Downright Dusty

Chicago-area women find peace through strength

2009-10-28T11:56:00.004-05:00

Despite all the "community activism" through the decades by Saul Alinsky disciples such as Barack Obama, the best efforts of ACORNers, and some of the strictest laws on private ownership of firearms in the nation shoved onto its citizens by the Daley combine, Chicago is an increasingly dangerous place to live, work and visit. Women there are turning their back on the "conventional wisdom" they've been fed about gun ownership and firearms training. They're shopping in gun stores, taking firearms training and heading to the range in record numbers.

Chicago is one of the few places I've been forced to draw a firearm in defense. I traveled there during an icy March weekend more than 20 years ago with some family members. We were returning to our hotel on a street that intersected Michigan Avenue. A group of eight men began to tail us as we took corners and crossed streets. As they started to close in, I noticed a stout, steel-plate dumpster in the middle of one block, I got behind it as the three others I was with started running. I flipped my coat tail back and drew my revolver. The stalkers suddenly figured out it was best to turn around and find more ideal prey.

Mayor Daley and the Chicago police wouldn't have approved. But they weren't around to notice. Gun control isn't reasonable or safe. It just makes it easier for criminals to victimize law-abiding-but-defenseless citizens. Hats off to the armed citizens of Chicago.

A passage from a journal

2009-10-18T00:16:00.005-05:00

It's late and sleep eludes. So I'm reading some passages from the journal of Albert Jay Nock, 1873-1945. This one I'd like to share with you.

"Lord, how the world is given to worshiping words! Eschew the coarse word slavery, and you can get glad acceptance for a condition of actual slavery. A man is a slave when his labour-products are appropriated, and his activities are governed by some agency other than himself; that is the essence of slavery. Refrain from using the word Bolshevism, or Fascism, Hitlerism, Marxism, Communism, and you have no troubles getting acceptance for the principle that underlies them all alike--the principle that the State is everything, and the individual nothing."

Nock, a friend of William Jennings Bryan and one of the lights of the early Progressive movement, eventually found these advocates of "change" and "reform" to be "political Frankensteins." In the State, he held no trust. He viewed Statism as a cancer that would eventually throttle the power of independent moral judgment in its citizenry.

Give him a teleprompter or something ...

2009-10-06T12:24:00.008-05:00

Uhh, perhaps, uhh ... the's president's low, uhh ... approval ratings, uhh ... could, uhh, I'm sorry, uhh ... pick up, uhh ... 20 points, if he embraced, uhh ... a robust process to, uhh ... find a press secretary to replace, uhh, Robert Gibbs.

A Prediction and an Apology

2009-09-30T08:29:00.005-05:00

I, at this time more than 48 hours before the official announcement, predict Chicago will not make the final cut for the 2016 Olympics host city despite the redistributive-changer-in-chief's visit to Copenhagen to sway the International Olympic Committee.

Keeping President Obama's UN speech in mind, I'm also apologizing to our poor, huddled, exploited, global brothers and sisters--particularly the citizens of Madrid, Rio and Tokyo. Our president's old-fashioned wielding of power isn't any way to "embrace a new era of of engagement based on mutual interests and mutual respect

" or forging a future out of deeds rather than speeches. No wonder the world may sometimes view the United States of America with "skepticism and mistrust" for this isn't a shining example of change in word and deed--"a new era of engagement with the world."

A Democrat, former House Speaker Tip O'Neill, once said, "All politics is local." In any attempt to understand the timing of President Obama's trip to Copenhagen, keep in mind he's an old-school, Chicago politician, i.e., a "community activist." He's doing the bidding of the Daley machine.

Polansky: Wanted and Desired

2009-09-29T08:39:00.004-05:00

Roman Polansky, "one of the world's outstanding film directors" has been a fugitive from justice for more than 30 years. Despite all his prestige and the public relations campaign his posse has been helping Polansky run from Europe and Hollywood, he plead guilty to a crime that earns him a slot on the sexual predator registry.

Why the governments of France and Poland believe Polansky should be cut loose is beyond me. If those nations wish to be sanctuary countries for child abusers and rapists, let's export several boat loads.

Job "Creation"

2009-09-12T12:53:00.007-05:00

Larry Summers, Obama's chief economic adviser, consumed enough Diet Coke last week to blast him out of a slumber. Then he noticed the record-setting unemployment rate, held an interview with news media, and said it will remain "unacceptably high for a number of years."

So, in a play on Sheryl Crow and Obama lyrics, a change wouldn't do you good.

Larry, will you ever be able to explain to me how Obama can claim how he and Congress have created or saved 1 million jobs this year via the $787 billion, budget-busting, economic "stimulus" plan? The Obama administration's own numbers show 492,ooo jobs lost in July and August and 6.9 million total lost since the recession officially began. It sounds like fuzzy math and voodoo economics all over again, Larry.

Three-for-one swap

2009-09-07T11:02:00.008-05:00

After looking at the news page this morning, I propose this trade with Venezuela: three of our left-wing radicals who slept through economics courses for one of theirs.

The trade: Obama, Pelosi, and Michael Moore (who now thinks capitalism is an evil that cannot be regulated) for Hugo Chavez. Why? Because, with the red shirt, Hugo stands out at town hall meetings.

Strange Sake?

2009-09-03T09:50:00.004-05:00

Japan's first lady, Miyuki Hatoyama, is one multi-faceted lady. She's traveled to Venus, knew Tom Cruise when he was Japanese, and has been abducted by space aliens. She also serves as Yukio Hatoyama's, her husband and prime-minister-elect, chief stylist.

Maybe Cristophe, hairstylist who's groomed many high-flying politicos such as President Bill Clinton, should open up a sixth salon on Venus.

Transparency and Open Government

2009-08-25T19:09:00.009-05:00

I'm keeping President Obama's executive order regarding transparency and open government in mind as I watch the spinning, red numbers grow larger and larger here.

Each one of us--rich, poor, child, adult, man, woman, minority, majority, Democrat, Republican, left-wing radical, right-wing extremist--as of this moment own $38,187 of the national debt. Then there's $191,845 per citizen of unfunded federal liability. Tack on more than $24,000 per each man, woman and child of private debt, and each of us should subtract more than $254,000 from our net worth. If you're like me and most ordinary, working Americans President Obama is fixing stuff for, you're a couple of hundred thousand in the hole. And the hole's going deeper, perhaps clear through to China.

That's change we can believe in even before adding $1 trillion--most likely many trillions more using the sordid history of federal cost estimation failures as a guide--Obamacare is estimated to cost. If the Obama Administration truly wanted to fix stuff, it would mandate every American to pass a written economics exam before he or she walks into a polling place.

Buying groceries, gasoline, shelter, prescription drugs, and clothing with dollars that are worth less is the most cruel tax of all. This growing burden results from our exploding national debt. Inflation is this disguised, disgusting tax everyone who spends dollars pays. It has the greatest impact on the people President Obama claims to care about the most, the working poor.

Reloading, fixing, and reforming

2009-08-22T21:37:00.007-05:00

There's one gun shop two counties south of here that usually has primers on the shelf. Of the dozens of times I've made the 60-mile trip through the years, the dealer has only once not had the primers I needed. This was during the dark ages of the Clinton Administration when Democrats and gun banners were working hand-in-hand to pass Brady II, which would have enacted an "arsenal tax" on firearms, primers and ammunition.

True to form, I found primers there despite striking out at other stores such as Cabela's, several closer guns stores, and many online merchants of reloading components. This dealer, unlike many, hasn't tripled prices on primers. I paid the pre-Obama price for 1,000 CCI No. 41 small rifle primers, 200 Sierra .224 dia., 55-grain HPBT Gameking bullets, a pound of Hodgdon Varget, and some Winchester 5.56mm ball ammo. He said he was lucky to have just received 40,000 small rifle and pistol primers.

It lifted my spirits to see some .223, 7.62x39mm, 9mm, .45 ACP, .380 ACP and .357 Mag ammo sitting on shelves, all labeled with fair-market prices. However, there's one change I hated to see. The dealer had to move the primers, formally stacked on shelves in cardboard, 5,000 ct. boxes--often three or four deep by brand--behind the register because of shoplifters.

The dealer, an honest citizen who faithfully pays his taxes, mentioned he had just emerged from a seven-month battle with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to get it to perform an act federal law requires it to carry out in 90 days or less--approving or rejecting a Federal Firearms license transfer from one business entity to another. The buyer and seller both hired attorneys, who intervened twice by reminding the BATF it is supposed to enforce federal laws rather than break them.

I remarked that his struggle with one federal agency illustrated how silly it was to expect the U.S. government, designed from the start to be somewhat inefficient to preserve individual liberty, to "reform" or "fix" our health-care system. He said, "Yes, we'd die before the feds decided we needed hospitalization."

It will be a pleasure to go back there later this fall and do business with an honorable person.

No, Ed ...

2009-08-13T16:00:00.002-05:00

I don't want to shoot President Barack Obama. I'm not a conservative, but I would say both libertarians, of which I am one, and conservatives simply want President Obama to stop shackling us with chains.

The Dog Days of Summer

2009-08-12T15:00:00.005-05:00

It's not a typical Dog-day summer here. August is usually the time of browned grass and 100-plus-degree afternoon heat. The metal buildings remind me of solar coolers we used to make in science class. Any short-pants-wearing human passing dried-up stalks and sunflowers will receive a rigorous shin pelting from grasshoppers.

A cool breeze and being pelted by little except rain--now that's real change.

The term, "Dog days," or Caniculares dies for all you Latin speakers, can also describe a time period or event proven to be dull, mind numbing, and listless. I've not felt like writing. This use is more illustrative of my summer than the former, which is how Romans viewed the evil days of summer "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" according to Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813.

I'd rather suffer from a lack of words that be forced by Roman policy wonks to sacrifice a choice brown dog to appease Sirius, the Dog Star, and ward off global warming.

Every winter the Dog Star shines from its home in Canis Major, one of Orion's two best friends. It seems odd that it has anything to do with summer, a languid time for star gazers like me who wait up for the Perseid meteor shower. The clouds moved in to frame Venus just after dark while I checked on the horses. After midnight when the shower was supposed to be at its peak, the multiplied clouds, both languid and boiling, had covered Perseus with a shroud.

Change: Town hall meetings may endanger one's health

2009-08-07T11:13:00.007-05:00

The Democrats are dealing with "the fringe" that show up at town hall meetings in new ways: bouncers from the labor unions possibly seeking federal assistance for their steroids, White House strategy planning and video reviews, abandoning town hall meetings all together for conference calls with supporters, and streams of "Organizing for America" messages urging recipients to "fight the smears."

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina told Democratic members of Congress, "If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard."

Why do union members, seniors, and other people who expect Barack Obama and members of Congress to "fix" health care turn out at these town halls? In this Youtube video of a meeting held by Kathy Castor, a congresswoman from Florida, one of the attendees answered my question:

"She's [Castor] the one with the money! Not you!"

No, Castor's one of several who's put the government nearly $12 trillion in debt.

A new "lawn" rifle

2009-08-05T09:02:00.003-05:00

I haven't played croquet, badminton or the fast-paced game of lawn darts in years. Where the yard here at the farm slopes down to the banks of Elm Branch, I have, however, indulged in the decadent sport of lawn riflery.

Steyr Mannlicher US sent out an e-mail announcing the Steyr AUG/A3. The company refers to it as a "sporting" rifle. Because I don't assault anything with a semi-automatic rifle except rodents and other varmints, I refuse to use that verb as a modifier before "rifle". Around here, any black rifle or carbine considered by gun haters to be inherently evil in itself are called something else.

The rifles I use for dispatching pests, hunting, defending my loved ones, safeguarding our home and enjoy shooting and reloading for are called lawn rifles. Lawn riflery, one of liberty's many blessings, is indeed the true sport of Kings--and Queens, of course.

My son will take an expensive trip to the oral surgeon Friday. I don't have the dollars for a Steyr AUG/A3 even if they are truly in stores now as Steyr's message indicates. Prez Obama and Congress will not fund a cash-for-clunkers rebate for prospective gun owners any time soon. Since the battle for health care reform has stalled, those nice men and women from the federal government won't pay for oral surgery, either. Damn the bad luck!

Back from the Left Coast

2009-08-02T19:14:00.006-05:00

I apologize for not entertaining my VIP readers, my legion of raving fans--the four of you, I think.

It's green this summer in Kansas, which means it has been a constant war with noxious weeds. I gave up last week and spent some time in San Francisco. It was my first time to visit the city on the bay, and it was a pleasant trip. Things were spinning well there including the mass transit system. BART workers refrained from striking. The state of California was still able to get by on IOUs. This week may prove to be different, but Toto and I are back in Kansas. Of course, the state government here has cranked out some IOUs. But we have horses to ride if government wheels stop turning.

