freedom vs blasphemy

The recent brouhaha about the political cartoons posted in a Norwegian newspaper opened up an international can of worms. Reason has a good write-up about it in a "hit and run" blog here, and gleefully add follow-up comments here and here and there.

They also mention the US Joint Chiefs of Staff's objection to a Toles cartoon here.

There are also links to the "offending images" in the cited articles, although if you haven't yet seen the Muhammed 'cartoons' you can find them reprinted in the Brussels Journal here, or here.

I have decided to neither host the cartoons, nor to display them here, out of deference to the only Muslim friend I have; a Lebenon-born immigrant named Issam with whom it has been my pleasure to work for the past ten years. I haven't discussed this issue with Issam because I'm inclined to judge him as an individual, and I don't think he's the type to threaten to kill people because they have offended him. I assume he's typical of most muslims, and I consider him my friend although he is certainly not an admirer of President Bush. (Most of the people with whom I work on a university campus are not admirers of President Bush, and I decline to discuss politics at the office; instead, I discuss politics here. It's a lot less stressful than declaring jihad on Liberals or others who don't agree with my political philosophy.)

I've looked at all of the cartoons, and frankly I don't understand the point of half of them. Most of them aren't obviously depicting the Prophet Mohammed (spelling varies, I'll use this because it's more familiar to me), but it's fair to assume that at least some of them do. Many of them obviously link muslims to violence, and considering the upsurge in violence caused by muslims, that seems fair to me, too.

However, I will provide a link to the Toles cartoon, in case you have never seen it, and a direct link to it here.

The images which muslims find offensive were originally commissioned and published by a Danish newspaper last September. I'm still unable to completely understand why the Danes did this, but I assume that they were trying to build circulation by publishing something controversial (Human Events suggests, in the above link, they did it to send the message that "we cannot be intimidated." That didn't work very well, I think.) Nobody paid much attention to them at the time, and it was not until the Norskis (who don't like that name) republished them in January ... presumably for the same reason ... that they appeared on the Event Horizon.

If I do understand at least part of this correctly, Muslims don't believe that the image of the Prophet Muhammed (Mohammad?) should ever be printed, as it is disrespectful. And when the image is presented in a deliberately disrespectful manner, it is considered blasphemous. Even when the cartoons are reproduced by a muslim editor to counsel moderation. In one case, the Jordanian goverment called for sanctions against a newspaper there which reprinted the images.)

And Norwegian Muslims want their government to establish "anti-blasphemy laws" against this sort of thing.

Anti-blasphemy laws? In a secular country? What IS the world coming to?

I don't know if they're right, but in the particular circumstances it appears that these 'cartoons' are deliberately disrespectful and incinderary. Muslims the world over are outraged, and I don't really blame them. Well, perhaps except for the anti-blasphemy thing.

One man's "blasphemy" is another man's "freedom of speech", and I've probably been too long an American citizen to believe that "blasphemy" is a justification for "hardline muslims" to occupy embassies in muslim countries; or for threats against the life of Danish or Norwegian nationals. As for burning the national flag of home countries of newspapers which published the images . . . well, people burn national flags all the time and frankly I believe it has become a legitimate expression of disdain. If you're an American, the sight of another flag-burning doesn't quite have the same shock value it once had, so go ahead and burn them. We'll make more. (Well, actually China will make more, and we'll buy them from the Chinese because they're so CHEAP! But don't get me started.)

"Blasphemy" is just one more step on the slippery slope which leads to assassination of movie-makers. I admit, I'm no fan of Michael Moore or Bareback Brokeback Mountain, but that's just because I'm not interested in the story of two lonely cowboys so lame that they can't get a date with a good-looking heifer on a Saturday night. I'm voting with my pocketbook, folks; I'm not threatening to assasinate movie producers

Let's compare the muslim reaction to images of their prophet, to the American reaction to the Toles cartoon.

Toles showed a person in a hospital bed, with no arms and no legs. The chart at the foot of the bed was labelled "U.S. ARMY", and the graph displayed was down-hill (a negative prognosis?) A figure labelled "Dr. Rumsfield". He says: "I'm listing your condition as 'battle-hardened'." The obvious implication is that the U.S. Army has suffered grevious wounds, and the Secretary of Defense refuses to acknowledge that it is no longer capable of continuing to function.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America pooled all of their power and . . . wrote a letter protesting the cartoon.

That's it.

Muslims threaten to kill people, Americans write a letter.

It's an amazing coincincence, if you believe in coincidence, that TWO cartoon-related incidents occurred within a couple of days of each other. Also, to compound the coincidence, consider that the Tole cartoont provided a perfect opportunity for the American government to demonstrate a civilized response, in direct contrast to the response of muslims the world over.

I don't really believe that Toles drew the cartoon at the behest of our government, but neither would I be surprised if he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for performing a great and valuable service. It set up a beautiful reposte, at no cost to America except for a measured response of righteous indignation.

When the Muslim world begins to understand that threats of violence, or violence itself, is not an acceptable response to insult (even an insult to your religion), then they will be ready to join the rest of civilization in building a world which allows different viewpoints to exist. Until we, and they, reach this point we won't have a reasonable chance of survival.

A couple of days ago, I read an article about a Muslim website for children, in which Hesbollah essentially demands the return of Seville to Muslim hegemony. I was surprised to learn that Muslims ruled Seville for a thousand years, and was even more surprised that this terrorist group has now decided that they could begin pressing their claim to a land and a people which they had controlled through right of conquest.

THIS is the most disquieting event in recent weeks, to my mind. A people so blind to the right of others to practice their own religion and culture in peace, is a people who are capable of any injustice in furtherance of their own agenda.

It may not be enough for us to provide examples of 'measured reaction', but ultimately it's encouraging that someone had the good sense to take that step, anyway.

Of course, the madmen who are orchestrating this violence-fueled drive to rule the world on their terms won't even notice what's going on. I hope that there are a few muslims left who CAN see it, though.

It won't solve anything by itself, but at least it's a small step in the right direction.

Oh, yes; one more thing:
If you're a newspaper editor, and you have decided to demonstrate that you "cannot be intimidated", you might consider that the attention you generate by deliberately provoking a group of extremist may have repercussions more extreme than you expect, and that they targetted group might just land some innocent people in deep doo-doo. I'm talking about Danish companies whose products are currently being boycotted by muslims, and the burning of embassies.

Muslims the world over are joyfully indulging in the opportunity to spank western butt.

Hey, Danish Editors ... maybe you CAN be intimidated.

"You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance."

XL650: .38 Super

AsI mentioned in the first half of this 2-part series about the Dillon XL650 reloading press, after 9 years of usage I had accumulated set-ups for several calibers ... specifically, 9x19, .45acp and 10mm pistol calibers.

A2K and STI:f
In 2000, SWMBO and I flew to Watervleit, NY, for the A2k Aware Match (Aware, 2000). My online (Unofficial IPSC List) friend Patricia LeGere was the MD, and her husband Warren was the Range Master for what turned out to be one of the best organized match I have ever attended, USPSA Nationals not withstanding.

We had volunteered to work the match, as Range Officers. SWMBO was a RO, and I had been a Certified Range Officer (CRO) since 1997. Still, this was the first Major Match we had worked, and we were pretty excited about both the match and the trip. We had never flown cross-country with guns, gone to a match farther from the Pacific Ocean than Nevada, or in fact been to New York at all. And, in point of fact, we had never met Pat or Warren, although I had been corresponding via the Internet with Pat and a group of like-minded IPSC competitors such as Arnie Christianson, Troy McManus, and Pete Goloski (Julie's father).

We got on a plane in Portland, Oregon on a Wednesday morning and spent the entire day flying. This is not one of SWMBO's favorite ways to spend the day, so by the time we landed in Albany, NY, via Atlanta (don't ask) she wasn't feeling well at all.

SWMBO spent the next day in bed, and in the can. I walked across the street from the motel (reservations and payment courtesy of AWARE) and had breakfast, then walked back in the rain where Pat was waiting to take me to the range.

We spent two days helping set up the stages, and Warren LeGere taught me everything I now know about stage design and construction. The man is a literal genious, and I'm disappointed that the LeGere's have burned out and are no longer running AWARE matches.

