Fascinating thoughts regarding Iran and Syria

This short article is worth a few moments. Very interesting points made about the recent Israel attack on a certain point in Syria, and what it means to Syria and Iran.

Like the article mentions.... "Defenseless enemies are fun!"

What is Syrian speak for "We spent how much on a cutting edge air defense system that is total bupkis??"

What is Iran Mullah speak for "Shut that idiot up! I want to live above ground you fool!"

New blog roll addition...

Please give a warm round of applause for: Cranky Epistles.

Added to the blog roll for the crime of making hot coffee squirt out my nose.

Also welcome: The Fixit Shop. Worth stopping in,, written by a human.

And 'Irons in the fire' too. Anyone one who makes knives must be Ok. It's a rule.

Oh, and THIS one too. Read about Bob's kids... through Bob's eyes. This mom and dad ought to get medals, and I'm serious. As in not joking. See for yourself.

And "Boobs, Injuries, and Dr. Pepper" is a real hooty hoo. Make SURE you read this post.

Training suggestion for young shooters

At the range today, second time this month, young children shooting with their 'responsible ' adults. No, I did not eat them, nor did I beat them, but I considered it.

The youngest of the five managed to the swing the muzzle of a closed bolt rifle past every member of his party, himself, and me within the first 30 seconds. The two 'adults' with the party didn't seem to notice.

This was just the first of many.... many.... safety offenses. I considered just leaving. I considered smacking around the 'adults'. I considered swiping their bolts while they were down range. A lot of scenarios went thru my mind, but clearly none would be productive no matter how entertaining they were.

Then that 'instructor' thing kicked in....... dang it, there goes the fun.

As I was packing up, I asked 'Dad' if he'd like a tip on teaching the younguns muzzle control.
He bristled but it couldn't stand up to my winning smile.... and my 6'2" 300 pound mean looking demeanor had nothing to do with it.

"When my boys were about his age, I got four or five foot wooden dowels from the hardware store. The real flimsy ones. I pulled the bolt on his rifle, stuck a dowel down the bore, and taped it in place. Then I had him carry his rifle around the house all day... and told him if the dowel got broken he couldn't go to the range next trip."

His kids were clearly thinking "Carry my rifle in the house? Cool!" and dad was laughing so hard he forgot to be defensive. "Great idea! I'll stop on the way home for a BUNCH of dowels!"


Not a bad idea.... wish I had thought of when I was teaching my kids....

Take that, TIE fighters.... NASA now using real ion engines to power spacecraft.

Ok, so this article has a pukeworthy title, but it's still good technology news. Has a heckuva image pasted on too!

NASA has launched a probe that uses ION engines, formerly a bit of Sci Fi technology.

Why is this a big deal you ask? I'm so glad you asked!
ION engines make it possible to open up near space travel.
They don't run out of fuel like a chemical rocket does, sorta.
Spacecraft can now go to different places on the same trip...

It's sorta like taking the cargo off the train and putting in on a truck
Now it can really go places........

Do you want to see tomorrow? Huh Punk? Do Ya?

Read good Sci Fi... it's where dreams are dreamed, right before the come true.

Duke apologizes to players, kinda, sorta, not really

Duke crapiversity has 'apologized' to the the lacrosse players railroaded by disgraced prosecutor Nifong.

Duke didn't just make a little mistake in this case. The university professors got together and pushed the players under the bus. Then the disgusting creeps took off their silly professor hats, piled into the bus, and ran over the players repeatedly while chortling publicly about how they always knew the young men had to be scum because they had white skin and were not poor.

This 'apology' is almost as disgusting as the actions the university is supposedly apologizing for. Frankly.... if the players had no intention of suing the school, and I understand they did not, then this gem should change their minds.

Are you a reader... a serious reader? Google books is COOL.

If you are a lover of books and reading, give this a try.

It's.... the first time I have seen my wife hop up and down
in quite a while....

Thought RE cops writing cops tickets and such...

On this site where cops blast cops for writing cops traffic tickets, having the audacity to treat other cops like plain ordinary citizens....

The common whine is "How DARE you have the discourtesy to give an honest cop breaking the law a ticket? He MIGHT be the guy who stops and helps your lousy discourteous butt on the road some day!"

