Saturday Update

Beautiful weather over my acre this morning, the second day of no rain, and we can hear lawn mowers and small engines all over the neighborhood, cleaning up the place.  It is the last week of August, and it's hurricane season, so we turn our eyes toward the tropics and see what's brewing up this morning.

Two areas of interest.  The closest to us, that yellow X just south of Lake Charles causes some concern, so we hover our pointer over it to see the pop-up.

It only shows a ten percent chance of getting organized, but it's going to throw rain on south Texas and south Louisiana.  Just what we need.  NOT.  We'll keep an eye on that.

The next item of interest is that second X, down around Florida/Cuba/Bahamas.

It's got a forty percent chance of getting organized as it moves through the strait of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico.  It will pay to keep a weather eye on it over the next several days.

PawPaw got up early and finished his yard work after coffee.  The mower is rinsed off and put away, and Milady and I can enjoy the Saturday.  We plan to go out to the club later, and get into a gunfight.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have a mid-morning cup of coffee then take a shower.  Today is shaping up very, very well.

Y'all get out and enjoy it.

Friday Supper

A little shooting in the backyard after work and Milady found a couple of little filets in the freezer that we needed to cook.

A little filet, some loaded mashed potatoes, and...  oh, the revolver? Yeah, I need to clean that.  I may get into a gunfight at the club tomorrow.

The Election

I haven't said much about the election recently, for a couple of very good reasons.  First, I believe the political landscape to have degenerated into a surreal parody.  National politics is bizarre.

However, Scott Adams is talking about the latest news cycle and he posits some interesting speculation.

Here in the USA, we’ve narrowed our search for a new leader to two lying, 70-year old racists. (You should see how bad the other 320 million of us are.)

I’m exaggerating, obviously. There are big differences in the candidates. For example, Clinton has allegedly killed lots of people in the past, whereas Trump will allegedly kill lots of people in the future. That’s very different, timing-wise.

 They are both lying. All the time. About everything.

If that isn’t obvious to you at this point, you are hypnotized. Literally.

That's my take on the current presidential race.  It's bizarre beyond belief.  Whatever happens, the United States is about to elect a liar to the presidency.  One of them has been plotting since the '80s to become the president, but she had to sell out American interests everywhere to get the money to get the nomination.  The other one is a businessman who never really intended to be president, but he won the nomination and is now out of his element.

It's become a race of two political cripples.  Neither one of them is fit to serve, have no good ideas, but each have outlasted their political adversaries.  They're limping toward the finish line, trying to deliver a telling blow to the other before the final bell rings and the curtain falls on this national tragedy.  It might be interesting if it weren't so pathetic.
 

Hurricane Prediction

I've seen all the models, and I've seen all the predictions, and eventually, they start to look like this.

It's going to go where it goes, and there is not a hell of a lot we can do about it.  These things tend to sort themselves out after a couple of days and the track becomes more clear.  Take a breath, check your plan, and be ready to move if necessary.

Oh, Joy!

As south Louisiana tries to dry out, the National Hurricane Center brings us a warning about a possible problem next week.  It seems that there is something brewing that might cause us problems.

It's not a tropical storm yet, and it is not even named, but the weather-weenies are keeping an eye on it.  Go to the National Weather Service for more information.

It's not time to freak out yet, but it is time to review your plan.  (You should always have a plan.)  This thing doesn't bode well for southern Florida, and if it gets into teh warm Gulf waters, who knows how fast it might brew up.  PawPaw will be keeping an eye on this one over the next several days.

What's Your Home Defense Gun

Massad Ayoob wants to know.  It's a legit question, and there may be several correct answers.

For myself, a little J-frame Smith and Wesson is a constant companion.  Always and everywhere.  I haven't been without that pistol in civvies for the past 14 years.  At that time, I decided to conduct an experiment, and began carrying always and everywhere.

For a while, I carried a little Ruger LCP, but it got loaned out, or it needed cleaning, or something.  Right now, the LCP is in a convenient drawer near my computer.  But, the J-frame is in my pocket.  Always and everywhere.

So, what's your choice?

Jackassical

One of the big stories to come out of the Louisiana floods last week is the story of the Cajun Navy, a loosely-knit group of individuals who used their own boats, time, money, and effort to rescue hundreds of people who were trapped in the monumental floods of last week.

These folks showed the value of self-reliance, neighborliness, good-hearted community service. T hey saw a need and stepped in to help without any expectation of recompense.  They were hugely successful.  Their efforts were hugely successful and they should be applauded.  They saved hundred, if not thousands of people from discomfort, danger, and possibly death.  We'll never know how many lives they saved, because all those people are still alive.

But, one jackassical state lege wants to regulate them.  I kid you not.

That’s exactly what State Sen. Jonathan Perry (R-Kaplan) wants to do in the next legislative session. In order to “prevent boaters from being turned away” by state agencies, he wants to mandate that the “Cajun Navy” of private boat owners to be trained and certified in search and rescue.

What a despicable jackass.  You can't legislate people helping people, and as a Republican, you shouldn't want to. But that's not good enough for Perry.  He's all about regulation and certification.  Oh, and while we're at it, Perry wants them to pay a fee for the certification.  Yeah, a fee.

Republican State Senator Jonathan Perry of the Vermillion, Lafayette area, is working on legislation that could require training, certificates and a permit fee to allow these Good Samaritans to get past law enforcement into devastated areas. He said some were turned away.

Perry wants people to pay money to government and get certified before they take part in a vital life-saving effort with their own boats, effort, fuel, and time.  He wants to regulate people trying to help other people.

I'm going to make this point here:  Many Louisianans own boats and spend dozens of hours a month in their pleasure craft.  Many others make their livings in boats, on the water, in the bayous, sloughs and lakes of our wonderful state.  For years, Louisiana has required a boater's course certificate to operate pleasure craft.  It's free.

The Cajun Navy did a magnificent job, stepping up and helping out in the hours and days in the early part of the event, before other resources could get on the ground.  These guys hooked up their boats, went to the affected areas and started pulling folks out of the water.  The legislature should not try to regulate the efforts of volunteers who use their own resources to help fellow Louisianans in a natural disaster.

Perry is a complete and total jackass.

Gun Porn

Found over at They Make All Kinds, a prototype lever rifle designed by John Browning, when he worked for Winchester.

From the article:

This Browning designed prototype lever action centerfire rifle has front and rear locking lugs, a design reminiscent of no other Winchester rifle of the late 19th century.

 This 30 caliber Browning prototype carbine is fitted with a pinned blade front sight and a ladder rear sight marked "1873" and graduated from 2-9. There are no external markings on the rifle. The upper tang is drilled and tapped. The rifle was left in the white. Mounted with a smooth forearm and straight grip stock. There is a single barrel band and a carbine buttplate. The receiver has an exposed hammer and a bolt, which slides back when the action is opened. When closing the action the bolt slides forward to lock. A true one of a kind prototype showcasing Browning's partnership with Winchester.

There is more at the link above.

Does Hillary Lie?

Does Hillary Clinton Lie?  Prevaricate?  Play fast-and-loose with the truth?  Well, of course she does.  This comes as no surprise.  What is a surprise is the legion of supporters who cover for her.

Larry O'Connor, over at Hot Air, reveals another lie that HIllary has told, about Colin Powell giving her advice on email practices as Secretary of State.  Basically, she threw General Powell under the bus, saying that

former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had advised her to use a personal email account

The only problem, is that Secretary Powell disavows any such conversation, and the evidence is coming in that the conversation never occurred.

