The Shotgun Taser

AnarchAngel noticed this new Taser round that can be fired from a 12 gauge shotgun. Hey I have one of those! I wonder if they sell to civilians. Instapundit had the common sensical concern:

Impressive -- but it'll be pretty important to be sure that your 12-gauge is really loaded with Taser rounds when you think it is, and not, say, slugs. Or vice versa.

I believe the Los Angeles County sheriff's department address this concern by having dedicated less-lethal shotguns. The furniture on the gun is orange as opposed to black. Currently they use them to fire rubber batons and beanbags when necessary.

Unfortunately the Achilles heal with less-lethal rounds is that they can still cause severe injury or kill. This is why they are called less-lethal instead of non-lethal. This is why Less-lethal rounds generally reside on the same level of the force continuum as lethal weapons. You have a choice between shooting said perpetrator with a taser bullet or with a real bullet and in many places the legal consequences are identical. Which is why the police like them, they have greater latitude to use lethal force, but civilians generally aren't buying tasers for self-protection. Why hurt a man when you can kill him and the legal consequences (especially civil consequences) for hurting him can actually be lower if you kill him.

Live Earth

Turns out there was this big concert thing this weekend. I think I accidentally caught a few minutes of it over the weekend when I flipped across the gay channelBravo. Turns out the globe is warming. Who knew? I'd certainly never heard of it before Al Gore threw this big multi-continental shindig. But I guess it must not be warming too badly if they're going to consume ungodly amounts of petroleum byproducts flying rock stars across the globe followed by unholy other levels of energy putting on multiple simultaneous multi-media extravaganzas. I mean if it was really bad, I'd imagine Al would tell me to stay home, turn the AC off, sweat, and read a book on my porch. A book? Ok, his book.

In other news Al's son Al (there's a clever name, how'd he think that one up?) let the world know that yes, you can get a Toyota Prius moving at over 100 miles per hour. This little bit of information was so important at least one national network morning show covered it yesterday. But if you want to get up to that kind of speed in a Prius, it does help if the cops are behind you and your car is full of pot. And no the Prius doesn't get especially good gas mileage when its going that fast. Also keep in mind that the Prius was is one of the worst handling cars ever, so don't try turning any corners at that speed.

Missions Blogging

The singles group at my church is sending a team to Hungary to do a missions-related English camp program. They're also blogging the whole thing. So far they have some serious prayer requests that could use attention.

Learning From Your Father

I spent yesterday at the new place moving boxes of sundries and putting up a venetian blind to prevent people on the street from casing our storage room from the sidewalk. Moving the boxes went over quickly, but I learned a few things about hardware while installing the blinds.

First, I learned why everyone buys cordless drills nowadays. The reason? Five foot power cords. I received a 1/2 inch craftsman drill as a wedding present. It's a nice piece of equipment, especially with the speed-lock bit set that came with it. But it only has a five foot cord. Give me ten feet and I could put holes almost anywhere in my house, but five feet wouldn't let me drill pilot holes for blinds even with an outlet next to the window. I now have a 100 foot indoor/outdoor extension cord. My lot is only 20 feet by 125 feet so that should do.

Secondly, I learned why my father rarely bothered to read directions. The directions for the blinds were worthless. I've seen better assembly instructions on the back of a Lego box. No parts list. No details. Their pilot hole size for the mounting screws was completely off. Through trial an error I went from a 1/16" hole up to 7/64". Now I know why there are so many home handyman books out there. They're just expensive collections of good directions to do this sort of stuff.

Chongo-longo!

John C. Wright discusses using profanity in your writing. He says that it is generally a trap that restricts your audience and largely causes more problems than it solves. And there are obvious ways around it:

Or, if you are writing science fiction, you can say Gorram, or Frell, Frack, Tanj, Taxes, or even Noy Jitat! Those are shiny words. Lily, cobber?

Jitatin kreld-eater! Pirates of Dark Water definitely had some of the best non-profanity ever to be uttered on kids TV. I'd say the best use of swearing by Hanna-Barbera characters, but I'm sure there is an episode of Harvey Birdman featuring Yogi dropping four-letter words like they're going out of fashion.

I'm a believer in using profanity rarely so that it doesn't lose its meaning. "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" largely works because, as a good southern gentleman, Rhett hasn't been swearing his way through the entire book/movie. I like that when I drop the f-bomb, people really know I'm pissed.

Mini Manifest Destiny

Amy and I spent yesterday at our new house cleaning things up with the aid of my parents. What better way to celebrate the 4th than by subduing your own land with the help of kinfolk?

Thanks to my parents' carpet deep-cleaner and some detail work by Amy and my Mom, the carpets don't look half bad. The Tide spinbrush works very well for getting out carpet stains, which is odd because I've never found it to be especially effective on clothes. All the cleaning moved carpet replacement from our requirements column into our wants column. Which is great because there are more important things I really want fixed.

My mom lined all the shelves and drawers in our kitchen and bathrooms so it's time to start moving relevant household items into those spaces. Tomorrow I'm going to be spending a lot of time grabbing boxes and packing so we can do that.

Frankly after cleaning things up and making a few necessary changes the house is starting to feel more like home to us. That's a good thing since we'll be living there at the end of this month.

Oh and my Dad went to work mowing my lawn at one point this week. That little turnabout was almost worth the price of the house.

Going A-Viking

LawDog linked to a group of Danes who have built a 30 meter viking longship and are in the process of sailing the damn thing to Dublin. They have a video on their site which details why and how of the project and their course to Ireland. They should be heading into the North Sea within the next couple of days.

$50 Paint Job

Well if I ever need to paint a car, I'll have to remember this. I don't know about using Rustoleum on your car, but the process of rollering it on might actually work.

Mistakes not to Repeat

I hadn't seen Strange Horizons list of overtold stories until Jane Espenson brought them up. I've heard that a lot of writers unpublished first work goes along the lines of number 2: Creative person is having trouble creating.

If I ever write the great American sci-fi novel, I'll also be sure to re-read the Evil Overlord's list and other related lists first.

Good Books

Ok, I'm linking to this John C. Wright post because I've realized I haven't read nearly enough of the works on his great fiction list.

Myth Busters

While I wouldn't exactly call their methods scientific or even statistically valid, the show makes for good TV. And some of their results have been eye-opening. I took note when they showed that poppy seeds actually could give false positives on drug tests. Myth Busters Results has an archived overview of their work and results.

German Superlative Envy

The new BMW 635d (d for diesel) is a nice car, but isn't "World’s most powerful production six-cylinder diesel". The Dodge Rams with 5.9 and 6.7 liter Cummins diesels both have six cylinders and produce 40 more horsepower. The BMW makes a lot of power for diesel, especially a diesel with only a 3 liter engine. But I'm betting the torque numbers aren't close, those Cummins plants produce so much torque they can grind weaker drive trains into dust.

I Brake For...

Sometimes you find the funniest things on Flickr. Feel free to use the comments to provide your own caption like they do over at John's place.

Room for Improvement

Obviously I need to start using more profanity when talking about my guns, knives, swords, and other implements of death dealing. Via Kim du Toit.

A First Time for Everything

Amy and I became homeowners today. Settlement was around noon. Stately Baptist Manor is a 1750 square foot townhouse with a Newark mailing address and easy access to major highways. I wish I could say it was on acres of land with clear lanes of fire in case of Zombie attack, but that will unfortunately have to wait until Baptist Manor versions 2 or 3. Baptist Manor's current form should handle our family well even if it grows by a few members in the coming years.

