Big Defeat or Trouncing a Loser

Instapundit brought up that Denny Hastert's old House seat has changed party hands in Michigan. This may be a foreshadowing of November, where Republicans get ousted for becoming political fat cats. But I have to wonder if it isn't a more isolated incident. Why?

Oberweis has now spent nearly $9 million of his own money on six elections the last six years and still does not hold elected office.

The GOP ran a six time loser. Give it a rest already. This reminds me of Barbara Hafer who seemed to run for (and lose) every statewide office under the sun during my later school years in Pennsylvania. Or Mike Protack, who can't even seem to get through the primaries, but just keeps running.

Dishonest History

David E. Young takes 15 historians to task for an amicus brief to D.C. vs. Heller that isn't just poorly reasoned, but is actually factually inaccurate. He doesn't list the names of the professors involved, but they are:

1. Jack Rakove
2. Saul Cornell
3. David T. Konig
4. Bill Novak
5. Lois Schwoerer
6. Fred Anderson
7. Carol Berkin
8. Paul Finkelman
9. R. Don Higginbotham
10. Stanley N. Katz
11. Pauline R. Maier
12. Peter S. Onuf
13. Robert E. Shalhope
14. John Shy
15. Alan Taylor

I'm going to look into these people more later, but I already know that several of them are Brady Center affiliated.

Squirrelly Photographers

My brother sent me to a site featuring pictures of a cute pet squirrel name Sugarbush. The owners dresses up the squirrel in costumes as befits the latest news and then takes pictures.

The more I look at it, the more I wonder about her owner's mental health. Amy and I dressed Milo up once for Halloween. He was so mortified that I doubt we'll ever do it again.

Maybe this woman just doesn't have any children?

Not Just Cool Because It's Black

Major Brian Shul's piece about flying the SR-71 Blackbird has been making the rounds on various high profile blogs. Here is the opening paragraph:

In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111's had inflicted. Qaddafi had established a 'line of death,' a territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra, swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.

Bad Ass. There are some amazing aircraft that came out of the US in the 50s and 60s. Aircraft like the Blackbird or the Starfighter.

Pin the Label on the Feminist

John C. Wright brings up this City Paper editorial about prolonged adolescence. He correctly points out that this is what happens when sexual propriety is thrown out the window. Turns out that before feminists sought to revolutionize gender dynamics, they should have bothered to understand them first. Oops.

He doesn't mention that the whole article is a put down on the male gender. For example:

Single women in their twenties and early thirties are joining an international New Girl Order, hyperachieving in both school and an increasingly female-friendly workplace, while packing leisure hours with shopping, traveling, and dining with friends [see “The New Girl Order,” Autumn 2007]. Single Young Males, or SYMs, by contrast, often seem to hang out in a playground of drinking, hooking up, playing Halo 3, and, in many cases, underachieving. With them, adulthood looks as though it’s receding.

Can you see the double standard? Young women shop, travel, and dine with friends. But when young men do similar things they are described derogatively as "hanging out" or "partying." Men live in disgusting bachelor pads. Where do the women live? Moreover, who do you think these young men are hooking up with? Those guys can't all be gay. Why do all the shallow girls emulating the prolonged Sex and the City style of female adolescence get a pass? The answer is that this isn't the narrative the author wants to tell.

Frankly, I think the main reason for prolonged adolescence in both sexes is college. Once upon a time, you graduated from high school and were expected to start taking care of yourself, and act like an adult. Make plans to settle down with your high school sweetheart, etc. Not any more. Now most high school students have four more years of drinking still to go. There is no point to planning long term with your high school girl, because she probably won't be your college girl when you graduate. And is it surprising that men and women are living in apartments with their friends after they've been doing it through four years of higher education? No.

Subtle Hints

My wife sent me this article this morning. Perhaps I need to do more vacuuming?

Left Wing Religion

Physics Geek has a commentary on some of Barrack Obama's recent statements. I respect a man that uses scripture or theology as a punchline.

The Importance of Carry

Kim du Toit made me aware of this account of a man protecting his daughter from two would-be thieves. They wanted a Gameboy and since they couldn't steal one from Walmart, they marked two people who just bought one and tried to take it by force in the parking lot. They didn't plan on a .45 automatic entering into it.

Quite a while ago, John the Methodist asked me which one of my guns I'd use for carry. I own three handguns, a Browning Buckmark, a 9mm FN Hipower, and a .45acp RIA 1911. The buckmark is a .22 target pistol. It doesn't have stopping power or reliability. The RIA has stopping power, but isn't as reliable as I would like. This is mostly the fault of me buying cheap magazines. This leaves my hipower as my "go to gun" for carry. It is accurate, powerful enough if I use hollowpoints, and it has never jammed.

What I need now is a decent holster for it. My current holsters are a cheap IWB that snags on the sights and a surplus thumbreak that is better, but still doesn't fit quite right. Since I do not have a concealed carry permit, the former is unacceptable even without snagging problems. I really need to pick up a good open carry holster, a few more magazines, some magazines carriers, and decent carry belt.

UPDATE: By the way, one of the more annoying things about the hipower is that if they carry a "hipower" holster, it often isn't actually made for hipowers. Most "hipower" holsters are just 1911 government or commander holsters that are marked "and hipower." While the two guns are similar in shape, they aren't quite the same and the 1911 holsters often don't fit quite right. I already have a holster that is better than nothing. I want something that is actually good.

Losing a Wizard

Gary Gygax passed away yesterday at age 69 from unspecified health problems. He was the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons and as such shares the credit for revolutionizing modern gaming with the invention of the role-playing game.

There is no word yet about how the family intends to protect his grave to prevent tabletop gamers from cracking it open to recharge their dice. I'm betting on clay golems or masterwork-grade death traps. Perhaps a well placed Sphere of Annihilation. Those would be awesome.

Most of the blogosphere is mourning his passing including Chris Byrne (who moderated a newsgroup for him) and, oddly enough, Michelle Malkin.

Why You Use Two Hands

Lets say you have a Thompson Contender Encore single shot pistol chambered in 600 Nitro Express. This is a gun that fires a round with almost 5 times the muzzle energy of a .44 magnum. The cartridge is normally chambered in 15 pound double rifles used to stop charging elephants, not 6 pound handguns used to show off at your local range. So if you're going to shoot such a weapon and do so with people watching and recording the event for posterity, don't lay it across your wrist, hold on to the grips with both your frickin' hands! Otherwise you'll look like fatso here.

Rising Skepticism

Instapundit linked to this story about the rise of solar power. Here is a problematic excerpt:

"We also see an exponential progression in the use of solar energy," he [Ray Kurzweil] said. "It is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we'll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years."

Except that an exponential rate of expansion is not generally sustainable forever. "If trends continue" is one of those phrases that should light warning signs and sound sirens. Especially when these trends must continue for over a generation. The growth curve for new technologies is generally exponential growth up to point followed by a decline in growth until they hit the market saturation threshold. I expect this to happen with solar power just like it has happened with everything else.

Why? Well among other things, roughly half the planet is dark at any given time. Even more is getting weak sunlight in the morning or evenings. Electrical power transmission is lossy and power storage technologies on an industrial level also stink. So you can't move the power around well or store it well. While I could be wrong, I don't see either of those things changing in the next 20 years because they haven't changed in over a hundred. When it is dark you need another power generation option. You also can't do electrical load balancing with solar. The sun is shining or it isn't. You need generators somewhere that you can throttle up or down to meet supply needs in real time.

