He's Outraged

The president is outraged at the treatment given to our veterans in the VA hospital system, and well he should be.  Secret waiting lists and veterans dying over a lack of care.  He should be outraged, and he should fire someone, yet...he's known since before he became president.

How do you think Senator Obama knew that the problem was “urgent” in the first place? Everyone knows — and yet, given the opportunity to fire Shinseki and vowing that he “will not tolerate” this, Obama once again … decided to tolerate it. Shinseki’s still in command, for now, leaving O with basically nothing to say for himself here except rote expressions of outrage.

So, our veterans have to wait for another report, another enquiry, another investigation.  Our veterans are being screwed and Obama can't even work up the outrage to fire someone.  Pathetic.

This little tragi-comedy is indicative of the regard that Obama feels for our military in general and our veterans in particular.  Don't listen to what the man says, watch what he does.  Right now, he's doing nothing.

Busy Today

Busy today, doing what I'm sworn to do, but I care about my readers, so I've found a nice video by Jerry Mikulek about pistol shooting.  If you know anything about pistol shooting then you know that Jerry is a bona fide expert and listening to him is always a good idea.  So, without furhter ado.



I've got pistol quals next month, so I'll probably be watching it several times.  The basics are always good.

Winchester 94 Scout Mount

Regular readers know that I have an affinity for the Winchester 94 rifle.  It's an iconic lever action rifle, chambered in the altogether useful .30-30 Winchester, and it's been taking game for lots of years.  Both of mine are standard, post-64 rifles, just plain-jane lever guns.  Nothing special about them at all.  They both wear Willaims peeps, but my old eyes are getting softer and I can't see iron sights like I used to.  The peep sight helps, but it's not as sharp and clear as I like.

Because my rifles were made after the '64 switch, and before the Angle Eject models, they're not drilled for scopes and mounting a scope on one is rather a pain in the butt.  They'd be a candidate for scout-scoping, but most of the scout mounts require drilling and tapping.  So, I started surfing around and found Mr. Pearson's no-drill scope rail for the Winchester 94.  This thing looks just exactly what I've been looking for.



One of those mounts, with one of these Leatherwood scout scopes, might be just the key to what I've been looking for.  Maybe come the 1st of the month, I'll order the parts and see if I can't convert one of my Winchester 94s to a scout rifle.  Whaddya think?

Executions

With the problematic execution in Oklahoma recently, (I refuse to say botched, because they intended to kill him and they did, in fact, kill him), some pundits are searching about for other methods to humanely kill someone who has been properly tried, convicted and sentenced to death.

Some argue for the firing squad, and some argue for hanging, both time-tested remedies to the problem, and in either case, it's hard for me to understand how either method might be called "cruel or unusual" in that they're both proven methods of killing someone   I doubt that anyone properly hanged or shot by firing squad will suffer much, if at all.  One wag even argued for the guillotine, but I think that our courts might consider that unusual, because it hasn't been used much (if any) in the United States.

However, if any should want more information on how to properly conduct an execution by either hanging or firing squad, the US Army thoughtfully provides a pamphlet that lays out all the necessary details in how to shoot or hang a person who deserves it.  DA Pamphlet 27-4 lays out the requisite details in how to prepare for and conduct a proper execution, to include engineer drawings in how to construct a suitable gallows, either permanent, semi-permanent, or field expedient.  .  Interestingly, the pamphlet is dated in 1947 and gives a good overview of the manner of execution, to include how to pay the executioner.

Just so you know.

Motor Voter

Voter registration is a big deal.  If you're not registered, you can't vote and participate in our democratic processes.  Around the country, we see that there is a big discussion about Voter ID, and that mystifies many of us in Louisiana because we've had a Voter ID law for years.  We call it Motor Voter, because you can register to vote at your local DMV office where you go to get a Driver's licence or a state ID.  It works like this:  When you get a driver's license they ask you if you want to register to vote.  If you say yes, you fill out the form and they forward it to the Registrar of Voters.  Easy-peasy.

Not so fast, kiddo.  Motor Voter has it's problems.  Not the least of which is that there is sometimes a disconnect between the DMV office and the registrar.  When my son and daughter-in-law moved back to Louisiana from Florida, one of the things they did was to get a Louisiana driver's license.  They registered at the DMV, but when they went to vote in a local election, their names weren't on the rolls.  Ooops, and oh, shit, they got hit by a bureaucratic snafu.  SO, a quick trip to the registrar's office the next week and they were registered to vote as well.

Still, Louisiana has had a Voter ID law for many years, and it works fine.  Frankly, we're a little bemused at the folks who are fighting it in other parts of the country.  Especially because a recent poll shows that 70& of people everywhere think it's a good idea. (Scroll down to question 37).  If you don't want to read the raw poll, there's a nice re-cap at The Hill.

Seven in 10 registered voters are in favor of identification laws in order to root out fraud at the ballot box, according to a Fox News poll released this week.
The survey found majority support in every major demographic, including black voters and Democrats.
The 70 percent who support voter ID laws remains largely unchanged in the past few years. Another 27 percent believe the laws are unnecessary.

If seven out of ten believe it's a good idea, then it should be a no-brainer.  Yeah, there will be problems and bureaucratic snafus, but protecting the electoral process is good business.  And, here in Louisiana we've been requiring Voter ID for years.  We really don't see what all the fuss is about.

Sunday Morning Dawg

We're dog-sitting this weekend.  My second son is taking a mini-vacation and they'll be back on Wednesday, but they needed a place to keep their dog, and we were happy to accommodate him.  Keeping this dog is a pleasure, because he's a gentleman, and elder gentleman, and as long as he knows where his food bowl is, and has plenty of water, he's perfectly happy to find a place in the sun, or shade, as his tastes dictate.

Hiis name is Harley and if I have the story right, my daughter-in-law found him in a pound ten years ago as an adult dog.  She adopted him, brought him home, and he's been altogether a wonderful dog ever since.  He's protective of the kids, but other wise is simply happy to hang around the porch.

Beau-dog, of course, is a bit confused.  Harley is an older dog, and doesn't want to play doggy games.  Harley tends to ignore Beau, so Beau has his feelings hurt.

He'll get over having his feelings hurt, simply because Harley isn't here forever and by this time next week the kids will be home and Harley willl be home as well.  In the meantime, it's good to have a polite, well-mannered dog in the yard.

Why Does the USDA Need Submachine Guns?

That's the question over at Hot Air, and it's a darned good one.  It seems that the USDA is seeking bids on submachine guns.  From the solicitation:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top rear), stock-collapsilbe or folding, magazine - 30 rd. capacity, sling, light weight, and oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.  NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENT EXISTS.  All responsible and/or interested sources may submit their company name, point of contact, and telephone.  If received timely, shall be considered by the agency for contact to determine weapon suitability.

