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Tuesday, October 22, 2002
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League Of Women Voter's Debate. I finally met Mr. Coble this evening at tonight's debate in Pinehurst. I arrived after our debate started, but just in time to catch up. Folks were pleased to hear a better approach to government and I had a warm response. More on this after a break. I drove four hours tonight for a few minutes of discussion. I wish we had more time at these debates. [Tara Sue's Weblog News]
I'm somewhat surprised that a Libertarian candidate was even allowed into a debate. I wonder if it was televised, or if transcripts will be published in local papers.
10:42:36 PM 
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Iraqis linked to Oklahoma atrocity. The FBI is under pressure from the highest political levels in Washington to investigate suspected links between Iraq and the Oklahoma bombing. [This is London]
The government has been ignoring evidence that there was more to the Oklahoma City bombing than the "official story" for years. It's somewhat disgusting that they're finally paying attention now just in hopes of finding another excuse to invade Iraq. I suspect that their motive will taint any results they come up with.
7:15:14 PM
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Give Me Liberty [Baen Books]
Liberty is a recurring theme in science fiction. Here's a volume of explorations of this theme, some even arguing that freedom can be best served by doing away with government entirely. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." And in the future, eternal vigilance against our own government will be even more important than vigilance against hostile outsiders.
A stellar roster of science fiction writers consider how a government-free society could operate, how the Soviet Union might have fallen apart even earlier because of an apparently harmless device, how a low-tech society might throw off the influence of more "advanced" intruders, how the right to own weapons is fundamental to freedom, and much more.
In the future, liberty may be even more threatened than in our present--and this volume suggests very unusual ways of defending it....
An upcoming anthology, due out in January 2003. The first four short stories are available via Baen's online subscription service, which I've paid for. That represents about a quarter of the book (more will be out in later months), and so far the stories are good.
1:22:34 PM
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PGP reborn makes its pitch for the mainstream. This time? [The Register]
With PGP 8.0 there been a concerted effort to make the software easier to manage and administer. As well as the enterprise package, they'll also be PGP Personal, targeted at small business and individual commercial users and a freeware version for non-commercial use (to be made available from the PGP Web site).
12:32:18 PM
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birdman. From birdman:
The authorities announced this morning that the shell casing found in
the rental truck that was seized in VA was not a .223 and was
therefore eliminated as being associated with the Beltway Sniper.
HOLD IT!!!
For years I have predicted that a .308 shell casing loaded with a .223
sabot round would make an untraceable sniper bullet for urban use.
What is a sabot round? It is a plastic sleeve that wraps around a .223
bullet, thus protecting the bullet from coming into contact with the
lands and grooves of the barrel's rifling. The outside measurement of
the sleeve is .308, so it loads into a .308 shell casing perfectly,
while encompassing the .223 bullet. When the bullet leaves the barrel,
the sleeve splits apart and falls away, leaving the .223 bullet on its
flight path to the target, unmarked by any ballistic rifling marks
that can be traced back to the rifle. Oh, and by the by: It is an
extremely accurate load that can be fired in short, scoped pistols
like the TC Contender. If stopped and checked, the gun would be found
chambered for the .308 and not the .223 everybody is looking for.
[End the War on Freedom]
There might be something to this. Remington used to sell a type of ammo called the Accelerator, which included .308 and .30/06 cartridges with saboted .224, 55 grain bullets--almost identical to bullets used in .223 ammo. They stopped selling the rounds at some time in the past, but that doesn't mean someone couldn't hand load an equivalent or just use old commercial ammo.
However, there are two possible holes in the theory. First, because the bullet itself doesn't touch the barrel in a sabot round, there would be no rifling on the bullet. This is certainly not normal, and the police would almost certainly be aware of what was happening. Even if they didn't know about sabots, they'd at least realize something was unusual about the bullets. Second, the sabots fly out of the barrel a fair distance and would be left lying on the ground where the police could find them, if they had any idea where the shooter had fired from. The sabots would retain the rifling marks that would normally be on the bullets.
9:58:04 AM
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© Copyright
2006
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
2/14/2006; 6:53:06 PM.
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