At Gunnies in Orem, a 1943 Izhevsk production M91/30 retired sniper (follow the link and scroll down to the "Ex sniper" section).
Metal fit and finish is very good, with a very good trigger that takes up short and breaks clean around four pounds. Bore is brighter than I am used to seeing with clean rifling and no discernible pitting. Counterbore shows faint traces of the original chamfer after rearsenal recrowning; there is no deep counterbore as I found on my last purchase. The screw/pin holes for the PU mount on the left side of the receiver are filled cleanly. They are invisible from outside and the bluing job on the receiver is excellent.
There is a struck-through seven digit number on the left side of the barrel ring. The alpha /numeric serial stamped on the receiver matches the bolt and butt plate, while the bottom metal matches but shows a lined - out number as well.
Wood is typical post-war Mosin, with more dings than I usually see BUT with a bunch of cartouches that I haven't seen before, either.
Sweet for $84.99, including a bayonet, two-pocket ammo pouch, cleaning tools, combo tool, and solvent/oil bottle.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Giant Passing
"I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."
William F. Buckley Jr. 1925 - 2008.
I am riven.
William F. Buckley Jr. 1925 - 2008.
I am riven.
Reformation? Maybe The Pile Won't Be So High.
Important news on important work going on in Turkey, where Islamic clergy/scholars are examining the Hadith of Islam.
The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad.
***
"You can find messages which say 'that is what the Prophet ordered us to do'. But you can show historically how they came into being, as influences from other cultures, that were then projected onto Islamic tradition."
The argument is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various - often conservative - cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control.
This work is being conducted by direction of the Turkish government, which has wisely decided that contemporary Islamism, if allowed to fester, won't leave the followers of the prophet much of a future.
(via Protein Wisdom)
The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad.
***
"You can find messages which say 'that is what the Prophet ordered us to do'. But you can show historically how they came into being, as influences from other cultures, that were then projected onto Islamic tradition."
The argument is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various - often conservative - cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control.
This work is being conducted by direction of the Turkish government, which has wisely decided that contemporary Islamism, if allowed to fester, won't leave the followers of the prophet much of a future.
(via Protein Wisdom)
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Comment on Althouse
I put the following comment up on Professor Althouse's blog:
I had a kind of waking dream where Hillary! heaves her cankles up on a raised dais in front of a huge, darkened arena and begins to speak to the nervous, standing room only crowd:
"I have heard it said that many of you have felt, at times, that I or the DNC don't really think your issues are important beyond what we have to say to benefit from your votes. Nothing could be further from the truth! In spite of scurrilous claims on talk radio, and in spite of the fact that it fell to Republican administrations to appoint African-Americans to prominent cabinet positions, or that the Democrat party of New York purportedly coerced an eminently qualified African-American to not run for the Senate seat I now hold,
(She raises her voice to the verge of her well known screech because a growing, enthusiastic roar from the next hall over makes it increasingly diffucult for her to be heard)
it is VITAL that you understand that YOUR interests are at stake as you go to vote for ME in your capacity as super delegates!...."
A voice from the hall interrupts:
"Madam senator? The Democrat super delegates and black folks are next door. We are the conservative minority of the Republican party. John McCain was supposed to be here to explain why we are supposed to vote for him, but we just found out he's next door promising open-ended welfare benefits, restrictions on talk radio, and socialized health care."
It's a funny old world, aint' it?
(updated for comedic impact and minor grammatical tweaking)
I had a kind of waking dream where Hillary! heaves her cankles up on a raised dais in front of a huge, darkened arena and begins to speak to the nervous, standing room only crowd:
"I have heard it said that many of you have felt, at times, that I or the DNC don't really think your issues are important beyond what we have to say to benefit from your votes. Nothing could be further from the truth! In spite of scurrilous claims on talk radio, and in spite of the fact that it fell to Republican administrations to appoint African-Americans to prominent cabinet positions, or that the Democrat party of New York purportedly coerced an eminently qualified African-American to not run for the Senate seat I now hold,
(She raises her voice to the verge of her well known screech because a growing, enthusiastic roar from the next hall over makes it increasingly diffucult for her to be heard)
it is VITAL that you understand that YOUR interests are at stake as you go to vote for ME in your capacity as super delegates!...."