Reading through the whinefest, thinking to myself... Self, your high school students are more mature than this.. what a bunch of twits!.... I had to wonder.....

Why are they not worried about the regular citizen stopping to help them?
I know when I pass a officer making a traffic stop I pull to the far lane to leave safe passage and look VERY closely to make sure the officer isn't having any problems. I have stopped for vehicle fires, accidents, breakdowns, and myriad other little bits of excitement and an officer in trouble is on my watch list.

Apparently to the genius's on this site, its better to alienate the civilian public than partner with them. Wow.... what a bad idea..... glad I'm not required to take part in their warped little world.

On a good note... The site has seen little action lately and it's owners seem to be in hiding. I suspect they are hoping to not be publicly exposed. Long shot, but they might get lucky.

Desktop photo of the week....

o

In flagrant, but legal, self exposure.....

Here is my home PC desktop of the week.

Its part of a rather nice Yugo M48b Mauser rifle. Excellent shooter and bunches of fun.

This rifle is is one that Heir #2 has designated 'his' when I make the long walk someday.

Mrs. Clinton wants to give away $20,000,000,000 of your money......

I think I will begin writing with a bit more respect, and refer to the Senator from the great state of New York by her proper name..... Mrs. Clinton. It's disrespectful to keep calling her 'Hillary' when I don't even know her.

Besides, it's a good idea to keep in mind the package deal of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton.
Besides , as well, we should bear in mind that more than forty of their closest friends and associates have died mysteriously or gone to federal prison. Safest to appear respectful I think..... (sure.... Riiiiiight)

In Mrs. Bills latest campaign bid to buy votes, she has come up with a real whopper. She wants to give $5000 savings bonds to every child born in the USA. All four million a year of them.

Considering the average buying practices of the federal government, where hammers bill out at $400, each bond will probably cost at least the $5000 face value, if not more. That's $20,000,000,000 a year. Add in the usual government management markup and the program will likely cost in excess of $100,000,000,000 a year.

The single best thought in this article comes from a Democrat in Ohio:
"I think it's a wonderful idea," said Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who attended the event and has already endorsed Clinton. "Every child born in the United States today owes $27,000 on the national debt, why not let them come get $5,000 to grow until their 18?"

What she's saying, typical of the parties logic structure, is that since every child is born with $27,000 in government straddled debt from day one, why not make it a nice round $32,000 if that will buy us some much needed votes? After all, the average voter is the same math genius that buys an extra $20 in lottery tickets when the pot is over $100 mil, just to 'increase the odds of winning' from
20 million to 1 .....all the way up to ....... 20 million to 1.

In another note for the logically math challenged, the $5000 bond will actually have less value when it comes due than at it's inception, taken against the average *real* inflation rate. Especially taken against the average college tuition inflation rate.

Since government bonds are backed with taxes collected, not value produced like a commercial bond, the good Senator's plan translates directly to an immediate multi billion dollar a year tax increase from day one.

Rudy the Great says the American public would be stupid to buy into this idea.
And his point is..............?

Lets face it. When it comes to electing people to high office, the American public ain't been doing well in the last few decades, or should I say century?

On the whole, our record for electing slimy bamboozling egomaniac liars is unmatched. Moron after moron, scam after scam, scummy check bouncing fraud after scummy check bouncing fraud, we seem to reach deep down into societies deepest sewage pools to find the most worthless bits of crap to ever masquerade as human beings and elect them as our leaders and representatives.

Come to think of it.... maybe both Rudy and Mrs. Bill are counting on that.


Given Mrs. Clinton's investing history, I have to wonder if there won't spring up a special little industry in buying up all those savings bonds given to the mathematically challenged voters out there.... at pennies on the dollar.....
$20,000,000,000 a year would certainly pay for one heck of a 'Mrs. Bill' library!
(and a private mansion compound with hot and cold running bimbos for Bill and raw meat deliveries for the Maam of the house).

I pay this Frontier phone bill because....... Remind me again, will you?

Yesterday I tried to call one of our land lines into the house. Came back as 'disconnected'.

WTF?!?

