Thursday - January 20, 2011

It this isn’t BS then it’s a miracle

The Navy has passed a major milestone in its quest to build an incredibly powerful new anti-air raygun.

Scientists with the Navy’s Office of Naval Research have demonstrated a prototype system capable of producing from thin air the electrons needed to generate ultrapowerful, “megawatt-class" laser beams for the agency’s next-generation system.

“The injector performed as we predicted all along,” said Dinh Nguyen, senior project leader for the Free Electron Laser (FEL) program at the Los Alamos National Lab, N.M. “But until now, we didn’t have the evidence to support our models. We were so happy to see our design, fabrication and testing efforts finally come to fruition.”

He said the group is hoping to set a world record with the futuristic new weapon—which could be the Holy Grail of military lasers.
...
Quentin Saulter, FEL program manager for the Navy’s research arm, said the implications of the FEL’s progress are monumental. “This is a major leap forward for the program and for FEL technology throughout the Navy,” Saulter said. “The fact that the team is nine months ahead of schedule provides us plenty of time to reach our goals by the end of 2011.”

The research team hopes to have a full-power prototype by 2018, which would have the ability to instantly blast targets in the sky.

Navy ships have become vulnerable in modern times to supersonic missiles because of their slower defense systems, the agency worries. “The FEL is expected to provide future U.S. Naval forces with a near-instantaneous laser ship defense in any maritime environment throughout the world,” Saulter said.

Moreover, because future ships may very well use a form of electronic propulsion, there would be a readily available supply of electrons to power the raygun.

The Navy has been seeking its “Holy Grail” free electron laser (FEL) weapon for a while now, but it would rather you think of it more as a multipurpose laser platform than a death ray. While the Navy’s ship-borne FEL, currently under development at Boeing, will certainly be used to knock incoming threats out of the sky, naval officers really want a platform that can also be used for tracking, communications, target designation, disruption, time-of-flight location, and a variety of other tasks.
...
The ability to shift wavelengths means that unlike other lasers--including the solid-state bad boy Raytheon used to knock a UAV out of the air from the deck of a ship earlier this year--an FEL system can adjust that wavelength for a variety of tasks. Further, it could run off a vessel’s power source rather than requiring its own, so it wouldn’t need to stop and reload.
...
Of course, the Navy still wants its laser to target and destroy incoming threats, and therein lies the challenge. The lower power threshold for a weaponized laser of this nature is more or less 100 kilowatts ...

Just pointing out that a megawatt class unit is 10 times more powerful than the 100 kilowatts necessary to do the job. Hey, maybe this thing will be able to kill satellites too!

This revolutionary technology allows for multiple payoffs to the warfighter. The ability to control the strength of the beam provides for graduated lethality, and the use of light versus an explosive munition, provides for low per engagement and life cycle costs. In fact, it provides an effective alternative to using expensive missiles against low value targets. Not worrying about propulsion and working at the speed of light allows for precise engagement and the resulting low collateral damage. Speed-of-light engagement also allows for a rapid reaction to moving and/or swarming time critical and swarming targets.

The Navy’s Megawatt Laser Weapon Takes a Big Leap Forward with Powerful New Electron Injector
It’s unclear which is the bigger news coming out of the Office of Naval Research; the fact that the Navy’s Free Electron Laser (FEL) program has demonstrated an injector capable of producing the necessary electrons to fuel a megawatt-class laser beam, or the fact that a next-generation future weapon under development by the military is months ahead of schedule. Both are good news for the Navy, which might begin lasing threats out of the sky sooner than it anticipated.

I wonder if the power source can be made small enough and light enough to fit in, and bring back to life, that successful airplane based laser system Obama canceled. Or, if, now that this navy system has shown enormous progress, he’ll cancel it out of hand as well. Just like he promised to do during his election campaign.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/20/2011 at 04:32 PM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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The Death of Art

Or conversely, the art of death? Something like that. “performance art” reaches new lows in the UK, sensationalizing physical and moral putrescence. Peiper has noted this several times before. We have it here in the USA as well. Deranged members of the unwashed far left bring out pieces of “shock art” in attempts to hammer their way past the shield of inurement so many of us have developed in response to the overstimulation of the modern world. But it doesn’t seem to be done to remind us of our humanity. No, it is not done to refresh our awareness of pain, hurt, depravity, or the more rancid aspects of the natural world. Were that the reason, perhaps I could be more accepting. From everything that I can see, this crap is done just to glorify horror and evil, and to add darkness to our lives. Then they look down their noses at us plebes when we call a spade a spade and label their trash as the trash it is: no, it’s art, they say. You’re just so uncool and simple you can’t realize it. Balderdash!

Here are two examples. I am NOT running the pictures, they are at the links. Consider this an open thread and have your say: maybe Peiper and I are old sticks in the mud, and we can’t see past the poop to see the wonder within. Illuminate us with your erudite elucidations if that is how you see it; change us for the better if you can. But I promise that task won’t be easy. My definition of art is that which adds beauty/glory/perfection to the world; that which enhances the human experience and brings us one small step closer to the angels. You’ve got your work cut out for you if you feel you can argue me into accepting that toasting a loose bowel movement on a pink painted waffle iron is art enough of any kind to enhance anything other than my disgust. But have at it if you will.

PS - in both our countries a very large part of things like these are publicly funded. So it’s your tax money at work; art for our own good I guess, brought to us plebes by our betters.



Instance One:

New Production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni features gang rapes done by actors wearing Christ T-shirts

A new version of Don Giovanni which includes a gang rape by a group of masked men wearing Jesus Christ t-shirts was today causing a storm in the West End. Critics accused producers of going ‘too far’ - and have been accused of trying to be sensationalist to attract a younger audience. The English National Opera (ENO) production which contains two rape scenes has been described by a reviewer as ‘brutal, ugly and crawl’. [typo for cruel?]

Lothario, played by Iain Paterson, is charactarised as a ‘seedy rapist’ in the production - rather than a selfish seducer of woman. But producers of the 18th century opera by Mozart said today they were ‘pushing the barriers of what opera can be’. The show which is courting controversy at London’s Coliseum is the first by Rufus Norris - a producer who has previously worked as a theatre director.

Oliver Condy, editor of BBC Music, today accused the ENO of using the rape scenes to boost audiences. ‘Don Giovanni is a shocking opera about a man who treats woman in a disgusting fashion. There is no point shying away from it and giving the audience a sanitised version,’ he told The Sunday Telegraph.

Comments by two normal patrons of the arts:

The Damien Hirst exhibit where thousands of maggots mature into flies… and then feast on abandoned barbecue

His controversial art has included a pickled shark, a rotting cow and a human skull encrusted with 8,601 diamonds

But Damien Hirst’s latest installation, on display at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, may be his most skin-crawling to date.

Let’s Eat Outdoors Today features a perspex box in which thousands of flies plague an abandoned barbecue. ["perspex" is English for “plastic” or “Lucite™"] The piece is divided in two with one side featuring maggots lying in trays on a barbecue while they slowly develop in to flies. In the other side, linked to the first by a small hole, four perspex chairs sit around a table laid for a roast chicken meal complete with beer and wine.

