Gun Belts

Brigid's excellent and sensuous post on gunleather anticipated a recent spark of interest about the carriers of such leather - the belt itself.
After some fifty years of wearing various fabric pant-things (some short, some long) with belt-loops around the waist I've found the adaptation that suits my shape best is a double-tongue. The leather of a single-poker seems to develop a curve and swale that describes a series of unfinished arcs, while the double fastener allows the leather to find a more compact and efficient closing of the circle.

But where are they? At a nearby shop while talking with the owner I saw a nicely stiff and stout Galco (I think) belt, in a not totally-hideous finish and with a not completely-ugly buckle - but it was a one-holer.
Also I like Havana-brown, but with a brass buckle not a gaudy silver-nickle one. And since I was born under the sign of the crocodile, maybe I want croc-skin or alligator - some kind of water-lizard.
Holsterwise, when I got my Colt 1909 I found an 1909/17 M&K flap holster, the 1911A1 also has a period web-belt and an 1943 S-B flap-holster. Then for the P220 I found a used Galco paddle, and there's a nice old Bianchi for the 5-inch Model-10 S&W.
But I'm probably getting the cart before the horse.

Sputnik THIS! Mr. Space-cowboy.

Sometimes you get the Sputnik, and sometimes Sputnik get you...


Thanks alot pal-comrade-buddy Obamavitch - see what's happening in Egypt? So much for smart diplomacy, so much for bowing to petty tyrants and clapping to their music. So much for the MSM organ grinder and monkey, the hurdy-gurdy music they crank out that infantalizes the information they present, sock-puppets of a failed narrative.

Why We Don't Have Flying Cars - Part#1

Part #1. The Education System. (H/T Midwest Chick at Non Original Rants).

Certainly much more is available on the utter and abject failures (some intentional, some structural, all insidious) of the Leviathan tentacle I call Behemoth Educratology, much of which can be found in the writings of Gun-Rendezvouser and friend Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority, but MidwestChick delivers this superb gem.

Seriously, does the Obama team do any fact-checking?

This particular factoid from the SOTU is quite ironic. The Colorado school (grades 6-12) that Obama praised (School Hailed by Obama Succeeded by Firing Teachers, Bucking Union) as a model school is one who was granted an exemption from union rules in 2007. They had all teachers re-apply for their jobs and only six made the cut. The school's first graduating class had a graduation rate of 97%. You'd think that his fact-checkers should know that this school goes in direct opposition to Obama's connection with the teachers unions. So, at least one path on the step to student success is the punting of teachers unions. Interesting....

Thank-you MidwestChick!

The Cannonization of John Moses Browning

It appears that Utah is the tip of the spear, reading-in the Cannonization of John Moses Browning, by passing at the diocesan level of the State, a measure to make the M1911 semiautomatic handcannon the State Gun.
Such a process occurs first by a Bishop or equivalent State Representative - one with jurisdiction to submit such a resolution.
In the process a second finding must be made, a declaration of 'Non Cultus' that examines and certifies that no heretical worship or improper cult worship has grown up around the inventor, and drawings and measurements are taken of the sacred relic. This will be the hard part, but ultimately as new designs prove inadequate and fail it shall prevail.
Thirdly, when the specifications and relics have been gathered, the State will recommend to the Governor that he make a proclamation of the Device's Heroic Virtues: the Gun must exhibit the Virtues of Faithful Operation, Hoped-for Accuracy, and Charitable Velocity. Also the cardinal virtues of Prudent caspacity, the assurance of Just Cause, Fortitude in the face of Adversity, and Temperance to acknowledge that other designs exist in its wake or absence. Thus is conferred Venerability upon the Gun and its Inventor, PBUH.
The bill passed 51-19 and will now move to the Utah Senate for consideration.

High-Speed Rail to Hell

This whole "high-speed rail" notion is really really silly and somebody better put the stick down before someone gets hurt.
As Tam pointed out in, The little engine that couldn't.

Apparently "high speed rail" is the new shibboleth.

The whole issue makes otherwise smart people say dumb things, like Jonah Goldberg, who tweeted last night:

"I hear the Roman Empire kicked ass because of high speed rail."

which wasn't maybe the best analogy, since "Via Appia" is how you say "Shinkansen" in Latin, and it sure wasn't private enterprise that laid that roadbed...

Anyhow, fast choo-choo trains are currently high on the SWPL list because foreigners have them, especially cool foreigners like the Japanese and the French, and who doesn't want to be more like a foreigner? They have exotic-sounding accents and know more about sushi and wine than we do!

