The Clash of Supposed Civilizations

We have all been told that we are in a clash of civilizations with the Islamic world. I bought that line of reasoning for quite some time. The truth is a bit different than this now cliché phrase would have us believe. We are in a clash between civilization and non-civility. Our enemies would plunge the world back into the dark ages if they were allowed to realize their goals.

This post is not about a sudden realization on my part that Islamofascism is in fact evil. The evidence for this case is overwhelming. The myriad of hijackings, bombings, 9/11, disgusting beheadings, suicide bombings, murdering of children, and systematic torture of anyone and everyone, is more than a damning case. Only the lunatic fringe tries to excuse the tactics of the hardened terrorist. The story I read this morning about the protests in The Sudan, story, awakened me to the fact that Islam itself is in fact evil and far from anything that can be called civilized. It was not some sort of epiphany however. I have believed that Islam was a backwards despotic nightmare of a religion and political system for some time. This story just confirms that I guess.

The image of hundreds of people calling for the death of this teacher while moving about with sticks and swords in their hands is what got me. This is civilization? It is reminiscent of a band of European peasants coming after an innocent supposed witch with their wooden pitchforks, scythes, and flaming torches. "Burn her!", they scream. Well, this imams proclamation is not much different.

Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion.

The thirst of Muslims? What kind of depraved death cult are we dealing with here? They are bloodthirsty savages. This woman did nothing wrong. Her children named a damned teddy bear Mohammed, and all hell broke loose. Who gives a crap if Muslims are offended anymore? When are they not? They have offended me dozens of times. Of course I am not likely to chop off someone's head for offending me or my religion. They however knee jerk to death to the infidel at any perceived slight.

As Sir Winston would say, we are better than these people. Our western, and specifically English-speaking civilization is the greatest the world has ever known. We must defend it against these mongrel hordes of savages, and those who seek to appease them.

Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a barbaric political system that is used to concrete power for the few, by brutalizing the many.

Ultimak Scout Rail for Mini 14

This is a mod post for my Ruger Mini 14 Ranch Rifle. The parent post can be found here.

The Ultimak Scout Rail replaces the hand guard on the mini 14, and allows for the forward mounting of many different optical systems. It is attached using 6 machine screws. Two hold an apron around the barrel, and the other four attach were the upper half of the gas block assembly is located. This piece is replaced as well by the Ultimak.



The rail is of very high quality. The cheap red dot I bought for it died, so it currently does not have an optics platform mounted.

Installation should be straight forward, but it sometimes is not. In my case the screws that held on the old gas block cover were staked in place by Ruger. Thanks Bill! The heads all stripped out before I could get them loose. This cost me about $50 at the gunsmith. He drilled out the heads, and installed the rail for me. My drill press would have made easy work of this, but my shop was not set up at the time.

I plan to mount a decent red dot on this rifle at some point. Even without a sight, the Ultimak was well worth the money I spent on it. It has transformed the gun. It shoots much better than it ever did before. Whether or not this is always the case I do not know. In my gun though it made a world of difference. The mini is still not a tack driver by any means, but I would not be worried about taking chest shots on humans at 100+ yards with it now. Before the rail was installed that might have been an iffy situation.

I would reccomend this item to anyone with a Mini 14. One thing to note. The rail is only designed to work with stock profile barrels.

Merry Christmas!

The wife and I are certified Christmas geeks. We just love it so much. It is definitely our favorite holiday and time of year. The Christmas music has been playing since the 15th, and we are watching our favorite Christmas movies already. There is a new darkness that has raised it's ugly head this year however. Last weekend we purchased a fake tree! Oh, the horror! :)

It is a very nice looking fake tree. The wife has put the lights on, so decorating will commence tonight. This weekend promises to be especially treacherous for me. I am to illuminate the house. Hopefully I won't kill myself while on the ladder stringing up the C9s. These bastards suck up some juice. Three separate circuits will have to be used for what I have planned most likely. A nice quiet generator sure would be nice to have for this purpose. It isn't that I am pulling a Clark Griswald, the C9 strands just suck up the power. Only 200 lights should be used on any circuit. This leaves about 3 amps to spare on a 15 amp breaker. Of course, this assumes that nothing else is running on the circuit. The usual M.O. is to use a cord from the garage, one from the front room, and one from the back of the house. That worked last year, so it should not be a problem this time. As the strands start to crap out in the next few years, I will go with LEDs probably.

We are spending Christmas Day at home, and most likely traveling to San Antonio to see my parents for a couple of days after that. I don't want to be away from home for to long, as we really enjoy our time at home during the holidays.

New Interest

As we often do, Dad and I were discussing various things at random a few months ago, and I brought up "ham" radio. Amateur radio has always held a vague interest for me, and apparently it has for him as well. After mulling it over for a while, we decided that it would be something fun for us to do together. That was the end of the conversation, and I thought that some time in the next couple of years we would figure it out.

