It's the last day in August, and the tropics are fairly quiet. The National Hurricane Center can provide details.
But, it has been since 1997 that we have had no named storms in August. I am counting my blessings and hoping that these trends continue through September.
Evidently, he was a mid-level manager who had a hyper partisan political bent, and he tweeted about it. Some sources say he was the guy who stopped the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.
For the first twenty years of my cop career, I worked in a state agency under civil service rules. There were certain things we could and could not do in the political sphere, and we knew it. We were allowed to have an opinion, and to vote, but that was about it. Any political activity would get you disciplined or fired.
Many cops today don't have Twitter accounts or Facebook accounts, because of several concerns, one being that embarrassing the agency will get you fired. We all know the rules, and some things are what we call "career moves". You do things A, it's a career move. You do thing B, it's a career move too. Thibault made a career move. Several of them, from all accounts.
Some wags are saying that Thibault is a symbolic Judas goat, the guy they will blame the sins of the agency on. And, they are trying to do that, whether he was fired or resigned, he is the public face of the rot in the Bureau. But, it goes deeper than that. The higher-ups in the agency tolerated Thibault's partisan activity until they could no longer wink at it.
Thibault was not the problem in the FBI. Thibault was a symptom of a larger problem. With many calling for the Bureau to be either drastically reformed or abolished altogether, he was the sacrificial goat to be trotted out before the media.
Joe Biden says us MAGA Republicans are fascist. I don't think he knows what the word means. So, what is fascism?
1. often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.
That's a pretty good working definition. So, let's explore.
How about when Biden, in April 2021 tried to extend his eviction moratorium, knowing that it was unconstitutional? Breaking the law by executive fiat. Does that sound like fascism?
Or, how about ignoring our immigration law and allowing unrestricted illegal migration? Ignoring the law and using executive fiat. Does that sound like fascism.
How about weaponizing the FBI and using it as a cudgel against political opposition? Can you say stasi? That sounds like fascism.
Or, how about quietly beginning a program to counter something called domestic misinformation? This, from Auguest 2022.
When Joe Biden talks about fascism, he knows from whence he speaks. But, it's projection. He knows fascism first hand, because he is in charge of it.
Former President Donald Trump is asking for a special master to appointed by the Court to go through his documents to make sure that his presidential privilege is protected.
But, the FBI tells the Court that they have already been through the documents. They appointed a team of agents not associated with the investigation to sift through the documents, looking for privileged communications. They found a few.
"[T]he Privilege Review Team … identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information, completed its review of those materials, and is in the process of following the procedures set forth in paragraph 84 of the search warrant affidavit to address potential privilege disputes, if any," the DOJ filing said. Those procedures included asking the court to make a determination on potentially privileged material, asking Trump's team if they are asserting privilege, or acting on its own and keeping the material away from investigators.
They found privileged documents, and they didn't run them through a copy machine? You believe that, right? On, yeah, I believe that the FBI is completely trustworthy. I wonder how long it will be before those very documents get leaked to a friendly news outlet?
I heard a while back that Dr. Tony Fauci was planning to retire at the end of Biden's term.
Then, more recently, I heard that Fauci had set a date in late December to retire.
I wonder if he knows something the rest of us don't?
Belle and I will be busy tomorrow, getting up a the crack of dawn to travel to Atlanta, TX for a Cowboy Fast Draw event. So, I thought I'd check NOAA to see what the tropics are doing. Not much, as it turns out. Here is the 5-day tropical map.
I was watching Jor Rogan yesterday on YouTube. Rogan was interviewing Mark Zuckerberg on his podcast. Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook throttled information on the Hunter Biden laptop for a week leading up to the 2020 election, based on a request from the FBI.
…Basically, the background here is the FBI, I think, basically came to us, some folks on our team, and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert… We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that, basically, there’s about to be some kind of dump of that’s similar to that. So just be vigilant.
There is more at the link, but basically the FBI put their finger on the scale to tamp down damaging information just before the election. We all know now that the Hunter Biden laptop is a real story, and we are all wondering now why the FBI hasn't arrested Hunter. It's bad enough that we now have what appears to be a two-tiered system of criminal justice in the US, but now it appears that the FBI is actively trying to pick winners and losers in a presidential election.
It's been raining for what seems to be a week. We are inundated. Luckily, I live on the side of a big ridge, so it runs off fairly quickly. The ditches are full, but that won't last forever.
