cARnaby-15 Build

It's true! Carnaby is building an AR in 6.8spc. This kicks butt. I've got my lower, a nice Mega Gator, that I bought FTF and so saved the FFL fee and sales tax. Lower parts kit, buttstock and buffer tube/spring came from RB Precision. Prices are very reasonable, and the lower parts kit comes with some of the springs and what not pre-assembled.

Here's the super fancy A2 buttstock

I'll update with a pic of my assembled lower when it's complete this weekend.

Note: If your internet moniker has the letters AR in it, then you must highlight that in the name or your AR, as in cARnaby-15. This is compulsory and failure to comply will result in revocation of gun-nut status.

Interestingly, I was talking on the phone with one of the folks at RB Precision and I had to ask why the heck are so many gun makers located in Illinois??? She answered that yeah, it does kinda boggle the mind that they would be located in such an anti-gun state, but that many or most of the outfits there were created by people who got their start at the major manufacturers who've been there for a while. I guess that makes sense, but it sure sucks.

Reverend, My Butt

Seems Reverend Al (insert insult here) Sharpton has refused to accept Michael Richards' apology for spewing racial slurs at a comedy club last week. Me thinks the Reverend better have another go at his Bible.

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Mathew 18)

21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.^[f]

23"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents^[g] was brought to him. 25Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' 27The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.^[h] He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

29"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

30"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Like I said, Reverend, my butt. But then you'll never see the MSM refer to him by his proper title of "Race Baiter." Oh well.

That, and I discovered all sorts of interesting things on Al Gore's internets by searching "my butt." Like for instance, I found the day my butt went psycho, which is loads of fun, and I also learned there was once a movie of some respect entitled Love me, Love My Butt. I'm gonna use that phrase on my wife later, yup, oughta work.

Yuck

I don't agree with PETA on much, but this is just gross.

Nope, not going vegetarian, but I will go out of my way to avoid that unhealthy crap. As an example, here's yours truely eating healthy



.300 Win Mag to the neck at 30 yards. Seems humane to me.





Bon appetit.

Update: What I meant to say was "Diagnosis: Delicious! Heh heh heh" (ala Dr. Hibbert).

Unnecessary Redundancy

Ironic and redundant at the same time!

While I'm on the stream of consciousness, I was remarking to a friend that I thought some particular nitwits ought to be kicked in the nuts. To be more efficient, I think I'll change this to say that they should be kicked in the nitwits.

Rest In Peace, Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman, one of the greatest champions of social and economic liberty in America, has died. Rest in Peace, Mr. Friedman.

This letter to Bill Bennett pleading for an end to the War on Drugs is a must read (hat tip Radley Balko).

Now This Is Just Plain Stupid

I got another email, one of many, from "The Gun Guys" thppppt. Usually I read a sentence or two and then it's off to the trash bucket. This message was particulary stupid, so I decided to post it here for your stupification

Howdy Partners ,

Oh brother.

The gun lobby was thrilled to announce they had squeezed concealed weapons onto the lawbooks in Kansas (even though polls showed the majority of Americans wanted no such thing). And now, every business in the state has to be inconvenienced so the gun guys can get their unnecessary, and dangerous kicks.

Right, which "polls" were these? Dangerous? Prove that there's any additional danger posed by concealed pistols. It can't be done, and you don't do it. In fact, very good research can't find a mesureable difference in risk either way with concealed carry.

The NRA loves to brag lately that concealed weapons laws practically blanket the entire country-- by finagling and bullying lawmakers in almost every state, they've passed CCW laws almost everywhere. The only problem is, the majority of citizens, as polls show again and again, aren't in favor of CCW. Police are against it, because it means they have to deal with more firearms every day. And it's clear, as the shootings that happen every single day show, that concealed weapons means more violence across the nation.

There it is with the polls showing again and again. Which polls? It's clear that shootings every single day show that concealed weapons mean more violence across the nation? Like, huh? It's only clear to these people because that's the way they want it, even though their position is neither supportable nor true.

Most recently, the NRA passed a CCW law in Kansas (despite a Governor's veto, the NRA was able to convince legislators it was in their best interests to ignore what their citizens wanted). And now, the government is requiring every single business in Kansas to place a sign, at their door, saying that guns aren't wanted in their establishment.

Say what?!? I'll just leave it at that.

We sure thought the gun guys were against inconveniencing "law-abiding" citizens. But it's an awful lot of "inconveniencing" (not to mention time and money") for every single business in the state to have to find a sign, print it out, find a place for it, and make sure it stays up just to keep firearms out of their buildings. Just for trying to keep their visitors safe, Kansas is actually punishing their business owners with an extra task.

