The Deadly Cancer Attacking America
"It is a shame that the precautionary principle is not applied to government regulation: in the absence of any overwhelming proof that it will work, such regulation ought to be prohibited." -- Antoine Clarke
From Travis Pahl at smith2004:
# AK103K at The High Road - Here's a pic of my pocket gun - posted as an answer to a guy who wants to carry a pocket handgun while waiting tables in a restaurant. Hahahahaha. [highroad]
# I moved Jack W. Boone and Daniel J. Boone to the "More Weblogs" column of my links page. Neither has updated his blog in a long long time. I moved Rachel Lucas back to the "Weblogs" column, right below Bill Whittle. She's not posting very often, but at least she's posting.
# Daniel Henninger at Opinion Journal - Want a Different Abu Ghraib Story? Try This One - individual charity triumphs over government atrocity. Don North, a news producer, located seven Iraqis whose right hands were amputated by Saddam Hussein's regime, got them to the U.S., and obtained prosthetic hands and the medical expertise to attach them. All at no cost to the Iraqis. Bravo, Mr. North! [jpfo]
# Chuck Hawks - Just Say "NO" to Gun Registration - I perused Mr. Hawks' site again yesterday. I'd forgotten what a treasure trove it is. This political essay was linked from every one of the public guns sections. He advocates refusing to obey any law the requires registration or confiscation of firearms. Bravo! [hawks]
I realize that I am openly advocating breaking the law, should gun registration (for instance) become law. But I reason that such a law is immoral as well as unconstitutional. And it is the duty of every citizen to refuse to obey immoral laws, just as it is the duty of every soldier to refuse to obey immoral orders, whatever the personal cost. It now falls to us to put our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor on the line, following the example of the brave and noble men who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Admittedly, those in government charged with enforcing these abhorrent laws will arrest a few visible individuals who advocate just saying NO (perhaps including me) to make "examples" of them. But they simply lack the resources to arrest the biggest part of 65 million otherwise law-abiding citizens. And should they try, I have to believe that the majority of mainstream America will finally see and understand what is happening and rise to our defense by electing different politicians who will repeal the anti-gun laws and free those who were arrested for refusing to register or surrender their guns.
In urging all gun owners to "Just Say NO" to gun registration and confiscation, I am advocating a form of civil disobedience that I hope will become so widespread and visible that it will cause the opponents of freedom to pause. Make them realize that their own political demise will be the inevitable result of their actions. Perhaps if the gun owners of America take this stand it will ultimately save the Second Amendment, and the entire Bill of Rights, from those who seek to destroy it. I am hoping that word of this proposal spreads rapidly to, and finds acceptance with, the majority of gun owners in every corner of this land.
Understand, I am not suggesting or advocating initiating violence or the use of force against anyone. In my view force, and particularly lethal force, should properly be used only to protect and defend one's life or property (or the life and property of another innocent person).
# The Second Horseman of the Confederacy - The Rifleman - a description of what happens when the rifleman pulls the trigger and why it's important that he has his rifle.
# The Second Horseman of the Confederacy - The United States versus America - reminds us that America is not the United States government.
For the situation to improve, Americans have got to understand that there is no longer a "United States of America". There hasn't been one in your lifetime!
There is America... A people with a tradition of self-reliance, rugged independence, and courage. A philosophy based on individual freedom and unalienable rights. A country blessed by Providence with everything a free and courageous people need to thrive.
Then there is the United States... A political entity that halfheartedly claims to exist for the benefit of America, but actually sucks the life-blood out of the country at an ever-increasing rate. An entity that extends its suckers into other countries, prompting them to retaliate, mistakenly wounding America in the attempt.
Americans need to realize that they are AMERICANS, not United Statesians. The US is not your country. It is deadly cancer attacking your country. Opposing and resisting the United States does not make you a traitor, it makes you an American patriot.