I called wifey cell to cell. "Hon, did we pay the phone bill?"

Nope. Shazbat.

Ok, I get home, dig out a Frontier bill, and make the call.

"Hi, my name is XXXXXX and my phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.
I am a complete idiot, glad we got that out of the way. I'd like to pay this
bill and the exorbitant extra charges so you'll turn my phone back on".

"You did what? You no longer take a check over the phone? How about
plasti-cash? You do? Good. What.... I have to call another number,
pay an automated system, get a code, and call you back? Somebody with
a tie obviously thought THIS one up... Ok, gimme the number...."

"Automated system: Your account number is invalid.... invalid... invalid....
so go take a jump.... beeeeep....."

Call back Frontier Beep... bippity...beep... boop.... hold hold hold hold .....
"Yes, it's me again, the idiot at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Yes, I know my account is suspended, thanks for letting me know... so helpful.... yes, I know all about the automated system.... it says my account number is invalid.... What is my account
number? Well, it's 787576445jhfytfuv655fuhvu67658hvhvjh76587 as it says on the statement. Yes, I'll repeat it a few more times.... Does that number actually mean something or is it chosen just to be impossible to get right on a phone?
YES... I have an attitude... but I'll get over it as soon as I beat my head on the wall... hold hold hold hold hold......"

"Beep bippity boooop hold hold hold...... yes I'm still here. Hard to get rid of, thats me! What do you mean my account number is no good because my number has been changed? I didn't change my number!.... OH... YOU changed my number?!? Why did Frontier change my number?!? Oh, it's the SAME number in the real world but YOUR computer has diddled it?.... Ah..... Can I just pay my bill?"

"WHAT? The only way to pay is the automated system and it won't accept the account number YOU folks changed, so I have to wait to pay over the counter
at the East Bumbleferry Agway store just to get the special super secret code so you'll turn it back on? The East Bumbleferry Agway that closed five minutes ago???"

"Lady, not to be mean, but if I could find a way to get internet without this phone account I'd drop you losers like a hot potato. How can you justify making it so HARD for a customer to give you money?"

"Oh, I forgot..... only supplier.... monopoly.... lousy service..... yes yes, it's all coming back to me now."

"What do you mean.... WHOA... back up there lady..... what do you mean why am I so upset when after all it was cut off four days ago? It's been off for four days?!?"

"My DSL has been working just great.... and I have had no dial tone for four days? I am paying HOW MUCH for this monthly service and it's been gone for four days.... and I never NOTICED!?!"

"Frontier lady type customer service person... remind me one more time....
Exactly WHY am I a customer of your company? Your service went by-by and my family never noticed...... Hmmmmmm........."

I remember the solemn feeling of utter joy when I drop kicked Combastards cable box back to them, over their fence, right after I got good sat-dish service.

Frontier communication might be NEXT. BWAHAHAHAHahahahahaha

Follow the money......

Much of the global warming / social control agenda is based on figures and statistics about the climate.

Much of that data comes from NASA.

Much of the NASA data comes from a handful of 'scientists'.

A small group of these scientists are framing and fueling the whole climate debate.

One of the NASA scientists involved is a self styled whistle blower who spends as much time hollering that the Bush administration is trying to shut him up as he spends diddling climate numbers.

This 'impartial' global warming backer of a scientist has received $720,000 in 'impartial' financing from George Soros, sworn enemy of the Bush administration and all things conservative.

In fact, the whole global warming theory seems to be based on faulty math models, written up by...... the NASA guy Soros enriched.

The simple fact is.... there are only just so many sources of data that can be used to create climate models. Five hundred different models might be nice, but when there are only TWO sources of data for those models.......

Follow the money.

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Cops mad at cops..... for writing them tickets!!

Look, even *I* can not make up stuff like this!

This site is all about cops ratting out other cops..... for the crime of not letting cops get away with breaking the law!!

I am not kidding here!

I am a supporter of law enforcement, period. These %$#&%$^# are not law enforcement. They are everything that is bad about the relationship between officers and the public.

End of story.

These arrogant idiots are going to get good officers killed.

If you can stomach it.... read the forum where they justify to each
other why they are so much more special than plain civilians
and laws don't really apply to them.

