Erin go Bragh!

For the day.

Some rules to live by

These are not original sayings, but rather ones I've picked up here and there over the years. I can't even cite sources to most of them but the sources don't really matter that much. What matters is that these are my mottoes for my life--I've adopted them and applied them when times got tough and I use them daily for motivation and guidance. They've helped me get this far and maybe you can draw something from them too.

Who dares, wins. Motto of the British Special Air Service (SAS). If you think you can't pull something off, you're probably right. So believe in yourself and be bold. Sometimes sheer audacity can carry the day.

Never give up, never surrender. Got it from a totally stupid movie, but it's perfect for those times when the odds seem stacked against you. Dig your heels in and keep fighting. Never quit.

Do or do not. There is no “try”. Yoda said it to Luke Skywalker back in 1980. It works for me today. There are only two possible outcomes to any effort: failure or success. Which are you going to choose?

Second place is just the first place loser. Damn straight. If you're going to engage in something, be the best. Don't settle for just doing it--get out there and win it all.

You can achieve anything if you want it bad enough. Truer words were never spoken. Since losing my leg, I've run races I never could have run in before, fought to get my pilot's license back, and badgered my way into an even better job than I had before, and all while people kept telling me that I couldn't do these things with one leg. They were wrong. In each case, I wanted it, I worked hard for it, and I did it. And I'm not even close to done yet.

“Fair” is a word used only by small children and Democrats. Life isn't fair. So stop whining because you think you got a raw deal and get out there and do something about it.

Life's tough; it's tougher when you're stupid. John Wayne said this once. It's true, as is it's corollary, "If you're going to be dumb, you'd better be tough." Decisions have consequences. The wrong ones are liable to hurt/cost you money. Think before you act, dammit.

Every morning that you wake up this side of the grass is a gift. OK, I made this one up myself when I realized that I probably should have been killed a few years back instead of just losing a leg. None of us know how many tomorrows we have left, so make the most of every one you get and don't waste opportunities or defer enjoyment of life's pleasures.

When the crisis comes, you will not rise to the occasion; you will default to the level of your training. I've been there. When the stress and pressure really hit, you'll go on autopilot and do what you've learned to do in training. You won't magically excel just because you're special, and the ones who make it look so easy...they undoubtedly trained right and trained hard. Why aren't you training?

To achieve greatness you just need to do two things: train whenever you want to, and train when you don't. Some Olympic joker said this recently. He's right. So just do it, ok?

Improvise, Adapt and Overcome. Yes, there will be challenges and obstacles in life. Things won't go as planned. Surprise. So engage your brain, find a fix, and get past it.

Always have a Plan B. When circumstances change, well-laid plans can go out the window. A man with only one plan is like a warrior with one weapon or a craftsman with one tool. Having a back-up plan, or better yet, a whole toolbox full of back-up plans, will increase your odds of accomplishing your objective exponentially.

Oh—also:
No matter how responsible he seems, never give your gun to a monkey.
Meh. What can I say about this one? Live and learn, right?

Now get out there and win something, dammit.

Texas. Gov. Rick Perry is a...

Well you fill in the blank. Words honestly fail me after reading this story.

DALLAS (AP) — More than 12,000 illegal immigrants, non-permanent residents or non-U.S. citizens paid in-state tuition or received other such financial aid at public colleges and universities across Texas during late 2009, the Dallas Morning News reported Monday.

The figures from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board show about 1 percent of all Texas college students, in the fall semester, benefited from a 2001 law granting such in-state tuition.

The law says students who are not U.S. citizens and want to seek the assistance must have attended school in the state for at least three years before they graduate from a Texas high school. Students also must file an affidavit saying they plan to seek permanent residency.

During the fall semester, 12,138 students benefited from the law. Texas awarded about $33.6 million in state and institutional financial aid to those students between fall 2004 and summer 2008, according to the newspaper.

$33.6 million that did not benefit American citizens, although they were all taxed to raise it.

Gov. Rick Perry, who earlier this month won the GOP primary, supports the law aiding illegal immigrant students. Perry, in a recent debate, said the students are on the path to citizenship.

Huh? Back the truck up, Bubba. They aren't "law-abiding". Our laws say that people need to stay OUT of America unless they apply properly and are granted permission to enter. If they are in our country in defiance of our laws, the only path that they need to be on is a path back across the border, either on their own or in an ICE bus with barred windows.

The Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas filed a challenge to the law in December.

"It's not like we're swimming in budget surpluses," said coalition attorney David Rogers, who maintains that taxpayers suffer because of the law. "It's the responsibility of the government of Mexico to educate Mexican citizens."

