Be Your Own Bowyer

While I was out buying John Wright's Fugitives of Chaos, I finally paged through a copy of the Dangerous Book for Boys. Instapundit has been hyping it for quite some time. It looks like a really fun book. One chapter which caught my eye was building your own bow. This sounds like a fun idea. To the Internet!

It turns out that bow plans are widely available. The US Army Survival Field Manual has simple instructions for building a field expedient bow. Vintage Projects has more detailed plans for everything from simple flat bows to traditional long bows. I especially like the repeating crossbow on their site. It's perfect for surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.

Best of all, doing this stuff isn't expensive. Like many building projects, you just need time. Sam Harper has walk throughs for building bows from items available any Home Depot or Lowes. He even gives you great illustrations, although his spelling could use work. Similar advice can be found at the Bowyers Den.

Now if only I had a lot of time on my hands... Maybe I'll get around to finishing this after I complete that chain maille shirt I started back when Amy and I were long distance.

John Wright's Chaos books are great by the way. Or at least the first two are. I'll be picking up the last one when it comes out in paperback soon. I started reading his Everness stories and its patchier in its execution.

UPDATE: I have discovered the downside of bow-making, arrows are actually the expensive part of the equation. I thought modern arrows would be fairly cheap. They're just extruded lengths of aluminum rod with some cast or molded plastic parts glued or screwed on. I don't know why they're so expensive unless it has to do with production volume and durability. Take the demand curve of .30-30 ammo, then make everyone a reloader, and I suppose you would get something similar with firearms.

Bright College Days

From a new shooter report by Kim du Toit:

Herr Mayer insisted on retaining his shot-up target silouette, which he says he will proudly hang on his wall back in Munich (no doubt to the consternation of his friends and family).

While I was in college, my brother took me shooting with his Saiga 12 gauge. I put a fair amount of shot downrange and kept my silhouette. Not only was it peppered with birdshot, but the shot cups had torn gaping holes through the chest and neck of the target. It looked impressive. I hung it on my dorm room wall. I lived on a men's floor and everyone thought it was awesome.

Now I went to school at the University of Delaware in the late 1990s. Back when I was a student, the university was using Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship dollars to hammer home the idea that drugs and especially alcohol were bad, m'kay. And that worked really well. I mean I only drank from that bottle of Scotch in my room on rare occasions. And I would never have dreamed of downing a Killian's or Bass Ale in an underage friend's room. Not unless it was her beer of course. Really. Honest Injun.

I have to wonder if posting a target on my dorm wall today would result in something other than my floor mates thinking I was a bad ass. Would I be accused of a hate crime? Would I be sent to the re-education camps? I don't know. It bothers me to think that I might be treated more harshly today than all my pothead neighbors were back then.

Counter-Spin

QandO is discussing a CNN piece on steroid use in professional wrestling. Dale Franks examines two versions of a statement by John Cena.

The first youtube feed is as aired by CNN and essentially says, "You can't prove it and I'll pass every test you give me." The second is raw footage taped independently by the WWE. In it Cena essentially states, "No, I have never taken performance enhancing drugs. I hate that people allege that I have or others have, simply because we excel. You can't prove it and I'll pass every test you give me. But the allegation will still remain and stain my achievements."

Big difference no? Makes you wonder what other stories they've doctored, doesn't it? Or to use Cena's own words in his WWE.com interview:

This is a one-hour documentary on wrestling and as much as I like to think the world revolves around WWE because I’m so proud of what I do, there are bigger fish to fry out there like the war in Iraq, the presidential race, et cetera, et cetera. And if they’re messing with my quote for an hour documentary just to get the point across that they want the viewing public to think that we’re all on drugs, I can only imagine what [else] they’ve done.

CNN.com was my homepage. I’d get pretty much what’s going on with the world on a daily update. I changed it immediately because now I just get the inkling that they may be telling me what they want me to hear.

The Unitarian Party

Eugene Volokh has brought to light an quote made by Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean to a Jewish group:

There are fundamental differences between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party believes that everybody in this room ought to be comfortable being an American Jew, not just an American; that there are no bars to heaven for anybody; that we are not a one-religion nation; and that no child or member of a football team ought to be able to cringe at the last line of a prayer before going onto the field.

Is proclaiming universal salvation something a political party should be doing? No, not really. By endorsing such an explicitly theological statement, aren't they destroying the atmosphere of religious neutrality they're trying to foster? Yes, probably. Does this show Howard Dean is a dumbass? Almost certainly.

Look I'm married to a Jew, so I get what Howard was trying to say with his pander to the important Jewish voting block. But once again he puts his foot in his mouth out of his own ignorance. His favorite New Testament book is Job after all. Maybe he doesn't really know or understand the implications of his statements. Again. I wouldn't be surprise if the Democrats quickly made a statement to bury this gaff as quickly as possible.

250cc's of Fun

I was surprised to see that Kawasaki is bringing out a new version of it's venerable Ninja 250 for 2008. The old Ninjette has been in continuous production with few changes since the late 1980s. The new one will see improved suspension, brakes, and tires. The outstanding fuel economy will stay about the same and it will still cost less than four grand buy one. Alas, I will still have to ogle it from afar.

I Know Something You Don't Know

In my required workplace leadership training, we did an exercise called the Johari Window. While it sounds like some form of eastern transcendental meditation, it is actually a simple diagram meant to emphasize concepts in interpersonal relationships. One of them is that sometimes other people know you better than you know yourself.

An example of this blind spot is a quote from Daily Show writer Rachel Axler's New York Times article about the travails of the current writers strike:

A man in a suit passes by. He yells, “I hope you all get fired!”

Look — this is weird for us, too, you know. Writers are not a naturally combative species. We’re used to sitting in front of our computers and crying. Fresh air is like poison to us. If protocol didn’t dictate otherwise, it’s very likely we would never wear pants. But we’ve given up our salaries and our jobs — easily the only jobs we’re qualified for — to stand outside and yell at people. So, for the sake of decency, could you please not yell back?

I don't know about you, but I've never found the Daily Show's mostly-political humor to be non-confrontational. Writer's aren't non-combative. They're just passive-aggressive about it. They have that luxury because their words are being delivered by third parties like books or anchormen. But non-combative? Not by a long shot.

This principle is also why I'm skeptical about personality tests. These test what you know or think about yourself. So they're drawing conclusions based on a very subjective data set. They'll probably sound right to you, but whether they correct in an absolute sense is anyone's guess.

An aside, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the writers. Yes they probably deserve an increase in their residuals because the 1985 VHS deal was a poor one. But the WGA is requesting twice the current DVD residual (from ~0.36% to 0.72%) and an electronic media residual of 2.5%(!). The former is probably reasonable, but the latter is ridiculous. They also want jurisdiction over non-union programming like reality TV, animation, and the internet. Also unacceptable. Unions should have to work to unionize a field. When you consider that the other media unions will be making matching demands when their contracts are up, I don't find these demands acceptable.

Where are the Beam Sabers?

The Japanese version of Land Warrior is called "Gundam." You know, I would think a Japanese Soldier in a Mobile Suit would be taller.

Products I Don't Need

I give you the Little Wizard Bird Shot Detector, are hilarious:

Detect that elusive piece of shot before you're even close to eating it! ... It's a worthwhile investment in ducking that painful and embarrassing bite...

Ducking get it? The Little Wizard is what it sounds like, a miniature metal detector to find any pesky bird shot in your food before it finds your sensitive dental work. For some people I'm sure this is serious business, but I'm not one of them. Like most Americans, poultry's natural habitat is found in various grocery aisles.

Tam pointed out Tactical Grilling tools. They offer Grill aprons with MOLLE webbing for your spatula sheath or beer pouches. Fortunately they're currently made in Army ACUPAT so the grillmaster will still be easy to spot from a distance.

UPDATE: Amybear has been browsing Overstock.com. She thought the Chihuahua taco holders were funny, but the Hillary Clinton Nutcracker topped it.

Highland Sword Play

YouTube is great for finding clips and sometimes even whole episodes of your favorite TV shows. Even if they don't air in your country (like Top Gear did). But you can also find things on YouTube that you just couldn't get before. Like this simple video showing the basics of scottish highland swordplay:



You're never going to see that on TV or even commercial video. But it is mindboggling useful if you like playing with sharp pointy objects and want to develop your skills beyond "the pointy end goes in the other man."

Activism I Can Get Behind

From Jokers to the Right:

Saying he could no longer stand idly by while a vital part of American culture is lost forever, activist and Broadway producer Mel Brooks has founded a private nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the word "schmuck."