Chinatown Gate, Grant Street, San Francisco

News I missed while traveling: China has figured out how to send fresh-breathed men into orbit. This is something I didn't hear discussed in Chinatown. It might have been, but I've never learned Cantonese or Mandarin. I did learn of Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata’s month-long underwear test there from the front of a newspaper dispenser. Thirty days in the same pair of underwear--try that in the Chinese space program, General Yang, and you'll be kicked out and sent to some remote place such as the Wolong Nature Reserve to monitor panda mating.

The Stupid Police in Cambridge, Massachusetts

2009-07-23T08:44:00.006-05:00

Did the police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested Henry Louis Gates, Jr., professor and director of Harvard's African-American research center, act stupidly? President Obama, during his latest prime-time news conference, said he did.

Here's the police report, once posted by the Boston Globe but now pulled. There were several witnesses at the scene, Gates' home, where the officer had been dispatched to investigate a potential burglary in progress. President Obama wasn't one of them.

Maybe in the President's mind, everyone has the right to yell, threaten, ignore repeated warnings to "calm down," and to throw a tantrum after a police officer asks a few basic questions in response to another citizen's call.

Perhaps Professor Gates should have a discussion with someone's mama about disorderly conduct and how it's against the law. And the national chief executive should explain why he's encouraging anyone who thinks they are being treated unfairly to disregard and abuse law enforcement officers carrying out their sworn duties. Hint: Don't try it with the Secret Service, BATF or the FBI.

Prosecutors dropped the charge against Gates Tuesday, which seems reasonable to me. A fine or time in the city jail would serve no useful purpose. Hopefully Gates will find some good mental health care. He's a victim of racial profiling, which he describes in this magazine interview.

Smooth Operator

2009-07-16T10:03:00.006-05:00

Nah, this post doesn't have much relevance to Sade's 1985 single detailing the life of a cold-hearted, jet-set gigolo nor removing noise from data. So if a search engine brought you to this remote corner of the Web by error ...

"No place for beginners or sensitive hearts When sentiment is left to chance. No place to be ending but somewhere to start."

Europe between 1938 and 1945 was no place for beginners or sensitive hearts, so Winston Churchill tasked "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare," or the Special Operations Executive (SOE), to pry it back from the Third Reich. The average life expectancy of SOE agents serving in occupied territory was six weeks despite their extensive training.

Etienne and Violette Szabó during their honeymoon

Some SOE agents were particularly ungentlemanly--they were women. Section F of the SOE employed 39 female agents in occupied France. Thirteen never returned. Of those, Violette Szabó, who volunteered as an agent after her husband Etienne was killed at El Alamein, is most likely the best known. Szabó, the second woman to receive the George Cross, was beaten, raped, starved, and eventually executed and cremated at the Ravensbrück concentration camp with three other female SOE agents shortly before it was liberated by Allied forces.

If you're like me, avoiding the noise about important issues of the day such as a universal health care "right" that "the rich" are going to pay for, there's relief and lessons to learn from history. Then, rather than working and paying taxes, one can take solace in some Violette Szabó-inspired movies, books and even a video game, Violet Assassin.

I don't think Gervase Cowell, an ex-MI6 officer and British Special Forces Club historian, had Violet Assassin or morphine in mind when he told Queen Elizabeth II, "I help the old to remember and the young to understand."

WWJP: What would Jesus Pack?

2009-07-03T21:13:00.011-05:00

I have no doubt Jesus, as range master, oversees a deluxe firearms training facility in Heaven. When he comes again, he'll be toting heat. After all, what we know about Jesus Christ from scripture reveals he was a practical, tactical thinker when he walked among us.

Worship planners at a Louisville, Ky., church held a service June 27 where all were invited to carry their personal sidearms, albeit unloaded. The church also raffled off safety lessons, a concealed carry class and a new handgun.

I'm armed when attending church. I don't check the ammo at the door, either. It's always been peaceful at my church, and it doesn't bother me in the least that the people around me might be carrying as well. When I was in law enforcement, it didn't alarm me when I encountered law-abiding, ordinary Americans, who our current president says he understands, carrying weapons. In fact I assumed my fellow citizens were not much different from me--most of us own firearms and have been using them safely since we could hoist and level one at a target. As far as distrusting or fearing these armed, peaceful, outstanding people, it's not my nature to do so.

Granted, there are some who, in the pursuit of nefarious ends, have abused the power that flows from gun barrels. Despots, felons or any individual or group who takes their freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness to the point of stripping others of their same freedom readily seek such power for themselves. Then there are cretins who happen to possess guns along with other useful but dangerous objects such as golf clubs, baseball bats, a bathroom door ripped off its hinges, or extension cords that they use to maim and kill others.

Fortunately none of the latter have shown up in any church I've frequented. It is true a small number of cretins roam our communities, and sometimes they do come into worship centers shooting. If so, it would relieve me if the preacher, Aunt Mabel, or someone in the choir could make a clean, safe hit on him if I couldn't. To lump my fellow citizens in with the cretins as people to be distrusted or feared doesn't make sense.

It does encourage me to see fellow Christians who truly love their neighbors even when they're wearing handguns. I'd never ridicule, raise objections or consider a brother or sister in Christ an "extremist" or "gun nut" for taking steps to protect themselves and others from evildoers. When I pass the peace to other members of my congregation, I truly mean it. To let my fear, mistrust and desire to control others make them more vulnerable in the face of evil--how would that reflect my level of discipleship and faith? So, by all means, bring your guns to church. Hey! Don't forget to load 'em.

This is Independence Day. I'll close with thoughts Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, shared at his inauguration as our third president in 1801.

"Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the governance of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question."

Guns in church, along with so many other things, is a matter of trusting ordinary Americans to govern themselves, a practice Jefferson considered democratic. Aristocrats practice the opposite, as he explained in an 1824 letter to Henry Lee. Trust or distrust? Jefferson's question of liberty will truly be answered in time. That's change we can believe in.

Surviving on hope, prayer, and bribes

2009-06-28T08:25:00.007-05:00

Detroit city council president pro tempore and "child of God" Monica Conyers faces a possible sentence of up to five years after her guilty plea last Friday on one federal count of conspiracy to commit bribery.

Ms. Conyers, 44, long dogged by a bad temper, was so quiet in court the judge had to ask her to speak up. Maybe that's because she hadn't strapped on her political "gun" husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, 80, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He was back in D.C. saving us all from global warming. His people released this statement following her plea:

"This has been a trying time for the Conyers family and with hope and prayer they will make it through as a family. Public officials must expect to be held to the highest ethical and legal standard. With this in mind, Mr. Conyers wants to work toward helping his family and city recover from this serious matter."

If you're weary of reading about Jacko's autopsy results and legacy, the Detroit Free Press has done an admirable job of covering the FBI's four-year probe of Detroit's pay-to-pay corruption.

Monica and John Conyers, center, with Rev. Charles Adams, l, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Ms. Conyers, who couldn't get on just her $81,000 annual salary plus perks such as a taxpayer-supplied Ford Crown Victoria, should spare the people of Detroit more entertainment and resign before she's forced out of the city council.

Call me Lucifer, a skeptic or whatever, but ...

2009-06-27T12:20:00.007-05:00

I doubt Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-sponsors of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, or members of their staffs actually wrote it. Few, if any, of the 219 representatives who voted for it or the 212 who voted nay had even read it. The full text of H.R. 2454 wasn't fully released until hours before the historic, transformational vote. Who was awake in D.C. when a 300-page amendment were dumped onto servers at 3 a.m the day of the vote?

Members of Congress knew little about the bill beyond what President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Markley, Waxman, and ex-vice-president Al Gore told them. If you think the cap-and-trade tax to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will only raise your household electrical bill $175 per year by 2020 as a Congressional Budget Office report claims, you also believe in the tooth fairy. The legislative and executive branches of our federal government have a historic tendency to botch estimates such as Social Security solvency, the cost of weapons systems, and Medicare and Medicaid subsidies.

In government I do not trust. It has a known track record. Legislation is crafted by lobbyists--in this case nearly 2,340 authors working for 770 special interest groups and companies. These groups spent nearly $90 million in 2008 for climate-change lobbying. Cap and trade taxes will eventually bring about a cleaner environment by making it too costly for "ordinary Americans" to live, work and invest here.

Call for Action

2009-06-24T08:33:00.004-05:00

There's a whole lot of community activism going on in Chicago this summer despite the absence of the Gifted One. There's a need for blood donors. If one's in the vicinity and can spare a pint--particularly O-negative--call Lifesource at (847) 803-7943 or register online here.

Despite the high levels of activists and some of the most-restrictive gun laws in the nation, there's too much shooting and stabbing going on there. It's something activists, some who trained and organized with their first friend Barry, are expecting him to fix by more gun laws, stimulus funding, and magical words from the bully pulpit.

Fr. Michael Pfleger's distress symbol, St. Sabina Church, Chicago's South Side

The activists are trying to activate the chief hope-and-change re-arranger. It reminds me of verses in their Bible, Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:

"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."

"One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other."

Why should anyone care?

2009-06-21T19:50:00.004-05:00

I don't care about Jon and Kate Gosselin's "life-changing announcement" scheduled for tomorrow. Until two or three weeks ago, I didn't even know they were on television. I can certainly understand why they get on each other's nerves and recently spent their anniversary 150 miles apart because I don't want to be in the room when they roll onto the screen.

Their kids should divorce them.

Summer breeze

2009-06-17T00:25:00.005-05:00

This breeze wasn't a gentle one. It blasted out of the southwest at nearly 95 miles per hour about 10:20 p.m. yesterday. We lost three old trees, two of which were planted by my grandfather back in the 40s. All the buildings were spared. One trailer was knocked off its moorings but remained upright.

The straight-line winds and all the rain knocked out power in several counties and blocked roads with flooding and trees. One of the Sheriff's Department's patrol cars, which was parked, was blown across a road near here. Several buildings were flattened or damaged particularly in two small towns between here and the Missouri border. There are still nearly 5,000 people in our area without power. I've been refueling the generator every couple of hours. Everything's running but the air conditioning.

Ruby was clobbered by a propane grill that landed in front of her dog house. My son untangled her from the wreckage, and she took cover. She seems none the worse for wear today and kept an eye on me while I ran the chainsaw.

Who is the slut?

2009-06-10T10:48:00.008-05:00

Broad Ripple High School grad and CBS late-night host David Letterman comes closer to the "slutty flight attendant" benchmark than Gov. Sarah Palin.

He earns nearly $40 million each year, almost two times more than Jay Leno despite Leno generating 1.3 million more viewers each night. Les Moonves isn't getting much bang for the buck. Letterman's late night show draws the same ratings numbers as ABC's Nightline. Disney is not paying anywhere near $40 million per year to cover salary expenses for riveting Nightline anchors Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran. So Moonves should yank that latest contract extension Letterman's about to sign and spare CBS investors some change during this deep recession.

Letterman's long made money, some of which he then gives away via his American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming, by playing johns--the television networks--against each other. He'll most likely pull it off again as NBC's post-Leno Tonight Show ratings nosedive.

CBS was once referred to as the Tiffany Network because of its fine programming quality during the tenure of its founder, William S. Paley. Under Moonves, Letterman has replaced Tiffany as a "defining icon" of the CBS network. When Letterman remained with CBS in 2006 after flirting with ABC, Mooves said of him, "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that the Late Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment."

Les, Dave's a skank. And he's just rolled you.

UPDATE: Letterman squirms a bit while Conan takes a larger share of the late-night audience. Some wonder why he's treated differently than Don Imus.

How stimulating!

2009-06-08T10:25:00.006-05:00

They're described in the news media and viewed by those in their circles as being brilliant: skeptical sexist and sometimes-napping Lawrence "Larry" Summers, tax-code-challenged treasury secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman and Obama economic recovery plan author Christina M. Romer, and so many other beautiful people.

These gifted people are steering this nation's, and even the world's, economic recovery from the depths of a recession that, according to President Obama, has been years in the making.

The nation's economic health is on the rebound. Only 345, 000 jobs disappeared in May, which is a signal we should continue to trust in the hope-and-change rearrangers. After all, it far less than the 504,000 jobs lost in April. Even though the unemployment rate has climbed to 9.4 percent and more than 6 million jobs have been lost since December 2007 when the Obama administration says the recession began, we're in good hands. The stimulus plan is working. It's going to be kicked into overdrive. And President Obama, who today promised he would make 600,000 new jobs this summer, isn't going to let its money to be wasted despite what Vice President Biden says.

Summers minus Diet Coke

I'm glad the president thinks there's still rich people out there who can be taxed to pay for my health care reform. There is an economic pump that can be primed by spending money that's created out of thin air--the president and his brilliant New Keynesian economic advisers believe it and therefore so should I.

Sticky prices and wages, menu costs, dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models, credit market imperfections--it's all very stimulating. No wonder Larry Summers is famous for fueling with Diet Coke and Ms. Romer urges the president to swat Larry instead of an insect.

The Facebook Question

2009-06-07T10:28:00.004-05:00

I'm asked the question, "What's on your mind?" like millions of other Facebook users. Here's how I answered it today.

