Fun Gun!
# When I told someone at the local black rifle store about my Marlin 1984P, he said, "Oh, you got a 'fun gun'". His characterization jibed with my experience last night. I fired the 50 Cowboy Action rounds that I loaded on Wednesday night. What a blast! As for accuracy, I don't have any details except that I was hitting minute of clay pigeon offhand at 25 yards. And I gave in to the temptation to fire out that deep-seated round. The gun did not explode (don't try this at home kids, only those with a professional-grade death wish can engage in such insanity without risk of serious injury). BTW, the 200-grain lead bullets I'm using are from Northeast Bullets (added to my Arms Manufacturers page). They're marketed as 44-40 bullets, RNFP (Round-Nosed Flat Point). Amazingly, Eddie, the proprietor of the backyard gun shop where I bought them, charged me less than it would have cost to have them shipped directly from the manufacturer. Volume discount, I guess. Also, he drives there himself to pick them up. He's got a sign in his store saying that if you're looking for Wal-Mart or Dick's Sporting Goods, you should go to Albany, but his prices usually beat theirs. I'm pushing these bullets with 7.5 grains of Hodgdon Universal (scroll down a page), near the maximum load on their Cowboy Action 44 Magnum data page. From the Northeast Bullets products page:
We Now Apply A Dry Film Lubrication To The Entire Bullet Before It Is Sized Then Lubed Conventionally. This is a multiple step process that includes "Moly." After years of shooting and testing we believe that this is far and away the best way to shoot lead bullets. Others charge a significant amount extra for Moly coating alone. In fact, we used to charge additionally ourselves. However this process is included in our listed prices.
# Charley Hardman - thug vs. thug - comments on a scientist who was handcuffed and jailed for a bad attitude when told to finish eating a candy bar before entering DC's no-food-allowed Metro. [saltypig]
# Jesse Walker at Reason - Jabbing JibJab: Copyright law vs. political satire - JibJab's This Land take-off of Woodie Guthrie's classic is in trouble from the lawyers of his estate. Assholes. The Flash video itself is here (3.7 megs). Right click and "Save As..." to keep a copy for yourself in case they remove it. [claire]
I don't think Woody would have approved, but I don't think he would have threatened a lawsuit either. This is a man who once, in lieu of the ordinary copyright notice, offered this: "This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."
Did you hear the man? That song was made for you and me.
# Fran Tully - Thoughts on Courage - an impassioned invitation to move to Wyoming and practice courage and vigilance. [lrtdiscuss]
I was watching a neighborhood t-ball game last year. This is a game where kids swing a bat at a ball perched on top of a post. First of all, I have a problem with the whole concept. For 200 years, our kids swung sticks or bats at balls UNTIL they could hit them. But in today's mamby-pamby society, this has become politically incorrect because some children aren't ABLE to hit the ball. But, this isn't what really set me off. What REALLY set me off was that no team wins. They just want all the kids to have a good time and learn to be good sports. Our socialist soccer moms are teaching kids that winning isn't nearly as important as just playing ball to learn to get along. This is just one of dozens of examples of changes designed to emasculate our society.
# 100 Million Real Americans - Dear Peace Officer - I posted this over three years ago. It just went out over the Stanley Scoop. Worth re-reading at least once a year, just to remind you of the proper way to think about cops. [stanleyscoop]
Dear Peace Officer:
I don't want to kill you. I don't even want to wound you. I admire your courage and the commitment you've made to help others, often at the risk of your own life. I hope you won't come for me, because if you do, one of us will die. It may be you. I've done nothing wrong. I don't intend to. But the government that you serve has passed too many laws. I am sure to accidentally break one, some day. And that same government is systematically destroying the unalienable rights which our Constitution says may not be infringed - very specifically, my right to keep and bear arms.
I am not some wacko lunatic, but I can no longer stand idly by, while decent people are systematically enslaved by an out-of-control government. I cannot allow a corrupt judiciary to use its power to destroy my rights and my country. That government and that judiciary has begun to use you to arrest and kill people just like me - people who believe that the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights mean what they say.
# The Boston Independent Media Center has lots of coverage of additional protests at the Democrat National Convention. Remember the right-column links to reader-submitted stories. My favorite photo:
