Sunday Morning Dawg

Since I've been spending time at home this summer, I've noticed that the dog spends a lot of time watching the door.  When Milady is gone, he spends most of his time where he can keep an eye on the carport door.

God Forbid that she slip in and he not be aware of it.  Next week, I gotta get that dog a haircut.

Pics from Last Week

I got some pictures this week, from the wedding last week.  I thought I'd share

That's my youngest sister Patty, and my mother.

This is fourth sister, Frannie on the left, with Milady.

Here's a current picture of PawPaw hisself.  I don't sparkle as much as the ladies, but then I'm not supposed to.

Slipping-Off Saturday

Today is Saturday, for those of you without calendars.  Later today, Milady and I will be at a wedding, the wedding of good friend Susan.  Susan lives in Breaux Bridge, LA, a little town near Lafayette about 80 miles south of our little acre.  The wedding is informal, even casual, so coat and tie are not required, but if I know the folks from that area, we will have a rollicking good time.  Because the wedding is informal, and Susan is on a budget, PawPaw has been tasked with taking pictures.  This is my first foray as a wedding photog, and I'll snap lots of pictures and hope that some of them turn out.  In this age of digital photography, I'll use my SLR, but I'll leave the SD card with Susan.  She can edit the photos at her leisure.

After the mid-day wedding, Milady and I will probably slip off and savor some of the local flavor, and in South Louisiana, when you say flavor, there's more than the culture.  Food is always present.  The Breaux Bridge area has some especially fine restaurants, little Mom&Pop places that no one knows about.

Y'all have fun today.  Play nice and be careful.  I'll be back in time for church tomorrow.

Holsters

For the past three decades I've been carrying holsters on a belt.  Sometimes plain clothes, sometime in a uniform assignment. but I own several holsters.  Like many of my readers I've got a box of holsters that for one reason or another, simply didn't work.  Other folks told me that they'd be great for my purposes, but they simply didn't work for me.

For the last four years I've been using a Safariland Model 6360 ALS holster on my duty rig.  This is a strongside belt holster that the user can modify for Level III or Level IV, depending on the individual preference.  I prefer to carry mine as a level III holster, simply because I don't like that little guard that makes it a level IV.

It's a great duty holster, but recently I began casting about for a plainclothes holster with many of the same attributes.  So, I naturally started looking at Safariland.  Sure enough, I found a holster that meets my criteria, the Safariland 6377.  It's a belt holster, fitted for my 1911, and I like it a lot.  It protects the weapon, it is very secure, and it seems to be the best blend of economy and security for a belt holster.  It's also very fast.  When you tap the thumb catch, the pistol comes out of the holster very easily.

So, I started looking around for that same holster for my Smith and Wesson M&P 45.  Sure enough, they make one, but they also make a paddle version.  I've never used a paddle holster, but the Model 6378 comes with the belt loops too, in case I want to change the paddle for belt loops.  Also the price was very good, at under $40.00.

 I found it at Cops Plus, a vendor I've never used.  While I was making my order, I happened to notice the handy drop-down menu and found that the holster was also made for a Smith and Wesson J-frame, along with models for several dozen other handguns.  Very cool.  I love J-frames, so I ordered one of those too.

As a bonus, Cops Plus shipped very quickly.  I made the order at 11:00 local.  By 1:30 p.m., I had a tracking number for shipping.  That's quick.  Good prices, fast shipping, quality products.  Hopefully, FedEx will do its thing quickly.  I'll review the holsters when they come in.

Hernandezing

If you follow sports news at all, you've caught the continuing saga of Aaron Hernandez, a former Patriots player who's been arrested for one murder and is suspected in others.  His legal troubles are his legal troubles, but his recent arrest seems to have launched a Twitter meme.  Hernandezing.

In this craze, you're supposed to be wearing a white tee shirt, with your hands behind your back.  Like the photos below.

I understand that you get extra points for wearing red shorts and having a morose expression.  Even little white girls are getting in on it. 

This whole idea is wrong, on so many levels.

1957

Mostly Cajun reminds us this morning that on this day in 1957, Hurricane Audrey roared ashore.

