Snowflakes in Hell

From Chicago:

It was the search of the crime that turned up troubling evidence: a shell casing from an FN Herstal 5.7 pistol. It is a 20-round, Belgian-made semi-automatic that is capable of firing armor-piercing bullets that can penetrate a policeman’s protective vest. Wednesday morning, the Chicago department’s rangemaster said the rounds used in Tuesday’s shooting were not the armor-piercing variety, which by law cannot be sold to civilians.

So what’s the damned problem?  Any center fire rifle cartridge can punch through level II and III body armor.  This apparently wasn’t that type of ammunition.   So who friggin cares?

But police are concerned that a concealable handgun capable of firing armor-piercing bullets is apparently in the hands of criminals.

“There is no reason for the average sportsman to have a weapon with a 20-round magazine capability for a handgun. There is just no point to it,” said Matthew Tobias, deputy superintendent.

Yeah, expect for the fact that the Five-Seven is a fantastic target gun, there’s no reason for anyone to own one.  But because it might be able to penetrate level II and III armor, we should restrict it, even though a lot of rounds are capable of doing that.

Oh well, at least they aren’t talking about Virginia Tech.

… when you resort to trying bore cleaner and hoppes number 9 to remove dry erase marker from your kegerator.  I was finding the center line to drill last night, so I tried to mark center line with dry erase marker.  I tested an area with it before I marked, but I wiped it off before it really dried.   Once it dried, it refused to come off.   I tried alcohol, nail polish remover, bleach, you name it.   Eventually I got the idea of trying hoppes number 9, and some Smith & Wesson bore cleaner.   Neither really worked.

What did work was lava liquid soap, mixed with some alcohol.   It was enough of a mix between abrasive and solvent to get the job done.  Hoppes is great stuff for cleaning guns, but for getting dry erase marker off a surface that wasn’t meant for it, not so good.

From Japan:

Japan, whose strict gun controls have long helped its image as the safest industrialized nation, has recently seen its reputation slip in the wake of headline-making shootings.

Let’s face it, Japan has low violent crime rates because Japan is a homogenius society that is culturally non-violent.  Japanese Americas, who are subject to the same gun laws as the rest of us, have a lower violent crime rate that the Japanese population in general.

Read the whole thing.

Sorry for the light blogging today. I had the day from hell at work, and when I got home, I had to sacrifice blogging to the beer god. After work, I decided to stop by the home brew supply store. I picked up a tower faucet to add to my kegerator. Glenn Reynolds has been blogging recently about wanting one, but you can spend a few hundred dollars at Sears, and another hundred fifty or so from the home brew supply, and build one yourself.

Now, this isn’t quite as stylish looking as the commercial kegerators you can get, but it’s far more versatile, which is important for the home brewer. If you’re just drinking beer, you’re probably buying the standard sized kegs, and you’re only using it to keep the beer cool. If you’re a home brewer, you use your kegerator for fermenting and lagering when you need more precise temperature control. When I’m using my kegerator for serving, which is just a converted deep freeze with a temperature regulator added, I can chill four Cornelius kegs at a time.

Pouring a beer is the real test. Sadly, the first glass out of my new tap was rather cloudy, because I had to take the keg out to drill the holes in the top for the tubing and anchorage. The second glass was much more clear. It’s going to be quite nice, to be able to leave my beer on tap all the time, and just mosey over and draw a pint off any time I want.

It’s time to get a big safe.  I’m just buying too much I guess.  Any advice on safe buying?   It seems that most places I can get them don’t deliver them, but I don’t have the equipment to move a 750lb hunk of steel around.  Any of you have experience with safe movers?  Or buying safes?  Any advice would be appreciated.