Ominously for the thousands of inhabitants of the sculpture, there is also a large fly-zapping machine that electrocutes them if they make contact.

It is the controversial 45-year-old’s contribution to the Academy’s Modern British Sculpture Exhibition which opens this weekend. In an email exchange with the sculptor Keith Wilson, who has co-curated the Royal Academy exhibition, Hirst explained the thinking behind the exhibit, which he originally devised in 1990.

He said: ‘I was thinking about how we all avoid dirt, but we all ultimately go back into dirt. I was very interested in how we were trying to isolate the horror from our lives and remove it.”

Let’s Eat Outdoors Today follows on from Hirst’s previous work A Thousand Years. This featured maggots hatching into flies that feed on a severed cow’s head. The insects are then fried by another fly-killer.

Follow the link for other examples of Hirst’s bizarre fixation with death, including a whole zebra floating in formaldehyde, and a dead lamb encased in plexiglass.
Comments one True Believer:

Posted by Drew458     on 01/20/2011 at 03:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography •  
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pastor jones denied visa to enter Britain, and woman loses head to muslim god

Some may not agree but I’m not certain but that the government here may have done the right thing, in refusing a visa for American pastor, Terry Jones.
To be very honest with you, I am not even certain of my own position on this subject. I seem to go back and forth between positions the more I read.

Frankly, while I have no problem with Jones plan last year to burn the Koran, which he did back off of, I also think it would have been a wasted effort and would not have advanced our cause any.  True, it would have cheered a lot of folks but other then that, what other purpose would it have served? 
Having said all that, had he gone through with his burning, I wouldn’t have considered it some kind of crime against humanity. Just one man’s anger and hitting out at the only visible example of his anger. 

Well, he’s been invited by a group here in England to address them. But the govt. says no way Ho-zay, because they believe it would not be in the public interest.
Read ‘safety’ and you get a better picture. The govt. believe and rightly so, that his coming here would would ignite the usual victims among the muslim community who are guaranteed to have their feelings bruised just by him being here.  Read ‘riots’ into that. And then as well their loony left enablers and you have chaos. In other words, the usual.

So perhaps to avoid problems not to mention possible bloody noses and broken heads, the powers that be have decided to keep Pastor Jones out of their country.

The same thinking doesn’t however apply to the many fanatics, many of whom are not even here legally, and can’t for reasons of ‘uman rights’ be deported. Even killers aren’t deported. But a man who threatened to burn a religious book on the anniversary of 9/11, well, he’s a major threat to state security I guess.
It’s all just too complicated. Or is it?

His threat last year raised a storm of protest world wide. 

Britain bans US pastor Jones for ‘the public good’

Britain on Wednesday barred firebrand US pastor Terry Jones from the country, saying the controversial preacher who had threatened to burn the Koran was guilty of “unacceptable behaviour.”

“The government opposes extremism in all its forms which is why we have excluded pastor Terry Jones from the UK,” said a spokesman from the Home Office, or interior ministry.

Jones, who triggered an international furore last year with plans to burn the holy book of Islam on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, said he was disappointed with the ban.

“We are very disappointed. We would ask that they reconsider, that the ban be lifted,” he told Sky News television.

He was originally invited to speak in Britain at a rally organised by far-right group the English Defence League (EDL) on February 5 in Luton, a town just north of London.

The EDL says it fights what it calls the spread of militant Islam in Britain.

But the group withdrew its offer in the face of public opposition to the visit and concerns that Jones’ presence could inflame tensions in the town, which has a significant Muslim population.

After the invite was retracted, the radical evangelist said he still planned to visit Britain and was thinking of organising an event in London. He also said he would fight any attempt to block him from visiting the country.

Announcing the ban on Wednesday, the Home Office said many comments made by Jones provided “evidence of his unacceptable behaviour”.

“Coming to the UK is a privilege not a right and we are not willing to allow entry to those whose presence is not conducive to the public good,” said the spokesman.

BTW ... if you read the link below, he has it seems, a daughter who lives here.
It’s quite interesting that the govt. thinks (and they could be right) that his presence isn’t conducive to the public good. Fine. 
Would the govt. like to explain (and not to me or BMEWS but to the British public) how the public good is served by allowing plane hi-jackers asylum and killers to remain on these shores?  Can they explain why they recognize the human rights of illegals and then award them benefits? And I haven’t really gotten into the openly hate mongering muslim mobs that cause so much grief. But they fear this one pastor who speaks his mind as well as the thoughts of many and deem his behavior, “unacceptable.” Fair enough. It’s their country. Once Sharia law comes into being full flush and the muzzies take over, it’s curtains for the UK. And curtains too for the weepy, wailing, hand wringing, bleeding hearts that make up the left. Cos the muslim hit list includes all the things the left espouses.
HERE FOR THE REST

Oh btw ... just an aside.
Anyone raising a world wide clamber over this? 
H/T Pakistan Christian Post

Sunni Islamists slit the throat of a Christian mother in Somalia.

By Lee Jay Walker, The Modern Tokyo Times

The reality of Islam in all its hatred can be seen in Afghanistan, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Yemen, and a few other nations, where converts from Islam face the death penalty. In Somalia, the Sunni Islamic fanatics called the Al-Shabaab (Al-Shabab) have once more killed a convert to Christianity and in true style the soldiers of Islam held down a Christian lady and slit her throat in front of many villagers. This hatred is clearly based on the teachings of Mohammed because he supported killing apostates and the ongoing Islamic inquisition continues in nations like Somalia.

On January 7th in 2011 the holy warriors of Islam captured a Christian mother of four and slaughtered her in front of many villagers in Warbhigly in Somalia. Like usual the Koran holding individuals will have been shouting Allah Akbar while cutting the throat of Asha Mberwa.

The 36 year old Asha Mberwa was a mother of four and she had committed no crime and had harmed nobody. However, Mohammed supported the killing of apostates therefore the Al-Shabaab killed the Muslim convert to Christianity in order to appease the Islamic god.

In true Islamic justice an innocent convert to Christianity was killed in cold blood and bystanders were forced to watch while her throat was being cut.

FULL STORY IS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 01/20/2011 at 07:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Jack Booted Thugs • muslims • Outrageous •  
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   Wednesday - January 19, 2011

Enough Gun, Maybe

One of the nice parts about being an American is the guns thing. The old Second Amendment. “2A”, “RKBA”, ”A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.

But once you get beyond the “Oh goody, gonna get ma’se’f a gunnn” stage, once you’ve acquired a small collection beyond the point of specific “need” for different shooting situations, you find out that there are all sorts of firearms out there. Military surplus, “tactical” (I hate that word), competition, collectible antiques and rarities, you name it. 7 or 8 styles of repeaters and at least as many styles of single shot models. Pneumatic firearms from BB guns to ones you can hunt buffalo with. Smokeless and black powder. Cartridge and muzzle loading. Centerfire, rimfire, percussion cap, flintlock, wheel lock, inline, pistol, rifles, shotguns, ... the list is nearly endless and the variations are infinite. Which means no gun collection is ever complete, really.

