Reloading Note - Bullseye

Random Acts of Patriotism features a photo of a maimed revolver which appears to have been destroyed by a massive loading bench error, possibly a double charge of powder.

Reloading is as dangerous as negotiating the on-ramp of an urban freeway. So you say to yourself as you unlock the reloading shack, "Let's be careful in here."

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Bullseye powder is almost as old as the 1911.  Over its 98 years, it became almost the de facto standard for, among other things, .38 Special target loads.   You capped  three grains (or a little less)  of it  with a 148-grain lead wad cutter for cheap and pleasant afternoons at the range.

The problem lies in its almost non-existent bulk. Responsible amounts all but disappear in the case, and six grains amputates a thumb as it destroys your Officers Model Target.

I still use it once in a while for a number of plinking loads. But I treat it like a pet cobra, My most religious practice requires a very bright  flashlight.  Charged cases are neatly aligned in the loading block and carefully inspected -- not glanced at but inspected -- one by one,  in a regular order. Anything that looks even slightly unusual is dumped and recharged.

It isn't fool proof. A double charge is not necessarily obvious, but it should be apparent if your attention isn't diluted by memories of your first girl friend or a  bacon sandwich or something.

Most other powders are bulkier. Overloads are more apparent. But in my shack, the flashlight routine is used on them, too. I am pleased with my opposable thumb and desire to keep it attached.

Please pardon the preaching.

Now, again please, what did you say I couldn't say?

The TMR had planned a little Bing work to illustrate that we anti-gummint types do not hold exclusive rights to vivid speech.

No need. Kurt beat me to it.  

Nothing much needs to be added, except maybe His Obamaness's pledge to keep keep his boot ready for neck-stomping.

Mental health

Analogies prove nothing.

With that out of the way, let the debate about who's mentally ill and who's not tip its hat to an historical  observation.

In the fullest flowering of 20th Century tyranny -- Hitler's perhaps excepted -- a favored method of  of human control was to dump inconvenient people into psychiatric hospitals, Lubyankas with white-coated attendants.

Here we go again

A guy wishes we could let some of the Tucson dust settle before we begin what I suppose will need to be an epic defense of rights guaranteed by Amendment Two.

Not that our adversaries will take a deep breath and do a bit of thinking . The most usual of suspects, Carolyn McCarthy,  is on the home stretch to orgasm with her new opportunity to decide what sorts of rights should be sacrificed in the wake of the Tucson madness. Right now.

Good politics, there, Congresswoman. Your plan to get your new bill filed today or tomorrow represents a sterling example of trying to draft carefully thought-out legislation.

And then, in the same Politico report,  there's:

Pennsylvania Rep. Robert Brady, a Democrat from Philadelphia, told CNN that he also plans to take legislative action. He will introduce a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to use language or symbols that could be seen as threatening or violent against a federal official, including a member of Congress.


Which is ill-advised unless we decide we must indict a certain high federal official for promulgating a symbol of death -- officially defined as such by federal authorities --  from and in the White House.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/craxxi/3287463155/