Cell Phones

I carry a cell phone. Most of the people in the United States carry one.

Sergeant Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass, Police Department has one. The president called him on it the other day. Crowley is the hero of this whole story. Gates and Obama are the assholes. This story is about a professional police sergeant doing his job and elitist assholes trying to make the story into something it isn't.

This post ain't about that. This post is about cell phones. Particularly my cell phone. I have a cell phone for my convenience. I pay a monthly bill on it. It's a part of modern life. But, that doesn't mean that I want to talk to every asshole who might ring me on it.

One day I left the phone in the truck. One of my many supervisors called me. Later, I was asked why I didn't answer my phone. "Because it's my phone. If you want me to answer the phone, issue me one. Until then, don't presume that I carry a cell phone. It might be in the truck, it might be on my bedside table."

If you really want to piss me off, give my cell number to someone else. I give my number to very few people. People I trust and love and care about have my cell number. My boss has my cell number, but he shouldn't assume that I want to talk to anyone else. If the President called me on my cell number, I'd probably answer the phone out of sheer curiosity, but there's no guarantee that we'd talk. The phone might be in the truck, or on my bedside table.

That's my phone. If I want to talk to you, I'll answer the phone. If I don't want to talk to you...

.250 Savage

I know very little about the .250 Savage cartridge, except that it was supposedly the cartridge that launched the high-velocity revolution. Originally called the .250-3000, it would launch an 87 grain bullet at 3000 fps. Heady stuff.

It's a nostalgic cartridge, surpassed by many, many more capable cartridges. It shoots a 100 grain hunting bullet at about 2800 fps, depending on a number of variables.

I can see no burning reason to yearn for a .250 Savage, except that Savage is offering one in the American Classic rifle. MSRP is about $779.00.

Damn. I want one.

Busy Day

I went to second son's house today and helped him install some plumbing for a vanity in his new bathroom. When that was over, first son and I installed a top on the Mule.

I bought that thing two years ago to use on the lease, and to use at work when I needed to take a lot of steps across outside ground. I've used it for parades, football game, track meets, just about any activity at the school where I've got to cover a lot of acreage.

It didn't have a top, and that has become a handicap. Not so much for really foul weather, but for those cold mornings where the dew sets on everything. Driving through woods is like taking a bath.

Kawasaki wants a jillion dollars for a top specifically designed for my Mule. My boys, on the other hand, were able to get a piece of sign material. It's two pieces of 1/32d aluminum sandwiched around a piece of 1/16th high-impact plastic. We cut a 5' X 6' piece and clamped it to the top of the mule with pipe straps. It's a clean installation.

When we got finished, it was nearly happy hour at PawPaw's house, so Milady sent me to the store for ribeye steaks while she steamed some broccoli and baked a few potatoes.

PawPaw's stuffed, and it'll soon be bedtime.

Cold Barrel

I went to the range this morning with the guns and ammo I plan to hunt with this season. I wanted to fire one shot from a cold, clean barrel and see where it hit the target.

It's one thing to fire groups, and firing for group size is fine, but many rifles will put the first bullet our of a cold, clean barrel into one spot and the remaining bullets in another spot. I know both of my Savage hunting rifles will do that. It's a confidence builder to know where that first bullet is going, and I found out.

They both shot 1" high at 100 yards, both the .30-06 and the .243, just a tad right of center. Here's the .30-06. Just for the record, both of those targets are 2" dots, 100 yards from the muzzle.



That's a 168 grain bullet traveling something over 2800 fps. According to my ballistic program I'll stay withing 3" of the aiming point out to 300 yards, and I'll not pull the trigger on any game animal past 300 yards.

And here's the .243.



On both rifles, the next three shots went into the lower left of the target dot. The .30-06 turned in the best three shot group it's ever shot, at 0.539". These rifles are being cleaned as I type paragraphs and they'll be put away and ready for the hunting season.

Drop Tube

Sometimes, when we're reloading we find a particular load combination that requires a compressed load. Compressed loads occur when the powder intrudes on the space where the bullet comes into contact with the powder charge. These loads are not necessarily unsafe and can be found in most reloading manuals with a small "C" after the load data.

I guess it's time for the standard reloading disclaimer:

Reloading and use of reloaded ammunition can be hazardous. Read up on safety procedures and seek competent instruction. Wear safety equipment such as eyeshield and gloves. The author assumes no liability for other persons who may use methods or data in this article. PawPaw assumes no liability for persons who may use methods or data in this article. We are all adults here, and are expected to know the dangers inherent in our hobby. If you are a minor, please talk with a responsible adult before enjoying the hobby of reloading. This is an advanced reloading technique and should be used with a full knowledge of the dangers and risk inherent in reloading. If you can't follow directions or understand the cautions, then you should click here.

Now that we've read the cautions, it's time to talk about drop tubes. This is an old technique that the black-powder shooters used to add powder to a load. They're sold commercially and can be used for black powder and smokeless powder.

Drop tubes don't compress the powder, but they align the granules and assist in more closely filling the available case capacity. I don't like compressing loads, I feel that the powder was manufactured to perform a certain way, and crushing granules is probably a bad idea. So, drop tubes are useful to settle the powder into the case.

At some point last year, I decided that I needed a drop tube to occasionally load a particular load in .30-06. The published load data told me that the load, as it approached the upper levels, would require compressed powder.

I don't like compressing powder granules, So, I decided to make a drop tube. My considerations were that it must be of non-sparking material because any build-up of static electricity can be bad juju when using gunpowder. Sparks are bad. I hied myself down to the local hardware store and purchased a small piece of copper pipe and some step-up fittings. A few minutes with a soldering torch and I had cobbled together a serviceable drop tube, an extended funnel. I camfered the lower end with a VLD camfer tool and aggressively camfered the tube so that it would fit snugly on brass. Total time of construction was about one hour. Total cost was well under $10.00 US.

A picture is worth a thousand words.



Again, I'm not recommending that you exceed the load recommendations from the various powder or bullet manufacturers. But, a drop tube is a very good addition to the advanced reloader's bench.

Inventory

I took a few minutes today to update my firearms inventory. It's a good idea to keep a list of firearms and other valuables you might have around the house. In case of burglary or other disaster. It's also a good idea to handle all of your firearms regularly. Firearms, like other tools, need routine attention.

I've got them all listed, but I have to remember to add Milady's shotgun to the list when it comes back from the shop.

What I thought would take a few minutes turned into an hour or so. It's amazing that when you handle firearms, you have to take a minute to peer down the barrel and wipe an oily rag across everything. I saw some firearms that needed attention, so they got a good cleaning.

The last of them is sitting on the counter on the cleaning box. I'm letting the Hoppe's soak for the second go-round. In a few minutes I'll start pushing patches.

Pawn Shop Circuit

I took Milady's shotgun to the gunsmith today. We've had it in the storage cabinet and I took it out last week for routine cleaning and function check. It didn't function correctly. The shotgun in question is a Savage/Stevens pump shotgun in .410. Milady got it as a gift from her father in about 1965. She used it to hunt squirrels with her daddy and when we got married it was stored with all the other guns.

I noticed that the action would cycle if you pushed the action release, but if you squeezed the trigger the action remained locked. It wouldn't cycle normally until you pushed the action release. I asked her about it and she said that it "always hung-up a little bit." The gunsmith said he'd give it a good cleaning, see if he could find the problem, and fix it if possible. I trust him to do the best he can.

Then, I hit the pawnshops, seeing what's available. There are several things I'm always looking for. I didn't find any of them today. If you're in the market for a pump shotgun or a .30-06 bolt gun, the pawn shops have plenty. If you're not in the market, the pickings are slim. I am starting to see more ARs in the stores and the supply of military surplus bolt actions suprised me. I saw a US Model 1917 with a synthetic stock. And Moisin's aplenty. But, I didn't see anything on my short list.

I kept my money in my pocket and came home.

Forty Years

One small step for a man.

