Wednesday, March 31, 2004- - -
They'll never learn
B'rer Bush says 'Don't make me throw Condi in that briar patch, heh heh heh'.
The sight of a bunch of very partisan fat old white men trying to grill the highest ranking black woman ever to serve in the US government won't play very well with the black voters in this country. If they try to be nice they'll just look condescending. Either way, I'm sure Ms. Rice will hand Dick Clarke his head and the Dems will wind up tarred again. But Bush is just too durn dumb to have set a trap and sprung it on them, isn't he?
@2:32 PM
Monday, March 29, 2004- - -
George F. Will cites Tocqueville in praise of South Carolina Senatorial candidate Jim DeMint:
DeMint asks: "How can any free nation survive when a majority of its citizens, now dependent on government services, no longer have the incentive to restrain the growth of government?"
DeMint's fear, that dependency produces "learned helplessness," echoes Tocqueville's warning about government keeping people "fixed irrevocably in childhood," rendering "the employment of free will less useful and more rare." It is, Tocqueville said, "difficult to conceive how men who have entirely renounced the habit of directing themselves could succeed at choosing well those who will lead them."
What he said.
@8:09 AM
You don't say!
A WaPo OpEd rails against a bit of President Clinton's legacy: "Don't ask, don't tell" wastes federal resources while impugning the patriotism and wrecking the careers -- at the convenience of the brass -- of Americans who want to serve their country. It is past time to repeal the policy.
If this were a policy President Bush had put in place, don't you think they'd mention that fact? The WaPo OpEd leaves one to surmise that the policy appeared by spontaneous generation.
@7:52 AM
Well, it is the Equality State
The DenverPost seems surprised to find that Casper, Wyoming, has a Jewish mayor and gay vice mayor.
@7:18 AM
Sunday, March 28, 2004- - -
Hey, the cover says "non-fiction," so it must be true!
It's not surprising that Dick Clarke is the hero of "Against All Enemies," after all he wrote it. It is a bit amusing that some accept his self-glorification at face value. Joel Achenbach writes glowingly of Clarke's heroism on 9/11, seemingly forgetting the author of the self-serving dreck he dishes.
@10:43 AM
Pot, meet Kettle
"It's interesting, every time somebody comes up and says something that this White House doesn't like, they don't answer the questions about it or show the truth about it. They go into character assassination mode," says John Forbes 500 Kerry.
How soon we forget "Bush lied!"
Ps. And only two days ago Kerry said "… we are united in the belief that America deserves better than a debate full of attacks and distortions." That didn't last very long, did it?
PPs. An article in today's WaPo underscores Kerry's problem: The primaries have catered almost entirely to Yellow Dog Democrats. Anyone running against Bush under any pretext is fine with them. But simply running against Bush won't be enough to sway the undecided middle, we want to know what Kerry is running for. Unfortunately for John Kerry, if he runs toward the middle he risks losing the loony left to Ralph Nader. A hornier dilemma would be hard to imagine.
PPPs. Hmm… Here's one way to solve the dilemma. Kerry and Nader will meet next month "… to discuss the effort to defeat President Bush in the November election." Spoiler, or VP? Could those be the options Nader will present Kerry at their meeting? It could keep the environmeddlers in the tent. Couldn't hurt Kerry with the right wing, they despise him anyway. But I'm not sure how this would play with the Great Unwashed.
PPPP… whatever. Of course, Kerry and Nader together could break a lot of cameras. Photogenic they're not.
@7:33 AM
Rabbit moves to Missoula
I read Eileen Clarke's The Queen of the Legal Tender Saloon this last week. I loved it. I suppose you might call it an American gothic -- murder most tawdry and the hell it causes in a small town. It could have been set in any small town, but it was set in the west, and not the Technicolor Robert Redford west that never was, the real west, where the cowboys work in particle board factories.
An excellent book! I highly recommend it.
@5:59 AM
Bureaucrats, gotta love 'em
In June 1984, Wyoming officials declared that after work on an abandoned coal mine in Hanna was completed, there would be no more major abandoned coal-mine sites in the state. ...
Under the federal abandoned coal-mine law, Wyoming's official declaration and the federal acceptance of it in 1985 enabled the state to use money intended to reclaim abandoned coal mines and uranium mines, and focus on other comparatively low priority projects. [Emphasis added]
The Bush administration and Pennsylvania lawmakers have offered a reauthorization proposal that is based on the assumption that all of the abandoned coal-mine sites in Wyoming have been reclaimed. The law is set to expire in September.
Under the current law, Wyoming, the nation's top coal-producing state, contributes the most to the fund and receives the most from the fund. Administration officials say this must be changed because most of the abandoned mines still needing cleanup are in Eastern states, such as Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The administration's proposal would cut off future payments to Wyoming -- a financial necessity, according to Jeffrey Jarrett, director of the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining.
Wyoming officials are now saying that there are "hundreds of millions of dollars" of abandoned coal-mine sites that need to be cleaned up. ...
[Department of Environmental Quality Abandoned Mine Land Division Administrator Evan J. Green] said that the desire to get to non-coal sites is only one of the reasons for the mistaken claim that there were no more major abandoned coal mines in the state.
"The other problem was the inventory work done prior to 1984 was rudimentary," Green said. "Because it was so rudimentary, they did not have accurate information on the number of sites out there."
Notice that these guys will even admit to incompetence -- in the past -- if that's what it takes to keep the money rolling into their programs. And we're talking "Hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars" here. That's been spent on practically everything except abandoned mines for the last 20 years.
@5:37 AM
Friday, March 26, 2004- - -
Hmmm …
The DenverPost is generally reliably left-loony, but they've made an attempt, albeit somewhat feeble, to provide a balanced editorial on the September 11 commission. At least they admit that neither the Clinton nor the Bush administration come off looking too shiny. Perhaps, unlike a lot of their journalistic brethren they're beginning to realize that jumping into Dick Clarke's leaky boat will only bring them down too.
@8:46 AM
Divided we stand …
Senator John Forbes 500 Kerry says the Democratic Party has never been more united than it is today.
"Never has the Democratic Party been more united than it is today," Kerry said. "And tonight, not just as Democrats, but as Americans, we are united in the belief that America deserves better than a debate full of attacks and distortions."
The two former presidents, 2000 Democratic nominee Al Gore and most of Kerry's primary rivals attended the celebratory dinner, which raised more than $11 million for the Democratic National Committee.
"Our party has a new leader," Clinton said. But he warned that Republicans would put up a tough fight to keep Kerry from getting to the White House. "They're going to do their darnedest to turn a good man into a cartoon."
They certainly are united in their seething hatred for President Bush -- for all the good that will do them. And obviously Clinton wasn't listening when Kerry said we deserve better than a debate full of attacks. That's united alright.
@8:28 AM
Miss Demeanor
PHOENIX -- Exercise guru Richard Simmons allegedly slapped a man who made a sarcastic remark about one of his videos, police said. Simmons, known for his Sweatin' to the Oldies series of exercise videos set to songs from the 1950s and '60s, was cited for misdemeanor assault.
@8:06 AM
"Oh Well, People Die"
The best that can be said for this is that socialized medicine in Canada doesn't seem to be doing too much worse than for profit medicine in the US.
@8:03 AM
We got culcher!
We went to see Calico Winds perform in concert Sunday night. Very entertaining. And I've got to love the cover photo on their web site. When was the last time you saw a wind ensemble posing on Harleys?
@7:57 AM
[Sigh]
The Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks plans to kill seven bighorn sheep before they can mingle with domestic sheep. Livestock/wildlife conflicts are becoming a big problem, but somehow the wildlife always seem to lose.
[Incidentally, I'm not sure why this is in the Wyoming Section of the Billings Gazette, the area described is in Montana and the DFWP is a Montana agency.]
