Justin Buist

A couple of my recent entries were on the Military Commissions Act (MCA). They can be found here:

Habeas Corpus
Habeas Corpus II

I think I did a pretty poor job of explaining how I feel about them. Let’s try to keep this short and simple:

• This won’t make us any more secure.
• This wasn’t be used against American citizens.
• There is room for abuse.
• It’s a shame that the law wasn’t amended with protections against tortue for suspects.
• The executive branch (current and previous) have done worse, though that is no excuse.
• Congress could have fixed this whole mess but they passed a half-assed law rife with holes.
• The system managed, I think, to protect American’s rights while tarnishing our moral fiber.

Selfishly I was simply relieved that the Federal government managed to do something that didn’t entirely shit on our rights in the name of the War on Terror.

Well, it looks like Gunner has reminded me that the powers that be aren’t afraid to do that:

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President’s ability to deploy troops within the United States.

…

Public Law 109-364, or the “John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007″ (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a “public emergency” and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to “suppress public disorder.”

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006.

That always works out real swell.

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I took a quick trip to an open house viewing this afternoon with the girlfriend. It was a listing that didn’t leave either of us very impressed but figured it was worth a look.

The first thing we noticed upon pulling up was that the front porch (cement pour) was tilted a good 5%. Wasn’t sure why that was the case.

Upon entering we both noticed that the plaster walls in the front rooms were cracked. I already knew what was happening: The whole freaking house was falling over. I know this because the house I grew up in was in the same condition at one time. There had to have been a major support beam under it rotting out. Further evidence of this trend was found throughout the house and I could tell every floor was slanted that way.

The half bath was connected to a room that could only be used for a bedroom or office. Not exactly a great situation.

The full bath was in a 2nd floor room on the old house and in room on the perimeter which meant the celing was slanted on one side. Heavily. Heavily enough that there’s no way even my 5′9″ self could stand at one end of the bathtub/shower.

The realtor did mention that there was another full shower in the basement… but the basement ends up with water in it every time it rains. So, the basement is useless for anything. I couldn’t even store the gun collection down there.

I think I’m gonna pass on this one.

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I hit the Gun Show in Grand Rapids, MI this weekend. It’s the first one I’ve gone to in I think 6 months. Generally speaking the show doesn’t change much from event to event. You’ll find the same guys selling the same junk that never moves, like the guys trying to sell 15 round Glock 19 magazines for $100 instead of the proper $25 or a used .223 Saiga for $800 that you can pick up for $300-$320 brand spanking new.

Still, there are some dealers there with a good sense of business. Products people want at reasonable prices.

One of them was Randy’s Hunting Center. I’ve purchased from them in the past at said show. In fact my very first gun was purchased from them. They had on their table something I had been interested in for a while:

Marlin 1994C but lacking the white dot at the top of the front sight post. This makes it a little bit easy to lose the front sight in my opinion. Some white nail polish might fix this up.

Once mounted it does swing about nicely. I’ll give it that. With the short receiver and 24″ barrel it feels a bit like a light O/U shotgun more than anything else.

As far as the trigger does there’s no slop to it. Feels about like a stock NEF rifle to me.

There’s no manual safety on it, which doesn’t bother me one bit, and lowering the hammer down to half cock feels as comfortable and natural as can be. Even my tiny girl sized mitts can easily reach all the necessary bits.

All that said, the thing to keep in mind here is that this gun was meant for one market only: The Cowboy Action Shooting circuit. Sure, I can think of other things that it would be suitable for, but that was really the reason it was put into production.

The only other reason somebody would buy one is just to have fun with it as a plinker. That’s what baffles me about the choice of releasing .45 Long Colt before the .38/.357 version. While I don’t know what caliber is most popular in CAS I do know that, unless you’re a reloader, dropping money on a plinker in 38/.357 is a lot easier to do than something in .45LC. However, I’m sure they had their reasons. It just was’t a choice that made it easy for me, personally, to plunk down the cash for one.

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