A Confederacy of Dickheads

A question: why is a rifled slug gun a shotgun, not a rifle?

The reason Napoleonic tactics turned Civil War battlefields into savage killing grounds was rifling. The barrels of muskets were grooved on the inside to approximately one turn in seven lengths. Bullets were ever so slightly larger than the bore (interior diameter), and were compressed by the barrel, filling the grooves, imparting rotation, spin. Spin increased trajectory and velocity hugely, making lethal an armament with a range of tens of feet into a source of hell for two hundred and more yards.

In Indiana, modern rifles are not permitted for hunting big game (read: deer - go figure). One reason is bullets maintain lethal energy for over a mile, and our typical field of vision is much smaller.

Hunting is limited to black powder arms, large-caliber pistols, and shotguns. Whence evokes my question. Shotguns, "smoothbores", lack rifling because there is no way to compress shot, a bit larger than a BB to much smaller. In fact, popular belief is shot will "destroy" rifling.

Slugs were developed as an option to traditional "buckshot". A solid "bullet", in the large bore of a shotgun, has a lethal range out to about 40 yards (my best guess).

Then came rifling for "slug" guns, and these huge missiles were deadly to 100 yards, and beyond.

So why aren't they "rifles"? They certainly meet the principal criterion.

Horse racing is no longer a popular sport.

It is under attack by moralists (most of whom are despicable) and human rights activists (most of whom mean well).

There is scads of room for improvement in every aspect of our treatment of animals.

All of them.

Everywhere.

In fact, animals are in many ways smarter than we are. For one, their language lacks loose tongues, which means they don't waste large chunks of life apologizing for dumb shit they said.

Another, huge, difference is they are totally in tune with their surroundings, their environment.

Animals adapt to environments. If there isn't enough food, they move on. Or limit litter size to compensate.

Whereas we use everything up. Denude, despoil, take, take, take, until it's gone.

Our insatiable apatite for "stuff" has picked the oceans nearly clean, denuded thousands of square miles of rainforests, stripped away mountains in a lust for cheap energy.

We have made extinct the mammoth, the dodo, the passenger pigeon, and a host of other, lesser-known species.

Can you imagine a pride of lions running to ground the last wildebeest, the last zebra?

Of course not.

Our fascination with that flaming turd, the bible, has reaped living hell on animals of every size and stripe.

That "Dominion" bullshit has been the terminus of species, and will surely be the end of us.

People in the horse racing business are taken to task for their treatment of horses as a commodity, to be used, abused, and discarded after racing.

There are many exceptions, but they tend to be high-profile, and don't usually include the majority in the sport, who never see Churchill Downs, Saratoga, or Del-Mar.

There are tens of thousands paid to play baseball: only a few ever join the few hundreds at the

MLB level.

So horse racing.

Ferdinand, the winner of the 1986 Kentucky Derby and the 1987 Horse of the Year, went to stud in Japan. In 2003 it was learned he was slaughtered for food.

Okay, this sickens me.

Who the fuck needs to eat a horse?

I don't object to a source of protein being provided to those in need.

But horsemeat isn't. It is used in dog and cat foods, and in countries where it is on the menu (Japan, and for one other, Belgium) it is more expensive than typical domestic fare.

And the plight of hundreds and thousands of cattle and hogs, and millions (25 million chickens per day, commonly cited) is not taken lightly.

But, one distinction: a horse's use to man isn't as food. It is only after whatever use seen fit (racer, companion, showman) that horses are slaughtered.

Again, sickening.

In 2008, after years in court, horse slaughter was ended in the US. 2 plants in Texas were closed (by the TX Attorney General, citing law already on the books), and one in Dekalb, IL.

The Illinois case was interesting. The people approved the cessation of horse slaughter in a ballot referendum, the State Legislature approved the law, the governor signed it, and the fucking courts still kept the goddam place open for another two years.

The latest nutpunch was that kill buyers were frequenting BLM wild horse and burro auctions, then trucking our national heritage, our wild horses, to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico. By Federal Law, wild horses belong to us.

Montana and North Dakota have bills in State Government to open horse slaughterhouses.

I wish the most terrible and catastrophic calamity on anyone who supports this barbarism.

My Hero - Watanya Cicilia, Little Sure-Shot

There are two photographs on my walls that are not of family members.

There is a picture of Brownsburg's Amy Brauman, driving past Dana Craighton of Warsaw in the semi-final game in the 1991 Girls State Basketball Championship.

Then, only four teams contested the championship. The photograph was from the Brownsburg newspaper, a print purchased from the paper's photographer. The photo was signed by Amy at the Top 40 workout at Marian College. It is framed with an unused ticket from the game. I have made some effort to get the picture to the family, without success.

