Democrats Plan Symbolic Votes Against Iraq Plan - New York Times

Democrats Plan Symbolic Votes Against Iraq Plan - New York Times

Can it be that the venerable NY Times is suggesting that "Symbolism" is A Bad Thing?

Take a look at the image they recently ran of "Dingey" Harry Reed, and tell me that they don't indulge.

Best of the Sidebar Blogs Today

Here's summary of some of the most interesting things I found as I was surfing my sidebar today.


Fun Turns To Tragedy!!! presents a 5 minute video of Jet Powered Man, which he calls "...the coolest thing that I have seen all year".

It's not Rocket Man ... This guy has wings, and a dwell-time of 5 minutes instead of 30 seconds ... but this looks like The Dane From Heaven.

Icarus, eat your heart out.


#
45-caliber Justice includes a 31 minute video From Penn and Teller called "The War On Drugs Is Bullshit!".

Yeah, I know what you're thinking.
No, I don't do drugs.

Wait a minute ... yes I do.

I smoke cigarettes, drink liquor and coffee, and put oleomargarine (the evil "Trans-Fats") on my morning English Biscuit. Oh, and did I mention the bacon?

Nicotine, Alcohol, Caffeine, Transfats, Nitrates ... all legal drugs. And they all will kill you.

What's worse, the Drug Warriors will kill you, as I have mentioned before.

(Ninth Stage also has a few words to contribute on the same subject.)

The fact is, the war on drugs has caused the death of innocents , but we can't say that it has actually served its original purpose ... to lessen the number of people who use ilegal drugs. In fact, narcotics usage has increased since the War on Drugs began in 1971. (And as Penn and Teller propose, the case can be made that "street drugs" are actually less expensive today than they were 25 years ago.)

This is a program which already costs us billions of dollars a year, is not effecting the desired results, and actually causes harm to people who are not otherwise involved except for the excesses of those agencies who are attempting to stop illegal drug usage.

What's wrong with this picture?

The video will educate you. I don't know that the opinions presented there are supported by the actual facts, but at least it will make you think.

#

Cowboy Blob tells the story about an 18 year-old who tried all the non-confrontational give-up-your-stuff approaches to pacify a mugger, until said mugger said "your backpack's still heavy, what else do you have in there?"

At which time the teenager came up with The Perfect Squelch.

I loved the story. Hope to hear more about "Harry".

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My Ol' Pal Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes *(SoftGreenGlow)* encourages you to contact your legislator in response to some interesting RKBA bills now being considered in Congress.

Phil's getting cranky and won't tell you how to contact your legislator because, as he says, "If you don’t know them off the top of your head/have their contact info in you “Favorites”, what are you doing calling yourself “An Advocate for Gun Rights”?"

I'm not quite as cranky as Phil is tonite. I'll tell you how to contact your legislator(s) because (Ta-Dah!) I have them bookmarked.

If you don't, yet ... get with it and make your bookmarks tonite.

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Kevin at The Smallest Minority (One of the two Bloggers in The World who are even more verbose than I) has a surprisingly short article about "What it's like to take a CCW class in Kentucky". He presents it as "I'd exhaust myself trying to fisk this one".

Having read the article, I was struck by three things:

1. He's right. I couldn't possibly fisk all the points ... pro and con ... which are raised in the original article (and I admit I'm feeling a little guilty about linking directly to it, because I want to encourage us all to visit the folks I'm citing here.)
2. The author describes himself as a " ... liberal, pierced, tattooed, Zen Buddhist freak...". And he obviously holds his fellow CCW Instruction Pupils in contempt, who he refers to his fellow instructees as (among other, more colorfully descriptive phrases) "backwoods detritus".
3. Still, the article is particularly well-written, and while his contempt for the usual RKBA priorities are made obvious by his glib patter, he makes his main point resoundingly clear; he wants to acquire official permission to carry a concealed firearm " ... to protect my wife and myself ..." and "... to have some harmless, high-caliber fun ...".

While the author is contemptuous of his fellow denizens of the range, he puts himself in the same category by virtue of his recognition of the two main reasons to possess a firearm: self-defense, and enjoyment. (Sport, competition, plinking, hunting ... it's all under the same umbrella.)

If you read this post, you'll probably be as enturbulated as I found myself. "This guy is an elitist asshole" may be your first reaction, but you may find yourself saying, as I did: "yeah, but he's our asshole". He enjoys shooting, he's willing to make the effort to jump through the hoops just to acquire a CCW license, and he recognizes the primary reasons for owning and using a firearm.

Everything else is hyperbole.

If you don't check out any of the other interesting links, I sincerely encourage you to read the Zen Anti-NRA (can't say I blame him, entirely), Anti-Bubba, lo-cal rant.

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Speaking of which, I have been thinking about the establishment of a Monthly Award, to be offered for the most thought-provoking (or provocative) gunblog-related post. I don't have a name for it, and I doubt it would be something which would 'catch on' as an honor to be coveted by the awardees.