We'll take up full residence by the end of July. Amy and I are quite happy, but we'll be spending a lot of time cleaning the house up in the next few weeks. The previous owners were only required to leave it "broom clean" and evidently they don't really know what a broom looks like. The tub and shower are caked with some retched substance. It's far nastier than anything I've come across and that includes my time in college on all male floors with shared bathrooms. Some of the carpets are similarly vile. The original owner appears to have enjoyed eating his dinner in the basement in front of his big screen. How much he ate is debatable since he seems to have trampled most of it into the basement stair's carpet.

Oh and the previous owner didn't bother to actually fix any of the things he agreed to fix after the initial home inspection. Thankfully we received more money back at settlement after our walk through exposed this. But this means we have to get a bunch of work done ourselves instead of having him take care of it. Very annoying.

The good news is that our initial down payment and closing costs were less than we expected. Amy and I have been saving for this since we got married last year and we didn't have to touch Amy's portion of our savings. So we're in good financial shape should anything come up (like having to replace a vehicle).

We'd like to thank the major players; our mortgage broker Damian Wing of GMAC, our lawyer Brian Murray, and most of all our Realtor Megan Johnson from Remax Associates in Suburban Plaza. Our inspectors, Granite Inspection Services and Promise Pest, were also first rate. The seller's realtor, Remax Sunvest... hmmm... lets say that he's not so highly recommended although he did try to make things right by us out of his own pocket.

Ding! Dong! Immigration Bills Dead!

The cloture vote failed 46 to 53. Of course Delaware's senators, Biden and Carper, both voted for cloture. Well it could be worse, they could have voted twice.

Air Travel Horror Stories

Hmm a US Air horror story, a United horror story... can I add my own to the mix even if it is past its expiration date?

Via QandO

Saved by Saran Wrap

In a bit of really useful information, Glad Press and Seal makes an excellent keyboard cover for your laptop if you're going to Iraq or just the beach. Or if you're like me an eat in close proximity to your computer a lot. From Kit Up:

My PSG got a box of GLAD Press and Seal and put it over the entire keyboard area of his laptop to include the power button, etc. It did the trick of keeping the sand out of the keyboard and thus out the computer components inside.

As an IT Manager, I was impressed. Buy a rubberized keyboard for your laptop and look at the price tag that comes along with it. The nice part is when the press and seal gets dirty to the point you can no longer see the letters, simply tear off a new section and you're back in business.

Other household products, like Ziploc bags can be really useful in many other scenarios like waterproofing things on camping and beach trips. They're very light, take up no room, but can keep your extra pair of socks dry or your sandwich edible even if the rest of you gets covered with water or sand.

Of Ethics and Ethicists

I once wrote this about bioethicists:

Bioethicists seem to be in the position of providing convenient justifications for the use of questionable technologies. They are not ethical auditors, my experience has been that they are professional rationalizers and enablers.

Douglas Kern expands this criticism in his rebuke of New York Times ethics columnist Randy Cohen. It includes great passages like this one:

Your job as a public ethicist is not to teach people how best to apply the rules and obligations of a transcendent authority, as the ethicists of old once did. That would be hard. And intrusive. And divisive. And let’s face it: “transcendent authority” carries the whiff of the red state, with all the unpleasantness (NASCAR, Wal-Mart, redundant children) there attached. Neither is your job to teach philosophy. That, too, would be hard, and unsatisfying as well; when do philosophers ever agree? No, your job is to provide just enough soothing advice to scratch that fleeting itch that your affluent readership feels when confronted with moral questions that vacuous self-serving upper class prejudices can’t immediately resolve.

It is a really good piece and Kern, as a lawyer who had to take classes in ethics, knows of what he writes.

Politics in Short

The Meaning of Dictator

I said it over at QandO and I'll say it here, anyone who takes offense at calling Hugo Chavez a dictator doesn't know what the word means. Chavez has been given the power to rule Venezuela by decree. That is a textbook dictatorship.

Fairness Doctrine

This is all about the left trying to castrate right-wing talk radio. But that doesn't make it smart for the left. The success of right-wing talk is largely the result of the perceived (and now documented) left-wing slant from the mainstream media. It is the result of market forces in much the same way that the think tanks meet the academic needs that universities served on the left. Re-instituting the fairness doctrine they are handing the government not just the ability to crush talk radio, but also to do wholesale meddling with mainstream news reporting. Lefties, do you really want to give the Bush administration that sort of mandate?

Action in Iraq

The numbers being killed and captured in Baquba are only about 50% of the expected numbers of insurgents. The media says this is bad. Anyone in the know realizes that inflicting 50% attrition on your enemy is pretty damn good. Losing 10% of your force is bad and 30% is crippling. Only 50%?

Telling the Truth

Dilbert's current arc involves Nancy, the employee with personal problems. As usual Alice cuts to the heart of the issue:


I know several people like this and it just irritates the heck out of me, mostly because they're always passing the buck to someone else. They have personality clashes at every job they've ever worked. Or sometimes it is the opposite, they consistently become the office doormat. Or their boyfriends mistreat them. Sometimes I just want to grab them by the shoulders, look them in the eyes, and say "The reason you always have these problems is because of the choices you make. Make better decisions and stop blaming others."

This isn't always true of course. Sometimes you're a great person that happens to work for a jerk or with idiots. It happens. But when I see it happen over and over again to the same people, I can't help but wonder if it isn't a coincidence that the shit keeps hitting their particular fan. Maybe these folks are just standing in front of the shit fan instead. If so, then take a few steps to the left or right already.

But is confronting this sort of thing head-on the thing to do? Is it the proper Christian response? I don't know. I generally just try to help these kinds of folks out of whatever mess they've gotten themselves into. But I rarely confront them about why they keep getting into these messes in the first place.

X-13D

I tried a bag of Doritos X-13D mystery flavor chips a while back. I thought they were more of an interesting marketing experiment than anything else (the package avoids telling you any flavor and implies some sort of flavor guessing contest). I thought it would be really cool if the food scientists at Doritos made up batches in different flavors and packaged them identically. Alas our two bags tasted the same. Tycho describes them thusly in today's Dorito related rant:

Somehow we ended up with a bag of X-13D superchips, some kind of mystery flavor, and if you want to know what the taste like imagine that a hamburger patty has fallen onto a cat, condiment side down. Believe me, it's worth buying a bag to verify this assertion.

Everyone in my regular lunch group took a taste. The consensus was that they tasted like McDonald's Cheeseburgers complete with processed cheese, onion, mustard, pickle, ketchup, and unidentifiable meat. Mmm... unidentifiable McDs meat... Whether felines are involved would probably depend on your opinion of McDonald's palatability.

El Cheapo Enduro

For a race where the cars can only cost $500, the 24 Hours of LeMons (that's "lemons" not some place in France) seems to have gotten a lot of press over the last year:

• Autoweek ran an '83 Honda CRW that they tried to cheatimprove with racing parts. They couldn't figure out how to properly jet the new carbs and ironically had to race it stock.
• The L.A. Times sent Preston Lerner who took turns driving an '89 Corolla owned by race creator and judge Jay Lamm.
• Car and Driver had a '94 Olds in the race and won the People's Curse award. Their vehicle was beaten with hammers and rolled by the crowd after the first day of racing. Even with this, they were still able to finish the race.
• The event was won by a team from Road and Track. They pulled out a victory, of more accurately pushed out on. Their '82 Corolla only crossed the line for the checkered flag because their Car and Driver competitors shoved it across with the front of their Aurora.

