"now there might be some acount ablitiy for all the guns in the world !"
Accountable to whom?
That's the problem. It is always government that accounts for these things and what do you do when it is the government that is the enemy of the people instead of some foreign state?
It's easy to preach anti-gun rhetoric when you're living somewhere safe like western Europe. It's not so easy when you live somewhere like Venezuela living under despotic rule.
The Kalashnikov design is more of a common man's weapon. State budgets can afford better weapons these days. That said, a Kalashnikov is preferred by many to remove tyrants and despots. This is a far nobler cause than eating grass and singing anti-war songs thinking the world is somehow going to be a better place because of it.
"Firstly, the AK-47 itself is a derivative of the excellent German Sturmgewehr MP44, [...]"
This is a common myth but unfounded in reality. The Kalashnikov was certainly inspired by the STG44 but not derived. If anything were derived in Kalashnikov's design, it would be from prior Soviet art not German.
"So don't pay attention to the lawyers good people - if you find yourself slaving away 60+ hours a week to make other people rich whilst you can barely put food on your table - then by all means, get together with your comrades and build yourselves some AK47's. Anyone that denies you that basic right is a Capitalist oppressor and a Fascist invader of the Motherland."
If you live in the United States, you can actually build your own Kalashnikov legally, without any sort of background checks or serial numbers or anything like that. In most jurisdictions you don't have to register either. I prefer to buy mine at gun shows but I can see the allure of sticking it to the man and building your own. The tough part is you need a machine shop to work with the receiver flats properly so it's not something you're likely to do in your basement unless you happen to have a machine shop in your basement. There is quite a lot on the subject if you google it.
(Preamble: We are NOT talking about AK-47's here. There are very very few AK-47's on the planet, as production of them ceased many years ago... Kalashnikov's design has been used for about 60 years now and the new rifles based on his action are NOT "AK-47". "AK-47" refers to "Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947". My own favorite Kalashnikov in my collection is a Chinese MAK-90, not referred to as an AK-47 but easily recognizable as a Kalashnikov design.)
This is not a response to allofmp3.com or anything of the sort. Russia has been trying to lay claim to the ownership of the Kalashnikov design for years now, much to the chagrin of other former Soviet states who feel they have equal claim to the design.
Part of the problem is that Kalashnikovs are incredibly popular in the US gun community. Not full-auto machine guns as the press and the anti-gun lobby would have you believe, but semi-automatic rifles that only fire one bullet for each pull of the trigger. Anyway, Kalashnikovs are VERY cheap to manufacture and even the full auto variants frequently sell NEW for about $75 (USD) in other markets. In the US market, a cheap Romanian Kalashnikov will sell at a gun show for about $300 or more depending on how it is outfitted. With a Yugoslavian underfolding stock and a bayonet lug, it could be closer to $500. The Russians are furious because they cannot get in on the very healthy US firearms market. There is a ban on Russian firearms imports (China, too) that has got to be really frustrating for them. The Romanians are making a killing selling guns of Russian design on US soil. Big $$$! So when money changes hands this rigorously, anyone with even a tenuous interest is going to try very hard to get their hand in there somewhere for a payout.
"[...] an administration that disregards world opinion [...]"
There is actually nothing wrong with this. We do not live under a one world government, nor should we. Elected leaders are beholden only to their constituency.
THAT SAID, he disregards his own constituency as well. He even disregards the people that actually voted for him.
One of the basic tenets of geurilla warfare is to carry what your enemy carries. You're in the field for extended periods and don't get resupplied very often. You shoot and kill your enemy, take his ammo, take any other supplies that may be of use to you, and move on.
The AR15 is a fine weapon but in a desert environment, the high precision machining and tight clearances do require frequent maintenance lest the weapon jam at an inopportune moment. The Kalashnikov is a crude simple weapon with sloppy tolerances and is designed to thrive on neglect. They do wonderfully well in environments like this.
"Not only is a x54R ludicrously overpowered for the AK's operating mechanism [...]"
