Libercontrarian

Thursday, 31 March 2005

Another Blogger Makes The List

Freedom Sight - another Rocky Mountain Blogger - is welcomed at Libercontrarian. This guy's a sharp writer, with an eye for sarcasm, and an eye for hypocrisy in anti-gun screed everywhere.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 31, 2005 20:22 | link | comments |

Carnival of Cordite

The Carnival of Cordite #7 is on... at Resistance Is Futile. GullyBorg is hard at work, editiing the numerous firearms-related rants, tips, hints, articles, etc. If you wish to submit, get thee unto him your website address, or send him an email with a batch of text you've concocted, just so long's it's about GUNS.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 31, 2005 19:38 | link | comments |

60 Tons Of Shotgun From Two-Feet Of Death

I have often pondered about the strengths of the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank on this blog - I have used this wonderful, 60-ton toy as an agitprop for numerous idiotic rants.

Well, the Abrams is fighting back. Yes, our friend Gunner at Target Centermass has tipped off your Sergeant Major of the Armchair Commando Brigade of Aurora, Colorado to an interesting story about the adaption of the Abrams to a city-fighting mission. This story, oddly enough, comes to us from the ever-liberal-leaning USA Today website. Here's a paragraph:

"The Army also has tested and is preparing to issue, for Iraq and Korea, a new round for the tank's main gun for close combat. Current rounds are either high explosive or armor-piercing shells. The new round turns the Abrams into a giant shotgun, blasting 1,100 tungsten pellets at a time out of its 120mm barrel."

Sounds like a barrel of laughs at parties.

This reminds me of my Tuesday plinking expedition with my miscreant Brother-In-Law, Bob. Bob's kind-of a non-conformist, and a very interesting guy. if you've a conspiracy theory, Bob's got an ear for you.

Recently, Bob became a gun owner, and wanted to test out the new gear in the foothills of Colorado north of where we live. As a target, Bob procured a dress-fitting dummy that was sitting in a trash can - this torso-shaped thing on a stand makes an ideal target. We unleashed with 3" magnum rounds - my wrist is still aching from the shock - and here's the result:

I learned a great deal about the phenomenally destructive power of shotguns that day (they are two-feet of death), as did both Bob and the manniquin. Now, that lesson will be taught with frightening efficiency to the Islamofascists who like to kidnap and kill women, courtesy of the the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank.

I doubt they will much enjoy the 60 ton shotgun on tracks coming down the streets of Mosul this spring.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 31, 2005 16:03 | link | comments (3) |

Going To A Blogger Bash

Just in time for the holidays (What holidays? It doesn't matter as long as it gives you an excuse to DRINK!), I'll be heading off to the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash, v.4.0, at the Denver Press Club. Joining me will be a wide variety of notables, including Stephen Green of the Vodkapundit.

Now, if the Vodkapundit is there, do you think there's a chance he may engage in the BlogSport known as "Drunkblogging?" I will hopefully be able to report live from the event, if my Ipaq 2215 and Nokia N-Gage QD are working properly...

posted by: underwhelmed at March 31, 2005 14:47 | link | comments |

Oh, Non, Monsieur! C'est Tragedie!

This American Spectator article is a must-read.

It highlights the "extreme lengths" to which French society will go to reduce the crushing 10% unemployment rate they have been suffering with for years - they're repealing the 35-hour maximum work-week law! Oh no! It's a tragedy, French-style.

Of course, Socialists, labor unions, and the lazy everywhere in La Belle France managed to work up the energy to organize protest marches.

Amazing, for a country that generally couldn't organize the successful sharpening of a box of pencils without the involvement of some Socialist government agency.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 31, 2005 14:40 | link | comments |

Sunday, 27 March 2005

Resistance is Futile!

Resistance is Futile, a superb conservative blog from Gullyborg, is a new addition to the list. I beg you to go there and read his piece entitled, Use Your Remote - it's a superb, clearly written, short, effective piece on the silliness of Leftist Do-Gooder Thinking.

