Roses

The rose bush is exploding.

Take time to smell the flowers.

Range Day - Gaah!

I got up this morning, loaded my gear and drove out to the shooting range to discover it closed. It seems, and they've posted it on the website, that they're having some sort of kid camp. While I was there, getting the bad news from the range officer, I observed that they were using about half of the rifle range. None of the pistol range, nor the shotgun range. There was plenty of room for recreational shooters, yet the range is closed. God forbid that the public get to use a public range on a weekend. That's simply out of the question.

That seems to be the standard procedure for the LDWF. Any time they can close the range, they do so. Any thing they can do to hinder recreational shooting is part of the scheme.

Just so everyone understands, I'm not against teaching kids to shoot. Quite the contrary, I've taught lots of kids to shoot. On public ranges. With other people present.

While I'm ranting, I might as well cover the cutesy name they gave the camp. Families Understanding Nature (FUN) camp. How very touchy-feely. Without seeing the curriculum, I bet that nature's indifference to kids was not covered. Nature doesn't care about us, we're just another lump of protein and some trace elements to be used when we quit breathing. Nature is totally indifferent to us and if you want to understand nature, you've got to understand that harsh fact. That's all you need to know about nature, and I've just covered it in fifteen seconds.

What horseshit.

Friday afternoon

It's Friday afternoon and I think I'm going to fry fish. Milady went to a seafood vendor today and found some really beautiful catfish. Really, this is the prettiest catfish that I've seen from a vendor in a long time. No trimming necessary, no skin, nothing but pure white fish. She also bought a pound of shucked oysters. I'm going to roll those in corn meal and fry them too.

I'll drop some french fries in there too. The only thing that won't be fried is the cole slaw.

I may be tempted to break into the beer locker.

Drinking Age

Instapundit has an article at the Wall Street Journal where he argues we should let states decide the drinking age. I agree. If you're old enough to fight, if you're old enough to take on crushing debt in the form of student loans, if you're old enough to legally bind yourself in a contract, you're old enough to drink. This is a Reagan-era mistake that the Republican congress should fix.

Draconian budget cuts

I'm reading a lot about the draconian budget cuts in the bill that the President agreed to last week.

Senior Advisor to the President David Plouffe conceded this morning that some of the cuts the White House agreed to in order to avoid a government shutdown were draconian. In an interview on "This Week" with anchor Christiane Amanpour, he called the cuts both "draconian" and "historic."

The only problem I have with that is that the Democrats are evidently out of touch with history. Draco didn't work a budget, he wrote the first written constitution of Athens. He wasn't an accountant as much as a lawyer.

However harsh you may think that the budget has become, lets be perfectly clear. We're not done yet. This little agreement was just a piddling exercise to keep the government rolling. 38 billion dollars. Chump change. Now, we've got to get ready for the 2012 budget and the argument is shaping up to be wonderful. According to our Speaker,

That's why this week, we'll advance our fight from saving billions of dollars to saving trillions of dollars as we turn our full attention to the GOP budget outlined by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., aptly titled "The Path to Prosperity."

But, just to be clear, Draco never wrote a budget.

Taxes

I just finished my annual income tax preparation. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a lot later than usual. I normally do them in February, but Milady was in the hospital in February and it threw my whole schedule off.

At any rate, they're done. Legally. Properly. On time. Electronically.

Married filing jointly, no dependents, and very few deductions. We're both making a good living and the IRS loves us. They think we're grand. The great American middle class, supporting the rest of the layabout population.

I paid more tax this year than I made some years. There's a worthless sumbitch somewhere and I'm supporting his sorry butt. He needs to get up off his butt and find a job.

Summer Weather

We're beginning our summer weather pattern, which is readily apparent to anyone who watches the weather in central Louisiana. Warm muggy mornings with warm muggy afternoons, followed by warm muggy nights. This will only change when we begin getting warm muggy mornings followed by scorching hot muggy afternoons.

It was hot enough yesterday afternoon that we had an umpire go down at the ball park. One minute he was calling the game, the next moment, he was on his knees in distress. We managed to get him off the field into the shade, out of his protective gear and pump fluids into him. This is a guy who spent his whole life in south and central Louisiana, and he was embarrassed about not staying properly hydrated.

