Somewhere

Somewhere, probably on a range, either formal or informal, Bill Jordan is crying right now. From Fox News:

Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an "active shooter."

What? Oh, Bullshit. Run and hide? Are you serious?

“The Department of Homeland Security takes very seriously its responsibility to protect all of its employees from threats that may surface in the workplace,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Michael Friel said in a written statement to FoxNews.com

Hey, Friel, you're a disgrace. Check your manhood at the door and quit now, before someone comes along and takes your White Rain.  There is only one response to an active shooter.  Close on him with fire and maneuver and stop the threat with extreme violence.  That's the response.  Violent intervention.

Run and Hide?  Only if you're a girly-man.  Oh, and I know plenty of female law enforcement officers who would be covering my back during that whole "fire and maneuver" thing.  It isn't about your gender, bud, it's about doing your job. Your job, obviously, is to wimp-out and cower in the darkness like the cowardly, worthless, stinking, cowering bastard that you are.  Man up or get out of the business.

For those of you who don't remember Bill Jordan, he was a Border Patrol agent and a Marine during WWII.  He served on the southwest border and retired after 30 years.  He was responsible for convincing Smith and Wesson to chamber the Model 66 in .357 magnum and was a per-eminent advocate for the use of the double-action revolver in law enforcement.  He designed holsters and served on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association.  He also wrote a marvelous book on gunfighting, No Second Place Winner. 

Run and Hide?  You make me sick.

Hat tip to Termite for the link.

Steel

When I started working on the gong target I knew that I had two different steel types to work with.  Some locally produced 13/16th mild steel plate and some AR500 steel gongs made by Quality Targets.  This morning was the first chance I've gotten to hang them side-by-side and the difference in the two is interesting.  First, the commercial target is a lot lighter, mainly because it's made of thinner steel.  They both "whack" satisfactorily, but the thinner targets seem to be tougher on the strapping I used to hang them.  Maybe something about the transfer of momentum when the bullet smacks the gong, but the heavier mild-steel target seemed to be easier on the hanging straps.  Both of these are 9" diameter gongs.

Still, the difference is easily seen.  First the mild-steel target, shot with a variety of deer-rifle calibers at about 150 yards.

As you can see, and you can click on it for a bigger version, the deer-rifle calibers cratered the steel fairly severely.  So, next we'll consider the hard-steel commercial targets.

No cratering at all.  Yeah, you can see where the bullets hit the plate, but it left tiny, smooth-faced dimples.  I'd say that the damage sustained was far less against the hard-steel plate.  Interesting, both gongs where painted the same color last week.  The impact from the bullets whacked nearly all the paint from the hard-steel target.

Another interesting tidbit is that at the end of the day, the bolts holding the steel to the strapping were loose, way loose.  What loosened those bolts?  Maybe the shock of the impact?  Heck, I don't know.  They're tight again, farmer-tight.

Field Trials

My sons and I took the Target Hanger (ver 2.0) out to the lease today to give it a field trial. We set it up down a logging cut, about 150 yards from the firing point, as far as we could see in the summertime woods.  It worked great. There are a few little glitches, but I think that it's ready for installation at my private berm at Momma's house.

I didn't get any pictures of the gongs, but I did manage a couple of snaps of my daughter-in-law, Kim, trying her hand.  Below, she's lining up using my Ruger 77 in .25-06.

Then, just after she pulled the trigger.

Yeah, she hit it.  There were several of us there, including step-grandson Jeffery, who did really well with a Remington 700 in .308.    We ran the gamut of centerfire deer cartridges this morning, from .35 Remington, to .243 Winchester, .25-06, .30-06, .308 and 7mm Rem Mag.  We even function tested a 12 gauge shotgun and a .40 cal SW Sigma.

Hot out there this morning, and yes, we sprayed everyone down for chiggers.  It was a great morning, although a hot one, to be in the woods with family.

More on Fast and Furious

This is a great article at CNS, about the Fast and Furious debacle, focusing on Dennis Burke, the former US Attorney who ran the program in Phoenix.  Did y'all know that he was one of the guys who worked on the Assault Weapons Ban enacted under Clinton?

(CNSNews.com) – Dennis K. Burke, who as a lawyer for the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1990s was a key player behind the enactment of the 1994 assault-weapons ban, and who then went on to become Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s chief of staff, and a contributor to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential primary campaign, and then a member of Obama's transition team focusing on border-enforcement issues, ended up in the Obama administration as the U.S. attorney in Arizona responsible for overseeing Operation Fast and Furious.

Lots of good stuff in the article:

“Well, as President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder said. “I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.”

Then, in 2010, when Burke was confiremed,

It was in July 2010, after his nomination as U.S. attorney, that Burke told the Arizona Capitol Times that he had “been working on homeland security and border enforcement issues” during the transition, and that there had “clearly been direction provided already by President Obama and Attorney General Holder as to what they want to be doing.”

Really good stuff, go read the whole thing. I'm posting on it as much to bookmark if for myself as to pass the information along. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going shooting with my kids.

Obama's First Executive Privilege?

There is some question now whether this is the first time that President Obama has claimed executive privilege to protect Eric Holder.  I heard about it on the Dennis Miller show today during my afternoon drive and when I got home, a quick Google led me to this article.

There are two possibilities in this case, ultimately: Obama asserted executive privilege in 2009 for Holder to help him cover up his past, or Holder incorrectly claimed he didn’t have “authority” to testify about something when he did.

Interesting tidbit, and I'm wondering why the news media's reporters don't Google something as simple as 2009 executive privilege.  Oh, that's right, this is the media I'm talking about.

The Drinking Age

I remember as a kid, lobbying, marching, raising general hell until the several states lowered the drinking age to 18.  We were subject to the draft and thought it only fair that we should be allowed to vote, drink, do everything that all adults do.  In 1984, the law changed again, when the Fed.Gov, in a huge over-reach coerced the several states into raising the drinking age to 21 or lose federal highway money.

Yesterday, while John Roberts was screwing us, he made such coercion unconstitutional.  I wonder when the several states will lower their drinking age back to 18, the age of adulthood for most of the land.  If it's unconstitutional to coerce the states over Medicare money, it should certainly be unconstitutional to coerce them over highway money.

Unintended consequences, and all that bullshit.  That said, I think I'll pour myself a drink.  I'm certainly over the age of 21, won't be driving this evening, and I don't think that they'll make drinking at home illegal before tomorrow morning.  But they might tax it.

I spit in the general direction of John Roberts.

More on ObamaCare

From Investors Business Daily.

With a majority of the Supreme Court refusing to protect American freedom from a predatory Congress, it is now up to the voters to restore lost liberty. They have to fire the president and turn Congress over to lawmakers who respect limited government and will pass policies that will in fact bring down medical costs and expand coverage. Health care must be left to the private sector, not commanded and controlled, and consequently choked, by a central planning committee.