But.... could this all be a hoax? An elaborate hoax?

This is .... sickening....

IWANTIWANTIWANTIWANT

The Sunday evening laugh.......

Oh.....My....God..........

There are not enough nasty curse words in the universe to describe my
feelings about this.

Deployment should be a shoot on sight offense.

Satellite mounted? I have never before been in favor of
civilian owned anti-satellite weapons. That could change very fast.

I can't think of a government in the entire history of the world I would trust
with something like this.

Giuliani, Gooliani, whatever.... do you really know who he is?

Tammy is unloading the snark wagon on ol' Rudy.

I have to say, I agree with her. Whatever good points he has
(anybody know what they are??) he is no friend of gun owners
and absolutely no respecter of the principles our nation was formed
under.

Like Joe Pitt's, senator slime from my own state, who quote "never saw
a gun restriction he wouldn't vote for" unquote, Rudy has no interest in
the individual welfare of us lower life forms. We are but pawns in his
power game.

The Joe Pitt's reference..... I still have a piece of his PA campaign literature
which boasts about his 100% anti--gun rights voting record. When the NRA
backed him for senate I called them and faxed the item to them, and heard back.....
Silence.

Fred Thompson talks about Mrs. Bill's health care gestapo

I don't care if you like Fred Thompson or not, this is pretty good.

Kmart.... is there ANY reason to shop there?

This story is starting to sound way too typical, especially of places like Kmart.

Honestly, of all the stores I have shopped in my life, Sleezemart takes the cake for mis-marking merchandise and consistently failing to ring up goods at the marked price (ALWAYS higher, and that's supposed to be an 'accident' I was told).

It got so bad that I used to rip the price tags off the shelves for anything I put in my cart, and drop them on the register belt before they started ringing. It usually saved at least half an hour of price checks. Why leave the prices up? Kmart sure wasn't going to honor them unless forced to, anyway.

I haven't been in Kmart in a few years, and really can't think of a reason to ever go in one again.

Can you?

Fred Thompson an NRA endowment member?

I read in an article this evening that Fred Thompson is a NRA endowment member.

My bride and I are life members. Thats a cool grand each.

Endowment member means a minimum $100,000 donation.

WOOF!

Just keeping the vein open......

I'm not blogging much this week...

It's solo city for me this week at school, and the fifty to one
student/teacher ratio is a killer. Especially as I refuse to lower
standards one iota for the class.

I am not blogging this week.
I am surviving this week.

My BLEEPing students....... won't even screw up so I can take
a break and yell at them for a while.
They are the energizer bunny students.
They just keep working..... and working..... and working....
All of which requires my maniacally divided attention to verify and
pass judgment on.

The buggers are killing me, and I'm proud of them for it.
Sick, huh?

I.T. was kind enough to set me up so I can access our school network
from home. That way I can work from home too.

Oh goodie.............

Passing the 'Racism' test

What is racism?

Whooooboy... that can be a tough one. Over the years I have come to my personal definition as being "Making decisions or forming opinions about people based in majority on skin color or race, with little regard to reality". That definition has served me well for quite a while, but I'm always looking to make it better.

How to test a situation for racism? Another toughie.... but here's one of my tests:
Take out the words in the conversation that are tagged by race, and switch them with their opposites. If the whole meaning of the piece changes, then it was racist to start with.

I can tell you this test has started some large arguments, as many people who consider themselves anti-racist turn into full blown hate spewing bigots when their personal believes and/or gravy train is challenged.

Lets look at this example............ Here is the original article, and here is my 'tested' version:

PHILADELPHIA - The city's embattled police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, has called on 10,000 white men to patrol the streets to reduce crime.

ADVERTISEMEN

Sylvester Johnson, who is white, says white men have a duty to protect more vulnerable residents. He wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days.

"It's time for Caucasian men to stand up," Johnson told the Philadelphia Daily News, which first reported the story Wednesday. "We have an obligation to protect our women, our children and our elderly. We're going to put men on the street. We're going to train them in conflict resolution."

The program's backers include Dennis Reynolds, a former White Brotherhood official who has been hired by police departments in Detroit, Syracuse, N.Y., and other cities to conduct community-sensitivity training.

Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city, has nearly 1.5 million residents, 44 percent of them white. It has notched 294 homicides this year. More than 80 percent of the slayings involve knives, and most involve young white males.

I just took an excerpt of the original article and changed a few words to pose it from a different racial viewpoint.

Now, I'm not making any statements at all about the efforts or goals of the Philly police chief. I wish him the best of luck in supporting his rat infested corrupt society as it crumbles into one of the largest slums ever known to human kind.
(Look, I just don't like cities, ok?)

With a few simple replacements of race tagged words, the whole meaning of the piece changes. What was clearly a call for community policing instead becomes a racially charged article dividing a community.

The test shows it was a racist piece to start with, based on my philosophy.

Am I wrong? I'd love to hear how and why. Is my personal philosophy wrong?
It's open for debate....

Fred Thompson speaks.

To the rest of the field.... let's hear what YOU have to say!!

Worth reading....

ER Nursey took the time to log her shift.... step by step.

I haven't run into a bad nurse in many years, and people like this are why.

I truly understand where this is coming from, after spending another day
with 50 students working at the pace we demand of them.

End of day.... just sit in the car and breath for a while. Windows up, silence,
peace.

Blog roll updates...

Some of the blogs I read.... I've noticed them updating their blog rolls.
Bunch of over achieving wonkers making me feel guilty....

So, I went and updated mine.

How does a blog or web site make it to my roll? Not that it's the greatest honor in the world, but I try to hold the quality level up there a bit.

As I run across blogs that look interesting I bookmark them to a folder marked... Blogs. (What did you think?). As I read the daily snark, and as I find myself going back to some more often, they get considered for the blog roll. If I notice they are a regular read and one I'd recommend, then they get rolled.

Maybe complicated... but I am a complicated kinda guy. The crayons in my brain come in many colors, and make pretty patterns as they melt.

Ok, the blog roll....

Added are:

Al's travels. A good man, who decided to sell everything and hit the road. His stories are real. He makes my 'human' list.

ER Nursey. Another real live human fighting the good fight.

Expert Witness. Included based on those who recommend the blog. NEW... but promising.

Murphy was a grunt. A human fighting in Iraq. Good story teller, real stories.

Mrs DuToit. I think she's human, but either way she's bloody damn smart. She and her husband both blog, and both make me think (head hurting kinda thinkin).

Posts from Helms Deep. Look, this guy waited two hours while loading my 'Carteach0' blog on a slow dial up, and then said nice things about it! Yup, he's a human too. Writes decently.

Shooting with Hobie. Straight up interesting shooting topics. Good stuff.

WhiteCoat Rants. A doctor kinda human. Doesn't sound like the usual arrogant BLEEP doctor, but a real one.

Image Fiction. A photo artist kinda sorta human that I knew from another life. Back then he was a political commentator. Interesting images.

Ok, thats the additions. On my Blog Roll, the one marked 'daily reads', those are ones I DO read daily. Sometimes twice daily. In Tammy's case, maybe four times daily. (I link Tammy's 'Arms Room' blog from my Carteach0 site, as it's a better fit. Definitely read it weekly at the least.) I actually use that roll to do my daily blog reading, so I'm not recommending anyplace I don't visit myself.

Most of these people are smarter than I, and most don't link back to this blog. That's Ok, as I wouldn't have anything to do with me either, except I'm kinda stuck with me. I usually leave me nailed with the tab, and that's never good.

Too good to pass up

Look, I'm not trying to be mean. I don't brand all
Democrats with the same swipe.....

Well, not too often, anyway.

But.... they just do it to themselves, don't they?
I mean, really, is Hillary the best they have on their side?

Nothing much to say today....

School is back in session. Twelve hour days are back.
PSU extortion classes are back. Losing eight pounds a day
in sweat/fluids and gaining it back each day.... is back.

Today is September 11th. I know exactly where I was and exactly
what I was doing six years ago today.

Nothing much else to say.
Shower, food, sleep.

Our students.... are doing pretty damn well considering all the
pressure we heap on them. Tomorrow, another shovel full.
They really have no idea how hard they can work.... but they gain
a clue by watching my partner and I.

