Lagniappe's Lair

Crazy Chick report, Alaska edition.

2012-01-31T08:30:00.007-05:00

In Alaska, nothing says "true love" like kicking on your ex-lover's door and firing a pistol...except possibly doing so while drunk and bringing your eight year old child and his rifle for back-up.

FAIRBANKS — A North Pole area woman is accused of trying to kick down the door and firing a pistol into the air outside her former boyfriend’s house Wednesday night.

Diana M. Andre, 25, faces misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and weapons misconduct.

About 7:27 p.m., her ex-boyfriend called troopers to report Andre was outside his house on the 1900 block of Wallace Court. Her 8-year-old son also was there with what looked like a rifle, he said. Her ex-boyfriend called troopers from a neighbor’s house because he said Andre sent him a threatening message after he turned down a lunch invitation, according to the criminal complaint against Andre.

Troopers later found Andre at another North Pole area home because one of the phone calls to her ex matched a land line.

She told troopers she fired the shots because her ex-boyfriend had threatened her. She gave troopers a Glock .27-caliber semi-automatic pistol she said she had used.

She appeared intoxicated and later registered a breath-alcohol content of 0.275 using a preliminary breath-alcohol test, troopers said.

And here she is, in all of her Myspace glory:
Wow--a gal with a house messier than mine who can function with a BrAC of almost 0.30, and she appreciates Glocks. Where do I find a woman like that?
No, seriously--someone tell me, because I want to stay along way away from that place.

Saturday Man Movie

2012-01-28T07:15:00.000-05:00

In the fairly forgettable but still fun 1979 movie Search and Destroy, an old enemy from his days in Vietnam kills a Special Ops vet's friends and kidnaps his girlfriend. Naturally, this makes that vet, played by Perry King, very angry.
This leads to a war in downtown Niagara Falls, a war that police detective George Kennedy trys--and fails--to head off.

And the fight continues at first light:

Ow, ow, ow....

2012-01-25T21:38:00.004-05:00

When there's a miscommunication between man and dog over who is going to grab which part of a toy, the man usually wins on principle just due to species superiority. The dog however, usually wins on points, specifically the points on his sharp canine teeth.

Murphy and I had such a miscommunication a few hours ago, with both of us grabbing the same part of one of his flat basketballs. I know that he meant no harm, but I'd be willing to bet that his teeth don't hurt anything like my thumb does right about now.

So if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch my thumb nail turn blacker.

Ow.

Portrait of an "Occupy" member

2012-01-25T12:28:00.000-05:00

Here is a OWS Dude. He's the guy on the street with the nose rings, the dreadlocks and the lice.

He's the guy in Starbucks making coffee because it's the only job he can get with his degree in Art History.He doesn't always have money for rent or food but he always has money for weed. He rents a dingy studio apartment with a window on the sidewalk level. Bums sleep on his steps and pee on his sidewalk window. He doesn't seem to care. He doesn't even notice the smell.

He's the guy that rides a bicycle everywhere he goes because he can't afford a car. He has to keep replacing the bicycle because people like him keep stealing it.

He has no mechanical skills. He has no administrative skills. He has no trade. He is a vegan, too weak from malnutrition to work at any kind of physical labor job; not that he would take one anyway as that kind of work is beneath him. He despises the military and law enforcement. He has an upside down American flag taped to his sidewalk window... right next to his marijuana flag.

He hangs out with other leftwing losers who blame their innumerable failures in life on people they've never met and know nothing about.He's always borrowing money from someone but never pays them back. He gives them some weed instead.

He's never contributed time or money to any civic project yet he constantly criticizes his community.He fully immerses himself in anything leftwing. The more these leftwing organizations bash America, the more rabid he becomes. Despite his leftist fervor, he is always on the outside looking in. He's a loser and even the leftwing losers that tolerate him think he's a loser. He's never been able to become part of their leftist clique, no matter how much he bashes America.When he gets old and is unable to support himself he will turn to welfare. He is a parasite. When his life is over he will have contributed nothing but hatred and bigotry to the world. He will be buried in a state owned lot at the taxpayers expense. Maybe one or two of his dealers or customers will stop by for the funeral service. So long OWS bum.

Text courtesy of Matthew Clark, in a comment that he posted to Politico. Too good not to steal and share. The pics I just nabbed off the net.

Afghan tractor = Marine officer's career?

2012-01-24T20:03:00.004-05:00

Only in the Bizarro-land created by the Obama Administration.

Marine's career threatened by controversial rules of engagement.

Joshua Waddell, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marines, appeared on his way to a stellar career as an American military officer. The son of a retired Navy SEAL commander, Waddell had won a Bronze Star during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan and had returned for a second.

Then he made a decision in combat that military experts say has severely jeopardized his future in the corps.

But some military experts say the black mark on Waddell's record was undeserved, that he and other young American officers are being put in a difficult, if not impossible, situation by unreasonable rules of engagement foisted upon the military by politically sensitive commanders in the Pentagon.

The facts in Waddell's case are spelled out in Marine Corps documents. But how those facts should be interpreted is a matter of heated dispute.

On Nov. 1, Waddell, a 25-year-old executive officer with 3rd Battallion, 7th Marine Corps Regiment, was monitoring a surveillance camera in Sangin, Afghanistan, when he spotted a man who had been identified as a bomb maker working with area insurgents. Two days earlier, a sergeant from India Company had lost both legs and a hand when a bomb detonated in their area of operation. The man spotted on the camera was believed to be responsible.

After receiving permission from his battalion commanders, Waddell ordered Marine snipers to open fire on the man, and he was hit. A group of Afghans rushed to the man, put him on a tractor and attempted to flee. Waddell ordered the snipers to hit the engine block of the tractor, disabling it so the man believed to be a bomb maker would not escape. The tractor was hit but no civilians were injured.

Then, about three weeks later, the civilians who helped remove the wounded man from the area were found to be teenagers.

As a result, Waddell was demoted from executive officer, and the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Seth Folsom, determined he had violated rules of engagement that governed when Marines could fire, and at whom. Folsom said Wadell "is not recommended for promotion" and "in violation of [combat rules] during an engagement." The report stated that "noncombatant local nationals" were in the area of direct fire and that "the engagement resulted in a damaged local national vehicle."

A Marine brigadier general who reviewed the case was sympathetic to Waddell, whom he described as a "superb and heroic combat leader. But the general said the decision on whether Waddell should be promoted was "the commander's prerogative," noting that the battalion commander on the scene had lost "confidence in [Waddell's] abilities."

Read the rest at the link above. Long story short, if you get passed over for promotion, you're pretty much on the way to being booted from the service these days. It's virtually a career death sentence to get skipped.

I guess this is how we reward our warfighters who dare go into harm's way now. Guess they should have just stood back and asked for some drone "pilot" to obliterate the entire group. They'd have probably got medals for that.

Yet another reason why I don't have kids

2012-01-23T10:19:00.003-05:00

In New York State, a 4 year old rats out her dad and gets momma a court case to boot.

MASSENA - State police here found a wanted man with a little help from his 4-year-old daughter.

Police arrested John A. Colby, 30, of Massena, at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday and charged him with third-degree bail jumping, second-degree obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest, according to a press release.

Troopers arrived at Colby's 12 Stearns St. home with bench warrants from Stockholm and Norfolk town courts. Initially, Colby's girlfriend - 27-year-old Jessica L. Smith of Massena - denied knowing his whereabouts. That's when Colby's daughter reportedly told police, "Daddy is scared and hiding in the attic."

Smith refused to comply with troopers, police said, and "actively resisted" when they tried to go into the attic and take Colby into custody. She was subsequently charged with second-degree obstructing governmental administration.

Colby was arraigned in Norfolk town court and remanded to St. Lawrence County Jail in lieu of $1,655 cash bail. He's due to reappear Wednesday morning. Smith was issued an appearance ticket returnable to Massena village court Jan. 31.

Sure, Murphy can be a pain at times, but I'm pretty confident that if and when Obama gets a second term and initiates a nationwide gun round-up, should they come knocking on my door and I deny having any guns, Murphy probably won't reveal where they're actually hidden.

Range Day

2012-01-22T18:14:00.008-05:00

Old NFO stopped by today. And after he played with Murphy and got him all wound up, we headed out to the range. Initially we were going to go to one about 50 miles away, but on the way there, we passed another one--probably the only range in the area that I didn't belong to--and I joined it for a year so that we could shoot there because it was much better than where we were headed. This one has got a pistol range with steel targets, a 50 and 100 yard line, and a 400 yard line (with more steel). Even better, they let you practice realistic drills, including rapid fire and drawing from the holster, unlike the range I usually shoot at.

Once I was signed up and we shot qualifying targets, allowing us use of the 100 and 400 yard ranges, we put the "new" M60 through it's paces, and other than a minor sight-alignment issue, it ran flawlessly.
I don't have any video footage of it, but hopefully Old NFO does. I did, however, get a nice picture of our rifles on the bench. Here's my Rock River AR-15 with the Aimpoint in front, and behind it is his very nice FN SCAR in .308. The ACOG optic he's got mounted on it just makes the weapon, and he was ringing the gong at 400 yards with it repeatedly. Now that I'm a member there, I'll be out there with my Savage Tactical regularly. Gotta be prepared, because, as they say, the 21st century is when everything changes, and you've gotta be ready.

We also shot much pistol in .45, .38 and .22. and then, moderately chilled, we adjourned to Marios in Berryville for some quality Italian cooking. (Italians...lousy ship captains but great cooks.)

Then it was back to the Lair to discover that Murphy had figured out that I'd thrown away a couple of his favorite old bones and a ratty tennis ball and vetoed that by dragging the whole garbage bag into the living room, tearing it open on the rug, and digging through all of the coffee grounds and other trash until he was able to locate and remove his possessions.

Damn dog.

But garbage on the floor notwithstanding, it was still a great day out and I'm looking forward to the next one.

A Saturday Man Movie post

2012-01-21T06:57:00.000-05:00

How NOT to take on a Tiger tank:

Actually, reasoning with them seems to work much better.

This compilation comes from a movie that I watched last night because Brigid told me that she was watching it (and because I'd just found my copy in between the couch cushions.)

Kelly's Heroes. Back when movies were fun.

West Virginia's Gun-Hating Delegate John Doyle is at it again.

2012-01-20T19:35:00.007-05:00

Sure as Spring follows Winter, you can expect Delegate John Doyle (D-57) to try to do something else to disarm both his constituents and the rest of us. This time, he's introduced HB 2229, a bill intended to create a new aw barring any of us in the state from purchasing more than two handguns in a thirty-day period.

Last time it was his effort to keep any of us from buying more than one gun in any 24-hour period. That failed, too.

Sadly, he keeps surviving elections. This tells me that too many West Virginians care more about knee-jerking in support of the Democrats than they care about preserving their freedoms. Pity that we cannot mandate that any gun-control legislation passed by would-be tyrants like Doyle only apply to the people who actually vote for them (or fail to vote at all). Maybe THAT would wake up some of those Stepford voters that keep casting ballots for his freedom-hating ass.

Thanks to the NRA for the tip.

A Day in the Life...

2012-01-20T09:57:00.009-05:00

If you're going to have one leg, you've gotta be tough. But sometimes, even that has it's limits.

Currently, I'm back on just one leg for a few days as I wait for a blister that is interfering with my store-bought leg to go away. This means that I use crutches (slow, awkward) or I hop around on one foot. The latter is actually my preferred method for around the house and I'm quite good at it. It's faster and leaves my arms free to carry things that I cannot carry while using crutches. (It's amazing how adaptable you can get when circumstances force your hand.) Usually this works just fine, but on occasion, things happen to throw you a curve. Take yesterday.

There I am, hopping down to the basement to get a bag of wood pellets for the stove. I hop over to the pallet of pellets, toss a 40lb. bag of them on my shoulder, and start hopping back, only to feel something hard and sharp underfoot.

Did I mention that this only works if I'm barefoot? I can't do the hop thing with a shoe on.

So I feel the hard, sharp thing underfoot, and I'm hoping that is dislodges with the next hop or two, but it does not. In fact, it jabs harder with each bounce, and I realize that whatever it is, it's digging itself into the bottom of my foot more with each bounce. Joy. It took two bounces to figure this out, then two more to get to the steps where I could set the bag down and set ME down to re-assess. My luck, it's a piece of glass from a broken bottle out of the recycling tub. (Stupid green environmental crap..) And it's now embedded deep in the ball of my foot. Joyx2!

So I scuttle up the stairs, grab my handy-dandy folding knife off the back of the couch, and spend the next ten minutes trying to dig/pry/hack that chunk of glass out of the bottom of my own foot without anesthetic. (That came right after in the form of a large Bushmills, neat with an Abita Amber chaser.) Then I washed the foot, put a dressing on it, and hopped back down to get my wood pellets, lest Murphy and I get cold. But now I have a fair-sized hole in the bottom of my remaining foot. Good thing I just bought a fresh bottle of Bushmills last week. If you need me, I'll be on the couch, watching Dr. Who."Suck it up, Buttercup. My comfort was worth it."

It's times like this that I realize that I really could use a wood-fetcher/basement-cleaner/dog-smacker around the house. So if you're a smoking hot female interested in applying for the job, drop me a line. Applicants with their own French Maid attire and gun-cleaning experience will receive priority consideration.

Destroyer U.S.S. Edson finally gets a lasting home

2012-01-19T08:31:00.002-05:00

Happy news for an old veteran ship.
BAY CITY, MI (WNEM) -

After years of trying to get a decommissioned U.S. warship to Mid-Michigan, the plan is about to come to fruition.

Members of the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum say they should receive the OK this week to move the U.S.S. Edson from Philadelphia to Bay County's Bangor Township, to be docked on the Saginaw River.

Michael Kegley and Dick Janke have worked for 15 years on trying to bring the ship to Mid-Michigan. The men say the U.S. Navy should give them the okay this week to move the decommissioned destroyer.

"When we started this project we were young men," Kegley said.

The warship saw action in the Vietnam war.

"As a matter of fact it fired more five-inch rounds in Vietnam than any other ship" Janke said.

The pier where the U.S.S. Edson will be docked is located very close to the Independence Bridge in Bangor Township. An estimated 80,000 people will visit the ship every year. Museum organizers expect most of the ship's visitors to come from out of state.

"You remember now that this ship had a compliment of 276 officers and men and there were 18 ships in the four Sherman class destroyers, you multiply that over a 35-year period and there's a lot of men who sailed this ship and that's not even counting those who sailed other destroyers," Kegley said.

After the Edson arrives, organizers plan to raise more than $2.5 million to build a visitors center and gift shop next to the ship.

It's going to cost at least $200,000 to move the ship this spring. The plan is to it get here through the St. Lawrence seaway after the ice thaws.

If you'd like to make a donation to get the ship here or for the visitor's center, you can go to the following website for more information:

http://www.ussedson.org/

It's back! All-new and better than ever!

2012-01-18T18:45:00.003-05:00

The Big Brown Truck just left. Murphy is still grumbling, having refused the latest "let's be friends" entreaty of Mike, the UPS driver. (Murphy does take his offered cookies, however. He just devours them quickly than resumes barking and snapping at Mike as soon as his mouth is empty.)

Last month I sent my M60 out to Desert Ordnance, the civilian sales side of US Ordnance, the company that rebuilds M60 machine guns into new Mk43 guns for the US Navy. They rebuilt mine so thoroughly that the only original part left on it is the trunion and the rear sight assembly. The gun needed a rebuild because it was tired and unreliable, so I sent it off to these folks for a refurbishment, and now it's back, lighter and more reliable with a new-gun warranty--a zero-time gun with all new parts made using the latest processes and incorporating all of the upgrades; a totally mil-spec machine gun that should fire for decades and outlast me if properly cared for.

And for the pics:

BEFORE:

AFTER:
It's shorter, it's lighter, and it's infinitely more reliable.
Most of the "old" M60's faults have been corrected in this new version, which also boasts 30% stronger belt-pulling power and a spiffy rail for the mounting of optics.Much of the size/weight savings comes from the replacement of the old heavy barrel with it's attached bipod (meaning that each spare barrel that the operator carries has to have these too) with a lightweight barrel and a redesigned mounting system that puts the bipod on the gun itself. The new barrels are superior to the old ones in terms of their ability to absorb heat, and the front sights are now adjustable, meaning that each spare barrel can be zeroed to the weapon in advance. .Also, it has a new gas piston designed to work no matter which way you put it in so that you cannot foul the gun up by putting it in backwards like operators of the old ones sometimes did. That clunky heat shield is gone, too. Best not to touch that barrel. But the new barrels now have permanent carrying handles attached, meaning no more asbestos glove needed to swap out hot barrels!

This machine gun is currently in use by US Navy SEAL teams due to it's size and weight advantage over the M240 weapons system. US Ordnance has the contract to rebuild the Navy's M60 systems into these new Mk43 weapons and I couldn't pass up the chance to have mine totally rebuilt by them for less than the cost of what a couple of big-name commercial machine gun gunsmiths wanted to just fix what was wrong it.

Here's the article about the Mk43 written last year by Defense Review. It even comes with videos, which should work to hold those interested over until I can shoot some of my own.

Defense Review MK 43.

"Yeah, ok...it's neat, but I'm still not schlepping your extra ammo belts around. I'm a dog, not a pack mule!"

More Occupy DC

2012-01-16T19:58:00.003-05:00

I happened to have business downtown Washington DC again today and that business took me near Freedom Plaza, home (temporary, I hope) of one of the two Occupy camps in the city. I talked to some of the Occupods and found out that the group is actually run by two leaders, and they are Margaret Flowers, a pediatrician who quit her practice to lobby for Obamacare prior to landing this gig, and Kevin Zeese, an attorney who also quit his practice to be a full-time leftist activist. (Google either of them and you'll get a ton of hits linking to stories about them doing this and other stuff. They aren't amateurs by any stretch.)

Now I'm not sure what it pays to be the front people and leaders for an Occupy camp, but if it can draw an MD and a lawyer away from their practices, it's gotta be paying pretty good. Question is, who is paying them, and what are they being paid to accomplish?And isn't this the definition of an astro-turf movement? (That means that it's a fake grass-roots movement, for any liberals who happen by this blog.)

Anyway, there wasn't too much going on other than this fat bastard walking around wearing my country's flag as a scarf.I could be persuaded that flag-burning is a good thing in this case, so long as Bubba here is still wearing it when we apply the gasoline and a match. Take a good look at him, folks...he's the face of the Occupy movement.

They were also singing a song, accompanied by a guitar player. I couldn't hear it all, but it was about how much better the country would be without the 1% that they all hate so much. Now I would have loved to ask them who is supposed to pay all the taxes if the 1% ever went away, seeing as how that top one percent paid 36.7% of federal taxes in 2009. I doubt that anyone here would be willing or able to pick up the slack since they were all sitting around aimlessly during the middle of a business day. IN fact, when I was first walking by, I saw and heard one of their number going from tent to tent, loudly shouting that they had to wake up and report to General Assembly. I looked at my watch and it was 9AM. The sun had been up for almost three hours and most of the eastern time zone is already at work yet these alleged grown men and women need someone to come by and tell them to get out of bed. It's no wonder that they're all unemployed. These folks would still be unemployed if the unemployment rate was cut to 0.05%, and for the simple reason that they don't want to put the effort in to find and hold a job! That's why I don't understand them claiming to be upset about so much of our tax money being "given to corporations by congress". (Not by Obama though. He's still their guy.)
How can they be upset about any distribution of tax dollars when they don't work or pay taxes? It's not even their money that's supposedly being given away, just like its not their money that's paying for the extra police to watch them and to repair the damage that they've done to our public parks. You and I pay for all that stuff while these fools sit in their own filth and curse us for not forking over even more of our money to their pet causes-causes that even they don't work to support!

