Still Working on the Long Post.

About 4,800 words so far. It's about half done. Another couple of days required.

Please peruse the archives while you're waiting. ;-)

Working on a LONG Post.

Which just got eaten by a Firefox crash. And I was depending on Blogger's autobackup to save me. Guess not. Dammit.

Y'all will just have to wait a bit longer.

You would think after five years I'd learn to BACK UP MY WORK. But noooooooo!

With Regard to the Mall Shooting...

...what she said.

Oh. And ban anti-depressants. For the Children™. After all, if it saves just eight lives....

South Park on the Mormon Religion.

As I mentioned below in Everything I Needed to Know About Mormons I Learned on South Park, Matt and Trey did a fairly accurate recollection of the history of Joseph Smith and the creation of the Book of Mormon in a South Park episode. Apparently search engines work, because I received this commercial email from the marketing firm 360i a couple of days later:

Hello,

I noticed your post from a few days ago about the Romney Mormon speech and how everything you needed know about Mormonism you learned from South Park. I definitely have to say that's true for me too :)

I know you're out of town right now, but I wanted to let you know that the folks over at Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog thought that, in light of today's big speech, they'd resurrect the classic episode.

Check out these (historically accurate, I swear) South Park clips:
http://www.indecision2008.com/blog.jhtml?c=v&m=93189

Feel free to share with your readers, and let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Orli Sharaby
360i on behalf of Comedy Central

Sure enough, there are three short clips, so if anyone's interested, please enjoy.

But bear in mind Gary's admonition.

Out of Town.

For the next couple of days. Blogging will be light. Again.

Everything I Needed to Know About Mormons.I Learned on South Park

I listen to the Hugh Hewitt show on my 45-50 minute drive home every afternoon. My options are Mark Levin, Hugh, or Michael Savage, unless I want to listen to music. Occasionally I do listen to music, but I find talk radio more interesting. Generally. (Mark Levin's voice is fingernails on a chalkboard to me, and I'd rather bathe vigorously with sulfuric acid and stainless steel wool than listen to Savage.)

Hugh is fully in the tank for Mitt Romney for President, so he spends a lot of time talking about his guy. Apparently Romney is going to give a speech later this week which is going to be on the topic of his religion as it relates to his candidacy. I guess it's a point of dispute with some since Romney's a Mormon. Anyway, Hugh, outraged, played a sound-bite of CNN's Jack Cafferty sounding off about the upcoming speech. There's a clip of it up at RadioBlogger. Let's see if I can transcribe it:

The Mormon Church is shrouded in a certain amount of mystery, and, and secrecy - if you're not a Mormon you can't go into the temples - If he doesn't address the Mormon aspect in this speech then he might as well not give it. We've, we've got a poll that shows about one-fifth of prospective voters that say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who is a Mormon than they would for a candidate who isn't. It's the Mormon in Mitt Romney that matters to America's voters, and if he's not going to lift some of the veil and explain away some of the mystery that surrounds his religion, which as Gloria points out is a very small percentage of the population of this country - it's not like he's a Catholic or a Protestant or a Lutheran or a Methodist or a Baptist - there aren't that many Mormons and there's a lot of questions surrounding that church. He needs to address that or this speech is a waste of time.

Wow. There's a lot of... idiocy there. For one thing, Jack, Lutherans, Methodists, and Baptists are all Protestants. Second, there aren't that many Jews in this country either. Did Joe Lieberman need to make a speech explaining Judaism to America? You know, about baking the blood of Gentile babies into bread and such? Insofar as I am aware, if you are not a Muslim, you're not supposed to enter a Mosque (though I could be wrong on that one.)

But in point of fact, the Mormon religion is not shrouded in mystery, nor is it all that secret. You see, everything you need to know about Mormonism has been (rather accurately, from what I've been able to determine) explained in a single half-hour television show - South Park. In fact, you can still download the 2003 episode and watch it on your computer if you'd like!

The episode spends about 90% of its airtime reciting and ridiculing the history and beliefs of the Church of Latter Day Saints, with quite good effect I must add.

But it is the ending of that episode that I was reminded of when I heard Jack Cafferty's idiocy. During the episode, Mormon beliefs and history are explained to the character Stan, who is visiting the family of the new kid at school, Gary. After listening and ridiculing "The Story of Joseph Smith" as related by Gary's father, Gary explains patiently to Stan:

Look, maybe us Mormons do believe in crazy stories that make absolutely no sense, and maybe Joseph Smith did make it all up, but I have a great life. and a great family, and I have the Book of Mormon to thank for that. The truth is, I don't care if Joseph Smith made it all up, because what the church teaches now is loving your family, being nice and helping people. And even though people in this town might think that's stupid, I still choose to believe in it. All I ever did was try to be your friend, Stan, but you're so high and mighty you couldn't look past my religion and just be my friend back. You've got a lot of growing up to do, buddy.

