Wednesday - July 29, 2009
Local Councils in England getting out of hand? A spark of hope…
Maybe BUT ....
First .. H/T to BMEWS ArgentiumTiger, who gave me a heads up on this story. Here I am living in this place and never saw this. But then again, it isn’t being much covered. In fact, we had four newspapers to read yesterday, Tuesday is a big paper day as a rule, and not one word about this guy.
So thanks Tiger.
I like this site btw and have checked it from time to time but I guess I’m going to have to do better.
Story is from Free Market Fairy Tales. http://www.fmft.net/
Sadly however (Sorry Tiger and Sorrier for England ) His good work will be undone by guess who? Of course. The damn government.
It is frustrating.
OK, here’s the story and a good one it is ..... more at the link below.
Rejoice: Suddenly it’s not so grim up North!
I am man enough to admit when I am wrong & hands up, I retract everything I have said about the Dreaded North because tonight dear readers we celebrate one Peter Davies, retired schoolmaster & now, the newly elected Mayor of Doncaster. Set aside if you can the catastrophic failure of Westminster , the extent of which has become apparent of the last twelve months & let’s review what new Mr Mayor chappie has been up to since the chains of office were placed on his surprisingly broad shoulders
On his first morning as Mayor of Doncaster in South Yorkshire , Peter Davies cut his salary from £73,000 to £30,000 then closed the Council’s newspaper for “peddling politics on the rates”. (on the rates, on the taxpayer)
Now three weeks into his job, Mr Davies is pressing ahead with plans he hopes will see the number of town councillors cut from 63 to just 21, saving taxpayers £800,000. Mr Davies said: “If 100 Senators can run the United States of America , I can’t see how 63 councillors are needed to run Doncaster “.
Now I know that many of you on the left hand side of the pond might hold strident views about that particular comment but taking a knife to the size of the political class, if not literally (shame) then figuratively has to be a step in the right direction in the lamentable absence of mass public executions.
He has withdrawn Doncaster from the Local Government Association and the Local Government Information Unit, saving another £200,000. Mr Davies said, “They are just talking shops”
...as well as…
“ Doncaster is in for some serious untwinning. We are twinned with nine other cities around the world and they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the Council’s expense”.
He has promised to end council funding for Doncaster ‘s International Women’s Day, Black History Month and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.
For all the rest please click on to >> http://www.fmft.net/
SO WE CAN ALL AGREE HIZ HONOR IS CERTAINLY ON THE RIGHT TRACK AND THE TXPAYER SHOULD BE PLEASED. BUT WAIT.
There’s a skunk in the bush just waiting to spray the taxpayer. The leader of the Conservative party is suggesting a possible road toll on one of the major roads but just as bad and maybe worse ..... is ‘The Works and Pension Secretary’ in the person of Comrade Commissar YeVette Cooper. She’s married to Comrade Ed Balls, who is ‘Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.’ Mrs Balls is the witch responsible (my Brit friends tell me) for the infamous and unwanted and unloved Home Information Packs. Or, H.I.P.s as they are called. They are un-necessary and are a wrench in the machinery and costly. But the Comrades Balls don’t have to pay the bills as the workers do that but I must not get too far off the subject.
Under glorious Comrade Commissar Mrs. Balls, the govt. is going to spend ONE BILLION £s, or almost 2 billion dollars, creating soft jobs that will be funded by, glorious comrades in the trenches with no say in the matter which is as it should be in this state.
People will be paid to become dance assistants, tourism ambassadors and solar panel engineers.
For our American readers, an engineer over here is NOT what you think of when you see and hear that term in the USA. Or at least, not always.
Here’s the story from the morning Telegraph. Part of it anyway.
£1bn scheme to create ‘soft jobs’
A billion pounds is to be spent on creating tens of thousands of “soft” public sector jobs for unemployed people including dance assistants, tourism ambassadors and solar panel engineers.
By Jon Swaine
Published: 10:00PM BST 28 Jul 2009The taxpayer-funded jobs are being created by councils, quangos and charities under a Government scheme to remove 150,000 people from the unemployment register over the next two years.
The first 47,000 jobs in the scheme, costing about £300 million, are to be announced on Wednesday by Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary.
The list of new vacancies - most of which will be filled by 18-24 year olds - will include sports coaches, classroom assistants and social carers, department sources said last night.
However, in a move that attracted claims that public money is being wasted on “soft jobs”, others include positions for forestry workers, loft laggers and child carers.Jobs based around refurbishing council houses and in local recycling projects are also to be created.
Miss Cooper is expected to say: “Many young people were denied the help they needed in the recessions of 80s and 90s and ended up out of work for months and years.“Too many never got a start in the jobs market. We are determined not to let that happen again. This is why we are announcing 47,000 new jobs for young people today.”
However, critics have accused the Government of swelling the state to an even more unaffordable level.