A voice from the hall interrupts:
"Madam senator? The Democrat super delegates and black folks are next door. We are the conservative minority of the Republican party. John McCain was supposed to be here to explain why we are supposed to vote for him, but we just found out he's next door promising open-ended welfare benefits, restrictions on talk radio, and socialized health care."
It's a funny old world, aint' it?
(updated for comedic impact and minor grammatical tweaking)
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
A Message From The Fringe
Posted as a comment to this post over at neo-neocon:
The Dems don’t have a problem recognizing their enemy. They are called “Republicans”. Granted, the caricature of racist, homophobic, jeebus screechers is not quite accurate, but it’s worked to galvanize the Best and Brightest toward larger turnouts than the hapless Republicans.
Let them have their presidency. Let them have the power they crave. Give them everything the nutroots crave.
Give them the house. And the senate.
And by all means, they can nominate a couple of judges. Who was that attorney convicted a few years back for passing communications for the blind sheik? That one! She’s the face and heart of the progressive movement. Give them control over the last non-electoral, half-assed obstacle to totalitarianism that exists.
Give them power.
I’ve gotten three phone calls this evening. One from a national polling outfit, asking if they could get my opinion on the primary races; I shut them off with “I will not cast a vote for John McCain.” The second was the Utah County Republicans asking if I was intending to caucus this year, and if I had any interest in being a delegate again. I told them that as a newly registered Independent I wasn’t eligible. The third was from the Leavitt campaign. I declined the invitation to a barbeque, on the same principle.
In a representative republic that wasn’t populated by zero attention span historical illiterates who can’t balance a checkbook or compute compound interest, the vast bulk of our elected federal government would be building desks down in Georgia someplace.
Muslims would be pretty scarce in the civilized world, too, but that subject will be coming up time after time in the next few years, so it can wait.
Michael, Senator McCain will lose to either Dem candidate, and it won’t even be close. There’s no reason for it to be close; the Dems are on fire to surrender to their new overlords and the Republicans aren’t going to make much of an effort to vote for their own liberal Democrat.
You want a metric you can follow? You might watch the stock market. Smart money is already moving for cover at a pretty brisk pace.
Myself, I’m going to watch military retention, by quarter. You want to know where the SMART and EXPOSED people think things are headed? Watch those numbers.
I’d shed a tear if I had any left. All power is ultimately responsibility. We do not have, in either party, viable leadership that will acknowledge that reality. It’s all a game to them.
Have a fine one, and we’ll see how that “fringe” stuff works out in November.
The Dems don’t have a problem recognizing their enemy. They are called “Republicans”. Granted, the caricature of racist, homophobic, jeebus screechers is not quite accurate, but it’s worked to galvanize the Best and Brightest toward larger turnouts than the hapless Republicans.
Let them have their presidency. Let them have the power they crave. Give them everything the nutroots crave.
Give them the house. And the senate.
And by all means, they can nominate a couple of judges. Who was that attorney convicted a few years back for passing communications for the blind sheik? That one! She’s the face and heart of the progressive movement. Give them control over the last non-electoral, half-assed obstacle to totalitarianism that exists.
Give them power.
I’ve gotten three phone calls this evening. One from a national polling outfit, asking if they could get my opinion on the primary races; I shut them off with “I will not cast a vote for John McCain.” The second was the Utah County Republicans asking if I was intending to caucus this year, and if I had any interest in being a delegate again. I told them that as a newly registered Independent I wasn’t eligible. The third was from the Leavitt campaign. I declined the invitation to a barbeque, on the same principle.
In a representative republic that wasn’t populated by zero attention span historical illiterates who can’t balance a checkbook or compute compound interest, the vast bulk of our elected federal government would be building desks down in Georgia someplace.
Muslims would be pretty scarce in the civilized world, too, but that subject will be coming up time after time in the next few years, so it can wait.
Michael, Senator McCain will lose to either Dem candidate, and it won’t even be close. There’s no reason for it to be close; the Dems are on fire to surrender to their new overlords and the Republicans aren’t going to make much of an effort to vote for their own liberal Democrat.
