Seven years in prison for having two legally-purchased firearms? Seriously?

Brian Aitken is sitting in prison tonight, sent there for seven years. His crime? having two guns that he lawfully purchased when he lived in Colorado in his car. Unloaded. In the trunk. Packed away in a box in a duffel bag.

It all began in January of 2009 when Brian, upset over the actions of his ex-wife, expressed his frustration in front of his mother.

"He said something that scared her, things that a guy will only say to his mom, like . . . 'Life's not worth living anymore,' " said Larry Aitken, Brian's father.

Sue Aitken, a trained social worker, decided to play it safe and called police, but she hung up before the 9-1-1 dispatcher could answer. Police traced the call and showed up anyway, and found two handguns in the trunk of Brian's car. And now Brian, her middle child, a graduate student with no prior criminal record, is serving a seven-year prison sentence for weapons charges.

When Mount Laurel police arrived at the Aitkens' home on Jan. 2, 2009, they called Brian - who was driving to Hoboken - and asked him to return to his parents' home because they were worried. When he arrived, the cops checked his Honda Civic and, inside the trunk, in a box stuffed into a duffel bag with clothes, they found two handguns, both locked and unloaded as New Jersey law requires.

Aitken had passed an FBI background check to buy them in Colorado when he lived there, his father said, and had contacted New Jersey State Police and discussed the proper way to transport them.

"He bought them at Bass Pro Shops, for God's sake, not some guy named Tony on the street corner," his father said.

New Jersey and Colorado are on opposite ends of the gun-control spectrum. In Colorado, all he needed was the background check to own the guns.

In the Garden State, Aitken was required to have a purchaser's permit from New Jersey to own the guns and a carry permit to have them in his car.

Now you can argue that Brian was in violation of New Jersey's laws regarding possession of the pistols if you want. If you want to set the US Constitution aside, you can argue that. However no one can convince me that seven years in prison is a fair, just or equitable punishment for a violation this slight.
To sum it up, he bought the guns where it was lawful to do so. He followed all of the laws when he did so. He never threatened anyone with them or tried to sell them to criminals...he just didn't get rid of them when he moved temporarily into New Jersey. Now I'm all about hammering criminals but that's just asinine beyond belief. I'm thinking that it's time to just kick New Jersey right out of the Union.

Free Brian Aitken.

Or to channel Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules from the movie Pulp Fiction, "Free Brian Aitken, motherfucker!"

Wikileaks, federal pay freezes show us--again--why we have the wrong guy in the White House

Not a good week for Barky, is it? Wikileaks just dumped a third batch of US classified documents into the wind after the Obama Administration largely ignored the last two releases of our proprietary information. Only now, unlike the last two times, Obama is upset. What's the difference, you ask? Well let's look at that. The first two releases of classified information that was stolen by traitor Bradley Manning, then a US Army intelligence analyst in Irag, mainly just exposed military secrets, including operational assessments, tactical plans and the names of Iraqi and Afghani citizens who were cooperating with us and trying to put their countries back on stable ground. Now those people and their families are all at risk--and some have reportedly been killed--but Obama was tacitly ok with that because, I suspect, in his view it only further damaged the military and the Bush administration, and Obama has never considered those to be part of "his" America. But this recent leak of over 250,000 State Department cables has embarrassed his administration and harmed his government's credibility, so now suddenly he wants something done about it. He was apparently perfectly content to let Wikileaks harm other Americans or our working partners, but when the fire finally reached his palace...

And we also have Obama trying to further divide Americans and turn us against each other by proposing a two-year freeze on the cost-of-living increases for all federal civilian employees. He claims that this is necessary due to the trillion-dollar deficit that we face this year--caused 100% by his spending programs--and he's hoping that the contempt that many Americans feel towards those who work for the government will somehow help make him look like a fighter and a careful steward of our money for once in his pathetic life.

Of course he isn't proposing to freeze hiring new employees. No, he'll keep on doing that in his quest for a large Borg-collective government that controls everything. He'll just deny the existing employees a 1.4% COLA and pretend that he's slashing spending all while adding thousands more people to the federal payroll.

All right. It's time for Barky to step aside. He's proven again that he's dangerously out of touch and incompetent. It's time for a new leader--one who can make the right choices and see America through to good times again. It's time to elect ME.

That's right. Me. I'll do it. Give me just a week and watch what I'll do to fix both of these problems.