Susie Squire of the Taxpayers’ Alliance said: “The public sector has failed to cut back in the recession. Expanding it further is unrealistic and shortsighted because it will plunge us further into debt.“Soft jobs like these would be indulgent even in good economic times let alone in the current climate.”
The 47,000 jobs are the first to be created under the Government’s “Future Jobs Fund”.
The £1 billion fund is open to local councils, charities and other voluntary organisations.The bodies bid for the public money from the Government in order to create “socially useful jobs”.
A total of 100,000 jobs are due to be created for 18-24 year olds while the remaining 50,000 are for older unemployed people in unemployment “hotspots”.From January, young adults who have been unemployed for a year will be forced to take one of the new jobs - or a place on another government training scheme - or have their benefits cut.
The jobless total rose to 2.38m in the three months to the end of May, with 726,000 of those aged between 18 and 24.
The rate of unemployment among 18-24 year-olds has jumped from 12 per cent to more than 17 per cent over the past year.
You might ask, what’s wrong with that. What’s wrong with putting younger ppl to work. Problem is, there are private companies providing services that will charge the councils for things done on their behalf now. BUT .... if these folks are going to be working on a govt. project which this looks to be, they will naturally become eligible for pensions at some point. I really think I need Lyndon to lay it out in full as he knows a great deal about this sort of thing.
As well I have to confess that ANYTHING Ms Cooper has her hand in, I tend to be very wary of. I also don’t grasp the funding including charities.
I think it’s another big govt. spending program on top of all the other monies that the politicians have already glommed from the ratepayers.
Posted by peiper
on 07/29/2009 at 06:47 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - July 28, 2009
Truth, Art, Beauty
I’m not usually a big fan of fancy engraving on guns, but on a quality double barreled shotgun it seems to work.
Here is a link to a bit of hoplophile art. And it’s very English. No, not just very. “veddy”. “veddy veddy” even. So much so I felt bad lifting their pictures, so you’ll have to go there and see.
The W.W. Greener Saint George side-lock. Stunning. Perfectly executed, richly and fully detailed by masters, but restrained. No wretched French excess here. Not one line of checkering, no inlays in the barrels, no silliness on the rib. I don’t think there is even a medallion in the stock. And the wood? Oh, it is to drool. It looks like fiddleback walnut, grade Unbelievable. The polish and bluing? Perfect. The balance? Do you even need to ask? These things are made to measure, just for you. Because that is the proper way.
Expensive? Beyond imagination. The box you keep this beauty in costs £4000.
For more information contact:
W W Greener (Sporting Guns) Limited, Stoppers Hill, Brinkworth, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 5AW, England.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/28/2009 at 11:43 PM
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Permalink • beastly bowling, by the numbers
Woo hoo, we actually won all 7 tonight. That should move us up about 2 places. Cool!
The team we played tonight had the same average as our team, so we were expecting zero handicap, heads up scratch bowling. Which is always fun. But there are 2 guys on that team we rather suspect are ringers. We know them from winter leagues and, believe me, these two are sandbagging it on this silly little summer league. But one of their guys was absent tonight - he prebowled actually, and another one couldn’t make it either, so they found a sub. That changes the total averages, so we wound up with 24 pins coming to us. I think this is the first time this summer we’ve actually got any handicap pins. Great.
So we bowled, and Sue Ann, our new bowler, did pretty good the first game. And for once, the rest of us didn’t suck. And we took it by 75 pins. Nice. Just a little over average for me.
Second game Sue Ann fell off horribly for the first 7 frames, but we talked her through it and she rallied in 8, 9, and 10 XXX8/ to bring her score right back up there. And we won that one by 15 pins. I was 15 over.
Third game was back and forth the whole time. Sue Ann didn’t do so great, but I was 28 over, my wife threw well, and our anchor Rex got his 3rd deuce for the night, giving him another 600+ series. The other team tried hard to catch us, but they couldn’t do it. The back ends were very dry tonight, and their 2 ringers are monkey bowlers. This is an odd style of throwing the ball where you cock your wrist so much to the inside that the ball is resting on the inside of your forearm. Remember Barrel of Monkeys™? That’s what these guys look like when they toss the ball. This throw puts crazy amounts of rev on the ball, making it hook like mad. To make it work they have to throw way to the outside, and when conditions are right they score really high. Conditions were not right tonight. My guess is the oil pattern was wide but short. Their wild throws either went in the gutter because the outside boards were slick, or they over-hooked in the back ends, hitting the 2-4, or 4-7, instead of the 1-3 pocket. By the second half of the third game, conditions had broken down enough so that 2 out 3 throws were going wild for them.
So in the end their team scored a 666 for game 3.
And we won by 24 pins. Which was exactly what our handicap was.
Which means my team also rolled a 666.
And the moon is exactly half full tonight.
Beastly! Spooky!