@7:43 AM
Like cockroaches scurrying from the light ...
The US Fish & Wildlife Service is refusing to provide all the documents requested by the State of Wyoming for their up-coming court battle over wolf management.
After all, we're just the taxpayers. We have no right to know what our civil servants have been up to.
@7:35 AM
Civic hygiene
I received an email heads-up from Jed Baer alerting me to the latest anti-2nd amendment shenanigans by the 10th Circuit Court. He's got that covered here. The tag line on his email seemed particularly appropriate -- "... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier -- as I'd just finished reading about Utah's decision to end participation in the Matrix program.
I don't know where I've been, but this is the first I've heard of Matrix. However, it sounds oddly familiar. It appears that some folks won't take 'No' for an answer and Total Information Awareness has been resurrected with a new name. Anita Ramasastry at FindLaw explains Why We Should Fear The Matrix, but I think Jed Baer's tag line says it all. And I'm gratified to see that Wyoming isn't participating in Matrix.
@5:53 AM
Thursday, March 25, 2004- - -
Less jaw = more brain?
There's got to be a political simile in that somewhere. At any rate, the NY Times has a fascinating article on recent discoveries in human evolutionary genetics.
@7:30 PM
Crucifixion on the front page
Back in October, 2003, a misdemeanor charge of sexual solicitation was filed against Larry Berryman, one of our local attorneys. The Casper Star carried a short article at the time. However, Worland's own Northern Wyoming Daily News made it a front page story, with a special black border to draw extra attention. Nor did they satisfy themselves with a brief article such as that printed by the Casper Star -- they reprinted the transcript of the tape of the police wire that was included in the affidavit of probable cause filed with the charges. Juicy gossip for sure, but hardly the normal treatment given by the Daily News to misdemeanor cases.
Now this last Tuesday, two days ago, the Daily News top headline proclaimed that a hearing date has been set in the case, and then proceeded to speculate that perhaps Berryman would plead guilty, although they admit they have no idea what will happen. Then, just in case we missed it the first time, they reprinted the transcript of the police wire recording, again. Fully half a page of coverage for exactly one piece of new news, that a hearing date has been set.
Now consider that most misdemeanor trials only rate about three sentences in the court reports, back on page five or six. The person's name, what they were charged with, and the fine/jail time, if they are convicted. That's it. The court setting a date for a hearing in a misdemeanor case doesn't usually warrant any coverage in the Daily News. And plenty of prominent local citizens have been charged with misdemeanors of one sort or another over the years.
Very interesting. It makes me wonder what Berryman ever did to the Daily News to warrant having his pants pulled down in front of the whole community, twice. And he hasn't been convicted of anything yet.
For the record, I don't know Berryman, I've met him once and talked to him for about five minutes. I have been reading the Daily News for 15 years and I can say that Berryman is receiving very unusual treatment.
@12:58 PM
About bloody time!
I need some info that's provided by the USFWS web site to complete a report. Natch, Cobell v. Norton has had the Department of the Interior off-line since March 17th. No email, no nothin'. Makes them darn hard to deal with.
Wow! That was quick, the web site I need is already back up.
Ps. My mind is vacationing in the Bahamas. The whole point of this post was to note that the DOI is back on-line.
@7:00 AM
Bwwaaahahaha!
BOISE, Idaho -- Democrats in nine Western states are forming a new coalition aimed at rebuilding their party in a region where Republicans have dominated for nearly two decades. …
Idaho Democratic Chairwoman Carolyn Boyce says: "We're going to be discussing how we are going to be more relevant in the West … What we don't want to do is get together and chat a couple of times a year. We're going to work to elect more Democrats who have real solutions to Western problems."
Riiight. That's why they're all going to support Sen. John Forbes 500 Kerry in the up-coming election. If they really are serious about supporting candidates who have real solutions to western problems it's one more indication that the democratic party is set to fragment.
@6:38 AM
Business Plan? We don't need no stinking business plan!
State employees as business consultants? I suppose there's some value in this, but I'd be wary of coaches who don't play the game. If they know so much about business, why are they $2000-a-month state employees?
I suppose the Gov is right though, I really should draft a business plan -- but in my first ten years of self-employment I've just been too busy.
Ps. I suppose I do have a business plan -- my plan is to work hard, do the very best job I can, and save as much money as I can. It's simple and it seems to work.
@6:15 AM
Fictional characters in wildlife management
The results of DNA testing suggest that there's no such thing as a Preble's jumping mouse -- they're supposedly genetically indistinguishable from the more common Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse. I'm sure further studies will be required, but perhaps this will convince the US Fish & Wildlife Service not to put half the riparian areas in eastern Wyoming off-limits to agriculture and development? Apparently never being able to actually find a Preble's jumping mouse in Wyoming wasn't enough to get them to back off.
The USFWS is at least reconsidering their decision to list the mouse and protect its 'critical habitat', now that it's habitat appears to extend from Canada to Colorado. Note that the usual suspects still want them listed though, and damn the scientific evidence. No agenda there. No, none at all.
All of this suggests to me that for many it's not about protecting rare species -- it's about who controls the land. The wildlife are just pawns in this game.
@5:47 AM
Faulty reasoning
In my first post on the Baby Beast, I'd noted that its rear sight was set much too high when I acquired it and interpreted this to mean that the former owner had been firing very light loads. It's true that higher velocity bullets depart the barrel more quickly and generally shoot to a lower point of aim, but I think I was drawing the wrong conclusion from this. To raise the point of aim you raise the rear sight. Thus, a sight set very high probably indicates that the former owner was shooting very hot loads. Without a shooting glove and a good deal of moral fortitude such would be very unpleasant in the Mountain Gun. I think this might explain why I got such a good deal on such a slightly used and hard to find gun.
This also suggests that if I cook up some 'Cowboy Action' loads I should use them only for practice and keep the sights adjusted for my serious load, whatever that might turn out to be.
@5:09 AM
Wednesday, March 24, 2004- - -
Fresh recipes!
Megan McArdle is publishing the recipes for the food she served at her recent house warming. I've got to admire a woman who isn't afraid to use cumin and chili powder in serious quantities. The eggnog cheesecake sounds positively dangerous as well.
@7:48 PM
Catering to the wimp in me…
I've searched the internet and come across some interesting light "Cowboy Action" loads for the .44 magnum from Hodgdon. I like Clays in cast bullet loads for the .45 ACP, and I'm tempted to load up some 240 gr semi-wadcutters with about 5.3 gr, splitting the difference between the listed starting load of 4.3 gr and the max of 6.2 gr. John Taffin also lists some light loads for the .44 magnum (recommended for a carbine, but they ought to work in a handgun) that go all the way down to 6.5 gr of W-231 and 7.5 gr of Unique, much lower than the suggested starting loads I've seen elsewhere. Any of these ought to be interesting.
I've still got a couple of thousand cast 240 gr SWCs -- one of those 'you want how much? Stand by while I go get a cart!' deals -- but I've discovered why they were so cheap, they vary in weight by quite a bit due to a lot of voids and don't shoot very well. Also, they are quite soft and those I've loaded with 8.0 gr of the old Hercules Unique lead the barrel something awful. However, I've never tried any really light loads with them and, while that probably won't help accuracy much, it should at least alleviate the leading. Something in the 800-900 fps range should also help tame the Mountain Gun, which is a little beast even with loads in the 1000 fps range.
Ps. Note that I originally listed my load with the 240 gr SWC as 9.0 gr of Hercules Unique. That load should certainly be safe, but it was a typo, I meant to say 8.0 gr. When I experiment with new loads I always cross-reference at least two loading manuals to make sure the load is safe. I strongly recommend that you do this, and be especially wary of load data you find on web sites!
