Rogue Sci

Turns out that TPB has a good selection of firearm information. One guy who originates a lot of material, including AGI rips, is "Don't Tread On Me". In his postings, he plugs a site called Rogue Sci, which appears to have some educational information that the government control freaks definitely don't want their subjects to have access to. That is, it's the kind of stuff that a patriotic citizen should have, even if he doesn't ever intend to make use of it. Fight the power!

c|net commentary

Remarks to a c|net article on international SNSes:

mixi also now requires a Japanese cell-phone email address to confirm registration. This may not be too terribly effective in controlling one person having multiple accounts, since one could change one's email address and register again, but it certainly limits people who don't live in Japan from joining.

And another on DHS requiring fingerprints and photographs for permanent residents:

Japan does the same thing already. Even if you have a long-term or permanent visa, you get your fingerprints taken (just index fingers, though) and photo snapped. I think it sucks and does nothing to provide extra security, but who in the government is going to listen to foreigners' complaints? Resident aliens are pretty much 2nd-class citizens in Japan. Tourists are ok because they spend money then leave, but tourists don't have special visas.

This gripes me off, though. So why would DHS do this if the borders aren't sealed anyway? They're going to inconvenience people who enter via legal means, and ignore people who sneak in illegally? Brilliant. I feel safer already (that's sarcasm, in case you didn't catch it). The less government invasiveness the better.

.308 Ammo

I posted this link before, but to summarize on its own entry:

The site Rifle Company has a post on one of its forums that's continuously updated with the cheapest 7.62x51mm ammo on the Net, aptly titled "The cheapest 7.62x51mm Surplus on the Internet". The forum also has some interesting posts, like The 10 Golden Rules of Ammo and All About U.S. Military Small Arms Ammunition. Great stuff!

Follow-Up Comment

A follow-up to the previous comment:

Clarification: The AK-47s used for hunting that I was referring to are semi-auto versions of the weapon, not the full-auto versions. That is, the "assault weapon" version of the gun, not the "assault rifle" version. The problem with the AK is that it's not particularly accurate in its common incarnation, so it's not very well suited to hunting.

And one more thing about anti-gun legislators: they're not only acting illegally (in terms of the Constitution), they're twisting the arms of legal gun-owners. That is, law-abiding citizens are forced to comply with the illegal legislation (an oxymoron on the surface, but it happens a lot) or become criminals. The anti-gunners would then point to defiant *formerly* law-abiding citizens as further "proof" that their illegal laws are correct. A blindly law-abiding citizen can't preserve his rights in the face of that, and committing civil disobedience in the case of firearms would get one killed by a government out of control (BATFE and FBI). The irony is that people in power don't need to have their own guns because they have security who do the dirty work of protection for them. Kind of like that hypocritical racist Rosie O'Donnell, who railed against handguns and backpedaled when it came to light that her kid's bodyguard carried a concealed handgun.

I have yet to hear one cogent and compelling reason from anyone for restricting 2nd Amendment rights.

GOA Article Comment

The GOA sent me an alert on Facebook, vectoring to an article related to the AWB.

People can and do hunt deer with AK-47s (in certain states, with 5-rd reduced capacity magazines, and with hunting loads). Yeah, I'm against a renewed AWB partly because I really like guns. It's not just that, though, it's because I have the right to own them. The reason the 2nd Amendment exists is to protect the people from a hostile government. Think the colonists would've been able to rise up against the British if they had no rifles? (Or would you have been one of those who welcomed the British domination because they told you they had your best interests at heart?) Rack your brain a bit harder.

I'd love to own an assault rifle, except I can't afford the 20-grand that it takes to buy one because of stupid anti-gun legislation. Since you seem to be confused, assault rifles are machine guns. "Assault weapon" is a bogus term the anti-gun people invented to mean semi-auto versions of assault rifles.