The match was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but Friday was the RO match. We had brought only one gun ... the 10mm STI Edge ... with four magazines, one belt (which didn't fit SWMBO all that well), and a ton of 10mm ammunition.

I shot the RO match on Friday Morning, all 12 stages, and it was a blast. I was squadded with Michael Chludenski and "Tillman" (a vendor, darned if I can remember his first name offhand), and a third guy who I can't remember at all. Embarassing, but it was a while ago and I'm old so I can be forgiven these lapses of memory as easily as I can be forgiven for this diversion from the main theme.

I had no problems with the match, other than it was so challenging that I was often not able to shoot up to my class.

SWMBO shot the match in the afternoon, and had a couple of problems. In stage 4, she dropped her fully loaded 140mm magazine during the Load and Make Ready, and the RO there courteously picked it up and handed it to her, so she stuck it in the gun and assumed the ready position.

Did I mention that the surface at the Watervliet Gun Club is sand? No? Well, it's a funny thing what sand does when it gets inside a hi-tech pistol. It stops it, right now. SWMBO got off 3 shots in a twenty-something stage with a lot of tiny Steel Plates, and had to fight the gun for the rest of the stage, before she finally realized that her time was going to be so long that it didn't matter how many targets she hit, or even shot at. She quit about half-way through the stage, and if she didn't zero the stage it was close enough.

We had been cleaning the gun every other stage, because the hard-cast bullets and cheezy Unique powder combined to foul it pretty fast. The gun had been cleaned (and oiled) before this stage, but we cleaned it again as well as the magazine, and wiped down any ammo that had been in a magazine that was in the gun. Sand was everwhere. That's when I realized that, with a tight slide-to-frame fit, you can't afford to compete with anything but the best powder and bullets available.

The point of this trip down memory lane is that Dave Skinner, President and CEO of STI International, was running a table in the vendor tent, and while Sandie was drooling over a hard-chromed STI Tru-Bore with pink grips, I was finally meeting personally another denizen of the Unofficial IPSC List. I found Dave to be personally charming, technically competent. For example, he told me that "a gun is a machine. It needs oil to work right. Oil on a gun is good; more oil is better.")

He's also a brilliant reconteur, and our evenings around the campfire in the court of the match hotel will remain among my favorite memories. (This impression may be, in part, because one of the benefits of voluteering to work the match for per diem, match fees and lodging, and in recompense for our having paid over $1000 for our travel expenses, Pat had offered to provide all the Crown Royale I could drink around the campfire.)

When I got back to Oregon, I contacted the vendor which Dave had recommended and bought the first of many cases of Montana Gold (200 grain jacketted) bullets for the 10mm. I also ordered a four-pound keg of Vihta Vourhi N320, which works just FINE in the Edge without fouling the frame rails ... and it is a fine-grain powder, so it measures a lot more accurately than did the egrigious Hercules Unique. The only problem is, it's not available 'locally', so you have to look around for a reliable supply. The bullets can be ordered directly from Montana Gold, and I've found that they are an excellent company to do business with.

SHIRLEY:
The next year, 2001, SWMBO and I attended the Area 1 tournament in Washington. We realized that we couldn't reasonably share a gun here because we would be competing in the same squad. Consequently, SWMBO opted to shoot The Beloved Kimber (rather than the S&W 659, which made holes too small for her to see) and I shot the Edge.

To our delight, we were squadded with a lot of people that we had known either well or peripherably, including Jim "Bumstead" Boemler, Dave Skinner, Steve "Zippy" Zopfi, Randy "Randomly Hitten'" Witten, Mark "Hobo Brasser" O'Shea, George "Earthworm" Jones and his son Bryan "Inchworm" Jones. (George and Jim had come to Oregon in previous years to compete in both the CCS Sectional and the Dundee Croc Match. Mark and Randy are locals, and Steve lives in Washington and was not only a friend of Jim's but also an IPSC List subscriber.)

During the match, Dave watched SWMBO fight the recoil of The Beloved Kimber ... the only pistol I own which works better with cast lead bullets and chunky powder than with more sophisticated ammunition components ... and commented that it was a shame that I made such a nice girl fight the old clunker. The first evening of the match, we took over Bumstead's house for an impromptu BBQ, and somebody (I think it was Witten) brought along a couple of bottles of spirits. One thing lead to another, and by the end of the evening Dave had made us an offer we couldn't refuse on a slightly used hard-chrome STI Tru-Bore race gun.

Being sober enough not to ignore a generous offer, I not only said yes, but "Hell Yes!". And forgot about it, because Dave had put his nose in the neck a couple of times that night, and I didn't think he would remember it the next day.

Imagine my surprise when, next week, I took legal posession of a beautiful STI Tru-Bore race gun with a hard-chrome finish, powder-blue grips, a "Parrot" OK sight, one 10-round magazine, two 140mm magazines, and one 170mm magazine ... all STI manufacture, of course.

Dave is a man of his word, which is demonstrated daily by his business practices. You buy an STI, you've got not only one of the finest competition-quality pistols on the market today, you get a warranty that rivals that of Dillon itself. It breaks, send it back. They fix it, and send it back to you. Dave has become a friend, but he's a friend to every customer of STI. Everybody gets the same deal, although admittedly the Custom Shop has been pretty busy as their customer base has grown and turn-around time may occasionally been as strained as any of the better gunsmiths. Still, it's an all-American gun, and to misquote Jeremiah Johnson in reference to the Hawkens Rifle, "Hell, it were a genuine STI, and you can't get no better."

During this process SWMBO and I became Marketting Representatives, authorized to possess and use extended-capacity magazines for the purpose of demonstrating the product for LEO, Military and other potential customers. We were agents for the manufacturer, and thus authorized the same privileges as the manufacturer in regards to hi-cap magazines under the then-current laws regulating hi-cap mags. [whew!]

I was in a position of put-up-or-shut-up, so I ordered a case of Montana Gold 115 bullets, a thousand Winchester .38 Super cases, and a keg of Vihta Vourhi N350 powder. I was going by the load data of Jeff Maass's reloading page, and my own prejudice of quality components. Nothing but the best for SWMBO. Also, from Dillon I ordered a Safariiland belt combo and three Safariiland magazine carriers.

Talking to local folks who used the .38 Super, I heard that many people preferred the .38 Super Comp brass rather than the ordinary .38 Super. I asked Dave about that (by email), and with typical Skinner candor he replied laconically: "Why you want to make it more complicated? The regular super brass works just fine, don't muck it up by spending more money on that Super Comp stuff." As usual, Dave was right and the gun ran just fine with .38 Super brass ... from any vendor, the gun didn't care as long as it was the rimmed case. (The extractor was tuned to that brass, and does NOT like the rimless .38 Super Comp brass. Didn't then, doesn't now, and we haven't changed the extractor yet.)

Looking at the Dillon catalogue, I realized that I could load .38 Super using the same Lee Dies that I had been using for the 9x19 cartridge. I didn't bother investing in special dies, just changed the seating depth on the second die and the charge on the powder measure, adjusted the crimp die, and started loading .38 super ammunition. I think it took me about 10 minutes to get the right combination. After that, I spent a couple of hours of range time with a chronograph to determine the best powder charge, and the gun ran like the proverbial fine Swiss watch.

Loaner:
The next year, I had some serious problems with the Columbia Cascade Sectional match. On one difficult stage, I had more penalty hits on close-set no-shoot targets than I got on the scoring targets. Well, it was a tough stage and I was under considerable competitive pressure. But a couple of weeks later, I happened to pick up my WWI 1911 and discovered that I couldn't see the sights. Looking again at the Edge, I found I couldn't see more than a blur where the sights should be, either.

I began a correspondance with Dave, asking him what changes he recommended to change the 10mm Edge into an Open gun. I mentioned that I was considering mounting a dot-sight, swapping the 10mm bull-barrel for a compensated barrel (I knew STI could build me one, or a competent gunsmith could thread the existing barrel and install a screw-on compensator.) I also asked about required changes to the slide and even the ejector.

Dave replied that he would hate to see me "muck up" a perfectly good gun, and made me another offer on a gun they had in their shop which had been built as (apparently) a prototype of the Competitor.

Thus I ended up with another .38 Super to load for, albeit with a Scheumann Barrel and the necessary blast shield to protect the C-more sight.