Some interesting articles........

In this, author Ben Bova discuses gun control as he suggests it be.

In this column, Laura Washington displays a true ignorance to the issue.

A very surprising article on gun ownership, not for he topic, but it's source.
A pro gun article in a major Great Britain newspaper?
Kinda makes me want to go check the phase of the moon or something!

Here, Once again Laura Washington lets go a blast, this time calling for disarming black people. Gun Control returns to it's roots: Racism.

The Baltimore Sun writes about the Parker case in DC, and the supremes maybe taking it on. Most fun are the comments.

How to find all these articles on one topic? Easy as pie. In fact, way easier as good pie is quite hard to make.

Simply open up Google search, and click on the 'News' link in the header.
Enter some key words for your topic of choice, and push GO.
Shezam... there you are!

For instance, I entered the terms "bat' and 'Guano', and instantly appeared 32 stories about bat guano! Isn't technology great?

On the other hand, 'Hillary' and 'felony' returned 542 news items. Hmm.....
(UPDATE 9-13-07: 647 items.... (lol))

New article up on Carteach0: Yugo m48B

I managed to finish what I started this afternoon, before PLUMBER MAN had to make an appearance.

The new article is up on Carteach0. The victim,,, ah.... TOPIC (yeh, dats it, TOPIC), is the Yugoslavian Mauser M48B.

Ta DA! It's PLUMBER MAN!

Down to the dungeons, to visit the dragons.
Down the stairs we go...

Stomp....

Stomp....

Stomp....

SPLASH...... "Son of a BLEEEEP.... that can't be good!"

Open up the vault to find.... precious Pennsylvania well water running from the well control switch, bypassing the overwhelmed and defeated looking dehumidifier and creeping it's way towards freedom via the back door.

Oh! I say! It must be time for...
PLUMBER MAN!! Da ta da DA!!
Faster than a speeding gusher!
Stronger than a corroded 1/4 NPT fitting!
Crankier than a 10 year old when the power fails!

No pipe is safe, no valve is too idiot proof, for PLUMBER MAN.
Keeping home supply staff laughing for hours, Plumber Man
drives back and forth buying one busted part at a time as he
bravely attempts to salvage his pride. Snapping off fittings at every turn,
Plumber Man makes one more mad dash as the store closes....
Straining the wet vac at the seams, Plumber Man plugs away
at the water ways of household life till once again, it barely leaks at all!

"Honey, if one more freakin thing leaks in this house, I'm selling
it to the gypsies and going to live in the cabin!"

Book hunt!

After breakfast this morning, Wonderfulwif, heir #3, and
I went 'a huntin.

Yard sales and thrift stores.....

They hunt what they want, and I hunted books.









The haul for the morning, not counting an excellent breakfast with copious coffee:

'Northworld' by David Drake

'Rocks and Minerals' field guide

'An Armory of Swords' collection edited by Fred Saberhagen

'Fortunes Stroke' by Eric Flint and David Drake

'My War Gone By, I miss It So' by Anthony Loyd

'The Sagas of Icelanders' (gleaned from history and legend)

and 'Settling Accounts: Return Engagement' by Harry Turtledove

I have never read Turtledove before, and figured it's time to give him a try.
Field guides? Who can have enough? Icelandic Sagas.... another 'who can resist' book. 'My War' is a soldiers story from the Baltic wars, of which I understand little. I'd like to know more. David Drake, always good for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

All in all, a nice stack for $12.

As soon as I finish 'Man-Kzin Wars XI' I'll start either 'My War' or the sagas, or both.

Tomorrow.... tomorrow.... my eyes will hurt tomorroooowww...

BWAHAHahahahah.... Oh dang.... this made coffee squirt out of my nose.... BWAHAhahahaha....

That's MISTER nerd...............

And Today's desktop is......

The desktop image that appears on this machine today....
My 1916 Spanish Mauser in 7.62 caliber, the Civil Guardia model.
She's a sweety, she is! Shoots cast lead bullets into nice little groups
with no recoil to speak. Just a pleasant and pretty little Mauser carbine.

Da Bugs...... and not one word from you in the back!

