Thursday - January 12, 2012
Sand Between Your Toes
The girl with 100 names hits the beach to recharge her freckles. Sigh. Even with brown hair I just adore her.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/12/2012 at 03:52 PM
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Permalink • obit. His name was Gevork Vartanyan,a Soviet spy, and worthy of our time to read his obit.
Here’s an obit about a derring-do sort of guy who worked for the other side.
He had quite a story. A Soviet, actually once attended Brit spy school. Helped to foul up a Nazi plot against Stalin,FDR and Churchill at their Tehran meeting.
It makes for some interesting reading and just cos he was on the other side didn’t make him less brave or deserving of attention.
Gevork Vartanyan
Most of Vartanyan’s work remains secret to this day.
February 17 1924, died January 10 2012Gevork Vartanyan, who has died aged 87, worked for Soviet intelligence for more than half a century and played an important part in thwarting a Nazi plot to assassinate Churchill, Stalin and President Roosevelt at the Tehran Conference in 1943.
The three Allied leaders convened at Tehran in November that year to discuss strategy, the principal item on the agenda being the opening of a second front in Western Europe. The Abwehr, Germany’s military intelligence service, had learnt of the time and place of the conference the previous month, having deciphered the American naval code, and the operation to assassinate the Allied leaders, code-named Long Jump, was put in the hands of one of their most trusted agents, Otto Skorzeny.
The operation was betrayed, however, when a Soviet intelligence officer, Nikolai Kuznetsov, posing as a German Oberleutnant called Paul Siebert, forged a friendship with an SS Sturmbannführer, Ulrich von Ortel. One evening von Ortel got drunk with Kuznetsov and boasted about Long Jump, revealing that special teams were being trained for the task in Copenhagen.
Security at the conference was principally the responsibility of the Soviets. Under the Russian-Persian Treaty of Friendship of 1921, the Soviet Union had sent troops into northern Persia in August 1941 to curb the operations of German agents. Britain, meanwhile, had deployed troops in the south to guarantee the flow of British-American lend-lease supplies to the USSR from the Persian Gulf.
The Conference itself (code-named Eureka) was held in the Soviet Embassy. One of the buildings in the compound was converted for use as a residence for President Roosevelt, since the American mission was in the suburbs and not considered secure. A tunnel was constructed between the Soviet embassy and the British embassy across the street. The area was heavily guarded.
Vartanyan later recalled: “Tehran at that time was flooded with refugees from war-ravaged Europe. For the most part, these were wealthy people trying to escape the risks of the war. There were about 20,000 Germans in Iran, and Nazi agents were hiding among them. They were aided by the pre-war patronage extended to the Germans by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who openly sympathised with Hitler. The German field station in [Persia], headed by Franz Meyer, was very powerful.”
In 1940-41 Vartanyan’s team of seven intelligence officers (who called themselves “the light cavalry” because they travelled about the city mainly by bicycle) had identified more than 400 Nazi agents, all of whom had been arrested by Soviet troops. Meyer was eventually discovered working as a gravedigger at an Armenian cemetery and arrested by the British.
In their efforts to foil the assassination plot, Vartanyan’s group located six Nazi radio operators shortly before the conference opened on November 28 1943. The German assassins had been dropped by parachute near the town of Qom, 40 miles from Tehran: “We followed them to Tehran, where the Nazi field station had readied a villa for their stay. They were travelling by camel, and were loaded with weapons. While we were watching the group, we established that th ey had contacted Berlin by radio, and recorded their communication.
“When we decrypted these radio messages, we learnt that the Germans were preparing to land a second group of subversives for a terrorist act — the assassination or abduction of the ‘Big Three’. The second group was supposed to be led by Skorzeny himself . ”
During the Tehran Conference, Stalin observed Roosevelt passing a handwritten note to Churchill, and instructed his head of intelligence in Persia, Ivan Ivanovich Agayants, to get hold of a copy. He succeeded. It read: “Sir, your fly is open.”
TELEGRAPH OBIT VARTANYAN for the full obit.
Posted by peiper
on 01/12/2012 at 12:03 PM
Filed Under: • OBITITUARIES •
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Permalink • It’s Gonna Be A Great Day
I saw this this morning at the store, and laughed so hard I almost cried. AAA+++. Fantabulous!
And I’ll take ma slippa and slap the s**t outta any cracka mofo dat says diffint!
Posted by Drew458
on 01/12/2012 at 09:09 AM
Filed Under: • Humor • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • Wednesday - January 11, 2012
I think I could be in love
An entire news article that explains the oddly warm winter most of the USA has been having so far this season, that goes into a fair level of climate science, and does NOT mention AGW or Climate Change even once. Be still, my heart.
It felt more like March than January in many places last week, as more than 1,000 temperature records fell across the country during a winter that has been unusually warm and dry in many places
...
Whether you are rejoicing the lack of cold or lamenting the lack of snow, you may be wondering: What’s behind the weirdly warm weather?Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/11/this-winters-weirdly-warm-weather-explained/?test=faces#ixzz1jBn01pve
...