I immediately put in an order for "replacement" 140mm and 170mm magazine tubes, springs and followers. NOT a manufactured magazine (illegal under then-current laws, and the vendor didn't have my documentation which stated that I was an "agent" for the manufacturer). I bought the magazine base-pads from another vendor, and was able to assemble completely legal hi-cap magazines for the pistol. I admit, the gun was so fun to shoot, I went a little crazy for a while there.

The Scheumann (I'm probably not spelling that correctly) barrel had an entirely different reaction to the load which I had been using for SWMBO's ammunition. I experimented with the loads, and found that the 7.9 gr VV N350 load with 115gr MG bullets was just a little light for that barrel. I increased the powder charge up to, eventually, 10 grains of VV N350 powder, and the Scheumann barrel handled it just fine!

Unfortunately, in SWMBO's gun it was just a little too hot, because the end-of-the barrel compensator didn't release the excess gas as quickly as the holes-in-the-barrel Scheumann barrel did. We saw not only flattening of the primers on rounds fired through that pistol, but in some cases the primer metal actually flowed around the firing-pin hole and over the boundary of the primer cup until it overlayed the base of the cartridge! Decidedly too hot for that gun. Finally, I settled on an 8.0 grain charge of powder, which seemed to be a usable compromise between the two guns.

In 2004, one year almost to the day from when I started using this load, I cracked the slide. STI was very nice about replacing both the barrel AND the slide, and I was able to get rid of the Scheumann Barrel. I was glad of that, because the blowback from the compensating ports was so powerful that I had already spent a few uncomfortable sessions in the Dentist's chair. I had cracked a tooth, which had to be ground down and capped. I wasn't happy about this, but I felt it was worth it to be shooting an Open gun and besides, it was an old tooth and I didn't actually LOSE it, I only had it replaced with the cap.

I note parenthetically that the people in my Section who had been working local matches as Range Officers were glad to hear that I had replaced the Scheumann barrel with a 'regular' barrel. They were being buffetted by the muzzle blast, whether I was shooting the "Loaner" gun or SWMBO was, even more than we were.



Now it is two years since my last change to the load data for the .38 super ammunition, which we shoot between 20,000 and 30,000 rounds per year.

The load has remained consistently at 8.0 grains of VV N350 behind a 115 grain MG Jacketted Bullet. (I won't supply the Over-All Length of the load, because I don't want to tempt anyone to assume that this load will work as well, or as safely, in their gun as it does in ours.) Our load chronograph consistently at about 171PF at major matches, and I don't expect to change it in the near future.

I should note, however, that the Dillon XL650 is getting old and has shown some wear.

Last Summer I replaced the Link Arms - a forged-steel connection between the body of the press and the cyliner. One of them broke, and I replaced both of them while I was doing my mechanical duties. Other parts which have broken include the platform assembly, and the entire Primer Feed Assembly. (Early models of the Primer Feed Assembly failed to protect the operator and the machine, and they were capable of mis-feeding the primers. I once crunched a primer while reloading 9mm ammo, and the primer blew up ... along with several other primers in the primer feed tube. Dillon replaced the entire assembly without change, as they have replaced all other parts of the reloading press, and I have experienced no other problems with this portion of the press.)

The Dillon XL650 is prone to cycling problems with small primers, and I can load ammunition using large primers much faster. The primer disk doesn't seem to align as perfectly and as consistently with the primer punch with small primers as it does with large primers. To illustrate, if I have a constant source of components (including loaded primer feed tubes) and I'm feeling energetic, I can load 1000 rounds of .45acp or 10mm in about one hour, on a good day. Conversely, I load about 400 - 500 rounds of .38 Super in an hour. This is entirely due to the occasional problems conversant with using smaller components, both the primers and the cases (which sometimes don't 'drop' as perfectly as they should when reloading .38 super brass, but which almost always align perfectly using the large .45acp brass.)

My machine is about 15 years old now, and many parts have been replaced. I'm not a good mechanic, so my maintenance is not as good as it should be. I need to send it back to the factory so it can be reconditioned. I've been putting it off for three years now, because I just don't want to miss any club matches because I haven't loaded enough ammunition ahead of time to carry me through the period when the press is not set up and ready to reload.

But I can send it back to Dillon any time I want, and as long as it isn't during the winter (when most people send their loading press back for refurbushing), I can be confident that it will come back to me as good as new, and with a minimum of time lost.

It's just . . . hard for me to face the prospect of not having my XL650 already mounted on my loading bench, and ready to use.

I've grown accustomed to relying on it, and any time I want to spend a half-hour at the bench, I know I can load up enough ammunition to carry me through another club match.

That kind of reliability is hard to find, but I've found it from Dillon and STI.

Life is good.

2006 CCS Major Match Schedule

Columbia Cascade Section

Billing itself (rightly!) as "The Hottest Section in the USPSA", Columbia Cascade Section (CCS) in Oregon announced today the latest committment to host a major match:

The Multi-gun National National Championships

Here's the entire list, taken directly from the Section website:

Six (Yes 6!) major matches this year.

June: Area 1 Championships at the Newly Improved Tri-County Club, Sherwood, OR

July: The Tenth Annual Oregon Single Stack Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

July: USPSA Multi-Gun National Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

Aug: Columbia-Cascade Section Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

Sept: Crocodile Dundee Banzai Ballistic Challenge Match (Crazy Croc) Dundee, OR

Sept: The Second Annual Oregon Glock Championships at ARPC, Albany, OR

(Please inquire of Mike McCarter at nomikes@hotmail.com for details.)

I've written about the CCS Sectional, the Single Stack Championship, and the Croc Match during the past year. I haven't attended a 3-gun or multi-gun match, or a Glock match for that matter; and it has been a couple of years since I attended an Area 1 championship.

Like most people in the section, I'm very excited about the huge list of major matches which are being presented locally this year. This is the most ambitious year yet for this energetic section, and full credit should be given to Section Coordinator Mike "Mac" McCarter.

This boisterous line-up of IPSC and IPSC-type competition wouldn't have been possible without the extensive and expensive range improvements which have taken place at the ARPC and Tri-County ranges. I've mentioned them here before, in greater detail, but I can summarize them briefly: twelve bays at ARPC, THIRTEEN bays at Tri-County. Both ranges include four or five bays measuring about 100 feet on a side, and all bays are (or will be, by this summer) deeply graveled to make them all-weather usable.

The huge bays are supplemented by a number of smaller bays, which allows them to present a variety of stage designs using the available range area most efficiently.

Incidently, Tri County Gun Club is presenting it's Second Annual All-Shotgun ("Shotty") match this weekend, February 4, 2006. I attended the first annual Shotty last August, and came away with a killer shoulder bruise that took weeks to recover from. I'll probably be unavailable for this year's match, as I have to take my car into the Les Schwab tire store to fix the flat I found when I started out for the Dundee IPSC match last Saturday. Too bad, because I would like to attend the match just to take some photographs for the Geek Shooting Gallery! But I don't think I can make it up there in time for the 9am starting time, and I don't have a 'practical' shotgun.

Here's the blurb from TCGC club rep Rich Whitten:

The next IPSC 3-Gun match is this Saturday, and will be an all shotgun match. You will need at least 61 games loads and 10 buckshot - no slugs required. Setup starts at 7:30 AM, and the match will begin at 9AM.

If you're interested, you can email Rich at richard.d.whitten@intel.com

Back to the Major Match Schedule.

I'll be competing in at least the Croc Match, the Sectional Match, the Single Stack Match and the Area 1 match. However, I may be working the Area 1 match as an RO, if I can talk SWMBO into doing the same and we get to work a stage together. And of course, I'll be there with my trusty Geek-Cam for as many matches as I can manage

[sigh]

It's going to be a great competitive year in Oregon. If you can find the time, and if you're at all interested in competing in some of the most innovative matches in America, come on up and join us.

By all means, if you see us at the match, stop and say hello to SWMBO and me!

January '06 at Dundee

Winter matches are the time to try out new stage designs. In the Columbia Cascade Section, stages are often "Steel Heavy" because the rains make it necessary to put protective plastic bags over cardboard target, to keep the rain from soaking them so badly that we can't score the targets. One of the major problems is that when cardboard gets wet, the tape we put over the bullet holes often doesn't stick very well. There are few more frustrating experiences in IPSC competition as having to reshoot stages because the Range Officer (RO) just can't tell which bullet hole is yours, and which belonged to a previous competitor.

