Happy Last Week of November

I'm tired-out, the Tanksgibbon in the cage-match pummeled me. We (me) had a lot of cleaning to do before guests were allowed to step foot inside, and then there was the cookin' blitz. Today I shop-vac'd the two balconys.

Bobgirrl at 1 Girl, 4 Martinis alerts me that in InternetExploder this blog looks sucky and dorky (I'm a Firefox kinda guy), and meanwhile Nannystate-Google Blogger wants me to change my template and "update" it (bitch). But it appears that would dump a lot of the junk and the blogrolls I have layered-up and stacked in the sidebar, and besides which I'm not real impressed with their alternative choices. So, until I back up some of that stuff I'm gonna to be a hold-out. Yeh this damn blog takes a molasses to load, and it's probably all that crap and more that are behind the slow-dribble.

Meanwhile in Californoodilia we have another pseudo "Proposition" on the upcoming ballot, a fake "Term-limits reform" measure placed there by the greedy fatcats of Incumbistan in the Slugislature to protect and preserve their duplicitous asses -- thanks for coming out against another Gubb'mint swindle Steve:

Prop. 93 is one of the most deceptive and dishonest measures that Californians have been asked to vote on in many years. It's a sham proposal to weaken term-limits, masquerading as an effort to "reform" and strengthen them.
Put simply, Prop. 93 is a trick. It is intentionally designed to fool the people into thinking they are voting to reduce terms for state legislators when, in fact, it contains a special loophole to give 42 termed-out incumbent politicians more time in office. In fact, it will dramatically increase terms for 80 percent of California's legislators. Prop. 93 doubles the number of years a politician can serve in the Assembly from six to 12 years and increases Senate terms by 50 percent - from a total of eight years to 12 years.
You won't be surprised to learn that Prop. 93 is written by career politicians for the benefit of career politicians, and funded by millions of dollars from special interests with business before the Legislature.
The entire strategy behind the Yes on Prop. 93 campaign is smoke and mirrors. The politicians and special interests working to pass Prop. 93 are counting on voters never learning the facts about the initiative's real impact because they know they could never win an honest vote to weaken term limits....
If Prop. 93 passes it would remove a check on powerful politicians. It's also likely to permanently kill any hopes for really reforming the way the state's legislative districts are drawn every 10 years. If politicians and special interests get what they want by extending their terms and staying in office there will be no incentive in Sacramento to ever reform redistricting. They'll be even more powerful than they are now and javascript:void(0)
Publish Postbetter positioned to defeat any citizen-sponsored initiative to make our legislative districts fair.

As they say in Sacramento, "Oh Great Bohica, please use Vasaline this time!"
If we can get our incredible State back from the sell-out promisers and the political giveaway crowd, we can help America change from a handout-driven Gubb'mint Culture to one that really reflects American values. The outcome would be monumental to the rest of the country besides.

IPSC Sock Puppets Profiteers

From .:DANEgerus we get a listing of the Global Hoaxing "hedge"-fund profiteers. Interstingly enough (or not surprisingly, or sadly enough) Governments that have signed-on to the IPCC Kyoto scam have opened the floodgates to various tidy Lefty investment strategies and profits to be reaped (or is that raped), from taxpayers who are left with no recourse and very likely future criminal penalties for individual noncompliance.
Don't be too surprised, some of the richest people in the world are Communists and they didn't get that way by the sweat of their OWN brow...

* Richard Tipper of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM), a consulting company deriving revenue from carbon-absorption forestry projects. According to Ecotopia, "ECCM works closely with Future Forests... Tipper helped form ECCM some months after being appointed to the LULUCF panel."

* Mark Trexler, a founder of Trexler & Associates, a pioneering firm "poised to make millions of dollars by promoting and monitoring carbon sequestration and other 'climate mitigation' projects."

* Pedro Moura-Costa, an executive of Ecosecurities Ltd., a consulting firm specializing in the "generation of Emission Reduction Credits" from carbon-offseting activities. Ecosecurities has offices in the US, the UK, Brazil, Australia and The Netherlands.