The 24 Hours of Lemons website has links to participants pictures and videos if you'd like to see more.

Oh Noes Jihadis!

I saw this at LawDog's place and I thought it was amusing:


Holy cow, you can break down a 16" AR-15 and fit it into a bag that small? With room for mags? I'll have to try that. I'm currently transporting my AR in a double rifle case and while case itself is large and cumbersome, the AR still doesn't fit very well inside it. I'll have look around for replacements and put some options on my tacticool gear list.

Working in Maryland means that transporting arms as shown in the clip is essentially verboten for me. Doubly verboten because I work on a military base. Fortunately running into armed jihadis behind the fence line is unlikely. Unfortunately the other end of my commute has no such assurance of security (other than any local neighborhood watch).

UPDATE: Said bag seems to be over a hundred dollars. Too rich for my blood.

Squirrel Catapult

I feel sorry for the bushy-tailed rat, but that doesn't make the video any less hilarious. The sound you hear in the background of the video is a million bird feeder owners crying out in triumph.

Driving Catholic

While Cardinal Martino's guidelines on the Christian way to drive aren't actually as stupid as they sound, the Curt Jester's are far more amusing.

An Old Man Moment

I ran across Paul Southren's Blog today. He is the editor of Sword Buyers Guide, which I mentioned earlier this week. Frankly I'm starting to realize why I like his site. It reminds me of the way Sword Forum used to be back when I started reading it in college. Examples of current behavior:

Due to my publishing of a 'controversial' article on Backyard Cutting - which is in the eyes of Sword Forum International is effectively taboo without first getting proper instruction...

And...

And many people at SFI refuse to acknowledge or even look at swords priced under $500.

The sad thing is that it wasn't always this way. Frankly the site and people on it have changed a lot.

When it first got started, Sword Forum literally was a bunch of guys with little to no training doing cutting in their back yards with the best swords they could get their hands on. These were generally Deltin or Arms & Armor pieces that cost around $300-500. Maybe some Museum Replicas Limited swords snuck in, but back then they were just a Deltin distributor. A lot of the early days were spent explaining how to discern what was a quality sword, how to build a good pell, and how to do backyard cutting safely.

Now? Well to be honest the quality of affordable swords has improved and the quantity of instruction has increased in many areas. But most people still don't have qualified instructors close to them. Modern performance swords are also more fragile than the beaters of yore and much less forgiving.

Frankly, none of these things are a good reason to treat people like crap. SwordForumites have been known to do that. If someone comes in asking questions, the thing to do is give them answers, not tell them to use the search function and close their thread. Which is why this makes this statement from Paul Southern makes me feel good:

Since a lot of beginners tend to get shot down or mocked at SFI for posting or asking questions about entry level swords, I am planning to introduce my own forum for beginners and intermediate sword enthusiasts within the next couple of month - so watch this space!

Good for you Paul!

Cutting Vids

Cutting with a sword is trickier than you'd think. Just making a clean cut in the first place is hard. If you do it wrong, then typically your cut is messy or you just bang things around. Unfortunately I'm not very good at it and usually things go flying even with a "good" cut.

But this guy is amazing. Some of his cuts are so clean that the top and bottom of his targets stay together after he has cut them in half. Wow.

UPDATE: More Tameshigiri (mat cutting) from James Williams. His first and second vids imply he is using Bugei swords.

Diet Beverage of Choice

Sleeping in a bit too much this morning meant hitting Quizno's for lunch with coworkers instead of packing my own. I drank a diet Mountain Dew with my Turkey Bacon Club. I know what you're thinking, you'd rather have diet crab juice.

It occured to me that Diet Mountain Dew is a great concept. The soda has no calories to speak of and the shakes you get from all the caffeine are bound to burn some off. A negative calorie beverage! Brilliant!

Episcopaganism

In another example of life becoming Scrappleface, Episcopal Priest Ann Holmes Redding is also a practicing Muslim. Redding says she's fine with it because:

Redding doesn't feel she has to resolve all the contradictions. People within one religion can't even agree on all the details, she said. "So why would I spend time to try to reconcile all of Christian belief with all of Islam?

I find it sad that she considers theological points like the divinity of Christ, a key point of Christian doctrine absolutely denied by Islam, a minor point of contention and unimportant to her faith. I find it even sadder that her Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, doesn't have a problem with this either.

Unfortunately this sort of syncretism seems to be growing more and more commonplace with Episcopalians. GetReligion has noticed these sorts of trends within the Episcopal Church USA before. The last major shake-up was with Bill Melnyk and his wife Glyn Ruppe-Melnyk, both of whom are Episcopal priests and practicing druids. Melnyk moonlighted as the druid priest Oakwyse and Ruppe-Melnyk moonlighted as Glispa. Ruppe-Melnyk also incorporated feminist perspectives in accepted Episcopalian liturgy that turned out to be thinly veiled pagan rites.

Via Mark Steyn through Instapundit.

Sword Reviews

Sword Buyers Guide is an interesting site I stumbled across looking for reviews of Cheness Katanas. SBG focuses on finding good quality swords for under $300. The site is divided into sections like European, Mid-eastern, Japanese, Chinese which provide sword reviews for competing weapons in a given style. The $300 limit is a nice touch since many of the other sword enthusiast sites (like MyArmoury and Swordforum) have migrated to higher priced blades.

I found the Japanese section to be really handy with all the new katana makers that are coming onto the market. Previously, your choice for inexpensive katanas was between Kris Cutlery and Hanwei Forge produced swords. In the last couple of years, several new competitors have come onto the market including Cheness, Last Legend, and Oni Forge.

I must say that after doing my research, those Cheness swords look like great buys. Maybe I'll pick one up once I have a backyard I could use for cutting practice.

Free RPG Day

Since there is a healthy bit of overlap between RPGers and comic book readers, I suppose the advent Free RPG Day is not exactly a surprise. Still, Days of Knights in Newark will be participating in the event this Saturday, June 23rd.

Michael Yon

He's been doing really good work lately. His series "Death or Glory" (Parts I, II, III, IV) with the Queen's Royal Lancers on the Iranian border is good to excellent. Now he says that a major battle is brewing. I'll keep my eyes and ears open.

Silver Surfer

Scott Kurtz loved it, but Hube's review is far more mixed. Hube also has spoilers so beware. I still want to see it, although at only 92 minutes of run time I might head for a matinee.

Star Travel

Science Fiction author Charlie Stross explains the difficulties of interstellar travel and the possibilities of interplanetary travel. The standard star-faring colonization tropes don't look good in the light of our current understanding of physics.

Interplanetary travel is possible, but likely to be quite expensive. However Stross speculates that the more important point behind planetary travel will not be the "how", but the "why" of it. Stross quotes Bruce Sterling:

I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach. Nobody ever writes "Gobi Desert Opera" because, well, it's just kind of plonkingly obvious that there's no good reason to go there and live. It's ugly, it's inhospitable and there's no way to make it pay. Mars is just the same, really. We just romanticize it because it's so hard to reach.