I can't imagine why the food safety organization has any need for submachine guns.  I can imagine that submachine guns might be used by SWAT teams conducting high-risk dynamic entries,  but I can't imagine that the USDA would need a SWAT team.

This bullshit is getting out of hand.

Finally Friday

It's Finally Friday, and I've got nuthing. There's no real news fit to comment on, it's been a boring day, and I'm tired.  Something about a boring day that saps my energy.  After a boring day, I feel drained.

But, I understand that we've been invited over to Brother Bill's to eat chicken wings.  Bill makes a helluva chicken wing.  I've really got to pay attention to his technique, because it does't look too hard, and if I learn how to cook them, I can crank up the fryer on the back porch and have chicken wings a lot more often.

Milady's brother Bill is a helluva guy.  He worked the carney business for many years, traveling the country with a traveling show, working the Midways all over the US until he settled into southern Florida for twenty-odd years and worked for Coca-Cola in a bottling plant.  He's retired now, and back at home, probably one of the few people in the world who lived in Florida and after he retired, he left the state to move home.

And he makes great wings.

I gotta pay attention tonight.  Wings is one thing I've never tried to cook.

America's New Security State

That's the name of an essay at Defining Ideas, an excerpt of a book by Angelo Codevillo, which describes the use of state power against its citizens.  In the article, he defines how America has gotten less safe during the administrations of the past several presidents.  And, lest we forget, President George W. Bush gave us the Department of Homeland Security.

Childhood in the “land of the free, the home of the brave” must now include learning to spread-eagle and be still as government employees run their hands over you. Patriotism is now supposed to mean obeisance to the security establishment, accepting that the authorities may impose martial law on whole cities, keep track of all phone calls, or take whatever action they choose against any person for the sake of “homeland security,” and that theirs alone is the choice whether to disclose the basis for whatever they do.

Like many Americans, I chafe at the very idea of Homeland Security.  In their hunt for "domestic terrorists", they watch us all.

 Inevitably, then, apolitical policing is a pretense. By 2012, a Rasmussen poll showed that 64 percent of Americans were more afraid of terrorist attack from other Americans than from foreigners. No surprise. That had been the ruling class’s message for a decade. The focus on “homeland security” had succeeded in adding the suspicion of terrorism on top of all the reasons that Americans had to distrust and to blame one another for their troubles. But of whom should we be afraid?

I'm less afraid of terrorists than I am of the idiots in the various Homeland Security departments.  Eternal vigilance makes us less free and more distrustful of government.  Many of my fellow citizens don't remember when you could walk into an airport, pay for a ticket, and climb aboard an airplane with no government intervention.  That hasn't been the case since 2011 and may not be the case for a few more years.

With the drawdowns in the military and the troops coming home, it might he time to look toward drawing down the security apparatus.  I've always been taught that we can have security or freedom, but not both.

Smokers

I've been thinking about acquiring a smoker, but the ones I've seen don't really do what I want it to do.  Most backyard smokers won't get the temps up past 250F, and that's fine for pure smoking, but when we have a big gathering here, it's nice to have extra oven space for things that we might like to bake or roast, and being able to crank open the valve and get the temp up to baking is a big help.

So, I've been casting around and I found this one.  The Camp Chef Smoke Vault.  They come in both 18" and 24" widths, and they run on a propane tank.  Temps are adjustable from 160 to 500 degrees and that would add a lot of baking space when we've got the whole crew over.

This thing might be just what I'm looking for.  I can run the heat down low for smoking brisket and ribs, yet crank it up when Milady needs extra oven space.  Better yet, Amazon sells them with free shipping.

What do you think?

Flip the Senate?

Larry J Sabato is a political writer that I've paid attention to over the past several years.  In his newest article, he looks at the chances of Republicans taking the Senate in the mid-terms.  He wonders if it's going to be  a ripple, a wave, or a tsunami.

Some of these scenarios have virtually no chance of happening, particularly the ones where Democrats play even in the Senate or even gain a seat. The Democrats have only a couple real chances to play offense, and their odds in either case are not great.

Professor Sabato sees a wave coming, and I've come learned to listen to his political prognostications.  Go read the whole thing at the link.  It's great reading.

And you can see his regular blog at Sabato's Crystal Ball.

Rain?

The Weather-weenies have been threatening rain all weekend, and we haven't gotten as much as a couple of sprinkles.  I know that it's hard to predict the weather, but darn it, they ought to be better at it than this.

According to that .gif, I'm going to see thunderstorms today, tonight and tomorrow.  Yet, I really don't see anything within 40 miles of here.  It's all going north of my acre.  Far north.  North of my deer stand, which is 20 miles from here.

I wish those weather weenies would get their acts together.

**UPDATE** At 1930 local I heard thunder and walked outside to a nice, soft, thunderstorm.  Finally getting some much-needed rain.  May it continue until daylight.

Ribs!

We had a big cooking around here yesterday for Mother's Day, and when it was over, I put the food up.  My second son had brought a rack of ribs over, and somehow they got overlooked, (what with the steaks, brisket, hamburgers and hot dogs).  So, yesterday afternoon after everyone had left, I put up the leftovers.

Today I came home and noticed that rack of ribs in the fridge, so I slid them into an oven to warm, and we ate them with leftover baked beans and 'tater salad.  Oh, my Gawd!

Best damned ribs I ever put my lips around.  Tender, juicy, not overly seasoned, but spicy.  They fell off the bone, absolutely a masterpiece rendition of  Birmingham-style ribs.  Oh, yeah, you better have a roll of paper towels ready, because you're going to need them.  Juicy, saucy, fall-off-the-bone style ribs.

I've never been able to cook ribs, but my son nailed it.  Well, done, Tiger.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Sunday again, and the dog is looking for the newspaper.  I'm not sure how he'd reach it, but the lady puts it int he mail box.  Not enough height, and no thumbs, it's tough being a dawg, sometimes.

No matter, it's not here yet anyway.  We'll have to check later.  In the meantime, we'll see what Milady is doing, and wish her a very happy Mother's Day.

Y'all be sure to call or visit your Mother today.

Whaa?

I'm not sure what the lens was doing, but this just ain't right.  It ain't right at all.

Hat tip, Boned Jello.

The Beer Locker

In honor of Mother's Day, I stopped by my favorite purveyor of comestibles and picked up a selection of beer.

We have several varities of Sam Adams, to include Boston Lager, Cherry Wheat, and Summer Ale.  We've got Dos Eauis, and Blue Moon, and Tecate.  There's even some Coor's Light for those who don't like good beer.  I even think I see a Redd's Apple Ale.  Plenty of choices on the beer shelf.

