A New Varminter

I didn't intend to post anything, but the weather has been too cold for riding, and I am kind of keeping an eye on a project that is wrapping up.  My part should be done.  I'm just trying to make sure that nothing on my side holds up the rest of the team. 

While I'm waiting to get out on the bike, I loaded up some ammunition.  A while back I mentioned the versatility of the .44 Remington Magnum.  One of the loads to which I referred was using Hodgdon H110 and 180-grain hollow points, like the Sierras pictured below. 

The load data from Hodgdon lists a 29.0 grain load of H110 under a Hornady XTP 180-grain bullet at a little over 1700 feet per second.  It's fairly low pressure and gives the skittish loader such as myself a little breathing room.  It's a pretty full case which often suggests consistency and thus accuracy. 

So far, that seems to be working out.  H110 is not a terribly fast powder.  It lies closer to the median than the top in terms of relative burn rate, and Hodgdon classes it as a medium duty/magnum powder. 

REMEMBER:  Never trust anybody's load data, especially what you see on the internet.  This works fine in my revolver, but if you blow yourself or your weapon up, don't blame me.

Anyway, I loaded up some of those Sierra HPs and tried them out.  I have never used anything except 240-grain bullets in my Super Blackhawk because it has always shot them to point of aim, and, if something works amazingly well, I'm reluctant to change.  Obviously, adding 400 or so fps with a lighter bullet means flatter shooting. 

I have been loading Blue Dot and 2400 under my 240-grains.  The recoil is "sharper", I think, with the heavier charge.  I feel like I'm getting more muzzle lift, but, if that's the case, it comes later since the SBH is throwing the 180-grains low.  That's not unusual for handguns.  It gave an excellent 25-yard group.  I haven't had a chance to try longer ranges and side-by-side comparisons with my 240-grain loads, but it does look like I have a new varmint gun.

I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas.

NSA Uncovers Plot to Destroy U.S Economy

They found out about Quantative Easing?  They realized we'll double the debt by the end of Obama term?  They read Paul Ryan's budget? 

No, this is a foreign plot -- possibly by the Chinese -- to attack the BIOS of computers.  So we're even outsourcing the destruction of our economy to China.  That's just great.

Stopping A Bad Man With A Gun

Early reports on any event are always to be taken with some skepticism.  However, Human Events discusses what may be some inconvenient facts about the little punk who shot an innocent girl in the face in Arapahoe High School last Friday. 

The cowardly and privileged leftist turned the gun on himself when he realized he was about to be confronted with an armed opponent.  The more good people we have who are armed, the fewer of these incidents we will have. 

It is worth noting that the original mass shooter, Charles Whitman of Texas Tower infamy, killed 17 people but would have killed many more had he not come under fire from armed civilians as well as police.  I use Whitman's name in opposition to my usual policy both because of the historical significance as well as the fact that Whitman suffered from a brain tumor which he tried to self-medicate.  He was still an inexcusable monster, but one can understand that his thinking and brain function were severely disrupted.

In this latest case at Arapahoe High School, an armed Arapahoe County Deputy Sheriff, serving as school resource officer ran to the scene, shouting for people to get down and identifying himself as a deputy.  The perpetrator knew he was coming and ended his brief, 80-second rampage by blowing off his own head with a Joe Biden-approved, legally-purchased shotgun. 

When the NRA suggested employing armed guards to curtail school shootings, we were subjected to rabid, irrational attacks and mockery.  We were right. 

In this case, the shooter was upset that he had been disciplined and/or removed from the high school debate team.  He was an argumentative person who, like many over-privileged, spoiled brats, had to triumph in every discussion.  He mocked Republicans, supported stricter gun control (except for himself, like most leftists), believed in Keynesian economics, and advocated for socialism.  A fellow student described the punk as a Marxist. 

Again, these are from early reports and gleanings from the wussy little pervert's Fakebook page. We may learn more or find contradictions as time passes.  Meanwhile, the lesson of having guns in the right hands is vindicated once more.

Philipp Bagus on Paper Money

Specifically, Bagus speculates on how the experiment may end.  He lists seven possibilities:  inflation, entitlement default, debt repudiation, financial repression (legislatively "encouraging" the purchase of bonds), paying off of debt, currency reform, and a "bail-in" where savers become bank shareholders as in Cyprus.