Here's a look at our summer weather pattern. It's a standard weather map, but it's one that I've seen all my life. In these latitudes, weather comes from the west.

A cold front (yeah, right, but they've got to call it something), causes moist air to move north from the Gulf, pumping moisture into the interior. That's why we have rain. As the front moves through, that moisture turns into thunderstorms, which dumps rain on our mildewed butts. Then the sun comes out and bakes us in a warm convection oven.

Summer in Louisiana. One of the joys.

Sunday Morning Dawg

The baby came over on Friday while Momma was at work. The dog is, of course, intrigued by a small person and has to investigate.

We had to tell him several times to leave the baby alone.

He doesn't understand why that baby isn't ready to play.

That Ugly Rifle II

Okay, I've got it stripped enough for now to have a starting point for refurbishing this rifle. I haven't decided on a wood stock or a plastic stock, but I've taken all the ill-fitting parts off. Now it's time to strip paint and see if I can get it off without removing the bluing.

I've tried an inconspicuous spot and the paint scrapes off easily. Thankfully, it doesn't look like the mall-ninja prepped the metal before going crazy with the Krylon. I've thought about Easy-Off oven cleaner and steel wool, but I'd rather not damage the bluing.

Ideas anyone? Bueller?

Budget deal - Gaah!

I see that Boehner caved, although he's getting props from some folks. Those folks are idiots. One of the sticking points was continued funding for Planned Parenthood, who we support as a nation to the tune of $80 million.

Money wasn't the only sticking point in getting a budget approved. Social issues were lurking, and Planned Parenthood found itself caught in the middle. The agency receives $80 million annually..

Why are we spending money on Planned Parenthood when we're running deficits that some predict will reach $1.5 trillion this year? It's idiocy to spend more than you make, whether on the household level or the national level. Pure idiocy.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had spent hours meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, inching toward a deal to avert a shutdown, but he kept insisting that it include a prohibition against federal funding for Planned Parenthood. That was a non-starter for Obama. As the meeting was breaking up, Vice President Joe Biden told the speaker, in no uncertain terms, that his demand was unacceptable.

We know that our President is a community organizer and that social progress is one of his huge constituencies. We know that Biden is an idiot and that at some point we're going to have to ignore him. How he got to be anything more than a jail trusty is an indictment on the people of Delaware.

I expected Boehner to be the adult leadership in the room. With a deficit like we've got, we can't continue to fund frivolous activities like Planned Parenthood, NPR, General Motors or any of the other crap that isn't vital to the government. Boehner failed. He failed miserably.

Maybe it's time to trot out this old graphic, which I'll try to update in the coming days.

So, we've got a budget deal for 2011. Hooray. Now it's time to get started on the 2012 budget. Maybe Boehner can get it right this time. We can't afford to fund frivolity when the budget is awash in red ink.

That Ugly Rifle

Thanks for all the comments on that sad, sad rifle I brought home the other day. I've been busy with other things, so this project is going to be on the back burner for a while.

Junior says, in comments.

Put a 20" 1-24 to 1-32 twist 358 Winchester barrel on it and have the ultimate thicket rifle using a 190 - 250 gr cast FP bullet @ 2000 fps. The stock is plastic, so just slide that front action hole back a tad and epoxy it in place. Give it an over-all coat of Krylon OD paint.

That's a good idea, buddy, except for one thing. That stock ain't plastic. The Ultimate Sniper Stock is Choate Machine Tools interpretation of a stock originally designed by Major John Plaster. The damned thing is a fairly good stock, if you like that sort of thing. It's made out of some kind of hard plastic/fiberglass and it's got a full-length aluminum bedding block. And, it's heavy. I bet that stock weighs five pounds, all by itself.

You can click that picture to enlarge it, but there ain't no moving that hole without a machine shop in direct support. Besides, I don't like that style of stock. It's okay for the tactical guys, but I haven't worn camouflage to work in over a decade. I don't intend to start again anytime soon.

