I don't know how long Guffaw has had this up. I just noticed it -- his blog lead:
"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty – and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies." – H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, Feb. 12, 1923
I'm always happy to discover a Mencken paragraph I either never read or forgot about. Well chosen, Sir.
Sep 8, 2011
Ron Paul and the Great Debate
Sir, please spend whatever it costs to hire a good television coach. And pay attention when he explains the difference between television and the Shakespearean stage.
The images on tiny screens in millions of homes are fatal to the man who uses the broad gestures and large body language of live theatre. The rhetorical arts you learned in high school 60 years ago are deadly when teevee cameras zoom in. The shoulder lunges, in particular, say "crazy."
McLuhan and his followers illustrated how and why television is a "cool" medium requiring a "cool" approach.
It gags a man to suggest that you study the teevee style of Perry and Romney, but you should. Their relative mastery of television makes their bullshit sound almost plausible. Imagine what the approach would do for your message of recognizing reality and engaging in logical thought processes.
The images on tiny screens in millions of homes are fatal to the man who uses the broad gestures and large body language of live theatre. The rhetorical arts you learned in high school 60 years ago are deadly when teevee cameras zoom in. The shoulder lunges, in particular, say "crazy."
McLuhan and his followers illustrated how and why television is a "cool" medium requiring a "cool" approach.
It gags a man to suggest that you study the teevee style of Perry and Romney, but you should. Their relative mastery of television makes their bullshit sound almost plausible. Imagine what the approach would do for your message of recognizing reality and engaging in logical thought processes.
Sep 7, 2011
Slinging lead
An hour and a-half with Ken in his west pasture embarrassed me.
It was time to sight in a couple of freshly scoped .22s and shoot the cob webs out of a decrepit Mossberg semi which I don't recall ever firing. The Mossberg -- a cheap pawn shop buy three or four years ago -- ran like a champ.
The name brands sucked. With the Ruger 10-22 it was a magazine problem, and I had no spare with me. The Winchester 74 jammed every third or fourth shot -- stovepipes, failures to feed, failures to eject. I honestly didn't think its innards were that cruddy.
Shame kept me in the shop all evening, nearly full disassembly and scrubba dub dub on the Winchester. Fixed the Ruger mag and, since I was already smelling nicely of Hoppes No. 9, cleaned heck out of it, too. Both are again combat-ready if a few rounds into the Armorer's Log* in the loading room are any guide.
I cleaned the Mossy too, but that was merely a gesture of gratitude.
---
*I spent my early life looking for a Philosopher's Stone, then finally wised up and settled for an Armorer's Log.
It was time to sight in a couple of freshly scoped .22s and shoot the cob webs out of a decrepit Mossberg semi which I don't recall ever firing. The Mossberg -- a cheap pawn shop buy three or four years ago -- ran like a champ.
The name brands sucked. With the Ruger 10-22 it was a magazine problem, and I had no spare with me. The Winchester 74 jammed every third or fourth shot -- stovepipes, failures to feed, failures to eject. I honestly didn't think its innards were that cruddy.
Shame kept me in the shop all evening, nearly full disassembly and scrubba dub dub on the Winchester. Fixed the Ruger mag and, since I was already smelling nicely of Hoppes No. 9, cleaned heck out of it, too. Both are again combat-ready if a few rounds into the Armorer's Log* in the loading room are any guide.
I cleaned the Mossy too, but that was merely a gesture of gratitude.
---
*I spent my early life looking for a Philosopher's Stone, then finally wised up and settled for an Armorer's Log.
Sep 6, 2011
Hey, for a little extra we'll make your new pistol work...
Trying to separate you from your last dollar is not an ambition exclusive to government, and ToddG bench strips one of the private-enterprise schemes
The gist is that a $700+ handgun (the Sig Classic) ought to work fine right out of the shipping carton, without need for a $200 "action enhancement package" by the same company that sold it to you in the first place. But you should read the whole thing.
---
The comments include a bit about a personal tic, ramp polishing. I routinely do it to virtually every semi I acquire. Sometimes it's unnecessary, but sometimes it improves feed reliability. It isn't something you need to pay a gunsmith for if you're adept enough to strip the pistol and self-disciplined enough to live by the Two Great Rules.
(1) Remove metal by the depth of only one atom and (2) changing any angle by more than one-fiftieth of one degree is an official screwup.
The goal is to smooth the cartridge/weapon bearing surfaces, not to second-guess the engineer who designed it. We're not fixing a design flaw. We're rectifying manufacturing processes dictated by company accountants.
I use an appropriately sized dowel and crocus cloth or a felt wheel chucked in a Dremel and loaded with jewler's rouge. (Dremel grinding wheels and coarse abrasives should be locked away until the job is done.)
H/T Tam
The gist is that a $700+ handgun (the Sig Classic) ought to work fine right out of the shipping carton, without need for a $200 "action enhancement package" by the same company that sold it to you in the first place. But you should read the whole thing.
---
The comments include a bit about a personal tic, ramp polishing. I routinely do it to virtually every semi I acquire. Sometimes it's unnecessary, but sometimes it improves feed reliability. It isn't something you need to pay a gunsmith for if you're adept enough to strip the pistol and self-disciplined enough to live by the Two Great Rules.
(1) Remove metal by the depth of only one atom and (2) changing any angle by more than one-fiftieth of one degree is an official screwup.
The goal is to smooth the cartridge/weapon bearing surfaces, not to second-guess the engineer who designed it. We're not fixing a design flaw. We're rectifying manufacturing processes dictated by company accountants.
I use an appropriately sized dowel and crocus cloth or a felt wheel chucked in a Dremel and loaded with jewler's rouge. (Dremel grinding wheels and coarse abrasives should be locked away until the job is done.)
H/T Tam
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