June 2011 – Page 10 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Without revealing too much …

… I’m in the middle of trying doing something recklessly entrepreneurial. How reckless? That is still to be determined, but I spend time on the drive home with Bitter talking about how, “This whole damned thing is crazy, and I’m crazy for staying involved in it.”

I wish I could reveal more, but for a lot of reasons I have to keep my personal life just that. I am not the one at the tip of this spear, but I am the one who knows how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. There are many cats in need of herding between here and not having to go look for another job. This is consuming the spare CPU cycles.

The good news is that our temporary offices now have Internet access that is not hopelessly bad. We should be returning to our somewhat regularly scheduled routine somewhat soon. I appreciate your patience in the matter. Previously I had a fairly well-regulated routine for supplying the blog with fresh material, which has hence had a wrench thrown in that formula.

Starting Them Young

Isn’t just precious when you can include the little ones in your hobby?

Pay attention to the front wheel in the beginning and the license plate during the 360.

My nephew might be a bit old for this sequel, but I’m hoping that he goes to see it.

We’ll See How Long the Power Lasts

Yay for backup power! We lost our main power a few minutes ago. Everything was fine and stifling hot, and then the wind came up out of no where. It went nuts. I regret having put the garbage out already since it is already knocked over. I checked radar on my phone and there’s a wall of red headed this way. Sebastian is at the gun club a few minutes east of here, so I called to give him a warning since they are shooting outside.

(And now we’re back on for a few more minutes.) What a world we live in that I can call him to tell him exactly what the radar looks like even as the power starts to flicker here at home. I guess it shouldn’t amuse me any more than tweeting during the multiple blizzards we had just a couple of winters ago.

Sorry for the somewhat off-topic commentary about home life. But I just have to admit that while we don’t have flying cars yet, life is still pretty damn cool.

UPDATE (By Sebastian): Â UPS power is definitely a Godsend, but one interesting thing is that no one bid on our natural gas powered generator at work. It could be had for three grand. This is a 30,000 KVA three phase setup. If I had the land, and a pad, I’d totally go for it. As it stands now the blog is backed up by about an hour’s worth of battery. The downside to natural gas power is that you still need some kind of grid to run it. Diesel engines could probably run off fish oil if you needed them to.

Feminists Love Their Bodies

In fact, a women’s rights group loves women’s bodies so much that they believe clinics which provide services exclusively for women shouldn’t have any of the regulations applying to other outpatient facilities applied to them. Because safety and sanitation, those are things only men deserve, right?

Pardon me as I step away from the main topic of this blog and ponder an issue that baffles me as a modern women who actually does consider herself a feminist – at least one who doesn’t hate men.

I can’t fathom exactly how pro-choice groups oppose regulating abortion clinics as ambulatory surgical centers. While I understand their goal is to make abortion as accessible as possible, it is still a fairly major procedure that can have a long-term impact on the reproductive health of a woman. Shouldn’t they be in favor of making sure that such facilities have the same kind of oversight and safety requirements as similar medical centers that provide services for men?

I’m not even getting into the moral issue of abortion, this is a matter of looking at it strictly as a legal medical procedure – which it currently is right now. After the horrors in Philadelphia with agencies in dispute over who controls what in the process, why is there opposition to providing a clear regulation structure that can allow abortion clinics to remain open, but also require the same quality of treatment and safety conditions required for clinics that also serve the needs of men? Instead, a woman’s group calls on such equitable standards as a “public health crisis.”

Even beyond the question of whether abortion should be legal, the fact remains that it is legal. But I’m really shocked when proposals that ultimately do protect the lives and health of the women who seek abortions are actually opposed by women’s groups on the grounds that it will somehow cut off all access to the procedure. This isn’t a notification law, it’s not a mandate to get an ultrasound with a waiting period imposed afterwards, or any of the medically-dubious types of rules that many pro-life lawmakers try to push around the country. It’s regulating an abortion clinic for what it is – an outpatient surgical center.

I’m not a doctor, and I don’t play one on tv. I also don’t follow the abortion debate or politics very closely because it’s not an issue that’s ever going to change in any substantial manner. But, I am a woman. And when I hear groups that are supposedly all for equality getting their panties in a twist over regulating surgical services for women the same way that men’s medical services are treated, it doesn’t really add up on how this advances feminism if the current structure allowed a clinic that killed live babies and a woman. That seems very anti-woman to me.

