winsor

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Everything posted by winsor

  1. I take exception to equating a REMF with the pointy end of the spear.
  2. From a male-specific cancer standpoint, 'I heart prostates' is a better statistical correlation. 'I heart penises' is more on a par with 'I heart vaginas." and how do you feel about testicles? I feel very protective, at least about mine. From the standpoint of the breast cancer awareness industry, it was pointed out by one pundit or another that women-specific cancer gets MUCH more attention than does men-specific cancer. The statistic put forth by various feminists that well less than half of cancer research goes to women-specific cancer overlooks the fact that almost all the remainder goes to cancer that is gender neutral (lung, skin, brain, bone and what have you). One thing that concerns me is that, in addition to the fact that oncology is the last bastion of medieval medicine, it, and fundraising on its behalf, have become massive industries. Think about it - if someone actually came up with a cure for cancer ("You have stage 4 leukemia. Take one of these pills once a day for five days, and come back in six months for a checkup"), it would shut down a multi-billion dollar industry. Sloan-Kettering and M.D. Anderson would be out of business. Having lost friends to various forms of cancer, including breast, I do like the idea of improved treatment options. However, my tenure with companies developing medications to address the issue has only served to reinforce my inherent cynicism. Race for the cure, anyone? BSBD, Winsor
  3. From a male-specific cancer standpoint, 'I heart prostates' is a better statistical correlation. 'I heart penises' is more on a par with 'I heart vaginas."
  4. A more definitive misnomer never existed. The "Federal Reserve" is neither Federal nor a reserve.
  5. winsor

    ACA Fix

    Sure there have been a couple of snags, but it's under control now.
  6. To some people you will never convince them that the "Stars and Bars" are about anything but racism and slavery. I'm not sure if it's because of brain-washing or the fact that there is an entire industry built around race-baiting now a days. But either way, it took living in the south for a while to understand that there is an entire way of life that some one from the south can identify with. From southern hospitality, to southern cooking. The out-door activities and just some general views on life. Only someone from the south knows the proper way to cook a sweet-potato pie with the proper 5 sticks of real butter. But no, ask any liberal and they will be sure to tell you how Mississippi just finally managed to end slavery earlier this year, and me forgetting to go buy a house slave really quickly before the markets were finally shut down last February... The flag that gets people upset is, of course, the Battle Flag of the CSA. The Stars and Bars, the National Flag of the CSA, is a completely different animal. By and large, the people who do not know the difference between the two, or its significance, are those who have adopted the revisionist view of the conflict. Abhorrent though the institution of slavery is, and flashpoint issue though it may have been, the reason for secession and the ensuing war was money. After the Emancipation Proclamation there were Yankee Generals who still legally owned slaves in the U.S., since it did not apply to slave states that had not seceded. A significant portion of Federal troops and citizens did not view slaves as human, and they were referred to as "contraband" when freed. A study of history reveals that popular accounts of various conflicts are little more than formalized versions of propaganda generated while the war still raged. One must take care not to believe one's own lies. BSBD, Winsor
  7. Presidential ticket 2016? Oh please I hope so.... Who would lead? And who would break the bad news to Bachmann? A woman's place is on top.
  8. Of course they don't. They provide a backup in case your system crashes. Since their services are covered by your tax money, sending them a letter of thanks will suffice. I suppose they already have this, so I'm all set.
  9. Neck resize only with Lee Collet dies and you won't have any problems. Your cases will last MUCH longer, and you will get the best concentricity you could hope for. I have used dies from a wide variety of manufacturers, and prefer Lee by a wide margin.