"Why should I attend a United Methodist church? It has bucked me off more than once. I'm tired of getting back on it. The cross-and-flame logo reminds me of slammed doors, an aching chest, a knotted brow, and annual-conference tears rolling down my cheeks onto my daughter's face as she looked up from her stroller. It's painful. That is what's on my mind this second Sunday of Pentecost."

Five generations of my family have attended a Methodist church two miles from our farm. My great-great-great-great grandfather was a Methodist circuit rider in present-day West Virginia. I was confirmed and joined the United Methodist Church at age 10. I'm married to a United Methodist pastor, an elder in full connection. I usually enjoy traditions and sharing stuff with my family. Is the Holy Spirit moving me another way, or am I simply drifting like the goats Jesus mentioned in Matthew 25?

Wonders in the grass

2009-06-07T01:09:00.006-05:00

Ruby, my yellow Lab, and I toured the pastures and hay fields looking for the rascally Carduus nutans, or musk thistle, before sundown. Ruby loped alongside or behind me as I drove the Arctic Cat through handlebar-deep grass. I'd stop every so often to stand on the foot rests and search for the purple buds and stalks of those spiny, alien plants early-19th-century European immigrants couldn't leave home without.

There's a small basin almost encircled by trees near where my great-great grandparents built their first cabin in 1857. It holds a seep, so the grass is even more lush there compared to the surrounding hay fields. I was driving through the basin when I at first thought a woman had yelled behind me. I looked behind to my left to see a newborn whitetail fawn with its legs tucked up underneath it laying in the grass. The knobby rear tires must have brushed against the fawn's rear. It got up, helped out by a nudge from Ruby's sniffer, and wobbled toward dense brush. At the same time, a doe bounded the other way out of tall grass and trees 50 yards farther down the basin's rim.

Anyhow, no larger than that white-specked, still-damp fawn was, it produced a bleat loud enough to overpower the Arctic Cat's racket. I even yelled, "What?" and had started drawing my revolver before I saw its white spots.

I snagged some rarities

2009-06-05T21:01:00.006-05:00

... from MidwayUSA today, 20-round MagPul PMAGs, after receiving an automated e-mail that they were back in stock. I've been waiting since October.

I'm still longing for 9mm or .357 bullets and small pistol primers. If the Grinch doesn't interfere, maybe I'll see them before Christmas.

Five secrets that aren't

2009-06-01T08:09:00.008-05:00

Financial contributor Vera Gibbons and CBS talking heads Julie Chen and Harry Smith revealed the "dirty little secrets" your bank won't tell you this morning during The Morning Show.

Hint: Banks charge fees, particularly when you try to spend more than what you've deposited. There's nothing hidden or "sneaky" about them if you pull your head out, ask questions, read the information each bank is legally obligated to provide regarding fees, and keep track of credits and debits.

If you share the belief that banks should be service providers rather than a business "out there to rip me off", try taking up math and using a check register. Every bank I'd done business with since age 17 will pass out deposit slips, registers, fee sheets and even an ink pen when asked. If you're not happy, pick another bank, start your own or . . .

. . . hire a K9 personal finance assistant.

Reforming U.S. health care

2009-05-31T10:47:00.005-05:00

Transparency in government hasn't extended to health care reform. Politicians in both the executive and legislative branches talk about reform, but just how it's going to be done hasn't trickled down to the masses. All we know is that the system is broken. All we're told is that it's going to be reformed by the end of the year while there's still political capital, or momentum, to do it. Anyone who questions how health care should be reformed is labeled as a fear monger, deceitful, or defender of the status quo.

Some of the most-balanced information--provided by both liberal and conservative thinkers--I've found about health care reform is here.

Protest funded in part by George Soros

If you're looking for the brand of change advocated by ACORN, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for American Progress Action Fund, Campaign for Community Change, Children’s Defense Fund Action Council, Communications Workers of America, MoveOn.org, NAACP, National Council of La Raza, National Education Association, National Women’s Law Center, SEIU, UFCW, USAction, and Working America, go to this site. It's utopian plus being quick and painless.

There are some potential reforms not advanced by the president and Democratic members of Congress such as tort reform, moving the U.S. toward a stronger dollar that buys more, and letting the basic economic laws of supply and demand work. Who pays Medicare write-offs, a prime example of government price fixing? We all do. Costs for services not covered by Medicare go up. Any person who pays out of pocket or participates in a private health-care insurance program makes up the gap. When any person buys goods or services from a corporation or small business, they pay more for those items in order to cover the hike in health-care costs paid by those employers. If those higher costs can't be met by price increases, businesses close or move elsewhere where costs are less.

The U.S. health-care system does resemble one of my father's patched-together, stop-gap fences. It does need reform. Some "reforms" have already been tried--they aren't change. Keeping the nation's rapidly growing debt in mind, government's past reform efforts have failed. I'm indeed a cynic when it comes to blindly trusting the president or any members of Congress, Republican or Democratic, to pull it off before 2010. The only fix I can be optimistic about is to reduce government price meddling and regulation (Can you imagine just what the paper costs that health care providers give us to comply with HIPAA?) so that the laws of supply and demand work.

Reform starts with the individual. If the true costs of going to the doctor, not exercising, drinking sugar-loaded soft drinks, smoking, and all the pills the medicos push become evident, an individual will be at liberty to spend less and live better. That's true change.

Another czar

2009-05-29T10:55:00.003-05:00

President Obama took a break from fixing health care before the end of the year, nationalizing Chrysler and General Motors, promoting the rapid confirmation of the first Latina to join the Supremes, and taxpayer-subsidized fundraising in Nevada and California for the Democratic National Committee (aka Organizing for America or Obama 2.0) in order to fix the security of the nation's "cyberspace" or "communications and information infrastructure".

Chapter One of the presidential review team's report, "Leading from the Top," calls for "the establishment of a Presidential cybersecurity policy official and supporting structures" among other things. The status quo is no longer acceptable. Anchor leadership at the White House, they say.

Fine, President Obama. Start by ending the flood of e-mail lobbying and donation pleas from you, national poet laureate Joe Biden, Mitch Stewart and David Plouffe of Organizing for America, and others. Powered by Hope, I'm going to do as you suggest and contact the politicians resistant to change in my area. Your cult is sucking up too much vital bandwidth.

Who is Latino/Latina/Hispanic?

2009-05-26T15:23:00.008-05:00

I was reading about President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. Many of the headlines refer to her as the first "Latina" or "Hispanic". Then one reporter, I can't remember which, pointed out that some might consider Judge Sotomayor as being second to Benjamin N. Cardozo, who served on the high court in the 1930s. Cardozo was descended from Portuguese Jews.

Benjamin N. Cardozo, Supreme Court associate justice, 1932-1938

It all comes down to semantics. I found a WikiAnswer to the question, "Are Portuguese people Latino?" It explains all the angles.

The last sentence is true despite the absolutely ridiculous grammatical errors. Hopefully anyone sitting on the nation's high court will agree.

"American standard to qualify peoples race/ethnicity are absolutely ridicuous."

German rifle engineering

2009-05-25T11:18:00.004-05:00

I spotted a rifle hanging on a rack in a picture taken at the NRA annual meeting that caught my interest: the Krieghoff Semiprio in-line repeater.

No doubt it's too expensive for this provincial, who generally buys a rifle for its action. Then I hunt down a stock, barrel, optics, trigger, etc., over a long span of time to build a new rifle up the way I speculate it should be. Sometimes I don't finish, which leaves some components to for another project I may or may not complete. It keeps life interesting. There's always something to rediscover at the back of the basement shelves.

If you're the type to derive pleasure from being different that every other rifle toter, the Krieghoff may suit you. I doubt anybody in your gun club or circle of marksman friends will have a rifle like it. The Adobe Acrobat Reader file that can be downloaded at the bottom of this page holds more specifics.

The pluses: The no-tools-required, take-down feature that shortens the rifle into two sections no longer than 27.5 inches; interchangeable barrels, magazines and bolt heads; the prominent Combi-cocking device; push-button "Click-and-Go" sling swivels; optional 14 oz. "BreakO" recoil reducer; pre-machined for several types of mounts, which makes it possible to quickly switch to different optics; equally adaptable to both left- and right-handed users; and its 6.8 lb. weight.

Things that cause me pause: The scope travels back and forth with the barrel and forearm when the action is hand cycled. Then I wonder if something like a sleeve or piece of brush could catch between the action and forearm to lock up the rifle. And most of all, how will it group with that moving barrel?

I doubt I'll ever see a Semiprio here in the Osage Cuestas unless a lost Kansas City mogul stops by asking for directions to a hunting lease.

Obama's Organizing for the UK

2009-05-24T11:25:00.011-05:00

One of Obama's changes has raised the ire of British investment managers, bankers and stockbrokers. He wants them to collect tax revenue without compensation for their efforts.

Maybe he does somewhat study history. Capital always flows out of a country following a socialist revolution. If he does bully the rest of the world in collecting taxes from U.S. citizens who have invested abroad, they'll simply become citizens of another country such as Andorra or Monaco or form some offshore, dummy corporations.

Anyhow, there are more Europeans questioning President Obama's right to regulate their governments and financial institutions. This crack in European Obamamania will grow wider as more listen less to what the President says and learn instead from his actions.

Engine of Opportunity

2009-05-23T23:42:00.004-05:00

Eliot Spitzer, former New York attorney general and governor, is trying to rebuild his battered reputation after resigning as governor last year. The reason? "Private failings," is the one he offered. In case one doesn't remember, he was being wiretapped by the feds, who were trying to figure out why so much money was flowing in and out of Spitzer's bank account. It turns out he was spending it on hookers.

Day of Resignation: Spitzer and his wife, Silda. They are now in couples therapy.

Spitzer, once heralded as the future of the Democratic Party, has taken up writing opinion pieces. Here's one published April 29 in Slate that Spitzer co-authored with trial lawyer Peter B. Pope, "Gun Control Without Gun Laws: How Obama can use government procurement regulations to limit gun violence."

Keep the following Spitzer quotes in mind while you read.

“I stand before you today because this vision of government as the engine of opportunity is what I believe in.”

“As a citizen, and as the state's lawyer, I believe in an evolving Constitution. A flexible Constitution leaves room for us to consider not merely how the world once was, but how it ought to be.”

"I have always stated that I want ethics and integrity to be the hallmarks of my administration."

"Listen, I'm a fucking steamroller and I'll roll over you and anybody else."

Rule No. Three

2009-05-23T22:05:00.006-05:00

I wonder how many e-mails Josh at GunsAmerica TV received after his interview with an Aimpoint representative, Angela Jennings, in Phoenix.

One can see Josh absentmindedly place his finger on the bolt-action rifle's trigger as the interview progresses.

Ms. Jennings, on the other hand, is well versed in gun handling in or out of exhibit halls. Congratulations to all those at Aimpoint in winning an American Rifleman Golden Bullseye Award for the Micro H-1.

2009-05-22T10:02:00.002-05:00

"The Fed must not be seen by the public or the Congress as a piggy bank that can substitute for difficult fiscal policy decisions."--Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser

Lighten up, Chuck. And you're judged as being more "sanguine" than your other colleagues at the piggy bank.

The Magic Kingdom

2009-05-21T19:47:00.009-05:00

A Florida congressman, Rep. Alan Grayson, did some brainstorming during a Disney World trip. Now he's introduced the Paid Vacation Act, which will give us average Americans lucky enough to have a full or part-time job a week or two of paid rest and recreation.

Grayson and his friends at the Center for Economic and Policy Research believe the Paid Vacation Act, if passed, will stimulate the economy "through fewer sick days, better productivity and happier employees."

“There’s a reason why Disney World is the happiest place on Earth: The people who go there are on vacation,” said Grayson, whose district includes Orlando and Disney World. “Honestly, as much as I appreciate this job and as much as I enjoy it, the best days of my life are and always have been the days I’m on vacation.”

Grayson explained it this way on his web site, "In other countries, it’s a matter of right. Everyone is entitled to it. In our country, it is a matter of class. Over time we are coming to realize that whatever your background, wherever you grew up, wherever you live, there are certain basic elements that people need to have enjoyable lives. They need health care. They need a decent paying job. And for a good life, they need time off.”

Skeptic that I am, I'd say the Paid Vacation Act simply duplicates services. The government continues to "stimulate" the economy by expanding the money supply, meddling with interest rates, taking over entire industries, and bullying pension fund managers to sell out those who don't trust solely on Social Security to fund their retirement. All of these actions are driving unemployment rates up, weakening the dollar so it buys less, and increasing the strain on entitlement programs including Social Security.

Paid vacation already exists. More and more of us average Americans are turning to it. It's the U.S. Department of Labor's Federal-State Unemployment Insurance Program.

And for a good life, we need politicians who don't resort to class warfare, Goofy, Daffy, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and our own greed and ignorance to manipulate us.