@5:33 PM
Oh, Good Grief!
I'm busy as all get out right now, but I couldn't pass up posting on this latest piece of foolishness, forwarded by Matt Rustler, proprietor of Stop the Bleating! The sheepfreezone blog:
Scotsman.com -- Carl Lindsay, 25, answered a knock at his door in Salford, Greater Manchester, to find four men armed with a gun.
When the gang tried to rob him he grabbed a samurai sword and stabbed one of them, 37-year-old Stephen Swindells, four times.
Mr Swindells, of Salford, was later found collapsed in an alley and died in hospital.
Lindsay, of Walkden, was found guilty of manslaughter following a three-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
He was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.
I'm afraid Great Britain is rapidly becoming not-so-Great.
Ps. An interesting discussion of this is popping up at Bill Quick's, where Sandy P. says Lindsay was a drug dealer and the stab wounds were administered from behind. This makes it sound a bit less like legitimate self defense.
PPs. Publicola has a post on another incident where someone is being prosecuted for shooting an armed robber, in Queens. You see, Edwin Marte used an unlicensed gun to defend himself.
@11:35 AM
Getting there
After pondering the results of my shooting last Saturday, I decided to forgo any more loads with W-231 for the time being and focus on the much cleaner Alliant Unique. I loaded up a dozen rounds each with 8.5 gr and 9.0 gr of Unique under the 250 gr Mt. Baldy Keith, dropping back a bit from my initial 9.5 gr load, and returned to the range for sunrise services on Sunday.
Leaning against a handy truck tire and clenching the handgun between my knees, I fired my first 25 yard group with the 8.5 gr loads. The result was atrocious, putting six rounds into 4.48", with the best five in 3.65", so bad that I spent a couple of minutes lecturing myself about grip, sight picture, and trigger squeeze. One thing I am learning is that the combination of short sight radius, light weight, and heavy recoil make the Mountain Gun very unforgiving of any inconsistency in these fundamentals.
I refilled with the 9.0 gr load and things finally started coming together, putting six into 2.99" with a called flier high and left that expanded the 1.72" five-shot group, a tight cluster centered about 1 inch above my point of aim. "Ah ha!" says I, "concentrating on the fundamentals does work!" So I reloaded with another batch of 8.5 gr cartridges, and again carefully concentrating, proceeded to put six in 4.32" with the best five in 2.30". 2.30" doesn't sound too bad, but there was no 'group', there were five holes about evenly spaced with the sixth simply expanding on the pattern.
Finally, I shot my second group with 9.0 gr, putting six into 2.15" and the best five into 1.89". Slight vertical stringing is apparent, suggesting that I still have some work to do to get a consistent grip, but again the cluster was nicely centered just above point of aim.
I'll reject the 8.5 gr load -- for whatever reason the gun doesn't like it -- but 9.0 gr of Alliant Unique under the 250 gr Mt. Baldy Keith is looking very good at this point. On reflection I'm not sure I've given the 9.5 gr Unique load a fair test. For my next expedition to the range I've loaded 25 rounds each with 9.0 and 9.5 gr of Unique, almost using up the first box of 100 Mt. Baldy bullets -- Frank Ehrenford gave a generous count of 102 bullets in the first box I loaded.
Recoil has been [cough] 'stout' with all the loads I've tried so far, and there was no noticeable difference between the lightest and the heaviest loads. However, ejection has been dead easy with all, so I know I'm not pushing things. Douglas Chandler wrote a few days back -- and I'll apologize to all who've written lately, I've been much too busy with paying work to post any emails -- pointing out that the Mountain Gun would seem to be designed to be carried a lot and shot very little (much like Bill Jordan's concept in asking for a K-framed .357 that led to the development of the M19 S&W). I agree I wouldn't want to shoot many full-house .44 mags in this gun -- I'm sure the gun would take it, but I'm not sure I could. Unfortunately, it is becoming apparent that the combination of short barrel, light weight, and hard recoil makes this a gun that requires a good deal of practice to master, a strong argument for reloading.
Sticking to the clean new Alliant Unique and with Ehrenford's excellent bullets, cleanup was a snap. There was very little powder or lead fouling and a couple patches wet with Hoppe's No. 9 cleaned that right up. I did give the gun a quick scrubbing with USP Bore Paste, as carbon was beginning to build up at the forcing cone and carbon rings were becoming apparent in the cylinders. A bit of bore paste also removes the unsightly black rings that form on the front face of the cylinder. Got to keep my new toy shiny! Now all I have to do is explain to my wife where those two greasy black spots on my jeans, about midway down my shins, came from.
Ps. Yes, the greasy black spots are from bullet lube and carbon jetting out the cylinder gap. It's being propelled by very hot gas, so if you use this position, do be careful to keep that cylinder gap well forward of your knee caps!
@7:10 AM
Controlled burns aren't
@6:31 AM
Sunday, March 21, 2004- - -
We share a middle name!
John Aloysius Farrell reports on a group of Iraqi women visiting DC. Very interesting.
@8:32 AM
A lovely bit of reportage
Here's a good example of bad reporting. Hard to say where the reporting leaves off and the reporter's opinion begins, but I can't see many scientists suggesting that carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas, that honor clearly belongs to water vapor. Likewise, industrial sources produce far less CO2 than do organic sources -- like termite farts. Likely the scientists know this, but there's certainly an agenda at work somewhere here.
@8:17 AM
It could get chilly in California too
TORONTO -- It seems a simple enough question: How much natural gas does Canada really have at its disposal? But it has touched off a heated debate among experts who have reached vastly different conclusions.
On one side of the debate is a stark alert from geologist David Hughes, who warns that Canada's available supply of natural gas could start to decline as early as 2011.
On the other stands much of the energy industry, which insists Canada has adequate supplies for the next 80 years.
Interested bystanders are the millions of Canadian residents and businesses using gas to warm their homes, fuel equipment or serve as a petrochemical raw material.
There are at least a couple of huge pipelines coming out of Canada and heading straight for California. Who do you guess will get cut off first?
@8:04 AM
Telephone booths would suffice most places
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - At civic centers, community colleges, American Legion halls and county courthouses, Wyoming's Democrats chose delegates to their state party convention Saturday.
@7:57 AM
Modern Liberalism
Our favorite Montana State Trooper sends the following:
I understand modern conservative thought. I understand libertarian thought. I understand classical liberalism. What I can't begin to comprehend is modern liberalism. Maybe you can help me.
As near as I can tell, to be a liberal:
You have to believe the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of funding.
IF there is a church that is valid it has been pre-approved by the government.
You have to be against capital punishment but for abortion on demand ... in short, you support protecting the guilty and killing the innocent.
You have to believe that the same public school idiot who can't teach 4th graders how to read is qualified to teach those same kids about sex.
You have to believe that everyone on the internet is a pervert BUT the school officials who want to do vaginal exams on your daughter without telling you have your best interest at heart.
You have to believe that trial lawyers are selfless heroes and doctors are overpaid.
You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than nuclear weapons in the hands of the Red Chinese.
You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical, documented changes in the brilliance of the Sun, and more affected by yuppies driving SUVs.
You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being gay is natural.
You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.
You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature but pasty, fey activists who've never been outside Seattle do.
You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.
You have to believe there was no art before federal funding.
You have to believe the military, not corrupt politicians, start wars.
You have to believe the free market that gives us 500+ channels can't deliver the quality that PBS does.
You have to believe the NRA is bad, because they stand up for certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good, because they stand up for certain parts of the Constitution.
You have to believe that taxes are too low but ATM fees are too high.
You have to believe that Harriet Tubman, Cesar Chavez and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, General Robert E. Lee or Thomas Edison.