My own personal taste in long arms tends towards orphan calibers and large calibers. I like the pretty ones with graceful lines, well carved nicely figured wood, and nicely polished deeply blued metal. I like a bit of engraving if I can afford it, but those guns that are solid engraving and gold plate turn me off. Not that I’d turn down a new KSG bullpup shotgun, if I had the cash. Pure awesomeness, and so ugly and practical that it’s beautiful.

So anyway, I get this email today, telling me that the Italian gun maker Davide Pedersolli has shipped a new supply of their Gibbs Hunter rifles over to this side of the pond, where they are sold as the Pedersoli African Hunter model.

Ain’t that a beaut? Pedersoli makes such pretty guns. This one is a reproduction of English gunsmith George Gibbs’ 1865 design: it’s a forward hammer, pegged barrel, half stock, 1/16 octogonal, 15/16 round barreled percussion muzzle loading firearm. This one just happens to be a rifle, although a nearly identical shotgun and a heavier smaller caliber target rifle are also available. Actually it’s a carbine, because it’s only 45.3” long.

The thing that makes this one a tad unusual is it’s caliber. Almost all of the muzzle loading hunting rifles for sale in the USA are 50 caliber. A half inch bore. There are a few 45s and 54s, but they aren’t that common. Most of the Civil War reproduction rifles are 58 caliber, but I don’t know if they get used for hunting; a full length 19th century military arm is a bit long to go dragging through the bushes. The Gibbs rifle is 72 caliber. Yup. That’s the same diameter as a 12 gauge shotgun, and it fires bullets. Well, it fires round lead balls.

What use is this thing? Well, here’s the thing. Black powder is an explosive. A weak one, but it’s still an explosive. As such, it only generates a certain amount of gas and a certain amount of pressure. It turns out that one way to get more power from a black powder gun is to use a heavier bullet, which often shoots a bit faster than a lighter bullet with the same exact powder charge. Another way is to use a bigger powder charge, but you need a heavier, stronger gun to contain it, and a longer barrel to get the most from it. Today’s black powder rifles - I should say muzzle loaders, since very few of them ever see any actual black powder, because the modern smoky stuff is a) much cleaner, b) much safer, c) much more powerful, and d) actually a rough nitrocellulose (smokeless) powder recipe; they are not actual charcoal/salt peter/sulfur mixtures, which is what real black powder is - anyway, today’s muzzle loading rifles use modern high powered shotgun primers, saboted modern bullets, and quite large charges of the modern propellants, which can push about 300 grains worth of bullet downrange at around 2000 feet per second. This makes them about equal to a modern .45-70, which is plenty enough gun to hunt deer or elk out to 150 yards, which is about as far as most people can hunt, shoot, or track game with any accuracy.

But it wasn’t like that in the old days. And for the same reason that all this modern development went on with this antique kind of firearm: even a 54 caliber round lead ball doesn’t pack enough whack to drop deer in their tracks at longer ranges. The old school solution was just to use a bigger bullet. Bigger in terms of caliber. And that’s why the Gibbs rifle is 72 caliber. It shoots a .715” lead ball that weighs 550 grains, at the same velocity and lack of aerodynamic efficiency that a 50 caliber Kentucky style rifle would shoot a 177 grain .490” lead ball. So it packs a lot more power, and makes a much bigger hole in things. Roughly 3 times as much power and more than double the hole size. Pretty impressive, and with it’s 9.5lb mass, recoil won’t be too evil from even the maximum 120 grain powder charge, which might push that big soft lead ball at 1500fps. The recommended 100 grain charge should drop deer or smaller elk in their tracks out to about 100 yards. Better than that. It should just about splat them.

All this for only $1450. And it’s a near guarantee that none of your smoke pole shooting buddies will have one. Uniqueness - “I’ve got the only one around” - is another enjoyable aspect of that old 2A freedom. It’s why I own orphan guns and do all my own ammo reloading.

And this is just the beginning of this post ...

So we’ve got a very pretty one shot 12 gauge smoky deer smasher. Grand. No, actually, it’s a grand and a half. Too rich for my blood. What if you could pack that kind of wallop in a more practical firearm? Something with, oh I don’t know, how about with more than just one shot? And for far less scratch?

You can. Have your cake and get bruised by it too: among others, Mossberg now makes a 12 gauge that takes the new 3 1/2” shells, and Lightfield makes 3 1/2” slug ammunition.

Mossberg’s model 835, a fully rifled pump action shotgun

$575 MSRP, which probably means about $450 at your gun shop. $470 and you get an extra regular barrel too. Coming in an inch shorter and 2 pounds lighter than the Pedersoli, their new model 835 pump gun has been built to handle the extra punishment that the 3 1/2” shells dish out. What punishment? Shotguns are very low pressure firearms. They have to be, otherwise the barrels would be really thick and they’d weigh a ton. The 3 1/2” 12 gauge shell runs at 22% higher pressure than the older 3” and 2 3/4” shells. So it takes a stronger weapon to use them. I’m pretty sure that the 3 1/2” shell came about because of the “green” trend to bismuth, steel, and other kinds of non-lead shot. Those other metals are much harder than steel and less dense, so they exert more pressure on the barrel when fired, and you need more volume of them to get the same weight of pellets in a given load. And due to their often lesser density, those “green” pellets need to be fired faster to have the same remaining energy downrange as the older slower lead pellets. And that means higher chamber pressure, which in turn requires a stronger firearm. Not that the new “high” pressure is anything impressive relative to any other gun. It isn’t. It’s still in the low black pressure arena, less than a quarter of the pressure that a modern rifle produces. But it’s a big step up for 12 gauge shotguns.

The Lightfield 3 1/2” slug load is unusual. It’s the only 3 1/2” slug load I could find, and it’s a bit of an old school design. Assuming “old school” is from 1990. It uses a flat ended, wide meplat soft lead slug that has an attached plastic sabot. That’s unusual; everybody else uses a peel away sabot that falls off just past the muzzle, leaving a much smaller and more aerodynamic bullet to do the job.

before and after:

the lightfield slug and it’s “detach on impact” sabot

The Lightfield slug weighs 600 grains, about 1 3/8 ounces. It leaves the barrel at 1900fps, and makes a 72 caliber hole in things even before it starts to expand. At close range this thing generates 4750 lb/ft of energy, which is in the “light elephant” range. Unfortunately it’s about as aerodynamic as a paint can, so by 100 yards the power is down to just over a ton. But a ton is still quite a lot, more than many deer rifles can make at any distance. And there’s still that thumb sized hole going in, and the 1 1/4” hole coming out. Maybe. Some places call this a dangerous game load. And it could be I guess, as long as the danger isn’t all that great. Lions and tigers, sure. Thin skin, thin chests and thin rib bones. Bears? Oh my. Well, small bears. Maybe medium bears. Big bears - and I’m talking BIG big bears, 900lbs and up - I’d want more. But in a pinch, I’d be glad that the Mossie can carry 6 rounds, because the first 2 are just gonna get his attention and then piss him off. Besides, you could get lucky and get a head shot.