An emotional Brooks stopped short of kvetching at a schmuck fundraiser Monday.

"Schmuck is dying," a sober Brooks said during a 2,000-person rally held in his hometown of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Monday. "For many of us, saying 'schmuck' is a way of life. Yet when I walk down the street and see people behaving in foolish, pathetic, or otherwise schmucky ways, I hear only the words 'prick' and 'douche bag.' I just shake my head and think, 'I don't want to live in a world like this.'"

I like the word schmuck. It's Yiddish for "dick", both anatomically and figuratively. When I was getting to know Amybear's parents, words like schmutz and schmuck helped me bridge the cultural gap between this gentile and his in-laws to be. And for that I'm grateful.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

While I don't recall Angela Landsbury being "kinda hot", I was a huge fan of the Disney film when I was a little. I remember trying to use the corner of my bed to work traveling magic on at least one occasion. Generally it was when I was bored out of my mind after I had been sent to my room by my Mom.

Angela Landsbury was in her late forties when she made Bedknobs. She might have been slimmer and trimmer than when she was doing Murder She Wrote, but I don't recall her being especially either. Now when Landsbury made The Court Jester, that was a different story. She was 31 and really in her svelte leading lady years. I was amazed the first time I saw it in college. She didn't remind me of Jessica Fletcher at all.

Explaining Military Procurement

Chris Byrne explains some of the obscurities of military procurement. The conclusion he comes to is this:

So, our barrier to entry here is this: Is the value of changing the chambering away from 5.56 nato equal or greater than $6 billion dollars; and the difficulty of changing chamberings in the middle of a war.

For right now, the answer is clearly no, at least as far as our government is concerned. As I said above, most of the time, the 5.56 chambering is getting the job done; and governments will take "adequate most of the time" over $10 billion dollars" most any day.

Of course how he gets to that conclusion is the interesting bit.

The problem of replacing the M16 series of rifles is they're very difficult to beat by a decisive margin. The design is highly modifiable and therefore flexible to meet mission needs and new capabilities. In order to justify the cost of replacement, you'd need outperform the current rifle in some key metrics by a margin of 15% or 20%. That's pretty difficult.

Similarly, 5.56 isn't ideal for all conditions but it also hits the sweet spot in weight, cost, recoil, and lethality. I personally don't like current general issue M855 ammo. It is designed to penetrate body armor at range. Unfortunately, we sacrificed the wounding ability of the older M193 round to get the armor penetration of M855. Even more unfortunately, our current enemy doesn't actually wear body armor so we've sacrificed something for nothing. But the old M193 round (which I like) and the newer mk262 round (which is nice at range but expensive) would both get the job done. And you can shoot them out of current guns without any problem anyway.

So expect to see the M16 around for a while yet. But look for a possible change in issued ammunition in the future.

Environmentalism Run Amok

California State Senator Tom McClintock's gave an amazing speech on global warming last month. In it he rails against Al Gore and outlines why California's economy is going into the toilet because of their progressive environmental regulations.

Today in UD Scandals...

Eugene Volokh is covering the uninvitation of Middle East expert and former IDF soldier Asaf Romirowsky from a joint College Republican/Democrat panel on anti-Americanism in the Middle East. UD PoliSci Professor Muqtedar Khan remarked (he claims jokingly) that he wasn't comfortable sharing the stage with Romirowsky in an e-mail to event organizers.

Halloween

Anyone else go to work in costume? My coworkers had a brief gawk at my kilted expense.

UD Gets Some National Attention

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is taking aim at the University of Delaware Residence Life system. While there was definitely ideological problems within ResLife back when I was a student, it wasn't anything that a determined student couldn't easily circumnavigate or ignore. Either things have gotten worse or mountains are being made of mole-hills. Via Instapundit.

UPDATE: John Leo takes it to the University in a similar manner, largely because most of his post if FIRE quotes. Joanne Jacobs coverage starts with FIRE, but includes first hand accounts of the ResLife brainwashing.

If you would like to look into this further, try UD ResLife's home page. I believe many of the more flagrant statements come in their Whole New World Training for RAs. The Torch, FIRE's blog, has more statements that sound like actual ResLife policy. (The ones in their earlier press release sounded cherry-picked from documentation.)

Helping the Wounded at Home

Chris Byrne made me aware of a program to procure computers for soldiers rehabilitating in military hospitals around the country. These laptops are equipped with software like voice command capabilities that allow even disabled members of the military to keep their minds active while bedridden. It is a great idea.

In the spirit of friendly competition, they have broken the donations down by service even though all the money ends up in the same place. Chris is ex-Air Force. I work for the army so...

Ordered to Buy Toys, What a Woman!

Amybear has been fighting a case of pink eye. Because it is highly contagious, she's quarantined at the house under eye doctor's orders and isn't allowed to go to work. Which would be great if she actually paid for sick days. The lack of income isn't really a problem, but cabin fever is definitely starting to set in.

So what did we do? Last night, she sent me out to buy a crimson DS Lite with Brain Age 2 and Pokemon Diamond. The clerk at GameStop was amused when he saw the post-it Amybear used to specify my purchases. He asked if it was a gift and I told him that I was buying video games under my wife's orders. I told him I intended to savor the experience of being told to spend money on video games by my spouse. He admitted that it was pretty unusual.

I played a little Brain Age and it's ok, but parts of the interface just piss me off. Dr. Kawashima, the game's host, really annoys me. I just want to get to the puzzles not discuss their benefit to my prefrontal cortex with a polygonal physician. Hopefully he'll show up less as I play more and get through all the mandatory mini-game tutorials. The recognition software also has a hard time with my handwriting. Not only does it fail to recognize things, but sometimes it will recognize them incorrectly. My 4s become 9s, etc. Which means I end up with "mistakes" that aren't mistakes. And it is slow. While I don't have an alternative for the word games that require the full alphabet, the game would run a lot smoother for me if they just gave me a numeric keyboard on the touch screen for number games like Sudoku.

But maybe it will grow on me. And maybe I should hit my brother up for some of his old GBA games that need some love.

UPDATE: This has come up a couple of times, so I thought I'd address it here. The DS can play both DS games and Game Boy Advanced games. Because the two game cards have different form factors, the DS does this by having a DS slot and a GBA slot on the unit. The GBA slot is also used for some other peripherals. Like the Game Boy Micro and unlike the GBA or GBA SP, the DS cannot play original Game Boy through Game Boy Color games. The DS also uses wi-fi for multiplayer instead of cables so the multiplayer modes on GBA games won't work either.

The Trials of Success

The Press seems to be admitting that the Surge has worked. You can tell because now they're focusing on relations with Turkey and Iran instead of soldiers getting blown up. So the question is, when are prominent Democrats like Speaker Pelosi going to start being for the Surge before they were against it?

UPDATE: Don Surber makes pithy quote: "You see, if the enemy turns its swords into plowshares, that’s bad because the enemy will corner the market on plowshares." Exactly! Just like the Iraqi unemployment crisis in the grave digging sector.

Movie Reviews: Knocked Up and Fantastic 4 II

Amy and I rented these over the weekend. The second Fantastic Four movie was comic book eye candy. People stretch, catch on fire, and warp the fabric of reality. Good stuff, but not a lot of character development or a real strong plot. If you liked the first Fantastic Four movie, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one as well. Its very comic book in both good and bad ways. I'm sure Stan Lee would be proud even if Sue and Reed didn't let him into their wedding.

Knocked Up was quite good. I was pleasantly surprised really, because I didn't expect to like a movie built on the premise of illegitimate pregnancy. Illegitimacy is probably the greatest unaddressed problem of our times and I don't find it especially funny. However, the film actually uses the crude comedy to lighten a film dealing with weightier issues like personal responsibility and accountability.

Alison is a nice girl who lives with her sister and brother-in-law in LA. Alison is a promoted to on-air talent at E! and goes clubbing to celebrate. She meets affable stoner Ben who came to party with his drug-addled housemates. The two get very drunk and have a one night stand. 8 weeks later, Alison finds out she is pregnant and discovers that Ben isn't just socially awkward, he's also a penniless illegal Canadian immigrant whose job aspiration is starting an internet porn venture with his buddies. Not father material, but she decides to keep the baby anyway.

The plot thickens. Alison's sister's marriage hits a rocky patch that forebodes poorly for Alison's future with Ben. Meanwhile Ben's attempts to be a responsible father conflicts with his irresponsible lifestyle. Will Ben clean up his act? Can he? Is Alison capable of being a single mother? Should the two of them even end up together?

