The Conversation Continues - Secondary Markets

Cory Booker is the mayor of Newark, NJ and was on ABC News recently. During the interview they talked about guns in the city, and Mayor Booker had this to say.

In all of the shootings in his city, Booker says, only one was perpetrated by “a law-abiding citizen who is mentally stable and who bought a gun.” “I’m not afraid of law abiding citizens who buy a gun,”

He goes on to elaborate on the argument, talking about secondary markets for guns in his city.

“I’m not afraid of law-abiding citizens who buy a gun,” he said. “Buy the guns you want. What the problem is in America right now is that a terrorist person who is on the no-fly list could go into the secondary market today and buy a weapon.”

As they say, go read the whole thing, but Mayor Booker is talking about people owning guns who shouldn't own guns. The only problem I'm going to have with this argument is that any regulation must be crafted very carefully so as not to turn law-abiding citizens into criminals. For example, I routinely gift firearms to my children and grandchildren. That's an American tradition as old as our nation. Each of my sons has a firearm that was owned by their grandfather, a working heirloom, a link to their grandfather.

I'm not saying that I agree with Mayor Booker, but his argument is one that's being heard.  I agree that some folks shouldn't have guns, and we've got to come up with solutions that support the Second Amendment while keeping guns from prohibited persons.  Of course, it doesn't help at all that our own government is guilty of running guns in the secondary markets.  I don't know that anyone has been prosecuted for the government's involvement in that debacle, but it smacks of hypocrisy for the Justice Department to prosecute folks for doing things that government agents have done.

The law must cover all, equally.

Christmas Prep

Many years ago, Milady and I decided that we'd host a Christmas Eve celebration for family so that the kids and grandkids could celebrate Christmas Day however they proposed, whether at home doing the Santa Claus thing, or at the other in-laws.  Christmas Eve is ours.

The presents are wrapped, the tree is lit, and Milady and I are prepping for tomorrow.  The menu is simple, yet comprehensive.

Christmas Eve Menu

Baked Ham

Candied Yams

Cornbread Dressing

Green Bean Casserole

Yeast Rolls

Assorted Desserts

Iced Tea

Regarding the assorted desserts, I am told that Banana Pudding will be provided, as will a surplussage of Christmas Cookies.  Around here, we talk about "Nanner Pudding" and it will be sufficiently critiqued for completeness and sufficiency.  In the Deep South, "Nanner Pudding" is a dessert staple.

There will also be adult beverages for those who are interested, and PawPaw has laid on a sufficiency of Egg Nog.  Christmas Cheer will be complete, and comprehensive.  After the meal, we'll open presents and the grandkids will totally trash the living room.  It's part and parcel of our celebration.

Today, one adolescent grandson and I held a quicky course in the care and cleaning of bolt-action rifles.  He thought that he was helping me clean my rifle, but after the opens the boxes tomorrow night, hopefully the lesson will sink in.  There are actually two of those under the tree, and PawPaw will be interested to see the expressions on teenaged eyes when they open those gifts.

Note to Patty:  No one has offered to bring a chocolate cake.  We'll be pleased to see you tomorrow evening.

Sunday Song

The incomparable Luciano Pavarotti.



Maestro!  Bravo!

Sunday Morning Dawg

It's Sunday and tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  The presents are wrapped, the menu is planned and everyone is ready for a glorious Celebration.  The dog has been snacking for several days and he's as excited as everyone else.

I hope that each of you has a very Merry Christmas.

Do You Hear?

One of my favorites.



Enjoy.

Larry Correia

Larry Correia, over at Monster Hunter Nation, deconstructs ever possible argument on gun control, and then he takes aim at the politicians who want to "do something"

The ones who are walking around with their security details of well-armed men in their well-guarded government buildings really don’t care about actually stopping mass shooters or bad guys, they care about giving themselves more power and increasing their control.

Control, that's what it's all about. I'm linking to it so that I can find it later, but the whole article is worth reading. He talks about every conceivable argument, and shreds them all, one at a time. In the meantime, I'm going out to the bench to reload some ammunition.

Confiscation

Oh, really?  New York governor Mario Cuomo is okay with confiscation?

New York’s Gov.Andrew Cuomo said this afternoon that he’d like the state’s legislature to consider all options in debating new gun control measures, including “confiscation” of “assault” weapons

It's interesting that the Democrats are okay with government confiscation of private property. I wonder who is going to do the confiscating? And just exactly how will they know where those rifles might be?

Another question for Mario.  Is this confiscation going to be from private citiizens, or is your body guard detail going to turn in their weapons too?  As long as you are protected by armed bodyguards, do you have any moral authority to even think such a thing?  When you tell your guards to disarm, I may grant you a debating point.  Until then, thank God that they have the weapons that you want to deny to everyone else.

Godless Democrats and our elected elite.  The governing class wants to confiscate from us the same tools that they use to keep themselves safe.

Really? Kerry for State?

I'm now one drink into Happy Hour and I see that our President has nominated John Kerry for Secretary of State.

John Kerry, you'll remember, is the navy officer who left his men in Vietnam after getting three (disputed) Purple Hearts. Then he married Ketchup heiress Theresa Heinz (and to this day I will not allow Heinz ketchup in my house).  He ran for President a while back and the officers and men that served with him torpedoed his presidential bid.

I believe that John (Heinz) Kerry is a lying dog, a woeful piece of shit, a shameless whore to the political process.  He's also the senior senator from Massachusetts, a state with a long line of shameless whores as Senator.  Kerry is a left-wing radical, a liar, and a hustler of women.  He'll probably do as well a job at SecState as Hillary Clinton, who recently fell and hit her head so as not to testify on the Benghazi debacle.  I understand that Hllary willing to use any number of convenient excuses to avoid testifying before Congress, to include yeast infections, toenail fungus, and the clap.  No word yet on her hemorrhoids.

Having said all that, it makes perfect sense that the President appoints John (Heinz) Kerry as SecState.  I wonder how many more good Americans this asshole will slander?

It's about time to pour another drink.

NRA Presser

Wayne LaPierre of the NRA held a press conference today, following a week of silence after the Sandy Hook massacre.  I think that Wayne hit it out of the park.

We care about the President, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents. Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by armed Capitol Police officers.
Yet when it comes to the most beloved, innocent and vulnerable members of the American family — our children — we as a society leave them utterly defenseless, and the monsters and predators of this world know it and exploit it. That must change now!

That's true. The President is protected, our Governors are protected, our legislators are protected, but we drop our kids off at school and in many venues, they are not protected. So, ask yourself; Does the President of the United States have a greater right to life than a kindergarten student? Does the mayor of New York have a greater right to protection than a first grade student? No, yet the President and Mayor Bloomberg surround themselves with armed police officers. Must our children be left unprotected?  I think not, and in my case, my work is making sure that school children are protected.    If you want to read a full run-down of the problem, go read Karl Denninger's take on the problem.   Most of the problem of our governing class is hypocrisy, and Denninger nails them.  I'll be using some of his arguments over the next several weeks.

The reporters, predictably, are trashing LaPierre on Twitter.  They can't stand it that he's right, as is Denninger, and as am I.