* Gareth Philips of SGS Forestry, a division of the Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) of Geneva, the world's largest inspection, auditing and testing company. SGS Forestry derives revenue from its carbon forestry projects. SGS certifies Costa Rica's carbon offsets and "hopes to expand its work."

* Sandra Brown of Winrock International, an Arkansas-based organization which accepts contracts from "public and private" sources. Winrock "provides forest carbon monitoring technical services to U.S. government agencies and a wide range of private sector and non-governmental organizations. "

* Peter Hill of Monsanto Corporation, which has a "large stake in genetically modified organisms, including, potentially, organisms modified to take up or store carbon more efficiently."...

The World Rainforest Movement investigated these bizarre financial ties and concluded that the IPCC report "must now be shelved due to their clear conflict of interest and a new report instigated which will be free of the taint of intellectual corruption."

Hmm...

In April 2007 an investigation by the Financial Times of the carbon offsets industry reported:

* Widespread instances of people and organizations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.

* Industrial companies profiting from doing very little – or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.

* Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.

* A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.

* Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.

Algore's gettin' rich, a bunch of UN-connected dudes are scamming for all they're worth (as per-usual) and gettin' rich, and the UN club-for-dictators announces even scarier booga-booga! NEWS, to drive more sheep into the shearing pen.

As Phil Valentine at the Tennessean notes:

..Global warming is the perfect template for Marxism because it's the great equalizer. The wealthier a nation, the more CO2 it produces. To atone for its sins, it must pay carbon offsets. In other words, the producing nations pay the non-producing or under-producing nations in cash for the sin of emitting a harmless gas. It's beautiful.

The global warming movement is a way to not just confiscate money and wealth from the producers, but because of their guilt, they gladly hand it over. If Karl Marx were still alive, he'd be beaming with pride.

CNN - The Sock Puppet Network

A funny thing happened on the way to the Democrat's Forum, among a bunch of "ordinary people, undecided voters," turned out to be six partisan axe-grinders with pre-planned questions on the exclusive, approved CNN menu. Thanks to Doug Ross we know that

Plant #1: LaShannon Spencer, who was introduced as an "undecided voter", tagged by Dan Riehl: she served as the political director of the Democratic Party of Arkansas.
Plant #2: Khalid Kahn, the president of the Islamic Society of Nevada, who has appeared on CNN's show Keeping the Faith in Sin City. and is a Democrat contributor to the extent of $2,000 to Harry Reid.
Plant #3: Suzanne Jackson, a well-known antiwar activist.
Plant #4: Maria Luisa is actually Maria L. Parra-Sandoval, who is slated to serve as the political communications intern for Senator Harry Reid in Washington, D.C.
Plant #5: Judy Bagley, a Union activist for the Vegas culinary workers union.
Plant #7: George Ambriz, an Executive Director of the ¡Sí Se Puede! Foundation and former president of MEChA, the Hispanic separatist organization that encourages anti-American activities and civil disobedience.

In a nutshell, CNN's six "undecided voters" were:

A Democratic Party bigwig
An antiwar activist
A Union official
An Islamic leader
A Harry Reid staffer
A radical Chicano separatist

It wasn't a debate that CNN hosted at all, it was a commercial.

Due-the-Twist

How I solved my fast-twist dilemma.

I went with the heavy-steppers to solve my disintegration problem. There's heavier than that, but I think this'll do the trick, we'll see tomorrow.

UPDATE: It worked!! Shot a 343-1x, with a couple personal high-scores, in Offhand that being an 88 (no damn X's, crap!) and in Rapid Seated a 92-1x - I only threw out an 8 and a 7 - it was almost a "clean" except for those two. I think I'm on the right track.
Yaarrgh!!

10,000 Terror Attacks since 9/11

A little update from the Religion of Peace website that goes a long way to dispel the image CAIR likes to present.

"Nothing in our faith says it's OK to kill anyone."
(Ahmed Bedier of the Council on American-Islamic Relations)

"Slay the unbelievers wherever ye find them..."
(The 'Holy' Qur'an, Verse 9:5)

Islamophobe (is-slahm-o-fohb) - A non-Muslim who knows too much about Islam.