Wow--someone gets it. Let's hear that line again:

"It's the responsibility of the government of Mexico to educate Mexican citizens."

Fantastic! HE should be Governor of Texas.

University of Houston law professor Michael A. Olivas said federal law allows states to draft their own policies. "It is a matter for states to determine," said Olivas. "In-state status is a state issue."

Former legislator Rick Noriega, who sponsored the in-state tuition law, said that educating the students is an economic development issue.

"This is about access to higher education," said Noriega, now the president of Avance, a nonprofit organization that educates Hispanic parents on preparing children for school.

"The alternative is to slam the door on any hopes and dreams. How are they going to perform in high school if they don't even have a chance at higher education?" he said.

Again, the question isn't "how are they going to perform in [American] high schools...it's "why are they even in American high schools? Every kid there illegally and improperly dilutes the quality of education that our kids get...especially when the schools have to start repeating half of the lesson in Spanish every day. And someone please tell me why we should spend dollar one on giving Mexican or OTM kids any sort of advanced degree when they cannot even legally get jobs in America? And it's especially ludicrous when you consider that 17% of American workers today are unemployed or under employed, and here we are, trying to make outsiders competitive with those Americans in our own tight labor market!!!
Rick Perry is contemptible and a sell-out. WHY did Rick Perry's primary opponent have to be one of those nut-job 9/11 truther types?

Screw it--I'm moving to Texas and running for Governor. Then I plan to invade Mexico and set up a 100-mile wide buffer zone south of the Rio Grande which will separate my state and the rest of Mexico.

Maybe then at least, we'll have education money and classroom space sufficient for our own kids, and we won't have to put up with this or this on a continual basis.

Oh--and Mexico? Fly one more of those Mexican military helicopters over my border and see if you get it back.

It's times like this that I really miss President Eisenhower.

Shooting!

Finally the rains have stopped. It's rained for five days straight here, flooding damned near everything.

I hold Al Gore responsible. Not sure why. I just do.

I've been using my time indoors to work up some new ammo loads for .38 Special and .357 Magnum--loads that I can just use to process all of my extra bass cases lying around and turn them into useful ammunition for basic practice, impromptu trips to the range, or what have you. Today I took numerous test batches out to the range--the flooded range, alas--and disregarded the foot or so of standing water to fire them for evaluation.

Now that the test loads have been fired and I'm satisfied with the chosen powder/bullet/primer combinations, I can announce that I have two new pet loads--one for each caliber and both checked out in my pistols and my .357 rifle. I also got rid of some old mystery rounds that were cluttering up my ammo room and burned up a box of ancient factory stuff that I found lying around. I definitely put some rounds downrange today and I'll be cleaning guns tonight.

I also had yet another interaction with the live-in caretaker at the range. He came out while I was warming up to see who was shooting on the flooded range and to let me know that it was flooded. That was really very nice of him as I might not have noticed the foot of water that I had to walk through to reach the targets had he not mentioned it.

"You know that the range is flooded, right?"

"Uh, yeah," I replied, standing in the water in my knee-high rubber boots. (I'd planned for the possibility.)

"I should have known if anyone was shooting today it'd be you."

"Yeah, I'm funny that way," I replied. I shoot here in the rain and in snowstorms too. Drives him nuts but I believe in training for real-life conditions, including less-than-optimum weather.

"I also came out to see what you're shooting. What kind of twelve-shot cannon do you have there? You know you can't shoot rifles on the pistol range."

"Just a revolver," I replied, holding up my trusty Smith and Wesson 66.

"How are you reloading it that fast?" He'd undoubtedly heard me firing twelve-shot strings, one shot every two to three seconds apart.

"New York Reloads," I told him.

"What's that?"

"Cover your ears and watch," I told him. "I'll show you."

So saying, I turned, assumed the proper stance, drew my Model 66 from it's holster beneath my jacket, and fired six shots on target. As soon as the sixth round was on it's way downrange, I jammed the Model 66 into it's holster and immediately drew my Smith and Wesson Model 19 from a second cross-draw holster on my other side and fired six more. Twelve shots on target in less than fifteen seconds, and that without me even trying to rush.

"The fastest reload is another loaded gun," I told him. "Ask any old-school New York City cop. That's the idea behind back-up pistols."

He sighed. "You know the club doesn't want people shooting from the holster. I really don't think they'd like you shooting two guns from two holsters."

"Yeah, I know," I said. We've had this discussion before. "And that's why I come out here on days like this when I can have the place to myself. And at least I'm not shooting prone today."

He looked down at the foot of water I was standing in and we both laughed. The club doesn't allow prone or off-hand rifle shooting either--just shooting from the bench because bench-rest Nazis make up a majority of the voting membership.