 And Powell’s declaration to reporters Saturday that he was tired of Clinton’s people have been “trying to pin” the email scandal on him and that she “was using [the private email server] for a year before (he) sent her a memo telling her what (he) did,” contradicts Mrs. Clinton’s statements to the FBI in which she claimed the exact opposite.

When interviewing a primary suspect, an investigator never asks a question that he doesn't know the answer to.   That's basic investigative interviewing technique.  It's not against the law to lie to a local police officer, but it is against the law to lie to the FBI, and I would expect that the FBI knows that.  Several people have been convicted of that crime alone.  Ask Martha Stewart.  And others.

I'm sure that James Comey will move immediately on this knowledge.  The woman lied to an FBI agent.  - - Oh, wait.  Comey couldn't find a reason to indict even as the detailed the elements of the offense on national TV.  Comey's worthless.

We now, officially, have a two-tiered criminal justice system.  One where the common man goes to jail and one where the politically connected get to go scot-free, even after publicly embarrassing the FBI.  And, it happened on Comey's watch.  He should be proud.

Defining the Threat

Some young S-2 or his NCOIC are probably in deep doo-doo tonight.  A briefing slide has come out detailing the threat to national security.

Oh, yeah, include a retired 4-star and the Democratic nominee on your briefing slide of "careless or disgruntled employees".

Priceless!

Bail For The Indigent

It seems that the Justice Department (now better known as the Social Justice Warriors Litigation Division) is arguing that holding people in jail that can't afford to make bail is unconstitutional.  Yeah, really.

Holding defendants in jail because they can’t afford to make bail is unconstitutional, the Justice Department said in a court filing late Thursday — the first time the government has taken such a position before a federal appeals court.

I'm pretty sure that requiring bail is constitutional, as long as it is not excessive,  But, fact of the matter is that several jurisdictions that I'm personally aware of has been turning out petty criminals for years.

There are lots of federal mandates that govern the way jails are run.  Let's say, for example, that our hypothetical jail is rated to hold 150 offenders.  That's a firm number that the federal courts insist that we live by.  So, on an active Saturday night, the head jailer discovers that the police are bringing in folks that will put him over his 150-head limit.

Lots of jurisdictions have a prohibition against (for example) appearing in public in an intoxicated condition. For sake of simplicity, we'll call that offense Public Drunk.  Now, most cops won't bother a person who is walking home after having had a few too many, but every cop will roust a fellow standing in front of a bar making a scene.  If you're on the street being an asshole and someone complains, you're liable to be "cuffed and stuffed" on a Public Drunk charge.  Every Saturday night/Sunday morning, jails all over the country fill up with Public Drunk defendants.

So, our hypothetical head jailer, being very cognizant of his headcount, will put the Public Drunk guys in the holding  cell.  (There's a reason we call it the drunk tank.)  After several hours to sober up, they'll be booked and probably released on a recognizance bond.  When the jailer gets his headcount down to a reasonable number (often several under the courts mandated population), he'll quit releasing people.

This is the way that jails all over the country work.  But, for some reason, Ms. Lynch thinks that she needs to stick her nose into it.  For civil rights or something.

“Bail practices that incarcerate indigent individuals before trial solely because of their inability to pay for their release violate the Fourteenth Amendment,” the Justice Department said in a friend of court brief, citing the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.

To my way of thinking, that's an ignorant argument, but in this day and age, it might catch some attention.  I'd argue that the whole question violates the Tenth Amendment, and that if Ms. Lynch has noting better to do with her time, perhaps her whole department should be funded at the -0- level.  But, we live in a un-serious age, where un-serious people take up distracting questions and squander tax dollars with foolishness such as this.

Interesting Artifact

I was surfing around ad found this photo, and immediately wondered how something like that might happen

After thinking about it for a minute, the answer is simple.  Final Protective Fires.  Final Protective Fires are used when a military unit is in a static position and is in danger of being overrun.  If you're in a good defensive position with open fields of fire, it's easy to interlock fires where all the units weapons are shooting in interlocking lanes of fire.

Eventually, if you fire enough, over the course of several years of combat, you're bound to have two bullets slam into each other.

Mallards

Walking out to retrieve the Sunday paper, I had a flight of mallards pass overhead.  A flight of four, I didn't catch the coloration of the plumage, but one of them, a hen, was quacking like crazy.

Nothing in the world sounds like a mallard hen.  It's a sound I remember from my youth, wading around in Catahoula lake, shooting ducks.  I haven't hunted big ducks in forty years, but the sound brought me back to the smell of burlap, rubber hip boots and that black mud.

The Cajun Navy

It's amazing how our electronics work today.  I'm reading an article over at the Indepentdent Journal about the fellow behind the Cajun Navy, Bob Gaudet.  This work wouldn't be possible without good communications and they've focused on two apps to help communicate, locate and rescue stranded people.

They are fueled by nothing more than a steadfast commitment to helping their neighbors and are using two apps to navigate their rescue missions — Zello, which is a central dispatch communication system and Glympse, which allows them to geolocate stranded victims.

And Facebook.  They're using Facebook.

We had a pregnant woman Tuesday night around 10:30 p.m. contact us on on Facebook saying her house wasn’t flooded, but it was on an island and isolated. We took the call — much like the hundreds of other stories like this — and we got her water. On our way back, we got a call there were three cats stuck on a roof and didn’t get back till 1 a.m. At least five guys I know.”

Funny, how many of us see social media as having the potential to be destructive, or just plain old mean, but this group is using Facebook to save lives. Like any other technology, it's a tool.  How you use it depends on who you are.

The story is both heart-rending and heart-warming.  I'll link it again.  Go read the whole thing.

Update** I found what looks like a fairly legit Louisiana Cajun Navy page on Facebook.  Give them a like, and if anyone knows any others, mention them in comments.

Friday Afternoon

Got home and my gal told me that Scarlett (yeah, really) texted her, and we're going out to supper.  I poured her a glass of wine, and another friend came over for no particular reason.

They're sitting on the back porch, talking, and it sounds like this:



Happy Weekend, y'all.

So, This Scammer Calls.

Got home yesterday afternoon and changed clothes, and about 5:00 happened to look at the answering machine.  There was a message and Milady pushed Play, and heard basically the following message:

This is Lieutenant Greg Allen of the Hinds County Sheriff's Office, and we're trying to contact Janet Lee about a court appearance.  Please call us at (601) 978-0376.

Milady listened to the message, and we played it back four or five times to get the numbers and names right.  We don't know a Janet Lee, but Milady's last name was Lee before we married.  The 601 area code is Mississippi and we were powerfully intrigued about the call.  We tried to call back to straighten it out, but it was after 5:00 and we got nothing.

This morning, on my way out the door, I stuck the note in my pocket.

About 8:00 I called the number.  Got an answering machine.  Left a message.

About 9:00 I tried again.  No answer.  So, I googled the Hinds County Sheriff's Office and got a number.  Gave them a call.  They hooked me up with a nice lady, Ms. Karen, in the felony warrants section.  She told me that she's been there a "loooong time" and she's never heard of a Lieutenant Greg Allen, but she'd love to meet him.

"Lieutenant Greg Allen" (or whoever he is) has been scamming people, getting them to send money orders to a PO Box, and the Hinds County Sheriff's Office has had just about a gut-full of it.  So, wherever this asshole is, he'd best be paying attention.  It was an artful dodge, but it looks like the game is played out.

Caskets Floating

As bad as the flooding is in South Louisiana (yeah, it's bad around Baton Rouge, but just as bad in other places) we've had a lot of people displaced.  The shelters are full, and the Cajun Navy has cranked up its flat-bottomed boats and outboard motors to try and help people.