But if you have a suggestion for the name of such an award, I would appreciate some help here. It's something which I have already decided to do, and if I had already established it I would have awarded the "What it's like to take a CCW class in Kentucky" for January, 2007.

Okay, partly to piss him off, but mostly because it is so well written, and because it reveals a facet of the author's private priorities which he may not acknowledge even to himself ... justification for the 2nd Amendment.

If you have a suggestion for the name of this award, please emal it to me (see the email address at the bottom of the page) or comment on this article.

Slow Down!

Denmark, home of Coppenhagen (the city, not the chew) has "for years" dealt unsuccessfully with speeders.

Now they have a new idea for drawing the attention of drivers to the speed limit.

You can see it here (18MB download), but I warn you this is decidedly NOT WF (Work Friendly)!

Semi-nudity may not be the answer for YOUR neighborhood, but I guarantee you that if Corvallis, Oregon, chooses this approach to traffic control, it would be far more effective than Traffic Circles.

PS: Don't say I didn't warn you -- this is NOT Work Appropriate!

PPS: no, this has nothing to do with IPSC competition. Why do you ask?

Benelli TV Commercial: Same Time Tomorrow

The Shooting Wire is one of my favorite email subscriptions. They send me information I don't see anywhere else.

Today's issue featured an article about a television commercial for Benelli Shotguns:

Accokeek, Maryland— After just one month of airing, Benelli's new 30-second commercial spot called, Same Time Tomorrow, created by Benelli's in-house marketing department was nominated for The Outdoor Channel's prestigious Golden Moose Award for the Best Commercial for 2006. Currently appearing on The Outdoor Channel, the highly entertaining 30-second spot also runs on Versus; ESPN 2; The Sportsmen Channel and The Men's Channel.

The spot features America's favorite exhibition shooters, Tom Knapp and Tim Bradley, using their Benelli shotguns to break multiple clay targets in every way imaginable—many of the shots seemingly impossible. One of the most dramatic scenes shows Knapp tossing a handful of clay targets at a jib-mounted camera and breaking them one at a time as they fly toward the camera lens.

This naturally piqued my interest, so I went searching YouTube to see if anyone had posted the commercial. I wanted to see it, and since my television is connected to nothing more 'networky' than a DVD/VHS player there's no hope of seeing it anywhere else.

My luck was good. Someone posted it right after Thanksgiving, 2006, and it has already been viewed over 5400 times.

For your convenience and amazement (and so I could go back and re-watch it easily), I've also included it in this post.

Enjoy!



(Note that this is the three-minute "full" version of the video. You can see the award-winning 30-second tv advertisement here.)

Beretta: Tim Bradley

Maybe it's not the gun?

Maybe it's the gunner!

If you liked the Benelli video (see above), I bet you'll enjoy this one.

The same Tim Bradley who looked so good shooting the Benelli performs the same 'trick shots' with a Beretta. And the script has him saying "I don't know of any shotgun that can match the speed of the (Beretta) Xtrema2".

Judge for yourself. Here's the three-minute video:

Assassins

Oh what the heck. It looks like this is going to be a YouTube night, I might as well wrap it up the same way it started.

(I sent an Idiots With Guns link to Xavier tonite, too. You can see how I wasted my evening.)

This is from Ninth Stage, who got it from Porta's Cat.

It's "Mexican Carry" with a bullet!

Bullets Go Pointy End Forward

This just in from The Hobo Brasser:

Friday night before this Saturday’s DRRC USPSA match, one of the guys had hurriedly installed a mag well on his single stack. At the LAMR he discovered this.



"If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane"

Here's a closer look courtesy of The Hobo Brasser.
(Click on the photo for full-size image.)

Previously posted as: "Do Your Own Gunsmithing"

Blogger Busts Bloomburg

I received the following email from Sailor Curt this weekend:

For widest dissemination:

The VCDL is sponsoring a rally and protest to raise awareness of the antics of Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York.

I blogged about it here:

http://sailorcurt.blogspot.com/2007/01/protest-is-on.html

The VCDL Alert is here:

http://www2.vcdl.org/webapps/vcdl/vadetail.html?RECID=1024962

I'm asking all freedom loving bloggers to please post about this and help us get the word out. The bigger the turnout, the more effective it will be.

Thank you all for your help.

Curtis Stone
aka Sailorcurt
Captain of a Crew of One
NRA Life Member
VCDL Member
US Navy Marksmanship Team Member
Virginia CHP Holder

Effect of Drugs and Alcohol on Spider Webs

I think you'll find the results of this scientific research project (apparently funded by a grant by the Canadian Government) to be both informative and interesting.



You can see the original, and other related videos, here.

Dillon XL650 Maintenance

Last year (January 31, 2006) I talked about the joy of shooting an Open Gun in IPSC competition, and about the various trials and tribulations of loading 20,000+ rounds per year of .38 Super ammunition with the XL650.

One of the main points was that, after over 10 years of using the Dillon press with no Vendor Mainenance, I had neglected to send my XL650 back to the manufacturer for maintenance.

