Sunday, June 29, 2003- - -
Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
-- Jack Handey
@9:36 AM
Oh, Canada
Another of those fascinating but totally unscientific polls at the CalgarySun asks: On the eve of Canada Day, do you find Canadians are more patriotic than ever? 71.0% answer 'No'.
@7:52 AM
Friday, June 27, 2003- - -
Cute!
I've just received my new Cold Steel Trail Guide. When I saw that Cold Steel was now offering a decent-sized folding knife in their outstanding Carbon V steel I had to order one of the large clip points. I've been carrying a large clip point Voyager for several years and like it a lot, but even though their AUS 8A stainless steel holds an edge much better than the run-of-the-mill 440 stainless, it still won't take or hold an edge like good carbon steel, and Cold Steel's Carbon V is outstanding; easy to sharpen and it takes and holds a shaving-sharp edge.
This new Trail Guide incorporates Cold Steel's new steel pocket clip, which is nice, and the grip is nicely hand-filling, being 0.70" thick near its center and tapering to 0.55" at blade and butt. Incidentally, I don't see any visible difference between this new Valox and the Zytel handle material used in their Voyager series knives. The blade is slightly thinner than that of the large Voyager, 0.105" v. 0.125", and slightly shorter, 3.70" v. 4.05", but that keeps its weight down to 3.8 oz v. the large Voyager's 3.6 oz, and probably also keeps its price down to an affordable $31.99, absolutely outstanding for a knife of this quality.
With any luck, and with the cooperation of the Game & Fish department that hasn't sent my license yet, I'll use it to field-dress my elk this year and I'll report back on how it does.
Ps. The down-side, of course, is that Carbon V steel is not stainless. It will rust if neglected, and it will inevitably discolor as it is carried. Personally, I'll trade the benefit of the carbon steel blade for a less than shiny appearance.
PPs. Patience Grasshopper! According to my 2003 Wyoming Resident Hunting Information and Applications Booklet the drawing isn't until July 3. When I was five I felt this way about Christmas. . .
@4:20 PM
Late Breaking News:
Baghdad Bob says 'there's absolutely no shortage of Grecian Formula 16 in post-war Iraq.'
@3:08 PM
Via Howard Kurtz, Hugh Hewitt pretty well nails the WMD flappers:
It appears as though the public has already concluded that the attacks on Bush of this spring are like the attacks on Bush of last spring--partisan cheap-shots of the worst sort since they concern national security. I think a good majority of the electorate has also come to an intuitive understanding of the key concept: It is okay to overestimate a threat, but, since September 11, it is never okay to underestimate one.
@8:45 AM
Do you have to take the children too?
FREE: To a good home. 7 yr. old Black Cocker Spaniel w/children over 10 yrs. Old. Call 307-xxx-xxxx.
@7:01 AM
Thursday, June 26, 2003- - -
A foolish consistency?
As Philippe de Croy notes, it is probably a mistake to rely on the Supreme Court's commitment to consistency, and not being a lawyer, nor having read the actual decision, I'm sure I'm missing the finer nuances of the court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, but it strikes me that this new-found commitment to respect for our private lives could, and should, apply equally well to the whole gamut of victimless crimes committed by adults either singly or with mutual consent. Try dropping 'sexual' from this quote of Justice Kennedy's: "The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime." Note that in the same WaPo article Justice Scalia has been quoted in his dissent as saying that the ruling ". . . effectively decrees the end of all morals legislation. . ." One can only hope he's correct.
Carve it in stone, I like it.
Ps. [Chortle] "Anyone who thinks this is a conservative court is smoking something that will soon be legal," said John Yoo, a former Bush administration Justice Department official.
@3:44 PM
Credit where credit is due!
HeHe. It appears that some good is coming from the flap at the NYTimes about using un-attributed stringers and such. Note that at the bottom of this article in the WaPo, by Joby Warrick, it is carefully noted that "Staff writer Walter Pincus contributed to this report." Perhaps I simply haven't noticed such acknowledgements before, but I've a feeling that everyone will be extra careful about this sort of thing in future.