Classic Bugs...
Call the kids in!

Fred joins the fray

Fred Thompson has made the announcement, and it should be an interesting run from here on out.

Notice I didn't say "Finally" made the announcement? I would like to publicly thank Fred for not doing his part to extend the silly season.

He did not start late, it's the other silly buggers who started early. The thing is, this race is not won by getting to a finish line first, but by running the best race. A few extra months of bland blah blah and political fund raising (whoring for cash) are not going to make for a better race. It just served to blunt the interest of the few people who actually vote in this nation.

I am looking forward to a campaign that is prepared to disregard the media and go straight to the people. Thompson has already made it clear he'll speak his mind. If in dount, read his blog where he actually writes the articles.

I wish Hillary would share a little more of what she really thinks... that would be amusing, in a 'snake in the zoo eating a small animal' kind of way.

Nope.... won't do it

I just typed out about 300 words of rant regarding stores that search their customers (Circuit City Sleaziness), and other gorilla consumer type stuff.
Posted it and everything.

Then I deleted it.

It just wasn't worthy of sharing.........

This public blogging thing.... blast it.... is forcing me to look more critically at what I write down in public.

Quality good..... stupidity bad...... which just might leave me speechless.

A weak spring.........

No, not the season, but the metal thing that makes other metal things move after you load it under force.

A spring.....

Yesterday I was doing some shooting with Heir #2.
Amongst the firearms 'o the day was my trusty little Taurus mdl 85.
In shooting this pistol, we had a few failures to fire. Primer hits, but no bangie. Pulling it down this evening the trouble was clear.

I have managed to wear out a main spring.

The coil spring that powers the hammer.... has grown weak.

Wow... that set me back. I had to think about how long I have had that pistol, and how many rounds have been through it.

It was bought about 15 years ago, when I had an FFL and a part time firearms related business. Ordered from some wholesaler, I recall paying about $150 at the time. Not bad for a stainless .38 snubby that is a decent copy of the Smith J frame.

I had expected to resell it, but that plan soon changed. Once unboxed, I tore it down and polished the moving parts. The wood had checkering which repointed nicely, although it took several hours to do. It just looked and felt like a decent and solid little carry pistol.

At the time, we had an indoor range in the basement (yes, Life was very good).
Thinking the itty bitty snubby would suit wifey poo as a purse gun, we went down to try a few rounds. If it met her pleasure, it was hers.

Wifey could shoot, when she was of a mind to. That said, I feared the snubby would be hard for her so I advised her to move up on the target. About 15 feet away, she fired three rounds at a two inch bull. I called for her to stop and safe the pistol, thinking there was a problem.

I saw only one hole, and rounds landing really far off target are no joke in a basement range.

Standing next to the target.... I was shocked to find it was one hole.... one ragged hole made by three .357" bullets, about half again as big as the slugs.

"Ok, Hon, I guess you can move back as far as you wish......"

That sweet little snubby was one of those pistols you could win bets with. It will usually put five rounds of lead into a three inch group at fifty feet, from a two inch barrel. Sell it? Like bleepin bleepedy bleep no!

How many rounds have passed down the bore since? I have no idea at all...
besides a lot. It's the only .38 I have owned in nearly a decade, and about once a year I set up the progressive to do .38's just for the Taurus. I'm guessing about 1500-2000 rounds a year, for the last ten years or so. It gets fired every time we go pistol shooting..... pretty much without fail.

Wifey poo never took a shine to it, so it stayed mine. Still is today.
I guess I'll call Brownells and order a spring kit.

I suppose it's worth fixing.............

A peek into my mind.............

NO, no.... don't run away! It' s nothing like that! (hearing Peter Lorie's voice)

I was considering blogging, and blogdom in general. Since personal blogging seems to be partly an exercise in mental exhibitionism (and sometimes physical), I decided to share a tiny bit of myself.

To whit: The photo on my desktop at the moment.



I found it here, at a sometimes interesting military and geopolitical site I read on a regular basis.

This particular photo is on my desk top at home. There are three other PC's I use on a daily basis that have different images on them, and two more I use irregularly that have still others.

A comment from work today...