Keep their visitors safe, eh? So when an actual bad guy comes into your store while I'm there, without my sidearm, how are you going to keep me safe when he's trying to shoot me in the face, huh?

And it's not like the gun guys don't understand guns aren't safe to have around-- even on an NRA-pushed bill, guns aren't allowed in day care centers, schools, bars, government buildings, churches, or college campuses. But how is it that guns aren't allowed in those places, but they are allowed in malls, libraries, and retail stores? Do firearms magically become safer when they cross a certain threshold?

Now that's actually a good question. In Oregon and, unbelievable as it may seem, even in California, you can carry a gun in a public school if you have a concealed weapons permit. Guns should be allowed in those places. Here in my home state of Washington, we can carry in day care centers (I think??), churches, government buildings (except courthouses), and most college campuses. We get the shaft on elementary and high school carry.

Of course not. Concealed weapons are dangerous all the time, no matter where they're allowed or not. The NRA has done business owners in Kansas a disservice by requiring them to spend time and money protecting their customers against a CCW law, and they've done all citizens there an even bigger one by endangering them with a CCW law in the first place.

Now hold on a minute. There it is again, an unsubstantiated and unsupportable claim. Life is dangerous bucko, and your stupid signs aren't going to help. You miss the implied truth in your dumbass screed by failing to notice that a stupid sign is enough to keep a law abiding concealed weapons permit holder out of a private establishment. How is it that you never notice that it is a laughable joke to real criminals, who just march in, shove their knife, gun, or whatever in your face and take what they want. You and your ilk can have the sign, I'll go to the places that want my business and don't mind that I choose to protect myself from scumbag predators. Just make sure your sign is big enough to hide behind, and maybe make it bullet proof as well.

Suicide Killers

The 2006 Liberty Film Festival featured a documentary by French film director Pierre Rehov, who risked his life going into Gaza to interview Palestinian terrorists. The film is called Suicide Killers and even the trailer is incredible. After the interviews and seeing what he saw, Rehov's opinion is that we are on the brink of WWIII. I can believe it after watching only a few minutes of his film.

Gang Bangers Using Dreaded Sliver Gun

Once again the sliver gun rears its ugly head

There are 15,000 gang videos on YouTube, including another called “Columbia Point Dogz” that shows adults trading gang signals and banter on a basketball court in Dorchester’s Columbia Point. At one point, a man with a bandanna tied around his face pulls out what appears to be a .9 millimeter handgun from his waist.

Either that, or our enlightened reporter doesn't understand the metric system. Heh.

I Think I Know

Interesting article on CNN

A Brazilian woman who was shot six times in the head after an altercation with her ex-husband was out of the hospital and talking to the media on Saturday...

Doctors could not explain why the .32-caliber bullets did not penetrate Pereira's skull and didn't even need to be extracted immediately.

I saw something like this before in Canada. The problem, if you can call it that, was that .32 caliber bullets were used in a .38 caliber gun, or some similar caliber mismatch. The bullets came out with much less than full power, thankfully in both cases. I don't know if this was the problem in the Brazillian case, but I'll wager a guess that it was.

National Health Care? No, Thanks.

Coming from Canada, I've seen how bad it sucks. Now here's a home-grown example with our own current version: Medicare. It's the sort of thing that happens when you let the government make important decisions for you. You get trapped in unbelievably illogical situations. Look at this example from today's Seattle Times.

Young's doctor referred her to the University of Washington Medical Center. They are specialists in severe complications from gastric bypass. But they can't treat her either. Thanks to Medicare. "Without any warning," says the U.W.'s Chief of General Surgery Patchen Dellinger, "Medicare issued a rule saying that now they would cover gastric bypasses but in order to do it you had to go to a so-called Center of Excellence."

And U-W is not a Center of Excellence. The "only" one in the state? The 110-bed St. Francis hospital in Federal Way. And because she's on Medicare - St. Francis turned Young down. Young read aloud from the letter she received, "We are unable to assume her care at this time as a Medicare patient."

"It's an unbelievable situation." says U.W.'s Dr. Dellinger. That Medicare ruling forced the U.W. to cancel surgeries for three dozen patients. Dr. Dellinger even argued with Medicare and it's local administrator Noridian - to let them at least take care of people suffering complications. "It almost defies the imagination that we're prohibited from caring for the complications, on-going complications - but that's how it's being interpreted at this time."

Good grief.