Doctors Sue to Overturn Florida Gun Gag Law

I believe this should be an easy case for our opponents to win, and it was for this reason, plus a general conviction that we have a thing called free speech in this country, that I oppose NRA pushing these bills in state legislatures.

That said, I can see the strategic value in our opponents having to spend money they are short on to fight it. Even though the case should be fairly slam-dunk from their point of view, and for the First Amendment’s sake, I hope it is, it’s still money they won’t be able to spend fighting a case I really do care about.

In addition, it’s a shot across the bow to the medical establishment that they really ought not insert themselves into a contentious social issue that has absolutely nothing to do with the field of medicine. It’s not the AMA, AAP or ACP the press touts as the country’s most powerful lobbying group, and they would do well to remember that.

My Story of How I Became a Gunnie

Jennifer asks:

But whether Iâ€™ve met you or not, I want to know your story.Â The vast majority of my readers are firearms enthusiasts of some stripe.Â How did that happen?Â How did you become gunnies?

I was into shooting, pretty much only air guns and smallbore, from the time I was about 12 and 13 up until maybe 15. My Uncle and cousins moved to a more rural area where you could safely do that. Now it’s been built up and you’d get a SWAT team called on you for doing some of the shit we did, but we got away with it in the late 80s.

I completely lost touch with the hobby from 16 through to my mid-20s, which is probably fairly common for most young men. I did not get back into shooting until my friend Jason (same guy who is doing the 3D magazine project) took me out one time, and I remembered I once really enjoyed this.

A few months later he informed me there was a sale on Romanian AK-47 clones on sale at a local gun store near him. I was surprised this was legal, since I was aware of the Assault Weapons Ban, so I started researching, and discovered what it actually banned. I went up there and bought one. You can see it in the picture not to long after it was purchased.

I did not buy it for anything other than a novelty. In truth, I got it because I was appalled at the Assault Weapons Ban when it passed, and was even more appalled at it after I understood what it was really about. I short, I wanted it because a certain types of people who can’t mind their own damned business frowned on the idea of me having one, and I did not aim to please them. Turned out, however, I enjoyed shooting it. My next purchase, after that, was a .22LR pistol, a Ruger Mk.II, which I loved to shoot, and it was all downhill from there.

I purchased my first gun in 2000, after the Y2K thing turned out to be nothing. I’m guessing that was the reason for the sale.Â I did not grow up in a house with guns. My mother never would have allowed it. Whether she would have allowed me to keep one in our house as an adult, I don’t know. She died when I was 20 and did not have a say in the matter. My dad was fine with it. I moved into an apartment later that year, but I was still living at home when I bought my first firearm.

I did not get a License to Carry a firearm until 2002. The first firearm I carried in public was a Bersa Thunder .380. I took it on a trip to my sister’s the day I got the license just because I could. I felt very awkward, and thought everyone could see it. By that time I knew how to be safe with a pistol, as I had been learning for two years. If I knew then what I know now, I would have sought more formal training with reputable instructors in those two years than I did.

I did not get into competitive shooting until 2007. My only classification competitively is in NRA Air Pistol Indoor/Outdoor, and IHMSA. I have never been classified in IPSC or IDPA, and have never shot a formal match in either sport. This is not because I wouldn’t like to, but because the clubs in my area either don’t allow such shooting, or if they do don’t have formally sanctioned matches by a Â Shooting Sports governing body. Ironically the best place for me to shoot those kinds of matches is over at Central Jersey Rifle and Pistol, who run a lot of great matches, but taking a gun into New Jersey is not a wise move. Just ask Brian Aitken.

Finally, I got into gun blogging to impress a girl who said I should do it. She’s now my co-blogger, among other things :) I kept gun blogging because I built an audience, which surprised the hell out of me. Through this I’ve gotten to meet some terrific people. I don’t have any current plans to stop. What’s next for me in this issue? I’d like to find more trigger time competitively, and try some practical shooting sports. I’ve gotten out of the swing, so to speak, because of my schedule. Made the IHMSA match this weekend. It was fun. Every once in a while you need a reminder that shooting is more fun than working.

So that’s my story. What’s yours?

