When it is good to be from Louisiana

Today you get humor because I don't have much to share:

One morning, a man woke up dead.

He knew he was dead because he was on a moving sidewalk that was heading upward toward the Pearly Gates. Furthermore, the sidewalk was packed with other souls and they were all stark naked.

As the sidewalk relentlessly moved upward, he noticed an extremely large he-devil looking over the souls as they went by on the conveyor belt. Every so often, or occasionally in a frantic burst of activity, the he-devil would boom "MINE!" and grab some poor soul by the scruff of his neck and his rearmost fundamental, stomp on a treadle and pitch the soul into the oily, black flames of the nether-world.

There isn't much to do on the trip to heaven, so the man watched the he-devil do his job. It all made perfect sense except for one thing. Every once in a while the he-devil would grab a soul, stomp on the treadle, then give the unfortunate soul a big shake, grimace and then throw the soul onto a huge pile of other "rejects".

Just as the man was pulling abreast of the he-devil, a dreadful, grinding noise came from beneath the conveyor and it shuddered to a halt.

Souls don't weigh much, but billions had passed along that conveyor and...well, even heaven struggles with its maintenance budget.

The man and the he-devil started chatting.

"Quite clever, really" the man observed.

"Thanks. Been perfecting it forever" the he-devil announced modestly.

"The only thing I don't understand are those souls in that pile over there" the man said, pointing at the rejects.

"Oh, they are from Louisiana" the he-devil said.

The man was puzzled. Were people from Louisiana entitled to their own special hell? Maybe something like New Orleans but with accordions, bag-pipes and harmonicas instead of trumpets and pianos?

"I don't understand" the man exclaimed.

"Well, like I said. They are from Louisiana. They are too wet to burn."

Pork chops, running and cast bullets

 

 

Mrs ERJ believes that Human Nutrition requires ample amounts of green and yellow/orange vegetables daily.

I do my best to accommodate her. Broiled pork chop coated with corn meal, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. Potatoes covered with yellow/orange cheese.

Running

Once again I was defeated by technology. I don't know if the screen bounces against my leg and resets? I just don't know.

My plan for tomorrow is to walk the course and tie surveyor's tape at the one mile marks. Then I can drop back to low-tech, $15 wristwatch with a timer function.

My best estimate is that I ran 11:40 minutes-per-miles.

Cast bullet rabbit hole

There are a couple of go-to sites for cast bullets. One is the LASC site. The other is the Cast Boolits site.

There are multiple factors that interact that make it almost impossible to give advice that is universal.

For one thing, the hardness of a cast bullet changes as it ages. One shooter may swear by 12 BNH bullets but did he measure them immediately after casting or after a month on the shelf?

For another, many casters don't have a way to measure hardness. They look up references and assume their wheel weights are identical to the ones measured in the reference.

Then there are interactions with lube, bullet geometry and gun geometry.

Then there is the complication that the bullet's base must obdurate when the base of the bullet is fully engaged in the rifling somewhere forward of the chamber. The speed that the pressure drops off as it moves down the barrel varies between large-capacity, designed-for-blackpowder revolver cartridges and small-capacitiy, designed for smokeless semi-auto cartridges.

In the end, simplicity wins. Glen E. Fryexell of LASC wrote

...for routine sixgunning applications what do we want from our cast bullet alloy? In the 800-1000 fps range we should probably keep the alloy at a BHN of 12 or below. From 1000-1400 fps, 12 to 16 is a very useful range of hardness. For velocities of 1400 to 1700 fps, this window slides up to 14 to 20. Above 1700, linotype at a BHN of 22 is an excellent choice.

Since most bullets cast from wheel-weights that are air-cooled now vary between 12-and-14 BHN two weeks after casting, bullets intended for .38 Special probably benefit from a blend of 2/3 wheel-weights and 1/3 "pure" lead. That can be expected to throw bullets between 10 and 11 BHN.

Bullets that are air-cooled and aged a couple of weeks are probably suitable for 9mm but I will appreciate anybody who actually casts bullets and shoots a 9mm or 40S&W.

