Friday, October 26, 2007

This has to be noted as the "You can't have it both ways"

So, if I understand this correctly, here’s the reasoning: Police want to raid alleged drug dealer. Police get no knock warrant. Police conduct raid late at night so that they can catch them off guard. The plan worked and they were off guard. So, being off guard, person at the house opens fire. Now, the police say that she should have known they were police.

It makes no sense to me.

Me neither, Unc.

Followup to the 'poor babies' post

here. Article is here,

The first group of criminal enablersconcerned people had their suit thrown out of court because, basically, 'you are legal citizens and this doesn't affect you, so you have no standing to sue'. As I understand it, anyway. So they "refiled Thursday in federal court with additional plaintiffs who say they are facing eviction because of the measure. The plaintiffs are the National Coalition of Latino Clergy, two churches, a restaurant group and several anonymous individuals." Which is a fancy way of saying "We found some dirtbag illegals who snuck into the country undocumented workers who will be evicted if this law takes effect, and we are with them!"

I'm not going to say much, as I don't need to clean up the mess afterward. I'll just repeat: Screw you. You want to help people break our laws and act like you're entitled to make your own laws. Fuck you and get the hell out. You like these illegals so much? Go back to wherever with them. And we need to find the name of the 'restaurant group' and send them letters saying "We ain't eating at your places no more. No more money for you!"

I'm not sure whether to call this 'The Idiot Reporter Saga'

or 'Dumbass Journalist Blows It'. It seems a jerk reporter showed up at a checkpoint in Iraq without his proper id, acted like a jackass to the troop dealing with him, and posted about it. Then, when comments seemed to run to the, ah, 'negative' side, the whole blog disappeared. Except for a blogger who thought, considering past history, decided to preserve the whole post. Definitely worth reading, and do NOT forget the comments. They'll make you smile.

Then Doc Weasel got a e-mail from a coworker of the jerk saying basically "He's not so bad". He also adds at the end that the original site by the jerk is back. I tried, but couldn't get it to show up; maybe busy.

Well, now Little Green Footballs has found out some information on another piece the jerk did, and it does not make him look good. And Reihl has some background on the jerk.

You know, some of these people seem to be living in that "I think this, therefore it is the truth!" world. And now, thanks to this here innernet, it does tend to come back and bite them. Thankfully.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

BSA Sportsman-Five

Here's the rifle I picked up in Tulsa


To start with, take a look at the trigger:








Monday, October 22, 2007

Aww, poor babies!

A while back a law was passed in OK that "will make it a felony to transport, conceal or shelter an undocumented immigrant from detection and also prevents illegal immigrants from getting jobs and public assistance." So of course the 'protect the illegals' groups are filing lawsuits. Apparently they think there's something unconstitutional about trying to catch illegal aliens and send them back to wherever. Or preventing them from looting the public purse for their health care and for welfare benefits.

KTOK just had a blurb on their news about having interviewed the head clown in charge of a local hispanic group who whined about how many illegals have left this state before the law goes into effect, and how many others are 'hiding out' and wanting to leave. He thinks this is a bad, nasty, unfeeling thing for us to cause. I think you can probably guess my thoughts on this, but just in case:
Attention, sir:
Despite your not seeming to care about this, I will say it plainly: they are NOT 'undocumented workers', they are illegal aliens. That means they came here illegally. That means they broke the law to get here, they broke the law staying here, and they should leave. While you're whining about how horrible it is for people to want to do something about the illegals causing all kinds of problems, it's just amazing that you seem to have no words for the countries- Mexico being a big offender here- that are so screwed up that their governments would rather see their people coming here illegally so they can send U.S. money back home, than try to fix their own damn country. So screw you.

That is all.

I'd forgotten how hard it is to find some books at the used store

Son wants some sci-fi, so I figured get paperbacks(more will fit in the box) and hit the used stores(more books for the money). Fat chance. A few Drake, no Eric Flint, no David Weber, no Lois McMaster Bujold, a couple of Heinlein. And that was it.

