Ring Out The Old...

Not your usual New Year's Eve rendition:

AULD LANG SYNE

Robert Burns, 1788

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne.

Chorus

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne,

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae run about the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae paidl'd i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.

Chorus

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right guid willy waught,
For auld lang syne.

Modern English Translation:
Chorus:
Long, Long Ago
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And long, long ago.

Chorus

And for long, long ago, my dear
For long, long ago,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For long, long ago

And surely you'll buy your pint-jug!
And surely I'll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For long, long ago.

Chorus

We two have run about the hills
And pulled the daisies fine;
But we've wandered manys the weary foot
Since long, long ago.

Chorus

We two have paddled in the stream,
From morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
Since long, long ago.

Chorus

And there's a hand, my trusty friend!
And give us a hand of yours!
And we'll take a deep draught of good-will
For long, long ago.

Chorus

"Urban Defensive Tactics" class, 12/14/14

In previous installments of "The Education of D.W. Drang" we saw him take an "Introduction to Handguns" class (One Step Back, Two Steps Forward?) and the same (local) range's "Progressive Handgun Skills" class (Another Step Forward). I've also shared some Soul-searching (Gringo Pistolero edition) with you and inflicted some related but Random thoughts on the subject of guns and gun design on you.

On Sunday 12/14/14 I took Federal Way Firearms Training's newest class, Urban Defense Tactics. FWFT conducts it's training at my Friendly Local Gun Store & Range, Federal Way Discount Guns. About a week before the class, we were notified that the course description had been updated to emphasize that we were encouraged to bring a rifle and/or shotgun to practice with, and also that a quality flashlight was highly suggested.

I also realized Saturday night that it suggested a good pair of knee pads, and I had neglected to get any; fortunately, the Big Blue Big Box home improvement store opens at 0800 on Sunday morning, so I was able to get a pair before class.

Instructing was Grif, retired King County Sheriff's Deputy and Law Enforcement Instructor. Janice, the manager of FWFT and the lead instructor of the Introduction to Handguns class I had taken, was assisting.  There were two other students.

While the Progressive class moved directly to the range after a short safety briefing, this class started out in the classroom and stayed there for an hour or two. Topics discussed in the classroom started out with a review of Revised Code of Washington (RCW) articles:

• RCW 9A.16.050: Homicide — By other person — When justifiable. and
• RCW 9A.16.060: Duress.

Whoops

Accidentally hit "Publish" instead of "Save" on my draft After Action Review of the Urban Defensive Tactics class at the local range.

Apologies if a nowhere-nearly complete set of notes showed up in your RSS feed...

On this day in history

December 16th, 1944, Hitler launched his last chance offensive hoping to knock the Anglo-American alliance off the European continent. The Abwehr reported that the American lines were stretched thin, especially through the Ardennes, with many green units that had seen little or no combat.

It is unknown whether the Germans were aware that the American tactical reserve consisted mostly of the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions, recuperating from Operation Market-Garden, let alone that the strategic reserve amounted to whatever "ash and trash" were awaiting assignment in Repple-Depple.

Certainly the German command was unaware that the allies were reading "Ultra Intercepts" of their (presumably) most secret communications; regardless, Hitler directed that all traffic regarding the 12/16/44 attack was to be couriered, eyes-only. Most of the Anglo-American command interpreted the minimal radio traffic as proof that the Germans were planning to hunker down for the winter...

Hitler and his minions made the ever-popular mistake of forgetting that, just because the American Soldier may, taken as an average, may be a reluctant warrior, he is still an American, and the only thing he hates more than losing is quitting and leaving a job undone.

Units were smashed, but individuals rallied, held, and fought. Mistakes were made, but recovered from. The attack was held off, defeated, and, on the end, German combat power that was too scarce to start with was wasted.  If the Battle of Britain was the Royal Air Force's Finest Hour, then the recovery from the Battle of the Bulge qualifies as the US Army's in WW2 Europe.

Written on my phone on the way to work, minor editing when I got home to a beer and a real computer.

