Odds and ends

So, over the last few weeks I've alluded to a friend who was going through a rough patch, most recently in Earworm, 06/14/2017.

Basically, her son went from a 5% chance of surviving, to full consciousness, coherent speech, and walking unassisted.

Apparently, it is possible for certain organs which have shut down to regenerate.

Somewhere in there, I wondered if this was going to turn into a Lifetime movie, or even in to a Hallmark Special.*

Then she told me that certain other aspects of her life were turning around, and now I suspect even Hallmark would turn the script down as too unrealistic...

***

...In the meantime, my wife has been listening to me obsess about the problems of a woman shes never met, and all she says is "What's the news? Is she  doing OK? She probably needs a break, why don't you see if we can take her to lunch or dinner?"

So, yeah, I think even Hallmark would say it was too hokey. 

Also, I love my incredible wife.

***

Also in the meantime, the NRA has relented on it's ban on 1911s and revolvers in the Carry Guard self-defensive shooting classes.  (Dear NRA: WTF is wrong with you?!)

I heard a lot of rationales why this rule made sense, but frankly, IMnsHO none of them stood scrutiny. If someone is paying $850 for a three day class, you should be a little more lenient about what gat they bring.

If Mas can design the shooting courses of MAG40 to accommodate single-stack pistols and 6 shooters, than by Friar Schwartz' ghost so can the NRA.

***

*Okay, so I have this theory that women's lives can be divided into one of three categories:

1. Hallmark Channel movies
2. Lifetime Channel movies
3. Oxygen Channel movies

depending on how horrible the tragedy is, how sordid the scandal is, and/or how many people die and/or go to prison.

There may be other categories, the woman I first developed this theory around turned out to need one of those pay-per-view channels, if you know what I mean, and I think you do...

(Edited to add that I was only "involved" wih this woman as a co-worker.)

I haven't yet heard a proposed equivalent for men's lives, although I suspect my life story will star Bruce Campbell...

What Is This I Don't Even...

2nd Amendment Dust Cover So You Can Openly Conceal Carry

It's a sock with a gun printed on it, that you put on your OC pistol so it's concealed...

That is just so... so... derptastic it's derpalicious. 

(h/t The Gun Feed

Earworm, 04/01/2017 -- Fed Up Edition

So, I haven't discussed my new job... and I'm not going to.

But I keep running into situations where my training was rushed, partly because they needed me to take over a shift, and partly because (in all modesty) they figured I was good enough to hit the ground running and do the job.

And, (again, in all modesty) mostly they've been right, except I keep finding things they never told me.

So last night a semi-annual report needs to be run, and I do. I've used this report before, and it was a pain in the fourth point of contact, because it's always been sorted on the wrong parameter. Maybe the choice didn't exist before, but now it does, so I sort it in numerical order by account number instead of alphabetical order by division or department, because there are too many divisions within each department, and many of the divisions across different departments have similar names, so, in the words of a colleague, you'd tell a customer to go for coffee while you find their account.

She added "You're the first person to make this report usable!"

Naturally, I got bitched at for doing it wrong.

So...

If I had the buck$ to spend...

...on fellow bloggers, including those I haven't actually met...

I'd buy Bobbi one of these keyboards.

Of course, I don't know how good of a keyboard it would be, so she'll probably need a spare computer, too, so maybe it's just as well I don't have the buck$ to spend on fellow bloggers...

(Although for a mere $100+ they will sell you a set of keycaps that work with other keyboards if they use certain switches. I'm ignernt about that switchology, though, so I'll hold off...)

I think I also need to buy a cup of coffee for whoever at Blogger added an "Emoticon" drop down menu to the tool bar. It can easily get out of hand, but I've never been able to figure out how to use ASCII codes to make © or ¢ or ≠ symbols.  Plus, typing in an ampersand usually gets all jacked up, but this automagically fixes it.

"What the Declaration of Independence Really Claimed"

What the Declaration of Independence Really Claimed - The Washington Post, by Randy Barnett, at The Volokh Conspiracy. (Published a year ago.)