Screw these losers. I want an airstrike on these parks and I want them yesterday. Hit them with napalm, hit them with soap, hit them with job applications...whatever it takes to drive them off our land and out of our country since they seem to find so much fault with it.

Dumb animals? I think not

2012-01-15T18:32:00.004-05:00

I just watched a video that had a doorbell ringing. As soon as that played, Murphy jumped up, ran into my office and barked. OK, great. He knows what a doorbell is. But I don't have a doorbell. Never have. Where is he getting this from? He's always been a kennel dog or an outside dog before I got him.

Lagniappe was the same way. He'd go nutty when he heard doorbells on TV, too. And again, as long as I had him, I never lived in a house or apartment that had a doorbell.

But the strangest one? My first German Shepherd, Oliver. If he heard another German Shepherd bark on the TV, he'd run into the room from wherever he was and sit right in front of the set, staring at the Shepherd on the screen. (Usually old episodes of "Cops".) If it was any other dog, he wouldn't even stir but if it was a Shepherd I'd usually wind up having to watch the rest of the show between his big pointy ears as he'd be parked a foot from the screen, watching until he was sure that dog was gone.

Oh--and Murphy is alert to engine and vehicle types, too. Not only does he alert to the UPS truck whenever it comes here, but when he was at my mother's over the holiday, he sounded off when an identical Big Brown Truck slowed down in front of her place as well. No other vehicle gets him going, but a braking UPS truck? It's on like Donkey Kong even before the truck is in view.

Oh, and my nephew, The Spud, still can't figure out how come he can never win at Hide and Seek with any of my Shepherds that he's ever played with. They've always found him in seconds no matter how well he's hidden, when they've bothered to actually look for him, that is.

People who think that dogs are dumb really need to watch a Shepherd in action for a bit.

Dreams of Things with Wings

2012-01-13T19:59:00.004-05:00

In the spirit of cool aviation articles, I share this one--Flying the T-28--by Jack Flanagan.
The article really sets out what it's like to learn to fly such a wonderful aircraft and it's not helping me resist the urge to go out and buy a plane. I share this because I've had my eye on an airplane recently. It's not a T-28 but it is a classic warbird that I could, with some financial rearranging, swing the purchase of. However, what I can't seem to swing without a major lifestyle change is the maintenance and upkeep of said clasic aircraft once it's mine. Insurance, hangaring, annual inspections on a high-performance twin, and the inevitable list of yearly repairs conspire to make it an unaffordable proposition. Dreams are great, but I've been lucky enough to have Brigid on speed-dial and she's bopped me on the head with the common sense bat several times in relation to this aircraft, so now I just look at it's ad and sigh a few times, then go back to shopping for used Cessna 172s. I will have me a plane one day soon, but it's probably going to be the one that I can afford, not the one that I lie awake at night fantasizing about.

"If you can't afford the plane that you love, love the plane that you can afford."

Another critic arrives!

2012-01-12T14:51:00.003-05:00

Back in November, I tossed up a quick post about Courtney Fletcher, the woman who ran out and held a press conference after she fell off a rope swing on someone else's property adjacent to a hiking trail.

Well Courtney has found the post and taken issue with the tone of it and some of your comments. Feel free to follow up with apologies or constructive criticism as your heart and mind dictate:

The Courtney Fletcher article w/ commentary

Mess with old people at your peril

2012-01-12T14:04:00.003-05:00

A senior citizen in Florida shot dead a would-be burglar at his home early Thursday morning as the suspect was trying to gain entry into the Daytona Beach home.

The 82-year-old homeowner woke up at 6 a.m. after hearing someone at his backdoor, the report said. He armed himself with a .45 automatic and fired a single shot through the door, the report said. The suspected burglar was hit in the abdomen and likely died minutes later.

The suspect was described as a white male in a ski mask who was carrying a hammer and screwdriver at the time of the shooting. Police have tentatively identified the suspect as the man wanted for other burglaries in the neighborhood, the report said.

“The 82-year-old resident did something that the criminal justice system couldn’t do,” said Mike Chitwood, the chief of Daytona Beach police. “And that’s put this burglar out of business this morning.”

Today's young punks apparently need reminding that the "feeble little old men" that they see as easy marks are often the ones who were running this country years ago when it was at it's greatest. These are the men who fought and won major wars and built America into a world super-power. They would have kicked your punk ass unarmed back then without breaking a sweat and an awful lot of them have taken steps to ensure that they can still take you out today if you decide to try them on. This would-be "victim" above stands as Exhibit One to prove that point.

Where Have All The Phantoms Gone?

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Coolest article I've read in a long time...and one of the saddest.

Where Have All The Phantoms Gone?

Shoot Day

2012-01-10T16:41:00.004-05:00

Hit the range today. Proud Hillbilly stopped by and we went out to do some shooting. I tried out the Iver Johnson TP-22 (below) and I was impressed. Compared to other small pistols that I've shot or owned, it was slick smooth and more than accurate enough for what it is--a last-ditch back-up pistol intended for point-blank range. With standard Winchester loads, I had a few rounds where the slide didn't slam home hard enough to put the pistol all the way into battery, but with CCI's 1435fps "Velocitor" hollow-points, it ran flawlessly. I'm by no means an advocate for small pistols as a rule, but as a back-up, or a convenience sidearm to jam into my pocket for a quick trip to the store, this one works. It's the same size as my Ruger LCP, only difference being 8 rounds of .22lr vs. 7 rounds of .380. Oh--and the IJ has better sights and a better trigger pull, especially when fired in single-action mode.

Verdict: I'm keeping it.

Next up, I practiced with my LCP since Aaron at The Shekel got me a spare magazine and a DeSantis pocket holster for it. I practiced drawing and firing two-shot strings from the pocket holster, and while I coud not practice this drill as much as I wanted to due to other club members on the range (and silly rules against drawing from the holster or other "tactical" shooting methods), I still got a feel for what's possible and I was happy with the session.

Now there's always got to be a downer, and this time, it was my newish Trapdoor Springfield. I picked u some Ultramax cowboy loads for it for testing, and while it shot and ejected perfectly, it was also hitting nearly three feet high at 100 yards with the Buffington Sight set as low as it would go, and it wasn't much better with the battle sight. As the sights are gradated from 200 to 1400 yards, I moved the target back to 200 yards (or rather Proud Hillbilly did as I used her shamelessly as my range monkey on the rifle line) and fired some more. Still way high, but I was at least able to land some hits. I would not want to be defending myself with this rifle, at least with this ammo. Had this been a real shooting situation, the Indians would have wiped out the wagon train.

A plus though was watching PH shoot the new M1 carbine that she got from Aaron. With virtually no rife experience to speak of, she managed to tear the center out of her target at 25 yards standing off-hand, and she did so well at 50 yards that we decided to try her at 100. Again, she kept all but two rounds in the target's 8 ring (most of them being 9s 10s and Xs), and when I called on her to switch to my 200 yard target, she made several nice hits on that as well. Truth be told, as a shooting coach, I'm proud of her, and if I were an attacking bad guy, I'd be afraid...very afraid.

Post-shooting, we went for wings and beer. It would be hard for the day to get much better as of right now. Hopefully she'll have a post up soon as well.

"When I grow up, I'm going to be a 1911!"

2012-01-09T15:28:00.005-05:00

So sayeth my newest acquisition, an Iver Johnson TP-22 in .22lr.

A 7-shot DA/SA .22 that's small enough to fit in your pocket behind your wallet, it's a handy back-up pistol or primary carry piece for those situations in which you cannot carry a larger pistol.

Size-wise, it's about the same as a Ruger LCP. The ergonomics are similar to that of the Walther PPK. I've been known to carry each of those as well, so this is a nice addition to the armory. Actually it's a "re-addition" as I had one once about ten years ago and sold it when I needed money. I'd always regretted that because it was totally reliable with high-powered ammunition (CCI Mini-Mag or comparable rounds) and it was pretty shootable and accurate at surprising distances. I carried it on many backbacking trips because the weight penalty was easily justified by the fun factor.

Here it is again, shown with it's role model and my preferred carry piece for reference:Cute little sucker, ain't it? It gets test-fired tomorrow.

In Lieu of a Birthday Card

2012-01-07T15:58:00.003-05:00

Well I didn't get the card off on time again this year, but I figure that this burger commercial from South Africa will do as an acceptable stand-in.

Happy 70th Birthday, Pop!

Crazy Dog Report, Flannel Shirt Edition

2012-01-06T19:10:00.005-05:00

One of the cute little foibles that makes Audie Murphy unique is his ~~fondness for~~ single-minded obsession over my flannel shirts. For whatever reason, whenever I dare put one on, I can expect to be enthusiastically attacked by a dog whose sole purpose in life appears to be getting his teeth into one of my sleeves and pulling it off. He literally cannot resist going after these, grabbing my forearm and corncobbing me as he tries to get a grip on just the fabric before I can crack him on the nose or grab his head and take him to the floor, at which point it's on like a Clouseau/Cato battle with both sides wrestling full out and no quarter asked or given until the first loud yelp or shouted curse word is elicited, at which point the game ceases by mutual agreement. Usually these matches result in both man and dog ending up on the floor breathing heavily, and all too often one will display fresh scratches from claws or teeth on his exposed skin, to say nothing of yet another torn flannel shirt. This silliness has gone on for over a year now and shows no sign of abating as every time Murphy sees flannel, some hidden dog whistle blows, sending him into action. And it's only flannel. He couldn't care less about any other fabric or pattern, but if I put on one of my old flannel shirts to work around the house and walk by Murphy, it's as if I just signed up for a cage match with Brock Lesnar and said something about his mother on the way into the ring. To date, I cannot figure out what causes this dog to transform into the fabric police and wig out, but it's obviously fun for him, and I confess that were it not for the attrition rate of said shirts, it might well be fun for me as well. As it is though...

Any dog psychiatrists in the house?
Hey, nice shirt you got on there...is that flannel?

Bringing 'em up right

2012-01-05T14:58:00.006-05:00

Just a gratuitous shot of Aaron from The Shekel teaching my nephew, the Spud, how to shoot a RugerMkII .22 pistol a couple of weeks ago when Murphy and I went traveling for Christmas. (Aaron's version of the event here.)
We took the boy shooting as a reward for his helping me clean his grandfather's gutters that morning. I was on the roof pulling the wet leaves and dirt and his job was to stand beneath me with a trash can and catch the stuff that I was dropping. Almost predictably, he leaned over to look into the trash can at the wrong time and caught a load of muddy wet leaves with his head. Kids...

But he did good, so we took him to the range. And at the range, he listened to instruction and did as he was told and he wound up shooting remarkably well--he was death on the steel plates once he focused on aiming. As a reward for good shooting and subsequent diligent brass collecting, we took him to lunch at Hooters, an event that he could not wait to relay to his mother. (Tattle-tale...I have to keep reminding him that snitches get stitches.)
Later that evening, we took him and Aaron's oldest daughter Abby to play Lazer Tag, a favorite activity for the Spud and a new favorite past-time of the young Lara Croft-in-training. Actually I think that Spud and Abby just like watching two old fat guys run through the maze, throwing elbows like Chechnyan hockey players and checking anyone smaller to the floor under the guise of "realistic training". (It's CQB...why can't we fix bayonets? And who let all these kids in here?)

And of course, it would not be a holiday without a reunion of Murphy and his pet boy, Spud.
It's him! It's HIM!!! Oh JOY!!!

My opinion on important matters

2012-01-04T14:04:00.003-05:00

OK, politics aside, since my dear mother gave me a DVD player for Christmas and my pal Aaron gave me copies of Seasons 5 and 6 of Doctor Who, I'm finally able to offer an opinion on something relevant: Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor

Verdict: So far--four episodes in--he sucks. He lacks the gravitas and the maturity that one would expect from a 900+ year old Time Lord, and the BBC screwed up by trying to appeal to a younger, "hipper" audience at the expense of the old guard fans by casting a boy in a man's role.

I mean, it's almost as bad as casting Daniel Craig as James Bond.

But on the bright side...that Amy Pond... Rowr!She's liable to keep me watching for a while.

Imminent departure of fairweather friends

2012-01-04T07:03:00.000-05:00

Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney just took first and second place respectively in the Iowa Caucus. It was practically a photo finish, with only a couple dozen votes separating them.

Cue Ron Paul supporters calling us all names then taking their toys and going home in three...two...one...

Left-handed revolver

2012-01-03T12:20:00.004-05:00

Over on Guffaw's site, there's discussion on shooting left-handed, notably with revolvers, most all of which have traditionally been made for lesser right-handed creatures to use.

Now I confess that when I started shooting, all I wanted was "cool" semi-autos. I did not own a revolver until I bought one on the last day that my Federal Firearms License was valid. (Yes, I'm old enough to recall the days before Clinton when almost anyone could get an FFL for $35.00...) As I was packing away my FFL paperwork, several days after I thought that it was expired, I realized that it actually expired on that very day. Naturally I wanted just one more gun so I set about to ordering one. The only problem was that it was already 5pm on a Saturday.

However I was saved by the nice folks at J&G Sales in Arizona, who were still open and who had no problem shipping out a gun immediately once I explained my FFL issue. Now they didn't have much of a handgun selection at that time, but they did have some nice stainless Smith and Wesson Model 66 .357 Magnum revolvers for $219.00 so I grabbed up one of those and it showed up a few days later on the UPS truck.As a shooter, I was in love with it immediately. The sights, trigger and balance were fantastic, and the .357 Magnum rounds were a real attention-getter. However I could not manage to reload it quickly or reliably so I dismissed it as a carry gun and it sat in my safe for years other than a few range trips and a great summer spent in Colorado where it was my open-carry secondary firearm, complimenting a lever-action rifle in the same caliber on many day hikes and backpacking trips.
Over the years, I'd picked up other revolvers here and there, mostly collectables (and almost always Smith and Wessons because Colts turn and open the wrong way) but I'd never felt comfortable enough with my reload skills to carry one as a CCW arm. But that changed when I took a class from Mas Ayoob back in the late 1990's. Mas demonstrated how easy it was to reload a revolver from speedloaders and stripper clips, and even worked with me one-on-one after the class one day to ensure that I, a leftie, got it down right. I have confidently carried this and other revolvers from that time on, and I've taught this same technique to others that I teach to shoot revolvers. It's simple, instinctive with a bit of practice, and it's quick and effective. But rather than me explain it, I'll let Mas himself explain it, courtesy of one of his many wonderful videos posted to Youtube:

So lefties, you CAN shoot that revolver and reload it quickly in combat. Now get out there and practice, and then practice some more.

My belated New Year's Post

2012-01-01T14:17:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year, folks. Make sure to enjoy the parties because...well...it's officially election year now and while most people are just oblivious to any problems, Barky and his media flying monkeys are still controlling our ship of state.

Navy does right by fallen SEAL

2011-12-29T19:47:00.004-05:00

It's not often that the government stands by one of it's own, especially one killed while doing something in their off-duty hours, but in this case, I think that the Navy did right in declaring the BASE jumping death of US Navy SEAL Tyler Stimson to be duty-related.
The death of a Navy SEAL in an off-hours parachute accident last year occurred in the line of duty and was not due to misconduct, a Navy investigation found.

Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Stimson died July 16, 2010, while parachuting off a cellphone tower in Suffolk. He was BASE jumping - a high-risk, often illegal sport that involves parachuting from fixed objects.

Stimson, 30, was a member of Virginia Beach-based Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known informally as DEVGRU or SEAL Team 6. The unit attracted worldwide attention in May when it killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Stimson's conduct did not rise to the level of recklessness or willful neglect, the commander of the unit wrote in his report, noting that he was engaging in an activity "closely resembling those which our operators engage in every day."

"To succeed, we must train hard and accept risks most others would refuse," he wrote. "Risk is inherent in our daily lives."

The investigation report was provided to The Virginian-Pilot last month in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Names of the commanding officer and other principal players in the investigation were deleted.

The "line of duty" determination means that Stimson's dependents are eligible for military survivor's benefits, said Lt. Arlo Abrahamson, a Navy special warfare spokesman.

Stimson was married with no children.

Abrahamson said the determination was made in accordance with Navy legal standards. Under those standards, simple negligence, or carelessness, does not constitute misconduct, he said.

Stimson took numerous steps to mitigate the risk, the commander wrote. He was an experienced sky diver who donned the proper gear, attended training classes, consulted experts in the field and planned his jumps thoroughly.

Stimson was a combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and a recipient of the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal.

As many as 10 members of SEAL Team 6 have been known to engage in BASE jumping in their off-duty hours, the investigation found.

The acronym "BASE" stands for building, antenna, span and earth.

A fellow SEAL, Jason James Tompsett, 31, was with Stimson in the predawn incident and jumped off the tower successfully. He was charged with trespassing by Suffolk police. The charge was dismissed in Suffolk General District Court.

"While I do not condone trespassing," Stimson's commanding officer wrote, "the trespassing did not proximately cause" Stimson's death.

In response to the accident, the commander wrote, the Navy initiated "a thorough review of high-risk activities specifically concentrating on off duty recreational activities."

It remains unclear whether BASE jumping is an approved recreational activity for SEALs.

"We don't publicly discuss specific approved and disapproved training and recreational activities within our command," Abrahamson said by email, "but we can tell you any approved activity is carried out in a manner consistent with Navy safety instructions and in good judgment with regards to operational risk management."

Stimson's jumping partner found him lying face-down on top of his canopy with its suspension lines wrapped around his feet. He died of multiple impact injuries to the head, neck and torso.

None of his equipment was found to be defective.

A Navy parachute specialist who examined Stimson's gear told investigators it appeared that Stimson rolled into a head-down position in which the lines became entangled in his legs, causing the canopy to engulf him. In such a short jump, he didn't have time to disentangle himself.
While I'm sorry to hear of Petty Officer Stimson's death last year, I'm glad to see the Navy is standing by him and ensuring that he's remembered as the hero that he was and not just casting him aside, as our government is typically so wont to do, especially in these times.

An outbreak of illegal immigrants will strain our recovery like a virus--this is not a drill

2011-12-28T15:45:00.002-05:00

Also: 'deaths', 'collapse', 'human to animal' and 'trojan'.

What the hell am I talking about, you ask?

Well it appears that Obama's Department of Homeland Security is now setting up fake Facebook accounts so that it's minions and henchmen can scan the internet looking for blogs and other discussion content using those words.

Tweeting the word "drill" could mean that your twitter account is read by U.S. spies.

So aside from the fact that we're now going to pay government employees to surf the internet all day (as if most of them don't do this illicitly already), we've now got our ~~public servants~~ rulers peering into our on-line activities and trying to discern our true identities if we type something that's politically not-so-correct.

Yeah, nothing bad can ever come of that, right?

So if they want to pay that sort of game, I want to be on the other side--the freedom-loving, Constitution-respecting side. And if they want a fight with us real Americans, let it begin here at the Lair.

How about you? If we ALL use these words...

Murphy's Christmas Pie

2011-12-25T08:33:00.000-05:00

T'was the day before Christmas, and all through my car, my cell phone was ringing, I hadn't gone far.

I got the angry phone call from my dear mother just five minutes after leaving Murphy at my mother's house while I was out shopping.

Five minutes. I wasn't even two miles away yet.

Apparently, despite repeated warnings about Murphy's fondness for counter surfing, my mother left two freshly-baked pies on the kitchen counter and went into the other room, leaving dog and pastries unattended. The pies had been meant for a pre-Christmas dinner with our family and that of Aaron of The Shekel.

(Dinner memorialized on his blog here.)

But once the coast was clear, Murphy chose to sample the lemon meringue pie, no doubt planning to have the chocolate pie for dessert. The first indication my mother had that she'd screwed up was the sound of the pie plate hitting the kitchen floor upside down, spattering what pie that Murphy had not already consummed all over the kitchen. The angry phone call came moments later.

I made it a point to try to stay away until I was sure that the chef had cooled off. However, due to the fact that she had to clean the entire kitchen floor again and then head out to the jam-packed grocery store to get new pie ingredients before setting out to mmake a brand new pie pretty much ensured that she stayed miffed at her "Grand-dog" for quite some time. It also didn't help that everyone that she relayed this story to thought that it was funny.

Of course my mother is not totally without blame here. Murphy is my fourth dog, current standard-bearer of an unbroken line of dogs going well back into the 1980s, and each one of the other dogs has at one time or another grabbed something delicious that was cooling on a counter at her house. In short, this has happened before and she kinda should have been expecting that, especially after I'd specifically warned her several times that he does this. I also just found out this morning that she'd teased him a bit and put some pie filling on his nose while making the pie, so it's not as if he just decided out of the blue to taste-test the pie--she'd already shown him just how good it tasted before leaving him alone in the room with it. But my mom is as trusting as my dogs are untrustworthy with food on counters, so while I did my best to sympathize with her over the loss of the pie, I can't help but snicker when I'm out of sight and reach of her broom.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Silent Night

2011-12-24T18:00:00.001-05:00

On this night...

Just because it's Friday

2011-12-23T16:27:00.005-05:00

Does your office have a clothing drive for the holidays?

Happy Anniversary...to us

2011-12-23T06:55:00.001-05:00

Six years ago today, Lagniappe's Lair was launched with this post.

It seems like a long time ago. I had another dog then, and another leg. Much has changed. But if anything's constant in life, it's change. Here's to the next six years and the change that it brings. Thanks to Aaron over at The Shekel for getting me started on this blog, and thanks to each of you for coming back every time.

And Lagniappe, I still miss ya, bud. I never would have figured that this blog that bears your name would outlast you.

Well that's one way to go.

2011-12-21T14:56:00.005-05:00

Darwin must still be laughing.

Wayne Joshua Mitchell, 20, collapsed and died in the back seat of a North Charleston, South Carolina police car after his older brother, Deangelo Rashard Mitchell, talked Wayne into retrieving a baggie containing an ounce of cocaine from Deangelo's butt crack and eating it to keep Deangelo from catching yet another drug charge.

Ironically, Deangelo talked his little brother into eating a lethal dose of cocaine in an attempt to avoid another drug conviction that would have sent him to prison for up to life. Now he's in even more trouble as he's being charged with the death of his rather stupid brother since the police got it all on videotape.

You can't make this stuff up, folks! And remember that they call it "dope" for a reason.

The only pathetic part: Deangelo was already a convicted felon who was actually out on bond from a prior case, and the court still let him out on bond again in this case before anyone knew how his brother had died. Not surprisingly, Deangelo has disappeared.

Edited to add: Whoops! They just found him. Guy knows that he's wanted and he still can't stay off the police radar for even a month.

Worst. Criminal. Ever.

The Brigid Question

2011-12-21T07:11:00.000-05:00

Brigid posed a great question yesterday. It was a question that I answered in her comment section, but on further reflection, I thought that it deserved more. So here's her question again:

"If you could only take what you could load in your arms, in your car, in the event of a disaster what would it be?"

What would you take with you if you only had a minute or two to gather up as much as you could carry in one trip, knowing that once you passed out your door, there was no going back for anything else, what would you take?

For me it was surprisingly simple. Going up to my gun safe, I would remove a small fireproof box that has all of my crucial documents: birth certificate, professional license documentation, and bank account info; stuff that I'll need to prove that I am who I am and allow me to access off-site funds. There's also enough cash in that box to keep me going for a while in an emergency. That's what that cash is for.

Next, from that gunsafe, I'd grab my favorite rifle and pistol and the loaded magazines for each which are in the gun safe, ready and waiting. nearby is a belt and Load Bearing vest with a holster for that pistol and mag pouches for both weapons. Those pouches contain loaded magazines already, just waiting for such a grab-and-go situation.
There are also three small pistols in that safe. These are my back-up or "hide-out" pistols. They fit in my pockets so I'd take those, too. Who knows, but I may get to a point where I need something good to barter for something else.
Finally, I'd probably scoop up my Uzi, the loaded magazine for it that's in the safe, and it's shoulder pouch containing six additional loaded 32rd. magazines. By now I'm moving out the door with about 40lbs. of weaponry, a quantity of cash and all of my essential documents. I'm good to go now, because with one more exception, everything else I'll need is already in my vehicle.

Come on, Murphy. Let's go for a ride. Load up.
Murphy loves to ride, and he'll be in the vehicle in a flash.

I could close the door on everything else, knowing that I was never going to see it again. It's all just stuff, and stuff can be replaced. That's why we have insurance.

Now in my vehicle, I still have my emergency "bug out" bag. With this and the above items, I'm good to go. My vehicle never--ever--has less than half a tank of gas in it due to my work's on-call requirement, and even if I can't buy any more gas, I can get a couple hundred miles out of that half a tank. I now have mobility and range and enough firepower to get me out of any trouble that I can't otherwise avoid. I may lose my house and everything left behind in it but Murph and I will be safe and well-fed for a few days and we can always start again someplace else, come what may.

So how about you? What would you take if you could only make one trip out your door, and would it be enough? Could you leave everything else that you've ever acquired?

Traitor has the support of a lesser traitor

2011-12-19T07:30:00.001-05:00

As accused US Army soldier Bradley Manning gets closer to a Court Martial for leaking thousands of classified documents and damaging both our war effort and our nation's credibility, it's not surprising to see him held out as an icon by other losers and malcontents who hate this country. But it was reported yesterday that he now has the support of Scott Olsen, the failed Marine who got himself injured during an Occupy Oakland attack on police earlier this year after being thrown out of the Marine Corps then setting up a website devoted to bashing the Corps and the war.

"Bradley Manning is my hero," said Scott Olsen, the Marine Corps veteran who was badly injured during a clash between police and Occupy Oakland protests in October.

Frankly, that's kind of like Jeffrey Dahmer declaring Ted Bundy to be his hero if you ask me.

And of course even though Mannings has admitted what he did, his lawyer is still working overtime to spin it in such a way that Manning is presented as a victim instead of the heinous turncoat and treasonous bastard that he really is.

Elect me President in 2012 and my first official act will be to deport Manning, Olsen and Manning's lawyer straightaway to Iraq in exchange for three carefully vetted Iraqis who want to come here and become loyal US citizens.

Nice evening out

2011-12-18T19:28:00.003-05:00

Tonight I met Andy for dinner after he finished shooting out this way. And as luck would have it, we bumped into Proud Hillbilly in the bar that we chose for dinner.

So we talked guns, ate food, and drank good Oatmeal Stouts except for Andy--he drinks soda.

Murphy was even there too, out in the parking lot. (It's been a while since he got a ride so I brought him along.)

Few things can beat a relaxing evening with good folks. Hope your Sunday evening is going as well as this one.

Jedi Mind Trick, K9 Edition

2011-12-18T13:40:00.004-05:00

Oh, he's good.

"That is not the Kong ball that you're looking for. You want to give me that Kong ball."

Saturday Man Movie

2011-12-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

I know. I fell away from doing these when I went traveling a few months back. Truth be told, it was getting tougher to find video clips that I hadn't already shown.

But I found this one, from the 1955 movie Strategic Air Command, with Jimmy Stewart, himself a real Army Air Force bomber pilot in World War Two and an Air Force Reserve General by the time he retired. Granted, you can only see him for a few seconds in the first cockpit shot, but he's there, as is recently deceased actor Harry Morgan, who sits with his back to the camera but speaks at 02:45 and 03:04.

And then there's the Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber that was the real star of this movie. Yes, they were real. They really flew. The one in this movie is really flying.

There were 384 of these bombers built, and they were operated by the US Air Force for ten years, from 1949-1959. They required a crew of 15, and they had a range of 10,000 miles. The original idea when they were designed was to be used to bomb Europe from American airfields if England fell, but during the Cold War, they were tasked with dropping the nuclear hammer on Soviet Russia if the need arose.

The B-36 bombers never dropped nukes on Russia, but they did accidentally drop two of them due to emergencies in training operations, losing one atomic bomb into the Pacific off the coast of British Columbia in 1950, and one hydrogen bomb into the desert outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1957. Whoopsie.

There are five of these aircraft left today. Just five out of three hundred eighty four. Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum has one in Dayton, Ohio. I've seen it. There's another at the Strategic Air Command Museum in Offutt, Nebraska. I've seen that one, too. Both are stored indoors and you can really get up close and personal with them.
A third is at Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Arizona, and a fourth one resides at Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California.
A fifth one was bought by military collector Walter Soplata and is still in pieces in his yard in Newbury, Ohio.

Here's another clip on the B-36 and the then-new Strategic Air Command.

And here's James Stewart talking about his real-life military exploits. A modest man, he didn't speak of these days very often, but he flew 20 combat missions as pilot in command of a B-24 Liberator bomber.

Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled them away

2011-12-16T19:57:00.003-05:00

I'd recommend them for the Rachel Corrie Award if only they'd been protesting something, but since they were just trespassing slackers who died stupidly, all they get is the standard Darwin.

Christopher Artes used drugs and drank. He hopped trains all over the country while his mother looked on with pride and admiration. He basically wasted oxygen that productive people might otherwise have breathed. And now he's past tense, along with Medeana Hendershot, another loser who would rather hop trains than get a job and start building a future. Apparently they were riding in a coal car that dumped it's load--including the two of them--at a power plant along it's route.

Artes, 25, and Hendershot, 22, were found Sunday in coal by power plant workers. It's not clear exactly when or how they died.

Sometime over the weekend, the train pulled into the city of Lakeland's power plant in Central Florida. As the railcars arrive, the bottom opens and cars drop coal several stories below onto a waiting truck.

Officials were not sure if the couple was sitting on top of the coal or were riding in an empty car and dropped onto a mound of coal, then hit or buried by another load.

Artes died from asphyxiation, meaning he was likely buried alive. Hendershot died from blunt force trauma to the mid-section, so she could have been hurt falling or by coal falling on her.

"Surprise!" I guess these two forgot that trains actually do stuff besides give dirtbag trespassers free rides. Sometimes they actually discharge their cargo.

When asked for comment, his mom had plenty to say:
"If he had to die so young, at least he died at a moment where he was on top of the world," said Susan Artes, Christopher's mother.

I'm sure that she's shopping for lawyers right now, hoping to cash in off the railroad. But if she sues anyone, it really should be herself as she was apparently an active co-conspirator in his illegal activities.

Artes called his mom three times a week.

He would sometimes ask her to look up directions on the Internet for truck stops, grocery stores and other places while he was on the road.

Artes' mother said her son had a train-hopping manual, but it was stolen at some point. She described her son as naïve and trusting. When he and Hendershot were in Miami several weeks ago, a trucker with whom they had caught a ride with stole Artes' backpack.

"We were always worried about him. He always made so many bad decisions," she said. "If he got an idea and something looked good to him, he would do it. He was always jumping into situations. This particular train was one of them.
Obviously a manual put out by the railroads, right? And if not for that darn backpack-stealing trucker, her son would probably be alive today. I'll be she sues him too.

Of course I note that she doesn't fault his riding trains in general, but merely that particular train. (insert facepalm here.)

Life's tough when you're stupid,but it's exponentially tougher when the ones who are supposed to guide you and keep you on the right track encourage and enable you no matter how dumb your decisions are.

Oh well...More food for the rest of us.

My post office lady hates me.

2011-12-15T15:44:00.004-05:00

Just my luck. I live outside of a small town, and there are only two postal workers in the post office that I deal with. One is a great guy: retired Navy, now goes to my church, an avid bicyclist who sold me my bike and he's a novice gun guy. (I'm helping him find a good first pistol currently).

The other one in there is a recent transfer in from some other postal facility. I've yet to find a way onto her good side, and after yesterday I'm beginning to suspect that she doesn't have one.

It all began when I walked in with a nondescript large rectangular box to send out. My mail buddy, I guy I'll call "Newman" (because it irks him when I do it in person, which is funny to me) is out to lunch. She takes my box, weighs it, and asks me the standard question: "Anything liquid, fragile, perishable or hazardous?"

I truthfully say no and she quotes the overnight mail price, which I pay after gasping audibly. After she takes the box and gives me my receipt and tracking paper, Newman walks in. I call out to him in my best Seinfeld voice: "Hello, Newman!" He glowers but comes over to shoot the breeze.

"You got here just a second too late," I tell him. "If you'd come before I sealed that box up, I'd have shown you my M60."

"Your machine gun?" he asks "Damn, I would have liked to have seen that."

"Is THAT what was in that box?" yells the Mean Old Mail Lady as she's coming back around to the front after putting my box on the outgoing mail rack. "You can't ship machine guns through the mail!"

"Can and did," I replied. "It's perfectly legal to mail machine guns. What I can't mail is handguns, and that wasn't a handgun. And it's not like this is the first time I've shipped or received one here"

"I specifically asked you if there was anything hazardous in that box!"

"And I said that these wasn't," I replied. "It's not hazardous in the least unless you drop it on your foot."

"But it's a MACHINE GUN!" she exclaimed, as if that all by itself made it hazardous.

"And that's not an issue," I said. "There's no ammunition in the box. Your only concern is to get it where it's going. The federal government knows that I have that and they don't have a problem with it."

"But how about the person that it's going to? Do they have ammunition for it?"

"Well I should hope so. It's going to a legitimate repair facility for such things, and the government knows all about them, too. All you need to do is make sure that it gets there."

She offered up a few more objections, and she flipped through a big book of postal regulations, probably trying to find some way to refuse to accept the package, but in the end she finally let it go and I got the call this morning confirming it's arrival in Nevada. But I have a hunch that I'm not going to be any too popular in that post office for a while, and I should probably refrain from mailing anything that's even slightly breakable.

Oh well.

Got nothing

2011-12-14T18:37:00.002-05:00

I got nothing for today, so here, watch the into to a great old TV show with Robert Conrad and lots of Corsairs.

TV was so cool once.

Bad idea

2011-12-13T15:51:00.002-05:00

I recently found a Kong squeaky football that Lagniappe disliked and never played with, and yesterday I gave it to Murphy.

Bad idea. Bad, bad idea.

I'd take a picture of him with it but I can't get him to sit still with it long enough to snap a shot.

I also can't get him to stop squeaking it and thrusting it into my face (while squeaking it, of course).

Why is it the things that seem to give dogs so much pleasure and enjoyment are the things that bother us humans so?

Squeak! Squeak! Squeeeeeeel!

Somebody just shoot me.

My visit to Occupy DC

2011-12-12T20:24:00.019-05:00

I had today off, and as luck would have it, personal business took me downtown Washington DC close to Freedom Plaza where one of the two Occupy Wall Street / Occupy DC groups is infesting a park. So I wandered around a bit and took a few pictures, just so that everyone could see how these animals really live.Notice how empty it is? Very few occupods around. Interestingly enough, the ones that were there told me that most of the rest of them move into hotel rooms when the weather gets cold like it did last night. There aren't any cheap hotels near here. Wonder who pays for these, eh?
And they obviously aren't over-spending on trash removal. Just look what they've done to this formerly beautiful park.
All the bare ground you see used to be nice, neat grass. It's ruined.I did see one young girl walking around here and she was pretty cute, but every time I got within ten feet of her, the smell of her B.O. was a real turn-off.Oh, and rats. I saw three of them scurrying around just during my brief visit. They're apparently thriving in this unsanitary mess.

What a disgusting mess.

As I was coming back, I saw the most amazing thing. A truck pulled up and guys in matching jackets opened up the trailer and began handing food and cases of water to the Occupods. I wandered close and saw that it was a trailer from the United Mine Workers. Obviously this labor union is subsidizing these bums big time. One of the occupods standing with me told me that they come by "every day or two" to hand out supplies. What's that all about, and why?I heard one of the guys in the UMW jackets yell out "Merry Christmas from Cecil Roberts!" as he was taking CAKES from the pick-up truck and handing those to the occupods, including stinky girl. If I was a miner, I'd be pissed as hell to see my dues going to support a bunch of non-working maggots, especially ones working to carry the water for Barack Obama, a President who said that bankrupting the coal industry was one of his priorities.

Here's the truck that was pulling the trailer. And it's license plate.

Residents of Washington, DC should be pissed at the United Mine Workers, too. This used to be such a nice park. Look at it now.That grass and those shrubs won't just grow back when these cockroaches roll out.

Maybe the unions will pay for the damage?

Oh--and the worst part is that the other bunch in McPherson Square is much, much messier and more disgusting. I'll try to get those pictures in the near future.

Sunday evening at the Lair

2011-12-11T17:16:00.004-05:00

It's a brisk Sunday evening. Dusk outside. Temperatures are dropping like Obama's poll numbers, but me and Murphy are doing just fine. The stove's lit for the first time this year and I'm on the couch, reading my newest H. Rider Haggard acquisition with a mug of steaming hot tea. And Murphy? He's simply enjoying the stove, just like Lagniappe used to.

Funny how new things can stir old memories and automatically bring a smile.

All y'all have a nice night.

Sub-gun pron and buying NFA.

2011-12-10T14:50:00.006-05:00

My first ever NFA (National Firearms Act) weapon was this nifty little MK-760 sub-machine gun that I bought almost immediately after moving to the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of many states where the citizens are still free enough to be able to own such things. (Nobody tell the Democrats or Rosie O'Donnell, but private citizens can and do own such things legally in most states.)
It was a handy little 9mm subgun, with a folding stock and a 36-round magazine. Essentially a reverse-engineered copy of the Smith and Wesson Model 76, which was itself a copy of the wonderful Swedish K submachinegun that our special forces troops in Vietnam preferred (until the Swedes barred further sale of those guns to the US due to their support for the Communists), it was a light, compact and simple gun with a high rate of fire, around 700 rounds per minute or so. It fired from an open bolt and it's light weight and high ROF gave it a tendency to climb, which, until I learned to control it, was pretty much hell on the target track system and ceiling baffles of the indoor range where I used to take it. (Sorry, Phil.)