The other problem is that outside of cities and suburbs, increasing solar electrical generation capacity will have to compete with arable farm land. Solar makes for a great bottom feeder generation technology in urban and suburban areas. It costs (or will cost) very little to throw it on the roof of your house or factory. Why not do it? But out in the country, most of the land is actually used for growing food. Which is important. Nature and agriculture are also solar powered.

I'm not saying that we aren't on the cusp of a solar power revolution. I actually think we are. New manufacturing processes are set to both drop costs and raise efficiency, but there is an upper limit to what we can achieve. A canna' change the laws of physics. I haven't seen any sort of analysis that realistically addresses that generation threshold. Kurzweil essentially just waves his hand and assumes the problem away, which is just sloppy thinking.

Facebook

Ah, so thats why I don't use it.

Glock in a Box

The guys at QandO think this video of the ultracompact prototype FMG9 is pretty cool:



It's a neat product, basically a Glock 18 that folds up into a compact package. But parts of the video do bother me. Did you notice how the guy showing it off is sweeping all creation with the guns muzzle in various parts of the video? Likewise, having a "flashlight" on a gun is only good if you don't mind putting a hole in what you light up with it. And you can't forget muzzle discipline just because it doesn't look like a gun at the time. I'd imagine that it would make a pretty decent PDW for vehicle crews though.

Third Party Candidates

If McCain and Obama aren't going to do it for you, then there is always the BadAss party candidate.

Yankee Candle They Ain't

About the only saving grace of most candle places is that they might have a few products that smell liked baked goods. For a while my air fresheners were vanilla or apple pie. Which is great but they do make you hungry. But Manterns sells an explicitly more male friendly selection. No word on whether they have any specifically designed for the bathroom though.

Congratulations!

John the Methodist and his wife are expecting their first child in September. Please go over there and suggest a baby name or else they'll probably use a Watership Down character. Because a kid named Thlayli "Bigwig" the Methodist would have a really rough childhood.

Cute Puppy

Jared at Thinklings is doggy-sitting a cute pooch named Bailey. She reminds me of Amy's old dog Misty. She looks like her and dresses in clothes like her and is on crack like her. Maybe it a small dog thing. His post includes the requisite adorable picture.

From AK to AR

In a move destined to incite flame wars across the internet the Iraqi Army is switching from the AK-47 to the M-16. The main reason for the switch is that most Iraqi AKs are from arms sales before the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. They're old and despite the AK's reputation, old guns that haven't been maintained or stored properly will have accuracy and reliability problems. Plus the Iraqi government probably has US military support funds that have to be spent on US equipment (just like Israel does). Buying rifles and pistols with it is a great way to go because Iraqi units are almost entirely made up of infantry.

A Day of Deceasing

Miss Anonymous, Paul Smith, and Ryan S. are lamenting the loss of William F. Buckley at age 82. Fewer have said anything about the death of legendary hot-rod customizer Boyd Coddington at age 63. Perhaps that is because Buckley was a consummate gentleman and Coddington was a a hotheaded jackass. Or perhaps we just aren't big American Hot Rod fans.

A Man With Vision

That explains exactly why I voted for him, but also shows Bush's greatest failings. His administration looks forward to the oncoming threat, but yet he is unable to articulate it's magnitude.

Attack Cat

There's a good psycho kitty.

Nerd Engineering

Starship Dimensions is a compilation of various spacecraft from all sorts of science fiction and anime series drawn to a common scale. Of course there are also a few things from real life thrown in (like building) so you can wrap your mind around the relative sizes. Its a real simple idea for a website, but you can spend a lot of time geeking out there.

The Decline of Golf

Hube is lamenting that his pastime has been in decline for 10 years.

I could never really get into golf. I had friends in high school and college that were golfers, (one even received a really bad head injury on the links) but it never clicked with me. Just like with coffee, I missed the crucial period when I should have acquired a taste for it.

I prefer the shooting sports. Target shooting gives you all the struggles with accuracy and consistency that a golf game does, but with the added fun of explosions and breakin' thangs. And some shooting skills are useful outside of the sporting context.

Let me shoot a golf game with, say, a small black powder howitser and then we'll be cooking.

Death by Blogging

John the Methodist thinks I somehow involved with two cases of death by blogging. I deny it completely. Those people obviously said something untoward about Chuck Norris and Chuck acted accordingly.

And you know what we say every time someone dies suddenly by roundhouse kick? It's good that Chuck did that, it's very good!

Fake But Accurate

I know that Barack Obama didn't actually write this editorial, but he could have. Or at least his functionaries could have. Funny stuff.

Perils of Healthy Eating

I've been trying to cut the empty calories out of my diet as much as possible. One of the things I've done is to start taking cups of applesauce to work in my lunch instead of candy. The problem? When I get ready to eat it I just feel like I'm about to snack on baby food. I'm waiting for some Brobdingnagian woman with a mammoth spoon to suddenly appear and make airplane noises at me. Maybe it has something to do with the consistency of the applesauce? I don't know but it's just weird.

On the Forthcoming General Election

Gary at Jokers has this to say about McCain vs. Obama election strategy:

1. Make this a foreign policy election. Talk about Iraq. Alot. I can't imagine when voters hear about McCain's insistence upon winning in Iraq versus Obama's insistence upon losing in Iraq that voters are going to want to vote for the candidate that wants to lose...

2. Talk substance. Let Obama talk about hope and about change, but remind voters (esp. independents) that while Barack Obama was experimenting with cocaine and other drugs, that McCain was the one that was fighting for change, for reform, and did actually achieve it...

My thoughts? I don't think the first one is a particularly good idea. The war is not popular even if we are winning it. Since McCain was one of the people Bush tasked with whipping up support for the war in the first place, this tactic open the door for Obama to point that out. He can link McCain to the Bush administration with it. McCain is better off presenting himself as being unaffiliated with the Bush administration's huge negatives as much as possible.

The second? Yes please. McCain has loads of experience. Obama doesn't. Use that. And his message of hope is largely a slogan. Obama's actual policies are all semi-socialist to completely socialist. Bring the real world crashing in. In the real world Obama is actually at Hillary's left. McCain should claim the political center and make Obama work to get it back.

He should focus his campaign on rooting out corruption, balancing the budget, and streamlining government. Essentially run like Clinton did in 1992. Confront Obama with how he intends to pay for his sweeping government programs (by taxing the rich). Use this policy to force Obama into the traditional Democrat class warfare posture which doesn't work for Democrats in general elections.

That's how I would fight it.

Closeout Bargains

LA Police Gear is blowing out Bates Boots. These are factory seconds, but are being sold at around 80% off. Most are GoreTex lined and probably quite comfy. So if you need something waterproof and purposeful, have at it.

Making the World Smaller

I just realized that my parents' house is on Google's Street View. For some reason that seems a lot more eerie than the old Terraserver picture I had of the old homestead in college. In the latter you can see the grainy outline of the house from space. In the former, both of their cars are parked in the driveway and you can see the make, model, and color.

It would be scary if the street numbering weren't all screwed up. If you actually put in my parents' address, you get pictures of our neighbor's houses instead. But nothings perfect.

UPDATE: Oh and if Street View is supposed to help you figure out where you're going, it fails miserably. Sure I can make out buildings, but it lacks the resolution to read most types of signs and I know the numbering is off. So I have no idea whether I'm actually headed to the right place.

Delaware Firearms Laws

Wynder in the Delaware Open Carry board has built a PDF containing a compilation of Delaware firearms laws. And by Delaware, I don't just mean state law. Those are useful but you could get them by searching the Delaware Code. What makes this a wonderful resource is that it also contains the local Delaware laws that are still in effect because they predate Delaware's preemption law (like Newark and Wilmington's ordinances). I don't know if this list is definitive, but he's working on making it as close as possible.