You want a metric you can follow? You might watch the stock market. Smart money is already moving for cover at a pretty brisk pace.
Myself, I’m going to watch military retention, by quarter. You want to know where the SMART and EXPOSED people think things are headed? Watch those numbers.
I’d shed a tear if I had any left. All power is ultimately responsibility. We do not have, in either party, viable leadership that will acknowledge that reality. It’s all a game to them.
Have a fine one, and we’ll see how that “fringe” stuff works out in November.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
It DOES Mean Something
The following was originally posted as a comment at Protein Wisdom. This comment, along with the original post put up by Mr.Dan Collins and updated by Mr. Jeff Goldstein is my answer to Mr. Totten:
I’ve been trying to articulate my rejection of McCain across several different forums… but I can’t do better than what the two of you (Collins and Goldstein - ed.) have done with this post.
In the blur of the last few days I saw a commenter elsewhere say “you vote the lesser of two evils long enough, one day you end up knowing you are voting for evil” or something very similar….
Back when I was in the service one of the institutional things you heard a lot was a variation on “It ain’t nuthin’… ain’t nuthin’ but a thang”…don’t mean nuthin’”.
You score orders to the school you’ve been trying to get in to for literally your entire enlistment… and they get canked because you need to go to the desert and shoot at sand dunes. Again.
The battery works three six-day weeks getting everything ready for the Inspector General’s inspection. You lay everything out, every man falls in, perfectly uniformed, every piece of equipment the unit owns is parked, laid out with all it’s gear… and the IG team is two hours late, time enough for the southern California June rainstorm to turn the whole thing into a “count noses and call it good” farce.
Your best friend, who left the Corps but came back in after exchanging letters with you, gets his ass buried in a building in Beirut. And your government runs away.
I voted for George W. Bush, twice. At first I believed that at his worst he would bring ethics and some sort of adult normalcy back to at least a small part of the freak show the last eight years had reduced Washington to. I was impressed with his tactical political skills; anyone who could defeat the Clinton’s heir and their media was defacto nobody’s fool. The opening stages of our response to 9/11 were heartening, as well. The second term was an easy call to make, given the other option.
I believe that the pursuit of the ideals of American representative democracy is the first best hope for the survival of mankind. Our system, when it is faithfully adhered to by all citizen parties, replaces the impulse to kill for personal gain with the higher faith that compromise and cooperation are more profitable for everyone in the long run.
We are a sad and vicious crew. We still don’t think much past our next meal - not much past the next piece of ass for males between the ages of fifteen and twenty five - or whatever the next distraction is. We thirst for entertainment today; yesterday, we thirsted for a better life and worked hard to get it.
Looking at the crew before us - Obama, Clinton, McCain… I am reminded of the era of Praetorian Emperors of Rome. They, too, were chosen by the insulated elite of their time. The Guard was not so much military as it was the remaining functional, effective power in the empire.
The Praetorians selected their caesers based on the ineterests of the Praetorians. But the press releases always emphasized “for the good of Rome”.
I’m done with the Republicans. I could have voted for Romney based on his demonstrated high ethics and superb business accomplishments. I also believe he would be at least as effective as Bush has been in fighting the war we are able to fight in this atmosphere of lotus eaters and hacks. The continued successful prosecution of the war, especially under ANY Republican administration, will demand an executive impervious to childish and bad-faithed nay saying by political opponents and one iron-willed in carrying the fight to the enemy where ever and when ever he is found.
The GWOT is going to end one of three ways:
1. The West surrenders incrementally over the course of the next three generations, and the world returns to a kind of Ottoman Empire blur until the oil runs out.
2. Europe wakes up and world war four shifts into high gear. Trains are involved.
3. The United States continues democratization as long as we can afford to, and the budding democratic republics in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the moderate emirates, generate a sect of Islam that serves as that religion’s Reformation.
There’s fourth option, but I am not going to go there. If we go to a hot war with China, option four becomes a sideshow to the real fight.
And ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it: it will be financial/civic collapse that destroys this country before any bearded child killer plops a Koran on the desk in the oval office. And McCain, Obama, and Clinton, and the majority of the parasites infesting that swamp near Baltimore are contributors, not remedies, to the coming collapse.
