Be Gracious, if You Can

Hope everyone will take a minute to say a prayer for Ted Kennedy, who is under the knife right now having a brain tumor removed.

Taking a Break From Resting

I don’t know if anyone paid attention when I recommended The Complete Jewish Bible and its accompanying volume, The Jewish New Testament Commentary–wow, it just occurred to me that the name of that book is going to make a lot of people upset–but in case anyone did, I have great news. The commentary picks up speed once you get through Matthew. I thought I would take a month to get through the first New Testament book, but it didn’t take quite that long, and I finished the second book in an hour or two.

To my Jewish friends who hate my use of the term “Messianic Jew,” let me point out that you have an unexpected bedfellow. Sort of. Dr. David Stern, compiler of these volumes, has a real problem with terms that sound too Christian. So he has taken pains to cleanse the Bible of words that would irritate Jewish readers. For example, he refers to the cross as an “execution stake.” That will make the Mormons happy, I guess. It’s kind of annoying, seeing familiar passages disguised by this kind of editing. But I know his heart is in the right place.

I grew up surrounded by Jews, so I tend to forget that they are, as the Bible says, “separate.” Reading this book helps me understand how separate they really feel. I didn’t understand their horror of Christianity until recently. No wonder they vote for Christian-baiting Democrats. No wonder they supported godless Joe Stalin, back in the USSR. I suppose anyone who believes in Jesus seems like a threat.

It’s not a rational attitude, though. While there are plenty of Christian anti-Semites, I am fairly sure that the bulk of the last century’s anti-Semitic behavior was carried out by socialists, Nazis, and Muslims. Who also despise the Christian church. The Inquisition was quite some time ago. And leftism is becoming more anti-Semitic by the year. If you don’t trust all Christians, you’re smart. If you distrust every Christian, you’re not thinking.

I have had a pleasant day so far. I read sixty chapters of Enoch, in addition to working on the Gospels. The book of Enoch existed before Jesus lived, and to a Christian eye, it’s all about the Messiah. I hope one day it turns out to be legitimate.

It talks about the Medes and the Parthians attacking Israel and being wiped out near Jerusalem. “Medes and Parthians” means “Iranians.” I checked. Interesting. Also, disturbing. One would hope that the present Iran/Israel friction could be resolved. Assuming Enoch can be taken seriously, I hope it’s referring to some future conflict, and not something that is already upon us.

Today I thought about the second, and most powerful, purpose of the New Covenant. The baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the thing that poses the biggest threat to the god of this world, so naturally, it’s the thing that has been attacked and ridiculed and minimized the most. Salvation, salvation, salvation. That’s all we hear. But that’s only one piece of the gift, and in this lifetime, it is by far the smaller piece.

The Holy Spirit is what gives you power, and it’s what improves your character and enables you to conquer sin. And it doesn’t just happen automatically, regardless of what your church teaches; the baptism is an event separate from the event of receiving salvation. It’s available to anyone, and we’re supposed to have it, but not every believer gets it, and that’s the way the enemy wants it. You can be saved but weak and ineffectual in this life, and that’s how most Christians are. Jesus worked miracles and spoke prophetically and so on, and the Holy Spirit is what enabled Him to do it, and when He left, we were expected to receive it and continue His work.

I thought about it in connection with the improvements I’ve made in my own behavior and attitudes. I’m not dense; I have been aware that these things were caused by God. But today it really hit me, just how little credit I can take. I have been able to do some very good things lately, which were harder to do in the past. Or which I just chose not to do. And I know the change is not because I worked hard or read the Bible or got serious. It was the action of God inside me. Maybe I can take credit for a tiny little seed of desire, but that’s about it. Without God, I would have been happy to stay as I was (“happy” may be the wrong word), and I might well have given up and assimilated, taking on the entire moral view of godless people, instead of a limited version.

This is the wild thing about the Holy Spirit. It enables you conduct yourself better. And then God gives you credit, as if you did it on your own. So when people talk about the generosity of God, they don’t begin to do it justice.

That being said, it’s kind of a bummer, realizing how not-special you are.

Interesting thing to look for: in the Bible, the number seven often symbolizes the Holy Spirit. I think this is why the menorah in the holy of holies had seven lamps. I believe “menorah” is the wrong term for this particular lampstand, but I am too lazy to look up the proper term. Oil also symbolizes the Holy Spirit, and what do you burn in a menorah?

I better quit before I start sounding like a gematria nut.

Keep me Out of This Scrap

Jewish friends are unhappy because I keep using the term “Messianic Jew.” My response? It’s not appropriate for me to get involved in this battle. It’s among Jews. Or between Jews and…whatever you want to call the others. And on the Internet, it would be crazy to use an obscure PC term (“RC”? “Religiously Correct”?) that won’t get attention from Google users. I guess I could call them “Deluded Followers of Yeshu the False Messiah,” but no one using Google would ever know I was writing about them.

Yes, I know about “Yeshu” and what it means. It’s hard to keep a thing like that secret.

I call Jehovah’s Witnesses “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” even though I don’t think they’ve witnessed anything except a gigantic fraud. I don’t think this nomenclature thing is a major issue. I’m not using the term “Messianic Jew” because I want to suggest that these people are still Jews. I am pretty sure I haven’t gotten into that argument. I use the term because it’s efficient.

In response to a comment, I pointed out that Israel’s Law of Return rejects Messianic Jews. Atheists and agnostics? Fine. An Orthodox rabbi who keeps the law for 50 years, decides Jesus is the Messiah, and then continues observing? No sale.

As most people probably know, the Nazis exterminated Messianic Jews. They had a more liberal definition of “Jew” than Israel’s Ministry of the Interior. And when future persecution arises, you can bet the Nazi definition, or something similar, will be applied. Which means we could conceivably end up with an S.S. St. Louis situation, in which Israel turns away refugees persecuted for their perceived Jewishness. Weird.

I can see drawing a religious distinction, but the civil distinction seems likely to end in tragedy. I’m sure it has, already. Israel has probably rejected a few people who went on to suffer greatly because they couldn’t get in.