The bottom shelf has an adequate supply of soft drinks for the kiddos.

Milady doesn't drink beer, but we'll be hosting the family for Mother's Day.  Milady will sit and survey her brood while the children cook the meal on the charcoal grill outdoors.

Later today we'll be going to Jena, LA so that Milady can celebrate with her mother.  The family is gathering at a sister's house to eat good food, swap lies, and hug necks.

Fundamental, Again

In November 2012, the voters in Louisiana made the possession of firearms a fundamental right, some of the strongest language in a state constitution.  As I've said before, it's going to take us a while to figure out just exactly what that means, and the courts are continuing to do that very thing.

This morning, Volokh reports that the LA Supreme Court has added another opinion to the mix, this time discussing whether or not the enhanced penalty for illegal possession of drugs with a firearm should be quashed.  The Supremes decided that the state had met the burden of strict scrutiny and that the statute will not be quashed.

To promote public safety by curtailing drug trafficking, the state of Louisiana has a compelling interest in enhancing the penalty for illegal drug possession when a person engages in that illegal conduct with the simultaneous while in possession of a firearm. Undeniably, the right to keep and bear a firearm is a fundamental right in Louisiana. However, when a person is engaged in the unlawful conduct of possessing illegal drugs, the person’s own unlawful actions have “qualified his right” to engage in what would otherwise be the exercise of that fundamental right.

Link to the full  .pdf opinion here, but that seems about right to me.

Rob Maness

Rob Maness is a retired US Air Force colonel, and he's running for US Senate in Louisiana.  He says he's a Republican, and I guess we'll have to go with that, because he's never run for anything else.

His oppoinents are "Katrina" Mary Landrieu and establishment Republican Bill Cassidy.  Colonel Maness is seen as the underdog in this race.  Landrieu is going to get a sizeable percentage of the Donk vote, especially around her hometown of New Orleans.  Cassidy is going to get a big percentage fo the name recognition vote, and because his name is alphabetically early, his name will be first on theh ballot..  (Some folks may not think that's an advantage, but when you're dealing with low-information voters, being on top of the ballot is a slight advantage).

Maness has been struggling to get name recognition and he's finally starting to get a little traction.  He's released a campaign video, and I like it.  I like it a lot.



Our jungle primary election isn't until October, and there's lots of time between now and then, but at this stage, I'm inclined to pull the lever for Col Maness.

Goblin Update

I don't know if y'all caught this yesterday, but it seems that some teenaged boys decided to burgle a home while the elderly residents were in the home (yeah, it was a home invasion).  The woman, in her 60s had been targeted before and asked her older brother to stay over for a couple of days.  The teens broke in with predictable results.

The widow in the home had been burgled twice before, and the news article states that fingerprints from one of the deceased burglars was matched to one of the previous break-ins. They were killed as they terrorized an elderly woman, yet again.

The police are saying that fingerprints of one of the deceased youths match up with fingerprints that were found inside fhe home from a previous burglary.  Of course, the teen's sister is upset.

 Family and friends of two teenage boys shot and killed inside a home they had broken into are speaking out.
“They didn’t deserve to get killed,” said the sister of 14-year-old Michael Sambrano.

Uuh, sorry, sweetie, but they did deserve to be killed.  Breaking into an inhabited home is very dangerous and almost all the states give a homeowner great leeway in defending the residence.  In this particular case, two young predators decided to break in and terrorize an elderly couple, and it went very bad for them.  I don't have a problem with that.  The old folks did what they had to do.

Hash Oil?

Fox News is reporting tha the stoners in Colorado are blowing themselves up, making hash oil from marijuana.

DENVER – The opening months of Colorado's first-in-the-nation recreational marijuana industry have seen a rise in fiery explosions and injuries as pot users try to make the drug's intoxicating oil in crude home-based laboratories.

A quick Wiki search shows that hash oil is easily made from marijuana gleanings (stems, leaves, etc) by using a volatile solvent, like butaine.

The most common form of hash oil is made by passing liquid butane through a tube filled with cannabis plant matter. The low temperature of the liquid butane crystallizes the cannabis resins. As the butane passes through the tube the crystallized resins are trapped in the liquid butane. As the solvent (butane + resins) exits the tube it is caught in a glass container. Butane is a volatile molecule and boils at −1°C., leaving behind the crystallized resins only, which are collected from the glass container.

Okay, then!  Butane, marijuana, and stoners all in the same room, trying to make a more potent product.  What could possibly go wrong?

Zatarain's

Here in deep South Louisiana, we use a special seasoning, known as Zatarain's.  Add some to a pot of boiling water and put in some seafood, like crabs, or shrimp, or crawfish.  It gives the seafood a great Louisiana flavor.

Sometimes, though, like tonight, I'm not in the mood for seafood, but I was looking in the kitchen and found some young red potatoes, and in the freezer, some corn-on-the-cob.  Well, heck, that's supper.  I started some water boiling, then dropped in those little red potatoes.  Added a little salt and about a third of that bottle of Zatarain's.  I let the potatoes boil for about a half-hour then dropped in the little ears of corn.  Added a stick of margarine.  In another 15 minutes, Milady and I will eat 'taters and corn for supper, with a wicked Louisiana kick.

Taters and corn with a Louisiana kick.  It's what's for supper.

Nurse's Week

I'm told that Nurse's Week  begins Tuesday, May 6th and winds up on Monday, May 12th.  Milady is a nurse, my sister is a nurse, my niece is a nurse.

I lurves me some nurses.  If you know a nurse, tell her you appreciate her.

That it all.

One More EAA Photo

While I was watching cool airplanes on Saturday, here comes this contraption, little more than a wing, two seats and an engine.  As basic aircraft go, this thing was just about as basic as they come.  The Wright brothers would have been completely at ease with this aircraft, and it reminds us that you really don't need a lot of fancy fuselage to fly.

This is one of the coolest aircraft to land at Buhlow that morning, and just a basic flying machine.

More EAA photos

A couple of photos from yesterday's breakfast at Buhlow.  This is the little Pineville Municipal Airport, also known as 2LO, which is a cool airport identifier for an airport that has a floatplane runway.  2LO is home to the Central Louisiana chapter of the EAA,

This little bird is called the Sonex, a homebuiilt rig that looks like it's supersonic, just sitting still.  The owner had polished the little bird until it shown like a mirror, a beautiful little aircraft that he has every right to be proud of.

And, of course, with the the military nearby, some aviators from the Army had to drop in to see what all the fuss was about.  I don't think they actually ever touched down, but they hovered around for a few minutes to look at the airplanes, and display a little military technology.  If they'd have set the bird on the ramp and let the enthusiasts look at it, I'd have bought breakfast for the crew.