Go read the whole thing.  Yesterday's decision was a crushing defeat for freedom.  The Court failed and the American public is the loser.

On Yesterday's Crushing Defeat

I awake this morning and find that the internets are abuzz with new of the ObamaCare decision.   The conservatives are trying to spin it as a short-term loss with encouraging signs for the future.  One example is George Will's column in the Washington Post. 

By persuading the court to reject a Commerce Clause rationale for a president’s signature act, the conservative legal insurgency against Obamacare has won a huge victory for the long haul. This victory will help revive a venerable tradition of America’s political culture, that of viewing congressional actions with a skeptical constitutional squint, searching for congruence with the Constitution’s architecture of enumerated powers. By rejecting the Commerce Clause rationale, Thursday’s decision reaffirmed the Constitution’s foundational premise: Enumerated powers are necessarily limited because, as Chief Justice John Marshall said, “the enumeration presupposes something not enumerated.”

When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), asked where the Constitution authorized the mandate, exclaimed, “Are you serious? Are you serious?,” she was utterly ingenuous. People steeped in Congress’s culture of unbridled power find it incomprehensible that the Framers fashioned the Constitution as a bridle. Now, Thursday’s episode in the continuing debate about the mandate will reverberate to conservatism’s advantage.

 Bullshit.  Plain Bullshit.  Nancy Pelosi was correct to ask that question, and John Roberts answered it for us.  Of course it's constitutional.  Congress can do anydamn thing that they want to do and the Court will find some way to make it legal.

There are two lessons to learn from yesterday's crushing loss.  First, Pelosi was right.  There is nothing that Congress can't do.  The Courts will not restrain them.  If it's legislation signed by both houses and signed by the President, it's the law. The second lesson to draw from this is one that Pelosi also gave us, shortly after she was elected as Speaker of the House.  Elections matter.  John Roberts also told us this in his opinion.

It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.

Spin it any way you went to, folks, but yesterday was a loss and the best way to insure that we don't suffer losses like this in the future is at the election box.

Oh, and one other thing:  John Roberts, appointed by President Bush, was touted as a brilliant legal mind and a solid conservative.  Today, I put him in the liberal camp.  He could have voted either way and been in the majority.  He chose to vote with the liberal camp on this issue, and handed conservatism a stunning loss.  He damaged the constitution and handed socialists the largest victory of my lifetime.  If I ever get the opportunity, I'm going to piss down his leg and tell him it's raining.

Another First

Today, the US House of Representatives voted to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.  He is the first sitting Cabinet member in the history of the US to be found in contempt of Congress.  The vote was bipartisan, with seventeen (17) Democrats joining the Republicans in finding that Holder has not complied with House subpoenas. 

Pelosi, of course, thinks it's shameful and I agree with her.  Having an Attorney General who subverts the laws of the United States and of Mexico is shameful.  Holder should be tried, convicted and imprisoned.  When we get the documents, we might find that his boss is a felon, too.

On Stolen Valor

The Supremes brought out another case this morning, where they held that lying about getting the Medal of Honor is free speech.  From Justice Kennedy's opinion: 

Lying was his habit. Xavier Alvarez, the respondent here, lied when he said that he played hockey for theDetroit Red Wings and that he once married a starlet fromMexico. But when he lied in announcing he held the Congressional Medal of Honor, respondent ventured onto new ground; for that lie violates a federal criminal statute, theStolen Valor Act of 2005. 18 U. S. C. §704.

To paraphrase Kennedy: It ain't criminal because free speech is a bulwark of the republic and Alvarez didn't try to make money from it. The military fights to protect our rights and one of those is free speech. He's despicable, but he ain't a criminal.

Well, here's some more free speech, from PawPaw.  Xavier Alvarez is a lying scumbag, a reprehensible piece of shit.  He deserves to drown in the saliva of good American veterans and to starve to death because his jaw is wired shut from the beatings he so richly deserves.  Xavier Alvarez is a sonofabitch who dishonors his family, casts aspersions on his associates and should be expelled from whatever business or office he frequents.  If I ever personally see Xavier Alvarez, I intend to give him a good free speech cussing, the likes of which he'll never forget.

Classy!

Looks like the Democrats are keeping it classy.

He's the executive director of the Democratic National Convention.s  How appalling.

UPHELD!

They upheld the Affordable Care Act.  The money quote, courtesy of Instapundit:

From ScotusBlog: “The bottom line: the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read.” Plus: “The money quote from the section on the mandate: ‘Our precedent demonstrates that Congress had the power to impose the exaction in Section 5000A under the taxing power, and that Section 5000A need not be read to do more than impose a tax. This is sufficient to sustain it.’”

I guess that they can make us all buy broccoli, as long as they call it a tax.  Now it's time for Romney and the conservatives everywhere to start campaigning against the Obama Health-care Tax.

Justice Roberts says, in his opinion, page 6.

Members of this Court are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments. Those decisions are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.

It is not the job of the Court to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.

Those Fusions

Back in November, I ordered some pulled bullets from Rocky Mountain Reloading.  They were billed as Federal Fusion, pulled bullets and when I got my order, I blogged it.  I loaded some ammo with them and was less than impressed with my shooting, or the targets. 

However, I always load more ammo than I need for a range session, and I had a few of those loads left.  That 150 Fusion over 49 grains of IMR 4895 should be a good load, hovering around 2800 fps, but for some reason that day, I couldn't get them to group from my Savage .30-06.  Groups averaged around 1.5 inches, which is okay, but not what I expect from that rifle and good ammunition.

Yesterday I was mowing at Momma's house and when I got off the tractor I took out my Savage to send three toward the steel targets near the berm.  That Fusion bullet rang the gong with authority and because it's a nine-inch circle, I didn't think much of it.  Of course I can hit a 9" gong at 100 yards.  I dropped the gong into the truck so that I could do some work on it prior to adding it to the new gong rack.

This morning I carried it to the bench, then looked at it more closely.  Those three shots made a tight little cluster about an inch above my aiming point, so I took out the calipers.

Those three shots all fell into 1.230 inches.  Subtract the width of a .308 bullet and that's just under an inch.  Those shots weren't fired from the bench, I was leaning across the hood of the pickup truck and sighting toward a gong in shadow just a little over 100 yards away.  Not bad at all.

I don't know what I was worried about.  That's fine hunting accuracy, and I think I've found my hunting load for this season.  Now, to load a few more and start getting ready.  November will be here before you knowit.

Waiting

I'm waiting, like most of the nation, for the announcement from on high from the Supremes tomorrow.  I put no faith in the Court, because if you want to define Ivory Tower, you've got to start with nine lawyers in Washington.  They can couch their decisions in whatever verbiage they want to use, but the simple fact is that they're subject to the will of The People, just like everyone else.