As a collector of Communist block weapons, including Kalashnikov designs and Mosin-Nagants, I have to actually disagree with this one point.
Kalashnikov's design is still in use today, chambered in 7.62x54R, in the form of the PSL (often mislabeled on the American firearms market as "Romanian Dragunov"... it's not really a Dragunov but it is Romanian).
The 7.62x39 is great for urban warfare but much beyond 300 meters it's sort of like throwing rice at your opponent. 7.62x54R on the other hand, unless you're using the milsurp machine gun rounds which are not terribly accurate, is a very capable full-powered long range round. I do agree with what you said all except the x54R not running in the Kalashnikov action, and I'm also very curious about what Mauser runs a x54R because I'm not aware of any Mauser that does (not to say that it doesn't... but it would be a new one on me)
"If you could go back in time and talk to Americans in the Civil War era, the vast majority would agree that slavery was the central issue of the war."
You said: "I keep hearing this from Lincoln bashers yet they never cite a source. Seriously, enough with the talking points and show where/when he said he was not interested in freeing the slaves."
You want a source? How about Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley where he says:
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.
Before you mod me down, understand that history is won by the victors.
I would suggest that Abraham Lincoln is probably one of the templates for the current US administration. Suspension of habeus corpus, erosion of state and individual rights, unconstitutional increases of executive power, etc. If you look at US history, the tyrannical empire started well on its way under the Lincoln administration. He actually had no interest in freeing the slaves (he's on record as such) and only did so as a military strategy to try and weaken the south.
My only regret about Lincoln's assassination is that it didn't come years sooner.
If Montana weren't so fscking cold and remote I'd move there in a heartbeat. Gorgeous landscape, pristine outdoors, and a freedom loving people that is still unafraid to tell the federal government who is boss.
Stargate SG-1 has been a roller coaster. It's had some great seasons, some terrible seasons, and some where it is all over the place. I really think it has run its full course. It's kind of a shame because this season is actually picking up. But just when it gets good, Richard Dean Anderson comes back. I can suspend disbelief and assume that the US Air Force has an alien device at Cheyenne Mountain that allows them to travel to other worlds. I can suspend disbelief and accept that Daniel Jackson ascended and then descended to/from an ethereal plane of existence. But for the life of me, I can't accept Richard Dean Anderson as an Air Force General (or in the military at all for that matter). His character is a dunce and a goof. He's MacGuyver'd his way out of some tight spots but no high brass would look at him and say "that's two star General material right there".
Carter's technobabble also gets excessive at times. Reminds me of ST:TNG and how they would fill air time with technobabble when they couldn't come up with a compelling character-driven script.
Either you're from a blue state or you're from a land that doesn't recognize the natural right to keep and bear arms.
My home would be one of the most foolish homes to try and loot. Hanging a few dead looters from my mighty oak trees out front should be a good way to stave off future attempts.
Who cares if trucks can't get through when soon cargo ships, holding hundreds of truckloads of goods at a time, will be able to navigate their way through to currently interior arctic ports (and beyond)?
Our local public television network produced a special episode of Exploring North Carolina that dealt specifically with what global warming will mean for my state. The waters will rise up through the Neuse basin, but will not consume Raleigh by any stretch.
250-300 feet is downtown. We're still in the piedmont of the state so the elevation deltas city wide are actually further apart than that. My own home is around 350-360 feet above sea level (GPS isn't much more precise than that). A large parcel of unimproved land that I own nearby is over 600 feet above sea level on average with about a 25 foot variation.
Look at a map of North America, the sheer landmass that is Canada. They will become the agricultural overlords of the western hemisphere (and possibly beyond). My lettuce will be shipped in, as it is today. I doubt much of my lettuce actually comes from North Carolina, where most farms seem to be growing soybeans or tobacco today.
But if Raleigh becomes zone 9, it becomes feasible for me to grow semitropical fruits in my own yard. It's a tradeoff I can live with.
I do expect some other nasty things, though. Africanized bees gaining more of a stronghold, malaria, other insect-borne diseases. It will be a different world. But not necessarily a bad one (for those who are lucky enough to live in the right places).
