12/18/2004
From the Evergreen Police State
Via Publicola, blogger Fish or Man gets arrested, apparently for openly carrying a firearm and apparently in compliance with Washington state law.
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12/15/2004
Shameless Gun prOn
My wife and her new toy. The rifle, not the outfit.
Details on the rifle:
Stag lower receiver from Eagle Arms.
20" A2 upper (with bayonet lug and flash hider) & parts kit from J&T Distributing. I was truly amazed at how easy it was to assemble. Only one part was really tricky at all. Took me about an hour, and I'd never even seen it done before.
Details on my wife: you wish.
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Walter E. Williams Partially Poaches My Idea...
...or, HL for Governor's Proposal for Education Reform
This idea has been rattling around in my head for a while now, but I was holding off on posting about it until I could figure out at least the basic mechanics of how to implement it. But then in yesterday's column, the wonderful Walter E. Williams proposed something strikingly similar to my idea:
We might rethink the financing of higher education, particularly at government-owned colleges, so as to introduce competition that might improve quality and drive down costs. High school graduates meeting academic criteria for college admission should be awarded a voucher in the amount of the per capita college cost paid by state taxpayers. The voucher could be used at any college, an idea similar to the GI Bill.
My idea was to do the exact same thing, but at the K-12 grade levels. Parents of school age kids would receive a voucher (for each child) equal to the per student education spending. Parents could then use this money to send their children to whatever school they wished. Receipt of the vouchers would not be contingent on the student(s) attending a 'failing' school-everyone would get the vouchers.
To encourage market price competition (and prevent all schools from simply making their tuition equal to the vouchers' value), any difference between the value of the voucher and tuition would be deposited in an account that could be used for (and only for) future educational expenses-be those expensises tuition for college or vocational school, or for a future K-12 school whose tuition was higher than the state's voucher amount.
What I haven't worked out is what to do with the massive public schools infrastructure. Leave it in place and let it wither and die as students (and money) gravitate elsewhere? Given the massive amounts that public schools spend on administration, they would be at an inherent competitive disadvantage versus smaller private schools. Let private schools buy them up, at least the real property and assets, to then run those schools privately? Give the teachers and staff of each school the opportunity to buy up the school where they work and run it as a worker owned business?
I sincerely believe that a plan like this, if you could put it into effect over the certain ferocious oppostition of the teachers' unions, would prove very successful.
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Spirit of America Blogger Challenge
Donate via Team Gunblogger. Do it Now. Even better, join Team Gunblogger. The Challenge ends at midnight Pacific today.
The rest of Team Gunblogger:
GeekWithA.45 -Team Chief
Because I Say So
Benjamin
FreedomSight
Head's Bunker
The Smallest Minority
TriggerFinger
countertop-chronicles
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Which Milsurp to Start My Wife On?
My wife doesn't particularly like my milsurp bolt-actions-or "old guns" as she calls them. It's not that she doesn't like shooting-she loves her SKS, as well as both the Kimbers that live in our house (my full size, her ultra). And she's in the Army Reserve and has no problem with the M-16 or M-4.
One of the reasons she doesn't like them is she can't tell them apart. No biggie, she's not into it like I am.
The other reason is that they're too big/heavy/have too much recoil. This, I hope to be able to solve. Anything she can shoot, she likes a lot more.
So, which of the collection should I try to introduce her to the old bolt guns?
The options are:
Finn M39 Mosin-the heaviest of the collection, would soak up recoil the best.
Finn M91 Mosin-good wieght, but at 50", it's only 12" shorter than she is.
Yugo M24/47 Mauser-good size, easy bolt, bad sights.
Swiss K31-good size, great sights, different action requires a bit of oomph to work.
Right now, I'm inclined to go with either the M39 (with Czech silvers) or the 24/47. I've got a rubber slip on buttpad to help with the recoil, too.
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12/14/2004
The Solemn Pride Which Must Be Theirs...
to have placed so great an offering upon the altar of freedom. My apologies to Abraham Lincoln.
Story relayed to me by another officer in my battalion. One of our companies graduated last week, and the Major was speaking to the family of one of the graduates. Their oldest son has been killed in action a few weeks ago, I think in Fallujah. The middle child was the one graduating basic training that day. The youngest would be reporting for basic training in June.
But there's a problem: Families like these are running out of children. Working in basic training, I can see that the Army isn't taking in enough soldiers. For the last month or so here at Ft Jackson, about one company every week (out of between 4 and 6 scheduled) hasn't had any new soldiers to pick up. That's about 200 soldiers short every week. Now, I don't know if this is Army wide, or if it's just the combat service support types who come to Ft Jackson for basic, or if it is mainly a symptom of reported shortages in the Guard and Reserve, or if it includes the regular Army, too. But not enough new soldiers are joining the Army.
What do we do when the great families like the one above have no more to give?
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