I know that when most people, especially those who do not carry concealed handguns, think of a concealed weapon they first bring to mind something classic like a Colt Government 1911 .45 ACP. Or maybe a “Dirty Harry” .44 magnum revolver with 8.5 inch barrel. But those are movie guns. While the .45 can be carried much easier than the .44 wheel gun, those weapons are focused on firepower much more so than concealability.

For “open carry” or in situations where your weapon is integral to performing your daily duties (law enforcement, security, open country, etc), the name of the game is stopping power. You need to be able to quickly incapacitate a threat in just a few shots, if not a single pull of the trigger. A Kel-Tec or similar small framed weapon is your backup, not your primary carry weapon.

But for something to be hidden from view, even up to the point where it can remain concealed under visual scrutiny, smaller framed and smaller caliber weapons are the order of the day. Stopping power becomes equal to, if not slightly subservient to the ability to keep your weapon hidden until you want to make it visible.

The Kel-Tec P32, I think, is a very good balance between size and firepower. It fits nicely even in my big hand, and the recoil on a small framed gun like this with standard loads is not so uncomfortable as to make the gun shake around in my grip.

And even if the grip is uncomfortable for some shooters a 10 round magazine with grip extension is available for around $25.00.

I purchased this handgun used so it was under $200.00 and with ammo and holster it was little more than $200.00 out the door. And speaking of the holster, I know this is designed to be a pocket gun; just drop it in your pocket and go, but without a safety and the extra jostling it will get in a pants pocket, I wanted to get something a bit more secure.

The Fobus KT32 Elite Concealed Holster is a great wear, especially for us big guys. It is angled so you can wear it back a little bit and still use a natural motion when drawing the weapon. It is secure, especially if you wear Dickies Pants. The belt loops are close enough with Dickies to keep the holster a bit more secure when moving around or sitting down in a chair with arms.

Over all I am very pleased with this purchase. It stays concealed, even when my coat is open indoors. It handles very well for a small polymer framed gun. And it is made in the USA, a plus when you are interested in buying American.

The Unpromising Consequences of the Pittsburgh Promise

Found this gem of an article through Pghbloggers. The Admiral has some great analysis on the impending disaster that would be Mayor Ravenstahl’s “K through Bachelors Degree” funding of children’s education. And he backs it up with some other commentary and analysis from equally heaving hitting sources.

It outlines the “lollipops and gumdrops” fantasy world that liberals live in. To a liberal there is no problem that anyone can ever have that is not solved by taxing the general population (read majority) and giving those proceeds to the disadvantaged (read minority). It doesn’t matter the eventual outcome will generate the exact opposite of the stated intent, as long as Mayor Ravenstahl can achieve the two goals that all Pittsburgh Mayors share: never thinking things through, and copying other cities programs.

The reasoning is sound. You do not increase test scores in a failing school system by adding thousands of more children into it to fail. Even though the stated goal of the program is to keep families in the region, the outcome will be more failing kids because the Pittsburgh School District is rooted in failure. Throwing more manure onto a blighted plant wont save the plant just as throwing more money into a failing school system won’t produce better students.

And failing children in the public school system is one of the reasons families are fleeing the region to begin with.

I just wanted to pass this one along. Found it on digg. Pass it along.

http://www.mitadmissions.org/

Fun stuff.

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Snap.com has a handy little bit of Java Script that sits in your webpage header area. Just hover over the hyperlink and Snap will display a small graphical preview snapshot of the site. Give it a try on the sites below!

http://www.biggandyy.com
I’ve been told that Snap won’t Snap the page it is hosted on. My bad.
http://www.biblebaptisttemple.org
http://www.powdermusicfan.com
http://www.merlinstower.com
http://www.coolthingstolookat.com

Great huh? Even if the text is not written as a url like this section is, as long as it is linking to a site Snap can preview it.

Sign up by clicking on the link to Snap above and get on board.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Pigs have left the building! And they WERE flying.

Back in the day it was a decided fact of nature that IBM PCs would never run Macintosh software and that Macintosh computers would never run DOS. When Microsoft introduced its “version” of a GUI based operating system the world shrugged, chuckled politely to itself, and continued on. The paradigm was just unbreakable, Windows and Mac would NEVER live side by side in harmony.

Over the years there have been programs that would allow Mac formatted diskettes to be read by Windows based systems. Windows emulators were developed for Mac. But the war never escalated past the small skirmishes around peripheral access and architecture for the most part. Software companies developed software for Mac based and Windows based personal computers. This was the decided order of things.

But then changes were made. Apple moved away from the Motorola processors (680×0) in 2002. And in 2005 Apple made the next move away from IBM and the PowerPC processors for an Intel x86 based processor. A Macintosh OS that would run on the home turf of Windows processor of choice; the hacks were going to be inevitable. By buddy calls his OSX Tiger installation on his PC a hackintosh. But whatever you want to call it, a brave new world has been born.

Will the old world survive? A “tri-booting” PC (running Linux, OSX, and Windows), unthinkable in the recent past, is now touching our world.

To try your hand at a “mactel hackintosh” visit the OSx86 Project for the frontline in saga.