Several forces are at work, experts say. To begin with, La Niña conditions have pushed warm water toward Australia in the western Pacific, leaving ocean waters off the American West coast about 5 degrees F colder than usual. As a result, moisture levels are currently low in the atmosphere from California to Washington State.
As for what’s ultimately beneath the weather rut we’re in, climate change is a tempting target but global warming is not necessarily to blame. In fact, a warmer world would cause warmer oceans
... and so on, blah blah blah. And not a single peep from the lunatic fringe.
It’s like actual reporting. Awesome.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/11/2012 at 04:51 PM
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •
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Permalink • Oopsie
Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and his driver Wednesday, reports said. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran’s atomic program.
The attack in Tehran bore a strong resemblance to earlier killings of scientists working on the Iranian nuclear program. It is certain to amplify authorities’ claims of clandestine operations by Western powers and their allies to halt Iran’s nuclear advances.
The blast killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, state TV reported. State news agency IRNA said Roshan had “organizational links” to Iran’s nuclear agency, which suggests a direct role in key aspects of the program.
On Tuesday, Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a “critical year” for Iran — in part because of “things that happen to it unnaturally.”
“Many bad things have been happening to Iran in the recent period,” added Mickey Segal, a former director of the Israeli military’s Iranian intelligence department. “Iran is in a situation where pressure on it is mounting, and the latest assassination joins the pressure that the Iranian regime is facing.”
Defiant Iranian authorities pointed the finger at archfoe Israel.
Oh sure, blame the Joooos. 
Personally, I blame motorcyclists in general. This is like the 6th time they’ve been involved in blowing up Iranian nuke geeks. Gosh. Details at the link.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/11/2012 at 09:37 AM
Filed Under: • Iran • War On Terror •
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Permalink • Tuesday - January 10, 2012
Southampton. Some photos and some history
Oh damn oh damn!
Everything you will see below was lost because I was careless and had many tabs open and hit that red ‘X’ in the upper right one more time then I needed to.
I was hitting save as I went but to no avail. Good thing in part I had some saved in Word. But I’ve now been at this for hours so this is it for me for today.
Chrome doesn’t ask if you want to restore previous closed tab. Does it? I haven’t seen it if it does. Rats!
Happy to report I’ve shaken, at long last, the miserable bug I’d caught.
Unhappy to report that now my wife has some sort of bug, not quite the very same but does have a bad cough. So it’s been my turn to play nurse. Which is frustrating cos there’s nothing worse then having someone ill, you know what they’re feeling because you’ve had it, and there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it. You wanna help but ......
I have some items to share in the way of photos and history. And I’m now over two years behind in posting one set. Back around Oct. of 2008 I made one of our trips into Southampton. Every few months a friend and I go there and haunt the electronic stores but most especially Maplin’s. I don’t think I’ve ever been there but that I haven’t spent money. There’s always something they have that I can’t live without.
So on the trip in ‘08 I brought my camera and took a bunch of snaps. The ancient Bargate is in fact right outside Maplin’s door. You can’t turn in any direction without bumping into some serious history over here . Then last month we went back again. But I didn’t have a camera with me, and I found myself in a different part of town I had not seen before. It was just before Christmas, and we parked a long way from where we had to go. And there was this wall, and another, and a tower. Wow. Turns out it was all once connected to the ancient main gate about a mile from where we were. A lot had been lost in the war after German bombing, Southampton being a major port. And there was also a Spitfire factory there. So I borrowed my friend’s phone/camera and got off a few shots. But as he was leaving for Italy within days to spend Christmas there with his married daughter and grandkids, I didn’t get the pix until today. And I figured I’d stalled long enuff and so am sharing now. Hope you enjoy and heck. It’s a welcome change from my usual mad man rants. Gimme a minute. I have to grab the coffee from the kitchen.
I look at things here from the past and the people who put things together in ages when nobody had heard of health and safety. You know, something needed doing and they just did it. And they didn’t apologize all the time either. So here’s what I’ve been up to most of today. I’ve been editing and cropping all this stuff.
It doesn’t look like a lot but darn if it isn’t all time consuming.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTHAMPTON, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND
http://www.localhistories.org/southampton.html
ROMAN SOUTHAMPTON
About 70 AD the Romans built a town on a bend in the River Itchen. The Roman town was called Clausentum. The streets were laid out in a grid pattern and they were gravelled. All the buildings in the Roman town were, at first, built of wood but in the 2nd century wealthy people rebuilt their houses in stone. They had panes of glass in the windows, painted murals on the walls and mosaic floors. Of course, poor people could afford none of these things. They lived in wood and plaster huts.
