AndrewKrause

My commentary on politics is typically confined to the lower 48 states, but I cannot resist pointing out this gem: Daniel Hannah is the Member of Parliment for South England at the EU General Assembly. And while you would think that means he’d speak to the issues impacting the EU as a whole, he took advantage of the presence of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his time allotted to deliver the most excoriating rebuke of a national leader since… ever?

My favorite punking here is wherein he refers to Gordon Brown as “the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government.” Best point has to be when he says “you cannot carry of forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit.” We need this guy to speak to our Congress and our President.

Pearl Harbor (the one with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsdale) could be considered a huge waste of celluloid if they still used celluloid in film making. Since everything is digital these days, then I’d have to say it was a needless increase in the entropic state of the universe… trillions of 0’s and 1’s written for nothing and a tenth of a second shaved off of forever. Nevertheless, I’m forced to watch it because the batteries in my remote died and I don’t feel like driving into town to get more. Let me just say this about Pearl Harbor; if I were Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett made moves on my girl while I was out defending freedom, I would not think twice about planting my size 12 foot in his size 2 ass.

Granted, I can get up and change the channel, but changing channels hasn’t helped much here either. As it turns out, there are now four channels dedicated to the female sensibility: We, Oxygen, Lifetime and CNN. The latter is the most disgusting - I don’t know how much more the mainstream media can do to cover up the bumbling incompetence of the Obama administration. First 100 days? We’re not even halfway into it and we’ve gotten more gaffs from Biden, more economic stupidity out of Geitner and have pissed off (or on) more allies that Bush did in his entire administration. By the time we get to the hundred days mark, someone will be making a killing off of bumper stickers that say “I miss Bush”. (By the way, economists agree: Team Obama has done poorly in trying to simulate the economy. If their estimates of recovery are any indication, Team Obama is actually making the economy worse. From Roosevelt, nothing have they learned. Darkness I see…)

Krav Maga is one of a few western martial art styles gaining popularity in the hoplological community. The reason? It’s perfectly suited for a world where the people who are mugging you are increasingly more violent. Krav Maga, developed by European Jews in post-WWII Europe, assumes that your attacker intends to kill you and will offer no quarter. (Safe assumption during those times, particularly if you’re Jewish.) The secret to Krav Maga is a complete and utter lack of form, and the emphasis on quick directed strikes at an attacker’s most sensitive areas. Whereas most other schools have fixed stances, routines and forms which can leave differential weaknesses for an attacker to exploit, Krav Maga goes straight for the balls. Or for the throat, or for the solar plexus, or for the face. Krav Maga also integrates techniques for disarming attackers who have guns, knifes, tasers or other modern implements of muggery. I know this seems completely random, but I was in the middle of watching a show about hot rods on a man-channel (in deference to the chick channels mentioned above) when a shortly confusing and poorly directed commercial came on advertsing a video course in Krav maga, and a quick google turned up plenty of videos of krav maga in action.

P90 has proven to be a remarkably effective workout. The funny thing about getting in shape - something I have done twice before - is that you don’t realize that your enjoying the benefits of a fitness routine until long after you are. More energy, a better mood, more self confidence… these occur within days of a sustained regimen. I’m now in my third week of P90, and I’m just starting to notice that my clothes fit better. And while I’m still far from my goal, I’m more motivated now than when I started. I might just start eating right soon…

I set out to write an article on exactly why the Obama stimulus plan would fail, and more precisely how it would prolong and deepen precisely the economic doldrums it is supposed to alleviate. I was prepared to discuss our current economic situation in terms of the Great Depression. My first goal was to draw parallels; how government regulation and taxation drove the economy towards an unsustainable state, and how Democrats used what was bad situation to push a socialist agenda, turning things into an absolute catastrophe. I was also going to give a lengthy (and probably not particularly exciting) dissertation on how the New Deal prolonged the great depression by an additional seven years.

I was also going to provide reassurance. We are not yet in a recession. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of shrinkage in the economy. In 2008, the economy actually grew a little over 3% until the 4th quarter, when it shrank at nearly 7%, allowing the economy to finish the year at just a scosche over 1% GDP growth for the year. Mind you, we will likely see shrinkage in the first quarter of 2009, and that would meet the definition of a recession. I’m not saying times are not tough folks, but there is a lot of panic out there that simply isn’t justified. I heard someone refer to this as a depression the other day. I think they meant to say recession. But a depression? We’re a long way back. As it stands now, economists think that the actions of businesses and individuals have more than compensated for economic conditions, and that we’ll be in recovery by mid-summer. These same economists also hint that the stock market may be undervalued by as much as 15%. Volatility combined with uncertainty has driven an overinflated market too far down and stocks are now at a discount. (Do your research - you don’t escape that responsibility in investing, ever.)

