Monthly Archives: April 2013

Quote of the day—Paul Waldman

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The truth is that most of the people who threatened to filibuster the background check bill aren’t afraid of the NRA. They’re on its side. They don’t need to be intimidated or even persuaded.

Paul Waldman
April 19, 2013
Gun control fight just beginning
[I realize it is hard for the anti-gun people to comprehend but it’s the truth.

It’s not about the NRA making money from gun sales. It’s not about the NRA buying off politician. It’s not about the NRA threatening to oppose a politician that votes the wrong way. There is no Triangle of Death as they claim.

People actually believe that people have the inalienable right to keep and bear arms and that it must not be infringed. The Bill of Rights says this. The Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed this.

The facts actually support the claim that guns are used to save more innocent lives that they used to take innocent life.

These strongly held beliefs and facts are why there exist politicians on our side. This is why we are winning.

And, most importantly, this is why the anti-gun people are on the wrong side of history and will be swept aside as we push forward to reclaim our infringed rights.—Joe]

Tab clearing

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I have a bunch of open tabs in my browser and I only have a few minutes before I’m leaving for 10 days to put on Boomershoot. I’ll have some time to make a few blog posts but I want to clear these up before I go.

It’s rare but sometimes they really do say the incredibly stupid things that we accuse them of:

Rep. Jackson Lee: ‘Don’t Condemn the Gangbangers’ – We Need Gun Legislation

Jackson Lee took the House floor on April 9 to argue in favor of increased gun control legislation, “Don’t condemn the gangbangers, they’ve got guns that are trafficked — that are not enforced, that are straw purchased and they come into places even that have strong gun laws.”

“Why? Because we don’t have sensible gun legislation.”

Jackson Lee continued by saying that current gun laws need to be enforced,  “I’m going to agree with my friends on the other side of the isle. Our Republican friends, let’s enforce the gun laws that we have – – who would run away from that. That’s a sensible proposition. Put a resolution on the floor of the House – – let’s enforce gun laws that we have.”

Yes. She said that. Blame the gun not the criminals.

Yes. She said that. Put a resolution on the floor to enforce existing laws.

Her babblings should qualify her for dementia medicine trials.

I could only see four out of the ten weapons being in the category “you won’t believe are legal”. And then only if you don’t understand the 2nd Amendment. They had to be desperate for content:

10 Weapons You Won’t Believe Are Legal

  1. Flame Thrower
  2. Miniguns
  3. Katana
  4. Cannon
  5. Crossbow
  6. Grenade Launchers
  7. Nunchucks
  8. Umbrella Sword
  9. Speargun
  10. Chain Whip

There has to be more to this than what I have had time to dig into.

Judge: lawsuits can proceed against theater owner in Colorado massacre

A federal judge refused on Wednesday to dismiss wrongful death and personal injury claims brought against a movie theater chain on behalf of victims of last summer’s mass shooting at a suburban Denver screening of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises.”

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson ruled that Cinemark
USA, owner of the theater where 12 people were shot
dead, could potentially be found liable for damages under a
Colorado law that holds landowners responsible for activities on their property.

What? The best I could come up with for a plausible grounds for claiming the theater was responsible was if the plaintiffs believed they were disarmed and unable to protect themselves. And I think that is only about 10% chance of being the case.

Yes. Some people blamed the 2nd Amendment for the Boston bombing:

I once had a boss suggest that I was making so much money at time and a half on weekends that I shouldn’t fly back to Idaho to visit my family. I should just hire a hooker to give me blow jobs under the desk while I continued to write code. I laughed and went home for the weekend.

It turns out there might actually be a market for that sort of service:

Silicon Valley’s other entrepreneurs: Sex workers

In a quiet cafe outside San Francisco, “Josephine” — a local prostitute — arranges a collection of t-shirts across the table. They’re emblazoned with phrases like “Winter is Coming” and “Geeks Make Better Lovers.” She wears them in her online ads to catch the eye of the area’s well-off engineers and programmers.

“I’m trying to communicate to them that I understand a little bit what it’s like to be techy, nerdy, geeky,” she says. There’s another thing Josephine and her clients have in common: Like many of the techies she caters to, Josephine views herself as an entrepreneur.