We have trash bins in this neighborhood. Lots of places use them, and I'm sure that they are fairly standard across the US.
That's mine, close, with the neighbors across the street. Fairly standard. The garbage men pick up our trash on Mondays at daylight. And, invariably, the leave the lid open. No big deal. his morning I went out to drop a bag of trash, and found over a foot of rainwater in the bottom of the bin. So, I can say with some certainty that we've gotten a foot of rain the past 48 hours.
According to Instapundit, you get suspended for wrong-thought.
CAN’T STOP THE SIGNAL: Impermissible Notions. Or, Things That Will Not Be Tolerated On Twitter. “The thing in question this time is a cartoon, an illustration of an idea. It was shared, briefly, yesterday by biologist and Quillette contributor Colin Wright, and was promptly censored by Twitter’s moderators. Mr Wright has apparently been suspended from said platform until a confession of hateful wrongdoing – as yet unspecified hateful wrongdoing – has been extracted. Given the cartoon’s scandalous properties, I’ll reproduce it below the fold. Do feel free to grip the arms of your chair.”
Just boosting the signal here.
I just spent the past several hours filling out something called the American Community Survey, a product of the US Census bureau. Our address got picked for some un-Godly reason, and I decided "what the hell" and started taking the survey. Oh, it was supposed to be quick and easy, and would help the Government with vital data about changes in population and demographics.
About an hour into the survey, I started making shit up... using rough estimates. At one point, they asked about my primary duties as a cop, and had a little block for my answer:
Putting assholes like you in jail.
I hope they got the vital information they needed in the first few pages, because the last hour was an exercise in frustration. Hell, I don't know how many hours in the past 52 weeks my grandson has worked. So, I gave them some very rough estimates.
But, that is done now, and if everyone who was asked to take the survey put as much time, effort and accuracy into it as I did, the Census bureau has no idea what is happening across the country.
Four years ago today, August 22, 2018 was a hot August day in central Louisiana. I was still working as a sheriff's deputy. I had already planned to retire on April 1, 2019, but hadn't told anyone except for Belle.
That afternoon, a snow cone truck pulled in to the parking lot, and I could not resist.
Has it only been four years? Yeah, but it seems like I lived a lifetime since that day. Since then, I've run an ill-fated political race, lived through Covid, and increased my volunteer work.
That may be the last snow cone I ever ate. The flavor? Blue bubblegum.
The White House is trying to take credit for way too much. They have done a lot to destroy America since taking over in January 2021. Now that gas prices are falling a bit, they want to take credit for that too. However, some of us have memories.
This photo is a compilation of two photos I took in January 2021 and March 2022. From the same station and the same gas pump.
I learned to like these things when I was deer hunting from a box stand. On a cold, frosty morning I'd get in the stand before daylight, turn the heater on, and in a few minutes I was comfortable. I had two of them, but they were given away when I quit deer hunting. In the winter time, I heat the shop with propane and there are cool spots, especially around Belle's feet.
I checked Amazon for no particular reason this week, and these little heaters are on sale. It came in today, so I loaded a one-pound bottle on it and gave it a test run. We're good now, till the winter and Belle's feet get cold.
I may order an adapter hose so that I can hook it directly to a 20 lb propane bottle.
I'm seeing a bunch of the usual suspects saying that the GOP may not regain the majority in Congress in the coming midterms. Gloom and Doom. Even Mitch McConnell is saying that the GOP may not take tie Senate in November.
I am reminded of several things. First, the ability of the GOP to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Second, I seem to recall times when the pollsters had it all wrong and we awoke to a solid victory when everyone was predicting defeat. The election is still two months away and lots can change between this morning and the election in November.
Besides, Brian Stelter found out yesterday that he is out of work. Who saw that coming?
For some reason (and that reason is always politics) they have trotted out James Carville, who claims that the entire GOP base is evil. The attacks are smacking of desperation.
The only poll I'll put my faith in is the one that we are going to take in November. The rest of them is simply political spin.
It's August in Louisiana. Hot, with unstable air. The afternoon thunderstorm is part of our culture. It's ubiquitous. But, when I awoke this morning, pouring my first cup of coffee, and heard thunder off to the north, I thought, "What the hell?"
Sure enough, a quick look at the weather map showed a line of thunderstorms approaching from the north, looking for all the world like a cold front that we normally get in October and November. It's over my acre now, dumping copious amounts of water making the dog seek shelter. I'm glad I mowed grass yesterday.