Anyway, it’s not up to me; it’s not my party. I wouldn’t try to tell the rabbis what to do, and I don’t have a voice in what happens in Israel, nor should I or any other Gentile. But you are going to have to put up with “Messianic Jews” on this blog. Out of respect, I gave way on “C.E.” and “B.C.E.”, but I am not going to type something odd like “Ex-Jews for Jesus” every time I refer to these people. That’s too much to ask.

Here’s a question that occurs to me. Will the Jews ever accept any Messiah, universally? The nature of faith is peculiar; you can believe–or refuse to believe–almost anything. People think faith is more closely tied to logic than it really is. The truth is, your beliefs are shaped by your desires. If the Messiah comes, and the thousand-year Messianic Age begins, will everyone believe, or will there be holdouts? My money is on the second option. I think that if the Messiah came tomorrow, a big percentage of Jews and Christians would refuse to believe it. That’s just how people are.

Right now, there is a big conflict between mainstream Orthodox Jews and a group of people who think the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, is the Messiah. He’s dead, and there has been no resurrection. But they still hope. Their beliefs seem crazy to most Jews and nearly all Christians, but I can’t help feeling some sympathy. It can be very hard to figure out what’s true and what isn’t. I’m sure these folks are doing their best. Anyone can make a mistake. Even a mistake that seems incredible to others.

I believe the best proof that people believe what they want is that so many people have supernatural experiences and then ignore them. I can’t do that. If something happened, it happened. I can’t make it go away by pretending otherwise. But I believe most people can do that. I’ll bet there are people who will read this blog post, who have seen something miraculous and then gone on as if nothing had happened. And my opinion is consistent with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar.

This must be one reason we see so few miracles. If you won’t believe without a miracle, a miracle probably won’t help, because your problem is that you prefer not to believe. Isn’t that the big lesson of Exodus? Those people saw miracles every day, yet they still had problems with idolatry and lack of faith. You would think one month of manna would resolve a person’s doubts for life.

I read some interesting stuff the other day. I checked out Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s site. He’s a Messianic clergyman. I believe his mother was a Gentile, and he was raised Orthodox, and then he came to believe Jesus was the Messiah. He has a number of articles posted. Some discuss Satan and demons.

Unlike most Jews and Christians, he rejects the notion that angels are asexual. He believes they can reproduce with human women, and that this is what happened prior to the flood. The idea is this: these beings wanted to taint the bloodline of the Messiah, so they impregnated human women and gave rise to a crop of superhuman beings with unnatural abilities. And the behavior of these beings was disgusting, and they infected mankind with their pride and debauchery, and the flood was necessary to exterminate them.

He says the Jews who created the Septuagint used the Greek term for “Titans” to describe the offspring of the angels. This is translated “giants” in English. But the Titans were figures in Greek mythology. Fruchtenberg says the translators were trying to find a term to describe a race fathered by immortals. He says the Titans were regarded as half human and half god, and I can’t find anything to substantiate that. But the Greek gods did breed with humans.

I found this interesting, because it dovetails with the notion that the apocryphal book of Enoch is legitimate scripture. It appears that it was referred to approvingly in the book of Jude, so you can’t discount it out of hand.

Enoch lived before the flood. He was so righteous, he was assumed into heaven. According to Aaron, the Jews suspect that God assumed him because He feared Enoch was about to commit his first sin.

The book of Enoch is supposedly Enoch’s first-person narrative of his experiences in heaven. There are two parts to the book. One part, frankly, seems nutty. For example, it says lightning bolts are stored somewhere in heaven, which is not exactly credible. But the other part of the book makes a good deal of sense. My suspicion is that the bad part was grafted onto the good part and ought to be discarded.

Enoch says fallen angels came down on Mt. Hermon–the snow-capped mountain at Israel’s northern border–and proceeded to impregnate women and teach men things like metalworking, agriculture, and astrology. I can’t remember all of it. I may re-read it today. But it seems very consistent with Dr. Fruchtenberg’s notions. The book is also full of prophetic material concerning the end of the world. If the book is legitimate, that’s exciting, because prophecy is extremely confusing, and new input would certainly be helpful. Especially if it comports with what we already have before us.

For a long time, I have thought that Mt. Hermon had special significance. I wrote about this a while back. The Banias is at its base. This is an ancient center of pagan worship. The “Ban” comes from “Pan,” who is the physical model for our goat-like conception of Satan. Caesarea Philippi, which was associated with idolatry, was built near the Banias. And it’s where Jesus first claimed to be the Messiah. It’s where his ministry really got going. It’s the place where he told Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” I suspect that beginning his ministry there was a deliberate insult to the god of this world, just as the plagues of Egypt were intended to humiliate that nation’s “gods.”

The Jordan, which has so many symbolic meanings, starts on and around Hermon and runs the length of Israel. Pagans used to pollute it at one of its sources, throwing sacrifices into the water at the Banias. Is it just me, or are those acts sort of reminiscent of the attempt to pollute the human bloodline? Years ago, I came to believe that in the Bible, the water of the Jordan symbolizes humanity.

If you’re not religious, it sounds crazy. If you are, it’s better than Art Bell.

Dr. Fruchtenbaum believes all angels are male. I disagree. In chapter 5, Zechariah mentions female angels. I have another reason to disagree, but I won’t go into it.

Have a good Sunday.

Try as I May

Before I get started, I have something totally irrelevant to share with you. I think I have come up with the name by which Al Gore will be known throughout the centuries. “Pope Prius I.” Let’s get started on those mugs and T-shirts.

With that behind me, let me say that I was moved by the comments I got on last night’s post, in which I noted that my religious posts were being blamed for a fall in traffic. You can see what I wrote about it. I pointed out that there were other factors at work, and that I wasn’t planning to make any changes. I figured heathens would pop up and tell me what a repressive, backward creep I was. But readers, including non-Christians, were surprisingly supportive.

Reader Kim said: “I almost feel like you are minstering to me. And it gives me so much to think about. God is using your gift with words to spread His word.”

It feels great to think I might have done something positive here. I can assure everyone, I am not qualified to be a minister, but I know even ordinary Christians can be of use simply by relating their experiences. If you’re getting anything out of what I write, fantastic.