It is embarassing to report that once more, I have failed to take advantage of the slow-competition-period of Winter to get my machinery in for a much needed maintenance rebuild.

The fact is, I just can't bring myself to do without my reloading press long enough to get all of the niggling little problems fixed. Instead, I keep tinkering with the press in an attempt to find the main cause of problems (usually adjustment which affects the indexing ... and almost everything you do affects the indexing!) because of my neurotic fears that I won't get it back before the shooting season starts again.

the problem is, I figure that if anyone is going to send their reloading press back to Dillon for inspection and general repair, it's going to happen during the winter. How can they get all of the presses repaired and back in time for the 2007 shooting season?

The best time to send my press back to Dillon is probably during the Summer, but I can't afford to be without it in the height of the shooting season!

Good Heavens! I might miss a match!

[Sigh]

Instead, I tinker and tweak and adjust the various sub-systems, and eventually I find somethng that isn't set up right (my error, not Dillon's) and I just ... keep on loading ammunition.

The latest problem was that the turret doesn't index correctly, so it's difficult to seat primers. I discovered this winter that I had installed the part which shoves the case into battery with the turret correctly, so it didn't cycle the turret consistently. I ermoved TWO adjustment screws, threw one away, and installed the other screw correctly. I had been using them to pressure-fit against the moving parts, when a single screw will actually insert into a designed channel which assures a correct fit.

The machine is still not perfect. The fallible part is the return spring which causes the primer detent lever to cycle completely, so it picks up the next hole in the primer disk. The spring is too weak. This is a part which I replace about twice a year, with very little effect. As a consequence, the primer detent lever doesn't always reset to cycle the primer to the proper position, and sometimes I find that the primer disk doesn't rotate far enough to pick up the next primer.

I deal with this by manually resetting the position of the lever, but this slows down my reloading speed.

Maybe someday Dillon will announce a general upgrade to that spring, and send me one which is more powerful.

In the meantime, while I search for a spring which otherwise fits the specifications of the OEM part (but is stronger), I'll use Thumb Power to make that lever move the last full measure.

Roosevelt Courageous Woman Award

In celebration of the New Year, I note a news story that I missed in all the holiday confusion.

"SAF Inogurates the "Roosevely Courageous Woman Award"

This award, inaugurated on December 28, 2006, was intended to honor "... women who use firearms in lawful defense against a criminal attack."

SAF Founder Alan M. Gottlieb announced the award’s first recipient will be a Mississippi grandmother who fatally shot a would-be robber in October.

That would be 73 year-old Beth Greer, who shot an armed assailant after he shot her husband, Tommy Greer, in a hold-up attempt after they arrived home from work.

(Tommy Greer survived the assualt; his assailant did not survive Beth's armed response after he came at her with a pistol in his hand.)

It must have been a difficult choice for Gottlieb, as we have here chronicled several other stories involving women who insist on their right to defend themselves, their family and their homes. Certainly we can take no exception to the recipient, though.

This will be an annual award. We regret that citizens are still subject to armed attack, but we are grateful for the wisdom of our founding fathers who insisted that we must recognize our God-give right to self-defense.

Referring to an earlier article about the breakdown of citizen rights in England, it's impossible to resist the temptation to point out that:

The difference between England and America is not cultural or industrial; it is The Bill of Rights.

We have a codified enumeration of civilian rights; Our English Cousins do not.

The Magna Carta was signed in 1215 at the insistance of King's Barons in revolt against the Crown's occasional infringments on their feudal rights. This was less a 'revolution' (in the sense of 18th Century American Revolution) than a squable between the Landed Gentry and their King.

King John acceded to the demands of his Barons because they had the means to revolt: they had armed retainers.

The British Citizens today do not retain these means.

N.Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English, Australian and Canada (as well as former members of The British Commonwealth of Nations and The United Kingdom) also do not retain these means of demanding redress of grievance.

Today, while those who reside in these various countries are at the mercy of the bureacracies which run their nation, at least we in America have managed ... so far ... to retain the ultimate means to defend themselves against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

It is significant that the Second Amendment Foundation can celebrate this right.

Remember, the Second Amendment isn't about "Legitimate Sporting Purposes".

It's about your grandmother defending herself against an armed, masked assailant.

And it's about your ablility to defend your nation against tyrany.

Benchmark

Once again it's time to offer my annual "Thank You" to readers of this IPSC blog.

I started on December 14, 2004, with the firm intention to provide IPSC-competition news and perspective to the folks who are interested in such stuff.

Somewhere around January 1, 2006, my statistics counter registered the 60,000th hit.

This is small change to Big Blogs, which may count that many hits in a single day, and Medium Size blogs, which get that many hits in an occasional single week.

But for a 'niche blog' such as this, I'm encouraged to believe that there are plenty of people who are sufficiently interested in IPSC-related information to stop by every now and then to see what is to be said on the subject.