The weatherman was not our friend when we showed up at the Chehalem Valley Shooter's Club (Dundee, Oregon) for our regularly scheduled Saturday match on January 28, 2006. He had predicted up to an inch of rain, and high winds.

Rain is awkward; wind is unendurable. It blows over the cardboard IPSC targets, which catch the wind as handily as sails on a schooner. In extreme situations, it can blow over Steel Pepper Popper targets unless the stage setup crew has set them so 'heavy' that it's difficult for Minor Power rounds to knock them over when hit fairly.

During Oregon Winter matches, you can gauge the wind without ever being out in it. The lowest level is "D", for "Damn, there goes another target". A more severe wind is labelled "S", as in "Oh Shit, targets down ... hold up while we go reset them and add a few more sandbags to hold the target stands in place." The most sever winds, of course, are typified by the expression: "Damn! What the shit? There's another Friggin' Pepper Popper down!"

You can tell how strong the wind is without ever being outside, if you can hear the the jabber.

We got lucky this time.

The rain was intermittent, never very strong, and the wind did not attend. Thank You, Jesus!

We can handle a little rain. We've been learning how to deal with it for twenty years.

In fact, the weather was so clement that not only did we get through the match with no rain delays, I even got my GeekCam out and took a LOT of pictures ... most of them movies.

You can see the movies at Jerrydgeek's Shooting Gallery. In fact, I even have raw film uploaded here.

You can see the scores here.

I didn't film the entire match. We (our 12-man squad, including SWMBO) started out on Stage 5 in the Rifle Bay, followed by Stage 6. I had left my camera in the car because I expected heavy rain. But the weather was so nice, I picked up the camera when we went back up the hill to the Croc Bay and filmed as many shooters as I could for the rest of the day. I was unable to reconcile shooting pictures with meeting my obligations as a squad member, so I didn't get all of the very interesting pictures (such as when Pelican Bill skidded through a turn on Stage 2), but I got enough to make it worth bringing to your attention.

As difficult as it may be for some dedicated CCS readers to comprehend, others may not be entirely captivated by the following play-by-play narrative. However, after you view the videos, please feel free to come back here and read not only the description of the stages but also the evaluation of the relative merits of each stage.

Briefly, here's a description of the stages which I DID photograph:

CROC BAY:
The Croc Bay would be called Bay 1 at most ranges, as it is physically situated at the 'top of the hill'. Dundee gives credit to the unique L-shaped configuration of the bay by giving it a special name.

Today, the stage presented in that bay ("Steel From The Boxes") didn't take particular advantage of the shape of the bay. Instead, it was designed so it could be presented in any bay that was at least fifty feet on a side. Here, you engaged four Pepper Poppers from about 50 feet, plus two IPSC targets (bagged, of course). Then you moved to the right to a corner, represented by a "snow-fence" vision barrier, and after rounding a corner you were presented with four IPSC targets. Finally, you move downrange about 20 feet and engage the five small plates on a Texas Star at 30+ feet. The trick is to be able to engage long-range Pepper Poppers, the paper 'on the move', and have enough breath control to get the tiny Texas Star plates without succombing to the adrenaline rush generated by the time constraints.

Believe me, the Star is tough under any circumstances. And long-range Pepper Poppers are challenging to iron-sighted guns. When you put them together with a run in between, broken by hoser-mania inducing IPSC arrays, it's HARD to get back into the accuracy mode.

Here we see people who clean the initial Pepper Poppers, but who make otherwise unaccountable misses on the Star plates. Also, we see people who can't hit the long-range Pepper Poppers without a reload, but by the time they get down to shooting the Star . . . they knock 'em down by the numbers. I don't claim to understand it, but it's worth the time to look at the videos.

Bay 1:
Stage 1 (Bay 1 - Rainy Day Shuffle) is a technical stage. A 'memory course', you have to realize that you can't see every target from the same place, yet remember which IPSC targets you've already engaged from an earlier position.

The stage requires the competitor to start in the embarassing position of "holding a target over your head to protect you from the rain", a nod to the inclement weather conditions. It also forces the competitor to start from an awkward position, and ensure that the prop be tossed far enough away that it doesn't become a slipping hazard later in the stage.

Actually, it's possible to shoot a few targets from one position (not in the starting box), then move to another position and engage the rest of the targets. It's a 24-round stage, and most Open Shooters with big-stick mags were unwilling or unable to shoot the whole course of fire without a reload -- usually a standing reload. I only saw one person shoot with a single Big Stick, and the was the Amazing SWMBO.

Course description: there are five stacked plastic barrels (vison barriers), and there are US poppers behind four of them at 10 yards from the fault line; they can't all be seen from the same position. There are two Pepper Poppers in mid-range, and they MAY be seen from the same position.

At long-range (15+ yards from the fault line?) there are 5 IPSC targets, which may or may not be seen from the same position; but there are also six small plates on a plate rack which are not only a challenging target array but they tend to distract you from keeping track of how many of which targets you've already engaged.

This stage was, admittedly, not visually interesting. However, it was technically challenging and it certainly bit me badly as I had to admit, at the end of the exercise, that I lost track early-on where I was. It turned out that I was not as confused as I felt, but I did manage to rack up a miss on one of the IPSC targets. Just another reason why I have always asserted that "Steel Is My Friend". (I can tell whether I hit Steel targets ... if I'm standing where I can see them.)

Bay 2:
The stage named "Easy Run" was deceptive because it SEEMED like a 'hoser stage'. Shoot down two 10-yard US Poppers from the starting box, the run up to a four IPSC target array and engage them from perhaps 3 yards. Run around a vision-barrier corner, down an alley, and shoot four more IPSC targets. Turn the corner, shoot 3 more IPSC targets at ranges which vary from 20 feet to point-blank range, depending on how fast you run (or whether you choose to run.)

What's not to like?

First, I managed to miss the second US Popper, so had to back up to re-engage it from the box.

Second, I got a finger-freeze on the last IPSC target in the first array, and had to back up to re-engage it legally from a distance of less than 10 feet.

Because all of the IPSC targets were full-size targets, with no hard-cover or penalty targets, most of us chose to treat it as a hoser stage. The number of D-zone hits was astounding; one A-Open shooter in our squad got SEVEN D-zone hits on the 11 IPSC targets on this stage. Most Open Division competitors in this squad came off the stage swearing that the wanted a reshoot so they could "this time, use the sights!"

And one of the best B-Open shooters managed to spin out on the first turn, going to his knees without, fortunately violating a safety rule. He lost some time there, but still managed to beat all the other competitors in his class.

Incidently, I will note that in this 110-point stage, the highest raw-points score was 107, and none of the targets needed to be engaged at more than 10 feet distance.

Hoser stage indeed!

Bay 3: Paper Poppers

This was the Classifier Stage. CM 03-05 is a 12-round Comstock course. Two IPSC targets in one array, six Pepper Poppers in another ... the Steel targets are bounded by the Cardboard. Engage one array (your choice), reload, engage the other array.

Most of us chose to engage the two cardboard targets first, because we were confident that we could HIT them in a short time. After the reload, we engaged the steel so we could make up misses without having to make another reload. (You sorta had to be there to feel the pressure to go fast!)

This was probably my very best stage of the day, and definately the best Classifier stage I've shot in months. It's a matter of balls-to-the-wall pedal to the metal, and if it doesn't work you're just screwed. One of the ultimate hoser-classifiers, I love to shoot it if only because hope springs eternal within the human breast. On this occasion, I managed to get all A-zone hits on the paper and no misses on the steel, giving me an unprecedented 50 out of a possible 50 points on the stage, in 6.41 seconds including the reload.

Proud as a peacock, I strutted up to the Wailing Wall to learn that I ended up in . . . SIXTH place out of 36 competitors in a club match!

This is a tough stage!

My friend, Norm, had a magazine-drop malfunction which slowed him down to 5.85 seconds. Well, he's an A-Open shooter, and has much higher standards than I do.

He also got some bad hits on the paper, and got only 45 points (raw score).

He bought a 'reshoot', which goes into the classifier database but doesn't show up on the match scores.