It wasn't terribly reliable, however, even after sending it to Tim LaFrance twice for work. It only ran well on 147gr. military ball ammo, not the lighter civilian ammo commonly available at gunshops, so eventually I flipped it for a bit more than twice what I'd paid for it and bought this nifty M2 Carbine.
The M2, a conversion of the M1 carbine to select-fire, was a good idea on it's face, as I already had numerous M1 carbines and a boatload of ammo and spares for them. Also there's a lot to be said about a compact automatic weapon that fires a cartridge that at 100 yards still has the muzzle velocity of a .357 magnum.Alas, this weapon too was less-than-reliable unless it was being operated with actual USGI 30-round magazines, and this, combined with it's even higher rate of fire (750-850rpm) and it's relatively light, thin barrel gave me sufficient reason to look around for something else. I flipped it as well and made an almost even-up trade for an Uzi.

I seldom look back, as the Uzi is a quality weapon that digests literally any 9mm ammo that one cars to feed it, and parts and accessories are plentiful and cheap for it.

The moral of this story is for those who think that they cannot afford to but the machine gun of their dreams today. Notice that I didn't rush right out and buy an Uzi as my first subgun even though it's what I really wanted. I could not have afforded one even at the prices that they were selling for back when I was looking for my first NFA acquisition. Instead, I shopped around until I saw one that I could afford(The MK 760) and one that I knew was being offered at a low price because I'd been studying NFA prices for a while. I then contacted the seller and got it down even lower by negotiating. Conversely, when I sold it, I listed it for what I thought was a fairly high price and surprisingly enough, I got it quickly. This allowed me to walk right into the M2, which was also being offered at a below-market price when I saw it advertised. Selling that one gave me the cash I needed for the Uzi, even though all I had into the game was the money I'd paid for the first gun and a couple of transfer fees. Prices on these weapons are fluid to an extent, and sometimes sellers just want to move them quickly or buyers absolutely must have a particular model, so if you pay attention and are patient, you can often do well in the NFA market and if you start out with a firearm that you can afford, you can often flip it up to one that you want without too much trouble over the course of a little time.

One year ago today...

2011-12-07T21:36:00.007-05:00

Someone found his forever home.

Flashback--Audie Murphy arrives, December 8th, 2011.

Over the course of this year, he's calmed down, learned to obey me (for the most part), and become much more sociable with strangers, especially the small ones that used to frighten him so. He's considerably different from the skittish, aggressive dog that he used to be. He's maturing into a fine dog, and while he's still got a few rough edges to polish off, I'm quite pleased with him. Here's hoping for many more anniversaries to come.
I'se a happy dog!

Justice denied in Philly. Celebrity Cop-Killer escapes death sentence

2011-12-07T19:05:00.004-05:00

IN other news today, saying he wanted to avoid another three decades of appeals - and a new public forum for Mumia Abu-Jamal - Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said today he will not seek another death sentence for convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. (The murderous thug formerly known as Wesley Cook.)

For those who are unfamiliar, Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, 25 and newly married, was on patrol in Center City the night of Dec. 9, 1981 when, according to trial testimony, the officer pulled over a car driven by Abu-Jamal's brother, William Cook, at 13th and Locust Streets. Abu-Jamal, moonlighting as a cabdriver, recognized his brother's car, ran toward them and shot Faulkner, witnesses testified. A gunfight followed and Abu-Jamal was hit by a bullet from Faulkner's gun. He was found slumped on a curb.

What the news story cited doesn’t report is that the bullets taken from the body of Officer Faulkner were ballistically matched to the handgun found on the scene, a revolver that was registered to Wesley Cook/Abu-Jamal. There were also several eye-witnesses to the shooting, including people who knew Cook/Abu-Jamal on sight. In short, this case was as cut-and-dried as any case ever was. There really was no reasonable doubt, which was why the trial jury found him guilty.

But this being Philadelphia, the race-baiters and liberals quickly got involved. Abu-Jamal’s Black Panther associates began intimidating people and drumming up a publicity storm of lies and false accusations of a frame-up, and soon enough, numerous groups and self-important individuals like Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Mike Farrell jumped into the mix to proclaim this scumbag’s “innocence” and claim that the police, for no rational reason, fabricated the case against Abu-Jamal, despite the fact that he was found lying next to the police officer that had died from wounds caused by a bullet from his own gun, and that his own injury was caused by bullets from the officer’s gun, and that the entire gunfight had been witnessed by numerous people in broad daylight.

Since that conviction, every appellate court that reviewed the trial and the jury verdict has affirmed it No court has ever found fault with the trial, and the only issue has been whether the jury was given proper sentencing instructions, a minor technical point that had no bearing on Abu-Jamal’s actual guilt. Still, that was enough to cause his original sentence to be overturned, requiring a new sentencing and opening the door for an entirely new appeals process. So to that extent, I can at least see the reasoning behind this decision, but anyone who continues to proclaim this dirtbag’s innocence either has an ulterior motive or seriously needs a check-up from the neck up.

But now, thirty years after Abu-Jamal should have been dragged out back of the courthouse and summarily shot (in a Just world…), he’s now being re-sentenced to life without parole, his death sentence gone for good. He’ll doubtless continue to hold celebrity status in the eyes of those on the left, from Hollywood liberals to Obama pal Cornell West. But one can always hope that he’s quickly placed back into general population and with any luck, someone will shank him.

It's been 70 years...Pearl Harbor.

2011-12-07T06:11:00.000-05:00

It was 70 years ago today that the Japanese snuck up and attacked our military forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii without a declaration of war or any provocation on our part. 1,177 US servicemen were killed on that Sunday morning, a date which will continue to live in infamy.

Lest you forget, here are the stories of four of the survivors.

The survivors of those doomed ships -- many from the Bay Area -- are mostly hard of hearing now, but the buzz and the boom of the bombs from that day still ring in the ears of John Tait of Concord, Ed Silveira of Hayward and Dempson Arellano of Antioch. Gordon Van Hauser, who lived in San Carlos until his death in 2008, often spoke of his service not in terms of fighting for his own life, but for the life of his country.

Aboard the USS Arizona
Today the ghost ship USS Arizona sits at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, the 1,102 sailors who perished seven decades ago entombed there for all time. On the evening of Dec. 6, 1941, a young Marine, Gordon Van Hauser took a liberty boat from his barracks to the Arizona, to have dinner with two friends from boot camp.

After chow Van Hauser and his buddies joined other sailors on the ship's fantail to watch a movie, which Van Hauser disliked so much he took a boat back to the base that night.

A lazy Sunday morning
Van Hauser was about to go on duty the next day, Dec. 7, when low-flying Japanese torpedo bombers -- headed for Battleship Row and the Arizona -- appeared out of a clear Hawaiian sky, rattling the Marines' rooftops and strafing the parade ground. "I took my rifle, which was a 1903 model Springfield, and we were firing .30-caliber ammunition...as the Japanese torpedo bombers came in," Van Hauser said in a video his son recorded before his death. Firing single-shot, bolt-action rifles scarcely better than muskets, he and about 800 other Marines brought down two or three Japanese zeroes, Van Hauser recalled, and watched them burst into flames.

Aboard the USS West Virginia
Dempson Arellano had just suggested to his friend Gleason that they visit their girlfriends in Honolulu, when somebody burst through the door and shouted, "The Japanese hit!" Arellano had the jumper he wore on liberty pulled halfway over his head when he felt the battleship shake violently. "I finally got my head out of the blouse and said, 'What the hell was that?'"

Just then, a second torpedo struck the ship, peeling open a hole in the hull. As brown water came rushing down the passageway, Arellano said, "Gleason, let's get the hell out of here." When they reached the deck, a Japanese plane was spraying the deck with machine gun fire. "We had just brought potatoes aboard and there was a stack about 8 or 10 feet tall," says Arellano, who now lives at the Antioch Care Home, "so we ducked behind that and the Japanese plane strafed all those potatoes."

Aboard the USS San Francisco
For three months, Ed Silveira did nothing but peel potatoes. "On Dec. 7, I was mess cooking on the second deck. On Saturdays and Sundays, you rack out, you don't do nothing. At about five minutes to 8, I'm looking up and seeing all these airplanes. I thought they were our people practicing. They were just peppering the bay. And I was thinking, 'Gee, what a good mock battle this is!' About that time, I saw a plane hit the West Virginia with a torpedo bomb, and I realize this ain't no drill."

Aboard the USS Arizona
At 8:06 a.m. -- 12 hours after Van Hauser made the fateful choice not to stay with his friends on the ship -- they were dead. A 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb flew into the Arizona's ammunition magazine, igniting a fire so hellish it would burn for two days.

Aboard the USS West Virginia
Arellano had just started to heave himself up onto his assigned gun turret when another seaman stepped on top of his head. "It seemed like he was in a hurry to get out of there," Arellano recalls. The sailor had just seen a bomb whistle past him, drop through the turret, and descend into the depths of the ship. Arellano found out a year later that the bomb had landed in the powder handling room, but failed to explode.

The Japanese had built a limited number of armor-piercing bombs, and the West Virginia took two of them. One disemboweled Captain Mervyn S. Bennion. "He didn't die right away," Arellano says, his eyes glistening. "He managed to man the loudspeaker and he said, 'All hands, abandon ship. God bless you.'"

The West Virginia was sinking. But to prevent it from rolling over on its side as the Oklahoma had done just a few berths away, a damage control team dived into the oily water -- which was on fire -- and blew the ballast tanks, causing the ship to right itself before settling to the bottom. "The ship was sinking right under me," says Arellano, who scrambled off the ship just as the second wave of Japanese bombers arrived with their deadly cargo.

Aboard the USS Tennessee
Almost as soon as he stepped onto the Tennessee, Arellano was handed a fire hose and ordered to fight a major fire on the fantail. He attacked the the fire until his breathing apparatus ran out of oxygen and he passed out. "The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky up on deck," he says.

The Arizona lay in front of him. "Even on the Tennessee, there were guys with flash burns from when the Arizona blew up," he says. "It actually cooked their eyeballs. Some of them were running blind on the deck of the Tennessee. Their flesh was hanging down off their face, and their eyeballs were burned out. A lot of them just ran a few feet and collapsed. That's what I remember more clearly than anything."

Aboard the USS St. Louis
By 9:30 a.m., Tait heard the command to cast off lines. The St. Louis was going to make a desperate escape through the south channel, where the sinking USS Nevada might block other ships from getting out.

The speed limit through the channel was 5 knots. "By the time we got to the mouth of the channel, we were doing 28 knots," Tait says. The ship's anti-aircraft guns would bring down three planes, but the light cruiser's troubles weren't over as it neared open waters.

"There was a two-man submarine waiting for us," Tait says. "They fired two torpedoes at us, but the torpedoes hit a reef and exploded." which led to the ship being dubbed the "Lucky Lou."

Never forget also that some men were not even fortunate enough to die quickly on that morning. In addition to those who were drowned, burned, crushed to death or killed by explosions on that Sunday morning, several others were trapped within the hulls of the sunken ships beyond hope of rescue, including three sailors who survived inside West Virginia for sixteen days before finally expiring on Christmas Eve when the oxygen in their compartment was finally depleted.

Another military poser emerges as police finally take action against Washington DC Occupods

2011-12-05T06:17:00.008-05:00

Well the police finally did something about the dirtbags infesting Washington DC as part of the so-called Occupy DC movement when these so-called "protesters" suddenly slapped together a building on the public park grass and refused to take it down despite numerous police orders to do just that. 31 of these scumbags were arrested and hauled off, although most of them apparently returned to the park as soon as they were released from processing.

But the notable part of the story is that they really did construct and build this in just a few hours because they didn't want to be out in the cold of the coming winter. It's amazing how industrious these spoiled white kids can be when they want comfort, isn't it? Just imagine if they'd put that same energy into getting a job or doing some work for any one of a number of charitable organizations.

But another aspect of this story is worthy of note, too. They keep referring to the one "protester", Michael Patterson, age 21, as a veteran and holding him up as their icon and the face of their group. Now we all know that the goal there is to use his alleged status as a veteran to give the group as a whole some credibility, ("Hey look! We got VETERANS here! Everybody loves veterans and puppies, right?") but the truth is that Patterson is not an honorably discharged vet. A bit of research shows that he was a failure who could not hack the military even in a real echelon slot, and he was booted from the Army for smoking pot after unsuccessfully attempting to get an early discharge. So he didn't honorably do his duty and earn our respect like his unwashed peers would claim. And his Other Than Honorable Discharge is probably why he's claiming to be homeless (while jetting to Washington DC from his home in Alaska) instead of using the GI benefits that every honorably discharged vet is entitled to and finding a job or going to school.

Like Scott Olson, the Occupod injured in Oakland by something hurled by one of his fellow protesters as they threw rocks and bottles at police, this guy was nothing but a loser who could not hack it in the service and probably couldn't even have done so in the peacetime military. But now he and his group want him to have the honors due those who did serve and who continue to serve, and they want to apply those honors to the "Occupy" movement by extension. This cannot be allowed so the truth has to be told about them when they try this.

Blog Shoot After-Action Report

2011-12-03T18:12:00.015-05:00

Just back from the first-ever Eastern Panhandle Blog Shoot and all I can report is goodness.

For starters, the weather was absolutely perfect when we all met up at the new Peacemaker National Training Center just west of Inwood, WV. This is a new facility with a ton of promise for local shooters and shooting organizations and Cole the owner was gracious enough to open it's Independence Range special to us on this day, giving us all exclusive use of a pistol range and a rifle range as well as access to their new 5-stand shotgun clays set-up.

First though, we all had to get past their security guard.Actually, that's none other than blogger Proud Hillbilly with her Japanese Type 99 Arisaka rifle that was just put into operational status this morning for the first time since it came back as a war trophy in 1946. And since she brought hers out, I brought mine as well, along with two batches of test ammo for it. Here are the two rifles together. Hers is the one on the top with the dust cover and anti-aircraft sight. Mine is the lower one with the monopod. (so many clever innovations...I can't imagine why they didn't win that war.) It's not everyday that you see one of these on a firing line much less two firing side by side. But that's what we did. And here's Proud Hillbilly firing hers.
And here's Andy shooting a German K-98k Mauser. (Hey Andy, I've got your bolt here.)

But it wasn't just old guns there. There was this Beretta Storm carbine that we see here in Les' hands. I think that it belonged to Marty, aka: The Miller, and he actually shot it well enough to run the 12"x18" gong at 250M not once but FOUR TIMES in a row. That was impressive.

On the pistol line, everything from .22lr to .357 Magnum was firing. Here are three vintage .22 pistols that blog lurker Stretch brought out.
And here we have three noted gun bloggers doing their thing. From left to right, Old NFO, Marty (bending over) and Keads.

I only wish that I'd taken more pictures. Darn it, I don't even have one of New Jovian Thunderbolt and his M-1A but he was there with it. Honest!

And apparently even West Virginia isn't safe from the "Occupy" movement. Have you ever seen such a motley crew?No protesting, just shooting. And unlike most occupiers, this bunch works and bathes.

Oh wait--There's NJT in the pic wearing the Jayne Cobb hat. Pretty cunning, eh?

After the shooting, most of us adjourned to a local lounge that, fittingly, had the Outdoors Channel on cable so we dined and chatted in a good pro-gun environment, one that allows citizens to carry concealed in restaurants.

I'm also proud to report that after the range cost was covered, we collected $251.00 for Wounded Warriors, this group also has the distinction of doing more good than every single "occupier" group in the country combined. A big thanks is due to all of these generous folks and I'm proud to know each of them.

And we will do this again, so to those of you who were not here today, (Jenn, Laura, Brigid, Six, Sean...) you'll get another chance in the future to shoot and rub shoulders with all of that gun-blogger greatness above.

Music to reload by

2011-12-02T20:03:00.000-05:00

Busy loading ammo for tomorrow. But here's some of what I'm listening to as I'm doing it.

Clearly it's going to be very cool ammunition.

Don't try to take sweet corn from a porcupine

2011-12-02T16:08:00.003-05:00

They object vociferously.

Sorry, but sometimes even I'm a sucker for cute critters.

You comin'?

2011-12-01T16:36:00.000-05:00

Murphy wants to know...You gonna be at the blogshoot in Inwood, WV on Saturday?

You don't even have to have a blog...just a gun or a desire to see and shoot guns.

E-mail martinihenrywv@gmail.com for directions.

She had 15 kids and demands that you and me compensate her.

2011-12-01T14:32:00.002-05:00

Seriously. Check this second-hander out. She has 15 kids by three different guys, none of whom are paying her a dime. She won't work or pay her bills despite social services giving her thousands of dollars, but she gets on the news and says that "somebody" (you and me) has to pay for all her kids AND pay her for her suffering.
You can't make this stuff up!

And of course no matter what the benevolent government does or how much more tax money that we waste on her for foster care, lawyers, social workers, new clothes for court, etc., she still refuses to comply with even the most basic requirements AND has the nerve to threaten the people that are being paid to run her sorry excuse of a life for her.

This is what Obama's socialist policies have wrought: Open class warfare and an entitlement mentality that demands instead of asks. Maybe the dirty potheads in the Obamavilles across our country can take up a collection for her. Oh that's right...they don't work, either! They just join her in demanding that those of us who do go to a job every day give up more of our cash because it's not fair that we have more than they do.

This is yet another indication that Obama buddy Cornell West isn't wrong when he says that the battle for entitlements will eventually take place in the streets.

The second-handers are agitating, and with Obama and his cronies supporting them from the rear, it's not inconceivable to picture the mobs rioting and looting and coming to your neighborhood and mine in pursuit of our stuff, motivated by a belief that they deserve it just because they want it and emboldened by the knowledge that the Obama government isn't going to stop them.

More ammo, folks. Buy more ammo and learn how to defend yourselves with it if you haven't done so already.

"Most Transparent Government Ever" seals records on "Fast and Furious" Border Patrol Agent's murder.

2011-11-30T14:47:00.004-05:00

Yep. Because at the Obama Administration, they think that the public should know everything about everything that the government does...so long as it was or will be done by some other administration, preferably a Republican one.

Agent Brian Terry's murder records sealed.

At this point, Eric Holder's retention as Attorney General makes about as much sense as someone giving B.O. a freaking Nobel Peace Prize.

Random musings

2011-11-29T04:19:00.004-05:00

So I wake up this morning and I don't hear Murphy snoring on his dog bed at the foot of my own bed. I look, and sure enough, he's not there. So I get up and walk through the Lair looking for him, only to find him upstairs in my guest room, sound asleep on the guest bed. And yes, someone started out his day with a swat on the hindquarters.

And the news is that Rep. Barney Frank is retiring from Congress now that redistricting means that he'd have had to run for the votes of a bunch of people that have never voted for him before, many of whom are not his preferred constituency of second-handers looking for free stuff from Washington. The papers and fellow Democrats are already lauding him and for the most part overlooking his long history of scandals. But all I see is a man totally without honor or ethics leaving us. Pity that he cannot take the housing market collapse that he and fellow corruptocrat Chris Dodd helped bring about through their meddling with Fannie and Freddie. If it were my call, he'd be stripped of every tangible asset, money going to repay the taxpayers for his misdeeds, and then he'd be stripped of his citizenship and deported. But alas, no one lets me make decisions like that.