Of course, I don't stick to a single theme exclusively. We find lots of interesting things to talk about. I do try to relate most posts to firearms ownership and usage, including RKBA and cultural acceptance (or non-acceptance) of guns.

I find it interesting that one of the most enduring 'most viewed' articles was Travis Tomasie's "The Perfect Reload" video. This in addition to my copy of that video on YouTube, where there are several other copies available as submitted by other people.

Recent frequently viewed articles include those about zero-tolerance in schools, newspapers publishing the names of CCL holders, The Castle Doctrine, field-stripping various handguns, pistol-caliber carbines (especially the MechTech), and various shooting videos.

Not particularly surprising, articles which prominently feature videos of IPSC matches are often represented when readers do Google-searches on keywords "IPSC VIDEO", or movies, or some other argument which is intended to provide access to views of people shooting pistols for fun and competition.

This is beyond the folks who access the videos on Jerry The Geek's Video Shooting Gallery, where full-length hi-res videos can be downloaded. (All videos available through YouTube directly on this blog are available here, but the image density is much better on the Gallery.)

While I appreciate this traffic, this remains a 'vanity blog' in that I write because I have a lot of things to say, and I established the website as an outlet for my own personal need to write. If it serves as a reference for IPSC competitors, it serves a purpose by encouraging continued contributions.

On the other hand, I also sometimes write articles for Michael Bane's Shooting Gallery. My output there is sporatic at best. Why? Because my goal is different here. I want to present more appropriate content, and my standards are such that even when I do contribute an article, I sometimes remove it because upon further consideration I don't consider it appropriate to the venue or because the article doesn't meet my higher standards.

I need to work on that; the result is that some of my best articles are presented on the personal blog and not on the Bane Blog. But you see, I don't always know what articles are good until long after I have written them, and go back to review what I have done 'recently'.

In fact, the articles of which I am most proud are often not IPSC related.

People in over 60 nations have read these articles. Sometimes they even comment on the articles, which provides me with valuable feed-back. How else am I to know what you want to read about, what you find interesting, except for the number of people who read each article and the comments I receive?

So for those of you who are regular readers, those of you who just stop by once in a while, and those of you who only read these articles because they show up when you search for specific material .... and most especially for those of you who write your own blogs and link either to this website or to specific articles ... thank you.

Britain Pays its Bills

While I'm on a Rant-Roll about Britain's budgetary problems, I probably should attempt 'fair and balanced reporting.

Today, Britain made the last installment-plan payment on the 4.3 billion dollars it borrowed from the United States, and 1.2 billion dollars from Canada ... sixty years ago.

The loan, coming at the end of WWII ("The Big One") was intended "to finance vital reconstruction". It was paid back at the agreed 2% interest rate. The final payments brought the total return to about twice the principle.

Malicious Castration

Malicious Castration?

I'll say!

A North Carolina woman has been charged with this offense because she ripped her husbands testicles off, with her bare hands.

Ooooo, that makes me cringe just to write the words.

Ms. Dawson was arrested on four charges. She faces felony counts of assault causing serious bodily injury, malicious conduct by a prisoner, injury to personal property and malicious castration.

Ms. Dawson made her first court appearance Wednesday. That same day she posted a bond of $50,000, according to jail records.

No word about the condition of her husband. My guess would be: really, really unhappy.
Also, no word about the condition of her husband's genitals. My guess would be: really, really mangled.

I'm waiting for the Money Quote from Lorena Bobbitt.

OOooooooooowwwwiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........

Brits: Citizens, Subjects or Serfs?

I have, from time to time, made passing comment on the egegious predations of The Nanny State on its ... inhabitants. These predations have typically consisted of impositions on their original rights, usually their rights to defend themselves or indeed to own a weapon at all, let alone to use it.

As the rights of citizens to defend themselves have been infringed, they have degenerated in importance from citizenship to subjects of the crown ... actually, subjects of an entrenched bureaucracy. This increasing vulnerability has been mirrored by an increase in the number of goblin predators on the streets. The Brits refer to these (usually male, usually adolescent, usually drunken) goblins as "Yobs", for reasons which may seem reasonable to them but of course makes no sense to the Colonial mind. I've discussed the phenomenon of yob-dom here, in an article which notes in passage that 'yob' is nothing more than 'boy' turned backward. Well, that may make some sense if one considers that boys have become the Dark Side of what once was the youthful incarnation of what should have developed into a responsible, productive citizen of the Empire. Alas, citizenship has gone the way of the Empire, and now the Brits must deal with a serious Crime In The Streets problem.

I discussed representative examples of consequences of the breakdown of civilization's natural checks and balances in August of 2006, in a piece called "Brits lose another 'subject'", wherein I lost all patience with the British legal system and particularly with the degenerate excuse for a police force. We have come to accept that the police are not obligated to protect us from predation, but we had hoped that they would at least make an effort to apprehend violent transgressors against the public peace and welfare. Apparently that is no longer part of the priorities of police in England, and one wonders what they do with the time they spend on duty.