This is actually a great time to buy pure lead. It is available on eBay for a reasonable price because so many cities are ripping out the lead water service lines because of the problems highlighted in Flint, Michigan. 

Distributing Holy Communion

 

Catholics are a little bit quirky.

One of our quirks is that we believe that the host (wafer) and water-and-wine are transformed into Christ's real body and blood during the Mass (Catholic service) and by consuming them we become one with Christ.

The Protestant Reformation occurred during the Renaissance and the revival of science. Science is based on observations. If you cannot observe it, it is not real.

While most Protestant denominations still practice communion, they believe it is symbolic and that Christ's saying "Do this in memory of me" refers to the practice rather than the transformation into actual body and blood. 

Catholics, on the other hand, see actual transformation as the only way to make sense of Christ's discourses in John 4:13-14 and John 6:48-53.

Covid

With Covid-19 restrictions and the fear it created, many Catholics...especially older ones...are not receiving Communion.

Given the amount of anxiety floating around and the reminder that someday we will all die, the last thing they need is to feel any degree of separation from Jesus.

The Catholic Church has a mechanism to dispense Communion to shut-ins. The problem is two-fold: There are not enough Eucharistic Ministers and shut-ins fear the Eucharistic Minister could be spreading Covid.

About those people who recovered from Covid...

There has been a huge amount of scrutiny on people who "caught Covid twice". But even if recovered Covid patients are not bulletproof, they are still the very best choice for Eucharistic Ministers to deliver Communion IF they are fully recovered.

Understanding that being a Eucharistic Ministers have a large burden, it involves time and much driving, what I can do is drive them around and provide lunch.

The trick will be to identify them and recruit them.

Those people who are nominally immune to Covid are also extremely valuable for other tasks as well, especially ones that might involve going into the homes of elderly people.

Road Trip

Fast Eddie and I made a road-trip to LeMasters-Hudson in Grand Rapids today.

They sold two handguns in the time we were there.

One was a Taurus G3 that was sold to a man in a wheelchair. He was missing one leg. Fast Eddie was fascinated by how the man got into the passenger door of his car, disassembled his wheelchair and stashed it in the back seat and then scooted over to the driver's side.

I got the sense that the buyer lived in a "tough" part of town. A man in a wheelchair is an easy victim...unless he is carrying a firearm he knows how to use.

They had some primers in stock. They were in a locked case. The price was $90 a thousand.

While $90 a thousand sound like they are scalping, many of the larger internet sites are charging $1650 per thousand for loaded ammo. Seen through that lens, $90 a thousand for primers is still a bargain. Smaller retailers like LeMasters-Hudson are in a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation.

Sales are likely to fall off a cliff on January 22 regardless of who is sworn in. The supply pipeline is being wrung dry so they will have supply issues. Shooters are attempting to buy eight years worth of shooting supplies and are running out of $$$ and places to store things so they will have weak demand due to pulled-ahead sales.

LeMasters-Hudson is very good at answering their phone (616-361-6038)during business hours if you have any questions. If it is still listed on their Armslist page then there is still a 95% chance it is still in stock.

Lead

It doesn't look like much.

 

More than fifty pounds on the bathroom scale. It cracked me up when I noticed the brand name of the scale.

Semi-automatic, Double-action revolver or Single-action revolver for a "woods gun"

There is an excellent thread on this topic over at 24hourcampfire.

If you only read one comment, read the comment by Mackay Sagebrush. Mackay is a Law Enforcement Officer in Idaho. Unlike most internet commandos, Mackay drilled on some of the scenarios that are frequently discussed.

Bear Charges

There are Grizzly Bears in Idaho.

Images copyright Mackay Sagebrush and/or 24hourcampfire. If you look closely you can see a knock-down, steel target centered behind the bear.

 

The drill involves targets at approximately 15 yards, 10 yards and then three yards.