Where was I when Neal Armstrong took that first step?

Like everyone else, I was home watching it on television. I was fifteen years old and had faithfully followed all of the space program. I wouldn't have missed that telecast for anything.

Pork

Drudge reports that the US Department of Agriculture spent money buying ham and Sec Ag Tom Vilsak confirms the report.

In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191m, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese.

Vilsak defends it saying that the food products will be sent to food banks and commodity programs to feed those who don't have food available.

I think that if I were buying 3/4 of a million pounds of processed ham, I could probably get it cheaper than $1.50 per pound.

Then again, this could be pork in the budget. Technically, it is pork.

Cleaning

This morning after church I decided to give the Savage 30-06 a good cleaning.

How many patches does it take to clean the barrel of a rifle? It depends how dirty it was before you started. I didn't count, but I'd soak it in Hoppe's, the brush it, then run patches, then repeat, over and over. I finally got three patches in a row to come out clean, so I put it away. For a while, I was getting that green copper color on the patches, so I was getting some jacket fouling. When the last three patches came out clean, I threw away a handful of used patches.

While I was waiting for the Hoppe's to work between scrubbings, I gave the church website a good cleaning. It's been several months since I paid any attention to it, so I went in and took care of basic housekeeping.

Cajun Joke

We Cajuns like to tell jokes. Our antagonists are usually Boudreaux and Thibodeaux, two long-time friends. This one is from friend Bob, who sends me these things.

Boudreaux enters Thibodeaux's barbershop for a shave. While Thibodeaux is foaming him up, Boudreaux mentions the problems he has getting a close shave around the cheeks.

Thibodeaux said, "Mais, I'm got just the ting", taking a small wooden ball from a nearby drawer. "Just place dis between your cheek and gum."


Boudreaux places the ball in his mouth, and Thibodeaux proceeds with the closest shave Boudreaux has ever experienced. After a few strokes, Boudreaux asks, "Mais, what if I swallow it?"


"No problem," says Thibodeaux. "Just bring it back tomorrow like everyone else does."

But that's illegal!

How could this have possibly happened? We all know that it's illegal to have guns in Chicago. So, this couldn't possibly be true? The newspaper is making it all up.

Mayor Daley, with his phalanx of bodyguards, is probably safe. The rest of us just have to fend for ourselves.

Hat Tip to David Codrea.

Ol' Joe

You know, I've spent a fair amount of time in bars. Smokey honky-tonks. I like a good bar, and in every good bar, there's one fellow like our Vice President, who spouts nonsense on a regular basis. Like today, for example.

“Well, people that I say that to say, ‘What are you talking about, you’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, I’m telling you.”

Yeah, he said that.

There's a reason a guy like Cliff Claven is so stereotypical, because stereotypes often have a kernel of truth in them.

If I knew Joe from the little lounge down the street, I'd buy him a drink every time I went in. Just to hear what he'd say next. I bet he's a hoot at cabinet meetings.

Rain

It's raining today. A big thunderstorm blew up in the past ten minutes and buckets are descending on my little acre.

I guess I don't have to water the plants I planted on Monday. They're getting moisture as nature intended. Hopefully the rain will moderate the temperatures, although I just stepped out into the garage and it's muggy as all get-out.

This will probably pass soon, though if it decided to settle in for the evening, I wouldn't be disappointed. We need the rain.

Deer Season

By my calculations, the deer season in Louisiana begins in something like 15 weeks. Just barely enough time to get ready. It'll be here before we know it. I live and hunt in Area 2, so the primitive season begins on October 24th, which will limit me to my .45-70. The general gun season starts on October 31 and runs until January 17th. Then we'll have one more week of primitive weapon hunting and the season will close on January 24th. That's over 90 days of deer hunting. We're extremely lucky in Louisiana to have such generous seasons.

Still, it's time to get ready. I'll go to the range tomorrow and do a little shooting with my primary deer rifle, the Savage 110 in .30-06.



It's not a stock Savage any more. You may recall that I dropped this rifle out of my deer stand last year and broke the stock. It's now got a new walnut stock and it's been bedded and floated to the barrel nut. I've done a fair amount of load development and know that the rifle is capable of good accuracy. But, I haven't fired the rifle in several months and it's time to start practice. Especially with that all-important cold barrel shot.

It doesn't matter so much where the rifle shoots with a warm barrel. I need to know that the first shot is going where I want it to go.

It'll be August in a couple of weeks and toward the first weeks of September, I'll need to have my feeders installed and the shooting lanes cleared. My stand needs some maintenance. I'm toying with the idea of installing a box blind over a known deer trail. Then there's scouting and hiking and learning about movement and herd size.

In short, there's lots to do. It's time to start getting ready.

Finis!

As regular readers know, I married a daughter this past weekend. It was a lovely event that culminated months of planning, decorating, construction, and the joys, hopes and dreams of the young couple.

As the father of the bride I had certain obligations and my part would not have been possible without the aid and assistance of friends and family who loaned things like tables, chairs, cooking implements and other impedimenta that were important to the occasion. My enduring thanks to everyone who made the event possible.

The morning after the wedding I began returning those loaned items, one truck load at a time, beginning with tables and chairs that I borrowed from the church. Between the clean-up and the load-hauling, it has fairly consumed the past three days. This morning I finished the last of it with an errand I had promised my daughter.

As Morgan Freeman says so eloquently at the end of Robin Hood, "I have fulfilled my vow."

Big Charity

According to the Associated Press, Charity Hospital in New Orleans was ready to use weeks after Hurricane Katrina did its tap dance on New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans and worsened the medical plight of the city's poor, then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the publicly run Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to medical-ready standards, the retired Army general who oversaw the work said.

That retired Army General is Russ Honore, the 3-star who came to New Orleans and told reporters to not "get stuck on stupid".

More than that, a second general officer remembers the political decision.

When the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in the ravaged city in early September 2005, Charity was identified as key. It was in the center of town and provided a lot of people care, said the division's commander, Gen. William Caldwell.

That's the Army's All-American division. An elite airborne division ready immediately for world-wide deployment.

About 150 soldiers and a team of medical professionals worked to get the hospital running, Caldwell said.

Meanwhile, a German military team's pumps sucked water out of the basement. Air sampling found no contamination — a concern, considering the flooding and bodies in the flooded morgue, Caldwell said.

Caldwell recalled telling Honore the hospital was nearly ready to receive patients. "We were actually thinking of having a ribbon-cutting ceremony, give a thumbs up and turn it over to the health care professionals," Caldwell said.

But then, Caldwell said a decision came to stop the cleanup.

So, that's now two General Officers who remember the decision. The 82d got it up and running, the politicos shut it down.

Typical. Blanco was a disaster for Louisiana, on so many levels.

Hat tip to Mostly Cajun.

Killing Yamamoto

There's a brouhaha pending wherein we learn that the CIA had a plan to target and kill high level terrorist operatives of Al-Queda under the Bush Administration. Some folks think that this is a violation of the law. I understand that Speaker Pelosi is outraged to learn of such a plan and that she was never briefed on the operation. She has okay'ed a Congressional probe into the matter.

I am continually amazed that Pelosi is so stupid. This is nothing new.

Let's regard the facts. Al-Qaeda has said that they're at war with the United States and intend to defeat us. They launched the first strike in what we call the War on Terror by flying jet airliners into the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001.

The United States has a history of "cutting the head from the snake". We've been trying to target Osama bin Laden and his second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri since the beginning of the recent hostility. The third man in Al-Qaeda is historically the chief of operations in Iraq and that post has a long history of short successions. We kill those guys fairly regularly.

This isn't anything new, and only an idiot would assume that such an operation doesn't exist.

Hostorically, we've been doing this for years. As one notable example, I would propose Operation Vengeance wherein the US Navy got intelligence that told them that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Imperial Japanese Navy would be on an inspection tour in the vicinity of the Solomon Islands. Admiral Yamamoto was the Commander in Chief of Japan's navy and killing him would deal a serious blow to their war effort. Yamamoto has also been instrumental in planning the attack on Pearl Harbor, so payback played a big part in our motivation to kill him.

