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Monday, January 5. 2015

Why are we so obsessed with plane crashes?

Our old friend Tigerhawk is now a contributing writer at Conservative Wahoo

Edward
Brooke, The Former Massachusetts Republican Who Was The First Black
Person Elected To the U.S. Senate Since Reconstruction, Died Saturday

Markets in everything, spas for seven year olds

2014: The Year of Peak Stupidity

"You see, Elly, I raised you like a boy, and I was wrong to do it."

Here's the main problem with feminism. Bat shit crazy broads

Home Schooling: More Pupils, Less Regulation

Klavan: we will have to offend people. A lot of people. A lot of the time.

Markets in everything, spas for seven year olds

Gun Trouble - The rifle that today's infantry uses is little changed since the 1960s—and it is badly flawed. Military lives depend on these cheap composites of metal and plastic. So why can't the richest country in the world give its soldiers better ones?

Listening to Dr. King, I wonder what happened to us

How Sharpton gets paid to not cry ‘racism’ at corporations

What’s your top priority in 2016? Let this poll help you pick! We’ve got 99 problems, and we can’t run on all of ‘em.

Government is the Country's Biggest Problem, Say Americans

Government Orders Wage Hikes in 20 States

"...imagine if at some point from late 2001 through the end of 2008, a troop of American soldiers turned their backs on George W. Bush during a speech*, they’d be praised as brave dissent demonstrators, and possibly “Salon’s People of the Year.”"

Cause of Pause in Global Warming

Snow in Palermo, Sicily

Kim Jong Un: Slavetrader - North Korea is actually a vast slave labor plantation and human trafficking operation run for the profit and hedonistic pleasure of its morally degenerate rulers.

India's Government Will Now 'Check and Verify the Use of Toilets' - It's an unprecedented plan aimed at eliminating open defecation across the country. Could it work?

France Joins the Supply Side: Paul Krugman Hardest Hit

Mental patients, screaming "Allahu Akbar," are storming France.

Egypt’s al-Sisi Makes Extraordinary Speech on Islam

Maoists in China, Given New Life, Attack Dissent

In instructions published last week, Mr. Xi urged universities to “enhance guidance over thinking and keep a tight grip on leading ideological work in higher education,” Xinhua, the official news agency, reported.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:02 | Comments (25) | Trackbacks (0)

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Gun Trouble - read the thousand or so comments (complete with name calling) and you'll start to understand why we can't move on from our obsolete rifles.

The author is right, we spend hundreds of billions on the F35, but arm our troops with Vietnam era crap.

#1 NJSoldier on 2015-01-05 07:56 (Reply)

Gun trouble, not. The Weapons Man seriously, and factually, disagrees. The Big Lie About Wanat: http://weaponsman.com/?p=20047
Who else reading Maggies Farm know what caused the problems with the M-16 early in Vietnam? A firearm that is "crap" does not have the longest service of any US rifle, does it then?
Facts are important.

#2 Kerry (Link) on 2015-01-05 08:03 (Reply)

Uh, yes it does.

Before I went to Desert Shield, I tried to draw an M14 out of the armory but they were already gone. The M16A2s were terrible in the sand.

#2.1 NJSoldier on 2015-01-05 09:33 (Reply)

A Sgt. at one of my pistol requalifying sessions told us the AK-47 was supposed to be the most reliable weapons in the world (at the expense of accuracy) and maintainable by most anyone in the world. He only ran into one that malfunctioned--when the guy holding it shot at him.

#2.1.1 Sam L. on 2015-01-05 14:05 (Reply)

The things that make the AR-15 rifles better target rifles are the same things that make them more problematic as battle rifles. It's a good rifle but we probably should have gone to the FN FAL rather than stuck with the AR-15 variants.

#2.2 mudbug on 2015-01-05 11:35 (Reply)

I think the FAL was in the same trial as the M14. All good rifles and a close decision.

