Snowflakes in Hell

While I’m waiting for Bitter to get up and ready so we can go appreciate some Starbucks, here’s some good history for everyone. I found this in one of Richard Fernandez’s posts where he expresses concern that the British military is falling below the critical point where it’s really capable of carrying out its mission, and probably below the point where they could no longer conceivably retake the Falkland Islands again if they were threatened. Then again, even at the time there was doubt as to whether the Royal Navy and Marines were up to the task, and they succeeded. Either way, he links to a very interesting documentary, from The Falklands Portal, that covers the fate of the H.M.S. Coventry, which was one of two destroyers and two frigates sunk during the Falklands War:

That’s part one of six. You can find the other six at this link here. I was only eight when this war broke out, but I certainly remember it.

UPDATE: Also see this six part documentary on the lessons learned from the sinking of the H.M.S. Sheffield: part1, part2, part3, part4, part5, and part6.

OTM being Open Tip Match. Apparently it’s not considered to be expanding ammo for the purposes of the Hague Convention, so it’s legal to use in military applications.

Good news for those looking to snag a copy of Aiming for Liberty – it’s back in full stock at Amazon.

But, as I was looking (and laughing) at the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section. It made me think that Amazon should have an “Authors Recommend More Reading” section. That would be interesting to see what authors who write great books suggest for further reading on a topic. Then I remembered, “Wait! Hottie Dave has given us just such a guide in a previous NRA mag!”

Here are the links for those who wonder:

1. Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie by Clayton Cramer – Come on, support another blogger! Actually, there’s news on this front. I didn’t realize that the paperback just came out in August. So now you can save some money and still grab a great read.
2. Supreme Court Gun Cases by Kopel, Stephen Halbrook, and Alan Korwin – Unfortunately, this one seems to be out of print, or at least Amazon isn’t carrying it much anymore. However, a related topic book that might be of interest is Brian Doherty’s Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment.
3. Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality In World War II by Halbrook – From Kopel: “Halbrook’s book shows not only how the Swiss militia system deterred the recurrent threat of Nazi invasion, but also how the militia system created, in the long run, a culture of civic responsibility devoted to the preservation of liberty. It was Switzerland’s militia-centric culture of republican virtue that was the key reason why liberty survived in Switzerland, even as it was extinguished almost everywhere else in continental Europe.”
4. Origins and Development of the Second Amendment: A Sourcebook by the infamous David Hardy – Since the book is out of print, you might consider “In Search of the Second Amendment” instead.
5. Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explorations on the Second Amendment edited by Robert Cottrol – Prof. Cottrol is at the top of my list of absolutely fascinating people. I don’t event need to actually hold a conversation with him, just listening to him always keeps my attention regardless of the subject. Alas, the book is only available directly from Amazon in the library binding which is $150.
6. The Origin of the Second Amendment: A Documentary History of the Bill of Rights in Commentaries on Liberty, Free Government & an Armed Populace edited by David Young – Again, support yet another blogger! This has been cited in important cases, including several times in Heller. Again, not widely available, but some order information does appear on this page. One of the more entertaining sights I’ve seen though is David carrying his copy of the book with important arguments marked with multiple colors of post-its.
7. Targeting Guns: Firearms and Their Control by Gary Kleck – Kleck’s research is a staple of many pro-gun arguments. Yet how many people have actually read him? Heh, thought so.
8. To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right by Joyce Lee Malcolm – Another recommended read to supplement Malcolm’s book is her sequel, Guns and Violence: The English Experience.
9. Death by “Gun Control”: The Human Cost of Victim Disarmament by Aaron Zelman – I don’t know much about it, so I’ll just quote Kopel: “The book examines the 20th century genocides in Turkey, the Soviet Union, China, Guatemala, Cambodia, Uganda and Rwanda, and details how each of them was preceded and facilitated by gun control programs to disarm the victims.”
10. The Global War on Your Guns: Inside the U.N. Plan To Destroy the Bill of Rights by Wayne LaPierre – Since you can order directly from NRA and support the fight in your purchase.  Two birds, one stone, yay!

Other suggestions Kopel includes: For the Defense of Themselves and the State: The Original Intent and Judicial Interpretation of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms by Cramer, Gun Laws of America by Korwin, Swiss and the Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich and That Every Man Be Armed by Halbrook, The Second Amendment Primer: A Citizens Guidebook to the History, Sources, and Authorities for the Constitutional Guarantee of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms by Les Adams, Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man by Hardy, and Armed: New Perspectives on Gun Control by Kleck and Don Kates.

And finally, if you’re literally looking for a very Gunny Christmas, R. Lee Ermery’s site actually has Gunny dolls.