First of all, I will call my entire CIA in. They will be given their marching orders: Deal with Wikileaks. Their offices will burn. Their computers will fry and their bank accounts will disappear. Every employee of that company will die an "accidental" death within 72 hours. And Julian Assange, the head of it all? No one will ever see him again or find his body. The whole outfit will be erased from the earth as an example of our willingness to defend our affairs and a warning to anyone else considering similar attacks against us. I'll probably seize the New York Times and lock it's anti-American editor Bill Keller up, too.
Oh--and Bradly Manning, the traitor? He'd be thrown up against a wall and shot on live television come the very next dawn and his body bulldozed into a landfill. Heck, I might even be the guy pulling the trigger.

No quarter for our enemies, even those who live among us. That'll be my motto.

And then the federal pay issue. I will not deny the federal workers their COLA. I will, in fact, increase by 10% the pay of all necessary federal employees, namely those employed in law enforcement, the federal courts, and those working as stewards of our federal lands. I'll give our military heroes an even bigger boost. And then I'll eliminate the rest of the federal workforce altogether. Whole departments will disappear within a week. HUD, Education, Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, TSA...all will be shut down, their employees furloughed, and their buildings and equipment sold or turned over to the states. You want real savings? You'll have 'em, right here.

Now if you think that that stuff's radical, just wait until you see what I'd do in the next week when I get around to dealing with illegal immigration.

Ah well...we'll just have to wait a bit. Sadly, it seems that a majority of the voters preferred Obama over me this past election. But had you all just written me in...

Stop--or my mom will shoot!

So I had my dear, saintly mother visiting for a few days over Thanksgiving. And naturally, I had to take her shopping on the day after...you know, that "Black Friday" day, which is apparently named for it's resemblance to the panic and mob action that was so typical during the Black Death plagues in Britain back in the old days.

Anyway, since we were out, I stopped at the range to exercise my 1911A1. I put a bag of ammo downrange, and being the good son, I handed it to my dear, saintly mother--the one who was once avowedly anti-gun (she tolerates them nowadays) and gave her a bit of elementary coaching which resulted in her bagging a trophy-quality paper plate.Look--four hits. Way to go, Mom!

Actually, since I was paying close attention to her gun-handling, I have no idea where the other rounds went. But hearing no screaming from the adjoining ranges or the parking area, I'm assuming that they at least hit the berm somewhere. She's not exactly Annie Oakley yet, but she's at least safe. Notice that she knows to keep her fingers off the trigger.

Hey--it's a start.

Saturday Man Movie

This one isn't terribly well-known outside of West Virginia and Labor circles. It's from the film "Matewan", about the 1920 gunfight between striking miners led by police chief Sid Hatfield (A real man if ever there was one) and detectives hired from the Baldwin Felts Detective Agency. The movie plays a bit loose with some of the story, but the gunfight in downtown Matewan really happened, leaving seven detectives, three miners and the town mayor dead in the street. John Sayles depicts the Battle of Matewan fairly well here, although I would have preferred to see more Sid Hatfield and less pro-union propaganda (But it was a Sayles film, after all...) Anyway, enjoy this cinematic tribute to the State of West Virginia, circa 1920, and the depiction of the first round of what became the largest non-military uprising of armed citizens in American history.

Something to be jealous of...

Rey Decerega just threw the elbow that most of America undoubtedly wishes that they could have thrown...

President Obama's post-Thanksgiving Friday was anything but restful after he played some hoops and walked away with a split upper lip requiring 12 stitches.

"After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player's elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House Medical Unit," Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The White House had been tight-lipped about the perpetrator, but late in the day, he revealed himself. Rey Decerega, who works for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, was the man behind the elbow.

"I learned today the president is both a tough competitor and a good sport," Decerega said in a statement. "I enjoyed playing basketball with him this morning. I'm sure he'll be back out on the court again soon."

The president frequently plays ball at a variety of indoor courts around Washington during his down time. Friday morning, he played a series of five-on-five games at Ft. McNair, a military facility in the city.

Also joining Mr. Obama were members of his family, who were in town for the holiday, and returning player, presidential assistant Reggie Love, who played for the Duke Blue Devils 2001 championship team.

Usually, the after-game talk centers around how Mr. Obama's team handily beat the competition. This time, the buzz was about the video and still photos the press shot of the president dabbing his lip with what looked like gauze.

Karma's a bitch, but it always comes around, even sometimes in the form of an "accidental" elbow. Maybe Obama shouldn't have promised to pass that amnesty bill that Decerega's constituency wanted and then blew them off, eh?

Oh--and had this happened to President BUSH, it'd be fodder for jokes and late-night lampooning for weeks. But since it happened to the Anointed One, I'm predicting that it goes the way of all of his other gaffes and goofs and we hear very little about it after today. Media Bias? Nah....

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful today.

Thankful that I woke up this morning. None of us are ever guaranteed that.