Most observers are giving 50-50 odds, and frankly, that's a wash.  Of course it's 50-50, either they will or they won't and prognostications like that are worthless.  We'll have to wait and see for this momentous decision.  They've already decided, frankly, and they're just stringing us out, which is what judges do.  They could just as easily have published the decision and opinions online, but someone told them they are important and they believe it.

The simple fact of the matter is that the people who are important are those who have to make the decisions work, and the most important folks are The People.

Wednesday Bush-hog

The Weather Channel is promising me another balmy 102 degree day today with 41% humidity.  That ain't bad, actually as our local humidity often hovers over 80%.  I plan to go to Momma's this morning, climb on the tractor and do some mowing on the back of the property.  It's time to knock back the grass and briars and clean up around the pine-thicket that the deer use when the weather gets bad.

A couple of hours of that should be sufficient.

I see that the news media is preoccupied with the pending Supremes opinion on Obamacare.  Whatever the Supreme Court does tomorrow is going to piss-off half of the United States and I'd almost be relieved if they upheld it.  I'd rather that our side is pissed-off and the other side lulled into complacency.  The best place to override bad legislation is in the legislature and if we're energized by a bad law we'll get out, vote, and send Obama back to Chicago.  Congress started this mess and the most beneficial place to overturn it is in the Congress.  I'd really like to see 300 Tea-partiers in the House and 70 in the Senate.  That would be a great way to start the Reconstruction.

Summertime Supper

Here in the Deep South, we call the evening meal Supper.  When it's 102 in the shade you don't feel like cooking, so Milady and I decided on cold sandwiches for supper.  I found a couple of vine-ripened tomatoes, some nice cheese, and a particularly caustic yellow onion.

Tomato, onion and cheese sammiches.  Oh, my!  With a little mayo and fresh white bread, it's a southern delicacy.  My breath reeks from the onion, and I'll probably knock back an antacid later, but my Gawd, it was good.

Pipelines

Pipelines move oil.  It's a lot cheaper to push oil down a pipe than it is to load it in a truck.  There are problems with pipelines though.  They tend to stay where you put them, and the oil producing areas of North America are changing. 

Remember how the US's oil pipelines were designed primarily to move refined products from the Gulf region and the coastal refineries to inland customers? Well, those pipelines of yesterday now run the wrong way. Today what North America's oil machine needs are pipelines running from the oil sands to the Gulf Coast. At the moment there is just enough capacity to get bitumen partway there – it gets to Cushing, the oil hub. And then it gets stuck.

Great article explaining the pipeline infrastructure of the US and how the different in price between light sweet crude and Baaken sands oil makes a difference at the pump.

Lot'sa Weather

Summer is on us with a vengeance, but not like it is in Florida.  Those poor folks won't have to worry about drought for a while, nor burn bans.  It's not over for them yet.  From the NOAA:

Here in central Louisiana, we've got our own challenges.  Almost the opposite of our Florida cousins.  This is the cheerful greeting I got from the Weather Channel this morning.

Oh, Joy!  I think most of this day will be indoors.

I've got my cell phone tracking the weather at our vacation spot this year, North Myrtle Beach, SC, and it tells me that right now the weather there is 73 degrees and sunny.  Two more weeks.

Chasing Kids

We've been chasing a kid all day.  Milady invited him to spend the night, and I had forgotten how much energy a 17 month old can bring into a house.

It's a lot of fun.  He's helped me reload cartridges, work on tricycles and now he's terrorizing the dawg.  Great fun on a Monday afternoon.

Good Monring, Debby!

It looks like Debbie is going to take aim at the Florida coastline, although she'll probably come ashore as a storm and not a hurricane.  These things spawn tornadoes, though, and a tropical storm is nothing to sneeze at.  Someone is going to lose a roof.

Where it goes after it savages northern Florida is anybody's guess.  This is a slow moving tropical storm and those have time to gather momentum and grind on you.

Sunday Morning Dawg

We couldn't find our groomer this week.  She must be on vacation, so the dog is still fuzzy.  However, he and I have been spending time outside.  He likes to accompany me on my projects.  It's like having a 2-year-old underfoot because I've got to watch him every minute.  The second my attention turns he gets into something (like the street) that might hurt him.

Here, he's alerted on something that's happening across the street.

Here, he's sitting the carport, watching the traffic on the street.  He really likes being in the front yard where he can see a world that doesn't exist in our fenced off backyard.  Yet, PawPaw has to watch him like a hawk.

GUILTY!

Jerry Sandusky is guilty on 45 counts and the judge immediately revoked his bail. He's in the iron-bar hotel, an exclusive bed and breakfast where the food is lousy, the room mates are disgusting, and you learn to sleep with one eye open.

Somehow, I don't believe that this fits into his retirement plans.  Still, it's the retirement he chose.  We can only hope that Penn State demands that anyone else who covered up his crimes is immediately sacked.

Watching Debby

From the NOAA:

TROPICAL STORM WATCHES OR WARNINGS COULD BE REQUIRED FOR A PORTION OF THE NORTHERN GULF COAST OVER THE WEEKEND...AND INTERESTS IN THIS AREA SHOULD CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS LOW. HEAVY RAINS AND LOCALIZED FLOODING ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE YUCATAN PENINSULA...WESTERN CUBA...AND MUCH OF FLORIDA OVER THE NEXT DAY OR SO. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THE SYSTEM THIS AFTERNOON.

That is all.

Target Hanger v 2.0

Between laughing at our politicians and crying for our republic today, I've been working on my target hanger, assembling all the bits and pieces, so that it can be useful in the run-up to the deer season.  As in all things, experience is golden, so I've been doing some testing, swinging the targets.

I can see right now that I'm going to have to paint those targets.  I'd bet that a can of white spray-paint would do a lot to help them stand out from the background.  Those dull-grey steel targets are hard to see against a dull background.

Here's a better shot, from behind the target frame, showing how the steel plates are attached to the webbing.  The holes in the targets are cut for 3/8 bolts.  At the hardware store, I got 1 1/2 inch long bolts, but could probably have used 1 inch bolts.

Initially, swinging the targets would cause them to flip off the upper hooks.  I think I've solved that problem by the simple expedient of using wire-ties to hold the strapping on the hook.  I had considered closing the hooks, but I want to be able to easily take the targets off the frame for portability.  Wire ties seemed a good compromise.

If anyone has a better idea, let me know in comments.

Hope n' Change

If you're not following Hope n' Change cartoons, you should be.  The guy is a riot, and much of his opinion is smack on the mark. You can clink to enlarge the cartoon.


 Nancy Pelosi is the most despicable woman in the United States.  But, let's not leave our President off the hook.  


Those cartoons are by Stilton Jarlsberg and they're copyrighted.  I hope he doesn't  mind me using them.  I tried to give plenty of attribution.

Debby?

We're watching a large potential this weekend, the potential for tropical storm development. 