We stayed after and bowled another 5 games. We have these customer appreciation cards with all these free games on them - 34 to be precise, but they expire in early September. So we have to use them up. So 8 games for me tonight. I hope my foot is Ok tomorrow. Maybe I’ll stick in an ice bucket for a while tonight.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/28/2009 at 10:34 PM
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Permalink • bizzy bee
My wife has vacation this week. Which means I get an extra large Honey Do list. And I have to “try and break my internet addiction”. So I won’t be posting much, or even be online much, for the next few days.
She is right. I spend waay too much time in front of this thing. Bad.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/28/2009 at 12:06 PM
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Permalink • OBSCENITIES and THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE … It okay coz it’s only the bible. Not the Koran.
The wife found this one small item included in his larger article covering other subjects.
I think he should have led with it.
It’s a sign of some very horribly twisted and unwelcome times, I believe you’ll agree.
Can you begin to imagine the violence we’d witness were this the Koran? Or any other religion for that matter.
I guess Christians just don’t frighten anybody and so they are all fair game for sick, twisted, vomit inducing minds.
Oh and in case you’re wondering. Nope. So far there haven’t been any street demonstrations reported or threats of death made to the gallery.
Maybe it’s time though.
OBSCENITIES SCRAWLED IN THE BIBLE AND SUPPORTED BY PUBLIC FUNDING.
From The Sunday Times
July 26, 2009Rod Liddle
Congratulations to the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow for its exciting, publicly funded installation which encourages people to scrawl obscenities on the pages of the Bible. This particular work of brilliance is called Untitled 2009 and is designed to celebrate “sexual, gender and theological diversity” - incredibly daring, isn’t it? You may think you’ve been told to celebrate diversity so often that you’ve begun to bleed from the ears, but at Glasgow, they won’t give up.
To embrace theological diversity fully I suggest the curators let people scrawl obscenities on other religious texts - such as the Koran. Meanwhile, I intend to celebrate diversity by spray-painting obscenities on the walls of Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art.
Posted by peiper
on 07/28/2009 at 05:34 AM
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Permalink • I FAW DOWN AND GO BOOM ……. (Eddie Cantor, The Follies, 1929)
Good Morning BMEWS ...
Cartoon Credit: Gerald Scarfe geraldscarfe.com
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article6727762.ece
Posted by peiper
on 07/28/2009 at 05:23 AM
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Permalink • Monday - July 27, 2009
admiration faculty and deans feel toward themselves.
I can’t think of a single thing to add to this. Can you?
It’s late ... leaving the net for now.
Cheers.
Why Some PhDs Are Jerks
By Alan Caruba
WARNING SIGNS BLOG SITEJuly 27, 2009
I was talking with a friend about the latest hot topic involving Prof. Henry Lewis Gates of Harvard and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department.
We both agreed that some of the stupidest people we have ever known were PhDs who too frequently turned out to be over-educated fools.
In this country, we have been taught to revere anyone with the title of doctor, starting with physicians and working our way through the maze of doctors of law, education, music, library science, and the long list of fields of a study that grant these degrees.
These days physicians leave medical school owing about $100,000 on the average and, if the president’s healthcare reform passes, they will never be able to pay it back no matter how long they are in practice. Having to pay $200,000 for insurance against malpractice every year has done more to drive up the cost of medical care than anything else.
I used to work for an institution of higher knowledge, a well-respected institute of technology and, while I came to respect the technical achievements of those pursuing engineering or architecture degrees, I also learned that many of those teaching these ancient skills and modern technologies often displayed all the personal failures of judgment and deportment of those far less educated than they.
The one thing one learns in a college or university is that the admiration which its faculty and deans feel toward themselves. It is their bulwark against the real world where people are actually growing, inventing, making, and selling things.
The problem, as my friend noted, is that PhDs may know a great deal about a particular thing, they are often totally out of their league when it comes to extrapolating that niche of knowledge to practical matters or the great issues of the world.
The recent passing of Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense for Lyndon B. Johnson is a case in point. A good and decent man, McNamara was a wunderkind of the Ford Motor Company who had previously taught at Harvard. He was one of “the best and the brightest” brought into government by John F. Kennedy.
The re-airing of a C-Span interview with him made clear that he went to his grave knowing that he, President Johnson, and his colleagues had been quite thoroughly wrong about expanding the Vietnam War beyond the provision of U.S. military advisors. One can be very gifted in an area of expertise, but that does not necessarily transfer to real world, real time situations.
Moving forward in time to the present, President Obama has surrounded himself with lots of PhDs and each one is just weirder than the next. Dr. John Holdren, his science advisor, once advocated putting stuff in the food supply that would reduce the fertility rate. His Energy Secretary, Dr. Steven Chu, is a Nobel Laureate who thinks painting all our roofs white will stave off global warming. His Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, is hell bent on ensuring that not a drop of oil is sucked out of the vast U.S. reserves, nor a single new ton of coal if he has anything to say about it.