Thankful for my family...even the relatives who annoy me most of the year.

Thankful for my friends, including many of you readers and posters here, and those who have passed on.

Thankful that I still have a good job, and a roof over my head. The big-government taxers and regulators haven't managed to mess either of these things up for me, yet.

Thankful that I live in a country that is still free enough to allow me to speak out against the policies of and personalities within our out-of-touch, arrogant and inept government.

Thankful that enough of my countrymen felt the same way this past election.

Thankful that Angelina Jolie is in another country on this day. Pity we cannot make her stay there.

Thankful for turkey, and for beer.

May God bless you all as rightly as He has blessed me this year.
So what are YOU thankful for today?

Moving forward again.

It's been three days now. I've mourned my friend--and will continue to do so--but it's time to shake it off and get back in operation. There will be some changes but the blog will continue. I definitely want to thank everyone who sent kind words, either publicly or privately, or called with condolences. It meant a lot, and it's nice to think that while he was mine, Lagniappe was also the internet's dog.

Admittedly, the house seems pretty empty now. I had Lagniappe when I moved in and he's always been a part of this house so I feel his absence now. No one greets me at the door when I walk in, and when I wake up in the middle of the night, I don't hear him stirring too. I still get those automatic reminders in the back of my mind to feed the dog, or let the dog out. But there's no dog here any more. And I haven't quite gotten around to boxing up all of his stuff yet, although I'm noticing how much stuff in the form of toys, bowls, brushes and other dog things that he had. He was definitely rich in possessions.

He was, of course, buried with his beloved hedgehog. I also gave him a tennis ball to share with my other departed dogs, and left him his collar so that there will never be any doubt that he's still my dog. I kept his tags.

Some of the toys will be taken to the local shelter for other less-fortunate dogs to play with. A couple toys will be held back for the next dog that will undoubtedly come around one of these days. There will be another dog. There's always another dog. Lagniappe was another dog once, fresh on the loss of my last Shepherd, Oliver.
In fact when he first got here, I resented him for not being Oliver--he looked the same, but had a different personality, different expectations, and different needs. He also came with a whole slew of baggage--he'd been neglected by the kennel that he'd been returned to to the point where he didn't like anyone, including me. It wasn't a good start by any measure but we worked through the issues and eventually meshed into a great team. An unbeatable team.

Now as I look around the Lair, I see his footprint everywhere. There's still a ton of loose black dog hair around, a deck that will need repainting where his claws tore it up, nose prints on most of the windows and doors, and the damage done to the sliding glass patio door that opens onto the deck. This last one was always a source or frustration; every time that I went to let him in over the years, he would stand on his side of the door like a coiled spring, ready to jump. I'd tell him no, but every time, as soon as I'd reach for the inside handle, he'd jump up against the other side of the door and hit it hard with both paws. Every. Single. Time. For more than five years. Now the door has a slight but noticeable bend in it's frame, and it binds in the track just a bit when I slide it. It didn't do that when we moved in, but five years of a Shepherd pounding on it for no reason at all has had an impact. And I could never get him to stop, no matter what I tried. eventually I just gave up and learned to expect it. I miss it now. I've been opening the door for three days now and no one has slammed into the other side, not even once.

So I'll fix these things now. And I won't mind, because he was my friend. I'd accept ten times the mess and damage just for a little more time with him. But I know that's not possible. It was his time to go and while I'm sad now, and while this past week-end was painful, the pain can't compare to the memories of the great times that we shared together over the past eight years. We hiked, camped, and traveled from Maine to Florida and back. We swam together, played ball together, and took long rides and even a few flights together. And even the quiet times I spent reading on the deck or in the gun room or napping on the couch were enriched by his near-constant presence beside me. He was well-mannered and polite, always sitting and waiting to be invited up on my bed and never begging for my food, popcorn excepted since my mother got him addicted to the stuff the first time I let her dog-sit him. It was only at the end when I relaxed the rules that he began begging for (and getting) some of whatever I was eating--but for most of his life, he never begged food or asked much of me save for a neck scratch or a few tosses of his toy. In return, he was my companion and the protector of my possessions, and I always knew that no one was ever getting into my house and getting back out again whole as long as he was there.