BARGATE
The main entrance to the walled town of Southampton was through the Bargate at the northern end of the town. Since the time of Henry II, many of the Kings and Queens of England have passed through the Bargate. By 1175, a simple square stone tower had been built, and the arch completed. There was a ditch in front of the gate with a bridge over it and ramparts on either side. Between 1260 and 1290, the ramparts were replaced by a stone wall. Round drum-towers were built on either side of the gateway and a hall was constructed on the first floor. The façade between the towers was added by 1420, with battlements and machicolations6. The ditch was filled in 1771, when the road through the bargate was paved. The shields were added in the 17th and 18th Centuries, showing crests of the families who ruled Southampton at the time; the shields of St George and St Andrew were also added at this time.
A penny postcard, 1920.
Guarding the Bargate are two lions, reflecting the local legend of Sir Bevis of Hampton, the mythical founder of Southampton. The first lions were put up in 1522, when the Bargate was decorated for the visit of King Charles V of Spain. The original wooden lions were replaced by the current lead lions in 1743. There were also two painted panels hung on either side of the gateway showing Sir Bevis and Ascupart, which are now preserved inside.
The Southampton Blitz
Southampton suffered badly from large-scale air raids during World War II. As a large port city on the south coast, it was an important strategic target for the German Luftwaffe. According to A.R.P. (Air Raid Precautions Department) reports over 2,300 bombs were dropped amounting to over 470 tonnes of high explosives. Over 30,000 incendiary devices were dropped on the city. Nearly 45,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, with most of the city’s High Street being hit. There were reports that the glow of the firestorm of Southampton burning could be seen from as far away as Cherbourg on the coast of France. Nazi publicity declared in propaganda that the city had been left a smoking ruin.
By far the worst were on 23 and 30 November and 1 December 1940 and these attacks are generally referred to as “Southampton’s Blitz”. During this three day period, much of the town centre was destroyed.
More than 3.5 million members of the Allied Forces including over two million United States Troops embarked from Southampton in 1944 - 45 for the Invasion of Occupied Europe.
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A80859054
illustration late 1880s
There have been settlements in the area of modern day Southampton since at least Roman times. After the Romans left the region, the Saxonsbuilt a sizeable town known as Hamtun. Despite being initially a successful settlement, it suffered badly at the hands of Viking raiders during the 9th and 10th centuries. The town was probably a victim of its own success; exporting wool and housing a Royal Mint at the time.
There is a tour of sorts here and you can follow what’s left of the old wall around the city. At one time I was informed, Southampton had more ancient walls and things still standing then any other city of it’s size. I have no idea about now however. So much was lost in the war.
I mentioned earlier that I found us in a part of the city I had not seen before. WOW. It wasn’t spectacular in the sense of size or anything ornate. But the idea that any of this was still standing. The next pix were taken between the black iron bars that made up a fence. Like this shot.
And just around the corner I saw this.
I wanted to see what was on the other side of that and through that opening. And the only way to do that was walk down the ally and climb the fire escape on the building opposite. Now let tell ya that was a small trick because the railing was coming away from the wall and had movement. Yeah. It swayed and so I took it fairly slow, but got off these next shots.
Titanic departs Southampton on her first, and only, passenger-carrying voyage. She is pulled by a tug, belching black smoke.
Well, our trip’s at an end. Finally. Oh yeah. See that red square over there on the right? The sign it surrounds was obscured so I thought you’d be happy to know it’s .... a Burger King.
Posted by peiper
on 01/10/2012 at 02:41 PM
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • History • UK •
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Permalink • Building A Better Mousegun
A “mousegun” is a very tiny pistol, made to fit in your pocket. Usually they are chambered for the diminutive calibers; .22LR, .25 ACP, and .32 ACP. Lately several have come on the market that use the .380 ACP. None of these cartridges is a powerhouse, but when the foo hits the shan they are better than no gun at all. First rule of gun fighting: bring a gun.
It used to be that semi-automatic pocket pistols all used a blow-back action, like the Beretta Tomcat. A blow-back action is one without any kind of breech locking mechanism; the action is held closed by spring power alone, and held somewhat closed during firing by the mass of the pistol’s slide. Although such guns are easy and inexpensive to make, this kind of design is limited to cartridges that generate very low chamber pressure, and in a stubby little mousegun that always means low velocity. And low velocity means low muzzle energy, which is another way of saying they don’t have much killing power, and they certainly don’t have much of any stopping power.
(Huh? Killing power is just that. If you shoot something in the vital organs with a bullet that can penetrate deep enough to puncture those organs, and can dig a hole at least half an inch wide while doing so, the critter you have shot is going to die. Eventually. Doesn’t matter if it’s a squirrel or an elephant, although the required penetration depth varies with the size of the critter. Stopping power is the ability of a bullet to shatter, destroy, and permanently displace internal organs and nerve pathways enough so that the creature stops in its tracks, stunned. It stops running, stops attacking, and hopefully falls over. Stopping power is more of a concept based on observations, and is often given the colorful label “hydrostatic shock”. All animals are essentially bags of water. Smack the bag hard enough and it bursts, or at least gets pushed out of shape. Put a big enough hole in it and it quickly leaks out. And that’s the “science” of killing things, without going into too much graphic detail ... look up “wounding theory”, “terminal ballistics”, “temporary vs permanent wound channel” if you want to know more.)