Next Week's Blogshoot is looking great

2011-11-25T15:08:00.006-05:00

OK, folks. The blogshoot set up for next Saturday, December 3rd, in Inwood, WV is all set. We have a primo deluxe range with pistol, rifle to 250 yards, and five-stand shotgun all set aside for ourselves from 9A to 2P. Ammo and targets are available for purchase there, and the following rental guns for anyone who wants to try one out:

- FNH Police Sniper Rifle - .308 $50 Per Hour plus ammo
- Colt Competition HBAR AR15 rifles: $50 Per Hour plus ammo
- FNH SCAR Rifles: $50 Per Hour plus ammo
- Colt Trophy Gold Cup Competition .45 cal Handgun: $30 Per Hour plus ammo
- FNH Hi Capacity .45 Cal Competition Handguns: $30 Per Hour plus ammo
- FNH SLP Semi-Automatic Shotguns: $50 Per Hour plus ammo
- Colt Pocket-lite Mustang .380 handguns: $30 Per Hour plus ammo

After the shoot, we'll adjourn to a nearby eatery for food and adult beverages. The range is costing us some money, so donations will be accepted, again with any excess money going to the Wounded Warrior Foundation.

So come on out next Saturday and meet some of your favorite bloggers, to include Old NFO, Keads,Proud Hillbilly and also The Miller and New Jovian Thunderbolt, both of whom have just confirmed their attendance. Several other people have already RSVP'd as well, and it should be a fun day of socializing and shooting. So drop Murphy and me a line at martinihenrywv@gmail.com for directions and we'll look forward to seeing you there. And if you've got a hunting shotgun, bring it for the five-stand!

Also, if anyone coming has any of the current crop of milsurp 9x18mm pistols handy, please bring it along. We have a new shooter looking for a good small semi-auto who would love to try it out.

How to serve deer on Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T14:39:00.012-05:00

Murphy and I serve them corn.

I guess the feral cat was a plus one.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

How to make your own 7.7 Jap rifle ammo

2011-11-23T07:20:00.001-05:00

This article should be of interest to certain historical rifle shooters. It covers how to make ammunition for the World War Two Japanese rifles chambered for the 7.7x58mm round. This would be the Type 99 Arisaka rifles that are still somewhat common out there, both sporterized for hunting and stock collectibles. Here's mine. I've had it about thirty years but it's basically been a wall-hanger/safe queen for lack of ammunition since the US military pretty much put the Japanese ammo plants out of business in 1945. Today, the gunwriters tend to call the cartridge that it fires "7.7 Arisaka" or just 7.7x58mm. Back when I was growing up we always just called it "7.7 Jap" and the rifles were always "Jap rifles" regardless of the actual make or caliber. Now this may offend some of the more PC individuals out there, or possibly the Japanese, but you know what? We won that war so we'll call it whatever we like.

Anyway, if you have one, you'll know that ammo's tough to come by and expensive as hell. Only a couple of companies make it commercially now and it's spendy stuff. If you're just going hunting and only need 20, you might not mind dropping $30-$40 for a box of 20 rounds. But for target shooting or plinking? That's pricey range fodder.

So here's an alternative that many people use, me included.

Start out with a .30-06 case, commonly available pretty much anywhere.

I put mine in this low-tech but effective fixture made of nails pounded into my workbench. It holds the case with the neck over the edge of the bench, as shown.

Next, we call over Mr. Dremel and knock about half of the neck off above the bottleneck. Gauge used: Mk I eyeball.
This is what you want:
Measurement's not a big deal at that stage because you're just taking off excess metal before trimming to size using the case trimmer.
2.27 inches will do you just fine per the Lyman and other reloading guides.
Now after beveling and chamfering the case mouth, you lube that case and run it through the 7.7 resizing die. This sets the original neck back about .130 inches and expands the case mouth from .308 to .311.
Prime your case and charge it with whatever powder you fancy. This batch is getting Win 748 just because I've got a pound lying around. Then seat your bullet. Here again, you can use cheap 7.62x54mm (Russian) pull-down pullets because they, like the 7.7 Jap, and the .303 Enfields, are .311 diameter. Or if you want to tighten it up a bit, Hornady makes a killer .312 round nose soft-point. My Enfields love those.
Keep your overall length under 3.15 inches and any rifle your loading for should chamber them easily.
Finished product below: One round of 7.7 Japanese.
Here's twenty newly-minted rounds. Took me about an hour, but I enjoy time at my loading bench so it's all good. These particular rounds will actually go to another blogger that some of you follow. She also has a Type 99 Arisaka that she inherited. These are loaded light because I suspect that hers hasn't been fired since shortly before Douglas MacArthur sailed into Tokyo Bay.
And by way of comparison, one of the new rounds (left) next to the .30-06 that the case started out as. Not really much of a difference, eh? Just shorten the case, move the neck back, and expand the case mouth. Simple really. And it beats hell out of paying for store-bought.

Obama identifies (again) with OWS brats

2011-11-22T19:01:00.003-05:00

Awwww, isn't that cute? Obama tries to speak in New Hampshire and a few of the spoiled brats comprising the Occupy Wall Street movement begin to heckle him. So what does he do? He kisses their asses and claims that they are the reason that he ran for office in the first place.
(As if we all don't already know that "to gain the power necessary to ruin this country's capitalistic system, destroy any semblance of freedom for the individual and impose a socialist form of government with me and my cronies in charge forever" isn't really what he would have said if he was being honest.)

So Obama still loves these deliberately-unemployed, totally non-hygenic and absolutely useless people who currently comprise the largest criminal enterprise in America. No surprise there. My only hope is that the voters remember this next year and we give him his apparent wish by making sure that come January 13th, 2013, he has nothing better to do than sit around in some park all day.

My own coffee moment

2011-11-22T07:25:00.000-05:00

Regarding yesterday's tale, before I get too smug, I'll relate my own little coffee incident which was nothign if not more memorable than blondie's.

Way back in the day, I was a paramedic on a large city's fire department. Due to our call volume, we ran all night from run to run, and slack time to relax was pretty rare. We never went back to the firehouse because it just wasn't worth backing the rig in only to have to roll it right back out again a few minutes later. So when we did get a few minutes free, we had a few hidey-holes around the city where we'd tuck in just to catch a breather or a power-nap.

One night, we'd staged ourselves in a secluded little spot after clearing the hospital. I'd acquired a large cup of coffee from said hospital but it was too hot to drink immediately so I was holding it in my hand since we had a new ambulance and hadn't gotten around to illegally modifying it with drink holders and an AM/FM stereo yet. It was a warm night and I had my window down as I relaxed in the shotgun seat, and I decided to catch a quick nap. I put my coffee on the center console, leaned back, closed my eyes, and zoned out.

A few minutes later however, I heard our unit number come across the radio and our MDT (Mobile Data Terminal) beeped, signifying another run. (Funny how no matter how sound asleep you are, you can tune out other radio traffic but your own call sign gets through every time.) I shook myself awake and reached over for my coffee cup to ditch it since we were about to take off Code, which, in those trucks and on that city's streets, was like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disney. I grabbed the cup with my left hand and pitched it over my right shoulder...right into the CLOSED window! My jack-ass partner had gotten cold (she was from Boston and not used to our hardier local climate...Hi Angie!) and used her door control to put MY window up. Needless to say, the whole large cup of coffee splashed back on me, our shift paperwork, and most of the rest of the cab of the truck. I was soaked and the new truck had been christened in a spectacular way. (Why no, Lieutenant...we weren't drinking coffee in the rig in violation of OSHA rules and city policy...why do you ask?)

So yeah, the blonde chick at Starbucks was amusing yesterday, but sooner or later we all have our day, even me.

Little dramas all around us

2011-11-21T06:49:00.004-05:00

So yesterday in my travels, as I pass through a drive-thru to pick up a caffeinated beverage, I see in my mirror a lady getting into her car a short distance away. She sets her own beverage atop her roof, opens her car door, gets in, then closes her door and starts her engine. Surely she remembers the drink that she just set up on the roof, right?

She backs up about three feet, then hits her brakes. The drink topples over and cascades down her rear window.

I'm guessing that she didn't remember.

And yes, she was a blonde.

Blog Shoot!

2011-11-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

The previous story is rather fortuitous as I've been working on the idea for a local blog shoot for some time with a few other gun blogger stalwarts--Old NFO, Keads and Proud Hillbilly to name three--and I just cinched exclusive use of a pretty decent new range in, of all places, Berkley County, WV on Saturday, Dec. 3rd. So if you're a local gunny or even one who lives a ways a way and feels like a road trip, here's your chance to come join with some other great gun folks and get some shooting in, hopefully followed by some decent eating, drinking and socializing.

Exact times are still being worked out, but the range will be open for use by all with handguns, rifles and shotguns, to include some five-stand shotgun shooting for those interested. Right now, I'm putting together a rough count of those expected to attend, so if you're interested, please shoot Murphy and me an e-mail at martinihenrywv@gmail.com. I can't promise that Murphy'll be there, but I will be, and so far, the above-mentioned celebrity bloggers are expected as well.

Let me know how many you'll be bringing and what type of firearms that you're planning to shoot. Anything but full-auto is ok. (Drat! No M60!) When I get your e-mail, I'll send you all of the info about the shoot, including directions, as they become finalized. Some ammo will be available for purchase at the range but your own is also welcome. And yes, WV is concealed-carry friendly but check to ensure that your own state has reciprocity before coming down.

If you're a reader of this blog or those above and a shooter, you're definitely welcome to come.

Donations will be accepted to cover the range fees, and anything collected in excess will be donated to Wounded Warriors.

Local gun owners take on anti-gun prosecutor

2011-11-19T16:40:00.002-05:00

Berkley County, West Virginia.

Not too far from here, local gun owners are protesting a letter sent to members of the legislature by Berekley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely, asking for stricter laws covering concealed carry.

MARTINSBURG - Carrying signs displaying "Neely Criminal Protector" and "Armed Society = Safer Society," about 20 members of the West Virginia Citizens Defense League staged a protest Friday afternoon on the corner of South Raleigh and West Stephen streets.

"We oppose the views of the prosecutor and her statement demanding a change to West Virginia's carry laws," explained Art Thomm, Eastern Panhandle representative and board member of the WVCDL.

Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely, a Republican, sent an email dated Oct. 25 to all local state legislators calling for a change to West Virginia state code regarding taking a firearm onto college campuses.

Her email was posted on state Delegate Larry D. Kump's blog. Kump is a Republican from Berkeley County.

Games-Neely was reacting to an incident earlier in October when a student at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College brought a concealed handgun onto the satellite campus at the old Corning Plant and into the main campus in the Dunn Building on West Stephen Street.

Joshua Beck, 26, of Martinsburg, who has a concealed carry permit, was originally charged with two felony counts of bringing a gun onto school property.

The felony charges were later dropped because Games-Neely questioned the language of the statute, that is whether the law clearly prohibited weapons from college campuses.

Beck was later charged with two misdemeanors, essentially, for not obeying an order by the college to not bring weapons onto school property.

Games-Neely was not available for comment Friday, but wrote in her email to legislators:

"I am a very strong supporter of the second amendment, but there must be some common sense applied here. I can think of nothing worse than people attending an athletic event, living in a dorm, or sitting beside someone in a science class with a firearm strapped to their side or worse, concealed on their person."

"As a parent of college students, I do not think I should have to worry about making sure they have their books, clothes, laptop and now a 45-caliber weapon in an educational setting," she continued. "This statutory error puts higher education students, faculty and administration at risk. Most people have enough sense not to do this, but obviously we have those who do not."

Games-Neely went on to ask legislators to address the issue as soon as possible by adding the words "post-secondary," "post-secondary vocational or technical" "or other institutions of higher learning" to state code.

Thomm said that no evidence supports her supposition.

"Never has a licensed person caused trouble," he said Friday at the demonstration held in the shadow of Blue Ridge CTC's Martinsburg campus. "This demonstration shows that lawfully abiding citizens are less likely to cause trouble. We don't cause trouble. We don't want to cause trouble."

Thomm estimated that 98 percent of the people taking part in the demonstration have concealed weapons permits and were carrying guns.

There was sporadic horn honking by cars passing the busy intersection in support of the demonstrators and some words of encouragement from motorists stopped at the intersection.

Thomm said Games-Neely's email exposed her as against 2nd Amendment rights. The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

"She is using the same tactics as terrorists," Thomm said of Games-Neely. "She is using fear to get her own way."

He urged residents of Martinsburg and Berkeley County to remember that when they go to the polls next year to vote. Games-Neely's current term as prosecuting attorney is up next year.

And I have to agree with the protesters here. A firearm carried by a law-abiding, responsible person poses no threat to anyone else, but rules barring such people from carrying firearms don't deter law-breakers or evil-doers in the slightest. Just ask any of the survivors of the Virginia Tech massacre. They and those who were killed and wounded were all disarmed in advance of that event by an act of the school and the state legislature, ensuring that the killer, Seung Hui Cho, has a monopoly on the use of deadly force.

So I wish these folks well, and I urge all Berkley County voters to boot Games-Neely next year and replace her with someone who is her diametric opposite: tough on crime and respectful of the rights of the law-abiding.

"I got hurt doing something stupid. The government should do something!"

2011-11-19T00:01:00.002-05:00

Here we go yet again.
This time it's Courtney Fletcher of Mt. Lebanon, PA. She was walking along and saw a rope that she thought might be fun to swing on. She subsequently hurt herself and is now demanding that the government go cut that rope down.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Courtney Fletcher, 23, of Mt. Lebanon, believes a rope swing has to go.

Fletcher suffered an angular fracture when she fell 8 to 10 feet to the ground on a walking trail in the Walker’s Run section of Collier Township nine days ago.

She’s the second person who had to be rescued for falling on the same rope swing. Fletcher spoke to KDKA-TV from her bed at Allegheny General Hospital.

“When it happened, I could see bone. It didn’t come out of the skin, but the bone popped up and my foot was dangling in the other direction. My foot went into a small hole and cracked in half.”

Fletcher’s swollen ankle is blistered and is in pins. She’s in store for another round of surgery in the coming days.

Fletcher wants the rope cut down so what happened to her won’t happen to someone else.

Collier Police Chief Tom Devin says police want the rope down, but since the most recent accident they’ve learned it’s on private property and they are still trying to figure out who owns it.

So now we all have to support a government that will remove rope swings from private property to prevent trespassers from injuring themselves?

Hell, with that thought process guiding her, I'm genuinely surprised that Courtney isn't occupying some city park somewhere demanding a massive nanny-state government like so many other members of the "lost cause" generation are.

Just watch her on the video and listen to the whining and the excuses. She basically blames everyone but herself and never once takes an ounce of responsibility for her actions. "Personal responsibility? What's that?"

Anyone wanna bet whether or not she has insurance and if not, any intention of paying those hospital bills herself?

Didn't think so. Me either.

Ever have one of those days when you just seriously want to see a traffic cop?

2011-11-17T19:37:00.002-05:00

So I’m driving into the city today, and as I come up to the exit ramp that lets me jump from one over-congested highway to the next, I suddenly see a taxicab pull up next to me with it’s turn signal on, trying to cut in front of me.

Now dammit, I’ve been waiting in this line of cars to get onto this ramp for a minute now, and this cab had every opportunity to get into the line at the back just like I did, or even to cut in well before the exact break point where the ramp cuts away. But this cab, a minivan from Alexandria Union Cab Company, Cab #706, wants to bypass the whole line and cut in right in front of me.

Anyone who knows me knows that this is so not happening. I refuse, and when he tries to merge in, I hold my place, refusing to give an inch, just daring him to hit me. He decline to hit me and wound up almost missing the exit entirely before he gave up, braked hard (nearly getting rear-ended his own damn self), and then cut off the guy right behind me. Once he was behind me, he started flashing his bright lights at me as if I did something to him by not letting him jump the line.
Brake check. Yep. Mine work.

So once onto the next highway, I’m moving along in the right lane, when suddenly this guy is next to me again in the left lane, and now he’s slowing to match my speed and deliberately moving into my lane as if to sideswipe me or force me over onto the shoulder. I’m like, is this guy serious? And he’s got a PASSENGER in that cab! How is the passenger not going nuts at this road-raging cabbie? But I’ve had enough, and I brake a bit to drop back and get his license number and cab number to start making my calls (because I’m going to call the police, the cab company and the hack inspector, in that order) when all of a sudden I see red and blue lights everywhere. A motorcycle police officer is now right on the back of this cab, pulling him over. Apparently Officer Evel Kneivel Saw some or all of this and tagged him right there.

Sometimes the Karma Fairy is right on the ball.

House votes on National Concealed Carry...Media strangely silent.

2011-11-16T22:42:00.003-05:00

You’d think that it would be big news that the House of representatives voted on a bill which would put concealed weapons permits on par with drivers’ licenses and ensure that every state recognized permits issued by any other state, but HS 822 got relatively little press attention today despite passing 272 to 154, with 17 republicans voting against and 43 Democrats voting in favor. Perhaps the Obama-controlled media doesn’t want people watching the Democrat-controlled Senate to see what they do with it over there, as pretty much everyone who pays attention to such things knows that Harry Reid won’t ever let it come up for a vote, especially if he polls and figures out that such a bill would pass the Senate on an up-or-down vote. After all, that would be too much pressure to put on Obama as he courts the votes of pro-gun swing states next year. This wouldn’t be one that he could simply vote “present” on and punt like he just did the job-creating, oil-providing tar sands pipeline that his green base hates so much. No, the ultimate political coward is going to make sure that this bill never reaches his desk or gets much press because he knows that his anti-gun credentials are trouble enough in many states and a veto by him would likely doom his re-election chances in several close states.

But fortunately, we have the internet and the blogosphere and we can bypass the mainstream media. The vote on HR 822 did pass the House and Murphy and I even have the roll call vote listing who voted which way on it. That vote list can be found here.
(Hey Michigan, way to go with your freshman Republican Justin Amash! He just voted to ensure that Michigan residents will remain unable to carry in numerous other states.)

HR 822's text can be read in it's entirety here.

It's funny now how the opposition is claiming that those in favor are selling out "states' rights", yet most of those raising that hue and cry are the same ones who blast the concept of states' rights when a state refuses to legalize marijuana or gay rights or tries to restrict the power of union workers or those seeking abortions. In other words, states should never have the power to run their own affairs unless they choose to run them according to liberal ideals. So don't but the whole "this infringes on a state's right..." line. What it really does is empower the people who mmake up the states: the individuals.

So contact your senators and demand that they take this up, and let's put some real heat on Obama this coming election.

It followed me home...guess I'll have to keep it.

2011-11-13T19:14:00.013-05:00

Note to self: Next time I go over to noted Martini-Henry expert Richard's house, do NOT bring check book.

But this time I erred and brought it, and as a result I acquired this new (to me) Martini-Henry Mk II rifle.It's not "new" new by any means. This one first left the Enfield factory back in 1878, a little over a decade after our civil war (still known locally as "the war of Northern Aggression) ended and a year before the beginning of the Zulu War.I got it from Vern, another Martini-Henry enthusiast who happened to be over there with a pick-up truck bed full of Martini-Henry rifles that he'd picked up in Afghanistan. He recently brought this one back, and after we engaged in some shooting and cleaning (and after Richard made minor repairs to both this one and my own MK IV), I wound up buying it from him for what was probably more than he paid for it in Kabul but much less than I would have otherwise had to pay for one here stateside. No complaints from me!