So while I'm missing him, I'm also smiling as I think of all of the good times. We bonded together like few friends ever do, and there hasn't been a day during the past eight years that he hasn't enriched somehow. Yeah, that's a fair trade for a few sad days at the end. And to be honest, I'm sad for me, but glad for him. His quality of life was diminishing every day, until all he had left was me doing the best that I could to keep him comfortable and content. I watched a dog who used to climb ladders and could scale a five-foot fence with ease falter to the point where he couldn't get up two small steps without help. But I gave him that help gladly, and we stretched it out as long as we could. The vet said that he didn't feel any pain in his hind legs so I never minded accommodating him as long as he was still able to move around. However, we finally reached the point when it was time for him to go. And there were tears, but there are a lot more good memories: summer days in the sun, winter evenings by the fire, rides in the car, impromptu wrestling matches on the floor, and countless hours spent together just doing things that guys and their dogs do.

We had a good run, Lagniappe. I couldn't have asked for a better pal. You were a good dog, and you were a great friend. Go to God, fella. I'll be along one day and we'll see each other again then.

Lagniappe. 2001-2010.

Last night Lagniappe finally lost his remaining ability to walk. We sat together on the floor and shared a last bag of popcorn, then I lifted him up onto my bed and talked to him and petted him until around one AM. This morning, he didn't even want to get up, so I didn't make him. I cooked a nice breakfast of sausage and potatoes and gave him half, on his own plate on the bed. Then we took a long ride among the fall colors, stopping to buy a couple of donuts on the way to the vet. He went peacefully. He just closed his eyes, and then he was gone.

He's in a better place now, able to run and play again while he waits for me, no doubt in the company of another German Shepherd and a Golden Retriever that went before him.

Lagniappe, it seems like just yesterday that you came to live with me.


Thank you for eight great years, my friend.





I'll miss you.

Murky--the best politician that money can buy.

This article in the Washington Examiner gives a fantastic explanation of who bankrolled Lisa "elections-are-for-suckers-who-don't-have-powerful-fathers" Murkowski, and more revealingly, why they did so.

It also shines a light on so much of what is wrong in Washington inside BOTH parties.

My contempt for that sorry excuse for a woman has risen to an even higher level than I would have thought possible yesterday when it was announced that she'd prevailed over the will of the voters who'd ousted her fair and square in the Republican primary. Would it really be against the law to tar and feather her and ride her out of DC on a rail?

Let her in, Dammit!

Sgt. Michael Ferschke met Hota Ferschke when he was stationed in Okinawa. He was a reconnaissance officer and she was an administrative specialist.

When it was time for Ferschke to be deployed to Iraq, he proposed to Hota. They planned to marry and move to the U.S. when he was finished with his tour.

But when Hota found out she was pregnant a month after Michael left, he insisted that they get married right away. The couple was married over the phone in 2008.

Michael Ferschke was killed in combat a month later from that day, and his family began making arrangements for their son's widow to come to the U.S. and raise their son, Michael or "Mikey." However the family has run up against a stumbling block in the form of an obstinate US Government which refuses to grant her residency and allow her to come here and apply for citizenship because the marriage was never actually consummated, according to one branch of the government. The Department of Homeland Security refuses to recognize the marriage even though the Defense Department not only recognizes it as valid, but paid Hota Ferschke and little Mikey death benefits for the loss of her husband and his father. And DHS refuses to budge, so Hota is stuck back in Okinawa while Micheal's parents are raising their grandson and fighting to get their daughter-in-law over here legally.

Now this is a slap in the face to Michael Ferschke--who gave his life for this country--and also to every other veteran past, present and future. It's also patently ridiculous in light of the fact that this same government has refused to deport actual criminal illegal aliens who have been convicted of serious crimes here like rape, child molestation and drug dealing. It refuses to detain illegals, or grants them bail so that they can abscond and continue offending. Hell, even Barack Obama's illegal alien aunt was given free rein to run around our country and defraud the taxpayers out of public housing and benefits meant for needy Americans even after she'd been ordered out. Her punishment for ignoring court orders, fraud, and general leeching? An invitation to Obama's inauguration and a pathway to citizenship.

But Hota Ferschke, a woman who worked for our government overseas and who lost her husband and the father of her child in Iraq? Well according to Barack Obama's administration, she's got nothing coming.

Andrew Sullivan, the dope-smoking, Conservative-hating, AIDS-infected British citizen and talking head for the "Progressive" left gets a special dispensation following his conviction for breaking our drug laws, but this woman who has only given good service and a husband to America gets a backhand?

This is wrong, plain and simple. Once again, only the bad people who are politically-connected or representative of special interest groups are getting the benefits here while the good ones who have jobs and obey the laws but have the unfortunate luck to not be Mexican or related to Barack Obama get nothing at all.

Congress needs to let Hota Ferschke come live with her son and grandparents and give her a chance to obtain the American citizenship that her marriage to her fallen Marine husband would have entitled her to. And if Congress won't do that, well then they'd best ensure that Obama's Aunt Zeituni and Andrew Sullivan leave within a week on the same huge ship that every other known illegal alien in our country has been packed onto.