Reviewing the Rental

My car is getting brake work done, so I'm tooling around in a Chevy Silverado today. I like it.

Overall the Silverado is just more comfortable than the midsize Colorado. The seats are off the floorboards. The dash is still plastic, but the design is better so it doesn't feel cheap. The ride is trucklike but comfy. No worse than the sport suspension in my little Mazda. The truck is big, bigger than the Colorado, but unlike the Colorado its size isn't a problem.

The red crew-cab came equipped with a 4.8L V8. It isn't the biggest engine in the lineup, but I still feel like the truck has depths of power and torque that I just don't care to use. The smaller Colorado felt like it couldn't get out of its own way. I didn't have that feeling with the Silverado. I've had all the power I want and I still haven't taken it above about two thousand RPM. If I put my foot down, I'm sure it will respond with gusto.

I can see why someone might want to step up to the 5.3L though. The 4.8 is the "base" V8. It is a good solid engine, but doesn't have any frills. The 5.3 gives you more power and GMs intelligent engine management system that lets you drop cylinders you don't need when you don't need them. I'm willing to bet the 5.3 actually gets better highway mileage than the 4.8. I just don't know whether it would make enough of a difference to pay for itself. The equipment to do intelligent management doesn't come cheap.

It is a pain to park though. Not only does it take all of Newcastle County to turn around, but it fills up a parking space, side to side and front to back. When I pull through a parking space at the supermarket, I've found that I have to pull forward about a foot past where I'm comfortable before my rear end is out of the space behind me. And pulling into the parking spot in front of our townhouse requires backing up and pulling in again because our neighbors parked on the street.

So I don't know that I would buy one, but I can see why John the Methodist did. Now I have to go think about whether I need to buy anything that requires a 5 foot bed. If I've got it I might as well haul with it.

Friends: Good and Good for You.

43%

Via Hube

Update: If my score gets much higher, I might have a career in the Royal Navy or the RAF.

Delaware Gunnies

I stumbled across the Delaware forum at Opencarry.com this morning. For those interested in the specifics of Delaware Firearms law, it is full of good folks and good information. They cover open carry legality in specific areas like Newark and Wilmington. There are also first hand accounts of people jumping through Delaware's extensive legal hoops while working towards their CCW licenses.

Public Information on Private Matters

The Delaware State Police have started a new program called Tric-Tics in which pictures of Prostitutes and their Johns are posted on the DSP website. The program went live on the first of February and the first set of pictures are now available.

Oh and for those of you who have never watched COPS, none of these people look like Richard Gere or Julia Roberts. You might find someone that looks like Nick Cage if you wait long enough though.

Spending Your Refund

Amy and I discussed how we want to spend any forthcoming IRS refunds last night. It seems to be a popular topic on the net, so I thought I would bring it up.

Amy, who doesn't like to spend her money, is thinking about buying a new laptop. Her current unit is five years old and is giving us a little trouble because of overheating problems. If we can't fix it with a thorough cleaning, it will be time for a replacement.

Me? I want a .22 rifle so I can work on my marksmanship on the cheap. After that, some reloading equipment would also be a good idea. After that? Well I'm thinking it might be time to invest in another AR-15 and some high capacity magazines in case our next president decides to outlaw them. Or maybe a new kilt.

UPDATE: The recent foul weather has made me aware of another more pressing problem. My current bad weather coat, a parka similar to this one, has to go. It actually soaked through in two places while I was outside clearing off the front steps and cars this morning. Unacceptable, but understandable since I've had it for over a decade.

The coats main job is keeping me dry in bad weather and getting dirty at the range. It will tend to do more of the latter than the former. I'm thinking a field coat like an M65 (with liner of course) might be the way to go for a replacement. The only problem is finding one in a color that doesn't make me look like I'm playing soldier. Or this guy.

Anti-Gun Leadership

In cleaning out my inbox, I stumbled upon this article Miss AO sent me a few weeks back. It seems that a Los Angeles gun control organization, which was city supported to the tune of $1.5 million to help in anti-gang efforts, was being used as a front to run guns illegally to the founder's old gang. Say it ain't so!

There is something you need to realize about this case: most gun control organizations, even the big ones, are run by hypocrits. This is a widely known in the pro-gun community, but is often unknown outside it.

How so you say? Many leading anti-gunners own guns. Many of them take advantage in "loopholes" they rail against in public. Sarah Brady gave her son a rifle in 2000 using a private transfer, a technique she had fought to outlaw. Diane Feinstein, one of the most vocal anti-gun Senators, has a concealed carry permit and keeps a snubnose .38 in her purse. She's one of a handful of San Francisco residents with that privilege. Many of the others, like the Kennedy's, hire armed bodyguards. Rosie O'Donnell, a vocal anti-gun celebrity, employs a bodyguard with a concealed carry permit, but doesn't have one herself.

Are the rank and file this bad? Generally not. Most anti-gunners I know oppose gun ownership because they don't trust themselves with them. They think they might lose control and kill someone at the drop of a hat. Why they think that admitting to be psychopaths is ok and a good thing I'll never know.

I Licked My Neighbor Because Big Bird Said To And He's My Leader

For decoding instructions see Steve Lamp.

Inter-Holiday Shopping

Larry Correia, a long time gun forum contributor, is also a gun dealer. In order to get the next level of licensing from CZ USA, he's holding a one-time sale on all CZ merchandise at or near dealer cost that ends on February 21st. You have to contact him personally for further information and you can do that from this post on his blog. I don't know that I need another pistol, but I've heard CZ's 452/453 rimfire rifles are very nice.

Playing Catchup

I've been in training all week, so no access to a computer during the day means no new posts for you folks at any time. But this has been a busy week in the world:

• McCain is now the presumptive Republican nominee. Joy. I hated all the Republican front runners so I actually voted for Ron Paul on Tuesday. His foreign policy is ludicrous but at least he actually has consistent political principles and among them is a commitment to limited government.
• Mitt dropped out of the race today. Can't say I'll miss him.
• Tornadoes in Tennessee? Tennessee? Did they get lost or something? Did they miss the left turn at Albuquerque?
• The bread and circuses bill passed. People are calling this a token measure. Of course it's a token measure. It's an attempt by our elected officials to look like they're dealing with the problem. If any government entity is really going to make important changes, it's the Federal Reserve. But Congressmen and Senators don't get reelected by sitting back and letting the Fed do its job, now do they?
• Amybear and I hit Miss AO's place last night and took turns playing with her Wii. It really was quite fun, but required a bit more motor control than I'm used to from a video game. I'm thankful it was Miss AO's Wii we tried out, since talking about playing with a male friend's Wii would result in poorly suppressed schoolboy giggles.
• We netflixed in Stardust and watched it tonight. Amy thought it was strange, and it is, but I really really liked it. The whole story was novel yet classic. The fencing scenes at the end were also quite nice. Thankfully, I was able to keep from singing "Montage" from Team American while Tristan was learning to fence. I have got to get me a saber one of these days.

That should bring us about up to date.

The Perils of Global Warming

As if global warming wasn't causing enough problems, it will also lengthen the annual activity cycle of the living dead:

A new study by scientists has suggested that zombie attacks might increase if the current projections of global warming are realized. “If the earth gets warmer, it means longer springs, summers, and falls, and shorter winters,” said John Carpenter-Romero, Ph.D., a zombie-ologist who co-authored the study. “And shorter winters means more time for the undead to prey on the populace.”

That is unless it triggers a new ice age.

Via TransTerrestrial.