Km says: “I’m happy that you’re finding greater peace. And I enjoy watching the journey unfold.”

That’s an exemplary comment. I often get comments in which people complain that I don’t do what makes them happy; here is someone who put my welfare first. If you want to know how good your friends are, it’s pretty simple. The more they put your needs ahead of their own and encourage you to improve yourself, the truer they are. I’ve found that friends who consistently take from me and push me to regress eventually have to be set free.

Dan from Madison says: “I can’t speak much to you about your religion. What I can say is that you should tell everyone to pound sand if they don’t like your blog.”

Can’t argue with that. I have often wondered what “pound sand” really means, but I don’t want to explore the topic at the moment.

Aaron says: “Living with someone is a real test on whether you’re walking the walk in private. And it’s a constant opportunity to do kindness. Doing your own dishes can be fine, but relieving a spouse of a chore can be a beautiful act. Less opportunity for that kind of stuff when solo.”

Absolutely true. Religious Jews are collectors and disseminators of wisdom, and Aaron is no exception. About Aaron, Ed Bonderenka says: “What Aaron said: wow. How beautifully put. Your choice of friends (who will be friend to you) reflects on you. Aaron reflects well.”

I could not agree more.

Rightisright says: “I enjoy your gun and cooking posts. I mostly skip over the religious ones. I had the Bible shoved down my throat as a young’un and no longer have a taste for it. That said, I believe most people who identify themselves as Christian are decent, productive citizens.”

Tolerance for Christianity! Completely unfashionable! But I’ll take it.

Keith says: “I will never understand people who try to tell others what to write about.”

Yeah, imagine getting up in the morning and trying to figure out what to write, in order to make your readers happy. Where is the fun in that? It sounds horrible. Although now that I think about it, I know some bloggers who do that and nothing else.

Another Kim says: “I can identify with your reminiscences on past posts or blogs. I regret things I’ve said, emailed and posted. You, graciously, let some go.”

I can beat that. I’ve also forgotten them. Not because I’m gracious. Because I forget EVERYTHING.

Jim says:

“Onward Christian Soldier, Steve.

God, Guns and the Grill. (well, the whole kitchen n’ kaboodle, m’kay?)

I’m in for all of it, to be perfectly blunt. You just keep writing, and I’ll just keep reading.

And enjoying, more with each post.”

Wow, Jim, thanks. Jim is from Texas. Can you tell?

Groverat says: “I, for one, or FWIW, enjoy your blog. You have written some extremely insightful stuff lately. and your comment: “so I don’t worry about pleasing customers” —- just remember, in this life we should be playing to an audience of one, and that is God.”

Thank you for the encouragement.

Mike LaRoche says: “For what it’s worth, I enjoy reading your thoughts on religion. I’ve fallen away from my own faith (Catholic) over the past dozen years or so, but the points you bring up in your religion posts have made me think about what I may have been missing during that time.”

“For what it’s worth”? It’s worth a lot, from where I sit. Here’s my “for what it’s worth”: it seems to me that daily, consistent prayer drives the process and takes much of the difficulty out of it.

Anthony says: “Though I find some of the technical aspects about reloading a total bore, I enjoy your enthusiasm about God and firearms. Especially, since I’m a yank living in England – where firearms, and in some circles God, are in short supply.”

Oh, man. England. Are they as backslidden as the rest of Europe? The technical stuff about reloading is somewhat boring to me, too, and I’m the one writing it. But I get much-needed information that way.

Brian says: “Just some feedback: I visit your site every day because you’re a good writer! I skim the gun stuff. That’s not one of my interests now. I am not a Christian but I enjoy reading your thoughts on religion.”

If you hear about religion from the right person, in the right way, it shouldn’t be unpleasant. Many a non-believer has missed his chance because he got the message in the wrong way or from the wrong person. Such as a conquistador seated on his chest.

Josh R says: “I for one have always read your blog as a “guilty pleasure” I am glad you have turned the corner and tidied up a bit.”

Working on it.

Electro-Dude says: “what keeps me coming back is the hope that one day I’ll once more be able to read about stupid people being eaten by alligators. Those were the golden years my friend, and a category of writing that you made your own.”

Yes, I believe I invented the genre.

J. West says:

1. It’s your blog.
2. Been reading you for a long time.
3. You generally write well, which is interesting in itself.
4. Look forward to reading you one, two years from now.

Thanks. Hope I still have something to say.

Ryan says:

I have my shares of struggles attempting to learn from past mistakes and all but there is true blessing in reading about someone else’s journey. I appreciate that you will present some jewel that I’ve never considered. And I offer my sincere thanks for that.

I steadfast in my conviction that the Lord will always be there for me, and it continues that I am able to enjoy proper discernment. That said, I know that the reason I originally found your site so long ago was the twisted humor of Nigerian spammers and decadent recipes but the true blessing is finding that someone else struggles just as I do.

Lately I have found myself hoping that questionable stuff I wrote in the past would give me an audience before which to reform and write things that were more useful. Maybe it’s happening.

That’s about it.

I keep finding good stuff in The Complete Jewish Bible and The Complete Jewish New Testament Commentary. I can’t recommend this stuff highly enough. If you want something that will make Bible study new and interesting to you, this is it. In fact, even backslidden Christians might enjoy it, just for the history.

I wanted to write about something I saw in there the other day, but I can’t find it. It was about the end times, and how we would venerate youth and have no respect for the old. Has that come true, or what? First rock and roll drove a permanent wedge between the generations. And the misguided Sixties tainted two generations. Now technology is pushing older people out of the mainstream of society. The older you are, the less likely you are to understand technology, and the less competent you seem.

There are few things more perverse or damaging or sinful than disrespect for the old and disproportionate respect for the young. The young know almost nothing. They are full of ideas which seem brilliant to them, but which are actually dangerous, evil, and stupid. When the ideas of the young take precedence, you end up with scenarios like Cambodia under Pol Pot. Things like empathy and patience lose all their value. People are seen as objects. The old find themselves abandoning their hard-won maturity and emulating their ignorant, unseasoned juniors. Cruelty abounds. Maybe that’s why the Internet is so cruel. It’s slanted toward the young.