Except not around here the foreigners don't. We beat them in Wine already ages ago, and can outperform them in Sushi too. It's just plain stupid and only a little bit of a rich fantasy world.

On Alma street in Palo Alto, down which the ginormous elevated monstrosity would supposedly run, the street and neighborhood is populated by houses that cost on average over $1.5 million - even in this economy.  Two blocks away and well within signaling distance lives Steve Jobs. There are signs in some front yards saying, "Here Comes the Rail, There Goes the Neighborhood" - or something like that.  Such signs extend along the right-of-way up through Atherton , where the average housing prices range from $3M up to $45M and wherein live the likes of Larry Ellison, Joe Montana & Jerry Rice, Roberts (of Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts) and more billionaires, and further up in Burlingame is more of the same, and so on to Hillsborough. All very-very expensive places to own property and live, and also where Barak goes to fundraise.  Wealth around this part = Democrat.  There are a huge number of Hope & Change bumper-stickers in the driveways of millionaires all around - and up and down the route lots of Democrat-voting trial-lawyers live in close proximity to the noise and property-value ruining machine.

This whole stupid thing is different than the old train because it is NEW. (And big, and monstrously ugly, and environmentally unfriendly.) Complaints about the old, slow, conventional train already in existence are generally based on the siren-signature and despondent High-Schoolers who use it as a permanent exit device thus ensuring a raised sound-signature for weeks at a time -- but since it carries investment bankers up to SF for three-martini lunches and deal-making, and because it pre-dates the complainers, not much is addressed as hardship. This high-speed thing is NEW and DIFFERENT. And ugly and inexplicably stupid. If you want to go fast that's easy, get your Atherton Aston-Martin, or your Palo Alto Porsche, or your Menlo Maserati, or your Los Gatos Lamborghini out onto Hwy 280 that was designed in the late 60's to be run at over 100mph in safety.

There is no real purpose behind the effort to run High Speed Rail up the peninsula in this location except perhaps among influential and connected developers and uber-wealthy choo-choo hobbyists and Southern Pacific heirs.  The CA train is supposed to be electric, a mag-lev device on stilts. A super-duper no-wheels high-speed 600-ton glider - and what the hell kind of fancy FDA-approved Unicorn Farts are they gonna use to power it with? Remember ENRON? We got NO spare electricity - and the Greenweenies promuise that no Nuke plant will ever be built to power the infernal device, or any other

If they decide to do a Kelo and seize the land, Barak really needs to first crush the economy further and reduce the value of these expensive suburban properties, because the compensation would be freaking enormous and he would be really hurting his loyal base.  Maybe this is where Francis Fox Pivens comes in with her gang of black-masked "Anarchist" rioters preforming a bit of mayhem to quell the property values. In the event of chaotic civil-unrest, I imagine that the Atherton-Hillsborough Militia (private or otherwise) would be very well armed, possibly with their own drones from Lockheed-NASA across the highway, and make short work of such amateur rioters.

Maybe the idea is about total social(ist) collapse, because such an incredibly vast, unfair, and unsustainable compensation and takings could be the final trigger of a real, large-scale financial and social collapse - and that's the method behind the madness:  point back to Francis Fox Pivens.

Unless it's a cheap Chicago-style payoff. 
Or it could be both.  At the moment though it's all a huge fake-out with no real means of support.

UPDATE: Skip in comments observes,

"...The EIRs not done yet, it will not happen.
Forty large[b] already earmarked for this section with a dropdead date looming and not likely to be met, I see forty down the toilet and the project cancelled. The Dims will blame the Stupids as 'obstuctionists'.
The only semi sad part is my firm was to be the program managers. Oh well. "

I don't think they let a little things get in their way, especially if the Sierra Club is backing the endorsement. They have demonstrated with the desert tortoise relocation fiasco that they can be bought-off with development money. If "they" want it they can make the EIR's happen. I think it's real work here as opposed to the 90-mile Tampa-Orlando swamp-sale. I just think the southern section should terminate in San Jose. Or else they should just run it parallel to 280 and straight up the San Andreas fault, and run a PG&E gas-pipe under it....
And in fairness there needs to be a northern section from San Rafael to Eureka so the hippies can visit the bright-lighters more easily.

Say it with pictures!

From Miguel at Gun Free Zone, there's this little motivator-beauty.

And a very happy belated Birthday to JMB.

I have two of those, maybe I need the third one.

TJICistan Stands!