@12:55 PM
Impotence breeds anger . . .
and there's no magic blue pill that will help the democrats. David Brooks at the Weekly Standard comments on something we've all observed, the anger bordering on irrationality with which many democrats discuss politics of late. I've found it almost impossible to have an intelligent conversation on politics with many of my left-leaning friends. Mention the Prez and their eyes narrow, their fists clench and you can almost see tiny bits of chad in the spittle that forms at the corners of their mouths.
But is it any wonder that the political rhetoric of the left has become so venomous? Ten years ago they had their charismatic leadership team in the Whitehouse, seemingly the dawn of a new and better Camelot, and anything seemed possible. Even HillaryCare, and with it the socialization of another huge chunk of the US economy, seemed an attainable goal. But their Supreme Leaders proved more interested in bimbos and bucks than in the affairs of state, their grasp on Congress slipped away, and then their Lugubrious Green Giant snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, losing to some manure-foot from Texas, the very antithesis of the Rhodes scholar and scientific prodigy who seemed predestined to lead the left to greatness!
Of course, reality never was quite what they believed it to be - the 'Bush is an idiot' meme is a fine example. Anyone who can convince themselves that a Harvard MBA is an idiot while a law school and divinity school dropout with a BA in journalism is some underappreciated scientific genius is probably delusional about other things as well. Being unable to even consider that their Supreme Leaders had feet of clay, or understand why their lofty goals of social engineering were doomed to failure, even as their beloved and invincible Soviet Union had failed, they are left with nothing to grasp but impotent rage and the feeling that some great conspiracy has defeated them just when victory seemed certain.
It has occurred to me that the latest 'Bush lied about WMDs' flap may well backfire as well. After all, all the administration has to do is wait until all the usual suspects are in full screech, and then release the information on what has been found. Either the Prez is a total dope, or this will turn into another round of rope-a-dope, a routine that the dem flaks should be getting used to and at least a little wary of by now.
Ps. Hehe. I started writing this yesterday, and today I note that ". . . A nuclear research group and Bush administration officials . . ." have released information on Iraqi blueprints and parts for nuclear weapons that have been turned over to US intelligence by a former Iraqi nuclear scientist. Perhaps the donks have lost their minds, as the only way this 'where are the WMDs?' hootfest will work out in their favor is if no WMDs can be found. And of course, the release of any information on Iraqi WMDs isn't under their control, that card is in the Prez' hand to play when he sees fit. . . Like just before the election.
@11:05 AM
New memorial
Indianz has a good set of links on media coverage of the new Indian memorial at the Bighorn Battlefield.
@8:29 AM
Remote locations?
From the Casper Star, this cracks me up:
Under the Army's Nuclear Power Program, portable nuclear reactors were developed and installed in remote locations, including Camp Century, Greenland; McMurdo Station, Antarctica; Fort Greely, Alaska; the Panama Canal Zone and seven miles north by northwest of Sundance [Wyoming].
Yep, that's remote alright.
@8:09 AM
In the limelight
This Kevin Siers cartoon from the Charlotte Observer appeared in today's Casper Star and it got me thinking about the various accusations of the Clintons stealing the limelight, particularly from the dem's presidential hopefuls. Whether it's true or not that they intentionally steal the show, I've got to wonder where the responsibility lies: With the Clintons, or with the media who find the Clinton's lamest antics so much more newsworthy than the sometimes boring but essential effort to select the next president of the US. After all, the Clintons can't steal the limelight, it's willingly given to them by a sometimes profoundly unserious media.
@8:00 AM
Wednesday, June 25, 2003- - -
The latest Idiot's Guide: Protesting for Useful Idiots
I'm sure this will remind you of someone.
@6:03 PM
The economics of SUVs
Megan McArdle has an interesting bit on CAFÉ standards and why that affects the cost of SUVs. She also touches on a point that I tend to forget, that the market for SUVs includes a lot of people who simply don't feel safe in those tiny tin boxes. I tend to evaluate SUVs on how well they do off-road - generally not very well. But of course, most folks never take them off road and never intended to.