According to Expert Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski, "There is a slight chance this feature could become a tropical depression as early as tonight. However, we feel this system will become better organized this weekend and should become Tropical Storm Debby later Saturday or on Sunday."

Lots of moisture, high water temperatures and unsettled air all combine in ways that make life miserable for the Gulf Coast.

There are lots of potential scenarios and it's too early to tell, but this might get interesting. 

She knows all about it.

Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the US House of Representatives:

“They’re going after Eric Holder because he is supporting measures to overturn these voter suppression initiatives in the states… This is no accident, it is no coincidence. It is a plan on the part of Republicans.”

Uuuh, what?  Is she really that stupid?  Or simply that obtuse?  This is unbelievable.  Just as unbelievable as President Obama requiring ID to get into one of his rallies. Is this what passes for sentient leadership in the Democrat party?

In The Mail

The mail lady honked the horn and told me that I had a heavy package for delivery.  I told her it was 3/8 steel and her eyes grew wide.

A six-inch and a nine-inch flat topped gong target for the target hanger I was working on earlier this week.  Tomorrow I'll go get bolts and start assembling it.

Heh, heh!  This is gonna be fun.

Bug Holes and Flyers

Flyers are the bane of every serious rifle shooter.  As soon as you think you've got a great group going, one shot strays outside the box and lands somewhere in the next county.  Case in point:  I took my Ruger 77 to the range today.  It's an older rifle, built in 1973, in .25-06.  I bought it early this year from a local pawn shop.  The rifle has potential, with what seems to be an affinity for the 117 grain Hornady Interlock bullet.  I put a fouling shot through it then settled in at the bench.

That's a five shot group.  The first two went into a bughole, the third shot went down into the doldrums, and the next two simply widened the bughole.  Four shots into an incredible 0.335 inches and that flyer opened the group to 1.35 inches.  Gaah! 


So, then, I took out my Savage 110, a standard .30-06 hunting rifle.  It's my favorite and it likes 165 grain Sierra Gameking bullets and the standard Garand load of 47.0 grains of 4895.  Once again, a flyer ruined a nice little group.

That's the clean-bore shot on the left, then three for meat shots.  Two touching and that third shot down below.  The rifle still put those three in under an inch, but I would have been really pleased if all three were touching.  That's not my karma today, so I packed up and came home.

I might have been flinching.,  Before I started with the scoped rifles, I tried out a new load in the Handi-rifle.  I went to the Hodgdon website and looked up cast bullet loads, found a load for the .45-70 of 45.6 grains of IMR 4895. I used a 405 grain, soft lead bullet.  It's listed as a starting load, suitable for trapdoor rifles, but when I touched the first one off, just damn!  Four more and I was finished with that rifle, much preferring to shoot the .30-06.  The Hogdgon website says that the load should be running about 1500 fps, and that may be wo, but it was throwing pieces of berm 15 feet into the air.  That may be a starting load, but shot from that lightweight Handi-rifle, it was quite a handful.  I'll need to make an appointment at the dentist, simply to see if my fillings were jarred loose in the recoil.

The Solstice

Today, I'm told is the summer solstice, that astronomical time when the sun reaches it's highest point in the sky, heralding the start of summer.  Milady and I were married on the solstice, not to celebrate some Druid rite, but because (1)we were both off work that weekend, (2)the day fell on a Saturday, and (3)the hall we rented had an opening.  Serendipity.  However, we were married on the 21st, so our anniversary is tomorrow. It seems, on leap year, the sun rises one day earlier.

The folks in the Northeast are expecting a scorcher today.  The AP reports:

Readings are expected to be in the mid- to high-90s Wednesday and Thursday in cities including Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Humidity could make it feel even hotter.

Heh! That's a normal day here, temps we've been dealing with since early May. Our own weather forecast for today calls for a high of 92 with 94% humidity. A standard summer's day inn central Louisiana.  I think that in another hour I'll go to Momma's house and sit on a tractor for a couple of hours.  I need to knock down the grass on my range and around my deer stand.  If everything goes according to plan I'll be back home, comfortably ensconced in the air conditioning by the time the noon hour arrives.

Those Wacky Democrats

Evidently, they're being paid to heckle the Romney campaign, but one little tidbit buried in the article makes me wonder.

Neither of the representatives agreed to give their names, but two protesters said they were getting paid to stand outside of the rally, though their wage is unclear: one said she was getting $7.25 per hour, while another man said they were being paid $17 per hour.

So, I'm wondering.. why is the woman getting $7.25 per hour and the man is getting $17.00 per hour. And which party is about equal pay? And who's conducting a war on women? Just wondering.

That Texas Dad

I'm sure that you've been reading about that Dad in Texas, who caught an acquaintance trying to rape his little girl.  Dad commenced beating the pedophile about the head and shoulders and when the paramedics got there, the perp was dead.  Ooops.  The Dad admits that he wasn't trying to kill the man, simply to protect his daughter.  That is how it should be.

The news media is quick to call it a homicide.

The beating death of a Texas man who was allegedly sexually assaulting a 5-year-girl will be treated as a homicide investigation, the Lavaca County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Well, sure it is. Homicide is when one person kills another, and Dad killed the perp. There are degrees of homicide, and some of them aren't against the law. 

A witness told law enforcement that Flores was seen forcibly carrying the girl to a secluded area, the statement said. When the girl’s dad found out, he began calling her name, and when he heard her screams, he moved in. When emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene, Flores’ pants and underwear were down, and his genitals were exposed, the statement said. All the witnesses' statements corroborated the father’s story, the release said.

 I haven't seen any new interviews of neighbors who don't allow as how they'd probably have held the perp so that Dad could more properly get his licks in.  In Texas, as in other parts of the Deep South, the "He Needed Killing" defense is alive and well.

I understand that they're going to convene a Grand Jury, as is right and proper.  If I were the Dad, I'd want a grand jury as well.  There are fewer ways to be completely cleared of judicial bullshit than for a grand jury to declare a No True Bill.

Cases like this is why grand juries are empaneled.  My prediction is that they'll likely want to give Dad a medal.  

UPDATE** I've just learned that the grand jury has declined to indict. Good news for Dad. Now he can put this behind him and worry about the trauma to his daughter.

Snowcone

Zach and I out running errands and we had to stop and get a snowcone

Zach's favorite flavor is Tiger Blood.  Mine is blue bubblegum.  The snowcone is a deep South favorite for our hot afternoons.

Target Hanger

Today's project is a target hanger, a stand to hang swinging targets.  It's made from an old swingset frame.  I scrounged the frame from my brother-in-law who was taking it to the dump.  I cut it down to about five feet tall and added some hanging hooks.

I've ordered targets from Quality Targets, flat top gongs, that I'll hang one one side.  The other side will have our home-made gong targets.  Those targets should be here in the next several days.  My son scrounged some industrial webbing that we'll use to hang the targets.  We tried using chain on the prototype, but chain is easily cut by a bullet.  I feel that the webbing will let a high shot simply slip through.