Update: On the topic of zombies, I picked up Walking Dead: Book One. It is a large trade paperback containing the entire first year of Image's Walking Dead comic. I picked it up for around $20 with a discount. If you're a fan of all things zombie, it's worth picking up.

Just Like Chef Used to Make

Sometimes my local vending machine has selections that, while potentially tasty, have made interesting marketing choices. Like Crazy 8s from Cloverhill Bakery. Because of how these chocolate donut holes are manufactured, two of them are stuck together looking like a number 8. Or like a part of the male anatomy. They look like the sort of treat that should be sold in the Non-Metal, Non-Mcfarlane section of Spencer's Gifts.

Oh and for those wishing to be multi-cultural, they also come in glazed.

School Violence

From an attack on the Makor Haim High School in Israeli Kibbutz of Kfar Etzion:

The attack took place in the library when the two terrorists, dressed in black, burst into the room and ordered everyone to raise their hands and stand against the wall. The terrorists stabbed two students before their counselors were able to draw their personal handguns and kill the terrorists on the spot.

I can't say that arming teachers and counselors is a way to avoid school violence. What the counselors did was certainly violent. It is however a way to keep the violence short and ensure that most of it is directed at the killers instead of by them.

Perhaps this is a lesson from the International community the Democrats can embrace? Oh wait, it's Israel. They don't count.

Via Kim Du Toit.

Ah Fatherhood

Dadcentric has some great advise for fathers of infants. Like this one:
Wow he's got his baby benching more weight than I can. Via Incoherent Ramblings.

Christianese

Christians regularly use words that don't see much use outside of Churches. Words like redemption or salvific or, uncommon even in Christian circles, propitiate. Paul Smith brings up one that is used in Catholic circles, but has taken on a completely different meaning in more worldly ones. With amusing results of course.

Crash

Amy and I netflixed the 2005 Oscar Winner this weekend. Crash is a series of intertwining character pieces centering on how race and racism can divide people. The film was well crafted and brilliantly edited. Its thesis is that things are f'ed up and the issues are complex. Well gee, that's helpful. In the end it lacks a defining moral and there are no answers.

Crash is like a brilliant portrait of a traffic accident; all wreckage, smoke, oil, and blood without any obvious order. You have no idea what exactly is going on, how things got this way, or what to do next. Just look on it in horror and thank God you aren't involved.

UPDATE: Rearrange, edit, there that flows a little better.

Spiritual Gifts

David Wayne critiques the modern practice of standardized Spiritual Gifts testing and John the Methodist adds his own two cents. Let me add mine...

1. Even within the Bible, spiritual gifts are not clearly and definitively defined. Paul covers the topic several times. The moral of each passage is the same; that God has given you abilities to use for his glory and the betterment of the Church. But each list he gives is different. Do you compile a test for all of them mentioned across the various epistles? The core gifts that appear in multiple lists?


2. Many of the gifts are charismatic in nature. Lots of denominations don't think people will start spouting Jeremiah style Prophecy, so they reinterpret it as "speaking God's truth" (e.g. scripture application). Is that correct? Maybe. We really don't know what the Old Testament College of Prophets looked like. Most of the prophets we have records for are not the everyday sort, they're the once in a generation world-changers. Demanding direct connection with God might be like saying everyone with the gift of Evangelism ought to be Billy Graham. Or it might not.


3. Theological issues aside, most of these tests are actually based on aptitude or inclination not spiritual ability. They're often little more than personality tests. You like to talk to people? Be an evangelist or a pastor/shepherd. You're bookish? Then teach. You like to help meet physical needs: you're a servant. But is that the gift God has given you? Not necessarily. Worse yet, the whole structure of the test is driven by your own perceptions of yourself, which may or may not be accurate. Think of all those American Idol contestants who really think they can sing.

I've seen these tests become crutches and stumbling blocks to many. Some things are jobs every believer should be able to do, like evangelism. If I had a nickel for everyone who used the excuse "that's not my spiritual gift" to get out of a jobing they don't want, I'd have a healthy donation to the church building fund. As if Christ said "Go forth and make disciples of all nations... unless you're a Servant, you guys just show up at church workdays."

If you want to use these things in your church, just call them what they are, aptitude or personality tests. Explain to people that they can help them figure out their talents so they can use them to better the Kingdom, but that they aren't some sort of definitive source for spiritual insight and they don't absolve them of spiritual responsibility.

Don't Feed the Bears

The thesis to LawDog's current post is an admirable one:

Evil is not defeated by submitting to it. Evil is not defeated by running away from it; nor is evil defeated by ignoring it.

Evil is only defeated by fighting back.

He discusses how giving thieves money when threatened is something that generally encourages them to be criminals. Which means they're going to go off and rob someone else. It essentially rewards a thief for having the balls to threaten someone with violence. This is not a good thing. For some reason people don't seem to understand this so let me use a non-crime related illustration.

When people go hiking in the woods, it isn't uncommon for them to run across wild animals. This isn't so much of a problem when they're bunny rabbits or even deer, but it is a problem if you're in territory with bigger predators like bears. Why? Because bears will occasionally eat people if they look tasty or do something they don't like.

As an answer to this, the government issued a recommendation that people run away from bears. Which doesn't work because bears see running as a sign of weakness and they're quite a bit faster than humans. This was then modified to "drop your pack/food and run away." The bears would then go after the food in your pack and you would get away safely. This largely worked. For a while. Then the injury rates started to climb again until they passed previous levels. Well, why would that be?

The answer is that by giving the bears a free meal with no negative consequences, this technique actually encouraged the bears to start hanging around hiking trails to scare hikers. Hiker hippies: "Like whoa, a bear! Like, drop your pack and let's go!" Bear: "Mmm brownies... I wonder what the next guy will give me?"

Since that time, the government recommends you carry bear spray in bear country. Bears don't like getting hit with bear spray. Experienced woodsmen often recommend carrying firearms with an eye for deep penetration, so a 12 gauge loaded with slugs or a rifle in .45-70 might be a better idea. Combined with the "Don't Feed the Bears" signs they put up everywhere, this will hopefully discourage bears from hanging around humans. Everyone ends up happy.

My question is, do you think people are dumber than bears? Bears figured out that a display of violent intent would get them a free lunch. Don't you think people will? The answer is not to drop your pack or wallet and run. The answer is to actively discourage the bears.

And this is also why gun control fails. In the short term, the criminals get scared, but they're rarely prosecuted and they forget. Then the easy buck wins out. And gun control always makes it harder for law-abiding citizens to get guns, which makes the easy buck even easier because honest men and women can't fight back.

That's Art?

No I'm not writing about a cross in a glass of urine, I'm writing about this wonderful site which covers the finer points of Rob Liefeld's art style. Good Lord, the man is a multi-million dollar earning comics artist and he can't draw feet. Or legs. Or human anatomy in general. Let the mockery commence.

So Easy a Bachelor Could Do It

One of my single male coworkers brought in some incredible chocolate-butterscotch fudge this morning. He says he made it based on this Paula Dean recipe from FoodNetwork.com.

A Rifle for the Wife

Amybear has a thing for Sanrio's Hello Kitty product franchise. So for my next rifle build, perhaps I'll try to build a Cute Pink Rifle (CPR) instead of an Evil Black one. Like these guys did:
That isn't a Photoshop, it is a rifle completely refinished by ArmoryAirbrush inside and out.

As a cat owner, I find this to be a very satisfying product on a philosophical level. Sure cats can be cute and fuzzy, but beneath that milk-lapping exterior there beats the heart of a household assassin, ready to dispatch any rodent, bird, or insect foolhardy enough to come within reach of his claws.