The only real collector's complaint that I have about this one is the fact that it has no finish at all left on any of the metal. Afghanis like their guns to be shiny, and this one, like most other antique firearms to come out of that country, has been polished down to bare metal. But the wood still bears the original Enfield logo in a roundel on the stock, right above two Roman numerals, a II, which denotes a MK II, and a I below, which indicates original issue to a British solider in a front-line unit. Had it been issued to native troops, volunteers or other irregular forces, it would have a different number.What really makes this one interesting is the fact that it did come from Afghanistan, so it's more likely than not that this rifle continued to see much actual fighting use well after the British turned it over to the locals or otherwise lost custody of it. In Afghanistan, when the tribes are not fighting the British, the Russians or the Americans, they are fighting with Pakistan or each other. In such a culture, rifles of any sort are highly valued and functional ones are used with little regard for relative obsolescence. It's quite conceivable that this veteran fired shots at any or all of the above during it's 80 years of post-British service, at least until it's last owner decided to sell it at the arms bazaar in Kabul, probably for cash to buy something more along the lines of an AK-47.

Here's the new one (top) with my ex-Nepalese MK IV below it.Quite the pair, aren't they? Both are 49" long and weigh eight and a half pounds empty. They are single-shot rifles firing the .577/450 cartridge, and both still shoot quite well despite being well over a century old. I was putting my shots into an 8" circle at 100yards standing off-hand with the MK IV once I figured out how much to hold under due to the sights not even being gradated for ranges that short. (You have to use the battle-sight setting and guesstimate a bit.)

In this close-up, you can see the main differences between the two variants. The MK II has the short lever action, and the MK IV has a longer lever and a slightly longer receiver. The longer lever came about in part following the disaster as Islandwana during the Zulu War when the short lever was blamed for many rifles jamming due to insufficient leverage to help with spent cartridge extraction. The receiver change was made to improve the shooter's grip on the weapon.
So what's it like to fire one of these? Well the recoil is not as bad as many more modern cartridge rifles firing smokeless propellant, but it's still enough to get your attention. And the black powder cartridges (Thanks, Richard!) definitely produce a good bit of smoke. Your enemy will definitely know where you are even if he can't actually see you behind the smoke cloud.

Shooting these is an involved process though, as virtually no one makes commercial or military ammunition for them any more. So unless you're willing to spend a hundred and forty dollars for a box of twenty (I'm sure not!) you'll learn how to form your own brass cases and load them with black powder and 470-grain bullets that you'll cast yourself. This is my next project and when I get it down, I'll post a step-by-step highlighting the process. In the meantime though, this new rifle will join the others firearms in the gun room, where I'm sure that it'll have lots of war stories to swap.

Parents upset over ex-porn star reading to schoolkids.

2011-11-12T00:03:00.003-05:00

Seriously? This is an issue now? Sasha Grey, a former porn actress who has forsaken the porn industry in an attempt to become a mainstream actress, volunteered to read to schoolkids in Los Angeles as part of the Read Across America program.

One would not think that this would be a problem for anyone, yet several angry parents lodged complaints and the school in question even denied that she was there despite pictures to the contrary having already been released.

Now I'm not a pornography afficianado myself, and prior to finding this story I had no idea who Sasha Grey was. (This makes me wonder about the parents who complained. How exactly did they know who she was?) But I have to point out that she was there in that school to spend time building these kids up, and the parents who are now complaining apparently were not despite having had the same opportunity to volunteer that she accepted. In essence, they're mad because she was doing something to help their kids that they chose not to do.

And to Ms. Grey's credit, she's standing fast in the face of this criticism and refusing to quit volunteering. She's even gone so far as to issue a statement reaffirming her commitment to this program, and in my opinion, her past doesn't count against her as much as her intent to do right today counts for her. That being the case, I proclaim Sasha Grey to be a winner, and the parents who are complaining without volunteering to do what she's doing...well they're the opposite of winners, IMHO.

11-11-11. Veteran's Day.

2011-11-11T05:06:00.004-05:00

A grateful nation will never forget.

Crack Ho mad at police chief, retains lawyer.

2011-11-10T14:25:00.003-05:00

And in the Frivolous Lawsuit department, we have former (or current...it's not really clear) drug-using prostitute Almenta Johnson all upset at New Orleans Police Chief Ron Serpas after Serpas disclosed her lengthy criminal history on television during a manhunt for her murder suspect son.

Supt. Ronal Serpas disclosed Almenta Johnson's rap sheet during a press conference about her son, Bobby Troy, over the weekend. Police are seeking to arrest Troy in connection with the death of Slidell Dr. Brent Hockfeld in the French Quarter.

Johnson, of Central City, said she turned on her television Sunday and was shocked when the focus shifted on her.

"Bobby Troy's mother is a multiple arrested offender (on charges of) resisting arrest, resisting officers, possession or drugs, drug paraphernalia, criminal trespass, crimes against nature," Serpas said.

"I believe that he shouldn't have put my business out in the street. I haven't robbed anybody. I haven't killed anybody," Johnson said.

Johnson said she was fired Monday, after six years, from her part-time job as banquet server.

"When I went there, she told me, 'No,' because they don't hire sex offenders or people who have been on drugs and she told me I couldn't work there anymore," Johnson said.

Johnson said although her name was not mentioned during the press conference, her son used to work at her part-time job.

"They knew (he) was my son," Johnson said.

Defense attorney Robert Jenkins said Johnson's constitutional right to privacy and the right to work may have been violated, and she could have grounds to sue the City of New Orleans and Serpas for defamation.

So the Chief didn't even name her publicly, but she's run out and found a lawyer who claims that the Constitution now recognizes both a right to never have public information about oneself discussed in public and a right to work for people who don't want you working for them. (Oh, I can't wait to read that filing and see those citations.) And since it's doubtful that a part-time banquet server could afford the hourly rate of a highly-paid attorney like Robert Jenkins, one can only infer that Jenkins plans to get paid by filing a nuisance suit against the City of New Orleans with the expectation that the taxpayers will throw him and the unemployed prostitute a few thousand dollars just to go away.

Oh--and for what it's worth, they did eventually find and arrest Johnson's fugitive son. He allegedly murdered a doctor (read: a productive citizen who actually had value to society, unlike Johnson and her kids) and fled the city. But rather than show any remorse for breeding a killer and putting it out on the streets, Johnson's screaming and demanding to be paid.

Only in America, thanks mainly to the Trial Lawyers Associations and their pet political party, the Democrats, who continue to block any form of meaningful tort reform.

Opining on OWS

2011-11-09T15:05:00.003-05:00

I think that one of the issues here is one of perception. The "Occupy" crowd sees themselves as reincarnations of our Founding Fathers, only with Che and Mao T-shirts on, but most of the rest of us see them as the cast of "Lord of the Flies", especially after reading daily about reports of how their camps have degenerated into feces-covered open-air drug dens where female "Occupyees" have to band together in guarded tents lest they be raped by their male comrades. For decades, these marxist wanna-be's have told us all about how their ideas would create a utopia for all, and now in about a month, they've proven that left to themselves, all that they can create is chaos, crime, dependency and disorder.

Now I think that they've proved our point and it's time for the adults to take control of these parks again by sending in the police and the heavy-duty sanitation teams. Let's seriously crack the heads of any who insist of continuing to defy law and order and seize the bank accounts and any other assets of these groups and involved individuals to pay back the taxpayers for all of the monies spent on babysitting these overgrown kids and cleaning up after them....and if that doesn't cover the tab, let's start identifying their parents and putting them in collection. Maybe the next time, they'll think twice about raising such pathetic kids and turning them loose on the rest of us.

Your thoughts?

The future of America

2011-11-08T07:55:00.003-05:00

Again, we're back to the "we are the future" claims from today's youth...and I fear for my country if it's really so.

Today's example: Molly Katchpole, a girl living in Washington DC who used student loans to get as useless degree and who now wonders why she can't find work and frets that she has to actually pay that money back with interest.

Starting in December, the art and architectural history major has to figure out a way to start paying off her student loans, which she says will require payments of at least $200 a month.

“I don’t know what I am going to do!” said Katchpole, a freelance account manager at a political consulting firm called Winning Over Washington. (Its main client is the progressive group MoveOn.org.) “I am going to have to defer my loans. I have no idea. Why should I be expected to pay them off now? Why are colleges charging interest on that stuff? Give us a break. Really.”

I guess the whole concept of a loan went right over her head when she was filling out all of those application forms. But t be fair, maybe lenders should stop loaning out money for degrees like "art and architectural history", "philosophy", "ethnic culture" or "women's studies". Maybe if lenders weren't throwing money out to pay for degrees that will never put anyone into a real job with a salary that allows them to repay it, loans would be cheaper for serious students and colleges would not offer so many classes taught by useless but highly-paid "academics" who really do nothing but indoctrinate students into stupid ways of thinking. Case in point: Here's Molly. Her dad, Jim Katchpole, is a machinist and her mother, Kathy Katchpole, is a physical therapist’s assistant. So she apparently came from decent stock. Yet after a few years in college, she now sits around in a basement apartment with some shack-up guy, "surrounded by labor history and anarchy books" and is apparently only considering employment with left-wing "social change" groups. And she seems to honestly believe that she should not have to pay the loans that financed her tuition and paid her rent and grocery bills during those years she spent goofing around at school, at least not if it means forsaking her dream of working for SEIU or Planned Parenthood and having to get a real job. But even SEIU doesn't want a no-talent-having, non-skilled drone on their payroll...and that says a lot for a union that makes it's money organizing and representing no-talent-having, non-skilled drones.

Now if Molly were some sort of aberration, that might be ok. We could shrug her off as an example of social darwinism in action and leave her to a future that consists mainly of working in some food co-op or thrift store and going home at night to an apartment full of cats. But there are a lot of other Mollys out there today (see "Occupy Wall Street") and most of them expect that they should be forgiven their debts, given free houses just because they want them, and otherwise coddled by a society that takes the money required to support them all from you and I, by force if necessary. One of the biggest problems today is that we've raised a generation of Free Riders and given each one the power of the vote, allowing them to choose a government model which will perpetuate and support their own willful dependency while sticking the rest of us with the bill. So where does it stop? Do we become Italy or Greece? Or do the Productive Ones all walk off one day ala Ayn Rand and just let the Mollys all fend for themselves for a winter or two, after which, there'll likely be precious few Mollys left because that kind lacks the skills and the motivation to survive on their own.

And what happened in America that we went from being a nation of achievers, a country run by the people who built bridges, skyscrapers and transnational businesses, to a nation of Mollys who sit around with their mouths open and their hands out, demanding that you and I just pay all of their bills? Frankly, I doubt that the men and women who made America into the only real world power in the 1950's and 60's would have tolerated all of these OWS brats that infest many of our cities today. I'm thinking that they or the police would have been in there with sticks and hoses and even buckets of soap, wire brushes and shears, and every single dirty hippie that they could catch would leave clean and groomed with instructions to have a job by the end of the week or else. They damned sure wouldn't have offered them all free rides at the college of their choice for as many years as it takes to get a degree in a field that's not hiring or doesn't even exist, the way that we do today.

Maybe we need to return to those good old days, those "pre-Molly" days. And if Molly and her peers don't want to apply themselves and become doctors and engineers, they can pick fruit or process fish or ride on the back of a garbage truck if they have to, because the rest of us shouldn't have to pay their bills or ignore their debts until they land their non-existent dream jobs.

Progress...

2011-11-06T19:03:00.000-05:00

Today I took Murphy to Harpers Ferry. And being a nice fall day, the place was packed to overflowing with visitors, a large percentage of which were families with kids.

Now Murphy, as readers may recall, has a history of abuse at the hands of kids, so he's not always the most tolerant of them. In fact, most of our outings here have resulted in at least one attempt by Murphy to snap at someone, usually young boys around 10-12 years old. The problem is enhanced of course by the fact that he's a beautiful dog that everyone wants to pet him, often without asking my permission first. And all goes well until the wrong person, identifiable only by Murphy, gets too close, at which point he lunges and snaps at them without warning. He's never connected with anyone yet, but that's mainly because I'm always watching him closely, ready to reef back on his leash and pinch collar as soon as he tries anything. Still, the last thing we need is a bite incident, so for a while I've refrained from bringing him out here.

But he's been doing well lately in every other venue I've taken him to, so I decided to give him another try at Harpers Ferry. To be honest, I thought that it wouldn't be crowded today because of the recent bad weather, but as it turned out, I was wrong and the place was packed. But since we were already there...

I'm pleased to report that Murphy was perfect today, with no displays of aggression of any kind. (Well ok, he didn't want to let the uniformed park ranger approach him while he was in the car, but that one I can excuse because he was protecting "his" car...and he did make nice with her once I took him out.)

We spent a couple of hours wandering around, and Murphy allowed anyone who wanted to pet him to do so, from tiny children to senior citizens, and this included several kids in the danger age. In fact, there wasn't the slightest hint of any fear or aggression on Murphy's part today despite the fact that he probably came into contact with more people than he has at any previous outing here. He even responded well during some off-leash training in a small fenced area and sat patiently on a restaurant deck as I drank a beer, both times while surrounded by other people. Can this really be the same dog who was trying to leap an 8-foot fence to kill me when I first saw him less than a year ago? Is this really the same dog that repeatedly turned on his foster handler and others whom he'd been adopted out to before I met him?

You've come a long way, Audie Murphy. And I'm proud of you.
I'se a good dog!

I can has ice cream!

A tale of two stupid women (plus a boy and a Lexus).

2011-11-06T17:12:00.006-05:00

Regarding the three pinheads hit by the car in Washington, DC yesterday, it turns out that they were, in fact, deliberately blocking traffic as part of their "protest", essentially claiming the right to deny everyone else the right to drive on the public roads. When a driver tried to pass through a break in their human-chain line, three protesters--two lesbians from Vandalia, Ohio named Brandy and Heidi Sippel and the thirteen-year old son of one of the women--ran and jumped in front of that car, according to witnesses. (Note that Brandy, a self-avowed "married" lesbian is also six months pregnant. How does that even happen? But yes, they're just like us, folks!) The car, which had the green light, was unable to stop and knocked Heidi and the boy down while merely brushing Brady with it's mirror. Naturally, all three demanded to be taken by ambulance to a local hospital (almost certainly at taxpayer expense) and they'll no doubt try to file a lawsuit and get some cash before this is over. Of course they were each also cited by the police for being in the roadway, so that should make their attempt to use the court to redistribute the driver's wealth to themselves a little harder.

As for me, I think that the DC prosecutors need to look seriously at bringing child endangerment charges against these women for hurling that 13-year old boy in front of a moving vehicle the way that they did. But then again, I guess that any of us would have done the same thing because these OWS losers are often described by their spokespeople to the media as being "just like the rest of us".

I think not.

Oh, and in case you were wondering if these women have any regrets, Bandy apparently posted a comment under the name "wow" on WJLA's news site where she said:

"Before you begin some nonsense about having my child at a protest I think you better get your kids down here if you want them to have any future!"

Frankly, if I thought that her kid was really the future, I'd be selling my bonds tomorrow.

OWS stoners. Not exactly physics majors, are they?

2011-11-05T11:40:00.003-04:00

Famous last words: "Dude! Hold my bong while I jump in front of this moving car!"

Three DC Occu-tards injured while jumping in front of moving cars.

WASHINGTON (AP) - District of Columbia police said early Saturday that a driver will not be charged for striking three people taking part in an Occupy DC protest in downtown Washington.

Lt. Christopher Micciche of the D.C. police said the driver was not cited because he had a green light when his vehicle struck the three on Friday night.

He said witnesses told police that the three pedestrians "either ran toward or jumped in front of the moving vehicle." He said one pedestrian jumped on the hood of the car. One of them was cited for being in the roadway.

"The protesters were apparently trying to block the roadway," Micciche said. "It was essentially an accident where three individuals were injured but they were in violation by being in the roadway."

D.C. fire department spokesman Lon Walls said Saturday morning that the three were transported to two area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

One protester, 29-year-old Jesse Folks of Riverdale, Md., told The Washington Post that he was standing in the street with other demonstrators near the convention center when the car "just gassed it into a bunch of people."

"We were in the street, but this guy didn't even give us a chance to get out of the way," Folks said.

Micciche said witnesses provided a different account.

"They probably thought the driver would either stop or be able to stop, but it didn't appear that was the case."

Some days, it just doesn't pay to crawl out of your Soros-donated Obamaville tent, does it, kiddies?

Heh.

Who are "Occupy Wall Street"? Let me show you.

2011-11-04T00:58:00.024-04:00

With greatful credit to: IndubitablySnarky, commenter on the Denver Post forums.

Let's take a closer look at the Obama endorsed "peaceful" OWS protesters-

Protesters who hate Jews-
http://visiontoamerica.org/4829/occupy- ... s-country/

Protesters wanting to "Hang and shoot Bush administration"-
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/10/15/denver-occupier/

Protesters wanting to "Kill and eat the rich"-
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/10 ... -the-rich/

Protesters "F@#k The USA" sing alongs-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKzGbgSe ... r_embedded

Protesters calling Gov Jan Brewer a lying wh*re with Alzheimers-
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valley ... e_evil.php

Protester meltdowns-
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/10 ... aza-video/

Protester trashing restaurant when denied free food-
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/05/occupy-wall-street-protester-throws-violent-fit-in-mcdonalds-when-denied-free/?test=latestnews

Protester trying to give black cop HIV-
http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 539832.ece

Protesters spitting on female soldiers-
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/loc ... r-20111013

Protesters threatening to kill other protesters-
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2 ... gonna.html

Protesters defecating on police cars-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1aDQdbK4S

Protesters defecating on doorsteps-
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manh ... z1bNIuDJea

Inciting violence with the "rich hit list'-
http://gawker.com/5848699/a-guide-to-new-york-citys-1

Protester felon with loaded assault rifle-
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/M ... 224643.php

Protesters arrested for Arson-
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20111104/UPDATES01/111104006/Fort-Collins-man-29-arrested-Old-Town-fire?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|FRONTPAGE

Protesters pulling guns and knives on each other and using the N word-
http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslo ... d.html.csp

Protesters on FBI terrorist list
http://politicons.net/occupy-chicago-le ... terrorism/

Protesters hack police website-
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/loca ... z1bcO84qW9

Protesters dealing heroin with 6 year old in tent-
http://www.verumserum.com/?p=31200

Protester gets 11 year old deathly drunk-
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-re ... z1bq1SoSOt

Protesters neglecting their children-
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/11/04/cps-seizes-baby-from-occupy-dallas-site/

Protesters using their children to barricade doors-
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/occupydc-protesters-use-kids-blockade-door-during-violent-scuffle

Protesters throwing their children in front of moving cars-
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/11/3-struck-by-car-at-occupy-dc-protest-police-say-68784.html

Homophobic protesters-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... kseCQziD7E

Thieving protesters-
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/criminal_occupation_oh3CnKANUqYHrGPCaZaLRK

Physically assaultive protesters-
1. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1258549966001/homeless-man-on-violent-rampage-at-occupy-wall-street
2. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/11/rampaging-occupiers-attack-78-year-old-woman.php

Protesters eating from dumpsters-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 8GOcb1xCgI

Protesters being paid-
http://theweek.com/article/index/220175 ... being-paid

Protesters staging their arrests-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... BARB-aSqYM

Protesters exposing themselves to children-
1.http://www.komonews.com/news/local/132064518.html
2.http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/ ... man-897430

Protesters sexually assaulting 14 year old girl-
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/10/24/accu ... py-dallas/

Protesters pimping under-age girls-
http://www.unionleader.com/article/2011 ... /710289961

Protesters smelling feet and drinking urine-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... DnmLQry4Q#!