You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides aren't.
You have to believe second-hand smoke is more dangerous than HIV.
You have to believe Hillary Clinton is really a lady and Rosie O'Donnell is not really a man who is jealous of Tom Selleck.
You have to believe conservatives are racists but that black people couldn't make it without your help.
You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.
Looking back on my list, it seems shallow, muddled, contradictory, divorced of logic and a bit sadistic.
Well, then.
If that doesn't describe the modern American liberal, I don't know what does.
Author Unknown
This would be a lot more funny if it weren't quite so close to truth. A bit of googling suggests that this was penned by Charlie Sykes of Newsradio WTMJ 620, who presents a slightly different rendition.
@7:31 AM
Very interesting
StrategyPage reports on the results of a public opinion poll in Iraq. Only 20% of Iraqis want an Islamic state -- that's hopeful, but religious leaders are most trusted (42.4%) while coalition forces are least trusted (4.3%). If the goal is to win their hearts and minds it would appear that we're losing the battle. Only 55.3% want democratically elected leaders, while many still admire Saddam as a strong man. It seems we've wandered into the land of the Jabberwock and the outcome of this little adventure is still less than certain.
@7:18 AM
The usual suspects
According to the Casper Star "… dozens of protestors gathered together around the state …"
Yes, must have been at least two or three at each location. Even in Jackson, that little enclave of Californication, only 16 turned out. You'd think they'd find a clue there, no?
"A small crowd of regular Casper protesters held signs stating "Peace, not war," "War = Terrorism, What makes us any better?""
I'm reminded of Al Capp's Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything. It's not the topic of the protest that's important, it's the theater. Some of these folks would protest a free lunch. Just paint over last weeks' slogan and they're all set.
Do read the rest, some of the slogans and comments are truly precious.
Ps. My favorite lackwit says: "The Iraqi people aren't fighting for Saddam, they're fighting for their sovereignty." Mighty impatient of them, hm?
@6:47 AM
So what to feed my new baby?
In his "From the Hip" column in the April 2004 Handloader Brian Pierce writes about Midrange Sixgun Loads, noting: "When driven above 1050 fps, sixgun bullets slow down to this speed, as if a parachute is attached, but when they reach this speed, the rate at which they shed velocity is substantially reduced." Hmm... I suspect that this is due to the wave drag induced by supersonic speeds. (The speed of sound ranges from about 1085 fps at 32 degrees F to 1125 fps at 68 F, at sea level. It's slightly slower at higher elevations and relative humidity also has an effect.) Long range rifle shooters have long known that the wave front at transonic speeds does nothing good for the accuracy and stability of their bullets, and try to use loads that will remain supersonic at the target's distance. Conversely, target loads for handguns most commonly start out at velocities well below the speed of sound.
Being more inclined to buy guns than gadgets, I don't have a chronograph, but I've noted many times that my most accurate handgun loads tend to be either fairly mild or screaming hot. Working up loads for my magnums has often been a test of my nerve -- the faster I drive the bullet the better I like the accuracy but the more I fear for the wear and tear I'm putting on the gun. And of course, with the short, light Mountain Gun, hot loads will also put considerable wear and tear on me. Nor am I convinced that I gain much in the way of target effect by adding an additional couple of hundred feet per second. In my experience, bullet velocity is a poor substitute for bullet placement, whether hunting with rifle or handgun.
So, a reduced load seems in order. After pondering the extensive tables of loads at LoadData.com [subscription required] I settled on two that appear several times and sound very interesting: 9.5 gr of Unique, corked by a 250 gr cast Keith-type bullet, the load recommended by Pierce in his article on midrange loads, and 8.0 gr of W-231, also under a 250 gr cast Keith semi-wadcutter. According to Pierce and to the LoadData tables, either load should give about 1000 fps, or a bit more.
One might think that a good 250 gr Keith-type cast bullet for the .44 magnum would be easy to find. Practically every commercial caster offers a .44 semi-wadcutter in that weight range, and bullets dropped from the old Lyman 429421 mold are frequently recommended by the gun pundits. Yet, a quick google yields only two companies that offer anything resembling the genuine Keith design. I found Mt. Baldy Bullets of Cody, Wyo, written up by Jeff Quinn of GunBlast.com, who has given them a very good review. Dry Creek Bullet Works, in Dry Creek West Virginia, also looks promising. The decision was made when I saw that Mt. Baldy lubes theirs with Veral Smith's near legendary LBT Blue.
I ordered a batch of Frank Ehrenford's Mt. Baldy 250 gr Keith bullets, prepped 50 brass, and loaded a dozen each with 8.0 gr of W-231 and 9.5 gr of Unique. In honor of the occasion, I opened a brand new jug of Alliant Unique, even though I still have a couple of pounds of the older Hercules mix. The bullets are very nice. LBT Blue lube is some seriously sticky stuff though and dies need to be cleaned frequently while using it. Keeping a dry towel handy to wipe the excess guck off the loaded rounds helped considerably.
With a couple of dozen loads ready to go, I went to the range and set up a target at 25 yards. I've found that most handguns shoot slightly different off sandbags than they do hand-held, and expect that the Mountain Gun would shoot quite differently, due to its light weight and relatively hard recoil. Wanting to know how well I can shoot the gun, rather than just how well the gun shoots, I laid down a scrap of carpet and assumed Elmer Keith's reclining position -- it seemed appropriate -- leaning back on one elbow and resting my opposite wrist on my knee. From this position, my 9.5 gr Unique load put five shots into 2.08", low on the paper and dropping the sixth shot off the paper low. Following up with the 8.0 gr W-231 load, I put the best five into 2.91" high on the target, with the sixth again pulled low and expanding the group to 4.44". Just for reference, I loaded six with a 255 gr Cast Performance LBT WFNPB and 9.0 gr of the old Unique, a load I've shot quite a bit. Here I put the best five into 2.54" with the sixth pulled to the right, opening the group to 3.63".
Recoil was stout all around, and the one-handed hold of the relatively slick Boone Trading bonded ivory grips didn't help, but lack of concentration seemed to account for the pulled shots, as I couldn't tell you which of the six in each string went awry. I commented earlier that this would be a torture test for the grips and it was -- the left panel started cracking near the top where the grip butts against the frame with the first few shots. These grips are just fine on lighter recoiling guns, but I wouldn't recommend them for this application. They're still usable, but I've ordered a set of Aged Ivory Micarta magna-style grips from Don Collins of Collins Craft. These look very nice and should stand up to the recoil. They were also the only other magna-style grips I could find -- rubber, rubber everywhere, and massively oversized grips appear to be in vogue. Neat little grips for a neat little gun seem more appropriate to me.
Thinking I might do a bit better with a two-handed grip, I switched to a leaning position, resting my head and shoulders against the rear tire of the pickup and gripping the revolver with both hands between my knees, another position often favored by Keith. From this position I put six shots of the 9.5 gr Unique load into 3.52" -- again pulling one low (argg!) -- but the best five went into 2.20", a bit better. I followed with six shots of the 8.0 gr W-231 load, forming a nice 4.04" pattern. Nicely centered but not my shiniest shootin'. The best five went into 2.91", but no two shots showed any indication of feeling friendly. I didn't pull a single shot, I slung all six all over, a good indication that it's time to quit.
I'm sure all of my loads would have done better off the sandbags, and I suppose that this is as much a test of my ability as it is of the quality of the loads. While the recoil was stout, it was not formidable by any means. What this exercise tells me is that I need more practice and concentration to shoot this short-barreled grip-buster well. And I'm not proud, I think I'll cut each of these loads a grain, to 8.5 gr of Unique and 7.0 gr of W-231. I suspect I'll still get plenty of velocity, as the chamber throats mic 0.4290" and the barrel mics a tight 0.4286". No point in beating myself up for 50 fps.