Apparently Dad, was VERY interested. Within the month he got his license, bought and installed a mobile 2m/70cm transceiver in his truck, and purchased a neat-as-hell handheld model. He has gone nuts on it, and is expecting me to do the same. So, while I was visiting in San Antonio this weekend, much of my time was occupied with trying to help him figure out some things. One interesting aspect that he had me figure out is something called EchoLink. This is a piece of software that uses VoIP to act as a tunnel basically for radio communication. It is a very neat concept. Our eventual plan is to use it to create a tunnel between our base stations at our homes. We should be able to talk to each other around town that way on our mobiles, since I live in Fort Worth, and he is in San Antonio. You basically hook up your base to the computer, and it acts as a link between your mobile radio, and whoever is on the other end of the VoIP link. There is quite a bit of delay, so they advise keying your mic and waiting a few seconds before broadcasting.

The technician class license allows only certain frequencies to be used. These bands are not good for long distance communication, like some of the other bands that are available to higher licensed operators. We have decided to stick to these for a while, before pursuing anything else. I am studying right now for my technician exam and hope to take it within the month. A mobile unit will probably be my first purchase as well. Hopefully we can just talk to each other on EchoLink for now, even though there will be no actual radios involved at first.

I have no idea how deep this hobby will go. Part of me thinks not very, as I have several interests that already occupy my free time. The other part can see a future of talking to exotic places and constructing homebrewed radios and antennas. We shall see were it leads. The biggest motivation is doing something with the old man. He is only in his 50s, but as I get older I become all to familiar with the concept that he will not be around forever. The most interesting thing so far, is the sheer depth of activities that are available through amateur radio. There are data networks, TV, old school Morse code stuff, bouncing signals off the moon, satellites, atmosphere, and meteor trails even. There is a whole world of stuff going on in amateur radio that I never knew existed.

This Disgusts Me

Companies in Puerto Rico are cruelly disposing of unwanted pets. They are supposed to euthanize them humanely, but instead have been throwing them off bridges, burying them alive, and other horrors.

Story

I am so disturbed by this story. These people should be hung. You don't treat animals like this.

I am no animal rights activist by any means. Stray animal population control is necessary. There are proper ways to do this however. Throwing them off a bridge were they hit branches on the way down, are crippled, and slowly die is NOT the correct way. The thought of some animal doing this makes me sick. This is an outrage and must be stopped. Poor pups. :(

More on This Later

The King of Spain, and Hugo Chavez got in a little spat recently. All the details can be found here, and I plan to comment on it in a later post.

Story

This quote is a separate issue however.

"I think the day before he had a long and intense workday," adding that he may have got tired "of hearing things, not only from me, but from Evo (Bolivian President Evo Morales) and Daniel (Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega) and other revolutionary comrades."

Why are these men in power? Am I the only one who still sees communism as a dark specter that can rise up into the nightmare it once was quite easily? Hopefully the CIA is at work to undermine these evil bastards, and we just don't know it. Unfortunately, I think that is probably not the case. Have we given up on wiping out this black mark on humanity?

It was Eighteen Years Ago

It surely does not seem that long ago. On this day in 1989 the East German govenment announced that anyone that wanted to could leave the country. Thousands did so, and over a few weeks time they tore down the greatest symbol of the Soviet's horrible oppression of millions. I was only 13 at the time, but I vividly remember sitting in my parents living room, and watching the news coverage as it happened. It was such a joyous occasion. Even at such a young age, I knew what it meant. I had heard the stories of the brave people that had tried to cross the wall to freedom, only to be gunned down.

I will never forget the raw emotion we saw acted out on our glowing televisions as the people attacked the wall. Some with sledgehammers wailed against it as the cried with joy and relief. Families that had not seen each other in decades were reunited. This was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.

Now as we fight our new enemy, we can look back to our old one, and see the similarities. The Islamofascists wish simply to do as the Stalinists did. They wish to control us, and make us all conform to their will. If we allow them to overpower us, we will have the same fate as the millions that died to fight off the communists did. We will die, and leave our children beholden to evil.

This is Shocking, or Not

Apparently Pat Robertson has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

This has to be one of the strangest things I have ever seen. As a Christian I have several severe problems with Rudy. Even leaving my religion out of the mix, Rudy just does not represent my morals and ideology as a conservative. He is for gay marriage, for government funded abortion, and is a gun grabber. These are extremely repugnant positions to me.

As a Christian I believe that God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman only. There is no wiggle room here. God's plan is for a man and woman to leave their parents, marry, become one, and reproduce. It is no coincidence that children raised in this situation are much more likely to become responsible contributing citizens, compared to those who are not. There, of course, are cases when this is not true. No serious argument that contradicts the value of traditional families is valid. This is of course a very mainstream conservative ideal. Actually, it is beyond that. Most of the laws that would ban gay marriage that have been presented to the voters, have been passed with healthy majorities all over the country. This is a mainstream issue for most Americans, regardless of party affiliation. The reason for this is quite simple. It is engineered into us by God. It is instinct to marry your spouse and pro-create.