I promise, this wasn’t just an excuse to do an Amazon link dump.  I really did wonder about what authors would recommend to their readers other than other books they have written.  I assume if I was curious about such things that others would be, too.  Since I remembered Kopel’s article from a couple of years ago, but didn’t have a solid link list, I figured now was a good time to create one.  Finally, I have been busy making Christmas ornaments and reading of some chick lit, so I haven’t been doing much as much blog reading.  (Oh yeah, and I may have recently been perusing related titles in my search for Christmas gifts for both a gun nut and a history buff [the gun nut's dad].)

This Washington Examiner column has it wrong, in claiming that Hasan was allowed to carry a firearm on base:

Not only is he not arrested, but he doesn’t even seem to have been monitored. And according to new regulations issued in June, he is permitted to carry a privately purchased gun on base, like all other personnel at Fort Hood, provided that it is properly declared at the access point.

No, he wasn’t. If you read the Military Police regulation carefully linked in the quote, you will notice that carry on the base is restricted to certain activities. This regulation in no way shape or form authorizes military personnel, who are not authorized to carry firearms as part of their duties, to carry a loaded firearm on base.  See here:

When a firearm is authorized to be worn exposed, the official badge of the employing agency will be conspicuously displayed and visible to the casual observer.

This would apply to Military Police, and other personnel who are authorized to carry firearms in accordance with their duties. But later in the regulation, you have what conditions you’re allowed to transport firearms under:

When authorized according to paragraph 5c, weapons transported by person must be carried in a closed case or container, and must be unloaded when not engaged in authorized hunting, target practice, or other activity which permits the use of weapons. When engaged in an activity that permits carrying a loaded firearm, the firearm will be carried openly or in a holster or case as appropriate for the type of firearm.

Such activities that permit carrying a loaded firearm are:

• Hunting.
• Target shooting.
• Performing duties as a member of and related to the Cattlemen’s Association.
• Other authorized sporting events in which the weapon is used in connection with competition or as part of a legitimate display.

But what if a person has a Concealed Handgun License from the State of Texas?

Military personnel, government employees, and civilians authorized and licensed by the State of Texas to carry a concealed handgun according to the Texas Concealed Handgun Law cannot carry a concealed handgun anywhere within the boundaries of Fort Hood.

So Hasam was not authorized to tote a firearm around on base. The regulation is confusing to those not accustomed to reading legalese, and it confused me at first too a bit, but once you read the whole thing, it’s easy to see the regulation does not allow carrying of a firearm on one’s person by anyone who is not authorized to do so as part of their duties.

Dave Hardy points out that, surprise, it started with Clinton. But my understanding from people in the military is that soldiers carrying guns for self-protection was not common in the military before this. It’s likely that Clinton just formalized what was already the prevailing practice.

A humble attempt at honoring our nation’s veterans.  Seems like a nice idea to me.

He might be from Jupiter, Florida, but we’ll adopt him nonetheless.  Eddystone is a town over from where I grew up, still in the same school district.

Looks like the first major military action of the Obama Administration is a missile strike on Pakistan.  I wonder how all the peacenik hippies who backed his election thinking he’d forever bring an end to human strife feel about this one.  I’m happy to see President Obama taking Afghanistan seriously.

Nothing like a little gun p0rn to round out the night.  Looks like the Israelis are deploying the Tavor TAR-21 assault rifle to some troops in Gaza.  They can be seen in these videos:

Also in the news, apparently Israel is using the Ruger 10/22 at long ranges to suppress rioters in the West Bank.  Anyone throwing rocks is a deadly threat to anyone within range of the rocks.  I don’t see why people have a problem with this.  Also, if anyone’s curious, the items being worn on the helmets of Israeli soldiers is the Mitznefet, and is part of their camouflage.

The airforce seems to be getting closer to having a workable chemical laser system.  This is good, but a key feature of a useable defense system will have to include a laser that can refire in a short amount of time.  These types of COIL lasers aren’t really of that variety.

Of course, we have come quite a long way since the days of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars,” which at the time really was science fiction.  Back then researchers were happy to test x-ray lasers that used nuclear weapons as a pumping mechanism.  Needless to say, you don’t get much repeatability out of that.  Of course, these days we’re pretty close to useful x-ray lasers.

Having a workable laser weapon would be transformative on the battlefield, so I support these kinds of programs.  Plus, as we’ve seen with x-ray lasers, you never know what other useful things you’ll be able to do with the concepts and technology.

UPDATE: Looks like they are also working on high power solid state laser systems.  We’re probably still a long ways off a laser rifle, at least with currently battery technology.