Holland may very well become New Atlantis. That would suck. Hard. But Norway and Sweden could enjoy greater tourism throughout the year. The impact all depends on where in the world you are.
Regardless of why the earth is warming (either man-induced or a natural cycle of the earth), I welcome it with open arms.
Milder winters are going to open up trade routes through the arctic.
I will potentially be able to grow stuff in my garden that won't grow there today. My tomatoes may become perennials as they are in their native habitat. And I could do with some citrus trees in my yard.
If the ocean levels rise, landmass on the North American continent will shrink as populations rise. The equity in my real estate investments will grow at an unprecedented rate.
Living in Raleigh, I will be much closer to the coast than I am today.
OK yes this does mean I will have less buffer from hurricanes, and the hurricanes may be more frequent and more violent than is typical.
Inuit may lose their traditional way of life, but they are sitting on vast chunks of currently frozen land that will become desirable temperate areas that the yankees will pay good money to move to once they start experiencing the kind of weather that is more typical of the southeastern US.
It's not all doom and gloom, folks. There will be extensive collateral damages, whole species will be lost, but life has a way of moving on. And Homo sapiens is one of the most adaptable vertebrates on this planet, so I'm sure we'll find a way to thrive through this.
Sci-Fi channel has spent years pimping their friday night lineup. Then Friday night gradually became "Stargate Night" and they spread the rest of their shows around the week. When you take a show out of its stronghold timeslot and move it, especially to Sunday night when the big networks rule the ratings, you're going to lose viewers.
The story arcs got so complex, too, that it became increasingly hard to join the show as a new viewer. How do you just jump in midway into season 3 and feel a connection to these characters or understand the gravity of what is going on? Unless you've been on board since the pilot episode, it just isn't accessible. For those of us that have been following, that's great, but for others it is a real turn-off.
With shows like Star Trek, you had far less depth, but the story arcs generally wrapped up within the confines of an episode. Starting with DS9 the producers went to longer story arcs, messing with Roddenberry's formula, and it chased away more casual viewers (while probably appealing more to hardcore trekkies).
As much as I love BSG, rather than see it die I'd rather see a miniseries release 3x a year or so with much more fast-paced storylines and wrapping up introduced mysteries within the confines of the miniseries.
Sun Solaris is somewhat less free than OpenSolaris. You have to be a paying customer to get the patch clusters. Little things like this keep people firmly entrenched in Linux. Solaris may be technically superior in some aspects, but the way Sun has all these walls up makes it hard for a free software user to grow to love Solaris. I would argue that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is less free than Solaris, but at least with CentOS we can kick the tires effectively.
Circa the late 1980's through early 1990's there was a teacher at Sun Valley High School in Aston, PA (very close to the Conestoga school district spoken of in TFA) who had posed nude in Playboy magazine. She had Playboy logo items on her desk. There was nothing scandalous about this, though it was considered a bit titillating. It really didn't get in the way of the educational process.
This photograph is far less damning than a nude spread in an adult magazine. The girl in question is holding a cup that might be iced tea for all we know. She's dressed in a costume, as many teachers choose to do in school on Halloween. Even if the cup contained beer, there is absolutely nothing scandalous about this photograph.
Why is this nation descending further and further into such prudish and impossible standards? How can we cry out for more people to take up teaching while holding them to very high moral/behavioral standards and simultaneously paying them so poorly?
I'm an IT guy who has considered bailing out of this line of work to take up teaching. But I do enjoy beer, and I do get a little crazy at St Patty's Day and so on. Hell, I even like brewing my own beer from time to time. So maybe I should look into some other line of work since beer is evil and so is adult partying.
Slashdot Mirror
"now there might be some acount ablitiy for all the guns in the world !"
Accountable to whom?
That's the problem. It is always government that accounts for these things and what do you do when it is the government that is the enemy of the people instead of some foreign state?
It's easy to preach anti-gun rhetoric when you're living somewhere safe like western Europe. It's not so easy when you live somewhere like Venezuela living under despotic rule.