Amy became special at the Southport Regionals the previous Saturday. During a timeout in the first quarter after a devastating run by Terre Haute South, she threw a spent tissue into the chest of another player, and the team cracked up. And loosened up, and played well. And won.

That is the meaning of "intangible".

The other photograph is of Annie Oakley. Born Phoebe Ann Moses in 1860 in Darke County, Ohio, adjacent Indiana, she had a ruthless childhood. Her father died in her earliest years. She shot a squirrel when she was eight, and became a market hunter, supplying groceries and restaurants, soon after. In addition to feeding her family, she helped feed the better-heeled by shooting, for instance, quail on the wing. With a .22.

There are many, including myself, who can't shoot flying quail with a shotgun.

It wasn't enough. At about age 12, Phoebe Ann was indentured to a wealthy family. She ran away, and was returned. She finally escaped at about age 14. She referred to the family as "The Wolves", and forever refused to talk of the abuse, which was most likely extensive.

She continued to shoot, and shoot well. At that time, shooting exhibitions and matches were extremely popular, and Phoebe Ann was unbeatable. At age 15, she trounced Frank Butler, an itinerant champion. Butler was smitten, and they later wed.

She got a spot in Buffalo Bill Cody's "Wild West Show", and became comparatively wealthy, comparatively in the sense she had no vices, was charitable, and didn't waste money.

She led an exemplary life.

At some point the Chicago Tribune published an article accusing (now) Annie Oakley of cocaine addiction. How this was accorded credence with a feat of breaking 943 glass balls (a common target of the day) with only a 1000 .22 shots is unbelievable. But the press was all-powerful, and it took years for her to clear up another sordid episode.

There has been criticism, then and now, that, given her position as one of the most famous women in the world, she did nothing to advance women's causes.

I know women, brilliant and learned, accomplished and successful, who are not political. Including women who have pushed through the "glass ceiling".

One reason is that, by an overwhelming preponderance, women's issues are inextricably linked with the right to abort pregnancy.

A 2010 Gallup poll indiates that, in the US, about 40% favor abortion on demand, another 40% feel abortion should be reserved on for special cases, and 20% are outright opposed. But the minority is most vocal, even maniacal, often rabid, too often violent, in their opposition.

The right to abort an unwanted pregnancy was found constitutionally sound by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (1973), a decision constantly assailed.

Let me be clear: no man has a dog in this fight. Not one. Not the pope, not a husband, or a boyfriend. If you can't be impregnated, shut the fuck up.

Same with bluehairs. If you can't get pregnant, shut up.

Which should quiet most of those 20%.

Right.

The idea that a zygote is "viable" is absurd.

Here's a "viability" test. If an aborted fetus can exist without artificial support for 24 hours, then place it with someone sporting an "Abortion Stops a Beating Heart" sticker plastered on the bumper.

I'm afraid to guess how many lives are ruined by unwanted children. And the fact is, the blame falls squarely on the mother. "Single mothers on welfare" have long been targets for alleged moralists. What chances for the mother? For the children?

Nothing about birds.

Being smarter than most of us (including me), the cold weather has pushed them south.

No raptors. Only lazy birds, and town birds, are still about.

Who Do Voodoo?

Sam Harris is the author of, among others, The End of Faith, a most eloquent examination of the crisis between faith-based and rational belief.
Recently he posted an interesting circle graph representing the overlap of terms used to describe three groups - Christians, Muslims, and Atheists.
To (try to) explain: the phrase "Why are Christians so", was entered into the Google search and the results from all three were collated and presented as overlapping circles, the "overlap" representing two or three shared terms.
Here are terms used for atheists: stupid, angry, intolerant, arrogant, hateful, mean, rude.
I've always been arrogant. As arrogant as someone with a self-esteem rating of 0.00 can be.
As in not very.
Intolerant - bullshit.
Rude - never.
Mean - yeah.
Hateful - never. Okay for groups, but not individuals, even in those groups.

Which leaves angry.
Angry with child beaters, wife beaters, adulterers, insurance scammers, and tax cheats telling me I'm going to hell?
Absolutely.
If child molesters, rapists, pornographers, slavers, sodomites (as in bestiality), and hypocrites are made in the image and likeness of god, I pick hell.
Bush (41) said atheists were not citizens, not patriots.
In that spirit, here is a site to tell you how to report them (me) to the FBI:

www.landoverbaptist.org/news0503/atheists.html

Even if you don't wish to report me, visit anyway. Surely you can use "5 ways to recognize an atheist." Yes, too, too can tell a book by its cover. Pay special attention to "Atheist have too many college diplomas. "