What's going on?

Well, one high-school student, a keen computer fan, was bored and made a threat in the address of one other high-school to try and "best" the Cho's score (that bastard killed 32 at Virginia Tech), so naturally everybody was quite pumped up and media going ape. The guy was caught in a day and established that it was only a joke. Some joke. In addition to getting the accusation of mass murder threat that fellow has to pay up hundred of thousands (paying for the police work and time etc).

What a loser. So it shall be seen, if there are more fellows to come, wanting their 15 minutes of fame.

Early this week, one sick guy jumped on 2 young women, going to work at Monday morning 8 a.m. and beated them up with aluminum bat. One died, sadly, a meteorologist, few minutes away from the office. Wonder how it could happen, the place was in center town, near the busy streets and railway station, so it wasn't exactly a remote place where no-one could see it. And yes, there was no attempts to get this guy by any possible bystanders, like a guy with bat wouldn't be suspicious.

Well, frankly, this kind of events show the coldness of people and general disregard of the others. This kind of situation is not something that a properly used self-defense firearm would not solve. Adding to this the general budget cuts that also influence the police force, it is very likely that the violence level will rise inevitably. So why not adjust the laws and make effective self-defense a more viable option.

Competition, round 2

Well, competition/rifles went better than shooting sidearms. Well, the idea was to shoot 10 rounds @100 m, prone unsupported (only sling allowed as one). I could have done better, but I got 84 which is OK. For my defence, the irons were not zeroed in and I'm not a sport shooter, so I had the forward grip as my only support-as-such (makes the holding of the rifle much easier).

Besides, since I haven't bothered to acquire any shooter's ranks before (at least 70 points for lowest for that kind of exercise) I'd have to start from the lowest anyway - shoot it, then the next one and so on, up to highest rank, that takes 98 points to get.

So the 84 points was as-is more than was necessary for the task at hand. But I have to practice anyway.

Shooting everything but the target

Last night, competitive shooting (and verification of experience level), 25 meters and one handed, with my sidearm didn't go as well as I'd hoped (and trained). Instead of using the usual civilian 9 Luger I had to use Swedish m/39 which is made for SMG, thus hotter and slams the slide more, causing increased spread, not to mention wear and tear to the barrel.

Well, my usual 10 m practice ends in groups of around 4 cm (and yes, I have pics to prove it), so to extrapolate it to 25 m the groups should be 10 cm. Heck, even increasing that by Murphy's constant of 2 times all rounds should be well inside the 40 cm target. But hot ones were spread all over the paper and some were even off that, so I got only 35 points instead of expected 60-70 out of 100 (10 rounds). Damn.

At least last weekend nighttime shooting went better, as filled the norms and got the exercises done, not everyone managed that. Shot some 150 tracer rounds that night (pitch black, only illumination being provided by shotgun flares and Ikaroses - an illumination rocket with parachute, pretty good stuff).

But it proves that to at least maintain the shooting skills, I have to do it at least once a month, especially sidearms, better be to go shooting at least once every 2 weeks.

A nice pic I made couple of weeks ago of one curious bird, also he and his pals ate all my bread.

Germans in Afganistan

As I understood the Germans mounted an offense in the northern county of Kunduz, for the first time using heavy weapons - tanks, IFVs and rocket artillery (MLRS or MARS by their nomination?). As a response their Green Party have criticized it, saying that this creates more violence in that country. No shit, Sherlock.

It seems to me that the Germans have become soft, from the fearsome war machine, the Teutonic power, and stiff-upper-lip mentality it has become a soft pussy, losing the backbone and letting "liberals who are not men and have no honour" command their will and actions. I can only feel sorry for them. The Germans have still good skills in creating very good weapons, yet are lacking in the ability to put them into good use. Sometimes you do have to break some eggs to make omelet.

About the Cross again

The Freedom Cross has not been open for even a month and already there are problems - some glass panels getting a pink tint, somehow, and currently quite a few lights have gone out because of the water that has crept inside.

It does make me wonder, considering the multi-million cost of it, that what's going on?

Freedom Cross

So, the Freedom Cross was opened, and already the onions are rambling over it. Main issues are the proximity of it to the site where the Bronze Soldier was, and the sword-holding hand and big E motive on the cross, saying that it symbolizes Estonian Waffen SS as it had same shoulder patch.

Actually that symbol (E denoting Estonia and being protected by hand with a sword) is older than that, it was used on the Order of the Freedom Cross (author Nikolai Triik, was established 24th February, 1919).

The Order came in three classes (each in 3 levels), first for special military service, second for personal valour and third for civilian service and were mostly given to people who participated in the War of Freedom. The Order was accompanied with a reward, in many cases with a real estate (land) and soldiers were offered a free education (a big deal back then).

So it was pretty special Order and it does make sense actually, that the symbol (E and hand with sword) was chosen to be a chevron for the Estonian Waffen SS, as the mostly believed to be fighting for the Estonia and against the Red Army animals (let's put it this way, what the Red Army had to do in here, when it was here from 17.06.1940 to summer/autumn of 1941, that the 700 years of mostly German occupation and forced slavery, which was very much hated, were put aside and germans pretty much welcomed as liberators?), rather than some crazy nazi ideology.

The cross symbolizes the fight for freedom, where in the war it took winning both, Red Army and Landeswehr, to get our own country the way we liked it. So it is logical that the onions are barking over it, but as can be said - if they bark, it's done right, whatever it is. Or "only that dog howls who has it's tail stepped on".

I included the pictures of the new Freedom Cross statue and the designs of old Order of Freedom Cross (classes are from left to right - military service, personal valour, civilian service).

Visitors again

British Tornado F.3-s have left our country and it was a pleasure to have them as guests, especially showing the flag and participating in the Victory Day parade.

But they've gone and new visitors came, this time from US - USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98), an Arleigh Burke Flight IIa class guided missile destroyer. During the visit the sailors will give a helping hand to the Anija estate. So they're most welcome and I'm only a bit sad that I'm not in the capitol to go and see the ship myself.

It may make one wonder, how come so many interesting guests and so often, but many people won't complain. Well, there are people who are annoyed by those, and during each of such visit they talk all kinds of rubbish in commentaries in the web. It's a sure sign of fancying our eastern neighbour, when friendly NATO units create such "problems" and verbal diarrhea of such commies. So, well done and I personally hope to see many more visitors of that kind.