Barely a day goes by when one of these loons says something so stupid that you have cause to fear for the future of the republic.
The reason “Joe the Plumber” made all those headlines during the campaign was that he was not a PhD. He was a working man with a very useful skill and he was smart enough to know that Obama was a…how can I say this nicely? Someone not telling the truth and a Marxist.
Prof. Gates suffers from the hubris that goes with being a Harvard professor. He has made his reputation on the basis of his research about the Negro race in America. Any ghetto homeboy could have told him to be polite to the police officer, but Prof. Gates flew into a rage when asked to identify himself and continued to hurl the racism charge at a police officer who was immediately defended by his Black and Hispanic colleagues.
President Obama, despite saying he was unfamiliar with the details of the incident, could not resist visiting the theme of racial profiling. We are now decades passed the great achievements of the Civil Rights movement but the beat goes on.
America used to be a meritocracy. Now the nation is so heavily into “diversity” that we are dumbing down the standards for everyone from firemen to surgeons.
It’s a good idea to proceed with caution when some PhD advises you on anything more complex than your digital camera. It is said that a little education can be a dangerous thing, but too much education can actually blind those chosen to lead the nation and teach its youth to the lessons of history and to plain old common sense.
Posted by peiper
on 07/27/2009 at 02:46 PM
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Permalink • Post Traumatic Stress is diagnosed far too liberally, claims trauma expert .
Brilliant.
Ordinary laymen, and ladies too, have guessed that for a long time. Now comes the dawn? Better late then never but the question is, will anyone listen?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has become a “fashionable diagnosis” that is far too liberally diagnosed, according claims a trauma expert who treated victims of the King’s Cross Tube fire.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
27 Jul 2009
The TelegraphDr James Thompson, a trauma psychologist, made the comments on BBC’s Panorama programme investigating the growing army of sufferers.
The programme claims that the NHS now treats an estimated 220,000 people a year suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder, a diagnosis once reserved for those coming back from war zones.
The disorder is adding enormously to the burgeoning multibillion personal accident industry business, it said.
Those being diagnosed include people who have had a minor traffic accident, bullying in the workplace, even in the schoolyard.
In the programme, titled The Trauma Industry, Dr Thompson suggested it was part of the growing “victim culture”.
“It has become a fashionable diagnosis because it has the key feature that is about what the world did to you,” he told the programme.
“And that is always attractive to all of us. Now you can teach yourself PTSD on the internet within five minutes.”
Soldiers, policemen, ambulance workers and firemen are among those most likely to end up suffering from PTSD, along with members of the public who are attacked, involved in a car crash or affected by a disaster.
Victims of the disorder, which may emerge months or even years after a traumatic experience, may find themselves suffering from flashbacks and nightmares, disturbed sleep, aggressive behaviour, an inability to concentrate and a tendency to panic easily.
After the 1987 King’s Cross tube fire, in which 31 people died, mental health professionals drew up a list of 670 people who were at risk from PTSD, of whom only 100 had been directly involved. The rest were emergency staff and railway officials who had witnessed horrific scenes in the burning station as well as relatives of those who died.
Posted by peiper
on 07/27/2009 at 01:15 PM
Filed Under: • Amazing Science and Discoveries • Corruption and Greed • Health-Medicine • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • UK •
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Permalink • Youth jail is ‘like holiday camp’ with offenders given choice of lavatory seat covers .
Maybe it’s just me but ... do you think that possibly there’s a connection between young punks attitudes towards the law, the courts, the cops and the general public, and this sort of thing. Ya think? After all, what’s there to fear?
A flagship youth jail has been branded a “holiday camp” offering juvenile criminals large plasma screen TVs, the latest computer consoles and even their own choice of lavatory seat covers.
By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Published: 6:43PM BST 27 Jul 2009Helen Stanmore, a former drugs worker at Warren Hill prison in Suffolk, claimed that young offenders enjoy a “cushy life” playing on Nintendo Wii consoles and regularly ordering into jail items from Argos catalogues.
She said the institute, which holds some of Britain’s most dangerous young criminals, allows offenders to choose their own seat covers for the lavatories in their en-suite bathrooms.
“It is a cushy life - it beggars belief what a comfortable life they have,” Mrs Stanmore said.
“I used to be shocked by how many creature comforts the prisoners were given.
“As long as they behave themselves they get everything.”
The former substance misuse worker, who lives in Ipswich and last worked at Warren Hill in May last year, added: “They get the most hi-tech stuff. It is like a seafront arcade. No expense is spared for these young murderers.
“It is a holiday camp, not a prison. They have a better life in there than what they have outside.”
Ms Stanmore, 52, claimed that cannabis was regularly used by prisoners and described one conversation she once had with a prison officer.
