Something in the water

I swear, sometimes it seems like we have a little mucal clump of California right in our own state (Austin, that is), and whatever is wrong with that place, it seems to be infectious. Send a rep there and all of a sudden he/she goes downright fruit-loopy. This bill would change our state law so that anyone with an "identity document" from a foriegn country can get a driver's license.

Bullsquat. Anyone who still remembers 9/11 (some people have obviously forgotten) should know that handing out DL's willy-nilly is a big mistake.

During my brief stint as a trucker, I had a load that was going from Washington (state) to Edmonton, Alberta. The Canadian border guys gave me all kinds of hell because I wasn't carrying my birth certificate. It took them about three hours of phone calls to verify my birth records. And this was after they had opened the truck and verified that I was only carrying 33,000 pounds of pulp rolls.

Why don't they just disband the Border Patrol, build a couple hundred more bridges, and get it over with?

The border cops in Vancouver also confiscated my pepper spray. Apparently it's a "dangerous offensive weapon" up there. While being grilled about it, I was asked, "What are you doing with this, anyway?" He really wanted to nail me for something, I guess. I asked, "Have you ever walked across a truck stop in the middle of the night to use the bathroom?" You can't even get out to do an early-morning tire check in OKC without beating the lot lizards off with a stick, fortheluvva...

Good thing they didn't find the stun gun.

tnx to Down Deep In Texas

Good grief, they're only there until the end of April!

This woman is on a hunger strike to protest the Minuteman Project. Maybe she thought they meant April 2006 (or 2012, perhaps).

So I took this insanity test...

...at The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society and here is the result:

INSANITY INDEX 6.81 Your score suggests that you are what's known as 'bughouse.' That's a colloquial term for madness from a time when people who thought they were crawling with bugs were often correct. In these more hygienic times, it indicates a potentially serious problem. Others who scored at this level include pop star Michael Jackson and Greek philosopher Plato.

Maybe I shouldn't have chosen the chainsaw as the ideal instrument to perform a lobotomy.

Another Rampaging Chihuahua

Yesterday a huge, vicious Chihuahua was sprayed by a meter reader in San Antonio, in full view and company of the dog's owner. It even made the evening news.

The first thing I want to say is: You idiot.

The second thing I want to say is: It isn't Mace, you idiot. It's Halt! pepper spray, with a deadly 0.07% capsicum rating.

That's right. Zero point zero seven percent. Spray it on your eggs, and you'll just barely have huevos rancheros.

Third thing: This is why I'm glad I'm a contractor and not an employee of CPS. Having to learn everything from scratch as I did has prevented me from picking up a lot of bad habits.

It seems that CPS s.o.p. is to spray first without evaluting the dog. If they would just use half the wits they were born with, this would never be a problem. I constantly hear complaints from customers that the previous meter reader sprayed their dog, to which I proudly answer, "I don't even carry the stuff."

I've mentioned before how worthless this stuff is. It's only effective against dogs that don't need it. A truly vicious and dangerous dog will either ignore it or be effected so slowly that it will be all over you before it takes effect. Chihuahuas are just too small to worry about. Just wear some decent boots and let them come. They can't reach over the top of the boot, so don't worry about it. Let them yap their fools heads off, read the meters, and get out.

Other problems with this spray is that it's really hard to hit a dog in the face. Any dog that can be hit easily isn't moving fast enough to worry about. If there is any breeze at all, it must be hitting you in the back. If it's coming from the side, it will blow the spray away before it hits. If the wind is hitting you in the face, God help you if you spray, because you will get a snoot full of it and you will feel it--but it will by no means incapacitate you. That's how wimpy it is. Point is, Chihuahuas are naturally so hyper that they constantly run in circles around you, screaming and never stopping for an instant. If this guy nailed one in the face, it must have either been sick, very old, or extremely docile.

All this idiot did was make it more difficult for the next guy, which, with my luck, will probably be me. The customer is going to be hostile, and the dog is going to hate everyone now because it was just minding its own business when this moron sprayed it.