Caskets are floating up out of the ground, as the Daily News reports. When the ground gets saturated and the caskets are well sealed, they're simply a bubble of air, and air floats to the top of water.

This isn't the first time we've seen this, but that fact doesn't make it any easier to bear.  It's a damned shame, a personal horror, and the caskets are a hazard to navigation.

Not enough media attention has been brought to this tragedy, but over 20,000 people have been rescued over the past week, mainly through the efforts of local law enforcement and volunteers.  Our own parish sheriff has sent resources south, as has the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office.  I'm a veteran of Natchitoches Parish and they always "kick in" when someone is hurting, as does the Rapides Parish Sheriff's office, my current employer.

But, the big news is the Cajun Navy.  Purely a voluteer force, they've launched their swamp craft and are working with law enforcement and relief agencies to get folks out of the flood water.  It's a monumental task.  I applaud their efforts.  As Breitbart reports:

Organizers say that the “Cajun Navy” grew out of a natural need to provide additional manpower to local first responders trying to keep pace with calls for rescue of people and animals beginning on August 13. The all-volunteer force pays out of pocket to provide communication devices and appropriate transportation, often spending days at a time on the water performing recoveries. Within the social media chatter promoting the Navy’s services comes a clear motto: “We don’t wait for the help, we are the help.”

As bad as it is in southeast Louisiana, a lot of other communities are hurting.  If you've got a minute tonight before bed, pray for Lafayette, Estherwood, Crowley, Gueydan, and lots of small communities in south Louisiana that are being flooded as I type this.  The rain continues, in fact, it's raining on PawPaw's acre right now.

PawPaw is okay.  No danger of me flooding, but lots of my brethren are hurting right now.  Prayers certainly can't hurt.

Online Gun Buying

I'm not an early adopter of things.  As a matter of fact, I normally wait until someone tells me that a new something-or-other is worth doing before I try it.

Last week I was browsing through my favorite retail gun seller, looking for another cowboy revolver.  He didn't have what I was looking for, so he told me about an online site, Grabagun.com. "I get two or three transfers from them a week." he said.  "They seem like a good outfit."

When I got home later that afternoon, I looked on their site and saw a gun that I'd been looking for.  It's made by Uberti and marketed by Taylor's and Company.  The basic Cattleman revolver, but it has a brass grip frame.  I'm a fan of brass grip frames.  My main, go-to cowboy revolver is the Uberti Hombre, a basic, black single action revolver.  I've been shooting it for the past year and it's my favorite.  Grabagun had a Cattleman with a brass grip frame, and the price was a few dollars below MSRP, so I clicked on it and got out my debit card.

In just a few minutes, I had completed the transaction.  They even had a pull-down menu of local gun shops, so I selected my favorite retailer as the place to ship the gun.  Within seconds, I had an email from them, detailing the order and telling me, apologetically, that the gun would ship in 5 to 7 days.  So there it was, I had to wait.

Back in 2011, I put up a post about an obsolescent cartridge, but one of my favorites, the .35 Remington.  It's a great old cartridge, and I notice in my stats that that post is one of the most viewed over the years.  Evidently, people looking or wondering about the .35 Remington are directed to this little blog, and that's fine with me.

Last week, shortly after I posted my order, I found an email from a reader, looking for a rifle in .35 Remington.  Normally, they're found on used gun racks next to the hen's teeth.  Marlin, as far as I know is the only manufacturer who regularly chambers for that cartridge, and they only make a limited run.  But, before I finished reading the eamail, I had opened another tab and gone over to Grabagun.  Lookee here!!  They've got them in stock.  I told my correspondent where he could find one, and he replied to me that he was thinking about closing the deal.  Well done!

So, I continued to spend the next several days looking for a shipping notice.  Sure enough, right on time, I got the notice that my gun had shipped.  Yesterday the retailer called me and told me it was in.  After work, I went to pick it up.

Just as ordered, a Uberti Cattleman with the case-hardened receiver and the brass grip frame.  After the 4473 and the background check, I walked out with my new revolver.  After a good cleaning and a screw-tightening (which I do with all new guns), it will go in the bag as a spare to my normal race gun.  I like the looks and the feel, and it is almost identical to the Hombre that I've used this past year.

If anyone is looking for a gun and can't seem to find it locally, give Grabagun.com a look.  This outfit has the PawPaw seal of approval.

Interesting Thought Process, Glenn

Professor Reynolds links to an article that talks about secession.

Then, he notes:

Nobody imagined that the EU would use military force to stop Brexit. Why should secession in America be different. Sure, there was that whole Civil War thing. But we live in a milder, more civilized age in which the self-determination of peoples is regarded as a right. And, anyway, we have to regard the Constitution as a living, evolving document, one that can change to suit the needs of the times. Right?

As the Professor is fond of saying.  "Heh!  Indeed!"

Interesting Data

It seems that there is a study out by the Temple University that shows a correlation between police/citizen fatalities and the use of police body cameras.  Courtesy of Zero Hedge:

Surprisingly, we found that the use of wearable video cameras is associated with a 3.64% increase in shooting-deaths of civilians by the police. We explain that video recordings collected during a violent encounter with a civilian can be used in favor of a police officer as evidence that justifies the shooting. Aware of this evidence, the officer may become less reluctant to engage in the use of deadly force. We conducted more in-depth analyses with incident circumstances (e.g. whether a subject was armed) and demographics of victims (e.g. race, age), and we obtained more intriguing findings. Notably, the above-mentioned effect of technology use on fatal shootings is more pronounced for (a) African American or Hispanic victims than Whites or Asians and (b) for armed suspects than unarmed civilians.

 While this certainly merits further study, it seems to suggest that an officer will be less hesitant to use deadly force if he's certain that he's carrying evidence (the body camera) that will support his use of force.

Tip of the hat to Joe Huffman.

We Need Our Weave!

It seems that the narrative has changed following the shooting of a decidedly non-sympathetic guy in Milwaukee that led to rioting over the weekend.  PJMedia has the full timeline, if you're that interested, but what I find compelling is that the narrative seems to have changed.  And, changed quite a bit for the worse.

You all remember "Hands Up, Don't Shoot", the demonstrable lie told after the justifiable shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO.  Subsequent autopsy reports put the lie to that narrative, yet the truth didn't stop the lie from going viral.  And, of course, the BLM folks have capitalized on that lie.

It seems that the narrative coming out of Milwaukee is quite different.  We start by hearing a man on the street, when asked why they were rioting, telling a reporter  'Rich got all this money and ain't tryin' give none'...  Interesting.  This isn't about social justice, this is about money, plain and simple.  I'm glad he cleared that up for us.

But then, we get to hear from the sister of the deceased career criminal who pointed a gun at a police officer.

“Burning down sh*t ain’t gonna help nothin’,” yells Sherelle Smith.
“You’re burnin’ down sh*t we need in our community.”
“Take that sh*t to the suburbs. Burn that sh*t down!” she demands.
“We need our sh*t! We need our weave! I don’t wear it, but we need it!”

You need your weave?  Seriously?

That should become the new rallying cry of the Social Justice Warriors.  We Need Our Weave!  It seems to me that the protesters are finally telling the truth, and that all they really want is our money.  This whole scenario is a result, as I highlighted yesterday, of failed liberal urban policies that has given us an underclass with no jobs, no education, no self-sufficiency, and no hope.

That's a damned shame.

The Milwaukee Riot

The Mayor of Milwaukee said that the shooting last Saturday was a good shoot, that the suspect was armed and he's seen the body-cam video where the officer told the man to put down the gun.

Now, we have the Sheriff, David Clarke speaking to Fox News about the riots and he says that the base cause of the riots are failed, urban liberal policies that result in an underclass with no education, no skills and no jobs.