The abortion issue is the main issue many Christians point towards when considering a candidate. The sanctity of human life is very important to us. We view all human life as sacred. Innocent babies certainly don't deserve to be killed. They deserve a chance to live and grow old. Abortion is antithema to my morals. It is the depraved murder of the unborn. The only time I see it as appropriate is if the mother's life is truly in danger. Please notice I did not say her health. That is a bogus term that leftists always throw around when they discuss limiting abortion. Any abortionist doctor can claim the woman's health is at risk. Pregnancy itself is a health risk.

Rudy is one of the most egregious attackers of the RKBA. He always has been, and always will be. It should not come as a shock to anyone that reads this blog, that I have a very serious problem with that. He has banned guns in NYC, sued gun manufacturers, and tried to take away our rights with the Brady crew. He may as well be Barbara Boxer on this issue.

These are the main reasons that I was shocked that Robertson endorsed him. Don't get me wrong here. I think Robertson is a kooky charlatan of a minister, but he claims to be a Christian. His nuttery has indeed crossed the line several times. Between his 9/11 and Katrina comments, his "word from God" about the elder Bush winning re-election, and his despicable support for Charles Taylor in Liberia, Robertson definitely does not represent me. I guess my shock at his endorsement should not come as much surprise after all of the stunts he has pulled in the past after all.

Talo Inc. Advertisement for The Last Cowboy

Apparently around 1,000 of these were made. Mine is the one with the white handles and gold markings.

Totally Unexpected

Well, I have something to admit. Something I never thought would happen, has happened. This is like a Ford lover, buying a Chevy and liking it. It's like a charcoal user embracing propane. I have become totally enamored with revolvers, especially single action revolvers. As you all know, my wife bought a nice .38 Spl LadySmith last week. Somehow her revolver lust has infected me.

My trip to get the SKS took a surprising turn of events last week. I looked at it for a while, and decided against buying it. It was missing it's bayonet. After looking around for a while, I had the helpful gun clerk show me two guns. The first was the 6" Security Six Kim had looked at, and the second was the Ruger Single Six special edition "The Last Cowboy". The Security Six was soon eliminated. It was pretty beat up. Lots of scrub marks, scratches, and the rear sight was beat to hell. This gun had been shot a whole lot, and I felt the price of $329 was just to high for it. So I held "The Last Cowboy". Oh my! What a gun this was. It was not only beautiful, it felt wonderful to hold. The grip was perfect. Pulling the hammer back, and forth felt completely natural.

I did have some trepidation about buying this gun though. First of all, I had dedicated myself to only spend the $179 that the Norinco was going to cost. This little pretty revolver was twice that cost. Hmmm, what to do? On one hand, I would be buying yet another expensive firearm that I could afford, but maybe the money would be better spent elsewhere. I also had not asked my lovely new bride about purchasing it. On the other hand, this was an exceptional piece in my mind. It handled so well. It was a somewhat rare revolver as well, and it WAS so pretty. The latter argument won out and I bought the pistol. I called Kim and told her, half expecting a mild rebuke. I got a rebuke alright, but it wasn't what was expected in the least. She said, "What are you doing buying MY gun?!?!?!?". She was mad because I beat her to it. :)

This gun was made by Ruger back in 2002 apparently. Talo Inc. got a hold of a bunch of them and gave them the special treatment. I believe it was released in 2006. I will get some pics up this weekend. There are several differences between it and a regular single six. The cylinder has a gold ring around it, the imitation ivory grips have the LC initials, and there is a little gold picture on the top of the grip of the cowboy emblem.

I bought this gun as a collector's piece. I fully intended never to fire it. That did not last long however. I found a 20 round box of the very expensive ammo it takes, and fired all twenty rounds through it. What an accurate and sweet shooting little gun this is. It is easily my new favorite. I am looking into reloading ammo for it now. This thing is a shooter, and it may be a bit unfortunate to shoot it, but I did buy it to enjoy it. Oh yeah, it also came with a nice crossdraw leather holster.

To Buy or Not to Buy...

Well, as all of us gun enthusiasts often do, I am wondering whether or not I should buy a certain gun I saw for sale at my local gun shop. It was a Norinco SKS for $179. I did not notice if it was matching numbers or not. It appeared to use the standard 10 shot SKS clip, which would be fine. I have an assload of stripper clips and quite a bit of Wolf commie ammo. The gun looked to be in good working order, and felt nice in my hands, which is more than I can say for my Yugo 59/66 that is still in pieces all over the place. It was a fairly clean looking rifle as well. Hmm...

I think I will post on the Gun Thing Forum, and see what the guys think.