If it were up to me, all their meter readers would be issued dog sticks and be prohibited from ever using pepper spray. It's ineffective to the point of worthlessness (have I mentioned that before?) and just ticks off customers because their precious baby was temporarily in pain.

The last thing I would like to say is: You idiot.

Another entertaining test...

Air Strike
You preferred a weapon with 50% power over speed and 83% range over melee.
You use Air Strikes.

Fighting? Fighting is for idiots! All you have to do is make a quick walkie-talkie call and have the ground ahead of you carpeted with explosive charges. Your enemies will be searching frantically for refuge as you chuckle from afar.

The What's Your Signature Weapon Test written by inurashii on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Possibly. But I would feel more comfortable if I also had a sidearm starting with either a "4" or a "357."

tnx to Fun Turns to Tragedy!!!

New to Blogroll: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has just been added to the Blogrollonomicon. How can I not add the blog of a fellow gun-nut who quotes H.P. Lovecraft?

tnx to Fun Turns to Tragedy!!!

The best movie ever

Sadistic Humour 80% Artistic 75% Sci-Fi/Fantasy 70% Mindfuck 70% Drama/Suspense 60% Mindless Action Flick 45% Romantic Comedy 10% Movie Recommendation. created with QuizFarm.com

This quiz hit the nail on the head, rating me as a lover of sadistic humor. Among the recommendations were Mallrats and Napoleon Dynamite, two of my favorites. The latter especially is the best movie ever.

tnx to Temple of the Gnu

Another addition to the blog

I used to be a very disciplined and voracious reader. For the past few years I read sometimes, but not nearly as often as I should. And by read I mean read actual books. Most of my time is spent reading news and blogs, but I still try to sneak in some reading time when I can. It takes me a long time to read a book these days, because I get sidetracked on something else that I find equally interesting and end up jumping back and forth between them, taking forever to get anything finished. So, at the bottom of the sidebar will be my current bookshelf: the books that I am actually in the process of reading. Of course, this list is getting interrupted by gun magazines all the time that I like to read. When I finish a book, it will be removed from the bookshelf. When I start a new book, it will be added. So there you have it.

Altogether now..."Well, DUH!"

This article from The New York Times reports on what many predicted:

Despite dire predictions that the streets would be awash in military-style guns, the expiration of the decade-long assault weapons ban last September has not set off a sustained surge in the weapons' sales, gun makers and sellers say. It also has not caused any noticeable increase in gun crime in the past seven months, according to several metropolitan police departments.

Notice this paragraph (emphasis mine):

What's more, law enforcement officials say that military-style weapons, which were never used in many gun crimes but did enjoy some vogue in the years before the ban took effect, seem to have gone out of style in criminal circles.

Unfortunately, some whackos refuse to see the pernicious truth when it's obvious even to the New York Times:

"In my view, the assault weapons legislation was working," said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, a chief sponsor of the new bill. "It was drying up supply and driving up prices. The number of those guns used in crimes dropped because they were less available."

Yeah, even though they were "never used in many gun crimes."

This stupid law banned guns on the basis only of their appearance, not function, even when it was something as inoffensive as a Ruger 10/22. Note:

Mr. Pasco of the police organization disagreed. "We knew exactly what we were doing by trying to ban guns with certain features," he said. "While it didn't affect their function or capability, those features, at that point in time, seemed to make those weapons more attractive to those who wanted to commit crimes."

What can we expect from a law that creates an arbitrary term ("assault weapon") which can mean anything they want it to? Oh, and note to Ms. Feinstein: it's magazine, not clip. Either learn the correct terminology for what you're attempting to talk about, or stop talking about it.

Saturday Night Special #1

That's a good name for a post, eh? I will try to start another weekly installment here by posting 10 or so gun-related links every Saturday. Just starting with all the links I've bookmarked, this should take several weeks. Once I've used all those up, I'll just post whatever new ones I found during the week. These won't necessarily be links that are new to everyone. Most of the links I've bookmarked are not something I consider especially important, but I consider them all to be resources of information one way or the other. So here for the first installment are a few random links, plus some manufacturers links. Also please note that these links are provided for information and I don't automatically endorse any of them--they are just here for your information. If I do have any recommendations to make, I will do so in the comments after the link.