He largely poo-poos arguments like manifest destiny and making man immortal among the stars. Honestly, I don't think these are concepts we can just hand-wave away. Stross dismisses them because he can't see people investing in endeavors they can never personally benefit from. I disagree. For centuries people have done things, like the global explorers of centuries past or the environmentalists of today, which benefit them little but benefit coming generations greatly. I've heard that the Japanese have 100 year mortgages in some areas. Mortgages that they take knowing they will never be able to repay. I don't think Stross understands human nature as well as he thinks he does.

I can foresee a future where the Earth may be vulnerable to a mass cataclysm. For the first time ever, we have cheap and easy global travel and communications. This means that diseases can spread incredibly fast, potentially faster than we can react. It also means that ideas can spread incredibly fast and, as the world grows smaller, ideological diversity may shrink as well. This means that the entire world may be open to a social cataclysm similar to the coming demographic collapse of Europe. Given that kind of situation, interplanetary colonization might be a good idea.

Perhaps I'll Rename This Blog Latveria

Your results:

You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 51% Mr. Freeze 43% The Joker 39% Magneto 37% Dark Phoenix 34% Lex Luthor 33% Mystique 30% Kingpin 30% Venom 29% Apocalypse 28% Green Goblin 26% Catwoman 24% Riddler 22% Juggernaut 22% Poison Ivy 15% Two-Face 6%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

Via Jokers to the Right

Scoping Out Scopes

So yesterday I mentioned that I'd love to buy a bunch of swords. Well really that's just the tip of the wish iceberg for me. I want some new gun toys too, like a nice rifle scope. Or even a crappy rifle scope since nice rifle scopes cost thousands of dollars.

After a few trips to the range with my AR-15, I've realized that I really want scope that rifle. The iron sights on the rifle are good, but unfortunately my eyes aren't. I can't see the .223 caliber holes in my targets at 25 meters without resorting to binoculars. Not a problem because I have binoculars. But I also suck with irons because fundamentally I can't see exactly what I'm shooting at. I know, I know, I should learn to use them anyway.

So I'd like a good scope, something compact to put on my ARs flattop with magnification around 4x to 6x. The Trijicon ACOG is the traditional scope to throw on an AR-15 that fits this spec. Unfortunately they run about a thousand dollars. To put that into perspective, I built my entire AR-15 for less than that. Now true rifle aficionados consider a good scope to be something akin to the rifle's brother. Like proud papas they love both and proudly proclaim that you should spend equal amounts of money on both of your children. I'm not that guy. I think of a scope as an important rifle accessory. I mean I have iron sights already, even if I suck with them. So I want to go cheaper.

And there are cheaper options of course. I especially like the IOR Valdada M2. German glass put together by a company that used to make sniper scopes for the Russians. Range finding reticle. Rugged. Kind of compact. Cool. But I'm still looking at $400 of the money I should be using on the house Amy and I are buying. Well crap.

This has me looking at the lower tier again. My research indicates I have basically two options for generally good scopes in the ~100 range:

1. The Leapers T168. This is a relatively compact scope, has lots of bells and whistles, is designed to mount on an AR-15 in various ways, is 6x power, and can be had for about $45. Not bad. People generally seem to like them even though Leapers has an awful reputation in scopes.
2. The Hakko 4x21 carry handle scope. This is smaller, probably lighter, and has good features which include Bullet-Drop Compensator range adjustments. Hakko is a more reputable manufacturer, but unfortunately the scope costs more and I'd need to get an adapter to put it on my flat-top.

I'm currently in the mulling stage. I imagine I will continue to mull into one of these is no longer on sale and I buy the other one. Or maybe someone will get me either one as a housewarming gift. After all what could be more appropriate than equipment to protect said home from marauding Visigoth warriors or stray Jehovah's Witnesses?

Inside a CZ75

Dr. StrangeGun has a pictoral showing the various internals of his CZ75 compact. Interesting stuff. These are similar to most guns that use a Browning short-recoil action, like my own Hipower.

The Problem of Modernism

One of my former colleagues has an interesting definition for "tradition." He called them "solutions to problems we have forgotten." One of the great problems with Modernism is that it is a philosophical system which deliberately has no memory. Unfortunately, Liberalism in its current incarnation is a strong adherent to this particular philosophy.

Recently, this flaw has been trotted out for all to see in the legal debate over the 2nd Amendment. Many scholars for and against private gun ownership have realized that the collective rights interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is has no clothes. Firearms ownership ought to be an individual right under the 2nd. Which, as people like Benjamin Wittes point out, is why we need to get rid of the 2nd Amendment entirely.

Kim du Toit responds to Wittes with his usual vitriol. Along with his invective, Kim points out that the whole purpose of the 2nd was to defend citizens against the tyranny of their own government. Perhaps if Bush actually were the tyrant the left accuses him of being, they might remember the growing affection they were developing for the 2nd amendment in Bush's first term.

The Sword Makes the Hero

A teenage karate student defended his Hialeah, Florida home with his samurai sword after two thugs broke into his home. Damian Fernandez stabbed one of them in the chest and both thieves fled. The injured robber was captured where he was hiding down the street.

I don't know what type of samurai sword he used. Gizmodo says a katana, but the teenager recants his story with a wakazashi in the video clip. The shorter sword is a better one for indoors work, although both would work well in a thrust.

It is kind of sobering to think that someone could be stabbed in the chest with a sword and still keep moving, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. The curvature of a samurai sword makes it a poor stabbing weapon and frankly lots of people take multiple bullets to the chest before they go down.

One of these days I'll pick up a katana and wakazashi to go with my european long sword. Kris Cutlery makes a good product that isn't so expensive I would feel bad using it on milk jugs and soda bottles. A gladius would be a nice addition to my collection as well. But as always, I need to pace myself. Perhaps it is time to make another wish list.

Where in the World is Middle Earth?

Via Paul Smith, how the geography of Middle Earth relates to the geography of Europe. It's a neat idea, but after looking at Tolkien's map, it isn't quite right. The major cardinal directions don't line up and, more importantly, several mountain ranges don't intersect in the right places. So while you can get Conan the Barbarians Hyborea by sinking land and raising seas, I don't think you can do it as easily with Middle Earth.

Grrrr

Instapundit's Porkbusters Update put my dander up:

Rep. David Obey says that there's not time to look at the 36,000 earmark requests in the House.

Gah! If you don't have time to read them and give them some thought, then why are you moving forward with them at all? Why are you spending money if you don't know what you're spending it on? Sometimes the proper thing to do is nothing.

Not that I think Porkbusters is necessarily the answer. Hey, lets get a bunch of libertarians together to decide what the government really needs to spend money on. Department of Education? Pork. Department of Defense? Just bring back the militia system! Department of Justice? Non-governmental arbitration is much more efficient anyway... Federal Reserve? Laissez-Faire!

I remember looking at the list of "pork" they compiled from the 2005 Transportation Bill. The Delaware list included biking trails and some other projects of admittedly questionable worth. But most of the money was for major highway projects like reworking the I-95 & Rt. 1 interchange by the Christiana Mall. Ever tried going through that area on a Sunday afternoon during the summer? You could walk home faster. We're talking about an interchange on an interstate highway that sees huge amounts of interstate vehicle traffic from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. How was this pork?

Crash Test Videos

Consumer Reports is hosting a pretty comprehensive collection of crash test videos. These are mostly tests from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and include both the frontal offset and some side impact tests. They had my current car, a Mazda Protege, and noted that it didn't fare particularly well. Oh well.