Lots more at the link.

Our President, on the other hand, is supposed to be remarking soon.  The Gay Patriot nails it.

It's close to 5:00 here, and I believe that I'm going to declare Happy Hour.

Birthday

On this day in 1953, PawPaw skidded into the world, and it's been a heck of a ride.  I hope that I can keep hanging on for a while longer, and the doctor sees no reason why that won't happen.  So, today I am blessed with good health, a fine family, a warm home and a loving wife.  That's all a man needs, actually, and I feel blessed.

I will work all day today.  For reasons that only a basketball coach can fathom (because for the life of me, I don't understand it), I have to work a basketball game tonight.  I'm going to pull on my boots in another half hour and go to the school-house where I will remain until about 9-ish tonight.  What makes it unfathomable is that the coach and I share the birthday, and she insists on scheduling games on her birthday.  What makes it truly unfathomable is that her husband is the competing coach, and he knows damned well it's his wife's birthday.  All I can figure out is that it's some sort of weird sexual thing they've got going on, but that's just a hunch as I have no evidence of that at all.

Still, it's PawPaw's birthday, so I give you my standard birthday song.



Y'all have a good one, and I'll catch y'all on the flip side.

Responsible Gun Ownership

It turns out that a firearm bought by an ATF agent has turned up at a Mexican murder scene.  A Senate investigation reveals that the ATF agent who purchased the firearm might have lied on his 4473. Senator Grassley has written a letter to the ATF.

"Lying on a Form 4473 is a felony and can be punished by up to five years in prison," Grassley's letter states. The senator also points out that's the same alleged violation that suspects in ATF's Fast and Furious operation were arrested for. "Jaime Avila, Jr. recently plead guilty to a variety of charges" in Fast and Furious, including "for giving a false address on Form 4473."

It seems to me that between Fast and Furious, and this latest revelation about an ATF supervisor lying on a 4473, that the Obama administration has no moral standing to lecture the rest of us on responsible gun ownership.

Cool Beans

It's my birthday tomorrow, and of course I've got to work a ball game.  Milady knew that I was stressed out, so she took me to eat Mexican, and when we got home she gave me my birthday present.  Something I've wanted for a while, but wouldn't buy for myself.

That a set of ATI shotgun forend wrenches.  I'll probably use them only once a year, or once every couple of years, but it you've ever tried to take a forend off of a pump shotgun, or tighten the forend on a pump shotgun, you'll realize how important those three wrenches can become.

Now, I'm having a little taste of Kentucky whiskey and all the stress has rolled off my back.  I am indeed a lucky man.

Stress

Stop the world, I want to get off.

Thougths on Tuesday

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook tragedy I"m hearing calls to start a national conversation on gun control, and I have to tell you that I don't know where these people have been.  We've been having this conversation since 1968 that I'm aware of, and we're still having it today.  The difference in the conversation is that the pro-gun guys have advanced cogent arguments, done the research and made the case to the public.  We've had the conversation.  Every body who is coming now to the table is coming late.

The Atlantic posts an article on this very point, and it's worth reading.  In an Atlantic Wire post titled "It's Time We Talked About Gun Control," my sharp colleague Jen Doll writes, "We're going to have to talk about this; we're going to have to form coherent thoughts; and we're going to have to stop simply cleaving to our agendas and our selfish little opinions of what we want and what we think we should have -- and when 'the right time is' -- if this is ever going to get any better." But that isn't a call for a conversation! It's an assertion that opponents of gun control are selfish, and that they (not "we") are going to "have to" change their minds. It's fine to make that argument. The problem is couching it as a mere call for talking, when it is in fact an assertion that the only reasonable conclusion is that the other guys are wrong.  

The other guys (by that I mean the pro-gun types and I couch myself in those terms) have been having the conversation for over 40 years, and we've won. We've won in the public debate, we've won in the state legislatures, we've won in the Congress. We've won in the Courts.  If you want to talk about gun control, then I'm willing to have the conversation, but you'd better do your homework, have your research in hand, and be ready to defend your stance by something more than emotional appeal.

So, if you want to have the conversation, drag up a chair and pour yourself a drink.  But, be ready to have your ass handed to you.  I've already had this conversation and I'm winning.

Monday Mayan

Well, this cartoon explains it all.

Only four shopping days until the Mayan Apocalypse.

Hat tip to Denny!

Sunday Song

We lost Andy Williams in September of this year.



I don't think I'll be hearing him sing this one in Branson anymore.

Sunday Morning Dawg

It's mild today in central Louisiana.  Milder than it's been all week, with temps in the high 60s.  The dog and I are enjoying the overcast, breezy day.   The weather weenies are calling for thunderstorms later and we'll have to deal with that, but in the meantime we'll enjoy the back deck.

Hopefully it'll be just a lazy day.  Y'all go enjoy Sunday.  There's only five more shopping days before the Mayan Apocalypse.

Clackamas Mall

You remember the Clackamas Mall shooting last week?  I wondered why a guy with an AR had such a small body count in a target-rich mall two weeks before Christmas.  Part of the narrative is that his magazine jammed, so I get that, but now we're learning that an armed CCW holder confronted him.

part was also due to the fact that, gun-free zone or not, Jacob Roberts was confronted by Nick Meli who was armed and has a concealed carry permit. No, he didn’t fire because he feared hitting an innocent person behind Roberts if he missed. But Roberts knew Meli was there: “I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself.”

We learn in police work that the best way to stop an active shooter is to confront him, to threaten him, to place fire on him if possible, to take his attention away from the innocents and on his own mortality. Generally, the shooter will eat his own gun pretty quickly after being confronted.

I wonder how many we could have saved at Sandy Hook if one administrator had been armed and trained.  If one teacher had been armed and trained.   We'll never know, will we?

Getting It Wrong

Well, I see that the pundits have started to call for gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.  Unfortunately, they're either getting the facts wrong out of either pure ignorance or out of dishonest reporting.  Either way, they're getting it wrong and it doesn't reflect well on their organizations.  For example, let's start with Mark Shields over at PBS.

And if we can license people who clip our toenails and promote prize fights, then we sure as hell ought to be able to license people who have automatic weapons.

Uuuh, we do, Mark. It's called the National Firearms Act and it was passed in 1934. You'd think that a PBS reporter would know that, but you just proved me wrong. You're plainly ignorant on the subject. Then we have Rupert Murdoch asking the same question.

When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons? As in Oz after similar tragedy.

Well, Rupert, I know that you head the 2nd largest news organization in the world, so maybe you can get one of your fact-checkers to research that for you. However, we've already banned automatic weapons in the United States. We did that in 1934. You should know that. But, while we're at it, what kind of guns do your security team use? And what makes your life more valuable than the lives of innocent children? Just asking.

And of course, Bloomberg chimes in, calling for more gun control.  This is the same Bloomberg who lets Long Island residents go for 30 days without electricity and can't control bedbugs.  You'd think that New York City had enough problems to keep their big-mouthed mayor busy, but you'd be wrong.  Oh, and I wonder what kind of guns Bloomberg's security team carries?  Are y'all starting to see a pattern here.  The big shots want gun control, yet their security team carries the very guns they want to restrict.