But Machine Guns Are Not Legal In Washington State

I found this article at the Seattle Times about a gun collector implicated as a material witness in the murder of a federal prosecutor. Near the bottom of the article is this

The gun collector was held for 23 days during which agents searched his Bellevue home. There they found hundreds of legal firearms, including several machine guns. Federal agents seized an M-14 assault rifle they allege was an unlicensed machine gun.

What makes that especially interesting is that machine guns are not legal in Washington State, so how could he have several legal machine guns, which the statement above appears to imply? At least, if it is a real M-14, they got the "Assault Rifle" part right, and didn't refer to it as a nebulous "Assault Weapon."

I Hope He Knows the Riddle of Steel

Well, Crom. Extraordinary film composer Basil Poledouris has passed away at the age of 61. His score for one of my most beloved films, Conan the Barbarian, is absolute brilliance. Like John Williams' score for the Star Wars films, Poledouris' music was an essential component of Conan, and took the film from camp to classic. Poledouris also composed scores for several other well-known films, including Red Dawn, Robocop, Starship Troopers, Quigley Down Under, The Hunt for Red October, and Les Miserables. It's a sad loss for Hollywood and for all of us who enjoyed his full-blooded soundtracks.



See you in Valhalla, Basil.

How the GOP Could Maintain Control of the House

I know the polls say that the GOP will lose control of the house, but I don't think think that will be the case. Why? A couple reasons. First, I don't know if the polls include military personnel. If the polls don't accurately represent the military, then that's a minor but significant error in the polls. It doesn't matter though, since the real reason the GOP will win is simple.

People who typically vote GOP are letting the GOP know in the polls that they are dissatisfied. When it comes time to actually pull the vote lever, these folks will not be able to vote Democrat. I know, I tried it. I already voted absentee, since I'm going out of town, and I wanted desperately to vote for a Dem. I looked through the voter pamphlet, visited politician websites, learned as much as I could. When push came to shove, I couldn't do it, try as I might. Even when the GOP candidate was a total dumb-ass, I still couldn't vote Dem. Even when the Republican was a dumb-ass and the Dem was a shoe-in, I couldn't cast a token vote for them, they're just too ridiculus with their Socialist/Welfare state and Statist agenda.

I have a feeling I'm not the only one in the country suffering this way. Time will tell.

Please Watch Or I Be Execute!

Last night my husband and I watched the only fresh, original thing to hit theaters in a long time. Maybe the most fresh and original of all-time. But Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is not for the faint of heart. I haven't laughed this hard at a movie in years, nor have I winced so much. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it by describing too much. If you want a discreet review, check out Ebert's.

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen co-wrote the screenplay and stars in the film. You may recognize him from his popular "Ali G" show, which regularly featured Borat's cultural program. This is probably the most faithful translation of TV character to movie ever, and is part of what makes Borat such a success and a total stand-out in the usual lineup of assembly-line offerings in theaters. I have heard people refer to Cohen as a social commentator, and I think the label fits. It's not so much in what Cohen's characters say and do, as in what his antics inspire other people to say and do in response. Sometimes, the shtick is borderline genius, and it's almost always hilarious.

A few highlights from the movie...

Favorite Moment: Borat chatting with some rather unattractive, humorless feminists. Watch the clip.

Most Painful Scene I: Borat and Azamat fighting with each other in the hotel room completely naked.

Most Painful Scene II: Borat and the Pentacostals. Those people scare me.

Borat is outrageous, absurd, and downright disgusting at times, but it is also so superbly full of wit and subtlety (watch Borat's expression when he finds out that he has unwittingly engaged in homosexuality) that, to quote from another Ebert review, it soars above ordinary gross-out movies as the eagle outreaches the fly. Highly recommended.

I Swiped this from Cowboy Blob 'Cause it's Funny

This How They Know You

You Are a "Don't Tread On Me" Libertarian

You distrust the government, are fiercely independent, and don't belong in either party. Religion and politics should never mix, in your opinion... and you feel opressed by both. You don't want the government to cramp your self made style. Or anyone else's for that matter. You're proud to say that you're pro-choice on absolutely everything!

What's Your Political Persuasion?

Like, duh. Except some of the questions only let you give one answer when both were my choice. Example: Is abortion (a)Wrong (b)A woman's choice. I vote for (a) and (b).

Bold Faced Liberal Bias at CNN

I had a look at this story on Ann Coulter just now about how she's in some hot water over having potentially voted in the wrong precinct (somebody alert King County Washington :P).

Anyway, completely out of context and all by itself, this paragraph ends the piece

The right-wing commentator also authored a book that said some September 11 widows were "enjoying their husbands' deaths."

What the hell is that? Mind telling us what her point was? Just couln't resist slipping that in there, now could you?