HT: John Scalzi

Science and Religion

Ryan has a great take on the divide between science and religion. He includes good insights like this one:

Everyone interprets the Bible. Most of the fundamentalists, the ones that say the Earth is 6,000 years old or so, don’t think that Christ literally meant ‘this is my Body,’ and Catholics generally think the inverse.

I've always considered the Science vs. Religion dichotomy to be a false one. Science is natural philosophy. Religion is essentially supernatural philosophy. Trying to apply one to the other seems like a venture fraught with problems.

Jeep Go Boom

As Autoblog aptly notes, this is why Jeeps have rollbars.

Split Votes

Instapundit recently described police support for concealed carry reform as "split." That's very true, but unfortunately it is actually an improvement from the past.

Most official opinions on the subject that show up in papers are written by either high mugwumps in the Fraternal Order of Police or by grand poobahs of major metropolitan police departments. The first are Democrats because they are union leadership. The second are Democrats because they're involved with government in major metropolitan areas. Since they are Democrats, they almost always take the anti side of the debate. It is only after the law passes and the state doesn't turn into Dodge City that they sheepishly admit they were wrong.

Mansion Arrest

Paris Hilton was released from prison after only 3 days in jail. She'll be put on house arrest for 40 days because unspecified medical issues. The LA Sheriff's Office really showed everyone that there is equal treatment under the law, didn't they?

UPDATE: Huh the system does work, who knew?

Have a Happy D-Day

Good men died so that you could. To quote Reagan:

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Dale Franks recounts what happened 53 years ago today.

Conversion Stories

Happy Catholic recounts the story of Sci-Fi writer John C. Wright's conversion originally published in a Sci-Fi Weekly interview. Wright seems to be a pretty wordy guy, which isn't a bad trait for a writer, so I'm not going to re-recount it. Wright also blogs on Live Journal.

Nostalgia for Nothing

A meme Tamara is planning to spread asks bloggers to look at the top songs from the year they turned 18 and then wax nostalgic about how great those songs were.

I turned 18 in 1995. All my songs suck. I checked. Boyz II Men, TLC, and Mariah Carey? Color me apathetic. It's the mid-nineties, shouldn't there be some grunge alterna-rock in there somewhere?

Priceless Clarkson

Britain's Top Gear is perhaps the best car show ever and Jeremy Clarkson is the reason why. The Times Online has a list of his top twelve car quips, complete with links to the reviews. They're calling it his "dirty dozen." Here is a bit of what he thinks of the Kia Rio:

You may have seen The Fly II, in which a scientist attempts to teleport a dog. In one of the most gruesome scenes I've seen in a film it arrives at its destination completely inside out. Well the Rio is uglier than that. Inside, things get worse.

Go read and enjoy.

Business Casual Kicks

For work wear, I normally rotate my shoes between a pair of black Red Wing oxfords and a pair of ankle-high Timberlands that are similarly styled. The Timberlands keep my feet dry stomping across the poorly-drained pock-marked parking lots at work. The Red Wings are just good solid shoes that I've worn for over five years. That's one pair for over five years. They're good and tough those Red Wings. Unfortunately they're also worn out. Neither pair of shoes has any tread left and the uppers on the oxfords, while still structurally sound, have definitely looked better.

Their replacement, a pair of black Timberland Stormbuck Oxfords came on Thursday. I hate ordering shoes without trying them on. Fortunately, even though the Christiana Macy's didn't have my size in stock, they did have enough shoes to tell what my size is. Doesn't fit, next, doesn't fit, next... After that it was back to the internet.

These shoes are practically perfect. They're black to match my normal belts, etc. They're suede so I don't ever need to polish them (unlike my Red Wings). They're waterproof for bad weather. They're fairly economical. They look pretty good and they're also very comfortable. The only bad thing is that the insoles aren't removeable. Frankly that's something I can live with since they'll probably be up for replacement before a worn-out insole really bugs me.

Writing Troubles

I was reading Hugh Hewitt's latest piece on Town Hall and I was really struck by this sentence:

Senator Brownback, Governor Huckabee, and Congressman Hunter are fine men and serious public servants, but if you can’t get over 10% in even one state poll from among the first four states in which contests will be held –Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina—you shouldn’t be in the first tier, and only the first tier should be taking up prime time in the months ahead.

Now is it just me or is that sentence a mess? It's like some sort of prepositional pileup with commas and additional punctuation that adds nothing to clarity. Good Lord man, list one thing at a time.

Oh and Hugh likes Romney and Rudy in the primaries. He thinks McCain has too much baggage. He thinks Thompson lacks both commitment and long term appeal to the general populace, especially the blue staters. Maybe he's right. But I live in a Blue State and I wouldn't vote for Romney or Rudy unless the only other option was the devil herself. Which looks increasingly likely.

Anyway back to some of my posts that have been sitting in the old writing queue forever.

Start the Happy Dance

Fred Thompson is announced he would begin his campaign for President in July. Right now he's setting up the organization he needs to do it. This should be fun.

UPDATE: Professor Bainbridge has a list of good reasons to like Thompson. Besides enjoying the fact that Fred annoys Dobson, he also lists Thompson's cigar smoking as a plus. Maybe, but the last time a president's use of cigars came up in major public discourse, I seem to recall it being less than positive. But then again Fred only smokes his.

Iraqi Reporting

JD Johannes confirms Michael Yon's reporting that there is a major turnaround occurring in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. The Sunnis in several towns are fighting back against the Sunni Insurgency and winning. For the time being, this is a good thing. He also says something very intelligent.

When I get home in a few weeks people will ask me, "how's Iraq?"

I will tell them, "I don't know, but I can tell you about the areas that I saw first hand and spent a few weeks living in."

Each area of operation is different. Khalidiyah is only 35 kilometers from Kharma and Kharma is only 33 kilometers from West Rasheed, Baghdad, but they are nothing alike.

Anyone who says they can speak with definitive knowledge about all of Iraq is a fool or a liar or both.

A person with definitive knowledge of Iraq would have to discuss the situation in terms of 4 or more general areas of operation and then break those down even more to Battalion by Battalion areas.

Even then, the information he knows may soon be out of date.

Frankly, it may be possible to get a current wide-ranging picture of what is going on, but it isn't easy. What you have to do is sit a whole lot of people like JD down and have them talk about their individual areas. Hopefully the military is doing this through their reporting processes.

The Virus Spreads

Despite higher pay than the members of the UAW last year, there are rumblings of unionization at Toyota's Kentucky assembly plant. I suppose I shouldn't blame the workers too much themselves, they are almost certainly on the receiving end of a lot of FUD from the UAW. The union is well aware that domestic auto sales have been shrinking and their representation in the marketplace has been dropping with it. As a result, they have been trying to break into the non-domestics for several years now without much success.

Purple Haze...

Ever have the feeling that you're not firing on all cylinders? My day has been like that so far. Four day weekends are great, don't get me wrong, but they play hell with my sleep cycle when it comes time to go back to work. Morning came too early and my normal doses of caffeine just don't seem to cut it.

UPDATE: Some generous soul brought in fudge brownies. Refined sugar is currently putting pep in my step. I should crash and be ready for a nap just in time for my regular teleconference.

Memorial Day Regulars

So it's Memorial Day and every chat show I switched on this morning had advice about women's bathing suits. They would trot out these models in a "variety of body types" and give advice on what they should wear to the beach. Of course all the models essentially have the same body type - tall and skinny. Because they're swimsuit models. And they all looked great in bikinis.

