Predictions

Making predictions is hard. Especially about the future.
                                                 Yogi Berra

Gun Fun - New Shooters

SIL made it to the gun show Sunday and came away with a Ruger SR-22. Eventually she plans to add an SR-9 to the collection on the premise that practice with the .22 will pretty much transfer to the 9mm. The 9 is physically a bit larger and heavier, but all the controls are in the same place so this should work well enough.

I told her to not practice dry-firing the .22 without either a plastic snap cap or a spent piece of brass in the gun to protect the firing pin. Figuring I had one rolling around in the center console of my truck, I tried to find one outside the show. I had 5 pieces ranging from 9mm to 8 ga but no .22. I asked if her gun came with a threaded barrel and she wrote back:

Yes it does. It comes with a little wrench and a black piece to thread in. We'll have to go over it together. Not sure what it's all about. Haven't had time to read the manual yet. It says not to use a cheater bar, can cause damage to the gun. Of course I know what a cheater bar is cause my brother in law taught me that years ago. haha Also enclosed was a small brown sealed envelope with a label and a signature across it. It contained a spent 22 casing. I assume for you to practice with before you try live ammo. They think of everything.

So there is a use for those things. I wrote back explaining that the NYPD or the state of Mass would want it for their collection, but otherwise she's got it right. Normally I don't encourage firearms discussions at work as the person in the next cube might get the vapors or something. I suspect the issue is overrated. SIL works for the government.

I took the manual in to show a few peeps at the office. The older grey haired lady that sits beside me nodded her approval and smiled. The red head on my other side won't like it. The deputy sheriff liked it. The most smiles came from ( her boss). He was all excited about it. He has a 45 with a kit to change caliber. Oh & I have already pinched the skin on my hand with the slide. Duh. Happy New Year & happy anniversary!*

It's her first gun and it still hasn't been fired. She's liking it.

* Five after midnight will be my 34th wedding anniversary. I used to throw some great new years parties.

Colorado Gun Law - Downstream

The Denver Pest is editorializing that Gov Chickenpooper should not only not countenance repeal of any of the gun laws passed this year, he should stand forthrightly against any modification to any of them. Period.

No, governor, there's no need to do it. There's no need to "tweak" the gun laws passed this year. Not without compelling evidence that one or more provisions are simply unworkable — and no such evidence has been produced, as far as we're concerned.

"As far as the Post is concerned", no evidence has ever been produced to contradict any of their positions.  Be that as it may, I'm in perfect agreement with their position, but for different reasons.

The laws in question have resulted in no attributable change in any crime rate, but have resulted in the recall of two Senators and the resignation of a third. Pols like to believe that the public has a short memory and nothing they do will be remembered the day after it is announced in the papers. What we have seen this year is that some of us have rather longer memories than that, and keeping those onerous laws on the books will be a constant reminder to us all the way through the '14 elections.

Sure, supporting repeal or amendment to some of them might boost the governors or some legislators chops as a "moderate" but what for? In the end the legislators will vote the way the Mayor tells them and the Governor will sign anything that lands on his desk and with his party still holding both houses he's unlikely to actually see anything the least bit moderate.

Hang in there Gov!

Gun Fun

IDPA match tomorrow, Tanner Gun Show Sunday. I'll be at the CSSA table.

Merry Christmas

Unfortunately about 20% less merry than last year. Should make for some interesting statistics in about a week.

Also those very long term unemployment benefits are about to start running out for the early adopters. Should make for some more interesting statistics over the next few months. Of course there are two possibilities here. Either we're having an economic recovery and all those folks will find jobs and unemployment will go down, or all those folks will simply give up and drop out of the labor force in which case the unemployment rate will go down.

Either way the administration looks good.

Getting Out The Vote

Effective Jan 2, 16 year olds will be able to register to vote. The authors of this new law assure us that with the states new all-mail-in system, no ballots will be sent to underage voters.

I'm sure that anyone 16 years of age on Jan 2 who has turned 18 by Nov 2 will get their ballot in the mail as reliably as getting health insurance from the government.

The Peasants Are Revolting!

Following the Chicago town hall meeting in which Al Sharpton found the peasants to be getting restless, the Reverend Jackson attempts to address the problem by changing the subject.

“At least the bus driver, who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white person, was following state law,” he said in the release. “Robertson’s statements were uttered freely and openly without cover of the law, within a context of what he seemed to believe was ‘white privilege.’”

New definition for White Privilege: Saying something that Rev. Jackson disagrees with while not black.

Making statements "without cover of the law"? We need permission from the government to speak in public now?

Alcohol Can Boost Your Immune System

It's true! It's settled science! We took a vote and all decided to have another drink.