Now I am an atheist, as I've made plain on more than a couple of occasions. To some extent this whole thing is, to me, an argument over who has the better imaginary friend. But I do recognize that I am a member of a very small group as well. I won't be voting for Mitt, but not because he's a Mormon. I won't be voting for Huckabee, but not because he's a Baptist minister. (Actually, I can't vote for either of them since I'm registered as a Democrat in Arizona.) The fact that these men believe in an invisible friend - however devoutly - is not really germane to me, though.

But Jack Cafferty? He's got a lot of growing up to do, too.

Will Brown Would Like Some Advice.

Constrained by range limitations he's looking to build a short range precison rifle:

My thought here is to discover what options I might pursue, with a gun I already own, to turn it into a reliable shooter at it's ballistic practical extreme, that I can also fire at a local known-distance outdoor range. I own a Marlin 983S that I intend to use as the basic platform, with which I can shoot 3/8 inch groups (from a rest) at 25 yards indoors without a scope (ie: the gun's basic accuracy exceeds my ability to shoot it).

If you have some thoughts on the topic, perhaps you can head on over and give him some suggestions.

Here's a Voice I Thought I'd Never Hear

I guess Bill Cosby's having an effect after all. Well, Cosby, Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell and a few others are apparently finally beginning to have an effect. In a Fox Sports column, Kansas City Star sportswriter Jason Whitlock says what he thinks, replayed here in full for archival purposes:

Taylor's death a grim reminder for us all

There's a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same.

Someone who loved Sean Taylor is crying right now. The life they knew has been destroyed, an 18-month-old baby lost her father, and, if you're a black man living in America, you've been reminded once again that your life is in constant jeopardy of violent death.

The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past this time.

No, we don't know for certain the circumstances surrounding Taylor's death. I could very well be proven wrong for engaging in this sort of aggressive speculation. But it's no different than if you saw a fat man fall to the ground clutching his chest. You'd assume a heart attack, and you'd know, no matter the cause, the man needed to lose weight.

Well, when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there's every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger. That's not some negative, unfair stereotype. It's a reality we've been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long.

When the traditional, white KKK lynched, terrorized and intimidated black folks at a slower rate than its modern-day dark-skinned replacement, at least we had the good sense to be outraged and in no mood to contemplate rationalizations or be fooled by distractions.

Our new millennium strategy is to pray the Black KKK goes away or ignores us. How's that working?

About as well as the attempt to shift attention away from this uniquely African-American crisis by focusing on an "injustice" the white media allegedly perpetrated against Sean Taylor.

Within hours of his death, there was a story circulating that members of the black press were complaining that news outlets were disrespecting Taylor's victimhood by reporting on his troubled past

No disrespect to Taylor, but he controlled the way he would be remembered by the way he lived. His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run-ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you've been murdered.

Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL player, made the radio circuit Wednesday, singing the tune that athletes are targets. That was his explanation for the murders of Taylor and Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and the armed robberies of NBA players Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry.

Really?

Let's cut through the bull(manure) and deal with reality. Black men are targets of black men. Period. Go check the coroner's office and talk with a police detective. These bullets aren't checking W-2s.

Rather than whine about white folks' insensitivity or reserve a special place of sorrow for rich athletes, we'd be better served mustering the kind of outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees.

But we don't want to deal with ourselves. We take great joy in prescribing medicine to cure the hate in other people's hearts. Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant.

Our self-hatred has been set to music and reinforced by a pervasive culture that promotes a crab-in-barrel mentality.

You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.

Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it's not OK to "super man dat ho" and end any and every dispute by "cocking on your bitch," nothing will change.

Does a Soulja Boy want an education?

HBO did a fascinating documentary on Little Rock Central High School, the Arkansas school that required the National Guard so that nine black kids could attend in the 1950s. Fifty years later, the school is one of the nation's best in terms of funding and educational opportunities. It's 60 percent black and located in a poor black community.

Watch the documentary and ask yourself why nine poor kids in the '50s risked their lives to get a good education and a thousand poor black kids today ignore the opportunity that is served to them on a platter.

Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever. There's only one group of people who can change the rotten, anti-education, pro-violence culture our kids have adopted. We have to do it.

According to reports, Sean Taylor had difficulty breaking free from the unsavory characters he associated with during his youth.