"Just don't shoot yourself," he said as he shook his head and walked away. I give him credit--he's gotten much more tolerant of me over the past few years. This club is very restrictive and my more realistic training--holster shooting, position shooting, barricade shooting, shooting on the move, night shooting, rapid-fire shooting, carbine/pistol transition shooting, etc. doesn't often fit well here. But for me it's the only range around, and this fellow has seen me and watched me enough to know that I'm safe, plus he knows my background and understands that I'm not just some yahoo. We used to really spark but now we give each other some slack; I play nice when there are other members around and when it's just me he turns a benevolent blind eye and it's game on.

I also got to try out a new product today: Safariland Comp 2 speedloaders.

All my HKS speedloaders are on the way to the consignment sale bin at the local gun shop. These Safariland loaders are the BOMB! Unlike HKS speedloaders, these actually retain the cartridges securely enough to let you just toss them into your pocket. Plus, you don't have to twist any little knob to release the shells--you just push it solidly down onto the revolver's cylinder and when you hear a "click", all the rounds drop into place. This is an added bonus for us left-handed shooters who have always found the HKS loaders awkward in that they turn the wrong way for us.

Yep. I love these Safariland speedloaders. Quick, positive, and they hold onto your cartridges like a good speedloader is supposed to. I did everything I could think of to induce some sort of malfunction or failure in these but they functioned flawlessly every time and never let go of a cartridge when they shouldn't have. If you shoot revolvers, get these.

So now I'm home, the brass tumbler is whirring away (Thanks to whoever left all those .45 cartridges on the bench--you're my pal!) and I'm about to break out the Abita Amber and the cleaning kits and adjourn to the back porch. Life, as they say, is good.

Why is there a hedgehog in my shower?

Here's Lagniappe, enjoying the day with his prized possession, a stuffed squeaky hedgehog.

Now I do not begrudge Lagniappe his favorite stuffed buddy. I just wish that he'd keep better track of it. You see, this dog loves that hedgehog so he carries it around with him frequently as he roams about the house. And that's all well and fine, but every now and again, he sets it someplace and wanders off, and then I stumble across it, usually in some of the strangest places.

As a prime example, I just found it in my master bath shower.


Seriously, what was a stuffed hedgehog doing in my shower? I can't figure it out and neither Lagniappe or the hedgehog are talking.

But that's not the only place it turns up. I often find it upstairs in my guest room, or sometimes in the gun room. Usually if it's not in the living room, it's in my bedroom on Lagniappe's dog bed, but a couple of times I've found it up on MY bed.

Uh-huh...Just levitated itself up there, did it? It must have, because Lagniappe knows he's not allowed up there.

Sometimes it sneaks outside onto the deck, which is wrong because it's an inside toy, not an outside toy. (There is a difference. Basketballs are outside toys, fine for playing with in the mud. Stuffed animals...not so much.) But every now and again, dog-unclear-on-the-concept will try to run out with his hedgie or in with his flat muddy basketball. He always looks miffed when I foil him and redirect the toy back to where it belongs.

But the hedgehog is nothing if not sociable. Often when I'm downstairs at my workbench, it will come bounding down the stairs all by itself, and the laziest dog ever will be standing at the top of the stairs, looking down expectantly and waiting for me to stop what I'm doing and throw it back up to him. This is, of course, a trick. As soon as I toss it back up, he'll throw it back down, sort of a "fetch in reverse" game. And of course if I try to nap on the sofa, I can almost expect to be smacked in the face eventually by a stuffed hedgehog, usually soaked with dog spit. It's a rule around here that you lie down at his level at your peril and the penalty is several rounds of "throw-the-hedgehog, throw-it-again!" Failure to comply is punished by the repeated application of the aforementioned wet hedgehog to your face.

And in spite of all of this nonsense and K9 tomfoolery, every few months, when he's literally loved his hedgehog to pieces, I go to Petsmart and pony up fifteen bucks or so for a new one. If he's ever noticed that his best pal regenerates itself every now and again, he's never given any indication that he cares. He loves it no matter what, and because it gives him so much joy, I just put up with it.


Stupid hedgehog.

Time to step up and help a guy who was there for us.

OK, I don't write much about my own injury, but those of you who've followed long enough know that I lost a leg in the line of duty a few years back. It sucked, but life goes on.

I'm over it now, but when it happened I got a lot of support from friends, professional peers and even strangers, and it made all the difference in the world. Well now's a chance for me to show some support for another injured warrior on the side of Good by asking you all to take a minute and read the story of Chicago Police Officer Densey Cole, who was also permanently injured in the line of duty. Here is the link to Densey Cole's story, in his own words.