Now we have TWO answers to this question:

One: they sit around filing reports on classroom "homophobia", which theHome Office hopes to have classified as a "Hate Crime".

Gay lobby groups are deeply upset about the use of "homophobic" language in schools, partly because of the common use by teenagers of the word 'gay' as an insult regardless of the perceived sexual orientation of the individual they are insulting.

The Home Office guidance also said that gay lobby groups could set up "third party reporting centres" to pass to police details of "homophobic" incidents which gay individuals themselves have been too scared to report to police.

Police should then record the names and details of individuals passed on by gay lobby groups, it said.

That's right, they don't have time to investigate reports of attempted murder, but they have the time to take action against school children who call their friends 'gay'

Two: they watch television, and shout into microphones:

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- It's Saturday night in Middlesbrough, England, and drunken university students are celebrating the start of the school year, known as Freshers' Week.

One picks up a traffic cone and runs down the street. Suddenly, a disembodied voice booms out from above:

``You in the black jacket! Yes, you! Put it back!'' The confused student obeys as his friends look bewildered.

``People are shocked when they hear the cameras talk, but when they see everyone else looking at them, they feel a twinge of conscience and comply,'' said Mike Clark, a spokesman for Middlesbrough Council who recounted the incident. The city has placed speakers in its cameras, allowing operators to chastise miscreants who drop coffee cups, ride bicycles too fast or fight outside bars.

That's right. The Nanny State has enlisted Big Brother to help her control the unmanageable masses. If their plans work out, this dubious replacement for 'the cop on the block' is only the next step in a long-range program of replacing people with machines.

Almost 70 years after George Orwell created the all-seeing dictator Big Brother in the novel ``1984,'' Britons are being watched as never before. About 4.2 million spy cameras film each citizen 300 times a day, and police have built the world's largest DNA database. Prime Minister Tony Blair said all Britons should carry biometric identification cards to help fight the war on terror.

``Nowhere else in the free world is this happening,'' said Helena Kennedy, a human rights lawyer who also is a member of the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament. ``The American public would find such inroads into civil liberties wholly unacceptable.'' (Emphasis added.)

During the past decade, the government has spent 500 million pounds ($1 billion) on spy cameras and now has one for every 14 citizens, according to a September report prepared for Information Commissioner Richard Thomas by the Surveillance Studies Network, a panel of U.K. academics.

I'm not entirely convinced by the comment about the resistance of the American public to intrusive spy-machines. But certainly the Brits have not only allowed their government to take over an increasing control of their personal habits (see below) and daily lives, but they're lining up to buy technology to spy on each other.

According to this article in the London 'Daily Mail':

A new telephone lie detector system promises to pick up on tell-tale signs of stress in a caller's voice whenever they tell a fib.

Available for free, the Kishkish lie detector can be easily downloaded from the web and used by those who make phone calls over the internet.

If your telephone service is one which runs through the Internet (presumably one such as Vonage), you too can tell if your sweetie is lying about 'working late tonite, honey'.

...

In fact, the Brits have serious budgetary concerns. Their Socialist National Health Service (NHS) system has been increasingly bogged down due to the increased demands on it. A recent news article (for which I cannot immediately find the reference) notes that fully ten percent of their NHS budget is taken up with care for abused children, a situation which threatens to bring the entire Socialist structure to its knees.

Rather than address the root causes of child abuse (unemployment, breakdown of the family unit and civilized rules of conduct in general), the Brits have looked around for 'other places' where they can cut down on the demands for Socialized Medicine. And they have found ... fat people. Also, those who smoke and drink seem to be taking up more than their fair share of the limited resources made available under Socialized Medicine.

It says here that "Smokers, people with alcohol problems and the obese could be denied priority treatment on the NHS if they do not try to change their lifestyle", and apparently the Brits are seriously considering restricting people thus categorized from access to "priority NHS care".

The article, of course, doesn't mention this as a budgetary measure; instead, they tout it as a 'lifestyle' issue:

A Cabinet review group on public services was shocked by the scale of the burden caused by people's lifestyles. "Ministers were shocked by the fact that half of all years of healthy life are lost as a result of behavioural factors (e.g. smoking and diet)," a Government source said.

Ministers want a "cultural change" in public services so the state can support and encourage people to change their behaviour to improve their life chances and well-being.

While they're at it, they're going to address OTHER societal ills by action which on the face of it seems to directly contradict the budgetary issues: they have a problem with yobs who drop out of school, so they're going to throw more money at it.

They also want to extend the number of "contracts" between the citizen and the state, such as the £30-a-week education maintenance allowances paid to over-16s who remain in further education.

Oh, and perhaps you think that proves that they don't REALLY have a problem financing Socialized Medicine?

Experts warned this month that obesity, which costs the NHS £7bn a year, could bankrupt it if left unchecked and predicted that the proportion of obese adults would rise from one in five to one in three by 2010. Smoking-related diseases cost an estimated £1.7bn a year, with the same amount spent on alcohol-related problems. The treatment of alcohol-related harm, such as violent crime and traffic accidents, costs an estimated £20bn.