Incidentally, the new Alliant Unique is much cleaner than the old, no longer making me wonder if I'd loaded black powder by mistake. The W-231 is still the same smokey old stuff though. Cleaning proved to be a snap. The Mt. Baldy Bullets leaded hardly at all, a testament to their quality and perhaps to the mystical qualities of LBT Blue. What leading I did get is probably my fault for not eradicating every trace of copper fouling from the bore.
@6:22 AM
Tragedy of the Commons, Chinese style
An interesting short article in the Casper Star: "But if managing rangelands is tough in a public lands state, [Bob] Budd says, think about trying it in a public lands nation. In communist China, there is no private property, no sense of ownership or commitment to improvements that might be passed from generation to generation, Budd said."
You would almost think for a moment that they were starting to get it.
@4:57 AM
Friday, March 19, 2004- - -
It was a nice idea, but…
Following up on my experiment creating a vertical white line on the foresight of the Mountain Gun, I've tried temporarily rubber-cementing pieces of bright gold and silver wire to the sight, but while they are very shiny when held at the proper angle, about perpendicular to the line of sight, when steeply inclined away on the front face of the ramp they nearly disappear. Neither shows up anywhere near as well as plain flat white paint.
@11:42 AM
I didn't need to know the gory details
I'm all for the press providing detailed coverage of the events of the day, but this is an example of a case where they may have gone a bit too far. I understand that the Eaton jury needs to hear this stuff, but do the rest of us really need to hear the nasty details of a brutal rape?
@11:40 AM
Methinks They've missed the point
An Academic Bill of Rights, sponsored in the Colorado legislature by Rep. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, has been shelved. The Denver Post editorializes: "The issues Mitchell raised were worthy of discussion, but the forum was all wrong. It should have been debated on campuses in the first place, not in the legislature."
But wasn't that the point of the legislation -- to insure that debate on campus is not stifled?
@10:49 AM
It's a quid pro quo
It's that time of year and we're receiving requests for donations from a bunch of different outfits. We give a little to most every one, but we donate generously to the Washakie County Search and Rescue. After all, we don't want them to be stingy about searching for us if we're ever stuck out in the desert.
@10:48 AM
Another liberal smitten by reality
Denver -- Steve Rooney believed wholeheartedly in the idea of a public school system.
Free education for everyone is the backbone of the nation, he contended.
Then he had children.
@8:50 AM
Whew! That was close!
An asteroid 30 meters in diameter passed within 42,640 km of earth yesterday. Astronomers say this happens every couple of years, but most such near misses escape detection...
What is that they say about never seeing the one that gets you?
@8:41 AM
The Safe Explosives Act
Now there's an oxymoron. But the good news is, it won't apply to smokeless and black powder for small arms. As many a careless reloader has learned, they're not safe. But they're not much use to terrorists either.
@6:01 AM
Jane Fonda? Wasn't she married to Richard Simmons?
According to a National Annenberg Election Survey, "… only 20 percent recalled her opposition to the war, while 40 percent knew she was an actress -- who could forget the classic "Barbarella"? -- and 9 percent remembered her exercise videos."
An ugly and obscure old age seems a fitting fate, don't you think?
@5:30 AM
Thursday, March 18, 2004- - -
Now why didn't I think of that?
Aaron at Aaron's RantBlog has a great idea: Buy a Gun Day! [Scroll down to Sunday, March 7th] He suggests that we should all "... buy a gun on April 15th for (to spite) Michael Moore." I'm all in favor of that, but like Kevin Baker, I jumped the gun (so to speak) and bought one on March 13th. I hope that counts.
@11:14 AM
Outraged!
Joanne Ostrow is outraged! Says she:
The Bush administration this week was caught planting propaganda as "news" items on TV stations nationally.
"Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law," The New York Times reported Monday. "The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law."
Hmm.. I guess paying people to pose as journalists does tread on the media's turf. As Ms. Ostrow points out a bit farther down the article, uncritically publishing press releases as news is nothing new.
@10:17 AM
Assaulted by whacked-out hippies?
I suppose that would be the logical conclusion, especially if the 'whacked-out hippies' immediately called the police to report the whole incident. That, of course, would only make them seem more whacked-out in the over-heated imaginations of our stellar law enforcement officers.
@8:14 AM
Wednesday, March 17, 2004- - -
An inventor on the side!
My only complaint with the new Mountain Gun is the eighth-inch wide front sight, which looks like it's a foot wide when sighting on a target at 50 yards. So replace it, right? Well, it seems that's not so easy. S&W only markets the eighth-inch wide ramp I've already got, or you may have your choice of eighth-inch wide patridge sights in a variety of heights. No help there. Several after-market sights are available, but they also run at least an eighth-inch wide. Some are even bigger! There seems to be absolutely nothing matching the tenth-inch wide front sights so favored by the old pistoleros like Skeeter Skelton.
Then it occurred to me: What if XS Sight Systems, manufacturers of the white line front sights I like so much on my Winchesters and Marlins, made a white line front sight for the S&W? Well no, they don't. But wait! It doesn't take a genius to put a vertical white line down the center of a front sight. First I tried masking the sight to leave only a narrow line exposed and giving it a spritz of white spray paint -- no go. The spray paint is too runny and seeps under the masking tape. But then I tried applying a dab of white Krylon with one of the fine camel hair brushes I use to crest arrows. The serrations make it difficult to brush the paint on, but a moment's practice proved that gently dabbing the paint on in a fine line works. Voila! A white line front sight!
I immediately notice that the sight is more visible in low light, and the white line draws the eye to the center of the top of the post. The big fat blade is still usable for rapid fire -- the reason these clunky things must be so popular. It may not be all that durable, although once the paint is down in the serrations it shouldn't wear off too fast (but it should be easily removable with a bit of aggressive solvent if it proves unworkable). I'll give it a try as is, and if I decide I like it I think I'll take a metal checkering file to the blade to make the line permanent.
Ps. Part of the problem with the sights as they came from the factory is also that the 0.125" rear sight notch is a bit too narrow when paired with a 0.125" front blade. A fine line of light is visible on either side of the front blade, but disappears quickly in low light, making it very difficult to align the sights except on a sunny day at the range. Rear sights with a wider notch are available, but I'm trying to achieve a finer sight picture, not one that's even more coarse.
Experimenting with the width of the vertical white line (0.03" to 0.04" seems about right) and dry firing while slowly pulling the curtains in a slowly darkening room, convinces me that I'm on the right track. The white line remains visible long after the gap on either side of the blade disappears, and the line helps provide a refined sight picture in any light. I can't help thinking that a fine vertical line centered below the rear sight notch would also help.
On reflection it also occurs to me that the ultimate expression of this vertical centerline concept would be a fine gold wire set into each sight face. A fine screw head file could be used to cut a square groove and a bit of gold wire dabbed in epoxy and tapped into the groove would finish the job. The non-tarnishing and solvent-proof gold wire would make the whole set-up permanent, as opposed to my paint job, which dissolves readily with a shot of Gun Scrubber. Hmm… I think I'll use the white paint until I decide exactly how wide I want the permanent line though.
While I'm on the topic of improving sight pictures, there's another way to greatly improve the sight picture of blued steel sights: A Birchwood Casey Presto gun blue pen. It's essentially a felt tip marker filled with gun bluing. Dabbing the shiny edges of your sights with one of these frequently will go a long way toward maintaining a clear, sharp black sight picture. This alleviates the problem of 'shooting into the sun' caused by the sun reflecting off one side of the sights more than the other and affecting the sight picture. The bluing pen works great and heaven knows how long they last. I bought one years ago and it's still going strong. The bluing isn't terribly durable, but it's a lot more durable than blackening the sights with soot from a match or candle, as target shooters have done for years, and it gives s similar flat black, non-reflective finish.