I am also TJIC

From non-Original Rants, via Borepatch, MArooned, Middle of the Right, Neanderpundit, all of our mothers' fears have come true and a blogger has had his Second Amendment rights voided due to his exercise of his First Amendment rights.

I too stand with Travis Corcoran:  I AM TJIC!

Screw the Spoke

    From D.W. Drang

Don't care for this at all...
Ok, so I blog, that doesn't mean I am whole-heartedly for this social networking thing.

I'm definitely NOT.

1. Go to www.spokeo.com
2. Enter your name
3. Find the entry for you
4. When you are finished being aghast about all the info they have published on you
5. ...
6. Click on your entry
7. Copy the URL for your page
8. Click on "Privacy"
9. Paste the URL into the space provided. Enter an email address you don't mind sharing with them. Enter the "captcha" code
10. Check your email--mine showed up immediately. Click on the link to complete the deletion of yourself from their database.

The hell with this invasive stuff.

What you don't know...

What you don't know, you really don't know...
We're having "a bit" of work done on the roofs and there's reasons why.
Some of the old decking is simply toast, and repairs have been eating a huge hole in the budget.
The new roofing membrane system should be more leak-proof, manage the complicated features of our roofs better, and be cooler in the summer by a significant margin.
And then you find this stuff and just wonder about meteor strikes...

WTF?? Reach down through that hole there a little farther and grab this here computer... Sheesh. Since the kitchen renovation, I really don't want to see any more water damage or leaks coming in. So the guys stomping around on the ceiling are doing ok by me.

Government HEALTHCARE Losers

From SayUncle:

Can run a gambling operation and lose money. Seriously, if you lose money running a gambling operation, you must be retarded.
Of course, the .gov couldn’t even make money selling ass.
Let it sink in. The government cannot make money in operations that are very successful at making money even when you include the high cost that comes with breaking the law. The .gov doesn’t have the high cost of breaking the law and still can’t make money. Remember that when someone says they want the government to run healthcare.

Winning in California

Slowly we turned around...step by step, inch by inch...

COURT GRANTS NRA / CRPA FOUNDATION MOTION, INVALIDATES UNCONSTITUTIONAL AMMUNITION REGULATION STATUTE THAT WOULD HAVE BANNED MAIL ORDER AMMO SALES & REQUIRED AMMO SALES REGISTRATION by C.D. Michel

In a dramatic ruling giving gun owners a win in an National Rifle Association / California Rifle and Pistol (CRPA) Foundation lawsuit, this morning Fresno Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton ruled that AB 962, the hotly contested statute that would have banned mail order ammunition sales and required all purchases of so called “handgun ammunition” to be registered, was unconstitutionally vague on its face. The Court enjoined enforcement of the statute, so mail order ammunition sales to California can continue unabated, and ammunition sales need not be registered under the law.
...
In a highly unusual move that reflects growing law enforcement opposition to ineffective gun control laws, Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
...
Constitutional vagueness challenges to state laws are extremely difficult to win, particularly in California firearms litigation so this success is particularly noteworthy. Even so, an appeal by the State is likely, but the Court’s Order enjoining enforcement of the law is effective – February 1, 2011 – immediately regardless.

When AB 962 passed there was loud outcry from law abiding gun owners impacted by the new law. Those voices must be heard during the legislative session and before a proposed law passes, not after a law is signed. To help, sign up for legislative alerts at http://www.nraila.com and http://www.calnra.com and please respond when called upon.

Astrology Progressive Hootenanny

All this crap about progression was predicted already - and there's that word again, progress. The big-time Progressives believe in the New Agey crap as a foil against what they consider dour and staid traditionalism, they always have been big with the Pagan fun-time extravaganza. The Brownshirts were all over that mess too.
Pick and choose is what I say. A thousand years before the Greeks whose sign-system of traveling astral-dingleberries is in use today there was an Egyptian astrology - and still with the twelve delineations. Go East and you run into a different series that's infinitely more complicated. You might expect that from people who invented the zero to measure with, and for whom the day's divisions could be broken down nearly infinitely, where a Muhurtha equaled one-thirtieth of a solar day, a Ghatiwas one-sixtieth of a solar day and one Ghatika was 24 minutes - and that's just scratching the surface. A Prana is a 4 second measurement (or at least a word for a measurement) and a Truti constituted one 33,750th of a second... Before they went decimal money was counted old-school, in eighths. Pieces of eight? It's all there, buying time.
It's also all as bogus as hell but it was a way of separating things into short multiples and gathering similarities and dividing things up into layers and categories that would have pleased even the taxonomy-driven Victorians who invented categories to classify their scientific findings as they stomped around the world sticking pins in butterflies of various numbered hues.
You pick and choose in the end, and with everybody who's all gunnyriffic off at SHOT, and since I was born under the sign of the Crocodile, even though it's my birthday I couldn't find anyone to sell me a S&W M&P 45. Damn Crocodile. I think Ben Franklin would have thought the sign of the crocodile was cool too - and probably opened an Inn or pub with that shingle. Crocs are like dragons.