And as usual, we don't yet have an update on Harry Reid's problem with pederasty.

Why?

Why would someone go into an elementary school and start shooting children?  How evil, sick, demented can you be?  I simply don't understand, the mind that would do such a thing is foreign to me.  Alien.

We'll know more as time goes on, but in the meantime let's all say a prayer for the victims.

Unraveling

If you've noticed, I'm posting less about politics and more about cooking.  Hopefully I'll get more into guns and shooting after the first of the year.  Whether or not we drive off the fiscal cliff is plainly off my radar.  I just don't give a crap.  This country needs a serious realignment with reality and until there's a little pain, there won't be any gain.

However, I am compelled to think about the unions and the right-to-work states and notice that the latest round of asinine behavior is in Michigan, where the unions lost the right-to-work argument and have resorted to thuggery and destruction of property.  I find it interesting that while the Democrats won the national election for The Lightworker, that more and more states are leaning conservative with 29 Republican governors, and a majority of state legislatures are Republican.  Now, Michigan has gone right-to-work and if the governor can show increased economic activity over the next two years, there is little chance that the state house will flip sides.  The blue model is dying and when union members revert to fistic tactics, they're plainly losing.

In other news, Milady and I are heading to Texas Roadhouse in another hour to meet some friends for dinner.  I've been a good boy today, and I see a ribeye steak in my immediate future.

Gumbo Weather

It's been cold all day here in Central Louisiana.  PawPaw worked a soccer game last night and didn't have time to properly prepare a meal.  I had to settle for a bowl of canned chili when I got home.  Tonight, though, I'm free and I decided to make a gumbo.  Just a basic chicken and sausage gumbo with lots of onions, bell peppers and celery.  Milady is running a couple of errands after work, so in another half hour I'll put on a couple of cups of brown rice and it should be nearly ready when she gets home.

It's supposed to get down below freezing tonight and it didn't get much about 50F all day long with a slight breeze out of the north.  A big pot of gumbo sounds good.  I'll get up shortly and give it a stir, make sure all the flavors are blending properly.

My basic recipe is here.

The Hobo Dinner

A poster over at The Gun Counter was talking about easy campfire meals, and I started thinking about the Hobo Dinner.  This is a great, easy campfire meal with little clean-up.

Hobo Dinner

Ingredients:
half pound of good hamburger
One carrot
One slice of onion
One big potato
One big piece aluminum foil
Salt
Pepper

Assembly:
On the aluminum foil, pat the hamburger into a patty, then wash and slice the potato, the carrot, and put it on top of the hamburger.  Add your slice of onion, then put some salt and pepper on it.  Fold the aluminum foil into a pleasing packet (or roll it all in a ball) and drop it in a convenient campfire.  Did I mention you needed a campfire?  Let it sizzle for 30-45 minutes, depending on how done you want the meat and veggies.  Drag it out of the fire and eat it.  For variety, you can add mushrooms, or asparagus, or anything that tastes good.

This is a great campfire meal and I've eaten hundreds of these things.  The steam and grease from the meat cooks the veggies, and you eat it right from the aluminum foil.  I've eaten them with nothing more than a pocket-knife (you do carry a pocket-knife, don't you?).  You can make them ahead of time when you're liable to be setting up camp late in the evening.  Start your fire, drop your Hobo Dinner, then set up the camp.  When you're done pitching the tent and getting situated, the meal is ready.  It's a great time-saver.

The Instapundit Fiscal Cliff Plan

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), rolls out his fiscal cliff plan for House Republicans.  Revenue bills originate in the House, as we all know from high school civics, and the House is controlled by Republicans, even if many of them are only marginally conservative.  Still, Boehner and crew has a golden opportunity here.  The tax bill should consist of three parts.

1.  Adopt the Bowles-Simpson Plan.  It's not the greatest plan in the world, but it's bipartisan and it will start moving us in the right direction.

2.  Fifty percent surtax on post government employment salaries for government officials.  Lets say a cabinet officer goes to Washington, makes $200K in a year, then leaves government employment to take a private job at $1 million a year.  Simply, we tax that excess $800K at 50%.  For ten years.  The official is being hired because of his Washington contacts, so why shouldn't the people get a portion of the increased salary? Obama promised to close the revolving door in Washington, and this simple tax plan would go a long way in that regard.

3.  Make Hollywood pay it's fair share. Bring back the 20% tax on motion picture theaters, but also expand it to include CD's DVDs, and movie downloads.

If Boehner adopted this plan, pushed it through the House, then sent it to the Senate, he could say that he has sent a plan to the Democrats.  If the Senate killed it, that would be their fault.  If the Senate passed it, then sent it to Obama, he could either sign it or veto it.

Rain, Blessed Rain

I awoke this morning to the rumble of thunder, and as it was close to my getting-up time, I decided to make coffee.  The dog, of course, was completely freaked-out.  He's really quite scared of thunder.  It's raining outside and I'm glad of that.  We've been dry for way too long.  I managed to capture the Accuweather radar map.

This is the tail of the front that's been dumping snow on the Midwest.  I heard the weather-weenies talking about it last night.  The guy was calling this Winter Storm Charles.  Have they started naming winter storms?

Santa Claus is Coming

This seems to be the weekend for Christmas Parades, so the Sunday Song celebrates Santa's arrival in a particular location.



For myself, I'll be at our local Christmas parade this afternoon.  The churches in the community of Deville, LA have been sponsoring a Christmas Parade for several years, and every year it gets bigger and better.  PawPaw will be helping the church make it a memorable parade.

Sunday Morning Dawg

We're heavily into Christmas decorating this week and the dog thinks that laying under the coffee table is a safe way to spend the afternoon.  He doesn't get stepped-on nearly as much.

I can't say that I can fault his reasoning.  When Milady and a bunch of grandkids start decorating, I often want to crawl under the table myself.  Milady buys ornaments for the grandkids each year.  Of course, the dog has to have an ornament all his very own.

I see the resemblance.

Chicken Tot Pie

 We've come to use this recipe when we're feeding a crowd, such as tonight.  The kids love it and the adults think it's an interesting idea.

Chicken Tot Pie.
Ingredients:
Tater-tots, pre-made in bag
Bag mixed vegetables
Can cream of chicken soup
Chicken, whole
Shredded cheese
Salt
Pepper

Assembly:
Boil your chicken.  Debone it, tearing the meat into small pieces.  Boil the vegetables in the chicken broth, drain the vegetables, add cream of chicken soup.  Mix meat, soup, veggies together, salt and pepper to taste. Put mixture in a casserole dish.  Top with tater-tots and bake in a 350 oven until the tots are done.  Top with shredded cheese and put back in oven till cheese melts.  Serve.  Enjoy.

This recipe is easy to double or triple.  The picture above is a quadruple recipe.

Army Navy Game

Go ARMY!

That is all.

At the Auction

Milady and I went to the auction last night, to visit with friends and to see what might be on the block.  One of the items was a first generation Kindle.  Used.  The bid started at $25.00 and I bid it up, got out at $45.00, it sold for $50.00.