John McCain isn’t going to meet in the middle with any Democrats. He’s going to slip them the club handshake and get busy getting on with the business of managing the peasants so that they can’t hurt themselves or, more importantly, incumbent office holders. That means nurturing victim classes, legislating curbs on that pesky political speech stuff, erasing those meaningless lines on the map and those pages in the dusty old history books that used to tell us who we were. The pages that used to tell us how we got here, and what the road looked like.
That’s all done with. We get what’s good for us - as decided by those oh so more qualified to dole it out.
That’s John McCain’s way, and if you can find the difference between Mr. Changeyman and Ms. Rodham -Borgia, you go right ahead and do so. The differences will be tactics; the end strategy, and results, will be the same.
I’m not voting for a Republican candidate whose entire resume is a democratic platform primer.
I cast my vote for Gov. Romney in Utah’s primary today.
I do not expect to cast a vote for the office of president in November, and am prepared to not have a candidate for the foreseeable future.
This refusal to choose where there is no choice is not a futile gesture. It does mean something. At the very least, my hand is not pulling the rope tied to the noose around my neck.
I’ve been trying to articulate my rejection of McCain across several different forums… but I can’t do better than what the two of you (Collins and Goldstein - ed.) have done with this post.
In the blur of the last few days I saw a commenter elsewhere say “you vote the lesser of two evils long enough, one day you end up knowing you are voting for evil” or something very similar….
Back when I was in the service one of the institutional things you heard a lot was a variation on “It ain’t nuthin’… ain’t nuthin’ but a thang”…don’t mean nuthin’”.
You score orders to the school you’ve been trying to get in to for literally your entire enlistment… and they get canked because you need to go to the desert and shoot at sand dunes. Again.
The battery works three six-day weeks getting everything ready for the Inspector General’s inspection. You lay everything out, every man falls in, perfectly uniformed, every piece of equipment the unit owns is parked, laid out with all it’s gear… and the IG team is two hours late, time enough for the southern California June rainstorm to turn the whole thing into a “count noses and call it good” farce.
Your best friend, who left the Corps but came back in after exchanging letters with you, gets his ass buried in a building in Beirut. And your government runs away.
I voted for George W. Bush, twice. At first I believed that at his worst he would bring ethics and some sort of adult normalcy back to at least a small part of the freak show the last eight years had reduced Washington to. I was impressed with his tactical political skills; anyone who could defeat the Clinton’s heir and their media was defacto nobody’s fool. The opening stages of our response to 9/11 were heartening, as well. The second term was an easy call to make, given the other option.
I believe that the pursuit of the ideals of American representative democracy is the first best hope for the survival of mankind. Our system, when it is faithfully adhered to by all citizen parties, replaces the impulse to kill for personal gain with the higher faith that compromise and cooperation are more profitable for everyone in the long run.
We are a sad and vicious crew. We still don’t think much past our next meal - not much past the next piece of ass for males between the ages of fifteen and twenty five - or whatever the next distraction is. We thirst for entertainment today; yesterday, we thirsted for a better life and worked hard to get it.
Looking at the crew before us - Obama, Clinton, McCain… I am reminded of the era of Praetorian Emperors of Rome. They, too, were chosen by the insulated elite of their time. The Guard was not so much military as it was the remaining functional, effective power in the empire.
The Praetorians selected their caesers based on the ineterests of the Praetorians. But the press releases always emphasized “for the good of Rome”.
I’m done with the Republicans. I could have voted for Romney based on his demonstrated high ethics and superb business accomplishments. I also believe he would be at least as effective as Bush has been in fighting the war we are able to fight in this atmosphere of lotus eaters and hacks. The continued successful prosecution of the war, especially under ANY Republican administration, will demand an executive impervious to childish and bad-faithed nay saying by political opponents and one iron-willed in carrying the fight to the enemy where ever and when ever he is found.
The GWOT is going to end one of three ways:
1. The West surrenders incrementally over the course of the next three generations, and the world returns to a kind of Ottoman Empire blur until the oil runs out.
2. Europe wakes up and world war four shifts into high gear. Trains are involved.
3. The United States continues democratization as long as we can afford to, and the budding democratic republics in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the moderate emirates, generate a sect of Islam that serves as that religion’s Reformation.