They didn't stay for breakfast, but they treated the kids to a good show, culminating with a fly-by as they departed.

Sunday Morning Dawg

It's a beautiful day in Central Louisiana, and the dog is out looking for the morning paper.

Nope, paper's not here yet, so we'll survey our domain.

It's going to be a beautiful day to hang out in the yard.

EAA Breakfast

Once a month, the local EAA chapter hosts a first-Saturday pancake breakfast.  $6.00 bucks buys a plate and you can fill it once.  Pancakes, grits, sausage, biscuits, gravy, all the fixings.   Plus airplanes.  Lots of airplanes.

I'll have some more pictures later, but here's one of PawPaw hisself looking into the cockpit of a small Vans homebuilt.

That's a cool little aircraft.  I should have some more pictures later, but we'll start with this one.

Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem, or Sieze The Day, is the motto of Bolton High School, my alma mater.  I am pleased to notice that US News and World Report has ranked Bolton #8 for college preparatory high schools in Lousiana, as reported by WDSU, Channel 6.

Congratulations, Bolton High School.  This is a prestigious accomplishment.  Win Honor and Win Fame. 

Cool, These Temps

45 degrees this morning, and Accuweather is predicting 46 degrees tomorrow.  This on the 2nd day of May in central Louisiana.  I hung all my jackets up in the closet two weeks ago, and I'll be damned if I'm dragging them out again.  It's May, in Louisiana.

Global warming my butt.  Al Gore can kiss my wrinkled old ass.  Soon enough, though, we'll be to summertime (when it's 80 degrees by 8:00) and we'll be wishing for cooler weather.

Botched Execution?

Oklahoma executed a prisoner last night, and the news weenies are calling it a botched execution.  I'm not sure how it is considered "botched", because they intended to execute him, and he's dead.

After the failure of a 20-minute attempt to execute him, Clayton Lockett was left to die of a heart attack in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester. A lawyer said Lockett had effectively been “tortured to death”.>
For three minutes after the first drugs were delivered Lockett struggled violently, groaned and writhed, lifting his shoulders and head from the gurney. Some 16 minutes after the execution began, and without Lockett being declared dead, the blinds separating the chamber from the viewing room were closed. The process was called off shortly afterwards. Lockett died 43 minutes after the first executions drugs were administered.

It didn't go as smoothly as planned, but they did plan to kill him,and he's dead, so I'd call that a successful execution.  The usual suspects are outraged, but I don't see a lot of outrage about his crime, just the fact that Oklahoma didn't execute him painlessly.  Not that he gave much thought to his victim.

From all accounts, his victim was visiting a friend, when the condemned man burst in.  He raped her, kidnapped, her, then shot her.  She was buried alive by accomplices and succumbed to her wounds.   He said that he killed her because he was afraid that she'd alert the authorities.

So, because this poor guy suffered for about 43 minutes on the gurney, the whole prison defense industry is outraged?  It's not like the Oklahoma DOC intended for him to suffer, and the end result was his death.  I don't see a problem here.  They intended to kill him, and he's dead.  They're trying to figure out what went wrong, and hopefully, they'll get it right the next go-round.

Some are arguing that we should abolish the death penalty, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.  The death penalty serves a valid retributive purpose.  (Although I don't see the guillotine coming back.)  I'm not particularly a fan of the death penalty, but I do see that it serves a valid purpose, in such cases as when a person is absolutely guilty and there is any chance that a lesser sentence might not preclude the possibility of the prisoner ever being released.  As in the case of Wilbert Rideau killing Sarah Ferguson.  Wilbert is now a free man due to the vagaries of the legal system, and Ferguson is still dead.

Armorskin

For the last couple of days, I've been wearing a new body armor carrier, the Blaeur Armorskin.  It's a polyester shell designed to look like a uniform shirt and designed to be worn as outer-wear.

Under it, I wear the base shirt, whith is a cool mesh shirt with sleeves and a collar, also designed to look like a uniform shirt, but hidden part of that shirt is a cool mesh that wicks moisture   Worn together the two pieces make a system that seems to work well for the mission of keeping an officer safe, while making the body armor that we wear more comfortable than the old method of wearing the armor under the uniform shirt.

I've only worhn this system for two days, but I can see that it's a big improvement on the way we used to wear the vest.  Anything that makes a street officer more comfortable is a big improvement, and this system, while fairly new, may be a good first step in keeping officers safe.  The big problem with body armor is that it is so damned hot, and anything we can do to make it easier for an officer to wear armor is a decided improvement.    I know that there are other systems, and as the technology shakes itself out, there will be improvements, but this is a big improvement over the way I wore armor, even six months ago.

Ball Park Franks

Yesterday, Milady and I were shopping for Sunday.  Normally, Sunday lunch takes place at our house after church, and we planned to let the grandkids enjoy the pool while I cooked burgers and dogs on the grill.  When we got to the hot-dog aisle, Milady picked up a couple of packs of Ball Park Beef franks.

I asked her if she wanted the less expensive franks, and she looked at me like an errant child.  "I think we can afford the good stuff."  So, today whilst cooking the burgers I put those franks on at the end of the grill.  After the grandkids had been served and while my adult children were fixing their plates, I grabbed a hot dog bun, added a little chili, some mustard, and put one of those franks on the bun.

Great Jumping Jehosephat!  That's the best hot dog I ever put in my mouth.  I'm a big fan of sausage, both smoked and country, andoille, and Italian, along with Polish, German and Cajun.  I love boudin, and all forms of sausages, but this Ball Park Beef Frank took my love of sausages to a whole new level.  Who knew that so much joy could be had from a simple hot dog?

Enough with the cheap dogs.  If Milady says we can afford the good stuff, I'm okay with that.  Ball Park Beef Franks have the PawPaw seal of approval.

Sunday Morning Dawg

Sunday morning, and the dog is looking for that cat.  Not much of a hunting dog, sometimes the cat is simply behind him.

Wonder where that cat went?

That cat is eating breakfast. 

It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day.  The weatherman is calling for a chance of thunderstorms later today, but we'll take those chances.  PawPaw is going to fire up the grill around lunch and cook some hamburgers and sausage.

Y'all get out and enjoy this beautiful Sunday.

Drummer-Man

My sister in Knoxville sent me this video.  It seems that my nephew is the drummer for Laurel Wright in this new video.



Congrats, Jamie.  Very well done.

Dry Land Seaplane Launch

These guys store seaplanes during the winter and do the annual, then get them ready for the spring flying season.  Because there's no water, they launch them from a trailer.

For some reason the video won't embed, but here's a picture.

Link here to the article.

Just Damn!  Hat tip to Termite.