I'm a law-abiding citizen with a permit to carry. (I'll state that I'm an employed, white-collar engineer in high-technology and not a redneck, since most of the anti-gun schmucks stupidly seem to equate armed citizens with the uneducated. Also I have two degrees.) I don't go around shooting people indiscriminately -- I'm one of the good guys. For sure I'm more upstanding than the police officers you see in the news who get caught selling dope from impound and beating on people just because they're not white. I'm probably also a better shot that most police officers, who are allowed to carry handguns most of the time. Handguns are used to save lives -- the lives of the owner and his family. If the police can have handguns, why not law-abiding citizens? What makes the police and military so special? Training? Citizens can get training, but they shouldn't need it to own guns on their own property. They should get training to carry guns in public, same as a driver's license. The real point of that is control: the perception is that police and military are on a short leash and are directed by the government, which is exactly what you *don't* want, at least if you value your freedom. A standing military and police state are the first steps to becoming a non-republic.

The point of carrying handguns out in public is because criminals don't follow laws saying that you can't carry a loaded semi-auto handgun, rifle, or shotgun. (Most states only allow concealed carry of handguns, not shotguns and rifles.) Even if you could carry a rifle, you want to get rid of semi-auto rifles, which probably includes magazine-fed bolt-action, so you'd have a single-shot bolt-action. It'd be tough to save your bacon against multiple attackers with that. Besides, rifle bullets have more penetration than handgun bullets -- or didn't you know that?

The problem with the anti-gun crowd is that they're illogical, and always appeal to the emotional side of things. "Why can't you accept 'reasonable' bans on guns?" What's reasonable? The 2nd Amendment is quite plain on saying that there's no such thing as a reasonable ban. In fact, I'd say that rules restricting guns are illegal according to the Bill of Rights. Anyone following the NFA, GCA, etc., is actually guilty of breaking the highest law in the United States of America! Of course I'm not saying to break those rules, because the ATF will kick down your door and shoot you if you do. I'm saying that our legislators can't even follow our own laws, so how can they expect normal folks to respect their stupidity?!

Criminals don't follow laws by definition. Any new anti-gun laws, therefore, will be ignored by criminals. The only people that will lose their guns are the people who follow the law. So you'll have criminals with guns and law-abiding citizens without guns. Who's at a disadvantage? Think about it. Can't be more plain than that.

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

Just to make sure that I was using the idiom properly, I googled "wait for the other shoe to drop" and found a site that explained the origin of the phrase:

This phrase means "to await an event causally linked to one that
one has already observed". In the form "drop the other shoe",
meaning "say the next obvious thing" or "end the suspense", it dates
from the early 20th century. It derives from the following joke:

A guest who checked into an inn one night was warned to be quiet
because the guest in the room next to his was a light sleeper. As
he undressed for bed, he dropped one shoe, which, sure enough,
awakened the other guest. He managed to get the other shoe off in
silence, and got into bed. An hour later, he heard a pounding on
the wall and a shout: "When are you going to drop the other shoe?"

I have no idea if it's apocryphal or not, but I liked the joke.

Tiptacon

A while ago I found a site with a guy offering to add a rail to an HK-91 wide handguard for mounting a vertical foregrip. For some reason I didn't post it here. The real interesting thing, though, was the technique of using a sling with the foregrip to minimize the effect of recoil. Apparently, with an appropriate sling tension, by pushing forward on the foregrip, one can better keep the rifle in line with the target. It certainly made me revisit my stance on foregrips.

Edsger Dijkstra

Joel sent me a great link to a paper by Edsger Dijkstra on "the cruelty of really teaching computer science" and notably "radical novelties". The paper wanders all over the place, but it's excellent in many ways, particularly in highlighting that people misconstrue digital computers to have analog qualities, and that metaphors fall short in almost every technological instance.

西行法師

From some checking I did earlier: Saigyo Hoshi on Wikipedia. A collection of some waka by Saigyo. A translation of the quote I was looking for.

Super Sniper Riflescope

My dad told me about this scope as a possibility for one of my black rifles. Granted, the name "Super Sniper" is a bit pretentious. Still, it's got decent specs and doesn't cost as much as a Leupold.

WaterMill

Not a water-powered mill, but a water producing element called WaterMill. Joel sent me the link, and it looks pretty cool. Too bad they don't have more details, specifically pricing at the moment. That'd be pretty fugly on the house, though.