Hopefully, in another week or so, we can try it out.

Jesse Jackson, Increasingly Irrelevant

I've had great fun in the past several years, poking fun at the Rev'rund Jackson.  He is increasingly irrelevant.  His only contribution to civil rights in the past 30 years has been showing how you can recycle a failed message and gather cash from the people willing to buy into that failed message.

In one recent initiative, he had a crowd of only three protestors.  And he didn't show. All two of Jesse Jackson's Impotent Protesters being shouted down by the crowd of Range Supporters

Hilarous.  He is protesting guns in Detroit, and there are no gun dealers in Detroit.  Somehow, the message fails to resonate.  Jackson is iconic, but he's become the icon of a failed message, not of civil rights.  His message is one of race-baiting and outdated divisiveness.

Like many of my generation, I support civil rights for all Americans.  Further,  I reject racists of all stripes, especially those who caricature the civil rights movement of the '60s.  The Rev'rund Jackson would be amusing if he simply weren't so pathetic.

Voyager escapes the Solar System

When I was a young lieutenant at Fort Knox, 1977, NASA launched Voyager to explore the outer reaches of our solar system.  35 years later, it's still exploring.

With absolutely no attempt at hyperbole at all, it is fair to say that this is one of - if not the - biggest achievement of the human race. For, as we speak, an object conceived in the human mind, and built by our tools, and launched from our planet, is sailing out of the further depths of our solar system - and will be the first object made by man to sail out into interstellar space.

I've now seen the first tentative steps into space, and I've seen humans walk on the moon, and now I've seen a human-built robot leave the solar system.  This is very cool stuff and Voyager is predicted to have battery life until 2020.

So, why can't my cell-phone battery last longer than 12 hours?

On Obama's Immigration Initiative

I like this guy.  Bob Krumm writes that we conservatives should applaud the President's decision to not enforce the law and to embrace the precedent it revives.  He also writes that thinking men should periodically review every law and regulation on the books to see if such law or regulation make sense in the present world. 

So while I believe in “law and order,” I am always cognizant of the fact that law is not an established fact but a transitory event. Free men should always question whether or not a law still makes sense. And if one determines that it does not, it is his duty to violate it.

I believe that too, but I've never been able to write it like that. Good ideas in this blog post, from a serving soldier. Go read.

 In the meantime, I might be evolving on the issue. Imagine if President Romney claimed the Obama doctrine and announced that he was not going to enforce a bunch of regulations because they no longer made sense, and that he did not intend to appoint folks to agencies that had outlived their usefulness. I could get to like a guy like that.

Father's Day

I'm reminded that it's Father's Day and that I'm a father.  I live with that fact and take great pride in my family, those that I love and those that love me.  Being a Father is much, much more than just a Sunday in June, it's an everyday task.  I wouldn't know how to act, not being a father.  My blog title alludes to that status, and like the sidebar says, the most important people in my life call me PawPaw.  I take great joy in my children and my grandchildren and can't imagine a parent who lives apart from family by choice.

The one thing I'd like to do today is drink another cup of coffee with my father.  That's not possible and I'm not maudlin about it.  Simple fact, the old man died several years ago.  Still, he lives in my heart and my head and I'm grateful for the life and example he left me.  I've tried to emulate his example and take care of my family the best that I could.  I failed sometimes and I succeeded sometimes, and I've learned that being present is the most important part of being a Dad. 

Milady asked me what I wanted for lunch today and I told her that if I get to chose, I want hot dogs, sausage dogs, chili-sausage dogs, great dripping greasy sandwiches with buns and beer.  I mean, hell, if it's my day, lets go for the gold.  After church this morning, I'm going to fire-off the charcoal pit.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Milady and I were looking at the dog this morning, and decided that he needs a haircut.

Yeah, it's about time for a trim.  I'll call Monday and make an appointment.  He'll probably feel better and he'll darned sure look better.

Diversity, My Ass

Over at Say Uncle we learn of a guy in Tennessee selling Cajun-style boiled peanuts.  Really?  Seriously?

There are no Cajun-style boiled peanuts.  They don't exist.  I've been around cajun cooking my whole life, have probably 30 or 40 authentic cajun recipes committed to memory because I learned them at the knee of my mother and grandmother.  No boiled peanuts at all.  Cracklins for sure, boudin absolutely, but boiled peanuts?  Not hardly.

Boiled peanuts is Georgia.  There may be cajun in Georgia, but they're immigrants.  When the English pushed us from Acadia, we settled all over the east coast and Gulf coast.  We don't boil peanuts.  We do lots of stuff with peppers, and onions, garlic, all those spices that make your eyes water, but we don't boil peanuts.  Not even with crawfish.  We boil everything with crawfish.  But not peanuts.

At the Auction

Milady and I went to the auction last night.  Every Friday night, starting at 6:30 pm, the Auction Barn on Military Highway in Pineville holds a rather eclectic auction.  Tools, jewelry, furniture, antiques, collectibles, coins, you name it, if they can make a dollar on it, they've got it.  Many times we go and I buy nothing, or if I know that a family member or the church needs something, I'll look and bid.

Last night I was sitting on the bench, visiting with friends, and a tool kit came up for auction.  The auctioneer told us that he couldn't vouch that the kit was complete, but it was a Craftsman mechanics set and that it was heavy.  The bidding commenced and I put my hat in the air, won the kit for $35.00.

I brought it home, and this morning sorted through it.  Half-inch, three-eights, and quarter-inch, 6-point and 8-point, it was a jumbled mess.  In about an hour I had it sorted.  It's billed as a Craftsman, 137 pc set.  It's missing a 1/2 inch wrench, a 10mm wrench, and the driver handle.  Not bad for $35.00.

Collecting Kids

Some of the grandkids have been away at camp this week, a church camp that is highly recommended.  Milady wants to drive down today and collect them, so we're off in another hour or so to get them.  We're on the hook to collect just one, but with five grandkids at the same camp, it will be interesting to see who wants to drive home with Mom and who wants to drive home with Grandma.

I remember camps as a boy, and as a parent taking my kids to camp.  And coming home on the last day, exhausted, chigger-bitten, sunburned, and thoroughly excited.  Going to camp was always the highlight of my summer vacation and I hope that the grandkids had nearly as much fun as I had.

Paupers

There has been much bandied about since the '60s about poverty.  Who is in poverty and who is not?  Before we can grant poverty status upon a person or class of persons, it might be illuminating to look to the definitions of the common words and see what those definitions might tell us.  According to Wikipedia:

Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.^[1] Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the one who lacks basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter.

Well, in the United States we could argue that very few people live under poverty, and certainly fewer under absolute poverty.  It is hard to argue, when you have a rent-subsidized house, food stamps, a television, car, and cell phone, that you're in poverty as defined.