The difference between the compact and the full-sized is two rounds - but the compact holds eight, which is as much as my Sig P220, so it really doesn't matter to me.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
305 years old today.

When did THAT happen?

A few days shy of my 53rd and a high-pressure zone plunked down over us to chase away the gloom and heat things up a bit. Starting Monday they're going to tear off the old, leaky, costing-us-too-goddamn-much-in-repairs composition roof and begin the re-roofing with Durolast. Yay! So, gots to take down the umbrella on the deck, move plants indoors, carry the bar-b-que down to the garage, and remove fragile items from in-door shelves that might be jarred-off when the hammering begins.
Save the Tiki Glasses!

So, here's the thing - I go to change into some shorts on account of the fine weather and walk into my closet and smell...memories...
I smell my Grandpa's house.
WHAT!?!?
Ok, it's time for some serious Spring Cleaning. And probably some eBay sales.

Will's Self Dismantling Gun

From gunblogger Where There's a William...

A new-to-him wheelgun in the exotic Scandium let Entropy suddenly take-over while test-firing.
Ka-BLOOEY!

Nobody was injured.

I think that would have gotten my attention with a great deal of adrenaline.

A segment of frame blew out to the shooters right into the stall partition, while the barrel flew up into the lane sound baffle material and fell back into the target distance-setting motor mounting metalwork ( a u-shaped sheet metal construction located directly above the lane's shooting table) and was surprisingly hard to hunt down afterwards, but we were eventually successful in rounding all the bits back up:

After some phone-tree tag and such...

UPDATE Friday, 1/14/2011 ~2:00pm: Just finished speaking with Joe Marcoux of Smith & Wesson. Told him briefly what had occured, he requested I send him a picture via email, he took a quick look and took down my details to send me the appropriate shipping label with instructions by return mail. Quick, efficient and, including the wait on hold, the whole transaction took maybe 8 minutes tops...

Dang.

Winning in California

Braking news that arrived yesterday or before.
NRA Lawsuit Sets Legal Precedents for Defending Hunter's Rights
by C.D. Michel

Although the case is still pending and a final ruling is yet to be issued, NRA's intervention on behalf of its members in the case Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, et al., has already resulted in several legal victories.

CBD’s lawsuit, filed on January 27, 2009, alleges that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) are illegally mismanaging federal lands in Arizona. CBD contends California condors in Arizona and elsewhere are becoming ill or dying as a result of scavenging game that was shot by hunters using lead shot or bullets. NRA has collected thousands of documents via public records act requests over the last year. Many of these documents raise doubts about the veracity of that calim. In fact, many documents obtained by NRA indicate that claim is based on faulty science, and plainly show that California condors were reintroduced to Arizona based in large part on express promises by FWS and other agencies that the "reintroduction" would not impact hunting.
...
The publication of the decision followed an earlier NRA partial victory in this case; NRA’s legal arguments caused the CBD to abandon and dismiss its California condor related Endangered Species Act (ESA) claims rather than litigate them against NRA. CBD’s ESA claims were based in part on an incorrect belief that "any take of [California] condors from the use of lead ammunition would be a per se violation of the ESA." CBD’s revised its lawsuit and dropped the ESA claims that CBD was primarily using as part of an attempt to obtain a ban on the use of lead ammunition for hunting on these federal lands at issue.

Screw the Center for Biological Diversitude.  They are neither Central nor Diverse - but you can smell their Biology a mile away.

Anybody got a spare P220 slide?

I wonder if I could do this to my old Sig?  All the Kewl-Kidz are getting the dovetail cut for a Deltapoint or Trijicon Mini...or something.
Question: is there enough cuttable metal on the slide-top? What's that pin doing there...I wonder how much meat is in there, there seems to be enough shelf-room.
UPDATE: IXNAY - Project is on hiatus...

Happy Gunstuff - New Store!