He shot it in 5.17 seconds, dropping only one point, which puts him at 85+ percentile. Awesome, and the video is available here. The video starts as he engages the 2nd IPSC target, but shows teh reload and also the last two Pepper Poppers hitting the ground at approximately the same movment.

This could put him up to Master Class, and I hope it does . . . the sandbagging sonovagun!

XL650: 9mm, .45acp, & 10mm

I reload umpteen thousand rounds of ammunition a year, and I use a Dillon XL650 reloading press.
9 MM: I got the press in the winter of 1992, and I originally used it to load 9x19 caliber ammunition, because that's the caliber of the gun I was currently using for IPSC competition, in my S&W 659 "Crunch&ticker". I had paid $700 for the gun. I had paid about $450 for the press, plus another $150 or so for the Casefeed Assembly option.

I was shooting in "D" class at the time . . . there was only one Division back then ... and it took me until 1995 to work myself up to "C" class.

.45 acp:In 1997, I realized that the targets were all being scored 'minor power'. While I had originally bought the 659 for the magazine capacity (14-15 rounds, rather than the 7 or 8 rounds availble for the most common 1911 in .45acp), I was not a good enough shot, or a good enough competitor, to get decent scores. So I researched the latest guns on the market, and decided to buy a Kimber custom in .45acp. I couldn't afford more, and by shopping around I got mine for $234.

They didn't look as good in 1997 as they do now ... the trigger was different, for one thing. But I could buy it for less than the Springfield, and the Cold 1991A1 looked like crap. Besides, Kimber already included as 'standard equipment the features which were 'options' from anybody else: Commander-style hammer, extended beavertail, adjustable trigger. Sure, it had fixed sights, but I didn't think it would be a problem, and it wasn't. The only disappointment was that there were TWO Kimber Customs in the shop, and I only bought one. I've been kicking myself for that bad decision for eight years, so don't feel obligated to tell me what a dummy I was. Oh geez, I had the money in my pocket . . . who knew it would turn out to be so good that I would forever refer to it as "The Beloved Kimber"?

The only thing I changed was to buy a Smith & Alexander extended magwell adapter, with the arched mainspring housing, in stainless steel. It not only dressed up the gun (as much as you can do with a pistol which is obviously a 'working gun', but it (a) allowed me to make magazine changes faster, and the arched mainspring housingmade the skinny grip fit my large hands much better.

(Other than buying new recoil springs, barrel bushings, grip screws and a lot of guide-rod bushings, I've not spent another penny on the gun itself. However, the new holster, magazines and magazine carriers cost me almost as much as the pistol!)

That meant I had to change from loading .9mm to .45acp. I realized that I would probably STILL want to load for the 9x19, so I not only bought a caliber conversion kit but I also bought a new powder measure assembly, a set of Large Primer feed tubes, new toolhead, Large Primer priming system, a Large Pistol Casefeed Plate, and a toolhead stand. I figured this would make it easy to switch between calibers, and I was right. I can't tell you how much it cost me to gear up for the new caliber, but the cost of the new Dillon XL650 components was about what I paid for the pistol alone. I didn't NEED the toolhead stand, toolhead and powder feed assembly, but the difference in time and effort to switch between calibers was worth a lot more to me than the cost of the components.

I was soon competing in "C-Stock", as there were now TWO divisions in IPSC -- Open and "Limited". (Originally, "Limited" was designated as "Stock" Division, but that changed about the time I bought The Beloved Kimber.)

In 1999 I went to my first IPSC Nationals, in Las Vegas, with The Beloved Kimber, shooting Limited. I was competing against the latest round of hi-cap (.40 S&W) Limited pistols. My limited magazine capacity was working against me, and so was my ammunition load.

I had gone to the Area 1 match in Reno a couple of months earlier, and there I was using Unique powder at the time, and it was such a large granule size that it wouldn't charge consistently. I was down to my last bullet before I got enough rounds at high velocity to make Major Power (then, 175pf.) Like Scarlet O'Hara, I swore that I would "never be poor again", and I changed my powder measure. At Las Vegas I was shooting a 196pf, and The Beloved Kimber kicked like a mule. I had the distinct impression that I was overpowered, and started looking for another answer --- preferably, one that would include a higher magazine capacity.

10mm: I had been corresponding with Dave Skinner, of STI, for a while, and I told him that I was in desperate need of a hi-cap Limited pistol. I didn't like the round-count of the .45 acp, but there were so many accounts of the "Ka-BOOM!" incident with the new .40 S&W round, I didn't trust it for safety's sake. I wanted a 10mm, and preferably in the Edge.

In 2000, Dave sent me an email announcing that the STI Edge in 10mm had just been approved in Limited Division. By return mail, I sent him an order for a pistol with the custom serial number which he had suggested: Geek2011. I paid $1650 for the gun, another $150 for a holster (you couldn't find many holsters for an extended-dust-cover 1911 at the time), extra magazines and Safariiland magazine carriers. As long as I was at it, I bought a Safariiland inner/outer Velcro belt system, too. Total cost for accessories was about $500, which was largely accounted for by the high cost of 140mm 18-round magazine tubes under the Brady Bill.

As far as I know, I was the first person to order an Edge in 10mm for IPSC competition. Probably the last, too.

The standard 10mm load, as the FBI had already learned, is WAY too heavy for normal shooting. You only want to use the full-bore 10mm if you want to kill a bear.

Since 10mm ammunition cost something like $25 a box of 50, I started looking for ammunition. A few folks in the Columbia Cascade Section ("Tom the Gadget" and Everett, the then-Section Coordinator) had 10mm ammunition that they didn't particularly need, and they donated the loaded ammuntion so I could break in the gun.

The first part that got 'broke in" was the tungsten guide rod. It had been designed for the .40S&W, and I was shooting about 200+ power factor.

I immediately ordered some 10mm brass from Dillon (exorbitant price), adn went to my local range to find more USED brass. This was generally priced low, but mostly it was 10mm which had been shot in a Glock, which meant that all of the cases were bulged. Taking a hint from a friend, I bought a Lee sizing die, which is one one-thousandth of an inches tighter, and used it on an old Lee press to pre-size the cases. I also de-tempered a new RCBS case holder, ground it down as short as I could, and re-tempered it so I could get the sizing die down as far as possible on the cases.

Shortly after this I found a new source of 10mm brass. A friend knew a guy who was a janitor at the FBI firing range in Portland. He got the brass for me at $50/k, deprimed and sized it, and tumbled the brass in a solvent which left the entire case, including primer pocket, as clean as brand new brass.

One of the advantages of the 10mm was that the case was MUCH stronger than the .40S&W brass, and could handle heavier loads. Another was that it used the Large primer (as did the .45 acp) rather than the Small primer (as did the 9mm). I had already found that the Large primer fed more reliable through the Dillon XL650, so that would have been worth the effort of choosing the 1omm even though the brass was much more expensive and harder to find, harder to work with. I had some terribly heavy charges go through the 10mm in following years, but they never caused me any problems except for the heavier recoil. A good choice, and if I had to do it all over again I would still choose the 10mm over the .40 S&W.

For the XL650, I already had the Large primer system, the Large Pistol casefeed plate, so I only had to buy the caliber conversion kit, the dies, the toolhead and the powder assembly. Of course, I also bought a toolhead stand so I could keep it upright on the bench when I was loading a caliber. Surprising to me, the updates to the Dillon XL650 cost less than the new holster, magazine carriers and Safariiland belt assembly. In fact, it cost about what two new 140mm magazines cost me, including tube, follower, spring and basepad.

This will be continued in the next post, "XL650: .38 Super"

Border Wars

Smugglers in military dress fuel border concerns |Houston Chronicle

On Monday (January 23, 2006), Three Hudspeth County (Texas) Sheriff's deputies spotted along with a state trooper began chasing three SUVs, which they suspected of carrying drugs, on Interstate 10. The 12-mile chase ended at the Rio Grande near Highway 34, where the 3 vehicles attempted to cross the International Border back to Mexico.

One of the vehicles, a Cadillac Escalade, was abandoned with a flat tire before it reached the river. It was later found to contain 1400 pounds of marijuana.
A second vehicle safely reached Mexican side of the river and left.
The third vehicle became stuck in the river. A group of men were seen to unload what appears to be bales of marijuana from the vehicle, which they then burned.