If you're going to do one of these shows, why not grab some people that might plausibly look like your viewership? You know someone that isn't 18 with single digit body fat percentages.

Happy Anniversary to Me

Amybear and I were married one year ago today. One year down, many more to go...

I must say that getting married on Memorial Day has its advantages. Not only is it difficult to forget that your anniversary is coming, but we're probably going to get have the day off about half the time.

Innovations in Steam Power

Bruce Crower has an interesting idea for a six stroke engine that uses both gasoline and steam. His motor uses the standard four strokes of a modern gasoline engine, but adds two more steam strokes in an attempt to scavenge more useful work from the engines waste heat. On the fifth stroke, he injects water into the cylinder which then flashes to steam upon contact with the hot metal. The sixth stroke exhausts the steam to a condenser track where it would be reused.

The problems? Well flashing water to steam using the surfaces in the cylinder sounds like a bad idea to me. It just seems like a good way to promote oxidation and corrosion. More importantly though, you're unlikely to get a perfect scavenge from the transitions between the gasoline and steam cycles. This means the steam stroke is going to pickup exhaust components from the gasoline cycle and vice versa. The steam side will need to try to filter these components out or they'll break down and cause problems. Having a little steam in the fuel to air mixture probably won't cause too much trouble but you can't run a closed steam system if you are constantly exhausting steam like that.

If you wanted to do a gas-steam hybrid, you probably want to use the coolant and exhaust systems of the internal combustion engine to provide heat instead of going directly for the combustion chamber itself. Then use a separate steam motor to keep the loop closed. But of course then you run into problems with the additional weight of a motor, etc.

Open Carry

These kids are unusual, but I think I like it. I may have to purchase a good holster and open carry more. I'm sure Amy will love that, but we would like to go for a walk after dark without having to worry the rising crime rate.

I really need to look into Delaware's open carry laws. Delaware passed a preemption in 1985, but all laws passed prior to that are still legal and binding. I've heard the City of Newark (along with Wilmington and Dover) is one of the places with such a law, but the municipal code seems to indicate problems with concealed carry and "threatening display." The problem is some jurisdictions have been known to regard a holstered weapon as a "threatening display." They don't usually don't get away with it for long given a legal challenge.

How Did I Miss It?

Jeep is taking their Wrangler JT concept to the SEMA show this year. The JT is a compact pickup variant based on the Wrangler Unlimited chassis. Autoblog has pictures of the concept vehicle.

Excellent move by Jeep. If they get the spare tire out of the bed and produce a diesel version, I'll buy one.

ACLU Partisanship

Wendy Kaminer, an attorney for FIRE and the Massachusetts ACLU, takes the ACLU to task for the strong leftward tack they have taken over the past several years. This revelation comes as no surprise to gun owners. The ACLU's Second Amendment stance is a collectivist one. They support gun registration and licensing and have been notably silent on gun confiscations and outright bans. For that matter when was the last time you saw the ACLU ride to the rescue of Evangelical Christians or College Republicans? I wouldn't hold my breath.

Cat Blogging Across Teh Internets

Evangelical Outpost is posting on cat macros also known as lolcats. I don't know from whence this trend came, but it just proves that cats are kooky, funny, animals. I think they are made all the funnier because, unlike dogs, cats have dignity.

Via Tamara, it's a seasonal adventure with a great pictorial payoff that still makes me glad Milo is a shorthair.

Over at Incoherent Ramblings, Risawn once more exposes the lie that is the "free" cat. Even if you don't adopt an animal with serious health problems like Ruth, you're still going to pay out the nose for quite a while if you care about the animals well-being. We adopted Milo for $80. Getting treatment for his ear mites and fleas, bringing his shots up to date, and then treating his urinary crystals probably cost us several hundred dollars. That isn't even looking at how much we've spent on kitty litter, toys, electronic food/water units, cat beds, etc. But he is a great cat and he's worth it.

The New Legalism

Because what is Pharisaical legalism, really, but self-help with bad p.r.?

That is probably the best, but not the only great quote one of the Thinklings examination of the failings of 21st century spirituality. Here is a bit more:

And people love this stuff. They want to be told religion is not about rules and regulations while at the same time being told each week which four steps (with helpful alliteration) they need to do in order to achieve maximum what-have-you. They want to be reassured that works don't merit salvation while at the same time convinced salvation is about trying really hard to do things that unlock the power or secret of God's such-and-such.

Christianity is aptly named because it isn't about me or you. It isn't about what we can do. It is about Jesus Christ. The Good News is not "be excellent to one another." That's Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It isn't "don't screw up" or even "preach boldly." The Gospel is that God loved you so much that created a way that your screw ups wouldn't matter. What does he ask for this? Just that you love him back. That's it. Love him back.

Dieting to Death

Instapundit is linking to criticism of Veganism by Nina Planck. The Vegans aren't happy. Cry me a river.

I'm willing to concede that it is possible to be a healthy Vegan. But I'm also willing to assert that it isn't that easy to do without taking dietary supplements that probably defeat the whole social message behind Veganism. I've seen some leading Vegan advocates that look awful. They had very little body fat, so they looked fit but their skin looked horrible. Not because of acne horrible, but mottled and unhealthy.

Flying in a B-25

The Collings Foundation brings WWII aircraft around to airshows. The prospect of getting a ride in a B-17 or B-25 seems like a lot of fun. Depending on the cost and when these things get around to the east coast, it might be nice to buy one of these things for my dad.

Now if only they had the Mosquito.

Why I Stopped Reading Papers

When a gunman opened fire in his bank, Chris Chappell ran to his car and got his Glock. As Chappell took a position outside the bank's front door to prevent the gunman's escape, the robber transitioned to murder by killing two tellers. Chappell kept the man from leaving the scene until police arrived.

Who does USA Today give top billing to? The cops of course. To them Chappell is little more than a witness. What utter crap.

Makes you wonder what else you don't hear about, doesn't it?

The Manly Cat

I must admit that when Amy and I first got Milo, I wasn't too sure about this whole cat owner deal. My family went through three dogs growing up and I had all ways been a dog person. Cats just seemed girlie to me.

Milo has done a lot to change my mind. There is something that is just cool about cats. Mostly I think it has to do with their killer instincts. Living with a cat is like living with the sniper of the animal kingdom. Milo was great when we had crickets last year. He'd just wait outside of that little crevice they were chirping from. Then he'd pounce on them repeatedly or bite them in half. Thankfully he didn't eat them and then barf them back up.

With dogs, you play very contrived games like fetch or tug or whatever. They're like your sloppy, slobbery buddy. Despite a working relationship with humans for millenia, cats show a blessed lack of this form of domestication. Sure Milo wants his belly rubbed or some good scratchings, but all the games I play with Milo are just variants on Kill It. What is that flittering bird-like thing? Orange furball must kill it! Is that a mouse? Feline fist of death! A big bug? I will Stalk It. Closer. Closer. Yes. Yes. Now kill it!

And that literary device about catlike reflexes? Really true. I've thrown something across the room only to have Milo streak out of dark recesses of my apartment and intercept it before it hit the ground. He's like Milo Cat, the Ginger Jedi.

All in all, Milo has proven the value and coolness of his entire species to me. Especially since his automatic feeder has now gotten him through the stage where he wakes me up at 5am every morning.