Speak it, Sheriff Clarke.

Proper Attire

One of the things that we do in Cowboy Fast Draw is attire in the period.  Our time period is the time of 1880-1900 in the western US, and as one of our regulators, Texas Rose says, "We're mostly period correct."  Although we allow modern cowboy attire, we like to dress in period outfits, and the ladies take this as a wardrobe opportunity.

Blue Eyed Belle, who you all know as Milady, has completed an outfit to wear to the banquet at Kentucky State next month, and I managed to snap a few photos of it.

Pure 1880s Victorian attire, she'd be well dressed anywhere.  I think it's gorgeous, and as she sewed very stitch,I'm just amazed at the handiwork.  The photos really don't do it justice.

The detail is exquisite, and it is evocative of well-dressed ladies outfits from the period.  I think that it will be a smashing success at the banquet, and I'm very proud of my lady's efforts in this regard.

As much as I love this game, and invite everyone to participate, I have to fairly warn the guys, this is also a wardrobe event.  But, it's a helluva lot of fun.

Unrest in Milwaukee

Police shot an armed man in Milwaukee last night, and, predictably, it turned into a riot.  We don't know what happened yet, but a few facts are starting to dribble out.

Police said the victim, 23, was armed with a handgun and shot dead by an officer after fleeing a traffic stop on Milwaukee's north side Saturday afternoon.

 Police said the man shot had a "lengthy arrest record" and was carrying a semiautomatic handgun reported stolen in a burglary in Waukesha in March.

 Milwaukee's mayor said the man was struck twice — in the chest and the arm — and that he believes the officer involved had a body camera on at the time of the shooting.

Of course we'll learn more in the coming days, and of course, the usual suspects aren't willing to wait to learn what actually happened.  We don't know lots about this event.  Not the race of the officers, not whether the man threatened police.  Any police action that results in a death is  suficient for a night of rioting and burning.

If everything progresses according to script, the BLM crowd will show up today to plan additional riots, lootings, and burnings.

The Same, but Different

That huge, counter-clockwise rotating storm that hammered Louisiana over the past two days seems to have broken up.  Counter-clockwise rotations are seen in hurricanes and tropical storms, and while the winds (gratefully) never got to the speeds necessary for classification, what we experienced for the past two days was in fact a storm out of the tropics.  In many ways the damage was worse than a wind event, because it was so slow moving.

When I was in high school, our instructors demanded that we learn to read a weather surface map, and I still look at those when I'm trying to figure out the weather.  So, this morning, I glanced at the surface map to get an overview.

Well, that sucks.  It shows a huge front line from Brownsville, TX to Nova Scotia, and the part of it across Louisiana has gone stationary.  Warm, moist air out of the Gulf is going to run up that front line, dumping more moisture on an already drenched Louisiana.  While south Louisiana took the brunt of the storm on Friday and Saturday, this pattern threatens to soak north Louisiana with the same type deluge.  So, we click over to the radar map to get a better idea of current conditions.

Oh, yeah, it looks like a friggin' freight train of thunderstorms that we have to deal with this morning.  And tomorrow, and probably Tuesday.

PawPaws house is on high ground, and we've got a very good roof.  The rain isn't getting to me, but lots of south Louisiana is hurting.  In many ways this was worse than a hurricane because it was so slow-moving.  And it ain't over yet.

New Boots

Boots are a constant fixture in a cop's life.  We wear them every day, and a good pair of boots is a vital necessity.  With all the rain we've been having in Louisiana this week, I started thinking about a set of new boots.

I've been wearing black lace-up boots since I went in the Army.  I remember, as a young officer, the only boot that mattered was the Corcoran Jump boot.  Everyone wore them.  Down at the PX, they were about $60.00, or a tenth of a months pay, but if you wanted to look good, you wore Corcorans.  You can still buy them today.  And, of course, I've also worn Jungle boots.  For years, it was Jungle boots for the field, Corcorans for garrison.

But, I'm past the stage of wearing Corcorans.  I got over that a long time ago.  Nowadays I want a side zipper, and I want comfort.  (Yeah, I know that you can get Corcorans with a zipper, but that's just heresy.)  I also want Gore-Tex.

So, while I was out working Milady's list today, I stopped by my favorite boot tore to see what they had in stock.  Bates!  I like Bates boots.  I've been wearing their boots for years.  They're comfortable, and the Gore-Tex keeps my feet dry when I step in a puddle.  I walked out with a pair of these.

Once I finally retire from police work, I doubt I'll ever buy another pair of black boots.  I'm tired of them, but in the meantime, I'll wear Bates.  They keep my feet dry.

Electoral Politics, What a Surprise!

I'm not a political scientist, only an interested observer, and I follow politics intermittently.  But, I've been a cop for a long time, a local cop, and I know how investigations work, having been involved in several (hundreds) investigations during my career.

In the mid '80s I helped take down a corrupt sheriff.  It was a very careful investigation, because we had to work with Sheriff's deputies while not tipping our hand that an investigation was on-going.  And if you know police organizations, you know that there are very few secrets in police organizations.  Police talk to one another, it's an integral part of our nature.  Those of us on the investigative team had to work very quietly, among multiple agencies (we even had to get an FBI warrant for Interstate Flight) and keep the investigation very compartmentalized before we had the evidence we needed to get the final warrant.  You've got to have your ducks in a row before you walk into the Sheriff's Office with a warrant for the man himself.  But, we did.  I wasn't there for the final act of the play, at that point I was working on another investigation, but I was there for the fallout, and it was impressive.  'Nuff said about that.

After I wrapped up my post from yesterday, I started thinking about police-related stuff, and thinnking about the corruption investigation delving into the Clinton Foundation in New York City.  And I started thinking... what if?  Some very implausible scenarios come to mind.

Shifting gears for a minute, we have to look at the Presidential race.  The Republicans had some very good men in the race early on, and I'd have been happy to vote for any of them, Cruz, Rubio, Jeb Bush, are all very capable, but Trump latched on to the discontent in the nation, at least on the Republican side and rode a wave of populism to the nomination.  Now, we're stuck with him.  And that's about the best I can say about Trump.  I'll vote for him.  He's made a pile of money over time, and in many ways he's been successful without being in government.  But, in the last several weeks, he's been shooting himself in the foot, over and over again.  Eventually, he'll cripple himself and it's hard to be elected if you've alienated every voter who originally supported you.

On the Democrat side, it's Hillary Clinton.  There was never really any doubt.  The only big opponent she had was a socialist who is beloved in his home state, but is not a good match for the rest of the country.    So, that's the state of our presidential race.

Those of us who oppose Hillary Clinton believe her to be a serial felon.  Maybe it is my cop's mind, but when I see smoke, I believe that there is fire, and Hillary's smoke-trail is legendary.  Hillary would probably have been okay, if in 2000, she and Bill had gone gracefully into retirement, but Hillary wanted more.  More power, more money, more influence, so she and Bill started the Clinton Foundation.  Charitable works around the world.  Large donations, more influence.  Then she decided to run for President in 2008.  She got beaten, of course, by Obama.  And, became his Secretary of State.  Huge power, huge prestige, and money.  Lots of money available to a sitting Secretary of State, who also happens to run a worldwide charitable foundation.

Corruption investigations take time, and I know that.  Lots of time.  All the balls have to line up just right.  Corruption investigations have to be done in secret for a number of good reasons.  First, we don't want to besmirch someone if the balls don't line up just right.  Second, we don't want to tip our hand to the target of the investigation.  Evidence is easily destroyed, or witnesses silenced, and before the investigation becomes public, you have to have everything you need.

