aubreyturner.org

Ouch:

Real story here.  Inspired by Grouchy Old Cripple.

I got a cigar catalog yesterday and it got me to thinking about something from back when I was in elementary school.  Our school supply list called for an actual cigar box for storing our supplies.

I remember that we used to go to Nash’s store in Pritchett, where Mr. Nash would give us empty boxes for free.  I can still almost smell that King Edward box today.

I’ve noticed that current supply lists call for “cigar sized” plastic boxes.  Can you imagine the moaning and wailing if someone brought a real cigar box to school today?  They’d probably call the cops and lock the kid up for possessing a “tobacco product.”

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but a Boston Pops concert is not the sort of event you expect fisticuffs to break out.

Something else popped at the Boston Pops opening night concert – a fight broke out in the audience at Symphony Hall.

Television video of the fight Wednesday night showed two men struggling in the balcony – one with his shirt pulled off – as several people stood around them and the orchestra and singer-songwriter Ben Folds performed a medley from the movie “Gigi”.

Conductor Keith Lockhart briefly halted the performance while the men were escorted out.

Witnesses said they heard a scream from the balcony, and the sound of chairs falling, then a second scream as the fight escalated.

“The first time there was a scream, Keith looked up that way but he kept going,” audience member June MacIndoe told Boston’s WHDH-TV. “Then about a minute and a half later … there was a big scream and you could hear chairs falling over and you could see them up there, fists going.”

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t explain why the fight started.  I can just see these guys getting into it over something like viola vs cello.

Viola rules, dude!

No, screw you, cello rocks!

Viola!

Cello!

Viola guy throws a wild haymaker at Cello dude and now it’s ON…

This site, as well as my email access, will be down early on Sunday morning for approximately 5 hours:

Due to space and power constraints in our primary datacenter we are moving the entire shared cluster “looney” to our LAX facility at 12:01AM PDT, Sunday morning, May 13th 2007. You are receiving this e-mail because your account is hosted on the looney cluster. All webservers, mail servers, file servers, and MySQL servers in the looney cluster will be unreachable during the move, which we expect to take approximately 5 hours.

I was glad to see this email notification, since it had appeared at one point that they had stopped giving direct notification and were instead relying on people to check the Dreamhost Status site (or its RSS feed).  I thought that having to monitor their blog was a crappy way to do business, and perhaps that message got through, since the above is exactly what I wanted to see (specific notification to the affected users about the exact nature of the event, rather than a non-specific message on a blog that required you to sift through a long list of server names to determine if you were affected).

Anyhow, I certainly don’t plan to be accessing the site or my email during this time period, as I plan to be asleep.  But then I’m not so much of a night owl anymore. 

In my last entry I mentioned mining new veins of stupidity.  I guess there’s no better place to start than my own…

On Saturday I met up with some friends over at Bass-Pro for some time on the pistol range.  When I got back I decided to go ahead and clean the guns right then so I wouldn’t have to worry about it later.  As I was disassembling my S&W 22S I somehow managed to dislodge the entire slide assembly, which (under spring tension) launched itself into the air and landed on the hard tile floor.

It’s not like I wasn’t warned that it could happen:

I’d also had the spring and recoil rod launch themselves before (I ended up having to order a new recoil rod, as I never found the original in that incident).  Still, even being careful and mindful of all the past incidents and warnings, I somehow managed to fumble the damn thing. 

When I picked it up I noticed that the little “cup” that holds the recoil spring was broken.  It’s part of what they call the “slide insert” (#37) and it’s made of plastic.  The slide insert also holds the firing pin, firing pin return spring, and firing pin stop pin (6,7,8).  In other words, it houses the firing pin assembly.  Fortunately, all of these parts are available from Brownells and together only cost $19.42.  Not a horribly costly mistake, I guess, but it’s still annoying that important internal components of a pistol would be made from plastic. 

Speaking of internal components made of plastic, my other annoyance with this gun is the recoil spacer (part #25 in the previous diagram):

It seems to be a weak spot in the design of this gun.  It’s made of nylon and it seems to wear out quickly.  They’re not terribly expensive ($1.69 from Brownells), but it seems like a bad idea to use something so fragile as part of the recoil spring assembly.  I had just replaced the one in this gun before going to the range.  We only put about 50-100 rounds through it and already the new spacer was showing signs of wear.  I don’t have an exact count of the rounds expended with the one I had previously replaced, but I don’t think it was more than 500.

Now there are those who also decry the use of “plastic” (or polymer as the manufacturers prefer) at all, but I’ve found that if done right it’s not a problem (such as the lower frame of the Glocks and Springfield XD’s).  I should also note that my Browing Buckmark uses a plastic recoil spacer, but even after all the times its been fired the spacer looks nearly new (I’m guessing several thousand rounds).

I’ve been wrestling with whether to declare “adios, mofos” on this weblog or not.  In some cases I’m just not sure what to say anymore, since I can usually go back into the archives and find I’ve said something about that topic before.  And it gets tiresome pointing out the same stupidity over and over. 