Scottish Games

I know that I mentioned them months ago, but this is just a reminder that the Fair Hill Scottish Games are tomorrow. I will be there with my kilt on. Yes it is supposed to rain, but it wouldn't be Scottish if the weather was warm and sunny now would it?

Carbon Debits

Carbon credits always seemed like poor idea to me. Recent comparisons to indulgences seem about right. You're essentially paying someone else to be extra ecologically friendly for you. Unless you're Al Gore. Then you're paying yourself to be ecologically friendly for you. I guess that is the advantage of being the EcoPope or whatever his job title is. Lord High Nutjob? Grand Gaian Poobah? Eh...

Which is what makes the Carbon Debit site funny. The only thing they missed is that after you fly to Arizona to cut down and shred a tree, you need to burn said tree in order to increase your carbon footprint even more.

Gay Marriage Across State Lines

Via Hugh Hewitt, a Massachusetts judge has ruled that the same-sex marriage of two New Yorkers is valid despite New York having a law that says it isn't. Hugh opines:

But clearly those who argued that the federal Defense of Marriage Act would stop the export of same-sex marriage were wrong, and that basis for opposing the Marriage Amendment revealed as threadbare.

I wouldn't go that far yet. As far as I can tell, this is a bad legal ruling. Not bad as in "I disagree" but bad from a point of law. The July 6, 2006 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals did not establish a marriage prohibition in the state of New York. Instead it upheld an existing same-sex marriage prohibition which would indicate all prior same-sex marriages were illegal.

To say that DOMA has proven insufficient is inaccurate since we have yet to see same-sex marriage enter a federal court where DOMA would apply. This may be the case if New York refuses to recognize the Massachusetts decision.

Classification Levels

Most people are aware of the US levels of classified information: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. An odd bit of trivial I discovered over lunch today is that the NATO levels are slightly different. NATO levels are generally marked the same as the US levels, but with "NATO" stuck in front of them. There is NATO Restricted, NATO Secret, etc. The only difference is that Top Secret becomes "Cosmic" Top Secret. Cosmic. That got some giggles around the lunch table.

Why Cosmic? What exactly does NATO have in those files? The current location of Galactus? Correspondence from the Vulcans or the Greys? Perhaps some NATO functionary just thought the name sounded cool after doing too much LDS in the sixties.

Gun Comedy

Clayton Cramer recounts the travails of an average guy buying lots of ammo at a local sporting goods store. His only problem is that he seems to live in the Bay Area of California.

WOMAN IN LINE (looking at the 10 boxes of ammo I'm carrying): I can't believe they let you just carry that through the store.
ME: Well, the last time I drove up to the ammo counter they told me to leave my car outside from now on.

I buy a lot of my bulk paper-punching ammo at Dick's. The prices are great and, unlike our unfortunately Bay Area resident, I hardly ever get any crap.

Like Athiests in Foxholes...

Ohio State Representative Michael DeBose (D) came to regret his vote against concealed carry reform when two armed men jumped out of a car and attempted to mug him a few feet from his home:

"I was wrong," he said Friday.

"I'm going to get a permit and so is my wife.

"I've changed my mind. You need a way to protect yourself and your family.

"I don't want to hurt anyone. But I never again want to be in the position where I'm approached by someone with a gun and I don't have one."

DeBose said he knows that a gun doesn't solve Cleveland's violence problem; it's merely a street equalizer.

Perhaps, but there is something to be said for equalizers. Even if criminals and citizens take equal losses, in most places you will run out of violent criminals long before you run out of honest men.

An Economics Primer

Sometimes the best way to tell the truth is with humor. So it is with the Geek's latest post:

Colleague: "Hey, whats the definition of oligarchy?"

Me: "Government by the few and elite."

Colleague: "No. That's not the word I was looking for. What's the word for when the government owns everything?"

Me: "Um....that would be communism. You know, Marx, from each according to his means, to each according to his needs, workers of the world unite, the only thing you have to lose is all your stuff, er, chains, etc."

Colleague: "Oh, right. Of course." {mild laughter}

Me: "Classical Capitalism, on the other hand, the government owns nothing, except for some buildings, some ships for the navy, and a pile of cannons for the army."

Colleague: {Increased laughter}

Me: "Socialism is when the government owns only the stuff worth owning, leaving the unprofitable sectors for private ownership"

Colleague: {Yet more laughter}

Me: "And finally, we have modern capitalism, which is the inverse of my flawed description of socialism: the profitable sectors are privately owned, and the unprofitable sectors are government owned, necessitating a tax increase."

Colleague: {Full out incoherent laughter}

Jerry Falwell, Dead at 73

Falwell has gone to meet his maker. The really question is what his maker actually had to say to Jerry when he got there.

Hoons

This old Jalopnik poll has a pretty impressive list of people doing silly/stupid stunts with various vehicles including bigwheels and powerwheels. I've linked to some of them before, like the Geo Storm that didn't quite emerge from a snow bank in one piece. But they're still funny anyway.

Website Blocking

Hmm... well, I can still see youTube and Photobucket. I wonder how long that will last?

Automotive Divorce

Well we have a Big Three again. Daimler-Chrysler has split into Daimler and Chrysler. Early reports indicate that Daimler was unsatisfied with Chrysler's *ahem* inability to perform. Chrysler was sick of being routinely abused by its partner.

No word on who gets the house corporate headquarters, but it appears Daimler will keep most of the debt.

Ranger Isn't Leading the Way

I have a soft spot for the Ford Ranger. I don't need or want a full-size pickup. Midsize pickups seem to have most of the large truck's negatives, like gas mileage and crappy ride, with few of the positives, like power and hauling capacity. Which leaves me with compacts. Which leaves the Ranger because there isn't anything else.

Unfortunately, Ford hasn't updated the Ranger in forever. This is good in that the bugs are worked out and the truck is cheap. People with over 150,000 miles on their Ranger are common and lots of people have a quarter of million on them. It is bad in that they don't seem to know where to go next. Autoblog has suggestions. I agree with the main theme of their suggestions: keep the truck small.

Outside the US, Ford sells a new model Ranger. It's a larger truck with diesel engine options that might do well here in the states. But it would also steal sales from the F150 which Ford doesn't want. Autoblog's idea of an Escape derived Ranger is kind of interesting. It makes the "truck" really compact and with the hybrid engine, it might get some new customers. And it's too small for comparison to the F150 which they want.

I-95 Construction

For every living in Newark (like me) and commuting to Wilmington (thankfully not like me), the coming road work on I95 is going to be a big deal. In the short term the commute north is probably going to suck, but hopefully the long term effect will be to alleviate most of the trouble through Churchman's Marsh and the Rt. 7 interchange by Christiana Mall. Here's hoping.

Deldot has a website for the Fifth Lane Project. Unfortunately it sucks. I have a PDF brochure that has more details and was ironically made by Deldot, but unfortunately I have nowhere to host it.

Fred Thompson

I have to second Miss Anonymous: Just Run Already, Dammit!

I spent some time this weekend reading through Fred's archives over at Townhall, and I'm finding a lot to like. Compare that to Rudy or McCain. I think I loathe them more every day.

Two Beers?

From LawDog's latest and greatest:

I want to see the two beers that can give a 270 pound man a BAC of 0.27%.

Seriously. Do they come in buckets, or what? Is there a secret non-cop beer mug measured in gallons behind the bar?

Kitten or Husband?

For this woman it wasn't such an easy question...