Nothing can make that right again, but what you can do if you're willing is to pass the story on, and also, hit this link to a company sponsoring a wedding contest that will pay for the wedding of the couple that gets the most votes.

This isn't one of those internet scams or urban legends; this one's real. The Coles are real and so is the contest. I wouldn't have posted it had I not checked it out first. If the Coles get enough votes, Crate and Barrel will give Officer Cole and his wife Mary--a woman who stuck by him through all of his suffering--a very real shot at the dream wedding that they never had a chance to have.

Seriously--take a minute, visit the Crate and Barrel site, check it out, and once you see that it's real, register and vote for the Coles. It costs you nothing and it's a small way to say thanks to a guy who put his life on the line for you every day.

I remember when this was the height of "cool".

And suddenly I feel very old.

But it still sounds good...admit it.

USS Constitution prevails over commie condo crowd.

"Old Ironsides", otherwise known as the USS Constitution, is our nation's oldest warship. Launched in 1797, she's retained her commission as an active United States warship ever since. In her long history, this ship has fought and defeated Barbary Pirates, the British and the Confederates. And 2010 will forever be remembered as the year that the Constitution whupped the damned Yuppies.




You see, the Constitution has maintained a tradition going back over 200 years, that being that twice daily, she fires a gun and plays the national anthem. I've heard it and it's a wonderful way to begin and/or close out one's day. Every American has a reason to feel proud when they hear that anthem and look upon the Stars and Stripes flying from Old Ironsides' jackstaff.



Unfortunately, this longstanding patriotic tradition--one that dates back to 1798--is now under attack by a handful of unpatriotic assholes who have recently moved into condominiums which were built not too long ago near Old Ironsides' berth at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston Harbor. These whiners--each of whom moved into the neighborhood knowing that the Constitution was already there--have tried to silence these ceremonies, objecting to the cannon fire and in particular to hearing the national anthem every day. They recently sent a letter to Commander Timothy Cooper, the ship's current Commander, asking him to stop playing the anthem and use less powder in the guns or cease firing them altogether.

I'm proud to say though that Commander Cooper stuck to his guns, literally and figuratively, and refused. The guns shall continue to fire and the anthem will play on.As for the jackalopes in the condos...well they can just up and move if they don't like it, preferably to another country. I'm willing to bet that they're all Obama-voting liberals anyway as any real American would feel honored to live in the shadow of that wonderful ship and no patriotic citizen ever tires of our nation's anthem.


Suck on this, you zipperheads!

USS Constitution Museum page.

Still at it. Rachel Corrie's liberal parents sue Israel over their daughter's death.

It's been seven years since American leftist Rachel Corrie demonstrated astoundingly poor judgment in trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from flattening a house used by Palestinian terrorists by hiding in the demolition area and popping up in front of the machine at the last second, trying to play "human shield". The results were predictable--Rachel Corrie was crushed beneath machine that she'd tried to stop. (Previously discussed in this article.)

Since that day, her fellow leftists have tried to lionize her as some sort of noble heroine, and her parents--both activists on behalf of Palestinian causes themselves--have chosen to blame Israel rather than admit that they themselves screwed up by supporting her and giving her the money to travel all over the world to bother people in the name of her typically Marxist causes. They have filed lawsuits against the Israeli government and even against Caterpillar, Inc.--the American company that made the bulldozer that Corrie tossed herself in front of.

Fortunately, the court--the US Ninth Circuit of all courts--tossed the suit against Caterpillar. But hell hath no fury like a liberal who feels wronged, and the Corries are in Haifa today, trying to get a paycheck.

Let me say right here that I sympathize in part with the Corries. No one should ever lose a child and it cannot be easy. However they were the ones who condoned her world travel and anti-American protests, and as her enablers and financiers, they bear a lot more blame than the nation-state of Israel or a firm that makes construction equipment. If Corrie had stayed in Washington State and just focused on her studies instead of going to other countries to wail about their policies, she'd probably still be alive today. But she decided that the Israelis were only going to be able to enforce their national security policies over her dead body, so she got some money for plane tickets from mom and dad and off she went, probably not realizing that in this case, the "over her dead body" part wasn't exactly going to be figurative.

Still, that sort of thing is entirely predictable when one hurls oneself in front of a bulldozer.

That said, I have to stand with the people of Israel and call for the dismissal of this asinine lawsuit, followed by the swift deportation of the Corries from Israel. Frankly, it says a lot about that country that they even allowed the Corries into their country and gave them access to their courts. I doubt that Rachel's cherished Palestinians would have been anywhere nearly this hospitable had she been killed in Gaza by PLO madmen.