Leg Cramps

Mr. James, a contemporary of my father, who attends our church, told me last year that, "I can still do a hard day's work, it just takes me most of a week."  I'm starting to understand what he means.

I finished that sewer-pipe job yesterday.  Every day since the breakdown, I've been going over to the hole and throwing a little dirt into it, until I gave out from pushing a shovel.  My yard is mostly clay and pit run, a great foundation for a building, but absolutely hell for digging.  Putting dirt back in a hole isn't any easier, so I stretched the job out to a couple of hours per day and yesterday I got the dirt back in the hole,   Evidently, I favor my left leg for pushing the shovel into the soil, because my left leg started cramping last night and I'd get up and walk it off.

I know all the remedies, quinine pills, orange juice, bananas, pickle juice.  Twice that leg cramped on me, once about midnight and again just now, at 4:30.  After the 4:30 episode I decided to make coffee, as I was already up.  I think I'm going to take it easy today.  Getting old ain't for sissies, and this old man needs a break.

Land Grab

The bureaucrats at the BLM would do well to pay attention to signs that appear along roadsides in Texas.  Don't Mess With Texas.

Fox News is reporting that BLM officials are talking about a land grab in Texas, along the Oklahoma border.  It seems that the border between Texas and Oklahoma is the Red River.  The Red River is one of those rivers that changes course, and over the years the river moves and shifts, Sometimes those shifts are quite fast and dramatic.  Overnight.  We've seen it here in Louisiana, where the Red River carves across the state.  One day your land is on the river, the next day it's under the river.  We consider it the Hand of God, but when that river defines a border, it's easy to become confused about where the original border might have been.

Breitbart has background on the matter.

In 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court attempted to settle the boundary dispute in Oklahoma v. Texas and declared the boundary to be defined by wooden stakes set on the river bank. That boundary apparently lasted no longer than anyone could expect wooden stakes to last in the shifting sands of a meandering river. In 2000, Texas and Oklahoma’s legislatures agreed to a “Red River Boundary Compact” which defined the border between the states as the southern vegetation line. However, Congress must ratify agreements of this kind between the states according to Article 1, Section 10 (Clause 3) of the U.S. Constitution. Congressman Thornberry introduced House Joint Resolution 72 during the 106th Congress to codify the compact into U.S. Law.
The matter became somewhat of a national question drawing the attention of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, “The U.S. Supreme Court has tried twice to settle this dispute, which at one point brought the governor of Oklahoma to the border in a tank…However, true to the slogan 'One Riot, One Ranger,' the good governor of Oklahoma and his tank was held off by a lone Texas Ranger on his horse."

The long-standing dispute over the T/O border is a matter of long-standing debate, based on the twin facts that the river moves and wood rots.  As ornery and curmudgeonly as a rancher in Nevada might be, the BLM ain't seen nothing yet when they try to get into the Texas/Oklahoma border dispute.  This dispute pre-dates even the BLM, and they've got no business sticking their noses in it.

Biofuels

The fed.gov commissioned a study of biofuel made from corn residue (cellulosic ethanol) and the study concluded that the ethanol is worse for the environment than common gasoline.

A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and released Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7 percent more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline.

Of course, Big Ethanol is howling

The biofuel industry and administration officials immediately criticized the research as flawed. They said it was too simplistic in its analysis of carbon loss from soil, which can vary over a single field, and vastly overestimated how much residue farmers actually would remove once the market gets underway.

Of course they're howling.  Big Anything is furious when any study comes out that says what they do is a bad thing.  Big Ethanol, Big Wind, Big Solar, are all emerging technologies, and we're learning a lot about those technologies, but government subsidies are a bad idea.  They cost a lot of money, they're inefficient.  If you subsidize something you get more of it.  If it's a good idea, the market will take care of it, otherwise it should die on the vine.

I prefer non-ethanol gasoline.

**UPDATE** After posting, I found an article that says that the EPA admits that ethanol blends damage engines.   If you want non-ethanol gasoline for your engines, go to pure-gas.org and do a search for your area.

Pool Opening

For the past several years, we've opened the pool on grandson Quinton's birthday, normally the last weekend of April.  He'll be out of town next weekend, and today we celebrated his birthday, so the kids insisted that the pool be open, cool weather or not.  So, today we opened the pool.



They were cold as frogs when they came out, but the pool is open for the season.

Sunday Morning Dawg

The dog was playing "don't look at the camera" earlier this week, and I haven't had an opportunity to take a better picture.

He hasn't been here since Friday nite.  It seems that Milady has a friend who owns a dog that looks almost exactly like Beau, and she's a little girl, and Milady plotted with her friend for a weekend, hoping for puppies in two months.  He'll come home this afternoon, but it's been quiet around the house this weekend.

Swaging Bullets

Swaging bullets is a very common way to make bullets, but it's not as widespread as a hobby for the home tinkerer.  Most of the common jacketed bullets are swaged and many of the target bullets sold by Hornady and Speer (for example) are swaged bullets, but handloaders generally either use cast bullets or store-bought jacketed bullets.

However, the Corbin Co has been making dies that can be used for swaging, and some guys have taken to the hobby with an innovative approach.  This afternoon I was surfing around this forum and found some neat pictures of bullets that were made from discarded 9mm brass.

Yeah, those are bullets, made from discarded 9mm brass.  After being filled with lead, the bullets are formed in one of several forming dies, then loaded as usual, in .40 SW brass.  Who realized that discarded 9mm brass is the correct size to go down a .40 SW bore?

A pictorial view of the process, above.  I know just enough about the process to be mystified by it, but I think that it's a spiffy way to use discarded brass.  I know that a hobbyist can make 5.56 bullets from discarded .22 rimfire ammo, ad some wags have said that .30 cal bullets can be made from discarded 5.56 brass.

I see on the bottom photo, a photographer's mark.  I don't know who jonblack is, but if anyone can tell me, I'd be happy to give him a link.

Saturday Chores

It's amazing how fast your priorities change.   Yesterday afternoon I had every intention of working in the back yard today.  Then, about bedtime we discovered that I had a major issue with our sewerage lines, so this morning before full daylight I went out and diagnosed the problem, then called elder son who does this type work for a living.  By nine a.m. we had rented a Ditch-Witch and opened up the yard, then commenced to replacing sewer line.  As good as the machine was, PawPaw spent most of the morning in the hole, ripping out old pipe and replacing with new.  I was probably in-and-out of the hole thirty times, doing all the things necessary to make sure that water can flow downhill.  Two trips to Lowe's, muddy from head to foot with the type of mud that you really don't want to analyze.