We sent planes over and shot his butt down. That was certainly a targeted killing of a high level Japanese official. No one, not one single soul, complained that killing him wasn't legal. No one even suggested that the operation was improper. We were at war with Japan and intended to kill or capture their forces.

We kill the enemy. If Pelosi needs to be briefed on that, then she is as dumb as a sack full of hammers.

Anyone who claims that killing the enemy is illegal should be reviled as imbeciles.

Lock Failure

You know, those little locks they put on Smith and Wesson revolvers to keep them safe. Well, guys have been complaining for years that they sometimes tend to lock in the middle of a string of fire.

If you follow Michael Bane, you know he does a lot of shooting. I read his blog regularly and it seems that he caught a lock failure on film.

Also,WE GOT AN S&W LOCK FAILURE ON FILM! Flag popped up and caught the hammer as it fell. We'll get it transfered out of HD and into an MPEG to post on DRTV as soon as possible.

Interesting. Very interesting.

I don't own any revolvers with idiot locks. I won't own any revolvers with idiot locks. My son has a Taurus revolver with the lock, but he hasn't had any issues with it.

Evidence Rooms

Evidently, the NOPD is having trouble in their evidence rooms. Some $200K is missing. And Riley didn't know that he had to account for the money. Yeah, right!

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans police officials apparently knew more than $200,000 was missing from the department's evidence and property room but failed to notify the proper authorities in writing, according to a state audit released Monday.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley didn't know a state law required his department to provide the Louisiana legislative auditor and the city's district attorney with a written notice of any missing public funds, Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot wrote in a letter to city officials.

Anybody who's been a cop for any length of time knows what a monumental headache it is to properly secure evidence. Riley's been a cop for a while. If he didn't know how to take care of evidence then he should have asked for help. There are experts everywhere and a request for assistance would not have gone unanswered.

One old cop once told me that an evidence room will get you fired quicker than just about anything else in law enforcement. My experience reinforces the homily. The proper evidence custodian is one part accountant and one part son-of-a-bitch.

I hate to tell Riley this, but if he's missing money from his evidence rooms, he's missing drugs, too. He really needs to get in there and get a good inventory, audit it against police reports and put someone in charge who reports only to the Chief.

Pulled Pork

My sister, Margaret, introduced me to pulled pork, which is simply a shredded pork roast. I've been playing with my own recipe, being a lazy sort, and I've been fairly successful, to the point that family requests it for large gatherings. It's one of the easy recipes. I use a ceramic-lined slow cooker. (Crock-pot is a registered trademark)

Pulled Pork

One pork roast, boston butt or whatever.
Beer- six ounces
Meat rub. I use Tony's Creole Seasoning,but you can use what's available.
Kraft Original Barbeque Sauce

Drop the roast into the cooker and liberally sprinkle it with seasoning. Pour the beer over the roast. Set it on LOW and leave it for six or eight hours. What I normally do is start the process at about bedtime and let the roast cook until daylight. Then, put the roast on a tray and shred it (pull it), using two forks. I take out the residual fat as I shred the meat. Mix just enough barbeque sauce into the shredded meat to suit yourself. I use a little less sauce than others might.

Serve with rolls and let the guests make their own sandwiches. Bon apetit!

Sunday afternoon shotguns

I've got one son in from Florida, visiting for his sister's wedding and two sons living locally.

This afternoon we took the shotguns to the Woodworth range and shot five-stand skeet. Good times.

All three boys on the line, a case of shells, and a good friend pulling trap. We shot two rounds each and laughed and lied and hoo-raahed, and generally bonded with each other.

I rented a frozen daiquiri machine for the wedding and I've got to take it back tomorrow morning. After the shotgun shooting we decided to crank up that frozen wonder and make a batch of margaritas. We're drinking frozen margaritas, eating pulled pork, and watching the kids splash in the pool.

If life was any better than this, I'd have to pay amusement tax.

Steppin Fetchit

I've been Steppin Fetchit all day long, and in just another hour we're heading to the airport to pick up family coming in for the wedding.

If blogging suffers, PawPaw will be back after daughter is married Saturday evening. I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks without any obligations before I have to head back to work during the first week of August.

Later.

Health Care

Ooh, I like this proposal:

The only cure for the pending “health care” bills in Congress is a Federal mandate that every member of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches (from the top right down to GS-1) shall have only the level of care that a civilian of age 65 is allowed.

That's from Comments over at the Belmont Club. I'm not sure how to properly accredit the idea, but it's a great one.

Everyone should call their Senator with this idea. It's a great one.

**UPDATE** I emailed Senator Landrieu with this idea. We'll see how it proceeds.

600, huh?

Police estimate that 600 people showed up for Jacko's funeral.

LAPD estimates that there was a crowd of just 600 people outside the Staples Center. CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy said there were less than 1,000 people outside.

Police was prepared to handle 250,000. Three thousand LAPD officers were assigned to the memorial. That's more than were on hand for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Three thousand officers assigned to handle 600 people? I've handled more people than that with two officers at a basketball game. Of course, I was expecting 600 people. Crowds at my hometown basketball games are easy to predict.

I bet that the LAPD was in full crowd control mode, with detailed charts and officer assignments. 3,000 officers assigned. 600 people showed up. Those officers made some good overtime. Nothing to do but stand on the corner and wave at people. That's a good detail.

California Supports Heller

It's kind of a left-handed amicus brief as those things go, but the AG from California, Jerry Brown has filed an amicus brief supporting certiorari.

Oh, but God Forbid, he doesn't want unfettered rights. No sir.

The petitions in these cases should be granted to provide needed guidance on the scope of the States’ ability to reasonably regulate firearms while extending to the states Heller’s core Second-Amendment holding that government cannot deny citizens the right to possess handguns in their homes.

He wants to know how far he can go in restricting the rights of his fellow citizens.

We note with some interest that California has no constitutional provision addressing the right to bear arms.

We in Louisiana aren't burdened with such a lack. From Article 1 of the Louisiana Constitution:

Section 11. The right of each citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged, but this provision shall not prevent the passage of laws to prohibit the carrying of weapons concealed on the person.

California would do well to adopt a similar citation.

Do we need more lawyers?

Anonymous asks, in comments:

Do we really need more lawyers? I once heard a statistic that America has more lawyers than the rest of the world combined. That may be a bit of hyperbole, but it does make me question the wisdom of making it easier to obtain a law degree. Wouldn't we be far better off with more skilled laborers, engineers, etc. than more lawyers?

Good question, but that wasn't really the thrust of the post.

The question of how many lawyers to we need is appropriate to the market. Market forces will decide how many lawyers we need. A wise man once told me (and he was probably quoting from Mark Twain) that if there was one lawyer in a little town, he'd starve to death, but if there were two, they'd both make a good living. But again, that's not the point of the discussion.

The concern is that law school is no longer available to a great number of people. One of the concerns that some folks have in the political arena is that there seems to be a gentry class on the ascension in the United States. It's the old canard about the privileged few and the unwashed masses. The privileged few (the Gentry) get to make the rules and the unwashed masses can only aspire to rise above their station. One of the common motivators in the US is that anyone can rise to be better educated, better earners than their parents and that we have a gentry of achievement rather than a gentry of birth. Education and personal drive are the two basic prerequisites to success in this country.

So, the question becomes: Are we better served by attorneys who descend from a particular economic class and are able to afford to spend three years preparing to pass the bar exam, or would we be better served by having attorneys from a wider economic pool? Do we want law schools to follow the public-service model? Is the law not designed to protect everyone? Should not everyone be allowed the opportunity to participate? Understand, I'm not recommending that we dilute the standards for entry, just that the pool of potential students be as wide and deep as possible.

Another question in the debate is not so much do we have enough (or too many) lawyers, but do we have the right kind of lawyers?