Joe's bunker blubber

2009-05-18T17:23:00.002-05:00

Vice President Joe Biden is good for a laugh a day. While filling in for his brilliant boss, President Obama, at the Gridiron Club dinner, he gave up the "secure" and previously "undisclosed location" of the vice-presidential bunker.

Now Biden's office has released a statement saying he was only describing a former workspace upstairs at One Observatory Circle that has now been converted into a bedroom. But I guess the world knows why the neighbors were complaining about loud construction noises in 2002.

Joe, you're safe. No terrorists--even jacked-up ones--would want to take you out. It wouldn't be tactical.

Pasture blasting

2009-05-16T14:37:00.003-05:00

It rained again last night, so there is still water standing in the area where I normally shoot. But, to steal a line from Hank Williams, Jr., a country boy can survive.

I went down along the creek where the pasture slopes toward a high bank. Then I taped some targets to the electric fence, fashioned some weights with masking tape and pebbles, and attached them to the targets so they wouldn't flutter as much in 15 mph north wind. I also took the S&W Model 66 and two boxes of .38 Special +P hand loads.

I'm still trying to figure out these new eyeballs. Without glasses, I can't focus on the front sight with either eye. My arms or the handgun barrel--neither are long enough! I'm 20-20 now when it comes to seeing targets. I'm probably going to need a pair of 1.0 or 1.5 diopter-strength reading glasses for pistol work.

So I did as best as I could to keep the red blob (the Smith's red-sight insert) centered on the four-inch bull while shooting double-action from seven and 15 yards.

Two, six-round groups fired double action at 15 yards with .38 Special +P hand loads using 6.3 grains of Alliant Power Pistol and 125 grain, Remington SJHP bullets. The top six rounds were fired after I moved the rear sight up two clicks.

I'm almost out of .357 ammunition and haven't taken the time to load any. That's something I'm going to take care of next week. For now I'm going to work with Power Pistol, Blue Dot and Winchester Auto Comp (if I can find any) paired with 125 or 140-grain Remington SJHPs. Hopefully they'll offer a bit more power, better groups, and no fireball visible to the crew of the International Space Station when touched off in low light.

Maybe the swamp in front of my bench rest will dry before Memorial Day.

Anyone for Yuans?

2009-05-16T12:51:00.005-05:00

Bet your bottom yuan ...

Yuan for yuan ...

Sound as a yuan ...

Yuan signs in their eyes ...

A day late and a yuan short ...

Will this become the world's C-note?

That is the sixty-four-yuan question ...

A tax on the ...

2009-05-14T16:24:00.007-05:00

very air that you breathe is undoubtedly on the conference table. However, income taxes on the wealthy, no matter if they're engaged in other risky behaviors besides working and investing or not, and consumption taxes on sugary soft drinks, tobacco, and alcoholic beverages are being advanced by the Senate Finance Committee.

Other ideas: punish those who have saved in expectation of bad health and Americans who aren't average because they work for companies with tax-free health care benefits.

My wife, a teacher, just came home from a field trip to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. She told me the Feds no longer burn money because of the toxic fumes. It's now shredded. I have a plastic bag stuffed with approximately $165 of shredded, "unfit currency" to prove it.

I'll have to stop using analogies such as "up in smoke" or "money to burn" to explain excessive debt monetization and inflation--the tax we all pay despite what we're told--to my kids.

Emerson's essay, "Compensation"

2009-05-08T21:56:00.005-05:00

Some of the best teachers I've had weren't popular among the other students. One such teacher introduced me to Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays. After years of reading them, the words still provoke thought and shape action.

An Emerson quote under Brigid's eyes pulled me into reading his essay, Compensation. Here are some ideas from it that are as true today as they were in 1841.

Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess.

For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something.

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

Material good has its tax, and if it came without desert or sweat, has no root in me, and the next wind will blow it away.

But because of the dual constitution of things, in labor as in life there can be no cheating. The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. For the real price of labor is knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are signs. These signs, like paper money, may be counterfeited or stolen, but that which they represent, namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be counterfeited or stolen. These ends of labor cannot be answered but by real exertions of the mind, and in obedience to pure motives. The cheat, the defaulter, the gambler, cannot extort the knowledge of material and moral nature which his honest care and pains yield to the operative. The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.

None of us, individually or collectively, can override the dualist, reaction-born-of-action, "law of Compensation" that Emerson witnessed in nature and our human condition. It's a comfort in these days when words such as change and hope have been misappropriated and rendered meaningless.

A new-to-me Smith & Wesson

2009-05-08T16:26:00.007-05:00

I picked up this S&W Model 66, circa 1986, with a 3-inch barrel and round butt from my local FFL this afternoon. It was purchased through GunBroker.com, a first for me.

Unlike Model 66s with 2 1/2 and 4-inch barrels, the 3-inch version is difficult to find in any condition. This one was advertised as being 99 percent, which I'd say was an accurate description. It locks up perfectly and boasts a decent double-action trigger. Those are two characteristics many S&Ws from the same era, particularly the stainless ones, weren't blessed with before leaving the factory.

I once owned an identical Model 66, part of a Coast Guard contract overrun, in the late 80s. I carried it off duty in a Milt Sparks Summer Special, which is no longer available for revolvers. This one will ride in a Don Hume J.I.T. SLIDE belt holster for now. The J.I.T. is a tunnel-loop belt slide with a slight FBI rake. Unlike most tunnel-loop rigs, the loop is stitched on the rear of the body more toward the front. One threads their belt through the tunnel first and then under the loop. At any rate, it pulls the revolver butt in so it doesn't print against a cover garment.

I have never cared for pancake holsters for revolvers. The cylinder bulge often seems to press right against the point of my right hip.

One never knows what may be hiding amongst clematis.

Tomorrow I'll wade through the swamp between the house and the range and then conduct a field trial. Alligators don't usually range this far north, but if I happen to find one ...

Flint knapping anyone?

2009-05-01T21:18:00.005-05:00

A note from one of the distributors I use for reloading components:

At this time we are not taking any new backorders for primers that are not listed here. We currently have over 50 million primers on backorder. If you currently have a backorder in place your order will be processed as primers become available. Once we begin receiving more primers from the manufacturers and are able to begin filling current backorders we will update the website.

English-type musket flint found in Lyon Co., Kansas

There seems to be a fair supply of #10 and #11 percussion caps. Maybe it's time to pick up a new brace of cap and ball revolvers. Then there's always flintlocks--no flint shortages in Kansas. Oddly enough, I don't have a .22 LR revolver. I've spotted a Colt Official Police so chambered with a 6-inch barrel and some pearl Jay-Scott-Ajax-looking grips.

Yes, I'll remove the pearlies if that Colt finds its way home with me.

Three of Quantrill's men--no pearl handles on their fighting irons.

Happy May Day!

2009-05-01T08:05:00.004-05:00

There's all sorts of reasons--green and red--to party hearty today. Decorate and distribute May Day baskets, wash and wax the T-55s and Scud missiles, boycott or strike, and do a little maypole dancing.

Lay down your burdens, procreate and join the parade.

The Reformers: "Il faut cultiver notre jardin."

2009-04-29T08:08:00.006-05:00

I stumbled upon this quote by Albert Jay Nock, a devotee of Voltaire.

"The only thing that the psychically-human being can do to improve society is to present society with one improved unit. In a word, ages of experience testify that the only way society can be improved is by the individualist method which Jesus apparently regarded as the only one whereby the Kingdom of Heaven can be established as a going concern; that is, the method of each one doing his very best to improve one."

I'll have to find more of Nock's work. It will be good reading during the 100-day party. It is change I can believe in.

A warning to any deranged person ...

2009-04-27T08:30:00.003-05:00

including any loco relatives:

Plan well. Don't bring just a flashlight, chunk of firewood and a pocket knife to a fight. There's some bitter people attached to medical implants who cling to guns.

Waterboarding

2009-04-23T12:28:00.006-05:00

If Obama administration officials and Congressional investigators truly want to uncover all the details about the Bush Administration's interrogation procedures following Sept.11, 2001, they should waterboard members of Congress such as Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and others, who as members of House and Senate intelligence committees were briefed about waterboarding and other aspects of interrogation.

Their memories must be a bit foggy. Momma always said a splash of cold water to the face every morning would refresh me.

For those out there in the intelligence community looking for a waterboarding alternative, try forcing those enemy combatants or whatever they're currently called to watch congressional hearings via C-SPAN. Just five minutes of experiencing Rep. Henry Waxman's twitching nose hairs or hearing Rep. Barney Frank lament his weight gain should knock the secrets right out of the perps.

Horses and Snakes

2009-04-23T10:41:00.005-05:00

I'm partial to the classics. I'll walk along the glass cases at gun stores, quickly scanning the rows of bland-looking Glocks, XDs, S&W polymer M&Ps, CZs, etc. I'll spend some time looking at some of the 1911s and Sig Sauers in 9mm and .45 ACP. Any Browning 9mm Hi-Power deserves some attention.

I spend the most time in front of revolvers. It's less crowded there unless there's some mulling S&W J-frame snubs for CCW. There, I'm particularly drawn to Colt D-frame revolvers in any skin--Cobras, Diamondbacks, Detective Specials, Agents, Vipers, Police Positive Specials and more.

They're getting more and more difficult to find. Some of my favorites, such as Diamondback .22 revolvers with 4 or 6-inch barrels, commonly sell in excess of $1,000. A few of the D frames shipped with 3-inch barrels. One that's always eluded me is a Colt Cobra 3-inch chambered in .22 LR. I'm still in mourning after Colt dropped the D frames from its product line in 1995.

One eyeball down, one to go ...

2009-04-21T19:18:00.006-05:00

And are you relieved you're not reading a blog by a guy possessing more than two eyeballs?

I had the left cataract removed today. Everything appears lopsided, which explains why I bumped off the wall earlier. I plan to go outside tomorrow and test the results by scoping out the blooming redbud and pear trees.

Save your ... copper.

2009-04-16T08:56:00.007-05:00

"If I were to place the earth upon a scale and balance it with a single copper coin; and if I were to become so great that I could not be contained, and if I were to control and lead all; and if I were to possess so much power within my mind that I could cause others to do my bidding--so what?"--a passage from the Adi Sri Guru Granth Sahib

The days when most wouldn't bother stooping to pick up a lowly, pre-1982 copper penny or to steal coppers off a dead man's eyes have passed. That's change for you, me and the Chinese, who have stopped buying U.S. Treasury securities. In fact, China's State Reserves Bureau is moving out of dollars and into industrial metals such as copper, which value has increased nearly 50 percent this year.

"China has woken up. The West is a black hole with all this money being printed. The Chinese are buying raw materials because it is a much better way to use their $1.9 trillion of reserves. They get ten times the impact, and can cover their infrastructure for 50 years."

The Atlas that is China is shrugging. The motors that move the world are filled with copper.

Goat Grudge Match

2009-04-14T09:22:00.005-05:00

When I first saw this photo, I wondered how PETA activists break up pit-goat fighting operations in countries that discourage activism. Maybe Madonna could be persuaded to adopt and save Chinese fighting goats now that her quest to adopt another Malawian child was thwarted. It's a different continent, a different species, but goats need a "loving family environment" as well.

Photo taken on April 13, 2009, shows two goats locked in their horns at Wadian Township, Linquan County, Anhui Province, China. More than 200 of them took part in a goat-fighting match on this day. (Xinhua Photo)

No, we shouldn't focus solely on fight-goat fans in South China. PETA hasn't been able to encourage a "brilliant", Columbia and Harvard-educated president or his vice president to rescue a single pound dog. One would think the activists in angst over Alaskan wolves being slaughtered last fall would now be marching on D.C. holding vials of fake blood.

Those that have brought me home ....

2009-04-12T22:49:00.004-05:00

"I'm just the byline. The heroes are the Navy, the Seals and those that have brought me home."

--Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama.

President Obama first gave the Defense Department authorization to use lethal force to protect the captain's life Friday night. He extended authority again Saturday morning, according to press reports. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm no fan of the president. Along with appointing former Marine Commandant Gen. James L. Jones as his national security advisor Jan. 20, I'll say President Obama has done two things right.

A team of Seal snipers at the range, Guam, 1997

Thorns

2009-04-11T19:25:00.007-05:00

I spent part of the day after Good Friday--Långfredag (Long Friday) for anyone with Scandinavian roots--docking and doctoring honey locust and Osage Orange shoots in the east pasture. The honey locust vastly outnumbered the Osage Orange. That's unfortunate because the honey locust thorns are longer. The thorns play hell on tires. The horses and cattle don't appreciate finding the stalks in their winter rations, either.

There's a tale how the Thunder Spirit was able to detect his son by his ability to painlessly sit on honey locust barbs. How did the boy develop the calluses on his rear end? The answer has been lost in the depths of time.