The Kalashnikov design is more of a common man's weapon. State budgets can afford better weapons these days. That said, a Kalashnikov is preferred by many to remove tyrants and despots. This is a far nobler cause than eating grass and singing anti-war songs thinking the world is somehow going to be a better place because of it.
"Firstly, the AK-47 itself is a derivative of the excellent German Sturmgewehr MP44, [...]"
This is a common myth but unfounded in reality. The Kalashnikov was certainly inspired by the STG44 but not derived. If anything were derived in Kalashnikov's design, it would be from prior Soviet art not German.
"So don't pay attention to the lawyers good people - if you find yourself slaving away 60+ hours a week to make other people rich whilst you can barely put food on your table - then by all means, get together with your comrades and build yourselves some AK47's. Anyone that denies you that basic right is a Capitalist oppressor and a Fascist invader of the Motherland."
If you live in the United States, you can actually build your own Kalashnikov legally, without any sort of background checks or serial numbers or anything like that. In most jurisdictions you don't have to register either. I prefer to buy mine at gun shows but I can see the allure of sticking it to the man and building your own. The tough part is you need a machine shop to work with the receiver flats properly so it's not something you're likely to do in your basement unless you happen to have a machine shop in your basement. There is quite a lot on the subject if you google it.
(Preamble: We are NOT talking about AK-47's here. There are very very few AK-47's on the planet, as production of them ceased many years ago... Kalashnikov's design has been used for about 60 years now and the new rifles based on his action are NOT "AK-47". "AK-47" refers to "Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947". My own favorite Kalashnikov in my collection is a Chinese MAK-90, not referred to as an AK-47 but easily recognizable as a Kalashnikov design.)
This is not a response to allofmp3.com or anything of the sort. Russia has been trying to lay claim to the ownership of the Kalashnikov design for years now, much to the chagrin of other former Soviet states who feel they have equal claim to the design.
Part of the problem is that Kalashnikovs are incredibly popular in the US gun community. Not full-auto machine guns as the press and the anti-gun lobby would have you believe, but semi-automatic rifles that only fire one bullet for each pull of the trigger. Anyway, Kalashnikovs are VERY cheap to manufacture and even the full auto variants frequently sell NEW for about $75 (USD) in other markets. In the US market, a cheap Romanian Kalashnikov will sell at a gun show for about $300 or more depending on how it is outfitted. With a Yugoslavian underfolding stock and a bayonet lug, it could be closer to $500. The Russians are furious because they cannot get in on the very healthy US firearms market. There is a ban on Russian firearms imports (China, too) that has got to be really frustrating for them. The Romanians are making a killing selling guns of Russian design on US soil. Big $$$! So when money changes hands this rigorously, anyone with even a tenuous interest is going to try very hard to get their hand in there somewhere for a payout.
"[...] an administration that disregards world opinion [...]"
There is actually nothing wrong with this. We do not live under a one world government, nor should we. Elected leaders are beholden only to their constituency.
THAT SAID, he disregards his own constituency as well. He even disregards the people that actually voted for him.
One of the basic tenets of geurilla warfare is to carry what your enemy carries. You're in the field for extended periods and don't get resupplied very often. You shoot and kill your enemy, take his ammo, take any other supplies that may be of use to you, and move on.
The AR15 is a fine weapon but in a desert environment, the high precision machining and tight clearances do require frequent maintenance lest the weapon jam at an inopportune moment. The Kalashnikov is a crude simple weapon with sloppy tolerances and is designed to thrive on neglect. They do wonderfully well in environments like this.
"Not only is a x54R ludicrously overpowered for the AK's operating mechanism [...]"
As a collector of Communist block weapons, including Kalashnikov designs and Mosin-Nagants, I have to actually disagree with this one point.
Kalashnikov's design is still in use today, chambered in 7.62x54R, in the form of the PSL (often mislabeled on the American firearms market as "Romanian Dragunov"... it's not really a Dragunov but it is Romanian).