Looks like Bushmaster has been pretty generious with humanitarian aid to Georgia.  Looking at the selector position on one, those aren’t ARs, they are M4s.  I hope we’ll be sending a lot more humanitarian aid their way.  Bear… meet cobra.

Excellent post over at The Belmont Club today on missile defense and deterrence.  Well worth a read.

UPDATE: In the comments:

It’s a little disturbing when a major Presidential candidate’s first instincts after the Iranians test 9 long missiles are to blame his government for not engaging in direct talks. The real story here is to ask why, if Teheran has no WMD ambitions, it has any ballistic missile program at all. Does anyone actually believe these expensive missiles are going to be fitted with conventional warheads? That would be so cost ineffective as to be implausible. Any reasonable person, looking at the situation, would regard the firing of the 9 missiles with alarm. I think BHO’s reactions are almost unnatural.

Here’s what 20mm rounds fired from the M61A1 Vulcan Gun on an F16 can do to a Chevy Suburban.  They say only 70 rounds were fired, which is basically a tap on the 6,000 rounds-per-minute Vulcan.

Peter, who blogs at Firearms and Freedom, points out a group who’s job it is to protect war memorials from dirty stinking hippies.  This is a worthy cause, in my opinion.   Looks like Peter also got to meet Jonah Goldberg.   I really need to make some time to read Liberal Fascism.

Rachel is absolutely right on this one:

Wanna know what I think, as a bona fide military girlfriend? I think they should have porn in the PX, especially if all we’re talking about is Playboy and Penthouse. Men need to see naked women, and these men happen to be spending months at a time in forced celibacy, and if they want to look at a pretty girl’s boobies and release some of that, uhhh, energy, more power to ‘em. I have absolutely no problem with it and like I said, I’d send those mags to my own boyfriend if I could, once he gets to Iraq.

It’s not a good idea to deny these kinds of things to young men who are forced to spend all their waking hours in the company of other men.  Bad things happen when you do that, especially in a high stress environment, like a combat zone.  It would seem to be this is just moralistic grandstanding on the part of a certain politician.

They ended up shipping fuses for nuclear warheads.  Ooops.  It’s one of those things, you have to wonder if it’s a legitimate mistake, or we’re (or were, rather) secretly arming Taiwan with nuclear weapons, and this whole story is a cover.

It’s one thing to have a KB on a small arms cartridge.  How about one of these:

They’ve donated $72,000 worth of tickets to Texas National Guardsmen who would have otherwise been unable to get home for the holidays.  They deserve our thanks, and our business.

Bitter and I went to the Submarine Museum in Groton, CT, where they have the USS Nautilus displayed:

Sadly, they don’t tour you through the reactor or engine room.  I’m wondering if any of that stuff is still classified.  USS Nautilus is the only nuclear powered submarine on display to the public anywhere in the world.  You can visit the submarine museum in an hour’s time if you want, and it’s worth the visit.  Especially if you have kids of the right age.  You can show them where the nuclear warheads would be mounted on the Polaris missile they have on display.

USS Nautilus is the official ship of Connecticut, which is only fitting.  Groton, CT is the home to General Dynamics’ Electric Boat Division, which is the birthplace of much of our nation’s submarine fleet going back a century.

I’ve been on more than a few submarine museums, and I have to say, I have a lot of respect for anyone who could spend months at a time on something like the Nautilus.  Even on a nuclear sub, quarters were cramped.  It was tough for me just walking around for a few minutes, but then again, I’m probably a bit tall to be a submariner.

The big question is, will these only be available to “only ones”?  Of course, I think it’s cheating, but don’t tell Gene Simmons.

Thanks to Kevin for pointing me to this excellent Blackfive post on soldiers coming back home.

And interesting history of some of the Pennsylvania National Guard.  Sounds like it used to be a real militia, as our founding fathers originally envisioned.

No… really.

… in the same headline: “nuclear” and “mistakenly”. If you see those two, chances are it’s big heap trouble:

The plane was carrying Advanced Cruise Missiles from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a Defense Department policy not to confirm information on nuclear weapons.

The missiles, which are being decommissioned, were mounted onto pylons on the bomber’s wings and it is unclear why the warheads had not been removed beforehand.

While I have great respect for the men and women who serve, it should always be remembered that the military is still a government operation, with all the baggage that entails. Hopefully something like this won’t happen again!

UPDATE: Ahab has more.

UPDATE: See Magus’ comments below.  It’s pretty good information on what’s involved with flying around nuclear weapons.

Looks like the Army wants to replace the M24, M14 and Mk 11 sniper rifle with a single 7.62×51 NATO based semi-automatic system.

Hat tip to Dave Hardy.