Boomershoot Patch Update

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Got the patches delivered today. I’ll have a box-full at Boomershoot for purchase, pre-orders get priority. All the variations are here.

Prices are:
Continue reading →

Gun Song – Sousa – Man Behind The Gun

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Seems like a good day for a march, even if it’s April.
John Phillip Sousa wrote a LOT of military / march music, and like them or not, he had quite an influence on the popular music at that time. He and his band actually toured and played for large crowds. He also didn’t write ALL his music down – that is to say, his music as published and sold was often not how he had his band played it. The performance that people paid to come and listen to had some subtle details changed to make them better – people always said that they never sounded the same when he played them than when other bands of similar size and skill played his purchased sheet-music. He knew how to protect his franchise. This particular march isn’t a lot better or worse than any of his other works, but was selected because of the title. Enjoy

The Man Behind The Gun

John Philip Sousa, 1852 – 1932
He was a US Marine, one of the all-time best trap shooters, a writer, opposed the mechanical recording of music, and overall was an interesting guy. If you liked military / march music, he’s an icon. If you don’t, and claim he only wrote two marches in a hundred variations each, you still cannot deny his popularity and influence in his day.

 

The Stars Came Back -064- BBQ

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Fade in

EXT – DAY – above a LARGE BBQ gathering.

Aerial flyby shot of a very large gathering near a large farm ranch-house spread. A number of buildings scattered around, lush greenery in the background, a lot of small fliers parked all over the place, to one side a couple of corrals of horses and cattle, lots of BBQ pits, smokers, and equipment, including an open pit with a whole pig on a spit over it, and a lot of rising smoke. On another side is a long cleared patch with various tables and targets set up on it. Adults and kids and dogs and dining tables and various groups everywhere. To one side, Tajemnica, looking old and dirty very non-dainty, the largest ship there by a fair bit. A large and well-attended shin-dig. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Tim Wadsworth

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There’s an overall increase in sense of well-being that comes with engaging in sex more frequently, but there’s also this relative aspect to it. Having more sex makes us happy, but thinking we are having more sex than other people makes us even happier.

Tim Wadsworth
April 2013
Keeping up with the Joneses? Having more sex than your friends makes you happier, study finds
[Well duh!

I just hope no tax money was used to do his study. But it’s difficult to imagine any private investors sponsoring such a thing so it probably many taken at the point of a gun.

There is in interesting angle about this. People are made happy if they are better off than their neighbors. Or, put another way, people are less happy if their neighbors are better off than them. The progressives/communists prey upon this unhappiness and offer to bring the haves down to the level of the have-nots.

So when the communists get their way and everyone has equal material possessions and people are still not equally happy because of disparate quality or quantity of sex what will they advocate for then? Will people with super model appearances be required to “share” with the “less fortunate”?—Joe]

You knew it was coming

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Not one to let a crisis go to waste it is no surprise Frank Lautenberg is the first to come out with this:

As a result of Monday’s bombing in Boston, New Jersey senator Frank Lautenberg will introduce legislation requiring background checks for the sale of explosive powder. Lautenberg is also filing the bill as an amendment to the gun legislation currently being debated on the Senate floor.

I don’t suppose Lautenberg, Schumer, et. al. would care but some of the more sane politicians might be interested to know that flour, coffee creamer, and many other powders can be made to explode as well.

But the biggest loser will probably be consumers of Tannerite. The proposed law would require a permit to mix explosives.

And since black powder has been made since the 7th Century the recipe composed of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal is well known and the processes are very low tech. Precursor materials to make the potassium nitrate can be as common as urine. It is also in some toothpastes. Sulfur is a common element, is found in many fertilizers, as well as occurring naturally. And of course charcoal is easy to come by. The government can’t seem to significantly reduce the availability of recreational drugs or firearms, and you can be sure black powder is going to be available in the black market they create.

Lautenberg and company do not have public safety in mind. They have control in mind. The more laws there are the more control exists over the people. In this case Ayn Rand certainly knew what she was talking about.

