Monday, November 30, 2009

I am the child who says, "Nu!"

This was a fairly perfect setup: On Thursday, at my parents with other cousins there, my 5-year-old son was walking in circles in the den saying, "Nu!" Mind you, he's never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so he didn't get the joke when I corrected him to say, "Ni!"

And by amazing coincidence, my high-school-aged nephew actually had the DVD in his laptop at the time, so my son got to see it. He was a bit bored during the credits, but enjoyed the movie afterwards. Now he keeps asking to see that movie "with the knights dancing on the table."

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Post-Thanksgiving shooting

We fot back early this morning from our Thanksgiving trip to see my parents. We aimed to arrive at 3AM, and we pulled in around 2:56. Not too shabby. (This target time was intended to minimize the amount of time we had to spend in the car while the kids were awake while also maximizing the amount of time they'd sleep once we got home.)

I went shooting this afternoon after my wife got up from her nap. Again, not too shabby. I started out pretty poor with an 82, but then shot an 89, 91, and 90-1x to end up with a 352-1X. On the second relay, I shot an 86, 89, 88-1X and 91 for a 354-1X. I'm definitely improving.

Of these 80 shots, 9 were outside the black (6's or 7's), 5 in the first relay and 4 in the second. Had I been able to bring those into the black, I would have shot a 357 and a 358. I'm obviously making progress at bringing those in, but it's frustrating to keep seeing them.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Pilgrims and private property

Ilya Somin over at the Volokh Conspiracy points out how private property saved the Pilgrims. I'd read this years ago in Tom Bethell's book The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages. It's too bad that people aren't being taught this fact in school.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tonight's shooting

Tonight's light rifle competition wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it was on par with how I've been doing.

Last week's shooting was excellent. My official score was a 352-1X, the first time I've broken 350 in competition. My previous best had been a 341. And this was with iron sights. I've since put a scope on this rifle, and, even though I've had more than the usual opportunity to shoot in the last week, I'm still a bit new to shooting scoped. I need a bit more practice to get comfortable with it.

Since I shot an earlier relay than usual, I had the chance to stick around to get my official score -- a 334. Not inconsistent with my performance so far, but I'm still trying to get consistently in the 340's.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

History

I'm reading Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism right now. It's a pretty interesting book, and not quite the "right wing nuttery" that I'd expected of it. No offenses to Mr. Goldberg, but a book whose cover consists of a smiley face with a Hitleresque moustache might be assumed to be not quite as academic as it's turning out to be. While it's by no means (and by the author's own admission) an academic tome, it's a bit more academic than expected.

But this isn't meant to be a review of the book. One of the themes of the book is that "progressives" tend to ignore their own history and have rewritten history so that Mussolini, Hitler, et al., are seen as being right-wing when most of their policies were progressive, i.e., left-wing, policies.

This theme reminded me of a quote from my father-in-law: If you can destroy the history of a people, you can destroy that people. He was referring to the Jews and the Middle East conflict (specifically with respect to certain countries who won't allow archaeological research into Biblical places.) This quote reminds me of this segment by Bill Whittle, in which he discusses (a bit indirectly) the attack on American history in an attempt to destroy it and, as a result, the American way of life. (I would argue that there is not an American people in the same way that there is a Jewish people. This country was founded on a philosophy, and I'd argue that anyone who buys into that philosophy is essentially American. Thus "way of life" rather than "people".)

This also ties into the books I've been reading by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., about how progressive educational ideals have been slowly weakening this country by removing content (such as American history) from primary education. I've seen some overlap in the names mentioned in both books (like John Dewey.) It's also a bit depressing to see Columbia University mentioned in Hirsch's books (specifically Columbia Teacher's College) and Whittle's commentary (as the temporary home of the Institute for Marxism, er, the Institute for Social Research, aka the Frankfurt School.) But then, I should hardly be surprised that a liberal northeastern university has played such a large part in the progressive movement.

This week's shooting

Wednesday morning, I had the chance to try out the new barrel on my 10/22. I'd like to say that it's a tack driver, but that would imply that I can shoot well enough to determine that. I shot the light rifle course of fire benchrest with it and shot a 384/400. Note that this was with a 4x scope, so it's entirely feasible I could have done better with a better scope. OTOH, it could just be me. (For comparison, the Master's-level shooters are shooting in the 380's in our club's light rifle competition. Standing.)

I did give it a try standing, and I shot an 89 and a 91. I didn't have time to shoot the whole course of fire, but I was pleased. (Again, for comparison, I've shot 91 a couple of times with my other 10/22 and its stock barrel.)

This week, I decided to replace the Tech Sights on my other 10/22 with a scope. So I'll be shooting that one scoped from now on.