I don't feel bad for losing it.  New Kindles go for $69.00 and the one for sale was used.  It was still in the box, but I didn't know what might have been loaded on it, how it had been treated, and may have been abused.  If I'd have won it for $45.00 I'd have been happy with it, but at $50.00 I wasn't interested.  That's the game when you're at an auction.

I did score a surplus 20mm ammo can.  Real, steel, ammo cans are scarce as hen's teeth in this area and little  5.56, .30 cal, and .50 cal ammo cans routinely go for $25.00 at the auction.  I bought this one for $25.00, and while sometimes you can find them cheaper, you've got to pay shipping.  It's bigger than the cans for smaller ammo, but it will make great storage.

Juan Williams Bloviates

Juan Williams, a Fox News contributor has penned a screed defending Bob Costas.  Well, so be it.  If Williams wants to defend the indefensible, we'll just give him a little fisking.

Costas is being targeted by the politically correct crowd that muzzles important debate on issues from gun control, to immigration, to government spending and abortion. These are the same enforcers that got me fired from NPR two years ago for admitting my personal anxiety over seeing people in Muslim garb on airplanes.

I don't know where you've been for the past 40 years, Juan, but we've been having this debate at least that long. Get your facts straight.

The body count is too big to ignore. Since the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, there have been over 60 mass shootings. Recently, there was the carnage at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. And don’t forget the mass attack at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, or Columbine, or Virginia Tech…

Well, the Aurora shooting was specifically in a theater that didn't allow law-abiding citizens to carry guns. That madman targeted people who he knew would be unarmed. That argument is a strawman at best.

In Georgia, Virginia, Arizona and Tennessee, the laws allow people to bring guns into bars. Members of the U.S. House and Senate have pushed to allow for guns on Amtrak trains and in our national parks. The Assault Weapons ban was allowed to expire in 2004 after ten years of slowing the sale of the most dangerous automatic weapons.

Yep, all part of the debate we've been having for the past 40 years. We've shown time and again that weapons bans don't work, which is why the Ban On Weapons That Looked Like Assault Weapons expired. It had absolutely no impact on crime.

As Bernie Goldberg, guest on "The O’Reilly Factor," said recently people on the right should agree with Costas that something is wrong when there are “more bad things happening with guns than good things.”

You don't know that, in fact, the research shows that the exact opposite is true. Years of gun research shows that more guns equal less crime. Go read John Lott, or Clayton Cramer, or any of the academic researchers who don't start out with an agenda. The fact is that more good things happen with guns than bad things. Some folks estimate that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens prevent two million crimes per year. You've got the argument exactly wrong.

Intellectual honesty and consistency dictates that it is also wrong for Costas to be punished for his speaking his mind over the tragedy surrounding football player Jovan Belcher last week. Belcher was the Kansas City Chiefs Linebacker who shot and killed his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.

Intellectual honesty and consistency dictates that we realize that Javon Belcher was a murderer who took the life of his child's mother, then realized that he was going to spend the rest of his life behind bars and killed himself rather than face the consequences of his actions. Bob Costas is being pilloried for being intellectually dishonest. He's wrong, dead wrong, as are you.

I wrote about how difficult it is to have an honest debate about guns and gun control in my book, "Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate." And the need for honest debate on guns remains an American priority.

Once again, we've been having this debate for 40 years. If you'd been paying attention, you'd know that. Freedom rings, and the freedom folks have captured state legislatures, state courts, the Congress, and there have been several cases recently before the US Supreme Court that reaffirm the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The anti-gunners have been consistently dishonest, unscrupulous, and intellectually corrupt. The debate continues and your side has lost it. You'll continue to lose it simply because you have no facts, no verifiable, intellectually rigorous facts to back up your arguments.  There is no assault on honest debate, unless an anti-gunner is involved in the debate.

Brave New World

I see that stoners are lighting up in Washington, as the state referendum legalizing marijuana has taken effect. This should be an interesting experiment in Washington, and soon in Colorado.  I understand that their new law takes effect on January 5th.

As a police officer, I have been asked many times what I felt about the legalization of marijuana.  My thoughts are simple.  I am sworn to uphold the law, whatever that law might be.  If the good citizens of a state decide to de-criminalize a particular thing, or to criminalize a particular thing, then I try to uphold the law.  I don't make the laws, I am simply tasked with enforcing them.

I support freedom in all its forms, and the good citizens of Washington and Colorado have decided that the recreational use of marijuana is a good thing.  Time will tell if their decision is best for them, and the proponents of marijuana are rightly celebrating their political victory.  It'll be interesting to watch how this plays out.  The police have a lot of work to do, and they've got to adapt to the changing times.  I'm sure, in time, they'll arrest folks for driving intoxicated under the influence of marijuana.  Just as we arrest folks now for driving intoxicated under the influence of alcohol.  Time will also tell what the social costs of this expansion of freedom will be.  That's for the social scientists and the legislators to argue about.  Not the police.  We're here to enforce the laws, not make them.

Good for the citizens of Washington.  You've just launched a great and noble experiment in the percolator of freedom.  It'll be interesting to see what you have brewed.

Costas Doubles Down

After complaining that he didn't have enough time to make a nuanced argument, Bob Costas gets enough time and fails to make a nuanced argument about something as simple as the 2nd Amendment.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, Bob Costas attempted to prop up his ludicrous claim that young men can’t own guns “without something bad happening,”

That's strange, I know lots of young men who own guns and nothing bad has happened. In the linked article, they even show where professional athletes own guns and nothing bad happens. Costas has lost this argument, and I guess I'll have to write another email to NBC Sports. This guy just doesn't learn. I'll be working late tonight. Y'all all write NBC Sports, too.

Six Million Pounds

I don't know if y'all have been following what's going on in Doyline, LA at the old Minden Army Ammunition Plant, but some contractor has been improperly storing explosives.  By improperly storing, I mean leaving them out in the weather in cardboard drums, and I'm talking about six million pounds of explosives.  That's a lot of bang for the buck.  It's something called M6, and something called TNT, and other military explosives that were being recovered from disassembled artillery rounds.  Six Million Pounds.  The civil authorities are predictably concerned.  State Police is on scene.  Someone is probably going to jail about all this.

The little town nearby, Doyline, LA is under a voluntary evacuation.  Schools closed, etc, etc.  It seems some burglars tried to take advantage of the evacuation and stumbled upon a 77 year old woman still at home, with a .44 caliber handgun.  Really.

Sheriff Sexton said a trio of burglars apparently thought they could take advantage of the evacuation and attempted to break into the home of an elderly couple just outside the city limits early Saturday.

When they tried to break into a rear window, the 77-year-old woman shot one with a .44-caliber handgun. Sexton said the injured suspect was hospitalized in critical condition and the other two suspects were arrested. He did not have their identities.

“She dropped the hammer on one of them. One is fighting for his life,” said Sexton, 59, who is in his third term as sheriff. He said deputies were on the watch for others trying to take advantage of the evacuation.

There is a lesson here that everyone should understand. Do not burglarize a 77 year old woman who keeps a .44.