As I lopped off those thorny problems just above the ground and treated the stumps with Tordon^® RTU, I couldn't help but think of the crown of thorns Jesus wore on Long Friday. Then I thought about the origin of the saplings I was whacking. They are descendants of trees planted by the second wave of immigrants, those of European descent, to the Osage Cuestas.

Nineteenth-century policy wonks encouraged tree planting. One had to prove up on a homestead by planting trees and crops, erecting fences and buildings, and remaining on the land for at least five years. The environmental activists of that era latched on to fences of tight-planted Osage Orange trees, which were pruned every year so that they would remain "horse high, bull strong and hog tight". That ended after the event of barbed wire.

Now, those unruly Osage Orange rows bother experts. They're bulldozed, pinched off, sawed down, burned, and blasted. Then the stumps and root systems are killed by government-licensed chemical applicators so more neighborly fences and carefully planned and landscaped subdivisions can emerge.

Even today the government promotes the planting of honey locusts for wind breaks and to slow down erosion. Experts have developed a thornless variety, but we still have plenty of the old-fashioned kind. And wonder of wonders, there's a crazy guy who planted old-fashioned prairie grass on 160 acres south of here. It controls erosion and resists drought better than anything the experts replaced it with, he's told neighbors. It's heartening to count the increased number of quail coveys down there each fall.

A .38 doesn't trim trees as fast as a .44, but it works.

Anyhow, if you're the type to be upset about tree killing where God intended few to grow, don't tread on me. If you're seeking passion, I'll point you to a three-foot wide, thorn-clustered, honey locust tree to love.

Mow the lawn first. Spend lead later.

2009-04-09T23:57:00.010-05:00

I mowed the grass yesterday for the first time this spring. Then my 17-year-old son and I did some revolver shooting along Elm Creek. The east bank is high. It serves perfectly as a backstop at a sharp bend.

There were no fancy targets: some 3-inch Shoot-n-See bulls stuck on a worn piece of plywood at seven yards, two soup cans to roll at 1o or 15 yards, an old bleach bottle left by the last high water at 25 yards, and a steel plate a little more than 75 yards out. My son did some fine shooting with both hands. I don't think he's wired to have a dominant hand when shooting. However, he's left-eye dominant and a right-handed scribbler.

I had a bit of trouble remembering how a lefty should load and eject empties. I muddled through showing him. I've been toting a pistol on my right side since wheel locks came into vogue, so it was even a better lesson for me. It has been a very long time since I've had to teach lefties. Then, too, I've grown careless at keeping the body trained for Plan B--what it should do when a dominant hand or arm fails.

Anyhow, we had fun. We went through 3 boxes of .38 Special reloads before supper time. My son had no trouble ringing the 8" square plate with the 158-grain semi wadcutters. It reminded me how glad I'll be to get these cataracts removed. I could barely see the plate.

If one wants to sell something ...

2009-04-09T08:25:00.004-05:00

via a classified ad or an Internet listing, they should practice safe proofreading.

I've been scanning ads looking for serviceable, older S&W and Colt revolvers. It seems as if all of them equipped with "Pachmeyer rubber grips" are either overpriced, appear to be in worse condition that the ad copy suggests, or both.

Frank Pachmayr, God rest his soul, may come down to Earth with a mighty, 32-oz., ball-peen hammer and minister to all offenders.

A "very significant foreign policy challenge"

2009-04-08T11:12:00.004-05:00

Twenty American crew members of the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama, loaded with emergency relief bound to Mombasa, Kenya, turned the tables on Somali pirates.

No doubt members of the Obama administration, who had been in contact with the shipping company to learn "the who, what, why, where and when" of the hijacking, are busy formulating policy responses to this growing threat via Twitter and their BlackBerry smart phones.

At the time of the hijacking, the nearest U.S. Navy ship was 345 miles away. Navy officials said it was focused on another area and that Navy ships couldn't be everywhere. That makes perfect sense to me. The U.S. can only float a limited number of warships. And some of them are needed to monitor the effects of global warming on the polar ice caps.

Here's an idea that should be floated via Twitter and other digital, transparent portals to the Obama Administration. Put armed crews on cargo ships. Mount some Dillon M134Ds, Ma Deuces, or perhaps a Phalanx MK 15 CIWS on the vessels. That should keep the Somali speedboats at bay.

Why reward anti-social behavior with ransom payments? Most "community activists" from Chicago would have figured this out by now.

One step back for the Green Movement

2009-04-07T09:52:00.003-05:00

The nearest Walgreens is about 30 miles away, so I haven't been in one for some time. Damn it, I've missed out on buying a Chia Obama pet there because it's too racist for some who can't appreciate the Prez growing a green Afro.

Chia Hillary is on the way unless it can be viewed as sexist. Or I can invest in talking, moving Obama stand-up dolls. I particularly like the one that is dash mountable of Barry wearing a flowing, white robe.

Then there's the Obama action figure Tam pointed out on View from the Porch. Power flows from the barrel of Barry's gun. His suit is a bit rumpled, however, and the accessories do not include a Blackberry or teleprompter.

S&W gun plumbing

2009-04-02T09:16:00.004-05:00

I've grown tired of plucking half-ejected empties from the cylinder of my S&W Model 10-5 .38 Special revolver equipped with a 2" barrel and short extractor rod. So yesterday I removed the stubby barrel and replaced it with a pristine, 4" tapered S&W barrel with a 1/8" wide ramp front sight. It was a cloudy, gray April Fool's Day, which freed my eyes from glare.

I ordered the barrel and a longer center pin from Numrich Gun Parts Corporation. The listing said the barrel was used and in excellent condition. Judging by the barrel threads, crown, rifling and forcing cone, it had never been installed. I turned the barrel in with the aid of a vise, hardwood blocks cut to accommodate the barrel profile, and a revolver action wrench.

I reinstalled the cylinder and checked the barrel-cylinder gap. Then I fired some sighting rounds using a piece of copy paper fastened to the end of a 12-deep row of large hay bales as a target. Twice I had to return to the vise to slightly clock the barrel to adjust windage. The elevation was perfect.

I had to install a cylinder locking pin on the new barrel. I used one salvaged from a Model 10-7 that had been abused by a member of the Colombian national police force. It now engages the longer center pin and a new extractor rod obtained from Brownells.

Don't try this at home unless you've invested in learning though courses or manuals and have proper tools such as cup tip punches, gauges to measure barrel-cylinder gap and head space, and an action wrench. Professional pistolsmiths hate to work for people who attempted to bypass them at first. They deserve to make as much money as they can working for April Fools. Then there are ways to break stuff so it can never be repaired such as that Colombian revolver with the bulged barrel, bent side plate and yoke, stripped threads and misaligned extractor.

That K-frame snubbie spent a lot of time on a shelf. It was too large for pocket carry and it's butt heaviness made it flop and print too much in a belt holster. Out of the box, it shot low so the already-difficult-to-see front sight had to be lowered. With the new barrel, the old Smith and Wesson M&P is alive!

Mr. Goodwrench?

2009-03-30T20:51:00.010-05:00

Barack Obama, the new chief executive officer of both GM and Chrysler, entered into another social contract with American consumers today. His promise to GM and Chrysler customers worldwide is:

"But just in case there's still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can: If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always. Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been, because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty."

It reminded me of what I shared with Peggy Joseph in November.

"When Barack is in the Big House at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Peggy, 95 percent of us won't have to worry about changing the oil and rotating tires, either. We'll just drive our free cars into the free Jiffy Lube on the White House North Lawn. The newly nationalized Exxon Mobil convenience store dispensing full-service gasoline across the street in Lafayette Square, will be staffed by servants of the people, convicted Republicans on work release."

I should have anticipated White House GM and Chrysler warranty service. This shortsighted blogger regrets the error.

For an appointment or courtesy tow service, call the White House switchboard at 1-202-456-1414. Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industy staffers will take good care of you and your automobile.

Back to blogging

2009-03-30T09:56:00.007-05:00

It's been a little more than a week since my last post. For some reason I doubt my legion of rabid fans, confined by the outer darkness as the result of my inactivity, are wailing, gnashing their teeth and rending their garments.

If I'm wrong and you're toothless, teary eyed and and digging through the shrinking supply of wearable Wal-Mart plastic bags--the modern-day equivalent of sackcloth--please forgive me.

In a few more days, I'll start the process of having cataracts removed from both eyes. I'm looking forward to wearing new, non-prescription, Wiley X shooting glasses and not stumbling around outside while blinded by the sun. I'm still waiting for repairs to be finished on the sheet-metal-covered shop door, which I punctured with a bale-loader tine. The sun bounced off a cloudy lens while I was performing a tractor equivalent of a chandelle. The turn radius was a bit too wide. I don't drive a computer as well, either.

I dream of fine May days at the range with my rifles and pistols. I assembled a billet AR-15 lower receiver the past week with a Stag Arms lower parts kit, an A2 stock pulled from a Bushmaster rifle, and an ERGO SUREGRIP by Falcon Industries, Inc.

For now it is wearing a post-ban, flat-top DPMS upper assembly in .223 Remington I purchased in 2003. I've contacted John Holliger at White Oak Precision about turning a barrel from a 6mm Douglas or Shilen 1-8" blank. He has reamers for several 6mm wildcats such as the 6mm WOA, 6mm-.223, 6mm PPC, and others derived from the .22o Russian case.

Conventional wisdom has changed. There's no longer any reason to mark down black rifles in comparison to turn bolts accuracy wise. Plus one receives a better workout when retrieving ejected brass.

Worried about the return of inflation?

2009-03-22T11:07:00.003-05:00

If so, invest in gold and guns. Even better, buy a gold-inlaid gun such as this Glock Model 19 listed on GunBroker.

The two Model 19s are priced at $10,500 each. If you want something a little more compact, search for the two Model 26s listed for $8,000 each. These four Glocks are part a lot of 20 adorned pistols imported from Austria. With a little more than one day to go before auction close, there are no bidders.

Glocks, IMHO, are still butt-ugly even if they're golden.

Poodle Parading

2009-03-21T10:16:00.003-05:00

Here's a tactical awareness exercise for you. How would you respond if a naked, 14-year-old male paired with a white, standard poodle approached while you were working in the yard?

Here's how this Michigan lady handled it.

When Hogs Fly

2009-03-18T14:29:00.007-05:00

Nope, I was plumb sober when I saw hogs flying overhead about noon today. I was operating the Allis Chalmers D17 above 4,000 rpm so I didn't hear the first one coming until it was just above and behind my back.

For a nanosecond or so, the sound of two General Electric TF34-GE-100 turbofan engines had me thinking the D17 was going to break apart. Then I saw the A-10 Warthog blast past, so low I could see barren hardpoints and the 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger muzzles protruding from its snout. A few seconds later, the second A-10 Thunderbolt II shot over the hedge rows and past the east ridge.

I suspect the two Warthogs were heading back to Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the 303rd Fighter Squadron. It is part of the 442nd Fighter Wing, an Air Force Reserve unit. The 303rd returned from a deployment at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in June.

The 303rd won the 2006 Hawgsmoke competition and hosted the 2008 competition at Smoky Hill Weapons Range, a 54-square-mile area near Salina, Kans. It wasn't the first time people from Missouri crossed into Kansas for shooting practice. Nonetheless, I was pleased to see warriors on the wing today.Godspeed!

Let's Sue AIG

2009-03-18T10:01:00.005-05:00

I'm outraged. AIG, of which we the people own 80 percent as the result of massive infusions of monopoly money, is still contractually obligated to pay incentive and retention bonuses to some of its past and present employees.

This burning rage is something I share with President Obama and many members of Congress such as House Financial Services chairman Barney Frank. The Honorable Frank said this morning that taxpayers should file lawsuits to kill the bonus payments.

Last weekend, President Obama said:

"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," he said, in a rare flash of public anger, at a White House event with owners of small businesses.

"Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less 165 million dollars in extra pay," Obama said.

"How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" he said, adding half in jest that "I'm choked up with anger here" as his voice caught at one point.

Perhaps the word, "outrage", repeatedly flashed in red on his ever-present teleprompter.

Barney has a good idea, and it needs to be moved forward a step. We the people should file lawsuits to recover every penny AIG has paid out to politicians. Barry, write a $101,332 check to the U.S. Treasury. If not, we the AIG stakeholders will have to get a court order to garnish your White House paycheck.

Happy St. Pat's Day!

2009-03-17T09:03:00.007-05:00

Cead Mile Failte to all the Irish out there who happen to stumble by this post.

My great-great-great-great grandfather came to New World shores from Argyll in western Scotland, once part of the ancient Gaelic Kingdom of Dalriada. The Scoti, from present-day Northern Ireland, spread across the North Channel, or Sruth na Maoile, and warred with the Picts for nearly three centuries. The Scoti and the Picts fused into the Kingdom of Alba under Kenneth I in 843. My clan descends from Kenneth I and ninth-century Viking interlopers, the dark strangers.

I'm wearing green in honor of my cousins. May you all have a lovely day. I'll think of you as I watch the spring grass grow. EZ, a two-year-old gelding, is straining to reach every bit of the new grass from inside his pipe-fenced prison. I'm going to let him out a bit to have at it.