Your Libercontrarian, your Sergeant-Major of the Armchair Commando Brigade of Aurora, Colorado, applies his patented Stamp of Approval!

posted by: underwhelmed at March 27, 2005 19:50 | link | comments |

Carnival of Cordite

Come one, come all, to the Carnival of Cordite #6 - this all-purpose gun-fest serves as a central link to all who are interested in the many facets of gun ownership, gun arcana, the politics of guns, and free gun pr0n!

If you have anything for the next Carnival of Cordite, you may mail it to c a r n i v a l o f c o r d i t e A T h o t m a i l D O T c o m.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 27, 2005 19:42 | link | comments |

Saturday, 26 March 2005

Newsweek Article Paints The Town

You'll love the article in the Detroit Free Press entitled, "Once A Beauty, Baghdad Bears Many Scars." It highlights the many beautiful visions of happy urban life that were Baghdad before the eeevil 'Murkins came with their troops and their helicopters to ruin that sainted Metropolis. Our Friend Arthur Chrenkoff (and my hero :@) ) fisks the article with his special genius; he is in rare form.

I read this piece in Newsweek a couple of weeks ago, and when I went to Arthur's blog, I was reminded of the author Rageh's apparent disconnect between the wholesale slaughter and oppression that ruled Saddam's little paradise for 35+ years, and the difficult and often dangerous task of creating order from the effort to dislodge that madman from his seat of power. Read the DFP article, then Chrenkoff's fisking - he often says what you are thinking, if you were more articulate and well-read than you are (damn him!).

Edited to add: Chrenkoff responds: "In Iraq, the grass is greener because it's growing on mass graves.

Honestly, the disdain for your own society and fascination with "the other" are one of the oldest trendy persuits of our civilization's sophisticates, going back to Tacitus' "Germania" if not earlier."

Indeed.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 26, 2005 22:36 | link | comments |

Friday, 25 March 2005

Rifle Love Turns Into Rifle Mania

Well, kids, it happened - I went to an indoor shooting range last weekend to dink off some handgun rounds, and was saddened to see an orphaned rifle sitting forlornly in a glass cabinet there. It was a FTR Fazakerly, an unissued last-stage copy of the old British SMLE Lee-Enfield Mark 4 No.2 bolt action rifle, made in 1955. It was, even at that time, virtually obsolete as a battle rifle, the design having been used by the Brits in one form or another for longer than two world wars.

The sign said, "$175."

Being unissued, it was assembled in January 1955, slathered in Cosmoline, wrapped in paper and put into stocks for the Irish Army, who never took it out of inventory, as by that time even the Europeans had discovered the unfettered utility of self-loading arms and high-volume fire. It's rimmed .303 cartridge was the product of late 19th century weapons design, not suitable to modern uses, and it's ten-round magazine and 60-degree bolt rotation were forward-thinking attributes for the early 1900s but have been since eclipsed by smaller rounds with higher velocity and weapons with three-times the ammo capacity at two-thirds the weight, manufacturable at one-third the cost from cheap stampings.

Nevertheless with its undamaged blonde wood, flaw-free Parkerizing, new bore, and tiny price, I found this rifle irresistible. With Mrs. Libercontrarian's financial blessing (and several rolled-eyed-smirks) I secured the rifle with attached bayonet on Sunday, and spent the next three days of spare time touching it up, refinishing the stock and using tung oil - hand rubbed with multiple coats, mind you, to bring out the true character of the wood. Cleaning the Cosmoline off the steel parts was not very much fun, but when I was done, I had a gem of high quality - completely new, as well, and a beautiful representation of post WWII history in my gun locker.

Rule Britannia! Britannia Rule The Waves!

posted by: underwhelmed at March 25, 2005 23:00 | link | comments (10) |

Last Days Of World War Two

Anyone watching this unnerving and well-narrarated series? It gives a world-wide view of the major conflicts on the dates in this time-block in history 60 years ago. These were some pretty terrible events - the Russians lost a couple hundred thousand men taking Berlin, and the United States Navy lost over 30 capital ships, and 360 were damaged, in the battle for Okinawa, mostly as a result of Kamikaze attacks.