Nagel's Gun Shop -- My favorite gun store. I've done plenty of business with them and don't hesitate to recommend them.
A Place to Shoot -- A range that I occasionally use.
Bullet Hole Shooting Range -- Another range that I sometimes use. They also hold regular CHL classes.
Cruffler.com -- The place to go for information about Curio & Relic firearms.
Remington Country -- Remington's website.
American Derringer -- Texas' own derringer company.
Bond Arms -- Another derringer company.
Cobra Arms -- Maker of derringers, single- and double-action semi-auto pistols.
Winchester -- Website of Winchester firearms.
H&R Firearms -- Website of Harrington & Richardson and New England Firearms. I've long been wondering how cool it would be to get one of their Handi-Rifles in .45-70.

So there are the first ten. If you find any of these useful, or if you have any links that you think I should add to my collection, just drop me a comment.

Review of the North American Arms .22 Magnum Mini-Revolver @ Concord Arms

Note: The linked article is from more than a month ago, but I just learned of this blog, so it's new to me.

I have the .22LR version of the mini-revolver, and I can confirm the unexpected accuracy of these little guns. Many years ago I owned (for a short time) a four-barrel .22 derringer, with which I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. It was also painful just to shoot with anything bigger than a .22 Short--the grips cut into my hands and I had to re-establish my grip after every shot. I eventually took it to another gun store that had a used Single-Six and made a trade.

So, having had a bad experience with a derringer, why did I get one of these mini-revolvers? For some time I had been carrying a Kel-Tec P-32--one of those little .32 ACP pocket rockets. I had carried it for convenience and comfort, with a small pocket sheath it was something that I occasionally forgot I even had on me. Later I came to be so comfortable carrying a Ruger SP-101 in an IWB holster that I decided I had no use for the Kel-Tec anymore. I checked out some prices and figured I could probably get away with a straight-across trade--no cash involved--for one these mini-revolvers. One impractical gun for another, except the little revolver is just way more cool.

It is much more comfortable to shoot than the old derringer was, and is amazingly accurate for such a tiny gun. Unlike the gun reviewed in the linked article, mine shoots more or less where it's aimed, not 7" low at 7 yards or some such. I think soon I must take it out for some serious target-punching and see what it can do, and post an update.

I do sometimes carry this as a sort of "deep concealment" gun by simply slipping it into a nylon multi-tool sheath and sliding the whole thing in my pocket. Most of the time, however, it's just a fun plinker. It is also quite potent against snakes, if loaded with CCI Shotshells and the snake is near enough to actually be a threat to you.

New to the blogroll

Concord Arms has just been added to the blogroll. Comments on concealed carry plus ammo & gun reviews. Check it out.

tnx to Freedom Sight

Sure, it was funny on M*A*S*H*

This is improper use of a firearm, folks. A .380 just isn't enough for a Chrysler of any variety. This is a job for a .45, at least.

Reuters calls this "odd" -- "Man Accused of Blasphemy Shot Dead"

I remember when these "odd" news stories usually had an element of humor involved, but never a tale of sheer horror. What are they thinking? This isn't odd. It isn't even close. This is just the witch hunt arising again:

"He blasphemed!"

"How do we know he blasphemed?"

"Because I saw it! And besides, he floats!"

Bang.

It isn't odd, it's disgusting.

Giggle...(snort)

Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio has been much in the news lately, thanks to his reactions to the Minutemen Project. But this one makes me think he's not all that bad: Inmates March To New Jail In Pink Boxers:

"This isn't a publicity stunt, this is their normal wear," Arpaio said. "What do you want me to do, put them in tuxedoes to move them?"

Oh yeah, there's a picture. Just make sure you aren't drinking at the time, or you may spew all over your screen.

Friday Night Ramble: The Great Witch Hunt

I hope to continue this new tradition of just writing up about my weekly experiences/impressions on Friday night. This is my recess night. Everyone has gone to bed, and I don't have to get up early in the morning, so I smoke a pipe or two and catch up on reading some blogs and doing some blogging myself. This is why you should see more activity here during weekends.