The movie's comedy is earthy, but with a halo of truth because raising children is a messy business. The jokes are like ones I've heard friends and family tell about having their own kids. More striking to me was the thematic importance of honesty, responsibility, and commitment in the film. But keep in mind the movie is R-rated and it deserves it, so you can find plenty to dislike if that sort of thing really bothers you.

Computer Solutions

Well after a lot of trouble this weekend, my home computer seems to be virus free. I found the manual mode on one of my anti-virus tools last night and was able to get rid of the DLL that allowed the infection to keep growing back. Thanks to everybody who offered to help, but things look stable at this point.

Saying What You Mean

John the Methodist has a great clip of poet Taylor Mali from the second season of Def Poetry Jam.



One of the good things about Christianity is that you ought to know what you believe. You should be able to make definitive declarations about it. The bad part is that definitive declarations are a double edged sword. Many people will respect you for saying what you mean. Many others will consider you a jerk. It is a difficult path to walk.

On Writing

John Scalzi recommends Stephen King's aptly named book about storytelling. I read the book while on business travel a few months ago. King writes in a very open honest style and the book is part memoir, part writing guide, and part introduction to the business of writing. It is a good, well-rounded book.

The Positivity Blog has an overview of King's writing suggestions, most of which are heavily influenced by Strunk and White. King pays homage to Strunk and White. At one point he states that most books on writing are largely full of bullshit. He knows On Writing is no different because it is at least three times as long as Elements of Style.

Amybear's Kind of Gun

Forget the pink shotgun, go for the Hello Kitty Kalashnikov.

I think whomever is planning to take over the work using teenage Japanese girls wielding HK-AKs has made a grave tactical error. Old japanese grandmothers are indestructible. Young japanese girls? Not so much.

Viral Annoyances

My home computer has some sort of viral/trojan/hellspawn infection. Grrrr... It's still hanging on after multiple Ad-Aware and Norton Anti-virus sweeps. Joy.

UPDATE: My computer is infected with the Vundo trojan. My copy of Norton is smart enough to detect it, but not smart enough to completely get rid of it. It's a persistant SOB, but thankfully only opens advertising pop-ups. I was able to use the VundoFix tool from Atribune to knock the infection back to manageable levels. Unfortunately it hasn't gotten rid of it. I'm currently using a Zone Alarm firewall to keep it contained. From some research I've done this morning, I've discovered a few more tricks and utilities I can use. Hopefully I can kill the last of it tonight.

By the way, Vundo gets in through security flaws in old Java installations. If you aren't running the latest, it is probably worth your time now to avoid an entire weekends worth of annoyance later.

New Rugers

Sturm, Ruger, and Co have recently come out with a new 9mm automatic explicitly designed to compete with Glocks, Springfield XDs, and other similar weapons. Either it was announced very suddenly or I somehow missed it in my new found obsession with 19th century sabers. Can you blame me? The French 1829 and the US 1840 Artillery Sabers are gorgeous. Ruger handguns? Not so much really.

But the new gun, the SR9, is trying to be pretty. The grip is modeled after the 1911 as is the manual safety. The backstrap is adjustable for different hand sizes. The slide, unlike Ruger's usual massive steel slabs, is actually fairly svelte. Ruger makes some claims about it being the thinnest 9mm slide on the market, but I doubt it actually has the Hi-Power beat. The real question is whether the trigger pull is any good. If it is the typical striker spongy squeeze, then I'm not interested.

Micro-Stamping Firearms

California passed a stupid new law, this one requires that guns stamp microscopic info on fired cases on fired cartridges. Why is it stupid? Because it doesn't work.

Laws like this have come up before. Fired cartridge registries are almost as stupid and just as worthless. Why are they stupid and worthless? Because they are easy to circumvent and fundamentally flawed.

If you buy a gun in California, all you need to do to circumvent this technology is to purchase and install a new firing pin. Since firing pins are not a regulated component you can just go to the a gun parts shop in real life or online and buy a new one. Install it (which is usually trivial) and now you have an unmarked gun. Or just take a file to the tip of the firing pin. Or just buy a revolver because they don't eject brass in the first place. Or just shoot your gun a lot because letters that small will probably wear off or become illegible rather quickly.

Worse yet, the technology really doesn't work and the State knows this because they funded a study on it at UC Davis. The ID numbers are only correctly identified on about 20% of fired cartridges. That is one hell of a failure rate. Want a scarier thought? What is the false positive rate from the 80% of incorrectly identified numbers? What is the chance that innocent men and women will be brought in for crimes they didn't commit because forensic scientists misidentified their gun as one used in a crime?

Were I a handgun manufacturer, I'd just stop selling in California at this point. All of California, including and especially the cops. It really wouldn't hurt me much. Some manufacturers already don't sell in California because their draconian gun safety laws push the limits of profitability.

Zombie Weapons

So the dead are rising and shambling about. And for some reason they're really hungry. What do you need? Well food and water of course! But food and water are boring, so lets talk about armor, guns, and sharp pointy things instead.

Defenses

Zombies are pretty strong, but not superhumanly strong. They have normal human strength, but they don't regulate the amount of force they use. Either they can't or they won't. And they're pretty uncoordinated and not especially bright. They're like big brain-eating toddlers. They're also stupid like toddlers, so about all they can do is shuffle up to you, grab on with all their might, and bite down really hard.

The good thing about all that is that defenses are pretty easy. A good concrete wall or a strong reinforced fence will hold small numbers back. But a larger mob can be more problematic because a bunch of people can exert a surprising amount of force. Most walls and fences are really only part of a layered defense.

What about body armor? Well you don't need heavy bullet proof vests or kevlar helmets that's for sure. Not to protect you from zombies at least. All you need is something that they can't bite or tear through easily. A set of full motorcycle race leathers would probably do it. Add a set of boots you can walk comfortably in for long distances, a good hockey or football helmet, and something to protect your neck.

If the dead walking is a supernatural event, you could stop there. But there is a chance the zombies are because of an ancient plague or modern genetic engineering. If so, these things only seem to be spread by a zombie's bodily fluids. So pack safety glasses and a surgical mask or bandanna in case you get some of him on you when you kill him. And maybe some cleaning chemicals for afterwards.

Guns

I see a lot of people saying 12 gauge here. Or machine guns. No, not really. While big guns might be useful if the living dead cause an overall breakdown in the social order, they're not necessarily that useful on zombies. Why? Because the only shot that counts on a zombie is a shot to the head that penetrates the skull and scrambles its brains. Shotguns and machineguns deliver a cone of fire, but they aren't going to give you an accurate head shot over long ranges. Plus the ammo is expensive and gets really heavy, really fast.

My suggestion? A decent .22lr rifle and a lot of ammo for it. The gun itself is cheap to buy and most are accurate. Ammo is cheap so you can stock up. Ammo is light weight so you carry a lot. Now you can own any zombie that gets within about 25 yards of you. They're also quiet so your gunfire will be less likely to attract other zombies who want to eat you. They're even quieter if you shoot from inside a building or with a silencer (which is unfortunately illegal to own in my state).

If you want more lethal range or something that will deter people, get a .223 rifle as well. The AR-15 is a great choice because they're generally quite accurate. This will let you own zombies over greater distances, but the gun is really loud. Really really loud. Just start making blood curdling zombie groans yourself loud. Which will attract more zombies to your position. So you have to fire and move or prepare to significantly reduce the entire local zombie population.

As always, handguns suck over everything but short distances. But at very short ranges they could be all that saves your life.

Manual Brain Scrambling

Unfortunately, you might run out of ammo. Well crap, now what? Well you need a hand held and muscle powered tool that will let you destroy a zombies brain or decapitate him. I prefer the former because Zombie heads can still bite and they tend to wind up under foot.

Don't use baseball bats. Hitting two round objects together, like a bat and a skull, is a recipe for ineffectual glancing blows. Plus they break easy. A friend of mine once broke two aluminum bats in the space of 15 minutes. Yes he was a burly blonde mountain of a man, but do you want to risk it if the dead are walking the earth?

A good makeshift solution is to buy an ax, sledge hammer, or crowbar from the hardware store. Swing it over your head and into Zeds. These have fairly long handles which keep you out of reach and can do a good job of cleaving or crushing a skull. And they're cheap.

