McFreedom

InstaPundit and Donald Sensing are speaking today about the poor quality and effectiveness of the US M9 sidearm. For personal and home defense, I rely on a number of Sig Sauer 9MM pistols. Unlike the US Military, I am not hampered by the Geneva Convention and can use "exotic" rounds which allow the 9MM to pack something of a whallop. I own an M1911 (not A1), and I really admire its ahead-of-its-time design (this design is 93 years old, and doesn't look antiquated in the least). I think the .45 round makes a ton of sense in a military situation where you are limited to ball ammunition. As a civilian, though, I like the lighter weight, higher capacity and greater control afforded by 9MM. An additional consideration for me (and the US military) is that 9MM is the most popular pistol caliber in the world, and there's never going to be trouble finding it. I can certainly say, though, were I limited to ball ammunition, I'd be a .45 caliber man.

I find it especially interesting that Glenn Reynolds says that the Beretta M9 he fired "felt cheap...[o]f course, everything feels cheap by comparision [to Sig Sauers]." That is, of course, precisely why the US Military went with the Beretta 92F (now M9) over the Sig Sauer P226. The Beretta design and the P226 were the only two designs which passed all of the military's tests when they were searching for a new sidearm. The military went with the Beretta because they had the low bid. You, of course, get what you pay for.

inutile: Found via the always enlightening Belmont Club, who uses it thusly: "The right [to replace a despot] is not rooted in treaty, unless the inutile UN Declaration of Human Rights is counted...." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition defines inutile as "Lacking in utility or serviceability; not useful."

Finally moved McFreedom to publish to my server, this morning. No one else should notice any difference, but it means that, if BlogSpot hosting goes down, you can still get here. It also means I have a copy of everything should BlogSpot suddenly go away. And, I can keep statistics and even do neat things like adding active code to the pages.

No one else should care, but I'm happy about it. Email me with broken links.

Jim Hinley, in his blog "Unqualified Offerings" (new to me, but highly regarded by Amygdala) notes my speculation about the recent commerce clause machine gun decision, and comments a little about the recent medical marijuana case.

Clearly, the appeals court here decided differently than I predicted, although I am still highly skeptical that the Supreme Court will allow this decision to stand. That said, I'm obviously happy with the decision, and the resulting slap-down of Congressional overstep of Commerce Clause power. This is a topic I'd prefer to be wrong on.

Was listening to Forum, the local NPR call-in show in the Bay Area, while I was doing my Nordic Tracking, this morning. It's really a great combination, since the NT gets my heart rate up and Forum gets my blood pressure up. The topic this morning was Saddam Hussein, with no guests. Imagine "Open Line Friday" on "Rush Limbaugh" but with insane left-wingers instead of insane right-wingers. If you feel your blood pressure is too low, you can listen to the whole thing around here. Inexplicably, they don't seem to have permanent links to individual programs, but you can navigate to the 12/16/03 program and listen to the 9:00 hour. You could also hit yourself in the head repeatedly with a baseball bat. I'm not sure which action I'd suggest as being less painful.

Many of the callers (the ones who weren't espousing conspirancy theories, anyway) felt that this was the perfect opportunity for the UN to get involved. Never mind, of course, that our failure to capture Saddam meant, a week ago, that it was now time for the UN to get involved. Whatever happens, it's now time for the UN to get involved.

All of this completely ignores the fact that the reason the UN left Iraq is because they were unable to accept the casualties they were taking there. As the New York Times notes, "In his report to the Security Council last week, Mr. Annan ruled out a swift United Nations return to Iraq because of the dangers there." Al Qaeda and the Baathists have surely learned that bloodying the nose of the United Nations results in a swift retreat. It is not possible that a returned UN presence would not be the target of choice for any terrorists hoping to dislodge the West's foothold in the Middle East.

What I'd like to hear from Mr. Dean and others in his corner, is how they plan to strengthen the UN's spine before it returns to Baghdad - or what their plan is to shore up Iraq after the international community inevitably flees with its tail between its legs. Again. For better or for worse, this situation is of our making. Mr. Dean feels that our deposing Mr. Hussein was a terrible mistake, making much worse in the region. While I dispute that notion, I think his proposed solution is even more ridiculous. He somehow thinks we'll gain international prestige by saying, "This is our mess, now you clean it up." If the Coalition should not have invaded Iraq alone, then the Coalition alone should be responsible for reconstructing Iraq.

On the other hand, if the war in Iraq was a legitimate international effort, we should feel no shame in asking for help from those that have shirked their responsibilities. I'm sure we'd take all the honest help we can get. But allies - or international agencies - who cut and run at the first sign of trouble are worse than no allies at all.

This is the same editorial he published in a South Carolina paper a few weeks ago, but if you haven't read it yet, OSC's editorial, The Campaign of Hate and Fear is very good essay.

While I'm not normally all that convinced by the "non-barking dogs prove media bias" theory, I find today's anti-terrorism demonstration and resulting lack of coverage in the mainstream press to be nothing short of remarkable. CNN has nothing on its front page; it's hard to imaging this not being the top story if it were 10,000 Iraqis protesting America. Not only is this not in CNN's top stories, I can't find it on CNN at all. How is this not even news at all? No wonder people think things are going awfully over there...

If you or someone you love (or hate, for that matter) are looking for an excercise machine, I'd suggest checking out Nordic Track. Their heyday was in the early 90s. They ranged at the time from the Challenger ($299), to the Sequoia ($399), to the Excel ($499), the Pro ($599), Achiever and Elite (prices unknown). The Pro and below had an adjustable strap to set tension on the flywheel (the more tension, the tougher the workout). The Pro was made of oak; many of the cheaper models were made of pine. The Achiver and Elite had a knob you turn to set resistance, and were made of Walnut. There was also a seperate "Sport" line, but I've been unable to find anything about the model gradiations. The "Sport" line had similar functionality breaks to the regular line, but the skis were graphite and the metal parts were painted white, making it look more like something you'd find in a health club.

The Pro is the only one still sold, currently at an MSRP of $599. Today's Pro seems to be yesteryear's Achiever on a Pro body; you set resistance with a knob, but it seems to be made of oak. You also get the optional book stand for free.

Unfortunately for Nordic Track, there was a bubble in these things last decade. They're also torture devices good workout machines, so if you're not seriously into it, it's easy to let it sit. They also have a bit of a learning curve, so there are a lot of people out there who have had one for years and only used it once.

On ebay, they go for about $125 plus shipping (generally another $75 or so). But, on Craigslist they go for $75 or less. If you're really patient you can probably get one for $35, or even less. Recently I saw one in Berkley that was listed as, "Here's my address...it's out in front of my house, come get it." Much as with buying a $500 20 year old car, there is little financial risk involved; if you buy a $35 Nordic Track, don't use it, and sell it six months from now, it won't be worth much less than $35.

I picked one up for $75 (a little extra because it was in very nice shape and still had the original documentation, etc). I'm thinking about keeping my eyes open for a second one for $20 or less so my wife and I can excecise at the same time... I don't know if this depressed market is just an SF Bay Area thing; or Craigslist thing (they may be more in local newspaper wantads), so you may not be able to find a price this good where you are. Also don't be discouraged if you look and see a few high prices; some people are unwilling to admit the vast depreciation these things went through and are still trying to get $400 for them.