The 7.62x39 is great for urban warfare but much beyond 300 meters it's sort of like throwing rice at your opponent. 7.62x54R on the other hand, unless you're using the milsurp machine gun rounds which are not terribly accurate, is a very capable full-powered long range round. I do agree with what you said all except the x54R not running in the Kalashnikov action, and I'm also very curious about what Mauser runs a x54R because I'm not aware of any Mauser that does (not to say that it doesn't... but it would be a new one on me)
Tell them you are going to transfer them but ask for their callback number in case of disconnection. Keep a list of these callback numbers.
When one of them calls, forward the call externally to the callback number of another.
Let them get a taste of their own medicine.
"If you could go back in time and talk to Americans in the Civil War era, the vast majority would agree that slavery was the central issue of the war."
That is not fact; that is pure conjecture.
You said:
"I keep hearing this from Lincoln bashers yet they never cite a source. Seriously, enough with the talking points and show where/when he said he was not interested in freeing the slaves."
You want a source? How about Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley where he says:
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.
But don't take my word for it; read the letter for yourself.
Before you mod me down, understand that history is won by the victors.
I would suggest that Abraham Lincoln is probably one of the templates for the current US administration. Suspension of habeus corpus, erosion of state and individual rights, unconstitutional increases of executive power, etc. If you look at US history, the tyrannical empire started well on its way under the Lincoln administration. He actually had no interest in freeing the slaves (he's on record as such) and only did so as a military strategy to try and weaken the south.
My only regret about Lincoln's assassination is that it didn't come years sooner.
OK now you can go ahead and mod me down.
...Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope!
If Montana weren't so fscking cold and remote I'd move there in a heartbeat. Gorgeous landscape, pristine outdoors, and a freedom loving people that is still unafraid to tell the federal government who is boss.
Stargate SG-1 has been a roller coaster. It's had some great seasons, some terrible seasons, and some where it is all over the place. I really think it has run its full course. It's kind of a shame because this season is actually picking up. But just when it gets good, Richard Dean Anderson comes back. I can suspend disbelief and assume that the US Air Force has an alien device at Cheyenne Mountain that allows them to travel to other worlds. I can suspend disbelief and accept that Daniel Jackson ascended and then descended to/from an ethereal plane of existence. But for the life of me, I can't accept Richard Dean Anderson as an Air Force General (or in the military at all for that matter). His character is a dunce and a goof. He's MacGuyver'd his way out of some tight spots but no high brass would look at him and say "that's two star General material right there".
Carter's technobabble also gets excessive at times. Reminds me of ST:TNG and how they would fill air time with technobabble when they couldn't come up with a compelling character-driven script.
Either you're from a blue state or you're from a land that doesn't recognize the natural right to keep and bear arms.
My home would be one of the most foolish homes to try and loot. Hanging a few dead looters from my mighty oak trees out front should be a good way to stave off future attempts.
This is a temporary shortcoming.
Who cares if trucks can't get through when soon cargo ships, holding hundreds of truckloads of goods at a time, will be able to navigate their way through to currently interior arctic ports (and beyond)?
Our local public television network produced a special episode of Exploring North Carolina that dealt specifically with what global warming will mean for my state. The waters will rise up through the Neuse basin, but will not consume Raleigh by any stretch.
250-300 feet is downtown. We're still in the piedmont of the state so the elevation deltas city wide are actually further apart than that. My own home is around 350-360 feet above sea level (GPS isn't much more precise than that). A large parcel of unimproved land that I own nearby is over 600 feet above sea level on average with about a 25 foot variation.
Look at a map of North America, the sheer landmass that is Canada. They will become the agricultural overlords of the western hemisphere (and possibly beyond). My lettuce will be shipped in, as it is today. I doubt much of my lettuce actually comes from North Carolina, where most farms seem to be growing soybeans or tobacco today.
But if Raleigh becomes zone 9, it becomes feasible for me to grow semitropical fruits in my own yard. It's a tradeoff I can live with.