With nearly the entire USA now being allowed by the States to exercise their God given right of self-protection, a vast number of people have taken to carrying a pistol on their person. “CCW” we call that. While some folks prefer and would argue for “open carry” (ie a pistol in a holster on your belt) most of us would prefer to not advertise the fact, and elect to carry a pistol in our pockets, or somewhere out of sight. The problem is that a pistol small enough to drop in your pocket and light enough to carry around without pulling your pants down is almost always chambered for one of the earlier mentioned puny cartridges.
Things have changed, somewhat. In the past few years there have been a plethora of very tiny locked breech .380 ACP pocket pistols brought to the market. So many that .380 ammo was darn hard to find for a couple years recently. For semi-auto mouseguns the .380 is about the best choice you have; while the 9mm Luger (aka the 9x19, 9mm Parabellum, or just the 9mm) is a far more powerful cartridge, it has not been available in any very tiny pistol at all, ever. Ok, you can get a 9mm from Boberg these days for a bit over $1000. And there’s that one from Rohrbaugh or however you spell it, also over $1000. And both of those pistols weigh more than 3/4 of a pound and are nearly an inch thick. Small, but heavy for their size and a bit thick to go in your pocket without leaving a big old bulge. But most other 9mm pistols are quite a bit bigger although they usually cost a lot less.
The current generation of lightweight .380 pocket pistols are all about 5” long, 3.6” tall, 3/4” thick and weigh in around half a pound. That’s pretty tiny and pretty light. And most of them (Ruger LCP, Kel-Tec P3AT, the Taurus model) cost $350 or less. And they all have locked breech designs these days, which makes for a much stronger and safer pistol.
The problem is still with the .380 ACP cartridge. And with the lawyers. And with SAAMI, the industry firearms governing board. And to point it all out, I have to build a table or two. Damn.
| Cartridge | bullet dia. | case base dia. | case mouth dia. | wall thickness | case length | overall length | SAAMI max pressure, PSI |
| .380 ACP | 0.355” | 0.374” | 0.373” | 0.009” | 0.680” | 0.984” | 21,500 |
| .38 Auto | 0.356” | 0.384” | 0.384” | 0.014” | 0.900” | 1.28” | 26,500 |
| .38 Super | 0.356” | 0.384” | 0.384” | 0.014” | 0.900” | 1.28” | 36,500 |
| 9mm Ultra (9x18) | 0.355” | 0.389” | 0.381” | 0.013” | 0.709” | 1.004” | 26,100 |
| .9mm Luger (9x19) | 0.355” | 0.391” | 0.380” | 0.0125” | 0.754” | 1.169” | 35,000 |
| .9mm NATO (9x19) | 0.355” | 0.391” | 0.380” | 0.0125” | 0.754” | 1.169” | 38,500 |
| 9x23 Winchester | 0.356” | 0.392” | 0.381” | 0.0125” | 0.90” | 1.3” | 44,000 |
| .38 Special | 0.359” | 0.379” | 0.379” | 0.010” | 1.155” | 1.55” | 17,000 |
| .357 Magnum | 0.359” | 0.379” | 0.379” | 0.010” | 1.29” | 1.59” | 35,000 |
Ok, several things pop right out here. The .38 Special and the .357 Magnum are revolver cartridges. Not only do the cases have rims, their OALs (overall lengths) are a bit big to fit inside the handle of a semi-automatic and fit comfortably in your hand. It’s been done, but those guns don’t fit everyone. For all extents and purposes, all the cartridges listed here use 9mm bullets. The revolver cartridges are speced for lead bullets, so they are a tad oversize. The .38 Auto and the .38 Super Auto date back to John Browning’s day, and are the exact same cartridge but loaded to two very different pressure points. Which can lead to disaster if you put the wrong ammo in the wrong gun. Oops. A difference in spec of 2 or 3 one thousands of an inch is meaningless, given production tolerances. So a .389” case diameter is really the same as a .391” case diameter, although a .355” diameter bullet is not the same as a .356”, .357”, or .358” one. But they’re all 38s ... or 9s ... that’s just how guns are: confusing.
But you can easily see that the .380 Auto is a much smaller case made with thinner (weaker) walls and set to a much lower pressure standard than the 9x19, whether we’re talking Luger or NATO. Yes, the Army made the Luger a far more effective round by jacking the pressure up 10%. Almost all 9mm pistols can handle it, but to be safe I’d look for one specifically chambered for the 9mm NATO, like the Beretta 92F, which is the pistol the Army uses. For now.