Back to the "what if"?  The Daily Caller broke a piece yesterday that I alluded to in my earlier post.  The Feds in the Southern District of New York are knee-deep in a corruption investigation, and Hillary is at the center of it.  She is now the Democratic nominee for the Presidency of the United States.  What if, in October, the prosecutor decides he has enough evidence, iron-clad evidence of multiple serious felonies, and impanels a grand jury?  Or, if the final pieces don't fall into place until December?  Or, God forbid, until February?  Would the Secret Service arrest a sitting president on the evidence of a federal court warrant?  What are the constitutional implications?  How would the fallout affect the political parties?  All of these are interesting questions.

Roger Simon asks that very question this morning, and the answers aren't easy.  These are interesting times to be an American.  Our choices for President are stark.  We have, on the one hand, a potentially indictable career criminal, and on the other hand, a buffoonish career businessman.  This isn't an easy decision, and I fear that we may be on our way to a constitutional crisis that historians will argue about for years.  The American experiment is about to get infinitely more interesting.

I fear that Comey, last month, had his opportunity to derail this election.  He walked tantalizingly up to the line, then walked away.  Surely he knew that these other investigations were on-going.  Either way, his mid-morning press conference was a discredit to him, the FBI, and the nation.  Given the opportunity, I intend to spit on his shoes.

Let Freedom Ring.

Kim Rhode

One of our Olympic superstars is Kimberly Rhode, a skeet shooter, was recently asked about her sport.

It sounds like the reporter was trying to ambush her, but Ms. Rhode handled him just like a first station high house.

“We have that stigma attached to our sport,” said Rhode, “When you are talking to a NASCAR driver, they’re not asked to comment on an incident that occurred with a vehicle.”

Yeah, because you know.... shooting and guns and dangerous.  But, Kim continued.

“We should have the right to keep and bear arms, to protect ourselves and our family,” she says. “The Second Amendment was put in there not just so we can go shoot skeet or go shoot trap. It was put in so we could defend our first amendment, the freedom of speech, and also to defend ourselves against our own government.”

Excellent answer, Ms. Rhode, and the perfect response to someone who would ask such a question.

I may have a new hero.  Oh, and if you've never shot Olympic skeet, it's shot gun-down with targets so fast that it's easy to miss one, simply because you didn't see it. Those who disparage skeet should give it a try.  It's a whole lot more difficult than it looks.

Rain and Thunder and LIghtning.

Oh, yeah, it's bad out there right now.  Milady and I are ensconced on our acre with our slippers on, watching the weather on a Friday night.  The dawg, of course, is aghast.  The weather that's been pounding south Louisiana all day is pounding us now.  A screen-cap from the weather radar.

PawPaw is under that purple dot, west of Holloway.  It's rough out there, real rough.  But, we're hunkered down and have a good roof.  The weather weenies say that we should expect this all night.

This has been the wettest August I can ever remember, at least in the last 15 years.

Color Me Skeptical

I see over at Hot Air, a post by Jazz Shaw, entitled: Why you should take the new corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation seriously.  It seems that there is this whiz-bang prosecutor in the Southern Distrct of New York, who is looking into all manner of corruption.

If you’re not familiar with Preetinder Singh “Preet” Bharara – the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, centered on New York City and surrounding counties – then you haven’t been following our ongoing coverage of his prosecution of numerous New York elected officials over the past few years. The man is absolutely fearless when it comes to persons of political power and maintains a reputation for the apolitical pursuit of justice generally only applied to the movie version of Eliot Ness.

Yeah, well, color me skeptical.  There was this other career prosecutor, the big dog in the FBI, a guy who was supposed to be incorruptible.  What was his name?  - - That's right, James Comey.  He sold out in a flash, detailing felonies on national TV, then saying that he wouldn't prosecute them.  The world was aghast, police officers everywhere had coronary events, and Hillary breathed a sigh of relief.  Now, she believes that Comey vindicated her.

Now, we're expected to believe that another career federal prosecutor is actually looking into corruption allegations about the Clintons?  Yeah, right.  I'll believe it when the indictments come down and both Bill and Hillary have posted bail.  Until then, I'll consider the example that Comey set as being representative of US federal law enforcement.  They're in the tank for the power, and don't give a damn about the people.

Tam-O-Lanche

Heh!  I was mindlessly clicking links, and saw that Tam had commented on  a post.  Then I noticed a jump in site traffic.

Heh!  I got a Tam-O-Lanche.  Cool!  Thanks, Tam.

When Tam drops by to snark you, it's just cool.

Oh, the Vapors

Some folks tend to get the vapors about gun safety, and while gun safety is extremely important, it is also important to know how a rule is applied and what that rule really means.  Jeff Cooper promulgated the Four Rules, but meant to keep them simple, easy to remember, and applied with common sense.  As I recall, he continued to explain his rules up until the end of his life.

For example, his rule 2, which stated: Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.  Obviously, this meant guns in use, or guns that you have not verified the condition.  For example, it is impossible for me to not point the muzzle of my gun at the inside top of my gun safe, or the ceiling of my gun room, or even the cushion of the chair in which I'm sitting right now with a holstered pistol.  Sometimes the muzzle of the gun will cover things that you're not willing to destroy.  Use common sense.

Which brings us to this little artifact, a shoe top barrel rest made by the Allen Company.

The Firearm Blog is up in the vapors about this little device.

So shooters get complacent and rest the barrel of the gun on their shoe. This accessory will help keep your shoe from getting dirty. Since the guns are single shot and typically left open they are rationalized as being safe to flag oneself. However this does violate one of the firearm safety rules. Always keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction. Your foot is not a safe direction.

I admit I used to see these used quite a bit at high-end trap and skeet clubs.  Allen has sold thousands, if not tens of thousands of these over the years.  A high-end trap or skeet gun is normally either a double barrel or single barrel, and the gun is loaded only when the shooter steps to the line.  Now, a shotgun barrel is only a high-tech piece of pipe and you can see all the way down it.  If you can look into the breech of the gun and see grass out the other end, then we can be pretty certain that it's not loaded.

I first saw these things used at the McBride Rod and Gun Club back in the '60s and if Allen is still making them, I'm sure that someone is using them.

While we should all be safety conscious, we should also be sensible.  When people get the vapors about something like this, I ask them where they store their guns, and what they do about muzzle discipline?  Or, do they just leave their guns in a rack, outside, exposed to the clear blue sky?

Depressing

Depressing, The news, that is.  Wall to wall election coverage and I'm tired of it.  We've got less than three months and I'll be glad when it's over.

So, let's talk about guns.  I was pawn-shop crawling yesterday and a good friend in the business told me about a new online gun order site.  Grabagun.com.  He said that they have a lot of what I'm always looking for (revolvers, mainly), and that they ship to him quickly.

So, I went over, started looking around, and ordered a Taylor's and Company Ranch hand revolver.  It's a dead-nuts match for the Uberti Hombre I use as my go-to short gun, and I need a spare.  I had been planning a trip to Bass Pro shops out of town, but I can get the gun delivered to my favorite pawn broker, and simply pay him a transfer fee.  Not a bad deal at all.

Not many folks know, but Ruger is the only manufacturer I know of that makes single action revolvers in the US anymore.  (Yeah, Colt.  Right. Find one on the shelves.)  The rest of the single action revolvers are made overseas.  Uberti and Piietta are the big names, and most of the US companies use one or the other of them.  Some like Uberti's some like Pietta's and some like Rugers.

That's the reason that the companies make red bicycles and blue bicycles.  Some like 'em red, some like 'em blue.