Coming full-circle back to the question of "how do you solve a problem like Maria Yobs?", the same article offers this observation:

The cabinet reviews have already provoked controversy. A paper for the security, crime and justice group, leaked at the weekend, suggested that crime could rise for the first time in more than a decade as economic growth slows, and that the prison population, already at a record 80,000, could rise to 100,000 over the next five years.

The Government has promised an extra 8,000 prison places but it is not clear how they will be funded. The Treasury has frozen the Home Office budget in real terms from 2008-11 other than for spending on security and anti-terrorism work.

Somehow I find it difficult to accept the assertion that "... crime could rise for the first time in more than a decade ...", given the news reports mentioned above and elsewhere.

(Incidently, the Brits are unable to maintain an acceptable level of performance in their education system, too. That's a situation which isn't noticably better here in the States, either, so don't think I'm suggesting that England is the only 'First World' country with a failing Nanny State understructure.)

Ultimately, the British Government's Great Experiment (in Socialism) is proving to be as unworkable as we always thought it would be. The solution, as evidenced by these measures, seems to be to reduce the status of the average Brit from 'Citizen' to 'Subject' and now all the way down to 'Serf':

serf

Pronunciation: (sûrf), [key]
—n.
1. a person in a condition of servitude, required to render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord's land and transferred with it from one owner to another.
2. a slave.

So much for the wonders of Western Civilization. But less you believe that there's nothing to be done but shake your head in sadness at the decline of what was once a great nation, be of good cheer!

We still have the United Nations to tell us when we're not running our country The Right Way:

UN voices concerns over 'unfairness' in Saddam execution verdict
By Reuters
ZURICH - The UN human rights chief on Thursday called for restraint by Iraqi authorities over Saddam Hussein's death sentence, saying there were concerns about the fairness of the original trial.

"The appeal judgment is a lengthy and complex decision that requires careful study," Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Arbour also said that under the terms of international agreements signed by Iraq Saddam had the right to appeal to "appropriate authorities" for possible commutation or a pardon.

The United Nations: Voted "Best Friend" by dictators the world over.

World Socialism, here we come!

NOTE:
Some people are really choked up by the prospect of the impending up-string of The Butcher of Baghdad.

I am not.

UPDATE:

Neither were the Iraqis.

Gun vs. Knife

CRIME, GUNS, AND VIDEO TAPE: Gun vs. Knife

H/T Syd, from FRONT SIGHT, PRESS (News From The Sight, M1911 - Vol 232, Dec 23, 2006)

"Never Bring A Knife To A Gun Fight"

Good advice.

Or is it?

This article by Paul Huebl in his Crime File News blog includes a video which illustrates in shocking video just how vulnerable we are to attack by an aggressive, determined knife-wielding assailant.

Even if you're a LEO.

Yes, even you IPSC pistoleros, you CCH holders, you IDPA warriors.

...

It's not a new story. People at shooting ranges have been talking about the gun vs knife phenomenon for years. There are answers in the lore, but you have to experience it to believe it.

For example:

Last summer, I went to the ARPC range to do a little practice with my IPSC gun. Mike McCarter was there training his USPSA Junior team. I stopped by to watch, and eventually got drawn into the activity.

In an effort to help his juniors appreciate the importance of the draw, Mac set up the classic training exercise. You are the gunner, you have a (plastic, toy, safe) gun in your pocket and 15 feet away from you there is a knife-man with a (plastic, toy, safe) knife in his hand. Suddenly the knife-man starts running toward you, with his knife held before him. Your job is to draw, point and 'fire' at least once before you are within range of the knife.

Never happened. Knife-man always beat gunner to the draw.

A year or two earlier, I took a "home defense" course at the same range, which (for me) was part of the training needed to qualify for a CCH license. The instructor set up the same scenario.

These were older men, and the goal was to teach students what must be done to defend against a charging knife-man.

After the first couple of students failed abysmally to draw and 'engage' in time to ... maybe ... even get a shot off, the instructor began to talk us through the things we as gunners could do to foil a determined, aggressive knife attack.

First, time is your enemy. The knife-man is ready, he knows what he is going to do and when he is going to start his attack. He either knows he can get to you before you can draw, engage and fire. Your only option is to play for time.

The first thing you do is backpedal, FAST! You have probably started within the distance that the knife-man can run before you can draw, so increase the distance. While moving, of course, you should be drawing. (It is a principle of self-defense training that you recognize the threat before an attack is initiated. This allows you to at least clear for your draw; move your coat-tail out of the way, put your hand on your pistol, even draw it. But how many of us are willing to draw a gun before we see a weapon?)

Moving backwards during the draw gives us parts of a second, maybe even a second or two more time to draw and engage.

Also, as soon as the attacker begins to move he has established a vector of attack. That means he is constantly building momentum toward a point, the place where you are standing when he starts to move. One of your options is lateral movement. Given a choice, you should move to the right when attacked by an assailant holding the knife in his right hand. This forces him to make an across-the-body slash rather than just moving his knife hand forward or farther to his right. When attempting an across-the-body slash, the reach of the attacker is dramatically shortened by the need to reach ACROSS the diameter of his torso, so it may be possible to move outside of his reach.

All of this is predicated upon circumstances. If you are backed up against a wall, or bounded by the walls of a narrow alley, your options are drastically limited.

Lesson: don't let yourself be caught in a corner.

Looking at the video, we see that the pistol armed defender stays in place. As a static body, you're nothing more than a soft target. The assailant has the advantage of speed, timing, and momentum. You can turn these advantages against him by movement; to the rear, and/or laterally.

Still, if you're caught flat-footed, you probably are screwed anyway.

If you choose to carry a pistol for personal defense, you need to spend as much time acquiring the habit of situational awareness as you do in gun-handling. That is, you need to pay attention to your surroundings and recognize that you are in the presence of someone who might attack you. The best result of fight is never to get into one. Avoiding a fight is not cowardness; it's the perfect tactic.

Surely there are people who can give you better instruction and advice. I am a correspondant, not an instructor, and as such I can only present my observations and parrot the instructions I have received. I can only say that I have had the opportunity to see the vulnerability and think about it ahead of time. I've given myself as much edge as possible, small though it might be, by learning to recognize a dangerous situation and establishing a plan to avoid an attacker while I simultaneously move to counter-attack.

One more suggestion:
At an IPSC match several years ago, a clever stage-designer presented a fairly realistic demonstration of this conundrum. He set up a 'railroad track' of 2x4 boards, and built a cart to run on it. He put an IPSC target on it, and powered it by stretched bungie cords. When you activated the target, it 'ran forward' the 15 feet or so ... very quickly ... until it reached a position which was nominally The Danger Zone (where a man with a knife could reach you.) The challenge was to draw and engage the target before it reached 'striking distance', which was the end of the track about 3 feet from the shooter starting position.

As long as the sport of IPSC includes the word "Practical", it occurs to me that this would be a very useful training aid and also an interesting Shooting Problem.

Think about including this stage in a future IPSC match.

The Recipe

Christmas Cookie Recipe

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
Lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Crown Royal

Sample the Crown Royal to check quality.

Take a large bowl, check the Crown Royal again, to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again.

At this point it's best to make sure the Crown Royal is still OK, try another cup.. Just in case.

Turn off the mixer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off floor...

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a dewscriver.

Sample the Crown Royal to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.... Who giveshz a sheet.

Check the Crown Royal.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of AR, or somefink.... Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window.

Finish the bottle of Crown Royal.

Make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

Cherry Mistmas

(H/T: SWMBO)

Twas the night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, cold, dark and foreboding,
As I sat at the workbench, quite busy reloading,
The empties from autumn were polished so clear,
For primers and powder, and bullets from Speer.

And Sierra boat-tails, and Nosler's Partitions
(My bench ain't no place for brand name omissions!)
All sat in their boxes, right next to the press,
With dies from Midway, and RCBS.

When all of a sudden there came such a jolt,
I grabbed for my Mossberg, and whipped out my Colt.
As I spilled Hodgdon's powder all over the shelf,
I scrambled for cover, just to protect myself;

From up on the rooftop, came hoofbeats and snorting,
Like the noise out of L'il Rock, from Clinton's cavorting!
I eased off the safety, to press-check my auto
With 230-hardball, I'd knock 'em all blotto.

Were these rogue federal agents, sent by Schumer and Reno?
Or a staggering Ted Kennedy, in bad need of vino?
My question was answered with a knock, and some sneezing,
It's Santa, you moron, lemme in there, I'm freezing!

I flipped off the dead-bolt and threw the door wide,
To find St. Nick a'shivering, Rudolph by his side
He eyeballed my Thompson, with a nod of approval
"You're all set," he said, "for dirtball removal."

But this is no raid, we're not here to harm you
Or persecute, prosecute, or even disarm you
Instead, said dear Santa, he needed to borrow
My .357, 'till day after tomorrow.

It's okay he assured me, with a hint of frustration.
I'm enrolled in the National Rifle Association
He showed me his card, 'twas a Life Member rating
I've had this since me and the missus were dating!

And you see, ol' buddy, I've gotten real nervous
Since Hillary was elected, with a promise to serve us
So henceforth as I'm out there, my presents a'stackin'
I want to assure you, I'm legally packin'

And my gift for you this year, should give you a hoot
I've told the Supreme Court to give Brady the boot!
Now, Rudy and I must be on our way."
He said, as he climbed back on the seat of his sleigh.

With the reins in his hand, and my Smith in his pocket
He jingled the sleigh bells and was off like a rocket.
With a pair of speedloaders, and ammo to spare
I knew he'd be safe, he was loaded for bear.

As he faded from view, I could still hear him calling,
From DC, where 'PC' is already falling,
To bad guys in LA, Detroit and Atlanta:
I'm licensed to carry. Don't be messin' with Santa!

