Titled:   First Pistol

Thinking of buying your first pistol? Say Uncle points to an excellent short piece by Catfish on the Texican Tattler.

His advice comes down to a choice between a Springfield XD and a Glock, pushing aside Say Uncles favorite Sig. I know that our very own Buck is rather partial to the SIG too, though he too considered the XD.

I have both a P226 Sig in .40 S&W as well as a Springfield XD9 Sub-compact. When I bought the SIG as a first handgun, I wanted it for home defense and range shooting. When I made the transition to CCW a little later, it was a concealed carry weapon too. And very heavy it was, with that dig-in-the-kidney character. Still, it was supposed to be comforting, not comfortable.

The XD Subcompact was an attempt at compromise. It is certainly compact and comes with a great reputation. I wanted an XD40 too, but after 3 months, was unable to find one, so I settled on a 9mm from a Lansing gun show. It cost a lot less than the SIG too, almost by half, and is a neat Bi-tone color, with extra magazine and holster.

Carrying became easier, more comfortable and more frequent. And soon I took up IPSC competitive shooting to get real acquainted with it under pressure. It shoots very well, functioning a lot more reliably that most of the 1911 race-guns there. I can't say its a competition winner - it is after all handicapped by my ability, the low power rating of the 9mm round, short 3 inch barrel and the 10 round magazines that the Production Class calls for. But it doesn't let me down.

After a year or so, I remembered the SIG back in the gunsafe, and I took them both out for range time together. I had always assumed that the SIG would outperform the XD. But next to each other I was better at and preferred the XD. The SIG had the edge on long distance slow shooting, but for up-close speed and accuracy, the XD works best for me.

So if the bump in the night happens, and I reach for a handgun, which would I choose?

Probably the XD.

And that says it all.

 

Titled:     Capital gun crime rises by 50 per cent

The War on Guns Blog highlights continued coverage of the UK's slow-but-steady slip into depravity.

Not content to criminalize victims and remove what little rights to self-protection there were in the UK, they are now casting about for new reasons to blame for the violence. As if drugs, gangs and racial hatred weren't enough.

Record levels of gun crime are being blamed on the fact that more people than ever are carrying firearms as fashion accessories.

Figures published this week by the Home Office are expected to show that offences involving guns have soared by as much as 50 per cent in some parts of the country.

The greatest rises have been in the number of people found in possession of firearms and in the number of attempted murders.

So the new culprit is fashion? Seems like another ban will be needed...
 

Titled:    More Eminent Domain Thievery

SayUncle points to a worrying article of eminent domain abuse. It seems the Port of Houston is taking someone's land that has been in his family for a hundred years for less than a cent an acre.

The guy concerned is not a speculator or some wealthy investor. The land had been in his family over 100 years. But even if he'd just bought it the week before, he should be entitled to more than a fair price, to make up for the fact that the state is taking it at the point of a gun, whether he wants to sell or not, and his expenses of fighting the condemnation, which he did not ask for, and fairly evaluating the land should rightly fall on those initiating the suit. Last I checked, it wasn't a crime to own land. Even felons and illegal immigrants and foreign nationals who never set foot in our country are permitted to do so. Why are we punishing our own citizens?

Read the rest at Searchlight Crusade while you still have a house to live in.

 

Titled:     A pretty vote for Yucca

With nuclear power looking like the only route to energy independance in the near future, the ever-present question of waste disposal comes up. With all the controversy about the Yucca Mountain deep burial facility, a new, refreshing view comes from miss Nevada herself.

When 23 year old Crystal Wosik was interviewed by judges about her views of the Yukka Mountain project she answered:

 "It has to go someplace and Yucca Mountain is the best built facility in the country."

A follow-up question asked what would happen if people died. Her straightforward answer was:

"We just have to take one for the team."

This view was met with outrage from many quarters. Peggy Maze Johnson of Citizen Alert (who is not going to win  Miss America any time soon) said,

"Before she gets up there and starts representing the state of Nevada, she needs to find out more about what the issues are. Instead, she's shooting from the hip with a ridiculous statement that feeds into many people's idea that Miss America contestants are bimbos".

It certainly beats comments on world peace and starving children to those of us that watch the show "purely for the articles."
 

Titled:    Big Nanny Is Watching You

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Roger Valdez, director of tobacco prevention for Public Health–Seattle & King County. He is in charge of Seattle-area enforcement of the statewide smoking ban approved by voters in November. I call him the tobacco czar.

We were talking about how enforcement was working out, including the 25-foot rule. In the midst of our chat, Valdez said something remarkable.

"Americans think they have a lot of rights they really don't have. Smoking is one of those things where people think they have the right to smoke, but you don't." He used "you" in the plural. "You have no right to smoke. It's an addiction. It's something you should see a doctor about."

He went on to tell me that people have no right to smoke even in their private residences.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."- Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

If Iraq needs a good constitution, written by clever men, guaranteed to provide liberty and justice for all, they could use ours. We don't seem to use it anymore.
 