Still want more? Fine. For a mere $1000 more than that Pedersoli, you can get a similar looking rifle from the October Country company, in the same caliber that can handle double the powder charge, and push that 550 grain round ball to nearly 2100 feet per second. That’s about 20% more powerful than a modern .458 Winchester Magnum (500gr @ 2000fps). From black powder!

“There is no more fatal policy in hunting dangerous game than a contempt of the animal, exhibited by a selection of weapons of inferior caliber. Common sense should be the guide, and surely it requires no extraordinary intelligence to understand that a big animal requires a big bullet, and that a big bullet requires a corresponding charge of powder, which necessitates a heavy rifle.“
- Sir Samuel White Baker, “Wild Beasts and Their Ways.”

The basic rifle comes with a curly maple stock. It features an octagon 28” barrel. The taper on the October Country Sporting Rifle is 1-1/4” to 1-1/8” at 36” long. The pull length is 13-3/4” and the lock is an English bar lock from L&R Lock Co. The twist is 1 in 104”, 8 lands, 8 wide groove and .007 deep with 7/8” thread. The breech plug is a Manton style hooked patent with 1/4 x 28 nipple threads. Each rifle is equipped with and English Style V sight with a steel blade front sight for pinpoint accuracy. The rifles are iron mounted and cold brown stained. weight, only 12 pounds and 45” total length. The guns are available in , .62 (16 bore), .69 (14 bore) and .72 (12 bore).

This rifle is designed using the principals advocated by Lt. James Forsythe, MA in his book “The Sporting Rifle and Its Projectiles”. Lt. Forsythe hunted extensively in India & Africa during the end of muzzleloading era. He developed the theory of using a large bore round ball with massive charges of black powder. By utilizing ultra slow twist rifling, the projectile can be delivered with good accuracy and devastating results. The OC Big Bore Sporting Rifle delivers the raw; knock down power demanded by today’s discriminating black powder hunter. By any standard, this is an awesome rifle.

I’m not sure that I subscribe to Lt. Forsythe’s idea. I don’t like that ultra-slow rifling idea, even though the twist on this gun is a slight bit faster than the 1 turn in 117” that the Greenhill formula specifies. [Greenhill devised a formula to calculate the minimum rifling twist needed to stabilize a projectile in flight. Seriously excessive twist is a military detriment at extreme ranges because it causes “over stabilization”, which means the point of the projectile doesn’t follow the arc of the trajectory, it stays nose up. This means that the projectile either hits the target going sideways, or that it tumbles at extreme range. We’re talking miles downrange here: Greenhill did his work for the artillery boys, and his formula was only later adapted to small arms.] Faster twist is better. I’m more a believer in the research proved ideas of Whitworth [another great gun history read! See Queen Victoria shoot a bulls-eye at 1000 yards!]. BUT ... everything concerning firearms is even more relative than anything else you will ever deal with. Whitworth concluded that the optimal black powder rifle was 45 caliber with a 1 turn in 20” rifling twist, firing 500-550 grain bullets. The October Country rifle, and the old time African big bore rifles, fired round lead balls. Maybe the lead was alloyed with tin to 1 part in 16, as the British Army did in the Raj. But we’re talking balls here, not bullets. And even 1:16 lead is still pretty soft. Put it all together, and a fast twist on a round ball that is easily deformed may make it immediately unstable upon penetration. Just about no twist at all could be the best approach, and hope for the best. I don’t think anyone has taken a fresh look at Lt. Forsythe’s observations in a long long time.

So there you have it. Almost enough gun for anything, almost enough shotgun for anything, and enough gun for anything. Plus if it isn’t or if you miss, the sulfurous smoke cloud from 250 grains of burnt black powder ought to be big enough to hide you and your scent (of panic!) from the biggest elephant (who is now the angriest elephant!!) out there. And the big boom may have stunned his ears so he can’t hear you running away as fast as you can!

One of my gripes with all large caliber firearms is their useful range. It’s pretty short. The bullets don’t go super fast, whether they’re coming from a 12 gauge, a .45-70, or even a .458 Watts. We’re talking 2400fps at the absolute maximum, and that’s from the biggest and baddest of the elephant guns. The bullets aren’t very aerodynamic. Together this makes them all short range affairs. Amazingly powerful, but still short range. Sure, why not take a .50 BMG into the field? No problem. As long as you can carry 30lbs worth of gun and 10lb worth of ammunition up and down hills and through the forest. And most hunters consider an 8lb rifle too heavy!

Worse is that little bugaboo called sectional density (mass of bullet / square of it’s diameter). Round lead balls and shotgun slugs don’t have any. Well, very little. Big long bullets that are extra heavy for their diameter have lots. And, given sufficient rotational speed and impact velocity, bullets with high sectional density will just plow through anything. It’s something to keep in mind when you realize that the vital bits on a big bear or a Cape Buffalo are about 3 feet inside the critter, past lots of muscle and really thick skin.

What is sufficient sectional density? For really large game with really large teeth or hooves, you want something in the .300 or better range. That’s a 300 grain .375” bullet, or a 500 grain .458” bullet. But it’s a 1075 grain .715” bullet, almost double the weight of the round ball and 80% more than the shotgun slug. A bullet with a greater sectional density is longer than one with less, and longer bullets have a longer moment arm. That means that they can deform (mushroom) just as much as the shorter bullets, yet still remain gyroscopically stable.

What is sufficient rotational velocity? Now we ARE talking about normal looking bullets, not round balls. You need to spin the bullet so that it penetrates in a straight line as long as possible, even perhaps after it becomes dynamically unstable due to excessive expansion. Black powder rifles designed to shoot round balls and rifled shotguns designed to shoot slugs don’t get much of it. 1 turn in 75” to 1 turn in 66” is common for the old smoke poles. Rifled shotguns get about 1 turn in 35”, maybe 1 turn in 28”. Modern high velocity rifles go about 1 turn in 12” or faster. 1 in 9” is not uncommon. The old Greenhill formula works in air. Great. Whoopee. Bullets need to work in flesh. Assuming the density of flesh is about equal to the density of water, that’s 900 times denser than air. So the bullet needs to rotate 30 times faster. 1 turn in about 2 to 4 inches. They don’t make rifling that fast, and that kind of rotational inertia is beyond the strength of even slow moving lead bullets.  So try to get the fastest twist you can find, and accept that the deeper your bullet needs to penetrate, the greater the odds are that it will hook a left or a right at some point.