S&W wish list

2009-03-11T08:22:00.009-05:00

The S&W forum has a thread, The Wish List: Guns you WISH S&W would Manufacture. It's fun to read, view suggestions that parallel your own desires, and then delve into other possibilities other hardcore S&W aficionados have presented. Hopefully, the Smith and Wesson product development people drop by from time to time for ideas.

Here's one of my pet peeves--K, L or N-frame revolvers with less than three-inch barrels. Anyone who's had to pluck out empties from a revolver such as my Model 10-5, 2" barreled .38 Special despite using proper extraction technique will understand. The shortened extractor rod can be a liability.

This Model 327 could singe Princess Vespa's hair.

Another pet peeve of mine is heavy barrels, especially ones with full under lugs, on concealed-carry revolvers. So something like this Model 686 with a 2 1/2", lugged barrel will cause Dusty to break out in hives. If one's toting a Model 327 with a 2" Lothar-Walther Custom German Rifle Barrel with polished button rifling, Dusty thinks that person, on behalf of the dark side of The Schwartz, came t0 suck oxygen out of indoor ranges.

This long-time wheelgunner would like to see the return of tapered barrels for the K-frame models still in the S&W product catalog. If I could transform my 10-5, it would have a round butt, wood boot grips, and a 3-inch tapered barrel that would allow me to swap out front sights. I'd mount a tritium-insert sight blade on it.

Dusty's Model 10-5 snub stays home

A .357 equipped with a trim, fighting-weight, 3" barrel similar to the Model 66 S&W produced for the U.S. Treasury when it controlled the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at Glynco, GA, would be ideal. I had one, a contract overrun, that I had to let go later to pay the rent. I wish I still had it. It carried like a dream in either a DeSantis Thumb Break Scabbard or a Milt Sparks Summer Special IWB rig. It was tough to control with the 125-grain Federal JHPs I used in my Model 28 Highway Patrolman, so I stoked the 66 with Winchester's 145-grain Silvertips.

Some lucky dog's Model 66 3-in. carry revolver

The Speaker's Carbon Footprint

2009-03-10T16:24:00.009-05:00

It's not smart for bailout-seeking, corporate executives to take business jets to D.C. to appear before Congressional committees. Americans learned this firsthand from those House Financial Services committee meetings last fall.

"It's almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. It kind of makes you a little bit suspicious," Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) told Detroit's Big Three auto execs. "Couldn't you all have downgraded to first class or jet-pooled or something to get here? It would have at least sent a message that you do get it."

Ackerman's house boss, Nancy Pelosi, doesn't get it. She has an affinity for travel on U.S. Department of Defense Gulfstream V long-range business jets, which are designated by the military as the C-37A. When told no "G5s" were available for Memorial Day travel, a house staff member, Kay King, said it would result in a very unhappy [sic] "peaker."

Ridin' High: Nancy on board?

Nancy, keep it up. All the carbon from the government jets in the gulfstream will impact weather patterns and throw the Earth into a Algore-anticipated heat wave. It will cause more mudslides, fires, water shortages, coastal flooding and other calamities that require massive infusions of federal assistance.

If not, people might lift up their heads from the slop trough long enough to see. When angry people go to the polls in mid-term elections such as those in 1994 and 2006, the House speaker has to downgrade.

SNL Skit, the original draft

2009-03-10T07:55:00.010-05:00

Here's a take on the economy one doesn't often see in the mainstream media. And it wasn't seen there long.

NBC/General Electric pulled the original SNL skit, edited it so it would meet its "standards" and offered this explanation when caught. This instance of corporate-controlled news media gatekeeping has been bouncing around the Internet since October, but it brought to mind a political science concept, the iron triangle.

It doesn't pay for GE to piss off Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"War on" replaced by "never waste a crisis" mentality

2009-03-07T06:38:00.007-06:00

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "Never waste a good crisis ... Don't waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security," during a speech to Friday in Brussels.

Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, detailed this hope-filled opportunity for change Nov. 19 at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in Washington, DC. "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. ... And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

President Obama will take various "urgent and immediate" actions that aren't "shortcuts or quick fixes" to "stabilize the patient" who is "likely to get worse before it gets better." He's told us, "Full recovery will not happen immediately."

The Obamacons refrain from using the phrase, "War on" followed by whatever crisis best fits in the blank such as poverty, drugs, terror, etc., like past administrations. All of these wars were lost or not completely resolved despite trillions spent and entire executive departments formed and reorganized. We still have the wars--they're just dire crises now.

There's opportunity lurking in all these crises, President Obama said in his weekly radio address released today. He hopes to sign a bill later this year to fix the national health care crisis.

My dad used to tell a joke about applying turpentine to a dog's rear to fix a race. It worked--the dog outran a motorcyle. There's a whole lot of turpentine spreading going on in the White House.

Looking back at the week

2009-03-06T20:17:00.006-06:00

It's been a great week adorned with early signs of spring. The bluebirds are fixing their nests, and colts are romping around the lots and pastures with their ears pricked and tails up. The grass is starting to show a touch of green.

My son, who will turn 17 later this month, mailed off an application for the NRA Foundation's YES program Monday. The program, funded in part by Friends of the NRA, is certainly one out of many ways NRA members "teach freedom". Every July since 1996, 40 high school students are selected to spend a full week in the District of Columbia developing and honing their debate and public relations skills. They also spend time on the range and visit the Marines at Quantico.

I took it as a good sign to quit waiting for the ideal time to upgrade my NRA membership. I upgraded briefly, painlessly and securely via the NRA membership services web portal. Too, it saved me from ingesting envelope flap sealant and worrying about whether I put the 42-cent flag stamp upside down or not. While I was logged in, I signed my son up for a junior life membership using the EPL, or easy-pay life, plan.

I couldn't help but remember sister and brother NRA members who taught me skills that later kept me alive. With NRA instruction programs and resources aiding me, I taught others as a police firearms instructor. The NRA does more to support rank-and-file law enforcement officers than any government-funded agency or program--I know this from personal experience. Studying the art of marksmanship has also brought me great joy and has filled so many hours that would have been duller without that pursuit.

I've never bitched about the numerous NRA fundraising requests I've received. I'd never dream of snapping at a NRA member who volunteered to work a match where things didn't go the way I expected. I don't believe NRA programs are a service owed me simply because I've paid my dues. If I could put $1,000 in every one of those reply envelopes Wayne LaPierre sends me for the rest of my life, I'd still be in debt to the NRA upon interment.

I'm not a sexist. I plan to give a gift life membership to my 14-year-old daughter sometime in the next couple of years. And maybe I'll get back to working on a range or doing some teaching when I get these damnable cataracts removed later this year.

It's not pretty, but it works.

2009-03-03T20:55:00.013-06:00

During my last range session with the 9mm AR-15 built with a Bushmaster lower receiver and Rock River Arms 9mm top end, the bolt failed to go fully forward a few times.

This problem grew worse as the bolt grew more fouled, which can be a problem with carbines chambered for pistol cartridges. At times the bolt wouldn't have enough momentum to strip cartridges off the top of the magazine. Sometimes an empty would not completely extract and blocked the bolt's travel. I took the bolt out, wiped it down on a leg of my faded, holey, blue jeans, and noticed an improvement. However, every so often I'd have to slap the upper receiver opposite the ejection port to jar the bolt home.

Colt 9mm buffer assembly, 5.2 oz.

I am running a Hahn Precision dedicated magazine well block that uses the standard 5.56 bolt catch, a standard carbine spring and a Colt 9mm buffer. The Colt buffer, as well as the RRA 9mm equivalent or DPMS counterweight buffer used in pistol-caliber rigs, allows the bolt to travel far more than it needs to for a 9mm. The maximum overall length of a .223 round is 2.26 inches. The max overall length for 9x19mm ammunition is 1.169 inches. Because the bolt travels too far back, I've had live or ejected rounds trapped between the fully retracted bolt and the ejector.

So I decided to buy a spacer to place in the far end of the buffer tube to limit the bolt's travel. However the one I first settled on would have cost me more than $30 including shipping, which was more than I paid for the Colt buffer assembly.

The frugal gene inherited from the Scot ancestors kicked in, and I dug a prime bolt out of a bin. I rounded the hex bolt head and turned it down to .980 diameter. I also turned the shaft down to .78 diameter after cutting the bolt to an overall length of 1.08 inches. I thought that length, .011 in. shorter than the difference between the two cartridges' overall lengths would be close.

Colt buffer assembly, left, and spacer fitted to CAR action spring, right

The opposite end of the carbine action spring fit the bolt shaft perfectly. The overall diameter of the spacer allowed it to slide down the CAR-length buffer tube. However, it fit tight enough to not allow side-to-side rattles. However, I had to cut the overall length down to .906 so the bolt stop would engage.

After the dimensions were set, I polished the piece, gave it four baths with cold blue, oiled it and set it aside to cure. What little testing I've done has been flawless. I'll put the carbine to a more extensive test Thursday.

The bolt does close with a bit more snap despite not traveling as far. The end of the recoil spring sits .54 inch, the thickness of the spacer's base, forward of its former resting point at the end of the tube. Because the 9mm carbine is blowback operated, the slight boost in spring power will push a little more gas out the muzzle and less fouling will result. It also takes less effort to chamber a round by working the charging latch.

Don't try doing this at home if you're already running high-pressure ammunition such as NATO M882 9mm ball, +P, +P+, or your home-rolled zombie stoppers. Go slow, don't blow stuff up and rearrange your body parts.

Hahn Precision sub caliber buffer assembly, 8 oz.--note the longer full-diameter section that increases action spring tension.

If I were to build another 9mm carbine, I'll probably try Hahn Precision's sub caliber buffer. It is longer, heavier at 8 oz., and has the thicker base to increase spring tension. It does all the stuff my 5.2 oz. Colt buffer and homemade spacer does. Despite costing twice what I paid for the Colt buffer, a bolt and cold blue, it is a whole less trouble.

UPDATE: I shortened the spacer, reducing the overall length to .840 inch after more range work Thursday afternoon. The bolt catch would sometimes fail to activate before the spacer was shortened a bit more. The carbine is running 100 percent now. The empties land in a much more consistent and tight pile nearly eight feet out at 2 to 3 o'clock from the ejection port. Also, the extractor hook isn't scarring the case rims near as much.

Peace, Baby

2009-02-27T07:27:00.003-06:00

The female anchor of The Early Show at CBS, Julie Chen-Les-Moonves, is sporting a shiny peace chickentrack around her neck this morning while delving into who will win or lose under President Obama's proposed budget.

She is a member of the wealthy few, those who should pay their fair share. Life in the high tax bracket is hell, so maybe the medallion is appropriate.

Border Violence: Decades of finger pointing

2009-02-26T11:02:00.013-06:00

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, long at the forefront of the left's efforts to erect barriers between U.S. citizens and their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, said Wednesday that the Obama administration plans "just a few gun-related changes" including a new ban on "assault weapons" and "high-capacity ammunition feeding devices". Holder made the announcment at a news conference on the close of a 21-month investigation and arrest of more than 750 Sinaloa drug cartel members in Mexico and the U.S.

Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border. ... "I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum." Holder said.

The Mexican government plus many journalists and politicos in this country have long claimed nearly 95 percent of weapons used by Mexican criminals are smuggled there from the U.S. We are to told to believe fully automatic weapons, M203 40mm grenade launchers, anti-tank weapons, .50 cal. M2 heavy machine guns, hand grenades, mines, and body armor are purchased by straw purchasers at U.S. gun shows and gun shops.

Here's a December 2008 "after-action report" from Barry R McCaffrey, General USA (Retired), ex-Clinton drug czar. Gen. McCaffrey is now a consultant for various organizations including NBC News. He urges state and federal authorities to stop this smuggling of crates of "high powered military automatic weapons", hand grenades, night-vision goggles, ComBloc RPGs, state-of-the-art communications encryption and interception hardware, helicopters, etc., 90 percent of which has been bought from federally licensed gun dealers primarily in California, Texas and Arizona.

Under arrest: Hitmen with their tools, Mexico City

"It is hard to understand the seeming indifference and incompetence of US authorities at state and Federal level to such callous disregard for a national security threat to a neighboring democratic state. We would consider it an act of warfare from a sanctuary state if we were the victim. ... The bottom line---the US is ineffective and unresponsive to Mexican concerns about weapons, bulk cash, and precursor chemicals flowing south into Mexico from the United States--- with a blow-torch effect on the security of the Mexican people."

Before we run out and string up some Federal Firearms License holders, all who undergo a criminal records check and face growing scrutiny and regulation by state, local and federal agents, let's look back into the past with Lora Lumpe. Although she's a D.C. lobbyist, Lumpe doesn't work for the National Rifle Association. She represents the Friends Committee on National Legislation, founded in 1943 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and most likely views the NRA as a MIPC proxy.