Hmm.. All sorts of good things at Megan's today. She's dead right with her comments on PETA and animal rights - There is no excuse for cruelty to animals. And she has a take-off on Meryl Yourish's International Eat an Animal for PETA Day: Eat a Strata for PETA! You could put on five pounds just reading her strata recipe. Butter, milk, half-and-half, eggs, and three kinds of cheese. Yow.
Substitute seasoned croutons for the bread, mix everything together and bake in muffin tins. Freeze a couple of big batches. Microwave one or two frozen for two minutes, serve in a toasted English muffin, and you have our basic quick breakfast for fieldwork. I usually use Tillamook pepper jack for a little extra kick and because that's about as exotic as our grocery gets, but feta is very nice too. Also, with all that cheese, I skip the half-and-half (and I think my mother-in-law's original recipe called for heavy cream - yikes!)
@1:31 PM
Kool!
While searching for information on the Ruger Hawkeye, I've discovered that Ruger now has a list of serial numbers and dates of manufacture for its firearms on-line. So for instance, my Old Model .357 Blackhawk, #79xxx, was manufactured in 1966. It was a grips-missing ball of rust when I bought it in 1967 for the whopping price of $25. Luckily, the original factory grease was still in the barrel and chambers - it had been abused mightily but never fired! Four-ought steel wool took off the surface rust and the hardware store provided a pair of ghastly plastic mother-of-pearl grips they were probably happy to be rid of. It's ugly but it shoots just fine.
Incidentally, I was 12 years old and that was my first center-fire handgun. As long as my 'rents approved there was no law agin it at that time. Truly the good old days.
@7:40 AM
Another Darwin Award candidate
From today's Casper Star print edition [story not on-line]:
GILLETTE - A Cheyenne man died after he accidentally shot himself in the head.
The shooting happened Saturday night when Travis Lee Ford, 25, was visiting his girlfriend in Gillette, according to Sheriff Bill Pownall.
He and others were drinking at a home when someone opened a gun safe to show him a valuable comic book that was in it.
A loaded .22-caliber, single-shot revolver was taken from the safe and handed to Ford, who looked at the gun and raised it to his head. . . .
The moral of course: Never play Russian Roulette with a single-shot revolver.
Ps. Believe it or not, there is such a thing - sort of. In 1963 and 1964 Ruger made about 3300 Hawkeye single-shots, a .256 Winchester Magnum chambered in Ruger's Blackhawk single-action frame with a swing-out chamber instead of a cylinder. As the handgun lacked a revolving cylinder I suppose it's debatable whether it was truly a 'revolver'. At any rate, I doubt that the very collectible Hawkeye was involved here.
Ps. Here's the story straight from the horse's . . .
PPs. Speaking of horse's arses, apparently the link above leads to a scrolling list of news briefs, as the 'single-shot revolver' story has now scrolled off the bottom. You didn't miss much.
@6:54 AM
Today is the 127th anniversary of the Little Bighorn battle.
@6:47 AM
Saturday, June 21, 2003- - -
What a trip!
Growing up on the plains of North Dakota the Black Hills was a magical place for me. It still is.
We started the trip by attending the Tate Museum's 2003 summer conference (The Pleistocene Epoch: Frozen in Time) where a good time was had by all. Dr. Larry Martin was the keynote speaker and he talked about his investigations at Natural Trap Cave, which is a short distance north of here and one of the more intriguing paleontological finds in the region. Dr. Larry Agenbroad talked about his trip to the Taimy Peninsula in Siberia and the attempt to recover an entire mammoth - whole - from the permafrost. Then Sunday's field trip was to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, where I first met Larry Agenbroad back in 1977.
The Mammoth site has changed a bit since 1977. Back then they had part of one mammoth exposed on the south-facing side of a hill in the baking South Dakota sun. Now they've got the remains of 70+ mammoths in an enclosed facility that is absolutely world class. Best of all, the Mammoth Site is a private, non-profit organization. First class science without government handouts. What a concept. Of course, some things have gone downhill. Twenty-five years ago Larry's bikini-clad crew was the major attraction. . . Sigh. Now they wear uniforms.