In moderation of course. They define moderation thusly:

They define moderate as no more than four drinks on a single day and no more than 14 in a week for men. For women, it is defined as no more than three drinks on a single day and no more than seven in a week.

I must be more of a moderate than I thought  The methodology may be flawed though. Animals absorbed a vaccine more quickly when the shot of vaccine was followed by  a shot of something more palatable. I would imagine that the alcohol caused a dilation of the blood vessels which sped up the spread of the vaccine and really had no effect on the immune system.

Still, like the t-shirt says: Drink rum: It prevents scurvy and improves morale.

QOTD - Guns

“Comrade Kalashnikov will be buried in a pit of mud with full military honors,” said General-Major Saiga Molot, a spokesman for the Russian army. “After a week, we will exhume his body, clean it off, and put him back to work. We expect that there shall be no issue with his functions.”
              This. from duffelblog

 Not quite as accurate as Eugine Stoner, but all in all, more reliable. Which would you rather have buried in your back yard.

Regional Accent?

No, I don't have one at all:

That dark red area formed around Springfield MO and Topeka KS is supposedly where I'd fit right in with the natives.

Test is here on the NY Times.

Transportation - Some Things Never Change

I have been thinking of replacing the pickup with something a bit sportier for some time now, and was torn between an older Jag XK-8 and waiting for the 2014 release of the Elio. It now seems the Elio release has been pushed out to 2015 and a Jag came up on Craigs List, so here's my new ride:

Very spiff. A gazillion buttons and it didn't come with the correct manual to explain them. Jag supplies a quick cheat sheet for the most commonly used items including the A/C but it doesn't include the heater ops. Being 14 years old, it has its share of quirks. The windows go down about an inch whenever the door handles are pulled, inside or out. Makes the door easier to close, but they don't go back up again by themselves.

Brit cars used to have a lot of trouble with their electrics but Ford fired Lucas and this one was built under Ford management. The drive train doesn't leak oil either which is welcome. It does have a small oil leak however; The dome light.

Yeah I know, why is the dome light leaking oil? Well, it's a Brit thing, unless you're a fan you wouldn't understand. The joke goes that in England, a big mug of beer leaks a small amount of oil onto the bar top.

Gets good mileage though, about 22 around town and 27 on the road. Very quiet, very smooth.

Global Warming

I like global warming, it allows farmers to grow crops further north and allows me to ride my motorcycle more months of the year. Here's a chart from the Royal Observatory of Belgium:

Low times are colder, high times are warmer. NOTE: The graph has to be noticeably above 50 to qualify as high, otherwise it remains cold. The last few years for example. I'd say the next 10-15 years are going to be dismally chilly.

Note the fairly regular 11 year cycle. Note also a longer cycle somewhere in the 90 year range. I seem to remember that there are 3 cycles to this of differing lengths which sometimes add together and sometimes cancel each other out. Figure that out and you could become the next Pope Al and become fantastically rich selling snake oil.

Christmas Shopping

Strange and wonderful stuff you never knew you couldn't live without here. Make sure there isn't anything else you were going to do today before you visit.

Hickenlooper's Obamacare

Faced with unruly peasants demanding that some or all of the ill-advised gun laws passed this spring be either amended or repealed, Hick says it certainly won't happen on his watch.

The identical response the president gave when asked about any repeal efforts on his health care bill that might possibly happen in 2015 if the Republicans get lucky at the polls in '14. In Obummer's case it makes me think that either he's the most tone-deaf president we've ever had or he knows something about an NSA plan to find 10 million "lost" ballots in the trunks of abandoned cars on election night.

Hick may not be so tone deaf. Now he's making noises about being bipartisan. Letting bygones be bygones, eh? We'll see how that works out.

Transportation Law - 3 Wheelers

Elio is working to get its 3-wheel commuter classified as an auto-cycle by the feds. This would allow it to retain the advantages of being a motorcycle such as lower insurance rates, lighter weight, use of HOV lanes, etc, while dropping the requirements for the operators to wear eye protection and a helmet while driving it.

AFAIK the Elio is legally a motorcycle in all states. The problem is trying to market a car-like vehicle in which the operator would be required to wear eye protection in all states, and a helmet in most of them. Looking for an out by calling it a cycle-car or autocycle would make for better sales at the risk of having the rule-making nannies in Washington decide that  the vehicle must meet ALL the requirements, including emissions and safety that a car must. This will add about 1200 lb to the weight of the vehicle and make the engine notably more expensive.

The attempt is a risky move on Elio's part. An adverse ruling would effectively kill the company and the government is not really concerned about either safety or fuel economy but rather self preservation.