The "keepin' it real" mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There's always someone ready to tell you you're selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you're selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream.

The Black KKK is enforcing the same crippling standards as its parent organization. It wants to keep black men in their place — uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep.

In all likelihood, the Black Klan and its mentality buried Sean Taylor, and any black man or boy reading this could be next.

Mr. Whitlock is most definitely not another Laura Washington. You'll notice he doesn't blame the gun, or call for more gun control. He doesn't blame the people who didn't kill Sean Taylor. He points at CULTURE, "the rotten, anti-education, pro-violence culture our kids have adopted" as the underlying cause of "when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there's every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger." Mr. Whitlock sees the same data Ms. Washington and Rev. Michael Pfleger do:

African Americans have plenty of motivation. According to a recent report by the U.S. Justice Department, nearly half the people murdered in the United States in 2005 were black. Most lived in cities and were felled by guns. While blacks make up about 13 percent of the nation’s population, they comprised 49 percent of all murder victims.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger knows the numbers.

But they reach different conclusions:

In June, Pfleger and (Jesse) Jackson were arrested for criminal trespassing during a protest outside a gun shop in a Chicago suburb. Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina's, an African-American Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side, has been crusading for stricter regulation of gun shops and manufacturers. Pfleger is in agony over the 34 school-age children in Chicago who were killed by gun violence in the first six months of 2007.

St. Sabina's 2,200-member congregation is 70 percent female. Pfleger, who happens to be white, is recruiting the pastors at neighboring churches to get into the fight. "The church should be leading the path," he says. "Women are much more vocal. I believe partly because of their sensitivity to the murder of children. Historically, women are much more progressive. That's why churches are so vital, because women make up the main membership."

Amen, Father.

Get those ladies organized, and watch out!

Pfleger and Washington blame the guns. Whitlock blames the culture. I asked Laura Washington a question a while back:

I venture to guess that the 2,200 members of St. Sabina's are 70% female because there's a distinct lack of older black males, in part because of the epidemic levels of violence have been ongoing for so long. But let me point out that the 34 school-age children who died in Chicago were not killed "by gun violence," they were killed by young black men firing guns. Young men who live in those very communities. The sons and grandsons, the nephews and neighbors of those congregations.

Pardon my asking, Ms. Washington, but don't you think all those churches and those women could be far more effective at reducing the truly horrific carnage if they addressed their efforts directly at the young men in question, rather than at the suburban and rural white men who are not?

Unsurprisingly, she didn't respond. I think perhaps Mr. Whitlock might agree with me.

UPDATE: Read the commentary here. Perhaps Iraq is not the only place where attitudes are changing.

UPDATE: Jesse Jackson, of course, blamed guns:

"The loss of life from a senseless act of gun violence is a tragedy," says Rev. Jackson. "Sean Taylor was a father, brother, teammate, friend to many and a loving son. He will be greatly missed."

--

"Professional athletes have never known this level of endangerment," Rev. Jackson said. "This is the struggle of this generation. We will be praying for new laws that will protect lives and the well-being of all."

(*sigh*)

"Leave Brittney, I Mean Afghanistan, ALOOOONE!!".

That's the first thing I thought of when I heard this report that Bin Laden has taken full responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and is asking the European powers to stop their assistance in Afghanistan.

I shortly expect a YouTube video of Bin Laden, crying, in heavy, running mascara and with his head under a piece of canvas whining "You want to attack Afghanistan, you come through ME!"

I noticed he apparently didn't say a thing about Iraq.

Quote of the Day.

I own a couple of guns, but I'm not going to tell you what they are, or where they are.
- Fred Thompson, CNN YouTube Debate, 11/28/07

That's the right answer.

And Congressman Hunter? It's not about hunting, and it's not about "family tradition."

NOBODY else owned a gun? Not even RON PAUL?!?!? I thought it was a prerequisite for being a libertarian?

(h/t: SayUncle)

Ridicule is the Best Revenge.

I thought Iowahawk's "My Name is Rather, and I'm a Dick" satires were classics, but I believe he's topped himself with "BoxBux Sux as Stix Hix Nix Xmas Flix." Classic excerpt:

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who gave glowing, 5-star reviews to each of the films, said he was not surprised by their poor financial performance.

"It's sad, but hopefully these wonderful films will do much better in the overseas market," said Ebert. "No matter how much down inside they know how Christmas is wrong, and Santa is wrong, it's hard for Americans to see their elves portrayed in a balanced, realistic way, as tragically haunted sadistic pederasts. By contrast European filmgoers are much more sophisticated and educated, so they eat that shit right up."