I'm thinking something more classic. Good wood, a blind magazine, a small fixed power scope, probably a Weaver K6. It may take me a year or more to build it, but this rifle is going to be light and handy. I did some checking today and I think that a .257 Roberts cartridge will fit in that magazine box.

That'll give the grandkids something to drool over.

BAG Day

An anonymous reader asks in comments:

What is "BAG DAY." New one on me.

Good question and it deserves a good answer.

Once upon a time in the early days of this century there was a man who had a blog, Kim duToit. Kim lived in Dallas, TX and was an immigrant from South Africa. Kim became a naturalized citizen of this great land and adopted Texas as his spiritual and physical home. Kim promoted an idea that he called A Nation of Riflemen.

To say that Kim was opinionated was an understatement. He railed at injustices and talked about problems that we share and he put his money where his mouth was. Then, one day, his employment status changed and he found that he needed work and he started looking for a job. And he found that employers know how to use Google and he was unemployable because of his very artistic rants on the internet.

One of Kim's ideas was to promote Buy A Gun Day, BAG Day, which happened to coincide on the calendar with Tax Day, April 15th. The idea was that every taxpayer should put some money aside and buy a gun on April 15th.

That's where Buy A Gun Day started. I try to buy a gun every year about this time in memory of those naive days. Kim quit blogging several years ago and made efforts to take his name off the internet. I don't know where he is now, but I wish him the very best, and hope that he and his lovely wife, Connie, are both prosperous and happy.

Bag Day Gun

I bought my BAG Day gun today, a little early. Like a sad puppy, I've been watching this rifle languish in the used rack for about six months, and today I just couldn't stand it any longer. The counter guy took pity on me, and his inventory and sold the rifle to me at a wonderfully reduced price.

It's been abused, the poor thing, but I didn't realize how abused it had been. It's been mall-ninja'd all to hell and gone. It's got good bones, though and I've been looking for a project action.

According to the serial number, it started life as a Model 11 FCNS, which is a centerfeed action with a detachable box magazine. It isn't like that now.

I'm a big fan of floated barrels. The Choate Ultimate Sniper stock has a full-length bedding block and it's cut for heavy barrels. Putting a sporter barrel in this stock gives us some weird floating action on the front of the stock. I could actually put my little finger betwixt the barrel and the stock.

Of course, the mall ninja had to go crazy with the Krylon. I can't even identify the scope that's on the rifle, but that matters not. The scope will soon be dismounted and become a plaything for the grandkids. Young boys love spy scopes, especially if they have crosshairs.

The poor rifle only had one action bolt. When I started measuring, I found that this jazzbo had tried to fit a centerfeed action into a staggerfeed stock. Of course, the magazine is hopelessly wedged into the stock. I don't know if it can be saved, or if it is worth saving.

If you look at the image (and you can clicken to embiggen, you'll see that the action holes don't even line up. The counterguy told me that when the customer brought it in, he had a target with a group that measured about six inches. He was really proud of that group.

I've still got to decide what I want to do with this rifle, whether to re-barrel it, return it to stock configuration, put a heavy barrel on it, or keep the current barrel. If I decide to switch barrels, then the question of caliber comes up. I've been yearning for a nice 7mm-08 sporter. Or a .250 Savage. I've got some thinking to do.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'll give it a good home.

Corn Dogs

We were discussing the evening meal and I was told that the boy-o has never enjoyed a corn dog. What? He's three years old and never had a corn dog? We've gotta do something about that!

That's done! He knows what a corn dog is now. His dad took him home about an hour ago and the house got really quiet. I think PawPaw is going to head off to bed in another half hour.

Impulse 2000

Milady was out with a friend today, looking at another friends house, and supervising the move of a piano. That friend-of-a-friend had mentioned that he had a light bar from a police car that he had found in a dumpster and asked if she wanted it. Friend-of-a-friend knows that I'm a cop, so Milady brought home a lightbar for me to play with. He saved it from a dumpster and she bought it at a great price.