“He said to me that ‘if they have got cannabis it keeps my night-shift quiet’”.
The Prison Service said yesterday that Warren Hill is “anything but soft”.
A spokesman said: “Prison is about punishment and reform. It is anything but soft and it is absurd to suggest otherwise.
“No-one should be fooled by suggestions to the contrary.
“The punishment of the court is a loss of liberty by being sent to prison, which combines tough regimes with the opportunity of rehabilitation.”
Last year Warren Hill, which was opened in 1982, was praised by the Prison Service Chief Inspector as an institution “other juvenile units should aspire to”.
Posted by peiper
on 07/27/2009 at 12:56 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • News-Briefs • UK •
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Permalink • Blurring The Lines
So, you think you can tell a shotgun from a rifle? Think again.
Many years ago, shotgun hunters were given their own special deer hunting season in most states. Hunters were allowed to use either buckshot loads or slug loads.
A buckshot shotgun shell uses little lead pellets just like a regular shotgun shell, except the pellets are much larger and you get less of them. While birdshot pellets are quite small - Number 9 shot is only 0.080” in diameter - buckshot pellets are much larger, running up to .38” diameter for “0000 buck”, (usually called “four ought"). Fired from a smooth bore shotgun barrel, the big pellets spread out a bit, depending on the choke, but each one carries the power of a .38 pistol bullet. So a few of those will kill a deer at close range pretty quickly.
A shotgun slug is one fat chuck of lead. It is bore diameter, whether in 10, 12, 16, or 20 gauge. A 12 gauge slug usually weighs an ounce and a quarter, about 500 grains. That is one really big bullet. A smooth bore barrel doesn’t do anything to stabilize such a bullet, so slugs used to be made with the rifling on the slug itself. They had big spiral grooves on them, which caused the slug to spin when fired. They pack a whole lot of punch, but aren’t highly accurate past about 80 yards.
A couple decades ago shotguns started appearing on the market with rifled barrels. There were barrels specially designed to impart spin on smooth surfaced shotgun slugs. (A rifled slug will fire in a rifled barrel, but the rifling pitch on the slug will never line up with the rifling pitch of the barrel, and you get a mess. The barrel fouls almost instantly, the slug gets all torn up, and accuracy is just about zero.) So smooth slug shotgun ammo was soon for sale.
Taking a big tip from the black powder muzzle loading rifle shooters, another kind of firearm that was also going through radical development at the same time, the shotgun shell manufacturers started making sabot ammunition. A sabot, fwench for “shoe”, is a specially shaped wrapper for a bullet. It fits between the bullet and the barrel and lets you shoot smaller projectiles in a larger caliber weapon. I wrote “projectiles” when I wanted to write “bullets”, but these wrapped slugs come in an amazing number of odd shapes and sizes. Some look more like bowling pins than bullets. Some look like giant rivets.
The point is that these shotguns with rifled barrels were still considered to be shotguns, even though they had taken the conceptual leap to being rifles. Duh, because they were rifled!
Now, a shotgun can have any kind of action. It can be a break open design, with 1, 2, or even 3 barrels. It can be a pump action, a lever action, or a gas actuated semi-automatic. There have even been shotguns that are bolt action repeaters. So you can’t look at a firearm and say it’s a rifle or a shotgun based on the action. Or the stock design, or the barrel length, or the bore diameter either, although most modern shotguns come in only a few standard gauges.
So what makes a shotgun a shotgun? Well, generally, they operate at much lower working pressure than rifles. Mostly. The larger gauge shotguns operate at about the same pressure as a .38 Special pistol, which is not very much. Modern rifles operate at pressures 3 or 4 times higher. Well, why? Two reasons. Shotgun barrels are almost always much thinner than rifle barrels, to keep the gun’s weight reasonable. If you put a varmint rifle thickness barrel on a long barreled shotgun the thing would weigh 20 pounds. Too heavy by far! The other reason is that shotgun ammunition is made from plastic. It used to be made from paper! Plastic ammo just doesn’t have anywhere near the strength as brass ammo, so this means the operating pressure has to be much lower for safety.
But once upon a time shotgun shells were made out of brass. Granted it was fairly thin brass, and not very strong, but it was still metallic ammunition. And if you look hard enough, you can find that same brass cased shotgun ammo for sale today. So you can’t say that it’s the case material that differentiates a shotgun from a rifle. Brass is brass.
So we’re left with pressure it seems. Enter the .410. The .410 “gauge” is a shotgun chambering that has been around almost forever, and it’s an odd duck. While the gauges of all the other shotguns are measured by an arcane standard - how many lead balls of a given diameter weigh a pound - the .410 earned it’s name because that is it’s actual caliber. In terms of gauge, it’s a 67, but nobody calls it that. Hey, there’s a 9mm shotgun out there too, a diminutive little gun the Germans use for shooting mice in their vegetable gardens. Go figure.