Titled:    Hitlery Hillary, The Germans and the Mad Mullahs

Quite clearly this is a week for forgetting where you are going. Hillary Clinton, Carpet-bagger-in-chief, has finally forgotten all the well-meaning advice that her party gave to the administration over Iraq. Namely, pre-emption and unilateral = BAD, multilateral = GOOD.

"I believe we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations,"Clinton said. "I don't believe you face threats like Iran or North Korea by outsourcing it to others and standing on the sidelines."

Then suddenly, in an effort to pander to her Jewish constituents, Hillary becomes an honary Jew and accepts a degree from Yeshiva University. How quickly they forgot about her kissing Arafat's wife in 1999 in the West Bank.

And the Germans? Mark Steyn points to Donald Rumsfeld's metting with Speigel to discuss Iran and other matters. This amusing conversation shows that the Germans have clearly lost the plot with Iran too:

SPIEGEL: How concerned are you about Iran?

Rumsfeld: All of us have to be concerned when a country that important, large and wealthy is disconnected from the normal interactions with the rest of the world. They obviously have certain ambitions, powers and military capabilities ...

SPIEGEL: ...and nuclear ambitions...

Rumsfeld: That's apparently what France, Germany, the UK and the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded. Everyone wants to have the Iranians as part of the world community, but they aren't yet. Therefore there's less predictability and more danger.

SPIEGEL: The US is trying to make the case in the United Nations Security Council.

Rumsfeld: I would not say that. I thought France, Germany and the UK were working on that problem.

SPIEGEL: What kind of sanctions are we talking about?

Rumsfeld: I'm not talking about sanctions. I thought you, and the U.K. and France were.

SPIEGEL: You aren't?

Rumsfeld: I'm not talking about sanctions. You've got the lead. Well, lead!

SPIEGEL: You mean the Europeans.

Rumsfeld: Sure. My Goodness, Iran is your neighbour. We don't have to do everything!

SPIEGEL: We are in the middle of regime change in Germany...

Rumsfeld: ... that's hardly the phrase I would have selected.

Meanwhile the Mullahs continue their evil plots against us:

‘Iran will resume uranium enrichment if the European Union does not recognise its right to do so, two Iranian nuclear negotiators said in an interview published Tuesday.’

So they will if we don't let them. And if we let them, they will. Hmm.

 

Titled:    Study: College Grads Are Dumb

Rob at SayAnything brings us news of a recent study into the abilities of the nation's brightest:

Nearing a diploma, most college students cannot handle many complex but common tasks, from understanding credit card offers to comparing the cost per ounce of food.

Those are the sobering findings of a study of literacy on college campuses, the first to target the skills of students as they approach the start of their careers.

More than 50 percent of students at four-year schools and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges lacked the skills to perform complex literacy tasks.

That means they could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees or summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.

Almost 20 percent of students pursuing four-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills. For example, the students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the service station.

They have a point here. If you see a stranded motorist, they always seem to have alumni stickers in their rear windows.

 

Titled:      Study finds fire retardant in Great Lakes

Yup - that would be that water stuff - absolutely full of it, they are...

 

Titled:     Gun Rights Group Criticizes Illinois Gov's 'Boondoggle'

Blagojevich urged the Illinois General Assembly to pass House Bill 2414, which would ban the manufacture, possession, and delivery of semi-automatic firearms, certain attachments, and the .50 caliber rifle. He is working closely with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley on the bill.

"These weapons fire bullets rapidly and can fire at multiple targets. In addition, the military-style features make these guns even more dangerous," according to Blagojevich.

It is becoming so obvious that gun-grabbers aren't even thinking about what they are saying - they're too busy concentrating on the regurgitation of lies and stale sound-bites.

Look at this: "These weapons fire bullets rapidly and can fire at multiple targets."

I've yet to find a reasonable weapon that fires bullets slowly. Or a weapon that fires bullets on its own, without someone firing it. It's hard to even conceive of a weapon that can only fire at one target. Maybe a one-use Stinger-type missile might just fit that description. Hardly common street weaponry.

As to the old "Military-style features" argument - I would love to hear them explain how a bayonet lug, on its own, can make any weapon more dangerous. Why not just ban the bayonet itself if they fear a rise in drive-by bayonetting? All the lug does is make the barrel a little heavier, making it incrementally more difficult to carry and maneuver.

Hopefully he won't get enough votes to pass these new restrictions, but it is Chicago.

 

Titled:      This is the end...?

Ravenwood is considering throwing in the blogging towel:

That's why, after more than 44 months of official "weblogging", it is with great regret that I must walk away. I must take a vacation, at least for now. I know what you're thinking. He'll be back. It's too hard to stay away. Just like those that have quit before him, Ravenwood will eventually return. That may happen. But for now, I'm looking forward to the time off...
To all my loyal readers and friends, I say goodbye at least for now. I may be back eventually, but for now I really need a vacation.

Ravenwood is one of the blogs that became a daily staple for me and inspired me to give this blogging lark a go.

Have a good vacation Ravenwood, and come back refreshed. Please.