She defines the MIPC this way, "It’s President/General Eisenhower’s Military-Industrial-Complex, 50 years later and fully integrated into the political life of the nation." I'll write about Lumpe's efforts to combat the MIPC in another post. In the meantime, remember:

"No Mienta por otra Persona."

A Handy Online Reloading Tool

2009-02-21T22:59:00.008-06:00

I cranked out some ammunition on the blue press tonight after chores and dinner. The press was still set up for .223. It took about 10 minutes to switch it over to 9mm. Then I commenced filling two Akro bins with freshly minted, 115-grain 9mm ball ammunition.

The first two months of the year are good ones in which to spend time reloading. The reloading room in the basement is dry, out of the wind and not far from the Bunn coffee maker. Jerome, a high school senior and fellow National Rifle Association member, has escaped to the farm some during the late fall and winter to learn how to reload for a pair of AR-15s.

I started reloading at about the same age. No one I knew here in the Osage Cuestas reloaded metallic cartridges. I learned from reading Speer and Lyman reloading manuals, which in themselves were tough to come by for a nearly-broke teenager out in the sticks. Nope, VHS players hadn't been invented yet. Online stuff--it was clothes attached with wooden pins to wire lines spanning part of the back yard.

Some change is well and good such as this page I'm using more and more by Hornady. I particularly like the ballistics calculator. It can be used for any bullet by Hornady or otherwise if you have its ballistic coefficient. Here are the results for the 9mm ball, which I plan to use in a carbine with a 16" barrel.

Ballistics Calculator v1.0

Input Variables
Firearm type	Carbine	Sight Height	1.5
Bullet Weight (grains)	115	Ballistic Coefficient	.177
Muzzle Velocity (fps)	1200	Temperature	32
Barometric Pressure (hg)	30.36	Relative Humidity	78%
Zero Range (yards)	100	Wind Speed (mph)	0

Ballistics Table in Yards

Berry's Mfg. plated FMJ 115 gr., .177 B.C.

www.hornady.com

Range (yards)	Muzzle	25	50	75	100	150	200
Velocity (fps)	1200	1141	1092	1050	1014	955	906
Energy (ft.-lb.)	368	333	304	281	262	233	210
Trajectory (100 yd. zero)	-1.5	1.5	2.9	2.4	0.0	-11.3	-32.0
Come Up in MOA	-1.5	-5.8	-5.5	-3.1	0.0	7.2	15.3

Hats off to the folks in Grand Island, Nebraska--Hornady Mfg. Co., Inc.

The right to privacy

2009-02-20T10:35:00.003-06:00

The Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution safeguards the basic human rights of individuals, including the right to privacy. The U.S. Supreme Court has issued rulings regarding the right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut, Roe v. Wade, and perhaps other cases.

Staff members of the Los Angeles Police Department and the district attorney's office should be boning up on constitutional law judging by the latest leaked celebrity evidence photo obtained by TMZ and then picked up by other "news" media organizations. The media coverage of this act of violence has been unethical and immoral. No crime victim, not even a celebrity such as Rihanna, should be treated this way by "journalists" and law enforcement officials who have sworn to uphold the Constitution.

No wonder so many women are afraid to report acts of domestic violence and sexual assault. One can see why journalists and goverment officials rank lower than used car salesmen in public opinion polls.

Guffaw Stimulus

2009-02-19T08:32:00.006-06:00

Some ordinary Americans who have studied economics gathered in Mesa, AZ, to "encourage" President Obama in his efforts to bring about stagflation.

This protester's take-out order:

+1, and add a stack of blueberry pancakes, two eggs over medium, whole-wheat toast, some honey, side of crisp bacon, black coffee, and freshly-squeezed orange juice from the Navy cooks who operate the White House Mess. No styrofoam or paper--bad for the environment. The gilt-edge White House china will work. :)

One Sign I'd Like to See

2009-02-17T00:29:00.004-06:00

I saw this sign and a link to the creator's site, author Chuck Klein, in the Gunbroker newsletter. He's given full permission to anyone who wants to post their business premises with it.

I'll spend more time and money in a business where the proprietors care enough about public safety to post such signs. All sorts of gun-free zones come to mind, places where murderers and robbers don't check their guns at the door, where the blood of innocents has pooled. There are schools, churches, courthouses, malls, government facilities and murder capitals such as Detroit, Chicago, and the District of Columbia where law-abiding citizens struggling to survive are treated like potential criminals.

When I see a gun-ban sign, I have to decide to go back to the parking lot and lock my pistol in the car before entry, to disobey the sign or to spend money elsewhere. Criminals on the other hand, make other decisions. They've chosen to commit armed robbery, to rape or to kill people who most likely have no means to resist. They sure aren't going to pause at the sight of a gun-ban sign. In fact, it should raise their hopes.

On the other hand, it must be disappointing for them when they expect a victim-rich environment but encounter armed people determined to live. So the places with gun-ban signs must be owned by people who seek to extend every courtesy to violent felons.

An Rx for Happiness: Go shooting

2009-02-10T16:46:00.007-06:00

"All men have a sweetness in their life. That is what helps them go on. It is towards that they turn when they feel too worn out." --Albert Camus

A glut of computer work and minor illness has kept me inside a lot the past two weeks. Today, I took advantage of a free hour and 70-degree weather to run four magazines of 9mm ammunition through my AR-15 carbine.

It wasn't planned in advance. I grabbed the carbine, belt with loaded magazine pouches, protection for ears and eyes, an Indonesian pineapple can, an empty Ritz cracker box and headed down below the pond dam.

I put a little dirt in the bottom of the box so it would stay upright. The red image of a Ritz cracker on the yellow background is a fine target. I checked the zero with it. Then I commenced picking on the shiny pineapple can. It was an excellent, and cheap, reaction target.

Barry and all greenies everywhere will be proud of me. I picked up the can, cardboard scraps, and the empty 9mm brass to recycle. Barack, I will carefully and responsibly recycle those 9mm cases with fresh small pistol primers, 115-grain Berry's Manufacturing plated FMJs, and the contents of an eight-pound keg of Alliant Unique.

Four magazines worth of 9mm ammunition costs less than a visit to a mental health care professional. The walking, shooting, stooping to pick up the brass, and safely moving under the electric fence without getting shocked also boosts one's physical health. All of this stimulates the economy, too. Perhaps one marksman brings about hope, change and happiness more than any number of community activists in Chicago, D.C., or any other progressive, urban hub.

Well, shooting up a Ritz cracker box is more fun than opening it in the conventional way.

One doesn't dial ...

2009-02-10T07:06:00.007-06:00

911 for Burger King customer service even in this age of the Nanny State.

Wisdom offered to Jean Fortune, 66, by a 911 dispatcher in Boynton Beach, Fla.:

"If the food's not done, sir, the food's not done."

"You cannot dial 911 because you're unhappy with your burger, OK? Do you understand that?"

"Customer service is not a reason to call 911. 911 is for if you're dying, OK?"

Uncle Ted's column

2009-02-09T09:38:00.004-06:00

Ted Nugent, Motor City Madman, writes about positive economic news here. Some excerpts:

"Truth is, what Holder really supports is more law-abiding citizens being victimized by recidivistic, violent punks on parole."

"Our founding fathers supported an individual’s right to own guns. Unlike Obama and Holder, those vanguards of freedom understood that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can not be achieved without being able to protect yourself and your loved ones from human scum who would deny you your fundamental God-given rights."

Cocked, locked and ready to rock, Ted suggests we buy more guns and ammo and join the National Rifle Association. It's a true economic stimulus plan.

Too much stimulation

2009-02-07T22:50:00.007-06:00

Judith Warner, a New York Times columnist, dreamed Barack Obama was taking a shower at her place just when she needed to shave her legs. Then Barry had the gall to smoke, which perturbed Ms. Warner's husband, Max. After conducting research via e-mail, she determined:

Many women — not too surprisingly — were dreaming about sex with the president. In these dreams, the women replaced Michelle with greater or lesser guilt or, in the case of a 62-year-old woman in North Florida, whose dream was reported to me by her daughter, found a fully above-board solution: “Michelle had divorced Barack because he had become ‘too much of a star.’ He then married my mother, who was oh so proud to be the first lady,” the daughter wrote me.

Ms. Warner must not have interviewed men who wanted to have sex with Barry. At least she didn't report on it. No doubt there are many who wouldn't dream of replacing Michelle in the president's bed--the more the merrier.

No wonder the Times is hemorrhaging. Ms. Warner isn't a journalist. She's a pervert.

A lower receiver is on the way

2009-02-05T16:16:00.004-06:00

I have had an orphan AR-15 top end residing in a closet since before the election. I noticed Denny at Global Tactical Supply, North Kansas City, MO, had some more lower receivers in stock, so I ordered one earlier this week.

It seems as if every place I check is out of lower parts kits. I have some parts, but nowhere near an entire set. I plan to use an Ergo grip, Magpul curved trigger guard, KNS Precision push-button pivot and take down pins and JP Enterprises anti-walk hammer and trigger pins. That will eliminate the need for several parts in the kit, but it never hurts to have some extras for the other AR-15.

For now, I'm going to use a Bushmaster A2 butt stock that's also buried in the closet. The top end has a bull barrel and the A2 will balance it out better than Magpul CTR or M4 collapsible stocks. Maybe I'll try a Magpul UBR stock sometime. It is convenient to have a stock with adjustable length of pull in this part of the country. Yesterday morning it didn't get above 10 degrees before noon. Today it's in the 60s. The thick Carhartt coat is hanging on a brass hook.

I've been eyeing the 6x45mm round, which is simply the .223 necked up to 6mm. It is legal to use for hunting whitetail deer here, where the .223 is not. Mainly, it is something I'd like to experiment with--even more fun than what we had with Lincoln Logs or Tinker Toys back in the Stoned Age of the 60s

My thanks ...

2009-02-02T18:43:00.004-06:00

to U.S. Senators Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback, who represent the state of Kansas, and the 19 others who voted "Nay" on Eric Holder's confirmation as Attorney General.

He will be at the forefront of the Obama Administration's brusque campaign to explain away and invalidate the constitutional rights of gun owners, ordinary Americans who have done nothing to deserve distrust.

We're simply trying to survive, Mr. Attorney General and Mr. President. We're not criminals simply because we carry a scary, black rifle or a concealed pistol for personal safety.

Twenty-one U.S. Senators understand this. That's a start. Please send them your thanks.

"Boondoggle"

2009-02-01T23:45:00.003-06:00

I was checking out the Foundation for Economic Education blog Sunday during Bridgestone Super Bowl XLIII and discovered the etymology of "boondoggle".

The word took on another dimension following an April 4, 1935, New York Times article, “$3,187,000 Relief is Spent to Teach Jobless to Play ... Boon Doggles Made”. A New Deal government stimulus program changed that word's meaning to:

boon·dog·gle, n (plural boon·dog·gles) (informal)

1. insignificant pursuit: an activity or project that is trivial and wasteful of time or money
2. politically motivated government project: a government project of little practical value funded to gain political favor

vi (past boon·dog·gled, past participle boon·dog·gled, present participle boon·dog·gling, 3rd person present singular boon·dog·gles) (informal)

1. do something impractical: to do something unimportant or impractical
2. deceive or mislead somebody: to deceive or attempt to deceive somebody

[Mid-20th century. Coined by the U.S. scoutmaster R. H. Link for a braided leather cord made by Scouts.]

Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Anyone for boondoggles?

Da Boss--My people made a bad deal with the Devil, aka Wal-Mart.

2009-01-31T14:03:00.010-06:00

"Some fans" became upset after Bruce Springsteen inked an exclusive marketing deal for a greatest-hits release with Wal-Mart, often attacked for it's "unfair" labor and business practices. The retailing giant planned to cash in on the Springer's Super Bowl appearance tomorrow. The Boss, long a champion of ordinary Americans and workers of the world, has told the objective, fair and unbiased journalists at The New York Times that the contract was made in error.

The interview will be in the Sunday edition, although the NYT marketers are also trying to cash in by releasing details before the clash.

Bruce, turn that money over to your leader for inclusion in the stimulus package. It will fund a few condom distribution programs and abortions. This will allow states to reduce the numbers of children who would otherwise require cradle-to-grave public services plus cut the cost of treating them for STDs. Of course, they won't grow up to pay taxes, work or shop at Wal-Mart or any other evil corporation that pays taxes, or ask their elders, "Who was Bruce Springsteen?"

Boss, back out of the Bridgestone Super Bowl for the sake of the greens. Tires, chemicals and other dangerous industrial products Bridgestone, an evil multinational corporation, produces and markets all over the world add to the carbon footprint, clutter our landfills, foul our water, and cause Al Gore to sweat. Bridgestone has exploited workers in China, Japan, South Korea, here in the U.S.A, and elsewhere. And think about the untold millions who have suffered personal injury as the result of a defective tire. How do you, Patty and the entire E-Street Band sleep at night?