The church has scheduled a roping clinic for tonight, and I was scheduled to cook hamburgers for the assembled twine-twirlers. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they will cancel that event. If my backyard is any indication, the arena is a mud pit right now, and will probably not dry out by this afternoon.
Belle was looking at the extended forecast on her phone, and it looks like the rest of August will be considerably cooler and wetter than average. God works in mysterious ways, but if He wants us to have a cool, wet August, I'll take it.
So, the Atlantic publishes a piece entitled "How The Extremist Gun Culture is Trying To Co-opt The Rosary". It's behind a paywall, so there you go, but you get the idea.
So, the question becomes; Is the rosary a weapon?
Damn right it is. It's a weapon against evil. Which is to say, most Democrats and a few RINOs. The rosary is a valuable, effective spiritual weapon against every form of evil.
I'm a recovering Catholic, and I worship with a bunch of recovering Baptists. We were talking about angels the other night, at services. If you have a little cherub in your front flowerbed, you really don't understand angels. Angels are bad to the bone. They handle God's light work, like the time Michael threw Satan our of heaven.
As a soldier, I learned St. Micheel's prayer.
Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
I will wield whatever weapon is necessary to defeat evil. The fact that I have an AR slung across my back doesn't make the prayer any less valid.
It looks like Liz Cheney lost her Wyoming Rep gig. She was primaried and lost big.
She claims to have further political ambitions, but I don't think that she could get voted as dog-catcher in Wyoming, which means that she will have to take her show elsewhere. Who knows what might happen in 19, 12, 14 years?
What might really be interesting is to see how she acts in the near term. She still has a seat in Congress until January 3rd. We'll see if her Trump Derangement Syndrome gets any worse.
Two weeks? Are you serious? It will take the FBI two weeks to copy all the documents they siezed in the raid on Trumps house?
Now, according to Just the News, we’ve learned that the FBI will give back President Trump’s passports and documents containing privileged information between the former president and his attorneys. No doubt the Justice Department will be reading and copying the documents as they prepare to return them. It may be why the DOJ estimates it will take two weeks to get Trump back his property.
Everyone involved in this debacle, from Garland him self to the cute little Feebie holding the AR near the gate, should be disbarred, fired, and prosecuted Which little Feebie, you ask?
That one, on the right side of the photo. From Merrick Garland, all the way down to her. As an object lesson. If any of them are lawyers, disbar them. For the pure cops, pull their certifications.
That's what the medical examiner ruled in the case of the shooting on the set of the movie "Rust", where actor Alec Baldwin shot his director.
This, after the FBI released a report that said that Baldwin "must have" inadvertently pulled the trigger.
I don't know what took the FBI so long, most of us came to that conclusion within hours of hearing of the incident. Of course, Baldwin pulled the trigger. That's the way those guns work. But then, I don't know why the FBI was involved in the first place. It was a local incident. Maybe the Sheriff asked them for lab assistance.
But, we all know that Baldwin pulled the trigger. That is the way those guns work.
President Trump says that the FBI took his passport in the raid on Mar-A-Lago last week.
It's not on the FBI's property receipt.
Should we believe an agency who lies to FISA courts to obtain warrants? Should we believe an agency who ignores obvious criminality of a President's son? Should we believe an agency who is noted for dirty political tricks such as wiretapping a noted American figure?
Frankly, I don't believe anything the FBI tells me. If they told me that the sky was blue, I'd break out a color chart.
Did they take his passport? You see, that is the problem with breaking into someone else's house. Burglary is burglary, and thieves do what thieves do.
Another armed citizen stopped a shooter, this time in Montenegro. As reported by TTAG.
The prosecutor coordinating the investigation, Andrijana Nastic, told journalists Friday that the gunman was killed by a passerby and that a police officer was among the wounded. She said nine of those killed died at the scene and two died at a hospital.
It's not widely reported, but hi happens more than you think.
Back in '85 I was a five-year veteran of a local police agency. Several of my brother officers became convinced that the elected Sheriff was crooked. SO, we began quietly putting together a file that might be useful in the future. As our investigation gained traction, we knew that if we were found out, we would certainly be fired, so we were very careful in our inquiries.
Towrd the culmination of our inquiries, it became apparent that one particular person would be instrumental to our investigation. That person happened to be a parolee, supervised by the local office. As things heated up, he skipped town. The parole officer obtained an absconder's warrant. The investigation stopped dead cold.