  10. The 7.62x51/.308 Win is hard to beat as an all-around cartridge. It is effective and commonly available in any number of loadings. As far as the rifle goes, it is a matter of personal preference in terms of fit, finish and price. You could get picky about action length or magazine capacity or safety position or any number of minor considerations, but the majority of modern bolt action rifles will serve you well and be passed down to later generations. Either the Tikka or the Remington is a great choice, and Savage has a lot to recommend it. In addition to the Accu Trigger, one feature that Savage has on its competition is the ability to swap barrels with very little fuss. The .308 action will feed the .243 Winchester, .260 Remington, 7mm-08 Remington, .308 Winchester, .338 Federal and .358 Winchester without a hitch; with one action and a selection of barrels it is akin to having the bolt action rifle version of a T/C Encore. Your point is well made that the optics are a major consideration. People using Zeiss or Swarovski scopes often have much more invested in the glass than in the rifle itself, and Nikon or Leupold optics can double the cost of your setup. Blister pack grade 3x9 scopes I relegate to .22 rifles for familiarization classes (they work fine for that). The bottom line is that you have a lot of choices, and most of them are rather good. I hope you are happy with whatever you pick, and it serves you well. Blue skies, Winsor
  11. Your verbiage is somewhat garbled ("ascribe...to"), but I think I know what you mean. I have somewhat less respect for Islam and its adherents than I do for the NSDAP. Our CIC's stated fondness of things Muslim is on a par with Joe Kennedy's voiced admiration of the Third Reich. If the CIC wishes to speak fondly of a malignant group founded by a violent sex offender, do not be surprised if it does not generate a great deal of admiration on my part. BSBD, Winsor
  12. Oddly enough, though I disagree with many of Ron's stances, I respect him more than some people with whom I agree. There is a big difference between thinking one's self superior and simply noting inferiority when it is manifest. Taking an author to task to avoid addressing content is a sure sign of a mediocre mind. BSBD, Winsor When the content is this "Our CIC's comments, however go well beyond what is required for self-preservation. If he spoke so glowingly about things homosexual I would take it for granted that he was gay (though being gay is like a badge of honor by comparison to being Muslim)" In all reality I thought I was on some sort of hate-mongering website. This content does not warrant address. I suppose it is politically incorrect to think badly of those who have differing values, but I find it hard to admire one who is on the record as 'marrying' a nine year old, and whose exploits include summary decapitation of those who had the temerity to disagree with him. That anyone might speak glowingly of such an individual is similarly questionable. To go all Godwin here, one could consider it remarkable how the economic devastation of the '20s was turned around, and that technological progress was breathtaking, under the leadership of a particular political group without fawning over those in charge of noting how rousing was the 'Horst Wessel Song' I have the same level of contempt for those who think that either 'The Koran' or 'Mein Kampf' is the best book ever, for about the same reasons. If that is unacceptable to you, so be it. BSBD, Winsor
  13. Oddly enough, though I disagree with many of Ron's stances, I respect him more than some people with whom I agree. There is a big difference between thinking one's self superior and simply noting inferiority when it is manifest. Taking an author to task to avoid addressing content is a sure sign of a mediocre mind. BSBD, Winsor
  14. One of the greatest sports in Islam is killing other Muslims. They may enjoy killing Infidels, but, left to their own devices, they will busy themselves killing those they consider the wrong kind of Muslims - Sunni, Shiite, or what have you. The sentiments voiced by our CIC would be impossible to say with a straight face by anyone who did not buy into the nonsense that is Islam. Speaking glowingly about so pathological a set of values is on a par with fondly discussing the marvels of sex with donkeys; if someone says they think sex with donkeys is wonderful, I assume they speak from firsthand experience and mean what they say, and if they show support for some fatwa or another I have no reason to doubt their sincerity. Indeed, when dealing with a group of violent psychopaths, it is good to remain polite. Being surrounded by a group of people on Harleys that have a common motif on their cutoff jean jackets is a good time to say "hey, nice bike!" Scolding them for their lack of mufflers or explaining how much better is your Japanese motorcycle will not get you too far. Our CIC's comments, however go well beyond what is required for self-preservation. If he spoke so glowingly about things homosexual I would take it for granted that he was gay (though being gay is like a badge of honor by comparison to being Muslim); his sentiments would be inconceivable to one who was not of the faith. Claiming to be convincingly Muslim may be a good idea for him, given that he listed himself to be Muslim in his youth and the Koran is quite specific that an apostate should be summarily killed. Nevertheless, his standpoint on the subject of Islam is somewhere between distasteful and revolting. BSBD, Winsor