The closest target has a clay bird or a bathroom tile aligned with the bear's brain. To stay alive, you must knock down the steels behind the two targets that are farthest away and the closest target must be hit in the "brain".

This is a humbling drill. "Par" is to clear the course in 3.5 seconds even though EVERYBODY knows a bear can cover that distance in less than half that time.

If you think this is too easy, then start with your back to the course and your handgun secured in your holster. Start when the timer beeps.

Mr Sagebrush then goes on to discuss the interaction between recoil and the ability to make rapid, repeat shots. It is his studied opinion that if you insist on carrying a handgun for bear protection then 

"Something along the lines of a 250/270/300 grain bullet at 1000 to 1100 FPS gets it done and is still controllable with practice." (emphasis mine)

Furthermore, he goes on to say that while single-action revolvers are better than no firearm, they don't have the rate-of-fire to be the best choice for DEFENSE against bears. 

If all you had was a Colt Model 1873 clone in .45 Colt then according to the Hodgdon's reloading site a max load of CFE Pistol and a 250 grain, cast lead bullet would have you at the bottom end of that territory AND still be within the .45 Colt SAAMI pressure standards. But be aware that the pressures are so low that you will probably need a soft lead bullet to get good obduration and that might limit penetration. YMWV.

Other commenters then go on to make the distinction between "hunting" and "defense".

The Sanctity of Contracts

The image shown above is a screen-grab from a video of a young, college drop-out explaining Modern Monetary Theory.

The guts of her argument are that the substrate and the ink to print a $50 bill are no greater than to print a $5 bill.

What she chooses to not understand is that each bill is an implicit contract that promises a  "store of value".

Suppose Warren Buffet printed out a Last Will and Tenement whereby the holder of the document inherited his entire estate. Essentially, he created a single bearer-bond that was worth a lot of money. Then, suppose he held a lottery with the bearer-bond as the prize and donated the proceeds to charity.

Let us suppose Paige (the genius shown above) won the lottery and the bearer-bond was mailed to her.

Enter Eaton Rapids Joe: "Paige, I am such a nice guy I am going to trade you, straight up, five hundred crisp, snowy-white sheets of printing paper and a BRAND NEW ink cartridge for those five, grubby pages with Warren Buffet's signature at the bottom."

Paige wouldn't trade her chance to be a Billionaire for five-hundred sheets of paper because it would not be to her advantage.

Paige supports MMT because it is to her advantages.

Sanctity of Contracts be damned. Her arguments are not cogent because she leaves out the part that ties it together. Paige is for whatever gives her advantage even when it is at the expense of others.

People who promote MMT have a facade of empathy but they are closet sociopaths and would-be destroyers of civilization. Civilization was built on promises and contracts: Made and Kept.

Fine Art Tuesday

 

The details on this wagon are interesting. It appears to be a dedicated hay-hauler with pneumatic tires.

Maud Lewis born 1903 on the south end of Nova Scotia. Died 1970 in Nova Scotia.

Some conditions are so severe that we marvel that life can cling on. We do not diminish the lichens growing on the granite cliffs of Baffin Island for being less-than Giant Sequoia. Nor do we belittle the beetles living among the miniature forests growing through the cracks in the blacktop for not being giraffes.

Maud Lewis's work is usually categorized as "Folk Art" but she earned a place on the Fine Art Tuesday.

Her original venue was to paint post cards. In spite of multiple, physical handicaps she churned them out and they were eagerly purchased.

Oxen with Hereford ancestry were favored in Nova Scotia.

Maud Lewis painted entirely from memory.

Consequently, her paintings are time-capsules and that is interesting to me.

I am also interested in her paintings of the Yarmouth estuary/bay. Because of the pumping effect of the tides and the intimate mixing of several different ecosystems, estuaries and bays are extraordinarily productive in terms of fish and hay in the surrounding meadows. They were among the first areas humans built villages for obvious reasons.

Bonus pictures

Maud was a tiny woman

The interior. Maud's life was brutal but she used all of her ability to make it beautiful. Creating beauty was her refuge.