1957 – Hurricane Audrey kills 500 people in Louisiana and Texas. The number of deaths is an arbitrary figure. I was almost seven. Dad worked the night at the refinery, straight through the storm.

This is probably one of my earliest memories.  I was three years old at the time, and I recall Momma and Daddy being really concerned.  Dad was a telephone man, but I remember him being home shortly after the storm.  My memory is of him in the back yard, picking up shingles, throwing them over the back fence into the woods.  The same woods where I later hunted blackbirds with my pellet rifle.  Looking at the track map, our town was in the easterly sector, normally considered the worst spot in a hurricane.  Of course, any spot in a hurricane is a bad spot to be.

Those woods are long gone.  They're now an auto dealership.  Where our house sat is a Logan's restaurant.  The oak tree in the side patio of that Logan's sat in my cousin's front yard, and I climbed in it regularly.

Hot

I've been outside working in the yard, and the summer heat is upon us.  Accuweather tells me that it's only 77F, but with 80% humidity, it feels like 97, and the mercury threatens to climb 20 degrees today on both scales. 

In short, it's hotter than Hades out there.  This is the time of year when you get your outside work done early, then retreat into the shade until the sun starts to sink in the west.

Today at noon, though, I'll be heading to the range.  PawPaw needs a tune-up with his pistols because in another 10 days, I'll be at the range playing Show-and-Tell for our annual qualifications.  I haven't fired my service pistol in several months, and I haven't fired my J-frame in almost a year.  PawPaw needs a little practice and I'll get that this afternoon.  Don't worry, I'll bring lots of water.

The yard is starting to look good, though, even if the flower beds need a ton of work.  Plenty of time for that next week. 

Scotus Punts Again

I'm no lawyer, but I've read the Constitution.  The third branch of government, the US Supreme Court, was founded in our most basic document.  While I may not be exactly clear on the exact duties of the Supreme Court, I'm pretty sure that most folks believe that the Supremes should settle basic questions of law.  Is this Constitutional?  Are our rights protected?  That sort of question.

This term is filled with those questions, and from a layman's perspective it appears that the Supremes have punted most of the cases this term.  To wit.

The first case we'll look at is the UT discrimination case, where a white girl said she was discriminated against in the way  that affirmative action is implemented at the University.  The decision?  Send it back to the lower courts.  It gets a do-over.  They did make a decision, they decided to punt.  It took seven justices to come up with that decision.  Good job, guys.

Next, we move to the Voting Rights Act case.  For years, the federal government has had its claws in places where Jim Crow reigns.  Places like New York and Alaska.  Also places like Texas and Alabama.  So, someone filed suit, saying in effect, that those states don't discriminate anymore, and that they should be able to hold elections without the Feds looking over their shoulders.  Did the Supremes agree?  Not likely.  What they did do is decide that the Congress should re-do the formula to decide if states are still beholden to Mr. Crow.  They could have easily said,  No, Hell NO, you'll continue to be supervised, or they could have told the Fed to butt out of a state's elections.  But no, they decided to invalidate a formula.  That's a punt.

Now, let's move to the two big cases today.  The gay marriage issue.  Two cases decided today, the first is the DOMA case, where they opined that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.  Did they make gay marriage legal?  No, they simply said that the Federal Government can't discriminate against couples who are married legally, whether they are same sex or opposite sex.  Which leads to all sorts of interesting questions.  Still, it's a punt.  They could have said that gay marriage is legal everywhere.  They didn't.  They punted.

Then, we move to the California Proposition 8 case, which is a huge punt.  It seems that they declined to hear it on standing, which is a complex legal term that means "You don't have a dog in this hunt."  In short, they decided to not decide, which is a decision, I guess, but is also a punt.  Four cases, four punts.

Great job, guys.  Let Freedom Ring.

Incumbents

Hot Air is touting a poll that claims that Republican voters aren't likely to vote for an incumbent who votes yes on a path to citizenship.  Okay.  We already have a path to citizenship.  Illegal immigration ain't part of it.