As the American Lawmen approached the Rio Grande in hot pursuit, they encountered a Humvee occupied by men in Mexican Army uniforms. Reports indicate that the vehicle was armed with a mounted .50 caliber machine gun. The Humvee also returned across the river, where it provided oversight protection while the bogged SUV was unloaded.

No shots were fired, nobody was injured.

This time.

The Mexican Government asserted that the nearest military detachment does not have equipment of the type which was reported, and proposed that these were all civilian drug-runners, some of whom were fitted in imitation army uniforms. However, Mexico has ordered that army units may not approach within 3.2 miles (approximitely 5 kilometers) of the Rio Grande without written authorization.

From the Huston Chronicle report:

Mexico's secretary of defense has ordered a full investigation into the incident. However, Rafael Laveaga, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., said he does not think the men in military fatigues seen escorting the traffickers were soldiers. The Mexican military installation in Ciudad Juarez, which is nearest to where the incident occurred, does not have any vehicles or weapons like those described by the Hudspeth County sheriff's deputies, he said.

''We strongly deny that members of the Mexican army participated in any incident at the Mexican-U.S. border," Laveaga said. ''I think it's fair to say that criminal organizations sometimes wear military uniforms and use military vehicles to provide confusion among authorities of both countries."

Mexico's presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar insisted again today that the uniformed men were drug smugglers, not Mexican soldiers. Aguilar said the FBI supported that view, but he gave no evidence of the claim.

"These were not Mexican soldiers," Aguilar said at a news conference. "It is known that these are drug traffickers using military uniforms and they were not even regulation military uniforms."

Still, Washington is demanding answers.

The El Paso Times provided expanded coverage, as well as some photos.


Editorial comments: With all of the incidents which have occurred on the Mexican Border over the past several years, it's a wonder that American Law Enforcement Officers haven't been murdered by this border trash on a regular basis. The world looks upon calls by American Citizens to strictly enforce our borders as a mixture of paranoia, racism and 'insensitivity', which is possibly the worst accusation they can think of.

We've been hearing about the poor "undocumented immigrants" who suffer from fear of being arrested for no more crime than trying to better their life by doing "the jobs that Americans won't do."

I've talked about the problem with "undocumented aliens" in this respect before, and while I admit it's a problem which should be resolved with some kind of "guest worker" program. However, I don't think amnesty should be part of the solution. Whatever the reason people sneak across our border, they have started out their new life by breaking our laws. How badly do we need people who disrespect our country and our laws? We already have enough native-born people with this attitude, we don't need any more and we certainly don't need to reward them. The money which they earn in this country is largely sent 'home', which constitutes Mexico's second largest source of outside income after their petroleum industry. The Mexican government makes claims that they are trying to provide incentives in their own country so that their citizens can earn good money without leaving the country, and in fact this was one plank of Vicente Fox's campaign platform. He hasn't managed, this, though, so instead he has officially instituted measures to make it easier for his citizens to invade our borders with relative impunity, and applied political pressure to coerce the American government to accept the illegals who already provide between five and twelve MILLION of the people in this country today.


But the fact is, since 9/11 we've discovered that our greatest fear is the terrorists which may use this route to enter American and attack us from within. If drug smugglers can bring in tons of illegal substances every day (say, two tons of marijuana in three SUVs, and there's enough profit in it that they can afford to abandon a Cadillac Escalante with 1400 pounds of grass), and 'coyotes' can bring in "undocumented immigrants" by the dozens, there's no reason to expect that these same smugglers can be prevented from bringing in terrorists and whatever equipment they require to attack America. Again.

What else is being smuggled in?

Drugs, of course. Has anybody lately mentioned that Methamphetamine addiction was one of the greatest contributors to domestic crime in America today? Where do you think most of the meth comes from? Hint: Look at a map of North America. Look at Texas and California. Their southern borders are the most frequent access for the output of Mexican Meth Labs. Of course, we have our own domestic meth labs. Sometimes the police find them and arrest the people who are working in them, selling the meth, or transporting the meth between states. Look in the newspaper and read the names of the people who are arrested. We have city parks in Oregon where mothers can no longer take their children to play because the Mexican drug gangs have taken it over and are using it as a marketplace for illegal drugs.

Crime is not limited to drugs. Howard Sutherland writes in VDARE.COM back in 2003 about the problems with Salvadoran criminals and their increasing incursion into the United States. The Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang is an exceptionally violent group, whose members seem to travel back and forth across the border with impunity. They are not the only gangs composed of "undocumented immigrants", of course, but they are the most extreme examples.

Also, illegal aliens are overloading social services in this country. While many of the people whom the "insensitivity sensitive" Liberals chamption include those who work as day laborers, these are exactly the people who are likely to live in the shadow economy, being paid in cash for their labor and leaving no documentation behind (which is part of why they are referred to as "undocumented".) They pay no taxes, they pay no union dues or withholding, they just show up, work, get paid, and disappear.

They also have no insurance plans. They get sick, they go to the hospital, the hospitals have to take them. When they get better, they just . . . walk away. Who pays for their health care? You do.

Even NPR mentions the phenomenon:

Weekend Edition - Sunday, February 20, 2005 · As the U.S. government tightens security along the border with Mexico, nearby hospitals are seeing an increasing number of serious injuries in their emergency rooms.

Many uninsured illegal immigrants cannot afford to pay for this medical care, so more hospitals are forced to foot the bill.

From smugglers' use of unsafe, overcrowded vehicles to immigrants who can't -- or won't -- pay for treatment, medical resources along the border are being strained. Amid the argument over who should pay, hospitals on both sides of the border are looking for answers.

In fact, since 2005 the system has become so overloaded with "undocumented immigrant" freeloaders that some hospitals may have to close their doors because they can no longer afford to provide so much of their resources to those who will not pay for them. That means the people who can pay, the legal citizens of the community, are being inflicted with a "denial of service" in their own home town.

In response to that health-care crisis, in 2005 the United States Government has agreed to provide up to $45 million to reimburser Arizona hospitals and hospitals in other states for services rendered to illegal aliens. That's forty five million dollars ... a year. For up to four years. How much of this money comes from the illegal aliens who incur the expenses? Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm not sure that $180 million total reflects an investment in good citizenship.

Let's get back to "Border Incursions" before we close this out.

The Analogue Kid at Random Nuclear Strikes provides us with a partian shot from The OTHER Border . . . Canada.

Here's the original article that The Kid cited:

U.S. murder suspects arrested in shootout at B.C. border

Last Updated Wed, 25 Jan 2006 10:47:44 EST

CBC News

A police chase that closed the Peace Arch border crossing south of Vancouver, ended in the arrest of two men wanted in California on murder charges following a shootout.

The incident on Tuesday night temporarily closed the Canada-U.S. border crossing, and caused dozens of Canadian guards to walk off the job, fearing for their safety.

The chase started when two men tried to get into Canada.

Officials say Ishtiaq Hussain, 38, and Jose Antonio Barajas, 22, are now in custody. One of the suspects was wounded in a shootout with police.

U.S. sheriffs say the pair managed to make it to the check point about a metre before Canadian soil

Wait a minute, back up. What was that about ...

The incident on Tuesday night temporarily closed the Canada-U.S. border crossing, and caused dozens of Canadian guards to walk off the job, fearing for their safety.

That's right: Rather than to protect their own borders, Canada just ... walked away. Fortunately ...

Officials credit a brave deputy sheriff for stopping the pair, who were considered armed and dangerous.

Bill Elf, of the Whatcom Sheriff's Department

CBC News has learned that when unarmed Canadian border guards found out the murder suspects were coming their way, they left their posts at two crossings along the B.C. border: the Peace Arch crossing at Douglas, which was closed for a while, and the Pacific Highway Truck Crossing, to which traffic from Douglas was diverted.

Supervisors were left at each crossing to protect the Canadian side.

A spokeswoman with Canada Border Services says the guards have the legal right to refuse to work if they believe they are in imminent danger.

Canada won't protect its borders. Mexico can't keep its people at home. America is subject to international castigation when it tries to protect its borders.

Some people blame it all on NAFTA.

Maybe it's just that the American had to take a good look at the "undocument immigrant" problem, realized the scope of the problem, and decided that there was none of the possible solutions would contribute to political survival.

What? Do I have a solution?