Today, while all Americans have heard of the Declaration of Independence, all too few have read more than its second sentence. Yet the Declaration shows the natural rights foundation of the American Revolution and provides important information about what the founders believed makes a constitution or government legitimate. It also raises the question of how these fundamental rights are reconciled with the idea of “the consent of the governed,” another idea for which the Declaration is famous.

When reading the Declaration, it is worth keeping in mind two very important facts. The Declaration constituted high treason against the Crown. Every person who signed it would be executed as traitors should they be caught by the British. Second, the Declaration was considered to be a legal document by which the revolutionaries justified their actions and explained why they were not truly traitors. It represented, as it were, a literal indictment of the Crown and Parliament, in the very same way that criminals are now publicly indicted for their alleged crimes by grand juries representing “the People.”

But to justify a revolution, it was not thought to be enough that officials of the government of England, the Parliament, or even the King himself had violated the rights of the people. No government is perfect; all governments violate rights. This was well known.

So the Americans had to allege more than mere violations of rights. They had to allege nothing short of a criminal conspiracy to violate their rights systematically. Hence the Declaration’s famous reference to “a long train of abuses and usurpations” and the list that followed. In some cases, these specific complaints account for provisions eventually included in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Finally, I'm going to re-run this image from last year, because AMERICA!

George WARSHINGTON by SharpWriter, used with permission as posted at the image's URL.
He has stuff on sale, links there, too.

And here I thought this would only work on TV

Although it didn't do Gilligan any good...

Stranded sailors rescued from Pacific island after building 'help' sign on sand

I am shocked, SHOCKED!!!

Gov. Inslee halts Bertha work after sinkhole forms near project - Puget Sound Business Journal

After moving less than 200 feet in the past 10 months, the Bertha tunnel boring machine will stop drilling again.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday ordered tunneling work to halt temporarily after a sinkhole formed near the waterfront earlier in the week – the same day digging stopped after a barge carrying dirt tipped over and spilled into Elliott Bay.

Seattle Tunnel Partners will have to find the cause of the sinkhole and prove the contractor can prevent similar incidents in the future before resuming work, Inslee said. Bertha is scheduled to start drilling under the viaduct in March.

“STP will not be allowed to resume tunneling until their analysis and work plans meet the satisfaction of our experts,” Secretary of Transportation Lynn Peterson said in a statement. “I want to remind everyone that replacing the viaduct is critical to public safety.”

 I predicted at the time this was going to make Boston's Big Dig look like a marvel of efficiency.  (a co-worker from Bahston shrugs and says "Hey, it was only 8 times over budget.")

Looks like I underestimated Seattle's ability to add an element of low farce to municipal incompetence.

UPDATE: Wikipedia is several months behind the news: Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hearing Protection Act

ASA ANNOUNCES HEARING PROTECTION ACT: A BILL TO REMOVE SUPPRESSORS FROM THE NFA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Suppressor Association (ASA) is pleased to announce the introduction of the Hearing Protection Act (HPA) by Rep. Matt Salmon (AZ-05). This historic piece of legislation will remove suppressors from the purview of the National Firearms Act (NFA), replacing the antiquated federal transfer process with an instantaneous NICS background check. The HPA also includes a provision to refund the $200 transfer tax to applicants who purchase a suppressor after October 22, 2015.

At this time there is no information posted to GovTrack or OpenCongress, or eve Representative Salmon's official House of Representatives web page about this bill, including a bill number. All the info out there is on blogs and fora, although guns.com does have the text of the bill as introduced. (Goes directly to .pdf file which will open.)

As many have said ( I believe Tamara said it first) suppressors are a safety device and should be sold in blister packs displayed by the cash register.

Frankly, I'd like to see the various gun rights organizations go after gutting the entire National Firearms Act of 1934; most of the limitations under it are arbitrary and serve no demonstrable purpose. As a compromise, since the hoplophobes are so fond of the word, Uncle Sam can keep charging a fee on items like suppressors and short barreled rifles and shotguns, say $50.00, which is to be collected at the point of sale. The idea that these things are so inherently evil that charging a larger tax and making law abiding citizens jump through various regulatory hoops is going to reduce their use in crime is absurd, and reducing the bureaucratic burden would probably result in such an increase in revenue as to be a net gain, not to mention all the bureaucrats who could be reassigned to more productive work.

