Overpaid celebrities

Yeah, I found it pretty ironic, too, that a bunch of people making more than the average insurance company executive were calling them greedy.

Cert granted in McDonald v. City of Chicago

I'm certainly not the first to report it, but the Supreme Court has decided to take the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago. The canonical link for news about the case is probably this one.

I've made a donation to the Second Amendment Foundation in honor of the occasion.

What Whoopi said

You know, it's not the "It wasn't rape-rape" comment that bothers me. It's that she goes on to rationalize that other societies don't see things the same way we do, the implication being that it would be okay for him to drug and rape a 13-year-old girl in other societies. Even worse, the subtext being that those societies are better than ours.

Yes, Whoopi, and in some societies "female circumcision" is considered perfectly normal. And in some societies, it's a well-known cure for AIDS to rape a young virgin. Since you're so concerned about people with AIDS, why don't you suggest that they all go rape young virgins. It certainly wouldn't be a horrible violation of these young girls, 'cause other societies don't see things the same way we do.

More illegal daycares and ignorance of the law

Of course, this is the kind of thing I'd expect in England.

The thing that gets me is about the article is this quote:

“I was just shocked – I thought they were a bit confused about the arrangement between us. So I invited her in and told her situation – the arrangement between Lucy and I – and I was shocked when she told me I was breaking the law.”

I used to have some respect for that phrase, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Cases like this one, however, make it impossible to hold to that philosophy. "I didn't know it was wrong to steal a car," is one thing. "I didn't know it was legal to watch my neighbor's kid for an hour and 59 minutes but not for two solid hours," is another thing entirely.

Which reminds me of the other illegal daycare ring my mother and a number of other women ran. One of the group of five or so women would give up a day every so often to watch the whole group of kids, and the others would get the day off. Of course, they just considered it to be something of a babysitting co-op. Hell, if they did it now, they'd probably get hit with RICO charges.

Iron sights vs. scopes

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to do some shooting (because I was already taking the day off for other reasons.) I decided to take my other 10/22 out. This is the one I put a scope on. I'd had it out to sight in the scope, but I hadn't had it out since installing a Power Custom hammer/sear combination. Also, since one of the reasons in building a scoped 10/22 was to see how it compares to iron sights (Tech Sights, specifically), and since I've mostly been shooting the iron-sighted one, I wanted to see how I'd do with a scope.

My shooting was pretty bad. I'm sure this is mostly because I've been focusing on the iron sights, but I just couldn't seem to get good shots with the scope. Shooting benchrest, sure, I was doing fine. Standing, though, it seemed like I was far less steady with the scope than with iron sights. This may have been purely psychological, though, because I could see the target much better, and that may have changed my expectations on how well I should have been able to shoot. And, of course, it was hardly a scientific comparison. I wasn't shooting at the same time of day, this was the first time shooting standing with this rifle, etc.

Good shooting

I found out this week that my source of information about the NRA marksmanship qualification for light rifle was outdated. The target that's meant to be used is actually the A-17 target, not the A-32 target. The A-17 target has a bullseye about half the diameter of the bull on the A-32 target. Those 80's I'd been shooting on the A-32 essentially translated into 40's on the A-17. It's comforting to know that this wasn't going to be as easy as I'd thought. And seeing that it's a good bit harder means that I'll have some hard work in front of me, and hard work is good for the soul.

So, given that, I started shooting using the A-17 target this weekend. Well, I'd been shooting using this target for a couple of months, but not for this marksmanship qualification thing, just for my own edification. Saturday morning's shooting wasn't too bad. Aiming to break 40, I shot 40, 52, 35 (ouch), 53, 60, and 55. It was nice to see that I could break 50, and I was ecstatic about the 60. Sunday morning was even better. Aiming for 50 and above, I shot 56, 64, 50, 50, 62, 82. I was pretty frigging ecstatic about the 82, especially as I had two 10's on my last bull. It give me hope that, once I can get the focus down, I'll be able to shoot 80's consistently.
I went to the range both mornings this weekend, as usual.

My mother ran an illegal daycare

I remember the kids of a neighbor coming over to our house to wait for the bus because their parents had to leave earlier than that to get to work on time. I don't remember my mother getting in trouble for it.

Apparently, if I were to do the same now, I'd be running an illegal day care facility. Gotta love that nanny state.