But, it begs the question:  What would it take for me to vote for an incumbent?  That's a fairly stiff question.  I don't generally vote for incumbents.  I stand with Mark Twain, who said:

“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”

That tends to mitigate against incumbency.  Especially in Congress, where I again defer to Twain.

There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress.

And that's all we need to know about that.

Adeeb, in Comments

Back last September, I posted an entry entitled Crybaby Mohammed.  We were right in the middle of the Benghazi kerfluffle, and the Lightworker was blaming an amateurish movie that no one had seen.  The UN was considering sanctions on blasphemy, particularly blasphemy of the Mohametan variety.

Yesterday afternoon, late, I found a comment that had been posted by Adeeb, saying that he would never forgive me.  Let's read his comment in its entirety.

Adeeb alshareef said...

Do you think this is funny ??
This is the prophet of peace, the prophet of islam, the prophet of allah (the god)

You made a big mistake that you have to fix it

We love our prophet so we will not forgive you.

I think it's hilarious, Adeeb, on many levels.  The first level is that you waited nine months to post a comment.  I've often believed that your religion is behind the times, and that the followers of the pedophile prophet are basically illiterate, but you really should try to keep up with the conversation.

It's funny on another  level, Adeeb.  If he is the prophet of peace, why do so many of his followers behead people, threaten people, bomb people, and fly airplanes into buildings?  Is it because the followers of the pedophile don't believe in peace?  

What is not funny Adeeb?  It's that you and all the followers of the pedophile are so backward, evil, violent people.  You cannot manage your own affairs, you depend on others to manage your affairs for you.  You keep women in slavery, you abuse your children, and you generally make life a living hell for everyone around you.  Grow up!    If you keep coming to my blog and making asinine comments, I'll continue to abuse you verbally.  I hold your pedophile prophet in deep disdain.  The world would have been a better place if he had never lived.  The entire religion is doomed to eternal damnation, and it would be better for all of you if you convert immediately to Judaism.

Smelting

If you're a cast bullet shooter, sooner or later you're going to want to cast your own bullets.  Like everyone else, I've purchased store-bought bullets, both cast and jacketed, but part of the allure of shooting cast bullets is taking common scrap and making your own bullets.  The first thing we need to do is find scrap lead, and cast bullet guys are always looking for scrap lead.  I'm not sure who said it, but one of the old gun writers was famously quoted as saying, "If it's plumbous, I'm liable to make bullets from it."

For many years, the most common lead scrap was lead wheelweights.  These things could be had at any tire shop for simply hauling them away.   Many is  the time that I've walked into a tire shop, bantered with the service manager for a few minutes, and walked out with a five-gallon bucket of wheelweights.  Those days are no more.  Lead has residual value, and the shops know that.  The national scrap price of lead wheelweights is 50 cents per pound.  This stuff isn't inexpensive.  Still, there is a lot of lead out there that people don't want to deal with and a savvy scrounger can still get lead for little or nothing.

Recenctly, I came into possession of a small box of wheelweights, and some discarded roof jacks.  Around here, roof jacks are pure, soft lead, and if you can find a roofer willing to save the lead, they are a great source of soft lead.

In all things that require high heat, it's best to do this outside.  In my case, I set a fish cooker on the ground outside my shed, with a lead pot, ladle, and some ingot molds.

There's my hasic set-up.  On the right, you see a lead pot, then next are two molds.  One, an old corn-stick pan, is used specifically for wheelweight metal.  the little Lee ingot mold is used for pure lead.  When you start casting bullets, it's convenient to keep your lead ingots segregated.  I like almost pure lead for pistol bullets that won't be traveling any faster than 1200 fps.  Wheelweight metal is reserved for harder bullets, those that will travel over 1200 fps, but under 1600 fps.  Those rifle bullets that will travel over 1600 fps get a linotype alloy and I have another ingot mold for them.  With my system, I can see immediately what type ingot I'm using, even months after smelting the raw lead into ingots.  That cardboard box you see on the far left of the photo is used for lead dross.  Dirt and crud gets on scrap lead and you want to skim that off before you make ingots.