In '86 we located the parolee in a neighboring state, and extradited him. On the trip home, he told his story in an attempt to gain favor from the Parole Board.
We had what we needed and passed our information along to state authorities. The Sheriff was arrested, stripped of his office, and was eventually convicted in federal court.
Some have wondered how a law enforcement agency can be reformed from the bottom up. It takes good people, willing to risk their career to make a good case. I've seen it happen in more than one case. Corruption has to be rooted out, and if the rank-and-file ain't willing to do it, it won't get done.
I'm convinced that the FBI is a corrupt organization that targets the political enemies of its political masters. We see the senior officials of the Trump organization targeted, whale the blatant criminality of the Biden family is ignored. Our Attorney General, Merrick Garland has said many times that no one is above the law, and that he intends to enforce the law without "fear of favor".
I believe that Garland is trying to arrest and prosecute President Trump. One does not seek a search warrant without probable cause that a crime has been committed. Many senior officials from the previous administration have been arrested. The culminating trophy will be President Trump.
Yet, the crimes of Hunter Biden continue without abatement. If Garland and FBI Director Wray are truly interested in maintaining the integrity of the federal law enforcement effort, they really should start arresting Democrats who scoff at the law.
We're tracking the tropics as we are wont to do this time of year.
The disturbance map for NOAA shows one little rain-makers in the Gulf but it won't amount to much. We will thank God for the continued calm in the tropics. With all the other bad news from across the country, this respite is certainly well received.
You remember Crossfire Hurricane? We on the rights side of the argument called it the Russia, Russia collusion hoax. It was an operation of the Obama cabal to smear then candidate Donald Trump with something, anything that would hurt his campaign.
Well, those documents might be at the center of the newest outrage on the political scene. Because if it makes Saint Barack Obama look bad, it has to be classified forever. Townhall breaks it all down for us.
One thing that our Brilliant, Responsible, Ethical Merrick Garland may have forgotten is that the President of the United States is the ultimate authority on classified documents. The President can declassify anything. At his whim. There is no higher authority. When Donald Trump took those documents out of the White House, they were declassified by default.
This whole investigation is complete and utter bullshit, and Garland should know that. The magistrate who signed the warrant should have known that, and the agents who conducted the ransacking should have known that.
Have you heard the latest about why Garland sent his minions to dig through Melania's underwear drawer?
Heh! That is about as plausible as anything else I've heard. I actually checked Insty's link to make sure it wasn't the Bee. The Bee's take on it is pretty good, though.
Angel Outside Trump’s Empty Safe Tells FBI Agents, 'Behold! The Document You Seek Is Not Here!'
That's funny, right there.
Tim Alberta writes a piece at The Atlantic, where he makes the case that the FBI's raid on Mar-A-Lago may be a hinge point in American politics. I know that Tim is a leftist for several reasons. Once, he writes for The Atlantic. Two, he wrote this sentence.
So why did I feel nauseous yesterday, watching coverage of the FBI executing a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate?
Because this country is tracking toward a scale of political violence not seen since the Civil War.
He's wrong. We aren't there et. No one wants political violence. What we want is even-handed justice. Equal protection under the law. A one-tiered system of justice, where the law is enforced without passion of prejudice, regardless of political affiliation. What we are perceiving is a two-tiered system.
What we see is a two tiered system, where the director of the FBI can lay out a pima-facie case against Hillary Clinton for mishandling secure communications, then blithely say that no one will prosecute her for it. What we are seeing is a system where the President's son can commit multiple felonies and continue his self-destructive ways without consequence.
What we see is an FBI that has lost the trust of the American people. I see a federal system that is willing to harass political opponents. What we see is an IRS that is out of control, about to hire tens of thousands of new enforcement agents to eat out our sustenance.
If the FBI wants to regain the trust of the American people, it needs to start at the bottom. Good, honest cops who say NO to the political appointees, who reform the agency from the bottom up. It can be done. I've seen it done in local agencies, but it takes courage. Right now I'm not convinced that anyone in the agency has that courage.
I was a cop for 37 years and I've seen it done. So, to all the rank-and-file FBI agents who want to relaim their honor, it's time to stand up Shoot me an email and I'll try to help. If you are aware of corruption at any level, it's time to speak up. If you don't, then you have no honor.
It's being widely reported that President Trump took the 5th today in a deposition in yet another witch-hunt.