Six More Months

Today was my semi-annual checkup.  I went in this morning and they bled me, then dismissed me until they got the labs done.  As it turns out, my cholesterol is looking good, my blood pressure is okay, all the labs came back in the proper range, except that the doc is concerned about something called A1C.  Turns out my sugar levels aren't quite what they should be.  Not dangerous, just a little high.  Oh, and I'm a fat man.  Imagine that.

At any rate, no medicine yet, we're going to work on the A1C level with diet, and I should lose several dozen pounds.  SO, Milady and I looked at the labs and I talked with the doc.  I've already cut out processed sugar, so now I'm going to cut out white stuff.  Potatoes, rice, pasta, I'm off the white stuff.

The doc thinks I'll probably live another six months, so he's scheduled another appointment in early June.  That's good news, I guess.

Bob Costas Craps Himself

I was on the way to the deer lease when I heard on Fox Sports radio that someone had offed himself at the Kansas City Chief's clubhouse. I happened to know a new member of the club had just relocated from Kansas City, so I asked him, who called his son, who told us that it appeared that Jovan Belcher had offed himself and his girlfriend. I had the name Belcher before it came out on the radio.

Okay, I thought, some guy who's paid to be aggressive kills his girlfriend, then realizes his career is over and he offs himself at the clubhouse. Case Closed. I didn't watch the game on Sunday, but I learned later that sports broadcaster Bob Costas crapped himself during an opinion piece.

As it turns out, Costas doesn't believe that a NFL player is capable of killing someone without a handgun. OJ Simpson would be surprised to hear that opinion. Costas is catching flak from all corners, as well he should. He should stick to what he does best, broadcasting sports, and not worry about the social commentary. All he managed to do was piss off some gun-loving football fans.

Tam gives him a good spanking, and I'm sure that the rest of the gunny bloggers are hammering him as well. He dropped his trousers and showed us his ass. All we're doing is spanking it. I've been cruising around the NBC site, looking for a contact address so that I can send an appropriately worded memo. I do see that the Kansas City Chiefs dedicated the game Sunday to the victims of domestic violence and I thought that was a good idea. Waste no tears for Javon Belcher, but remember the victims of domestic violence. As for Coasta? Screw him. He owes us all an apology.

Let it Burn

I've been reading about our President's plan to avert a financial crisis by... wait for it... borrowing and spending like there is no tomorrow.  Most of the punditry begins with this article from the New York Times. 

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented the House speaker, John A. Boehner, a detailed proposal on Thursday to avert the year-end fiscal crisis with $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing and a permanent end to Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits.

That's his plan? 1.6 trillion in taxes, $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending, and an end to Congress controlling the debt ceiling? That's his plan? Heh! If the Republicans fight it and anything goes wrong, they'll immediately be blamed. If the Republicans get some meaningful concessions and something goes wrong, they'll be blamed. This is a lose-lose for the Republican party. There's not a damned thing that they can do to stop it. Hot Air is covering it, as well as numerous other bloggers all over the internet.

Rather than fight it and get blamed for a disaster, the smart move would be for the Republicans to just walk away. Let the Democratic party own it, lock, stock and barrel. Put no speed bumps in the way, don't try to convince anyone that it's a bad idea, just let it happen. Vote Present at every opportunity. Obama believes that he's an imperial Presidency, that he has all the answers. Let it happen, let the country feel the heat, then turn the country bright Republican Red in 2014. I have very little faith in the American people, very little faith at all because they elected Barack Obama, not once, but twice. Unbelievably stupid people voted for Obama.

 I don't have much faith in John Boehner, either. He's a big government guy, and frankly I think he's out of his league.

However, I do love the blog post over at Ace of Spades:

I love that part about presidential control over the debt ceiling, as his Majesty might require. Fuck you. Let it burn.

Ha! He's right.

Game Camera

I went out to the lease yesterday to check my feeders and my game camera.  I got some more shots of that goofy squirrel, but also some deer pics.  It's interesting that I'm getting deer pictures later in the day than is generally considered prime hunting hours.  For example, this pic, taken at 10:34 a.m.

If you look closely at the photo, there is a deer moving into the woodline on the opposite side of the pipeline.

I've studied that picture as closely as I am able and I suspect that's a doe, although it might be a spike buck.  It might behoove me to stay in the stand until noon.  As luck has it, the batteries on that camera died on November 18, after I last checked the card on the 15th.  Go figure.

Sunday Carol

One of my favorite Christmas songs, written by the incomparable Mel Torme, performed by Celtic Woman



This is the start of the Christmas Season.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Laying around on a Saturday afternoon, Milady decided to have some chips and dips.  The dog, of course, wanted to participate.  I snapped this shot as he was laying at her feet, eating a chip with bean dip.

Snacking on a Saturday afternoon.

Sew-Sew

My son says that it's been sew-sew. lately, getting ready for an encampment.  He is a reenactor of 18th century life in Louisiana.  The French had an outpost at Natchitoches, the end of the supply chain, and it was manned by French Marines.  Nothing else French extended to the west.  Posted there to stop Spanish encroachment,the French Marines faced the Spanish fort to the west, Los Adaes, was also at the end of the that supply chain.  Separated by a scant 20 miles, each of them several thousands of miles from their headquarters and several hundreds of miles from the nearest reinforcements, the two forts learned that trade was mutually beneficial.

They also had families.  Soldiers bring their families with them, or they court the local settlers and before long you've got a thriving little community. That's truly how America was built.  When the clothes wore out, or the season changed, the settlers did what they had to do, trading with the local Caddo Indians, making their own clothing, being self-sufficient was not only a way of life, it was the best way to stay alive.

I took the long way around to show you a project my son has completed for the encampment next weekend.  A whole bunch of reenactors will man Fort St. Jean Baptiste in Natchitoches during the weekend of December 7-9th as part of the annual Christmas Festival.  The boy-o needed suitable clothing to become a re-enactor and part of the living history celebration, so like the French Marines who populated the place, my son made the boy-o a Capote. You can make them fancy, and you can make them plain, but there's a lot to like in a well-made, sturdy Capote.  You can even spend $500.00 on one.  I much prefer the home-made versions.

I think it looks great, don't you?  Heavy wool is probably the very best coat material and I'm convinced the boy-o will be fine at the encampment next weekend.

I wonder if they need to borrow a propane heater?

The Case for more Guns (and more Gun Control)

The Atlantic posts a reasonably balanced look at guns in America.  The author's bias shines like a lighthouse beacon.

 Many gun-control advocates, and particularly advocates of a total gun ban, would like to see the United States become more like Canada, where there are far fewer guns per capita and where most guns must be registered with the federal government. The Canadian approach to firearms ownership has many attractions—the country’s firearm homicide rate is one-sixth that of the U.S. 

However, he does go shooting with Dave Kopel while in Boulder, CO. and even comes to a remarkable conclusion

But I am sympathetic to the idea of armed self-defense, because it does often work, because encouraging learned helplessness is morally corrupt, and because, however much I might wish it, the United States is not going to become Canada. Guns are with us, whether we like it or not. Maybe this is tragic, but it is also reality. So Americans who are qualified to possess firearms shouldn’t be denied the right to participate in their own defense. And it is empirically true that the great majority of America’s tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners have not created chaos in society.