Doing What Ya Gotta Do

Such is the Clinton mantra about attack ads and using outright lies against their opponents. Unfortunately it isn't paying off very well in their primary battle against Barack Obama. I guess you can't do that sort of thing to other Democrats.

This morning I saw some actual journalism coming out of the mainstream media. What was it you ask? This morning's GMA showed clips of Hillary misrepresenting Obama alongside clips of what Obama actually said in those instances. They didn't match up at all. Then they did the same for Obama's claims about Clinton. Surprise, surprise he actually told the truth about his opponent.

Not that Obama got a complete pass. He was criticized for distancing himself from past political patron Antoin Rezko, who is currently under federal indictment. Obama claims he only did a few hours of work for Rezko, neglecting to mention that he's received $150,000 in political contributions from him over the years and Rezko helped him finance his house.

Stripping Shotguns

This post at Mr. Completely links to two videos (large and small) from Life, Liberty, Etc. showing how to disassemble a Mossberg 500. My 590 is more stoutly built but is essentially similar. The videos are good, but the resolution on the large video still isn't that hot. When you're taking guns apart, you often have to put parts in very specific places to get them to disassemble. The mossberg in the video looks like a big grainy field of black and I would have a hard time figuring out where those locations were if I didn't already know them.

They have similar videos on their front page and range bag sections which cover field stripping and detailed lower reciever assembly of AR-15s. Those would have been handy to have when I put Mabel together a while back.

And in Other News

Fred Thompson is out of the race for President, not surprising considering his performance. At this point the only Republican presidential candidate I can stand is Rudy.

Also, Heath Ledger died of a drug overdose this afternoon. Drugs are bad m'kay.

Flunking Out of Electoral College

Geek with a .45 has two posts about recent trends in Maryland and New Jersey to disenfranchise their own state by apportioning their electors according to the results of the national popular vote. This would break down the districting system created by the electoral college that forces candidates to campaign widely instead of narrowly.

It is a stupid idea. Fortunately, once Maryland and Jersey vote one way and the national popular vote goes the other, they will probably turn on their state legislatures and demand a return to some sort of state-wide apportionment system.

If you don't want to go all-or-nothing, then using Congressional districts is probably the only other serious option. I don't like it, because the President will tend to be of the dominant Congressional Party using that methodology, but it might work. The MD/NJ system is just foolishness.

UPDATE: NJ isn't as stupid as I though, their law is designed so it only goes into effect once the majority of electoral votes are determined through the national popular vote. Unfortunately, it also creates a multi-state agreement which, unless Consented to by Congress, is probably Unconstitutional. But hey, when did the Constitution stop New Jersey from doing anything?

Interview Questions

Hube reports the Democratic candidates answers to that most common of job interview questions, "What is your biggest fault?":

John Edwards: My greatest weakness is that I care too much, Tim. For 54 years, I've been fighting. I emerged from the womb with my dukes up, ready to do battle with every fiber of my day-old being.

Hillary Clinton: My greatest weakness is that I get impatient — impatient with people who don't care as much about children as I do.

Barack Obama: My greatest weakness? Sometimes I misplace stuff. I'm a little disorganized. It's probably a good thing I'm not in charge of my own schedule.

Wow nobody said they were a perfectionist or worked too hard? I guess I've been giving the wrong answer for that all these years. I'd better steal a page from the professionals.

Have you ever had an interview for a position you realized you don't want? If that ever happens again, I'm just going to make something up and see what the interviewer does. "My biggest fault? I'm a pedophile. But I only indulge myself on my regular trips to Thailand. I figure I'm only there to smuggle heroine back to the States so it doesn't really count." Or "I'm incredibly flatulent, especially in enclosed spaces like elevators and interview offices. Must be my diet or something. Oh, excuse me."

UPDATE: Actually, were I ever in a political debate, my answer would probably be: "Can I just say I'm a caring, impatient, perfectionist, workaholic like everyone else? Oh wait, I know what my problem is! I don't tolerate wasting my time very well."

The Sarah Connor Chronicles

I watched the premier on Sunday, but not the next episode that they showed on Monday night. It was pretty good, but not amazing. The writing just wasn't wowing me.

The woman playing Sarah Connor seemed too young and her character seemed too stupid. The Sarah Connor of T2 was smart and dangerous and she acted like it. She would wear pants in earth-tones, not pastels and mini-skirts. She would have had a password system so her son would have known whether they were talking to a killer robot or a loved one.

John had the same problem. Young John in T2 was a delinquent, but he was also smart and resourceful. Older John of Chronicles didn't have the same fire. He defers to his mother a lot and came of as a whiner not a doer. Hopefully this will change.

Summer Glau did a good job as she always does. It's nice to see her play someone who isn't crazy for a change even if her character is some sort of reprogrammed killer robot.

The show isn't perfect, but it is worth watching. Plus it is way better than reality TV.

Romney's Out of the Race

For me at least. I heard Mitt Romney giving a pander to Michigan voters on the drive home from visiting family in Connecticut. Romney's statements were something like:

"Michigan has been in a one state recession for years and the Federal government has done nothing for you, I intend to change that."

That statement is just every kind of wrong. If you have only one state in financial difficulty, then by definition you do not have an interstate problem. So by definition the Federal government aught not have a role in fixing it.

The thing that bugs me about bad politics and failed policy is that they act like viruses. It's bad enough that the refuge populations from states like New Jersey and California are setting up shop elsewhere and repeating old mistakes on new ground. When the higher levels of government step in to prop up failed governments, things get even worse. Why should they change when the state or federal government will just fill their coffers with other people's money from less foolhardy states?

If you're in a long one-state recession, that means your state is screwed up not the nation. Don't expect my tax dollars to enable your failed policies. Put your house in order!

UPDATE: Fred Thompson's response to Romney's promises:

He basically promised the federal government would come in and bail out Michigan when he got elected President – very conservative notion, don't you think?

You know I like him more and more.

The Band Meme

From Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease:

Here’s how it goes. You are about to have your own band’s CD cover. Follow these directions to the letter. It’s fun and requires no thought at all. Go to……

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
   The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
   The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
   The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result in your own journal because it’s more amusing that way.

I give you my debut album:


Sadly my album appears to be a James Bluntesque cheesecake pop piece. For alternatives see LawDog and Tamara.

The title is actually the end of this Thomas Sowell quote:

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

Great Quotes

This one comes from a poster over at Zombie Squad:

In most situations of female self defense, the woman isn't trying to kill an armed opponent an an act of mutual combat. She is trying to cause him to lose interest in her purse, or temporarily cause him to be unable to maintain an erection.

Very true. Most predators are actually cowards and opportunists. They're doing it for the easy score. Once they realize you aren't an easy score, they're going to lose interest very quickly.

UPDATE: There is another good quote about police response:

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Unfortunately there are still crazies out there when presentation of a gun is not enough. Politics, Guns, and Beer is publicizing a YouTube advocacy piece featuring the audio track of a 911 call made when a crazed attacker was breaking into her home. I can't say it has a happy ending, because the nameless woman will probably see her attacker's face in her dreams for the rest of her life. But that is the only place she will see it. I guess that's a silver lining.

Be Prepared

A Boy Scout saves the life of his country's president. I hope that kid makes Eagle scout and his hand heals up ok.

Wars of Attrition

One of the most despicable legal tactics I know of is filing a mountain of motions in order to bankrupt your opponent. This is what has befallen Melody Byrne in her fight to retain custody of her children from her abusive ex-husband. Now she and her current husband Chris are out of money and need it in a hurry.