He explains the crux of the problem:

We are now in a situation that looks like a dead end for the paper money system. After the last cycle, governments have bailed out malinvestments in the private sector and boosted their public welfare spending. Deficits and debts skyrocketed. Central banks printed money to buy public debts (or accept them as collateral in loans to the banking system) in unprecedented amounts. Interest rates were cut close to zero. Deficits remain large. No substantial real growth is in sight. At the same time banking systems and other financial players sit on large piles of public debt. A public default would immediately trigger the bankruptcy of the banking sector. Raising interest rates to more realistic levels or selling the assets purchased by the central bank would put into jeopardy the solvency of the banking sector, highly indebted companies, and the government. It looks like even the slowing down of money printing (now called “QE tapering”) could trigger a bankruptcy spiral. A drastic reduction of government spending and deficits does not seem very likely either, given the incentives for politicians in democracies. 

Read the whole thing.

h/t The Circle Bastiat

Reality and Budgets

Denninger points out the lies of the politicians, supported by a complicit media. 

Over the long term, there is going to be a major financial crisis and a global economic breakdown.  This will have repercussions upon central governments of nations worldwide.  Some governments will fall apart.  Some may become or attempt to become more repressive.  Here in the States, we are in a fragile equilibrium based on the massive increases in the balance sheets of the Federal Reserve – whose greenish debt instruments are in our pockets – and the increasingly burdensome load of federal government debt and deficit spending. 

The bi-partisan budget deal that passed the House this week does nothing to address the impending threat, a threat significantly greater in terms of the impact on individual Americans than things that dominate the news like Islamic terrorism, Middle East wars, illegal drugs, or nuclear proliferation. 

Essentially the House budget deal restores cuts made to the budget through the sequestration process without doing anything to address the revenue gap.  There is supposed to be $43 billion in cuts in future years not covered by the budget.  Not only is that insignificant against a trillion dollar deficit, it is never going to happen because it is not actually in the budget.  It’s a “gentlemen’s agreement” to minimal reductions made by men and women without the slightest hint of integrity. 

Meanwhile, the media is busy pumping up animosity against anyone who opposes the agreement.  By accident, I happened to watch last night’s broadcast of NBC’s 30 minutes of propaganda with Brian Williams.  Speaker Boehner was allowed to express his frustration with the uncompromising conservatives of the Tea Party wing that can’t seem to understand how Washington works.  There was no counter-argument from anyone on the right giving what I think are very compelling reasons for criticizing the deal. 

Like Obama and the Democrats on Obamacare, Boehner and the establishment Republicans really do not care about the will of their constituents or the good of the country.  They want to stay in power.  And this is precisely why there will be a worldwide crisis with a myriad of unintended consequences.  Politicians, for the most part, are far less interested in doing what is right than in making sure they survive the next election cycle.  Entitlements, education funds, and bureaucracies can’t be cut because that would hurt sure votes for the Democrats.  Taxes can’t be raised, and there can be no cuts in defense spending, farm programs and other corporate welfare schemes because that would suppress Republican votes. 

I’m pretty well done with worrying about what these idiots do.  I’ll do what I can to educate, equip, and train my grandkids for the collapse that will certainly happen within their lifetimes. 

Better Convictions Through Chemistry

Gina Luttrell at Townhall writes about the conviction of Massachusetts chemist Annie Dookhan:

Friday, former Massachusetts chemist Annie Dookhan pleaded guilty to all 27 counts of falsifying nearly 40,000 criminal drug cases, effectively upending the Massachusetts criminal justice system. Dookhan admitted to filing false test results, mixing drug samples together, and lying under oath about her job qualifications. She claimed that she committed her crimes to boost her job performance and was sentenced on Friday to three to five years in prison, plus probation.

For all the trouble Dookhan caused, a five-year sentence seems pretty light.  I think of all the lives potentially ruined by her actions -- a modern triumph of personal ambition over truth and justice.  It seems clear that Dookhan is not an isolated case.  As Luttrell writes, the chemist had close ties with prosecutors and that state attorneys may have, in some cases, known the lab results were falsified. 

I really hope people begin to realize that government is not a benevolent, altruistic, selfless entity dedicated to righting wrongs and saving us from evil.  Here's the rule:  anything with people in it has the potential to be evil, unjust, and self-aggrandizing.

Some people in government, some police officers, some politicians, some judges, some bureaucrats are good, decent, freedom-loving Americans.  Shoot, some teachers are all right.  The good people may even be a majority, but, as a whole, all institutions must be regarded with some skepticism.  

The law has to apply to all, and when prosecutors or presidents step across the line, they must be held accountable.  Luttrell notes a step in the right direction, but it is not nearly enough.  A short rope and a tall tree would be more appropriate.

Snowed In

Snow and cold we have here in abundance today.  Since I don't have to go out to get to work, we are in pretty good shape to wait it out.  Traffic was light down on the county road as it came in yesterday.  Today I haven't seen or heard anything going by. 