To put that in perspective, 5,000 men is almost twice what we lost on 9/11 and more than twice what we lost at Pearl Harbor, when we weren't prepared for battle! Can you imagine such a sacrifice today?

posted by: underwhelmed at March 25, 2005 21:43 | link | comments |

Have a Serene Good Friday

I wish all of you Christians who are not Orthodox Christians a peaceful and serene Good Friday - This is the day that Our Lord and Savior laid down his very life for the redemption of us all. Remember his Passion and his passing today with thankfulness; the Resurrection, the act which saved us all, occurs tomorrow at midnight.

Now, I'm an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and our church observes Easter on a different schedule - Jesus does not care which day we remember the sacrifice of God-made Man, but rejoices that we understand the sacrifice and live an emulation of his life.

Peace be to all of you on this sobering holiday.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 25, 2005 21:27 | link | comments |

TriggerFinger Lays His Finger On It

TriggerFinger's post on what it means to claim your individual rights is an interesting take on a subject usually taken for granted:

"...It brings up something I've considered in the past... the idea that the only necessary condition for having rights is the ability to demand them."

posted by: underwhelmed at March 25, 2005 20:27 | link | comments |

Tuesday, 22 March 2005

One Woman, 535 Congressmen, 11 Million Illegal Aliens

I'm really, really glad that Congress and the President can afford to interrupt their busy weekends off to rush to Washington to vote for their party's position on abortion via the Terri Schiavo case - it must take real courage to take a stand on an unanswerable issue like "right to life" or "right to die," instead of, say, doing something about the 11 million illegal aliens we are letting run loose in the country.

About the aliens, that's an issue NEITHER party wishes to attend to - nobody wants to wear the instantly-applied label of "racist," or suffer the lack of votes from the Hispanic community or the lack of re-election funds from the business interests who could be losing black-market labor if we take care of business the way it's supposed to be handled.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 22, 2005 18:44 | link | comments (2) |

I Love Them, But They Disturb Me

I'm a big fan of all things British (so much so I have just bought a Lee-Enfield Mk.4 No. 2 in UNISSUED condition; more to come on this fine rifle). I am especially enamored of their quality of nobility in the face of doom, and of their bravery when brutally confronted by overwhelming odds. The famous British resolve was, in recent memory, best displayed to the world during the Blitz (if you are under 30 and have had a public school education, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO CLICK THIS LINK before you read another word), when that noble and modern nation suffered a ruthless two-year attack on its cities by the German Luftwaffe in WWII.

Sometimes, I suspect, they took too much in stride. I was watching the History Channel yesterday - they were showing The Color of War - Air War. This is the touching, and often disturbing series that shows nothing but color footage of WWII. This aspect brings a whole new sense of reality and impact to the seemingly-long-ago, fuzzily-remembered vision of the Greatest War in human history. About halfway through the show, the directors turned to the subject of the R.A.F and its role in the air war over Europe.

The R.A.F. had initially waged its air war against Nazi Germany in daylight. Answers.com's post on the topic, using Wikipedia, says, "The final problem was lack of good enough aircraft. The main Bomber Command workhorses at the start of the war were the Battle, Blenheim, Hampden, Wellesley, Wellington and Whitley. None of them had enough range or ordnance capacity." These aircraft were lost during early raids in great quantities, with resultant and tragic attrition of aircrew. The switch to nighttime area bombing resulted in fewer losses, but greatly decreased accuracy, so whole cities were targeted by the R.A.F., and many thousands of civilians were killed. The British then adopted a world-class four-engine bomber, the Lancaster, which could carry nine-thousand pounds of bombs - nearly twice the load of the vaunted B-17. This feat was partially achieved by reducing the quantity and caliber of the defensive armament in the aircraft, which made these planes and their crews vulnerable to attack from aircraft which had longer-ranged guns. To make matters worse, German engineers quickly came up with radar-directed night fighters and innovative "volley-fire" techniques that eventually negated the advantage of nighttime flights. The British response with technology was ineffective; here's the quote from Wikipedia describing the systems:

"- H2S - Ground looking navigation radar system - though it could be homed on by German night fighters' NAXOS receiver and had to be used with discretion.

- Fishpond - a rearward looking radar to warn of night fighter approaches - a notable disaster, transmitting constant warnings of bombers in the same formation it was ignored by crews and instead served as a homing beacon for suitably equipped German night fighters."