The Mac Beard

Tired of your make looking wimpy and fruity? Are your PCs mocking it incessantly? Get the VictorSystems Ruggedized Mac Mini.

The problem with this thing is that it's a fashion statement. Not only does the military generally use PCs, but field computers are ruggedized laptops because they're actually portable and you're in the field. They don't use a multicomponent system that has lots of pieces for GI Joe to lose and also weighs twenty pounds without the printer. And of course underneath all that armor is a commercial grade circuit board which isn't particular shock resistant in the first place.

Zombie Squad

Are you worried about shambling masses of the walking dead? Zombie Squad is here to help. Not only do they have useful targets for practicing those all important brain shots, but they have suggestions for creating a bug-out bag and other useful gear for the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse.

For some reason they also have information to help people get through tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Yeah, like those are going to happen in this modern age.

Hate Crimes

Anna Venger is discussing hate crimes and protected classes of citizens:

So why is it more wrong to hurt certain classes of people than others? Isn’t it just wrong to hurt people? Period?

Obviously, some groups of people are more favored than others in the eyes of certain members of Congress. For example, some Republicans had tried to include additional classes of citizens—children, members of the military, the elderly, the homeless—but their attempts were shot down. So sexual identity gets a pass, but children and the elderly don’t. I guess all people are equal, but some are more equal than others.

I'm not a big fan of hate crime law. I fail to see why killing a man for being gay is worse than killing a man for, say, wearing a colored T-shirt in the wrong gang's neighborhood. Or for having the wrong skin color. Why should some people be more equal in the eyes of the law than others?

I have a bigger problem with it because judging hate crimes is almost always a matter of judging intent of the perpetrator. I think courts can do a great job at judging a person's actions. "Your Honor, the forensic findings show that it was Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Candlestick." I can handle that. But judging what is going on inside someone's head is something else. I don't trust courts to read minds.

And that isn't even touching on "hate speech" which has magically turned citizens free expression rights on their heads.

Official Directives

As an employee of the US Army, I have been given strict instruction not to comment on stories like this one. Frankly I'm really surprised that the EOD officer was even allowed to talk to the press like that, even blogger press like Pajamas Media.

Holding a Pistol

Thanks to Tamara for linking to this Google TV clip of competitive shooter Todd Jarrett teaching handgun technique. He specifically focuses on grip which really is the place to start. I have to admit that this isn't how I hold a handgun, but since I don't have a beavertail 1911 that might not be a bad thing.

Movie Reviews

Hube has a review of Spiderman 3 at Colossus. Be forewarned, he gives spoilers. Amybear and I rented a couple of movies for the first time in a while, here were our perceptions.

Marie Antoinette

Kirsten Dunst is cute, but frankly the movie is boring and neither of us really liked it. Marie is shown as the ultimate spoiled rich girl who is ignorant of just how spoiled she really is. For most of her early years she is lonely even with the eyes of the entire nation upon her. Finally that nation just falls apart. Initially I had some sympathy for her, but it faded as the movie ground along and was replaced with a desire to do something more fun in another room. Like read an encyclopedia article on Marie Antoinette.

Flyboys

This is a film about the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, Americans who flew for France prior to the US entering the First World War. While most the main characters are based on historic figures, the film generally has the historical accuracy of Snoopy and the Red Baron. The uneven historical accuracy of the movie generally reflects the unevenness of the film as a whole.

The aerial dogfight scenes were quite enjoyable, if not exactly accurate. Lots of pilots don't make it home which is good. Unfortunately everything else was forgettable or poorly constructed. Why did James Franco's character need a romantic interest? Why did everyone who survived the movie live through the war? Some of the characterizations were good and the fight scenes were enjoyable, but they should have just stuck to making a war movie. Don't try to make Flyboys a war movie and a romance and something else. It winds up being both too much of too little.

Delaware Wind Farming

The Volokh Conspiracy is covering effort to construct a large windfarm off the Delaware coast near Bethany or Rehoboth:

As the Delaware shore is where many Beltway-types spend their weekends during the summer, this could be a real test of Washington's willingness to promote — or even allow — alternative energy sources.

Honestly I think efforts to get this off the ground will involve not only politicos in Washington but also our own politicians in Dover. I have to wonder what kind of problems the Delaware Coastal Zone Act is going cause. It was already used to scuttle New Jersey's plan for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) pier in the Delaware River. Would a windfarm be considered Heavy Industry and if so wouldn't it be prohibited under the terms of the Coastal Zone Act?

Not that particularly like the Coastal Zone Act. The current wording of the Act essentially prohibit any redevelopment along the Delaware waterfront for industrial use. I don't consider this a good thing. We're killing off coastal industry through unreplaced attrition. Reforming the law to allow new industry to occupy old sites is a good idea.

Cross posted on the DCBA Blog.

Splitting Time

For the next couple of weeks I'll be guest blogging here and on John the Methodist's Locusts and Honey blog while he is away on training. Any suggestions on how I can make those heathens see the true light of Christ are certainly welcome.

Young Life Fundraisers

Town Hall blogger Mary Katherine Ham will be biking 100 miles this week to raise money for Young Life.

I will be putting my butt on a bicycle seat every day this week in order to ride 100 miles, so that you guys will consider my feat of exercise worthy enough to toss me a few bucks.

Why? Because I'm a Young Life leader with a bunch of high-school girls who would LOVE to go to Young Life camp this summer at Lake Champion for a week. But they're gonna need some money

Her post gives details on both her Young Life ministry (along with guilt arousing pictures) and how give her support.

LOL Trek

The reference to the Trouble with Tribbles DS9 episode really did it for me. Via Tam.

Not Exactly Scripture

But Terreal Bierria's statement is probably more biblical than "God helps those who help themselves" or many other forms of pseudo-scripture.

When I was in college we had a shorthand for such sayings, we called them quotations from 1st Hesitations.

Mental Illness

Bernard Harcourt is examining the relationship between institutionalizing the mentally ill and the overall homicide rate over at the Volokh Conspiracy. His first post contains a pretty amazing graph demonstrating correlation between the two. The second builds on the first.

It has also come to my attention that some states do not tie their mental health records into their firearms background check systems, nor do they support the FBI's attempts to do the same with the Federal system. I realize that they do this out of concern for the privacy of others. But that doesn't make it a good idea. If someone has been adjudicated to be a danger to themselves and others, then the public has a right to know. The public is "and others." I don't want crazy people or convicted criminals to have legal access to weaponry.

Wow me supporting a gun control measure, who'd have thunk it?

The Last Stand

Fun stuff found via John the Methodist. Shoot zombies, fortify your position, find survivors, shoot more zombies! Wonderful, but a bit short and easy.

A Page 18 Story

Former Tennessee Senator Bill Frist has been exonerated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York. Neither are filing charges against him for his sale of HCA, Inc. stock. Accusations against Frist were front page news. His exoneration? It doesn't even make the back page of the New York Times.

I have to wonder what is happening with Curt Weldon. Weldon lost his congressional race in Pennsylvania largely due to lobbying scandals involving family members. I haven't heard much about him since, except that he has paid out over $100k in legal fees on his defense. My parents were in his district and we were hesitant to vote against Weldon. He had an excellent record working for the district and we were all pretty sure the charges against him would disappear once they were no longer politically expedient.

Darth Vader's Car

Leave it to German manufacturer Maybach to make a car for the truly evil, the Excelero.