Joe Huffman got a chance to exchange e-mails with the last surviving scientist on the Manhattan Project. Very cool. This was the guy who developed the detonators. In order to create an implosion type device that uses a plutonium core (Fat Man), you need to create a very precisely orchestrated conventional explosion to compress the core. Conventional detonators weren’t up to the task, which is where Johnson came in.
Author: Sebastian
Wayne Speech at CPAC
Gaining Momentum?
Carolyn McCarthy is pretty clearly desperate for her bill to be seen as having legs. Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for us, all I think she’s accomplishing is to help boost magazine sales.
End of the World as We Know It
Joe Huffman notes that we can’t really go back to a pre-technological lifestyle easily. Personally, I’m pretty worried about what’s going on in the Middle East currently. What if our oil supplies get interrupted? What if the Suez Canal falls into hostile Islamist hands? That’s stuff you have to fight a war over. And what money are we going to fight a war with? The money we keep printing?
Maybe we need to draft retiring baby boomers. They can drive tanks, man ships, and fly planes right?
Khyber Pass Enfields
Tam and Borepatch both have some interesting posts on firearms made in Pakistan’s Khyber Pass. There seems to be a “guns aren’t hard to make” meme going around the blogs. Even believable ripoffs of existing commercially produced firearms aren’t hard to make.
Happy Dead Presidents Day
I say that because I can’t think of too many who are still alive that are worth honoring. Due to the fact that, for some odd reason, the pharma industry traditionally gets this day off, it’s an extended weekend for me. So this is what it feels like to be a government employee eh? Holidays in February. At least I’m not wasting tax dollars, but certainly feel free to get upset next time you balk at the cost of renewing your Lipitor prescription.
Victims and Public Policy
Chris from Arma Borealis notes some disagreement between himself and a certain Brady Board member about the status of victims in the public debate. I think victims deserve a say just like anyone else, but I’m not sure it’s at all true that victims have unique insight. In fact, I think victims are more likely than not to have their judgement clouded by their unresolved grief. Chris wonders what you do when victims disagree. Does Joan Peterson’s experience give her the same moral authority to speak as Suzanna Gratia Hupp? I doubt Joan Peterson would agree, but to accept victims have special insights presents you with Chris’s question. What do you do when they disagree?
Staff Changes
NRA has announced some staff changes, of which the big news would appear to be James Baker coming back to head up federal affairs. Baker is largely responsible for turning ILA into the well-oiled lobbying engine it is today, so members should take this as a positive development.
On the other hand, as Joe Huffman has been tracking, and Thirdpower has also taken note of, our opponents seem to have either undergone some kind of restructuring, or some of their staff have decided their energies are best devoted elsewhere. Peter Hamm seems to no longer be with the Bradys and has struck out on his own. Whatever is in Peter’s future, we wish him well. He was a worthy adversary, and in a world marked by divisive and nasty politics, understood political struggle didn’t have to be personal. I’ve long maintained that in the current climate, civility suits us better than nastiness. I wish any former Brady staffers well. We would, indeed, like them all to move on to more worthy causes.
But whatever has happened at Brady, it is hard to say. They will be tight lipped about anything. Staff reductions in DC are taken for what they are, which is a sign your cause is on its way out. No group wants to announce a restructuring, especially if finances are the chief driver. A spate of resignations wouldn’t look good either. So I don’t expect Brady to announce what’s actually happened, but it would seem we’re going to have some new public faces for our adversaries.
Gun Control Not Catching On
Girandoni Air Rifle
From the NRA’s National Firearms Museum curator:
Pretty remarkable for late 18th century technology.