If you want to be flashy, more specialized weapons are always a possibility. Max Brooks likes the shaolin spade, but its a decapitation weapon and where do you get one? I like the good ole poleaxe. Spike him through the eye or bring it down on his head. A flanged mace isn't a bad idea either. Spears are cheap, but I don't know how easy it is to penetrate the skull with one. If you're looking at swords, I recently discovered Windlass Steelcraft's Civil War reproduction sabers. They're sturdy, reasonably well balanced, and often priced under $100. That's a great price for a sturdy sword with a decent temper that will take a good edge. Or go buy a katana like everyone else.

There are of course other options for killing zombies. Just keep in mind that if it doesn't destroy the brain, it doesn't do the job. Unless you rain fragments down on their heads, blowing them up doesn't work. Don't unleash a flamethrower onto the zombie hordes either. You just get zombie hordes that set things on fire.

Cute Puppy

Awww, Chris and Melody Byrne have a new puppy. He's a Rottweiler/AmStaff mix so he's going to be a big puppy. One my parent's neighbors had/has a pack of Rott/Pit mix puppies. They're big sweet dogs.

UPDATE: They've named him after Jayne from Firefly/Serenity. And put him in a funny hat.

The People Problem

John the Methodist addresses calls for reforming the process the Methodist Church uses for ordaining ministers by saying this:

But I think that none of these critiques address the root problem in the UMC ordination process. ... It is this: our denomination is shrinking in America. ... Were we a rapidly growing denomination, as we were in the 19th Century, the District Committees and Boards of Ordained Ministry would be struggling to find even semi-qualified candidates to fill pastorates in new churches as a wave of revival sweeps across the land.

I'm not a Methodist and the sum total of my experience with the process of becoming a Methodist minister is from a college buddy who married one.

I've given this some thought and I really don't think you can separate a declining church with a poor ordination system. Why? Because ultimately church growth is about going forth and making disciples. Ordination ought to be the final part of that discipleship process. Now not everyone is called to be a minister, I'm certainly not. But if you aren't training ministers and doing it well, then you ultimately aren't making disciples properly. That will effect church growth and could cause church decline. While the ordination process is not the only problem within the Methodist church, it is a serious problem and should be resolved.

Could a major social and religious change in America alter this? Probably not, no. If a huge American revival happened in the US tomorrow, how can you expect to exploit it without manpower (and womanpower in the case of the Methodists)? You need mature Christians to be able to start discipling those people. If you don't have leadership to offer them, then they will either fall away from the Church or go to another denomination. I've seen it happen.

Even in more mundane situations, an overstretched clergy has a hard time making headway. My aforementioned friends wife covers two churches on different sides of a small town. She preaches two sermans and she splits her Sunday mornings in half. I have no idea how she manages to build decent relationships with her congregants. I have no idea how she manages to tailor her sermons to something relevent to her churches.

Myself, I think having too many spiritual leaders is a far better problem to have than having too few. Reforming the system may not help, but good Lord it certainly can't hurt.

Back to Self Defense Basics

Larry Correia discusses self defense with hand guns, shotguns, and rifles. He covers almost all of the important bits and does it in a way that is easy to understand. Most of it is very similar to my own past advice, but these are the basics and the basics are always worth covering again.

Oh and Correia also has a piece on HK which is a hoot. Rife with hyperbole, but a hoot. If HK mp5s or G3s were such cheap stamped guns, there wouldn't be infinity threads on gun boards complaining about Century Arms or Special Weapons. But everything he says about the HK416 upper is completely true.

Kitten Cuteness

Awwww. Knees getting weak, must hit back button before consumed by kitten cuteness...

Actually, I wonder if kittens are so cute for just that reason. You get overwhelmed with cuteness, then they gang up on you and go for your jugular. Then they eat you. It wouldn't surprise me to see a brood of feral kittens take down a deer or a hiker that way.

Sounds About Right

Am-I-Dumb.com - Intelligence Test

Via Tamara

On to Barsoom

John C. Wright noticed that Pixar is developing a movie series based on Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars Trilogy. Sweet! I wonder how they'll deal with the horrific violence and every present nudity found in the books. Hopefully not by dumbing them down too much.

By the way, the first three books in Burroughs Mars series are now in the public domain and are available from Project Gutenberg.

Oh But I Love the Color!

I highly recommend shotguns as home defense weapons. The gunblogosphere has been going nuts over Gander Mountain's recent debut of a pink 20 gauge Remington riot shotgun. The perfect defensive gun for a woman! Right people?

Yeah, I guess. I have a 12 and a 20 gauge and I wouldn't want to stand in front of either. 20 gauge is certainly more manageable for people of lesser stature and training. So I'm not pissing all over the caliber. My 20 gauge is a Sears marked Remington 870 that I inherited from my Grandfather. Roughly the same gun Gander Mountain is selling.

I have to question the price tag though. $370 for youth/bantam shotgun? You'll notice that Gander Mountain sells the same gun with normal wood stocks for $290. In my mind pink is not worth an $80 premium even if you do get a free Remington hat. A polymer stocked gun and a can of Krylon will get you a pink (or purple or green) gun for a lot less than Gander Mountain is charging.

...Like a Pirate Day

I guess I missed sword review like a pirate day. And of course he reviews a stout cutlass. Or perhaps not so stout as it is a Windlass product.

Pick-up Lines for Church

I think my favorite line from this Parchment and Pen post was "Until this moment, I thought I had the gift of singleness." I took a lot of those hackneyed spiritual gifts tests in college and the gift of celibacy showed up a fair bit. Most of us who received it quickly reworked our tests so we ended up with more appealing states of giftedness like martyrdom.

Via Locusts and Honey

Fun with Paracord

Parachute cord is really useful stuff if you know how to use it. Stormdrane's Blog seems to have a lot of different ideas and options that range from belts to bookmarks.

Police Rifle

I guess that's how I'll start describing Mabel: a police-style Ar-15 rifle. But of course only cops should have guns...

Lawn Catan

For those sunny days when you just want to play outside. Some of the materials they used were actually pretty ingenious. As with standard Settlers, the the sure way to lose is still to get 9 points.

They Came From.... Behind

I'm bucking the trend that everyone must make a Porkins reference when they see this video of an amateur rocketry X-Wing braking up in mid air.

UPDATE: No one has pointed out that my Gold 5 title quote is inappropriate yet? I thought someone would have noticed that Gold squadron flies Y-wings not X-wings by now. I guess my readers are not the nerds I am looking for.

Property Rights

From Instapundit:

Message to Republicans: The entertainment industries are your enemies. They're one of the main sources of money for Democrats, and provide a lot of valuable free media for them, too. Why help them out? Especialy when you might actually pick up some youth votes by taking a different position?

Why? Because property rights are the foundation of free societies and you can't stop respecting them just because you don't like the property owners. You would think that a libertarian would understand those kind of principles.

Definitely Not a Motorcycle

According to my beloved wife, I'm not allowed to own a motorcycle. Something about probably killing myself. I believe I have now found a feasible automotive alternative: the Westfield Seven. This is a rough copy of the Lotus Seven now licensed by Caterham. The Westfield cars are built from kits and have a version which accepts Mazda Miata donor parts. Left hand drive versions are available in the US for a fair bit less than a Caterham. They'd be even more reasonable if the exchange rate improves.

No power anything, no doors, and seat-of-the-pants driving, but it still has seats with racing belts, a safety cage, and a roll bar. Close enough to a motorcycle. Now if only I had money, time, a garage to build it in, and a place to park it.

UPDATE: It seems I'm not the only person that compares the Seven (or Se7en) to a motorcycle. Here is quote from the late Colin Chapman, the Seven's creator:

The Seven was the car I dreamed about as a schoolboy. When I got the chance to build it, it was the most basic, lightest, high performance little car we could come up with... a student's car if you will – a four-wheeled motorbike.

This is from Jalopnik's two part trip up "The Dragon" with a group of Seven enthusiasts.

WWII and Tactics

McQ at QandO has been watching Ken Burn's new series The War. He likes what he's been seeing.

Meanwhile Kim du Toit is dispelling some bigotry spouted by David Frum towards the American fighting man of WWII:

It’s all very well to say that Americans win because they have more equipment than anyone else. Here’s the newsflash: that’s how we fight.

We are a technology-based society, and we have a giant economy with which to back our troops up.

From Band of Brothers in the WWII era: “Horses? What were you thinking? Say hello to General Motors, and Ford, and Chrysler!”

