Guns, Religion, and Xenophobia in Philadelphia

Typical Philadelphia bullshit this week: The city is abuzz over a serial killer and a cop killer. Mayor Michael Nigger Nutter, in typical useless piece of shit fashion, is calling for more gun control and asking why Harrisburg has obstructed his gun laws.

The Philadelphia Daily News has had a circus with it, mostly all anti-gun with a strange smattering of half truths and popular opinion. To their credit, they hat tip the paper with a single letter in opposition to the theme of the paper, but the rag from Tuesday (May 6th, 200 was particularly bad with contradictory stories and mostly all anonymous sources yelling “facts” which varied article to article.

The politics in PA mostly come down to state versus “city of the first class”. Usually this is interpreted to mean Philadelphia (and localities are specifically mentioned in the constitution), but Philly, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh all qualify for this designation all being proper class 1 cities according to the population requirements. While the state constitution allows for preemption (more specific laws) in places, it contains the text “The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned” (section 21). It’s pretty well outlined that Penn’s Woods are supposed to be armed to the teeth.

An incensed reader proposed a thought experiment:

About 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shooting were African-American.

Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed, and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns?

The answer is that this is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and punish all members of that group, irrespective of their individual answers, is unconscionable.

Yet, it’s deemed perfectly acceptable to discriminate against one particular group — gun owners.

Lets just tell the truth. The moment Mayor Nutter get the right to pass gun laws for Philly, it will become a practical impossibility to own a handgun or any other weapon the city deems “inappropriate”.

I’ve done nothing wrong, but my rights are being removed step-by-step because others — entirely outside the law — are using guns feloniously. How is this any less outrageous a suggestion than that black people shouldn’t be allowed to have guns?

Discuss.

A Bucket of What?

Debian Bug #477454 is why Linux probably isn’t ready for the desktop (if you work in HR).

This hasn’t made it to WTF yet and probably won’t. However, it’s still hilarious.

PEPSI

Lets Talk About: FUTAR GAS TECHMOLOGY

First, I am going to review this page about fuel saving technology:

Multistage Oil Pump: Talk about craptacular, oil pressure does little or nothing for an engine. Oil viscosity does a lot more for the engine. But, underflowing oil will destroy an engine. A multistage oil pump is only good for pumping failure. Better alternative - electrical oil pump.

Shortened Head: I sort of like the idea. But making the valve guides shorter means that the head is more prone to valve deflection. Toyota figured this out with the 3SGTE engines back in 1991: A bucket is used to shim the valves. Better alternative: Lighter metals = less mass, but this is a neat idea if they can pull it off.

Variable Compression Ratio: Good idea, terribly poor execution. This is traditionally accomplished with a dual-lobe cam similar to VANOS. Introduced in 1992, BMW’s system allows for 12 degrees of timing change. What could possibly go wrong with individual pistons? When the actuator dies, you’ve got a dead piston, and you need a new shortblock. I’m absolutely sure if the pistons get even a hair out of sync, the main bearing on your engine is toast.

Guided Spray Turbo: Anything that improves fuel economy through turbos is good. Buy stock. Best idea of the set. It’s tried and true.

Electromagnet Valves: Another really good idea. This engine is so tunable it’s stupid, and could probably run on CNG, LPG, E85, whatever. With a high pressure fuel pump and the right injectors, you could tune the dwell and timing to run on absolutely anything. Hell, you could even switch it from diesel to gasoline.

Hydraulic Power Electrification: Electric pumps are a good idea, but not a 100+ MPG idea. Still, every little bit helps. Or you could just be a man and learn to drive without power steering (LOOK AT YOU RED MR2).

How Much Mercury Can I Absorb?

Hunters and Shooters Club: Crazy Bullshit

I have a weird relationship with the NRA. They occasionally offer the life membership option at a discount for $300. I would give $300 for a life membership to the NRA. The price used to be $700ish for a long time, now it’s up to $1000. My parents gave my brother the discounted membership option, then wrote them a letter asking for another one for me. What I got was a subscription to American Rifleman, which isn’t bad, but they billed me for the $1000. I wrote CANCEL on the bill and sent it back and in typical giant company fashion, they kept sending me magazines and eventually a nastygram for not paying the bill. The magazines have since stopped, so obviously someone is paying attention, but I don’t understand the psychological imperative behind sending someone magazines who is wholly delinquent on their bills. Or a nastygram, it’s just not worth the effort, especially when their billing department is obviously not paying attention.

I was curious about the North American Hunting Club, but their magazine is more like a series of advertisements rather than any particular critical review. To their credit - their reviews of things like whitetail feed were spot on and thorough, but they follow the industry trends of “muzzleloaders are awesome, check out this inline” (not impressed), “check out this new camo pattern!” (illegal in PA), “Check out this scent blocker!” (go roll around in the mud). I don’t know, it’s hard to get excited about “ADVANCES IN HUNTING” when they don’t seem to know the basics. More to the point, when I did try their “trial membership” they were supposed to send me a game cookbook and spices packet. The spices packet was something from a ramen soup factory which didn’t differentiate between white and red meat, and the cookbook was a general How To Cook a Steak manual I could have found on the internet. Certainly it could have nodded towards the essential The Bounty of the Earth, but there’s not even a nod towards this classic of required reading for any hunter. When I canceled they also sent me a nastygram, I don’t get this trend.