I agree that generally the country is served best by those folks who are productive, who build things that need building and fix things that need fixing. We need folks from all walks of life, all doing what they do best to make this country a productive, inventive and technologically advance society. Someone still needs to dig the ditches and haul the garbage. We won't argue about that.

Thanks for helping me sort through my thoughts.

Went to the dance, but didn't get kissed.

When I wrote the Law School post this morning, it was based on an Instapundit post that I linked. I decided to write Glenn Reynolds and he quoted my entire email in Instapundit, but I didn't get a link.

Damn! I wonder how many hits that would have generated?

Reading back through my email to him, I'm amazed at how many typos I made. If I were grading that paper I'd give it a C-. I really need to learn to proofread more thoroughly.

But, no Insta-lanche. Damn!

But that's illegal

Looks like someone got shot on Beale Street in Memphis this weekend.

But that's illegal!

Strange, that. Beale Street is a gun-free zone. It's a gun-free zone if you're a law abiding citizen. For a criminal, not so much.

Hat Tip, Say Uncle.

Law School

I was surfing the net on this rainy morning and came to Instapundit, where he linked to an article about Law School. Evidently, there is some debate in the academic community about how we train attorneys and I think it's high time that such a debate comes to fruition. Some guy named Lippe has proposed what he called Law School 4.0, a proposal that would restructure the way that lawyers are trained.

I'm not a lawyer, but I've beaten lawyers at their own game, back when I was a Probation Officer. I even toyed with the idea of going to law school, but as a young struggling parent, I realized that taking three years of my life would burden my family with financial liabilities that we might not overcome.

While I was thinking about law school, there were three burdens in Louisiana that made going to law school impossible.

1) I live in north-central Louisiana and there are no law schools in the area. The closest law school is in Baton Rouge. I would have to move my family or live away from them during the time when I was in school.

2) At the time, (and this may still be the case), the established law schools required that a first-year student not be employed in the traditional sense. Families require sustenance and a certain amount of cash flow. While the romantic ideal of the poverty stricken student is certainly appealing in some circles, the kids still need to eat and be clothed.

3)Law school is expensive. Not working, while taking on a mountain of debt, would burden the family after law school.

Before you argue that if it was truly my dream, I would have found a way. That's certainly true. However, the current law school scenario virtually requires that a student be supported from the outside while studying for three years. Certainly for the first year.

If it is the desire of the legal community to attract the best and the brightest, then these three objections must be overcome. If the intention of the legal community is to maintain the status quo, then they need to do nothing. However, there is a debate going on.

I can go to night school in any number of professions, including business, education, and the clergy, all the while taking care of my family and parenting obligations. Lots of people study in their spare time and the quality of the education doesn't suffer. If one of the local universities offered a night-time law school that took five years to complete, there might be a lot of people from diverse background that would apply.

And, the question is still being debated.

Oooh, Snap!

We all recall that Governor Palin recently resigned from office and will soon hold no elective or appointed office. That makes her a private citizen, and private citizens can operate under different rules from public citizens. I'm no lawyer, but it seems that the media might soon learn the difference.

To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as “fact” that Governor Palin resigned because she is “under federal investigation” for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation. This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law. The Alaska Constitution protects the right of free speech, while simultaneously holding those “responsible for the abuse of that right.” Alaska Constitution Art. I, Sec. 5. http://ltgov.state.ak.us/constitution.php?section=1. These falsehoods abuse the right to free speech; continuing to publish these falsehoods of criminal activity is reckless, done without any regard for the truth, and is actionable.

It's one thing to ramble on about the possible motives of a public citizen, they have very little recourse. A private citizen? Not so much. Private Citizen Palin might soon own a couple of nice media outlets.

Saturday, the Fourth

I know, it's the Fourth of July, but there will be a wedding at PawPaw's house next Saturday, the 11th. My daughter is getting married in the back yard and we're busy. This morning I spent the cooler hours trying to whip the back yard into shape and mow the grass that I didn't mow this week. It's coming along and we'll be ready for the preacher on Saturday afternoon come hell or high water.

When I'm at the computer, the dog is apt to come stand beside me and demand scratching. I tried to take a picture with the cheesy little camera I use, but it hangs-fire. You press the button and nothing. It takes the picture when it decides to take the picture. Here's my best effort.



That camera does the same thing with grandkids and someday soon I'm going to pull the pin and spring for a digital SLR. That format camera isn't as easy to carry as the little pocket camera, but when you pull the trigger it fires. Sometimes that's important for candid shots.

We'll do the rockets-red-glare thing this evening. Our dear friend, the mayor of Pollock has invited us to his town celebration this evening with hot dogs and fireworks. We're taking the grandkids.

That ought to be a hoot.

Palin Resigns

Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, took us all by surprise and resigned yesterday. Her reasons are particularly her own and are fueling speculation all over the internet.

I doubt she'll ever run again for national office. The treatment of her in the media was... well... deplorable. Letterman made exceedingly crude jokes about her family and I feel that he was simply mimicking the cruel jokes that are bandied about water coolers all over the country.

I voted for Sarah. My vote for that ticket was more for her than for John McCain. I liked her and hoped that she'd get a fair chance at national office. I never thought that she was part of the political class that I so revile and I admired her grace under pressure and the common roots from which she sprang.

Some say that some un-named scandal is set to erupt, but I think that if there was a scandal we'd have heard of it. The longer is goes without surfacing, the less likely a scandal is to surface.

No, I suspect that she decided that political life was placing too big a burden on her character, her reputation and her family. That some things are more important than elective office and she decided to retire into private life. That is certainly an option for every office-holder and more should avail themselves of the opportunity.

Sarah's resignation disappoints me, but it shows that if you put someone under the microscope and make their family fair game, none of us can hope to flourish under that type of scrutiny.

So, that leaves us with the type person who will do anything, say anything, endure anything to gain and maintain public office. Those are precisely the type people who we should not want in public office. Yet we continue to elect those people.

It's a damned shame.

The Senate Race

I haven't been paying attention, but I'm pretty sure we'll have a Senate race soon. At any rate, there is a movement to draft Stormy Daniels to run against David Vitter. Daniels is a porn star and is active in that industry. Vitter is a career politician who patronizes prostitutes. Daniels is up-front about what she does. Vitter is less so.

Stormy was in Lafayette recently and the Advertiser captured this video of her visit. She was at Barney's Firearm and Range. Barney's is a well known police supply store, and sells to the general public.

Junior says he'll vote for Stormy over Vitter. There are good arguments to make for electing someone who is NOT a career politician. There are good arguments to make to elect someone who has been in business. There are good arguments to make for taking our government back from what seems to be a perpetual political class. Vitter and Landrieu are a part of that political class. I'd like to see that entire class unemployed and on the bread line.

I mean that in the good way.


UPDATE** I had to turn the vido off, it was simply too intrusive.

Remembering

I am reminded that today one of the seminal military actions in US history occurred. By this time (5:22 p.m.) on July 2, 1863, Joshua Chamberlin has successfully defended Little Round Top and John Bell Hood was in the hospital, losing an arm.

Armchair historians and military buffs have long debated and will long speculate on what might have happened if General Lee had let Hood swing to the right and get behind the Union army. That speculation is all nonsense, because that didn't happen. Hood went up the hill and Chamberlin fought him off.

On the morrow, Pickett will launch his division into history and the retreat from Gettysburg will mark the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

It is good to remember these things.

Thurday Remodeling

I spent the majority of the day, along with most of the days this week, helping second son remodel his house. We've spent the last three days in the master bath, and it's still a long way from being finished. Of course, neither of us are plumbers, or electricians, or carpenters, yet we've struggled bravely along ripping out walls, building new walls, setting a bathtub, running electricity to the bathtub, installing running water, building half-walls, and cussing like ship-wrecked sailors.

It's been a time for bonding. Oh, yeah. The bathroom is generally the smallest room in the house and it's got the most stuff going on. Lots of water and drains and lights.