An economy is a participatory system. If we’re in a recession, it’s because people feel like it’s a recession and they act accordingly. It doesn’t hurt that perception when we have a 24-hour news cycle whose fundamental business model is epitomized by the slogan “if it bleeds, it leads”. You won’t see good news about the economy until it smacks some editor in the face; you’d have to dig for it. The psychological impact of this 24-hour news cycle drives people to not spend, be less productive and to act cautiously instead of taking calculated risks. Thus, the economy slows down. Folks, I’m here to tell you that there is a recession, but you can choose not to participate in it. You can take the time to rethink how you do things, and do it better. If you’re already doing it better, do more of it better. Productivity is the fundamental engine of the American economy. Some think it’s exploitation of natural resources, but it’s not; how efficiently we draw those natural resources determines how much we can utilize per unit of labor. Some think it’s consumer spending. You could throw money around all day, and nothing would happen. In fact, one of the greatest rebuttals to that Keynesian supposition is welfare - not a single person who is on welfare today is making a material contribution to the US economy. (When those people do make contributions, they get kicked off of welfare.) Productivity is it. America didn’t become great because we’re a nation of hard workers. It’s because we’re a nation of smart workers.

So I meant to say all of that, but I thought better of it. Instead, I wanted to post this speech by Rush Limbaugh. In it, Rush talks about conservatism - true conservatism, not this “compassionate conservatism” crap invented by centrists and not this “neo conservatism” invented by the left to try to rebrand mainstream conservatives. I’ve got to say that as an occasional listener to Rush, he has been fired up lately. His shows are entertaining most of the time, but when the tenant of the White House is a rank socialist like Obama, he gets fired up and it becomes just pure good stuff. My favorite quote from his speech (and I’m not finished reading it) is, “All politicians, including President Obama, are temporary stewards of this nation. It is not their task to remake the founding of this country. It is not their task to tear it apart and rebuild it in their image.”

There’s also this gem from out of St Louis - conservatives actually protesting. What’s more is the turnout was more than expected. Usually when conservatives are called to protest, the turnout is painfully small and outlived.

Anyway, that’s my post. You can have your recession. I choose not to participate in the recession, but instead drive my little piece of the economy forward.

In deferrence to my previous gun-love inspired writings, you will either be horrified or awe inspired (I was, of course, the latter) by videos from the Knob Creek Gun Range. They have an annual machine gun fest. Not a lot of people are aware of this, but it is perfectly legal for you to own a fully automatic machine gun. You have to have a Federal Fire Arms License (which is also required to buy and sell more than a certain number of guns), and you have to pay a tax of $200 on each firearm. These same rules apply to silenced weapons and any form of artillery, though in the case of the latter you also have to get special permission to operate it. I digress… the featured highlight of the Knob Creek Machine Gun shoot is that they have an all out night fire demonstration. As if the staccato fire of machine guns, pulsing muzzle flashes and zipping of red and green tracers isn’t enough, the crew at Knob Creek set up pyrotechnical devices including several hundred gallons of kerosene. The result is… well… just watch. And enjoy.

It bears pointing out that Knob Creek is also the home of the Knob Creek Stillhouse, makers of Knob Creek Kentucky Straight Bourbon, which is good stuff.

I spend roughly an hour driving for school each day and in order to keep my brain both occupied and engaged, I’ve been downloading audio lectures. Last week I found myself listening to Michael Sandel lecture on the topic for which he had also recently written a book entitled “The Case Against Perfection“. In it, he cautions that there is a fine moral and ethical line that hasn’t even been very well drawn on the issue of how best to leverage our scientific ability to manipulate our own genome. The benefit of said manipulation is that we can end debilitating diseases that hamper quality of life. The danger of said manipulation is that we would lose our humanity and instead become garish caricatures of perfection. I have to cede that point; our perceptions of beauty in the west are dramatically different today than they were 20, 50 or 100 years ago. On the other hand, I think it’d be foolish of us to not engineer ourselves to some extent against disease, disrepair and aging. In any event, it was an interesting talk and I just thought I’d share.

Heartbreak Ridge is playing on TCM tonight. This is the quintessential 1980’s Eastwood action movie. We start with gratuitous nudity in the form of some nameless Hollywood starlet whose only talent is the ability to remove a size double-d bra, add a generous amount of overuse of the f-word (”It’s not my fault Gunny, my fucking weapon is fucking fucked up!”), throw in some scatalogical humor (”That operations officer’s fart hole’s sewed so tight he shits out of his mouth.”) and then you top the whole thing off with 30 minutes of gunfire, explosions and extras flying through the air pursuant to said explosions. You put all this together and you have a classic; one that your kids will watch and say “you actually liked this lame crap? Weak!” I did not watch Heartbreak Ridge tonight, however. I’ve seen it dozens of times. I own the DVD. It’s on my iPod. I quoth said movie at the drop of a hat. But spurned by the image of Eastwood firing “the AK-47 assault rifle, the preferred weapon of our enemy”, I decided to check various websites of firearm manufacturers. Here is what I saw:

First stop was Heckler and Koch’s USA website. HK traces it’s lineage back to Mauser, the German manufacturer responsible for some of the worlds finest mass produced firearms. A Mauser has been used in every war on the planet Earth since the mid 19th century, including the US Civil War. After Germany was demilitarized following the defeat of the Nazi’s in WWII, various industries were retooled for peacetime production. The namesakes of HK purchased a Mauser plant and started making precision machine tools. Then in 1956, they proposed the G3 to be manufactured for the German military. Though it was largely a reworked Spanish design, the G3 quickly became the dominant rifle for German forces and many NATO countries, nearly supplanting the FN FAL. Based on the Success of the G3, HK went on to produce a family of rifle, sub machine guns and handguns with legendary reliability, performance and accuracy. Their MP5 is the gold standard of sub machine guns used by special forces and SWAT teams worldwide, including a special MP5N variant used exclusively by the US Navy Seals.