I shot pretty well yesterday morning. I was under a time constraint, so I rushed my last few shots. Specifically, my last three shots were 7's. While it's certainly conceivable that those would have been 7's, anyway, it did lower my score to a 344. I was a bit disappointed that I could have shot anywhere from a 347 to a 350 if I hadn't dropped those three, but I'm still reasonably happy with the 344.

This morning's shooting went well, too. I shot the light rifle course twice, shooting a 342 the first time and a 346 the second time. I'm pretty pleased with how I'm doing, specifically that I'm consistently shooting in the 340's.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Light rifle -- woohoo!

I just got back from this week's light rifle match at my club. Woohoo! Best shooting I've done so far. I shot an 87 and an 83 on the first two targets, which would have had me shooting a 340. We swapped targets, and then I proceeded to shoot 89 on the remaining two targets, which puts me at 348. I scored on the conservative side, so it's entirely possible I scored as high as 350. I'll find out next week.

In any case, I'm pretty psyched. It's nice to see improvement.

Monday, November 16, 2009

SSAFU

Shooting schedule -- all fouled up.

I didn't get to go shooting this weekend. My wife's flight left late Saturday evening, so I would certainly have had time to go Saturday morning, but Friday evening, she had an accident that required some emergency dental work first thing Saturday morning.

I did get to go this morning, though, while my son was in school and my mother-in-law had the twins. Nothing to write home about (although apparently worth blogging ;-). A 329 and a 340-2x. The 340 actually could have been a bit better. I was on my way to shooting a high 80's or possibly a 90 on my first target. I was sitting at 80 after 9 shots, and my tenth shot went high. Non-scoring high. Guh. I lost focus from having shot so well on that target up to that point.

After I got home and ate lunch, a package arrived. I'd ordered a Butler Creek target barrel/stock combo for my other 10/22. The leaves needed raking, though, and then kids needed attention, so I didn't have the chance to play with things until after bedtime. The stock was a bit of a tight fit, but everything's assembled now. With luck, I'll be able to try it out Wednesday morning.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Home alone

Well, not actually home alone. Home alone for a week with the kids while my wife is visiting her sister far away.

Wish me luck.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Last night's shooting

It occurs to me that I'm not terribly creative when it comes to titles for my blog entries. This isn't the first one titled, "Last night's shooting."

Last night was Tuesday night, which means that it was my clubs weekly Light Rifle competition. I got two weeks' worth of results (I missed a week and shot a make-up.) A 339 and a 341-1X. I'm certainly doing better, up from my initial scores in the low 330's.

Last night's score was somewhere in the high 330's. I started off exceptionally well, with 87 or 88 on the first two targets (depending on how the official scoring goes.) I then hit a slump on the third target, somewhere around 80-81, and came back up a bit on the fourth target. We'll see how the official scoring goes.

The highlight of the night was the one target I shot two almost-perfect 10's on. The sight picture was perfect, the trigger pull was perfect, and I managed to do that twice consecutively. Now if only I could do that on every shot, I'd be a happy camper. I'd even settle for a 9 here and there.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Weekend shooting -- iron sights vs scope

I had a little extra time this morning, so I took along my scoped 10/22 (a 4X scope) to see how I could shoot with it vs. with iron sights. I'd previously commented on how I felt more comfortable with iron sights, but I hadn't really put it to a significant test before this morning. I shot the light rifle course twice on each.

I shot the scoped rifle first. I shot a few sighting rounds benchrest to zero the scope, but the first shots I fired offhand were for the record. My first target was a 79 -- about what I'd expected, thinking that I was going to be worse with a scope. I got better as I went, though, as I followed that up with an 83, an 89-1X and an 89-2X, for a 340-3x. The second course I shot scoped was an 81-1X, 85-2X, 90-2X and 90-1x, for a 346-6x. Certainly towards the top end of how I've been shooting lately.

Then I picked up old faithful, my iron-sighted 10/22. My first course was a 78, 91-1X, 80 and 83, for a 332-1X. The second course was a 82, 83-1X, 80-1X and 85, for a 330-2X.

So, this morning, I shot better with a scope than with iron sights. Even though this isn't enough data to say that I'm better with a scope than with iron sights, it's certainly enough to say that I can shoot at least as well with a scope. Perfectly logical, of course -- everything else is equal, I just need to adjust to a different sight picture.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Aperture sights

I've decided to give front aperture sights a try on my 10/22. Specifically this Lyman globe front target sight. I'm currently using a Tech-Sights TSR-200, which is an aperture rear sight combined with a post front sight. While I certainly don't expect to suddenly start shooting 400-40x's with these sights, at least it will be an interesting experience.

Gun safe

Gun safe's a-comin'. Back before the Great Gun Hiatus, I got by without a safe because I was single and lucky. Now that I'm a responsible homeowner with kids, and now that my post-Hiatus collection is getting big enough to warrant it, I've decided to get a safe. (A Liberty safe, if anyone's curious.)