Why does the Boss need the dough? That Wal-Mart deal isn't any different than "height of irresponsibility" Wall Street bonuses. It isn't a time to profit when ordinary working people are struggling. Stop selling out. For a change, give it away. Any proceeds from a CD, DVD, or any other media format sold though Wal-Mart is Judas money.

Maybe those nameless "fans" who hate the Wal-Mart greedheads are sticking it to the Boss and all other exploiters of the poor by downloading the entire Springsteen catalog from illegal file-sharing networks. They're morally justified. They're victims.

Not asking for much ...

2009-01-27T09:54:00.005-06:00

"In Wyoming, we don't ask for much from Washington. We do ask that Washington limit its intrusion on our land, water and especially our Second Amendment rights. That's not a lot to ask in the grand scheme of Washington, but it is critically important to the constituents who sent me to fight for them."--U.S. Senator John Barrasso, who won't vote to confirm Eric Holder as the nation's attorney general."During Holder's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing he stated that gun control is not on this administration's agenda. He also said that he still supports regulating private gun sales, banning ammunition and semi-automatic assault weapons. Given Holder's career of attacks on the Second Amendment, his nomination continues to be of great concern to me. I am not convinced his philosophy on the Second Amendment is acceptable to the people of Wyoming and gun owners across the United States.

Agendas and intentions can change quickly. Our nation's highest law enforcement officer must be committed to protecting and defending our individual rights to keep and bear arms. I intend to vote no on the nomination of Eric Holder."

S&Ws without internal locks

2009-01-24T21:57:00.005-06:00

I took up handgunning when the revolver was king. My first double-action revolver was a S&W Model 19 .357 Magnum I bought with hoarded money from a summer job I had between my freshman and sophmore college years. When I went into law enforcement, I carried a S&W Model 28 Highway Patrolman tuned by Ron Power, who launched Power Custom in 1959 while still working for Armco Steel in the Kansas City area.

I still carry a S&W rev0lver every day. I'm an old goat in a vast sea of semi-auto toters. But the warm spot I hold in my heart for classic Smith and Wessons has never extended to cover those with the internal locks, MIM innards, crush-fit barrels, etc. I examine them at the gun shops and seldom take one home.

The classics line has somewhat regenerated me. It's good to see the fabled Model 58 .41 Magnum back in the the current catalog, as well as the Models 17 and 18 .22 K-frames. They still have the damned keyhole, but I see where the 442 and 642 J-frame Centennials are now offered without internal locks. Perhaps S&W is building a few with frames designed for the reintroduced lightweight Model 42 Centennial. Neither the all-steel Model 40 Centennial nor the aluminum-frame Model 42 is burdened with an internal lock because they're fitted with grip safties.

My 642-2 is equipped with the Clinton/Cuomo internal lock. The never-used key is still resting in the blue plastic box. The mechanism not caused any malfunctions for me, but more complex devices are more likely to fail as some have found out. If I want to lock a revolver, there's plenty of cable locks around here. Handcuffs work even better than internal or cable locks for most revolvers. One can run one cuff through the cylinder opening in the frame and fasten the other cuff to an immovable object.

Some would pay extra for this ...

2009-01-23T10:24:00.006-06:00

Yusuf Evans, 37, wanted to show a visiting cousin and another friend a good time. So he took them to XTC, which is found somewhere on Brittain Road in Akron, Ohio.

A stripper, Tiffany, tried to do Yusuf a good turn. She flipped off her platform shoe, which flew and struck Yusuf in the nose. Yes, some would gladly pay extra for the pleasure derived from pain. Not Yusuf. That ain't his bag, bebe.

''I have to live with this the rest of my life probably. ... That was my first time ever there. Isn't that crazy? My nose got chipped on one side and I constantly lose the ability to breathe out of one nostril; the passageway gets clogged up.''

One year later Yusuf still requires nose surgery. So he's suing Tiffany and XTC Nighclub for services improperly rendered. Some pain, no pleasure, and no XTC for anyone except maybe Yusuf's attorney.

My advice to Tiffany is to review her liability coverage each year with her insurance agent and to shell out some of the tips for extra protection an umbrella policy would offer. Yusuf, guys with your sort of luck should stay home or buy Kevlar® protection from DuPont.

Propped up for pics.

2009-01-23T08:42:00.011-06:00

Fidel Castro showed up in the news again--the Argentinians released a photo of Fidel in his track suit arm-in-arm with their president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. She said, "Fidel believes in Obama" following her hour-long visit with him.
I think Fidel or his estate has either cut an endorsement deal with Adidas, or he's dead and the Cubans produce a wax dumm y or body doubles of him to pose with visiting, leftist, heads of state. Perhaps the Yankee dogs in the CIA whacked Fidel way back in the decade of greed, the Reagan-Bush 1980s.
Get in line. Photo opportunities like this won't last forever.

She's lost weight?

2009-01-22T17:16:00.007-06:00

"It felt like a 10-pound anvil was lifted off my head," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said of her favorite Inauguration Day memory--watching the Bushes leave the the U.S. Capital grounds in Marine One. Losing weight, not being such a blockhead--nah, the steel is still up there.

Change is more of the same, old tripe.

2009-01-20T13:33:00.004-06:00

From the White House two and one-half hours after the new president swore a oath to preserve, protect and defend:

"Address Gun Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent."

President Obama has issued a call for service, which is a grand idea. Join or upgrade your membership to National Rifle Association and any other pro-Second Amendment group. Encourage others to join. Look into the multitude of ways one can serve country and community such as teaching new shooters, appealing to members of Congress and local and state polititicans to support the right to keep and bear arms, building and maintaining places to shoot, sponsoring a Friends of the NRA event, or aiding a youth shooting-sports program.

Let's do more than stock up non-microstamped ammunition, obtaining firearms we think will be banned, waiting for more incremental restrictions on firearms use and ownership, and being silent in the face of what seems to be an overpowering political force.

"We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be many to the enemy's few."--Sun Tzu, The Art of War

We mustn't forget "ordinary Americans"

2009-01-17T23:26:00.006-06:00

After I heard or read about "ordinary Americans", "everyday people", "ordinary working-class folks", "ordinary Americans--the poor and the disenfranchised", etc., several times today, I did some Googling just to figure out if I am ordinary or not.

I'm never going to receive an invitation to ride the ordinary train. I lack the "special distinction, rank or status" and am so undiscernable to matter to intellectual collectors of woeful tales.

Those "stories have been overlooked too long," and "we mustn't overlook" them any longer. Maybe the circulation of most major newspapers are falling for another reason besides the bad economy. Reading the paper is too much like giving yourself a waterboarding.

Anyhow, I entered the phrase, "ordinary American" into Google and searched images. This one was at the head of the list.

The Marines' 40mm Revolver, the M32 MGL

2009-01-17T00:06:00.010-06:00

I saw a Shot Show 2009 picture 0f the M32 MGL on display at VLTOR booth. It intrigued me enough to cause me to do some research.

The M32 MGL was first adopted by the U.S. Marines in 2006. It was first demonstrated to the South African Defence Force in 1981 and has been produced since 1983. It holds six grenades, has a range between 32 to nearly 435 yards, and the cylinder is rewound between reloads.

It would be one hell of a groundhog killer, and I could demolish ramshackle farm sheds with it. To hell with the crowbar. I doubt the Marines would loan me one, however. Then I have enough problems paying for .223 ammunition, let alone cases of 40mm grenades.

I'm not a Barackstar.

2009-01-16T18:08:00.009-06:00

I scored a whopping one point higher than aepilot_jim, but we'll both probably wind up in the gulag.

I'm an embarrassment to Barack!
I only scored 18 on the Obama Test

Revolver Springs: Standard vs. Reduced Power

2009-01-16T11:31:00.008-06:00

It's a bitter, windy day at the range. But gun fights usually happen in less-than-ideal conditions, the range master says. The class will go on. You head to the line with Old Faithful, your carry revolver, in the holster. You enhanced it last weekend with the installation of a spring kit just like Uncle Harry put in his S&W Model 29 .44 Mag residing in his sock drawer.

During timed fire at seven yards, Old Faithful's trigger doesn't reset when you're cranking off a cylinder. After a reload, it fails to reset again. You failed to fire two of the twelve rounds in that stage. Later on, you drop another round because a primer failed to ignite. You can't imagine why--you followed the instructions some highly-experienced gunslinger in Slapout, Okla., gave you via the Internet. You even successfully test fired it with some Federal and Winchester factory ammunition.

You're not alone. Many of us have ignored the small print such as: "urges caution when using reduced power hammer or striker springs in firearms, particularly in firearms used for critical applications such as law enforcement. Reduction of the hammer or striker spring may compromise the reliability of the firearm" or "designed for competition and speed shooting ... For best results, use Federal primers."

If any revolver spring is labeled "reduced power", I'm leery of it. I don't put them in revolvers I might carry in dangerous times, which is any revolver I own. What works in ideal conditions may not work in the field. Springs need the strength to overcome fouling, temperature extremes, harder primers, faster-than-average cycling, and perhaps a bit too much headspace.

Here are some things anyone can try before putting reduced-power springs in concealed-carry or duty revolvers.

Obtain quality references on how a revolver works such as Jerry Miculek videos from Clark Custom Guns or Jerry Kuhnhausen's shop manuals published by Heritage Gun Books.

Carry out a detail strip, clean and lube job using above references.

Check revolver function as laid out in the references. If a revolver is improperly fitted, it will negatively impact the trigger pull weights because it takes more force to rotate the cylinder. If that is the case, send it in for warranty repair or obtain the services of a reliable revolver smith.

Strengthen your hands and fingers by squeezing a ball. Clear the revolver, leave all ammo in another room, and dry fire at a mark with a bullet-proof backstop behind it.

Lastly, try aftermarket standard-weight replacement springs such as Wolff/Brownells Type-1, standard power, Power Rib mainspring for S&W K, L and N frame revolvers. It has an altered contour that does seem to smooth out the action without reducing reliability.

If the mainspring comes in a kit with three, reduced-power rebound springs, throw them away. Even the heaviest rebound spring is three pounds below factory weight. Fortunately one can order the mainspring alone. Sometimes it helps to lightly polish the bottom and rear surfaces of the rebound slide of S&W revolvers. Emery paper fastened to a wood block works well. Do nothing to the hammer and trigger engagement surfaces.

J-frame S&W revolvers use a coil mainspring. I haven't had good luck with aftermarket mainsprings. These little pieces are even more apt to suffer trigger reset problems from reduced-power rebound springs in my large hands.

Check the springs in used firearms you've picked up in a trade. I've seen several used Colt D-frame snubs such as the Detective Special or Cobra that won't reliably pop primers because of bent or reduced-power hammer springs.

Compare coil springs in length to new, factory springs. If the old springs are shorter, replace them.

Honest Abe and "the letter and spirit of the Constitution"

2009-01-15T09:53:00.006-06:00

Attorney General designate Eric Holder faced the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time today. He declared he would adhere to the rule of law and follow "the letter and spirit of the Constitution."

I doubt he will face much scrutiny on his previous efforts to explain away the Second Amendment.

The news is filled with coverage of President-elect Obama's Lincoln-themed inauguration. Obama will place his right hand on the same Holy Bible on which Lincoln's rested March 4, 1861, and swear:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Even in the midst of a terrible war that makes the current one in Afghanistan, Iraq, and in this nation's transportation and financial hubs appear like a mild squabble, Abraham Lincoln never insisted the Second Amendment guaranteed only the right of states to form militias.

In fact he said on that day,

"I take the official oath to-day, with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws, by any hypercritical rules. And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to, and abide by, all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. ...

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."

We do need change, a new birth of freedom, open government, and a renewal of America's promise. We've allowed presidents and senators, attorneys and lobbyists, corporations and other special interests, and Democrats and Republicans to render separation of powers provided for by the Constitution to be meaningless.

The failed economy, dwindling international stature, wars without end, mounting national debt, global trade imbalances, a weak currency--an imbalance of power between branches of government is behind all of it.

When servants of the people such as the president, attorney general or senators are impugn in misinterpreting or ignoring Constitutional safeguards, tyranny grows. Holder's nomination doesn't speak of change. It's still the imbalanced way executive appointments have been handled in Washington for at least the past century. Through the power of appointments, one man can cease being a servant to become a master.

The 2009 Shot Show

2009-01-14T13:17:00.003-06:00

I always look forward to hearing the first impressions and seeing the pictures from those able to attend the Shot Show. It fires up tomorrow in Orlando.

Best wishes to all attendees and exhibitors. May 2009 be a year in which we're unimpeded in enjoying the shooting sports, exercising our rights to assemble, and preserving and defending our Second Amendment rights.

I've love to get to either Las Vegas or Orlando some January. Until then I'll have to enjoy it vicariously.

The Land of Lincoln

2009-01-14T06:05:00.008-06:00

"What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself."

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."--Abraham Lincoln

Have a good day, President-elect Obama. Hopefully there will be enough port-a-potties.