Just sharing a comment I made at work today, as we discussed home life over lunch.......

"We have lots of small critters living in our house. The furry ones are dogs, and the sticky ones are kids. We try not to count either bunch too closely. Usually we have extras of each".

Sometimes fallen fur attaches to the sticky ones, and we can't tell them apart. It has happened that a dog ate at the table, and a child from a bowl on the floor. On the whole, I believe the dog behaved better.

The Frogman video Re the AP genious news

I make an effort to keep things here R rated at worst, and usually more like a thinking persons G rating. This video does have some language and written words not entirely suitable for children, (in my opinion, which honestly is all that matters around here).

I do think it's pretty well done. I know it's been everywhere already, but I'm a little slow some weeks.

Liberalism is a religion

I wrote what follows as a response in Mrs. du Toit's blog. Then, I decided to post it here, as the thought is one I wished to share. Since I arrived at the following conclusion I get fewer headaches, and that seems worth sharing with friends!

Liberalism and leftism (not the same thing) behave far more like a religion than anything else, including many recognized religions!

They both call for acting on faith, believing their leaders without question, ignoring factual data, and crushing unbelievers.

Start treating Liberalism like a religion in your own mind, and it's far easier to 'understand', if I may use that word.

It's based almost solely on emotion, so fact checking is a waste of time.
There's no point treating a duck like a goat, no matter how much it might say it is one.

Liberal leaders behave as they do without limits because they are 'high priests' of their religion, and above question.

To a 'faithful' liberal, there is no problem with Eco-Gore having a pool house using more energy in a month than most American homes use in a year.
Algore is a high priest, and above question.

To a 'faithful' liberal, there is no problem at all with gun banning Teddy Kennedy having machine gun toting body guards on the Capitol steps.

I could go on, but the point is simple. We should stop expecting the pig to sing opera, and getting headaches when it doesn't act as expected.

The fault is ours for expecting them to make sense, and believing what they say more than what they DO. We should judge liberals by their actions and stop whining when they ignore reality and facts.

Spent some time at Hershey Park yesterday...

Mostly good time had by all (about nine of us). A few tears but no fist fights! That makes it a good family outing.

Heres a highlight (for me anyway):

Oh, damn.... I am SO bad.....

BWAHAHahahahahaha....

The child who spent much of yesterday yelling in my ear at Hershey Park awakened this morning with no voice!!!

When I heard that I laughed so hard coffee came out my nose.

This ain't looking good for that whole Karma thing...

Government is so whacked.....

* Walmart announced today they were stopping sales at all stores in New York at 8am on Monday morning. The stores will not ring a sale again until Thursday, as the company updates it's inventory and checkout computer systems. WalMart's stock is reported to have dropped 6% on the news.

* The FAA announced today that all US flights will be grounded for forty eight hours as the computer systems monitoring weather conditions are updated to modern standards. Airports across the country are searching for room to park planes on short notice.

*The State of Pennsylvania announced last week that all criminal background checks would be halted for four days as they struggle to update the states computer systems. This means no firearms sales, no new teacher hires, and any job requiring a background check cannot be filled. Sporting goods stores and other damaged parties from across across the state fail to stop the action by the Rendell administration in court today.

*Barnes and Noble today scheduled store closures across the state of Delaware for system upgrades, and will leave the state without their services for up to four days. No word yet on how this effected B+N stock prices.


Ok, which story is true?
It's number three of course, as we all know from the news.

But.... all four are comparable, with the only difference being just one would actually be allowed to happen. The idea of any important government or commercial function just being shut down for days on end for a computer upgrade.... is incredulous in today's world. That's what would be expected in a third world setting, in a backward nation.

What kind of utter government incompetence builds a system that's relied on daily by law enforcement and commercial business's, and builds it so well the only way it can be serviced is to take it off line for almost a week?!?

All the business done on that system won't just go away. It will stack up... and up .... and up...... maybe until it falls on Fast Eddy Rendell's head. He might be a Teflon angel, able to break the law with impudence, but it's going to catch up one day. Not to be too crude about it, but piss off enough people and cost them enough money and it's going to come home to roost.

I think I'll go buy a firearm on Monday... just to add my little paper to the stack.