Month: June 2010

Sweet double standards

/ hsoi

So I get my City of Austin Utilities bill in the mail. It contains some filers talking about the city effort encouraging people to garden and build habitats in a manner that encourages wildlife.

Cool! That’s one thing I love about where I live, as there’s lots of wildlife. We get deer, ducks, foxes, armadillos, raccoons, possums, mockingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, Carolina wrens, tufted titmouses, all other manner of birds, rat snakes, toads, various other reptiles, insects, butterflies… I mean, you name it. It’s quite a variety of fauna around here. And I admit, the fact Austin isn’t a concrete jungle is one reason I love it.

So I read more into the city’s program.

Hrm.

It talks about wanting to encourage butterflies, birds, frogs, salamanders and the like. But never is mention made of deer, ducks, foxes, armadillos, raccoons, snakes, and so on. In fact, if you look at the city ordinances and polices, it’s got a good many things on the books specifically to discourage that sort of wildlife.

So the City of Austin doesn’t really want to encourage wildlife, just certain kinds of wildlife. Furthermore, the city wants to discourage the uh… undesirable wildlife.

It’s always amusing (and sad) when all the fuckin’ liberals scream about how its wrong to discriminate, yet they are some of the worst offenders of the very same.

I doubt it would help

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

This article on the BP oil spill is pretty sickening to read. If I tried to quote select passages, I’d just end up copy and pasting the whole thing. Basically, it’s sorely evident BP made decisions that, while you can’t prove they caused the disaster, they do lend strong support to the notion that these sorts of decisions certainly contributed. Basically, they took shortcuts, wanted things done faster, cheaper. While I can’t necessarily fault them for that, given what’s on the line (lives, billions of dollars, environmental disaster), well… evidently the execs can put a (cheap) price on it all.

And so, some people claim this is a failing of the free-market and proof that we need more governmental oversight and regulation.

Folks, all the oversight in the world wouldn’t stop this, and it’s also not a failing of the free market.

It’s one simple thing that caused it.

Basic human greed.

I have no problem with making money. If I could swim like Scrooge McDuck through an ocean of money, I’d be happy to do so. But there’s something to be said for putting your personal greed above all else. They just saw the dollar signs, they didn’t care about anything else… and this is how they — and the whole world — will now pay for it.

I do believe one can be moral and ethical and still make lots of money. It’s not a matter of government control, it’s not a matter of free-market… neither caused this, neither will solve this. Greed is orthogonal to those things, and greed is the real problem. And frankly, it’s what sort of free-market we have that is really going to make BP (and all future oil companies) understand why the course of action and internal company decisions that led up to this is never a road to again go down. Let’s hope we all can learn from this and never do it again.

Class AAR

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

This past Saturday I assisted with the Basic Pistol 2 and Defensive Pistol Skills 1 classes at KR Training.

In general, the classes ran smooth. Due to the high heat and high humidity, the classes were modified slightly to do dry-fire in the classroom (read: air-conditioning) to help get some of the basic skills put in place. This has always been a beneficial thing to do and pays dividends when we actually get out on the range.

The DPS1 class was kinda cool for me, because my buddy Charles came out for it (finally got him to a class!). As well, local gunblogger Jay was finally out for a class. You can read Jay’s AAR here.

As I like to do, I point out demographics. BP2 had the typical mix of folks: ages, genders, ethnicities. DPS1 was all men, but otherwise still a fair gamut of folks. It ain’t all old white rednecks, folks.

One thing that did get me about these classes? A lot of things happened, a lot of questions asked, a lot of discussion and observation. It’s motivated me to make a bunch of postings, and I’ll roll those out over the next few days.

The importance of power

/ hsoi

OldStyleMuayThai has an article on the importance of power, especially in practice.

In a streetfight you have about a three to eight second window of opportunity to finish your opponent and get away before it becomes more dangerous for you.

After the window of opportunity is closed anything can happen and it’s usually not very good.

You can both end up on the ground, more than one adversary can appear, weapons can be drawn against you, and your energy will be severely drained.

So why would you be throwing love taps at your attacker when he is totally committed to ripping your head from your shoulders and kicking it down the street.

There is no reason why anybody should be sparring with their adversary when in a streetfight.

That’s why I tell people to have intent when they train in the gym or dojo, spar like you’re in a streetfight, and not like you’re in a cardio boxing class.

While he’s talking within the context of fisticuffs, really the principle is applicable to any context. And it’s summed up in one line:

GET REAL AND START TRAINING LIKE YOU MEAN IT!!!

Whatever the reason you’re training, remember that reason. When you are training, train towards that goal. So if your goal is self-defense, hit that punching bag like it’s someone intent on ripping your head off. Shoot that target like it’s someone intent on raping your wife and leaving you for dead. Put your mindset where it needs to be.

Granted, not all training sessions can be this way, and it’s not always applicable. For instance, I may be training for a competition instead of self-defense; that is, I may have multiple goals that I’m working towards. That’s fine, because the key remains to not just go out there and tap the bag or fling lead downrange or whatever. Set your goal, work towards it.

Sunday Metal – Sepultura

/ hsoi

Sorry, without Max (and Igor), it’s not Sepultura.

