12/04/2004
Stomach Flu
I've been fighting some sort of stomch virus/mystery ailment since late Tuesday. There aren't a whole lot of things that are less fun than having your GI tract in revolt. Feeling much better today, maybe even ready to eat some real food-I'm sick to death of crackers and chicken soup.
Company's out on the range-zero day today. Lock and load that three round magazine and fire when ready.
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11/30/2004
More from the Zero Tolerance Idiocy Zone
Three high school ROTC students accused of plot
SPANAWAY, Wash. -- Pierce County sheriff's deputies have arrested three Junior ROTC students accused of plotting an attack on Spanaway Lake High School.
The arrests were made Monday after a parent called the school to express concern about a group of students. School administrators and Pierce County sheriff's deputies conducted follow-up interviews and determined that the students had discussed an attack on the school, Bethel School District spokesman Mark Wenzel said Tuesday.
"They were out recruiting to try to get help," said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer. "They did have some hand-drawn floorplans of the school, some notebooks and some documentation of what they were going to do."
The students did not have weapons or explosives, but investigators believe the threat was real because the two 18-year-olds and one 16-year-old are members of the school's Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. (Emphasis added)
So apparently now JROTC is a subversive and dangerous organization? It appears that the Pierce County Sheriff believes so. Read it again: the students had no weapons or explosives, just some plans and grudges. Motive, but I don't see either means or opportunity. But in all honesty, how many teenage boys haven't, at some point, fantasized about taking over the school?
Apparently now in Washington, merely drawing out plans for something illegal is worthy of getting kids arrested, at least if they're members of that subversive and violent organization, JROTC. I realize that I may be wandering into some dangerous areas of the Partiot Act/anti-terrorism law here, but how is it possible that the government can arrest you for something that you haven't even done, only thought about?
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Blogging Raich and Misc. Musings
They're doing some excellent blogging on the Raich case over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Not surprising, since Randy Barnett, lead litigator for Angel Raich, is a blogger there.
Thinking about Raich led me to this random musing: Where in the Constitution is the .fedgov given the power to prohibit mere possession of anything? Maybe counterfeit U.S. currency, but that's about it that I can find. So how can any federal law which prohibits possession of narcotics be Consitutional?
Using the Commerce Clause to justify such laws seems to me to be an extreme stretch, but it seems to be what Congress has done.
Another random thought: If the votes on Raich come to a 4-4 tie, will Rehnquist step in to break the tie? Is he allowed to?
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Now with XML!
Feedburner has been added to this blog. It's way down on the left side, by the Sitemeter and Ecosystem readings.
Lest anyone think I'm smarter than I actually am, I must thank reader Cinomed for the pointers on setting it up.
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Latest from Wisconsin
Via Say Uncle! comes this link, probably the best summary of what happened and what's happening I've seen.
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Welcome Alphecca Readers!
Thanks to Jeff for the linkage. I'm not entirely sure what my new toy (it's realy about the mount moreso than the scope) has to do with media bias, but I'll take the traffic where I can get it.
So ralex, read around, and maybe leave some comments. I love comments.
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11/28/2004
Photoblogging Weekend
HL Jr. enjoying Thanksgiving dinner.
HR Jr. says Hi to his mother at her PLDC graduation.
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New Toy Accessory
Last week I got the St. Marie Graphic no-smith bolt-on scope mount for my K-31 (for one of them, at least.) It came with rings, which, much to my annoyance, required a Brit-American hex key. Mine are all metric. So I finally got to Home Depot and got the right hex key. Here's the result:
That single Allen screw, visible in the close up, is all that holds the mount to the rifle. But it holds it quite snug, with no movement. The mount is, to my understanding, a copy of ones made in Switzerland that allowed Swiss citizen-soldiers to take their Army rifles hunting with no permanent modifications.
The scope is a fixed 4x that I bought (also from eBay) for $10, bringing the total cost, with shipping, to $125, which is about what the mount alone sells for from Brownell's. The only down bit is that the scope is too high, so I'm going to need to get some shorter rings. I'll post a range report when I get it to the range next month.
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