The 9x23 Winchester is to the 9mm Luger what the .357 Magnum is to the .38 Special: it’s the same case, just longer, and set to run at a much higher pressure. This is a specialty cartridge used mostly by metallic target shooters, but I put it in to show that pistol cases in this size range with 0.0125” thick walls can handle quite a bit more pressure than even the 9mm NATO. The .357 Maximum (not listed here) is similar; it’s just a stretched .357 Magnum and it also runs at 44,000 psi. Which is the same pressure bracket used by the .30-30 rifle (43,500 psi); rather hot for a handgun, but not impossible.
So the Gun Nutz argue that the .380 ACP isn’t enough gun, the modern 9x19 is, but the .357 Magnum is usually too much gun. Go figure. But what they are talking about is stopping power and killing power, and those two are inextricably linked to bullet weight and velocity. More equals better, but too much is too much. Especially in a dinky little half pound pistol the size of the palm of your hand that you can only hold on to with 3 fingers, 1 of which is pulling the trigger.
How do the lawyers come in to play here? Because SAAMI, the regulating group, sets the cartridge pressure standards as a Maximum Probable Lot Mean, or MPLM, and that means that no cartridge that meets their spec (and they all have to) can ever exceed the maximum allowable pressure. Translated into lawyereese, that means all commercially available “factory ammo” not labeled as being designed to be over standard pressures actually runs a bit less than maximum pressure. Sometimes a lot less, and the trend is that the older the cartridge is, the lower the maximum becomes. And most of these cartridges have already been around for about 100 years. This is why folks load their own ammo, see? And why ammo brought in from Europe is so “hot”. No, it just isn’t as watered down lawyered up.
So is there a solution? Yes! But then again, no! That’s guns, and they’re confusing!!
Many pistol cartridges have an unofficial variant, a hot rodded version called a “+P”. There is no exact specification for what “+P” means, or furthermore what “+P+” means, but both of them mean “somewhat more than SAAMI pressure”. Or in lawyereese, “actually runs at SAAMI pressure”. Probably. And all the +P types of ammo should only be used in modern guns so chambered, of which almost none are. Or else it’s all on your head, m’kay? So there is a .38 Special +P, a quarter of the way between regular .38 Special and .357 Magnum pressures, and there are actually revolvers sold marked as such, because the original .38 Special runs at such anemic pressure that even a cheap pistol is more than strong enough for it. Remember that the Special started life back in black powder days, before the advent of chrome or moly steel. So any old crap steel these days is strong enough, and almost all the gun companies build them with really first class steel anyway, because they aren’t completely stupid. And while no +P designation exists for the .45 Colt or the .45-70, the loading manuals are full of “Ruger only” loads for them that are +P level or more, because that gun company builds really strong guns. But you may have trouble finding almost any other gun labeled as being chambered for a “+P” anything. (Confused yet? No? Good. Because almost every single rifle made for the .257 Roberts cartridge in the past 50 years has been labeled as a .257 Roberts +P. With guns, there’s always, always an exception or two.)
Of the 3 latest generation .380 ACP pocket pistols on the market, 2 specifically tell you not to use +P ammo. 1 of those guns will break if you do so. Maybe. The 3rd company says you can use the +P stuff, but not all the time. Because it will wear your gun out, and quickly. Why? Because super tiny lightweight pistols are engineered more towards the minimum than the maximum. They have to shave every last possible gram, and that means their parts are smaller, lighter, and thinner than those of bigger pistols. Therefore not as overly excessively robust. So the lawyers get involved ... and you know how that song and dance goes.
Right. So standard .380 ACP ammo is better than nothing, but not really quite enough. And .380 +P is a lot better, though still on the low powered side. Full powered 9x19 ammo is enough (and may over-penetrate), and even lame-o factory .357 Magnum ammo is far too much. For personal defense, we’re talking. Which means shooting people at close ranges who are trying to kill you. Let’s look at what the numbers are, and try and hack out that “just right” Goldilocks solution before the apocalypse gets here, m’kay Drew?
| Cartridge | Bullet Weight, grains | Sectional Density | fps Velocity, 2.75” barrel | Muzzle Energy, lb/ft |
| .380 Auto | 95 | 0.108 | 1000 | 200 |
| .380 Auto +P | 100 | 0.113 | 1060 | 250 |
| 9x19 | 124 | 0.140 | 1180 | 384 |
| .357 Magnum | 125 | 0.141 | 1300 | 470 |
| 9x18 Ultra | 100 | 0.113 | 1065 | 252 |
| 9x18 Ultra +P | 115 | 0.130 | 1150 | 346 |
I’m kind of giving away the surprise. The solution is the 9x18, and the better solution is the 9x18 +P. Which doesn’t yet exist except in my ballistics software calculations. But my numbers are realistic, and I can even tell you what bullet and what powder to use. The 9x18 has quite a number of names, but 9x18 Ultra is one of the more common ones.