The little taste of the Black Hills we got from a day trip to Hot Springs wasn't nearly enough for me, so we dragged the Land Yacht to Sundance for a week and played tourist (Well mostly, we did visit a couple of clients - the perils of self-employment, can't ever escape the boss.). We stayed in Sundance on the far northwest side of the Hills because I feared the east side of the Hills would be overrun with tourists. However, the weather was cool and rainy and there were far fewer tourists than I had expected. We visited every rock shop and museum we could find and even found time to put $5 in the slot machines in Deadwood. We lost it all - what a surprise - if I'm going to gamble give me a good stock broker any day.
My wife had never been to the Black Hills, so we had to hit all the old standbys. Her favorite was the Reptile Gardens. Fortunately, you can't adopt a giant Galapagos tortoise. The little ones - only the size of a washtub - enjoy being petted and stretch like a cat. Pretty cuddly for a reptile. We drove by Mt. Rushmore with their lovely new high-rise parking garages, and also did a drive-by of the Crazy Horse monument. We signed up for the lantern tour of Jewel Cave, but Sherri took one step inside the door and said 'uh uh, not me', just as well as it got a lot tighter from there. Unfortunately, the lantern tour no longer goes into any of the areas with interesting formations as those areas have now been improved with elevators and electric lights (I'm dating myself, as these improvements were made in the mid-70s).
All in all a very entertaining and nostalgic trip.
@7:23 AM
My My!
Blogger has a new look, and it appears that I'm still here, even though I've been vacationing. The speed of editing and posting also seems to have been improved considerably. We'll see if this fixes the perrennial archives bugs. . .
Hmmm, interesting. There no longer appears to be any facility for 'republishing' the archives, and the new look extends through all the settings and template screens. Much cleaner and more professional-looking throughout.
Ahh, but do the links work? Let's try this one to one of my favorite posts. . . Hey! It works! Well, except that this entire post seems to come and go if I hit 'refresh'. After all these months, having functioning permalinks will be a delight beyond words.
@6:12 AM
Thursday, June 05, 2003- - -
Let this be a lesson to you
From the Northern Wyoming Daily News reports of the Circuit Court in Washakie County [article not on-line]:
William Felton -- Possession of a live beaver, forfeited $210.
@5:20 AM
Wednesday, June 04, 2003- - -
Whoa Nellie!
Following some relatively rude remarks about the US administration made by PM Chretien, it appears his constituents aren't very happy with him. One of those totally unscientific on-line polls in the CalgarySun today asks: Should the Liberal caucus force Jean Chretien to step down before his planned retirement next February? So far, the response is running an astonishing 94% 'Yes'.
@4:16 AM
Monday, June 02, 2003- - -
Why, we overwhemed them with our Karma!
Via FoxNews comes this bit of past buffoonery from the Green Bay Press-Gazette: Guns were banned from the De Pere, Wisconsin Kiwanis Memorial Day Parade.
Ps. HeHe. A typo in boldface, just like the mainstream media.
@7:25 AM
So, what do we do about it?
Thomas Friedman has one of those generally unsatisfying 'Why do they hate us?' analyses of foreign views of the US in today's NY Times. He doesn't really say anything new: 'They hate us because of our international economic influence and our military power', not exactly a profound observation. And as with most such analyses it fails to offer any answer - any response to foreign ire - other than an implied 'tough shit, get used to it'.
Perhaps 'get over it' is the only possible, practical response to those who are angered by the sight of a Mickey D's on the Champs-Elysées, or by the sight of American fashions on the streets of Riyadh. Giving them more 'stuff', more foreign aid and more American technology and education would seem to be exacerbating the problem, and Pat Buchanan aside, I don't think there's many folks who think that we could become more isolationist in our economic dealings. After all, what are we supposed to do, stop marketing Levis overseas? Refuse to sell them satellite dishes? We don't impose these things on the rest of the world, they buy them willingly and eagerly.