So, raiding the shelves for mine to send. Hopefully he'll be able to send them back later, but if they get passed around and worn out I'm not going to gripe; they are for reading, after all.

If you'll excuse me, I've got shelves to go through and a box to pack.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Gun show report

I'm home, it's over- until April, at least- and I'm glad. I'm beat. That show covers 14 acres, and I have no idea how far I walked over the last two days(many sections twice). And all on concrete floors, just to make things fluffy-bunny-level happy.

Don't mistake me, it's a good show. Lots and LOTS of stuff, guns and parts and ammo and accessories and tools and materials and knives and... you get the idea. From cheap to "There are how many zeros after that number?!?" Like the Holland & Holland double rifle in .470 Nitro Express, for only $28k. Or the J.P. Sauer & Son drillings(double-barrel side-by-side shotgun with a rifle barrel below the shotgun), the really pretty one, 16 gauge and 9.3x74mm, was, as I recall, $32k. And so on.

I found a bunch of stuff, replacement screwdriver bits, cannon fuse(for smoke bombs; no cannon as yet), etc. And some somewhat beat-up Carbine magazines. Northridge had a box of them 2 for $5, all had some kind of damage and they decided they didn't want to mess with them. I found a few I think are repairable, and if they're not I've got spare springs & followers. The main thing I picked up was a lovely little BSA bolt-action .22 rifle, a "Sportsman Five", so named for the five-round box magazine. Which wasn't there, of course: some subhuman piece of crap had stolen the mags for both of these the guy had, so the rifles went at a discount. Perfect bores, tight actions, good sights, slightly beat-up stocks. I picked out one. I'd have been tempted even without some information from two people, a gunsmith and a friend. The smith has done a lot of business with companies in Britain and says the magazines are not hard to find, but businesses- due to the idiot laws stomping on them- don't want to export them. Friend knows some people over there, and thinks they may be able to find a magazine if I can't locate one here. I'll post a picture of the rifle later.

I almost bought an Iver Johnson top-break revolver in .32S&W. Lovely little thing, very good bore and chambers, tight barrel/frame fit. The owner named a very good price and while I was thinking "I need to work the action and check it" the guy next to me laid down money(Gee, thanks, Dad).

I have to observe, in case you haven't noticed, people have gone insane on prices on firearms of many kinds. I looked a a nice Webley Mark II, in what we call .38S&W and the Brits called .380/200, and was very interested until the guy said $695. Eeep. Try a Mark VI Webley, .455, with a cut cylinder, asking price- depending on which one you saw- $795-995. Except for a couple in quite good shape with uncut cylinders, $1700 to 1900. I repeat, eeep. Same for a lot of rifles, too. Just about anything connected with M1 Carbines and Garands has gone through the roof. Some parts aren't too bad, but some... barrels starting at $200, and the least expensive Carbine I saw was $700; every other one ran about $800 and up. We're not talking all-original and correct here, we're talking standard GI rifles. Least expensive Garand was $900 as I recall. A lot of people were asking "You've got to be kidding" prices for Mosin Nagant rifles and other milsurp stuff, too.

And ammo, let's not forget ammo. A can of 7.62x54r Hungarian light ball, 440 rounds, that I bought late last year for $38 is now going for $72. If you shoot you're aware of this stuff. A bag of 140 rounds of South African .308 that used to go for $26 is not selling for anywhere from $62 to $75. And Lithuanian .308, 200-round battle pack, anywhere from $115 to 140. Makes me very damn glad I already handload. Components have gone up, but it still beats paying the going prices for a lot of stuff.

Prices and all, this is still a damn good show. Lots to see, lots of people to meet(next time some idiots starts talking about guns and 'white suburban males', they need to be dragged to a good-size show), and at this one good food at the snack bars. Well worth attending if you can, they run one show in April(which I can't make) and one in October.

I'm for a shower, a drink and bed.