Department of Education SWAT Raid

Uncle notes that now we know what the short barreled shotguns they ordered were for. Tam thinks this is indefensible. Â Dave Hardy notes “[F]rom the list of matters to be seized it sounds as if they suspected her of getting student loans without being enrolled at a college. OK, send out a squad car and knock on the door.”

If a federal agency has a SWAT team, they are going to end up using it to justify its existence. I’ve long believed that there’s too much federal law enforcement, and it should all be consolidated under either the FBI or US Marshall’s service (since they’ve been around longer). It would be a huge cost savings, and you don’t have to worry nearly as much about the left hand not talking to the right hand.

Posts Coming

Internet at the old offices has been cancelled, and I’m no longer spending the day in front of a computer. I have a board meeting for my club tonight, so I will be getting some posts up thereafter. My company has essentially leased a closet from a short term leasing company for the three of us to finish the wind up, so space is going to be tight. We are very nearly out of our building, and ready to turn it back to the landlord, who is currently rather unhappy with us.

As far as my personal job situation goes, I have a few irons in the fire, which I’ll be able to speak about a bit more if one of them strikes.

Getting Rid of the Sunday Hunting Ban

Alerts from NRA and NSSF this week announced a public meeting of the Pennsylvania House Game and Fisheries Committee tomorrow to tackle the topic of ending the the blue law that bans Sunday hunting dating back to the 1870s.

The Sunday Hunting Coalition points out that Pennsylvania would see a significant economic boost from expanding the number of days hunters are allowed to take to the fields and woods.

The estimated impacts from a lift on the ban on Sunday hunting are based on responses to surveys of hunters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In these two states, government agencies conducted extensive surveys of hunters in which they were asked to report the number of additional days they would participate in hunting if the Sunday hunting ban were to be lifted. Based on these responses, it is estimated that hunters will participate in, on average, about 22 percent of the additional days made available to them from the lifting of the ban. In other words, if the lifting of restrictions increased the number of hunting days by 10, the average hunter would increase their hunting days by about two.

Specifically, Pennsylvania would likely see a direct economic impact that could create more than 4,400 jobs with wages topping $99 million. Of all the states with Sunday hunting bans or heavy restrictions, Pennsylvania stands to gain the most jobs and economic impact of a repeal of the prohibition.

So, you know, lawmakers who are so desperate for more money and want to be seen as “creating” jobs, this is your chance. Seriously, $99 million more in wages to tax and 4,400 new jobs. That’s just the direct impact, the indirect impact gives us even more jobs and higher wages.

(Similar post with a little more data & background over at PAGunRights.com.)

Relaxing with X-Plane and the Embraer ERJ-140

One way I relax, and get my mind off nearly everything is tooling around in the X-Plane Flight Simulator. I downloaded a new jet model some time ago that I haven’t had much time to try out. I’ve flown on this plane before, and chances are many of you have as well. The manufacturer is Embraer, and it’s one of the many signs that Brazil is aiming to be a major player in the world economy. It takes a certain amount of sophistication to be able to produce airplanes; even the Russians and Chinese haven’t really managed an airliner that you’d want to take your wife and kids on, but the Brazilians have, and Americans are flying on them in droves every day. Dan Klaue has created a fantastic X-Plane model of this Regional Jet, which my video doesn’t really do justice. Flight is from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International (KATL) to Cleveland Hopkins (KCLE), near dusk:

As a 3D model this plane is tip top, though it still needs some work in the systems simulation category. Nonetheless, it’s a great platform, and is X-Plane 10 compatible whenever that ends up coming out. I’ve preserved all the sounds on my video, which are pretty true to what I can remember flying on Embraers. You can see in this video some of the deficiencies of the X-Plane 9 model, including having to bake lighting features on to scenery, with the rest being pitch dark and unrealistic looking at night. Twilight is spectacular though, which I’ve always thought X-Plane renders quite well. You can also notice the rather ad-hoc nature of building scenery when you get close to it in the X-Plane 9 model. X-Plane 10 will have global illumination, where even cars on the roads will have light sources in their headlights. It will also base its mapping data on Open Street Maps, and generate plausible communities based on that data. I’m really looking forward to X-Plane 10, and hope it’ll be out before the end of the year.

I do all my own piloting in these, which shows in the takeoff and landings being far less than you would expect from a professional. In particular I flared a little early on the landing, drifting a bit in the crosswind and putting the left rear wheel down on the runway before the right, and slamming the nose down a bit hard. Live and learn.