Protesters kidnapping and raping the mentally disabled-
http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/211304 ... -Cleveland

Protesters for having sex with animals-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My_cNzQG ... r_embedded

Protesters threatening to stab reporter in neck-
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/fox-5-n ... 0111028-KC

Hanging bankers-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1c2uaDQCR

Protesters shouting "Kill the police"-
http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/07/kill-the-cops-shout-reported-during-occupy-new-orleans-protest/

Protesters attacking the police-
1. http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/10/25/police-cracking-down-after-occupy-dallas-confrontation/
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/us/protest-in-oakland-turns-violent.html?_r=1
3. http://www.kgw.com/home/Occupy-Portland-plans-march--rally-tonight-133098048.html
4. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx-teacher-busted-occupy-wall-st-protest-article-1.972094

Protesters destroying public and private property-
1. http://www.mercurynews.com/occupy-oakland/ci_19255461?source=rss
2. http://www.verumserum.com/?p=31254

Protesters arrested for drug dealing-
1.http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_1023drug_vandalism_arrests_at_occupy_boston
2. http://www.thefix.com/content/nypd-tweets-shroud-zucotti-park-drug-dealers-mystery9187
3. http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/11/three-arrested-for-dealing-drugs-occupy-boston-camp/hUHUmwDYOo0M2x4qm0qreL/index.html
4.http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_1103occupys_mama_claims_drug_bust_was_cops_setup/format=comments&position=5

Protesters desecrating the American flag-
1.http://news.yahoo.com/photos/member-occ ... 30472.html
2.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySnYbitzrg4&feature=player_embedded
3.http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/11/occupy-oakland-goons-torch-american-flag-during-riots-photo/

And there's more. So much more. The list of their documented depravities grows every day and this is but a sampling of the examples of who they are and what they do. They say that they represent us and call themselves the "99%", but 99% of Americans have never done any of these things.

But wait--there's more. Who, you might ask, are the OWS protest bedfellows?

Communist Party USA-
http://rebelpundit.com/2011/10/13/cpusa ... pychicago/
The K K K-
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in ... t-protests
American Nazi Party-
http://nation.foxnews.com/occupy-wall-s ... t-protests
Iranian hardliners-
http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?I ... 412&Lang=E
Ayatollah Khomeini-
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9007160760

And again, 99% of real Americans would never associate with or accept the support of ANY of these gorups, much less ALL of them. But these OWS whack jobs are untied by one common thread--their hatred of the American ideal and those of us who still embrace it.

Spread this around. The mainstream media won't but we can and Knowledge is Power.

UPDATED: I just found out about this list, which is even better than mine.

New Firearm

2011-11-02T09:17:00.015-04:00

Well not exactly "new" new, but new to me.

And no, it's not a Taurus Judge. It's more practical than that.

It's a Model 1884 Trapdoor Springfield rifle, in caliber .45-70 Government.A later version of the US Arrmy's Model 1873 Springfield, which saw much use in the indian wars out west (notably in the hands of Custer's ill-fated 7th Calvary, among others), these rifles stayed in service long enough to see use in the Spanish American War, being hauled into Cuba by some of the deployed National Guard troops who were sent. The Spanish, armed with new German Mauser rifles firing cartridges that used the then-new smokeless propellant, were less than impressed.
As you can see by the markings below, this rifle was made at the real government-run Springfield Armory in Massachusetts.Above you can see the rifle's single-shot lock-work, including it's exposed hammer, which had to be brought back to half-cock before the breech-block, or "trapdoor" could be opened to insert a cartridge. Below, you can see it open, awaiting a new cartridge. This one has a great-looking bore (with one possible pit that the seller wasn't exactly forthcoming about) and should be a great shooter. We'll see in the coming days.
Being a leftie, I could be happier with hammer placement on the other side of the action, but I guess it's just a cross that we have to bear to keep us humble.
A hallmark of the 1884 model is the Buffington sight, designed by Lieutenant Colonel R. A. Buffington of the U.S. Army Ordnance Department. This improved rear sight allowed skilled marksmen to really make some serious long-range shots despite the rifle's rainbow trajectory at long ranges.
Barely visible here is the acceptance cartouche, dated 1887.
The lock, dated 1884, also first began actually appearing on these rifles in 1887.
Stamp of approval. This one was accepted by and issued to US troops. Where it served or for how long is anyone's guess though.
And here's it's cartridge (left), next to the contemporary 5.56mm NATO round on the right. It's a .45 caliber bullet weighing 405 grains, seated atop 70 grains of black powder.And remember--this rifle only holds one, not thirty.

Still, I'll take it over a Taurus Judge anyday. Just sayin'.

Now to get it out to the range...

My kind of Sheriff...almost

2011-11-01T16:15:00.003-04:00

Sheriff Chuck Wright, of Spartansburg, SC, while talking about a career criminal caught trying to rape a local woman, admitted that the justice system isn't working and told women in general to arm themselves.

Sheriff Chuck Wright opened his news conference by saying, "Our form of justice is not making it."

He said, "Carry a concealed weapon. That'll fix it."

Wright said,"Liberals call me and tell me the chain-gang form of justice isn't working. Well, let me inform you, your form of justice isn't working either."

Wright said, "It's too bad someone with a concealed weapons permit didn't walk by. That would fix it." He said people are tired of doing the right thing and criminals getting away with their actions.

He said several times, "I want you to get a concealed weapons permit."

At one point, Wright held up a fanny pack and said, "They make this right here where you can conceal a small pistol in them. They got one called The Judge that shoots a .45 or a .410 shell. You ain't got to be accurate; you just have to get close."

He encouraged women to walk in groups, and he ended by saying again, "I want you to get a concealed weapons permit. Don't get Mace. Get a firearm."

OK, he had me right up until he mentioned the [Taurus] Judge. Personally, my opinion is that women should not buy one of those. Men either, especially if you're a novice shooter. It's a big, clunky pistol with excessive recoil that you likely won't want to practice with so it won't do you much good at all if and when you need it. My thought is that you should get something a bit more controllable and enjoyable to shoot. That way, you'll stay practiced with it and be able to perform as required when the goblins appear. S&W J-frames, Kahr Arms, small Glocks...the options are numerous. Just get something reliable and comfortable, then take a class or two and practice, practice, practice.

Lessons learned from the power outage.

2011-11-01T11:42:00.004-04:00

1. Be more diligent about oiling the hinges in the chimney flue. It was a royal bitch to get it open.

2. Batteries in the primary emergency lantern were dead. Spares had been used for something else and not replaced. That was just plain unacceptable.

3. Propane bottles for camp stove. They'd been in the same spot for years, until they were moved a few months ago. Where to? Took a while to remember, didn't it? Meanwhile, padding around in basement looking for them in the dark (because the above-mentioned lantern wasn't working) taught us another lesson, namely if you're going to be in the basement barefoot, do a better job of keeping stray pistol brass policed up. Stepping on that .45 case hurt like a bitch, didn't it? So keep basement cleaner, wear a shoe down there when it's dark, and don't move emergency supplies unless you make an effort to re-train yourself as to their new location.

Otherwise, This exercise was graded "Fully Successful".

Bonus points for having gone grocery shopping the day before, and for having bought a few dried foods just for an "eventual" outage just like this one. So "Yay me!" for that. The tea and instant chicken noodle soup were a nice morale booster. Now get more.

Back on-line!

2011-11-01T10:30:00.005-04:00

So Friday, we got this snow...heavy, wet snow, about six inches worth on my deck. Neat to see--and Al Gore and all of his "Global warming" disciples can kiss my ass--but it knocked out the power and the internet here at the Lair.

Now the power was restored Saturday night, so that was no real problem. Murphy and I just spent the intervening time sitting in front of the fireplace, me linking ammunition or reading a book and him growling at the popping logs. The house was lit by Coleman lanterns which are kept on hand for just such an event, and food was cooked and tea was brewed on a matching Coleman stove. Even the toilets remained functional courtesy of the water in the outside rain barrel. In short, we had everything but a hot shower, microwave popcorn and the internet, so life was good for this guy and his dog.

Well the power came back, but not the internet. Why? Because I have Comcast and they suck. But understanding the nature of the problem, I gave them some slack...right up until I got the automated call last night telling me that service to the area had been restored and discovered that mine was still out.

So I called them, and after sitting on hold for twenty minutes and being cycled through several layers of "you'can't-bypass-this" voicemail lectures and prompts, I eventually spoke to an airhead named Sherice who insisted on patronizing me and treating me as if I was her best friend in the world AND six years old. Sherice sympathized with me and pretended that she really, really cared that I'd been off-line for four days already, with no way to pay bills, check e-mail, send out resumes, buy gun stuff or read blogs. She tried--and failed--to reset my connection from their end. Then she cheerfully explained that a technician would have to come here and set me up for a service call on Thursday.

At this point, I came a bit unglued and told her politely but firmly that Thursday was not acceptable to me and that I expected it to be restored immediately by whatever means were required on their end. Sherice kept telling me oh, so cheerfully, that she could not get anyone out here any sooner. I stopped her after about the third repeat of this claim and told her that she was saying "can't" when what she really meant was "won't". This one brought her up short and probably took her right off of that little page of answers to things that customers say that I suspect that she was reciting from. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"You CAN send someone here tomorrow," I explained. "You just won't. There is a difference."

She again denied that she could send anyone tomorrow, and I stopped her again. "Do you have technicians working tomorrow? There's actually people there, right? No holiday or labor strike, right? Then you actually could send one over here tomorrow if you chose to. So the word is 'won't'."

She again told me that she couldn't send anyone.

I then suggested that if the president of Comcast's home internet went out, someone would be sent right over to his house, probably in the middle of the night. He probably doesn't even pay for his internet but I pay for mine, so have someone over here in the morning or I will have a competitor's truck over here installing their equipment and your guy can just pick up the router when he shows up on Thursday.

This also did not work. But it got Sherice onto another track. "I'm really sorry for your inconvenience..." she started. This time I just cut her off cold. "It's not an inconvenience, Sherice. It's a significant disruption of my affairs, but it's also a failure on your part to provide a service that we contracted for and which you're being paid to provide. This is not my problem, it's yours, and you need to fix it. Now."

“Oh, you'll get a credit for the time that you weren't able to connect,” she said, still sounding cheerful.

"I don't want a credit. I want the service that I'm paying for. You need to deliver that service."

"Well I'm sorry for the inconvenience..." she said again. She was obviously reading from her script again. The one that probably says "Always sound cheerful" at the top of each page.

I finally lost patience with Sherice. "May I speak to a grown-up now, please?"

"I'm sorry. There's none here right now," she said (cheerfully).

"Yeah, no shit," I said, hanging up the phone.

Today I called back. This time, after the same voice mail jerk-around, I was connected to Kiara. Kiara was similarly patronizing and artificially cheerful, but before I unloaded on her, I sat down and cooperated as she ran the same diagnostics and tests from her end that Sherice had allegedly run last night. This time, the system reset and everything magically began to work again. I'm back on-line. Finally.

Sherice, if you should ever read this, please know that you're a fucking idiot.

So...how was YOUR week-end?

PS--Thanks to Comcast, I missed a Colt Argentine Model 1927 .45 that went at auction last night for a ridiculously low $476.00. I'd have gone higher but I was knocked out of the last day's bidding. Thanks, Comcast, you assholes!

The TASER follies.

2011-10-28T18:32:00.004-04:00

Because I'm under the weather, I decided to watch one of my all-time favorite videos. It's a few years old but it cheered me up so much that I just had to share it with all of you.

Noting how right from the beginning, she's argumentative, insulting and tries to play the race card right after threatening to sue. And then when given commands, she defies them and actively resists and still has the nerve to act surprised when she gets what she was told that she was going to get. Then it's all drama afterwards. I'm betting that she was already mentally spending all that lawsuit cash right up until her public defender got a look at that dash cam tape.

Good job, officers!

The Left's new hero: Scott Olsen.

2011-10-27T21:02:00.008-04:00

The leftist blogosphere and left-wing media is now all atwitter over Scott Olsen, a former Marine who served in Iraq before coming home, getting a good corporate job with a software firm, and--inexplicably--joining the unwashed hippie masses in the Oakland Obamaville tent city set up to "Occupy Oakland".

You see, the police were sent in to clear the park because these hippies were urinating and defecating all over it and the hippies decided that it would be way cool to resist, because laying around in your own or someone else's waste sends a message that you're angry because no one will give you a high-paying job. (Maybe it's just me, but would YOU hire some scumbag who came in reeking of BO and human waste to work in your office? I'm telling ya, there's a reason that these dirtbags are unemployed while the majority of the rest of us have decent jobs even in this Obama economy.)

Anyway, the hippies fought back with violence, as leftists always do. They pushed over barricades, they broke windows, they threw things...finally the police were forced to deploy gas and use a bit of muscle to get these cretins out of the park so that it could be cleaned and made sanitary for the rest of the citizens, especially the ones who actually do work and pay taxes. Somehow, in the melee that followed, Scott Olsen was hit in the head by something. The hippies claim that it was a tear gas canister that was fired "right at him", but I personally suspect that he caught a rock or other projectile hurled by one of his own confederates. In any event, scott Olsen is down for the count and the left now has a hero that they are wasting no time exploiting in media stories all around the globe. Ignoring the fact that Olsen was just another well-off white kid who worked for one of those "evil corporations", they seize on his service record as if to somehow make the claim that he's some sort of noble guy, and by extension, imply that they're all noble, too.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Firts off, while I applaud Scott's service to the country, it in no way cloaks him with any special status. He served his hitch and he got out, just as many others have done and will continue to do for as long as we have a military. If anything is noteworthy, it's the fact that his service makes him an almost unquantifiable minority among the suburban savages who are now dancing in his blood. Very, very few of these "Occupy" twits have served or ever will serve, because they're just not that kind of people. They're too lazy, pampered and self-obsessed to ever sign on the dotted line and become part of our military machine. (and then there's that whole haircut and bathing thing that the military insists on...) So he's a novelty to them, not a representative of their demographic. If anything, Olsen would have been more at home on the side of the decent American police officers who were there to deal with the mess that his friends were creating. Many police officers are former military because they, unlike Scott Olsen, wanted to continue to serve and protect their fellow Americans.

But Scott, like many others before him, made some bad decisions. He decided to go hang out among the great unwashed masses, he chose to become a law-enforcement problem instead of being part of the solution, and then he put his melon in the way of something heavy that was moving fast.

So cott got laid out, and the left is ecstatic now. They have a bona-fide "martyr" that they can put on display. Scott the person has no value to them and never did, but Scott the former Marine has plenty, and he will continue to have value right up until the media stops caring about him, at which time they'll abandon him, too.

Granted, if it had not been Scott, it would have been someone else. The left is all about creating sympathetic "victims" among their ranks for public consumptioin. This is why if you look at footage of their events, you will see the crowds peppered with people in wheelchairs and even little children. Those human beings were brought out specifically to gain public attention and sympathy, and if one gets hurt--like Scott Olsen did--so much the better! It's an old ploy that the left routinely engages in, and they'll keep doing it until everyone wises up and starts castigating them and punishing them for bringing their children to these events and placing them in front of trucks or between themselves and lines of police officers.

Scott, thanks for your service and sorry that you got hurt, but honestly, I'm surprised that your service time didn't teach you that stupid is supposed to hurt.

*************************************************************************************

UPDATE: I retract my thanks and any residual sympathy that I might have had for this loser. Ed Rasimus tipped me to the article on Gateway Pundit (Great job, Jim!) that shows that this loser runs an anti-military website and that he was obviously one of those loser malcontents who couldn't hack serving and lacked the class to just walk away gracefully when his obligation had been fulfilled. I have less respect for this punk than I do for a rat. If a rat ran out in front of my truck I would probably try to avoid crushing it. Scott Olsen...well I'd have to think about that for a few minutes but it would probably come down to expected sheet metal damage and the number of witnesses.

Olsen's clearly a cockroach and I hope that whatever hit him leaves some serious marks. If a police officer did inflict that injury to Olsen and they can identify that officer, I'm sending him a gift card for a nice dinner.

Bizzaro land on the border...

2011-10-26T14:43:00.006-04:00

A Border Patrol Agent is JAILED for TWO YEARS for allegedly roughly-handling an illegal alien caught smuggling drugs into our country, meanwhile the illegal--who wasn't even injured--gets amnesty in return for testifying against the lawman.

I'd say "Only in Post-Obama America" but Bush's so-called "Justice Department" did the same thing to our border protectors more than once.

How are we ever going to get our border territory under control and stop the flow of criminals, terrorists, drugs, and maybe even weapons of mass destruction from coming across if we keep jailing the good guys and rewarding the bad guys with free passes and amnesty? Is it any wonder that the border states are so intent on acting to keep illegals out, since everyone knows that our federal government's first loyalties are to Mexico and the Hispanic voting bloc? And with our states being sued by our Washington administration every time they try to solve these problems, how long before we start seeing American citizens down on the border taking up arms to do what our federal "public servants" refuse to do?

I could be tempted to support that or even join in if this stuff doesn't stop.

I cry for my country...

2011-10-25T21:23:00.004-04:00

Apparently in Sonoma County, California, US citizenship has become so valueless, and deporting illegals so mean, that now the county will accept mexican identification cards from illegals to prevent so many of them from being locked up for not having ID and grabbed from the jail by ICE and deported.

This is what happens when illegals and their extended families and networks of friends outnumber the rest of the citizens and vote to advance their agenda. And once this sort of stuff starts to spead, the demise of our great and once-soveriegn nation will be in sight, our laws ignored, our culture disgarded and our citizens' collective will subjected to the demands of the foreigners.

"Today is a great day," Sonoma County Assistant Sheriff Lorenzo Dueñas said. "We're now going to accept the matriculár consular ID."

And this guy's boss needs to be voted out come the next election...and HIS bosses, too. This crap doesn't happen without the complicity of many public officials, Quizlings all.

Murphy--Alert but ungrateful.

2011-10-21T14:58:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, Mike the UPS man came by with a couple of boxes. Murphy hates Mike because Mike dares intrude upon his domain, and Mike is more than a little fearful of Murphy, who barks and jumps and snaps at him with dark intent every time he comes up the driveway towards the Lair.

This time, Murphy is inside with me when Mike comes, and he's going ballistic at the window. Before I can get out there, Mike has set the boxes on the edge of the deck and pushed them carefully under the rail. I open the door to get them and Murphy also races out so that he can continue roaring at Mike. But as Murphy get to the boxes, he stops and notices that Mike has put a dog treat on top of the boxes just for him. He contemplates it for half a second and snaps it up. Then, with his mouth still full of the gift, he jams his head between the deck rails and continues to bark at Mike, his barks somewhat muffled by the mouthful of cookie goodness that he's still chewing.

Silly ungrateful dog...

The "My First Car" meme

2011-10-20T00:01:00.003-04:00

Because everyone else is doing it...

My first car was a 1964 VW Beetle that had been rather amateurishly hacked into a "Baja" dune buggy by some former owner. I used to see it sitting on a side street near our house and thought it was so cool, so when a "for sale" sign popped up in in it's window, I jumped at it. realistically, it was a beat-to-death wreck, and my father told me that it was a waste of money at $300 when we went to look at it together--but I just had to have it so I bought it...and promptly wound up putting $450 more into a new front end.