I wish I could find the reference I’m thinking of. It said something about people in that time having faces like dogs. I thought that was funny, because for the last ten years or so, we have been coping with an epidemic of creepy, convict-style chin beards. They really do make men look like dogs.

Why is it that I’m the only one who has written about our increasing willingness to take fashion cues from prison inmates? Doesn’t anyone else see it? The black tattoos, the chin beards, the shaved heads. Classic convict style. We are emulating the biggest losers in society. Seems like a mistake to me. People have a tendency to become what they imitate.

My impression is that our current youth-worship fad is unprecedented in western history. Am I wrong? I can’t think of a time when so much unwarranted deference was given to flaky, half-baked children.

Reader Susan H. sent a link a while back. I haven’t explored it very well, but it will be of interest to Christians who want to know more about their religion’s Jewish roots. It goes to a site operated by a rabbi named Fruchtenbaum.

Aaron doesn’t like this stuff too much. But it’s not like there are a lot of sources to choose from. If you’re Christian, and you want to learn about the Jewish nature of Christianity, you either go to Messianic Jews or you do without.

Hope some of this proves to be of use.

Blog Traffic is What Really Matters

Got a comment today implying my traffic is slumping solely because I write about religion. Not because I write about guns. That’s not true. People complain about the gun posts. Almost no one complains about the religious posts, but I guess that’s because it’s a touchy thing to criticize, and because most people don’t want to look like they have a problem with God.

Traffic is down for a number of other reasons, too. For one thing, I have cleaned up the blog to some extent. That’s not popular on the Internet. Let’s face it; the Internet is filthy and cruel, and that accounts for a big part of its popularity.

How many of us, twenty years ago, would have expected a day would come when words like “goatse” and “tubgirl” would instantly bring familiar images to mind? Nobody could have seen that coming. The Internet has provided a wealth of information, and it’s a boon to commerce, but it’s also our collective id. Thanks to the Internet, movies of women having sex with dogs and horses are only a credit-card transaction away. The same can be said of kiddie porn or whatever other disgusting entertainment turns you on. Ogrish. Liveleak videos of American GIs being blown apart by snipers. You name it; it’s out there.

We are getting very mean and gross in this country. And the Internet is one reason. Thanks to anonymity and distance, we can say things about people we would ordinarily never dream of saying. Traditional wisdom says that if you can vent your anger harmlessly, you’ll reduce the level of anger you carry during the day. I think that’s completely wrong. It gets you used to expressing anger, so you do it more often.

Back when I was running Huffington’s Toast, I was criticized by my guest writers because I tried to keep things relatively tame. Some of them wanted to pull out all the stops. I didn’t want to be responsible for a site like that. And I felt like I was showing restraint. But in retrospect, I see I wasn’t restrained enough. That applies to most of my history as a blogger, not just the Huffington’s Toast era. Even though I thought I was pulling punches, I published stuff that I now realize went too far. I didn’t do the world a favor by putting that material before the public.

I read something disturbing the other day. It’s funny, how you can think you’re a knowledgeable Christian and then read something in the Bible that takes you by surprise. Somewhere in Matthew, Jesus said people would pay for all their careless utterances. And elsewhere, Paul says not to indulge in filthy talk. I have a pretty serious track record to worry about. I don’t want to make it worse.

These days, many conservatives on the web work very hard to remind people that they’re hip. They use bad language to excess. They make it clear they don’t believe in God. They endorse modern morality, which is to say, the absence of morality. They hide behind cheap, convenient tolerance, trying to turn moral spinelessness into a virtue. I don’t want to get caught up in that, any more than I already have. I don’t smoke dope. I think sex outside of marriage is stupid. I would love to see pornography outlawed. I pray every day, and I don’t really care who knows it. I believe in Satan and demons, just like Jesus did. And I think the urge to be cool is a symptom of severe, crippling immaturity. In fact, I’m completely certain of it. I am trying to grow up a little. It would be nice to see the idea catch on. Maybe it is. I know a few people who seem to be way ahead of me.

I guess I put people off. A lot of people feel extremely uneasy when they hear someone talk about God. I don’t. I know I did in the past, but it was a long time ago, and my memory of the sensation is not good, and I don’t empathize very well with people who still have the feeling. It’s peculiar that it makes people uncomfortable. Why is that? If He created us and wants to make us part of a beautiful plan, shouldn’t the natural thing be to feel drawn to religion? I remember being uncomfortable around preachers and other religious people, but I can’t remember why I felt that way.

I’ve been moving in this direction for a year or two, and I feel better and better as I make progress. When God takes too small a role in my life, I tend to feel like a kid who ate an entire box of chocolates by himself. I do things that I hope will bring me peace and pleasure and so on, but they’re always a little off, somehow. And they usually have a price, the way liquor has a hangover. I tend to feel sated but somehow indebted. When you do the things a Christian does, it’s different. You get better satisfaction, with no aftertaste. The godless life leaves me feeling crusty and tired and grimy, like I need a shower and a clean bed. Living in a more spiritual way leaves me feeling clean and free and nourished. It’s impossible to explain to someone who hasn’t been there, but I suppose many other Christians will know instantly what I mean. It’s not really a sacrifice, and it doesn’t produce a dry, ascetic, puritanical existence. It’s very pleasant. Not something you should feel uncomfortable about.

I think typical Christians think of religion this way: they avoid facing it head-on, the way you would avoid making eye contact with a bum, because they’re terrified that if they get involved, they’ll have to give up all the fun in their lives. The casual sex. The drunkenness. The porn. The selfishness and materialism. They figure they’ll enjoy all this stuff and then count on forgiveness. I’ve felt that way. But it says a lot about your respect for God, doesn’t it? You think He’s smart enough to save you from hell, but not competent to guide your life. If you live like that, you end up leading a pretty meaningless life, and you also miss out on the best aspects of being a living Christian.