So anyway, I went to their site first and lo and behold… HK-USA is consolidating both their military and civilians sales in Columbus, GA. This makes perfect sense since Columbus is surrounded by Ft Benning, where the 75th Ranger Regiment and the Infantry Training School is located. Not that they don’t train infantry elsewhere… but Sand Hill is a factory, and is also the home of the Special Forces Recruit Trainee home. Ergo, it’s advantageous for HK to be nearest their bestest customer.

The next stop is Magpul, who doesn’t strictly manufacture firearms but is instead known as a manufacturer of high performance tactical accessories. At least, that was true until someone at Magpul decided to take everything everyone likes about the venerable XM177 platform (more popularly known as the US M-16, US M-4 Carbine or the Colt AR-15 (civilian variant)), then toss away everything else and rethink it. It seems the only thing that survived this rethink was the trigger group and the barrel. In actuallity, the MASAD still looks more or less like an M-16 variant after being heavily modified. More to the point, it looks much like the FN SCAR rifle developed for US Special Operations Command. The reason for that is simple - both Magpul Industries and FN tossed out politics, stodgy TRADOC thinking, Pentagon budgeting bias and basically any other baggage and said “when I’m taking fire, what do I really want out of my rifle”. The result is a weapon that is lighter, more reliable, more feature rich and packs more firepower than either the US M-16, the FN SCAR or the newly developed (and at great expense to US taxpayer) US M-29 (HK XM-8, canceled in 2007). While the SCAR had been a favorite because the same weapons platform would be able to chamber either the 5.56 NATO round (SCAR-L) or the 7.62 NATO round (SCAR-H), the MASADA can - with a quick change of barrel and receiver - chamber the same round in the same weapon. That gives unprecedented flexibility to the operator who is rapidly moving from engagement to engagement in the war on terror. There is even a modification which allows a MASADA user to change from the default gas-driven bolt system to a Kalashnikov (AK-47) system. This makes a huge difference because - as written above, the AK-47 has a distinctive sound, as does the US-M16, and in many countries the difference is whether people assume someone is just firing off rounds or Americans are nearby.

Last stop was Kimber, makers of 1911 frame pistols. The Model 1911 pistol was designed by the legendary John Browning and later manufactured by FN, and under contract, Colt. It quickly became the preferred sidearm for US Army officers; it was as reliable as the service revolvers they had trusted since just after the civil war, but carried more rounds, reloaded faster and shot a very large forty-five caliber ACP cartridge. The terminal ballistics of the .45 ACP inspired confidence as both a defensive and offensive weapon due to it’s ability to kill people with one shot. (The .38 cartridge, being small and low powered, often required riddling your foe with bullets just to be sure.) The .45 was so beloved that even when the US Army phased out the 1911 - after more than 75 years of service - and replaced it with the Beretta P90 9mm pistol, a number of servicemen either kept their issued sidearm or purchased a personal sidearm to replace it, chucking their P90’s in a drawer somewhere. It even became a sticking point in the late 90’s when the Congressional budget office took the Pentagon to task for continuing to buy .45 ACP bullets for a gun which had been almost completely phased out.

You can still purchase 1911’s today, and not much has changed about the basic weapon design. However, due to it’s popularity, you can find a large number of variants by a large number of manufacturers such as Colt, Thompson, Karr, Taurus, Ed Brown, Les Baer and Kimber. And while some make 1911’s for tactical, or competition shooters, Kimber makes 1911’s for yuppies. Granted, you’ll find Kimber Pro Tactical 1911’s used by the LAPD SWAT team and by US Marines tasked to SOCOM, but that’s happenstance. Kimber’s true talent is making guns that are pretty. The smoothly machined finishes, the even and flawless bluing, or the fine high quality hardwood handgrips all come together on weapons expertly designed to appeal to aesthetics. I personally would never buy a Kimber - at prices between $500 to $1200, I’d be afraid to ever fire one for fear of getting it dirty. But damn… they are pretty.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering about the title… it’s the name of a song form the 1980’s. The music video features - you geussed it… bikini girls posing with machine guns. I don’t think most people got the innuendo and satire of the video which was a parody of the Marquis de Sade fascination of Americans with sex and violence, particularly violence perpetrated with firearms. But that’s the artists fault for putting hot chicks in bikinis, having them prance around suggestively while holding machine guns, then putting the video on MTV where the demographic is largely 16-28 year old males who like bikini girls, guns and don’t have the sense to realize that there’s more to life than bikini girls. And machine guns.