Because of the crazy way the M16 was adapted during Vietnam, we never had a real test of competing calibers. Over and over it has been shown that around 6.5mm is the sweet spot for a medium powered military round. But we keep screwing it up.

The Swede 6.5mm Mauser has been a favorite of shooters forever. MacArthur killed the 10-round .276 Peterson M1 and forced them to build it in .30-06. After WWII we rejected the British 6.5mm in favor of .308, then adopted a survival rifle in 5.56 with zero testing. Just a comedy of errors.

We need to bite the bullet (literally) and test new calibers like the 6.5 Grendel. Then test competing rifles in the winning caliber.

#2.2.1 NJSoldier on 2015-01-05 13:12 (Reply)

I qualified with the M 14 at Ft Bliss with the rifle ranges out in the White Sands Area. The M=14 was terrible in a sand environment. They had 55 gallon barrels of kerosene that we had to dip the M 14's in when they jammed. Then you placed the butt of the rifle on the sandy ground and used your foot to hit the ejection lever to get the jam freed. What a fooking mess it all was and anytime it was windy and blowing sand the DI's had the barrels opened and on the firing line. Didn't miss that damn place one bit after getting out of basic. Any rifle with close tolerances WILL jam when in a sand environment. Around the Phan Thiet area there was a lot of sand and we encountered the same problem with M 16's.

#2.2.1.1 indyjonesouthere on 2015-01-05 14:02 (Reply)

I've heard that switching from CLP and petroleum based oils to synthetic oils will reduce the sand and dust problems.

#2.2.1.1.1 NJSoldier on 2015-01-05 15:29 (Reply)

Re Brooke:

The MA dems put him into the Senate (he was never seriously opposed) to get him out of the MA AG office--he had put many leading Dems, including Speaker of the General Assembly in jail.

#3 bob sykes on 2015-01-05 08:04 (Reply)

Americans think Government is the Biggest Problem/ maybe not just Americans:

I think Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, nailed it when he wrote, “ To a greater or lesser extent, the story of this Euro-election has been the rise of the minor parties – some of them bizarre, some of them downright potty, but all of them united by a visceral dislike of the EU bureaucracy:... its arrogance, ...its remoteness,... its expense,... its endless condescension and... its manic and messianic belief in its right to legislate for all 500 million people in the EU.”

#4 Exasperated on 2015-01-05 08:11 (Reply)

Re: Supply side french and Krugman

Look for Krugman (if he says anything about it) to explain that the French made a mistake in their implementation of their super tax on the wealthy and that if he were in charge, he would have been able to do it right. The arrogance of the left knows no bounds. They still believe they can right and hell, if you can do that, you can certainly get a silly tax on the filthy rich right.

#5 mudbug on 2015-01-05 10:10 (Reply)

Plane crashes have a news template, ratings tested.

Reporters dash to the airport to interview loved ones.

They report that the loved ones have been moved to a privacy room to protect them from the media.

Every technical detail of the crash will be impossibly wrong.

This is because women don't like technical detail and they'll tune away if you don't make it wrong so it's siimple.

The best plane crash of all time was JFK Jr.

All men were puzzled. All women were crying for weeks.

Princess Di could have beat it, if she'd died in an airplane.

#6 rhhardin (Link) on 2015-01-05 10:27 (Reply)

I wish I could remember the name of the movie, but I do remember a scene where the crusty sergeant greeted his new troops, fresh from boot camp and eager to kill some commies. He reminded them to keep their a$$es down, because everything they were carrying was built by the low bidder.

#7 Tom Armstrong on 2015-01-05 11:18 (Reply)

A Rumor of War?

#7.1 NJSoldier on 2015-01-05 13:14 (Reply)

Fill in the Joke for the following punchline: Jeb Bush 2016

________________________________________________

[b]My fav: Name the worst candidate possible

#8 husb on 2015-01-05 13:28 (Reply)

Fill in the Joke for the following punchline: Jeb Bush 2016

________________________________________________

My fav: Name the worst candidate possible

#8.1 husb on 2015-01-05 13:31 (Reply)

Sorry for the double post....