A new-to-me shop opened recently on the corner of El Camino and Mary in the old, gray (now flat-black) Economy Imports building. Formerly a place to get hot-rod parts for foreign cars, now you can get hot-rod parts for Americana and foreign guns. Behind the counter Eric Fisher holds down the fort with help from Josh and Mike.
Eric formerly ran Reed's Gun Range during the transition period from National and was responsible for bringing the awesome Louis Awerbuck to train people here locally, thanks Eric!! Since the on-going Reed's re-confabulation spins out, he has moved to a new business and will soon have new training opportunities - (hopefully Louis among them) and this is it.

U.S. Firearms Company is a full-service gun shop that offers its customers the highest quality defensive equipment available. U.S. Firearms offers defensive shooting classes with well known respected instructors who specialize in the art of defensive shooting and tactics. U.S. Firearms has a unique hunting program that not only gives you a time and place to hunt, but can walk you through the entire process from picking a firearm and getting outfitted for the hunt to step by step hands on instruction in the field.

To understand the level of ignorance and bias that exists around here, we offer a quote from the local Fishwrap and Parakeet Liner that illuminates the mind of a Left-wing "educator"who was opposed to the shop opening at its present location.

"I realize that we can educate kids about these kinds of stores and different types of weapons, but being an educator, I'm not sure I want to educate my second-graders about that," said XName-RedactedX, a Sunnyvale resident and teacher...

U.S. Firearms Co. has a good selection of reading material, and while I was there I took the opportunity to pick-up a copy of Louis' book Why There's No Such Thing as an "Advanced" Gunfight and another by Col. Cooper Principles of Personal Defense.
Compared to some hunting-only gun-shops that are hereabouts (hey Imberts!) the folks at U.S.F.C. had some OMG black equipment with picatinny rails and such, and a quantity-selection of M1 Garands. Woot!
In one display case they had a monster Surefire light that I had heard about but never seen, one that's used in the current conflict mounted on .50BMG machine guns - the Hellfire. Eric held it up for a picture. Damn it's a big sucker! What kind of super-ACOG goes with that??

So glad to see a new shop in the area!

American Exceptionalism seen by Democrats

The notion that American public-policy and our basic Constitutional Rights should be dictated by the violently insane is a peculiarly Democratic concept of American Exceptionalism.
Some say a Society should be judged on how it treats the least among its people, and those with debilitating mental illness are certainly included in that group - but allowing them the keys to the car and saying "Drive on!" is probably not the height of wisdom.

Two-Minute Hate Extended for 60-Minutes!

This week, Sarah Palin starring as Emmanuel Goldstein!
According to Wikipedia,

Within the book, the purpose of 'the hate' is said to satisfy the citizens' subdued feelings of angst and hatred from leading such a censored lifestyle.

Within the novel, hate week is an extrapolation of the two minute period into an annual week-long festival.

So do we get a whole week now? From light-bulbs to toilet-paper demands to be “strictly followed and policed.” to millions more 1099s each year hidden in "health" care reform, to calorie-count labeling - which is the party of suffocating Regulation that censors a persons lifestyle? The Big Party of Incumbency being held in DC on both sides of the aisle, not the Tea Party.

Holy Jumping Cactusses!

Name redacted - I'm not going to give him a voice.
The Cholla Jumps

XXXXX has been making death threats by phone to many people in Pima County including staff of Pima Community College, radio personalities and local bloggers. When Pima County Sheriff’s Office was informed, his deputies assured the victims that he was being well managed by the mental health system. It was also suggested that further pressing of charges would be unnecessary and probably cause more problems than it solved as XXXXX has a family member that works for Pima County.

Until we see the reports this is just hearsay, but given the author’s background I think it merits consideration. Perhaps one of those crack TV reporters who let Dupnik wax on about his theories of the shooters’ motivation might ask about this report.H/T Clarice Feldman


As a left-leaning psycho, who would Nutcase even listen-to, Kos or Sarah Palin?  Why would he even think of listening to Palin??  And what would cause teh Kos to blare, just 48-hours before the shooting, “My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me!”??
Like Nutcase who reportedly thought she was an idiot, it's because she didn't do as she was told and follow Teh Narrative that the Far Left wanted to push.  She was disobedient, therefore stupid.


Blue-Dog Giffords was a strong supporter of a secure border and immigration reform. She had been an outspoken critic of the Federal Government’s lack of protecting our southern border with Mexico and was a supporter of the 2nd Amendment. Her Congressional District-8 shares approximately 160 miles of the Arizona border with Mexico.
Evidently the fever-swamp bug-eating denizens hated her - and she was dead to them.