"I once asked, 'If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?' Now I know the answer to that question," Trump wrote in announcing his decision to invoke his right against self-incrimination.
I don't blame him. There is no reason to make any prosecutor's work easier. The 5th Amendment protects the innocent and the guilty alike.
It seems like FBI Director Wray and AG Merrick Garland are getting some plowback on the Mar-A-Lago raid. Rightfully so. Fox News reports:
Members of the federal law enforcement community across the country are beginning to grow frustrated, privately, with Attorney General Merrick Garland as he has remained silent since the search of the former President Donald Trump's Florida home.
Meanwhile, there are growing concerns Wednesday about the safety of FBI agents, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Garland following the search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
That is what they want you to think. Oh, the horror! They are getting death threats on the intertubes.
No one wants there two dead. What we want is them discredited, disbarred, bankrupt and unemployable. So thoroughly discredited that people actively point and laugh at them as they pass on the street. I detest these two assholes, but I don't want them physically harmed.
Their problem is that they pissed off 74 million Americans yesterday, And, they know that payback is coming. All they did was to elevate Donald J Trump in the minds of millions of Americans.
So, the FBI served a search warrant on the Mar-A-Lago home of Donald Trump. The premise for the warrant seems to be some documents that the National Archives claim may be classified. Many on the right are outraged, using this as just another example of the political polarization in the country, and another example of the FBI harassing political opponents of the current administration.
Some on the left think that if Donald Trump is convicted of a felony, it will disqualify him from running for another term. I have read the Constitution and see no such impediment. I'm not a lawyer, and I may well have missed something.
I am concerned about the political weaponization of the FBI and the DOJ. The Biden administration seems to have little reticence in jailing their political enemies. These folks are setting up a political climate that they might not want to live in, in the coming years. The pendulum always swings back.
Once again, the FBI seems to be doing the political bidding of the administration. This does not bode well for the agency. So, the question becomes; what is the end game? This cannot have been simply over some classified documents in a box. There must be something else at play, or we have descended into banana-republic territory.
A commenter asks a question we get all the time in CFDA shooting.
Does shooting wax bullets extensively cause any issues with the bore? I imagine wax is easier to remove and clean out than lead and/or copper.
Wax does foul the bore, and competitive shooters clean the bore about every 20 shots. However, the common solvents for lead and copper don't work very well on wax. So, we have developed our practice to match the problem. Hoppe's bore solvent is worthless for wax.
Brake cleaner, like you can buy at the auto parts store (or the Dollar Store) works well for wax. As does carb cleaner. Some people use WD-40, which seems to do as well as anything.
A fouled bore is not as accurate as a clean bore, and wax tends to foul faster than lead. Much faster. A competitive round is generally 6-8 shots, so every 3rd round, go run a brush through the bore.
In Cowboy Fast Draw, one of the rules is that for a major, titled match, the host club is responsible for providing ammo for the entire shoot. We all use .45 Colt revolvers, so it's all one caliber. At a major match, everyone shoots the same ammo, which levels the playing field.
Our ammo is specialty ammunition. We generally shoot wax bullets in cases that have been modified to accept a 209 shotgun primer. That primer provides sufficient propellant to discharge the wax bullet. It is easy to reload. The only equipment that is really needed is a human thumb, and most of us have thrums. However, because it it specialty ammo, you can't buy it over the counter. Belle and I have 5000 pieces of this brass. Our cousin's club in Texas has 5000 pieces of this brass. We help each other out, so that we can have 10.000 rounds of loaded ammo at the start of a big match.
At Louisiana State last month, we expended 3551 rounds of our ammo, and 3900 rounds of our sister club's ammo. If my math is correct, we shot 7451 shots in a 3-day match with 88 shooters. I tell you all this because we are panning a big shoot next year, a tri-State match where we will shoot titled championships for Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas over a four day weekend. We are still looking at venues, and they are starting to narrow down.
I basically just caught up on my sleep after Louisiana State, and we're planning next year's matches.
In these early days of august, I'm seeing commentary on the final days of World War II, concerning the moral and military necessity of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that hastened the end of the war.
Hiroshima was bombed on August 5th. Nagasaki on August 9th. We generally consider VJ day as August 15th.
It is my opinion that the decision tree that led to the use of atomic weapons has to be viewed through the lens of the history that existed on the ground at that time. The world was certainly awakened to the horror of nuclear war. Just as the world was awakened to the horrors of fire-bombing major cities. There is a lot of horror in war.
