Police Action In Downtown L.A.

Been listening to my scanner for a while, and there's something going on around 4th/5th and Spring/Broadway.
They were using an air unit (chopper) to vector the police around to try and box up a crowd that had attempted to roll over a van and torch it.
"Less Than Lethal" approval came through about 15 minutes ago, and I just heard them give the order to fire:
"Bean Bags Only, Target The Instigators".

Hmmm....wonder if this will make the news tomorrow?

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It's Raining.....

In Southern California.
In July.
Huh....must be GloBULL Warming!
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50 Years Ago Today......

Telstar was launched.

While not a Geostationary satellite, it never the less ushered in a new era in telecommunications.
Since it wasn't in a Geosynchronous orbit, it had to be tracked across the sky, using the Andover Earth Station, built by AT&T.

Launched from Cape Canaveral using a Delta rocket, it had an orbit with a perigee of approximately 590 miles, and an apogee of approximately 3680 miles.

Telstar I and II are both still in orbit, though they have long since gone silent.
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Antique Power, Modulation, and Audio Transformers and Other Things

Whilst stumbling around the Web, I came across this site, which has TONS of specs and catalogs for old, ancient, power, modulation, and audio transformers.

If you're into old tube gear, check out The Bunker Of Doom!
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A Day At The Range With My New Buckmasters Scope

And what a day we had!
My new Nikon Buckmasters 3-9x40 scope is just what I needed! I can't say enough good things about this scope. Incredibly bright, clear viewing, plenty of eye relief, I can focus it to compensate for my glasses (YAY!), and each click moves the shot the amount it's supposed to.
Well....I was moving it 4-clicks at a time to start, because I needed to move it several inches, and 4-clicks moved it one inch. Each click equals 1/4 MOA, which works out to be 1/4" at 100 yards.
I got settled in with my Lead Sled, and fired a few shots to see where it was hitting, and went from there. I walked it in up/down, took several shots to confirm it was holding the new settings, and then walked it left/right until it was hitting right where I aimed.
Yeah, I "wasted" some ammo getting POA to equal POI, but I'm still pretty new at this, and I'm still learning how to do it, and watching carefully as I changed the adjustments on the scope. I looked at this exercise as not so much in getting the new scope zeroed, but rather as getting a feel for how to do it, and a feel for the how the adjustments reacted.
It turned out to be well worth the 20 or so rounds I spent experimenting.
I brought along some Remington 150gr Core-Lockt, some 150gr Sellier&Bellot, some 150gr  stuff I got from another place, and some 150gr Hornady LEVERevolution.
The Remington and S&B shot extremely consistent, while the "other" stuff was all over the place.
The Hornady was very interesting stuff. The box said that at 100 yards, it should shoot +3". Now, they don't tell you +3" compared to what, but compared to the Remington and S&B, it shoot just slightly above the black circle on my 5.5" targets, which is pretty damn close to 3".
And wonder of wonders, 12-clicks down put it where it was supposed to be!
Compared to the last time I took the Marlin 336 out to zero the OEM scope, this was a joy to do. The OEM scope didn't seem to adjust correctly, and it seemed to change it's zero over the course of the day. I understand that I was basically paying the rifle, and the scope and rings were just gravy. The prices these go for seem to bear that out, as a 336W is $500, and a 336WS is $548.
I don't think $48 can get you a very good scope and a set of rings!
Oh, yeah, the OEM rings. Couldn't use 'em. While I could get the scope and rings off the rail as a unit, I couldn't get the screws holding the top half of the rings loose! To start with, they're metric socket head caps screws, and the only hex keys I have in metric are ball drivers. These screws were in so tight, I was afraid of either stripping the head, or the ball-end of my driver, or both.
Since I had purchased some Warne rings in high, medium, and low, I decided to just use those, and leave the Marlin scope and rings together as a unit.
Since I was into it this far, I tried all three heights to see what best fit me, and wound up using the low rings.