It's amazing how quickly your priorities can change when the commode won't flush and the bathtub won't drain.  Somehow, the growing grass in the backyard pales to insignificance   We finished up about 2:00 and I took another half hour to wash the rental machine.  Then PawPaw took a long hot shower and on clean blue jeans.  A quick nap, and it's now 4:00 and the grass in the yard will have to wait another day or so.

The Beer Locker

This morning, while running errands, I realized that the summer beers are out, and I wasn't sure of the state of my beer locker, so I stopped by the local purveyor and picked up a few items.

There''s some Tecate, and a couple of Dos XX, along with Boston Lager, Blue Moon, and Sam Adams Cherry Wheat.  I'll have to pick up some Coors Light for those who enjoy such things.

The weather is still cool, and the water's too cool for swimming, but springtime will be here shortly. Life's too short to enjoy it without beer.

Good Friday

Scouring around the internet, looking for something interesting, I realize that my muse is depleted.  Just not interested.  Today is Good Friday, and while I don't have to put on a uniform today, that doesn't mean I'm off.  In fact, I'll work more energetically today than I normally do when I'm protecting and serving.

So, it's time to put on tenny-shoes, gather tools, and get after it.  It's going to be a busy day, culminating at a fish-fry this afternoon at the church.  So, y'all have a blessed Good Friday.  For myself, it time to hit it hard and get it done.

Civil Disobedience

It seems that New York passed a law following the Sandy Hook massacre, and there are reports that as many as a million residents are refusing to comply with the law.  Courtesy of Instapundit.

New York gun owners shrug off tough new rules: What happens now?“The SAFE Act, passed in New York last year, had an April 15 deadline for owners of assault-style weapons to register their guns with the state. Some 1 million residents have refused to abide.”

From the linked article:

 For now, gun rights experts say, the outcome in New York is uncertain. Will the state take the initiative to seize unregistered weapons? If it doesn’t, will the new gun controls be exposed as toothless, even meaningless?

But others are clamoring for confiscation.

 “No guns are being taken away unless you fail to register your military-style assault weapon, if you happen to own one,” Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, told The Buffalo News. “If you register it, you can keep it.”

It looks like New York is standing on that slippery slope.  Register your guns or lose them.  Perhaps registration (or the lack thereof) does lead to confiscation. 

Fun Facts

According to the CNS News site, there are 86 million private sector workers today in the United States.  Those 86 million support the government and 148 million benefit takers.

The 147,802,000 non-veteran benefit takers outnumbered the 86,429,000 full-time private sector workers 1.7 to 1.

Lots more analysis at the link, but basically if you're working in the private sector, you're carrying the load for 1.7 people who aren't.  Milady and I are making good money, and our tax bracket is about 25%, so we're supporting with our taxes, a family of four somewhere.  It amazes me that in my autumn years I'm paying more in federal income tax than I made for lots of years as a young adult.

If someone asks me whether I'm paying my fair share, the answer is yes.  And I'm paying the share of someone else, too.  That's something to think about as we wrap up the traditional end of the tax season.

Heresy!

Surfing around today, I stumbled upon a news article that says my beloved sport, baseball, has adopted some heresy called an instant replay system.  What abomination is this?  It seems that league gurus are sitting in a room with various monitors, prepared to over-rule the officials on the field in the event that they make a bad call.

This whole idea is a bad call.  Baseball is bigger than technology.  It's a game played on a summer field, a ballet of players and sunshine and officials.  It's bad calls, and good calls, and strategy.  It's the roar of the crowd and the heckler in the box seat behind home plate  It's foul balls, or fair, but it decidedly is not a far-away league commissioner deciding whether the guy on second base is safe or out.

It's bad enough that baseball has adopted the designated hitter, but we should leave the game as pristine as possible.  Let tennis balls have boundary sensors, but leave baseball to the officials on the field.  This game isn't a technological marvel, this game is America's past-time.

If anyone from Major League Baseball reads this post, I'm ag'in it.

Remington 700 Recall

I found this at the GunBlogBlacklist, but couldn't read the notice so I googled around and found it on a Remington site.

Remington Arms Company, LLC (“Remington”) is voluntarily recalling Remington Model 700™ and Model Seven™ rifles which were manufactured from May 1, 2006 through April 9, 2014 and which have an X-Mark Pro® (“XMP®”) trigger. All product manufactured after April 9, 2014 is not subject to recall.

If you go to the Remington link, you'll find a block to enter your serial number to see if it's subject to the recall.  If you're shooting a Remington 700 manufactured in the past eight years, you might want to click on the link and take care of this problem.

That is all.

Pre-Easter Cool Snap

It's a truism in Louisiana that we always have a pre-Easter cool snap, and even when Easter is late, that seems to hold true   Accuweather tells us that we'll see a cooling trend this week, so don't put youir jacket away just yet.

Those basking in the warmth across the eastern half of the nation this weekend should not bury their jackets deep in the closet with dramatically colder air, and even snow for some, set to make a comeback.

I dount that we'll see snow, but there's a reason I still have a jacket hanging in the car.

 Spring will be here soon enough, and summer will be hot on its heels.  In another month, we'll be reminscing about cool weather.

Falcon Nesting in Tree

Very few people have seen a falcon.  While eagles have made a comeback since the '60s and the alleged  DDT problems with raptor eggs (I said alleged, okay?), falcons are still relatively rare, where early in the 1960s they were very common.  So, when my mother sent me a picture of a falcon nesting in a tree, I was immediately interested and clicked the link.

Mom said "I’ve received many remarkable nature photographs over the years but this photo of a nesting Falcon is perhaps the most remarkable Nature shot that I’ve ever seen. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Nature is truly breath-taking!
I've sent this to most of my older friends. The younger ones probably have never seen a falcon and wouldn't recognize it.

Yeah, that's a Falcon in a tree.  I drove a car just like that (mine was red) during high school and the fist year of college.  Thanks, Mom.  Ya got me.

Standoff in Nevada

I've been watching the standoff in Nevada at the Bundy Ranch.  Ostensibly, Bundy runs cattle on BLM land.  Bundy and the BLM have been in a pissing contest for several years, and the BLM was trying to evict his cattle, based on an endangered desert tortoise.  For a better rundown, Powerline has the goods, and Alex Jones Inforwars has been following the crisis since it began.  (Yeah, I know, it's Infowars, but even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while.  Get over it.)  However, just recently, there has been speculation (and a little fire under the smoke) that Harry Reid, the esteemed senator from Nevada had a deal working to make a bit of money from the land that Bundy was using to graze cattle.