But there is more to hunting than just hole size and penetration. Hole size is great. The bigger the better, and if you can get a big hole going in and a bigger hole going out you’re ahead of the game. Blunt tip, fat meplat bullets like the flat ended shotgun slug pictured here put a big entrance hole in things. Round ball bullets put a nice size hole - their diameter actually - in things. Pointy spitzer bullets create a needle size entrance hole. Then they all expand, creating a larger hole inside. About half the bullet’s energy is used up on hitting the target and on creating what’s called the temporary wound channel. That’s the distance the creature’s internals are instantly pushed out of the way. Then they spring back, but both those impacts together tend to stun the animal, and sometimes knock it out or at least over. Bigger faster blunter bullets hit hardest in these two aspects. As the bullet expands as it travels through, it cuts what is called a permanent wound channel. It looks like this:

The bigger that channel is, the faster your game animal will succumb. Anything over 1/2” is lethal on nearly any animal, but a 1” plus wound channel will do the job much faster. Yes, this is where I do my annual plug for my man Ulf’s seminal work on terminal ballistics. If you hunt, or if you really want to understand “killing power”, spend an hour or so and read it. At the very least, you’ll see that faster is only really better to flatten long range trajectory: what you really want is for your bullet to arrive on target at about 1600 - 1800 fps. Of course that ignores “impact stunning”, which I believe is a very real thing. Pretty sure that’s called the Taylor Knock Out formula (diameter * weight in grains/7000 * velocity). Which Ulf disdains. Oh well. Professional hunters in Africa have long considered 2400fps to be the perfect velocity for the best mix of stunning and penetration. Given that those monster blunt bullets loose velocity very quickly, and that shots at elephants etc are generally taken at well under 100 yards, the best impact velocity might be as high as 2200fps, but that depends on bullet shape and construction as well.

GET ME OUT OF HERE ...

Posted by Drew458     on 01/19/2011 at 05:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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no big deal really. just a little thing called national sovereignty….

It’s really just a small thing called “SOVERIGNTY.”
Ran across this today and couldn’t help but wonder who is running the show in the USA. I say that because I have read that (to the joy of europeeons) America is soon to banish the 100 year old light bulb. They did it here first.  You folks won’t recall it but a couple of years ago I wondered about the postal change in the USA.
Had I still been living in CA of course, it wouldn’t have registered. But I was here and so when the USA changed some 8 months after the Brits, who followed EU directives, well.  I said then that I thought it seemed like a one world thing. No rocket science at all. It was just there.

So naturally I read this and while it only concerns this country, for now, it kind of got me back on that old fashioned ‘S’ word whose time I think may be somewhat limited. At least it looks so from where I am here.

Keep your powder dry at home guys.

Petrol prices: Rural drivers must wait for cut

Cuts in fuel duty for motorists in rural areas are set to be delayed because the European Union has not granted permission for the policy.
Coalition ministers have said they want to look at targeted cuts in duty for drivers in remote parts of Britain.
Average fuel prices approaching £1.32 for a litre of petrol have put the Coalition under intense pressure to act.
Fuel prices in rural areas can be even higher, with some petrol stations in northern Scotland charging as much as £1.40 per litre.
Ministers hope to extend the duty cut to more rural areas, but that would require the approval of the European Commission, which enforces European competition law.
-30-


TELEGRAPH and COMMENTS

stuart64

Its an illusion to assume that the UK government in Westminster actually runs the country, the various pokitical parties who have been in power in the UK since the end of
WW 2 have sold the country its assets and peoples aspirations down the drain to the EU, damn these politicians the whole lot of em.

harrier61

See how much sovereignty the UK has? A cut in fuel prices would benefit individuals, families, businesses and the UK as a whole.

But the sovereign British government has to wait until Brussels gives permission.

Let’s draw an analogy. You are at sea in a dinghy. It has sprung a large leak.

You have a choice. You can:
(a) hammer a plug into the leak; or
(b) wait until you get instructions from several hundred miles away.

It’s difficult to justify reductions in fuel prices in one area at the expense of other areas. The fact is that the Treasury must recognise that the country and its people are more important then the Treasury budget. Importantly, a reduction in taxation on fuel could reduce prices and costs across the board.

How is this difficult to understand?

What’s the problem?  It’s only sovereignty. What’s in a word?  And while we’re at it, have a look at this.

EU ‘seeking powers’ to vet British budget

The EU is seeking new “budgetary surveillance” powers to vet the British budget before it is presented to parliament, according to government officials.

The government fears that an EU power grab this spring will set legally binding rules allowing Brussels to set “the most primary elements of national budgetary frameworks”.
An EU directive setting out a “European fiscal framework” and the rules for EU “budgetary surveillance” is expected as early as March ahead of a summit on economic governance in June.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the “really big step” will regulate how and when the Treasury forecasts growth and impose “numerical fiscal rules” on all Whitehall departments.
The measures, according to British officials, will aim for “tighter budget co-ordination and direction from the centre” in Brussels and could endanger Britain’s “fiscal independence”.
While Britain as a non-euro zone member cannot be fined for breaching spending targets set in Brussels it will be legally bound by “budgetary procedures governing all stages of the budget process” which be set out in the EU directive.

SOURCE

-30-

Posted by peiper     on 01/19/2011 at 02:21 PM   
Filed Under: • OBITITUARIES •  
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in the dock … therapist who tried to change a queer man’s sexuality, at his request.

Some of you will recall a case wherein a Christian couple ran a “family” B & B, and said they would not give a room to any couple who were unmarried. Separate rooms was their idea because they said their religious beliefs wouldn’t condone or allow the renting of one room for unmarried people. And that certainly included homosexuals, as the bible they said spoke against that. They would allow them rooms so long as they were separate rooms.

Well, don’t ya know a queer couple tried and failed to get a room there. Some people believe that the couple were set up to fail the equality test, by a homosexual group. The judge decided against them and fined them, and awarded the odd couple £1,800 EACH. He found no evidence that they were set up as they claimed.

Some have argued that they were running a public business and they could not discriminate in that manner. Their defenders claim there wasn’t any discrimination, that the B & B was in their home, and so they should be able to insist on renting separate rooms. Or even not renting at all. And their web site clearly stated what they were.

It opens some interesting questions. For example, should it not be the right of a taxpaying, property owning person to exclude anyone they wish for any reason or no reason. Financial suicide perhaps but why shouldn’t they have that right?

Then there’s something brought up by someone today I hadn’t even thought of. What about backpackers, same sex but straight, who are on holiday and need to stop off and this couple’s B&B was in their area.  Unless they asked openly, are you homosexuals, would they still rent a room to a couple of straight men? In other words, in order to make sure they were not renting to, the wrong sort, they’d have to ask.

We live in a very complicated world. Needlessly.

Enclosed here are two editorials from two different papers. I suppose I could have posted more but 2’s enough for my purpose because I have another interesting tidbit to follow the editorials.

Tel The law is eroding our right to a set of beliefs

Telegraph View: The right to act in keeping with one’s religious faith is being set against the right not to be offended – and is losing.

The owners of a Cornish hotel who refused to allow two homosexual men to take a double room were judged at Bristol county court yesterday to have acted unlawfully. Peter and Hazelmary Bull argued that, as Christians, they did not believe unmarried couples, whatever their sexual orientation, should share a room at their hotel. They said it was a policy they had operated since opening their doors for business 25 years ago. Indeed, their hotel website describes their hotel as “family-run for families” – which prompts us to ask why the couple, Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy, should have wanted to stay there in the first place. They had an absolute legal right to do so, of course, and no one could possibly condone a refusal to give them a room on the grounds of their sexuality. The Bulls said they based their refusal on their “married couples only” rule, a fine point given that the two men are civil partners.