Ok ... back to pressure. The .410 shotgun operates at about twice the pressure of a larger gauge shotgun. The folks who set the standards, CIP in Europe, and SAAMI in America, limit the pressure of the larger shotguns to about 15,000psi, but the .410 is rated at 28,000psi. So the .410 operates at pressure only a bit less than the .357 Magnum pistol cartridge (35,000psi). This lets the little cartridge push a reasonable amount of shot at velocities a bit higher than the larger shotguns, but even so, the .410 is often considered either a kid’s gun or a shotgun for a serious expert shot. This is because the “reasonable amount” of shot is still a lot less than what a 12 gauge can shoot, and that means less pellets on target, which means less lethality. So you won’t see a .410 on a goose hunt, but they make dandy little squirrel guns when your quarry is only 40 feet away.
Now ... having written an entire essay’s worth of background information so that a normal reader who isn’t a gun nut like me can understand why I’m even making this post ... along comes a company called Hoenig Big Bore South, who put all the pieces of the puzzle together and invested time and money to do the obvious in a safe manner. They have created a high velocity .410 gauge slug cartridge that has the power to kill deer, hogs, and even bears out to about 200 yards. And their sister company makes a superbly accurate rifled barrel that fits the Encore/Contender platform of firearms. Awesome. [oh, and talking just a little bit more about blurring the lines, the Thompson Center Contender firearm is a real whatsit. You can put a pistol barrel on it. You can put a rifle barrel on it. You can put a shotgun barrel on it. It will take a handgrip or a full length rifle stock. Is it a pistol, a rifle, a shotgun? Who can say? They had to take the ATF to court once upon a time to stop being hassled for just this reason. Their Encore model is similar, but that one is a little less confusing. It’s either a rifle or a shotgun. Update: I’ve been told that it can also be a pistol, so it’s just as “gender” confused as the Contender.]
Who would want a .410 slug gun? After you see what can be done with an HBBS Rifled 410 Barrel and ammo, you probably will! Please take the time to look at the next few pages and see things you did not think possible out of a 410.
Hoening Big Bore Slug LLC and Hoening Big Bore South, L.L.C. sell custom made .410 bore rifled slug barrels and ammunition, also shotshell slug reloading components, and loading accessories for hand loaders.
“The .410 Slug, capable or comical?” This is a question that pops up often in shotgun slug shooting circles, no pun intended with the “pop”, but I’ll go with it because that is what many people have stuck in their head concerning the 410 bore and deer hunting, the idea that the 410 is just a pop gun and not capable of cleanly taking deer. That may have been the case in the past except for very close range or in the hands of the most able shooter. Today with the HBBS 410 Rifled slug barrels and adequate loads, 100 yard shots on target are easily achieved. Accuracy is not an issue with these barrels, so for those who need convincing in the power department, here are some ballistic tables to consider. These 410 loads utilize a 375 gr slug (nominal 370 gr slug for factory HBBS loads) that retain a lot of energy down range, unlike the typical fast but lightweight 1/4 or 1/5 ounce 410 slug load commonly available.
Hoening will sell you their slug ammo for $3 a shot. Their “hot” load pushes that big soft lead bullet to 1253 feet per second, generating 1290 ft/lb of muzzle energy. That’s on par with factory .45-70 rifle ammunition, which is more than powerful enough to hunt deer or elk at 150 yards or under. Pretty cool!
But their web pages show that much warmer ammunition can be made. They show the ballistics for loads that push the same bullet up to 1500 feet per second. That extra 250fps ups the power factor or the effective range by a good amount. Call it a 200 yard deer cartridge. From a shotgun, one historically known to be limited to and effective range of less than 50 yards.
But hey, let’s blur the lines past the point of severe myopia. Hoening also sells brass cartridge cases. Brass .410 shotgun cases. These are extremely heavy duty thick affairs, and when chambered in Hoening’s own custom made heavy duty barrels, can be loaded to push that same 375 grain bullet to 2000 feet per second. That is true high power folks. That’s up in the 3300 ft/lb range; power sufficient to cleanly dispatch the largest bears, moose, and buffalo. It’s getting into the power range where I play with my hotrod “.45-70+”, which can manage either a 350 grain bullet at 2350fps or a 400 grain bullet at 2200fps. Start thinking more in terms of artillery; the thing is a little cannon. This is stupendous.
Once upon a time, when American presidents were awesome and cool, Teddy Roosevelt had a Winchester model 1895 rifle chambered in .405 Winchester.
This new shotgun slug round is pretty damned amazing if you ask me. Impressive as all get out. And for you rifle enthusiasts: a .410 diameter bullet of 375 grains has a sectional density of .319. Horry Clap! That means you could just about shoot right through the tree the bear is hiding behind and still get him. Any bullet with an SD over .3 is going to penetrate like mad.