After I posted the above I found this: 

The Real Reason Hitler Launched the Battle of the Bulge, "this" being an interview with a British historian who has written a book about the Battle of the Bulge. (This in itself a a bit odd, since British participation in the battle was largely Montgomery taking credit for the achievements of a few US units which were temporarily attached to  his 21st Army Group for logistical support.)

Anyway, Peter Caddick-Adams opines that Hitler launched his offensive in order to establish his dominance over the OKW.

I don't buy it. Hitler felt no compunctions whatsoever about liquidating generals and overriding their decisions. Certainly by this time in the war he had no more than a nodding relationship with reality, and almost certainly believed that a master stroke would knock the US and Great Britain off the continent, and possibly out of the war.

Caddick-Adams also makes note of George Patton's Third Army's remarkable pivoting from an eastward orientation to counter-attach to the north; what he leaves out is that Paton was one of the few in on the Ultra intercepts who did not entirely rely on same; while the rest of the allied command was content to assume that the Germans were in winter quarters,he had his staff prepare contingency plans for reacting to various counter-attack scenarios. (Preparing contingency plans is just good practice for staff personnel who would otherwise have little to do other than stick pins in "Current Situation" maps and inventorying socks...)

Anyway, an interesting and timely interview of a book that sounds interesting as well.  I'll see if the local library has it.

Yet another Internet Gun Control Poll

At PBS, no less, and it seems to be fairly straightforward.

Poll: Would you support more restrictive gun laws in your state?

1. Yes. Increased regulations on firearms are necessary to prevent another tragedy like the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary.  
2. No. Laws like this unnecessarily punish lawful gun owners and will do little to prevent mass shootings. 
3. Unsure. It's important to keep the weapons out of the wrong hands, but this may not be the solution.   

Obviously, vote only once. 'Cuz Ghu knows, the progressive statists will never, ever cheat on any kind of voting...

I'm a genius!

So, earlier this week Mrs. Drang called me at the Salt Mines and asked if I'd noticed anything odd when doing my laundry last week. The dryer wasn't drying; it was tumbling, but at ambient temperature.

Long story short, the vent hose got crimped and the dryer overheated, tripping a protective switch.

Good news, the switch is resettable, not a fuse requiring replacement.

Bad news, it's inside the machine, and we had no literature indicating that, so appliance repair man to the rescue again.  (This makes the second or third time this year, must be warranty expiration time...) Anyway, he was kind enough to show me how to remove the back and top (!) panels so I could access the switch if this happens again, and we also traced the problem with the hose.

Anyway, the non-Executive Summary version is that when we had the house remodeled before moving in, the sub-contractor who installed the washer dryer combo stack* probably recognized that the hole in the wall for the vent was not aligned with the new dryer, and rather than re-cut the hole, used an angle joint and flex hose, and did not trim the hose to length. The hose was pinched, eventually lint built up, and eventually dryer overheated. Having that hole-for-the-vent thing fixed is now on the list, but not the budget for now.

What led to the conclusion in the post title is that I was trying to figure out a way to check the alignment of the hose and hole combination (for reasons too tedious to list, we can't go with an entirely hard duct) and was pondering the arrangement of inspection mirrors that would be necessary...

...When it occurred to me that one could use a cell phone on a selfie-stick instead of an inspection mirror.

***

*"Washer/dryer stack": Due to limited square footage, we got stackable full-size front loading washer and dryer.  The top of the dryer is even with my head, but Mrs. Drang can reach the controls. But the repair man had to boost me up to the top of the dryer to be able to see behind the stack to check the hose condition.

Washington State violates the Letter of Initiative 594

EDITED TO ADD:  It would probably have been more accurate to title this post "Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife Announces Intent to Violate Letter of Law, Support of One Percenters Endorsement of Selective Enforcement"  But that would have been absurd...

Apparently, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife has sent out a letter to Hunters Safety Instructors regarding how Initiative 594 impacts them. Full text is here, Joe has an excerpt describing the way DFW says Hunters Safety classes will be conducted in order to avoid falling afoul of the law at at I-594 fears confirmed | The View From North Central Idaho.

