The LawDog Files...

This guy is well known on The Firing Line. His posts there were always hilarious, and now he's gone & gotten his own blog. Check him out & have a good laugh...

http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/

Some good sense...

... from SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia. Of course, CNN.com (that's the Commie News Network, if you were wondering... it has nothing to do with news...) reports his comments as if his views were abnormal.

Just a tidbit:

"The attitude of people associating guns with nothing but crime, that is
what has to be changed," Scalia told the audience of about 2,000.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/26/scalia.hunting.ap/index.html

Reporting views like his should be the norm -- not the exception.

Oh, and notice how it was all about Cheney's hunting accident ... until the Dubai port story broke? Journalist scum.

After a long pause...

... I'm back. Too many irons in the fire, folks.

I've got a couple of things I want to get out there. We'll start with this:

Tam has a good view from the porch. Here's some socioeconomic pizza for 'ya:

http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2006/02/politics-bill-gates-pizza.html

Oh, and before I forget -- the first local IDPA match for the year is this weekend. HODAR is probably coming up, and it'll be his first match! This is gonna rock... Since I'll have somebody with me (for a change), hopefully I'll have some pictures to post.

Yer quote o' the day...

... courtesy of John Farnam:

06Feb06 As we train beginning students in the Art of keeping and bearing arms
for serious purposes, usually for the first time in their lives, I frequently
need to be reminded that the philosophical overlay is more important than actual
psycho-motor skills. The act of bearing arms requires of the bearer a genuine,
individual commitment to personal responsibility, personal righteousness,
personal self-control, and personal nobility, virtues seldom emphasized in our
glib culture, often devoted only to shallow self-indulgence and
self-consumption. The experience is similar to going to boot camp, where all the
whinny, juvenile, selfish, childish nonsense swimming around in your head is
progressively slapped out of you; where you learn to take your responsibility to
yourself, your nation, and your family's name seriously! Bearing arms is similar
to having an advanced degree in a deadly martial art. You're safer in the
company of a martial arts master than in that of naive grasseater who couldn't
beat his way out of a paper bag. The master has the ability to cripple and/or
kill an attacker, nearly without effort, but mature judgement and a firm, moral
foundation stays his swift hand. Naive grasseaters are dupes of the false
doctrine of "learned helplessness," now considered a virtue in many segments of
our upside-down culture, particularly by autocratic politicians seeking support
from these shallow, defenseless, dependant, perpetual victims. Grasseaters will
not stand and fight! But, inside most is a warrior trying to get out. Our job is
to bring him forth, while we still can! /John

http://www.defense-training.com/quips/quips.html

If I can pull this part out:

The experience is similar to going to boot camp, where all the whinny,
juvenile, selfish, childish nonsense swimming around in your head is progressively slapped out of you; where you learn to take your
responsibility to yourself, your nation, and your family's name seriously!

(emphasis added)
Now that's progressive!

"Friendly Fire"?!?!?

I'm sick unto death of all the media hype over the fact that Vice President Cheney accidentally shot a friend of his while bird hunting.

The fact that the VP was involved in a hunting accident does not affect our country. It is not a metaphor for "secrecy" within the current administration.

In short, it's none of the country's business. We don't need to know. The "news" media has no "right" to know. It was an accident. A personal matter. Nothing more.

I'm so sick of the "news" media's bloated, self-important, "we're-the-sole-anointed-guardians-of-the-truth" attitude I could puke.

The media exists to make money. They tell you "stories". It's not about news.

I saw an NBC reporter trying to describe how a shotgun works. It was sad.

Rope.
Tree.
Journalist.
Some assembly required.

I should feel guilty...

... about using the words of Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband was killed on 9/11, but her comments are relevant.

This is what happens when I watch 9/11 stuff on the History Channel. I get all mad.

She said this on MSNBC's "Hardball" in 2004:

BREITWEISER: Listen, I heard a lot of talk about not having
actionable intelligence. Where was the initiative to make the intelligence
that they had actionable? That‘s someone‘s job.

MATTHEWS: The president, you mean?

BREITWEISER: That‘s someone‘s job to say—to turn to the intel
agencies and say, “Make it actionable.”

Read the text of the interview here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4751052/

It never ceases to amaze me how we can take comments like that and criticize the government for not making intelligence "actionable", and feel better about ourselves for holding the government accountable, but...

When the government actually takes unfiltered intelligence and makes it "actionable"...

... you get the Iraq war.