I do know that I had two uncles in the Pacific who were mightily relived when the Japanese surrendered.
Which city has the highest per capita murder rate? Chicago? New York? Not even close.
A new study of cities over 200,000 people shows a surprising list of cities. Here is the top 10.
New Orleans. Louisiana's very own third-world hell hole. The current city administration seems bent on making New Orleans the most dysfunctional city on the North American continent. Before hurricane Katrina, I enjoyed going to New Orleans for a weekend away. Great food, good culture. Nowadays I wouldn't go to New Orleans on a bet.
Belle and I have played with chicken fried steak for as long as we've been together, and we think we have perfected the recipe. It's a process and because you asked, we'll talk about it.
First of all, the steak. We use "cube steaks". Little steaks we get at the grocer that has been run through the tenderizer. You could buy a thin steak and pound it with a mallet to tenderize it, but the cube steaks are so convenient. Take them home and put them in the fridge.
Then, get out three shallow pans. In one, you are going to put flour. Just regular old flour.
In the second, an egg wash. A couple of eggs, beaten, along with some milk. Whisk this together.
In the third, finely broken saltine crackers. I'll dump a couple of sleeves of saltines in a gallon zip lock bag and crush them with a heavy rolling pin. Arrange the three pans in that order. Flour, egg wash, saltines. Then, in a large vessel, get the oil hearing. We're deep-frying these little steaks.
Get the steaks out of the fridge, and season them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then roll them in the flour, thence into the egg wash, and then into the crushed saltine crumbs.
When the oil reaches 350F, into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown. I put the fried steaks into a slow-cooker that is lined with paper towels and the lid off. Just to keep them warm until the guests are ready to make a plate. Serve with cream gray, mashed potatoes and whatever other sides you want.
Ain't nothing to it.
There is a new California law that Gavin Newsome signed on July 1st that wrecks any form of junior shooting in the state of California.
"Due to recent legislation from the California State Assembly, and signed into Law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the USA Clay Target League, DBA USA High School Clay Target League/California State High School Clay Target League, has been forced by law to suspend all operations within California," USA Clay Target League notes on its website. "California Assembly Bill 2571 … provides for a civil penalty of $25,000 for any and each instance of firearm-related marketing to persons under the age of 18. That includes the '… use, or ownership of firearm-related products…' as well as '…events where firearm-related products are sold or used.'"
This affects anything having to do with guns and kids. We're talking about it in Cowboy Fast Draw, and in the clay target sports, and I suppose in any youth league for the action shooting sports. Two weeks ago at Louisiana State, we had eight competitors that would have qualified under this law. Eight kids who were safe with firearms, competing at the level that they could compete.
In California now, that is illegal. Just one more reason to never go to the state of California.
WNBA star Britney Griner has been sentenced in a Russian court to 9 years in prison for drug possession.
Honestly, I don't follow basketball. I could not tell you who the leading NBA players are. I just don't care. Likewise, I had never heard of Britney Griner until recently. What I have learned about her is not flattering. She is big on the social justice circuit, didn't want to play in an arena where the American flag was present.
I heard that when se was arrested in Russia, she complained that no one read her her tights. Ha! Had she paid attention in high school civics, she might have earned that she had it good in the US.
I hope that the State Department is able to get her out. I don't want to see any US citizen in a Russian jail.
The pool pump started making funny noises last night, so I shut it down and this morning after coffee, disconnected it and started diagnosing the problem. The impeller has gone south, and I went to the pool supply place to get one. Out of stock, but it will be here tomorrow afternoon.
I know, that is a rich man's problem. When I was po'folks, I never worried about pool pumps. Kind of like my buddy, Termite, who spends time worrying about airplanes and hangers. Poor folks don't worry about that stuff, either.
Belle has chicken wings bubbling happily in a nice seasoned sauce, and I think that there is potato salad in the fridge. Sounds like lunch.
This post is intended for the CFDA family. My regular readers can skip over it.
The Four Lane Range
When Belle and I started CFDA, we quickly decided that we wanted to practice at home and got the money together to buy a two-lane set so that we could set up in the backyard. That worked well for a while, but before long, we were cancelling shoots for the weather. Then, God gave us the means to build a big metal building and set up our range in the building. By that time we had traveled to several state and territorial matches and shot on six lane ranges.