Maybe I’ll completely ruin my traffic. I don’t care. I make damn near nothing off of this site, and it’s not a business, so I don’t worry about pleasing customers. I think the most likely thing is that I’ll drive off people who were drawn to my worst traits, and I’ll attract people who are more positive. And like I’ve said before, we are all going to die, SOON, so why should I care about people think of me during my brief time on earth? I am more than halfway done with life, and the years pass faster and faster. Before I know it, it will be over, and what will it matter that people who didn’t know what I knew thought I wasn’t cool?

I haven’t told the whole story. My life has improved tremendously. I have more freedom, and I have power behind me. It’s not hard to live this way, and it’s completely worth it. I hope I don’t give up, the way I did sixteen or seventeen years ago. I’ve even become more open to the idea of marriage, largely because two people can help each other stay on the path.

Read this blog, or don’t. I feel like I’m on the right track.

Links for Bitter Gun-Clingers

Guns and religion are killing my traffic, but they’re what I feel like writing about.

As always, I’m getting useful comments. Some mentioned web destinations. I was thinking maybe I should put up links that have been useful to me. Here are a few, off the top of my head.

1. The Other Side of Kim (Du Toit). Grand Poobah of all web curmudgeons. Proprietor of:

2. The Gun Thing. A forum, which I am way too lazy to check out as often as I should.

3. Anarchangel. Chris Byrne knows his guns, and he is no slouch in the kitchen. Well, he may slouch. I certainly do. But he IS no slouch.

4. Michael Bane. Big-time gun writer who blogs. Blogrolled me; I guess he didn’t get the memo about real-media people having an obligation to ignore bloggers.

5. John R. Lott, one of the two patron saints of intelligent gun statistics.

6. Oregon Trails (Laser Cast) ammunition. Cheap and accurate, as far as I can tell. If you can’t find load data, call or email them and they’ll fax it. Or you can ask me, since I already did that.

7. 1911forum.com. I hate starting a sentence or line with a numeral, but there it is. Lots of good info from 1911 fanatics.

8. Dan’s Ammo. Cheap milsurp ammunition in big cans.

9. Bud’s Gun Shop. I have never bought anything from them, but it’s a great reference to find out if you’re getting a good price on a gun.

10. Midway USA. Lots of gun stuff.

I’m sure I forgot someone.

Sites mentioned to me today:

1. Cap’n Bob has some gun-cleaning info.

2. Culver’s Shooting Page. Haven’t tried it, but I am told it has a great forum.

Just got off the phone with Mike. If you think it’s fun having ADD, wait until you hear one person with ADD trying to help another person with ADD shop over the Internet. If Dante had known about ADD, The Inferno would have been a few pages longer.

Mike wanted advice on a new 1911. I am no expert, but I tried to find reviews and so on. I love the SW1911, and so does he, but he ended up with five choices. Springfield, Dan Wesson, Smith & Wesson, Colt, and Taurus. I hear great things about Taurus’s current production, but he wants his first 1911 to be a nice one, and I didn’t think he should take a chance. Other than that, I thought he had four choices that were hard to beat, at his price point. People say Colt has QC issues these days, however, and my only Colt bears the rumor out, so I mentioned that to him.

The Dan Wesson Pointman looks really nice. Great reviews. It has a number of good outsourced parts in it, plus a match barrel. And Mike used to have a Dan Wesson revolver he treasured. Some idiot stole the revolver and left the three interchangeable barrels that belonged to it. I told Mike I thought he should buy the Dan Wesson just so I could shoot it.

The other option was the Springfield Loaded. Most people seem to love this gun, but I have read some off-putting complaints, too.

I hope he manages to pick something. Mike without guns…it’s just wrong. If you knew Mike, you would understand.

I remember all the fun we had as kids, sitting on the floor at his house, surrounded by loaded guns. And the times he shot his deer rifle in his suburban backyard. How different life is these days. Our parents would be in jail, and we’d be receiving counseling by tabouli-smelling Wiccans working for the county.

Okay, yes, I suppose it’s a bad idea to ignore your kids while they play with your gun collection. But we survived. I shot a neighbor’s kid in the neck once. But that was only a BB gun, and I apologized sincerely. Mike’s brother used to shoot him with a BB gun just for the joy of it. Clearly I was not as bad as I could have been.

Can’t wait till he gets that gun down here. It’s okay, letting your friends use your guns. But it’s much more fun when everyone brings something to the party.

I have a Caldwell HAMMR machine rest on the way. It’s sort of like a Ransom rest, only cheaper. You clamp your gun in it, and it shoots it for you, and you find out whether your gun is any good. The idea is to avoid unnecessary upgrades to guns that already shoot well. Unfortunately, this may prevent me from buying cool new stuff.

Enjoy the links.

Clean Guns, Empty Pockets

Hornady One Shot cleaner and dry lube is one annoying product. On the one hand, it costs nine dollars for five and a half ounces. On the other, it blasts powder off of a gun like nobody’s business, and it leaves a nice dry lubricant behind.

Tonight I tried Bore Scrubber and One Shot, side by side, hoping the Bore Scrubber would compare. But it didn’t. In fact, I used One Shot to rinse off powder deposits the Bore Scrubber left behind.

Midway has Hoppe’s spray at a fairly good price, as well as Break-Free Powder Blast. They also have something called Sharp Shoot R Flush Out citrus degreaser. I may try that.

One thing I noticed: my .45 was pretty nasty when I broke it down, whereas my .38 was remarkably clean. The difference? The powder, I guess. I used No. 7 in the .38 and Unique in the .45.

With One Shot and a Boresnake, I can clean a gun pretty well in 5 minutes. Geez.

Damn that stuff.

This Will Learn me to Shoot

The shooting went well today. In fact, it went too well. With both guns, at 7 yards, I shot bullet after bullet through the same big holes. And I eventually realized I was getting no information at all. When you shoot, you need to know where the bullets are landing so you can tell how well you’re doing. So from now on I’ll be shooting at 50 feet.

Here are 50 rounds from the .45. Better than usual.

Here are 50 from the .38 Super, which felt great but were not quite as good as the .45s.

At 50 feet, things opened up. It seems like the core of the group is good, but there is something I do wrong to drive things off to the side. I only managed to get 48 rounds to work. Sizing issues, I think.