The picture was taken at the end of our session on the long range, and shows some interesting things.
The bottom target shows (on the white paper) where I was walking it in, the top target shows me shooting off-hand standing at 100 yards, and the middle target shows the result of the barrel getting hot. The middle target was shot last, and although I kept it pretty much on center left-to-right, the elevation was changing. By the time I'd finished the middle target, the barrel was too hot to touch!
Yes, a 30-30 lever action rifle is NOT meant to be rapid fired for 10 minutes straight, and boy, I sure do understand that now!
 The bottom target only has two "big" holes from my 30-30, and the rest of the small holes are from my son's Mini 14 with aperture sights. It was the first time I've ever fired a Mini 14, and although that target sure won't qualify me as a Rifleman at Appleseed, I'm actually surprised I did that well at 100 yards with iron sights.
After spending a couple of hours on the long range, we went down to the short/pistol/steel target range for another couple of hours. I had a ball shooting my Marlin 1894C in 357 at the steel targets, and was clobbering them out at 100 yards with those funky "Buckhorn" sights it comes with. Took me a few shots to get the rear sight adjusted for elevation, but after that it was BOOM.........CLANG! My son got quite a kick out of the 1894, too, and said he didn't know how much fun it was to shoot a little rifle like that.

So all-in-all, we spent five hours tromping around out in the fresh air, went through 80 rounds of 30-30, 200 rounds of 223, 100 rounds of 17HMR, 100 rounds of 357, 100 rounds of 45ACP, and 100 rounds of 40S&W.

And we had a ball!
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Off To The Range

I'll report back when I get home....

Lifeguard Saves Man...AND GETS FIRED!

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This is just freakin' NUTS.

He's sitting in his tower, and somebody comes running up to tell him about a struggling man in the surf.

He goes, rescues the guy, fills out an incident report, and gets fired on the spot!

DOH!

Several of his fellow lifeguards quit in protest, and now the contracting company that manages the lifeguards is back pedaling on the issue.

Ya think?

Anyway, read all about it here.
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President Reagan's 4th of July Speech --7/4/86

THIS is what a President tells his country on Independence Day!

Enjoy!

Independence Day

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Happy (?) 4th of July, everybody.
I'm still in a dizzy over what our crumb-bum-in-chief is getting away with, and the recent Supreme (double??) Court decisions.
Oh, well.....
Going up to Angeles Shooting Range on Friday with my son and his cousin. I'm going to sight-in my new Nikon Buckmaster scope (3x9x40) on my Marlin 336, and blast some steel with my Marlin 1894 in 357.
My son will be bringing his step dads Mini 14, and I'm looking forward to shooting one of those.

Everybody be safe, and watch out for each other!

And I'll leave you with a quote from General Curtis LeMay's 1968 book, "America Is In Danger":

"People who wish to remain free must be willing to bleed for freedom"
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Bill Whittle on "Fast and Furious"

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As usual, he hits the nail right on the head.

His closing remarks are brilliant.



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High School 1958 vs 2012

Found this over at Godfather Politics, one of my faves.

Just couldn't resist posting it here.

HIGH SCHOOL — 1958 vs. 2012

Scenario 1:
Jack goes duck hunting before school and then pulls into the
school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck’s gun rack.

1958 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun,
goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2012 – School goes into lock down, FBI called,
Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again.
Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
………………………………………………………………….

Scenario 2:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.

1958 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark
shake hands and end up buddies.

2012 – Police called and SWAT team arrives –
they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged
with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.
…………………………………………………………………………

Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.

1958 – Jeffrey sent to the Principal’s office and given a good
paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and
does not disrupt class again.

2012 – Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie.
He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the
government because Jeffrey has a disability.
…………………………………………………………………………..

Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his Dad gives him a
whipping with his belt.

1958 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college
and becomes a successful businessman.

2012- Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse, Billy is removed to foster
care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy’s sister
that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison.
Billy’s mom has an affair with the psychologist.
……………………………………………………………………………….

Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1958 – Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.

2012- The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations.
His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.
………………………………………………………………………………….

Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.

1958 – Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.

2012 – Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally
explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU
files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro’s English teacher.
English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but
ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.
……………………………………………………………………………………..

Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July,
puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.

1958 – Ants die.

2012 – ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is
charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -
and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated.
Johnny’s dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee.
He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.

1958 – In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2012 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job.
She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.”


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