Judge Andrew Rutherford, awarding Mr Hall and Mr Preddy £3,600 damages, told the Bulls that their views were out of date and added: “It is inevitable that laws will, from time to time, cut across the deeply held beliefs of individuals and sections of society.” It should surprise no one that the Bulls received such short shrift from the courts and that their strongly held religious convictions should count for so little. Last year, Gary McFarlane, a Christian sex therapist, was sacked by Relate, the relationship charity, because he refused to counsel a homosexual couple. His case was taken up by Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who said Christians are being persecuted because a strongly held conviction that homosexuality is wrong is being superseded by laws outlawing discrimination on grounds of sexual discrimination. The McFarlane case went to the Appeal Court, which found against him. In a similar case, a registrar who refused to conduct civil partnerships because they were against her religious beliefs was sacked. In both cases, the aggrieved parties could have gone elsewhere to be counselled or married, just as Messrs Hall and Preddy could have found a different hotel.

The right to hold religious beliefs, and to act in keeping with one’s faith, is being set against the right not to be offended – and is losing. This is a dispiriting trend in a free society. The views of the Bulls will seem to many to be old-fashioned, even distasteful – but they have every right to hold them. A pervasive climate of political correctness, however, is driving such beliefs to the margins; the law is out of kilter. It no longer protects the freedom of the believer in the way that it defends the interests of those who consider themselves discriminated against. As we have argued before, this is an unhealthy imbalance that needs to be redressed – if not by the courts, then by Parliament.

TELEGRAPH

The following is the Daily Mail’s editorial on the subject.

Tolerance, Christian values and the law
By Daily Mail Comment

As the judge accepted, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, aged 70 and 66, are decent and benevolent people.
They have no dislike of homosexuals, whom they often welcome to their small Cornish hotel, treating them exactly as they do unmarried heterosexuals.
Indeed, they had only one motive in refusing a double room to civil partners Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy.
In the words of Judge Andrew Rutherford, this was their ‘perfectly orthodox Christian belief’ that sex outside marriage, straight or gay, is wrong.
It is because they live by that belief, held through the centuries in what is still called a Christian country, that today the Bulls face ruin.
They’ve been found to have acted unlawfully under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 and ordered to pay £3,600 in damages.
Of course, some will side firmly with the civil partners in this classic clash between competing rights and attitudes.
After all, Mr Hall and Mr Preddy clearly had reason to feel angry and humiliated at being turned away — particularly if Judge Rutherford was right in rejecting claims that their case was a set-up.
But since no malice against a minority was involved, the Mail feels more sympathy with the Bulls, who argue that Christians are increasingly marginalised.
Yes, it is good that society accepts same sex relationships and recognises the rights of civil partners. But why is it then so intolerant of people like the Bulls?
Is there no place for a good-natured couple, approaching old age, to live by the orthodox beliefs of the religion to which Britain owes its identity?
Ultimately, the fault lies with the last parliament, which delighted in trampling on traditional values.
But was it really necessary for the Equality Commission to throw the full weight of the state — and taxpayers’
hard-earned money — into victimising a couple who meant nothing but well?

DAILY MAIL

“A couple who meant nothing but well.”
But if you’re running a public business, your version of “well” might be different from others who have the law on their side. So where does that leave you?

Now here’s something interesting and please note I do not go looking for conspiracies and don’t see one every time I read a story that confounds me.
However ... because the folks in that other story said they were “set up” and the judge said no you weren’t, and since he has almost the final word unless they appeal, this story caught my eye.  See if don’t think she was set up. Maybe not but it sure does look suspicious given that she was speaking (unknown to her) to a journalist who oh just happened to be a queer rights campaigner. Oh the coincidence. Well fancy that.
Here ya go. Take a look.

The therapist who claims she can help gay men go straight
A psychotherapist who tried to convert a gay man to become heterosexual faces being struck off at a landmark disciplinary hearing this week.

By Robert Mendick, Chief reporter

The case will expose the growing use of hugely controversial therapies, from the United States, which attempt to make homosexual men heterosexual.

The therapy has been described by the leading professional psychotherapy body as “absurd”, while the Royal College of Psychiatrists said “so-called treatments of homosexuality” allow prejudice to flourish.

A small group of counsellors believe all men are born heterosexual but that some choose a homosexual lifestyle which can then be changed through counselling.

Lesley Pilkington, 60, a psychotherapist for 20 years, faces being stripped of her accreditation to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) after treating a patient who had told her he wanted to be “cured” of his homosexuality.

The patient was in fact a prominent homosexual rights campaigner and journalist, who secretly recorded two sessions with Mrs Pilkington, a devout Christian, before reporting her to the BACP.

READ MORE HERE

If you read the link, you find that her son is she says, heterosexual, but has a homosexual problem. The poor woman is in denial. I personally doubt anybody can change anyone’s natural state. I mean, can you imagine someone believing they can change a straight person into something they aren’t?
But read the whole article please.  She may be mistaken but she damn well was set up. That’s how I read it anyway. She didn’t go looking for the fag who set her up. He went looking for someone just like her.

Mr Strudwick told The Sunday Telegraph: “Entering into therapy with somebody who thinks I am sick … is the singularly most chilling experience of my life.”

Like somebody put a gun to his head and forced him to see the woman.  Poor victim he.

Posted by peiper     on 01/19/2011 at 01:09 PM   
Filed Under: • Gay Gay Gay! •  
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An Easy One?

Extra info and clues:
• There is another cut in the wood at right angles to the one you can see; the end is sliced into 4 quarter round sections.

• These used to be used by guys between the ages of 18 and 45. Young men and women use a condom these days, so I’m told.

They were used on cannon as well ...

And to be a bit gross, the same name is applied to the stopper that bears use while hibernating! One of those great mysteries of science, no one is sure whether the bear creates one by what it eats, or whether it makes one out of mud and leaves and then ... applies it. The reason for it is unclear as well, whether it is used to keep ants and bugs from getting in the backdoor, or whether it’s to ensure complete digestion and stave off fluid loss, or whether it’s to keep the den clean, since bear cubs are born some weeks before the mother bear wakes up!

GET ME OUT OF HERE ...

Posted by Drew458     on 01/19/2011 at 10:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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   Tuesday - January 18, 2011

eye candy

Not a bad looking 54, is she?

KIM CATTRALL

JENNIFER ANISTON

The end is below .... 

Posted by peiper     on 01/18/2011 at 02:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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SCOTUS: TSA is above the law?

[The] Supreme Court without comment refused on Tuesday to let Revell sue Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police for arresting him on illegal possession of a firearm in New Jersey and for not returning his gun and ammunition to him for more than three years.

Missing a plane connection cost Utah gun owner Greg Revell 10 days in jail after he was stranded in New Jersey with an unloaded firearm he had legally checked with his luggage in Salt Lake City.
...
Revell was flying from Salt Lake City to Allentown, Pa., on March 31, 2005, with connections in Minneapolis and Newark, N.J. He had checked his Utah-licensed gun and ammunition with his luggage in Salt Lake City and asked airport officials to deliver them both with his luggage in Allentown.