I think on the whole, it's a well-balanced article.  Go read it.

TGIF

It's been a long week, we're picking up speed at the high school.  Both basketball and soccer seasons are in full swing, and PawPaw finds himself coming around corners.  Next week I'll be at the school three nights.  However, this night is mine as is the entire weekend.  Milady and I are probably going to slip off later and have a little fun.  I fully intend to be on my deer stand at daylight.

Did y'all see where they think they found ice on Mercury?  Yeah, the closest planet to the sun, what I've always understood to be a baked rock.  It seems to have polar ice in places where the sun don't shine.

You might have thought there was a snowball's chance in hell of finding ice on Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. Now measurements by NASA's Messenger spacecraft suggest there is about 100 cubic kilometres of frozen water at the planet's poles – roughly enough to fill the Dead Sea.

I grew up transfixed at the space race and sat enthralled as we learned more about this solar system. We're still learning things we couldn't imagine forty years ago.

And, even today, the only footprints on the moon are American.

Eleven Most Important Guns in History

Popular Mechanics published a photo gallery of what they consider the eleven most important guns in history.  They include the first hand-cannon, the Uzi, the AK47 and the Garand.  They talk about Maxim machine guns, and they talk about the much loved M2 (Ma Deuce).  Regarding handfuns, they talk about the Colt Peacemaker and the 1911 pistol.  All worthy, historical, significant designs. Then, they come up with this monstrosity.

Perhaps the most innovative small arm of recent years is the XM-25 "Punisher" 25-mm grenade launcher. A laser measures the range to the target, so the grenade can be set to explode midair at the exact point it passes over a foxhole or a wall to target enemies behind cover. Five weapons were issued in Afghanistan on a trial basis in 2010 and they have had good reports. However, the XM25's estimated cost of over $30,000 may prove to be something of a limitation for now.

I've got to scream Bullshit! That thing isn't important. While nice, while interesting, it certainly doesn't have the cachet, the history, the excellence of the Colt Peacemaker, or the 1911 as designed by the sainted John Moses Browning (PBUH).  It certainly doesn't show design excellence, or elegance like a Maxim or innovative design like the AK47.

Popular Mechanics is a great magazine, but they're off the mark including this prototype in their list.

Sec State

Hillary Clinton has told her boss that she's leaving and she's made no secret of it.  She wants to go home and rest, and as much as I disagree with the woman, I think that she's earned the right to do just that.  Who, oh who, will relieve her?

One of the two front runners right now are UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who is being pilloried over her lying to the American public about the Benghazi debacle.  I doubt that she could be confirmed if nominated, but stranger things have happened.  The other front runner is that asshole, lying traitor, John Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts.  We might do well to recall what his war buddies said about him just eight years ago.

"During Lt.(jg) Kerry's tour, he was under my command for two or three specific operations, before his rapid exit. Trust, loyalty and judgment are the key, operative words. His turncoat performance in 1971 in his grubby shirt and his medal-tossing escapade, coupled with his slanderous lines in the recent book portraying us that served, including all POWs and MIAs, as murderous war criminals, I believe, will have a lasting effect on all military veterans and their families. Kerry would be described as devious, self-absorbing, manipulative, disdain for authority, disruptive, but the most common phrase that you'd hear is 'requires constant supervision.'" -- Captain Charles Plum, USN (retired)

Unfortunately, I know of no law that prevents a lying, traitorous, sack-of-shit to be a US Senator. If there were such a law, we'd certainly have a better class of people in the Senate.

 In John Kerry's case, I believe that he has repeatedly lied to the American people, mischaracterized the service of a half-million Americans for political gain, and has cast discredit upon himself. The only thing that John Kerry deserves is the lasting enmity of the American people.

 Oh, and while we're at it, why hasn't someone hanged Jane Fonda for treason yet?

Cease Fire!

While shooting handguns at the annual Thanksgiving Family Shoot, we were running through some reloaded .38 Special.  I've loaded tens of thousands of rounds of .38 special during my lifetime, and we saw something during that shoot that I've never seen.  Somehow, one box of ammo was faulty, with three squib loads.  As a handloader, we want to make sure our ammo is safe and effective, we check and double-check, and obsess about quality control.  Still, stuff happens.

There was a time almost a decade ago when I was playing with reduced loads in some calibers, trying to get the bullet to stop, hanging out the muzzle.  I was never actually able to accomplish that feat.  The bullet would  either leave the barrel and drop just a few feet downrange, or it would stick in the barrel.  I finally abandoned that experiment as unworkable.  Then, Thursday afternoon, we saw it happen.

That's a 158 grain semi wadcutter stuck at the muzzle of a 4" Smith and Wesson 66.  Of course, I was confounded at the happenstance, and we took a minute to review safety processes and to educate the assembled crowd on how something like this might happen and why when you encounter a squib load you immediately cease fire.  The handgun was placed back into service by the simple expedient of grabbing the nose of the bullet with a pair of needlenose pliers and plucking the bullet from the muzzle.  A good safety lesson for all of us.

We experienced another malfunction that I've never seen, a legitimate hang-fire.  This happened shooting shotguns during the skeet portion of the festivities.  My son called for a target, swung on it, and the gun clicked.  He took the shotgun off his shoulder, looked at the action, and the shell fired, a full two seconds after the trigger was pulled.  This with factory shotgun ammunition, bought expressly for this activity.  Good gun handling skills, years of training and experience, and no one was injured, the shot charge went downrange into the trees, hurting no one.  In over 40 years of messing with shotguns I've never seen a true hang-fire until last Thursday.

Enjoy the shooting season, but by all means, be careful.

Sunday Morning Dawg

This is the first for a Sunday Morning Dawg.  Here, I've got two dogs in my easy chair, giving them a good scratching.  We've got Beau-dog, who you all know, and Trickie dog, who you met last week.  I was watching television and giving the dogs their due, when the picture was snapped.  Yeah, I've got my mouth open.  I was probably talking to someone.

That's Beau with my left hand and Trickie on my right.  It's as good a dawg picture as any.

Black Friday Shopping

I see from the reports that black Friday shopping is as chaotic as ever.  Y'all have fun with that.  For myself, more of my shopping is online and the big ticket items are bought.  One thing I give away is cash, and that always fits, the color is right, and it's easy to store.

I did make it down to the Ace Hardware this morning.  I needed some little one-pound propane bottles and I knew they'd have them in stock.  Some of the grandkids and I are going hunting tomorrow morning and I needed that propane to run the deer stand heaters.

Speaking of deer stand heaters, I'm fond of the Mr. Heater Buddy heaters.  When you're in a box blind like I am, it's nice to take the chill off of the air.  I know that there are purists who don't think that using a wooden box blind is really hunting, and that's okay. I'm realistic enough to understand ambuscade and that's really how most whitetail deer are killed these days. I still like a stalk hunt, and I'm really fond of being in the squirrel woods with a .22 rifle and easing through the oaks.  However, when you've got fidgety grandkids with you, it sure is nice to be in a box blind where the movement of the kids doesn't spook game.  When the kids are warm, they're not as apt to be whining, making noise, snuffling, or otherwise being loud.