While reading up on if Obama (voted “most liberal senator”) was supported by any conservative groups at all after his “vans handing out guns” statement - not to mention saying rural Pennsylvanians cling to “guns, religion, xenophobia” (notice he won’t use the word “racism”) - and the answer is that none of the legitimate ones do. He supports renewing the Assault Weapons Ban, thinks that gun dealers are “dumping guns” (I suppose as a socialist he doesn’t worry about people making a living by selling things), and hasn’t made a single positive statement towards gun ownership. So who does support him and is armed? Why, the American Hunters and Shooters Association!

WHO THE FUCK ARE THESE GUYS?

Talking points on their site:

• Keep Military Style Weapons in the military
• We support Obama
• Outlaw cop killer bullets (not even in quotes, not even used colloquially)
• We support Obama
• We dove hunt in Maryland
• Oh god please don’t notice we have a lot more than 12 birds in that photo per person
• We support Obama

Who wrote this crap and obviously doesn’t understand that there hasn’t been a rifle built which doesn’t borrow from military design? Ray Schoenke. World class idiot and meat-puppet. Once I figured this out I fired up my Google-fu and found a Michelle Malkin post rounding up the AHSA club and realized, Oh God, Obama is funding shill groups and taking us all as fools…

Epic Win of the Week

IS THIS NOT AWESOME?

No idea where it came from but I am incredibly interested in figuring out what’s on the ROMs.

The Spoils of Wort: Orange Summer Sun

Alright, lets talk about beer! This brew comes from Clone Brews, which is a great jumping off point if you like a beer but think it could be better. The beer is based on Saison Dupont.

So what’s wrong with an A- beer? Not enough fruit. More specifically the complaints seem to be that there’s hints of fruit but it’s too bitter to be a proper belgian beer. So we’re going to fix that.

Process and Ingredients
1) Crush and steep in 150F water for 20 minutes: .5lbs German Vienna Malt. More of this is better, but it’s spendy.
2) Pull bag. Add…
6lbs Muntons extra light DME
1lbs Muntons wheat DME
1lbs Belgian Candi Sugar (rock candy)
1.5oz Goldings hops
Boil for 45 minutes
3) now add…
.5oz Goldings hops
.5oz Curacao bitter orange peel (more is better)
boil for 10 mintues
4) The original in the book calls for .25oz more goldings, I’m substituting .25oz bitter orange peel here. Boil for 5 more minutes.

Yeast is Wyeast 1214 (belgian abbey) but I think has been phased out for Wyeast Belgian Trappist since I couldn’t get the other stuff and saw no difference.

Ferment for two weeks and bottle with 1.25 cup of Muntons extra light DME in place of sugar.

Serving suggestion is a goblet @ 45F, most people seem to report that english tap is the correct serving style.

Fishing Marsh Creek

I was fortunate enough to get an invitation from Jim to go fishing on Marsh Creek. Craig came along also, which was good, since Jim could use someone who has fished from a boat before. I would like to think I provided help in the form of comedy relief trying to figure out what exactly needed to be done to maneuver the boat. Stipulations - Marsh Creek is a big bass lake, and it’s electric motor only. Bait was minnows, and they go for $7 for three dozen at Dick’s up that way. Jim produced red, kinked shank fishhooks, which I had never seen before, and they worked like a charm. Put a minnow on the end (the proper way is to pierce the minnows tail past the white organs but before the fin), toss it in with about two feet of slack on the bobber, and let him swim around until something eats him. I managed to land four, nicely sized crappie this way.

Marlin 1895 in 45-70 Government

Dad picked up a neat piece. It’s a Marlin 1895 in 45-70 government. Shooting Times gave it a positive review. My take on it is that it’s wildly fun to shoot.

Never heard of it? The cartridge was introduced after the American Civil War but never actually saw combat action. The cartridge was considered the ultimate sniper cartridge of the war - testing indicated that a skilled marksman could hit a 6ft by 6ft target (roughly a trench) at 3500 yards, or at a range of two miles could land a round at lethal velocities within 36 square feet. Keep in mind that telescopic sights were rare, but not unheard of. You would need either a keen eye or a spotter. The rifle was never intended to be used as a sniper rifle at these engagement ranges. The trick to the whole thing was that a company of men could roughly aim in a direction and fire as an artillery piece. This is why the rifle wasn’t wildly successful in the military - artillery quickly caught up and with explosive shells, 36 square feet for maybe killing the target wasn’t nearly as impressive as 36 square feet of hot slag from explosive ordinance.

So how does it feel to shoot a 500 (yes, five hundred, as in 1.14 oz) grain bullet?

Well, I expected it to have the kick like a 45 ACP, which shoots a 220 grain bullet, but as a rifle. In other words, I wasn’t taking it seriously and didn’t really set myself up for it. What happened was I just about flipped the gun over my shoulder and got torqued around on the bench. Subsequent shots led to a four inch group at 100 yards once I got myself figured out and started respecting the weapon. Final take is that this is a win. While the arc leaves a bit to be desired (33 inches of drop from a 100 yard zero at 200 yards - ouch!), a careful eye would make this a fantastic hunting rifle.

You too can have a load of fun - and a sore shoulder - with classic calibers.