@8:56 AM
Slainte!
That's Cheers! in Irish according to the CalgarySun, who also point out that St. Paddy's is the busiest day of the year for bars. A good day to stay home and off the streets -- let the amateurs have their fun.
@6:33 AM
Imprisoned criminals are dangerous?
How silly!
EDMONTON -- Corrections Canada won't let guards at maximum security prisons wear stab-proof vests because it sends a confrontational "signal" to prisoners. "If you have that kind of presence symbolized by (a stab-proof vest), you're sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person," said Tim Krause.
"It interferes with what we call 'dynamic security.' We want staff to talk to prisoners, to see how they're doing."
Yes, heaven forbid. They might get a complex or something.
@6:32 AM
Property rights? What property rights?
The US Fish & Wildlife Service isn't looking too shiny of late. Now they're being accused of trespassing on another ranch near Meeteetse. According to the Billings Gazette:
According to their statement filed in the Park County Attorney's Office, the owners spotted an FWS truck parked in the ranch's driveway. A half-hour later, an FWS agent rang the doorbell and asked for the ranch manager. But, after getting directions to the manager's house down the road, the agent drove the truck farther into the private property, near the riverbed, they said.
"We trusted that he was going back to the highway," Barrett said. "Instead, he went the other direction."
Ranch manager Jim Gould tried to wave the truck down, but it didn't stop and made for state Highway 290, according to Gould's statement.
I've got to love that URL: "? fws-trespass.inc" Trespass, Inc., indeed. If the FWS has little regard for the feelings of Wyoming's citizens in general, they appear to have no respect whatever for rural landowners. And in this case they can't claim they didn't know or have time to determine whose land they were on.
@6:03 AM
Shifty, Shyster, & Crony, Attorneys at Law
Speaking at the U. of Wyo, Sandra Day O'Connor says lawyers are an unhappy lot:
"Job dissatisfaction among lawyers is widespread, profound and growing worse," she said. Studies have shown that lawyers are three times as likely as those in other professions to suffer depression, and that drug dependency, divorce and suicide are also significantly more common among them, she told the audience.
A California study showed lawyers to be "profoundly pessimistic about the future of the legal profession" and found that only half said they would enter the profession if they had it to do over again, she said. Similarly, at the 30th anniversary of her Stanford Law School class, "the vast majority" said in response to a question that they would not do it over again if they had the choice to make.
As you may has surmised, I like the sound of my own voice and I like to argue, so it should come as no surprise that I once contemplated a career in law. However, I can't picture myself sitting behind a desk wearing a suit, nor does the idea of dealing with people's miseries all day appeal. In retrospect, I think I made the right decision, as I've seen the agonies several of my attorney friends go through.
Recently, one of my hunting and fishing buddies, who has been practicing law for about 10 years now, decided to call it quits -- in favor of a job setting tile. He finds his new job a lot harder on the back but much easier on the mind. And given the construction boom that's going on here in northwestern Wyo, he'll probably make more money as a tile setter. Competition in the legal business is brutal in these parts and I don't see any of them getting rich.
His dad, a retired attorney, relates a story told when he was in Law School -- apparently there are two ways to become rich as a lawyer: You can work like hell for 20 years to establish a firm, and then marry a rich woman or, you can skip all the work and just marry a rich woman out of law school. I suspect this is pretty close to the truth.
@4:46 AM
Tuesday, March 16, 2004- - -
Spain is a pain
Today's Reason Express email (which doesn't appear to be available on-line as yet [Ps. It's up now]), makes a good, and ominous point:
But it would also be great tragedy if the new Socialist government followed through on its stated plans to recall Spain's small fighting force from Iraq. What might have been a wholly sane and laudable position before the train bombings now looks too much like capitulation to terror. Worse, such a move would logically put the U.S.'s next most senior Coalition partner, Britain, in the terror crosshairs. Give the bombers what they want and they are likely to go on bombing.
Of course, to take this line of reasoning to its conclusion, any opposition to the WoT, no matter how principled, only encourages the terrorists.
@7:16 AM
Okay, we'll only fry him once
Casper Star: The capital murder trial of Dale Wayne Eaton concluded Monday morning with his defense attorney, Wyatt Skaggs, admitting his client's guilt.
"There is no question my client kept, sexually assaulted, killed and disposed of Lisa Kimmell's body," said Skaggs. "Dale Eaton did it."
He did argue, however, that Eaton was grossly overcharged -- he faces four counts of murder for one killing.
"He killed one person, and that's Lisa Kimmell," Skaggs told the jury in front of a standing-room only courtroom.
@6:46 AM
Rest In Peace
I won't have Charles Levendosky to kick around anymore. The man who put the red in the Red Star Tribune has died after a long bout with cancer. He was 67.
@4:50 AM
Monday, March 15, 2004- - -
Ouch, that's gotta hurt!
Says George Will: "Now in his third year as superintendent of [Los Angeles] schools, [former Colorado Governor Roy] Romer is the Don Rumsfeld of domestic policy. Too old to aspire to another job, he has the impatience of someone who, unlike many in government, wants to do something, not just be something."
@7:52 AM
Do tell
"Americans think journalists are sloppier, less professional, less moral, less caring, more biased, less honest about their mistakes and generally more harmful to democracy than they did in the 1980s," the study said.
On the other hand, journalists seem to think they're 'working in the public interest', which surely illustrates the fine line between doing things for people and doing things to people.
"The public thinks these journalists are either lying or deluding themselves. The public believes that news organizations are operating largely to make money and that the journalists who work for these organizations are primarily motivated by professional ambition and self-interest."
Of course, this DenverPost article does little to dispel that notion, as it focuses on the shrinking bottom line being brought on by shriveling viewership. Darn! Don't you know they hate it when that happens.
@7:11 AM
I've heard of trouser trout…
But jacket 'gators? Doesn't sound safe to me.
@6:49 AM
That's nice
I'm glad that the Quebecers are trying to deal with anti-Semitism. Now if they'd only do something about their anti-Anglicism...
@6:43 AM
Get a grip!
I prefer ivory, or a nicely figured piece of wood. What I don't like are the rubber Hogue monogrips that come standard on recent S&W revolvers. These are soft rubber and do not cover the backstrap. Thus, when you fire one of the hard-kickers, like my (a bit too) shiny new .44 Mountain Gun, the grip gives way and the entire force of the recoil is imparted to your hand by the skinny steel grip frame. That hurts. The best thing to do with the rubber Hogue's is to take them off and throw them as far as you can put them someplace safe, so you can restore the handgun to its original configuration if you ever choose to sell it.
I like Hogue's monogrip idea, and I think that the finger grooves probably help maintain a consistent grip, which is very necessary for best accuracy. Someday I might give a pair of their wood grips a try, as those should be the best of both worlds, hand-filling and recoil spreading. However, I'm a sucker for ivory -- and if you're getting the impression that I have the tastes of your average magpie, you're right.
Having learned my lesson, I've taken the Hogue grips off the Mountain Gun before firing the first shot and replaced them with a nice pair of Boone Trading's bonded ivory magna grips, which set off the polished stainless handgun nicely. Even though they are much smaller than the Hogue grips, they go a long way toward spreading the recoil and easing the pain of full-power loads. This will also be a good test of the durability of Boone Trading's bonded ivory, a mixture of ground scrap ivory and an epoxy of some sort. (I note that their web page is now listing these as "simulated ivory," although the price, appearance, and description remain the same). Boone's grips, at least the older 'bonded ivory', look very much like the real thing, but seem slightly less hard than solid elephant tooth. I've read many times that the genuine article can be brittle and won't stand up to the recoil of heavy handguns, but I've got to wonder about that, as billiard balls were made of ivory for many years and apparently stood up to some pretty hard knocks. Being a poor boy, I won't be buying any genuine ivory grips and taking them out to try to break them though.