But why stop there? Let’s blur the lines so much you can’t even find them any more. It turns out that the .410 shotgun shell has head dimensions almost exactly the same as the .303 British cartridge. And the overall length of this new slug ammo is just about 3”. Which means that converting a good old Lee Enfield “smelly” to this round should not be a problem at all. And the SMLE is much, much stronger than any shotgun ever made. Plus it was designed to feed big rimmed cartridges. It’s a perfect project. To quote Mike Bellm, the gunsmith who brought this odd duck to my attention,
SMLE’s have been converted to .410 shotgun, and .444 Marlin is quite doable on one. The limiting factor for the .410 shotgun-rifle is the brass case head, and of course the strength of the action.
The No. 4 SMLE’s will handle .308 Win. level pressures, while the earlier vintages won’t without stretching and losing headspace pretty quickly.Compare the potential of the .410 rifle with the nearly identical .405 Winchester and .444 Marlin..... the latter of which is distinguished more by the sectional density of the bullets normally used.
With the high sectional density of the .410 375 gr. bullets, it can exceed the .444 Marlin.
Hoening says that their brass case rounds should only be loaded “hot” in one of their custom barrels. But those custom barrels fit on the Contender frame, and that frame is limited to cartridges loaded to around .30-30 pressure, which is 43,000psi. [the Encore is stronger and can handle “normal” and “magnum” pressure cartridges] But at that pressure level they were able to push the same bullet to 2000fps. Assuming their brass cases are built with modern rifle cartridge heads, and it’s almost guaranteed that they are, then this cartridge could be run in the 50-53,000psi range on a customized SMLE. Which implies, that with the proper powders and barrel length, you could safely push that massive bullet to 2200-2300 feet per second. Which gives you nearly the power of an elephant gun; the .458 Winchester Magnum, which is a genuine elephant gun, can push a 400 grain bullet to 2400fps. So in the proper rifle, the hot loaded “.410 Straight” will clonk the biggest bear that ever walked out to 250 yards, and do it with authority. Damn.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/27/2009 at 12:34 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
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Permalink • Policeman ordered to undergo further training after swearing at abusive criminal .
It isn’t that there weren’t any criminals when I was young and growing up. Of course there were.
But way back then in the dark ages, you just didn’t (most didn’t) get abusive with a cop unless you wanted to risk losing your two front teeth. Accidentally of course.
There were boundaries that just were not crossed without great risk.
Enter left wing wimpy,drippy, hand wringing, heart wringing left wing liberals fronting civil rights groups and the result is this crap.
A police sergeant has been ordered to undertake a “management advice course” because he swore while dealing with a violent and abusive criminal who had threatened officers during a two-hour siege.
By Paul Stokes
The TelegraphHe may also face legal action from serial offender Glen Francis whose complaint was upheld by a disciplinary hearing.
Francis, 35, flew into a rage when officers called to arrest his girlfriend at his home, hurling a bowl of pasta at a policewoman guarding the hallway.
He was claimed to have held her captive and threatened to shoot her before she escaped from the house in North Shields, Tyne and Wear.
When police back-up arrived, he was said to have lunged at them with a six inch knife before he was shot twice with a Taser gun.
Even then he pulled metal barbs from his skin before barricading himself inside the kitchen where he smashed the walls with a hammer and shouted: “The first copper in here is getting ------- killed, come on, I only want one of you.”
Trained negotiators were called in and he was eventually taken into custody after officers stormed the room and Tasered him a further three times.
He complained that after he had been stripped searched, the sergeant referred to him as a ----.
An investigation by Northumbria Police Professional Standards Department (PSD) found the sergeant guilty of misconduct for using the swear word.
A PSD report states that the sergeant was pushed into making an “inappropriate comment” following a tirade of abuse from Francis.
It said: “The police officer openly admits he made the inappropriate comment about Mr Francis after the strip search had been conducted.
“He admits this was unprofessional, although it was never his intention for Mr Francis to hear this comment. He stipulates this comment was a result of the violence and abuse from Mr Francis.”
The sergeant, who has not been named has been ordered to undergo to attend a “management advice course”.
Francis’s complaints of being stripped and handcuffed on a cell floor were dismissed.
He says he is discussing legal action with his solicitor and plans to lodge a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.
Francis, now of Wallsend, North Tyneside, said: “I want to take legal action because they just get a telling off for what they did.
“It was an insult when I heard how the officer who swore at me got off - it upset me to hear someone say that. I’ve got a hole in my heart and they used a Taser, which could have killed me.”
(what a shame it didn’t kill this asswipe. and the slower the better . this is what the criminaljusticesystem has come to.)After the incident in February 2008, he was charged with offences of false imprisonment, threats to kill and affray.
