Bullet Forge and B. Jones Sights
"Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul." -- Mark Twain
# Bullet Forge - Gold Bullet vs Silver Bullet Chess - these folks need to be taught the difference between and bullet and a cartridge, but they sure make beautiful stuff. $180. Lots more if you ask them to make it from solid, instead of plated, gold and silver.
# Claire Wolfe at Backwoods Home Magazine - Hardyville Taxes the Taxman - an i.r.s. agent gets the reception his kind deserves. [claire]
"Well, I don't see 'Society' comin' here and helping mend my fences," Nat objected. "And even if it did, I doubt 'Society' would be any good at the job. Druther do it myself. Or hire the Young Curmudgeon. I can pay him in sixpacks and don't have to hire 10 damn useless bureaucrats to back him up or git in his way."
The frustrated taxman then turned to Dora-the-Yalie, "Now, you look like a sensible young lady. Surely, you appreciate the need to pay for ..."
"To pay for war?" Dora harumphed, rising to head for the powder room. "Torture? Detentions without trial? Don't even ask ..."
# Sunni's Salon - Interview: Peter Hendrickson - a three-page romp with the author of Cracking the Code: The Fascinating Truth About Taxation In America, which appears to be a new take on legally avoiding taxation of wages. The April 2005 issue of Sunni's Salon includes two book reviews, webby wanderings, and musical maunderings (I've been a Chicago fan since 1972 or thereabouts). [sunni]
# Garry Reed, The Loose Cannon Libertarian - Let's Criminalize Everything - on the propensity of our legiscum to blame all the world's problems on inanimate objects.
Wife Mary remarked on the mourning Mom on the morning news who demanded that cell phones in cars be outlawed because a cell phone-yakking driver had run her son down. "They'll have to ban radios and CDs and triple whip mocha hazelnut caffe lattes," she scoffed, "because those things distract drivers too."
She didn't literally say that, of course. (This is an exercise in creative writing.) And, mind you, she wasn't begrudging the woman's grief either, just questioning her judgment. Why hadn't Mom lashed out at the driver himself, Mary mused, instead of his cell phone? Because, as all us thoughtful and attentive libertarians know, years of propaganda by product liability lawyers and their enabling judges have programmed people to buy the idea that inanimate objects -- especially those produced by big corporations with bottomless billfolds -- are the sources of all of society's ills. Cigarettes make us smoke. Guns, not people, shoot people. Drugs force us to take drugs. Evil spam email coerces us into clicking on porn sites against our wills. Movies and rap music and video games cause us to be violent (as though violence never existed before "Kill Bill" and Eminem and Grand Theft Auto).
If we can just criminalize all the world's "stuff" we'll be saved.
# B. Jones Sights sells "Prescription Rear Sight Lenses and Sight Accessories For Target Rifles". They have models for AR-15/M-16/SR-25, M-1/M-1a/M-14, and others. Replaces the moving part on the existing rear sight. $28 for the M1A version. They'll help you choose the power. Kule. I shoot pretty well, but I can't see the target very well past about 50 yards, though I haven't tried the 100 yard target since getting my new glasses with significantly-more-powerful right eye correction. You can get a range of powers to help you see the target or the post (near or far-sighted). The lenses also come in a variety of colors. Added to my Arms Manufacturers page. [clairefiles]