Merry Christmas from Jerry The Geek and from SWMBO
Who would knock Anti-gun hopolophobes way akimbo.
Hat-Tip to our friend, thank you The Hobo Brasser
We hope that next year you shoot IPSC much faster!

The value of Zero Tolerance in schools

Herald News :: News :: Student ordered to be home schooled

In November of 2006, a 13-year old middle-school boy in Joliette, Illinois, heard a rumor that a gun (a pellet gun) had been hidden in the boys bathroom trash can,

He and a friend investigated, found the pellet gun, and turned it over to school authorities.

In accordance with the state law, the boy who actually handed the gun to the Assistant Principle was subject to expulsion. The Elementary District School Board, in an act which they probably consider to be one of extreme kindness, instead removed him from his school and recommended Home Schooling.

("... administrators were bound by state law to bring an expulsion recommendation to the board. But the board had several options under state law, including the choice of home schooling or offering a placement in an alternative school.")

The family does not accept this decision, asserting that the boy was doing "the right thing" by giving the gun to a school official.

(The boy who actually brought the gun to school has reportedly been "criminally charged".)

In an age wherein merely drawing a picture involving stick figures shooting a gun, these results are probably no longer surprising. They are, however, still appalling.

State laws, school officials, and Illinois legislatures (not to single out that state ... it happens all over America any more) continue to predate on the "good kids" who do their best to act in good faith to act in accordance to arcane and unjust laws.

A pre-school boy who hugs his teacher is suspended for "inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment".

You can hardly imagine an ingenuous situation involving a naive child and a school which does not end in the child being punished ... often egrigiously ... for being a child.

Kim de Tuit (in his earlier incarnation) referred to this phenomenon as "The Pussification of the Western Male". He laid the blame squarely on the round shoulders of the Feminist Movement.

My frustration from this latest outrage inclines me to agree with him. When I first started reading Kim, I didn't agree with him on many subjects. Current events over the past few years have caused me to slowly veer toward acceptance of his viewpoints.

Especially on the subject of Zero Tolerance, and most especially when I read examples in places like this, and this, and ... well, do your own Google search.

What is the value of Zero Tolerance in schools?

Well, since the courts have determined that the whistling paddle-board spanking is socially unacceptable politically incorrect, this is the only means left by which arguably pedophilic, sadistic school boards can violate and torture chastize innocent errant little boys.

UPDATE: December 26, 2006
As proof that this blog is "A Living Document" (not unlike the Constitution of the United States of America, in the view of some over-the-hill SCOTUS members), I've been thinking about this article and would like to add a comment.

It seems to me that the school board in question probably intended the act of 'sentencing' the innocent to Home Schooling as a combination of public ostracizing and sending to Coventry. Read: "That'll show the little punk who's in charge here!"

Given the egregious infliction of Zero Tolerance policies on the innocent, this may well have been the best thing that they could have done for the kid. At least he's no longer subject to punishments inflicted upon him by a mindless bureaucracy. He won't be brainwashed by the nanny state. He is no longer in an environment which insists that all good things comes from The Government and that his parents are incompetent to teach him appropriate values.

I bet there was a Christmas Tree in the front room, right in front of the picture window ... and the school won't allow any Christmas Pageant or other recognition of the religious season. ("Happy Holiday" is not an acceptable for "Merry Christmas!")

Yeah, the kid probably wishes all of his friends would get the same ill treatment.

The thing about freedom is, free people want everybody to be free. The only down side is, you just about have to kick somebody in the shins to break out of lockstep.

[sigh]

Actually, I feel a lot better about this, now.

School trustee's gun advocacy draws fire

School trustee's gun advocacy draws fire

A Vancouver school trustee is taking heat for speaking out in favour of a gun group's campaign for the right to carry concealed weapons in Canada.

Sharon Gregson, a longtime NDP activist, was recently featured on the cover of the National Firearms Association Journal, holding a large handgun.

Gregson has just been granted a permit to carry a concealed handgun in the U.S. and has written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking why she can't have the same right in Canada.

Gregson asks the very reasonable question: Why can't a woman own and carry a gun to protect herself in Canada, when she can do so in 48 of 50 states in America?

This may seem a reasonable question to you and to me ... and to her ... but to her compatriots the question is anethema:

Wendy Cukier, the president of the Coalition for Gun Control, said she was appalled by Gregson's decision to become the firearms association's cover girl.

Cukier said the trustee is sending out a dangerous message by advocating putting guns into the hands of more women.

"There is no evidence whatsoever that arming women makes them safer," Cukier said. "In fact, the evidence is quite the contrary, that more guns results in more deaths and injuries."

I don't know about that.

I'm waiting for Cukier's evidence that arming women makes them LESS safe. But I don't expect to see it soon.

If I were a 100-pound woman being attacked by a 200 pound man, I would be grateful to Samuel Colt and John Moses Browning for providing an 'equilizer'.

Your Mileage May Vary.

H/T to John R. Lott

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