People wanting the truth about Rachel Corrie and her delusional cause need only visit rachelcorriefacts.org or read this commentary by Roberta Sied. It's clear that she had a number of emotional problems and unfortunately, when her parents just let her go her own way, others, including her progressive private school and assorted leftist activists around her were only too willing to indoctrinate and exploit her for their own ends, ultimately leading to her unfortunate death. In short, there is plenty of blame to go around, but none of it is Caterpillar's or Israel's.Her parents taught her so well: Rachel Corrie burns an American flag in Gaza.

Adam Kokesh for Congress? Not just "no" but "HELL NO!"

Adam Kokesh wants to be the next Congressman from New Mexico.

yep. You read that right. The oft-arrested America-hating moonbat protester who has never actually even held a real job other than his stint in the Marine Corps (during which he was slow to obtain rank, then lost most of it due to demotion before being given a General Discharge in lieu of an Honorable one) now wants a plum job: United States Congressman. Adam Kokesh is now running for Congress in New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District. That district is currently represented by Ben Luján, a Democrat. And this was expected to be one of the seats that the GOP was going to take back this year, and they mounted a good candidate to Luján in Tom Mullins. It's expected to be a tough race but definitely a winnable one, particularly owing to the unpopularity of the Democrats this year. (Thanks, Obama!) Mullins is running a serious campaign and working hard at it and absent any foul-ups, he should be able to take that seat from the Dems.

Enter foul-up number one: Kokesh. Back from the protest circuit following multiple arrests for disorderly conduct, vandalism, trespassing and resisting arrest in Washington DC and Fort Benning, GA., Kokesh has suddenly abandoned his close alliance with the likes of Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink and morphed overnight into a conservative, attaching himself to the Ron Paul movement.

Yep--from one nutty extreme to the other.

Here's video of Kokesh just three years ago, organizing an anti-war march with the radical leftist group ANSWER. He got arrested along with a few other loons for violating a law against gluing posters up. And of course he wanted this confrontation, so he and his pals invited the media out to watch them glue the posters up--on electrical boxes belonging to the local utility company--and called the police on themselves so that they could get arrested and make speeches about how the Bush Administration was trying to silence them. Watch if you care to. Personally I don't think it rates eight minutes of your lives, but it shows this guy for what he is: An attention whore who has zero respect for the law, the police, or anyone other than his own little causes.

When Cindy Sheehan and her lunatic followers from the nut group Code Pink were disrupting proceedings in our nation's capitol in 2007 and 2008, he was there acting a fool right along with them. Remember these people? They hated this government and they got in front of the cameras and screamed at it every day...right up until Obama was elected, and then they all sat down contentedly and just faded from view, proving that their whole movement was an orchestrated political one and not really about the war at all.

And Kokesh? He was right up in it all too, trying to use his military time as a drum to beat to get people to look at and listen to him. In doing so, he disgraced himself and dishonored the United States Marine Corps, but that never seemed to bother him because in the mind of Adam Kokesh, it's all about him and him alone. To hell with the Marines and screw all of the other honorable Marines who have served and are serving faithfully; they're all suckers or butchers and only Adam knows the real score.

Yeah, his sort of lunacy is going to make him a perfect fit over at the Ron Paul command bunker. And the Paulites have to be lunatics if they can overlook and ignore all of Kokesh's prior political statements and bad acts and embrace him as the Constitutionalist that he now suddenly claims to be.

All Adam Kokesh cares about is Adam Kokesh. He abandoned his former comrades in the Marine Corps to become a radical protester and pal around with people who spit on police and vandalize war memorials, and now that those crazies aren't politically popular any more and can't get media coverage, he's jumping to the other side and claiming to be something completely different. But the only thing that Adam Kokesh is, always was, and always will be is disloyal and disingenuous, and frankly, given a choice between him and the Democrat in that office, I'd rather have the Democrat, because at least most Democrats are up front about who they are and what they stand for, and that's not something anyone has ever been able to say about Adam Kokesh.

In the end, he'll likely split the anti-Democrat vote with Mullins and ensure that the Democrat wins. If that happens--and I'm cynical enough to suspect that it may actually be the plan from the beginning--then America will be able to thank this spoiled punk kid for his part in ensuring a continuation of Democrat Party control of Congress.

More on Kokesh at Nicki's site, and courtesy of Cassy Fiano, Michelle Malkin, and This Ain't Hell. People who have been paying attention know who and what this guy is. Someone needs to wake the Paulites and the citizens of New Mexico up pronto.