He's on vacation this week, so we're hitting it hard every day, and we're getting a lot of work done, even if the untrained eye can't see it. It's looking better and before long it'll be done.

Temps outside have been unreasonably hot, the thermometer on my truck today said that the outside temp was 104. I don't doubt it. Before I got home it had dropped to a balmy 102. Now there's a thunderstorm brewing and the wind is blowing, moderating the heat nicely.

I haven't read a newspaper in the past week, so I don't know what Obama or Congress is doind. Frankly, I don't care.

Gun grabbers

Two stories in this morning's news give me pause for thought. More Slippery Slopes.

The first, from Drudge, talks about the Feds going house-to-house in Houston, TX.

In front of a run-down shack in north Houston, federal agents step from a government sedan into 102-degree heat and face a critical question: How can the woman living here buy four high-end handguns in one day?

The better question becomes: why is the Federal government interested in who buys what guns when? If this was a legal purchase, and there's nothing in the article to suggest that the purchases weren't legal, what business is it of anyone, much less the government?

The second article is linked through Chad Rogers, The Dead Pelican, and talks about the mayor of Shreveport, LA and his personal war on guns.

Any time a motorist is stopped by a police officer, insists Shreveport, Louisiana Mayor Cedric Glover, "Your rights ... have been suspended." This includes not only the freedom of movement, but also, in the event the officer inquires as to whether the driver is carrying a weapon, "Your right to be able to hold on to your weapon and say whether [you] have a weapon or not" – as well as the right to retain possession of that weapon, should the officer decide to confiscate it from you.

Should you choose not to answer the question, or answer it in the negative, the officer could still choose, "in the interest of officer safety, to secure you in a safe position" – this most likely means outside the car with your hands cuffed behind your back – "and then do an appropriate inspection of your vehicle."

The phrase "appropriate inspection" is more honestly rendered "Unconstitutional warrantless search."

Mayor Glover needs to be smacked down hard for this one, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Shreveport PD in particular and Mayor Glover in general didn't soon find themselves as the defendants in a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Taken together, these two articles combine to show a distinct disregard for the civil rights of citizens at both the federal and local level.

They told me that if I voted for McCain in the presidential race, my civil rights might be in jeopardy. They were right.

Time to call

I need to call Mary Landrieu. She's one of my Senators and I'm not convinced that she's seen the error of her ways, yet.

No, I don't intend to vote for her. She's a Landrieu. I don't vote for Landrieus.

Still, that new tax the Obama administration wants is going to the Senate and I need to tell Mary how to vote. And that Health Care thing that Obama keeps talking about. She needs to vote against that also.

You see, the problem is that Mary is a New Orleans Democrat, and she may not realize that cap-and-trade will kill the oil industry. Kill the refining industry. Lead us from a recession into a depression, and will be a direct repudiation of the campaign promises that Obama made. It's a tax as sure as the devil is evil. A regressive tax that pounds the poorest the hardest.

I found this over at www.taxfoundation.org. If that isn't regressive, I've never seen it.



I doubt her offices are open this early. Senators probably don't start their day as early as I do. I'll call later today, but Mary gets a phone call.

Vitter you ask? I'm not voting for him either, but I'm not concerned with the way he'll vote.

**Update** I called her office in Washington, (202)224-5824 and spoke to a staffer. I told the staffer to tell the Senator that I'd like her to vote NO on cap-and-trade and NO on universal health care. The staffer said she'd pass it along.

She said What?

Evidently California House Speaker Karen Bass doesn't believe that elected officials should be accountable to the voters. Today, she said that people who hold elected representatives accountable are terrorists. Really. She said that.

The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: "You vote for revenue and your career is over." I don't know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it's about free speech, but it's extremely unfair.

So, those of us who hold our representatives accountable are terrorists.

That's what the Speaker of the California House thinks. We're terrorists in the Democratic play book. When I wrote the post Slippery Slopes, I was concerned about the government calling people who disagreed with it terrorists.

This is the face of government today. Disagree and be called a terrorist.

Hat tip to Moonbattery.com.

Aaaw Hell

Second son got married last year and they're trying to blend two households. Seriously, they're living in her house while remodeling his. The plan is that when his house is suitable for a feminine occupant they'll move to his house and sell hers. So, we're in the throes of a huge remodeling project. One that involves carpentry at the basic, framing and square level. Electrical wiring. Plumbing. All the goodies.

Matt owns a craftsman style house. It's about ten years old and was a bachelor house with two bedrooms and two baths. It was built by a guy who did fine woodworking and the detail is simply amazing. The only problem is that it was kind of small. We've extended the living room and master bedroom, installed a huge closet, done all the necessary framing, installed floors, floated drywall, installed doors and windows. The next project prior to move-in was to refurbish the master bath. His lady wanted a jacuzzi, jet-type tub. There was no tub in that bathroom, the guy living there had installed a really nice one-piece shower. It succumbed to the sawzall and was loaded in the scrap trailer.

Matt and his lady ordered a tub and we began by tearing out a wall and the old closet to lengthen the bathroom. Today we installed the new wall, but before we finished framing, we put the new tub in the bathroom, still in the box. The plan was to rough-install drywall then rough-in the plumbing, so before we quit today we cracked open the box holding the tub to get an idea of how we'd have to install the fixtures and drains. Wrong tub. It's the proper brand and all the model numbers on the box are correct, but it's the wrong tub. No jets. It looks like someone at the factory put the wrong tub in the right box.

Well, hell. We had to tear a couple of studs out of the new wall to get the tub out of the room, and he headed to Lowe's to make someone's day. As I type this, there's some guy at Lowe's with a very pissed off customer. Truly, truly pissed. Wrong bathtub. Project on hold. Exceedingly pissed.

I don't know if I'll be doing any plumbing over at his house tomorrow. Then again, I could profitably spend the day by mowing the yard.

The world still turns

And Michael Jackson is still dead. I do not give one raggedy crap where they bury him or what the autopsy says. I truly don't care if the kids are his, or belong to Ronald McDonald. I just don't care.

Other things are happening right now in this world, and the sorry state of the drama that attends the mouldering remains of Micheal Jackson are the least of them.

Let me check my meter.



As far as Michael Jackson is concerned, my Give-A-Damn meter is pegged on zero.

Bury the man and be done with it. Or not. I simply don't care.

Worthless Mondays

Running errands, taking care of piddling concerns.

I'll post this instead of anything of substance.



Stolen shamelessly from The Gun Counter.

Billy Mays, RIP

Billie Mays, the booming voice pitch-man is dead. That makes four recently, with Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.

Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife inside his Tampa, Fla., home at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry to Mays' residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon.

I've seen more of Billy Mays on TV the past several years than I've seen of Jackson, and that's for damned sure.

Audrey

Courtesy of Mostly Cajun, I am reminded that Hurricane Audrey blew into town on this day in 1957. I was three years old and I remember the hurricane. It's one of my earliest memories. Kind of a snapshot, disjointed and dimmed with time, but it's there.

Dad was a telephone man and had to leave shortly after the storm to go south with crews to help restore communications. I remember him standing in the back yard, throwing shingles into the woods beyond the back fence. He wore a plaid shirt.

Audrey's name was retired and will never again be used to denote a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. It was a bad storm, so bad that the damage Audrey caused wasn't surpassed until the twin disasters of Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Another Take

Another perspective on the newest LSU Championship. From David.



Ha!

Gunny dreaming

I was over at Tamara's who took me to Caleb's. He's jonesing for a rifle I've thought about for awhile. A bolt gun that takes standard magazines. How difficult would that be to manufacture? It doesn't seem that tough, but no one has done it yet.

I'd like a Savage, Remington, or Ruger bolt that takes M14 magazines. Or a .223 bolt that takes M16 magazines.