Latest Offerings from the Religion of Peace
11/16/2007 (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - Four local policemen are blown to bits by a bomb planted by religious extremists.
11/16/2007 (Yala, Thailand) - A 42-year-old hospital worker is murdered by Islamic gunmen on his way to work.
11/15/2007 (Narathiwat, Thailand) - A woman is shot and killed by Muslim terrorists while riding home with her daughter.
11/15/2007 (Kirkuk, Iraq) - Children walking to school account for the bulk of casualties as a suicide car bomber detonates in front of them. Six are killed.
11/15/2007 (Mahaweel, Iraq) - A 25-year-old woman is tortured to death by militant Muslims.
11/15/2007 (Baghdad, Iraq) - A female school principal is shot to death by Islamic radicals.

National Ammo Day!

Hat tip to Traction Control and Dustin's Gun Blog for the reminder that Ammo Day is soon upon us! Monday, November 19th is National Ammo Day, a BUYcott of ammunition. The idea is that every law-abiding supporter of the right to keep and bear arms is encouraged to buy 100 rounds of their favorite ammunition. Yay - but I don't think I can wait! The problem I experienced with my 7:1 twist-rate and .52 grain Match bullets disappearing en-route to the target has not changed. I still need heavier bullets that won't come apart for this weekend's Match - so I'm gonna to head out early and do my shopping today.

(image courtesy of www.a-human-right.com)

JBL Craptastic

This thing is an expensive, unreliable POS only good for charging-up the other POS, the freeze-prone Steve Jobs personal enrichment device.

This is the bi-weekly state of screen-affairs requiring a full manual reset since its ability to automatically fetch time from the airwaves is sporadic, intermittent, and unreliable also.
The noise that can be produced by the hoop is resplendent, but its control is not - you cannot set the alarm to begin functioning within a range - it starts out loud and progressively gets louder, and LOUDER, AND LOUDER AND LOUDER until the Neighbors are also awakened. It's more of a Dorm-Room kind of thing, appropriate for loud, affluent children.
So we don't use it for that anymore at all. It's just a, iPod charger now, set to beep when morning comes. At leas that is manageable, since frequently attempting to awaken to iPod music it neglected to begin with the chosen selection and instead played randomly from the iPod itself.

Also the display is so bright that even at the lowest setting you cannot go to sleep next to it unless it's covered by a cloth - and so it is.

Five Favorite Flyers

For me it starts in Flander's Fields with the Great War stately classic British SE.5a, with a Lewis Gun (Belgian Rattlesnake) on the top wing-mount, flown by Canadian ace Billy Bishop and Englishmen James McCudden and Albert Ball.

For the Huns there's Toni Fokker's brilliant Eindecker (him seen seated in aeroplane), the first gunned-up aircraft. It had a synchronizer gear interrupting the machinegun's firing sequence, allowing the pilot to fire through the arc of the propeller without striking its blades, and was flown by Max Immelmann inventor of the fighting manouver called The Immelmann Turn and the supreme tactician Oswald Boelcke.

Among WWII aircraft I was a big fan of Lockheed's Gabelschwanz Teufel the iconic Fork-Tailed Devil as the Germans called it - the P-38 Lightning, no surprises here. This was the long-range plane in which Rex T. Barber went out with a flight of 16 planes and got Admiral Yamamoto, after flying 435 miles at no more than 50 feet off the ocean to avoid detection and make the intercept, and was also the plane flown by the legendary top-ace Dick Bong.

And the 'plane with the most graceful wing design and sensuous combination of curves ever designed, the Supermarine Spitfire - It was the sexy Jaguar XKE of aircraft, and helped win the Battle of Britain.

I also admire Naval aviation - you gotta hand it to guys who take off and land at sea on a moving deck in the rain and at night - and the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver with its great big semi-circle curved tail section packed deadly torpedo heat. It was the plane in which my dad trained as a radioman, but washed-out because he bulked up - his shoulders got too big from rowing on the Annapolis crew team and he could no longer fit in the little aft seat in which he was supposed to work...or was that the Avenger - sometimes I can't get a straight answer out of him...