I’ve also been wrestling with how to say certain things so as to avoid getting visited by various and sundry Federal and local law enforcement folks.  This usually occurs when I hear or read something said by those treasonous Democrat bastards in Congress (Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, for example).  Let’s just say that I’m less than charitable towards those who give aid and comfort to the enemy. 

Anyway, there still appears to be an ample supply of stupidity out there, so I suppose I will just seek out and mine different veins of it for variety. 

Illegitimi Non Carborundum.

As much as I detest Mayor Mommy over in Dallas, her antics usually don’t directly affect me.  But now I see that she’s managed to pass on $12 million in costs from her pet Trinity River project on to the rest of us.

Electric ratepayers in Fort Worth and elsewhere will get stuck with part of the bill for a tourism and economic development project in Dallas under a regulatory decision Thursday that could open the door for similarly expensive charges from other cities.

On a 2-1 vote, the Texas Public Utility Commission agreed to take more than $12 million in construction costs for the burial of a new power line near downtown Dallas and pass those costs on to ratepayers statewide.

Dallas requested the burial so the power line wouldn’t detract from the look of the $1.4 billion Trinity River Corridor Project. The 0.7-mile line is to run parallel to Canada Drive on the south shore of the Trinity River.

How lovely.  I guess I’ll have to go down and have a look at this Trinity River project when it’s done, since it’s now going to be included in my electric bill.

Transmission service is the only part of the state’s electric system that remains strictly under PUC control. The agency authorizes utilities to charge ratepayers for the cost of new transmission lines, but typically only for projects that help make the power grid safe and reliable.

In this case, however, Dallas has argued that the new transmission line would be too ugly. The extra cost for burying it is estimated at about $17 million, although the Dallas City Council voted this week to pick up 25 percent of the eventual cost.

Too ugly!  Typical wasteful spendthrift nonsense. 

But check this “logic:”

PUC Chairman Paul Hudson, who along with Commissioner Barry Smitherman voted to support the request from Dallas, noted Thursday that Dallas residents had already agreed to take on more than $400 million in debt for the project.

That’s nice of them.  But that was strictly within the purview of the voters in the City of Dallas.  We could debate whether it was a good idea or not, but it only affected Dallas.  Now they’re passing their costs on to the rest of us. 

I understand that there’s lots of pork out there, and that this sort of thing goes on all the time, but I’m going to be cursing about this crap every time I pay my huge electric bills this coming summer. 

I hope the people in Dallas, and Mayor Mommy in particular, enjoy the view.  Meanwhile, we sweating suburban shmucks will be paying the bill.

It appears that someone lost a loaded handgun at the Keller-Smithfield playground (oddly called an “activity node” by the city).

On Thursday morning a young boy found a small .22 caliber “pocket” pistol in a sandbox at the Keller Smithfield Activity Node.  He did the right thing by alerting his parent and a call was made to our department.  We seized the loaded handgun and we are working with ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) in an attempt to trace the origin and owner of the pistol. At the present time we do not have an open case of a stolen firearm in Keller that matches the gun found in the sand box.  We believe that someone may have been sitting on the edge of a sandbox and the gun which is designed with a belt or pocket clip was inadvertently dropped.  This was a very serious incident and we are so fortunate that the young boy did the right thing.

—Keller PD E-Safe News, April 20, 2007

I saw the email yesterday afternoon and didn’t think that much more about it until I reached the Keller-Smithfield end of the trail when walking Boots and noticed the Channel 11 news van.  They seemed to be wrapping up their 6:00pm live coverage when I arrived. 

This incident is a good reminder to all people who carry handguns that they have a duty to retain control of those handguns at all times.  Aside from the safety issue of a child finding the weapon, there could also be legal liability.  If the person who had the gun didn’t have a CHL, then there could be a UCW charge, which is a Class A misdemeanor (up to one year in jail and up to $4000 fine).  And there is also the possibility of a charge under Texas Penal Code §46.13 (making a firearm accessible to a child, which is a Class C misdemeanor if no one is injured), although this section requires proving “criminal negligence.”

As for whether BATFE will be able to trace the owner, it will depend on how the current owner purchased it, or whether it was stolen (and not reported).  If the current owner is the first owner and purchased it from a FFL licensee, then the BATFE can follow the trail from manufacturer to dealer.  If it has been sold multiple times, then it will depend on the entire chain being documented.  FFL licensees are required to document all sales, but private sellers have no such requirement.  I know some private sellers who document all sales and some who don’t.  Of course if it’s stolen, the trail will end with the last documented purchaser.  Which is a good reason to report all thefts as soon as you’re aware of them.  If I were the police I’d be suspicious of someone reporting their .22 pocket pistol stolen today, given the news reports (aside from Channel 11, it was also on all the other local stations last night and this morning).

Finally, this also points out the benefits of good record keeping.  I keep records of the model and serial numbers for all my guns*.  Should any of them be stolen I will be able to give specific information to the police for tracing and recovery, as well as for insurance purposes.