But the flight from Minneapolis to Newark was late, so Revell missed his connection to Allentown. The airline wanted to bus its passengers to Allentown, but Revell realized that his luggage had not made it onto the bus and got off. After finding his luggage had been given a final destination of Newark by mistake, Revell missed the bus. He collected his luggage, including his gun and ammunition, and decided to wait in a nearby hotel with his stuff until the next flight in the morning.

When Revell tried to check in for the morning flight, he again informed the airline officials about his gun and ammunition to have them checked through to Allentown. He was reported to the TSA, and then arrested by Port Authority police for having a gun in New Jersey without a New Jersey license. [ Drew: Newark to Allentown is a 75 minute drive along Route 78. The connecting flight from Newark to Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown couldn’t be 30 minutes by air. NJ is a small state, only an hour wide by car or bus. ]

He spent 10 days in several different jails before posting bail. Police dropped the charges a few months later. But his gun and ammunition were not returned to him until 2008.

Revell said he should not have been arrested because federal law allows licensed gun owners to take their weapons through any state as long as they are unloaded and not readily accessible to people. He said it was not his fault the airline stranded him in New Jersey by making him miss his flight and routing his luggage to the wrong destination.

Prosecutors said it doesn’t matter whose fault it was: Revell was arrested in New Jersey with a readily accessible gun in his possession without a New Jersey license.

Lower courts have sympathized with Revell but refused to let him sue the police.

“We recognize that he had been placed in a difficult situation through no fault of his own,” wrote Judge Kent A. Jordan of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. However, the law “clearly requires the traveler to part ways with his weapon and ammunition during travel; it does not address this type of interrupted journey or what the traveler is to do in this situation.”

Once more we see a case where the law has glaring holes in it, and nothing has been done to close them. No provision is made for interrupted travel, which is short sighted. If you are driving a long distance, say from Florida to Maine, it’s too much to do in one day. So you’re going to stay at a hotel somewhere along the way. If the airlines, trains, or buses are running behind, then as we see in this case, you can get stranded for a day or a night somewhere. As we saw in the Brian Aitkens case, sometimes you need to stop somewhere partway through the trip. Concerns over the safety of one’s possessions is not addressed either: theft of baggage items is rampant in many airports, and taking your luggage out of the system temporarily seems to be the responsible approach. The concept of “parting company with” or “ready access” to your guns is a load of crap too: it is perfectly legal to drive across NJ with a legal unloaded firearm in a locked case right on your lap, the keys in your hand, and a box of ammo on the seat next to you. Just don’t stop anywhere in the state to get a meal, take a bathroom break, or have a nap. Which is garbage. The Port Authority cops knew this, and that’s why they dropped charges against him. AFTER they hassled the shit out of this guy by putting him in jail after jail for a week and a half. Then they “forgot” to return his property to him for more than three years? No, this is a deliberate form of harassment, or a kind of punishment by attainder without due process. He had every right to sue. His guilt or innocence of the charges is not germane*, since the cops dropped the charges. No charges? Then return his property post-haste.

But no court in the land will allow Revell to sue the police agency involved. So they can take forever to return his property (gun) if and when they feel like it. And that’s wrong. But in denying Revell, Big Government in the guise of the US Supreme Court has placed this group above the reach of the law. At least out of the reach of the common muck like us.

Let’s not look at the NY/NJ Port Authority right now, as they are seemingly a nation and a government within our nation and it’s governments. Not only are they a business, they are a business with a monopoly, their own personal union, and their own personal army to enforce whatever rules they feel like making. Corrupt to the bone too. A real blight on America IMO.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/18/2011 at 01:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
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gorebal warming is what destroyed the roman empire, or , who’s on first?

Not my day yesterday what with some disorganization. Brought on by myself. I have this unique filing system wherein nothing is really filed. Which means I’m lost much of the time.
So, yesterday (or it could even have been the day before), I came across a wild theory with regard to Climate Change or maybe Global Warming. See? I don’t even remember the headline cos I can’t find the damn file labeled Al Bore. I only remember it was all about how the Roman Empire was brought down by Global Warming, and not what we were taught.  Well to be honest I then forgot about it until this morning when I opened our Daily Mail and read Richard Littlejohn.
So now I not only have the subject back and have even beaten Drew to this wild and crazy thing .... I can share the laff with all BMEWS cos Littlejohn is right on the mark with this subject.

So without further delay .....

Titter ye not, it’s an Inconvenient Sooth

By Richard Littlejohn
Last updated at 8:14 AM on 18th January 2011

According to the historian Edward ­Gibbon, the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was brought about largely by the ­decadence and arrogance of the ruling elite. Now a new theory has been put forward by modern scientists. They blame, wait for it, ­climate change.

In an article for the magazine ­Science, a group of eminent academics writes: ‘Increased climate variability from AD 250-600 coincided with the demise of the Western Roman Empire.

‘Distinct drying in the third ­century paralleled a period of ­serious crisis, marked by barbarian invasion, political turmoil and economic dislocation in several provinces of Gaul.’

Funny, I don’t remember global warming being mentioned in relation to the fall of Rome when I was at school. If this is true, it will have profound implications. We’ll have to rewrite Up Pompeii, for a start.

We go over now to ancient ­Londinium, where Lurcio, played by Frankie ­Howerd, is addressing the Forum.

The prologue. Friends, ­Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Blimey, this toga’s chafing like mad. For Juno’s sake, stop tittering at the back. Peasants.

It must be, what, XV years since I was last in Londinium. Doesn’t ­tempus fugit?
I have been sent here from ­Pompeii with my master, Silvius Berlusconus, who is attending a Symposium on climatus changus — what we used to call in Rome ‘the weather’.

It has been convened by the pro-consul of Britannicus, Callus Davus. You know, tall bloke with the prominent proboscis Romanus, married to the lovely Samanthus. Yes, I bet you would, sir.  (for our American readers, David Cameron, Brit Prime Minister)

Anyway, we had to get out of ­Pompeii sharpish, owing to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which covered the city in volcanic ash and grounded every ox-cart from here to Icelandus. Typical, isn’t it? One ­volcano and the whole of the Roman Empire comes to a standstill.

We would have been here months ago, but for the record snowfalls in Gaul and the thick ice on the ­English Channel. So much for globus ­warmus. My toga wasn’t the only thing which froze solid, I can tell you. Talk about brass monkeys.

Now then, where was I? Oh, yes. Much water has passed over the aqueduct since I was last here.

It seems Callus Davus has been consulting the Gods and come to the conclusion that the barbarians are the least of our problems.

The empire is at grave risk, so he says, not because of trouble in ­Germanicus, or the uprising in Northern Gaul, but because of the threat from the heavens.

In Rome, the mercury hit XL degrees Celsius this year. It was so hot they had to cancel the annual orgy. I did try to point out that it gets hot every summer, but no one wanted to listen.

The Senate had just been to see a new play at the Colosseum, An Inconvenient Sooth, by Senator Al Gorus, which ended with a polar bear being sacrificed on a block of ice.
Normally they sacrifice a few ­vestal virgins, but my master ­Silvius ­Berlusconus said he had a better use for them. No, listen. ­Titter ye not!