Light's Bright Sights High

Grazing the 'Nstapunditical Range I came across a secondary sighting of Gunblastic interest channeled by Ares' Defense Technology Blog, something totally cool from Aimpoint is around the bend - heh, as their press release states:

Swedish-based Aimpoint is entering full-scale production of a new modular red dot sighting accessory for rifle firing, called the Concealed Engagement Unit or CEU.
The CEU is the latest component incorporated into Aimpoint's line of accessories, including magnification, night vision, and with the CEU now also indirect aiming, to be quickly added and changed behind the company's red-dot sights.
The CEU is a patented system originally developed by DSTO in Australia under the name Off-Axis Viewing Device. Aimpoint has acquired the world-wide exclusive rights for production and sales of the improved device for all markets outside of Australia, (the company says).

Originally prototyped in 2005, the CEU was completely re-engineered following reviews of the initial concept with active military units. The improved CEU will be available in quantity in early 2008, (the company says).
Compatible with all Aimpoint sights, the new CEU is much smaller and lighter than the originally planned design, reducing the weight of the unit by more than 50%, the company says. The stabilized internal optics have been optimized to improve image quality, allowing targets to be identified and engaged more rapidly, (the manufacturer continues).
A lanyard loop was added to aid in retention of the unit, and the chassis design was changed to allow the CEU to be quickly stripped from the weapon if required. That was necessary because the CEU can also be used as a hand held viewing device.
The CEU rotates through 260 deg. allowing the operator to look around either right or left-hand corners, up staircases or down tunnels from almost any angle, (the company claims).
Since the CEU does not affect the red-dot sight's point of impact, the CEU can be passed from one operator to another using the company's TwistMount.

Thanks Vets!

Thanks to Buck at Exile in Portales
I found this beautiful graphic.

Happy Reminders of Mordor

Guns and Guts reminds us that it was a scant eighteen years ago already, that,

On this day in 1989 the East German government announced that anyone that wanted to could leave the country. Thousands did so, and over a few weeks time they tore down the greatest symbol of the Soviet's horrible oppression of millions.

It reminds me that there's a generation who have grown up not mindful of the evil and horrors perpetrated behind that wall - and that a body of creepy, ugly, and mentally-deficient thugs remain who seek to dull and divert attention from that knowledge and gloss-over its impact.
I went through Checkpoint Charlie and spent a day walking around among the strangled sklaven population. I watched the East German Honor Guard goosstepping past their war memorial without a hint of irony in that action. I ate the lousy food in The People's Cafeteria. At least the beer was ok.

Besides the Islamofascists, it is They who we still fight: the ex-Stalinists and "former" Sozialistfascists who hide behind the word "Democratic" - about as laughingly Democratic as GDR was -- the "German Democratic Republic" with their misshapen steroidal manwoman athletes. I saw the man in the tower with the binoculars looking out at his targets, and the "natty" Russian tourists coming off a tour bus in their stylish East-bloc suits and dresses. Clothing that looked like it was cut from carpet and upholstery remnants or material suitable for floor-covering. Heavy tweed-weaves in colors of bitter cyanidal orange and radioactive chartreuse, flecked with the bile of chemical-purple. You might think 1977 was bad in America, but you aint seen nothing.

The place sucked massivly but for one thing, one bright and luminous essence - an element of beauty that the East Germans could hold but never touch or become.

click for larger picture
She was in a darkened room, in the Ägyptisches Museum and I had worshiped her since I was Ten years old and see her picture in an encyclopedia, and I had my very quiet and small camera with me...

Bloggerology Welcoming

Matt the Armed Canadian has been enlightening, instrumental, and velocitizing in elevating my twist-rate consciousness and has joined the pantheon of Gunbloggers.
Bastards Inc. is back up after some time on hiatus that I didn't follow closely.
Rosemary is a CentCom news aggregator, Navy Project Valour IT blogger, and Victory oriented blogger on the Right side.
And Carnaby Fudge is a blended continent Spousalequal Gun-Unit - too kewl!

The Sad Case of the Burr Grinder

Imminent Failure - such as acne-scarred zitface Dictator chubby-man Hugo Chavez's boils and pustules and the collapse of his country's economy through Socialist mismanagement and derangement - became evident. Ok I just had to throw that in.