Lindsey Stone Fired

It seems that last week, a young woman named Lindsey Stone took a trip to Arlington National Cemetary, sponsored by her employer.  She took a picture, a "verbal pun" near a sign near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, pretending to yell, while extending her middle finger.  She posted it on her Facebook Page.

Thousands have called for her firing over the blatant disrespect she showed for the honored dead.  When she took the picture, she was within sight of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a place where respect, dignity, courtesy, and silence are required.  Her employer has a statement concerning the firing.

Her defenders have said, rightly, that she was simply exercising her First Amendment rights, that it was a childish prank, and that she should not suffer the loss of her job over it.  Some of that is true.  The First Amendment guarantees that Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech.  This was a childish prank and I'm sure that she regrets the frivolous moment.  However, Congress isn't doing anything to her, she is not under threat of prosecution, nor will she be officially punished for a playground prank.  That's the limit of the First Amendment.

It's one thing to criticize the military  God Himself knows that I've criticized them There is no military member living that can't use a little useful criticism, either individually or as a service.  Criticizing the military is okay. Those folks at Arlington are above reproach and deserve no criticism.  They have given their last full measure of devotion to our country .Especially the Unknowns, who have given their lives anonymously in the service of the nation.  I will brook no criticism, no disrespect toward our honored dead.

No, in Lindsey's case, a nation has risen in full-throated indignation to defend those who gave their lives defending us.  They did not seek government assistance in their indignation, they simply denounced a lout who got herself in trouble over a moment of juvenile foolishness.  Lindsey had a perfect right to do what she did, and thousands of people were perfectly right to call for her dismissal.  That's the way a free nation works.

I do note, from reading the article, that Lindsey is of proper age for military service.  She is also without a job.  She might consider trotting down to the recruiter's office and signing up.  Maybe some good NCO in either of the services will teach her the respect that comes with maturity.

Thanksgiving Gunny Shoot

We do a little shooting every Thanksgiving, after lunch.  Some pictures from today's festivities.

Grandson Jeffrey on the shotgun, grandson Michael on the trap.

Son Barrett cleaning a clay pigeon.  If you look closely at the upper left corner you can see pieces of the orange flyer.

Sister Patricia on a .38 Special.  She hasn't shot in years, yet fell right back into the routine

Nephew Adam on a 9mm pistol.  Adam has a PhD in some esoteric field and works for the Army at the facility near Huntsville.  He told me over lunch that he's working with aluminum as it relates to solid rocket fuel.  He's trying to reduce the smoke in the exhaust plume that a rocket makes when it fires.  Very important work.

A view of the firing line.  You'll notice that one shooter is up at a time, normally with a coach.  The other folks waiting to fire stand behind the equipment table.  Safety first on PawPaw's range.

Grandson Elyas helping to police spent brass.  Notice the hearing protection.  Everybody wears hearing protection on PawPaw's firing line.  We had a great time and folks are napping now, or snacking across the dessert line.  Another Thanksgiving family shoot is in the books.

Thanksgiving

Time for reflection on a beautiful Thanksgiving morning for all my blessings.  I am probably the luckiest, happiest man on the planet.  Not only for having won, but for having lost.  Not only for the triumph, but for the struggle.  For my family, for my church, for the benefits of living in the greatest country in the world.  For the love of a good woman, for laughter and sorrow, I am thankful.



More later, after the meal.  We'll have shooting pictures, which is something to be especially thankful for.

Prepping

It's already been a busy day at PawPaw's House prepping for Thanksgiving.  All the chairs are up on tables, the kitchen/dining area is swept and mopped.  The carcass of a turkey is boiling for broth.  When the floor is dry I'll start cutting up sausage for Pastalaya.  It's a recipe that has many variations, and PawPaw will make his own variety.

We have the family over here for the Wednesday night meal.  It keeps Momma from having to serve a meal the night before Thanksgiving.  She does the big feast at her place on Thursday, a traditional sit-down Thanksgiving.

Jambalaya is a cajun specialty, cooked normally in big pots to feed lots of people.  Like most cajun dishes, it's rice based and easily prepared to feed a bunch of people.  This other version uses pasta instead of rice and covers it all with a milk sauce, heavy on the cream and cheese.  I'll be using most of a turkey and a big box of sausage for the meat, along with the cajun trinity of onions, bell peppers, and celery.

Oh, hell, I may as well tell you the recipe.

Pastalaya

One turkey carcass, boiled for broth
Four pounds of sausage
4 cans rotel tomatoes
4 cans cream of mushroom soup
32 oz velveeta cheese
Quart of half & half.
4 cups onion, chopped
4 cups bell pepper, chopped.
some chopped celery, for flavor
3 lbs pasta.  I'm using penne noodles

Peel the remaining meat off that turkey carcass, set it aside.  Save the broth for later.  That's too much flavor to throw away.  Chop your sausage.  In a big pot, sautee your vegetables in a little oil.  When they're done the onion will be translucent and sweet.  Add cream of mushroom soup, rotel tomatoes.  slice the velveeta and add it to the mix.  Stir frequently so it doesn't stick.

Boil your pasta to the al-dente stage and drain it.  Fry your sausage.  I like to put sausage in a big black pot, and cook it all together until it starts to brown.  Sausage is already cooked, but this takes some of the grease out of it.   Drain your sausage.

About this time, add that quart of half to your sauce mixture.

Put your pasta in a big roaster pan. (I use steam-table trays) Add turkey and sausage.  Pour the sauce mixture over the whole shebang, give it a quick stir, and run it into a 350 oven for about 20 minutes, until everything firms up.  You want it a little wet, but not runny.

Tonight we're serving it with a big salad and yeast rolls, but garlic bread would go with it as well.    That recipe ought to serve about 30 people.  It's easy enough to halve, or quarter, but this is not a recipe you want to cook for two people.  You'll eat it for a week.  However, this is a good recipe to take to a church social.

Football

I see that Rutgers and Maryland are joining something called the Big Ten, which is purportedly a football conference. I see that there is another purported conference called the Big East? Whatever the hell that is.

Rutgers is joining the Big Ten, leaving the Big East behind and cashing in on the school’s investment in a football program that only 10 years ago seemed incapable of competing at the highest level…Rutgers has been competing in the Big East since 1991. But the league has been picked apart by conference realignment, and the Scarlet Knights were looking for a way out…The move follows Maryland’s announcement Monday that it was joining the Big Ten in 2014.

Okay, so by my count that makes fourteen teams in an ersatz conference called the Big Ten. Can't those bastards even count? I mean, c'mon, if it is named the Big Ten, how can you have fourteen teams? The mind boggles.

Yes, there are other colleges and universities that have football teams, but you can't expect anyone to take them seriously?  Even here in Louisiana we have teams in something called the Southland Conference, but those are teams that are second-tier at best.  Now, you're telling me that there are actual conferences called Big Ten (with 14 teams) and Big East?

There is only one conference worth following in college football.  The SEC.  Really, y'all should know that by now.  If it isn't SEC, it isn't actually football.  Here in the Deep South, the SEC conference championship is more important that the BCS championship, because we know where real football is played, and that's the SEC.

