost.
Will 'they' do it? Will civilized nations arm civilian traders (and cruise ships) sufficiently to defend themselves against "three men in a boat"?
Probably not yet. But this is what the world is coming to.
Liberals and liberal nations are determined to insist that it is 'ungentlemanly' (or words to that effect) for civilians to arm themselves in self-defense. In fact, they are loath to allow individuals to arm themselves in self-defense. But we are seeing today that this is necessary. Police cannot protect individuals; nations cannot protect groups; navies cannot protect ships of their own flag!
The time has come when steps must be taken.
Flag-carriers must be armed to defend themselves.
Individuals must be armed to defend themselves.
Those who would argue that civilian defense measures would inhibit the international (via the United Nations) drive to disarm everybody . . . will eventually become extremely uncomfortable living with their head in such an uncomfortably anal position. If the United Nations, individual nations, and local bodies finally are driven by circumstances to admit that they cannot protect their citizens, they will take such measures as are necessary to provide these citizens with the means to defend themselves, or at least ALLOW such self-protection.
It will happen. It is bound to happen, because the only alternative is to continue losing law-abiding citizens to such predations as is typified by the Somalia Pirates.
It won't happen soon, and a lot of good people will die before the politicians decide to get out of the way.
The politicians only need to be thumped resoundingly by the barbarians a few more times, and to find a viable 'exit strategy', to explain away the reasons why they haven't taken such actions before.
I do feel sorry, though, for the innocents who must suffer until they find the courage to do the right thing.
It's always the innocents who suffer from the sins of politicians, isn't it?
CCW in Nebraska?
Nebraska legislatures are still hopeful that they will be able to enact legislation enabling Concealed Carry of Handguns in the 2006 session.
Governor Dave Heineman" supports the concept of legalizing the carrying of concealed weapons but has not taken a position on Combs’ bill."
But there are some potential problems with the bill, and even those Nebraskans who desperately WANT to see CCS enacted have mixed feelings about THIS bill.
Gunscribe of Nebraska, in his From The Heartland blog, lists some of these potential friction points in an article dated February 28, 2005.
Several (February 09, 2005), Gunscribe had called it a "Broke Bill". This doesn't look good for passage of ANY CCW bill in Nebraska.
However, on April 23, 2005, Gunscribe wrote another article where he asked whether LB454 is "a good law". In answer to the question whether "any bill (permitting CCW) is better than no bill at all", he reiterates his concern, and his outrage that his home state should treat its citizens "like first graders while the rest of the country is already in high school".
Then he finishes the article thus:
Since Gunscribe has not only decided NOT to oppose passage, and in fact has actively testified for its passage, the bill may have a good chance of being enacted this year, even admitting that it is flawed.
In May, he wrote extensively about state-wide opposition to the bill (primary coming from state legislators and the Lincoln Journal Star) , noted that 33 votes are needed to bring cloture and were not yet guaranteed, and that the bill had already, AT THIS EARLY DATE, been tabled for the 2006 legislature. (There were only 14 days left in the session as of the May 12 date of this article.)
I don't know about you, but I'm already confused. I can't keep track of the ball, and I don't know the players. So I decided that, rather than to obfuscate the issue further by trying to follow the action, I would ask the local expert.
I've contacted Gunscribe through his website and asked him to comment on the bill either here or by email to me directly. I hope he will be able to update the situation, and comment on the possibility of the measure being enacted into law, either with or without amendment, in the 2006 session.
When I hear from him, I'll be sure to let you know.
In an Associated Press pre-session survey, 26 of 49 senators said they would favor allowing Nebraskans to carry concealed weapons, while five said they were leaning that way. Eight were opposed to the idea and two were leaning that way. Four were undecided and three did not answer the question. One senator did not participate in the surveyState senators have been trying for TEN YEARS to get this legislation passed, and in the 2005 session they were making good progress on the latest version of the concealed-weapons measure (LB454) but ran out of time.
It was passed out of committee and sent to the floor for debate, but with the legislative session waning, she (Senator Jeanne Combs, the bill's sponsor) made a deal with Speaker Kermit Brashear of Omaha to pull the measure from the agenda.(This article was written on December 30, 2005; that session beginning date, then, would have been January 4, 2006.)
In return, Brashear committed to scheduling the concealed weapons measure “for full and fair debate” at the beginning of the looming session, which starts Wednesday.
Governor Dave Heineman" supports the concept of legalizing the carrying of concealed weapons but has not taken a position on Combs’ bill."
But there are some potential problems with the bill, and even those Nebraskans who desperately WANT to see CCS enacted have mixed feelings about THIS bill.
Gunscribe of Nebraska, in his From The Heartland blog, lists some of these potential friction points in an article dated February 28, 2005.
- PRE-EMPTION: there's nothing preventing local government from passing draconian ordnances which prohibit Concealed Carry in their town or county.
- TRAINING REQUIREMENTS are not specified. The Nebaska State Patrol is responsible for establishing the requirements, and that department may be able to change requirements unilaterally even after they have been established.
- TIME LIMIT FOR ISSUANCE has also not been addressed, as it often is in other states. For example, in Oregon a county sheriff has a limited period (I believe it is 30 days) to perform a background check, and if at the end of that period no cause to prevent issuance has been established the sheriff SHALL ISSUE a permit.
- RECIPROCITY/RECOGNITION: no reciprocity with other states has yet been addressed.
Several (February 09, 2005), Gunscribe had called it a "Broke Bill". This doesn't look good for passage of ANY CCW bill in Nebraska.
However, on April 23, 2005, Gunscribe wrote another article where he asked whether LB454 is "a good law". In answer to the question whether "any bill (permitting CCW) is better than no bill at all", he reiterates his concern, and his outrage that his home state should treat its citizens "like first graders while the rest of the country is already in high school".
Then he finishes the article thus:
Having said all that;(Emphasis added)
The problem is that there is just not enough interest in CCW by the citizens of Nebraska to pass a good law. That means that a law like this has to be the starting point. Over a period of time, a large part of the population of Nebraska will aquire a license/permit and they will become more interested in the subject.
This interest will make the citizens aware of the differencess (sic) between Nebraska and the other states. Nebraskans, at that point will wake up to the fact that they are under a thumb of oppression not felt in other states. Then and only then will this realization morph into a grassroots effort that it will take to make a silk purse out of the sow's ear that is LB454.
It was with this realization that I, and several other very good people sat before the judiciary committe and testified on behalf of this bill.
Good law? NO, but it is probably the only way to get the ball rolling in a positive direction.
Since Gunscribe has not only decided NOT to oppose passage, and in fact has actively testified for its passage, the bill may have a good chance of being enacted this year, even admitting that it is flawed.
In May, he wrote extensively about state-wide opposition to the bill (primary coming from state legislators and the Lincoln Journal Star) , noted that 33 votes are needed to bring cloture and were not yet guaranteed, and that the bill had already, AT THIS EARLY DATE, been tabled for the 2006 legislature. (There were only 14 days left in the session as of the May 12 date of this article.)
I don't know about you, but I'm already confused. I can't keep track of the ball, and I don't know the players. So I decided that, rather than to obfuscate the issue further by trying to follow the action, I would ask the local expert.
I've contacted Gunscribe through his website and asked him to comment on the bill either here or by email to me directly. I hope he will be able to update the situation, and comment on the possibility of the measure being enacted into law, either with or without amendment, in the 2006 session.
When I hear from him, I'll be sure to let you know.
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