11:13PM - shots fired

Outside in the dark and cold probably a block or two away, somebody let-off five or six shots - that's an unusual occurrence around here, highly unusual.
Bang!..Bang!.Bang! Bang!Bang!Bang!
Lying in bed my wife said, "That's not good," and we awaited the sound of sirens and the screeching of tires. Nothing. The Police station is withing hearing-range of this kinda thing, and I thought they had a shot-tracker device. Maybe it was too dark and cold, maybe it was the Cops themselves? Silence.

We're not #1...

As a result of an insane act of mayhem and murder by a lefty nutjob with a serious mental health deficiency, a Lefty Noise-Machine spit out a completely false report on the gun he used, written to please a Leftgoon Jupiter-gas-breathing listener-base, and in comments therein more Leftygoons start-off right away with another Big Lie, that we have the highest murder rate In tEh WoRLdz to-11!! - but we don't and we're not #1, we're not even in the top-ten:

# 1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
# 2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
# 3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
# 4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
# 5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
# 6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
# 7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
# 8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
# 9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
# 10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people
# 11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people
# 12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000 people
# 13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people
# 14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people
# 15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people
# 16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people
# 17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people
# 18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people
# 19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people
# 20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people
# 21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people
# 22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people
# 23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people
# 24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people
# 25 Armenia: 0.0425746 per 1,000 people
# 26 India: 0.0344083 per 1,000 people
# 27 Yemen: 0.0336276 per 1,000 people
# 28 Dominica: 0.0289733 per 1,000 people
# 29 Azerbaijan: 0.0285642 per 1,000 people
# 30 Finland: 0.0283362 per 1,000 people

And if poverty was the "real" distressing culprit to such social mayhem, what explains 7, 8, and 9?

Another source places it differently, in a region-by-region basis:
Intentional homicide rates per 100,000 population by region and subregion:
    2004[5]↓                       Rate↓
Southern Africa                   37.3
Central America                  29.3
South America                    25.9
West and Central Africa      21.6
East Africa                          20.8
Africa                                  20
Caribbean                           18.1
Americas                            16.2
East Europe                        15.7
North Africa                       7.6
World                                 7.6
North America                  6.5

We don't even beat the World-average.

UPDATE - link to DiveMedic's post:
And finally as DiveMedic notes in comments at Tam's it's not even the biggest thing here.

The top ten causes of death account for 79% of all deaths in the US.
1. Diseases of heart (heart disease)
2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer)
3. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke)
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)
6. Alzheimer’s disease
7. Diabetes mellitus (diabetes)
8. Influenza and pneumonia
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease)
10. Septicemia
11. Intentional self-harm (suicide)
12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension)
14. Parkinson’s disease
15. Assault (homicide) (less than .8% of all deaths)

My Turn 1/9/11

From Uncle, H/T to Blackfork  and to PapaDeltaBravo who says eloquently:

A pistol to a foot soldier is not a piece of equipment for winning a war, but rather for saving his life. Only a country that actually valued the lives and safety of its individual troopers would have, and indeed could have designed and mass produced such a pistol.

In all of industrial design history, there is probably not a single piece of equipment that was as instantaneously, unexpectedly disruptive and epochal as the 1911 Browning design self loading pistol. Other game-changers like the Model T automobile, DC-3 airplane, FT diesel locomotive and IBM PC were more of a culmination of efforts, processes and trends that were obviously on the horizon, but whose second and third order effects were a surprise.

After 1911, every pistol in common use (apart from a brief detour through locking block land by Walther and Beretta) owed its operating cycle to the genius of John Moses Browning. After 1911, autoloaders were no longer a strange curiosity, but finally a legitimate substitute for the revolver.

A 1943 1911A1 with all matching serial numbers - back when they still numbered the firing-pin stop anyhow.

What earthquake?

Huh? A 4.1 over in the hills by the gun range.

Friday, January 07, 2011 at 04:29:46 PM.

Gun Rights and Human Rights

Two of my favorite Gunbloggers, both Say Uncle and Sebastian get an immense comment-swell from the readership as they dig into then issue of citizenry, citizenship, birth-rights and the 2nd and 14th Amendments. For what it's worth I haven't made any donations to GOA in a long time, just can't afford to.
But I've been re-working some early material of mine for publication and it seems like I'm crossing and re-crossing some similar boundaries as I deal with how some Civilizations manage to find a way to put people in boxes and make virtual slaves of them. Think: the Hindu caste-System...