Yes, I did say shiny new Mountain Gun. I've been on the lookout for one of these for quite a while. They don't stay in the display case very long, and when someone gets their grips on one it rarely comes up for re-sale. I suppose I could have put one on order, but that would require prior planning, and I'd also feel obligated to buy the beast when it came in. Given the somewhat spotty quality of recent S&W offerings, I'd rather inspect the gun before I commit -- no mail-order brides for me and we are looking for an intimate long-term relationship here.
I finally connected with a Mountain Gun, very slightly used and in excellent condition. The 4-inch light-weight barrel is mounted straight with the frame, with minimal cylinder gap, and with the front sight on top of the barrel -- sometimes things for recent S&Ws. I've got one that will barely center its shots with the rear sight cranked all the way over -- the barrel is so misaligned that the front sight is visible canted -- and another with a cylinder gap only slightly more narrow than Muddy Gap. Quality control has not been their middle name of late, but this one is straight. As an added bonus, it's a fairly recent model, with the triangular cylinder release, but not so new that it has the abominable built-in key lock. I am not a lawyer and surely only a liability lawyer could appreciate this 'feature'.
Dashing home with my purchase -- ostensibly my birthday present from my wife (I think I'll keep her) -- I stripped and cleaned it, and installed Brownell's reduced power spring set with Wolff-designed Power Rib mainspring and 13-pound rebound spring (#SWK/L/N-201), lubed the action and cylinder works with some Shooter's Choice FP-10 -- really slick stuff, I like it -- clapped on the aforementioned ivories, and headed straight to the range to see if it would shoot.
It does. Unfortunately, when I arrived at the range I discovered that the full-power 255 gr. LBT loads I'd intended to sight it in with were still sitting on the kitchen counter back at home, along with my ear plugs and heavy muffs. Fortunately, I'd stashed a sock-full of light plinking loads and my Peltor Tactical 6 electronic muffs behind the seat in the pickup, so all was not lost (except perhaps a bit more of my hearing). Even with the plinking loads -- a 240 gr. cast semi-wadcutter over 8 gr. of Unique -- the Mountain Gun would hold a 3-inch group at 25 yards, which is about par for these bullets in any gun I've got. They're pleasant to shoot, but the beveled base and minimal front driving band don't do much for accuracy. They make great long-range prairie dog rounds and the PDs don't seem to mind being missed, but they're mostly good for close-range rapid-fire practice.
The first thing I discovered was that the rear sight was set much too high, suggesting that the previous owner had been shooting loads even lighter than I had available. (Higher velocity bullets depart the barrel more quickly and generally shoot to a lower point of aim in hard-kicking handguns, quite the opposite of what you would intuit.) Perhaps the combination of ill-designed grips and heavy loads had been too much for him and, if so, I can hardly blame him. The recoil and muzzle flip of the short-barreled .44 is hard enough to control with a good set of grips and I imagine this is exacerbated with the light-weight barrel of the Mountain Gun.
Being Mr. Forgetful, I'll have to wait to find out. I do think I'll try some Keith-type semi-wadcutters though. I'm not convinced that higher velocity really achieves much when shooting hard-cast lead bullets, and I've shot enough high velocity loads through a conventional 4" M29 to know it's not particularly pleasant -- the lighter weight and particularly the lighter barrel of the Mountain Gun is sure to magnify the barrel flip, which can really wrench your wrist with such short-barreled handguns. Unfortunately, I've found that the LBT-style bullets don't do well at lower velocities, where the Keith-style SWC is probably a better choice. We shall see.
So far, I'm very pleased with my birthday present. I love the looks of the 4" S&W with ivory grips -- it looks like a handgun should look -- a prejudice I probably picked up at an early age from reading too much Elmer Keith. The barrel is well-made, with a highly polished bore, and a relatively gentle and nicely polished forcing cone that lines up well with the chambers. While the finish of the stainless is a bit too shiny for stealthy hunting, it appeals to the magpie in me, and the sights are plain black high-carbon steel. The front sight is a full eighth of an inch wide, which is a bit much on such a short barrel, but it's pinned on and will be easy to replace if I decide to do so. S&W gave up on stainless steel for hammers and triggers long ago and went to carbon steel with a chrome finish. They've taken one step back from that to provide this gun with case-colored hammer and trigger that set off the black sights nicely. It's purty. I like it. And it should be a lot more pleasant to pack than my 5" M29 Classic, as it weighs 2# 8 oz. to the Classics 2# 14 oz. Not a great reduction in weight, but it does improve the handling and packing considerably.
Stay tuned for further reports!
@5:57 AM
More on wolves
Two excellent articles from the Casper Star. Jerry Longobardi, who was a game warden for 20 years, points out that there's considerably more to 'predator status' than allowing wolves to be shot on sight. It would also legalize denning, poisoning, and running them down with ATVs. It's not a pretty picture, and it makes me wonder if we shouldn't review how we treat predators in general.
Richard Eskelson, of Evanston, discusses wolf hunting in the Great White North and argues, as I do, that ranchers should be allowed to deal with problem wolves.
Both articles illustrate what a complicated issue this is.
@4:38 AM
Sunday, March 14, 2004- - -
The Park Circus
If a crazy old lady keeps 120 cats in squalid, starving condition without adequate veterinary care it's called animal cruelty. When the Park Service keeps about twice too many bison in squalid, starving condition without adequate veterinary care it's called 'natural'.
Here are a pair of articles outlining the current situation of bison in Yellowstone: 1, 2. I trust you'll forgive me if I'm not amused.
@6:44 AM
Saturday, March 13, 2004- - -
We're winning!
An interesting bit from StrategyPage a couple of days ago (Hey! I'm almost caught up with my email!) that outlines how and why we are winning the battle in Iraq. Basically, our troops are encouraged to use their imagination and initiative. Thus, we remain flexible and capable of quickly adapting to any change in tactics that the opposition may throw at us. That's not really anything new, it has been a key difference between our doctrine and that of many of our opponents for many years.
Given the value of flexibility and initiative, isn't it interesting that some in our midst continually whine that we don't have a carefully defined plan and strategy for fighting the WoT, but rather keep changing tactics?
@7:12 AM
The trouble with journalists
Matt Welch has a very interesting article in the April 2004 Reason mag: "Hack Roast: When citizens attack ... reporters." It's about the influence of blogs on political reportage, natch. Unfortunately it's not yet on-line [What, you don't subscribe?] but if I wait to comment until it is on-line, I'll have forgotten, so here goes.
Says Matt: "John Timpane, the Inquirer editor who made the deal with Spinsanity, says newspapers "are fighting a losing battle, partly because there's so much stuff [to fact check] and partly because they're all understaffed.... That's not a defense, because we should do a much better job than we do.""
With all due respect, I think the problem is a bit more fundamental than a lack of diligent fact checking, although that is certainly a problem. It may seem banal, but some folks tend to forget that a degree in journalism does not confer great breadth and depth of understanding on every topic under the sun. Yet, reporters are frequently called on to report and opine on every topic under the sun. Is it any wonder they often appear clueless?
For example, if I had to interview a nuclear physicist and then write a popular article on some obscure facet of nuclear physics, I'm sure the product would leave most nuclear physicists rolling their eyes. I have little background in nuclear physics and no matter how hard I check the facts, I'm bound to get some of it wrong, if only because I have a very shallow understanding of the topic and don't know which facts to check. I really don't think we can expect any more of the average journalist -- they've got four hours to do the interview and produce an article. Under the circumstances, it's amazing how much they get right.