I've ordered a model that holds up to 30 long guns. I can't imagine that I'll end up owning more than 30 long guns anytime soon. Of course, having said that, I'll probably be wishing soon that I'd gotten a bigger safe. I'd be hard-pressed to buy more than one a month, so it should last me for at least another couple of years.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Last night's shooting

So, last night was our weekly Light Rifle competition. I shot reasonably well, at least a 333, maybe as much as a 336, depending on how the official scoring goes. (I tend to score myself conservatively, so there's usually a 3-5 point between my self-scoring and the official version.) I'm still not breaking 340 in competition yet, but at least I'm being very consistent.

There were four of us on the line last night. I don't know what everyone else was shooting, but I think they were all shooting standard velocity fare. I was shooting CCI Mini-Mags, and I could definitely tell a difference in the sound. Compared to the polite from the guy beside me, mine was verging on a .

Can you hear me now?

Hey, all of you Democrats in Congress who want to shove socialized health care down our throats: the Republicans took Virginia and New Jersey last night. Are you sure you want to go into next year's elections having voted for something that people don't want?

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Give them spoons

I heard this anecdote many years ago, and it's stuck with me since then:

An economist was visiting China, and he saw a large number of men digging with shovels to build a dam. His host was very excited and remarked on how many men they were employing. The economist pointed out that a smaller number of men could more efficiently build the dam with the right equipment. "But then we wouldn't be employing the other men," his host replied. "Well, in that case, why not give them all spoons?"

I've seen this anecdote attributed to Milton Friedman, which certainly seems plausible.

Efficiency

Sometimes I'll notice a theme popping up in my life. One of the themes I've noticed recently is efficiency.

For example, I've been talking about how to exercise with my friend Mike the Mad Russian, specifically with respect to goals. I mentioned to him that I'd done 500 pushups one Saturday, and he said that it's pointless to do that, as you're just making your muscles more efficient at doing pushups. Evidently, you want to keep changing the exercises you do so that your muscles never get too efficient at doing what they do. Of course, that assumes that the goal of exercise is to burn calories, in which case you want to be doing things as inefficiently as possible. If you actually use your muscles (say if you're in the military or a professional athlete), you actually want your muscles to operate as efficiently as possible.

Another place I've seen the word used frequently is in Economics in One Lesson, which I've recently read. The word is used to describe the failings of protectionist trade policies or job creation programs. Most (if not all) government intervention in the economy leads to inefficient use of resources. Actually, the most "successful" job creation programs necessarily involve the least efficient use of resources, i.e., workers.

I've also been thinking a lot about efficiency with respect to education. It seems to me that one of the purposes of education is simply to increase the efficiency of the students' thought processes. Repetition and memorization in education serves the same purpose as the thousands of layups, free throws, fadeaway jumpers, etc., serves for the professional basketball player -- to become efficient at doing these things. (And note that I'm not saying that education should consist of nothing but repetition and memorization, any more than I would suggest that a basketball game should consist of nothing layups, free throws, and fadeaway jumpers. But they do server a purpose.)

And just to make sure this can still be considered a gun blog, I'll toss this in: And that's why I go shooting every weekend, so that I can become efficient at all of those little things that go into making a shot -- acquiring the sight picture, maintaining the sight picture, controlling my breathing, putting the minimal effort necessary into pulling the trigger, etc.

Watching the earth rotate

This morning, standing on the platform waiting for the train, I watched the earth rotate. The nearly-full moon was sitting on top of an electrical wire when I looked up and noticed it, and then I stood staring at it, watching the wire slowly creep up until it was bisecting the moon. The entire process took about 30 seconds or less.

(Okay, geek that I am, I need to give a better estimate of how long it took. The moon subtends an angle of about half a degree. It takes 12 hours to traverse 180 degrees (less than 12 hours at this time of year, but also less than 180 degrees. And anyway, that traversal rate is going to be constant, I think, so we can safely use those numbers. And if I'm wrong, it's close enough.) So that's four minutes to traverse one degree. I watched the wire go from touching to bisecting the moon, so that's a quarter of a degree, so about one minute. A little longer than I'd estimated.)

Voting

I went to vote a little after 6AM, just after the polls opened. I commute to New York by train, so I voted early in order to still make a decent train. I also have my weekly light rifle competition tonight, so I didn't want to worry about timing in the evening.

As it turns out, I was voter number 6 in my district.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Cows and sheeps and pigs, oh my!