Interchangeable magazines make a lot of sense. For my 1911, I've got a couple of Kimber mags, some Chip McCormick, some Wilson mags, and a handful of GI mags. They all work because they're standard magazines. There is no reason that a rifle can't be designed to handle standard magazines. As Caleb puts it:

However, what I’ve been thinking of for a bolt action rifle is a bit like Jeff Cooper’s concept of a Scout Rifle, except with a few minor twists. I’d like to have the reduced weight and forward optics of a scout-type rifle, but in 5.56 NATO/.223 Remington instead of .308. Sure, you lose some terminal ballistics, but the reduction in weight and felt recoil make the gun even better for humping around the horrible post-apocalyptic hellscape. Now, what I’d really like would be for the gun to accept NATO magazines. A bolt action .223 that feeds from standard AR style magazines would be the berries for a defensive carry rifle. Since everyone seems to be talking about how the world/economy/social order is going to collapse soon (it’s not) I figured the best rifle for that collapse would be a bolt action .223 with an 18 inch barrel, forward mounted optic, back up iron sights, and the ability to feed from standard AR15 magazines. CZ-USA makes the closest approximation I’m going to find on the commercial market, the CZ-527 Carbine in .223 or 7.62×39. It’s pretty much exactly what I had in mind, save for the fact that I don’t think it takes NATO magazines.

That's the idea.

I'd like to have a rifle with a normal capacity magazine that takes M14 magazines. I'd prefer to have it in .243 or 7mm-08, but either of those calibers would work in a .308 magazine. Of course, .308 ain't bad either.

What would be the use for such a rifle? Well, if I have to explain it to you, I'll let Tamara have her say:

the most likely targets are going to be shy ungulates that travel in twos and threes or stationary paper circles. These can be taken with a bolt action rifle rather handily, and a six-pound boltie with no protruding crap rests in the hands ever so much easier after several hours than a nine-pound slab with grips and magazines protruding at odd angles. Plus, an anvil might be more reliable than a Mauser '98, but that would depend on the make and model of the anvil.

And that pretty well sums it up.

Savage, Ruger, Big Green! Y'all listening?

House Joint Resolution 5

Via Instapundit, I see that House Joint Resolution 5 would repeal the 22nd Amendment, which limits the term of President.

Bad idea. Really bad idea.

Range Afternoon

My oldest son and I found ourselves with a free afternoon, so yesterday we went to the range to shoot the shotguns. Our range, the LDWF complex at Woodworth, LA offers rifle and pistol ranges along with 5-stand shotgun shooting, If you've never shot 5-stand, it's a great way to tune up your wingshooting. Plus, at the Woodworth range it's a great bargain.

You provide the shotgun, the shells, and $5.00 per round of 25 shots. They provide the clay targets, the range officer and six automatic traps. It's a heck of a deal. We shot two rounds apiece yesterday. Five stand is a fairly easy game to understand. Each shooter fires five shells from each of five stations. Six traps are throwing targets in a pre-programmed progression. Those six traps provide almost all the common field shots. Incoming, outgoing, crossing left and right, and flushing. There's even a rabbit target. It's a hoot.

If you feel like your shotgun work needs a tune-up, get to a shotgun range. After my performance yesterday, I know my skills have eroded. If you're within easy driving distance of Woodworth, their operating times are posted at the link above. This range complex is a great resource for the shooters in central Louisiana and we should take advantage of it.

Michael Jackson dead

I'm told that Michael Jackson died today.

Okay.

Cardiac arrest.

That kills a lot of people.

LSU Wins!

LSU won their sixth national championship in Omaha last night. After a disappointing loss to Texas on Tuesday we wondered if our team had taken the night off, but on Wednesday they came back strong, swinging hard against the best pitching staff in the nation.

I played baseball as a kid and I've loved baseball all my life. It's a game of summer fields and marvelous dreams. A football coach remarked to me this spring that the reason he didn't like baseball was that there was no clock. No time limit. In football, basketball, or soccer, you could look at the clock and see how much time was left in the game. Baseball isn't like that. You have a set number of innings and it ain't over until it's over. Depending on the tempo of the pitcher and the individuality of the umpires a game might last two hours or four. It's not over until the last batter swings at the last pitch.

Well, in Omaha, it's over.

Sanford Implodes

Yeah, it looks like the governor was having a fling. If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you know that Governor Mark Sanford left town over the weekend. His wife didn't know where he was and aides said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Inventive excuse, that one.

Naah, he's got a girlfriend. In Argentina. Seriously.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford acknowledged Wednesday that he was carrying on an affair with a woman in Argentina when he disappeared from his office last week, only to resurface this morning.

I've got to give the governor props for this indiscretion. Not that I agree with it. No, it was tacky and wrong.

But Argentina? Dude! If someone would have told me that he was in Paris, or Rome, I'd have immediately thought about the Paris in Texas or the Rome in Georgia. But Argentina? That takes some serious planning. As wrong as it was, she must've had something going on to make a guy get in an airplane and fly to South America for a little hoochy-coochy.

Our own governor Edwin Edwards had a reputation as a lady's man. Our own Governor Earl Long managed a notorious affair with Blaze Starr. Then there was Bill Clinton, of course, who managed to get impeached over lying about an affair.

Of course, he can kiss his political aspirations goodbye. He's done as a politician.

I wonder if he ran on a family values ticket?

Argentina, huh? Dude!

More slippery slopes

You'd think that the gun banners would bow to the will of the American people when it comes to what they call "reasonable gun regulations" but that's not the case. After all, the American people have spoken with their dollars on guns. We've been buying guns and ammo like crazy since the election.

There's a movement afoot to let the government decide who can buy a gun and who cannot. This isn't being done through the normal deliberative process. No. Senator Frank Lautenberg wants to give the FBI authority to put your name on a No Buy list.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg would like to stop these sales. The New Jersey Democrat has introduced legislation, the "Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009," to prohibit gun sales to anyone on the FBI's watch list.

It all boils down to giving the FBI the authority to ban anyone who might be suspected of being a terrorist. Not those people who have been convicted of terrorism, not those people who have committed or conspired to commit a crime. No. Just those people who some faceless bureaucrat decides might be a suspected terrorist.

Who might those faceless bureaucrats decide is a potential threat to the security of the United States? Well, lets look at another government report that surfaced last April.

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

So, if I'm opposed to abortion or illegal immigration and Senator Lautenberg gets his way, I might be put on an FBI watch list? Did I mention that I own guns and that I buy guns regularly? Heaven Forfend! I'm a right-wing terrorist!

This is the slippery slope of slippery slopes. No one wants terrorists to have guns, but if all the government has to do is declare all gun owners as potential terrorists, then suddenly we're all in danger of losing an important civil right.

I don't want bureaucrats of any stripe telling me what I can buy or not buy. If they want to restrict guns to certain groups of people, let them do so through the legislative process, not bureaucratic fiat.

Twenty Percent

chance of thunderstorms, that is.

Yeah, right. Weather Underground amuses me with this little .gif.



There's nothing on the radar, so the most that we can hope for is a convection thunderstorm. They're predicting 96/72 for today, which is a whole lot better than the 101 we suffered through yesterday. As counterpoint, at 9:40 a.m. local, my heat monitoring instrument showed 94 degrees on my shaded patio.

This is a standard summer weather pattern. In Louisiana in the summertime there's always a 20 percent chance of a late afternoon thunderstorm. We might get a half-inch of rain, at Momma's house five miles away, she only hears the thunder. Or vice versa. Summertime rain around here is a very local event.

Bo-dog

This post is mainly for my sister, who likes pictures of the dog. Our little dog is a Shih-Tzu, descended from the Gobi Desert Kitchen-Midden Dog. He's a fuzzy little mutt and today I took him for a hair cut.

Wikipedia tells me that he was originally a hunting dog. One line of ancestors was known as the "Small Soft-Coated Drop-Eared Hunting Dog". I doubt that. He'll hunt anything that's been dropped on the kitchen floor. He's a kitchen dog and that's a fact.