Oopsie!

This country suffers from a total disconnect in that we can't take the lessons we (should) have learned from 9/11, and apply them to the Iraq war.

What we, as a country, are unwilling to accept is that the "actionable" intelligence we claim the government should have used to prevent 9/11 is no different than the "actionable" intelligence that led us into Iraq.

First of all: Actionable doesn't necessarily equate to correct. And even if it does, does this country have the spine to take action?

Frankly, I think we have every reason to be in Iraq. In their few calm, lucid moments, I think most people have no doubt that Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons, and most likely was making some efforts at a nuclear program. That's enough for me. We've all seen the footage of the Kurds he gassed. That's actionable intelligence, folks. The fact that he led the U.N. inspectors on a wild goose chase around the desert for about a decade while he got rid of the evidence does not make me lose sleep at night or second guess the war. Had we hit Afghanistan hard enough soon enough, we wouldn't have had 9/11. The logic has to apply to more than one example, folks. Iraq is smack in the middle of a region that hates us, for about a hundred reasons, and we'd already seen fit to go to war with them in 1991. That's a threat. Do the math. Apply the logic.

Our imagination fails us when we see what happens when we make intelligence actionable, and then we waffle.

You want someone to "Make it actionable", sister? You got him. Congratulations. Now stop whining.

She campaigned for Kerry, for cryin' out loud.

You want to avoid a failure of imagination? You want to take action on the intelligence?

Then You. Will. Get. WAR.

Next stop: Iran. Somebody warm up an ICBM. We do still have some of those, don't we?

A failure of imagination, indeed.

We're not suffering from a failure of imagination. We're suffering from a failure of spine.

More snow...

Just had to take the Mule up on the mountain in the snow. It was really cold by this time -- in the 20s. I'll probably head up to this same spot tomorrow to cut some more firewood & shoot a bit.















I don't have a gun rack in my truck, but I've got one on the Mule. Is that weird?




















Sometimes a man just needs to have a good cigar... (thanks to HODAR and his Dad...)

Have a seat...

... and make yourself comfortable while The Smallest Minority schools 'ya on preconceived notions of poverty, race and the failings of many arguements for social programs and, of course, gun control. http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2006/02/culture.html

Just a snippet:

According to a Census Bureau press release from 1998,
In 1997, the number and poverty rate of African Americans was 9.1 million and 26.5 percent, compared with 24.4 million and 11.0 percent for Whites; 1.5 million and 14.0 percent for Asians and Pacific Islanders; and 8.3 million and 27.1 percent for Hispanics. The poverty rate for Hispanics did not differ statistically from the rate for African Americans.

For families, the number and percentage of poor in 1997 was 2.0 million and 23.6 percent for African Americans; 5.0 million and 8.4 percent for Whites; 244,000 and 10.2 percent for Asians and Pacific Islanders; and 1.7 million and 24.7 percent for Hispanics. The poverty rate for Hispanics did not differ statistically from the rate for African Americans.

In 1997 the homicide rate for black males 15-35 was 2.6 times the rate for Hispanic males in the same age group. It was ten times the rate for Asians & Pacific Islanders. Poverty does not explain the disparity, or at least not all of it. Interestingly, young Hispanic black males have a lower homicide rate than their caucasian equivalents - and far lower than non-hispanic blacks.

It is no suprise that crime and poverty go hand-in-hand (though there's a chicken/egg component there I won't address at the moment.) The question, however, is why are young black males six times more likely to die of a gunshot wound than the average non-black young male? They aren't six times more poverty-stricken than other poor groups. They aren't even 2.6 times more poverty-stricken than Hispanics. The "elephant in the room" isn't that "handguns are a lot easier to get here and a lot more commonplace here than in most other places," it's that young black men here misuse them (and other weapons) at several times the rate of all other young men.

Oh no ...

My brother ... the greyhound ... the BOY ...

... is getting married.

I don't quite know what to say. And that is a rarity indeed.

I'm thrilled for him and his bride-to-be, but...

... does this mean I have to stop calling him "BOY"????

Double-taps!!

*** Edited to add: I don't know why the pictures are all jumbled-up with the text. Blogger is finicky sometimes. I'll fix this later. ***

I managed enough self-discipline to take the rifle out & run some rounds through it. It works again. Yessssss! I ran a mag of double-tap drills on 2 targets. I have the TAO-1 ACOG mounted on the rifle, which is a 4X scope with a Tritium-illuminated reticle with integrated range finder out to 800 meters, and backup iron-sights on top (a rear ghost ring and post front with tritium insert). At close, CQB distances, the iron-sights shoot significantly below point of aim. At 10 feet, I'm aiming at the neck, and hitting the lower COM ring. At least I'm consistent...