The 9x18 is not new. It was developed in the late 1930s as being the most potent 9mm cartridge that could function in a cheap blow-back action. It is a big enough cartridge to seat a decent weight bullet with good sectional density; that means the bullet has enough mass to penetrate well and enough body so that it can expand enough without turning itself inside out. The OAL of the cartridge is small enough so that the thickness and width of a pocket pistol’s grips will still be fairly small and fit just about all hands. In its normal pressure form it packs as much energy as the iffy +P .380 ammo, and in its own +P form (36,000 psi) it has almost as much wallop as the modern 9x19 NATO, using a slightly light bullet for a bit less recoil. It’s the best middle of the road, and is just about completely unknown in the USA. It’s a European cartridge, and for a little while was what the euro-cops carried. These days they’ve all “up gunned” and carry the 9x19. So, where did this little wonder come from? It was designed back in the day by those wonderful leaders in science and technology of their age ... the Nazis. Oops.
Today’s generation of micro pocket guns, all of which have locked breeches, could easy be made to chamber the 9x18 +P. It would take an extra ounce of steel, perhaps two, and perhaps an extra tenth of an inch of length. But it could be done, and they’d be strong enough and then some. The lawyers and the marketing guys would have to get together though, and decide to make the case 0.002” longer and the OAL 0.005” longer and then give it a new name, probably something like “the all-new mid-size 9mm All American” and then never, ever breath a word about its history. Because nobody says the real “N” word, ever. Not that one. Sales killer, guaranteed. Even for certain insecticides which happen to be soooo so close to certain other poisons that have a vile and horrid history. And it would be just as bad with guns. Worse maybe. So don’t breath a word. Better yet, let Glock do it, and they’ll call the round the 9mm GAP ... especially since this one actually fills a gap, unlike their slightly silly .45 GAP cartridge from a couple years ago.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/10/2012 at 12:49 PM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
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Permalink • Monday - January 09, 2012
Off Day
Nothing from me today. Spent half the morning down at the auto shop, got a new muffler. Not exactly my idea of exciting times, but WTH, it needed to be done.
Now I’ve got to run some laundry, clean the kitchen, and maybe get to the bank and the food store.
Sometimes you just don’t have time to sit in front of the computer and blog.
I did notice this one - more than a month after the Fast & Furious money laundering BS first bubbled up, details are emerging and the DOJ CYA is going full throttle.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084190/US-agents-HELPED-Colombian-drug-lord-The-Rabbit-launder-millions-dollars.html
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/197339-issa-expands-dea-probe-to-include-money-laundering
Personally, I don’t buy it.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/09/2012 at 03:55 PM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • making odd ppl feel welcome.
From the world of the weird and the stupid and the politically correct.
No link so you’ll just have to darn well take my word for it that this is what I saw in the Telegraph. Which is usually pretty hard to get links from when the hard copy has no writer credit and sometimes even when it does.
I guess next on the list to grow will be every single interest and ethnic group imaginable.
Here it is the beginning of a new year and I think I may have already found the Moonbat Award for all of 2012.
On the other hand, the rate of stupid moves so fast ………….. Here. Take a look.
INSPECTORS WILL GIVE GAY-FRIENDLY RATINGS TO SHOPS.
SHOPS in a former mining town will be inspected and rated for how welcoming they are to homosexuals.
Mystery shoppers will visit businesses in Barnsley to make sure they are gay friendly.
Firms signing up to the “Rainbow Tick” scheme will be trained on how to treat the gay community and will face checks to ensure they maintain standards.
Apparently there were reports of abuse in dealing fairly, by which the group organizing the inspections mean that the rather odd balls among the population weren’t treated with respect. Since they work and spend their money in that town, the activists say they should have the same respect and rights “and know they are welcome.”
That last is a fair comment except for the welcome part. How would you go about showing how welcome someone is, when in fact they aren’t actually welcome at all?
The problem surfaced because a couple were holding hands and asked to leave in one case, and in another case a lesbian couple simply had their arms around each other at the bar. So the bar tender “leaned over the bar and separated them.” A rights group says that would not happen had the couples been hetros.
I guess that’s true enough if you think about it. And I don’t have any problem with treating customers properly. But the inspection thing just seems like another step in a big brother society.
Posted by peiper
on 01/09/2012 at 12:00 PM
Filed Under: • Gay Gay Gay! •
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Permalink • Sunday - January 08, 2012
Empathy? Who has any?
Emperor Misha I has ranted…
The “Empathy” of the Loony Left
Posted by Emperor Misha I on January 7, 2012It’s Saturday, so it’s time for Steyn, who this weeks talks about the strange version of “empathy” the Prognazis employ.
You know, the kind of “empathy” that extends only to the “right” of pregnant women to exterminate their “fetuses”, but certainly not to the parents of children who died before or immediately after birth. Witness Prognazi Alan Colmes, that throwback to the darkest ages of knuckle-dragging barbarism, who had a jolly old time mocking the Santorums for “taking home their dead infant to ‘play’ with it”, followed by the equally morally repugnant stinking swine Eugene Robinson who stated that this “proved” that Santorum was not “merely” weird, but really weird.