I wish they had come forward two weeks ago, I could have written them a generous check. Instead my church received it before the end of last year. Until I receive my next paycheck, anything I can give them will be limited. If you don't have this problem, please hit their tip jar with whatever you can spare.

This tactic is reprehensible and there should be work put into drafting laws to prevent it. Of course most of our politicians are lawyers or are financed by lawyers, so I don't see that happening any time soon.

UPDATE: I fixed the link to Melody's post. It's amazing what an extra set of quotation marks can do.

Bobby's Dating Suzie

Mainstream Baptist actually has something useful to say. It turns out Fox News has had the same man show up in several of their "random" post-debate focus groups. Dr. Prescott wonders how this could be. Perhaps the population size the draw from is very small or, more likely, these people are not random at all. Stupid, stupid Fox.

I've probably aired this particular bit of criticism before, but I want to like Fox News a lot more than I actually do. In theory, having a conservative news source to balance out the others is nice. I wouldn't call Fox balanced in and of itself, but it is more balanced than the major media and when taken with other sources its effect is at least balancing.

The problem is that Fox wanted to be be just like the rest only right-wing and it has done just that. Whenever I turn it on, it just seems like the televised equivalent of the New York Post. This is not a good thing. You see I don't want to watch garbage with a right-wing slant instead of a left-wing slant. Either way, I'm still watching garbage. No thank you.

At what point did the content of our major media outlets become indistinguishable from Junior High lunch tables? I don't care about Laci Peterson, Britney, or Britney's little sister. Can't we keep this stuff in the supermarket tabloids where it belongs?

Is He Living in My House?

Amybear and I have been playing Fairyland together recently. Mostly this was because I don't want her characters to get 'married' to other characters (and therefore other people) in game. I'm strangely possessive of my wife that way. When we play together we are in different rooms and different floors of the house because of the computer locations. We end up text messaging each other like we still live half a continent away from each other. It's odd really. I can't wait for the writers strike to be over so we can go back to prostrating ourselves before the one-eyed God in the same room. To whatever she wants to watch of course.

Harder Than I Thought

Free Online Dating from JustSayHi

Mostly because I haven't had any geology or biology since high school. Via AnarchAngel.

How I Get Through Boring Sermons at Church

Update: For those who didn't know, this is from the excellent xkcd webcomic.

The Nature of Conservatism

Joe Carter recently had something very insightful to say about the traditional 3-legged stool model of Conservatism (social, fiscal, defense):

Rural/suburban Republican-voting conservatives--for the sake of identification let's call them "Reagan conservatives"-- don’t make sharp distinctions between the three branches. You won't find, for instance, many "fiscal conservatives" in rural Oklahoma that are squishy on the life issues or think that we should shrink the Armed Forces. In fact, when you hear someone referring to themselves as a "economic conservative" or a "defense conservative" you can almost be assured that they are (a) a libertarian and (b) live or work in an urban area.

Almost completely correct. (b) would be better expressed as "lives in a blue county". Truth be told most people in America don't live in cities proper, but in "urban areas" that encompass both cities and their surrounding suburbs.

Joe brings up a good point though. I have to wonder how Conservatism on the blogosphere is distorted because most "conservative" bloggers aren't. Most of the big blogging names (like Glenn Reynolds, everyone at the Volokh Conspiracy, everyone at QandO, etc.) are really small-L libertarians. You have to wonder what effect this is having on the right side of the blogosphere as a whole.

As an aside, I'm probably going to de-list Evangelical Outpost soon. When I followed Instapundit's link there, I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I had actually visited the site. That's always a bad sign.

The Furry Alarm Clock

Until we bought the cat's automatic feeder, our mornings really were a lot like this:



On the other hand I have no sympathy for this person. When Amybear and I wake up at 8:24, it means the cat has let us sleep in for over two hours. We consider those occasions a precious gift from God.

Talky Talk Talk

Amy and I tuned in to American Gladiators on NBC. We started late and left early, but we both had the same thoughts: less talking more hitting. I don't really care what the competitor felt like when the burly beefcake speared him or that he's hoping to live up the reputation of the NYPD or whatever. I just want him to shut up so someone can hit him or the next guy.

Huckabee on Leno

Didn't watch it, but I heard about it this morning. The morning crew at Mix 106.5 seemed to think that Mike crossing the picket lines to be on Leno was a huge political misstep. Huh? I realize he doesn't have an especially Republican record in Arkansas, but he still has the R next to his name. Why would he be scared of union members who will vote against him anyway? If anything I think Republicans should step up and try to get as much talk show airtime as possible. The Democrats can't afford to piss the unions off, but the Republicans? Milk this for all it's worth.

Fun with Shotguns

After watching this video, I have to buy a bayonet for my Mossberg 590. Now where can I get a head of lettuce?

Dishing the Dog Dirt

Scott Adams tells an amusing story about taking his in-laws dog for a walk without out adequate preparation for poop retrieval:

Later, when my in-laws returned, I told the story. Larry, a laid-back gentleman from Arkansas, turned to his wife Cheryl and drawled “Mollie double-bagged him.” Let me tell you, the only thing that could have made my experience worse was finding out my in-laws have a name for it.

My last family dog was a border collie mix named Rocky. Rocky had the uncanny ability to poop exactly halfway through his walk around the neighborhood. This coupled with his ability to poop one more time than you had bags meant you would have to walk the entire route again to pick up after him. This tendency explained why my Dad lost a fair bit a weight while the dog was still alive.

It struck me that this is a pretty amazing dog ability. After all, he doesn't really know where he's going or how far the walk will be when you set out. Yet he could still poop halfway through it. Maybe he could read your body language or something. Perhaps it was tied to the find-his-way-home sense that dogs supposedly have. I'm willing to bet that the dog who traveled across 9 states to get home did a lot of pooping in state number 5.

Rocky's other super ability was Twinkie detection, but this is understandable for a canine of his girth. Imagine this: you're inside the kitchen. All the house's doors and windows are shut. The dog is in the backyard on his doggie run. You crinkle a Twinkie wrapper and he turns and stares at you with his big Twinkie-lusting puppy dog eyes. And he could do it every time.

The cat doesn't seem to have any potty-related skills other than being naturally neat. I'm thankful for this as my aunt's cats do more crapping around their litter boxes than actually in them. And Milo can open bathroom doors. It's kind of funny that my wife yells at me for looking at the cat while he's in his box, but this very same cat regularly barges in on her whenever she uses the bathroom.

If You Can't Do... Criticize

I ran across a blog dedicated to mocking webcomics the author feels are inferior. I initially stumbled across them because of their criticism of VG Cats, a comic one of my coworkers is inexplicably nuts over. I noticed they had a critique of Sluggy Freelance that was also dead on: the strip is long in the tooth because the artist can't conclude a storyline to save his life.

That said, the critic doesn't seem to realize that making a strip is hard. Creating deep characterization in a handful of panels is difficult. Dilbert has pretty poor art and shallow characterization, but is wildly successful. TV is the same way. For every sitcom with some depth like The Office, there are a dozen successful series with characters little better than "fat girl," "lazy kid," or "trouble-maker."

Not Knowing Someone is Gone

I returned work today after a long holiday break. And I found out that one of my coworkers, an elderly veteran who fought in both Korea and Vietnam, died over a week ago. He was a major fixture in my workplace. Several others had close relations pass on. It's just odd hearing about them so far after the fact.

What's He Up To

I've spent the week making a fair amount of deferred home improvements. The curled linoleum in my kitchen is now tacked down. Our good china is now in quilted containers in the new china cabinet. Except for the broken ones which went back to Bed, Bath, and Beyond for replacement. A bunch of pictures have been hung with something akin to care. All that and I've slept in, played Mercenaries on PS2, and gotten the cat reacquainted with what I look like. It's been a good vacation.