In Stephen Ambrose's book Citizen Soldiers, there is a story about two generally equivalent infantry units fighting over a medieval fortification in France. The Germans take the old fort and barricade themselves into a great defensive position. The American infantry tries to take it, but meet murderous resistance and have to fall back. So the Americans wheel over a 155mm howitzer and blow the hell out of the place. When they storm it, they capture it easily. After the fight, the Germans accused the Americans of poor soldiering because under the same conditions the Germans would have had to make do with what they had. The Americans replied that what they had was a 155mm howitzer thank-you-very-much and enjoy your stay as a POW with Uncle Sam.

An often-overlooked aspect of the war is that after Normandy, the US Army was actually employing something like modern combined arms doctrine. Not only did we have more stuff, but all our "inferior" units could cooperate efficiently to form a superior whole. If American infantry units ran into trouble, their first resort was to liberally apply high explosives via air or artillery or armor support. Most of the other Armies just couldn't do this. What was unfair or poor soldiering according to those Germans was actually an artifact of American tactical and strategic superiority.

When Bad News Comes from Bad Newsmakers

Captain of Crew of One is dissecting a recent CBS News report on assault weapons. Predictably, the weapons they display in their piece aren't actually assault weapons according to federal or state definitions. Most are handguns or shotguns. One is a muzzle-loading rifle. So much for expert reporting.

Justice Concerned With Justice

The blogosphere has been going on about Clarence Thomas's new book lately, but several of the interviews he's given have provided a lot of insight into him as a man. I loved Richard Miniter's Pajamas Media interview and the transcript of Rush Limbaugh's 90 minute marathon is just as good. For instance his take on legal writing legal opinions is refreshing:

So, in writing opinions, you are trying to take something, if it's complicated, you're trying to explain it in a way that as many people as possible can understand it. You're making their Constitution and their laws accessible to them. We talk about "accessibility" in terms of people with, say, disabilities in a wheelchair where a curb is like the Great Wall of China if someone is in a wheelchair. Well, you can use language and writing about the court or about the Constitution that sort of puts a Great Wall of China between them and their Constitution. My idea is simply to be able to explain it to all of my fellow citizens.

The unintelligibility of government pisses me off. It is nice to see someone in government doing something about it, not because he has to, but because he feels it is his responsibility to the people.

I also love that Thomas spends his breaks driving cross country in a big motorcoach with his corvette in tow, eating a truckstops, and talking to average joes.

Weekend Rentals

Amy and I rented a couple of movies for the first time in a long time. And we were reminded why we hadn't bothered in a while. My pick at our local Hollywood Video was 300. Amy chose with Catch and Release. Neither choice was without its shortcomings.

While 300 had some stirring images, it was just too comic book for me. Although there was some great imagery spaced throughout the piece and good action scenes, the narrative was just clunky. Large parts of it bore no resemblance to actual history and I like the actual history. All the movie made me want to do was read a better fictionalization of the Battle of Thermopylae, like Gates of Fire.

Catch and Release was marketed as a romantic comedy, but it isn't. The story opens with Gray at the funeral of her fiance Grady on the day they were to be married. It doesn't get much happier. The whole piece is largely Kevin Smith playing himself, Jennifer Garner looking sullen, and everyone else being varying degrees of horny or pathetic. Skip it.

Kicking It Old School

Feel the urge to play some classic Nintendo games, but you don't want to spend all day blowing into cartridges? Is downloading emulators and pirated roms hard on your soul? Behold, classic 8bit nintendo in Java format! Unfortunately you will be stuck using keyboard controls. I guess nothing is truly perfect.

22 Cravings

Dick's Sporting Goods has a .22lr Remington 597 with Scope for $140 after mail-in rebate. Hmm... I think I'll have to do some research on 597s. I shot one at Targetmaster a few years ago and I don't remember loving it. But I didn't hate it either and supposedly they've made some design improvements since then. I think it's worth a look.

UPDATE: Ever wondered at the fingerprints you've left on the internet and forgotten about? Take this:

I shot one at my range. I thought it was pretty mediocre in every way. Accuracy was bad, ergonomics were ok, and it had frequent feed/ extraction problems. My range doesn't show the rentals much love though so it may have just needed a good cleaning.

I wrote that about the 597 in August of 2004. I may have to rethink this. If I can't trust a reviewer as smart as that guy, then who can I trust.

UPDATE2: It seems that several of the improvements to the gun have occurred since my last review. The current generation of magazines (the ones that actually work) came out in 2005. Extractor changes have occurred as well.

UPDATE3: I went to Dick's today, but did not drive home with a new rifle. While the 597 they're selling looks and feels quite nice, it has one problem for someone looking for a training rifle. It doesn't have iron sights. Now it comes with a scope, so this isn't a problem for most people. But I need to learn to shoot with iron and without. Without sights it's really only a half a rifle.

Rhetorical Ambushes

MSNBC correspondent David Shuster rhetorically ambushed Tennessee Representative Marsha Blackburn with the name of dead soldier from her district. Fact checking later showed that Shuster was the one in error, the soldier wasn't from Blackburn's district at all. Instapundit had this to say:

Interestingly, though, it's a trap that, in its nature, underscores how historically low casualties are in this war. You wouldn't have heard that question in World War II, not only because the press would have been ashamed to ask it, but because casualties then were such that nobody could possibly keep track. That it can be asked in this war demonstrates not only the cheap-shot tendencies of a hopelessly partisan press, but also the small scale of the actual warfare.

Very true. This was driven home in a meeting I had yesterday about the war. I can't talk about most of it, but one of the factoids I thought was interesting had to do with the relative death rates in various US Wars. About 200 people died per day in WWI, in WWII it was 300, in Korea it was 30, in Vietnam it was 20, in Iraq it is only 2.

And on the subject of ambushes, how about Ahmadinejad's trip to Columbia? It didn't quite turn out like I expected, thats for sure. I would like to point out one little thing though: Admadinejad is not a dictator. While the Presidency of Iran is not the figurehead position it once was, the real power in Iran lies not with the elected President but with the appointed Supreme Leader. If you want to call someone a brutal despot, you need to point your finger at Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Which Spongebob character are you?

You are Squidward! Lighten up a bit, won't you! You hate your job, but love you clarinet. You also think Spongebob is the most annoying person ever!
Take this quiz!



Via John the Methodist

Amazon MP3

Amazon just launched a new store where you can download mp3s for less than a dollar per track. Since I own a non-iPod non-iTunes MP3 player, this might be nice for singles. For whole albums, I'm probably still better off purchasing a CD and ripping them myself though.

The Thompson Mystique

Kim du Toit explains election strategy and unintentionally explains why Fred Thompson is doing so well despite his mediocre campaign appearances:

What we need to find in the primaries is a Stupid Party candidate who is religious “enough” for most conservatives; against high taxes “enough” to satisfy, say, the Heritage Foundation; hostile “enough” to Big Government, and pro-gun ownership “enough” to satisfy, say, me...

If we look at the current crop of Stupid Party front-runners, Giuliani fails on several issues, and makes the grade only on law-and-order and foreign policy; McCain fails dismally on most, scoring high only on the War On Terrorist Bastards; Romney fails on just about every point; and Thompson scores reasonably well in almost every area.

Thompson is doing so well because the Republican party is the party of American Conservatives and Thompson is the only Conservative running. It is that simple.

Ok that's not quite true. Duncan Hunter is probably a Conservative, but nobody knows who he is.

Delaware Gun Shows

When you live in a small state like Delaware, one of the regular annoyances is that big events don't come to your state. It usually doesn't matter because they're held in adjoining states with reasonable travel times. I really don't mind that the Delaware Highland Games is actually held at Fair Hill in Maryland. There is no law preventing me from crossing state lines in a kilt.

But there are exceptions where legal restrictions defeat the purpose of the trip. One such example is gun shows. I'm mostly a pistol shooter. Buying a pistol at a gun show in Pennsylvania or Maryland means having to pay to have it shipped to my FFL in Delaware and then paying my FFL for the trouble. No thanks. With all that paying, I'm better off staying at home. I've looked for Delaware guns shows that are actually in Delaware, but without much success.

Until now. Hopefully when the show comes around in a month, I'll still remember it. And I'll be able to figure out where the Shrine Building is. Time to pick up that 22 I've been wanting.

UAW Strikes

Starting at 11am, the GM and the UAW are on strike. The Canadian Auto Workers are expected to join in with a sympathy strike sometime this afternoon. Here's to hoping that GM comes out ahead on this one.