  15. "The 1.0L ecoboost engine from Ford which won the top award for 2012 is not available in N America." It also won in 2013. I wound up driving a Lincoln, which I was prepared to dislike. After noticing that it got 27 mpg on the highway, I took a look under the hood. WTF? An alloy block OHC 4.6 litre V-8? While GM owns Opel and Vauxhall, which have some very impressive models, Ford also has a variety of really superb designs that never reach our shores. I reiterate my contention that, if your goal is to drive in such a manner as to draw fire from people intent upon your demise, a street-worthy armored vehicle is the way to go. In all seriousness, it concerns me that we have become so weireded out that our response to someone expressing mental illness behind the wheel is to kill them. I am biased by the fact that there was an infant in the back, and that the driver, bat-shit crazy though she may have been, was likely the kid's mother. Having been the target of a woman's fury with a 6,000 lb vehicle as her weapon of choice, I have some feel for the decision process of the LEOs on the scene. Luckily, I had the option of evasion, but they were stuck having to deal with the situation, and sidearms vs. vehicle is a lopsided equation. Even with perforated tires, a determined driver can still use a vehicle to fatal effect. I realize that mental illness is a disease and all that, but when someone is barking mad and poses a serious threat to those nearby, it is hard to bring treatment into play. On the one hand, the insane asylums of yore simply warehoused people in a drug-addled state, all too often in simply ghastly conditions. OTOH, simply releasing these people, with or without their meds, does not turn out to be much of an improvement. Psychiatry is one of the softest of the soft sciences, and its practitioners are often drawn to the field by the fact that they identify with the mentally defective, so I take with a grain of salt the bulk of the theories popular in the psychiatric community. However, the threat posed by mental illness is real and significant. In this case, as well as many of the newsworthy incidents involving firearms, insanity is the core issue at hand. That being said, using the knowledge that we have a problem with the clinically unhinged is problematic, since there really is no effective means of either identifying nutcases or dealing with them. Let's say we come up with a clear criterion for identifying the mentally ill. For example, if Scientology sounds good, there is something severely wrong with you. That's all well and good, but now what do we do with that knowledge? Any means of removing people from society on that basis has historically been abused more than it has been used to good effect - look at the USSR. Also, there is the problem that many who have made the greatest contributions to our society were not too tightly wrapped in the first place. Brilliance and sanity are not too tightly coupled. Thus, even though we may have a good idea of what is the basic problem, its solution seems destined to remain elusive. BSBD, Winsor
  16. I'd just like to point out that she had excellent taste in vehicles. I prefer Italian, but the best engine company in Japan that makes vehicles is Honda. For the situation in which she found/placed herself, she should have gone German.
  17. Why? The woman didn't have any weapons in the car, but the car itself is a pretty potent weapon. She rammed the cop cars at least once, and made it clear that she wasn't going to give up. I don't agree with a lot of the "use of deadly force" decisions that the cops make, but in this case I don't have any real issues with it. And the news is covering it pretty well (it's been on local TV evening news) including video of the car chase. The vaunted .44 Remington Magnum at the muzzle has something like 1,000 foot-pounds of energy per round. My pickup truck at the speed limit is good for about 2,000,000,000 foot pounds of energy. Getting hit by a Yugo can cancel your ticket without a problem. Automotive misbehavior has met the criteria for lethal force quite routinely. BSBD, Winsor
  18. Like this? Okay, what I taught in my classes for years is that the best form of self-defense is real estate. Put as much of it as you can between you and trouble. If someone wants to call you a coward, make them dial a '1' first so that it's long-distance. The likelihood that a firearm might have helped the guy in New York is small. If, however, he was on his way home to clean his oven and happened to have a big can of Easy Off with him, the outcome might have been different. He would not have needed earplugs, either. BSBD, Winsor
  19. .....emphasis on 'special' Are you saying he was a Lowinski Assistant? Nah, I think the implication is more along the lines of a 'short bus' assistant.