Go, read!

P.S.: "There's got to be a pony in there somewhere." Oh. Damn!

Quote(s) of the Day.

The dogma of multiculturalism holds that all cultures are equal, except Western culture, which (unlike every other society on the planet) has a history of oppression and war is therefore worse. All religions are equal, except Christianity, which informed the beliefs of the capitalist bloodsuckers who founded America and is therefore worse. All races are equal, except Caucasians, who long ago went into business with black slave traders in Africa, and therefore they are worse. The genders, too, are equal, except for those paternalistic males, who with their testosterone and aggression have made this planet a polluted living hell, and therefore they are worse.

Once you understand this, the Multicultural Pyramid of Oppression, you can begin to understand how to turn to your advantage certain circumstances that are beyond your control: such as where you were born, the type of genitalia you were born with, into what race you were born, and the religion of your parents. You see, the fewer things you have in common with The Oppressors, the more you can cast yourself as The Victim. And as The Victim, you are virtuous, so there are certain things you can get away with that others can’t: like actually oppressing people. - Evan Coyne Maloney, at Brain Terminal

AND:

(T)here’s a process with certain steps. Tolerance is required. Then acceptance, which must lead to endorsement, lest people feel marginalized – often by the very people they cant stand, mind you. Endorsement is followed by recognition of the new standard as equal to the old, because all ideas are valid (although some ideas are more valid than others, a judgment that’s determined by the newness of the idea versus the reactionary elements who subscribed to the old idea.) (T)hen the new standard must be subsidized, because it is discriminatory not to extend the usual state advantages; then it must be recognized as having superior aspects, in order to empower the marginalized people who believe it. Eventually these advantages will be used as evidence to suggest it’s superior to the old idea in some way that appeals to the intellectual fashion of the day. The process usually takes about 25 years. - James Lileks from The Bleat

Discuss.

Spock has a Beard!.

I stumbled upon an alternate universe!

There's a blog named The Largest Minority! Unsurprisingly, the authors are liberal Leftist "Progressives." Ah, the hell with it. Let's call a spade a spade - they're Leftists.

Just remember - It is far easier for we as civilized men to behave like barbarians than it is for them as barbarians to behave like civilized men! ;-)

Quote of the Day.

If this feels slow, just remember that it has taken 31 years to get to this point.

More like seventy-eight years, but other than that, right on the money.

From Heller Timeline at Gun Law News.

I Wonder, Do I Frighten Them?

The Smallest Minority was born of a debate between me and a gentleman living in London. Since that time I've had several discussions with other bloggers, a guest poster, and by email with a correspondent more than once.

But just recently I have had two debates just not happen. The first was Robyn Ringler, a gun control activist blogging at a newspaper site. Robyn had an open comments policy. Then she didn't. Then she stopped blogging in September. I never got a response on my invitation. Not even a "go to hell."

Later in September Say Uncle found an anti-gun piece and linked to it. I, of course, left a comment or two, and those comments drew a response from another reader. That reader is (or was) also a blogger, and we agreed (or so I thought) to have a debate. His next post, however, was apparently his last. I'm afraid that he was possibly arrested by the TSA and received rendition to a redacted country for interrogation! I can't come up with another reasonable explanation for his disappearance. Surely I did not frighten him away!

Tonight I have made another invitation to discuss the topic of gun control with a lawyer-type blogger in Philadelphia. I won't go further at this time, as I don't want to inundate her with gun-rights traffic, but I'm hopeful that this one will take the bait agree to discuss the topic. If she is a lawyer, it should be a most illuminating discussion.

Hope springs eternal...

Test Report: RCBS Chargemaster 1500 Scale & Dispenser

As I noted previously, I purchased an RCBS Chargemaster 1500 back in May. I have since used it to load some .45LC and tonight some .308. I was asked a couple of times to report on how well it worked. As I noted in the previous post, I bought it because my standard powder measure, an old, pretty worn RCBS manual type wouldn't throw Unique powder +/- 0.1 grain consistently, and fuhgeddabouddit if you were trying to throw an extruded powder like IMR4350. Unique is my go-to powder for .45ACP and was for .45 Colt (I've been using 2400 for the Colt recently and may have settled on that powder for that caliber.) I also use Varget in my .223 loads, and now that I've bought a .308 I will be using Varget there, too.

A few days before heading off to the Second Annual Gunblogger's rendezvous I loaded up some .45LC with 2400 using the Chargemaster. Tonight, I loaded 50 .308 rounds. (Sooner or later I've got to load a bunch of .223!)