After repeatedly mismanaging its grinderous duty and despite repeated admonishment and cleaning - the plasticifferous degradation had became realized and Le Grinder Bodum est Mort.

The Interw3bz is full of advice and cost comparisons, from Home Barrista's encyclical discussion of flat vs. conical burrs to CoffeeGeek's voluminous comparatory listings.
I surfed on the aroma of fresh ground beans. Sadly we're not making espresso in a La Pavoni Stradavari or even a cute little Innova, so we don't need grinder that dumps to a doser. Cost is negotiable but we wish to avoid, "Not the best option even with bargain basement pricing." and/or, "Tried to add a metallic flavor to my beans... a definite don't buy!." But still $375.00 on an Pasquini Moka90 is excessive - again, we need the grounded-up grindings to go into a hopper not dose into a portafilter. Or however it is said in Espressolalia.
So out I go in the overcast and cold afternoon. The Breville® Conical Burr Grinder at Bed, Bath and Beyond looks promising.

UPDATE: We got the Capresso Infinity, also a conical burr grinder to feed the drip-coffee maker. It's capable of grinding down to espresso-dust level but we just use the Cuisinart dripper - I wish we had an espresso machine but they're also bunch of work (and cleanup) and morning coffee is a necessity, not a luxury or even an option.

Collecting Ex's

To celebrate Hugo Chavez is number-one (Nombre Uno!) in pustules and boils!, we went to shoot Practice, and in doing so I shot a scintillating 9-X's! Woo-wheee! All that would be marvelous except as my dearly acerbic wife observed, "You shot nine X's and twelve threes." Well not exactly but yes I suck - scored more X's than ever before but came in at a measly 377 total. But I shot NINE X's! :-) And it was a nice day.
I wonder if the 1:7 twist is too fast a twist for fairly light 52-grain bullets? One of my club friends with the same upper had some of those light bullets come apart on their way to target, they're going 3250 FPS with 1219 Ft.Lbs. of energy and they never even made it all the way. My buddy who shoots Distinguished has a 1:9 twist on his upper that does ok with 53-grain Sierras that he loads, which I'm pretty sure is about the same projectile as used in this stuff (but 1 grain lighter) - the Black Hills 52 grain Match HP ammo. Anyhow it was a nice morning and turned into a beautiful day, we went to lunch and I had a nice Milagro margarita.

We're Number 1!!

Yay!! I was finally discovered by an obviously extremely-intelligent reader with a Google search result where I came in first - especially considering their awesome query: "hydra" boils pustules with dear Hugo Chavez figuring so prominently therewith.
Couldn't happen to a nicer slovenly-pig Communist dictator.

Soldier's Angels

Had an early-morning appointment. Gad, I remember now how much I hate commuting. So coming back from getting my optic nerve examined, my eyes stoned with blow-out drops, and a new prescription registered, I caught up to an older, faded green Ford Explorer. Thereupon the back bumper was a familiar sight, but at the same time also something I'd never seen before, a Soldier's Angels bumpersticker!

As I passed what was obviously an extremely intelligent and magnanimous gentleman driver I raised my thumb in approval, hoping he'd catch my drift and at least find it better than the urban-finger-salute that so many commute-twisted low-impulse-threshold raging morons routinely deliver.
At a sluggish traffic-index he passed me back with his thumb raised too, a generous response and a real display of magnanimity considering the confusing display of stickers that my own bumper registers. I was also struck that Chuck had mentioned The Competition was on, and I had not yet blogged it.
For the Tank Commander's story and the man who got Project Valour IT kicked-off you should really go to Chris Byrne's Blogpost at the AnarchAnel that describes Chuck's story of explosion, pain, and recovery that Soldier's Angels facilitated.
So it's FUNDRAISING TIME! A race between the Army, Navy, Airforce and Marines with the first team to $60K winning bragging rights and a cheesy gold-painted laptop trophy which actually means a great deal to all the services involved.
Apparently the Navy is sneaking ahead. My dad went to Annapolis - but I'm throwing my lot in with the infantry.
There's an Auction Site so you can get a tangible something for your donation, from original artwork donated by Chris Muir or a piece by John Cox, or something else. Hell, donate something yourself!