But it was mine, so I loved it in spite of it's faults. And I treated it nicer than I'd been treating my father's much more expensive cars to date, because this one...it was mine.

(Sorry about blowing the engine on your Skylark, Pop...and cracking up your Aries...and putting your Bonneville into that pond. But honestly, it wasn't until I got my own car I learned to appreciate and take care of automobiles.)

Anyway, this bug was my car, with it's white paint job that had been done by someone with a brush, and it's rabbit fur interior. (PETA folks, worry not...it was fake rabbit fur. Real rabbits aren't big enough to make a Bettle headliner out of.) It also sported a wicker pair of yellow fuzzy dice that just made the car complete.

It had a 4-speed transmission, but third gear never worked, so you just had to drive the RPM's up and jump from second to fourth. But it worked and it worked well considering.

Now the rest of the car...not so much. For one, none of the gauges had any glass on them, and one time, our neighbor's little ~~brat~~ kid was in it playing and he apparently moved my gas gauge needle much closer to the "full" mark than was at all accurate. This caused me to run out of gas at 2AM one night way out in the middle of nowhere (with the gauge still reading "half". And as I trudged along in the dark towards a distant gas station, I was surprised that not a single car would stop to help me. In fact, many of them swung wide into the other land to avoid me by as much distance as possible, and one even did a u-turn and went back the other way . Finally I figured out why when I encountered the sign that said: "Warning. Prison area. Do not pick up hitch-hikers." Yeah, that was helpful. But my old man came out again--with a gas can--and we got my bug running and back home again.

Eventually the 1600cc motor that was in the car gave out, so, being a dumbass kid with money, I bought a 2150cc racing engine and we installed that in the bug. Twin Webber carbs and an oil cooler that mounted on the roof reall gave it a bit more performance, to the point where it would beat much more expensive muscle cars off the line, which was funny because it looked like total hell but would lift it's front wheels off the ground on take-off. Man, I had that little deathtrap well up into the triple-digits speed-wise many times just running it up and down the highway late at light and it's a wonder that I'm still alive, because that thing was literally held together with baling wire and duct tape. And it had a straight-pipe exhaust with nothing but a spark arrestor on it so you could hear this car coming blocks away. Yeah, my parents' neighbors were loving me, let me tell you.

But that new engine was nothing but trouble, as it was really a racing engine, and keeping the carbs synced and doing the other fine-tuning needed to keep it running right got to be a pain, as did dealing with ice on the intake manifolds every time it got much below 50 degrees out. Still, it was my car and I loved it, no matter how many times it wound up getting towed to some garage, usually behind my father's car on the end of a tow rope with me sitting behind it's steering wheel to brake. (Hey, tow trucks cost money that I'd rather spend on Volkswagen bling!) I finally got rid of it after one demonstration of speed ended badly with the hood latches popping loose and the hood flying up and smashing my windshield, causing me to go off the road and mess up the front end again big time. So I sold it, basically as an engine with the remains of a dune buggy included.

And looking back, if just I'd taken the thousands of dollars that I put into that car for repairs, body work and flashy JC Whitney stuff and put it into the bank instead... sigh.

But it was mine, and I loved it.

Critters

2011-10-19T07:59:00.001-04:00

OK, just when you thought that you were safe, here's more Alaska pics.

This time it's animals.

My biggest hope was to see another moose. Last time I was up, they were everywhere. But this time, it seemed like I couldn't find a moose with a sack of moose crack and a moose call. So here's a bear instead. I already posted the Grizzly Bear from Denali once, but it was just so cool that I'm posting it again.

Then there were these caribou that were just swimming in Summit Lake, near Paxson.

Close, but no moose. Still pretty damned cool though.
How about that up in the tree? Is that a moose? Nope--it's a Bald Eagle.
These guys were pretty thick along the southern coast, but this was the only one that stayed still long enough for me to get good shots of him. I'm thinking I need a few of these guys around the Lair to help Murphy deal with the feral cat problem.

So ok, last day of the trip. 1400+ miles driven and I haven't seen a moose. Maybe they're all gone. So I'm now in freaking Anchorage (A suburb of Seattle that's just a short distance from Alaska) and what do I see on the airport road?

A MOOSE! Right there at the airport to see me off, too.

My trip was now complete. The last thing on the "to do" list had been checked off. A moose had been seen and photographed, with literally two minutes to spare. Rock on, Bullwinkle! (OK, it's a chick moose, I know...)

Your tax dollars at work. Recently ransomed leftist hikers now supporting "Occupy" hippies

2011-10-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

Someone tell me again why we wasted our money to buy these three leftist twits back from Iran?

Iran Hikers Pick Oakland for Public Debut

Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal took part in the an Occupy Oakland rally at Frank Ogawa plaza. They said they wanted to show their support to the movement taking place in their town.

Up until now Occupy rallies have been mostly economic protests, but the hikers appearance took a turn toward the political. The hikers said they also felt a solidarity with hunger strike going on now in California prisons.

Would someone PLEASE send these three BACK to Iran and get our money back, at least until they learn to appreciate this country and show the appropriate gratitude?

Every time I think that I can't hold these three in any more contempt, they pop up and open their mouths again.

More people who need to be kicked

2011-10-17T19:45:00.000-04:00

Self-important women with a whole cart full of groceries who jump into the "11 items or less" express item line ahead of the guy carrying ONE ITEM...and the cashier that lets her.

And in this case, I'm talking about a red-haired overweight woman at Food Lion who saw me approaching with my one item and actually picked up speed to beat me into the only express lane with her cart. I'm also talking about the young male cashier who just looked at me as she began putting her items on the belt and put his hands up as if to say "what can I do?"

I'll tell you what you can do, Casper Milquetoaste. You can tell her to take her fat ass over to one of the regular lanes and stand in line like everyone else...and you might even suggest that she put the Haagen-Das back in the freezer because she sure doesn't need it!

Suffice it to say, my one item was deposited on the Customer Service desk and the employee there was told that I'd be back when they actually got serious about customer service.

Obama hates successful people...but he still loves their cash.

2011-10-17T13:30:00.002-04:00

So now Obama is sucking up to the hippie rabble, even choosing to use their term - "99%" - to try to stoke the class warfare between those who've done well and earned money in this country and his core constituency--those who are typically too lazy or stupid to succeed without government subsidization but who still show up to vote, if only to keep the government cheese coming.

Well if Barry feels so strongly about this, then maybe he should just limit his never-ending re-election fund-raising efforts to passing the hat among the ~~useless shitbirds~~ "demonstrators" currently stinking up these public parks and stop jetting around the country to beg that 1% that he keeps demonizing for the money that he wants so badly.

I mean, if you're going to pin your re-election hopes on a plan to turn everyone against a small number of the producers in this country for your own gain, shouldn't you at least stop going before those same producers with your hat in your hand asking for their evil money?

And in the "totally nuts" department...

2011-10-16T22:24:00.005-04:00

We have this guy and his wife, both lawyers, who insist that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, better known as the underwear bomber, was set up and did not set out to blow up that jetliner in Detroit two Christmases ago, despite his pleading guilty in court just the other day.

Curt Haskell would have been the lone defense witness if the trial for 24-year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had moved forward.

Haskell and his wife, both local attorneys, were passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009. WWJ Newsradio 950′s Vickie Thomas reports the couple plans to file a civil lawsuit saying they are convinced the U.S. government was involved.

“The government staged an intentional falsified terrorist attack that almost took our lives,” said Curt Haskell.

“We were greatly traumatized by this event, as well as intentionally smearing our good name...

Hey Curt...you've already smeared your own name so badly that the government couldn't possibly make you look like a bigger ass-monkey than you've already managed on your own. Just saying...

What I wanna know is who the hell would even consider hiring this unbalanced lunatic or his wife to handle their legal matters? (oh, and Curt...if you want to sue me now, go for it. But service of process is only accepted in person, hand-delivery, from you to my pal Murphy. Come on over.

PS--dress like a UPS man. He's eat off your hand...maybe even both of them.

23 hippies arrested in Denver--the names.

2011-10-15T01:51:00.003-04:00

Well denver's dirty hippies wanted to protest and make a statement, so me being a nice guy, I'm helping 23 of them out by making sure that a record remains of their names and arrests long after the Denver Post takes the story down. This should give them reason to be proud for some time to come and it should also assist any potential future employers or dates. I know that if I were hiring employees, these folks could just forget about filling out an application for any position that I'd need mature, responsible people for, and God help them if one came around trying to date my son, daughter, sister, etc,.

According to Denver Police and Denver County court records, the 23 people listed below were arrested when law enforcement evicted participants in the Occupy Denver movement on Oct. 14. Most were charged, given a court date, and released with no bond assigned.

-- Jordan Brody, 20, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Christopher Burkhardt, 27, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Elisha Capracota, 29, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Matthew Carlton, 26, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Cory Donahue, 28, unlawful conduct on public property and resisting arrest, bond set at $1,000.

-- Barbara Gawlowski, 32, harassment.

-- Ryan Hartman, 32, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Charles Howe, 30, unlawful conduct on public property and resisting arrest, bond set at $1,000.

-- Justin Jeffries, 26, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Kerri Kellerman, 38, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Richard Klassen, 23, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Noah Levine, 19, giving false information and obstruction of a roadway.

-- Scianda Long, 24, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Vincent Lopez, 24, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Patrick Marsden, 31, unlawful conduct on public property, bond set at $2,000.

-- Kristopher Norvell, 23, failure to obey a police order.

-- Aaron Petrovich, 40, assault.

-- Tiffany Rosengrant, 24, unlawful conduct on public property.

-- Jonathan Shepard, 27, unlawful conduct on public property and resisting arrest, bond set at $750.

-- Caryn Sodaro, 46, unlawful conduct on public property, bond set at $300.

-- Aaron Stuckner, 23, unlawful conduct on public property and resisting arrest.

-- Heather Turner, 25, Unlawful Conduct on Public Property and Marijuana Possession under 2 oz.

-- Matthew Velasquez, 25, unlawful conduct on public property.

There they are, folks. Twenty-three losers who have absolutely no reason for even existing. While everyone around them is getting up and going to work every day, these losers are just lounging around in their own filth and contributing exactly nothing to society.

The article doesn't report if the hippies were bathed, shaved and given flea dips, but for the sake of the police that had to handle them and the community in general, one can only hope so.

BTW, Caryn...Forty-six years old and still getting arrested by the police? You're not an idealistic kid any more, sweetie. And that's probably why you had to post a cash bond. That's society's way of suggesting that it's time for you to grow up.

And any other bloggers out there, I'd encourage you to follow suit any time you see the name of any of these dirtbag hippies appearing in print following an arrest. If they want to make a public statement so bad, let's be decent and help them own it.

Dirty hippies are now "just like us"? I don't think so!

2011-10-14T09:09:00.001-04:00

Well it’s starting.
The ~~hippies~~, ~~dirtbags~~ “protestors” who claim to be just like the rest of us (other than the fact that they don’t have and won’t take jobs and sit around for days in their own filth and feces, smoking dope and having sex with each other under tarps) are now showing us how they respect the laws “just like the rest of us do.”

In Boston, over 100 have been arrested for trying to set up a camp in a prohibited area and refusing to vacate it.
In New York City, hundreds more are defying the city and refusing to vacate a privately-owned park so that it can be cleaned of their own refuse and offal.
In Denver, hundreds more are refusing to leave a city park that closes at 11PM, and local ~~scumbags~~ “activists” who weren’t even part of the protest group are flocking into the park just to be part of any fight with the police that breaks out.

Yeah, just like you and me.

One unifying factor that defines these ~~shitbirds~~ citizens no matter which liberal city that they are currently infesting is that they have no real message or agenda other than causing mayhem for it’s own sake. This it what the core of these groups are all about, in stark contrast to TEA party groups comprised of ordinary people who have jobs, mortgages and an actual message (stop spending our money). These losers have no real point or focus, which is why the powers-that-be, the puppeteers steering them (Soros and Obama, among others) have to supplement their ranks with paid union organizers, at least during daylight hours when people are paying attention to them. These loser kids can’t even be trusted to run their own protests by the people who are benefitting from their actions. (That would be Obama and every Democrat who worries about their failings being on the front page of the papers every day.)

So unless you are a drug-addled, no-job-having hippie who reeks of B.O. and just shows up places because other smelly hippies are already in those places smoking dope and defecating in public, these people are not like you at all. I know for sure that they’re not like me. You and I, we obey the rules and respect lawful authority. We also provide for ourselves instead of sitting around demanding that others be taxed to pay for their rent, student loans, health care and basic sustenance and that the municipal government agencies and local businesses give them toilets, food, shelter, and pretty much everything else that they want for free. As much as they like to paint themselves as being just like our nation's founders and the civil rights heroes, they're just the opposite. Those people fought for their freedom and independence and these kids are demanding to be more dependent, insisting on a bigger nanny state to run their lives at the expense of other people. Frankly I’m thinking that we’d do better as a nation if we simply rounded them up and shipped the whole lot of them off to North Korea in trade for a few hundred North Koreans who just want to come here and be free and productive.

More planes

2011-10-12T15:16:00.012-04:00

One thing I like about Alaska is the number of aircraft that are always out and about. Everywhere you look, there's one sitting off in the brush next to a dirt strip, like this one I found by a lodge near the Edgerton Highway junction with the Richardson Highway.
Or these guys on an airfield near Glen Allen (with the Wrangell-St. Elias range in the background.) Note the fact that the vast majority of them are tail-draggers, which are preferred up here because they're better suited for grass and dirt strips where a bump or hole could put a regular tricycle-geared plane's prop into the ground. (Ouch!)
Even Fairbanks has aircraft, like this neat subdivision we visited, with signs laying out the right-of-way rules.
This neighborhood is built around a grass runway and every yard has at least one plane in it. I SO need to live someplace like this.

Then there was this nice Cessna 180 belonging to Wrangell Air just outside of Chitina. I'd take this one home in a heartbeat.
Here's a cherry Piper Super Cub at the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage.

And of course float planes, like this Maule.
ONe thing's for sure: Being up there in a state with more pilots per capita than anyplace else in the country makes me want to quit slacking and get up in the air again real soon...and maybe buy me a tail-dragger of my own before too much longer.

Maybe a Stearman?

Frivolous lawsuit loserette of the day: Colleen O'Neal.

2011-10-12T15:01:00.002-04:00

Poor Colleen. She had a rough flight in an airplane--an airplane which still managed to land safely at it's intended destination--and now she claims that she's so scared to fly that she can't apply for better jobs so she's suing several airlines.

Lubbock resident Colleen O'Neal flew from College Station to Houston on Oct. 29, 2009, when tornados and thunderstorms were reported in the region, she alleges in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Harris County district court.

The plane took off and soon hit turbulence. The normally short flight took more than two hours, and the suit alleges the plane "fell repeatedly, and felt as if it had lost power and was falling out of the sky."

O'Neal believed she was going to die and has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and fears flying, she alleges.

A Texas Department of Public Safety employee, she had hoped to work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a job that would require air travel. She alleges that because she no longer travels by air, she has lost out on economic benefits.

O'Neal purchased the ticket from Continental. She is also suing United Airlines, which merged with Continental last year. Colgan Air, owned by Pinnacle Airlines, operated the aircraft. She is suing all four for physical and mental anguish, medical bills and the cost of the lawsuit.

So because she now chooses not to fly, she declined to pursue a job that she was interested in, yet presumes that had she continued flying, she'd have gotten that job.

Frankly, Colleen O'Neal sounds like the kind of person best kept away from any job that requires stable, rational people with maturity and integrity. She apparently already works for Texas Department of Public Safety (God help Texas. Hopefully it's not in any sworn capacity.) and she wants federal employment with FEMA, which she claims that she can never have now because she's too scared to fly. Based on her demonstrated thought process and actions in this story, I'm not sure that I'd want her working unsupervised on the night shift at my local 7-11, much less entrusted with a government job giving her any authority over me and my fellow Americans.

And shame on the ambulance chaser who agreed to file this case in a real court on her behalf.

More plane goodness...now with secret stuff!

2011-10-11T09:43:00.000-04:00

Eilson is not just home to KC-135 tankers. They also have the super snooper version known as COBRA BALL, an airborne intelligence platform that, among other things, tracks missiles (ours and theirs). My first inclination was not to post on it so as not to give stuff away, but then when I saw all of the info on the internet about it, including stuff put out by our own Air Force, I figured that I wasn't going to be disclosing any national secrets...especially since they park it right outside where anyone driving by can see it "blending in" with all of the tankers.One of these things is not like the others...
Still, as we're driving by the fence doing police stuff, Tom says "Why don't you try to get a picture of that COBRA BALL aircraft? Just do it inconspicuously."
So I roll the window down and steady my camera on the door, and he says "Is that what you call inconspicuous?" So I had to take the pictures on the fly while pretending that I wasn't taking pictures.
I mean, Geez, man...if they didn't want it photographed, maybe they should have put a tarp over it, or just put it inside, you know? But they didn't. And here it is.

Pity I don't have a recording of Tom in the background predicting that we were both going to be in Gitmo for this. In fact, I've tried calling to tease him about his worrying, but every time I dial his number now, no one answers. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

Ladies and Gentlemen...COBRA BALL!

Oh, and here's some F-16 fighters.
The lead two were taxiing as we were driving by. Very nice.

Eilson AFB and The KC-135

2011-10-10T17:31:00.015-04:00

Our visit to Eilson AFB got us in and around this wonderful 1963-vintage KC-135. For those of you not in the know, that's a tanker based on the Boeing 707 airframe. It gives gas to other aircraft in the air.
This one's up on jacks for landing gear work. It weighs 115,000lbs empty.
Here's that bit again. Cycling the gear five times to make sure it works right.

The business end of an aerial tanker.

Or the view that one or two readers might be more familiar with:

Now THAT is an engine. The KC-135 has four, but can remain flying on JUST ONE.

The cockpit. Note the newer glass display panels. The old Flight Engineer position has been eliminated as well.
People often forget the "C" in KC-135. They haul cargo, too. Here's the cargo hold.
Always take pride in who you are and what you do.

Back in the boom control cockpit. The boom operator works these controls while lying on his stomach on a special bench or couch.
A bit more complicated than your average self-serve pump.

Looking back from out on the wing.
It was an excellent opportunity to see one of these classic workhorses up close, and my only regret was that they would not let me take it for a hop or two around the pattern.

Special thanks to the 168th Air Refueling Wing.

More Alaska

2011-10-10T10:50:00.013-04:00

Leaving Denali was hard, but I was way late as I was supposed to be in North Pole, AK (yes, really...) for a bonfire. Still, how can you not stop to take pictures of scenery like this?
Or things like this? A Huey delivering a small bulldozer to a highway construction site. Only in Alaska...
Here's the Alaskan Pipeline as it passes through Fairbanks.
This thing runs eight hundred miles, from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. Hippies and greenies hate it, but all of America relies on it.
So now I'm getting set to go play Alaska State Trooper. Nice car, huh? Here we are, pulling out of Tom's garage and getting ready to go fight crime.
And here we are, going to resolve yet another domestic resulting from the usual source, even in Alaska: Baby Mama Drama.
The voice you hear in the background is Super Trooper Tom.

Oh--and here's that big golf ball that was guarded by the two ~~security goons~~ "construction workers" in a pick up truck. Really blends with the surroundings, doesn't it? Masters of camouflage, those Alaskans.