The new head of the BLM, Neil Kornze, worked for Harry Reid as a policy adviser from 2003 to 2011. It is reasonable to assume that Reid got him the BLM job, and I would hazard a guess that Reid saw the situation turning into a public relations disaster–Nevada’s Governor and Senator Dean Heller, both Republicans, were more or less siding with Bundy–and told Kornze to give it up.
It still isn’t clear what the crisis was all about. Rumor has it that Reid wants the land for a giant solar farm that would be supplied by a Chinese company and, presumably, subsidized by the federal government. Reid’s son is apparently a participant in the deal. Whether that is true, I haven’t yet tried to figure out. One thing I will say with some certainty, however, is that tortoises had little or nothing to do with it.

Of course, the BLM over-reacted, and there were armed officers there, and plenty of good opportunities for outrage.  It seems that the BLM set up a "First Amendment Area" that outraged everyone.

 Which prompted this map for our officials to use when trying to decide where the 1st Amendment can be defended.

Yeah, I'd say that sums it up.  The Government doesn't get to say where we can exercise our 1st Amendment rights.

It seems that this weekend, the BLM decided to pack up and go home.  Someone with a brain in his bead decided that this thing was becoming a public relations nightmare.  What's interesting, though, is to understand that this is Harry Reid's state, and if there is money to be made, you can be sure that Harry has his hand in the pie.

Harry Reid is a despicable little man.  He's spent his entire life in public service and has amassed quite a fortune for himself and his family.  The very idea that Harry's son represents a Chinese firm that wants to use government land in Nevada for a green-energy project tells me everything I know about this drummed-up crisis.  If you think that this little debacle had anything to do with cattle, or with tortoises, you've been reading the wrong newspapers.

Sunday Morning Dawg

The Sunday Dawg is late this morning, but everything at this house is late this morning.  Milady and I slept in.  Overslept (as it were), and it was the dog who finally awakened us.  One of two things, he either needed to go outside, or he thought that perhaps we had died and wouldn't be available to feed him.  He's not comfortable with us being abed after daylight.

So, with morning coffee, I snapped this pic.

It's an overcast morning here and the paper is calling for rain this evening.  Seems like a perfect day to stay home and rest for the afternoon.  Tomorrow is Monday, and we all know what that means.

Mary Lies

On of my favorite blogs, Boned Jello, has a meme that it uses sometimes. 

"If you're trying to change minds and influence people it's probably not a good idea to say that virtually all elected Democrats are liars, but what the hell."

Our Senator, "Katrina" Mary Landrieu, is an elected Democrat, and she's been caught in a whopper of a lie by the Washington Post, who awarded her Four Pinnochios for a recent ad.

Turns, out, she's blasting those evil Koch brothers, the favorite target of the unhinged left, while failing to mention that she's taken over $50.000 from them.  As TownHall reports:

According to a recent Politico investigation into the Koch brothers and how they spend their money, it appears that the Kochs don’t just give to Republicans, like so many people believe, and in fact have given money to Senator Mary Landrieu. They found that since 2000, Ms. Landrieu has accepted $55,000 from the KochPAC.

So, it seems that in addition to be a lying politico, Mary bites the hand that feeds her.  Just one more reason to vote for anybody but Landrieu in the upcoming election.

Doin' Taxes

I'm normally not this late, but for some reason, life got in the way of taxes this year.  I normally have them done mid-February.

I'll be done later tonight and blogging will continue.  It looks like I owe the Feds money again this year.  Not much, but some.  Just dammit.  The Federal Government loves people who make good money and don't have kids.

First Flight

My buddy Termite made his first flight in the Hi-Max yesterday afternoon.  Beautiful weather, 73F and the wind socks were hanging straight down.  I  took video, but it's rough and I won't get a chance to edit it for a couple of days.  The little plane flew really well, and Termite learned a lot in the process, while being talked-through from an experienced bunch of tail-dragger pilots.

Here's a photo, just before he started his engine prior to taxi.  Afterwards, we went to a Mongolian grill and toaster Termite's success.  From all indications, the little craft flew really well.

Vance! Whazzup?

It seems that my new Congressman, Vance McAllister, has become embroiled in scandal a scant few months after being sworn in. This morning he's being sworn at. It seems someone leaked video of him lip-locking a married female staffer. The newshounds are all over it

The story surrounding Louisiana's newest congressman Vance McAllister, his affair with a married staffer, and a video purportedly proving the infidelity is only getting stranger and more complex.

Well, yeah, the story is getting stranger, but if Vance hadn't been smooching on the staffer, there wouldn't be any story at all.

Less than 24 hours after the video showing the newly-elected 5th District congressman kissing staffer Melissa Anne Hixon Peacock was first leaked, new reports allege the evidence was purposely released by one of McAllister's district managers. But although he admitted to the affair, McAllister said he will not resign and claimed this was the first time he strayed from his wife of 16 years.

Yeah, Vance, I'm sure that this is the first time you've ever fooled around on your wife. I'm sure that your wife believes it too.

Like McAllister, 40, who is married with five children, Peacock, 33, is married and has a child. Her husband Heath Peacock is devastated over the affair, he revealed during an interview with CNN. He said the two married couples were close friends and that he can’t believe this is happening.

Couple of notes, here, Vance. We didn't send you to Washington to swap-slobber and ruin marriages. We sent you there to work. You should have known that folks would be gunning for you, and you gave them all the ammo they needed. Not only did you betray your wife and kids, but you've disappointed us, the voters. We believed you when you said you were a devoted husband and family man. You lied to us, Vance. Being caught on camera, in what is ostensibly a public place, shows me that you're either stupid, or arrogant, or both.

We sent you, as a first-timer, to Washington to represent the people of the district.  Within four months you've shown yourself to be just another lying, cheating politician.  Don't ever ask for my vote again.  I don't care who leaked the video.  You did this to yourself.

Termite's Himax

Just a couple of pics of an airplane that I've been watching get built.  It's a Hi-Max, a single seat, high wing monoplane that a friend of mine is building.  It's about ready to fly, and I stopped by the hanger yesterday to look at it

There's a snout-on view of it  It's just a little single-seat airplane, but it looks like it would be  a lot of fun to fly.  Powered by a Rotax engine, it's got a pull-starter.

Weather permitting, he'll give it the maiden flight tomorrow afternoon.  More pictures then.

Hummingbirds

We saw our first hummingbird several weeks ago.  The feeders are hung, and I haven't been able to spend much time watching for the little speedsters, but we've seen them at several locations around central Louisiana.

What I didn't know is that there is a website that tracks the annual migration of the ruby-throated hummingbird.  Click here for the link.  It looks like they came ashore in Louisiana in late February, and they've been seen as far north as Missouri and Virginia.  We love watching them buzz around the backyard, and we generally have several in attendance all summer.