Brilliant!

On the drive home from work today I counted at least 3 people standing at the side of the road holding cardboard signs of the "Anything helps" variety within about a quarter mile.

So this does not strike me as a Good Idea:
Kerry: US to accept 85,000 refugees in 2016, 100,000 in 2017 - The Washington Post

Pull!

NASA wants to learn more about asteroids by shooting them with space shotguns | Blastr

It's Just Like That

Only in this case it's "I HAVE MADE IT FIRE!!!!"

A month or so ago I scored a SureFire DSF-500/590 Forend Weapon Light for my Mossberg 500 in an Amazon Lightning Deal.

Then I had to look up YouTube videos on how to replace the forend.

Most of them have the demonstrator's hand is in the way.

So I ordered a book on how to do it. Then I ordered another one, to fill in some blanks.

So I got started, then I realized I had to order a new action tube, since the old forend turned out to be (contra what I thought) one of the ones where the forend and slide tube are integral. Then I had to order a new slide tube nut, because the old forend was a 7.5" one, and the new one is the shorter 6.75 incher, which takes a different nut.

Finally got it assembled yesterday, and it seemed to dry-fire OK, but I didn't want to try it too much, lacking snap caps. (Which are on order, and due to arrive on a week or three...)  Dinking around with it we established that the light on it's lowest setting is pretty darned bright. On the highest setting, I felt like I could send Morse Code messages to the International Space Station, if I remembered how to send Morse code messages.

By the time I had time to put it all together, well, lets just say that, when I went to the friendly neighborhood gun range and store to test fire it today I was fully expecting to step off the range and into the store and leave it with the gunsmith to put together for me properly.

I managed not to do a happy dance or to carry on like an idiot when I was able to put several magazine of slugs down range without a problem.

Well, except for recoil; not unanticipated, slugs not being known for being gentle on the shoulder, and the range being restricted to slugs for scatterguns. Still, ow. (Also, in all modesty, kudos to me for not adding any of the extensions to the Magpul SGA stock; I am convinced that having it set up for a shorter pull helped.)

After testing the shotgun I got the Sig 320 out of the rental cabinet to try a box through it. Can't say I'm in love with it, but its not bad and I am in love with the idea that Mrs. Drang and I can have the same pistol, sized well for each of us. The modular grip frame seems like it may work better than any combination of any manufacturer's interchangeable back straps and front straps and grip panels.

Tried it from 3 to 10 yards, two handed, strong hand only, and weak other strong hand only. Got some weird twisting shooting it left-handed, not sure what that was all about. All shots were inside the 9 and 10 rings, until I was trying it one handed at the 10 yard line. Also, I didn't have any issues with my thumbs hitting the slide lock, like I've seen on some other Sigs. So it looks like a winner.

Attention Glockenspielers!

If you are a devotee of the personification of the polymer 2x4 that shoots, and wish that there were a way to block the striker when holstering in the same manner that a pistolero with pistol with an external hammer can use his or her thumb to hold the hammer back or block it from moving forward, some sort of  Gadget, perhaps, well, there's a gadget update.

Bottom line, funding via Indiegogo will start next Friday (July 11, 2015); link will be posted at pistol-training.com.

Here's a review from someone who has been testing a prototype: The Gadget: an additional safety device for Glock pistols | Gun Nuts Media.

As for me, well, 2x4s are uncomfortable for my hands, so, until I can scrape up the dough to buy a used one and have some major surgery done on the frame, I'll just wish them well.*

***

*"Uncomfortable for my hands" is, perhaps, misleading. It doesn't hurt to shoot a Glock, but I cannot get a good grip on them. I have an acquaintance who derides the idea that ergonomics are -- is? -- of any importance in pistol marksmanship; all I can say is, "Whatever works for you.:
I regret that I didn't order a CCF Raceframe before they ceased production. These were Glock pistol frames, mechanically, but made from aluminum or steel, and available in a 1911-like configuration.
Come to think of it, most of my regrets in life are about guns I never owned...