Our building, a 40’ X 50’ metal building gave us enough room to set up a four-lane range on one end and have a gathering area on the other. It has worked well for us, for a variety of events, large and small.
Shortly after christening our range, the Big Thicket Bushwackers came over for a visit and shot with us. At some point after that, they lost their big range in the Great Flood. Before long, they had converted at building at Camp Waluta to an indoor, four-lane range.
At Louisiana State 2018 and Louisiana State 2019 we held outdoor events with two, six-lane ranges. It seemed like the thing to do, a standard setup for a smallish state championship. However, the weather did not cooperate, and we set standards for unmitigated disaster. Foks who were there still recall the time we shot in ankle deep mud, and the other time when a freak wind blew one range completely down. I promised my club members that I would continue to hold Louisiana State, but I would never hold another one outdoors. Planning a titled competition is hard enough without worrying about the weather.
At Texas state 2021, I was surprised to see that the Bushwackers had set up three, four-lane ranges. Two of then outdoors, plus their indoor club range. It worked well, and I was pleasantly surprised. Later that year at Louisiana State 2021, we used two, six-lane ranges, because that seemed like the thing to do, but the four-lane range kept running through my mind. At FGA 2021 in Fallon, I made some discreet inquiries of the seasoned shooters. They agreed that as a rule of thumb, a match needs one target for every 10 shooters.
Louisiana State has never had more than 80 shooters, and I became convinced that we could pull it off with two, four-lane ranges. So, when the City of Pineville offered us a beautiful facility in the downtown area, we went out and measured the available space. The club believed that we had enough room to set up two, four-lane ranges. It might be a little tight, but it was workable. Best of all, it was indoors, with air conditioning.
It worked better than I suspected it would work. The four-lane range takes up a smaller footprint on the ground and it is easier to get shooters staged for the next round. It is easier to find hand judges for the last line of a round. It takes less equipment and allows the score keepers to juggle ranges when necessary. At Louisiana State this year, we had 88 shooters on two, four-lane ranges. We shot categories, a separate Shootist event, the main match, a resurrection match and a Magnificent 7. All shot on schedule. We cleared the building and left it to the City of Pineville by 3:00 on Sunday.
Six-lane ranges have been the standard in CFDA for many years, and they have served us well. For a major event, three, six-lane ranges require 18 targets with the associated electronics. Four, four-lane ranges require 16 targets.
I am convinced that the four-lane range has a place in CFDA. It has a smaller footprint, requires less equipment, and gives event planners more flexibility. If you are planning a major event, the four-lane range might be an option to consider.
John Kirby is some sort of national security wonk, a mouthpiece for the security apparatus. He claims that US policy does not support the independence of Taiwan.
US National Security coordinator John Kirby on Monday said that the United States is clear about its One China policy and does not support "Taiwan independence" amid the reports of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
That is utter bullshit. It may be US policy, but that needs to change this afternoon. Real Americans suppoet indepence anywhere on the globe. Real Americans support independence everywhere.
I see that San Fran Nan made it to Taiwan, and I support her in this limited endeavor, even as I wish gloom and despair on her generally. She is right to go to Taiwan and to give the ChiComs a big middle finger.
If Joe Biden was a leader, and was not beholden to the ChiCOms, he would fire Kirby immediately.
We flipped the page on the calendar this morning, and it's going to be another hot day here in central Louisiana.
I see that Nancy Pelosi is doing a whirlwind tour of Asia and is supposed to stop in Taiwan. The ChiComs aren't pleased about it, and they are making noise. As much as I despise Nancy Pelosi, I despise the ChiComs more. I think that she should go to Taiwan, just to show the ChiComs that they cannot dictate American interests anywhere on the globe.
In other news, I see that the Ukrainians hit the Black Sea Fleet HQ with a drone strike. From reports, a homemade drone. Good for them.
I have to leave the house in a little bit to take my buddy on his first-of-the-month errand run. He can't drive and I help him out when he needs wheels. I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks, we've both been busy. Me, with the shooting, and he with the Gideons.
Got the electric bill this weekend, and almost had a stroke. Largest electric bill ever. By a good margin. There is something on the bill called a Fuel surcharge, and the total beside that line was bigger than the basic electric bill. Our local electric plant burns either lignite, or coke, and they ship it in by water or rail, depending on what is available. Under Biden's economy, the cost of getting the fuel here is getting crazier every day.
I think I'll cook red beans and rice for lunch today.