But Gun Owners of America Executive Director Larry Pratt says the state has every right to restrict conceal and carry permits to citizens.

“If the guy wants to enjoy the full benefit of residing in the United States become a citizen. He’s been here for 30 years what’s he waiting for?,” Pratt told FoxNews.com.

Actually they already do in CA, they regulate through NON-permits. And it’s easier to buy a gun in California than it is to get Citizenship. Apparently Larry seems to think that "just" passing some kind of Citizenship Test is an easy hop-skip-and-a-jump kinda thing. I’ll just guess that he’s never had any personal or family experience with the bureaucracy of the State Dept. or the INS. Think of the IRS and the DMV rolled into one, with the firepower of the BATFE. They do a lot of investigating first, and saying NO, NO, NO, long before they even get close to saying "maybe yes." Like the DMV it can take months before they even open your mail and start the process, and from what I understand like the IRS, once alerted to your presence, first they assume it is necessary to deport or tax you. It’s like waking the sleeping giant or a sleeping dog – you think twice because they bite.
Sebastian's commenter Sage Thrasher observes that,

"I think the 14th Amendment’s greatest gift to the country has been in preventing us from creating a permanently disenfranchised class of people in our midst. The lesson of watching Palestinians dancing in the streets as the Iraqi tanks rolled in back in ’90 shows what can happen when you base your economic system (and by extension your political system) on people who are not allowed to ever enjoy the benefits of it. And make no mistake that “we,” as a country, have definitely decided to let illegal aliens in; we’re not so helpless as we pretend. Today illegal immigrants are mainly Mexicans who work in the industries (agriculture, canning, and increasingly construction and landscaping) we’ve decided are best staffed by underpaid workers whose wages and benefits are kept low by denying them access to jobs in other sectors or to legal recourse when they get ripped off. Without the 14th Amendment, their children would forever be stuck in the predicament, making our agricultural “caste system” permanent, like in most of Europe (Gypsies, Turks, etc.) Our 14th Amendment stops us from re-instituting hereditary slavery under another name, though we know many would try to if they could (see: Irish, Chinese, etc.)"

But there are some details, young "Palestinians" (especially those in the Gaza strip), are disenfranchised by their own Arab brothers all around them - not by Israel where they live freely. Hypocrisy on the issue is abundantly rampant, and all the big Democrats up here in Nor-Cal enjoy the fruits of cheap domestic labor, from the households to the gardens, to the restaurants - it’s a part of the blind-eye they turn against that which they ostensibly condemn. I don't know where the real answer lies (at least I'm not going to get into it right now) but like I said, it's starting to remind me of the Hindu Caste-System and institutionalized bases of power and exemptions - not America - and the "twice-born" Media Brahmins are being dishonest and disingenuous by painting the Tea Party people with all that racist crap - except the Media are also so stupid they wouldn't know the real thing if it bit them in the ass.

Dream

It was slightly past noon and the warm sun filtered through the tall Eucalyptus trees at the edge of the road and cast shadows on the black asphalt. Bruno followed me on his black Vespa as we raced out of the Men's Warehouse parking lot at the strip mall, and onto the boulevard that ran parallel to the expressway.
We were riding hard, trying to catch-up with a friend who had left minutes earlier saying, "See you at Land's End!" He wasn't talking about another retail outlet, he meant the point up in The City where the pavement met the water.
We sped past suburban houses along the frontage road, bending into the sweeping corners where our access road turned to meet the crossroads. The front-end dove while breaking briefly to look both ways before running stop-signs, trying to avoid the main flow of traffic on the adjacent expressway.
After about a mile ripping through suburbia, the sound of fire-engines caught up with us from the main road and the big motors sped past honking and blowing, running to a distant point of smoke up ahead.
The cloud and smoke grew larger as we approached, and suddenly as we came around another bend we saw up ahead a whole section of road that was tumbled up like a lava flow, smoking and burning in a giant blistered heap.
Fire engines were parked at cross angles and blocking the road, and another roared up just as we arrived. We dismounted and scrambled up a slope by the edge of someone's lawn and the county road-markers, climbing over a wire fence and pushing through deer-brush and a thicket of pine to get a better view.
Emerging over the roadway, the slope fell away in a crumble of roots and tangle, and the lumpy molten scene spread out before us. Half of the road was a giant heaving fissure of broken asphalt that leaked smoke and fire through cracks, while firemen moved about it and rigged their lines and gear.
We stared in amazement but suddenly had to back away as a swarm of large black bees, disturbed by the heat and commotion, buzzed-up the flank of the slope at us, hovering among the thicket of brush and roots. I kept my arms and hands still to avoid angering the insects further, and pushed backwards to the fence, moving slowly to pass over its wire.
Back on the side-road, unable to catch-up and reviewing the strange occurrence, we rode slower in our detour up to the City.
We came to a stop somewhere in the south-end of town, along a steep down-hill section where the pathway along the edge of the road had given-way to erosion and was under construction. In the hot sun a crew labored down in a trench with a backhoe, beside a road that was hardly in better shape that the broken sidewalk.
Across the dip in the road the hills rose and folded, up and down, and more construction was evident along the entire length.
We would have to go by foot from here, so we paused to ask the workers when it would be safe to pass. A foreman gestured and said, "Just a sec, let him get out of the way with that before you go down," as a crewman down the trench moved an overhead jackhammer to the side of the ditch, clearing a path.
We went scrambling and sliding down, past the backhoe and construction equipment, and with an encouraging shout from the crew emerged onto the next section of road. It was uphill again...and I hadn't even gotten to the waterworks and the river yet.