It snowed again while I was out.... and I mean it snowed.

I saw our resident turkeys, too. Hang out, ladies ... spring turkey season is right around the corner...

The sick thing is -- I can walk up on these turkeys randomly pretty much any time ... unless it's turkey season, at which time they evidently take a vacation to the Caymans.

Getting sidetracked is OK

As long as it has something - anything - to do with snow.

We got an inch or two by Saturday morning, and another inch last night (though much of Saturday's snow was melting by Sat. evening). This is the most snow we've gotten since I moved to KY.

I still haven't "test-fired" the rifle since getting it back from the gunsmith. I had every intention of doing it yesterday afternoon, but I made the mistake of taking the camera with me when I went out the door.

Dang.

So, I have no range report, but I do have nice pictures of the snow. (Side note to any of my relatives living in SC who may be reading this -- how's your winter? Nice & brown, is it?)















I went all the way back to one of the draws you can see in the above photo. By the time I got back there, it was dusk. There's something entrancing about being deep in the woods with the lingering light and snow in the trees.
















If I had a nickel for every time I intended to go shooting, but just ended up wandering the woods, I'd be a wealthy man.

This would make me mad...

... but the degree to which Britain is losing its collective mind is really too sad to piss me off all that much.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16682442&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=blade-ii--name_page.html

Next thing you know, they'll be collecting pointy sticks.

It's really sad that this is what has become of the society that refused to cave in when Germany practically bombed them back to the stone age.

I hope their country gets overrun by rabid squirrels and foxes. I'll pay for my round-trip ticket just so I can deplane in London and spit on British soil. Cowards. Grow a collective spine.

Oh, and get rid of those stinking omnipresent surveillance cameras, you nancies. Aren't you paying attention to what Bush is doing with mere phone lines?!?!?

There are few things more unpleasant than a spineless coward with bad teeth.

Range report

My good friend HODAR, his Dad and I got some range time in before the game on Super Bowl Sunday. HODAR brought along his Springfield XD-40, and I brought along the Para 14.45 LDA Nite TAC. Nothing fancy -- we just set up a few targets & blasted away, and his Dad got in some trigger time. I'll give it to his Dad -- considering how long he said it had been since he had fired a handgun, he was a heck of a shot. HODAR, a relatively new shooter, made a fine showing as well.































Good times.

I turned 12 today!

Well, in a way. Today is the 12th anniversary of the bone-marrow transplant that saved my skinny little neck.

I'm celebrating yet another year of giving Mother Nature and Darwin the finger.

Only the strong .... er, only the genetically altered & heavily armed survive.

Here's to life, liberty, and the pursuit of all who threaten it...

I don't like cats

But that's funny. I don't care who y'are .... that there's funny.

(from Cowboy Blob)

How do you spell relief?

I spell it: A-R-1-5.

That's right -- my rifle is BACK! It was at Coal Creek Armory (www.coalcreekarmory.blogspot.com) for 3 solid weeks. Withdrawal was killing me.

So, aside from the huge wave of relief now that I'm re-armed, here's what the gunsmith told me: the rifle was clean (I would have been offended had he said otherwise), but I need to keep a bit more lubricant on the bolt and in the receiver. Aside from that, he said it just looked like the rifle had been shot quite a bit, and needed work done on most of the gas operating system parts. They replaced the gas rings with a one-piece system (rather than3 separate rings on the bolt, which can end up with the gaps aligned and cause FtFs), replaced the gas key and he said the gas tube was "packed" with carbon residue.

I was afraid that would be the case. The gas tube and its connections is the one "cleanable" part of the rifle I haven't messed with yet. It looks like the gas tube "cleaners" (pipe cleaners, really) that I had been using were just pushing all the residue toward the tube's connection with the gas block (where the tube bleeds the gasses from the barrel). Since the tube bends at a pretty good angle, the pipe cleaners won't bend to push the residue all the way out. I guess I just clogged it rather than cleaned it. The tube must be removed in order to be cleaned properly. Live and learn.

So, I expect I'll take an afternoon break to go try it out.

Stay tuned for a range report from this past weekend (just as soon as I get some pictures lined up)...