One note.  Never introduce water into a lead pot.  Lead melts at 630F and water boils at 212F.  If so much as one drop of sweat gets into the molten lead, it will immediately flash to steam and  I've seen molten lead jump two feet out of a pot, splattering lead everywhere.  Seriously, don't let water get into your  lead pot.  That's bad juju.  One other caution.  Once an implement is  used for lead, it can never be used again for food products.  You simply don't want lead in your foodstuffs, so dedicate a pot and ladle to lead use.

So, after an hour of smelting this morning, I finished with over 10 lbs of good clean wheelweight metal and about 30 lbs of soft lead from roof jacks.

I'll let everything cool, put it all away, and I'll be ready when the urge strikes me to crank up the bullet pot.  Total cost to me?  About an hour of sweating and about two hours of scrounging.  Now, time to start scrounging again.

Immigration Reform

I've been watching the Senate's kabuki theater on immigration reform.  Interesting, in a weird sort of way, but totally irrelevant to anything going on in the US today.  All the reform proponents on the one side, all the opposition on the other side.  Totally irrelevant.  Has no basis in relevancy.

It'll never make it through the House.  It won't.  It's a non-starter.  So, we've got this Gang of 8, making news headlines, and you've got Harry Reid, pushing for a floor vote, and when it gets to the House, kablooey.  Sunk like the Titanic.  Nothing happening at all.

I wonder why half of our legislative branch is heartily pursuing something that is doomed?  Have they nothing better to do?

SCOTUS Punts

The law blogs are reporting that the Supremes sent back the UT race case to the lower courts for a re-examination.  In short, they punted.  And, they punted with a 7-1 decision.  I'm sure that more agile minds will be talking about the decision, but to my simple-minded way of thinking, this is clearly a decision that they didn't want to make.  I really like the reasoning that Justice Ginsburg used.

Among constitutionally permissible options, I remain convinced, 'those that candidly disclose their consideration of race [are] preferable to those that conceal it.'"

So, if someone candidly admits they are prejudiced, that's better?  You really want to go with that?

Naah, they punted today.  Not that their is anything wrong with a punt on a football field.  It's third down and long, and you're close to your own red zone.  What'cha gonna do Coach?  Punting makes perfect sense.

But, we pay the Supremes to make decisions.  They still get to decide on same-sex marriage, and voting rights.  It looks to me like they need a better Coach.  Punting should be restricted to the football field.

One additional point.  My imaginary football coach doesn't get nine months to make a punt decision.  Evidently, the Supremes are under-worked and over budgeted.  In my way of thinking, the Roberts court is filled with generally worthless sonsofbitches that haven't read the Constitution, make up taxing schemes from whole cloth, and can't make a decision when called on to do something.  The whole bunch of them needs to get out of  their ivory towers and come see how the world lives.

RIP Bobby

Bobby "Blue" Bland, the blues legend from Memphis, TN, passed away yesterday.  He was 83.



Blues lovers all over the world will mourn his passing.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Milady and I are out of town this morning, heading home after a weekend trip.  We'll be home sometime shortly after noon, and the dog is awaiting our return.  We've got a neighbor kid's birthday party scheduled in our pool beginning at 2:00 and we should return just about time for the party to commence.  We have family checking on the dog several times a day, and if I know my grandsons they are availing themselves of the pool, the soft drinks, and the snacks. 

We'll be home today, Pup, and I'll make sure that you get some ice cream.

Out of Town

In another couple of hours, Milady and I are going to get in the car and head south.  Today is our 10th Anniversary, and a nephew is getting married tomorrow, so we're heading to Covington, LA to meet other members of the family and celebrate his wedding.  He's got a great gal; she's been hanging around the family for several years.  They're through with college and launched, so they've decided it's time to take the next step.  They're both great kids, and I hope for them the happiness that comes with a long, blissful marriage.

The one downside to this trip is that I've got to drive through Baton Rouge.  When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levees failed, about half of the refugees from that disaster washed ashore in Baton Rouge, effectively doubling the population of the city, literally in the space of a week.  It's been nearly eight years since Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and the roadwork in Baton Rouge has yet to catch up to the increase in population.  Traffic there is a disaster on a good day.  There's a place called the 10-12 split, where traffic toward New Orleans goes down I-10, and traffic to the North Shore and points east go down I-12.  That interchange has been known to turn into an eight lane parking lot and I dread going through there every time I drive in Baton Rouge.