I do have some sympathy for the UAW, but I don't have that much. After some research on my part, I've come to realize that the union contract terms are ridiculous. It is one thing for them to stipulate factory working conditions, salary levels, or benefits. It is quite another for the workers to tell their company where cars can be manufactured. This strike is over the latter.

Autoblog reports that GM has enough inventory for a month or two. More than that and this could get interesting. If I were them, I'd start hiring scabs now using contract terms similar to Import-brand factory labor. If they're successful enough with that, they might not have to hire the union back at all.

Continental Dental Hygiene

According to Instapundit, French dental care is incredibly poor. My mind reels at the thought that the British might actually have the best teeth in Europe.

The Coming of Caspian

The movie poster for Prince Caspian is out and looks pretty cool. I join with John Wright in hoping that the Pevensie kids aren't such wusses in the new film.

Some Gunny's Dream Girl

Being happily married, I'm far more interested in the mini-gun than the mini-gunner. Long walks on the beach also get sand in everything.

A Conversion Story

Novelist John C. Wright details his conversion from athiest to panenthiest in a post on his blog. Panenthiesm is one of those philosophies that I've always held, but I've never had a name for until now. Thanks John.

I really like Wright's blog, so much so that I picked up one of his novels from Borders and started reading it while on travel. The first chapter of the Last Guardian of Everness is a bit slow, but things really get going once they get suitably fantastical.

The Wheel of Time Turns and Turns But Never Ends

The cynicism of thousands of fantasy fans was justified on Sunday when James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (aka Robert Jordan) died from complications of cardiac amyloidosis. Jordan was working on the last book in the series at the time of his death. Hopefully it can be finished using his notes.

On a Work Vacation

I spent last week in meetings at Nellis Air Force Base outside of Las Vegas. It was one of the most fun work experiences I've ever had. The meetings themselves were interesting, but they were held about a block from the flight line and next to a the Threat Museum. Which means that I was treated to either a free air show or fun with guns at every break.

Oh and I stayed at the New York New York Hotel and Casino. When the days meetings were over, my coworker and I hit the Strip. Good stuff.

New Obliviousness

With ammunition prices going up, it is now long past time for me to buy a .22 rifle. I can buy a decent .22 and a brick of ammo (~500 rounds) for what it would cost me to buy just the 500 rounds for my M1 or AR. So I'm shopping around.

My first stop of the day was X-Ring Supply in Newark and I was in for a shock. Turns out the owner and FFL holder for the store was caught with crack cocaine in his possession a month ago. His FFL was suspended and all the guns in the shop have been seized. How did I miss that?

The store itself is still open, but it only has muzzle loaders and various firearms accessories in stock. While I couldn't care less about the owner, I hope the sales staff there come through this ok. While I actually prefer the staff at Millers in Newcastle, X-Ring was the real gun games shop in Northern Delaware.

Brainiac

The G4 cable network seems to be running a mini marathon of the BBC show Brainiac: Science Abuse until 4pm EST today. Brainiac is hosted by Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame and features a fair bit more explosions and electrocutions than, say, Mister Wizard or Beakman's World. Why they named it after a Superman villain I'll never know.

Hot Under the Collar

Thanks to a call from DirectTV, I just found out that Verizon fucked up my billing information when we moved. Despite changing our phone service from one location to the other, our billing information stayed the same. So they've sent two months of phone/internet/satellite bills to an empty apartment. Unfortunately our mail forwarding with the post office didn't catch the bills and I didn't notice that we weren't receiving them.

Now I'm going to be paying three months all at once, plus sundry late fees. I actually don't mind the three months of bills, the company deserves its money and I have been using its service. I am pissed about the late fees and any effects this may have on my credit history. Why I am holding the bag when one of their petty functionaries makes the mistake? So I am not happy.

Let's see if a call to the Delaware Public Service Commission can get any of this straightened out.

Zombies Are Jerks

I'd heard the song Code Monkey because it's used as the title theme on G4s show of the same name. However, I hadn't really heard anything else by Jonathan Coulton before. Good stuff. Here's a taste from the show he did at the Penny Arcade Expo:


Warning, there is mild profanity when he misses a chord change. Anyway a google search will turn up a bunch of his songs on mp3. Since he uses the creative commons license, you won't even be stealing them.

Doomed to Repeat It... Badly

National Review and Tamara are both lamenting the demise of Military History as an academic discipline at many top institutions. This is sad. War is one of history's fundamental states, shouldn't we study it?

There is good news. Military history is popular both as a subject for instruction and as a product for public consumption via books or other mass media. So it is unlikely to die and more likely that the "top" institutions will simply stop being "top" any longer. That is fine with me.

Because Giuliani Is Too Hard to Spell

Fred Thompson is officially running, The Corner has the Tonight Show segment where he announced and Chris Byrne has Thompson's own announcement short.

I thought Thompson did well on the Tonight Show. As he should, I mean even the Today Show does more hard hitting journalism than the Tonight Show. More importantly, Thompson's take on modern campaigning sounds correct to me. With modern telecommunications, you shouldn't need to campaign longer. In fact you should be able to get the word out faster and more efficiently while spending less money. Longer campaign seasons generally just annoy the hell out of people and give the news networks something to fill airtime.

Also many pundits don't seem to understand that Thompson is polling well because the other Republican front runners suck. I'll never vote for McCain. Romney and Giuliani aren't much better. While Thompson has his flaws, ultimately he's more conservative and more of a traditional Republican than any of these guys. And Republicans will vote for him because of it.

The Fool Tells the Truth

I love the latest PhD comic that explains the difference between the Social Sciences and the Humanities. The social sciences try to gather actual data and the humanities do "analysis" which generally just involves wild hypothesizing. So very true.

Two weeks ago, John Scalzi brought up a column in the Chronicle of Higher Education about how modern writers do all their work on computer. This will probably leave a massive electron trail of their writing process which can and would be used in later literary analysis. Based on Scalzi's excerpts, I took his column as lament that now literary criticism would soon require Humanities researchers to actually do math and proper analysis. I could just picture Professors Vroomfondel and Majikthise at the head of an angry mob demanding database administrators delete old drafts just so they have clearly delineated areas of doubt and uncertainty to publish papers on.

I was wrong about that take on the column though. In actuality, humanities professor Matthew Kirshenbaum wants to be one of those database administrators. Should be a cushy job many humanities types won't be qualified for. Oops.

Legal Smackdown

Legal debate on the 2nd Amendment, like this one held by the Federalist Society, is definitely lively. Like the Bitch Girls, I'm siding comfortably with the originalists like Bob Levy on this one. How "the right of the people" can be interpreted in a collectivist context in the 2nd Amendment, but as an individual right in every other case strikes me as intellectual dishonesty of the highest order.

Band-aids

Have you ever noticed that whenever you cut yourself, you will be hard pressed to find anything other than finger-tip, knuckle, and shaving cut Band-aids? Yet, should you actually cut your fingertip or knuckle, these specialized strips are nowhere to be found. How annoying...

Environmentalism Meets Physics

Ryan is bringing some division in the Environmentalist movement to light. While old growth forests are sacred ground to most of the environmental movement, Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore points out that young growth is actually far superior at sequestering carbon dioxide. So logging old growth and promptly planting new trees is actually quite good for the environment. Who knew? Turns out Leo DiCaprio didn't.

VP Rendell

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is being put forward as a possible VP candidate. Great... I'm not a big fan of Rendell and I'm even less of a fan now that he's going to be shutting down all gun sales in Pennsylvania. The state is upgrading their background check system, which will require closing the system down for three days over the Labor Day Weekend. This will essentially close down every gun dealer in the state for that period. Gun dealers aren't happy because Labor Day weekend generally brings out lots of hunters prepping for the start of various seasons. I suppose it could be worse for them, it was going to be down for four days.

The interesting wrinkle in this story is that under state and federal law, you only have to wait 48 hours for a response from the background check system. Any more and you automatically pass. We'll see if the gun shops have the stones to use the loophole or not.

Zombie Languages

Judge Alice Batchelder insists that latin is not a dead language. Unfortunately Latin isn't dead in her court, but frankly it should be. After all how can you write and enforce laws and regulations on a people who are not capable of understanding them? That's just bad documentation.

Should I become God Emperor of the Universe, I intend to make edicts to repair some of the great injustices in the World. My first law will be that laws applying to the general populace shall be written in a manner and language that is easily understandable by the general populace. This isn't hard to do, you just grab a bunch of congressional pages (who generally are in the middle of their college education), give them copies of proposed legislation, and ask them whether they can understand it. If not, you must rewrite it. Exceptions would be made for technical regulations which apply to professionals in a given field and not to the general populace as a whole.