On the other hand, being a bit more conscious of foreign sensibilities in our foreign marketing efforts might not hurt. I have in mind even simple concessions such as adapting local architecture - if we can do that in places like Taos, do we really need to put a two-story likeness of Col. Saunders on the Avenida Juarez?
@5:40 AM
Obviously, he wasn't hiding at the donut shop
How could Eric Rudolph possibly have eluded those Cherokee County sheriff's deputies?
@4:32 AM
Oh fine
Now they've got the Mousterians mobilized. The good folks at the Air Force Academy are really going to wish that they'd dealt with their little problem before it became politicized.
@4:15 AM
The folks in Canada are hoping that summer comes on a weekend this year.
@4:08 AM
Hey! Look at that! My archives are back and I didn't do a thing. Perhaps the good folks at Blogger are finally serious about fixing the problem. Now if those links only took you someplace besides a 404 message. . .
@4:05 AM
Yellowstone is a hot spot
Literally. Here's an interesting article on the Yellowstone Caldera from today's Billings Gazette. I hope I'm not here the next time it blows. . .
Ps. And here's another article on the geology of Yellowstone in today's Billings Gazette. Don't tell Chicken Little.
@3:53 AM
Sunday, June 01, 2003- - -
Just for fun . . .
In case my previous posts make it sound like it's been all work and no play about the ol' homestead, I should admit to a good deal of self-entertainment. On our trip to Arizona I retrieved my Guide Gun from my dad. I'd purchased it a few years ago, but almost immediately lent it to dad for an elk hunt down on the Mogollon Rim in AZ. I was never much impressed with the factory sights, so as soon as I got it home again I fitted it with a Williams Foolproof receiver sight, a Marble's fold-down rear, and an Ashley post front sight with vertical white line insert, all acquired from Brownell's.
The nice square post front sight and receiver peep sight give a much more precise sight picture than the factory original buckhorn and bead, and the white line insert helps a lot in low light situations. The fold-down rear fills the barrel slot that held the factory buckhorn and also serves as a backup and check of the peep sight (if the rear sight and receiver-mounted peep sight ever don't line up I know there's a problem somewhere). I also find a peep sight to be very quick to acquire, making the old .45-70 into a monster brush gun.
Rather than buy an Ashley base and post front, I mounted the new post front sight in the original factory hooded ramp. I generally prefer the simpler sight picture of an unhooded front, but in this case I'm glad I retained the hood, as the sight is rather reflective and I've found that side light causes horizontal stringing of groups. The hood gives a more cluttered sight picture, but it shades the front sight post and I'll get used to it.
After fixing up the sights on the small cannon - I suppose it's more of a mountain howitzer - I've started working up loads. I've never been much impressed with the performance of jacketed bullets at the relatively low velocities obtainable from handguns and from the old .45-70. Either they don't expand or they fragment, either of which is not good. For my money the best bet for hunting bullets in the .44 and .45 calibers are the heavy, heat-treated Lead Bullet Technology bullets provided by the Cast Performance Bullet Company of Riverton, Wyoming. These don't expand but they penetrate very well and the big flat meplat does a lot of damage in the process. Also, they will not break up or deflect if they encounter heavy bone which, coupled with their deep penetration, makes them ideal for the biggest big game.
I started with a 440gr LBT gas-checked Wide Flat Nose from Cast Performance that I'd purchased a few years back, but I quickly discovered why they've been discontinued: The bullet is slightly oversized for the throat of my Marlin, making chambering difficult and extraction of an unfired cartridge almost impossible. Although I have no way to measure, I suspect that it wasn't doing good things for the chamber pressure either. I note that Cast Performance's other 440gr bullet, a Long Flat Nose Gas Check, is not recommended for the Marlin M1985 and it appears to have a profile very similar to the 440gr WFNGC that I first tried. I quickly substituted a 405gr LBT Wide Long Nose Gas Check, which is recommended for the Marlin and which performs very nicely with Hodgdon's recommended starting load of 41.0gr of H4198. My first couple of 3-shot strings at 100 yards have gone into nicely triangular 2 inch groups, not bad at all for a short-barreled lever gun with iron sights shooting a cartridge that was introduced in 1873. And six shots at one sitting is about all I can stand from this 6-pound gun. The recoil is impressive with these relatively hot loads and it is best to keep the shooting hand thumb safely to starboard (or to port for the sinisteral among us), as breaking your nose with your own thumb is considered poor form.