It's an Impulse 2000 lightbar, state of the art when I was a rookie, and orginally marketed by Southern Vehicle Products of Clearwater, Florida. The best part of the whole exercise is that the damned thing works. I've been going through the wiring harness for the past half-hour and the rotators work, the front and rear wig-wags work and the takedowns work. This particular bar doesn't have alley lights and there are some spare wires in the harness, probably for accessories that this one doesn't have. Police and fire professionals have much better light bars these days, what with the technology available to us. LED lights are magnificent, but they cost a lot of money. These old mechanical light bars are simple to work on and simple to maintain. They don't have the WOW factor of the newer lights, but they still work.

Elyas was with me in the garage when we lit it up, and he seemed suitably impressed, even if it was sitting on the freezer at the time.

All I need is a fuzed switch box, probably with four switches. One each for rotators, takedowns, and front and rear wigwags. I think it'll look good on the Mule. Don't y'all? I'll be the only guy on the lease with his own lightbar. It'll also come in handy when I use the Mule at football games, homecoming parades, and civic events.

Sunday Morning Dawg

We've been watching the boy-o all weekend, and the dog has been gainfully employed the whole time. Keeping track of a high-energy toddler is tough on a small dog. Last night he decided to keep track of activities from under Milady's computer chair.

It's safe back there.

Busy Morning

We got up this morning and pestered the dog, ate some cereal, then took a boat ride around the little lake that centers our subdivision. Made a list and went to the store, bought the stuff on the list, then came home and fixed a bicycle, worked on the pool, then it was time for lunch.

While I was at the store, I bought some chicken strips, so we ate several of those for lunch.

Now, it's time to go to the auction. Busy day ahead.

Not April Fools Day

Yesterday when I talked about an April Fools Day link, I was referrring to the news that an idiot pastor in Florida had burned a Koran, and that incited people halfway around the world to storm a UN compound and kill a bunch of folks, none of them Americans.

...the most prominent of them, Mullah Mohammed Shah Adeli, Afghanistan should cut off relations with the United States. “Burning the Koran is an insult to Islam and those who committed it should be punished,” he said.

Yeah, right. Burning the Koran is an insult to Islam, so lets destroy a compound halfway around the world and kill a bunch of people who didn't burn the Koran. Makes perfect sense to me.

Freedom of speech eludes some people. I may not like what you're saying, but if I try to kill you for saying it, you've got no freedom. I've got no freedom either. It's funny like that.

Is that idiot pastor culpable for the actions of a bunch of folks halfway around the world? No, it's not his fault that there are murderous thugs who kill people for burning a book. He tries to make the point that Islam is a violent religion, but that falls flat too. The actions of some mob no more make Islam a violent religion than his own actions make Christianity an idiot religion. If you link the one, then you've got to link them both.

Christians everywhere should disavow the antics of that idiot pastor. His book burning was needlessly hateful and served no useful purpose than to draw attention to his idiot brand of backward religion. Thinking people everywhere should condemn him. Likewise, the actions of a bunch of idiots halfway around the world should likewise be condemned by rational people. At this stage of the debate, I'm looking for a rational Muslim.

Watching Elyas

We've got the boy-o this weekend. His dad works weekends and his mom had to make a flying trip to Florida where her mom is having surgery. We were very busy yesterday and we'll be very busy today. He'll be three years old later this month and he's exploring, trying to find his wings, digging in everything and asking questions that only a toddler can ask.

As much as PawPaw enjoys having the boy around, I was ready for bed last night. As was the dog. The dog feels a need to supervise the boy, or at least keep him in sight. Ya never know what madness that kid is going to get into. At the end of the day, the dog was worn-the-hell-out.

I've never seen that dog sleep on the kitchen floor, but that dog has never spent a full day chasing a three-year-old.

No blogging today

It seems that it's April Fools Day and there's no way of knowing if the abmysmally horrible news I'm seeing is in earnest or a spoof.

Much of what I read sounds like a horrible spoof gone wrong. Like this article on an Afghan mob killing 12 people over something that a minister in the US is accused of doing.

The news is simply too bizarre to comment on. I'll try to make sense of it tomorrow.