For instance, all citizens should be able to understand most of the tax code and most criminal law. However corporate and business taxes could be more complex as could the criminal code apply to, say, securities fraud. The first apply to the general populace, the latter to professionals.

It is one thing if you break the law because you are ignorant of it. It is another if the law (and by extension the case law) is so obfuscated by technical jargon that it cannot be understood by a non-professional. The first is at least partially the fault of the law breaker, while the second is a fundamental failing of the government itself.

Alien Invasion

You know, I would be really intimidated if I ran across this many Daleks in Britian. Or I would if it didn't look like most of them would be defeated by a stiff breeze.

That's Where I'm a Viking!

Instapundit on not getting enough sleep when you were young:

I hear adults say "I can't go without sleep like I could when I was a teenager," but actually I think they can -- at least, I can -- it's just that we're now smart enough to realize just how bad we'll feel the next day.

Back when I was in high school I probably got the best sleep in my life. My mother liked to make sure I got between 7 and 8 hours every night. I slept in even more on the weekends. Ah those were the days...

It always amazed me how little sleep many of my friends got. And generally it was for stupid reasons like wanting to watch the Late Night comedy shows. One of my friends took the philosophy of getting little sleep and never making it up until it made her so ill she had to take an excused absence. She wasn't a stupid girl, but it seemed like a very stupid way to live. I can't imagine it has gotten any better with Myspace and other things available to today's kids.

I didn't start really short-changing myself until college. Even then I quickly learned that it wasn't worth it. Less than six hours of sleep was just not maintainable, especially with Calculus at eight in the next morning three days a week.

Top Gear

Top Gear, probably the best car show in the world, is on tonight at 8pm and 9pm EST on BBC America. If you have digital cable or satellite TV, you probably get BBC America even if you don't know it yet.

Kilt Day and I Missed It!

Had I known that today is Kilt Day, I would be much more comfortable in my air unconditioned cubicle. Stupid broken AC in stupid buildings built to fight not-so-stupid World War II.

Counter-Protesting

Kim du Toit suggests everyone go out and buy a box of ammo. It will hopefully be a quiet reminder that not everybody is an idiot like the Brady Campaigners. The Firearms Coalition is calling this Exercise Your Rights Day. This isn't to be confused with National Ammo Day which is in November.

UPDATE: For those readers that do all their shooting with me using my guns, my guns are chambered in 9mm, .45acp, .22lr, .223 Remington (or 5.56 NATO), and .30 carbine. I also have a 12 gauge and a 20 gauge, but I don't really need ammo for those.

The Mopiest Place on Earth

Boing Boing covers Goth Day at Disneyland.

Happy Birthday, Duke

John Wayne 100th Birthday Commemorative Ruger New Vaquero... drooooool. Gunblast has a review along with a copy of Ronald Reagan's eulogy for the Duke.

Word of the Day

So I had an eye doctor's appointment yesterday to determine why, after taking the strongest anti-biotic drops known to man for a week, I still had a pink right eye. Turns out I don't have an infection, I just have an inflammationof my sclera which is the outer white covering of the eye. So I'm on eye steroids to cut that down. Man, my eye is going to be ripped.

Back to the topic at hand, why do I have scleritis? My ophthalmologist says that 90% of these cases are idiopathic. Which is the word of the day. It means "arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause." Or in other words I have no idea why your eye is pink, but take these drops and it will get better. Honest.

This easily displaces my next favorite medical term: cyanotic. It means blue. So if you see an episode ER where doctors yell about someone asphyxiating being cyanotic, it means he's turning blue from lack of oxygen.

I'm a Muppet!

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!" You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up. If only your routine didn't always bomb! You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test

Via Dr. Bunsen Honeydew

Flip Flops

Flip flops are bad for your feet. I am now going to do something which will make every married man reading this cringe... See dear, I told you so.

I can't wear flip flops because I supinate. That extra bit of foot rotation means I'm constantly losing one or walking on the edge of the sandal. So I generally wear shoes that give me good support or I just wear full sandals.

I have to wonder if a lot of these problems are coming from people wearing cheap flippies that are just layer of foam with a thong through it. I can't see those being good for you. Amybear's favorite flip flops are from Under Armour. These actually have some arch support and a surface texture that should keep them from getting slippery. Hopefully they're less of a problem.

How Dare They Go on Recess

QandO points out that this is the current narrative coming out of the left. Yeah the surge is working, but it won't last or Iraqi politics will tear everything apart. Lord knows they may have a point, but much of what they have to say seems like complete defeatism.

More to the point though, am I the only one that finds our congresspersons a little hypocritical here? While they go on recess, they criticize the Iraqi government for doing the same. While they have approval ratings at historic lows, they criticize the Iraqis as do-nothings. Perhaps they should take a hard look in the mirror. Aren't we at war just like the Iraqis? We should be setting an example for what a stable government looks like, instead we bicker and accomplish nothing. Is it any wonder the Iraqis are in trouble too?

Bands that Never Were

Hube and Instapundit both drew my attention to this Earvolution piece. What I find most interesting about a Top Ten of bands that never were is how many have been left off. Reynolds names a few. Hube names one.

I honestly think the Blues Brothers should have faired better. But perhaps having a real band and making two albums prior to the first movie hurt them as an "imaginary" band. That and Blues Brothers 2000. Whew! I'm still smelling that stinker.

But hey, at least the number one imaginary band had it's own Behind the Music special:

How Evil Am I?

You Are 30% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

The Problems of the Buffyverse

John the Methodist is using the characters of Angel and Spike to demonstrate the difference between Calvinism (Angel) and Wesleyan (Spike) schools of thought. Useful in an somewhat expired pop-culture reference sort of way.

Really though, I wouldn't put much stock in "Whedonist" theology if for no other reason than Joss is an atheist. Have you every wondered why we see thousands of different demons and dark gods in the Whedon's Buffyverse, but you never see any angels or good deities? Turns out it isn't a coincidence. About the only reference to Good superbatural entities is the "Powers That Be" in Angel. The PTBs were depicted as distant and disconnected beings which were rarely helpful to the main characters. You know, even thought the main characters were saving the world from evil every week. In fact the PTBs essentially kill one of the main characters with a horrible vision towards the end of the series.

I've often thought that the whole supernatural teen adventure genre would make for a great Christian TV show. I think the idea of a heroic Jesus freak who actually was defending his friends from evil incarnate would be great. Use the demons as a storytelling metaphor for overcoming various vices and temptations. It would make Bibleman look like a chump.

High School Musical 1 & 2

Amy and I spent some time watching these this weekend. If I was a parent, I'm sure I'd think that this kind of good clean entertainment was great for my kids and bearable for me. But I'm not a parent, so I thought they were a bit overrated.

The plot of both Disney TV movies is paper thin. The first is largely stolen from Grease. Boy meets girl on Winter Break at a Karaoke contest. When he returns to school she's the brainy new girl and he's the basketball jock. Will they overcome their differences, the peer pressure, and the school drama queens to sing together in the Winter Musicale? The second reminds me of a season of Saved by the Bell where everyone was working at a country club. Will the handsome jock become overcome the machinations of the wealthy drama queen and stay true to himself and his friends? Answer? Of course everything works out in a big musical number at the end.

But, as many people point out, the plot of these movies isn't really the point. The plot is largely a set piece to string together a bunch of big catchy musical numbers. And they're fun, but like the rest of the musical they are bubblegum. I have a hard time figuring out who is singing because everyone has the same over-produced pop-vocal sound. The boys all sound the same. The girls all sound the same. Because of this the songs never develop vocal depth or layered harmony. And the plot isn't deep, so the characters are shallow, so none of the songs can plumb non-existent emotional depths.

But hey they're catchy, right?

Oh well. So I'm not

Comparing Flash Gordons

I picked up the new Flash Gordon Savior of the Universe Edition DVD this weekend. It was all the campy stylized fun that I remember as a kid. Sam Jones' Flash is dashingly heroic, Max Von Sydow's Ming is garishly evil, and everything is over the top. God bless 'em, they do Flash Gordon properly as pulp adventure. Which is why the movie is a cult classic. I've heard the British DVD is even better, but honestly I don't really care much.

After seeing the movie again, the new Sci-Fi series really pales in comparison. Part of this is because the Flash movie had a great cast and the Sci-Fi show has castoffs from the WB. Part of it is that the movie has a budget and the TV show doesn't. But honestly, the movie's production values weren't that amazing. You could probably shoot it for a lot less today because special effects are so much cheaper.