An experience this week reminded me of another of my odd beliefs: a certain large cross-section of the human race will always require something to witch-hunt. That is, many people will always need something or someone to fear and/or persecute. Maybe eventually we will evolve out of it, but I don't see it happening in my lifetime, or many generations yet to come, for that matter.

Back in the days of yore, it was actually witches (or suspected witches, I should say). The Nazis had the Jews and eventually pretty much everyone else, the KKK have African Americans (and Jews), and recently some witch-hunting has been going on against perfectly innocent Arabic Americans. Which brings me to the point: the terrorism of the past few years has opened up the witch hunt to include anyone whose (note to Ms. Ficara) face you don't immediately recognize.

A few months ago one of my co-workers was actually detained by a property owner. We work for a company that is contracted to the local C.P.S. to provide extra meter readers, so we don't wear C.P.S. uniforms. We do have our own uniform, which includes a bright yellow shirt that can be seen from several blocks away--not exactly the kind of color you would wear to sneak into someone's backyard to commit some mischief. We also wear ID badges that include our photo along with the logos of both our company and C.P.S. Our meter reader was not allowed to leave the property until both our manager and the police were on the scene to assure the whacko that this guy was, indeed, only a meter reader. Why do I equate this with the witch hunt? Because of what the whacko said: "We got a war going on. How do I know who's in my backyard?" (Once more, note to Ms. Ficara). Now how does a war against terrorists have any relation to some poor guy standing in your yard, wearing a uniform, holding a handheld computer, and looking at your meter?

A similar, though less dramatic, event happened to me this week while running an OMR route. I had stopped to check the map and see which way I was supposed to turn at the end of the street, when I heard someone yell. He ran up to my truck on the passenger's side--the truck was already in drive and all I had to do was accelerate, and besides, lots of people have legitimate questions. The most popular questions, among people who don't realize their meter is automated, are "Do you need to get into my yard?" or "Did you get my house?" But this guy said, "You searching for RF?" (The handheld unit has a rubber ducky antenna to pick up the signals). I told him exactly who I was and what I was doing, and the entire time he kept looking all around the inside of my truck, trying to find something. "Okay, just checking," he said. "Lots of strange stuff been going on around here lately." I don't know what kind of nefarious activity he could be expecting from someone who was just driving down the street holding a radio out the window. I was dying to ask him what kind of stuff, but he had just a little too much of the whites of his eyes showing, if you get my drift. "Oookay," I replied, and went on my way. The guy seemed to be solidly in the paranoid freak category.

On a lighter note, we had our weekly "safety meeting" this Thursday. This one was on "proper conduct" or something like that. One of the rules was "no unauthorized firearms." My first question was, "How can we get an authorized firearm?" Well, the rule made it sound like this was possible. Only my immediate supervisor--a fellow gun nut--thought it was funny. Heck, most of time I'd be happy to just have some big ol' clunky .38 Special security guard revolver, except that it would be getting mighty heavy by the end of the day.

The Continuing Saga of (turn reverb to 11) Adventures in Meter Reading

First, a disclaimer: I don't work for this Kinder Morgan company, so much of what I'm about to say is based on my own experience where I do work.

Interesting article here about what they call "automated meters," and what we refer to as "OMR's." But I have a few problems with it. First:

Last year, an error-prone meter reader's mistakes led to some Casper-area customers, including City Councilwoman Lynne Whalen, receiving bills of over $1,000 because they had been undercharged for several months and their accounts needed to be caught-up.

This is almost certainly incorrect. If their bill had to be "caught up," it was not due to an error on the part of the meter reader. It was because the meter was either impossible to find, locked inside a back room with no access provided by the property owner, or guarded by a rabid 1500-pound Rottweiler (or a computer glitch, which I have also seen happen). Meters that have to be "caught up" are that way because they haven't been read in a long time. Second:

When a meter cannot be read manually, meter readers estimate how much gas has been used at that residence, Long said.