One of my favorite bands in their (sub)genre. Fast, dissonant yet melodic. Technical, with a groove, thrash, moody; like Prego, it’s in there. Max’s growl wasn’t death cookie monster but yet due to his accent had a different sound.

When “Arise” came out, I was working college radio. Roadrunner Records did a huge promotion of it. I recall getting some video of a live show in Barcelona, a nice-sized pewter pin that replicated the “Beneath the Remains” album cover, a vinyl picture disc of “Arise”. Even that summer I took my leather biker jacket and got the “tribal S” airbrushed onto the shoulder. Yeah, I liked ’em.

But then, Max left. Just not the same.

Need something?

/ hsoi

If you need Viagra or Cialis…

If you want to meet singles…

If you need bankruptcy relief…

If you need sexy and supportive bras…

If you want to install solar panels today…

If you want thousands of ringtones…

How about 25 Dominican cigars?

A free iPhone 4G?

Maybe tips on lowering your cholesterol?

Viagra?

Viagra?

Viagra?

Maybe want to make $34 million with a simple bank transfer?

You could even adopt a child!

I may be able to help you. I received a bunch of emails this morning from a lot of people just eager to help me out with all of these problems! I’ll be happy to forward information along.

🙂

I have to admit, spam on adopting a child is a new one…. and a little bothersome. 🙂

Older, weaker, but still wants to shoot

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Yesterday I was speaking with a lady about guns. She’s almost 70 years old. She’s dealing with arthritis. She’s small. She expressed a desire to learn how to shoot, but was concerned about her ability to do so. She understands guns go boom, that it’s a lot of stress on the old hands, and in her stage in life well, it’s a concern she has.

So my brain starts to think about her using a gun chambered in .22 LR. It’s not my first choice for self-defense, but it’s better than nothing. If it’s all she could shoot, then it’s what it will be. I started to think about her doing manipulations on a semi-auto, and I’m not sure how do-able that would be. So I think about a revolver in .22 LR, but worry about the long trigger pulls. Granted, all I’m going on at this point was our conversation: we’d do better to do some shopping and range-time together so I could actually see what she is capable of doing.

But I can’t help but think just what particular firearms may be usable by her. Suggestions welcome.

The other thing I think about?

Concealed Handgun License. The thing is, to obtain your Texas CHL there’s a caliber minimum during the shooting portion of the licensing process. After you are licensed, you can carry whatever, but to qualify there’s a minimum. As you can read, I was curious about this thing before. It just doesn’t seem right to have this. Granted, it may be in place to avoid abuse and gaming the system, but trust me… people are gaming it anyways. People shoot with guns that are not carry guns at all. It’s far easier to pass the revolver portion with a big-ass revolver that you can’t carry than it is to pass with a snub-nose that you can. I would argue if you can’t pass it with the gun you’d carry, then you need more training and practice (the test isn’t that hard). And if you game it? you’re just lying to and cheating yourself.

I’m going to inquire deeper about this matter.

Updated: Been discussing and looking around.

As noted in comments. .327 Fed Mag may be an option.

I called the local indoor range that rents guns and they have a Walther PPK/S in .32. While I have my reserve on the semi-auto use, at least it’d be a gun we could rent to see if she could handle .32. That may be where we start.

LEGO Enfield

/ hsoi

Someone made a working Enfield rifle out of LEGO.

Can’t embed the video, so you’ll just have to click here.

Yes, you want to click. It’s all kinds of awesome.

Updated: Ah, you knew it had to be reposted to YouTube 🙂

How much is reloading 9mm costing me?

/ hsoi / 10 Comments

Earlier this week I resolved to reload 100 rounds of 9mm every morning. I figure 100 rounds doesn’t take me more than 30 minutes (from setup to cleanup). I can spare 30 minutes a day, and over time I’ll get what I need. 500 rounds so far.

Trouble is, I’m realizing that while I’m fairly well set for most components right now, brass is in short supply. I have a few avenues, but I’m probably going to need to buy some. I figured while I was shopping around for the best price I should see how much reloading one round of 9mm costs me.

If I have to buy some once-fired brass, it works out to about $0.033 per case.

My Precision Delta bullets, since I bought in bulk a while ago, are about $0.064 per bullet.

Buying Titegroup powder in 8 lbs jugs, at 4.5 grains per load it’s about $0.0018 per throw.

And the primer is about $0.027 each.

That totals up to $0.125 per round, or $6.29 per 50.

Over at ammoman.com, prices vary a bit depending what you buy and what level of bulk you get, but easily the cost per round there is double what it’s costing me.  Over at the ammoengine this morning, the cheapest is Tula from CheaperThanDirt at $0.19 round. Once you move into the realm of brass-cased ammo, nothing is cheaper than twice what it’s costing me.

Certainly prices of factory ammo can vary. Certainly the cost of my components can vary, but buying in massive bulk quantities (I know I’ll eventually go through it) and looking for the best deals help. Plus, if we remove the cost of the brass (I can often harvest for free), that helps too. Bottom line is, the exact numbers may vary slightly, but there’s no question there’s significant cost savings.

So of course what’s the key difference? Time invested. I can spare 30 minutes a day. Just have to ensure I stay dedicated to it.