So, we turn to another definition.  From the same source.  Pauper.

Pauperism (Lat. pauper, poor) is a term meaning poverty or generally the state of being poor, but in English usage particularly the condition of being a "pauper", i.e. in receipt of relief administered under the poor law. From this springs a more general sense, referring to all those who are supported at public expense, whether within or outside of almshouses, and still more generally, to all whose existence is dependent for any considerable period upon charitable assistance, whether this assistance be public or private. In this sense the word is to be distinguished from "poverty". 

Okay.  Generally, persons receiving assistance are paupers.  Dependent upon charitable assistance, whether that assistance be public or private.  Pauper.  It's an interesting word.

We in the United States certainly have a surplussage of paupers, but very few in poverty.  I'll leave my few readers to investigate the implications of those  distinctions.

Really? Really?!?

You've got to wonder about the culture where gunfights erupt at funerals. 

DECATUR, Alabama -- While Decatur police attempted to unravel the case surrounding the June 2 shooting death of 33-year-old Houston Glenn Blackwood, some of the victim's friends and family were getting into a post-funeral fight that ended with one man being shot in the neck. tnut Street -- to the same apartment complex where Blackwood was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds -- to find Komak Love with a gunshot wound to his neck. Love was taken to Huntsville Hospital by MedFlight, and is expected to make a full recovery, Decatur police said in a statement.

Yet, the circle of violence continues.

(CBS) DECATUR, Ga. - While at a wake on Tuesday for a shooting victim, Camenthia Antwan Dixon, 21, was arrested for allegedly bringing a stolen gun, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Police said Dixon had the gun in his pocket. Dixon was attending a wake for Carlos Henderson Jr., 19, gunned down at a shooting last week after a funeral, reported the Constitution. Also killed in that shooting was 28-year-old Delmetrius Heard. He and Dixon shot each other in the parking lot of Victory of the World Church.

The latter one is utterly confusing.  Lemme see if I've got it straight.  Delmetrius Heard and Carlos Henderson went to a funeral last week and got into a gunfight in the parking lot of the church.  So, they've got to have more funerals and Camenthia Dixon brings a gun to the funeral and was arrested because the gun was stolen.

I'm in awe of the culture that produces morons like this.  Evidently it's okay to shoot someone, then go to the funeral and shoot-up the family.  Or something.  Of course, with mothers who would name their child Komak or Camenthia can't be too damned smart in the first place.

I'm sure that the Rev'rund Jackson will be along shortly to decry the circle of violence.  Yeah, I'm sure that he and Big Al Sharpton will be along shortly.

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

Supposedly I'm off, but I've been doing stuff all day that could better have been done while I was working.  The HR folks called and told me that I was missing some documents in my file and that I needed to go get a TB test and a uninalysis, so I went over to the OHS center to get those tests.  The gave me a TB test and told me to come back on Thursday.  I had Milady look at the test site this morning and she scoffed, told me that I was negative, but that I still had to go to OHS, so I went over there and they read it as maybe, sorta, kinda positive.  Sent me to the health unit for a blood test. 

I went by Milady's office (she's an RN, works for a surgeon) and took her to lunch, talked about TB, and she's still convinced that I'm negative, moreso the LPN's at the OHS place are idiots.  Still, I've gotta go to the health unit, so I went over there expecting to get a chest X-ray, but was told that there's a brand new test out that uses blood, provides a more positive test than the skin test.  So, they drew blood and told me that if there was any problem, someone would get in touch with me.

Walk into the doctor's office as a healthy man, walk out a broken cripple headed for the bone-yard.  That's my take on most of the medical profession and this days activities have done nothing to disabuse me of that notion.  With 20 years in corrections and a combined 30 year law enforcement career, there is little doubt that I've been exposed to lots of things.  That doesn't mean that I have those diseases.  I had blood tests last week at my primary physician.  I bet if I was sick, he'd have told me.

Nakations?

Really?  Naked Vacations?

(Reuters) - When the Carnival Freedom sets sail from Florida next February for an eight-day cruise to Panama, it will offer the same amenities as any other Carnival cruise: three pools, a jogging track, a 1970s dance club and a cigar bar. But there is one stark difference. Passengers on the white behemoth of a ship, which can carry 2,974 passengers, will enjoy those facilities naked.

Okay, then!  My libertarian streak says that if folks want to sail the open seas sans sarongs, more power to them.  It's supposed to be a free country and if you like sailing nude, more power.

It ain't for PawPaw, though.  I don't even like wearing shorts.  My usual summertime lounging attire is jeans and a tee-shirt.   And, I'm willing to bet that most of the fellow travelers won't be supermodels, either.

I'll pass on nekkid vacations.

Done!

My annual retrainer is done.  Finished, kaput.  Yesterday was defensive tactics (DT) and today was classroom, first aid, records, internal website and an introduction to online training. 

The Sheriff's office is starting online training classes because POST council is telling us that all Sheriff's offices will be required to conduct online training.  Whatever.  I'm very familiar with online training and in my mind, online training is great for a lot of things, but sometimes it's nice to sit in a classroom and have an instructor go through the paces.  It has its good points and its bad points.

Still, I am now fully re-qualified for another year and that's a good feeling. 

Deer Season

I started getting ready for deer season this afternoon.  It opens in a little over a scant four months and I've barely enough time to get ready, so I decided to cast some .45-70 bullets this afternoon.

Those are Lee's .457-405F, a flat point 405 grain bullet and they're cast from dead soft lead.  They've had one trip through the liquid alox, courtesy of the good folks at White Label Lube Co.  These folks sell lube in 32 ox bottles and I've ordered from them, I have about a half-gallon of their stuff under the bench.  It's a whole lot less expensive than that brand-name lube and smells like the same stuff.

Those bullets will be loaded with smokeless and pushed to just barely over black powder velocity.  I don't load my .45-70 very hot, because I've never been convinced that the recoil is worth the added momentum.  Pushing that big ole 405 grain bullet at 1300 fps is plenty fast for the smallish whitetail deer we've got in these parts.

Deer season will be upon us before you know it.  Get ready.

Hmmm

Reflecting on the day, I realize that I never saw my shotgun target.  2 slugs and 10 rounds of buckshot, I should have shot the center out of that thing.  However, as soon as the line was finished, the rangemaster put us on another task while the instructor scored the targets.  I never walked up to the target to look at it, being fairly certain that I qualified.

A little later, some one called my name, and I gave them a YO!, then they said "nevermind".  Being the smartass I am I told them that I was very good at nevermind.  I guess whoever hollered at me was taking my target to the trash bin.  Still, I never saw my shotgun target today.  I'm certain I qualified because I've never NOT qualified with the shotgun.  I'll have to ask to see the scorecards tomorrow.

