OK, The Date is Set – BUMPED ONE LAST TIME

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The Central Arizona Blogshoot will be Sunday, January 29 at the Elsy Pearson public shooting range just off Trekell Road and I-8, just West of I-10. The range opens at 7:00AM. There are no rangenazis rangemasters. There are no chairs – bring something to sit on. The firing line is covered and there are concrete shooting benches, however.

And the city has porta-potties out there on a permanent basis now, so we don’t have to rent our own (but bring your own TP just in case.)

The rules are pretty simple:

No explosives, no .50BMG rifles, clean up after yourself, don’t be a dick.

ETA: In comments, ExurbanKevin advises:

A coupla item of note: The ground there is reinforced concrete disguised as sun-baked clay/ Fugetabout any target stand that needs to stuck into the ground, it ain’t happenin’. Steel and targets that don’t need taping are best. And the benches are funky-shaped. Regular camping chairs are marginal, stools are better.

Yup. I bring folding chairs, I have a 2″ PVC target stand, and a half-dozen steel swinger targets. End edit.

I plan on being there when the range opens. We’ll shoot until noon or 1 o’clock, then pack up and have lunch. I can’t remember the name of the place we went last year, but there’s a fairly well-ranked restaurant just up the road called the Creative Café, or we can bring grills and meat and bread and chips and tailgate it right there at the range, or others can suggest someplace else to eat in the comments. I’m open.

BUMPED: OK, looks like about 13 of us say we’re going, and the vote is 10-4 in favor of tailgating it at the range for lunch. I can live with that.  Anybody else?  The more the merrier!

Final bump.  I recommend you bring:  water or other non-alcoholic beverages (no alcohol on the range), sunscreen, ear & eye protection, (ladies, don’t wear anything low-cut or open-necked.  Yes, I’m sure it looks lovely, but you don’t want to catch hot brass down in there), something to SIT ON (folding chairs recommended, but a 5 gallon bucket upended will work in a pinch), something to eat (enough to share would be nice, but not necessary), a roll of TP just in case the porta-potties are low.  OPTIONAL:  Something to shoot with, and something to shoot AT.  I imagine most of us will be bringing multiple firearms and lots of ammo, but if you don’t, well, I’m willing to let people shoot my stuff (with my ammo), and I’m willing to let them shoot at my targets.  We gunnies are generous that way.

If you’re a reader or a non-gun blogger interested in coming to a off-the-cuff funshoot, please come on down!  Hope to see you there!

Quote of the Day

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For years, cellphone makers had avoided using glass because it required precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve. Apple had already selected an American company, Corning Inc., to manufacture large panes of strengthened glass. But figuring out how to cut those panes into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant, hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of midlevel engineers. It would cost a fortune simply to prepare.

Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.
When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.
The Chinese plant got the job.
“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive.
“You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”
An eight-hour drive from that glass factory is a complex, known informally as Foxconn City, where the iPhone is assembled. To Apple executives, Foxconn City was further evidence that China could deliver workers — and diligence — that outpaced their American counterparts.
That’s because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States.
The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn’s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. “The scale is unimaginable,” he said.

That’s not QotD, though I strongly recommend you RTWT. I quoted that so I could quote you this, from an AR15.com thread, “What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard a professor say?”:

Yesterday, I had a professor who was born and raised in China try to give a lecture about how offshoring hurts China. Yeah, you read that right, American offshoring hurts China.

He went through a power point presentation showing environmental problems (dead fish in streams, sand storms, etc.), and I just sat there. He held up a dry-erasable marker and said “Chinese workers only make 100-200 dollars per month making things like these.” He kept emphasizing how little they made and how hard they worked.

I couldn’t take it any longer. I respectfully raised my hand and asked “how much were these workers making before offshoring was prominent?”

You want your iPhone, iPad, Macbook AirJordans and $7 quilted winter coats? Offshoring is the cost.

Discuss.

But I Want a PHASER!

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Via email from my brother, it looks like the predictions of the Star Trek series keep coming true:

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf

Yup, transparent aluminum. Well, an aluminum-based ceramic anyway – aluminium oxynitride. It’s been in development for a while, but now they’ve figured out how to produce it in significant quantity.

