Assault Weapon Ban

 Trouble is, there is no real difference that you can measure with a ruler between “assault riles” and deer rifles.  An “assault weapons ban” would be a ban on all rifles because there is nothing you can point to that makes assault rifles different from any other rifle. 

  In actual fact, there are styling differences.  The “assault rifles” are, or look like; AR-15’s, black plastic stock, detachable magazine, chambered for .22 center fire, and finished in some military antireflective and water resistant finish.  Hunting rifles usually have walnut stocks, any kind of ammunition feed, chambered for any cartridge ever manufactured, and blued metal work.  I submit that these are styling differences and do not make one more deadly than the other.

 

   The anti gunners pushing to revive the old “assault weapons ban” are perfectly happy to ban anything that shoots, so they don’t care. 

Gun Violence

 The newsies are using this phrase all the time.  Makes it sound like the gun did the crime.  “Gun violence” on the media is better described as either murder or armed robbery.  Both of these crimes are listed in the Ten Commandments. 

   Use of the “gun violence” phrase suggests the speaker is anti gun and wants to ban all the guns in America. 

Biden will switch us to battery cars

 rather than increasing US oil production.  He said as much on the last news conference.  "Transistion" he called it.  

Trouble is, new battery cars cost $60K as compared to a new econobox for a bit more than $20K.  And, cars last ten years nowadays so it would take 10 years to re equip everyone with a $60K battery car.  That's assuming people only buy new cars when the car they are driving needs replacement.  And the best they have claimed for battery range is 400 miles.  And it takes 2-3 hours on the battery charger to charge it up.  So a trip more than 400 miles will take 2-3 hours longer while you cool your heels waiting on the battery charger.  Whereas my old Buick with a full gas tank will go 500 miles (far enough to reach my daughter's place in Maryland).  And the gas tank refills in a couple of minutes.  And want to bet the 400 mile claim of battery range is inflated?  And nobody is talking about how long the battery lasts, and what a replacement might cost.  Ordinary car batteries only last 4 winters up here.  I have no idea how long a lithium battery might last.  Or what the chances of it bursting into flames are.  

Let's elect Republicans who will increase US oil production. 

Texas School Shooting is terrible.

 I an horrified by the Texas school shooting.  My sincerest sympathies to the bereaved. 

How useful is a hyprsonic missile?

 The Air Force announced a successful test flight of one just the other day.  Since the Chinese had announced they had a hypersonic missile a week or so ago, it sounds like the Air Force has had a hypersonic program going for quite some time.  It takes more time than a few weeks to get something like a hypersonic missile to fly.  Sounds groovy but... It takes a lot of fuel to get up to mach 5.  Wanna bet the range of this missile isn't so great?  Existing cruise missiles like Tomahawk fly somewhat below mach 1 and have transcontinental range.  You can launch from say England and hit most of Russia, all of the middle east, the northern half of Africa.  Tomahawk flies so low that ground radar cannot see it.  If the radar cannot see you the fighters cannot find you.  

   One fine day while I was in the Air Force Air Defense Command we were practicing.  We sent a target aircraft (a helpless T-33) up north and then turned him around to come south.  The radar guys got to practice tracking, the SAGE center got to practice vectoring fighters and the fighter crews got some flight time.  Only this day, the radar guys could not see the target.  "Can you come up another thousand feet?" the controller asked the target.  No joy, we still could not see it.  We had to get the target up to 10,000 feet before he showed up on radar.  I am sure that a Tomahawk cruise missile down at 1000 feet will never show on radar.   And Tomahawk has the range to go about anywhere. 

   So, groovy as hypersonic sounds, I am betting on conventional cruise missiles to do the work.

Lunch at Chik Fil A

 We don't have Chik Fil A up in New Hampshire, not yet at least.  They got a lot of press coverage a while back.  I cannot remember the issue now.  So when I saw one in the shopping center I just had to try it out. Anyhow had lunch, a Chik Wich, Fries, and coffee only $8.69.  That's cheaper than McD's.  Very good.  Most customers stayed in their cars and lined up for the takeout window.  I wanted to see a menu so I parked and ate inside.  

Note for Plumbers

Water faucets ought to have a marking on them that shows which handle is for hot water and which is for cold water.  It need not be much, a red dot for hot and a blue dot for cold works.  But new and shiny faucets with no marking it all are annoying.