We’ll let Steyn say it (and you really ought to go read the whole thing):
But needs must, and victory by any means necessary. In 2008, the Left gleefully mocked Sarah Palin’s live baby. It was only a matter of time before they moved on to a dead one.
We haven’t ever had to face the horror of having a child die but, as Steyn says, there but for the Grace of G-d.
The thing is, even though we’ve never had to deal with an experience and horrible as that, we still somehow manage to scrape up enough humanity and actual empathy not to piss on somebody who has gone through it. It must be that cold, indifferent, self-sufficient right wing nuttism in us, unlike the true humanitarians in the Prognazi Party who, like that lizard-faced freak mutation, Alan Colmes, couldn’t find it in himself to even apologize for something he shouldn’t have said in the first place until he’d reduced Mrs. Santorum to tears with his callous, cruel, subhuman mockery.
May Almighty G-d have mercy on his shriveled, black soul, because we won’t. He’s dead to us.
But such is the “empathy” of the Prognazis that they forever brag about and use as a contrast to us evil, indifferent, hatey haters of the right.
Where’s their empathy for the citizens living in dangrous neighborhoods who can’t defend themselves thanks to the Prognazis’ insistence that only criminals ought to be armed? Where’s their empathy with the families of victims of violent crime when they do everything they can to make sure the criminal is let out quickly to murder, maim and rape again? Where’s their empathy with poor families who will soon be unable to pay their electric bills thanks to their fascist Ogabe EPA’s war on energy production? Where’s their empathy with the millions of Americans who have lost everything, not only their jobs, thanks to their war on business?
Where’s their empathy with the coming generations of Americans who will be born with an overcharged national credit card, a debt they’ll never be able to repay, just so the Prognazis could keep on living high on the hog and charge their vote-buying, nepotistic schemes to generations not even born yet?
Yet we’re the Evil Ones.
Well, if what the Prognazis have been exhibiting for everybody to see for as long as they’ve been around is “empathy”, then they can fucking well have it. We’ll stick with our “hateful” ways and be proud of them too.
Fuck them sideways with the Shimmering, Shit-encrusted, Splintered Shillelagh of Sodom (+4 against Socialist Shits), may they be humped viciously for all eternity by the Many-headed Monster Cock of Moloch until their shredded innards run down their legs and may G-d, in his mercy, grant us all the blessing of amnesia that we may, one day, forget our sinful negligence in suffering them to walk among us unmolested.
Thatisall.
You gotta love his way with words and alliteration.
Shimmering, Shit-encrusted, Splintered Shillelagh of Sodom (+4 against Socialist Shits)
Why is it I think he misspent part of his youth playing D&D?
Posted by Christopher
on 01/08/2012 at 12:11 PM
Filed Under: • Editorials • Humor • Media-Bias •
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Permalink • Friday - January 06, 2012
Stick that in your hookah and smoke it
U.S. sailors from a carrier strike group whose recent presence in the Persian Gulf drew the ire of Iranian military officials have rescued 13 of the Middle Eastern country’s sailors from a hijacked fishing boat, a military spokesman said Friday.
The destroyer USS Kidd came to the aid of the ship Thursday in the North Arabian sea, near the crucial Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy.
“Their presence does nothing but create mayhem, and we never wanted them to be present in the Persian Gulf,” [Iranian Admiral] Vahidi said [last week].
According to the Navy, a helicopter from the Kidd spotted a suspect pirate boat alongside the Iranian vessel. At the same time, the Kidd received a distress call from the captain of ship, the Al Molai, saying he and his crew were being held captive by pirates.
A team from the Kidd boarded the Al Molai, took 15 suspected pirates into custody and freed 13 Iranian hostages, the Navy said.
The suspected pirates, mostly Somalis, were taken to the Stennis to be held until a decision is made about prosecution, Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said Friday.
Pirates hijacked the Al Molai 40 to 45 days ago, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement.
A month and a half? And they’ve been right there, right off the friggin’ coast of Iran, in a sea barely 80 miles wide ever since??
The crew was “held hostage, with limited rations and we believe were forced against their will to assist the pirates with other piracy operations,” according to the statement.
The Navy reports that the Iranian boat had been pirated and used as a “mother ship” for pirate operations throughout the Persian Gulf, according to members of the Iranian vessel’s crew.
Oh sure. I think I smell something ... kinda stinks like 6 week old fish, you know? Makes me doubt the fisherman’s story a wee bit.
The Navy team provided food, water and medical care to both the suspected pirates and the crew of the Al Molai after securing the ship and ensuring everyone was safe, Schminky said.
The crew had “been though a lot,” he said. “We went out of our way to treat the fishing crew with kindness and respect,” he said.