The British sense of reserve, the well-known "stiff upper lip" put aircrews of these planes in mortal peril - indeed, 60+ thousand in the R.A.F. were killed in action; nearly one-half of the 125,000 men who served that branch. I believe that the British applied the same kind of class-oriented diffidence to their losses in the air that they displayed on the blood-soaked plains of Passchendale in the Great War. It is my belief that our allies failed to care deeply enough about increasing the safety of the men they threw at the Nazis, and I believe that expediency of the war effort had little to do with this; that it was instead an accepted method of waging warfare for their culture. It is not today - and I am left to wonder at how much of that British resolve remains, especially so because of the relentless Socialist turn that nation has taken.

I wonder if they would be able to defend themselves if a determined aggressor attacked them?

posted by: underwhelmed at March 22, 2005 10:25 | link | comments |

Saturday, 19 March 2005

Why Liberals Hate Your Guns So Much

The hoplophobia evinced by the actions of the gun banners can only exist for one reason:

They hate the idea that the lowly non-elites can have some method of resisting the "inevitable maturation of the species to Socialist-Engineered Society."

These cowardly tyrants-in-the-making believe that guns are to be used by other low persons who perform their bidding, to enforce regulations of every kind and sort they dream up. Leftist Elites such as college professors and ever-so-wise Massachusetts Senators believe that they are the sage leaders who can bring about America's "inevitable maturation" to Communism (they'd never admit to it, and the Communist way of life would never personally apply to them, since they'd be in power) through use of guile, propaganda, and the careful construction of an agenda-bound "educational system."

In that way, they are hoping to avoid the civil war they know they would lose if they were to attempt a direct approach during one of America's short-lived and brainless vacations to the Democrat Party's candidates.

Now, they're not gonna win, of that there is no doubt. These people are dinosaurs, believing in constructs that were ably demonstrated by history to be built of wet toilet paper as early as the 1930's and well disabused now by even the most common of men. Hell, a socialist might just as effectively believe in Monarchism; both concepts have the same relevance in the modern world.

Their ideas are dead, their beliefs are reflective of the Flat-Earthers, and their morality is non-existent. They will fade away to a pinpoint in the collective American rear-view-mirror.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 19, 2005 23:30 | link | comments (4) |

Blog Weakness Due To The Appearance of Dog

My involvement in my blog has diminished since I took a promotion with my employer, and I have kvetched about my lack of time with which to post in prior blog posts. Now, a new dynamic has been added to the complexity of my existence in the person of a dog:

Mrs. Libercontrarian and I have been taking care of Buddie, a shelter-rescue pup, for about three weeks now. This two-year-old Australian/Lab/Collie mix has become a proud member of our household, which is comprised of five cats, the dog, and a hamster. We are the quintessential weird childless middle-aged couple, animal lovers, nervous around kids, and centered around our animal house. The adoption of Buddie has nevertheless helped us become better and more rounded citizens, and we are meeting our neighbors and touring the neighborhood without the aid of our cars. Things somehow look more real, more dimensional when you walk by them at 2.5 m.p.h. instead of drive by them at 25 m.p.h. Owing to the low-rent nature of our locale, I have not been particularly involved or observant about our neighborhood here in Aurora, mostly because I secretly hoped that if I didn't pay attention to it, that I wouldn't notice it's decay.

Anyway, the dog keeps me running day and night. I don't mind, although it's playing hell with my "politickin'." I have seen many issues come and go that I would have liked to have commented on, but alas, too many forces tear at my ability to form logical, well-written positions, so I do what I can. I'm sorry if it hurts readership; I am not in this thing to make money, but give myself an outlet to vent some well-written rage.

Looking at that sweet face, I am sure you will understand.

posted by: underwhelmed at March 19, 2005 21:41 | link | comments |

Wednesday, 09 March 2005

Plinking Report - Made a Great Shot Yesterday!

Well. I made a truly heroic shot with my JLD PTR91 yesterday - Went to Left Hand Canyon north of Boulder, CO to do some plinking. Some joker had placed a variety of 4" clay pigeons facing down-canyonway, and we were shooting up-canyon about 200 yards at closer targets. Some fellows that had a variety of long guns and handguns were attempting to shoot the farthest target, about 230 yards distant, with an AR and an AK(!) from a freehand position (standing!). Needless to say, they weren't having much success.