I do expect some other nasty things, though. Africanized bees gaining more of a stronghold, malaria, other insect-borne diseases. It will be a different world. But not necessarily a bad one (for those who are lucky enough to live in the right places).
Holland may very well become New Atlantis. That would suck. Hard. But Norway and Sweden could enjoy greater tourism throughout the year. The impact all depends on where in the world you are.
Regardless of why the earth is warming (either man-induced or a natural cycle of the earth), I welcome it with open arms.
Milder winters are going to open up trade routes through the arctic.
I will potentially be able to grow stuff in my garden that won't grow there today. My tomatoes may become perennials as they are in their native habitat. And I could do with some citrus trees in my yard.
If the ocean levels rise, landmass on the North American continent will shrink as populations rise. The equity in my real estate investments will grow at an unprecedented rate.
Living in Raleigh, I will be much closer to the coast than I am today.
OK yes this does mean I will have less buffer from hurricanes, and the hurricanes may be more frequent and more violent than is typical.
Inuit may lose their traditional way of life, but they are sitting on vast chunks of currently frozen land that will become desirable temperate areas that the yankees will pay good money to move to once they start experiencing the kind of weather that is more typical of the southeastern US.
It's not all doom and gloom, folks. There will be extensive collateral damages, whole species will be lost, but life has a way of moving on. And Homo sapiens is one of the most adaptable vertebrates on this planet, so I'm sure we'll find a way to thrive through this.
Married With Children? Bad example. They ran it for ten years. And it did run out of steam at the end.
Sci-Fi channel has spent years pimping their friday night lineup. Then Friday night gradually became "Stargate Night" and they spread the rest of their shows around the week. When you take a show out of its stronghold timeslot and move it, especially to Sunday night when the big networks rule the ratings, you're going to lose viewers.
The story arcs got so complex, too, that it became increasingly hard to join the show as a new viewer. How do you just jump in midway into season 3 and feel a connection to these characters or understand the gravity of what is going on? Unless you've been on board since the pilot episode, it just isn't accessible. For those of us that have been following, that's great, but for others it is a real turn-off.
With shows like Star Trek, you had far less depth, but the story arcs generally wrapped up within the confines of an episode. Starting with DS9 the producers went to longer story arcs, messing with Roddenberry's formula, and it chased away more casual viewers (while probably appealing more to hardcore trekkies).
As much as I love BSG, rather than see it die I'd rather see a miniseries release 3x a year or so with much more fast-paced storylines and wrapping up introduced mysteries within the confines of the miniseries.
...to be brave enough to bring us cutting edge TV shows that we can't help but love.
And then kill them.
OpenSolaris != Solaris
Sun Solaris is somewhat less free than OpenSolaris. You have to be a paying customer to get the patch clusters. Little things like this keep people firmly entrenched in Linux. Solaris may be technically superior in some aspects, but the way Sun has all these walls up makes it hard for a free software user to grow to love Solaris. I would argue that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is less free than Solaris, but at least with CentOS we can kick the tires effectively.
Circa the late 1980's through early 1990's there was a teacher at Sun Valley High School in Aston, PA (very close to the Conestoga school district spoken of in TFA) who had posed nude in Playboy magazine. She had Playboy logo items on her desk. There was nothing scandalous about this, though it was considered a bit titillating. It really didn't get in the way of the educational process.
This photograph is far less damning than a nude spread in an adult magazine. The girl in question is holding a cup that might be iced tea for all we know. She's dressed in a costume, as many teachers choose to do in school on Halloween. Even if the cup contained beer, there is absolutely nothing scandalous about this photograph.
Why is this nation descending further and further into such prudish and impossible standards? How can we cry out for more people to take up teaching while holding them to very high moral/behavioral standards and simultaneously paying them so poorly?
I'm an IT guy who has considered bailing out of this line of work to take up teaching. But I do enjoy beer, and I do get a little crazy at St Patty's Day and so on. Hell, I even like brewing my own beer from time to time. So maybe I should look into some other line of work since beer is evil and so is adult partying.