The Stars Came Back -063- Ranch

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Fade in

INT – DAY – Officer’s mess

Helton, Lag, Harbin, Allonia, Bipasha, Kaushik, Kaminski, Sar, Stenson, and Quinn sit at the table, having dinner. Sandwiches and finger-food. They all look a bit tired and drained.

Helton: I think that canceling R&R on Capella, and having the parts shipped to us, would be the more discreet choice. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—President Barack Obama

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All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.

President Barack Obama
April 17, 2013
Senate Votes to Block Expanded Background Checks for Gun Sales
[Yes. It was shameful that so many people put so much effort into attempting to infringe upon a specific enumerated right. This forced millions of other people to put their own effort into stopping that attempt. The entire country, especially the politicians, had important other things to do and we had to take time out to fight the statist scum.

When they spend so much time, stealing our time and resources in the process, on such a destructive task It is hard to imagine that our political opponents want anything other than the destruction of our entire country.

Shameful doesn’t even begin to describe it. Criminal and treasonous come much closer.

But this just might have been their last stand.—Joe]

E-Lander magazines

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I ordered a few of the E-Lander 30 round AR mags (they say they’re made for the Tavor). It took several weeks but here they are. They look really nice. They’re made with the same fold and spot-weld technique we see on most Aluminum mags, but these are steel. They have a protective coating that supposedly exceeds the salt spray requirements in U.S. military specs. The followers are true anti-tilt, meaning you can press down at the very front or the back, and they go down fine, without up-ending like the standard green mil spec followers. The bendy tabs that hold the floor plate are reinforced. Nice touch.

All very nice, but I won’t be keeping them in my main line-up, at least not with a full 30 rounds in them.

This seems pretty bizarre to me– you can not lock the mag into an AR with a full 30 round load when the bolt is forward, i.e. no tactical reloads. I’ve noticed this with some of my other mags too.

I suppose one could tweak the follower/floorplate interface to allow another millimeter or so of follower travel and solve this problem pretty easily. The mag bodies appear to be identical in length to my standard aluminum mags. On the other hand, the box of Brownell’s mags I just got all have that extra millimeter of follower travel and snap right in with a full 30 round load. They aren’t quite as pretty though.

I’ve been on a kick for the last couple of weeks, pointing out, it seems to me, at least once per day how this or that must have been designed or built by people who don’t actually use the product. I suppose I should pay more attention to my own designs, but as a user of products, it comes naturally to be a critic.

Petition to repeal the 2nd Amendment

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Via an email from Squirrel Hunter:

I think this was a wonderful idea. The list of signatures should be used to prohibit them from ever voting or holding public office.

This should be clear and convincing evidence people would sign a petition to fine everyone $10,000 and blow up every bridge in the state.

The Stars Came Back -062- Rumble

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Fade in

EXT – night – space not far from the corp-war robo-mil-moon

The gas giant and the moon hang in the distance. Tajemnica streaks by, space glowing faintly around it. A short ways behind it, a formation of four long, lean, lethal-looking space-craft, obviously streamlined for atmospheric flight as well. The contrast is stark – a single larger, blocky, angular, dirty, old hauler, versus a pack of sleek, elegant, new and shiny hunters in bright paint. An elderly moose fleeing a pack of wolves. The interceptors are clearly moving faster, the glowing molecules excited by their drives are brighter and further out from their hulls. Not a match-up odds makers would use small numbers in. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Robb Allen

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Arguing with @csgv about constitutional law is like arguing with Stevie Wonder over color palettes.

Robb Allen (@PantsFree)
Tweeted on April 17, 2013
[I strongly suspect this was in regard to this conversation Linoge was having with CSGV.

While there is a lot of truth to what Robb and Linoge are saying it’s also true that the U.S. Constitution deliberately gave the Federal government more power than it had. The Articles of Confederation before it did not give it enough power and failure was imminent. So there is a grain of truth in the CSGV saying, “… the Union could only be preserved by strengthening the federal government”.

What the CSGV appears to completely overlook is that while the Constitution increased the power of the Federal Government it also severely limited it’s powers. Those limits are mostly ignored now and again one could argue failure is at least foreseeable if not imminent.