I sat in the CMP-taught crossleg position, braced the elbows on the knees, formed the shoulder pocket... and picked off the farthest target with the second round! I didn't think that this was bad shooting for: 1.) no bench 2.) Aussie milsurp 3.) 40-y.o. eyes 4.) no sling, iron sights, and shooting @ smaller than a 2 MOA target.

We blew up some major-league cans of Van Camp's Pork and Beans, tore apart two dozen of Sam's Club's finest sodas, and shattered countless clay pigeons. All in all, it was a great plinkin' day - and yes, we packed out our trash; four bags full!

posted by: underwhelmed at March 09, 2005 17:14 | link | comments (2) |

What's The Frequency, Kenneth?

A long-awaited day in journalism has arrived - Our Friend Dan Rather, chief propagandist at the See B.S. "news organization" (I categorize that group in the same light as I did "Pravda" and "der Völkischer Beobachter" ) steps down this evening. Fox News' David Asman did a report on the departing AnchorWeasle, and at the end of his report, he interviewed Carl Bernstein, of "Woodward and Bernstein" fame - if you've never heard of "Watergate," or need a refresher on the topic, click here. Bernstein bitterly defended his associate newsman, lashing out at Asman because of the perceived conservative tilt of his questions.

At one point, Bernstein was claiming that See B.S. news is an unbiased news organization. This had me shrieking at the TV - "I've been watching that left-leaning asshat for 34 FUCKING YEARS and was, as a child of SIX, able to detect his liberal leanings!" Really, this is too much. There hasn't been a time I've watched Rather where I thought his coverage wasn't a mouthpiece for some leftist political ideology. What makes such a thing so intolerable that I am driven to rant over it is that he has done so without question or interruption or consequence for nearly two generations to Americans who are too foolish to protest, and too weak-minded to think around his words. The damage done by Rather and his ilk have wrought American society into two completely different worlds - urban and rural, coastal and plains, North and South.

It is the perpetual blindness of the left to their own bias that makes them so fundamentally dangerous. The knee-jerk, Blame-America-First, "if it bleeds, it leads," "rebel against any authority - unless it's Democrats running the Administration" attitude has me sickened to my core. There isn't a day that goes by now where I don't wish Kalifornia and New York would secede from our Union and merge with the EC or with Canada. Can we rename ourselves "The United States a' Texas?" I'm starting to like the idea of separate nations, where the Left gets to ruin their own country and the NORMAL AMERICANS get theirs BACK.

Please?

I'm going to have to go plinking Campbell's Pork and Beans cans up in Left Hand Canyon (and yes, fellow plinkers, I ALWAYS pack out my trash) to mentally recover from the trauma of having witnessed Bernstein's crazed defense of Dangerous Dan, or perhaps take a longish jog with new dog "Buddie" to burn off some steam. GRRRR!

posted by: underwhelmed at March 09, 2005 09:38 | link | comments |

Wednesday, 02 March 2005

"Heteronormative"

I was reading a newsgroup I enjoy frequenting, and a poster wrote about a gay and lesbian group's response to a speech Jada Pinkett-Smith gave at Harvard. The group is unhappy because Pinkett-Smith failed to represent an agenda they favored, even though the speech had no criticism of alternative lifestylers, nor any context in which such acknowledgement would have logically been demonstrated; the speech merely failed to recognize their plight in the world. The group criticized the minority speaker's words as "heteronormative," whatever in the H-E- double hockey-sticks that means.

This provides the reader with an excellent example of the phenomenally left-wing status of the norm at Harvard.

Did you know that Harvard once had a school armory?

A SCHOOL ARMORY. Reflect on that for a moment. That means that the center of the universe of American liberalism, Harvard, used to have FIREARMS on school grounds! In fact, the pro-war voice on Harvard's campus was so strong in 1898 that that the students used to drill on campus using those weapons stored in HARVARD'S ARMORY (I can barely type the phrase, it's such an utter oxymoron) in preparation for America's war with Spain.

What happened? Why did socialism/communism take such fierce root in the educational systems in the 20th century? I don't have any answers to offer here, just a question to the two readers that peruse my blog.