Retrainer

Today began our annual retrainer, where we LE types go thru the paces and renew our certifications for the year.  POST council demands that police officers be trained and display a certain level of proficiency in their jobs.  Today we started with firearms, the service auto, whatever backup handguns we might want to carry,   Then the shotgun and the patrol rifle. 

What that means for an old cop like me is that I get to hang out with my buddies, tell lies, and shoot the Sheriff's ammunition.  In short order I had qualified with my handguns, along with the rest of the  bunch, then we fired the shotguns, went to lunch, then came back for backup pistols and patrol rifle.

Part of using the range is brass pickup afterwards, and police officers understand that beginning in academy.  There is no rank exemption, if you shoot, you pick up brass.  That's okay and part of the program.  Today I took a range bag downrange during the pickup and while picking up brass, made sure that the range was thoroughly clean before we left.  By some weird coincidence, that bag full of range brass somehow got into my pickup truck, all calibers that I happen to reload.  Odd coincidence, that.

Still, all the brass is sorted, all the firearms are clean and put away and PawPaw will soon declare happy hour.  I've spent all day in the company of good people, I've shot a lot of ammo I didn't have to buy or reload, and cmae home to spend the rest of the afternoon with Milady.  It was hot out there, and I'm sure that I reek, but if it was possible to reek happiness that's what I'd be reeking.

It's been a very good day.

Up? Or Down?

If you're not a fan of Bill Whittle, you should be.  The man has opinions that should be trumpeted across the nation.  Last week's Firewall talks about the decline of civilization and what we can learn from the history.  Ours and theirs.



It's worth watching, especially the part toward the end about America's first private astronaut.

Sunday Morning Dawg

It's summer in Louisiana and afternoon temps have been hovering in the upper 90s.  Something the weather-weenies call the RealFeel or the heat index is well over 100 degrees.  It's hot, okay?  The dog has his water frizbee on the deck and seems to prefer drinking from that red frizbee.  One day this week, I was near his frizbee and had some ice in a cup, so I poured the ice into the cup.

The dog looked at me like I had lost my mind, but then decided to try it.

Oh, that's not bad at all.

I'll have to remember to add a little ice to his outside water in the afternoon.  It'll be a special treat.

Scientific Literacy

Are you literate in science?  Mostly Cajun linked to this test.  Go Forth and be humbled.  I only scored 64%.

Thanks for all the comments, and humbling scores.  I draw solace from the knowledge that when I was in school studying basic science, we only had four elements on the periodic table.

Rain

We're getting a nice thunderstorm this afternoon.  The lightning is crashing and the thunder is rolling, and we even got a little hail.  The ditches are full and my outside work was finished about an hour ago. 

We needed a little rain, but the Dawg is terrified.  I"m sure he'll be fine.

The Bishops

Nancy Pelosi is an idiot, but we all know that.  She continues to express her idiocy about matters that she should understand.  Today, for instance, she said that... well...

“Well, I don’t think that’s the entire Catholic Church,” Pelosi responded. “Those people have a right to sue, but I don’t think they’re speaking ex cathedra for the Catholic Church.  And there are people in the Catholic Church, including some of the bishops, who have suggested that some of this may be premature,” Pelosi said.

Uuuh, Nancy, no one but the Pope can speak ex cathedra, and if I'm not mistaken, the last time he did that was in the 1950s. However, Nancy, the bigger point is that the Bishops ARE THE CHURCH. They absolutely speak for the Church within their dioceses and when assembled, speak for the Church.

As a Catholic, you should know that.  The Bishops are the Church.  Were I your Bishop, I would probably excommunicate you as being too stupid to practice as a Catholic.

Straw Hat

Walking through a sporting goods store earlier this week, I noticed a rack of straw hats on sale.  My Dad always wore a straw hat when he was mowing grass and working outside in the heat.  I thought I'd give it a try.

Pretty sporty, wouldn't you say?  It's not a work hat, but it's not a cowboy hat either.  I might have to find a sombrero to keep the sun off my shoulders.

Idiocy

The anti's are at it again, this time suing the EPA for failing to ban lead ammunition. 

(Reuters) - Environmental groups filed suit on Thursday seeking federal regulation of lead in ammunition, claiming exposure to the toxic metal from spent bullets fired into the environment by hunters kills millions of birds and poses a risk to human health.

This suit comes on the heels of the Congress telling the EPA that it's got no interest in lead ammnunition.

The lawsuit comes the same day U.S. Senators Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, and John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, filed an amendment to the federal Farm Bill that would ban the EPA from regulating lead ammunition. The U.S. House has already passed legislation exempting the EPA from regulating lead-based bullets.

The anti's just don't get it. Lead is only harmful in very limited situations, and most lead in the form of bullets and shot is simply not harmful. Personally, I think that the lead-shot ban for waterfowl was an over-reach, and that ban has been in effect since 1991.

So, the Congress is telling the EPA that they have no interest in lead ammunition in the form of legislation banning the EPA from looking at lead ammunition, and the anti's want the EPA to look at lead ammunition.  Personally, I  think that the EPA is one of those agencies that should just go away.  They've been more of a pain-in-the-ass than a viable agency for the past 20 years.  Their history is one of over-reach and horror stories abound.  The EPA is one of those agencies that should be dismantled layer by layer and discarded on the ash-heap of failed ideas.

Hat tip to Jeff Soyer.

Thursday Wrap-Up

Looking at the news this morning, we start with Chad Rogers Dead Pelican.  Jefferson Parish is a parish (county) just outside New Orleans, comprised mostly of Metarie, LA. It seems that some of the schools are underperforming, so the School Board in October set guidelines for principals. Failing to meet those performance standards, the School Board in Jefferson fired seventeen principals. Seventeen.

Meza says the principals were notified last October that changes were coming if goals weren't met. He says last week, when test data became public, the principals were dismissed.

You've got to have standards, and if those standards aren't met, there must be repercussions.  It's not that the principals weren't warned, it's simply that they decided to hold the standards and meet policy.  Of course, the teachers are all butt-hurt, but nothing like the whammy the School Board put on them yesterday.   The School Board cancelled the teacher union contract. 

The school board voted 5 to 3 to drop their teacher union contracts and start over with a negotiation process to come up with a new one. The contracts expire June 30.

Of course, once again, the teachers are all butt-hurt, but I don't see a problem. Their contract expires June 30th and was due to be renegotiated. The teachers hoped for a contract extension, with ongoing negotiations, but the School Board said NO.

Here's the deal.  Principals can't meet their goals unless the teachers are on board.  A principal needs the authority to implement changes to meet standards and if the principals don't have the backing of the teachers, those standards won't be met.  I'm not blaming the teachers, I'm sure that there are some wonderfully dedicated teachers in Jefferson Parish, but standards must be met.

If it takes running-off seventeen principals and dropping the union contracts, so be it.