Anyway, all Rome is now in a blind panic. They shut the Roman baths and switched off the Trevi Fountain to conserve water. You wouldn’t believe the pong. Like a Greek wrestler’s jockstrap, I can tell you. No, you’ll just have to take my word for it, missus.

So we have come to Londinium to study the methods of your mayor, Borus, in combating climatus changus.

In order to curb harmful emissions from horse-drawn conveyances, a congestion charging zone has been ­established between Ermine Street in the east and Watling Street in the west.

All carts and carriages entering Londinium must pay a tribute in coin to the mayor. I don’t know what he’s doing with the money, mind. Not spending it on the roads, that’s for sure. I’ve never seen so many potholes.

And we’ve already got record hay prices, not that it’s done much to cut down the, er, exhaust droppings in Bishopsgate. Gets right in between your open-toed sandals.

As for this hole in the ozone layer, whatever that is, who cares? If you ask me, it’s no bad thing, this globus warmus. I’ve just had a cheeky little wine from a vineyard next to ­Hadrian’s Wall. It used to be so freezing up there, they couldn’t grow a thing.

Don’t tell my master, but I reckon this climatus changus racket is just another excuse for putting up taxes and pushing the populus around. They’re even throwing people to the lions for putting their vegetable scraps in the wrong urn.

Woe, woe and thrice woe!

So I said to myself: Francis, it’ll end in tears, mark my words. People won’t put up with it. The Earth will be around a lot longer than the Roman Empire.

Anyway, must dash. Here comes my master now, with a couple of ­vestal virgins in tow. He’ll be off to the Temple of Viagra. At his age, too. He kids himself those laurels hide his bald patch.

I’ve got an appointment with a seamstress in Savilus Row. This toga’s on its last legs. I’m getting one made in that new fabric: Gore-tex.

Gore-tex, missus. Geddit? Oh, well, please yourselves.

more littlejohn here

Posted by peiper     on 01/18/2011 at 11:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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one lone tuff lady rushes into gang of thugs and saves a man while ppl watch

This was one hell of a brave woman, whoever she was.  These scum could have easily turned on her. And they would have had she been a white woman.
Take a look at the video.  And take a look at two of the scum involved.  Look at those faces and tell me if you see anything human there.
Woo-hoo. One is just a child of 18 and so goes into a “young offenders program.”
Take a good look at that ‘young offender.’

CCTV reveals lone woman rushing to save defenceless man during mob attack - as onlookers simply watch

By Daily Mail Reporter

Armed with only a bag of shopping, these images show a lone woman bravely intervening as a defenceless man was savagely beaten by a mob - whilst other onlookers walked on by or stood around to watch.

The woman was picking up groceries when she saw the victim being chased down the street by a gang of yobs, one on a bicycle, before being dragged to the ground.

The hoodie-wearing thugs, who were described by a judge as behaving ‘like wild animals’, repeatedly kicked and stamped on the 26-year old man’s head and body as passersby watched.

Posted by peiper     on 01/18/2011 at 11:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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   Monday - January 17, 2011

Keeping Away Winter’s Chill

This is an enhancement on the standard Mrs. Field’s chewy peanut butter cookie recipe. You still cook them low and slow, but this one has a stronger, deeper flavor. It also makes cookies which come out a bit thicker. Remember to dip the fork in water after pressing down each cookie. The extra tablespoon of flour and sugar compensates for the extra 1/4 cup of peanut butter. You could add a little more salt and perhaps an extra 1/8tsp of baking soda, but it isn’t really necessary. Try cooking them on parchment paper if you have it. I don’t, so I can’t say how that would change things. These cookies stay nice and chewy due to the fat in the butter, shortening, and the peanut butter.

Yum? Oh hella yeah.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus one rounded tablespoon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 generous cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 level cup white sugar plus one rounded tablespoon
1/3 cup molasses
3/4 cup salted butter, softened ( a stick and a half )
1/4 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 °F.

In a medium bowl combine flour, soda and salt.  Mix well with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In a large bowl blend sugars using an electric mixer set at medium speed.
Add molasses and butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping the sides of the bowl.
Add eggs, peanut butter and vanilla, and mix at medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until just mixed. DO NOT OVERMIX! Use a wooden spoon instead.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, 1 1/2-inches apart.

With a wet fork gently press a crisscross pattern on top of cookies. In order to keep dough from sticking to the fork as you proceed, dip the fork in water after each cookie is flattened.

Bake for 19-22 minutes until just brown at edges.

Makes 4 dozen. If you add 2 cups chocolate chips or nuts or raisins it will make 5-6 dozen, and cooking time will increase about 3 minutes per sheet. After making the first sheet as plain peanut butter cookies, I added 1c chocolate chips, 1c roughly chopped walnuts, and 1c of raisins. Worked fine. A non-stick cookie sheet is a good idea. Next batch I’ll try chopped 2c dry roast peanuts for a killer power peanut flavor.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/17/2011 at 11:08 PM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
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Last Words

Links from Rich K. I know I shouldn’t encourage him, but these are pretty good reads. Just kidding Rich; good work here!

Read it and weep, you lefty bastards:

There is grown-up work to do now. Liberals ran up the federal credit card, destroyed the American medical system and undermined the rule of law — which is the foundation of capitalism — with a bunch of unconstitutional fiats from the president and his bureaucracy.

Blame Bush!! Yeah, but this is the best dose of Teh Awesome to come along in a long time!

Of course the Times buries the truth half-way down its long story on Stuxnet computer worm, instantly saying that when Obama found out about it he made the program speed up. But no matter. It’s a confession from the New York Times, which is not prone to confessions. In fact, it was the New York Times that denied the Iranian nuclear threat for years and years during Bush’s tenure. It is the New York Times that published and promoted the plainly false National Intelligence Estimate of 2006, dumped by the intelligence bureaucracy to undermine George W. Bush. The left as represented by the NYT and WaPo, the Guardian and Der Spiegel, has a lot on its tiny little conscience.

I saw a TV news report on Iran’s nuke program this evening. They are screwed. Their centrifuges are burned out. They don’t dare start their computers. And the worm has spread outside the project. War by digital means, with no direct loss of life. And it looks like they lost this battle big time.



The only thing Green about Obama’s Green Energy Programs is our tax money going out the door and down the drain. Looks like another solar plant is shutting down, with the jobs moving to China. Gee, way to go Mr. One.

How else have the Democrats been trying to change our power industry?  The old-fashioned way: changing the rules of the game (as noted above) and then using our tax dollars to enrich green schemers.  The grand champion of spending boosts by Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress has been a 1,014% boost in spending for the “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program.” Then there is something called the Green Jobs Labor Fund—which did not even exist prior to 2009 and has received hundreds of millions of dollars.

But wait...there is more.

Much of the stimulus money also went toward funding green schemes, and one of the major beneficiaries have been solar power promoters.  These are, in the words of Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson, “pipe dreams.” Many of the promoters and hucksters behind these “ventures” have chummy relationships with Democrats—as will be covered below.

How are these solar dreams playing out?  As nightmares, at least for taxpayers.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/17/2011 at 10:00 PM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs • Obama, The One •  
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New Face

Posted by Drew458     on 01/17/2011 at 04:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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