The Wandering Minstrel

Eventually, the Big Bang’s original eleven dimensions (eight spatial, three temporal) settled down to the four with which we are familiar. Time, the fourth dimension, is responsible for keeping everything from happening at once (like at the instant of the Big Bang).

What does that have to do with anything? This week, my schedule is so conflicted, I find myself wishing for a couple additional temporal dimensions.

End of my sad story. Given my limited time, I offer this neat picture of one of our finest and a very cool toy, frozen in time:

Since I manage my withholding and deductions closely, once again I owe a small balance to the Fed and the State. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay it before the absolute deadline. Shit - if I were getting any money back from the Governator and the People’s Republic of Kullyfoania, they would not even give me a refund for several months to come.

I filed at the last minute. Today, I received the e-file transmission report . . .

On tax day the balances will be electronically transferred to some boondoggle bail-out or pork project and I will be done for another year.

James Madison

The Second Amendment to the Constitution provides:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Congress adopted that wording and proposed it to the States in 1789. It became part of the Bill of Rights which the States ratified in 1791. As the text and the drafting history demonstrate, the Amendment was intended to guarantee the right of individuals to possess and keep ordinary firearms.

In June of 1789, James Madison stated that the Bill of Rights should expressly declare the great rights of mankind secured under this constitution. In a draft of his speech, Madison referred to the rights of “freedom of press – Conscience . . . arms” as “private rights.” This is Madison’s first draft of the “arms” provision:

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.

Ten days later, Federalist Tench Coxe explained: “As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.” Madison endorsed Coxe’s analysis.

Madison’s draft was referred to a House Select Committee. Roger Sherman, a committee member, drafted his own amendments, including that “The militia shall be under the government of the laws of the respective states, when not in the actual service of the United States . . . .” The Committee reported a revised version of Madison’s draft:

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; but no person religiously scrupulous shall be compelled to bear arms.

“Country” had been changed to “State,” but the word “free” was retained to differentiate from a “State Government.”

After much debate, the definition of “militia” became more concise, and the religious objector clause was removed. The final rendition of the Second Amendment then became the words that are familiar to most of us:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

For further analysis, read “Understanding the Second Amendment.”

Reference: Amicus Curiae Brief D.C. vs. Heller, Holbrook, et al (PDF).

Cross posted at Cap’n Bob & the Damsel

Welcome 2A Roundup readers . . .

The better half caught this flash from the muzzle of ‘Fat Man,’ my Glock 30 .45 ACP compact pistol. We were at the range for target practice this morning when she made the video; I took a single frame from the video and cropped it for this shot.

Here’s some interesting stuff about muzzle blast:

Muzzle blast characteristics

The muzzle blast is often broken down into two components, an auditory component and a non-auditory component. The auditory component, the sound of the muzzle blast, is important because it can cause hearing loss or give away the gun’s position, while the non-auditory component, the overpressure wave, can cause damage to items near the blast.

Auditory

• Sound - The sound of a gunshot can be loud enough to produce hearing loss, and with big guns such as artillery, that danger can extend outwards a significant distance from the muzzle. Muzzle blasts can reach levels of 140 decibels, which can cause permanent hearing loss even with brief and infrequent exposure.
• Overpressure wave (concussion) - The overpressure wave from the muzzle blast of a firearm can contain a significant amount of energy; in artillery, the force of the muzzle blast can cause damage to surrounding structures and vehicles. Residual pressures at the muzzle can be a significant fraction of the peak chamber pressure, especially when slow burning powders or short barrels are used.

Non -auditory

• Muzzle glow - Muzzle glow is a reddish glow that is visible before the bullet leaves the barrel. Muzzle glow is created by superheated gases that have leaked past the projectile and have exited the barrel.
• Primary flashes - The primary flash is caused by propellant gases exiting the firearm behind the bullet. Although amongst the brightest of the flashes, the heat of the primary flash dissipates quickly and thus is no longer visible.
• Intermediate flashes - The intermediate flash is caused by shock waves created by the high speeds of the escaping gases and projectile, and appears as a reddish disc shape in front of the muzzle.
• Secondary flashes - Secondary flash appears farthest from the muzzle as a large white or yellow flame. Secondary flash is caused by the mixture of fuel-rich gases and oxygen in the atmosphere surrounding the muzzle.
• Sparks - Following the dissipation of the muzzle flash, partially unburnt powder or other heated materials can be ejected from the muzzle and appear as sparks.

We saw this on the road the other day. I didn’t actually know what it was, so I looked it up on WikiPedia.

The Can-Am Spyder roadster is a trike made by Bombardier Recreational Products that was released in 2007. Similar in layout to a modern snowmobile, the Spyder uses an ATV-like chassis with a single rear drive wheel, and two wheels in front for steering. The main feature of the vehicle is a stability system or VSS that monitors the vehicle at all times and intervenes in case one of the front wheels lifts off the ground (It cuts the engine and applies the brake on the outer wheel) A team of more than 30 engineers, technicians, designers, mechanics and buyers worked full time in Valcourt, Quebec to realize this project, this combination of expertise helped create the Spyder as it is known today.

Fat Man and Little Boy of the family Glock . . .

Glock 30 Subcompact Handgun

The Glock 30 has a .45 caliber cartridge. It is a highly concealable, personal defense handgun..

To many Americans, there is only one caliber for a personal defense handgun and that’s the .45.

Glock 26 Subcompact Handgun

The Glock 26 has a .9×19 cartridge. It is a highly concealable, personal defense handgun. The Glock 26, often referred to as the “Baby Glock,” has created a true and practical auto pistol alternative to the standard five-shot snub-nose revolver.

I like these guns a lot. Maybe you could have guessed that.

Image Above: Glock 30 and Glock 26 - clickable image.

When I saw the long acronym in John Derbyshire’s post about acronyms, I wondered what the Second Amendment would look like acronymized. So, I came up with this graphic - the line breaks are aligned with the commas in the original 2A text.

The result is four not very pronounceable streams of letters. Not of much public relations use, but I did find it to be a handy learning aid - a reminder of the words in the Second Amendment, should you want to commit it to memory.

I found this on the Club for Growth blog.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, charts are basically pictures. Club member Charley Kyd sent me this beautiful chart. When he is not volunteering to help the pro-growth cause, his online business helps business users of Excel or people who need to make Excel charts.

A quick look at this graphic makes me think that pinning the blame or credit for the performance on Wall Street on the president is not necessarily the correct thing. It looks like the composition of the congress has more correlation to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The ‘dot com’ boom of the 90s accelerated with a Republican congress under Bill Clinton, but stalled in the last session. After George W. Bush came in, Bernie Sanders, then a RINO, defected and put the Senate under the Democrats and Tom Daschle. The crash associated with the events of 9/11 put a strain on the market, but started to recover again with the Republican congress in 2002.

The Obamination blames Bush for the performance late in his term, but what really happened is that the financial sector melted down from the ‘bad loans’ made under (mostly) Democrat sponsored acts. Throw in a few RINOs and you can see where we are today.

Now, Congress and the Administration aren’t the only things that influence the market, but we’re clearly not getting the kind of help we need from them either.