I ran across this blog entry today about schoolkids from Harlem being taken to a farm to get an exposure to rural life, including looking at sheep, cows, and other farm animals. What's interesting is that the New York Times reporter spins it as an attempt to raise test scores. Here's a quote:

New York State’s English and math exams include several questions each year about livestock, crops and the other staples of the rural experience that some educators say flummox city children, whose knowledge of nature might begin and end at Central Park. On the state English test this year, for instance, third graders were asked questions relating to chickens and eggs. In math, they had to count sheep and horses.


As the blog points out, this is all well and good if it's part of a commitment to broadening students' horizons, but as a one-day gimmick, it's probably fairly pointless.

To go slightly off-track, this reminds me of something I ran across many years ago that I just didn't understand. The nickname other cyclists had given to Bernard Hinault was "the badger" because of his exceeding competitiveness. I didn't really get it. Couldn't they have nicknamed him after a more suitable animal? I only learned later that badgers are pretty vicious little animals that you wouldn't want to get in a fight with. My lack of cultural education was getting in my way.

Airplane reading

I managed to finish two books (and start a third) on the plane to and from Germany. (While I was a pretty voracious reader when I was younger, I've been finding it a bit hard to find the time to read in the last few years. Well, read books that is. I read plenty of stuff online.)

(Note for the FTC: I bought the damn books myself. Now stay out of my f*cking business.)

The first was Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. While this is a classic text, I'd have to say the title is a bit misleading. It's a series of discussions on different public policies and how they really don't have the effect that people would like them to have. I'd definitely suggest this book for anyone who wants insight into why pretty much all of the economic policies of our current (and most of our past) administrations is, at best, misguided. (I also have Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy on my bookshelf waiting to be read. I'm a bit embarassed to discover (thank you Amazon for telling me this) that I ordered this book on February 28, 2002. Apparently there's a 3rd edition of the book out already. I had no idea there was even a 2nd.)

The second book I finished was The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., the author of Cultural Literacy. Again, another book I'd strongly recommend.

Hirsch is an educational reformer who's been pushing content-based schooling for many years, i.e., let's teach kids history, geography, etc., from an early age rather than simply guiding them in discovering the world on their own. He discusses some of the history of schooling in America, the philosophies of the founders of this country with respect to education, how education has changed in the 20th century and how that change has had an adverse effect on the performance of American students. He discusses the methods used to teach in our current "progressive" educational system and how these methods are actually harmful. (He does so with data, not just anecdotes, which the current educational establishment can't actually provide to support their argument. Apparently, even though they've been working at it for seventy-some years, all the failure has been because nobody has yet been able to correctly implement the necessary methods. Reminds me of the arguments about socialism -- it hasn't worked yet because nobody's gone far enough in implementing socialism yet. As if the hundred million or so dead hasn't been going far enough. But I digress.)

He's a strong believer in equal opportunity, and he believes that giving every child the necessary tools to succeed, or at least to have a chance of succeeding, is an essential part of that opportunity. One of the arguments he makes is that the social equality gap has been growing because of all of these progressive educational methods. Essentially, children in middle-class-and-above families are getting the content they need to do well at home, but children lower-economic-class homes are missing out on that enrichment. Schools aren't providing that content, so the former group manages to do okay while the latter group falls farther behind.

What's interesting is that Hirch is a liberal, but his ideas have mostly been accepted by conservatives (and subsequently earned him scorn from liberals because of the association.) It's an interesting paradox that I'd argue isn't a paradox at all. But maybe I'll save that thought for later.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Weekend shooting

This weekend's shooting wasn't the most rewarding. Not horrible, but certainly not the best I've done recently.

Saturday morning I shot a 340-3X and a 338-5X. Certainly respectable, and better than I've been doing in real competition so far. Not to mention that that 5X is impressive, given that I didn't break 340. But the 5X also hints at how poorly I performed on the other 35 shots. (Actually 33 shots, 'cause I had 2 10's that weren't X's.) 8 of those 33 were 7's, and one was a 6, for a total of 77.5% in the black. Had I managed to get those 9 shots in the black, I would have scored a 348-5X and been spectacularly happy.

(And to be complete, I shot 7 7's on the 340, for an 82.5%.)

This morning's shooting was pretty abysmal, a 318 and a 335. I'd like to be able to blame it on the ammo (I'd forgotten to throw in another box of "good" ammo after yesterday's shooting, so I shot the first string using some "not-so-good" ammo that I happened to have with me), but I know the ammo wasn't the problem. In fact, I know exactly what word was in my head when I pulled the trigger on the shot I dropped -- "cluster". I wasn't focused, and my score shows it.

There's at least some good news from my visit to the club. The guy running our club's Light Rifle match had posted the running score sheet, and I appear to be at the head of the group of people ranked as Marksman. I'm in no danger of being pushed into Sharpshooter anytime soon with these scores (I'd need to be consistently shooting above 350), but it's nice to see I'm doing well.