Conclusion: It's not quite as fast as I am, but a far cry better than throwing the charges by hand and trickling them up.

The procedure for finishing a rifle cartridge is as follows, once the press and scale are set up and you're ready to rock:

1) Press the "Dispense" button.

2) Pick up a piece of brass and the powder funnel

3) Mate the powder funnel and brass

4) Wait a couple of seconds for the powder measure to finish weighing out the first charge

5) BEEP! (Annoying tone.)

6) Pick up the powder pan, pour the charge into the case, replace the pan on the scale.

7) REMEMBER TO PUSH "DISPENSE"

8) Put down the funnel

9) Pick up a bullet

10) Place the bullet in the neck of the case

11) Put the cartridge in the press and pull the handle

12) Remove the loaded cartridge and put it in the ammo box

13) Pick up a new case and the funnel

14) Mate the case and funnel

15) Wait for the measure to finish.... (Lather, rinse, repeat...)

Out of 50 charges, the scale was ready before I was probably five times. The longest time I had to wait for it (when I remembered to hit "Dispense" as soon as the pan was back on the scale) was probably ten seconds. The scale was dispensing 43.5 grains of Varget.

When I did 100 .45LC using 2400 I had to remove the case from the press, dump the powder charge into the case, and put it back in the press (Dillon RL-450). I have a powder-through-expander die, but no funnel to fit it. (Yet.) Again, the Chargemaster never made me wait more than ten seconds or so.

It doesn't seem to matter much how large the charge is, it's those last few tenths that take the longest to measure out.

I can unequivocally state that the Chargemaster 1500 is FAR faster than throwing low charges by hand and then trickling up to the desired weight. It is FAR more accurate with 2400 than the Dillon measure that came with my RL-450. In fact, the shape of the powder is immaterial to the function of the Chargemaster - it's going by weight alone, not volume.

If, however, the volumetric measure you have does a good job metering the powder you prefer, the Chargemaster is most definitely SLOWER. I won't, for example, be using it to measure out my 7.0 grain Unique charges for .45ACP - the measure on my Square Deal-B works just fine for that.

Quote of the Day

What you need to know, first and last, is that so-called PTSD is not an illness. It is a normal condition for people who have been through what you have been through. The instinct to kill and war is native to humanity. It is very deeply rooted in me, as it is in you. We have rules and customs to restrain it, so that sometimes we may have peace. What you are experiencing is not an illness, but the awareness of what human nature is like deep down. It is the awareness of what life is like without the walls that protect civilization.

Those who have never been outside those walls don't know: they can't see. The walls form their horizon. You know what lays beyond them, and can't forget it. What we're going to talk about today is how to come home, back inside those walls: how to learn to trust them again. - On PTSD, or More Properly, On Coming Home by Grim at Blackfive.net

Read the whole thing.

Quote of the Day.

From time to time I hear people who think that the EU will eventually lead to more liberal gun laws here in the UK. They reason that because many of our neighbours have less strict gun control that EU law will eventually standardise to the French or German model. They are of course quite wrong. The EU is not in the business of providing freedom, it is in the business of control. - Lurch at Gun Culture

(RTWT) Thus it is with all governments, which is why government is best kept small and watched closely.

But starry-eyed idealists always seem to believe that human nature is not what it is, thus Supreme Court Justice Louis Bradeis's warning:

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

Or as P.J. O'Rourke put it:

Neither conservatives nor humorists believe man is good. But left-wingers do.

Happy Thanksgiving.

And a link. Marko the Munchkin Wrangler expresses his beliefs. Hear, hear! Excerpt:

I believe that you cannot have a right to anything that necessitates a financial obligation on the part of someone else. You have a right to life, liberty, and honestly acquired property, not to any sort of monetary or material thing. The former merely requires your fellow citizens to leave you alone; the latter requires them to work for you free of charge.

Why is it that immigrants so often have a better handle on what being an American means than so many of our neighbors who were born here?

I Was Wrong.

I hope I'm going to be happy about it.

Apparently the Supreme Court has granted certiorari on D.C. v Heller. (h/t Say Uncle)

The elections this year should be especially interesting.

Expect to hear a lot about "legislating from the bench" and "activist judges," too.

I wonder if there's any way to find out who voted to grant cert?

UPDATE: And expect to get LOTS of letters begging for money from the NRA, GOA, SAF, JPFO, EIEIO....

As I understand it, Alan Gura - lead attorney and the guy who instigated all of this - isn't taking contributions.

So just how much does it cost to write and file an amicus brief?