But, this is the first time I've ever ordered a gun online.  My retailer tells me that grabagun does a good business through his shop, so we'll see what happens.

Congratulations, Plain Jane!

Great little video showcasing CFDA and celebrating the new CFDA Women's National Chamion, Plain Jane our of Vidor, TX.

Jamie is a friend of mine, she shoots with the Big Thicket Bushwackers out of Silsbee, TX.  She went to Colorado last week, and won it all.  I thought that I had highlighter her win, but I guess I didn't.  I was waiting for this video to come out.

Take a look at the video in full screen, and watch how these ladies compete.  Take a look also at the outfits some of them wear.  These gals are pretty, and fast.  You do not want to get in a gunfight with them.



Take a look also at her belt/holster rig.  It's a steampunk rig made by her husband, Parttime, who runs Crease N Corral.  If you want some high-grade custom leather, you couldn't do better than Crease N Corral.

Congratulations, Jamie!  We'll see you in a couple of months.

Broccoli Pie

I've had several ask about Broccoli Pie, so here's the recipe.  I had to get Milady to dig it out of her recipe cards.  But, it's a favorite around here.

Broccoli Pie

2 baked pie crusts
1 pk chopped broccoli frozen (about ten ounces)
1 pound ground meat
1 pack seasoning blend (frozen).  This is basically onions, bell peppers, and celery.
Dash Tobasco
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 3 oz pack cream cheese
1 small can mushrooms, diced
Mozzarella cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Cook broccoli and drain
Saute seasoning blend and brown hamburger meat. Drain
Mix cream of mushroom soup, broccoli, hamburger, cream cheese, mushrooms.  Add dash of Tobasco.  Salt and pepper to taste.
Pour mixture into baked pie shells.
Top with grated cheese.
Bake at 350 until cheese melts and mixture is bubbly.

Slice, eat, enjoy.  That's Milady's broccoli pie recipe and it's a hit around here.

What The Hell?

I was following links, and went over to Tam's place.  Tam is a great resource, by the way.  If you don't read her regularly, you're missing a treat.  But I digress.

Following a link, I went to Gun Nuts Media, where I find this little article: Concealed Carry advice: When to press-check your gun.

Short answer: Never.  Seriously.  I thought we'd been over this.  If you're a concealed carrier, you should know, to a certainty, if your weapon is loaded or not.  If it is loaded, leave it alone.  If it's not loaded, then you should have loaded it before you holstered it.  An unloaded gun is a prescription to disaster.

Doing a press check is a neophyte drill.  If you have to check your weapon's status, do it in private, safely, then put it in the holster and leave it alone.

Questions, Questions.

Why are Democrats so violent?

CLEVELAND (AP) – An Ohio man accused of shooting another man in the leg during a fight over presidential politics last month has turned himself into police.

 The July 25 shooting at Winston’s Bar in Cleveland came after the two men started arguing about the presidential election. Police say Hall left the bar, returned and opened fire, striking the 60-year-old man once in the leg.

 Bruner said the 60-year-old man had said Republican Donald Trump would be a good president. Hall disagreed.

Hall has been charged with felonious assault.  Over politics.

Smith and Wesson No. 3

Talking yesterday about cowboy revolvers, commenter M. Silvius asks in comments:

I know nothing about the sport, but always wondered why we don't see the Schofield type being used in cowboy action shooting. I'd think the top break would be an advantage for fast reloads.

Interesting question.  First, the genre of cowboy shooting that we do is Cowboy Fast Draw, a completely different game than Cowboy Action Shooting.  Our game is a single-shot game that doesn't require reloading quickly, so the speed of reloading really doesn't enter into our thinking.

But, Smith and Wesson's Number 3 revolver is an interesting artifact.  It came out in 1869 and saw service in the Indian Wars, the Spanish American War, and even World War 1.  Smith and Wesson sold a bunch of them to our Army, and to various other governments in Europe.  Famously, they sent over 131,000 of these revolvers to the Imperial Russian Army, in a caliber designed especially for the order,  The .44 Russian (as opposed to the .44 American) was the first example of an internally lubricated  cartridge.  Before that, all of the fixed cartridge ammunition had a rebated heel, externally lubricated bullet, similar to today's .22 Long Rifle that we all know and love.

In short, the story of the Smith and Wesson No 3 is an interesting one.  Frank James, brother of Jesse James, carried a Number 1 1/2 and the No 3 was used extensively worldwide.  Even the Australians got in on the action.

The simple question of why we don't use them in the games today boils down to cost.  A nice working original would cost north of $2000, and you'd be using an historically valuable revolver in a game that's tough on revolvers.  Uberti makes a copy, but even then, the MSRP on them is over $1100.00, depending on finish, barrel length,etc.

We buy a lot of revolvers in this game, and we're tough on them.  We've bought eight cowboy revolvers this year alone, at an average price of $500.00 each.  Hopefully, everyone now has the gun they like, but I'm always on the lookout for a good used spare.  I routinely haunt pawn shops for cowboy revolvers.

The Smith and Wesson Number 3 is an interesting revolver with wide historical relevance, but the simple fact is that I can pick up a good cowboy revolver for less than half the price of a Number 3.

Sunday Song

Lunch is done, the birthday party is over, and the dishes are washed. The kids went home a few minutes ago. Milady and I are relaxing with a digestif,



It's been a good day, stretching into a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Sunday Random

What readily available household substance dissolves wax?  I'm not talking about candle wax out of your tablecloth, I'm talking about bullet wax out of cartridge cases.  Yeah, it was that hot at the range yesterday.  I've got them soaking in a chemical concoction in the garage.  I just hope that I don't have to mitigate it with a HazMat team.

Grandson is having a birthday party later.  He turned 14 yesterday, and he's requested lasagna and broccoli pie for his birthday meal.  Broccoli pie is kind of a quiche, with broccoli, mushrooms, hamburger meat, baked in a pie shell.  Oh, damn, it's good.  The lasagna is ready to go into the oven, and the Milady will have the broccoli pie ready at lunch time.

My lawn has gotten all out of hand.  As soon as it's daylight, I'm going to fire off some small engines.

Lawn care, birthday party and chemical concoctions.  That's how I'm spending my Sunday.

Thorn Valley

Our CFDA club is the Thorn Valley Shootist Society.  We meet every Saturday in Melder, LA.  We're a small club, but we celebrate each other's successes.  We met today, and Blue Eyed Belle, (who you all know as Milady) experimented with shooting in a skirt.

She hit a 0.853 in a skirt.  That's not only her fastest time in a skirt, that's her fastest time forever.  For those of you who may not understand that, she drew a single-action revolver from a holster, thumb-cocked that revolver, and hit a 24"  target 21 feet away in just over 8/10ths of a second.  She did that in a skirt, and high heeled boots.  Better than that, she hit in the 8/10ths a couple of times, and she's really consistent in the 9/10ths range.

If you think that's easy, come out to your local CFDA club.  We'll be happy to strap you up.

You can like our Facebook page here.  If you want to join, I'm an administrator.  I'll hook you up.

But, I am so proud of my gal, I hardly know how to act.

Ruger, Uberti, or Pietta?

It seems that's the question in Cowboy Fast Draw, and if you follow my posts you know that I have all of them.  Basically, it boils down to personal preference, and it's interesting to see what people prefer on the line.

The Ruger New Vaquero is probably the dominant fast draw revolver, and there's good reason to like it.  There are Ruger spare parts everywhere, it's rugged to a fault, it's made in America, and lots of shooters like them.  But, don't take the idea that it's rugged to mean it won't break.  Cowboy shooters of every discipline are hard on firearms, and everyone has their little tuning tricks.  Rugers break, though maybe not as often as the others.