* This brings up an interesting problem for some gun owners, in that most don’t quite trust the government not to abrogate the BoR at some point and decide to confiscate all guns.  So there are likely a good number of “off the books” guns purchased through anonymous private sales and not recorded anywhere.  Gun banners should keep this in mind should they attempt to enforce any such Utopian gun-control fantasies. 

I guess I do have more to say about the subject of mass shootings that I realized when I wrote my last entry.

When I wrote the original item that I referenced I still worked in a traditional office environment.  These days I work for the same company, but I work from home.  Given that my company is run by GFW’s, I’d actually given the scenario of a mass shooter some thought.

Their policy is that guns, knives, pepper-spray, or anything else that can be used as a weapon is forbidden from the premises, as well as the parking lot (which is a topic of interest these days in the Texas legislature).  After taking a look at our security, I quickly came to the conclusion that we were a soft target.  Security was unarmed and unable to handle an armed intruder.  Further, most people didn’t seem to take the badge-in requirements seriously, so it’d be easy for someone to tailgate their way into the building.

I decided that I would do whatever possible in my power to avoid being just another victim.  Now I wasn’t about to go chasing around the building playing ninja hoping to catch the bad guy.  But if the shooter made it into my area, I was prepared to try to take him by surprise as best as I could, using whatever I happened to have nearby.  This plan was necessarily loose, as you don’t always know where you’ll be, but at least it’s something to start from. 

I’m sure there are some people out there who will think this line of thought unnecessarily paranoid.  But I think it’s only prudent to at least have given it some thought.  I work for a fairly large multi-national corporation.  There has been at least one such event in the company’s history.  So it’s not exactly something that’s completely out of the realm of possibility.  And it’s something that the management was concerned about (especially in today’s environment of the disposable resource/employee), although it’s obvious that they weren’t willing to take the steps to let us defend ourselves.

Anyhow, I don’t have to worry so much about that particular problem these days, since I don’t go into the office very often.  But on those occasions that I do, I keep it in mind.  Sometimes a bit of paranoia is a good thing.

I’ve been contemplating whether to comment on the Virginia Tech shooting or not.  At times, having been doing this for about five years, you realize that you’ve probably said it all before, though.

So I’ll refer you back to what I said in July, 2003 after one city council member shot another in New York City:

…

The shooting in New York yesterday got me to thinking about the way our society treats guns and the crazy idea that we can somehow create a “bubble” of safety which is free from all harmful elements.

For some time now I’ve thought about violent crime in a way similar to disease.  The agents of the disease can be thought of as malevolent microorganisms that are damaging the host organism by harming the individual cells that make up the whole.  We can choose a couple of alternative ways of dealing with this problem: 1) sterilization (the boy in the bubble method), and 2) immunization (distributing the means of counterattack and prevention throughout the body).  I am of the opinion that the second option, as related to a distributed defense (i.e. a pack not a herd, to borrow a phrase) is ultimately better. 

The first option, sterilization, means attempting to prevent the disease causing elements from even getting into the body.  In real life this is manifested in airport screening, metal detectors at courthouse entrances, gun-free school zones, the federal statute against having a gun in a postal facility, etc.  From my vantage point these methods have not only failed miserably, but they make the problem worse, since they create zones of increased vulnerability.  In fact, we seem to see more cases of mass shootings in gun-free zones.  I tend to think that this occurs because the killers, while mad or insane, do engage in some calculation about the relative chances for success of their plans.  Especially when they’re trying to make a big splash.  Which would make more noise in the press?  A story about a mass murder or a story about an armed citizen stopping an attacker (no need to answer that one, since we know how the media will report each one already).  There will always be holes in the “bubble” that will be exploited by those with evil intent.  Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that a perfect barrier is not possible (if you think it is possible, solve the problem of drugs getting into prisons first and get back to me).

Immunization is not necessarily a perfect defense.  It requires distribution of the means to respond to the threat throughout the body of the people.  It does not always work.  There may even be times when innocent people are killed.  This is comparable to real immunization, where a vaccine sometimes kills people.  Unfortunately, we live in the real world, where there are no perfect solutions.  But this does have the advantage of not having to rely on the convenient fiction that it’s possible to screen out all threats and live happily within a bubble.  While microorganisms can’t think or weigh the consequences of their actions, criminals sometimes do.  Not only does having a distributed defense allow for swift preventative action against criminals, it can act as a deterrent, lowering the chances of success and dissuading some from committing certain types of crimes.  And for those criminals who don’t get the message, it removes them from the pool of criminals, so they won’t be around to commit future crimes.

…

I suppose the only thing I can think to add, which I discussed with some members of our CERT class on Tuesday night, is the fact that once you’re in a situation where someone is lining you up against the wall, you should consider yourself dead at that point and you’ve got nothing left to lose by fighting back.  But this requires the right mindset, which our culture seems intent on breeding out of us.  I’d recommend getting a copy of Jeff Cooper’s Principles of Personal Defense.  It’s more of a pamphlet than a book, but it gives you a glimpse into the warrior mindset. 

The right mindset is, in some ways, probably more important than what weapons you might have.  It allows you to use what you have at hand with speed, surprise, and ruthlessness when required.