Roots

It's cold and sunny outside. Mom's book on Scandahoovian family genealogy is about done and ready to FTP off to the publisher, so I'm going back to my own ancient roots. It's about this stuff, with some pre-history and a bunch of ethno-history thrown in to help explain things. Maybe 33-pages will turn into something bigger. It kinda has-to because nothing is static.

New Year's Present

It smells creamy, like those butter-rum Life-Savers, but it burns the lips and don't even think of trying shooters, it'll scald you from throat to gullet like a Bernz-O-Matic torch - maybe you'll go blind. It's hotter than Bacardi 151 cleaning-fluid, or that (much mo'bettah) 120 Cruzan stuff behind it, and I'm not sure what it's good for except mixing or baking or scaring coyotes.
But just a dribble across the upper lip and it spreads around the mouth like a plume of hot concentrated charged-particles in a plasma diffusion process (I got that from Google), from the introduction of drops it quickly diffuses around the mouth going from regions of high saturation to regions of low concentration, and then it melts back to the rich buttery caramel flavor. But it's hot-hot-hot, so don't drink it, mix it. Seriously. Damn.
On a cold-cold morning with their breath steaming it's what the hardy Fiakers do, the horse-drawn coach drivers in Vienna - they pour it into their morning tea or espresso, it's a thing.

UPATE: After perusing Kaiser Penguin I came across a guy named Keith with a blog and a drink recipe that includes Stroh 80 (that's 80% or 160 proof we're talking about, so the drink is most appropriately named) and thus I present....
MONKS
[chanting] Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem. Pie Iesu domine, dona eis requiem.
ARTHUR
How does it, um-- how does it work?
LAUNCELOT
I know not, my liege.
ARTHUR
Consult the Book of Armaments!
BROTHER MAYNARD
Armaments, chapter two, verses nine to twenty-one...:

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
Brulee 3 cherries on the bottom of a double rocks glass.
In an ice-filled cocktail shaker combine:
1 oz Stroh 80
1 oz fresh orange juice
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
healthy dash of simple syrup
Shake, dump contents into aforementioned rocks glass. Stir, float a dash of absinthe on top.

Grenade - "Small explosive shell," 1590s, from Modern French grenade, meaning "pomegranate." Old French pomegranate (influence by Spanish Granada), ...
etc.

The Dysfunctional Lanyard Loop

I observed the New Year's neatness with which Tam un-coupled the cap from the bottle, but I was unable to repeat the same effect with the hardware on my old Colt...

Just couldn't do it, I'm lame.

Is it warm in here or are you just happy to see me?

Ach warmers, immer mit dem Schweiß und schwul. In German, Warmers is a slang term for those of the gay-type biological-homosexual predilection - not that there's anything wrong with that, indeed it's a more rational belief system, lifestyle choice, and genetic edit than that which the True Believer Global Warming Leftists can conjure up. (HT/ Soylent Green) who got it from Watts Up With That? and the story, Time Magazine blizzard science sets low standard for green journalism.

Is this the type of new “green journalism” expertise that we can expect from the vaunted and much lauded Climate Science Rapid Response Team? Preemptive straw man arguments that would make the master blush? This article is just another in a long line of really speculative pieces that reek of scientific ignorance. Enough of it, please!

It's clearly enough a religion, when each and every contrary extreme is provided as proof of divine existence.