On Rice and Racism

I'm following this whole Benghazi thing, from the Petraeus debacle to the Ambassador Rice telling everyone it was a problem with a bad video. Turns out the Director of National Security, James Clapper or his office was the one who put out the bad talking points. I'm also watching folks jump on the racism bandwagon because we simply cannot criticize a black woman who does what the administration tells her to do.

But, I'm thinking about the middle-aged white man whose office gave her those bad talking points for her to parrot on the morning talk shows. Is it racist to set up a black woman to look like she's lying to the nation? Clapper is an Obama appointee, isn't he? Looks like he might be a closet racist.

And, we haven't heard any more about Harry Reid's penchant for pederasty either. What is going on with the Democrats?

Wing Shooting

We hunters understand wing shooting.  Many of us suck at it, but we like to practice, either at skeet on our ranges and pastures, or at clubs set up to take our money and give us a chance for fellowship and competition.  There are some shooters who shoot at live pigeons.  There are other folks who want to shut down live pigeon shoots that have begun using little aircraft fitted with cameras to record the events at live pigeon shoots.  Predictably, those little airborne devices flown over places where people shoot targets from the air, receive attention that is detrimental to the device.

The drone, nicknamed “Angel,” was recording a live pigeon shoot on Sunday around 3 p.m. when investigators say it was suddenly struck by gunfire.

Imagine that! You're flying a device over private property, an area known for shooting things out of the sky, and your device is hit by gunfire! The mind reels at such a possibility.

State Police are investigating the incident. SHARK claims this is the fourth time the drone has been shot at while trying to spy on what they claim are inhumane pigeon shoots.

You've lost four of those things over the shooting line? Incredible! I can't imagine what would be causing that.

Monday Morning

PawPaw's watching the Boy-o this morning.  We just finished helping a friend cut up firewood, now we're at home getting a snack before we get into the next project.  At noon I need to leave here to go work a basketball tourney at the high school, and won't be home until about 9:00 tonight.  Not much time for blogging today, we're happy, busy and fully engaged.

Sunday Song

Sundeay Morning Dawg

It's a beautiful Sunday morning, pre-Thanksgiving, and visitors are starting to arrive for the festivities on Thursday.  The dog is enjoying the sun, playing on the back deck where it's warm.

He has a visitor too, a sweet little dog named Trickie.  She lives with the daughter-in-law and loves taking naps in the kitchen.

It's just another Sunday, in the South.

On the Trail Camera

I went down to the trail camera today while I was in the woods and swapped SD cards.  The logging activity  on the lease has screwed the deer patterns, but I enjoy looking at pictures on the trail camera.

This big ole fox squirrel is a constant visitor.  Of course, my camera is near my feeder and sits in an oak flat that is full of acorns.  Perfect squirrel habitat.

Another shot of that goofy squirrel.  He seems to like that particular tree.

Two pretty little yearling does cam out about noon-time.  I don't think I'd have pulled the trigger on these.  Give them another couple of years and they'll start producing.  I am thankful that I got no pictures of hogs this time.  Maybe they've moved on.

Bulletproof Research

The quest for better ballistic protection is ever on-going and promising results are coming out of laboratories.

Bulletproofing for soldiers and law enforcement officers has lightened up considerably in recent years, but it promises to get insanely thin with new nanotechnology coming out of MIT and Rice University.

I was a veteran cop when Kevlar was first built into ballistic vests and I've worn Kevlar ever since. It's great stuff, but it's heavy and it doesn't breathe well. Wearing a Kevlar vest on a summertime Louisiana day is akin to dehydration and heat exhaustion.  I don't know how our fighters in the desert regions carry all the ballistic armor that they carry every day, walking in that heat and environment.  Anything lighter and thinner that still provides good protection would have uses in both personal protection and vehicle protection applications.

As Instapundit might say, Faster, please.

California Rising!

California begins a great new experiment in green economy this week by auctioning greenhouse gas emission credits. There are two possible outcomes, mutually exclusive.

Mary Nichols, who chairs the Air Resources Board, and other advocates of cap and trade contend that in the long run, the business costs will be mitigated by savings from greater operational efficiencies, and that an entirely new green economy base will be created to the ultimate benefit of the state.

Uh, yeah, that's pie in the sky. The state of California is basically auctioning unicorn farts. This following an election where California became the most taxed state in the nation. The other possible outcome?

an equally valid theory is that the state, which is already suffering from a stagnant economy and very high unemployment, will hamstring itself in the global competition for investment capital.

That's probably closer to the truth. It'll be interesting to see which scenario is more valid as this plays out.

This, from the state that gave us Ronald Reagan.

Letters to Congress

I wrote a letter to my Senator this afternoon. Senator Mary Landieu, (D) of Louisiana. I periodically write letters to my Congress-critters. They need adult supervision, and since I'm not there personally to supervise, we accomplish this via email. My letter to Senator Landrieu.

Senator Landrieu

I'm reading reports that the Senate hasn't passed a budget since 2009.

That is distressing. I have to have a budget in my household and the idea that the US Government is operating without a budget is madness.

With the Fiscal Cliff approaching, the government needs to have a budget so that it can figure out where to cut. That's how millions of Americans do it.

Thanks in advance.

I'm sure that she'll get right on that.

Toughest Bridge in the World

Video footage of trucks trying to go under a bridge that's 11'8".

We've got a breezeway at the school that's 12'4" and I've had two trucks get stuck under it in 8 years. Both trucks had good insurance, fortunately.

 Hat tip to The Gun Counter forums.

Petraeus To Testify

Fox News is reporting that General David Petraeus has agreed to testify before Congress.

The logistics of Petraeus' appearance are still being worked out. But a source close to Petraeus said the former four-star general has contacted the CIA, as well as committees in both the House and Senate, to offer his testimony as the former CIA director.

Good for him. Perhaps he can regain some of his honor. I know that the media has been having a field day with him and the salacious tidbits from his affair, but the real questions is what happened in Libya that fateful day. Four parents need answers and a nation needs to know who to hold accountable.

The Money Votes

I don't know if you've been watching the Dow averages, but it has been steadily sliding since the election.
Nov 6 close 13245.68
Nov 7 close 12932.73
Nov 8 close 12811.32
Nov 9 close 12815.39
Nov 12 close 12815.08
Nov 12 close 12756.18
Nov 14 now 12570.95

The country voted on Tuesday, the money is voting now.  Gold is currently trading at 1725.90 per ounce. You might notice that the administration is pushing for higher taxes on the wealthy.

Obama has been pressing to let the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of the year for the wealthiest 2 percent of the nation’s households, a tax hike adamantly opposed by Republicans. But Carney suggested that even the revenue generated by letting those tax cuts end would not be enough to tame the national debt and reenergize the economy.

It is refreshing to see Carney saying that the letting the Bush tax cuts expire won't be enough to tame the debt and energize the economy. The only way to do that is to cut spending. Drastically, to the bone. Entitlement cuts by the bushel. No, he wants 1.6 trillion in new taxes. The money folks can see which way this debate is going, and they're dumping stocks.