However in the present case the solution is not more power. As President Reagan said, “… government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”—Joe]

The Stars Came Back -061- Dammit, Helton!

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Cut to

INT – Day – Bridge of the HMS Hussein

The captain sits in his raised command chair, brooding.

Sensor Tech: Sir, I think I found them!

Hussein Capt: On the main screen! Continue reading →

Quote of the day—President Barack Obama

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We still do not know who did this or why. And people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.

President Barack Obama
April 15, 2013
In regard to the bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon.
[I fully agree.—Joe]

Boston explosives

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I’m setting aside the tears that come from looking at the pictures and reading the articles and just channeling “Spock” as best I can on something I know a little bit about.

The first thing I noticed from watching the video and then from the still photo I found at the Los Angles Times is that this looks like a crude homemade bomb.

BostonBombViaLaTimes

Here is a cropped version from the Boston Globe YouTube video:

BostonBombViaBostonGlobeVideo

This is a full two seconds later from that same video:

BostonBombViaBostonGlobeVideoPlus2Sec

See all that flame? And it looks as if there is still fuel burning in the cloud two seconds after the explosion.

I’m almost certain that no commercial or military explosive produces that much flame. Something like that would be totally banned in the mining industry.

That may mean there was a great excess of fuel in the explosive composition. Boomerite has an excess of oxygen which makes for easier detonation. Maximum power comes from a balance of oxygen and fuel. Some explosives are naturally oxygen or fuel rich. For example TNT is fuel rich. During WW II they would add ammonium nitrate which is (under the proper conditions) an explosive that is oxygen rich. The excess oxygen in the AN increased the power of the detonation by consuming the excess fuel of the TNT.

With that much flame persisting that long after the explosion occurred means huge amounts of power was wasted in light and relatively slowly expanding gases. This was not a military grade explosive. Getting the most bang for the least weight is worth the cost of getting the oxygen balance right.

This means it’s a homemade explosive.

Another possibility is that it wasn’t really a detonation at all but rather a deflagration. For example gun powders typically do not detonate. They “just” burn very rapidly. The flash you see at the muzzle of your gun at night (and sometimes even in bright sunlight) is composed mostly of burning particles of gunpowder. Confine the powder in a strong closed container, such as a pipe, and you get an explosion when the container bursts.

From the sound of the explosion and the speed of the blast product development I’m leaning toward a deflagration.

Mr. Completely sent me an email asking if I could “rule either in or out that readily available reloading powder could have been used”. My answer to that question is that I think it is definitely possible.

Update April 16, 6:20 AM: At least one source says:

…the devices used gunpowder as the explosive and were packed with ball bearings and other shrapnel to maximise injuries.

Update April 16, 1:25 PM: Rick Boatwright has an excellent analysis which points to black powder being the explosive.

Politeness

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Apparently when I’m woken up in the middle of the night and asked to roll on my side because I snore when I sleep on my back I ask, “Which side?”

If you were to believe all the lies told by the anti-gun people about bumping into a shopping cart in the aisle at Safeway causing mass shootings you might expect a different outcome. The most plausible outcome in their world view would seem to be I would just shoot them with the gun next to the bed and continue sleeping on my back.

Perhaps Heinlein was right about being armed and politeness.

The Stars Came Back -060- Avoiding Judgement

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Fade in

INT – DAY – Tajemnica bridge

Helton, Bipasha, Lag, Kaushik, Cooper, Allonia are present, in their normal spots. Kaushik is in an armored space suit again. On the screens, the curve of the planet is slowly shrinking as they clear the atmosphere. Continue reading →

Quote of the day—Lisie G

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Boomershoot 2013 shirts

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I’ve created the Boomershoot 2013 Cafepress store.

The image (via Barron Barnett, see also his post) on the products is:

Cafepress

You don’t have to be a participant to buy from the store. And there is still time to enter the event if you do want to participate.

We used 14 pounds of explosives and 13 gallons of gasoline for the fireball in the image above.

Fireball2012Configuration

I got a really good deal on 150 gallons of fuel this year. Ry was a little evasive in his answers but I’m pretty sure he promised not to use it all up this year. You should attend to find out what he has planned. Nomex clothing is optional.