The .38 Super gave me real problems with cycling. The first 50 rounds were okay, and 49 of them were nickel cases. The second 50 were all brass, and I had maybe 10 that wouldn’t chamber. Maybe I’m not bringing the sizing die down far enough. I’ll have to check. But it shot okay. I fooled around with my grip, and while I think Massad Ayoob is right about a tight grip being a good thing, I dont think it has to be as murderously tight as he suggests. The thing that sent the most bullets through the center of the group was a careful trigger pull. That seems to be what I need to work on most.

Now that I can tell where I’m shooting, I hope to see some improvement. I thought I should keep shooting at 7 yards until I was doing considerably better than I am, but now I believe that the lack of feedback from 7-yard targets held me back.

In other news, I backed over my highly tactical shooting box. I was tired, and I put it in the driveway so I would have a shorter roll to the garage, and then I got in the car and backed into it, shoving it a foot or two. No real damage, although it looks meaner now.

Mike has a gun dealer telling him to buy a Springfield Loaded instead of an SW1911. I question that advice. The big selling point of the SW1911 is the large number of high-end parts you get for a mid-range price, plus some of the assembly is done by S&W Performance Shop people. This guy says the Loaded is a better gun for the money. I don’t see how both of those things can be true.

Chris Byrne contradicts my charitable assessment of the Hornady Lock-N-Load AP’s flimsy mounting system, saying it’s a design flaw. He knows more than I do. I better go out to the garage and think up a way to fix it.

Aced my dental checkup today, by the grace of God. I was afraid kosher-for-Passover Coke would do me in, but it looks like I am in the clear for another six months.

I am a Disappointment

I’m going to try to hit the range today, after a fun stop at the dentist’s office. I think I get on his nerves. I failed to go for several years, and he seemed disappointed when I had a perfect checkup. I have been trying to eat more caramel this year, to make it up to him. I blame prayer for my fine dental health. The possibility of a thousand-dollar dental bill is great incentive to pray before a checkup.

People are commenting on the mounting problems with my Hornady press. I don’t think it reflects all that badly on the product. Maybe I should have used thicker lag screws. Other people seem to get it working. A third eye for a bolt at the rear would be nice, but I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say leaving it out was a design flaw.

No time. Must fly.

Life’s Essential Components

Is this my lucky day or what? My weekly Winn-Dixie Internet ad arrived this afternoon.

Boston butt, $1.49! Not bad.

Ground chuck, my favorite type of burger, $1.48!

Hmm…that’s the only exciting stuff this week. Has the gravy train run off the track for good? I certainly hope not.

Reloading is as confusing as ever. First, I was told only to use “published loads.” Then I was referred to websites where any fool can post load data; even to me, that seemed crazy. After that, I found a published load in a reloading journal, and I figured it had to be okay, but a reader is now telling me it’s not good enough that it’s published.

I have been using 5.2 grains of Unique with 230-grain cast round nose bullets, and I said I might like to go up to 6.0. I was told that was a scary amount of powder to use in that load. Okay, no problem. Then I got the reloading magazine, and one of the loads they featured was exactly what I had considered doing. It was 6.0 grains of Unique and the bullet I’m using now. But I’m being warned that it’s not good enough that it was published, and that I should still work up to it. The magazine didn’t publish a minimum and maximum, so I figured 6.0 meant 6.0.

I will never get this stuff figured out.

The Unique thing doesn’t matter, now that I think about it. As things stand now, I think 5.2 is just swell, and I’m not really interested in changing, because it will mean spending more on powder. But I would like to know what I’m doing. In fact, the only change that interests me is trying a new load with HP-38 or Winchester 231, because the reloading magazine guy seemed to like it.

I am wondering if I should get a chronograph. They’re fairly cheap. As I understand it, “reading” cases for pressure signs is a discipline packed with mythology and BS, so I figure the smart thing is to go ahead and find out how fast the bullets go.

The press is giving me fits today. The primers for my .38 Super cartridges keep failing to seat or failing to feed, so powder pours out of the primer holes into the workings of the machine, and it’s just not good. I can’t figure it out. I’m wondering if these cases have smaller holes than the ones I reloaded earlier. I really have to whack the lever to make the primers go in fully, and that’s bad, because it can make a little powder fly out of cases that haven’t had bullets seated in them. Maybe the intelligent thing is to size and prime all of them and then run them through again to add powder and lead.

I am still not happy about the way the press mounts to the bench. It’s bolted down as firmly as possible, and the bench doesn’t flex noticeably, but the press still rises a little in front when I operate it. You would think Hornady would have stuck a third bolt hole on it for people with this problem. I guess I’ll have to come up with my own solution. I want it to be completely solid. Maybe case lube would help, by reducing the force I have to put on the handle.

I found a local range that will rent me a Performance Center 1911, so for twenty bucks, I can find out what all the fuss is about. I think I should do it. If it shoots just like my SW1911, there will be no point in moving to a more expensive gun.

Tomorrow is a range day. Too bad Mike won’t be there. But nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to live in New Hampshire. As far as I know.

In my case, that’s what it would take.

What? No BOWL?

I know everybody is feeling deprived because blogging has been slow. But fortunately, Marv is more industrious than I am.

You Only Need One Blog

My life is finally complete. I received the extra 1911 clips I ordered. Now I can keep the original clips loaded with Gucci ammunition and use the new ones at the range.

Words cannot describe my joy.

I had heard that the SW1911 came with Wilson Combat clips, but the clip I ordered for it is a Wilson, and it’s not like the originals.

I also received the Hodgdon reloading manual. It’s a MAGAZINE. Can someone explain? I guess it doesn’t matter, as long as it works.

Yesterday I was in a bookstore, and I saw a reloading magazine, and it had stuff about lead bullets, so I nabbed it. The dude who wrote the article claims he gets “reliable” loads with Winchester 231, as compared with Unique. I’m not sure what that means. Is it normal to have reliability issues with powder? That would explain why I keep having to pound slugs out of my barrel. Although I thought the main reason might be stupidity.

He published–they count if they’re published–loads including one for 6 grains of Unique and a 230-grain Laser-Cast bullet. I suppose that means I don’t have to be scared of my 5.2-grain loads. A while back, some readers were questioning my admittedly ignorant idea about going up to 6 grains. Looks like the question is answered.