Herein lies the advantage of the blogosphere: Individual bloggers have detailed understanding of their own chosen fields. Thus, if I want to read an explanation and commentary on a Supreme Court decision, I'll go to the Volokh's, the InstaPundit, Fritz Schranck, and other lawyers who blog, rather than wasting my time reading what Maureen Dowd 'thinks' of the verdict. The law bloggers almost certainly won't all agree, but they certainly should have a much more nuanced understanding than any non-lawyer would.
Of course, there's a related disadvantage to the blogosphere. I could write a blog totally devoted to archaeology, but that would quickly start to feel like work, and I get more than enough of that, thank you. Likewise, most bloggers usually discuss their interests rather than their vocations in their blogging, so I've learned not to expect a detailed discussion of cell phone technology every time I read Steve Den Beste. (Besides, as one who's lugged a PRC-77, I'd prefer to think cell phones are magic rather than accept that I'm a product of the technological dark ages.)
It would be wonderful if we all stuck to writing what we knew something about, but what fun would that be? Therefore, it is incumbent on the reader to judge the relative merit of any blogger's opinion and coverage of any given topic, just as we judge the relative merit of any journalist's opinion and coverage. Like most, I have an opinion on everything. I think some of my opinions are quite well informed, but I'm not saying which, nor perhaps am I the one to judge. As with everything in life, caveat emptor applies.
@5:24 AM
Friday, March 12, 2004- - -
Those damn terrorist websites!
JeffCo Exposed is in hot water with the Jefferson County, Colorado, authorities for terrorizing them with a political cartoon depicting the bombing of the Taj Mahal, the Jefferson County government building. Here's JeffCo Exposed's response.
@8:48 AM
Nope, no bias there
"Bush official's kin held in spying", proclaims the on-line headline of this Denver Post piece. Not until the sixth paragraph are we told that Susan Lindauer is 'a former journalist and press aide to four Democratic members of Congress'. Apparently even a drop of blood is thick enough for these waterheads.
@8:36 AM
Back in the real world
Despite the dreams of the bliss ninnies, the real question isn't whether wolves will be shot, but who will do the shooting. At present, the US Fish & Wildlife Service plants 'em and the US Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services baits 'em and shoots em. God forbid the rancher be allowed to protect his stock though.
@8:22 AM
3 Million people a year have nothing to do with it
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - An environmental group says a 100-foot cell-phone tower overlooking Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park is an unnecessary eyesore, and may signal the beginning of "the death of solitude" in America's national parks.
The beginning of the death of solitude? Okay, I stand corrected, there were 3,675,341 visitors in Yellowstone Park last year! You'd have better luck finding solitude at Alcatraz, which only received 1,326,499 visitors in 2003.
Face it, it's fabulously scenic and very interesting, but Yellowstone isn't a wilderness, it's a sort of rural amusement park.
Ps. In similar news, the Cody, Wyoming, Planning and Zoning Commission is concerned about the aesthetics and safety of a 250-foot radio tower to be built at 1402 Riverview Drive in Cody. That's in an industrial area just north of downtown. It's that blinking light, might bother the local residents. Blinking loonies.
@8:07 AM
People for the Prairie Rat
"Conservationists" have petitioned the US Fish & Wildlife Service for protection of the white-tailed prairie dog under the Endangered Species Act, due to the 'level of industrial development taking place in the Red Desert and elsewhere where these prairie dogs make their home'.
I've spent a good deal of time in the Red Desert and, with the exception of some localized oil and gas development, the vast majority of the area is about as near to untouched as any place in the lower 48 could possibly be -- like much of the rest of Wyoming. I've got to suspect that either these folks from the Center for Native Ecosystems, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Forest Guardians, the American Lands Alliance, Sinapu and the Ecology Center, have never been to the Red Desert and have no clue what they are talking about or, more likely, they are Ludites rather than conservationists, using the ESA as a tool to stop development.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting endangered species, but the white-tailed PDs are not an endangered species by any stretch of the imagination. The statement that they occupy only 8 percent of their historical territory is ludicrous (as the article notes, an inventory of PD numbers and habitat has yet to be completed, so whence came this 8% figure?). The PDs probably should be protected in areas where the black-footed ferret is being reintroduced, but it's not necessary to list them on the ESA to accomplish this -- the various government agencies need simply stop poisoning them in those areas and there will be plenty of PDs for the ferrets. Nor does oil and gas development much bother PDs, they are quite happy to burrow on well pads and in the borrow ditches of roads.
Considering the use to which the ESA has been put by many of these 'conservation' groups, they will have only themselves to blame if the ESA is gutted or done away with entirely.
@7:11 AM
Yikes!
ANCHORAGE - A 19-year-old fisherman is recovering from an encounter with a sea lion that leaped out of the water, grabbed him as he worked on his grandfather's docked boat and pulled him into the harbor at King Cove in the Aleutian Islands.
Oddly enough, this is probably the first sea lion attack ever chronicled in the Wyoming section of the Casper Star.
@6:43 AM
Bliss Ninnies
Straight from the horse's mouth, the chief advantage of political correctness (Yes, it's one of those talking horse things).
@6:36 AM
Thursday, March 11, 2004- - -
More wolves
Geoffrey O'Gara and Dan Whipple make an interesting point in a recent column on wolf re-introduction: "And while Wyoming wastes its money on litigation, a bigger issue -- one which constitutes a legitimate gripe -- gets ignored. Long-term, it's going to cost a lot of money to manage wolves, and the feds aren't interested in paying for it, even though they brought the wolves in. One of the reasons they're so eager to turn over wolf management to the states is that they can then ask the states to pay for it -- a $600,000 price tag in the case of Wyoming's discredited plan. Shouldn't we be griping about that?"
Of course, there's considerable disagreement whether litigation is wasting our time and money. As Casper outfitter Sy Gilliland points out, it's been ten years since the grizzly bear was deemed 'recovered' and they are yet to be delisted under the Endangered Species Act.
Ps. The local ranchers aren't much amused by catching a USFWS employee with four wolves trespassing on private land. Senator Mike Enzi is asking for an investigation by the Department of the Interior. The Westerner [a very interesting blog I've just stumbled on] has more on the alleged trespass, and appears to be going for the Guinness record for longest single paragraph in that post.
@11:21 AM
I'm Baaack!
The weather cooperated much better than I'd anticipated and we've managed to finish our fieldwork ahead of schedule. The looming mass of paperwork makes me tired just thinking of it, but such is life in the fast lane.
The highlight of the trip was a visit to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, where we visited with our friend and colleague Ruthann Knutson, who ably superintends a very nice facility, and finally got to see the infamous Daemonelix, surely one of the world's most unusual fossils.
Ps. Okay, let's debunk a couple of myths.
First, Palaeocastor, the beaver-like critter that excavated the corkscrew Daemonelix burrows, did not have horns! I can only guess that came from someone's assumption that the creator of the "devil's corkscrew" must be a horny little devil.
Second, and despite what the Park Service's own interpretive exhibit at Agate Fossil Beds suggests, it is highly doubtful that Palaeocastor excavated its distinctive burrows with its teeth. While I haven't examined Palaeocastor's remains in any detail, I've observed that the humerus and radius (arm bones) of Palaeocastor exhibit the pronounced muscular processes common to modern burrowers as diverse as the badger, prairie dog, armadillo, and even some varanid lizards. Given the similarity of their skeletal structure, it seems more likely they burrowed with their forelegs, as do the modern burrowers.
This USGS web site agrees with my interpretation of Palaeocastor's burrowing behavior, and illustrates an (oddly enough) non-horned Palaeocastor [scroll down].
@9:52 AM
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