H&I Fires* 29 April 2008

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).

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The Castle's MAT-49, magazine folded.

Sometimes, after all that text and Deep Thoughts and stuff, ya just needa gunpic. -the Armorer

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Continuing the theme of policy from my TINS story below - another quoteable quote from a Senior Government Official:

I hesitate to say we need more policy but in a policy driven organization we may have to write a policy to delete policy and then change the policy to allow less policy.

An encapsulation of much that is wrong with government in general, not just DoD. -the Armorer

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Jamie Lee Curtis over at the HuffPo on the Miley Cyrus kerfuffle:

Today's generation of performers have had to navigate the treacherous shoals of adolescence in full frontal viewberty of the peering voyeurism of the media and it's voyeuristic participants.

Viewberty. Great line. -the Armorer

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. It's also an open trackback, so if (Don Surber uses it this way a lot) someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".

3 Comments

Definitely a general problem re policy. Maybe that Vulcan idea of a Shiva-like agency destroying law and policy isn't so silly at all.
 
I got to shoot a MAT 49 once, at a private range outside San Antonio. A *very* private range... it functioned like a champ, streams of 9mm hosing the silhouettes. Great ergonomics, very easy to hold on target for 3-4 round bursts- one of the better second-gen subguns out there, IMHO. The 20mm Solothurn AT rifle was fun, too!
 
JLC writes for HuffPo? Damn. There went that fantasy.