NcSTAR

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 29 Oct 2005 12:00:00 GMT
# Sportsman's Guide - NcSTAR™ 1x25 mm Red / Green Dot Sight - I got a silver one of these at the local black rifle store last week. I was hoping to mount it on my AR, but it only fits dovetail (standard on .22s) and Weaver rails, not the Picatinny rail on a flat-top AR. The picture at the link shows it mounted to a weaver rail screwed on to an AR handle. That's an extra mounting bracket that doesn't come with the sight. I could have returned the sight, but I decided to try it on my 10/22, which is stainless, so the colors match nicely.

I did a range test yesterday. Very easy to zero. I fired 50 shots into a 1.5" circle at 25 yards, elbows resting on the bench (range rules at the range near my work). Not great shooting, but for the size of dot, not too bad. The dot covered about 2/3 of an NRA 100-yard small-bore rifle target bullseye (which is more than the 5 MOA advertised at the link. I think I have a slightly different version with a smaller objective lens and a bigger dot). I liked the red dot better. Green might work better closer to sunrise or sunset.

I've never used a red-dot sight before. Me like 'em. Looks like it's time to save my pennies for a Trijicon Reflex (tritium illuminated, about $400) for my AR.

Amazingly, this sight costs only $25. Don't know yet how well it will hold up or how quickly it'll eat batteries, but at that price, it's basically a toy. And what a fun toy! I think my son will like it.

NcSTAR manufactures their products in El Monte, California.

# GeekWithA.45 - Reflexive Wussism... - good story about how the geek humorously interjected some rationality into an argument with a co-worker about the unlikely danger of a video cable strung along the hall. [geekwitha.45]

# John Solomon and Pete Yost of AP via The Washington Post - Cheney Adviser Resigns After Indictment BugMeNot - all this build-up, and Fitzgerald gets an indictment for one guy, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. [google]

# Thomas Knapp at Strike the Root - You Can Write It Down - Don't trust your liberty to the Constitution or any other piece of paper. "The only way to get freedom is to take it." [clairefiles]

I was once a Constitutionalist. To the extent that I perceive possible benefit in trying to hold the state to its own purported rules, I guess I still am. But I should know better, and so should you. The game is rigged, and it has been from the start. As Benjamin Franklin said at that time, "our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

Franklin was wrong, but only slightly so. The Constitution did in actuality confer a certain permanence -- or, rather, a restoration. It was a restoration of the monarchist substance, albeit in a republican form. It was a document created by, and for, aristocratically-minded framers who had no more intention of honoring its purported purposes than King John had of honoring Magna Carta.

...

We got screwed. It's just that simple. A successful revolution was followed by a successful counter-revolution . . . and the counter-revolutionaries conveniently forgot to let us know. They were content, and still are, to humor the serfs. After all, a man who thinks he's free hasn't much incentive to rebel for his freedom, does he?

# NJ Wildberger at The University of New South Wales - DIVINE PROPORTIONS: Rational Trigonometry to Universal Geometry - a new way to to trigonometric problems without sins, cosines, tangents, or any need for tables or calculators. Preface, Contents, Introduction, and Chapter 1 available for download as PDF. Haven't read them yet. Can be ordered online at wilegg.com. [clairefiles]

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