Monday Muse

 Are we still in the government shutdown?  I haven't noticed and don't really care. As a "small L libertarian", the less government, the better.

PJMedia asks the rhetorical question, "How many illegal aliens are drawing food stamps?"  For me, the answer is that one is too many.  The migrants I know, all of them legal, are hardworking souls that pay their own way.  If you are coming to the US to mooch, then you are in the wrong place.  Go home and mooch.

I understand that some people want to keep the gravy train rolling, but eventually you run out of other people's money.  And every tax dollar that the government squanders is other people's money. Now, I understand that two federal court judges are talking with Trump about how to get the money flowing.  It seems that the US Dept of Agriculture has some $5 Billion set aside for natural disasters.  This is not a natural disaster.  This is Democrat stubbornness. They can end it today by voting to end it.

On a more personal and local note, Belle wants me to make my stuffed chimichangas for lunch today. She has a list and will soon be on her way to the grocers.

Belle Calls Bullshit

We come this morning with this tale of woe from the Big Easy.  Belle calls bullshit.  She was a nurse for over 40 years.

Belle calls bullshit because this lizard is claiming that he is a licensed nurse that can't find a job.  There is a nationwide nursing shortage in every employment market.  This guy might not be able to find the job he wants, but he could go to work tomorrow.  He might have to start as an ER nurse on the night shift, but the jobs are available. This guy doesn't need SNAP, he needs to go to work.

Spooky SNAP

 Today is Halloween, a celebration beloved by millions of Americans.  After a night of goblins, ghosties, and things that go bump in the night, Americans are poised to waken tomorrow to the pause, perhaps the end, of a program that began in 1939.

Originally called the Federal Foos Stamp program, it began to give Americans a temporary leg up when times were tough. It has now morphed into a bloated entitlement program. Democrats, through their hubris, are set to let it expire in the short-term beginning November 1st.

This program has been around since 1939, and although intended as a temporary measure, some folks have been on it since birth.  Now that it is poised to pause, the outrage is palpable and loud.  Videos of outrage are filling the internet, with people saying that if the Democrats pause their benefits, they will simply go to Wal Mart and steal it. My, my.

This ain't Wal Mart's fault.  But thankfully, the technology has caught up with stealing. There is an App for that.  I'm hearing that in some markets, Wal Mart will suspend in-store shopping.  If you want to order groceries on the app, they will bring it to you in the parking lot. This technology has been around for several years, and I myself have used it when convenient.

Again, these are all wild-eyed, hairy-assed rumors, but it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. The Senate Democrats could end all this by simply voting to fund the government at current levels.

Range Day

 Belle had errands to run this morning, so I loaded a couple of rifles in the van and headed out to the Woodworth range for a little recoil therapy.

I started out with the Winchester 94 carbine.  I haven't shot this rifle since Junior Doughty died, and I felt like the old gal needed a little range time.  That rifle is fitted with a Williams pep sight and I quickly realized that I could not pick up that front bead sight against the tree line.  That sight just disappeared in the clutter of the ben and shadows.  My old eyes let me down.  I need a high-resolution front sight on that rifle. I'll do some research, but my first inclination is to install a Fire-Sight.

So, putting the levergun back in the case, I took out the Ruger 10/22.  I had not fired that rifle since I swapped the factory stock for the Boyds AT-One. That rifle made me feel a little bit better, so I re-zeroed with the new stock, then fired 10 shots on a fresh target.

Not too shabby for an old blind man.  I will own those two flyers, but I still feel that the trigger on that rifle is a bit crunchy. Ruger makes a better trigger, as does Timney and Volquartsen. The cost of those triggers are more than the cost of anew Ruger 10/22 and it becomes just a matter of how much I want to spend to refit the trigger group.

Decisions, decisions.

Optimum Still Sucks

 I awoke this morning to another Optimum service outage. I called it in and got the familiar robot. Optimum knows that there is a service outage in my neighborhood and are working diligently to restore service.

I especially like the part in their spiel when they tell me that I can go online for more information.  How, exactly, and I supposed to go online when the internet is down? That is a question that no one has been able to answer.  Just a dumb-ass robot answering the phones. Telling me what I already know.  

Optimum still sucks.

Cleaning Rods

 If you are a shooter, you need a cleaning rod. Yes, there are other ways to clean a barrel, but a cleaning rod is indispensable to your bench.  Yes, I like Hoppes Bre Snakes, and yes, I use them. But, for a deep cleaning, nothing beats a good rod and a brush.

I realized last night that I had no clue where my .22 caliber rod had gotten off to. I know exactly where my rod for medium bores is hanging, but the .22 rod seems to have grown feet and wandered off. I'm a big fan of Dewey rods, so I went to my favorite retailer and ordered one.  It will get here in a few days, and in the meantime, I need to pull my bench away from the wall and screw a clip to the back of it so that the rod will have a home.

Dewey rods are a little more expensive, but they are really nice.

Glock Perfection

 So, evidently, there is some hysteria going around that Glock is coming out with a new generation that changes the disconnector to make it harder to mod the gun to help it go full auto?

So let me ask, just exactly how much toilet paper do you have left over from the Covid hysteria?

Manufacturers make changes constantly. Sometimes to help manufacturing, sometimes to defend from possible lawsuits, sometimes to protect patents. Glock is no different than Smith and Wesson in that regard. The Smith revolver I'm carrying right now is on its 16th manufacturing change.

Don't freak out.  There are literally millions of old-generation Glocks on the used gun market.  We're not going to run out anytime soon.

What A Dumb Broad

 Watching the news this morning, I stumbled across this clip from Gutfeld! talking about Sunny Hostin, the brain-dead host of a show called The View.  You can watch the clip here.

Hostin claims that she lives in an all-white neighborhood.  He son was training for the Junior Olympics and she took her son to the police station and told the cops that her son was training, and that they should leave him alone as he ran through the neighborhood.

Hostin doesn't understand how "the cops" work. Generally, in any agency that that provide 24/7 protection, there are four shifts. The cops you might contact on Monday, aren't there on Wednesday. The cops that are there during the day, aren't there at night. Generally, there is some sort of "pass-on" log, where information is passed from one shift to another, but unless they took a photo of Hostin's son, no one knows what this kid looks like. The story is preposterous on its face.

And, as comedian Jamie Lissow points out in the clip, if Hostin lives there, it's not an "all-white" neighborhood anymore.

Thursday Thoughts

 Another beautiful day in central Louisiana. It's full-fledged autumn.

I went to the cardiologist yesterday and he gave me a clean bill of health. He doesn't want to see me for another year. At my advanced stage of decrepitude, I felt like that was pretty good news.

At the local, club level, we have our last Monthly Match this weekend.  Several years ago, the club voted to not hold regular matches during November and December.  Too many holidays and deer hunting.  I actually believe that it was more about encroachment on the hunting than it is the holidays.

It's going to be a lazy Thursday around here.  I intend to accomplish it without starting a single gasoline engine.