I have promised Milady that in honor of our anniversary I will not actively curse every idiotic driver I see when we get to Baton Rouge.  It is normally my practice to critique the driving habits of idiots and that stretch of road is full of them.

So, we'll be out of town this weekend and back on Sunday mid-day.  Y'all have a great weekend.

I Think That's a Bear

A great video making the rounds of Facebook.



I think a bear just tried to get in your deer stand.  Probably wondering if you had a peanut butter sammich.

I would have lost it, right there.  That bear would have slipped in the crap running down the tree.

Syriasly?

To borrow a play on words from Mostly Cajun, it's time for me to talk about Syria.  Lots of folks are wondering what PawPaw thinks about the Syria crisis, so I'll tell you.  I don't give a screaming crap who runs Syria, whether it's the Sunnis or the Shiites, or Bashaad, or whoever.  I'm not planning any trip to Syria, so I simply don't care.  The civil war over there seems to be one group of murdering bastards killing another group of murdering bastards.  The only up-side to the whole thing is that at the end of the day, the total pool of murdering bastards has been reduced.

I hear that our President is looking for a way to intrude on their internal strife, because he feels a need to "do something".  The latest ploy is arming the rebels, who I'm sure will stop clinging to the guns and religion as soon as they win.  Sure they will.

Syriasly, I don't see that it should matter to the US one whit who wins in Syria.  The best we can hope for is that it follows the example of Egypt, an economy set to melt down in the next year or so.  Egypt can't feed itself, it produces nothing, and when Ethiopa finishes it's dam, Egypt won't have enough water to support it's population.  Egypt is in a hell of a fix, and Syria is set to follow them.  Starvation and dehydration lie in the future.  It's nor pretty, but it's not difficult to foretell.

We should stay the hell out of Syria.  Nothing but trouble over there, and it's not worth American treasure or American lives.

.45 ACP Small Primer

I mentioned yesterday that I had stumbled upon some .45 ACP brass that took the small pistol primer.  As we all know, the Sainted John Moses Browning decreed that the .45 ACP be manufactured with large primers and till recently, that was the case.  All .45 ACP took the large pistol primer.

Sometime in the recent past, handloaders started noticing that some brass, notably Winchester NT and CCI Blaser Brass were using small pistol primers.  This thread over at the 1911 forum from 2010 talks about finding them, so small primers in .45 is at least three years old.  It seems recently that Federal Champion ammo is now using the small primer in the .45 load.  I understand that these primers are loaded in "lead-free" ammo ammo, specifically that the primers themselves are lead free.

The more universally understood reason is that it's part and parcel of a huge conspiracy to confuse and demoralize handloaders.  The companies don't understand how resourceful, creative, and motivated we are, and the work-around is simple.  Simply save your small primer brass till you have enough to load a batch, and load it for use where picking up brass is problematic.  I'm saving mine till I get several hundred.  We've learned that the fast powders used in .45 ACP fire up nicely with small pistol primers, so that's not a problem.  The ammo goes bang.

However, it is a huge pain to sort brass based on the size of the primer pocket.

Loading in the Rain

It started raining today, when I was about halfway through my yard work, so I took that time to flatten the learning curve on the Lee Turret Press I bought recently.  I mounted the powder measure and the primer feed, then took out some bullets and started cranking on the handle.  The only real glitch was when I'd try to prime one of those verdamned .45 ACP brass that they're making with small primer pockets.  Once I figured out the glitch, my speed increased post-haste. 

I loaded 100 rounds of .45 ACP in about 45 minutes, and only quit when I ran out of the 100 pack of primers I had put in the primer feed.  This thing is going to increase my loading speed considerably.  I see now that I need a couple of extra turrets, at least one for .38 Special, and one for .44 magnum.  Adjusting dies is a pain the wazoo, and those turrets just snap in and out.

I should have bought one of these things years ago.