Takin’ Care of Business

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Alternate title: How I accidentally got to shoot with Gene Econ

Friday at work, co-worker Scott was saying he wanted to take me to the range where he’s got a new membership to help him sight in his AR. Day set. Time set. The pickup was made and away we went.

Earlier that morning I had made some optic swaps I’d been meaning to do for a long time, and by golly, I just happened to be going to the range, so of course I had to sight them in. (All pics are click to enlarge)

A BSA holosight optic came off the Ruger 22/45 (which is now a true training pistol for newbies)

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And went onto the 10/22

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A 30mm BSA RedDot went off the 10/22 and onto the 11-87

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The old irons off the Ruger MKII 10in (which were replaced long ago by Williams Firesights)

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Went onto the 22/45.

Scott is also heavily addicted to The Hun Bastard and had never shot an SKS. So, many long gun cases were filled and ammo stacked into the rolling shooting box (aka: The R2 Unit) along with a benchrest and rear bag for sighting purposes and off I went.

We arrive and unpack. We set up our target boards and wait for the only other person on the line to take a break. He isn’t. This guy is in the zone and on a mission. He’s at the other end of the line and facing away so waving isn’t going to get his attention and he can’t hear us talking, so I take a walk.

Pro shooting vest, spotting scope, etc., and a very funky AR based precision rifle are on the bench. So is a half burned cigar. As I’m walking up the guy stands up and he is under 5’10” but could probably benchpress a horse. Then it hit me. I look to my right and check the vehicle.

“Excuse me, Mr. Econ.”

He turns around, hands are shaken and greetings given. I hit the downrange signal and have some small talk with Gene while Scott sets boards.

The 10/22 and the 11-87 are set for 50yds. The Hun is still dead-nuts @ 100 and with the BDC built into the 4x Hensoldt ZF-24, is good out to 600.

Scott is learning that 55gr ammo doesn’t sight-in too well in a gun with a twist rate for 62gr, but the basic zero is there and 62gr ammo is en route.

I got to say howdy to Gene and watch him chono his new 6.5 wildcat cartridge.

Not a bad day at all, I must admit.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel, Kewel! | 5 Comments

ACORN, UK Style

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Think we’re the only ones with elected government officials who are unafraid to publicly spend your tax dollars to get votes?

Cast thine eyes across the pond

Migrants will win fast-track passports if they stand on picket lines or knock on doors asking people to vote Labour, it emerged last night.

The Home Office says trade union activism and political canvassing should count towards the planned new system of ‘earned citizenship’.

Migrants who complete 50 hours of voluntary work will be entitled to receive British citizenship after six years – two years earlier than if they do nothing.

Ministers had originally given examples such as running a local scout group rather than helping unions such as the RMT, which this week inflicted crippling strike action on London.

Critics will point to the historic relationship between Labour and the unions. Migrants cannot vote until they become citizens – so, by using union membership to speed their applications, Labour is potentially swelling its own support.

The details emerged in a Home Office document circulated among MPs this week. It reveals that employers will be expected to give people time off, where required, to complete the service.

Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘This Government seems to think that standing on a picket line or handing out political leaflets should give people a fast track to a British passport.

‘These are half-baked ideas which show that at best Ministers are making up policy as they go along.

‘This sort of proposal threatens to bring the whole idea of earning British citizenship into disrepute.’

Just a little bit there, ya think?

Great googly moogly. Just what the hell happened to Britannia?

Found via Gateway Pundit.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | Leave a comment

How you control the debate

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Use data by single discipline specific scientists that support your idea.

Then, make non-scientists your spokespeople. They don’t know what they’re missing.

You know the rest.

Take, for instance, this excerpt from this Freeman Dyson interview (audio at link)

I was involved in climate studies seriously about 30 years ago. That’s how I got interested. There was an outfit called the Institute for Energy Analysis at Oak Ridge. I visited Oak Ridge many times, and worked with those people, and I thought they were excellent. And the beauty of it was that it was multi-disciplinary. There were experts not just on hydrodynamics of the atmosphere, which of course is important, but also experts on vegetation, on soil, on trees, and so it was sort of half biological and half physics. And I felt that was a very good balance.

And there you got a very strong feeling for how uncertain the whole business is, that the five reservoirs of carbon all are in close contact — the atmosphere, the upper level of the ocean, the land vegetation, the topsoil, and the fossil fuels. They are all about equal in size. They all interact with each other strongly. So you can’t understand any of them unless you understand all of them. Essentially that was the conclusion. It’s a problem of very complicated ecology, and to isolate the atmosphere and the ocean just as a hydrodynamics problem makes no sense.
Thirty years ago, there was a sort of a political split between the Oak Ridge community, which included biology, and people who were doing these fluid dynamics models, which don’t include biology. They got the lion’s share of money and attention. And since then, this group of pure modeling experts has become dominant.

I got out of the field then. I didn’t like the way it was going. It left me with a bad taste.