He was convicted of affray at Newcastle Crown Court in September and given a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
Francis, who underwent an operation in January to repair a heart defect from birth, said: “I was a toe-rag when I was younger, but I’m trying to go straight. I’m really scared of the police now - I’m like a bag of nerves.”
A Northumbria Police spokesman said if any civil claim was made it would be considered “in the usual manner”.
Simon Reed, Vice-Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “This case just typifies the bureaucratic nonsense police officers often have to contend with.
“As for the convicted criminal’s human rights, did he consider the same rights of the officers he threatened during the incident?
“It’s high time the criminal
justicesystem in this country was properly reviewed so that it protects those who abide by the law and does not pander to those who do not.”
oh dear oh dear oh dear. the poor boy was charged with ... “affray?” Affray? Oh that’ll put the fear of God in him. Affray.
Posted by peiper
on 07/27/2009 at 12:19 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • THE STUPID BASTARDS GET PAID AT THE END OF THE WEEK ANYWAY … WHAT? ME WORRY? JERKS!
What the hell am I on about this time? Same stupid stuff. Really guys. This place makes me bonkers and this article from today’s Telegraph only scratches the surface.
The idiots at the council decree and others pay the price. They still draw a salary while this place may have to close. There are no repercussions against the rulings that hurt ppl. And btw, take a good look to the right of this photograph. What do ya see there? So how come the idiot council doesn’t decree that a fence be installed there? But this lady’s shop sign is a danger.
Just so you know. DEVON is one (of several) of the most beautiful places in the world. I’m partial I guess. Others have places they like more I’m sure.
Saying that, I can see where in an area like Devon, which has so much scenic beauty, a town council might demand that commercial signs not be put up and clutter the the roadside. What an unwanted eyesore that would be. But that isn’t the case here. That isn’t what they’re saying.
Devon tea shop forced to remove sign due to health and safety
A village tea rooms owner in Devon has said she will be forced to close her business after a council ordered the removal of an advertising sign for health and safety reasons.
Published: 7:00AM BST 27 Jul 2009
Janice Voce was told the board pointing to her remote tea shop was a “potential hazard” to pedestrians, even though it was on an embankment with no footpath.
Within days of taking it down she saw her takings slump to just £8 a day.
Photo: BNPSMrs Voce, 46, said she is being left with no option but to close the Fancy That Tea Shop in the village of East Budleigh, Devon, with the loss of five jobs.
The sign had been in place for a year without any complaints until Devon County Council intervened.
Villagers are rallying behind Mrs Voce and have drawn up a petition in protest at the local council.
Mrs Voce said: “My business is tucked away off the main road and without the sign pointing to us, no-one would know we are here.
“The sign is on a grass verge - nobody walks there and no-one in the village can understand how it is now a problem. As a result I have gone from doing a full trade and employing five people from the village to taking just £8 a day and having to get rid of all the weekday staff.
“It’s a difficult time for any business and we could do with some support from the local council. I’ve tried to explain to them that by asking me to do this they are effectively closing me down, but no-one seems to care. I will probably be shut before the end of the week.”
Christine Channon, a local councillor, is supporting Mrs Voce.
“There isn’t a footpath on the grass verge and there’s absolutely no reason for people to walk there,” she said. “The problem is that nowadays people are litigious. If it’s on land that belongs to the local authority, they would be held responsible so they have got to look at health and safety.”
A spokeswoman for the council said: “The Highways Act guidance says that no unauthorised items, such as advertising boards, should be displayed on the pavement.
“But in Devon our policy is more flexible; we do allow authorised displays on the pavement so long as they are immediately in front of the business.
“However in areas where the pavements are not that wide it can pose a potential hazard to passersby. The council has asked businesses in East Budleigh to take in their displays and most have done so willingly.”
Posted by peiper
on 07/27/2009 at 08:29 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK •
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Permalink • I HAVE GIMP, I JUST DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE IT ALL. BUT IF I DID … WELL, TAKE A LOOK.
I rather like this cartoon and think you might too.
This is supposed to be the leader and next Prime Minister, Conservative Party (Tory), David Cameron.
However .... if you have the software ( I think I do) and know how to use it ( I DON’T) ...You could substitute the face of any politician in the world, especially BMEWS favorite, Obama, in place of Mr. Cameron.
Posted by peiper
on 07/27/2009 at 07:35 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Politics • UK •
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Permalink • American Tyler Bradt set a new world record by plunging 186 feet over a waterfall. MUST SEE!
I keep getting further away from the things I planned to to post as I keep finding other things.
Weather EXTREMELY bad at the moment. Hopefully I’ll remain on line.
No warming to report though. Should I report that to Al Bore?
Kayaker in world record waterfall plunge
American kayaker Tyler Bradt has set a new world record by plunging 186 feet over a waterfall in Washington State.
Posted by peiper
on 07/27/2009 at 07:14 AM
Filed Under: • Adventure • Health and Safety • Scary Stuff •
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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