Wrong. Experience leads me to believe that this spokesman has never actually been on the street/in the back-alleys/walking all over somebody's godforsaken 17 1/2 acre estate looking for meters and actually reading them. If I were ever caught entering a read that I didn't actually get from a meter, I would be terminated. The estimating is done by the billing folks, by averaging several months worth of older bills. (This "spokeman" was just covering his own backside and blaming it on the peons.) Third:

Estimating gas usage does not happen often and Kinder Morgan tries its best to make sure gas usage is not estimated for two consecutive months, he added. But sometimes it is necessary.

I know of several meters that haven't been read in at least several months, because no one knows where they are. This particularly applies to gas meters. Electric meters are usually mounted on the wall of the house somewhere, but gas meters can be anywhere. And by anywhere, I mean it could be right against the house, somewhere in the back yard, somewhere out in the mosquito-infested Cambodian jungle of an alley behind the place, or even on someone else's property. The old guys who have been doing it for 30 years know where they are, but due to seniority they never read those routes--they only do the easy stuff. There are also "lost" electric meters. They are usually temporary meters that were never removed after construction was completed. I found one of these once, sealed up nice and tight between two adjacent privacy fences in a space just wide enough to house a meter on a pole. Due to its position, I was unable to read it.

The "automated meters" still have lots of problems. On larger properties, it is still necessary to know where the meters are so that a "line of sight" can be established to pick up the signal. If the property is large enough, and it has a nice, big brick house with the meter in the back, forget about it. There's too much distance and too many brick walls between you and the meter, and you can't pick up the signal.

Ruger DA Revolvers Part III at Wadcutter

Crimson Trace makes laser grips for SP's?! I didn't know that. I'll have to check that out.

I actually had an idea just like those "Speedstrips" several years ago, and handmade a few for myself. They fit in the pocket a lot more comfortably than a round speed-loader.

Minuteman Project may be gaining momentum

An update over at Lest Darkness Fall.

From the Accidental/Negligent(?) Discharge Files

I guess I would be remiss in not mentioning this little gem: Officer Accidentally Fires Gun While Going to the Bathroom in San Antonio:

Officer Craig Clancy, whose been going to the bathroom for many years now, took the appropriate steps to relieve himself. Unfortunately, as he began to pull down his pants his gun fell off his waistband and fired off two rounds as it hit the tile floor.

I'm almost positive these guys carry Glocks. How could an impact with the floor have caused it to fire? That's not supposed to happen. Not only that, but how in the heck did an impact with the floor make it fire twice? My guess: when it started to fall he tried to catch it. Since he was off-duty, maybe he was using a non-regulation holster that didn't fasten the weapon in securely? There should be lots of questions about how this happened. And yes, I noticed that All Headline Staff News Writer Christina Ficara did not use the correct version of "who's."

Update--9:10PM: Oddly, I was unable to find anything about this at the San Antonio Express-News website. But I did find this at the website of WBBH in Ft. Myers, FL (?):

SAN ANTONIO--This is a story they'll be telling around the San Antonio Police Department for a long time.A police spokesman says an off-duty officer was at a San Antonio auto auction house yesterday when nature called.Officer Craig Clancy strolled to the appropriate facility and was lowering his trousers when his pistol fell from his waistband. When Clancy fumbled for the falling firearm, it went off -- twice.One of the bullets nicked a bit of floor tile into the leg of a man who was washing his hands nearby. That man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.Police internal affairs is investigating.

This makes a lot more sense, and fits my earlier assumption. So, if the latter story is correct, this means that not only does Ms. Ficara not know the difference between "whose" and "who's" (where do they get these people?), she is guilty of anti-gun bias at the worst, or, to give her the benefit of the doubt, sloppy journalism. Well heck, she misspelled "who's" so I guess sloppy investigative journalism is to be expected. Glocks don't "fire off" two rounds from being dropped, but they will easily fire two rounds if someone gets his finger inside the trigger guard while trying to catch it when he drops it. Maybe it was headed for the bowl and he was trying to save it before he had to reach in and...extract it. Heh. He should've just let it fall, rinsed it in the sink, and done a thorough cleaning when he got home. But perhaps I've assumed too much.