Here, he's sitting by the carport door waiting for Milady to get home from work.



He's lost about five pounds of fur since morning. I bet he's a lot cooler. While he was at the dog groomer, I got a haircut for myself. It's a lot simpler and a lot less expensive for me to get a haircut than it is for the dog to get a haircut.

Tiki Torch

My daughter is getting married in July, in my backyard. She wants tiki torches as part of the ambience and I was tasked with finding a way to install them.

Tiki torches are made from bamboo, and my soil is hard. Our house is built on the edge of an old gravel pit and the dirt in the back yard is hardpan clay intermixed with pit run and gravel. Not the best dirt for growing grass, and it's decidedly impossible to just stick a bamboo post in the dirt. It ain't happening.

So, a little brainstorming with my metal-worker son and we came up with a plan.

We cut thin wall 1 5/8" pipe into 12" sections. This is common fencing pipe found at any lawn/garden center. Then, we welded 12" landscaping spikes to each pipe section.



Simply hammer the spike into the ground and put the tiki torch into the pipe section. Voila!



Easy to install, easy to store. Ten of these took about an hour to construct in the shop. One chore down, many more on the list. We're all happy she's getting married, but I'll really be happy the morning after, when it's all in the history books.

Ass-Whippin'

I was surfing around the Internet and I see where that idiot Perez Hilton (he gets no links from me) got punched by someone Hilton called a faggot. Interesting. Interesting that he thinks he can get away with that. Name-calling is juvenile at best, but every juvenile eventually learns that sometimes name-calling results in basic fisticuffs.

There was once an affirmative defense in these parts that went something like this: "He needed an ass whippin'. I gave him one."

One of these days he'll learn that his steamboat mouth can overload his rowboat ass.

Ratings

I check my ratings by the little Sitemeter logo on the right sidebar. Radio stations check ratings too. Arbitron provides standard ratings for radio stations and they're the industry standard. I've had friends in radio who told me that they lived and died by their Arbitron ratings.

I often wondered where they got their data and now I know part of the story. A couple of weeks ago, Milady was approached by the Arbitron folks. We've been participating in the survey for several days and it'll be over on Wednesday. It's been interesting keeping track of which radio station we listen to, and when we listen to it.

Arbitron does a good job of formatting their survey and the process has been fairly painless. I normally only listen to the radio while I'm driving and the radio is generally set on one of three local stations. Which station is on the dial at any given time is purely arbitrary. I'm not sure what data they'll mine from my survey, but I hope it's useful.

Monday afternoon

Milady and I slipped off alone last night. Yesterday was our anniversary and we wanted to spend it without grandkids, or telephones, or worrying about any darned thing.

On the way home today we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Marksville, LA to pick up a few items. As is my wont, I stopped by the sporting goods counter to inquire about .22LR. At the two Wal-Mart stores I frequent, there hasn't been any steady supply of .22LR for months. I asked at the store in Marksville and the counter guy said "Yeah. We've got plenty of rimfire. What type are you looking for?" I bought a Federal bulk pack of .22 LR and a box of .17HMR, CCI, 17 grain hollow points. My rifle really likes those.

We're back home now and the heat sensing device on the porch tells me that it's on the high side of 95F out there. I think I'm going to sit in the recliner until almost dark. Tomorrow is early enough to begin the chores for the week.

Iran burns

You'd have to be totally unconnected to not know that Iran is going through the throes of discord. The people are upset and the ruling theocrats are repressing them.

I don't know what the people have for arms, but I found this sentence enlightening.

Residents of the area described firefights after protesters grabbed weapons from security forces.

I bet that was real unfortunate for the security forces.

Border Patrol

David sent me this one.



This must be the week for dog jokes.

.300 Magnum

I'll be darned.

June 18, 2009: The U.S. Army has ordered 38.4 million rounds of .300 Winchester magnum ammunition for its newly modified M-24 sniper rifles, as well as similar SOCOMs Mk13 models. The new ammo will cost about $1.30 per round. The .300 Winchester magnum will be ordered in minimum lots of 56,160 rounds (117 boxes of 480 rounds each). The entire 38.4 million rounds will last a while.

Durn! I wonder how long it will take them to fill that order? I need them to get back to cranking out .22LR.

H/T to Say Uncle.

Hot

Seventy-five degrees out there right now, with 93 percent humidity and the sun isn't up yet. Accuweather tells me that it's going to be hot in central Louisiana today with this charming little .gif.



I've got grass to mow this morning, and I'm not waiting for the sun to burn the dew off the ground.

We're under a heat wave, but this is sub-tropical Louisiana. I'm not complaining, I'm just stating facts. A Louisiana summer can be extremely hot and humid. I've seen it hotter than this during other summers, back before we knew what air conditioning was about.

This is the summer solstice. Well, tomorrow, actually. Longest day of the year and that ball of atomic fire we see in the sky is raining BTUs. If you're going to be outside today, take a few basic precautions. Hydrate. Lots of water. Whether bottled or tap, water is good for you. Wear a hat. Those big floppy straw hats you see old men wearing. They aren't a fashion statement. They're shade.

Be careful and let's get through this safely.

Brownell's

If you've ever done any home-gunsmithing, or needed a part for a popular firearm, you've probably shopped at Brownell's. I've been a Brownell's shopper for over a decade and love the catalogs. There is one - nay, two on my bench right now.

However, their website was hard to navigate and almost impossible to search. I'd find an item in the catalog, then write down the stock number. When I wanted to order I'd type in the stock number. But, if I was away from home and wanted to search the site, I could never find anything.

It appears that they've been doing some work at their site and that's a good thing.

Thanks, Brownell's.

LSU advances

LSU advanced to the final series of the College World Series today with a 14-5 victory over Arkansas.

Arizona and Texas are playing currently to decide who'll face the Tigers on Monday for a best-of-three series to decide the race for the national title. It's now the bottom of the third and Texas is tied with Arizona at 1-1. I don't care who wins this game, but as a stalwart Louisiana boy, it's easy to know who I'm rooting for in the series that begins Monday.

Geaux Tigers.

Aerial Search

Melissa sends me this one.



Ha!

It's time for me to head out the door. Y'all have a nice weekend. LSU plays at 1:00.

Qualifications

I qualified on the pistol today. Didn't fire the shotgun, nor the rifle. The instructor wanted to get everyone through the pistol course before the day was over. We shot practice drill for a while this morning, then ran through the POST course just before lunch.

The current POST course takes 60 rounds of ammo. Best possible score is 120, minimum to qualify is 96 (80%). We use the Louisiana P1 target. This target has only one scoring ring, center mass of the target. Anything on the inside of the ring counts 2 points. Anything outside the ring on the silhouette counts one point. I shot my standard 106. I blame it on the new trigger pull I'm having to learn.

Trigger squeeze on the M&P is a lot different from the trigger squeeze on a 1911, and again totally unlike the trigger squeeze on a double-action revolver. It's one long pull from the rest position to the firing break with no discernible stacking as you get to the point where the sear should release. The instructor tells me that it'll get smoother as the gun breaks-in, but with only 160 rounds through it to this point, I'm not there yet. I'm not thrilled with a score of 106, but it's certainly respectable.

I had to run 500 rounds through the Kimber before it broke-in. I'm sure that more firing is the key to learning the trigger. I've got plenty of primers, although Bullseye powder might be problematic.

In addition, one small problem with aging eyes manifested itself. I can't see the front sight with my glasses. I can focus perfectly on the front sight with my uncorrected eyes, but my nearsighted eyes show the target as a blur. A huge blur. I shot that 106 score without glasses, focusing purely on the front sight and making sure that the shots were aligned with the center mass of the target. Not the best of solutions, but the one I can live with until I talk with my optometrist.

I have been assured by three levels of supervisors that I am on the list for the next patrol rifle course, as soon as ammunition becomes available. The ammo shortage is impacting training all across law enforcement.

Tomorrow is CPR/First aid and Tazer updates. Then, the training week will be over.