Mike is on the way from Delray. If at all possible, we’ll shoot. Trail Glades is not open, but there’s an indoor place where I can rent a Performance Center Smith & Wesson 1911. You know I can’t pass that up. I have to see if superior iron makes a difference.

More excitement: I harvested two tomatoes. Brandywine and Dr. Wyche’s. I am really crazy about those Dr. Wyche’s. Hard to describe the flavor. Usually yellow tomatoes are a little bland, but these, which are a bit orange, have a lot of character. I hope I can get them to produce indoors.

I was busy with something tedious earlier today. I expect to be able to get back to writing tomorrow. In the meantime, watch this educational video provided by reader Steve B.

Obama Season!

When Mike is in town, discipline goes out the window. I eat too much. I forget to water my plants. And yesterday, I didn’t spend nearly enough time acknowledging God. On the plus side, Mike and I had a long and productive conversation about our beliefs. That was worth a lot.

I got behind on my blogging, too, which is sad, because Hillary Clinton apparently threatened to shoot Barack Obama. Do I have my facts wrong? Details have never been my thing.

I think now we know what she really wants to do to staffers who look her in the eye when she passes. On the up side, it looks like she is making a twisted sort of progress with regard to her views on gun control.

We can’t let this woman become President. Her staff hung condoms on the White House Christmas tree. Condoms! OUR tree! If we’re going to elect a person like that, why don’t we just paint big bullseyes on our roofs, along with the words “Plague and earthquake here, please”?

People tell me God doesn’t punish people like that any more. He doesn’t? Oooooookay. I guess the long list of hideous, incurable, behavior-related diseases is just an incredible set of coincidences. Cervical cancer, lung cancer, cirrhosis, morbid obesity, diabetes, hepatitis C, herpes…coincidence after coincidence.

I have been told AIDS isn’t a plague. If AIDS doesn’t qualify, someone tell me what does. If AIDS isn’t a plague, then the word “plague” should be removed from the dictionary, because it is impossible for any disease to make the cut.

Not only is AIDS a plague; it’s a laser-guided plague with very limited collateral damage. You have to be pretty unlucky to get it without doing something immoral. It’s not like smallpox or the bubonic plague, which don’t discriminate on the basis of morality.

Some people say the “fear” part of “God-fearing” actually refers to a warm, fuzzy feeling. Maybe so, but I am trying to cultivate a healthy fear of judgment. I think this is one of my big deficiencies. There was nothing warm or fuzzy about what happened to Jezebel or the prophets Elisha fried alive or the people of Sodom. I am not anxious to cause myself problems by thinking of God as a giant teddy bear.

I used to think the US was blessed because we helped deliver the Jews out of the hands of the Nazis. Lately, I’ve started to think we’ve actually been punished, for turning them away before the war. Not just the people on the St. Louis, whom we sent to die in the gas chambers. But Jews, generally. We kept them out. I believe that may be why we ended up losing so many men in bloody wars, and why the children of the GI generation turned out to be so immoral and so damaging to America. Why we suffered the cancer called the Sixties.

Did you know American universities used to have Jew quotas? Robert Oppenheimer, who was to other geniuses as Muhammad Ali was to Chuck Wepner, had to get by a quota to do undergrad work at Harvard. I wish I had all the facts in front of me, to help you understand how nutty that is. This is a person who graduated with a degree in chemistry (while auditing several courses in addition to his normal courseload) and then got a Ph.D. in physics in a single year. You just don’t do that. And Richard Feynman was kept out of Columbia by a quota.

It occurred to me the other day that no one ever mentions what should be the most obvious cost of keeping Jews out of the country. We could have taken in millions. Think what that would have meant. Think of what we lost. Scientific advances. Great music. Distinguished judges. Inventions. Jews get something like 20% of the Nobel prizes. Wouldn’t that figure be higher if Hitler hadn’t killed a third of them? And if they had had American money, backing their advances? And wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in the country where the additional discoveries were made?

God told Abraham the world would be blessed through his seed, and He wasn’t kidding, and He wasn’t just referring to the Messiah.

I wonder how different life would be, if not for the achievements we prevented by closing our doors. What diseases might be curable. What technology we might have. How many Oppenheimers and Einsteins and Bohrs and von Neumanns and Rubinsteins and Cardozos and Salks and Tellers did we send into the crematoria?

The US is the friend of the Jews. But it hasn’t been a very good friend. And we have paid a price.

Anyway, I’m very sorry to hear that Senator Clinton is now hoping her enemies get shot by white supremacist militia nuts. A critical person might say this reflects a certain degree of desperation and conceivably, a tiny deficit in the empathy department.

Or Were They Always Lame?

Arduous day today. Mike and I went to the range, and we had to sit through a safety class so he could get his range ID. Then we shot a whole bunch of .357 and .45 rounds.

I thought shot well under the circumstances. It was gusty all day, and then in the middle of the session, a steady wind kicked up, so strong it blew targets out of their frames. It was one of those winds that are so forceful that if you aren’t ready, you may have to take a step to keep your balance.

I’ve about had it with wind at the range. I don’t know what the explanation is; Miami isn’t naturally windy. Winter and spring are always worse than summer and fall, but I didn’t realize May could be this bad.

In years past, when I heard people talking about the effects of wind on ballistics, I thought they were only talking about the wind’s power to make bullets drift. But the wind also shakes you while you’re aiming, and if you’re shooting a pistol from an unsupported standing position, it’s exasperating.

I did okay anyway, but I am too lazy to post photos. Mike hasn’t shot in a long time, and he was frustrated, but I would say he was still the third-best shot on the pistol side. He had problems with flyers, but the central shot-out area on his targets was maybe the size of a fist. If he ever gets himself situated so he can shoot once in a while, he’ll be a great shooting partner.

Someone sent me info about the IDPA, which has competitive matches. I signed up. Why spend all my time slow-firing at motionless targets, if I can get an opportunity to do something with more variety?

I would love to get some work, writing for gun publications. I suppose the more experience I have, the more likely that is to happen.