Ideally I'd have rebuilt my blog layout over the break too, but I may run out of time before that happens. I still have several items on my list and I don't know whether it'll get done before I go back to work on Wednesday. There's always my Friday off though.

Gift Cards

Geek with a .45 hates them, likening the gift card to giving someone foreign currency. On the other hand, Billy Hollis at QandO and myself (and the rest of America) gave them as presents. Why? Because this year people in my family specifically asked for them. Foreign currency? If you keep with that analogy, wouldn't real gifts be some type of barter system?

The key with gift cards is to treat them like gifts not like they're cash. Make sure you buy someone a gift card to somewhere they shop. Do not buy them one from somewhere you shop. For that matter if you're mailing it to someone out of town, make sure they have that store within convenient shopping distance. My sister gave my wife and I several gift cards to Trader Joes. It's a wonderful establishment and I'm sure my sister loves it, but the nearest one is 30 minutes of highway from us and we never shop there anyway. Amy's Grandmother gave me a gift card to Books-A-Million for Hanukkah a couple years ago. The nearest BAM is on the other side of Baltimore so spending it was problematic.

And despite what they say at Geek's, cash is a horrible gift. It generally says "I didn't spend any effort buying this gift." In comparison, a gift card says "I bet you like to shop here, buy yourself something on me." I've given someone cash once in recent memory. I thought they might have a better use for cash than an extravagant item, because the recipient had just been laid off. Looking back, it was probably a crappy present and I should have just bought him something nice.

A Word for Telemarketers

This applies to everyone but especially the Police Athletic League and Fraternal Order of Police. If you call my home at 8am on a Sunday and wake my wife up from some especially restful slumber, don't expect me to give you money. This goes double for the local FoP who seem to be dedicated to running good officers out of the force and opposing gun reforms.

The Doors

After months of trying, Amybear and I have a new front door at Casa del Baptiste. When we bought the house, the front door frame was rotted out and the seal on the transom window was blown. I wonder if we can get any tax breaks come income tax day?

Gun Myths: Part 1

If you read gun boards, you inevitably run across the same garbage over an over again. Here are two I saw today:

Myth 1: The amount of energy a bullet has is the most important thing in it's terminal ballistics.

Truth be told, bullets don't have that much energy. If you took all the kinetic energy from a bullet fired from my AR-15 and used it to heat a standard 8oz cup of coffee, you'd raise the coffee's temperature by a couple of degrees Fahrenheit. That's it, just a couple of degrees. And handgun bullets are much less powerful than rifle rounds.

This is important because humans are a lot like a cup of coffee. We're mostly water with some extra organic compounds. Bullets really don't have that much energy compared to what our body can absorb. So it isn't the amount of energy that matters, it is how that energy gets used. You want a bullet that is good at breaking stuff and the right stuff. You want a bullet that will penetrate deeply to the very important parts of the human body like the heart, lungs, and central nervous system. The parts that are buried deeply because it makes them difficult to injure. Then you want it to damage those critical parts when it gets there.

Now more energy is good because tends to help you put the hurt on. But "tends" is a key word because it doesn't have to do that. You really need to look at expected penetration and expansion rather than some energy number. Why? Because manufacturers like to sell ammo by putting up big energy numbers. They do this by using very light bullets that won't penetrate as well as a slower, less energetic round will. The light bullet just doesn't have the mass to provide adequate penetration.

Myth 2: Caseless firearms don't need extraction systems.

Caseless ammunition is ammunition that does not have a traditional brass cartridge. It uses a different technology so that, if everything goes well, the case is either consumed in firing or sent out the barrel with the bullet. The closest caseless ammunition has been to fielding is the G11 rifle the Germans were working on when the Cold War ended. Caseless has its problems, like ammo durability and heat transfer issues. One of it's reported strengths is that it simplified gun design because you not longer need to extract the case. This is largely BS. Why? Because there are lots of reasons people want to get a bullet out the chamber of a rifle.

• If the gun fails to fire, the standard clearance drill is the Tap, Rack, Bang drill. You tap the magazine to make sure it is seated properly, rack the bolt to get a new round in the chamber from that magazine, and fire the gun. If you don't have a manual extraction system on the gun, you can't do the rack step so it won't clear several kind of problems. This is something that needs to be done easily in combat.
• Standard procedures for making firearms safe and storing them generally require an empty chamber on the gun. How do you do that without an extractor of some sort? This is something that is performed routinely and ought to be accomplished easily.

So you need at least a manual extraction system even for caseless guns. Once you have a streamlined manual system, making it automatic isn't hard. You just make sure recoil or gas pressure exerts similar forces in similar places that the rifleman's hand does.

Westerns

I share John the Methodist's love of the Western. I've read a few Louis L'amour books, but really it's all about John Wayne movies on AMC. I watched a lot of Gunsmoke and Maverick on TV Land when I was out of work after I finished Grad School. I have half a mind to put a few disks of Have Gun-Will Travel on my Netflix queue.

I almost bought myself a cowboy pistol this weekend. When I stopped by Millers Gun Center in Newcastle, they had an Uberti Cattleman Hombre chambered in .38/.357 for $300. I don't love the guns matte finish, but the price is right and with .38 specials I could actually afford to shoot the darn thing. In the end I passed on it, mostly because I don't actually like Colt Peacemakers very much. My hand doesn't fit on the grip quite right so the recoil bugs me. I might not have that problem with a .38, but why risk it? Besides I have more important things to spend $300 on right now.

UPDATE: Reminder to self, Numrich Gun Parts carries a variety of .45 ACP cylinders for the Uberti Single Action Armies. They even have them in the rough but cheap matte "millenium" finish. For about ~$110 you can turn a .45 colt SAA into a .45 ACP SAA. This is important because a .45 colt gun costs almost twice as much to feed as a .45 ACP gun and, since my 1911 is also .45 ACP, I already have the ammo lying around. The cost of the new cylinder would probably pay for itself within 500 rounds.

UPDATE2: John waxes poetic about the Winchester rifle, but he wants a Marlin. I guess Winchester's marketing department isn't what it used to be. I wouldn't mind trading my M1 carbine for a good lever gun myself.

UPDATE3: Turns out the .45 ACP guns are generally more accurate than the .45 colts. .45 colt has a huge amount of case volume compared to more modern cartridges. The amount of modern powder required to achieve it's pressure spec is just tiny. You can do the same thing with a .45 ACP case and have much less wasted space, which makes for a more accurate round.

Clinton III: Bride of Clintonstein

QandO is discussing Bill Clinton's worth as an asset to Hillary's presidential campaign:

Bill's addition to the campaign is reminding voters that the Clintons come as a package and what they're getting is not change, but the return of the old guard.

Amybear and I were watching a Babwah Waltahs special a little while ago. Babwah was profiling the years most interesting people. One of them turned out to be ole Slick Willy himself. The interview eventually tackled the topic of Hillary's campaign and his position in her potential presidency. But what Bill said was essentially "well I wouldn't want to sit in on every cabinet meeting..." Klaxons started going off in my head.

Bill expects to have a position in Hillary's presidency similar to her position within his own two terms. Unlike most First Lady's who are little more than presidential cruise directors, Hillary was a serious policy maker. Bill is not going to be a grand old man standing aside to let his wife make all the decisions. Bill's presidency was criticized for being the most joint presidency since John and Abigail Adams. Hillary's will be the same. Shudder.