Working up loads for the .45-70 is tricky, as the cartridge was designed for relatively low pressure black powder loads in the 15,000 CUP range and even the hottest loads for modern firearms are only in the 30,000 CUP range. In comparison, the .308 Winchester operates in the 50,000 CUP range and modern magnums can stretch that up to 55,000 CUP, or more. By the time primers start to flatten or extraction becomes difficult the maximum allowable pressure in the .45-70 has almost certainly been exceeded by quite a bit. The Marlin is a sturdy gun, but it is a lever action and nowhere near as strong as a good modern bolt gun. In this cartridge I usually stick pretty close to the starting load, and I carefully cross-reference several loading books to make sure I'm not getting carried away. The difference between the starting load and maximum recommended is only about 100 fps - 1680 to 1788 fps for a 405gr bullet according to the Hodgdon manual - and I'm under no illusion that an extra 100 fps will have any noticeable effect on game. Besides, I'm an abject coward when it comes to large explosions close to my face.
I've put in for an elk license up on the Bighorns and now I'm ready to go into the brush after them. Of course, I'll keep Deep Throat the wildcat .338 handy too, in case anybody is foolish enough to come out in the open after 8am on opening morning.
@11:04 AM
He's tanned, He's rested . . .
Actually, I'm sunburnt and exhausted, but my luck still holds. The morning after we returned home from our marathon tour of the southwest I went out to fire up the pickup and take it in for an oil change. It started normally, but as soon as I tried to pull away from the curb I lost power and started belching unburned diesel in a huge gray cloud. This usually indicates a mechanical problem of some sort.
In this case it turned out to be a failed fuel injector pump. Gone are the days when you pulled the injector pump and replaced the bushings and O-rings, reset the timing, and carried on. It is now a sealed, computerized unit and can't be fixed. It can be replaced - for about $2000. But there's a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty on the Cummins diesel engine and I still have a few months and a few miles left on the warranty.
Amazing luck that it went out now, under warranty and at home, rather than a few months hence in the middle of nowhere. It was also amazingly lucky that we just bought a Jeep Cherokee and have a good backup vehicle for work for the first time ever, so we were able to meet our deadlines and continue fieldwork despite our mechanical difficulties.
Of course this was the first field outing for the Jeep and it turned into a real shakedown cruise - literally - when the steering shock went out last Wednesday. It shimmied like an old-time flapper any time I hit the slightest bump going more than 45 mph. A simple fix, the new shock cost $29 and it only requires removal and reinstallation of two bolts. Oh, did I say simple? It is if the tapered stud that holds the shock to the drag link arm isn't rusted fast. I eventually wound up drilling out the old stud with much grumbling and cursing. A real mechanic would have reached for a bigger hammer and I'd never have known why the bearings in the ball joints failed in a few months. Despite the aggravation I'm glad I did it myself.
Despite various automotive difficulties fieldwork has been progressing, and we have landed a killer job: conducting an archaeological and historical evaluation of the Bureau of Reclamation's Anchor Reservoir, west of Thermopolis, Wyoming. Anyone who's ever taken a geology course has probably heard of Anchor Dam and 'Reservoir', it's a classic case. The underlying strata are very permeable and the dam won't hold water for more than a few days - Oops! The area is pretty boring archaeologically and historically, but the geology is fascinating and the area is scenic in the extreme. It's also close enough to home that we can drive out daily, making the loss of the truck and Land Yacht immaterial, except for the hassle factor involved.
@8:53 AM
Another great new blog!
Publicola has emailed a link to The Smallest Minority, a new blog focusing on 2nd amendment issues. The Smallest Minority is showcased by NZ Bear this week, with a link to a great post on the government's responsibility to protect its citizens (or lack thereof). Very well done, and I'm adding The Smallest Minority to the ol' blogroll!
@7:47 AM
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