I like Uberti and there are those who agree with me.  My go-to short gun is a Uberti Hombre, the one with the brass grip frame.  Recently, I gave my son-in-law a revolver to give him a leg up on the initial cost, and I laid two guns onthe table.  One, a Ruger New Vaquero and the other a Uberti Cattleman.  After shooting both on our backdoor range, consulting with my sons, and weighing the pros and cons, he went with the Cattleman.  It was a good choice, but the Ruger would have been a good choice too.

Last summer, we were in a Bass Pro Shops and Milady decided to look at cowboy guns.  She fingered several of them, and settled on the Pietta.  This particular Piettta is imported and marked by Traditions, but it's a Pietta, through and through.  The owners manual is in both English and Italian.  She likes it becuse it fits her hand better than the Ruger or the Uberti.  For her birthday, I bought her another one, the Rawhide edition of the same gun.

Folks ask me, sometimes, "what should I buy?"  I don't have a clue.  I've got Rugers, Ubertis and Piettas in the battery, and I'm happy to let you try them, but in the final analysis, the individual shooter has to make the decision.  Your handgun is as personal a choice as your underwear.  I'll not make either of those choices for you.

Some might tell me that they shoot a Taylor's and Company, or a Cimarron, but basically, both of those companies use either Uberti or Pietta as their base gun.  They do some fine tuning, and they make guns available to the shooting public, but trust me; they're either a Uberti or a Pietta.  Both Taylor's and Cimarron provide great value and good products for the shooting public, and they support the shooting sports.  I like them both.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the company that started this craze.  Yeah, Colt Model P revolvers are still available, but they're rare as hens teeth in the gun counters around here.  When you see one, the price is through the roof.  I personally don't recommend shooting an historically significant firearm on the cowboy race line.  If you have Grandpas old Colt, take it out, maintain it, but don't race it, please.  We're tough on our firearms, and I'd hate to see a valuable old gun abused in our game.

Colt still makes new revolvers.  The last price I've seen is well north of $1500.00.  As much as I like the original, they're pretty much our of my price range.

American Gold - Woot!

American shooter Virginia Thrasher has won the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics.

Thrasher held off two Chinese shooters to bring hom the first gold medal of the Games.

The 19-year-old American edged out China's Du Li, gold in Athens in 2004, with an Olympic-record score of 208. Defending Olympic champion Yi Siling, also of China, took the bronze medal.

Well done, Virginia.  America is proud of you, very proud.

Pete Fountain Dead

WDSU News is reporting that legendary bluesman Pete Fountain died this morning.

As far as many New Orleanians are concerned, there was no better player of a woodwind instrument than Pete Fountain.

The legendary musician died at 5:08 a.m. Saturday, his family said. He was 86.

"It’s a sad day for his family. And it’s sad to for all of New Orleans. Pete and his clarinet brought a lot of love and music to the world. He will greatly be missed.” Benny Harrell, Pete Fountain’s son-in-law and longtime manager said.

I heard Pete play in New Orleans several times, and he influenced the New Orleans music scene in ways that it might take decades to fully appreciate.



Rest in Peace, Pete.

That Was the Week That Was

Back in the '60s there was a sitcome entitled That Was the Week That Was, a satire of news from the previous week.  It took a lighthearted view of news and the theme song started "That was the week that was, it's over let it go."

That's good advise these days if, like me, you're a blood-red conservative.  Our candidate is sticking his foot in his mouth, or getting into arguments with Gold Star families on a regular basis and our opponent is so confident that she's doubling down on her lies and is cancelling ad buys in battleground states.  She's well up in the polls this week.

It's been a tough week for conservatives.

But, it's only the first week of August.  Hopefully, our candidate, as flawed as he is will get some on-the-job training really quickly.  He gamed the primaries and he got the nomination, so now he needs to game the general election and get the votes he needs.  And, he needs a lot.  But, here is the thing with the polls.  Hillary hasn't yet gotten to 50% in many polls that I've seen, and Trump is following her by several percentage points.

Hillary's supporters aren't going to vote for Trump.  Trumps supporters aren't going to vote for Hillary.  So, the candidates are now in a race for that 12% that haven't decided.  That's where the election will be won or lost.  The middle ground.

This week has been rough, but it's only the first week of August.  Donald Trump has about 90 days to turn it around.  I hope that he's smart enough to do that.

Good Advise

There are a few gems that come across the Book of Face, and this is one of them.  I'm not normally a violent person, but I know how to bring violence.

Body Work

Back in March, my Mercury was involved in a little accident.  I've held off doing the body work, because.... well.... because.  Procrastination shouldn't take so long.

Back in the day, (late '60s to early '80s) I spent more than my fair share of time hanging out around a body shop.  My Dad's best friend, Chester, was an old style body-and-fender guy, and I spent a lot of Saturdays hanging out at Chester's shop.  Working on one project or another, I've told some stories here about Chester's shop.  But, I learned the basics of body work.

Basically, what I learned is that I hate body work.  But I learned more than that basic fact.  So, last week I ordered the parts to repair my Mercury.  And, like Chester told me repeatedly, the first thing you do is prep and prime.

It's plastic, or fiberglasss, or some other such composite, but it responded well to a good sanding with 600 grit and the first coat of primer is on it.  For the next several days, I'll sand and prime it a couple of more times, then start disassembling the sedan to get ready to re-install this header panel.

One of the things I noticed at Auto Zone, is that I can buy color-match rattle-can paint.  I bet that Chester would turn over in his grave if he knew I was going to use rattle-can, but we'll see how it goes.  I'll have to get the color code off the inside of the door and do a little homework.

President Obama Releasing Gun Felons

If you've been watching the news, or reading it on the Intertubes, you know that President Obama has chosen to commute the sentences of prisoners who "mostly" commit non-violent drug crimes.  That's certainly within his power, and laudable in some respects.  But once we get past the "mostly" we see that he's also releasing gun felons who were in possession of firearms during their drug crimes.  The Justice Department helpfully provides a list of those felons that he recently commuted their sentences.  For example:

  Joshua Boyer – Tampa, FL
Offense: Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense; possession of a firearm not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record; Middle District of Florida

 Reinaldo A. Arocho – Lake Station, IN
Offense: Drug conspiracy; maintaining a drug house; distribution of crack cocaine; carrying a firearm during drug trafficking; attempting to corruptly persuade a witness; Northern District of Indiana

Asher Adkins – Columbia City, IN
Offense: Distribution of methamphetamine and aiding and abetting (two counts); distribution of methamphetamine (three counts); use or carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking crime (two counts); distribution of more than 100 grams of methamphetamine (two counts); Northern District of Indiana

Patrick A. Brown – Alexandria, VA
Offense: Felon in possession of a firearm, aiding and abetting (two counts); possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, aiding and abetting; District of Maryland

Willie Chester – Waco, TX
Offense: Possession of a firearm by felon; false statement in acquisition of firearm; Western District of Texas

Mark Anthony Clark – Rockford, IL
Offense: Conspiracy; possession with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of methamphetamine and aiding and abetting; possession with intent to distribute amphetamine; possession of a firearm by a felon/fugitive from justice and aiding and abetting; Northern District of Texas

 Jimmie Clyde Collins – Joshua, TX
Offense: Conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute; possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and aiding and abetting; using a drug involved premises and aiding and abetting; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver; possession of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime; Northern District of Texas

I could go on, but you get the point.  "Mostly" non-violent drug offenders, but a surprising number of them (51 actually, or almost 1-in-4) was convicted of a firearms felony.  I, like most gun owners are tired of being harassed on almost a daily basis by the anti-gunners moaning about the need for more gun control.  It seems to me that President Obama is sending precisely the wrong message in releasing convicted gun felons.  It's as if he wants to demonize those of us who use guns for sport and recreation, but he'll release those convicted of serious gun felonies.