Government controlled science with preconceived solutions should taste bad, because it is bad. It is nearing evil.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense, The Global Warming Death Cult | Leave a comment

The Late, Great Britain

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Phil Kadath

I’m having trouble believing this is true.

OK, I’m lying. Due to many recent developments, I’m not having much trouble believing it at all.

Armed cops patrolling Heathrow Airport have been banned from wearing tiny Union Jack badges in support of British troops.

Top brass claimed the tie-pin badges – which cost £1 with proceeds going to the Help for Heroes charity – were offensive.

But one officer asked: “How can the Union Jack be offensive?

“This ruling is even more absurd coming this weekend on the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

“We must be the only country ashamed to display our national flag.”

About 100 officers in the Metropolitan force’s SO18 Aviation branch, which patrols Heathrow, bought the inch-square badges.

Seventy per cent of them served in the Forces and many have children fighting in Afghanistan.

Another cop said: “We’re wearing the badges with pride. Most importantly, they are to show support for our soldiers at war.

“Nobody has put out orders to remove rainbow symbols that gay and lesbian officers wear. Why discriminate against us?”

A statement from the Met said: “The dress code states only approved corporate badging may be used”.

National scale epic fail.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Alaska

Amazing fisking (with graphs!) of some global warming garbage played in the media as real science. Look at the actual numbers and it turns out not to be science (or real) at all.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense, The Global Warming Death Cult | 1 Comment

RNS Quote of the Day 06/13/09

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Alaska


From Farhad (change for Iran) on Twitter. Most media’s been shut down by the regime, but the new Iranian revolution is being Twittered.

# my eyes are burning hard to keep them open #iranelection15 minutes ago from web

# tear gas #iranelection29 minutes ago from web

# Down with the dictator! Mousavi, Karoubi; support us! #iranelection30 minutes ago from web

# police demanding people to move their cars and start crashing car windows. more people are coming. I will try to get a better view42 minutes ago from web

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Posted in Quote of the Day | 1 Comment

Guitar Solo

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Phil Kadath

With scary looking rifle bonus!

Coworker Paul sent me this vid I thought y’all might like to check out.

Track: Gitsum

Artist: Hogjaw

As if the multiple rifles with standard capacity magazines that look like assault rifles weren’t bonus enough, there is also a couple Mosin night-fire shots edited into the video.

Paul Helmke is not a sad panda this morning. He’s too busy changing underwear right now to be sad.

MTV could possibly be a decent channel once again if they’d play videos like this, but their self-censorship forbids it.

Posted in Kewel! | 10 Comments

What a week

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Alaska

It’s been nonstop for me since returning from Boomershoot. A big mess at the office that’s finally pretty much straightened out, but that’s kept me from addressing some larger issues that can’t be put off. Cutting off my fingertip didn’t help, either. DSC06613.JPGThat’s healed now, but I’ve got a big battle with the IRS next week and then our annual audit season starts. And then there’s Boomershoot 2010 — I’ve got an email I have to get out to the RNS tent denizens to see what’s what before a certain date next week. Here’s some of ’em at left enjoying the tub at Trib’s. Click to embiggen.

I got the t-shirt, though, and it’s excellent. Much, much better quality than Cafepress shirts. More on that (with pics) in a later post.

Anyway, even though I’m utterly exhausted mentally and physically, and I’ll be in the office much of the weekend, that’s nothing some good dance music can’t cure!

Posted in Boomershoot, Kewel! | 2 Comments

I Like This Finding

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Alaska

An interim finding from my wife’s doctoral thesis: the Latino kids she’s interviewing are universally reporting that their parents strongly discouraged them from taking on student loans. “If you can’t pay for it….” And so they didn’t — they worked to pay for their classes.
There’s very likely a generation of Hispanic/Latino youth, just graduating from college with a degree and no debt where their White/Asian/African-American counterparts are in debt to the gills as they walk across that stage.

Posted in Kewel! | 1 Comment

Getting Testy

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Phil Kadath

Recent polls are showing the Congressional Republican’s approval ratings are drawing even with the Democrats.

Other polls are showing a preference for Republicans when it comes to the economy.

Maybe some Democrats are more inclined to ignore polls than we’ve seen in the past.

If this is true, then expect more falling numbers from the Dem side.

Top aides to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) called a last-minute, pre-emptive strike on Wednesday with a group of prominent Democratic lobbyists, warning them to advise their clients not to attend a meeting with Senate Republicans set for Thursday.

Russell Sullivan, the top staffer on Finance, and Jon Selib, Baucus’ chief of staff, met with a bloc of more than 20 contract lobbyists, including several former Baucus aides.

“They said, ‘Republicans are having this meeting and you need to let all of your clients know if they have someone there, that will be viewed as a hostile act,’” said a Democratic lobbyist who attended the meeting.

“Hostile”? Really?

Towards what, their “feelings”?

I guess the results of the meeting’s attendance will be a poll in and of itself.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | 4 Comments