Let her in!

Shhhhh.... You'll wake the watch dog.

There used to be a time when Lagniappe was really on his game. Back then, I was alerted to any and all visitors by his loud warning barks which began about as soon as a vehicle on the road even slowed down near the end of the driveway. Lagniappe's senses and perception were uncanny, and in his prime he was nigh infallible. And his ferocious bark kept everyone with any sense well back from Lagniappe's deck.

But today... Sigh. Today, the big brown UPS truck slowed and stopped at the end of the driveway without a challenge. The UPS man even brought a big box up and set it on the steps, all while the once-vigilant watchdog napped undisturbed on his dog bed just the other side of the sliding glass door.

By luck I happened to catch a glimpse of the UPS man returning to his truck, at which time I woke Lagniappe and pointed him out. Lagniappe staggered to his feet and gave him a half-hearted barking at, but it honestly wasn't very impressive.

It sucks to get old, doesn't it, pal? But it's ok. I'll do the watching for a while. You just rest and enjoy the sunbeam. You've earned it, my friend.

Sigh...

So last night, I had a date with a rather attractive and engaging young lady. All was going so well until we stopped into a local bar that happened to have a TV on. as we were talking and enjoying a drink, the news happened to show Obama on his vacation trip abroad. At this time, the lady whom I'd thought was so intelligent and refined looked at me and gushed: "Don't you just love the way that he keeps soldiering on after the election? It's like they just can't bring him down."

Normally I might have held my tongue, at least until after breakfast, however I'd had a couple of drinks and I felt the need to explain that he was not "soldiering" because he'd never had what it takes to be a solider. More to the point, he's over there in Indonesia visiting yet another mosque and running America down, and he still doesn't grasp the concept that his actions and statements are exactly what led to the historic smacking of his party this past election.

"So you don't really like Obama?" she asked.

"No, I don't."

"You're not one of the Tea Party people, are you?" The look on her face gave me a good idea as to where this night was going.

"No, I'm just a regular decent American who wants the government out of his life. But enough about me. What do you like about the guy?"

"Well he passed health care, so now I won't have to pay for health insurance next year."

"What?! You don't actually think that you're going to get free health insurance, do you?"

"Yes. Most of the country is getting it."

I sighed. The night went downhill fast as I fruitlessly tried to explain that not only was she not getting free anything, but her health care costs--and other expenses--are about to skyrocket right along with mine and everyone else's because of her idol and his policies. But she wasn't having any of it and the evening ended shortly thereafter. There was no good-night kiss and I'm certain that my number was deleted from her phone about as fast as hers was from mine.

The sad part is that she votes, and all the Dems ever have to do to win is appeal to people like her and make sure that enough of them show up on election day to cancel the rest of us out, plus one.

Meanwhile, I just walked in the door to be greeted by Lagniappe, the look on his face saying: "You're home early...and alone."

Break out the Bushmills, Dog. I'm pretty tolerant and my standards are a little low these days, but dating a DEMOCRAT? Can't do it.

Cats get it, Democrats don't.

So We're two weeks into "Operation Pop-a-Cat" and I can report more success than I expected. It seems that the neighbor's feral cats have learned that they don 't like being pegged with airsoft pellets and they've figured out that if they come over on our property, they're likely to get popped with one. When I started this, there were literally more cats in my yard than I could shoot at, and they just looked at me with disdain when I stepped out my door. But now, two weeks later, they're scarce, and the ones that I do see over here staking out my bird feeders take off like lightning as soon as they hear my door open. The result is that I'm already seeing more birds on the feeders and more squirrels on the ground. I prefer either to those nasty cats, so it seems as if this operation's working well.

That aside, it's also good shooting practice and a lot of fun to zero in on the cats and whack 'em. It doesn't hurt them but it's sure unpleasant (for the cat) and it never gets old to lay a hit on a cat half way across the yard or even clean down by the road and hear that "Mrowr!" as they take off running. But fun as it is, I rarely seem to get a shot at the same cat more than once or twice. Frankly I'm surprised that the cats have figured out what's going on as quick as they have, but it it keeps the little rocket scientists off my land, I'm good with it.

In other news, the Democrats are poised to re-elect Nancy Pelosi to lead them in the next Congress, and she's going around claiming that her party didn't take a historic drubbing because of her or her policies.

How is it there cats get get it enough to change their ways when you punish them but Democrats don't? Are cats smarter than Democrats?

On second thought, don't even bother answering that.

Saturday Man Movie

Because Kirk Douglas was a man, he inspired other men.