This is the Democrat's message.  They want laws against the law-abiding.  The convicted gun felons, they'll turn loose.

CFDA US Nationals

This past weekend, the CFDA finished up the US Nationals, hosted by the San Juan Shootists in Pagosa, CO.  Video is starting to trickle out, and here we have two of the big names in Cowboy Fast Draw going toe to toe.  Powder Keg and Marshall Cooper bringing all the heat that they can bring.  It's a great match.



As more video trickles out, I'll highlight it.

Just today, I made reservations at a place called Beaver Dam, KY,   Blue Eyed Belle and I will be attending the Kentucky State Championships in September.  We're stoked about it.

Republican or Democrat?

If that's the question you're asking yourself, then I think that you're asking the wrong question.  There's something going on this election that some folks are starting to notice, and it doesn't bode well for the political parties.

I t hink that this year, the question boils down to Establishment, or Not Establishment.  The Democrats have answered that question by nominating Hillary Clinton, one of the most powerful establishment candidates I've ever seen.  It's interesting to note that the Not Establishment Bernie Sanders made a good showing, and if the Establishment hadn't closed ranks behind Clinton, Bernie might have been the nominee.

On the Republican side of the aisle, that party nominated a Not Establishment candidate, Donald Trump.  Establishment Republicans failed to properly assess the mood of the electorate, and our absolute disgust at the way the establishment Republicans continued to play game with their promises and our tax money.

This article in the Weekly Standard talks about it.

This article over at Hot Air talks about it.

As Not Establishment voters were rallying around Trump earlier in the race, one of the standard bearers of the Establishment, Paul Ryan, our own Speaker of the House, said that he "wasn't there yet" when asked about endorsing Trump.

Today, Ryan is in a primary race with a Not Establishment opponent, and when someone asked Donald Trump if he would endorse Ryan, he said that "he's not there yet."  Heh!  Payback is a sonofabitch, and both Priebus and Ryan should know now that the rules have changed.  The electorate is fed up with establishment, career politicians and they're making their disgust apparent, one vote at a time.

We elect people to do a job and if they don't do the job we want them to do, we're free to elect someone else.  The establishment forgets that at their peril.  I'd personally rather end their careers at the voting booth than with sisal rope and a lamppost, but both options are still on the table.

Quote of the Day

From Joe Huffman: Quoting some person named danyl:

The pro-gun trolls are vicious and ignorant. I’m sure in real life they are pitiful little men who couldn’t get a date with a woman if their life depended on it. It’s easy to sound tough when you’re hiding in your basement.

danyl, as it turns out, was posting on Boston.com,  You can go to that link to see his profile.  It seems that he's a regular contributor on a wide range of issues.  If the advise that he gives on other issues is as horrible as the advice he gives on gun issues, his advise is worthless.

I can only assume that danyl lives in the Acela Corridor, and doesn't know much about gun culture. But, that's what they think about us.  They insult every frigging' day.

Just for the record, danyl, when I was single I never had a problem getting a date.  Women who understand the gun culture are strong, self-reliant, humorous, sexy individuals who appreciate men that are strong, self-reliant, humorous, and sexy.  danyl really should walk into his local gun club and see what it's all about.

My Time With A Muzzleloader

During the mid '70s, U.S. sportsmen discovered a resurgence in muzzleloading rifles and shotguns.  Many states opened early "muzzleloader" seasons to give sportsmen a chance at early season deer hunting.  About that same time, the re-enacator folks saw an increase in their ranks.  Some folks really enjoyed studying the era of the trappers from the late 1700's, early 1800s that opened the American West.

When I got out of the Army in 1979, I re-established contact with my hometown buddies.  Louisiana had just opened an early muzzleloading season, so I decided to take advantage of it.  However, I knew nothing about front-stuffing a rifle or using charcoal as a propellant.  A good friend of mine took me down to the local sporting good store, the old Security Sporting Goods on 3rd street in Alexandria, and hooked me up with a rifle.  The one I chose was a Thompson Center Renegade, in .54 caliber.

What I liked about it at the time, (and still do) was its dark furniture. It's not a flashy rifle, but it is extremely workmanlike.  While it has the double set triggers, the nice walnut stock and the traditional appearance that we associate with that era, it also had a coil spring lock, and was rugged as hell.  My rifle was not intended to be a showpiece, it is a working gun.

After I got used to the loading/firing routine, I settled down at my leisure and started learning to shoot the darned thing.  After just a little while, I settled on a load consisting of 60 grains of Goex FFg powder, a .530 round ball, ad pillow tick patching.  I used common Crisco for my lube.  After I adjusted the sights for the point of aim, I found that when I did my part, the rifle would put the ball in the black at 100 yards.

Only accurate rifles are interesting, and I was interested.  My eyes were still good enough to use iron sights, and the iron sights on the Renegade were very good.  One day in mid October, I came home from work and got out the rifle to play with it.  A crow landed in the pasture about 125 yards out and looked at me as I loaded the rifle.  I held on the base of his chin and touched the set trigger.  That .530 round ball had hit him in the chest, plowed right on through, and made one hell of a mess.

I carried that rifle on the early muzzleloader hunt, hut didn't get a chance to shoot it.  Several weeks later I was hunting with a buddy and a yearling doe presented herself, so I took the shot.  The ball entered her ribcage, blew through both lung, and dropped her right there.  And, that was my standard experience with that rifle.

Don't let anyone tell you that a round ball won't take deer.  Folks used to ask me why I carried the front-stuffer and uneducated folks would scoff at my choice of arm.  Simply, the ball weighs 230 grains, almost half again as much as a modern sporting bullet of 150 grains.  And, while the average hunter hopes his bullet expands to a half-inch, my round ball starts out over that same half inch.  Round balls (and cast bullets generally) kill differently than modern expanding bullets.  When a modern expanding bullet hits a game animal it starts dumping energy.  The good ones expand and dump lots of energy, the ones that fail don't.  It's an age-old story.

But, when a round ball hits an animal, it brings all the energy it's got with it.  It normally just shoots through unless it hits bone.

I carried that rifle for the better part of two decades and never lost a deer to it.  I was hunting in the piney woods and swamps of central Louisiana and it never failed me.

On one of the last hunts I made  with that rifle, about 1998, I was hunting with Junior Doughty on his family land.  He put me on a stand behind the old home place, looking down a small logging road.  About nine o'clock, a herd of does came down the hill.  One of Junior's dogs had followed me to the stand, and he barked at the deer and scatted them.

I figured that if I sat tight, they'd try to re-herd, and that's pretty much what happened.  I  noticed a young doe looking at me over a yaupon bush about 50 yards away,  so I put the front sight at the base of her neck and touched it off.  She fell backwards, kicked once and expired.

When I autopsied her later, I found that the round ball hit her where I was aiming.  It traveled down the length of her spine, shattering bone as it went, then turned before it got to her hind quarter and left her just ahead of her left hip.  That ball traversed about two feet of bone and deer.  It would be pressing hard to say that it didn't have enough penetration.

Shortly after that hunt, I joined a lease where the shots were considerably longer, so I put the Renegade away and started using more modern firearms.  It's not a knock on the Renegade, it's just the nature of southern hunting these days.  If I were to hunt a piney forest these days, I'd likely take a rifle that shot cast bullets, or I'd take the Renegade.  It would work just fine, out to about 150 yards.  They worked just fine 150 years ago, and they'll work just fine today.