  20. "For all practical purposes, the world's supply of oil is not finite..." Our problem is, unfortunately, that we live in a society where our collective awareness of time is a business quarter. If a CEO defers maintenance and otherwise shuffles accounts so that 'profits' are unusually high for the preceding four months, he is deemed a 'genius' and given a huge bonus. If, OTOH, he/she straightens out such subterfuge so that the company's fundamentals are sound, but takes a hit over the quarter, shareholders are screaming for his/her head. The concept of 'peak oil' is based on the availability of light, sweet crude at common extraction economics. If you include resources whose extraction would be prohibitive by comparison, the total amount changes significantly. The reserve of each type of petroleum is, however, quite finite. The production rate of a particular oil field tends to follow a curve resembling a Gaussian distribution, the familiar 'Bell Curve.' You have test wells on the leading edge, a big bulge as more wells are sunk and production comes into full swing, and stripper wells/seawater extraction on the tail end of the curve. Regardless of the trickery used to milk out what remains, there will always be a little more left when you finally give up when extraction takes more energy than the yield. It seems unlikely that Clarke's Third Law should apply to something so pedestrian as petroleum exploration, but the author seems to think there is magic involved. There is nothing that is going on now in terms of petroleum availability that was not known - in broad strokes, at least - when I was an undergraduate those many moons ago. If you look at production of light, sweet crude, you will find that we are on the back end of the curve, well past Hubbert's Peak. The fact that we can now include significant resources that are prohibitively costly by comparison to easy-to-extract pools of high-quality crude modifies the curve, but does not change its fundamental nature. The technology for turning coal into liquid fuel is not now in widespread use, but could provide yet another tweak to these fuel production curves. However, a visit to areas that have already been mined out can provide some idea of what the end game will look like; regardless of how plentiful a finite resource may look, when it's gone, it's gone. While new sources of fossil fuels may seem like a good thing, all they do is delay the inevitable and exacerbate its effects. For all the moaning and wailing about climate change and whatnot, when you have x billion people more than can be fed in the absence of cheap and plentiful energy, the weather report as they starve to death is but a footnote. Again, enjoy yourself - it's later than you think. BSBD, Winsor
  21. If a group of people left, say, a Kiwanis Club meeting and engaged in an orgy of looting and arson while screaming Kiwanis slogans, it would certainly be germane to mention that there was some Kiwanis factor in the incident, however perverse. The affiliation of the people who murdered Brenda and Erica Lafferty was pertinent from the standpoint that they used their interpretation of the tenets of their faith as justification for the act. If someone commits a crime in an homogeneous society, it is not particularly newsworthy to note that they a member of that society ("Japanese person commits crime in Tokyo - news at 6!"). If, however, identification with a particular group forms the basis for the crime, then it is pertinent ("Dateline Tokyo - Japanese person kills 14 and maims 9 in attack on 'Gaijin' - news at 6!"). Context matters. BSBD, Winsor Right. So, how does that factor into news reports using "muslim" or "islam" in the title of a news article regarding an attack on a mall in retaliation for military intervention in Somalia? It should be noted that, for all the claims that newspapers are dedicated to providing news, the newspapers that survive are those who sell the most newspapers. In any event, the line that was crossed here is that the perpetrators of this crime did not go through the mall identifying those behind the military intervention ("Die, Kenyan scum!"), but selected for elimination those who did not adhere to their particular religious persuasion ("Die, Infidel scum!"). In the former case, Kenyans being targeted would be a headline issue. As it was, killing non-muslims en masse appears to have been the game plan. BSBD, Winsor
  22. If a group of people left, say, a Kiwanis Club meeting and engaged in an orgy of looting and arson while screaming Kiwanis slogans, it would certainly be germane to mention that there was some Kiwanis factor in the incident, however perverse. The affiliation of the people who murdered Brenda and Erica Lafferty was pertinent from the standpoint that they used their interpretation of the tenets of their faith as justification for the act. If someone commits a crime in an homogeneous society, it is not particularly newsworthy to note that they a member of that society ("Japanese person commits crime in Tokyo - news at 6!"). If, however, identification with a particular group forms the basis for the crime, then it is pertinent ("Dateline Tokyo - Japanese person kills 14 and maims 9 in attack on 'Gaijin' - news at 6!"). Context matters. BSBD, Winsor
  23. I wish that was close to true, but it is most unfortunately not. I agree that health care in the U.S. of A. is most severely broken. However, adding thousands of pages of regulations with terminally clueless authorship can most certainly make things much, much worse. If health care was really lousy soup, Obamacare would be the turd floating in it - hardly a significant improvement.
  24. Pretty good survival tactic to avoid pissing off the 'Religion of Violent Psychopaths,' I'd say.