We probably have eight to ten inches of snow on the ground but drifts are impressive, and it is not going to get above 20 degree Fahrenheit today.  Our food and fuel supplies are good -- plenty of coffee and beans.  Lots of gas in the tank to run the generator if the power fails -- which I don't expect.  The ice is down in Arkansas.  The only thing I might be a little light on is food for the dog and cats.  There's more than enough for the next four or five days -- by which time travel should be less of a challenge, but I knew this was coming and I really should have stocked up. 

My wife has all the Christmas stuff out.  She made me pull the tree down off out of storage and is even threatening to make me put it up "one more time".  We'll see how that goes this weekend.  I may not have anything better to do. 

All that clean, white snow is pretty when you don't have to get out in it.  Of course, at some point I have to go out and look for tracks.  That's part of the fun, too. 

Man I Cured

My wife buys "beauty supplies" at a "beauty supply store."  She is a beauty -- no air quotes needed.  But I'm sure they sell these things other places:

They are some kind of fingernail file.  My wife gives her old ones to me because, of course, I trim my nails that aren't broken, blackened nubs with a pocket knife.  The one in the picture has four different grit surfaces.  I'm sure the ladies don't refer to them as grit, but you know what I mean.

These are really handy for polishing up a knife edge.  You have a surface to strop on, and you can get a fine razor edge.  Plus you don't have to worry about water or oil and when it stops working you can pitch it.  It is nice and light and handy to carry in a Dopp kit or whatever.

If your wife, girlfriend, sister, or roofer, uses these things ask her to save them for you.  Or if you happen to be a gay, metrosexual, or merely genderly confused prepper yourself and like pretty nails, we're not here to judge you.  I'm just telling you, it's handy for touching up the cake knife as well.   

Josie the Outlaw

Josie the Outlaw has a message for the police.

Use the link above to go to the Youtube location, as I had to break the link to get it to show up in here.

Thank you, Mr. Van Der Leun. 


Visit Josie's website, where you can see a couple of other excellent videos she has made.

She seems like a really bright and well-informed young lady. 

I often post news and links pertaining to incidents where the police have acted inappropriately and without reasonable restraint. 

The bottom line, as Josie so clearly states, is that a badge and a uniform should not allow a person to do get away with an action that would be illegal without the badge.   

Make it viral.  Everybody needs to think about this.

Organizing For Agony

I have seen several reports of this:  Obama's propaganda brownshirts, Organizing For Action, are urging people to set up remembrance days for the Newtown tragedy on December 14 to push the gun control agenda.

If Congress wants to pass a law, they ought to pass one against politically exploiting the senseless deaths of children at the hands of mad men.  It would be rather like the law they have in Germany against denying the Holocaust. 

I'm really not for that either, since I prefer giving people the courtesy of using their own common sense.  It just ain't so common as I would like. 

What I think we ought to commemorate is the last time you could buy rimfire ammunition at Wal-Mart.  I have two batches back-ordered.  If the one ever comes in, I'll probably never need to buy .22LR again before my 100th birthday.  I'd try investing in Bitcoins if I thought they would feed through my 10/22.

The big-government types will never stop trying to limit the weaponry the serfs can possess.  They will come out like ghouls to dance their blood ballet every chance they get.  They will moan and cry for just a little "compromise", a little "reasonable" restriction.  And, if they get it, next time they will want more until you can't own a bean-flipper without their permission.  

Free people own weapons to defend themselves against criminals and tyrants, as if there is any difference.  When a government does not obey its own laws, it has stepped over the line into tyranny and has no more right to the allegiance of its citizenry than a burglar has to your television set.   

Even with the NRA and other pro-gun organizations, we are at a disadvantage against the funding and media coverage the hoplophobes can muster.  We can never afford to give an inch to the irrational demands of those who would disarm us.

Beside the definition of the word "projection"

... in the dictionary is a picture of the Obama regime.  They call Benjamin Netanyahu "desperate and weak" for his opposition to the Iran deal.  Read the article and comments at the Treehouse.

IBD says that the Norks and Iranians are corroborating on a heavy-lift ICBM.  If these rogues can put a payload into orbit then everybody is vulnerable -- not just Israel and South Korea -- to a high-altitude EMP attack as well as direct attacks on cities.  If they decide to drop one on Washington, D.C., I hope they do it during the State of the Union speech, and I certainly hope all the fools that enabled it are in attendance.  Nuclear bombs are the ultimate non-partisan solution.

I remember back in the late '70s that Jimmy Carter caught some flak for approving or going along with the neutron bomb which was supposed to kill people but leave the infrastructure.  Too bad there isn't one that could kill the newsreaders and talking heads and leave the rest of us in peace. 

I suppose that's a little harsh, but, whatever one's view on biblical eschatology, I don't see where we can possibly benefit from offering Israel as a sacrificial lamb to the Islamic extremists.