Hell, I'M Sparticus!

Obama doofs it again in Korea.

This is why we have professional diplomats, and why they should represent us abroad instead of a guy who bungles every time he has to step out from behind his teleprompter. After selectively taking questions only from the members of the press that he brought with him, Obama condescendingly offers to take the last question from one of the local reporters.

The closing exchange at President Obama’s press conference today in Seoul:


THE PRESIDENT: I feel obliged to take maybe one question from the Korean press — since you guys have been such excellent hosts. Anybody? This gentleman right here — he’s got his hand up. He’s the only one who took me up on it. Go ahead. And I’ll probably need a translation, though, if you’re asking the question in Korean. In fact, I definitely will need a translation.


REPORTER (in excellent English): Unfortunately, I hate to disappoint you, President Obama, I’m actually Chinese.

Koreans, Chinese, whatever...they all look alike, don't they, Barack?

What a moron. And to think that people used to call Bush "stupid". George Bush was an Einstein next to Obama. But because the media still loves Obama, this isn't getting much play at all. But just imagine if President Bush had said it...

Shooting

I hit the range today. Took two pistols out with me: The old police veteran Beretta 92, and the relatively new young pup--the Ruger LCP.


The Beretta was out for testing after I replaced the springs. It was, shall we say, less than reliable when I got it, and I shudder to think of some New Orleans police officer carrying it on duty in the condition that I received it in. Lots of failures to completely chamber rounds, resulting in no sound at all where there should have been a second "bang" in the double-tap.

But now that it sports new Wolff springs and has been thoroughly cleaned and oiled, it shoots like a champ, icky double-action first shot notwithstanding.

The little Ruger, still fairly new to me, was just along for the ride, but since I had practice ammo for it in the bag, I downloaded the carry loads and set it up for some practice scenarios (which basically involved loading it with the target loads and stuffing it back into my front jeans pocket).

The course of fire consisted of two paper plates, one above the other at approximate chest & head level, but since my range has a bunch of sissy pacifists as members, we can't call them that or imply that it's what they represent. I also took another target stand back 15 yards and set it up as a barricade to shoot around. Firing was three-shot strings, two to the ches--uh...the lower plate, and one to the upper plate. I kept moving so that each string was fired from a different location on the range, and when the Beretta ran dry, instead of a tactical reload, I transitioned to the Ruger in my pocket.

I've found that the Ruger tends to shoot low, so that if I want a point-of-aim hit, I have to elevate the front sight so that it's wholly out of the rudimentary rear notch sight. If I remember to do that, I have no trouble double-tapping the paper plate, provided that I don't get too far back from it. But then it was never meant to be a stand-off weapon and I knew that when I bought it.

Close-in (under ten feet) the Ruger does great. I can pull it out of the pocket, index it, and fire twice into the plate in about two seconds. From farther back, give me the Beretta any day (or better yet, my 1911).

And of course it wouldn't be good practice without a couple magazines fired support-hand-only. (That means if you're left-handed, using only your right, and if you're cursed enough to be right-handed, using your left one.) It's only natural that we tend not to practice those things which aren't much fun--like support-hand shooting, but it's also fairly common in real gunfights to take a round in your primary gun hand since bad guys--like the rest of us--tend to instinctively shoot what they're looking at, and odds are that they'll be looking at your gun and, by extension, the hand holding it. And this theory has been borne out in my own simunition training numerous times, and I have rarely gone a day of force-on-force simunition shooting without taking at least one solid hit to my gun-hand fingers (and usually several). Consequently, as a proud southpaw, I always try to fire a few rounds each time out with my right hand only. It doesn't feel natural, and I can't shoot the nice, tight groups that I'm accustomed to, but I've gotten to where I can put consistent hits on the target fairly quickly, and that's really the point of combat shooting. Shoot fast, shoot straight, move to cover, and always have a back-up plan for when things untwist.

Now get out there with your own sidearms and start switching mitts. And don't forget to practice one-handed reloading as well. Your life may depend on it some day and trying to figure it out for the first time while under the stress of a real shooting situation probably isn't going to work out too well.

One hundred years ago yesterday...

The pistol that would soon become the "Colt Caliber .45 Automatic Pistol, Model of 1911" began field trials.

This fine weapon still soldiers on today with many specialized military units and law-enforcement agencies, and in the holsters of countless civilians who are serious about their self-defense or sport-shooting.

Here's my veteran, produced in mid-1918 for "The War to End All Wars" and bearing the "United States Property" stamp.


And here's it's great grandson, which I bought new in 1987 and still carry today:

The components are 100% interchangeable between the two, a testament to the original design.

Hat tip to Bob.