And, since this IS a gun blog, ballistic transparent aluminum:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnUszxx2pYc?rel=0]

SOPA – Too Little, Too Late

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In the fine TSM tradition of using Other People’s Words when they say it better than I can, I quote Larry Correia quoting co-author Mike Kupari on the recent legislative setback of the SOPA bill by an uprising of netizens:

You didn’t care when the government decided it could spy on you without a warrant. You didn’t care when they started telling you what you could eat. You didn’t care when your kids’ education was turned into indoctrination. You didn’t care when they were more worried about military veterans than Islamic terrorists. You didn’t care when they spent so much money that our entire economic system may collapse. You didn’t care when they gave billions of your money to unions and corporations that were their political contributors. You didn’t care when inert cosmetic features on guns were felonies. You didn’t care when they made it a fucking crime to not have government approved health insurance.

All of these things were done in your name. On your behalf. To help you, protect you, take care of you. Each time you gave them more power and gave away more of your freedom. Each time you believed them when they said they were protecting you, or helping the less fortunate, or sticking it to “the rich” who “aren’t paying their fair share”.

Each time you applauded their efforts. Mocked those that were concerned. Called them uncaring or racist or alarmist or stupid. Each time you asked for more. You begged them to take care of you, protect you, right wrongs, enforce equality.

But now that your Internet porn and bit torrents are threatened, NOW you care?

It’s too late for all that, kids. Turning off Wikipedia for a couple days isn’t going to win back the freedoms we’ve pissed away. It isn’t going to undo decades of expanding government power. They’ve already decided there’s nothing they can’t do, no law they can’t pass.

We watched it happen. We let it happen. We have the country we deserve.

So go ahead, post a rant about SOPA on your blog. Link to Ron Paul’s web page. Pretend you’re doing something. It’ll make you feel better. Then you will go back to business as usual and so will they.

Democracy in action. Isn’t it beautiful?

Can I get an “AMEN!”?

Edited to add this found at Tam’s:

Quote of the Day – Don’t Confuse ‘Em With Facts Edition

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So let me get this right. The Canadian Oil is supposedly worse for the environment, so stopping this pipeline will help the planet.

So instead of moving the oil in a safe way and be processed in US refineries operating under EPA regulations, the oil will now be transported across the Canadian Rockies where it will be loaded onto giant tankers and shipped across the Pacific where it will be refined in Chinese operations that have far fewer, if any, regulations in place.

Please let me know how the Chinese alternative is better for the Earth. Because no matter what, this Canadian oil is going to be sold.

Paul Strasser

The Killer Must’ve Been a Tea-Partier Opposed to Obamacare

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ABC reports:

Iranian Student Activist Shot to Death in Texas

A Texas medical student well-known in her community as an Iranian activist was mysteriously shot and killed in her car, just yards from her home

Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30, was driving through her Houston townhouse complex around midnight on Monday when she was shot dead through her car window.

“When officers arrived, they found a vehicle had run into a garage door at that location with the engine running and tires spinning on the pavement. Ms. Bagherzadeh was found slumped over in the driver’s seat,” the Houston Police Department said in a statement.

Authorities said nothing appeared to have been stolen from her car. Her cell phone and purse were found inside.

“Homicide investigators responded to the scene and were told by witnesses that several gunshots were heard, a crash and then tires squealing,” the statement said.

Police told ABC News’ Houston affiliate KTRK that the last person to speak to Bagherzadeh was her close friend and ex-boyfriend who was on the phone with her when she was shot.

“[The boyfriend] heard a loud thud. He doesn’t recall hearing any gunshots, but a loud thud and then a screeching noise,” Richard Bolton of the Houston Police Department Homicide unit told KTRK.

Bagherzadeh was of Iranian descent and was outspoken in promoting Iranian women’s rights and criticizing the Iranian government, according to interviews she had done with the Houston Chronicle.

I’m sure the police are looking for a middle-aged white guy as the prime suspect.