Shaving Tools

Kim du Toit is chastising James Lileks for his choice in shaving implements. Now, if there is one thing that men care about, it is shaving. Why? Because we all hate slitting our own throats, that's why.

I'm a Mach 3 guy. I don't care about the three blades, but I do really like the head design. It just tracks my face well. I seem to cut myself less with it than it's predecessors. I started using it after a boss told me the hype was justified. On the other hand, one of my coworker's hates the Mach 3 and won't use anything more modern than a 2-bladed Sensor. I'm sure there are people out there whose tool of choice are old-school safety razors or even cutthroat straight razors.

Shaving foams are the same way. I also use aerosol foam and I don't really care about which kind. They all keep my place equally well. But I know people who demand a badger brush or a particular brand of soap. To each their own.

Watches

The Right Coast is discussing watches and they recommend the Seiko Black Automatic Diving Watch. I suppose it is a nice piece of equipment, but it is also massive. I don't like massive watches because I have rather fine wrists. I'd rather not look like I'm carrying a diving bell around on my wrist.

I bought a Hamilton Khaki automatic as a splurge gift on my honeymoon. It is a great watch as long as you wear it. It's an autowinder so if you leave it on the nightstand for a day, you'll have to reset it. I love the sapphire crystal which is so hard that scratching it would require actual effort. It also has military time on the face, which I require in all my watches because I actually use it at work.

I still wear the Timex beater it replaced, usually to the shooting range. It is a good solid watch, but it's also disposable.

Buggerit Millennium Hand and Shrimp

Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. The announcement on Paul Kidby's website shows he hasn't lost his wit though:

I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell. I know it's a very human thing to say "Is there anything I can do", but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.

Does My Life Amount to Something?

Bold the ones you've done:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm.
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

From Paul Smith

Hostile Work Environment

All my coworkers are sick. They're hacking up lungs on the other side of the cubicle dividers like two pack a day smokers. Its times like these that I really wish I had taken more Vitamin C this morning.

UPDATE: The prime cough contributor has realized that they are sick and went home early. Woot!

Christmas Sales

They're fun, especially when they involve full tang carbon steel katanas retailing for under $50. These aren't the greatest katana ever, but they will hold up to my typical light cutting exercises like soda bottles.

UPDATE: In anti-zombie equipment news, Cold Steel has most of their "special projects" items on sale. This includes their handy tomahawks and their pole axe which is actually on closeout for $30.

About Integrity

Paul Smith has a good piece expressing concern about Mitt Romney's "JFK" speech:

The problem with both Romney's and Giuliani's statements (and JFK's) is that they seem to compartmentalize their religious beliefs. They are claiming to have religious beliefs, but that they won't carry them over to their activities as President. If you're truly devoted to God, how can your belief in Him not carry over to every part of your life? We should strive to make God part of every moment of our lives and allow Him to direct us at all times, not push Him aside at certain points. Now, realistically, due to our imperfections, we don't live up to that standard, but that should be our goal at all times. We can't consciously decide to push Him out of a certain part of our lives because our faith might inconvenient to ourselves or others.

Exactly. I touched on this a bit some years ago with a piece on morality and integrity. Integrity is not about whether you are a good person or not. It is about whether you are a consistent person in different settings and situations. Romney's speech was largely about compartmentalizing his faith away from everything else. You can't do that and have integrity. Perhaps Romney has been in politics too long to realize this.

The sad thing is that too many people don't seem to understand this concept.

Revisiting Guns in Church

Considering recent events in Colorado, a lot of people are re-examining the issue of concealed carry inside of church buildings. Mostly because it was an armed church member who stopped the mass murderer. John the Methodist is conducting a discussion over at his place on the topic.

I've touched on this a couple of times now. The first was almost two years ago when a church in Harford County, Maryland was robbed at gunpoint. The second was about ten months ago and has a more thorough account of my reasoning on the subject. Most of the arguments for prohibition fail to get any traction with me, the two most common are:

1. "We should trust God to protect us!" Really, does your church have fire insurance? Flood insurance? Regular termite and pest inspections? If you don't trust God to protect the building with his divine presence, how much more should you actively safeguard the people inside the building. Because the church building is just a building, the parishioners are actually God's Church.


2. "Weapons are evil!" No, weapons are inanimate objects. They are things. They have no intent or moral nature in and of themselves. They only acquire moral nature through the perceptions of people. Some people's perceptions on this subject may get in the way of their worship, which is why concealed carry is a good idea. They'll never know and be disturbed by it.

If I had a concealed carry permit, which I don't because Delaware's permit process is deliberately laborious and labyrinthine, I would probably carry during my usher rotations. I would do it for the same reason I keep my CPR, First Aid, and Defibrillator training current: it is the responsible thing to do. Otherwise, probably not. I don't want firearms to become an idol to me.

Black Cherry Fresca

Amybear and I drink a lot of diet sodas. We've found that it's a great way to cut empty calories out of our diet. And if you drink them enough, you stop noticing that they taste funny. Until you hit one that tastes really strange. Black Cherry Fresca is just such an animal.

We like fresca a lot. The Peach flavor? Also good. But Black Cherry Fresca tastes like you're chugging Hubba Bubba. I rarely chew bubblegum and I certainly don't want to drink it. Because I bought a 12 pack and because I'm too cheap (or well raised) to throw away perfectly good soda, we'll be drinking it for about a week.

Public Service Announcements

Unlike American PSAs which aren't allowed to actually provoke a response in people, Canadian PSAs seem to have taken the opposite approach. They appear to be made by horror movie producers. Via Tamara

Hannukkah, Channukkah, Schmannukkah

Amybear is listening to XM radio's Hanukkah music channel via Directv. When she initially told me about it, my reaction was "How many arrangements of Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel can there be?" Amy didn't think that joke was as funny as I did. What was really funny is that when she told her father about the Hannukah channel, our family's very own Jewish patriarch said the same thing I did.

Actually there is a pretty wide variety of Hannukah music. So far I've only heard a lot of klezmer music, a fair amount of unintelligible (to me) Hebrew, one arrangement of Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel and another of the Hannukah Song. I think I'll keep count.

UPDATE: Two, Two Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidels... Ah, Ah!

Oh and turns out the Jews have the same sort of goofy children's music that Baptists do. Go figure.

Immigrants

Turns out that legal immigrants aren't fond of amnesty. This is important because currently legal immigrants are the only ones who can actually vote in elections. I'm sure the Democrats will keep trying to change that. It also turns out that legal immigrants vote Republican a lot more often than some other minority constituencies.

Fashion

The latest episode of Project Runway made me cackle with unrestrained mirth over the weekend. Finally, after four seasons, the challenge was tackling menswear. Could these people reinvigorate the business suit? We'll see.

Let me just say that the contestants failed miserably. And it was wonderful. Most of the designers had never worked in menswear. It showed. It made giggle with glee since in previous seasons, the menswear designers made hasty exits. They simply didn't have the requisite skills and background to compete in a competition dominated by the female form. If this episode did anything, it was show that the problem goes both ways.

The Manolo points out that the challenge they were given was almost impossible. He's right. Not because menswear requires years of experience, but because the designers should have had access to their models much earlier to aid in fitting. Nothing fit as the photos Manolo linked to show. They also should have had access to a more full featured accessory wall that includes ties, belts, and perhaps even dress shirts.

The performance was sad. It wasn't just because nothing fit, it was because their design choices were so very boring. Everyone was trying to make a business suit. I find it sad that the first thing that came into these innovators heads was a 75 year old clothing design. The winner, Jack, made a shirt and pants. His major fashion innovation was cutting some shirt material on the bias. Yawn. Kit's fleece sportjacket was at least clever and innovative in comparison.