Another Veterans' Day, another Obama absence.

And the New York Post nails it.

Once more, we have a holiday set aside to honor Americans who have sacrificed for this country and it's ideals, and once more, Obama is somewhere else, doing something else.

This time he's in Indonesia, telling more muslims that America has to change and stop mistrusting them. And our veterans? They clearly don't rate very high on his list of priorities. But then his narcissism undoubtedly makes it painful for him to acknowledge his betters, and besides that, he knows that very few military personnel voted for him because they don't think too highly of him, either. And I truly believe that he holds our military men and women in contempt because he knows that he can't measure up to them and because they represent the real patriotic America that he's always despised and disparaged.

So as much as I'm disappointed in him ignoring our vets once again, I'm actually glad that he's not here trying to get in the picture. Obama being absent from celebrations for our vets is like Michael Jackson being absent from a ten year old boy's slumber party.

In other news, former President George W. Bush was honoring America's veterans at the Wright-Patterson Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio today.

Veterans' Day

Martha Stewart, watch out

So if was suppertime here at the Lair. Lagniappe got his Eukanuba so he was content, but I needed more. So I pulled the last bag of "steam-in-the-bag" vegetables out of the freezer and got ready for some nice hot broccoli, peppers and onions. Yum.

Of course the stuff in the bag was all frozen together in one big clump. The directions on the bag say "gently knead the frozen contents apart", but this stuff was seriously frozen and no kneading was going to separate it. So, being a guy, I beat the bag on the counter half a dozen times, then grabbed a nearby handy Mag-Lite and whacked it some more. Now everything was "gently kneaded" apart.

The only problem was that I'd also put a hole in the bag somehow. "Steam-in-the-bag" only works with an intact bag. Damn it.

But I'm a guy, and guys are resourceful and inventive. And we have duct tape. So I used a few pieces of duct tape to seal the bag and I popped it into the microwave for the requisite four and a half minutes. The duct tape held, and I had my daily serving of green vegetables. Not bad.

Duct tape. Every guy should keep a roll in his kitchen. I now keep mine right next to the Mag-Lite.

Saturday Man Movie

Vigilante Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is back in action again, because the bad guys just won't stop victimizing his family. In this scene, he probably has the best line of the entire Death Wish franchise.

Hey Steve Kagen--we kicked your ass.

Hey everyone...remember Wisconsin Democrat Steve Kagen? He was the guy who bragged about how, right after he got elected, he trapped Karl Rove in a men's room and boasted about "kicking his ass" following the Dems' sweep into control of the House four years ago. He also bragged about deliberately disrespecting Laura Bush by calling her "Barbara". He later bragged about how it was his intention to insult her and her husband by doing so.

I wrote about it here. The guy just got elected to high office and instead of behaving like a statesman, he ran around acting like an undisciplined 6th grader and then bragged about it repeatedly as if he expected Wisconsin voters to be proud of him.

Well Kagen--the punk extraordinaire--just got his own ass kicked by those voters and he's on his way back to the private sector after being trounced by Republican Reid Ribble Tuesday night.

Kagen's defeat follows that of Florida's Alan Grayson, another buffoon famous for a whole host of loutish actions such as his statement, made on the floor of the House of Representatives, that the Republicans’ plan to save some money in Medicare was to request that seniors die quickly. Even his own party members were embarrassed (just not enough to censure him).

These victories of civility and maturity over crassness will serve as a good start in the effort towards bringing respectability back to the House.

Name the celebrity

OK, this celebrity began as a child star on stage when he was four years old. He caught the attention of another star, Charlie Chaplin, in 1917 and got a start doing movie roles. He went on to become the youngest self-made millionaire in history, however when he tried to actually get his money after becoming an adult, his mother and manager-turned-stepfather refused to give it to him, having squandered most of it on their own high living. He brought suit against them and that suit led to the law that to this day requires that a percentage of the money earned by child actors be placed in trust for them. Alas, he still wound up with no money--they'd spent nearly all of it.

Figure it out yet?

How about if I told you that a close friend of his from college wound up being kidnapped and murdered, and when the kidnappers were caught, public outrage was such that a lynch mob stormed the jail and took the criminals out to a nearby park and hung them. This actor was identified as being one of the leaders of that mob but was never prosecuted.

Know who it is yet?

He was married to film star Betty Grable for a couple of years, and following Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, volunteering to fly gliders and land commando teams behind Japanese lines in the dead of the night. He did this until 1944, and he also managed to get busted by the Military Police when they caught him in a cathouse in Burma.

Know who I'm talking about yet?