# The Second Horseman of the Confederacy - To All Good Cops... - Wow!!!
How can any good person be willing to ruin his fellow citizen's life because that citizen used the "wrong" dried plant matter in his cigarettes? How could a good person who walks around with a high-capacity autopistol on his hip arrest a citizen for carrying an old revolver without feeling like a complete hypocrite? How can a good person harass peaceable citizens over the countless intrusive, freedom-sapping laws without feeling like a total heel?
But I'm told that there are still good cops out there. And I know that even the not-so-good ones have spouses and children and kinfolk who care about them. So, for the theoretical good cops out there, I have something to say:
Please quit the force.
Do it now.
I don't want to have to kill you.
I don't want your families' grief on my conscience.
...
You see Officer, I know full-well that my life will be over from the moment I find myself subjected to a "felony stop" or "no-knock warrant". I know that, after I kill you, I will be a marked man. That my home, property, and family will be forfeit. I've already come to terms with that. As much as I love my life, it wouldn't be worth living as a slave.
After I kill you, I'll have only one purpose in life: To kill as many jack-booted thugs as I can before I go down myself. I consider it my patriotic duty... As well as a potential outlet for my creativity.
# Jude Wanniski at LewRockwell.com - Remembering Tiananmen Square - I'd never seen this before. Mr. Wanniski says that there was no massacre in Tiananmen Square. As a matter of fact, nobody died there. There were violent riots elsewhere, resulting in a few hundred dead, on both sides, but nothing like the thousands mowed down that was reported in the media at the time. Interesting. [lew]
"I hope you saw the lead article in the September/October issue of Columbia Journalism Review on "The Myth of Tiananmen and the Price of a Passive Press." It's by Jay Mathews, a first-rate reporter for The Washington Post, who was the Post's first Beijing bureau chief. He returned to Beijing in 1989 to help cover the Tiananmen demonstrations. The point of his piece was that nine years after the fact, the story of the slaughter gets worse as it goes along. He quotes you as having noted on the May 31 edition of Meet the Press that there were 'tens of thousands' of deaths on the Square that day, when in fact there is no evidence that anyone died on the Square that day. The myth began with a spurious account of students being mowed down by machine guns that was picked up a week after the day's events by The New York Times, but Mathews notes the Times has since noted the lack of evidence of even one death. 'Hundreds of people, most of them workers, and passersby, did die that night, but in a different place and under different circumstances. The Chinese government estimates more than 300 fatalities. Western estimates are somewhat higher. Many victims were shot by soldiers on stretches of Changan Jie, the Avenue of Eternal Peace, about a mile west of the square, and in scattered confrontations in other parts of the city, where, it should be added, a few soldiers were beaten or burned to death by angry workers.'"
The Papers have your colleague, Li Peng, reporting on the casualties to Deng Xiaoping on June 6: "The General Office of the State Council reports that as of noon today the basic statistics -- which have been double- and triple-checked with Martial Law Headquarters and the Chinese Red Cross -- are these: Five thousand PLA soldiers and officers wounded, and more than two thousand local people (counting students, city people, and rioters together) also wounded. The figures on the dead are these: twenty-three from the martial law troops, including ten from the PLA and thirteen from the People's Armed Police. About two hundred soldiers are also missing. The dead among city people, students and rioters number about two hundred, of whom thirty six are university students. No one was killed within Tiananmen Square itself."
# Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - Bad News for Control Freaks - Iraq is not controllable. [lew]
The reality is that Iraqis are a rebellious and nationalistic people. Much is always being said about Saddam Hussein's brutality, but the very fact that he had to kill so many and imprison so many tells you that even with all his power, Iraqis were constantly challenging his rule. That rebellious spirit does not bode well for any elected government in the future.
One of the not-thought-about-but-essential characteristics of the Western democracies is the ability to lose gracefully. Whether in Great Britain or the United States, when one or the other of the major parties loses an election, the losing side accepts the results graciously if begrudgingly. It is a tradition.
There is no such tradition in Iraq -- or, for that matter, in most parts of the world. To lose an election or power in many countries is to lose everything, including one's life and property. There is a tendency in those countries for the losers to challenge the election results with gunfire.