More importantly though, the movie understood the important part of the Flash Mythos. Flash, Dale, and Zarkov don't belong on Earth. In the movie, they spend about 15 minutes on Earth establishing the three characters. Once they'd shown that Flash is the Earthling Everyhero, Dale is the Plucky Romantic Interest, and Zarkov is the Mad Scientist, everyone is rocketed off to Mungo for the rest of the movie. And they never come back. Seriously. The movie ends with Dale and Flash wondering if they'll ever get back to Earth and not really caring if they do.

Now it is possible that the TV show may be leading to everyone ending up on Mungo for keeps later in the season. They keep mentioning how bad wormhole travel is for the fabric of reality so at some point they will hopefully get stuck on Mungo in order to put a permanent stop to it. Or something like that. The truth is that they probably have to phase in Mungo incrementally over the first season to pay for the new sets. But hopefully they phase it in quickly.

Why? Because Mungo is cool and Earth is boring. I've been to Anytown, USACanada or wherever it is they shoot. I haven't been to another frickin' planet. Flash fixing a rocketship? Cool. Flash fixing a camaro? Not so much. Flash trying to clean battle armor is funny. Flash cleaning his current J. Crew wardrobe is pathetic. Get it?

Car Theft Reactions

I recall Amy's post-auto theft thoughts being quite similar to Army of Mom's reaction to her car being broken into:

I hate bad guys. I hope they get some rare form of herpes or syphillis and they get giant sores on their dicks and they ooze and hurt and then they go into the ocean and the salt water gets in the open sores and it burns. Then, and only then, do I hope they die. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Soldier Suicides

If you haven't been paying attention to the latest batch of yellow journalism, they're up from last year. If you have been paying good attention, like Tamara, you'll notice they're actually lower than comparable civilian suicide rates by a fair margin.

Potter Pontifications

John C. Wright pointed me towards this Harry Potter series review written by Stephen King. You know, the spooky guy from Maine. King commends Rowling for her writing, criticizes the majority of book journalists, and puts the series in context with other young adult literature. It is a good piece.

Orson Scott Card has written a couple of pieces about Potter as well. The first is a discussion of religion and Potter at Beliefnet. The second is a review of the Deathly Hallows at his own blog.

In an unrelated but interesting aside, someone at RPGnet wonders what American arcane society would look like? Would we have our own Hogwarts or 5 magical schools as he outlines.

Coming to Grips with Modernism

While I'm not as big a fan of the current Pope as the last one, Pope Benedict does have some redeeming qualities. As Paul Smith points out in his review of the Pope's latest book, his take of Christ is a whole lot better than many modern theologians:

One thing that really struck, especially at the end of the book is how much of an effort Benedict is making to "recapture" the real Jesus from modern "scholars" who seek to redefine Christ in modernist terms. He frequently points out how some exegetes go beyond what the Gospel writers actually record to try to figure out what Jesus really meant, or which sayings attributed to him He "actually" said. Some go so far as to attribute sayings attributed to Christ as having their origins in works written centuries after the Gospels rather than believe the Apostles wrote down what Jesus actually said and that he meant what he said. They, like Thomas Jefferson, prefer to make God in their own image and ignore the parts of the Bible they see as not fitting that mold.

Good for the Pope for hammering on this. It seems to me that much of Modern theology has been an attempt reconcile the irreconcilable. A large part of it doesn't seem to be "theo"-logy because it strips so much of God and the supernatural from the text.

The main issue is that you cannot take a fundamentally Naturalist philosophy and marry it to religion. The fundamental concepts of the two are in direct opposition with Naturalism decrying the spiritual and religion accepting and fundamentally building upon it. When you take a religious work like the Bible and then strip the supernatural (and largely God himself) out of it, all you have done is gutted the text. And they have to replace those parts of the narrative with something, otherwise they'll just have a gaping hole. The question then becomes, what will the supernatural be replaced with? Looking at the results, it seems to be replaced with whatever the scholar's pet theories seem to be.

Someday soon people will point to the collected works of these theologians and say "Look there's what confounding the wisdom of the wise looks like!" That is if they're not already doing it.

Missing Loved Ones

I'm not a huge fan of Mainstream Baptist's Bruce Prescott. I keep his blog on my roll largely because our views are so different. His father died yesterday. Even though it is a life event most of us will face, I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

The Perils of Mountain Biking

You know, you might skin something or hit a tree. Or maybe you'll return to your car only to find that a grain silo had fallen on it and squished it flat. Man I knew I didn't mountain bike for a reason.

Via John Scalzi at Ficlets.

A Look at the Budget

A friend from work showed me an interesting article from The Kiplinger Letter. It listed the percentage of federal spending by program from three different years: 2008, 1983, and 1968. Some interesting things I learned:

• Despite the fact that we're fighting a war, defense spending as a percentage of the federal budget today (~21%) is lower than in '83 when Reagan was rebuilding the military up during the Cold War (26%). It is much lower than spending during Vietnam (46%).
• While Social Security's share of the budget has largely remained constant over the last 15 years (~21%), Medicare and Medicaid have been growing exponentially and are now as expensive as Social Security or National Defense.
• The low income tax credit is much larger than it used to be.
• Agricultural subsidies are actually down by quite a lot in comparison to past years. In '68 and '83 they were about three percent of the budget, now they're less than one.

I have to wonder what this data would look like in real dollars though instead of percentages. Has the federal budget just ballooned to such an extent that certain things look the same or have gotten smaller in proportion. We're probably paying far more in agricultural subsidies today than in '68, but the federal budget is so much larger the actual percentage of federal spending has dropped.

UPDATE: Jim the Baptist points out that largely the war has been funded by supplemental spending requests that don't appear in the main budget. He is right. However the reason Kiplinger did this comparison is that their 2008 budget doesn't have this problem. Which is why the Defense portion of the budget is $600 Billion instead of some smaller amount.

Big Trouble in Little China

Ah yes, convincing your wife to watch a movie from days gone by that she will probably hate. I'll probably have to do this with the new Flash (Aah Aah!) Gordon DVD that's coming out.

I must say that I find the cat bathing instructions to be much funnier. I'm planning on shoving him in a toilet with lots of soap and then flushing repeatedly.

Crappy Columnists

Were I running the Boston Globe, I might stand by a columnist who uses newspaper money to commit a felony straw purchase of a handgun. Might. But why would I stand by such a man when his column is almost 700 words of pure unadulterated ad hominem? To me that seems to be another thing entirely.

Ethanol Production

Kim du Toit has a piece up on why ethanol is a bad idea. Last weekend I had a talk with my sister and brother-in-law. They're chemical engineers who work for the EPA. My sister does research into cleaning up parasites and pollutants. My brother-in-law, oddly enough, does most of his current work on bio-fuels. I learned a lot which is one of the reasons I now know that articles like Kim's are largely hype with a silver lining of truth. Here is an overview of what I picked up:

• While many of the criticisms of transporting ethanol are valid for all types, most of the criticisms of ethanol you see in print are only valid for corn-based ethanol production. While that is the process the US is currently using, nobody expects us to keep using it because, as all these articles are eager to explain, it is far too inefficient.
• There are still invalid criticisms of corn-ethanol. One of them is that increased livestock feed prices from the use of corn for ethanol will cause horrible harm. This one is *ahem* bull. Ethanol is made from the corn's sugar and carbohydrates. The good livestock feed is made from the corn's protein (also referred to as distillers grain). You can do both.
• The long term bio-fuel solution will problem come from crops like switchgrass. They grow quickly with less energy input in less restrictive soil types. They are nitrogen fixing so they don't deplete the soil like corn (and therefore don't require petro-fertilizers like corn). But the technology and the agricultural infrastructure is going to require some time.
• The holy grail of biofuels is making them from waste streams like sewage or your household trash. It is also unlikely to happen any time soon. It is possible to reprocess a waste stream like this, but if they have been thoroughly processed already, it won't be easy. Or in other words, poop is poop because it is the stuff our bodies didn't want to bother breaking down any further for energy.
• It is entirely possible that the long term biofuel solution may not be ethanol, but a different compound like butanol or propanol. These are less soluble in water, a major problem with the transportation of ethanol. They are also more soluble in fossil fuels like gasoline which makes them better additives. They also have higher energy densities.

So now you know and knowing is half the battle.

Top Gear Coming to America

I really like our satellite service at home. I like it even more now that BBC America will be showing episodes of Top Gear. Sweet!