There’s fourth option, but I am not going to go there. If we go to a hot war with China, option four becomes a sideshow to the real fight.
And ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it: it will be financial/civic collapse that destroys this country before any bearded child killer plops a Koran on the desk in the oval office. And McCain, Obama, and Clinton, and the majority of the parasites infesting that swamp near Baltimore are contributors, not remedies, to the coming collapse.
John McCain isn’t going to meet in the middle with any Democrats. He’s going to slip them the club handshake and get busy getting on with the business of managing the peasants so that they can’t hurt themselves or, more importantly, incumbent office holders. That means nurturing victim classes, legislating curbs on that pesky political speech stuff, erasing those meaningless lines on the map and those pages in the dusty old history books that used to tell us who we were. The pages that used to tell us how we got here, and what the road looked like.
That’s all done with. We get what’s good for us - as decided by those oh so more qualified to dole it out.
That’s John McCain’s way, and if you can find the difference between Mr. Changeyman and Ms. Rodham -Borgia, you go right ahead and do so. The differences will be tactics; the end strategy, and results, will be the same.
I’m not voting for a Republican candidate whose entire resume is a democratic platform primer.
I cast my vote for Gov. Romney in Utah’s primary today.
I do not expect to cast a vote for the office of president in November, and am prepared to not have a candidate for the foreseeable future.
This refusal to choose where there is no choice is not a futile gesture. It does mean something. At the very least, my hand is not pulling the rope tied to the noose around my neck.
Incoming
A few days back I followed an Instapundit link to a post by Mr.Bill Quick where he laid out his case for not voting for John McCain should he end up the Republican candidate. I contributed a comment that laid out very bluntly my own decision to neither support nor cast a vote for McCain should he be the nominee. neo-neocon weighed in with her opinion that the conservatives were jumping the shark. Mr. Gerard Vanderluen cranked out an essay (under the subhead "Useful Idiots") here , where I had yet another opportunity to disagree with someone I admire and am proud to have on my modest blogroll, as well. In the meantime, neo wrote another post wherein Mr. Michael J. Totten, in the comments, called me out based on a discussion we had on his forum during the last presidential election.
Work and responsibilities prevent an immediate response. I need to research and see how much crow, if any, I need to order, and then attempt to come up with an essay worth anyone's time to read.
Have a fine one, all. I hope to have something by this evening but it may be late.
Oh, and if you are in a state conducting its primary today, get out there and VOTE! I already did.
Work and responsibilities prevent an immediate response. I need to research and see how much crow, if any, I need to order, and then attempt to come up with an essay worth anyone's time to read.
Have a fine one, all. I hope to have something by this evening but it may be late.
Oh, and if you are in a state conducting its primary today, get out there and VOTE! I already did.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Saturday, February 02, 2008
On the Rack
At Gunnies in Orem, a Mosin-Nagant Model 91/30 retired PU sniper. Tula, 1943. Clear markings on receiver including prominent "C h" stamp. Matching numbers, bottom metal has matching number stamped next to lined - out original number.
Overall condition is fair. Typical wartime stock. Metal to wood fit is fair. PU mount holes in receiver have been filled with studs and welded. Crappy bluing job here - metal shows discoloration from heat. Bore is dark with well defined lands and grooves. Trigger and sear show very little wear, no hammering. The muzzle was recrowned during the rearsenal process, but some evidence of a sniper counterbore still shows.
At $84.00 it is probably worth a look. Comes with all the typical CAI goodies - sling, bayonet, oiler/solvent can, cleaning kit, one double ammo pouch, and combo tool.
Overall condition is fair. Typical wartime stock. Metal to wood fit is fair. PU mount holes in receiver have been filled with studs and welded. Crappy bluing job here - metal shows discoloration from heat. Bore is dark with well defined lands and grooves. Trigger and sear show very little wear, no hammering. The muzzle was recrowned during the rearsenal process, but some evidence of a sniper counterbore still shows.
At $84.00 it is probably worth a look. Comes with all the typical CAI goodies - sling, bayonet, oiler/solvent can, cleaning kit, one double ammo pouch, and combo tool.
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