Here's the rub: When I went to read the full text of the DFW's letter at the first link, I saw this:

•  I-594 exempts all law enforcement agencies from the background check/transfer requirement. WDFW, as a general authority Washington law enforcement agency pursuant to RCW 10.93.020(1), is therefore exempt from this requirement.  Any firearms purchase, sale or transfer to or from WDFW or WDFW employees when acting within the scope of their authority, is exempt from the background check/transfer requirement in I-594.
•   The Hunter Education Program is a WDFW program authorized by state law pursuant to RCW 77.32.155(1)(a).  Hunter Education Instructors, when in formal volunteer status for WDFW and acting within the scope of their authority for purposes of the Hunter Education Program, act on behalf of WDFW, and are therefore exempt from the background check/transfer requirements.  This exemption extends to Hunter Education Instructors whether or not they are actually in the classroom, provided that they are in formal volunteer status for WDFW and acting within the scope of their authority for purposes of the Hunter Education Program.

Emphasis added; essentially, DFW is claiming that any of their employees are Law Enforcement Officers under the definition of the law. Unfortunately for DFW, Initiative 594 defines Law Enforcement as follows:

Section 2(11) "Law enforcement officer" includes a general authority Washington peace officer as defined in RCW 10.93.020, or a specially commissioned Washington peace officer as defined in RCW 10.93.020. "Law enforcement officer" also includes a limited authority Washington peace officer as defined in RCW 10.93.020 if such officer is duly authorized by his or her employer to carry a concealed pistol.

Consulting Section 10.93.020 of the Revised Code of Washington, we learn the following:

 (3) "General authority Washington peace officer" means any full-time, fully compensated and elected, appointed, or employed officer of a general authority Washington law enforcement agency who is commissioned to enforce the criminal laws of the state of Washington generally.
(4) "Limited authority Washington peace officer" means any full-time, fully compensated officer of a limited authority Washington law enforcement agency empowered by that agency to detect or apprehend violators of the laws in some or all of the limited subject areas for which that agency is responsible. A limited authority Washington peace officer may be a specially commissioned Washington peace officer if otherwise qualified for such status under this chapter.
(5) "Specially commissioned Washington peace officer", for the purposes of this chapter, means any officer, whether part-time or full-time, compensated or not, commissioned by a general authority Washington law enforcement agency to enforce some or all of the criminal laws of the state of Washington, who does not qualify under this chapter as a general authority Washington peace officer for that commissioning agency, specifically including reserve peace officers.... A reserve peace officer is an individual who is an officer of a Washington law enforcement agency who does not serve such agency on a full-time basis but who, when called by the agency into active service, is fully commissioned on the same basis as full-time peace officers to enforce the criminal laws of the state.

Again, emphasis added; I don't believe that Hunters Safety Instructors are empowered to enforce any laws. Do they get handcuffs when they are certified? Badge and a gun?

Thing is, this whole POS of a law is full of land mines and traps for the well-meaning honest person, and every time we bring them up, we're told "Oh, don't worry, that's not the intent, no one will ever dream of enforcing that!"

Right.

Here's a fun fact: I-594 defines a "firearm" thus:

(9) "Firearm" means a weapon or device from which a projectile or projectiles may be fired by an explosive such as gunpowder.

Tomorrow being my day off, I am going to go to Lowe's and Home Depot and ask about the procedures they have in place to conduct a background check on persons wanting to purchase a powder-actuated  power tool.

Then I'll call some local contractors and ask if their employees provide their own tools, and, if not, what is the procedure they follow to ensure that anyone handling powder-actuated tools on their work sites are authorized to handle them. Any of your employees non-US citizens? Any felony convictions, for, say, drug use?  How about misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence?

Then I'll call a few boating supply stores and pursue the same line of questioning re: flare guns.

A Warm Welcome

This is what greeted me when I got home from work last night/this morning:

Touching, ain't it, the excitement with which they greet me? Minnie in my chair, Sparrowbane on my laptop.  Might as well have my apres work beer in the shower...