He returned to acting in the 50's, but his career didn't really do much despite his getting bit parts on such shows as Perry Mason, The Andy Griffith Show, The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, I Dream of Jeannie, Emergency!, Family Affair, The Wild, Wild West, and Hawaii Five-O.

If you haven't got it yet, maybe you'll recognize him from this clip of his first movie where he played opposite Charlie Chaplin.


Recognize him yet?

OK, that first one was a bit dated. How about a picture from his most famous role--the one that finally put him on easy street:


That's right--the man who played Uncle Fester on The Addams Family from 1964-1966 was none other than former child star Jackie Coogan and his life was a long and interesting one as he married and divorced beautiful movie stars, helped lynch the kidnappers of Brooke Hart, and volunteered for extra hazardous duty in World War Two.

He died March 1, 1984 in Santa Monica, California. He was 69.

His star on the Hollywood walk of Fame.

Election Day results

Lagniappe and I will be reporting throughout the evening, so keep checking back.

First report out of South Carolina... Democrat Alvin Greene just lost to Republican Jim DeMint for Senate. No surprise, but we'll miss Greene if only for the comedy relief.

Looks like Rand Paul(R) has the Kentucky Senate seat he was going for, and Dan Coats (R) just nabbed the Senate seat there for the GOP. R's are now up one.

In Connecticut...Richard Blumenthal--the guy who repeatedly lied about his military service--won the Senate seat...as a Dem, naturally. They're shameless and totally without honor, just like he is.

Delaware Senate--Coons takes it. It was O'Donnell's to lose and she sure lost it. Good ideas, but every time she opened her mouth...Of course her Republican primary foe undermining her early on didn't help either.

West Virginia Senate: Raese(R) v. Manchin(D). News is calling it for Manchin--the "I loved Obama's policies last year but hate them all now that I need votes" guy. Another phony takes a seat on the Dim side of the Senate.

South Carolina conserva-chick Nikki Haley is going to be the new Republican governor. Yes!

Florida House 8: Webster(R) v. Grayson(Lout). Grayson is the jerk who announced that the GOP health care plan was for sick people to die. He also put out some totally disgusting lies about his opponent in this race and generally acted like a tool over the past two years. But his day is done. Webster smoked him and Grayson is TOAST! Yay!

Oh--and Rubio will be the next Senator from Florida. Nice. Suck on that, Crist.

Michigan Governor: Snyder(R) v. Bernero(D). Looks like Snyder's taking it handily. The people in that state have clearly had enough of Dem-o-conomics courtesy of outgoing liberal Jenny Granholm.

Virginia's 5th House: Tom Perriello(D)--Obama butt-boy--is history. He was a one-term Dem who voted for Obamacare and Stimulus and boasted about it. Obama spent a lot of time campaigning for him...and he LOST! Smoke that, Barak.

Wisconsin's Russ Feingold(D) just lost his Senate seat. Good riddance.

California just re-seated Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown. America needs to just cut that damned third-world state off...at least the southern half of it.

Colorado's trying to be California, apparently giving it to Hickenlooper, an unapologetic Illegal Alien supporter, and Bennet, a serious lib. Idiots in that state had a chance to help save America, but they voted to keep driving us into the ditch instead. Must be all of that "medical" marijuana they're smoking. Wait--hold off on that--Buck may actually have come back and won it...it's too close to tell at the end.

Pennsylvania: Welcome, Senator Toomey! Obama's and Clinton's hard work for Sestak was for nothing as corrupt Arlen Specter's old seat falls to the GOP.

In Nevada Senate, it looks like letting the SEIU thugs count the votes paid off for Harry Reid...that and spending millions of slanderous personal attack ads and busing a lot of stupid people to the polls. Damn it.

Washington State: Murray(D) v. Rossi(R) still being contested. Come on, Dino. But Murray won six years ago in a squeaker due to a lot of "suspicious" votes and a Dem A.G. who refused to investigate. Will voter fraud pull her through again?

Alaska Senate race between Joe Miller(R) v. Lisa "voters can't fire me" Murkowski(Traitor) is still being undetermined, but apparently many Dems abandoned their guy and wrote ballots in. If she manages to come out ahead in the count, it'll be because of Dem interference and she should be shunned and ignored. And no matter what the result of Alaska's, Lisa "My Daddy gave me this seat" Murkowski needs to be tarred and feathered for spoiling the race or trying to.

All in all, the GOP swept the House and most of the open Governor's races and made gains in the Senate but didn't quite take it. Pelosi is back to some broom closet and John Boehner will be the new Speaker of the House. A new day is dawning and the grown-ups are going to be in charge of much of America now. Don't blow it GOP--you're on probation with many of us and this is your last chance.