Oh snap.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/06/2012 at 04:35 PM
Filed Under: • Iran • Military • Pirates, aarrgh! •
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Permalink • It feels so good to finally have clean balls
Bowling has been a tad frustrating the past couple of weeks. My games have been well below average and my teams have lost because of it. Almost always until now I have blamed myself for having a bit of down scoring, and tried some extra practice to alleviate it. It hardly worked this time; the only time I could throw a series of games in the 190+ zone was when we practiced in the afternoon when the lanes were burnt to a crisp. So I bit the bullet and took my balls to the pro shop. I got a couple of new fingertip inserts and had my strike ball baked again. That ball is several years old, and it really does need to go through the rejuvenation process every 30 to 40 games. Steam the oil out and get the surface sanded. I’ve rolled close to 100 since I last had it done. It was time. Had my spare ball refit and steamed too.
And, oh my, what a difference. I was throwing some great hook last night, and turned in 3 good games for a 587 series at Cheap League. Truth be told, I wasn’t really even trying much, because we played a lesser team and I was trying to shave points. Um, “do some tactical bowling” I mean. Whatever. We gave them 126 pins for handicap - that’s like adding a whole extra bowler to their roster - and we beat them handily, 7-0, winning the wood by almost 200 pins.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/06/2012 at 02:20 PM
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Permalink • Having Fun With Foreigners
Boldly stolen from Theo’s.
“The vicar’s vital victory was in the victuals” right? Or was it in the visuals? Never can remember.
Here is a complicated bit of doggerel to read out loud. It’s a bit of an extra challenge for us Yanks because we spell things differently. So rise to it and win the day. Pronunciation and Vocabulary Test. You should be able to pronounce and define all but the smallest handful of these words.
I’m a little light on my classic mythology learning, so I missed both Muses. I did not pronounce them properly and I did not know who they were. Heck, if I had to take a guess, I’d say that a terpsichorean ecdysiast was a mutli-theological preacher to turtles.
“fe0ffer” is a typo. They meant to write “feoffer”. Easy to say, but a new word to me, as was paling, even though I’ve known the old expression “beyond the pale” for most of my life. I just never thought that it was an actual, physical thing. “Don’t lose your senses, it’s outside your demesnes”. But feoffer? If the ruler of a caliphate was beneficent and handing out land, and you were the passenger in car stuck in traffic behind his and the road was open and you really wanted to get ahead of him, would you seize the once in a lifetime chance to say to the driver “Please pass the sultan feoffer”? I would, in a New York Second.
Now go find your local EAS member* and have them read this poem aloud. Then try to explain why it’s humorous and yet not derogatory. Good luck with that.
* EAS - English Assassination Society, a term for people not from here who do their best to kill the language through wrong word choice, poor diction, worse spelling, broken meter, and imaginative grammar. The funny thing is, with a small bit of effort you can still understand them. English is quite robust that way. Which helps when someone tells you that he is of laughing in your feces.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/06/2012 at 01:45 PM
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •
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Permalink • TooDaze Stoopid Newz, Part 1
For once it wasn’t unexpected!
The nation’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in nearly three years at the end of 2011, as a burst of private-sector hiring helped sustain what has been a positive trend lately in the job market.
The rate, which dipped to 8.5 percent in December, has dropped for four straight months. The direction of the numbers could help soften the political blow of what remains a tough economy for President Obama, who is charging into a competitive re-election year.
“It’s good news that more Americans found work last month despite a sluggish economy, but both parties must come together and do more to address the ongoing uncertainty that small businesses face,” House Speaker John Boehner [aka Crybaby] said. “Today marks the 35th consecutive month of unemployment above eight percent, and too many Americans continue to struggle to find their next job.”
The December report painted a picture of a broadly improving job market. Average hourly pay rose, providing consumers with more income to spend. The average work week lengthened, a sign that business is picking up and companies may soon need more workers. And hiring was strong across almost all major industries.
...
Manufacturing added 23,000 jobs. Transportation and warehousing added 50,000 jobs. Retailers added 28,000 jobs. Even the beleaguered construction industry added 17,000 workers.
Don’t read this part:
The drop in the rate, the lowest since February 2009, was driven by a net payroll increase of 200,000 in December. The rate also came down in part because the size of the labor force shrank by 50,000. Many who are unemployed have stopped looking for jobs. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching for jobs.
When including those groups, the broader “underemployment” rate was 15.2 percent. That’s down from 15.6 percent the previous month, but still high. The figure has dropped for three straight months.
Also please don’t think about the stats: 28,000 new jobs in retail is 14% of the gain, yet this could be almost entirely seasonal help brought on for the holidays. If half of them get let go in January, we’re right back up to over 9% again. Grain of salt? No, a bucketful.
Personally, I’m glad the unemployment situation is improving, however the numbers may be diddled. Every new job helps us get back on our feet. And I’m rather proud that the American economy can show some signs of life no matter what the Commie In Charge tries to do to it. But even if it should catch fire tomorrow, and a record setting hiring spree go on all year long, I won’t give him or his policies a milligram’s worth of credit. Any economic good news is coming in spite of the government, not because of it.
Posted by Drew458
on 01/06/2012 at 11:32 AM
Filed Under: • Economics • News-Briefs •
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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.
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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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