I have read a little bit about IDPA competitions. They expect you to use real-world skills, drawing a gun you might carry on an ordinary day and shooting it at targets that pop up unexpectedly. They say a number of people have had bad surprises while doing this. Guns that they loved at the range turned out to be high-maintenance in competition, and that would have affected their use on the street.

Kind of makes me wonder if a semi-auto is the way to go for something like this. I have seen experts claim that semi-autos are so great these days, they’re just as reliable as revolvers. But I’ve never had a revolver refuse to fire, except when the ammunition failed. Never. I think every one of my automatics has failed. Not positive about the .38 Super and the Glock 26.

Wouldn’t you know it; this issue comes up just as I develop an interest in a large-frame .357 Magnum revolver. My .357 is 6″ long and holds 7 shots and has a medium frame. The Smith & Wesson Model 627 has a 5″ barrel, holds 8 shots, and has a large frame, which should last forever. This sounds wonderful to me. I think 4″ is a little short, and 6″ is a little long. And I have read that medium-frame .357 revolvers aren’t quite as sturdy as they should be for the .357 round. And 8 shots…sweet, if you’re using it in combat competion with 7+1 and 8+1 automatics.

Speaking of the .357, which is just about my favorite caliber, it’s really hard to find free brass. It turns out almost all of the people I see shooting beautiful .357 revolvers at the range are using puny .38 shells. I just don’t get it. Why spend the extra money on a heavy .357, if you’re going to shoot girly ammunition? The obvious answer: you want a gun that looks cool, but you aren’t willing to take the time to learn how to shoot the round it was designed for. Geez. Why not buy a .30-06 and rig it up to shoot BBs?

You can get a perfectly nice .38 from Smith & Wesson for over a hundred bucks less than a .357.

I know people say they like shooting .38 Special rounds because it’s easier on their hands. But that doesn’t explain why they buy the Magnum pistols in the first place. I’m sure the .38 pistols shoot just as well. Are they trying to hide the already-wimpy recoil of the .38 round in the mass of the bigger gun? I suppose that makes some sense, but you can buy a pretty big .38.

You can’t tell me people train with .38 and then load with .357 for defense. Well, maybe you can. But that would be a bad idea. The difference in recoil is tremendous. And the .357 is much louder. If you’re used to shooting weak ammunition, you’re going to have to learn to shoot all over again when the burglar breaks down your door. And you’ll have about two seconds to do it.

Speaking of burglars, I’m thinking I should get some electronic hearing protectors that only muffle very loud sounds. Why? Because if a burglar comes into your house, you’ll want to hear everything he does. But you won’t want to ruin your hearing when you shoot him.

I think most people I see shooting .38 rounds in .357 pistols are doing it for two reasons. First, it’s cheaper. Second, they don’t really know what they’re doing or care to learn. They’re casual shooters who have shown up just to have a good time.

I have guns that are hard to shoot (.50 AE, .357), and I have guns that are easy to shoot (9mm, .45, .38 Super), and my experience so far tells me you can shoot an easy gun well after training with a difficult gun, but the reverse is not true. For example, today I shot the .357 first, and it was challenging, because it’s heavy and the trigger is hard to pull. Then I shot the .45, and I felt like I was using a squirt gun. When I used to start out with the .50, the .357 felt like a squirt gun. Using the difficult guns made the easy ones less of a problem. I think if I had endless ammunition and range time, I’d start every session with a box of .50 AE and then go to .357 before shooting my more practical guns.

The other day my dad asked me about the recoil of the .45, and I didn’t know what to tell him. I don’t notice it any more. I couldn’t tell him whether the .45 or the .38 Super kicked harder. I had no idea. I still don’t. The .357 and the .50? Those, I notice. Especially when the huge cans they call .50 Action Express brass nail me in the forehead.

The gun show was fun, but ultimately disappointing. The 1911 selection was bad, and the prices weren’t good. It was like these guys had never heard of the Internet. Example: Colt Special Combat Government model: $1670. The first place I find in a Google search sells it for $1600. No tax. I just found another place: $1480. And I should spend $1670? Are you kidding me? The tag said $1690, and I asked the kid the real price, and he acted like he was thinking, and then he had the gall to say $1670. Bad price. Bad salesmanship. If you’re going to put a bogus price on something and then drop it to impress rubes, you don’t drop it by one percent.

I saw virtually no reloading stuff. That was a bummer.

Mike was considering buying at the show, but it just wasn’t worth it. I didn’t get the impression that the vendors were trying to move merchandise by offering special gun show prices. I got the impression that the vendors were trying to take advantage of impulse buyers, to sell things at their usual prices. Or worse.

I can’t say that about every vendor. Only a couple where I looked at pistols. I saw what looked like a very good deal on an aluminum-receiver Tommy gun. I asked the guy if it was aluminum. He said, “It’s alloy.” Clearly irritated. Hey, I apologize for knowing your gun isn’t steel. It’s not my fault I can read. And the Auto-Ordnance website says “aluminum.”

The show was small, too. Maybe that killed the competitive urge among the vendors.

Fair place to buy trinkets like Boresnakes. Guns? Not so much.

Great day anyway.

Saturday is Shaping Up

I believe I am headed for a pretty decent day.

Mike will be in town, and we plan to hit the gun show with George Moneo. With any luck, I’ll manage to assist Mike in choosing a pistol. I think his brain is fried from Google shopping. Last night he said he had settled on a Beretta 1911.

If the weather holds out, there will be range time. And regardless, there will be pizza.

I’m putting together a shopping list for the show. I hope they have reloading stuff, because it’s the one category of gun crap I can’t buy economically on the web. Jug of Unique, jug of No. 7, a few primers, and I’ll be all set.

I may look–LOOK–at Les Baers and PC1911s. But I won’t buy. Oh no. I won’t.

Shut up.

Hard to beat a pleasant Saturday with good friends. Hope your weekend is as enjoyable as mine.

Hey, check out the Military Channel, if you want to get in the Memorial Day frame of mind. Their documentaries will really help you appreciate the tremendous sacrifice our soldiers have made in order to buy us freedom and wealth.