Jackie Speier - Dumbass

When I first saw this on a gun forum, I thought that it must be spam of some sort, so I Bing-ed it to see is I could find any other links.  Sure enough, some California Representative has called for President Obama to ban the import of assault weapons.  Here's another link, and the first paragraph tells you all you need to know.

Rep. Jackie Speier, a Peninsula Democrat, called on President Barack Obama on Wednesday to ban the import of assault weapons following last week’s high-profile arrest of state Sen. Leland Yee on gun-trafficking charges.

Uuh, Jackie, (you ignorant dumbass), Yee was planning to smuggle fully automatic rifles and rocket launchers.  Both of those acts are already illegal.  Of course, I wouldn't expect a California Democrat to make the fine distinction between one thing that's already illegal and another thing that's also already illegal.   If I were her constituent, I'd be bombarding her this morning with emails and tweets, revealing to the world her ass-hattery.  The woman is a disgrace, and deserves the jeers of the entire nation.

Sunday Morning

Rain, this morning, with thunder-bumpers.  I've got a pork loin in the oven and the house is quiet.  The dog is hiding from the thunder and the only sound in the house is from the oven, ticking itself quietly on an off to maintain temperature.  Milady left a few minutes ago, to the nursing home.  She takes over soon as Director of Nursing, and wants to spend some quiet time going over doctor's orders, familiarizing herself with the treatments we're providing for our residents.  I spent the day there yesterday; we were pressure washing the walks and hanging new privacy screens in the semi-private rooms. 

PawPaw is sore this morning.  Lots of time up and down ladders in a half-dozen rooms, measuring, cutting, installing, working over my head. Moving beds, arranging furniture (both so that we could work, and putting the rooms back when we were finished).  My legs ache.  It's good exercise, but my old body isn't used to that kind of work.  Like I told my nephew, I can still do a hard day's work, but it takes me most of the week.

It was nice, yesterday, doing physical labor.  It was also nice, talking to the residents and staff.  I believe that we've got a great bunch of folks, caring for a great bunch of folks and I'm proud to be part of the project. 

I'll head to the church about noon, carrying that pork loin.  We've got an eating-meeting at noon and I'll explain to them why Milady isn't with me.  It'll be good to spend time with my church family and marvel on the changes He's sent me in the last several months.

Sunday Morning Dawg

It's been a heck of a week, and the dog hasn't been getting a lot of attention.  Milady is tired and PawPaw is tired but the dog still likes the sun on the back deck.

It's okay, Pup.  Things will slow down soon, and start to get back to normal.

Saturday Morning

I'm going to leave here in a few minutes to meet my sister and some nephews and spend the better part of the day running a pressure washer.  It's time for a good spring cleaning at the nursing home, and we're going to try to make that happen.  Light blogging to follow.  It takes lots of hours to build a business, and while others have spent many more hours on the other end, it's my turn to get a little sweat equity into the pool.

At least I've got nice weather.  The local weather-weenies say that it should be partly cloudy and 66F today.  Not a bad day at all for working outside.

Casting Bullets

I've been casting bullets for over 20 years, for both rifle and pistol, and I know my way around a casting pot, although I admit that I don't know a lot about the subject.  I'm barely literate in alloying metal, and I'm pretty good at making pistol bullets.  If anyone ever tells you that he knows everything there is to know about rifle bullets, he's an arrogant bastard, because there are lots of questions still to answer about how a particular alloy works as it travels down a rifle bore.

Second son brought me some 9mm bullets tonight and told me he had cast his first bullets during the afternoon.  He brought me culls, but I told him that I'd lube them and shoot them.  A few wrinkles on the nose, but the driving band is filled out and nicely sharp.  The bases look good, and (after all) they're pistol bullets.

It's a helluva hobby, and I'm glad he's taking it up.  There is nothing more satisfying than shooting a nice, tight group with bullets you made yourself.  That's two sons I have now that are melting their lead and turning scrap into something useful. 

To Gain the World, but Lose the Soul

There's an article over at The Week, that tells us we lost, that in the battle for public opinion, Christians have lost the war, but that there might be a silver lining.

As I wrote last year, the culture war is over, and conservatives lost. For Christians, though, there might just be a silver lining.

Now, of course, it's understandable why many of my fellow cultural conservatives mourn the decline of Christian values in the public arena, inasmuch as they had a powerful influence on the rise of western civilization. Historians like Rodney Stark and sociologists like Mary Eberstadt (and many others) have chronicled this phenomenon. It's not simply about "losing power and market share," but mourning the very real downstream effects of secular liberal policies on issues such as defending the unborn.

Heh!  Some seem to think that in defending Christian values, I'm concerned about the culture war.  First, I didn't realize that I was in a war, and second, I take my solace from the Gospel of Mark, which asks us

 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

The pendulum of public opinion swings, and people swing with it.  I don't much care what other people think, I'll continue to try to learn the will of God, and I'm not nearly as certain of His will as I was twenty years ago because He reveals Himself to me in amusing and delightful ways.  I will set my (very metaphorical) sails and go where He takes me.

May the Peace of our Lord be with you all.

Fostering a Free Society

Charles Koch (yes, that Charles Koch) writes an article for the Wall Street Journal.

Instead of fostering a system that enables people to help themselves, America is now saddled with a system that destroys value, raises costs, hinders innovation and relegates millions of citizens to a life of poverty, dependency and hopelessness. This is what happens when elected officials believe that people's lives are better run by politicians and regulators than by the people themselves. Those in power fail to see that more government means less liberty, and liberty is the essence of what it means to be American. Love of liberty is the American ideal.

This is the same Charles Koch that our Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid loves to rail about.   In a recent quote, Harry said this:

I believe in an America where economic opportunity is open to all. And based on their actions and policies they promote, the Koch brothers seem to believe in an America where the system is rigged to benefit the very wealthy.

Well, Harry, the Koch brothers got rich by working hard and taking advantage of opportunities.  Whereas you got rich by pursuing a life of public service.  I still don't understand how someone gets to be a multi-millionaire while earning the salary of an elected official.  But, I'm sure that Harry will be happy to show us his tax returns.

When pigs fly.

New Computer

My old XP box was getting a bit twitchy, and it's been several years since I bought a new computer, so I did a little research, talked to my brother-in-law, and headed to Office Depot.  I bought a Toshiba Satellite C-55A and have spent the past hour setting it up and migrating the files from the old computer to the new one.

This is the first time I've changed computers before the old one crashed and burned, and I've got to say that the process is a lot easier when you can move files off a running machine.  This laptop is running Windows 8.1, and it's going to take a little while to get used to it, but the learning curve isn't as bad as I thought it might be.  I will say that the larger screen on this one is a lot brighter than the screen on the old computer.

Now, to install my favorite programs, and make sure that the printer is properly installed.