In other news, police officers have standards as well.  Next week I've got to play "show and tell" with our standards, proving my competence to continue to work.  It's been that way since I began police work and I know what the standards are.  So, today I'll be doing a little extra-curricular training to make damned sure I can continue to Protect and Serve.

If you'll excuse me, I'm off to the range.

What's Today? Wednesday?

I started this morning by going to the doctor for bloodwork.  Nothing to get excited about, we do this every 6 months.  It's more a pain in the butt than a problem.

Thence to the range, not to shoot, but to talk with my buddies.  While I was there, the recovery guru called from the church, so I headed out there.  Work continues apace, but she wanted to ask me some questions and we got those issues solved.

I came home and started looking at the news.  It appears that the Wisconsin recall election turned out to be win for the Conservatives.  According to Hot Air:

After winning more votes in a recall election than he did in his original 2010 victory, Walker tells Fox and Friends that voters have proven that when an officeholder delivers on his promises and “takes on the tough challenges,” voters will reward him:

As I recall, Wisconsin went for Obama in 2008, based on lots of things, but there's no denying that the public service unions got their butts handed to them last night. Governor Walker made the tough choices, turned the state around, and now we can't look at it as solidly blue. That's a win for our side, and I'm sure that Team Obama will be poring over the results in the next couple of days.

We can't get cocky, but we're winning.

Sheer Delight

My youngest grandson and a pedal tractor with front-end loader.


The boy loves Things That Go. I'm pretty sure it's genetic.

Stolen shamelessly from my daughter-in-law.

Happy, Happy!

It's Breda's birthday.

Go over and tell her Happy!

That is all.

Governmental Ethics

I just completed a one-hour online course of Governmental Ethics, required of all elected officials and public employees of the state of Louisiana. As a sheriff's deputy, I qualify. No doubt ethics training is something we need, but an online, one-hour Powerpoint presentation is cruel and unusual. Additionally, the presenter's voice droned in a monotone.

 It was like listening to paint dry. Luckily, the Dawg needed scratching, which gave me something to do during the training. Hence, we accomplished two things. First, I got my required training, additionally the The Dawg got a good scratching.

Recovery

It's 3:00 and I've spent all day either at the church, running the roads to get supplies, or dealing with insurance folks.  The church is covered against the damage, of course, but there is a lot of work to be done.  The cleaning crew is hard at work, the broken window has been replaced, and I'm looking at the door facings on the church office.

Recovery continues apace. The cleaning crew assures me that we'll have services in the chapel on Sunday morning.  We're worried about the church organ. It looks like the vandals squirted the fire extinguisher directly into it.  Disgusting.The recovery specialist will get an organ guy out there to look at it and tell us the news.


In another hour I'll declare the day done and break into the beer locker.

VANDALS

I got a call this morning that our church had been burglarized and vandalized. Someone broke into the church late this week and made a heck of a mess.

We got the deputy out there and we tried to decide what had been stolen. It looks like they were searching for money and copper.  When they found that we had no money and very little copper, they decided to vandalize the sanctuary by setting off fire extinguishers, which probably caused more damage than the vandalism.  Fire extinguisher powder coated the pews, carpets, altar and walls.  It looks like the vandal squireted the powder directly into our organ and piano.  Our office is trashed and we're not sure if the computer will work until it's cleaned.  They cut the cords from everything, trashed the sound system and even took the cords from the vacuum cleaners.

The odd thing is that they didn't use our fire extinguishers.  They brought their own.  The church fire extinguishers are just fine. We had services this morning in the kitchen, and tomorrow I'm meeting a cleaning crew at 9:00 in the morning.

It takes a worthless person to vandalize a church.  May God have mercy on his soul.  If I get my hands on him, little mercy will be shown.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Laying around the porch on a Saturday afternoon.

Ain't much happening on a Saturday afternoon.

More Airplane Pictures

Some more pictures from this morning's jaunt. If you like general aviation, you would have had a good time this morning. The airport is a tiny, single runway municipal airport surrounded on three sides by water. Lots of arrivals and departures and the aircraft parked along the runway.

That's a Cessna 172 series departing.

Here a little Decathlon? makes a fly-by over the water, behind the hanger.

Last, an aircraft that I can't identify. I was told it's a kit plane and I noticed several variations of these things on the runway.

Yeah, we had a good time.

Aviation Saturday

I've always been in love with airplanes of all types, especially general aviation.  I've also been toying with the idea of getting my Sport Pilot license as part of my bucket list.  Last week, my buddy Termite invited me to a breakfast put on by our local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association.  They meet at the Buhlow Lake airport outside of Pineville, LA every first Saturday and have a fund-raiser breakfast.  Lots of folks in attendance and lots of airplanes to drool over.

Here's Milady standing in front of an absolutely beautiful, fully restored, 1946 Aeronca. This aircraft was two years in the rebuild, but it's spectacular. Owned by Ken Eversull, it was the darling of the morning. The work on this craft is absolutely pristine, as evidenced by the detail of the interior.

An absolutely beautiful aircraft and one that deserves to fly. Parked beside it was another as nice, a 1945 Aeronca.

The interior of that one was as nice as the first.

Great aircraft, great breakfast, good conversation. A thoroughly worthy Saturday morning. Thanks for breakfast, Termite!

The Warren Fiasco

If you've been reading the political news, you know that Elizabeth Warren is running for Senate in Massachusetts.  She's a Democrat, and a lawyer, and on the faculty of Harvard.  Lilly-white, she claims minority status from a Cherokee grandmother.   A Cherokee grandmother that can't be found.  No one can document this woman, although her family is easily found.  The Cherokee people are pissed-off about lying about her (and by default, their) heritage.

She keeps doubling down on her family history, and when researched, it turns out to be a fable, a fraud.  Her momma lied to her, and she believed it, hook, line, and sinker.  So, she blithely gets up before audiences, repeats her verbal history, and people start checking.  It's interesting, like watching a train wreck.  You know it's going to end badly, but you can't turn your eyes away.  Now she's claiming to be the first nursing mother to take the bar exam.  Really?  You going with that?

Harvard's first woman of color is lily-white, she has no Cherokee heritage, and now her claims about her grandmother are found to be.... simply untrue.  Damn! Elizabeth's problem is that no one ever checked on her tall tales, nor the tall tales of her family.  What she believes happened turns out to be a falsehood, a figment, a composite.  That seems to be a problem for people who are in academia, who tend to stand on ivory towers where they can repeat stories and have no one call bullshit.  Well, now she's in the public arena and lots of folks are calling bullshit. 

Elizabeth's problem is that she needs to feel special.  It's not enough to be rich, white, and on the faculty of Harvard.  It's not enough to be an expert in something, no, she has to be a minority, a nursing mother, and a pioneer woman.  As soon as she makes the claim, folks start calling bullshit, where no one ever claimed bullshit before.  It's got to be humbling, but I don't think Elizabeth knows how to be humble.