It's always been my belief that eventually even the blockheads in Washington will realize that democracy is not going to take root in Iraq. Then they will look around for a strongman to impose order by force. It will take some skillful lying to hide the fact that in the end we just replaced one dictator with another. But lying is a fine art in Washington. After all, the only allies we have in the Arab world are dictators of one shape or form. In the past 50 years, many a dictator owed his job to the United States.
...
The Middle East is much more complex than you will ever learn by watching Fox television.
#
Camille Dodero at The Boston Phoenix -
Recruitment-Office Protest - Joe Previtera dressed up like the Abu
Ghraib photo, black hood, shawl, and wires dangling from his hands. He
was arrested and charged with making a bomb threat. Man, it's really
time to get rid of the very concept of police, completely,
forever. [whatreallyhappened]
So if Previtera didn't mention a bomb, what exactly constitutes a bomb threat? "It can be implied, with fingers and wires -- especially in a heightened state of alert, as we are," says Officer Michael McCarthy, Boston Police Department spokesman. And McCarthy thinks this is common knowledge, even if the wires are accessories to a costume. "Mr. Previtera should know better. He's a young adult educated at Boston College from a wealthy suburb. I'm sure he knows wires attached to his fingers, running to a milk crate, would arouse suspicion outside a military recruiters' office [when he's] dressed in prisoner's garb. If he has any questions as to why people think he may've had a bomb, then he needs to maybe go back to Boston College to brush up on his public policy. Or at least common sense, but they can't really teach that there."I sent the following:
To: letters@phx.com
From: "Bill St. Clair" <bill@billstclair.com>
Subject: Letter to the editor
cc: McCarthyM.bpd@ci.boston.ma.us
I read on the Phoenix web site Camille Dodero's description of the protest outside a recruitment office by Joe Previtera, dressed up like the infamous Abu Ghraib prison photo. The article quoted Boston Police Department spokes-pig Michael McCarthy, "Mr. Previtera should know better.... I'm sure he knows wires attached to his fingers, running to a milk crate, would arouse suspicion outside a military recruiters' office [when he's] dressed in prisoner's garb. If he has any questions as to why people think he may've had a bomb, then he needs to maybe go back to Boston College to brush up on his public policy. Or at least common sense, but they can't really teach that there."
Au contraire, Mr. McCarthy, your portulence. It is _you_ who are lacking in common sense. Any fool, looking at Mr. Previtera's getup, can see that the whole thing, wires included, is a wonderfully done copy of what some real sickos did to Iraqi prisoners. But fascists are known for brutality, not common sense, eh?
I hope the cops who arrested him are themselves imprisoned, or worse, for kidnapping, but I'd settle for a huge false arrest lawsuit.
Bill St. Clair
# Bill Johnson at ChuckHawks.com - Affordable Accuracy - Mr. Johnson performs three tweaks on two rifles (Springfield Armory Squad Scout and Remington Model 700, both in .308) and reports on the resulting accuracy improvements: Tweak #1 - David Tubb's Final Finish System ($34), Tweak #2 - Trigger Work ($40), Tweak #3 - Bed the Action ($65). This took the Scout from 4.44" 100 yard groups to 0.82" and the 700 from 1.61" to 0.67". All three were useful for the Scout. Bedding didn't make much difference for the 700. [hawks]
Squad Scout - Conclusions
The results of the experiment are summarized in the charts and tables below.
Clearly, the Squad Scout's performance improved significantly after lapping the barrel using David Tubb's final finish product. This produced a 39% accuracy improvement for only $35. By far, this is the biggest bang for the buck. If you only do one thing to your Scout, lap the barrel.
For another $40 you can expect a trigger job to get you another 28% improvement. For only 75 bucks (about 5.3% of the original purchase price) for lapping and a trigger job, you can cut the size of your groups in half! Not a bad return for your money.
My final tweak was to bed the action for $65, which again chopped the average group size by more than half! I was so surprised by the results of this improvement that I convinced a friend to let me perform the same experiment on his new M1A stock rifle. (He'll pay for the bedding, naturally.)
Were I to do this experiment over, the priority of improvements would be bedding, bore lapping, and trigger job.