No, nothing short of a police state.

Some people have suggested that America reinforce the borders by assigning military units to guard the borders. These people just don't understand the situation. There aren't enough troops in this country to guard our borders, even if we bring every military unit back from their current assignments and assign border security as their exclusive priority. Besides, who wants to become the island this approach would suggest.

Better minds than mine are working (we hope) on this problem, but don't expect to like the answer they finally come up with.

If they ever agree on a solution. Which it won't be.


(H/T: Fish)

Note: Between the two of them, Fish and The Hobo Brasser provide enough blogmeat to keep me busy even if I didn't tend to be an opinionated, mouthy, pedantic old poop. I don't know why they don't start their own blog. I once offered The Hobo Brasser a "Guest Blogger" option on this blog, but he ignored me.

I wonder why?

Right decision, wrong outcome

Resistance is futile!: Right decision, wrong outcome

This is a terribly difficult thing to write about. I hesitate to attempt it, because I know it will be misinterpreted and because it is such a personal subject. I'm writing this paragraph after I've finished the entire essay, and after you read it you may understand. I hope you do, but even if you don't I have to write it anyway.

Suicide:

If you're not a regular reader of Gullyborg, you may have missed his article last week (Tuesday, January 17, 2006) regarding the Supreme Court's refusal to set aside Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law.

His opinons on that decision elicited a lot of comments, and mine were in support of the Oregon law and the decision of the Supremes.

To briefly summarize the law, it allows a physician to administer a lethal dose of drugs to end the life of a patient.

The restrictions are these:

• The patient ("he") must be suffering from a medical condition which in which the prognosis is terminal
  
• He must be in control of his mental condition to the degree that he is able to make such a decision
• The physician must not make this decision (to assist the patient in suicide) alone; at least one other physician must concur with the medical opinion that the previous two conditions have been met
• The patient must, in the opinion of the physician (or consulting psychologist), be "capable, acting voluntarily, and informed"
  
• The patient must be capable of making his wishes known to the physician (both written and verbal request)
• He must be able to rescind his request
• There is a 15 day waiting period between the time when he makes his request and the time it is acted upon
• He must be an adult: at least 18 years old
• No contract or other agreement, written or oral, can over-ride the request or the patient's decision to rescind it
• The decision to voluntarily request assisted suicide will not abbrogate or nullify any insurance policy
• The physician will not be subject to legal action, including civil action, for acting upon the request; no health-care provider or professional organization can take disciplinary action for the physician's participation; no legal, professional, organizational, contractual or financial penalty shall be applied to the physician ("health-care provider") for his participation

And here's the part that protects the patient; I cite it here verbatim, in the interest of accuracy:

127.890 s.4.02. Liabilities. (1) A person who without authorization of the patient willfully alters or forges a request for medication or conceals or destroys a rescission of that request with the intent or effect of causing the patient's death shall be guilty of a Class A felony.


(2) A person who coerces or exerts undue influence on a patient to request medication for the purpose of ending the patient's life, or to destroy a rescission of such a request, shall be guilty of a Class A felony.


(3) Nothing in ORS 127.800 to 127.897 limits further liability for civil damages resulting from other negligent conduct or intentional misconduct by any person.


(4) The penalties in ORS 127.800 to 127.897 do not preclude criminal penalties applicable under other law for conduct which is inconsistent with the provisions of ORS 127.800 to 127.897. [1995 c.3 s.4.02]

This means, among other things, that the family or friends, or other interested persons can NOT make the decision for the patient. Nor can they influence the decision of the patient through coercion, undue influence or fraud.


Gullyborg is a law student, and contends that this is "a bad law". I'm not sure of the reasons why he believes it is a bad law. He professes no moral judgement about the concept that a person in the last extremities of life should or should not be able to make this decision.

I disagree. I think that this is an entirely personal decision which can legitimately be made by a person in the last extreme of life. I hope that I may never find myself in the position where it seems an attractive alternative to life, but I also hope that if I do -- the option has not been taken away from me because of someone else's philosophical or intellectual or political priorities.

My position is that there are circumstances which may occur, wherein an individual may be fatally inflicted with a painful and debilitating disease or injury which leads him to believe that the only possible end to the agony is death, sooner rather than later.

The law, in my understanding, does not permit a person to choose death. Any person can do that, although they may not be able to enact it. The option of suicide is always available IF the person is capable of ending his own life. That capability may not be available, because the medical condition may be so extreme that he lacks the ability to do so.

The law seems NOT to provide legal permission for a person to end his own life. In fact, ATTEMPTED suicide has traditionally been unlawful. I believe they can put you in jail for it, though I have no doubt that most courts would find it difficult to apply such a punishment to an incapacitated person. Of course, there is no punishment for a SUCCESSFUL suicide.

The purpose of the law is to protect the physician who choses to provide this final mercy to a terminal patient. It also defines the conditions under which the physician can determine that the decision of the patient may be considered to be 'free and informed'.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The response of the Federal Government has been that physicians who "assist" a suicide by medical means may be prosecuted if these means involve the administration of restricted medication ... that is to say, a fatal dose of narcotics, or other federally controlled drugs.

I find that curious, since most states (and, as far as I know, the Federal Government) have historically executed Capital Prisoners by much more painful and barbaric means . . . hanging, firing squad, electrocution.

Now more states are using 'humane' means, which amounts to a three-stage administration of drugs:

1. a drug to put you to sleep
2. a drug to stop you from breathing
3. a drug to stop your heart

If the first series of drugs don't kill you, they'll do the entire procedure over again, until you are dead.

This is considered a progressive, humane method to execute a person who has somehow offended society's laws. Can a law-abiding person expect anything less?

The execution of prisoners may be at the hands of a physician; more frequently, it is at the hands of medical technicians. One presumes that the 'patient' has not been consulted in the decision.

Opponents of the Oregon Assisted Suicide law suggest that it is somehow frivilous, that it undermines the concept of 'sanctity of life', that it constitutes nothing more than an extreme way to "treat depression".

And yet, they may suggest that they want to keep the Medical Profession "out of it".
Curious.

I submit that Depression is not the primary consideration for those who are compelled to make this difficult decision.

No, I would not choose "Depression" as the word to justify this law.

"Agony"

"Indignity"

Yes, those are perhaps more appropriate word to describe the conditions under which a person might make this difficult decision. Add to that the fact that the physician has doubtless told the patient, if the patient is competent to understand the pronouncement, that the rest of his (the patient's) life will be a prolonged condition of pain, to be climaxed by an undignified death.

I have some history with this situation, involving a family member afflicted by both cancer (in several versions, including bone cancer) and Alzheimers. The Assisted Suicide law would not have been an option, because of the mental degeneration. Helpless, unable to feed, dress or express himself, he was reduced to catheters and diapers. He did not recognize family members, but was obviously distressed when these indignities were inflicted upon him.

Make no mistake about it, agony is a condition which cannot be ignored despite the non-fatal levels of narcotics which may be prescribed.

And the lack of dignity of this helpless person may have been alleviated only by the twisted Grace of Alzheimers, although we can't know if he understood what was happening to him. We can hope that he didn't feel the shame of being subjected to a dependency on care-givers who would change his diapers, empty his bladder bag, and provide daily sponge baths; who rolled him like a piece of meat to change his linen daily. It isn't a life which I would wish on someone I loved,

What if he didn't have Alzheimer's Disease? What if he was in full possession of his mental faculties, and realized what was happening to him? Would he be any less fearfull, less agonized by the pain as his bones rotted inside him?

I doubt it.

Personally, the idea of suicide is anethema to me. But more repulsive still would be to find myself in the position where I was in unrelieved and unrelievable pain, with no prospects but a painful death, knowing what anguish my family must be feeling, and yet be unable to do anything to stop the process before it became even more unbearable.

Is the Oregon Assisted Suicide Bill "a bad law?" I don't know. I don't know much about the law.

But I do know something about living, and about dying. Under extreme circumstances, the priorities somehow reverse themselves. It's difficult for us to make the decision for a loved one to live, when life itself it only unendurable agony.

And yet, it's not a decision we can make for him . . . to live in agony, or to die immediately and thus stop the unremitting pain.

If that loved one can make the decision for himself, do we have the right to stand in his way?