#8.2 husb on 2015-01-05 13:33 (Reply)

No you aren't. That's how much you don't like JEB.

#8.2.1 Sam L. on 2015-01-05 13:50 (Reply)

French "Mental Patients": Seems Islamism causes mental problems. The worst cases are in French government.

#9 Sam L. on 2015-01-05 14:21 (Reply)

Any mass disaster, not just plane crashes, are interesting to people.

Plane crashes are scary by nature because as a passenger you have no control over any of it and falling out of the sky means certain death.

Scary all around.

People are built to avoid scary things and to survive.

People like to be as prepared as possible in their own minds for all types of tragedies...so they pay attention to the details of plane crashes, avalanches, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. to store it away for some future use. Sure, it may not happen to you, but your brain wants that knowledge anyway. Same is true for crime shows...could I survive a similar situation? How would I do it? What should I do to avoid x,y or z crime?

#10 MissT on 2015-01-05 14:56 (Reply)

re Tigerhawk:

I checked out the Conservative Wahoo and didn't see anything with TH's byline.

None the less, it is good he is back. I always enjoyed the Tigerhawk blog. I hope he is a frequent contributor.

#11 feeblemind on 2015-01-05 15:09 (Reply)

The AK47 is a dependable rifle and it's success is undeniable. It has the added advantage that you never need to put a scope on it due to it's inaccuracy, just point, spray and pray. The M16/M4 is a beautiful rifle and can be used as a sniper rifle thanks to it's accuracy and range. The M16/M4 is lighter then the AK47. A full clip of M16/M4 ammo weighs exactly half a full clip of AK47 ammo. That was one of it's strengths when adopted. The GI could carry twice the ammo, shoot twice as far and actually hit the targets twice as often. It's close tolerances make it susceptable to grit and residue but if properly maintained it is an awesome gun. Most Alaskans in the Bush prefer it for hunting and protection. Most gun enthusiasts love it (admittedly some hate it). But that is essentially true for every gun, handguns, autos, wheel guns, M1911 vs 9mm. Every caliber, every gun maker every type of gun has it's enthusiasts and those who hate them. There wil never be a resolution to this and I predict that whatever rifle and caliber is picked to replace the M16/M4 family will also have those who love it and those who hate it.

#12 GoneWithTheWind on 2015-01-05 18:47 (Reply)

Gone, you're right about everything you say about the M16/A15. The amount of ammo a soldier could carry was another justification for the 5.56x45 over the 7.62x51 that it was originally developed for. It is better than the AK47 in just about every way, however it is not as reliable as the AK47 in dirty/dusty/gunky environments and that is more important.

#12.1 mudbug on 2015-01-05 23:40 (Reply)

In the spring of 77 we were in Washington. Got passes to the House and Senate. Brooke and Kennedy were introducing a health care bill. Thurmond wanted to attach an amendment requiring warning labels on alcoholic beverages. Both assured him it was a worthy measure but thought it should be in a separate bill. The irony of these two alcoholic philanderers discussing the merits of such an amendment was comic, tragic, above all pathetic. Moments like this combined with President Carter turned me into a Republican.

#13 Paul on 2015-01-05 19:16 (Reply)

I thought the Malaysian Airlines disappearance was fascinating and still do, because it's almost impossible to figure out a plausible scenario and they can't find the darn thing, which is like something out of another century. The Air France crash over the South Atlantic was fascinating because it was so hard to believe fairly experienced pilots could screw up so gratuitously. But most wrecks? Not that interesting, really--certainly not the JFK crash. Of course I'm always a bit curious what went wrong. Don't think I've ever "cried for weeks."

Whether it's an interesting wreck or not so interesting, though, you'd have to be nuts to try to follow the news about it on the TV.

#14 Texan99 on 2015-01-06 00:48 (Reply)

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Monday, January 5. 2015

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