Nieces

I came home today to find two nieces swimming in my pool. That's all right, of course, as they're always welcome.



Gabrielle, and Rachel in the innertubes. Rachel is visiting from Knoxville and the girls were trying to find relief from the heat.

My sister Patty taught Gabrielle all about getting into the pool when we're not home. It's generally always open for family. They know how to get into the pool house and we keep beverages available in the pool house. My sisters just re-stocked that refrigerator because the girls were mentioning that all we had in that fridge was beer and sugary kid drinks. The fridge is now stocked with proper drinks for teenaged girls.

It's good to have them over.

Wednesday afternoon

Retrainer continues. Yesterday we were issued our new pistols, got a quick lesson on how to disassemble them for cleaning and got to shoot a box of ammo on the range to familiarize with the specific operating characteristics of the weapon. It's a SW M&P 45 cal. It seems like a good firearm but I haven't fired it enough to form an opinion.

Today was unarmed self-defense. Batons, handcuffing, take-down techniques. Today was relatively painless.

Tomorrow we do some more familiarization on the new firearms then we'll qualify for record. The weatherman is calling for temps of 96F with a heat index of 107. I'll have a cooler filled with ice and bottled water. It'll be fun.

I need to clean that firearm some time tonight and get my gear ready for the range tomorrow. There's very little to get ready as most of it I carry on-duty anyway.

I guess I'll head on over to Instapundit and Hot Air and check the news.

Ali

In 1978 I was commanding a company at Fort Knox, KY. Delta Company, First Battalion, Fourth Brigade. It was a training company, and I was a First Lieutenant, my silver bar new on my collar. I was approached by the Armor school to be the social sponsor for a visiting foreign officer. My job was to be a local friend for this officer, who would be attending the Armor Officer Advanced Course and assist him in learning about the culture and history of the United States. "Show him what a Big Mac tastes like. Take him to K-Mart, then take him into Louisville and let him see some sights."

His name was Ali, and he'd be traveling unaccompanied by dependents. He'd be flying in on such and such a date. "Meet him at the airport and take him to the BOQ. His name is Ali and he's an officer from the Shah's army."

Of course, when I got to the airport and met the flight, he was accompanied by a wife and daughter. Ali was tall and fit. He towered over my 5'10" frame by several inches. His wife, Rahe, was small, slim, exotic with dark hair and eyes. She was a beauty. The daughter, Reha, was a toddler who looked exactly like her mother.

I scurried about trying to ease his transition and get him settled in to family quarters. He was assigned an apartment in the "ups and downs", a 2 bedroom townhouse unit not far from where I lived with my wife and son.

Over the course of the next several months Ali and I became fast friends. His family was a guest in my home and my family shared meals at his home. His wife, Rahe, was reserved and quiet and came after several months and much prodding from my wife, to participate in discussions around the dinner table. Ali came to understand that my wife would NOT be quiet at the table. She would participate and that the the proper role of an American wife was to engage all visitors in conversation, to ask questions, to stimulate conversation and to make all feel welcome. To say that Ali was taken aback by American women was an understatement. He would remark, "Your American wife is teaching my Persian wife dangerous thoughts."

Ali considered himself Persian, not Arabic, and his friendship and the questions and answers sessions we had gave me as much insight into the country of Iran as I possess. I came to value the quiet talks we had over coffee. I think that at Rahe's table was the first time I had eaten mutton. She served it as a savory stew with spices and brown rice with nuts. Wonderful. They ate a lot of dates, served both as an appetizer and as a side dish. Ali absolutely loved almonds. I remember them being a constant fixture in his quarters.

In late 1978 it was becoming apparent that Iran was undergoing a dramatic political change. I talked with Ali about staying in the United States. He was a combat veteran, a trained Armor officer. I talked with the State Department liaison and learned that Ali could claim asylum and over the course of several months could join our Army. He and I discussed it privately several times and he rejected the idea out-of-hand. He felt that he had a duty to return to Iran and fight against the hard-line mullah's who were threatening his country. He left the United States just before Christmas, 1978. On January 16, 1979 the Shah abandoned his people and darkness descended on Iran.

A few month later I made discreet inquiries and was told that Ali was probably killed shortly after the Ayatollahs took over. I never heard the fate of his lovely wife, or his precious daughter.

Ali had told me that his hometown, and the hometown of his wife, was a place called Tabriz. I was reading Instapundit this morning and learned that Tabriz is one of the places where the people are protesting the recent voting irregularities. When ever I hear of Tabriz I think of Ali and his lovely wife.

I hope the people of Tabriz love Iran as much as Ali loved it.

Wardrobe

I looked at my work-pants wardrobe this week. Normally, if I'm not in uniform, I can be found in jeans, a tee shirt and sneakers. For church on Sunday or taking the lady out on Saturday, it's nice jeans, a polo and loafers. Jeans are big in my wardrobe. As the nice jeans wear, they get put in the work-jean stack. Lately, my work jeans have been taking a beating and because of normal wear and tear, it was about time to buy new jeans.

The only problem, is that the nice jeans are still... nice. So I decided today to buy work jeans. My Daddy always wore carpenter jeans. The ones with the hammer loop on the left leg. I was in Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of pairs. Dickie's. I'm wearing them right now, and damn! These things are comfortable. I see now why the Old Man wore them.

Today we learned all about current benefits, sexual harassment, racial profiling, and report writing. They condensed two hours of classes into about six hours. Don't know what tomorrow will bring, but the firearms instructor told us to be ready to work tomorrow. I haven't "worked" on a range since before basic training. I've put the shotgun, the rifle, and the range box in the truck just in case. We might be in the classroom, we might not. Who cares? Just another training day.

I think I'll wear these carpenter's jeans. Oh, the slow, steady weight loss thing seems to be working. These jeans are marked as 40's. I've been wearing 44's for the past two years, and I noticed that my "nice" jeans were fitting loose.

Monday morning

Monday morning. I'm up before daylight. We had breakfast for supper last night. Bacon, eggs, biscuits and there was some bacon left on a plate at the back of the stove. I saw that and popped some frozen biscuits into the toaster oven. Heh! Breakfast again.

With just two of us in the house, we use the toaster oven a lot. It's a good one, given to Milady by the children, Christmas before last. They asked what she wanted for Christmas and she said a toaster oven, so they got together and appointed one son to search. He came to me a couple of weeks later and said. "Damn, Dad, I've got a problem. We wanted to get her a nice toaster oven, all the bells and whistles. I've been everywhere and looked at a bunch of them, and I can't find one that costs more than about $60.00."

I told him he was "getting off cheap. She wants a toaster oven. Buy the best one you can find." We use it. Lots of bells and whistles. I haven't tried to cook a turkey in it yet, but I haven't cooked a turkey inside the house in years.

In another hour or so it'll be time to head toward the training center. I'm really looking forward to this. Most of the week will be in air conditioning. Most of it will be stuff I've done for the last 28 years. Handcuffing, shooting, listening to lectures. The good part is that there are a lot of guys there who have been policing for a long time. Good friends. Compatriots. We'll tell stories, lie about each other, harass the instructors, most of whom we trained when they were rookies. We'll get the training, but we'll have fun doing it. We'll bitch and moan.
It'll be fun.

I'm really looking forward to this week.

Sunday afternoon

It's Sunday afternoon in central Louisiana. Ninety-four-by-God degrees on the scale and not a single breath of wind. I was just standing out on the carport and was impressed by the lack of any wind activity. Not a single breath of a breeze. The pine trees, for as far as I could see, were standing perfectly still. Very few neighbors outside. The subdivision is as quiet as midnight.

Accuweather puts the heat index at 103. I believe it. It's a good afternoon to sit in the easy chair and watch old television.

The weather forecast for this week is more of the same. Hot, still, no rain anywhere in the predictions.

I have training this week, and I've made plans for hydration. Ice, water, a cooler in the pickup truck. No sense tempting a heat injury.