Put it another way: if you found yourself in the situation where your loved one had no future but PAIN, would you feel tempted to help them end it with a gun, a knife, a dozen pushes on the "administer" button on their morphine drip? Or would you sternly deny him his right to make the decision for himself.

Only if you had no heart.

But if that person truly loved you, would they be willing to trade their pain for the consequences of the de facto murder you would be committing?

If they were that kind of person, would you have loved them?

The answers are no, and no. And no.

UPDATE: February 2, 2006
It was never my intention that Assisted Suicide become a "recurring theme", although it is a subject about which I hold strong views.
However, while researching an unrelated subject I ran across this article from Talk Left (The Politics of Crime), which suggests that I'm not the only one who believes there is ample cultural and legal justification for assisted suicide.

The article, written April 8, 2005, cites a Connecticut man who handed a gun to a "cancer-stricken" friend, and 'counselled' him on the best way to shoot himself. No evidence that the man actually held the gun or pulled the trigger, and a compassionate judge sentenced the 74-year old 'assistant' to what is effectively no more than administrative punishment. Of particular interest are the comments attached to the article.

I call the judge compassionate because, in passing sentence, he stated "I can only say to you, I'm glad it wasn't me put in your position that day."

When we watch a loved one in unrelenting agony, our natural empathy makes us want to do anything we can to help. When that person tells us that they just want the pain to end, we may assume that their ability to communicate this choice is evidence that they are able to make an informed decision.

Then, we are presented with a quandry: whether it is worth the personal legal penalties to allow your loved one the last grace with dignity, and whether there are alternative methods.

Watching your friend blow his brains out is not the best solution, but apparently in Connecticut it may be the ONLY solution.

Living in Oregon, I am comforted, somehow, that people I love are not required to burden their friends and family with such an awkward choice. The Oregon Assisted Suicide law protects a physician from the consequences of granting this last request.

GeekNews - Jan24

GEEKNEWS: News That Caught My Attention In The Past Couple of Weeks!

Volume I, Edition II: January 19 - January 24, 2006

We've been surfing the blogs lately, and there are some interesting things to read out there.

Tyler at .45 Caliber Justice showed a nifty little US Map with "Places I've Been In America" (or words to that effect.) It's an interesting graphic you can create to show your own travels.

Here's mine (resized via ImageShack, click on image to see full size):


create your own visited states map

Not surprisingly, most of the 'visits' were for hunting, participating in IPSC matches, or travels while I was in the army. That long southern link from Georgia to Texas represents a cheat. After I completed NCO Candidate School (Ft. Benning, GA) in 1969, my then-wife and I drove our nifty 1969 Ford Maverick from my OJT Training station in Ft. McClellan, Alabama back to Oregon via Tennessee, (don't ask me how we ended up on the outskirts of Memphis), Mississippi, Louisiana, then into Texas and on to California, then up to Oregon.

Winchester
Michael Bane featured Stephen Hunter's Paen to Winchester (I mentioned the other day that they were closing their New Haven plant, but not as eloquently.) Bane calls it "Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant", which has a pithy eloquence of its own.

Here's the opening:

Out With A Bang

The Loss of the Classic Winchester Is Loaded With Symbolism

By Stephen Hunter

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 20, 2006; Page C01

A famous ad that most boy baby boomers will recall from Boys' Life, the old scouting magazine of the '50s, showed a happy lad, carrot-topped and freckly like any number of Peck's Bad Boys, his teeth haphazardly arrayed within his wide, gleeful mouth under eyes wide as pie platters as he exclaimed on Christmas morn, "Gee, Dad . . . A Winchester!"

All gone, all gone, all gone. The gun as family totem, the implied trust between generations, the implicit idea that marksmanship followed by hunting were a way of life to be pursued through the decades, the sense of tradition, respect, self-discipline and bright confidence that Winchester and the American kinship group would march forward to a happy tomorrow -- gone if not with the wind, then with the tide of inner-city and nutcase killings that have led America's once-proud and heavily bourgeois gun culture into the wilderness of marginalization.

And now Winchester is gone too, or at least the most interesting parts of it. The traditional company whose symbol was a fringed rider flying across the plains on a pinto, gripping his trusty Model '73, is finally biting the dust ...

Read the whole thing.

Gun-Blog Beauty Contest
Wadcutter mentioned the voting for best gun blogs presented by Countertop Chronicles, including a gracious thank-you for his own honorable mention. Since I had encouraged you to participate, it occurs to me that you might like to know how the voting came out.

The winners in each category are (TA-DAHHHHHH!)

Category 1: Best Gun P0RN

1: Olek Volk
2: Castle of Aaarrrgghhh!

(NB: Kim du Toit was a dead-heat tie for 2nd place, I don't know what criteria was used for the tie-breaker. NOTE also that this is NOT the link for Kim's "Original" blog.)

Category 2: Most Educational
1: The ArchAngel
2: Mr. Completely

(Runner up: Head's Bunker)

I'm pleased to see Mr. Completely finish so well, as he was one of my premier picks. You'll see a lot of him in the results, although perhaps not QUITE as much as Kim du Toit. Mr. Completely accomplishes his goal of communicating without angst, anger or foul language. When it comes down to it, I'll vote for a Gentleman every time. No, this isn't meant as a criticism to Kim's more . . . aggressive style, and I have not doubt that personally he is a fine gentleman; but while Kim has been blogging for a LOT longer, with a LOT more hits, much of his success has been due to his rants. One tires of that, eventually.

I note that Mr. Completely posted some rather modest comments last Sunday night.

Category 3: Best Rants
1: mAss Backwards
2: Kim du Toit

(3rd place, Gut Rumbles)

Happily, The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler was never a contender.
Unhappily, Geek With a .45 was sadly under-rated. I really think he deserved a better evaluation from his peers. If for no other reason, any man who deliberately moves out of New Jersey because of the anti-RKBA attitude there just naturally deserves to be recognized.

Category 4: Best Legal Analysis
1: John Lott
2: David Kopel

(runner up: Eugene Volokh)

When you think of it, and I did, John Lott was pretty much a no-brainer. The real race in this category was between 2nd and 3rd place, and it could have gone either way in my opinion.

Note that the link for David Kopel also takes you to "The Volokh Conspiracy", which is the child of Eugene Volokh. Kopel is a prominent, but not the sole, contributor. You can also read Kopel in his many articles posted to National Review Online, and at his personal Home Page . Volokh can also be read at NRO and at World Net Daily's Commentary Page)

The Smallest Minority was facing such fierce competition from professionals that he never had a chance. Maybe next year, if there IS a 'next year', professional writers will not be considered unless they can prove that they do most of their writing while wearing pajamas.

Category 5: Best Aggregator
1: Alphecca
2: Mr. Completely

(Runner up: Resistance is Futile, another of my recommendations)

I'm not sure what "Best Aggregator" means, but I assume it means quality of a cross-section of posts. Something like "All-Around Cowboy", perhaps. I note that Cogito Ergo Geek actually got two (2) votes in this category, which would be flattering except that I'm not sure those two fine, upstanding and stalwart individuals didn't read "Aggregator" and mistakenly thought it meant "Agitator". Whatever the reasons, I'll paste it in my scrapebook and ... Thanks For The Memories, Mom! (But you really shouldn't have voted twice.)


Category 6: Best Range Reports
1: Mr. Completely (who lead through EVERY round of balloting)
2: Kim du Toit

(Runner up: Texican Tattler)

NOTE that Mr. Completely was one of my recommendations. Other contenders included Cowboy Blob, Michael Bane (two more of my recommendations) and, a complete surprise to me, Michael Yon. Mr. Yon is a powerful writer, but it wouldn't have occurred to me to consider his Iraqi blog as "Range Reports". On reflection, however ... why not?

See above for a stylistic comparison of the writings of Mr. Completely and Kim.

Category 7: Best Commentary
1: Kim du Toit
2: The Smallest Minority

(runner-up: Ravnwood)

A well-deserved vote for The Smallest Minority, proving that Geek-Length Posts still have a place in this world.


UPDATE: The comment (see the link below) from Mr. Completely informs us that voting will continue until January 31. His advice is to keep on voting!


It's late, I have more to talk about but tomorrow's a School Day and I REALLY need my Beauty sleep. I'll add the rest of it another day, but for now ....

That's All, Folks!